Story A Bunch of Wild Thyme
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you Kathy.
Chapter XII
“I’d a been back sooner but I didn’t want to push the horses in the dark. Rochelle didn’t come but Butch did. He’s tying off.”
Uncle Roe called out the door, “Get in here boy and greet your cousin!”
“I’m coming Dad. You shouldn’t say it so loud. Someone might hear.”
A large man walked in with hair nearly the same color as Mom’s had been. Uncle Roe said, “I want ‘em to hear. Want the whole county to hear. Might chirk ‘em up to know that miracles are still happening.”
Paulie stuck his head out the bedroom door and waved carefully then said, “Dovie, they’re scared. It’s … I think it’s all the strange men.”
I stood up. “Hi Butch. I’ll say it properly when I get back. Just give me a second.”
I heard Butch ask who “they” were and Uncle Roe and Jude start to explain. It took a few minutes for me to get the kids settled down but finally they did and they were all asleep except Tiffany and Paulie both of whom agreed to come out for a minute.
Uncle Roe, despite being rough, loved little kids and asked right away, “And I guess this princess must be Miss Tiffany. I’ve heard what a help you and Paul were on the long trip home.”
I let Uncle Roe charm Tiff and turned to look at Butch who leaned against the wall. I said, “I guess you expect a hug or something.”
I could see his smile even in the dark. “And a kiss on the cheek just to make sure to ruffle your feathers properly.” After said hug and peck he set me back and looked at me. “Jude told us about those men.”
“Oh.”
“We don’t need to say any more about it. Bad things happen to bad people when they get what’s coming to ‘em.”
I relaxed. Out of all my cousins on both sides Butch could be a bit of a stiff. It is why he and Jude had trouble getting along when Jude would get wild. Butch and Clewis’ mom – a woman named Jennifer that I never really had much to do with – is even stiffer so that’s where he picked it up from. If Butch wasn’t going to give me a hard time about it I doubted anyone would; but it still wasn’t something I wanted to advertise. “Can we … not … not tell everyone else?”
“You won’t catch me carrying tales,” he said.
Jude added, “I only told Butch and Dad because I figured they needed to know what you’d been through. That is the only time that …?”
“We avoided people when we could,” I said hurriedly by way of an answer. “It was just safer that way.”
Uncle Roe broke in and said, “Reckon these two need to be hitting the hay Dovie. And I don’t want to leave either but
they’ll be going crazy up at the house and Clewis ain’t gonna be able to handle them all by hisself.”
I hugged him and said, “And the sun comes up early on a farm.”
He chuckled at the family saying and said, “Earlier every day. Jude seems to think he’s got enough groceries to fix breakfast with but tomorrow we’ll get you outfitted so you can take care of yourselves better than you have been. We’ll give it a couple of days for the kids to settle down and then on Sunday we’ll have a big meal all together after church.”
“Yes sir,” I told him knowing he was taking it as a given that we’d all be attending if the doors were open. “But I don’t know if I have enough gas left to go but once or twice.”
“Don’t take that car girl; it will stand out like sore thumb. You walk up to the house and we’ll all fit in the wagon. Jude’ll explain it.”
He was waiting for me to say something. “Yes sir.”
That wasn’t it so Uncle Roe just asked outright, “You all right with Jude staying here?”
“Jude already asked me that first thing and I said sure. So long as you think it is OK I don’t have a problem with it.”
All three men must have been tense because I could tell they all relaxed at my reply which I thought a little strange. “That’s good then,” Uncle Roe said clapping Jude on the shoulder. “Jude’ll catch you up on how things stand and I won’t have to worry more than I already will.”
After Uncle Roe and Butch left I turned to Jude. “OK, something is up. What is it?”
Jude shook his head and said, “I told them you weren’t a little kid anymore and would catch on just like you had when your Ma was so bad off. It’ll take time for them to see it though so be prepared.”
“I figured that,” I told him. “But it’s more than just they still think I’m a little kid that needs looking after. Have I brought us half way across the country only to wind up standing in an ant pile?”
“It ain’t that bad but as a girl you’re gonna need to be careful.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means what it means. The military and the cops are around but they don’t get involved unless they absolutely have to … and you don’t want them to get involved ‘cause when they do it just causes different trouble. And you stay away from town. Ol’ Buttface is Santy Claus compared to some that are hanging around there. You’ll get propositioned to get safe passage to cross the road and don’t act so dumb you don’t know what I mean.”
I nodded carefully. “Of course I know what you mean. I hadn’t intended … to be honest all I’ve been thinking about is getting here in one piece. I didn’t … I mean …” I sat down and started shaking a little. “At least on the road we could run. Now we’re here and there’s no place to run to. I guess we’re really in trouble now.”
“Hey. Hey don’t. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“I don’t cry … at least not much.”
“Well … be that as it may I didn’t mean to scare you but you need to know. As for trouble, yeah there’s trouble … but that doesn’t mean you’re in trouble. We just gotta work out how we’re gonna feed everybody this winter and still have seed for the spring. The one thing is … you don’t tell no one what you have, not even folks at church.”
“Huh?”
“There’s … there’s things going on. Anyone that looks like they have anything has been hit … sometimes by gangs from town though that’s tapered off now that gas is hard to come by … sometimes folks just disappear and their place looks like it’s been ransacked. The worst is when there is an order of confiscation from the courts.”
“What’s an order of confiscation?”
“It’s a legal way of saying that you’ve got something the government needs or wants and they redistribute it to other people who need it or want it. It is supposed to be so things will be fair but mostly they do it to keep the riots to a minimum or to …er … put the screws to anyone that they consider might be getting too big for their britches. I say block them rioters in and let ‘em go for it and kill each other off so’s there’s fewer of ‘em … but I ain’t no one that anybody listens to.”
“Jude …”
“I think that’s about all you are up to hearing for now. You’re about as shook up as you need to be. I ain’t doing too good either.”
“Yeah, you look like you are getting the sweats … is it bad?”
“The wanting a drink?” At my nod he said, “Not as bad as it was. I worked some of it off running back to the house and bringing Butch over. I’m just beat.”
I thought it would take forever to get to sleep but surprisingly my exhausted side won out over the side that wanted to come crawling out of my skin. It was a little hard to believe but I was actually sleeping in a bed I’d called my own since I was old enough to sleep in something besides a cradle.
“I’d a been back sooner but I didn’t want to push the horses in the dark. Rochelle didn’t come but Butch did. He’s tying off.”
Uncle Roe called out the door, “Get in here boy and greet your cousin!”
“I’m coming Dad. You shouldn’t say it so loud. Someone might hear.”
A large man walked in with hair nearly the same color as Mom’s had been. Uncle Roe said, “I want ‘em to hear. Want the whole county to hear. Might chirk ‘em up to know that miracles are still happening.”
Paulie stuck his head out the bedroom door and waved carefully then said, “Dovie, they’re scared. It’s … I think it’s all the strange men.”
I stood up. “Hi Butch. I’ll say it properly when I get back. Just give me a second.”
I heard Butch ask who “they” were and Uncle Roe and Jude start to explain. It took a few minutes for me to get the kids settled down but finally they did and they were all asleep except Tiffany and Paulie both of whom agreed to come out for a minute.
Uncle Roe, despite being rough, loved little kids and asked right away, “And I guess this princess must be Miss Tiffany. I’ve heard what a help you and Paul were on the long trip home.”
I let Uncle Roe charm Tiff and turned to look at Butch who leaned against the wall. I said, “I guess you expect a hug or something.”
I could see his smile even in the dark. “And a kiss on the cheek just to make sure to ruffle your feathers properly.” After said hug and peck he set me back and looked at me. “Jude told us about those men.”
“Oh.”
“We don’t need to say any more about it. Bad things happen to bad people when they get what’s coming to ‘em.”
I relaxed. Out of all my cousins on both sides Butch could be a bit of a stiff. It is why he and Jude had trouble getting along when Jude would get wild. Butch and Clewis’ mom – a woman named Jennifer that I never really had much to do with – is even stiffer so that’s where he picked it up from. If Butch wasn’t going to give me a hard time about it I doubted anyone would; but it still wasn’t something I wanted to advertise. “Can we … not … not tell everyone else?”
“You won’t catch me carrying tales,” he said.
Jude added, “I only told Butch and Dad because I figured they needed to know what you’d been through. That is the only time that …?”
“We avoided people when we could,” I said hurriedly by way of an answer. “It was just safer that way.”
Uncle Roe broke in and said, “Reckon these two need to be hitting the hay Dovie. And I don’t want to leave either but
they’ll be going crazy up at the house and Clewis ain’t gonna be able to handle them all by hisself.”
I hugged him and said, “And the sun comes up early on a farm.”
He chuckled at the family saying and said, “Earlier every day. Jude seems to think he’s got enough groceries to fix breakfast with but tomorrow we’ll get you outfitted so you can take care of yourselves better than you have been. We’ll give it a couple of days for the kids to settle down and then on Sunday we’ll have a big meal all together after church.”
“Yes sir,” I told him knowing he was taking it as a given that we’d all be attending if the doors were open. “But I don’t know if I have enough gas left to go but once or twice.”
“Don’t take that car girl; it will stand out like sore thumb. You walk up to the house and we’ll all fit in the wagon. Jude’ll explain it.”
He was waiting for me to say something. “Yes sir.”
That wasn’t it so Uncle Roe just asked outright, “You all right with Jude staying here?”
“Jude already asked me that first thing and I said sure. So long as you think it is OK I don’t have a problem with it.”
All three men must have been tense because I could tell they all relaxed at my reply which I thought a little strange. “That’s good then,” Uncle Roe said clapping Jude on the shoulder. “Jude’ll catch you up on how things stand and I won’t have to worry more than I already will.”
After Uncle Roe and Butch left I turned to Jude. “OK, something is up. What is it?”
Jude shook his head and said, “I told them you weren’t a little kid anymore and would catch on just like you had when your Ma was so bad off. It’ll take time for them to see it though so be prepared.”
“I figured that,” I told him. “But it’s more than just they still think I’m a little kid that needs looking after. Have I brought us half way across the country only to wind up standing in an ant pile?”
“It ain’t that bad but as a girl you’re gonna need to be careful.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means what it means. The military and the cops are around but they don’t get involved unless they absolutely have to … and you don’t want them to get involved ‘cause when they do it just causes different trouble. And you stay away from town. Ol’ Buttface is Santy Claus compared to some that are hanging around there. You’ll get propositioned to get safe passage to cross the road and don’t act so dumb you don’t know what I mean.”
I nodded carefully. “Of course I know what you mean. I hadn’t intended … to be honest all I’ve been thinking about is getting here in one piece. I didn’t … I mean …” I sat down and started shaking a little. “At least on the road we could run. Now we’re here and there’s no place to run to. I guess we’re really in trouble now.”
“Hey. Hey don’t. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“I don’t cry … at least not much.”
“Well … be that as it may I didn’t mean to scare you but you need to know. As for trouble, yeah there’s trouble … but that doesn’t mean you’re in trouble. We just gotta work out how we’re gonna feed everybody this winter and still have seed for the spring. The one thing is … you don’t tell no one what you have, not even folks at church.”
“Huh?”
“There’s … there’s things going on. Anyone that looks like they have anything has been hit … sometimes by gangs from town though that’s tapered off now that gas is hard to come by … sometimes folks just disappear and their place looks like it’s been ransacked. The worst is when there is an order of confiscation from the courts.”
“What’s an order of confiscation?”
“It’s a legal way of saying that you’ve got something the government needs or wants and they redistribute it to other people who need it or want it. It is supposed to be so things will be fair but mostly they do it to keep the riots to a minimum or to …er … put the screws to anyone that they consider might be getting too big for their britches. I say block them rioters in and let ‘em go for it and kill each other off so’s there’s fewer of ‘em … but I ain’t no one that anybody listens to.”
“Jude …”
“I think that’s about all you are up to hearing for now. You’re about as shook up as you need to be. I ain’t doing too good either.”
“Yeah, you look like you are getting the sweats … is it bad?”
“The wanting a drink?” At my nod he said, “Not as bad as it was. I worked some of it off running back to the house and bringing Butch over. I’m just beat.”
I thought it would take forever to get to sleep but surprisingly my exhausted side won out over the side that wanted to come crawling out of my skin. It was a little hard to believe but I was actually sleeping in a bed I’d called my own since I was old enough to sleep in something besides a cradle.
223shootersc
Veteran Member
good stuff, as usual
Jeepcats 3
Contributing Member
Nice new story!
You have such a way with words that grips your readers and pulls them into the stories.
While I'm reading your stories, I often feel like I'm right there beside the main character.
Thank You!
Jeepcats3
You have such a way with words that grips your readers and pulls them into the stories.
While I'm reading your stories, I often feel like I'm right there beside the main character.
Thank You!
Jeepcats3
Chapter XIII
I woke up before the sun came up and made my way to the kitchen nearly tripping over Paul who had gone to sleep on the floor outside his bedroom door. “Paulie, what on earth?!”
“I … I heard what Jude said last night. I was standing guard so you could sleep.”
“Oh Paulie,” I said bending down to give him a hug. “Look, we’ll figure it out but Jude is around so it isn’t just us anymore. Besides if you don’t sleep, how are you going to help me during the day? We have a lot to do before winter gets here … and I think we’ll start with those apple trees.”
The sound of muscles stretching and bones popping came from the other side of the sofa where he’d chosen to sleep instead of the screened porch. Jude sat up and said, “That sounds like a plan I can get behind. I gotta help Dad mow the side twenty but we lay off early in the day so we can get other things done. If he don’t need me I’ll come back here and help clear the tops out so you don’t have to climb up in ‘em.”
“How do you mow if you don’t have gas for the tractors?”
“Don’t use tractors. Mennonite family that bought that farm next door refused to get vaccinated and the whole lot of them fell to the virus. Most of their cattle went back to other Mennonites but we got some of their big draft horses cause Dad helped build all the coffins they needed. Parents, both sets of grandparents, and all eight kids; and they weren’t the only Mennonites that happened to. The mower and other attachments was our grandparents’ that Dad rebuilt to sell to an antique house but never got around to it. Now we use ‘em.”
“How awful for that family,” I gasped.
“Dad said you get paid consequences for standing on your principles … sometimes it’s good pay, sometimes not. Sometimes it all depends on how you look at it I guess. Either way there’s grits in the cabinet and some smoked hog jowl hanging in the pantry … er … if …”
“Let me wash up first. Have you been doing your own cooking since you started sleeping here?”
“If you wanna call it that. Something upset the ducks last week and they stopped laying or you’d have some eggs to go with the grits and jowl.”
“Fox?” I asked heading for the hand pump that stood at the foot of the back porch steps.
Jude shook his head, waiting his turn at the pump. “Something bigger. Mighta been a dog … or a person. Hard to tell the difference sometimes, And there weren’t any tracks left worth spit after Rochelle’s kids walked all over the area before we could get to it.”
“How’s all that going … up at the house I mean. Uncle Roe had mentioned that the girls were going to have to find their own places before we left for Phoenix.”
“And they did for a while. But when things got bad in town they all ran back out here and Mom told them to stay before Dad could say otherwise.”
“You know Uncle Roe wouldn’t have turned them away Jude.”
He said, “Oh you’re right about that … but they done got surprised that he don’t let ‘em just sit around like they used to. None of us do. You won’t recognize the girls. Rochelle and Wendalene are half the size they used to be and I ain’t joking neither. Faith … well Faith is in some kind of funk but she ain’t that pasty color she used to be from where she would never go outdoors and do nothin’.”
“What do you mean she’s in a funk?”
“Can’t explain it, she just is. Think she is having a hard time with all her plans coming to nothing like they have. She never planned on being a farm girl and hates it but the rules is you don’t work you don’t eat. The boy she took up with after you all left ain’t half bad; Dad likes him. And while he don’t know much about farming he’s a doggone good welder and seems to be teaching himself how to smith enough to fix things that break and bring in some work. My uncles found out the hard way Dad wasn’t fooling and tried to start a feud over it, but Dad stood tough. Mom don’t like the way things are going ‘cause there’s been a few times folks have gone to bed hungry, her included.”
Trying to keep any judgmentalness out of my voice I said, “They could always snitch from the pantry. I’m surprised they don’t.”
“They tried that. Once. Dad padlocked it … and the basement too. And he sleeps down there now. He caught one of Butch’s kids trying to unscrew the board off a basement window and had him thrown in the back of the pick up truck and was going to take him down to the county offices.”
“Oh Lord. Butch must have had something to say about that.”
Jude snorted, “Yeah … like have a nice life, next time follow the rules.”
“No! You’re joshin’ me.”
“If I’m lying I’m dying Dovie, I swear it’s true. I tell you though no one has tried that a second time, especially not the kids. Don’t mean Dad don’t keep a watch to make sure it doesn’t. Dad’s a good man Dovie but he don’t take much pushin’.”
I sighed. “I can see folks are gonna be just thrilled at seven more mouths if they are already protective of what they have. I gotta get to planning … doing what Mom always talked about when we were here.”
Jude nodded cautiously. “Might be a good idea at that. I ain’t saying it can’t be done but … the gardens aren’t bringing in as much because we haven’t had the fertilizer or pesticides to keep ‘em going like in the past. Same with the field crops. About the only thing that didn’t get bugs real bad this year was tobacco and a good thing too. Folks have takin’ to smokin’ just to forget how hungry they are.”
I started water boiling to make the grits and then got the kids up and moving and told them when they were finished getting dressed to start bringing everything into the house out of the car. “Grab what you can and I’ll get the heavy stuff out, just put it neatly in the back room so I can go through it and figure out where to put things.”
“I’ll get the heavy stuff Granny,” Jude amended. “You just cook if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind … and stop calling me Granny. I’m thankful to be able to give the kids something besides crackers and granola bars.”
I was putting breakfast on the table when Jude walked in with eyes nearly as big around as the kids had been at the sight of Uncle Roe. “What?” I asked him getting worried.
“Co … co … coffee.”
I looked and realized he was carrying the garbage bag that I had collected the powder out of the vending machines in. “It’s instant.”
“Ask me if I care. Can I have a cup? Please?”
“Well goodness Jude, of course you can. What? Does Uncle Roe ration it out?”
Jude hands shook as he dipped some boiling water out of the kettle I had on the stove. “He would if there was any to ration. It run out months ago. You better keep this to yourself or you’ll have everyone up at the house down here all day long.”
“But I can’t keep it all if Uncle Roe doesn’t have any,” I told him.
He nodded. “I understand that but you let Dad decide what to do with it and you don’t tell no one until he does.” He’d finished stirring and then shivered. “Good gosh this is good.”
Nearly gagging at the remembered taste I said, “It’s nasty vending machine coffee.”
“You only say that ‘cause you ain’t had to give it up for so long.”
“I say that because it’s nasty vending machine coffee. Tomorrow I’ll perk some of the real stuff. There’s some around in those boxes and bags some place.”
“Now you’re joshin’ me.”
I shook my head. “Go wash up and then come eat.”
A bit later I was wiping Corey’s chin and telling Lonnie to stop kicking the table leg when Jude put his fork down and asked, “Where’s your plate?”
I shrugged. “I’ll grab something in a bit. I want there to be enough left to put some grits in a loaf pan so that it’ll set and I can fry it up for dinner.”
“You gotta eat.”
“I will.”
Paulie and Tiff said in unison, “She won’t.”
Outraged that they’d go turncoat I said, “Hey! Whose side are you on you two?!”
Tiff said, “It’s true. You don’t eat much.”
“I … I just got out of the habit. Besides, I’ve been eating those Clif bars.”
Jude made a rude gagging noise. “Gawd Dovie, those things taste like twice chewed cud.”
Getting irritated I said, “Oh yeah, and your taste buds know good when it hits them. You think vending machine coffee tastes like Heaven. I told you I’m fine … just out of the habit of eating a lot.”
“It shows. You ain’t much more than skin and bones and don’t play it ain’t true. I’ll keep an eye out while we mow and try and bag some ground hogs … they’ve been bad this year … or some of your name sakes.”
At Tiffany’s apprehensive look I said, “He means doves … birds. They’re like small chickens.”
She got a glazed look in her eyes and then said quietly, “Cornish hens … Grandmother used to call them Cornish hens.”
I nodded, “Even smaller than that but they are just as good. Now if you all are finished eating you can go play for just a little bit then as soon as I get a few things figured out we need to get to work.”
They all nodded and got up and pushed their chairs in then put their plates in the sink and filed down the hall to Paulie’s bedroom.
Jude stared after them then asked, “What’s wrong with them? They’re like Stepford kids or something.”
“Don’t Jude,” I told him warningly.
“Relax Dovie, I ain’t making fun of them. I mean it, what’s wrong with them?”
I sighed. “You think you know how bad it was but you don’t, not really. I’m Ok … come to terms with it. They’re just little kids and they’ve lost everything. I can’t even give them much of a family history except for what is in their medical charts that I swiped before we left that facility. They don’t have anything from the lives they had before I got them unless there are pictures in their file. Corey and Mimi don’t even mention their parents anymore. I think Lonnie might have once or twice since we left the facility. Bobby … didn’t have any to begin with; he started out as a foster kid. Tiffany … talking about her grandmother is as close to talking about her past as she has gotten in a long time, and Mimi is her biological sister by the way.”
“Like I couldn’t have figured that out with both of them having the same exact eyes and nose. Any of the boys related?”
“No. Like I said, Bobby came in from the foster care system and I think he’d been there most of his life. He latched onto Paulie like nothing I’ve ever seen and that’s how he wound up as one of ours. He’s better now but poor Paulie couldn’t even go to the bathroom without Bobby being glued to him. After the two of them connected they started collecting the other kids and I became de facto Nanny or something. And all the stuff in the quarantine camps and medical facilities and then us on the road and all they’ve seen. I didn’t have any choice but to have rules and to keep them quiet. We wouldn’t have made it otherwise. They’ll loosen up but it might take a while. None of them are real trusting outside our group. Uncle Roe got more words out of Tiff than I thought he would.”
“Well that’s Dad for you; he’s got the magic. I remember when Mom and him first started dating. I wanted to hate him but wound up praying every night that she wouldn’t get tired of him like she had all the others.” I hadn’t known that and Jude seemed suddenly embarrassed at having let it slip out. “Anywho, don’t stray from the yard today. I know you’re used to having the running of things but … but until you get your feet under you around here …”
“It’s alright Jude. You don’t boss the way Butch and Clewis do. And you tried to help with Reynolds … you know before. I know you aren’t saying it to be mean.”
He relaxed and gave me a small grin then stopped looking consternated. “Dang it. Ain’t used to … look, I gotta run but there’s some of my guns in the broom closet. Can you put ‘em where they can’t be got to? I don’t want the kids to get into them and get hurt.”
“I’ll put them in the master bedroom closet and lock it like Dad always did.”
“Good deal. I’ll try my best to bring something back but it might not be until close to supper.”
“If you can’t I know how to make do.” And I did.
After he left, a bag slung over his shoulders and a rifle in his hand, I went back to the bedroom and told the kids, “You don’t need to all sleep together like this you know.”
I watched them move together like a bunch of scared puppies. Paulie answered for them saying, “It’s all right Dovie. We don’t mind.”
I sighed then said, “Well I suppose but if you’re going to why not use the big room upstairs. There’s two beds plus a trundle under each one. There’s also a fireplace in there and it will be warmer once Indian Summer is over with.”
Paulie grinned, “We can use the big room? For real?”
I laughed, “I don’t see why not. If you want to.”
Paulie marshaled his troops and said, “C’mon. This is going to be cool!” Even Tiff looked intrigued and followed them up the stairs with some vigor. As for me, I went and sat on the porch to soak things in and think.
My raising had been a little unconventional. Dad was TDY a lot and when he was Mom tended to bring us to the farm to live or visit depending on how long he was going to be gone. Sometimes Jack and Jay would fuss about it, especially once they got into highschool and worried that it was going to keep them from graduating and getting into the military but for the most part it worked out fine. It meant I learned the skills to be both a city kid (when we were in Tampa or wherever we were stationed) and a farm kid (when we were in Bear Spring). I’d mostly been using my city kid survival skills up to that point, now it was time for me to get back in touch with my farm kid side.
I grabbed a note pad and sat in the swing that had hung on the front porch for as long as I could remember. On the pad of paper I listed: food, clothes, shoes, cooking, warmth.
We’ve got a roof over our head … does anything at the house need fixing? Is the ax sharp enough that I can chop wood with it? Need to go through the cedar closet to make sure we have enough blankets. Need to go through all the boxes that never got unpacked from Tampa.
How full is the propane tank and can we get more? How much will it cost and how do I get the money that was in the bank or the benefits we were supposed to get? If we can’t does the wood stove still work? Is there a bird nest in there like last time?
Might have to make clothes for the kids but that’s ok as there should be a ton of stuff like that still packed away. Bobby can use Paulie’s clothes that he’s outgrown. Lonnie can use Bobby’s. Corey and Mimi need clothes. Tiffany can maybe use some of my old stuff still packed away. Maybe I can use Mom’s old clothes if I sew them up in places. Might see if Jude can use some of Jack and Jay’s old things ‘cause I ain’t looking at his drawers coming out of the seat of his pants much longer. Why isn’t Aunt Frankie or his sisters looking after him?
Shoes I don’t know. Ask Jude. If he doesn’t know ask Uncle Roe. Winter boots should still be packed away in the storage tubs in the attic. Need to find them.
Food … food … food … food.
Food was the thing. We’d need a lot of it and I was no longer going to have rest stops and stores to go digging through to find some. So I flipped the page and started a new list.
Drink: water from the pump, coffee while it holds out, boxed drinks for juice, powdered drinks that I’ve been collecting. I see that the mints have gone crazy in Mom’s herb garden. Pick some and dry it to drink so that other people can have the vending machine sludge. Hide all the sodas under my bed and only have one as a treat when I absolutely can’t stand it anymore. Maybe give all the diet ones to Aunt Frankie and the girls as a peace offering so they’ll stay off my back.
Sweetening: packets of sugar, fake sugar, and honey that I’ve been collecting. The bags of stuff like that from offices and vending machines. Syrup boiling but that doesn’t happen until spring and can we do it this year if there is no propane to keep the fires lit? Honey like the Mennonites have? What else do the Mennonites do for sweetening?
Meat: ducks from the pond if they haven’t all flown south. Bullfrogs from the ponds but don’t let Jude tell them that stupid story about the legs jumping around in their stomach. Squirrels? Raccoons? Quail? Doves? Ground hogs? I don’t like possums but I’ll eat them if there isn’t anything else and just won’t tell the kids what it is. Jude said there might be some hunting but not much … what about deer? I don’t want to ask but does Uncle Roe still have his pigs, chickens, and the goats? Can I work at something somehow so that he’ll give me enough for the kids? Crows hang around all winter long. Is there really such a thing as blackbird pie like in the song Old King Cole? Maybe we don’t have to eat meat every day if the vitamins hold out. Can you eat muskrats? Are they still in the creeks?
Vegetables: need to get Jude to be ok with me walking in the woods. Take Mom’s lists and forage and try and bring back enough to can some of the greens and mushrooms. What else can I find in the woods in October? Look for that little reference book Mom used to use all the time when we were here, the one she wrote all those notes in.
Fruit: What is on the trees in the old orchard? Apples, canning pears is the only thing that would be on them in October. What about the rose hips? Did they make this year? Has a lot of Vitamin C in them and makes good tea. Those packets of lemon juice might come in handy. Sumac lemonade tastes like fruit but it isn’t (should put this under drinks).
Other: See if any home canned goods are left down in the basement closet and see what date they have on them. Or did Jude and Uncle Roe take all that stuff away? Mom’s wild grape catsup and mushroom catsup might still be in there. What about grains? I have some oatmeal left but that won’t last. Bread? Only thing I have is crackers and those meal bar things. What about medicine in case the kids get sick? Have all those first aid kits but no serious medicine if they get bad sick. Need to read Mom’s books on teas and stuff like that. How do I make bread if I don’t have flour or cornmeal? I remember when Gran was still alive we used acorns for stuff so look in Gran’s old recipe book or ask Uncle Roe if he remembers.
I could feel myself getting edgy about all the things we didn’t have. The only thing I knew to do was work with what we did have.
I stuck my head in the front door and called up the stairs, “Paulie?!”
“Yeah?”
“Need you all down here. We’re gonna start gleaning the trees.”
I woke up before the sun came up and made my way to the kitchen nearly tripping over Paul who had gone to sleep on the floor outside his bedroom door. “Paulie, what on earth?!”
“I … I heard what Jude said last night. I was standing guard so you could sleep.”
“Oh Paulie,” I said bending down to give him a hug. “Look, we’ll figure it out but Jude is around so it isn’t just us anymore. Besides if you don’t sleep, how are you going to help me during the day? We have a lot to do before winter gets here … and I think we’ll start with those apple trees.”
The sound of muscles stretching and bones popping came from the other side of the sofa where he’d chosen to sleep instead of the screened porch. Jude sat up and said, “That sounds like a plan I can get behind. I gotta help Dad mow the side twenty but we lay off early in the day so we can get other things done. If he don’t need me I’ll come back here and help clear the tops out so you don’t have to climb up in ‘em.”
“How do you mow if you don’t have gas for the tractors?”
“Don’t use tractors. Mennonite family that bought that farm next door refused to get vaccinated and the whole lot of them fell to the virus. Most of their cattle went back to other Mennonites but we got some of their big draft horses cause Dad helped build all the coffins they needed. Parents, both sets of grandparents, and all eight kids; and they weren’t the only Mennonites that happened to. The mower and other attachments was our grandparents’ that Dad rebuilt to sell to an antique house but never got around to it. Now we use ‘em.”
“How awful for that family,” I gasped.
“Dad said you get paid consequences for standing on your principles … sometimes it’s good pay, sometimes not. Sometimes it all depends on how you look at it I guess. Either way there’s grits in the cabinet and some smoked hog jowl hanging in the pantry … er … if …”
“Let me wash up first. Have you been doing your own cooking since you started sleeping here?”
“If you wanna call it that. Something upset the ducks last week and they stopped laying or you’d have some eggs to go with the grits and jowl.”
“Fox?” I asked heading for the hand pump that stood at the foot of the back porch steps.
Jude shook his head, waiting his turn at the pump. “Something bigger. Mighta been a dog … or a person. Hard to tell the difference sometimes, And there weren’t any tracks left worth spit after Rochelle’s kids walked all over the area before we could get to it.”
“How’s all that going … up at the house I mean. Uncle Roe had mentioned that the girls were going to have to find their own places before we left for Phoenix.”
“And they did for a while. But when things got bad in town they all ran back out here and Mom told them to stay before Dad could say otherwise.”
“You know Uncle Roe wouldn’t have turned them away Jude.”
He said, “Oh you’re right about that … but they done got surprised that he don’t let ‘em just sit around like they used to. None of us do. You won’t recognize the girls. Rochelle and Wendalene are half the size they used to be and I ain’t joking neither. Faith … well Faith is in some kind of funk but she ain’t that pasty color she used to be from where she would never go outdoors and do nothin’.”
“What do you mean she’s in a funk?”
“Can’t explain it, she just is. Think she is having a hard time with all her plans coming to nothing like they have. She never planned on being a farm girl and hates it but the rules is you don’t work you don’t eat. The boy she took up with after you all left ain’t half bad; Dad likes him. And while he don’t know much about farming he’s a doggone good welder and seems to be teaching himself how to smith enough to fix things that break and bring in some work. My uncles found out the hard way Dad wasn’t fooling and tried to start a feud over it, but Dad stood tough. Mom don’t like the way things are going ‘cause there’s been a few times folks have gone to bed hungry, her included.”
Trying to keep any judgmentalness out of my voice I said, “They could always snitch from the pantry. I’m surprised they don’t.”
“They tried that. Once. Dad padlocked it … and the basement too. And he sleeps down there now. He caught one of Butch’s kids trying to unscrew the board off a basement window and had him thrown in the back of the pick up truck and was going to take him down to the county offices.”
“Oh Lord. Butch must have had something to say about that.”
Jude snorted, “Yeah … like have a nice life, next time follow the rules.”
“No! You’re joshin’ me.”
“If I’m lying I’m dying Dovie, I swear it’s true. I tell you though no one has tried that a second time, especially not the kids. Don’t mean Dad don’t keep a watch to make sure it doesn’t. Dad’s a good man Dovie but he don’t take much pushin’.”
I sighed. “I can see folks are gonna be just thrilled at seven more mouths if they are already protective of what they have. I gotta get to planning … doing what Mom always talked about when we were here.”
Jude nodded cautiously. “Might be a good idea at that. I ain’t saying it can’t be done but … the gardens aren’t bringing in as much because we haven’t had the fertilizer or pesticides to keep ‘em going like in the past. Same with the field crops. About the only thing that didn’t get bugs real bad this year was tobacco and a good thing too. Folks have takin’ to smokin’ just to forget how hungry they are.”
I started water boiling to make the grits and then got the kids up and moving and told them when they were finished getting dressed to start bringing everything into the house out of the car. “Grab what you can and I’ll get the heavy stuff out, just put it neatly in the back room so I can go through it and figure out where to put things.”
“I’ll get the heavy stuff Granny,” Jude amended. “You just cook if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind … and stop calling me Granny. I’m thankful to be able to give the kids something besides crackers and granola bars.”
I was putting breakfast on the table when Jude walked in with eyes nearly as big around as the kids had been at the sight of Uncle Roe. “What?” I asked him getting worried.
“Co … co … coffee.”
I looked and realized he was carrying the garbage bag that I had collected the powder out of the vending machines in. “It’s instant.”
“Ask me if I care. Can I have a cup? Please?”
“Well goodness Jude, of course you can. What? Does Uncle Roe ration it out?”
Jude hands shook as he dipped some boiling water out of the kettle I had on the stove. “He would if there was any to ration. It run out months ago. You better keep this to yourself or you’ll have everyone up at the house down here all day long.”
“But I can’t keep it all if Uncle Roe doesn’t have any,” I told him.
He nodded. “I understand that but you let Dad decide what to do with it and you don’t tell no one until he does.” He’d finished stirring and then shivered. “Good gosh this is good.”
Nearly gagging at the remembered taste I said, “It’s nasty vending machine coffee.”
“You only say that ‘cause you ain’t had to give it up for so long.”
“I say that because it’s nasty vending machine coffee. Tomorrow I’ll perk some of the real stuff. There’s some around in those boxes and bags some place.”
“Now you’re joshin’ me.”
I shook my head. “Go wash up and then come eat.”
A bit later I was wiping Corey’s chin and telling Lonnie to stop kicking the table leg when Jude put his fork down and asked, “Where’s your plate?”
I shrugged. “I’ll grab something in a bit. I want there to be enough left to put some grits in a loaf pan so that it’ll set and I can fry it up for dinner.”
“You gotta eat.”
“I will.”
Paulie and Tiff said in unison, “She won’t.”
Outraged that they’d go turncoat I said, “Hey! Whose side are you on you two?!”
Tiff said, “It’s true. You don’t eat much.”
“I … I just got out of the habit. Besides, I’ve been eating those Clif bars.”
Jude made a rude gagging noise. “Gawd Dovie, those things taste like twice chewed cud.”
Getting irritated I said, “Oh yeah, and your taste buds know good when it hits them. You think vending machine coffee tastes like Heaven. I told you I’m fine … just out of the habit of eating a lot.”
“It shows. You ain’t much more than skin and bones and don’t play it ain’t true. I’ll keep an eye out while we mow and try and bag some ground hogs … they’ve been bad this year … or some of your name sakes.”
At Tiffany’s apprehensive look I said, “He means doves … birds. They’re like small chickens.”
She got a glazed look in her eyes and then said quietly, “Cornish hens … Grandmother used to call them Cornish hens.”
I nodded, “Even smaller than that but they are just as good. Now if you all are finished eating you can go play for just a little bit then as soon as I get a few things figured out we need to get to work.”
They all nodded and got up and pushed their chairs in then put their plates in the sink and filed down the hall to Paulie’s bedroom.
Jude stared after them then asked, “What’s wrong with them? They’re like Stepford kids or something.”
“Don’t Jude,” I told him warningly.
“Relax Dovie, I ain’t making fun of them. I mean it, what’s wrong with them?”
I sighed. “You think you know how bad it was but you don’t, not really. I’m Ok … come to terms with it. They’re just little kids and they’ve lost everything. I can’t even give them much of a family history except for what is in their medical charts that I swiped before we left that facility. They don’t have anything from the lives they had before I got them unless there are pictures in their file. Corey and Mimi don’t even mention their parents anymore. I think Lonnie might have once or twice since we left the facility. Bobby … didn’t have any to begin with; he started out as a foster kid. Tiffany … talking about her grandmother is as close to talking about her past as she has gotten in a long time, and Mimi is her biological sister by the way.”
“Like I couldn’t have figured that out with both of them having the same exact eyes and nose. Any of the boys related?”
“No. Like I said, Bobby came in from the foster care system and I think he’d been there most of his life. He latched onto Paulie like nothing I’ve ever seen and that’s how he wound up as one of ours. He’s better now but poor Paulie couldn’t even go to the bathroom without Bobby being glued to him. After the two of them connected they started collecting the other kids and I became de facto Nanny or something. And all the stuff in the quarantine camps and medical facilities and then us on the road and all they’ve seen. I didn’t have any choice but to have rules and to keep them quiet. We wouldn’t have made it otherwise. They’ll loosen up but it might take a while. None of them are real trusting outside our group. Uncle Roe got more words out of Tiff than I thought he would.”
“Well that’s Dad for you; he’s got the magic. I remember when Mom and him first started dating. I wanted to hate him but wound up praying every night that she wouldn’t get tired of him like she had all the others.” I hadn’t known that and Jude seemed suddenly embarrassed at having let it slip out. “Anywho, don’t stray from the yard today. I know you’re used to having the running of things but … but until you get your feet under you around here …”
“It’s alright Jude. You don’t boss the way Butch and Clewis do. And you tried to help with Reynolds … you know before. I know you aren’t saying it to be mean.”
He relaxed and gave me a small grin then stopped looking consternated. “Dang it. Ain’t used to … look, I gotta run but there’s some of my guns in the broom closet. Can you put ‘em where they can’t be got to? I don’t want the kids to get into them and get hurt.”
“I’ll put them in the master bedroom closet and lock it like Dad always did.”
“Good deal. I’ll try my best to bring something back but it might not be until close to supper.”
“If you can’t I know how to make do.” And I did.
After he left, a bag slung over his shoulders and a rifle in his hand, I went back to the bedroom and told the kids, “You don’t need to all sleep together like this you know.”
I watched them move together like a bunch of scared puppies. Paulie answered for them saying, “It’s all right Dovie. We don’t mind.”
I sighed then said, “Well I suppose but if you’re going to why not use the big room upstairs. There’s two beds plus a trundle under each one. There’s also a fireplace in there and it will be warmer once Indian Summer is over with.”
Paulie grinned, “We can use the big room? For real?”
I laughed, “I don’t see why not. If you want to.”
Paulie marshaled his troops and said, “C’mon. This is going to be cool!” Even Tiff looked intrigued and followed them up the stairs with some vigor. As for me, I went and sat on the porch to soak things in and think.
My raising had been a little unconventional. Dad was TDY a lot and when he was Mom tended to bring us to the farm to live or visit depending on how long he was going to be gone. Sometimes Jack and Jay would fuss about it, especially once they got into highschool and worried that it was going to keep them from graduating and getting into the military but for the most part it worked out fine. It meant I learned the skills to be both a city kid (when we were in Tampa or wherever we were stationed) and a farm kid (when we were in Bear Spring). I’d mostly been using my city kid survival skills up to that point, now it was time for me to get back in touch with my farm kid side.
I grabbed a note pad and sat in the swing that had hung on the front porch for as long as I could remember. On the pad of paper I listed: food, clothes, shoes, cooking, warmth.
We’ve got a roof over our head … does anything at the house need fixing? Is the ax sharp enough that I can chop wood with it? Need to go through the cedar closet to make sure we have enough blankets. Need to go through all the boxes that never got unpacked from Tampa.
How full is the propane tank and can we get more? How much will it cost and how do I get the money that was in the bank or the benefits we were supposed to get? If we can’t does the wood stove still work? Is there a bird nest in there like last time?
Might have to make clothes for the kids but that’s ok as there should be a ton of stuff like that still packed away. Bobby can use Paulie’s clothes that he’s outgrown. Lonnie can use Bobby’s. Corey and Mimi need clothes. Tiffany can maybe use some of my old stuff still packed away. Maybe I can use Mom’s old clothes if I sew them up in places. Might see if Jude can use some of Jack and Jay’s old things ‘cause I ain’t looking at his drawers coming out of the seat of his pants much longer. Why isn’t Aunt Frankie or his sisters looking after him?
Shoes I don’t know. Ask Jude. If he doesn’t know ask Uncle Roe. Winter boots should still be packed away in the storage tubs in the attic. Need to find them.
Food … food … food … food.
Food was the thing. We’d need a lot of it and I was no longer going to have rest stops and stores to go digging through to find some. So I flipped the page and started a new list.
Drink: water from the pump, coffee while it holds out, boxed drinks for juice, powdered drinks that I’ve been collecting. I see that the mints have gone crazy in Mom’s herb garden. Pick some and dry it to drink so that other people can have the vending machine sludge. Hide all the sodas under my bed and only have one as a treat when I absolutely can’t stand it anymore. Maybe give all the diet ones to Aunt Frankie and the girls as a peace offering so they’ll stay off my back.
Sweetening: packets of sugar, fake sugar, and honey that I’ve been collecting. The bags of stuff like that from offices and vending machines. Syrup boiling but that doesn’t happen until spring and can we do it this year if there is no propane to keep the fires lit? Honey like the Mennonites have? What else do the Mennonites do for sweetening?
Meat: ducks from the pond if they haven’t all flown south. Bullfrogs from the ponds but don’t let Jude tell them that stupid story about the legs jumping around in their stomach. Squirrels? Raccoons? Quail? Doves? Ground hogs? I don’t like possums but I’ll eat them if there isn’t anything else and just won’t tell the kids what it is. Jude said there might be some hunting but not much … what about deer? I don’t want to ask but does Uncle Roe still have his pigs, chickens, and the goats? Can I work at something somehow so that he’ll give me enough for the kids? Crows hang around all winter long. Is there really such a thing as blackbird pie like in the song Old King Cole? Maybe we don’t have to eat meat every day if the vitamins hold out. Can you eat muskrats? Are they still in the creeks?
Vegetables: need to get Jude to be ok with me walking in the woods. Take Mom’s lists and forage and try and bring back enough to can some of the greens and mushrooms. What else can I find in the woods in October? Look for that little reference book Mom used to use all the time when we were here, the one she wrote all those notes in.
Fruit: What is on the trees in the old orchard? Apples, canning pears is the only thing that would be on them in October. What about the rose hips? Did they make this year? Has a lot of Vitamin C in them and makes good tea. Those packets of lemon juice might come in handy. Sumac lemonade tastes like fruit but it isn’t (should put this under drinks).
Other: See if any home canned goods are left down in the basement closet and see what date they have on them. Or did Jude and Uncle Roe take all that stuff away? Mom’s wild grape catsup and mushroom catsup might still be in there. What about grains? I have some oatmeal left but that won’t last. Bread? Only thing I have is crackers and those meal bar things. What about medicine in case the kids get sick? Have all those first aid kits but no serious medicine if they get bad sick. Need to read Mom’s books on teas and stuff like that. How do I make bread if I don’t have flour or cornmeal? I remember when Gran was still alive we used acorns for stuff so look in Gran’s old recipe book or ask Uncle Roe if he remembers.
I could feel myself getting edgy about all the things we didn’t have. The only thing I knew to do was work with what we did have.
I stuck my head in the front door and called up the stairs, “Paulie?!”
“Yeah?”
“Need you all down here. We’re gonna start gleaning the trees.”
Chapter XIV
“Drink your tea Reynolds. I only made it especially for you because you said you were thirsty.”
“This is my tea!” he shouted.
“That’s what I said,” I told him trying to stay calm. “I wouldn’t have made it for anyone else. It’s my mom’s special recipe.”
“You’re mom’s not here. She’s dead.”
“Yes, she is. Drink your tea.”
“I wanna play with the kids.”
“I thought you said you were thirsty.”
“I am.”
“You can’t drink and play at the same time. But if you drink your tea then Paulie said he would play with you. If you get too hot then you can’t play or you’ll get sick.”
“I wanna play with all the kids, not just Paulie. That’s what’s fair.”
Between one thing and another I finally got him to drink three glasses of the chamomile and lavender tea. He liked it because it was sweet and a little tart where I had snuck in some lemon balm. It took three glasses before it started taking effect. All three of those herbs have a sedative effect. I was just praying I wasn’t poisoning him in the process but he’d come over so frantic that I hadn’t known what else to do.
He never did completely settle down but he settled down enough that Paulie and Bobby could actually play with him. Tiff stayed on the outside looking in, keeping score. Reynolds seemed to enjoy it when the little ones clapped so he tried to keep playing the game right. I kept close by separating apples out that were blemish-free and good enough to wrap and put on the shelves down in the fruit cellar. The rest I would quickly cut the gashes and bruises out of and then slice them and put them in a big pot that I was going to cook down to applesauce.
Suddenly Reynolds said, “Ok, I’m done. Bye.”
“Wha …?” But he was off so quick I couldn’t stop him. “Oh Lord, Uncle Roe is going to kill me for letting him run around on his own.”
“No he isn’t.”
I jumped a mile. “Jude! Just how long have you been standing there?!”
“You mean how long have I been hiding over in the bushes?” At my glare he said, “Long enough to see you must have the golden touch.”
“If you mean with Reynolds it wasn’t the golden touch … it was tea … several glasses of it. You coulda come out and helped you know,” I huffed.
“Bad idea. Mom’s got Reynolds thinking … aw never mind.”
I smelled trouble. “Does this have something to do with why you are sleeping here?”
“Can we talk about it later?”
I nodded. “So long as we really talk about it and you don’t come up with another excuse.”
He sighed. “Aw, whatever. You’ll find out sooner or later anyway. Mom … she’s disowned me. Says I … I was a love child and don’t have the same dad as the girls do and that I’m a … an embarrassment or bane to her existence or that I always side against her to be mean or something along those lines. To be honest I always wondered ‘cause I’d heard stories from my uncles and I look so different from the girls but …”
Shocked but at the same time not … you hear things when you’re a kid that don’t always make sense until you are older and hear other things I said, “Does that matter anymore? Uncle Roe adopted all four of you when he married your mom and you call him dad and everything and always have.”
“You … you don’t care?”
“Well, I suppose I care if you do. But if you’re asking me if it changes anything then don’t take this the wrong way but that’s a dumb thing to think. You can’t help who your parents are or aren’t. And regardless of who your father was when you were born Uncle Roe chose to be your dad when you were little. I decided to be … well, I don’t know if a mother is what I am to the kids but I decided to keep them myself and I’ll fight tooth and nail against someone trying to take them away.”
“You gave that baby away,” he reminded me, hurting me more than I wanted to admit.
“Yes I did … because Baby needed something that I couldn’t give him and it would have been selfish to hold onto him only to watch him suffer for it.” Looking away I said, “Doing the right thing isn’t always what I want to do but it’s what I try to do … most of the time anyway.”
Regretfully he said, “I put my foot in my mouth didn’t I?”
I shook my head. “No. It’s the truth. I might as well learn to live with it now. And that still don’t … dang it, you have me talking just awful. That still doesn’t … not don’t … doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that your mother isn’t … well … I’m sorry Jude but she’s not always very nice. And she is the least nice when … when life is frustrating her. You just happen to get caught in the crosshairs this time.”
He snorted. “’Suppose that’s one way to put it. But now you know why I’m sleeping here. It just keeps the peace.”
“Sure it does. All it really means is that your mother and sisters have an excuse not to look after you like they are supposed to.”
“Hey! I’m a grown man in case you haven’t noticed!” I had let the words come out of my mouth before thinking about them and I hurt his pride when he was already low which made me feel bad.
Trying to make amends without embarrassing either one of us further I said, “A grown man coming out of the seat of his pants and barely able to cook enough to keep himself fed. At the very least … well maybe not Faith because she’d probably stitch your skin as often as your pants … anyway, one of them should have stepped up. Speaking of which, what is your waist size?”
Still a little embarrassed he asked, “Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Your jeans that’s what. I can see through them in places in the back and what’s underneath don’t … doesn’t … look much better. I think some of Jack and Jay’s old things can be made over to fit but I might as well start with something that is at least close so I don’t have to do too much to them.”
“You … you don’t need to … I mean …” he sputtered trying to see what the back of his jeans might look like to me.
“Look, if I’m going to take care of you too I don’t want people saying I treat you harsh or that I don’t know how to take care of you and the kids. That’s all I need, someone coming along and telling me that since I can’t do it that they’ll find someone that can.”
He stopped looking over his shoulder and looked at me and then finally said, “I told you Dovie, I’m a man, not a child. You don’t need to take care of me.”
“And you don’t need to hunt for a houseful of people that are practically strangers to you either but you did,” I said pointing to the small field-dressed deer I could finally see that he had hung up in a tree to the side of the house where we had gradually been moving so we could talk away from the kids who had gone back to picking apples.
“Welllllll …”
“That’s a deep subject, and one deeper than I am up to getting into,” I told him. “Let’s just call it … call it mutual support or something like that. OK?”
In instant relief he said, “Sure. Why not? And before I get busy with that deer … you remember how to take care of the meat?”
“You mean cook it? Yeah. I’ll pressure can some of it … or do you want me to turn it into sausage or jerky? ‘Cause if sausage is what you mean I’ll need to find Mom’s recipes and see if we have the right seasonings. And I guess see if we have muslin bags to stuff it into so it can be hung in the smoke house.”
“I didn’t mean anything in particular so any of it is all good … just so long as we get the loins for dinner tonight and don’t waste none. I’m starving. Mom went on strike and the girls only fixed grits and greens for lunch and that don’t stay with you long when it is only a little bitty bowl of the leftovers from the bottom of the pan.”
“Want some apple? I’m cooking down a batch of sauce to put up.”
“Can you poke a slice in my mouth? My hands are a mess.”
The kids took it as a game to take turns feeding Jude when he brought me cuts of meat from the deer. He made them laugh by being silly which made me think. I couldn’t remember Jude being like he was acting and then couldn’t decide if it was because he hadn’t been or because I’d just never noticed. He was always with older kids that my parents didn’t want me hanging around so maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t. I’m beginning to think that “wasn’t” isn’t nearly as important as “is” these days.
“Drink your tea Reynolds. I only made it especially for you because you said you were thirsty.”
“This is my tea!” he shouted.
“That’s what I said,” I told him trying to stay calm. “I wouldn’t have made it for anyone else. It’s my mom’s special recipe.”
“You’re mom’s not here. She’s dead.”
“Yes, she is. Drink your tea.”
“I wanna play with the kids.”
“I thought you said you were thirsty.”
“I am.”
“You can’t drink and play at the same time. But if you drink your tea then Paulie said he would play with you. If you get too hot then you can’t play or you’ll get sick.”
“I wanna play with all the kids, not just Paulie. That’s what’s fair.”
Between one thing and another I finally got him to drink three glasses of the chamomile and lavender tea. He liked it because it was sweet and a little tart where I had snuck in some lemon balm. It took three glasses before it started taking effect. All three of those herbs have a sedative effect. I was just praying I wasn’t poisoning him in the process but he’d come over so frantic that I hadn’t known what else to do.
He never did completely settle down but he settled down enough that Paulie and Bobby could actually play with him. Tiff stayed on the outside looking in, keeping score. Reynolds seemed to enjoy it when the little ones clapped so he tried to keep playing the game right. I kept close by separating apples out that were blemish-free and good enough to wrap and put on the shelves down in the fruit cellar. The rest I would quickly cut the gashes and bruises out of and then slice them and put them in a big pot that I was going to cook down to applesauce.
Suddenly Reynolds said, “Ok, I’m done. Bye.”
“Wha …?” But he was off so quick I couldn’t stop him. “Oh Lord, Uncle Roe is going to kill me for letting him run around on his own.”
“No he isn’t.”
I jumped a mile. “Jude! Just how long have you been standing there?!”
“You mean how long have I been hiding over in the bushes?” At my glare he said, “Long enough to see you must have the golden touch.”
“If you mean with Reynolds it wasn’t the golden touch … it was tea … several glasses of it. You coulda come out and helped you know,” I huffed.
“Bad idea. Mom’s got Reynolds thinking … aw never mind.”
I smelled trouble. “Does this have something to do with why you are sleeping here?”
“Can we talk about it later?”
I nodded. “So long as we really talk about it and you don’t come up with another excuse.”
He sighed. “Aw, whatever. You’ll find out sooner or later anyway. Mom … she’s disowned me. Says I … I was a love child and don’t have the same dad as the girls do and that I’m a … an embarrassment or bane to her existence or that I always side against her to be mean or something along those lines. To be honest I always wondered ‘cause I’d heard stories from my uncles and I look so different from the girls but …”
Shocked but at the same time not … you hear things when you’re a kid that don’t always make sense until you are older and hear other things I said, “Does that matter anymore? Uncle Roe adopted all four of you when he married your mom and you call him dad and everything and always have.”
“You … you don’t care?”
“Well, I suppose I care if you do. But if you’re asking me if it changes anything then don’t take this the wrong way but that’s a dumb thing to think. You can’t help who your parents are or aren’t. And regardless of who your father was when you were born Uncle Roe chose to be your dad when you were little. I decided to be … well, I don’t know if a mother is what I am to the kids but I decided to keep them myself and I’ll fight tooth and nail against someone trying to take them away.”
“You gave that baby away,” he reminded me, hurting me more than I wanted to admit.
“Yes I did … because Baby needed something that I couldn’t give him and it would have been selfish to hold onto him only to watch him suffer for it.” Looking away I said, “Doing the right thing isn’t always what I want to do but it’s what I try to do … most of the time anyway.”
Regretfully he said, “I put my foot in my mouth didn’t I?”
I shook my head. “No. It’s the truth. I might as well learn to live with it now. And that still don’t … dang it, you have me talking just awful. That still doesn’t … not don’t … doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that your mother isn’t … well … I’m sorry Jude but she’s not always very nice. And she is the least nice when … when life is frustrating her. You just happen to get caught in the crosshairs this time.”
He snorted. “’Suppose that’s one way to put it. But now you know why I’m sleeping here. It just keeps the peace.”
“Sure it does. All it really means is that your mother and sisters have an excuse not to look after you like they are supposed to.”
“Hey! I’m a grown man in case you haven’t noticed!” I had let the words come out of my mouth before thinking about them and I hurt his pride when he was already low which made me feel bad.
Trying to make amends without embarrassing either one of us further I said, “A grown man coming out of the seat of his pants and barely able to cook enough to keep himself fed. At the very least … well maybe not Faith because she’d probably stitch your skin as often as your pants … anyway, one of them should have stepped up. Speaking of which, what is your waist size?”
Still a little embarrassed he asked, “Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Your jeans that’s what. I can see through them in places in the back and what’s underneath don’t … doesn’t … look much better. I think some of Jack and Jay’s old things can be made over to fit but I might as well start with something that is at least close so I don’t have to do too much to them.”
“You … you don’t need to … I mean …” he sputtered trying to see what the back of his jeans might look like to me.
“Look, if I’m going to take care of you too I don’t want people saying I treat you harsh or that I don’t know how to take care of you and the kids. That’s all I need, someone coming along and telling me that since I can’t do it that they’ll find someone that can.”
He stopped looking over his shoulder and looked at me and then finally said, “I told you Dovie, I’m a man, not a child. You don’t need to take care of me.”
“And you don’t need to hunt for a houseful of people that are practically strangers to you either but you did,” I said pointing to the small field-dressed deer I could finally see that he had hung up in a tree to the side of the house where we had gradually been moving so we could talk away from the kids who had gone back to picking apples.
“Welllllll …”
“That’s a deep subject, and one deeper than I am up to getting into,” I told him. “Let’s just call it … call it mutual support or something like that. OK?”
In instant relief he said, “Sure. Why not? And before I get busy with that deer … you remember how to take care of the meat?”
“You mean cook it? Yeah. I’ll pressure can some of it … or do you want me to turn it into sausage or jerky? ‘Cause if sausage is what you mean I’ll need to find Mom’s recipes and see if we have the right seasonings. And I guess see if we have muslin bags to stuff it into so it can be hung in the smoke house.”
“I didn’t mean anything in particular so any of it is all good … just so long as we get the loins for dinner tonight and don’t waste none. I’m starving. Mom went on strike and the girls only fixed grits and greens for lunch and that don’t stay with you long when it is only a little bitty bowl of the leftovers from the bottom of the pan.”
“Want some apple? I’m cooking down a batch of sauce to put up.”
“Can you poke a slice in my mouth? My hands are a mess.”
The kids took it as a game to take turns feeding Jude when he brought me cuts of meat from the deer. He made them laugh by being silly which made me think. I couldn’t remember Jude being like he was acting and then couldn’t decide if it was because he hadn’t been or because I’d just never noticed. He was always with older kids that my parents didn’t want me hanging around so maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t. I’m beginning to think that “wasn’t” isn’t nearly as important as “is” these days.
Chapter XV
“Good Lord Dovie … are you still up?! Do you know what time it is?!”
I told Jude, “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”
“Actually no … heard something outside. Stay inside while I check it out.”
With a disgusted sigh I said, “I heard. I think it’s something getting into the compost pile I started. I only threw the rotten stuff in there but I should have figured it would have been too much for the coons to resist.”
“That’s no coon,” Jude said shaking his head. “Coons will take the falls off the ground before they’ll root around for the same thing in the mulch of a compost pile. Too much like work when …” He was interrupted by a large crash. “Stay here,” he ordered seriously before taking his shotgun out of the wall rack and quietly stepping outside, stopping only long enough to let his eyes adjust to the dark.
I quickly turned the camp lamp off but then wound it a few times in case we needed light again.
“Dovie?” Paulie said gliding quietly down the back stairs.
“It’s ok … Jude has …”
Urgently he shook his head. “It’s hogs Dovie. I saw them in the moonlight. I counted five big ones and a bunch of little ones. I was watching when the piglets fell into this hole in the ground and now the mother hogs are all upset. And they’re big and ugly.”
“Oh my Lord!” I had an instantaneous flashback to Jack and Jay putting me and Paulie in a tree then Jack getting knocked around by a small hog when we were all little kids. Jay had gone screaming for help and Butch and Clewis had been the first ones to get there and had scared it with their four-wheelers making it run away. I vividly remembered the lecture we all got afterwards from Dad and Uncle Roe about how dangerous wild hogs could be. I grabbed the Glock out of the kitchen drawer. “Paulie, watch the kids.”
“Tiff is up there with them.”
“Then watch the door in case I have to come in quick. I …” A boom from the shotgun told me Jude had already found the hogs.
I ran out onto the back porch and realized just how bright the night was. That’s when I saw Jude making a limping run for safety. He wasn’t going to out run what was after him without help so I leapt over the stair rail to get a different angle and took two shot as the lead hog who then went tail over snout when the front end stopped too quick to send a message to the reverse end.
Jude fell on the bottom stair and then rolled and brought the shotgun up right before the other hog was on top of him, and made a mess of its face, blowing it nearly clean off.
“Jude! Paulie said he counted five of the big ones and a bunch of little ones.”
I didn’t have to explain what I was talking about as I was trying to drag him up the stairs. With pain in his voice he said, “I got the tusker then got surprised by a sow. They were all worked up because their piglets fell into that open drainage pipe that goes into the shed and can’t get out.”
I was only half way listening having gotten a glimpse of why he was limping. I said in a stricken whisper, “Oh Lord Jude … your leg.”
“Yeah, she caught me good trying to take a plug out. But if we got three and he saw five that means there are still two on the loose,” he said reloading his gun. “Where’d you get that cannon?” he asked when he saw I was rubbing my wrist.
“I …”
Paulie called through the screen door, “Jude … Tiff said she can see one of the hogs at the front of the house and the other one marching back and forth behind the shed but that the one at the front of the house is acting crazy like crashing into trees and shaking its head and stuff.”
Jude groaned. “Sow at the shed can probably hear the piglets but not see them and its confusing her. She’ll rip into the shed door if I don’t stop her. Don’t know why the one in the front ...”
The hog in the front decided right at that moment to hit the porch. “Crap! That’s gonna take out a support.”
“Not if we stop it first!” He let me haul him up and then he held onto me as we made our way cautiously to the front on the wrap around porch just in time to see the hog charge up the stairs. Jude shoved me back and brought the shotgun into position and fired almost before I could get surprised that there was a hog on the porch. The sow ran several more steps before realizing she was dead and then fell over, bleeding … well … like a stuck pig; all over the place.
Jude muttered, “Must have hit an artery.” Then there was a huge crash out back and he swore before saying, “Help me get down the stairs.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No you won’t. You’ll stay up here with the kids. No sense in both of us getting hurt.”
I wanted to stop him but he was already limping away and by the set of his shoulders I knew he meant every word he said. Out on the road I might have played at being an amazon warrior or something along those lines, but here it was really hard to stray from the role I’d been assigned since birth. I was “a girl” and I was “younger” therefore Jude was head of me in authority because he was “a guy” and he was “older” and therefore the one that took care of bad stuff because it was his place in the scheme of things to do so. Stereotypes maybe, but ones we were raised to fill and trained for so well they were hard to break out of.
Several times I nearly ran after him and did call out when the shotgun blasted not once but twice. “Jude!!”
He answered weakly, “I’m ok. Gotta be the mother of all momma hogs back here. I don’t think I’ve ever … *gasp* … seen a wild female sow this big before. Can you come …” He didn’t even finish before I was off the porch running in his direction, just barely remembering not to trip on the other two still lying in the yard.
I skittered to a stop. “Oh my Lord! That thing is freaking huge!” I said after finally getting a glimpse of what had been trying to destroy the small concrete block shed that the boys had built Dad to build a few summers before they went off to basic training. “Jude let me look at your leg.”
“No, I’ll clean it. I … I hate to ask Dovie but I … I need you to run to the house and get Dad. We need to get these hogs hung and drained while it is still cool and then get them down in the spring house until we can finish butchering them. I think he’ll agree that this comes before getting another twenty mowed.”
“At least let me get you up to the porch and into the kitchen,” I said.
“Just to the porch. I don’t want to make a mess in the house and I’ll need to keep watch to make sure the carcasses don’t draw other animals. You just need to hurry … and take your cannon in case … in case …” He shook his head. “I better go.”
“You better stay where I put you,” I snapped, my nerves on edge. “I swear you are such a … a … a he-man. I’m not made of spun sugar; I can run to the house. With all the shooting I’m surprised someone hasn’t heard already if they are sleeping with the windows open. But I swear, if you are really hurt and … and …”
“I’m fine Dovie, just go get Dad,” he told me, patting my shoulder. “The meat is more important than my leg right this second.”
I told Paulie to tell Tiff to keep the kids upstairs and that he needed to fetch whatever Jude needed. I grabbed a handful of bullets out of the drawer I’d had had the gun in and put them in my pocket before I lit off the porch like the hounds of Beelzebub were after me.
“Good Lord Dovie … are you still up?! Do you know what time it is?!”
I told Jude, “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”
“Actually no … heard something outside. Stay inside while I check it out.”
With a disgusted sigh I said, “I heard. I think it’s something getting into the compost pile I started. I only threw the rotten stuff in there but I should have figured it would have been too much for the coons to resist.”
“That’s no coon,” Jude said shaking his head. “Coons will take the falls off the ground before they’ll root around for the same thing in the mulch of a compost pile. Too much like work when …” He was interrupted by a large crash. “Stay here,” he ordered seriously before taking his shotgun out of the wall rack and quietly stepping outside, stopping only long enough to let his eyes adjust to the dark.
I quickly turned the camp lamp off but then wound it a few times in case we needed light again.
“Dovie?” Paulie said gliding quietly down the back stairs.
“It’s ok … Jude has …”
Urgently he shook his head. “It’s hogs Dovie. I saw them in the moonlight. I counted five big ones and a bunch of little ones. I was watching when the piglets fell into this hole in the ground and now the mother hogs are all upset. And they’re big and ugly.”
“Oh my Lord!” I had an instantaneous flashback to Jack and Jay putting me and Paulie in a tree then Jack getting knocked around by a small hog when we were all little kids. Jay had gone screaming for help and Butch and Clewis had been the first ones to get there and had scared it with their four-wheelers making it run away. I vividly remembered the lecture we all got afterwards from Dad and Uncle Roe about how dangerous wild hogs could be. I grabbed the Glock out of the kitchen drawer. “Paulie, watch the kids.”
“Tiff is up there with them.”
“Then watch the door in case I have to come in quick. I …” A boom from the shotgun told me Jude had already found the hogs.
I ran out onto the back porch and realized just how bright the night was. That’s when I saw Jude making a limping run for safety. He wasn’t going to out run what was after him without help so I leapt over the stair rail to get a different angle and took two shot as the lead hog who then went tail over snout when the front end stopped too quick to send a message to the reverse end.
Jude fell on the bottom stair and then rolled and brought the shotgun up right before the other hog was on top of him, and made a mess of its face, blowing it nearly clean off.
“Jude! Paulie said he counted five of the big ones and a bunch of little ones.”
I didn’t have to explain what I was talking about as I was trying to drag him up the stairs. With pain in his voice he said, “I got the tusker then got surprised by a sow. They were all worked up because their piglets fell into that open drainage pipe that goes into the shed and can’t get out.”
I was only half way listening having gotten a glimpse of why he was limping. I said in a stricken whisper, “Oh Lord Jude … your leg.”
“Yeah, she caught me good trying to take a plug out. But if we got three and he saw five that means there are still two on the loose,” he said reloading his gun. “Where’d you get that cannon?” he asked when he saw I was rubbing my wrist.
“I …”
Paulie called through the screen door, “Jude … Tiff said she can see one of the hogs at the front of the house and the other one marching back and forth behind the shed but that the one at the front of the house is acting crazy like crashing into trees and shaking its head and stuff.”
Jude groaned. “Sow at the shed can probably hear the piglets but not see them and its confusing her. She’ll rip into the shed door if I don’t stop her. Don’t know why the one in the front ...”
The hog in the front decided right at that moment to hit the porch. “Crap! That’s gonna take out a support.”
“Not if we stop it first!” He let me haul him up and then he held onto me as we made our way cautiously to the front on the wrap around porch just in time to see the hog charge up the stairs. Jude shoved me back and brought the shotgun into position and fired almost before I could get surprised that there was a hog on the porch. The sow ran several more steps before realizing she was dead and then fell over, bleeding … well … like a stuck pig; all over the place.
Jude muttered, “Must have hit an artery.” Then there was a huge crash out back and he swore before saying, “Help me get down the stairs.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No you won’t. You’ll stay up here with the kids. No sense in both of us getting hurt.”
I wanted to stop him but he was already limping away and by the set of his shoulders I knew he meant every word he said. Out on the road I might have played at being an amazon warrior or something along those lines, but here it was really hard to stray from the role I’d been assigned since birth. I was “a girl” and I was “younger” therefore Jude was head of me in authority because he was “a guy” and he was “older” and therefore the one that took care of bad stuff because it was his place in the scheme of things to do so. Stereotypes maybe, but ones we were raised to fill and trained for so well they were hard to break out of.
Several times I nearly ran after him and did call out when the shotgun blasted not once but twice. “Jude!!”
He answered weakly, “I’m ok. Gotta be the mother of all momma hogs back here. I don’t think I’ve ever … *gasp* … seen a wild female sow this big before. Can you come …” He didn’t even finish before I was off the porch running in his direction, just barely remembering not to trip on the other two still lying in the yard.
I skittered to a stop. “Oh my Lord! That thing is freaking huge!” I said after finally getting a glimpse of what had been trying to destroy the small concrete block shed that the boys had built Dad to build a few summers before they went off to basic training. “Jude let me look at your leg.”
“No, I’ll clean it. I … I hate to ask Dovie but I … I need you to run to the house and get Dad. We need to get these hogs hung and drained while it is still cool and then get them down in the spring house until we can finish butchering them. I think he’ll agree that this comes before getting another twenty mowed.”
“At least let me get you up to the porch and into the kitchen,” I said.
“Just to the porch. I don’t want to make a mess in the house and I’ll need to keep watch to make sure the carcasses don’t draw other animals. You just need to hurry … and take your cannon in case … in case …” He shook his head. “I better go.”
“You better stay where I put you,” I snapped, my nerves on edge. “I swear you are such a … a … a he-man. I’m not made of spun sugar; I can run to the house. With all the shooting I’m surprised someone hasn’t heard already if they are sleeping with the windows open. But I swear, if you are really hurt and … and …”
“I’m fine Dovie, just go get Dad,” he told me, patting my shoulder. “The meat is more important than my leg right this second.”
I told Paulie to tell Tiff to keep the kids upstairs and that he needed to fetch whatever Jude needed. I grabbed a handful of bullets out of the drawer I’d had had the gun in and put them in my pocket before I lit off the porch like the hounds of Beelzebub were after me.
Chapter XVI
The main house and the old house weren’t that far apart, only separated by about a forty acre square which wasn’t a mile even running diagonally, but I was out of shape and jogging that far after the scare I’d had made me feel lightheaded by the time I saw there was a dim light on in the kitchen. I sped up and the door was opening right as my foot hit the bottom step of the rear porch.
I kept going and ran right into Uncle Roe’s open arms. Before he could ask me what had happened I said, “Oh Uncle Roe Jude is hurt and there were hogs and a sow hit his leg and he says he needs you and I guess Butch and Clewis better come too because there were five of them and Jude says they need to be drained and put in the spring house and …”
“Slow down girl and say it again but this time put some air between those words so’s I can understand you.”
I did as I was told and I glanced to see Butch – and another man who must have been Clewis though I hardly recognized him – zipping into coveralls and tying on shoes. “Uncle Roe, his leg looks bad and he wouldn’t let me do anything for him before I left.”
“Might just be bloodied then Sister,” Clewis said. “If it was that bad he would have been calling for his momma.”
A small growl escaped surprising everyone including me. “Clewis?” I asked getting his attention. “Don’t. I know you and Jude don’t … don’t get along but this isn’t the time to rag on him. He wouldn’t even let me help when he was injured and went to take on the last of the hogs and that sow is bigger than two of me. He just limped out there and … and coulda been …” I shivered and turned away. “Just don’t. He doesn’t deserve … at least not anymore from what I can tell.”
“Humph … he’s sure impressed you.”
Snapping back around I told him, “And I’ll impress your head with shovel if you don’t knock it off. I mean it. I don’t want to hear you say stuff like that around me or my kids. Jude is the one that went hungry hunting to feed my kids … not you. You haven’t even come down to say hello or nothing.” I turned to Uncle Roe and said, “I’m running back to the house.”
Butch said, “You can ride behind me while Dad and Clew bring the wagon. You still remember how?”
“As long as you don’t get smart and take any hedges like you did last time I was on the rump of a horse.”
I heard a female snicker and turned to see a much diminished in size Rochelle, Aunt Frankie’s oldest. “Ain’t back a whole day and you’re already bossing everyone.”
“I didn’t mean for it to come off that way ‘Chellie. I apologize if it did.”
My apology caught her off guard then she shrugged. “Grow a sense of humor Dovie. I was only joking.” She sighed. “I’ll ride over with Dad and take a look at Jude’s leg if you think it is that bad.”
“Thank you,” I told her and got another surprised look. “I’d appreciate someone knowing what they are doing looking at it.”
Uncle Roe pulled my braid and nodded in an approving way before pushing me towards Butch who headed out the door.
He rode a chestnut mare with one white stocking and white chest. Once he got on he pulled me up behind him and then went at a slow walk until we reached the road and then he picked the pace up, but only a little because the trees made shadows across the road. “Jude really hurt or is he just making noise?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told Clewis … don’t make fun of him Butch. He doesn’t deserve it.”
“Ok … settle down … just making sure that you and Clew weren’t knocking heads and as a result exaggerating. He … he got a little rough around the edges out in Dakota.”
“Compared to you Clewis has always been rough around the edges.” We slowed down as the moon went behind the clouds. “And what is this I hear about Aunt Frankie disowning Jude over something she did before he was even born?”
“You wiggling is not going to get us there any faster Dovie and may get you dumped on your head. Sit still; you’re making Magnolia nervous.” I sighed and stopped trying to see where we were at and he said, “Is that how Jude explained the situation?”
“No. He told me that she disowned him and when she was mad some stuff came out that probably didn’t need to come out that way. I’m putting two and two together.”
“And making three. Frankie got mad at Jude ‘cause he took Dad’s side about putting Reynolds in a special in-patient program at the state hospital. He dug his grave when he told her that she was keeping Reynolds from growing into being what he might be capable of. There was a big, nasty blow up and she told him she should have known he’d turn out ruined … you know how she is. The stories had been going around for a while but no one really believed it was true, especially not Jude. I think he would have left for good and never come back except Dad asked him to stop and think first and then offered him shares on the farm.”
“And what do you and Clewis think of that?”
“I never wanted the farm and to be honest neither did Clewis … but Clew is bent out of shape … jealous a little I guess. Like you said back there, he and Jude never really got along being so close to the same age and all. He thinks Dad is favoring someone that isn’t his blood son over us. But with things being like they are for who knows how long I guess we’re all stuck.”
We’d gotten close to the house and Butch having grown into some sensibilities at some point stopped talking about it so that our voices wouldn’t carry to where anyone else could hear them. “Jude?”
“Back here,” came his weaker than normal voice though he was obviously trying to sound like nothing was wrong.
Paulie came running then skidded to a halt when he got a look at the horse. “Sorry Magnolia.”
“How did you know its name?” I asked him sliding off with Butch’s help.
“It’s the same horse as the other night and I heard what Butch called her … and don’t call her an it; you’ll hurt her feelings.”
I rolled my eyes. Paulie has always been a bit horse crazy, just never had much scope to exercise it. “Pardon Magnolia,” I said to the horse’s rump just to get Paulie settled down. To Paulie I asked, “How’s Jude doing?”
Paulie opened his mouth but Jude leaning on the porch railing said, “Well his ears work and so does his mouth so you can stop talking about him like he’s on his death bed.”
“You know,” I told him. “That speech would impress me a whole lot more if you didn’t sound like you’d just been gut punched.”
Jude grunted and I heard Butch wheeze an involuntary chuckle. “She’s gotcha there.” He’d tied Magnolia off and climbed the porch. Then he must have gotten a look at the leg. “Damn Jude, it’s a good thing Rochelle decided to drag herself over with Dad and Clew. That’s gonna need stitches at the very least.”
Jude was letting him help him sit down but then tried to stand back up. “Clewis is coming?”
Impatient I snapped at him, “Sit down or I’ll take a shovel to your head the same as I told Clewis I’d take one to his. I won’t put up with that around the kids.”
“You sound just like Granny.”
“You watch and see if I’m not as fast with a willow branch as she was too. I mean it.” I passed by him and sailed into the kitchen to find Tiffany staring at me. “What? Are the kids scared.”
She shook her head. “They went right back to sleep while Jude was telling them a story. Did you really fall through the floor of a hay barn?”
I stared daggers out onto the dark porch. “Yes I did and it served me right for being in a dilapidated old barn I’d been told to stay out of. There was an old, forgotten cellar below the tack room and the floor gave way. I was stuck for most of a day because I had told my mother I was going up to the house to play but had gotten side tracked getting into trouble and that’s where it landed me. Jude and his old hound Curly found me. And if my ankle hadn’t been the size of a bowling ball I would likely have gotten my butt spanked. So don’t let Jude’ ‘stories’ give you or any of the other kids ideas.”
“That’s what Jude said,” Tiffany responded.
“Well good,” I said after hearing the unexpected admonition. “Did he use the first aid stuff?”
“Just to clean it. He used an old towel to try and stop it from bleeding. He wouldn’t let me see it though.”
“Men are like that. They always gotta be tough,” I told her so she wouldn’t be offended that Jude was probably trying to protect her sensibilities. “Go on back up and lay down Tiff. There’s gonna be a lot of mess and noise shortly and in the morning you’ll need to help. OK?”
“OK. But what about Paulie.”
“He’ll be up soon. You just try and sleep if you can.”
She went slowly up the stairs; not because she was reluctant but because she was tired and it was very dark in the stairwell. I went over to the stove and lit it up and got a big pot of water heating. As soon as that was done I heard the wagon jangling which meant they were this side of the gulley.
“Butch?”
“I hear ‘em,” he said from out in the yard. “And you were right, these is some big hogs. I can’t believe you took ‘em on alone Jude.”
“Didn’t know they were hogs until it was too late. Didn’t know how many there were nor how big until the other side of too late. What about the shots Butch,” Jude said worriedly. “I didn’t have time to aim as well as I should have. Did I spoil a lot of meat?”
“I don’t see that you spoiled anything but the head on three of them. Frankie will squeal about that but all things considered I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m not that fond of souse meat myself. Now that tusker was a good shot.”
“Yeah well, that’s right when the sow slammed me. If it had been the big one she would have broken me like doll.”
“I hear that.”
The wagon pulled up and I heard Uncle Roe climb out and then say, “What in the Sam Hill?! Had one climb the porch?!”
Butch called, “Back here Dad … and if you think that one’s big you ought to see the other four back here. I swear there’s an old sow that would make a record if we reported it.”
“Well we ain’t reportin’ it,” Uncle Roe said walking around the porch and looking first at the mayhem in the yard before turning with concern to Jude who was grimacing at Rochelle’s not so gentle handling.
She turned his leg into the light of the camp lamp I’d put on a stool and then eased up a little. “Jude this isn’t going to be fun to clean up. And I’m going to have to sew on you a bit.”
“Figured,” he said trying to sound tough.
She looked at me and said, “I’m going to need some clean water.”
“I started a whole pot boiling since I didn’t know how much would be needed.”
She nodded brusquely. “Why don’t you go tell Dad and the boys what happened and take Paulie with you.”
“You don’t need help?”
“If I do I’ll call you,” she said leaving me in no doubt she wanted to be alone with Jude.
I took Paulie down the stairs and over to the hogs. Uncle Roe saw me coming in the lamp light and asked, “Where’s this giant sow you were talking about?”
“Behind the shed. And I guess the piglets are still in the vent pipe.” Clewis snorted disbelievingly
and started to go off that direction. “Clewis be careful, she’s right …” There was a clatter and then some cursing as he all but tripped over the carcass. “ … there. She’s kinda big.”
“Dad! You gotta see this monster pig!”
I looked at Paulie and rolled my eyes. He smiled and then asked, “Can I go look at the horses Dovie?”
“You better get Uncle Roe’s permission first.”
The man in question had heard his name. “What? Oh … sure Paulie, just stay away from their hind quarters and don’t tease them.”
“I wouldn’t ever Uncle Roe,” he said reproachfully before turning to walk standing tall over to the horses where he started up a conversation with them.
Uncle Roe chuckled, “Think I hurt his feelings?”
I shook my head. “He is horse crazy but he’ll mind the rules or knows he’ll lose privileges.” Changing the subject I said, “What about the hogs Uncle Roe? Jude was awful anxious about them. Is meat really that hard to come by?”
He sighed. “Free meat is. And bought meat is too expensive unless you’re a Rockefeller. Butch is going to set up the hanging frame. We’re gonna field dress ‘em and then haul three to the spring house. I’ll take one for Frances and the girls to deal with and the boys and I will get you started on one here but …”
He seemed to hesitate and then look towards the porch where Rochelle tended Jude while we all tried not to hear him grunting in pain. “Uncle Roe, rather than making two messes, why not just hang and butcher here? The kids can fetch and carry and Jude can boss me around about how I should do stuff and it won’t bother me.”
“Frances … well, she’ll prefer to stay up at the house.”
A little wickedly I said, “Well that’s too bad because I would cook for everybody … a fresh pork roast with juniper berries and a side of wild greens to go with the ribs that will need to be cooked … and then she’d be able to look over these diet sodas I had thought to give her. But if she doesn’t want to I can’t make her.”
Uncle Roe looked at me and then bellowed a laugh. “Sister I swear you are just like your momma. But before I go sticking my foot in it, you really got that soady or you just talking through your hat?”
“I have almost three cases of cans that I’ve been collecting out of vending machines. I can’t drink them because the artificial sugar upsets my stomach too much, the same way it does yours. I was going to give them to Aunt Frankie anyway but this way they’ll do some good.”
“Alright, here’s how we’ll work it. Rochelle will go back home after she finishes tending to Jude. The boys and I will stay here. If we can lure Frances, she’ll come with the boys’ wives – River and Crystal, you haven’t met them yet – and Faith can help Rochelle watch all the kids. If Frances won’t come we’ll still get Wendalene because she fancies herself something of an expert when it comes to pigs.”
I told him, “I remember … FFA champ four years running in highschool.”
Uncle Roe used his handkerchief to wipe his nose and hide a smile which I pretended not to notice and he pretended not to notice that I was pretending not to notice. “That’s right. Doubt you’ll see Faith unless her curiosity moves her.”
“Jude said she is having a hard time with things changing so much and in a way she hadn’t expected.”
“She had her heart set on school and that’s the truth of it. Feel bad for the girl but she’s been moping long enough. Maybe with you back she’ll have someone close to her age and it will chirk her up.” I loved Uncle Roe but he was a little blind in a few areas.
He nodded like it was all settled and said, “OK boys, time to get to work.”
The main house and the old house weren’t that far apart, only separated by about a forty acre square which wasn’t a mile even running diagonally, but I was out of shape and jogging that far after the scare I’d had made me feel lightheaded by the time I saw there was a dim light on in the kitchen. I sped up and the door was opening right as my foot hit the bottom step of the rear porch.
I kept going and ran right into Uncle Roe’s open arms. Before he could ask me what had happened I said, “Oh Uncle Roe Jude is hurt and there were hogs and a sow hit his leg and he says he needs you and I guess Butch and Clewis better come too because there were five of them and Jude says they need to be drained and put in the spring house and …”
“Slow down girl and say it again but this time put some air between those words so’s I can understand you.”
I did as I was told and I glanced to see Butch – and another man who must have been Clewis though I hardly recognized him – zipping into coveralls and tying on shoes. “Uncle Roe, his leg looks bad and he wouldn’t let me do anything for him before I left.”
“Might just be bloodied then Sister,” Clewis said. “If it was that bad he would have been calling for his momma.”
A small growl escaped surprising everyone including me. “Clewis?” I asked getting his attention. “Don’t. I know you and Jude don’t … don’t get along but this isn’t the time to rag on him. He wouldn’t even let me help when he was injured and went to take on the last of the hogs and that sow is bigger than two of me. He just limped out there and … and coulda been …” I shivered and turned away. “Just don’t. He doesn’t deserve … at least not anymore from what I can tell.”
“Humph … he’s sure impressed you.”
Snapping back around I told him, “And I’ll impress your head with shovel if you don’t knock it off. I mean it. I don’t want to hear you say stuff like that around me or my kids. Jude is the one that went hungry hunting to feed my kids … not you. You haven’t even come down to say hello or nothing.” I turned to Uncle Roe and said, “I’m running back to the house.”
Butch said, “You can ride behind me while Dad and Clew bring the wagon. You still remember how?”
“As long as you don’t get smart and take any hedges like you did last time I was on the rump of a horse.”
I heard a female snicker and turned to see a much diminished in size Rochelle, Aunt Frankie’s oldest. “Ain’t back a whole day and you’re already bossing everyone.”
“I didn’t mean for it to come off that way ‘Chellie. I apologize if it did.”
My apology caught her off guard then she shrugged. “Grow a sense of humor Dovie. I was only joking.” She sighed. “I’ll ride over with Dad and take a look at Jude’s leg if you think it is that bad.”
“Thank you,” I told her and got another surprised look. “I’d appreciate someone knowing what they are doing looking at it.”
Uncle Roe pulled my braid and nodded in an approving way before pushing me towards Butch who headed out the door.
He rode a chestnut mare with one white stocking and white chest. Once he got on he pulled me up behind him and then went at a slow walk until we reached the road and then he picked the pace up, but only a little because the trees made shadows across the road. “Jude really hurt or is he just making noise?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told Clewis … don’t make fun of him Butch. He doesn’t deserve it.”
“Ok … settle down … just making sure that you and Clew weren’t knocking heads and as a result exaggerating. He … he got a little rough around the edges out in Dakota.”
“Compared to you Clewis has always been rough around the edges.” We slowed down as the moon went behind the clouds. “And what is this I hear about Aunt Frankie disowning Jude over something she did before he was even born?”
“You wiggling is not going to get us there any faster Dovie and may get you dumped on your head. Sit still; you’re making Magnolia nervous.” I sighed and stopped trying to see where we were at and he said, “Is that how Jude explained the situation?”
“No. He told me that she disowned him and when she was mad some stuff came out that probably didn’t need to come out that way. I’m putting two and two together.”
“And making three. Frankie got mad at Jude ‘cause he took Dad’s side about putting Reynolds in a special in-patient program at the state hospital. He dug his grave when he told her that she was keeping Reynolds from growing into being what he might be capable of. There was a big, nasty blow up and she told him she should have known he’d turn out ruined … you know how she is. The stories had been going around for a while but no one really believed it was true, especially not Jude. I think he would have left for good and never come back except Dad asked him to stop and think first and then offered him shares on the farm.”
“And what do you and Clewis think of that?”
“I never wanted the farm and to be honest neither did Clewis … but Clew is bent out of shape … jealous a little I guess. Like you said back there, he and Jude never really got along being so close to the same age and all. He thinks Dad is favoring someone that isn’t his blood son over us. But with things being like they are for who knows how long I guess we’re all stuck.”
We’d gotten close to the house and Butch having grown into some sensibilities at some point stopped talking about it so that our voices wouldn’t carry to where anyone else could hear them. “Jude?”
“Back here,” came his weaker than normal voice though he was obviously trying to sound like nothing was wrong.
Paulie came running then skidded to a halt when he got a look at the horse. “Sorry Magnolia.”
“How did you know its name?” I asked him sliding off with Butch’s help.
“It’s the same horse as the other night and I heard what Butch called her … and don’t call her an it; you’ll hurt her feelings.”
I rolled my eyes. Paulie has always been a bit horse crazy, just never had much scope to exercise it. “Pardon Magnolia,” I said to the horse’s rump just to get Paulie settled down. To Paulie I asked, “How’s Jude doing?”
Paulie opened his mouth but Jude leaning on the porch railing said, “Well his ears work and so does his mouth so you can stop talking about him like he’s on his death bed.”
“You know,” I told him. “That speech would impress me a whole lot more if you didn’t sound like you’d just been gut punched.”
Jude grunted and I heard Butch wheeze an involuntary chuckle. “She’s gotcha there.” He’d tied Magnolia off and climbed the porch. Then he must have gotten a look at the leg. “Damn Jude, it’s a good thing Rochelle decided to drag herself over with Dad and Clew. That’s gonna need stitches at the very least.”
Jude was letting him help him sit down but then tried to stand back up. “Clewis is coming?”
Impatient I snapped at him, “Sit down or I’ll take a shovel to your head the same as I told Clewis I’d take one to his. I won’t put up with that around the kids.”
“You sound just like Granny.”
“You watch and see if I’m not as fast with a willow branch as she was too. I mean it.” I passed by him and sailed into the kitchen to find Tiffany staring at me. “What? Are the kids scared.”
She shook her head. “They went right back to sleep while Jude was telling them a story. Did you really fall through the floor of a hay barn?”
I stared daggers out onto the dark porch. “Yes I did and it served me right for being in a dilapidated old barn I’d been told to stay out of. There was an old, forgotten cellar below the tack room and the floor gave way. I was stuck for most of a day because I had told my mother I was going up to the house to play but had gotten side tracked getting into trouble and that’s where it landed me. Jude and his old hound Curly found me. And if my ankle hadn’t been the size of a bowling ball I would likely have gotten my butt spanked. So don’t let Jude’ ‘stories’ give you or any of the other kids ideas.”
“That’s what Jude said,” Tiffany responded.
“Well good,” I said after hearing the unexpected admonition. “Did he use the first aid stuff?”
“Just to clean it. He used an old towel to try and stop it from bleeding. He wouldn’t let me see it though.”
“Men are like that. They always gotta be tough,” I told her so she wouldn’t be offended that Jude was probably trying to protect her sensibilities. “Go on back up and lay down Tiff. There’s gonna be a lot of mess and noise shortly and in the morning you’ll need to help. OK?”
“OK. But what about Paulie.”
“He’ll be up soon. You just try and sleep if you can.”
She went slowly up the stairs; not because she was reluctant but because she was tired and it was very dark in the stairwell. I went over to the stove and lit it up and got a big pot of water heating. As soon as that was done I heard the wagon jangling which meant they were this side of the gulley.
“Butch?”
“I hear ‘em,” he said from out in the yard. “And you were right, these is some big hogs. I can’t believe you took ‘em on alone Jude.”
“Didn’t know they were hogs until it was too late. Didn’t know how many there were nor how big until the other side of too late. What about the shots Butch,” Jude said worriedly. “I didn’t have time to aim as well as I should have. Did I spoil a lot of meat?”
“I don’t see that you spoiled anything but the head on three of them. Frankie will squeal about that but all things considered I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m not that fond of souse meat myself. Now that tusker was a good shot.”
“Yeah well, that’s right when the sow slammed me. If it had been the big one she would have broken me like doll.”
“I hear that.”
The wagon pulled up and I heard Uncle Roe climb out and then say, “What in the Sam Hill?! Had one climb the porch?!”
Butch called, “Back here Dad … and if you think that one’s big you ought to see the other four back here. I swear there’s an old sow that would make a record if we reported it.”
“Well we ain’t reportin’ it,” Uncle Roe said walking around the porch and looking first at the mayhem in the yard before turning with concern to Jude who was grimacing at Rochelle’s not so gentle handling.
She turned his leg into the light of the camp lamp I’d put on a stool and then eased up a little. “Jude this isn’t going to be fun to clean up. And I’m going to have to sew on you a bit.”
“Figured,” he said trying to sound tough.
She looked at me and said, “I’m going to need some clean water.”
“I started a whole pot boiling since I didn’t know how much would be needed.”
She nodded brusquely. “Why don’t you go tell Dad and the boys what happened and take Paulie with you.”
“You don’t need help?”
“If I do I’ll call you,” she said leaving me in no doubt she wanted to be alone with Jude.
I took Paulie down the stairs and over to the hogs. Uncle Roe saw me coming in the lamp light and asked, “Where’s this giant sow you were talking about?”
“Behind the shed. And I guess the piglets are still in the vent pipe.” Clewis snorted disbelievingly
and started to go off that direction. “Clewis be careful, she’s right …” There was a clatter and then some cursing as he all but tripped over the carcass. “ … there. She’s kinda big.”
“Dad! You gotta see this monster pig!”
I looked at Paulie and rolled my eyes. He smiled and then asked, “Can I go look at the horses Dovie?”
“You better get Uncle Roe’s permission first.”
The man in question had heard his name. “What? Oh … sure Paulie, just stay away from their hind quarters and don’t tease them.”
“I wouldn’t ever Uncle Roe,” he said reproachfully before turning to walk standing tall over to the horses where he started up a conversation with them.
Uncle Roe chuckled, “Think I hurt his feelings?”
I shook my head. “He is horse crazy but he’ll mind the rules or knows he’ll lose privileges.” Changing the subject I said, “What about the hogs Uncle Roe? Jude was awful anxious about them. Is meat really that hard to come by?”
He sighed. “Free meat is. And bought meat is too expensive unless you’re a Rockefeller. Butch is going to set up the hanging frame. We’re gonna field dress ‘em and then haul three to the spring house. I’ll take one for Frances and the girls to deal with and the boys and I will get you started on one here but …”
He seemed to hesitate and then look towards the porch where Rochelle tended Jude while we all tried not to hear him grunting in pain. “Uncle Roe, rather than making two messes, why not just hang and butcher here? The kids can fetch and carry and Jude can boss me around about how I should do stuff and it won’t bother me.”
“Frances … well, she’ll prefer to stay up at the house.”
A little wickedly I said, “Well that’s too bad because I would cook for everybody … a fresh pork roast with juniper berries and a side of wild greens to go with the ribs that will need to be cooked … and then she’d be able to look over these diet sodas I had thought to give her. But if she doesn’t want to I can’t make her.”
Uncle Roe looked at me and then bellowed a laugh. “Sister I swear you are just like your momma. But before I go sticking my foot in it, you really got that soady or you just talking through your hat?”
“I have almost three cases of cans that I’ve been collecting out of vending machines. I can’t drink them because the artificial sugar upsets my stomach too much, the same way it does yours. I was going to give them to Aunt Frankie anyway but this way they’ll do some good.”
“Alright, here’s how we’ll work it. Rochelle will go back home after she finishes tending to Jude. The boys and I will stay here. If we can lure Frances, she’ll come with the boys’ wives – River and Crystal, you haven’t met them yet – and Faith can help Rochelle watch all the kids. If Frances won’t come we’ll still get Wendalene because she fancies herself something of an expert when it comes to pigs.”
I told him, “I remember … FFA champ four years running in highschool.”
Uncle Roe used his handkerchief to wipe his nose and hide a smile which I pretended not to notice and he pretended not to notice that I was pretending not to notice. “That’s right. Doubt you’ll see Faith unless her curiosity moves her.”
“Jude said she is having a hard time with things changing so much and in a way she hadn’t expected.”
“She had her heart set on school and that’s the truth of it. Feel bad for the girl but she’s been moping long enough. Maybe with you back she’ll have someone close to her age and it will chirk her up.” I loved Uncle Roe but he was a little blind in a few areas.
He nodded like it was all settled and said, “OK boys, time to get to work.”
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Wonderful, and I bet Dovie is good at gathering and cooking then those idjits down at the main house or let the natural and woods foods go to waste.
223shootersc
Veteran Member
great chapters, hope they can raise those piglets also
cat killer
Senior Member
I can't cook either, In fact I gave away two hogs I got last spring but there is a great bbq joint about 25 mi. from me.
mudlogger
Veteran Member
Well, since we're talking about pigs, I butchered my first one Sunday, I'm making bacon for the first time, and OH! MY! is it delicious. Had ribs tonight (just didn't want to put them in the crowded freezer, so we ate them), cut the ham into roasts, bacon and stew meat.
The husband said "Now I remember why we go to all this trouble...."
The husband said "Now I remember why we go to all this trouble...."
Chapter XVII
Work didn’t even begin to cover it. We could have doubled our numbers and still come up shy a few people but you do what you have to and hope and pray that it is good enough. That’s what it was all about, at least for me.
The pork roast with juniper berries went over really well … or so said the silence around the “table” that Paulie and Reynolds help me to set up by putting a sheet of plywood from the shed across a couple of saw horses. All I really did was take the fresh roast, slice it deeply, sprinkle a little crushed juniper berry between each slice along with some salt and pepper and shredded mushroom – in this case some hen of the woods that I’d collected at the woodlot’s edge, place a couple of sprigs of thyme across the top from the overgrown herb garden, and then had Paulie dig me a hole that I could put my biggest dutch oven down in.
“Where do you want these coals Dovie?”
“Jude! Are you supposed to be up on that leg?”
“Don’t blow your britches out Granny, I’m hobbling with a cane. Just tell me where to put this bucket of coals down at.”
“Ha ha, very funny,” I said but was comforted to see that he was indeed using a knobby old stick that Paulie and Reynolds found and cut down for him. “There is fine. I’ll need them for the dutchie. How’s the leg holding up?”
He sighed then looked around. I realized after his question that he’d been watching for Clewis. “You have a tea to take the edge off? Maybe something like you gave to Reynolds yesterday?”
Answering him quietly I said, “I’ve got something but it isn’t a tea. I found … um … some strong stuff along the road.”
“I don’t want anything that is going to knock me out. I just want the throbbing to go down some so I can concentrate and help get these hogs taken care of. Dad acts like my leg was nearly cut off instead of just a little chewed on.”
“I can make you something but it will still probably make you groggy. I have some advil that might help.”
“That’ll …”
“Hey, what are you two whispering about? There’s work to be done. Or is little Jude not up for anything?”
Glaring in Clewis’ general direction I said, “I’ve still got that shovel handy.”
A snort was my only answer. Jude asked, “What’s this about a shovel I keep hearing?”
“It’s going to have a dent in it the shape of Clewis’ head if he doesn’t stop irritating me. How did he get someone like Crystal to marry him? She seems awful nice and sweet.”
“Search me. But don’t underestimate her just because she is a pretty little thing. She’s a teacher and can use a whip and chair with the best of them.”
I heard a feminine laugh before a young woman came around the corner of the house saying, “Don’t you forget it Jude Killarney. And Poppa Roe is looking for you and it isn’t out here in the yard. You are supposed to be sitting and cutting the pork down into the right size pieces.”
Without another word Jude hobbled back where he’d come from. Crystal though continued to stand there like she didn’t know how to say something. “What?” I asked her as she was making me nervous.
“Actually …,” she stopped and sighed. “Did you medicate Reynolds when he came over yesterday?”
“Did I what? You mean give him pills? Of course not. Why?”
“He was so calm when he came home that … well it was like he’d been given something. Butch said he was even better than normal … which from what I’ve heard and seen isn’t all that good to begin with. Medication doesn’t do anything unless a child is taught behaviorally what is appropriate and what is not.” She sounded like a teacher all right.
“Well I kinda did give him something but certainly not pills. I managed to get him to drink some herbal tea. Rochelle will know what it is … and if she doesn’t Aunt Frankie certainly should. Mrs. Cherry, Aunt Frankie’s grandmother, taught Home Ec to my mother and after Mom and Dad got married she sent her a book full of her old ‘yarb receipts.’ Do you know what those are?”
“Herbal recipes?”
“Uh huh. Mom said some of them were old wives tales and placebos but she said a lot of them were for real,” I told her. “My mom swore by a few of them and the one I made for Reynolds was a stronger version of the one that I had started to make for Mom every so often after …”
I had tapered off, unwilling to go into a long explanation. Crystal seemed to understand without me having to which was a relief. “You should tell Rochelle. She’s the one that thought maybe you had supplies.”
Heeding Jude’s caution I said, “Supplies of what?”
“That you had come with a bunch of supplies and food. She said there was no other way you could have made it cross country otherwise.”
I snorted, “Not hardly. The dregs out of destroyed vending machines? Soap out of the dispensers in public bathrooms so we didn’t stink so bad we couldn’t stand ourselves? Praying that there was a working water pump in a doggy doo run? Yeah, that’s really living high that is. The diet soda I’m giving Aunt Frankie is all we had left when we rolled in except for a little bit of junk food we’ve since eaten. If it wasn’t for Jude we’d have empty bellies except for some apple falls I found. Jude brought in a deer after mowing all morning with Uncle Roe and the boys … uh … I mean Butch and Clewis. Guess I can’t really call them boys anymore now that we are all grown.”
A shrill voice interrupted our conversation. “Dovie Killarney Doherty! If you think that I’m going to clean up this mess that you and that boy made then you can think again young lady. Get your butt in gear and stop wasting your time socializing while the rest of us work.”
I rolled my eyes and my mouth took off. “Aw Aunt Frankie. I guess you mean Jude but if you don’t like his name enough to use it then you shouldn’t have called him after that stupid Beatle’s song.”
“I did not name him after that Beatles song, it is a nice Biblical name I’ll have you know; one of the brothers of Jesus Miss Smart Aleck.”
I grinned and said, “Yes ma’am. Then …”
“Dovie!” Jude called from the porch.
“What?!” I said irritated at being interrupted like he was calling a dog.
“You know what. And besides, Dad is ready for you to start rendering the lard.”
Muttering under my breath I growled, “Oh fine. Be that way.”
Dealing with the hogs was a tiring, nasty job. We got all five hung and drained and rather than take them to the spring house we simply kept processing them until we were finished. The day didn’t get hot … frankly it barely got close to warm which was a decided change or so everyone kept saying … but the fires to boil the carcass so we could scrub the bristles off made it feel that way and standing over the rendering kettle was like standing over a little corner of hell.
It took about three hours to process each hog and that was doing it like an assembly line with almost all hands on deck. At one point we had everyone working to hang the shoulders and hams for smoking; rendering the lard and then canning the cracklings, pickling the pigs feet, and then dicing and grinding all of the remaining meat to go into sausage that was then stuffed in muslin bags and hung in the smoke house as well; and then finally preparing the ribs and everything else that wasn’t canned or ground. Uncle Roe even took the chittlin’s because he said he had a neighbor that would barter for them. Ugh. Hog guts, I just never could force myself to eat them.
River and Wendalene were taking the pork ribs off of Uncle Roe’s barrel cooker at the same time I was pouring the last of the lard into the heavy stoneware pots that my grandparents had traditionally used for storage.
River said regretfully, “I hate to serve just these ribs and that pork roast.”
Wendalene and Rochelle didn’t have anything to say. I groaned knowing no one would do it if I didn’t. “Kudzu. If we don’t eat it then it is going to take over the world.”
“Kudzu?” River said doubtfully. “Isn’t that stuff poisonous?”
I looked for support from Wendalene but she just rolled her eyes, on the other hand Rochelle said, “Not poisonous at all. It isn’t my favorite but better than going hungry; Granny Cherry used to cook it, make kudzu jelly, and weave baskets from the vines. Just don’t tell the kids what it is and they’ll probably eat it; they should be hungry enough by now.”
That wasn’t exactly any help but at least if I went to the effort I knew that someone would eat it. I climbed the porch and called, “Tiffany? Paulie? Reynolds?”
I think everyone was surprised when I called Reynolds’ name but heck if I was going to leave him to go digging around the house with nothing to do but get into trouble. Only I had to change my plans when Aunt Frankie intervened. “Come on Baby,” she crooned to Reynolds. “Let’s get you home for a little bit.”
“Well, there goes that idea,” I mumbled. “Paulie, looks like you are volunteered to mind the boys here at the house. I’ll take Tiff and Mimi and run over to get some greens to go with dinner.”
“Aw Dovie … that’s …”
I gave him the evil eye. “What you almost said better not actually fall out of your mouth in my presence. Everyone learns to do everything just in case at some point there aren’t enough people to split the jobs between. Got it?”
“Aw Dovie … fine,” he said obviously in a snit.
The last thing I wanted was to hear my little brother was turning into a chauvinist pig. And if I found out that Clewis had anything to do with it then it might not just be the shovel that was going to be dented.
Work didn’t even begin to cover it. We could have doubled our numbers and still come up shy a few people but you do what you have to and hope and pray that it is good enough. That’s what it was all about, at least for me.
The pork roast with juniper berries went over really well … or so said the silence around the “table” that Paulie and Reynolds help me to set up by putting a sheet of plywood from the shed across a couple of saw horses. All I really did was take the fresh roast, slice it deeply, sprinkle a little crushed juniper berry between each slice along with some salt and pepper and shredded mushroom – in this case some hen of the woods that I’d collected at the woodlot’s edge, place a couple of sprigs of thyme across the top from the overgrown herb garden, and then had Paulie dig me a hole that I could put my biggest dutch oven down in.
“Where do you want these coals Dovie?”
“Jude! Are you supposed to be up on that leg?”
“Don’t blow your britches out Granny, I’m hobbling with a cane. Just tell me where to put this bucket of coals down at.”
“Ha ha, very funny,” I said but was comforted to see that he was indeed using a knobby old stick that Paulie and Reynolds found and cut down for him. “There is fine. I’ll need them for the dutchie. How’s the leg holding up?”
He sighed then looked around. I realized after his question that he’d been watching for Clewis. “You have a tea to take the edge off? Maybe something like you gave to Reynolds yesterday?”
Answering him quietly I said, “I’ve got something but it isn’t a tea. I found … um … some strong stuff along the road.”
“I don’t want anything that is going to knock me out. I just want the throbbing to go down some so I can concentrate and help get these hogs taken care of. Dad acts like my leg was nearly cut off instead of just a little chewed on.”
“I can make you something but it will still probably make you groggy. I have some advil that might help.”
“That’ll …”
“Hey, what are you two whispering about? There’s work to be done. Or is little Jude not up for anything?”
Glaring in Clewis’ general direction I said, “I’ve still got that shovel handy.”
A snort was my only answer. Jude asked, “What’s this about a shovel I keep hearing?”
“It’s going to have a dent in it the shape of Clewis’ head if he doesn’t stop irritating me. How did he get someone like Crystal to marry him? She seems awful nice and sweet.”
“Search me. But don’t underestimate her just because she is a pretty little thing. She’s a teacher and can use a whip and chair with the best of them.”
I heard a feminine laugh before a young woman came around the corner of the house saying, “Don’t you forget it Jude Killarney. And Poppa Roe is looking for you and it isn’t out here in the yard. You are supposed to be sitting and cutting the pork down into the right size pieces.”
Without another word Jude hobbled back where he’d come from. Crystal though continued to stand there like she didn’t know how to say something. “What?” I asked her as she was making me nervous.
“Actually …,” she stopped and sighed. “Did you medicate Reynolds when he came over yesterday?”
“Did I what? You mean give him pills? Of course not. Why?”
“He was so calm when he came home that … well it was like he’d been given something. Butch said he was even better than normal … which from what I’ve heard and seen isn’t all that good to begin with. Medication doesn’t do anything unless a child is taught behaviorally what is appropriate and what is not.” She sounded like a teacher all right.
“Well I kinda did give him something but certainly not pills. I managed to get him to drink some herbal tea. Rochelle will know what it is … and if she doesn’t Aunt Frankie certainly should. Mrs. Cherry, Aunt Frankie’s grandmother, taught Home Ec to my mother and after Mom and Dad got married she sent her a book full of her old ‘yarb receipts.’ Do you know what those are?”
“Herbal recipes?”
“Uh huh. Mom said some of them were old wives tales and placebos but she said a lot of them were for real,” I told her. “My mom swore by a few of them and the one I made for Reynolds was a stronger version of the one that I had started to make for Mom every so often after …”
I had tapered off, unwilling to go into a long explanation. Crystal seemed to understand without me having to which was a relief. “You should tell Rochelle. She’s the one that thought maybe you had supplies.”
Heeding Jude’s caution I said, “Supplies of what?”
“That you had come with a bunch of supplies and food. She said there was no other way you could have made it cross country otherwise.”
I snorted, “Not hardly. The dregs out of destroyed vending machines? Soap out of the dispensers in public bathrooms so we didn’t stink so bad we couldn’t stand ourselves? Praying that there was a working water pump in a doggy doo run? Yeah, that’s really living high that is. The diet soda I’m giving Aunt Frankie is all we had left when we rolled in except for a little bit of junk food we’ve since eaten. If it wasn’t for Jude we’d have empty bellies except for some apple falls I found. Jude brought in a deer after mowing all morning with Uncle Roe and the boys … uh … I mean Butch and Clewis. Guess I can’t really call them boys anymore now that we are all grown.”
A shrill voice interrupted our conversation. “Dovie Killarney Doherty! If you think that I’m going to clean up this mess that you and that boy made then you can think again young lady. Get your butt in gear and stop wasting your time socializing while the rest of us work.”
I rolled my eyes and my mouth took off. “Aw Aunt Frankie. I guess you mean Jude but if you don’t like his name enough to use it then you shouldn’t have called him after that stupid Beatle’s song.”
“I did not name him after that Beatles song, it is a nice Biblical name I’ll have you know; one of the brothers of Jesus Miss Smart Aleck.”
I grinned and said, “Yes ma’am. Then …”
“Dovie!” Jude called from the porch.
“What?!” I said irritated at being interrupted like he was calling a dog.
“You know what. And besides, Dad is ready for you to start rendering the lard.”
Muttering under my breath I growled, “Oh fine. Be that way.”
Dealing with the hogs was a tiring, nasty job. We got all five hung and drained and rather than take them to the spring house we simply kept processing them until we were finished. The day didn’t get hot … frankly it barely got close to warm which was a decided change or so everyone kept saying … but the fires to boil the carcass so we could scrub the bristles off made it feel that way and standing over the rendering kettle was like standing over a little corner of hell.
It took about three hours to process each hog and that was doing it like an assembly line with almost all hands on deck. At one point we had everyone working to hang the shoulders and hams for smoking; rendering the lard and then canning the cracklings, pickling the pigs feet, and then dicing and grinding all of the remaining meat to go into sausage that was then stuffed in muslin bags and hung in the smoke house as well; and then finally preparing the ribs and everything else that wasn’t canned or ground. Uncle Roe even took the chittlin’s because he said he had a neighbor that would barter for them. Ugh. Hog guts, I just never could force myself to eat them.
River and Wendalene were taking the pork ribs off of Uncle Roe’s barrel cooker at the same time I was pouring the last of the lard into the heavy stoneware pots that my grandparents had traditionally used for storage.
River said regretfully, “I hate to serve just these ribs and that pork roast.”
Wendalene and Rochelle didn’t have anything to say. I groaned knowing no one would do it if I didn’t. “Kudzu. If we don’t eat it then it is going to take over the world.”
“Kudzu?” River said doubtfully. “Isn’t that stuff poisonous?”
I looked for support from Wendalene but she just rolled her eyes, on the other hand Rochelle said, “Not poisonous at all. It isn’t my favorite but better than going hungry; Granny Cherry used to cook it, make kudzu jelly, and weave baskets from the vines. Just don’t tell the kids what it is and they’ll probably eat it; they should be hungry enough by now.”
That wasn’t exactly any help but at least if I went to the effort I knew that someone would eat it. I climbed the porch and called, “Tiffany? Paulie? Reynolds?”
I think everyone was surprised when I called Reynolds’ name but heck if I was going to leave him to go digging around the house with nothing to do but get into trouble. Only I had to change my plans when Aunt Frankie intervened. “Come on Baby,” she crooned to Reynolds. “Let’s get you home for a little bit.”
“Well, there goes that idea,” I mumbled. “Paulie, looks like you are volunteered to mind the boys here at the house. I’ll take Tiff and Mimi and run over to get some greens to go with dinner.”
“Aw Dovie … that’s …”
I gave him the evil eye. “What you almost said better not actually fall out of your mouth in my presence. Everyone learns to do everything just in case at some point there aren’t enough people to split the jobs between. Got it?”
“Aw Dovie … fine,” he said obviously in a snit.
The last thing I wanted was to hear my little brother was turning into a chauvinist pig. And if I found out that Clewis had anything to do with it then it might not just be the shovel that was going to be dented.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Frankie is an idjit, Roe needs to take her in hand so Reynolds will turn out better. Thank you Kathy.
Chapter XVIII
I had grabbed a basket and told Tiffany to hold Mimi’s hand and follow me. As I was passing by the guys that were cleaning up Clewis snickered. I was too tired and angry and he picked the wrong time to push my buttons.
I stopped Tiffany and then marched over to the guys and hissed in a low tone for only them to hear, “Clewis, I warned you. You do not mess in my family business unless you want me to start messing in yours. Crystal seems like a real nice lady. I don’t think you want her knowing some of the things that I know about you and who might also be in those stories. I do not think you want to know just how far I will go to protect what and who I consider mine to protect. You think I’m still the same girl cousin you could pick on and you are wrong. You have no idea how hard and fast I had to grow up when Dad and Jack and Jay died like they did and when Mom lost it. You have no idea how hard I have worked to keep my family together only to lose Mom because some jackass terrorist decided to poison the water.” He tried to open his mouth but mine ran over the top of his. “You have no idea what we have been through since then and you have no idea the lengths I went to get these kids safely here. No matter what you think you just don’t know what I’m capable of; I am not the same kid who left here last year. Do … not … push … me. It would be a very, very dumb mistake.”
I gave him one more hard look and then walked away without giving him or anyone else a chance to say anything. I was really angry, angry enough to have the shakes. I knew that some of my anger was way over the top of what it should have been but at the same time I knew that I couldn’t run the risk of letting Clewis – or anyone else – think they could just push me around. I was still in survival mode and I had to be able to lead. When Paulie got older it would be different but he was only ten. Hearing him almost tell me no because something was “women’s work” was more than I could stand.
Heck yeah there was women’s work and men’s work; that’s life. But at the same time Paulie wasn’t a man yet and I still needed to be able to boss him. “C’mon Tiff. Hold the basket while I cut these vine tips. See how they are all new and tender at the very end? That’s what you want, so you don’t cut them too far back or they’ll be tough; and we’ll need a lot of them. We’ll cook them like spinach.”
I knew she was listening but at the same time I could tell something was on her mind. “Spit it out Tiff.”
“Are you mad at Paulie?”
I sighed. “A little. He knows better. But I’m angrier at Clewis for starting it.”
“I don’t think Paulie meant anything bad.”
“What he meant was that he was too good to do a job I asked him to do. That is just not going to stand. We don’t always get to pick what we want to do in life. I didn’t get to pick some of the things I had to do to keep us all together and safe. And until he is grown enough to take that job over he’s going to have to help with other stuff … and that includes watching the younger ones.”
“I don’t ever want to have to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Fight people. Shoot them. I don’t like it. I don’t want to ever have to do that.”
I turned to find Tiff looking very stressed out -and Mimi holding onto her around her waist. I sighed. “Tiff, I’m trying to set things up so that you don’t have to; so that when you grow up things are different from what they are right now. Trust me, I don’t always want to do what I do either.”
She nodded solemnly and continued to hold the basket. I knew that Tiffany hated ruckus. She was easily stressed and often worried whenever it happened. It was why I had left the kids with her while Paulie worked with me when we were on the road. I was hoping now that we were off the road she could relax more and get over some of the trauma but maybe that is her natural personality. Mom hated ruckus too which was why she learned to be such a diplomat. I tried to be like her when I could but a good chunk of me was also like Dad and the twins; ready for a rumble if I was forced into one.
We came back with a huge basket of kudzu tips and because they were so tender it didn’t take very long to get them cooked up. I poured them into a couple of serving bowls and stuck them on the table then set to work making sure that my kids got their share of the ribs and roast. I had to cut the meat off for Corey and Mimi and by the time they were all taken care of almost everything had been divvied up and eaten.
I sighed thinking that that I’d be eating another Clif bar after everyone left when Rochelle said, “Will you sit down? You make me tired just watching you.” I turned to tell her I was ok only she was pointing to a full plate. “Eat. Jude says he hasn’t seen you hardly eat anything. I thought he was exaggerating but I’m not so sure now. And don’t give me that I’m-out-of-the-habit excuse you gave him. You don’t take care of yourself you aren’t going to be able to take care of those kids and I’m not gonna raise them for you.”
Rochelle was nobody to mess with being a completely different kettle of fish from her mother, especially when she was like she was being. She had always wanted to be a nurse but could never afford to get beyond the schooling for a CNA. She obviously still took that sort of stuff real serious. I’d overheard Mom and Dad say one time that Uncle Roe would have helped her pay for some schooling if she had only been able to get her personal life under control. The man she was calling her husband seemed ok but didn’t have a whole lot to say for his self if the time I’d spent around him during the slaughter was any indication.
I sat and ate and soon enough everyone picked up and left … leaving a bit of a mess behind but at least they took their dirty dishes with them. Uncle Roe and Butch were the last to leave. “Jude will feed the old smokehouse here; don’t make his job harder by letting the kids fool around the place or play with the door on it.” He wiped his tired face with an old, stained bandana. “I haven’t forgotten about getting you a few things to help out but if you can keep up with things like them greens it will definitely make it easier for all of us. I swun Sister, I was a boy last time I ate kudzu; I forgot how good it could be when it was cooked right.”
“Mom always said hunger was the best sauce for any dish.”
“And she was right, but some seasonings and sugar aint’ gonna go amiss either. Well, we haven’t got much sugar but I’ve got two pails of honey that I’ll send over in the morning. It’s older stuff - dark and has some crystals in it but you know to heat it and they’ll melt. The corn coming over started out in the feed silo so you’ll need to clean it good before you use it … same for the wheat and oats. Frances won’t have rice in the house ‘cause she hates the stuff and I can’t say I’m all that fond of it either so I’ll give that to you and keep the barley we have which should make her happy. I can spare a bag of salt but you’ll have to use it in moderation. I don’t want to have to use the salt licks if we don’t have to. And …”
“Hold that thought Uncle Roe.” I ran into the house and then dug out a bag of unopened coffee I had found along the way and ran back out and handed it to him. “Here. I don’t drink it unless I have to and since Aunt Frankie got the diet sodas I wanted you to have this.”
“Where’d you get this?” Butch demanded after Uncle Roe had shown him what it was.
“Every once in a while we found something in a security office at the abandoned rest stops or in a car pushed off the side of the road that had been missed by everyone else. Most of the time everything was trashed and I was barely able to dig enough out of the broken vending machines so that the kids wouldn’t starve. At first it always felt like I was stealing but after a while the kids got so hungry that I stopped caring. If it was edible … even if it was opened … I would gather it up. A few times it got so bad I would scrape the peanut butter off of the crackers and heat it up and add a little water to it to make it go further. One time I heated up water and added a couple of packs of lemon juice I found and some dandelion greens to make a soup with and that was better. If it wasn’t for dandelions and dollar weed I don’t know if we would be here.”
Uncle Roe asked, “Then for heaven’s sake girl, why didn’t you drink the sodas or the coffee?”
“I always imagined finding someone that was so desperate for a taste of it that they would trade it for some food. But it didn’t take long for us to learn that it was better to keep to ourselves and away from people if at all possible. In the beginning there were cops and charities with food but after a while it became every man and woman … and kids … for themselves.”
“I don’t like hearing my sister’s kids went through all that,” he said heavily.
“We weren’t the only ones Uncle Roe. Butch asked about the coffee so I told you, but it was to be honest, not to make you feel sorry for us. And with that in mind, if the kids are different or quiet I just want you to understand that it is because they’ve been through so much not because they are all that standoffish.”
Butch said, “I’ll talk to Clew. I can’t promise it will make him stop but maybe it will make him ease up.”
I debated my next words. “I trust you with my life Uncle Roe … and you’re not far behind Butch. And if I trust you with mine I guess that means I’m trusting you with Paulie’s and the other kids as well. But I can’t have Clewis … it is hard enough … he’s just gotta understand. I don’t want hard feelings between any of us. I’m … I’m seeing that there are things already going on that haven’t been nice for all of y’all. But I cannot have Clewis going through the kids just to irritate me. It’s not fair to them … and doesn’t say a whole lot for Clewis that he’d do it. He’s a grown man and … and because … well … some things happened on the road and the kids are … are a little scared of grown men.”
Uncle Roe’s voice got tense when he asked, “What kind of things?”
“Things that shouldn’t have happened Uncle Roe, but that were less than they could have been. But what I had to do to get us out of that situation … please Uncle Roe … just make Clewis understand that things are hard enough for all of us without him picking in what he thinks is fun but is only gonna cause more damage.”
“One of these days you’re gonna tell me all about that road trip of yours,” Uncle Roe said sadly.
“I told you the important stuff worth repeating Uncle Roe. It just went on so long and there are so many little details … things just pop up every once in a while and gets tied back to something that happened back then.”
He sighed and gave me a tired hug before he and Butch got in the wagon and left, Clewis having taken Magnolia back somewhat earlier. I turned and looked at the mess in the yard and started picking up dishes that would have to be washed before I could stop. A couple of hours later I was wringing the just scalded dish rag out to hang it up when Jude stumbled into the kitchen. He’d tried to help with the clean up but had collapsed in the porch swing with his leg propped up and unwillingly fallen asleep. I turned and looked and my tired fled as I rushed over to pull a chair out for him to all but fall into. “Don’t move,” I told him.
“Don’t especially plan to,” he mumbled.
I ran upstairs to where I had stowed a lot of what I picked up on the road and found the Naproxin. Coming down the stairs I missed a riser and nearly fell, scaring myself. I slowed down after that and walked the rest of the way back with at least a little decorum. “Here,” I said handing him one of the little pills.
“What’s this?”
“Naproxin … uh, the store brand is called Aleve.”
“A headache isn’t what I’ve got,” he said too tired to be snippy or sarcastic.
“You’ve got a giant headache in your leg. Just try one – you can only take one every twelve hours – and if it doesn’t work then we’ll give something else a try.”
He took the pill and then let me help him hobble to “his” sofa. I went over and sat in an overstuffed armchair. I’d meant to talk to him but he was asleep when I looked and then I couldn’t remember what I’d meant to talk to him about. Soon enough I was asleep as well sitting up in much the same way I had been sleeping for months when we were forced to sleep in the car.
I had grabbed a basket and told Tiffany to hold Mimi’s hand and follow me. As I was passing by the guys that were cleaning up Clewis snickered. I was too tired and angry and he picked the wrong time to push my buttons.
I stopped Tiffany and then marched over to the guys and hissed in a low tone for only them to hear, “Clewis, I warned you. You do not mess in my family business unless you want me to start messing in yours. Crystal seems like a real nice lady. I don’t think you want her knowing some of the things that I know about you and who might also be in those stories. I do not think you want to know just how far I will go to protect what and who I consider mine to protect. You think I’m still the same girl cousin you could pick on and you are wrong. You have no idea how hard and fast I had to grow up when Dad and Jack and Jay died like they did and when Mom lost it. You have no idea how hard I have worked to keep my family together only to lose Mom because some jackass terrorist decided to poison the water.” He tried to open his mouth but mine ran over the top of his. “You have no idea what we have been through since then and you have no idea the lengths I went to get these kids safely here. No matter what you think you just don’t know what I’m capable of; I am not the same kid who left here last year. Do … not … push … me. It would be a very, very dumb mistake.”
I gave him one more hard look and then walked away without giving him or anyone else a chance to say anything. I was really angry, angry enough to have the shakes. I knew that some of my anger was way over the top of what it should have been but at the same time I knew that I couldn’t run the risk of letting Clewis – or anyone else – think they could just push me around. I was still in survival mode and I had to be able to lead. When Paulie got older it would be different but he was only ten. Hearing him almost tell me no because something was “women’s work” was more than I could stand.
Heck yeah there was women’s work and men’s work; that’s life. But at the same time Paulie wasn’t a man yet and I still needed to be able to boss him. “C’mon Tiff. Hold the basket while I cut these vine tips. See how they are all new and tender at the very end? That’s what you want, so you don’t cut them too far back or they’ll be tough; and we’ll need a lot of them. We’ll cook them like spinach.”
I knew she was listening but at the same time I could tell something was on her mind. “Spit it out Tiff.”
“Are you mad at Paulie?”
I sighed. “A little. He knows better. But I’m angrier at Clewis for starting it.”
“I don’t think Paulie meant anything bad.”
“What he meant was that he was too good to do a job I asked him to do. That is just not going to stand. We don’t always get to pick what we want to do in life. I didn’t get to pick some of the things I had to do to keep us all together and safe. And until he is grown enough to take that job over he’s going to have to help with other stuff … and that includes watching the younger ones.”
“I don’t ever want to have to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Fight people. Shoot them. I don’t like it. I don’t want to ever have to do that.”
I turned to find Tiff looking very stressed out -and Mimi holding onto her around her waist. I sighed. “Tiff, I’m trying to set things up so that you don’t have to; so that when you grow up things are different from what they are right now. Trust me, I don’t always want to do what I do either.”
She nodded solemnly and continued to hold the basket. I knew that Tiffany hated ruckus. She was easily stressed and often worried whenever it happened. It was why I had left the kids with her while Paulie worked with me when we were on the road. I was hoping now that we were off the road she could relax more and get over some of the trauma but maybe that is her natural personality. Mom hated ruckus too which was why she learned to be such a diplomat. I tried to be like her when I could but a good chunk of me was also like Dad and the twins; ready for a rumble if I was forced into one.
We came back with a huge basket of kudzu tips and because they were so tender it didn’t take very long to get them cooked up. I poured them into a couple of serving bowls and stuck them on the table then set to work making sure that my kids got their share of the ribs and roast. I had to cut the meat off for Corey and Mimi and by the time they were all taken care of almost everything had been divvied up and eaten.
I sighed thinking that that I’d be eating another Clif bar after everyone left when Rochelle said, “Will you sit down? You make me tired just watching you.” I turned to tell her I was ok only she was pointing to a full plate. “Eat. Jude says he hasn’t seen you hardly eat anything. I thought he was exaggerating but I’m not so sure now. And don’t give me that I’m-out-of-the-habit excuse you gave him. You don’t take care of yourself you aren’t going to be able to take care of those kids and I’m not gonna raise them for you.”
Rochelle was nobody to mess with being a completely different kettle of fish from her mother, especially when she was like she was being. She had always wanted to be a nurse but could never afford to get beyond the schooling for a CNA. She obviously still took that sort of stuff real serious. I’d overheard Mom and Dad say one time that Uncle Roe would have helped her pay for some schooling if she had only been able to get her personal life under control. The man she was calling her husband seemed ok but didn’t have a whole lot to say for his self if the time I’d spent around him during the slaughter was any indication.
I sat and ate and soon enough everyone picked up and left … leaving a bit of a mess behind but at least they took their dirty dishes with them. Uncle Roe and Butch were the last to leave. “Jude will feed the old smokehouse here; don’t make his job harder by letting the kids fool around the place or play with the door on it.” He wiped his tired face with an old, stained bandana. “I haven’t forgotten about getting you a few things to help out but if you can keep up with things like them greens it will definitely make it easier for all of us. I swun Sister, I was a boy last time I ate kudzu; I forgot how good it could be when it was cooked right.”
“Mom always said hunger was the best sauce for any dish.”
“And she was right, but some seasonings and sugar aint’ gonna go amiss either. Well, we haven’t got much sugar but I’ve got two pails of honey that I’ll send over in the morning. It’s older stuff - dark and has some crystals in it but you know to heat it and they’ll melt. The corn coming over started out in the feed silo so you’ll need to clean it good before you use it … same for the wheat and oats. Frances won’t have rice in the house ‘cause she hates the stuff and I can’t say I’m all that fond of it either so I’ll give that to you and keep the barley we have which should make her happy. I can spare a bag of salt but you’ll have to use it in moderation. I don’t want to have to use the salt licks if we don’t have to. And …”
“Hold that thought Uncle Roe.” I ran into the house and then dug out a bag of unopened coffee I had found along the way and ran back out and handed it to him. “Here. I don’t drink it unless I have to and since Aunt Frankie got the diet sodas I wanted you to have this.”
“Where’d you get this?” Butch demanded after Uncle Roe had shown him what it was.
“Every once in a while we found something in a security office at the abandoned rest stops or in a car pushed off the side of the road that had been missed by everyone else. Most of the time everything was trashed and I was barely able to dig enough out of the broken vending machines so that the kids wouldn’t starve. At first it always felt like I was stealing but after a while the kids got so hungry that I stopped caring. If it was edible … even if it was opened … I would gather it up. A few times it got so bad I would scrape the peanut butter off of the crackers and heat it up and add a little water to it to make it go further. One time I heated up water and added a couple of packs of lemon juice I found and some dandelion greens to make a soup with and that was better. If it wasn’t for dandelions and dollar weed I don’t know if we would be here.”
Uncle Roe asked, “Then for heaven’s sake girl, why didn’t you drink the sodas or the coffee?”
“I always imagined finding someone that was so desperate for a taste of it that they would trade it for some food. But it didn’t take long for us to learn that it was better to keep to ourselves and away from people if at all possible. In the beginning there were cops and charities with food but after a while it became every man and woman … and kids … for themselves.”
“I don’t like hearing my sister’s kids went through all that,” he said heavily.
“We weren’t the only ones Uncle Roe. Butch asked about the coffee so I told you, but it was to be honest, not to make you feel sorry for us. And with that in mind, if the kids are different or quiet I just want you to understand that it is because they’ve been through so much not because they are all that standoffish.”
Butch said, “I’ll talk to Clew. I can’t promise it will make him stop but maybe it will make him ease up.”
I debated my next words. “I trust you with my life Uncle Roe … and you’re not far behind Butch. And if I trust you with mine I guess that means I’m trusting you with Paulie’s and the other kids as well. But I can’t have Clewis … it is hard enough … he’s just gotta understand. I don’t want hard feelings between any of us. I’m … I’m seeing that there are things already going on that haven’t been nice for all of y’all. But I cannot have Clewis going through the kids just to irritate me. It’s not fair to them … and doesn’t say a whole lot for Clewis that he’d do it. He’s a grown man and … and because … well … some things happened on the road and the kids are … are a little scared of grown men.”
Uncle Roe’s voice got tense when he asked, “What kind of things?”
“Things that shouldn’t have happened Uncle Roe, but that were less than they could have been. But what I had to do to get us out of that situation … please Uncle Roe … just make Clewis understand that things are hard enough for all of us without him picking in what he thinks is fun but is only gonna cause more damage.”
“One of these days you’re gonna tell me all about that road trip of yours,” Uncle Roe said sadly.
“I told you the important stuff worth repeating Uncle Roe. It just went on so long and there are so many little details … things just pop up every once in a while and gets tied back to something that happened back then.”
He sighed and gave me a tired hug before he and Butch got in the wagon and left, Clewis having taken Magnolia back somewhat earlier. I turned and looked at the mess in the yard and started picking up dishes that would have to be washed before I could stop. A couple of hours later I was wringing the just scalded dish rag out to hang it up when Jude stumbled into the kitchen. He’d tried to help with the clean up but had collapsed in the porch swing with his leg propped up and unwillingly fallen asleep. I turned and looked and my tired fled as I rushed over to pull a chair out for him to all but fall into. “Don’t move,” I told him.
“Don’t especially plan to,” he mumbled.
I ran upstairs to where I had stowed a lot of what I picked up on the road and found the Naproxin. Coming down the stairs I missed a riser and nearly fell, scaring myself. I slowed down after that and walked the rest of the way back with at least a little decorum. “Here,” I said handing him one of the little pills.
“What’s this?”
“Naproxin … uh, the store brand is called Aleve.”
“A headache isn’t what I’ve got,” he said too tired to be snippy or sarcastic.
“You’ve got a giant headache in your leg. Just try one – you can only take one every twelve hours – and if it doesn’t work then we’ll give something else a try.”
He took the pill and then let me help him hobble to “his” sofa. I went over and sat in an overstuffed armchair. I’d meant to talk to him but he was asleep when I looked and then I couldn’t remember what I’d meant to talk to him about. Soon enough I was asleep as well sitting up in much the same way I had been sleeping for months when we were forced to sleep in the car.
Chapter XIX
I awoke when I heard a male voice biting a curse off and then gasping in pain. Sitting up I saw it was Jude over by the lit fireplace trying to stand up. “What on earth are you doing?” I asked him quietly.
“Didn’t mean to wake you Dovie. Go back to sleep,” he gasped.
“What time is it?”
“About nearly four if my watch can be trusted.” He tried to stand again but couldn’t.
I got up, more than a little stiff myself, and let him wrap his arm around my shoulders so he could stand up without putting any weight on the hog bit leg. “Almost time to get up anyway,” I told him. “Geez, it is chilly isn’t it.”
“Yeah. I had the sweats and when I woke up it was cool-ish all right.” I helped him hobble to the sofa and then turned to leave. “Where you going?”
“Need to check the kids.”
“Already did. I lit a fire up there first. I had to wake up Paulie ‘cause the little girl woke up and saw me and got scared.”
“Mimi?”
“Naw, the older one … Tiffany.” He sighed. “They had all crawled into the same bed like a bunch of puppies. I’ll see if I can swing some blankets somehow.”
“You don’t need to swing nothing,” I told him, my tone telling him I thought he was being sweet to the little kids. “Remember, we packed everything here from our house in Florida and barely took anything with us when we left. I brought back what was left and salvageable from the duplex we were living in out in Phoenix.” Adding a bit of useless trivia just because it popped into my head I told him, “We paid three months in advance on the rent or the landlord would have probably gone in and thrown it all out.”
Jude nodded. “I’ve seen the boxes down in the basement but haven’t messed with them.”
“There’s boxes in the attic too; cedar trunks with old stuff in them and things like that. I’ll just need to hang stuff outside to get the smell of mothballs out of it. And that’s also where Jack and Jay’s clothes are.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Jude said referring to my words about finding him some clothes.
“I know I don’t have to. I want to. Is that a problem?”
He looked at me in the firelight and came at it from a different direction. “You’ve … you’ve changed.”
I shrugged at the obvious. “So have you. We all probably have to one degree or ‘nother.”
“I suppose,” he said carefully. After a moment he said, “The kids went back to sleep and I locked the old nursery grate over the fireplace. They should be fine. You should go to bed.”
“I almost don’t know what a real bed is.” When he looked a question at me I said, “I got so used to sleeping sitting up in the driver’s seat of the car it almost feels strange to try and sleep horizontally. And I suppose you threw this afghan over me.”
“Guilty,” he admitted so tired that his eyes didn’t want to stay open.
I don’t know why but I started humming, then singing, an old lullaby that Mom had sung as long as I could remember ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw9B49epS_M )
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Hush now don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That's an Irish lul-la-by
Over In Killarney,
Many years ago,
My Mother sang a song to me
In tones so sweet and low;
Just a simple little ditty,
In her good old Irish way,
And I'd give the world to hear her sing
That song of hers today.
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Hush now don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That's an Irish lul-la-by
Oft, in dreams I wander
To that cot again.
I feel her arms a-hugging me
As when she held me then.
And I hear her voice a humming
To me as in days of yore,
When she used to rock me fast asleep
Outside the cabin door.
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Hush now don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That's an Irish lul-la-by
Oh I can hear that music
I can hear that song
Filling me with memories
Of a mother's love so strong
Its melody still haunts me
These many years gone bye
Too ra loo ra loo ral
Until the day I die
Half asleep Jude said, “That’s nice. Your momma used to sing that to get us all down for naps. I remember. Sometimes I’d give her a hard time just so she’d sing that to us.”
Quietly so as not to spoil the mood I told him, “Sounds like something you would do. You were a stinker Jude Killarney.”
A strange note in his voice, he asked, “Is that my name?”
Confused by yet another sharp turn in the conversation I asked, “Why wouldn’t it be?”
He sighed. “According to Clew my adoption isn’t legal or valid now that Mom’s lies are out in the open. The man I thought was my father is the one that signed the release of parental rights. But if he wasn’t my biological father then it doesn’t count. It invalidates my adoption.”
Angry at Clewis for a lot of reasons but this unnecessary cruelty quickly boiling to the top of the list I told Jude, “Clewis is jealous. He’s always had a problem because of how rough the divorce was between his mother and Uncle Roe and she made it worse by saying things that she had no business saying that Clewis can’t seem to let go of even after all this time. Jealous people say things to be hurtful. Uncle Roe considers you his son and you call him dad. I don’t see that anything else needs to be said.”
“But you never considered us your cousins.”
“It isn’t like that exactly,” I told him with a sigh tinged with a little shame. “I tried. All the drama when I was little made it hard to … to connect all the way … but I should have done better … I will do better. There’s all sorts of excuses I could give but none would be good enough.”
“If I’m not really family why am I staying here?” he asked sounding a little lost.
“Because you are really family of some type and because Uncle Roe put you here which is good enough for me, but if that isn’t enough, you’ve already proven I can trust you. You should just let it go Jude.”
Dejectedly he said, “Easy for you to say. You’re not all …”
“… alone?” I finished for him when he hesitated realizing he was more than a little off in that respect. “We’re only as alone as we chose to be. I lost Dad and my big brothers when I shouldn’t have. I lost Mom when I shouldn’t have. They tried to take Paulie away from me when we were first put into quarantine.”
“They did?”
“Yeah. Didn’t last but a day or so but it was enough that I decided I’d never just let that happen again without a fight.”
“Is that why you collected those other kids? So you wouldn’t be alone?”
“No,” I answered. “That just sort of happened. They needed … someone. I was there. Other kids came and went in the group I was taking care of but those upstairs were the core group and the only ones that were left after the others had all been sent to relatives. Paulie, Tiffany, Bobby, Lonnie, Mimi, Corey … they’re mine to take care of for whatever reason. I didn’t even have to go looking, they were just there and as a result none of us are lonely. Maybe God gave me to them so that they wouldn’t be the ones alone. Hard to say. All I know is that even if you feel cut off from everyone else, you can choose to be one of us … you don’t have to be lonesome or alone.”
“You sure Dovie? I feel pulled in two different directions. I was all set to … to see if the military would take me or go look for work someplace else if they wouldn’t. But now you’re here … you and those kids … I … I don’t want to go quite so much because … because maybe you need me around a little. Or maybe it’s an excuse not to go because here is really where I want to be in the first place.”
“Then don’t go. Stay for a while and see if you like it. That other will still be out there if you find you want to go more than you want to stay. Stay through the winter at least, let things settle out some.”
In a confused voice he asked, “Why do you care if I stay or if I go? I can’t remember us ever really getting along.”
“We never didn’t get along either … my parents just didn’t want me hanging around those older kids you were always out running around with. Mom and Dad said that some of those boys wouldn’t believe I was a good girl or that I was younger than them and might not treat me very nicely, so I avoided that whole pack … and you because you were always with them. It’s not like we lived here all the time you know. But you were there when I asked for help with Reynolds … you were more help than Uncle Roe was.”
After a pause Jude asked, “Will you sing that song again Dovie? Just once?”
Just once turned into three times and by the end of them he had fallen into a fitful but much needed sleep.
I awoke when I heard a male voice biting a curse off and then gasping in pain. Sitting up I saw it was Jude over by the lit fireplace trying to stand up. “What on earth are you doing?” I asked him quietly.
“Didn’t mean to wake you Dovie. Go back to sleep,” he gasped.
“What time is it?”
“About nearly four if my watch can be trusted.” He tried to stand again but couldn’t.
I got up, more than a little stiff myself, and let him wrap his arm around my shoulders so he could stand up without putting any weight on the hog bit leg. “Almost time to get up anyway,” I told him. “Geez, it is chilly isn’t it.”
“Yeah. I had the sweats and when I woke up it was cool-ish all right.” I helped him hobble to the sofa and then turned to leave. “Where you going?”
“Need to check the kids.”
“Already did. I lit a fire up there first. I had to wake up Paulie ‘cause the little girl woke up and saw me and got scared.”
“Mimi?”
“Naw, the older one … Tiffany.” He sighed. “They had all crawled into the same bed like a bunch of puppies. I’ll see if I can swing some blankets somehow.”
“You don’t need to swing nothing,” I told him, my tone telling him I thought he was being sweet to the little kids. “Remember, we packed everything here from our house in Florida and barely took anything with us when we left. I brought back what was left and salvageable from the duplex we were living in out in Phoenix.” Adding a bit of useless trivia just because it popped into my head I told him, “We paid three months in advance on the rent or the landlord would have probably gone in and thrown it all out.”
Jude nodded. “I’ve seen the boxes down in the basement but haven’t messed with them.”
“There’s boxes in the attic too; cedar trunks with old stuff in them and things like that. I’ll just need to hang stuff outside to get the smell of mothballs out of it. And that’s also where Jack and Jay’s clothes are.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Jude said referring to my words about finding him some clothes.
“I know I don’t have to. I want to. Is that a problem?”
He looked at me in the firelight and came at it from a different direction. “You’ve … you’ve changed.”
I shrugged at the obvious. “So have you. We all probably have to one degree or ‘nother.”
“I suppose,” he said carefully. After a moment he said, “The kids went back to sleep and I locked the old nursery grate over the fireplace. They should be fine. You should go to bed.”
“I almost don’t know what a real bed is.” When he looked a question at me I said, “I got so used to sleeping sitting up in the driver’s seat of the car it almost feels strange to try and sleep horizontally. And I suppose you threw this afghan over me.”
“Guilty,” he admitted so tired that his eyes didn’t want to stay open.
I don’t know why but I started humming, then singing, an old lullaby that Mom had sung as long as I could remember ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw9B49epS_M )
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Hush now don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That's an Irish lul-la-by
Over In Killarney,
Many years ago,
My Mother sang a song to me
In tones so sweet and low;
Just a simple little ditty,
In her good old Irish way,
And I'd give the world to hear her sing
That song of hers today.
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Hush now don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That's an Irish lul-la-by
Oft, in dreams I wander
To that cot again.
I feel her arms a-hugging me
As when she held me then.
And I hear her voice a humming
To me as in days of yore,
When she used to rock me fast asleep
Outside the cabin door.
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Hush now don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That's an Irish lul-la-by
Oh I can hear that music
I can hear that song
Filling me with memories
Of a mother's love so strong
Its melody still haunts me
These many years gone bye
Too ra loo ra loo ral
Until the day I die
Half asleep Jude said, “That’s nice. Your momma used to sing that to get us all down for naps. I remember. Sometimes I’d give her a hard time just so she’d sing that to us.”
Quietly so as not to spoil the mood I told him, “Sounds like something you would do. You were a stinker Jude Killarney.”
A strange note in his voice, he asked, “Is that my name?”
Confused by yet another sharp turn in the conversation I asked, “Why wouldn’t it be?”
He sighed. “According to Clew my adoption isn’t legal or valid now that Mom’s lies are out in the open. The man I thought was my father is the one that signed the release of parental rights. But if he wasn’t my biological father then it doesn’t count. It invalidates my adoption.”
Angry at Clewis for a lot of reasons but this unnecessary cruelty quickly boiling to the top of the list I told Jude, “Clewis is jealous. He’s always had a problem because of how rough the divorce was between his mother and Uncle Roe and she made it worse by saying things that she had no business saying that Clewis can’t seem to let go of even after all this time. Jealous people say things to be hurtful. Uncle Roe considers you his son and you call him dad. I don’t see that anything else needs to be said.”
“But you never considered us your cousins.”
“It isn’t like that exactly,” I told him with a sigh tinged with a little shame. “I tried. All the drama when I was little made it hard to … to connect all the way … but I should have done better … I will do better. There’s all sorts of excuses I could give but none would be good enough.”
“If I’m not really family why am I staying here?” he asked sounding a little lost.
“Because you are really family of some type and because Uncle Roe put you here which is good enough for me, but if that isn’t enough, you’ve already proven I can trust you. You should just let it go Jude.”
Dejectedly he said, “Easy for you to say. You’re not all …”
“… alone?” I finished for him when he hesitated realizing he was more than a little off in that respect. “We’re only as alone as we chose to be. I lost Dad and my big brothers when I shouldn’t have. I lost Mom when I shouldn’t have. They tried to take Paulie away from me when we were first put into quarantine.”
“They did?”
“Yeah. Didn’t last but a day or so but it was enough that I decided I’d never just let that happen again without a fight.”
“Is that why you collected those other kids? So you wouldn’t be alone?”
“No,” I answered. “That just sort of happened. They needed … someone. I was there. Other kids came and went in the group I was taking care of but those upstairs were the core group and the only ones that were left after the others had all been sent to relatives. Paulie, Tiffany, Bobby, Lonnie, Mimi, Corey … they’re mine to take care of for whatever reason. I didn’t even have to go looking, they were just there and as a result none of us are lonely. Maybe God gave me to them so that they wouldn’t be the ones alone. Hard to say. All I know is that even if you feel cut off from everyone else, you can choose to be one of us … you don’t have to be lonesome or alone.”
“You sure Dovie? I feel pulled in two different directions. I was all set to … to see if the military would take me or go look for work someplace else if they wouldn’t. But now you’re here … you and those kids … I … I don’t want to go quite so much because … because maybe you need me around a little. Or maybe it’s an excuse not to go because here is really where I want to be in the first place.”
“Then don’t go. Stay for a while and see if you like it. That other will still be out there if you find you want to go more than you want to stay. Stay through the winter at least, let things settle out some.”
In a confused voice he asked, “Why do you care if I stay or if I go? I can’t remember us ever really getting along.”
“We never didn’t get along either … my parents just didn’t want me hanging around those older kids you were always out running around with. Mom and Dad said that some of those boys wouldn’t believe I was a good girl or that I was younger than them and might not treat me very nicely, so I avoided that whole pack … and you because you were always with them. It’s not like we lived here all the time you know. But you were there when I asked for help with Reynolds … you were more help than Uncle Roe was.”
After a pause Jude asked, “Will you sing that song again Dovie? Just once?”
Just once turned into three times and by the end of them he had fallen into a fitful but much needed sleep.
For those of you wondering, the Irish Lullaby really was sung to kids when I was little. I had a great grandmother that used to sing it to us. I can just barely remember hearing it when I was very little before my brother was born so I would have been younger than four and he and I were some of the youngest great grandkids in that line.
The link in the story is for the Bing Crosby rendition but my great grandmother sounded more like Kate Smith. (grin) She sang in her church a lot as I remember. Old church hymns and folk songs is what I grew up listening to quite a bit as many don't need professional musical accompaniment like alot of today's music does.
The link in the story is for the Bing Crosby rendition but my great grandmother sounded more like Kate Smith. (grin) She sang in her church a lot as I remember. Old church hymns and folk songs is what I grew up listening to quite a bit as many don't need professional musical accompaniment like alot of today's music does.
Chapter XX
For the next two days Jude was feverish off and on so I didn’t go far from the house. Uncle Roe brought the promised supplies but was tight-lipped about it. He checked on Jude and told him to not be foolish about staying off the leg. “Unless you want to lose it son,” he said when Jude insisted that he could come help do something. “I’ve got Clewis mowing and he is learning that it is a lot harder to walk behind a team than drive a tractor.”
Butch came by later and I learned that Aunt Frankie had flipped a switch when she found out that Uncle Roe was giving us some of the supplies when she quote “had to beg and grovel just to get him to unlock them long enough for her to get a smidgen to feed the family.”
“Butch, tell Uncle Roe not to bring anything else; I don’t want trouble. Jude and I will figure it out.”
“You and Jude huh,” he said only half way teasing.
“Don’t get silly. Jude knows how to hunt meat. I know how to hunt plants. Between the two of us we should be able to piece things together.”
He shook his head. “It’s not me that is getting silly. Frankie is already …”
“She’s already what?”
He snorted. “She’s saying that you and Jude are living together here.”
“We are and … wait … now just hold on a cotton pickin’ minute … are you saying that she’s saying …”
Jude woke up from another feverish nap. “I knew it. I knew she’d … say …”
He stumbled and put weight on his leg that it wasn’t ready for and would have fallen if Butch and I hadn’t gotten to him first. “You’re burning up Jude,” Butch said, finally showing some real concern.
“Be fine,” he mumbled. “Have to help Dad. Have to prove … prove …”
“You don’t need to prove nothing,” Butch said, easing Jude back onto the sofa. He turned to me, “I’m going to go get Rochelle. Try and get him to drink some water … anything to keep him from drying out.”
It seemed to take forever for Butch to come back. Rochelle got very professional when she saw the condition Jude was in but not before saying, “I told him and told him to stay off that leg, but would he listen? Now look at him.”
A little over an hour later I had a porch full of people and Rochelle was telling everyone what was going on. “I took the sutures out and cleaned the wound again. Animal bites always seem to want to get infected and this one is trying the same thing. Jude had a tetanus booster when he got the T-vaccine so I’m not worried about that. But his fever is kicking his butt. He needs to stay hydrated and the kids need to stay away from him now that they all have the sniffles ‘cause his resistance to anything else is going to be compromised while his body fights the infection he already has.” I nodded my understanding. “The weather has turned so you’re going to have to keep him from getting chilled but you can’t let him get overheated either. And if you are going to have the fireplace going you need to put a pot of water near it to keep the air from getting too dry.”
“Life a humidifier?” I asked.
“Exactly like that. I’ll be back twice a day to check his leg but you are going to have to stay close to the house and send Paulie for me if it looks like he is getting any worse. And make my idiot brother stay off that leg before he loses it.”
They were going to leave but I said, “Wait! Butch can you help move Jude to a real bed. I’m gonna put him in the downstairs guest bedroom and get him off this couch.”
Jude groggily said, “You don’t have to do that Dovie.”
“I know. I want to. Plus you’ll get some privacy so you can have a real sleep after we’re done picking on you and making you miserable.”
“Ain’t … ain’t miserable.”
I gave him an evil Yoda grin and said, “Oh you will be … you will be.”
He rolled his eyes but didn’t have much more energy to put into foolishness. After he was settled in the bedroom everyone did leave and I was stuck trying to figure out what to do. “Jude, do you … do you trust me?”
“Mmmm,” he mumbled tiredly.
“Ok, then. I’m gonna take your shirt off and spritz you down with some room temp chamomile tea. I know it sounds silly but hopefully it will help you feel better.”
“Don’t care,” he mumbled then fell into a disturbed kind of sleep.
Walking out into the living room I spied a worried Paulie and Tiffany whispering to the other little kids. “Hey ho, don’t look like that … Jude is going to be fine.”
Bobby asked seriously, “He’s not gonna die?”
“He better not,” I said, hands on my hips. “He promised to help me take care of you guys.” When I saw the joke fell flat as a pancake I told them, “Yes, he’s sick, but not like the people would get at the facility. He is fighting off an infection where that big ol’ hog got him on the leg. I know you haven’t known him Tiff but a couple of days but you’ll see; we’re gonna help him. Good thing we arrived when we did looks like. The thing is one of the ways we need to help him is so he won’t feel so useless. Tiff, you’ll find out that when grown men get to feeling useless or helpless the start feeling depressed and that isn’t good for their constitution. My mother explained it to me once when my dad got sent home from TDY with what they had thought was a heart attack only it turned out to be pericarditis … an infection in the sack around his heart … where a cold had gone screwy in his body. He got well as soon as they figured out what it was but for a little bit he was awful. Well I suspect that Jude is going to go the same way so we are going to have to think of things to help without making him feel helpless.”
Paulie and Tiff just barely grasped what I was trying to say and the younger kids not at all. I wasn’t sure that I completely knew what I was doing either but I had to do something. “Tiff, Paulie … look, I need you to keep a watch on Jude while he is sleeping and keep Lonnie, Mimi, and Corey out of trouble. I’ll give you some other stuff to do as soon as I can get it pulled together. Bobby, you’ll go with me to help tote and carry. One of the things we have to do for all our sakes is to get some food stored for winter.”
“Like squirrels,” Lonnie said.
“Exactly like that Shiner,” I told him using a silly name because his black inquisitive eyes sometimes looked just like a crow of that name that my big brothers had tried to tame one summer. “The hawthorne bushes and juniper berries in the landscaping need to be picked as do the rose hips. That will mostly keep me in the yard. As long as Jude seems to be ok I’ll go get some kudzu greens to can up later this afternoon. Paulie, one thing you can do for me is look in the basement and check for any boxes labeled clothes or linens or something like that and then haul them up here and put them in the master bedroom for me to go through tonight. Ok, let’s get going.”
Picking the hawthorne berries … some folks call them haws or hawberries although there is also a wild black haw that is a different plant … was fairly easy. So were the juniper berries off of the eastern red cedars that seemed to like to grow all over the place like a hedge of wild Christmas trees. The rose hips not so much and it felt like I lost a pint of blood until I remembered that Mom kept her gardening gloves in a desk drawer in the stillroom.
Since Jude seemed to be doing better later in the day I ventured further afield and cut almost two bushels of new kudzu leaves before coming home to find that Reynolds was practically trying to put his head through the shed wall, scaring the other kids to pieces.
“Reynolds!”
“Make it stop Dovie!” he moaned after nearly knocking himself out.
“Make what stop?!”
“My head hurts. Make my tea so my head will stop going boom, boom, BOOM!!” he begged.
He was more agitated than the first time he’d come over but at least he was semi-making sense so I hurriedly made the tea. He jerked it out of my hand and practically guzzled it down, shaking like he really was in pain. “Reynolds have you told Rochelle that your head hurts like this?”
All he did was collapse in my arms and start crying. I didn’t know what to do and the other kids just stood around and stared like Reynolds was some exotic species of weirdness they weren’t sure they wanted to come near. I got Reynolds up onto the porch and sat with him in the swing and got it to rocking. Big boy that he was he crawled up in my lap like a baby and all I could do was hold him until he calmed down.
“It don’t hurt now Dovie,” he said in an exhausted voice. “You made it go away with the tea.”
“You need to explain it to me Reynolds so I can understand. What is it you feel?”
“My head was hurting.”
“You said that. Where on your head does it hurt?”
“All over inside. It feels like my head is gonna ‘splode … just like that melon that fell off the wagon when we were taking it to the church. It feels like my head is gonna break open and all the guts and stuff is gonna come out. It’s all red and stuff ‘cause I can see it when my eyes are closed.”
“OK, you lay here and I’m going to get a rag for your head. Just sit in the swing and feel how nice it feels, like you are rocking on a boat and you’re safe and nothing can make your head hurt.”
I went inside and dampened a dishcloth with some of the chamomile tea that I had made to spritz Jude with and then was about to walk back out on the porch but Tiffany met me with eyes as big as saucers. “Dovie, he went in with Jude.”
“Oh Lord.”
I rushed in there expecting I don’t know what but all I found was Reynolds crawling up on the bed and lying beside Jude. Jude for his part was awake but surprised rather than upset. Reynolds didn’t say a word, just closed his eyes and went to sleep.
“Dovie?” Jude asked quietly.
“Don’t ask me. Does he ever complain of his head hurting?”
“Headaches? Yeah, sometimes. He come down here with one?”
“I’m surprised you didn’t hear him. He was banging his head on the shed so hard I didn’t know which was gonna … going to … break first; his skull or the concrete wall. I made him some more tea and he was shaking like a leaf and then crawled up in my lap so that all I could do was rock him. Now here he is crawling in bed with you. Does Rochelle know about this?”
“Yeah but there isn’t a lot that can be done for him from what I understand. He’s going through something called … geez … uh … I think they call it post-acute-withdrawal syndrome or something like that. Happened to a lot of folks when the pharmacies ran out of people’s medications. It’s like he has these panic attacks and then it brings on a migraine. If it is the same as the other times he’s going to be out of it for a while.”
“Is it ok then if he lays here or do you want me to move him?”
“Move him? Why? If he is still no sense in upsetting him. He used to crawl in bed with me when he was little sometimes. I’d come home and find him awake like he was waiting on me. I was too drunk to know any better so I just left him wherever he decided to sleep which was usually by or on my bed. Only time I regretted it was one time I woke up to find he’d gotten into Faith’s bookbag and used stuff to ‘paint me up like an Indian.’ I don’t know which was worse, getting the nail polish out of my eyebrows and lashes or the permanent marker out of my ears.”
I put a hand over my own mouth to keep the whoop of laughter from escaping at the picture his words painted. Jude for his part had a small smile as well. I asked, “Can you eat something?”
He shook his head. “My stomach feels sour. But I wouldn’t mind some water.”
I brought him some ginger tea with honey instead of water and he quickly fell back to sleep. Since there was no way I was going to leave Reynolds unattended after the way he had acted, and because it was time to start supper anyway, I put the kudzu leaves to soak in some clean water and then put a pot of rice on to cook.
I took a large handful of kudzu leaves and chopped them fine and dumped them in with the rice to cook together and then put the rest of the leaves in a big kettle to cook down so I could pressure can them like spinach.
I had the kids wash up and sit down to a supper of rice and kudzu and then for dessert I let them boil a little honey into taffy. By this time the bugs were coming out and the kids were getting tired so I had them wash up and then let them sit in the screened porch, under quilts and listen to the frogs that were out despite the cool weather. While they were doing all of that I boiled the hawberries down and made hawberry ketchup to bottle up and store down in the basement along with the kudzu in jars that were cooling on the counters. ( http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=CgouvWrAVZA )
I also kept checking on Reynolds and Jude but neither one seemed in the mood to move very much. Reynolds had refused to eat but I had at least got him to drink some very thinned out lemonade which he seemed to like well enough. All he really wanted to do was hold onto Jude’s arm which I imagined couldn’t be a very comfortable way for either one of them to sleep.
I was cleaning up the kitchen and scooting the kids off to bed upstairs when I heard the wagon in the yard. I stepped outside and it was Uncle Roe, Rochelle, and this time Clewis was with them. I immediately felt my back go up but Clewis shook his head. “Ain’t here to cause trouble … looking for Reynolds. He didn’t come home for supper.”
“He’s been here most of the afternoon and is sleeping with Jude right now.” I ignored their surprise and relief and turned to Rochelle. “’Chellie, I gave him some more of that tea. His head hurt so bad he was crying and shaking. Crawled up in my lap and wouldn’t move for almost forty minutes while I rocked him. He’s slept off and on since then but refuses to leave Jude’s side.”
She nodded, “I figured he was due for another spell since it had been a while since he’d had one. Did he break anything?”
“Are you kidding? He just about broke his head banging it into the concrete blocks over there. Jude said he was diagnosed with some kind of withdrawal syndrome.”
She nodded again and then said, “Nothing we can do for him.”
“Says who?” She gave me a pinched look and I backtracked. “Look, I’m not trying to tell you your business but maybe those doctors don’t know theirs. Both times I gave him that tea that Grandmother Cherry used to make … the one she said was for anxiety … he’s calmed right down and then behaved pretty well all things considered.”
“Same tea both times?”
“Yeah, with him reacting to it the same way.”
She bit her lip but didn’t ask anything else. You could not rush Rochelle to believe in anything. She either did or didn’t and if she was going to change her mind it had to be on her on terms and in her own time. She’d gotten in trouble with men that way … believing one thing about them and then taking forever to change how she believed. “Let me take a look at Jude. Bet he’s up in arms about Reynolds.”
“Actually no. He said just to leave him there because Reynolds used to climb in his bed when he was real little. Said the only time there was trouble was when Reynolds painted him up with some of Faith’s make up.”
All three immediately fought to hold in their laughter. I said, “So it was as bad as I was imagining it had to look?”
Clewis wheezed and answered, “I’d forgot all about that. Reynolds wasn’t all that little though, maybe six … seven … something like that. Dad you still got the pictures?”
Uncle Roe chuckled, “Some place I reckon.” He shook his head smiling. “Jude always did have more patience for Reynolds than you would expect. Always surprised me for some reason, he was so wild in every other way.” He sighed and then said, “I’m gonna go see ‘em. Come along Rochelle.”
That didn’t bode well. I looked at Clewis who sighed. “Dad thinks I was outta line and should say I’m sorry.”
“You were but don’t apologize just because he said to. We’re both grown and it won’t mean anything to do things just because we’ve been told to.”
“You ain’t grown.”
“I’m grown enough to know what is proper and what isn’t. And speaking of proper, I don’t know why Aunt Frankie would say something so nasty about Jude staying here but it isn’t nice to repeat it when it isn’t the least bit true.”
“If you knew the things about Jude that I did …”
“I know how Jude used to be and I know how he treated me then and how he treats me now. Dad was never worried about Jude … but about some of the friends he hung with. And as I recall some of those boys were also friends of yours so I’d be careful with the words you throw around.”
He looked at me then grimaced. “Oh fine. Why you are taking up for him I don’t understand.”
“I’m only doing what is right Clewis. If Jude is trying to improve himself then he should be allowed to do it until it is more than trying. You keep pushing him down that’s eventually where he is going to stay. He’s been real kind to me and the kids. And I told you he didn’t fuss at Reynolds at all. I’ll tell you something else and you better keep this under your hat because you know what it was like for you and Butch when your mom and Uncle Roe were being nasty to each other … Jude is hurting. What Aunt Frankie has said has cut him deeper than he will admit to and I only got some of it out of him because I poked at him a bit when he was feeling low. At least you and Butch only had to go through it once … Jude is having to go through it again and wonder about things you never had to wonder about with your mother.”
“Aw stop being such a granny.”
“Fine. But you just think about what I said Clewis. I’m not saying you and Jude have to sit around singing kum-ba-yah together but you could get off his case when he doesn’t deserve it anymore.”
I turned away and went into the bedroom to find Reynolds whimpering. “Enough of that,” I told him brusquely. “If you are hurting somewhere then use words to tell Rochelle, she can’t read your mind. If you’re scared do the same thing. You are too old for us to try and figure out what a whimper means.”
His bottom lip wanted to poke out but then he said, “They say I can’t stay with Jude and Jude says I have to go home with Daddy.”
“And that’s such an end of the world problem why?”
He blinked a couple of times like he was surprised I had asked him why he felt like he did. “Because I want to stay here,” he finally answered.
“Well it’s not like we are about to be swept into the abyss. You can come back tomorrow.”
“I … I can?”
“Yeah. That’s if you do your chores and mind your manners and your daddy says so.”
Reynolds turned to Uncle Roe and said, “I can come back tomorrow?”
“Like Dovie said, do your chores and mind your manners and I don’t see why not.”
For the next two days Jude was feverish off and on so I didn’t go far from the house. Uncle Roe brought the promised supplies but was tight-lipped about it. He checked on Jude and told him to not be foolish about staying off the leg. “Unless you want to lose it son,” he said when Jude insisted that he could come help do something. “I’ve got Clewis mowing and he is learning that it is a lot harder to walk behind a team than drive a tractor.”
Butch came by later and I learned that Aunt Frankie had flipped a switch when she found out that Uncle Roe was giving us some of the supplies when she quote “had to beg and grovel just to get him to unlock them long enough for her to get a smidgen to feed the family.”
“Butch, tell Uncle Roe not to bring anything else; I don’t want trouble. Jude and I will figure it out.”
“You and Jude huh,” he said only half way teasing.
“Don’t get silly. Jude knows how to hunt meat. I know how to hunt plants. Between the two of us we should be able to piece things together.”
He shook his head. “It’s not me that is getting silly. Frankie is already …”
“She’s already what?”
He snorted. “She’s saying that you and Jude are living together here.”
“We are and … wait … now just hold on a cotton pickin’ minute … are you saying that she’s saying …”
Jude woke up from another feverish nap. “I knew it. I knew she’d … say …”
He stumbled and put weight on his leg that it wasn’t ready for and would have fallen if Butch and I hadn’t gotten to him first. “You’re burning up Jude,” Butch said, finally showing some real concern.
“Be fine,” he mumbled. “Have to help Dad. Have to prove … prove …”
“You don’t need to prove nothing,” Butch said, easing Jude back onto the sofa. He turned to me, “I’m going to go get Rochelle. Try and get him to drink some water … anything to keep him from drying out.”
It seemed to take forever for Butch to come back. Rochelle got very professional when she saw the condition Jude was in but not before saying, “I told him and told him to stay off that leg, but would he listen? Now look at him.”
A little over an hour later I had a porch full of people and Rochelle was telling everyone what was going on. “I took the sutures out and cleaned the wound again. Animal bites always seem to want to get infected and this one is trying the same thing. Jude had a tetanus booster when he got the T-vaccine so I’m not worried about that. But his fever is kicking his butt. He needs to stay hydrated and the kids need to stay away from him now that they all have the sniffles ‘cause his resistance to anything else is going to be compromised while his body fights the infection he already has.” I nodded my understanding. “The weather has turned so you’re going to have to keep him from getting chilled but you can’t let him get overheated either. And if you are going to have the fireplace going you need to put a pot of water near it to keep the air from getting too dry.”
“Life a humidifier?” I asked.
“Exactly like that. I’ll be back twice a day to check his leg but you are going to have to stay close to the house and send Paulie for me if it looks like he is getting any worse. And make my idiot brother stay off that leg before he loses it.”
They were going to leave but I said, “Wait! Butch can you help move Jude to a real bed. I’m gonna put him in the downstairs guest bedroom and get him off this couch.”
Jude groggily said, “You don’t have to do that Dovie.”
“I know. I want to. Plus you’ll get some privacy so you can have a real sleep after we’re done picking on you and making you miserable.”
“Ain’t … ain’t miserable.”
I gave him an evil Yoda grin and said, “Oh you will be … you will be.”
He rolled his eyes but didn’t have much more energy to put into foolishness. After he was settled in the bedroom everyone did leave and I was stuck trying to figure out what to do. “Jude, do you … do you trust me?”
“Mmmm,” he mumbled tiredly.
“Ok, then. I’m gonna take your shirt off and spritz you down with some room temp chamomile tea. I know it sounds silly but hopefully it will help you feel better.”
“Don’t care,” he mumbled then fell into a disturbed kind of sleep.
Walking out into the living room I spied a worried Paulie and Tiffany whispering to the other little kids. “Hey ho, don’t look like that … Jude is going to be fine.”
Bobby asked seriously, “He’s not gonna die?”
“He better not,” I said, hands on my hips. “He promised to help me take care of you guys.” When I saw the joke fell flat as a pancake I told them, “Yes, he’s sick, but not like the people would get at the facility. He is fighting off an infection where that big ol’ hog got him on the leg. I know you haven’t known him Tiff but a couple of days but you’ll see; we’re gonna help him. Good thing we arrived when we did looks like. The thing is one of the ways we need to help him is so he won’t feel so useless. Tiff, you’ll find out that when grown men get to feeling useless or helpless the start feeling depressed and that isn’t good for their constitution. My mother explained it to me once when my dad got sent home from TDY with what they had thought was a heart attack only it turned out to be pericarditis … an infection in the sack around his heart … where a cold had gone screwy in his body. He got well as soon as they figured out what it was but for a little bit he was awful. Well I suspect that Jude is going to go the same way so we are going to have to think of things to help without making him feel helpless.”
Paulie and Tiff just barely grasped what I was trying to say and the younger kids not at all. I wasn’t sure that I completely knew what I was doing either but I had to do something. “Tiff, Paulie … look, I need you to keep a watch on Jude while he is sleeping and keep Lonnie, Mimi, and Corey out of trouble. I’ll give you some other stuff to do as soon as I can get it pulled together. Bobby, you’ll go with me to help tote and carry. One of the things we have to do for all our sakes is to get some food stored for winter.”
“Like squirrels,” Lonnie said.
“Exactly like that Shiner,” I told him using a silly name because his black inquisitive eyes sometimes looked just like a crow of that name that my big brothers had tried to tame one summer. “The hawthorne bushes and juniper berries in the landscaping need to be picked as do the rose hips. That will mostly keep me in the yard. As long as Jude seems to be ok I’ll go get some kudzu greens to can up later this afternoon. Paulie, one thing you can do for me is look in the basement and check for any boxes labeled clothes or linens or something like that and then haul them up here and put them in the master bedroom for me to go through tonight. Ok, let’s get going.”
Picking the hawthorne berries … some folks call them haws or hawberries although there is also a wild black haw that is a different plant … was fairly easy. So were the juniper berries off of the eastern red cedars that seemed to like to grow all over the place like a hedge of wild Christmas trees. The rose hips not so much and it felt like I lost a pint of blood until I remembered that Mom kept her gardening gloves in a desk drawer in the stillroom.
Since Jude seemed to be doing better later in the day I ventured further afield and cut almost two bushels of new kudzu leaves before coming home to find that Reynolds was practically trying to put his head through the shed wall, scaring the other kids to pieces.
“Reynolds!”
“Make it stop Dovie!” he moaned after nearly knocking himself out.
“Make what stop?!”
“My head hurts. Make my tea so my head will stop going boom, boom, BOOM!!” he begged.
He was more agitated than the first time he’d come over but at least he was semi-making sense so I hurriedly made the tea. He jerked it out of my hand and practically guzzled it down, shaking like he really was in pain. “Reynolds have you told Rochelle that your head hurts like this?”
All he did was collapse in my arms and start crying. I didn’t know what to do and the other kids just stood around and stared like Reynolds was some exotic species of weirdness they weren’t sure they wanted to come near. I got Reynolds up onto the porch and sat with him in the swing and got it to rocking. Big boy that he was he crawled up in my lap like a baby and all I could do was hold him until he calmed down.
“It don’t hurt now Dovie,” he said in an exhausted voice. “You made it go away with the tea.”
“You need to explain it to me Reynolds so I can understand. What is it you feel?”
“My head was hurting.”
“You said that. Where on your head does it hurt?”
“All over inside. It feels like my head is gonna ‘splode … just like that melon that fell off the wagon when we were taking it to the church. It feels like my head is gonna break open and all the guts and stuff is gonna come out. It’s all red and stuff ‘cause I can see it when my eyes are closed.”
“OK, you lay here and I’m going to get a rag for your head. Just sit in the swing and feel how nice it feels, like you are rocking on a boat and you’re safe and nothing can make your head hurt.”
I went inside and dampened a dishcloth with some of the chamomile tea that I had made to spritz Jude with and then was about to walk back out on the porch but Tiffany met me with eyes as big as saucers. “Dovie, he went in with Jude.”
“Oh Lord.”
I rushed in there expecting I don’t know what but all I found was Reynolds crawling up on the bed and lying beside Jude. Jude for his part was awake but surprised rather than upset. Reynolds didn’t say a word, just closed his eyes and went to sleep.
“Dovie?” Jude asked quietly.
“Don’t ask me. Does he ever complain of his head hurting?”
“Headaches? Yeah, sometimes. He come down here with one?”
“I’m surprised you didn’t hear him. He was banging his head on the shed so hard I didn’t know which was gonna … going to … break first; his skull or the concrete wall. I made him some more tea and he was shaking like a leaf and then crawled up in my lap so that all I could do was rock him. Now here he is crawling in bed with you. Does Rochelle know about this?”
“Yeah but there isn’t a lot that can be done for him from what I understand. He’s going through something called … geez … uh … I think they call it post-acute-withdrawal syndrome or something like that. Happened to a lot of folks when the pharmacies ran out of people’s medications. It’s like he has these panic attacks and then it brings on a migraine. If it is the same as the other times he’s going to be out of it for a while.”
“Is it ok then if he lays here or do you want me to move him?”
“Move him? Why? If he is still no sense in upsetting him. He used to crawl in bed with me when he was little sometimes. I’d come home and find him awake like he was waiting on me. I was too drunk to know any better so I just left him wherever he decided to sleep which was usually by or on my bed. Only time I regretted it was one time I woke up to find he’d gotten into Faith’s bookbag and used stuff to ‘paint me up like an Indian.’ I don’t know which was worse, getting the nail polish out of my eyebrows and lashes or the permanent marker out of my ears.”
I put a hand over my own mouth to keep the whoop of laughter from escaping at the picture his words painted. Jude for his part had a small smile as well. I asked, “Can you eat something?”
He shook his head. “My stomach feels sour. But I wouldn’t mind some water.”
I brought him some ginger tea with honey instead of water and he quickly fell back to sleep. Since there was no way I was going to leave Reynolds unattended after the way he had acted, and because it was time to start supper anyway, I put the kudzu leaves to soak in some clean water and then put a pot of rice on to cook.
I took a large handful of kudzu leaves and chopped them fine and dumped them in with the rice to cook together and then put the rest of the leaves in a big kettle to cook down so I could pressure can them like spinach.
I had the kids wash up and sit down to a supper of rice and kudzu and then for dessert I let them boil a little honey into taffy. By this time the bugs were coming out and the kids were getting tired so I had them wash up and then let them sit in the screened porch, under quilts and listen to the frogs that were out despite the cool weather. While they were doing all of that I boiled the hawberries down and made hawberry ketchup to bottle up and store down in the basement along with the kudzu in jars that were cooling on the counters. ( http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=CgouvWrAVZA )
I also kept checking on Reynolds and Jude but neither one seemed in the mood to move very much. Reynolds had refused to eat but I had at least got him to drink some very thinned out lemonade which he seemed to like well enough. All he really wanted to do was hold onto Jude’s arm which I imagined couldn’t be a very comfortable way for either one of them to sleep.
I was cleaning up the kitchen and scooting the kids off to bed upstairs when I heard the wagon in the yard. I stepped outside and it was Uncle Roe, Rochelle, and this time Clewis was with them. I immediately felt my back go up but Clewis shook his head. “Ain’t here to cause trouble … looking for Reynolds. He didn’t come home for supper.”
“He’s been here most of the afternoon and is sleeping with Jude right now.” I ignored their surprise and relief and turned to Rochelle. “’Chellie, I gave him some more of that tea. His head hurt so bad he was crying and shaking. Crawled up in my lap and wouldn’t move for almost forty minutes while I rocked him. He’s slept off and on since then but refuses to leave Jude’s side.”
She nodded, “I figured he was due for another spell since it had been a while since he’d had one. Did he break anything?”
“Are you kidding? He just about broke his head banging it into the concrete blocks over there. Jude said he was diagnosed with some kind of withdrawal syndrome.”
She nodded again and then said, “Nothing we can do for him.”
“Says who?” She gave me a pinched look and I backtracked. “Look, I’m not trying to tell you your business but maybe those doctors don’t know theirs. Both times I gave him that tea that Grandmother Cherry used to make … the one she said was for anxiety … he’s calmed right down and then behaved pretty well all things considered.”
“Same tea both times?”
“Yeah, with him reacting to it the same way.”
She bit her lip but didn’t ask anything else. You could not rush Rochelle to believe in anything. She either did or didn’t and if she was going to change her mind it had to be on her on terms and in her own time. She’d gotten in trouble with men that way … believing one thing about them and then taking forever to change how she believed. “Let me take a look at Jude. Bet he’s up in arms about Reynolds.”
“Actually no. He said just to leave him there because Reynolds used to climb in his bed when he was real little. Said the only time there was trouble was when Reynolds painted him up with some of Faith’s make up.”
All three immediately fought to hold in their laughter. I said, “So it was as bad as I was imagining it had to look?”
Clewis wheezed and answered, “I’d forgot all about that. Reynolds wasn’t all that little though, maybe six … seven … something like that. Dad you still got the pictures?”
Uncle Roe chuckled, “Some place I reckon.” He shook his head smiling. “Jude always did have more patience for Reynolds than you would expect. Always surprised me for some reason, he was so wild in every other way.” He sighed and then said, “I’m gonna go see ‘em. Come along Rochelle.”
That didn’t bode well. I looked at Clewis who sighed. “Dad thinks I was outta line and should say I’m sorry.”
“You were but don’t apologize just because he said to. We’re both grown and it won’t mean anything to do things just because we’ve been told to.”
“You ain’t grown.”
“I’m grown enough to know what is proper and what isn’t. And speaking of proper, I don’t know why Aunt Frankie would say something so nasty about Jude staying here but it isn’t nice to repeat it when it isn’t the least bit true.”
“If you knew the things about Jude that I did …”
“I know how Jude used to be and I know how he treated me then and how he treats me now. Dad was never worried about Jude … but about some of the friends he hung with. And as I recall some of those boys were also friends of yours so I’d be careful with the words you throw around.”
He looked at me then grimaced. “Oh fine. Why you are taking up for him I don’t understand.”
“I’m only doing what is right Clewis. If Jude is trying to improve himself then he should be allowed to do it until it is more than trying. You keep pushing him down that’s eventually where he is going to stay. He’s been real kind to me and the kids. And I told you he didn’t fuss at Reynolds at all. I’ll tell you something else and you better keep this under your hat because you know what it was like for you and Butch when your mom and Uncle Roe were being nasty to each other … Jude is hurting. What Aunt Frankie has said has cut him deeper than he will admit to and I only got some of it out of him because I poked at him a bit when he was feeling low. At least you and Butch only had to go through it once … Jude is having to go through it again and wonder about things you never had to wonder about with your mother.”
“Aw stop being such a granny.”
“Fine. But you just think about what I said Clewis. I’m not saying you and Jude have to sit around singing kum-ba-yah together but you could get off his case when he doesn’t deserve it anymore.”
I turned away and went into the bedroom to find Reynolds whimpering. “Enough of that,” I told him brusquely. “If you are hurting somewhere then use words to tell Rochelle, she can’t read your mind. If you’re scared do the same thing. You are too old for us to try and figure out what a whimper means.”
His bottom lip wanted to poke out but then he said, “They say I can’t stay with Jude and Jude says I have to go home with Daddy.”
“And that’s such an end of the world problem why?”
He blinked a couple of times like he was surprised I had asked him why he felt like he did. “Because I want to stay here,” he finally answered.
“Well it’s not like we are about to be swept into the abyss. You can come back tomorrow.”
“I … I can?”
“Yeah. That’s if you do your chores and mind your manners and your daddy says so.”
Reynolds turned to Uncle Roe and said, “I can come back tomorrow?”
“Like Dovie said, do your chores and mind your manners and I don’t see why not.”
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you Kathy, I will await more as this will be a very long day here.
2ndEviltwin
Inactive
Kathy you too good. Now you have 2-3 stories to finish 
223shootersc
Veteran Member
very good chapters
Nothing compared to the lift you all give me by reading and commenting I assure you. Life is rough by design so that you can learn things and not repeat mistakes. To find true pleasures is a real blessing and knowing that what I write might be useful to others in some way is not just a pleasure for me but a blessing.
Thank you for a fantastic story. I am new at prepping and your stories have given me so many ideas that will help both me and my 86 yo mom who is living with me. For infections (e.g. hog/dog bites or insect stings) you might want to look into charcoal poultices. I keep 2 kg of medicinal grade charcoal in my kitchen for poultices and to help with GI upsets. For the poultice, mix ground flaxseed with charcoal (50:50 mix) until it is blended and added warm-hot water until it is hydrated. Place the mixture on the area, cover with a wet paper towel and I wrap it with Cling wrap to keep the mess from staining clothes/furniture. It can be left on for several hours but do not let it dry out.....it will turn into cement. Oh, be careful about microwaving the poultice because it will get hot enough to cause burns.
lci115lewis
Member
Roughly speaking it means Temporary Duty assignments, for example when one of my broteher-in-laws was in the Air Force stationed at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona went on a 2 month TDY to Turkey, my sister did not get to come along at USAF expense like she did for the permanent post transfers to Germany and Guam later.
Rob
Rob
Last edited:
It means Temporary Duty ... you can have short term TDYs and you can have remote TDYs and there are probably other designations that I'm not aware of. Most of my dad's were remote which meant that the family not only couldn't go with him but were not allowed to. He spent a year in Thailand, a year in Greenland, three three-month tours in Honduras, lots of specialized training TDYs all over the States and a few others I'm sure I don't know about. The family would stay in one place and it was my dad that travelled a lot so that our living arrangements weren't as broken as many military families experience.
Jeepcats 3
Contributing Member
Kathy,
Just exactly what does Kudzo taste like?
You talk about canning it like spinach.
Is it like spinach? beet tops? or other greens?
What kind of taste does it add to a dish?
Jeepcats3
Just exactly what does Kudzo taste like?
You talk about canning it like spinach.
Is it like spinach? beet tops? or other greens?
What kind of taste does it add to a dish?
Jeepcats3