Tell Us a Story
Lightning split the sky outside and Adam McFadden contemplated the storm with some concern from his position at the kitchen window. Evening had just begun and dark would follow. His younger brothers Brian and Crane had not returned to the house and Adam worried that the two wouldn't finish their chores before the storm engulfed them.
Ranch demands never ceased, no matter how threatening the weather.
A roll of thunder crashed next, and ten year old Evan called helpfully, "Adam, should I gather some of the candles just in case we lose electricity?"
Adam crossed from the kitchen to the living room and addressed the fifth grader. "Fantastic thinking. I have a feeling the electricity will go within a half hour or so. How should we operate around here? Better safe than sorry, of course."
Evan jumped up from his seat on the floor and stacked his homework papers into a tidy pile. Adam couldn't resist a grin. Evan's personality traits included one for protocols only he deemed crucial. For example, he still arranged each item of food on his plate to keep it separate from the other ingredients. When he tackled homework he devoted himself to one subject and plugged along with it diligently until he finished. Then he turned to the next.
"I just have two math problems left," Evan reassured his guardian.
"Great to hear," Adam acknowledged. "Grab those candles and then knock out those last pesky problems."
Ford, a year younger than Evan, and Daniel, a year older, had also appropriated the coffee table as a homework table. They regarded him expectantly. "Finish your homework," he ordered. "That way if we do lose power we won't have to worry about unfinished projects."
Glancing around the room Adam sought to locate the family's baby, four year old Guthrie. "What happened to Guth?"
"Dunno," Daniel replied innocently. "Think we lost him some time ago. We got so busy with school stuff that Guthrie just disappeared into thin air."
An excited movement near the huge bookcase alerted Adam to the game. "Lost him? Oh no! How will we manage without our Guthrie?"
"No Guthrie would make us so sad," Ford glanced toward the back of the room. "Everyone would just search and search because we would miss him."
A small giggle followed the declarations.
"I would cry," Adam insisted in a wounded tone. "I would miss my Guthrie so much that I would cry until he returned to us. Where can he be?"
With that pronouncement a laughing, overall clad ball of energy burst from his hiding place and crashed into Adam's legs. Pretending shock at the appearance, Adam exclaimed, "Guth! I thought I had lost you!" Reaching down to tousle the dark blond hair he added, "Now I won't have to cry because you are here in front of me."
Guthrie grabbed hold of one of Adam's hands and placed it around his small chest. "I just kidded you Adam. I saw you from the bookcase 'cause I hid there."
Evan returned clutching three fat candles already attached to candleholders. "Where do you want them?"
Adam pointed to the coffee table. "One there and set one in the kitchen. Put the last one upstairs in the bathroom and we can grab the kerosene lamps for the bedrooms should we need them. Thanks, Ev."
"Through!" Ford announced, jumping up to stretch. "Check my homework now, Adam."
"Ok, hand it to me." Adam spent a moment scanning the Social Studies questions and pronounced them well answered. "Pack all your work in your bookbag now and you can enjoy some free time."
"Through, too!" Daniel yelled triumphantly. "It just took forever to finish my essay but it does look good, if I do say so myself." His brothers laughed indulgently. Daniel enjoyed the limelight and didn't shy from tooting his own horn, unlike Crane and Ford, who tended to underestimate their own abilities. Adam smiled at the child. Truthfully, Daniel possessed model worthy looks which physically resembled Adam's and Brian's, though Dan possessed more swarthy features than they.
"Same instructions, then," Adam responded. "Pack it up in your bag."
Daniel hastily shoved his papers into a heap and crammed them into the bookbag he'd deposited on the sofa. Motioning to Guthrie he tasked the little fellow with hauling his bookbag to the area by the front door designated as their take to school space.
Dragging the satchel by both straps Guthrie dutifully obeyed before scampering off to play with his train set.
An hour later the family had just finished supper and begun to clean the kitchen when the inevitable occurred- the electricity snapped off, back on, and then finally off for good. Thanks to Evan's candle, they worked en masse to finish the chore, eager to relocate to the more comfortable living room, and Adam declared the kitchen finished in no time.
The boys scattered to their favorite places and settled eagerly despite the loss of television or activities which required electric power. Crane grabbed his library book and seated himself at a slant from the candle to gain access to as much illumination as he could.
Adam had transported the kitchen candle to the laundry room and devoted fifteen minutes to folding clothes and linens. His twenty two years had not been easy ones- at least the past few had certainly not, but Adam accepted his responsibility to his family. He worked himself into exhaustion most days but found unexpected rewards along the way.
His determination after the deaths of their parents had kept the family together, intact, fed, clothed, and educated.
Brian hailed him from the living room to share that Marie had called to invite the boys to eat with her after church Sunday. Marie owned a diner in the nearest town, Murphys, and the family considered a visit to her restaurant a treat. Adam instructed Brian to thank her and folded the last towel, leaving it stacked on the laundry table. He didn't feel like navigating the stairs in the dark balancing a candle and stack of clean towels.
Putting up the bath linens could wait.
The quiet from the living room surprised him and Adam hurried through the kitchen to check everyone's status. Crane sat with his thin shoulders hunched over a novel, straining to read. Brian lobbed a small nerf ball from hand to hand. Ford lay on the floor maneuvering one of his toy cars across the edge of the carpet and up the side of the sofa. Guthrie curled across two sofa cushions clutching a stuffed rabbit, while Evan and Daniel competed in a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Daniel regarded his brother's entrance with a grin. "Remember that we had a bad storm like this the night we met Isabelle and Stella."
"True," Brian affirmed. "That night just sheeted rain. I remember because I almost slid off of the road driving my date home. We must have gotten a good two inches of hard rain that day."
Adam stretched, attempting to unkink his tight shoulder muscles. "Once you walked through the door I relaxed the first time that night." He focused on Daniel. "Terrible as Isabelle's car break down appeared it turned into the best luck for Stella and her. They found us and we found them."
"Plus after staying with us they moved to Texas and made good lives with Isalbelle's folks," Evan reminded them.
Ford pocketed his matchbox car and climbed onto the sofa arm before sliding onto the cushion beside Guthrie. "So we acted as good Samaritans just like in the Bible and helped the way we should, right?"
"Correct, and it brings me great pleasure every time Isabelle writes to us and I read the next bright chapter in her story." Adam sank onto the sofa and repositioned Guthrie's legs. Ford slid so that he could lean against his big brother.
Guthrie crawled into Adam's lap and yawned. "Tell us a story, Adam."
"A story?" Adam repeated with a grin. "I just told you the one about Isabelle and Stella. You remember Stella, don't you Guth? You played with her."
"Tell another story besides that one," Ford joined his brother's plea.
Adam tousled Ford's white blond hair. "What kind of story?"
"A true story," Daniel suggested. "Like a story about when you were a kid."
Evan eyed Adam warily, "Long time ago."
Adam and Brian laughed loudly and Brian pointed out, "But I am younger so we recognize that my junior status makes me much more youthful looking than the senior brother there."
Adam wagged a finger at him, "True, but remember that the good Lord blessed me with stunningly handsome looks."
The little boys whooped gleefully at that pronouncement.
Crane snapped his book closed and added his plea for a story.
Finally Adam acquiesced. "All right, just to establish some peace in this house I believe I can recall a story to tell you, despite my advanced age."
Ford looked troubled and he appealed to Adam, "Not a scary one."
"Nope," Adam assured him, wrapping an arm around the fourth grader. Ford never sought out frightening stories or movies the way his older brothers did.
"How about one with Mama and Daddy in it?" Crane's blue eyes shimmered in the candle's glow. "You probably have hundreds of those filed in your story library."
Adam's stomach lurched a bit. In the years after the deaths of his parents life had continued, and trite as he found the expression, the world did continue to turn without them. Guthrie had transformed from baby to preschooler in the intervening three plus years. Brian had graduated from high school. All of the little boys had climbed from one school grade to another and Adam had accepted and enacted the mantel of pseudo-parent, brother, provider, caretaker, and rancher.
Adam felt an obligation to honor his mother and father by keeping them integral members of the family, even after their deaths. Heartbreakingly for the younger boys memories of their parents had blurred with time's passing. In little Guthrie's case, none existed at all.
"Good call, and let me think about a really good non-scary one to share with you," Adam leaned back against the sofa cushion and closed his brown eyes. The boys waited expectantly, shifting themselves into comfortable positions in anticipation of the upcoming entertainment.
After several moments Adam opened his eyes and invited, "How about this? I will tell you the story of Mama and Daddy's very first ever date."
The boys considered the suggestion.
"But no gushy stuff," Evan directed.
Daniel clarified, "Yeah, like kissing. We don't want to hear that kind of stuff in our story."
"For Mama and Daddy that gushy stuff probably turned into the very best part," Brian contradicted with a grin.
Crane rested his elbow on the sofa's arm. "Think practically. If Daddy and Mama didn't kiss they wouldn't have fallen in love and if they hadn't fallen in love they wouldn't have gotten married. Of course the upshot of no McFadden parents translates to none of us would have been born."
Daniel exhaled dramatically. "We figured that out long ago. Quit showing off Crane."
"All right, Adam," Evan compromised shrewdly. "Tell the date story but just don't make it too gushy when you say it."
"I'll try to accommodate," Adam teased, "but I for one love romance and genuinely enjoy hearing about a true romance."
Evan rolled his eyes. "Just do what you gotta do, Adam."
Adam couldn't resist a chuckle. He leaned over and grabbed Evan by the arm. "Come here, you!" Pulling the 10 year old to him he tweaked the small nose. "You always make me laugh somehow when I least expect it."
"Tell me the story!" Guthrie demanded impatiently, reaching up to grab Adam's hand. "Waiting hurts my head."
"Hurts your head, huh?" Adam grinned and maneuvered across Ford to kiss Guthrie's forehead. "That will make your head feel all better."
He righted himself before he began speaking. "Well, this story begins when Daddy returned to school his junior year of high school and ran into this beautiful young lady ahead of him in the lunchroom line. This exquisite stranger had long blond hair with reddish highlights and eyes that changed from green to blue, depending on what she wore."
"Did she have straight hair?" Ford quizzed.
"Wavy," Brian answered. "Wavy but not too much- like Evan and Crane's hair." Though often hotheaded, Brian often proved himself a very patient teacher when it came to his younger brothers.
Adam continued, "Well Daddy had never encountered anyone so gorgeous and he decided to himself that he would just take the bull by the horns and insert himself into this pretty girl's life right that minute. Once he had his own lunch tray he followed her to the table she had chosen and he plopped himself down in the seat right across from her. He didn't ask for an invitation to sit or anything."
"I don't ask people when I sit at the lunch table," Evan defended.
"Yeah," Ford agreed, "but you sit with friends and not strangers."
"Daddy just didn't wait for her to ask him to sit with her," Crane elaborated. "The irony lies in the fact that Daddy basically kept to himself all the time yet with her he took a chance."
Daniel scowled. "The iron what?"
"Well, I always think of Daddy as the strong, silent type. He did talk and he could certainly carry on a conversation but Daddy's core housed a shy man. So irony means the opposite, when our man of few words father just took the initiative and started a conversation with Mama," Adam elaborated.
"Got it," Daniel assured him. "Go back to the story."
Adam stretched his long legs in front of him. "So here we have Daddy, an introvert like our Crane and Ford and definitely not a risk taker like Evan, and he falls for the world's most social extrovert, Mama. She loved people, and gatherings, and socializing like Daniel and Brian. But anyway, Daddy told me once that at that first time when he opened his mouth to ask her on a date his knees shook because his nerves just got the better of him."
The boys smiled and nodded sympathetically.
"Daddy had already jumped in the fire, so to speak, by taking his seat at Mama's table. He couldn't just sit there." Adam regarded the boys. "So do you know what he did then?"
Uncertain, his rapt audience members shook their heads.
"He opened his mouth and introduced himself, then asked what time she wanted him to pick her up on Friday night." Adam licked his lips and grinned. "He surprised Mama, all right, but she had taken one look at him the second he sat down and decided the man of her dreams had arrived."
Guthrie pivoted to regard Brian. "How did our Daddy look, Brian?"
"Well Daddy had dark features- dark hair and dark eyes. Daniel and Adam and I look most like him I suppose. He was tall, too, and physically strong and muscular."
"But gentle," Crane added. "Seems like such a big man would be rough, but he cuddled us or a tiny animal as well as kept hold of a piece of equipment or lifted ranch supplies."
Adam smiled thoughtfully at his little brother before continuing his narrative. "So Mama answered yes, that she would go that Friday, and they went out on their first date at the end of that week. Now Mama had just entered ninth grade and had a curfew of nine at night. That meant they could go to a movie or else out to supper because they wouldn't have enough time really to do anything else. They chose the meal and Daddy drove them to Lockeford, about an hour away, where he knew about a really good barbecue restaurant. The place had picnic tables outside where they could enjoy the pretty weather while they had their date supper. Mama said she felt a bit apprehensive until she realized Daddy kept trying to pretend he wasn't nervous at all and that made her relax. After they finished eating Daddy had just signaled for the check when…."
Adam stopped abruptly and raised his eyebrows. "When what? Who wants to guess? What do you imagine happened next?"
Brian and Crane, who knew the answer, clamped their hands over their mouths to show they wouldn't give away the next part. The other boys guessed that Daddy had forgotten his wallet or perhaps that Daddy couldn't pay the bill.
Adam's eyes danced. "Nope, not it at all." He moved Ford and Guthrie to the cushion beside him and awkwardly rose to his feet so that he could use his body to enhance the end of the story. He motioned with his arms. "There they sat when the waitress approached them. She carried a tray full of plates and drinks for the table beside them and planned to just hand Daddy the check. But as she leaned toward him the tray teetered and she overreacted to keep it from falling. The entire tray flew in the air and barbecue and drinks splattered everywhere! Drinks and food drenched Mama and Daddy and covered the waitress, too…"
The younger boys found Adam's acting out of the scene as he narrated hilarious and burst into delighted giggles. It took nearly a minute for the laughter to quieten enough for Adam to continue.
"Everyone wants a first date to go well, and the last thing you wish for would be lemonade and barbecue sauce all over you or all over your clothes. Mama and Daddy cleaned up the best they could but they still drove home reeking of barbecue."
"Did the waitress get into trouble?" Evan inquired.
"Daddy and Mama went to bat for her and told the owner the circumstances. It made a huge difference that Mama and Daddy didn't get mad about it and the waitress apologized over and over to them. The owner wouldn't let Daddy pay for their dinner and insisted both of them take home I don't remember how many pounds of barbecue and all of the trimmings even though Mama and Daddy said it wasn't necessary."
Daniel commiserated, "Still, I guess it embarrassed them to have their nice clothes all messed up on the way back home- especially since they wanted to impress each other."
"On the contrary," Adam negated, "it produced the opposite effect. Daddy claimed that when he watched Mama's calm reaction to a situation where she could have blown her top he realized he had found himself the girl he needed to marry one day. And Mama confided that she fell in love with Daddy during his response to the whole incident because she knew he would never lose his temper easily." Adam regarded his audience shrewdly before adding with a grin, "However, we all know that Daddy called Mama a Dresden angel doll, and Mama always called Daddy an Adonis." A wave of emotion washed over Adam and he stopped to control it before concluding, "They really fell completely in love on that first date, lemonade and barbecue and all."
The lights flickered suddenly and then again before finally flooding the living room with light. Ford and Guthrie hurriedly leaned over and blew out the candles, watching in fascination as the last of the smoke from the wicks disappeared into the air.
Adam consulted his watch. "Ok, bedtime has officially begun."
"Wait!" Daniel pled, waving his arm as he would at school. "Did they marry right after that, right after the date?"
"Daddy waited until Mama graduated from high school before they married. She wanted to elope way before then but he said no because it concerned him that she wouldn't want to finish high school if they married early, even though she assured him she would." Adam finished the story by swinging Guthrie up from the sofa and onto his shoulders. "Bed time for you, little man. Ford, you're up next so get ready, please."
"All right, Adam," Ford agreed without his usual protest. "Thank you for tonight. I like it when you tell us a story like that one."
The other boys murmured their agreement as they rose. Watching them, Adam savored the moment of having shared his parents with his brothers.
He loved story time.