Chapter 9

Cindy's view of the universe at this temporal location:

One more concert in the park. That's going to be Saturday. Well it won't really be our last one. I and Dan and the Hardesty bunch (they're ALL playing and singing now, even Billy) have decided that every month or so we can come down on a Friday, practice, and then do a Saturday concert. Mizz Helen likes it. We all like it. But Saturday will be the last one where Dan and I live in the park.

Sunday is church day. I like it. Family and church are two things that show a stability that I never expected to have with Mom. I talked with Dan about this, of course, and he said, "You don't have your mom's lifestyle, baby. You survived around the edges of it, but when I met you, you were struggling to keep your own lifestyle."

"I got it, didn't I?" I smiled. If living with Mom shoved so much more experience in my life than the thirteen calendar years I had when I met Dan, then being with Dan has made all the bad that went before us just recede into the background.

So we'll go to church Sunday morning like a lot of other people do and we'll listen to the message and derive from it ideas that lend stability and purpose to our lives. Everybody who goes to church isn't necessarily good, because people don't fit into formulae (I love it! 'Formulae' instead of 'formulas') like chemistry or physics. But the act of spending a portion of your life in church does say something for most of the attendees. At least that's my take on it.

By this stage of the game, Dan and I showing up, his forty-one years and my fourteen and everybody knows we're married, it's not as big a topic of whispers as it was the first time. The fact that we're friends with the Hardesty family and Mizz Mona and her husband Jeff and they're long-time members of good repute, that sort of smoothes things over.

But Monday morning, we're hitching up the trailer and dragging it off to the RV park we found near Auburn, Alabama. Nikki and Dan 2.0 are already there and she says she can't wait for me to get there. We'll probably have three or four weeks there before we move into the new apartment building.

I expect Alan and Tina and Jason and Susan to stay up in Tennessee until they can move right into the apartments. Terri's in that mix. My cutie pie niece Terri. She's very smart. I wonder if I'd've been like her if my mom had been more of a mom. We sisters have agreed that we take care of Terri.

So we did our concert. Now you have to remember that this singing and playing thing started last fall with Mizz Ann's violin and Mister Jim's banjo and my Dan playing bass guitar and we did a few simple bluegrass tunes. We've grown. Just like everything in my life, there was this seed planted, waiting to sprout.

Tonight we are almost polished. Dan and Mister Jim take turns MC'ing and Bill Hardesty has replaced Dan on the bass, most of the time. Dan's back to guitar and with practice, he's pretty good. Teresa and I do a couple of duets. But we really have fun when me and Dan and Mister Jim and Mizz Ann slam into a bluegrass favorite, Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms, because Mister Jim sings half of it with Mizz Ann as a duet and I sing half of it with my Dan. That's, as Dan says, a sprightly tune. Then Teresa and I slow things down with a simple little bluegrass hymn, and for the finale, it's me and Dan doing Old Salty Dog Blues together. Several people from the audience came up to us and said we should have a recording. That tickles me.

And we had our church day and we had dinner at the Hardesty 's and just like we planned, Monday morning, Dan and I cut loose our umbilicals to the best home I'd ever had up to this point in my life. I was a little sad. I had tears in my eyes when I hugged Mizz Helen and Mister Charlie. He held me to his side.

"Cindy, don't be sad. This is life, you know. You move through it. And you'll be back down here often."

"Yes we will," Dan said. "And I will always remember how good you and Helen have been to us."

"And you two are a happy part of both our lives," Helen said. "Dan, you have no idea how happy I was when you started taking care of Cindy."

I couldn't help but smile. I remember Dan last summer when I first met him, how he seemed puzzled over me meeting him at the pool and wanting to talk to him about everything. Now he IS everything.

We filled two travel mugs with park coffee and got in the truck and started a journey into a new phase of life.

Dan's driving, naturally. Fourteen year old girls can't drive. Not that I would today anyway, towing thirty-something feet of trailer behind us. But that gives me time to catch up on phone calls. A few minutes were spent with Nikki. I'd see her in person before the day ended. I talked at length with Tina.

"Susan's finally home?"

Tina laughed. "With the biggest silly grin permanently affixed to her face."

"No doubt," I said. "Like neither of us could control that grin, you know."

"I know," she giggled.

"Yeah, I tried. Mizz Helen says that I failed miserably."

"Well, she's obvious, but at least Jason's not subject to prosecution for a felony. And you thought that you and I were attached to our guys. She and Jason are like there's a short chain between 'em."

"As it should be," I said. "How's Terri?"

"Terri's reading with her friend over there in the other room. She is something else."

"Not a problem, huh?" I asked.

"Not even. Only change is that I and my husband have to show a little more decorum around the house."

I giggled, thinking of me and my Dan and how clothing was optional on many evenings, leaving delicious and titillating access to each other. I know that Tina had that going with Alan.

"Oh, but Terri's smart about that, too. She has a way of going over to Shara's house and announcing that she'll be gone for at least an hour and a half and she never barges back in."

"Smart kid," I said. "I'm looking forward to having y'all for neighbors, Tina."

"Me too. Cindy, we have a family. We ARE a family. You and me and the whole strange bunch."

"I know," Tina said. "When you and Nikki get together tonight, Skype us. I'll poke Susan and make sure she's on."

My turn to giggle. "Oh, I dunno. She does have a new toy to play with, you know."

"You can't do that ALL the time..." and simultaneously we both said, "But I tried!" And we giggled our good-byes.

Dan was listening, of course. "Another happy sister?"

"Oh, yes," I said. "We were talking about Terri and Susan. Susan's a very happy girl now."

"New toy to play with," he laughed.

"You're not supposed to be listening to private conversations," I giggled. "But yes, new toy. And you know how much I wanted to play with it. And we did."

"Still do."

I reached over and slid my hand up the inside of his thigh. Yep! It's still there! And when I touch it, it changes shape. I giggled again. "See! Still fun!"

He looked away from the highway at me, smiling. "I experience lust over you sometimes, little one," he said.

"You are my lust, Dan. I hope you're happy with the monster you created."

"Which monster? I've created several, you know."

"List 'em," I said. "I wish to gauge your creativity."

"Cindy the sex goddess. Cindy the singer. Cindy the computer geek."

"I take a back seat to Nikki there," I said.

He continued, "Cindy the ringleader. Cindy the virtuouso of aging Cessnas ... What have we tried that you are not excelling?"

"Cooking. I can't cook."

"You're fourteen and you are quite accomplished with both a microwave oven and any foodstuff that is added to boiling water."

"Beast!" I said. "Nikki can really cook. I wanna."

"What about Tina?"

"She can cook. Maybe not full-blown Cajun like Nikki, but she can."

"Susan?"

"Susan's just about where I am. Although she can bake cookies and do casseroles and stuff like that."

"I have been remiss," Dan said. "Here I was, teaching you to fly and starting you off in advanced math and things and I have neglected your introduction into the domestic arts."

"I wish to be a wife, not a concubine," I said. I knew that phrase would turn his head. When he swiveled to look at me, I was smirking.

"But you're a very good concubine."

"And you're a beast," I said.

"Beauty and the Beast," Dan laughed.

I can be quite satisfied being Dan's 'beauty'. I glance up at the GPS. We're getting close to the new park. I push the button on my phone and say "Nikki". I'm rewarded by ringing and then a happy voice.

"How close are y'all?" Nikki asks.

"GPS says ten minutes."

"I'll get us ready. We'll be waiting for you. I'm so excited, Cindy!"

Nine minutes later we were parked at the front office. I went in with Dan and met the manager (again! "Hi, Cindy!" he said.) and watched Dan sign papers for our stay. By the time we got out the door I could see Nikki and Dan 2.0 out in front of their trailer. Naturally we were parked right next to them. I met Nikki with a hug and a kiss and and kiss hit her Dan's cheek and she gave my Dan a peck while the two husbands shook hands, then we got out of the way while they handled spotting our trailer.

It didn't take long to get us unhitched from the truck, but it took a while to get the trailer leveled and the utilities connected. Finally Dan unlocked the door.

"Come see my first happy home," I told Nikki. She looked around as I showed her. Doesn't take long to tour a thirty-something foot trailer, though, and then she took me over to look at theirs. It's a lot different. It's a standard travel trailer, not a custom job like ours or Tina's. I've seen some others before, and I recognized the thrifty use of space. Okay, I like ours better. Dan was smart about laying things out for a single guy, or, happily, a couple. I liked having the tiny bit of open space where a regular trailer would've shoe-horned in another sofa that turned into a bed.

There was a difference, though. Nikki's trailer smelled of good cooking. I mentioned that.

"Steak and gravy," she said. "Plain ol' food. I hope you like it. We can talk about what kind of foods you like and we can cook 'em together." Yes, Nikki knew that I wanted to learn to cook more. She lifted a lid and gave the pot a stir.

I smiled. "How long before it's ready?"

"Dinnertime. You let this tough ol' meat simmer and it gets tender so it almost falls apart. Let's go see where our husbands are at." She headed for the door, me right behind her.

I bounded through the door of my trailer and caught two Dans sitting at the end, my Dan in his chair, her Dan on the sofa. I sat in my husband's lap. "Did Dan tell you we're having dinner with them?" I asked.

"Yep. Is that okay with you?"

"Of course! But I wanna get back to that restaurant we visited with Mizz Patel."

Nikki raised an eyebrow.

"Indian food," I said. "Marvelously spiced and exotic-tasting. You have to try."

Her Dan nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, yeah. Good stuff."

"We'll have to do that, then," Nikki said. "And anyway, Monday I meet Mizz Patel and she's going to put me through the wringer she put you through, sis."

"You'll do just fine," I said. "We've talked about all this stuff. You're scary smart."

"YOU'RE scary smart," Nikki repeated to me. Then we both laughed. "Let's got to my trailer and call Tina and..."