Chapter 4

Friday afternoon when I left class I was running as I headed for my car. I had a lot to do that afternoon. First I made a quick trip to my personal bank and got some cash, then I headed to an appliance store. Uncle Silas had been old fashioned and I wanted convenience. I bought a microwave oven, a toaster oven, a toaster, and even an automatic coffee maker. Then while I was there I looked at the small freezers they had on display. After paying for my purchases, I loaded them into my car and began the drive to the town nearest the farm because that was where the bank Uncle Silas had used was.

I'd phoned the bank earlier and they had all the papers ready for me to sign so I could take over my inheritance and establish a new account for the farm. Actually, they were extremely good to me and I left the bank feeling a lot more secure. There had been more money in the account than I had expected and as well there had been a safety deposit box in Uncle Silas' name that they had changed over to mine. I'd had to sign for that and they'd insisted that I look at what was in it before officially taking the keys.

I really didn't look all that closely at everything in the box because I was meeting Mom and Dad and I was short of time. Luckily there really wasn't much more I had to do at the bank, so it wasn't long before I rushed away with my new 'temporary' cheque book in my hand.

It was only minutes later when Mom and Dad met me outside the local feed and seed merchant's warehouse and after a short greeting, we went in to talk to the manager. Dad wanted to be there when I first talked to him and I sure wasn't going to argue, I thought I might need his experience. After I'd introduced myself as Uncle Silas' heir, I found that he had left another surprise for me. He'd prepaid enough on his seed account the fall before that about half of my spring expenses for seed and fertilizer were already taken care of. It would all have been paid for, if I had left the seeding the way Uncle Silas had planned it, however I wanted to do a crop rotation system that called for some changes. It made no difference to the seed company, except that they had to add to an order for a few more bags of seed.

When I wrote them a cheque right away, the guy behind the desk grinned. "That's one thing I always liked about your uncle, he paid in advance." He said quietly. "There's some around here that want credit."

"I do my best not to work that way." I shook my head. "Usually if I can't pay for something, I do without, although I suppose there are times when credit might be a good thing."

"Well, your uncle spoke highly of you and so far you've impressed me, if there comes a day you need credit..." He reached out and took my hand, shaking it firmly. "Well, if that day comes, we'll talk, okay?"

"That suits me fine." I smiled.

Outside afterward, Dad simply clapped me on the shoulder and squeezed lightly.

"Thanks for popping in there with me." I grinned at him. "The support was appreciated."

"Well, I'd say Silas laid the ground work for you. Prepaying for seed like that isn't something most people can do any more."

"Well, if you looked at the deal, Uncle Silas was getting the same interest as if the money was in the bank and since the seedman had the money in hand, his debt load was lowered, or he had money to use. Either way, both of them profited."

"Glad you noticed." Dad grinned. "I'm feeling better about you being on your own already."

"I had a couple of good teachers." I grinned back, then turned to Mom. "You sure you want to come along, we've still got to go to the implement dealer and the fuel company. I mean you're welcome, but if you want to do something else?"

"Okay, since I've been in enough of those kind of places over the years. I'll go do some shopping and meet you at the café. I'm buying you supper."

"Unh uh. We can met you at the café and have coffee, but I'm going to get takeout and feed you at the farm." I laughed. "I want you to see the house now that it's cleaned up."

With Dad at my side to give me confidence, I went around to the main places that I knew of where Uncle Silas had done business and introduced myself. I was surprised to find that most of them knew about me already and some of the people even knew Dad personally. All in all, everything went well and after a quick coffee with Mom at the café, I stopped at a takeout chicken place, then they followed me out to the farm.

When we walked in, Mom was impressed with how much different the place looked when it was cleaned up, but gave me a rough time about leaving the heat turned up. That's when I pointed to a note on the table.

"Hey Tom. There's fresh milk and eggs in the fridge and I turned up the heat for you. It was colder than the hubs of hell in here. See you tomorrow, Willy."

Both Mom and Dad laughed, then after a quick tour around the house, we ate our takeout chicken and talked for a bit. Since they had to drive home and Dad didn't like driving too late at might, it wasn't long before they said their goodbyes and I was left alone.

After they were gone and I'd cleaned up the kitchen, I went out to the car to get all the new small appliances for the kitchen. Sitting down at the table after unpacking them and cleaning off all the labels, I read some of the instructions that came in the boxes. Then I used the new coffee maker to perk myself a cup of coffee.

The coffee tasted decent, but the house felt so empty that it wasn't long before I felt quite lonely. I decided that the only way I was going to be able to survive these weekends without having Lisa-Marie home would be to stay busy. I was thinking of digging out Uncle Silas' old accounts again with the idea of trying to make further sense of them. Now that I knew about his habit of prepaying some accounts, it might make some of the expenses seem more reasonable.

Then the phone rang.

It was Lisa-Marie and I don't think I've ever been happier to hear anyone's voice.

"Hi Tom. Miss me?" She asked.

"More than you'll ever know. This house is too empty without you here."

"Well..." She paused and I could hear her take a deep breath. "Don't get mad at me, huh?"

"Why would I get mad at you?"

"Well, you're probably going to get company in a little while."

"What, are you coming out here this weekend?"

"Maybe tomorrow, if I can, but I'm talking about tonight." She sighed softly. "I've got a soft heart and a softer head."

"What in hell are you talking about?" I demanded, thinking that I could hear fear in her voice. "What's wrong?"

"Please Tom, be patient with me. I told someone you'd let her stay there in the house tonight. Well... and maybe longer."

"What?"

"Just wait and listen would you? Please?" She pleaded.

"Okay, I'll listen, I guess." I took a breath to calm myself, wondering what was happening.

"Okay. First off, Andrea got pregnant. Second, she and Fred have broken up. Third, she had a fight with her Dad and he's told her she has to get out of the house." Lisa-Marie rattled off her words machine gun style, then paused.

I think she was waiting for me to speak, but I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Andrea called me and wanted to know if I was coming out this weekend. When I told her I wasn't, she started to cry. She doesn't have anywhere to go and hardly any money..." Lisa-Marie paused and her voice dropped almost to a whisper. "I thought she could stay with us for now... Well, there at the house... Maybe for a few days... Until she gets her life sorted out... Tom, I hope you don't mind, but I couldn't think of anything else to do for her."

"Oh jeez." I sighed, still sorting it out. "At least we've got a bedroom or two to spare."

"Oh thank you, Tom. I love you. I just couldn't think what else to do."

Just then there was a loud knock at the door.

"Oh shit, there's someone at the door. Can you hold on?"

"Of course I can hold on. It might be Andrea. If it is, I want to talk to her."

"Okay, I'll be back."

It wasn't Andrea. It was Willy.

"Hi Tom." He looked like hell. "Andy and Dad had a big fight and Dad threw Andy out of the house. Dad's being an asshole and Fred's being a prick. I've got Andy in the car with all her clothes. She's crying a lot, but she said she talked to Lisa-Marie on the phone and..."

"Yeah, I know. Lisa-Marie is on the phone right now and wants to talk to Andrea. Go get her and bring her in here."

As he nodded and went to get her, I moved back to the phone. "Hey kid. It was Willy. He gave Andrea a ride over with all her stuff."

"Oh, that's good. At least all of her family aren't pissed off with her." Lisa-Marie sighed. "I was worried about that."

Just then Andrea came in with Willy.

"Hi Andrea, sorry to hear you've got a few problems." I tried to say calmly as I held out the phone toward her. "Lisa-Marie, is on the phone and she wants to talk, okay?"

Andrea was crying, but she grabbed the phone and sat down.

"Well, where is her stuff?" I asked Willy because he had come in empty handed.

"She said she had to be sure that it was okay for her to stay and..."

"Let's get it. I'll give you a hand." I pushed him toward the door.

Once we were outside and a little way away from the house, I stopped him.

"Okay, exactly what the hell is going on? Why did Andrea and your Dad fight? And why is Fred being a prick?"

He grunted, then looked at me defiantly. "Remember last Saturday night when you said there was more to your Uncle Silas than most people knew, but that you couldn't say anything because it wasn't your business to tell about it? Well this is like that. It's Andy's business and she should be the one to say anything. I'm not talking."

"So, are you mad at her too?" I demanded.

"No and..."

"Good, I don't want to have to go hunting for someone else for a hired hand to do my chores and help out around the place."

"Oh for cripes sake." He laughed suddenly as he opened the trunk of his car. "You are the darnedest guy."

"What do you mean?" I said as I grabbed a couple of big garbage bags as he handed them to me. "Why am I so strange to you?"

"Well, you hardly know me and you know Andrea even less, yet you're opening your house to her. Then afterward, you were going to worry about whether or not I was going to still be your friend."

"Oh, I didn't worry about your friendship, just your sense of ethics." I said as we both walked to the door. "I wondered if you'd stand by your sister or your father or your word to me."

"Well, at the moment, I'm caught in the middle. Look, I can't talk about it, okay?" He sighed. "And on top of everything else, I'm worried about what Jean is going to do. I don't know whether she'll still be okay with going out with me or not."

"Oh shit. I didn't think of that." I said as we opened the door and went inside.

Andrea was still on the phone, but she looked up at me as we came in and she tried to smile through her tears.

"Lisa-Marie says she wants to talk and then I'm to tell you the whole story, okay" Andrea's voice was broken by little shudders as she handed me the phone.

"I guess." I answered and took the phone, feeling slightly confused.

"Hi" I said to Lisa-Marie as Andrea took the bags from me and took them upstairs.

"Oh Tom, this is so complicated. I'm going to have to hop in the car and drive out. I really think I should be there tonight to help Andrea."

"I thought you wanted to study." I said without thinking.

"I do and I will. I'll bring my books and study some when I'm there, but you're going to need me and Andrea already does."

"I don't know about me, but I think Andrea does."

Just then Willy came inside and went upstairs with more things, so I stopped talking.

"Good, as long as you can handle it 'til I get there." Lisa carried on. "I've told Andrea to put her stuff in the bedroom across the hall from the one that we've been using. Just talk to her until I get there, please? She needs a shoulder to cry on and someone to comfort her. She's carrying a ton of guilt and lots of strong feelings, so let her dump them, okay? "

"Cripes. This is not making sense!" I said quietly, hoping my voice wouldn't carry upstairs.

"Oh, it is, just a bit different is all. Right now she needs friends that won't judge her, okay?"

"Yeah, I guess. I really don't understand though."

"Okay, I'll explain what Andrea said to me once again. She got pregnant, but when she told Fred, he insisted that she get an abortion. After she agreed, she felt that things between them started to change. She got suspicious and the other night she found out he'd been going out with someone else, so she and Fred broke up. Then today her Dad heard about the abortion and he's a really strong old-fashioned Catholic. He got mad at her and she lost her temper. In the fight, he told her she was a slut and kicked her out of the house. Understand now?"

"Yeah sure, I guess." I sighed. "How long will it be before you get here? You might be right about my needing help."

"You'll be okay. I'm only going to be a couple of hours at the most. I should be there by nine-thirty or ten at the latest."

I was still on the phone when Willy came down the stairs and walked to the door. He paused long enough to wave and tell me that he had to go talk to Jean, then he left.

"Well, Willy just left, did you want to talk to Andrea again? I can get her back down from upstairs."

"No Love, I'm going to go get ready to drive out now. I want you to go talk to her, give her a hug and let her cry on your shoulder if she needs to, okay?"

"I guess. Drive safely now."

"Yes Tom, love you. I'll be there soon."

"See you then." I sighed.

After I hung up the phone, I sat there for a minute, thinking that I was really uncertain about this. Who was I to comfort a teenage girl with a broken heart? The only girl I'd ever really been close to had been Lisa-Marie and I had no experience with love affairs gone wrong. Finally with another deep sigh, I stood up and went into the kitchen, putting water on to boil, thinking I'd make tea.

I was taking down the tea pot when I heard a footstep and turned to see Andrea. She was standing at the doorway, looking around wildly, then she saw me and it seemed like she relaxed instantly.

"Oh, there you are." She said softly. "I don't want to be alone and I..."

"It's okay. I'm here." I tried to smile. "I was just making a pot of tea. Would you like a cup?"

"I suppose. But really I just want someone to talk to and..."

"We can do both." I gesture to the kitchen table. "Why don't you sit down, I'll get the tea ready and you can tell me whatever you want, or not, whichever you want to do."

She looked at me strangely and then sighed softly.

"Could we sit in the living room... on the couch... I want to touch someone, please?"

"We can sit where you want. Now just a second and I'll get us a cup of tea."

Ten minutes later, we were sitting side by side on the old love seat in the living room, our tea on the old battle-scarred table. She was sitting stiffly, her hands clasped together and her jaw clenched, so I reached out my hand and rested it on her wrist.

"Anything you say is okay, and I'll keep it a secret if you want." I whispered.

"Oh God, Tom. I feel so stupid." She moaned, then she leaned over against me.

"I wouldn't say that you were stupid." I said as I rested an arm around her shoulder so she could snuggle close. "You might have been a lot of things, but I doubt if stupidity is one of them."