Chapter 39

I woke holding Millie's growing belly, but had a hand holding Little Mike. That's when I remembered Sheryl. She sure was persistent. I wondered how I managed to be between Millie and Sheryl after going to sleep between Millie and Marita. Who knows?

Sliding from bed is easy when you are getting up from between two women who want to stay asleep. I let the dogs out and quickly dressed to get the chores done. I couldn't remember whether the girls from down the hill were going to be able to come up or not, but thought it would be easy for me to do them.

As if I was in a time warp, my sister sleepily came from her room, dressed in work clothes, and sat next to me to put her boots on. "Move over, Bro, give my spreading ass some room."

"You don't have to get up for this. Sleep a little later; I can handle it."

"Not a chance, Champ. I'm here to do something other than sit on my thumbs for a whole weekend. What I really want is for the kids to get used to getting up and doing chores in the morning. I want them to know how people really live in this world instead of being coddled every second of the day. God, Mike, I want my kids to experience what we lived. We learned to work and live from Mom and Dad. All three of us have been successful in our lives, and I want my kids to have that same chance. I'm not sure how to go about it, but I want it to happen."

As we were finishing putting our boots on, Mom came from her bedroom. "Hey, you can't go out there without me. The girls from below asked me if we would do the chores this morning. I see that I have all the help we need. Let's get'r done."

"You can't go out there without me. I can help." Shirley announced as she came from the bedroom with her farm clothes on and went straight to the shoe bench.

Mom suggested, "Why don't you take the big baskets out to the chicken house and gather eggs? The other ladies don't want us to take the goose, duck, and turkey eggs, as they say they are all setting, you know, trying to hatch babies. If you see a guinea hen sitting on eggs, leave her alone too, because we sell guinea hens at the market as watch dogs, or I guess they would be watch birds. Any eggs with a big 'X' on them should be left as well. I think the ladies from below are growing their population of fowl, too."

It didn't take long to do the chores, and when we were back in the house, Millie, Marita, and Karen had breakfast just about ready. Sheryl was helping by shuttling things between the summer kitchen wood stove and the main kitchen area.

As soon as we came in, Millie came to me for a kiss, followed by Marita and Karen. Sheryl noticed this and came over to me. "Do I get a good morning kiss too? You've already kissed everyone but the barn cats."

It's tough to keep a straight face around someone like Sheryl. She's tall, thin, gangly, and full of energy. You have to love her enthusiasm about life. She said to all of us, "Mrs. Carlyle is going to have her baby this morning, so I need to get going. She chose this morning for her caesarian so her husband wouldn't miss work. This is her third, and last, I hope. I might just tie some tubes while I'm in there this time."

Mom punched Sheryl on the arm. "You wouldn't do that, and you know it. You love having every baby in the community come through your doors. Janie Carlyle wants a lot of kids, but her hips are way too narrow for childbirth. Her body will let her know when it's time to quit."

"I know, Mom. It's just that she is such a complainer. We plan this thing darn near nine months in advance, then when it comes down to it, she will be in there moaning and groaning to her husband about having to go through this again and again. She just needs to stop having kids and it will be all right, especially with me."

It's neat to get an idea of how doctors feel about their patients, but it's difficult to sympathize since we don't have to deal with emotional women giving birth.

I told the ladies that I would clean the kitchen up and help them load the truck. I would come in as soon as the fence people were gone.

The women had multiple cans of milk, a five gallon can of pure cream, ten pounds of butter, ten gallons of buttermilk in one gallon bottles, almost a hundred dozen eggs, and a stack of crochet doilies that Millie and Karen had made. Mom had eight big containers of hams and bacon that she would deliver to the butcher and offer to the Kitchen first, but I figured she would have plenty for the market. I knew that when they returned, the containers would be full of hams and bacon that had been presoaked in pear and pineapple juice as well as brine by the butcher and were ready to be smoked.

What the women would get for their goods would be more than enough for our utilities and expenses, along with some trips to Kroger and Wal-Mart for what else they needed. I loved the way the farm took care of itself and kept the family fed.

The fence men showed up, and I walked them around the fence path that I envisioned. While they used one of those wheels to get distances, I recorded the locations with my GPS. When we were done walking the area, one of the men used a hand calculator and notepad to figure a price. I wanted a four-foot high woven wire fence with two strands of barbed wire eight inches apart on top. I wanted all creosoted posts, with braced corner posts. The men said they would brace them and that all corner posts were set in Sakrete.

One of the men said, "You know your mountain is haunted with ghosts, don't you? I can feel them around me right now. This is going to be a very fast job since it's so creepy up here. I hope the other guys are willing to work on the mountain. Aren't you scared of the ghosts up here?"

I had to tell them, "Not really. I think the ghosts from the past may still be around, but they are settled now. The more recent ghosts like Ben and Eliza are happy to be on the mountain."

"That's right, you did let them bury Eliza up here with Bud. Where is that grave?"

I walked them over to where the headstone was and pointed while I told them, "Eliza was a good ole lady. She sold me this place and gave me somewhere to be for the rest of my life."

The guy afraid of ghosts said, "I hope all you have are nice ghosts. I have this feeling as if there are a lot of them around here."

I was promised men would show up to begin on Monday morning. They would set posts first and laser a straight path to each corner so they could cut down any trees necessary. I promised to have a couple of men to cut the trees up for them so they wouldn't be slowed by having to cut trees down. That meant I needed to see Pedro this weekend.

I cleaned up and put some of my new BDUs on that match the Jeep. I thought it would be fun to take the Jeep into the market, as it is a novelty.

Almost as soon as I parked next to Millie's red pickup, people came over to say hi and to pass the time of day. I think they all knew the time to vote for the position of road commissioner was coming up and also knew that if I didn't come back for another term, they might have to dodge potholes and might not be able to get out during the snows. I handed out cards and pieces of candy as I went from group to group. I figured that if I kept this up for the whole time between now and the election, I should get some kind of kickback deal from the dentist.

Hmm, dentist, I wondered if Stanton has a dentist. I saw Stanley Conner and joined him at the coffee tent. "Hey, Stanley, is there a dentist in town?"

"Naw, we don't have one here. You have to go to Mount Sterling if you have a tooth problem. Are you hurting?"

"No, I was thinking about all this candy I'm handing out and wondered about a dentist."

Stanley laughed, "Yep, you've been giving away a lot of candy to get re-elected, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. Everyone knows you've been taking care of the roads and not worrying about getting rich on their tax dollars. You were smart by finding men who knew how to do the job and letting them do what they know how to do. Just keep doing that and you'll be old and gray before you get voted out."

I slapped Stanley on the back. "Thanks, the guys at the road yard will love to hear that. I worry about their jobs, not what I make from the position."

"That's what I mean, Mike. You don't drive around in a big fancy Cadillac. You drive that beat up ugly yellow pickup and I see you're in a neat older Jeep today. You're a regular guy, a common man. That's who people want to take care of their roads."

I changed the subject, "How's your planting coming along? Are you pretty much done?"

Stanley said, "All but the bottom land that you bought. I'm letting it dry another week, then planting ninety day corn there. I think I'll be in good shape for another year. Say, did you get the check for clearing the land? Your guys did a hell of a job and the ground is being planted this next week. Bradley is going to have a great year if the rains keep up the way they have been."

"I don't know about a check, Stan. I let the bookkeeper handle that."

"Yeah, Maude takes care of all of us, doesn't she? As this place grows, she's going to need help. Can you imagine Maude putting up with someone helping her? That's going to be something for the ages."

Back at Millie's truck, I found out they were sold out of everything except a few dozen eggs and a few doilies. Marita was standing with Jet and told me, "Go get some of Rosita's and Carmen's tacos. They are really good. Their salsa is delicious, and they have it both mild and hot." Jet was grinning and nodding vigorously in agreement.

I walked to where the family from below was, and before I could ask for a taco, Consuela put one in my hand and pulled my head down by my ear to give my cheek a kiss. "Eat this, Mike. You will love our tacos. Next week we will bring double."

As I ate the taco, Anita was almost bouncing with excitement. "Selling tacos we are or is that tacos we are selling. Trying I am to speak right, I am."

Pedro bumped into me, smiling as he said, "She messes up Spanish the same way. I think it's something between the ears."

"Just the man I needed to see, Pedro," I said as I finished crunching the taco. "I'm having a fence installed Monday and the fence people will need some trees cut that are in the way. Can you give me a couple of men to cut down and cut up some trees for me?"

"We finished the Conner place and have people available," Pedro said as we stepped away from the busy taco stand. "I was going to use all of them on the cable job, but we don't really need everyone. I'll have Jesus and a few men come Monday morning. They should be able to do most of what you want by Tuesday. I'll have them haul the wood down to the wood lot at our place. The two men down there are still over a month behind in splitting and stacking all of the wood we're cutting. The Conner place ended up yielding three truckloads of special woods, and at least ten truckloads of firewood. The men doing the splitting are doing a good job keeping last year's cuttings separate."

I needed to find out how he and Jesus felt about Ezra. "Are you guys concerned that Ezra left? He had told me he had several jobs lined up for you guys to do when the cable paths are done."

"Mike, he gave me a list of people to call to schedule work. If everyone on the list uses us, we'll be until next summer finishing everything. Ezra gave all of those people my telephone number so they can call if they need to have something done right away. We have a job that needs to start Wednesday, and Jesus and his crew will do that one. It's a lot like the first job we did with you, so we know exactly what to do. We'll use the small bulldozer. There isn't much good wood that will come from the job, but there will be some."

"That's good to know, Pedro," I said, relieved that the men didn't lose out on future work. "If you or Jesus need anything to help you work, let me know."

Pedro smiled at me and said, "We need your name, Mike. You pay all of us more than fair, provide transportation, and even pay to have our women bring lunches to the job. We are pampered workers. Do you know that every man working for you right now is legal? Pastor Harold sends us a couple of men a month, and we work with them so they can be good people. I'll bet the fence people you hired are from our work crews. A couple of the men said they used to work for a fencing company and were going to start their own. You're doing good for us and for others, Mike."

"That's great, Pedro. It makes me feel good to know your crews are all happy men."

"They will be happier when they will be allowed to apply for citizenship. You will come to Jesus and my swearing in, won't you? We will be citizens next month."

"Wow, Pedro, I didn't know you two had been able to get this done so fast."

"It is Benson that has made this possible for our wives and us. Now my whole house will be citizens, and one day, everyone at our farm will be citizens, too. Oh, you need to see Raul. He needs you to talk to someone about a job he's found. You need to be the man to talk to the contractors for him."

"I'll stop by your place and see him today. I have something for him in the future, but it is still a ways off. We do need to keep him and his men working."

I went to the Mexican ladies at their little table that had a gas camping stove cooking some ground beef. "Rosita, should I order a few dozen tacos for us to take home?"

The Latino lady was all smiles and couldn't answer fast enough. Anita jumped in and said, "Lots of tacos Bea has. Lunch for you and the others soon."

Rosita said, "Your mom already bought four dozen. We're just about out of everything, so we'll be going home soon. It's too late to make more tortillas to go to Pine Ridge, but we'll be ready next week."

I asked, "Did Mom get some of your salsa? I want to get some of the good hot stuff. I'm not sure what the others will want."

Carmen was holding her hand over Anita's mouth while telling me, "Bea bought a couple of jars of each kind. I promised her some of our own very hot salsa. She said that you and your sister love hot foods."

"Good deal, Ladies. I need to go see how D is doing at Pine Ridge. He took some wine over there for me. I'll see you at church tomorrow."

"Oh no, Mr. Mike," Rosita corrected. "We will see you for chores this evening. We only needed extra time this morning."

Another taco would have been good, but if Mom bought a bunch, I'll wait for later. But then, with four kids and all of us adults, four dozen tacos won't go far.

When I turned, I ran smack into my brother. "Hey, Shrimp, you need to watch where you're going," Frank said as he gave me a man hug. Brother-in-law Bill was standing next to him and vigorously shook my hand.

"I didn't know you guys were coming down. The ladies didn't say whether you were coming or not," I told them while we headed back to where the rest of the family was.

It was Bill who said, "Frank and I didn't really want to spend the weekend without the family, so we drove in after our early golf game. We're here to pull a couple of weeds, at least. The kids need to see us get dirty so that they will join in."

It was decided that we would head back to the house when a tall lanky woman in jeans and a flannel plaid shirt walked up to us. She was overdoing it a little, as she was wearing a western style straw hat and had a long piece of straw hanging out of her mouth.

I busted out laughing, and she took a swing at me. I had to say something so that the guys would understand. "Sheryl, this is my brother, Frank, and my brother-in-law, Bill Heinlick. Frank and Bill, meet Doctor Sheryl Rivers, the town, community, and county doctor."

After they had shaken hands and greeted each other, Sheryl said, "I'm done being a doc today and plan on spending the rest of the weekend with my adopted family. Where's Mom so that I can ask if I should pick up anything we might need on the way home?"

I pointed to where Mom, Sissy, Millie, Karen, and Shirley were. I told Sheryl, "Tell Mom that we might need more tacos."

Sheryl stepped over and whispered in my ear, "I've got a taco I'd like you to sample, big boy." She stepped back with a chuckle while I blushed, and she said aloud, "Sure, Mike. I'll take care of that right now."

I said to the guys, "I have to go over to Pine Ridge for a few minutes so that I can pick up some beer."

"You don't need any, Mike," Frank said. "We have three cases in coolers in the back of Bill's Suburban. I know you don't keep that much on hand, so we brought extra so you'll have some for later."

Mom and Millie walked past us in the direction of the taco stand, with Mom rolling her eyes, but smiling.