Chapter 9

"The very first thing I noticed was the giant yellow pines, they're hard to miss," I said.

"No, I meant after you were back," Ehtel said.

"The most surprising thing was that it was like nothing happened here. It was a normal night for y'all, except for the thunderstorm," I said.

"You're getting warmer," she said, teasing.

"That's it, I was gone more than a week but as far as y'all knew I was back the next morning, house and all," I said.

"I might take back some of what I said about ya," she said, grinning now.

They were taking the house back tonight and probably intended to do something to it. I couldn't figure out what use they could have for it without me, or someone, in it.

I didn't have to be able too though, when you got right down to it. If they wanted the house they could take it whether I wanted them too or not. What Ethel had mentioned put a different light on things. The house could be taken somewhere for years and still be back in the morning. Whatever happened to it would be over by the time we woke up.

"What have you got Chuck and Dave up to? I saw Bob taking them down to my house too."

"They're gonna mow the place before it leaves," she said.

"I guess it can't hurt, but they don't really need to mow it as far out as they have been," I said.

"And you were doing so well for a while there. They're going to more than double the part they mow, and if it isn't big enough to suit me when I look at it in a couple of hours, I'll get another big mower or two to work on it," she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I think that's the guide they use when they send it off and it will be better if you have more room," she said.

"I don't see why I need more room."

"Well, he's backslidin' Wanda. I may as well give up," she said.

"You knew good sense couldn't stay with him long," Wanda said, smiling herself now.

"But I had such high hopes," Ethel said.

"Well, I assume that if they mow more, more will come and go with me. I just don't see how that will help me out," I said.

"Much fun as it is for me and Wanda to pick on you, I'm not sure it will help either. And no, I don't have one of those feelin's about it like we get before a trip. It just seems to me if we've made the obvious move of including more area, they might do something with it," she said.

"Like what?" I asked.

"I don't know what, or even if they will. I do know that nothing they've ever done, so far, caused us any grief," she said.

"Come on," Wanda said, "Let me show you the guest room."

I followed her and she pointed out a room that was obviously already occupied by a female. I gave her a look and she explained.

"Meka still has a long way to go learning English, but she didn't have any trouble letting us know you'd be sleeping here in her room," Wanda said.

"I guess it serves me right. She has to sleep in my room down at the house."

"Your room, there's only one room in it," Wanda said.

"There ya go. Right in one," I said, and smiled.

Ethel had the movers going double time. They got here half an hour quicker than they'd said, and they were down at the house with hundreds of boxes and dozens of rolls of bubble wrap not five minutes later. In less than two hours there wasn't a thing left in that house that wasn't attached.

They even swarmed over the barn, but George's hands had already cleaned it out.

Ethel made good on her threat to show up and inspect the progress. She was mainly interested in Chuck and Dave and their mowing. They had been seriously getting with it too. They were chugging away with the Kubota George had brought me and with the new one from up at George's house.

I now had at least fifteen hundred feet of frontage on the county road and a three strip wide path all around my extended place, making a nearly perfect rectangle. George told me Ethel had made he and Bob set some corner stakes for the boys before they started mowing.

"That box she made us outline is fifteen-hundred feet on the short side and three-thousand on the long one. She's got something in mind but I'm not sure what. She made sure they understood to start with the outside and work their way in," he said.

"Well, do what ya want, it's your land after all, but that's stretchin' my place from one acre to over a hundred," I said.

"It don't bother me one way or the other. We don't even have this part fenced, it's where we usually cut hay," he said.

"I guess it'll look nice anyway," I said.

Jake came down the drive then, in the Silverado George and the others had used when they visited before my first trip. I'd thought he was still around at the barn. He got out and went toward the tailgate and I noticed that all the moving guys headed over to him. My jaw dropped when he started handing out yard brooms and boxes of plastic lawn and leaf bags.

"Amazin' ain't it. There's no way in hell even that many guys can rake up all this, even if Chuck, Dave, and Cuatro - who's headed this way with another big mower - do get it all cut. Ethel laid the law down though. You, me, and Bob are just lucky we don't have to do any rakin'," George said.

"I think it might be time for us to head back to your house. I'm pretty sure there's something we need to take care of up there," I said.

"Yep, I had a little hidin' in mind myself. Ethel looks like she has things under control down here, and Jake can drive her anywhere she needs to go. You and me can go back to the house and cheer Wanda on," George said.

"Wanda, what's Wanda doing?" I asked.

"Gettin' supper started," he said, and we found his fifty-six and hauled our asses.

Ethel had the movers drop the two trailers up near their big barn. She told them we'd need them to hold my things until my new house was ready. Of course we'd need to do all the unloading ourselves and that left me wondering where we'd get a truck to take them back down to the house in the morning. I didn't wonder after I mentioned it at the table.

"That won't no problem at all. The timber business giveth and the timber business taketh away. I just happen to know of a feller who thought he had a great idea for his log trucks," George said.

"What was that?" I asked, I couldn't help myself.

"He decided, since he always had his drivers haulin' overloaded anyway, that he may as well buy tractors with sleepers. That way he could get his drivers over-the-road-loads when they couldn't get into tha woods, and the extra weight from the sleeper wouldn't make any difference worth mentionin' to his overload tickets.

"Might have worked too, if he'd been careful to give the sleeper trucks to drivers who at least knew how to back by mirrors. That ain't somethin' that comes up much with a load of logs, don't cha know.

"Didn't matter at all though. Our other hometown bank happens to have possession of the two trucks he ordered that way. They are humdingers too. Bill Granderson bought top of the line Western Stars and brand new pole trailers. In fact, Jerry Charlton just finished the trailers, and he builds the best ones anywhere 'round here," George said.

"I guess the pulpwood downturn did a number on Bill Granderson too, whoever he is - I've never heard of him."

"He weren't from 'round here. That might have somethin' to do with why he wasn't goin' broke. None of that matters now though.

"I know you heard about him even if you didn't pay it no mind. Good old Bill was givin' his pretty young secretary the high hard one, back in his office after quittin' time one afternoon when his wife came by to see him after she got off from her job at the grade school.

"They say she wanted him to come on her exercise walk with her and she was already dressed for it. Old Bill had just bought her a 25 automatic to carry with her while she walked, and he'd even taught her how to shoot it, a little anyway.

"He did a better job than he thought too, cause she shot him right in the left eyeball. Seems he liked to do it dog style and he had the young gal bent over his desk, poundin' away when Marilyn walked in," George said, while everyone else at the table snickered, except Meka.

"I guess Marilyn is a guest of the county now?"

"Naw, she never was even booked, not even charged. She teaches Sunday School at the First Baptist Church. There's an election coming up next spring and the District Attorney has to run again, Police chief too, for that matter. They both knew better than to start anything. The Grand Jury would no-bill her in a heartbeat and the First Baptist Church has over two thousand registered voters among its members.