#69
Staring at the wacky, wide eyed, crazed woman; Wayne muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Lord save me from another crazy female."
Feinting to his right, Lilly reacted as Wayne thought she might do by following his hands with her own. That put the butcher knife within easy reach of his lightening fast left grip. Hand securely on her wrist Wayne closed his fingers tightly, and then closed them more and then some more. Lilly had a wrist the size of Milo's hidden in the baggy sleeves she wore.
"What the hell;" The strong, lanky man sputtered in surprise. "Drop it," he ordered as he pulled the dirty, stretched cotton sweater away from Lilly's arm. She was a caricature of a living human under the bulk of clothes she wore. Wayne had seen pictures of people living in concentration camps that looked healthier than the twig before him.
"I said drop it," he ground out with clenched teeth. "Now!"
Suddenly there was no more fight left in Lilly, and she wilted like a cut flower in the blazing sun. Drooping, she hung her head and simply waited, offering no resistance. The two girl children on the couch looked frozen in fear, clutching at each other but never squeaking a sound.
"Could we please sit down and discuss your apparent self destruction by starvation?" Wayne pulled out a kitchen chair and pointed to it, pulling Lilly to sit down.
Some where in the back of his mind Wayne remembered a long ago, far away desperate attempt to find the Hanson household when he had been beaten beyond hope of living. Lilly had the same look about her.
They ate Vienna sausages and Kippered snacks on crackers for supper, while Wayne pried Lilly's story out of her, one reluctant word at a time.
The gist of it all, she was afraid to eat because then it was too hard to make herself go without food when they were back out on their own. "My girls have to have the food, and I don't want to take too much, so they have none." she whispered as the children ate hungrily. "We have no money and nothing we can offer in skills, for any one to want to take us in."
"I want to hire you as a housekeeper," Wayne proposed, thinking quickly. "I work different shifts all the time and need someone to keep the house clean, make lunches and cook supper for me. I can't pay a lot, but the job comes with room and board for you and your children. Now..." and he looked sternly at Lilly, "I do not expect benefits, if you know what I mean."
Lilly blanched several shades whiter, if that was possible, but nodded slightly.
"I need to check the progress of the electric repair, you would please wash the dishes and clean my lunch pail, and I'll be back with supplies for tomorrows meals." Wayne pulled on his once normal black Carhart coat that was streaked with mud and grease and yanked his wool cap over his head. Out the door he went without looking back.
Scurrying like the agitated mouse she was, Lilly opened the bedroom door and promptly sneezed at the stale and musty smell the closed room emitted. It was very plain no one had been in the room for a long time, so she went to work cleaning the accumulated dust so Alice and Betsy could get to bed.
Outside, Wayne joined Ben and Ev. "Is there any possibility I could have tonight's milking?" he asked Ev, as he was the man with the pail in his hand. Ev handed him the pail and swept his hand toward the barn, indicating he was welcome to help himself to the chores.
"Ben, can I get some bacon and hamburger?" Wayne asked the resident butcher of the farm.
"Sure, I'll get it now if Ev will keep an eye on the gents over there," Ben replied.
It was arranged, and Wayne went to do the chores.
Clora waited as long as she could, before calling Milo to bed. "Ahhh, Auntie Clora I want to watch," he protested with a yawn.
"Hey Sport," Mark called from the living room, "nobody always likes what they have to do, they just do it."
"Okey dokey," the small boy voice was interrupted by another yawn, "let's go Auntie."
Curtains were busy twitching at the windows of the other two homes as Lainey and Cheryl kept close track of who milked and who didn't, and who went for supplies to help the one who did the milking.
Ev talked to the foreman of the electric crew as the man explained they had found a line that had been broken by what they suspected was a rifle shot. Ev shrugged, and replied he had no answer, and that he didn't think anyone had heard shooting going on.
As a thank you for the call out in the nasty weather, Ben sent the five man crew home with a couple packages of hamburger each. He was rewarded with an invitation to call the foreman direct if they had any further problems. The scarce food worth it's weight in gold.
Lainey smiled at her husband when he came in for the night. "I'm sure your one of the good guy's," and she set a brownie and a glass of milk on the table for Ben. Ben's sweet tooth for brownies was legendary, and he pretended to have a swooning attack on the goodie. He threw a smooch at Lainey when she refilled his glass with milk.