Chapter 2: A Marriage Made In...

Cassie Jean loved her shabby, dingy, dirty little two-room apartment, but not its dirt. One thing Mamma had taught her was that just because you're poor, don't mean you have to be dirty. She obtained a chunk of lye soap and a bristle brush and rags from her mother and had the front room spotless by the time Lee Roy came home from work two months after they were married. He felt tired enough to drop.

Then he became aware of the changes. "Well, shit. What happened to this old place?" If you're goin' to have a baby, y'all hadn't ought to be scrubbin' and all that shit. Most women when they get knocked up just sort of lay around on their asses until the baby gets born."

Angry because he didn't show more appreciation for her labors, Cassie lashed right back at him, "And how would y'all get to be such the expert on knocked up women? You been in a habit of makin' babies and getting on out of Dodge afterward?"

"Well, shit. What got your tit stuck in th' wringer? I was just concerned about you working too hard and you fly off the handle at me like I was pissing in your shoe or somethin'. But goddam, all I was doin' was caring about you." Hell, Cassie wasn't supposed to be like that. She was always so easy to get along with.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Lee Roy Honey, I been scrubbin' this room all day and it still looks like shit. I want you to get me some kalsomine to paint th' walls with. I want a pretty pink color. I'll get Daddy's old step ladder and have Wanda help me and then we'll have a house to be proud of. This here old duplex looks like shit, Lee Roy. I want a lemon to suck on and a tuna salad sandwich."

He looked sharply at her, "What did you just say?" He hadn't listened too close to her ramblings. "What you said about paintin' and suckin?"

Tears welled up in her eyes, "Lee Roy Jones, Don't you ever pay no attention to anything about me but my pussy? I want a big sour pickle and a boiled egg. I want it now."

"Jesus H. Christ, Cass, are you crazy or what? Just what in hell has got into you?" He saw the mean look forming on her face and said, "All right, I'll go get you a lemon and a peach and ... aw fuck, you come too." Right then he began to think hard about how he just might walk down to the train yards and catch the first freight to anywhere away from Woodman and Cassie both. The trouble was, he was almost broke and payday wasn't for two more days. But he wasn't going to stand for much more of this shit.

She grinned and grabbed his arm. "Let's go, Lee Roy honey." Two months married and six months pregnant she had begun to show her condition. Lee Roy was torn between two different feelings. On the one hand, he didn't like to be seen with a pregnant woman with a baby in her. He felt it looked "embarrassin'" somehow, it just didn't look manly. Of course, on the other hand, by god, it surely proved his manhood to have people know he had made a baby. They walked past the pool hall and on towards Yokum's Store, a small mom and pop store that sold butter, eggs, milk and sundries.

"Hey Lee Roy, who's that you got with you?" Shep called out from the doorway of the pool hall? "That pretty little girl your daughter?"

Lee Roy grinned and waved at them. "What's got into them, Lee Roy? They know you ain't my daddy." She giggled and added, "If you are my daddy, we been doin' a real bad thing."

"Aw shit, Cass, they was just jokin' at me." He grinned down at her.

She squeezed him with the arm around his waist and said, "I know that, Lee Roy, I was just makin' a joke my ownself." They walked on in silence till they reached the store. He opened the door and went in first. Cassie Jean followed in behind him.

Once inside, she hurried over to the small chest freezer and grabbed out a pint of freshly made ice cream. Mister Yokum made up three gallons at a time and packaged in one pint containers. They were placed in the small chest freezer in the center of the little store. Then when it was sold another batch was made. Cassie grabbed a thick, long sour green dill pickle out of the big glass jar on the counter and said, "I'm ready, Lee Roy, pay th' lady an' let's go."

Lee Roy nodded without answering and handed the disapproving Old Lady Yokum sufficient coins to cover the purchase. He led his wife outside, again first through the door. She glared at his retreating back. The previous years, that worthless Lee Roy Jones had taken up with Yokums' youngest daughter and broke the poor girl's heart. Her Tessie had finally run off with that no good guitar player who worked in the cowboy band because of her broken heart. Damn all men anyway.

Lee Roy absently patted Cassie's butt as they walked along side by side. She held up the pickle, barely visible in the oncoming dusk and giggled, "You know, Lee Roy, this here thing looks just like yours, except for th' green color. Tastes like it too."

"How would you know? You only tasted it that once and not for very long, neither. You ought to do it again. I like that exotic stuff." He grinned down at her hopefully.

"Well shit, Lee Roy, stickin your dick in a girl's mouth ain't exotic. It's dirty. Nice people don't do that shit." Her tone of voice left no room for argument.

"Aw hell, Cass, if we was doin' it with each other, what's so bad about that?" Lee Roy still hoped to convince her to give him some more.

"You wanna do it to me, Lee Roy?" she asked.

"Well, hell no. I'm a man." he protested indignantly.

"Well, I'm a woman and I don't wanna do it neither. So there." They walked on in silence. What made females, all females, so damned stubborn after they got married? He shook his head.

By the time they got home it was almost nine o'clock. "Let's go to bed." Lee Roy told her.

"Naw honey, y'all go on to sleep. I got to finish my ice cream. You want some?" She held the small waxed butcher carton filled with ice cream out to him.

"You eat it," he answered, "I'm tired." He took off his shoes and dropped his overalls down and stepped out of them. He shucked out of his shirt and lay down naked on top of the covers. Cassie sat on the front porch and savored her ice cream and pickle.

Later she crawled into bed. Cassie felt so heavy and awkward any more. She was careful not to disturb her husband. Cassie grinned and grabbed hold of his penis. In his sleep, Lee Roy got a hard on. She giggled and drifted off to sleep holding on to it. The next morning, Lee Roy woke up and discovered she still had hold of it. He grinned as he eased out of her grasp and got up, got dressed and headed to the Hot Spot for his morning stale doughnut and bitter coffee.

"Lee Roy, my friend." the judge greeted him, "How is married life treating you? More to the point, are you treating your child bride well? She seems to be a nice little girl, not like the rest of her family." He frowned at the mere thought of that useless Bench Daly. The Judge and Bench Daly had a longstanding dislike for each other.

"Well, I don't know about th' little girl part, Judge, she just keeps getting' bigger every day. As for treating her right, I don't know if I am or not. She wants a sour pickle and ice cream. She won't eat real food like fried taters and steak and beans and stuff. I think she's goin' crazy."

The judge laughed and told Lee Roy, "My friend, cravings of that sort are common with some women when they are with child. There might also be irrational behavior, unreasonable demands made on the poor husband and probably morning sickness."

"What's this 'morning sickness' y'all just mentioned, Judge?" Lee Roy looked at the jurist apprehensively, he was deathly afraid of being around "sick people."

Judge Mack laughed, "Lee Roy, fear you not. Morning sickness is usually not too contagious. Although there have been instances of the man having it instead of his wife or even alongside her, but never has it proven to be fatal." He thought a moment and added, "Well, not that I've heard of, anyway." He patted Lee Roy on the shoulder and rose to leave.

Lee Roy nodded his acknowledgement, swallowed the last of the coffee and followed the judge out. "Talking to you, Judge, has a way of settling my nerves. Y'all have to be th' smartest man I ever known." He turned and hurried off at his awkward looking, distance eating lope.

The judge smiled to himself, pleased that a fellow human being was as perceptive as Lee Roy Jones seemed to be in the present case. He crawled into his Packard and drove toward the courthouse. Once there he could nap a couple of hours, or until court convened. It never ceased to amaze the judge how he could get the most restful sleep possible just sitting in the big easy chair in his chambers.

As he dozed off he thought of Lee Roy and wondered if it was his imagination that he seemed to perceive hidden qualities in the man. Underneath all that crude speech and behavior there seemed to lurk another person altogether, who was waiting for the proper moment to emerge.

Lee Roy hurried on toward work and arrived at his usual time, just a little before seven o'clock. He waved at Milt and the timekeeper, grabbed up his shovels and bar and got to work. Milt smiled and decided he didn't give a damn if the two new Mexicans the office would send in from Enid ever got there. Lee Roy got in a fight and ran the last pair off because they wouldn't speak English. He decided they were laughing at him and talking about him.

Why they kept sending Mexicans and Indians out to the job was more than Milt could understand. They never lasted because Lee Roy made them edgy. He worked like a maniac all day long and expected the other two men to keep up. The company insisted on three man teams. He shook his head and decided that Lee Roy would have work as long as he wanted it. He was just too good a man to lose.

When Lee Roy heard the noon whistle blow, he dropped his crash bar and loped up to the office shack. The timekeeper's wife packed lunches that he sold for twenty-five cents apiece. For a quarter there would be a bologna sandwich, an apple, orange or not too ripe banana and an oatmeal cookie.

She made from ten to fifteen cents profit for each lunch which added up to about a dollar fifty a day profit when the men on the construction crew bought them all. Everyone felt it was a great deal. With his wife so ill, even Milt had been availing himself of the cheap lunches.

Milt waved for Lee Roy to join him in the tool shack. As Lee Roy came into the darkened interior, Milt pointed to an overturned five gallon bucket and said, "Sit." As soon as Lee Roy sat, Milt asked him, "Well, how are you holding up to marriage? I guess it is starting to cramp your style a little, isn't it?"

Lee Roy looked at his boss and said, "Milt, I been trying to save ten dollars a week 'cause th' hospital is gonna want a hundred dollars just about. I got to have twenty-five dollars for th' doc to deliver th' kid and Jesus his ownself only knows how much all them diapers an' shit is gonna cost. I been fuckin' drunk only twice since we got hitched. Now I ask you, is that any way for a man to live?"

In a gentle voice, Milt told him, "My friend, there are some people who never drink a drop of alcohol, ever. As for me, I haven't had a drink since last Christmas."

"Well Jesus, Milt, How th' hell y'all ever expect to have any fun?"

"Lee Roy, I play cards with my wife and daughter. We go for rides and sometimes even take a Sunday picnic just to get out away from the city." What he left unsaid was, his wife's medical bills ate up every dollar he could raise. And where another man might run away from his responsibilities, he honored them. Milt's family was his life.

The whole concept of having fun without alcohol seemed a little outlandish to Lee Roy. "I dunno, Milt, it seems awful unnatural to go that long a time without a little dust cutter to wash your insides out with. That's especially so, now that Cassie's all knocked up and all. I need a drink or two ever' now and then just so I don't walk off on her. She's goin' crazy on me and th' judge says that's natural. How does a man put up with all that shit?"

He snorted and continued, "She wants pickles an' ice cream an' wants to paint th' fuckin' place. Who ever heard of paintin' a place y'all rentin' by th' month? Women is crazy."

"You must learn to have patience, Lee Roy. Remember, she's only a young girl, herself. First pregnancies on really young girls are a lot harder on them. There are so many changes that take place in their bodies and it's hard for them to cope with everything. The next one will be easier."

"At this rate there ain't gonna be no next one," he answered. "Too much more of this shit an' I'm gone."

"It sounds to me like you have some growing up to do yourself, Lee Roy," Milt told him in a stern voice. "You made that baby. Now it's your responsibility to make the best of things and take care of your child. Think about that instead of how your feelings get hurt." Milt looked on family as being just slightly more important than God.

"Aw hell, Milt, I guess you're right. But it sure is hard on a man to have to live with someone who can't even think straight. Last night she was fryin' me a steak an' onions and she started to puke. She said th' grease smell was botherin' her." He shook his head and took a bite of his sandwich. They spent the rest of the noon meal in silence.

That evening when Lee Roy got home, Cassie sat in wait for him on the front porch. Her face was very tearful and sad. "Lee Roy, Daddy says he's goin' to come an' take me home. He's mean drunk and ... there he is, comin' up behind you."

Bench glanced at Lee Roy and told his daughter, "You got your stuff ready? Let's go." He started toward her.

"Hold on there, Bench Daly, that's my wife there. I say what she does an' doesn't do. Now you get your runty ass out of here and go on home. You might just stay away from here till you learn better manners."

Bench screeched, face turning red with rage, "You red neck cock sucker, don't you get between me and my kin." He reached in his hip pocket and drew out his six shooter.

Lee Roy let fly a looping right handed wild punch that seemed to start somewhere near his ankles and ended up between Bench's eyes. The gun flew out of the man's hand and he dropped to the ground. He lay there in a sodden heap, unmoving. "I warned you what would happen if you ever drew that gun on me, you smart mouthed little son of a bitch." Lee Roy drew back a foot and kicked the downed man.