Chapter 37

JUNE MOVED INTO JULY and the crew stayed together in Dennis’s house most of the time. Ardith had to go on a couple of recruiting trips and Natalie and Brenda accompanied her. She was trying to recruit from a little farther away than Salter had been able to draw in the past. Division III schools in the Midwest tended to draw primarily from the state in which they were located, with a few students coming from bordering states. One thing Ardith had seen from Salter’s appearance in the sweet sixteen was that the East Coast and West Coast schools seemed to have two huge advantages. They drew from a much larger pool of potential players because of their higher population, and they drew players from farther away because of their tournament showings.

Ardith was especially interested in some Wisconsin and northern Illinois students who showed promise and might be recruited away from their local areas. She’d already signed one player from Kansas City and another from Minneapolis.

Dennis worked at the farm tasks, making sure the old Abernathy place was in showcase condition. Randy also had him working the fields and pastures on his farm. As soon as he got back from the ‘honeymoon,’ he had to harvest the winter wheat Randy planted on the 500 acres that formerly belonged to Dennis’s dad. This involved Dennis learning a new piece of farm equipment—the combine. Once the wheat was in, the straw was baled and shipped East. The field was then disked and red clover was sown to restore the soil. Randy planned to turn the soil late in the summer and plant winter wheat again in October.

By the time the harvest and baling were finished, Dennis was in the last two weeks of his Marketing/Sales class and Gransy had returned from Salter with good news.

“I’ve found us a place and we can take occupancy on the first. Anyone want to move?”

“Yes! Is it bigger?” Amy asked.

“Well, not much,” Gransy said. “Finding a house for seven adults was a challenge. You’ll all need to drive to commute to school because it is about five miles out in the country from campus. I found a farm house that has four bedrooms and two baths.”

“That sounds roomier than what we have here,” Lana said. “But it is a long way to campus.”

“And the area is a little parochial,” Gransy said. “I rented the house and told the owner I was bringing my six grandchildren to school down there. They were a little concerned until I told them I was going to live there as your house mom. When I brought up the economy and how difficult it was to send six kids to college all at once, the owner became very sympathetic. He’d sent several kids to college himself.”

“If I might say, Gransy, you are really looking too young to have grandkids heading for college,” Dennis said.

“Flattery will not get you out of your turn doing dishes,” she answered. “But I decided that a move like this is an opportunity to shift my image a bit—as long as I don’t interfere with you kids. When I started seeing Bert, I decided I didn’t need to look as old and haggard as I did. Life isn’t that hard.”

“Bert? Who’s this Bert you’re seeing, Gransy?” Amy demanded.

“Oh. Well. I was going to tell you all about him eventually. He’s our new landlord. And quite a spry old farmer. He’s a widower for the past two years and decided this year that he was done farming. He’s leased out all the acreage and had the old farmhouse cleaned and emptied. That means we need to bring all our own furniture,” Gransy said. “That won’t be a problem because your parents have sold the house here in Bartley and we have until the end of August to clear everything out that isn’t nailed down. I spent a good bit of time with them while I was living in Ardith’s apartment in Salter. We negotiated an agreement and it includes us moving everything out of the house. In return for that, we get to keep everything, including your grandmother Johnson’s china and sterling silver. Your mother said it was supposed to go to you anyway.”

“I’m surprised she cared,” Amy growled.

“I think you’ll find your parents have mellowed a little bit in the two years they’ve been living in Des Moines. Though they are sad about it, I think they’ve finally accepted that your brother actually was dealing in drugs and had immoral intentions toward you. It seems that Kristin Conway’s death and her husband’s incarceration jolted them awake.”

“They could apologize to me,” Amy said. “That would be better than dumping all their household goods on us.”

“I know this is going to be hard on you, my sweet,” Gransy said. “And I told them explicitly that I wouldn’t apologize on their behalf, as they told me to tell you they were sorry. But it will take a while before they are ready to face you with their mistakes. They attempted to sue the DEA for wrongful death, but they were presented with a great deal of evidence that made them finally wake up to what a scoundrel their son was. They are still stinging from the revelations.”

“Wait! You cleverly steered that conversation away from our landlord, Bert!” Amy said as if just coming awake. “When did you start ‘seeing’ him?”

“Well, we met when I answered the ad for his rental. He was very uncertain about the whole idea of renting his old home to a bunch of college kids. We decided to talk it over and went out to dinner. I’m afraid I’ve told him quite a lot about your crew. He was fascinated and is especially interested in meeting you, Dennis. At first, he thought you must be a cult leader and that I had fallen under a spell of some sort. But I managed to convince him. One dinner turned into another and another. And so on. Anyway, he is likely to be a frequent visitor to our home outside of Salter.”

“That’s great news, Gransy,” Ardith said. “I’m so glad you’ve made a friend in Salter already.”

“Yes. He’s introduced me to his church and to the American Legion. We even went golfing at the Country Club. He’s not very good, so I didn’t quite play up to my usual standard,” Gransy said, happily. “But don’t worry about me. The thing now is to start packing up to move!”

That started a mad scramble to get packed and moved to Salter. Ardith had not moved her entire house to the apartment in Salter so there was packing to do in her house which included extra furniture they might or might not need when they got to the new house. Lana, Natalie, Brenda, and Dennis were only moving the items necessary for college kids leaving home, and most of that had already been moved to Dennis’s house. Brenda moved the remainder of her personal items from her family home to Dennis’s house, including her bed, which she moved into Peg’s room. Peg had taken her bed and all her bedroom things to the new home with Tom. Dot had left the bed in her room that had been Dennis’s, because Tom had a perfectly good bed that she liked. Of course, the master bedroom suite at the old house was kept where it was for the kids to all return to when they came back to Bartley.

It was all quite confusing, but eventually they got things sorted out and began transporting things on August first. School at Salter wouldn’t begin until August 26 with freshman orientation over that weekend. They would have some opportunity to get used to the area, though Dennis felt he would need to return to Bartley to finish some of his farm work for Randy. That was his summer income. However, first he needed to finish his final exam in his Marketing/Sales course on the fourth. On Saturday the sixth, Randy showed up at Amy’s house with his farm truck. Elsa, Dot, Lily, and John all came to help load all the furniture and boxes from Amy’s house. Then they picked up boxes at Dennis’s house and Ardith’s furniture from her house. They all followed Ardith to Salter to move into the farmhouse Gransy had rented.

When they got there, Randy looked around at the farm and nodded at the condition of the fields and outbuildings. Then everyone set to work helping to move things inside. Even Nils and Sofie helped with the boxes they had collected. When all was said and done, it was a fun day and everyone went into town for dinner at the Mexican restaurant.

Bert, the landlord dating Gransy, joined them for dinner.

“Well, I wasn’t sure about renting to a bunch of college students. You hear all kinds of things about what they get into, you know. But then Betty told me more about you and how she came to have custody. Sad story, that. We heard about the big drug raids a few years ago, but I never thought I’d meet anyone closely affected by them. You all put up with a lot,” Bert said as they sat to eat.

“We survived,” Amy said. “Thanks to the others at this table, I survived.”

“I hear you are a bit of a farmer, too,” Bert said to Dennis.

“I help out where I can. Lana’s dad has really helped me learn the equipment and the processes. I need to go back up a few times this week to get the work finished, but then I’ll need to be down here to work with the soccer team as part of my job,” Dennis said.

“What is your job?” Bert asked.

“I’m a trainer. I’ve been told I’ll be in charge of conditioning for the team,” Dennis said.

“You’re only a freshman, aren’t you?”

“I think they refer to it as a freshman with junior standing. It indicates that it’s my first year here, but I’ve already completed my AA in Exercise Science and Kinesiology with a Fitness Specialist Certification,” Dennis said proudly. It was the first time he’d used his whole degree and certification qualifications.

“Very impressive.”

“Dennis and I were in the same program at DMACC until I transferred mid-year,” Brenda said. “You should see his workouts. He was student coach of the state champion girls’ basketball team at Bartley, too.”

“I’ll introduce you to his workouts sometime soon,” Gransy said. “I like you and would like you to stick around a while.”

“Aw, that’s sweet, Betty. If I need to work out to keep up with a young chick like you, I’ll make it a priority.”

There were a few eyerolls among the crew but mostly they were trying to keep from laughing out loud. It was good to see Gransy with a guy she liked.

“Do you need to take off this week, Dennis?” Randy asked. “I can get along without you, but I’d really like that field seeded so we have a good crop of clover to turn in this fall.”

“I’ll stay here tonight, but we’re headed up to Bartley for church tomorrow. I promised Peg I’d be there to hear her sing. I’ll stay up there until Friday and then move down here to start work.”

That turned the conversation between Bert and Randy to things farm-based and the table resumed several different conversations among the rest of them.

“It’s our new home!” Amy said as the six entered through the front door. “Gransy said she’d be along ‘in a bit.’”

“I can’t believe we really have a place of our own, even though Dennis’s house has been home for us the past month or so,” Natalie said. “You really have an impressive title, lover,” she said turning to Dennis.

“‘Lover’ is the only title I really want,” he said, giving her a kiss.

“I’m glad Bert never got around to cross-examining me,” Ardith said. “I know I’m going to need to explain our relationship to others as we move into the fall term, but I wasn’t prepared tonight.”