Chapter 26 – Juliette
TWENTY-SIX
JULIETTE
“Turn the engine over,” Creed shouted, from under the hood of the tractor.
Amazingly, he’d gotten both trucks working again, almost by rebuilding the entire engine on mine. Flush with success, he was convinced he could save the tractor from its once muddy grave.
I turned the ignition and listened to it clunk a few times before it died.
“Fuck!” he snapped.
“You’ll get it. It’s just going to need time to dry out more.”
He muttered something under his breath about time that I couldn’t hear and then told me to get off. I didn’t take it personally.
He went back to work under the hood and I went about giving the chickens some extra love. No eggs, but I didn’t expect any after the trauma they suffered. The coop was repaired and we’d already started thinking about contingency plans for them when this happened again.
Because that was the thing about weather. Once it happened to you, you had to assume at some point it was going to happen again.
A truck pulled up and I recognized Jackson’s ball cap before I realized it was him. April got out of the passenger side and I found myself smiling. I gave them a wave to acknowledge I’d seen them, then turned back to the barn.
“Creed! The Talleys!”
Walking in their direction, I met them halfway. Jackson was muttering something to April and she was shaking her head at him, like she didn’t need her older brother telling her what to do.
“Hey Juliette,” she called. She had a canvas bag in one hand. “My mom went crazy with canning so you’re getting spillover canned goods.”
There’d hardly been any of the crop that had matured enough to be salvageable, but what I could save, I did.
Sugar beet jam could actually add a lot of flavor to food.
“I told you to give those to the neighbors,” I said, taking the bag.
“Oh, it’s not your beets. Your beets went to the Lucketts. You got corn. Everybody is trying to make do with what they have, so it’s all good. What goes around comes around.”
“Creed around?” Jackson asked me.
“The barn,” I said, my hand shielding my eyes from the early morning sun. “But I’m warning you now, he’s a cranky sonofabitch. Can’t get the tractor engine running yet.”
Jackson gave me a nod with his cap and then headed out in Creed’s direction.
“How are you doing?” April asked, then looked out over the washed out fields. “It’s so crazy. It’s like it just washed away the whole valley.”
“Yeah, well, on the plus side, the creek is full to bursting.”
“You’re not going to try and replant?”
“Too late in the season for that,” I said. “We’ll try again next year.”
I said it like I was confident that would happen, when I was anything but. I hadn’t brought up Creed mentioning he had a plan a few nights ago. Given that he hadn’t brought it up the next morning, I didn’t think it was something he intended to share.
So whatever his plan was, I wasn’t entirely sure that I was a part of it.
April nodded. “It will come back. You’ll see. It always does.”
“Yep. I can take that bag inside. I’ve got some lemon cake if you would like a slice.”
The words came out of my mouth and I really couldn’t believe it.
April looked at me almost in the same way.
We’d grown up in this town, only two years apart, on neighboring properties, and yet we hardly knew each other.
That was because of Herb, but that was also because of me.
At some point I’d stopped fighting him. We knew the church people, because that’s all he would allow, but even they weren’t welcome on the property for after church lunches or casual drop-ins.
I’d been isolated by him, but as I’d gotten older, I could have changed that. I could have reached out more when I was in town.
“Sure, I would love some lemon cake,” April said, with a smile. Except Jackson came out of the barn then, shoving an envelope in his back pocket that I couldn’t help but wonder where it came from. Maybe he’d brought it with him and was just shoving it back into his pocket.
“Let’s go, April.”
“I was going to stay for cake,” she told her brother.
“Another time,” he said. “We’ve got more rounds to make.”
She nodded, then turned to me. “Sorry about that, but I can come by later in the week.”
“That would be nice,” I said. “I’ll see if I can salvage more beets for your mom to can.”
April rolled her eyes. “My mother likes to think she can fix all the world’s problems with some canned goods. So please don’t try on our account.”
“April!” Jackson shouted, as he got in his truck.
“Ugh! Coming!” Another roll of her eyes. “See you.”
I smiled and gave them another wave as they drove off.
Creed came out of the barn wiping oil off his hands. The closer he got, I could smell the diesel fuel on him.
Funny, it wasn’t that long ago I’d been trying to sabotage that tractor.
Now here I was rooting for his success.
“We’re going to be okay, right?”
He looked at me. His ugly face grew serious and I reached up to cup his cheek. Maybe he wasn’t so ugly after all.
“Yeah,” he said, slowly. “We’re going to be okay.”
“Good. Well, I’ll tell you what. You want to get busy tonight, you’re going to need more than one shower,” I told him. “You stink.”
He grabbed me then around my waist and purposefully rubbed his stinky shirt against me and my overalls.
“Staaahhhhhppp!”
“Now, we both stink. Come on, I’m hungry. Let’s go get some lunch.”
We were walking back to the house when it occurred to me. “What did Jackson want anyway?”
“Huh?”
“Jackson,” I repeated. “April didn’t come just to drop off some canned corn. What did Jackson need you for?”
“Just hoping I could help out with another ornery horse they’re trying to break. I’m going to wash up before we eat,” he said, moving in front of me.
Wow, I thought, as the breath left my body.
All this time, and that was the first time he’d ever lied to me.
In the end, it was my cat who let me know he was gone.
I woke up the next morning with AP howling in my face. Creed was always up before me, so he always saw that AP got fed first thing. As if Patch would let him go about his morning business without getting fed first.
Patch was what they called food motivated.
The cat howled in my face and when I looked over I could see the bed was empty, so Creed hadn’t overslept.
“Okay, relax.” I picked him up and set him on my shoulder, where he clamped in with his claws, Creed’s t-shirt providing enough protection for my skin.
I made my way out of the bedroom and down toward the living room and the first thing I noticed was the silence.
Where ever he was, he wasn’t in the house.
Which wasn’t unusual at all. Creed was up before me every morning.
And he only lingered in bed if he was hoping to get laid, but even then he’d feed Patch first and then come back to bed.
Strange.
While Patch howled and demanded breakfast, I went through the ritual of filling his bowl with a can of wet food specially formulated for kittens.
“You might have to figure out how to mouse,” I told him, setting the bowl down seconds before he started snatching it up, “when the budget gets a little tighter around here.”
AP seemed unworried about such outcomes and continued to eat his specialty kitten food.
“Why didn’t Dad feed you this morning?”
No answer other than the yahm-yahm-yahm of a kitten going at his breakfast.
I walked out onto the porch. From there I had a view of the valley so I could see he wasn’t in the fields.
We were going to try and breathe life into the vegetable garden my mom must have planted before she left, just to take advantage of any homegrown vegetables we might be able to produce on our own.
Except he wasn’t there.
The barn. He was fussing with the tractor again. I told him to give it a rest for a day or two, let it dry out even more.
With an annoyed huff because that man didn’t listen to me nearly enough, I grabbed my boots inside the foyer.
Wearing nothing more than his oversized t-shirt and a pair of rubber boots, I plodded out across the property that was still sodden, each footprint sinking a half inch to an inch into the dirt.
The door to the barn was open and I stopped in my tracks.
No Creed.
But that wasn’t what had the hair standing up along the back of my neck.
The tractor and farm equipment had been moved to the right side.
New shelves had been built with labels underneath them identifying tools, parts, pesticides and the like.
The man liked his organization. I knew that from how he kept his shirts, socks, and underwear all neatly folded in separate dresser drawers.
So none of that was surprising.
It was the left side of the barn, where Margo’s stall had once been. It had fallen into disrepair and when I told Herb I was never going to have another horse, he’d broken it down for more storage.
Her lead and saddle, which I hadn’t been able to get rid of, I’d kept hidden under tarps and horse blankets. Out of sight, out of mind.
Creed had thought he was going to use that tarp to cover the crops, but he hadn’t known the size or scope of it.
All of it had been cleaned out. The stall wall and gate rebuilt. Her saddle was polished and hung on a hook beside the stall, along with her lead and reins.
When had he done this?
I’d been standing in this barn yesterday trying to start the tractor. The tractor which must now work, if he’d moved it to the other side of the barn.
It wouldn’t have taken much to re-build the stall. The frame had been in place, just the slats of wood that made up the wall needed to be redone. The gate he must have bought new.
Had he been hiding this all under the tarp and I just hadn’t noticed?
“Shit.”
I whirled around, thinking to find Creed there ready to surprise me with everything he’d done.
Except it wasn’t Creed. It was Jackson, leading a brown and white paint horse, not Will.
“He told me if I got here before sunup you might not be up yet,” Jackson said.
“What? Where’s Creed?”
Jackson walked the horse into the barn, opened the gate and led the horse inside. She had no problem turning around in the stall and looked about as comfortable as a horse could be.
“This is Peasy.”
“Peasy?”
“As in Easy-Peasy. She’s a three year old and just about the sweetest horse you ever did meet. Our plan was to sell Will after we broke him and keep her, but April was adamant about keeping Will, so…”
“So, what?” I asked, feeling stupid.
“She’s yours.”
“No way.”
Jackson nodded. “Creed said you needed a horse and we happened to have one. She’s broken in and won’t give you a smidge of trouble if you make sure she’s well fed with carrots and apples.”
“Jackson, what the hell is going on?”
It was not lost on me I was standing in the middle of a barn first thing in the morning, wearing only an oversized t-shirt, panties and rubber boots. I folded my arms across my chest and scowled at him.
He smiled then, only it was one of those sad, pathetic smiles. Like he knew he was about to break my heart before I did.
He pulled an envelope out of his back pocket and walked it over to me. I took it but didn’t open it.
My name was scratched out on the front.
JULES.
It all made sense now. Him leaving in the middle of the night, but not before he set me up with a working tractor and stall for the horse he must have already bought for me. I hadn’t paid attention when I was walking out to the barn, but my guess was, his truck was gone.
“You know what you’re doing with her?” he asked, his head inclining in Peasy’s direction.
“You brought hay?”
“A complimentary five bushels should set you up. She’s not picky. I’m going to bring my truck around, okay?” I nodded, looking down at the envelope in my hand.
“Farming’s not for everyone,” I said, feeling this hole open up inside me.
Jackson started out of the barn, but stopped himself. “I know it’s not my place, but he wanted what was best for you, Juliette. I believed him when he said it.”
I nodded but couldn’t look at him.
“Be careful backing up. Ground’s still soft,” I said. “Wouldn’t want you getting stuck with Creed not here to help you get out.”
In the end, it didn’t take Jackson any time to unhook the horse trailer, bring his truck around, and load the hay next to Peasy’s stall.
She had a white mane and soft brown eyes and I didn’t have a fucking clue what I was supposed to do with her, given that I didn’t have any money to keep her fed.
Jackson left without another word about Creed’s intentions. I walked over to Peasy’s stall and butted my head up against hers, letting her sniff out my hand to get to know my scent.
“Give me time to figure this out, okay girl?”
She whinnied softly like she was prepared to give me all the time in the world.
Easy-Peasy.
My legs felt heavy as I made my way back to the house. When I stepped onto the porch, AP was on the other side of the door looking at me expectantly.
“He left you, too,” I told him, as I opened the door and kicked off my boots in the foyer. “So you have to be on my side.”
I walked into Herb’s study…
Our study…You need to stop thinking of this place as your dad’s prison.
Whatevs.
First instinct was to trash the letter. I didn’t want to read it when I had a hunch I knew what it would say.
Not what he signed up for.
Can’t risk his savings.
Unpredictable outcomes.
All of that was true and a pretty solid reason for leaving a place you weren’t entirely invested in. After all, we’d only been married what…seven months or so?
But I’m sure he made some comment about how the divorce would be handled.
Legally, the land, the house, it was all his. As decreed in Herb’s will. Divorcing him meant it would be up to a judge to determine what I was entitled to. Which was the only reason I hadn’t served him with papers as soon as Herb was in the ground.
I recalled thinking I could break him down.
So stupid…
Did I even know any lawyers in town? I’d have to call one as soon as…
“FUUUUUCKKKK!”
I pushed everything off Herb’s desk, including the lamp that sat on the corner. I heard the crash of glass breaking, but I would just close the door behind me so AP couldn’t get into the room.
I left his stupid envelope where it landed on the carpet. There would be time enough to get to it later.
For now, I was going back to bed.
I shut the study door behind me, scooped up AP, who had been lingering just outside, obviously disturbed by my outburst, and went back to bed.
I stayed in bed for a long time.