Chapter 7

Reflected sunlight flashed against the chintz curtains framing Martina Melton's oval face. She absently brushed a few strands of auburn hair back from her eyes as they wandered over the parking lot and store where her husband worked alone. She had finished the dinner dishes and glanced into the yard when the first flash, the one Josh Hardesty caused when he opened his car door, briefly brightening the sewing room walls. She watched Josh's lean form glide into the cab, then blinked at the second flash when he closed it. She wondered why, when most people who had those big four-wheel-drive trucks took off the mufflers, Josh went to such trouble to keep his so quiet. She could not hear it running even though she was only thirty yards away. She was glad he and Toby got along so well, and Josh had been so much help in getting Toby started in his dream business. Toby seemed to mellow so much when he was around Josh. It had to be, at least partly, because of the quiet strength that poured from the younger man.

She turned away still thoughtful as the big wagon pulled out onto the back road bordering the old farmstead. She wondered what Josh would say if he knew the tensions surrounding their marriage. It wasn't that Toby was a bad person, or that he didn't love his wife. She knew he loved her, but had a hard time showing it. She knew his moodiness and the bombastic tone he sometimes used was just basic insecurities brought about by, first the difference in their ages, and second because she was, and she knew it, an uncommonly beautiful woman.

She stopped and admired herself in the full length dressmaker's mirror flanking the sewing room door. At 105 pounds her five foot frame was neither lush, nor plump, but firmly compact with a figure that never failed to earn her stares from men, and glares from the women with whom she came in contact. She cupped her breasts which would have overflowed a c-cup if she wore a bra, but were firm enough that, even at 26 years of age, they barely moved when she walked. She did wear a bra most of the time, but around the house she wore an old gray sweat shirt and did without the sometimes painful confinement. The over-large sweat shirt, and ankle-length denim skirt served to de-emphasize the graceful curves of her dancer's legs, the rounded fullness of her hips, and the impossibly narrow span of her waist, 21 inches, which seemed even smaller when seen against the rest of her body.

A husky chuckle slipped past her lips as she remembered the comments overheard at the grocery store the day before.

" She's an unmitigated hussy," one of the three tint-headed harridans stated with profound authority. " She tricked him into marrying her when she found out that he owned so much land with oil wells on it."

" Yes, " said another in confirmation. " She's a two bit tramp from Las Vegas that married him for his money. She probably got him drunk, or maybe even drugged him and got one of those quickie Nevada marriages."

" They ought to be illegal." creaked the third. " Everyone should get married in a real church, by a real Minister of God. Why, I bet she has never been in a real church in her life. The good Lord would probably strike her dead before she could set foot in a real church."

The last voice was recognizably Jessica Whitburn's. Her husband, Jeremy, had tried to grope her when she ran into him at the Louisiana State Fair in Shreveport. He was alone and knew Toby was in New Orleans at a gun show. He seemed to think, because he owned the local propane company, that he was " God's gift to women." Jeremy Whitburn was only four inches taller than Marty, and his three hundred pounds would almost make three of her, but it didn't stop her from knocking him to his jellylike tush when he came up behind her and grabbed at her bottom while he 'charmed' her with a " Goddamn, you've got a gorgeous ass."

Jessica was, like her husband of 27 years, grossly overweight and firmly committed to vilifying any and everyone who weighed less, or looked better than she. Her two co-harridans were Martha Turnbeck and Sarah Jean Richardson.

Sarah Jean, a recent addition to the threesome, and her husband Rich recently moved back into town after her parents died and left them a large tract of land. They had lived the last twenty-five years in Richardson, Texas where Rich made a modest living selling life insurance for a small Texas company. Sarah Jean was everything Jessica was not, at least in physical development. She towered a full nine inches above Jessica but carried around less than half the weight. Self conscious about her height she was always to be found stooping. Her gaunt frame and overlong nose, allied with the stoop, gave her the appearance of a starving vulture.

Martha, pronounced ' MA-ther, ' was the most attractive of the three, at least from a distance. She, like Sarah Jean, was tall. At 5'9" she was just an inch and a half shorter than her closest friend and, she was also obese. Martha did carry her 193 pounds better than Jessica carried hers, but the weight was not distributed well. Toby hit the nail on the head when he described her as " The upside down bowling pin with a mouth."

Martha had been the one suggesting Marty had drugged Toby and shanghaied him into a gold digger's marriage. The truth was much different and as Josh stated upon learning the circumstances, " Where else but in a fairy tale would you get a fairy tale princess." She and Toby first met across an aisle on a flight from Dallas to Las Vegas. He had just opened ' The Bottom Line ' and was on his way to a national convention in hopes of stocking his shelves with the lower prices usually existing at trade shows. She was headed home after two weeks of negotiations with a film company in Austin. They wanted to tie her to a four year contract with a guarantee of six pictures and ten million dollars, but would not allow her numerous perks, such as script approval. Surprisingly enough Toby did not, at first, even notice her. It wasn't until she and the stewardess both dropped her carry-on trying to put it in the overhead-rack that he finally stood, and without a word or even a glance at her striking figure, gripped the small suitcase and effortlessly pushed it to the rear of the storage compartment.