Chapter 11 #2
“I guess we will, but this has been nice.” She stood up and disappeared into the darkness.
His phone rang and woke Pansy. She got to her feet and started toward the house.
“Hello, Knox,” Brodie said as he walked behind the pig. The faint, faraway sound of thunder rolled in the distance, and Pansy stopped in her tracks when they reached the porch. She quickly climbed the steps and stared at the door.
“Just checkin’ on you,” his brother said. “Everything all right out there? It’s past midnight. I was afraid Audrey or Hettie might have shot you.”
“I’m fine,” Brodie said. “But Pansy seems to be afraid of storms, so I think I’ll just spend the night out here.”
“There’s no extra clothes out there,” Knox reminded him. “And the water tank is probably getting low.”
“If I don’t have enough water to make coffee in the morning, I’ll refill the tank. I keep a packed bag in my truck these days with a couple of changes of clothes,” Brodie told him.
“Guess you learned a lesson from last time, when you had to go out in public looking like a hobo,” Knox said.
“Yep, I have and from having to run down to the water meter in nothing but my birthday suit,” Brodie told him and shivered at the memory of that night.
“Well, then,” Knox said with a chuckle. “You and Pansy have a good night. If you’d told me three months ago that you’d be giving up a good bed for the one in the trailer because of a pig, I would have laughed my head off.”
“So would I,” Brodie agreed. “The weatherman says we’ll have rain all weekend, but Tripp’s barn is in the dry now, so we can work tomorrow. I’ll be there bright and early.”
“I’ll expect to see you at breakfast,” Knox said, and ended the call just as another clap of thunder testified that the storm was approaching fast.
“Okay, girl, let’s get inside before we get wet,” Brodie said, and opened the door.
Pansy headed straight for her bed in the corner.
He kicked off his boots, and in a couple of long strides he was in the bedroom end of the trailer.
He carefully hung his jeans and shirt up and slipped between the sheets, but his eyes would not stay shut.
He flipped from one side to the other, hitting the wall on his right and almost tumbling out onto the floor on his left.
He’d slept in bunks that were more comfortable.
Finally, the raindrops pummeling the metal roof lulled him into sleep.
He dreamed of Audrey again, only this time, she was older and standing on her side of the fence with a little dark-haired girl, and he was playing pitch in his yard with a little boy.
He awoke with a start and realized that he and Audrey were at a fork in the road.
Neither of them seemed able to take a single step either to the east or the west, and yet that very step would decide their future.
***
Audrey eased into the house through the back door, hoping to make it all the way into the house without waking Hettie, but she failed.
“Where have you been?” Hettie asked from the kitchen table, where she was sitting with a cup of coffee in her hands.
“What if I’d had a stroke like my precious Amos did and I couldn’t call you?
Or if you’d gotten bitten by a rattlesnake?
There’s a storm brewing out there. You could have been struck by lightning. ”
Audrey flipped the switch and turned on the light. “I took a walk to clear my mind. I had my phone with me. If you needed me, all you had to do was call. I didn’t see a rattlesnake or even a green garden snake, so I’m okay. The storm could very well go around us. Why are you sitting in the dark?”
“My eyes are every bit as good as a night owl’s. I don’t have to have light to see,” Hettie grouched. “Were you sneaking out to see that rotten Callahan boy?”
“Which one? There are three of them. I’m not sure which one I see on Friday nights. I kind of share the weeknights, but I save Saturdays for Brodie,” she teased.
“I want an answer, not a lie,” Hettie demanded.
“I wasn’t sneaking around with Brodie. I walked right up to his trailer and knocked on the door. I didn’t want to have wild sex with a pig watching, so we went out to the orchard. Do you want details about how he—”
Hettie glared at her. “I won’t listen to you tell me lies and give me a heart attack. Where were you really?”
Audrey kicked off her work boots and poured herself a glass of milk. “I was taking a walk and thinking about the fit Grandpa threw when he found out I was talking to Zelda through the fence.”
That was the truth—maybe not the whole truth and nothing but the truth—but Audrey didn’t see a Bible on the table, and Hettie didn’t ask her to raise her right hand.
“I told my brothers that they were being ridiculous, keeping you girls from each other, but would they listen? Hell, no! Their two wives were as conniving and mean as Bernie, and neither of them would back me up,” Hettie fumed.
“Now that I know you are home and safe, I’m going to bed.
Don’t wake me for breakfast. As late as it is, I might sleep until noon. ”
“Yes, ma’am,” Audrey said, but she had no doubt that her aunt would be up rustling around in the kitchen long before daylight.
She went to her bedroom, closed the door, and dropped her clothing on the floor.
When she had gotten into bed, she closed her eyes, but sleep would not come.
She replayed the first conversation she had just had with Brodie over and over in her mind.
Finally, out of sheer exhaustion, she drifted off and dreamed of playing hide-and-seek with a little girl in Brodie’s orchard.
Rattling pots and pans the next morning woke her up.
She opened her eyes and clamped her jaw shut in anger because she had to leave the dream behind.
She kicked off the covers and padded barefoot to the kitchen, where Hettie was making biscuits and gravy for breakfast. She covered a yawn as she poured herself a cup of coffee.
“I thought you were sleeping until noon.”
“Too set in my ways to do that, and I couldn’t sleep for the good Lord convicting me,” Hettie said.
“God spoke right to you?” Audrey asked.
“Yes, he did, and he made me see things clearly,” Hettie answered.
“About the Callahan boys?” Audrey ventured cautiously.
“He ain’t got a thing to say about them or any of them people at the Paradise,” Hettie declared.
“Then what did he convict you about?” Audrey took a sip of her coffee, set the mug on the table, and then took plates down from the cabinet.
Hettie poured gravy into a crock bowl. “This land is what God talked to me about. My brothers split this land apart, so why should I try to put it back together after they are gone? My father left it to the boys, and I’m sure he didn’t fret up in heaven because they were too boneheaded to keep it together.
” She paused and took a cast-iron skillet of biscuits from the oven.
“And all over a stupid woman who wasn’t worth a plug nickel.
I’m tired of what you are going through to try to please me.
This place is already more than you can handle on your own.
I’m too broke down to be able to help you with anything other than making food and doing a little cleaning.
Walter is about to retire, and you’re going to have enough to do once he’s gone.
You don’t need that farm next door, and besides… ”
“Maybe I want to buy the Callahan farm just to win the battle,” Audrey argued.
Hettie scowled at her as she put the biscuits into a basket.
“I’m serious as I’ll be on Judgment Day.
Girl, you don’t know a dang thing about all that organic business.
That orchard might just up and die if you put decent fertilizer on the trees.
” She set the bowl of gravy on the table .
“Don’t just sit there starin’ at me. Say something. ”
“Does that mean—” Audrey started.
Hettie stopped her with a wave of her hand.
“It means I don’t care if these two places are ever put back together.
It means that God talked to me last night when I was worryin’ about you, and I listen when he speaks.
He said, ‘Hettie, you can’t take none of this with you, not even the joy of having the farm all in one piece, so let it go.
’ Maybe it wasn’t in them words, but it was plain. ”
“So, I can stop pestering Brodie to sell this place to me and date him?” Audrey asked.
“Yes, you can forget about buying that farm. But as far as dating that man or either of his brothers, that’s not a no.
That is a hell, no !” Hettie raised her voice so loud that it scared a sparrow sitting on the windowsill outside.
“God didn’t tell me to like Bernie, and He didn’t tell me that you could make me shirttail kin to the folks that live in a brothel. ”
Audrey suppressed a giggle. “What if God talks to me and says that I can go out with Brodie?”
“Now, you’re just being sassy and teasing me,” Hettie said. “Eat your breakfast and then get on out there to help Walter with whatever y’all have to do today. Noon will be here before you know it. Do you have the paychecks ready for the hired help?”
“I gave them to Walter last night,” she answered.
“That’s good, and don’t go askin’ me if I’m ever going to make things right with Bernie, neither.
I already told you that she was brazen enough to talk about things in Sunday school class that shouldn’t even be mentioned when there’s no men around.
Raunchy things that shouldn’t be whispered in secret, much less in church.
And she’s a big flirt, wearin’ them clothes that make her look like a floozy and dyin’ her hair red. ”
Audrey tried to keep the laughter inside, but it escaped. She grabbed a paper napkin from the middle of the table and wiped her eyes. “I’ve heard that story before.”
Hettie slapped the table hard enough to make the salt and pepper shakers rattle together. “Walter don’t need to be spreadin’ rumors.”
“It’s not gossip if it’s true,” Audrey said.
“You know I love you more than my corn crop, Aunt Hettie, and I’m always on your side.
I’m glad that you have given up on the idea of putting the two properties back together, but I’ve got a feeling you would rather give up on reuniting the land than have me fall in love with Brodie Callahan. ”
Hettie reached over and laid her hand on Audrey’s.
“I’ve loved you as much, sometimes more, than I did those four ornery boys me and Amos produced together.
When the last one passed away, I thought I would die with him.
But you filled the void he left behind, since not a one of them boys gave me grandchildren. ”
“I don’t like to fight with you, either,” Audrey said, knowing from experience that Hettie was apologizing for being so hateful all week.
Hettie removed her hand and stared right into Audrey’s eyes. “But there will be a war if you even look at any of those Callahan men with longing in your eyes. You can write that down and paste it on the refrigerator door.”
Audrey just smiled, split open a biscuit, and covered it with gravy. This wasn’t the time to tell Hettie that that ship had already sailed.