Story Up On Hartford Ridge
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
juco
Veteran Member
Me too, moldy!
Part Fifty-One
"Wanna tell us again why we are out here traipsing around in this heat getting eat up by bugs? I got why we picked the serviceberries and apricots that you found. I even understand the pin cherries though I think they are too small to do anything sensible with. But gathering that cattail fluff was a bit much doncha think?"
It was a week after the 4th of July picnic and another canning day, only it got called off early because Aunt Pearl got word that a store over in Four Rivers was having a major sale because there was some kind of system failure on their big walk in butcher's cooler. Most everyone else took off lickety split after that leaving Linda and I to finish the last canners full and to set things straight in the kitchen. The men were still chugging away cutting and splitting wood so it wasn't like I was leaving the house unattended.
"I know it’s miserable ..."
" ... And crazy."
I sighed. "Linda you didn't have to come."
She was quiet for a moment. "I saw Mom."
Surprised I asked, "When?"
"The other day. She ... it's like she ... I don't know. It was like she was mad at me for coming over even though she's the one that said I could."
"She's under a lot of strain ..."
"I know all that," Linda said snapping at me. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth hand said, "Sorry ... sorry."
I hugged her. "It's ok. You're hurting and I know what you meant. This is probably how it is for your mom too. She's upset and it comes out in ways that other people kind of get blindsided by. She's probably hurting a lot with how your dad is."
"I know, that's why I want to help. But she doesn't want me to help. She doesn't even want me to come around anymore because she says it is too hard and messes up the schedule and everything she has set for him to keep him on an even keel. She said she can't worry about him and me at the same time and now I have Tommy and his family to worry about me she needs to focus all of her energy on dad because he needs her more. I just want to help Kay-Lee. I want her to see that I picked them just like they picked me."
Being hospitalized so much of my life I saw things other people didn't and looking back I saw people do the same thing that Linda's mom was doing. "You are doing as much as she lets you. Until she is ready to let you do more you just have to do what you can. Did she say she got your letters?"
"Yeah. She hugged me but didn't want to talk about what was in them."
"Sometimes when you have someone in your life that is really sick you have to ... well ... they call it compartmentalizing. Like sticking different parts of your life into a box and only having one box out and open at a time." Then I thought of something. "You know how Benedict can work on a bunch of different kind of cars and things at the same time? But Tommy can only work on one thing at a time or he gets frustrated?"
"Yeah."
"Well your Mom is like Tommy. She can only work on one thing at a time and right now that thing is your dad."
I could see Linda was thinking about it and then shook her head. "OK, I'm putting it in a box for now and I'll just keep writing letters." Then she sighed. "But seriously, what are we doing hiking around out here?"
Linda's moods could swing suddenly and I was just happy this time that they were swinging up. "Remember how everyone liked that I found those mulberry trees last month and all of the recipes for them?"
"Yeah. Tommy's shirt is still stained where he and Sawyer ate all of those mulberry candies you made to bribe them to haul that ladder all the way for us."
I grinned. "It worked didn't it? Anyway, Aunt Pearl has given me ideas and then I've looked stuff up in the library. You're never gonna guess what I found."
"I'm not even gonna try. But it better not be more ramp bulbs. It took forever to get Tommy to stop farting.”
I tried not to laugh at Linda’s crudeness but since I know it was the truth and that some of the other wives had had the same problems with their husbands and weren’t exactly happy about it or with me for “sharing the bounty” I understood what she meant. I told her, “It’s not ramp bulbs. I wouldn’t do that to you again.”
“Well whatever it is I hope it is better than blackberries. I've picked enough of those lately that my fingers are purple." She held the tips up and sure enough they were purple ... but then again so were mine. I’d been having a blast making just about every kind of blackberry something or other that I could find a recipe for[1].
I shook my head and grinned. "Nope. Better. C'mon, it's not much further. I'm pretty sure these are ripe by now."
We walked a little further on and down an overgrown trail until we came to the small trees that I had found. "What are those?!"
"Wild plums."
"But they're ... they're yellow. Plums are red or purple."
"Not this variety." I reached out and pulled one off. They were small but obviously ripe. I carefully bit into the flesh and freaked Linda out.
"Wait! You don't eat something you don't know what it is! It could be poisonous!!"
"Nope. I broke a branch off and took it to the library to look it up in the picture book they have and the librarian saw what I was doing and told me that she used to eat those by the handful when she was a girl and that she still has some on the back of her property line. Besides ... they taste like plums." I gave her a bite of the one that I had nibbled on.
That taste was all it took to convince her and we spent an hour and managed to pick two five gallon buckets. We were half way back when Tommy and Sawyer - both of whom had gotten worried - came to find us and carried the buckets the rest of the way back.
"Whew, these things are little heavy ain't they."
"A little," I admitted, wiping the sweat and mosquitos from my forehead.
Linda turned to me and said, "I'm not taking that whole bucket back. I'm going to have enough to keep up with the rest of this week."
"Fine. But take some back at least."
"Hah. You just want the Aunts to see what you found."
I grinned in spite of myself and said, "So? I want to be a contributor."
"You contribute anymore and we're all going to go nuts. Oh, and speaking of when Tommy and I were in town getting the propane tanks refilled we saw Shallaylee and she asked where you had run off to."
I groaned. "Color me grateful I didn't go with you then."
Linda grinned and asked, "Don't you want to get to know your little cousin?"
Deadpan I said, "I already know her and that's good enough. Why the three of them suddenly decided to start going to the same church all the Hartfords attend I don’t want to know. It’s like they are watching me all the time now. I had enough of that from Shallaylee when we went to school. And if she asks me when the baby is due one more time ..."
Scandalized despite the fact just she’d just been teasing me Linda yelped, "She didn't!"
"Oh yes she did ... and in front of the preacher too. I may still be learning all that church stuff but what I do know is that I don't want him thinking those kind of things about Sawyer and I."
Sawyer dipped a hand into the bucket of plums and started eating them and spitting the pits into the trash. "He doesn't. Just ‘cause the man is a preacher doesn’t mean he is gullible to their maneuverings. Wow, these things are sweet."
I told Sawyer, "Eat however many that won't give you a belly ache since Linda is leaving most of her bucketful."
Linda and Tommy left and Sawyer manage to eat one too many plums and had to go to bed early with most of the bottom of a bottle of Pepto-Bismol for company. Apparently plums help you along a little too well, about like the little green apples I had eaten the week before. Since Sawyer didn’t even fuss when I said I’d come to bed after I finished a couple of things, I knew he wasn’t feeling well at all. Too many plums and too many little green apples, neither one of them made either of us look too smart.
I was glad to be done with fruit for the night, my fingertips were starting to get sore from being damp for hours on end. When the aunts had arrived in the morning Aunt Pearl had brought Sawyer and I another round of flour and cornmeal but this time she also brought a bunch of whole grains and oatmeal. I couldn’t just leave it sitting on the kitchen floor to trip over, it needed to be poured into airtight containers. A couple of weeks back I realized I was fast running out of gallon jars and plastic ware that I could store stuff in and I’d been going crazy trying to think of something and then it hit me as I watched Delly’s kids throw a 2-liter bottle into their recycling bin when we’d gone over to their place after church.
I quietly explained what I wanted to Sawyer and he shrugged, willing to humor me. That’s not saying that he wanted his sister knowing the truth so he said, “Hey Delly? You want me to cart off your recycling for you? Looks like it is starting to pile up back here. I can probably burn most of this stuff at least.”
Well that’s all it took. Delly was more than happy to have it all hauled off and gotten out of her way. And when Sawyer said there was a lot of it he hadn’t been kidding. Stacks of newspapers, cans, milk jugs, 2-liter pop bottles, you name it. They seem to go through a 2-liter of pop every day or so and it had been a couple of months since Burt had run anything to the dump. It meant a lot of washing and finding a way to dry them out but once I went through all the bags I counted over 50 bottles that still had their screw top lids.
I spent a couple of hours pouring the grains and such in the bags into those plastic bottles and standing them beside the few loads of jars that we’d managed to fill before everyone had run off. I was just getting ready to head upstairs but was glad I had stayed up because Sawyer’s phone rang and it was Aunt Pearl. “Honey, I hope you don’t have nothing planned for tomorra. We got more meat than will fit in the deep freeze and I want to start canning it up right quick. Got a mess of okra and potatoes that need something done with them too. And I might just have to bring some of the cabbages and cukes over as well as with this load of meat I’m just not sure that I’ll have time to get to them while they are still fresh, Lord above knows I don’t have no room for them in any of the fridges. And Suzanne mentioned she has several melons sitting on her counter she wants some help with.”
“Uh … sure Aunt Pearl. Sawyer might be not feeling too hot though.”
Aunt Pearl snorted, then started chuckling, then started outright laughing. “Tommy and him can take turns feeling puny then. I reckon they can exchange stories about how many of them little plums they ate.”
“Yes ma’am. I fed Sawyer Pepto-Bismol but I’m not sure that he won’t still need to stay kinda close to the house for another day.”
Aunt Pearl hung up still laughing. I wish I felt like laughing. Looks like I’m going to have to do a bunch more jars before I can go to bed after all. And while I did that I thought about some of the things that the aunts had been telling me they remembered from their childhoods or that they remember their older relatives saying. Aunt Nel told a story first thing about Black Locust Jelly[2] made from the flowers of the black locust tree. That got into a discussion by some of them of all the jellies, syrups, and such that could be made from flowers.
Even I knew about using rose petals in cooking but apparently there are a lot of other flowers that are edible. It was also Aunt Nel that gave me a basic recipe for making jelly from blossoms.[3] You fill a quart jar full of flower heads and then pour enough boiling water over them to make an infusion … usually you just fill up all of the air spaces left in the jar after filling it with petals or blossoms. You need to let that stand at least five hours but for some you need to let it set overnight. Then when you are ready you strain the solids out of the infusion and for every two and a half cups of infusion you add the juice of one lemon and a package of Sure Jell or Certo. You bring that to a boil, add three cups of sugar and then bring to a hard boil for one minute. Your liquid should jell after one minute but you can check it and boil it longer if need be. You pour the liquid into your jelly jars and seal it in a boiling water bath the same as you do any other jelly. Aunt Nel also told me that instead of white, store-bought sugar you can use one and a half cups of honey.
Some of the blossoms and petals that you can use in addition to rose petals are violets, Queen Anne’s lace, peonies, clover, elderberry blossoms, dandelion blossoms before they turn to fluffy seed heads, and just about any sweet smelling flower you haven’t sprayed with chemicals.
After Aunt Nel stepped away Aunt Pearl stepped over and whispered, “Now honey, don’t believe everything you hear.”
“Blossom jellies aren’t good?”
“Sure they are, I taught you to make honeysuckle jelly for heaven’s sake. I’m talking about the recipe to use. I remember using Nel’s recipe one time and the jelly wound up more like a glaze. I’ve gotten better results using my version.”[4]
She proceeded to tell me to use two cups of flowers, petals, or blossoms, two and a quarter cups of water, two packages of Certo and four cups of sugar. I think that is a lot of sugar for a small batch of jelly but apparently you need it to set the jell. Everything after that was pretty much the same. In a small glass or stainless saucepan, bring the flower petals or herb leaves in the water to a boil. Cover and set aside. Let this sit overnight or for a several hours. Strain, squeezing out all the water into the saucepan. Put the pulp into the compost. This water is called an “infusion”. Bring the water to a boil and stir in the sugar until all is well dissolved. Stir in the pectin and boil hard for two minutes. Pour into hot, sterilized jelly jars. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Store at room temperature. Refrigerate after opening. And there you have it.
As for me, after the last load of jars I could stand I had had it as well. It is time for me to go to bed or I’ll be useless tomorrow.
[1] http://www.justberryrecipes.com/inxbla.html
[2] Black Locust Jelly: Black Locust Recipe - Black Locust Jelly
[3] Queen Anne's Lace Jelly or Flower Jelly - Recipe | Cooks.com
[4] http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/flower-herb-jellies/
"Wanna tell us again why we are out here traipsing around in this heat getting eat up by bugs? I got why we picked the serviceberries and apricots that you found. I even understand the pin cherries though I think they are too small to do anything sensible with. But gathering that cattail fluff was a bit much doncha think?"
It was a week after the 4th of July picnic and another canning day, only it got called off early because Aunt Pearl got word that a store over in Four Rivers was having a major sale because there was some kind of system failure on their big walk in butcher's cooler. Most everyone else took off lickety split after that leaving Linda and I to finish the last canners full and to set things straight in the kitchen. The men were still chugging away cutting and splitting wood so it wasn't like I was leaving the house unattended.
"I know it’s miserable ..."
" ... And crazy."
I sighed. "Linda you didn't have to come."
She was quiet for a moment. "I saw Mom."
Surprised I asked, "When?"
"The other day. She ... it's like she ... I don't know. It was like she was mad at me for coming over even though she's the one that said I could."
"She's under a lot of strain ..."
"I know all that," Linda said snapping at me. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth hand said, "Sorry ... sorry."
I hugged her. "It's ok. You're hurting and I know what you meant. This is probably how it is for your mom too. She's upset and it comes out in ways that other people kind of get blindsided by. She's probably hurting a lot with how your dad is."
"I know, that's why I want to help. But she doesn't want me to help. She doesn't even want me to come around anymore because she says it is too hard and messes up the schedule and everything she has set for him to keep him on an even keel. She said she can't worry about him and me at the same time and now I have Tommy and his family to worry about me she needs to focus all of her energy on dad because he needs her more. I just want to help Kay-Lee. I want her to see that I picked them just like they picked me."
Being hospitalized so much of my life I saw things other people didn't and looking back I saw people do the same thing that Linda's mom was doing. "You are doing as much as she lets you. Until she is ready to let you do more you just have to do what you can. Did she say she got your letters?"
"Yeah. She hugged me but didn't want to talk about what was in them."
"Sometimes when you have someone in your life that is really sick you have to ... well ... they call it compartmentalizing. Like sticking different parts of your life into a box and only having one box out and open at a time." Then I thought of something. "You know how Benedict can work on a bunch of different kind of cars and things at the same time? But Tommy can only work on one thing at a time or he gets frustrated?"
"Yeah."
"Well your Mom is like Tommy. She can only work on one thing at a time and right now that thing is your dad."
I could see Linda was thinking about it and then shook her head. "OK, I'm putting it in a box for now and I'll just keep writing letters." Then she sighed. "But seriously, what are we doing hiking around out here?"
Linda's moods could swing suddenly and I was just happy this time that they were swinging up. "Remember how everyone liked that I found those mulberry trees last month and all of the recipes for them?"
"Yeah. Tommy's shirt is still stained where he and Sawyer ate all of those mulberry candies you made to bribe them to haul that ladder all the way for us."
I grinned. "It worked didn't it? Anyway, Aunt Pearl has given me ideas and then I've looked stuff up in the library. You're never gonna guess what I found."
"I'm not even gonna try. But it better not be more ramp bulbs. It took forever to get Tommy to stop farting.”
I tried not to laugh at Linda’s crudeness but since I know it was the truth and that some of the other wives had had the same problems with their husbands and weren’t exactly happy about it or with me for “sharing the bounty” I understood what she meant. I told her, “It’s not ramp bulbs. I wouldn’t do that to you again.”
“Well whatever it is I hope it is better than blackberries. I've picked enough of those lately that my fingers are purple." She held the tips up and sure enough they were purple ... but then again so were mine. I’d been having a blast making just about every kind of blackberry something or other that I could find a recipe for[1].
I shook my head and grinned. "Nope. Better. C'mon, it's not much further. I'm pretty sure these are ripe by now."
We walked a little further on and down an overgrown trail until we came to the small trees that I had found. "What are those?!"
"Wild plums."
"But they're ... they're yellow. Plums are red or purple."
"Not this variety." I reached out and pulled one off. They were small but obviously ripe. I carefully bit into the flesh and freaked Linda out.
"Wait! You don't eat something you don't know what it is! It could be poisonous!!"
"Nope. I broke a branch off and took it to the library to look it up in the picture book they have and the librarian saw what I was doing and told me that she used to eat those by the handful when she was a girl and that she still has some on the back of her property line. Besides ... they taste like plums." I gave her a bite of the one that I had nibbled on.
That taste was all it took to convince her and we spent an hour and managed to pick two five gallon buckets. We were half way back when Tommy and Sawyer - both of whom had gotten worried - came to find us and carried the buckets the rest of the way back.
"Whew, these things are little heavy ain't they."
"A little," I admitted, wiping the sweat and mosquitos from my forehead.
Linda turned to me and said, "I'm not taking that whole bucket back. I'm going to have enough to keep up with the rest of this week."
"Fine. But take some back at least."
"Hah. You just want the Aunts to see what you found."
I grinned in spite of myself and said, "So? I want to be a contributor."
"You contribute anymore and we're all going to go nuts. Oh, and speaking of when Tommy and I were in town getting the propane tanks refilled we saw Shallaylee and she asked where you had run off to."
I groaned. "Color me grateful I didn't go with you then."
Linda grinned and asked, "Don't you want to get to know your little cousin?"
Deadpan I said, "I already know her and that's good enough. Why the three of them suddenly decided to start going to the same church all the Hartfords attend I don’t want to know. It’s like they are watching me all the time now. I had enough of that from Shallaylee when we went to school. And if she asks me when the baby is due one more time ..."
Scandalized despite the fact just she’d just been teasing me Linda yelped, "She didn't!"
"Oh yes she did ... and in front of the preacher too. I may still be learning all that church stuff but what I do know is that I don't want him thinking those kind of things about Sawyer and I."
Sawyer dipped a hand into the bucket of plums and started eating them and spitting the pits into the trash. "He doesn't. Just ‘cause the man is a preacher doesn’t mean he is gullible to their maneuverings. Wow, these things are sweet."
I told Sawyer, "Eat however many that won't give you a belly ache since Linda is leaving most of her bucketful."
Linda and Tommy left and Sawyer manage to eat one too many plums and had to go to bed early with most of the bottom of a bottle of Pepto-Bismol for company. Apparently plums help you along a little too well, about like the little green apples I had eaten the week before. Since Sawyer didn’t even fuss when I said I’d come to bed after I finished a couple of things, I knew he wasn’t feeling well at all. Too many plums and too many little green apples, neither one of them made either of us look too smart.
I was glad to be done with fruit for the night, my fingertips were starting to get sore from being damp for hours on end. When the aunts had arrived in the morning Aunt Pearl had brought Sawyer and I another round of flour and cornmeal but this time she also brought a bunch of whole grains and oatmeal. I couldn’t just leave it sitting on the kitchen floor to trip over, it needed to be poured into airtight containers. A couple of weeks back I realized I was fast running out of gallon jars and plastic ware that I could store stuff in and I’d been going crazy trying to think of something and then it hit me as I watched Delly’s kids throw a 2-liter bottle into their recycling bin when we’d gone over to their place after church.
I quietly explained what I wanted to Sawyer and he shrugged, willing to humor me. That’s not saying that he wanted his sister knowing the truth so he said, “Hey Delly? You want me to cart off your recycling for you? Looks like it is starting to pile up back here. I can probably burn most of this stuff at least.”
Well that’s all it took. Delly was more than happy to have it all hauled off and gotten out of her way. And when Sawyer said there was a lot of it he hadn’t been kidding. Stacks of newspapers, cans, milk jugs, 2-liter pop bottles, you name it. They seem to go through a 2-liter of pop every day or so and it had been a couple of months since Burt had run anything to the dump. It meant a lot of washing and finding a way to dry them out but once I went through all the bags I counted over 50 bottles that still had their screw top lids.
I spent a couple of hours pouring the grains and such in the bags into those plastic bottles and standing them beside the few loads of jars that we’d managed to fill before everyone had run off. I was just getting ready to head upstairs but was glad I had stayed up because Sawyer’s phone rang and it was Aunt Pearl. “Honey, I hope you don’t have nothing planned for tomorra. We got more meat than will fit in the deep freeze and I want to start canning it up right quick. Got a mess of okra and potatoes that need something done with them too. And I might just have to bring some of the cabbages and cukes over as well as with this load of meat I’m just not sure that I’ll have time to get to them while they are still fresh, Lord above knows I don’t have no room for them in any of the fridges. And Suzanne mentioned she has several melons sitting on her counter she wants some help with.”
“Uh … sure Aunt Pearl. Sawyer might be not feeling too hot though.”
Aunt Pearl snorted, then started chuckling, then started outright laughing. “Tommy and him can take turns feeling puny then. I reckon they can exchange stories about how many of them little plums they ate.”
“Yes ma’am. I fed Sawyer Pepto-Bismol but I’m not sure that he won’t still need to stay kinda close to the house for another day.”
Aunt Pearl hung up still laughing. I wish I felt like laughing. Looks like I’m going to have to do a bunch more jars before I can go to bed after all. And while I did that I thought about some of the things that the aunts had been telling me they remembered from their childhoods or that they remember their older relatives saying. Aunt Nel told a story first thing about Black Locust Jelly[2] made from the flowers of the black locust tree. That got into a discussion by some of them of all the jellies, syrups, and such that could be made from flowers.
Even I knew about using rose petals in cooking but apparently there are a lot of other flowers that are edible. It was also Aunt Nel that gave me a basic recipe for making jelly from blossoms.[3] You fill a quart jar full of flower heads and then pour enough boiling water over them to make an infusion … usually you just fill up all of the air spaces left in the jar after filling it with petals or blossoms. You need to let that stand at least five hours but for some you need to let it set overnight. Then when you are ready you strain the solids out of the infusion and for every two and a half cups of infusion you add the juice of one lemon and a package of Sure Jell or Certo. You bring that to a boil, add three cups of sugar and then bring to a hard boil for one minute. Your liquid should jell after one minute but you can check it and boil it longer if need be. You pour the liquid into your jelly jars and seal it in a boiling water bath the same as you do any other jelly. Aunt Nel also told me that instead of white, store-bought sugar you can use one and a half cups of honey.
Some of the blossoms and petals that you can use in addition to rose petals are violets, Queen Anne’s lace, peonies, clover, elderberry blossoms, dandelion blossoms before they turn to fluffy seed heads, and just about any sweet smelling flower you haven’t sprayed with chemicals.
After Aunt Nel stepped away Aunt Pearl stepped over and whispered, “Now honey, don’t believe everything you hear.”
“Blossom jellies aren’t good?”
“Sure they are, I taught you to make honeysuckle jelly for heaven’s sake. I’m talking about the recipe to use. I remember using Nel’s recipe one time and the jelly wound up more like a glaze. I’ve gotten better results using my version.”[4]
She proceeded to tell me to use two cups of flowers, petals, or blossoms, two and a quarter cups of water, two packages of Certo and four cups of sugar. I think that is a lot of sugar for a small batch of jelly but apparently you need it to set the jell. Everything after that was pretty much the same. In a small glass or stainless saucepan, bring the flower petals or herb leaves in the water to a boil. Cover and set aside. Let this sit overnight or for a several hours. Strain, squeezing out all the water into the saucepan. Put the pulp into the compost. This water is called an “infusion”. Bring the water to a boil and stir in the sugar until all is well dissolved. Stir in the pectin and boil hard for two minutes. Pour into hot, sterilized jelly jars. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Store at room temperature. Refrigerate after opening. And there you have it.
As for me, after the last load of jars I could stand I had had it as well. It is time for me to go to bed or I’ll be useless tomorrow.
[1] http://www.justberryrecipes.com/inxbla.html
[2] Black Locust Jelly: Black Locust Recipe - Black Locust Jelly
[3] Queen Anne's Lace Jelly or Flower Jelly - Recipe | Cooks.com
[4] http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/flower-herb-jellies/
Part Fifty-Two (Part 1)
“Kay-Lee? Is this like that cornbread you made for Pioneer Day last year? It tastes like it.” Linda asked.
“Uh huh. Don’t you recognize it? It’s the Apple Cornbread[1] that Mrs. Sherman used to make before she retired from the cafeteria at the group home. I just thought it would go well with any leftover meat we are stewing up. I’m sorry I made so much of it now though. I thought the men were going to be here.”
Aunt Suzanne heard my comment and said, “Don’t be sorry Girl. Some of them will probably be by here later begging for scraps or complaining about the heat or something. I for one am glad of a break from having them underfoot every canning day. They’re worse than the kids lately.”
Aunt Pearl nodded. “Now Suzanne, you know how it is. They get like this every summer. It’s all the heat, work, and worry and not enough play time.” To me she said, “And don’t you worry about Sawyer if that’s what you’re doing. James will keep an eye on him. There’s a couple of the other boys that aren’t feeling too well either and it ain’t all because of them little, yella plums. It’s the constant work and heat in the silos and barns where the air doesn’t circulate too well. Bennie has a cough that just won’t quit and I’m pretty sure it is from being in that dust in the silos where they’re getting cleaned out. But there’s no choice, can’t see their daddies climbing in them rafters and up and down those ladders. If I find out that’s what they do … well … there’s no fool like an old fool unless you count a hungry fool. I ain’t having none of that nonsense. I had them take that big igloo cooler full of switchel and told James to make sure they drink it. All some of them boys want is cola or something along those lines. Trying to get them to drink water is like asking them to drink quinine for some reason.”
Having seen plenty of it I told her, “Delly’s kids seem to drink a lot of soda, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah and their teeth show it. Heard Delly complaining about their dental bills the other day. Thought she would have more sense, and maybe she does; it’s Burt that brings that stuff home from the office ‘cause he gets it so cheap. I wish she’d come out and work with us, but she’s never been interested in it. I’m afraid that is going to come around and create problems down the road. But it seems to me you’re getting along pretty good with Delly all things considered. Some didn’t think you would.”
Trying not to put my foot into it all I replied was, “She’s Sawyer’s sister. I wouldn’t want to not get along with her.”
Linda snorted as did a couple of other of the wives and aunts that had gotten the rough side of Delly’s tongue a few times. I thought of something I’d been wanting to run by Aunt Pearl and said, “About Burt’s business …”
“What about it Honey? It’s some kind of import business is all I know.”
“Yes ma’am that’s what Sawyer said it was, sorta basically anyway, and what Burt explained at dinner the other day.”
Aunt Suzanne rolled her eyes and said, “I just bet he did. I’ve never known Burt Penny to use one word when five will do.”
I tried not to smile but it was hard not to when that pretty much described Delly’s husband to a T. “Um … something like that. Anyway, one of the things he was saying was that he wasn’t just importing things anymore but was acting as a … er … a middleman I guess is what it is. If someone is looking for something but they don’t know where to get it for the best price or don’t want to take the trouble they’ll call Burt and Burt will find what they are after and get it for them … at a price anyway. But I guess there is a risk to it because he was complaining about getting stuck when some company went belly up right after he’d taken delivery of a bunch of bottles and other containers that they had ordered.”
Aunt Pearl stopped what she was doing and started listening with more than just one ear. “What kind of bottles?”
“The way he talked a bunch of different types. Supposedly he said the company used to distribute stuff like jams, jellies, drinks, and syrups to those roadside stands that tourists like.”
She got thoughtful for a moment. “Really. Well that’s news. I wonder if Gramps knows?” Even the aunts called their father-in-law Gramps most of the time as it saved a lot of confusion since there were a lot of “Mr. Hartfords” but only one Gramps.
“I’m not sure but … I thought you might be interested but well … I just don’t know that Sawyer can get in the middle of this even if it might be something worth looking into. For one we … well … I know Burt has to make a buck and … well ….”
Aunt Suzanne was the one that said, “Don’t beat around the bush Kay-Lee. There’s no need for it. None of us can afford to waste a cent with the way things are going, or have any to spare either. Bet though if Mark or one of the others put it to Burt that we’d buy all or most of that order if we could get a reasonable discount that Burt would be amendable. Pearl, you want to mention it or you want me to have Derwint do it?”
Aunt Pearl went back to peeling potatoes and said, “Have Derwint do it. He won’t put Burt’s back up. Now who wants to help me get those watermelons prepped? I want to make the most of them we can. Watermelon jelly, rind pickles, and I wouldn’t mind drying one of these big ones as treats for the kids if there’s room on any of the dehydrators. We need to get what we can before Mark hauls off who knows how many to make that blasted watermelon wine he’s itching to get started on.”
At the look on my face several of the aunts smiled. It was meek and mild Aunt Patricia that giggled and said, “I know. I’m sure you’ve heard a few stories about ridge runners. Well this isn’t ‘shine though the men do get a little silly and territorial with their messes. It’s really just another way for us to preserve the harvest so not a jot of it goes to waste.” Then she frowned. “Though with the price of sugar being what it is I’m not sure how much wine-making is going to go on. This year I’ll be satisfied if we can just get enough juice and cider put back from the apple harvest. About half my trees decided this would be a good year to not produce.”
I muttered, “You can have some of mine. I’m almost choking on them and I don’t think even Sawyer could eat another apple pie. If you want to come out and look them over we can plan out what you want.”
Aunt Pearl said, “Well right now what we have before us is quite enough to be going on about. Let’s put off the planning of more work until we can get some of this done.” Turning to some of the other women that had been set the task of preparing some meat she asked, “Are you girls done slicing those cuts yet? We need to get it into the marinades if we expect it to be ready to put on the dehydrators when we get home. Linda, I want you and Kay-Lee to start pouring the ingredients for the liquid marinades into these Ziploc bags. And be sure and mark them as only to be used for meat from here on out.”
I took a permanent marker out of my apron pocket and started writing on the bags while Linda pulled out the recipes for the jerky marinades that Aunt Pearl had planned for some of the meat. My understanding is that they got quite a bit more meat than they had expected, and at an even better price after Uncle Mark got in on the haggling. I might not like all of Uncle Mark’s attitudes but there is no denying that he is a doggone good negotiator. The family had had to cull quite a few of their meat animals last year because of feed prices and it had put a real crimp in the plans once they had decided to get the boys all married off and settled in homes of their own as much as possible before what Gramps called the fur starting to fly. Sawyer had already talked about going hunting and how we would go in shares on some of the animals that would get slaughtered but that wouldn’t happen until cooler weather set in.
There was over a dozen two-gallon Ziploc bags for jerky and Linda asked me to write the marinade name on each bag so she wouldn’t have to guess. There were a couple of regular type marinades then there was teriyaki, sweet n’ sour, BBQ, hot n’ tangy, fiesta, mild, Hawaiian, Korean and then some of the aunts pulled out bags of marinade that were their own secret recipes. One smelled suspiciously like its main ingredient was some kind of high test rocket fuel. Boy did it make my eyes water.
I was startled out of my thoughts when Aunt Pearl snapped, “Cynthia! Don’t waste that beef fat by throwing it away! We need it for the mincemeat.” Aunt Pearl was looking at Davis’ wife in frustration. It wasn’t the first time one of the aunts had gotten on to her either. I tried not to look at Linda but she nudged me and we got out of the kitchen on the pretext of bringing in some grapes from the arbor.”
“What’s going on?” I asked keeping my voice low. “Aunt Pearl isn’t normally like this.”
Linda frowned. “Well she can be but I know what you mean. You’ve just never seen her get like this. Cindy ain’t helping though. It’s like she goes out of her way to be hardheaded and silly. I’ve tried helping but all I did was make her cry. I felt real bad about that until I heard her getting smart and saying stuff to a couple of the other wives. She’s taking this being pregnant thing way over the top. Not even Jeannie acted like she’s acting and Jeannie puked almost 24/7 there for a while. You saw her. It was crazy but she never once acted like a baby about it, not even with all that stuff going on with her family.”
I could tell Linda was getting wound up so I asked a different question to try and distract her. “Um … how far along is Cindy? I mean she’s showing and everything. Not like Jeannie but she’s getting kinda big. And it seemed to happen so fast.”
“Everybody is wondering what is going on but they’re keeping their mouths shut. Sometimes to keep the peace you gotta pretend you don’t see what is right in front of you.”
I sighed understanding. “I thought I’d left that behind by leaving foster care. But I guess you find it all over. I keep expecting to see a bomb go off east of us as Uncle Mark comes unglued. But he doesn’t seem all that bothered. And Davis is just being … uh …”
Linda looked around carefully before she said, “Tommy says he’s never seen Davis so happy.”
Remembering how Davis acted last time I saw him I said, “Which I have to say is spooky weird. He hugged me and everything. And all I did was offer Cindy something cold to drink when they stopped here the other day to drop off eggs.”
Linda gave a little giggle. “Yeah. Tommy’s mom said … oh Lord … she said Davis must be getting it regular cause he sure is in a good mood all the time.” Then she shrugged as I made a face at even the thought of having to deal with all the things that Tommy’s mother tends to say. “Maybe she just has a bad case of what Jeannie calls the pregnancy stupids. Jeannie says on some days your head takes a vacation whether you want it to or not. Whatever it is I hope it goes away before she upsets the aunts anymore. She and Davis are already starting off in the hole ‘cause they haaaad to get married. Uncle Mark ain’t exactly jumping for joy even if he is acting better about it than I thought he would. Cindy’s folks are like-minded to the Hartfords and her dad is almost the mirror image in attitude to Uncle Mark.”
Suddenly sure I’d try and avoid any get-togethers where Uncle Mark and Cindy’s dad might get going at the same time, I shuddered. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll keep it in mind and keep my mouth shut.” Linda grinned and then I asked her something else. “Um, got another question that I’ve been afraid to ask.”
“OK.”
“How come some of the other wives don’t … I mean … I understand I guess about Sawyer’s sister. She’s already set up and … well there’s Burt and none of them really act … oh heck, you know what I mean. But some of the new wives … I don’t know … it’s like being back in school. I’m always waiting for someone to say something … uh …”
“Geez Kay-Lee, you can talk to me. I’ve been there you know. You mean how come they don’t talk to us much and keep to themselves … like they are excluding us?”
“Yeah. That. I thought it was because … you know … we’re different or a little younger than some of them but now I’m getting the feeling it must be something different; that it is turning into an us vs. them thing and I don’t want no part of something like that. I got enough work without some of them starting what Sawyer calls a feud. And Gramps will get upset and next to Sawyer he, Uncle James and Aunt Pearl are the last people I want to upset.”
Linda sighed. “Won’t be a feud; heads would sure role if someone tried to start one. But between me and you I overheard some of the aunts say they are about to lay down the law and if the new wives won’t kick it up a notch they might just have to have a family conference. And from what Tommy said if it comes to that then some might just find themselves needing to … er … adjust their expectations from what they expect to what they’ll actually be getting from the family supplies.”
[1] Apple Cornbread Recipe - Food.com
“Kay-Lee? Is this like that cornbread you made for Pioneer Day last year? It tastes like it.” Linda asked.
“Uh huh. Don’t you recognize it? It’s the Apple Cornbread[1] that Mrs. Sherman used to make before she retired from the cafeteria at the group home. I just thought it would go well with any leftover meat we are stewing up. I’m sorry I made so much of it now though. I thought the men were going to be here.”
Aunt Suzanne heard my comment and said, “Don’t be sorry Girl. Some of them will probably be by here later begging for scraps or complaining about the heat or something. I for one am glad of a break from having them underfoot every canning day. They’re worse than the kids lately.”
Aunt Pearl nodded. “Now Suzanne, you know how it is. They get like this every summer. It’s all the heat, work, and worry and not enough play time.” To me she said, “And don’t you worry about Sawyer if that’s what you’re doing. James will keep an eye on him. There’s a couple of the other boys that aren’t feeling too well either and it ain’t all because of them little, yella plums. It’s the constant work and heat in the silos and barns where the air doesn’t circulate too well. Bennie has a cough that just won’t quit and I’m pretty sure it is from being in that dust in the silos where they’re getting cleaned out. But there’s no choice, can’t see their daddies climbing in them rafters and up and down those ladders. If I find out that’s what they do … well … there’s no fool like an old fool unless you count a hungry fool. I ain’t having none of that nonsense. I had them take that big igloo cooler full of switchel and told James to make sure they drink it. All some of them boys want is cola or something along those lines. Trying to get them to drink water is like asking them to drink quinine for some reason.”
Having seen plenty of it I told her, “Delly’s kids seem to drink a lot of soda, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah and their teeth show it. Heard Delly complaining about their dental bills the other day. Thought she would have more sense, and maybe she does; it’s Burt that brings that stuff home from the office ‘cause he gets it so cheap. I wish she’d come out and work with us, but she’s never been interested in it. I’m afraid that is going to come around and create problems down the road. But it seems to me you’re getting along pretty good with Delly all things considered. Some didn’t think you would.”
Trying not to put my foot into it all I replied was, “She’s Sawyer’s sister. I wouldn’t want to not get along with her.”
Linda snorted as did a couple of other of the wives and aunts that had gotten the rough side of Delly’s tongue a few times. I thought of something I’d been wanting to run by Aunt Pearl and said, “About Burt’s business …”
“What about it Honey? It’s some kind of import business is all I know.”
“Yes ma’am that’s what Sawyer said it was, sorta basically anyway, and what Burt explained at dinner the other day.”
Aunt Suzanne rolled her eyes and said, “I just bet he did. I’ve never known Burt Penny to use one word when five will do.”
I tried not to smile but it was hard not to when that pretty much described Delly’s husband to a T. “Um … something like that. Anyway, one of the things he was saying was that he wasn’t just importing things anymore but was acting as a … er … a middleman I guess is what it is. If someone is looking for something but they don’t know where to get it for the best price or don’t want to take the trouble they’ll call Burt and Burt will find what they are after and get it for them … at a price anyway. But I guess there is a risk to it because he was complaining about getting stuck when some company went belly up right after he’d taken delivery of a bunch of bottles and other containers that they had ordered.”
Aunt Pearl stopped what she was doing and started listening with more than just one ear. “What kind of bottles?”
“The way he talked a bunch of different types. Supposedly he said the company used to distribute stuff like jams, jellies, drinks, and syrups to those roadside stands that tourists like.”
She got thoughtful for a moment. “Really. Well that’s news. I wonder if Gramps knows?” Even the aunts called their father-in-law Gramps most of the time as it saved a lot of confusion since there were a lot of “Mr. Hartfords” but only one Gramps.
“I’m not sure but … I thought you might be interested but well … I just don’t know that Sawyer can get in the middle of this even if it might be something worth looking into. For one we … well … I know Burt has to make a buck and … well ….”
Aunt Suzanne was the one that said, “Don’t beat around the bush Kay-Lee. There’s no need for it. None of us can afford to waste a cent with the way things are going, or have any to spare either. Bet though if Mark or one of the others put it to Burt that we’d buy all or most of that order if we could get a reasonable discount that Burt would be amendable. Pearl, you want to mention it or you want me to have Derwint do it?”
Aunt Pearl went back to peeling potatoes and said, “Have Derwint do it. He won’t put Burt’s back up. Now who wants to help me get those watermelons prepped? I want to make the most of them we can. Watermelon jelly, rind pickles, and I wouldn’t mind drying one of these big ones as treats for the kids if there’s room on any of the dehydrators. We need to get what we can before Mark hauls off who knows how many to make that blasted watermelon wine he’s itching to get started on.”
At the look on my face several of the aunts smiled. It was meek and mild Aunt Patricia that giggled and said, “I know. I’m sure you’ve heard a few stories about ridge runners. Well this isn’t ‘shine though the men do get a little silly and territorial with their messes. It’s really just another way for us to preserve the harvest so not a jot of it goes to waste.” Then she frowned. “Though with the price of sugar being what it is I’m not sure how much wine-making is going to go on. This year I’ll be satisfied if we can just get enough juice and cider put back from the apple harvest. About half my trees decided this would be a good year to not produce.”
I muttered, “You can have some of mine. I’m almost choking on them and I don’t think even Sawyer could eat another apple pie. If you want to come out and look them over we can plan out what you want.”
Aunt Pearl said, “Well right now what we have before us is quite enough to be going on about. Let’s put off the planning of more work until we can get some of this done.” Turning to some of the other women that had been set the task of preparing some meat she asked, “Are you girls done slicing those cuts yet? We need to get it into the marinades if we expect it to be ready to put on the dehydrators when we get home. Linda, I want you and Kay-Lee to start pouring the ingredients for the liquid marinades into these Ziploc bags. And be sure and mark them as only to be used for meat from here on out.”
I took a permanent marker out of my apron pocket and started writing on the bags while Linda pulled out the recipes for the jerky marinades that Aunt Pearl had planned for some of the meat. My understanding is that they got quite a bit more meat than they had expected, and at an even better price after Uncle Mark got in on the haggling. I might not like all of Uncle Mark’s attitudes but there is no denying that he is a doggone good negotiator. The family had had to cull quite a few of their meat animals last year because of feed prices and it had put a real crimp in the plans once they had decided to get the boys all married off and settled in homes of their own as much as possible before what Gramps called the fur starting to fly. Sawyer had already talked about going hunting and how we would go in shares on some of the animals that would get slaughtered but that wouldn’t happen until cooler weather set in.
There was over a dozen two-gallon Ziploc bags for jerky and Linda asked me to write the marinade name on each bag so she wouldn’t have to guess. There were a couple of regular type marinades then there was teriyaki, sweet n’ sour, BBQ, hot n’ tangy, fiesta, mild, Hawaiian, Korean and then some of the aunts pulled out bags of marinade that were their own secret recipes. One smelled suspiciously like its main ingredient was some kind of high test rocket fuel. Boy did it make my eyes water.
I was startled out of my thoughts when Aunt Pearl snapped, “Cynthia! Don’t waste that beef fat by throwing it away! We need it for the mincemeat.” Aunt Pearl was looking at Davis’ wife in frustration. It wasn’t the first time one of the aunts had gotten on to her either. I tried not to look at Linda but she nudged me and we got out of the kitchen on the pretext of bringing in some grapes from the arbor.”
“What’s going on?” I asked keeping my voice low. “Aunt Pearl isn’t normally like this.”
Linda frowned. “Well she can be but I know what you mean. You’ve just never seen her get like this. Cindy ain’t helping though. It’s like she goes out of her way to be hardheaded and silly. I’ve tried helping but all I did was make her cry. I felt real bad about that until I heard her getting smart and saying stuff to a couple of the other wives. She’s taking this being pregnant thing way over the top. Not even Jeannie acted like she’s acting and Jeannie puked almost 24/7 there for a while. You saw her. It was crazy but she never once acted like a baby about it, not even with all that stuff going on with her family.”
I could tell Linda was getting wound up so I asked a different question to try and distract her. “Um … how far along is Cindy? I mean she’s showing and everything. Not like Jeannie but she’s getting kinda big. And it seemed to happen so fast.”
“Everybody is wondering what is going on but they’re keeping their mouths shut. Sometimes to keep the peace you gotta pretend you don’t see what is right in front of you.”
I sighed understanding. “I thought I’d left that behind by leaving foster care. But I guess you find it all over. I keep expecting to see a bomb go off east of us as Uncle Mark comes unglued. But he doesn’t seem all that bothered. And Davis is just being … uh …”
Linda looked around carefully before she said, “Tommy says he’s never seen Davis so happy.”
Remembering how Davis acted last time I saw him I said, “Which I have to say is spooky weird. He hugged me and everything. And all I did was offer Cindy something cold to drink when they stopped here the other day to drop off eggs.”
Linda gave a little giggle. “Yeah. Tommy’s mom said … oh Lord … she said Davis must be getting it regular cause he sure is in a good mood all the time.” Then she shrugged as I made a face at even the thought of having to deal with all the things that Tommy’s mother tends to say. “Maybe she just has a bad case of what Jeannie calls the pregnancy stupids. Jeannie says on some days your head takes a vacation whether you want it to or not. Whatever it is I hope it goes away before she upsets the aunts anymore. She and Davis are already starting off in the hole ‘cause they haaaad to get married. Uncle Mark ain’t exactly jumping for joy even if he is acting better about it than I thought he would. Cindy’s folks are like-minded to the Hartfords and her dad is almost the mirror image in attitude to Uncle Mark.”
Suddenly sure I’d try and avoid any get-togethers where Uncle Mark and Cindy’s dad might get going at the same time, I shuddered. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll keep it in mind and keep my mouth shut.” Linda grinned and then I asked her something else. “Um, got another question that I’ve been afraid to ask.”
“OK.”
“How come some of the other wives don’t … I mean … I understand I guess about Sawyer’s sister. She’s already set up and … well there’s Burt and none of them really act … oh heck, you know what I mean. But some of the new wives … I don’t know … it’s like being back in school. I’m always waiting for someone to say something … uh …”
“Geez Kay-Lee, you can talk to me. I’ve been there you know. You mean how come they don’t talk to us much and keep to themselves … like they are excluding us?”
“Yeah. That. I thought it was because … you know … we’re different or a little younger than some of them but now I’m getting the feeling it must be something different; that it is turning into an us vs. them thing and I don’t want no part of something like that. I got enough work without some of them starting what Sawyer calls a feud. And Gramps will get upset and next to Sawyer he, Uncle James and Aunt Pearl are the last people I want to upset.”
Linda sighed. “Won’t be a feud; heads would sure role if someone tried to start one. But between me and you I overheard some of the aunts say they are about to lay down the law and if the new wives won’t kick it up a notch they might just have to have a family conference. And from what Tommy said if it comes to that then some might just find themselves needing to … er … adjust their expectations from what they expect to what they’ll actually be getting from the family supplies.”
[1] Apple Cornbread Recipe - Food.com
Part 52 (Part 2)
Almost sorry that I had brought it up I said, “Ugh. I hope it doesn’t come to that. Sawyer and I are having enough trouble catching up and keeping up.”
“I ain’t saying that we won’t catch some of the by-blow from anything that happens – they can’t show favorites – but I’m not going to worry about it too much. As for you and Sawyer, you ain’t so bad off as you think. You‘re measuring yourselves against Gramps and the aunts and uncles. If you measure yourselves against the cousins and most of the new wives y’all are real ahead.”
I shook my head in denial. “I’m not measuring myself against anyone and neither is Sawyer. We worked the numbers to see what we needed to get through and meet Gramps’ expectations, and we’ve got a plan to try and not have to create too many bills along the way of getting there, but it’s not been easy putting the plan into action. Cash doesn’t exactly grow on trees.”
Trying to be helpful Linda asked, “Maybe if you get a job?”
“I barely even come close to bringing it up and Sawyer gets all grouchy and strange. He says he’ll get a job when – not if – it comes down to it but I don’t know how he’s going to work for someone else and put the work in for the family. Even if he was in favor of me getting a job I’m not sure how I’d keep up with what I need to do either. It’s really just insane. And now they want us to go faster because things are starting to unravel in some places around the world. Like that terrorist stuff going on over in West Africa that is somehow affecting us though I sure don’t understand how. What I do know is that it is the end of July and we’ve got a lot of stuff done but if things go crazy before the summer is over with …” And then I looked around before saying, “And I don’t know who it was who brought it up but the other night I heard Sawyer out in the barn on his cellphone yelling.”
“About what?”
“What little bit I could hear, someone must have suggested that I apply for disability. Sawyer came inside after that real upset but trying to pretend that nothing was wrong and wanted to play around to prove nothing was wrong when I called him on it. Then I had to explain to him that now that I’m eighteen I couldn’t qualify even if I did apply because I don’t have enough work credits. I don’t even qualify for SSI going by those papers the Brensers – my last foster family - had me fill out when I went to go live with them. I thought he would be upset but Sawyer actually seemed relieved. Has … has anyone said anything to you or Tommy?”
“Yeah, there’s been a few that have mentioned it, like it would help out the whole family and stuff. But Gramps talked to us about it. He let us decide for ourselves but also said that he’d rather not get us tangled up with that stuff, that it might even be dangerous if they start wanting to do home inspections and things like that on the people that get government checks. Tommy and I talked about it and think that it is more trouble than it’s worth. I’d be scared they’d try to say we can’t be married or something like that.”
“I’m sorry Linda. I didn’t know. I guess I’ve been kinda self-involved. I should have been a better friend that you could talk to.”
Linda showed her philosophical side and said, “What’s there to be sorry for? Can only do what you can do. And that goes for the rest of us too. It is like that putting it in a box stuff you told me about. We just gotta make a plan and stick with it. As for you or me trying to get a job when it pinches our husbands’ little boy parts …” My mouth fell open at her bluntness but she just shrugged. “Won’t do any good to work too much harder because at this rate by the time trouble does get here we’ll all be dead.”
Linda and I trudged back to the house with a bushel basket of grapes each and got into the kitchen just in time for Aunt Pearl to say, “I wondered where you two had gotten to. Good idea about them grapes. I took a chance that some of yours was ripe and brought my steam juicer. Let’s get those grapes going right now. Kay-Lee are these all you’ll get off your vines?”
I shook my head, relieved not to catch any flack. “No ma’am. These are just some of the first bunches … at least the ones that Sawyer hasn’t eaten up while he was out there checking things out and weeding. He says the grapes are good and sweet and will make all the way through the end of August unless something gets to them and that the muscadines will be making at least into the middle of October so long as we don’t get too early of a frost.”
One of the aunts shuddered and said, “From his lips to God’s ear. The last thing we need after that strange weather the beginning of the year is to have an early frost at the end of it.”
We were canning late into the night, and it turned out that some of the aunts decided it was simply easier to stay over and work in rotations than it was to go home. All their menfolk had been fed and watered and could pretty much manage on their own for one night. The only ones that went home were the ones with younger kids that would be too much for their husbands to tend to, the new wives that were pregnant, and a couple that had regular jobs they were trying to hold onto for as long as they could.
Sawyer was so tired by the time he got home that he almost didn’t notice all the women draped all over the place. I finally had it all explained while I walked with him up to our bedroom where he asked, “Have you slept any?”
“Linda and I catnapped for about an hour.”
“That ain’t enough sleep Kay-Lee. I’m gonna say …”
“Please don’t Sawyer. Aunt Pearl … well I would say she is in a mood but that isn’t it exactly. Something is really bothering her though; she’s been on a tear today. It’s like she has hurry-up-itis or something.”
“Anything in particular happen to set her off?”
I shrugged. “I asked Linda to explain it the best she could and if I’m understanding it, it is like the aunts just aren’t happy about the work that the new wives are doing. They’re pushing harder and harder, and maybe for good reason, but they’re all experienced and know what they’re doing and most of the rest of us are just learning. I’m trying to keep up Sawyer, really I am, but …”
“It’s ok Kay-Lee, it ain’t you. Uncle James and Gramps pulled Tommy and I aside today and told us that if they start yelling that most likely it don’t have nothing to do with us. It ain’t just some of the wives. Gramps didn’t exactly say so, or call names, but I got the feeling that some of my cousins are about to have their butts chewed on. And it ain’t about the amount of work that is getting done while we are all together, that’s going pretty smooth. It seems, as I understand it anyway, that not much is getting accomplished any other time.”
“But you Hartford men are together almost every day. You have work crews going every which direction.”
“Yeah, but not for the whole day long, at least not most of us. Some of us do work in the crews more but that’s because we got certain skills or don’t have our own fields to tend or whatever. Gramps counts on me and Tommy to do a lot of the grunt work because we always have and can get it done faster. I mean Tommy might be slow on some things but there’s things even I have trouble keeping up with him on. For one thing he can lay a plumb line without even having to pop a string. And all he has to do is look at a roof and somehow he knows how many squares of shingles is needed. That’s what’s needed for now to help get some of the houses and trailers put up fast and square. On the other hand, there’s a few that think just ‘cause their crew only took half a day to finish a job that means they should have the other half of the day off and Gramps said that’s not going to cut it. Uncle James caught some of the others putting chores off until a bunch of us come over to help and he ain’t happy about it. To teach ‘em a lesson every time he catches a couple doing that, their place is going to get moved to the bottom of the list and if it happens too often they might just find they’ve fallen off the list for a while.”
Not realizing how serious things had gotten I said, “Uh oh.”
“Pretty much.” Sawyer sat down on the bench and started taking off his nasty work clothes so he could wash up and go to bed. “You really gonna stay downstairs all night?”
“Yeah. Yeah I think I better. I mean this is our house and well …”
“Yeah,” he sighed tiredly. “You … you want me to …” He yawned big enough that his jaw popped. “I’ll come down. I might fall asleep on the sofa but you can wake me up when you need help.”
“No. I’ll feel better if I know you are up here getting some rest before you have to head out and do this again tomorrow. You’re driving, I’m not. Those tractors don’t exactly look forgiving if you make a mistake.”
He didn’t take much persuading. “OK, but I’ll make it up to you.”
I shook my head. “Nothing to make up. It is just the way it is. You told me how busy summer gets. Now I’m seeing it first-hand.”
“Well just make sure you sit when you need to sit. You might be able to hide that limp from everyone else but not from me.”
I helped him take his socks off while trying not to breathe and then told him, “I don’t want to hide anything from you. It’s not the same with the others.”
He gave me a tired grin and said, “Better not.”
Almost sorry that I had brought it up I said, “Ugh. I hope it doesn’t come to that. Sawyer and I are having enough trouble catching up and keeping up.”
“I ain’t saying that we won’t catch some of the by-blow from anything that happens – they can’t show favorites – but I’m not going to worry about it too much. As for you and Sawyer, you ain’t so bad off as you think. You‘re measuring yourselves against Gramps and the aunts and uncles. If you measure yourselves against the cousins and most of the new wives y’all are real ahead.”
I shook my head in denial. “I’m not measuring myself against anyone and neither is Sawyer. We worked the numbers to see what we needed to get through and meet Gramps’ expectations, and we’ve got a plan to try and not have to create too many bills along the way of getting there, but it’s not been easy putting the plan into action. Cash doesn’t exactly grow on trees.”
Trying to be helpful Linda asked, “Maybe if you get a job?”
“I barely even come close to bringing it up and Sawyer gets all grouchy and strange. He says he’ll get a job when – not if – it comes down to it but I don’t know how he’s going to work for someone else and put the work in for the family. Even if he was in favor of me getting a job I’m not sure how I’d keep up with what I need to do either. It’s really just insane. And now they want us to go faster because things are starting to unravel in some places around the world. Like that terrorist stuff going on over in West Africa that is somehow affecting us though I sure don’t understand how. What I do know is that it is the end of July and we’ve got a lot of stuff done but if things go crazy before the summer is over with …” And then I looked around before saying, “And I don’t know who it was who brought it up but the other night I heard Sawyer out in the barn on his cellphone yelling.”
“About what?”
“What little bit I could hear, someone must have suggested that I apply for disability. Sawyer came inside after that real upset but trying to pretend that nothing was wrong and wanted to play around to prove nothing was wrong when I called him on it. Then I had to explain to him that now that I’m eighteen I couldn’t qualify even if I did apply because I don’t have enough work credits. I don’t even qualify for SSI going by those papers the Brensers – my last foster family - had me fill out when I went to go live with them. I thought he would be upset but Sawyer actually seemed relieved. Has … has anyone said anything to you or Tommy?”
“Yeah, there’s been a few that have mentioned it, like it would help out the whole family and stuff. But Gramps talked to us about it. He let us decide for ourselves but also said that he’d rather not get us tangled up with that stuff, that it might even be dangerous if they start wanting to do home inspections and things like that on the people that get government checks. Tommy and I talked about it and think that it is more trouble than it’s worth. I’d be scared they’d try to say we can’t be married or something like that.”
“I’m sorry Linda. I didn’t know. I guess I’ve been kinda self-involved. I should have been a better friend that you could talk to.”
Linda showed her philosophical side and said, “What’s there to be sorry for? Can only do what you can do. And that goes for the rest of us too. It is like that putting it in a box stuff you told me about. We just gotta make a plan and stick with it. As for you or me trying to get a job when it pinches our husbands’ little boy parts …” My mouth fell open at her bluntness but she just shrugged. “Won’t do any good to work too much harder because at this rate by the time trouble does get here we’ll all be dead.”
Linda and I trudged back to the house with a bushel basket of grapes each and got into the kitchen just in time for Aunt Pearl to say, “I wondered where you two had gotten to. Good idea about them grapes. I took a chance that some of yours was ripe and brought my steam juicer. Let’s get those grapes going right now. Kay-Lee are these all you’ll get off your vines?”
I shook my head, relieved not to catch any flack. “No ma’am. These are just some of the first bunches … at least the ones that Sawyer hasn’t eaten up while he was out there checking things out and weeding. He says the grapes are good and sweet and will make all the way through the end of August unless something gets to them and that the muscadines will be making at least into the middle of October so long as we don’t get too early of a frost.”
One of the aunts shuddered and said, “From his lips to God’s ear. The last thing we need after that strange weather the beginning of the year is to have an early frost at the end of it.”
We were canning late into the night, and it turned out that some of the aunts decided it was simply easier to stay over and work in rotations than it was to go home. All their menfolk had been fed and watered and could pretty much manage on their own for one night. The only ones that went home were the ones with younger kids that would be too much for their husbands to tend to, the new wives that were pregnant, and a couple that had regular jobs they were trying to hold onto for as long as they could.
Sawyer was so tired by the time he got home that he almost didn’t notice all the women draped all over the place. I finally had it all explained while I walked with him up to our bedroom where he asked, “Have you slept any?”
“Linda and I catnapped for about an hour.”
“That ain’t enough sleep Kay-Lee. I’m gonna say …”
“Please don’t Sawyer. Aunt Pearl … well I would say she is in a mood but that isn’t it exactly. Something is really bothering her though; she’s been on a tear today. It’s like she has hurry-up-itis or something.”
“Anything in particular happen to set her off?”
I shrugged. “I asked Linda to explain it the best she could and if I’m understanding it, it is like the aunts just aren’t happy about the work that the new wives are doing. They’re pushing harder and harder, and maybe for good reason, but they’re all experienced and know what they’re doing and most of the rest of us are just learning. I’m trying to keep up Sawyer, really I am, but …”
“It’s ok Kay-Lee, it ain’t you. Uncle James and Gramps pulled Tommy and I aside today and told us that if they start yelling that most likely it don’t have nothing to do with us. It ain’t just some of the wives. Gramps didn’t exactly say so, or call names, but I got the feeling that some of my cousins are about to have their butts chewed on. And it ain’t about the amount of work that is getting done while we are all together, that’s going pretty smooth. It seems, as I understand it anyway, that not much is getting accomplished any other time.”
“But you Hartford men are together almost every day. You have work crews going every which direction.”
“Yeah, but not for the whole day long, at least not most of us. Some of us do work in the crews more but that’s because we got certain skills or don’t have our own fields to tend or whatever. Gramps counts on me and Tommy to do a lot of the grunt work because we always have and can get it done faster. I mean Tommy might be slow on some things but there’s things even I have trouble keeping up with him on. For one thing he can lay a plumb line without even having to pop a string. And all he has to do is look at a roof and somehow he knows how many squares of shingles is needed. That’s what’s needed for now to help get some of the houses and trailers put up fast and square. On the other hand, there’s a few that think just ‘cause their crew only took half a day to finish a job that means they should have the other half of the day off and Gramps said that’s not going to cut it. Uncle James caught some of the others putting chores off until a bunch of us come over to help and he ain’t happy about it. To teach ‘em a lesson every time he catches a couple doing that, their place is going to get moved to the bottom of the list and if it happens too often they might just find they’ve fallen off the list for a while.”
Not realizing how serious things had gotten I said, “Uh oh.”
“Pretty much.” Sawyer sat down on the bench and started taking off his nasty work clothes so he could wash up and go to bed. “You really gonna stay downstairs all night?”
“Yeah. Yeah I think I better. I mean this is our house and well …”
“Yeah,” he sighed tiredly. “You … you want me to …” He yawned big enough that his jaw popped. “I’ll come down. I might fall asleep on the sofa but you can wake me up when you need help.”
“No. I’ll feel better if I know you are up here getting some rest before you have to head out and do this again tomorrow. You’re driving, I’m not. Those tractors don’t exactly look forgiving if you make a mistake.”
He didn’t take much persuading. “OK, but I’ll make it up to you.”
I shook my head. “Nothing to make up. It is just the way it is. You told me how busy summer gets. Now I’m seeing it first-hand.”
“Well just make sure you sit when you need to sit. You might be able to hide that limp from everyone else but not from me.”
I helped him take his socks off while trying not to breathe and then told him, “I don’t want to hide anything from you. It’s not the same with the others.”
He gave me a tired grin and said, “Better not.”
Part Fifty-Three
Aunt Pearl looked at the kitchen and all the jars grouped by type all over the counter tops and table in exhausted satisfaction. “We did it. I wondered if we were going to pull it off if you want to know the truth.”
Aunt Suzanne nodded and said, “You and me both Pearl.” She was packing some of yesterday’s filled jars into boxes to take home with her so she wouldn’t have to wait until Sunday to pick them up. “There is no doubt in my mind that meat will be a blessing to this family come winter, but I feel about two weeks behind with the garden now.”
Someone said, “It was only two days, we can’t be that far behind.”
I said, “Speak for yourself. I’ve got apples, nectarines, peaches, and blueberries that I gotta get out and pick before it gets hot in the morning and they start dropping off. Last time I made that mistake raccoons – or maybe it was possums I don’t know – got into the trees and knocked even more off and made a mess in the garbage area and compost pile too. I need to cut the sumac drupes that have dried all the way before the birds get them all. I found another grouping of burdock on the other side of the fence from the arbor that needs to be dug out and pickled.[1] I need to get more wild leek bulbs dug before they get too old. I’ve got wild greens going to waste all over the place. You saw the mountain ash berries I stuck in the freezer until I can get to them to make jelly.[2] And Sawyer says that he’s bringing home a bunch of tomatoes tomorrow too. Tonight I still have to get started on the ones he brought home today. And before I can do any of that I have to get some more jars washed and prepped.”
Someone muttered, “Oh I forget, you’re Wonder Woman.”
I looked over trying to figure out who said it but I couldn’t tell so I addressed the group on the other side of the room in general. “The only way I’m Wonder Woman is because I’m always wondering how I’m going to get everything done that needs doing. And I don’t know about y’all but my laundry don’t exactly jump in and out of the washing machine by itself and it sure don’t walk out to the clothesline and hang itself. Everything that I used to think of as easy seems a little harder and more complicated.”
Cindy said, “Don’t be stupid. Use the dryer. I do.”
I shook my head. “Lucky you then. I can’t or won’t, take your pick. The co-op told us we came real close to getting a special assessment last quarter. They made us pay for more in advance for this quarter and … well … “ I stopped not wanting to tell our business in case Sawyer didn’t like it.
Jeannie saved me by saying, “We did get a special assessment. Benedict and his dad weren’t what you would call real happy about it either. The only thing they can figure is that the AC and the hot water tank are being run too much. They put some kind of control box on them and now I only have hot water first thing in the morning and last thing at night and the AC stays off most of the day too. It’s awful. I don’t see how you and Sawyer can stand not having AC Kay-Lee, especially at night.”
Unwilling to complain since Sawyer and I tried to laugh about it when we could I said, “Fans and cold showers. But I did have to break down and go into town and buy a plastic mattress cover for the bed ‘cause we’ve been sweating so much at night. I guess there is something to be said for being so tired nothing wakes you up.”
That brought on some stories told by the older aunts about how things used to be like sleep porches and cooking outside to keep from heating the house up in the summer to all the family sleeping in one bed to stay warm during the winter. Some of the wives groaned, but I could tell some of them were listening and starting to look concerned. I shrugged at all the emotions and potential for drama I saw on the faces around me. It’s not like I enjoy going without AC that’s just the way it is. I can’t change it so I invest the energy into trying to make things as easy as I can.
Everyone finally pulled out to head home, all of us tired to the bone, but all that meant was that it was time for me to try and do a few things that I had been listing off to everyone that needed doing. I left off digging roots and cutting greens as something that would just have to wait. Instead I grabbed my gardening scissors and walked down the road to the vacant, overgrown field and cut enough dried sumac drupes to satisfy my need to feel like I had done my foraging for the day. I hauled them back to the house and stuck them in a cheese cloth bag to hang and dry for another day or two and started a couple of sink fulls of jars. Boring but necessary work if I was going to get anything else done.
About an hour later, right as the lightning bugs were starting to become visible, Sawyer came home. He wasn’t even all the way through the door before he was saying, “I’m starving.”
I had kept back some of the meat that wouldn’t make a whole jar for the pressure canner and made something Sawyer always liked. I told him, “Chicken stir-fry with all the rice you can eat and then watermelon smoothies for dessert.”
“Hot dang. Sounds good. But first I’ve got more ‘maters for you and they need to come in. If I bring them to the porch can you carry the boxes inside?”
I nodded and I just about croaked when I saw how many tomatoes there were. “Did someone want me to do something with these for everyone?”
“Nuh uh. Gramps said that it might look like a lot but by the time you get done juicing them or cooking them down …”
“And you’re bringing home more tomorrow?”
“Yeah, about this … hey … you don’t look too good. Kay-Lee?!”
Next thing I remember is sitting on the porch stoop with my head between my knees. “You ain’t doing any more tonight and that’s final.”
Shaking my head I told him, “Sawyer, I can’t get behind. If we had an extra frig to hold these so they wouldn’t spoil … but we don’t. The frig and freezer we’ve got are both full with other stuff. I guess I’m just not goo …”
“Don’t you say it. Don’t Kay-Lee. You’re just tired. You been up all night. Your leg is probably screaming for one of them blue pills. And you’ve never had to try and keep up with the aunts who can be like a force of nature or something. Let me shower and I’ll help do some of this.”
Upset that it was coming to this I told him, “This is supposed to be my job and you’ve already worked all day!”
“So have you, and all night too. What I figure we can do is just lay them out in a single layer on … well …” He stopped and looked around in consternation.
“Exactly, there’s not too many empty surfaces to lay anything out on.”
“You know which of these jars are ours?”
“Uh huh.”
“Can they be moved down to the basement?”
“I … I guess. I usually just take whatever is left over.”
“Screw that. You set what is ours on the buffet by the basement door and I’ll carry them down. We’ll move some of the others to the dining room …”
“Already covered in jars.”
“Well hell,” he said in irritation before jumping up. “There’s a sheet of plywood in the bed of my truck. We’ll lay it over the dining room chairs and then try and put most of the tomatoes on that.”
And that’s what we did only we did it before he took a shower because afterwards he talked me into taking a shower with him, even if it was a cold one. When we were finished we went down and I tried to eat while he practically wolfed his food down.
Excusing his lack of manners he told me, “All I got was a bologna sandwich for lunch and wouldn’t have gotten that if I hadn’t gone begging to Delly’s … got you another bag of them 2-liters by the way. She said she would have cooked me something but I told her thanks but there wasn’t time. She was in a damn good mood, seems there’s been some kind of mistake with the original blood work – they mixed hers up with someone else’s – and between that and some kind of sono something or other she just had they say the baby is looking ok. A little big but Burt Jr. was a ten-pound bowling ball when he was born. They just got her on this low sugar diet just to be on the safe side.”
Happy for Delly and happy to hear some good news for a change I said, “That’s wonderful!”
“Yeah it is and she also said to thank you for mentioning something to Uncle Derwint but I didn’t catch what she was talking about ‘cause I had to run.”
“Oh. Well. Um …” So I explained and he smiled.
“Good catch. I don’t listen to Burt half the time when he really gets steamed up. All you gotta do is nod and let him think you’re agreeing with every word he says even if you ain’t got a clue what he is talking about. I had to tune him out when he started talking about how Mason is getting along … like I wanna know. The less I hear about that peckerwood the better.”
Seeing that he was getting wound up I turned the subject and said, “Thank you for helping. I just … Sawyer I … I don’t know if this keeps up how long I can …”
“Then tell Aunt Pearl that. Or better yet, tell Aunt Suzanne. She got all over me the other day about some shoe or other that I needed to figure out a way to design for you and it had something to do with her sister … now there’s a scary woman right there. Mrs. Pettigrew is built like a pole bean but man can she swing a fly swatter.”
“Sawyer!”
“Well, it’s true. You’ve only seen her on Sunday when she is working on her ticket to Heaven. Just you wait for some other time and some kid steps out of line. You can’t tell by looking at her but her arms must be nothing but pure muscle.”
“Uh huh. And what did you do to deserve some poor woman having to take after you with only a fly swatter?”
“Well … as to that … I’m taking the Fifth seeing as how I do not have to incriminate myself or give my wife ideas.”
It wasn’t that funny but it was funny enough that just talking to Sawyer made me feel better. But he didn’t let me off with a joke and instead had the whole platform shoe idea out of me.
“You know, that really is a good idea. You already use that block when you have to stand for a long time at the kitchen sink. You think if I carved you a platform that could be glued to a pair of clogs or flip flops or something like that you’d give it a try?”
“It would have to be something that would work with my brace Sawyer and that’s just a lot of work you don’t need.”
“It ain’t that much work. I bet I can come up with something. Let me think on it.”
“Fine, play hero … but not tonight OK? We’re both tired.”
He looked at and asked, “Uh … too tired?”
I was but I didn’t let him know that and afterwards I’m glad I hadn’t said anything. We both went to sleep with a smile on our face.
[1] Burdock Recipe - Burdock Root Pickles
[2] http://calmmindpainfreebody.com/wildthings/mountainashjelly/mtnashjelly.html
Aunt Pearl looked at the kitchen and all the jars grouped by type all over the counter tops and table in exhausted satisfaction. “We did it. I wondered if we were going to pull it off if you want to know the truth.”
Aunt Suzanne nodded and said, “You and me both Pearl.” She was packing some of yesterday’s filled jars into boxes to take home with her so she wouldn’t have to wait until Sunday to pick them up. “There is no doubt in my mind that meat will be a blessing to this family come winter, but I feel about two weeks behind with the garden now.”
Someone said, “It was only two days, we can’t be that far behind.”
I said, “Speak for yourself. I’ve got apples, nectarines, peaches, and blueberries that I gotta get out and pick before it gets hot in the morning and they start dropping off. Last time I made that mistake raccoons – or maybe it was possums I don’t know – got into the trees and knocked even more off and made a mess in the garbage area and compost pile too. I need to cut the sumac drupes that have dried all the way before the birds get them all. I found another grouping of burdock on the other side of the fence from the arbor that needs to be dug out and pickled.[1] I need to get more wild leek bulbs dug before they get too old. I’ve got wild greens going to waste all over the place. You saw the mountain ash berries I stuck in the freezer until I can get to them to make jelly.[2] And Sawyer says that he’s bringing home a bunch of tomatoes tomorrow too. Tonight I still have to get started on the ones he brought home today. And before I can do any of that I have to get some more jars washed and prepped.”
Someone muttered, “Oh I forget, you’re Wonder Woman.”
I looked over trying to figure out who said it but I couldn’t tell so I addressed the group on the other side of the room in general. “The only way I’m Wonder Woman is because I’m always wondering how I’m going to get everything done that needs doing. And I don’t know about y’all but my laundry don’t exactly jump in and out of the washing machine by itself and it sure don’t walk out to the clothesline and hang itself. Everything that I used to think of as easy seems a little harder and more complicated.”
Cindy said, “Don’t be stupid. Use the dryer. I do.”
I shook my head. “Lucky you then. I can’t or won’t, take your pick. The co-op told us we came real close to getting a special assessment last quarter. They made us pay for more in advance for this quarter and … well … “ I stopped not wanting to tell our business in case Sawyer didn’t like it.
Jeannie saved me by saying, “We did get a special assessment. Benedict and his dad weren’t what you would call real happy about it either. The only thing they can figure is that the AC and the hot water tank are being run too much. They put some kind of control box on them and now I only have hot water first thing in the morning and last thing at night and the AC stays off most of the day too. It’s awful. I don’t see how you and Sawyer can stand not having AC Kay-Lee, especially at night.”
Unwilling to complain since Sawyer and I tried to laugh about it when we could I said, “Fans and cold showers. But I did have to break down and go into town and buy a plastic mattress cover for the bed ‘cause we’ve been sweating so much at night. I guess there is something to be said for being so tired nothing wakes you up.”
That brought on some stories told by the older aunts about how things used to be like sleep porches and cooking outside to keep from heating the house up in the summer to all the family sleeping in one bed to stay warm during the winter. Some of the wives groaned, but I could tell some of them were listening and starting to look concerned. I shrugged at all the emotions and potential for drama I saw on the faces around me. It’s not like I enjoy going without AC that’s just the way it is. I can’t change it so I invest the energy into trying to make things as easy as I can.
Everyone finally pulled out to head home, all of us tired to the bone, but all that meant was that it was time for me to try and do a few things that I had been listing off to everyone that needed doing. I left off digging roots and cutting greens as something that would just have to wait. Instead I grabbed my gardening scissors and walked down the road to the vacant, overgrown field and cut enough dried sumac drupes to satisfy my need to feel like I had done my foraging for the day. I hauled them back to the house and stuck them in a cheese cloth bag to hang and dry for another day or two and started a couple of sink fulls of jars. Boring but necessary work if I was going to get anything else done.
About an hour later, right as the lightning bugs were starting to become visible, Sawyer came home. He wasn’t even all the way through the door before he was saying, “I’m starving.”
I had kept back some of the meat that wouldn’t make a whole jar for the pressure canner and made something Sawyer always liked. I told him, “Chicken stir-fry with all the rice you can eat and then watermelon smoothies for dessert.”
“Hot dang. Sounds good. But first I’ve got more ‘maters for you and they need to come in. If I bring them to the porch can you carry the boxes inside?”
I nodded and I just about croaked when I saw how many tomatoes there were. “Did someone want me to do something with these for everyone?”
“Nuh uh. Gramps said that it might look like a lot but by the time you get done juicing them or cooking them down …”
“And you’re bringing home more tomorrow?”
“Yeah, about this … hey … you don’t look too good. Kay-Lee?!”
Next thing I remember is sitting on the porch stoop with my head between my knees. “You ain’t doing any more tonight and that’s final.”
Shaking my head I told him, “Sawyer, I can’t get behind. If we had an extra frig to hold these so they wouldn’t spoil … but we don’t. The frig and freezer we’ve got are both full with other stuff. I guess I’m just not goo …”
“Don’t you say it. Don’t Kay-Lee. You’re just tired. You been up all night. Your leg is probably screaming for one of them blue pills. And you’ve never had to try and keep up with the aunts who can be like a force of nature or something. Let me shower and I’ll help do some of this.”
Upset that it was coming to this I told him, “This is supposed to be my job and you’ve already worked all day!”
“So have you, and all night too. What I figure we can do is just lay them out in a single layer on … well …” He stopped and looked around in consternation.
“Exactly, there’s not too many empty surfaces to lay anything out on.”
“You know which of these jars are ours?”
“Uh huh.”
“Can they be moved down to the basement?”
“I … I guess. I usually just take whatever is left over.”
“Screw that. You set what is ours on the buffet by the basement door and I’ll carry them down. We’ll move some of the others to the dining room …”
“Already covered in jars.”
“Well hell,” he said in irritation before jumping up. “There’s a sheet of plywood in the bed of my truck. We’ll lay it over the dining room chairs and then try and put most of the tomatoes on that.”
And that’s what we did only we did it before he took a shower because afterwards he talked me into taking a shower with him, even if it was a cold one. When we were finished we went down and I tried to eat while he practically wolfed his food down.
Excusing his lack of manners he told me, “All I got was a bologna sandwich for lunch and wouldn’t have gotten that if I hadn’t gone begging to Delly’s … got you another bag of them 2-liters by the way. She said she would have cooked me something but I told her thanks but there wasn’t time. She was in a damn good mood, seems there’s been some kind of mistake with the original blood work – they mixed hers up with someone else’s – and between that and some kind of sono something or other she just had they say the baby is looking ok. A little big but Burt Jr. was a ten-pound bowling ball when he was born. They just got her on this low sugar diet just to be on the safe side.”
Happy for Delly and happy to hear some good news for a change I said, “That’s wonderful!”
“Yeah it is and she also said to thank you for mentioning something to Uncle Derwint but I didn’t catch what she was talking about ‘cause I had to run.”
“Oh. Well. Um …” So I explained and he smiled.
“Good catch. I don’t listen to Burt half the time when he really gets steamed up. All you gotta do is nod and let him think you’re agreeing with every word he says even if you ain’t got a clue what he is talking about. I had to tune him out when he started talking about how Mason is getting along … like I wanna know. The less I hear about that peckerwood the better.”
Seeing that he was getting wound up I turned the subject and said, “Thank you for helping. I just … Sawyer I … I don’t know if this keeps up how long I can …”
“Then tell Aunt Pearl that. Or better yet, tell Aunt Suzanne. She got all over me the other day about some shoe or other that I needed to figure out a way to design for you and it had something to do with her sister … now there’s a scary woman right there. Mrs. Pettigrew is built like a pole bean but man can she swing a fly swatter.”
“Sawyer!”
“Well, it’s true. You’ve only seen her on Sunday when she is working on her ticket to Heaven. Just you wait for some other time and some kid steps out of line. You can’t tell by looking at her but her arms must be nothing but pure muscle.”
“Uh huh. And what did you do to deserve some poor woman having to take after you with only a fly swatter?”
“Well … as to that … I’m taking the Fifth seeing as how I do not have to incriminate myself or give my wife ideas.”
It wasn’t that funny but it was funny enough that just talking to Sawyer made me feel better. But he didn’t let me off with a joke and instead had the whole platform shoe idea out of me.
“You know, that really is a good idea. You already use that block when you have to stand for a long time at the kitchen sink. You think if I carved you a platform that could be glued to a pair of clogs or flip flops or something like that you’d give it a try?”
“It would have to be something that would work with my brace Sawyer and that’s just a lot of work you don’t need.”
“It ain’t that much work. I bet I can come up with something. Let me think on it.”
“Fine, play hero … but not tonight OK? We’re both tired.”
He looked at and asked, “Uh … too tired?”
I was but I didn’t let him know that and afterwards I’m glad I hadn’t said anything. We both went to sleep with a smile on our face.
[1] Burdock Recipe - Burdock Root Pickles
[2] http://calmmindpainfreebody.com/wildthings/mountainashjelly/mtnashjelly.html
Part Fifty-Four
Every day for the next week and a half Sawyer brought home a load of tomatoes. It was getting so that I was sick of seeing them – and hating the color red too – but I knew I couldn’t let it show. Sawyer was so proud of having picked them himself even after having worked a full day.
One afternoon Linda and Jeannie stopped by and asked me to come to town with them and help them to pick up a few things. Sawyer had finally gotten me the promised cell phone and had already texted me that they were on their way and not to fuss but if I could also pick him up some more razors it would be grand because the beard he was trying to grow just wasn’t working for him.
“Y’all mind dropping me off at the library while you go pick up that stuff at the fabric store?”
“Sure but I thought you said something about needing some matching thread.”
“It’ll have to wait,” I told Linda. “I don’t have the time to sew right now and … and … and anyway I’ve got other stuff I need to get.”
Jeannie and Linda looked at each other and I whispered, “Please don’t say anything to anyone. Sawyer and I are doing the best we can.”
Carefully Jeannie asked, “Is that money that you inherited gone?”
“Not all of it. It’s just … earmarked … for other stuff like gas for the truck and diesel for the tractor and for just in case. And every time I turn around I’m having to buy more of something so I can preserve all the fruits and vegetables coming in and … and …”
Linda got concerned and asked, “Kay-Lee, you need to sit down? You look funny.”
“Linda … my leg … no matter what I do or try every day it feels like … feels like … and I can’t say nothing because if Sawyer thinks that … and I can’t let the aunts know ‘cause … and then the other wives are …” I was ashamed that I had to look out the window so they wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes.
“Oh Kay-Lee. Does Sawyer know?”
Quietly I admitted. “Some. We just don’t talk about it outright. He has to help with the tomatoes at night. And … and I can’t go up and down the basement steps with anything in my hands anymore because it takes both hands on the rail to keep me from tripping. He never says anything about having to help, he just does it, but I feel so stupid and …”
Jeannie pulled into the library but stopped me when I tried to get out. “You sure you aren’t hiding it from Sawyer?”
“I couldn’t hide it if I wanted to.” I didn’t tell them that I was also almost out of naproxen and didn’t know what I would do when it ran out.
“You want us to say something to the aunts?”
“God no! Please. I’ll figure out something. It’s just … it’s just a tough day.”
Linda reached into her purse and handed me a bottle of Midol. Completely embarrassed I said, “Linda!”
“You telling me it isn’t that kind of rough day?”
“I guess it is. Maybe that is what’s wrong.”
Jeannie relaxed. “Good, ‘Cause you were starting to make me wonder if … you know …”
“What?”
Linda rolled her eyes. “She means she was wondering if you’d gotten knocked up. You are acting not like yourself at all, kinda emotional.”
I wiped my eyes and said, “I guess I am. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry Kay-Lee. We’re friends.”
Jeannie shook her head and said, “Sisters. We’re sisters.”
Linda smiled real big and said, “You betcha.” To me she said, “Go do your library thing. We’re going to be a little bit at the fabric store. That manager lady always makes us wait, even on the big orders. She acts like we smell or something. Snooty old thing. After we pick you up we’ll get the other running around done and then let’s go get slushies.”
“Linda …”
“Gramps gave us a little extra to get drinks with; he said that pretty ladies running errands should get a treat,” Linda told me with a grin. “Sodas make me belch so let’s get slushies instead. It is so dang hot that sounds better anyway.”
Jeannie was all for that and I didn’t want to spoil their fun. After agreeing I got out of the car and hobbled into the library using my cane which has become a daily fashion accessory again whether I want it to or not. As I went inside I saw them pull out and head to the fabric store down the street.
I didn’t like this branch of the library near as well as the other two in town, but it was closest to the rest of the errands we had to do so I decided to stop complaining and make the best of it. I turned in the books and movies we had borrowed but only got a couple of new ones … or at least they were new to us. It turns out Sawyer likes documentaries and history shows as much as I do and we’ve watched an entire miniseries on World War 2 while we worked on the tomatoes at night.
And thinking of tomatoes that was kinda what I needed to come to the library for. I was running out of ideas to use the tomatoes in. A bushel of tomatoes is 53 pounds, or so says Sawyer. Well it takes about 23 pounds of tomatoes to make juice for a canner load of 7 quarts. I can get 14 quarts of juice per bushel with some left over. We already have over 70 quarts of juice and Sawyer is still bringing home tomatoes by the bushel basket. I know I need tomato sauce and tomato paste but the aunts are also talking about tomato catsup and something called tomato preserves. For one thing I didn’t know you could make tomato preserves and for another, I didn’t have any directions for it.
I headed to the recipe book section and was getting kind of anxious and frustrated when I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to find this little old lady looking at me and then she asked, “Can’t find what you’re looking for Sugar?”
“No ma’am,” I whispered, trying not to draw the attention of the librarian who I’d run afoul of before. I’d almost tripped and had slammed into a shelf and made a bunch of noise. It was awful embarrassing.
“Well let’s see if I can help. You tell me and we’ll both flip through the books.”
“Oh you don’t have to.”
“Honey, it’s my job. And don’t worry about Berniece if that’s why you keep eyeing the front desk. She’s in her element over there planning some presentation at the retirement home. Now what are you looking for?”
“Well, I’m looking for tomato recipes. I’ve juiced and canned so many that … Anyway, I’m just looking for some recipes I can can.”
She was surprised for about two seconds and then smiled real big. “Honey, you come with me. You want recipes I know just where you can get more than you’ll know what to do with.”
I followed her over and instead of another aisle of books she towed me towards a glass windowed room that you could reserve for clubs and stuff. Inside there were these older ladies sitting around a table having a gabfest of a good time. The one that had had me follow her over looked around and said, “Girls, this young woman is looking for canning recipes and I told her I knew where she could get some.”
I was a good hour sitting in there and soaking up what those ladies had to offer and Jeannie and Linda had to come looking for me when I wasn’t standing outside waiting for them. We spent almost another hour beyond that before all of us had to get up and go our way so the next group that had booked the room could use it. When the lady had said I’d probably wind up with more than I’d know what to do with she wasn’t kidding. I now have recipes for tomato conserve, tomato marmalade, tomato butter, tomato juice cocktail which is different from plain tomato juice or sauce. I got over a dozen recipes alone for tomato soup and at least as many on ways to stuff tomatoes. Tomato dumplings, tomato soufflé, tomato fritters, tomato custard, tomato fondue, tomato cakes of several varieties, tomato torte, tomato pudding, tomato pie filling, and the list goes on and on. Then when Linda shows up she asks about green tomatoes. That discussion got recipes for tomato jam, dilled tomatoes, tomato pickles, green tomato chutney, green tomato mincemeat, gingered tomatoes, and a few other things that I’m not too sure they weren’t pulling my leg over. I mean who has ever heard of candied tomatoes?
And it wasn’t just tomatoes they gave me the recipes for either. They shared the kind of things they’d done in their girlhoods and what they’d heard from their mothers and grandmothers … like how to use honey and sorghum instead of white, store-bought sugar in cooking and canning recipes. How to make flour and cornmeal go further. Lots of recipes for things people now think of as “poor folks food” but that was just normal, make do food back when they were growing up. I got recipes for things like Bee Balm Jelly, homemade Cream Soda[1], Cucumber Lemon Jam[2], Pickled Ramps[3], and Apple Lilac Jelly[4]. They told how a good gravy could cover a multitude of sins and how a pot of greens would fill all the empty corners when you could only put a little meat on the table. I think I could have stayed and talked with them all day.
As we left the library Linda laughed and said, “You feel better now? You look better.”
I nodded. “Um, you think this was one of those providential things the preacher was talking about on Sunday?”
Jeannie looked at me out of the corner of her eye while she pulled into traffic. “You never really went to church before you married Sawyer did you?”
Worried I asked her, “Does it show?”
“Not particularly. Just sometimes at church you look like you are listening so hard it seems kinda …”
“Weird?”
“No. It makes me wonder what you’re hearing that I’m not. That’s not a bad thing. I guess I just grew up hearing all that stuff and it is kinda old hat. Watching you hear it for the first time sorta makes me feel like I’m hearing it for the first time too.”
I shook my head. “I’ve never heard a lot of the stuff the preacher talks about. Some of it seems hard to believe even though I know a lot of people do believe it. The preacher acts like the stuff in the Bible isn’t just stories but really happened.”
“It did.”
“For real?”
“Yeah.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“But I thought all of that stuff was just … you know … like … like moral stories … or those parable things … to make a point.”
“They are but that doesn’t mean they didn’t really happen.”
I let it go ‘cause honestly I’m still not sure what to make of it. I like going to church every Sunday we can and I didn’t really expect to. It’s not the music; I mean that’s ok but there’s a lady in the choir that seems to think every C note should be a high-C and sometimes when she does it my back teeth hurt. And it isn’t Sunday School ‘cause in general I feel kinda stupid because I don’t know the stories that everyone else seems to already know since they were little kids and it makes me feel stupid to ask questions where everyone can turn around and look at me. I just like the preaching. Brother Don always seems to say at least one thing every time like he is talking to me special. I know he isn’t but it feels like he is. Sometimes Sawyer and I talk about what the preacher says. That’s good too. But we weren’t in town to talk about church stuff, we were in town to get some errands run and that’s what I turned my attention to.
I apologized to Linda and Jeannie and told them, “I gotta pull out the cane again. If you don’t want …”
Linda snorted and said, “Shut up Kay-Lee and do it already. Faster you do, the faster we can get going. I hear a slushie calling my name.”
Jeannie said, “Honestly Kay-Lee, we gotta do something about that persecution complex you keep dragging around. Ain’t it getting heavy yet? C’mon. Before he left, Uncle Howard gave me a list of some other restaurant suppliers besides that Mexican place we went that sell to the public. They don’t advertise it but they’ll do it. I called this place this morning and they said to come on in, that they were having a sale on their big containers of seasonings and spices. I hope it is good as she made out on the phone because it looks like the Mennonite store is going to close once it gets rid of the inventory they have right now and they don’t have all that much left. Aunt Nel and Aunt Suzanne are over there now trying to get what’s left.”
“I bet Aunt Pearl isn’t happy about that place closing. I know it makes me sad,” I said.
“No but she and Gramps both said we should start expecting to see a lot of that sort of thing. Between regulations, taxes, hiking of the minimum wage again, and prices of other things a lot of places aren’t going to be able to stay in business. That’s what happened to my uncle and how he got in trouble with the IRS. They almost rescinded his passport but he got it cleared up in time to leave for Thailand free and clear. I heard from Benedict’s father that the Pizza Pub is going to close sometime this summer and that place has been around since my parents were dating.”
We pulled into the parking lot of a nondescript building. We weren’t the only car there but we were one of only a small handful. We walked in and walked out empty-handed in short order. All three of us were struggling to keep our mouths shut until we got in the car.
Jeannie said, “Oh my gosh. Seventy-five dollars for a case of #10 cans of cheap grape jelly. And eighty-nine bucks for a case of #10 cans of orange marmalade. Who shops that way?! Not even the Duggars could eat that much at a family reunion!”
Linda started laughing so hard that she had a stomach upset. “Geez Linda!” Jeannie said trying to control her own giggles.
I just shook my head and said, “I don’t even want to know what Aunt Pearl would have said had we come back with anything like that.”
That set Linda and Jeannie off again until Jeannie said, “OK, we gotta stop or I’m going to pee my pants. Junior is break dancing on my bladder. Geez. Definitely mark this place off the list unless I want to go into premature labor.”
It took two more misses before we finally found a place where we could get what we’d been sent to town to fetch.
[1] Cream Soda - Farm Bell Recipes
[2] Cucumber lemon jam - Farm Bell Recipes
[3] Pickled Ramps - Farm Bell Recipes
[4] Apple Lilac Jelly - Farm Bell Recipes
Every day for the next week and a half Sawyer brought home a load of tomatoes. It was getting so that I was sick of seeing them – and hating the color red too – but I knew I couldn’t let it show. Sawyer was so proud of having picked them himself even after having worked a full day.
One afternoon Linda and Jeannie stopped by and asked me to come to town with them and help them to pick up a few things. Sawyer had finally gotten me the promised cell phone and had already texted me that they were on their way and not to fuss but if I could also pick him up some more razors it would be grand because the beard he was trying to grow just wasn’t working for him.
“Y’all mind dropping me off at the library while you go pick up that stuff at the fabric store?”
“Sure but I thought you said something about needing some matching thread.”
“It’ll have to wait,” I told Linda. “I don’t have the time to sew right now and … and … and anyway I’ve got other stuff I need to get.”
Jeannie and Linda looked at each other and I whispered, “Please don’t say anything to anyone. Sawyer and I are doing the best we can.”
Carefully Jeannie asked, “Is that money that you inherited gone?”
“Not all of it. It’s just … earmarked … for other stuff like gas for the truck and diesel for the tractor and for just in case. And every time I turn around I’m having to buy more of something so I can preserve all the fruits and vegetables coming in and … and …”
Linda got concerned and asked, “Kay-Lee, you need to sit down? You look funny.”
“Linda … my leg … no matter what I do or try every day it feels like … feels like … and I can’t say nothing because if Sawyer thinks that … and I can’t let the aunts know ‘cause … and then the other wives are …” I was ashamed that I had to look out the window so they wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes.
“Oh Kay-Lee. Does Sawyer know?”
Quietly I admitted. “Some. We just don’t talk about it outright. He has to help with the tomatoes at night. And … and I can’t go up and down the basement steps with anything in my hands anymore because it takes both hands on the rail to keep me from tripping. He never says anything about having to help, he just does it, but I feel so stupid and …”
Jeannie pulled into the library but stopped me when I tried to get out. “You sure you aren’t hiding it from Sawyer?”
“I couldn’t hide it if I wanted to.” I didn’t tell them that I was also almost out of naproxen and didn’t know what I would do when it ran out.
“You want us to say something to the aunts?”
“God no! Please. I’ll figure out something. It’s just … it’s just a tough day.”
Linda reached into her purse and handed me a bottle of Midol. Completely embarrassed I said, “Linda!”
“You telling me it isn’t that kind of rough day?”
“I guess it is. Maybe that is what’s wrong.”
Jeannie relaxed. “Good, ‘Cause you were starting to make me wonder if … you know …”
“What?”
Linda rolled her eyes. “She means she was wondering if you’d gotten knocked up. You are acting not like yourself at all, kinda emotional.”
I wiped my eyes and said, “I guess I am. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry Kay-Lee. We’re friends.”
Jeannie shook her head and said, “Sisters. We’re sisters.”
Linda smiled real big and said, “You betcha.” To me she said, “Go do your library thing. We’re going to be a little bit at the fabric store. That manager lady always makes us wait, even on the big orders. She acts like we smell or something. Snooty old thing. After we pick you up we’ll get the other running around done and then let’s go get slushies.”
“Linda …”
“Gramps gave us a little extra to get drinks with; he said that pretty ladies running errands should get a treat,” Linda told me with a grin. “Sodas make me belch so let’s get slushies instead. It is so dang hot that sounds better anyway.”
Jeannie was all for that and I didn’t want to spoil their fun. After agreeing I got out of the car and hobbled into the library using my cane which has become a daily fashion accessory again whether I want it to or not. As I went inside I saw them pull out and head to the fabric store down the street.
I didn’t like this branch of the library near as well as the other two in town, but it was closest to the rest of the errands we had to do so I decided to stop complaining and make the best of it. I turned in the books and movies we had borrowed but only got a couple of new ones … or at least they were new to us. It turns out Sawyer likes documentaries and history shows as much as I do and we’ve watched an entire miniseries on World War 2 while we worked on the tomatoes at night.
And thinking of tomatoes that was kinda what I needed to come to the library for. I was running out of ideas to use the tomatoes in. A bushel of tomatoes is 53 pounds, or so says Sawyer. Well it takes about 23 pounds of tomatoes to make juice for a canner load of 7 quarts. I can get 14 quarts of juice per bushel with some left over. We already have over 70 quarts of juice and Sawyer is still bringing home tomatoes by the bushel basket. I know I need tomato sauce and tomato paste but the aunts are also talking about tomato catsup and something called tomato preserves. For one thing I didn’t know you could make tomato preserves and for another, I didn’t have any directions for it.
I headed to the recipe book section and was getting kind of anxious and frustrated when I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to find this little old lady looking at me and then she asked, “Can’t find what you’re looking for Sugar?”
“No ma’am,” I whispered, trying not to draw the attention of the librarian who I’d run afoul of before. I’d almost tripped and had slammed into a shelf and made a bunch of noise. It was awful embarrassing.
“Well let’s see if I can help. You tell me and we’ll both flip through the books.”
“Oh you don’t have to.”
“Honey, it’s my job. And don’t worry about Berniece if that’s why you keep eyeing the front desk. She’s in her element over there planning some presentation at the retirement home. Now what are you looking for?”
“Well, I’m looking for tomato recipes. I’ve juiced and canned so many that … Anyway, I’m just looking for some recipes I can can.”
She was surprised for about two seconds and then smiled real big. “Honey, you come with me. You want recipes I know just where you can get more than you’ll know what to do with.”
I followed her over and instead of another aisle of books she towed me towards a glass windowed room that you could reserve for clubs and stuff. Inside there were these older ladies sitting around a table having a gabfest of a good time. The one that had had me follow her over looked around and said, “Girls, this young woman is looking for canning recipes and I told her I knew where she could get some.”
I was a good hour sitting in there and soaking up what those ladies had to offer and Jeannie and Linda had to come looking for me when I wasn’t standing outside waiting for them. We spent almost another hour beyond that before all of us had to get up and go our way so the next group that had booked the room could use it. When the lady had said I’d probably wind up with more than I’d know what to do with she wasn’t kidding. I now have recipes for tomato conserve, tomato marmalade, tomato butter, tomato juice cocktail which is different from plain tomato juice or sauce. I got over a dozen recipes alone for tomato soup and at least as many on ways to stuff tomatoes. Tomato dumplings, tomato soufflé, tomato fritters, tomato custard, tomato fondue, tomato cakes of several varieties, tomato torte, tomato pudding, tomato pie filling, and the list goes on and on. Then when Linda shows up she asks about green tomatoes. That discussion got recipes for tomato jam, dilled tomatoes, tomato pickles, green tomato chutney, green tomato mincemeat, gingered tomatoes, and a few other things that I’m not too sure they weren’t pulling my leg over. I mean who has ever heard of candied tomatoes?
And it wasn’t just tomatoes they gave me the recipes for either. They shared the kind of things they’d done in their girlhoods and what they’d heard from their mothers and grandmothers … like how to use honey and sorghum instead of white, store-bought sugar in cooking and canning recipes. How to make flour and cornmeal go further. Lots of recipes for things people now think of as “poor folks food” but that was just normal, make do food back when they were growing up. I got recipes for things like Bee Balm Jelly, homemade Cream Soda[1], Cucumber Lemon Jam[2], Pickled Ramps[3], and Apple Lilac Jelly[4]. They told how a good gravy could cover a multitude of sins and how a pot of greens would fill all the empty corners when you could only put a little meat on the table. I think I could have stayed and talked with them all day.
As we left the library Linda laughed and said, “You feel better now? You look better.”
I nodded. “Um, you think this was one of those providential things the preacher was talking about on Sunday?”
Jeannie looked at me out of the corner of her eye while she pulled into traffic. “You never really went to church before you married Sawyer did you?”
Worried I asked her, “Does it show?”
“Not particularly. Just sometimes at church you look like you are listening so hard it seems kinda …”
“Weird?”
“No. It makes me wonder what you’re hearing that I’m not. That’s not a bad thing. I guess I just grew up hearing all that stuff and it is kinda old hat. Watching you hear it for the first time sorta makes me feel like I’m hearing it for the first time too.”
I shook my head. “I’ve never heard a lot of the stuff the preacher talks about. Some of it seems hard to believe even though I know a lot of people do believe it. The preacher acts like the stuff in the Bible isn’t just stories but really happened.”
“It did.”
“For real?”
“Yeah.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“But I thought all of that stuff was just … you know … like … like moral stories … or those parable things … to make a point.”
“They are but that doesn’t mean they didn’t really happen.”
I let it go ‘cause honestly I’m still not sure what to make of it. I like going to church every Sunday we can and I didn’t really expect to. It’s not the music; I mean that’s ok but there’s a lady in the choir that seems to think every C note should be a high-C and sometimes when she does it my back teeth hurt. And it isn’t Sunday School ‘cause in general I feel kinda stupid because I don’t know the stories that everyone else seems to already know since they were little kids and it makes me feel stupid to ask questions where everyone can turn around and look at me. I just like the preaching. Brother Don always seems to say at least one thing every time like he is talking to me special. I know he isn’t but it feels like he is. Sometimes Sawyer and I talk about what the preacher says. That’s good too. But we weren’t in town to talk about church stuff, we were in town to get some errands run and that’s what I turned my attention to.
I apologized to Linda and Jeannie and told them, “I gotta pull out the cane again. If you don’t want …”
Linda snorted and said, “Shut up Kay-Lee and do it already. Faster you do, the faster we can get going. I hear a slushie calling my name.”
Jeannie said, “Honestly Kay-Lee, we gotta do something about that persecution complex you keep dragging around. Ain’t it getting heavy yet? C’mon. Before he left, Uncle Howard gave me a list of some other restaurant suppliers besides that Mexican place we went that sell to the public. They don’t advertise it but they’ll do it. I called this place this morning and they said to come on in, that they were having a sale on their big containers of seasonings and spices. I hope it is good as she made out on the phone because it looks like the Mennonite store is going to close once it gets rid of the inventory they have right now and they don’t have all that much left. Aunt Nel and Aunt Suzanne are over there now trying to get what’s left.”
“I bet Aunt Pearl isn’t happy about that place closing. I know it makes me sad,” I said.
“No but she and Gramps both said we should start expecting to see a lot of that sort of thing. Between regulations, taxes, hiking of the minimum wage again, and prices of other things a lot of places aren’t going to be able to stay in business. That’s what happened to my uncle and how he got in trouble with the IRS. They almost rescinded his passport but he got it cleared up in time to leave for Thailand free and clear. I heard from Benedict’s father that the Pizza Pub is going to close sometime this summer and that place has been around since my parents were dating.”
We pulled into the parking lot of a nondescript building. We weren’t the only car there but we were one of only a small handful. We walked in and walked out empty-handed in short order. All three of us were struggling to keep our mouths shut until we got in the car.
Jeannie said, “Oh my gosh. Seventy-five dollars for a case of #10 cans of cheap grape jelly. And eighty-nine bucks for a case of #10 cans of orange marmalade. Who shops that way?! Not even the Duggars could eat that much at a family reunion!”
Linda started laughing so hard that she had a stomach upset. “Geez Linda!” Jeannie said trying to control her own giggles.
I just shook my head and said, “I don’t even want to know what Aunt Pearl would have said had we come back with anything like that.”
That set Linda and Jeannie off again until Jeannie said, “OK, we gotta stop or I’m going to pee my pants. Junior is break dancing on my bladder. Geez. Definitely mark this place off the list unless I want to go into premature labor.”
It took two more misses before we finally found a place where we could get what we’d been sent to town to fetch.
[1] Cream Soda - Farm Bell Recipes
[2] Cucumber lemon jam - Farm Bell Recipes
[3] Pickled Ramps - Farm Bell Recipes
[4] Apple Lilac Jelly - Farm Bell Recipes
Part Fifty-Five
Jeannie grinned and whispered, “Jackpot.”
The “store” was actually a barebones warehouse that was divided up into three sections. There was an area of large-sized products like you would have for a restaurant or cafeteria; that section was broken down into canned products, soft-sided products, and a freezer area. On the other side of the warehouse was a bulk food section set up with barrels of items that you scooped into bags which you then took to be weighed and tagged before heading to a cashier line. In that area was also a fancy meat and cheese set up like you might find in some specialty sandwich café or like some personal chef or caterer would order from. The last section was the smallest and it was basically clearance items and scratch-n-dent cans or boxes that had been taped up.
I tried to head for the clearance section first but Jeannie stopped me. “We’ll go there but let’s look like we are serious shoppers first and not just scavengers looking for a deal.”
I tried to not take offense at what Jeannie said because I don’t think she really meant anything bad by it; but, when Linda squeezed my hand and rolled her eyes with a grin I knew she’d caught it too but was letting it slide. Jeannie has developed an earthy streak and the more pregnant she gets the more her mouth sometimes gets away from her. Linda and I had noticed it before and figures it is at least a little in reaction to her family still not talking to her. If her family is going to be snobby and snooty then Jeannie seems to have decided to go in the other direction and get … well like I said, earthy.
First Jeannie walked up and down the aisles of the first section and then she went over to the bulk food area and was jotting down prices and stuff on her list. Then and only then did they let me give a quick look over in the clearance area but then hauled me back with them to the other two sections.
We were doing fine pulling things out here and there until the store manage comes over and tries to act like he is making nice but we could tell he was actually feeling us out to see if we were just fooling around or not. I hadn’t come prepared for that kind of scrutiny but apparently Jeannie had.
“Hello, is there something I could help you … uh … ladies out with?”
Jeannie nodded briskly and professionally like she dealt with this kind of thing every day. “As you can see we will be filling more than one flatbed. Is there some place we can place them as we fill them up? And will it be possible to have someone help us load it in the delivery truck?”
“Oh … uh … you plan on a large purchase?”
“Yes, and we are in a hurry as we need to get around to pick up some of the other donations for the food pantry. Since we don’t have an account our organization agreed to pay the bill in cash rather than use a purchase order but we’ll need a detailed receipt for accounting. I assume there’s no problem with that?”
“Oh … no. But if you have a …”
Jeannie interrupted him. “We aren’t using our tax ID for this purchase as we are in the middle of a shuffle in the board and don’t know how it will affect our charter. It’s not worth any tax implications at the end of the year to risk a snafu.”
“Then everything should be fine,” the manager said with a relieved smile. It was obvious he wanted to make the sale and didn’t want to lose it over some paperwork rules.
I quietly texted Sawyer and told him where we were at and that I’d seen some good deals and was wondering just how much I could spend since he’d been working the numbers.
“Spend the whole envelope if you need to,” he texted. “I got a couple of extra jobs lined up. Burt called me about an hour ago with his head on fire asking if I could do him a favor. He’d lined up some work for Mason with an important client of his and Mason got VOP’d this morning. Tell you the details when I get home but it’s going to be good pay. Don’t forget the razors. This dang beard is driving me crazy.”
Somewhat relieved I pulled out my scratch tablet and started adding numbers as I got my own flatbed and started putting things on it. First thing I did was grab three big packages of toilet paper. We use washable napkins at our meals and I found a ton of good quality handkerchiefs in the old clothes chests of stuff in the attic that we are slowly emptying so that sort of thing we didn’t need paper goods for. I have plenty of trash can liners and swabs and cotton balls left over from the medical supplies too. Feeling a little guilty I started to put named brand zip bags on my flatbed until Jeannie looked at me and shook her head. I didn’t know what that meant but I put them back and then tried to keep up.
Linda and Jeannie were looking over the fresh cheeses – something Sawyer and I didn’t really need as we were still working on the giant bag of grated cheese from the Mennonite order that we kept in the chest freezer – so I just sort of hung out since I didn’t have room in the frig or freezer for anything new.
Jeannie keep glancing my way and then sent Linda over to ask me what the sitch was. “It’s all right,” I told her quietly. “I just don’t need any of this stuff, and even if I did we don’t have the room for it.”
“You sure that’s all it is? Gramps will want to know if … you know …”
“I told you that Sawyer and I are doing ok. Don’t say anything to Gramps … or to anyone else. If someone says anything about anything it’s Sawyer’s place to do it but he’s already got it covered. I just txt’d him and he said he’d picked up a couple of jobs. Something about Mason getting VOP’d and Burt asking if he’d take some jobs Mason was supposed to do. Please don’t get me in hot water for telling Sawyer’s business.”
“You swear Sawyer said he got a job?”
I showed her the texts even though I thought she should have taken my word for it and she seemed relieved. It made me feel funny when it shouldn’t have. I know Linda doesn’t mean anything bad and is just concerned for me as a friend, but she and Jeannie don’t have much tact sometimes and I didn’t want to upset Sawyer who I learned could be touchy about things like money.
Linda practically skipped back over to Jeannie and I saw them put their heads together. I don’t know what’s up, but I know something is. Warning Sawyer is not going to be fun. To get my mind off Linda and Jeannie and the high prices of the stuff in the freezer cases I pushed the flatbed down the aisle and over to the non-refrigerated area. I needed more sugar, flour, oatmeal, rice, and cornmeal and was able to get fifty pounds of each and twenty pound bags of grits and cream of wheat onto the flatbed before Linda came around the corner and had a fit.
“Kay-Lee! You shouldn’t lift that stuff!”
“Lift it here or the pantry, what’s the difference?”
Linda just rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t do it again. You want to make Jeannie heave? She swears she will if you don’t stop.”
“That’s blackmail.”
“So?”
Since those were the only big, heavy items that I intended to buy I gave in and stuck to smaller items. I picked up three containers of yeast and then put two of them back since I planned on making a sourdough starter like we had in culinary class. I’d already begun a batch of Amish Bread starter[1] anyway and had copied a freak ton of recipes from the internet that used that starter as the base. I also picked up commercial buckets of baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch, and a bunch of boxes of salt.
I turned the corner and hit the next aisle and that’s where I picked up some wet items. The acids came first; lemon juice, lime juice, cider vinegar, white vinegar, malt vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and then more powdered ascorbic acid all of which replaced what I’d been using way faster than I had ever dreamed possible. After that was the salty and sweets like soy sauce and grenadine and a few other wet ingredients. Next came some of the most important, the oils and shortening. Olive oil was my favorite but was the most expensive. Peanut oil was good too, but it didn’t seem to want to be much cheaper.
Linda tapped me and whispered, “Tommy said we’ll get some lard when it is butchering time.”
“That’s months off,” I whispered back. “Since I cook everything from scratch I can’t afford to run out now.”
She nodded thoughtfully then went off to whisper with Jeannie again making me really wonder what they were talking about.
To keep myself from asking I just kept plowing ahead and adding numbers. I put a flat of cans of both evaporated milk and condensed milk on the end of the flatbed and then grabbed a couple of packages of shelf-stable milk for if the power went out. That also made me think to grab a couple of large buckets of whole dried milk. I was getting close to the limit that I had set myself but couldn’t turn down large packages of bouillon; or some seasonings like meat tenderizer, poultry seasoning, dry mustard, powdered cocoa, pepper, and garlic. I also carefully stacked several boxes of salt where they wouldn’t fall off. There were a lot of things that wanted to climb onto the flatbed after that, but I was determined to show Sawyer I could be responsible with the money and stick with getting only what we absolutely needed.
I just closed my eyes in the bulk food section when Jeannie called me over … at least until Linda told me there were dates and flaked coconut. After getting some of those two items I resolutely refused to look at anything else in there and instead went over to the clearance section. Part of me wishes I hadn’t. I got a giant jar of parmesan cheese that was marked way down because it had aged and gotten a little darker than the other bottles on the shelf. There was a stray bottle of olives that still had a lot of shelf life left but was apparently the last of a brand that went on close out. There was a big … like 10-gallon big … container of Kool-Aid drink mix in a flavor I’d never seen before; green apple. A large container of reduced-sugar Tang whose label was a little sun bleached but that was all. Some dented cans of pie filling but I only got the ones I couldn’t make myself; pineapple pie filling, lemon pie filling, banana cream pie filling, and key lime pie filling. I got a commercial package of unflavored gelatin too because it had a huge dent collapse one end of the box. I finished off with some baker’s chocolate squares in a brand I’d never heard of, marshmallow and meringue powder in some bakery package with some of those disposable piping bags, malted milk powder that I couldn’t figure out why it was marked down except maybe it didn’t sell, and some off brand lemon powder. The very last thing I grabbed were some large containers of chopped candied fruit and citron like you use for fruit cake and some large tubs of the red and green candied cherries to go along with my out of season purchase.
I struggled to keep everything balanced while I navigated the flatbed to stand in line behind Linda and Jeannie and then wanted to stamp my foot in frustration. Linda must have felt my mood because she looked and asked, “Everything ok?”
“I forgot something.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about it. Going to have enough trouble …”
“What already,” she said giving me a look like I was being bad on purpose.
“Elbow macaroni and egg noodles.”
“Oh is that all. Jeannie didn’t like the prices of what they had in stock here. We’ll get it at the next stop.”
“But you have all that cold stuff.”
“And we’ve got all those coolers. Let’s just get out of here and get gone. I think Jeannie is getting tired.”
Jeannie wasn’t the only one getting tired. I missed having Sawyer to help move things into the back of the truck and if I thought that I had bought a bunch of stuff Linda and Jeannie bought enough to stock a decent sized restaurant for a couple of weeks. I don’t know where all the money is coming from and I wasn’t going to ask. It is enough for me to know that Sawyer and I don’t have it and have to find another way.
[1] Amish Friendship Bread Recipe Box
Jeannie grinned and whispered, “Jackpot.”
The “store” was actually a barebones warehouse that was divided up into three sections. There was an area of large-sized products like you would have for a restaurant or cafeteria; that section was broken down into canned products, soft-sided products, and a freezer area. On the other side of the warehouse was a bulk food section set up with barrels of items that you scooped into bags which you then took to be weighed and tagged before heading to a cashier line. In that area was also a fancy meat and cheese set up like you might find in some specialty sandwich café or like some personal chef or caterer would order from. The last section was the smallest and it was basically clearance items and scratch-n-dent cans or boxes that had been taped up.
I tried to head for the clearance section first but Jeannie stopped me. “We’ll go there but let’s look like we are serious shoppers first and not just scavengers looking for a deal.”
I tried to not take offense at what Jeannie said because I don’t think she really meant anything bad by it; but, when Linda squeezed my hand and rolled her eyes with a grin I knew she’d caught it too but was letting it slide. Jeannie has developed an earthy streak and the more pregnant she gets the more her mouth sometimes gets away from her. Linda and I had noticed it before and figures it is at least a little in reaction to her family still not talking to her. If her family is going to be snobby and snooty then Jeannie seems to have decided to go in the other direction and get … well like I said, earthy.
First Jeannie walked up and down the aisles of the first section and then she went over to the bulk food area and was jotting down prices and stuff on her list. Then and only then did they let me give a quick look over in the clearance area but then hauled me back with them to the other two sections.
We were doing fine pulling things out here and there until the store manage comes over and tries to act like he is making nice but we could tell he was actually feeling us out to see if we were just fooling around or not. I hadn’t come prepared for that kind of scrutiny but apparently Jeannie had.
“Hello, is there something I could help you … uh … ladies out with?”
Jeannie nodded briskly and professionally like she dealt with this kind of thing every day. “As you can see we will be filling more than one flatbed. Is there some place we can place them as we fill them up? And will it be possible to have someone help us load it in the delivery truck?”
“Oh … uh … you plan on a large purchase?”
“Yes, and we are in a hurry as we need to get around to pick up some of the other donations for the food pantry. Since we don’t have an account our organization agreed to pay the bill in cash rather than use a purchase order but we’ll need a detailed receipt for accounting. I assume there’s no problem with that?”
“Oh … no. But if you have a …”
Jeannie interrupted him. “We aren’t using our tax ID for this purchase as we are in the middle of a shuffle in the board and don’t know how it will affect our charter. It’s not worth any tax implications at the end of the year to risk a snafu.”
“Then everything should be fine,” the manager said with a relieved smile. It was obvious he wanted to make the sale and didn’t want to lose it over some paperwork rules.
I quietly texted Sawyer and told him where we were at and that I’d seen some good deals and was wondering just how much I could spend since he’d been working the numbers.
“Spend the whole envelope if you need to,” he texted. “I got a couple of extra jobs lined up. Burt called me about an hour ago with his head on fire asking if I could do him a favor. He’d lined up some work for Mason with an important client of his and Mason got VOP’d this morning. Tell you the details when I get home but it’s going to be good pay. Don’t forget the razors. This dang beard is driving me crazy.”
Somewhat relieved I pulled out my scratch tablet and started adding numbers as I got my own flatbed and started putting things on it. First thing I did was grab three big packages of toilet paper. We use washable napkins at our meals and I found a ton of good quality handkerchiefs in the old clothes chests of stuff in the attic that we are slowly emptying so that sort of thing we didn’t need paper goods for. I have plenty of trash can liners and swabs and cotton balls left over from the medical supplies too. Feeling a little guilty I started to put named brand zip bags on my flatbed until Jeannie looked at me and shook her head. I didn’t know what that meant but I put them back and then tried to keep up.
Linda and Jeannie were looking over the fresh cheeses – something Sawyer and I didn’t really need as we were still working on the giant bag of grated cheese from the Mennonite order that we kept in the chest freezer – so I just sort of hung out since I didn’t have room in the frig or freezer for anything new.
Jeannie keep glancing my way and then sent Linda over to ask me what the sitch was. “It’s all right,” I told her quietly. “I just don’t need any of this stuff, and even if I did we don’t have the room for it.”
“You sure that’s all it is? Gramps will want to know if … you know …”
“I told you that Sawyer and I are doing ok. Don’t say anything to Gramps … or to anyone else. If someone says anything about anything it’s Sawyer’s place to do it but he’s already got it covered. I just txt’d him and he said he’d picked up a couple of jobs. Something about Mason getting VOP’d and Burt asking if he’d take some jobs Mason was supposed to do. Please don’t get me in hot water for telling Sawyer’s business.”
“You swear Sawyer said he got a job?”
I showed her the texts even though I thought she should have taken my word for it and she seemed relieved. It made me feel funny when it shouldn’t have. I know Linda doesn’t mean anything bad and is just concerned for me as a friend, but she and Jeannie don’t have much tact sometimes and I didn’t want to upset Sawyer who I learned could be touchy about things like money.
Linda practically skipped back over to Jeannie and I saw them put their heads together. I don’t know what’s up, but I know something is. Warning Sawyer is not going to be fun. To get my mind off Linda and Jeannie and the high prices of the stuff in the freezer cases I pushed the flatbed down the aisle and over to the non-refrigerated area. I needed more sugar, flour, oatmeal, rice, and cornmeal and was able to get fifty pounds of each and twenty pound bags of grits and cream of wheat onto the flatbed before Linda came around the corner and had a fit.
“Kay-Lee! You shouldn’t lift that stuff!”
“Lift it here or the pantry, what’s the difference?”
Linda just rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t do it again. You want to make Jeannie heave? She swears she will if you don’t stop.”
“That’s blackmail.”
“So?”
Since those were the only big, heavy items that I intended to buy I gave in and stuck to smaller items. I picked up three containers of yeast and then put two of them back since I planned on making a sourdough starter like we had in culinary class. I’d already begun a batch of Amish Bread starter[1] anyway and had copied a freak ton of recipes from the internet that used that starter as the base. I also picked up commercial buckets of baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch, and a bunch of boxes of salt.
I turned the corner and hit the next aisle and that’s where I picked up some wet items. The acids came first; lemon juice, lime juice, cider vinegar, white vinegar, malt vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and then more powdered ascorbic acid all of which replaced what I’d been using way faster than I had ever dreamed possible. After that was the salty and sweets like soy sauce and grenadine and a few other wet ingredients. Next came some of the most important, the oils and shortening. Olive oil was my favorite but was the most expensive. Peanut oil was good too, but it didn’t seem to want to be much cheaper.
Linda tapped me and whispered, “Tommy said we’ll get some lard when it is butchering time.”
“That’s months off,” I whispered back. “Since I cook everything from scratch I can’t afford to run out now.”
She nodded thoughtfully then went off to whisper with Jeannie again making me really wonder what they were talking about.
To keep myself from asking I just kept plowing ahead and adding numbers. I put a flat of cans of both evaporated milk and condensed milk on the end of the flatbed and then grabbed a couple of packages of shelf-stable milk for if the power went out. That also made me think to grab a couple of large buckets of whole dried milk. I was getting close to the limit that I had set myself but couldn’t turn down large packages of bouillon; or some seasonings like meat tenderizer, poultry seasoning, dry mustard, powdered cocoa, pepper, and garlic. I also carefully stacked several boxes of salt where they wouldn’t fall off. There were a lot of things that wanted to climb onto the flatbed after that, but I was determined to show Sawyer I could be responsible with the money and stick with getting only what we absolutely needed.
I just closed my eyes in the bulk food section when Jeannie called me over … at least until Linda told me there were dates and flaked coconut. After getting some of those two items I resolutely refused to look at anything else in there and instead went over to the clearance section. Part of me wishes I hadn’t. I got a giant jar of parmesan cheese that was marked way down because it had aged and gotten a little darker than the other bottles on the shelf. There was a stray bottle of olives that still had a lot of shelf life left but was apparently the last of a brand that went on close out. There was a big … like 10-gallon big … container of Kool-Aid drink mix in a flavor I’d never seen before; green apple. A large container of reduced-sugar Tang whose label was a little sun bleached but that was all. Some dented cans of pie filling but I only got the ones I couldn’t make myself; pineapple pie filling, lemon pie filling, banana cream pie filling, and key lime pie filling. I got a commercial package of unflavored gelatin too because it had a huge dent collapse one end of the box. I finished off with some baker’s chocolate squares in a brand I’d never heard of, marshmallow and meringue powder in some bakery package with some of those disposable piping bags, malted milk powder that I couldn’t figure out why it was marked down except maybe it didn’t sell, and some off brand lemon powder. The very last thing I grabbed were some large containers of chopped candied fruit and citron like you use for fruit cake and some large tubs of the red and green candied cherries to go along with my out of season purchase.
I struggled to keep everything balanced while I navigated the flatbed to stand in line behind Linda and Jeannie and then wanted to stamp my foot in frustration. Linda must have felt my mood because she looked and asked, “Everything ok?”
“I forgot something.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about it. Going to have enough trouble …”
“What already,” she said giving me a look like I was being bad on purpose.
“Elbow macaroni and egg noodles.”
“Oh is that all. Jeannie didn’t like the prices of what they had in stock here. We’ll get it at the next stop.”
“But you have all that cold stuff.”
“And we’ve got all those coolers. Let’s just get out of here and get gone. I think Jeannie is getting tired.”
Jeannie wasn’t the only one getting tired. I missed having Sawyer to help move things into the back of the truck and if I thought that I had bought a bunch of stuff Linda and Jeannie bought enough to stock a decent sized restaurant for a couple of weeks. I don’t know where all the money is coming from and I wasn’t going to ask. It is enough for me to know that Sawyer and I don’t have it and have to find another way.
[1] Amish Friendship Bread Recipe Box
Sammy55
Veteran Member
Fascinating! I love reading about all of the recipes! There are a bunch I'd never try, but also a bunch I'd really like to try, especially the ones using flower petals.
Kathy, do you make and can a bunch of these recipes that you write about, or do you just have them in your stories because you've read about them and would like to try some of them, too? Just wondering. You always have so many recipes for canned items in your stories, so I was just kind of wondering if you can a lot and have personal experience with a lot of the recipes you write about.
Like that story (don't remember the name) about the gal whose husband was a loser (cheated on her and treated her like crap), and she got the job on that big estate in Georgia (I believe). She "disappears" from her life (her parents and brother had died), and does a LOT of canning and dehydrating, etc. She gets along with all of the estate owner's aunts, works well with his niece, and eventually marries him. That story has LOTS of recipes and information. I LOVE that story! (I'm going to have to go and find that story and give it another read...for the 5th or 6th time! LOL!)
Kathy, do you make and can a bunch of these recipes that you write about, or do you just have them in your stories because you've read about them and would like to try some of them, too? Just wondering. You always have so many recipes for canned items in your stories, so I was just kind of wondering if you can a lot and have personal experience with a lot of the recipes you write about.
Like that story (don't remember the name) about the gal whose husband was a loser (cheated on her and treated her like crap), and she got the job on that big estate in Georgia (I believe). She "disappears" from her life (her parents and brother had died), and does a LOT of canning and dehydrating, etc. She gets along with all of the estate owner's aunts, works well with his niece, and eventually marries him. That story has LOTS of recipes and information. I LOVE that story! (I'm going to have to go and find that story and give it another read...for the 5th or 6th time! LOL!)
I have done most of what I write about at least once. I haven't had time to do any canning the last two years except for a very few convenience foods. My mother and I plan an all out assault this year. LOL. Hopefully starting with strawberry upick time which is either the end of this month or the beginning of next.
The name of the story is "Starting Over and Over and Over". Glad you like it. Not everyone cares for the male protagonist. He's not bad, just a little rode hard and hung up wet in his own way. LOL
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Texican
Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
“Fine, play hero … but not tonight OK? We’re both tired.”
He looked at and asked, “Uh … too tired?”
I was but I didn’t let him know that and afterwards I’m glad I hadn’t said anything. We both went to sleep with a smile on our face.
Guys will be guys.
It is surprising how much work there is when providing a lot of our own food.
Thanks Kathy for the chapters.
Texican....
He looked at and asked, “Uh … too tired?”
I was but I didn’t let him know that and afterwards I’m glad I hadn’t said anything. We both went to sleep with a smile on our face.
Guys will be guys.
It is surprising how much work there is when providing a lot of our own food.
Thanks Kathy for the chapters.
Texican....
Part Fifty-Six
That night Sawyer and I sat at the table while we went over the receipts. I felt all pulled in different directions. I was really proud of myself for not spending all the money from the extry envelope but I was upset at how much I did spend. I knew we’d use the stuff I did get and what I’d gotten had been a good price … or at least a good price compared to other places … but I kept thinking that there should have been some way for me to save even more.
I muttered angrily at myself, “I shouldn’t have bought those extra bottles of shampoo and tubes of toothpaste at the last stop. It could have waited. I shouldn’t have gotten that stuff from the clearance bin. Next time I’ll just …”
Sawyer interrupted my thoughts by saying, “Kay-Lee, don’t do that.”
“Huh? Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb your counting. I’ll go check …”
“Kay-Lee, I meant don’t act like I’m going to holler at you because you had to use the money for groceries.”
I shook my head. “Sawyer …”
“Don’t tell me that’s not what you’re doing. And it makes me feel bad. Especially when I expected you to spend all of it and you didn’t.”
In disgust I said, “I spent enough of it. I shouldn’t have gone with them. I don’t know why I did. I’ve got so much to do around here. Went out and played while you were working and now I’m even more behind. And I spent too much.”
“You weren’t playing according to Jeannie. She said you hardly smiled at all. As for how much you spent … well that’s the thing, I’m wondering if you did spend enough.”
“Wait … what?”
“I saw that load that Linda and Jeannie came back with. I honestly came home expecting to see more and … well …”
“They’re shopping for a lot more people. I’m shopping for just the two of us. I still can’t believe … Sawyer I’m not being nosey, honest. I know it’s none of my business. But where does all that money come from that Jeannie and Linda spend? Is Gramps rich or something like that?”
Sawyer started with a small grin and then it grew until he was laughing and laying his head on the table. I didn’t think it was that funny and let it show on my face.
“Aw Kay-Lee, I’m not laughing at you, just the idea of anyone … not just you … but anyone saying the Hartfords are rich. Most folks think we aren’t anything but a bunch of backwoods white trash. You see how people look at Gramps. I don’t think he has worn anything but bib overalls since he was a boy. The only thing different is depending on where he’s going is what kind of shirt he wears … dress shirt and blazer for church, chambray shirt for field work, and t-shirt for just about everything else. Some of the other uncles are nearly like him except they might give up the overalls for church, weddings, and funerals. You’ve seen it.”
I shook my head. “That won’t wash. The last thing your family is is white trash. I should know, you meet enough of it in foster care. Sure they might dress kind of … er … casual but that’s nothing. Before you married me all I had to wear were pieces that doubled as my school uniform. There’s a lot of foster families that try and give you more than a roof over your head but there’s just as many that take what the government gives them for our upkeep and uses it to pay their personal bills and a roof is about all we have secure; and that’s temporary no matter what family you are with. I can’t see any of the Hartfords being like that - not even Uncle Mark who has a major attitude about the majority of the human race. Not a single one of you are trashy.”
Sawyer had stopped laughing and put a hand over one of mine. “I’m real sorry you had to live like that Kay-Lee. I guess it has made it hard for you to … to believe in things I guess. Like how you get sometimes after we snuggle, like you’re not sure exactly what to make of it or for how long it’s gonna last.”
I sighed. “All I asked about was the money Sawyer, if it’s none of my business just say so. We don’t need to go off down this road.”
“See? You’re afraid of even talking about it. But I’ll let it go this time ‘cause I don’t want you to think I’m hiding anything from you. The money is coming from a big tract of land that got taken away from us by imminent domain a couple of years ago. Do you remember … well you were kinda young so it might not have even registered so let me just explain it. Gramps’ dad had an older brother and that was a whole different branch of the Hartfords but they didn’t really have many kids and the ones they did have died young. Their land was near some quarry and mining land in the next county over. Gramps wound up inheriting it after the last of his brother’s grandkids died. Gramps made decent money on it – enough to pay the taxes and such and it was good hunting ground – renting it out to the mining company and then the quarry that took over after that. Then both companies went bust and the state came in and took the property by imminent domain to protect some stupid blind fish that had been discovered down in one of the mines that had filled with water. There was something about a highway going through it too but that never happened. So Gramps took that money – and he only got pennies on the dollar for what the land was potentially worth – and socked it away for a rainy day. Well Gramps is expecting a gully washer and is trying to get ahead of it; like Noah before the Flood. He’s taken care of us with some of the large group buys but some of the other cousins seem to need more taking care of than others.”
“So we really are better off than some of the others?”
“Yeah, we are but the way you say it you didn’t think so.”
“No, it’s not that, like I’ve tried to explain to Linda I’m not measuring us against anyone else, only against the plans we’ve made and what we’ve determined that we need.”
“Why would Linda think we’re … uh …”
He acted like he was trying not to be angry and I worried that explaining was going to tip the scale so I did it carefully. He surprised me though and actually relaxed. “I bet Gramps set this up. He’s been after me to tell him what we need and I keep telling him I’ll let him know if we can’t handle things. Well we haven’t needed any help after that first little bit where he filled the propane up and the uncles came out and helped fix some stuff around here so there hasn’t been anything to tell him. I guess he is kinda getting itchy about it and decided to check up and make sure I’m not being too prideful.”
“Well, Linda did say that Gramps had given them money to get drinks while we were out as a treat for running the errands for him and everyone else.”
Sawyer grinned and said, “Yep, that sounds like something Gramps would do. He’s worried about us you know. I mean he’s worried about all of us but you and me in particular I guess. He’s got Tommy and Linda pretty well tied up and taken care of. I figure one of these days Tommy will inherit his house so long as Tommy promises to take care of Aunt Pearl and the other aunts and uncles as everyone gets older. Someone in our family has always been the go to for that sort of thing … to organize work crews and stuff like that. It used to be my dad and Uncle James were in charge of it. After Dad died Uncle James still did it but it got kinda haphazard. I’m getting the feeling that he’s setting me and Tommy up to take Uncle James’ and his place when the time comes.”
“Are you ok with that?”
“Heck yeah. That’s not a problem now that I’ve got my head on straight.”
“OK, then why is he checking up on us? I was really worried about saying the wrong thing and telling your business. Linda and Jeannie can be … uh …”
“Yeah, lately their tongues have been hung in the middle and running at both ends carrying tales to keep Gramps and Aunt Pearl up on what’s going on at everyone’s place. That’s gonna bite ‘em in the ass though if they aren’t more careful. I tried to talk to Tommy about it but he thinks Linda can do no wrong and Gramps and his dad must walk on water. And Benedict thinks it’s just a phase or something for Jeannie and he thinks once the baby gets here she’ll snap right back to the way she was before. Well Delly was never the same so I’m pretty sure Benedict is smoking dope thinking Jeannie will.”
I wasn’t going to say anything about it one way or the other so let Sawyer keep his opinion. I’m learning fast that the only way I’m going to get along with the Hartford women – and men – is to keep my nose out of other people’s business and to keep my opinions to myself unless outright asked for them.
“So we aren’t in trouble or anything?”
“No, you can stop worrying about that if you were. I guess Gramps just expected us to need more help than we have.”
“Well the work crews are here just about every canning day. That’s help isn’t it?”
“Yeah it is but that help swings both ways. The more felled trees they take out the more wood there is to share around for everyone. And the trees aren’t just coming from our piece. Everyone has some downed trees that need cleaning up and cutting up for the winter to come; especially if Gramps is right about propane and electric being iffy. And Benedict and Uncle Ben converting over the tractor keeps the second log splitter going and it can do the bigger trees better and faster than Gramps’ old machine can. See? It’s a win-win for everyone. What I meant is I think he thought we’d need more help financially with food and clothes and just about everything else but I’ve yet to miss a meal unless it was my own fault, I’ve got more clothes than I know what to do with lately, and we haven’t even used a quarter of that tank of propane he bought for us because you women use the wood stove for the canning and after that is a mystery. Cutter keeps asking me how we can possibly still have almost a tank full and I can’t even tell him. Either the meter is busted or we’ve got propane fairies around here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be silly, we’re just careful. I don’t waste hot water. I wash the clothes in cold unless the whites are really disgusting, I wash the dishes by hand, and …”
“And since we shower together …” he said with a wicked grin.
Despite myself I had to smile and say, “You’re in a good mood.”
“Sure am. We’ll talk about the groceries later. I want you to give me a for real list of things you want, not just need but want. And before you get that line between your eyebrows you get when you are about to tune up and fuss I’m telling you I’m serious and it is for a serious reason. But right now I want to tell you about the lucky break I caught and how it is all due to Buttface … er … Burt.”
Shaking my head I told him, “You know one of these days you are going to accidentally call him that to his face.”
“If I call it to his face it won’t be no accident. He still ain’t my most favorite person on the planet but … I suppose he ain’t my least favorite either. Especially not after today.”
That night Sawyer and I sat at the table while we went over the receipts. I felt all pulled in different directions. I was really proud of myself for not spending all the money from the extry envelope but I was upset at how much I did spend. I knew we’d use the stuff I did get and what I’d gotten had been a good price … or at least a good price compared to other places … but I kept thinking that there should have been some way for me to save even more.
I muttered angrily at myself, “I shouldn’t have bought those extra bottles of shampoo and tubes of toothpaste at the last stop. It could have waited. I shouldn’t have gotten that stuff from the clearance bin. Next time I’ll just …”
Sawyer interrupted my thoughts by saying, “Kay-Lee, don’t do that.”
“Huh? Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb your counting. I’ll go check …”
“Kay-Lee, I meant don’t act like I’m going to holler at you because you had to use the money for groceries.”
I shook my head. “Sawyer …”
“Don’t tell me that’s not what you’re doing. And it makes me feel bad. Especially when I expected you to spend all of it and you didn’t.”
In disgust I said, “I spent enough of it. I shouldn’t have gone with them. I don’t know why I did. I’ve got so much to do around here. Went out and played while you were working and now I’m even more behind. And I spent too much.”
“You weren’t playing according to Jeannie. She said you hardly smiled at all. As for how much you spent … well that’s the thing, I’m wondering if you did spend enough.”
“Wait … what?”
“I saw that load that Linda and Jeannie came back with. I honestly came home expecting to see more and … well …”
“They’re shopping for a lot more people. I’m shopping for just the two of us. I still can’t believe … Sawyer I’m not being nosey, honest. I know it’s none of my business. But where does all that money come from that Jeannie and Linda spend? Is Gramps rich or something like that?”
Sawyer started with a small grin and then it grew until he was laughing and laying his head on the table. I didn’t think it was that funny and let it show on my face.
“Aw Kay-Lee, I’m not laughing at you, just the idea of anyone … not just you … but anyone saying the Hartfords are rich. Most folks think we aren’t anything but a bunch of backwoods white trash. You see how people look at Gramps. I don’t think he has worn anything but bib overalls since he was a boy. The only thing different is depending on where he’s going is what kind of shirt he wears … dress shirt and blazer for church, chambray shirt for field work, and t-shirt for just about everything else. Some of the other uncles are nearly like him except they might give up the overalls for church, weddings, and funerals. You’ve seen it.”
I shook my head. “That won’t wash. The last thing your family is is white trash. I should know, you meet enough of it in foster care. Sure they might dress kind of … er … casual but that’s nothing. Before you married me all I had to wear were pieces that doubled as my school uniform. There’s a lot of foster families that try and give you more than a roof over your head but there’s just as many that take what the government gives them for our upkeep and uses it to pay their personal bills and a roof is about all we have secure; and that’s temporary no matter what family you are with. I can’t see any of the Hartfords being like that - not even Uncle Mark who has a major attitude about the majority of the human race. Not a single one of you are trashy.”
Sawyer had stopped laughing and put a hand over one of mine. “I’m real sorry you had to live like that Kay-Lee. I guess it has made it hard for you to … to believe in things I guess. Like how you get sometimes after we snuggle, like you’re not sure exactly what to make of it or for how long it’s gonna last.”
I sighed. “All I asked about was the money Sawyer, if it’s none of my business just say so. We don’t need to go off down this road.”
“See? You’re afraid of even talking about it. But I’ll let it go this time ‘cause I don’t want you to think I’m hiding anything from you. The money is coming from a big tract of land that got taken away from us by imminent domain a couple of years ago. Do you remember … well you were kinda young so it might not have even registered so let me just explain it. Gramps’ dad had an older brother and that was a whole different branch of the Hartfords but they didn’t really have many kids and the ones they did have died young. Their land was near some quarry and mining land in the next county over. Gramps wound up inheriting it after the last of his brother’s grandkids died. Gramps made decent money on it – enough to pay the taxes and such and it was good hunting ground – renting it out to the mining company and then the quarry that took over after that. Then both companies went bust and the state came in and took the property by imminent domain to protect some stupid blind fish that had been discovered down in one of the mines that had filled with water. There was something about a highway going through it too but that never happened. So Gramps took that money – and he only got pennies on the dollar for what the land was potentially worth – and socked it away for a rainy day. Well Gramps is expecting a gully washer and is trying to get ahead of it; like Noah before the Flood. He’s taken care of us with some of the large group buys but some of the other cousins seem to need more taking care of than others.”
“So we really are better off than some of the others?”
“Yeah, we are but the way you say it you didn’t think so.”
“No, it’s not that, like I’ve tried to explain to Linda I’m not measuring us against anyone else, only against the plans we’ve made and what we’ve determined that we need.”
“Why would Linda think we’re … uh …”
He acted like he was trying not to be angry and I worried that explaining was going to tip the scale so I did it carefully. He surprised me though and actually relaxed. “I bet Gramps set this up. He’s been after me to tell him what we need and I keep telling him I’ll let him know if we can’t handle things. Well we haven’t needed any help after that first little bit where he filled the propane up and the uncles came out and helped fix some stuff around here so there hasn’t been anything to tell him. I guess he is kinda getting itchy about it and decided to check up and make sure I’m not being too prideful.”
“Well, Linda did say that Gramps had given them money to get drinks while we were out as a treat for running the errands for him and everyone else.”
Sawyer grinned and said, “Yep, that sounds like something Gramps would do. He’s worried about us you know. I mean he’s worried about all of us but you and me in particular I guess. He’s got Tommy and Linda pretty well tied up and taken care of. I figure one of these days Tommy will inherit his house so long as Tommy promises to take care of Aunt Pearl and the other aunts and uncles as everyone gets older. Someone in our family has always been the go to for that sort of thing … to organize work crews and stuff like that. It used to be my dad and Uncle James were in charge of it. After Dad died Uncle James still did it but it got kinda haphazard. I’m getting the feeling that he’s setting me and Tommy up to take Uncle James’ and his place when the time comes.”
“Are you ok with that?”
“Heck yeah. That’s not a problem now that I’ve got my head on straight.”
“OK, then why is he checking up on us? I was really worried about saying the wrong thing and telling your business. Linda and Jeannie can be … uh …”
“Yeah, lately their tongues have been hung in the middle and running at both ends carrying tales to keep Gramps and Aunt Pearl up on what’s going on at everyone’s place. That’s gonna bite ‘em in the ass though if they aren’t more careful. I tried to talk to Tommy about it but he thinks Linda can do no wrong and Gramps and his dad must walk on water. And Benedict thinks it’s just a phase or something for Jeannie and he thinks once the baby gets here she’ll snap right back to the way she was before. Well Delly was never the same so I’m pretty sure Benedict is smoking dope thinking Jeannie will.”
I wasn’t going to say anything about it one way or the other so let Sawyer keep his opinion. I’m learning fast that the only way I’m going to get along with the Hartford women – and men – is to keep my nose out of other people’s business and to keep my opinions to myself unless outright asked for them.
“So we aren’t in trouble or anything?”
“No, you can stop worrying about that if you were. I guess Gramps just expected us to need more help than we have.”
“Well the work crews are here just about every canning day. That’s help isn’t it?”
“Yeah it is but that help swings both ways. The more felled trees they take out the more wood there is to share around for everyone. And the trees aren’t just coming from our piece. Everyone has some downed trees that need cleaning up and cutting up for the winter to come; especially if Gramps is right about propane and electric being iffy. And Benedict and Uncle Ben converting over the tractor keeps the second log splitter going and it can do the bigger trees better and faster than Gramps’ old machine can. See? It’s a win-win for everyone. What I meant is I think he thought we’d need more help financially with food and clothes and just about everything else but I’ve yet to miss a meal unless it was my own fault, I’ve got more clothes than I know what to do with lately, and we haven’t even used a quarter of that tank of propane he bought for us because you women use the wood stove for the canning and after that is a mystery. Cutter keeps asking me how we can possibly still have almost a tank full and I can’t even tell him. Either the meter is busted or we’ve got propane fairies around here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be silly, we’re just careful. I don’t waste hot water. I wash the clothes in cold unless the whites are really disgusting, I wash the dishes by hand, and …”
“And since we shower together …” he said with a wicked grin.
Despite myself I had to smile and say, “You’re in a good mood.”
“Sure am. We’ll talk about the groceries later. I want you to give me a for real list of things you want, not just need but want. And before you get that line between your eyebrows you get when you are about to tune up and fuss I’m telling you I’m serious and it is for a serious reason. But right now I want to tell you about the lucky break I caught and how it is all due to Buttface … er … Burt.”
Shaking my head I told him, “You know one of these days you are going to accidentally call him that to his face.”
“If I call it to his face it won’t be no accident. He still ain’t my most favorite person on the planet but … I suppose he ain’t my least favorite either. Especially not after today.”
Part Fifty-Seven
“I told you how Burt called me with his hair on fire.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Mason messed up somehow and reading between the lines of your text it has put Burt in a bad spot.”
“It sure did. A couple of those fancy resorts near Young Harris were counting on him to haul off some materials where they are renovating some of their fancy units. Burt already has a buyer for most of the stuff but the problem was transportation. He got a trucker buddy of his to pick it up from the resort but his insurance only lets him drive in-state. The buyer is right on the other side of the state line and wants it delivered to their front door. The trucker is going to drop the trailer at a truck yard and I’m going to pick it up and haul it the rest of the way. Couple of days of easy work but the pay is dang good for the time I’ll put in. God I am so glad I kept my CDL up and Burt is letting me use his rig which he keeps insurance on.”
“You can drive those big trucks?”
“Yeah. I used to drive the tractor trailers and the dump trucks the family keep for taking grain and stuff to the wholesaler and weigh stations. Anyway, all I have to do with the last load is haul it back to Burt’s warehouse. And that’s my second job.”
Confused I asked, “Hauling the last load is a separate job?”
“Nope. But Burt’s warehouse is. It’s in a mess. I saw what it looked like last year, and he said it’s only gotten worse though he is damn happy to have gotten rid of them bottles and jars and stuff. I got some for you out in the truck but that can wait til morning. I didn’t bring them in ‘cause I thought there’d be a big mess in here.”
“You know I wouldn’t make you trip over a mess.”
“I know you wouldn’t … though Linda tattled on you.”
“What for?”
“For picking up what you shouldn’t be picking up.”
Nonchalantly I told him, “Oh. Well she worries too much. I carried stuff like that at school. I’m a lot stronger than I look.”
“Don’t I know it but with your leg hurting you shouldn’t do it. OK?”
Carefully I asked, “Is this you laying down the law?”
“I don’t want to have to Kay-Lee. I’m asking you nice; if you need something heavy like that again get someone else to lift and tote it. People get paid to do that kind of thing at the stores.”
Mulishly I told him, “You don’t get paid to do it here.”
“Sure I do. I get paid in good cooking … and other things,” he said trying to waggle his eyebrows.
I could feel my face heating up. “Oh stop.”
He laughed and said, “We got a deal?”
“I guess. Just tell me about the job.”
“Uh huh,” he said giving me a look that said he was going to hold me to that agreement. “Anyway, if I help Burt get his warehouse cleaned up and organized, he’ll pay me some in cash and some in goods that he’s got stacked hip deep and going out of date. Thing is I gotta move the trailer starting tomorrow and then this coming weekend is when he wants to work on the warehouse.”
“Why this coming weekend?”
“It’s the only weekend the kids don’t have some kind of sports game to be in and he wants them to help since they’ve started asking about earning money. And Burt is going to ride Rissa pretty hard to make sure she is earning money and not just fooling around and expect to get paid anyway. He didn’t say so, but I think he is worried she’s too much like Mason in that area. Anyway, the kids start back up at something the weekend after that and then once school starts Burt won’t have a weekend free until Thanksgiving and maybe not even after that. And that isn’t even taking into account things might go sour by then. Seems Burt is starting to listen to Gramps and with a baby on the way Delly and Burt are starting to get antsy. They ain’t whole hog on the idea but you can see it floating around in their eyes sometimes. Delly cornered me yesterday and pretty much gave me the third degree, asking how much I believed what Gramps and the Uncles were saying.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I believed them. That I didn’t know what the timeline was going to be but with things the way they are it can’t be too much longer. And that with my life being the mess it was all I’m looking at is trying to play catch up and make sure that we ain’t in a hole come the first of the year, if we even have that long. That I think she needs to start helping out with the gardening and harvest or at least do something along those lines at her place before she gets too big to move. And if nothing else it wouldn’t be a bad way to spend some time with the family, get to know the new wives, and build up a stake that helps offset the rising food and fuel costs.”
“Wow. What did she say to that?”
“Not much. Oh she said I didn’t sound like the same knucklehead I used to be but coming from Delly that’s high praise.”
I didn’t say anything to that. Like I said, sometimes you have to know when to keep your mouth shut. So long as Delly doesn’t hurt Sawyer’s feelings again I’m not gonna say a word.
What I did ask was, “Is Gramps going to still expect you to keep up the same work schedule he has set for you? I hope he doesn’t ‘cause I don’t see how you can.”
“Naw. The way I understand it Uncle James thinks this is as good a time as any to put a broom to the butts of some of the others. I’ll catch come back-blow from that from some that think favorites are being played but oh well, life’s tough. Thing is this Saturday the family is going to go to the flea market. Do you want to go?”
My first response was, “Not without you.”
“Welllll …”
Slowly I asked, “You want me to go?”
“Yeah. Yeah I do. If you feel up to it.”
“Does it have something to do with the whole Gramps feeling itchy thing?”
Sawyer choked on a sip of tea he’d just taken then started laughing. “Well yeah but uh maybe we better keep Gramps’ itchiness out of it.”
“Sawyer!”
“I know but … it was funny.”
Shaking my head I told him, “No it wasn’t ... and isn’t. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to go to the flea market and have a good time.”
“While you work?!”
He got up and came to sit on my side of the table. “Kay-Lee, I know the flea market is probably not your favorite thing …”
“It doesn’t matter either way, I’ve only been the one time Sawyer. And it was fun, but I knew you were around. Now I know you’ll be working and I don’t want to play while you work.”
“You won’t be playing. More than likely Aunt Pearl will run you ragged. I still want you to try and have a good time though.”
I thought about it. “I’ll go. You want me to put a good face on things and keep Gramps and the others from thinking things they shouldn’t. Not because they’re busybodies – though that’s what they are – but because you love them and don’t want them to worry.”
“Well, I guess you do understand.”
Trying to not snap because it seems people seem to say that too much for my peace of mind I told him, “Just because I’ve never had a family of my own Sawyer doesn’t mean I don’t understand pretty much how they are supposed to work. I watched the families I lived with, the good ones and the bad ones. It was like watching people trying to drive each other crazy on purpose with the best of intentions. And I know your family isn’t bad but some of them are definitely crazy. But that’s ok too.” I sighed and admitted, “I just don’t like doing something like going to the flea market and having fun while you’re having to work”
“It makes me happy to have the work Kay-Lee. And it’ll be brownie points with Delly which will make the rest of the family happy. They really never liked the two of us not speaking much. You saw how they were at 4th of July. Then if you do what you gotta to make the family see we’re ok we’ll get even more accomplished.”
“Sooooo I am kind of working for you, right?”
“If you gotta look at it like that, I guess. I’d rather you look at it like … well like you are working for us. Don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer to walk around the flea market with you but this way we accomplish more. Help Aunt Pearl and the others out, get some things knocked off our list if you can, get Gramps off my back, and I’ll bring home pay and maybe some other odds and ends we need from clearing out Burt’s warehouse.”
I asked Sawyer, “Who would I be riding with?”
“Uh, that’s a good question. Let me find out who has room. Anyone you don’t want to ride with?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You sure?” he asked. I nodded in the affirmative and he said, “Ok, I’ll find out and let you know. Now back to today.”
I sighed, “Sawyer …”
The look on his face was like he was doing something he didn’t want to but felt it had to and was wondering if we were going to have a fight. “Don’t Sawyer me. Linda said you were pretty upset before you went to the library and then you were ok for a while but then you got not ok again as soon as you had to start shopping. I want to know if Linda was just sticking her nose in it and making assumptions or if that really happened.”
I sighed. “And this is why I don’t talk to anyone, it always gets blown out of proportion like I’m some kind of drama queen. My body is crippled not my mind and …”
“Whooooooaaaaaaa. I never said …”
“I didn’t say you … oh just drop it Sawyer. I’m … I … Look, you know it’s that time of the month. Even Linda could tell. I’m not normally like this; at least I don’t think I am. But sometimes things just get a bit much for anybody. It would be so easy for me to mess us up and I’m trying to be so careful but every time I turn around I feel like I’m falling a little further behind when I shouldn’t be. This is what I went to school for. I was tops in my class and normally I catch up fast when I have to learn something new but ... but this is so much new, and it is so important and … and .... I swear Sawyer there’s just days I don’t feel good enough.”
“Good enough for what?” Sawyer asked honestly trying to understand.
“For just about everything. You. Your family. This place. I’m … I’m not sure I can keep up. You already have to do your job and then come home at night after working all day and help me do my job too. God it makes me just want to scream.”
I stood up and the chair went flying in one direction and I lost my balance and went sliding and falling in the other. “Kay-Lee?!”
“Just … just leave me alone. I’m falling apart. Look at this mess.”
Sawyer wouldn’t leave and just sat on the floor with me until I was finished pitching a snit. “Feel better?” he asked.
“No. I feel stupid. And ashamed. You must think I’m …”
“Tired. Wore out. Sore. Overwhelmed. Angry. The only thing that would upset me is if you also regret getting married … to me I mean.”
Startled I looked at him and the tears I’d been trying to hold back started to fall. “You are a crazy Greek godlet looking guy Sawyer Hartford. I don’t know how on earth we wound up in the place we’re in but the last thing I regret is being with you. Just about everything else in the world can go away but not you. I’m just so afraid that one day real soon I won’t be able to keep up … one way or the other I’ll mess up or you’ll discover I’m a lot more trouble than you thought I’d be or something.”
“Yep, you definitely belong in the Hartford family. You’re as crazy as we are.” I looked at him and he pulled me close even though we were sitting on the floor. “I’m tired too Kay-Lee. I’ve got days that I don’t know which end is up. And sometimes about the only thing I can do is hang on to believing that you’ll keep to those stipulations we made with each other.”
“Sawyer, I’m … I’m crippled. You can’t tell me that some of this hasn’t … been unexpected. You probably still get looks from people or they say things like ‘bless your heart it must be challenging’ and …”
“Uh … You heard Mrs. Penny I guess.”
“Of course I did. So did everyone else in Walgreens. That woman’s volume is stuck on loud even when she thinks she’s whispering. But she isn’t the only one that has said something like that to you. Admit it or not I know it is the truth. Igor Baffa. That’s …”
“Don’t. Just don’t Kay-Lee. All right. Sure. Some things caught me off guard. I … I play too rough sometimes and forget. Not as much as I used to though.”
“But that’s what I’m saying Sawyer. You shouldn’t stop having fun just because I can’t do certain things. I hate it.”
“You’re making more of that than you need to. Sure I’ve had to learn to do a few things differently … or at least change the way I do them … but sometimes those changes are for the good … and interesting … and … definitely not boring that’s for sure.”
“What are you talking … Sawyer!” I squawked when I realized he was talking about bedroom stuff.
Sawyer tried not to but he grinned, then leered, and then started laughing because he got a good look at my face. “Honestly Kay-Lee. I don’t consider it the end of the world because we have to try different things so that we can both have fun at the same time and so that you don’t hurt. So what if we have to …”
“Sawyer!”
That set Sawyer grinning again and he pulled me tighter against him and said, “Fine. Be that way. But I was talking about me helping you here around the house. You’re the one with a dirty mind.”
“Oh … oh … you … you ….grrrrrrr!”
Still grinning he said, “Here, turn around and let me rub your leg.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I know I don’t but I want to,” he said turning me so that he could massage my calf and foot. “Now be still and don’t wiggle or you’ll make me think about things I can’t have right now.” He started and immediately I felt some relief from the knots in my muscles. More seriously than he had been he said, “You are wound tighter than a sprung clock. Some of the aunts get the same way for one reason or another. I know Mom used to and Delly still does. Being a farmer’s wife is hard, Aunt Pearl says it is at least as hard as being a farmer, that’s why so many of them used to die young. And right now Gramps is reminding all of us men that we need to show some appreciation for what we’re getting or come winter we are going to be sleeping in a cold bed and eating our own cooking.”
Feeling contrite and contrary at the same time I shook my head and told him, “Oh Sawyer, I’d never back out of our agreement. We promised to stick with our stipulations. Please don’t think I’d ever run off on you. I don’t mind the hard work. I just don’t feel like I’m able to hold up my end the way I should. I didn’t realize it was going to be this hard to keep up.”
“Well I guess that makes two of us. I was feeling pretty rotten about you not being able to have any extry like the other wives are getting to do a little personal shopping here and there. These jobs from Burt will help with that.”
“I am NOT going to spend …”
“Hush. I know how you feel about it and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with you pouting and stuff like that when you don’t get those things. Doesn’t mean I’m any happier though that I can’t give them to you any way.”
“I don’t need it.”
“Maybe not. And pretty much guaranteed even with these jobs all I’m doing is putting off the inevitable of having nothing in my wallet but moths and crickets. I just wish …”
“We’ve still got the fuel money for the truck and there isn’t another auto insurance until after the first of the year. Needing more propane is a long way off. We might wind up eating just tomato soup for a while but even that’s a long way off. It isn’t about stuff Sawyer. I can’t explain it. I just feel like you have to work that much harder because I can’t work hard enough. It’s not … not … equitable. That’s what, it’s just not equitable.”
“Ok then I tell you what we’ll do. Let’s go sit on the love seat in the living room. You get one cushion and I’ll get the other. We’ll pop a bowl of popcorn and I’ll eat a piece then you eat a piece. We’ll make sure our pieces are the same size and have the same number of salt granules on them. And we’ll watch five minutes of your show and then trade off and watch five minutes of my show and we’ll go back and forth like that.”
Exasperated at his foolishness I snapped, “Sawyer.”
“I know. Sounds silly don’t it? Just as silly as you worrying yourself sick about things not being equitable. The plain fact is sometimes I work harder and sometimes you work harder and sometimes we get lucky and we get to work together.”
I turned around and crawled up into his lap. “When you say things like that I feel so stupid and lucky at the same time.”
“Stupid I wasn’t aiming for, lucky I like to hear.”
“Well lucky is what I feel all the time, just lately I feel stupid too.”
“Well don’t.”
“Easy to say. You’re smart.”
Sawyer snorted. “You gotta be one of the few people on the planet that thinks so. I can tell most of them are worrying that I’m going to go off the deep end when things get tough like I did before.”
“If you did go off the deep end before it wasn’t just because things got tough, it was because you felt like everyone was turning on you.”
“Well, that too and I ain’t going to go over ancient history but the point is people think it.”
“And if they worry about you with all the proving you are doing with working with Tommy and the rest of them then they got to be coming unglued over me.”
“Well, some are and some are actually … er …”
“Er what? Did I do something wrong?”
“Only thing you’re doing is showing some of the wives up real bad. Now wait, don’t get in a pucker because I know you don’t mean to and aren’t even thinking along those lines. I’m just saying some of them are being drama queens about the whole thing.”
“Uh … is it Linda or Jeannie? Or … Beth or Sharon?”
“No. Are any of them giving you problems?”
“No. I was just wondering because they’re the only ones that I care … uh … I … didn’t mean it like …”
Sawyer laughed. “Hah! Caught you. That’s about how I feel about some of the cousins.”
“Sawyer I didn’t mean that I didn’t care at all just that those were the only ones that would really bother me seriously if they thought something bad of me.”
“Like I said, about how like I feel about some of them. And it doesn’t matter who in particular because Aunt Pearl went off on some of us today that if anyone thinks that she is going to work her fingers until they bleed while anyone else takes the easy road and them expect to get the same as the ones that work hard then they better stop assuming because they were sounding like a bunch of asses.”
“Oh … my … gosh. She didn’t!”
“Did too. That was when Gramps pulled us aside and told us we better start showing some appreciation or else. Uncle Junior just sort of scratched his head and sighed and said he reckoned he better get and get going on some of that appreciation before his pillow turned into a headstone.”
“Sawyer!”
He laughed. “I’m telling nothing but the truth. You may feel like you are being grouchy and upset but compared to the aunts you are a wee little lamb. Now come here so I can give you some appreciation.”
“Oh honestly!”
“I told you how Burt called me with his hair on fire.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Mason messed up somehow and reading between the lines of your text it has put Burt in a bad spot.”
“It sure did. A couple of those fancy resorts near Young Harris were counting on him to haul off some materials where they are renovating some of their fancy units. Burt already has a buyer for most of the stuff but the problem was transportation. He got a trucker buddy of his to pick it up from the resort but his insurance only lets him drive in-state. The buyer is right on the other side of the state line and wants it delivered to their front door. The trucker is going to drop the trailer at a truck yard and I’m going to pick it up and haul it the rest of the way. Couple of days of easy work but the pay is dang good for the time I’ll put in. God I am so glad I kept my CDL up and Burt is letting me use his rig which he keeps insurance on.”
“You can drive those big trucks?”
“Yeah. I used to drive the tractor trailers and the dump trucks the family keep for taking grain and stuff to the wholesaler and weigh stations. Anyway, all I have to do with the last load is haul it back to Burt’s warehouse. And that’s my second job.”
Confused I asked, “Hauling the last load is a separate job?”
“Nope. But Burt’s warehouse is. It’s in a mess. I saw what it looked like last year, and he said it’s only gotten worse though he is damn happy to have gotten rid of them bottles and jars and stuff. I got some for you out in the truck but that can wait til morning. I didn’t bring them in ‘cause I thought there’d be a big mess in here.”
“You know I wouldn’t make you trip over a mess.”
“I know you wouldn’t … though Linda tattled on you.”
“What for?”
“For picking up what you shouldn’t be picking up.”
Nonchalantly I told him, “Oh. Well she worries too much. I carried stuff like that at school. I’m a lot stronger than I look.”
“Don’t I know it but with your leg hurting you shouldn’t do it. OK?”
Carefully I asked, “Is this you laying down the law?”
“I don’t want to have to Kay-Lee. I’m asking you nice; if you need something heavy like that again get someone else to lift and tote it. People get paid to do that kind of thing at the stores.”
Mulishly I told him, “You don’t get paid to do it here.”
“Sure I do. I get paid in good cooking … and other things,” he said trying to waggle his eyebrows.
I could feel my face heating up. “Oh stop.”
He laughed and said, “We got a deal?”
“I guess. Just tell me about the job.”
“Uh huh,” he said giving me a look that said he was going to hold me to that agreement. “Anyway, if I help Burt get his warehouse cleaned up and organized, he’ll pay me some in cash and some in goods that he’s got stacked hip deep and going out of date. Thing is I gotta move the trailer starting tomorrow and then this coming weekend is when he wants to work on the warehouse.”
“Why this coming weekend?”
“It’s the only weekend the kids don’t have some kind of sports game to be in and he wants them to help since they’ve started asking about earning money. And Burt is going to ride Rissa pretty hard to make sure she is earning money and not just fooling around and expect to get paid anyway. He didn’t say so, but I think he is worried she’s too much like Mason in that area. Anyway, the kids start back up at something the weekend after that and then once school starts Burt won’t have a weekend free until Thanksgiving and maybe not even after that. And that isn’t even taking into account things might go sour by then. Seems Burt is starting to listen to Gramps and with a baby on the way Delly and Burt are starting to get antsy. They ain’t whole hog on the idea but you can see it floating around in their eyes sometimes. Delly cornered me yesterday and pretty much gave me the third degree, asking how much I believed what Gramps and the Uncles were saying.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I believed them. That I didn’t know what the timeline was going to be but with things the way they are it can’t be too much longer. And that with my life being the mess it was all I’m looking at is trying to play catch up and make sure that we ain’t in a hole come the first of the year, if we even have that long. That I think she needs to start helping out with the gardening and harvest or at least do something along those lines at her place before she gets too big to move. And if nothing else it wouldn’t be a bad way to spend some time with the family, get to know the new wives, and build up a stake that helps offset the rising food and fuel costs.”
“Wow. What did she say to that?”
“Not much. Oh she said I didn’t sound like the same knucklehead I used to be but coming from Delly that’s high praise.”
I didn’t say anything to that. Like I said, sometimes you have to know when to keep your mouth shut. So long as Delly doesn’t hurt Sawyer’s feelings again I’m not gonna say a word.
What I did ask was, “Is Gramps going to still expect you to keep up the same work schedule he has set for you? I hope he doesn’t ‘cause I don’t see how you can.”
“Naw. The way I understand it Uncle James thinks this is as good a time as any to put a broom to the butts of some of the others. I’ll catch come back-blow from that from some that think favorites are being played but oh well, life’s tough. Thing is this Saturday the family is going to go to the flea market. Do you want to go?”
My first response was, “Not without you.”
“Welllll …”
Slowly I asked, “You want me to go?”
“Yeah. Yeah I do. If you feel up to it.”
“Does it have something to do with the whole Gramps feeling itchy thing?”
Sawyer choked on a sip of tea he’d just taken then started laughing. “Well yeah but uh maybe we better keep Gramps’ itchiness out of it.”
“Sawyer!”
“I know but … it was funny.”
Shaking my head I told him, “No it wasn’t ... and isn’t. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to go to the flea market and have a good time.”
“While you work?!”
He got up and came to sit on my side of the table. “Kay-Lee, I know the flea market is probably not your favorite thing …”
“It doesn’t matter either way, I’ve only been the one time Sawyer. And it was fun, but I knew you were around. Now I know you’ll be working and I don’t want to play while you work.”
“You won’t be playing. More than likely Aunt Pearl will run you ragged. I still want you to try and have a good time though.”
I thought about it. “I’ll go. You want me to put a good face on things and keep Gramps and the others from thinking things they shouldn’t. Not because they’re busybodies – though that’s what they are – but because you love them and don’t want them to worry.”
“Well, I guess you do understand.”
Trying to not snap because it seems people seem to say that too much for my peace of mind I told him, “Just because I’ve never had a family of my own Sawyer doesn’t mean I don’t understand pretty much how they are supposed to work. I watched the families I lived with, the good ones and the bad ones. It was like watching people trying to drive each other crazy on purpose with the best of intentions. And I know your family isn’t bad but some of them are definitely crazy. But that’s ok too.” I sighed and admitted, “I just don’t like doing something like going to the flea market and having fun while you’re having to work”
“It makes me happy to have the work Kay-Lee. And it’ll be brownie points with Delly which will make the rest of the family happy. They really never liked the two of us not speaking much. You saw how they were at 4th of July. Then if you do what you gotta to make the family see we’re ok we’ll get even more accomplished.”
“Sooooo I am kind of working for you, right?”
“If you gotta look at it like that, I guess. I’d rather you look at it like … well like you are working for us. Don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer to walk around the flea market with you but this way we accomplish more. Help Aunt Pearl and the others out, get some things knocked off our list if you can, get Gramps off my back, and I’ll bring home pay and maybe some other odds and ends we need from clearing out Burt’s warehouse.”
I asked Sawyer, “Who would I be riding with?”
“Uh, that’s a good question. Let me find out who has room. Anyone you don’t want to ride with?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You sure?” he asked. I nodded in the affirmative and he said, “Ok, I’ll find out and let you know. Now back to today.”
I sighed, “Sawyer …”
The look on his face was like he was doing something he didn’t want to but felt it had to and was wondering if we were going to have a fight. “Don’t Sawyer me. Linda said you were pretty upset before you went to the library and then you were ok for a while but then you got not ok again as soon as you had to start shopping. I want to know if Linda was just sticking her nose in it and making assumptions or if that really happened.”
I sighed. “And this is why I don’t talk to anyone, it always gets blown out of proportion like I’m some kind of drama queen. My body is crippled not my mind and …”
“Whooooooaaaaaaa. I never said …”
“I didn’t say you … oh just drop it Sawyer. I’m … I … Look, you know it’s that time of the month. Even Linda could tell. I’m not normally like this; at least I don’t think I am. But sometimes things just get a bit much for anybody. It would be so easy for me to mess us up and I’m trying to be so careful but every time I turn around I feel like I’m falling a little further behind when I shouldn’t be. This is what I went to school for. I was tops in my class and normally I catch up fast when I have to learn something new but ... but this is so much new, and it is so important and … and .... I swear Sawyer there’s just days I don’t feel good enough.”
“Good enough for what?” Sawyer asked honestly trying to understand.
“For just about everything. You. Your family. This place. I’m … I’m not sure I can keep up. You already have to do your job and then come home at night after working all day and help me do my job too. God it makes me just want to scream.”
I stood up and the chair went flying in one direction and I lost my balance and went sliding and falling in the other. “Kay-Lee?!”
“Just … just leave me alone. I’m falling apart. Look at this mess.”
Sawyer wouldn’t leave and just sat on the floor with me until I was finished pitching a snit. “Feel better?” he asked.
“No. I feel stupid. And ashamed. You must think I’m …”
“Tired. Wore out. Sore. Overwhelmed. Angry. The only thing that would upset me is if you also regret getting married … to me I mean.”
Startled I looked at him and the tears I’d been trying to hold back started to fall. “You are a crazy Greek godlet looking guy Sawyer Hartford. I don’t know how on earth we wound up in the place we’re in but the last thing I regret is being with you. Just about everything else in the world can go away but not you. I’m just so afraid that one day real soon I won’t be able to keep up … one way or the other I’ll mess up or you’ll discover I’m a lot more trouble than you thought I’d be or something.”
“Yep, you definitely belong in the Hartford family. You’re as crazy as we are.” I looked at him and he pulled me close even though we were sitting on the floor. “I’m tired too Kay-Lee. I’ve got days that I don’t know which end is up. And sometimes about the only thing I can do is hang on to believing that you’ll keep to those stipulations we made with each other.”
“Sawyer, I’m … I’m crippled. You can’t tell me that some of this hasn’t … been unexpected. You probably still get looks from people or they say things like ‘bless your heart it must be challenging’ and …”
“Uh … You heard Mrs. Penny I guess.”
“Of course I did. So did everyone else in Walgreens. That woman’s volume is stuck on loud even when she thinks she’s whispering. But she isn’t the only one that has said something like that to you. Admit it or not I know it is the truth. Igor Baffa. That’s …”
“Don’t. Just don’t Kay-Lee. All right. Sure. Some things caught me off guard. I … I play too rough sometimes and forget. Not as much as I used to though.”
“But that’s what I’m saying Sawyer. You shouldn’t stop having fun just because I can’t do certain things. I hate it.”
“You’re making more of that than you need to. Sure I’ve had to learn to do a few things differently … or at least change the way I do them … but sometimes those changes are for the good … and interesting … and … definitely not boring that’s for sure.”
“What are you talking … Sawyer!” I squawked when I realized he was talking about bedroom stuff.
Sawyer tried not to but he grinned, then leered, and then started laughing because he got a good look at my face. “Honestly Kay-Lee. I don’t consider it the end of the world because we have to try different things so that we can both have fun at the same time and so that you don’t hurt. So what if we have to …”
“Sawyer!”
That set Sawyer grinning again and he pulled me tighter against him and said, “Fine. Be that way. But I was talking about me helping you here around the house. You’re the one with a dirty mind.”
“Oh … oh … you … you ….grrrrrrr!”
Still grinning he said, “Here, turn around and let me rub your leg.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I know I don’t but I want to,” he said turning me so that he could massage my calf and foot. “Now be still and don’t wiggle or you’ll make me think about things I can’t have right now.” He started and immediately I felt some relief from the knots in my muscles. More seriously than he had been he said, “You are wound tighter than a sprung clock. Some of the aunts get the same way for one reason or another. I know Mom used to and Delly still does. Being a farmer’s wife is hard, Aunt Pearl says it is at least as hard as being a farmer, that’s why so many of them used to die young. And right now Gramps is reminding all of us men that we need to show some appreciation for what we’re getting or come winter we are going to be sleeping in a cold bed and eating our own cooking.”
Feeling contrite and contrary at the same time I shook my head and told him, “Oh Sawyer, I’d never back out of our agreement. We promised to stick with our stipulations. Please don’t think I’d ever run off on you. I don’t mind the hard work. I just don’t feel like I’m able to hold up my end the way I should. I didn’t realize it was going to be this hard to keep up.”
“Well I guess that makes two of us. I was feeling pretty rotten about you not being able to have any extry like the other wives are getting to do a little personal shopping here and there. These jobs from Burt will help with that.”
“I am NOT going to spend …”
“Hush. I know how you feel about it and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with you pouting and stuff like that when you don’t get those things. Doesn’t mean I’m any happier though that I can’t give them to you any way.”
“I don’t need it.”
“Maybe not. And pretty much guaranteed even with these jobs all I’m doing is putting off the inevitable of having nothing in my wallet but moths and crickets. I just wish …”
“We’ve still got the fuel money for the truck and there isn’t another auto insurance until after the first of the year. Needing more propane is a long way off. We might wind up eating just tomato soup for a while but even that’s a long way off. It isn’t about stuff Sawyer. I can’t explain it. I just feel like you have to work that much harder because I can’t work hard enough. It’s not … not … equitable. That’s what, it’s just not equitable.”
“Ok then I tell you what we’ll do. Let’s go sit on the love seat in the living room. You get one cushion and I’ll get the other. We’ll pop a bowl of popcorn and I’ll eat a piece then you eat a piece. We’ll make sure our pieces are the same size and have the same number of salt granules on them. And we’ll watch five minutes of your show and then trade off and watch five minutes of my show and we’ll go back and forth like that.”
Exasperated at his foolishness I snapped, “Sawyer.”
“I know. Sounds silly don’t it? Just as silly as you worrying yourself sick about things not being equitable. The plain fact is sometimes I work harder and sometimes you work harder and sometimes we get lucky and we get to work together.”
I turned around and crawled up into his lap. “When you say things like that I feel so stupid and lucky at the same time.”
“Stupid I wasn’t aiming for, lucky I like to hear.”
“Well lucky is what I feel all the time, just lately I feel stupid too.”
“Well don’t.”
“Easy to say. You’re smart.”
Sawyer snorted. “You gotta be one of the few people on the planet that thinks so. I can tell most of them are worrying that I’m going to go off the deep end when things get tough like I did before.”
“If you did go off the deep end before it wasn’t just because things got tough, it was because you felt like everyone was turning on you.”
“Well, that too and I ain’t going to go over ancient history but the point is people think it.”
“And if they worry about you with all the proving you are doing with working with Tommy and the rest of them then they got to be coming unglued over me.”
“Well, some are and some are actually … er …”
“Er what? Did I do something wrong?”
“Only thing you’re doing is showing some of the wives up real bad. Now wait, don’t get in a pucker because I know you don’t mean to and aren’t even thinking along those lines. I’m just saying some of them are being drama queens about the whole thing.”
“Uh … is it Linda or Jeannie? Or … Beth or Sharon?”
“No. Are any of them giving you problems?”
“No. I was just wondering because they’re the only ones that I care … uh … I … didn’t mean it like …”
Sawyer laughed. “Hah! Caught you. That’s about how I feel about some of the cousins.”
“Sawyer I didn’t mean that I didn’t care at all just that those were the only ones that would really bother me seriously if they thought something bad of me.”
“Like I said, about how like I feel about some of them. And it doesn’t matter who in particular because Aunt Pearl went off on some of us today that if anyone thinks that she is going to work her fingers until they bleed while anyone else takes the easy road and them expect to get the same as the ones that work hard then they better stop assuming because they were sounding like a bunch of asses.”
“Oh … my … gosh. She didn’t!”
“Did too. That was when Gramps pulled us aside and told us we better start showing some appreciation or else. Uncle Junior just sort of scratched his head and sighed and said he reckoned he better get and get going on some of that appreciation before his pillow turned into a headstone.”
“Sawyer!”
He laughed. “I’m telling nothing but the truth. You may feel like you are being grouchy and upset but compared to the aunts you are a wee little lamb. Now come here so I can give you some appreciation.”
“Oh honestly!”
Part Fifty-Eight
I was woozy. They’d given me a shot to dull the pain before I’d said I needed one. I was in the middle of counting all the dancing spots on the ceiling for some reason when I heard Sawyer yelling.
“Where is she?! Where’s Kay-Lee?! What do you mean they’re seeing if she needs surgery?! She …” I tried to sit up and tell him to stop yelling before he got in trouble because the guards at the hospital were prone to throwing people out. But I couldn’t so instead I must have knocked something over and yelped, “On no.”
Sawyer ripped back the curtain and then it was his turn to yelp when he got a good look at me. I knew that Sawyer had quite a vocabulary, but I learned right there that he could get creative and make up his own words too, especially new ones about the ancestors of certain people that thought they could hurt his wife and get away with it.
“Sawyer!”
He rushed over and starting going on and on about he was there and it was ok and he’d get the so and so’s that did this and finally I just reached up. I meant to pat his cheek and tell him it was ok but instead I accidentally grabbed his ear and pulled him close and since it was simpler I kissed him on the mouth to shut him up.
Satisfied at the effect I told him, “There now. I’m better. Let’s go home.”
Things got unnaturally quiet and Sawyer said, “Kay-Lee? Are … I mean … you feeling … uh …” He asked someone standing out of my line of sight, “What’s wrong with her?”
Part of me knew how I was acting must have looked strange to him so I explained, “They gave me some dingety dang ol’ shot that I didn’t ask for. I’m probably high as a downtown hooker. But while we’re on the subject I want to know how Uncle Forrester is. He is flat out a hero. Between the two of us we barely make one good pair of legs but he is the one who pulled me up and in between two trucks to keep us from getting totally squashed. But his color wasn’t good Sawyer, and no one is saying anything. I ain’t gonna have being treated like my brain is crippled up as my leg. Now tell me or else.”
I heard Tommy ask, “What does a downtown hooker and Uncle Forrester have to do with one another?”
I heard some coughing that sounded like several someones had let something go down the wrong pipe and Aunt Suzanne said, “Gramps will explain it later Tommy. Kay-Lee just means the pain medication has her all fuddled up.” To everyone in general she said, “They just admitted him for observation because he wouldn’t settle down when he threatened to bash the heads in of those County High boys for starting that riot. And the fathers of those boys too if they got in the way. Now don’t the rest of you start again or I’ll send you home if you can’t behave.”
That’s when Aunt Suzanne came over to where I could see her and she said, “And he’ll be happy you’re feeling better too Honey. And I better not hear a fuss out of you either. We’re going to have our hands full with Sawyer.” She turned to him and gave him a beady-eyed glare, “Though I’m sure he’s not going to give us any trouble, none at all.”
Ignoring everyone I said, “I want to go home. Now.”
I heard brisk steps that I’d unfortunately been familiar with long before today and groaned. “Not you again.”
Dr. Janice Carruthers came into the examination room with a smile. “Well that’s some greeting. Used to be I could never get you to even squeak. Now you sound like you could give a lion tamer a run for his money. How about we discuss what you want a little more privately. You’re Mr. Hartford?”
And off she went. She had one of the best beside manners of any doctor I’d ever met and that was saying something considering how many doctors I’ve met in my life but she also rules things with an iron surgical glove. What Dr. Carruthers wanted, Dr. Carruthers tended to get. She had our story out of Sawyer in two shakes of a lamb’s tail and would have given him what for if he wasn’t already a quivering mess asking how bad I was hurt, what he could do, that he’d do anything to get whatever it was I needed, that there were germs in a hospital and he didn’t want me catching anything, and a whole lot of other things that only made about a half budget of sense.
I whispered to the doctor, “He’s a little sensitive and tends to be overprotective. I poke him in a tickle spot when he won’t quit. Looks like I might have to poke him again so you might want to move. He tends to spazz out when I do it.”
It wasn’t until later that I found out my whisper could be heard three exam rooms down and that the aunts where having to use their purses to keep the other Hartford men still hanging around from falling on the floor and laughing so hard they could barely breathe.
Dr. Carruthers looked at me and then at my chart and said, “I think we can stick with Percocet from here on out.”
Then she started explaining things to Sawyer who nearly wilted in relief when he found out I didn’t need surgery but that I was definitely going to be sore for a while and that I’d need to take it easy.
“Easy?! She’ll stay in bed … or on the sofa … or in a chair or something if I have to strap her in. No stairs. No lifting. No …”
“Mr. Hartford … Sawyer right? I don’t think we need to take it quite that far. I’ve known Kay-Lee most of her life and why don’t we just let her rest a couple of days and then see how it goes from there. She’s very familiar with her personal limitations and knows when she’s doing too much. I’m actually very pleased at the muscle tone in her short leg. Is she in PT? No one else knew the answer.”
“PT?”
“Physical therapy.”
“You mean her stretching exercises? She does them almost every night. Does she need something else?”
“Hmmm. It doesn’t appear so. Is she on any medication?”
“She just takes one of them naproxo … uh … the blue ones … Kay-Lee?”
“Naproxen. I’m almost out.”
“Wait, what? Why didn’t you tell me? Have you been shorting yourself?”
“No, just I’m almost out. I’ll have to use the asitac … aceetam … uh … my tongue’s not working for some reason. It feels funny. Is something on it? I think I bith ith or thomthing.”
“Er ....” He looked at the doctor as I poked my tongue out to try and see if there was something on my tongue.
Dr. Carruthers smiled and said, “We can definitely dispense with any of the stronger painkillers. Kay-Lee has shown some sensitivity to them in the past and apparently continues to be … sensitive.”
I don’t know how long it was after that but it must have been a while because the pain shot had started to wear off finally. “Kay-Lee? If I lift you …”
“No lifting. Just help me set up. I’ll swing my legs over and then if you brace me I’ll get down.”
“Er … that fire in your eyes isn’t for me is it? I’m sorry if I upset you earlier.”
“What? Sawyer … just ignore what an idiot I was. I hate those shots and I hate that … that … thing.”
Looking where I pointed he told me, “It’s just a wheelchair Kay-Lee. They say you have to sit in one to get to the exit doors or they won’t release you.”
I shuddered.
“Kay-Lee?”
Quietly I told Sawyer, “I used to have to use one all the time. I’m afraid one of these days I’m going to wind up in one again and not ever get out. I’d rather be dead.”
“Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that.”
I realized I’d really upset Sawyer and I said, “Well, maybe if you were around I wouldn’t but … that would be the only reason. I mean it Sawyer … I have a severe prejudice against those things.”
He didn’t say anything, just helped me down and with the nurse keeping the chair from rolling, helped me sit in the wheelchair. Before we left, I made sure that I had my brace and everything else that I’d come with. I also made sure of the rest of the family was all taken care of. Aunt Suzanne told me to hush, “You sound like you are counting ducklings. Let Sawyer get you home and put you to bed. We’ll let people at church know you’re fine but not necessarily up for a lot of visiting. Lord knows that if even half try to come by that have been calling to find out you’ll get swamped and never rest.”
Aunt Suzanne and Uncle Derwint were staying with Uncle Forrester while Aunt Pearl and Uncle Junior were helping Tommy and Linda take care of Gramps who was as mad as a tongue-tied frog and ready to start a feud. Getting into the truck wasn’t fun, it actually hurt quite a bit but I wouldn’t show it in front of the nurse who was watching me like a hawk. Finally we were pulling away and I started to relax. “I didn’t think I was ever going to get away. Thank you for rescuing me.”
Only growly noises came from Sawyer until he finally said, “Do you remember what happened? I still don’t have the whole story.”
“Are you … are you mad at me?”
“No, of course not. I’m pissed off but never at you. Dammit. You didn’t want to go and I made you and now look at this. God Kay-Lee, you could have been …”
He couldn’t finish the sentence and I reached over and touched his arms. “You didn’t make me. You let me choose remember? As for could have beens, don’t worry about them, they didn’t happen. I’m just thankful that Uncle Forrester is ok. He really was something else Sawyer. He must still be real strong because he picked me up with his good side and all but dragged me out of the mess of people. We held each other up until Cutter saw us and barreled through the crowd like he was still playing football. Donnally and a couple of the others followed him through and they ringed us until the crowd thinned out enough that they could get us back with the rest of the family. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“But how in the Sam Hill did it start?”
I was woozy. They’d given me a shot to dull the pain before I’d said I needed one. I was in the middle of counting all the dancing spots on the ceiling for some reason when I heard Sawyer yelling.
“Where is she?! Where’s Kay-Lee?! What do you mean they’re seeing if she needs surgery?! She …” I tried to sit up and tell him to stop yelling before he got in trouble because the guards at the hospital were prone to throwing people out. But I couldn’t so instead I must have knocked something over and yelped, “On no.”
Sawyer ripped back the curtain and then it was his turn to yelp when he got a good look at me. I knew that Sawyer had quite a vocabulary, but I learned right there that he could get creative and make up his own words too, especially new ones about the ancestors of certain people that thought they could hurt his wife and get away with it.
“Sawyer!”
He rushed over and starting going on and on about he was there and it was ok and he’d get the so and so’s that did this and finally I just reached up. I meant to pat his cheek and tell him it was ok but instead I accidentally grabbed his ear and pulled him close and since it was simpler I kissed him on the mouth to shut him up.
Satisfied at the effect I told him, “There now. I’m better. Let’s go home.”
Things got unnaturally quiet and Sawyer said, “Kay-Lee? Are … I mean … you feeling … uh …” He asked someone standing out of my line of sight, “What’s wrong with her?”
Part of me knew how I was acting must have looked strange to him so I explained, “They gave me some dingety dang ol’ shot that I didn’t ask for. I’m probably high as a downtown hooker. But while we’re on the subject I want to know how Uncle Forrester is. He is flat out a hero. Between the two of us we barely make one good pair of legs but he is the one who pulled me up and in between two trucks to keep us from getting totally squashed. But his color wasn’t good Sawyer, and no one is saying anything. I ain’t gonna have being treated like my brain is crippled up as my leg. Now tell me or else.”
I heard Tommy ask, “What does a downtown hooker and Uncle Forrester have to do with one another?”
I heard some coughing that sounded like several someones had let something go down the wrong pipe and Aunt Suzanne said, “Gramps will explain it later Tommy. Kay-Lee just means the pain medication has her all fuddled up.” To everyone in general she said, “They just admitted him for observation because he wouldn’t settle down when he threatened to bash the heads in of those County High boys for starting that riot. And the fathers of those boys too if they got in the way. Now don’t the rest of you start again or I’ll send you home if you can’t behave.”
That’s when Aunt Suzanne came over to where I could see her and she said, “And he’ll be happy you’re feeling better too Honey. And I better not hear a fuss out of you either. We’re going to have our hands full with Sawyer.” She turned to him and gave him a beady-eyed glare, “Though I’m sure he’s not going to give us any trouble, none at all.”
Ignoring everyone I said, “I want to go home. Now.”
I heard brisk steps that I’d unfortunately been familiar with long before today and groaned. “Not you again.”
Dr. Janice Carruthers came into the examination room with a smile. “Well that’s some greeting. Used to be I could never get you to even squeak. Now you sound like you could give a lion tamer a run for his money. How about we discuss what you want a little more privately. You’re Mr. Hartford?”
And off she went. She had one of the best beside manners of any doctor I’d ever met and that was saying something considering how many doctors I’ve met in my life but she also rules things with an iron surgical glove. What Dr. Carruthers wanted, Dr. Carruthers tended to get. She had our story out of Sawyer in two shakes of a lamb’s tail and would have given him what for if he wasn’t already a quivering mess asking how bad I was hurt, what he could do, that he’d do anything to get whatever it was I needed, that there were germs in a hospital and he didn’t want me catching anything, and a whole lot of other things that only made about a half budget of sense.
I whispered to the doctor, “He’s a little sensitive and tends to be overprotective. I poke him in a tickle spot when he won’t quit. Looks like I might have to poke him again so you might want to move. He tends to spazz out when I do it.”
It wasn’t until later that I found out my whisper could be heard three exam rooms down and that the aunts where having to use their purses to keep the other Hartford men still hanging around from falling on the floor and laughing so hard they could barely breathe.
Dr. Carruthers looked at me and then at my chart and said, “I think we can stick with Percocet from here on out.”
Then she started explaining things to Sawyer who nearly wilted in relief when he found out I didn’t need surgery but that I was definitely going to be sore for a while and that I’d need to take it easy.
“Easy?! She’ll stay in bed … or on the sofa … or in a chair or something if I have to strap her in. No stairs. No lifting. No …”
“Mr. Hartford … Sawyer right? I don’t think we need to take it quite that far. I’ve known Kay-Lee most of her life and why don’t we just let her rest a couple of days and then see how it goes from there. She’s very familiar with her personal limitations and knows when she’s doing too much. I’m actually very pleased at the muscle tone in her short leg. Is she in PT? No one else knew the answer.”
“PT?”
“Physical therapy.”
“You mean her stretching exercises? She does them almost every night. Does she need something else?”
“Hmmm. It doesn’t appear so. Is she on any medication?”
“She just takes one of them naproxo … uh … the blue ones … Kay-Lee?”
“Naproxen. I’m almost out.”
“Wait, what? Why didn’t you tell me? Have you been shorting yourself?”
“No, just I’m almost out. I’ll have to use the asitac … aceetam … uh … my tongue’s not working for some reason. It feels funny. Is something on it? I think I bith ith or thomthing.”
“Er ....” He looked at the doctor as I poked my tongue out to try and see if there was something on my tongue.
Dr. Carruthers smiled and said, “We can definitely dispense with any of the stronger painkillers. Kay-Lee has shown some sensitivity to them in the past and apparently continues to be … sensitive.”
I don’t know how long it was after that but it must have been a while because the pain shot had started to wear off finally. “Kay-Lee? If I lift you …”
“No lifting. Just help me set up. I’ll swing my legs over and then if you brace me I’ll get down.”
“Er … that fire in your eyes isn’t for me is it? I’m sorry if I upset you earlier.”
“What? Sawyer … just ignore what an idiot I was. I hate those shots and I hate that … that … thing.”
Looking where I pointed he told me, “It’s just a wheelchair Kay-Lee. They say you have to sit in one to get to the exit doors or they won’t release you.”
I shuddered.
“Kay-Lee?”
Quietly I told Sawyer, “I used to have to use one all the time. I’m afraid one of these days I’m going to wind up in one again and not ever get out. I’d rather be dead.”
“Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that.”
I realized I’d really upset Sawyer and I said, “Well, maybe if you were around I wouldn’t but … that would be the only reason. I mean it Sawyer … I have a severe prejudice against those things.”
He didn’t say anything, just helped me down and with the nurse keeping the chair from rolling, helped me sit in the wheelchair. Before we left, I made sure that I had my brace and everything else that I’d come with. I also made sure of the rest of the family was all taken care of. Aunt Suzanne told me to hush, “You sound like you are counting ducklings. Let Sawyer get you home and put you to bed. We’ll let people at church know you’re fine but not necessarily up for a lot of visiting. Lord knows that if even half try to come by that have been calling to find out you’ll get swamped and never rest.”
Aunt Suzanne and Uncle Derwint were staying with Uncle Forrester while Aunt Pearl and Uncle Junior were helping Tommy and Linda take care of Gramps who was as mad as a tongue-tied frog and ready to start a feud. Getting into the truck wasn’t fun, it actually hurt quite a bit but I wouldn’t show it in front of the nurse who was watching me like a hawk. Finally we were pulling away and I started to relax. “I didn’t think I was ever going to get away. Thank you for rescuing me.”
Only growly noises came from Sawyer until he finally said, “Do you remember what happened? I still don’t have the whole story.”
“Are you … are you mad at me?”
“No, of course not. I’m pissed off but never at you. Dammit. You didn’t want to go and I made you and now look at this. God Kay-Lee, you could have been …”
He couldn’t finish the sentence and I reached over and touched his arms. “You didn’t make me. You let me choose remember? As for could have beens, don’t worry about them, they didn’t happen. I’m just thankful that Uncle Forrester is ok. He really was something else Sawyer. He must still be real strong because he picked me up with his good side and all but dragged me out of the mess of people. We held each other up until Cutter saw us and barreled through the crowd like he was still playing football. Donnally and a couple of the others followed him through and they ringed us until the crowd thinned out enough that they could get us back with the rest of the family. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“But how in the Sam Hill did it start?”
Part Fifty-Nine
I took a moment to put my thoughts in order and then started to explain. “There was some kind of brawl at about nine or ten I guess. It was hotter than most of us apparently expected and you could tell people were stressed out and cranky on top of it so I put it down to that but it could have been anything I guess. It was between some County High football players and some guys from outside the District. I still don’t know who they were, but they got tossed and so did a couple of the County High players but most of the County High kids involved were allowed to stay.”
“Did you see the brawl? No one said anything.”
“No. At least Linda and I didn’t but after it happened Gramps texted everyone to meet up and he said to stay in larger groups and to get things done quickly, that people were acting strange, and he wanted us done and gone sooner rather than later. It was getting really warm by then and the farmer’s market area wasn’t worth much except I did get some exotic … oh no.”
“What?”
“I guess it is all gone. All that wasted money. Oh gawd, on top of the doctor bills. Oh stop the truck Sawyer, I’m gonna be sick.”
He pulled over real fast when he realized I wasn’t acting and it took me a few minutes to stop heaving. “Oh gawd. I … I haven’t been able to think straight since they gave me that stupid shot. Oh Sawyer, I’m so sorry. I …”
“Hush. It’s taken care of. That Dr. Carruthers said she was doing it pro-bono because she didn’t want all her handiwork to be messed up and what she didn’t cover Gramps did.”
I winced. “That’s still …”
“It really wasn’t bad and I already plan on working to pay it off if things don’t work out like well … apparently you are still covered by that medical trust fund and all it was some kind of guarantee that Gramps will get back after the trust fund pays out. The lawyer that settled the probate took care of changing your name and I guess just took it as a matter of course to take care of all the notifications and changes of address at the same time. I’m going to look at those papers again, that’s not something we should have missed.”
“Ok … we’ll worry about that later. And I’ll write a thank you note to Dr. Carruthers. She’s actually not bad … she’s just … er …”
“Yeah she sure is ‘er’ but she knows her business. I looked her up while I was waiting for the paperwork to sign and she’s written all sorts of papers and gotten awards and everything … some of them for the work she did on you. As far as the groceries they could go to Hades but Linda said everything is fine and she and Tommy ran our stuff to the house when they left the hospital to take Gramps home.”
“Oh … I did the dishes didn’t I? I didn’t leave any in the sink?”
“You worry about the craziest things. What the hell does it matter whether the kitchen is spotless or not? Besides a dish takes its life in its hands in that kitchen if it doesn’t get itself washed up real quick. They’re usually quaking and hiding in the cabinets afraid to be out of place.”
I looked at him and asked, “Are you being silly? Really?”
“Yeah I am. It’s relief. Distract me by finishing your story,” he told me as he helped me get back in the truck.
I sighed as we got back on the road and said, “There isn’t much left to tell. It was getting too hot to do much of anything worthwhile. Uncle Forrester wasn’t feeling too good and the unseasonable heat was getting to me too so we stuck together. We move about the same speed on days like this. We pushed our carts with our purchases in them back to the trucks and those of us in that group were thinking about pulling out the drinks when there was this loud bang. Two guys were starting to fight several rows over and the noise was where one had thrown the other on the hood of a car. Cutter said, ‘Uh oh.’ And before anyone could think of anything else to say it’s like people ran in from all directions; like those two guys starting up was some kind of signal for everyone to go berserk. I can’t believe how fast it all happened. It went from two guys fighting in the parking lot to I don’t know how many people fighting all over the parking lot and around the flea market stalls too. We were getting knocked around and Donnelly and Cutter were running interference while Benedict was trying to get everyone up high, like on the top of the camper tops where it was safe. Only Uncle Forrester and I can’t climb so he’s pulling me into the cab of one of the trucks. That’s when a bunch of people run between the vehicles and he and I get pushed out into the mess. I’m not sure what happened right after that. Uncle Forrester let some guy have it with his cane while someone else kicks mine away from me and I stumble and go down. Next thing I clearly remember is Uncle Forrester has an arm around me and is dragging me between two big vans.”
“Gawd.”
“Yeah. But so long as Uncle Forrester is ok …”
“Dammit Kay-Lee, you’re hurt. And if I find out who …”
“Sawyer don’t start a feud. There’s no telling who did what to whom. And once the cops … sheriffs … whatever they were … got there they busted enough heads and kicked enough butts that it ought to satisfy anyone. They had riot gear and those batons and you could actually hear them hitting people they were doing it so hard. And what they didn’t stomp the Hartfords did. Cutter and Donnally squished enough guys between them it looked like a cartoon assembly line. And Uncle Forrester and his cane … geez … I ain’t ever going to get him mad. Did he play baseball when he was a kid? He sure did hit a couple of line drives. And Aunt Pearl … oh my gosh. She put some guy in a trash can. Just upended him into it like one of them women wrestlers on TV.”
“She did what?!”
“You ask Linda if you don’t believe me. Linda was there trying to help with my busted eyebrow and we both saw her do it. It was after most of the mess was all over with and the paramedics had arrived. I guess Uncle Forrester and I were getting too much special attention for someone’s liking and they came over and gave some lip and were getting in the way. Aunt Pearl asked ‘em to leave twice … she sure didn’t ask the third time. She just whaled on him and yelled at him for hurting her family. The cops had to ask her to go sit in the truck cab and cool off … and she almost didn’t go.”
I know he asked me some more questions after that, but I was pretty tired and washed out and could only half-way answer them. I remember getting home but Sawyer must have carried me up to bed ‘cause I don’t even remember getting out of the truck. Next thing it was morning and getting out of bed to get to the bathroom was excruciating. I’ve hurt worse but it has been awhile and took me a few minutes to remember how to manage it.
Sawyer caught me coming out of the bathroom. “Hey, you aren’t supposed to be up.”
Trying to put on a good face I replied back, “Hey, you’re supposed to be working at Burt’s warehouse.”
“Are you kidding me? Delly called last night demanding all the details and she’s already been here to the house on her way to church. She said, and I quote, ‘That damn warehouse has waited this long it can wait a little longer. You leave her side and I’ll think you’ve taken leave of your senses.’ End quote.”
“I’ve never heard Delly swear.”
“Well she doesn’t make a regular habit out of it that’s for sure. Here, I’ll help you back to bed.”
“Sawyer, please just let me get dressed and sit downstairs someplace. It’s too hot up here and … and just laying around makes it harder not to feel sorry for myself.”
“But Kay-Lee, you’re the color of green cheese.”
“Oh you’re just being polite. I look like I got in a fight with a box of ugly sticks and lost. If you can’t stand to look at me I’ll just …”
“It isn’t that and don’t try and wind me up woman. I just can’t stand … I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there when you needed me to be.”
I realized that Sawyer was really, really still upset.
“Are you kidding? You heard Dr. Carruthers. She was real happy with my muscle tone. She’s never said that. Never. Not even after I spent time at rehab centers. She was always on me to get more tone, like it was some kind of vitamin I should be taking on a regular basis. Said it would help support what she calls my infrastructure better. And you help me do my stretches so well she thought I was getting regular PT.”
“What? Is that some big deal?”
“It is for my case. It was hard for me to find a foster family that could take me to all the therapy appointments that Dr. Carruthers wanted me to have. The best most of them could manage was to pick me up after I rode the bus to the hospital’s pool complex. As a result, I was always behind and it took longer for some therapy or other to work … or for some surgery to heal. The fact that she didn’t think I needed surgery … you have any idea how many times that woman has seen my insides? She probably knows what they look like better than she knows what my face looks like.”
“That many times huh.”
“That many. I know she doesn’t look that old but she’s in her fifties … she has grandkids anyway.”
“No way.”
“Yes way. And I’m sorry she kinda went off on the whole birth control thing.”
“It’s all right. She seemed to settle back down when I told her that I wasn’t going to let anyone dump some potentially harmful chemicals into your body when I could take responsibility for it.”
“Settled her down? Shut her up actually … I’ve never seen anyone do that. It was kinda cool.”
“Aw Kay-Lee …”
“I mean it. You do all the right things. But if anyone knows that sometimes bad things just happen it’s me. I’m just glad you rescued me when you did. I hate … look it’s not that I’m not grateful for all the medical help I’ve been given since I was a baby …”
“I know that.”
“Well, ok you do but that’s why you’re the only one I’ll ever talk to about this stuff. I couldn’t even get into this with Linda or Tommy; they’re good people just … it’s complicated I guess. I just … people … touching me and things … and hospitals and how they smell. It was like being a prisoner … of a place and of my body. But at the same time the hospital was sometimes the only place that I felt safe and didn’t have to worry about people calling me names or being scared of me.”
“Scared of you?!”
I shook my head sadly and it almost made me weepy. “I used to scare kids. It was all the hardware and … and how I looked. I heard parents threaten their kids that they’d end up looking like me if they didn’t stop doing stupid stuff and getting hurt. I clanked when I walked … if I was able to walk. Sometimes bits of me would look funny as they’d use tissue expanders in to grow extra skin to cover the areas that were getting thin from so many surgeries. Stitches, staples, bolts, screws, patches, bars … sometimes I smelled funny because of the antibacterial medication. My whole body was cockeyed … at least I’m not so much of a freak now but then …”
“I’ve asked you not to call yourself that.”
“I know. But you need to understand the truth. The me you see before you right now … even with all these scrapes and bruises … still looks a hundred times better than I used to. A lot of that is due to Dr. Carruthers and the other doctors she got to work on me like the plastic surgeons. And I just … I’m thankful for that and don’t ever want to have to go back. Not ever. Last night was just … it wasn’t hurting because that comes and goes if you’re human … it was just being in that place.”
Sawyer helped me to get dressed although dressed is all relative to who you talk about and what the occasion is. Basically he helped me put on a loose sundress that only had spaghetti straps. This left my banged up knees and elbows free and didn’t lay too tight on my bruises any place else. My bad leg was too swollen to fit in the brace comfortable so I consented to Sawyer carrying me down the stairs.
“If you had a mustache you could play at Rhett Butler.”
“That movie guy who said, ‘Frankly my Dear I don’t give a damn?’ Nah, that dude was an idiot. I bet a little sweet talking would have been better than tossing her over his shoulders and hauling her to the bedroom. Probably would have gotten a lot more in return too.”
I looked at Sawyer suspiciously and asked, “Have you ever sweet talked me?”
“Uh … never had to. You’ve always been just about perfect about everything.”
I snorted as he put me down and from the porch a voice caused us both to jump. “Good catch little brother. Gooooood catch.”
Sawyer winced which made me laugh until the laugh made me hurt and I caught my breath. Sawyer was caught between concern for me and opening the screen door for his sister and Burt, he nearly tripped over the ottoman. Finally he got the door open and his nephew and niece and Burt started to carry boxes in.
“What … ?”
Delly came in and said, “Oh sit down before you give Sawyer a hernia tripping over his own feet. Brother go tell them where you want those dishes and such. There’s more out in the trunk that need to come in too.”
“What is all that?” I asked.
“You didn’t think you were going to get away with people at church not sending a dish or something did you? And those that didn’t cook something sent you something from the garden. Lotta potatoes and sweet potatoes, a couple of cantaloupes, a watermelon, and Burt’s grandmother sent you a bushel of beans. She said they’d give you something to do while you were stuck unable to get around. I wanted to ask her what you were supposed to do with the beans after you’d snapped them but sometimes you’ve got to keep your mouth shut to keep the peace. I love Mrs. Penny to bits and pieces but she’s three-quarters vinegar on even her best days.”
Having found that out already I just looked at her and blinked. Delly laughed which was a good sign because Delly herself had more than a little vinegar to her. They didn’t stay long; they were heading up to the hospital to see Uncle Forrester and then to help spring him later in the day.
“Then take something with you so you don’t have to buy food for lunch.”
“Wellll, if you’re sure.”
“Sure I’m sure. Sawyer will show you where the plastic containers are and take whatever silverware and all else you need. Hospital cafeterias are usually good prices, but money is money and while I know Burt does real well for you all … it just seems … well …”
“Don’t worry, I understand. And agree. And to let you know I talked to Gramps at church and he says that he expects that Sawyer is going to want to stay around here for a couple of days and then go back to the warehouse to finish that off and that the other boys can take his work until that’s over with. Sawyer and him can work the details out but don’t let Sawyer try and drive you crazy. He used to get nuts over things after Mom died so suddenly. Him and dad both. I couldn’t sneeze without the two of them coming unglued … the kids either for that matter. Hit him with a skillet if you have to.” Then she tried not to laugh when she said, “Or poke him in a tickle spot.”
“Oh no. Sawyer! Did I say something at the hospital?!”
I took a moment to put my thoughts in order and then started to explain. “There was some kind of brawl at about nine or ten I guess. It was hotter than most of us apparently expected and you could tell people were stressed out and cranky on top of it so I put it down to that but it could have been anything I guess. It was between some County High football players and some guys from outside the District. I still don’t know who they were, but they got tossed and so did a couple of the County High players but most of the County High kids involved were allowed to stay.”
“Did you see the brawl? No one said anything.”
“No. At least Linda and I didn’t but after it happened Gramps texted everyone to meet up and he said to stay in larger groups and to get things done quickly, that people were acting strange, and he wanted us done and gone sooner rather than later. It was getting really warm by then and the farmer’s market area wasn’t worth much except I did get some exotic … oh no.”
“What?”
“I guess it is all gone. All that wasted money. Oh gawd, on top of the doctor bills. Oh stop the truck Sawyer, I’m gonna be sick.”
He pulled over real fast when he realized I wasn’t acting and it took me a few minutes to stop heaving. “Oh gawd. I … I haven’t been able to think straight since they gave me that stupid shot. Oh Sawyer, I’m so sorry. I …”
“Hush. It’s taken care of. That Dr. Carruthers said she was doing it pro-bono because she didn’t want all her handiwork to be messed up and what she didn’t cover Gramps did.”
I winced. “That’s still …”
“It really wasn’t bad and I already plan on working to pay it off if things don’t work out like well … apparently you are still covered by that medical trust fund and all it was some kind of guarantee that Gramps will get back after the trust fund pays out. The lawyer that settled the probate took care of changing your name and I guess just took it as a matter of course to take care of all the notifications and changes of address at the same time. I’m going to look at those papers again, that’s not something we should have missed.”
“Ok … we’ll worry about that later. And I’ll write a thank you note to Dr. Carruthers. She’s actually not bad … she’s just … er …”
“Yeah she sure is ‘er’ but she knows her business. I looked her up while I was waiting for the paperwork to sign and she’s written all sorts of papers and gotten awards and everything … some of them for the work she did on you. As far as the groceries they could go to Hades but Linda said everything is fine and she and Tommy ran our stuff to the house when they left the hospital to take Gramps home.”
“Oh … I did the dishes didn’t I? I didn’t leave any in the sink?”
“You worry about the craziest things. What the hell does it matter whether the kitchen is spotless or not? Besides a dish takes its life in its hands in that kitchen if it doesn’t get itself washed up real quick. They’re usually quaking and hiding in the cabinets afraid to be out of place.”
I looked at him and asked, “Are you being silly? Really?”
“Yeah I am. It’s relief. Distract me by finishing your story,” he told me as he helped me get back in the truck.
I sighed as we got back on the road and said, “There isn’t much left to tell. It was getting too hot to do much of anything worthwhile. Uncle Forrester wasn’t feeling too good and the unseasonable heat was getting to me too so we stuck together. We move about the same speed on days like this. We pushed our carts with our purchases in them back to the trucks and those of us in that group were thinking about pulling out the drinks when there was this loud bang. Two guys were starting to fight several rows over and the noise was where one had thrown the other on the hood of a car. Cutter said, ‘Uh oh.’ And before anyone could think of anything else to say it’s like people ran in from all directions; like those two guys starting up was some kind of signal for everyone to go berserk. I can’t believe how fast it all happened. It went from two guys fighting in the parking lot to I don’t know how many people fighting all over the parking lot and around the flea market stalls too. We were getting knocked around and Donnelly and Cutter were running interference while Benedict was trying to get everyone up high, like on the top of the camper tops where it was safe. Only Uncle Forrester and I can’t climb so he’s pulling me into the cab of one of the trucks. That’s when a bunch of people run between the vehicles and he and I get pushed out into the mess. I’m not sure what happened right after that. Uncle Forrester let some guy have it with his cane while someone else kicks mine away from me and I stumble and go down. Next thing I clearly remember is Uncle Forrester has an arm around me and is dragging me between two big vans.”
“Gawd.”
“Yeah. But so long as Uncle Forrester is ok …”
“Dammit Kay-Lee, you’re hurt. And if I find out who …”
“Sawyer don’t start a feud. There’s no telling who did what to whom. And once the cops … sheriffs … whatever they were … got there they busted enough heads and kicked enough butts that it ought to satisfy anyone. They had riot gear and those batons and you could actually hear them hitting people they were doing it so hard. And what they didn’t stomp the Hartfords did. Cutter and Donnally squished enough guys between them it looked like a cartoon assembly line. And Uncle Forrester and his cane … geez … I ain’t ever going to get him mad. Did he play baseball when he was a kid? He sure did hit a couple of line drives. And Aunt Pearl … oh my gosh. She put some guy in a trash can. Just upended him into it like one of them women wrestlers on TV.”
“She did what?!”
“You ask Linda if you don’t believe me. Linda was there trying to help with my busted eyebrow and we both saw her do it. It was after most of the mess was all over with and the paramedics had arrived. I guess Uncle Forrester and I were getting too much special attention for someone’s liking and they came over and gave some lip and were getting in the way. Aunt Pearl asked ‘em to leave twice … she sure didn’t ask the third time. She just whaled on him and yelled at him for hurting her family. The cops had to ask her to go sit in the truck cab and cool off … and she almost didn’t go.”
I know he asked me some more questions after that, but I was pretty tired and washed out and could only half-way answer them. I remember getting home but Sawyer must have carried me up to bed ‘cause I don’t even remember getting out of the truck. Next thing it was morning and getting out of bed to get to the bathroom was excruciating. I’ve hurt worse but it has been awhile and took me a few minutes to remember how to manage it.
Sawyer caught me coming out of the bathroom. “Hey, you aren’t supposed to be up.”
Trying to put on a good face I replied back, “Hey, you’re supposed to be working at Burt’s warehouse.”
“Are you kidding me? Delly called last night demanding all the details and she’s already been here to the house on her way to church. She said, and I quote, ‘That damn warehouse has waited this long it can wait a little longer. You leave her side and I’ll think you’ve taken leave of your senses.’ End quote.”
“I’ve never heard Delly swear.”
“Well she doesn’t make a regular habit out of it that’s for sure. Here, I’ll help you back to bed.”
“Sawyer, please just let me get dressed and sit downstairs someplace. It’s too hot up here and … and just laying around makes it harder not to feel sorry for myself.”
“But Kay-Lee, you’re the color of green cheese.”
“Oh you’re just being polite. I look like I got in a fight with a box of ugly sticks and lost. If you can’t stand to look at me I’ll just …”
“It isn’t that and don’t try and wind me up woman. I just can’t stand … I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there when you needed me to be.”
I realized that Sawyer was really, really still upset.
“Are you kidding? You heard Dr. Carruthers. She was real happy with my muscle tone. She’s never said that. Never. Not even after I spent time at rehab centers. She was always on me to get more tone, like it was some kind of vitamin I should be taking on a regular basis. Said it would help support what she calls my infrastructure better. And you help me do my stretches so well she thought I was getting regular PT.”
“What? Is that some big deal?”
“It is for my case. It was hard for me to find a foster family that could take me to all the therapy appointments that Dr. Carruthers wanted me to have. The best most of them could manage was to pick me up after I rode the bus to the hospital’s pool complex. As a result, I was always behind and it took longer for some therapy or other to work … or for some surgery to heal. The fact that she didn’t think I needed surgery … you have any idea how many times that woman has seen my insides? She probably knows what they look like better than she knows what my face looks like.”
“That many times huh.”
“That many. I know she doesn’t look that old but she’s in her fifties … she has grandkids anyway.”
“No way.”
“Yes way. And I’m sorry she kinda went off on the whole birth control thing.”
“It’s all right. She seemed to settle back down when I told her that I wasn’t going to let anyone dump some potentially harmful chemicals into your body when I could take responsibility for it.”
“Settled her down? Shut her up actually … I’ve never seen anyone do that. It was kinda cool.”
“Aw Kay-Lee …”
“I mean it. You do all the right things. But if anyone knows that sometimes bad things just happen it’s me. I’m just glad you rescued me when you did. I hate … look it’s not that I’m not grateful for all the medical help I’ve been given since I was a baby …”
“I know that.”
“Well, ok you do but that’s why you’re the only one I’ll ever talk to about this stuff. I couldn’t even get into this with Linda or Tommy; they’re good people just … it’s complicated I guess. I just … people … touching me and things … and hospitals and how they smell. It was like being a prisoner … of a place and of my body. But at the same time the hospital was sometimes the only place that I felt safe and didn’t have to worry about people calling me names or being scared of me.”
“Scared of you?!”
I shook my head sadly and it almost made me weepy. “I used to scare kids. It was all the hardware and … and how I looked. I heard parents threaten their kids that they’d end up looking like me if they didn’t stop doing stupid stuff and getting hurt. I clanked when I walked … if I was able to walk. Sometimes bits of me would look funny as they’d use tissue expanders in to grow extra skin to cover the areas that were getting thin from so many surgeries. Stitches, staples, bolts, screws, patches, bars … sometimes I smelled funny because of the antibacterial medication. My whole body was cockeyed … at least I’m not so much of a freak now but then …”
“I’ve asked you not to call yourself that.”
“I know. But you need to understand the truth. The me you see before you right now … even with all these scrapes and bruises … still looks a hundred times better than I used to. A lot of that is due to Dr. Carruthers and the other doctors she got to work on me like the plastic surgeons. And I just … I’m thankful for that and don’t ever want to have to go back. Not ever. Last night was just … it wasn’t hurting because that comes and goes if you’re human … it was just being in that place.”
Sawyer helped me to get dressed although dressed is all relative to who you talk about and what the occasion is. Basically he helped me put on a loose sundress that only had spaghetti straps. This left my banged up knees and elbows free and didn’t lay too tight on my bruises any place else. My bad leg was too swollen to fit in the brace comfortable so I consented to Sawyer carrying me down the stairs.
“If you had a mustache you could play at Rhett Butler.”
“That movie guy who said, ‘Frankly my Dear I don’t give a damn?’ Nah, that dude was an idiot. I bet a little sweet talking would have been better than tossing her over his shoulders and hauling her to the bedroom. Probably would have gotten a lot more in return too.”
I looked at Sawyer suspiciously and asked, “Have you ever sweet talked me?”
“Uh … never had to. You’ve always been just about perfect about everything.”
I snorted as he put me down and from the porch a voice caused us both to jump. “Good catch little brother. Gooooood catch.”
Sawyer winced which made me laugh until the laugh made me hurt and I caught my breath. Sawyer was caught between concern for me and opening the screen door for his sister and Burt, he nearly tripped over the ottoman. Finally he got the door open and his nephew and niece and Burt started to carry boxes in.
“What … ?”
Delly came in and said, “Oh sit down before you give Sawyer a hernia tripping over his own feet. Brother go tell them where you want those dishes and such. There’s more out in the trunk that need to come in too.”
“What is all that?” I asked.
“You didn’t think you were going to get away with people at church not sending a dish or something did you? And those that didn’t cook something sent you something from the garden. Lotta potatoes and sweet potatoes, a couple of cantaloupes, a watermelon, and Burt’s grandmother sent you a bushel of beans. She said they’d give you something to do while you were stuck unable to get around. I wanted to ask her what you were supposed to do with the beans after you’d snapped them but sometimes you’ve got to keep your mouth shut to keep the peace. I love Mrs. Penny to bits and pieces but she’s three-quarters vinegar on even her best days.”
Having found that out already I just looked at her and blinked. Delly laughed which was a good sign because Delly herself had more than a little vinegar to her. They didn’t stay long; they were heading up to the hospital to see Uncle Forrester and then to help spring him later in the day.
“Then take something with you so you don’t have to buy food for lunch.”
“Wellll, if you’re sure.”
“Sure I’m sure. Sawyer will show you where the plastic containers are and take whatever silverware and all else you need. Hospital cafeterias are usually good prices, but money is money and while I know Burt does real well for you all … it just seems … well …”
“Don’t worry, I understand. And agree. And to let you know I talked to Gramps at church and he says that he expects that Sawyer is going to want to stay around here for a couple of days and then go back to the warehouse to finish that off and that the other boys can take his work until that’s over with. Sawyer and him can work the details out but don’t let Sawyer try and drive you crazy. He used to get nuts over things after Mom died so suddenly. Him and dad both. I couldn’t sneeze without the two of them coming unglued … the kids either for that matter. Hit him with a skillet if you have to.” Then she tried not to laugh when she said, “Or poke him in a tickle spot.”
“Oh no. Sawyer! Did I say something at the hospital?!”
Part Sixty
“Phew, grass is getting a little tall out in the orchard again, and stay away from those hives that Uncle Donnel put out there today; them bees are still wound up from being moved. Don’t even try and go out there until I can get it mowed. Could be snakes out in it too.”
“Could be? There are … or was at least one until an owl decided to come out for a meal. I don’t know who was more freaked out by that owl. The snake, the black birds, or me. It just swooped down like some kind of ninja or something and grabbed that snake off the fence that I hadn’t even seen until the owl snatched it up. I didn’t think owls hunt during the day, or if they do it is some kind of bad omen.”
I was sitting on the porch catching the cool breeze off the rain that was threatening and shelling one of the endless bushels of beans I’d been brought so I could keep feeling like I was contributing despite pretty much being stuck moving in slow motion for a few more days. Today had been a canning day and the last of the women had left only an hour before.
“Oh Lord, don’t start sounding like Aunt Nel.” That’s when the dogs finally came out of the barn and they headed straight for him. “Get down Davey! Harley! You couple of hard heads, move! You act like you haven’t seen me for a year. Dang dogs … stop that! You’re too old to pull on my pants legs and me think it’s funny! Go on. Behave already.” The dogs finally left to go investigate the smell on his truck tires. Looking at me Sawyer said, “That’s nothing but an old wives tale. And while we’re at it I’m warning you to watch out for Uncle Junior, him and Aunt Nel both, they’ll try and scare the bejeebers out of you with their stories. What color was it?”
“The snake or the owl?”
“The owl,” he said giving me a look like he knew I was playing dumb on purpose.
“It was big and gray … mostly gray anyway. Well it looked gray. It was moving too fast for me to do much more than realize it was an owl and that it was bigger than I expected it to be.”
“Probably a great horned owl. They don’t normally hunt during the day, but it is overcast and I guess an owl can want its dinner a little early just like me.”
“That mean you’re hungry?”
“Yep, but sit down ‘cause I can get it. Or do you need help getting up? You were moving better this morning before I left but …”
“I’m fine. I need to get up. If I sit still too long without a break I get stiff. Just watch out as you go in the kitchen …”
“Holy mackerel!”
“I warned you.”
“I guess you did,” Sawyer said then added a snort. “Dang all, I knew there was going to be a herd of women here today but geez ... had to have been more than that to get all these jars done up.”
I gave him a tired smile when he turned around to hold his arm out to me for balance. “The aunts, the new wives … all of them, even Jeannie and she had to do as much sitting as me. Then Delly showed up with Mrs. Penny and her sister Mrs. Carmichael in tow. Then Uncle Mark drove out with Cindy, Cindy’s mother and her sisters and aunts and they brought those outside tables you see folded and up on the porch so that we could get most of the work done out here and save the mess since we had so many batches of different things going. I haven’t ever seen anything like this except maybe that time we had a cookie party between the H&C departments of all three high schools in the school district. It was wild, wild, wild. And hold on to your hat, they’re gonna be back tomorrow.”
“That’s … uh …” Sawyer shook his head and then frowned. “Who’s cutting the wood?”
“No one today but tomorrow Davis and Cindy’s brother Clay are bringing some downed trees from her dad’s property line and apparently Burt is going to talk to you about helping him, his cousin in law or something like that, and his uncle take down and haul a bunch of trees off the Penny and Carmichael places. The trees will come in, some will get used for the canning fires, some will stay to barter for the use of the big splitter and the help. Or so Aunt Pearl has declared.”
“Oh she has has she? I wonder if she has run this by Gramps. He’s got a chore list for us as long as my leg is already.”
“My understanding is that she has but I’m staying out of it. I have learned that it is smarter and safer not to get
between Aunt Pearl and something she means to have. Let me tell you. She’s got these next two months mapped out like a campaign. We’re doing battle with the veggies and Aunt Pearl is on record declaring that we’re gonna win.”
Sawyer laughed but I could tell he was tired. “Sounds about right. She and Mom used to …” He sighed.
The sudden change in his expression had me concerned and I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I wish Mom and Dad were here to see this. I don’t want them here to have to live through the bad stuff that’s coming but I just wish they could see this … what we’re doing. Not just the family but me and you.”
Hesitantly I thought a moment and then said, “I’m pretty sure Preacher Don thinks they can, that they can see the good stuff anyway since there’s no tears in Heaven. When he said it, I started to wonder about my parents. I know they went to church and stuff.”
“How do you know that?”
“Things that people have been telling me about them. Did you know that my mother has relatives in Tennessee? Or at least that is what Mrs. Carmichael said. She seemed surprised I didn’t know. Anyway, if my parents can see me I’m really sure that your parents can see you. I mean you and them had time to have a relationship and stuff and I’m sure they’d want to know how you are getting along.”
“Aw Kay-Lee …”
“Oh don’t start that. I didn’t say anything to make you think I was having a pity-party.”
“Girl, you are the last person I would think of as throwing a pity-party.” He gave me a kiss. “Let’s eat. I’ve got stuff to bring in from the truck but I’m too hungry to do it.”
Supper was the last of one of the casseroles that people had sent over the Sunday after the flea market riot. It was a hash brown casserole with lots of cheese, ham, and garden peas. I had cooked a pan of cornbread to go with it using the coals left over from one of the cook fires. We had to eat on tv trays in the front room because there wasn’t any room in the kitchen what with all surfaces already filled with towel covered jars. I told Sawyer, “Watch how you open the frig or something is liable to fall out. We got a little out of sync today and got too much prepped for the number of jars we had.”
Sawyer swallowed and then wiped his mouth. “Are we out of jars?”
“I’m trading prep for some of the …”
“No, I mean are we out of jars, not what you’re trying to do about it if we are.”
“I’m out of jars in the house. There’s still all those jars out in the barn.”
“I’ll get some out tonight.”
“It is already covered. Davis and Clay …”
“Ain’t going to go rummaging through our stuff. Davis is all right but Clay … well I guess he is ok but …”
“All right. I’ve never met him, but I’ll take your word for it. What about Burt Jr? He’s going to be here tomorrow. We can always phrase it to Davis and Clay that Burt Jr. wants to earn some money – and he does and that’s why Delly is bringing him since I guess you all finished the warehouse today?”
“Yeah we did. Dang Burt for being a pack rat anyway. We cleaned out a bunch of the stuff by having a warehouse sale and on top of that Burt got a couple of deals going for cleaning out two estate sales that didn’t do too well … old folks dying with no heirs or no heirs that want their stuff. I know the two places and they’re more than a little on the rough side but they’re over in a desirable area where people have vacation rentals. New owner that bought them lock, stock, and barrel is going to rent the land out and then run the property like a time share or something close to it. But with hunting season coming up fast the turnaround needs to be quick. They’re already blocking out weeks starting the middle of September when archery season begins.”
“That’s over a month away.”
“It is but when I say these places are in rough shape, let’s just say they are a whole lot worse than this place was. Not stink-wise but they’re crammed jammed full of generations of junk. And we’ll have to get it done while getting all of our other work done too. It’s gonna be harder because Burt wants to salvage everything that can be but at the same time have it move in ready. Pretty much a turnkey operation.”
“Turn key?”
“Means when we are through all the new owners – or renters – have to do is walk up and turn the key and walk in.”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense. Is that another one you are going to drop on Gramps?”
“I’ve already run it by him and he’s excited. There’s good field stone on the land that is going to have to be moved to take down a couple of dilapidated out buildings and Uncle Junior has been asking us to be on the lookout for some so he can finish the fireplaces at all the new houses. I think the ones that opted for a trailer are getting sorry. The trailers might have looked nice at first but long-term upkeep and maintenance on them ain’t so easy as they thought it would be. The frame houses are small but they are turning out real nice and you can always add on to a house or change the siding to brick later on; a trailer pretty much is what it is.”
“Sorry enough to be jealous?”
“Why? Someone say something today?”
“Cindy and one of her sisters got into it a little bit until their mother put the kibosh on it and told them since they were old enough to be married and making babies they could act like grown-ups. Cindy didn’t like that but she straightened up not too much later. I think Cindy would be half way all right if she’d just stop … stop …”
Sawyer must have read my mind. “Trying to turn everything into a competition?”
“Hey, how did you know?”
Sawyer snorted. “Don’t forget, I went to school with her and Clay and their older sister too. They’re all stair steps. Lynnie is preggers too in case you didn’t know. Don’t know the younger one all that well. She’s still in school I think. Younger than you … and don’t get me started. I get heartburn enough when someone brings it up.”
Ignoring his silliness about my age I told him, “Yeah, got all the gory details while they were bickering. Cindy isn’t as far along as I thought she was and Lynnie is actually further along but doesn’t look it ‘cause she’s so tall.”
“Cindy is probably just playing it up. And about that … look, I’m gonna sound like an ass but the reason … aw hell. Look Clay is … I mean …”
“Oh brother. You mean he is going to flirt with all the wives and cause trouble?”
“Uh … not … not all the wives. He tends to … well … go after ones that … well … will appreciate the attention.”
“To make them feel good or to make himself feel good? Either way it sounds like he’s got a big ego. He better not fool around too much or one of your cousins is going to catch on and left fly with a nine-pound hammer whether he’s the son of Uncle Mark’s friend or not. That kind of trouble we can all do without.”
“Uh …”
“And by the way, you better not even be half-way thinking that I’m someone that would appreciate that kind of attention.”
“Er …”
“Because one, it is insulting to think that I’d break my word to you. Two, that I’d get a charge out of getting someone’s pity. And three that I’d find something like that the least attractive even if I hadn’t promised all that stuff when we got married. Tell me I don’t have to tell explain to you four, five, and six.”
He stood up and grabbed my tv tray to take the dishes to the kitchen and said real quick, “Of course not. I’ve got more sense than that.”
“I thought so. But I also thought it might be better to show you that I have more sense than that.” I grabbed his arm before he could walk away and pulled him down and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I really have you know.”
“I know,” he said with some embarrassment. “But it sure is nice to hear you say it. You aren’t mad?”
“No. If you can put up with my insecurities I can put up with your insecurities. ‘Nuff said?”
“For now. I wanna give you a little more appreciation though when we go to bed. You feel up to being appreciated?”
I smiled, “So long as you’re willing to move slow.”
With a grin I recognized he said, “Oh yeah, I can do that.”
“Phew, grass is getting a little tall out in the orchard again, and stay away from those hives that Uncle Donnel put out there today; them bees are still wound up from being moved. Don’t even try and go out there until I can get it mowed. Could be snakes out in it too.”
“Could be? There are … or was at least one until an owl decided to come out for a meal. I don’t know who was more freaked out by that owl. The snake, the black birds, or me. It just swooped down like some kind of ninja or something and grabbed that snake off the fence that I hadn’t even seen until the owl snatched it up. I didn’t think owls hunt during the day, or if they do it is some kind of bad omen.”
I was sitting on the porch catching the cool breeze off the rain that was threatening and shelling one of the endless bushels of beans I’d been brought so I could keep feeling like I was contributing despite pretty much being stuck moving in slow motion for a few more days. Today had been a canning day and the last of the women had left only an hour before.
“Oh Lord, don’t start sounding like Aunt Nel.” That’s when the dogs finally came out of the barn and they headed straight for him. “Get down Davey! Harley! You couple of hard heads, move! You act like you haven’t seen me for a year. Dang dogs … stop that! You’re too old to pull on my pants legs and me think it’s funny! Go on. Behave already.” The dogs finally left to go investigate the smell on his truck tires. Looking at me Sawyer said, “That’s nothing but an old wives tale. And while we’re at it I’m warning you to watch out for Uncle Junior, him and Aunt Nel both, they’ll try and scare the bejeebers out of you with their stories. What color was it?”
“The snake or the owl?”
“The owl,” he said giving me a look like he knew I was playing dumb on purpose.
“It was big and gray … mostly gray anyway. Well it looked gray. It was moving too fast for me to do much more than realize it was an owl and that it was bigger than I expected it to be.”
“Probably a great horned owl. They don’t normally hunt during the day, but it is overcast and I guess an owl can want its dinner a little early just like me.”
“That mean you’re hungry?”
“Yep, but sit down ‘cause I can get it. Or do you need help getting up? You were moving better this morning before I left but …”
“I’m fine. I need to get up. If I sit still too long without a break I get stiff. Just watch out as you go in the kitchen …”
“Holy mackerel!”
“I warned you.”
“I guess you did,” Sawyer said then added a snort. “Dang all, I knew there was going to be a herd of women here today but geez ... had to have been more than that to get all these jars done up.”
I gave him a tired smile when he turned around to hold his arm out to me for balance. “The aunts, the new wives … all of them, even Jeannie and she had to do as much sitting as me. Then Delly showed up with Mrs. Penny and her sister Mrs. Carmichael in tow. Then Uncle Mark drove out with Cindy, Cindy’s mother and her sisters and aunts and they brought those outside tables you see folded and up on the porch so that we could get most of the work done out here and save the mess since we had so many batches of different things going. I haven’t ever seen anything like this except maybe that time we had a cookie party between the H&C departments of all three high schools in the school district. It was wild, wild, wild. And hold on to your hat, they’re gonna be back tomorrow.”
“That’s … uh …” Sawyer shook his head and then frowned. “Who’s cutting the wood?”
“No one today but tomorrow Davis and Cindy’s brother Clay are bringing some downed trees from her dad’s property line and apparently Burt is going to talk to you about helping him, his cousin in law or something like that, and his uncle take down and haul a bunch of trees off the Penny and Carmichael places. The trees will come in, some will get used for the canning fires, some will stay to barter for the use of the big splitter and the help. Or so Aunt Pearl has declared.”
“Oh she has has she? I wonder if she has run this by Gramps. He’s got a chore list for us as long as my leg is already.”
“My understanding is that she has but I’m staying out of it. I have learned that it is smarter and safer not to get
between Aunt Pearl and something she means to have. Let me tell you. She’s got these next two months mapped out like a campaign. We’re doing battle with the veggies and Aunt Pearl is on record declaring that we’re gonna win.”
Sawyer laughed but I could tell he was tired. “Sounds about right. She and Mom used to …” He sighed.
The sudden change in his expression had me concerned and I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I wish Mom and Dad were here to see this. I don’t want them here to have to live through the bad stuff that’s coming but I just wish they could see this … what we’re doing. Not just the family but me and you.”
Hesitantly I thought a moment and then said, “I’m pretty sure Preacher Don thinks they can, that they can see the good stuff anyway since there’s no tears in Heaven. When he said it, I started to wonder about my parents. I know they went to church and stuff.”
“How do you know that?”
“Things that people have been telling me about them. Did you know that my mother has relatives in Tennessee? Or at least that is what Mrs. Carmichael said. She seemed surprised I didn’t know. Anyway, if my parents can see me I’m really sure that your parents can see you. I mean you and them had time to have a relationship and stuff and I’m sure they’d want to know how you are getting along.”
“Aw Kay-Lee …”
“Oh don’t start that. I didn’t say anything to make you think I was having a pity-party.”
“Girl, you are the last person I would think of as throwing a pity-party.” He gave me a kiss. “Let’s eat. I’ve got stuff to bring in from the truck but I’m too hungry to do it.”
Supper was the last of one of the casseroles that people had sent over the Sunday after the flea market riot. It was a hash brown casserole with lots of cheese, ham, and garden peas. I had cooked a pan of cornbread to go with it using the coals left over from one of the cook fires. We had to eat on tv trays in the front room because there wasn’t any room in the kitchen what with all surfaces already filled with towel covered jars. I told Sawyer, “Watch how you open the frig or something is liable to fall out. We got a little out of sync today and got too much prepped for the number of jars we had.”
Sawyer swallowed and then wiped his mouth. “Are we out of jars?”
“I’m trading prep for some of the …”
“No, I mean are we out of jars, not what you’re trying to do about it if we are.”
“I’m out of jars in the house. There’s still all those jars out in the barn.”
“I’ll get some out tonight.”
“It is already covered. Davis and Clay …”
“Ain’t going to go rummaging through our stuff. Davis is all right but Clay … well I guess he is ok but …”
“All right. I’ve never met him, but I’ll take your word for it. What about Burt Jr? He’s going to be here tomorrow. We can always phrase it to Davis and Clay that Burt Jr. wants to earn some money – and he does and that’s why Delly is bringing him since I guess you all finished the warehouse today?”
“Yeah we did. Dang Burt for being a pack rat anyway. We cleaned out a bunch of the stuff by having a warehouse sale and on top of that Burt got a couple of deals going for cleaning out two estate sales that didn’t do too well … old folks dying with no heirs or no heirs that want their stuff. I know the two places and they’re more than a little on the rough side but they’re over in a desirable area where people have vacation rentals. New owner that bought them lock, stock, and barrel is going to rent the land out and then run the property like a time share or something close to it. But with hunting season coming up fast the turnaround needs to be quick. They’re already blocking out weeks starting the middle of September when archery season begins.”
“That’s over a month away.”
“It is but when I say these places are in rough shape, let’s just say they are a whole lot worse than this place was. Not stink-wise but they’re crammed jammed full of generations of junk. And we’ll have to get it done while getting all of our other work done too. It’s gonna be harder because Burt wants to salvage everything that can be but at the same time have it move in ready. Pretty much a turnkey operation.”
“Turn key?”
“Means when we are through all the new owners – or renters – have to do is walk up and turn the key and walk in.”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense. Is that another one you are going to drop on Gramps?”
“I’ve already run it by him and he’s excited. There’s good field stone on the land that is going to have to be moved to take down a couple of dilapidated out buildings and Uncle Junior has been asking us to be on the lookout for some so he can finish the fireplaces at all the new houses. I think the ones that opted for a trailer are getting sorry. The trailers might have looked nice at first but long-term upkeep and maintenance on them ain’t so easy as they thought it would be. The frame houses are small but they are turning out real nice and you can always add on to a house or change the siding to brick later on; a trailer pretty much is what it is.”
“Sorry enough to be jealous?”
“Why? Someone say something today?”
“Cindy and one of her sisters got into it a little bit until their mother put the kibosh on it and told them since they were old enough to be married and making babies they could act like grown-ups. Cindy didn’t like that but she straightened up not too much later. I think Cindy would be half way all right if she’d just stop … stop …”
Sawyer must have read my mind. “Trying to turn everything into a competition?”
“Hey, how did you know?”
Sawyer snorted. “Don’t forget, I went to school with her and Clay and their older sister too. They’re all stair steps. Lynnie is preggers too in case you didn’t know. Don’t know the younger one all that well. She’s still in school I think. Younger than you … and don’t get me started. I get heartburn enough when someone brings it up.”
Ignoring his silliness about my age I told him, “Yeah, got all the gory details while they were bickering. Cindy isn’t as far along as I thought she was and Lynnie is actually further along but doesn’t look it ‘cause she’s so tall.”
“Cindy is probably just playing it up. And about that … look, I’m gonna sound like an ass but the reason … aw hell. Look Clay is … I mean …”
“Oh brother. You mean he is going to flirt with all the wives and cause trouble?”
“Uh … not … not all the wives. He tends to … well … go after ones that … well … will appreciate the attention.”
“To make them feel good or to make himself feel good? Either way it sounds like he’s got a big ego. He better not fool around too much or one of your cousins is going to catch on and left fly with a nine-pound hammer whether he’s the son of Uncle Mark’s friend or not. That kind of trouble we can all do without.”
“Uh …”
“And by the way, you better not even be half-way thinking that I’m someone that would appreciate that kind of attention.”
“Er …”
“Because one, it is insulting to think that I’d break my word to you. Two, that I’d get a charge out of getting someone’s pity. And three that I’d find something like that the least attractive even if I hadn’t promised all that stuff when we got married. Tell me I don’t have to tell explain to you four, five, and six.”
He stood up and grabbed my tv tray to take the dishes to the kitchen and said real quick, “Of course not. I’ve got more sense than that.”
“I thought so. But I also thought it might be better to show you that I have more sense than that.” I grabbed his arm before he could walk away and pulled him down and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I really have you know.”
“I know,” he said with some embarrassment. “But it sure is nice to hear you say it. You aren’t mad?”
“No. If you can put up with my insecurities I can put up with your insecurities. ‘Nuff said?”
“For now. I wanna give you a little more appreciation though when we go to bed. You feel up to being appreciated?”
I smiled, “So long as you’re willing to move slow.”
With a grin I recognized he said, “Oh yeah, I can do that.”
Part Sixty-One
I was able to stand up by myself after he went to the kitchen which was a good indication that most of the swelling in the joints and everything of my bad leg was almost gone. But it didn’t hurt that I hadn’t had to run out of Naproxen. Dr. Carruthers had sent me home with several large bottles “gifted” to her by salesmen that came to her private practice. I limped out onto the front porch when Sawyer told me he was going to start bringing things in before it got any darker. He dropped the tailgate on his truck and started pulling out several plastic tubs and old boxes and setting them on the porch.
“Some of this doesn’t have to be gone through right this second but if you can get it done before Burt has another warehouse sale that would be good. You ain’t going to want all these books but some you might. The ones you don’t I’ll take back. Same for the rest of this. I guess most people would call it junk but I saw similar stuff in the things we are pulling out of the attic and wanted your opinion on whether it is worth the time to clean up and either keep or give to Gramps to share around the family.”
He kept bringing things out and over to me and then said, “This is the last of it. Be careful, I wrapped them up the best I could but some might have broken. They’re antique-y looking bottles and jars and other kind of glass stuff. Most of them still have the lids. And then there’s a box of old perfume containers or bottles or whatever you call them. Thought you’d get a kick out of them. If you don’t want ‘em I’ll take ‘em back. No sense in keeping junk.”
He went back and shut the tail gate and then had to give the dogs some more attention but pretty soon I heard the soft patter of rain on the roof porch and Sawyer made a dash onto the porch with the dogs close behind. All three had a disgruntled look but soon enough Sawyer said, “I’ll drag the books inside. Suppose I should bring the rest of this inside too and I’ll put it … where the hell am I going to put it?” he asked when he realized our usual places weren’t going to work.
“I hate to ask you to but one of the second-floor bedrooms would probably be good. The stuff will be out of the way and out of sight of whoever comes tomorrow.”
“Well if I’m going to go up to the second floor I might as well take it all the way to the third and set it in those rooms where you are separating out that stuff coming out of the attic.”
By the time he was finished with that we both were ready to shut up the house, take a shower (together), and head for bed. The next morning as we both got up early I was able to tell Sawyer that I was barely sore at all, or at least not beyond the normal.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. I actually feel pretty good. Are you going to Burt’s?”
“No, over to see Gramps and get this schedule all worked out. And hope I don’t step into a hornet’s nest. I’m still not convinced that what Aunt Pearl wants is going to work with what Gramp’s and some of the uncles have planned.”
“Well, someone is going to have to give if it doesn’t. But if Aunt Pearl gets too mad to explain it or Gramps too irritated to listen to her explain, it really is a good thing. With all the extra helping hands we’ll be able to make more varieties of things and maybe make what we have go further. The others are bringing wood that will pay in for their share. Plus, they are bringing produce too. Then there is the extra yard stoves and other equipment that sometimes holds us up from getting things going. And if that isn’t enough incentive remind him that those families are neighbors and surround Hartford land and if there ever was trouble it would be better for us to be able to work together. We won’t tell on them if they don’t tell on us and vice versa.”
Sawyer grinned and told me, “Fitting right into the family Mrs. Hartford.”
“That Mrs. Sawyer Hartford and don’t you forget it.”
“Well, aren’t you full of something this morning,” Sawyer said grinning even bigger.
“Just feeling good about finally moving forward and getting things done.”
“Well don’t try to ‘done’ too much and wreck yourself up again. I don’t like to see you hurt.”
With a kiss he was gone, and I wasn’t finished putting the clean breakfast dishes away before a vehicle pulled in and two more quickly arriving behind the first. There was a lot of younger kids, more than I was used to seeing outside of Sundays, but they were all put to work right away hauling things out of cars and trucks and wagons and helping to get it organized for the start of what was undoubtedly going to be a long day for everyone.
Linda, looking a little frazzled, came over and said, “Well you’re looking better. Did you get any more of those green beans snapped?”
“Two bushels of the green beans and they’re sitting in the kitchen in big pans waiting on whoever needs them and I’ve got almost four different gallons of the other shell beans ready.”
She almost wilted in relief. “Good. Tommy’s mom wants more green beans but all I was able to get to last night was shell beans. She’s on a warpath. She and some lady at the grocery store didn’t see eye to eye last night when we ran up there to get some more whole mustard to make pickles with. You have any to spare?”
“For my best friend in the whole world I do. As a matter of fact you saved it.”
“Huh?”
“At the flea market? Most of the biggest bag was full of all of those whole spices I bought at the dollar scratch-n-dent.”
“Was it? Oh wow. I forgot. Maybe that was what Uncle Forrester was talking about. I was just too tired to try and figure it out. When he gets agitated his speech gets are gobbledy-gooked up. Let me set this in the kitchen and I’ll run and tell her and maybe that will get her to back off her mad a little bit.”
I followed Linda over to her mother-in-law with my eyes and then blanched to see an untold number of bushels of tomatoes sitting in the bed of the truck and trailer they had driven over. Aunt Pearl caught me off guard coming around the corner and laughed at my expression after seeing what I was looking at. “Honey are you tired of tomatoes? I know Sawyer was bringing you some every night there for a while.”
“Never say you’re tired of something or next time you might not have any.”
“And where did you hear that?”
I turned and gave a naughty grin. “From a very smart lady … from you.”
Well she laughed some more and then said, “I guess you and Sawyer must’ve shared plans. He was running up the porch steps lickety split right as I was about to head this way and then skidded to a stop like a deer caught in the headlights. I reckon he expected a brawl but we got it worked out last night and Gramps even said it was good to have something useful to set some of the other boys to work at, especially the couple that are down in the dumps because their town work has been cut back. If he can convince ‘em that it is a blessing in disguise maybe they’ll get over their mullygrubs and realize what a prime opportunity is before them.”
“Opportunity?”
“Yes Honey. Gramps and some of the other men are laying down the law about who is getting what and how much. And some of ‘em that had expected to be on the receiving end are acting like something has gotten pinched in the screen door. Most of ‘em have gotten the message already, but a few are struggling with it. But that’s the men’s business and I’m leaving them to it. But better not be a female in the family not pulling their weight from here on out.”
Cindy’s mother came up right then and said, “You tell ‘em Pearl. Now as for all these littles, I brung my old yard fence. You want me to have one of the girls set it up and start tossing in the babies? Grass looks good and dry despite the rain. Wish my yard drained so well but the front is nothing but a clay bed that is as hard as concrete when it isn’t a small pond.” I left them to dividing up the morning’s work and walked into the kitchen to see where I could help.
By the middle of the afternoon I was willing to swear out a complaint of abuse against whoever planted the tomato fields until someone explained, “Normally most of the crop gets sold on the wholesale market but Florida had a bumper crop earlier this year and it really tore the bottom out of the market. And the local economy can’t absorb them all and has just made it that much worse.”
Someone else said, “At least not for sale. Have y’all heard about Derek Carter’s field? Went to bed thinking he was going to harvest the next day, woke up that morning to find the back ten acres had been completely rustled. And we’re talking tomatoes, not animals. Someone went through and cut the plants off at the ground and just hauled ‘em off. Bold as brass. Two days later someone went to go check that migrant encampment and they found everyone gone but all the tomato plants thrown in a pile with not a tomato left on ‘em … not even a green one.”
“Why on earth didn’t they check there in the first place?! Derek hires migrants every year except he didn’t this year and I heard some of the boss migrants were rather irate about it. Fightin’ mad that he was hiring locals instead.”
“Well why do you think? They didn’t want anyone screaming prejudice or that they were being profiled or some nonsense like that.”
Someone else chimed in with, “All in all crime is going through the roof no matter where you live. My sister was living in town but she’s letting her apartment go and she’s moving back home. Dad’s happy about it but my other sister not so much since they’ll have to share a room again because Mom finally convinced Gran to move in and share expenses with her and Dad.”
Stuff like that was discussed off and on all day. It wasn’t a real comfortable topic to think about. Made me wonder what my life would have been like right about now if … then I’d have to stop thinking about it because it made me queasy.
Clay was the other thing that made me queasy until I finally shut him up. I didn’t like doing it quite so openly but I didn’t know how else to handle it. I’d listened to him teasing me all morning and say that he was going to get a smile out of me one way or the other and I’d finally had enough when he said, “Oh have mercy on me. I can’t live without a certain number of daily smiles from pretty girls.”
I just about slammed down the paring knife I was using. “Clay, that’s the thing. Even if I could get over your need to be silly what you are failing to understand is I am not just some girl. I am a wife … Sawyer Hartford’s wife. And to me paying any attention to your silliness is being disrespectful to him. When Sawyer and I got married we made certain promises to each other and one of them was to treat each other right. So please, if you are in desperate need of some smiles, go do the work to get Mrs. Penny to smile at you. She’s a widow so technically able to pay attention to your nonsense. And working hard enough to get her to smile would probably earn you some kind of medal in that department.”
I winced after thinking about what I had just said but surprise, surprise Mrs. Penny started laughing so hard Burt Jr. had to get her a chair to sit in. To me she said, “You tell ‘em Sugar. All these boys with their silver tongues gonna find out real quick flapping it as much as they do ain’t gonna draw nothin’ but tarnish. Now Boy … Clay … stop your tomfoolery and get your momma some wood for her fire, it’s almost down to nuthin’.”
I was able to stand up by myself after he went to the kitchen which was a good indication that most of the swelling in the joints and everything of my bad leg was almost gone. But it didn’t hurt that I hadn’t had to run out of Naproxen. Dr. Carruthers had sent me home with several large bottles “gifted” to her by salesmen that came to her private practice. I limped out onto the front porch when Sawyer told me he was going to start bringing things in before it got any darker. He dropped the tailgate on his truck and started pulling out several plastic tubs and old boxes and setting them on the porch.
“Some of this doesn’t have to be gone through right this second but if you can get it done before Burt has another warehouse sale that would be good. You ain’t going to want all these books but some you might. The ones you don’t I’ll take back. Same for the rest of this. I guess most people would call it junk but I saw similar stuff in the things we are pulling out of the attic and wanted your opinion on whether it is worth the time to clean up and either keep or give to Gramps to share around the family.”
He kept bringing things out and over to me and then said, “This is the last of it. Be careful, I wrapped them up the best I could but some might have broken. They’re antique-y looking bottles and jars and other kind of glass stuff. Most of them still have the lids. And then there’s a box of old perfume containers or bottles or whatever you call them. Thought you’d get a kick out of them. If you don’t want ‘em I’ll take ‘em back. No sense in keeping junk.”
He went back and shut the tail gate and then had to give the dogs some more attention but pretty soon I heard the soft patter of rain on the roof porch and Sawyer made a dash onto the porch with the dogs close behind. All three had a disgruntled look but soon enough Sawyer said, “I’ll drag the books inside. Suppose I should bring the rest of this inside too and I’ll put it … where the hell am I going to put it?” he asked when he realized our usual places weren’t going to work.
“I hate to ask you to but one of the second-floor bedrooms would probably be good. The stuff will be out of the way and out of sight of whoever comes tomorrow.”
“Well if I’m going to go up to the second floor I might as well take it all the way to the third and set it in those rooms where you are separating out that stuff coming out of the attic.”
By the time he was finished with that we both were ready to shut up the house, take a shower (together), and head for bed. The next morning as we both got up early I was able to tell Sawyer that I was barely sore at all, or at least not beyond the normal.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. I actually feel pretty good. Are you going to Burt’s?”
“No, over to see Gramps and get this schedule all worked out. And hope I don’t step into a hornet’s nest. I’m still not convinced that what Aunt Pearl wants is going to work with what Gramp’s and some of the uncles have planned.”
“Well, someone is going to have to give if it doesn’t. But if Aunt Pearl gets too mad to explain it or Gramps too irritated to listen to her explain, it really is a good thing. With all the extra helping hands we’ll be able to make more varieties of things and maybe make what we have go further. The others are bringing wood that will pay in for their share. Plus, they are bringing produce too. Then there is the extra yard stoves and other equipment that sometimes holds us up from getting things going. And if that isn’t enough incentive remind him that those families are neighbors and surround Hartford land and if there ever was trouble it would be better for us to be able to work together. We won’t tell on them if they don’t tell on us and vice versa.”
Sawyer grinned and told me, “Fitting right into the family Mrs. Hartford.”
“That Mrs. Sawyer Hartford and don’t you forget it.”
“Well, aren’t you full of something this morning,” Sawyer said grinning even bigger.
“Just feeling good about finally moving forward and getting things done.”
“Well don’t try to ‘done’ too much and wreck yourself up again. I don’t like to see you hurt.”
With a kiss he was gone, and I wasn’t finished putting the clean breakfast dishes away before a vehicle pulled in and two more quickly arriving behind the first. There was a lot of younger kids, more than I was used to seeing outside of Sundays, but they were all put to work right away hauling things out of cars and trucks and wagons and helping to get it organized for the start of what was undoubtedly going to be a long day for everyone.
Linda, looking a little frazzled, came over and said, “Well you’re looking better. Did you get any more of those green beans snapped?”
“Two bushels of the green beans and they’re sitting in the kitchen in big pans waiting on whoever needs them and I’ve got almost four different gallons of the other shell beans ready.”
She almost wilted in relief. “Good. Tommy’s mom wants more green beans but all I was able to get to last night was shell beans. She’s on a warpath. She and some lady at the grocery store didn’t see eye to eye last night when we ran up there to get some more whole mustard to make pickles with. You have any to spare?”
“For my best friend in the whole world I do. As a matter of fact you saved it.”
“Huh?”
“At the flea market? Most of the biggest bag was full of all of those whole spices I bought at the dollar scratch-n-dent.”
“Was it? Oh wow. I forgot. Maybe that was what Uncle Forrester was talking about. I was just too tired to try and figure it out. When he gets agitated his speech gets are gobbledy-gooked up. Let me set this in the kitchen and I’ll run and tell her and maybe that will get her to back off her mad a little bit.”
I followed Linda over to her mother-in-law with my eyes and then blanched to see an untold number of bushels of tomatoes sitting in the bed of the truck and trailer they had driven over. Aunt Pearl caught me off guard coming around the corner and laughed at my expression after seeing what I was looking at. “Honey are you tired of tomatoes? I know Sawyer was bringing you some every night there for a while.”
“Never say you’re tired of something or next time you might not have any.”
“And where did you hear that?”
I turned and gave a naughty grin. “From a very smart lady … from you.”
Well she laughed some more and then said, “I guess you and Sawyer must’ve shared plans. He was running up the porch steps lickety split right as I was about to head this way and then skidded to a stop like a deer caught in the headlights. I reckon he expected a brawl but we got it worked out last night and Gramps even said it was good to have something useful to set some of the other boys to work at, especially the couple that are down in the dumps because their town work has been cut back. If he can convince ‘em that it is a blessing in disguise maybe they’ll get over their mullygrubs and realize what a prime opportunity is before them.”
“Opportunity?”
“Yes Honey. Gramps and some of the other men are laying down the law about who is getting what and how much. And some of ‘em that had expected to be on the receiving end are acting like something has gotten pinched in the screen door. Most of ‘em have gotten the message already, but a few are struggling with it. But that’s the men’s business and I’m leaving them to it. But better not be a female in the family not pulling their weight from here on out.”
Cindy’s mother came up right then and said, “You tell ‘em Pearl. Now as for all these littles, I brung my old yard fence. You want me to have one of the girls set it up and start tossing in the babies? Grass looks good and dry despite the rain. Wish my yard drained so well but the front is nothing but a clay bed that is as hard as concrete when it isn’t a small pond.” I left them to dividing up the morning’s work and walked into the kitchen to see where I could help.
By the middle of the afternoon I was willing to swear out a complaint of abuse against whoever planted the tomato fields until someone explained, “Normally most of the crop gets sold on the wholesale market but Florida had a bumper crop earlier this year and it really tore the bottom out of the market. And the local economy can’t absorb them all and has just made it that much worse.”
Someone else said, “At least not for sale. Have y’all heard about Derek Carter’s field? Went to bed thinking he was going to harvest the next day, woke up that morning to find the back ten acres had been completely rustled. And we’re talking tomatoes, not animals. Someone went through and cut the plants off at the ground and just hauled ‘em off. Bold as brass. Two days later someone went to go check that migrant encampment and they found everyone gone but all the tomato plants thrown in a pile with not a tomato left on ‘em … not even a green one.”
“Why on earth didn’t they check there in the first place?! Derek hires migrants every year except he didn’t this year and I heard some of the boss migrants were rather irate about it. Fightin’ mad that he was hiring locals instead.”
“Well why do you think? They didn’t want anyone screaming prejudice or that they were being profiled or some nonsense like that.”
Someone else chimed in with, “All in all crime is going through the roof no matter where you live. My sister was living in town but she’s letting her apartment go and she’s moving back home. Dad’s happy about it but my other sister not so much since they’ll have to share a room again because Mom finally convinced Gran to move in and share expenses with her and Dad.”
Stuff like that was discussed off and on all day. It wasn’t a real comfortable topic to think about. Made me wonder what my life would have been like right about now if … then I’d have to stop thinking about it because it made me queasy.
Clay was the other thing that made me queasy until I finally shut him up. I didn’t like doing it quite so openly but I didn’t know how else to handle it. I’d listened to him teasing me all morning and say that he was going to get a smile out of me one way or the other and I’d finally had enough when he said, “Oh have mercy on me. I can’t live without a certain number of daily smiles from pretty girls.”
I just about slammed down the paring knife I was using. “Clay, that’s the thing. Even if I could get over your need to be silly what you are failing to understand is I am not just some girl. I am a wife … Sawyer Hartford’s wife. And to me paying any attention to your silliness is being disrespectful to him. When Sawyer and I got married we made certain promises to each other and one of them was to treat each other right. So please, if you are in desperate need of some smiles, go do the work to get Mrs. Penny to smile at you. She’s a widow so technically able to pay attention to your nonsense. And working hard enough to get her to smile would probably earn you some kind of medal in that department.”
I winced after thinking about what I had just said but surprise, surprise Mrs. Penny started laughing so hard Burt Jr. had to get her a chair to sit in. To me she said, “You tell ‘em Sugar. All these boys with their silver tongues gonna find out real quick flapping it as much as they do ain’t gonna draw nothin’ but tarnish. Now Boy … Clay … stop your tomfoolery and get your momma some wood for her fire, it’s almost down to nuthin’.”
Part Sixty-Two
“Whoa, you look like you’ve had a day.”
“Sawyer!” I yelled happy to see him.
Startled he asked, “Hey, is anything wrong?”
“No … just glad you’re home. I was getting worried. You … you didn’t text like you normally do. And then when I tried to call, I kept getting a busy signal.”
He sighed. “There was a fire off the interstate and the news says it has the phone lines all messed up. Some crazy guy with a grudge against the phone and electric companies tried to blow up the switching station and a couple of cell towers. The ones on the cell towers didn’t blow but the one at the switching station did and it cut power to lots of places including the cell towers that didn’t blow up. Did we lose power out here?”
“No.”
“That’s good but we need to think about getting that deep freeze down to the bare minimum. I’m going to go with Burt to look over those two properties tomorrow morning early, but it shouldn’t take all day … hopefully. When I get home how about I help you get some stuff done around here and we talk about where we’re at and what we still need to do – cleaning out the deep freeze at the top of the list - and what we absolutely need to have, and what some of our wants are. Sound good to you?”
“Anything you want to do. And thank you.”
“For whut?”
“For not being a big headed goofball.”
Sawyer stopped and scowled. “Do I need to have a discussion with Clay?”
“No, doubt he’ll even want to come over anymore. Just geez, he’s older than I am but acts Burt Jr.’s age.” I explained about the day and everything else and he seemed satisfied.
“Don’t worry about it. Clay will either get it or he won’t … but until he does no good woman is gonna want him. Of course he ain’t looking for a good woman just a piece of tail.”
“Sawyer!” I yelped at his crudeness.
“Well it’s the truth. Now guess what I brung you.”
“I have no idea but … it isn’t tomatoes is it?”
Sawyer laughed. “No. But it is something along those lines. You remember Toby?”
“From the reservoir.”
“Yep. Well his grandfather planted about five acres of what he thought was legumes … something for green manure. Anyway he did plant legumes but one acre and a piece of them turned out to be peanuts. Back a ways Toby said whoever helped him pull and stack them for curing would get a share when they were threshed. I did it just to … just to get back with Toby and kinda make things right between us again. I wasn’t really expecting much from them but Toby came over today and brung us almost five hundred pounds of green peanuts.”
My mouth fell open. “Uh …”
“Yeah, that’s about what I said but after Toby left Uncle Donnell broke it down for me. He says there are about 32 quarts of green peanuts in the shell in a bushel. He looked at the ones we had and said that we probably had about forty pounds per bushel so we got us about twelve and a half bushels of peanuts.”
“Uh …”
“Uncle Donnell also says what he’d do is he’d can most of those green peanuts in their shells and then use them as bribes with the other wives or to trade or whatever. Boiled peanuts in the middle of winter will go over real well. I know I’ll be looking forward to some.”
Carefully I told him, “You do realize I haven’t got the foggiest idea how to can peanuts, green[1] or otherwise[2].”
“Aunt Pearl will know. Delly might even remember because my mom used to do it.”
That relieved me some and I jotted down a note to give Delly a call the next day. “What else did you do besides peanuts?”
“Helped load trees as they got taken down. We’ve got two good sized flatbeds loaded full to be brought over next week on canning day. But we had to secure them because people are complaining about their wood piles are being poached and it isn’t even winter yet. What about you?”
“That’s awful about that stuff already starting, and I heard some stories about people losing crops. Even though I had nothing before we got married I never thought about stealing other people’s stuff. People are just nasty. As for us that were here today we got a lot accomplished. We’re going to need a better way to keep track of everyone’s jars but so far we are ok. And Burt Jr. did a real good job. He hauled all of those jars out of the barn and down into the cellar by himself.”
“All of them?!”
“Yeah. I think even Aunt Pearl thought I was crazy but after the stories I heard today and now you saying wood piles are being poached even in this heat … those jars are important and expensive. I know it leaves a mess in the basement – about like what is in the kitchen and dining room – but not something we can’t work around and things will get reorganized as the jars get filled up and put on the shelves. Plus Burt Jr. was willing to work for some old, antique toy soldiers that came out of the attic. Apparently he collects them and the ones I showed him are a big deal and even adult collectors consider them valuable.”
“Those junky little bits of metal?” At my nod he said, “Well whatever floats that boy’s boat. I don’t see it myself.”
“Well it sure floated his. He was hugging those two cigar boxes they were in for all he was worth.”
“Well I guess you have been thinking. I would have given him cash to take them jars from the barn to the porch but you got him to haul them down to the basement. Good deal Lucille.”
“Yeah. And I hope you don’t mind but I’d like to put my canning inventory on your laptop.”
“Of course I don’t mind. I’ll set you up a spread sheet if you tell me what columns you want on it. Maybe we can work on that tomorrow too.”
“I wouldn’t bother you with it …”
“It’s no bother.”
“It is but thank you for pretending it isn’t. Like I was saying I wouldn’t bother you with it except we are getting so much and Mrs. Penny and Mrs. Carmichael have brought some really good recipes with them. Did you know they used to work in some test kitchen?”
“Yeah, years ago there was a cannery that made stuff for the tourist market. Mom worked there before I was born during the off season. Every once in a while Dad would talk about something he remembered trying as an experiment. Not all of them turned out too good according to him.”
I winced remembering some of my own failed experiments in school. “Well the ones that I tried today were good – especially these batches of stuff called Carrot Cake Butter, Carrot Marmalade[3] and this other called Carrot Cake Jam[4], but before I make my own batches of anything else I want you to try them first.”
Cautiously he agreed and we headed to the kitchen where his mouth fell open and his eyes just about bugged out. “Jumping Jehoshaphat! I thought this place was crowded yesterday! How the Sam Hill are we supposed to get around in here? My Lord, half the floor is even covered!”
I nodded. “Most of it should be gone by tomorrow. We had thought about leaving it all on the back porch but I’m just not real comfortable being responsible for stuff like this if it is going to be left outside, even if it is just for one day. The dining room is just as bad and the parlor has its share too.”
“My gawd.”
As soon as I promised him again that most of it would be gone by the end of the next day he calmed down and agreed that under the circumstances it was probably the best any of us could do.
“Aunt Suzanne said that it was a good thing that I’d been blessed with a big kitchen to go with the big wood stove. As it is we did most of the food prep outside on the porches or in the yard. If you want to add something to the ‘want’ list it might be nice if we could screen off part of the back porch, at least maybe the section that goes into the old kitchen, to keep the bugs and flies out.”
Sawyer took his notepad out of his shirt pocket and started scribbling. “That’s actually a good idea. We could have the doors open more or even build a sleeping porch there. Not this summer but maybe next depending on how things run. The worst of the heat has passed but that doesn’t mean it is exactly cool yet.”
I handed him a little piece of bread with something on it and said, “Try this.”
To his credit, Sawyer didn’t balk but took it from my hand and popped it into his mouth. “Mmmph. Hmm. Mmm. Mmmmmmm. What’s this?”
“Roasted Tomato and Garlic Pizza Sauce. I decided to use up some of the leftovers of things today and I made you a pizza with this sauce and some of the Pickled Pineapple I made and some homemade sausage left over that Cindy’s mother left us. Uh … it’s squirrel sausage.”
“Squirrel … ?!” He started laughing. “How cross-eyed did you get when she asked for you to try it?”
“Not very because Linda had already warned me that she likes to play practical jokes almost as much as Cutter used to. I turned it around on her and said that I was dying to try it because so many people brag on getting a little piece when she makes it.”
Sawyer laughed some more and says, “You’ll do, yes you will. Now point me towards that pizza; I’m starving.”
[1] How to Make Home Canned Nuts (all types: peanuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc.) - Easily! With Step-by-step Directions, Photos, Ingredients, Recipe and Costs
[2] How to Make Home-Canned Boiled Peanuts, Easily!
[3] Carrot Marmalade Recipe - Food.com
[4] http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Carrot-Cake-Jam-Serious-Eats-42236
“Whoa, you look like you’ve had a day.”
“Sawyer!” I yelled happy to see him.
Startled he asked, “Hey, is anything wrong?”
“No … just glad you’re home. I was getting worried. You … you didn’t text like you normally do. And then when I tried to call, I kept getting a busy signal.”
He sighed. “There was a fire off the interstate and the news says it has the phone lines all messed up. Some crazy guy with a grudge against the phone and electric companies tried to blow up the switching station and a couple of cell towers. The ones on the cell towers didn’t blow but the one at the switching station did and it cut power to lots of places including the cell towers that didn’t blow up. Did we lose power out here?”
“No.”
“That’s good but we need to think about getting that deep freeze down to the bare minimum. I’m going to go with Burt to look over those two properties tomorrow morning early, but it shouldn’t take all day … hopefully. When I get home how about I help you get some stuff done around here and we talk about where we’re at and what we still need to do – cleaning out the deep freeze at the top of the list - and what we absolutely need to have, and what some of our wants are. Sound good to you?”
“Anything you want to do. And thank you.”
“For whut?”
“For not being a big headed goofball.”
Sawyer stopped and scowled. “Do I need to have a discussion with Clay?”
“No, doubt he’ll even want to come over anymore. Just geez, he’s older than I am but acts Burt Jr.’s age.” I explained about the day and everything else and he seemed satisfied.
“Don’t worry about it. Clay will either get it or he won’t … but until he does no good woman is gonna want him. Of course he ain’t looking for a good woman just a piece of tail.”
“Sawyer!” I yelped at his crudeness.
“Well it’s the truth. Now guess what I brung you.”
“I have no idea but … it isn’t tomatoes is it?”
Sawyer laughed. “No. But it is something along those lines. You remember Toby?”
“From the reservoir.”
“Yep. Well his grandfather planted about five acres of what he thought was legumes … something for green manure. Anyway he did plant legumes but one acre and a piece of them turned out to be peanuts. Back a ways Toby said whoever helped him pull and stack them for curing would get a share when they were threshed. I did it just to … just to get back with Toby and kinda make things right between us again. I wasn’t really expecting much from them but Toby came over today and brung us almost five hundred pounds of green peanuts.”
My mouth fell open. “Uh …”
“Yeah, that’s about what I said but after Toby left Uncle Donnell broke it down for me. He says there are about 32 quarts of green peanuts in the shell in a bushel. He looked at the ones we had and said that we probably had about forty pounds per bushel so we got us about twelve and a half bushels of peanuts.”
“Uh …”
“Uncle Donnell also says what he’d do is he’d can most of those green peanuts in their shells and then use them as bribes with the other wives or to trade or whatever. Boiled peanuts in the middle of winter will go over real well. I know I’ll be looking forward to some.”
Carefully I told him, “You do realize I haven’t got the foggiest idea how to can peanuts, green[1] or otherwise[2].”
“Aunt Pearl will know. Delly might even remember because my mom used to do it.”
That relieved me some and I jotted down a note to give Delly a call the next day. “What else did you do besides peanuts?”
“Helped load trees as they got taken down. We’ve got two good sized flatbeds loaded full to be brought over next week on canning day. But we had to secure them because people are complaining about their wood piles are being poached and it isn’t even winter yet. What about you?”
“That’s awful about that stuff already starting, and I heard some stories about people losing crops. Even though I had nothing before we got married I never thought about stealing other people’s stuff. People are just nasty. As for us that were here today we got a lot accomplished. We’re going to need a better way to keep track of everyone’s jars but so far we are ok. And Burt Jr. did a real good job. He hauled all of those jars out of the barn and down into the cellar by himself.”
“All of them?!”
“Yeah. I think even Aunt Pearl thought I was crazy but after the stories I heard today and now you saying wood piles are being poached even in this heat … those jars are important and expensive. I know it leaves a mess in the basement – about like what is in the kitchen and dining room – but not something we can’t work around and things will get reorganized as the jars get filled up and put on the shelves. Plus Burt Jr. was willing to work for some old, antique toy soldiers that came out of the attic. Apparently he collects them and the ones I showed him are a big deal and even adult collectors consider them valuable.”
“Those junky little bits of metal?” At my nod he said, “Well whatever floats that boy’s boat. I don’t see it myself.”
“Well it sure floated his. He was hugging those two cigar boxes they were in for all he was worth.”
“Well I guess you have been thinking. I would have given him cash to take them jars from the barn to the porch but you got him to haul them down to the basement. Good deal Lucille.”
“Yeah. And I hope you don’t mind but I’d like to put my canning inventory on your laptop.”
“Of course I don’t mind. I’ll set you up a spread sheet if you tell me what columns you want on it. Maybe we can work on that tomorrow too.”
“I wouldn’t bother you with it …”
“It’s no bother.”
“It is but thank you for pretending it isn’t. Like I was saying I wouldn’t bother you with it except we are getting so much and Mrs. Penny and Mrs. Carmichael have brought some really good recipes with them. Did you know they used to work in some test kitchen?”
“Yeah, years ago there was a cannery that made stuff for the tourist market. Mom worked there before I was born during the off season. Every once in a while Dad would talk about something he remembered trying as an experiment. Not all of them turned out too good according to him.”
I winced remembering some of my own failed experiments in school. “Well the ones that I tried today were good – especially these batches of stuff called Carrot Cake Butter, Carrot Marmalade[3] and this other called Carrot Cake Jam[4], but before I make my own batches of anything else I want you to try them first.”
Cautiously he agreed and we headed to the kitchen where his mouth fell open and his eyes just about bugged out. “Jumping Jehoshaphat! I thought this place was crowded yesterday! How the Sam Hill are we supposed to get around in here? My Lord, half the floor is even covered!”
I nodded. “Most of it should be gone by tomorrow. We had thought about leaving it all on the back porch but I’m just not real comfortable being responsible for stuff like this if it is going to be left outside, even if it is just for one day. The dining room is just as bad and the parlor has its share too.”
“My gawd.”
As soon as I promised him again that most of it would be gone by the end of the next day he calmed down and agreed that under the circumstances it was probably the best any of us could do.
“Aunt Suzanne said that it was a good thing that I’d been blessed with a big kitchen to go with the big wood stove. As it is we did most of the food prep outside on the porches or in the yard. If you want to add something to the ‘want’ list it might be nice if we could screen off part of the back porch, at least maybe the section that goes into the old kitchen, to keep the bugs and flies out.”
Sawyer took his notepad out of his shirt pocket and started scribbling. “That’s actually a good idea. We could have the doors open more or even build a sleeping porch there. Not this summer but maybe next depending on how things run. The worst of the heat has passed but that doesn’t mean it is exactly cool yet.”
I handed him a little piece of bread with something on it and said, “Try this.”
To his credit, Sawyer didn’t balk but took it from my hand and popped it into his mouth. “Mmmph. Hmm. Mmm. Mmmmmmm. What’s this?”
“Roasted Tomato and Garlic Pizza Sauce. I decided to use up some of the leftovers of things today and I made you a pizza with this sauce and some of the Pickled Pineapple I made and some homemade sausage left over that Cindy’s mother left us. Uh … it’s squirrel sausage.”
“Squirrel … ?!” He started laughing. “How cross-eyed did you get when she asked for you to try it?”
“Not very because Linda had already warned me that she likes to play practical jokes almost as much as Cutter used to. I turned it around on her and said that I was dying to try it because so many people brag on getting a little piece when she makes it.”
Sawyer laughed some more and says, “You’ll do, yes you will. Now point me towards that pizza; I’m starving.”
[1] How to Make Home Canned Nuts (all types: peanuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc.) - Easily! With Step-by-step Directions, Photos, Ingredients, Recipe and Costs
[2] How to Make Home-Canned Boiled Peanuts, Easily!
[3] Carrot Marmalade Recipe - Food.com
[4] http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Carrot-Cake-Jam-Serious-Eats-42236
Part Sixty-Three
“Open the screen door, quick! I gotta set these two pails down and go get the rest of that stuff in. If I’d known it was gonna rain I would have put the camper top back on. Dammit!”
Sawyer set two five-gallon buckets inside the front door and then ran back out to his truck where he started bringing things in. I started to go down the steps to help him but he waived me back. “No. I can do it faster and I don’t want you sliding and taking a fall and making more work.”
Why fight the truth? But it wasn’t said the way I would have liked to have heard it and when Sawyer got everything out of the rain including himself he kissed me and said, “I didn’t mean to be so rough. Just irritated and wasn’t thinking.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “Neither one of us can change the way I am. Let me get you a towel.”
“Kay-Lee …”
I turned and sighed. “I’m not upset or pouting. Just frustrated you always seem to have to take the kicks because of me.”
He made a face then asked, “Aw hell, who done run their mouth and tattled?”
“Don’t get mad at anyone, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to know. I just over heard them talking about it.”
“Who?”
“Just some of the women that came by to pick up their jars.”
He snarled, “I asked who?”
Suddenly getting angry I snapped back at him, “I’m not gonna list their names out for you to go snarling at them the way you’re snarling at me. If you didn’t want it to get back to me then you shouldn’t have gotten into the fight in the first place.”
I turned and walked to the kitchen and felt like throwing something.
A minute later Sawyer stuck his head in the door and said, “Uh … Kay-Lee? Are we fighting?”
“Not ‘cause I picked one,” I told him slamming a skillet onto the stove top a little harder than I meant to.
“Uh … wanna see what I brought you?”
“I’ll look as soon as I finish fixing supper for you.”
“Kinda early to …”
I snapped, “I said give me a second.”
“I guess I really have stuck my foot in it. You gonna make me sleep on the porch with Davey and Harley?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
He sidled up behind me and slowly bent and whispered on the back of my neck, “Anything I can do to fix the spot I’m in?”
I sighed. “Sawyer will you stop doing that? I don’t need anyone, especially not you, acting like I’m a bomb about to go off that constantly needs sweetening or worse, act like I’m glass that’ll break over the least little thing. I know what I am and what my personal deficits are. I’ve tried real hard not to let them define who I am even if that’s the way everyone else tries to make it. I just didn’t expect you to define me that way.”
“Hey! I don’t …”
“Then tell me why on earth you would get in a fight with a guy that obviously doesn’t know me, or you for that matter. He certainly doesn’t know us … as a couple and stuff. We find work arounds for things when my deficits slow us down, or at least we do as much as possible. Why you gotta let some person that doesn’t know us and who apparently can’t keep his brain in gear and ahead of his mouth get to you I don’t know … at least not after all this time we’ve been together.”
“Aw Kay-Lee … Honey … I just couldn’t stand there and let him say things that would hurt you.”
“That’s the thing Sawyer, I wasn’t even there to be hurt by the things he said; and even if I had been I probably would have laughed at him. Fighting over something that is the truth … that I walk funny and that we sometimes have to do things differently in the bedroom because of my pains … was just … just … stupid! What if they’d called the cops?! You took the ever loving first swing! Took the idiot out in one swipe but that left the idiot’s two brothers to tag team you.”
“I won.”
“Of course you did but you didn’t have to fight in the first place!”
“Wait … Of course I did?”
“Sawyer!”
“Well … I thought you were angry ‘cause I might have gotten hurt.”
“Oh for …” I said slamming a wooden spoon down so hard into the jar of mayo that I was digging out to make Mayonnaise Biscuits with that I broke the handle. “Sawyer if you can survive all the things you’ve had to go through of course I know you’re strong. No, the idea of you getting hurt doesn’t thrill me but you’re a guy and guys are going to get banged around because that’s what the male of the species apparently thinks is the way to resolve conflicts most of the time. I’ve heard the aunts say that guys are like goats … get two in the same pen and eventually they are going to knock horns over something. However, I don’t have to like it at all that the reason you got banged around this time was because some stupid, good for nothing, jumped up, son of a donkey used me to push your buttons!!”
“Wow.”
“Wow what?!”
“Just … wow. I’ve never seen you this mad.”
“Well duh. You’ve never given me reason to be this mad before and I can’t believe you did it this time. I don’t consider no one else worth expending this much energy on. I swear!”
“No swearing. I really would start to feel bad if you went that far.” I let him pull me back against him though I kept making the biscuits. “Kay-Lee I couldn’t let it slide. I’m not asking you to understand if you can’t, but … this is something you are just going to have to accept. Sometimes you have to fight.”
“I know that. But this wasn’t a good enough reason.”
“It was to me. I’m not going to let people talk about you like that. I’m just not. And them doing it in front of so many other people … well he needed taking down a peg or two. I can’t be sorry for it … but I am sorry you’re upset over it.”
I shook my head. “Sawyer someone is always going to be that way about me. They’ve been that way for eighteen years, they’re going to keep being that way for eighteen more … and probably eighteen beyond that if I live that long. That’s just the way it is.”
“I don’t accept that.”
“Oh Sawyer … eventually you are going to have to. And the more you let them get to you the more they’ll try to get to you. If you act like what they say doesn’t matter, most of them will eventually get bored and go on to something else.”
“I’m telling you I just don’t accept it.”
I shook my head again, but I knew that holding onto being angry about this was just as senseless as the anger that Sawyer had let rip him up and get into a fight in the first place.
“Oh Sawyer. Just try and not let people get to you. They may have said it to be hurtful but what they said was the truth. Next time just disarm them with more truth and say that when a man is a good man he does what he has to for his wife.”
“I’ll disarm him all right if he is stupid enough to come at me again. I’ll dis-leg and dis-head and then tear his ass off too if that’s what it takes.” There was no talking sense after that and Sawyer went to go clean up and I finished supper.
Supper, when it was finished, was a little quiet but not in a completely bad way. To cut the silence I said, “I’m sorry I didn’t ask you how your day went. I should have.”
“Day isn’t over with,” he said with a grin. “Think I could sweeten you up by showing you what I found when we were at them two houses?”
“You don’t need to sweeten …”
“It was just a saying Kay-Lee and I’m playing. I know you don’t think about things that way. Let’s just move passed it. OK?”
“OK. I just … I don’t want to hurt your feelings and … ok, ok. Moving passed.”
“Good. Now come look and stop thinking so hard. You’re steaming up the house and it’s too hot for it.”
Well, it can’t be said that Sawyer didn’t like having his way, so I decided to follow his lead and let it go … or at least stop thinking about it out loud. I followed him into the front room and he said, “These two pails are honey … and heavy so don’t even try and move them. I’ll move them to the pantry before we hit the sack tonight. It looks real dark but Uncle Donnell says it’s good. He came with us because Burt wanted his opinion on the best way to remove some bees that were in the wall of one of the houses. This is where the honey came from. We’ll get more, this was just the easiest of the sticky stuff to get to. Uncle Donnell said he’ll remove the bees for free so long as he gets to keep them. They aren’t Africanized which is better than he expected because a lot of the wild hives are these days. Burt is happy as a clam just to be able to mark that problem off the list I can tell you. We’ll have some clean up and repair but not as bad as it could be since the hive is only in one wall on the first floor.”
“How old is the honey?”
“Oh this honey isn’t old. Uncle Donnell says it is from this season. The color is because the bees got their nectar from the fields of buckwheat the old guy planted. Buckwheat generally makes honey so dark you could mistake if for sorghum.”
That cheered me up. “Well I’ll use this for baking and save the sugar and lighter colored honey that we have for canning.”
“So do I get a kiss for being a good husband?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re pushing your luck Hartford.”
Sawyer grinned and said, “The rest of this stuff is kinda … well … Burt thinks I’ve lost my mind but Uncle Donnell gave me a wink. Take a look.”
He stepped back out of the doorway of the front room and at first all I saw was a jumble but then I started picking things out and I yipped in surprise and stumbled forward. “Whoa there.”
“Oh Sawyer! These are just like the ones we saw in that book on Shaker furniture. Real ladder back chairs! And … and there’s … one, two, three, four … eight of them!”
“Yep. This winter I’ll strip them down to wood and get all these layers of paint off … damned if I’m gonna sit on a chair that is Pepto-Bismol pink and old refrigerator green and try and eat. We can then get rid of those metal monsters in the kitchen that try to pinch your butt every time you sit in them. I know they look in rough shape right now – they were stacked on a back porch – but they don’t creak. You like ‘em?”
“It is called avocado green and you know I love the chairs. It’s one of the things we said … Oh Sawyer.” Then I bit my lip trying not to get my hopes up. “But didn’t you say that some of the others need furniture?”
“Then they can get their butts out there, get a job, and get them some furniture.”
“Is Burt going to want something for these?”
“Oh he’ll get his share but he really only wants some of the expensive antique pieces and some of the easier to get rid of collectibles. He actually hopes the family will take most of the stuff off his hands so he doesn’t have to make too many dump runs or fill his warehouse with things that won’t sell. For instance, in that box there is a bunch of that funny colored glass junk like you found up in the attic … Vaseline glass or whatever the heck you called it … and Burt said last year he could have sold it all day long on Ebay and some other websites that cater to collectors but this year he said you just about can’t give the stuff away and it isn’t worth what it would cost to ship and insure it. So basically he took some pieces for my sister and then told me to take the rest of it but keep it to myself because he don’t want the women on his side of the family to add more junk to his storage buildings cause they want something but have run out of room at their places to keep it. That being said, we can’t just strip the place down to nothing. Some furniture has to be left for the future renters to use but the new owner – some guy name Wilbur Holmes – only wants the bare necessities. He’s going to be renting out to hunters in the fall and winter and college kids that go to the lake in summer primarily so it doesn’t have to be fancy and he really doesn’t want to have to worry about anything breakable or expensive and worth stealing. In fact we’re supposed to bolt the furniture down like they do in hotels.”
“Well my goodness,” I said unconsciously mimicking Aunt Pearl which made Sawyer grin. “How much stuff are we talking about and if Burt doesn’t want it where are we supposed to put it?”
“It depends on what it is. There was a big ol’ cedar chest in one house that was full of old quilts. Lots of linens and stuff like that in both houses though some of them smell funny … might be mothballs I’m not sure. All sorts of dishes too but Holmes wants that kind of stuff gone because he’s going to rent it out so that people have to bring their own linens and dishes. Apparently Holmes already owns some of these types of rentals and knows what he wants and what he doesn’t and plans on coming in later with some really basic and cheap items. But see I have an idea if you aren’t against it.”
“What?”
“Most of the family and their connections already come here for canning days right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well after we get through taking what we want we can line stuff up in the barn and say that they have a certain day or two to come see if there is anything they need and haul it off. If they don’t get it by then it’ll be their own fault if we decide to give it to someone else needy, donate it to charity, give it to the church, or whatever ends up happening. You fine with that?”
“Sure so long as Gramps and the Aunts have first dibs.”
“Well that goes without saying. And if someone in the family or from church are really hard up they’ll know. In a way I’m hoping there is some of that.”
“Why?”
“’Cause it sticks in my craw that some of them sit around waiting for something to be handed to them.”
“Anyone in particular?”
“Jamison. Thing is his wife is real nice and a go-getter.”
Concerned that I’d been calling someone a wrong name all this time I asked, “Who’s Jamison?”
“Uncle Forrester’s oldest grandson. You’ve never met him. I found out today he is supposed to be moving back here after having moved out to the oil fields with Bud who is his uncle though they ain’t that far apart in age. Well Bud ain’t staying and in fact doesn’t even plan on visiting but going straight to his wife and in laws but Jamison figures to come back here and ‘get him a little place free and clear.’ Jamison always did like to take a short cut if he could find one.”
“When … er …”
“If he actually does move here it is supposed to be some time after the first of the year but with Jamison it is one of those things that when you see him that is when he decided he was supposed to show up. According to Uncle Donnell who don’t favor too many of his cousins’ kids he told Uncle Forrester that would give all of us time to set him up a place.”
It took me a moment to get up the nerve to ask, “Did he really mean to say what it sounds like he said?”
“Knowing Jamison? Yeah. His wife’s name is Janet. She’s a little hard to get to know because she’s forever moving and doing stuff. Probably has to to make up for Jamison. But she ain’t bad.”
“But … you said he works the oil fields.”
Sawyer sighed and leaned against the doorframe. “Don’t get me wrong, when Jamison works he works hard. It’s just he only works for Jamison’s benefit if you get what I mean.”
“Oh.”
“Enough of sour thoughts. Look what else I brung you.”
He pulled out a couple of boxes and my mouth fell open. “That’s … that’s Carnival glass … and Milk Glass … and, and … enamel glass … and I think that is called … slag glass and … oh. Oh my gosh … and so much of it.”
“Some of this was in a kitchen cabinet of the bee house just stacked all willy nilly and pushed back like whoever had it didn’t really care for it but didn’t know what to do with it. I thought maybe you’d want it for that collection of that funny colored glass stuff you’re getting in that room on the third floor. So did I do good?”
“Oh Sawyer …” I said feeling flabbergasted. “I’ve never had anything and suddenly now I have so much and you’re bringing me even more and ….” I couldn’t even finished my sentence I was so overcome.
Sawyer bent down where I was looking at the glass knick knacks and said, “Let me get this up off the floor. That damp is going to make you sore. And I’m happy that you like it … you do like it right?”
“Oh yes.”
“Well good. But if you don’t mind waiting to mess with it could we go through our lists? I was gonna mow the near orchard but that’s obviously out, but I’d like to at least get caught up on this other.”
“Of course. And I already went over the inventory of the pantry stuff. And guess what Burt Jr. taught me to do?”
“Uh … that’s some grin so I’m kinda worried.”
“I can shoot a sling shot. He called it a wrist rocket but I hit the cans he put on the fence post almost every time after the first couple of tries.”
Sawyer started laughing and kept laughing until we started going over our lists and notes, but even as serious as that was we both still did it was grins on our faces.
“Open the screen door, quick! I gotta set these two pails down and go get the rest of that stuff in. If I’d known it was gonna rain I would have put the camper top back on. Dammit!”
Sawyer set two five-gallon buckets inside the front door and then ran back out to his truck where he started bringing things in. I started to go down the steps to help him but he waived me back. “No. I can do it faster and I don’t want you sliding and taking a fall and making more work.”
Why fight the truth? But it wasn’t said the way I would have liked to have heard it and when Sawyer got everything out of the rain including himself he kissed me and said, “I didn’t mean to be so rough. Just irritated and wasn’t thinking.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “Neither one of us can change the way I am. Let me get you a towel.”
“Kay-Lee …”
I turned and sighed. “I’m not upset or pouting. Just frustrated you always seem to have to take the kicks because of me.”
He made a face then asked, “Aw hell, who done run their mouth and tattled?”
“Don’t get mad at anyone, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to know. I just over heard them talking about it.”
“Who?”
“Just some of the women that came by to pick up their jars.”
He snarled, “I asked who?”
Suddenly getting angry I snapped back at him, “I’m not gonna list their names out for you to go snarling at them the way you’re snarling at me. If you didn’t want it to get back to me then you shouldn’t have gotten into the fight in the first place.”
I turned and walked to the kitchen and felt like throwing something.
A minute later Sawyer stuck his head in the door and said, “Uh … Kay-Lee? Are we fighting?”
“Not ‘cause I picked one,” I told him slamming a skillet onto the stove top a little harder than I meant to.
“Uh … wanna see what I brought you?”
“I’ll look as soon as I finish fixing supper for you.”
“Kinda early to …”
I snapped, “I said give me a second.”
“I guess I really have stuck my foot in it. You gonna make me sleep on the porch with Davey and Harley?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
He sidled up behind me and slowly bent and whispered on the back of my neck, “Anything I can do to fix the spot I’m in?”
I sighed. “Sawyer will you stop doing that? I don’t need anyone, especially not you, acting like I’m a bomb about to go off that constantly needs sweetening or worse, act like I’m glass that’ll break over the least little thing. I know what I am and what my personal deficits are. I’ve tried real hard not to let them define who I am even if that’s the way everyone else tries to make it. I just didn’t expect you to define me that way.”
“Hey! I don’t …”
“Then tell me why on earth you would get in a fight with a guy that obviously doesn’t know me, or you for that matter. He certainly doesn’t know us … as a couple and stuff. We find work arounds for things when my deficits slow us down, or at least we do as much as possible. Why you gotta let some person that doesn’t know us and who apparently can’t keep his brain in gear and ahead of his mouth get to you I don’t know … at least not after all this time we’ve been together.”
“Aw Kay-Lee … Honey … I just couldn’t stand there and let him say things that would hurt you.”
“That’s the thing Sawyer, I wasn’t even there to be hurt by the things he said; and even if I had been I probably would have laughed at him. Fighting over something that is the truth … that I walk funny and that we sometimes have to do things differently in the bedroom because of my pains … was just … just … stupid! What if they’d called the cops?! You took the ever loving first swing! Took the idiot out in one swipe but that left the idiot’s two brothers to tag team you.”
“I won.”
“Of course you did but you didn’t have to fight in the first place!”
“Wait … Of course I did?”
“Sawyer!”
“Well … I thought you were angry ‘cause I might have gotten hurt.”
“Oh for …” I said slamming a wooden spoon down so hard into the jar of mayo that I was digging out to make Mayonnaise Biscuits with that I broke the handle. “Sawyer if you can survive all the things you’ve had to go through of course I know you’re strong. No, the idea of you getting hurt doesn’t thrill me but you’re a guy and guys are going to get banged around because that’s what the male of the species apparently thinks is the way to resolve conflicts most of the time. I’ve heard the aunts say that guys are like goats … get two in the same pen and eventually they are going to knock horns over something. However, I don’t have to like it at all that the reason you got banged around this time was because some stupid, good for nothing, jumped up, son of a donkey used me to push your buttons!!”
“Wow.”
“Wow what?!”
“Just … wow. I’ve never seen you this mad.”
“Well duh. You’ve never given me reason to be this mad before and I can’t believe you did it this time. I don’t consider no one else worth expending this much energy on. I swear!”
“No swearing. I really would start to feel bad if you went that far.” I let him pull me back against him though I kept making the biscuits. “Kay-Lee I couldn’t let it slide. I’m not asking you to understand if you can’t, but … this is something you are just going to have to accept. Sometimes you have to fight.”
“I know that. But this wasn’t a good enough reason.”
“It was to me. I’m not going to let people talk about you like that. I’m just not. And them doing it in front of so many other people … well he needed taking down a peg or two. I can’t be sorry for it … but I am sorry you’re upset over it.”
I shook my head. “Sawyer someone is always going to be that way about me. They’ve been that way for eighteen years, they’re going to keep being that way for eighteen more … and probably eighteen beyond that if I live that long. That’s just the way it is.”
“I don’t accept that.”
“Oh Sawyer … eventually you are going to have to. And the more you let them get to you the more they’ll try to get to you. If you act like what they say doesn’t matter, most of them will eventually get bored and go on to something else.”
“I’m telling you I just don’t accept it.”
I shook my head again, but I knew that holding onto being angry about this was just as senseless as the anger that Sawyer had let rip him up and get into a fight in the first place.
“Oh Sawyer. Just try and not let people get to you. They may have said it to be hurtful but what they said was the truth. Next time just disarm them with more truth and say that when a man is a good man he does what he has to for his wife.”
“I’ll disarm him all right if he is stupid enough to come at me again. I’ll dis-leg and dis-head and then tear his ass off too if that’s what it takes.” There was no talking sense after that and Sawyer went to go clean up and I finished supper.
Supper, when it was finished, was a little quiet but not in a completely bad way. To cut the silence I said, “I’m sorry I didn’t ask you how your day went. I should have.”
“Day isn’t over with,” he said with a grin. “Think I could sweeten you up by showing you what I found when we were at them two houses?”
“You don’t need to sweeten …”
“It was just a saying Kay-Lee and I’m playing. I know you don’t think about things that way. Let’s just move passed it. OK?”
“OK. I just … I don’t want to hurt your feelings and … ok, ok. Moving passed.”
“Good. Now come look and stop thinking so hard. You’re steaming up the house and it’s too hot for it.”
Well, it can’t be said that Sawyer didn’t like having his way, so I decided to follow his lead and let it go … or at least stop thinking about it out loud. I followed him into the front room and he said, “These two pails are honey … and heavy so don’t even try and move them. I’ll move them to the pantry before we hit the sack tonight. It looks real dark but Uncle Donnell says it’s good. He came with us because Burt wanted his opinion on the best way to remove some bees that were in the wall of one of the houses. This is where the honey came from. We’ll get more, this was just the easiest of the sticky stuff to get to. Uncle Donnell said he’ll remove the bees for free so long as he gets to keep them. They aren’t Africanized which is better than he expected because a lot of the wild hives are these days. Burt is happy as a clam just to be able to mark that problem off the list I can tell you. We’ll have some clean up and repair but not as bad as it could be since the hive is only in one wall on the first floor.”
“How old is the honey?”
“Oh this honey isn’t old. Uncle Donnell says it is from this season. The color is because the bees got their nectar from the fields of buckwheat the old guy planted. Buckwheat generally makes honey so dark you could mistake if for sorghum.”
That cheered me up. “Well I’ll use this for baking and save the sugar and lighter colored honey that we have for canning.”
“So do I get a kiss for being a good husband?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re pushing your luck Hartford.”
Sawyer grinned and said, “The rest of this stuff is kinda … well … Burt thinks I’ve lost my mind but Uncle Donnell gave me a wink. Take a look.”
He stepped back out of the doorway of the front room and at first all I saw was a jumble but then I started picking things out and I yipped in surprise and stumbled forward. “Whoa there.”
“Oh Sawyer! These are just like the ones we saw in that book on Shaker furniture. Real ladder back chairs! And … and there’s … one, two, three, four … eight of them!”
“Yep. This winter I’ll strip them down to wood and get all these layers of paint off … damned if I’m gonna sit on a chair that is Pepto-Bismol pink and old refrigerator green and try and eat. We can then get rid of those metal monsters in the kitchen that try to pinch your butt every time you sit in them. I know they look in rough shape right now – they were stacked on a back porch – but they don’t creak. You like ‘em?”
“It is called avocado green and you know I love the chairs. It’s one of the things we said … Oh Sawyer.” Then I bit my lip trying not to get my hopes up. “But didn’t you say that some of the others need furniture?”
“Then they can get their butts out there, get a job, and get them some furniture.”
“Is Burt going to want something for these?”
“Oh he’ll get his share but he really only wants some of the expensive antique pieces and some of the easier to get rid of collectibles. He actually hopes the family will take most of the stuff off his hands so he doesn’t have to make too many dump runs or fill his warehouse with things that won’t sell. For instance, in that box there is a bunch of that funny colored glass junk like you found up in the attic … Vaseline glass or whatever the heck you called it … and Burt said last year he could have sold it all day long on Ebay and some other websites that cater to collectors but this year he said you just about can’t give the stuff away and it isn’t worth what it would cost to ship and insure it. So basically he took some pieces for my sister and then told me to take the rest of it but keep it to myself because he don’t want the women on his side of the family to add more junk to his storage buildings cause they want something but have run out of room at their places to keep it. That being said, we can’t just strip the place down to nothing. Some furniture has to be left for the future renters to use but the new owner – some guy name Wilbur Holmes – only wants the bare necessities. He’s going to be renting out to hunters in the fall and winter and college kids that go to the lake in summer primarily so it doesn’t have to be fancy and he really doesn’t want to have to worry about anything breakable or expensive and worth stealing. In fact we’re supposed to bolt the furniture down like they do in hotels.”
“Well my goodness,” I said unconsciously mimicking Aunt Pearl which made Sawyer grin. “How much stuff are we talking about and if Burt doesn’t want it where are we supposed to put it?”
“It depends on what it is. There was a big ol’ cedar chest in one house that was full of old quilts. Lots of linens and stuff like that in both houses though some of them smell funny … might be mothballs I’m not sure. All sorts of dishes too but Holmes wants that kind of stuff gone because he’s going to rent it out so that people have to bring their own linens and dishes. Apparently Holmes already owns some of these types of rentals and knows what he wants and what he doesn’t and plans on coming in later with some really basic and cheap items. But see I have an idea if you aren’t against it.”
“What?”
“Most of the family and their connections already come here for canning days right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well after we get through taking what we want we can line stuff up in the barn and say that they have a certain day or two to come see if there is anything they need and haul it off. If they don’t get it by then it’ll be their own fault if we decide to give it to someone else needy, donate it to charity, give it to the church, or whatever ends up happening. You fine with that?”
“Sure so long as Gramps and the Aunts have first dibs.”
“Well that goes without saying. And if someone in the family or from church are really hard up they’ll know. In a way I’m hoping there is some of that.”
“Why?”
“’Cause it sticks in my craw that some of them sit around waiting for something to be handed to them.”
“Anyone in particular?”
“Jamison. Thing is his wife is real nice and a go-getter.”
Concerned that I’d been calling someone a wrong name all this time I asked, “Who’s Jamison?”
“Uncle Forrester’s oldest grandson. You’ve never met him. I found out today he is supposed to be moving back here after having moved out to the oil fields with Bud who is his uncle though they ain’t that far apart in age. Well Bud ain’t staying and in fact doesn’t even plan on visiting but going straight to his wife and in laws but Jamison figures to come back here and ‘get him a little place free and clear.’ Jamison always did like to take a short cut if he could find one.”
“When … er …”
“If he actually does move here it is supposed to be some time after the first of the year but with Jamison it is one of those things that when you see him that is when he decided he was supposed to show up. According to Uncle Donnell who don’t favor too many of his cousins’ kids he told Uncle Forrester that would give all of us time to set him up a place.”
It took me a moment to get up the nerve to ask, “Did he really mean to say what it sounds like he said?”
“Knowing Jamison? Yeah. His wife’s name is Janet. She’s a little hard to get to know because she’s forever moving and doing stuff. Probably has to to make up for Jamison. But she ain’t bad.”
“But … you said he works the oil fields.”
Sawyer sighed and leaned against the doorframe. “Don’t get me wrong, when Jamison works he works hard. It’s just he only works for Jamison’s benefit if you get what I mean.”
“Oh.”
“Enough of sour thoughts. Look what else I brung you.”
He pulled out a couple of boxes and my mouth fell open. “That’s … that’s Carnival glass … and Milk Glass … and, and … enamel glass … and I think that is called … slag glass and … oh. Oh my gosh … and so much of it.”
“Some of this was in a kitchen cabinet of the bee house just stacked all willy nilly and pushed back like whoever had it didn’t really care for it but didn’t know what to do with it. I thought maybe you’d want it for that collection of that funny colored glass stuff you’re getting in that room on the third floor. So did I do good?”
“Oh Sawyer …” I said feeling flabbergasted. “I’ve never had anything and suddenly now I have so much and you’re bringing me even more and ….” I couldn’t even finished my sentence I was so overcome.
Sawyer bent down where I was looking at the glass knick knacks and said, “Let me get this up off the floor. That damp is going to make you sore. And I’m happy that you like it … you do like it right?”
“Oh yes.”
“Well good. But if you don’t mind waiting to mess with it could we go through our lists? I was gonna mow the near orchard but that’s obviously out, but I’d like to at least get caught up on this other.”
“Of course. And I already went over the inventory of the pantry stuff. And guess what Burt Jr. taught me to do?”
“Uh … that’s some grin so I’m kinda worried.”
“I can shoot a sling shot. He called it a wrist rocket but I hit the cans he put on the fence post almost every time after the first couple of tries.”
Sawyer started laughing and kept laughing until we started going over our lists and notes, but even as serious as that was we both still did it was grins on our faces.
Part Sixty-Four
“Ew Sawyer! You smell!! That’s disgusting!”
Linda and Jeannie weren’t the only wives to laugh when Sawyer sneaked up behind me and grabbed me in a big, sweaty hug.
“Awww … Sweetheart that’s just the smell of good, hard work.”
I backed away holding my nose. “I don’t care what it is the smell of, go take that shirt off and throw it over the fence and then hose off. What have you been doing?! How can you stand yourself?”
Sawyer laughed then admitted, “It ain’t easy. Can you bring me another t-shirt? I gotta get back. I just came from the dump, dropping off a deep freeze that had you don’t even want to know what in it that had sat for weeks with no power. Maggots and …”
Delly, Jeannie, and Cindy all barked, “Sawyer!”
“Oh … sorry. Anyway I’m gonna try and make one more run before dark. We’re behind with the hauling because of the rain last several days but we’ve made good time otherwise.” He turned to Aunt Pearl and asked, “Where’s Aunt Suzanne? Uncle Derwint wanted me to give something to her.”
“I’m right here,” the woman in question said coming out onto the porch while she wiped her hands on a red and white checkered kitchen towel. “What’s that man found at the dump this time?”
Sawyer grinned and said, “A couple of quilting frames for Docia … or that’s what he says they are. Someone had just thrown them into one of the dumpsters and the guys didn’t care if we took them out.”
“Quilting frames?! Someone honestly threw quilting frames into a dumpster? Had to be a man,” she said in disgust. “All the pieces for them there?”
“They just need a couple of wing nuts is all he said and they’d be good as new. One is small and the other is a great big ol’ thing so I’ll need to put it in the truck for you.”
That was our excitement for the day and after Sawyer left everyone started asking me what all he’d found at the old houses. Not knowing exactly what to let out I told them, “You saw him take that stuff into the barn earlier. I guess Gramps wanted him to put it there temporarily. Burt is taking the antiques and stuff in payment for the job, the only cash coming in that I know of is the property owner is picking up the fuel costs. Beyond that I really don’t know. Gramps might though.”
Cindy muttered, “Sawyer has all the luck.”
Linda rolled her eyes. “Tommy says Sawyer makes his luck. Isn’t that right Kay-Lee?”
I shrugged with my hands deep in a bowl of plums I was peeling. “Hmmm … I’m not sure I would call it luck. I think it might be that providential stuff that Brother Don is always talking about. God sets opportunities before us and it is our choice whether we take advantage of them or not. God isn’t going to knock us upside the head to make us see things or twist our arm to do something when we see the chance before us.” I sighed. “I could have run from the chance to come up here that morning that Uncle Mark and Tommy showed up at the Brensers. If I hadn’t taken the chance … I don’t really know where I’d be right now. It is scary to think about.”
Mrs. Penny said, “Then don’t think about it. You are up here now, and I’ll tell you the honest truth. I wasn’t sure what to make of it myself, but you and Sawyer seem to be doing real well. Let the rest of it go. You can waste a lot of time wondering about might have been’s and could be’s … and we ain’t got time to waste. I need those plums in the next few minutes if I’m going to get this last batch of Delicious fixed up before I need to start packing up. Delly? What say you?”
Delly, suffering from a sudden and extreme bought of morning, noon, and night sickness sat in a chair under a tree with her eyes closed. “Whatever you say is fine with me.”
“Uh huh. Someone fetch that girl another cup of ginger tea or she’s gonna stay that green color ‘til Christmas.”
Sawyer didn’t get back until the others had left to go home to fix supper for their families. All of us participating in these canning days were really getting a lot accomplished. We had eight yard-stoves going outside, all of which fit a seven-quart jar pressure canner or a large boiling-water-bath canner, then the large wood stove inside holds two or three of the giant All-American pressure canners that some of the aunts own and those hold up to nineteen quart jars or thirty-two pints at a time each. That’s a lot of prep to fill those jars so we have plenty of work keeping up when a pressure canner or pot comes off the flame. It is also a bear to keep the bottom of the cookers clean since we are cooking over wood but Cindy’s mom showed me a trick with moss, sand, and dishwashing liquid and I’ve yet to fail to clean the soot off with that technique. Makes a horrible mess but better than letting it get worse and worse until it won’t clean off.
Sawyer simply drove his truck into the barn and locked everything in. When he came into the house to clean up for his own late supper he said, “Tommy is coming over in the morning to help me unload. There’s a couple of cabinet units on there that I can’t get off by myself. And tomorrow afternoon I’m going to bring some stuff I want to put here in the house. Look, you think you could use a treadle sewing machine?”
“I … I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it. Why?”
“I’ve been listening to the aunts talk I guess … or maybe it was Libby when she brought Uncle Junior some of his tools. I don’t think you’ve seen much of her, if any at all. She’s Aunt Pearl’s sister’s daughter. Her mother died of cancer when she was real young and Libby spent a lot of time with Aunt Pearl and Uncle Junior until her dad remarried. She’s … well you’ll hear it anyway … her husband has been acting crazy lately and she and the kids are moving in until she can decide what to do. Kenny is – or was – a good guy but got laid off last year and it has been all downhill since. Everyone is trying to be understanding but his personality has really changed and yesterday he hit Libby; then after he realized what he done he almost killed himself. He’s up at the state hospital for a couple of days and then after that he’s moving in with his parents until he … if he … gets straightened out.”
“Well at least she has the sense to get the kids out of that. How old are they?”
“I don’t know … little but not babies but not old enough for school either. And yeah, that’s pretty much why she moved out. She’s a big girl and laid Kenny out with a skillet after he hit her and then started acting crazy; then she took the kids and ran. If it was just her she said she’d probably move back and try and help him but right now she has to put the kids first. Don’t get me wrong, I got cut a lot of slack not that long ago, dug a hole for myself so deep I shouldn’t have been able to get out, but what Kenny is doing … I don’t know, something just ain’t cool. Any man that would hit a woman just ain’t right in the head. Doubt if he’ll come around here but if he does you don’t spend any time with him until I’ve checked him out. You hear?”
I nodded. “But what are the aunts saying about treadle sewing machines?”
“Not treadles specifically but how they’re all wondering and worrying how they are going to get things done if they start having brown outs like they are threatening to start the next couple of months. And that’s about the time it normally starts getting good and cold during the day. People are beginning to worry about how they are going to cook and heat their houses. And just do basic stuff like wash clothes, take showers, and anything that takes power.”
“I … I know we’ve talked about it ourselves. We’ve got that hand pump in the well house that you finally got to work after you fixed the plunger thing down in the pipe. We figured out some workarounds but I guess I just didn’t think to ask how the others plan on doing stuff.”
“I haven’t asked either. It’s enough to take care of my own business. I do know that Uncle James and Uncle Carl are putting hand pumps at all the houses that they’ll work on – some of the wells are too deep for a hand pump and on those they are putting some kind of little bucket that fits down in the well casing. But that takes time and money and right now the priority still has to be the field crops. As a matter of fact, I gotta hurry up and finish these houses so that I can get back to helping them. Even one person out of the rotation creates a lot of extra work for everyone else. But I was talking with Gramps and he’s actually relieved Burt isn’t taking more than he is. I didn’t realize it but some of the cousins and wives are almost camping out in their places. Seems they got so far and either run out of steam or money or both and they’re having a hard time coming up with more of either to get any further. And while that might not be my problem per se …”
‘I know. Gramps has expectations.”
Sawyer nodded. “He sure does. So if there is anything in these piles I start bringing in that you want you better get it first before someone else spots it and calls dibs.”
“Um …”
“Something you want already?”
Explaining I told him, “Those upstairs rooms don’t have closets … the center ones don’t have any way to heat or cool them either so I don’t know if they can even be used as bedrooms … but they make good storage rooms. If you see book cases or shelving …”
“Sure, I get it, and I actually thought of the same thing. And I know for a fact there’s a corner cabinet that you might like for that weird dead end at the top of the stairs right before you go up to the attic door. I’ll get that stuff brought in ‘cause I can do it using a dolly … or I’ll dismantle it, take it up in pieces, and then reassemble it. And here’s another thing … you got any idea how many more jars you might want? There’s jars all over the cotton pickin’ place at both houses but they are nasty. I haven’t told anyone about them yet … just been setting them in boxes and crates and putting them out in the sheds … but I’d like to see you and Delly get the pick of them before I turn them over to Aunt Pearl.”
“But won’t she …?”
“Yeah, she will and that’s why I want to take out yours and Delly’s off the top before I let Aunt Pearl know about the rest of them. Delly still has all of Mom’s down in her basement so it’s not like she doesn’t have any but if things go the way that they are looking I want her to have more and I want them to be from me.”
“Then give them all to her.”
“No. She doesn’t need them all. When I say she has Mom’s you probably don’t realize how many that is. I didn’t eat a store bought can of food until after Mom died. I mean none of our stuff was store-bought. Mom had a lot of food allergies so she had to do everything from scratch. I never knew there was anything strange about it until I was halfway through grade school.”
“There isn’t anything strange about it.”
He gave me a kiss and then said, “You got what you want taken down to the cellar marked off? I wanna get that done before I eat my supper. I have a feeling after I eat I ain’t gonna be worth much.”
“Oh Sawyer, I hate that you have to do your work and then come down and …”
“Don’t start that again. That’s not even worth bringing up. And I might have an idea to fix some of that, but I don’t have time to do it right now.”
“Like you need more work.”
Sawyer snorted half a laugh. “Better to make hay while the sun shines … and no don’t ask me what that means exactly, it is just something Uncle Forrester used to say when I was a boy. But I’m thinking if I can rig up a pulley system that I could build you a dumb waiter. You know what that is?”
“Actually I do. We studied them when we were working on a unit on the history of the hotel industry. Staff weren’t supposed to use hotel elevators, they were reserved for guests, unless the hotel was big enough to have a maintenance elevator on the back of the building. To move stuff between floors, like for room service, they had these mini elevators that could be worked by cranks or later using electricity. You know … that might really work if … oh Sawyer you’re brilliant!”
“Welllll I wouldn’t go that far, and don’t get your hopes up, but maybe I can get it figured out when some of this other work slows down. I’m certainly going to be on the lookout for pulley wheels and cable wire.”
While Sawyer carried down all of the jars that were ours from the last two days of canning I pulled out a surprise. Burt Jr. and I had been practicing shooting wrist rockets again when suddenly a big rabbit shot out of the tall grass in the orchard. Burt Jr. got him with the first shot but he had to get him again because he tried to hop drunkenly away. We brought the rabbit back and Mrs. Carmichael gave us all a lesson in cooking rabbit. I had intended on making a chicken pie for supper but asked her if there was such a thing as a rabbit pie and by the time the aunts and other ladies were all finished discussing the topic I had enough recipes to start a new section in my recipe card file.
When I put the pie on the table I didn’t say anything but Sawyer must have sensed something ‘cause he asked, “You haven’t caught Cutter’s problem have you?”
“Why I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
“Uh huh. Give it up Kay-Lee, you lie terrible.”
I can’t tell a joke either but by the time I was through embellishing the story of the rabbit and Mrs. Carmichael explaining how to skin and prepare rabbit and how she had a few of the wives running for the bushes … and not all of them pregnant either … Sawyer was laughing so hard he almost couldn’t eat.
“I wish I could have seen that. Was Delly one of the ones that went hurling?”
“Actually no. She said it was too much effort to move and so long as she didn’t have to see it or smell it then it was no big deal.”
“Ew Sawyer! You smell!! That’s disgusting!”
Linda and Jeannie weren’t the only wives to laugh when Sawyer sneaked up behind me and grabbed me in a big, sweaty hug.
“Awww … Sweetheart that’s just the smell of good, hard work.”
I backed away holding my nose. “I don’t care what it is the smell of, go take that shirt off and throw it over the fence and then hose off. What have you been doing?! How can you stand yourself?”
Sawyer laughed then admitted, “It ain’t easy. Can you bring me another t-shirt? I gotta get back. I just came from the dump, dropping off a deep freeze that had you don’t even want to know what in it that had sat for weeks with no power. Maggots and …”
Delly, Jeannie, and Cindy all barked, “Sawyer!”
“Oh … sorry. Anyway I’m gonna try and make one more run before dark. We’re behind with the hauling because of the rain last several days but we’ve made good time otherwise.” He turned to Aunt Pearl and asked, “Where’s Aunt Suzanne? Uncle Derwint wanted me to give something to her.”
“I’m right here,” the woman in question said coming out onto the porch while she wiped her hands on a red and white checkered kitchen towel. “What’s that man found at the dump this time?”
Sawyer grinned and said, “A couple of quilting frames for Docia … or that’s what he says they are. Someone had just thrown them into one of the dumpsters and the guys didn’t care if we took them out.”
“Quilting frames?! Someone honestly threw quilting frames into a dumpster? Had to be a man,” she said in disgust. “All the pieces for them there?”
“They just need a couple of wing nuts is all he said and they’d be good as new. One is small and the other is a great big ol’ thing so I’ll need to put it in the truck for you.”
That was our excitement for the day and after Sawyer left everyone started asking me what all he’d found at the old houses. Not knowing exactly what to let out I told them, “You saw him take that stuff into the barn earlier. I guess Gramps wanted him to put it there temporarily. Burt is taking the antiques and stuff in payment for the job, the only cash coming in that I know of is the property owner is picking up the fuel costs. Beyond that I really don’t know. Gramps might though.”
Cindy muttered, “Sawyer has all the luck.”
Linda rolled her eyes. “Tommy says Sawyer makes his luck. Isn’t that right Kay-Lee?”
I shrugged with my hands deep in a bowl of plums I was peeling. “Hmmm … I’m not sure I would call it luck. I think it might be that providential stuff that Brother Don is always talking about. God sets opportunities before us and it is our choice whether we take advantage of them or not. God isn’t going to knock us upside the head to make us see things or twist our arm to do something when we see the chance before us.” I sighed. “I could have run from the chance to come up here that morning that Uncle Mark and Tommy showed up at the Brensers. If I hadn’t taken the chance … I don’t really know where I’d be right now. It is scary to think about.”
Mrs. Penny said, “Then don’t think about it. You are up here now, and I’ll tell you the honest truth. I wasn’t sure what to make of it myself, but you and Sawyer seem to be doing real well. Let the rest of it go. You can waste a lot of time wondering about might have been’s and could be’s … and we ain’t got time to waste. I need those plums in the next few minutes if I’m going to get this last batch of Delicious fixed up before I need to start packing up. Delly? What say you?”
Delly, suffering from a sudden and extreme bought of morning, noon, and night sickness sat in a chair under a tree with her eyes closed. “Whatever you say is fine with me.”
“Uh huh. Someone fetch that girl another cup of ginger tea or she’s gonna stay that green color ‘til Christmas.”
Sawyer didn’t get back until the others had left to go home to fix supper for their families. All of us participating in these canning days were really getting a lot accomplished. We had eight yard-stoves going outside, all of which fit a seven-quart jar pressure canner or a large boiling-water-bath canner, then the large wood stove inside holds two or three of the giant All-American pressure canners that some of the aunts own and those hold up to nineteen quart jars or thirty-two pints at a time each. That’s a lot of prep to fill those jars so we have plenty of work keeping up when a pressure canner or pot comes off the flame. It is also a bear to keep the bottom of the cookers clean since we are cooking over wood but Cindy’s mom showed me a trick with moss, sand, and dishwashing liquid and I’ve yet to fail to clean the soot off with that technique. Makes a horrible mess but better than letting it get worse and worse until it won’t clean off.
Sawyer simply drove his truck into the barn and locked everything in. When he came into the house to clean up for his own late supper he said, “Tommy is coming over in the morning to help me unload. There’s a couple of cabinet units on there that I can’t get off by myself. And tomorrow afternoon I’m going to bring some stuff I want to put here in the house. Look, you think you could use a treadle sewing machine?”
“I … I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it. Why?”
“I’ve been listening to the aunts talk I guess … or maybe it was Libby when she brought Uncle Junior some of his tools. I don’t think you’ve seen much of her, if any at all. She’s Aunt Pearl’s sister’s daughter. Her mother died of cancer when she was real young and Libby spent a lot of time with Aunt Pearl and Uncle Junior until her dad remarried. She’s … well you’ll hear it anyway … her husband has been acting crazy lately and she and the kids are moving in until she can decide what to do. Kenny is – or was – a good guy but got laid off last year and it has been all downhill since. Everyone is trying to be understanding but his personality has really changed and yesterday he hit Libby; then after he realized what he done he almost killed himself. He’s up at the state hospital for a couple of days and then after that he’s moving in with his parents until he … if he … gets straightened out.”
“Well at least she has the sense to get the kids out of that. How old are they?”
“I don’t know … little but not babies but not old enough for school either. And yeah, that’s pretty much why she moved out. She’s a big girl and laid Kenny out with a skillet after he hit her and then started acting crazy; then she took the kids and ran. If it was just her she said she’d probably move back and try and help him but right now she has to put the kids first. Don’t get me wrong, I got cut a lot of slack not that long ago, dug a hole for myself so deep I shouldn’t have been able to get out, but what Kenny is doing … I don’t know, something just ain’t cool. Any man that would hit a woman just ain’t right in the head. Doubt if he’ll come around here but if he does you don’t spend any time with him until I’ve checked him out. You hear?”
I nodded. “But what are the aunts saying about treadle sewing machines?”
“Not treadles specifically but how they’re all wondering and worrying how they are going to get things done if they start having brown outs like they are threatening to start the next couple of months. And that’s about the time it normally starts getting good and cold during the day. People are beginning to worry about how they are going to cook and heat their houses. And just do basic stuff like wash clothes, take showers, and anything that takes power.”
“I … I know we’ve talked about it ourselves. We’ve got that hand pump in the well house that you finally got to work after you fixed the plunger thing down in the pipe. We figured out some workarounds but I guess I just didn’t think to ask how the others plan on doing stuff.”
“I haven’t asked either. It’s enough to take care of my own business. I do know that Uncle James and Uncle Carl are putting hand pumps at all the houses that they’ll work on – some of the wells are too deep for a hand pump and on those they are putting some kind of little bucket that fits down in the well casing. But that takes time and money and right now the priority still has to be the field crops. As a matter of fact, I gotta hurry up and finish these houses so that I can get back to helping them. Even one person out of the rotation creates a lot of extra work for everyone else. But I was talking with Gramps and he’s actually relieved Burt isn’t taking more than he is. I didn’t realize it but some of the cousins and wives are almost camping out in their places. Seems they got so far and either run out of steam or money or both and they’re having a hard time coming up with more of either to get any further. And while that might not be my problem per se …”
‘I know. Gramps has expectations.”
Sawyer nodded. “He sure does. So if there is anything in these piles I start bringing in that you want you better get it first before someone else spots it and calls dibs.”
“Um …”
“Something you want already?”
Explaining I told him, “Those upstairs rooms don’t have closets … the center ones don’t have any way to heat or cool them either so I don’t know if they can even be used as bedrooms … but they make good storage rooms. If you see book cases or shelving …”
“Sure, I get it, and I actually thought of the same thing. And I know for a fact there’s a corner cabinet that you might like for that weird dead end at the top of the stairs right before you go up to the attic door. I’ll get that stuff brought in ‘cause I can do it using a dolly … or I’ll dismantle it, take it up in pieces, and then reassemble it. And here’s another thing … you got any idea how many more jars you might want? There’s jars all over the cotton pickin’ place at both houses but they are nasty. I haven’t told anyone about them yet … just been setting them in boxes and crates and putting them out in the sheds … but I’d like to see you and Delly get the pick of them before I turn them over to Aunt Pearl.”
“But won’t she …?”
“Yeah, she will and that’s why I want to take out yours and Delly’s off the top before I let Aunt Pearl know about the rest of them. Delly still has all of Mom’s down in her basement so it’s not like she doesn’t have any but if things go the way that they are looking I want her to have more and I want them to be from me.”
“Then give them all to her.”
“No. She doesn’t need them all. When I say she has Mom’s you probably don’t realize how many that is. I didn’t eat a store bought can of food until after Mom died. I mean none of our stuff was store-bought. Mom had a lot of food allergies so she had to do everything from scratch. I never knew there was anything strange about it until I was halfway through grade school.”
“There isn’t anything strange about it.”
He gave me a kiss and then said, “You got what you want taken down to the cellar marked off? I wanna get that done before I eat my supper. I have a feeling after I eat I ain’t gonna be worth much.”
“Oh Sawyer, I hate that you have to do your work and then come down and …”
“Don’t start that again. That’s not even worth bringing up. And I might have an idea to fix some of that, but I don’t have time to do it right now.”
“Like you need more work.”
Sawyer snorted half a laugh. “Better to make hay while the sun shines … and no don’t ask me what that means exactly, it is just something Uncle Forrester used to say when I was a boy. But I’m thinking if I can rig up a pulley system that I could build you a dumb waiter. You know what that is?”
“Actually I do. We studied them when we were working on a unit on the history of the hotel industry. Staff weren’t supposed to use hotel elevators, they were reserved for guests, unless the hotel was big enough to have a maintenance elevator on the back of the building. To move stuff between floors, like for room service, they had these mini elevators that could be worked by cranks or later using electricity. You know … that might really work if … oh Sawyer you’re brilliant!”
“Welllll I wouldn’t go that far, and don’t get your hopes up, but maybe I can get it figured out when some of this other work slows down. I’m certainly going to be on the lookout for pulley wheels and cable wire.”
While Sawyer carried down all of the jars that were ours from the last two days of canning I pulled out a surprise. Burt Jr. and I had been practicing shooting wrist rockets again when suddenly a big rabbit shot out of the tall grass in the orchard. Burt Jr. got him with the first shot but he had to get him again because he tried to hop drunkenly away. We brought the rabbit back and Mrs. Carmichael gave us all a lesson in cooking rabbit. I had intended on making a chicken pie for supper but asked her if there was such a thing as a rabbit pie and by the time the aunts and other ladies were all finished discussing the topic I had enough recipes to start a new section in my recipe card file.
When I put the pie on the table I didn’t say anything but Sawyer must have sensed something ‘cause he asked, “You haven’t caught Cutter’s problem have you?”
“Why I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
“Uh huh. Give it up Kay-Lee, you lie terrible.”
I can’t tell a joke either but by the time I was through embellishing the story of the rabbit and Mrs. Carmichael explaining how to skin and prepare rabbit and how she had a few of the wives running for the bushes … and not all of them pregnant either … Sawyer was laughing so hard he almost couldn’t eat.
“I wish I could have seen that. Was Delly one of the ones that went hurling?”
“Actually no. She said it was too much effort to move and so long as she didn’t have to see it or smell it then it was no big deal.”
Part 64 (2)
“Oh man, now I really wished I had a seen it.”
“Do you eat a lot of stuff like that? Wild meat I mean? Because I’ll cook it if it is something you like. It sounds interesting and a heck of a lot better than having to pay for something at the grocery store.”
“Welllll, I can’t say I’ve ever eaten it on a regular basis unless we were out camping and hunting for a few days at a time, but I won’t turn my nose up at it. I guess even farmers’ wives can get where they prefer to buy stuff at the store already butchered than having to fix it from the fur or hoof. But that’s something else Gramps has been talking about that I haven’t known quite how to bring up.”
“What? Did I do something wrong?”
“No and will you stop letting that be your first worry? It isn’t just you anyway, but he mentioned you specifically. What would you think … or should I say do you think you would be able … to manage your own flock of chickens? There’s a surplus of roosters right now and they’re starting to get on each other’s nerves. Rather than culling them Gramps would like to see everyone – or as many as can be trusted – have their own flock. Or maybe you’d prefer a hutch of rabbits since you seemed to do so well with this one today.”
I thought about it. “Do chickens bite like rabbits? I read some place that rabbits aren’t all fluffy and nice … they’ve got teeth for a reason.”
Well by the time Sawyer finished picking himself up off the floor where he’d fallen from his chair laughing he explained that while chickens pecked pretty regular, they don’t bite or pinch. I said then that I’d prefer to try chickens first and Sawyer snickered and said, “The non-biting variety, right?”
Ignoring him because I knew there wasn’t a mean bone in his body when it came to me I said, “I’m only going to make you laugh more when I tell you I wished chickens gave both eggs and milk.”
Yep. He started laughing again but finally asked me why and I told him, “I use a lot of milk in my cooking and I’m going through the canned and powdered milk faster than I like. And then I’d love to try and make stuff like cottage cheese and ricotta since you like lasagna so much. And other kinds of cheeses too but those first because I can make that queso blanco that I fried the other night with powdered milk that you nearly ate so much of you got a belly ache.”
“Then don’t cook so good and I won’t eat like that.” He stopped for a moment thinking and then said, “I tell you if we had fresh milk I bet I could drink a gallon of it a day by myself. Toby used to fill my thermos up with the previous night’s milkings every morning before school. God that was some good stuff. But Honey, a cow is nothing to fool with. They can kick, they’re expensive to keep, and you have to keep them freshened or there are going to be long stretches when they’re dry … don’t give milk.”
“I know what that means. Cindy explained it when I said something about a cow today.”
“Was she being snotty about it? She can be. I don’t want her hurting your feelings or making fun of you because you don’t know things she would know since she’s a farm girl.”
“Oh I know she can be but I think I know how to approach her now. She’s actually pretty smart and I know she brought two cows when she married Davis. When she figured out I was serious about wanting to know she settled right down and explained how it all worked. I asked her if she made cheese and she said she didn’t yet because it was a lot of work but that she planned on it later. She does skim the cream and make fresh butter. Mmmmm … fresh butter. At school in H&C we used to get fresh butter from a local dairy that donated it to our program but then those stupid rules kicked in and we had to buy everything from the store pre-packaged.” I sighed. “Besides, I better practice on chickens first. I’m good at playing catch up when it comes to learning new stuff but I wouldn’t want to risk the life and health of something living like a cow until I’m sure I’m up for taking care of animals.”
“Harley and Davey love you.”
“Harley and Davey are part pig and only love me because I’ve learned to feed them. They know if they knock me down they don’t get fed so they’ve learned to use manners.”
“And you’re the only one they use those manners with. You know those two mangy things bit me on the butt?!”
“You shouldn’t have put those meat sticks in your back pocket. It was too much temptation.”
“Obviously I am not going to get any sympathy out of you tonight.”
“You’ll get plenty of sympathy from me but until I get these dishes done you’re gonna have to wait for me to kiss it and make it better.”
Suddenly the dishes started flying off the table and into the sudsy water.
**********
The next day after Tommy came and went and Sawyer left with him, I discovered I had most of the day to myself and I decided to use the time to work on some stuff that Aunt Suzanne and Aunt Nel told me were ready to be picked. First off, I picked figs by the bucket full. There had been a fig tree in the school garden so I knew what to do with fresh figs, but the aunts had all given me some good ideas on how to preserve them[1]. I took a short and careful walk to the slow-moving creek that ran not too far from the house and cut bunches of elderberries and brought them back and froze them until I could get to them[2]. When I’d had enough of that I used a rake to gather butternuts, fighting the squirrels for them every step of the way.
Watching the demented tree demons scramble around stealing from piles of nuts as fast as I could rake them together reminded me of some of the discussions that had gone on at canning day. Mrs. Penny and Mrs. Carmichael and Cindy’s mother kept referring to “signs and portends” of a bad winter on the way. When I wanted to know what they meant you could hear the groans of the younger wives. I told Linda later that I hadn’t meant anything bad by it but had been curious why they were so sure.
“Just ignore ‘em. I swear some of them act like they are just too good to poop.”
“Linda!”
“Well it’s true. Just because older folks believe in stuff they don’t, doesn’t mean it might not be true. Mom … well she up and called me and I was so scared, thought … thought Dad had …” She stopped scrunched up her face and whispered, “Put it in a box.” Then she said, “It wasn’t Dad. She’d just seen several woodpeckers sharing a tree and swears up and down that it means a real hard winter is coming. Apparently woodpeckers don’t share too well and for more than two of them to be banging around on the same tree is some kind of warning. She wanted me to be sure and waterproof my winter shoes because she thinks winter is going to be a bad one.”
Well sociable woodpeckers isn’t the only sign that I’d heard about. Another one was how thick the cornhusks were this year. I’d noticed that the husks were tougher but just figured it was the difference between getting corn from the store versus getting it straight from the field but apparently not. Aunt Nel swore it was a sign of bad things to come. Aunt Suzanne mentioned she’d been seeing halos around the moon and that her mother and grandmother had always said that was a sure sign of a hard winter as well.
I was sweating to get those nuts but decided to leave some for the squirrels just in case all those old wives’ tales had some basis in fact.
After that I gathered wild greens, dug wild leek bulbs, dug parsnips, and dug burdock until I was just plain tired of digging. I went back to picking and got about six quarts of firethorn berries to make jelly with, about the same in serviceberries for the same purpose, cut more sumac drupes, and then topped the day off by picking pawpaws. I knew what they were because the Brensers had one in their backyard and old Mrs. Brenser used to entertain herself by telling me all the ways she and her sisters used to fix them when they were girls.[3] The flowers of the pawpaw tree had been really pretty when they bloomed but the fruits were frankly just plain ugly. They looked like stunted and mutant bananas if you looked at them a certain way and as it goes they also kinda taste like bananas to most people. To me they just taste different with the texture of a banana once you dug out the big black seeds in them. I planned on making papaw preserves but for the time being all I did was puree them and freeze the pulp so I could do whatever I wanted with it later.
That’s how I had to do things and I hope it doesn’t wind up biting me on the butt. I pick on my good days and prepare stuff and put it in the frig or freezer until I can get to it on the days when my leg is saying I need to stay closer to the house. The bad days are fewer and further apart now that Sawyer has refined the platform shoe so that it works better with my brace and isn’t so heavy or hard to walk on for long. He hollowed out the platform part, filled it with an insulated foam that would hold up to use, and then glued down a “jelly” like some people put in their running shoes for extra comfort. It doesn’t exactly look like something a model would wear on the runway but to me it is beautiful.
By the time Sawyer came home tired but triumphant that he’d found several bookcases like I’d asked for I was able to tell him I’d gotten a lot accomplished as well. Or at least made a pretty good showing. We celebrated with a DVD and bowl of popcorn after supper but we both fell asleep well before the credits rolled.
[1] Figs: picking tips, facts and recipes: Great things to make from fresh figs
[2] http://www.justberryrecipes.com/inxeld.html
[3] Cooking with Pawpaws
“Oh man, now I really wished I had a seen it.”
“Do you eat a lot of stuff like that? Wild meat I mean? Because I’ll cook it if it is something you like. It sounds interesting and a heck of a lot better than having to pay for something at the grocery store.”
“Welllll, I can’t say I’ve ever eaten it on a regular basis unless we were out camping and hunting for a few days at a time, but I won’t turn my nose up at it. I guess even farmers’ wives can get where they prefer to buy stuff at the store already butchered than having to fix it from the fur or hoof. But that’s something else Gramps has been talking about that I haven’t known quite how to bring up.”
“What? Did I do something wrong?”
“No and will you stop letting that be your first worry? It isn’t just you anyway, but he mentioned you specifically. What would you think … or should I say do you think you would be able … to manage your own flock of chickens? There’s a surplus of roosters right now and they’re starting to get on each other’s nerves. Rather than culling them Gramps would like to see everyone – or as many as can be trusted – have their own flock. Or maybe you’d prefer a hutch of rabbits since you seemed to do so well with this one today.”
I thought about it. “Do chickens bite like rabbits? I read some place that rabbits aren’t all fluffy and nice … they’ve got teeth for a reason.”
Well by the time Sawyer finished picking himself up off the floor where he’d fallen from his chair laughing he explained that while chickens pecked pretty regular, they don’t bite or pinch. I said then that I’d prefer to try chickens first and Sawyer snickered and said, “The non-biting variety, right?”
Ignoring him because I knew there wasn’t a mean bone in his body when it came to me I said, “I’m only going to make you laugh more when I tell you I wished chickens gave both eggs and milk.”
Yep. He started laughing again but finally asked me why and I told him, “I use a lot of milk in my cooking and I’m going through the canned and powdered milk faster than I like. And then I’d love to try and make stuff like cottage cheese and ricotta since you like lasagna so much. And other kinds of cheeses too but those first because I can make that queso blanco that I fried the other night with powdered milk that you nearly ate so much of you got a belly ache.”
“Then don’t cook so good and I won’t eat like that.” He stopped for a moment thinking and then said, “I tell you if we had fresh milk I bet I could drink a gallon of it a day by myself. Toby used to fill my thermos up with the previous night’s milkings every morning before school. God that was some good stuff. But Honey, a cow is nothing to fool with. They can kick, they’re expensive to keep, and you have to keep them freshened or there are going to be long stretches when they’re dry … don’t give milk.”
“I know what that means. Cindy explained it when I said something about a cow today.”
“Was she being snotty about it? She can be. I don’t want her hurting your feelings or making fun of you because you don’t know things she would know since she’s a farm girl.”
“Oh I know she can be but I think I know how to approach her now. She’s actually pretty smart and I know she brought two cows when she married Davis. When she figured out I was serious about wanting to know she settled right down and explained how it all worked. I asked her if she made cheese and she said she didn’t yet because it was a lot of work but that she planned on it later. She does skim the cream and make fresh butter. Mmmmm … fresh butter. At school in H&C we used to get fresh butter from a local dairy that donated it to our program but then those stupid rules kicked in and we had to buy everything from the store pre-packaged.” I sighed. “Besides, I better practice on chickens first. I’m good at playing catch up when it comes to learning new stuff but I wouldn’t want to risk the life and health of something living like a cow until I’m sure I’m up for taking care of animals.”
“Harley and Davey love you.”
“Harley and Davey are part pig and only love me because I’ve learned to feed them. They know if they knock me down they don’t get fed so they’ve learned to use manners.”
“And you’re the only one they use those manners with. You know those two mangy things bit me on the butt?!”
“You shouldn’t have put those meat sticks in your back pocket. It was too much temptation.”
“Obviously I am not going to get any sympathy out of you tonight.”
“You’ll get plenty of sympathy from me but until I get these dishes done you’re gonna have to wait for me to kiss it and make it better.”
Suddenly the dishes started flying off the table and into the sudsy water.
**********
The next day after Tommy came and went and Sawyer left with him, I discovered I had most of the day to myself and I decided to use the time to work on some stuff that Aunt Suzanne and Aunt Nel told me were ready to be picked. First off, I picked figs by the bucket full. There had been a fig tree in the school garden so I knew what to do with fresh figs, but the aunts had all given me some good ideas on how to preserve them[1]. I took a short and careful walk to the slow-moving creek that ran not too far from the house and cut bunches of elderberries and brought them back and froze them until I could get to them[2]. When I’d had enough of that I used a rake to gather butternuts, fighting the squirrels for them every step of the way.
Watching the demented tree demons scramble around stealing from piles of nuts as fast as I could rake them together reminded me of some of the discussions that had gone on at canning day. Mrs. Penny and Mrs. Carmichael and Cindy’s mother kept referring to “signs and portends” of a bad winter on the way. When I wanted to know what they meant you could hear the groans of the younger wives. I told Linda later that I hadn’t meant anything bad by it but had been curious why they were so sure.
“Just ignore ‘em. I swear some of them act like they are just too good to poop.”
“Linda!”
“Well it’s true. Just because older folks believe in stuff they don’t, doesn’t mean it might not be true. Mom … well she up and called me and I was so scared, thought … thought Dad had …” She stopped scrunched up her face and whispered, “Put it in a box.” Then she said, “It wasn’t Dad. She’d just seen several woodpeckers sharing a tree and swears up and down that it means a real hard winter is coming. Apparently woodpeckers don’t share too well and for more than two of them to be banging around on the same tree is some kind of warning. She wanted me to be sure and waterproof my winter shoes because she thinks winter is going to be a bad one.”
Well sociable woodpeckers isn’t the only sign that I’d heard about. Another one was how thick the cornhusks were this year. I’d noticed that the husks were tougher but just figured it was the difference between getting corn from the store versus getting it straight from the field but apparently not. Aunt Nel swore it was a sign of bad things to come. Aunt Suzanne mentioned she’d been seeing halos around the moon and that her mother and grandmother had always said that was a sure sign of a hard winter as well.
I was sweating to get those nuts but decided to leave some for the squirrels just in case all those old wives’ tales had some basis in fact.
After that I gathered wild greens, dug wild leek bulbs, dug parsnips, and dug burdock until I was just plain tired of digging. I went back to picking and got about six quarts of firethorn berries to make jelly with, about the same in serviceberries for the same purpose, cut more sumac drupes, and then topped the day off by picking pawpaws. I knew what they were because the Brensers had one in their backyard and old Mrs. Brenser used to entertain herself by telling me all the ways she and her sisters used to fix them when they were girls.[3] The flowers of the pawpaw tree had been really pretty when they bloomed but the fruits were frankly just plain ugly. They looked like stunted and mutant bananas if you looked at them a certain way and as it goes they also kinda taste like bananas to most people. To me they just taste different with the texture of a banana once you dug out the big black seeds in them. I planned on making papaw preserves but for the time being all I did was puree them and freeze the pulp so I could do whatever I wanted with it later.
That’s how I had to do things and I hope it doesn’t wind up biting me on the butt. I pick on my good days and prepare stuff and put it in the frig or freezer until I can get to it on the days when my leg is saying I need to stay closer to the house. The bad days are fewer and further apart now that Sawyer has refined the platform shoe so that it works better with my brace and isn’t so heavy or hard to walk on for long. He hollowed out the platform part, filled it with an insulated foam that would hold up to use, and then glued down a “jelly” like some people put in their running shoes for extra comfort. It doesn’t exactly look like something a model would wear on the runway but to me it is beautiful.
By the time Sawyer came home tired but triumphant that he’d found several bookcases like I’d asked for I was able to tell him I’d gotten a lot accomplished as well. Or at least made a pretty good showing. We celebrated with a DVD and bowl of popcorn after supper but we both fell asleep well before the credits rolled.
[1] Figs: picking tips, facts and recipes: Great things to make from fresh figs
[2] http://www.justberryrecipes.com/inxeld.html
[3] Cooking with Pawpaws
Part Sixty-Five
“What did you say?!” all the men squawked at the same time nearly busting my ear drums. Except for Burt who sat off to the side with a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a towel held to the back of his head. Burt took one look at me, winced, and went back to letting Delly give him some tender-loving care that had been marinated in cider vinegar.
Bringing my attention back to those surrounding me I said, “One of the ways you can identify him is he is going to have to pick a ball bearing out of his right man boob. I saw the blood. It went pretty far into the meat from the look of the shock on his face and the way he was holding it and shouting that I’d shot him.”
Well a couple of them absolutely could not make any sense after that so it was up to Deputy Darla Riddle to get the whole story out of me.
I sighed and shook my head. “Mind if I sit down? It hasn’t exactly been fun trying to keep everyone from throwing an even worse fit than those jerks did when Burt Jr. dropped the bay door down on them.”
“Sure. As a matter of fact how about we move over here while Deputy Thompson gets statements from the men.”
“Bound to be quieter that’s for sure. And when Sawyer – Sawyer Hartford, that’s my husband – gets here he’ll make enough noise to drown out all of them combined.”
Deputy Darla tried not to smile but then said, “Yeah. Sawyer and I went to school together. So maybe we better get this done quickly.”
After I sat down I explained, “I came to town with Sawyer today because see I don’t drive. It’s not that I can’t because I can, just I don’t have insurance so can’t drive except on the farm and even then I don’t drive much because … well because I just don’t; it is a waste of fuel.” She nodded like she understood so I continued. “So Sawyer was going to drop me off at the store, run a couple of errands, and then pick me up until he heard about what went on in town this morning but since we were already out he brought me by Burt’s warehouse instead … Burt is his sister’s husband.”
“And you were here for …?”
“Because Sawyer needed to check out a … well … if you went to school with Sawyer you know the story. It was his ex-girlfriend and her family. Her dad and brother are kinda real touchy but her mom is nice from what I understand and Sawyer wasn’t really going to get involved just make sure if they … well, a lot of people probably won’t understand.”
“You’re right. A lot of people won’t understand but I know Sawyer and Lisa and I can see Sawyer …”
She sputtered to a stop and I filled the rest in for her. “Being sympathetic and wanting people to understand he isn’t the jerk he was painted as.”
Deputy Darla nodded though I wasn’t sure exactly what she was thinking. She probably plays poker really well if she does such stuff. “I haven’t even heard how that went yet. More trouble today we do not need. Anyway, Sawyer really wanted to go and I don’t have a problem with that or that he did in fact go. I want that in your report. I don’t want people getting the wrong idea. It is just that Sawyer wasn’t real keen on me going since he didn’t know what his reception would be or if there was more trouble to come so Burt said I could stay here and help him go through some of his new inventory which suited me because they wanted me to look at some antique kitchen gadgets to see it I knew what they were so they could be cataloged properly.”
“So you were basically here as a consultant.”
Slowly I nodded. “I suppose, but I’d never get quite so egotistical about it. Family helps family and that’s what I was doing because I’m family now, you can ask anyone. Well Burt Jr. and I are going to town, separating silverware into bins by manufacturer and style if possible. We ran across what looks like an entire set of Sheffield – that’s an English eating utensil manufacturer that specialized in bone and ivory handles – and I knew Burt would be excited about that, so I went to the office to tell him. I walk in the door only to spot him on the floor with some great big, shirtless, fat dude standing over him with a crowbar.”
“Did you scream or make any sound to draw the man’s attention?”
“No. I’m sorry it just didn’t occur to me to scream. In my experience screaming is more like a hunting cry for certain types of males and since I’m not what you would call light or fast on my feet I backed out without a sound. But then Burt Jr. yells and I turn and there’s these wild looking men running at us – we had the bay open to let out some of the heat from the warehouse. Well I yell at Burt Jr. to drop the door, it’s so easy that a kid can do it since it is lever operated. Only I kind of misjudged how fast they were going or how slow the door was going. I thought the door would close before they got there but instead it dropped right on top of them. One of them was knocked out clean and the other two were pinned like bugs and they started yelling and carrying on because the door is too big to just push up and escape from. Well all this time I’ve continued to back up but then there is a bull roar from the office and the big, fat, half-naked guy comes running out. Also, I’d backed myself into a corner.”
“And is this where the sling shot comes in?”
“Basically yeah. See Burt Jr. is teaching me to how to safely use the wrist rocket. I can hit the cans he places on the fence post most of the time now and last time he was out at the farm he showed me how to hunt safely and humanely with it. He’s a pretty good teacher even though he’s just a kid. Well, we’d been clearing the rats out of the warehouse earlier until Burt was getting a little cheesed off at all the noise so we stopped but we’d left it on that stainless steel sink over there. We figured if the ball bearings were going to fall, better for them to fall in that sink than roll all over the floor like they did the first time we dropped them. So when the half-naked fat guy turned toward me with that crowbar raised like a club I just picked up the wrist rocket and hit him in the man boob since it made such a handy target.”
“Handy … target?”
“Yeah but I’m kind of surprised that I was actually able to hit it. Both of them were bouncing all over the place out of time with each other. It was completely disgusting.”
“Disg … uh …” She stopped and squinched her eyes like she was fighting off a headache. “So you shot him in self-defense.”
“Yes; in the right man boob. And that’s when he started running around holding it and crying that he’d been shot. I pulled back to let another fly if he went towards Burt Jr. but instead the guy barrels through the side door, nearly taking it off the hinges – there’s a dent in the side of the building where the doorknob hit – and I don’t know which direction he went from there because I was yelling for Burt Jr. to stay away from the pinned men and trying to get to Burt … Burt Sr. … who stumbled out of the office with blood gushing all over and ready for bear.”
“Excuse me?”
“He had that big ol’ aluminum bat that’s leaning against the table where Burt’s wife set it. She’s not too happy he didn’t come out with his gun but you got to cut the guy some slack after all, his head was bashed in and all he could think of was protecting his son. I think it was pretty noble myself.”
Burt Jr. called over, “Yeah, Dad was cool. Just like that guy in that movie Sissy thinks is soo cute. Only that guy had a battle axe and Dad had a bat and he wasn’t wearing a skirt like that movie guy was wearing. So that makes Dad even cooler.”
Deputy Darla squinched her eyes again signaling the headache was getting worse. Then a truck flies into the parking lot followed by a cop car with its lights flashing. Sawyer runs toward the warehouse followed by two deputies who keep telling him to stop. He runs into the warehouse and does this strange little dance before his foot flew up and his back flies down.
“Hey Kay-Lee! I think Sawyer found a couple of ball bearings that we missed!”
I move and get there as fast as I can and land beside him and Sawyer is trying to draw a breath after having had it knocked out of him. He finally asks, “Are you ok?!”
“Sure. But I might kinda be in trouble. I shot a guy in the right man boob.”
For a long time Sawyer just laid there looking at me like he wasn’t too sure he’d heard what I said.
**********
“I’m relieved that Burt doesn’t have a concussion. Although for a while there I thought Delly was going to give him one. Burt Jr. is stepping lightly around her too.”
We were in the parking lot of the warehouse about to leave after having made sure that everything was locked up. Sawyer leaned on his steering wheel and shook.
“Sawyer? Sawyer?! Are you ok?”
“Kay-Lee?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t do that no more.”
“Don’t do what?”
“That. Get hurt. Don’t do it anymore.”
“I didn’t get hurt.”
“You could have.”
“But I didn’t. I’m not completely helpless. I mean shooting a guy …”
“Dammit Kay-Lee, you didn’t shoot anyone so stop saying that. Sure I mean you got that guy in his tit but … but …” Suddenly Sawyer is howling with laughter. “Oh my gawd woman … you went around saying you shot the guy’s tit like it is something you do every other day.”
Indignant I snapped, “I did not use that word. I said I hit him in the man boob. It was his right one.”
Sawyer just goes off again. People are looking … no they’re staring … and some of them must have known what he was laughing about because they start laughing and pretty soon I’m wondering if the whole bunch of them don’t need some kind of tranquilizer. I put it down to needing to release some pent-up energy and I just sit there and wait it out. I think that part got more than a few chuckles too as all I could do is cross my arms and roll my eyes at Sawyer’s antics.
“My gawd Kay-Lee. I love you soooo much.”
And then I couldn’t breathe. “You what?”
“I said I love you.”
It was like all of the oxygen in the truck was sucked out. He had stopped laughing and asked, “Are you ok?”
“Yeah. Just … you said you loved me.”
“I do.”
“Really? ‘Cause you’ve … you’ve never said it before … I know because … well because.”
“I must have.”
“No. No you haven’t.”
“Well I do. Does it bother you?”
“No.” After a moment I added, “Are you talking like a friend? Like Linda has said to me before?”
“No. I’m talking like I love you with all my heart.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Wow. ‘Cause … you know that’s how I feel about you but … but … I just figured … I mean …” I turned and looked him full in the face. “You really do?”
“I really do love you Kay-Lee. And it’s really with all my heart.”
“Oh Sawyer.” Well I was out of my seatbelt and in his lap faster than we’ve ever managed to do before. He was a little startled but got into it quick enough. I didn’t even care about the cat calls and whistles from the parking lot. Sawyer had said he loved me. I hadn’t even realized I was waiting for him to say it. I hadn’t thought he would ever say something like that to me. But he had. And suddenly there didn’t seem like there could be anything bad enough in the world to dim what I was feeling.
“What did you say?!” all the men squawked at the same time nearly busting my ear drums. Except for Burt who sat off to the side with a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a towel held to the back of his head. Burt took one look at me, winced, and went back to letting Delly give him some tender-loving care that had been marinated in cider vinegar.
Bringing my attention back to those surrounding me I said, “One of the ways you can identify him is he is going to have to pick a ball bearing out of his right man boob. I saw the blood. It went pretty far into the meat from the look of the shock on his face and the way he was holding it and shouting that I’d shot him.”
Well a couple of them absolutely could not make any sense after that so it was up to Deputy Darla Riddle to get the whole story out of me.
I sighed and shook my head. “Mind if I sit down? It hasn’t exactly been fun trying to keep everyone from throwing an even worse fit than those jerks did when Burt Jr. dropped the bay door down on them.”
“Sure. As a matter of fact how about we move over here while Deputy Thompson gets statements from the men.”
“Bound to be quieter that’s for sure. And when Sawyer – Sawyer Hartford, that’s my husband – gets here he’ll make enough noise to drown out all of them combined.”
Deputy Darla tried not to smile but then said, “Yeah. Sawyer and I went to school together. So maybe we better get this done quickly.”
After I sat down I explained, “I came to town with Sawyer today because see I don’t drive. It’s not that I can’t because I can, just I don’t have insurance so can’t drive except on the farm and even then I don’t drive much because … well because I just don’t; it is a waste of fuel.” She nodded like she understood so I continued. “So Sawyer was going to drop me off at the store, run a couple of errands, and then pick me up until he heard about what went on in town this morning but since we were already out he brought me by Burt’s warehouse instead … Burt is his sister’s husband.”
“And you were here for …?”
“Because Sawyer needed to check out a … well … if you went to school with Sawyer you know the story. It was his ex-girlfriend and her family. Her dad and brother are kinda real touchy but her mom is nice from what I understand and Sawyer wasn’t really going to get involved just make sure if they … well, a lot of people probably won’t understand.”
“You’re right. A lot of people won’t understand but I know Sawyer and Lisa and I can see Sawyer …”
She sputtered to a stop and I filled the rest in for her. “Being sympathetic and wanting people to understand he isn’t the jerk he was painted as.”
Deputy Darla nodded though I wasn’t sure exactly what she was thinking. She probably plays poker really well if she does such stuff. “I haven’t even heard how that went yet. More trouble today we do not need. Anyway, Sawyer really wanted to go and I don’t have a problem with that or that he did in fact go. I want that in your report. I don’t want people getting the wrong idea. It is just that Sawyer wasn’t real keen on me going since he didn’t know what his reception would be or if there was more trouble to come so Burt said I could stay here and help him go through some of his new inventory which suited me because they wanted me to look at some antique kitchen gadgets to see it I knew what they were so they could be cataloged properly.”
“So you were basically here as a consultant.”
Slowly I nodded. “I suppose, but I’d never get quite so egotistical about it. Family helps family and that’s what I was doing because I’m family now, you can ask anyone. Well Burt Jr. and I are going to town, separating silverware into bins by manufacturer and style if possible. We ran across what looks like an entire set of Sheffield – that’s an English eating utensil manufacturer that specialized in bone and ivory handles – and I knew Burt would be excited about that, so I went to the office to tell him. I walk in the door only to spot him on the floor with some great big, shirtless, fat dude standing over him with a crowbar.”
“Did you scream or make any sound to draw the man’s attention?”
“No. I’m sorry it just didn’t occur to me to scream. In my experience screaming is more like a hunting cry for certain types of males and since I’m not what you would call light or fast on my feet I backed out without a sound. But then Burt Jr. yells and I turn and there’s these wild looking men running at us – we had the bay open to let out some of the heat from the warehouse. Well I yell at Burt Jr. to drop the door, it’s so easy that a kid can do it since it is lever operated. Only I kind of misjudged how fast they were going or how slow the door was going. I thought the door would close before they got there but instead it dropped right on top of them. One of them was knocked out clean and the other two were pinned like bugs and they started yelling and carrying on because the door is too big to just push up and escape from. Well all this time I’ve continued to back up but then there is a bull roar from the office and the big, fat, half-naked guy comes running out. Also, I’d backed myself into a corner.”
“And is this where the sling shot comes in?”
“Basically yeah. See Burt Jr. is teaching me to how to safely use the wrist rocket. I can hit the cans he places on the fence post most of the time now and last time he was out at the farm he showed me how to hunt safely and humanely with it. He’s a pretty good teacher even though he’s just a kid. Well, we’d been clearing the rats out of the warehouse earlier until Burt was getting a little cheesed off at all the noise so we stopped but we’d left it on that stainless steel sink over there. We figured if the ball bearings were going to fall, better for them to fall in that sink than roll all over the floor like they did the first time we dropped them. So when the half-naked fat guy turned toward me with that crowbar raised like a club I just picked up the wrist rocket and hit him in the man boob since it made such a handy target.”
“Handy … target?”
“Yeah but I’m kind of surprised that I was actually able to hit it. Both of them were bouncing all over the place out of time with each other. It was completely disgusting.”
“Disg … uh …” She stopped and squinched her eyes like she was fighting off a headache. “So you shot him in self-defense.”
“Yes; in the right man boob. And that’s when he started running around holding it and crying that he’d been shot. I pulled back to let another fly if he went towards Burt Jr. but instead the guy barrels through the side door, nearly taking it off the hinges – there’s a dent in the side of the building where the doorknob hit – and I don’t know which direction he went from there because I was yelling for Burt Jr. to stay away from the pinned men and trying to get to Burt … Burt Sr. … who stumbled out of the office with blood gushing all over and ready for bear.”
“Excuse me?”
“He had that big ol’ aluminum bat that’s leaning against the table where Burt’s wife set it. She’s not too happy he didn’t come out with his gun but you got to cut the guy some slack after all, his head was bashed in and all he could think of was protecting his son. I think it was pretty noble myself.”
Burt Jr. called over, “Yeah, Dad was cool. Just like that guy in that movie Sissy thinks is soo cute. Only that guy had a battle axe and Dad had a bat and he wasn’t wearing a skirt like that movie guy was wearing. So that makes Dad even cooler.”
Deputy Darla squinched her eyes again signaling the headache was getting worse. Then a truck flies into the parking lot followed by a cop car with its lights flashing. Sawyer runs toward the warehouse followed by two deputies who keep telling him to stop. He runs into the warehouse and does this strange little dance before his foot flew up and his back flies down.
“Hey Kay-Lee! I think Sawyer found a couple of ball bearings that we missed!”
I move and get there as fast as I can and land beside him and Sawyer is trying to draw a breath after having had it knocked out of him. He finally asks, “Are you ok?!”
“Sure. But I might kinda be in trouble. I shot a guy in the right man boob.”
For a long time Sawyer just laid there looking at me like he wasn’t too sure he’d heard what I said.
**********
“I’m relieved that Burt doesn’t have a concussion. Although for a while there I thought Delly was going to give him one. Burt Jr. is stepping lightly around her too.”
We were in the parking lot of the warehouse about to leave after having made sure that everything was locked up. Sawyer leaned on his steering wheel and shook.
“Sawyer? Sawyer?! Are you ok?”
“Kay-Lee?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t do that no more.”
“Don’t do what?”
“That. Get hurt. Don’t do it anymore.”
“I didn’t get hurt.”
“You could have.”
“But I didn’t. I’m not completely helpless. I mean shooting a guy …”
“Dammit Kay-Lee, you didn’t shoot anyone so stop saying that. Sure I mean you got that guy in his tit but … but …” Suddenly Sawyer is howling with laughter. “Oh my gawd woman … you went around saying you shot the guy’s tit like it is something you do every other day.”
Indignant I snapped, “I did not use that word. I said I hit him in the man boob. It was his right one.”
Sawyer just goes off again. People are looking … no they’re staring … and some of them must have known what he was laughing about because they start laughing and pretty soon I’m wondering if the whole bunch of them don’t need some kind of tranquilizer. I put it down to needing to release some pent-up energy and I just sit there and wait it out. I think that part got more than a few chuckles too as all I could do is cross my arms and roll my eyes at Sawyer’s antics.
“My gawd Kay-Lee. I love you soooo much.”
And then I couldn’t breathe. “You what?”
“I said I love you.”
It was like all of the oxygen in the truck was sucked out. He had stopped laughing and asked, “Are you ok?”
“Yeah. Just … you said you loved me.”
“I do.”
“Really? ‘Cause you’ve … you’ve never said it before … I know because … well because.”
“I must have.”
“No. No you haven’t.”
“Well I do. Does it bother you?”
“No.” After a moment I added, “Are you talking like a friend? Like Linda has said to me before?”
“No. I’m talking like I love you with all my heart.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Wow. ‘Cause … you know that’s how I feel about you but … but … I just figured … I mean …” I turned and looked him full in the face. “You really do?”
“I really do love you Kay-Lee. And it’s really with all my heart.”
“Oh Sawyer.” Well I was out of my seatbelt and in his lap faster than we’ve ever managed to do before. He was a little startled but got into it quick enough. I didn’t even care about the cat calls and whistles from the parking lot. Sawyer had said he loved me. I hadn’t even realized I was waiting for him to say it. I hadn’t thought he would ever say something like that to me. But he had. And suddenly there didn’t seem like there could be anything bad enough in the world to dim what I was feeling.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Big thanks 
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
Y'know, if you don't put your paw all the way into the cookie jar, you can generally back out with one or two cookies ....
Just saying
Many of us have been hooked on her line before so, it's not like you're alone ......
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Yeah, jeeeze, wait'll she puts up the rest of Enduring on the Lake. I'll probably not be seen for days. With some things, moderation is only a vague concept.