Story Carry On, Damaris

Chapter 14​


I sent Harry out packed with enough snacks and sandwiches to last him until he got where he was going and Dino sent him out with the assurances that he had a place to come back to if he needed it and that his personal things would be looked after. I thought that was just about the sweetest thing but imagining the reaction if I was to tell either man that I kept the words between my teeth.

The next day - that would be this morning - we drove him at first light to the drop off point on the other side of town. I am not ashamed to say I just about cried a bucket full when that darned ol’ bus pulled away with all them young men crammed in there like sardines. It was like our district was losing a whole grade of boys at the same time … but it wasn’t no football game they were going to see.

We weren’t the only ones there and I was getting more than a little upset after the bus drove out of sight and people turned their eyes on me. Dino sensed it and got us out of there and when I started paying attention again we were driving into town. We parked in a field they’d set up for people that used buggies and wagons rather than cars and trucks – my uncle used to laugh and say it looked like the town was being taken over by a bunch of poor relations to the Clampetts – and while I was willing to wait in the wagon Dino was unwilling to let me.

“Come on, I need to do some shopping and place a couple of orders. It’s too hot for you to wait that long and I’m not leaving a lone female sitting out in the open either. All sorts of yahoos have been hanging around town the last few months.”

Knowing that there would likely be a lot of people at the bus stop I had, at least according to Kerry, decided to dress like a girl for a change. The dress was worn and originally belonged to one of my aunts but it fit half-way decent though it ran a little tight in places and it was bound to get tighter over the coming months. Instead of my work boots I wore a pair of my mother’s old slip on flats with a buckle on the side. The bottom of those shoes have been repaired more than once over the years since they are my primary church shoes but the upper part is still nice as I keep them polished with olive oil mixed with a little lemon juice. My hair was another matter; it was too hot to leave down at all so I just braided it and wrapped it around my head like normal. And likewise the only jewelry I wore were the silver ear studs that I always wear to keep my pierced ear holes from closing up and my grandmother’s wind up clock broach pinned inside my front pocket. As soon as my feet touched the ground I could feel the heat through the bottom of the shoes and knew it was just about time to put another piece of leather over the thin soles.

I looked over to see Kerry wilting a little bit and dampened my handkerchief with some water from the canteen in the wagon and washed his face and neck. “Better?” I asked him and he nodded but didn’t look any happier.

“What’s wrong Honey?” He just shrugged so I looked up at Dino who was paying the attendant to mind the cattle.

He came over and picked Kerry up as we crossed the street into down and then as he put him down once we hit sidewalk he told me quietly over top of the boy’s head, “Tammy used to bring Kerry with her when she came to town to … to find some entertainment. She used to threaten to leave him at the Depot so someone else would take him away so he would stop getting in her way.”

Now I know I promised not to speak ill of Tammy in case at some point the woman manages to get her head out of her you-know-what and want to have some kind of relationship with her boy but I swear the more I hear about her the less I want to ever have to have any dealings with her. I had an aunt that used to swear up and down that people should have to pass a class and get a license to have kids and for some folks that might not be too bad an idea. Even as little as I know about being a parent, I still know you aren’t supposed to say those kind of things to little children, not even in joking.

I didn’t know whether to say anything to the boy or not – I don’t want to reinforce something that is nothing but a half-remembered fear – but I did make sure to hold his hand and when it got sweaty I told him he could just hold my shirt if he preferred. I suppose I could have brought a pocket book for him to hang on but I hadn’t thought we were going to town.

As for me, I don’t know how I got wrangled into it but somehow or other I wound up having to give my opinion on the purchasing and ordering that Dino did. And since most things had to be ordered out from the city he had me add anything that was needed around the house. There were only a few things that immediately came to mind – bleach, washing soda, rubbing alcohol, and glycerin – but I really hadn’t had a chance to go over all the supplies.

“Well, start a list,” Dino said. “I’ll place the order next time I come to town. There won’t be much time for that sort of thing once the grapes start coming in.”

These days you have to plan ahead and I don’t just mean a day or two either. Most folks I know already have Christmas at least half way planned out well before fall term of school starts up, which around here is the end of September after the bulk of the harvesting is over with. Knowing this to be a fact I dithered around and then pulled Dino aside to beg a favor.

I took a deep breath because what I was about to do went against the grain but there was no getting around it. “Dino, I already explained I can pay my way but … but can … can you front me something on this order until we get back to your house? I didn’t bring anything with me and I’ve … well …” I looked down at my belly and finally just put it all on the table. “I need some material so that I can make me a few things that’ll … well … that’ll fit. I’m already busting out of everything and …”

I was just about ready to crawl in a hole but when I finally got the nerve to look up into Dino’s face the irritation I expected to see wasn’t there. And it wasn’t unholy glee at my predicament either. Nope, the man had a smile on his face that was full of understanding and kindness … though there was some devilment in there that he manfully seemed to hold back. He told me to order what I needed but when I just ordered a bolt of plain lightweight cotton fabric and a bolt of plain heavier weight cotton fabric and several spools of thread to match he gave me a sharp look.

“Surely that can’t be all you need. Even the Mennonites wear clothes with color to them.”

“I have dyes for colors and I’ve also got enough zippers and buttons to fill a flour sack. If you think your grandparents were pack rats you should have met mine, you haven’t seen what all is in them chests; and to add to that I have the dress form and my own measurements to make patterns from.” His mouth was starting to get that pinched up look it got when he thought someone was telling a story. “Dino, that look on your face best not be saying what I think it’s sayin’. I am not telling a story. I may not have grown up with the advantages you did but that doesn’t mean I’m ashamed of that fact or of being able to do for myself. I’ve made over my whole wardrobe from old clothes since I was eleven years old. It doesn’t bother me any and actually I feel proud that I’m not wasting money on things I don’t need to. So if you think …”

“Doggone you’ve got a fast, hot temper when you want to,” he mumbled. He sighed and shook his head. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings Riss, I just promised you and myself that I would take care of you and the baby and I don’t want you to go without when it isn’t a problem for me.”

I nearly kicked him. I hate being beholden and it had taken more courage than he knew for me to speak up in the first place. “Now you listen here …”

“No, you listen,” he said as he tugged a curl that had escaped my braid. “I’m not asking you to make a decision before you’re ready. But I’ve already explained that you need to stop worrying so much about what you’re costing me. If I couldn’t afford a wife I wouldn’t have gone looking for one.”

I could have whacked him in the head with Harry’s old stick ball stick; he said that last sentence just loud enough that four people in the store turned to look. I stepped closer to him and whispered hard, “Be that as it may the only way you’re going to keep being able to afford a wife is if the one you seem intent on having doesn’t spend you out of house and home. Now knock it off already, people are starin’.”

“Let ‘em stare,” he grouched but then he smiled like he’d somehow won an unexpected prize and I realized that somehow he’d taken what I had said as an encouragement. Well, it wasn’t meant to be exactly though I suppose it was an admission on my part.

As we made a couple of more stops I started worrying at Kerry’s unusual silence. Don’t mistake me, I was happy he was minding – there were enough gas vehicles on the road, stopping and passing through or speeding as the case went, that it made me nervous for him to get anywhere near the curb – but I didn’t like the reason behind it. I told Dino at the last stop that Kerry and I were just going to wait outside on a bench. We’d walked clear to the other end of town where the Seed and Feed stood on the corner and we were both hot and tired and the shop was crowded with cranky men that didn’t smell too good anyway.

After a moment I asked him, “You OK? You’re not saying much.”

He shrugged his thin shoulders. “You wanna talk about it?” I persisted.

He shrugged his shoulders again. His eyes were glued to his lap but then he looked up at me through his long dark eyelashes. “You gonna leave like Harry?”

“My goodness, what brought that thought up?”I asked startled.

“Harry and you comed to our house at the same time and now Harry is gone. And you cried and other girl stuff so much you had to blow your nose. Are you gonna go follow him?”

I shook my head. “Harry is turning eighteen Sugar. When boys turn eighteen they have to go give Uncle Sam some of their time before they can call their time their own.”

“But are you gonna go after him?”

“No Honey, I’m not.”

Unsatisfied with my simple no he said, “But you went after that other boy and you only came to live with me when he didn’t want you.”

Ouch. The honesty of little boys can be brutal. “Well, that’s true as far as it goes. But no one is making me live with you; your daddy and I came to an understanding between us. I’m staying to take care of you until my baby is born.”

In a really quiet voice he said, “I hope your baby never gets born.”

Well that jerked me back. “Excuse me?”

In an aggrieved voice he said, “You said you’re staying until your baby is born. If it stays living inside your belly and never gets borned then you won’t leave.”

I winced. This was turning harder and more complicated by the minute. “Now look here Kerry, I never said that I was for sure leaving after my baby is born. Your daddy and I have an agreement that we won’t push each other until we are sure exactly what we want to do. Sometimes grownups take a while to make up their minds about things, especially important things like where they’re gonna live and with who. Now the fact is I like you real fine and like taking care of you so stop worrying at it so much.”

“Don’t you like Daddy too?”

I sighed and tried to be as honest as I could with a four-year-old. “I’m finding I like your daddy real fine too but there’s more to it than that Squirt. It’s hard to explain but I just want to make sure the decisions your daddy and I make don’t hurt anyone, especially you.” That last part I punctuated with a tickle to his belly button. I don’t think it was the answer he wanted but he giggled and seemed to be at least some reassured.

I was still tickling him when I felt a hand fall on my shoulder. I looked up and felt all the color drain from my face. Dino had been standing there listening the whole time. His eyes were solemn but there was a smile on his lips too … lips I’d been noticing a mite more than I should have been under the circumstances. “There’s some women out on the back porch where the sun isn’t so bad. Why don’t I take Kerry and you go on back there?”

I know he was trying to be nice but why are men so oblivious about certain things? Did he completely miss how some of them women acted when we dropped by his cousin’s place? Did he expect that was gonna change in just a week or so worth of time?

I walked back to the patio area and just like I knew it would, the weather turned a might chilly. I wasn’t happy to find Cindy out there with her mother and younger sister either but I couldn’t turn tail and run. Ignoring them and walking over to the far corner which gave them plenty of space to ignore me conversation picked back up. All was fine until Cindy raised her voice a little louder than needed and said, “She has no shame. First she ruins the name of one good man and now she’s doing the same of another.”

The acid started roiling in my stomach. I kept trying to turn the other cheek but Cindy kept egging and egging and egging. It was getting hard to breathe around the size of my feelings when I heard a slam and dead silence. I jerked around to find Dino and a couple of other men standing there and to say that Dino looked like black thunder didn’t even come close. Poor Kerry’s eyes looked round and scared and few other men of my acquaintance looked like they were about to take flight too.

I walked over real fast and said, “Well, my goodness, wind must have caught that door. If you’re ready I …”

In a snarl he asked, “Have those witches been talking like that the whole time you’ve been out here?”

“Talking like what?” I said avoiding a truthful answer. “I’m afraid I wasn’t paying attention as I was just standing over there thinking about …”

“Damaris …”

I sighed. “Oh honestly Dino, what did you expect? I told you you won’t be able to stop people who are hell bent on talking. You know and I know that it isn’t what they are saying it is but …” I ended in a shrug. “If you’ve finished, let’s just get. Don’t let ‘em turn it into a scene. Cindy has already done everything she can besides dance nekked trying to get a rise out of me.”

That last sentence had the desired effect. He stopped breathing through his nose like a bull and turned around and looked at me. His mouth twitched like he was fighting a smile but then said so God and everyone could hear. “Praise the Lord we’ve been saved from that particular spectacle. I want to get something to eat while we’re here in town and don’t want to lose my appetite beforehand.”

I heard a couple of gasps from the crowd of hens behind me and felt like my own jaw must have come unhinged at the suddenness of the return attack. He kept on, “And if anyone questions my honor or yours I’ll be happy to meet with them to explain their error.” He turned a mean eyed stare at a man standing there about as pale-faced as you can get and still be amongst the livin’. “Ain’t that right George?”

The man swallowed and it was loud in the silent space we were all standing in. Not liking the gleam that was returning to Dino’s eyes I got in behind him and started pushing him back into the shop and then through to the other outside. He let me because if he hadn’t I could have pushed all day and him not budged but I still let into him. “Dino Pappas! What got into you? You know who that man is?!”

He snorted, “Of course I do. He was that little tart’s father.”

“Yeah and you’d already insulted his daughter and then you go threatening to whoop him if he couldn’t draw them in line,” I whispered fiercely trying not to be overheard while I covered Kerry’s ears.

“You bet I did.”

“But why?! There’s no sense in causing trouble like that.”

“Because it wasn’t right what those wet hens were doing. I never would have let you go out there if …”

“One, you don’t let or prevent me from doing anything and we better get that straight right now. Just because you suggested me going out there doesn’t mean I didn’t have a choice of whether to do it or not. Two, we’ve already talked about the fact that people are going to talk. Picking fights over it isn’t going to change that. And three …” He tried to say something but I refused to let him and talked over the top of him. “And three, George Turner wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hades at lasting two seconds if you really went after him. You’d squash him like a bear after a berry.” After a look at him I said, “And you can unpuff that chest, that’s nothing to be proud of. You aren’t the bully type and you’d regret it as soon as you done it.”

He snorted finally coming down a bit from his angry. “Maybe, but I’d make sure and enjoy it for a few minutes.” Then he tried to wind back up again and said, “And you better not let anyone talk like that to you again.”

I shook my head and told him, “They weren’t talking to me. I told you Cindy was just trying to get a rise out of me and I was determined she wasn’t going to have it.”

“If they weren’t talking to you what would you call it?” he asked still wanting to be angry.

“They were talking around me. That’s all. I learned not to pay attention to them a couple of months back.” At his sharp look I just rolled my eyes. “You men think you are just so big and bad but the truth is that women can do a lot more damage with words than men can with fists. Now listen here, there’s some people I care what they think and some I don’t. Just so happens I care about what you think and your family too. I care about what Harry thinks. There’s some old friends of my grandparents that I care about and I would be hurt if the little boys turned on me I suppose. But just about everyone else can go to Flanders for all I care. I might not have been able to say that too long ago but that is how I feel now. My real friends are still my real friends and those that have shown themselves to be otherwise … well I just don’t have the time or inclination anymore to worry about it.”

“Well …”

“That’s a deep subject,” I smart mouthed at him and gave him a little punch to make him notice, both of which made Kerry giggle.

He snorted like he wanted to continue on with our conversation but caught sight of people standing around the front of the stores trying to act like they weren’t eavesdropping. He said loud enough to oblige them, “Be that as it may, people that want to be my real friends better watch their mouths. There’s plenty enough hurting around here that if Alec and I decided to put our money into the economy of the next town instead of here it would be noticed real quick. We picked Newton because our grandparents have always done business here but Cherry Gap is the same distance away and has the same offerings and might prove to be a little friendlier.”

With that it was him that was pushing me along only I wasn’t big enough to stop him.
 

Chapter 15 - 1​


I was speechless which was rare enough but this time I was so speechless there were tears in my eyes. I tried to put it down to them ol’ hormones acting up but God and me both knew that wasn’t the case. I’d never – at least not to my knowledge – ever had anyone take my side as hard as Dino did. I didn’t know how to say anything at that point much less what to say.

Dino was walking us back the way we had come only on the other side of the street. I had a hold of Kerry’s hand on one side of me and on the other Dino was walking between me and the curb with a gentle hand on my back guiding me through the crowd while he carried the few packages he’d picked up.

“I’ll have to come back in a week to see if the orders are in. That’s cutting it close to when Alec expects the first of the grapes to be ready but there’s no choice. Everybody and their mother has an order waiting to be filled ahead of me.” He sighed and shook his head before saying, “I forgot that today was check day.” Glancing down one of the side roads we saw that it was congested with lots of people. “Look at that line at the Depot, the train must be late.”

Finally finding my voice I said, “I hope they haven’t had another derailment. Last time checks were late … it doesn’t even bear thinking on, especially with prices rising and things getting scarce.”

Two years ago the checks from the government … from social security to pension to disability to just everything … had been a month late when someone tried to steal the metal rails from the train tracks to sell for scrap. It had been some idiots so desperate for drug money they’d forgotten that a new law had been passed making recycling metal a requirement not a choice; you don’t get paid for recycling your scrap, you get a hefty fine if you don’t. The uproar in the entire area at the delay had been so awful they’d actually sent in the civil service patrol to quell it. Worse, while the checks had been a month late it had taken six months to get rid of the CSP. I don’t know who made the bigger mess, the rioters and malcontents or the people sent in to stop them. That was the same year we had so much trouble with rustling and garden thieving, mostly done by people that had come from outside the area to stir things up even worse than they already were.

Drawing me back to the present Dino asked, “Is there anything else you need while we’re in town?”

I nodded. “The schedule for the harvest markets and rummage sales if they’ve got it made up yet.”

“Already picked a flyer up at the Seed and Feed. Hope you didn’t need it for note paper, all they are handing out now is little squares about the size of a post card. Next thing you know they’ll be printing them on the back of used postage stamps.”

I chuckled even though it wasn’t that funny. I can still remember when there were flyers all over the place for all sorts of things, so many in fact they were used as note paper by most folks. Lately paper and printing costs have skyrocketed. I guess cutting down on the size of what they were handing out was a way to stop the “waste” and cut costs. I still had about half a ream of paper leftover from when Harry, Hannah, and I had been in school (it was something Sol had sent out but I wasn’t telling Dino that) but I was sure happy to have my little blackboard for making temporary lists.

“Newspapers are getting thinner and the print is getting smaller too,” Dino observed.

“Seems like the serving of everything is getting smaller,” I added.

“Not where we’re going.”

“Huh?” He’d caught me off guard.

“You want to eat in a private room or out back on the verandah at Joe’s?” My mouth fell open in surprise and he laughed. “Do we need to wire that close? If it keeps falling open like that the hinges are going to wear out.”

I shut my mouth with a snap and he laughed some more. “I thought you were just talking big back there,” I whispered.

He whispered back like he was mocking me, “No, I wasn’t just fooling.” In a normal tone of voice he asked again, “Private room or verandah?”

“I … I don’t … know. I’ve … I’ve never … Doggone Dino, only people with money eat at restaurants. And … well … geez, it don’t sound to me like you pinch your pennies near as hard as you claim to.”

He sighed, “Stop making it sound like a death sentence. Joe’s an old friend of the family. I don’t stop in near as much as Alec and Cheryl do; they sell produce to Joe and his wife Laurie as a side business to the vineyard. It’s been a couple of months since I’ve been in and I just thought you would appreciate a day off from cooking every meal.”

I stopped him and pulled him out of the traffic on the sidewalk. “Dino … I … I don’t know what to say. I’m not scared or anything but … I don’t know … I mean … it’s been a long time since … well even when Daddy was alive we didn’t do it but a couple of times a year but still … I …” I looked around and then whispered up at him, “Am I even dressed proper to go in some place like that?”

He leaned back and looked down at me and asked, “You haven’t been out to a restaurant in a while?”

Not wanting to sound like a complete idiot I told him, “I remember the way things used to be but … but I don’t know if the way they used to be is the same way they are now. I don’t want to make a fool out of myself or be a shame to you.”

His face softened. “If Kerry is OK in Joe’s then you won’t have any trouble. I’ll let Joe suggest a table, he always gets it right.”

Joe’s was one of the few eateries left in town that catered to people who went to sit down and eat. There are a couple of places that are grab-n-go’s down by the Depot, there are produce carts that work the townie neighborhoods just off the center strip on the other side of town from the Depot, there is a lunch counter sort of thing out by the mill that caters to the rough single men that stay in barracks over there but the only two other places besides Joe’s that are what you would call real restaurants is the place that is attached to the Motel down by the highway that serves breakfast all day and this little hole in the wall that is only open to serve the railroad people and their military escorts.

Joe’s is in what was once a Victorian mansion that, before it became a bed and breakfast and then a full-fledged restaurant, used to be a vacation home of the son of some robber baron or other. In fact that house – or what used to be a house – is the only reason that the train tracks run by Newton. That man’s brother, a rival in all respects, built a similar home in Cherry Gap and that is why the tracks run by that town. The rivalry between the two brothers is also why Newton and Cherry Gap seem so similar; one couldn’t have something without the other replicating it and vice versa. Just goes to show you that it doesn’t matter what historical era you are studying on, people can be just passing strange.

We turned a block off of the main drag and then walked up the steps of this place with huge, white pillars holding up a roof that looked too big to have been constructed so long ago. In no time at all we were in – didn’t even have to wait in the short line of people that had already been waiting – and seated at this table that seemed to give us a view of the whole room while also giving us a little breeze from the open windows.

Dino smiled broadly and stood up to greet a huge man that came of the kitchen. They pounded each other on the back the way men do in greeting … Lord knows they wouldn’t dare call it a plain ol’ hug. The big man was a little older than Alec and his voice was booming and loud. “Dino! It’s been a long time!”

Dino smiled, “The farm and raising Kerry has kept me busy.”

“So Alec has told me. And Adona … she certainly surprised me with the fact that you’ve got someone helping you these days.” He turned what I felt was an intimidating gaze on me and said, “It takes a lot to impress Adona and apparently you have young lady. She says that you’ve already got the garden, orchards, and even Master Kerry here well in hand.”

Not knowing how to take this man I just looked at Dino before saying, “That’s kind of her but I’ve had a good bit of help.”

“And modest too … look at her blush.” And boy was I. I don’t know what was worse, having this big man talk about me loud enough to be heard in the next town over or have every eye in the place rolling in our direction. “I hear you preferred to be called Riss so … Miss Riss, what would you care to try today?”

In a panic I looked at Dino. He asked, “What’s today’s special?”

“Oh, can’t go wrong there my friend. Chicken stuffed with Dirty Rice, Grilled Vegetables topped with feta cheese, your choice of side salad or wilted greens, and for dessert your choice of one of Laurie’s pastries.”

Dino grinned, “We’ll take two of those and for Kerry just have Laurie plate up whatever she is doing for the children’s menu.”

Kerry asked me, “Do I get a pastry too?”

I looked at Dino and he said, “It depends on whether you clean your plate.”

I nearly laughed at how fast the boy unrolled his cutlery and tucked his napkin in. Joe left and Dino turned to me and asked, “Is water OK?”

“That’s perfect. And Dino … um … thank you. I’ve never done anything like this.”

“Never?”

“Uh uh. The closest thing to this that I can remember is that time that some officer invited Daddy and us to some big to do at the Columbia Restaurant. I guess … yeah … that was the year I turned nine because for my birthday Momma made a Tres Leche cake like the piece I had had that night. I remember thinking that it was exotic or something equally silly and feeling that I was the luckiest kid because my dad had gotten back a little early from some training or other down in Central America.”

Interested he asked, “Did your family move around a lot? Did you like it?”

“Not as much as some,” I shrugged. “I don’t have a lot to compare it to. I was eleven when … well, when things changed. It’s always just been ‘before’ and ‘after’ in my memories and that’s just the way it is. Why? Did you move around a lot?”

“Oh yeah, at least once a year until I was a Junior in high school.”

“That must have been hard,” I said.

“No, not really; it was mostly overseas moving from one appointment to another. Because of my dad’s job I knew most of the kids of the US ambassadors over in Europe by first name. In fact I still kept up with some of them until … well, until everything went back to snail mail. Truth be told it was one of them recognizing my name on a hospital roster that got me out of the hell hole where I was stuck after I got blown up and into a villa out in the countryside where I could recuperate enough to return stateside without destroying my health.”

“You’ve led an exciting life,” I told him a little awed at all he had experienced.

He sighed, “Trust me, I’d give up the exciting part to have back the people that have been killed and the peace we’ve lost in this country.” I was quiet after he said that. He got the wrong idea and said, “Sorry, didn’t mean to bring our good time down.”

“Huh? Oh no, you didn’t. I was just thinking.”

“About what?” he wanted to know.

“Well … don’t laugh … but the world is so much bigger for you than it ever was for me. Just …”

“Just what?”

“Just makes me wonder, as nice as you are, if you aren’t going to wake up one day and realize that I bore you to death.”

“Miss Riss,” he smiled, putting a hand over mind. “You are a lot of things but boring is not one of them.”

I smiled ‘cause he wanted me to but I wasn’t sure he’d understood what I was trying to say. See I know just enough to know that I don’t … know much I mean. The world used to be all right there at my finger tips with my computer. The city I lived in was full of people from around the world and they gave where I lived a flavor like no other. But that all slammed shut away from me the day my daddy died. After we got to the farm I didn’t budge from there for years. When I’d gone to the city to be with Sol, that’s the furthest I had travelled since the day the camper had been parked and put up on blocks. And where had I run when that didn’t pan out? Right back here.

What did I know that could keep a grown man, a man that had experienced a lot of the whole world, interested? Would I eventually bore him? And if he grew bored could I blame him from looking for something to excite him again? I couldn’t even keep a boy like Sol from looking for something more, what on earth did I have that a man like Dino could possibly want long term?

I couldn’t keep my thoughts from showing on my face and Dino was about to say something but the food arrived and I’ll admit that the food did what a good cook hopes for and it put me in a better frame of mind. The “dirty rice” was a pilaf made with chicken gizzards and it was stuffed inside a piece of chicken that had been pounded flat and then rolled up. I’d never tasted anything like it and would have stopped to try and work out the seasonings if my tongue didn’t also want to taste the grilled vegetables and the wilted wild greens salad that came with it. And if that wasn’t enough after we’d all cleaned out plates, including Kerry, got to eat pastries unlike any I had ever had. When it came down to choosing we all ate something called fresh Touloubakia. They were little fried pieces of dough that had been dipped in syrup.

Coming back to the table Joe boomed at Dino, “Hah! I’ll have to tell your aunt that you’ve picked a girl that likes Greek food.”

Surprised I asked, “This was Greek food?”

Joe smiled and said, “Indeed it is. My Laurie – I’d introduce you but she’s in the middle of making phyllo dough and can’t leave it – got all the recipes from Dino’s grandmother and his Aunt Adona.”

“Well, I’ll be honest. I don’t care where it came from but it sure was delicious.”

That made Joe laugh real big and in no time we were out the door and heading back to the wagon. I was full as a tick and looking at Kerry I could tell he’d fall asleep on the way back to the farm.

“You can bet Aunt Adona is going to get a full report from Joe and Laurie.”

That froze me up right there. “What? Oh no … did … did I do something wrong?”
 
Chapter 15 - 2

Dino laughed, “No. Just the opposite. Joe can’t stand it when people leave food on their plate and you wouldn’t even let a piece of rice escape; and Kerry never made a single fuss while he was in there.”

“Kerry rarely makes a fuss,” I said confused.

“Not anymore he doesn’t. He used to be one great big fuss … they came one right after another without pause so you couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began.”

“Dino!”

“I’m not kidding Riss. You just don’t know what a difference you’ve made because you don’t know what it was like before … him or the house. I was at my wits end.”

Dino picked Kerry up again to cross the road and by the time we’d gotten to the other side he was asleep in his father’s arm. We laid him down in the back in a nest of hay – I would have stayed in the back with him but Dino wanted me to sit on the wagon sit with him – and then got back on the rutted path that would take us to the farm in the shortest time possible.

Once we got out of town traffic Dino asked, “You got any particular project you want to tackle next?”

“My biggest need after doing some laundry is to bring up as many empty jars as I can fit in the kitchen and start getting them washed. I’m going to need every one of those jars starting next week when the garden really starts coming in. While I’m doing that I also need to organize down there or I swear I’m … uh …”

“Gonna break your neck?”

“Well … you said it, not me,” I admitted, grinning sheepishly.

He laughed, “It’s all right. I feel the same way. I’ve basically just made a path between the stairs and the stuff I need to get to but I’ve got a permanent bruise on one of a knees and my elbow stopped thinking it was funny a long time ago.”

“Is there a room where I can move stuff until I can get to a point I can put it back down in the basement in some organized fashion?” I asked, remembering how my grandparents had to go through everything in their house to make room for all the extra people.

Then a thought struck me. “Uh … does this house have an attic too?”

“Yep,” he said.

“Is it … is it as full as the basement is?”

“Yep … maybe worse.”

All I could say was a breathy, “Oh my.”

“Yep,” he said for the third time.

Then we looked at each other and started laughing for no reason. “Riss, maybe I should have warned you about the size of the job ahead of you but … I didn’t want to run you off like the others.”

I rolled my eyes, “A little work did not run off those other women, they just didn’t suit you.”

“I am sitting here telling you that more than one of them thought I was out of my mind to want them to organize all of that stuff. One even suggested I simply have a bonfire of everything in the house including the old furnishings and then order all new from the city.”

I looked to see if he was fooling and he wasn’t. “Exactly where did you order these women in from? The How-to-Run-Off-a-Man catalogue? I’ve never heard of such foolishness.”

“That’s because,” he said. “You don’t remember what it was like to be a city girl. You have to remember, things might be tight and they might be scarce, but in the cities you still have stores, convenience markets, and twenty-four-hour entertainment opportunities. For the most part there is still the illusion of prosperity if not the reality to go with it. People get used to a way of life and most of them don’t … or won’t … learn to live any other way; it’s threatening to them.”

I shook my head. “Threatening is worrying if there’s going to be a flyover and bomb drop. Threatening is living with the possibility of terrorist attacks at any time. Threatening is worrying if the water is going to keep flowing from the taps and the delivery trucks are going to keep bringing food in from the country so the less than desirable populations don’t come unglued and start burning and pillaging.”

“I agree. I don’t think I would deal with being forced to raise Kerry in that kind of environment very well though some seem to handle it just fine. I had one woman, believe it or not, that was worried about all the rabid bears we had out in the country.”

“Rabid … rabid bears?!” I laughed. “I mean, not that I’d ever want to meet one for goodness sake but what does she think, they hide under all the toadstools waiting for a city girl to come tra-la-laing along so they can eat her?”

He chuckled, “I have no idea. I wound up taking that one back to the train depot the same day she came when she found out we had spiders down in the basement.”

“You have had some bad luck I reckon,” I said shaking my head. “Why did you keep looking for a city girl if they all turned out to be like that?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know. Aunt Adona kept asking me the same thing. I just couldn’t see myself with any of the women from around here.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t laughing any more.

“Now don’t take that wrong.” I wasn’t taking it wrong but I was back to thinking about what I’d been thinking about in Joe’s.

“I guess … I mean I guess someone with your experience and all … there’s not much to talk about to … uh … a girl from the country.”

He opened his mouth to deny it then he closed it and said, “I’ll admit I used to think that way. But I don’t any more. Riss, look at me.”

“I am listening to you.”

“I didn’t say listen to me I said look at me,” he demanded.

To appease him I looked up at him from the side and he said, “We’ll have enough to talk about that you’ll get tired of hearing my voice.”

I sighed, not willing to lie. “What do we have? Kerry? I already love that little rascal but one of these days he’s gonna grow up and leave your nest. The house? You can’t tell me that what scrubbing, cooking, or washing I do in a day is going to be all that stimulating a conversation for you.”

“Riss …”

“Seriously Dino, that’s all I know. I never got an opportunity for anything other than a basic government education. I was smart enough before we moved to the farm to be in all advanced classes in my virtual school but when I got to the farm there was just no … no scope for me to do anything more. You know the kind of books my grandparents had besides the Bible? Field & Stream magazine, Tractor manuals, the Farmer’s Almanac, and old Daily Bread devotionals.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” he told me.

“I know there’s not, I surely didn’t mind it after I got used to it. I didn’t exactly have a lot of free time to read anyway. But don’t you think, with all your life experience, you need someone that is going to be able to talk to you about … about stuff?”

He was quiet. “We can work it out Riss.”

“We can’t change who and what I am. This dat blamed war has already lost me so many people, things, and opportunities that I can never get back even if it was to end tomorrow. Is that really the kind of baggage you want to drag around for the rest of your life?!”

All of a sudden Dino stopped the horses and turned to me, “There is nothing … nothing … wrong with who you are Damaris. I am not Sol. I don’t know why he did what he did but I never was one of those guys that needed to go looking for a new flavor ever couple of weeks. I’m just fine if we don’t light sparks off each other every minute of every day. I had that with Tammy and I can tell you I got tired of being burned every time I turned around. I want someone stable; someone I can depend on, someone that understands what has to be done to make things last and how to make do when something doesn’t.”

He was breathing heavy and I was getting just a little scared … not of him but of me, of my feelings. He must have seen it in my face because I watched him fight for calm. “Riss, I promised I wouldn’t push but with Harry gone from the house you are going to have to help me here. You talk like you’re thinking about our proposition being made permanent then when I answer your concerns you get scared.”

I told him quietly, “It’s not you I’m scared of.”

“Then who … oh.” He stopped and took my hand which didn’t stop my shaking any at all. “Damaris, I can help you there a little.”

“How?” I asked finally looking him square in the face.

“We go slow. As slow as it takes.”

I swallowed and you could hear the tick in my throat. “You … you promise? I mean I know you said it before but I’m not sure I knew what it would mean back then. I … I don’t guess I can exactly say I don’t know what happens but … “

“I promise … as slow as it takes.”

I took a deep breath and blew it out slow. “I’m gonna believe you Dino Pappas. Just for the love of all … if you ever think that you’ve changed your mind, you let me know before you go and do something about it. Please?”

He shook his head. “I’m not going to change my mind Damaris Keehn,” he said teasing me a bit to try and lighten the mood. “And I promise we’ll move as slow as it takes. But come the end of the grape harvest I’m gonna ask you if you are any closer to finalizing your decision and I would like an answer then.”

Still unsure but trying to tease him back a bit I said, “That sounds like a threat almost.”

“Nope,” he denied. “It’s a promise.”
 

Chapter 16 - 1​


This past month has been a real learning experience for me. I was a little scared going into it, wondering if I would be up for the challenge, it but I’ve come out the other side a stronger person I think; certainly I’ve got more confidence that my decisions usually turn out to be pretty good though my patience is only as good as the amount of sleep I get each night.

Haven’t had any major mishaps though no one is perfect of course; like that off day I had that seemed nothing I put in the oven would come out any other way but rurnt and burnt. I finally handed a quart jar of soup to Dino and just walked away where I couldn’t hurt myself or anyone else.

And one laundry day I forgot to check Kerry’s pockets and I boiled a frog in the wash pot along with everything else I had in there. I was jobbing the laundry paddle up and down and stirring briskly until I noticed there were bits of something coming to the surface that didn’t have any business being in there. That was so disgusting I had to get Dino to help me undo the mess. I was gagging and heaving and all he could do was laugh; I nearly tossed him in the wash pot to boil. Now I check pockets like religion; and double and triple check ‘em if I’m feeling nervous. So far I’ve found I can’t tell you how many rocks and old arrowhead, flower heads, half eaten snacks and on one very memorable occasion a corn snake that I probably sent into paralytic shock when I threw it across the yard.

Life isn’t that interesting every day thank goodness. I don’t mind the boring days and wouldn’t mind a few more of them as I tend to get more done on days like that. The attic and the basement are both spic and span but that’s only because everything from those two locations is spread out over three of the downstairs rooms and two of the spare rooms upstairs. Poor ol’ Tom the cat isn’t happy at all that his domain is being disturbed. I have to keep my bedroom door shut at all times now or he goes in there and scratches at the wicker chair; he’s already shredded the tail end of one of the shirts I sleep in letting me know he knows that I’m the culprit in all of this disturbance. Opened the door of my room one morning to find a hairball at my feet too. Nope, his highness is definitely not pleased with me; but like my great grandmother always said he can get glad just as fast as he got mad or he can go live outside with the rest of the animals if I don’t bob his tail first. The reason why the attic and basement aren’t finished is because I’m only able to work on ‘em in between everything else, or on rainy days which haven’t come often enough this year. Usually I have no excuse and have to do my best to keep up with my to do list before it runs away on me.

First of July I thinned a bunch of little green apples and made up a bunch of homemade pectin. I’ll make more as the other, later ripening varieties of apples continue to set their fruit. What you do is take small green, immature apples and clean them and cut off any bad spots. Then you slice them real thin. I use my mother’s mandolin slicer but you can do it by hand, it just takes longer. For every pound of apples you put in two cups of water and boil the contents for fifteen minutes. Pour off the “juice” into a bowl (don’t squeeze the pulp at this point) and then do it again … two cups of water per pound of apples. After the second boil you can squeeze the pulp free of all juice after it has cooled. Each pound of apples can be boiled twice. From a batch of four pounds of apples I can fill pert near a baker’s dozen jelly jars after I give the pulp a final squeeze at the very end.

To save this homemade liquid pectin you pour it boiling hot into prepared jelly jars and then seal it just like you would anything else. My rule of thumb is about one cup of homemade pectin to three pounds of low pectin fruit. You don’t really need as much for fruit already high in pectin like plums and gooseberries but I stick with the one cup anyway in case my pectin is a little weak. If I’m using a really low pectin fruit like strawberries, rhubarb, or pears then I might put in a little more just to be on the safe side and then adjust from there if what I’m making still won’t jell. And I sure was glad to have that new pectin to replace what I’d been using. I’ve had to make another big batch since I made the first one and this time rather than going to all of the trouble of sealing it I’ve got it in containers in the ice room. I wouldn’t say it gets much below freezing in there but at least it is cold enough to keep things from spoiling for a while. I got the old ice chest all cleaned up and had Dino and Ajax cart it down into the basement. I may have them cart it back up again – though I ain’t telling them that right now – if I can figure out a way to keep it in the kitchen without it being something that I’m going to wrap my little toe on every time I pass by. Them stairs down to the basement seem to add a riser or two every little bit, especially when I’m tired.

As for what I’ve been harvesting, I’ve got apples coming out of my ears and will continue to have apples of one variety or another until October when the last of the Granny Smith come in. Right now it is all early season apples like Gold Rush and Yellow Delicious. For canning I’ve pickled a fair share, dried a bunch more, and made enough apple leather that not even Kerry could eat it all. I made a batch of glace’ apples though I don’t like how these softer, early apples turned out. I’ll probably wait for the later, firmer apples to ripen before I try that again. I’ve canned apple rings, apple pie filling, apple maple jam, apple syrup (plain and spiced), apple-blueberry conserve, apple preserves, apple and raising marmalade, and apple jelly. I’m working on a year’s supply of applesauce and apple butter which will help with my baking when I get around to having more time to do some. I’ve canned batches of apple chutney, apple-green tomato chutney, apple-ginger chutney and apple catsup. I made apple cordial that I lined up with the other cordials and liqueurs inventory down in the basement. And Dino and Alec have made so many variations and combinations of apple wine I can’t keep up with them all.

As for what else I do with apples, if it looks like apple might go with it I’ve been adding it. It’s amazing what you can hide shredded apple in … including meatloaf. Cheryl taught me that trick but I didn’t tell Dino or Kerry as they were getting suspicious that they’d find vegetables in things you wouldn’t normally find vegetables in and fruit in dishes you wouldn’t normally find fruit; unfortunately, it’s a hard habit to break and one Mrs. Bly started because Mr. Bly was strictly a meat and potatoes kind of guy … which would have been ok if they could have actually afforded the meat and potatoes he preferred.

According to Aunt Adona – who as I predicted did finally make it over to check up on me – the Apricots that have come in aren’t as nice as the ones last year were. I’ll have to take her word for it. I’d never had anything to do with apricots except dried ones so I had to dig for canning recipes to put them up with. I pickled them, canned them plain, turned them into chutneys and butters, preserves, jam, and conserves. I dried them whole, as leathers, and glace’. I’ve got bottles of apricot nectar since Kerry seems to think it is the drink of kings and sometimes doesn’t want anything else. And just like with everything else on this farm it seems, we made liqueurs, cordials, and wine out of the fruit.

I tell you I’m just about fruited out already and the season has only just begun in earnest. In addition to the apples and apricots I’ve preserved blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, plums, and raspberries. I finished off the last of the cherries, nectarines, and peaches though a stray few here and there are still hanging on the trees trying to ripen. Anyway something can be canned I’ve done it. If it can be dried I’ve done that too. And if it can be made into something that can make you tipsy you can bet somebody in the Pappas family is gonna put some back to try and sell for a profit to some crazy fool. Now technically Alec and his family’s surname is Nichols but just like with the Davidson/Keehn thing I grew up with, they all answer to Pappas too out of habit.

Been having a pile of beans and peas come in too; so many in fact that I wondered at the logic of planting so many until Dino told me that the boys he hired to help him plant this year just planted until they were out of seed rather than by the row count he had given them to use. My head feels like it is going to fall off when I wonder what I’m going to do with all them beans that are eventually going to be ready. As it is, if I catch anyone sitting in one spot for more than a few seconds I put a bowl of beans in their lap to either shell or snap. I was doing it myself but the tip ends of my fingers finally dried out so bad they started splitting open and bleeding. When Dino found out he was so upset he wouldn’t talk to me from dinner to supper that day. When he came in from the fields he sat me down, cleaned my hands and put this stuff he called bag balm on them himself.

“Damaris,” he began. I could see he was caught between being mad and upset so I tried to tell him thank you and not to take on so but that only set him off more.

“Dang it woman! If I ever see you hurting like that again … and … and … well, you won’t like what I’m thinking about. I mean it Damaris.”

He only ever calls me Damaris when he is trying to make a point and I guess I got his this time. My fingers being split open did get in the way and slow me down and though that isn’t what he meant precisely I still understand that there is no sense in letting something get away from you when a little care beforehand will make life a whole lot easier in the long run. Besides, my heart ached from thinking he was mad at me and it wasn’t until he come down the stairs for our nightly talk that it stopped hurting. He apologized for yelling and said that he shouldn’t have but I’m still gonna go out of my way to try and not make him do it again. I didn’t like it at all.

But now that my fingers tips are all cracked and nasty looking there isn’t anything I can do about it except to keep treating them to keep them from splitting open again. Not only are they cracked but they are stained red which makes them look worse. The red staining is from beets and I’m getting to be just about as tired of beets as I was of peaches last month. I asked Dino if there was any way that Alec’s family wanted them and he laughed and said no, that the boys that had planted the garden at this farm had made the same fool mistakes at Alec’s place which is where they’d already gotten the beets they used to make beet wine with. I finally started piecing bundles of them out to Chester and the other field hands that started coming to work the middle of the month and they were grateful for them. I also sent bundles of the things with the tops still on to market with Ajax and told him I didn’t care how much they brung so much as there weren’t any left over at the end of the day. Ajax, now that the baby is doing much better, has turned out to be a laugher like Dino and Alec. He nearly busted a gut when I told him that if he come home with any of them beets I was going to have a serious turn in health.

Cabbage flies got to some of the cabbage heads so the harvest weren’t so great on those but Dino put a floating cover on the late season cabbages so hopefully those won’t get so damaged. I did manage to can a healthy amount of canned chopped slaw which is nice but I’ll have to wait to make kraut with the other.

I told Dino if he ever had those planters back they weren’t setting foot in the garden without supervision ‘cause round about the time I thought I had a handle on the beets the cucumbers started being ready to pick … and pick … and pick … and pick. I’ve made enough pickles to put a pucker on the whole dat burn state. Ice water, relish, sweet chunk, bread and butter, mustard, sour, kosher dill, cucumber catsup … doggone I even started frying the things and serving them to the men as snacks to keep from having any spoil on the vine.

And as luck would have it they hardly planted any celery so I’m going to have to be sparing, especially after I let enough go to seed for next year. Carrots on the other hand were just about as bad as the cucumbers except the kuckleheads planted them on the side of the garden that is heavy clay with rocks mixed in. I swun I’ve never seen such deformed roots as what I’ve been pulling out of them rows. Some of ‘em look like they might be the offspring of some inbred family of space aliens. I accidentally said that last out loud in front of Kerry and when he asked his daddy that day at dinner what I meant the whole flaming table of men was laughing so hard they spit food across the table like they had no manners at all. Men, the least thing will get turned into something so funny they can’t breathe for laughing but when you actually try to make a joke it’ll fall flat as a flitter.

Cantaloupes are coming in nice but a little late. The shortage of precipitation early in the season looks like it’s gonna keep ‘em undersized despite getting normal rain the last couple of weeks. They aren’t as sweet as they’ve been in years past either but you can’t have everything perfect at the same time. They still made good cantaloupe preserve and cantaloupe pickles.

The summer and winter squash are coming in real good and that is something to be thankful for because Alec said the ones in their garden never even made it out of the ground for some reason. I split whatever I harvest each day and have it ready for him, Ajax, or one of the younger boys to take with them on their way home.

Corn and tomatoes are starting to come in too but mostly I’m using them all fresh. The only ones I’ve canned thus far are things made from green tomatoes. The latch on the kennel gate broke – Kerry wasn’t anywhere near it at the time – and the puppies got out and started wrestling and running around in the garden. You can imagine I near about had me a puppy fur coat for winter when I went out there and found three of the big tomato plants laid over with their main stalks cracked in half. Lucky for them though that I had planned on pulling some green tomatoes that very day and that they just chose which bushes for me.

Made some nice green tomato pickle, green tomato preserves, green tomato marmalade, and green tomato jam; it isn’t something I make a lot of but it is good as a change of pace when I want one. And wouldn’t you know it, Alec comes along and says, “Save me some of them green tomatoes Riss. Last wine making convention I went to someone made a green tomato wine and I’ve had the recipe squirreled away until I had time to try it. That day has come.”

Humph. I’m beginning to think that if something don’t move fast enough Alec and Dino will try and make wine out of it. I’ve never seen such a pair for experimenting. You think I’m kidding but I’m not. I’m almost sorry I cleared out the basement like I did ‘cause it has only given them more room to spread their experiments out in. Where I’m supposed to find the room to put everything back without jiggling their ever loving “fermentation vessels” and “air locks” I don’t know. And all of this here work doesn’t even begin to cover the fact that the grape harvest is in full swing.

Alec, being more experienced than Dino, is the one that takes the lead on picking the precise plants and rows that are to be harvested. He does it by taste and by using this gizmo called a refractometer. Oh my lands, Dino was right when he said that I’d get so full of information come the grape harvest that I’d be craving to turn it off. I get so much “education” thrown at me every day about making wine that if I get any more educated my head’s gonna explode. And from what I understand it is going to continue on this way through to the end of September. My poor brain cells are just plumb aching.

There isn’t any place to turn to get away from it. They’re talking about it at breakfast. As they cart the day’s chosen grape clusters back to the house they talk about it. Dinner is more of a gab fest on the grape. They continue all through the afternoon too. And even after the field hands have gone home Dino, Alec, and Ajax talk about it some more. Then after our supper is fixed I’ve got to listen to Dino recap the whole day all over again and tell me what they plan for the next day. Lord love ‘em but I wonder how they would feel if I talked to them like that about the potatoes I’m harvesting?

And could they make it any more complicated? They even pick grapes in certain order by the kind of wine they’re gonna make from it. Now you tell me why they’ll make all them other silly wines any ol’ time they want to yet have a special order for wine made from grapes. I’m telling you it doesn’t make a lick of sense to me.

Dino tries to lesson me but I find I’m asking the same questions over so often he’s got to wonder if I’m listening at all in the first place. “It’s not that hard Riss. You can recall the recipe for something you tasted once five years ago and never since yet you can’t seem to keep the grapes in order?”

“I told you, I do better with pictures … or in this case ingredients I taste. All you and Alec keep giving me are words and they just kinda flow in one of my ears and out the other.”

“Well here,” he said tossing me a notepad. “Why don’t you write it down this time and it might help. First comes the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for the sparkling wines. Next comes the grapes for the white wines which we’ll do the beginning of next month, then the grapes for the red wines since they needs to hang on the vine longer and those are usually picked mid-August to mid-September. The last grapes we pick are nearly raisins because of all the concentrated sugar in them and that’s what we make the sweet dessert wines out of which won’t happen until late September and the close of the harvest.”

“And Ajax said that the vineyard is best known for its red wines,” I said trying to show him that I was listening, at least some of the time.

“True as far as it goes but of those it is the cabernets and the merlot that we’ve won the most awards for.”
 
Chapter 16 - 2

All of this spinning around in my head just isn’t natural for the daughter of a family of teetotalers. What do I know about all of the liquor stuff? And oh … my … word. I did accidentally called wine “liquor” a couple of weeks ago and you would have thought I’d said something sacrilegious. I’ll never make that mistake again I can tell you that much. For a fact I’m not even sure I like wine. I took a sip just to please Dino and I got the worst case of acid indigestion, never mind that everything gives me indigestion these days it seems. I’ve been using the excuse that I’m pregnant to avoid having to taste any more.

Now, Aunt Adona did show me how to make beef burgundy and I liked that pretty well – it was a little rich but I reckon the alcohol all cooked out and only the sugars were left – but I never thought much of the fact that Dino had a small glass of wine every evening until recently. I wonder if he is going to expect me to join him after the baby is born? Think I’ll nurse as long as I can to avoid the subject until I make up my own mind.

And speaking of spending time with Dino in the evenings, he’s been as good as his word. We’ve been getting to know each other and getting comfortable. I can sit beside him on the settee on the porch without my skin feeling like it is going to crawl off now. I know that doesn’t sound very nice but I guess maybe Sol spoiled my trust so much that even sitting in Dino’s company was hard to do. We had been going for walks with Kerry just about every evening but that stopped when the grape harvest started, we’re both just too tired for it not to mention the mosquitoes are about as big as lightning bugs this time of year.

We’ve also been out in public a few times since we went to town. One of those times was Independence Day when the church had a big dinner on the grounds type thing. Some of the school children recited the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and a few other things. A couple of the older men gave speeches. We sang songs and in general had a good ol’ day. Kerry loved being able to run loose with the other little boys but my belly is getting in the way of me being able to keep up when they really get going. Not to mention the heat. It was either Steven or Chris that volunteered the two of them to act as babysitters so that I could sit down and cool off for a spell but whichever one it was the other went along with it without complaint.

The heat really was some kind of intense and I just could not get cooled off. That’s when Dino grabbed my hand and pulled me back up. “Dino, it’s too hot …”

“I can see that. Let’s go put our feet in the creek. They’ve rounded the kids up to feed them lemonade and watermelon so we’ll have it to ourselves for a bit.”

I laughed, “No wonder Chris and Steven didn’t mind watching Kerry.”

“They aren’t stupid boys,” he agreed with a laugh of his own. Then he got sweet serious. “Have I told you that you look pretty in that dress Miss Riss?”

I rolled my eyes and told him, “Only three times or more since we left the farm.” I don’t know how but I’d found the time to make a sleeveless summer dress that had room for me to grow in. I used the lightweight cotton and after I was finished I dyed it using goldenrod flowers. It was a nice shade of rich yellow and I’d also sewn on some buttons that were shaped like little sunflowers. The shoes I was wearing were just some simple deer hide sandals whose soles were made out of old tire treads. Before I could bend down Dino was untying the laces for me.

“You don’t have to do that,” I told him embarrassed to feel him touching my legs.

He waggled his eyebrows and said, “I know.” I could have thumped him but he was in the middle of shucking out of his boots, socks and rolling up his pants legs – and no I didn’t offer to help him – and when we stepped into that creek we just about melted. The water only came half way up the back of my calves at that point but it felt soooo good. It wasn’t too cold and it wasn’t bathwater warm, it was just right.

But the bottom of that creek was covered in about a million small pieces of granite that had probably washed there from the old rock quarry where the spring started from and I took a step and forgot I wasn’t wearing anything on the bottom of my feet.

“Ouch!” I’d stepped on a sharp piece of rose granite and if Dino hadn’t grabbed me I would have fallen into the creek.

“Careful,” he told me.

“Thanks. Uh … you can turn loose now. I won’t make that mistake again.”

He only grinned, “Don’t you think this might be a good time to move slow?”

I could feel my face go red. “We’re at the church! Anyone could see.”

“So, at least they’d know my intentions were honest. Besides, all I’m doing is holding you up.”

“That is not all you’re doing Dino Pappas and well you know it. I’m no fool and you keep them hands still.”

Well, church grounds or not that was a plumb wicked chuckle he gave in response to my demands … but he did settle down. He didn’t turn loose but he did settle down.

We stood that way, just letting the water rush around us, and gradually I relaxed and just kinda leaned back into his embrace. I figured it wasn’t like he was gonna do nothing anyway.

“Feel better?” he asked.

“Uh huh,” I answered slowly, just on this side of drowsy.

“Mind me holding you?”

“Uh uh,” I said just as slowly.

Of course if there is a fly buzzing around it’s gonna find my soup to fall into. “Well, isn’t this just perfect?” a nasty voice said. “Everyone is wondering where you two hid yourselves and I guess now we know.”

Well that put a period to me being relaxed but Dino wasn’t turning loose. “You know Cindy,” he said slow and lazily. “A smart person would have learned her lesson last time. And as you must not be smart you’d think that you’d at least have some feelings for your father when he has to take on the consequences for you running your mouth. Besides, I see you’ve got two boys following your scent around. Guess maybe you’re a pot trying to find a kettle to call black.”

Oh she stiffened up at that all right and so did the two young bucks with her. But as soon as they tried to bow up Dino told them, “That is not a good idea boys. I’m relaxed right now but if you make me get out of this water before I’m ready to then I’m not gonna be relaxed. Not only am I not going to be relaxed I’m gonna be feeling mean and hostile.”

“Dino,” I hissed at him.

“Hush Riss. We aren’t doing anything wrong and Brother Calvert’s been watching us from the belfry the whole time. If Cindy wants to pitch a fit I guess maybe Brother Calvert might be able to say something about what she’s been up to before she came this way.”

I noticed Cindy got pale right before stomping off. I looked at Dino over my shoulder the best he would let me since he still wasn’t turning me loose and asked, “What did you mean? About Brother Calvert being able to see us and being able to see what she’s been up to too?”

“I told you I wasn’t going to let people talk and that includes making a spectacle of you that would cause them to talk. I picked this spot in the creek because it is as good as having a half dozen chaperones keeping an eye on us. Brother Calvert is up in the belfry. Your friend Mrs. Heflin has been peeking at us from the back of the sanctuary every few minutes. Ol’ Red Marley is parked under that sassafras tree with his hat pulled down … but not pulled down so far that he can’t people watch. There’s others that have been going back and forth as well.”

Pleased but kinda scandalized at the same time, “And you’re hugging me like this?!”

“Stop squawking,” he chuffed down towards my ear. “A man’s got to get the pleasures he can where he can when he is trying to prove something to the lady he is after.”

Well cool water or not it felt like I was blushing clear from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head. Ignoring his last statement I asked, “And exactly what did you mean by implying that Cindy had been up to something she ought not have been?”

Finally convinced he wasn’t going to get any more peace he helped me out of the water and up the creek bank where we could sit and dry out legs off. “Haven’t you ever noticed that the people that protest the most tend to have the most to hide?”

“I … I suppose so. But Cindy isn’t like that.”

“Cindy isn’t like that that you know. She isn’t an angel apparently as she turned awful guilty when I just went after her with a guess.”

I turned and put my hands on my hips. “Dino, and what if you’re wrong? What an awful thing to have said to her.”

“Not as bad as all the things she’s been saying about you.”

I shook my head suddenly depressed, “The problem with your logic is there is reason to think I deserve what she’s been saying.”

I felt a sharp yank on one of my errant curls which was a tactic he was too fond of using when he wanted my attention. “And I’ve got reason to think that she isn’t as sweet and innocent as she likes to pretend she is.”

Two seconds later I was untangling my curl from his fingers and demanding, “Exactly what do you mean that you’ve got reason to think?”

“Jealous?” he asked interested.

“Should I be?” I asked suddenly unsure.

He bent down and taped me on the tip of my nose playfully and said, “Nope, not on my part. Just because she tried to apply for the position I was advertising doesn’t mean I was buying her wares.”

Thoroughly outraged at the way he put it pushed his hands away that were trying to help me with my sandals. He only laughed and fixed them right anyway and then led me back to where we’d spread the picnic blanket. I didn’t have much time to think about what he’d said the rest of the day as Kerry gradually got overexcited – so did every other kid there so it isn’t like he stood out – and it took more and more of my attention to steer him clear of trouble. And even when I did have time to think on it I decided it wasn’t any of my business what happened between Dino and some female or other before I came along except as it pertained to being able to care for Kerry now. I had no intention of turning into a jealous cat especially as I was still trying to figure out which way I was going to jump.

On the other hand, spending time in close contact with Dino has become a regular occurrence and I have to admit, I don’t find it disturbing at all. I also don’t worry about being fickle because I’m thinking that maybe Sol had more to do with the trouble I got into than I was giving him credit for. If he did have enough experience to lead me on – not that I should have been as easy to lead as I was – maybe what I felt wasn’t nothing but an illusion that he encouraged me to create. It doesn’t take away my responsibility any for the choices I made but I don’t think I have to feel so guilty about the fact that the feelings I thought I had for Sol evaporated almost overnight.

I think I very well just might be able to give Dino that answer he’s looking for by the time the grape harvest is over with. My worry is that I’m gonna be so far along by that time that maybe he won’t be drawn to me in that way. I’m already starting to look like a bouncy ball with legs, can’t imagine what I’m going to look like in two months.
 

Chapter 17 - 1​


Well, if I thought July was a load of work, August has near about turned me inside out. And to make matters work Kerry has had one of them lingering summer colds and it is my fault for letting him go stomping through puddles during a rainstorm.

Just it had been raining for two and a half days straight and we were all climbing the walls. I had an awful headache because Chester smokes these home-rolled cigarettes with this tobacco that kinda has this strange fruity smell to it – I think he soaks it in something and then dries it out again. He’s taken to doing his smoking on the porch right where the smoke rolls into the kitchen. I hate to complain because these days men have so few pleasures and that’s the only vice that Chester has so far as I know. And he’s a really nice man and brings his young sons to help me every few days. I know Dino explained that Chester’s wife is a witch on wheels and that he regularly tells him that he’s lucky I’m the friendly and biddable sort (which makes Dino chuckle as you can imagine), but them cigarettes are just plain awful and that day in particular he seemed to be smoking them chain fashion one right after another.

“Kerry Pappas if you stomp up or down those stairs one more time …”

“I’m bored,” he whined.

Giving him a warning shot I asked, “What did I tell you about saying that?”

“I don’t care if you do give me chores to do,” he sassed. “It’s better than being stuck inside. I wanna see the puppies. I wanna go feed the chickens. I wanna do something!”

I’d had about all I could take. “Out!”

“Huh?” he said all confused. “It’s raining.”

“Yes and by the looks of things gonna continue raining for a while,” I agreed. “Go puddle jumping. Do something to work them wiggles out before you ‘wanna’ me into an early grave.” I know I was snappish but I really had reached my limit.

Well I didn’t need to tell him twice and he goes flying out of the screen door letting it slam behind him. I stepped onto the porch to make sure he wasn’t getting in the middle of men talk and Dino looked at his son who was already half filthy and then looked at me. Rather sharp I said, “I don’t care if he gets covered in mud from head to toe. I just need him to stop whining for a bit or I’m gonna crack.”

The men gave me a bit of space after that and Chester took his cigarettes with him. It was a blessed relief to only have to deal with the sound of Kerry’s puddle jumping, the rain, and the pots boiling on the stove as I caught up on some of the canning while I also took time to continue organizing the stuff from the basement and attic. I set a bucket of water to heat and then I called the Squirt in after thirty minutes and gave him a hot bath and a thorough scrubbing; he was a mud puppy clean through every layer of clothing he had on. I should have been suspicious when he was so willing to take a nap after that but I just was thankful that he had settled down for a while. By the next day he had started with the sniffles and he’s had them off and on for a couple of weeks now.

I’ve been having him drink child sized portions of purple flower tea, otherwise known by its fancy name of echinacea, and a few other things like garlic broth, but all that is doing is keeping it from getting worse. I feel so bad for the little fella as his nose is red and irritated from being wiped so much. It finally seems like he is getting a little better but I’ll be purely happy (and guilt free) when this cold, or whatever it is, goes away completely.

Dino had the same stuffed head and runny nose for a couple of days and he was a miserable old cuss to be around. When he started feeling better he brought me some wild flowers from the other side of the vineyard as a sorta apology. I smiled and took the bedraggled flowers and put them in a glass of water in the kitchen window so I could look at them … and had to shoo that cat away from them several times too. Nobody had ever given me flowers before – unless you count the stray dandelion blossom the little boys used to present me with – and I pulled some out of the bouquet once they started wilting and looking sad and pressed them between the pages of a fat, old dictionary I found in the attic stuff as I was organizing. Kerry wanted to know why I would do something weird like that when I could go get me some “unmushed flowers” out in the yard any time I wanted. Unfortunately, he did his asking in the middle of dinner when all the men were sitting there.

Chester’s son whispered to him, “Don’t ask. Women do strange things like that all the time and don’t like to be called on it.” He near about started a riot with all the hee-hawing that started up ‘cause of that comment. Me, I just about decided they could get their own dinner thank you very much.

I’ve learned a new word. Vinification. That’s just a fancy term for making wine. See, while harvesting the grapes is an important part of the whole process – and something that happens nearly every day – it isn’t the only part by a long shot. After the men bring in the harvested grapes they are taken to the winemaking shed. Shed is kinda the wrong word for this building as it is more like a super clean barn to me but they call it a shed so that’s what I call it too. Once the grapes are in there what comes next is determined by the type of wine that is being made.

The first stage is called the primary ferment. If you are making red wine you ferment the “must” or the pulp of the grapes you’ve harvested, including the seeds and skins. If you are making a white wine you only ferment the juice which has to be pressed and then strained. Of course they can’t leave it simple like that. There are Rose’ wines that might be made from red grapes that are treated like white wine grapes so all you’ve got is a kinda pinkish tone to the juice or it’s made by mixing white and red wines. It all has to do with something called tannins … the same sort of chemical that makes an oak leaf leave a brown stain on the porch if it doesn’t get swept off soon enough and the bitterness that you wash out of acorns by soaking to make them sweet.

The primary fermentation is started with some kind of yeast. They make this part complicated too. There are all sorts of yeasts … wine yeast, champagne yeast, and many others too including plain ol’ bread yeast for the more common wines. The juice and yeast or the “must” and yeast are then left to work for a week or two. At the end of the primary fermentation the white wine just goes on to its secondary fermentation but the red wine has to have all the must strained out of it before it goes that direction.

Most red wine goes into oak barrels or “casks” for its secondary fermentation. White wine goes into different containers. The length of this secondary fermentation is up to Alec and Dino’s discretion and has something to do with getting the wine smooth. At whatever point they decide it is smooth enough – whatever that means though I think it means that the less likely it is to make your eyes cross with a sip or two – they clarify it (a fancy way of saying settle it) and then filter and bottle it. Once it is bottled it is left to age which, contrary to what it does to people, helps to develop even more body and flavor.

Now if that was all there was to it that’d be enough but you know doggone good and well that with men involved they gotta take it a few more steps just because they can. For instance, with “sparkling wines,” the kinds with bubbles in it, a third fermentation happens after it’s been bottled. And for dessert wines sometimes you add stuff to the wine before you bottle it; for example, you add brandy to wine before you bottle it to make Port.

There are some good things about winemaking I suppose so I really shouldn’t complain. Besides the fact that it keeps the men busy and out of trouble, and brings in an income for the farm, the process creates a byproduct called pomace. Pomace is all the stuff leftover after the juice has been squeezed out. For instance, with apples you can take the pomace – what is left from juicing the apples or making cider – and can make a reasonable apple beer. Now see here that “beer” is not the alcoholic kind but just an old-fashioned kind of thing that even kids can drink. It’s kinda fizzy like soda water but it hasn’t gone far enough to really have any alcohol to it. Chester takes buckets of the grape pomace home with him and he uses it in his distillery and makes pomace brandy with it which is alcoholic. Matter of fact I guess you could call it a kind of moonshine that just uses the grapes rather than cane or corn. But that pomace gets used even more. When Chester is through with the pomace turned into “must” he brings it back and Dino feeds it to the hogs and also uses undistilled grape pomace as fertilizer in the gardens and vineyard, giving back to the ground what the grapes took out.

And along those lines I saw a bizarre thing the other day. It’s almost too silly to write but if I don’t put it down I might start thinking it was just all in my imagination. Well I was taking a jug of fresh switchel out to Dino when I was walking passed the hog lot and noticed the hogs were all acting strange. Seemed they couldn’t walk in a straight line and then some of them were all splayed out and staring at nothing with a peculiarly unpiglike look on their faces. Well I thought something was wrong with them so I go lickety split to get Dino and I start telling him and he runs over to check on them. I’m worried because the hogs provide us most of our tame meat and to lose any is costly. By the time me and my big fat belly catch up he is snickering. He sees me huffing and puffing and the snickering turns to chuckling. Ajax runs up thinking something is wrong and Dino points to the hogs and then Ajax starts chuckling and then starts strangling trying not to laugh. Pert soon I’m starting to get a little peeved not knowing what the joke is. Them hogs were making the oddest noises and just plan tweren’t acting right. Before long all the men are over there laughing their fool heads off.

Well I’d about had it and was getting my feelings hurt too. I turned to stomp on back to the house and Chester comes up and said, “Aw now Miss Riss, no one means any harm.”

“Humph,” I replied and kept walking.

“Now, don’t get mad at the boys. Them hawgs … they’re just drunk,” he said with a sheepish grin on his face.

I stopped dead in my tracks then turned to look at the hogs, at him, and then back at the hogs and said, “They’re what?”

“Drunk,” he said with a snicker that he tried to wipe off real quick with his bandana. “My brother had to dismantle his still last night when he heard some revenuers were looking for it. The must had just been set and he didn’t want to pollute the creek he uses by dumping it in there … nor lead the guv’mint men to anyone else that might use that creek for the same purposes. So we bucketed it up and brought it over here real quick before first light and give it to them hogs. They like it real fine, especially first thing in the morning.”

I have to admit even I had to laugh a bit at the sight those hogs made now that I wasn’t worried they were taken sick but all I told them was, “Just make sure them hogs stay pinned up where they’re supposed to. Last thing I need is to try and chase a drunken porker out of my pea patch.”

And speaking of my garden I guess the month of August could be titled the month of “More Of …”and “The Last Of …”. The things I harvested “more of” were apples, beans, beets, cabbage, cantaloupes, carrots, cucumbers, greens, peaches, peppers, potatoes, summer squash, corn, and tomatoes. The things I harvested “the last of” were apricots, blackberries, blueberries, celery, gooseberries, nectarines, peas, and raspberries. But just because I’ve seen the last of something from the orchard or the garden doesn’t mean it is gone from the menu; all them jars down in the basement will keep us in that stuff until the fresh season rolls back around … or at least that is the plan.

The first of the pears – both Asian and dessert – came in this month. I love pears more than I do peaches. The Asian pears have a crisp bite to them like apples do and the dessert pears are so soft and sweet once they’ve been allowed to ripen a bit in the root cellar that you’ll dribble spit down your chin after only a bite or two. I dried pears plain and candied. I made glace’ pears with the Asian pears because the dessert pears wouldn’t have held up in the process. I canned slices by the quart jar – plain, cinnamon, and mint. I made pear relish, pear honey, pear preserves, pear butter. I made pickled pears, brandied pears, pear chutney, gingered pears, and pear mincemeat. I made sheet after sheet of pear leather. And I suppose it goes without saying that we made liqueur, cordial, and wine out of some of them.
 
Chapter 17 - 2

The tomatoes and corn took up a lot of my time too. There hasn’t been a day go by that I haven’t done at least one batch of each in the canners. The acid from the tomatoes gets into the crack in my fingers and just burns like fire but not as bad as the pepper juice does. With the tomatoes I’ve pureed them, juiced them, made tomato sauce and tomato paste. I made tomato conserve, spicy and regular tomato butter, and untold varieties of tomato relish. Add to that tomato jam, tomato preserves, and a couple of special batches I made with yellow pear tomatoes from a recipe that Cheryl sent over, I always have a plate of fresh, sliced tomatoes at dinner and supper for any that want some. From a recipe Chester gave me I made red hot sauce and Dino had his own recipes for a couple of BBQ sauces he asked me to can for him. And of course I must have made what seemed like five gallons of salsa when I found out the men liked my mother’s old recipe so well.

Corn I mostly did whole kernel or cream style but I also put by some corn relish to take to church potlucks when I was asked to bring something for the relish trays. And when I found out that Dino liked hominy I took the time to do up some from the dried field corn he has put back in feed sacks and then canned it in pint jars.

Despite the dry winter and spring we had a decent crop of elderberries and currants but nothing I would brag about to anyone. Aunt Adona needed most of the elderberries for her “world famous” elderberry cordial and there was no way I was telling that particular lady no, but even after Chris and Steven pretty well scalped the harvest for her I was able to make a batch of jam, one of jelly, and a small batch of elderberry juice. Dino and Alec claimed most of the currants but I still dried about five pounds worth that I had to hide for my holiday baking, assuming I had the wherewithal after the baby was born.

Ajax came back from one of the market days with news that a big order had come in for Dino so the next day he took the wagon and went into town to pick it up and I was thrilled to find that he’d also stopped at the depot post office and there’d been a letter from Harry waiting for me.

Dear Riss,

Can’t say much about anything or they’ll do what they call redacting since letters have to be cleared before they go into the mail. Basically that is where they take a big black marker and cross out anything they don’t think is the business of the general public. I don’t like them making my decisions for me but I can understand it. I swear some of the city boys around here are as dumb as stumps and don’t know the first thing about keeping their mouth shut.

Tell Dino that his advice has been worth its weight in gold and then some. The only spot of trouble I’ve gotten into up to this point is when I accidentally showed up one of our lieutenants. We were having target practice and then they put them on swings and such to turn them in to moving targets. Well, my score was the highest in the squad and the lieutenant was some bent about it because he is used to having that honor. He came over to me and said I must have had some kind of special training, asked who my instructor had been, and blah blah blah. Of course I didn’t think and opened my trap and said, “Naw sir, my adopted sister started whipping me into shape when I was just a boy fresh from the city and she still shoots some better than me though she is a short scrawny little thing.” Well the laughter that caused chaffed him in his manly parts and my fingers are still all pruned up from scrubbing the latrines for a week. It would have been two but our Sergeant let me off early for good behavior … and ‘cause people have been buying him rounds to tell that story ever since. That particular LT isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite as you might have guessed.

Had a letter from Mom, won’t repeat most of what she said ‘cause it just irks me to think on it but she is concerned that you’ve been “left adrift with no one to fend for you.” Wanted to tell her the only one that did that was Sol but didn’t cause it would have meant explaining things and you asked me not to. I wish you would write to Mom and Hannah and tell them that you are well if just for my sake. I get tired of all the drama even though it’s just in a letter I can fold up and put away.

Only have a little space left on this card but just to let you know we’re supposed to ship out directly though I ain’t nowhere near important enough to know the exact date and destination. I will write again when I can but it may be some time. If my niece or nephew arrives before I have a chance to, tell ‘em hello from their Uncle and that I intend to see them before they’re all grown up.

Miss your cooking and good sense. Could use both more often these days.

Harry

I didn’t know whether to laugh at his antics or cry at how bad I missed him. I understood what he couldn’t say in a letter and I was sorry that I wouldn’t get a chance to write him back before he had to take off. I’d wondered why I hadn’t heard from him before now but Dino had warned me that during wartime communication, even with family, could be sparse to none. I don’t know how Mrs. Bly found out where he was at but suspect his Uncle Bill had something to do with it. I’m still undecided about whether to write that letter Harry asked me to or not; honestly don’t know if I want to waste the price of postage I’m still that irked with them.

Harry’s letter wasn’t the only news that Dino brought from town. There was a couple of broadsheets telling folks that the last election had finally been confirmed by Congress and that the Republican/Independent ticket won after all. I know it should matter to me but those people seem so far off, like silly tin gods on Mt. Olympus directing the lives of us mere humans whether it was good for us or not. And never having voted I just can’t seem to get excited about what is likely to be just more of the same under a different name.

Dino says you never know for sure until they start acting one way or another … or not at all … and that he’s willing to give this new crew a chance to get in and prove themselves. I don’t suppose we have much choice either way since they’ve already been inducted or whatever the heck it is when they take the oath of office. The outgoing president and his people are none too happy and tried to put the whole voting process on hold until they said otherwise but they couldn’t make that trick stick. Rioters got into the White House and only came out after they found out that no one was there, they were all hiding in some bunker someplace in case the world comes to an end.

The one thing that Dino is concerned about is that during the transition period the economy is going to wobble even more. It’s already weak on its pins so a wobble could very well topple it. Just to be on the safe side we’ve been building a list of supplies to order and he’s taking it to town first thing in the morning and he’s also gonna go to Cherry Gap and see if they’ve got anything in stock that Newton doesn’t.

“I don’t like to put so many miles on the horses when it is so hot but if I split the order between the two towns and only half comes in that is still better than putting the whole order in one place and have none of it come in.”

Now see there? That’s what I call planning ahead.
 

Chapter 18 - 1​


I’ve lived through a lot; maybe not as much as Dino, or some other men that have “seen the kraken” as it is called in this book I’m trying to read, but I’ve seen enough to know what hard times are. I guess I just hadn’t seen enough to know in my deepest heart of hearts that as bad as hard times get, they can always get harder.

Lately up is down. Down is up. And everything goes sideways no matter how hard you try to go forward. If not for Dino’s insistence on getting winter supplies in early there would be things that we likely wouldn’t be seeing after they ran out. Alec is now glad that Dino all but bullied him into doing it too. They’ve got more people to feed over there and while they’re some better off in many ways it is Dino’s horse sense and mulish tendencies that may just have saved the day or at least the winter season.

In the last week I’ve put down a dog, a pig, and a man and the only one of those three I have regrets over is the pig. Now how big a shame is that? And all because of three little words.

No more checks.

That’s the bottom line of what has made the seams come undone but that’s not where it started. Everyone is claiming it is the fault of them new politicians up in DC but Dino said that if everyone was really honest and a quarter as smart as they think they are that they’d know it started a long time before those folks took office … maybe even before most of us were born.

What folks need to pay attention to is that the checks haven’t just stopped here in the homeland. They’d done turned off the tap to the whole world before they got to doing it at home. First they stopped the outflow of the good stuff to the countries we were paying to not be our enemy. There was a fair portion of them and Congress said since we were already at war with about half of them anyway it didn’t make a lick of sense to pay for something we weren’t getting.

Next all them countries we were paying to be our friends … uh uh, they ain’t getting nothing no more either. That’s another one of them “logical decisions” that those critters up in DC should have made some time back. You can’t pay people to be your friend ‘cause friends you have to pay are more likely going to look the other way when someone tries to knife you in the back.

Then them places we were propping up stopped getting propped. No more making the payroll to keep people in office in countries that can’t afford to pay their own people. No more sending “aid and succor” to countries that can’t do their own aiding and succoring. It’s gonna mean a lot of them little propped up places fall – some of them already did, practically overnight – but seems the folks steering our ship no longer think feeding other people ahead of our own is a smart thing to do.

Truthfully about the only foreign country we’re still sharing financial resources with is Canada and that’s cause we share such a long border with ‘em. Shoot, they’re just about the only country we still do regular business with at all at this point. A couple of years back the politicians finally agreed to stopping paying our “financial obligations” to the countries we were at war with but to get that to pass we had to agree that we’d be putting the money in an account on the side to catch back up when we signed a peace treaty with them so it ain’t exactly like we were suddenly flush with money, the money just started flowing into a different pot. The other things that the politicians finally learned was that the world was a hungry place and compassion or not we shouldn’t sell our grain and such for a pittance to countries that were only going to feed their armies with it and continue making war on us. In our friend Canada, there’s just too many reasons not to do business with ‘em, and since it benefits both our countries to no end we keep it up. Don’t mean there ain’t the occasional squabble between us … like that time we found out Canada was reselling some of the grain we sold her to people that we didn’t care for too much or the time we revoked the travel visas of a bunch of Canadian citizens of a certain ethnicity. But we get through it each time and go back to being good buddies again.

When Congress and them new folks in the White House let it slip out that is what they planned on doing … and then miracle of miracles actually followed through and did it … most folks in this country were right happy. Didn’t matter if you were a hawk or a dove or what your political affiliation was they were all crowing “Cut the dead weight!” “Clean out the chaff!” “USA first, last, and only!” and lots of other words that looked good in the headlines. Well, at least they was happy until folks began to find out all the dead weight and chaff in this country was about to get their clock cleaned too.

When news of that tidbit got out there was disbelief at first. They said, “We’ve been doing it this way for generations. It will always be this way. Besides they know what’ll happen if they do it.” But when check time came and went and none showed up well it was like the country drew a deep breath, almost a gasp, right before the screaming and crying started. Oh my stars and garters, you would have thought they were being boiled alive for the pure pleasure of it. “Oh how could you do this to me? We paid into the system and you promised to give us a check! We are entitled!” Blobbity blobbity blah blah.

The one that irritated Dino the most was when people started saying it was the government’s way of getting rid of certain races of people or getting rid of people because of their age; that they were using their prejudice to weed out certain types of folks from the general population. “It doesn’t matter if you are old or if you are purple with pink po-ca-dots or speak Mandingo backwards as your first language, there is nothing in the Constitution that says that the rest of us are obligated to pay your way in life just because you’ve paid some taxes during it … and if you haven’t paid any taxes I sure as heck don’t feel like I should be forced to open my wallet to cover your lack of personal financial planning.”

I didn’t like to get Dino started up on politics because it got him wound up and when he gets wound up all sorts of things start coming out of his mouth and he’s not necessarily the type that cares who hears him. In fact, Alec has asked him to avoid going to town if he is going to be that way. “Cuz, I am not up to digging one more grave in the family plot and I sure don’t want to have to explain to your little boy and to Riss why you aren’t around to take care of them like you promised.” I’m not sure how I feel about being used to make such a point but if it keeps Dino’s head from catching on fire when he that gets mad then so be it.

As for me I’m not sure how I feel about all of that check/no check stuff never having been on either side of the issue. There’s an old proverb that goes something like give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach the man to fish and he can take care of himself. It ain’t a proverb you’ll find in the Bible but the Bible does talk a lot about personal responsibility and the consequences if you aren’t and about how only those that work should eat. I mean I feel bad that people who thought they could count on being taken care of are suddenly out in the cold and have to scramble fast and learn how to do it on their own. It reminds me of how the Bly family was when they first arrived at the Davidson farm. But I reckon if enough people are willing to teach, those that are willing to learn will make it. Dino calls me naive and innocent when I say things like that and it isn’t always the compliment you’d think it to be.

Oh I understand that there are people in this life who are just out to get what they can get at the expense of others’ hard work but that’s just people being people. That’s what teaches you to be discerning about the people you associate with. Granddaddy used to say “lay down with dogs and you’ll wake up with fleas” and that is a good piece of sense right there that should be more common than it is. One of my aunts was fond of saying “you’ll be known by the company you keep.” Well there’s lots of sense in that too. I had to learn the hard way though that dogs don’t always come dressed as what they are and that it’s a lot harder to judge your company when you want to believe the best of them.

No matter whether you believe stopping the checks had to be done based on financial reasons or based on moral decisions, the consequences of that action have come down to the same thing. People are just plain mad. Actually mad don’t come near to covering it. People are in a rage and that rage has been foaming to the top of the pot and spilling over and causing a mess; some like when something I’m canning gets too hot and makes a mess on the stove top, sometimes to clean it up I have to near about take a stick a dynamite to get the burnt gunk unstuck. But be that as it may the way things is being managed you can tell that someone has been fooling around with the idea for a while and been getting counsel and advice from folks that have more than spun sugar between their ears.

First off, getting most of the males between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine in one type of service or the other where they are indoctrinated – that’s what Dino calls it – to be sympathetic to the cause of those currently in control of the government has taken a lot of manpower away from the opposition. Second, rounding up all the malcontents and troublemakers that ain’t part of that group, including the ones between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, and getting them out of the cities and at hard labor wiped another good size batch of potential trouble makers off the playing board. Younger than thirteen and you can get thrown in a state run “group home for disturbed children” which is just a politically correct way of saying you’ll get sent to an orphanage with bars on the windows, locks on the doors and guards at the gate. Older than thirty and men start getting more sense and are less likely to pop a cork without some forethought first; they really aren’t looking to be cannon fodder for just any ol’ yahoo’s agenda.

While that takes care of most of the male population that still leaves a lot of girls and women to make noise and you got a few of those leading the pack but you’ve also got twice that many that no longer have the time for it ‘cause they are too busy figuring out how they are going to feed their children and keep them out of trouble … cause parents are now legally accountable for any and all mayhem their kids get up to and they are also gonna go to jail if their kids don’t get to school on time and refuse to learn and “progress according to their age and grade.” One night on the radio I heard one woman boo-hooing that it was just too unfair to make her responsible for doing all of the work of feeding her kids, keeping them off the street and out of trouble, and for getting them up and out the door on time; she paid taxes for services and anything else was pure slavery and sexual discrimination.

Feeling snarky I muttered “can’t do the time then don’t do the crime.” Dino thought that was funny until he took noticed I was looking at my own belly and feeling the pinch of unexpected responsibility.

“Riss?”

I looked up and caught him watching and knew it was important to say it right. “I’m not resentful. It isn’t the baby’s fault I played the fool and lost. It’s just hard you know? I’m not sure I was finished growing up and now I’m having to be the grown up whether I’m ready for it or not.”

He winced, still a little sensitive about my age but manfully said, “From where I sit you’re doing a good job. And if all you are doing with Kerry is practicing then you must be some kind of prodigy.”

I shook my head at his attempt to flatter me into being less pensive. “I’m not practicing on Kerry. He’s an easy boy to love and I reckon I’ve found where I’m supposed to be between him and you. But I don’t know where I’d be if Harry hadn’t talked me around to hearing you out and that’s kinda scary to think about.”

“Then don’t think about it. You are here and this is where you are going to stay.”
 
Chapter 18 - 2

Reckon it is pretty obvious that he’s taking for granted that I’ll say yes to his proposal come the time he asks it. And I reckon it is pretty obvious that I’m letting him take it for granted that I’ll say yes. I guess we are both just enjoying the unspoken words before we have to let the rest of the world in on it.

Sometimes I wonder if Dino hadn’t come into my life would I have signed up for any of that government money which is really nothing more than a gentle way of saying money made off the sweat of other people’s brow. I like to think I’d have more pride than that but if I got desperate enough … well, it ain’t a pleasant idea that I’d get that desperate to be honest. In all the years since Daddy died I’ve never run to anyone with my hand out, not even when I was young enough that I probably should have. I just wasn’t raised like that and never even thought to. Aw, every oncet in a while someone up at the school would say something but then it would be dropped since I seemed to be doing just fine and even some better than other kids that came from families with more.

But where do you draw the line? There are people I worry about. I mean we’re supposed to look after widows and orphans and folks that for whatever reason can’t (not won’t) look after themselves. And I must not be the only person that has wondered about where that line should be. The ranks of the disabled has done a lot of shifting. It’s become a different world with different rules these days.

The fact that to be declared disabled you have to be missing a vital body part – like half your brain – has all but kept people from escaping the net of the system of enforced volunteerism. The way they’ve kept that portion of the population from rioting is that the government has agreed to continue employing them so long as they behave themselves and their personnel files keeps saying they are in good standing. In other words they have to do the job they get assigned, do it well, and keep their mouths shut. It ain’t all a giveaway though, their job assignment is based on their capacity to perform and to keep their disability status they have to provide an indepth annual physical done by an approved physician or psychiatrist depending on what the disability is, and they have to do it on their own dime.

Kids in the city get fed during school, unless their parents send them to a private school or homeschool them, but they can lose this privilege if they get so many behavioral demerits, make a mess or don’t clean their plates every meal, or are absent from school more than one or two days during the year without a doctor’s note. People are screaming that the children are being used and abused for political purposes but it’s not getting them as many miles as it used to because there are too many families that have been scratching to feed their kids telling them to shut up with the whining already. But no matter how hard you push there are just some people that are going to chose to make it as easy on themselves as they can by taking from other people whether they want to give or not. At least I can say that isn’t true of the field hands that work for Dino.

I overheard Chester talking to Dino one morning asking, “I don’t want to lose my job Mr. Pappas … I cain’t lose this job, it’d be the end of my family for sure.”

“Relax Chester … and when did you go back to calling me Mr. Pappas? I thought we agreed that it was Dino.”

“Well … Dino. I’m pleasured you feel that way. But I just wanted to let you know that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep my job even if that means getting less at the end of the season or taking more in product than pay.”

“No, I signed a contract with you men and I mean to stick to it though I appreciate you being willing to be flexible. I’ve already had three of my buyers out here to make sure I was still going to come through for them and they are real happy that we’re running on time. The California wineries have had to drastically downsize now that they can’t get the water that they need from across state lines. The big New York wineries are doing better but taking California down has meant the big sellers are looking to the small, private labels like ours to make up the difference. It hasn’t gotten to the point yet that they are buying wine by the barrel to bottle at their own plants under their own label but I suspect that is what some will eventually turn to. As it is Alec and I are getting more orders for our specialty wines than we can possibly fill.”

I could see that Chester wanted to ask something but was having to screw up his courage to do it. “Well … then … is it OK if I bring my … my boys to work more often? They’ll work, make no mistake, or they’ll stay home.”

To save the man’s pride Dino and Chester dickered a little bit on the details but in the end, though it cost Dino a little more it would also help him. One, a man that is constantly worried isn’t the best worker in the world and harvesting grapes takes a man with focus. Two, Dino would have the satisfaction of knowing that he’d helped relieve some of that worry and that Chester would be even more loyal if things should be harder next season. And three, Dino wouldn’t have to put two work days into one by trying to work the vineyards and the rest of the farm at the same time which would save his health in the long run.

Dino was telling me about it that night and I said, “Well, I don’t care how bad times get my granddaddy said one of the last thing a man will give up is the thing that helps him forget how bad his life is … and in this case it means liquor.”

Dino rolled his eyes at me for calling wine liquor again but what he really objected to was that he thought I had some prejudice against the family business. “The wine is what keeps a roof over our heads Damaris. There is nothing inherently bad with people being fond of a glass after a long day or with a good meal.”

“I never said there was did I? There’s nothing inherently wrong with money either, it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil. I’ve come to see that wine of yours in the same way. Being fond of a nip isn’t inherently wrong … it’s when the lack of it starts to ruin your day or becomes necessary for you to get through the day that there’s a problem.”

Not sure whether he should still be taking offense he said, “I can’t control the fact that a minority of wine consumers are drunks or on their way to becoming drunks.”

“Nope,” I agreed. “But it is no good hiding from the fact that some of them are and that some people will pinch and pull and blame other folks because of their own lack of self-control or for the situation a loved one has gotten themselves into due to their lack of self-control.”

Frustrated he said, “How did we get off on this subject anyway?”

I shrugged. “I heard on the radio that Russia has started a program for poor people that can’t afford their quota of vodka. That they are doing this as a form of mental health service and to quell the riots over falling supplies.”

He put his arm behind me on the settee. We were out on the porch because it was too hot to set in the kitchen while I was finishing up the day’s canning. “Riss, I wouldn’t take any part in something like that. I won’t even sell direct to the government.”

“I’m not saying you would but it still makes me think.”

“Well think on something different … like what all do you need for the baby.”

I shook my head. “I don’t need …” At his out-of-patience look I told him, “You are some kind of fierce pushy when you are in a certain mood, you know that?”

“You’re not the first person to mention it,” he admitted, his lips twitching to keep from smiling at getting his way. “Now I mean it Riss, Ajax and I are going to tool around to some of the towns on the other side of Cherry Gap and see what there is to see and pick up. I already learned the hard way babies need more stuff than something that size should, now pony up that list.”

Drawing my notepad and pencil from the pocket of my apron I still insisted on asking, “Why aren’t you going to Newton? Isn’t that closer and easier on the horses?”

“The Feed and Seed has changed hands and a couple of other stores are trying to save money by keeping less in stock. It just makes me uncomfortable to have all my eggs in one basket. Now stop procrastinating … write.”

I sighed at his bought of domineering insistence. As I wrote I asked, “But what if the men run into trouble or something comes up? Will Alec be around … or one of the boys so I can send for him?”

“Alec says we need to give the last grapes more time to concentrate and sweeten up before we harvest them. The men are taking a couple of days off to take care of things around their own places. This will give you a break from cooking and cleaning up after them too.”

I shrugged, “I don’t mind doing for them, especially some of them like Chester and his boys. Besides there isn’t that much cleaning up except for dishes since y’all eat outside at the trestle tables.”

Well with that the arm he had on the back of the settee went to work doing other things and we were quiet for a while until it was time we both went inside and got some rest.

“It’s almost the end of harvest,” he whispered huskily.

“Uh huh,” I agreed.

He didn’t say anything else but his eyes near about glowed in the dark and I shivered despite the heat that still clung to everything even after the sun having gone down some time back.

The next morning, the wagon loaded down with a reasonable amount of barter goods, I sent him and Ajax off with a good-sized food basket to keep them from having to spend on anything they didn’t have to. In return I was admonished, “I know you keep that pistol of yours loaded and on you but put your rifle by the door too. If I hadn’t already agreed to do this I’d be having second thoughts leaving you home alone with only Kerry for company.”

I grinned up at him on the wagon seat and asked, “What do you take me for? One of them city girls you seem so partial to? The 12-guage is there too if I need it. Just stay safe; we’ll wait supper for you.” As they pulled out I teased him a bit by calling after him, “And don’t let any of them fast talking hucksters trim your wallet.”

Ajax laughed but Dino just shook his head at what he perceived to be my silliness. How was I to know that it would be three days and a whole lot of worry before I clapped eyes on him again?
 

Chapter 19​


It is September and it is still hot, not as hot as August was but certainly warmer than it is comfortable being when you are out in the garden chugging away. It was powerful quiet – and lonesome – with no one but Kerry and I about so I decided to keep the both of us busy and productive so we wouldn’t have time to dwell on the hours until Dino would be home.

Chester’s sons had already pulled the plants from the garden that were done. The compost piles were right good sized and full of the leftover bushes and vines from the last of the beans, cantaloupes, cucumbers, peppers, summer squash, and tomatoes. I still had a few baskets of cherry tomatoes hanging on the porch but the only corn left in the field was the field and dent varieties that Dino was letting dry on the stalks.

Normally it was Chester’s boys that helped me harvest any fresh produce from the gardens in the mornings and then again in the afternoon before they went home with their daddy, but while the men had off I’d need to do it myself. I pulled beets, cabbages, carrots, greens, and winter squash before heading to the orchard to get the apples and pears that Kerry and I could reach without the worry of broken limbs – those in the tree and our own. It took several trips to move it all back to the house but Dino had rigged me up a four-wheeled dune buggy type wagon that was easier for me to pull than the wheelbarrow had been to push. I carried everything down to the root cellar where I told it to sit until I was ready to deal with it.

Now I know some might think it passing strange to hear me talking to inanimate objects but I had picked up the habit from my great grandmother. Some of it was just because it was funny and made Kerry laugh but some of it was because it makes a body feel more in control by ordering things about like you got some authority or other.

With no equipment running, and the grape shed shut and locked up tight against mischief, Kerry and I let the male dogs and the puppies out and they were right pleased too. Kerry’s dog – he called the flaming thing Stinky which wasn’t far off the mark – had lost most of the silliness he’d had but that was probably from being lessoned a few times by the boss dog when he forgot his place in the pack. A couple of the younger dogs had found something to roll in and tried to get the boss dog to come take a sniff but he refused to budge. He kept eyeing a piece of land that sits between the far garden where the carrots were and a bend in the rows of grapes. That little piece was bottom land and tended to be swampy for days after the smallest rain. It was also where the worst mosquitoes bred.

I asked Dino why he didn’t just clean it out and he told me it would only make it worse. “The trees, shrubs, and grass in there help to soak up the water. Without that foliage the water just sits on the clay pan underneath the little bit of topsoil and gets nasty. The foliage also helps prevent the topsoil from blowing away during the dry season.”

It bothered me the way that dog kept bringing his attention back to that spot and would sniff the air ever so often. He never barked though, none of them did though as the day wore on the other dogs picked up the boss dog’s preoccupation with that spot.

For dinner Kerry and I just foraged and I mean that just like I said it. He’d been such a good boy all morning that I decided we’d go on a little hike. We didn’t go far from the house but we did get out of sight of it for a bit. Up and down the fence rows we went hunting up wild greens and fruit. I found a mulberry tree that was just completely loaded and filled a couple of buckets with those and set them in the wagon. Also picked a bunch of wild rose hips from the roses that climbed along the fence near the chicken coop. But the wild strawberries we found never made it any place except into our mouths. I don’t know which of us made a juicier mess, me or the Squirt. We ran across some huckleberries and ground cherries but we just about had a belly ache at that point so I picked them and brought them home in old freezer containers.

I found someone’s old allium patch – it ran so perfect it had to have been cultivated at some point – and snipped chives with my garden scissors and dug up enough garlic and Egyptian walking onions to placate even my desire for them. I do love me some garlic and onions but right now they aren’t loving me back too much so I have to go sparing with them. Did the same thing to the wild leeks and wild ginger when I ran across a patch of them.

Daylilies and Cattails grew in abundance in their respective environments but I wasn’t interested in harvesting either one of them that day though I did make note of the best-looking spots so I could come back for them. Could have had all the sassafras I wanted too but knew that the tea from it was not supposed to be good for you when you are pregnant. I was hoping to see Mrs. Chamblerlin next time I was in town and ask her if the same thing held true for sasparilla as I was craving that and Rootbeer for some reason and I figured if Dino could make wine out of my vegetable patch that I could make me some soda out of things in the forest.

Saw some good-sized patches of Sumac – not the white poisonous kind – but the seed heads were nowhere near dry enough to harvest but when they are I’m going to snip the ones that the birds don’t get to first. I ran out of sumac and have missed the tart flavor that is so much like lemonade. Saw some amaranth seed heads in the same condition and I mean to get them too.

I dug up a few mints I found to replant in the herb garden to replace the ones that have gotten woody and leggy from where they hadn’t been taken care of for a couple of years.

Found a slew of mayapples in a little moist patch in the woods and gathered every ripe one I found but I told Kerry if I ever found him messing with these plants I’d toast his tail. He got the point. I don’t often go so strict on him like that but another name for a mayapple is the American mandrake and you have to know what you are doing because the leaves and stems are poisonous and the root ain’t very healthy for you either.

Out of the trees and along another piece of overgrown fence line I found some maypops. The vines were so long that they had started to grow out into the old firebreak road we were following and up into the overhanging cedar trees. There were still lots of flowers and I showed Kerry why it was called the passion flower due to all its symbology of the Crucifixion. I got nostalgic for a moment remember how my cousins used to have contests to see who could make the loudest pop, the longest pop, and just about everything else you could think of before they would then start popping the fruit on each other. I was a girl so I didn’t get to join in their fun but I still got a laugh out of it, especially when grandmother would get onto them for wasting good fruit with their tomfoolery.

After I’d dug a bag full of chicory roots I noticed that Kerry was winding down and that we were out longer than I had intended to be. Pulling our bounty back to the house wore me out more than I expected which is the only excuse I have for not noticing right away that the dogs were pacing a bit and seemed … well not disturbed exactly but more watchful and the three adult dogs seemed a little tense.

I told myself that it was because they sensed that Dino wasn’t around and that they were taking their job as guard dogs serious. But just to be on the safe side I made a show of taking my pistol out and checking it over and aiming it before I put it back in my holster. I know it was likely a silly thing to do but it made me feel better, like whistling in the dark makes some other people feel better.

When I went out to the garden two of the dogs insisted on coming with me. They didn’t get underfoot but they didn’t make my job any easier either. I picked the first ripe pumpkins and watermelons and took the loads back to the house. I also was going to take a pitchfork and dig up the first hill of sweet potatoes but a good sized clap of thunder startled me out of my plans. Sure enough there was a line of clouds that were pitch dark and heading our way.

I put the young dogs into the kennel and their Mommas were glad to see them and started counting noses but the three adult dogs wouldn’t go in even when I tried to push them; it was like trying to herd cats. I didn’t know what Dino would say when he got home and found I couldn’t manage three normally easy-going canines but in the end, as the first hard drops came down, they ran with me up onto the porch and there they stayed.

“Why couldn’t Stinky come?” Kerry complained.

“Because Stinky has that name for a reason, that’s why. If you’d give him a bath regular like we agreed to then he could come in the house more.”

Kerry sighed at the seeming unfairness of life but he was so tuckered from our morning of chores and long afternoon walk that he was soon curled up on the cushioned bench I’d pushed into the corner of the breakfast nook and had gone to sleep. That left me free to start on supper and I made it a quick one of cooked wild greens, burkdock root patties, wild rice pilaf, and some loukaniko sausages Aunt Adona had sent over a couple of days previously.

I woke Kerry up to eat just as the rain started to come down even harder. He didn’t say much as he ate and when he was finished he asked through a yawn, “When’s Daddy comin’ home?”

“He’s probably running later than he wanted to because of the rain. I hope he is holed up some place nice and dry don’t you?”

Kerry was falling asleep in the middle of his nod so I got him up and put him to bed fully clothed except for his shoes. I figured it wouldn’t hurt for him to nap until Dino got home and went back downstairs and went to work since my day off was pretty much at an end.

It didn’t take long at all to get two pressure canners going with the vegetable produce and while they cooked, since I had to fire up the stove anyway, I fixed a few loaves of carrot bread. I also made two batches of carrot jam, one spicy one not and then sat down with a sigh. It was getting on toward evening and I knew the cow would need to be milked. I don’t mind milking at all but the milk cow Dino keeps is cranky and only likes one or two people to milk her and since neither of those two were me she was going to fuss.

It was still raining but rain don’t make any difference to a cow that wants to be milked. She was complaining something awful by the time I got to her and I apologized the whole while which didn’t mollify her any at all. She whacked me in the face twice with her nasty tail but the third time she tried it I tied her tail to the milking stand which pretty much hurt her feelings. I had her tail untied and was walking away with the milk pail when she took aim. I just missed getting kicked and it scared me enough that I just about cussed her. She only gave me them big ol’ cow eyes like she was just as sweet as can be and I knew I was being stupid; she was only a cow after all. That didn’t stop my heart from racing at the idea of the near mishap but at least it put it in perspective.

I hauled the milk back to the house and then down to the basement and when I came back up I was out of breath and hurting through my shoulders and behind my knees. I knew I needed to stop and put my feet up but the canning had to come off the stove, the bread out of the oven, I still hadn’t done anything with either the watermelons or the pumpkins, yet it was growing dark early and Dino still wasn’t home.

After I took the last jar out of the canners and had them on the counter and wrapped against any stray breeze until they could seal and cool I really did have to sit down. I had an awful stitch in my side. I know it is just where my muscles are getting stretched all out of whack by the mini-mule I’m carrying around inside me (or at least he kicks like one) but at the time it just added to my feelings that something wasn’t right.

I was tired and not feeling good. The rain had stopped but there was a lightning storm going on all around us in the distance. The resulting early dark was gloomy. And the way the dogs had taken to padding back and forth on the porch was just plain creepy. But Lord help me I was just so tired that no matter how hard I tried when I sat down at the table and laid my head down I just fell asleep.

Snarling and snapping out in the yard jerked me upright from sleep so fast I nearly had an accident when the baby stomped my bladder. I heard the awful squeal that I knew could only have come from one of the smaller hogs and I immediately thought another bear had come calling.

That thought didn’t hang around too long because for a fact bears don’t cuss … or at least not so’s a human can understand it and something out in the yard was cussing so hard I was surprised brimstone wasn’t falling.

I had already been halfway to Dino’s big caliber rifle … my little .22 wouldn’t do nothing but tick a bear off … but then changed to grabbing for the 12-guage and praying that the hog shot that the shotgun was loaded with would go at what I aimed it at and not at the dogs who sounded in a real fight with something.

I was moving faster than I’m writing this down for sure and in all the noise I got out the door without being noticed. Two of the dogs were tearing into a man and the boss dog was whooping up on a mangy looking dog twice his size but only half as fast and a quarter as smart. Boss dog had him by the snout and was shaking him so much it looked like he was wagging the tail of the larger dog. The hog noise was coming from a female hog I could just recognized from the heart shaped patch on her shoulder. A second man was trying to hold her down and I realized with horror he was trying to cut her without killing her first.

The first man finally got away from the dogs by shedding the jacket he had on and started running but not before he yelled to his partner to hurry up, they had company. That man jerked around and then came at me with his bloody knife.

I don’t know … I just don’t know what he planned to do. I don’t know if he knew what he planned to do. But God forgive me I pulled the trigger of the shotgun and whatever he had planned, knowing or not, would never happen. He fair flew backwards off the steps and squealed as bad as the hog still did for a moment from being gut shot before shock carried him off and silent.

The strangers’ dog stood no chance against three dogs and they mauled him pretty bad before taking off after the one that got away. I was shaking like a leaf when I come down off that porch. The hog was still gasping and grunting. The man had been hacking away at her one of her hams. It was horrible. She was bleeding out and would soon be dead but I couldn’t just let the poor thing lay there and in pain so I pulled out my .22 pistol and stuck it in her ear and pulled the trigger. She jumped and then with only a shiver was mercifully still.

The dog though badly mauled was getting up and I could see the bloodlust was still on him. My first shot only knocked him down but my next one gave him the mercy killing he would not have given me.

I jerked again when I heard one faint scream off in the distance and knew the dogs had found their prey. I was in a little bit of shock myself and when I heard the screen door squeak I jumped.

“Riss?” said a scared little boy.

“Go back inside Honey … right now. Do what I say.” I hurried up the steps as much as I could and then made sure his view of the yard was blocked. Turns out my big belly is good for something after all.

“Is Daddy home? I heard yelling and the dogs and …” He was shaking as much as I was and his little voice was an octave higher than it should have been.

“Come on Squirt. Nothing for you to worry about.”

Before I had to lie he asked, “Was it a aminal after the pigs again?”

I’d managed to break him of most his baby talk knowing that if he still had it when he went to school next year the other children would make his life of misery but when he was scared or very tired it still slipped out and right then he was both. “That’s it sweety. There was an animal.”

I tried to turn him back to the stairs but he stopped and looked at me and asked, “Can I sleep in your room til Daddy comes home?”

Oh those big dark eyes and long, dark eyelashes; he’s gonna drive the school girls squirrely. “All right but you have to go straight back to sleep.”

A huge, jaw popping yawn that nearly caused me one of my own and then he said, “Yes’m.” He was as good as his word. I’d no sooner got him undressed and pulled the sheet up over him than he was back to sleep.

But I still had miles to go before I could find that same release.
 

Chapter 20 - 1​


First thing I had to do was tell myself there wasn’t time to sit down and cry. It almost worked. I still managed to get things started but only after I was able to tell my hormones they would have to wait to take their turn. I was shook up, upset, thoroughly grossed out by some of the jobs that were before me and scared that the other man was gonna come back around for another go.

That last fear went away for the most part when the dogs finally came back, all three of them with something in their mouths. Umph, I’m here to tell you that I was some scared to take a looksee at what it was but it was just pieces of clothing without any parts inside them. The pieces what looked like they were from the stranger’s shirt were only dirty and torn; no blood. The boss dog had a good strip of pants leg and he had done some damage getting it off the man. Boss dog set it at my feet and grinned a big ol’ wicked doggy grin. I thanked all of them proper and told them what good dogs they were and how proud Dino was going to be of ‘em. They seemed to take it in stride and went off to tend to other doggie business. But from the sounds I knew they hadn’t gone far, only over to the kennel to tell the females what they’d been up to.

I was still in a quandry. I needed to do something with the pig and quick. But I didn’t want it contaminated by the corpse of the dog or the man. If I didn’t get the pig bled out it was rurnt. If I tried to do it right here next to the corpses it might get rurnt anyway.

Well first, I didn’t see any choice. I couldn’t move that hog someplace else before I bled it so that meant that I had to move the dog and the man. First though I had to get that hog up off the ground. She was a small one, barely two hundred pounds, but still weighed way more than Kerry did and I didn’t dare lift him anymore or risk splitting something inside. Then I remembered the old hoist thingy Ajax and one of Chester’s boys had brought up out of the basement for me. It still sat where they’d left it under a canvas tarp with some other, similar items.

When I’d asked Dino what it was – it looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place it right away – he told me it was called an engine hoist and was used to lift engines and other heavy pieces out of cars and small tractors. When I asked him what it was doing in the basement he had no more idea that I did since it was kind of a silly place for it. It was supposed to have been moved to the barn but had been put on the bottom of the priority list until after the harvest. For once I was mighty glad that men can get creative at ignoring their honey-do lists.

The engine hoist was even on wheels though pushing it around in the dark and trying to angle it just right was no pleasure I can tell you that right now. It was even less pleasure trying to wrangle the wide straps around the hind feet so that I could put butcher hooks in so the carcass could be lifted without tearing out. If I hadn’t been doing this since I was eleven I could tell you I’d have been in a worse fix than I already was. I swear I was huffing and puffing and … yes, saying a few choice words about having to do it all on my lonesome. I think the anger is what got me through the first little bit and God let me have it because I needed it.

What I was aggrieved about most is that with hog butchering as with anything else there is supposed to be an order to things and the order of things are in that order for a reason. The first thing you are never supposed to do is get a pig or hog overexcited before you kill it. It just isn’t right for one thing and for another you can taint your meat that way.

I finally got that hog fixed so that when I started raising it, it would stay where it was supposed to and not come tumbling down and so that the cuts in the ham would not tear any more. I went to the jack that operates the hoist and slowly raised the carcass up so that the snout was several inches off the ground and the feet were well over my head. I said a quick prayer and then moved the kerosene lamp a bit so that I could do the job right. I stuck the butchering blade and then made the cut that opened up the main arteries and then stood back and let gravity go to work.

I then turned to the other two carcasses. I had worried that I would have some trouble from Dino’s dogs but they were well trained hunting dogs and left the prey to their human when they were finished doing their part. I got the wheelbarrow and then got the dog’s body – surprisingly heavy – into it and rolled it to the pit that we burned things in. I knew under the dirt and ash in there would be bits of bear bone from where Dino and Harry had been forced to destroy one several months back. With things being too wet to burn I had no choice but to just dump the dogs body in there until it dried up enough or until Dino could come home and manage it some other way.

Thoughts of Harry had me wondering where he was at and what he would be thinking if he knew where I was at. I missed him. He could get some kinda wound up on occasion but he had always been good to me and willing to take whatever load I asked of him, and some I hadn’t asked. On the other hand, wherever he was at was likely to be dangerous and I wanted him fully focused on surviving. I prayed that he wasn’t lying on the ground somewhere cold and dead like the man I was about to have to deal with was.

I was scared to death I was going to have to deal with the law but there wasn’t anything I could do about that at that point; what’s done is done. I did know however that just dumping the body in with the dog’s carcass just wasn’t the thing to do. Most folks don’t kin to treating human remains the way you do animal remains, no matter if the human acted no better than an animal.

The man’s dead weight – no pun intended – just did not lend itself to being lifted into the wheelbarrow but I couldn’t just leave it there not the least of why because I didn’t want Kerry to see it come morning. And the smell coming off his gut was just about to give me the pukes; even remembering has me near about there again. I tugged on his arms but he was too heavy that way so I went around and grabbed the feet and slowly drug it that way. I didn’t go far with it, just to the wagon parking area. The corpse would be on gravel and up off the dirt and that was just the best I could think to do with it. No way was I taking it down to the ice room. Uh uh. Sorry. Was most definitely not gonna happen. Consequences be danged.

The hog was still draining at that point and I was getting the shakes again. I had just run for the corner of the house to puke when I heard horses. I prayed, “Oh think you Lord, thank you for bringing Dino home.” Only it wasn’t Dino … it was Chester and his two oldest sons.

They’d come to check and see if the storm had done any damage. I didn’t know what they were talking about but apparently closer to their place there had been some heavy hail in with the wind and rain. That didn’t do nothing but roll my stomach again praying that there hadn’t been any damage to the grapes. When Chester found out Dino hadn’t come home and that I’d had to shoot a man he got real stern.

As he sent one of his sons off to get Alec he said, “And you do it quiet son. No need to be getting anyone’s interest up over this until we get things squared away. And ask if Missus Nichols can come see to Miss Riss.”

I tried to tell him I was fine but he made me go inside and lay down. “And … well not to be too particular, I’d appreciate it if you stayed off your feet until Missus Nichols tells me you ain’t … er … strained something.”

Chester is normally the most easy going fellow I’ve ever met but that night I felt like I couldn’t have not minded him had I wanted to, he just had that much authority in his voice. I went on inside as he bid me and I only meant to lay down on the sofa to ease his mind. Next thing I know though there’s pink in the sky and Cheryl’s draping a sheet over me.

“What? I …” Took me a couple of seconds to remember what I was doing where I was. “Has Dino …?”

“Come home? No Honey. Alec finally got word about an hour ago that the line of storms that came through here had a tornado in it earlier and took out a bridge late yesterday.”

I tried to get up but she said, “You stay put. You’ve had a shock whether you know it or not.”

“But Kerry is going to be up …”

“Kerry is already up and I’ve caught him creeping in here half a dozen times. It’s a wonder he didn’t wake you up before now.”

“Oh good brown gravy, let me guess … I was snoring,” I said in disgust.

She laughed having heard the story more than once. “No Honey. He was actually upset you weren’t and kept coming over to see why you weren’t.”

Thank Heavens for small blessings. I still had to get up though as sometimes I have to make a quick break for the bathroom or there would be dire consequences. “I was the same way with Ajax,” Cheryl said sympathetically.

I came out with Kerry waiting there anxiously. “How come Uncle Alec and Aunt Cheryl are here? How come Daddy didn’t come home? How come them army men are outside? How come you was sleeping on the sofa? How come …?”

“Whoa Squirt. Need to clean the cobwebs out of my brain OK?”

It wasn’t OK, at least not according to Kerry, but he did allow as how if I was gonna give him the answers to his questions he’d need to leave me alone long enough to find the answers out for myself first. I told him that if he played in his room for a bit that I’d find out everything that I could and report to him. That of course made him feel important so he obliged me by going upstairs.

As I was stepping into the kitchen Alec was coming in from outside. He looked at me and asked, “You doing OK, up for talking?”

“Depends on to who and for what,” I answered cautiously.

He sighed, “The who is an Army Colonel and the for what is because the two men you had a run in with last night were escaped military prisoners.”

“Oh glory,” I said nauseous all of a sudden. Then I shook myself and said, “Before I go out there do you know anything about Dino and Ajax?”

A slight softening around his mouth and eyes gave me some relief even before he said, “They’re fine, just stuck on the other side of the Little River bridge. Dino is fit to be tied and swears he’ll get here before nightfall but I don’t see how. They’ve got three wagons and they are going to have to go all the way around to Pewter Junction to cross to this side.”

I wanted to ask how they had three wagons when they started out with only one and two drivers but I could see that Colonel through the window looking rather fearsomely impatient. I stepped out onto the porch and all in a glance I saw that the pig was gone and the yard scrapped clean where it needed it. I got a bug eyed glance from some of the young boys with the Colonel but only a cold one from him.

He tried to stare me down and something in me bowed up and said I didn’t do anything wrong and I wasn’t going to let this man treat me like I had. I looked at him square and the eye and said, “I beg your pardon for keeping you waiting sir. I’m afraid I was rather overset by the events of last night.”

“You can drop the honey, sugar, or anything else young lady. I am immune to those types of theatrics,” he said with a voice that told me he was so Yankee he probably bled blue.

Still gentle I said, “I’m sorry Colonel but this is how I talk. Don’t ask me to drop my R’s and I won’t ask you to go find yours.”

He jumped like a bee had stung him on his flanks. “Now see here young woman …”

“Colonel, flashy uniforms don’t impress me none, only the good men inside them. My Daddy gave his life at the First Battle of MacDill so I know the difference between a hollow soldier and a real one. Real ones aren’t nearly as likely to overcompensate when dealing with civilians.” My voice had turned to steel. “Now from what I understand you wish to talk to me about some military prisoners that you people misplaced and I unfortunately found. Exactly what is it you want to know?”

I thought he was going to blow his stack and then he wet his whistle and twitched his lips and said, “I can find out if you are telling the truth about your father you know.”

“No doubt you can. Look for Sgt. Beauregard Keehn. He was an air traffic controller,” I told him right back refusing to be intimidated.

He looked at a squeaky clean, nervous looking kid and nodded. The kid ran off and then the Colonel turned to me and said, “My name is Colonel Kanton. If you lie to me you will rue the day you learned it.”

“And my name is Damaris Keehn and you’ll likely regret that no matter what you do.”

Alec couldn’t stomach anymore and said sharply, “Riss!”

I sighed but settled back off my high horse. I looked at the Colonel and repeated, “You were going to ask me some questions?”

The Colonel sighed as well and pinched his nose. “I need a full accounting of last evening’s events Ms. Keehn.”

“Miss will do,” I told him. At a pained and whispered “Damaris, please.” From behind me I turned and told Alec, “I just don’t want the Colonel to think I’m one of those girls that have to wear the britches all the time.”

Alec squawked but held his ground to support me. There was also a strangled sound that came from a man wearing Sergeant stripes standing off to the side of things. I sighed again and asked, “How much detail do you want Colonel?”

Refusing to look straight at me for some reason he answered, “A brief overview first if you please.”

“Hmm. Well, I’d worked all day and was some tired after fixing supper. I was also worried that Mr. Pappas hadn’t returned as planned.”

He interrupted with, “Mr. Dino Pappas? Your … uh … employer?”

“My … uh … particular friend,” I corrected him. “How kind of you to be interested.”

Alec sighed and said, “My cousin and Damaris have an understanding. They’ve just been moving slowly as Damaris was abandoned at the altar and …”

It was my turn to squawk and give Alec a look for letting that particular cat out of the bag. Turning back to the Colonel I said a little more loudly than strictly necessary, “Be that as it may … I’ve been housekeeping for Dino for several months now but yesterday was the first time I had been left in full charge of things to the extent I was. I know all about what it takes to keep a farm going but my condition restricts me from going as much as I would like.”

The Colonel, whose mouth was definitely twitching said, “Hmmm. And?”

“I had pulled something when I was milking and after taking care of all the other household responsibilities I sat down to wait for what I thought would merely be a later arrival by Mr. Pappas. But I must have dozed because the next thing I know there’s a commotion in the yard. I go out, it’s two men and a dog. The hunters – that’s the dogs – run one of the men off, deal with the stranger dog, and I shot the other man. Chester and two of his sons came to check on me and then send for Alec. I crash and burn until I wake up and find out you want to ask me some questions.”

The Colonel coughed and said, “Perhaps … well it appears I will need more details than that to fill out my report.”

I nodded, “More than likely. My father used to say that military reports had to be so thorough they’d even ask you the color of the lent in your belly button.”

That caused the Sergeant to start wheezing like he was having an asthma attack. The Colonel deadpanned, “Just so. So since you are obviously aware of the problem Miss Keehn perhaps this time we could simply walk through everything.”

Oh I walked him through it all right, giving him just about more details than his little clip board boy could keep up with, and was doing just fine until I got to the point where and the location of where I had drug the man’s body to and when I saw it covered with plastic and all the flies that were buzzing around it, not to mention the smell had gotten no better, I turned and ran for the bushes.

“Well … Miss Keehn … I am relieved that you are not as detached from the episode as you at first appeared.”

If he hadn’t had the power to cause the Pappas family trouble I was half way tempted to puke on his highly polished boots next time he said anything at all. Instead I gathered my pride and said, “I wasn’t detached last night nor am I now Colonel but I’ve yet to think of anything good that could have come out of having hysterics over a man twice my size coming at me with a bloody k-bar. He wasn’t looking for a flaming kiss, that’s for sure.”

The Colonel, suddenly serious said, “Don’t be too sure Miss Keehn. One of the things the man in question was under arrest for was rape; given his character or should I say lack of your condition would not have deterred him. His partner is not quite as violent and more of a coward but …”

I didn’t like how he left it hanging like that. “Well, if the other man thinks he got a rude reception here, just imagine when he runs up against someone like Dino.”

“Mr. Pappas? Ah yes, former marine …”

“That too I suppose but I was more referring to the fact that the men around here do not take kindly to their families or their livelihoods being threatened. He’ll get desperate, all stupid men do eventually, and he’ll make the same fool mistakes he made this time around. But he’s been chewed on pretty well, why don’t you get a local with some hounds and go find him before he does any more mischief. The boss dog brought back a hunk of his pants and it is bloody like he got some meat with it. A good hound can track him with that.”
 
Chapter 20 - 2

He turned to look at clipboard boy who was still a-scribbling away and at the Colonel’s nod the boy ran off. “Thank you for your time. Good day … Miss Keehn.” He turned to the Sergeant with a nod and then went to sit in the transport making the young driver look anxious.

The Sergeant directed that the body get stuffed into a body bag and then carried off to the back of the transport. Then he finally looked at me and smiled before saying, “You just won’t do girl, you just won’t do.” Definitely a Georgia boy I realized. He chuckled and then said, “The Colonel isn’t normally so …”

“Yankified?”

The Sergeant guffawed once and said, “That’s a good word for it.” He shook his head and then with a look asked Alec and Chester to join us. Much more seriously he said, “Now I’m going to pass along some caution since you folks seem to have a good head on your shoulders. We’ve got people leaving the cities. Not a lot of them but no small dribs and drabs either; the checkpoints help with some of that. They think getting out to Granny or Uncle Joe or one of the commune farms that have sprung up is going to save them. What most of them don’t know is that the time for that sort of thing is long past. Nevertheless, you’re likely to have problems out this way either from strangers passing through or moving in or from your own homegrown trouble. You need to get and stay prepared to protect your own ‘cause your county LEOs are more than likely going to have their hands full with their own problems. Some of the bigger cities are going to be allowed to burn … but unlike when the war first started, it will be a controlled burn designed to split factions up before they can form into a group large enough to become a serious movement; that’s what the CSP was created for. And the war is likely going to heat back up for a time as well. We’ve been told to expect several revenge attacks for the new policies in all theaters including here at home.”

The Sergeant, after making sure all of the other uniforms types had been collected, went to climb in the transport himself but the Colonel sent him back over. “Miss Keehn, the Colonel would like another word if you please.”

I almost said well I don’t please but that was only because my nerves were strung tight. I walked over to the Colonel who was leaning out the window. “Sir?”

There was a completely different look on his face when he said, “Miss Keehn, your father’s service record states that he fought with honor and died a hero.”

A soft spot I still had started feeling bruised and my eyes watered up a bit when I replied, “You didn’t need to tell me that Sir. My Daddy was the man he was and could not have done anything different.” The Colonel paused and then gave me a respectful nod before directing the driver to head out.

Alec kind of guided me back into the house and remembering my promise to Kerry I called him down when Cheryl nixed the idea of me climbing the stairs. I explained that there had been a ruckus but that it was over and that we’d have to be ready for his daddy to be upset over not being here when it happened but that everything was Ok.

He looked at me and said, “Then how come your face looks the color of my school paste?”

Cheryl tut-tutted and said, “He’s right. Come here and sit down and eat something right now.” I think that something was a piece of toast and a scrambled egg but I wasn’t paying too much attention to be honest. Cheryl finally accepted that work was better for me than sitting around and we fixed some dinner for the field hands that had shown up to see if there had been damage and then stayed to help set things right so Dino wouldn’t come home to a yard that looked like a slaughterhouse.

Someone doused the dog carcass with ‘shine and finally got it going and the smell of it nearly had me running for the bushes again which only proved to me that I was more stressed out than I would admit to anyone else. It was like my cast iron stomach had taken a vacation and left a weak and puny cousin to take its place.

Cheryl went home to take care of her brood not long after dinner and Alec came and went a few times before I finally told him, “It’s obvious Dino isn’t going to make it home tonight like he wanted. Just go on home, we’ll be fine. I finally convinced all the field hands and everyone else that has been stopping in to go on home and that’s where you need to be too.”

It wasn’t easy to convince him but he went after making sure that I had all the windows locked and all the downstairs shutters closed and bolted from the inside. It made things so stuffy that I wound up sleeping in Kerry’s room with him which he got a kick out of.

Alec and Chester both came by in the morning to check on me which was sweet but I shooed them off telling them I was fine and that we all had work we had to catch up with before the last of the grapes needed to come off the vines. Knowing how true that was they went about their business and I went about mine.

I was determined to accomplish something constructive with my time and the produce was only piling up. What could be left in the cool of the root cellar I did but the pumpkins and watermelons were starting to take up a lot of room. The planters had planted them all at the same time and that is how they were coming in; all at the same time.

I started with the watermelon just because Kerry was begging for some. I cut all of the flesh off of one and let him eat until he was full as a tick. I took the rind and sliced the green off of it and made watermelon rind pickles which was something my little brother was partial to. Another thing us kids had been partial to was dried watermelon which I made a large batch of. Even a great big ol’ Dixie Sweet watermelon dries down to practically nothing as all the water evaporates out, but there’s a ton of sweetness left behind and eating dried watermelon is about like eating candy, only without the cavities.

I made watermelon jelly out of another melon but left the rest of them until I knew how many Dino would need for the big batch of watermelon wine he told me he had an order for. The rind off of the one I’d made the jelly with also went into the pickling syrup except for a few pieces I kept out to fritter. I battered them with a bit of seasoned cornmeal and then deep-fried them and Kerry was only hesitant until he saw me threatening to eat his share if he didn’t hurry up.

It was mid-morning and from the breeze coming through the windows there was rain off somewhere close. I worried that it would cause problems for the harvest but could do nothing but pray about it since I didn’t have any power to shoo the clouds away. And at least the breeze was blowing the heat from the kitchen.

I started on the pumpkins next. I made pumpkin pie leather, pumpkin butter, pumpkin jam, pickled pumpkin, and plain canned pumpkin. I wasn’t sure when Dino was going to return but in case it was between dinner and supper I fixed something that would hold over. I fried up some of the pumpkin, cooked a few slices of ham, and made up a pan of cornbread.

I was thankful not to have had to do any more milking of that ornery cow. Chester and Alec had taken care of it for me and I was hoping that Dino would be home to do it before she needed milking again. The cow didn’t scare me none but the chance of getting kicked did I will admit. That thought brought me around to realizing I had a lot of cream I needed to do something with so I told Kerry to fetch the butter churn while I brought up the pans of cream.

The butter churn was actually one that belonged to my family. It’s not that I didn’t know how to use the old fashioned wooden one that Dino’s family had used before I came along but I preferred the more mechanized one from my grandparents’ things. You pour cream into a large, wide-mouth jar and then screw down the paddle and crank. Turning the crank handle turns the butter paddle and soon enough you have butter. Kerry was usually good for a batch of butter and that day was no exception but his arm tired after one batch and I had two more after that.

Even I was tired afterwards and after taking the butter down to the ice room and scalding the butter churn and putting it away I asked Kerry if he had any objections to resting on the porch for a spell. He smiled real big and said, “No ma’am!”

Of course he knew what I really meant was me resting on the porch while he played in the yard, usually with Stinky. I was rocking and feeling pretty dozey. Stinky barked once and then I heard the jangle of a wagon. I opened my eyes to see two wagons coming down the road faster than commonsense dictated and was levering myself out of the rocker. By the time I was up and on my way off the porch Dino had the wagon parked and just about on top of me.

Kerry was wrapped around his leg and got his fair share of attention but I swear Dino was giving me such a thorough check over that I felt like a horse on the auction block. “I’m gonna bite if you start looking over my teeth Dino Pappas.”

“Huh?”

“You act like your worried I’m not all here and in the same shape you left me.”

Rather than reply with words I got thorough kissed before God and everybody. He looked down in my eyes and said, “I’m home.”

All I could say in return was, “Uh huh, you sure are.”

Kerry was giggling but it was about that time I realized the laughing man on the other wagon wasn’t Ajax. I coulda died of embarrassment but on second look I realized the man looked familiar for some reason.

He came down off the wagon seat and said, “AJ Nichols. And you must be Damaris.”

For some reason Dino continued to hold me close and I couldn’t reach out to return the handshake the man had offered me.

“Nichols?” I asked, wondering.

“Alecsander’s younger brother,” he said by way of explanation only smiling bigger at Dino’s odd reaction.

Well that was the first I’d heard of a younger brother, or at least one old enough to be the man in front of me, and he seemed to realize it. He laughed and said, “I’ll leave the explaining to you Dionysius. I’m going to take my horse and be on my way now. I’m sure my nephew has had time to get home and let Mother and Brother know I’m coming for a visit.”

Dino said, “Warning them you mean.”

Dino smile was real but on the cautious side as he said good bye. With the man gone it was like he’d taken a lot of what was holding me up with him and I just sort of fell into Dino’s arms and let myself get held tight for a few minutes.

“Are you OK?” Dino asked in an intensely serious voice.

“Oh I’m fine as a frog’s hair, just so glad to have you home and safe I’m a bit overcome with it.”

“I never would have left if …”

I wasn’t going to have any of that. “Dino no one could have predicted that those men would have acted the fool exactly where and when they did. If you want the truth I’m more glad that it happened to me than some other woman that might not have been as prepared to take the necessary steps. Can we talk about this in a bit? Little pitchers have big ears,” I added with a glance in Kerry’s direction.

With a nod from him I asked, “Are you hungry? I have some set back from dinner.” He didn’t have to say a word, his stomach did his talking for him which set Kerry to laughing so hard he near about fell over.

While we sat at the porch table which had become our favored breakfast and supper location he shoveled in the food so fast I told him, “You’re going to get indigestion. I’ll fix more if you are that hungry.”

“I am,” he admitted. “But I think there is more rain on the way and I need to get the wagons unloaded and tend to the horses. They’ve been peaches and deserve some extra tending.” It wasn’t until he’d tended to the beasties that we were able to exchange our stories.
 

Chapter 21​


We didn’t sit down and have a talk for a good while though I did have to give him chapter and verse of what happened that night and the next day. First it was the horses, then emptying the wagons. One wagon held feed and stayed in the barn but the other wagon held a whole bunch of gobbledygook that had to be brought inside; my little wagon must have had a couple of miles put on it just going back and forth between the barn and the house.

As we brought it all inside I just had to ask, “Dino, do you always go shopping like this?”

He gave a chuckle but then shook his head and got serious again fast, “To be honest I’m worried that I’ve underestimated things. I know I’m fine with the feed … it is mostly for winter when the animals will have trouble being free range. Come spring they may be forced to do more of that … it’s the household groceries I’m concerned about.”

I guess I still wasn’t understanding. “Dino, have you taken a look down in the basement lately and the root cellar? I’m not even done with the harvest and I already know there will be things that hold over past the start of next season.”

Out of the blue he walked over, grabbed me in a hug, and gave me one of them honest to goodness old movie style kisses where the guy bends the girl back over his arm. Holy mackerel, I near couldn’t breathe! “That’s just in case I have been remiss in expressing just how glad I am that you came along.”

Trying to stuff my curls back where they’d sprung from during the kiss I told him, “Well my goodness, your gladness is surely appreciated.” He chuckled the way men do when they’ve done something manly that gets noticed. “I still don’t get your shopping style though. None of your orders in Newton were anything like this.”

Serious once again he said, “That’s because I’m not sure how much ordering we’ll be able to do in Newton, or any place else for that matter.”

“Are … I mean … is the harvest …?”

He shook his head. “It isn’t a matter of money Riss. The contracts are still good and in a couple of days we’ll even have some couriers out here picking orders up.”

“If it isn’t a matter of money then what is it?”

“Supply. Any kind of violence – and from what you said that Sergeant said to expect it – will disrupt supply chains. In the rural areas of the country we are doing well enough to get by. We may not have some of the conveniences that the urban areas have – consistent if rationed electricity, consistent if rationed and expensive fuel, treated water from the tap, easy access in one central point for goods and services – but what we do have is rarely rationed by the government.”

“Well then, that’s a good thing isn’t it?”

He nodded, “Yes, as far as it goes. But we aren’t totally self-sufficient out here. It could be as simple as something like a lynch pin for a piece of equipment, rope, nails, rubber gaskets, even the material for clothes when the old ones wear out.”

“Then people will make do or do without.”

He sighed. “That’s a nice simple answer.”

“But true,” I persisted.

“Yes, it is. But there’s more to it than that Riss. Before you can make do or do without you have to get to a point where that is possible.” At my disbelieving look at the backwards logic of his statement he was forced to laugh. “Yeah, I know it sounds like an oxymoron but it is just as true as your answer is. Even as long as this war has been going on and what it has done to the economy and the population in general, a lot of people have just plain chosen not to learn the skills they need until they are absolutely forced to learn them. Your mother’s family was already equipped to withstand many of the changes. You came from a background and were of an age that when you were forced to move to the rural countryside you probably didn’t even consciously realize you were adapting, you flowed with your circumstances rather than fought them.”

I shrugged. “Well, what was I supposed to do? Sit around and have a pity party all day long? My mom might have been out of it a lot of the time but she never would have stood for that … and neither would my grandparents. If you wanted to stay on the farm with them then you had to be a contributing member in some way … or at least be willing to contribute.”

“See? That’s what I’m talking about. A lot of people in the urban areas though, they haven’t adapted. They’ve continued to try and mold their current circumstances to mimic their old circumstances as much as possible.”

“That’s the same problem a lot of the government contractees have when they first move out to manage a farm or harvest. They try and bring their old life and habits with them.”

“Exactly. The problem no matter whether you live in the city, the ‘burbs, or the country is that adaptation will only take you so far; sometimes you need to make a leap and … and evolve I guess you would say.”

Trying to follow his train of thought I asked, “Like … like how?”

He stopped and because his hands were full backed up to the corner of the barn and used it to scratch an itch he couldn’t reach making me laugh. “You look like an old boar. Be careful or you’re going to itch a spot full of splinters.”

“Then come help me woman.” Laughing some more I let go of the wagon handle and went over and scratched a spot below his shoulder blade. At the blissful look on his face I teased, “You need your belly scratched too boss dog?”

That snapped him to attention, “If you don’t stop talking like that I’m gonna get … distracted.”

I’m not normally a tease, being careful to behave as I ought so there would be no question in Dino’s mind that I was a woman with character … or at least only one spot on my character, but I was just so happy and relieved to have him back and in one piece that I was acting a little risky. Thank goodness for Kerry being underfoot.

“Why would you want your belly scratched? Have you got fleas Daddy?”

That sent me off laughing again and I scampered back to the pull cart knowing that if I didn’t there would be payback and I wasn’t sure in my current mood if I was anywhere near being able to avoid temptation.

“You were saying something about evolution,” I reminded him.

He snorted but obliged by explaining, “Not the kind of evolution you are talking about although you could say that there’s been plenty of ‘Darwin Awards’ handed out in the last couple of years. I mean more like … like making a jump in understanding. For instance, I took electricity for granted right along with everyone else. And I figured if the power ever did go down I had the farm generators and a supply of fuel that would last until we could get more. Haven’t you ever wondered why we don’t use the tractors more?”

I shook my head, “No, not really. Fuel is expensive and you seem to do well enough with the teams pulling the harvest wagons and for getting around.”

He smiled as he passed me going up the porch steps. “We do but the truth is Alec and I would be able to get twice the work done in half the time with even less effort if we could use the tractors. We used to have even more tractors – newer ones – than you see in the barns. Over the years we’ve had to cannibalize them to keep the older, more reliable tractors going. GPS and computer chips don’t do a bit of good if your drive shaft or hydraulics are toast.”

“So you made the leap from tractors to horses.”

He shook his head. “No. We were forced to go from mostly tractor work to mostly horse work. We didn’t have any choice. Our actions were reactive not proactive.”

I stopped and then said, “I guess I’m still not understanding what you mean.”

He used the porch rail to scratch the same spot as before and I knew I’d need to look at it to see what was causing the itch but got sidetracked by his explanation. “I’d give just about anything if I hadn’t talked Papooh out of putting solar power in the grape shed. At the time it was going to cost a ton of money and Yaya was dealing with some expensive health problems. I thought there would always be time for him to do his experimenting after they got other things taken care of. It was right before I headed out to basic and … and I thought I knew more than I did. I wasn’t thinking far enough down the road.”

“Your grandfather was a grown man with lots of experience Dino. You were … well … mostly still a kid. If it had been that important to him you wouldn’t have been able to dissuade him.”

He sighed as he got his scratching done and we went back to the barn for another load. “While that is true Papooh was old-fashioned and counted on Alec and I for advice on modernization. It was his way of drawing us … particularly me … into the business. I missed the mark that time and badly.”

“But … I mean … solar panels break, batteries wear out or go bad, and those converter thingies don’t last forever either.” I’d surprised him with my understanding of how solar energy worked. At his questioning look I said, “Harry.”

“Harry?!”

I laughed at the look on his face. “Yes, Harry. He may act foolish on occasion but sometimes it is just to hide how smart he really is. Harry was the only one besides Sol that I could talk to. They’d had to leave a lot of their books behind as well, but not all of them and when the boys found out it wasn’t a chore for me to understand them they’d share all of these projects they would have gotten into if money hadn’t been an issue. They also talked about the shortcomings of those projects. One of the reasons Harry wanted to go into the military so bad is because he knew his uncle would pigeon hole him into business and Harry is more interested in mechanics and engineering and getting more training in that area.”

Dino nodded his head, “You’re right, he does hide it.”

We both laughed. “So you’re sorry that you talked your grandfather out of solar but he could have put it in and you could still be sitting in the dark when the sun goes down. Solar has its limitation just like everything else.”

“Of course, but it would have been another option. Redundancy is the key to surviving these days. Let me give you another example. I’m sorry now that Alec and I didn’t get into making our own fuel sooner. We could have already been set up and even making excess.”

“You mean your poop generators?” I said reminding him of one of our earliest conversations.

He grinned remembering as well. “Those … and ethanol or biodiesel for the tractors. And before you get started I’m well aware that each of those has their own problems not the least of which is the natural resources required to create them. But that’s what I mean … we could have already been addressing those issues and finding alternatives or finding ways to work smarter, not harder.”

“You and Alec look like you are doing all right from where I stand,” I told him in admiration. “Having indoor plumbing alone is worth its weight in gold to me. And that pump at the kitchen sink … there just isn’t enough good things I can say about it.”

He kissed my forehead as he passed me up again with a couple of burlap sacks riding his shoulders. “Thank you but all we are doing is building on what my grandfather created, and his uncle before him. I want to do more. I want to find some way to make my own mark and add to it rather than just living off of it. That solar would have been something not many people have, it would have made life … well, not easy but certainly easier in some respects.”

Thinking I said, “Well, Alec said it was your idea to branch out into the specialty wines and that they make up almost twenty percent of the income now because of what people will pay for them. Isn’t that making your mark … or making a leap to do things different?”

Still unsatisfied he said, “I suppose, but I want to do more. Alec has already made that leap with his methane set up. He figures by next spring Cheryl will be able to go back to cooking on a gas stove and he won’t have to spend so much time splitting wood.”

“Granddaddy said splitting wood is why you keep your boy babies rather than selling them to the gypsies.” When Dino stopped laughing at the look on Kerry’s face I added, “You’ll make your mark and knowing you it’ll be a splashy one. For now, be content with this great big ol’ house and farm the way it is … although if you could figure a way to make wash day easier I surely wouldn’t complain about that.”

“Is it getting to be too much for you?” he asked concerned yet again at me doing certain kinds of work when I was so far along.

I shook my head, “It’s not the work Dino, it’s the time. When I’m gardening and cooking and preserving the laundry piles up. When I have to spend a whole day doing laundry the rest of it piles up. And when the baby comes along I’m not going to be able to put laundry off to one day a week … dirty nappies just don’t wait. Oh what am I complaining about … at least I’ve got spare to wear; some people don’t. And I don’t have to chop my own wood anymore either. It’s just fine.”

“No it’s not,” he said quietly. “I know the summer is a busy time Riss and I don’t know how I would have got through this one without you. I can’t believe those bast …”

“Uh uh … little pitcher, big ears.”

He sighed. “You know what I mean.”

“I do. And I can’t imagine what my life would be without you right about now either … or … or about … about anytime any more. You are about the only reason that I’m not completely disgusted with my foolishness … if I hadn’t then I would never have … I mean … you … and … Kerry and ….”

“Hey … hey, you … you are crying,” he said startled. “Did that man … bother you and you’re just not saying …”

“No, not that. I mean it might sound horrible but I … I don’t think on him any more than that dog I put down. To me at that moment they weren’t much different.”

“Then what’s … Kerry, go play and let me talk to Riss for a bit.” Kerry was happy to get out of more toting and went to the tree where Stinky and the other dogs had commandeered the shade. “Now what’s wrong? Something is sure bothering you.”

I shook my head, “I don’t know. I just keep … worrying that something or someone one is going to come along and take away … just … just all of it. It has always been like that, why should now be any different?”

He took me into his arms real gentle and I just lay there needing and wanting him to be who I thought he was and not just a figment of my imagination. I said real quiet, afraid that saying it out loud might make it come true, “What if Sol takes it into his head that he wants the baby? Or tries to make trouble for … for us? He could you know. His uncle is some kind of big shot with money and connections.”

“Sol isn’t going to come near you or the baby,” he said forcefully.

“You can’t know that.”

“Oh yes I can. Come here and sit down, now is as good a time as any I suppose to talk.”

Something told me he’d been holding off on something and I wasn’t too sure I was going to like it.
 

Chapter 22​


“Sol isn’t going to bother you … or the baby … and he better not try to get in our way at all,” Dino said in a dead serious voice.

“How can you know that for sure?” I asked. “He just might …”

I didn’t get to finish. “I know because AJ fixed it.”

You know those times when you hear something and your head just kind of fills up with air? It’s like you’re brain gets stuck in neutral and then wham, the balloon pops and you’ve got so many questions whirling around in there you don’t know which one to ask first. I picked the one that seemed to make the most sense at that point. “What does AJ have to do with any of this?”

I could see that he was having a hard time answering like I’d asked the wrong question or a question with too much answer to it so I switched tactics. “OK, so if you can’t answer my questions … uh … why don’t you start at the beginning and explain it in the order you see it in.”

He blew air out through his lips, ran a hand through his hair, and in general fidgeted like a man that was not entirely sure the outcome of something was going to be to his liking. “Riss, I told you from the beginning what … what my intentions were.”

He looked at me willing me to understand but all I could say was, “Uh huh.”

“And you … you know I’m a proactive kind of man.”

Another pleading look and I gave him another, “Uh huh.”

“I also promised I’d look after you and the baby regardless of your ultimate decision.”

This time my “Uh huh” carried with it a tinge of suspicion.

“And you know that I’ve had a spot of trouble with a parent … not … er … being around to fulfill their responsibilities.”

This time my “Uh huh” had more than just a tinge of suspicion.

“AJ … he’s … he’s a lawyer and …”

“Dino Pappas, what did you do and when did you do it?” I asked in a sharp voice.

“Now Riss …”

“Don’t you now Riss me. If this involves my baby don’t you think I should have been in on it? And what the bloody blue blazes is ‘this’ anyway? I’m not hearing too much explanation, only rationalization.”

He knew from experience when I started using big words I was some upset so he got down to business. “That’s right, that baby is yours … that bast …” at my warning look he said, “… er … Sol … Sol abandoned you. Not only did he abandon you he completely threw you over.”

Not enjoying having it rubbed in my face I said, “I am well aware of the facts of the case thank you very much.”

“Well maybe you were aware of them and maybe you weren’t. Seems from what I found out when Sol went to town he got his head turned completely around and had him a pretty good time with the ladies and everything else too; if he wasn’t on duty he was partying. The crowd of young people that he had access to through your uncle … let’s just say a lot of them have very little character, even less sense, and the way they do things wouldn’t fly around here. They certainly aren’t anything that you would be used to dealing with and Sol had picked up their habits.”

Not wanting to hear any more I said, “So what you’re saying is that I got played.”

Trying to be kind but brutally honest at the same time he said, “In a nutshell … yes. Or … or maybe Sol believed the BS he was spewing for a while, convinced himself to believe it, I just don’t know. Either way when he returned to finish his tour he went right back to where he left off.”

“And he even lied to … to his family? Did they know? Wait … did Harry …”

“No, not as far as I have been able to tell. And even if he suspected, Harry decided which side he was on and didn’t care who knew it or what the consequences were.” I relaxed a bit.

Dino started playing with my curls which seemed to fascinate him for some reason. “I don’t want to break your heart but you need to know the truth.”

I shook my head feeling the tug as he held on to one particularly misbehaving curl. “Sol lost the ability to break my heart a long time ago. But bringing it all back up … and now learning this … it just makes me feel like a bigger fool.”

“You aren’t a fool. You were young and naïve and in love.”

I snorted, “I thought I was in love. But to be honest I didn’t have any idea what that meant.”

“Do you now?” he asked quietly.

I sighed, “A heap more than I did then.”

He pulled me back against him and I let it happen. “Then just hear me out.” At my nod he continued. “I lied when I said I hadn’t heard from Tammy since she walked out the door.” I stiffened up but he wouldn’t let me pull away. “Right after she left she sent some lawyer after me trying to take half the farm and get a monthly income. When I told her to … uh … pound sand she swore up and down she was going to take Kerry and I’d never see him again … and get the farm and an income. In her words she was going to destroy me for making her life a misery. I went straight to AJ.”

I asked, “Because he’s a lawyer?”

“No. Because he is AJ; because of who … and what … he is. He’s a lawyer because he likes the work, but the law isn’t his only … er … profession. He can be ruthless, heartless, and vindictively nasty … but only when necessary … and do it with a clear conscience. And he is very, very good at being AJ.” He stopped and took a breath before saying, “At the time I could have cared less what happened to Tammy but no one was going to take my son. She’d already done enough damage to him … and me. At one point … at one point she even made me wonder if he was mine.” He shook his head. “Don’t ever tell him that. You and Alec and AJ are the only three people on this planet that know about it … and Tammy, wherever she is.”

“I knew she was … but this … I …”

“I don’t expect you to understand Tammy. I don’t think Tammy understands Tammy anymore. She took off down a road and she lost herself along the way. I feel bad for the girl she was when we got married … but not for the woman she turned into. But because of what she’d already done I was not going to let her take Kerry; I was prepared to skip the country with him if I had to.

“In a war?”

“In a war. I was just that determined. But then AJ said he could fix it.”

I asked, my suspicion returning, “Fix it how?”

“I told you AJ can be ruthless … and vindictive. Tammy had decided to spite the family and to AJ that is a mortal sin. Somehow he found out things about Tammy … pictures, things from the past that not even I knew about, names that I never wanted to know … and he had her declared unfit. By the time he was through with her he nearly had her committed to the state hospital on the basis of being a danger to herself and others.”

I gasped, “Good Heavens …”

“Yeah, but it was done and I haven’t seen her since we signed the papers in front of the judge. She was scared but not too scared that if looks could kill I’d have been at her feet in a bloody ruin.”

After a moment of silence I asked, “And what does this have to do … have to do with me not having to worry about Sol taking the baby?”

His arm around me tightened a bit then loosened like he had forced himself to not squeeze too hard. “I’ve wanted you almost from the beginning Riss. God help me I don’t know why but I was determined if there was a way, that for once I was going to get what I wanted. Then I got to know you and the wanting only got worse. You make me laugh, Kerry can be a little boy now without being some dervish that everyone is afraid of crossing, you’ve turned my grandparents’ house into my home … a home that I want you to share. And I’m interested in seeing what that little bundle you’re carrying is going to turn into with you for a Momma.”

I started to say something but didn’t know what. My mouth just kinda hung open until he put a finger under my chin and gently closed it. “But there in the beginning Sol kept getting in my way.”

“He wasn’t around. I wasn’t seeing him secret,” I cried worried that ruthless cousin AJ had said something that wasn’t true.

“No and I never thought you would. Trusting you was easy … it was trusting Sol to leave us alone that was impossible for me to do. I saw how you would tense up if someone accidently mentioned him or asked if you’d heard from anyone other than Harry. Harry said you didn’t want to have anything to do with his mother and sister either.”

“I … I haven’t made up my mind about that.” When he was silent I looked back at him. “What?”

“I thought if they were out of your life you wouldn’t … I saw how you worried at it even though you’ve never said anything. I’ve seen how you get real protective when Sol’s name gets mentioned. In my mind Sol was no better than Tammy so I … er … sent AJ after him.”

I did turn then, all the way in his arms though he would let me loose. “You what?!” I whispered almost afraid to hear him repeat it.

“Just … just hear me out Riss.” I nodded but did it from a sitting position where there was some space between us. “AJ … he told me … look, I was a bit of a fool too, at least so far as comparing Sol and Tammy. Sol is … he’s a thoughtless kid. Even married and serving in a position of responsibility he’s still just a kid. He probably has no idea – or desire to find out right now – what his actions have wrought. His uncle isn’t giving him much of a chance to be a man either, to find himself … and from what AJ says that girl he is married to put his … er … she’s got him on a short leash too.”

Well, I kinda figured that was gonna happen after only one look at her but to hear it outright didn’t bring me the pleasure I thought it would. “So Sol’s life isn’t quite the gold ring he grabbed for. I still don’t understand.”

“Sol may be a kid but Sol’s uncle is another book of stamps completely. AJ said it was … what did he call it? Oh yeah, he said it was a ‘delightfully exciting challenge to take on the old man.’ And for AJ to say that …” he sighed. “You may very well have had reason to worry if he’d ever wanted to cause you trouble.”

I started shaking but Dino wasn’t having any of it. “Come here. I told you AJ is very good at what he does. There are papers inside in my desk … running into AJ wasn’t an accident. They are notarized and signed by a judge. Sol has given up all of his parental rights to the baby and his uncle has also agreed to not try and make any contact.”

“People say things all the time. That doesn’t mean they’ll abide …”

“Riss, I told you AJ is vindictive but I guess you just aren’t understanding. Not only would they be violating a legal agreement, if they break it AJ has promised to release certain information that would destroy the uncle’s ability to do business. It could open the uncle up to a lot of law suits by former business associates that would pick his little empire apart by the nickel and dime.”

I shook my head, “Why? Why would you do this? And, oh my Lord, will Harry think …?”

“Whoa there. Harry knows me. And we talked before he left. I told him that anything I had against his brother had nothing to do with him … and that anything I did against his brother had nothing to do with him. He understood. He told me if I didn’t do whatever it took to protect you and the baby like I promised he’d come hunting me up.” Dino was smiling a bit at that but I think I know Harry better than he does. Harry has hidden depths and those depths are even more red-headed that the hair on his head is. I let it go since there was no need to go down that road.

“So this means … that … that I don’t have to worry about Sol or his uncle?”

“You don’t have to think about them ever again.”

I sighed. “Dino, I can’t pretend that this baby just sprung from under a cabbage leaf. And I can’t lie that it’s yours, too many people know the truth. There’s gonna come a time when there’s questions that need to be answered.”

“Fine,” he said gruffly. “But we’ll deal with it when it comes. You don’t need to get all worked up about it now however.”

It is a lot to take in and I’m not sure what I think about it. On the one hand, if I can trust AJ to have done the job right then I can breathe a lot easier. On the other hand, what was done and how it happened sticks in my craw. I’m not angry at Dino, not really even though I suppose I could be if I wanted to be. He’d done a lot for me even before he’d gotten to know me … and all on the basis of his wanting something that might not ever have been his. There’s something terribly romantic in that and even though I don’t have a high opinion of romance in general and trust it even less, the idea that someone would do something so … so fateful … gives me the shivers.

Quietly we went back to moving the stuff from the wagon to the house. There was only one last canvas covered item in the wagon and looking at it Dino got that uncomfortable look on his face again. I wasn’t sure I could take anymore but Dino just sighed, shook his head and flipped the canvas back.

“How?! Oh … goodness … help me up here Dino, my belly is getting in the way.”

That was going too far. “You are not climbing in this wagon in your condition. Stop that before you fall. Just hang on and I’ll bring it down.”

“How did you find it? I … I mean …”

“AJ brought it back with him. AJ said that Hannah Bly has an interesting way of getting what she wants and what she wanted was for him to return this to you. It was apparently taken from the barn by mistake and she knows what it means to you. He says there’s a letter inside the cabinet drawer.”

I opened the drawer with unsteady hands and read Hannah’s short note.

Riss, Where ever you are you must have good friends. I’ve never seen Uncle Bill take such a pill as he had to with that Mr. Nichols. Wow, he is yummy or what? You are doing the right thing, Sol is a jerk. Uncle Bill is a jerk too but he is a rich jerk and he keeps Mom and I done up pretty well all things considered. She likes this gilded cage life. It is something I can live with for a while until I decide exactly what it is I do want. All I know for sure is that I don’t want to happen to me what happened to you so I’m picking different friends from the ones that Sol has. Shantelle is a witch and nothing like you at all. She is forever correcting me or telling me off. God she is such a bore. I can understand you wanting to make Sol and Uncle Bill go away, I’d like to too. But still hoping that one day you’ll change your mind and let me know where you are. Trust me, I keep lots better secrets these days, I’ve had to learn. Keep Harry in your prayers, we haven’t heard from him in a while. If you do hear from him tell my twin he better write soon or else. Hannah

There wasn’t much to say so I handed the note to Dino to read. When he was done I said, “We’ll need to warn AJ.”

Looking back at the letter like he’d missed some hidden message I walked up to him and leaned into him for a hug. “Hannah thinks he’s yummy.”
 

Chapter 23​


It has been an eventful few days. Some people like to get over excited in regular doses; not me. I suppose the occasional extra giddyup and go in your life is necessary. It puts you through the fire, tests you, and strengthens you. Necessary or not, I’m that grateful when things return to the normal, everyday kind of ruckus.

“Kerry Pappas! You used my razor for what?!”

Yep, the everyday kind of ruckus is plenty enough for me. I ran upstairs – well run isn’t exactly what I did but I did move as fast as I could. Dino was standing in the door way of his bathroom, bare chested and bare footed, while blood ran into a towel he held under his chin.

“What on earth?!” I cried as I ran forward to see what Dino had done to himself.

In an extremely indignant voice he complained, “I left the razor where I always do; sharp, clean, and ready for its next use. I don’t have time to fool around in the morning. So today I get up, throw a hot rag on my face – thank you for the bucket of hot water this morning Love but I better not catch you carry it up those stairs again in your condition – lather up and with the first swipe I nearly slice my face off!”

I looked at Kerry who was giving his father a strange look then turned back quickly when Dino added, “I find out that rascal has … get this Riss … shaved the boar’s backside so it wouldn’t itch!”

“But Daddy, you said that you shave you face because when you don’t it itches and that ol’ board kept scratching his bu…”

“Kerry!” I broke in. “What have you been told about touching your daddy’s things?”

“Awwww,” came a plaintive voice.

Kerry knew the rules. He also knew what was coming because he broke the rules. In this case he was going to have to stay here at the house and do chores and not get to go with this father to the fields like had been the plan.

“I better not hear another word. I want that bed made. I want that floor swept. And then you hit that kitchen and make sure that wood box is full. Right now mister.”

Kerry went glumping into his room like it was the end of the world and I turned back to Dino. He had a gash next to his chin on his jaw line. “Good grief. Let me get the styptic pencil; it isn’t deep but there’s a good piece of skin missing.” Hearing his groan I told him, “It’s that or a salt poultice … or I could try some cayenne.”

“No! No … uh … just hand me the styptic pencil.”

“I’ll do it. It’s at a bad angle and will be hard for you to see.”

I could understand his reluctance. Using a styptic pencil must be akin to what it feels to have lock jaw. “There now, that’s better,” I said when I’d gotten the bleeding under control.

“You could … uh … kiss it and make it feel lots better,” he said huskily.

I backed out of the bathroom laughing. “Behave. And how you can think about that when I’m roughly the size of Hern Peter’s new bear rug …”

“Now Honey, you know that just makes a man more …”

“Daddy? Why are you chasing Miss Riss around the bed and calling her funny names?”

That’ll douse the flame I’ll tell you that much. I left the room while Dino got that deer in the head lamp look. I escaped and went down the stairs laughing, leaving him to explain things to his son.

In the kitchen I finished the cattail pollen pancakes that I had started before the morning’s first excitement. You take two cups of pollen, two eggs, two cups of flour, a cup of milk, one and one half cups of water, one teaspoon of salt, and one tablespoon of sugar. Mix it all together well, getting rid of the lumps, and then you fry the pancakes on a hot griddle just like you would plan pancakes.

I heard a “Yippeeeeeee!” right before a herd of elephants came stampeding down the stairs. I managed to step back from the stove right before I received a very enthusiastic hug, the kind only soon-to-be five-year-old boys can give.

“Now you’ll have to stay forever!”

I laughed as I felt my face heat up a little and said, “You sure you won’t mind?”

“You just wait till I tell the other boys. Miss Riss is going to be MY momma. Hey, is the baby going to be my brother?”

“Or sister,” I confirmed. “If you want.”

In a yell that rattled the windows he said, “Yeehaw!!! I’m not gonna be the baby of the fambly anymore!! I gotta go tell Stinky!!!” He slammed out of the screen door, crashed down the porch steps and I could hear him hoot and holler all the way to the kennel.

“I think my son approves; he isn’t going to be the youngest in our “fambly” anymore. What do you think?”

Looking up I blushed and I told him, “I think you need a shirt on before I lose track and burn these pancakes.” He gave a decidedly male laugh and then went to oblige me.

The field hands and Alec and Ajax arrived just in time to help themselves to the pot of chicory I had made. AJ showed up as a single rider a few moments later and was offered a cup as well.

I still wasn’t sure what to make of AJ. He acted like he was a three-piece-suit city boy but I’ve seen him strip and work as hard as any of the field hands and it was obvious he got plenty of physical activity doing something and I’m not talking about the kind you get behind a desk shuffling papers. He could be intimidating and it was obvious he was used to having his way and for a reason; Dino was the only one that seemed able to ignore that part of him though it was obvious he gave him respect.

The biggest difference between AJ and the rest of his family is that his laughter and smiles were fewer and never seemed to make it to his eyes. And those eyes had seen too much of something; what I didn’t know and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know either.

I’d tried to thank him for what he did but he just brushed me off. “Now look here, I don’t care for being beholden to people but I guess I owe you more than thanks. I’m just not sure what to do about it but there is no need for you to be cranky just because I said thank you. I swear, you and Dino are related all right.”

He’s a few inches taller than Dino which makes him tall enough to irritate me. Especially when he chose to use that height to look down his nose and ask, “What, precisely, is that supposed to mean?”

Just to see if I could get a rise out of him I sashayed over, grabbed the step stool, parked it in front of him, climbed up and said in something more approaching eye-to-eye, “It means that the two of you act like my gratitude is migraine inducing.”

I could see his chest bouncing a bit but he just stepped back and said, “Short women should not poke bears.”

Right back at him I said, “Tall men should not act like grouchy ol’ bears.”

A coughing, wheezing sound came out of his throat and then he got a peculiar expression on his face. He bowed like he was some court jester and then high-tailed it over to his horse and took off.

Dino came over from the trestle table where he had been eating with the men and asked me quietly, “Is AJ bothering you?”

“Nope. I think I might have run him off though.”

“You might have … Riss,” Dino said giving me a stern look. “AJ is no one to mess with.”

I looked at him all wide-eyed and said, “I’m not messing with him. I was just trying to say thank you for what he did for us and he gets all fidgety then goes galloping off without a by-your-leave or nothing. What on earth do you Pappas men have against a simple thank you?” Dino just rolled his eyes and told me again to watch for AJ because his moods could be “mercurial.” I’m not making it up, that’s what Dino said word for word.

That was yesterday. Today AJ kept his distance. I let him. I was just too busy to mess with trying to draw out a man what didn’t want to be drawed out. I was still finding spots for the supplies that Dino had brought back with him. When I asked where on earth he had gotten everything, especially the twelve cases of brand spanking new canning jars he kind of hemmed and hawed. I didn’t push but I was beginning to get an idea from that and a few other things the men let drop when they didn’t know I could hear them that I most definitely did not want to know what else AJ Nichols did for a living.

I had Dino take the flour and cornmeal and set them in the coldest part of the ice room, up off the floor on this rolling rack thing I’d uncovered as the basement had been organized. None of the ice left in there was fit for human consumption, and a lot of moisture was starting to collect and run to the drain in the floor, but at least it still cooled things off. I was hoping that if I could keep flour and cornmeal in there until it started freezing outside again it would slow down any weevil infestation.

Weevils are a fact of life. My grandfather said they were just extra protein. My grandmother said they were unsightly and any good housekeeper would be horrified to find them in her flour. Well, I don’t know about horrified but I surely didn’t like to waste time having to sift them out so it didn’t look like I’d dropped the pepper shaker into the bread when I was baking. Hannah wasn’t very careful and would leave the lid off of the flour canister so weevils were a constant bother.

There’s three hundred pounds of turbinado – or raw – sugar hidden down in the basement. I wasn’t asking where it came from and Dino wasn’t telling. All he said was, “Use it sparingly, there’s no telling when or if there will be any more of that with the way they bombed south Florida last month. For everyday use we’ll try and trade for sorghum and then use the honey as well.”

There were also jugs of distilled white vinegar (we can get cider vinegar locally), baking soda, coffee, a box of first aid supplies and some hard to come by medicines, reloading materials, a hundred feet of new rope and several clean but not new tow straps, a box of a bunch of different spices and seasonings packed in zipper baggies, five pounds of vanilla beans (that someone probably gave a body part for), several metal containers of olive oil, a case of vodka, three cases of rum, a large burlap bag of curing mixes, and the list goes on including several bolts of cloth, two of which were denim. Then there were some things for the baby like cloth nappies and then what brought a huge blush to my face when I found them, some particular feminine supplies.

I was just trying to figure out how to ask Dino if he had ordered everything in the wagon when he walked in and tried to look over my shoulder. I slammed the lid down on the box but Dino lifted it back up. It took him a moment to process what he was seeing then he closed the lid. He turned a serious look to me and said, “I wish I could take the credit Riss. Knowing AJ he just assumed if Cheryl and the girls were ordering that stuff that you’d expect some too.”

I was irritated by the tired and disappointed look on Dino’s face. “Well Mr. AJ Nichols can just knock off his assuming. I know how to take care of myself and I’ll thank him to remember it in the future. As a matter of fact he can …”

I got a kiss to bring me down off my soapbox. “Are you sure you aren’t a red head under all them curls? Or did Harry’s contaminate you?”

“Oh you …”

He was still tired but at least he didn’t look so bad around the eyes any more. They found out that they’d lost nearly an entire acre of the last grapes. “Riss, some of it is storm damage, you have to expect that and build it into your harvest so you don’t fall short, but some of it … you could tell from the barefoot prints we had scavengers. An acre is bad but we can absorb the loss … but we can’t absorb that kind of loss very often. I want you to … well I suppose you do anyway.”

“You want me to what?”

“Keep everything picked out of the gardens and orchard as much as possible. I don’t now if you remember how it was in the beginning but Alec said people would come right up in daylight and just take anything they needed out of your garden, off your porch …” He trailed off and then added. “It may be the furthest fields this time but they could be at the house next.”

“I thought you said there was a big, tall fence around the outlying parts of the vineyard with bamboo planted outside of that.”

He sighed and then stretched his leg and I could see him wince. “There is. We found where they cut the fence. Chester and Rick already have it repaired and they followed the trail back. It was a couple of teenage boys that, along with a younger sister and their mother, have taken over one of the abandoned trailers at the old fish camp trailer park.”

“Anyone I would know?” I asked him seriously.

“No, they’re from the city. The husband was with them until about two weeks ago. He said he was taking the family’s last few dollars on their EBT card and going to buy groceries … he never came back. The boys said he’s done it before but never for more than a couple of days at a time. They didn’t have anything to eat.”

“I’ll put together a basket and …”

“No.”

I gave him a look for the rough finality of the order. He shook himself and pulled a curl by way of saying he was sorry. “Alec is putting the boys to work. They’re old enough and big enough to pass without running into problems. All they need to do is keep their noses clean and their heads down. They’ll get paid in groceries but they’ll also be working off the damage they did to the vines. He’s set Clarence to keep an eye on them … keep the Klukkers from sniffing them out.”

“Oh,” I said, understanding finally dawning. Racial tensions had their occasional flair ups in the cities but it was a constant, quiet thing in some parts of the country. Newton and our part of the district didn’t put up with it much but Cherry Gap and a few other places simply accepted it as part of normal life. But even here we had a few that took a man’s skin color to be more important than his soul. “What about the mother and daughter?”

“The mother seems to be all right but you stay away from the girl, at least until she gets the cornered rat look out of her eyes. She’s fourteen going on forty and dresses like it too. If any of them brings down trouble on their heads it will be her.”

Lord-a-mercy. Wasn’t there enough trouble in the world? Not knowing what else could be done I focused on my own responsibilities and at that moment it was planning me a dress I could stand before the Judge and be married in. It’s just no matter how I cut it I’m going to look like the Lusitania sailing out of port.
 

Chapter 24​


Grapes are all in and I’m not a bride yet but not because Dino hasn’t been itching to get it done. He’s laid up at the moment and acting sorrier than a skunk sprayed hound about it.

AJ got some itchy feet and left after being around a little over a week. I think he only stayed as long as he did for Aunt Adona’s sake. He was here one day and poof … just gone the next. Dino says he is just that way. I said fine let him be that way. By the time he left, being around Alec was like walking on broken glass and Ajax wasn’t much better. They got back to their normal selves within a day of him leaving. I don’t see a reason for it myself, his public behavior didn’t seem all that off but anything not public is none of my business; they didn’t say anything and I didn’t ask, must be one of those family things I’ll figure out with time. I was just glad to be getting back to normal. Well, as normal as things get these days.

There’ve been more stories of people having things go missing … from their garden, their yards, their barn, even their houses if it’s left unattended. It doesn’t matter whether you are right on top of the road or sit some far back, seems people have learned and are not necessarily using the main roads since nothing survived along the highways that the original human locusts focused on. There’s suspicion that it might be locals too; those folks who once counted on money from the government and lived check to check without setting anything back. I suppose it is mean to say such of a fellow human being that might be in want but the truth is they hurt a lot of people. When one person steals from you it is a lot harder to find it in you to give to the next one.

Those boys that Alec tried to help didn’t last long. They were city boys and not used to the work. When they didn’t show up two days running Alec sent Clarence – he’s Alex’s boss man for the non-vineyard part of his farm which is bigger than ours and needs constant attention – over to see what was up. What was up was that they’d moved on, I guess looking for some place easier to get what they wanted. Hate to say it but they won’t find it, especially not with winter staring everyone in the face. Radio says that the Gulf states have set up picket lines along their northern borders because they’ve got so many people heading south for the winter that it is overloading their already stressed out infrastructure. Pretty soon there’ll be violence and fighting over that too.

So far we haven’t lost anything measurable since that one acre but that is due in part to Alec and Dino deciding to extend the employment contract of about half the vineyard field hands. The other half have gone to their other seasonal jobs of apple harvesting, cider pressing, or sorghum cooking. Some of the field hands have actually moved into a couple of old trailers that used to be available for migrant workers. It lies more on Alec’s side than Dino’s but neither man seems to care since they are supporting them equally. Chester and three of his sons are among those men. His oldest son is living with his wife’s family in another part of the state and Chester’s wife left him taking their youngest, their only daughter. Apparently she’d “had all she could take” and left to go live with her mother and sister in Chattanooga. She didn’t even ask the boys if they wanted to go. There are some people in this world that need a good smack but I’ll leave that up to God. I told Chester and his sons that now they wouldn’t have to travel so far to work and that the boys will be that much closer to the school as well now that it has started up. The oldest boy moped and told me, “Miss Riss, not that I don’t appreciate it, but could you find a different silver lining? Going to school with all them little kids to plague me is not my idea of fun.”

I don’t suppose it is but Kerry, for one, is upset that the school district declared he was still too young. I’m not sure I’m disappointed though. The weather has already cooled off quite a bit and Dino thinks it means that we might be in for a rough winter. The men spend all their spare time winterizing those trailers and chopping wood. I told Kerry that he could do school at the table if he wanted to and the rascal said he would think about it. He’s gonna be a pistol when he finally does make it to school; I hope those teachers are ready for him.

October has barely started but it is already turning into one of those times that you just pray to get through and come out the other side with your skin intact. As I said the days are getting cooler; we’re lucky to see seventy degrees during the day and we’re already getting into the forties at night. And it’s been damp. It has made bringing in the last of the garden and orchard fairly miserable for me. Chester sends his boys over to help after school but they also help ride the fence and take care of the extra horse chores and I hate to ask any more of them.

Besides, I’m not doing much canning, I have too much trouble lifting and moving the canners around. And with the dampness the dehydrator hasn’t been usable either. For now everything is either in the root cellar or the barn. I’m trying to leave the apples on the tree as long as possible without getting a lot of fruit fall but the hogs are still getting their share from those that do. Granny Smiths and Arkansas Blacks, the last of the apples, will be completely in by the end of the month and those are the keeping apples that can stand long storage.

The Asian pears have given their last fruit as have the dessert pears and both are wrapped and put up to be used up by December if they hold that long. The last head of cabbage is also in the crock though I found out the Pappas family isn’t overly fond of kraut. That’s fine, several of the men tell me they are dreaming of warm cabbage soup for this winter and I may send it over to them. Since Dino and I fed them all through the harvest, Alec’s household is going to see to them for the next little while. This will ease up on me worrying how I’m gonna do that and have the baby next month too.

My time is drawing close and I don’t know who is more nervous, me or Dino. He watches me like a hawk on some days. The baby is moving down some out of my lungs so I can breathe better but there honestly just isn’t any place for the poor thing to move too. I guess that is the lot of a short woman. I overheard him asking Cheryl if he thought I was too small and I thought he meant short but then Cheryl said, “You are worrying before you need to. If it looks like she isn’t going to be able to deliver at home we’ll just have to wrap her up and try and get her to Newton and pray Dr. Soames can help.”

Well I went to Dino after that and told him to stop worrying. “All the women in my family are short and we’ve all dropped big babies with no problem. My grandmother was a tiny thing, even smaller than me, and she still delivered my mother at home even though Momma was a ten-pounder. It just took her some longer to get her out is all.” Dino shuddered; I don’t think he appreciated my efforts to allay his fears.

Finally got the basement and all those other rooms down there fixed up and organized. We also learned that there is an old tunnel between the wine cellar and the grape shed. The new grape shed sits on the foundation of the original one but when they built the new one either they’d forgotten about the old tunnel or just decided not to use it because while you can get into the tunnel from the wine cellar side, when you get to the other side you can’t get out because the floor joists of the new grape shed are in the way. Dino says that is a project for the spring but it explains the of the crazy ventilation riddles they’d never been able to figure out.

The root cellar is all cleaned and organized too. We were trying to save the last few watermelons for a harvest party but with Dino laid up and the weather turning I just told Alec to go ahead and take them and make another portion of watermelon wine with them. To be honest I’m just about melon’d out anyway. They’re so full of water and fiber that in my condition all that means is that I spend more time in the bathroom than I do any place else. I will say the last of the winter squash has done me proud, especially the hubbards. They are nice and thick skinned and will keep for months which will be appreciated come truly cold weather.

The potatoes are snug in their own cellar away from the onions and apples. Apples and potatoes or onions and potatoes just don’t store well together because gases they create as they ripen spoil each other. The sweet potatoes didn’t make as many as I had hoped. Before I had to lay off the canning I did get quite a few of them done up however, and even had the time to make sweet potato butter, but in general it was a disappointing harvest from them.

I sent the last of those ridiculous carrots to market with Ajax and some of the greens as well. He said they drew plenty of attention and people would then stand around and jabber and barter more than they did at some of the other stands. I suppose everything can have some benefit but I’ll be honest and say I’m glad to see the last of those mutant looking things.

The corn is what laid Dino up … or trying to save it. Being out in the cold and the damp, trying to get the dried corn shocked and then brought in for storage; that corn is just too important, especially now that the price of cornmeal and flour is getting downright silly. Dino was excited and in a rush wanting to finish early so he could go see the Judge. Nothing good ever comes out of rushing. He knows better than to jump in and out of the wagon; it stresses his bad leg. I’ve noticed him favoring it after a long day.

I asked Alec about it on the sly since I didn’t want Dino to know that I’d noticed. Alec says it is always the same towards the end of harvest but then he rests it more over the winter and by next harvest you’d never know how bad he hurt at the end of the last one. But I don’t guess he falls out of the wagon at the end of every harvest and that’s what he did; took a bad tumble, even knocked himself out. But in the end it isn’t his head that is what is paining him. He wrenched the leg and it is bruised up pretty good from landing on a rock that had worked itself to the surface since the last rock harvest. ‘Course the bruise to his pride doesn’t do him any good either.

He went to bed that night very angry that he hadn’t been able to get to the Judge “just because I took a little fall.” Well, by the next morning that “little fall” had him writhing in agony. He’s hardly gotten any sleep in a week and he is fouler than a hungry bear what’s got his head stuck in an empty bee hive. I’ve done everything I can think of to help him and that seems to just make him madder.

“I’m not a helpless old man! Don’t treat me like one!”

About fed up with him not letting me do for him I yelled back, “You know, my great grandmother said that anything wrong with a man could be fixed with a proper woman’s company, a well-seasoned skillet … and good aim. I’m fixin’ to test that theory if you don’t behave!”

He looked outraged for about two seconds then laughed for the first time in a couple of days and gave me a kiss and a sorry. But within the hour was right back to being fairly hard to be around.

I know it’s the pain … physical and prideful … but no matter how hard I try and tell him these things happen and that I’m not going any place since he seems to want me so bad he just acts like I’m slipping through his fingers all the faster. Part of it is also the work that’s being done that he can’t be a part of. He keeps sending me to check on things and then fusses at me for doing so much running around in my condition. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’d likely throttle him for doing such to me I’d dose him without asking his permission and let him sleep it off for a while. I did finally beg him to let me make him some valerian tea. It seems to be working and I hope he can at least get some sleep tonight.

Kerry isn’t quite sure what to make of his daddy while he is in this condition. He tried for a while to help and in all honesty Dino did try and let him but the boy’s energy and “helpfulness” that included unexpectedly plumping the pillows the sore leg was propped on led to a situation and now Kerry creeps about like he’s almost afraid to even go in there. I keep him with me and I’ve explained the situation but I think Dino is going to have a fair piece to go to get Kerry not to jump every time he thinks his daddy is about to bellow.

One of the things that has helped me keep my temper, though it doesn’t seem to do Dino’s any good, is for me to get out of the house when I can. Kerry and I have brought back my wagon loaded down with all sorts of acorns and nuts – black walnut, butternut, acorns, chinquapins, hickorys and even some pecans though I do miss the big ol’ pecan trees on the Davidson farm.

As I rinsed and leached out a bunch of hulled acorns to dry them near the stove I thought of what I’d heard of the folks that moved into my grandparents’ old farm. Seems the government had to take over their old land that run up too close to a military base and gave them my grandparents’ farm in exchange. So the farms not a government contract anymore and it don’t look like there is any way that I will ever see it back in the family. I suppose I knew that all along but it still pinches now that it is plain and legal.

I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting any of them yet but Ajax has and he says while they seem pretty stern folks they open up a bit when they see you keep your word in business and respect that they are a bit … different. Stern isn’t only how they act, but how they dress. From what I’ve heard they dress real conservative, not quite going to the lengths of the stricter Mennonite sects but not far from it either; at least they use buttons and zippers, or so I’ve been told. I’d probably be a horror to them as far as women go. Between my situation, my dress, and my occasional … ok my regular … way of speaking my mind I’m fairly certain I’d give their men ulcers.

Ajax says he don’t think so though. “Riss, I don’t think they’re judgmental towards others so much as they expect more from their own than they do from those they consider out in the world.”

I suppose I shouldn’t be judgmental myself, but I still catch people that stop talking all of a sudden just because I show up. It makes me leery to get around people I don’t already know. Or at least I prefer to be around some of the people I already know. Cindy is still part of a group that have shut me out. I don’t even think Dino “making an honest woman of me” will thaw them out; they’ve become too invested in being right about my lack of character. Suppose I shouldn’t let it bother me and most of the time it doesn’t; I’m insulated out here on the farm amongst the Pappas and the field hands. But on the rare occasions lately when we’ve made it to town or to church – we do try and keep a day of rest, it just isn’t always on a day there is a church meeting – I still feel embarrassed.

That and the other is why Dino was so anxious to get the Judge to say words for us. And the other – well call it what it is, Dino and I wanting do to something about these feelings we have – is making it harder to live together under one roof but in two separate bedrooms. Aunt Adona has added to it by suggesting I come stay with them until Dino “can find the time” to get the right thing done. That put sand in his britches I can tell you. He asked me if I thought he was delaying things on purpose.

“Dino Pappas, you said we’d get married and we will. The harvest was in the way is all,” I told him trying to calm him down.

“Now it’s me being laid up. I swear Riss, I’ll be up tomorrow and …”

“You get up before that leg is ready to be gotten up and we’ll have worse problems than your Aunt Adona’s wanting to tie us up proper. Besides, she’s just upset we told her we didn’t need a big party. Seems she was just dyin’ to have that Harvest Party and to get us presented properly at the same time.”

Which is true. Losing the Harvest Party really did overset Aunt Adona. It’s something she looks forward to and tries to plan out every year; kinda like a family tradition. Still, wish she hadn’t said anything no matter how well intentioned; it’s only brought more attention to something we were dealing with by being circumspect, especially for Kerry’s sake. I’ve tried to explain to the woman that we haven’t actually done anything about anything yet but I’m not sure she or anyone else believes that. Makes me feel – just like Cindy said at one point – that I’m giving Dino a bad name. I tried to ask him one time but he got so aggravated at me even worrying about “all the nonsense those witchy wet hens raise” that I haven’t brought it up again.

And I’ve been fair too busy to think much on anything except my wanting of Dino and wondering why I haven’t got a letter from Harry yet and wondering if Hannah has heard from him either. Dino says sometimes letters go astray or if you get involved in a real hush-hush mission you just can’t write. I suppose that’s true, I just pray he is well wherever he is.

Ajax is a good man. He could have grumped at me adding my market stuff to what he’s already responsible for but he hasn’t. I know it takes away from his time with Tina and the baby but he says that’s what family does, help each other out. Next year I’ve promised myself that suckling baby or not I’m going to help get the produce to market. And I will too but it’ll be hard to beat the deals that Ajax barters for.

He traded for some pullets for me and I didn’t have to give up any of my meat birds that I hope to cull during the hog slaughter. Found a woman that spins her own yarn – used to do it just as a hobby and now it feeds her family – and between one thing and another traded for enough yarn that I’ve been able to crochet the baby a few warm things since it is going to be a winter infant. Ran into another man that knows all about leather craft, not just working it but tanning and everything, and his son is studying on being a cobbler. Kerry needed new winter shoes and they repaired my workboots which were wearing thin and tearing where they laced up. They’re not new boots but they might as well be with all the doctoring those two did on them.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds and Dino doesn’t forbid it – you never know with the mood he’s in – I’m going persimmon picking with Kerry. This cold has just about ripened them too fast and I need to get out there and save ‘em before they’re lost. I also want to see if the pawpaws are ready too not to mention the prickly pear fruit, sumac, amaranth, and I’m just desperate for mustard seed as that wasn’t in that box of spices. I swear plug one hole in the boat and another one shows itself.
 

Chapter 25​


Acorns are wonderful things. My grandfather used to call ‘em God’s little gift. My grandmother, less prone to flights of fancy, called them poor man’s flour. Whatever your personal opinion on them, these days more and more folks are learning the value of the lowly acorn. A lot of people have lost the tail end of their corn crop (if not the whole thing) due to all this rain; they left it out in the field too long as they expected things to dry up sooner rather than later. Didn’t happen that way. Or for those that didn’t have their crop ruined or washed away, what still stands is snatched by scavengers. Those types are getting bad.

Our fence riders have to run people off a couple of times a week now. Dino’s joined them now that the grape harvest is over and his leg is better, but he always comes in sore. He’s pushing himself more than good sense dictates. I guess though when you are fighting so many without good sense your own has to be put aside on occasion. We haven’t had to do any shooting yet – at least not as far as I have been told – but I had to threaten to. The man didn’t think I would but he was wrong and finally believed me when I cocked the gun and aimed. I was two seconds from pulling the trigger but he started running across the field. Chester and one of the other men spotted him from where they were working and took off after him. I’m not sure what they did with him when they caught him and I haven’t asked.

I would have let him work for a meal but he was intent on being given something for nothing just because he expected it was somehow owed to him. He reckoned I was soft picking seeing how I was a woman and one fat with child. I reckon he picked a bad day to cross my path. I was having to do laundry and hang it up on the porch and it still wasn’t drying so I was having to bring it in piece by piece to dry by the stove which was irking me some. That’s the only one that has had the nerve to approach the house but if things keep running the way they are there is no telling what is going to come about.

On one of the few clear days there’s been Ajax brought Tina and the baby over and we had a fine old time. I hadn’t expected company and had been preparing to take care of some persimmons that Kerry and I had gathered. I started to put them aside but she said, “Oh don’t. Teach me how to do that. Please. Momma Cheryl and Aunt Adona tend to hog the kitchen a bit. I try not and mind but it makes me feel like a little girl when they won’t let me help.”

I was surprised but then again maybe not. Tina has the look of someone delicate and fragile and Cheryl is a protective mother bear; Aunt Adona is not much better for all she’s more refined about it. They’re probably still worried about her after all the trouble she had after the baby. I guess I was just raised different. Work is good for the soul and busy hands are happy hands. Either way I figured she was a guest in Dino’s house and I wanted to make her feel welcome so I gave way to her request.

She got such a kick out of messing with those persimmons it was fun to watch. We made persimmon jam, persimmon marmalade, and persimmon butter. She was more help than she knew and I told her so because I couldn’t move the canners any more. She seemed right pleased with me noticing that. I wish I could have dried some but the air was still too damp. I still gave her a few jars of the other to take home and show off what she did.

For a real treat I showed her how to make Persimmon Fudge. First, we washed enough ripe persimmons and put them through a colander until there was one cup of pulp. Then we placed the pulp in a good-sized saucepan, added five cups of honey, two cups of creamy milk and one-quarter cup white corn syrup (or molasses if you prefer). Let it come to a boil then turn it down and cook until softball stage (230F) stirring now and then to prevent sticking. Towards the end of the cooking time it is more now than later as you have to be careful to keep the honey from scorching. Set it off the stove and cool to lukewarm, then add one-half cup of butter and beat and beat until it feels like your arm is going to fall off. When it begins to thicken add one cup nutmeats of your choice – walnuts is good – and pour into 12" x 14" size pan. Cut in squares, and serve right away as it is too good to keep. This is not a quick fudge for it requires very slow cooking ... almost two hours … but it is worth it, and it also makes use of a stove that is already set to keep the chill off a room.

One of the last things we made was Pawpaw preserves. I told her, not too many people – even the old timers – pay attention to the pawpaws anymore. Digging the seeds out gets me cranky real fast but I like them nonetheless. The trees are hard to come by though as not many were ever cultivated and the wild ones have disappeared from the landscape except for a few hidden groves for those that know where to look. I just got lucky to find the ones I did. I noted the spot in my harvest book so that I would remember to check them next year. The rain knocked some of the fruit off but I did get a good share. Ripe they are kinda mushy and taste like you imagine a banana might if you’ve never had a fresh off the tree banana. We had bananas growing in the yard in Tampa so I don’t necessarily agree that they taste like bananas but I wouldn’t have dared to contradict my aunt who could act like she was queen of the farm and who could have a mean backhand with the flyswatter for any kid she thought was getting mouthy.

It’s been raining so much that all the cisterns are full to overflowing and I’ve been able to use the overflow pipe from the system, the one that runs excess water off into the gully and away from the house, as an easy way to leach the bitter tannin from the acorns Kerry and I have collected. There’s a couple of places we’ve gone that all we’ve had to do is use a rake and shovel a couple of times and we were able to fill up a bushel basket with little to no effort. My grandfather – whom I’ve been thinking of a lot lately for some reason – used to say that when you saw a lot of acorns on the ground that was God’s way of telling the animals to eat up because it is going to be a hard winter. I’m also thinking that maybe God is showing his human creations some mercy if we just have the sense to take advantage of it. Foraging is getting lean as the cold weather sets in but there are still things about to get us ready for winter for those that pay attention to what God’s world has to offer. My grandfather, had he still been around, would not have been the only one to think we were looking at a hard winter. It isn’t even going to take cold weather to make this winter hard; too many grasshoppers are going to go checking out what the ants have put aside. Too many who did nothing are going to expect those of us who did to provide for them ahead of our own. Gonna be a lot of surprised and dead grasshoppers come spring if they don’t watch where they’re hoppin’.

Acorns aren’t the only things that would help those grasshoppers if they’d get a move on but they are one of the better ones. What Kerry and I do with the treasure we bring home is first dunk the acorns into buckets of water to clean off any mud and debris. This is also when we find “floaters” which aren’t worth our time as they likely have worms or are damaged in some way. The floaters go into the slop pail; hogs love acorns. Next, because it is still raining and if not raining then too damp outside, we haul the cleaned acorns down to the work tables in the basement. Those tables used to hold the fermentation vessels of the specialty wines but Dino and Alec moved those into the old tunnel that they’ve turned into something they call a “racking room” which is just more wine jargon that I let flow over me. They’ve had to run lights into the tunnel but Alec brought over one of his methane generators and, with sparing use, beats having to use our kerosene all to pieces.

We spread the acorns on old canvas tarps that are laid out on those tables and keep the acorns to a single layer. Spreading them out like that prevents mold from forming if it takes me a little while to shell them. I try and shell at least a bowlful every night. It gets me off my feet which are swelling till they spill over the sides of my house shoes. I set the bowl on the shelf my belly makes and so long as the baby doesn’t kick it off I can get quite a few done in just a very little time.

From here my grandparents differed on how they liked to leach the tannin out of the acorn kernels. My grandmother preferred to grind the kernels to a coarse meal texture and soak it in bowls, drain through a cheese cloth lined colander, soak again, and repeat until she got the sweet of the acorn without the bitterness of the tannin. My grandfather on the other hand preferred to do it the real old way. He put the whole kernels in a croaker sack and then would set it in a water fall from a fresh spring; there was just such a spring down near the old tobacco barn. He’d leave that bag in that running water for a couple of hours then come back and check a kernel. Sometimes it took some more time but usually a couple of hours was good enough if the spring was flowing well.

As for me, either method worked depending on what I had to do for the day. Usually though I would just go hang a sack of shelled acorns on the down spout of the overflow pipe and let ‘r rip. Wouldn’t work during a dry year I suppose but this year isn’t dry. Work smarter, not harder is a thing that needs learning by most folks; not me, I had to learn it already and I stick to it.

One of the best reasons I like using my grandfather’s method is because sometimes I don’t want acorn flour or meal, I want to use the whole acorns. I made Acorn Chili the other day and most of the men were half way into their second bowl before they realized they weren’t eating what they thought they were eating. When I told them what they were eating they wanted me to explain how to make it as they had relatives trying to make ends meet just like we were.

Acorn Chili is just about as easy as can be. For a normal pot you take four cups of acorn kernels; rehydrate them if you’ve dried them for storage. Add one large onion you’ve chopped up and two cloves of garlic you’ve minced; if you are using wild garlic you might need to add more or adjust for taste depending how strong the ones you dug up are. Sauté this mess in whatever you’ve got, bacon grease is pretty good though olive oil is just fine too. After you’ve got it all sautéed add in one tablespoon of chili powder, a half teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of ground cumin, a teaspoon of oregano, a half teaspoon of tobasco sauce, a pint of cooked kidney beans, and a pint of chopped tomatoes. Bring it to a boil then turn it down and simmer it for around an hour. If you like your chili to be cross-your-eyes hot you can add more tobasco or some other kind of hot sauce. As a normal rule I cater to hot dishes but found I can’t do it with the baby taking up all the room on my insides and pushing my stomach up into my windpipe. Tina warned me that if I was gonna nurse I’d have to forgo some of my other favorite things like onions, garlic, and some other gas inducing delicacies unless I wanted an extremely upset baby to keep me up all night. All these things I’m learning makes me wish for my own Momma so that I could at least tell her thank you and that I was sorry for any trouble I caused her. I hope up in Heaven she knows it.

Kinda wish I had more time to ask Tina things. She isn’t the kind to offer up free advice without being asked but if you do ask she’ll give you the whole truth of a thing and not just the parts she think you can handle. It was her that gave me a list of things that would be useful for the birthing and also told me not to take to my bed until I absolutely had to or it could make the labor take longer.

We’d run the men out of the kitchen with our girl talk and she said, “Trust me Riss, when you are in labor gravity is your friend. I thought Momma Cheryl was out of her mind when she kept telling me to get up and walk around, that it would help, especially after my water broke and it felt like the baby was playing taps with brimstone on my bones down there, but it really does help. Plus, if you are in bed all you are is miserable. If you are up and moving at least you can chase your man around the house and cuss him for it being you in pain and not him.”

She made a funny picture to think on but I couldn’t imagine blaming Dino for my predicament when it arrived. I wasn’t even sure I wanted him there. I don’t know why, it just seemed … I don’t know … like too much to ask on top of everything else for him to witness me giving birth to another man’s child. I wish the rain would let up soon so I could go ask her some more questions, I’ve got so many and no one to go to that wouldn’t turn inside out with embarrassment. I tried to ask Dino but Tammy had Kerry in a hospital; most of the women had still been having their babies there until it closed later that year.

The one good thing about this rain is it has filled the waterways and cut off our part of the district or we’d probably get more traffic out of the cities than we have. The bad thing about this rain is that it has filled the waterways and cut off our part of the district and we’re stuck with the traffic out of the cities that is already here. It has also prevented us from getting to town to get the paperwork done up so we can get legal. ‘Course even if we could get to town it wouldn’t do any good, the Judge has gone to visit his daughter and has come down with some kind of fever now and they aren’t sure when he is going to get back. Wouldn’t even have done any good for Dino to have gone for him when he originally intended to because he had already left on the train. That doesn’t make Dino feel any better.

“Why in the Sam Hill did I put it off to begin with?” Dino wasn’t shouting but he was close to it.

“Dino …”

“Do you realize we could have been married for weeks now and enjoying … er … the comforts of married life?” As a matter of fact I did realize that.

“Dino …”

“I wanted us to be married before the baby comes and yet here you are just about ready to go into labor and I don’t even have any idea not only when the Judge is coming back but if he is!” I was having a hard time getting a word in edgewise with him all bent out of shape.

“Dino!”

“What?!” he snapped.

I looked him straight in the eye and said, “We could just make it common law.”

“Whu?” The funny noise that came out after he heard what I said and the even funnier look on his face just about made me laugh … just about. But I didn’t ‘cause I knew I needed to handle it real careful.

“I said …”

He shook his head like he was clearing fog out of it. “I heard what you said. But I promised you a legal marriage and that is exactly what you are going to get. I just have to figure out how to get it.”

I shook my head. “You know, for a man with so much good sense sometimes you don’t make any sense at all. Do you really think after all you’ve done for me that I’m going to let you get away?”

“Er …” He was having a hard time coming up with a reply to that.

“I mean to have you as my own Dino Pappas and you can bank on that as if it was tax-free gold.”

That threw him off some more. “Uh …”

I swun, he can be obtuse. “Look it here, you kept your promise about giving me time to get over being thrown over. You’ve done courted me as well as any man could under the circumstances. Harry was keen on the idea even before I was so I’m sure where ever he is he’d give his approval if I felt I needed it. We’ve got most of your family around and they seem agreeable. Your little boy approves. No one is giving us fits about it at all. I’m agreeable. And you’re so agreeable to it I don’t even know what to call it. The only thing that seems to be holding us back is the fact you insist on a certain kind of piece of paper to go along with the promise we’d be giving to one another.”

I took too long and he’d finally found his voice. “Now see here Riss, I promised …”

Well I wasn’t going to have any of his objects. “I know you did, and I’m not asking you to break your promise. Just because a promise is delayed doesn’t make it a broken one.”

He seemed to think he’d made his point. “Then you understand.”

I corrected his thinking. “No I don’t. Common Law marriages are recognized.”

“Not outside the state that it is created in,” he said, aggrieved.

“Do I look like I’m gonna be traveling out of state any time soon?” I asked pointing to my belly that is roughly the size of the Nickajack Dam. “You want a paper then let’s make one up ourselves. I’m sure the dictionary is just full of big words we can use if you want to make it complicated and all. Or, we can just write out promises to each other. We can sign the paper in front of witnesses. If that’s not enough for you then next time AJ comes around he can write it up more official like and we could sign it in front of him and he can file it or whatever it is you do.”

He sounded kinda low when he asked, “But I thought you wanted a church wedding. I wanted to see you walk down the aisle. I thought most girls dreamed of that sort of thing.”

“Oh Dino,” I said brushing a stray lock of hair from his forehead. “The church grounds are flooded out and they’ve had to put all the pews and the pulpit up in the choir loft to try and save them in case the creek gets any higher. Besides, church isn’t just a place, it’s a state of mind … you know ‘where two or more are gathered together in His name.’”

“What about your dress?”

That made me laugh. “Well I certainly don’t intend on standing up with you in my uncle’s overalls and my work boots. You know I’m not much for playing dress up but for this I want to be pretty for you. I may look like I’m wearing a sail from the HMS Bounty but at least it won’t be denim blue with buckles at the shoulders.”

The picture I had painted in his head won out. His lips twitched, then he scrunched his eyes trying to hold it in; finally he didn’t have any choice but to laugh. “Riss …” He shook his head. “I’m not laughing at you, I swear I’m not. You know I think you’re beautiful in whatever you choose to wear. But the things you say …” He broke off chuckling some more.

“So,” I asked when he started winding down. “What do you think of my proposal Mr. Pappas?”

He stopped laughing and got real serious, “I want to marry you properly so no one can say anything.”

“Is that a no?”

“No, it isn’t. But I’ve got a couple of conditions. As soon as the Judge or some other way comes about we do it legally even if that means going through another ceremony. That you agree that the baby has my name on the birth certificate as the father and that he … or she … carries my surname. And that if we can’t get the legal papers until after the baby is born we get AJ to make sure there are proper adoption papers so there is never any question that I’m your baby’s father.”

He’d managed to surprise me again. It was so good to know, not just think but know, this man wasn’t after me just to be a mother for his son, a keeper for his house, and to have someone convenient to get warm with. Passion is a fine thing and has its place but trust and commitment are what fills in the spaces between those times of passion and holds the whole together.
 
Thank you.

I really enjoy the mix you put in this story. Old and new technologies and ways, family issues, and a new one for, the winery education.
 
If you look at the bottom (footer) of Kathy’s posts there is a link to her blog, from there you can select the story at fiction press. I get a page checking for a secure connection, then a check if you are human box. Enjoy your time there.
 
larry_minn said:
I am enjoying rereading on other site. I don’t recall if it was finished. But love the writing style.
Yep they are stuck on the edge…. Please finish.
Click to expand...
I just finished reading what was available at the other site. It ends with Chapter 49, but does not appear to be a finished story.

I also hope that Kathy will continue this story to its conclusion, or at least let us know that Chapter 49 was the end, if so.
 
i have a chapter 50
Riss goes in the woods hunting ramps

"I was coming back down the trail with my third load of ramps and what to I find but five young men standing around all my hard work … and one of them was eating one, raw of all things, to see what it was I guess.
“Hey! I didn’t just work all morning to feed you trespassing fools!”

the 5 were sick......had measles

Dino saves her
cliff measles
 
There's more to the story that is written. I'll try and put up some over the next couple of days. I didn't realize so much was missing that was written. Sorry.
Genevieve said:
Just finished reading again.
Always wondered how this story ends.
AJ and Hannah?
More children?
Sunflower oil work out for a cash crop?
MIL ever get that stick out of her behind?
Does Pita have the temperament of that red hair? ;)
Click to expand...
 

Chapter 26​



The ebb and flow of life is a lot like the tides, it seems to come in and fill you up so full, cover the land of your life, expand until everything seems to be touched by it. Then it goes out, dragging it all away, revealing everything that was covered up, the pretty and the ugly, the things that should be there and the things that shouldn’t. Daddy said that when the tide was out was the best time to find interesting things to look at and to clean up the beach of any litter that other thoughtless folks had left behind that was too big or too trapped for the incoming tides to push out of its way. Guess that is life in a nutshell too.

Aunt Adona and Cheryl wouldn’t let our getting married be a simple thing. Oh no, it would be unthinkable for the Pappas family to let such a chance go by. There was gonna be a party and that is all there was to it. And because of my condition, and because there was an empty barn handy, they decided Dino’s place would be where “the celebration” would be. I looked at Dino and he looked at me and then we just kinda shrugged. There’s sometimes, for the sakes of the ones you love, you just move out of the way and let the train roll.

We didn’t give them much time though, so as to control the amount of silliness they seemed to want to get up to. Having a baby kinda puts things on a schedule and Dino was particular that he wanted it done before hand. Aunt Adona gave him a pinched up look but she finally agreed that made the most sense. He also told her that it would need to be a daytime affair so that everyone could get home in good time. That was easily agreed to all around given the circumstances of our lives.

It turned into a modified harvest celebration with “decorations” accordingly. Good thing I was partial to autumn colors to begin with because that’s all there was and some of them were artificial, pulled out of the storage shed at Alec’s place where they were stored every year. The weather was perfect for it. After the rain, that had been gone for about a week, we were having an Indian Summer; a little warmer in the daytime than expected but still cool enough at night so that you didn’t forget what was still comin’.

It wasn’t a catered affair like weddings mostly used to be. There wasn’t no fancy finger foods although I did see more than a couple of folks using their fingers to eat with. No punch in glass bowls either; there were however big ol’ jugs of cider, plenty of bottles of the Pappas label, and a couple of jugs of the hard stuff being passed from man to man in order to salute the passing of another poor soul that’d been hen bit. We didn’t have a great big cake with white frosting, many layers, and a fancy topper but if you looked down the food table there were a surprising number of cakes, pies, and bread puddings all brought by our friends to celebrate the fact that we were both putting our pasts behind us and finally getting on with our lives.

Most folks brought something even if it was only an ingredient for the burgoo. It was one of the biggest burgoos I’d ever witnessed in my life; it filled up half a 55-gallon drum and there was enough to have some in the other half too. Lord must have known what He was about when there were things in the garden He gave us an overflowing blessing with. We didn’t use up all our extry, not by a long shot, but it did get taken advantage of.

I tell you what. If for some reason Dino ever does get to forgetting our wedding day all I’ll have to do to convince him to unforget it is pull out that promissory note we wrote to each other with our vows. After we said ‘em in front of company Brother Calvert – who officiated even if he couldn’t make us legal – said we’d asked for witnesses to sign for us. Lord help, nearly everyone must have signed; it looks more like a funeral registry than it does a marriage document. In fact, we had to add a couple of pages so that everyone could add their John Hancock that wanted to.

Aunt Adona insisted on a first dance and I was fit to be tied. I’ve never learned and didn’t want my first day as Dino’s wife to be the first time I embarrassed him to death. Dino just laughed and asked if I was afraid he was going to step on my feet.

“No. I’m afraid I’m gonna step on yours, trip, and roll away as fat as I am like the gingerbread man. I don’t want to make a spectacle of myself.”

In the end he sweet talked me into it and we did a passable Tennessee Waltz. Not exactly what you would call a wedding song given the lyrics, but it was one of the few that all the people that had brought instruments knew how to play. If nothing else it was an original choice I’ll give you that much.

For the most part everyone there wished us well. Even my cousins had a letter delivered to us special, wishing us well and regretting not being able to attend as they had to leave the next day to “report.” The letter was tied around the neck of one of the noisiest, ugliest ducks I have ever had a face to face with but it reminded me so much of them I nearly cried.

There were a few catty remarks from Cindy’s crowd but not many and I ignored them all. And there was some satisfaction in seeing those cats were pretty much sat on and squashed by some of the ladies of the community that had decided that I’d suffered enough and that it was time to shut up about it. Few if any of our guests stayed all day, couldn’t afford to. People came and went, sometimes neighbor spelling neighbor so that no one’s home was left unguarded, but everyone got the chance to come by and at least wish us well. It was about three when the majority of the folks headed out and the leftovers were divvied up and the cleanup crew gone by five.

Alec came over to Dino and said with a solemn wink, “We’re going to take Kerry home with us tonight. We’ll bring him back before supper tomorrow.” Of course, we had to go over and tell the Squirt it was only for overnight and that we’d see him the next day.

“But why?! Wasn’t I a good boy?” he cried.

I told him, “Well of course you were. Good as tax-free gold and I’ll tell anyone so that asks.”

That always gives him a tickle but then he wanted to know, “Then why do I have to go over to the big house for the night?”

Well I could see everyone was not quite sure how to answer it so I told him the truth. “Well, your daddy and I need some time to move my things upstairs into his room. That’s what people who are married do. And this way you don’t have to be bothered by all the dust.”

He looked at me and then at his father and you could just see the little wheels were a-flyin’. The he sighed and shook his head. “I’m mighty sorry Riss but I just don’t see no other way around it. That bed’s too big and heavy to move up them stairs. You’re just gonna have to share Daddy’s bed.” We were all trying our best not to laugh but when he added, “But it’ll be ok, he snores too” I didn’t know whether to light his tail feathers or join in all the laughter around us.

It was quiet after the last wagon had left and my nerves were getting stretched thin. Finally I broke the silence and said, “There’s not a thing to do in the kitchen. Every bit of the mess was kept out here and the few leftovers are down in the ice room unless you want me to heat you up something.”

“Uh uh. I’m full as a tick.” He just looked at me.

“Well then, do you need help with evening chores?” I asked still looking for a topic of conversation we could light on.

“All done. Chester and his sons took care of them by way of making it a wedding gift.”

“Oh.”

He reached up and took the crown of autumn leaves and ribbons off my hair. I’d forgotten they were up there. Dino asked, “Wanna go sit down a spell? You’ve been on your feet most of the day.”

“Sounds good,” I told him not sure what else to say.

We stepped up onto the porch and then sat in the swing. He put his arm along the back of it and then set it to a gentle motion. “You seem nervous,” he said quietly.

I hitched a breath and nodded. “Some.”

“Want to tell me why?” he asked just as quiet. I could sense he was treating me with care which I appreciated but at the same time I found it grating, like it only pointed out my short comings that he’d have to do it.

I sighed. “I’m five kinds of fat. Worried you’re gonna wind up thinking you bought a pig in a poke. And wondering if … if you’re gonna compare me to Tammy and find out you need more … more of whatever she had.”

Scooting over closer and pulling me in slowly he asked, “Are you going to … er … compare me to Sol?”

I winced. “Well, that’s kinda the problem. When it came to … er … that part of it … uh … he … um … kinda didn’t make much of an impression.”

There was dead silence and I thought maybe I’d shared a little too much of what was bothering me but when I looked over at him his eyes were squinched closed and his hand was over his mouth. Then his chest starting bouncing and then he added his belly and finally he got up and tried to get away. “Dino Pappas! Are you laughing at me?!”

That did it. He was laughing so hard he was doubled over and using the side of the house to hold himself up with. I levered myself out of the swing – no easy task I tell you – and was stomping into the house thinking that I was gonna slam me some doors loud enough to be heard two counties over but then he grabbed me and swung me around and into his arms. “Lord Riss, the things you say.”

“Let loose of me you … you …”

“No. Now you listen to me Mrs. Pappas,” he said with a great big grin on his face. “We’re gonna go inside, move your things, and then you’re gonna give me a chance to make an impression on you.”

I was still set to be angry until I saw the look in his eyes. It was a promise the likes of which no one had ever offered me. I knew I had a choice whether to throw it back in his face or accept it. I decided that it was the best for both of us if I accepted it.

And he did … impress me that is. Quite a lot.
 
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