“And after that?”
Chandler checked his watch before looking up and smiling. “Then we’ll have just enough time to go to Court, Counselor.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
* * *
Rufus watched the door as it slowly opened. He braced himself for the sight of a mass of men in green fatigues moving in on him, but then his apprehension slid away when he saw who it was.
“Time to check me again?”
Cassandra came and stood next to the bed. “Now, isn’t that a woman’s plight in life, always checking up on men?” Her words were funny, her tone was not. She looked at the monitors and made some notations in his chart, glancing at him as she did so.
“It feels good. I ain’t used to that.” He took care not to rattle his restraints as he sat up a little.
“I called your brother.”
Rufus’s expression grew serious. “Is that right? What’d he say?”
“He said he’d be coming to see you.”
“He say when?”
“Sooner than later. Today, in fact.”
“What all did you tell him?”
“I told him you were sick, but getting better fast.”
“He tell you anything else?”
“I found him to be a man of few words,” Cassandra remarked.
“That’s Josh.”
“Is he as big as you?”
“Nah. He’s a little guy. Six-three or so, not much over two hundred pounds.” Cassandra shook her head and turned to leave. “You got time to sit and talk?” Rufus asked.
“I’m supposed to be on my break. I just came to tell you about your brother. I’ve got to go.” She seemed a little unfriendly.
“You okay?”
“Even if I’m not, there isn’t anything you can do about it.” Her tone was now edgy, rough.
Rufus studied her for a moment. “Is there a Bible around here?”
She turned back, surprised. “Why?”
“I read the Bible every day. Have for as long as I can remember.”
She looked over at the table next to the bed, went across and pulled out a Gideon’s Bible. “I can’t give it to you. Can’t get that close. The people from the prison were real, real clear on that point.”
“You don’t have to give it to me. If you would, I’d appreciate if you could read a passage to me.”
“Read to you?”
“You don’t have to,” he said quickly. “You may not even be interested, you know, in the Bible and churchgoing.”
She looked down at him, one hand on her hip, the other closed around the green Bible. “I sing in the choir. My husband, God rest his soul, was a lay minister.”
“That’s real good, Cassandra. And your kids?”
“How do you know I have kids? Because I’m not skinny?”
“Uh-uh.”
“What, then?”
“You look like you’re used to loving little things.”
His words startled her, a smile quickly breaking through the cloud over her features. “I am going to have to watch you.” She noted that he looked at the Bible like he was thirsty and needed a drink, and she was holding the freshest, coldest glass of water in the history of the world.
“What do you want me to read?”
“Hundred and third Psalm.”
Cassandra debated for a moment and then pulled up a chair and sat down.
Rufus lay back on the bed. “Thank you, Cassandra.”
As she read, she glanced at him. His eyes were closed. She read a few more words, looked up and saw his lips moving and then stopping. She looked at the next sentence, quickly memorized it, and read it, while watching him. Rufus was silently mouthing each of the words at the same time she was saying them. She stopped, but he continued to the end of the sentence. When she did not start up again, he opened his eyes. “You know the Psalm by heart?”she asked.
“Know most of the Bible by heart. All the Psalms and Proverbs.”
“That’s pretty impressive.”
“I’ve had a long time to work on it.”
“Why did you want me to read it to you, then, if you already knew it?”
“Looked like you were a little troubled. I thought visiting the scriptures might help you some.”
“Help me?” Cassandra looked down at the page and read to herself. “He forgives all my sins. He heals me. He ransoms me from Hell. He surrounds me with loving kindness and tender mercies.” Work was depressing. Her teenage children were more and more beyond her control every day. She was on the north side of forty, fifty pounds overweight, and there wasn’t an eligible man in sight. With all that, as she watched this prisoner, this chained-up killer who was going to die in prison, she felt like bursting into tears in the face of his kindness, his unsolicited consideration for her plight.