#4 A Parting of The Ways

1934

"Where is that boy",
"Cam, he's not a boy any more, he's twenty and has seen more and done more in his life than most ninety year olds would do, he needs to kick loose every now and again",
"Fine, but does he have to do it as part of that bloody gang, getting pissed all the time and causing a ruckus?"

Eugene Judd drained the last of the beer from his glass and signaled the barman to refill the group's glasses, his vision was getting slightly blurry, still that's what drinking seven glasses of beer will do to you. As the beer arrived so did the trouble, in the form of eight miners, who would have a large bearing on where Judd's life would go from this moment.

A wise man once said that a drunken man will always talk without thinking of the consequences, this statement gained credence as the miners settled into an evening of drinking and baiting, first off all the bar staff suffered the stinging words, but once the beer had begun to permeate their system they began to look around for easier game, a three foot six inch youth drinking from a full sized beer mug presented them with an opportunity they could not refuse.
"Eh, lads how long did it take you to train the chimp to drink beer?"
"Judd take it easy, they just want a row, there's eight of them and five of us, just ignore them",
"Eh Barman, eight more beers and can we have one in a little glass for the monkey",

Raucous laughter almost filled the bar and regulars fell into silence as they realized that things could get interesting.

The change in Judd was subtle, his close drinking buddies were the first to notice, normally he would take a lot more ribbing than this and then just shrug it off, maybe the beer, maybe a cumulative effect from to many times shrugging off the insults, no one could really explain what happened next, but Judd shifted his posture, sighed deeply and then stared long and hard at the miners who were pointing and laughing at him and still making whispered comments.

"Hey Mister, why ya drinking in a bar when you've got a good woman at home?" "What did you say kid?"
Judd stared at the man,.
"I said, what ya doing drinking in a bar, when you've a good woman waiting for ya at home, is it your hoping she's asleep, so you don't have to disappoint her in the sack again?"
a subtle smile broke across Judd's face,
"Shut ya lip midget",
"Sorry if I offended you mister, it's just that while me and my friends were pulling a train on her last night, she happened to mention how bad you were in the sack, I was just trying to make the connection with that and you being here now, making a complete dick of yourself",

The miner's table erupted, spilling it's contents as the largest of the eight and the one who had been offended by Judd's jibes pushed back his chair and rose, anger etched across his face, Judd just stood and waited as the man made his way towards him, the rest of the bar just watched, some sniggering at the sight of a two forty pound, six foot miner striding across the bar to confront a three foot six youth who had manage to get under his skin. The miner led with his feet as he wasn't sure if he could keep his footing if he stooped to plant his fist into his tormentor's face, his foot was aimed well, if it had connected, it would have probably broken Judd's nose and possibly cracked his head wide open, but the foot never made contact, instead, in the place where Judd had stood lay a chair which Judd had use as a platform to launch himself into a routine which would bring him feet first towards the man, all the man saw as he glanced quizzically forward was a pair of soled boots on a collision course with his head, with reflexes he should not have possessed, the man jerked his head to one side, this didn't stop the blow, but threw it off a little, instead of laying unconscious on the floor, the man suffered the indignity of having his nose spread three inches across his face and a bruised and bleeding skull, these blows combined with the effects of alcohol had the man staggering around the floor, before he had a chance to clear his head, two punches caught him flush across the chin, it was as he fell back that his head hit the floor with severe force, by the time the man's friends had crossed the floor to kneel by his prostrate form, Judd had already left the bar.

There's a semi state before sleep overtakes you, in this state outside events present themselves as a dream, the knocking of a door knocker can be interpreted and presented as something different, a woodpecker banging at a tree for example, it was this state that Martha and Cameron were in when the rapping at the door first started. It took the caller a further three minutes to pierce the curtains of semi consciousness and rouse the couple from their bed.
"Who is it?"
"Martha, Cam, It's Jim Baxter, we have a problem",
Martha opened the door to be faced by the local Police Officer. Jim Baxter had known, Cam, Martha and Eugene since they had first started bringing their show to the town ten years earlier that was why he appeared crestfallen to Martha and Cam, who was standing just behind her. "You'd better come in Jim...what's the problem?"
"It's Eugene, he's been arrested, we're holding him down at the station",
"What!!?, why?"
"He's put a man in hospital, it's touch and go whether the man pulls through".

If it is possible to change appearance without actually losing or gaining any new physical traits, then Eugene Judd achieved that feat by the time he was bailed from the station the following morning, it was a sheepish apologetic youth who stumbled through the door to be met by Cameron MacIntyre. "Well?"
"Cam, I'm sorry",
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Why are you sorry, cos you almost killed a man, or because there's a good chance you will go to jail when it comes to your trial?"
"I'm sorry for what I did, I deserve to go to jail and I'm sorry for letting you down", "Well maybe you should have bloody well thought of that before you acted, you know from your tumbling that to work only on instinct without giving thought to your actions leads to trouble, you acted on instinct alone last night and you could have maimed someone for life, you're a bloody idiot, now go out to the kitchen and have Martha prepare you some breakfast".

"Eugene Milton Judd, you have been found guilty by a jury of your peers of the charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, the law as laid out would demand that I pass down a sentence of five years considering the extent of the injuries to Thomas Jeffers, but given that Mr. Jeffers has recovered some of his faculties and the fact that you gave yourself up to the police and your clean record up to now, I have decided to pass a sentence of two years hard labour, please reflect on this time to consider where you want to take your life and what you would hope to achieve,......Jailer, take him down",

A quick glance across the courtroom, a tear in Martha's eye and a grimace across Cam's face, was the last thing Judd saw, before he was led downstairs to be handcuffed and transported to jail.

As the vehicle transporting Judd set off to deposit him at his new home for the next two years, a carriage set out in the opposite direction, in it were the only people he could really call family,
"Cam, are you sure we should leave him like this? he might need us",
"If he needs us, he'll find us when he gets out, he's got to find himself again, prison is going to change him Martha, the Judd we saw going down those stairs won't be the Judd who walks out of those prison gates, he might not even remember us, but one day the real Judd will surface and that's when we see him, then and only then".