I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship…
- Casablanca (1942)
"Eight…seven…six…"
Panic hit me in the face as I stared into a cupboard full of glasses and mugs.
Crap.
"Five…four..." the count down got closer.
I rushed over to another cupboard, sliding out on the tile floor thanks to my socks. Thankfully I found the plates. I brought seven down on to the counter and then made two trips to the table just outside the kitchen so that I wouldn't accidentally drop them.
"Three and a half…three." Mom counted down
The smell of the creamy batter cooking on the stove top was enough of a reminder that time was running out. I raced around the table to place plates in front of Andrea, Daryl, Dale, Carl, and in two empty spots for Mom and Lori.
"What are you doing?" Carl asked.
"The microwave game, where you have to get everything set up before the timer goes off, but this time it's more like the pancake game." I explained without stopping. (Almost bonked Dale in the head with his plate.)
The pancake game wasn't as intense as the microwave game because the microwave didn't stop counting for you as I knew Mom just did.
I raced back over to the drawers, I already knew where the cutlery was so I got it out pretty quickly and gave everyone their utensils.
"I had to find a dish to microwave at every meal when she was young just so she could play," Mom brought in a plate full of delicious smelling pancakes. "But she never complained about having to set the table since it was Olympic event."
"Gold medal champion," I brag jokingly.
I poured maple syrup on to my pair of pancakes, that overlapped each other so that they kinda looked like butt cheeks. I laughed and started cutting up the butt and laughed a little more at that.
Today was going to be a good day, I could tell already. It was right there in the air.
Everyone around me seemed pretty happy too. When we first got here, no one was all that sure on what to do. Now with a few days under our belts, we were more comfortable in the house now and so everyone was talking now instead of being quiet as we were the last few suppers.
The only thing that would make it perfect would be if we had a radio in the background. Absolute perfection would be if it were playing Bruce Springsteen, felt like a Boss kind of day.
"...One night we were having one of our socials so we, me and my sister, Rachel, and some other kids we hung around with thought of it as the perfect opportunity to sneak across the creek what with all the adults busy visiting," Mom was telling a story I had heard more than once. "The mosquitoes were awful down there and we got eaten alive trying to realign the old planks on what was once the bridge. For once nobody's parents came cruising down the road so we actually got to hang out on the other side for a while and no one was any the wiser about it. But the next day, Rachel and I were scratching ourselves silly so we go ask Mum if we had any of that anti itch cream and she told us where it was and then 'there is bug spray in the ottoman for the next time you are going to go down by the creek."
I laughed with everyone else even though I knew the ending. It was still a good story.
"Because it had been a dry summer, the only place there was mosquitoes was down by the water. So moral of the story, you two," Mom looked to me and Carl. "A mother is always going to figure out when you are doing you shouldn't be."
Conversations split into little groups after that. Mom was retelling another story to Daryl , the one where we got stuck in the muck when we were trying to go to my Papaw's church and Randy came out to help us but the road was so bad he almost got stuck too.
"Git the Chev unstuck when the Dodge showed up?" He asked
"But the dodge got stuck in the tractor rut," Mom answered.
"Which eventually pulled out the Ford," Daryl nodded.
"Yep. I got me stuck in the mud, so I couldn't rehearse. And Chavez too has missed his work. Reggie, he now fears the worst, he stood up his ex wife she called him a jerk. Course Holtman didn't have nothing better do to," Mom said.
"'cept ranch," They both said and then burst out laughing.
They must have gotten friendly with each other when I got lost and Daryl spent all that time looking for me. And I think Daryl reminded her of Randy, and Greg Peters and all the other men she grew up with. Good ol' boys.
I didn't feel super guilty around Daryl anymore. He was doing better, wasn't lying down in the bedroom all the time. So I think that helped, seeing that he was doing ok. There was something sad about him though, probably because he couldn't be with Rick, Shane, T-Dog, and Glenn right now, and he always had to stay behind because of how hurt he was. Since that was my fault, I wished there was something I could do about it.
It was a good thing that the whole group wasn't eating with us because from the look of the stack of dirty dishes in the sink and a tub beside, we might not have enough plates for everyone.
I looked at Mom's cup of coffee hopefully. Mom looked over at me looking at it.
"Alright, but just a small cup," She read my mind as she often had a knack for doing.
I went back to the cupboard with the cups that I found while looking for plates and picked a smaller tea cup with blue daisies on it.
When I use to help with breakfast at the diner in Canton where Mom worked, which was run by a friend of Auntie Gracie, who ran CJ's diner back in Dawsonville. Me and Shayla, who was sixteen, would drink it when we were waiting around for something to do. For the longest time I didn't like the taste but I drank it anyway because I wanted to be like Shayla, then I got use to the taste and ended up liking it.
I put two spoons of sugar in, tested it and added a little more. Maybe I didn't get use to the taste, I just figured out how much sugar I needed to put in to get rid of the bitter taste.
I took big sip, glanced over at Mom, she wasn't looking so I refilled the coffee in my cup and added more sugar.
Mom said it wasn't good for a growing girl like me so she didn't let me have it very often and when she did, I could not have a whole lot of it. She was probably right about that because sometimes when I have coffee, my heart goes crazy and I feel like I got to run around or I'll explode.
I returned to my seat. In the time that I was gone, most of the maple syrup had run off my pancakes in a little river that pooled around the edges. I dunked a bit of pancake into it.
We should have cheese fondue for supper sometime.
"My arms are killing me after all that lifting the other day," said Andrea.
"Having trouble keeping up with the boys?" Lori sort of asked and sorted stated too.
All of a sudden I got a really cross vibe coming off of Daryl.
It's hard to explain how I could feel when someone else is angry before they even speak but I really can. The closest way I could describe the way it feels when you feel someone's mood is when you get close to a space heater and you can feel the bubble of heat coming from it. Moods have a different kind of energy though. I tried telling my friend, Emma, back in the third grade but she said I was making things up.
"I'm going to go see if Beth wants some," Lori put a few pancakes on one of the last plates.
I still hadn't seen this Beth that kept being mentioned. I was guessing she was an old lady since she had to stay in bed so much.
"Hey Andrea, could you take Carl and Sophia for a walk around the farm?" Mom asked when we started clearing up.
Me and Carl looked at each other excitedly.
"They've been itching to go exploring."
We had been itching like we had touched poison ivy to run around the big, open fields around. But our mothers kept us busy with schoolwork. Carl kept wanting to show me the chicken coop. I don't like chickens. I got pecked on the finger by one once for doing nothing. Chickens are nasty. He said that there were some cute little chicks though, I would like to see them.
"Sure," Andrea said with a smile.
Me and Carl high fived which made Andrea smile even more. At least I cheered someone up.
"Thank you." Mom said. "Here, I'll give you a canteen of water to take down to the others. It's shaping up to be a hot day."
"Daryl, do you want to come?" Carl asked him. I felt glad that Carl thought to invite him along.
"Naw, I got some stuff to do."
While we waited for Carl to get dressed, Dale showed Andrea something on the hunting rifle. I had gotten dressed when I first got up. I don't like to be in my PJ's too long. Bad memories.
We walked out the door and down the dirt road. Carl asked about the hunting rifle across Andrea's shoulder and then the gun that was hers. I didn't know a thing about guns so I enjoyed the view that I only got to see from the windows and feel the warmth from the sun that I got to enjoy on the porch if I was lucky.
A bunch of cows grazed in the field. There were some right up against the fence. Carl walked up to them slowly. They raised their head when they heard us but didn't walk away. So we pet them through the wire. They didn't seem to mind, just kept chomping on the grass.
The horses were what I really wanted to see. Unfortunately we went all the way down to where the guys were all building a brand spanking new fence and didn't see any. Must be farther out.
The fence was getting big. That ought to keep the geeks out.
We hung around for a while, sitting on the hood of a red pickup. I could see a
It was too big to be a shed, but the doors were way too small to get a combine in. It was probably a stable. With all the horses the Greene's had, they would need some where to keep them, wouldn't they?
I wanted to go see it.
"Let's head back," said Andrea, then rolling her eyes, "I should help out with laundry or something
"Can I stay?" Carl asked. "I could get my math done later."
"Yeah. I'll handle the wrath of Lori." Rick said.
Andrea and me walked back through the field we came. We talked a little bit. I looked back over my shoulder when we got back to house. I couldn't see the stable with the barn right in the way of it.
"You're a quiet girl, Sophia." Andrea said.
"Don't got a whole lot to say."
I tapped my pencil on the table. I had to write a whole frigging page on the first discussion question in the back of The Yearling, which was actually three questions in one.
Why does Penny Baxter choose to live in a remote clearing?
Cause he don't like to lend his neighbors tools. I had wrote down but erased.
How should I know? I don't think I had read far enough to know why he didn't want to live in there instead of the little pioneer town.
Maybe I could make my neighbour answer work. Since this wasn't math, there was
The Forrester's seemed like a bunch of crazies.
I thought about the house I found when I was lost and how I wanted to live in it. But I wanted to live there for completely different reasons than someone who lived forever ago.
My Papaw liked Dawsonville because it was quiet and humble, he felt like he could be closer to God
Was Penny a man of God. I flipped through the first ten pages but I didn't pick up anything
This was frustrating as heck.
It didn't help that I kept thinking about the stable. I really wanted to see it and I wasn't going to get anything done until I did.
I snuck out the back door and walked around the barn. The grass tickled my legs it was closer to the house than where Carl was helping with the fence so I didn't feel
I came around the side of it and poked my head in the door. I was nervous, like I was going into a place I wasn't allowed to be in. I crept in.
It was cooler than outside since it was out of the sun. I could hear my footsteps since it was so quiet. It smelled like most places on a farm, sort of like cow poop, but there was sweet smell in there too which made it way better than cow poop smell.
There was a walk-in closet with saddles and blanket. Bridles and thick, colourful ropes hanging on the wall. I walked to the other end. Memphis was in a stall. I hopped over the half door and walked up to him slowly. His big, soft brown eye fixed on me but he didn't rear up or anything crazy. He stretched out his neck and nosed my shoulder. So I took it as sign that he was fine with me being there and stroked the side of his head. He liked it too, not like the cows earlier that didn't notice.
"Why you in here all by your lonesome?" I asked him. He could be outside if he wanted. "You needing some peace too?"
He looked out to the field over his tall shoulder.
"Bet all that hammering is driving you nutty. They'll be done soon and we'll all be safer for it.
I told myself I wasn't going to stay long so no one would know that I had gone off but
The stable was everything I had been wishing for. So I kept petting him, pretending that he was really my horse.
"Alright, I gotta go now but I'll come back later." I told the horse.
I'd have to get Mom to agree somehow. It was within the new fence so it was safe.
I got even closer to Memphis' chest, I swear I could feel his heart beating. I reached up around his neck and gave him a hug. I was scared that he'd kick me but he was too nice for that. Instead he lowered his head down on to my back, like he was hugging me right back.
"He's your favourite, huh?" Daryl said, coming out of nowhere like he had a knack for doing.
Who was he? Batman.
He, like most everyone, also had a knack for telling me to go back.
I nodded. Memphis was my favorite, not because he was really the first horse I ever rode but because he was a beautiful. I liked how his coat kind of tricked you into thinking it was black when it was really just a dark brown, except for his legs which were black. But mostly he was my favorite because he would let me come right up to him, like I had now, and he liked me. At least I think he does.
"Never got to go out again, did we?" said Daryl, leaning against the doorway.
I didn't get what he meant so I just shrugged and pat Memphis' neck.
"You got a horse right here, could go ridin' right now if ya want."
That sounded great, except for one important thing.
"I don't know how."
I'll remember every detail of the stable during that moment; the way the sun was scatter on the dirt, coming in from the doors, the faint chirping of birds outside, how Memphis nudged my cheek with his velvety nose, because Daryl said something that I'll probably never forget as long as I live.
"Wanna learn?"
Author's note: Tune in next time for the learning and Oh, Sophia. She says she doesn't have a lot to say but she does.
I've been so excited to write this chapter, and I know you've all been curious
Thanks to all who dropped me a line, I really enjoy reading what you have to say about this story and I'm glad the humor landed well because I want ; I luv ewansmile, Kountry101, SilverWolf84, LawlessResolute, Crystal, Emeberka-2012, h8erade, HGRHfan35, Rodgerse, BanannaFlvdSnow.
Sophia's intuition about Daryl getting angry because he feels useless when Lori was hinting her gender roles at Andrea is a trait of abused kids that I read about in an article. Children in such circumstances develop a sensitivity to people's moods to know when to make themselves scarce.
The question from The Yearling is an actually question that I pulled from my copy.
Happy Canada Long Weekend, everybody!