Chapter 10

Day 176 Friday, April 14

The next three and a half weeks were the best in my life so far. I put in a lot of hours on the farm, but the crop was in and I had a real feeling of accomplishment. The fertilizer was on and the next thing I'd have to do to it was to apply an herbicide.

Karen was spending almost every night at our place now. Patty, Karen and I were becoming closer every day. No one had said anything, but I think Claude and mom were becoming closer too. Claude spent at least two or three evenings a week at our place. The five of us would sit around and talk for hours.

Claude took our two older beef cattle off to market during that time and he sold us a Guernsey milk cow that had recently come fresh. Mom taught us how to milk and Patty, Karen and I took care of it from then on. Claude also helped me haul our steer in to the butcher.

Karen, Patty and I celebrated the crop being in by going out to dinner and then a movie. Neither mom nor Claude questioned Patty going with us on a date. We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. I dearly love Chinese food. Then we went to a movie and the girls wanted to see the latest horror flick.

The movie was a lot of fun because both girls had one of my arms pulled around them and I managed to get in quite a bit of friendly groping.

Day 177 Saturday, April 15

Claude was over for breakfast and after we'd finished eating I told him I'd like to talk to him for a while if he had time. He agreed and we walked out to the barn and found seats on bales of hay. "Claude, do you think there's any future in farming?"

"I don't know, Son. I'd like to think there is, but it seems like the cost of everything goes up every year and the money we get from our crops goes down. It's a way of life that I love though."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Our farm has a little over five hundred acres. About half of that is tillable and the rest is mostly pasture land. I've been thinking about raising cattle. Maybe start off with a good Charlais or Simmental bull. We could sell the offsprings for beef and maybe we could breed and sell choice bulls."

Claude thought for a while then said, "I've been doing a little thinking along those lines myself. Not to go completely to beef production, but as a supplement to my regular farming. My biggest problem and it would be yours too, is that I just don't have enough land to support a herd big enough to support the farm."

"It sounds like an awful lot of work. Could one man handle working the crops and taking care of that many cattle?"

"Probably not, but then there are other things you can do. For years I've hired people on a temporary basis to help out when they're needed."

"Yeah, I've benefitted from your needing help a few times myself," I grinned.

"I've had something else cooking in my brain for a while, but I'm just not ready to talk about it yet. We'll talk more in a month or so. Maybe by then I'll have it all figured out."

It was so nice to have some free time, now that the corn was planted that I wanted to enjoy it to the max. As Claude and I were walking back to the house I decided I'd enjoy it the most if I spent it with Karen and Patty.

Mom said she had a fresh pot of coffee when we got there, so Claude and I sat down to have a cup. I motioned for Karen to come over and she claimed a spot on my lap. "Do you know if your cousin is working today?" I whispered.

Karen's smile would have lighted Montana when she said, "No, but I can find out."

Karen excused herself and she went into the living room. She was back in a few minutes and she whispered, "Two-thirty."

Patty was looking puzzled, so Karen said, "Come on, Patty, let's clean up the upstairs. You live like a pig."

Patty threw a dish cloth at her, then Karen chased my sister out of the room. Claude and I just looked at each other and shook our heads.

Karen, Patty and I had pretty much established our behavior in the hot tub over the winter months. Although we were now a lot more intimate than we had been in the past, it just didn't seem right to change our behavior here.

We did enjoy cuddling, caressing, and kissing as we relaxed in the hot bubbling water, but we didn't go much farther than that. We also enjoyed talking as we soaked. Many of our most interesting discoveries about each other came while we were soaking.

"You know, we should put one of these in at home, when we can afford it," Patty said.

"I don't know if I'd ever get any work done if we did," I said.

"Wouldn't it be nice to sink into a hot tub after a long day?" Patty asked.

"Yeah, I guess it would. I'd be afraid I'd come in from the fields every day and find two girls who looked like white raisins from soaking too long though."

Both girls got a giggle out of that. "At some point I know we're going to have more than one tractor. When that time comes, I plan to be in the field with you," Karen said.

"Yeah, don't get all macho on us, Big Bro. Karen and I have talked it over and we plan to help as much as possible."

"I appreciate that, Patty cake. God, I haven't called you Patty cake in years. Anyway, I will appreciate your help, but I don't want either of you doing anything that is going to hurt you. Driving a tractor isn't bad if it's got power steering, but I don't want either of you doing any heavy lifting."

"Don't you want us looking like Mrs. Wiseman?" Karen asked.

"No, I don't. I feel sorry for her. She looks like she's had a hard life. She's a nice lady too."

"Yeah, she is nice," Karen said. "She does look bad though. I think you're right about lifting heavy things. I don't think George does much of anything around their farm. I don't know how many times I've seen her grab a hundred pound sack of feed, throw it up on her shoulder, and carry it from their truck to the barn."

"That kind of life ages a woman fast. She's no older than mom, but she looks fifty."

We all sat quietly for a while, thinking about hard working women and worthless men. It's hard on a woman if she has a job in the city to support a man who just doesn't want to pull his share. On a farm, it's a woman killer.

"You know," Karen said. "We've got just a little over a month of school left. How much time are you going to have to put in on the corn crop during the summer, Ed?"

"It's not going to be bad with just one field of one crop. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering. I heard you talking to dad about raising beef cattle and I wondered if you'd thought about fences?"

"Yeah," I said with a sigh. "Our fences are a mess. The one around the little pasture where our milk cow is isn't bad, but the rest of the pasture fences are almost at a point where it would be better to tear them down and start over."

"We should start working on them this summer then. Patty and I can help with that."

"I guess you could. We'll have to talk with mom and find out how much we can afford to spend on fencing materials."

We all snuggled together for a few minutes then I asked, "What are we going to do about the Prom this year?"

"What would you like to do for the Prom?" Karen asked with a sly little smile.

"Well, I'd like to take my fiancé, but I was wondering if that would be fair to Patty."

"I have a solution if you guys would go for it," Patty said.

"What's that, Sis?"

"Alex Walters invited me to go with him. I reminded him that I have a boyfriend and that if I went with him, it would be as 'just a friend'. He said he could live with that, so I told him I'd let him know by the end of next week," Patty said.

I looked at Karen and she nodded. "We could always hang out together," Karen said. "I'm sure your bratty little sister would give you a dance or two."

Day 192 Sunday, May 1

Patty, Karen, and mom decided they were going into the city today to look at Prom dresses. After they left, I decided to go over and visit with Claude for a while. Claude and I had grown even closer since Martha's death. At first I thought of him as Karen's dad. Then I started thinking of him as someone I wished had been my father. Now I thought of him as a father/friend.

Claude was sitting on the porch swing when I got there. I went up and took a seat myself. "When Jenny told me she was taking the girls to look for Prom dresses, I wondered if you might come over," Claude said.

"Yeah, I guess I just needed a little company. I'm not disturbing you am I?"

"No... I was just sitting here thinking about how some things change and others stay the same. It's either five or six generations of my family that have been on this farm. I can remember when I was just a little boy, sitting here on this porch listening to my great grandfather telling about farming when he was a young man."

"It had to be very different back then," I said.

"Oh, it was. They didn't have all of the equipment we have now. He plowed his fields behind a team of horses. Then he used a harrow to break up the soil. What we can do in a day took him a week or more. It was a hard life, but I think it must have been an interesting one too."

"That would have been, what, the early 1900's?"

"About then. My great grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee Indian. My grandfather used to tell everyone he was a half-breed. A hundred years ago calling someone a half-breed was as bad as calling them a nigger. My grandmother never let that bother her though. When granddad would tell anyone about his ancestry, she'd just smile and shake her head. She used to tell people that granddad was all man and that he wasn't half anything."

"It sounds like they were good people."

"They were, but they were hillbillies. A lot of people look down on hillbillies, but they are the most honest, generous people I've ever come across. If they're your friend, they're your friend for life. They'd work themselves to death to help you out if you're in trouble. If you're their enemy, you're their enemy until death."

We sat there in silence for a while. Finally, Claude started talking again. "Martha and I wanted a son, so we could turn this place over to him when we passed on. We were blessed with Karen, but then Martha couldn't have any more children. It bothered us for a while, but about a month before she died, Martha told me we should be proud to turn this place over to Karen and you. She was right."

"Thank you, Claude. You couldn't have paid me a better compliment. I loved Martha, you know."

"I know that, Son. She told me she had a nice long talk with you right after we found out about her cancer."

I nodded, too choked up to say anything.

"She said she told you about what she'd like for me to do about going on with my life and finding another woman."

"Yes. She even told me who she'd like for the other woman to be."

"How did you feel about that?"

"I told her you were already more of a father to me than my dad had ever been. I told her I wouldn't try to push you into anything, but if it worked out the way she wanted it to I'd be very happy."

"Thank you, Ed. I loved Martha more than life itself. If I could have taken her cancer away, I'd have gladly died in her place. When she told me that, I thought she was totally nuts. I never thought I'd ever love anyone in that way again."

I just nodded.

"Jenny and I have spent time together nearly every day since Martha died. She's been a big help, letting me talk through things. We've grown very close. We haven't been physical, but we have become intimate. I've told her things I'd have never told anyone except Martha."

"She's a good woman, Claude, and a very caring person. I think that if she was with the right man that she'd be a very loving person."

"We haven't talked about marriage or anything like that, but I was wondering what you'd think if someday we did get married."