Chapter 5 James
JAMES
Lunch is a madhouse. Or it would be to most people, but I had years of life on the road with mannerless cowboys who’d fight you for a corncob, much less something like Mark’s ribs or Willow’s potato salad or Shayanne’s anything.
Damn, that girl can cook. Though to be fair, some of her best dishes are the ones she’s learned to make at Mama’s side.
Those two are thick as thieves and just as dangerous.
Still, to me, the roughhousing and shit-talking seems pretty on par for a big get-together with food. We at least make sure the kids get plates filled with samples of everything.
For the most part, all of us Bennetts and Tannens follow the adage of ‘if we eat steak, our kids eat steak’ and they get prime choice ribs just like the rest of us do.
All except for my girl, Cindy Lou, who is currently on a vegetarian kick.
Yeah, go ahead and laugh… a rancher’s daughter who turns up her nose at beef.
Who has ever heard of such a thing? But we respect it, as long as she doesn’t try to tell me or any of her uncles that we can’t eat the cattle we raise.
As far as I’m concerned, it just means an extra serving or two for me.
Mama taps her mason jar glass with her fork, stopping all conversation.
Sitting at the head of the big picnic table we built for these special occasions when we all come together as one, she’s still the boss lady in charge of us all.
“I’d like to say a few words,” she starts, “but please, keep eating. Don’t let it get cold while an old lady chatters away. ”
While we do as she says – we’d be fools not to – we do slow down the shoveling of our food into our mouths in favor of giving her some attention.
“I want to say that I’m thankful for my blessings, each and every one of you.
” She looks around the table, meeting the eyes of every man, some her sons by birth and others by choice, women whom she loves like daughters, and a pack’s worth of children who mostly want to escape the confines of the table in favor of running through the closest pasture to chase after Shay’s goats the way Cooper and Mindy apparently promised they could.
“You have made my days long and my night’s short, in the best of ways, and I love you all for it. ”
“Are you dying?” Ford bluntly asks. Brody shushes him quickly, but I’m pretty sure it’s Rix’s glare that has his mouth clacking closed.
Mama laughs, unoffended. “No, I’m not dying. Not yet, at least,” she answers Ford. “But when the good Lord takes me to be with my beloved John, that’ll be just fine too. I’ve lived a good life.”
“You’re living a good life,” Mark corrects her. “Dad would be proud of you.”
“He’d be proud of us all,” she declares.
He would be. Dad and I had a good relationship as far as fathers and sons go.
Sure, we fought and we argued, but we loved each other, and I don’t think he’d be surprised at the good men we all turned out to be.
Well, he’d probably be shocked about the Tannens, but that’s understandable given what he knew then and what we all know now.
Once upon a time, I tried to run away from this place, this life. Ran as far and fast as my talents could carry me… all to end up right back here, where I’m meant to be. As sentimental as Mama seems to be today, I’m feeling it too.
I look around the table at my brothers and their families, then out at the land around us. And when the wind blows through, lifting Mama’s hair and tossing Bobby’s hat to the ground behind him, I smile. “Hey, Dad. Love you too,” I whisper in my mind.
We’re all here. All home.