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Artie Mae and Dorothy Bell
Many,
many of us older people have trouble remembering what happened
yesterday. Or this morning. Or, often, five minutes ago. But many of
us still have a pretty good long term memory. Take me for example. I
have memories of several things that happened to me when I was two
years old. And, I can sometimes remember what my thought processes
were, long before I could talk a lick. Although I do have to admit, I
couldn't talk a lick until I was nearly four.
We
pretty well like to tell our old stories, and when we run dry, we
just start repeating. Again and again. Or maybe you noticed.
Most
all of us have a few, or at least one, REALLY good story mixed in. If
one just takes time to listen to a person who has lived a long time,
sometimes you can come up with a real jewel. Such a person is my
friend Dorothy Bell.
Dorothy,
as a young girl, lived near Gurdon. It was December of 1942. (Dorothy
Bell, you see, has an amazing memory of dates, times, places.) She
was living with her mama, Artie Mae, and her father. Things weren't
going well between her parents along about then. She knew her Papa
had just started having an affair with that big, red haired woman
that lived out that way. Papa and Dorothy Bell were sitting at the
kitchen table one day. Artie Mae, just recovering from a miscarriage,
had gone out to the well to get a bucket of water. The well was right
beside the kitchen door. When she walked back in, something just set
papa off. Dorothy Bell didn't know what set him off at that moment,
but both Dorothy's parents had pretty well been on a short fuse for
some time, ever since his dallying about had come to light. Well,
Papa just jumped up and hit Artie Mae really hard with his fist,
breaking his little finger. He knocked her clear across the room and
up against the wall, and she was unconscious for a time. Papa sat
back down. Artie Mae finally came around, slowly picked up a piece of
stove wood, and set in on Papa. As Dorothy Bell said, “she just
totally beat him into a pulp.” They
lived together three more years, but things were different after
that. For one thing, Papa never hit Artie Mae again.
After
the divorce, Artie Mae and Dorothy Bell lived together for a long
time. They move to Dallas, to a house with six apartments. They had a
neighbor, Dewey, who came to see them from time to time. One day, he
showed up with a sorta mean looking young feller, who they had never
seen before. Seems his name was Malcomb Wayne. In the course of the
conversation, A neighbor lady walked by, and Malcomb wayne made an
off color remark to her. Artie Mae told him to leave her alone. Malcomb
Wayne never came back with Dewey again. Time rocked on. On Halloween
night of l957, Dorothy Bell had the Asian Flu, and they had both gone
to bed early, both their beds being in the same bedroom. “I
just heard a screen being cut,” Artie Mae said. Then, they listened
hard. They both heard it. They quietly got up, Dorothy Bell was given
a claw hammer. “If you get a shot at him, try to hit him real hard
right in the head,” her mother told her.
There
was only one other weapon in the apartment for Artie Mae. Seems the
last tenant had left a really big, long, custom made butcher knife.
They tiptoed to the door of the room the sound was coming from. It
was dark, but In the moonlight, they could see a figure climbing
through the cut screen of the screened in back porch. He flipped out
a switch blade knife. They started running for the front door, then
headed down the stairs; they could hear him running behind them. They
were nearly at the bottom of the stairs when he caught them. The
switch blade flashed, and a long, deep gash was cut in Dorothy Bell's
forearm. That scar is still visible today. Blood was spurting. Artie
Mae took a swing at him with the big butcher knife, and cut off an
ear, barely hanging on by a little skin. Blood was gushing from him
too, even worse than Dorothy Mae's slice. As Artie Mae was taking
another long stab at him, his fist hit her arm, and the knife went
sliding across the floor in the dark. Dorothy Bell knew she just had
to beat him to it, as she ran and slid across the floor. He turned
his attention on Artie Mae, knocking her down, up against the wall,
hitting her again and again with his fists. When Dorothy Bell found
the knife, she headed into the fray. Her Mother was getting beaten
into a pulp. Dorothy Mae swung hard, not stabbing, just whacking hard
with the blade, right between the shoulder blades. Every time the
blade landed, she said, “Let her loose.” She swung again. And
again. When each one landed, she ordered “Turn her loose.” After
about ten blows, he was losing a lot of blood, getting too weak to
continue. The Police had been called by a neighbor who heard the
fuss. The police arrived, accompanied by a long black hearse. The
hearse doubled for an ambulance in those days. Artie Mae told
Dorothy Bell later, “You really hit him hard. I could feel every
lick you hit, jarring his body into mine!” From
the ambulance lights, they could see him. It was Malcomb Wayne. He
was put on a stretcher, none too gently, and slid into the
hearse/Ambulance. Then Dorothy Bell was loaded into the front seat.
They
were taken to Parkland Hospital, on Harry Hinds Blvd., the same
hospital President Kennedy would later be taken to after he was shot.
Dorothy
Bell waited outside a long time, while Malcomb Wayne was being
attended to. Then they sewed her up too. Artie Mae, though beaten to
a pulp, didn't get a ride in the hearse. Not enough blood on her, and
the hearse was pretty well full.
Later,
in court, Dorothy Bell was filmed testifying. She got to see herself
on TV that night, Pony tail and all. A very rare thing in those early
days of TV and video cameras. The judge said to Malcomb Wayne, “If
those two women had killed you, there's not a thing I could have done
about it. You weren't supposed to be there.” Turns out, that was
the extent of his punishment.
A
few days later, Dorothy Bell and Artie Mae went to get the stitches
out. As they sat in the waiting room, Malcomb Wayne came in, sat down
right behind them. Dorothy Bell watched him out of the corner of her
eye. He was pulling out his switchblade; he held it a few moments,
looked at her awhile, then started cleaning his fingernails. But he
never bothered those two ladies that day. They
had a shock when they got home. The landlord told them to move out.
The only time ever, Dorothy Bell says, they were evicted. In
1976, Dorothy bell moved to Denton. Her mother later moved up to join
her in a large apartment complex. In 1980, they saw a new tenant move
in one day. Artie May asked Dorothy Bell, “Did you see who that
was?” Dorothy Bell shook her head. They both knew. Malcomb Wayne
and his Mama. But he never got anywhere close to those two women
again.
Dorothy
Bell and her mother later moved to Arkadelphia. Artie Mae passed away
a few years ago. Dorothy Bell now lives alone, quietly.
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