They Moved Like Angels with Fluid Motion

When Li’l Rae was 'bout 4-5 years, her mother abandoned her in rural Wisconsin, just up and left her… poor little child. 

Well, okay maybe it didn’t really go down exactly that way, but it’s sure how it seemed to Li’l Rae at the time. Closer to the truth was that Li’l Rae and her mother had been visiting relatives in rural Wisconsin, and when it came time to return to the city, Li’l Rae’s mother brokered herself a deal with her older brother, Li’l Rae’s uncle. He would keep the child for an additional week. “This will give me a little break,” reasoned Li’l Rae’s mother, “Plus, the country air will be good for her.” 

“Hutch" is what they called Li’l Rae’s uncle, his real name being Malcom. Hutch had two sons, Alastair and Bartholomew. The boys were older than Li’l Rae, Alastair being 11 and Bartholomew almost 13. Folks said that ol’ Hutch never quite got over the loss of his wife, who died when the boys were young. Anyway, it must’ve been true, because Hutch never remarried.

Back then Li’l Rae thought that of all her numerous cousins, Alastair and Bartholomew were clearly the best looking, their faces being as fine as the handsomest boys she’d ever seen on television. Their mother must have been beautiful, Li'l Rae thought, yet nowhere in the home was a photograph of the now-dead woman. 

“That Al and Bart sure are good athletes," people would say, as they shook their heads, "just like their old man.” Now, the boys were good at swimming, running, football and basketball, but baseball was the sport at which the boys really excelled. And sure enough, Uncle Hutch had been a minor league baseball player. At some point he got the call to go to the big league. He declined. Hutch, being a man of few words, never gave an explanation. But you know how townsfolk are, they had many an opinion. Some said it was because of his young wife, maybe she didn’t want him to go, or maybe he didn’t want to leave her. 

When Li’l Rae’s mother left her at Uncle Hutch’s house, she didn't trouble herself to leave any dolls or toys for Li’l Rae’s amusement, just a satchel with clean clothes and pajamas. And her cousins didn’t seem to own any toys, or puzzles or books for that matter; just some sports equipment, kept in a small utility room near the back door. In fact, to Li’l Rae the house seemed empty and cheerless, as if no one had laughed or smiled in it for a long time.

The boys were out the door soon after breakfast and Li'l Rae often didn’t see them again until dinner. So she would sit in a chair looking out of the big window in the dining room. From there she could see the large empty baseball lot next door. She sat and wondered why her cousins never played at the ball field right next door and instead rode their bikes all the way to the Catholic school’s field way over on the other side of town. The groomed lot outside looked like a regular ball field, with bleachers and everything, but there it sat empty, unused and kind of forlorn, just like the house.

The cousins were kind to Li’l Rae and she wished that they would be around more often, like they were after dinner, after helping their father to clean the kitchen, when sometimes one or the other would spend a few minutes showing her how to catch a ball, or somehow complementing her when she, once again, missed hitting the huge oak tree with one of their slingshots. As she sat deep in thought, Li’l Rae didn’t hear Uncle Hutch enter the room, so she flinched when she heard his sudden  bark from behind, “You'd best go outside and get some fresh air now.” 

Alone outside, she sat on the bottom row of the bleachers, swinging feet that barely reached the ground. She picked up a stick and drew some lines in the dry, dusty dirt. When she looked back at the house, she wasn’t sure if that dark shadow from upstairs was Uncle Hutch watching her, so she quickly dropped the stick. 

Li'l Rae was usually an obedient child, but one lonely afternoon, knowing it was wrong to snoop or to take without permission, she opened a drawer in the kitchen. She’d seen Uncle Hutch put a spiral notepad in the drawer the night before. It won’t be so bad, she reasoned, if I just take a page from the notebook and then maybe borrow that pencil on the kitchen counter. I can draw and practice my letters and numbers. That will be fun. And I’ll put the pencil right back where I found it. And I’ll just take one single sheet of paper, that’s all. The notepad looked pretty full and I don’t think anyone will notice one missing sheet. She carefully picked up the spiral notepad and slowly lifted back the cover to find an empty sheet… Her heart seemed to stop as she heard Uncle Hutch’s booming voice behind her, “What are you doing?” How does he enter the room so quietly, she thought. I never even heard a sound. Her face was burning with shame, as she felt the blood pulse in her cheeks. Her head hung down, afraid to look up at her uncle, she handed over the notepad. He said not another word, just stood there silently looming over the small girl, like a giant right out of a fairy tale. She could feel his eyes follow her as she walked into the dining room and sat on a chair to once again stare out the window at the ever-empty ball field. 

Yes, Alastair and Bartholomew were good athletes and they were the handsomest boys Li’l Rae had ever seen, and they were unfailingly nice to Li’l Rae, and they always smiled whenever they saw her, big genuine smiles. And after dinner, when the kitchen was cleaned, and when one or the other would spend a few minutes in the evening teaching her to hit a pitch, or such, she couldn’t help but notice, really no one on earth who heard them speak, could help but notice, the way they talked, “P-p-pp-put the b-b-ba-b-bat up m-mm-m-mmm-more.” 

Even at her young age, no one had to explain to Li’l Rae the whys of stuttering. She knew exactly why both of the boys stuttered.