Story Edie (Complete)
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
Chapter 48
“How long are those people going to have some control of you?”
“Um, I’m not sure I understand the question,” I answered. I’d been expecting him to ask about amounts.
“Uh, doing my taxes you see I get disability.”
“Well sure, you were injured in the line of duty. That’s only right.”
He snorted. “There’s people that don’t see it that way.”
“Then they’re blind. But what I get isn’t disability.”
“I know. I guess what I’m asking is …” He stopped and scratched his head, a sure sign he was a little frustrated by something. “I’m gonna sound like a jerk.”
“Winn will you stop worrying about that? I opened the door. If .. I mean … look, I just don’t want anything to wind up a surprise for either one of us and … and cause a mess.” I sighed. “This is my story. I’ve had social security survivor benefits almost my entire life where first my mother was killed and then when Dad and Robbie were killed. That has always propped me up and paid for things. I don’t ever remember not having it, but it goes away when I turn eighteen. I’ve known that my entire life but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a little scary. What’s more, I don’t have enough work credits for the same thing for Teena if something happens to me.”
He got a deer in a headlight look and said, “That’s not what I was getting at.” He stopped then added, “Well, not directly.”
“Then were you talking about the Judgments,” I said using a euphemism that covered all of the stuff the judge did with the Victim Restitution.
“Well sorta. What I’m trying to get at is are you going to be able to take care of yourself and Teena when you come of age? What about finishing college? Insurance for the Tahoe? Insurance for this place? That sort of thing. Do you have a plan?”
I gave it some thought how to answer him. “Short answer is yes, at least for as long as the Trust holds out. And I’m not using nearly as much of that as I expected because of my part of our business. What I have been using lately was on things like the busted septic system and buying things to renovate this place. I’m also saving money to try and set up some solar power like for the well and cistern.”
In thoughtful surprise he said, “You are?”
“Yeah. I keep getting ideas hand over fist from the stuff you do at the other cabins. I’ve got so many ideas I’ve got to pick and choose the ones – the right ones – that make sense for me so that I don’t go broke. As for college, I inherited Robbie’s prepaid college plan and Dad had set up a savings plan for me as well. I haven’t had to pay for classes yet because I’m dual enrolled. I get the classes for free the same way as I do my high school classes. I don’t have lab fees yet because I might have to go into a physical classroom for that and … and I’m not sure how to do it yet because of Teena. Books are all online same as my high school courses because it is a way for them to determine if I’m actually doing the work assigned. By the time I’m finished with my summer courses I’ll have three or four semesters left of college and that will start coming out of the college plans, same for the books.”
“So about two years to go on college.”
“Maybe three if I get my masters of accounting. I’ll have to judge that when I get there. If I don’t need it to support myself, I might not get it, at least not right away. Some of it will depend on how much is left in my prepaid plan and whether I can do it online and stuff like that.”
“But what about your day-to-day?”
“That’s what my online business is for. I just have to keep finding things to sell at a profit. The clean out business is what I am using to set me … us … um …”
He patted my hand, a first, and it startled me but I tried not to let it show. “It’s okay Edie. I know this is all new and well, the reason I’m getting into your business and asking even though I said we had to wait is because I’d like to have some idea of … of some long term plans. I don’t want you to think I’m just fooling around, and I’m not, just … damn, you are young and … and …”
“You are trying to figure out if my Plan and your Plan work out beyond the short term.”
He opened his mouth and then closed it, looked frustrated, but then said, “Yeah. And don’t it make me sound mercenary.”
“Why? Aunt Nita was always on about how it was money that tore most relationships apart, either as the root cause or because people just didn’t think about it the same way. Better if we find this stuff out now …” Then I got really embarrassed. “Sorry, maybe that’s not what you mean.”
“Actually it is. I just don’t want you to run screaming in the other direction by me bringing it up too soon especially after what I said the other day.”
“Oh.” Then because I really wanted to know I asked, “What brought it up. Have you been wondering? Have I done something in particular?”
“Naw. I mean I’ve been wondering how to figure it out without you knowing why but now that we’ve agreed we both are waiting on you to turn eighteen … I mean … geez, tell me you understand what I mean because I’m getting damn close to the line we set.”
I finally saw the humor in the corner Winn had painted himself into. “You know you are pretty good at turning pretzel.”
“Ha ha,” he said, but it was with relief that I wasn’t upset. “Seriously Edie, I wanna do the right thing and wait until you are older but … but I’ve got an itchy feeling between my shoulder blades that some of this stuff needs to be put on the table now so I can figure out how to move forward … er … I mean we can … I mean … aw hell.”
I decided to help the poor guy out and help myself out at the same time. “Are … you … um … saying that you are thinking … I mean … oh brother … long term?”
He looked me dead in the eyes and said, “I can’t imagine it being any other way than that, but this is too soon to do anything about it.”
“Winn? Is it wrong to say that even if the other stuff winds up not being long term for some reason that I still want to have you as a guy I can trust and call long term? More than friendship but I don’t know what else to call it. But calling it friendship seems like I’m not appreciating all of it.”
Winn can be sweet. He’d probably croak of embarrassment if I said that out loud, but he can be. He gave me an understanding smile … a sweet smile … and told me, “I understand what you mean. We’re good at being partners. And that’s part of what I’m trying to say. We both have plans but there’s things that might be better in the long run if we plan and work on together.”
“Like the food stuff. You taught me about canning and it has made my life’s plans a lot easier … or at least better. But at the same time, I have more time to do it than you so … I can do it for both of us.”
He nodded. “That’s part of it. But I don’t want to hop from cabin to cabin for the rest of my life. I’d like some place that’s stable and in one spot.”
“This place?”
“If … if you’re willing. This is prime real estate with the level areas you have, and it is forty acres. But that’s going to be a ways off. For now my job is still to hop from cabin to cabin doing live-in renovations. I can’t stop doing that until I find something to replace that job, or at least replace the part that requires me to move from place to place as part of my pay. But, I’d be willing to throw in with you to make the changes you want here though I’d like to add to your wish list catalog.”
“Okay.”
“Edie do you understand what I’m saying?”
“You’re saying you want to have a say in the changes around here because eventually rather than buy a place, you want to buy into this one. That you want to know how I feel about it so instead of it being my plan it would be our plan from here on out.”
“Well, yeah.”
“I’d like that,” I told him quietly. “But we need some ground rules because I don’t want either one of us to get hurt.”
“Same here,” he told me seriously.
I took a deep breath and told him one of my lines in the sand. “I don’t want to take a mortgage out on this place. My dad always made it a policy not to have a mortgage. He built the house I lived in before this one and he never did anything he couldn’t pay for up front. Can you … can you agree that unless it is a Grade A, Death-by-sunrise kind of emergency that we don’t put any debt on this place?”
“You betcha.”
“Huh?”
“I mean I completely agree. Worst problems my parents had were money related. They were always fighting about it. Both of them spent too much and then to get out of debt they took an equity loan out on our house then Dad lost his job and … and then on top of everything else it just broke them. It took me a while to understand the problems my parents had were self-caused. There wasn’t anything under the bed or hiding in the closet; they were their own boogey men who screwed things ups. If I never could have found any other good thing about my step-dad I can at least say that he does the finances better than my Dad. And he got a pre-nup with my mother before he was willing to put a ring on it. And they’ve got a budget and they stick to it because it is non-negotiable. So things like budgets, saving money, kand paying for things up front rather than putting them on credit … that’s what I want too.
We talked some more that night and we’ve talked about it since. What Winn had been trying to ask without going too fast was what he would need to be responsible for going down the road. I was left speechless when I finally untangled what he was trying to figure out.
“Winn, I’m the mom, it is my responsibility to be responsible or however you want to say it. If you want to throw in together, I mean is that what you are talking about?”
“Yeah, but more than that. Edie, we won’t be alone anymore. Neither one of us. And neither will Teena. And we won’t have to do it all alone either. That’s what I’m trying to say.”
“No. What you are saying is that you’d be my Sugar Daddy.”
He’d been drinking one of the cans of flavored sparkling water I’d given him to wash the nasty gunk out of his throat where he’d been dealing with plumbing problems most of the day. Well it almost shot out of his nose and I guess it burned some.
He coughed and coughed but finally managed to draw breath. “Girl, the things you say.”
“Well, that’s pretty much what I think you are talking about. I’m not going to do that to you.”
“You wouldn’t be making me Edie, you’d be letting me. See the difference?”
I opened my mouth, closed it, opened it, closed it, then finally my brain caught up. “Is this a guy thing?”
He slowly grinned. “Yeah, but don’t panic. We’ll work on it.”
I was thinking oh yes we would. We’ve managed to come to terms but I will admit that it has taken a lot of compromise on my side. The compromises haven’t been painful but they sure have been educational. And Winn has had to make some compromises of his own that have been just as educational.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Nice how they are communicating and beginning to start planning and thinking about the future. Thanks Kathy! I just finished copying some soup recipes and was checking before bedtime!
larry_minn
Contributing Member
in many ways she is bringing much more ”to the table” then he is. It’s her house, 40 acres, business sense…. Being mercenary.
it was 40, not 80 acres edit.
it was 40, not 80 acres edit.
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Sammy55
Veteran Member
But he has the skills that he has used and will be using to do the upkeep, repairs, and rehab that that house and property need. And that, in my line of thinking, is just as valuable as having the house and acreage to begin with. Over the long-term, it might even be more valuable in all the money that would be saved.
Chapter 49
Compromising is a good thing, but it wasn’t the only thing we did starting in March. August loomed in several different ways but for me I had to put some of it to the side or risk going into overload. I’m thankful that Winn wasn’t asking for, pardon me for being crude, any of the benefits ahead of time. Being mentally more accepting of the idea of a male in my life in that way when I’d summarily turned my nose up at it for a while, doesn’t mean that the idea of the physical part of that equation didn’t make me ill. What little I did remember of that night was unpleasant and painful. That part always came back, and I wasn’t sure how to broach the subject and well, I just wasn’t ready. Occasionally Winn would pat my hand and it still made me jump, though less as the weeks passed.
Something that Winn brought to the table I hadn’t given a lot of consideration to was local connections since my plan had always been to maintain my privacy as much as humanly possible. I hadn’t been interested in knowing anyone and certainly not them knowing me. But … Winn was a Dunn in Dunnville and seemed to be related however distantly to all the branches in the Dunn Clan. He might have been, as he said, “low on the totem” but I think that was more his self-esteem talking than the way his family thought of him. The older folks that I’ve come to know consider him “a good boy.” I know Celeste credits him with quote “more sense and motivation than many of his generation” end quote. And for his part, I came to realize he was careful who he introduced me to. Not because of the not being eighteen yet thing, but because he was protective … of me and Teena and of the privacy that I prefer. When I figured that part out it was like I took another step in his direction I didn’t know I hadn’t been ready to take.
Anyway, he was putting in a French drain for his Great Aunt Willowdean – after a call from his mother to go check on her – when he asked if I knew anything about gardening.
“Some. Why?” I asked as I heard him digging and scrapping at something.
“I hate to ask, know you are trying to take that class,” he said referring to me trying to finish high school which always made him feel uncomfortable. “But Aunt Willowdean is down in her back, and she has a crap load of greens that need to come out of her garden before they bolt.”
“Before they what?” I laughed.
He chuckled. “I’ll show you. I mean I will if you have time to meet me tomorrow.”
“You’ll need to give me directions and a time.”
“Early as you can and just meet me at the gas station in town. I hate to ask you to spend your gas, but can you drive the Tahoe and just follow me? It will only take us a couple of hours and I’ve got three appointments to get to after that. I’d put them off for a day but they’re good customers and pay the funds electronically right then rather than having to wait for an invoice payment, check, or whatever.”
Winn rarely asked for personal favors so for me it was a no-brainer. “Okay. Can I work with Teena in a sling, or do I need the bouncy seat?”
“Bring it just in case. And that spray you use on her. Gnats are already getting bad this year. Oh, I picked up a box of those dog biscuits she likes. Remind me to give them to you. I had to put ‘em under the seat because people started looking at me funny.”
“Winn, you don’t have to do stuff like that.”
“I want to. I figure if I get used to it a little at a time it won’t be such a shock to the system when … uh … I’m shutting up now.”
I laughed again and we rung off and I turned to look at my daughter. “You’re going to be spoiled rotten.”
“Weeeeee!”
Yep. Teena knows what she wants and is already figuring out how to get it. But I’m going to teach her to be more careful of the friends she keeps that I was and that’s for absolutely certain.
I rearranged my plans and it wasn’t a horrible problem like Winn worried because Spring Break was putting a pause on school and going to town a day early would let me go to the post office to mail off a surprisingly large order of three complete outfits to one address … clothes, shoes, and jewelry to match. I spent some time wrapping everything in tissue paper and bubble wrap and realized I was running low on priority boxes and packing tape so added that to my next day’s list. I also had some idea to pick up a few things in the sales flyers I checked online and though nothing in particular stood out, I still put a couple of coolers and cooler bags in the back of the Tahoe to go with Teena’s bouncy seat.
The next morning …
“Teena your heart is not destroyed so please stop making that noise. Winn is right in front of us. As soon as we stop you can slobber all over him for a minute then we need to get to work.”
“Weee!”
Yep, my daughter knows what she wants and has no concept of patience.
There’s no way I would have found Mrs. Willowdean’s place on my own, even with a turn-by-turn map, GPS, compass, and bloodhounds to point the way. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find my way out without some help either. She lived in a valley rather than on a mountain, but it was still like driving a corkscrew and trying not to get dizzy to get there.
Nice lady. And appreciative. And liked that I didn’t mind learning things. She also appreciated that I was quiet.
“Lord Honey, I get so tired of those young magpies that live in town. They talk so much in church there’s nearly not enough oxygen left for the preacher to give his sermon.”
She had a funny way of saying things, but you could tell when she was serious and when she was joking. She reminded me a little bit of Aunt Nita and the lady that ran the café at Vintiques, but with a little less vinegar though that’s not to say she didn’t have her share.
I overheard something I wasn’t supposed to hear, I think. I was running the hand cultivator – this handle that had these spiked wheels on the end that you ran between the rows and between the plants in the garden – and I guess they didn’t realize their voices carried around the side of the house.
“Your momma told me about that girl and it’s got around a bit.”
“What?!” I could tell that Winn was on the edge of being angry.
“Come down outta the trees boy. People was wondering what a girl with a baby was doing working with you. Better your momma share it than people take off and build a story on their own. Smith was the same about her. He won’t hear a word against her though I understand there is nothing there, more like she helped him to find his backbone. Seems he’s taken up with Virgil’s girl Sadie and surprise, surprise Virgil don’t seem to mind none. But you watch your p’s and q’s.”
“Aunt Willowdean she isn’t even eighteen!”
“Mm hmmm. And my daddy said the same thing when Herschel came calling in his pretty new uniform, but that didn’t stop us none.”
I’ve learned to keep a straight face but I’m telling you I could have dug a hole and crawled in if not for Teena needing me. Later, not too much before we left, Mrs. Willowdean asked me, “You interested in coming back and giving me some help should I need it?”
I looked over at Winn but he was trying to keep Teena from tuning up because I took away “Mr. Mophead” in preparation to leaving. I turned back and said, “Yes ma’am. I want to have a garden of my own and I can learn from you the same way I learned to can from Winn.”
“That boy taught you to can?!”
“Yes ma’am. He was going to teach me to hunt but I think it is beyond me right now. Teena is too young. Maybe when she is older and isn’t so fond of her … singing.” We both laughed but then she started asking me, “You like canning?”
“Yes ma’am.” Then she asked what I had canned and I explained about all the soups – because that’s mostly what I ate – and that was after Winn had taught me how to can meat.
“So you pressure can them.” She was testing me to make sure I was doing it correctly.
“Yes ma’am. I’ve done some jams and stuff like that by boiling water bath, but the soups and meats are more practical. Winn knew my Aunt Nita and we traded work and,” I shrugged. “My dad used to say ‘it grew like Topsy from there.’ I know what I mean but I’m not sure I can explain it exactly.”
She chuckled, “I know what you mean Sugar. Winn is a good boy. Has a willing nature and a soft heart for some and mostly ‘cause he’s had a spot of trouble of his own. I’d hate to see him get hurt.”
I frowned. “No ma’am. I also don’t want to see him get in trouble. He explained about how things are around here. But it wasn’t until after we’d become friends and gone into business together. I’m careful about things like that too … um … but for different reasons. And I have Teena to think about first before anything else. Winn … it might sound not exactly what I mean but I don’t know how else to say it beyond he’s been my friend before I even knew I needed one. He won’t let me turn into a hermit like a big part of me would rather be … but he doesn’t push either. He's just my really good friend. Even if there could be something more than that, I’m … I’ve got a lot on my plate to deal with right now and I’m not really ready for more than that.”
She pursed her lips then nodded. “I’ll tell you something and don’t let it hurt your feelings because that isn’t what was meant. Winn’s momma means well but she doesn’t always know what to do about it when it comes to the boy. He’s a lot like his daddy, not too much thank goodness, but enough that he and his momma butt heads. His step daddy, all stories that might be to the contrary should you hear them, is a good man and has done his best for Winn when a lot of folks had all but given up on him. His momma, she feels guilty for things that … well, for things and I’m not going to sit in judgment on her. She was a spoilt and contrary girl and then tried to grow up too fast and it didn’t work out the way she’d been taught by the fairy tales she’d been fed. When it was brought to her attention how much time the two of you had been spending together she had her husband to look into the matter. Your story came up.”
“You mean it came out. I figured it would eventually. Don’t believe everything you hear. It isn’t a nice story and a lot of it was kept quiet by certain people that wanted a different story told for their own reasons.”
She nodded. “That’s what Winn’s step-daddy said. He’d worked for one of the families involved and said what did come out was probably not half what happened and that part not half as bad as it likely really was. You want to tell your side?”
As politely as I could I said, “No ma’am, not really. But, if you were to look things up in the public record and see who was arrested and then what they were convicted of, that will tell most of the story. I can’t stop people from looking things and people up.”
“Youch!!”
I turned quickly and then marched over to Winn and took Teena from him. “That’s it Miss Spoiled Rotten. Winn is a friend, not food. And we do not dismember our friends or we won’t have him anymore. You’re going in your car seat.”
Oh good grief, you would have thought I was beating her.
“Aw she just caught me by surprise Edie.”
“Did she draw blood?”
“No, not really.”
I gave him a look and he showed me where she’d caught him with her sharp little pearlies and the two little drops of blood that were seeping out. I am not explaining where she’d bitten me the night before. Luckily for me she hadn’t bitten me as hard as she’d bitten Winn’s finger. I grabbed the first aid kit and was pulling out the antiseptic.
“It wasn’t on a scar Edie, don’t make such a big deal about it,” he said in embarrassment.
“I don’t care where she bit you. You coulda been wearing Kevlar and not even felt it. What matters is she bit when you were just trying to be nice to her.” I took his hand and showed Teena.
“Bad. That is a bad thing to do Teena. And no, you are not going to get away with it by crying.”
“Aw Edie, she …”
“Winn, trust me on this. Dad and Robbie let me get away with way too much because they felt guilty about Mom and all the rest of it. It took Aunt Nita intervening so that I wasn’t completely awful. And I bet she’s going to wind up even smarter than I was. Smart kids … we need boundaries or we wind up thinking and acting like we are smarter than we are and … and we wind up not watching and thinking as much as we should. I want Teena to learn from my mistakes, not grow up making worse ones because I repeated the mistakes that were made when I was little.”
Winn gave in but he said, “You make my head hurt with all the things you think.”
“Yeah, well I’m just hurt period that Teena did what she did and now I have to figure out how on earth you put a kid her age in time out without making things worse or ruining them for life.”
We’d sorta forgotten about Mrs. Willowdean until she said, “You’re doing fine Honey. She’s gonna act like you are killing her but it’s your heart that is going to feel like it is breaking.”
“They never talked about this part in those birthing classes,” I grumbled.
Mrs. Willowdean laughed. “Birthing is the easy part Honey.”
“So I’m learning.”
She laughed some more and told Winn, “Put them coolers to work and fill them with this basket of broccoli and a couple heads of cabbage. If Edie don’t know how to fix it, I know you do so you can go right on ahead and teach her like you taught her to can. And wouldn’t your Uncle Herschel get a good laugh out of that were he still with us. He always did get a kick out of you helping him in the kitchen when all the others preferred to run off and play, especially the boys.”
He gave Mrs. Willowdean a kiss on the cheek and said, “I miss him too. He always knew what to say.”
“Not always but purt’ close for a fact. And thank you for carrying it all to the kitchen for me. Dancy and Freda are coming for lunch and then staying to help me get this all put away. You think you can come this time next week?”
“I’ll try.”
“Well if you can I’ll have some peas and some greens for you. Might even have some lettuce if I can keep the rabbits out of it. Freda is supposed to help Dancy and me get the netting on. Netting goes up and Howard and her sisters will handle the rest.”
I looked at Winn to ask who was “Howard.”
He told me, “Biggest cat you’ve ever seen. Big as a dog so stay away until she decides whether you are worth knowing or not.”
“You mean that cat?” I asked point over Winn’s head into a pecan tree that hadn’t leafed out yet.
“Dag nabit Howard! What are you? Part panther?!”
Howard merely yawned like Winn’s surprise was his due and Teena took that moment to decide she was happy again. “Kee Kee!”
And all Mrs. Willowdean seemed to be able to do was laugh like they’d made her day.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Thank you for tonight's chapter!
Siskiyoumom
Veteran Member
Thank you so very much!
Kewpie
Senior Member
“I won’t ever let anyone talk you down, not even you. You’ve proven yourself too much.”
This part made me laugh! There’s a tikkietok I posted to my besties of a guy that says ‘The secret in life is having a crazy friend…you need us. You fed me one time - I’ll *KILL FOR YOU*. I don’t care about going to jail, they know me in there, don’t disrespect my friend! I won’t even let you talk about you like that, it’s weird for me, cause I wanna fight you for talking bout my friend!’
This is a good one, Kathy!
This part made me laugh! There’s a tikkietok I posted to my besties of a guy that says ‘The secret in life is having a crazy friend…you need us. You fed me one time - I’ll *KILL FOR YOU*. I don’t care about going to jail, they know me in there, don’t disrespect my friend! I won’t even let you talk about you like that, it’s weird for me, cause I wanna fight you for talking bout my friend!’
This is a good one, Kathy!
Chapter 50
I did go back the next week and while Winn didn’t have time to teach me, I taught myself what to do with the broccoli, cabbage, greens, and peas. The broccoli I froze about half of to use in cheese and broccoli casseroles, something that Winn was also partial to. The remainder I freeze dried and put in mylar bags. The greens I mostly freeze dried and turned to powder to feed Teena when she was ready for table food. She was already leaning that direction as she was going longer and longer between breastfeeding so long as she got her rice cereal and other first foods. If I thought about it, it made me sad, but only a bit. What it really meant is that I was doing my job so that Teena could grow up. I couldn’t expect her to nurse until she was an adult and ready to move out. Ew.
The peas I canned and freeze dried for longer term storage. I wanted to keep some in the freezer but for those I’d have to just get them on sale at the grocery store. Aunt Nita had a great recipe for Zesty Pea Dip[1] that I wanted to try to make on my own. I suppose I could have used the freeze-dried ones that I was making but I was trying to build what one website I read called a layered pantry. There was the immediate use foods … like fresh stuff and leftovers when I had them … then the refrigerated stuff, frozen stuff, canned stuff, dehydrated stuff, and freeze dried stuff. Sometimes you use the freeze-dried stuff like the fresh stuff … apple dices and banana slices … but if you are going to all the trouble and expense of freeze drying, you want to keep that longer term, not necessarily freeze drying your leftovers to make them go a week or two longer before you have to use them.
The cabbage was interesting. I found several ways to can it; piccalilli[2], cabbage and carrot coleslaw[3], pickled cabbage[4], cabbage soup[5], chow chow[6], and something called unstuffed cabbage rolls[7]. I tasted everything and they were all good recipes, but man did it stink up the cabin. Yuck. I dehydrated some as well to test out rehydrating a bit when I wanted it, like if I wanted to throw it in some soup I was reheating, or wanted a bit of coleslaw to go with my fish stick sandwich.
Luckily it was warming up so I could have the windows open to let the stink out. But that moved me into March and also meant spring cleaning and double checking the inventories, moving the items around from Dotty’s to online-only and the vice versa. I also had started a box of things that didn’t want to sell at all. I figured if we had another yard sale with the clean out business I’d just try and take it there. And if they didn’t sell there, donation was in their future and so was a business write-off for me. Speaking of, I finished the taxes for both Winn and I. We both broke even but that’s about all I could say for last year. I’m trying to tax plan for this year but it isn’t easy because it requires spending money to save money if you can believe that. And I want some advice from someone else before I fold into that idea completely.
The end of March brought another surprise I wasn’t expecting to have to deal with. I got a freaking big check from the clerk of the court. Apparently the lawyers for the group of those that victimized me went after their clients for non-payment. I’m not sure of all the details and I honestly don’t want them. But the paperwork says it had something to do with a massive Sheriff’s sale after they went to court and foreclosed on some of them and their guarantees or something like that. The lawyers got liens and the judge in the case wouldn’t let the lawyers have what they made off the Sheriff’s sale until some of the other creditors … including the Victim Restitution … had been paid off since it was a non-dischargeable debt. All that really matters is the bit about how most are now free to receive probation since their debt was paid out and that I should remain aware that due to the notoriety about the incident media might try and contact me and that the judge auto-renewed the Risk Protection Orders for another year as a result, that if I want them removed I must petition the court. Nope. Those RPOs can be there to be enforced if need be for as long as I can have them.
I was grateful for the Victim Restitution getting paid – and paid out – but this also meant that from here on out the amount I received, if any, would be significantly smaller and that I needed to start being really careful. One source of income was coming to an end. Not like I hadn’t known it was going to happen. I was honestly surprised it was happening. But still, it made me gladder than ever of my businesses, and who I was partnering with.
Another piece of information I received was in another letter that was a lot more upsetting. I didn’t know how she found my PO Box address – or her lawyer anyway – until I realized that they must have used a private detective who found it through the State’s LLC listings. Or it could have been through a leak at DCFS. I’m still not for real certain. The letter? Layton’s mother said she is going to take me to court to get visitation rights for Teena. I didn’t think she could but it meant going back to one of the people I hoped to never see in my life again.
[1] Green Pea Dip
[2] 7+ Creative Canning Cabbage Tips & Recipes
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Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Wow, the woman did such a poor job of raising her son, so she wants to screw up Teena. What a sicko!!!!
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
Hopefully Mother Hen won't leave us on this cliff too long. She dose know how to weave an intriguing yarn.
Chapter 51
“You sounded upset on the phone last night.”
I looked at Winn with bleary eyes. I hadn’t slept much and his knock on the door at 7 am was unexpected. I all but tossed Teena at him and turned around as I asked, “How long you got?”
“Edie?”
“I’m changing clothes and I’m gonna try and stick my head under the faucet. Please say you have thirty minutes,” I all but begged.
“I don’t have anything today. Both appointments cancelled on me.”
That stopped my forward motion. “Did the apartment complex change their mind?”
“Uh uh. Fire department turned off the power after a fire in one of the units. Looks like the damage was vandalism and last night it got beyond them and they burnt their unit and made the two on either side of them uninhabitable. Woman is in custody and all that.”
He sounded too calm and I looked at him. He said, “I’m all right.”
“Are you sure? I can make you some coffee or something.”
“I’ll make it. You go do something with your face. Uh, sorry, that didn’t come out right. I meant …”
I snickered. “It came out honest so it’s all right. I probably look awful.”
“No. But … er … can you change shirts?”
I looked down then took off downstairs faster than my brain could handle and nearly missed two risers.
“You okay Edie?”
I called up, “I’m fine. My brain isn’t working on all cylinders. I’m sorry.”
I was apologizing for all but flashing him. I’d barely remembered to put a shirt on since I had been nursing Teena before answering the unexpected knocking on the door. And the shirt hadn’t been buttoned up right or very well.
I came back upstairs to the smell of coffee, dressed and looking more human even if I wasn’t feeling it. What I was seeing finally kicked in. I told him, “See you finally learned spoons are safer than fingers.”
Winn gave a mooney grin just like always where Teena was concerned. He was feeding her a little bit of custard from the inside of a doughnut he’d been eating. “Er, she can have this right? It isn’t going to make her sick?”
“If she starts swinging from the rafters you get to get her down,” was all I would say on the matter.
“Aw she’s a good girl, she wouldn’t do that,” Winn said and Teena the Machiavellian Mastermind gave him the sweetest, most innocent look. Oh boy. I grabbed the play pen and opened it and only put in the softest toys in case she started throwing them to get Winn’s attention to keep him from being knocked even more senseless by my daughter.
# # # # #
“Do I know how to get ahold of Nels Gibson?! Why?”
I sighed and explained about the letter. “I would have said something last night, but I didn’t want to ruin your sleep and I thought you had to work today. And don’t tell me I should have told you anyway. Maybe, but … this is my problem Winn, not one I wanted to dump on you. You’ve already played superhero and … I mean …”
“Hey, don’t get so upset. I get it. I’m not Teena’s father and …”
“No one is Teena’s father right now. She has a sperm donor that the judge threw out of her life and I wanna keep that part the way it is. Layton’s mother is neurotic, and his father is a narcissistic butthole. Just because Layton decided he didn’t want to be a male of the species anymore and got the surgery without telling them …”
Winn nearly spit coffee across the breakfast nook. “What?!”
I handed him the letter to read for himself but summarized it a bit by saying, “Apparently he got convinced in prison somehow. Don’t ask me. I’m positive I don’t want to know. But that means that there’s not going to be any grandkids and Layton’s mother thinks that she deserves visitation and possibly even custody of Teena.”
“Aw. Hell. Naw,” Winn said with his version of definitiveness. “I think I know how to dig Gibson up. Why do you need him?”
“Because the letter raised something about his standing as a lawyer and I figured if nothing else will move him to at least give me some advice on the case, that will jangle his ego.”
“I’ve gotta go outside to make the call. You don’t need to hear what I’m gonna say if he balks. Er … can I have another cup of coffee?”
“I’ll make a full pot. I’ll make another for free if you scorch his tailfeathers for me.”
“Don’t bribe me, I might get used to it,” he responded before going outside.
Fifteen minutes later he opened the door and said, “You were right. I could smell his hair lighting up through the phone. Thing is, he wants to meet this morning at the rest area over towards Overton. You know the one?”
“Yeah. I used to stop there to feed Teena.”
“Lately?”
“No. She’s usually good for longer now that she is older. Why?”
“People hang out there on occasion.”
“People.”
“Yeah. People. Friends of my dad’s that … just trust me.”
“I do,” I told him. “I’d just like to understand so I can choose to not make mistakes when you aren’t around.”
“Huh? Oh.” He shook his head. “Your Uncle Tinker hangs out with that crowd, or at least the older ones in it.”
“Nels Gibson part of that?” I asked warily.
“Yes. And no. It’s … hard to explain. They started off years back as a mutual aide group. They still are but most of the founding members have either passed on or dropped out due to age. They aren’t like they used to be. My dad used to say that they were homogeneous.”
“Homogeneous,” I said trying not to be surprised at Winn’s use of the word.
“Yeah. Mostly the same worldview and political leanings. Things changed when so many of the ones that were the real deal got too old and weak to really lead like was needed or they went gray. That means …”
“I know what it means,” I told him quickly. “That’s what I’ve been striving to be except you keep reminding me that there’s a real world out there I need to be part of, if not for my sake then for Teena’s.”
He looked at me and then realized I was joking.
“Okay. You got me. But how about we say I’m leaning a little more in your direction now that I understand why you feel that way and why you do the things you do.”
“Aw Winn …”
“No. Don’t even. Like I said, I understand. And I’m coming to agree with some of it. Maybe not all of it. But at least better than I did. And coming to understand why things Mom used to do drove him crazy … like her sharing all their business even if she did say it was just with family.”
I wasn’t touching that with a ten-foot pole. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about what his mom did by getting into my business but I could maybe understand why she did it. Sorta. I think I would have just preferred the direct approach before she started digging around.
Winn didn’t ask me for my opinion and went on to say, “There are three or four groups within the group these days and they sometimes work at cross purposes. And it gets even crazier when you figure out some of the people are in more than one of the factions. It all depends on what the issue is.”
“Are … are you part of that group?”
“I was. Dad brought me in. Then he died and I continued hanging out on the weekends with some of the kids of the people in the group. Then I left home and kept ‘participating’ in a group they had on the old Discord servers. You remember those?” I nodded and he continued, “I didn’t realize until I was in the hospital that I was allowed to be part of their online community because they thought of me as an asset.”
“You were. You know all kinds of stuff.”
He gave me a wry smile and patted my hand. “Not the stuff they were thinking about. It was because of my position in the military. And the access I used to have for maneuvers and stuff. When that went away and I got damaged …”
“You were hurt. You are not damaged. Big diff and I won’t hear otherwise.”
“Okay. Down girl,” he said with a smile with another pat on my hand. “When I got hurt, I was no longer useful to the big talkers amongst them.”
“Big talkers? So, is this one of those pretend survivalist groups or are they the real deal?”
“How’d you work that out?” he asked, not surprised so much as curious.
“I’ve been reading stuff online.”
“Edie, it’s the internet. Don’t believe what you read.”
I snorted. “That’s my line. And everyone lies. But … maybe some people lie more than others and some are just superheroes without the cape.”
His ears got red and he shook his head. “The things you say. But you’re more than just half truthful. Them people … and while it is mostly men there’s some women as well … aren’t to be trifled with. There’s some good ‘uns and I won’t say there isn’t but some of ‘em are more fond of trouble and poking the bear than good sense should make ‘em. I will say that a lot of them are internet jockies that talk a good line but have no follow through but … there’s also some that know people even if that’s all they have in their quiver. Understand what I’m trying to say?”
“Yeah. Be careful who I call friends or try to make friends with. And you should know me better than that by now.”
“I do, but once burned twice shy even if it is a bad pun for me. Let’s just try and stay out of anything they might try and draw us into.”
“They can try, but they better not. They don’t call me Research Girl for no reason. I consent to be your partner but no one better think they can start something with us.”
“It would probably be between us.”
“Huh?” I asked and then puzzled it out before he had to explain his fire engine red ears tops. “They aren’t that smart if they think they can get between us. But I’ll take your advice and ignore them. Any group that has Nels Gibson and Tinker Halsey in it is not a group I want to be part of.”
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
How interesting! Cliffy is tiptoeing around! You always twist and turn the plot in different ways! thank you! for the chapters Kathy!
Chapter 52
“I thought I explained our dealings were over with?” said the man I hadn’t wanted to see again.
“If you think I’m happy about this, think again. But I figured if anyone else would understand it would be you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Mr. Gibson snapped.
“They questioned your legal standing to represent me. That means you have skin in this situation someone else wouldn’t. I may not remember you with fondness, or you me, but I still respect the time and effort you put in on my behalf.”
“And what do you expect me to do?” he said with his cynical chuff of a laugh.
“Just be honest. Do they have a chance to take Teena? Do they have any standing?”
“No. That doesn’t mean they aren’t going to try. They call that lawfare. They are going to want scare you and have you settle on an agreement before it goes to court. Can you handle that?”
“Yes. For Teena I’ll fight Sherman’s Army, Yamamoto’s Fleet, and Rommel’s tanks all at the same time with only a slingshot if I have to.”
“Don’t leave out your mouth. It’s a deadly weapon.”
I gave him grim smile. “That too,” I agreed.
“Let me give you a bit of free advice, if it comes to a court fight get yourself a good trial lawyer. That’s what they likely mean, I’m not a criminal trial lawyer but you didn’t need one. They convicted themselves by screwing with the Prosecution and the Judge. Sloppy. Sloppy and ignorant. If they hadn’t started making those plea deals they could have appealed and frankly I’m surprised some of them haven’t tried it except they might have wound up with a harsher penalty after some things came out.”
“So how do I keep it from going to trial?” I aked.
“Don’t respond to their attempts to get a rise out of you. Don’t give them any personal information for them to twist. You haven’t have you?”
“No. I just got the letter yesterday.”
“Good. Don’t start. Just keep a copy of all correspondence. First thing you need to do however is forward a copy of this letter to the Judge. The mother must be scraping the bottom of the barrel. It was a very stupid move to bad mouth the Judge and question her authority to do things the way she did in writing. It was the Judge who took the boy’s parental rights away and it was at the request of the boy.”
“Wait. What? I thought the Judge did it on her own.”
“Yes and no. The boy made a direct plea to her. He said he was traumatized by the entire situation and had been manipulated by that girl … what’s her name that was your best friend. That he’d been under the influence at the time as much as you were.”
I said a crudity that surprised both men and that I was happy that Teena hadn’t heard as she was asleep in her car seat beside us.
“I’m not hashing all that over again. Layton is out of it and never wanted to be part of her life. It doesn’t matter how that happened, the Judge signed off on it and he has never objected. What I want to know is if his parents have any rights.”
Mr. Gibson paused then said, “Not in my legal opinion. Not under the circumstances. Grandparents have no automatic rights to custody or parenting time after a parental rights termination (or before it, for that matter). Unless special rights were established in favor of grandparents, the termination of the parental rights also extinguishes any inchoate ‘rights’ in their favor. Any contact will be fully controlled by the holder of the parental rights. You. However, grandparents can sue a child's custodial parent(s) to get visitation rights over a child, if they can demonstrate that the child has developed an ongoing personal relationship with them and that this means it is in the child's best interests to have visitation. There has never been any contact between the child and the paternal grandparents. Has there?”
“No. Absolutely not. The closest was the courtroom and even there they claimed that Layton wasn’t the sperm donor even if it had been proven he’d been one of the ones that treated me like a party favor.”
I was angry. I was as angry about the situation as I was about Winn hearing the sordid details. For his part he said, “I’ll wear a cape if it will make you feel better.”
“Nothing about this will ever make me feel better. It just is what it is, and I want it over with so Teena can grow up free of it.”
Mr. Gibson looked on with a little interest but I gave him the eye and he snorted like he’d gotten the message. “Just contact the Judge or her rep. Rumor has it she has political aspirations. She’s going to want to put a period to this as well is my guess. And sooner rather than later.”
“Anything else?” I asked thinking that I hoped the Judge used an anvil to make the period extra sharp and pointy.
He answered, “Be prepared for some possible blowback; CDFS getting in your business, possibly people leaving bad reviews for your business, people you don’t know suddenly asking for details they have no right to have, that sort of thing. Run everything you have through the PO Box. Better yet, close that one and get a new one. Explain in a letter to the Judge why you are being forced to do it. Don’t make the mistake of using your personal, physical address on any correspondence. I’d do that immediately after sending the letter to the Judge, and get a signed return receipt for it. Keep both PO boxes for about a month. Start transferring things like the utilities immediately to the new address. Anything legal that comes in, make date and time stamped copies of … buy you one of them official looking stamps from the office supply store but keep it generic … and then reseal the letter and mail it Return To Sender with no explanation. They’ll either run out of steam with nothing to work with, they Judge will encourage them to give it up, or the mother will run out of money to pursue whatever she’s really after and knowing the family, it’s probably money of some type; or, future influence over some money.”
I wanted to say something rude about Layton’s mother and her lawyers and a physical impossibility they could perform, but I didn’t want Teena hearing me talk like that even in her sleep. I calmed myself down and said, “Thank you. And I’m sorry to draw you back into this.”
He snorted. “As you said, it doesn’t make me happy either. You didn’t ask about Tinker.”
“Tinker Halsey is the last person I’d contact,” I said nearly hissing. But I added in a calmer tone, “But I won’t let them get away with lying about him either. If you see him and think he needs to know, tell him that. I don’t want him going off half-cocked and doing something we’ll both regret. The less we have to do with one another the better … for both of us.”
“You hate him that much?”
“I don’t waste the energy hating him. But he made his position clear as far as Aunt Nita’s wishes were concerned. And now I’m making my position clear.”
Nels Gibson is a contrary sort of person and for whatever reason he seemed to find humor in my stance. He told me, “If there is anything else, Winnfield knows how to contact me.”
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Thank you for the chapters tonight Kathy!
larry_minn
Contributing Member
Yes. But I think he also was impressed how she took that start and did something with it. Helping someone who uses those tools to get ahead…. You can feel a bit of self pride.
My dad helped a young man who decided to run away from home in10th grade to the twin cities. He was starved, sleeping in a barn on a pasture we rented.
We of course had extra food. Dad hired him to do little stuff. We went to kids parents house. Dad got them to agree for kid to come home. (No idea how, if $$$ involved?). Plus dad got him set up with a job at the school. Which he continued for years after graduation. Then he got married, got a better job, bought a house, kids…
Sammy55
Veteran Member
Thanks, Kathy. Edie does have pluck! And she is and will always be better off for it. Nobody can look out for, protect, or represent your interests better than you can. Though sometimes you may need a lawyer (spit). Can you tell my opinion about most lawyers? (spit, spit) 
Chapter 53
Time moves fast on some things and very slow on others. Mrs. Willowdean asked us to help her friends Dancy (mother) and Freda (disabled daughter). And from there I would work for some of the elderly Dunn’s in and around Dunnville, and their connections, one day a week not for pay but for barter. Most of the time early on it was vegetable gardening in exchange for some of the produce. A few times it was helping someone weed or plant their flower bed(s). I helped one man clean and rearrange their downstairs living space so his wife could come home from a rehab facility and be able to have her hospital bed there and be able to get around with a walker safely when she was up and moving. Usually Winn tried to come with me to do any heavy lifting, or perhaps some repairs that might be needed. He didn’t mind bartering either. I kept track of who, what, when, and how much just in case.
In April we got more broccoli, cabbage, greens, lettuce, and peas; but, we also got asparagus and by helping one really ancient lady in her herb garden I got “starts” to create my own. It took a full three-day weekend of long days, but I created a terraced area with some scrap bricks and cinder blocks that Winn brought from a job-site clean up. Winn added a handrail and fence after saying he refused to have nightmares of me going “tip over tea kettle” down the hillside. I wasn’t going to complain because he also fixed my wobbly steps that I had made with some flat slate pieces that I’d found on my own through a “come get it, it's free” sign I passed on the way to one of my “help” days.
The reason I had such time on my hands is that my online sales had really dropped off though my booth at Dotty’s was making up the difference. However, I was running out of inventory until Winn picked up another clean out from Job Dunn. This one was a private home. Owner passed away and there was no will and the wife had been in no condition to manage anything as she was in an Alzheimer’s facility and didn’t survive her husband by many days. They hadn’t had any children so the probate judge ordered the house and belongings sold and placed in escrow after creditors had been paid for if or until an heir(s) could be located. Since the bank still held a mortgage, even if it was just a small one, they’d been put in charge of dealing with that part and ordered that any remaining equity be turned over to the lawyers so it could be added to the escrow account.
When we first arrived the house reeked. The power had been off for a while but the refrigerator had never been cleaned out. And the old man was a heavy smoker despite having emphysema and being on oxygen. At one time the couple had money and the inclination to spend it, but age and ill health had shrunk that way down.
“Edie, stay out here. I’m just going to take the dolly and move the refrigerator outside. I’ll hose it out now that we got the water turned back on.”
“Do you see me objecting?”
He chuckled but then made a face as he headed for the kitchen with the appliance dolly. The furniture was all high-end stuff but out of date and it hadn’t been taken care of the way it needed to be for a while. That was something I took care of as we took each piece out and before we loaded it into Winn’s enclosed trailer. I strung a couple of wire clothes lines between four trees in the backyard and started bringing out the clothes that were on hangers. I tell you I could have gagged at the smoke smell, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get the expensive outfits – both male and female – clean, or if I’d be forced to use a dry cleaning service. There were expensive area rugs in almost every room that also needed some serious cleaning and airing. There was some expensive linens as well, like a couple of irish lace table cloths and matching napkins; lots of hand embroidered things too. The entire house was so decorative and tasteful it made my teeth hurt. Poor Winn nearly went into a decline when he realized there was an attic and a full basement as well.
“This is going to take more than two days and the HOA in this estate, neighborhood, whatever you want to call it, doesn’t allow any kind of sales. Damn Job anyway. No wonder he said to clean it out any way we could, that all they were interested in was the house itself.”
“You do realize that is a detached garage back there.”
He looked and groaned. We wound up having to do the one thing I hadn’t wanted to, taking everything back to the cabin and going through it there. I probably would have had to do that anyway to get things washed and aired out but it was still a pill.
The detached garage is another story entirely. There were two vehicles in there as well as a golf cart. All in working order. I walked over to Winn who seemed to be frozen, staring into the garage holding what I thought was a blanket but it turned out to be a car cover.
“That bad?” I asked starting to worry.
“Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh …”
Oh I knew that sound. It was guy-speak. In some places it could mean, “Mmmm, fire good. Grill food. Mmmm.” In other places it could mean, “Beer good. Want more. Now.” In this case it meant, “Holy crap Edie. Car gooooood.”
I looked at them and thought, okay old-fashioned colored car. Kinda retro and obviously vintage but what’s the big deal? Winn started ticking off things that held no interest for me.”
“You need a bib? You’re kinda drooling.”
“Edie, it’s a 1961 Mercedes-Benz 190SL.”
“And?”
“It’s gold and even has the original owner’s manual in the glove compartment.”
“And?” He turned and just looked at me. I sighed. “This is a guy thing right?”
“Edie, whether this thing runs or not, and if we can get it put into our name … we’ll be starting on the kitchen as soon as we can get it sold.”
I stopped and thought about what he’d just said. “But we talked about this. We need …”
“Edie, we can get three or four times what you could possibly need to build your dream kitchen.”
“Uh uh. It’s just a car.”
He groaned the said, “Trust me on this. We keep this car. We turn the 1967 Chevy Nova and that electric golf cart over to the lawyers and let them haggle it out. And …” That’s when he saw all the tools. I looked at my daughter and said, “We’ve lost him for a while. Let’s go back the trailer up and he can work out here until his brain stops fizzing and popping.”
It took more time than Winn thought it would to change the papers into the name of his LLC but in July the car sold to some guy that drove up from Atlanta to pick it up. I didn’t know any of that though for about a week afterwards.
But back in April I had enough to keep myself occupied with and cars was the last thing I was thinking about. The stuff out of that house took me over a month to clean and market. During the process I was just glad that I left all the donation stuff in town so I wouldn’t have to make a second trip with it. The carpets alone took a week. What. A. Mess.
In late April Winn introduced me to some people he knew they weren’t Dunn’s) who owned a strawberry farm just on the other side of Mrs. Willowdean. He was helping to do some electrical work in their barn and it turned into a bigger job than they could really afford at that time of year. To offset what it would have cost them to pay in cash, he got some cash, the help of the farmer’s middle school sons (who in turn used it to earn a merit badge for Scouts), and I got to upick without having to pay for it.
Wowee. I was in strawberry heaven. Besides ones to eat fresh, I got enough to freeze and freeze-dry and then enough to experiment with in canning: Banana strawberry jam[1], Strawberry Lemonade concentrate[2], Banana Split in a Jar[3], Strawberry Pineapple Conserve[4], Strawberry Lemon Marmalade[5], and Strawberry Salsa Marinade[6]. I made strawberry freezer jam by the dozen jam jars. And I thought Winn was going to completely spazz when he tried the Jalapeno strawberry jam[7] that I made just for him. He does like his hot peppers.
And Nels Gibson had been correct, there was some blowback because I refused to answer the near daily letters. Right at the beginning of May I had stopped to get the last of the mail and officially close the PO Box. Winn was with me and as Teena was having a less than sunny day he volunteered to get my mail and turn the keys in. He was also likely trying to save his hearing.
A few minutes later I got a text that said, “Get down behind the seat with Teena. Stay down there until I can get us back on the road.”
What the heck? But Winn wouldn’t say anything like that without good reason.
[1] Strawberry Banana Jam - Farm Bell Recipes
[2] Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate - Farm Bell Recipes
[3] Banana Split in a Jar - Farm Bell Recipes
[4] Strawberry-Pineapple Conserve - Farm Bell Recipes
[5] Strawberry-Lemon Marmalade - Farm Bell Recipes
[6] Strawberry Salsa Marinade
[7] Jalapeno Strawberry Jam - Farm Bell Recipes