Chapter 13

Carl’s turn:

Saturday dinner at a Cajun home. Gumbo’s on the stove simmering, there’s a big pot of rice, Carla’s made potato salad, and everybody grabs a bowl and fixes it up his own way.

At the table, dad bowed his head to say a blessing, then we tackled the fare. Chicken and sausage gumbo’s a wintertime staple and that’s what we had.

What we also had was talk, Jeff about his job, me and Sunny about our job, Dad about his, Mom hers. Mom’s thinking of quitting – no kids at home, could volunteer, do ladies’ groups. Sunny and Carla did a side conversation about Chloe, who was attempting to feed herself. That’s a messy operation – sure to be a negative experience if you’re not predisposed towards kids in general.

I was raised in households where kids were common, so I knew. Sunny hadn’t really talked about it, so I watched. She was laughing with Carla as Chloe tried to maneuver spoon to mouth, then SHE took Chloe’s spoon and helped her.

“It’s okay, Chloe-girl,” Sunny said gently. “You can try again next time. You’ll get it...”

Carla watched this, her eyes flicking between Sunny and Chloe and me. smiling.

I joined Dad and Jeff in the living room for the requisite TV sports.

“Where’d you find HER?” Jeff asked.

“Went to work one day, they sent ‘er to work with me on that substation in Arkansas.”

“Female? On a construction site?” he asked incredulously.

“One, she pulls her weight. Two, it’s our company’s site, and we don’t hire trash. Three, she gets along with people. Not one of those perpetually peeved types.”

“She sure seems to get along here. Did you see ‘er feeding Chloe?”

“I saw that.”

“Chloe likes ‘er. That seals it in Carla’s book. Chloe’s normally bashful.”

Dad smiled. “Son, she’s easy on the eyes...”

“Yeah. I noticed ‘er climbing a ladder.”

“I’d pretty well notice that, myself,” Dad laughed.

“Quit talking about ‘em,” Jeff laughed. “Here they are.”

‘They’ came in with Chloe perched on Sunny’s hip.

“Ann tunny,” Chloe grinned.

“Good enough, sweetie,” Sunny answered, nuzzling the toddler, producing a peal of giggles. She pushed up next to me on the sofa.

“Just in case you’re forgetting, we need two or three of these,” she said.

“Yes, dear,” I said. “It shall be done.”

Another night in a hotel room, more of that lovely shower, more loving.

“You get me, Carl.”

“Just practicing for all those kids we’re gonna have.”

She wrapped me up. “You know some of that was for effect, don’t you?”

“Mom just about exploded, baby. You give ‘er grandkids, her life is fulfilled.”

“What about Carl’s life? That’s my immediate goal.”

“Carl couldn’t be happier, baby. Seein’ you with Chloe, you didn’t look like anything but natural.”

“I was raised around kids, Carl. I know how ... I see your family, and I see that just maybe that’s the way WE should be.”

The last item on the weekend list was to meet the folks for breakfast early Sunday morning, then follow them to church.

I’d broached the subject to Sunny before the trip, halfway thinking she’d beg off.

“No. We’ll go. You will present me with honor as your betrothed to people who have known you all your life.”

So there we were, eating breakfast at a popular diner with Mom and Dad, getting disturbed frequently as people cycled into the place doing the same thing as we were doing – breakfast before church.

Sunny got introduced a dozen times, then we drove to church where I introduced her at least twenty more times.

Thing about it – she looks good in a dress with simple lines, light blue providing an understated pedestal for her angelic face and that perfect black hair.

Got greeted by the same pastor who had been there when I was in high school. He called me by name, he and his wife graciously smiling when I introduced Sunny as my fiancée, asked about wedding plans.

“They’re getting married next weekend in Auburn, Alabama,” Mom explained. “Their company’s flying us there.”

“I think they have a Baptist preacher already lined up,” Sunny said. “He’s gonna call us Monday to talk with us.”

That was the note we left town on, almost reluctantly growling our way north, back to work, back to another world.

“We can rock this ‘marriage’ thing, Carl,” she said.

“I’m glad you still think so.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, the ‘meet the family’ thing is a big hurdle.”

“You have a wonderful family. It shows in the way things went yesterday.”

“That’s just the way we are. When I was a kid, that would’ve happened at Mom’s folks or Dad’s folks. Now they’re the place to go.”

“I loved it.” her fingers brushed my arm. “We’ll be like that. I hope I didn’t scare you too much with all the kid talk.”

“Baby, as beautiful as you are right now, I have a picture of you just like you were with Chloe. It fits you like some kind of exotic madonna.”

“You’re talking about Jesus’s mom, not the rockstar.”

“Of course. You, you beat her when she was at her peak. I’ve seen pictures of the old broad. I wouldn’t’ve shaken her hand. You, I had to keep from drooling over...”

“You did NOT! You were always very proper...”

“Beautiful little honey, you have no idea what antics went on inside my head over you.”

“Okay, I admit that I might’ve had thoughts of you, too, Carl.”

“Have I met expectations?”

“You answer that same question first,” she smiled.

“Sunny, I always thought I was an imaginative, creative kind of guy. When you and I got together, I found that I didn’t have enough imagination to make up the reality of you becoming my mate.”

“I like that ‘mate’ title, Carl. Sounds quite equal. We work with mating parts all the time – means that the pieces fit together to become a whole...”

“Exactly how much poetry did you TAKE in college?”

Giggle. “That’s not poetry...”

“Yet another case of you passing up the abilities of my vocabulary.”

“You’re sweet, baby. One of a million reasons for us to be together.”

I glanced sideways at the lovely creature sitting beside me – well, the truck’s console is in the way. What I’d give for the bench-style seat of Dad’s old pickup truck – the one I learned to drive in, the one that I used for dating, the one he gave me when I went off to college. I can imagine all the joys available if Sunny was plastered against me, hip to hip.

She noted my gaze, a finger came up, brushed a few errant strands of that shiny black hair behind an especially nibbleable ear.

“I got you, don’t I? Really GOT you...”

“Forever. If you send me away, my life ends.”

“How tragic. We’ll be that couple that people will be talking about for years to come. ‘There go Carl ‘n’ Sunny. Wish I had what they have.’”

“We can do that, baby. Starting with the job we’re on.”

“Uh, yeah ... word is, first, you’re a lucky dog, and second, I could’ve done better, where ‘better’ is usually defined as the jealous guy doing the talking.”

That’s what we went back to, bright and early Monday morning. We’re at the ‘function test’ stage of the game, which means we’re getting close to wrapping up.

It’s a cooperative effort. A couple of handheld radios take care of us where one is in the control house and the other is out at the equipment.

It’s also a training effort, where I find out how much Sunny understands about the craft, and do a bit of teaching to get her further along. Girlfriend or not, she’s also a technician who needs to grow into things.

The customer rep makes his daily visit.

“Y’all seriously planning on getting married this weekend?” Clyde asks.

Sunny gets a demure look.

“That’s the plan.”

“And you’re gonna be back on MONDAY?”

“Yessir,” she says.

“Damned if I’d be back Monday after marryin’ Sunny.”

She smiled. “That’s ‘cuz you’re an old lech...”

He grinned. “Carl, what’s a lech?”

I laughed back at him. He’s been a constant visitor as part of his job, we’ve eaten together, even drank beer together in the evening over a meal.

“Clyde, that’s ‘uppity college girl’ talk for ‘dirty old man’.”

“Sunny, all I ever said was you was the best-lookin’ girl on this jobsite.”

She laughed at the old joke. “I’d be more appreciative if there were more than just me.”

“Go to our office. I’ll say it there, too.”

“And Mizz Evelyn will beat you with her stapler,” Sunny laughed. “But, yes, we’ll be back here bright and early Monday morning.”

“We still on track to heat the place up next week?” he asked.

Jumbo came through the door. “Jumbo,” I asked, “We on track to finish so we can energize next week?”

“Oh, yeah. Fencing contractor’s gonna finish by Friday. We have ground cable to make up. Limestone’ll be here Monday. We’ll have it spread by noon Tuesday. Then we can light ‘er up.”

“There’s your sched, Clyde. Bring in the high voltage Tuesday afternoon, let the transformers soak overnight, come in on Wednesday and start our checks, then we can energize the low side equipment.”

“Almost as exciting as getting married,” Sunny teased.

“Hunh. You get a lot more out of a substation than I do, Sunny,” he chuckled.

“Got Carl,” she laughed. “‘Nuff said.”

Friday morning we went through our test reports and did a walkthrough of the station, visual checks, just making sure we had things ready, then we bid goodbye to Jumbo and his diminished crew and headed to the airfield.