Chapter 4

It was a couple of weeks later that I noticed a moving truck at Bev's old house. After I got home, I was all set to tell her about it when she held up an envelope.

"My birth father sold the ranch," she told me. "He sent me this."

Inside were three sheets of personalized stationary. Both her parents' names were listed at the top. Somehow I didn't see her father writing a lot of personal letters. I wouldn't be surprised if the last time the stationary was used was when Bev's mother was alive and wrote thank you notes. The handwriting was small and cramped but still legible.

It was a strange letter. He told her how he'd treated her as a second class citizen after her mother cheated on him. He never apologized for doing it; he just recognized it must have been hard on her. He essentially said goodbye forever, stating that she seemed to be content as a member of my family and that he was fine with that. He mentioned that he had hoped at least Jimmy would live up to his expectations and that he'd proven to be a big disappointment. Reading between the lines, the disappointment wasn't because of Jimmy's behavior so much as the fact that he got caught. It implied that Bev was an even bigger disappointment.

He told her that he'd sold everything off, was going to start over and he'd be gone by the time she got the letter. The last sentence was, "I'm probably going to regret this, but I'm enclosing a check. Use it for college or whatever you want."

"What did he give you?" I asked her.

"Five thousand."

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah. I don't know why, I never expected this. Deep down, I hoped he would change and suddenly like me. I guess that's never going to happen."

"It's tough to say this about family but I think you're better off without both of them."

"Hey, I've got my family right here. That's why I call him my birth father." She wrapped her arms around my neck and held on tight. I put mine around her waist and pulled her close.

"I was going to tell you I saw a moving van in the driveway when I drove by."

"It's probably the new people moving in. Let's grab some lunch, then we can go over and introduce ourselves. Maybe help out a bit."

"Sounds good."

We had lunch and invited Mom, Dad and Vicky to go next door with us. Mom and Dad were going into town to take Dad to see a doctor. He'd been feeling weak lately and she finally convinced him to go. They said they would stop by if it wasn't too late. Vicky said she'd go with us but she wasn't very enthusiastic about it.

She'd come to feel better about herself as a person since school ended. She no longer felt she was destined to spend the rest of her life on her knees giving head. That didn't stop her from feeling like a third wheel, though. It was the little sister forcing herself off on the big kids all over again. Bev and I tried but it was tough to grow our relationship with Vicky always hanging around.

After we cleaned up the kitchen, we drove next door. Have I mentioned the house is about seven miles from ours, by horse, directly across both ranches? Add the drive to the main road in both directions and it's just under nine. On the way over, I said, "Who knows anything about Dad? I've never known him to go to a doctor voluntarily. The few times he did see one, he had to be dragged to the emergency room for stitches or to set a broken bone."

Neither of the girls knew anything but started coming up with things they had seen but not noticed. Things like Dad going to bed early, spending more time sitting and dozing on the porch than was usual and that he wasn't eating like he used to. We agreed that it was time for us to all keep an eye on him.

I made a wish that there wasn't anything seriously wrong with him and if there was that it would fix itself. I didn't feel the slight wrongness I always do when wishing something.

We pulled into the driveway in time to see a kid who looked a little younger than me pulling a cart stacked with boxes. A woman was bent over part way, pushing on the boxes. She had on a pair of jeans that were that deep blue that only lasts till the first washing. Her thighs and her butt we both straining the fabric. Not to say that she was fat. She was muscular and was using those particular muscles to try to get the cart moving faster. The U-Haul was parked with the back pointing at us and the ramp down to the driveway. It looked like they'd just made the turn towards the house after coming down the ramp.

They had a couple of 2X8s laying over the steps to the porch and were twisting the cart around to come straight at them as we started walking towards the house. I could see everything on the cart shake as the wheels hit them and stopped.

I ran up to them and grabbed onto the handle with the boy. Bev and Vicky got on either side of the woman and joined her with their hands on the stack of boxes. We quickly introduced ourselves and I found out they were Grace and Kyle Bell.

"OK, on three, we'll lift and you guys push," I said. "One, Two, Three."

It was a big cart and had wheels at the front, the back and the middle. The middle set got stuck next and it took Bev and Vicky lifting from the bottom while Kyle and I pulled and Grace pushed as hard as we all could. We had to do the same thing for the final pair of wheels.

We got up on the porch to find the threshold was even worse than the slabs of wood.

"That's enough," I said. "There are enough of us to just grab boxes and carry them in."

They were all labeled so it was just a matter of finding out which room was Grace's, Kyle's and Christina's. Christina had carried something in while her mother and brother were struggling with the cart and had just camped out on the couch to wait. Grace told her to get her butt of the couch and lend a hand.

Grace was a looker. She was about the same age as my mom and it would be a real chore to figure out which one looked better. She had on her new jeans and a white, long sleeve blouse with the sleeves rolled up halfway. There were a couple of buttons at the top of the blouse undone but they were too high to display anything. The blouse was tucked into her jeans and it was tight over her breasts. You could tell she was wearing an embroidered bra that was darker than the white of her blouse. It was doing its job and her impressive bust was firm and high. I wondered how much they would sag if they were let free. I'd be willing to bet they'd been used to feed both Kyle and Christina. Her hips flared out and it was obvious the woman was built for delivering babies.

Kyle was going to be a junior in high school. He was close to six foot tall already and had some good muscular definition. I found out he'd played football his first two years and the coaching staff had him eating and exercising to bulk up. Christina was eight and she was bored.

After we emptied that cart, Grace told us all to come into the kitchen for something to drink. They hadn't brought the refrigerator in yet but they had a big ice chest with three one gallon milk containers of lemonade. She had a yard of red, plastic, throwaway cups that she dealt out and filled.

"Gosh, Val, I'm so glad you three showed up. We would have been all night trying to move that stuff. I don't know if we'd have ever gotten that cart onto the porch," Grace said.

"Can I make some suggestions?"

"Sure."

"You know that ramp in the U-Haul doesn't have to go down, don't you?"

"I don't see what you're getting at."

"We could turn it around so the back door is facing the porch. The ramp could lay on the porch. I'm not sure how wide it is. We might be able to get it inside the door so you don't have to worry about the threshold. If not, we can put one of the 2X8s against it and put the ramp on the 2X8. You could put a couple of people in the truck to bring stuff out, then four of us could distribute stuff throughout the house."

"We've got a refrigerator and a stove and all our beds."

"Kyle and I can probably take care of the kitchen stuff. A couple of you can team up on the mattresses. Christine can handle pieces of the bedframe. You'd be surprised how much faster it will go with twice as many people."

Grace said, "You may have to rethink your division of labor," winked at me and nodded to her left. Vicky and Kyle were have an intense conversation about JFK and what he could expect and how she'd be there to make sure everything went smoothly in the fall.

Christina did not look happy with that particular turn of events.

I moved the truck and we ended up with the ramp on top of a 2X8, just outside the front door. Kyle and I muscled the mattresses down the ramp and leaned them all against the living room wall while the women took all the smaller bedpieces into their rooms. They got them placed where they wanted the beds and put them all together. They got all the beds set up, found sheets and made them all while Kyle and I got the oven and fridge into the kitchen.

I called Mom and she said they weren't going to make it. I asked how Dad was and she told me he was tired and was in for a nap. They'd done a lot of tests but wouldn't know anything definite for a few days. I had the feeling there was more but she wasn't telling me.

Kyle had been driving for three months and while he thought he could do just about anything with a car, Grace didn't agree. She was more than happy to let Bev follow me to return the U-haul. They had food to put in the refrigerator and a whole household to put away. Vicky and Kyle were getting along great and she said she'd help him feed the horses while we were gone. Grace gave me $40 and told me to pick up some food at the barbecue place we'd told her about when we took our previous break.

We met at the U-Haul place and I parked the truck in a space marked for returns. We went through the procedure, checking the gas, kicking the tires, making sure the carts and furniture covers were all there. He wrote the balance that was going to be charged and asked for a signature. I scribbled my name on the form.

He started to tear the copies apart then he put it back down and looked closer. He looked at Bev and said, "You have to sign."

"I'm just here to give him a ride back."

"You mean you aren't Grace Bell?"

"No."

He looked over at me.

"Grace is the lady who rented the truck. We're just helping her out so she can supervise putting everything they moved away. She already signed for the credit card charges."

"But she's the one who rented the truck. I need her to sign that it's been returned."

"It's returned. You just inspected it."

"But there could be something wrong and I don't have her signature."

We went round and round and he wasn't giving an inch. He claimed I could have kidnapped her and returned the truck and then they'd be liable. The guy had quite an imagination, that's for sure.

Bev dialed someone on her phone and waited.

"Ronnie, please ... Bev Hendrix."

"Ronnie, it's Bev. No, nothing new. Look, I'm sorry to bother you, but we've got a problem here. We helped out a family that bought my old place and Val and I returned the U-Haul and were going to take back dinner. The guy at the U-Haul place is insisting on a signature from the person who rented it. Is that really something that's required by law? OK, thanks."

I handed the phone over to the kid behind the counter. "My lawyer wants to talk to you," I said. He looked at it like he was afraid it would bite him.

"Hello?" he kind of squeaked. "Jeremy. Hughes. I'm 16, Ma'am. $8.50 an hour. Just a minute."

He spun the contract around and examined the place I'd signed, squinting a bit.

"It just says 'Signature of Person Returning Vehicle.' No ma'am. Just what I told you. Oh, no, Ma'am. I couldn't live on $2 an hour. Yes, Ma'am. Thank you Ma'am. I won't Ma'am. OK."

He handed the phone back to Bev. I could see that he was happy to get rid of it.

Bev giggled, thanked Ronnie and hanged up.

He tore off our copy and handed it to me. "OK, you can go now."

We turned around to leave only to hear, "Wait. Hold on a minute."

"Now what?" Bev sighed under her breath.

We went back to the counter. Jeremy was digging through one of the drawers. He finally found what he was looking for.

"Here. This is for you. For all the trouble I caused." He handed me a coupon good for one month's free storage with purchase of a second month.

Bev looked at it and smiled at him. "Thank you, Jeremy. You're a dear."

We left and I leaned over. "You made his day," I whispered.

"I know," she whispered back.

We got in my truck and headed over to the BBQ Shack. I love my truck. Especially after driving that U-Haul boat.

We'd gone about a block when Bev said, "So, what do you think about Grace?"

"She's nice."

"Nice?"

"What do you expect? I don't know her that well. She does a good job mixing up canned lemonade."

"So, Nice gives you a hard on?"

"Come on, Bev. She's old enough to be my mother. Just hope you look as good as she does when you're her age."