Chapter 11

Day 198 Saturday, May 7

One of the bad things about living on a farm, especially when you're living with your mother, is that you can't put off your morning chores while you make love in the morning. We knew mom would be waiting for us, so we got dressed and went to do our chores right after we woke up.

When we got downstairs, mom wasn't waiting for us. We went ahead and did our chores and mom still wasn't up when we went back in. Patty said she'd wake her and took off to mom's room. Mom wasn't there.

Karen and Patty went ahead and fixed breakfast. We were eating when mom came in. "I hope you made enough for me," she said as she went over and started dishing out a plate of food. "I'm as hungry as a bear."

When mom came over to the table and started eating, Patty said, "You sure must have gotten up early."

"Uh... Not really," mom said.

"Where were you then?" Patty asked. I suspected I knew, but I hadn't talked to Karen or Patty about what Martha or Claude and I had talked about.

"Well... Uh... I spent the night at Claude's. I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you all about this. Claude asked me to marry him. I said, yes."

Karen and Patty both lit up like candles. Both of them jumped up and hugged mom. I just sat there and smiled.

"You don't look surprised, Ed," mom said.

"I'm not. I had a long talk with Martha just before she died. She told me she hoped the two of you would get together and asked me my opinion. Then a while back, Claude told me you guys were getting close and asked how I'd feel if the two of you got married. I told them both I'd be thrilled."

"And you didn't tell us!" Karen exploded.

"No, I didn't, Love. Neither one of the said it was something they wanted spread around."

"So, how do you feel about Claude and me, Karen?" mom asked.

"I'm tickled to death," Karen said. "I love you almost as much as I loved my mom. I think you and dad will make each other happy."

"How about you, Patty?"

"Mom, Claude is much more of a father to me than dad was. I'm happy for both of you."

Claude came over a little later and we all sat down with some coffee. Mom told Claude right away that she had told us they were getting married and what our reactions had been. Claude just sat back and smiled.

"So, Mom, did you guys set Claude's mattress on fire last night?" Patty teased.

"That's none of your business, girl. Would you like it if I asked you if you had sex with your brother last night?"

"Actually, I wouldn't mind if you asked," Patty said. "Just to get everything out in the open, the three of us consider ourselves married to each other."

Claude laughed and so did mom. "Did you think you were going to shock us, Patty?" Claude asked. "We've known about you guys for a long time. Even Martha knew. We're not shocked by it, but we don't think you should let anyone outside the five of us know."

Patty went over and hugged Claude. "We're not totally stupid, Dad," she said. "We did think you and mom should be aware of it though."

"Well we're aware of it. Just so you won't worry unnecessarily, I have a fire extinguisher in my bedroom."

We all got a giggle out of that, then Claude got serious.

"Jenny and I have been doing a lot of talking. We've been discussing some of the things Ed and I have been talking about over the last few months and we have a proposition for you."

"Okay, what's that?" I asked.

"My farm has almost six hundred acres in it. Yours has a little over five hundred. The only farm between ours is Clem Ferguson's place. He has around eight hundred acres."

I nodded and he went on.

"Clem is only fifty-one, but he had a stroke last fall and he's not going to be able to farm any more. His kids have all moved away and he told me last month he was planning to sell his place. I think we should buy it."

"If we bought Ferguson's place, and we included all three farms together, we'd have around 1900 acres to play with. Figuring even $150 per head profit and raising 450 head per year, we'd be able to clear $67,500 per year on beef cattle alone. We should be able to clear at least that much on bulls and heifers as well. Add to that the crops we'd sell and we would have a pretty good income for the five of us."

"Are you suggesting a partnership?" I asked.

"Yep. It just makes sense. You and Patty are going to inherit this place anyway. Karen is going to inherit my place, so the three of you are going to end up with both of these places anyway."

"Dad, if we did this, we should form a corporation. That way it'd protect us against any liability. If we owned the farms individually and leased them to the corporation for enough to pay the taxes, they wouldn't be an asset of the corporation, so we wouldn't be in jeopardy of losing them if one of our hired hands had an accident or something. You should talk to Leeana about that, but I think I have it right," Karen said.

"Girl, how did you get so smart?" mom asked.

"Just pure natural talent," Karen said as she stood up and bowed.

After we quit laughing, I asked, "Do you know how much Ferguson wants for his place?"

"No, but I'll ask him on Monday. His house is almost falling down, but he has some nice, almost new, equipment."

"Where are we going to live after you guys get married?" Karen asked.

"We've been talking about that too," mom said. "Would you three prefer we all live together after you are married, or would you want a house of your own?"

Patty, Karen and I all looked at each other, then Karen spoke for all of us. "I think we'd just as soon all of us lived together." Patty and I nodded. "All of us have lost a family member in the last year. We'd like to be as close to the rest of our family as we can."