#10
Evie lay in the snug, warm sleeping bag waiting for dawn. Unable to sleep because of aches and pains crowding out her ability to relax, she heaved a deep sigh. Unintentionally, she disturbed Sandra who was instantly awake.
"What is it Grandma, are you OK?" Sandy whispered to Evie.
"Yes dear, the ground is more than I can handle. Thank you for being concerned. I can't stop thinking about Clora. I hope she is alright." The whispering went back and forth until the entire tent was up and stirring.
"I've never tried to sleep in such a bunch of gabby women. Always yakking, never let a fella get any rest," Ev complained sourly.
"Well Mr Ev, you snored all night like a asthmatic rhino," Sandra replied good naturedly. "If we don't get to sleep at night, you get up early. A nice trade don't you think?"
"OH, your a cruel child," Ev shot back. He would have launched a tirade, but Christy stirred and said,"Momma, I gotta pee."
"Your dressed Ev. Would you do the honors, please?" Cheryl was laughing in the pillow so hard she couldn't get out of the sleeping bag.. Personally she thought Ev sounded more like a bagpipe with a pinched......well, whatever. At least a wounded water buffalo.
Outside, Wayne was bent over double with laughter. He hadn't believed Benny's description of Ev's legendary snoring sounds, but there was no security with the volume of sounds coming from the tent . Inky stayed the night in the pickup bed with Ruby. He wisely avoided being near Ev at night.
Inky hadn't totally made up his mind about Wayne. When he first met the boy, he could feel hurt and rage vibrating from the injured youth. Wayne had ignored him, but Inky had made it his business to be near but not suffocatingly close. His intuition was rewarded the day Wayne went to the barn and screamed for an hour. Inky lay down close, and slowly the battered hand reached out and tangled his fingers in Inky's fur.
Nowdays, Inky couldn't understand the vibes he was getting from Wayne. Something was wrong, but he was a patient dog, he could wait. Ruby noticed her humans coming out of the tent and jumped down, ready to see what they were going to do. Something exciting, she hoped.
Ev returned from the side trip with an incessantly chatting Christy. Every question, demanded an answer, and then a 'why' when the answer was given. By the time breakfast was over, Wayne understood why certain First Nation peoples taught their children a vow of silence. Lord, that child had verbal diarrhea.
Sandra noticed Wayne getting jumpy and agitated the more Christy jabbered. Looking a little wild eyed. he started easing away from the gathering.
Evie looked up, caught Sandra's eye and inclined her head toward Wayne. Sandy caught the non spoken inference and slowly walked over and moved with Wayne around the pickup. "Come with me," she invited quietly, "I need your opinion on a new camp sight."
Cheryl looked up and frowned at the couple walking off by themselves. Pursing her lips she felt the relationship, if that's what it was, a little out of bounds considering the age difference involved.
Evie kept close track of Cheryl's reaction, and when Wayne and Sandy had moved out of ear shot, she walked over by the fire and sat carefully, keeping her skirt away from the flames.
"It's not exactly as it seems," she offered slowly.
"None of my business," Cheryl muttered sharply.
"May I explain something;" Evie poured herself a cup the weakest coffee to ever fill her cup. "There is not the age difference you suspect. This goes back to the mess with the kid's mothers. Sandra is actually older than Clora, but they don't share the same mother. Will helped me sort this out, so I am relying on his word." Evie took a second to gather her thoughts. "There were 3 women, triplets. that used the name Sue Apperton."
"Benny and Clora are the children of Sue #1, Sandra is the child of Sue #2, and Zander and Jane were the children of Sue#3'
Now Sandra is older, like I said, than Clora. So instead of being 13, she is 21 or 22 . Her heart kept her from growing, and we purposely didn't push her to be her age."
"We believe Sandy is only 2 years younger than Wayne. She's been in love with him for several years, but has not interfered with his recovery or life. Lately, I've wondered if Wayne is having thoughts along those lines, but doesn't know how to handle it." Evie looked up, to keep the pair in sight.
"What a screwed up situation." Cheryl finally said. "I withdraw any mean thoughts, but you've got to admit, I'm not the only one who will be upset at the pairing." she poured coffee for Ev, and passed it to him.
Ev had been listening and said thoughtfully, "Pete is the common denominator here. Surely he wasn't so stupid as not to notice they were different women?"
"I don't know," Evie shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "I am still flabbergasted at his behavior. I can't tell you if he knew, didn't know, or just plain didn't care." Shaking her head Evie changed position on the stump; she had a whopping case of 'frozen bottom'
and was uncomfortable.
"Ev, Cheryl, I think the 'bug out' portion of this little exercise has been successful. We need to get back and make repairs to our homes. It's going to rain tomorrow; so we can either pack this up while it's still dry, or do it in the rain." Evie looked at them and nodded very factly.
"It's gonna break Wayne's heart, he's really into this readiness scene. He was totally pumped to activate his plan, and I guess we all passed. He hasn't chewed any of us out." Ev chuckled as he stirred cream and sugar into his coffee.
"Maybe I should," Wayne appeared from around the pickup. "Somebody I know said she forgot a major prep, and had it hand delivered. That ain't gonna happen in a worse problem."
"That," Cheryl rose to her full height, "is a subject I am not going to discuss with a young man several years my junior. If you don't like the reality of it all....tough." That was the final word on the subject, as smart men knew when to back down and stay quiet.