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“How’d you lose your arm?” Sam blurted out before thinking.
“A cannon shot,” Lee replied simply.
“You sure know how to get around good without two arms. Ain’t never seen nothin’ like that.” Sam shook his head.
“Well, I didn’t have much choice, it was either learn to use it, or lay there and be a no account for the rest of my life.” Lee chuckled, giving Sam a quick glance.
“Somethin’ about you seems so familiar…” Sam began but one of the kids cut him off.
The oldest one turned. “Mommy, will Violet be okay?”
“Yes honey, we just need to get her fixed up is all,” Hattie replied, her voice low, but with a quiver; her eyes flashed at Lee.
Lee saw the need to comfort and reached his hand to hers. “She’ll be fine.”
The connection startled her, and she stared, then smiled.
She didn’t jerk away, but seemed grateful for the comfort. Sam frowned even more.
Hattie’s expression relaxed some, as she stared into his face. “Forgive me for staring, but you look, almost familiar. But of course I’m imagining things.”
Lee nodded and began cleaning the wound as though it were his job to do so. Once she was bandaged, he looked around the room. The house had been well taken care of.
“You done this before?” Sam asked.
“A few times, during the war,” he assured him. “I was in the infirmary a long time, and the doc finally let me help him some.”
“What side did you fight on?” Sam asked as though gauging something in his mind.
“I fought for the south.”
“‘Cause you believe in slavery?” Sam asked.
“No, I don’t. No man has the right to make a slave out of another. But I’m from the south, and at the time it seemed only right.” Lee smiled at him. “There was more than just slavery at issue in that war, son.”
“Lincoln freed us, now we are equal, or supposed to be. But here in Alabama sometimes it don’t feel like we are…”
“Sometimes people are a little slow to understand,” Lee added.
Daisy brought the lemonade and handed a glass to him. “My name is Daisy, and this is Lily and that is Violet, and my Mama, her name is Hattie,” the girl explained. “And that’s Sam, my Uncle.”
“Kinda young to be an uncle, aren’t you?” he asked.
Sam frowned. “I ain’t her real Uncle. We sorta adopted them. But they ain’t kin.”
Hattie walked back in and shook her head. “Of course they are kin.”
Lee turned to the little girl, took the lemonade and smiled. “Well, thank you Daisy.” He didn’t give a name though. Setting the lemonade on the floor, he cleaned and bandaged the leg, then stared up at the innocent brown eyes from the bed. “You’ll be fine, just stay off of it a day or two, so you don’t get it dirty.”
The little girl’s eyes grew wide and her smile captured him.
“I’m not going to die, am I?” she asked him.
“No honey, you aren’t going to die. You’ve been very brave and I’m sure it hurts, but you will be fine in a few days.” L
ee’s voice sounded gravelly as he explained.
“Are you a doctor?” she asked.
