When I'd left my truck at Jake's so that the tires could be replaced, I was getting ready to start walking to the vet office,
but then Old Vernon (who works for Jake) said he'd give me a ride there.
I hadn't seen him for a long time, and hadn't had a conversation with him beyond a 'hello' here and there; not since last year
when I'd been in the car accident, and he'd given me a ride home. He'd talked plenty then, though. Telling me that
I shouldn't worry my brothers, and such as that. At the time it had irritated me a whole bunch, but I didn't harbor any
ill feeling toward him for it now.
I accepted the ride from Old Vernon to the vet office. Even though it was only a few blocks, it was warm out, so I was glad.
I climbed into his rickety old pickup. It looked like the truck that Fred Sanford drove on 'Sanford and Son'.
I perched on the edge of the seat, because it was so full of stuff.
"How's the family?" he asked me, predictably.
"Everybody's just fine," I said.
"Huh?" he asked.
I'd forgotten how hard of hearing that he was.
"Everybody's fine," I said, a lot louder this time.
"Evan got hitched, did he?"
I said loudly that yes, he had.
"Let me turn my hearin' aids up," Old Vernon said, and he reached up and fiddled with the gray aids in his ears. First the left and then
the right.
"There we go," he said. "He married that girl what works down at the feed store, didn't he?"
"Yes," I said, again, loudly.
"I can hear ya fine now," he said. "No need for that."
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Okay."
"How's that new vet lady doin'?" he asked me, then.
"She's doing fine," I said.
"There's some that feel a female ought to choose a different job path than bein' a veterinarian," Old Vernon said.
"They're idiots," I said.
"What's that?" he asked.
I turned to look more directly at him. "I said, the folks that think that way are wrong."
Old Vernon gave me an squint-eyed look. "Feel that way about it, do ya?"
I nodded. "I do."
"Your brothers know you're one of them feminists?" he asked, then.
I was sorry I'd accepted a ride from him. A hot walk would have been better than this.
"A woman can be just as good at certain jobs as a man," I said.
"Nope. Can't agree with ya there, little lady. A female just naturally can't keep up with a man."
I was practically gritting my teeth. I knew I should just shut up and finish the drive to Ivy's without any interaction.
"Certain jobs," I said, in clarification. "I didn't say all. Being a veterinarian is one of the jobs that women can do as
well."
"Garrett indulged ya," Old Vernon said, looking disapproving. "He let ya take on some big notions. I'm surprised your
brothers haven't put a stop to it-"
I was suddenly, totally, absolutely livid.
"If you think that's how Doc G felt about things, then you didn't really know him at all! He was the most
wonderful man-" I paused, feeling suddenly emotional. "And my brothers aren't stuck in the dark ages like
some crotchety, stupid old men!"
We were at front of the veterinary office by now, thank goodness. I got out before the truck even pulled to a stop,
and I slammed the door of his Fred Sanford truck.
"Here now!" I hear him saying to me. I looked back to see he was half-in and half-out of his truck. I had the inane
thought that he was thinking he would follow me. Continue to berate me, and think to teach me a 'thing or two'.
I had my hand on the doorknob to go in, when it opened, and I ran nearly smack into Crane.
"Hey, peanut," he said, in greeting.
"Crane-" Old Vernon called out, loudly.
"Vernon give you a ride?" Crane asked me, as he lifted a hand in greeting to Old Vernon.
"Yes-" I said, but before I could tell Crane that the old man had gone all 'Wyatt Earp' on me, Vernon was
hollering out, "Wanna talk to you, Crane!"
"Good grief," I hissed.
"What's going on?" Crane asked me, as Ivy appeared beside him in the open doorway.
"I told him off and he doesn't like it," I said swiftly. Crane gave me a disbelieving look. Disbelief combined with
vast confusion.
"What?" he asked, clearly bumfuzzled.
"He's getting ready to fill your ear with how horrible I am-" I managed to get in, before
Old Vernon made his slow way to us. Although I had to say, he was moving pretty darn good for somebody his
age. I didn't realize that I'd taken ahold of Crane's wrist, until he moved to step out onto the sidewalk to face
Old Vernon.
"Hey there, Vernon," Crane said, mildly, in greeting, while I hung back in the doorway, Ivy standing beside me. His greeting to
Old Vernon showed no sign that he had any clue as to what this was all about.
"Want a word with ya, Crane-about your gal there," Old Vernon said, gesturing towards me with clear disapproval.
I felt my stomach knot up worse than it had been already, and my heart was pounding.
"What is it that Harlie's done, exactly, Vernon?" Crane asked, still sounding mild.
"Took to sassin' me, calling me a stupid old man, trying to tell her elders what's what."
"She called you stupid?" Crane asked, sounding as though he didn't believe it.
"She sure enough did-"
Crane turned to look at me, standing in the doorway. "Is that true, Harlie?" he asked. He didn't sound angry, or even accusatory,
but he didn't sound mild, either.
"Why you askin' her for?" Old Vernon demanded. "I told you she did."
"Harlie?" Crane asked, not responding to his objection.
"I said that you-and Adam and the rest of the guys aren't stuck in the dark ages like some crotchety, stupid old men," I
said, repeating my words as near as I could recall.
"There you go," Old Vernon said, triumphantly, as if I'd confessed to a crime.
Crane reached up to push the bill of his ball cap up a bit further. "It doesn't sound as though she said you were
stupid, specifically, Vernon," Crane said. "Maybe she wasn't referring to you."
"Yeah. She sure enough was. Talkin' like one of those darn women libbers-I'm telling you straight, Crane, she was
out and out disrespectful."
Crane looked as though he was contemplating. He turned to look at me again, and his gaze was steady and
serious as all-get-out. I felt Ivy reach out and she took one of my hands in her own, squeezing it in silent support.
"Were you disrespectful to him, Harlie?" Crane asked.
I wanted to say that I hadn't been until he'd disrespected Ivy, and females in general, and then my relationship with Doc G, and all
of that. But, at that moment, I didn't want to make Crane look bad. He'd helped raise me, right along with Adam and Brian, and
it would make him look like he'd raised nothing but a brat. It would embarrass him. It would take everything I had in me to do it, and I wouldn't mean it, but
I stepped out to stand next to Crane.
"If you think I disrespected you, then I apologize," I said, keeping my voice even, and looking straight at Old Vernon. "I don't agree with
what you said, none of it, but if those are your opinions, then you're entitled to them."
I think I'd managed to shock Old Vernon, by the way that he was looking at me, and Crane was eyeing me with
a sort of incredulous expression.
"Young ones ought not to think they can talk that way to their elders," Old Vernon was continuing.
I looked up at Crane. "Can I go in inside?" I asked him.
"Yeah," Crane said, quietly.
I turned and went back into the open doorway. I found that I was shaking, I was so frustrated.
"Harlie-" Ivy said, in a near whisper, and motioned to me to come back over near the doorway.
So, I did, and we stood where we could hear, but not be seen.
"That wasn't no sort of an apology nohow," Old Vernon was saying. "You need to rein that gal in, Crane."
"Harlie apologized to you, Vernon," I heard Crane say. "That's all that needs to be said."
"I'm only speakin' up because I thought the world of you all's daddy. He wouldn't have wanted any young'un of his
spoutin' off that way," Vernon maintained.
"Dad wanted his kids to be respectful. You're right about that. Harlie's apologized for what she said to you. I know
this about her, though. She wears her feelings close. And, I haven't heard just what it was that you said to her. It had to
have been something significant, or she wouldn't have reacted the way that she did."
Ivy turned and gave me such a beaming smile at that speech of Crane's. "Hear that?" she asked, in a low tone.
I nodded. Crane was taking up for me. I could hear the measured control in his tone. Sometimes people probably think because
Crane's so quiet, and so laid-back in his mannerisms, that he's a pushover. They would be wrong.
"Probably you're one that's encouragin' her to pursue this fool notion of bein' a female veterinarian," Vernon said. He should
have stopped talking while he was ahead. I felt Ivy stiffen by my side, and then she stepped outside, quick as a flash.
"I encourage Harlie every chance that I have," Crane said. "About whatever she wants to do, including being a
veterinarian."
And now, Ivy was winding up. "For your information, sir," she said, "They don't give diplomas like the one hanging
on my office wall to women who they don't think can make it in the field of veterinary medicine. I earned that diploma, and
there are many other females that are competent veterinarians. If Harlie even wants to consider something that
takes such hard work and dedication, then Crane and all the rest of their family deserve to be congratulated on raising
such a motivated, passionate young woman."
I was in shock, really, at Ivy's impassioned tirade on Vernon, and her glowing words about me. For a long, long few moments, there was dead silence
out there on the sidewalk. I couldn't see, of course, what anybody's facial expressions were, or anything, hiding behind the door as
I was-but, holy moly, you could have heard a pin drop.
"I don't reckon as your daddy would be pleased, if he heard all this, Crane," Vernon said. To me, it didn't sound as though he had
quite as much starch as he'd had earlier, though.
"Oh, on the contrary," Crane said. "I think he'd be very pleased, Vernon."
There was some muttering from Vernon, then, I couldn't really tell what it was he was saying, though. I heard his truck door
slam, and then start up, and when I saw it going around the corner thru the window, I stepped out onto the sidewalk.
The sight that greeted me was Crane, with his arms wrapped around Ivy, and they were kissing like there was no
tomorrow. I couldn't help grinning at the sight.
They broke apart when they realized I was standing there, too.
Crane cleared his throat a bit, but he didn't look terribly embarrassed, and Ivy just smiled at me.
"Quite an afternoon so far," Crane said, dryly.
Ivy and I both nodded in agreement.
"Let's go over to Marie's and have some pie," Crane said.
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