Faithful Heart (26 page)

Jerrod gave her a wary look. “And just what is this conclusion?”

“Before we tell you, Jerrod,” the doctor said, “please understand that this decision is really mine, based on many years of experience in my field. Mrs. Harper would like it another way, and so would I if it were possible. But there is only one way you can really be helped. You must consider your family. Certainly you realize that your problem has placed your wife and children in a very perilous position.”

Storm signs showed in Jerrod’s hazel eyes. “I knew it,” he rasped. “I knew it.”

Dottie took hold of his hand. “Please, Jerrod, don’t—”

“It’s the asylum, isn’t it?” he gusted, standing up.

When neither Dottie nor the doctor denied it, he yelled, “No! Nobody’s puttin’ me in a cage!”

Dr. Carroll rounded the desk and said in a calm, level voice, “Jerrod, there is no alternative. If you ended up killing your wife or one of your children, it would be my fault. I must insist—”

“No-o!” Jerrod roared, and struck out at the doctor.

Carroll was able to dodge the punch, but stumbled against a bookcase and lost his balance. Jerrod whirled and yelled at Dottie. “You’re plannin’ to take James and Molly Kate away from me if I don’t go in the nut house, aren’t you?”

Dottie was paralyzed with horror. She tried to speak, but the words locked in her throat.

Just then, Officer George Felton bolted through the door, nightstick in hand. “Back off!” he warned.

Jerrod ignored him and railed, “I’ll kill you, Dottie! That’s what I’ll do! You and this doctor plotted against me! I’ll kill you!”

Dottie put out a hand, as if to touch him. She still couldn’t find her voice.

Jerrod’s fist lashed out and caught her on the jaw. She landed hard against the desk and lay motionless. Felton’s night stick caught Jerrod with a glancing blow, enough to stun him. The policeman pushed him to the floor and was pulling his handcuffs from a hip pocket when Jerrod rolled over and struck out with his fist. It caught Felton on the mouth and knocked him over.

Dr. Carroll shouted for Flora to run to the street and call for more officers. As she was heard running from the outer office, Jerrod rose to his feet and struck Carroll on the jaw. The doctor went down in a heap.

Officer Felton’s mouth was bleeding as he picked up his billy club and went after Jerrod again. Jerrod dodged it and caught the policeman with a blow high on the head, knocking Felton off his feet.

Jerrod Harper was wailing like a wild beast as he plunged into the outer office and through the door into the hall. Felton scrambled to his feet and went after him. Jerrod had just reached
the street when the officer tackled him from behind.

The two men wrestled and rolled off the boardwalk and into the dust of the street. A policeman’s whistle blew, and two officers came running toward the scene of the fight. Three more appeared on horseback. All five drew their revolvers as they converged on Jerrod Harper, who was now standing with an unconscious George Felton at his feet. One of them pointed his gun at Harper and bawled, “Hold it right there, big fella!”

Jerrod Harper was back at Wilson’s Creek facing enemy soldiers and enemy guns. The blue uniforms faded to gray. These were Rebels, coming to kill him. “Shoot ’em down, men!” he shouted, fixing them with eyes of hatred. “Let those dirty Rebels have it!”

Jerrod heard no gunfire from behind him. He whirled about and looked for his men, expecting to see their familiar faces behind guns that blazed at the enemy. There was no one.

The five officers swarmed him, trying to take him alive. Jerrod yanked Felton’s revolver from its holster, snapped back the hammer, and fired blindly into the oncoming uniforms. The bullet struck one of the officers in the chest, but the others were on him, swinging the barrels of their revolvers as clubs.

Jerrod Harper went down unconscious.

Dr. Carroll staggered from the office door, blinking to clear his vision. He saw Jerrod down, along with two officers, and said to the others, “This man is a mental patient. I heard a shot. Was someone hit?”

An officer who knelt over the one who had taken the bullet looked up and said, “Your patient put Officer Felton down and used his gun to shoot Sergeant Dover. He’s dead.”

Dr. Carroll leaned back against the building and closed his
eyes for a moment. Then he asked the policemen to handcuff Jerrod and take him to the asylum. “Tell my people at the asylum that I’ll be there shortly. They are to put him in chains in a padded cell.”

“He’s a killer, now, Doctor,” argued one of the officers. “We’re taking him to jail.”

“This man is my patient, sir,” Dr. Carroll countered. “I will take full responsibility for him. Tell your captain I will come to the station and sign the necessary papers to declare my patient insane. You know the law. He cannot be tried if I declare him insane.”

“All right, Doctor, we’ll take him to the asylum as you requested … but we’ll need you to come to the station within an hour to sign the papers.”

“I’ll be there,” said Carroll, wiping blood from a split lip. “But first, I have to see about the man’s wife. She’s in my office and seriously hurt.”

George Felton was now on his feet. Dr. Carroll thanked him for what he had done and went inside as the officers carried their dead comrade and a groggy, handcuffed Jerrod Harper away.

Flora was bending over Dottie, whom she had laid on a couch. A wet cloth was across Dottie’s brow.

“She’s conscious now, Doctor,” Flora said, “but I don’t think her mind is clear enough yet to understand what’s happened.”

“I’ll take care of her. We’ve got more patients due in, don’t we?”

“Yes, sir,” Flora said, standing up straight.

“You’ll have to reschedule them. First thing, get an ambulance over here. I want Mrs. Harper examined at the hospital. Once I’ve taken care of that, I have to go to the police station
and sign papers declaring Jerrod Harper insane. The officer he shot is dead.”

Flora gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. Then she hurried out of the office and headed for the street to find someone who would run to the hospital and summon an ambulance.

The doctor drew up a chair, sat down, and looked at Dottie as she rolled her head and tried to focus on his face. He wished he didn’t have to give her the bad news.

“Mrs. Harper,” he said, “do you know me?”

Dottie licked her lips and nodded slowly. Her voice was weak. “Yes. Dr. Carroll.”

“Good,” he smiled, taking hold of her hand. “Listen carefully. I—”

“Doctor,” she interrupted. “My legs. I can’t move them. I can’t even feel them!”

Carroll let go of her hand and quickly untied and removed her shoes. He squeezed her feet and asked, “Can you feel this?”

She waited. “Feel what?”

He pinched the sole of her right foot and said, “Can’t you feel me pinching your foot?”

“No,” she said, a look of fear on her face. Then there was breathless panic as she gasped, “Doctor, I’m paralyzed! I can’t feel a thing below my waist!”

Dr. Carroll’s own heart thudded his ribs as he forced calm into his voice, took hold of her hands, and said, “Now, Dot—Mrs. Harper. When Jerrod hit you, the force of his punch knocked you into the desk awfully hard. But this doesn’t mean your paralysis is permanent. Sometimes it takes a while for your body to recover from an impact like that.”

Dottie squeezed down on both his hands. “Are you sure, Doctor?”

“Yes. I’ve already sent for an ambulance to take you over to the hospital. I didn’t know about the paralysis, of course, but I just wanted to have you checked over. Since you know Dr. Glenn Olson, I’ll ask that he see you. Would you like that?”

“Yes, thank you,” Dottie said. “Doctor, where’s Jerrod?”

“Jerrod’s at the asylum,” he said quietly. “We’ll talk about him after Dr. Olson has examined you.”

The sounds of the ambulance attendants coming through the door of the outer office met the doctor’s ears. He pulled his hands free from hers, stood up, and said, “The ambulance is here.”

Dr. Carroll told the attendants about Dottie’s paralysis so they would be extra careful when they placed her on the stretcher. He also told them to notify Dr. Glenn Olson that Mrs. Harper wanted to be in his care. He once again assured Dottie that he would be at the hospital as soon as he could.

At City Mental Asylum, the policemen delivered Jerrod Harper into the hands of Dr. Verle Huffman, the assistant to Dr. Carroll. When the officers gave Huffman Dr. Carroll’s instructions, he immediately led them down the hall that was lined with padded cells.

Jerrod heard the screams and cries coming from the cells and strained against the handcuffs that held his arms behind his back. “No-o!” he yelled. “You’re not puttin’ me in here! No-o!”

Dr. Huffman called for help from his attendants. It took four
of them to wrestle Jerrod into a padded cell, hold him so an officer could remove the handcuffs, and then put both his wrists and ankles in shackles. When the police officer and the attendants backed out of the cell, Jerrod lunged at them, but fell hard when the chains reached their length. Jerrod strained against the chains, his eyes wild as they closed the door.

“I’ll get outta here!” he roared. “I will! And when I do, I’ll kill her! Do you hear me? I’ll kill her!”

Dr. Olson had just emerged from Dottie’s hospital room and started down the hall when he saw Dr. Carroll coming toward him. He stopped and waited for Carroll to draw up.

“Hello, Glenn,” Carroll said. “Have you examined Mrs. Harper?”

“Yes, Matt, and I’ve got good news.” “I can use some of that.”

“Her spine has been bruised, but from what I can tell, not permanently injured. I’m reasonably confident she’ll get all the feeling back below her waist. As for walking, it will take some therapy, but I believe she’ll walk as good as new in time. She already has some feeling back in her legs and feet.”

“Well, praise the Lord!” Carroll said. “That dear lady has been through so much.”

“I understand that her husband’s been placed in the asylum?”

“Yes. She brought him in for me to begin treating him. Has she told you what he did last night?”

“Yes. Awful.”

“Well, I told Jerrod that for the sake of his family
and
himself,
he needed to be admitted to the asylum. He went crazy. Mrs. Harper doesn’t know yet, but before it was over, we had to call for several policemen to subdue him. Jerrod managed to get his hands on a gun and shot and killed one of the officers.”

“Oh, no.”

“I just came from police headquarters. I had to sign papers declaring him insane. Otherwise, as you know, he would hang.”

“Yes,” said Olson, shaking his head slowly. “Poor man. That Civil War was an awful thing. It left so many men scarred in both mind and body.”

Carroll sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Now I have to go tell that dear woman that her husband will be in the asylum for the rest of his life.”

“You want me to go in there with you? She’s in room thirty-one.”

“Would you? This won’t be easy. I can use all the help I can get.”

“All right.”

The two doctors entered the room, and Dr. Carroll told Dottie how happy he was with her prognosis. She was able to smile and tell him about the feeling she was already getting back in her legs and feet.

Dr. Carroll then told her that Jerrod had killed a police officer. When she got over the initial shock of it, he explained about signing the necessary papers for the police, declaring Jerrod insane … and that Jerrod would be kept in the asylum for the rest of his life.

Dottie wept as if her heart would break. Both doctors held her hands and tried to be as much comfort as they could. When her emotions settled down, Dr. Carroll prayed with her, asking
the Lord to give her extra strength and to watch over her and the children.

Dottie then asked if someone could notify Will and Maudie Reeves that she was in the hospital. She wanted to see James and Molly Kate. She also asked if they would let her pastor know what had happened.

Dr. Carroll told her it would be taken care of immediately.

It was early afternoon when Reverend Howard Yates arrived at the hospital, along with Will and Maudie Reeves and James and Molly Kate. Mother and children had a tearful reunion, and Dr. Olson came to assure them that with therapy Dottie would soon be well.

Dottie wept as she told them about Jerrod killing the policeman, and that he would be a permanent resident in the asylum. Yates read Scripture and prayed with them, doing what he could to bring comfort.

Maudie assured Dottie the children were welcome to stay with them until she was out of the hospital and able to care for them. Will told her he would get their neighbors to join in and take care of her crops. He would take the animals to his place and keep them fed.

Dottie cried as she thanked them for their kindness.

Will and Maudie told Dottie they would bring the children to see her as often as they could. Reverend Yates assured her that he would look in on Jerrod, for which Dottie thanked him.

James and Molly Kate were given a few minutes alone with their mother. After hugs and kisses, they were taken by the elderly couple to the Reeves wagon, and they headed for home.