Chapter 10: "Till Death Us Do De-part"

That Sunday Ma had put out a big platter of meat sandwiches on the trestle table in the bunkhouse. She made them up the night before and the crew was expected to "make do" of those "slim pickin's" if they arrived while we were in church.

Yet like one of the regulars said to her, "Misses, I rather have your slim pickin's than I would most folks Sunday best." Ma loved it when the men complimented her on her cooking. It was the one thing she was very vain about, as she had good cause to be.

One of the new hands, Ad Roman, who hadn't been with us the year before owned of the old horse in the corral. He hesitantly came into the kitchen for supper. He was not yet twenty by a year or so and was about as homely as a mud fence. He was tall, gangly, awkward and very shy. He was polite and on the very first day with us, offered to help set the table.

One of the regular hands allowed as how "the new skinny young feller had done demolished half of them sandwiches by his own self." We found out later he hadn't eaten a thing for the two days previous while he was looking for work. "I was always expected to help out at home, Ma'am, and if I'm livin' here durin' harvest, I see no reason for me to change." He also volunteered to help wash dishes.

We found out later his pa had been just one more casualty of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Ad "came up north," as he referred to Oklahoma, to make as much money in the harvest as he could to send home to help feed his parents and two younger brothers.

The first evening he was with us, he got up from the kitchen table and started to scrape off the dishes. Mary Jean put the kettles of water on the stove to heat like Ma showed her. We had a big old Monarch range with a three-gallon water well back of the griddle, but it only held wash water and "dipping water."

In our house the dishes were first washed using old fashioned yellow lye soap we made ourselves right on the farm right after butchering time. As soon as they were washed the dishes were rinsed in the dipping water and the plates stacked on edge in the wooden plate rack, a square frame with thin slats running across it. The plates were scalded to remove all soap scum and any and all germs healthy and hardy enough to survive the lye soap. Ma was a stickler for sanitation and cleanliness.

Mary Jean gave Ad a funny look when he started to help with the dishes. But in a few minutes the two were chatting like magpies, laughing and joking and carrying on. Ma kept a close eye on the two at first. But it didn't take long to see Ad was just a very friendly young man with no devious or improper designs on Mary Jane.

Finally they were finished and Ad said to her, "Miss Mary, this was the funnest dish washin' I ever done." He smiled and nodded to us and went out into the bunkhouse to go to bed.

Mary Jean looked like she was walking around in a daze. In fact, "daze" pretty well summed it up. "He is the nicest boy I ever saw." she exclaimed. Ma and Pa smiled knowingly at each other. Then the lamps were turned down till they went out and we all went to bed.

"What do you think, Walter?" Ma asked the next evening while Ad and Mary Jean were doing the dishes together. I was made feel not too welcome in the kitchen and was quite contented to be exiled to the front room after supper.

I heard Pa chuckle and answer her in a soft voice, "Well, Hon, you know I don't believe in rushing into things." He paused a moment to collect his thoughts and continued, "But I believe two very lonely people have been perfectly matched up and look plumb right for each other."

"Yes, dear, I agree. You are probably correct." She got up from her rocker where she had been darning a sock she went over to where Pa was sitting in his big chair, bent over and kissed him on the forehead. "Remember us, dear?"

"Yup," pa answered. Then he got up and led her out on the front porch. They sat in the porch swing and held hands and let the swing slowly move back and forth. I was re-reading Tom Sawyer for the third or fourth time and was more interested in the story than two old people who got all mushy.

Every evening Ad helped with the dishes and he and Mary Jean took longer and longer to finish. One evening toward the end of the third week, they just stared into each other's eyes and sighed. That was the night Ad came into the front room and asked to speak to Ma and Pa about something on his mind. They both almost broke out laughing.

Pa especially had a hard time keeping a straight face when Ad began, "Mister and Misses Hansen, I got a lot on my mind and I don't know where to start."

"Ad, Mary Jean likes you a lot, too." Pa said.

"You see, I got these feelin's ... Whut did you say?" He looked at my parents in amazement. His eyes grew round. "How in tarnation did you know I have feelin's for Mary Jean? I ain't even told her yet."

"Ad," Ma said kindly and gently, "When a young man is talking to a young girl while they do the dishes and he takes almost a half hour to dry a single fork, I would say he has more than just 'feelings for her. He's in love with her."

"How long you knowed my heart?" He just couldn't get over how Ma and Pa were so wise they knew his "feelings" for Mary Jean.

"Well, I guess the first we knew was the first time you washed dishes together," Pa told him. "In fact we watched pretty close to see how honorable your attentions were."

"You was watchin' and listenin' to us?" Ad Roman began to get angry.

"Ad, you came to us a stranger. Mary Jean is our responsibility while she is under our roof. We would be very remiss in our duties if we didn't look out for her," Ma told him. "We didn't listen to what you were saying to each other, we just watched from here in the living room until you were found to be what we thought you were in the first place, a nice young man who comes from fine people."

"Oh. Well, I guess I better apologize for gettin' so huffy. But I ain't never had no girl before. It's skeery business."

"Pa laughed and said, "Yep, it's very scary business. Why I was just about scared out of my mind when I was courtin' Missus Hansen here."

Unnoticed by anyone, Mary Jean had come in and listened to part of the conversation. "How come you tell them and you don't tell me your feelin's?"

"Well, Miss Mary, I guess 'cause you already know my feelin's. But did you know they did too?" He was still amazed at how anyone else knew how he felt about her.

"Well, maybe I do and maybe I don't know your feelin's, Adleigh Roman. But I like to be told. You never once said how you felt about me, to me."

"Can't you see it in my eyes how much I love you?" he asked so plaintively. It was obvious they forgot anyone else was around them. "I love you so much."

"Well, shoot, tell me you love me, then," she told him, looking all exasperated. "A girl needs to hear them things. What is so hard about sayin' them?" She stamped her foot.

"But I want to marry you and I ain't good enough." He looked down at his feet, unable to meet her gaze. The pain, the raw emotion in his voice and his absolute devotion was so great there was no way anyone could doubt his sincerity. He kept staring down at the floor unable to look at her.

In a softer voice she told him, "Ad Roman, you let me decide who I want to marry. And if I want to marry you, then it's the way it'll be."

He raised his eyes until he could look into hers and asked, "When you think you'll know?" He gulped, "Any time soon?" He looked and sounded so like a little boy right then.

"Well, I know right now. The answer is yes, because you see, Ad Roman, I love you too."

They stood there and stared deeply into each other's eyes. It was almost as if there were only the two of them in their own little universe. Right then, no one else existed, only they two. It was probably a trick of the lamplight, but it seemed like they were surrounded by a golden glow encompassing just them.

Pa looked at Ma and smiled an "I told you so" smile at her. She smiled back up at him, her eyes slightly moist and nodded yes.

Pa asked the young couple, "Can you wait until at least a couple of days after the harvest is over? I was planning on Davy being the first one to get married in this house, but I guess it was meant to be you. He slapped Ad on the back and almost knocked him to the floor. Sometimes, Pa would forget his own strength.

"Kin we wait, Miss Mary?" Ad asked her.

"Of course we can wait, silly. I want to be married in a real house with lovin' family around me." Then she caught herself, "Oh. I didn't mean to take no liberties here, but I just love you so much and you are more like family to me than my own kin."

Ma hugged her and said, "Mary Jean, you have expressed the nicest sentiment anyone can feel toward me, for her to love me enough to consider me family. Mister Hansen feels the same." She caressed the girl once gently on the cheek.

Ever the practical one, Pa said, "This is Wednesday. Next week we'll have the last of the grain in and delivered. The grain buyer

already signed the contract with us a month ago. So on Saturday evening after chores we can have the preacher come out here and tie the knot.

"Friday afternoon I have some business in town anyway so we can go in and get the license and make the final arrangements with the preacher. Do those arrangements suit you?" He grinned at the two lovebirds.

"It will be perfectly fine for the both of us," Mary Jean said firmly. Ad Roman just nodded. He kept staring into Mary Jean's eyes.

Pa continued, "Now we just happen to have an old ring and it might fit this young lady's finger. What I propose is this. I need some help on a few chores for about a week. So I'll pay you fifteen dollars and toss the ring in to boot. Mary can stay and help and I'll pay her another fifteen dollars for the extra week."

"What ring is this, Hon?" Ma asked.

"Well, you remember how I bought you the first wedding ring and we lost it before we got married and then I bought you another?"

Ma frowned, "Yes, then we found it later and misplaced it again. Don't tell me. You found it again?" The disappearing ring had been a running joke between the two of them for a long time.

"Yup, it turned up in a box of books I got out of the attic today. I thought Mary here might like some of them. And when I opened the box, there was the ring."

Pa took it out with a flourish and handed it to Ma. She smiled and looked at it fondly and handed it to Ad. "Whut do I do with it?" he asked.

"Keep it in a safe place and place it on her finger when you say I do." Ma told him.

He handed it back to Ma. "Please ma'am, you keep hold on it till we need it." He looked at the ring thoughtfully, "That there's real gold, ain't it?"

"Well, of course." Pa told him. "Wedding rings are supposed to be gold."

"Well, I cain't accept nothin' so valuable. It wouldn't be right."

Mary Jean stamped her foot again. "Ad Roman, you shut up such talk. When a ring is being given with love, the love is more valuable than any gold ring by itself. The love is what makes it so much more valuable and precious. So I don't want to hear no more talk about our ring. I have spoken."

This tiny young woman, not quite as tall as Ma folded her arms, stamped her foot and stuck her chin out, just daring her gangly, well over six feet tall beloved to argue with her.

"Yes ma'am." He stared at his soon to be bride. "I sure am lucky to get someone as smart as you."

He looked at Pa and said, "She's book smart, too. She's even been up in high school." He shook his head, "I only been to the third grade. I had to quit and help on th' farm."

He looked at Mary Jean with open admiration. She got a determined look on her face, pulled his head down to her level and planted a kiss on his cheek. His eyes got big and his mouth dropped open. "Oh my!" he exclaimed.

We finally got to bed and I had trouble waking up the next morning. Staying up even a little late was hard on a growing boy. I did my regular chores and caught the yellow school bus and rode into town to school.

Even during harvest time, Pa wanted me in school. He wanted me to learn as much as I could. He claimed he was lucky to have married Ma because she opened his eyes to the world of books. Pa only made it to the sixth grade in school, which was about average for back then.

Friday I stayed in town after school. Pa came by and picked me up. Ad was already in back of the truck so I hopped up beside him. Ma and Mary jean were riding inside the cab with Pa. "Don't tell nobody, but I'm skeered." he said to me as I settled down beside him on the utility box.