Jud

Jud heard their singing all the way from the farmhouse. Some song about sweethearts and trains and probably flowers. Laurey and Curly sang those kinds of songs a lot together, they made her sway and clap her hands if they were fast and fun enough. Sometimes she would request a mournful one, one ending with a hanging or some kind of burial, but Curly never sang those songs particularly well, hardly seemed to understand them. Mostly, he seemed to like singing by himself while Laurey listened, and how she didn't mind that was beyond Jud's comprehension. He would have guessed that girls would prefer to talk or be told how pretty they were than to listen to a man sing to them in a grating voice. If he had Laurey next to him, singing would be the very last thing on his mind, even if he had any talent at it.

Laurey and Curly had finished singing by the time Jud went to the orchard and saw Curly's hatefully familiar cowboy hat and crisp shirt, the familiar, easy slouch. And Laurey next to him, of course, giggling the way she never did with Jud.

"Well, sure, then I might bump into you, if you're goin' to be there too."

"Aw, c'mon, who else'd you go with?"

"There's other folks in the Territory. Besides, no one's even asked me yet, anyway, so I might not go at all."

So, that was all Jud was to her, 'no one'. She couldn't even admit he had asked her to the social, or maybe she'd already forgotten. He didn't know which was worse.

"Some feller might. Maybe some feller's just waitin' for the right time to ask you."

"That feller oughta move fast before someone else takes me." Laurey retorted.

Curly chuckled. "'M just speculatin' here, but maybe that particular feller had a surprise for you of some sort, and didn't wanna ask you officially till he had it all figured out."

"Uh, huh, like what sorta surprise?"

"Oh, I don't reckon he'd wanna give it away. Wouldn't be a surprise. You gonna make a basket again this year?"

"Of course."

"Gonna put in some of them gooseberry tarts?"

"Maybe. But I don't wanna tell you, I want it to be a surprise." She teased. "My basket sold for a lot last year: fifty cents. So, I'll try to make it as good as possible"

"I'll have to bring some money, then. Just in case…any of the baskets look good. Ain't necessarily gonna bid on yours "

"Don't necessarily want you to win mine."

Jud walked away, unable to listen any more. He tried to imagine himself as the one sitting next to her. He tried to imagine how her sweet laughter would sound if it was aimed at him, if he were able to tease her like that, instead of being unable to form words while she talked about strawberries. He wondered whether Curly was born like that, born knowing how to charm women and flirt and talk and sing like that, or if he had to practice. Wondered why some men were able to do that, get women to like them so much they agreed to marry them, while he was stuck not even knowing how to talk to a woman he'd hired for an hour.

At least she hadn't agreed to go to the social with Curly, not yet. Whatever plan he had in mind might fall through, he might be called away on another round-up, and Laurey would be forced to go alone. And if she went alone, there was still a chance of his finding his way to her.