by A. J. Wells
Miss Lili breaks them up by saying, “Dinner’s gettin’ cold. Everyone grab a bowl or platter and put it on a table. Sher, get Yolanda and Penny so we can eat.”
Dinner was delicious and plentiful. We ate ‘til our ribs hurt. We put the leftovers on the dining room table, cleaned the dishes and put them away. Then we all sat around talking. Two hours later is still too early for dessert so we take a walk to admire the town’s decorations. When we get back Mom and Dad are waiting for us. Penny had stayed with Yolanda and told them where we were and they should wait.
Miss Lili checked her box while we were out and there was a suggestion in it. We asked her to wait ‘til later to read it. I’d forgotten the gifts for Miss Lili in the truck so I went for them when I saw Mom and Dad and remembered them. Miss Lili loves her feathery slippers and Glen likes his belt buckle.
Steve and Bob have gone into the pantry and brought out the pies and cookies. The kids take the cookies and everyone else has pie and cookies, once they can decide on what kinda pie to have. Before the evening is over we’ve all had a piece of each pie…and several cookies. Mom and Dad invite everyone out for a ride and a barbecue tomorrow and they all accept. He’ll hitch up the wagon for a hayride for those who don’t ride.
We all leave around ten to meet at the office to let the dogs out and check their water. There’s lightening so we put the shields down around the cat’s open area and go home.
At home we loosen our belts by putting on pajamas and relaxing. Steve talks about Apache and wants to go out to see him so we do. Izzie’s glad to see us and Apache seems to know who he belongs to. We check out the other horses and there are two new horses in the barn. There’s a Paint and a Chestnut horse. We wonder who the Chestnut is for, thinking the Paint is for Bob. We give Izzie and Apache a carrot and race to the house.
Steve gives me a few seconds lead and still passes me, even hobbling in his walking boot, grabbing me with one arm and running on to the house. When he puts me down I chew him out, “Steve if you injure your ankle again I’ll get a switch to ya.”
“Think you’re big enough? Think ya can run fast enough?” Then he stops, “That might be interesting. You into masochism or bondage?”
“You wish. Are you?”
“Never tried it. Don’t know that I want your hands tied, I like what they do to me and hurting ya is out of the question.” He’s come over to put his arms around me, “Guess there’s no erotica in store for us, outside of the normal activities. They’re good enough, aren’t they?”
“For me, yeah. What about you?”
He kisses me then hugs me. “I thought I’d just answered that,” he whispers in my ear and kisses my neck.
I pull away slightly, “Mr. Williams, are you trying to seduce me?”
He pulls me back, “Yeah. Is it workin’?” I kiss him to let him know…its working!
In the morning, Mom wants me to go shopping with her, waking us long before we’re ready. I shower and we meet her for coffee. Dad’s already in the barn so Steve finishes his coffee and joins him. Mom and I leave, we have to get enough food to feed the family. We stop at the office and I meet Maria while she’s checking on the guests. She’s fed them and cleaned the litter boxes. I hose out the kennels so we’ll be finished sooner. Then the three of us go grocery shopping.
Mom and I take the food home and start preparing the side dishes and the ribs for the barbecue. We fix lunch when we’re through and call the men in to eat. Steve tells me he rode Apache to help Dad check on the cattle and he rides smooth as glass. Mom and I clean up the kitchen as soon as lunch is over. The men go into Dad’s office and we don’t see them again ‘til Maria, Bob and Shay arrive.
Dad has us go out to the barn where he gives the Paint to Bob and the Chestnut to Maria and Shay. Shay goes crazy over the horse and Bob has to scoop him up to sit on it. Maria and I leave the guys to the horses and go in the house to check on things and get a glass of tea. Mom follows us laughing at Bob, Shay and Steve’s reaction to the horses.
Chapter 20
Soon we hear the jangling of the wagon being moved around and looked out to see Shay sitting in the seat hollering “He-ah, he-ah, gettie up” to the men pulling the wagon by the tongue. The men were smiling and sweating, tugging on the wagon to get as close to the hay bales as they could. Dad gets in the wagon and the guys hefted the bales into it for him to situate. Mom sends me out with iced tea for them and the wagon’s almost ready for the hayride.
The rest of the family arrives before the men get back to work. So the other three men pitch in to finsh getting the bales in the wagon. They come in acting like they’ve had the time of their lives. We serve them iced tea and give them a chance to cool off. Then Mom says if we’re riding we’d better get goin’ or we won’t eat ‘til after dark and a barbecue isn’t a lotta of fun with the bugs that are year ‘round out here.
We get horses hitched up to the wagon and horses saddled. Glen drives the wagon and we ride beside it with Dad, Steve and Bob next to the horses pulling the wagon, just in case. There are coolers of tea and lemonade in the wagon. We take the long way to the creek to accommodate the wagon. Glen’s doing a great job of handling the horses and Miss Lili looks like a pioneer woman riding on the seat beside him with her wide brimmed hat and calico shirt and jeans. After the creek, we ride over to the pasture where Miss Lili asks Steve to loan her his horse. She gets on and rides, almost full gallop out to the cattle, where she gathers a few of the calves up to herd them over to the water trough, clearing the rest of the cattle away so they can drink. Then she rides back, gets help getting off, muttering “What bullies the older cattle are.” None of us can say anything because we’re dumb struck. I’ll have to remember to ask Miss Lili where she learned to ride like that.
Steve mounts and comes over to me, “Wow.”
“I’ll say. I guess you didn’t know she could do that, either.” I smile when Steve shakes his head. “Hmmm. Guess there’s a lot we don’t know about her.”
Steve nods, “Maybe it’s time we find out.”
Mom hollers, “We’d better get back, if we’re gonna eat.” We turn around and go a different way home, one that’s a little shadier. The men take over with the wagon, the hay, the harnesses, the saddles and brushing down the horses and watering and feeding them, or they try to. The women wanted to help, they’ve never done this sorta thing before. We all get dirty, but we don’t care. The kids loved it all. On the way back some of the kids rode double for a while and Mom switched with Glen. Claudia and Betty rode, a ways, with me and Maria, too. They loved the outing.
Dad and the rest of the men are out starting the big grill, piling lots of mesquite logs in it and getting it lit. Maria and I take the cooler out, like Mom said to, to sit by the men. Before we get it settled good, Dad’s getting into it. It’s full of beer. Maria and I shrug and walk away, we’ve been here before.
It takes four women to carry the meat out. Maria notices Shay and Penny are missing, but Bob tells her they’re napping in my house. He and Steve are taking turns checking on them. When Dad tells Mom the ribs are ready, we go to the kitchen to get the side dishes, the ice cooler and drinks. Everyone’s helping get supper on the table, even the kids. Three of the men are putting picnic tables together. Miss Lili is wiping them down and the rest of us are setting them and putting food on them.
We have a great time and the food is lip smacking good. I don’t know where Mom got them in December, but dessert is watermelon. Of course, there has to be a watermelon seed spitting contest. Glen’s family knows about this activity, they do it in Tennessee. There’s quite a battle royal for family supremacy. So much so, we had to measure the distance. Glen’s son, Robert, holds the title of twenty five feet. When asked what he did for a living he admits to being an attorney. “That explains it, you have more air than the rest of us,” Bob says and slaps Robert on the shoulder. We laugh when Robert agrees.
We get everyone cleaned up from the watermelon and it’s time for the
m to go. The kids have to go to bed. They plan to leave by eight tomorrow morning. Steve and I say we’ll be in to see them off, but Mom and Dad say ‘bye and wish them a safe trip home. Everyone hugs them, tells them what a great time they had and how glad they are to have met them.
Steve and I follow them into town to take care of the boarders. We didn’t get to them at five so we know there’s work waiting for us. Bob comes over after he drops Maria and Shay off to help. We’re just about through when Miss Lili and Glen come in smiling. Glen wants to be sure to thank us for getting the family together and helping to entertain them. He says his family can’t stop talking about this afternoon and the whole visit. They’ve even said how nice it is to be part of our family. He adds they weren’t too happy about coming here at all. Now they can’t wait to come back and he thinks its all due to us and my parents. I hug him and tell him I couldn’t be happier they enjoyed themselves. Then I tell him how much Mom, Dad and I enjoyed them.
“We’ve got some talking to do, later. I want to know where you learned to ride like ya did” I say looking at Miss Lili “and where ya learned to drive a team with a wagon…and maybe a few other things. It dawned on me, this afternoon, I don’t know much about either of ya.”
“Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know she could ride, much less like that.” Steve says and Bob agrees. They say goodnight and we all split up to go home.
The next morning we all see them off and we go our separate ways. Steve and Bob are back to full duty but they start this afternoon. Maria and I are back to work, late, this morning. We have no appointments but a few of our boarders are picked up. We decide we’ll clean the clinic from top to bottom. As we start, we decide we need to paint, too. At lunch we go to the hardware store to get some interesting, for a clinic, paint chips. We go back to clean and take care of our remaining boarders. When we rest between cleaning chores, we look at the colors. We can’t decide.
Miss Lili and Glen don’t come over today. I suppose they’re with Penny while Steve and Bob rest for work. The boys stop by on their way to work and they tell us the missing grandparents have been out back deciding where they’re going to put their house. They’re looking at two places and as soon as they decide that, they’ll decide where to put the pool.
They have one other thing to discuss with us—our wedding date. Miss Lili and Glen are anxious to know when it is so they can plan the building and the pool around it. Maria wants an April wedding, because of the weather. That’s funny, because I think March will be cooler. Steve likes mid to late March and Bob likes early to mid April. We get the calendar and decide on Saturday, March 29th. Bob and Maria decide on Saturday , April 12th, two weeks later. The guys are happy, we’re stressed. Three and three and a half months to plan and get through two weddings isn’t going to be easy. We’ll start on them the day after New Years.
Now we have to choose paint colors and get the clinic ready for the next year so we don’t have that to worry about, too. We decide we should ask the animals. We take the paint chips out to the “station” and watch the animal’s reactions to the colors. We decide on the calmer colors with accents of medium colors. The surgical room with remain white. The waiting room will be a two tone gray stripe. The dog’s exam room will be sand with pale green and the cat’s exam room will be the same colors reversed. The med’s room will be cream and the office will be blue stone, a pale gray with a hint of blue. The kennel room will have to wait ‘til the repairs are finished. We’ll get started on the painting tomorrow.
Miss Lili comes in and likes the colors we’ve picked. She suggests we keep the trim white, just to add light. But that’s not why she came to see us. “Ya know that suggestion that was in the box on Christmas. I opened it this morning. It suggests a park area along the creek where it cuts through town. I can’t figure out exactly where that is. Do you girls know about it?”
Maria knows about it. She’s heard a lotta people go there when it’s hot. She says they have to follow the few trails through the brush to get to what they call a nice place to swim and a little further down is a good place to fish, or so she’s heard. Miss Lili needs a guide to find the place. I ask if she’s asked the guys and she says they’re either asleep, with us, or at work these days. But then she’s been busy, too. Anyway, they’ve been missing connections.
We’ll go over to the station as soon as we check on the boarders and close, to talk to the boys. She can go with us then we’ll go home together. The guys don’t know where this place is, either. So we go to the map of the area they keep on the wall. It’s about two blocks from the west end of the park, almost behind Miss Lili’s house. She wants to check it out then decide if it’s close to where they want to build their house. If it is then they missed the creek when they were checking the site out.
I take Maria back to the office to pick up her car and we go to Miss Lili’s to get Glen. We get in Glen’s golf cart and head to where the map said the creek is. The site is through the bushes to the creek. Miss Lili and Glen look the space over and decide it would make a great park. It would replace a city pool and it would cost less to develop the park. They’ll just move their building site, it’s too close to the creek to be safe should it flood anyway.
I ask them to consider making it closer to the house. They’re not on their death bed, but they are older and I’d like them closer to us, across the drive way, maybe. They say they’ll check on it. Then they tell me they’re also going to build a house for Bob and Maria in this same block. They know Maria’s renting and giving them a house will help them out. Then they want to do some updating on the main house. The house that will belong to me and Steve, but I’m the only one to know about this. It’s a surprise for all of us and they want it to stay that way.
On our way back to the house, they remove the stakes they’d put in and we look around the grounds on the other side of the house. Miss Lili has a rose garden over there, so they decide to have the house face the driveway so the rose garden is at the end of the house. The other house site is fine, the creek takes a turn away from town because of the rise that’s there.
Glen has supper in the oven so we go home to eat. The guys come home to grab some of it to take back to the station. Now that they’re back to full duty they’re back on the same shift. Penny has dinner with Yolanda in their quarters. Penny says Yolanda is doing better, but Nancy says she’s not doing as well as she should be. She’s made an appointment for her this Friday.
Today Maria and I shop for paint, changing our minds from the original colors. The clerk at the paint store helped us pick out brighter colors. I hope we like them on the walls. The colors are on the cool side of the chart, but I’m not so sure. We get a pint of each color to try out. After a few hours with the patches we decide some are good, but some are disasters. So we ask Glen and Miss Lili. They agree with us. So we go back for another look and bring more pints of paint back. We try those to find we’re back to the colors we’d picked originally. So we buy the paint. We’ll start painting tomorrow. We lost a few more boarders today. The rest will be here ‘til after the New Year.
Today we paint. We start in the surgical room then the office. By the time we move everything and get the two rooms painted its quitting time. We come back after supper at Miss Lili’s to move everything back into the rooms. Shay stayed to play with Penny while we finish.
Maria and I talk about our weddings while we watch the boarders. We both want small weddings, just family. Then we laugh, Maria’s family will fill a church and Bob’s is almost as big. Then you add Miss Lili’s must haves and Glen’s family and that’s about five hundred guests. I have my family of about twenty and then Miss Lili’s must haves and Glen’s family and there’ll be about a hundred and fifty. Well, at least my wedding will be reasonably small. Oh well, time to go home.
We get the exam rooms painted in the morning and move the furniture back into the rooms in the afternoon. We have one more room to paint then we’ll be finished. It’s a good thing, tomorrow’s
Friday. And Monday’s New Year’s Eve.
I notice the road’s been extended when I go home today. Miss Lili says the lack of employment at this time of year will speed the park’s development up and according to the city planner should only take a month or less. They need a few decisions made before it can be finished. Do we want to put down cement pads or gravel under the picnic tables? The gravel will shift and the kids can carry it off and the cement pads will add to the budget but will last a long time. Wood picnic tables will be cheaper and can be easily repaired or the cement tables will last a long time and won’t be washed away if there’s a flood. The bridge to the other side will be a pedestrian bridge, but do we want grills at each table?
“How big is this gonna be?” Miss Lili says they want to have about a dozen places for picnickers and two on each side for fishing with fire pits and picnic tables. “I would suggest cement pads, wooden tables and grills, but ask the guys, they’re the fire department. They can tell how to build it for maximum fire safety.” Miss Lili agrees.
Today the measuring, the taping, the moving furniture and pictures is about all we can get done during business hours. We’ll be here to check on the boarders so we’ll paint tomorrow.
At home Miss Lili tells us Yolanda has damaged lungs, like tuberculosis, but it isn’t that. She has to go to a nursing home for about six months to be monitored and treated. She and Glen are getting guardianship of Penny ‘til Yolanda’s back on her feet. I’m a little surprised, but it’s like Miss Lili to do this sorta thing. She adds that she’ll need Steve and me to sign the papers as back ups because of their age. Then moves on to say ground breaking for the two houses will start Wednesday.
The woman is amazing. Nothing seems to phase her, or stop her. I ask, “Miss Lili, have ya asked the town citizens about the creek park? How do they feel about the decision?” She hasn’t held a meeting, but she’s asked around about it and it’s mostly favorable. But the Mayor is going to address it at the next town meeting. She adds we need to be there. There’ll be a report on the grants for the animal shelter and the small office for welfare benefits. I guess it’s all going to happen just the way Miss Lili said it would. As I said before, she’s amazing.