Chapter 6

I was down on my hands and knees trying to force one of the new couplers I'd been attaching to the old hoses I'd purchased to plug into one of the old irrigation pipe fittings I was trying to use. I was getting frustrated by my lack of success, and by the fact that the leaking water was soaking my jeans all around where my knees contacted the ground. I hadn't been able to figure out why the damn thing wouldn't fit like it was supposed to.

"You can't get a male coupler to slide into a male pipe nozzle. One of them needs to be a female."

I looked up to see why Tina was telling me something I already knew. From her smile, I decided to look more closely at the pipe fitting again. Sure enough, someone had attached a male nozzle to the pipe. As soon as I saw it, I knew I should have checked all the fittings on the irrigation pipe I'd dragged over to set up my newly configured run of hoses. I went back and checked the other nine pipes I'd brought out with me to attach the hoses to. Of the ten, six of them had the male connectors, and would be completely useless to me until after I got new female connectors to replace the old ones. I used the four pipes that were configured correctly, surprised that Tina stood back watching me without saying anything more.

"Did you have something else you wanted to tell me, Tina?"

"Uncle Lupe. I found out how much he used to make over at the other farm. Two fifty a week, take home. My Aunt Maria told me you wouldn't have to pay him as much. She thought one fifty a week would be okay."

"Okay, thanks. I'll talk to him as soon as I get back to the equipment shed with the bad pipe. I was needing someone to help us with all the extra irrigating we're going to be doing. I'd be happy if Lupe would come to work for us."

I watched her walking away. I knew she was deliberately swinging her hips more than she needed to. Still, even as conceited as she seemed to be, I couldn't honestly say she didn't have good reason to be. I wondered if her coming out in the fields like she had was the first salvo in her planned conquest of me. If it was, I had to admit it had been an effective sortie. I knew she'd be in the back of my mind for some time to come. If that had been her plan, to get me thinking about her, it had worked.

"Lupe, I haven't seen you leaving the farm much. Are you okay? No injuries or other complaints?"

"Work slow now, Jefe. No one hiring right now."

"I could use a good man to help out with the irrigation and miscellaneous stuff here on the farm. It doesn't pay much, but it would be steady work for you until something better comes along."

"You need something, I'm happy to help. You don't need give me a job though."

"You don't understand, Lupe, I really need another good hand working out here. With all the new land to get ready for planting more trees, Anita and me, we can't handle it all alone. We could barely get by when it was only half as much land as we're farming now. If you come on full time, I can give you two fifty in cash every Friday, and still pay you and your brother in law ten cents a pound for the harvest. You'd be doing me a huge favor by saying yes."

"You really got work for Lupe, is good."

The two of us were able to switch out those male hose nozzles on the pipe in less than an hour, working together. On my own, I knew it would have taken me several times as long to get it done. I worked alongside Lupe for the rest of the day. It was hard keeping up with the pace he set, and I was dog tired by the time we knocked off at around six o'clock. Being shorter than me by about a foot, Lupe could bend down and scamper underneath the lowest limbs of the trees. That made the hose placing go much quicker and be more precise than the way I used to do it, by shaking the hose to get it close to the tree trunk to make the soaking go close to the roots. It was easy to see that Lupe knew his way around any kind of farm labor. I was glad when he agreed that we needed to call it a day and head back to the house for dinner. If he'd stayed out there much longer, I'd have probably deserted him and gone back to the house by myself. As it was, we barely had time to wash up before the supper was on the table.

I heard Lupe and Maria talking quietly in Spanish over by the sink. I guessed he was telling her that he had accepted my job offer to work here on the farm. From the expression on her face, Maria was tickled pink about it. I was pretty tickled about it myself. I'd known I needed to hire somebody, but had no idea I could afford to hire someone of Lupe's quality for the money I felt we could afford to spend for a new worker. I didn't know how I was going to be able to juggle my books around to account for the two fifty in cash each week, but I knew I'd manage to find a way.

By the time we actually started eating our dinner, everyone at the table knew that I'd hired Lupe to work on the farm. Anita was very pleased to have her uncle working full time. I had seen her defer to his advice many times when we were busy with the harvest. I didn't think she'd have any problems forging a working relationship with him. There wouldn't be any power struggle between those two.

"So, Kyle, have you given any more thought to that thing you and Anita were talking about?"

Tina had dressed up for dinner, with full war paint and a snug fitting blouse over a pair of skin tight pants that looked like they were made of that expanding material that bicyclists wear during their races. She had a predatory grin on her face while she watched me fidget as I thought about how to answer her question.

"If you're talking about what I think you are, I still think Rob would make a better choice."

At the mention of Rob's name, Theresa's head came up from looking down at her plate.

"A better choice for what?"

Rob and Theresa spoke the same words at the same time. We all looked at them and laughed, Tina said "jinx", which was funny, because of how quickly she said it.

"Anita and Tina had a plan for making Tina more comfortable with living out here on the farm. One of them can explain it to you."

I sat back, smiling now myself, as Tina and Anita looked uncomfortably at each other. Neither of them volunteered to describe their plan to the rest of the people at the table.

"Don't leave us all hanging here Anita, tell us about your plan."

Rob was smiling and looking over at Anita. I think he must have made an educated guess about what Anita's plan might be.

"Kyle's just kidding around. There isn't any plan. He just makes things like that up to tease us."

Anita looked unsettled, but Tina had gathered herself pretty well after he initial surprise. When Anita spoke, Tina just smiled over at me and then winked. I caught myself before I winked back at her. The last thing I wanted to do was encourage her.

"What kind of plan could they have that involves Rob, Kyle?" Theresa obviously didn't want to let the subject drop.

"Ask them, Theresa. It isn't my plan, its theirs." I felt ready to drop it now. I'd already had my fun.

"Kyle is referring to my wanting him to take me up to his bedroom so he can give me what he's been giving Anita. For some reason, which I can't understand, he told Anita that he didn't want to." Tina had apparently decided to get it out in the open and let whatever happened happen.

"If that's what you're really talking about here, I have to tell you that I resent you bringing Rob's name into this."

Theresa was seething, but I noticed Rob had a big grin on his face now.

"Don't get upset, Theresa. I just brought up Rob's name to get a reaction out of Tina. She shouldn't be bringing things like this up at the dinner table." I figured it was time to try to get Theresa calmed back down.

"You won't be satisfied until you get Rob to break up with me, will you? I don't know why you don't like me, Kyle. I've never done anything bad to hurt you."

"I don't control Rob, Theresa. He's old enough to have his own friends, and to make all his own decisions. I told you I was just kidding around. If you hadn't asked us about it, none of this would have come out."

"Well it is out now, and how am I supposed to compete with little miss hot pants here?"

I saw Rob suddenly starting to realize that he had a way to be hurt by this conversation now too. If he was going to jump in and try to soothe Theresa's fears, now would be a very good time for him to do so.

"Kyle was just kidding Theresa. Tina doesn't want to sleep with me. You don't, do you?" That last was said like a young child asking if he could really go into the candy store and order anything he wanted.

"No, not even if I had to do without forever!"

"See, Theresa? Kyle was just kidding with you." This was Maria, trying to comfort her daughter. She didn't look happy when she spoke though.

"Maria, don't get upset. We're all just sitting here having a 'what if' conversation. No one is actually going to do anything. No one is trying to take Rob away from Theresa. We all need to relax and change the subject."

"I could take him away from you if I wanted to, Theresa, so maybe you should stop making those 'miss hot pants' kinds of comments about me. I might not want him, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't be willing to do something, just to get back at you if you keep saying things that piss me off."

With that, Tina got up from the table and made her grand exit. I could tell that Theresa was afraid that Tina might follow through with her threat. From the way Anita was staring daggers at me, I knew I wasn't done with tonight's conversation quite yet. She got up and gathered up her glass, plate, and silverware as well as Tina's, and took everything over to the sink to rinse. When she was done, she too left to go over to the trailer. It looked like I'd be sleeping alone for a few nights. I think everyone who was left was surprised when Theresa got up and took her place setting over to the sink and then left the house as well.

"Lupe, would you like to get your rifle and come back here to guard our front door tonight? I'm afraid we might get attacked in our sleep if we don't leave someone on guard at the door."

He got up and shrugged apologetically as he too scurried back to the trailer. I saw Maria surveying all the work she still had left to do, so I stood up and shooed her out the door right behind Lupe, promising her that I'd clean everything up, then put the leftovers in covered bowls, somewhere in the fridge.

"Real nice, Kyle. Really, thanks for all your help tonight. Do you know how much ass I'm going to have to kiss to get Theresa calmed back down again?"

"Probably all of it, and I must say I don't envy the amount of crawling, pleading, and begging you're going to have to put yourself through. I'd tell you I was sorry, but you're the one who had to ask Tina whether she wanted you or not. You were doing real well until you decided you had to make certain that you weren't included in any of Tina's future plans."

"You heard what she told Theresa, didn't you? It could be that Theresa is over there yelling at Tina right now, and might be getting her mad enough to come over here to make all my fantasies come true. I'm still in there with a chance. Get a woman mad enough, and anything is liable to happen."

"I think you're going to end up needing to get away from that 'we're just friends' crap after tonight. You'll end up sleeping alone out here if you don't at least start acknowledging her as your girlfriend."

"You might be right. I do like Theresa a lot, but she doesn't own me. She won't quit acting like she does. I'm too young to be serious about anyone. Maria already hates me because I'm slipping it to her precious daughter. You ever notice I don't ever take a bite of anything around here until after I see someone else already eating it? Lupe's okay, but even he isn't happy knowing that Theresa sleeps over here with me."

"They look at premarital sex differently than we do. They'll put up with it, but only until they know for certain you don't eventually intend to marry her. After they know that, they'll need to do something to punish you in order to give Theresa back the honor she lost by sleeping with you. Did you ever see that curved knife thing that Lupe keeps in that black leather holder clipped on his belt? Its a tool he uses to cut the nuts off of bulls and horses. They use it for making steers and geldings. Incredible tool really. I heard Lupe is the best at sneaking up on animals and cutting off their nuts before they even have any idea of what he's up to."

"You aren't funny, Kyle. None of that was funny. It was bad enough worrying about being poisoned by Maria, and now you've given me something a whole lot worse to be afraid of. That isn't how a brother is supposed to treat a brother."

"I'm going to bed, Rob. Make sure you lock up when you turn in."

Upstairs in my room I had to question myself about why I'd allowed things to get out of hand with the teasing I'd been doing of Anita and Tina. It hadn't been worth the probable price I'd need to pay. I knew there would be no winner coming out of this little fire I'd started. We'd probably all be a little scorched by it before it worked through all the tinder we had left laying around. I knew Rob needed to address where he really stood with Theresa. She was too nice a woman to be strung along like he was doing to her now.

I needed to get my own house in order too. I knew I loved Anita, but it troubled me that she put her sister's happiness in front of mine, or her own. I knew nothing could get settled for us until after we settled what would happen with Tina.

I couldn't think of any real problems I needed to deal with here on the farm. That was good, because I'd need to get all this personal stuff handled before it ballooned up into something too big for me to be able to handle.

I woke up a little after eleven, when Anita entered the bedroom and started to get undressed. I checked to make sure it really was Anita, and not her sister.

"I'm glad you decided to come back tonight. I was afraid you wouldn't want to."

"I almost didn't come here, but then I decided that no harm was really done at dinner tonight. That was nice, what you did for Lupe. Maria told me that she told Tina to tell you Lupe could get by with less money. He worked for that farm for over twenty years, and it was only about a year ago that they raised him up to two fifty a week. He thought he was going to have to start all over again, at the bottom."

"I couldn't really offer him less than he made before. Lupe is a top notch worker, and has so much more experience than anyone I thought I could hope to afford."

"Still, a lot of people would have done what was best for their own bottom line."

"I did that when I hired him. That was probably the best business decision I've made since the day I hired you."

"Are you trying to soften me up so you can have your way with me?"

"I wish. I spent all afternoon working with your uncle. All I want to do tonight is get some sleep and rest my weary bones."

"I'm really in the mood tonight, Kyle. Turn on your side, and let me see if I can get you interested."

I turned over on my side, letting out a groan at how stiff my muscles all felt. It didn't take long for Anita to convince me that I wasn't too sore or tired to indulge in a bit of lovemaking with her. I was almost asleep before I remembered that we hadn't used any protection.

For what she claimed were religious reasons, Anita left it up to me to buy the condoms we'd been using. This was the first time since our first time that I hadn't used any protection. I went to sleep with little alarm bells going off inside my head. Maybe Anita had worked out her own way to make our relationship more of a permanent situation. As I drifted off to sleep, I made a mental note to ask her about it in the morning.

"What was that about last night? Did you forget that I wasn't wearing anything?"

"I didn't forget. I just wanted to do it the natural way for once. It feels better when you aren't wearing anything. Don't worry, I wasn't trying to get pregnant. My period should start today from how it feels right now. By tomorrow for sure. I'm safe right now."

"Let's not make a habit of taking any of those kinds of risks, okay? I don't want any accidents before we're both sure that we're ready to have children."

"Ready or not, kids come when they want to."

"No they don't. They come when both parents want them. Right now, I'm too young to want any children. I've got plenty of time to have kids, and right now I want to put all my energy into getting the farm running more profitably. I'm only twenty one, remember? Rob was saying last night that he was too young to be getting serious in any relationship. He's a year and a half older than me."

"What would you do if I were to turn up pregnant?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to find out either. We still need to get some important things resolved before I can start thinking seriously about the two of us ever having a long term future together."

"What things are those?"

"Tina for one. The way things are set up now, we're only one bad decision away from having a real mess on our hands."

"I told her what you said, but she doesn't believe me. I've thought about what you said, and I understand why you feel like you say you do. You just need to get it worked out with Tina now."

"I already told her I wasn't interested. That should be all I have to do. She can either accept what I told her, or else keep agitating for what she isn't going to get until I get fed up with her antics and send her away."

By the time we got down for breakfast, everyone else had already eaten and were already well started into their normal daily activities. Maria had left breakfast for Anita and me under two covered trays. We nuked them in the microwave, then sat down to enjoy our breakfasts.

Somehow it had been decided that this was going to be the perfect day to start planting the new acreage with the small number of grafted trees we had ready. What we had were enough trees to cover the first row of a thirteen hundred and twenty foot stretch of ground. We were spacing at twenty five foot intervals to give the trees plenty of room for future growth. It would also give us plenty of room to quickly set up the sprinkler rollers. In all, we would have seven long rows in this first forty acre planting. In all, we planned to put three hundred sixty eight trees in each of the forty acre sectors.

We managed to get all fifty three new trees planted before noon. Lupe had gone somewhere and returned with an evil smelling concoction he'd purchased for forty dollars from one of his friends in Barstow. It was a combination of several hundred pounds of fish guts and entrails, including hundreds of fish heads and tails mixed into some sort of secret liquid concoction. Lupe swore that a liberal application of this goop into each tree hole would guarantee that the newly transplanted trees would survive the transplanting, then grow quickly, and eventually flourish in the sandy loam they'd been placed in. More than a quart of this foul smelling soup went down every hole we'd dug. We'd let it sit there for an hour before the trees themselves were placed on top of it.