Wild Thunder

“Give me a look,” Chuck said, moving around the desk to stand beside Tiny.

“What?” Tiny said, moving on out of the chair. He backed away from Chuck. “What do you mean? You can’t see.”

“Now, are you absolutely certain of that, Tiny?” Chuck said, chuckling low.

Suddenly Tiny pretended to fall over the chair, purposely to bump against Chuck and knock his glasses off.

The glasses fell to the floor. Tiny crunched them beneath his boot. “Oh, no,” he said, pretending alarm. “Look what I did. Your glasses, Chuck. I . . . broke . . . them.”

Chuck steadied himself as he held onto the edge of the desk. His jaw tight, he fumbled around until he found a key that he had hidden beneath his desk.

Then he gave it to Tiny. “Unlock the bottom drawer,” he said icily.

Tiny’s hands shook as he opened the drawer, his eyes never leaving Chuck.

“Now, reach inside and get me my other pair of glasses,” he said, smiling devilishly down at Tiny when he heard him gasp. “And not only that, Tiny. Get me that magnifying glass. I’ve found it quite useful these past several days. You’d he surprised to know what I’ve discovered in these ledgers.”

Tiny paled. Knowing that he had been caught, he backed away from Chuck, then bolted and ran from the room.

Chuck sighed and eased into his chair. “Damn, damn, damn,” he said, pounding a fist against the desktop. “He’s been cheating me all along! How could I have been so stupid? Just how much money did he swindle me out of?”

His fingers trembled as he slipped his glasses on.

Then, feeling defeated, he went to his safe and slowly turned the combination. He had made notches in the dial when he had started going blind. These notches led him to the right numbers.

The safe door swung open. Chuck fumbled around inside until he found his stack of journals and boxes of papers that he had stored there long before he had started losing his eyesight.

One by one he removed things from his safe, his fingers recognizing each box, each journal, each keepsake, each bundle of money.

Then his eyes widened when his fingers came upon something foreign after removing everything down to only a few things. It had been a long time since he had made inventory on what was inside his safe.

Now that he was finally doing it, he found a box that was unfamiliar to him.

It had been hidden beneath everything else.

His fingers trembling, Chuck took the box from the safe. He placed it on the floor before him, then slowly raised the lid. The scent of money, which he always associated and identified with dirty hands and mildew, wafted upward into his nose. He ran his fingers over the several bundles.

“Damn,” he whispered, paling. “Tiny hid the money he swindled from me under my very own nose!”

A chill raced up and down his spine. “He was aiming to leave soon,” he said, realizing his intent. “This would pay his way. Had I not caught him, he’d be a rich man!”

Deliberately, his jaw set, his heart beating soundly over his anger at this man who had taken advantage of his illness, Chuck scooted the desk aside.

He then felt his way along the floor beneath his desk.

Smiling, his fingers searched until they found a loose board.

Picking up the board away from the others and laying it aside, he felt down inside it until he found a safe; he had used this one before he had started going blind and before Tiny had come to work for him.

“You damn cheat,” he whispered beneath his breath as he placed all of the money in this safe. “Just try and come back and take what isn’t yours. Won’t you get a surprise!”

He swallowed hard. “I should’ve listened to Hannah,” he whispered, his insides aching to know if Hannah was all right.

He wondered about the welfare of his family and whether Clara had survived. He had not wanted to chance contracting cholera, so had not gone to check. His life was miserable enough being blind.

Then he felt guilty for thinking of himself, when his sisters’ lives lay in balance.

His eyes widened when he heard the sound of a wagon arriving outside. “Could it be?” he whispered.