Ronan Martell

“You kids get out of here. Get out of this graveyard.” Oscar Tillman had walked up to the family cemetery with his metal pronged rake, straw hat, and handkerchief sticking out of his overalls pocket. Old farmers like Oscar Tillman didn’t go to work with water bottles, work gloves, or cell phones. He didn’t even own a cell phone. Mr. Tillman was eighty-nine years old and dying of skin cancer which had metastasized to his liver. He would soon be a resident of the Tillman family cemetery. He had walked up from his farmhouse to pull weeds and rake up some debris before sunset. 

“Get the hell out of here,” he screamed at four kids he had never before seen. 

Mr. Tillman leaned against the chain link fence erected long ago and in need of repair. The kids laughed at him. They mocked, and the eldest teenage boy told him to fuck off. The two girls and the young boy looked uneasy and scared but went along with the apparent ringleader. He continued to curse at the old man. Mr. Tillman had had enough. He went through the broken gate and trotted toward the mean kid with his rake raised. He swung at him and fell when the kid deflected the blow. The kids ran off leaving Mr. Tillman lying face down.

Oscar Tillman had spent his entire eighty-nine years in Kendall, Alabama, which is a small town on U.S. Highway 11 nestled between the Appalachian foothills. Taking I-59, Kendall is a few miles to the Gladden exit and probably sixty miles to Birmingham. Mr. Tillman had never been to either city.  He’d avoided military service and the overseas conflicts during his years. He didn’t purposely avoid the military but failed the entrance physical when his number came up. Oscar Tillman was deemed disqualified due to his low mental capacity. Some people said he was mentally retarded, and others called him that vile name. The “R” word. Through the years, he went from being called Oscar to Mr. Tillman. The mean kids who became mean adults called him Old Man Tillman. He was usually a kind man and minded his own business. He just wanted to clean up the family cemetery that day.