The Party Line

Chapter Sixteen

A unt Gracie’s big floppy hat hung on the rack beside the back door, along with a couple of her aprons and a heavy coat. I put the hat on and tied the strings under my chin. Hopefully that would keep the sun from making a million new freckles.

“Hey, where are you off to?” Jasper called from his front porch.

“To the strawberry fields.” I stopped to talk to him. “You look like you are feeling better.”

“I am, a little, so I guess them pills are helping, but I don’t want you or nobody else fussin’ over me,” he declared. “I’m out here to let the sunshine have a chance to work some magic.”

Sassy followed me out to the gate and whined when I wouldn’t let her go with me. “I’ll be back by noon to give you another dose, and I’ll even bring you some soup and sandwiches.”

Jasper threw up a palm. “I’ve got a can of bean-and-bacon soup that I’m going to heat up and some ice cream sandwiches for dessert. You just bring the pills and that sucking thing that opens up my lungs.”

I slipped through the gate and closed it behind me. “Will do. I’ve got my cell phone if you need me; just call. I won’t be far away.”

“Has Gina Lou moved in?” he asked.

“She’s workin’ on it right now.”

The buzz of conversations among dozens of men reached me before I rounded the last curve and made it to the strawberry fields. Everyone, including Connor, had a garbage bag tied to their belt and was bent over, carefully pulling plants out of the ground. They moved up and down the beds like bees, talking while they worked.

Everything went so quiet that I could hear the birds flapping their wings above me. Connor finally noticed me and raised up. “Hey, everyone, this is Lila Matthews, the new owner of this place.”

Those within hearing distance doffed their straw hats and nodded. The one closest to me shoved his hat back on his head and said, “Are you going to continue to lease this to Mr. Everett?”

“I haven’t decided,” I said, “but I’m here to work today. Whether I enjoy being outside will determine whether I want to be a strawberry farmer.” I laughed to kill the tension.

His frown furrowed his broad brow. “If you are the boss, why would you want to pull weeds?”

“Got to learn the business if I’m going to run it,” I replied.

He chuckled and went back to work.

“What are you really doing out here?” A wide smile broke across Connor’s face. “Did you come to tell me that you are making this whole crew sandwiches like you did when we were selling the berries to folks? If so, you are too late. We all brought sack lunches.”

“I’m really here to take my first class in strawberry growing,” I said. “Why are they pulling up the plants? Is that a pruning process?”

He removed his cowboy hat and fanned his sweaty face. “We are carefully pulling up weeds. Carefully being the key word. If there are any seeds on the weeds, they could get loose and propagate into more of the same. Grandpa likes to have the after-harvest job done in the first two weeks, or it’s too late to mow and we have to hand-prune all the plants. Are you serious about learning this business with me?”

“You’ve never done it before, either?” I asked.

“Not in the spring. I helped with it last fall, but the system is a little different this time of year. These guys all know what they’re doing, and they are teaching me— us , if you are serious,” he answered.

“Well, then show me what weeds look like and where the bags are, and I’ll try to keep up.”

He pulled a bag from a roll lying not far from him and handed it to me. “Anything that’s not a strawberry plant is a weed.”

I tied the bag to my belt loop and pulled my first weed. When I reached for my second one, Connor handed me a pair of gloves. “You’ll need these or else your hands will be ruined. Grandpa told me to bring extra in case I got a hole in one. Some of the weeds are real demons to pull up. Tell me again, why do you want to learn this business?”

“Richie mentioned wanting to buy the place as a hobby farm. Maybe that’s exactly what I need. Something to keep me busy part of the time but then giving me a chance to do something else when there’s no work here to be done. I have until January when your grandpa’s lease runs out to make my decision. And ...”

Connor raised his head and locked eyes with me. “And what else?”

“You’ll think I’m crazy, but I might make strawberry wine as a side business,” I blurted out.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” he said with a shrug. “There’s water bottles in that cooler over there under the pecan tree.”

I appreciated him more than ever when he didn’t laugh at me. “Do I hear a but when I told you about my new plan?”

“Yes, you did. But ...” He paused for a second. “Both of us may be ready to run for the hills after we pull weeds all day in this twenty acres. And the bad part is that we won’t be done. We’ll come back on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday to get the job finished. Thank goodness we have a big crew, or we’d be out here for weeks.”

“After we get all of it weeded, what happens?” I asked, figuring I would be spending Thursday in the bathtub, trying to soak the ache out of my back.

“When we finish weeding each section, we remove the straw bedding; then we mow all the plants down to the ground and fertilize,” he explained. “In the fall, we straw the plants before the first crowns show up and then do a lot of praying that hail or locusts don’t ruin the crop. This is a lot like picking season. There’s no rest for the weary until it is finished.”

“How do you know all this?”

He carefully tossed a handful of weeds into his garbage bag. “Like I said, I was here for the winter preparation last time around. The rest I’ve learned from the guys on the crew and Grandpa,” he chuckled. “And the internet.”

“I’m going to start researching everything I can about this business.”

“What made you even think about doing this?” he asked.

“Jasper reminded me that I could,” I told him. “It’s an impulse thing, like quitting my job on a whim to help Mama and Annie. I’ve never done anything on the spur of the moment in my whole life. I don’t even buy magazines or candy by the grocery store checkout counters. I had a plan to become an accountant when I was in high school. I focused on that and didn’t look back. Then I come to Ditto and started making rash decisions. I think there’s something in the water here that causes problems.”

“Could be. Or fate might be pointing you in the direction you should go. Does accounting make you happy?”

I took time to stand up and stretch my back. “I’ve always believed that we make our own fate, and I thought I liked my job. But looking back, maybe it was just a placeholder for something better.”

“Sometimes our choices determine our fate. Sometimes we just follow where we are led and are amazed when we find happiness,” Connor said.

“I thought you were a soldier, not a philosopher,” I teased.

“Granny’s words, not mine. Another thing she said was that to get to know someone, you should work with them for a few days. Think we’ll be better acquainted with each other any better at the end of this job?” he asked.

“From working from daylight to dark, we just might.”

“Eight to six,” he corrected me. “We take an hour off from noon to one to have a bite of lunch and take a power nap under the shade tree. We also break for fifteen minutes midmorning and midafternoon.”

“What if it rains?”

“Weatherman says sunny days until the weekend. We’re hoping to have everything done by Wednesday, and then it can storm all it wants. Ever gone outside and played in the rain?”

“Yep, with Aunt Gracie, and then we had hot chocolate and cookies.” I kept working while we talked.

“If it wasn’t lightning, Granny would let me go outside and get wet while I caught raindrops on my tongue,” he said.

“That was the rule for me, too. I got a late start this morning, but when we break at noon, you could come to the house and eat with me and Gina Lou. I have to give Jasper his medicine, but it won’t take long to make sandwiches.”

“Thank you, but I packed a lunch,” he said. “Already tired of this new plan?”

I straightened up and worked the kinks out of my back. “Nope, just realizing that I won’t need to go to the gym after days like this.”

“You go to the gym?” He sounded totally astonished.

“Hey, now!” I shot a mean look his way. “Are you saying that I’m too out of shape to have ever gone to a gym?”

“No, ma’am. You are perfect,” he said quickly.

I laughed. “You covered that well.”

“I hope so,” he said with a smile.

“I worked out in Austin. Not really in a gym but a workout room in my apartment complex. After sitting most of the day, I needed to have a little exercise routine. How about you?”

“Didn’t need to when I was in the army. We had regular workouts, but Grandpa has kept me busy since I got home with physical labor like this.”

The roar of a mower cutting all the plants back to ground level started up. The noise kept conversations at a bare minimum the rest of the morning, giving me time to really think about the second rash decision I had made when I decided to be a farmer. Learning how to take care of strawberries, and even how to make wine, wasn’t something I couldn’t conquer. But I was an accountant, with six years’ experience. If I’d wanted to pull weeds, mow, and fertilize, why had I even gone to college? And how was I helping people like Aunt Gracie did by sweating in a strawberry field?

Those poor hired hands had worked four hours, and I had only been bent over in the sun for half that time when noon finally arrived. My back and neck actually creaked when I straightened up, but my bag was half-full of weeds, so I considered it a good morning. Connor and the rest of the guys went to their vehicles and carried brown paper bags over to a shade tree. I envied them as I walked to the house. They could eat in a hurry and have time for a power nap before attacking the weeds and running a loud mower for another five hours.

I opened the gate into the yard and Jasper waved. “So, are you ready to give up on that silly idea?”

“Have you been sitting there all morning?” I asked.

“Nope.” He shook his head and coughed. “Went in to get an early lunch about thirty minutes ago.”

“Why did you do that?” I fussed at him. “You are supposed to have your medicine with food.”

“There’s still part of a bologna sandwich in my stomach,” he protested.

“Well, you are going to have to eat a little more.” I rushed across the yard to Aunt Gracie’s house. I still couldn’t see it as mine.

“Yes, ma’am, Miz Bossy Britches!” he yelled.

I dragged myself up the porch steps and into the kitchen, where Gina Lou was pouring sweet tea in a couple of glasses filled with ice. I would have as soon put the ice down my shirt as have cold tea.

“Hey, my room is all clean,” Gina Lou said. “The bedding is in the dryer.”

“That’s great. I’ve got to get Jasper’s noon meds out to him,” I said as I got his pills ready.

“Can I help?” she asked.

“No, it’s only for two weeks, but thanks for the offer.” I poured the noon pills into the small glass and picked up a bottle of water and his inhaler on the way out.

When he saw me coming across the yard, he started singing, “Here she comes, Miz Bossy Britches.”

“Hush!” I scolded as I twisted the lid off the water and handed it to him along with the pills. “Next time, wait for me to get here before you eat. The instructions say to take them with food, not thirty or forty minutes afterwards.”

He threw them all back and washed them down with a few swallows of water and handed the bottle back to me. “Go get me another ice cream sandwich. That should keep the pill police from putting handcuffs on me.”

I put the lid back on and set the bottle on the stump. “You are a smarty-pants today, so you must be feeling better. The doctor said lots of liquid, so you need to drink at least three bottles of water today.”

“I’ll drink coffee or tea—or even apple juice—but water gags me,” he protested.

“Lots of apple juice, then. See you later.” By the time I made it back to my house, twenty minutes of my hour was gone. I was surprised to see a sandwich, chips, and a pickle spear on a plate and sitting on the table.

“Thank you,” I whispered as I sank into a chair.

“You are so welcome.” Gina Lou carried the sweet tea to the table and sat down. “I figured if you were going to make it back out there in an hour, you would be pushed for time to eat.”

“You are so right,” I said as I bit into the best bologna sandwich I’d ever eaten. “Just the way I like it—mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese.”

“I didn’t know what time you would be here, so I ate when I was hungry, about fifteen minutes ago,” she answered. “I can’t just sit around all afternoon. Tell me where to start cleaning.”

“Whole house needs done, so choose your place—maybe the upstairs, but not Aunt Gracie’s room. I’m still working on that,” I said in between bites.

“How will I know which is her room?”

“Red panties are on the bed. I cleaned out her dresser drawers and haven’t had time to do anything with them,” I said.

Gina Lou slapped a hand over her mouth. “Are you kidding me? Miz Gracie wore red panties?”

“Yes, she did.” The diary entry came back to my mind, and since I hadn’t found anything but red in her underwear drawer, I wondered if she was buried in them. If she was, I bet her dear mother flipped over in her own grave half a dozen times.

Gina Lou’s giggles were infectious, and soon we were both laughing out loud. She finally wiped her eyes on a paper napkin and hiccupped. “So, Miz Gracie had a wild side to her. Mama told me there was some big secret about this house. I never figured it would be red panties. I wonder if she hung them on the clothesline.”

“Probably not in her day. She would have washed them by hand and dried them in the bathroom, or maybe in a spare bedroom or ...” I remembered seeing one of those expandable wooden drying racks in the basement.

“Or what?” Gina Lou asked.

“In the basement,” I finished the sentence.

“This place has a basement?” Her eyes widened, big as saucers. “Can I go see it?”

“We’ll do that when I come home this evening. I want to clean it out and use it for storing my strawberry wine—if I decide to do that,” I told her.

“Can I just peek down there now?”

“Sure, but don’t move anything until I get back this evening. I’ll need to go through the gazillion boxes to see if I can find a particular cookbook that has a strawberry-wine recipe in it.” I finished the last bite of my pickle.

“If you can’t find it, Mama has one that I’m sure she’ll be glad to share with you,” Gina Lou said. “There is a muffin in the box over there on the counter. There were two, but I ate one. Want it for dessert?”

“No, I’ve had enough for now.” I stopped speaking when I saw a red cardinal land on the windowsill outside the kitchen. My aunt always said that meant someone who had passed was coming back to visit. The cardinal sang his song and then flew off, and a feeling of comfort filled my heart. Aunt Gracie had just put her seal of approval on Gina Lou being in the house.

“I could make some chicken teriyaki for supper and have it ready to put on the table when you get here,” she suggested.

“Yes! Please! Do you need to go to town to get anything?”

She shook her head. “Nope, I found everything to make it in the pantry and freezer.”

“You don’t have work today, and you sure don’t have to fix meals for me,” I told her as I carried my plate to the sink. “But keep track of your hours, and I’ll pay you time and a half for anything over forty hours a week.”

She shook her head a second time. “Today doesn’t go on any time sheet. You came and rescued me, and you have no idea how much I love this house. There’s a feeling of ...”

“Peace?” I finished for her.

“More than just peace. Kind of like serenity. Like I’ve gone to heaven.”

“I understand completely.” I smiled as I headed out the back door. “See you a little after six.”

My muscles and back were screaming loudly when the day ended, but at least a fourth of the job was done. The sound of all the vehicles leaving the place filled the air, and then everything was quiet, and I heard crickets chirping and Sassy barking as I walked from the fields back to the house.

“We made it through day one,” Connor said from behind me. “Only three more to go, but we have tomorrow to talk ourselves into coming back out here on Monday.”

“I thought you were already gone.”

“I had to check the water situation,” he explained. “We’re down to the last ten bottles, so Monday I will bring another case or two and another bag of ice. I’m sure glad that we don’t have to do this job in the middle of July.”

“Amen to that,” I agreed. “We’d have to get us one of those hats that frat boys use to suck down beer.”

“Only we’d be drinking water and running to the port-a-potty all day,” he said.

I glanced over my shoulder. “Is there one out there? Where is it?”

“At the other end of the field. It’s green, so it kind of blends in with the tree leaves.” He pointed in that direction. “It’s just as close for you to go back to your house as it is to walk all the way down there.”

“Is it always there, or do you rent one in the spring and fall?”

“We rent it,” he replied. “That’s one more little lesson for us in how to do this job next spring if you decide not to renew Grandpa’s lease.”

“What’s this ‘us’ business that you are talking about?” I was surprised I had the energy to tease.

“One never knows about the future,” he flirted right back. “I’ll ask Grandpa what company he uses to rent the toilets on wheels. Seems kind of strange to be joking around about our future and talking about toilets at the same time.”

“I never thought I would have a good-looking guy flirt with me and say he’ll find out where to rent a toilet in the same breath, either. Which reminds me, where did you find the work crew?” I asked.

“Several folks around these parts use them, and Grandpa has hired them for years. The crops come off different all over this part of the state. The reason we worked Saturday is that they have another job that starts on Thursday of next week, and they wanted a day to get ahead.”

“But it’s supposed to rain after this week,” I reminded him. “Do they work in the rain?”

“It’s only going to rain here, not where they’ll be working,” Connor said. “If you decide to be a farmer, I’m sure they’ll be glad to work for you twice a year. They’ll be on the calendar for the fall and then in January to start getting the field ready for the plants to grow again.”

“After that, I’ll have to do my own hiring, right?”

He removed his hat and wiped his forehead with his shirtsleeve. “Yes, ma’am, you will, but after what you are doing now, and will most likely do in the fall, there won’t be a problem with them working for you.”

“Why do you say that?”

Connor opened the gate for me. “Because they respect you for sweating right along with them today. See you Monday, if not before.”

“Make it before if you can.”

“Do my best,” he said with a tired grin.

Now why had I said that? Sure, I wanted to see him again, but would it truly be wise to encourage whatever was between us?

Sassy met me at the gate and followed me to the porch. She grabbed a toy snake and shook it so hard that it was nothing but a blur. When I rapped on Jasper’s door and then stuck my head inside, she tossed the toy in the air and dashed inside.

“I’m done for the day. I’ll bring your supper and meds”—I covered a yawn with the back of my hand—“in a few minutes.”

“Just the medicine,” he said. “Gina Lou already brought me a plate. It looks good and smells even better, but I’m not taking a single bite until you get back with them pills. I don’t like the look on your face when you are mad.”

“That’s a good thing.” I tried to smile, but it took too much energy. “If you are hungry, that’s a good sign.”

“My appetite never did leave me,” he argued. “I was coughing so much that it was a pain in my butt to try to eat. But I’m all better now. You can throw the rest of them pills in the trash. They have done cured me.”

I shook my finger at him and then groaned at the spiky sensation. “You are going to take all of your medicine.”

“Maybe you ought to take them pills since you’re so sore that you can’t even wiggle your finger without hurtin’,” he suggested and then chuckled. “Hard work is tougher than sitting in front of a computer all day, ain’t it?”

“Yes, it is, but I didn’t quit. I’ll be back in five minutes—and anyway, what you’re taking doesn’t cure muscle aches from weeding strawberries all day. It’s for upper respiratory problems.”

He shook his finger at me. “It don’t need no fancy name. It’s the croup. And, young lady, you don’t need to be out there in the sun doing that kind of work. You will be the boss lady if you decide to really do this, girl. Do you see Everett out there pulling weeds and mowing?”

“A good boss knows the business from the ground up,” I smarted off on my way outside.

He raised his voice as he repeated what he had told me for years. “As long as you are alive, Gracie will never be dead.”

“Thank you so much!” I yelled over my shoulder.

I groaned again when I started up the back-porch steps. I was determined to make it through the process until Thursday, and then I’d have lots of time to go through the stuff in the basement. But for now, I planned to eat supper, spend a couple of hours riffling through boxes, and then take a long, soaking bath.

Gina Lou was busy setting the table when I came in the house. “Supper is ready, and I already took a plate to Jasper.”

I dumped another dose of pills into the little glass. “Thank you for that. He says that it smells wonderful, and he’s ready to eat. I’ll take his medicine out to him and be right back.”

“I could do that for you,” she said.

“Thanks, but I’ll have to do it. He thinks because he’s starting to feel better that he doesn’t need to take pills anymore. He’d try to hoodwink you, but he’s afraid to pull any stunts on me.”

“I would be, too.” Gina Lou’s tone was dead serious.

I chuckled on my way outside. Jasper used his inhaler and downed the pills with a swallow of sweet tea and then took a bite of the stir-fry. “This tastes a lot like the summer goulash my Granny used to make of fresh garden vegetables.”

“I’ll tell Gina Lou that you like it. See you about nine with the rest of today’s medicine,” I said, but a tiny little part of me was jealous that Gina Lou cooked and I didn’t.

You are being childish, the voice in my head barked. He might like Gina Lou and her cooking, but he loves you like a granddaughter.

“Don’t be late. Me and Sassy like to call it a day by nine thirty. Do I have to eat then, too?”

“Yes, you do. Want me to bring you a muffin?” I asked.

“I’d rather have another ice cream sandwich,” he said in between bites.

“Okay, then.” I made a mental note to pick up a couple of boxes of ice cream sandwiches when Mama and I went for lunch the next day.

I used to wonder what Aunt Gracie meant when she said she was dog-tired, but I knew now. Never in my life had I felt like I did that evening. Still, I stopped to admire the sky, which was lit up in a whole array of pastel colors by the last rays of sun. Today was almost finished. Tomorrow I could rest up and then Monday, start all over again. Somehow I felt so much better, even with all the stiffness and pain, than I did at the end of a working day in front of a computer. I had pulled weeds, and Connor said I did a good job of not spreading the seeds. The work crew had even talked to me when we all had our afternoon break.

Gina Lou made a motion toward the table. “Chicken stir-fry and sliced pineapple. A woman who works as hard as you did today needs a good hot meal.”

I didn’t have to be asked a second time, even though I was almost too tired to chew. I sat down and loaded up my plate. “I really don’t like to cook. I’m fair at baking, and I make really good pancakes and french toast, but making a meal has always seemed like too much work for just one person. So, how did your first day go? Did you get your things all unpacked?”

“It went great.” She passed the chicken to me.

“Please, help yourself first,” I told her.

She nodded and said, “I peeked in Miz Gracie’s room and got tickled all over again when I saw those red panties. I called Mama and told her that the big secret out here was that Miz Gracie had a wild side. I hope that was all right.”

For a second, a burst of anger shot up from inside me, but then a small voice whispered in my head and told me that whatever the real issue was—if there even was one—wasn’t anyone’s business but Gracie’s. Like Jasper had said, if she had wanted me to know, she would have told me.

“It was just fine for you to tell your mama,” I said. “Aunt Gracie wasn’t ashamed of her decisions. Red was her favorite color, as you can tell by her car. Evidently, she liked silk panties better than the old white cotton ones that grannies wear.”

“Oh. My. Lord!” Gina Lou gasped. “Look at that beautiful sunset. Not even a professional painter could create something that gorgeous. What a way to end my first day here.”

“Well, that was an abrupt change of subject.”

“Sometimes my mind jumps around,” Gina Lou explained. “I had to focus on orders and what folks were kin to each other in the café. I didn’t want to offend someone by calling them by someone else’s name. You know small towns. Someone is always mad at someone else for something. But cleaning house and cooking is a natural thing, so I don’t have to concentrate.”

“Think you could focus if you went to college to be a teacher?” I asked.

If she didn’t leave, I could kind of adopt her like Aunt Gracie did me. Only she was a full-grown woman, not a baby, and it would be selfish of me not to let her follow her dreams. After all, the aches and pains in my body were proof that I was following a whim that could become my own dream. Gina Lou deserved to at least have the opportunity to do the same.

“I really do. I got a scholarship and had applied for student loans. Then Daddy got sick and couldn’t work for a few months, so I had to help out the family,” she said with a sad smile. “But Mama says everything happens for a reason.”

“So did Aunt Gracie,” I said. “I hope in five years we look back on this time and find out they were both right.” I covered another yawn and moaned at simply raising my hand.

“If you are too tired to check out the basement, I understand.”

“No, ma’am,” I protested. “We’re going to spend a little while down there, and then I’m going to have an hour-long bath and watch some television in my bedroom until I fall asleep.”

“Maybe you should have that bath before we tackle the basement,” she suggested.

“I’m already stinky and sweaty, so we’ll sort through a few boxes first,” I told her. “And, Gina Lou, you could easily put in your own restaurant. This food is delicious.” I thought about Mama and all those years she sacrificed to raise me. I was beginning to understand what she had drilled into me: Every choice has a consequence.

“Lila, that takes a lot of money,” she said. “And I’m hoping to save up enough money in a year or so to go to college. I really would like to be a teacher.”