Chapter 10: Confusion And Understanding

Matilda found Billy in the back yard. A tall, slender man with a skin darker than her own accompanied her. "Billy, this here is my brother Clarence. Miz Summers told me he supposed to talk to you. She say you the only one here knows what a horse house looks like."

"How about you, Clarence, you know what a horse house looks like?" Billy grinned as he looked up at the tall black man.

"Ah huh," Clarence answered. "It looks like a painted up and nailed down flapdoodle." He looked down at Billy and laughed.

Matilda stared hard at her brother. "Clarence, don't you go and smart mouth yourself out of a job here." She gave Clarence a hard look and looked back at Billy. Billy was grinning.

"Matilda, Clarence and me, well we share a dream. You just wait, even the Princess will love our dream." He grabbed Clarence's hand by the little finger. "Come on and I'll show you where it goes."

Clarence laughed when Matilda turned away from then and returned to the house. "Boy, you sure knows how to ruffle my little sister's feathers."

"Aw Matilda's all right. Besides, good as she cooks, I don't want to make her too mad at me, I might starve."

"The way you eat everything on the table, you'll never starve, Billy." Colleen had come up behind Billy.

Billy grinned at Colleen, "Clarence, this is my sister Colleen. She's the Princess Of Oklahoma. Her and me, we're a team."

He grinned at his princess, "Colleen, this here is my friend Clarence. He's going to help me build a horse house. We might even let you help, if you can keep your mouth shut. Now you can't go and give Clarence orders."

"Billy," Colleen frowned at him, "Don't you start in on me this morning. And you had better stop this nonsense about a horse house. There is no such thing." Her cheeks puffed out.

Billy took his two middle fingers and pressed both cheeks at once. Colleen's lips made a sputtering sound as the air was forced out of her puckered lips. He started to laugh. Colleen tried to get angry and failed. She began to laugh back at him. "Billy Joe, one of these days..." She started to giggle again.

"Princess, Clarence, I want to let you in on a big secret. We are going to build a little house back here for the horses to live in. It will look just like a doll house, except a lot larger."

Clarence began to shake his head no as Billy started to describe his vision of what a "horse house" would look like. Slowly he began to grin and nod his head in agreement. "Boy, this is surely a flapdoodle."

Colleen frowned at first, then smiled and told him, "Billy, I get to pick the colors."

"Okay by me, so long as you don't pick pink." Billy wrinkled his nose. "Nobody ever heard of a pink horse house."

"Nobody ever heard of a horse house until you invented one in your own hard little head." She turned around and walked toward the house.

Billy laughed at Colleen and motioned for Clarence to follow him. "This here is where we need to put our horse house," he told Clarence and showed him where it should go.

"Billy, why haven't you consulted me before you began to give orders?" Colleen had followed the pair out to the area beyond the back yard where two tall elm trees grew.

"Well shoot, Princess I can't co and consult you on something you say doesn't exist, now can I?"

"Billy..." she folded her arms and frowned.

"You check with Alfred if you need any tools. There's a whole slew of hammers and saws and all that stuff out in the car barn. We sure got some funny rules. Cars can have barns and everybody gets all upset that I want horses to have houses." Clarence didn't know what to make of this odd looking little white kid. He was homely as sin and sharp as a tack. Clarence liked it that Billy seemed to be colorblind.

Then Billy added, "Ask Alfred to call the lumber yard and have them deliver what you need out here." He whispered, "Can you make it real pretty, like a girl's play house and make the whole front swing open? We need room for two ponys, feed and maybe a couple of goats. I like goat milk."

Clarence shook his head and laughed to himself, "Oh well, no matter what, its all honest work and the Summers pay good." He went in search of Alfred. The sooner he got started, the sooner he'd start to make some money. He grinned again and watched Colleen and Billy return to the house.

A half hour later Millicent called to the children, "Billy, Colleen dear, I must make a trip out to Farm Number Two to inquire about some check that has come up missing. Please help keep watch over the children while I am gone.

Billy jerked his head around to look at Millicent. He had been showing the twins his three quarter sized guitar. "No!" he exclaimed in a loud voice. "We need to go with you, Mom. You might have trouble out there."

"Mother, the younger three can play nicely together outside and swing in my swing set. I could sit in the front with you and Billy would be able to sit in back with the twins. It would be a jolly outing for us. The dust is not too heavy in the air today so we might even take the Stutz. Please Mother?"

Millicent was positive there would be no trouble. After all, it was probably a matter of someone's absent mindedness. She confident that all the bad apples had been removed one way or another. She smiled and nodded her head yes.

Billy grinned, "I'll go tell Alfred to get the car ready for us. I'll help him get the top down." He looked over at Colleen, "Yeah, we'll have a jolly good time. Yup, real jolly." He looked at Colleen and grinned.

Colleen's lips formed a moue as she looked back at Billy. Her nose went up in the air and she told him, "Yes, we shall have a jolly great time in spite of you, Billy Joe Summers."

Millicent's eyes widened at the way Colleen accepted Billy Joe as a member of their family in name as well as in fact. Yes, his name is Billy Joe Summers. It truly is. As soon as Martin begins to recover we must take steps to adopt him and make it a legal fact of our lives.

"Aw Princess, why can't you talk like other people do instead of putting on airs? You're so danged pretty, that would make you just perfect."

"She's a goldurned girl, that's why. Girls is just plain contrary and mean." Jimmy Buck entered into the conversation for the first time.

Billy started to get what Colleen called "that mean look" on his face. "Boy, you talk nice to and about my sister. Her and me is a team. We done it all together."

"Oh Billy, your speech has slipped back these last few days. You know better than to talk like..."

"Close it. I don't want to hear another word from you, Princess. I'm going to take the guys with me and we'll go find Alfred and have him get the car ready." Billy looked at the twins and nodded toward the door into the kitchen. He started to walk away from her, confident the twins would follow him, he started to walk away from her. They did.

"Mother, what is wrong with Billy now? He was very rude to me when I tried to comment on his poor grammar."

Millicent laughed at Colleen's self-righteous anger. "No my dearest daughter, you attempted to control Billy. You should never try to be a Little Miss Bossy with a boy in front of other boys. That is especially so when the boy is as strong willed as Billy. You will fail every time and make him angry with you as well." She stroked her daughter's face and added, "Sometimes it's best to teach with silence."

"Oh mother, I want Billy to be perfect. He could be perfect if only he would listen to me. He is such a frustrating..." Her voice tapered off as she ran out of words.

"The male of the species is a frustrating creature at times." Millicent told her. "Let's wait out front for Alfred to bring the Stutz around."

Billy and the twins watched Alfred start the long, sleek bodied Stutz Bearcat. Billy helped Alfred fold the top back until both seats were open to the air. "Let's get in the back seat and wait until the engine gets warmed up."

The twins were both wide eyed as they followed Billy's orders and climbed into the back seat." "This here car is sure something else," Johnny Buck looked at the elegant back seat with its leather-covered upholstery.

Colleen and Millicent were waiting for them when Alfred drove the car around to the front and stopped.

Millicent sat herself behind the steering wheel and turned her head to look at the boys in the back seat. "I want you three young scamps to sit quiet and enjoy our ride. Billy, do not tease your sister."

Billy tried his best to look innocent. "No ma'am." He tried to say something else and his voice broke again.

"La di da di dada da di da, uh huh, uh huh," Colleen sang in her off key voice.

Just as Millicent turned out onto the street and headed away from the house Billy asked, "Can we stop and get a big washtub, please Mom?"

"What on earth would you want a wash tub, Billy?" She waited for his answer and paid more attention to where she was driving.

"For the Princess to carry a tune in, of course. It'll have to be a big one, though." He sat back and grinned.

"Billy!" Colleen exclaimed. "Mother, he's teasing me again." She turned in her seat and gave Billy the blackest frown she could muster.

"Were you teasing Colleen, Billy?" Millicent asked.

"Yes Ma'am, I surely was. But I got a legal right to. The Pledge Of Allegiance To The Flag says I do."

"Billy Joe Summers, it does not say in there that you can tease me. Nowhere." Colleen's frown became a look of indignation.

"Can you explain what you mean?" Millicent decided Billy was having a big joke at Colleen's expense. She learned the young man's dry humor came spiced with a lesson she would enjoy.

"Okay, here goes," Billy told her. He began, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States Of America. And to the Republican for which it stands, one nation, invisible, with liberty and justice for all."

"Mother, Billy Joe is making a mockery of the Pledge. Make him stop." Colleen had heard her father expound his political views for her whole life. His views went from his mouth to God's ears and then to all humanity.

"Billy, were you mocking the Pledge To The Flag?" Millicent wondered how Billy would wiggle out of his apparent mockery."

"Well, more like having fun with it. I know we ain't a Republican country, but Dad says we ought to be," he told her. Billy pursed his lips and nodded in complete agreement with Martin Summers' worldviews.

"And I also know we ain't ... er aren't invisible. But the next part sure as shootin' is right, where it says, 'liberty and justice for all.' That means if I get teased I can tease right back." He looked right at Colleen and grinned.

Colleen raised her voice, "Billy Joe, it does not say that."

"Yup, it sure does. Where it says liberty and justice for all."

"Billy!" Colleen yelled at him.

"Well you tell me where it's fair and just for you to tease me and I can't tease right back. Princess, you're acting like a spoiled girl right now." Billy showed no expression on his face. He let a hint of a smile show before he looked away.

"Colleen dear, Billy is right. You must remember that what's good for the goose is sauce for the gander."

"Oh Mother," Colleen exclaimed and turned to watch the passing scenery. She felt betrayed that her own mother wouldn't take her side against a boy.

The white gravel of the roadway made a rat-tat-tat sound as it crunched under the tires and was thrown up against the underside of the fenders. The twins looked out over the countryside as they rode along at a constant forty-five miles per hour.

Jimmy Buck exclaimed, "We never went this fast before. Pa got up to almost thirty-five once in his old truck."

"Sit back, you boys," Millicent told them, "We're at the Fairview turnoff."

She slowed down and turned left onto a graded red hardpan road. It was barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other. She sped back up to thirty to stay ahead of the plume of dust the passing car made in its wake. The fields on both sides of the road were covered with yellow dried corn stalks, none higher than three feet.

Then they reached the Farm Number Two property line. One side of the fence was burned yellow. The other side of the fence was a world of green alfalfa. When they reached the driveway to turn into Farm Number Two, Millicent was amazed at the green fields that greeted them. "Oh my word," she murmured.

As soon as the car pulled to a stop, a man with a slovenly appearance approached the car and rapped on the side of the car on Millicent's side. She started to open the door to get out. "Who are ye and what do you want?" he demanded in a loud voice and shoved the car door closed again.

Colleen grabbed up her mother's handbag and opened it. She pulled out the small pistol and aimed it at the man. Millicent was not aware of Colleen's action. She told the man, "You sir will back away from this automobile right now. I am Missus Martin Summers and I demand to speak to the foreman. You sir, are fired."

An equally unkempt man came up on the other side of the car. "Well, I'm the foreman here and I just unfired him. I heard all about you, Millicent Summers and how you decided to take over a man's duties. Let me tell you one thing, until your old man tells me else wise, I run this here farm. No damned woman is going to come out here and start to give us orders."

He reached down to take the small pistol out of Colleen's trembling hand. "No!" Billy yelled. He stood up on the back seat and launched himself over the front seat at the newcomer. Billy sank his teeth into the man's cheek and bit hard.

"Hey!" the man yelled and batted Billy loose. His cheek began to bleed. At the same time, Colleen pulled the trigger by accident and shot the man on her mother's side of the car in the shoulder.

Billy fell back onto the back seat, dropped to the floor and removed the large caliber car pistol from underneath the driver's seat. He aimed and started to pull the trigger when one of the twins got between Billy and his target. You get your head out of the way or I'm going to shoot through it to get that one behind you." He looked as if he meant it.