Free The Sharecropper Prodigy by David Lee Malone Page A

hurt.”
                  Winston had already started running to the door. He hurried out to the wagon and saw his beautiful daughter laying on the loose cotton that still remained in the back. He saw she was naked from the waist down and that her blouse was torn and her breasts exposed. When he saw the swollen face and the blood on her thighs, he immediately began sobbing. He could tell what had happened to her and his feelings kept going from getting her help as fast as he could, to rage for whoever had done this to her.
                  “Get my car and bring it around here quick, Ben. The keys are in it. Nobody but he and Rachel had ever been allowed to drive his car. It was his pride and joy, but right now it meant nothing to him as he kept looking at his daughter and sobbing.
                  Ben fired up the engine and pulled the car right up to the back of the wagon. He and Winston gingerly lifted Rachel’s battered and limp body out of the wagon and laid her down in the back seat of the car. Then Winston yelled for Ben to get in. The car took off like it had been shot out of a cannon, Winston slinging rocks all over his manicured lawn as soon as the car hit the gravel driveway.
                  When they had gotten on the main road to Collinwood, Winston finally asked Ben what had happened. Ben hesitated for a moment before he spoke.
                  “It was Rube, sir. He’s the one who did it.”
                  “Your papa? What did he do?” as if that question needed to be asked.
                  “I’ll never call him my papa again as long as I live,” Ben said through clenched teeth. “He raped her, Mr. Winston. He raped her and he beat her.”
                  “Where is he now?” Winston asked.
                  “I got him tied to a tree near the old tenet house that burned a few years back. If I hadn’t gotten there when I did…..” Ben paused for a minute, looking back at Rachel, making sure she was still holding on. “I heard what I thought was a scream down in the woods. I grabbed a hoe handle and ran down there, thinking Rube might be after Nellie. I knew he’d been drinkin’ a lot. I followed the trail through the woods where he’d dragged her and finally found them. He was sitting on top of her with a knife in his hand. I believe he was going to kill her and throw her down in the old well, to try to cover up what he’d done to her. I cracked him over the head a few times with the hoe handle, then tied him up good. Then I went and got the mule and wagon.”
                  “Well, you saved her life, son. Or at least if she pulls through you did. I want you to know how much I appreciate it. But when I get my hands on that worthless daddy of yours, I will probably kill him.”
                  “You’ll have to get to him before I do,” Ben said
    *****
                  When Doctor Killian got Rachel properly sedated, he saw that most of her injuries were superficial, other than the tearing of her vaginal area from the violent rape. She had some loose teeth where Rube had smashed her in the mouth, and a minor concussion. The cuts and bruises would take some time to heal. What he was most concerned with was her mental state. She was definitely in shock, and judging from her demeanor, he had no answer for how long it would take her recover from the toll the savage attack had taken on her psychologically. Doctor Killian said it would take a lot of time and patience, and especially love.
                  “She’s not gonna be the same girl for quite a while,” he told George. “She’s gonna need lots of rest, and there are probably times when she will want to be left alone. The best thing to do in those circumstances is to honor her wishes. She’s lucky young Ben got there when he did, or it would have been much worse. He would probably