Chapter 4

I was right on the nose about how long it would take me to paint the house. The dry wood soaked up primer like a sponge but I nailed the last green shutter into place at the end of the fifth day. Beth took my arm and we walked around the house lookin' at how nice it turned out.

"Richie, this is just beautiful! I'm going to cook up a really nice dinner for you as a special treat and I want you to bring your mother out here to join us and look at your work. She ought to know what an outstanding young man she has for a son. When you go home tonight, you ask her if she can come next Sunday and tell her I'll be doing all the cooking; she won't have to lift a finger."

"That's awful nice of you, Beth! She'll love that! She works herself to the bone n' don't hardly ever get to go out anywhere. You know what? I'm gonna take some of the money you paid me and buy her a nice dress. I know for a fact she ain't bought herself nothing new to wear since Daddy's funeral."

"What a nice idea, Richie! I can probably help you with that. What size dress does she wear?"

"Um, I really couldn't say."

"Well, how big is she? Is she my size or what?"

I stood back and looked, feelin' a touch guilty about starin' at her body but likin' what I was starin' at. "Well I guess she's about your size, maybe a few pounds heavier n' a inch taller but that's about all. She works hard so she don't get fat."

Beth grabbed my hand and said, "Come with me! I think I know just the thing for your mama."

I followed her upstairs to her bedroom. She searched through her closet and pulled out a dark blue polka-dot dress with a white collar and held it up to herself.

"What do you think of this?"

"It's real pretty, Beth. Are you thinkin' about givin' it to her?"

"That I am! Do you think she'll like it?"

I hoped she wasn't gonna take what I said the wrong way. "I reckon she'd love it Beth, but I was kind of wantin' to buy her something myself. You know, somethin' just from me."

She looked at me and gave me a little nod. "Of course you do and I know exactly what your saying, Richie. OK, how about this; what do you think this dress is worth?"

"Jeez, I don't know nothin' 'bout women's things. I don't have any idea."

"Well, do you think it might be worth, say, five dollars?"

"I suppose."

"Good! You just bought it for five dollars. I'll deduct it from your salary. Now reach up on that top shelf and get me one of those white boxes so we can wrap it up. By the way, this has never been worn so you're buying your mama a brand new dress. And you don't need to be telling her where it came from, either."

I can't say for sure but, knowin' Beth, I bet that dress cost her a lot more than five bucks.

Well Mama was so taken with that dress her eyes got all watery when she tried it on. It was maybe just a little snug up top but she said she could let it out some. When we showed up at Beth's house that Sunday, Mama looked like a million bucks.

Beth come out to meet us before we were even out of the car. She took Mama's hands and said, "Mrs. Dinken, its such a pleasure to finally meet you."

"I'm so pleased to meet you, Mrs. Webster. Richie just goes on about you all the time. And thank you so much for bein' so generous to my boy."

"Generosity has nothing to do with it. Richie earns every penny he takes home and then some. I don't know how I'd manage around here without his help. And would you please call me Beth?"

"I will if you call me Margaret."

"Deal, Margaret! Well you two come on in the house because dinner's almost ready. That dress sure looks pretty on you."

I thought Mama's face would crack from smilin' so big. "Richie bought it for me. I never would've guessed he had such a good eye for women's clothes."

Mama took my arm and we stepped up onto the porch. "Mmm", she said as we walked through the screen door, "Somethin' smells mighty good in here."

"I hope you like it. I tried for an authentic English dinner of beef Wellington, roasted potatoes with butter and parsley and fresh garden peas. We're even going to have a nice claret wine if you're up for that."

Well, we ate 'til we couldn't eat no more. After dinner, we took a little walk around the house to look at the new paint job, then out to the barn were Beth showed her all the work I'd done there.

I was bein' careful not to call Beth by her first name 'cause I'm pretty sure Mama wouldn't like it. She'd think I was bein' disrespectful of my elders and she wouldn't abide that.

After we had another glass of wine in the living room and chatted the afternoon away talkin' about just about everything, Beth brought out a hot peach cobbler and some vanilla ice cream to scoop on top. Mama scolded me about bein' such a pig when I asked for seconds but she was laughin' at the same time so I guess it was OK. Anyhow Beth 'bout forced me to take it.

We'd had a fine afternoon n' on the way home Mama couldn't stop talkin' about what a sweet woman Beth Webster was. "When you graduate from college, Son, I sure hope you're lucky enough to find a woman like that to marry. I don't believe you could do better."

If you know anything at all about Oklahoma, you know it sits smack-dab in the middle of Tornado Alley. Well, that summer we got one. Okies are always a little edgy when there's thunderstorms kickin' up and we're generally pretty good at spottin' the ones that look like they might drop a funnel on us.

We'd had a couple of rain showers through the morning but nothin' very bad. I was at Beth's runnin' a plane over the edge of a sticky door when she called up the stairs and asked me to come down n' look at somethin'. She was standin' out on the porch lookin' off to the west. When I stepped outside, she pointed and asked, "Does that look strange to you?"

Well, it didn't look strange, it looked scary. It was solid dark gray above us but off to the southwest I could see some darker, ragged clouds that was rollin' around in a big spiral. I'd seen enough of them that I knew right away what it meant.

"That's a tornado cloud, Beth. Best turn on the radio and see if there's any warnings bein' broadcast." I knew we were too far away to hear any sirens goin' off in Watonga."

She went in to do that and I just stood there and watched how the clouds was movin'. The minute she stepped back out on the porch to say she didn't hear anything, we saw a long, skinny rope drop from the edge of the cloud and kick up a plume of dust a couple of miles off.

"Oh my!" Beth gasped, "Is that a tornado?"

"It surely is. We might want to be thinkin' about your storm cellar right about now."

But she just stood there watchin' it. "Can you see which way it's moving? Looks to me like it's just sitting there."

"That's 'cause it's either moving away from us or right at us and I don't think we should stand here tryin' to figure out which one it is. Come on, Beth! Let's get in the cellar! NOW!"

I grabbed her hand and we took off runnin' toward the big hump in the ground out by the barn where the storm cellar was. The door was heavy but I didn't have no trouble getting' it open. We couldn't hear anything yet so it was still a ways off.

"You got a lantern and matches down there?" I asked as she ran down the steps.

"Yeah, both. Hold the door open for a minute while I get one lit."

As I stood there holding the door open to give her some light, I started to hear the telltale sound of the locomotive comin' down the tracks. Problem was, the nearest tracks was ten miles off.

"Hurry up, Beth! I can hear it comin'!"

"It's lit, Richie! Get down here and close the door!"

I scooted down a few steps and let the heavy door slam shut over my head. There was a heavy chain bolted to the underside and an iron hook stickin' out of the concrete wall to latch it to. Even through the heavy oak door, we could hear the wind getting' louder and louder outside. Beth threw her arms around me and squeezed tight.

I looked around in the dim lamplight and saw shelves of canned goods and a few Mason jars of fruit the Nobles had probably left behind when they sold the farm. What I was really lookin' for was black widow spiders 'cause they like to hang around in places that are damp and dark.

I could feel Beth shiverin' in my arms. "I'm scared, Richie! Is that door going to hold?"

"Of course it will! This is what it was made for." I hoped I sounded a lot more sure of myself that I felt. I'd never been in an actual tornado before so I could've been just lyin' through my teeth.

Now here's where I'm gonna tell ya somethin' strange. If you think a guy can't get a boner when he's scared, I'm here to tell ya that ain't true. Holdin' on to Beth so tight and her pressed up against me made my dick pop up like a dandelion. I pushed my butt back hopin' she didn't notice but I think that just made it more obvious.

She sorta grinned at me but we still held onto each other as we listened to the roar gettin' louder. I knew it was right on us when the door started rattlin' and tuggin' against the chain for just a few seconds but then it started to die down. About the time we thought it was all over, we both jumped when a different roar of heavy rain and hail started poundin' us but that only lasted maybe a minute. I kept my eye on that chain but I could see nothin' was trying to pull the door open. Some water came in around the edges, though and started tricklin' down the steps. After a few minutes, it got quiet.

I let go of Beth and said, "I'm gonna crack the door a bit and take a look around."

Beth wouldn't let go. "Are you sure it's safe, Richie? Don't be doing anything brave and stupid!"

"I'm just gonna peek."

I slipped the chain link off the iron hook and lifted the door about six inches. There was still a light rain fallin' and the ground was covered with hail but it was quiet. I pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped outside. The first thing I saw with some relief was that the house was still there but when I turned around, I saw we hadn't been spared. The silo was gone but that wasn't no big loss 'cause it was about to fall down anyways. The bad part was that a good part of the barn roof was missin'.

"Come on up, Beth! It's gone."

She crept up out of the cellar like she was afraid to stick her head above ground and put her arm around my waist. "Oh, dear!" she sighed when she saw the damage. "Well, I guess it could have been a lot worse. I suppose we should count ourselves lucky, huh?"

"I'll say we should! Let's go see if the cow's OK."

We walked across the muddy yard and pulled the barn door open. Then we saw that the back wall of the barn was mostly gone and so was the cow. At first I thought we'd lost her but then I heard her mooing and saw her standin' out by the fence. Soon as she saw me, she come a-runnin'. I checked her out but she didn't look like she was any worse for the wear except maybe half scared to death.

Beth hugged my arm and said, "Don't tell on me for contributing to the delinquency of a minor but could I interest you in a stiff drink?"

"I don't much care for the taste of whiskey but I'd take you up on a glass of that wine we had with dinner last Sunday after I get back. I got to get over to Eagle City and check on Mama. Maybe you aught to check on the farm next door 'cause that's the way it was headin'."