Story Up On Hartford Ridge
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
223shootersc
Veteran Member
Thanks for the chapters.... great as always!
.....except I have. And I still love it!
Sorry, I've just been swamped with work. Here are the next chapters ...
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Chapter Thirty-Six
I hobbled down that direction and then heard voices only not outright fighting. The voices I heard sounded like they were being falsely polite to each other but drawing blood every chance they got.
I came around the corner and three people had Sawyer verbally trapped. Unless he wanted to make a scene he wouldn't be able to escape and there was a cop not too far away that seemed half way interested in what was going on. Sawyer's sensitivity to that held me back regardless of the rights he had.
There was a really pretty young woman there that had to be Lisa, a guy that looked to be my age, and then an older man that had to be Lisa's father. Lisa was standing there being false understanding and saying, "Sawyer, I know I hurt you. I take responsibility for that. But you just have to stop this. It isn't healthy and you are going to get in trouble. No more stalking."
The cop seemed to be getting more interested and I got involved. "He wasn't."
Everyone looked at me, not knowing who the heck I was so I introduced myself. "How do you do? My name is Kay-Lee Hartford and I'd appreciate it if you would stop trying to upset my husband. You've caused him enough problems by running off like a coward when people bore false witness against him. Then he forgave you that when most men wouldn't and you haul off and did it again. He really doesn't want to have anything to do with you so stop trying to instigate something to make yourself the center of attention."
She got ugly real fast. "I don't suppose he told you he followed me to the flea market."
"We were there at the invitation of his grandfather to have a family get together. It's a regular thing the Hartfords do. Apparently a well-known thing they do that you had to know about considering how long the two of you were dating. So why would you find it so out of the ordinary for him to be at the flea market is beyond me. As for this unfortunate meet up, again his grandfather sent him with a list of things to get. We've been over in Hightown all morning so how we were supposed to know you'd be at the tractor store of all places at this exact time just isn't logical."
I had continued to walk and finally got to Sawyer's side who was really angry but holding it in. I continued, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for Sawyer to even be polite to you when you make such nasty scenes and draw other people into it? That's just terribly sad that a girl with your looks and your father's money would find it necessary to go so far out of her way to behave this immaturely."
"Now just one minute ..."
"Actually you don't have a minute. You don't even have five seconds. Sawyer is long done wasting time on you and I'm done wasting time as well. If you regret your actions to Sawyer then fine, hopefully you've learned from your mistakes, but it is too late. Go find someone else only this time I'd suggest you learn what loyalty is. You don't run out on a man just 'cause he's down. That's just wrong."
I put my arm around Sawyer and it took a second but we started to walk away. Lisa's brother wouldn't move and I thought there'd be a scene but the cop said, "Get out of the way before I cite you for trying to instigate a fight. That goes for you other two as well. I was sitting in my cruiser the whole time. The guy walked over here to get away and you followed him and confronted him. Bad move on your part."
The cop continued to talk to them while Sawyer and I got gone. We were halfway back to the others when he stopped me. "Thanks."
"For what?"
"For taking my part. I didn't know she was going to be at the flea market or the tractor store. I swear I didn't."
"Of course you didn't. No one with any sense would think that you did. And speaking of sense, I know you've got more than to get involved again with someone that did you so wrong. Like I said, just because she is sorry doesn't mean she gets to go back to the way things were. You've moved on. She's just going to have to learn to deal with that."
Right as we reached Linda I could hear Lisa's father snapping, "Just get in the car. We'll discuss this when we get home."
Jeannie went "whew" under her breath but didn't say anything else. Benedict stepped towards his cousin and asked, "You done in or can you go some more?"
"I'm fine. Anyone else want to call it quits?"
No one did so it was decided to hit a couple of the pawnshops that the guys had wanted to go to.
---------------------------------
Chapter Thirty-Six
I hobbled down that direction and then heard voices only not outright fighting. The voices I heard sounded like they were being falsely polite to each other but drawing blood every chance they got.
I came around the corner and three people had Sawyer verbally trapped. Unless he wanted to make a scene he wouldn't be able to escape and there was a cop not too far away that seemed half way interested in what was going on. Sawyer's sensitivity to that held me back regardless of the rights he had.
There was a really pretty young woman there that had to be Lisa, a guy that looked to be my age, and then an older man that had to be Lisa's father. Lisa was standing there being false understanding and saying, "Sawyer, I know I hurt you. I take responsibility for that. But you just have to stop this. It isn't healthy and you are going to get in trouble. No more stalking."
The cop seemed to be getting more interested and I got involved. "He wasn't."
Everyone looked at me, not knowing who the heck I was so I introduced myself. "How do you do? My name is Kay-Lee Hartford and I'd appreciate it if you would stop trying to upset my husband. You've caused him enough problems by running off like a coward when people bore false witness against him. Then he forgave you that when most men wouldn't and you haul off and did it again. He really doesn't want to have anything to do with you so stop trying to instigate something to make yourself the center of attention."
She got ugly real fast. "I don't suppose he told you he followed me to the flea market."
"We were there at the invitation of his grandfather to have a family get together. It's a regular thing the Hartfords do. Apparently a well-known thing they do that you had to know about considering how long the two of you were dating. So why would you find it so out of the ordinary for him to be at the flea market is beyond me. As for this unfortunate meet up, again his grandfather sent him with a list of things to get. We've been over in Hightown all morning so how we were supposed to know you'd be at the tractor store of all places at this exact time just isn't logical."
I had continued to walk and finally got to Sawyer's side who was really angry but holding it in. I continued, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for Sawyer to even be polite to you when you make such nasty scenes and draw other people into it? That's just terribly sad that a girl with your looks and your father's money would find it necessary to go so far out of her way to behave this immaturely."
"Now just one minute ..."
"Actually you don't have a minute. You don't even have five seconds. Sawyer is long done wasting time on you and I'm done wasting time as well. If you regret your actions to Sawyer then fine, hopefully you've learned from your mistakes, but it is too late. Go find someone else only this time I'd suggest you learn what loyalty is. You don't run out on a man just 'cause he's down. That's just wrong."
I put my arm around Sawyer and it took a second but we started to walk away. Lisa's brother wouldn't move and I thought there'd be a scene but the cop said, "Get out of the way before I cite you for trying to instigate a fight. That goes for you other two as well. I was sitting in my cruiser the whole time. The guy walked over here to get away and you followed him and confronted him. Bad move on your part."
The cop continued to talk to them while Sawyer and I got gone. We were halfway back to the others when he stopped me. "Thanks."
"For what?"
"For taking my part. I didn't know she was going to be at the flea market or the tractor store. I swear I didn't."
"Of course you didn't. No one with any sense would think that you did. And speaking of sense, I know you've got more than to get involved again with someone that did you so wrong. Like I said, just because she is sorry doesn't mean she gets to go back to the way things were. You've moved on. She's just going to have to learn to deal with that."
Right as we reached Linda I could hear Lisa's father snapping, "Just get in the car. We'll discuss this when we get home."
Jeannie went "whew" under her breath but didn't say anything else. Benedict stepped towards his cousin and asked, "You done in or can you go some more?"
"I'm fine. Anyone else want to call it quits?"
No one did so it was decided to hit a couple of the pawnshops that the guys had wanted to go to.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Jeannie wrinkled her nose and said, "Ugh. If I have to look at one more nasty box of tools ..."
I grinned. This was the third pawn shop and the guys had already had as much fun pawing through old tools and stuff like that as we girls had had going through the clearance mall.
Linda tapped my shoulder and said, "Lookey there. If the guys can do their thing I don't see why we can't do ours." It was a thrift store and a pretty big one and it had a going out of business sign tacked to the door. Linda ran in and told the guys where we were going and after two false starts we finally got across the street.
Jeannie and Linda both went bonkers. A lot of stuff that had been on the list that Aunt Pearl had sent with them was there. The woman was so happy to be able to get rid of all the craft supplies, sewing notions, and fabric that she threw in all the old patterns and pattern books she had as well. "Less I have to put into storage the less I have to pay. You got some way to get this stuff home girls?"
Linda, finally back to her normally sunny-self smiled and said, "And three men to do the moving too."
The woman laughed good-naturedly and we kept shopping. I found jeans for me and for Sawyer and then I found some decent canvas shorts that I could work in over the summer. There were a bunch of flannel shirts in different sizes and work shirts as well and we bought all she had since she was selling everything off the rack at a quarter an item. For that price Linda and Jeannie got most of the rest of the jeans thinking that someone would be able to use them or they could be made over into something else.
From the back the woman pulled out a bunch of dusty jars. They weren't name brand but they didn't have any imperfections so Linda said they would work. I helped them pick out some kitchen ware for the other wives that didn't have anything or barely had enough. In fact, we almost bought too much. The guys about keeled over when they saw what we had and were wondering how we would get it all home since they'd bought their share as well.
The woman laughed and said, "Oh what the heck. I got a trailer in back that the tag is just about up on. You give me fifty dollars for it and it's yours."
After the guys looked it over and pronounced it road worthy Sawyer gave her the money for it and she grinned. "Now this is gravy. I was thinking I was just going to have to leave this here."
The trailer was little but went a long way to making it possible to get home what we needed to get home ... at least until Uncle James phoned Tommy and asked if we could pick up the order from the Mennonite store on the way home. Everyone groaned but laughed too as we set about rearranging things one more time.
---------------
"You ok with those bags under your feet?" Sawyer asked.
"I'm fine. Stop worrying so much. Just watch the road. I've never seen so many crazy people in all my life."
Sawyer smiled and said, "I thought the Hartfords were the biggest crowd of crazy people you've ever seen."
"I thought so too but compared to the ones I've seen today the Hartfords are the model of logic and stability."
Sawyer barked a laugh then had to jerk the wheel to avoid someone pulling out into the road suddenly. Sawyer uttered a curse and I had to grab the dash to keep my foot from slamming into the door. "You ok?"
"I'm fine but your Gramps is never going to believe this mess. I've never seen anything like it."
"Me neither. Whose bright idea was it to have a farmer's market at the intersection before the wash out?! And what is the deal with all the people?! It wasn't this bad at the mall."
Sawyer's phone rang and he threw it at me to answer while he navigated the insane traffic.
"Hello? Sawyer?"
"Um, I'm sorry Sawyer is driving right now. Can I take a message?"
"Is this Kay-Lee?"
"Er ... yes. May I ask who this is?"
"It's Cutter. Tell Sawyer to turn into that old overlook on the other side of the wash out. Tell him I have dad's big diesel and I'm about six cars behind him. I'll take some of that grain if he'll take some of this fresh stuff. Might make that trailer less twitchy."
I turned to Sawyer but he nodded and said, "I heard. Tell him I'll wait on him."
---------------
"Kay-Lee, this is Cutter and Davis," Sawyer said, introducing me to his cousins.
Cutter grinned a little self-consciously and said, "I know Kay-Lee."
Sawyer frowned and said, "You do? How?"
I interrupted and said, "My school. He was a football player remember."
"I know that but how does he know you?"
"Are you saying that I wasn't worth knowing?"
Sawyer was about to say something then caught himself just in time and said, "That's not what I meant. I just mean that Cutter ..."
I grinned, "Was always being Cutter and had to scrub lockers and stuff like that more than once when his practical jokes would go ... er ... astray."
With a ferocious frown he growled, "Did they go astray on you?"
I laughed, "Cutter's pranks went astray on everyone. It's no big deal Sawyer." I turned to Cutter and said, "But I swear if you set off a stink bomb in our house you are going to think back fondly on all that scrubbing at school as a gentle learning experience. Sawyer and I just got the place aired out."
Cutter acted like he was afraid and said, "Yes'm. I mean no ma'am. My pranking days are over."
"Yeah right. Uh huh ... just whatever you do, do it someplace else."
Davis just continued to frown and avoid looking directly at me. When he had his back turned I looked a question at Sawyer but his just minutely shook his head so I dropped it.
We weren't the only people that used the overlook turnout to get out of traffic. The guys started getting twitchy when people kept coming over and asking where we got this, that, or the other. When they started crowding the guys had a hard time getting done what they wanted to get done. Finally, I stopped just standing around and asked a woman that was trying to see into the back of the truck, "Excuse me but can I help you?"
My tone wasn't rude but it wasn't exactly gentle either. Hers was just plain nasty. "You got more than your fair share."
"Excuse me?"
"You got more than the rest of us."
"More what?"
"More stuff."
"Stuff doesn't tell me anything. And if we paid for it ..."
"Kay-Lee!" Sawyer called interrupting.
"I'm over here," I called back. "Some people are having trouble with personal space issues."
It wasn't Sawyer that came around to our side but Davis. "Problems?"
"Just she was looking in the back of both the trucks. And not casual looking either; I wasn't sure if she was going to try and open the doors next. And says we have more than our fair share."
"Fair share of what?"
"All she would say was stuff."
The woman was slowly backing off but she still looked daggers in our direction. People were starting to look at her with suspicion as well. Some of them made a big scene out of locking their doors or telling their kids to beep the horn if someone got too close.
Jeannie wrinkled her nose and said, "Ugh. If I have to look at one more nasty box of tools ..."
I grinned. This was the third pawn shop and the guys had already had as much fun pawing through old tools and stuff like that as we girls had had going through the clearance mall.
Linda tapped my shoulder and said, "Lookey there. If the guys can do their thing I don't see why we can't do ours." It was a thrift store and a pretty big one and it had a going out of business sign tacked to the door. Linda ran in and told the guys where we were going and after two false starts we finally got across the street.
Jeannie and Linda both went bonkers. A lot of stuff that had been on the list that Aunt Pearl had sent with them was there. The woman was so happy to be able to get rid of all the craft supplies, sewing notions, and fabric that she threw in all the old patterns and pattern books she had as well. "Less I have to put into storage the less I have to pay. You got some way to get this stuff home girls?"
Linda, finally back to her normally sunny-self smiled and said, "And three men to do the moving too."
The woman laughed good-naturedly and we kept shopping. I found jeans for me and for Sawyer and then I found some decent canvas shorts that I could work in over the summer. There were a bunch of flannel shirts in different sizes and work shirts as well and we bought all she had since she was selling everything off the rack at a quarter an item. For that price Linda and Jeannie got most of the rest of the jeans thinking that someone would be able to use them or they could be made over into something else.
From the back the woman pulled out a bunch of dusty jars. They weren't name brand but they didn't have any imperfections so Linda said they would work. I helped them pick out some kitchen ware for the other wives that didn't have anything or barely had enough. In fact, we almost bought too much. The guys about keeled over when they saw what we had and were wondering how we would get it all home since they'd bought their share as well.
The woman laughed and said, "Oh what the heck. I got a trailer in back that the tag is just about up on. You give me fifty dollars for it and it's yours."
After the guys looked it over and pronounced it road worthy Sawyer gave her the money for it and she grinned. "Now this is gravy. I was thinking I was just going to have to leave this here."
The trailer was little but went a long way to making it possible to get home what we needed to get home ... at least until Uncle James phoned Tommy and asked if we could pick up the order from the Mennonite store on the way home. Everyone groaned but laughed too as we set about rearranging things one more time.
---------------
"You ok with those bags under your feet?" Sawyer asked.
"I'm fine. Stop worrying so much. Just watch the road. I've never seen so many crazy people in all my life."
Sawyer smiled and said, "I thought the Hartfords were the biggest crowd of crazy people you've ever seen."
"I thought so too but compared to the ones I've seen today the Hartfords are the model of logic and stability."
Sawyer barked a laugh then had to jerk the wheel to avoid someone pulling out into the road suddenly. Sawyer uttered a curse and I had to grab the dash to keep my foot from slamming into the door. "You ok?"
"I'm fine but your Gramps is never going to believe this mess. I've never seen anything like it."
"Me neither. Whose bright idea was it to have a farmer's market at the intersection before the wash out?! And what is the deal with all the people?! It wasn't this bad at the mall."
Sawyer's phone rang and he threw it at me to answer while he navigated the insane traffic.
"Hello? Sawyer?"
"Um, I'm sorry Sawyer is driving right now. Can I take a message?"
"Is this Kay-Lee?"
"Er ... yes. May I ask who this is?"
"It's Cutter. Tell Sawyer to turn into that old overlook on the other side of the wash out. Tell him I have dad's big diesel and I'm about six cars behind him. I'll take some of that grain if he'll take some of this fresh stuff. Might make that trailer less twitchy."
I turned to Sawyer but he nodded and said, "I heard. Tell him I'll wait on him."
---------------
"Kay-Lee, this is Cutter and Davis," Sawyer said, introducing me to his cousins.
Cutter grinned a little self-consciously and said, "I know Kay-Lee."
Sawyer frowned and said, "You do? How?"
I interrupted and said, "My school. He was a football player remember."
"I know that but how does he know you?"
"Are you saying that I wasn't worth knowing?"
Sawyer was about to say something then caught himself just in time and said, "That's not what I meant. I just mean that Cutter ..."
I grinned, "Was always being Cutter and had to scrub lockers and stuff like that more than once when his practical jokes would go ... er ... astray."
With a ferocious frown he growled, "Did they go astray on you?"
I laughed, "Cutter's pranks went astray on everyone. It's no big deal Sawyer." I turned to Cutter and said, "But I swear if you set off a stink bomb in our house you are going to think back fondly on all that scrubbing at school as a gentle learning experience. Sawyer and I just got the place aired out."
Cutter acted like he was afraid and said, "Yes'm. I mean no ma'am. My pranking days are over."
"Yeah right. Uh huh ... just whatever you do, do it someplace else."
Davis just continued to frown and avoid looking directly at me. When he had his back turned I looked a question at Sawyer but his just minutely shook his head so I dropped it.
We weren't the only people that used the overlook turnout to get out of traffic. The guys started getting twitchy when people kept coming over and asking where we got this, that, or the other. When they started crowding the guys had a hard time getting done what they wanted to get done. Finally, I stopped just standing around and asked a woman that was trying to see into the back of the truck, "Excuse me but can I help you?"
My tone wasn't rude but it wasn't exactly gentle either. Hers was just plain nasty. "You got more than your fair share."
"Excuse me?"
"You got more than the rest of us."
"More what?"
"More stuff."
"Stuff doesn't tell me anything. And if we paid for it ..."
"Kay-Lee!" Sawyer called interrupting.
"I'm over here," I called back. "Some people are having trouble with personal space issues."
It wasn't Sawyer that came around to our side but Davis. "Problems?"
"Just she was looking in the back of both the trucks. And not casual looking either; I wasn't sure if she was going to try and open the doors next. And says we have more than our fair share."
"Fair share of what?"
"All she would say was stuff."
The woman was slowly backing off but she still looked daggers in our direction. People were starting to look at her with suspicion as well. Some of them made a big scene out of locking their doors or telling their kids to beep the horn if someone got too close.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
We finally got piled back in and were able to get back on the road. "We're going to have to go by Gramps' place."
"OK."
"Uh ... so ... you know Cutter."
"Know him? No, not really know him. Know of him? Yeah. Everyone in school knew Cutter. He was a legend in his own mind and was regularly listed on the principal's most wanted list."
It took five seconds for what I said to sink in and he barked a laugh. "Cutter can be a mess and that's a fact. If he hadn't been such a good football player he probably would have been expelled after some of those stunts."
"Yeah. But it was really bad when he broke his leg like that. I didn't see the game but it was all over school how those guys dog piled him to hurt him on purpose."
"Yeah. He still limps sometimes and will for the rest of his life. Destroyed his college football potential."
"He seems pretty upbeat."
"He wasn't at the time. He hid it pretty good outside the family but even I could see it when it was just the family around despite being in the middle of my own crapstorm."
"Uh ... " But I stopped and sighed figuring that if it was my business Sawyer would eventually tell me.
Sawyer picked up on it and said, "You're wondering about Davis."
"Well yeah. Was it me or what?"
"Kay-Lee ..."
"Oh ... so it's me, me as in it wasn't just a byproduct of me but was really me."
"Did that just make any sense?"
"Probably not. Just explain why it was me."
"Everybody in the family was pushing Davis to be the one to marry you."
"Ew."
"I ... what?" he asked trying to turn his thoughts on a dime.
"Ew. Davis gives me funny vibes. I'm glad it was you ... gladder all the time."
He reached his hand over and put it on mine. "Really?"
"Yeah. But if he didn't want to and now he doesn't have to what is up with him acting so weird. It's not like I was going to reach out and contaminate him or anything."
"Uncle Mark is riding him really hard about it."
"That doesn't make any sense. Your Uncle Mark doesn't really like me."
"Don't take it personally. Uncle Mark and Old Man Baffa used to really get into it. Uncle Mark used to date his daughter years ago."
"Wait ... Mr. Baffa was married?"
"Er ... no."
"Oh." Unable to figure out a polite way to ask the obvious I finally just said, "Is she alive? And if so why wasn't she the one to inherit or whatever?"
"She's alive. But she hates the Baffa name, all the Baffas that ever lived, and all it and they stand for and blah, blah, blah. She's crazier than her father ever was. She tried to have Old Man Baffa committed about five years ago after not having anything to do with him for over 20 years just because he didn't recognize her when they were standing in the same line at the bank. The lack of contact for so long was the only thing that saved him from the VA crazy farm. Lawyers got involved and it was messy and the woman got cut out, cut off, and in a big snit she made a huge production of signing away any future rights or proceeds there to yada, yada, yada. Don't worry, she can't take your home away."
I shook my head. "I'm not worried about that. She can't take you away so it's no biggie. I was just wondering ..."
"What did you say?"
"Huh? When?"
"Just now."
"Uh ..."
"Is that really how you feel?"
"Well ... yeah. I mean the house is important sure but I wouldn't have it except for you and ... I mean ... we're married right? I ..." I said quietly, "I know it's the house that got us together but I'd do something to make sure you and I had a place to stay that wasn't the street. I could get a job and help and ..." Then getting quieter still, "Unless ... I mean ..."
"Don't even," he said. "I got you now Kay-Lee." I looked over and he was grinning. A big, fat, really stupid grin. "Yeah, the house is important but something could happen like a fire or some kinda disaster but you're right ... we're a team now and no one can break us. Right?"
"Right," I told him wishing I felt as comfortably goofy with what he was saying as he did. I'd let my fear show and that was never a good thing. To distract him from what I'd said I told him, "Actually it is just strange to imagine I've got someone out there that I am related to."
"Don't Kay-Lee. I wasn't kidding about that woman being as crazy, if not crazier, than Old Man Baffa was. If you really want to know about her you can ask Uncle Mark but be prepared to get blasted."
"Are the Baffas that bad?"
"Naw. I actually kinda remember your Aunt Pet. She used to make caramel apples for the Fall Festival at church and her kids were Delly's age, I guess are their age I mean. If ... hmmm ... look if you really want to know about your aunt I'll take you to Delly's. Your aunt was her Sunday School teacher for a couple of years I think or maybe she was just an adult volunteer with the youth group, I can't remember exactly. I just remember Delly crying and crying when your aunt died."
It was just strange on top of more strange for the day. Every time I turned around it seemed I was finding something out about my family - a family I didn't really know - that others think of as so common knowledge that it slips out and in dribs and drabs and no one is surprised but me.
We finally got piled back in and were able to get back on the road. "We're going to have to go by Gramps' place."
"OK."
"Uh ... so ... you know Cutter."
"Know him? No, not really know him. Know of him? Yeah. Everyone in school knew Cutter. He was a legend in his own mind and was regularly listed on the principal's most wanted list."
It took five seconds for what I said to sink in and he barked a laugh. "Cutter can be a mess and that's a fact. If he hadn't been such a good football player he probably would have been expelled after some of those stunts."
"Yeah. But it was really bad when he broke his leg like that. I didn't see the game but it was all over school how those guys dog piled him to hurt him on purpose."
"Yeah. He still limps sometimes and will for the rest of his life. Destroyed his college football potential."
"He seems pretty upbeat."
"He wasn't at the time. He hid it pretty good outside the family but even I could see it when it was just the family around despite being in the middle of my own crapstorm."
"Uh ... " But I stopped and sighed figuring that if it was my business Sawyer would eventually tell me.
Sawyer picked up on it and said, "You're wondering about Davis."
"Well yeah. Was it me or what?"
"Kay-Lee ..."
"Oh ... so it's me, me as in it wasn't just a byproduct of me but was really me."
"Did that just make any sense?"
"Probably not. Just explain why it was me."
"Everybody in the family was pushing Davis to be the one to marry you."
"Ew."
"I ... what?" he asked trying to turn his thoughts on a dime.
"Ew. Davis gives me funny vibes. I'm glad it was you ... gladder all the time."
He reached his hand over and put it on mine. "Really?"
"Yeah. But if he didn't want to and now he doesn't have to what is up with him acting so weird. It's not like I was going to reach out and contaminate him or anything."
"Uncle Mark is riding him really hard about it."
"That doesn't make any sense. Your Uncle Mark doesn't really like me."
"Don't take it personally. Uncle Mark and Old Man Baffa used to really get into it. Uncle Mark used to date his daughter years ago."
"Wait ... Mr. Baffa was married?"
"Er ... no."
"Oh." Unable to figure out a polite way to ask the obvious I finally just said, "Is she alive? And if so why wasn't she the one to inherit or whatever?"
"She's alive. But she hates the Baffa name, all the Baffas that ever lived, and all it and they stand for and blah, blah, blah. She's crazier than her father ever was. She tried to have Old Man Baffa committed about five years ago after not having anything to do with him for over 20 years just because he didn't recognize her when they were standing in the same line at the bank. The lack of contact for so long was the only thing that saved him from the VA crazy farm. Lawyers got involved and it was messy and the woman got cut out, cut off, and in a big snit she made a huge production of signing away any future rights or proceeds there to yada, yada, yada. Don't worry, she can't take your home away."
I shook my head. "I'm not worried about that. She can't take you away so it's no biggie. I was just wondering ..."
"What did you say?"
"Huh? When?"
"Just now."
"Uh ..."
"Is that really how you feel?"
"Well ... yeah. I mean the house is important sure but I wouldn't have it except for you and ... I mean ... we're married right? I ..." I said quietly, "I know it's the house that got us together but I'd do something to make sure you and I had a place to stay that wasn't the street. I could get a job and help and ..." Then getting quieter still, "Unless ... I mean ..."
"Don't even," he said. "I got you now Kay-Lee." I looked over and he was grinning. A big, fat, really stupid grin. "Yeah, the house is important but something could happen like a fire or some kinda disaster but you're right ... we're a team now and no one can break us. Right?"
"Right," I told him wishing I felt as comfortably goofy with what he was saying as he did. I'd let my fear show and that was never a good thing. To distract him from what I'd said I told him, "Actually it is just strange to imagine I've got someone out there that I am related to."
"Don't Kay-Lee. I wasn't kidding about that woman being as crazy, if not crazier, than Old Man Baffa was. If you really want to know about her you can ask Uncle Mark but be prepared to get blasted."
"Are the Baffas that bad?"
"Naw. I actually kinda remember your Aunt Pet. She used to make caramel apples for the Fall Festival at church and her kids were Delly's age, I guess are their age I mean. If ... hmmm ... look if you really want to know about your aunt I'll take you to Delly's. Your aunt was her Sunday School teacher for a couple of years I think or maybe she was just an adult volunteer with the youth group, I can't remember exactly. I just remember Delly crying and crying when your aunt died."
It was just strange on top of more strange for the day. Every time I turned around it seemed I was finding something out about my family - a family I didn't really know - that others think of as so common knowledge that it slips out and in dribs and drabs and no one is surprised but me.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
"There's my girl!"
I didn't know who Aunt Pearl was talking about and looked behind me to see until a couple of people laugh and Sawyer turned me gently back around. Just in time to get a great big hug and smooch.
"Picking up all of that citric acid. What a godsend. We'll be able to save our lemon juice and why I didn't think of it I don't know. It isn't like we didn't do it at the factory."
Another smooch, a pat, and then I was summarily put into battle to help to divide up all of the supplies.
"Aunt Pearl?"
"Yes Honey?"
I sighed. "There was a woman that claimed we were getting more than our fair share. I didn't believe her but ... but I don't know ... it was creepy. If we keep doing this we may have to do it a little different."
I felt very self-conscious as everyone suddenly got quiet. Gramps harrumphed and asked, "Where was this? While you young folks were out gallivanting?"
It was Davis who said, "Naw sir. Cutter and I and Sawyer used the old overlook to rearrange stuff so the fresh wouldn't get squished. It was some woman ... looked like a Merriweather connection - face like the backend of an old dump truck - and sour, Lord she was sour. I kept an eye on her and we weren't the only ones she was checking out. Kay-Lee was just the only one that openly called her on it."
I added, "She looked like she was about to open the truck door to get a better look. I've been around nosey people but most of them don't mean any harm. This woman was hinkey. I ... I'm sorry. Should I have kept my mouth shut?"
Gramps sighed. "No Honey, if she were that bold she didn't give you much choice. But what caused it?"
"It was the farmer's market Gramps," Cutter explained. "People were acting insane. Why they were I don't know but they were. People were grabbing up things left and right and I tell you it was just weird."
I saw Uncle Mark step away to make a call and the rest of us kept working. Aunt Pearl pulled me over and said, "Honey, I got a favor. With as much canning as we need to get done it is going to kill the propane. Mark and James and some of the others said they looked at that old kitchen and that the wood stove in there is in real good shape. I've got some yard stoves that I'll have some of the boys load up and between those and your stove we should be able to get most of this week's canning accomplished in one day. Your place is central and if it works out I'd like to keep doing it this way."
"Are you asking me? 'Cause Sawyer is really the one y'all should ask."
Somebody with big ears heard his name and came over and asked, "Sawyer whut?"
I sighed. "You know that shirt was still clean not too long ago. What have you been eating?"
"Drinking ... it was a Yoohoo."
"Well you missed your mouth. And your aunt wants to do some canning at the house tomorrow and all summer long. Because of the wood cook stove to save propane."
Sawyer grinned and then frowned. "Aunt Pearl, I haven't looked at the wood pile real good but what I did see looked mostly rotted."
"Honey, I don’t expect you to provide the place, the stove, and the wood. Got a load on a trailer already plus James said there's some trees down near the road up to your house. We bring the splitter over and we'll just start piles for canning needs and keep splitting until everyone gets what we need."
Sawyer thought a moment and then said, "There's a splitter in our barn that looks almost brand new. I fiddled with it - runs off a three-point hitch - and the tractor there has what it needs. If we can get and keep a couple running at the same time we can do a lot of wood. It's going to be getting it small enough for the stoves that's gonna be a challenge. But if you think using our place is best then I’m willing so long as Kay-Lee is." I just shrugged ‘cause I wasn’t ready to get in the middle of that kind of family stuff no matter what Sawyer said.
Uncle James came over and said, "Challenges is what keeps life interesting and the blood flowin'. Heard you had a bit of trouble ... back at the tractor place."
Sawyer sighed, "Not trouble, just irritation." He then snorted. "Kay-Lee set it straight. And the rest of it ain't worth talking about. I just wonder why the traffic was so crazy at the farmer's market. Bad location for it but still shouldn’t have been that bad."
That's when Uncle Mark walked over with a scowl. "That might be the last market until things start coming in around here. Davis had said it looked like a lot of migrants and not the regulars you normally see. I made some calls and ain’t too damn happy with what I’ve heard. There's some new federal regulation that even the stuff going to the markets are now going to have to get some kind of FDA stamp on them and be taxed to get the stamp and then taxed again when it gets sold ... both of those are assuming you can even get the stamp to begin with. Sounds, from what I heard, like a lot of paperwork."
"Isn't that double taxation?" I asked before thinking that I was butting into a male conversation.
Uncle Mark scowled a little harder but nodded. "Yes. It is. Damn it, I'm a getting about sick of Dad always being right." He turned and took a roundabout path to have a word with Gramps.
Uncle James scowled as well. "I have no idea if we are even going to have the summer to get finished up." He looked at Sawyer and tossed his head and they went over to some of the other men and started talking.
Aunt Pearl said, "Oh Lord preserve us from the demons out to prick us. Build a hedge of protection 'round about us and give us the wisdom to know when it is time to get barricaded behind it." She sighed and then looked at me. "I'm gonna take Sawyer at his word and assuming nothing comes up before now and sun up a pile of us are going to be at your place about mid-morning. I'd be over sooner but I want to get the last of the strawberries out of the field as they came in all together for some reason ... well I know why, it is that funny weather we've had this year ... and we'll also bring the first of the greens, first of the rhubarb, and last of the asparagus. That ought to be more than plenty to get done tomorrow but it if isn't we can fill in with some ideas I've got. I'll bring some of my lids and rings and we'll all bring our jars. Think you can get Sawyer to carry you up some jars so you can get them prepped tonight? It'll be easier on you tomorrow."
"I've got a lot already in the kitchen and I'll start on those. How many do you think I should prepare?"
"Honey, I'd start with half a gross and we'll work from there ... well, actually better make it a gross. I'm thinking while we've got everyone together we might oughta go ahead and get some soups and other things going so I can finish cleaning out the deep freezes. I just got me an itchy feeling between my shoulder blades. It'll make for a long day tomorrow for all of us but ..."
"... But if people are willing to eat buffet style and not everyone count on eating all the same thing we can cook what we can and then add a big pot of rice or egg noodles or ... or maybe dumplings to thicken things up ... then whatever doesn't fit in a canner can go onto the table and they can just kind of graze for their lunch and supper."
She laughed, "And where did you come up with that idea?"
Cutter sauntered over and smiled, "The Hospitality Club used to have bake sales and things like that and the rest of us would get the leftovers so long as we moved stuff where they told us to and then stayed out of the way. No snitching stuff off the table or we'd get banished. How do you think the school used to make so much money off the spaghetti dinners and things? Man, my mouth is watering just thinking about the spreads that used to get put on."
"Yeah well, your senior year was the last year we got to do very much of that. Our funding kept getting cut, and then cut again, and then finally cut some more. And we could never replace the money because there were all those new rules on what kind of food we could serve and how much we were allowed to put on each plate. We had to weigh, measure, list ingredients, list nutritional information ... it got to be a lot more work than it was worth in the long run. Especially when we started getting audited by the health department and those people from the healthy lunch program."
Aunt Pearl shook her head. "Well for heaven sake, what some people won’t do to create more work for everyone else. We aren't doing that here but I do believe that the men and boys can all just graze as you said."
It wasn't long after that that Sawyer and I got loaded and headed for home after telling everyone else that we'd see them tomorrow. It had been a long day and I still had a long way to go before I could stop."
"There's my girl!"
I didn't know who Aunt Pearl was talking about and looked behind me to see until a couple of people laugh and Sawyer turned me gently back around. Just in time to get a great big hug and smooch.
"Picking up all of that citric acid. What a godsend. We'll be able to save our lemon juice and why I didn't think of it I don't know. It isn't like we didn't do it at the factory."
Another smooch, a pat, and then I was summarily put into battle to help to divide up all of the supplies.
"Aunt Pearl?"
"Yes Honey?"
I sighed. "There was a woman that claimed we were getting more than our fair share. I didn't believe her but ... but I don't know ... it was creepy. If we keep doing this we may have to do it a little different."
I felt very self-conscious as everyone suddenly got quiet. Gramps harrumphed and asked, "Where was this? While you young folks were out gallivanting?"
It was Davis who said, "Naw sir. Cutter and I and Sawyer used the old overlook to rearrange stuff so the fresh wouldn't get squished. It was some woman ... looked like a Merriweather connection - face like the backend of an old dump truck - and sour, Lord she was sour. I kept an eye on her and we weren't the only ones she was checking out. Kay-Lee was just the only one that openly called her on it."
I added, "She looked like she was about to open the truck door to get a better look. I've been around nosey people but most of them don't mean any harm. This woman was hinkey. I ... I'm sorry. Should I have kept my mouth shut?"
Gramps sighed. "No Honey, if she were that bold she didn't give you much choice. But what caused it?"
"It was the farmer's market Gramps," Cutter explained. "People were acting insane. Why they were I don't know but they were. People were grabbing up things left and right and I tell you it was just weird."
I saw Uncle Mark step away to make a call and the rest of us kept working. Aunt Pearl pulled me over and said, "Honey, I got a favor. With as much canning as we need to get done it is going to kill the propane. Mark and James and some of the others said they looked at that old kitchen and that the wood stove in there is in real good shape. I've got some yard stoves that I'll have some of the boys load up and between those and your stove we should be able to get most of this week's canning accomplished in one day. Your place is central and if it works out I'd like to keep doing it this way."
"Are you asking me? 'Cause Sawyer is really the one y'all should ask."
Somebody with big ears heard his name and came over and asked, "Sawyer whut?"
I sighed. "You know that shirt was still clean not too long ago. What have you been eating?"
"Drinking ... it was a Yoohoo."
"Well you missed your mouth. And your aunt wants to do some canning at the house tomorrow and all summer long. Because of the wood cook stove to save propane."
Sawyer grinned and then frowned. "Aunt Pearl, I haven't looked at the wood pile real good but what I did see looked mostly rotted."
"Honey, I don’t expect you to provide the place, the stove, and the wood. Got a load on a trailer already plus James said there's some trees down near the road up to your house. We bring the splitter over and we'll just start piles for canning needs and keep splitting until everyone gets what we need."
Sawyer thought a moment and then said, "There's a splitter in our barn that looks almost brand new. I fiddled with it - runs off a three-point hitch - and the tractor there has what it needs. If we can get and keep a couple running at the same time we can do a lot of wood. It's going to be getting it small enough for the stoves that's gonna be a challenge. But if you think using our place is best then I’m willing so long as Kay-Lee is." I just shrugged ‘cause I wasn’t ready to get in the middle of that kind of family stuff no matter what Sawyer said.
Uncle James came over and said, "Challenges is what keeps life interesting and the blood flowin'. Heard you had a bit of trouble ... back at the tractor place."
Sawyer sighed, "Not trouble, just irritation." He then snorted. "Kay-Lee set it straight. And the rest of it ain't worth talking about. I just wonder why the traffic was so crazy at the farmer's market. Bad location for it but still shouldn’t have been that bad."
That's when Uncle Mark walked over with a scowl. "That might be the last market until things start coming in around here. Davis had said it looked like a lot of migrants and not the regulars you normally see. I made some calls and ain’t too damn happy with what I’ve heard. There's some new federal regulation that even the stuff going to the markets are now going to have to get some kind of FDA stamp on them and be taxed to get the stamp and then taxed again when it gets sold ... both of those are assuming you can even get the stamp to begin with. Sounds, from what I heard, like a lot of paperwork."
"Isn't that double taxation?" I asked before thinking that I was butting into a male conversation.
Uncle Mark scowled a little harder but nodded. "Yes. It is. Damn it, I'm a getting about sick of Dad always being right." He turned and took a roundabout path to have a word with Gramps.
Uncle James scowled as well. "I have no idea if we are even going to have the summer to get finished up." He looked at Sawyer and tossed his head and they went over to some of the other men and started talking.
Aunt Pearl said, "Oh Lord preserve us from the demons out to prick us. Build a hedge of protection 'round about us and give us the wisdom to know when it is time to get barricaded behind it." She sighed and then looked at me. "I'm gonna take Sawyer at his word and assuming nothing comes up before now and sun up a pile of us are going to be at your place about mid-morning. I'd be over sooner but I want to get the last of the strawberries out of the field as they came in all together for some reason ... well I know why, it is that funny weather we've had this year ... and we'll also bring the first of the greens, first of the rhubarb, and last of the asparagus. That ought to be more than plenty to get done tomorrow but it if isn't we can fill in with some ideas I've got. I'll bring some of my lids and rings and we'll all bring our jars. Think you can get Sawyer to carry you up some jars so you can get them prepped tonight? It'll be easier on you tomorrow."
"I've got a lot already in the kitchen and I'll start on those. How many do you think I should prepare?"
"Honey, I'd start with half a gross and we'll work from there ... well, actually better make it a gross. I'm thinking while we've got everyone together we might oughta go ahead and get some soups and other things going so I can finish cleaning out the deep freezes. I just got me an itchy feeling between my shoulder blades. It'll make for a long day tomorrow for all of us but ..."
"... But if people are willing to eat buffet style and not everyone count on eating all the same thing we can cook what we can and then add a big pot of rice or egg noodles or ... or maybe dumplings to thicken things up ... then whatever doesn't fit in a canner can go onto the table and they can just kind of graze for their lunch and supper."
She laughed, "And where did you come up with that idea?"
Cutter sauntered over and smiled, "The Hospitality Club used to have bake sales and things like that and the rest of us would get the leftovers so long as we moved stuff where they told us to and then stayed out of the way. No snitching stuff off the table or we'd get banished. How do you think the school used to make so much money off the spaghetti dinners and things? Man, my mouth is watering just thinking about the spreads that used to get put on."
"Yeah well, your senior year was the last year we got to do very much of that. Our funding kept getting cut, and then cut again, and then finally cut some more. And we could never replace the money because there were all those new rules on what kind of food we could serve and how much we were allowed to put on each plate. We had to weigh, measure, list ingredients, list nutritional information ... it got to be a lot more work than it was worth in the long run. Especially when we started getting audited by the health department and those people from the healthy lunch program."
Aunt Pearl shook her head. "Well for heaven sake, what some people won’t do to create more work for everyone else. We aren't doing that here but I do believe that the men and boys can all just graze as you said."
It wasn't long after that that Sawyer and I got loaded and headed for home after telling everyone else that we'd see them tomorrow. It had been a long day and I still had a long way to go before I could stop."
Chapter Forty
I was standing at the sink washing about the fifth load of jars when I realized something. "Sawyer isn't tomorrow Sunday? Don't your family usually go to church?"
He nodded looking over the receipts and everything from the day while he sat at the kitchen table. "We would tomorrow too but they created a block in the main sewage line by those big pieces of equipment driving over the church's parking lot. From what I hear the basement - where they have the little kids' classes - is a disgusting mess and the whole building smells. The county is going to do a clean-up but of course not until Monday and it may take more than a week because they have to rip out flooring and all that kind of happy crap."
I groaned at the pun. "That's gross."
"Yeah. Hey ... did you really buy a dozen pairs of jeans?"
"Not all for me," I told him. "Most of those are for you. Some of them are good enough that you can wear them to nice places ... like church. They just need pressing."
"Assuming they'll fit."
"They'll fit. I took a tape measure of your favorite jeans and then used those measurements against each pair I was thinking of buying."
He scowled. "That money was supposed to be for you. Not for you to spend on me."
"I got what I needed," I told him while I concentrated on figuring out if something was stuck on a jar I was washing or if it was an imperfection.
I vaguely heard the kitchen chair scooting on the floor and then jumped about a mile when the jar was taking out of my hand. "C'mere."
I asked Sawyer, "Uh oh ... what did I do wrong?"
"Not wrong ... well not wrong exactly." After I sat with him he said, "Kay-Lee, I worked out the numbers for the budget. I gave you money that I meant for you to spend on things you need. If you spend it on me it throws the budget off."
"How? I have been getting what I need and getting you stuff too. That way you can save the money that doesn't get spent for something else that might wind up being necessary but not in the budget."
He sighed. "Kay-Lee you had a back pack that morning we got married ... and that's it. I've kinda looked over your stuff and you don't have any warm clothes and I know it is warming up and will be summer before you know it but an old school uniform is not going to cut it."
"Oh. You mean I'm not thinking far enough ahead."
"Kinda."
"Wellll ... I kinda am only I guess you don't see it. See those clothes that were here? I'm making over stuff as I have the time. And please don't make that face because it is really fun and useful. One of the reasons I went in shares with Linda on those boxes of laces, ribbons, yarn, and other junk is because I can take those supplies and use it to do what I want. Some of the outfits might look a little retro but I like that stuff."
"What about a coat?"
"There were some nice ones and I bought some cedar smelly stuff at the clearance mall in that store that was just about closets.
He smiled. "Cedar smelly stuff?"
"OK, so I think they are like sachets or something but you know what I mean. I am still looking for a coat that I don't have to worry about getting dirty ... like your John Deer jacket only something that comes down further than my waist."
"And you haven't found anything like that yet?"
"Not yet but there are some fleece and wool blankets ... well, pieces of blankets anyway ... in the upstairs cedar closet and I can cut a jacket out of that and then line it with something. If I can find one pre-made that I don't have to mess with I will but the other is just as good too."
"That's a lot of work Kay-Lee when you could just go buy one."
"Wrong time of year," I told him. "Plus I used to help the people where ever I was living make presents for the other kids. I've gotten pretty good at that sort of thing. Bet you didn't even realize that shirt you're wearing is made over."
He looked down at the jersey he had on. "It is?"
"Yep. There was a sports jersey but someone had cut it up to make the edges raggedy. Well, I cut the sports team logo and number and stuff and pieced it back together with a couple of other shirts. Waa-laa! It is the team you were cheering for the other night wasn't it?"
He smiled, "Yeah it was. You almost done with those jars? I don't know about you but I'm beat and I have to get up early."
"This is the last load."
"Good. 'Cause I wanna snuggle."
"Snuggle?" I said with a smile.
"Wellll ... it starts with a snuggle don't it?"
I blushed but had to admit that it did. And as I finished up I marveled at what was happening in my life and I tried really hard not to worry about waking up.
I was standing at the sink washing about the fifth load of jars when I realized something. "Sawyer isn't tomorrow Sunday? Don't your family usually go to church?"
He nodded looking over the receipts and everything from the day while he sat at the kitchen table. "We would tomorrow too but they created a block in the main sewage line by those big pieces of equipment driving over the church's parking lot. From what I hear the basement - where they have the little kids' classes - is a disgusting mess and the whole building smells. The county is going to do a clean-up but of course not until Monday and it may take more than a week because they have to rip out flooring and all that kind of happy crap."
I groaned at the pun. "That's gross."
"Yeah. Hey ... did you really buy a dozen pairs of jeans?"
"Not all for me," I told him. "Most of those are for you. Some of them are good enough that you can wear them to nice places ... like church. They just need pressing."
"Assuming they'll fit."
"They'll fit. I took a tape measure of your favorite jeans and then used those measurements against each pair I was thinking of buying."
He scowled. "That money was supposed to be for you. Not for you to spend on me."
"I got what I needed," I told him while I concentrated on figuring out if something was stuck on a jar I was washing or if it was an imperfection.
I vaguely heard the kitchen chair scooting on the floor and then jumped about a mile when the jar was taking out of my hand. "C'mere."
I asked Sawyer, "Uh oh ... what did I do wrong?"
"Not wrong ... well not wrong exactly." After I sat with him he said, "Kay-Lee, I worked out the numbers for the budget. I gave you money that I meant for you to spend on things you need. If you spend it on me it throws the budget off."
"How? I have been getting what I need and getting you stuff too. That way you can save the money that doesn't get spent for something else that might wind up being necessary but not in the budget."
He sighed. "Kay-Lee you had a back pack that morning we got married ... and that's it. I've kinda looked over your stuff and you don't have any warm clothes and I know it is warming up and will be summer before you know it but an old school uniform is not going to cut it."
"Oh. You mean I'm not thinking far enough ahead."
"Kinda."
"Wellll ... I kinda am only I guess you don't see it. See those clothes that were here? I'm making over stuff as I have the time. And please don't make that face because it is really fun and useful. One of the reasons I went in shares with Linda on those boxes of laces, ribbons, yarn, and other junk is because I can take those supplies and use it to do what I want. Some of the outfits might look a little retro but I like that stuff."
"What about a coat?"
"There were some nice ones and I bought some cedar smelly stuff at the clearance mall in that store that was just about closets.
He smiled. "Cedar smelly stuff?"
"OK, so I think they are like sachets or something but you know what I mean. I am still looking for a coat that I don't have to worry about getting dirty ... like your John Deer jacket only something that comes down further than my waist."
"And you haven't found anything like that yet?"
"Not yet but there are some fleece and wool blankets ... well, pieces of blankets anyway ... in the upstairs cedar closet and I can cut a jacket out of that and then line it with something. If I can find one pre-made that I don't have to mess with I will but the other is just as good too."
"That's a lot of work Kay-Lee when you could just go buy one."
"Wrong time of year," I told him. "Plus I used to help the people where ever I was living make presents for the other kids. I've gotten pretty good at that sort of thing. Bet you didn't even realize that shirt you're wearing is made over."
He looked down at the jersey he had on. "It is?"
"Yep. There was a sports jersey but someone had cut it up to make the edges raggedy. Well, I cut the sports team logo and number and stuff and pieced it back together with a couple of other shirts. Waa-laa! It is the team you were cheering for the other night wasn't it?"
He smiled, "Yeah it was. You almost done with those jars? I don't know about you but I'm beat and I have to get up early."
"This is the last load."
"Good. 'Cause I wanna snuggle."
"Snuggle?" I said with a smile.
"Wellll ... it starts with a snuggle don't it?"
I blushed but had to admit that it did. And as I finished up I marveled at what was happening in my life and I tried really hard not to worry about waking up.
Sammy55
Veteran Member
Whew!! I was starting to get worried 
, and maybe even a little 
.
But I figured you were
. So decided to just wait and 
.
So, am really
that you come back with another 
great couple of chapters.
So thanks!
I'll raise a pint of something 
to you tonight because I'm so 
!!
, and maybe even a little .But I figured you were
. So decided to just wait and .So, am really
that you come back with another great couple of chapters.So thanks!
I'll raise a pint of something to you tonight because I'm so !!
Last edited:
223shootersc
Veteran Member
Thanks, for the chapters and your hard work!
Texican
Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
"Snuggle?" I said with a smile.
"Wellll ... it starts with a snuggle don't it?"
I blushed but had to admit that it did. And as I finished up I marveled at what was happening in my life and I tried really hard not to worry about waking up.
Kay-Lee has a home and a man. Things are looking up until the next utoh.
45 chapters to go plus a few even new ones.
Thanks Kathy.
Texican....
"Wellll ... it starts with a snuggle don't it?"
I blushed but had to admit that it did. And as I finished up I marveled at what was happening in my life and I tried really hard not to worry about waking up.
Kay-Lee has a home and a man. Things are looking up until the next utoh.
45 chapters to go plus a few even new ones.
Thanks Kathy.
Texican....
Chapter Forty-One
Linda sat down at the table with me while I chopped rhubarb to go in the strawberry-rhubarb pie filling that the Aunts wanted to prepare next. "You ok?"
"Yeah."
"You need one of your pills?"
I shook my head. "Not yet but I'm telling you, the aunts sure do have a lot of energy."
She grinned, "We ain't seen nothing yet. Tommy says that during the different harvest times they can get as much done as one of the big combines."
"One of those big harvesters?"
"Yep."
I groaned, "Oh my Lord."
Linda giggled and took the pan of rhubarb I had finished a few minutes before to carry it into the old kitchen. I wasn't exaggerating. The aunts all seemed to have the energy and go of a big city bus. You might as well just climb on board for the ride or pray they make a few stops along the way to pick you up or you were going to get left behind and be up the creek.
Aunt Suzanne, the quiet and intense wife of Uncle Derwint, brought over more cleaned strawberries. "You doing ok?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Uh huh. Tell me another one. I see you sitting on that cushion. And Linda said your hip joint was bothering you."
I tried not to make a big deal of it but she surprised me, "My sister had a chair pulled out from under her when we were kids as a practical joke. She landed hard and funny on the books that had been under her chair. Broke her tail bone and knocked her leg out of socket. One leg is almost two inches shorter than the other. She has to wear a special shoe or she just aches if she is on her feet too long. You ever been fitted for a special shoe?"
"I was supposed to be but the insurance would never approve it because I was able to get around without one."
"You should tell Sawyer."
I shook my head. "Oh no. It wouldn't be worth the expense."
"Honey, I've seen the Hartford men get together and come up with the craziest inventions or work arounds just by expending a little effort. It can't hurt to let 'em try and do something for you. And it sure will make it easier on you this summer. A little sandal with a platform on it if nothing else will help you get down the rows in the garden without tripping. Now you tell Sawyer or I will. There's no sense suffering, not when we got menfolk that can be put to work to find a solution. They thrive on that sort of thing."
"O .. okay. Yes ma'am. I'll talk to Sawyer."
"Be sure you do." She stretched and sat down and started helping me cap the strawberries and said, "Next week we'll see the first of the early summer produce come in. All you girls will help with that - probably with weekly canning days - plus you'll need to take care of what is in your own yard between times. Sawyer walked you around yet?"
"Yes ma'am. We've got peach trees and cherry trees that he said should be ready next week if it keeps trending warm like it has. There's some other stuff too but that's all that'll be ready anytime this month coming up."
"Boy's got rocks in his head. You got lots of nice edibles. I'll show you next time, for now let's finish these strawberries before someone starts hollerin' that they need them."
---------------
Sawyer and I stood on the porch and waved as everyone drove away after a buffet supper of the day's leftovers. After the last tail light disappeared we slowly turned to go in the house to escape the early mosquitoes and then wandered into the kitchen to look at the jars on the kitchen table and all the counter tops. We couldn't see the jars but we knew they were there under the tea towels and blankets where they would stay until morning.
I was beyond tired when I said, "At least it doesn't look like a science experiment gone bad in here anymore."
Sawyer gave his own tired grin. "You got that list Aunt Pearl left?"
"The one where she allotted so many of each thing we canned for each family?" At his nod I answered, "Yeah. She's got this as organized as a warehouse foreman."
"More organized," Sawyer said cracking a huge yawn. "At least better organized than the manager I used to work for. And I hate to stay it but I was checking the trees and they look like you'll be able to start picking in just a couple of days."
"Good. At least I have a couple of days to get more jars washed and get organized with what I want to do with it all. I'm going to make maraschino cherries for sure after I saw how expensive they were at the store. Linda suggested I dry as much as I can but if I do that it will run up the electric bill and ..."
"Don't worry about that. Preserving the food is more important and it isn't like we have a cable bill. Hell ... uh, heck ... we don't even have internet out here. You feel like going to the library for a couple of hours tomorrow?"
"Uh ... yeah sure, I guess. Why?"
"There's a couple of books I want to look at and I thought maybe if you wanted to you could help me look up some stuff online using the library's wifi. And ..."
"And?"
In an embarrassed rush he said, "And there's a show I really want to watch and I'm not going to go to the library and watch tv and leave you here at the house to work."
I smiled. "You're goofy. You can go watch your show without having me tag along. But, to prevent an argument I'll go ... besides I'd kinda like to look and see what kind of cookbooks and stuff they have. I've got a library card but I guess I'll need to change the address on it and all that stuff."
"You know, that reminds me ... you need to learn to drive."
"I already know how to drive."
"You ... wait, did you say you did?"
"Yeah. Mr. Brinser's mother liked to go piddle around in craft stores and things like that so Mr. Brinser taught me. They took me off the insurance when the old lady died so I couldn’t drive after that so I'm rusty, but so long as it is an automatic I can drive."
"Perfect!" he yelled in glee loud enough to hurt my ears. "There's that station wagon out in the barn. Benedict said that he thinks that it wouldn't be that big a deal to convert it over to that fuel he makes. And so long as you only use the private roads between the various family homesteads - with us being in the middle you can just cut across - we won't even have to put you on the insurance."
He tried to get me to dance, and I tried, but I was stiff and clutzy but he didn't seem to notice. I think that was even better than where he was dancing with me. The weirdest things don't seem to matter to Sawyer just like the weirdest things do.
Linda sat down at the table with me while I chopped rhubarb to go in the strawberry-rhubarb pie filling that the Aunts wanted to prepare next. "You ok?"
"Yeah."
"You need one of your pills?"
I shook my head. "Not yet but I'm telling you, the aunts sure do have a lot of energy."
She grinned, "We ain't seen nothing yet. Tommy says that during the different harvest times they can get as much done as one of the big combines."
"One of those big harvesters?"
"Yep."
I groaned, "Oh my Lord."
Linda giggled and took the pan of rhubarb I had finished a few minutes before to carry it into the old kitchen. I wasn't exaggerating. The aunts all seemed to have the energy and go of a big city bus. You might as well just climb on board for the ride or pray they make a few stops along the way to pick you up or you were going to get left behind and be up the creek.
Aunt Suzanne, the quiet and intense wife of Uncle Derwint, brought over more cleaned strawberries. "You doing ok?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Uh huh. Tell me another one. I see you sitting on that cushion. And Linda said your hip joint was bothering you."
I tried not to make a big deal of it but she surprised me, "My sister had a chair pulled out from under her when we were kids as a practical joke. She landed hard and funny on the books that had been under her chair. Broke her tail bone and knocked her leg out of socket. One leg is almost two inches shorter than the other. She has to wear a special shoe or she just aches if she is on her feet too long. You ever been fitted for a special shoe?"
"I was supposed to be but the insurance would never approve it because I was able to get around without one."
"You should tell Sawyer."
I shook my head. "Oh no. It wouldn't be worth the expense."
"Honey, I've seen the Hartford men get together and come up with the craziest inventions or work arounds just by expending a little effort. It can't hurt to let 'em try and do something for you. And it sure will make it easier on you this summer. A little sandal with a platform on it if nothing else will help you get down the rows in the garden without tripping. Now you tell Sawyer or I will. There's no sense suffering, not when we got menfolk that can be put to work to find a solution. They thrive on that sort of thing."
"O .. okay. Yes ma'am. I'll talk to Sawyer."
"Be sure you do." She stretched and sat down and started helping me cap the strawberries and said, "Next week we'll see the first of the early summer produce come in. All you girls will help with that - probably with weekly canning days - plus you'll need to take care of what is in your own yard between times. Sawyer walked you around yet?"
"Yes ma'am. We've got peach trees and cherry trees that he said should be ready next week if it keeps trending warm like it has. There's some other stuff too but that's all that'll be ready anytime this month coming up."
"Boy's got rocks in his head. You got lots of nice edibles. I'll show you next time, for now let's finish these strawberries before someone starts hollerin' that they need them."
---------------
Sawyer and I stood on the porch and waved as everyone drove away after a buffet supper of the day's leftovers. After the last tail light disappeared we slowly turned to go in the house to escape the early mosquitoes and then wandered into the kitchen to look at the jars on the kitchen table and all the counter tops. We couldn't see the jars but we knew they were there under the tea towels and blankets where they would stay until morning.
I was beyond tired when I said, "At least it doesn't look like a science experiment gone bad in here anymore."
Sawyer gave his own tired grin. "You got that list Aunt Pearl left?"
"The one where she allotted so many of each thing we canned for each family?" At his nod I answered, "Yeah. She's got this as organized as a warehouse foreman."
"More organized," Sawyer said cracking a huge yawn. "At least better organized than the manager I used to work for. And I hate to stay it but I was checking the trees and they look like you'll be able to start picking in just a couple of days."
"Good. At least I have a couple of days to get more jars washed and get organized with what I want to do with it all. I'm going to make maraschino cherries for sure after I saw how expensive they were at the store. Linda suggested I dry as much as I can but if I do that it will run up the electric bill and ..."
"Don't worry about that. Preserving the food is more important and it isn't like we have a cable bill. Hell ... uh, heck ... we don't even have internet out here. You feel like going to the library for a couple of hours tomorrow?"
"Uh ... yeah sure, I guess. Why?"
"There's a couple of books I want to look at and I thought maybe if you wanted to you could help me look up some stuff online using the library's wifi. And ..."
"And?"
In an embarrassed rush he said, "And there's a show I really want to watch and I'm not going to go to the library and watch tv and leave you here at the house to work."
I smiled. "You're goofy. You can go watch your show without having me tag along. But, to prevent an argument I'll go ... besides I'd kinda like to look and see what kind of cookbooks and stuff they have. I've got a library card but I guess I'll need to change the address on it and all that stuff."
"You know, that reminds me ... you need to learn to drive."
"I already know how to drive."
"You ... wait, did you say you did?"
"Yeah. Mr. Brinser's mother liked to go piddle around in craft stores and things like that so Mr. Brinser taught me. They took me off the insurance when the old lady died so I couldn’t drive after that so I'm rusty, but so long as it is an automatic I can drive."
"Perfect!" he yelled in glee loud enough to hurt my ears. "There's that station wagon out in the barn. Benedict said that he thinks that it wouldn't be that big a deal to convert it over to that fuel he makes. And so long as you only use the private roads between the various family homesteads - with us being in the middle you can just cut across - we won't even have to put you on the insurance."
He tried to get me to dance, and I tried, but I was stiff and clutzy but he didn't seem to notice. I think that was even better than where he was dancing with me. The weirdest things don't seem to matter to Sawyer just like the weirdest things do.
Chapter Forty-Two
The trip to the library was very productive. I got a lot of really good recipes to try and in fact ran through all of the index cards that I had left from school. Sawyer was so intrigued to see me almost lose my temper over something so silly as forgetting something as basic as pencil and paper on those endless lists we were making that we stopped by the store on the way home and he laughed as I loaded up on school and office supplies.
Laughing he said, "Well, I know what to get you now to sweeten you up when I get into trouble."
"Oh don't. I feel silly enough as it is."
He reached over and stole a kiss and told me, "You look cute with your bottom lip all poked out like that."
"You really don't want any dinner do you?" I asked him feeling crabby.
He grinned and said, "Yes I do but I'll go one better. How about we stop and get some BBQ from Big John's?"
Carefully I said, "Sawyer don't take this the wrong way but we've eaten out a lot in the last couple of weeks ... those burgers, that Chinese place at the mall, stopping and getting ice cream and drinks ... uh, that money ..."
Just as carefully Sawyer explained, "Pretty soon, even if there is money there won't be time Kay-Lee. I just want us to have a few good memories before things get hard. Summer is going to feel like ... well, there will be days you just about want to cuss the sun for rising you're so tired and sore. Gramps is also starting to talk about some stuff that ... I won't pretend ... it scares the crap out of me. Just about as bad as when they locked my cell door the first couple of times. The kinda stuff that scares you deep in your bones but you know you can't let it show or someone will take it for a weakness and come after you." He sighed so deep it was almost a groan and that sound touched me more than his words did. "We ... well we didn't date. This marriage just sort of happened for both of us and it was for a serious reason for both of us too. But I think we've got it in us to make it work and face the crap coming. That said, I don't want either one of us to look back and ... and wish we'd had some fun while we could ... while we were young and free to do it. Does that make sense? I don't ever want you to wonder if I thought you were worth the trouble or the money to have fun with."
I wanted so badly for him to understand. "Sawyer I've never had this kind of fun in my whole life. I'm not saying every day as a foster kid was miserable because it wasn't. But this kind of fun? I never even imagined that I would ever have it ... or maybe I should say have someone that would want to have this kind of fun with me. And I believe you when you say you do. I just ... well ... I don't want you to think that I have to always eat out or spend money to have fun and ... and you know ... have to have it to stick to our stipulations. 'Cause I don't. 'Cause I know what's real and what isn't; and what's important and what isn't; and that things aren't always fun and that sometimes they are so hard you don't know how you'll get through them. I just want you to know that I know the stipulations are what makes us able to have fun, not the money or going places or any of that other stuff."
He smiled and reached over and adjusted my seatbelt. "I know you understand Kay-Lee. And that's what makes me want to at least give you a little taste of it even if I can't give you much."
"Humph, if I have too much more fun I'm not sure my feet would touch the ground."
He laughed and we did go get BBQ from Big John's but we didn't eat in. We brought it home and I fixed corn, baked beans, and biscuits at the house that way we had some fun but we felt good about economizing a bit too.
But he was also right, time was getting tight to get done all the things that needed getting done in a day and that didn't include the things that Gramps and Aunt Pearl and all the others wanted us to help them get done. Sometimes at night Sawyer had to help me climb in bed. That was kinda fine because we turned it into a game that led to other things but it also bothered me knowing that I needed the help.
It was planned that all the wives - new and old - would stay at their own places as much as possible except for the one or two days a week they would all head to our place to can the produce out of the big family-shared fields. From here on out, as a family, we were to try and rest on Sundays whether that meant attending church or not. On the days that weren't for canning all of the Hartford men and boys were to work at each other’s places to get things set up for whatever was coming. For now that meant helping get the trailers set up for those that were getting a place of their own.
So for the next few days I got up, fixed breakfast and then said good bye to Sawyer as he left to go help his uncles and cousins. I stayed home and that first day he was gone I started to try my hand at canning peaches. I panicked for a moment before remembering that I didn't need to pressure can but the one batch of peach salsa that I had planned. I almost panicked again when I realized I would be solely responsible for lighting and getting that giant wood burning cook stove up and running. Finally, after the first batch, I didn't panic anymore and even managed to streamline the work somewhat.
Over the next few days I was able to put the following on the inventory that Sawyer had created for the pantry: peach preserves, spiced peach preserves, peach butter, peach salsa, strawberry-peach jam, pickled peaches, peach pie filling, spiced peaches, peach chutney, peach cardamom jam, peach orange marmalade, cinnamon peach jam, bourbon peaches, peach-rum preserves, peach and cherry jam, peach melba jelly, peach nectar, butterscotch peach jam. I also froze a bunch and put them in the deep freeze - the finally clean deep freeze that had been absolutely disgusting - so that I would have them for mixing with other fruit when it came in. And I candied and dried a bunch as well as made a bunch of fruit roll ups like I'd learn to make from Linda's mother. I put most of the fruit roll ups in the deep freeze as well since they didn’t last as long as regular dried fruit.
Cherries were even more work because I had to pit those suckers before I could do anything with them. I'd sit there at the very end of the day and in the morning while Sawyer ate breakfast and drop cherries into that spring loaded cherry pitter as fast as I could go. Added to the inventory under cherries heading: Black Forest macaroon conserve, cherry pie filling, cherry salsa, cherry juice, cherry jam, cherry jelly, plain cherries, cherry ice cream topping, maraschino cherries, cherry chutney, cherry relish, cherry butter, cherry rum preserves. I dried cherries until they looked like raisins, made cherry fruit roll ups, candied cherries, and frankly ate them until I was a little sick.
The problem wasn't what I expected it to be. Aunt Pearl when she heard me telling Linda my problem laughed and said, "Honey, sometimes The Lord blesses us so much a body just about wants to run and hide from it. Now tell me again how many trees you've got and I'll see if we can help."
"There's fifteen peach trees and according to the book I found at the library full grown peach trees should give anywhere between four and six bushels a tree only these haven't been taken care of and Sawyer said I'll probably get only three bushels off of each tree between now and the beginning of September when they are all give out. There's twenty-five cherry trees but they aren't all the same type; some are sweet, some are sour, and some are this funny yellow color. I figure I'll be getting about fifty to seventy quarts of fruit per cherry tree depending on the shape the tree is in. And that is just the peaches and cherries. I haven't even been able to count all of the apple trees because every time I think I've found them all I find more and Sawyer says that they look like they've been grouped by variety only he hasn't got a clue what variety they are or when I should expect them to ripen except to figure they'll start in July and not stop until November. Then there are plum trees, pear trees, sticker bushes that Sawyer said make different kinds of berries, and a big grape arbor and I don't know what all else."
Aunt Pearl chuckled and patted my arm. "Well I begin to see your problem. My word, I guess at one time Jacob must have had an idea to go to the farmer's market with the largesse."
"I don't know ma'am. He did leave some notes but to be honest not all of it makes sense and what makes sense has some great big holes in it where information should be. All he said in his notes was that the orchard was out behind the barn and to keep it mowed or it would get away from us real fast and that he'd already had the netting put on."
"And lucky he did it too or the birds would have been horrible. Well, while we get these greens canning how about we prep these peaches that you do have and those that want them can share and if there are any left we'll just put them in the freezer for next time in case someone needs some to mix into a recipe."
Aunt Pearl came loaded for bear every time the family had a canning day. That first week, in addition to the greens, she brought the last of the rhubarb, the last of the strawberries, boysenberries, broccoli, potatoes, and nectarines. By the end of the month the first of the apples had already started showing up ... what she called June apples.
Between batches she took me outside and into the yard and showed me a few more things that Sawyer had missed. The biggie was something called a serviceberry. "Honey, different people call them different things such as Juneberry, but around here we call 'em service or sarviceberries."
She showed me stuff that I hadn't ever imagined you could eat ... burdock, cattails, chickweed, dandelions, lamb's quarter, milkweed, stinging nettle, purslane, sumac (when the berries are ready), autumn olive berries, lemon balm, sheep sorrel, elderberries, wild garlic, wild onions, clover, chicory, prickly pear, and so many other things I had a hard time keeping up.
Aunt Pearl laughed and said, "Well if I can teach you about this I'll be thankful. Not too many of the other girls seem all that interested. Linda does when you can catch her attention but lately she's been so stressed out. You got an idea what it is about?"
Looking around I carefully said, "Um ... she used to get like this around midterms and finals or anytime we had a big test. Especially if a teacher seemed to be riding her for some reason."
"Ah, you're saying that Tommy's mother is making her nervous."
"Yes but please don't tell anyone I told you so. Linda feels bad enough as it is. She hasn't said anything exactly but I've seen her. And she misses her mom. I wish there was some way to help but there's nothing I can do about her dad being sick and getting sicker and it just isn't my place to get involved between her and Tommy's mom."
She nodded. "You are right about that. The only way all us wives learned to get along was by staying out of each other's business ... including how we raised our kids. But I'll see if a little bit of interference can be run to try and redirect some energies."
I relaxed. I hate carrying tales behind people's backs but for some reason when someone asks me I have the worst time not telling the truth.
We were about to head back to the house when Aunt Pearl stopped and got a nostalgic grin on her face. "You know, when I was first married my mother taught me to make something special. Lands ... I haven't thought of it in so long. You see those flowers over there?"
"The honeysuckle?"
"That's right. Did you know that you can make a jelly from the flowers?"
"Really?!"
"Why don't we go inside and get Linda and a few of the other girls if they are interested and I'll show you how."
**********
Making the honeysuckle jelly was so much fun that Aunt Pearl and Aunt Suzanne encouraged Linda and I to try a few other things under their guidance. First they showed us how to collect what they called “fiddleheads.” Fiddleheads are the new heads where the Ostrich Fern is starting to uncurl. You have to be careful to not over collect in any one area but in no time flat I had enough of them from the shady areas under the big trees where we hadn’t mowed that I was able to pressure can several pints of them.
After we brought the fiddleheads to the kitchen however Linda shrugged and said, “Tommy’s mom expects me to help her. Learn for both of us and then teach me later, like I used to in school.”
While I had collected the second basket of fiddleheads on my own the aunts also took the time to show me how to collect other greens such as stinging nettle (and I was warned to use gloves for sure for that), sheep sorrel (which tastes lemony), spring beauty greens, dandelions, and other things I had only ever thought of as weeds. I also dug wild garlic and wild onion and learned to tell the difference between the two. While both have thin, green, waxy leaves, those of wild garlic are round and hollow, while those of wild onion are flat and solid. Leaves of wild garlic are hollow and branch off the main stem. Leaves of wild onion are flat, not hollow, and emerge from the base of the plant. Wild garlic flowers may be green or purple; wild onion flowers are generally white or pink.
After greens they moved on to teaching me about wild roots. Parsnips and burdock roots were more challenging than the greens because they require digging but once you find them and then get them out of the ground you pretty much just treat them like you would any other root vegetable. I knew about parsnips from culinary class but burdock was something I’d never had anything to do with so I put it on my list to research and hoped that I could find someone that had recipes that would make Sawyer forget that it was the root of what most people considered a stubborn weed.
Aunt Nel, a quiet woman that seemed at a loss what to think about some of the goings on of the Hartford “boys”, taught me about thistle root. We had bull thistles up and down the front fence row and I wondered how on earth that something that prickly and painful to try and eradicate could possibly be edible.
“All parts of the plant is edible,” Aunt Nel said. “You got to cut away the stickers but God fixed it so that even in the worst ground something edible can be grown. My grandmother said during the Dust Bowl era that her family ate a fairly steady diet of thistle; usually mixed in with other things but that they were good for piecing out what little else would grow during the lean years. Just start with the roots ‘cause they are easiest to learn on. Scrub ‘em up, chop ‘em, and mix with a pan of root vegetables that you are roasting or using to make a broth.”
Aunt Nel was also the one that taught me about wild leeks – only she called them “ramps” – and warned me of the noisome consequences if you ate too many. She also showed me that the bushes I had thought were full of poisonous berries were actually mayhaws and that they made some of the best preserves and were in high demand in some places like Texas.
She took a long look at the location of some of the plantings and said, “These grow in too straight a line for them to be anything but planted a purpose but they put off enough little ‘uns to make me think whoever planted ‘em – and I can’t think it was Jacob because the man had no imagination – did it a good bit of time ago. I know Jacob’s brother – died long before you were born – had some kids but they all moved off. Jacob used to keep time with some woman – had a daughter by her but they never married – and maybe it was her. Who knows and I’m too old to care to guess at this point. But it is a gain for you that I wouldn’t waste.”
I had fun even if some of the other new wives looked at me like I was playing instead of working. I knew Linda wasn’t irritated at me wanting to learn something new. I didn’t like the obvious if not verbal thought that some of them had that I just wasn’t capable of doing “real work” but decided it wasn’t worth making a scene about. I was still getting to know them, and they were going to have to get to know me. I just didn’t understand why some of them rolled their eyes at the idea of using new stuff for food. I think it is cool. Oh well, their loss, my gain.
The trip to the library was very productive. I got a lot of really good recipes to try and in fact ran through all of the index cards that I had left from school. Sawyer was so intrigued to see me almost lose my temper over something so silly as forgetting something as basic as pencil and paper on those endless lists we were making that we stopped by the store on the way home and he laughed as I loaded up on school and office supplies.
Laughing he said, "Well, I know what to get you now to sweeten you up when I get into trouble."
"Oh don't. I feel silly enough as it is."
He reached over and stole a kiss and told me, "You look cute with your bottom lip all poked out like that."
"You really don't want any dinner do you?" I asked him feeling crabby.
He grinned and said, "Yes I do but I'll go one better. How about we stop and get some BBQ from Big John's?"
Carefully I said, "Sawyer don't take this the wrong way but we've eaten out a lot in the last couple of weeks ... those burgers, that Chinese place at the mall, stopping and getting ice cream and drinks ... uh, that money ..."
Just as carefully Sawyer explained, "Pretty soon, even if there is money there won't be time Kay-Lee. I just want us to have a few good memories before things get hard. Summer is going to feel like ... well, there will be days you just about want to cuss the sun for rising you're so tired and sore. Gramps is also starting to talk about some stuff that ... I won't pretend ... it scares the crap out of me. Just about as bad as when they locked my cell door the first couple of times. The kinda stuff that scares you deep in your bones but you know you can't let it show or someone will take it for a weakness and come after you." He sighed so deep it was almost a groan and that sound touched me more than his words did. "We ... well we didn't date. This marriage just sort of happened for both of us and it was for a serious reason for both of us too. But I think we've got it in us to make it work and face the crap coming. That said, I don't want either one of us to look back and ... and wish we'd had some fun while we could ... while we were young and free to do it. Does that make sense? I don't ever want you to wonder if I thought you were worth the trouble or the money to have fun with."
I wanted so badly for him to understand. "Sawyer I've never had this kind of fun in my whole life. I'm not saying every day as a foster kid was miserable because it wasn't. But this kind of fun? I never even imagined that I would ever have it ... or maybe I should say have someone that would want to have this kind of fun with me. And I believe you when you say you do. I just ... well ... I don't want you to think that I have to always eat out or spend money to have fun and ... and you know ... have to have it to stick to our stipulations. 'Cause I don't. 'Cause I know what's real and what isn't; and what's important and what isn't; and that things aren't always fun and that sometimes they are so hard you don't know how you'll get through them. I just want you to know that I know the stipulations are what makes us able to have fun, not the money or going places or any of that other stuff."
He smiled and reached over and adjusted my seatbelt. "I know you understand Kay-Lee. And that's what makes me want to at least give you a little taste of it even if I can't give you much."
"Humph, if I have too much more fun I'm not sure my feet would touch the ground."
He laughed and we did go get BBQ from Big John's but we didn't eat in. We brought it home and I fixed corn, baked beans, and biscuits at the house that way we had some fun but we felt good about economizing a bit too.
But he was also right, time was getting tight to get done all the things that needed getting done in a day and that didn't include the things that Gramps and Aunt Pearl and all the others wanted us to help them get done. Sometimes at night Sawyer had to help me climb in bed. That was kinda fine because we turned it into a game that led to other things but it also bothered me knowing that I needed the help.
It was planned that all the wives - new and old - would stay at their own places as much as possible except for the one or two days a week they would all head to our place to can the produce out of the big family-shared fields. From here on out, as a family, we were to try and rest on Sundays whether that meant attending church or not. On the days that weren't for canning all of the Hartford men and boys were to work at each other’s places to get things set up for whatever was coming. For now that meant helping get the trailers set up for those that were getting a place of their own.
So for the next few days I got up, fixed breakfast and then said good bye to Sawyer as he left to go help his uncles and cousins. I stayed home and that first day he was gone I started to try my hand at canning peaches. I panicked for a moment before remembering that I didn't need to pressure can but the one batch of peach salsa that I had planned. I almost panicked again when I realized I would be solely responsible for lighting and getting that giant wood burning cook stove up and running. Finally, after the first batch, I didn't panic anymore and even managed to streamline the work somewhat.
Over the next few days I was able to put the following on the inventory that Sawyer had created for the pantry: peach preserves, spiced peach preserves, peach butter, peach salsa, strawberry-peach jam, pickled peaches, peach pie filling, spiced peaches, peach chutney, peach cardamom jam, peach orange marmalade, cinnamon peach jam, bourbon peaches, peach-rum preserves, peach and cherry jam, peach melba jelly, peach nectar, butterscotch peach jam. I also froze a bunch and put them in the deep freeze - the finally clean deep freeze that had been absolutely disgusting - so that I would have them for mixing with other fruit when it came in. And I candied and dried a bunch as well as made a bunch of fruit roll ups like I'd learn to make from Linda's mother. I put most of the fruit roll ups in the deep freeze as well since they didn’t last as long as regular dried fruit.
Cherries were even more work because I had to pit those suckers before I could do anything with them. I'd sit there at the very end of the day and in the morning while Sawyer ate breakfast and drop cherries into that spring loaded cherry pitter as fast as I could go. Added to the inventory under cherries heading: Black Forest macaroon conserve, cherry pie filling, cherry salsa, cherry juice, cherry jam, cherry jelly, plain cherries, cherry ice cream topping, maraschino cherries, cherry chutney, cherry relish, cherry butter, cherry rum preserves. I dried cherries until they looked like raisins, made cherry fruit roll ups, candied cherries, and frankly ate them until I was a little sick.
The problem wasn't what I expected it to be. Aunt Pearl when she heard me telling Linda my problem laughed and said, "Honey, sometimes The Lord blesses us so much a body just about wants to run and hide from it. Now tell me again how many trees you've got and I'll see if we can help."
"There's fifteen peach trees and according to the book I found at the library full grown peach trees should give anywhere between four and six bushels a tree only these haven't been taken care of and Sawyer said I'll probably get only three bushels off of each tree between now and the beginning of September when they are all give out. There's twenty-five cherry trees but they aren't all the same type; some are sweet, some are sour, and some are this funny yellow color. I figure I'll be getting about fifty to seventy quarts of fruit per cherry tree depending on the shape the tree is in. And that is just the peaches and cherries. I haven't even been able to count all of the apple trees because every time I think I've found them all I find more and Sawyer says that they look like they've been grouped by variety only he hasn't got a clue what variety they are or when I should expect them to ripen except to figure they'll start in July and not stop until November. Then there are plum trees, pear trees, sticker bushes that Sawyer said make different kinds of berries, and a big grape arbor and I don't know what all else."
Aunt Pearl chuckled and patted my arm. "Well I begin to see your problem. My word, I guess at one time Jacob must have had an idea to go to the farmer's market with the largesse."
"I don't know ma'am. He did leave some notes but to be honest not all of it makes sense and what makes sense has some great big holes in it where information should be. All he said in his notes was that the orchard was out behind the barn and to keep it mowed or it would get away from us real fast and that he'd already had the netting put on."
"And lucky he did it too or the birds would have been horrible. Well, while we get these greens canning how about we prep these peaches that you do have and those that want them can share and if there are any left we'll just put them in the freezer for next time in case someone needs some to mix into a recipe."
Aunt Pearl came loaded for bear every time the family had a canning day. That first week, in addition to the greens, she brought the last of the rhubarb, the last of the strawberries, boysenberries, broccoli, potatoes, and nectarines. By the end of the month the first of the apples had already started showing up ... what she called June apples.
Between batches she took me outside and into the yard and showed me a few more things that Sawyer had missed. The biggie was something called a serviceberry. "Honey, different people call them different things such as Juneberry, but around here we call 'em service or sarviceberries."
She showed me stuff that I hadn't ever imagined you could eat ... burdock, cattails, chickweed, dandelions, lamb's quarter, milkweed, stinging nettle, purslane, sumac (when the berries are ready), autumn olive berries, lemon balm, sheep sorrel, elderberries, wild garlic, wild onions, clover, chicory, prickly pear, and so many other things I had a hard time keeping up.
Aunt Pearl laughed and said, "Well if I can teach you about this I'll be thankful. Not too many of the other girls seem all that interested. Linda does when you can catch her attention but lately she's been so stressed out. You got an idea what it is about?"
Looking around I carefully said, "Um ... she used to get like this around midterms and finals or anytime we had a big test. Especially if a teacher seemed to be riding her for some reason."
"Ah, you're saying that Tommy's mother is making her nervous."
"Yes but please don't tell anyone I told you so. Linda feels bad enough as it is. She hasn't said anything exactly but I've seen her. And she misses her mom. I wish there was some way to help but there's nothing I can do about her dad being sick and getting sicker and it just isn't my place to get involved between her and Tommy's mom."
She nodded. "You are right about that. The only way all us wives learned to get along was by staying out of each other's business ... including how we raised our kids. But I'll see if a little bit of interference can be run to try and redirect some energies."
I relaxed. I hate carrying tales behind people's backs but for some reason when someone asks me I have the worst time not telling the truth.
We were about to head back to the house when Aunt Pearl stopped and got a nostalgic grin on her face. "You know, when I was first married my mother taught me to make something special. Lands ... I haven't thought of it in so long. You see those flowers over there?"
"The honeysuckle?"
"That's right. Did you know that you can make a jelly from the flowers?"
"Really?!"
"Why don't we go inside and get Linda and a few of the other girls if they are interested and I'll show you how."
**********
Making the honeysuckle jelly was so much fun that Aunt Pearl and Aunt Suzanne encouraged Linda and I to try a few other things under their guidance. First they showed us how to collect what they called “fiddleheads.” Fiddleheads are the new heads where the Ostrich Fern is starting to uncurl. You have to be careful to not over collect in any one area but in no time flat I had enough of them from the shady areas under the big trees where we hadn’t mowed that I was able to pressure can several pints of them.
After we brought the fiddleheads to the kitchen however Linda shrugged and said, “Tommy’s mom expects me to help her. Learn for both of us and then teach me later, like I used to in school.”
While I had collected the second basket of fiddleheads on my own the aunts also took the time to show me how to collect other greens such as stinging nettle (and I was warned to use gloves for sure for that), sheep sorrel (which tastes lemony), spring beauty greens, dandelions, and other things I had only ever thought of as weeds. I also dug wild garlic and wild onion and learned to tell the difference between the two. While both have thin, green, waxy leaves, those of wild garlic are round and hollow, while those of wild onion are flat and solid. Leaves of wild garlic are hollow and branch off the main stem. Leaves of wild onion are flat, not hollow, and emerge from the base of the plant. Wild garlic flowers may be green or purple; wild onion flowers are generally white or pink.
After greens they moved on to teaching me about wild roots. Parsnips and burdock roots were more challenging than the greens because they require digging but once you find them and then get them out of the ground you pretty much just treat them like you would any other root vegetable. I knew about parsnips from culinary class but burdock was something I’d never had anything to do with so I put it on my list to research and hoped that I could find someone that had recipes that would make Sawyer forget that it was the root of what most people considered a stubborn weed.
Aunt Nel, a quiet woman that seemed at a loss what to think about some of the goings on of the Hartford “boys”, taught me about thistle root. We had bull thistles up and down the front fence row and I wondered how on earth that something that prickly and painful to try and eradicate could possibly be edible.
“All parts of the plant is edible,” Aunt Nel said. “You got to cut away the stickers but God fixed it so that even in the worst ground something edible can be grown. My grandmother said during the Dust Bowl era that her family ate a fairly steady diet of thistle; usually mixed in with other things but that they were good for piecing out what little else would grow during the lean years. Just start with the roots ‘cause they are easiest to learn on. Scrub ‘em up, chop ‘em, and mix with a pan of root vegetables that you are roasting or using to make a broth.”
Aunt Nel was also the one that taught me about wild leeks – only she called them “ramps” – and warned me of the noisome consequences if you ate too many. She also showed me that the bushes I had thought were full of poisonous berries were actually mayhaws and that they made some of the best preserves and were in high demand in some places like Texas.
She took a long look at the location of some of the plantings and said, “These grow in too straight a line for them to be anything but planted a purpose but they put off enough little ‘uns to make me think whoever planted ‘em – and I can’t think it was Jacob because the man had no imagination – did it a good bit of time ago. I know Jacob’s brother – died long before you were born – had some kids but they all moved off. Jacob used to keep time with some woman – had a daughter by her but they never married – and maybe it was her. Who knows and I’m too old to care to guess at this point. But it is a gain for you that I wouldn’t waste.”
I had fun even if some of the other new wives looked at me like I was playing instead of working. I knew Linda wasn’t irritated at me wanting to learn something new. I didn’t like the obvious if not verbal thought that some of them had that I just wasn’t capable of doing “real work” but decided it wasn’t worth making a scene about. I was still getting to know them, and they were going to have to get to know me. I just didn’t understand why some of them rolled their eyes at the idea of using new stuff for food. I think it is cool. Oh well, their loss, my gain.
Chapter Forty-Three
After all the women left, I decided to take a moment to think about the new stuff I was learning. First off was canning and pressure canning to preserve food. If I understood the plan, by the time we finished for the year each household would have their own sort of grocery store in their basement, cellar, or however they ultimately stored their pantry. I’d gotten some new recipes and even started a new section in my recipe file I had started in H&C at school.
I had actually started two new sections, one for canning and preserving and the other for wild foods. The more I think about all those wild foods just hanging around begging to be harvested … or as Aunt Nel called it, foraged … the more I like it. It means that I don’t have to be so beholden to the aunts for so much stuff. I also learned that wild forage tends to have a more extended harvest time so long as you didn’t over dig or cut what you were after. Some wild forage greens are even like that fancy cut-and-come-again lettuce like you find at high end restaurants. You cut the salad greens when they are babies, but you leave the root and tops and they just keep growing for a good long while; you get many harvests out of a single plant instead of one plant equaling one harvest.
I also like the idea that the wild forage is something that I can do myself. The real question yet to be answered was whether Sawyer would eat it or go balky at eating something different. I was thinking about that when I heard the door slam so loud that it made me jump. I rushed out of the pantry and was narrowly missed by a flying boot. The near miss startled Sawyer so much that his temper tantrum stopped right there and he ran over.
"I ... I didn't throw it at you Kay-Lee, I swear. I just meant to throw it ... but not at you."
"Ooookay. But if I ask you why you threw it will it make you angrier?"
He deflated, leaned against the doorframe, and slid down. "This day has had more suckage than I can even describe."
I sat on the floor beside him and said, "Sounds bad. If you can explain it to me just a piece at a time ... well I might not be able to fix it but maybe talking about it will help?" I admit I was grasping at straws, trying to remember all those courses in conflict resolution they had us take at school to deal with the "frustration with our injustices" that we apparently felt.
He snorted. "I got to Gramps' place this morning just in time to run into Delly who tried to rip me a new one for putting a brick through her new car's windshield."
"Huh?"
"Seems when Mason was out here that morning that's what he was driving. Delly's new car."
"That's been weeks back now. Why take so long to bring it up? Doesn't she have insurance? Or more to the point why isn't she getting the money to fix it from Mason?"
"Well see, she'd been out of town when that happened and since then Buttface told her there was a recall on it - which there was and he tried to hide getting the windshield fixed in amongst that work. But she caught it and all she'd been told by Buttface is that I was the one that broke the window and he hadn't wanted her to find out, not the circumstances that it happened in. Lucky for me Gramps had a copy of the police report to prove to her what happened."
"So that fixed it. Right?"
"Wrong. All it did was embarrass her and to deflect from that she brought up all sorts of crap from my past to cover why she'd automatically assumed I had been in the wrong. And finally Gramps said she could either keep a civil tongue in her head or she could shut up. Well that really tore it and she started in on how the family was always taking my side even though ..."
"Even though what?"
"Look, I'm no angel Kay-Lee and there was a time that ... well after ... after getting free of prison I was ... I'm not proud of it and I'm not trying to make excuses, but I was angry and ... and I acted a little crazy. OK, a few times I acted a whole lot crazy but I started getting my head on straight after I finally started sleeping regular and not having to worry about every shadow coming up behind me with a shiv or ... other stuff. Delly has some legitimate complaints but she's getting things all turned around like everything is my fault when a lot of what she is complaining about is stuff from Mason's past, not mine."
"I'm sorry Sawyer. I saw brothers and sisters torn apart in foster care. They were like destroyed and stuff. I can't understand why your sister is acting like this."
"I can. Buttface has always been good at getting Delly to see things his way. Only lately he isn't - at least according to family gossip. I don't keep up with them no more 'cause it makes me too mad and when I get that kind of mad ... anyway I just had to trim it back to stay on the straight and narrow. Delly is ... well I guess she is looking for someone to blame. Gramps explained it to me after the aunts pulled Delly into the house to get her to calm down. And ..."
"And what?"
With a sour face Sawyer said, "Delly is preggers."
"Why are you acting like that? She's not that old."
"Old enough. She’s thirty-seven and they stuck her in a high-risk category apparently and Jeannie told me that some of her crazy is probably related to hormones and things like that. My niece Rissa isn’t helping things. She’s fourteen going on forty and claims she’s embarrassed too … of Delly for you know having sex to make the baby because apparently she’s too old for that. Burt Jr. is excited but mostly because at ten he is tired of being the baby and is looking to have some of the heat taken off. The thing is ... Buttface got fixed after Burt Jr. was born so ..."
"So? Oh you mean ... oh, sooooo maybe the baby isn't ..."
"Delly swears it is, that somehow Buttface got unfixed, and she's crazy because she swore up and down she wouldn't have a houseful of kids like all the other Hartfords."
"That's kinda unfair. This baby makes three, that's not a houseful. Besides your parents only had two - you and Delly - and you were spaced far apart."
"Not because my parents didn't want a houseful of kids. It just didn't happen for them. Mom had fibroids or some female thing like that. And Delly definitely doesn't want a houseful of kids. She's always claimed she was teased pretty hard about it when she was a kid and then when she was first married everyone expected her to bang out a bunch of her own. It embarrassed her and Delly hates that. She made Buttface go get fixed after their second one. I honestly don't know what to believe."
"Isn't that kind of like what she did to you?"
He just sat there looking at me and then snorted. "OK, fine, I'll give you that point, and I'll call Delly in a few minutes to make sure she understands. But seriously if that was all that happened today I would have been ok ... not great ... but ok; I could have handled it."
After all the women left, I decided to take a moment to think about the new stuff I was learning. First off was canning and pressure canning to preserve food. If I understood the plan, by the time we finished for the year each household would have their own sort of grocery store in their basement, cellar, or however they ultimately stored their pantry. I’d gotten some new recipes and even started a new section in my recipe file I had started in H&C at school.
I had actually started two new sections, one for canning and preserving and the other for wild foods. The more I think about all those wild foods just hanging around begging to be harvested … or as Aunt Nel called it, foraged … the more I like it. It means that I don’t have to be so beholden to the aunts for so much stuff. I also learned that wild forage tends to have a more extended harvest time so long as you didn’t over dig or cut what you were after. Some wild forage greens are even like that fancy cut-and-come-again lettuce like you find at high end restaurants. You cut the salad greens when they are babies, but you leave the root and tops and they just keep growing for a good long while; you get many harvests out of a single plant instead of one plant equaling one harvest.
I also like the idea that the wild forage is something that I can do myself. The real question yet to be answered was whether Sawyer would eat it or go balky at eating something different. I was thinking about that when I heard the door slam so loud that it made me jump. I rushed out of the pantry and was narrowly missed by a flying boot. The near miss startled Sawyer so much that his temper tantrum stopped right there and he ran over.
"I ... I didn't throw it at you Kay-Lee, I swear. I just meant to throw it ... but not at you."
"Ooookay. But if I ask you why you threw it will it make you angrier?"
He deflated, leaned against the doorframe, and slid down. "This day has had more suckage than I can even describe."
I sat on the floor beside him and said, "Sounds bad. If you can explain it to me just a piece at a time ... well I might not be able to fix it but maybe talking about it will help?" I admit I was grasping at straws, trying to remember all those courses in conflict resolution they had us take at school to deal with the "frustration with our injustices" that we apparently felt.
He snorted. "I got to Gramps' place this morning just in time to run into Delly who tried to rip me a new one for putting a brick through her new car's windshield."
"Huh?"
"Seems when Mason was out here that morning that's what he was driving. Delly's new car."
"That's been weeks back now. Why take so long to bring it up? Doesn't she have insurance? Or more to the point why isn't she getting the money to fix it from Mason?"
"Well see, she'd been out of town when that happened and since then Buttface told her there was a recall on it - which there was and he tried to hide getting the windshield fixed in amongst that work. But she caught it and all she'd been told by Buttface is that I was the one that broke the window and he hadn't wanted her to find out, not the circumstances that it happened in. Lucky for me Gramps had a copy of the police report to prove to her what happened."
"So that fixed it. Right?"
"Wrong. All it did was embarrass her and to deflect from that she brought up all sorts of crap from my past to cover why she'd automatically assumed I had been in the wrong. And finally Gramps said she could either keep a civil tongue in her head or she could shut up. Well that really tore it and she started in on how the family was always taking my side even though ..."
"Even though what?"
"Look, I'm no angel Kay-Lee and there was a time that ... well after ... after getting free of prison I was ... I'm not proud of it and I'm not trying to make excuses, but I was angry and ... and I acted a little crazy. OK, a few times I acted a whole lot crazy but I started getting my head on straight after I finally started sleeping regular and not having to worry about every shadow coming up behind me with a shiv or ... other stuff. Delly has some legitimate complaints but she's getting things all turned around like everything is my fault when a lot of what she is complaining about is stuff from Mason's past, not mine."
"I'm sorry Sawyer. I saw brothers and sisters torn apart in foster care. They were like destroyed and stuff. I can't understand why your sister is acting like this."
"I can. Buttface has always been good at getting Delly to see things his way. Only lately he isn't - at least according to family gossip. I don't keep up with them no more 'cause it makes me too mad and when I get that kind of mad ... anyway I just had to trim it back to stay on the straight and narrow. Delly is ... well I guess she is looking for someone to blame. Gramps explained it to me after the aunts pulled Delly into the house to get her to calm down. And ..."
"And what?"
With a sour face Sawyer said, "Delly is preggers."
"Why are you acting like that? She's not that old."
"Old enough. She’s thirty-seven and they stuck her in a high-risk category apparently and Jeannie told me that some of her crazy is probably related to hormones and things like that. My niece Rissa isn’t helping things. She’s fourteen going on forty and claims she’s embarrassed too … of Delly for you know having sex to make the baby because apparently she’s too old for that. Burt Jr. is excited but mostly because at ten he is tired of being the baby and is looking to have some of the heat taken off. The thing is ... Buttface got fixed after Burt Jr. was born so ..."
"So? Oh you mean ... oh, sooooo maybe the baby isn't ..."
"Delly swears it is, that somehow Buttface got unfixed, and she's crazy because she swore up and down she wouldn't have a houseful of kids like all the other Hartfords."
"That's kinda unfair. This baby makes three, that's not a houseful. Besides your parents only had two - you and Delly - and you were spaced far apart."
"Not because my parents didn't want a houseful of kids. It just didn't happen for them. Mom had fibroids or some female thing like that. And Delly definitely doesn't want a houseful of kids. She's always claimed she was teased pretty hard about it when she was a kid and then when she was first married everyone expected her to bang out a bunch of her own. It embarrassed her and Delly hates that. She made Buttface go get fixed after their second one. I honestly don't know what to believe."
"Isn't that kind of like what she did to you?"
He just sat there looking at me and then snorted. "OK, fine, I'll give you that point, and I'll call Delly in a few minutes to make sure she understands. But seriously if that was all that happened today I would have been ok ... not great ... but ok; I could have handled it."
Chapter Forty-Four
"What else?"
"I think Buttface and Mason are trying to do a little CYA and said they are going to make a counter complaint about the windshield. They say since I was making such a big deal out of it, I was leaving them no choice only ... I'm not ... making a big deal out of it I mean. If I had wanted the trouble I could have caused it, but I've got higher priorities these days."
"How do you know all that?"
"They tried to start something when I drove Uncle Mark and Davis to the Bait & Tackle to pick up some thick sliced Bologna."
"What does Bologna have to do with fishing?" I asked almost afraid of the answer I was going to get.
"Bait & Tackle has a deli counter in the back and Uncle Mark wanted what Uncle Mark wanted and that's all he wanted so Gramps gave me the signal to get him out from underfoot. You know how Uncle Mark is. Well, Buttface's office is a couple of doors down from where we were, and someone must have called and told him I was in the area."
"What does he do that he needs an office?"
"A lot of stuff. His main business is wholesale ... parts and things like that ... but he dabbles in a bunch of stuff. He used to do pretty well, but the economy tanking has hurt him. Don't get me wrong, Buttface and I, we don't see eye-to-eye on a bunch of stuff, but I can't fault him for how he used to take care of Delly and their kids. He set them up nice. It's just ... well it isn't any of my business so I'll shut my mouth about it. Lately though it seems he's let Mason run all over him and he wasn't like that before only now things are changing and ... like I said, none of mine."
"So did Delly's husband confront you or what?"
"Sorta. He was out on the sidewalk talking loud enough about how something was wrong with me and that he was worried for Delly and his kids and just being his normal Buttface self. I would have just ignored him, but Davis couldn't keep his mouth shut and told everyone what had really happened. Well Buttface tries to back track only Davis is like a dog on a scent and Uncle Mark and I are trying to head him off and just get back to the truck since we were done with the errand."
"Uh oh."
"Yeah. Only we got lucky and an off-duty deputy had been watching and it just so happened to be one of those guys who came out that morning."
"Uh oh twice over."
"No. Actually he set things straight and said that if Buttface really had a problem he should take it up legally but that he would have to do so with the understanding that a police report had already been filed on the original event and that Mason had already confessed to being in the area, in Delly's car that he "borrowed" with Buttface's say-so, and that he was found to be pretty well dog-chewed which also fell in line with the story we had given and that if Buttface had any other facts that countered what they found at the scene that perhaps he should come in for questioning. Well that shut him up, and gave other people something to talk about. And then along comes Lisa and her mom coming out of the nail salon."
"Uh ... er ..."
"Nope ...you had it right the first time ... uh oh. You see, as smart as Lisa's dad is, her mom is a real ditz. I know it isn't nice but it's the truth. She walked right up to me and gave me a hug, started spouting all this stuff about forgiveness and I thought Lisa was going to blow a gasket or sink into the ground, one of the two."
"Wouldn't that be a good thing? Forgiveness I mean ... not the part where Lisa blows up."
"Yeah, I guess it was and she is a nice woman but more trouble from Lisa's dad and brother I don't need. I'm trying really hard to get shed of her - she's kinda touchy feely - and finally she asks me why I'm dancing around well then Uncle Mark has to stick his two cents in."
"Oh no."
"Oh yes. He says, 'Cause the boy is married Natalie and I guess he's worried about having to explain why another woman was hugging on him.' And then she says, 'Married?! Oh I just gotta hear this. Who is she?' and blah, blippety, blah. Of course Uncle Mark can't wait to put me on the hot seat and pretty soon we have a crowd and you can bet next church service we're both going to be swamped with attention."
"Why would anyone care? They didn't care when you were having such a hard time and they didn't care about Mr. Baffa needing help around this place and they sure as heck didn't act like I existed before? Why are they suddenly going to start caring?"
"Because people are always looking for ways to distract themselves from their own personal misery. They gotta get into other people's misery to make themselves feel better."
"Are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Miserable."
"What? Oh ... well ... that didn't come out very smart did it. And the answer is definitely not. It was just a saying."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure."
"What else happened?"
"Isn't that enough?"
"Well ... I mean ... you just made it sound like ... I suppose it was a hard day. But if that was lunch what happened after lunch that has kept you so tied up in knots?"
Sawyer opened his mouth to answer me then stopped and leaned his head back. "Me is what happened. I was so stressed out all I could do was make dumb mistakes or get irritated at all the normal little crappy things that happen during a workday. Davis wouldn't stop picking at me. Uncle Mark kept lecturing. Gramps' arthritis is bothering him and it made him ... well ... less than as sympathetic as I had expected him to be. Then having to explain what happened to everyone that kept interrupting me from getting my work done. It was doggone hot in that silo and there were enough rats in there that needed killing to make even the dogs get bored with their job and they love killing rats just about better than chasing the barn cats."
"That's a lot right?"
"You better believe it is and ... and ... well all I wanted to do was to tell everyone they could shove it and come home to you 'cause I know you are on my side. You might not understand everything but you're absolutely on my side."
I wasn't quite sure how to take that, but I could see he didn't need me asking whether he meant I was stupid or just didn't understand all the details and what they could mean ... a different kind of stupid. And even though I don't know much about guys I do know that one bit of wisdom that old Mrs. Brinser imparted to me that has proven itself true is that they tend to chew on their own feet a lot by which she meant they are constantly putting their feet in their mouths.
Finally, when he seemed all give out with his story of his terrible day, I pushed myself off the floor and told him, "Well I can't change what happened but how about you go shower and I fix you a plate of dinner, cold glass of sweat tea, and you sit at the table and fix those rabbit ears so you can watch that sports whatever that you wanted to watch. And when you are finished you can have a couple of slices of cherry or peach pie ... or one of each ... whichever you want."
"Give me a hand up?" When I did though he rubbed all over me. "Ooops. Looks like I got you all dirty. Now you need a shower too."
He smelled really bad and I was trying to find some enthusiasm but apparently he had enough for both of us both during the shower and afterwards.
"What else?"
"I think Buttface and Mason are trying to do a little CYA and said they are going to make a counter complaint about the windshield. They say since I was making such a big deal out of it, I was leaving them no choice only ... I'm not ... making a big deal out of it I mean. If I had wanted the trouble I could have caused it, but I've got higher priorities these days."
"How do you know all that?"
"They tried to start something when I drove Uncle Mark and Davis to the Bait & Tackle to pick up some thick sliced Bologna."
"What does Bologna have to do with fishing?" I asked almost afraid of the answer I was going to get.
"Bait & Tackle has a deli counter in the back and Uncle Mark wanted what Uncle Mark wanted and that's all he wanted so Gramps gave me the signal to get him out from underfoot. You know how Uncle Mark is. Well, Buttface's office is a couple of doors down from where we were, and someone must have called and told him I was in the area."
"What does he do that he needs an office?"
"A lot of stuff. His main business is wholesale ... parts and things like that ... but he dabbles in a bunch of stuff. He used to do pretty well, but the economy tanking has hurt him. Don't get me wrong, Buttface and I, we don't see eye-to-eye on a bunch of stuff, but I can't fault him for how he used to take care of Delly and their kids. He set them up nice. It's just ... well it isn't any of my business so I'll shut my mouth about it. Lately though it seems he's let Mason run all over him and he wasn't like that before only now things are changing and ... like I said, none of mine."
"So did Delly's husband confront you or what?"
"Sorta. He was out on the sidewalk talking loud enough about how something was wrong with me and that he was worried for Delly and his kids and just being his normal Buttface self. I would have just ignored him, but Davis couldn't keep his mouth shut and told everyone what had really happened. Well Buttface tries to back track only Davis is like a dog on a scent and Uncle Mark and I are trying to head him off and just get back to the truck since we were done with the errand."
"Uh oh."
"Yeah. Only we got lucky and an off-duty deputy had been watching and it just so happened to be one of those guys who came out that morning."
"Uh oh twice over."
"No. Actually he set things straight and said that if Buttface really had a problem he should take it up legally but that he would have to do so with the understanding that a police report had already been filed on the original event and that Mason had already confessed to being in the area, in Delly's car that he "borrowed" with Buttface's say-so, and that he was found to be pretty well dog-chewed which also fell in line with the story we had given and that if Buttface had any other facts that countered what they found at the scene that perhaps he should come in for questioning. Well that shut him up, and gave other people something to talk about. And then along comes Lisa and her mom coming out of the nail salon."
"Uh ... er ..."
"Nope ...you had it right the first time ... uh oh. You see, as smart as Lisa's dad is, her mom is a real ditz. I know it isn't nice but it's the truth. She walked right up to me and gave me a hug, started spouting all this stuff about forgiveness and I thought Lisa was going to blow a gasket or sink into the ground, one of the two."
"Wouldn't that be a good thing? Forgiveness I mean ... not the part where Lisa blows up."
"Yeah, I guess it was and she is a nice woman but more trouble from Lisa's dad and brother I don't need. I'm trying really hard to get shed of her - she's kinda touchy feely - and finally she asks me why I'm dancing around well then Uncle Mark has to stick his two cents in."
"Oh no."
"Oh yes. He says, 'Cause the boy is married Natalie and I guess he's worried about having to explain why another woman was hugging on him.' And then she says, 'Married?! Oh I just gotta hear this. Who is she?' and blah, blippety, blah. Of course Uncle Mark can't wait to put me on the hot seat and pretty soon we have a crowd and you can bet next church service we're both going to be swamped with attention."
"Why would anyone care? They didn't care when you were having such a hard time and they didn't care about Mr. Baffa needing help around this place and they sure as heck didn't act like I existed before? Why are they suddenly going to start caring?"
"Because people are always looking for ways to distract themselves from their own personal misery. They gotta get into other people's misery to make themselves feel better."
"Are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Miserable."
"What? Oh ... well ... that didn't come out very smart did it. And the answer is definitely not. It was just a saying."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure."
"What else happened?"
"Isn't that enough?"
"Well ... I mean ... you just made it sound like ... I suppose it was a hard day. But if that was lunch what happened after lunch that has kept you so tied up in knots?"
Sawyer opened his mouth to answer me then stopped and leaned his head back. "Me is what happened. I was so stressed out all I could do was make dumb mistakes or get irritated at all the normal little crappy things that happen during a workday. Davis wouldn't stop picking at me. Uncle Mark kept lecturing. Gramps' arthritis is bothering him and it made him ... well ... less than as sympathetic as I had expected him to be. Then having to explain what happened to everyone that kept interrupting me from getting my work done. It was doggone hot in that silo and there were enough rats in there that needed killing to make even the dogs get bored with their job and they love killing rats just about better than chasing the barn cats."
"That's a lot right?"
"You better believe it is and ... and ... well all I wanted to do was to tell everyone they could shove it and come home to you 'cause I know you are on my side. You might not understand everything but you're absolutely on my side."
I wasn't quite sure how to take that, but I could see he didn't need me asking whether he meant I was stupid or just didn't understand all the details and what they could mean ... a different kind of stupid. And even though I don't know much about guys I do know that one bit of wisdom that old Mrs. Brinser imparted to me that has proven itself true is that they tend to chew on their own feet a lot by which she meant they are constantly putting their feet in their mouths.
Finally, when he seemed all give out with his story of his terrible day, I pushed myself off the floor and told him, "Well I can't change what happened but how about you go shower and I fix you a plate of dinner, cold glass of sweat tea, and you sit at the table and fix those rabbit ears so you can watch that sports whatever that you wanted to watch. And when you are finished you can have a couple of slices of cherry or peach pie ... or one of each ... whichever you want."
"Give me a hand up?" When I did though he rubbed all over me. "Ooops. Looks like I got you all dirty. Now you need a shower too."
He smelled really bad and I was trying to find some enthusiasm but apparently he had enough for both of us both during the shower and afterwards.
Chapter Forty-Five
I have been having an absolute blast foraging. I get nearly as much food for the pantry that way as I do from the fruit trees in the orchard and from my share of the canning that we do on canning days. But I have to admit that occasionally the work can be monotonous and lonely when Sawyer is off working on one of the other family’s farms. That’s where I was at when Linda and Jeannie just showed up out of the blue and it was so tempting just to run off with them.
"C'mon Kay-Lee. Sawyer won't care."
I shook my head. "Linda I don't have any way of letting him know where I'll be if he needs me."
"Sure you do. Jeannie can call Benedict. Benedict can tell Sawyer."
"But he might need me and we'll already be gone and ..."
I felt a tap on my shoulder and when I turned around Jeannie handed me the phone. I took it gingerly and said, "Hello?"
There was huffing and puffing on the other end. "Go. You know where the keys are and all the yada, yada to do to leave the house. You know where the extry is too."
Extry is what Sawyer called the cash we found that we are using to fill in all the holes we have listed in our wants and needs lists.
"Oh I hadn't intended to ..."
Just a shade shy of sounding irritated Sawyer huffed, "Kay-Lee, no fuss. Just take the list and go."
"Uh ... okay."
He hung up.
Jeannie looked at me with a shrug and said, "It was just easier to call him than it was to waste time with you acting guilty for wanting to have a little fun. C'mon before your nerves give me the heaves."
I looked at them both and said, "I don't feel guilty ..."
Jeannie rolled her eyes but Linda gave me a one-armed hug and said, "Yes you do, you just don't know you do."
"Really. It's commendable," Jeannie said dryly. "But you're making the rest of us look bad. So we're here to drag you off to prove you don't mean to."
"Huh? Nothing I could do would make someone look bad. I don't get it." I looked at Linda and said again, "I don't get it."
"Nope. Which just means you're nice and sweet and a little silly. Now c'mon. It's not like this is a purely for-fun outing. We've got a long list of things to hunt up. Have you got a list too?"
"Yeah. Um … can we stop by the grocery store and the library?"
"Yep. We also have to stop by the fabric store and the feed depot." Jeannie was driving Uncle Ben's extended bed truck with the camper top and that told me we had quite a bit to pick up.
We wound up spending the longest time at the library where they were having a "Friends of the Library" sale and I got two big canvas totes of books for ten dollars. I also turned in the books I had checked out and picked up some that I had put on reserve. And I found out that my library card allowed me to check out movies and audio files. I got a bunch of documentaries that I could have playing on the tv while I mended and folded clothes during the day.
At the fabric store we emptied their clearance bin of remnants and also picked up a couple of bolts of denim, muslin, and cheesecloth that had been ordered by someone in the family. It was there we heard about a store on the other side of town that was closing, and we zipped over there and picked up a bunch of quilt batting and a bunch of other odds and ends they had on deep discount as they only had two more days to clear out before the bankruptcy people came in for the shelving and stuff.
Next we went into this industrial complex. "Jeannie? Is this a short cut?" I asked.
"Nope," she answered as she beeped a horn and a door open and we drove in.
As soon as the door came down. Jeannie got out and walked over to a man and they hugged each other tight. Before I could be shocked she said, "Uncle Howard if Dad finds out ..."
"Let 'em. I love your father honey, but I don't agree with how he and your mother are handling this. You and Benedict ... well ... you could have behaved better, and you'll have to pay the piper on that one day ... but that doesn't mean that we gotta cut you out of our lives." He sighed. "Your dad's side of the family are all stiff necked. Your dad is the best of the lot but this was a pretty big pill for him to swallow. He'll come around. Lindy - your momma - already is. Now if we could just get Pamela Sue to ..."
"Stop being Pamela Sue?"
I looked over at Linda who whispered, "Her sister the stuck-up snob."
"Uncle Howard ... are you sure about this?"
"Jeannie Honey ... whatever is still here tomorrow is going to be taken by the IRS and most of it will probably go straight into a dumpster if not home with the agents. A friend has offered me a job working with him in Thailand as a contractor. We'll see your aunt's family more and ... well ... a change in environment sounds good right now. So let's get this stuff loaded. I couldn't get your father to unbend enough to accept this, but I don't want to hear any guff from you, you hear?"
The "stuff" wound up being a lot of paper goods and cleaning supplies. Jeannie's uncle's business had been a Restaurant Supply Company. He had a room going where he'd tried to have a sale earlier in the day and hadn't done too well. I worried that I was going overboard putting all in a cart I wanted - metal tongs, giant salad bowls that I could use for marinating things before canning or that I could cut things into, lighters, a portable butane stove and a bunch of butane canisters, and that was before I saw the food items he had left. The girls got a lot of junk food but I knew that Sawyer didn't like chips so I stuck to drink powders and mixes, seasonings, breadcrumbs, condiments, vinegar, raw sugar, big bottles of seasonings, and I just about cleaned the last of his cooler out of frozen exotic fruits as well as stir fry vegetable mixes.
I was counting everything up in my head praying that Sawyer wasn't going to come unglued when Uncle Howard looked things over, and then said, "Quite a load you got there. I'm sorry to say it is going to cost you a whole twenty bucks."
My mouth fell open and he shook his head. "Play along girl."
"Uh .." I looked at Jeannie who couldn't do anything but hide a laugh behind her hands. "Hmmm ... uh ... you sure you added that up right?"
"'Course I did. Don't think that I'll be cheated either. Just because that food is a little out of date don't mean it can't be eaten."
I just blinked and could hear Linda and Jeannie snickering behind me. I asked, "Is this a case of not looking a gift horse in the mouth?"
Uncle Howard laughed and said, "Now you're thinking with your head."
He did the same thing to Linda and Jeannie who really hammed up the pretend haggling. I realized he'd been trying to play and I froze up. Soon enough Jeannie and her uncle said an emotional goodbye and we went out a different bay door.
I told Jeannie, "I hope I didn't upset your uncle. I ... I just didn't know what to make of him."
"Don't worry about it," Jeannie said on a sniffle. "Uncle Howard got a kick out of it. That old saying you used about the horse is one of his favorite ones." She stopped at a red light and said, "I don't know about y'all but I'm done in."
Linda said, "We should get that frozen stuff home."
Jeannie said, “We do but we have one more stop to make. Uncle Howard put me onto it but we need to go ourselves because the guys won’t want to have anything to do with it.”
Linda grimaced and said, “You really mean to go there? They don’t even speak English.”
Jeannie looked at me and grinned. “That’s not going to be a problem.”
Starting to get a little worried I asked, “Jeannie? What kind of trouble are you trying to get us into?”
“Not into … out of. Or around. Or whatever you want to call it. I saw you at the flea market. You speak Spanish pretty good.”
I shrugged. “There’s a lot of migrant kids that get stuck in foster care. Plus, it was one of the few electives I could take since middle school that I didn’t fall behind on and could do in the hospital by listening to tapes and stuff. But that don’t tell me where you want to go except to say yeah, the guys’ heads will probably pop when they find out.”
“It’s no place bad and they don’t have to find out.”
“I won’t lie to Sawyer,” I told them both when Linda started grinning.
Linda rolled her eyes. “You won’t have to. We just won’t bring up where all we went.”
“Sawyer keeps receipts.”
Jeannie’s eyes narrowed and she said, “Well he won’t keep these receipts. I’ll use the money we were given to get supplies and you can pay me for your share and just tell nosey ol’ Sawyer that we did a group buy on one ticket that I’m turning into Aunt Pearl. Aunt Pearl won’t blink and in fact she told me not to blare off where all we go to anyone. Anyone could just very well include our husbands.”
I wasn’t liking Jeannie’s logic but had to admit that it turned out all right in the end. She drove us over to another warehouse and right away I could see the two of them were beginning to rethink their idea. On the other hand the more uncomfortable they got the less unsure I became. Right as Jeannie looked like she was going to turn the truck around I rolled down the window and asked an obviously very Spanish gentlemen, “Excuse me but we were told you were having a going out of business sale.” Of course I said it in Spanish and added Jeannie’s uncle’s name for good measure.
“Si, si … Senor Howard.” The man pointed further down the alley and we saw some women going through boxes but none of them looked like they were buying much. Jeannie and Linda were hesitant to get out of the truck so I told them to wait there and went over and started asking questions. In Spanish.
Then a girl came out and laughed. “Kay-Lee!”
I looked up and saw a girl that was almost as crippled up as I was. She’d had polio as a little kid and it had left her legs twisted and in braces.
“Blanca!”
We were hugging hello when Linda rushes over and takes her turn. I looked back and found Jeannie standing there too. Blanca had gone to school with all of us. She was a year older than Linda and a year younger than Jeannie. She was a happy, smiling girl and was popular on both sides of the school.
“What are you doing here?” she asked after she’d introduced us to her family and some of the others there.
Jeannie explained and Blanca shrugged. “Things are bad all over. Papa said we are going to move to Florida to be closer to Abuela and Abuelo who are getting too old to run their store alone since my uncle decided to take work building the big pipeline like so many others have done. If you have cash Papa will cut you some good deals. We have way too much to take with us when we leave and we can’t leave until we sell it. Bad for us but maybe good for you?”
Boy was it good for us. Personally I think Jeannie and Linda bought a little too much but who am I to tell them how to spend what was given to them. I was a little pickier but still managed to pick up a lot of things I never thought to even put on the lists and some that were.
Strong Mexican coffee went into my box by the pound. I got almost three cases of tropical fruit that included mango, papaya, and guava. I got several canisters of dried milk – the real stuff, not just evaporated instant – as well as some breakfast cereals that were kind of like cream of wheat. High quality Mexican chocolate went into my box next to the several bags of cornstarch. I got a case of canned table cream and was really happy to have it and would have bought more if they’d had it. I got a bunch of canned beans but steered clear of the canned menudo because while I like to eat plain the same way I like to cook plain, tripe stew has just never been something I could force myself to eat. Blanca called me over and I almost squealed like a little kid and she had a hard time not laughing at me. That’s ok. I bought a fifty-pound bag of dried pinto beans and a twenty-five pound bag of dried black beans. I left the rest for Linda and Jeannie to get though it wasn’t easy as the price was really good. And I also got an almost fifty-pound bag of parboiled rice, something that wasn’t easy to find in the grocery store in much quantity.
There were other odds and ends like the flour you can use to make tortillas with and the corn flour you can make corn tortillas with, some hot sauces that I was warned need to be used sparingly until you figured out just how much fire you wanted, and some unique spices and flavorings … and a gallon jug of vanilla that made Jeannie blink and wonder what I planned to use it for. I shrugged and told them that for the money I liked real Mexican and Honduran vanilla over the cheap artificial stuff that I usually had to use.
After that it was a real push to find room for everything and we really did need to hurry home. Blanca insisted on giving us some tamales to take with us and I didn’t say no. We hugged and wished each other the best of luck but didn’t pretend that we’d keep in touch. I knew that when Blanca and her family left they’d cut all ties to this area. They just had a different mindset; I’d seen the same thing with some of the foster kids I’d been housed with. It was hard to explain but obvious when you saw it.
We ate the delicious tamales on our way back home, discussing the day’s purchases and what we’d missed on our lists and what we’d gotten good deals on. We were full and happy and pulling down the drive when we found to our surprise, two sheriff's cars.
I have been having an absolute blast foraging. I get nearly as much food for the pantry that way as I do from the fruit trees in the orchard and from my share of the canning that we do on canning days. But I have to admit that occasionally the work can be monotonous and lonely when Sawyer is off working on one of the other family’s farms. That’s where I was at when Linda and Jeannie just showed up out of the blue and it was so tempting just to run off with them.
"C'mon Kay-Lee. Sawyer won't care."
I shook my head. "Linda I don't have any way of letting him know where I'll be if he needs me."
"Sure you do. Jeannie can call Benedict. Benedict can tell Sawyer."
"But he might need me and we'll already be gone and ..."
I felt a tap on my shoulder and when I turned around Jeannie handed me the phone. I took it gingerly and said, "Hello?"
There was huffing and puffing on the other end. "Go. You know where the keys are and all the yada, yada to do to leave the house. You know where the extry is too."
Extry is what Sawyer called the cash we found that we are using to fill in all the holes we have listed in our wants and needs lists.
"Oh I hadn't intended to ..."
Just a shade shy of sounding irritated Sawyer huffed, "Kay-Lee, no fuss. Just take the list and go."
"Uh ... okay."
He hung up.
Jeannie looked at me with a shrug and said, "It was just easier to call him than it was to waste time with you acting guilty for wanting to have a little fun. C'mon before your nerves give me the heaves."
I looked at them both and said, "I don't feel guilty ..."
Jeannie rolled her eyes but Linda gave me a one-armed hug and said, "Yes you do, you just don't know you do."
"Really. It's commendable," Jeannie said dryly. "But you're making the rest of us look bad. So we're here to drag you off to prove you don't mean to."
"Huh? Nothing I could do would make someone look bad. I don't get it." I looked at Linda and said again, "I don't get it."
"Nope. Which just means you're nice and sweet and a little silly. Now c'mon. It's not like this is a purely for-fun outing. We've got a long list of things to hunt up. Have you got a list too?"
"Yeah. Um … can we stop by the grocery store and the library?"
"Yep. We also have to stop by the fabric store and the feed depot." Jeannie was driving Uncle Ben's extended bed truck with the camper top and that told me we had quite a bit to pick up.
We wound up spending the longest time at the library where they were having a "Friends of the Library" sale and I got two big canvas totes of books for ten dollars. I also turned in the books I had checked out and picked up some that I had put on reserve. And I found out that my library card allowed me to check out movies and audio files. I got a bunch of documentaries that I could have playing on the tv while I mended and folded clothes during the day.
At the fabric store we emptied their clearance bin of remnants and also picked up a couple of bolts of denim, muslin, and cheesecloth that had been ordered by someone in the family. It was there we heard about a store on the other side of town that was closing, and we zipped over there and picked up a bunch of quilt batting and a bunch of other odds and ends they had on deep discount as they only had two more days to clear out before the bankruptcy people came in for the shelving and stuff.
Next we went into this industrial complex. "Jeannie? Is this a short cut?" I asked.
"Nope," she answered as she beeped a horn and a door open and we drove in.
As soon as the door came down. Jeannie got out and walked over to a man and they hugged each other tight. Before I could be shocked she said, "Uncle Howard if Dad finds out ..."
"Let 'em. I love your father honey, but I don't agree with how he and your mother are handling this. You and Benedict ... well ... you could have behaved better, and you'll have to pay the piper on that one day ... but that doesn't mean that we gotta cut you out of our lives." He sighed. "Your dad's side of the family are all stiff necked. Your dad is the best of the lot but this was a pretty big pill for him to swallow. He'll come around. Lindy - your momma - already is. Now if we could just get Pamela Sue to ..."
"Stop being Pamela Sue?"
I looked over at Linda who whispered, "Her sister the stuck-up snob."
"Uncle Howard ... are you sure about this?"
"Jeannie Honey ... whatever is still here tomorrow is going to be taken by the IRS and most of it will probably go straight into a dumpster if not home with the agents. A friend has offered me a job working with him in Thailand as a contractor. We'll see your aunt's family more and ... well ... a change in environment sounds good right now. So let's get this stuff loaded. I couldn't get your father to unbend enough to accept this, but I don't want to hear any guff from you, you hear?"
The "stuff" wound up being a lot of paper goods and cleaning supplies. Jeannie's uncle's business had been a Restaurant Supply Company. He had a room going where he'd tried to have a sale earlier in the day and hadn't done too well. I worried that I was going overboard putting all in a cart I wanted - metal tongs, giant salad bowls that I could use for marinating things before canning or that I could cut things into, lighters, a portable butane stove and a bunch of butane canisters, and that was before I saw the food items he had left. The girls got a lot of junk food but I knew that Sawyer didn't like chips so I stuck to drink powders and mixes, seasonings, breadcrumbs, condiments, vinegar, raw sugar, big bottles of seasonings, and I just about cleaned the last of his cooler out of frozen exotic fruits as well as stir fry vegetable mixes.
I was counting everything up in my head praying that Sawyer wasn't going to come unglued when Uncle Howard looked things over, and then said, "Quite a load you got there. I'm sorry to say it is going to cost you a whole twenty bucks."
My mouth fell open and he shook his head. "Play along girl."
"Uh .." I looked at Jeannie who couldn't do anything but hide a laugh behind her hands. "Hmmm ... uh ... you sure you added that up right?"
"'Course I did. Don't think that I'll be cheated either. Just because that food is a little out of date don't mean it can't be eaten."
I just blinked and could hear Linda and Jeannie snickering behind me. I asked, "Is this a case of not looking a gift horse in the mouth?"
Uncle Howard laughed and said, "Now you're thinking with your head."
He did the same thing to Linda and Jeannie who really hammed up the pretend haggling. I realized he'd been trying to play and I froze up. Soon enough Jeannie and her uncle said an emotional goodbye and we went out a different bay door.
I told Jeannie, "I hope I didn't upset your uncle. I ... I just didn't know what to make of him."
"Don't worry about it," Jeannie said on a sniffle. "Uncle Howard got a kick out of it. That old saying you used about the horse is one of his favorite ones." She stopped at a red light and said, "I don't know about y'all but I'm done in."
Linda said, "We should get that frozen stuff home."
Jeannie said, “We do but we have one more stop to make. Uncle Howard put me onto it but we need to go ourselves because the guys won’t want to have anything to do with it.”
Linda grimaced and said, “You really mean to go there? They don’t even speak English.”
Jeannie looked at me and grinned. “That’s not going to be a problem.”
Starting to get a little worried I asked, “Jeannie? What kind of trouble are you trying to get us into?”
“Not into … out of. Or around. Or whatever you want to call it. I saw you at the flea market. You speak Spanish pretty good.”
I shrugged. “There’s a lot of migrant kids that get stuck in foster care. Plus, it was one of the few electives I could take since middle school that I didn’t fall behind on and could do in the hospital by listening to tapes and stuff. But that don’t tell me where you want to go except to say yeah, the guys’ heads will probably pop when they find out.”
“It’s no place bad and they don’t have to find out.”
“I won’t lie to Sawyer,” I told them both when Linda started grinning.
Linda rolled her eyes. “You won’t have to. We just won’t bring up where all we went.”
“Sawyer keeps receipts.”
Jeannie’s eyes narrowed and she said, “Well he won’t keep these receipts. I’ll use the money we were given to get supplies and you can pay me for your share and just tell nosey ol’ Sawyer that we did a group buy on one ticket that I’m turning into Aunt Pearl. Aunt Pearl won’t blink and in fact she told me not to blare off where all we go to anyone. Anyone could just very well include our husbands.”
I wasn’t liking Jeannie’s logic but had to admit that it turned out all right in the end. She drove us over to another warehouse and right away I could see the two of them were beginning to rethink their idea. On the other hand the more uncomfortable they got the less unsure I became. Right as Jeannie looked like she was going to turn the truck around I rolled down the window and asked an obviously very Spanish gentlemen, “Excuse me but we were told you were having a going out of business sale.” Of course I said it in Spanish and added Jeannie’s uncle’s name for good measure.
“Si, si … Senor Howard.” The man pointed further down the alley and we saw some women going through boxes but none of them looked like they were buying much. Jeannie and Linda were hesitant to get out of the truck so I told them to wait there and went over and started asking questions. In Spanish.
Then a girl came out and laughed. “Kay-Lee!”
I looked up and saw a girl that was almost as crippled up as I was. She’d had polio as a little kid and it had left her legs twisted and in braces.
“Blanca!”
We were hugging hello when Linda rushes over and takes her turn. I looked back and found Jeannie standing there too. Blanca had gone to school with all of us. She was a year older than Linda and a year younger than Jeannie. She was a happy, smiling girl and was popular on both sides of the school.
“What are you doing here?” she asked after she’d introduced us to her family and some of the others there.
Jeannie explained and Blanca shrugged. “Things are bad all over. Papa said we are going to move to Florida to be closer to Abuela and Abuelo who are getting too old to run their store alone since my uncle decided to take work building the big pipeline like so many others have done. If you have cash Papa will cut you some good deals. We have way too much to take with us when we leave and we can’t leave until we sell it. Bad for us but maybe good for you?”
Boy was it good for us. Personally I think Jeannie and Linda bought a little too much but who am I to tell them how to spend what was given to them. I was a little pickier but still managed to pick up a lot of things I never thought to even put on the lists and some that were.
Strong Mexican coffee went into my box by the pound. I got almost three cases of tropical fruit that included mango, papaya, and guava. I got several canisters of dried milk – the real stuff, not just evaporated instant – as well as some breakfast cereals that were kind of like cream of wheat. High quality Mexican chocolate went into my box next to the several bags of cornstarch. I got a case of canned table cream and was really happy to have it and would have bought more if they’d had it. I got a bunch of canned beans but steered clear of the canned menudo because while I like to eat plain the same way I like to cook plain, tripe stew has just never been something I could force myself to eat. Blanca called me over and I almost squealed like a little kid and she had a hard time not laughing at me. That’s ok. I bought a fifty-pound bag of dried pinto beans and a twenty-five pound bag of dried black beans. I left the rest for Linda and Jeannie to get though it wasn’t easy as the price was really good. And I also got an almost fifty-pound bag of parboiled rice, something that wasn’t easy to find in the grocery store in much quantity.
There were other odds and ends like the flour you can use to make tortillas with and the corn flour you can make corn tortillas with, some hot sauces that I was warned need to be used sparingly until you figured out just how much fire you wanted, and some unique spices and flavorings … and a gallon jug of vanilla that made Jeannie blink and wonder what I planned to use it for. I shrugged and told them that for the money I liked real Mexican and Honduran vanilla over the cheap artificial stuff that I usually had to use.
After that it was a real push to find room for everything and we really did need to hurry home. Blanca insisted on giving us some tamales to take with us and I didn’t say no. We hugged and wished each other the best of luck but didn’t pretend that we’d keep in touch. I knew that when Blanca and her family left they’d cut all ties to this area. They just had a different mindset; I’d seen the same thing with some of the foster kids I’d been housed with. It was hard to explain but obvious when you saw it.
We ate the delicious tamales on our way back home, discussing the day’s purchases and what we’d missed on our lists and what we’d gotten good deals on. We were full and happy and pulling down the drive when we found to our surprise, two sheriff's cars.
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
Here we go again - I've been hammering away, trying to keep up w/ the rate Ms Kathy is posting - doing pretty good too, until today.
Every time she gets to a point in any of her stories where food preservation is central, I get sidetracked looking for recipes; Black Forest macaroon conserve caught my eye this AM and there's peach salsa and peach chutney, peach cardamom jam & peach orange marmalade, bourbon and/or rum peach preserves, …. You get the drift I’m sure.
I had planned to do an oil change on both vehicles & a couple of other things but my afternoon seems to have been reallocated .....
Thank you Ms Kathy
DW is working fully remote so, keeping out from underfoot is key
Every time she gets to a point in any of her stories where food preservation is central, I get sidetracked looking for recipes; Black Forest macaroon conserve caught my eye this AM and there's peach salsa and peach chutney, peach cardamom jam & peach orange marmalade, bourbon and/or rum peach preserves, …. You get the drift I’m sure.
I had planned to do an oil change on both vehicles & a couple of other things but my afternoon seems to have been reallocated .....
Thank you Ms Kathy
DW is working fully remote so, keeping out from underfoot is key
Sammy55
Veteran Member
Yeah, I know! Kathy always has great recipes or foods mentioned in her stories. I just wish there was a "like" button that said or looked like "yummy!!" LOL!
(And if there were requests taken, I'd also like a "rolling your eyes" like button, too! I'd use that one a LOT!)
Chapter Forty-Six
A woman stood in the yard bellowing, "I'm telling you the girl is disabled and therefore the marriage is what they call nul and void because she can't give consent. And if you don't like that one, the marriage is nul and void because she was tricked."
Now I don't usually get bent out of shape because people think that I'm mentally as slow as my body. And I also usually don't want to make a big deal of it because of my friends from SLD at school. But something about the way that woman was talking immediately set my teeth on edge. Especially after I got a load of the look on Sawyer's face.
I got out of the truck and marched indignantly - well as much as I can march - over to Sawyer's side and just stood there and stared that woman in the face. When she opened her mouth I talked over the top of her and said, "I assume you are the daughter of Jacob Baffa? The one that tried to commit elder abuse against him? The one who then gave up all legal rights to Jacob Baffa's estate?"
Her mouth started opening and closing like a fish out of water. "Allow me to introduce myself ... Cousin. My name is Kay-Lee Baffa Hartford."
Another woman stepped forward and said, "My mother may have given up her right to the estate but I didn't."
I snapped right back, "That's right, you didn't have to because your mother did it for you. Your grandfather, my great uncle, took the papers your mother signed to a probate lawyer and had them verified then appropriately filed. Your mother said - in writing - that she gave up her share of any estate, blah, blah, blah for the entirety of her life as well as the entirety of the lives of any of her heirs with all the where to's and here for's you could want ... which apparently means you are out of luck. Uncle Jacob ..." The name felt strange on my tongue. "... was nothing if not a thorough man. He has everything locked down tight so things play out exactly as he wished them to. I can give you the name of the law firm if you have any questions and you can make an appointment with the judge or whatever since the probate has already been settled and filed."
"Now listen here ..."
"No. You listen here. Your mother is trying to pull the same stunt she pulled with her father by bringing in the issue of mental capacity. Well in point of fact I think it is her mental capacity that should be brought into question. And yours too if you think you can pull this bit of fraud off. And if it comes down to a court case I can guarantee you I will cut you off at the knees. Since you apparently knew of my existence and just left me in the foster care system ... and don't think I don't recognize you because I do as you got into that fight with a couple of the teachers during a PTA meeting and I can get lots of depositions and whatever it takes to bring your character and mental capacity into question too if you want to go that route."
Now they were both breathing like a couple of wide mouth bass.
"Now you get one thing straight. WE ... meaning my husband and I ... do not want trouble. WE ... meaning my husband and I ... are trying, wanting, and endeavoring to do the right and lawful thing and stay as far away from trouble as we can. WE ... meaning my husband and I ... have done a lot of serious work to rehabilitate this house and property that Uncle Jacob hadn't been able to take care of due to his own failing health. The house - such as it is - has been cleaned top to bottom. The yard and surrounding property has been picked up, mowed, and trimmed. The next project as soon as time and money allows is to rehabilitate the barn to replace some of the siding and some of the sheet metal roofing. And WE ... meaning my husband and I ... are getting sick and tired of the poor sheriff deputies having to traipse all the way out here simply because some people can't keep their nose and their grubby paws out of other people's business. Now I am asking you nicely to leave us alone and to leave this property so both we and everyone else can get back to work. Not everyone has time to waste on windmills and lost causes and loose screws."
It took about twenty more minutes before things calmed back down and we saw the last unwelcomed visitor leave. Jeannie and Linda just looked at me wide eyed as we unloaded the truck so they could go home. All the while I was trying really hard to be polite but it was getting harder and harder every time I saw Linda glance at me and almost start laughing.
They finally left and I still hadn't done much more that growl single syllable answers. As soon as the girls left I slapped a hand over my mouth and ran inside to the bathroom.
"Kay-Lee?!"
It took a while to stop hurling but eventually I did but all I could think was to lean against Sawyer and say, "Please don't be sorry. Please don't be sorry. I can't help it if I have crazy relatives. I didn't even know I had relatives much less that they are crazy."
I wrapped my arms around him and he snorted and picked me up off the bathroom floor and carried me to the sofa. "You want something to drink?"
I shook my head. "Everything is still in reverse. Sawyer seriously ... I didn't know you'd be marrying into a crazy family."
He chuckled again and said, "Well I did. Old Man Baffa was nuts for years. His daughter is at least as bad and so apparently is that woman that claims to be her daughter."
"And so is her daughter's daughter. Grade A, in your face, prima donna, full on snit if she doesn't get her way, crazy. I didn't realize who she was until I got a full on look at her face. She's Shallaylee Duncan's mom ... oh my gawd I am never going to town again ... never ... never ever."
"Whoa there."
"Not whoa there. Shallaylee is ... there's just no good way to say this. Oh my gawd! I'm related to her?!!"
"Kay-Lee," Sawyer said in a reasonable voice. "If you don't stop panicking and start explaining I'm going to be the one that is crazy."
It was his tone more than anything that stopped my ears from ringing and my heart from trying to come out of my chest. "I'll explain but first you have to agree that it is not my fault that my family is crazy. I wish I could add a stipulation that says you can't hold family against me."
"Only if I get to have the same stipulation."
I finally looked at his face and he wasn't mad or anything else. He wasn't jumping around happy but he wasn't mad which was all I cared about for the moment.
"So you're ok that I have crazy relatives?"
He snorted. "I might not want to have dinner with them every Sunday, but their crazy isn't your fault. Besides ..."
"Besides what?"
"I never had anyone to march in and start giving someone what for like that. It was kinda cool."
"Excuse me?"
"Seriously. Not even Gramps ever did that. He would stand there like a rock and everyone knew how he felt but he never went all Momma Bear. Gotta tell you ... that's hot."
"Uh ..."
Well it didn't seem to matter that just a few minutes ago he had seen me puking, we wound up upstairs.
---------------
"You don't feel tricked do you?" Sawyer asked afterwards.
"I don't see how. I came up here on my own."
"I don't mean that, I mean ... well ... about us getting married. Do you feel tricked? Like that woman said?"
"Of course not. Goodness, we worked that all out before we even got to the Justice of the Peace. We've got stipulations."
I felt Sawyer relax and then he fell asleep. That's when I noticed we could have both used a shower and that I'd need to change the sheets before bedtime. I squeezed out of the bed, got dressed, and went downstairs to put away the food and to start some of the frozen pineapple I had bought on the dehydrator.
A woman stood in the yard bellowing, "I'm telling you the girl is disabled and therefore the marriage is what they call nul and void because she can't give consent. And if you don't like that one, the marriage is nul and void because she was tricked."
Now I don't usually get bent out of shape because people think that I'm mentally as slow as my body. And I also usually don't want to make a big deal of it because of my friends from SLD at school. But something about the way that woman was talking immediately set my teeth on edge. Especially after I got a load of the look on Sawyer's face.
I got out of the truck and marched indignantly - well as much as I can march - over to Sawyer's side and just stood there and stared that woman in the face. When she opened her mouth I talked over the top of her and said, "I assume you are the daughter of Jacob Baffa? The one that tried to commit elder abuse against him? The one who then gave up all legal rights to Jacob Baffa's estate?"
Her mouth started opening and closing like a fish out of water. "Allow me to introduce myself ... Cousin. My name is Kay-Lee Baffa Hartford."
Another woman stepped forward and said, "My mother may have given up her right to the estate but I didn't."
I snapped right back, "That's right, you didn't have to because your mother did it for you. Your grandfather, my great uncle, took the papers your mother signed to a probate lawyer and had them verified then appropriately filed. Your mother said - in writing - that she gave up her share of any estate, blah, blah, blah for the entirety of her life as well as the entirety of the lives of any of her heirs with all the where to's and here for's you could want ... which apparently means you are out of luck. Uncle Jacob ..." The name felt strange on my tongue. "... was nothing if not a thorough man. He has everything locked down tight so things play out exactly as he wished them to. I can give you the name of the law firm if you have any questions and you can make an appointment with the judge or whatever since the probate has already been settled and filed."
"Now listen here ..."
"No. You listen here. Your mother is trying to pull the same stunt she pulled with her father by bringing in the issue of mental capacity. Well in point of fact I think it is her mental capacity that should be brought into question. And yours too if you think you can pull this bit of fraud off. And if it comes down to a court case I can guarantee you I will cut you off at the knees. Since you apparently knew of my existence and just left me in the foster care system ... and don't think I don't recognize you because I do as you got into that fight with a couple of the teachers during a PTA meeting and I can get lots of depositions and whatever it takes to bring your character and mental capacity into question too if you want to go that route."
Now they were both breathing like a couple of wide mouth bass.
"Now you get one thing straight. WE ... meaning my husband and I ... do not want trouble. WE ... meaning my husband and I ... are trying, wanting, and endeavoring to do the right and lawful thing and stay as far away from trouble as we can. WE ... meaning my husband and I ... have done a lot of serious work to rehabilitate this house and property that Uncle Jacob hadn't been able to take care of due to his own failing health. The house - such as it is - has been cleaned top to bottom. The yard and surrounding property has been picked up, mowed, and trimmed. The next project as soon as time and money allows is to rehabilitate the barn to replace some of the siding and some of the sheet metal roofing. And WE ... meaning my husband and I ... are getting sick and tired of the poor sheriff deputies having to traipse all the way out here simply because some people can't keep their nose and their grubby paws out of other people's business. Now I am asking you nicely to leave us alone and to leave this property so both we and everyone else can get back to work. Not everyone has time to waste on windmills and lost causes and loose screws."
It took about twenty more minutes before things calmed back down and we saw the last unwelcomed visitor leave. Jeannie and Linda just looked at me wide eyed as we unloaded the truck so they could go home. All the while I was trying really hard to be polite but it was getting harder and harder every time I saw Linda glance at me and almost start laughing.
They finally left and I still hadn't done much more that growl single syllable answers. As soon as the girls left I slapped a hand over my mouth and ran inside to the bathroom.
"Kay-Lee?!"
It took a while to stop hurling but eventually I did but all I could think was to lean against Sawyer and say, "Please don't be sorry. Please don't be sorry. I can't help it if I have crazy relatives. I didn't even know I had relatives much less that they are crazy."
I wrapped my arms around him and he snorted and picked me up off the bathroom floor and carried me to the sofa. "You want something to drink?"
I shook my head. "Everything is still in reverse. Sawyer seriously ... I didn't know you'd be marrying into a crazy family."
He chuckled again and said, "Well I did. Old Man Baffa was nuts for years. His daughter is at least as bad and so apparently is that woman that claims to be her daughter."
"And so is her daughter's daughter. Grade A, in your face, prima donna, full on snit if she doesn't get her way, crazy. I didn't realize who she was until I got a full on look at her face. She's Shallaylee Duncan's mom ... oh my gawd I am never going to town again ... never ... never ever."
"Whoa there."
"Not whoa there. Shallaylee is ... there's just no good way to say this. Oh my gawd! I'm related to her?!!"
"Kay-Lee," Sawyer said in a reasonable voice. "If you don't stop panicking and start explaining I'm going to be the one that is crazy."
It was his tone more than anything that stopped my ears from ringing and my heart from trying to come out of my chest. "I'll explain but first you have to agree that it is not my fault that my family is crazy. I wish I could add a stipulation that says you can't hold family against me."
"Only if I get to have the same stipulation."
I finally looked at his face and he wasn't mad or anything else. He wasn't jumping around happy but he wasn't mad which was all I cared about for the moment.
"So you're ok that I have crazy relatives?"
He snorted. "I might not want to have dinner with them every Sunday, but their crazy isn't your fault. Besides ..."
"Besides what?"
"I never had anyone to march in and start giving someone what for like that. It was kinda cool."
"Excuse me?"
"Seriously. Not even Gramps ever did that. He would stand there like a rock and everyone knew how he felt but he never went all Momma Bear. Gotta tell you ... that's hot."
"Uh ..."
Well it didn't seem to matter that just a few minutes ago he had seen me puking, we wound up upstairs.
---------------
"You don't feel tricked do you?" Sawyer asked afterwards.
"I don't see how. I came up here on my own."
"I don't mean that, I mean ... well ... about us getting married. Do you feel tricked? Like that woman said?"
"Of course not. Goodness, we worked that all out before we even got to the Justice of the Peace. We've got stipulations."
I felt Sawyer relax and then he fell asleep. That's when I noticed we could have both used a shower and that I'd need to change the sheets before bedtime. I squeezed out of the bed, got dressed, and went downstairs to put away the food and to start some of the frozen pineapple I had bought on the dehydrator.
Chapter Forty-Seven
"Hey, you snuck off again."
"I didn't sneak off. You've had a hard and stressful day and I wanted you to relax. You can't relax if the house is a mess. I brought you some DVDs back from the library. One of them is the second movie in that trilogy."
I told him about what I had accomplished from our list, and he walked over to lift the lid on the pot of Pepper Steak that I was keeping warm while the rice cooked. "I didn't waste money Sawyer. Honest. The steak was on a manager's special and I got the pepper and onion mix from Jeannie's uncle's place."
He said, "Mmmmm food" the way a zombie would say "Mmmm brains" which told me that I better hope I fixed enough to fill him up. I saw him looking consideringly at the coffee maker and I put a glass of tea in his hand real quick. He didn't have to know that it was half decaffeinated.
"Why don't you go set your movie up and I'll bring you a tray in the living room?"
He sighed. "Is this your way of telling me you want some alone time?"
"Huh? No. This is my way of telling you that you look tired and need to let me take care of you."
I'd surprised him, and he just stood there looking at me then he crossed his arms. "OK, what did you buy?"
"Huh?"
"You are acting weird, like you're feeling guilty."
I shrugged. "The receipts are on the table."
I turned and carried another gallon jar of grain that I had just filled into the pantry. The tall shelves were filling up so I moved some things around and had just turned around when Sawyer caught me. "Kay-Lee I don't see anything here that should make you go so fritzy."
"It's not that."
"Then what is it?"
"I was out fooling around and you were working and then when I do get back you've had to deal with not one, but two crazy women. And the cops were here again."
"Deputies."
"Deputies. Cops. Whatever. They're the law and they weren't too happy."
Totally not caring Sawyer said, "Screw 'em. It's their job. They don't like it they can get a new job. Besides I wasn't the one that called them. It was them ... the women I mean." In total male outrage he said, "They said I was keeping you in the basement!"
Almost as offended as he was I said, "Crazy talk from crazy people. Problem is apparently I'm related to these crazy people. And I'm serious ... I'm never going into town again."
"You said that before. I can take care of myself you know."
"I know that. I mean Shallaylee Duncan. She already hates me; this is just going to make her flip out even more. Even Linda recognized her mother."
"Uh ... is there a reason why Sha-whatever Duncan hates you? Or is this some kind of high school thing?"
"It's an I accidentally on purpose dumped a bowl of punch all over her because she was making fun of some of the SLD kids kind of thing. And it happened at an award banquet where she was supposed to be recognized as Miss Congeniality."
"You?" He coughed. Coughed some more. Then just gave up and started laughing so hard he had to sit at the table. "You dumped a bowl of punch on her? Accidentally on purpose?" He wiped his eyes with a napkin then asked, "How do you dump something like that accidentally on purpose?"
"It wasn't easy believe me. But she was wearing these hooker heels ..."
"Hooker heels?!"
"Oh stop. You want me to tell you or not?" All he could do was nod because he was trying really hard not to start laughing again.
"Anyway one of the straps came undone on those shoes and it caught on the plastic table cloth we had covering the old cafeteria tables. She kept jerking at it and calling some of us names like it was our fault. Well the dress she was wearing was short and painted on so she had to squat to undo the snag because she grossed out when one of the SLD boys offered to help. But by then it was caught pretty good and the punch bowl was already really close to the edge and the punch inside it was sloshing around pretty good. I just loosened the tape that was holding the table cloth on and she gave one last jerk and the punch bowl kinda ... sorta ... went over the edge. It wouldn't have been terribly horrible only ..."
"Oh gawd ... what ain't worse than wearing punch?" he asked holding his stomach like it hurt to hold in the laughter.
"Well, she had just gotten her hair permed and lightened and the punch had a lot of green food coloring in it and the hair dresser said that she'd just have to let it grow out for a while because if they tried to do anything she'd likely go bald because her hair was already brittle from all the chemical treatments she'd put it through."
Sawyer lost it. By the time he was through he had been rolling on the floor and I had been forced to step around him for two more loads of jars.
After the second load he grabbed my legs as I went by and pulled me down into his lap. "Girl you ... you have hidden depths."
"No I don't."
"Yeah you do." Then he kissed me. "I'll never be able to look at any of them again without thinking of this story and busting a gut. I swear."
"Oh don't. I nearly got in trouble but no one on my side of the table would dare saying anything and enough teachers had been looking from Shallaylee's side that it looked like she'd done it to herself."
"She did," he said giving a hug and another kiss. "Just with a little creative assistance."
I rolled my eyes.
"I never heard of this Shelly Lee."
"Shallaylee ... it is supposed to be unique and pay tribute to her Irish heritage."
"Because we all know she wouldn't recognize her Italian heritage."
"I don't know. I wonder if she knew we were related."
"You aren't related all that close. At best you're some kind of cousin so many times removed. Jacob Baffa was your great uncle and her great grandfather."
"Yeah I suppose. Still it’s freaky weird if you want to know the truth. She made my life as miserable as she could if I ever dared to show my face on 'her' side of the school. She was one of the biggest reasons why I wasn't sorry that the school let us seniors out on early release. Of course I heard that she raised a stink about it."
"Why?"
"Because she is a Junior ... she's a year younger than me."
"She sounds like a hot mess. What I don't get is you said she was being voted Miss Congeniality."
"She blackmailed a lot of votes including - or so I heard - the teachers that tallied the votes."
Sawyer started laughing all over again and it took forever to get untangled and get up so I could finish dinner.
"Hey, you snuck off again."
"I didn't sneak off. You've had a hard and stressful day and I wanted you to relax. You can't relax if the house is a mess. I brought you some DVDs back from the library. One of them is the second movie in that trilogy."
I told him about what I had accomplished from our list, and he walked over to lift the lid on the pot of Pepper Steak that I was keeping warm while the rice cooked. "I didn't waste money Sawyer. Honest. The steak was on a manager's special and I got the pepper and onion mix from Jeannie's uncle's place."
He said, "Mmmmm food" the way a zombie would say "Mmmm brains" which told me that I better hope I fixed enough to fill him up. I saw him looking consideringly at the coffee maker and I put a glass of tea in his hand real quick. He didn't have to know that it was half decaffeinated.
"Why don't you go set your movie up and I'll bring you a tray in the living room?"
He sighed. "Is this your way of telling me you want some alone time?"
"Huh? No. This is my way of telling you that you look tired and need to let me take care of you."
I'd surprised him, and he just stood there looking at me then he crossed his arms. "OK, what did you buy?"
"Huh?"
"You are acting weird, like you're feeling guilty."
I shrugged. "The receipts are on the table."
I turned and carried another gallon jar of grain that I had just filled into the pantry. The tall shelves were filling up so I moved some things around and had just turned around when Sawyer caught me. "Kay-Lee I don't see anything here that should make you go so fritzy."
"It's not that."
"Then what is it?"
"I was out fooling around and you were working and then when I do get back you've had to deal with not one, but two crazy women. And the cops were here again."
"Deputies."
"Deputies. Cops. Whatever. They're the law and they weren't too happy."
Totally not caring Sawyer said, "Screw 'em. It's their job. They don't like it they can get a new job. Besides I wasn't the one that called them. It was them ... the women I mean." In total male outrage he said, "They said I was keeping you in the basement!"
Almost as offended as he was I said, "Crazy talk from crazy people. Problem is apparently I'm related to these crazy people. And I'm serious ... I'm never going into town again."
"You said that before. I can take care of myself you know."
"I know that. I mean Shallaylee Duncan. She already hates me; this is just going to make her flip out even more. Even Linda recognized her mother."
"Uh ... is there a reason why Sha-whatever Duncan hates you? Or is this some kind of high school thing?"
"It's an I accidentally on purpose dumped a bowl of punch all over her because she was making fun of some of the SLD kids kind of thing. And it happened at an award banquet where she was supposed to be recognized as Miss Congeniality."
"You?" He coughed. Coughed some more. Then just gave up and started laughing so hard he had to sit at the table. "You dumped a bowl of punch on her? Accidentally on purpose?" He wiped his eyes with a napkin then asked, "How do you dump something like that accidentally on purpose?"
"It wasn't easy believe me. But she was wearing these hooker heels ..."
"Hooker heels?!"
"Oh stop. You want me to tell you or not?" All he could do was nod because he was trying really hard not to start laughing again.
"Anyway one of the straps came undone on those shoes and it caught on the plastic table cloth we had covering the old cafeteria tables. She kept jerking at it and calling some of us names like it was our fault. Well the dress she was wearing was short and painted on so she had to squat to undo the snag because she grossed out when one of the SLD boys offered to help. But by then it was caught pretty good and the punch bowl was already really close to the edge and the punch inside it was sloshing around pretty good. I just loosened the tape that was holding the table cloth on and she gave one last jerk and the punch bowl kinda ... sorta ... went over the edge. It wouldn't have been terribly horrible only ..."
"Oh gawd ... what ain't worse than wearing punch?" he asked holding his stomach like it hurt to hold in the laughter.
"Well, she had just gotten her hair permed and lightened and the punch had a lot of green food coloring in it and the hair dresser said that she'd just have to let it grow out for a while because if they tried to do anything she'd likely go bald because her hair was already brittle from all the chemical treatments she'd put it through."
Sawyer lost it. By the time he was through he had been rolling on the floor and I had been forced to step around him for two more loads of jars.
After the second load he grabbed my legs as I went by and pulled me down into his lap. "Girl you ... you have hidden depths."
"No I don't."
"Yeah you do." Then he kissed me. "I'll never be able to look at any of them again without thinking of this story and busting a gut. I swear."
"Oh don't. I nearly got in trouble but no one on my side of the table would dare saying anything and enough teachers had been looking from Shallaylee's side that it looked like she'd done it to herself."
"She did," he said giving a hug and another kiss. "Just with a little creative assistance."
I rolled my eyes.
"I never heard of this Shelly Lee."
"Shallaylee ... it is supposed to be unique and pay tribute to her Irish heritage."
"Because we all know she wouldn't recognize her Italian heritage."
"I don't know. I wonder if she knew we were related."
"You aren't related all that close. At best you're some kind of cousin so many times removed. Jacob Baffa was your great uncle and her great grandfather."
"Yeah I suppose. Still it’s freaky weird if you want to know the truth. She made my life as miserable as she could if I ever dared to show my face on 'her' side of the school. She was one of the biggest reasons why I wasn't sorry that the school let us seniors out on early release. Of course I heard that she raised a stink about it."
"Why?"
"Because she is a Junior ... she's a year younger than me."
"She sounds like a hot mess. What I don't get is you said she was being voted Miss Congeniality."
"She blackmailed a lot of votes including - or so I heard - the teachers that tallied the votes."
Sawyer started laughing all over again and it took forever to get untangled and get up so I could finish dinner.
Part Forty-Eight
Between canning days, workdays, cleaning days, and foraging days May and June disappeared fast and suddenly it was July and the family had decided to celebrate Independence Day by heading to the reservoir to play in the water and watch the fireworks after it got dark. I’d never done anything like that; at best there’d been a few times I went to the ones out near the school grounds but who ever had been my guardian at the time usually considered it dangerous or I was in a home with disabled kids that couldn’t handle the crowds or noise so we were opted out. It was with some excitement that I packed a picnic basket full of food and a cooler full of drinks. But the day turned into a real scorcher and I also realized that I’d be showing more skin around people than I was used to or comfortable with, even if it was just in shorts and a tank top.
Sawyer and I had just come from the woods and collecting mayapples at Aunt Suzanne’s request and we sat down on the sheet we were using as our blanket. I started to nibble on one of the few apricots that I’d picked that hadn’t wound up canned or dried and Sawyer flopped down and scrubbed the sweat from his face before complaining, “Man it's hot."
"Here," I told Sawyer handing him another jar of sweet tea from the cooler.
Wistfully Sawyer asked, "You sure you don't want to go swimming? You see that there’s a lot of people out there in shorts. Not all the girls have on bathing suits."
I sighed. "You really aren't going to go in unless I do, are you?"
"Nope. Them's the rules. If your lady doesn't go in then you don't go in."
With total disbelief I told him, "There is no such rule that says that."
"Sure there is."
"Sure there's not." Looking longingly at the cool water of the reservoir myself I finally agreed, "OK. On one condition. If people start making more fun of me than I can handle you don't give me grief about getting out and back over here to our blanket where it's safe."
"Anyone makes fun of you at all and I'll beat the snot out of them."
"Don't say that Sawyer. We don't want trouble now that we are finally having some peace that the Duncans have signed that paper stating they understand they have no legal standing to take the house and land. I still can’t believe Uncle Mark ever was in love with that woman. Thinking about it turns my brain inside out. I don’t want him to come uncorked all over again like he almost did this morning. There's been enough stares just from that, I don’t want to give people any more reason to do it. I may have had to deal with that sort of thing my whole life but that doesn’t mean I like it. At least as bad as some of Shallaylee's drama was she still wasn't as bad as she could have been, so I count it a win. Besides fighting won't make people back off, it only makes them behave worse and then feel justified for it. You see what Benedict and Davis have had to go through."
"I'm not them. There's consequences for getting a girl knocked up."
A voice from behind us said, "Charming Sawyer. You're just completely charming."
"Sorry Jeannie but it's the truth."
"Yeah, I get it. That doesn't mean ... oh never mind. It's too blasted hot. Someone call Heaven and tell them the thermostat is stuck."
She flopped back down and started fanning herself again and Sawyer and I took that moment to escape. When we were far enough away Sawyer said, "I ... guess I stepped on her toes."
"No. Not really. She's just irritated that all she does is pop up and down in the water like a fishing bobber. She said it made her seasick. Plus, Aunt Pearl said that being pregnant in the middle of summer is miserable."
As we walked I kept him on the side of my bad leg to hide some of the scars. He leaned over and whispered, "If I don't care I don't see why you should care. I know what you can do with those legs."
"Sawyer!" He stood back up and laughed out loud and a lot of people were wondering why he was laughing, I could tell it on their faces.
The water's edge was crowded so we kept going out deeper towards the diving platform. It was only then that Sawyer thought to ask, "Can you swim?"
"Yeah. Don't worry."
"You sure?"
"I wouldn't have said yes if I couldn't."
Just then a girl that was standing on the platform started yelling. "Teddy! This isn't funny! Stop being stupid!" Then she kept looking and then she started yelling even louder. "Teddy?! Teddy?!! Oh my God!! DAD!! Teddy dived in but he hasn't come up!!! DAD!!!!!!"
There are things that just don't change. When I told Sawyer I could swim I wasn't exaggerating. There were periods in my life that the only thing I could do was swim. The doctors called it therapy. I called it about the only time I was well and truly free of the mess my body was. I wasn't just a swimmer, I was a very strong swimmer and had been trained to be a life guard by the people at the hospital. It was supposed to be not just physical therapy for me but mental therapy, proving to myself there were things that I could do despite my body. I worked with all ages and even some Vets who came to the hospital for special water therapy. It had been a while since I had been swimming but the muscles and lungs still remembered what they were supposed to do.
I'd never been in the reservoir, it was definitely different than a swimming pool and while the top part of the water was pretty clear because of all the direct sunlight, the deeper you went the murkier it became. It felt like I was looking for hours but I finally felt something out of place amongst the water plants below the platform. I grabbed it and pulled and pulled up the head of a young boy. I shot with him to the surface.
People dragged him onto the platform and I finally screamed, "MOVE!!!"
I don't know if they moved willingly or if I pushed them out of my way but I was able to position him and start CPR after finding he didn't have a pulse. I checked his mouth and found a bit of water plant in there so pulled it out. I had to stick my fingers in deep and the kid didn't even gag which was bad, bad, bad.
I gave two rescue breaths and since his chest didn't rise I checked and got another glob of weeds out of the way. This time when I gave him a rescue breath his chest rose. That's when I started full on CPR.
Then there was a man and he said, "Keep the chest compressions going. I'm going to ..."
Then the kid started vomiting water. A lot of water. The man held him on his side and when he stopped vomiting he turned him back over and took his pulse and listened to his chest. The kid vomited again but not nearly so much water and that's when a boat shows up with some fire department guys and I backed off.
They started loading the now crying boy into the boat and I was about to slip off the platform when the guy that had gotten there first asked, "Where did you find him?"
"About twenty feet out that way ... there's a thick patch of water plants. I was running my hands through it, felt something different, grabbed it and pulled it up." I shrugged. I was suddenly tired. It had been a long time since I'd held my breath that long.
"You're CPR certified?"
"Yes sir. Major Corman from the VFW signed my card. It might be out of date. It's been almost two years."
"You have it with you?"
"My card? Back at our blanket."
I jumped when I felt arms come around me. "Well I guess you can swim," Sawyer whispered into my neck while I shook in his arms.
"Yeah. I guess I can."
Between canning days, workdays, cleaning days, and foraging days May and June disappeared fast and suddenly it was July and the family had decided to celebrate Independence Day by heading to the reservoir to play in the water and watch the fireworks after it got dark. I’d never done anything like that; at best there’d been a few times I went to the ones out near the school grounds but who ever had been my guardian at the time usually considered it dangerous or I was in a home with disabled kids that couldn’t handle the crowds or noise so we were opted out. It was with some excitement that I packed a picnic basket full of food and a cooler full of drinks. But the day turned into a real scorcher and I also realized that I’d be showing more skin around people than I was used to or comfortable with, even if it was just in shorts and a tank top.
Sawyer and I had just come from the woods and collecting mayapples at Aunt Suzanne’s request and we sat down on the sheet we were using as our blanket. I started to nibble on one of the few apricots that I’d picked that hadn’t wound up canned or dried and Sawyer flopped down and scrubbed the sweat from his face before complaining, “Man it's hot."
"Here," I told Sawyer handing him another jar of sweet tea from the cooler.
Wistfully Sawyer asked, "You sure you don't want to go swimming? You see that there’s a lot of people out there in shorts. Not all the girls have on bathing suits."
I sighed. "You really aren't going to go in unless I do, are you?"
"Nope. Them's the rules. If your lady doesn't go in then you don't go in."
With total disbelief I told him, "There is no such rule that says that."
"Sure there is."
"Sure there's not." Looking longingly at the cool water of the reservoir myself I finally agreed, "OK. On one condition. If people start making more fun of me than I can handle you don't give me grief about getting out and back over here to our blanket where it's safe."
"Anyone makes fun of you at all and I'll beat the snot out of them."
"Don't say that Sawyer. We don't want trouble now that we are finally having some peace that the Duncans have signed that paper stating they understand they have no legal standing to take the house and land. I still can’t believe Uncle Mark ever was in love with that woman. Thinking about it turns my brain inside out. I don’t want him to come uncorked all over again like he almost did this morning. There's been enough stares just from that, I don’t want to give people any more reason to do it. I may have had to deal with that sort of thing my whole life but that doesn’t mean I like it. At least as bad as some of Shallaylee's drama was she still wasn't as bad as she could have been, so I count it a win. Besides fighting won't make people back off, it only makes them behave worse and then feel justified for it. You see what Benedict and Davis have had to go through."
"I'm not them. There's consequences for getting a girl knocked up."
A voice from behind us said, "Charming Sawyer. You're just completely charming."
"Sorry Jeannie but it's the truth."
"Yeah, I get it. That doesn't mean ... oh never mind. It's too blasted hot. Someone call Heaven and tell them the thermostat is stuck."
She flopped back down and started fanning herself again and Sawyer and I took that moment to escape. When we were far enough away Sawyer said, "I ... guess I stepped on her toes."
"No. Not really. She's just irritated that all she does is pop up and down in the water like a fishing bobber. She said it made her seasick. Plus, Aunt Pearl said that being pregnant in the middle of summer is miserable."
As we walked I kept him on the side of my bad leg to hide some of the scars. He leaned over and whispered, "If I don't care I don't see why you should care. I know what you can do with those legs."
"Sawyer!" He stood back up and laughed out loud and a lot of people were wondering why he was laughing, I could tell it on their faces.
The water's edge was crowded so we kept going out deeper towards the diving platform. It was only then that Sawyer thought to ask, "Can you swim?"
"Yeah. Don't worry."
"You sure?"
"I wouldn't have said yes if I couldn't."
Just then a girl that was standing on the platform started yelling. "Teddy! This isn't funny! Stop being stupid!" Then she kept looking and then she started yelling even louder. "Teddy?! Teddy?!! Oh my God!! DAD!! Teddy dived in but he hasn't come up!!! DAD!!!!!!"
There are things that just don't change. When I told Sawyer I could swim I wasn't exaggerating. There were periods in my life that the only thing I could do was swim. The doctors called it therapy. I called it about the only time I was well and truly free of the mess my body was. I wasn't just a swimmer, I was a very strong swimmer and had been trained to be a life guard by the people at the hospital. It was supposed to be not just physical therapy for me but mental therapy, proving to myself there were things that I could do despite my body. I worked with all ages and even some Vets who came to the hospital for special water therapy. It had been a while since I had been swimming but the muscles and lungs still remembered what they were supposed to do.
I'd never been in the reservoir, it was definitely different than a swimming pool and while the top part of the water was pretty clear because of all the direct sunlight, the deeper you went the murkier it became. It felt like I was looking for hours but I finally felt something out of place amongst the water plants below the platform. I grabbed it and pulled and pulled up the head of a young boy. I shot with him to the surface.
People dragged him onto the platform and I finally screamed, "MOVE!!!"
I don't know if they moved willingly or if I pushed them out of my way but I was able to position him and start CPR after finding he didn't have a pulse. I checked his mouth and found a bit of water plant in there so pulled it out. I had to stick my fingers in deep and the kid didn't even gag which was bad, bad, bad.
I gave two rescue breaths and since his chest didn't rise I checked and got another glob of weeds out of the way. This time when I gave him a rescue breath his chest rose. That's when I started full on CPR.
Then there was a man and he said, "Keep the chest compressions going. I'm going to ..."
Then the kid started vomiting water. A lot of water. The man held him on his side and when he stopped vomiting he turned him back over and took his pulse and listened to his chest. The kid vomited again but not nearly so much water and that's when a boat shows up with some fire department guys and I backed off.
They started loading the now crying boy into the boat and I was about to slip off the platform when the guy that had gotten there first asked, "Where did you find him?"
"About twenty feet out that way ... there's a thick patch of water plants. I was running my hands through it, felt something different, grabbed it and pulled it up." I shrugged. I was suddenly tired. It had been a long time since I'd held my breath that long.
"You're CPR certified?"
"Yes sir. Major Corman from the VFW signed my card. It might be out of date. It's been almost two years."
"You have it with you?"
"My card? Back at our blanket."
I jumped when I felt arms come around me. "Well I guess you can swim," Sawyer whispered into my neck while I shook in his arms.
"Yeah. I guess I can."
Part Forty-Nine
About an hour later we’d finally gotten clear of everyone that kept wanting to ask questions and had made it to our blanket. But though we sat ringed by the family I had to keep my eyes focused in my lap or I’d catch someone staring at me like I was something weird that needed examining. Even the family did their own share of whispering though at least they tried to be polite and not get caught at it. At least most of them did.
"That ... was amazing."
Feeling irritable but trying not to show it I said, "Don't Jeannie."
"Why? It was ... it was ..."
"Something I could do so I did and luckily I got it right and the little boy didn't drown. If you could have done it you would have too. Anyone here would have. And there were other people looking for him too. I just found him first. Drop it ok?"
"Gee ... don't go all bashful and noble."
Cutter came to my rescue. "The kid could have died Jeannie. That's what Kay-Lee means. The kid could have died. The fact that he didn't is what she wants people to focus on, not her."
I nodded in his direction and shivered a little bit in the towel that Sawyer had draped across my shoulders. "Gawd," I muttered. "Will people just stop looking at me?!"
Sawyer got behind me and I sat between his legs and he wrapped his arms around me. A guy started coming closer than all the others, even picking his way between the family blankets, and Sawyer stiffened and looked at him and said, "Take a hike already Toby."
"Hey Man, I ain't here to cause problems. That was my kid brother she saved."
He sat down but not right on top of us. Sawyer tried really hard to unbend but I could tell there was history between the two. "Is he OK?" Sawyer finally asked, trying to be polite.
"Yeah. He's freaked but ok."
I butted in and said, "Don't let him get afraid of the water."
"Yeah, Dad has already said the same thing, but Mom will take some convincing."
"Tell her there are free swim lessons at the hospital. You have to sign up but given what happened they'd probably say to bring him in before he gets more traumatized."
"Thanks. I'll ... uh ... tell her." He turned to Sawyer and held out his hand. "Sorry Man ... for everything. I didn't figure out what was going on until ... you know ... I ... uh ... broke it off about a week later. I just ... if it makes a difference I didn't know. I'm a little slow but ..." He shrugged and continue to hold his hand out.
Sawyer sighed and shook his hand. "Toby, this is my wife. Kay-Lee, this is Toby. We ... we went to school together. You know that road right across from Gramps' drive? That's Toby's grandfather's place."
"The one with all the cows?"
Toby nodded. "Yeah. My grandfather normally buys silage from Mr. Hartford."
I looked at Sawyer. "Silage is like ... ground up plants ... sorghum silage is mostly what Gramps grows. A couple of the uncles grow corn silage."
"The cows eat it?"
"Yeah. It’s good for them and cows fed a good ration of silage give more milk so long as they get everything else they need."
Sawyer and Toby talked a little more about nothing and mutual acquaintances then Toby said with regret, "I gotta run. Mom and dad rode in with the paramedics so I'm in charge of getting the car and all the other crap home, including my sisters."
"Oh gawd, really Toby?" the girl from the platform asked not a little irritated and shook up. She looked at me and said, "Thanks. Teddy is a brat but he's our brat and it would have been totally ... totally ..."
"Hey," I told her. "The bad didn't happen. Just let it go and feel blessed. Might have beens ... they're too much work to keep up with because there are always so many of them."
"Uh ... yeah. OK. Toby, are you ready to go?"
He stood up, waved and walked away with his sister towards another, older girl that still had a blank, shocky look on her face like she was still dealing with what had almost happened. I realized Toby was probably going to have his hands full and had started to ask Sawyer if maybe we shouldn’t help them get their stuff to their vehicle when a voice from behind us said, "Well, well, well."
I recognized the guy and could feel Sawyer tuning up not to mention I could see all the other Hartfords getting ready for trouble. I looked at the guy and said deliberately calm, "You scream like a girl."
About an hour later we’d finally gotten clear of everyone that kept wanting to ask questions and had made it to our blanket. But though we sat ringed by the family I had to keep my eyes focused in my lap or I’d catch someone staring at me like I was something weird that needed examining. Even the family did their own share of whispering though at least they tried to be polite and not get caught at it. At least most of them did.
"That ... was amazing."
Feeling irritable but trying not to show it I said, "Don't Jeannie."
"Why? It was ... it was ..."
"Something I could do so I did and luckily I got it right and the little boy didn't drown. If you could have done it you would have too. Anyone here would have. And there were other people looking for him too. I just found him first. Drop it ok?"
"Gee ... don't go all bashful and noble."
Cutter came to my rescue. "The kid could have died Jeannie. That's what Kay-Lee means. The kid could have died. The fact that he didn't is what she wants people to focus on, not her."
I nodded in his direction and shivered a little bit in the towel that Sawyer had draped across my shoulders. "Gawd," I muttered. "Will people just stop looking at me?!"
Sawyer got behind me and I sat between his legs and he wrapped his arms around me. A guy started coming closer than all the others, even picking his way between the family blankets, and Sawyer stiffened and looked at him and said, "Take a hike already Toby."
"Hey Man, I ain't here to cause problems. That was my kid brother she saved."
He sat down but not right on top of us. Sawyer tried really hard to unbend but I could tell there was history between the two. "Is he OK?" Sawyer finally asked, trying to be polite.
"Yeah. He's freaked but ok."
I butted in and said, "Don't let him get afraid of the water."
"Yeah, Dad has already said the same thing, but Mom will take some convincing."
"Tell her there are free swim lessons at the hospital. You have to sign up but given what happened they'd probably say to bring him in before he gets more traumatized."
"Thanks. I'll ... uh ... tell her." He turned to Sawyer and held out his hand. "Sorry Man ... for everything. I didn't figure out what was going on until ... you know ... I ... uh ... broke it off about a week later. I just ... if it makes a difference I didn't know. I'm a little slow but ..." He shrugged and continue to hold his hand out.
Sawyer sighed and shook his hand. "Toby, this is my wife. Kay-Lee, this is Toby. We ... we went to school together. You know that road right across from Gramps' drive? That's Toby's grandfather's place."
"The one with all the cows?"
Toby nodded. "Yeah. My grandfather normally buys silage from Mr. Hartford."
I looked at Sawyer. "Silage is like ... ground up plants ... sorghum silage is mostly what Gramps grows. A couple of the uncles grow corn silage."
"The cows eat it?"
"Yeah. It’s good for them and cows fed a good ration of silage give more milk so long as they get everything else they need."
Sawyer and Toby talked a little more about nothing and mutual acquaintances then Toby said with regret, "I gotta run. Mom and dad rode in with the paramedics so I'm in charge of getting the car and all the other crap home, including my sisters."
"Oh gawd, really Toby?" the girl from the platform asked not a little irritated and shook up. She looked at me and said, "Thanks. Teddy is a brat but he's our brat and it would have been totally ... totally ..."
"Hey," I told her. "The bad didn't happen. Just let it go and feel blessed. Might have beens ... they're too much work to keep up with because there are always so many of them."
"Uh ... yeah. OK. Toby, are you ready to go?"
He stood up, waved and walked away with his sister towards another, older girl that still had a blank, shocky look on her face like she was still dealing with what had almost happened. I realized Toby was probably going to have his hands full and had started to ask Sawyer if maybe we shouldn’t help them get their stuff to their vehicle when a voice from behind us said, "Well, well, well."
I recognized the guy and could feel Sawyer tuning up not to mention I could see all the other Hartfords getting ready for trouble. I looked at the guy and said deliberately calm, "You scream like a girl."
Part Fifty
"What the hell did you say?" He slurred the s in say so I figured out real quick he’d been drinking and wasn’t likely to be reasonable.
My strategy was to make it so if the guys did go after Mason that there would be a more legitimate reason than that his mouth runneth over.
"I said you scream like a girl you big dork. And you're drunk. Take a hike Mason and go get you some coffee or something before the cops notice you. You know the 4th of July celebration up here says no drinking. Go before you get in trouble and then cause more trouble for Delly and her husband. They don't need that kind of grief and neither do we."
"Why you little ..."
Sawyer was springing to stand up when a hard voice said, "Go."
Everyone suddenly noticed the other guy pushing his way through the small crowd that had formed. "But Burt, she was disrespecting us."
The guy shook his head and said, "She was only giving you what you're due."
It took a few moments for the drunk man to figure that out. Then he tried to get all up in his brother's face, but his friends pulled him off and away. The man then turned to Sawyer and looked like he was chewing glass before he said, "Delly wants to know if you and ... and Kay-Lee want to come over to the table and have a piece of pie. She said to tell you that it's the one your mother used to make every year."
"Berries with real whipped cream?" Sawyer asked.
The man named Burt nodded. "Yeah."
Then Sawyer nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I ... I would ... if ... if it isn't a problem."
Burt deflated a bit and said, "Naw. Naw, truth is this might make Delly feel better. She uh ... she ain't feeling too good. The blood work came back and ... and it ... they say she needs some other tests run."
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The fireworks were over, the blankets and towels and the few leftovers were all packed, and all the goodbyes were said. Gramps and Uncle James had clapped Sawyer on the back like he'd done something good and even Uncle Mark nodded in his direction. The other uncles all let him know in their own way they agreed with the other three men. I got my own share of pats and such, but it was almost too disconcerting to take in. Linda gave me a quick hug and Sawyer and I escaped the mosquitos as quick as everyone else after that.
Sawyer was silent for a long time. We were halfway home when I couldn't stand it anymore. "Are ... are you upset with me?"
"What?" he asked finally startled out of his funk. "No. Of course not."
"You sure? I ... I didn't lie about the swimming I just didn't think anything of it and then instinct took over."
"Kay-Lee, the last thing I am is mad at you over that. A little boy is alive because you knew what to do. And I hope I don't sound awful but I'm not even thinking about that."
"Then what? That guy ... Toby? Or is it Mason being a jerk? Or your sister?"
"All that I guess." He sighed. "I feel bad for Delly but I don't know what to say to her. Maybe if they find out for sure that something is wrong with the baby but ... they don't know for sure yet and she's already said that she isn't going to have an abortion even if the doctors keep trying to force her into one. She's like almost four months along anyway."
"An abundance of caution."
"Huh?"
"That's what the doctors call it when they almost scare you to death. They call it an abundance of caution. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. After a while it stops freaking you out but it never stops bothering you to a certain extent."
He put his arm around me in the dark of the truck cab. "You'd know about doctors."
"And how. I'm not saying something isn't wrong. I'm just saying that she doesn't know for certain yet so getting worked up over what you can't control is a waste of time and energy you could better use to deal with the things you can control."
He pulled me closer and I slid across the old bench seat as far as the seatbelt would let me and daringly put my hand on his leg.
Next he said, "Toby ... well Toby is ... look he's the guy that Lisa two-timed me with the last time. If I'm understanding what he's saying - and what people tried to tell me - she'd told him we were broken up and not seeing each other."
"Were you?"
"No."
"That sucks. It had to have hurt you really bad. I'm sorry."
"Why? It wasn't your fault."
"Because you don't deserve to be hurt like that and it obviously still means something to you that you still held it against that guy Toby."
"Eh. Some of the stuff is ... habit I guess. A bad habit. But it's over with and I wouldn't go back and change it because then we wouldn't have gotten together."
"I'm glad. Not that you had to go through that but that ... that we're together."
"Yeah. Me too."
"What's left? That jerk Mason?"
"Mason is going to cause trouble. Doesn't matter what Butt ... er ... Burt says. Mason ... he's gotten in with some bad people and it's messing him up. Mason wasn't like this when we were in school. He was actually one of the good guys. He'd stop fights. Crack jokes to make people feel better. But our senior year he started dating this girl. She was kinda ok but her family was pretty trashy. I don't know ... I think that's when he started drinking and smoking pot. Delly told me once that Mason told Burt that it was during one of those times that he let that girl’s brother talk him into doing some crystal meth. He ain't been the same since."
"He's a druggie?"
"I don't think so, at least not one that does it regular. But it has changed him. I can’t explain it but … but it’s more than just me knowing he did drugs, something about Mason is … he’s different is all I can really say. And staying clean is part of his probation. He's already had at least one VOP, if he gets caught with dope in his system - and they do random checking on a pretty regular basis which is part of the reason why Mason is so twitchy and paranoid - he'll be back in to serve his full sentence and he won't make it long in prison. He isn't strong enough to fight them off."
"Lots of fighting in prison?"
"Uh ... yeah. Look, I don't want to talk about that part. OK?"
"Sure. OK. So long as you know you can if you ever get around to needing or wanting to. You aren't going to freak me out. I heard some of the stories of what goes on in Juvie."
My words and tone let him know what I meant and he stiffened briefly before saying. "Yeah. OK. But nothing like that happened to me. I got lucky. I never came against anyone I couldn't beat, beat back, whatever. But ... but it was close a couple of times. And I don't like to go back to those times."
"OK."
"You sure you're ok with me not ... talking about it?"
"Sawyer I don't see you asking for all the nitty gritty details of all my medical issues or procedures and stuff. You asked just enough so that I could tell you I was ok and not in that shape anymore. You deserve the same respect. I just want you to know you can count on me."
He sighed and some of the tension started going out of him. "You're amazing."
"Oh don't start."
"Too late," he said but he let it go and didn't say anything else which suited me just fine.
"What the hell did you say?" He slurred the s in say so I figured out real quick he’d been drinking and wasn’t likely to be reasonable.
My strategy was to make it so if the guys did go after Mason that there would be a more legitimate reason than that his mouth runneth over.
"I said you scream like a girl you big dork. And you're drunk. Take a hike Mason and go get you some coffee or something before the cops notice you. You know the 4th of July celebration up here says no drinking. Go before you get in trouble and then cause more trouble for Delly and her husband. They don't need that kind of grief and neither do we."
"Why you little ..."
Sawyer was springing to stand up when a hard voice said, "Go."
Everyone suddenly noticed the other guy pushing his way through the small crowd that had formed. "But Burt, she was disrespecting us."
The guy shook his head and said, "She was only giving you what you're due."
It took a few moments for the drunk man to figure that out. Then he tried to get all up in his brother's face, but his friends pulled him off and away. The man then turned to Sawyer and looked like he was chewing glass before he said, "Delly wants to know if you and ... and Kay-Lee want to come over to the table and have a piece of pie. She said to tell you that it's the one your mother used to make every year."
"Berries with real whipped cream?" Sawyer asked.
The man named Burt nodded. "Yeah."
Then Sawyer nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I ... I would ... if ... if it isn't a problem."
Burt deflated a bit and said, "Naw. Naw, truth is this might make Delly feel better. She uh ... she ain't feeling too good. The blood work came back and ... and it ... they say she needs some other tests run."
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The fireworks were over, the blankets and towels and the few leftovers were all packed, and all the goodbyes were said. Gramps and Uncle James had clapped Sawyer on the back like he'd done something good and even Uncle Mark nodded in his direction. The other uncles all let him know in their own way they agreed with the other three men. I got my own share of pats and such, but it was almost too disconcerting to take in. Linda gave me a quick hug and Sawyer and I escaped the mosquitos as quick as everyone else after that.
Sawyer was silent for a long time. We were halfway home when I couldn't stand it anymore. "Are ... are you upset with me?"
"What?" he asked finally startled out of his funk. "No. Of course not."
"You sure? I ... I didn't lie about the swimming I just didn't think anything of it and then instinct took over."
"Kay-Lee, the last thing I am is mad at you over that. A little boy is alive because you knew what to do. And I hope I don't sound awful but I'm not even thinking about that."
"Then what? That guy ... Toby? Or is it Mason being a jerk? Or your sister?"
"All that I guess." He sighed. "I feel bad for Delly but I don't know what to say to her. Maybe if they find out for sure that something is wrong with the baby but ... they don't know for sure yet and she's already said that she isn't going to have an abortion even if the doctors keep trying to force her into one. She's like almost four months along anyway."
"An abundance of caution."
"Huh?"
"That's what the doctors call it when they almost scare you to death. They call it an abundance of caution. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. After a while it stops freaking you out but it never stops bothering you to a certain extent."
He put his arm around me in the dark of the truck cab. "You'd know about doctors."
"And how. I'm not saying something isn't wrong. I'm just saying that she doesn't know for certain yet so getting worked up over what you can't control is a waste of time and energy you could better use to deal with the things you can control."
He pulled me closer and I slid across the old bench seat as far as the seatbelt would let me and daringly put my hand on his leg.
Next he said, "Toby ... well Toby is ... look he's the guy that Lisa two-timed me with the last time. If I'm understanding what he's saying - and what people tried to tell me - she'd told him we were broken up and not seeing each other."
"Were you?"
"No."
"That sucks. It had to have hurt you really bad. I'm sorry."
"Why? It wasn't your fault."
"Because you don't deserve to be hurt like that and it obviously still means something to you that you still held it against that guy Toby."
"Eh. Some of the stuff is ... habit I guess. A bad habit. But it's over with and I wouldn't go back and change it because then we wouldn't have gotten together."
"I'm glad. Not that you had to go through that but that ... that we're together."
"Yeah. Me too."
"What's left? That jerk Mason?"
"Mason is going to cause trouble. Doesn't matter what Butt ... er ... Burt says. Mason ... he's gotten in with some bad people and it's messing him up. Mason wasn't like this when we were in school. He was actually one of the good guys. He'd stop fights. Crack jokes to make people feel better. But our senior year he started dating this girl. She was kinda ok but her family was pretty trashy. I don't know ... I think that's when he started drinking and smoking pot. Delly told me once that Mason told Burt that it was during one of those times that he let that girl’s brother talk him into doing some crystal meth. He ain't been the same since."
"He's a druggie?"
"I don't think so, at least not one that does it regular. But it has changed him. I can’t explain it but … but it’s more than just me knowing he did drugs, something about Mason is … he’s different is all I can really say. And staying clean is part of his probation. He's already had at least one VOP, if he gets caught with dope in his system - and they do random checking on a pretty regular basis which is part of the reason why Mason is so twitchy and paranoid - he'll be back in to serve his full sentence and he won't make it long in prison. He isn't strong enough to fight them off."
"Lots of fighting in prison?"
"Uh ... yeah. Look, I don't want to talk about that part. OK?"
"Sure. OK. So long as you know you can if you ever get around to needing or wanting to. You aren't going to freak me out. I heard some of the stories of what goes on in Juvie."
My words and tone let him know what I meant and he stiffened briefly before saying. "Yeah. OK. But nothing like that happened to me. I got lucky. I never came against anyone I couldn't beat, beat back, whatever. But ... but it was close a couple of times. And I don't like to go back to those times."
"OK."
"You sure you're ok with me not ... talking about it?"
"Sawyer I don't see you asking for all the nitty gritty details of all my medical issues or procedures and stuff. You asked just enough so that I could tell you I was ok and not in that shape anymore. You deserve the same respect. I just want you to know you can count on me."
He sighed and some of the tension started going out of him. "You're amazing."
"Oh don't start."
"Too late," he said but he let it go and didn't say anything else which suited me just fine.