Chapter Nine
The following day, after the morning chores were completed and Granny had taken a few pot shots at the ever-moving cans, I slipped away from the chaos of the house to sit out behind the boutique where the meditation tree grew and dialed my mother.
The bookkeeping was done already, and I’d helped with cleaning up after breakfast. I’d even pretended to be a goat show judge with Dahn as the tractor rumbled around the cow lot, cleaning up wet, poopy hay.
I’d done all that I could do, so it was now or never.
Foolish of me to be so wary of calling my own mother.
She and my aunt Josephine—twins with mops of red hair—had raised me quite well after Cash had split to go hook up with Ford’s mother.
That was after he had set up house with Linc’s mom and had grown bored of Chicago.
No wonder I was so sickened with how Chris was behaving.
The phone rang a few times before my mother answered, her voice tentative.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Dodge?” she asked as the waves in Oceanside could be heard rolling in.
“Yeah, Mom, it’s me.”
A long, painful, and pointed silence followed. “I thought it was Dahn calling.”
“No, it’s me.” I shifted around on the old park bench that someone—Linc or Bella—had dug out of one of the barns to set up here.
The setting was quite serene. Green leaves overhead, the tinkle of water from an underground spring flowing out the open window of the boutique.
Birds, bees, blue skies, fresh air, the lowing of the cows and the whinnies of bored horses.
I could see now why Linc came here to calm his soul.
“I’ve been meaning to call for a long time, but… ”
I heard Bella in her boutique speaking to a customer. A few were dribbling in regularly now, most with their own boxes, but sales were sales, Bella liked to say.
“It’s okay,” Mom said, as mothers are known to do.
“No, Mom, no, it’s not.” I blew out a long breath.
“You were right about him. About everything. I should have listened to you, but I was sure I was just so much smarter than you when it came to him. I was smarter than all my friends who were trying to warn me to prepare myself for heartbreak. I didn’t want to face the fact that someone else in my life, someone important, would leave me behind like a busted shoelace, but he did, and now I see the same pattern taking place with him and Dahn and…
” I swiped my eyes. “I don’t want my son to live with the feeling of not being good enough for the people in his life. ”
“Oh, Dodge, honey. Let me get inside.” I heard the screen door open on the beachside home she shared with her twin, Aunt Joey, as she liked to be called.
Both were single women, Mom having been dumped by the dickhead buried on Bastian land, and Aunt Joey never having been married.
They’d always been side-by-side from the womb onward.
“Okay, so I’m in now. The wind is bad today. ”
I took that small break to get myself under control. I’d not been this weepy since Chris had told me he wanted a divorce because I was boring. Probably the same reason my father had cut out, I’d thought, until I came to know my siblings. Seemed some men were just dicks.
“Aunt Joey there?” I asked to try to deflect from my ramble.
“She’s out with the ocean trash pickup squad. So, honey, I am so sorry that I got into your face like that, but someone had to tell you the truth, and if not your mother, then who?”
“No, hey, no, I see that now. I think I saw it then but was too lost and pained to admit that what you were saying and what my friends were hinting at was true.” I let my head fall back to rest on the side of the boutique.
My hat tipped, so I tugged it off and placed it on my knee.
Up by the old gutter was a bird’s nest. Abandoned now that it was nearly September.
The little ones had surely fledged, and their parents moved on with life.
“He’s giving me sole custody of Dahn, Mom.
He’s grown bored of being a father and wants to go play football in Spain while his new man breeds salamanders. ”
“Twinky Topher?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, just wanted to check since that fucker changes life partners like most people change their socks.”
I snorted so hard it rattled my sinuses. “Mom, you calling him a fucker is just so amazing.”
“Well, he is, and so was Cash. Is Dahn okay?”
“Meh, I think he’s acting out a bit, but that’s to be expected. I’ve uprooted his life to move out here, and now his other father is passing him over like a used baton and skipping off to Spain to return to playing football. It’s a lot for a kid to digest. Hell, it’s a lot for me.”
“Should a man his age even be on the playing field?”
“He seems to think so.” I lowered my sight from the bird’s nest to the green pastures filled with horses nipping at the grass. They’d not been ridden for days due to the flooding and were feeling their oats as one chased the other, hooves kicking, the sun warming their pelts.
“Sounds like a midlife crisis to me. And salamanders?”
I chuckled. “I know. Hey, whatever Topher wants to do, I say go for it. I hope he becomes the king of the salamander market. Maybe they’ll open up a salamander warehouse in Barcelona and call it Topher’s Twinky Salamander Emporium.”
She giggled softly. “It’s so nice to hear your voice. I missed talking with you, honey.”
“I’ve missed you too, Mom. I’m sorry I was such an ass.”
“Water under the bridge. Now, tell me about my grandson! He talks about goats a lot when we chat.”
And so I filled her in on everything and then some.
I invited her and my aunt Joey out to see Dahn show his goats at the fair.
She accepted on the spot. It wasn’t until after we hung up—so she could book some flights—that I realized I’d opened up a home that wasn’t mine to my mother and aunt.
Sure, legally it was a quarter mine, but everyone who resided in the Sooner State knew that house was Granny’s.
I heard the door of the boutique closing and assumed it was Bella’s customer, so I rose and started making my way to the house.
I’d tell Granny about my mother and aunt and then try to find them a hotel nearby.
Bella, dressed in a shimmery top and dark plum pants, ran to me, threw her arms around me, and kissed me on the cheek.
“I’m so happy you made up with your mother,” she whispered and released me to run back inside her little shop.
It felt odd that she had overheard, but I was also touched.
Striding across the still spongy grass, I found Granny on the porch, rocking away, her now coral hair—she and Bella were having too much fun with the hair dyes—with a shawl around her shoulders.
“I think I may have overstepped my bounds,” I said as I placed one booted foot on the top step and leaned in after removing my hat.
She sipped from a cup of coffee and lowered it.
“I may have invited my mother and aunt out for fair week. I’ll find them a motel close to town.
I’m not sure what I was thinking. I was just so happy to be speaking to her… ”
“Don’t be silly, we have lots of room. You could give her the front parlor and go stay with Ollie while they’re here. Take Dahn with you. Him and Ollie should get to know each other better now you’re dating.”
My mouth fell open. This woman was miles ahead of all of us younger people. “We’re not officially dating,” I managed to say. It was a very weak comeback.
“Oh, are you two not going to the casino for a fancy dinner, some gambling, and a show this Friday, good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise again?” she asked so innocently, it was a wonder a halo didn’t pop to brilliant existence over her pink-orange hair.
“We are yes, but—”
“Then that’s a date, and you’re dating. For the life of me, I don’t know why you boys are always so resistant to admitting you’ve grown a fancy for someone.
So, now that that’s settled, we can talk about what they like to eat.
Oh! There’s Aiden coming to give the goat her pre-show exam.
Best call Ford out of the house so the vet can check him out while he’s checking out that goat.
” She tittered as she waved at Aiden Hennessee pulling up to the front of the house.
“Aiden, come on up and have some coffee and crumb cake. Just took it out of the oven a bit ago!”
She looked at me. “Right. Off to fetch coffee and crumb cake.”
“You’re a good man, Dodge. Grab me a slice too, won’t you?”
As if I could ever deny her a thing.
***
The next few days sped by or dragged depending on what I was doing.
The shopping trip with Dahn went far too fast. I’d spent the day with the boy I used to know, then, as expected, when I picked him up at the rec center on Thursday, he was once more snippy and insolent.
To the point that I had to scold him about his tone with his uncle Baker.
Baker, of course, waved off the snide comment about his dumb face, but I was furious.
And sent him to bed that night with no TV, movies, or snacks.
Needless to say, this morning, I got icy looks and the cold shoulder all the way to the rec center.
“So this is your last class before the fair in a week,” I said as he struggled with his seat belt. “Mind if I stay and watch?”