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By Root 931 0

and as long as she could sit and color in her coloring books she was content for hours, but even though at that time Polly was twelve years old, Louise usually did not leave her daughter alone in the house. However, on that one fateful day, Polly had been so preoccupied and busy coloring in her new Casper the Friendly Ghost coloring book that Louise had figured she could leave her while she ran into town and back, and Polly would be fine. She was a good child, and always minded her mother, and she promised not to leave the kitchen until she returned. It was a pretty fall afternoon when Louise walked out and told her hired man, who was chopping wood in the back, that she had to run into town to pick up a few things, and to watch the house while she was gone.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, tipping his hat. As had been his pattern on other farms, he had been waiting for this opportunity for weeks, and now was his chance. He continued chopping wood and watched until Louise’s car was out of sight, then he threw down the hatchet and headed into the house to find that girl. “She may be ugly,” he thought, “and older than most of the other little girls on the farms before, but she is too stupid to tell anybody anything.” Besides, he was ready to move on, and as usual, he would be long gone by the time the mother got back. He came up onto the porch and threw open the kitchen door. Polly was still sitting at the table coloring. “Come here, little girlie,” he said as he unbuckled his pants. “I’ve got something for you.”

When Louise drove up to the house, she thought it was odd that the hired man had not finished chopping the wood, but the second Louise walked in the door, she knew something terrible had just happened. The kitchen was in complete shambles, things knocked over, chairs and dishes broken and scattered everywhere. Polly was still sitting at the table coloring right where Louise had left her, with her face all wet and beaten up, rocking back and forth. Louise screamed, dropped her groceries, and ran over to her daughter. “Oh my God, what happened?” Polly only repeated over and over “Hurt, Momma” and then pointed across the room to over by the sink. Louise looked over to where she was pointing, and to her horror she saw a man naked from the waist down with a mop bucket on his head, sitting propped up against the wall. Louise was terrified and immediately grabbed Polly and pulled her up out of the chair and ran with her to the bedroom, and quickly locked the door behind them. She wanted to call someone for help but her only phone was in the kitchen, so she sat on the bed frozen with fear and prayed that he would not get up and break the door down.

At that very moment her closest neighbor and friend, Elner Shimfissle, drove up the driveway, completely unaware of what had just taken place. She was just stopping by to bring Louise and Polly a freshly made pecan pie, before she drove the other pies over to the church. Elner got out of the truck and opened the kitchen door, calling out, “Hey, girls, I’ve got a—” then stopping dead in her tracks. The first thing she spotted was the naked man sitting on the floor with the bucket on his head.

“Good Lord,” she said, dropping her pie. “What’s going on? Louise, Louise!”

Louise heard her and called out, “Oh, Elner. Help me, help me.” Then Elner ran past the man to the bedroom in the back. Louise let her in and Elner saw that Polly had blood on her face. Immediately Elner ran over and helped Louise take Polly into the bathroom to clean up the cuts on her head and her lip, and Elner tried to calm Louise down enough so she could tell her what had happened.

“Who’s that naked man?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s he doing with a mop bucket on his head?”

“I don’t know,” said a frantic Louise. “He was here when I came in…. I should have never left her, it’s all my fault.”

When Elner had sized up the situation, she said, “You stay here. I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t go in there!” screamed Louise. “He’s liable to kill you!”

“Not if I get to him first,” she said. “The very idea of him doing such a