Chapter 3

It was getting late in the day when Wendell, tired but happy, put the tools back in the shed and knocked on the door. 'Mona' stepped out on the stoop and handed him five twenties, saying, "I know you only worked seven hours but you did such a good job, we figured it would only be fair to make it an even hundred. Aunt Sarah says to tell you she'll be calling you about more jobs if you'll give us your telephone number."

"Gosh Mona, tell Sarah thank you so much! We can sure use it. If you have a pen, I'll write it down for you."

"Nah, jus tell me. I've got a real good memory."

"It's a real easy one; it's 5050. Well, I guess I better get on home and help my Daddy make supper. Bye, Mona." Dropping his voice to a whisper and smiling in utter adoration, he added, "And thanks for being so nice to me."

As he walked down the drive, Sarah found herself wishing she were twenty years younger or that he was twenty years older. He didn't just have the makings of an excellent lover; he was a genuinely nice person, the kind of people she wanted to have around her all the time.

When he walked through the back door into the kitchen, Wendell found Ethan Chaffin peeling potatoes for supper.

"Hi, Dad! Look, I did pretty well today." He counted out the hundred dollars and then stuffed it into his dad's jeans pocket. "I cut two trees into firewood for her and I guess she thought I did a good job because she threw in about twenty dollars extra."

Ethan wiped his hands on a tea towel and pulled his oldest boy into a hug. "That's good, son. Of course, you always do good work. Look," he said, taking the money out of his pocket and peeling off a twenty, "Why don't you take Eli down to the store after dinner and treat yourselves to something special."

Wendell was reluctant to take the money. "Thanks, Dad but the electric and telephone bills will be here this week. The lady said she'd call me for some other jobs but I don't know when that'll be. I'd feel bad about wasting money on junk."

"Son, sometimes you just got to waste a little money; you know, so you don't feel like the world's trompin' you under foot. No, you take this and treat yourself and your brother to somethin' nice. I wish there was more. I hear the sawmill might be hirin' so maybe I'll get lucky this week."

"I sure hope so, Dad. I know it's just killing you being out of work like this."

"Well, everybody goes through hard times, Son. It can't last forever. I sure wish your Mama was alive; she'd be so proud of you for bein' such a man at your age."

"Yeah, I miss her too. Do you need any help with dinner?"

"Nope! You just go and relax for a bit an' it'll be ready in about half an hour."

Wendell went to his room and found Eli surfing the web on his MacBook. "Hey, Eli, whatcha lookin' for?"

"Oh, nothin' special. Just pokin' around."

Wendell was suspicious when he saw Eli quickly close out several sites. "I sure hope you haven't been logging onto some of those weird-o porn pages again. I'll whup your butt good if you get some kind of virus on my computer."

"I ain't, Wendell, I swear!"

"Well, you better not. Look, Dad said I could keep twenty bucks so you and I could go down to the store after supper to get something special. How about we see if Johnny's got any new comics in?"

"Cool! Can I get some peanuts and a coke, too?"

"Don't see why not."