Sylvia stood gaping a moment, taken off guard. Shanna leaned back on the bed, laughing. "Mama, anybody tell you, you're 'bout as subtle as an avalanche?"
"She get use t'me! She got use to Shawn, didn't she? So, come on, fill me in! My boy sweep you off your feet? 'Cause ain't a girl nor woman anywhere my Shawn go after, he don't get…but he admit, you put him through it—good for you!" she went on, leaving little room for Sylvia to get in a comment as she went to her bed chest and pulled out a pair of jeans. Sylvia glanced at Shanna, who shrugged in sympathy. "Here…put these on! Them white pants you got on be ruined by the end of the day," she instructed. Sylvia was taking off her top and putting on the plaid shirt when she took a deep breath and decided to be just as up front.
"To be honest with you, ma'am—"
"Young lady, call me Gert or mama. Make me sound like an ole lady in a rocker…I ain't rockin' yet!" she corrected Sylvia.
"Oookay, how about Gert for now?" Sylvia asked, buttoning up the shirt.
"That's my name…suits me just fine. As you were saying?" Gert asked, holding the post of her four-post bed, taking a brief rest before they went down to the kitchen.
"Well, I wasn't looking for anyone, I'd planned on being alone—"
"And my Shawn wasn't havin' it!" Gert butted in proudly.
"No, Gert, he wasn't…sooo…what can I say, here I am."
"Here because you madly in love with him, or here because you ain't figured out how to get rid'uv'im yet?"
"Here 'cause I ain't figured out how to get rid'uv'im yet!"
Gert and Shanna hooted in laughter, Gert slapped her thigh and Shanna laid back, rolling hilariously.
"That's it! You're in! Good answer! Keep his cute ass guessing!"
Sylvia laughed along with them, then smiling said, "I love him. He's a handful—"
"Got that from his daddy!" Gert put in, laughing again, stunning Sylvia once more. "Every one of my boys was born, hung like a stallion!" she bragged.
"Mama, please!" Shanna laughed.
"Just tellin' the truth! Ain't no sense in lyin'!"
Sylvia was done changing and trying to get used to Gert's quick earthy wit.
"Anyway, we got a big breakfast to cook up, but I need to warn you, 'cause I don't want my rebels scaring you off! There's a lot of men around here, young and old. So the testosterone's flowing…prepare yourself for it."
"Then there's Kathy Ann," Shanna added.
"Yep, there's her. My other daughter…she's up at the maple pit with the others, she'll be strolling in soon. She been stewing most the night, 'cause she know Shawn coming. Don't you take nothin' she say personally, because it ain't gonna be about you. She on the verge of gettin' sent home. I'm trying to be patient, but after a while, they all start to get on my nerves with they nonsense. I'm just warning you."
Sylvia sighed, wondering once again with Shawn, exactly what had she gotten herself into. Shanna stood from the bed. "You'll be alright, Kathy Ann is really harmless. Tough as hell, but for the most part, nobody would jump to defend you quicker."
"That's true…come on, I got to get the batter made, everything else will be done soon, the men already grumbling 'bout how hungry they are."
Chapter 47
The Maple pit...
Sylvia was feeling overwhelmed. They'd come down to the kitchen with Gert making the pancake batter. There were bags on the kitchen counter filled with various fruits that Jake had brought from the store, he must have come in, left them on the counter, and joined the men outside. Sylvia pitched in and cut up the fruit in a big bowl while Shanna packed a box with napkins, plates, knives, forks, spoons, and a couple of garbage bags. There was also a bag filled with trays of eggs, that would be cooked at the maple pit. Shawn had come into the kitchen to grab the box Shanna had packed. Stopping, he checked on Sylvia, looked into her eyes as was his developing habit with her, then kissed her forehead and lips, letting her know that he was heading up to the pit with the men. That was fine, she had been okay at that point. He grabbed the box and headed out. Then Jake had appeared. She'd heard his voice that morning at the motel, but she hadn't really seen him yet…not until he came into the kitchen to grab some fruit from the bowl she was cutting it up in.
Her unease began there.
Jake…was splendid perfection wrapped up in the body of a god, certainly an Adonis. He, as in the case of Shawn, looked like his mother, with his father's coloring and little accents of difference. His hair was wavy and long, hanging to his shoulders, a honey blond that fit just right with his vivid blue-gray eyes. His skin was tanned darker than everyone else in the family, and while he was not as muscular as Shawn, he was built with long lean muscles. He had an engaging smile, the infamous grin, and eyes that kept going to Sylvia. His first assault had been to stand and stare at her when he came into the kitchen to get some fruit, and said right off, "Whooooeeee! Look at this one, here!"
"Don't start, Jake! Get what you came for and then get going!" his mother warned, knowing her son better than anyone.
"I know, mama, I just came to grab some fruit! I'm hungry! This breakfast is gettin' later and later every year you do it!" he was saying, never taking his eyes off of Sylvia, who was feeling discomfort at his staring.
"Jake! Mind your manners! Grab a apple and get going! This girl here is forbidden fruit to you."
Jake just laughed, went into the bag next to where Sylvia was standing cutting up the fruit, grabbed an apple and leaned down to grin up into her face. "Well, can't I get a smile, a hello, a how you doin' or something?" he asked, standing too close for her comfort. Sylvia lifted a dangerous brow and cut him a look with clear warning, then flashed her sarcastic smile and said, "Hello, Jake. How you doing? Hungry? Want an apple? There it is. Good day!" She turned back to preparing the fruit. Jake stood laughing. "Whooeee! She's a feisty bite! I think she gone be too much for Shawn!" he joked, blatant in his flirting with her.
"I'm gonna tell you something right now! I'm not gonna have no trouble out of you today! You understand me, Jake? Mind your manners, be respectful to your brother's future wife!"
"What did I say, mama? What I do wrong? I'm being as nice as I can be!" he defended himself.
"That's alright, you got what you come for…now goodbye!" She stood facing him.
"What's all the fuss about, I just wanna meet her! She gone be in the family! Might as well get to know her future brother-in-law."
"Jake, please don't start," Shanna asked, backing her mother.
"Fine! Fine…I'm going." But first, he leaned towards Sylvia, too close, and whispered softly in her ear, "Nice to meet you." Because his mother was baring down on him, he laughed and made a quick escape. She shook her head, turning back to mixing the pancake batter. "Now I guess you can see what I mean about too much testosterone around here. He didn't upset you, did he?" Gert asked sincerely.
"No, not at all. No offence to you, but with him, I'm not impressed."
"Good, I'm glad to hear it. I swear, between the two of them, they like to have driven me to a nervous breakdown. Jake has always, always tried to outdo Shawn, and for the life of me, I don't know why. Whatever Shawn did…he had to do, too. You think by now he'd have grown out of all that nonsense, but he just as young as ever. Teenager in a thirty-nine year old body."
"I think he brought back beer, too, mama. Kathy Ann been sipping on one most of the morning, started first thing."
"Well, I'm gonna have a word with your daddy. And Sylvia, I don't know you all that well yet, but I pray these fools don't go to scaring you off."
"Don't worry about me, Gert, I'm a big girl. I feel sorry for Doris…I was married to someone like him, I can just imagine what she goes through."
"They ain't married. Jake too selfish to marry anybody. And anybody that would marry him, don't have the sense of a maggot," Shanna commented.
That was the first stress layer for Sylvia, but that she could have dealt with if it were not compounded by other things. They gathered all that was
prepared and headed up to the maple pit in Gert's own John Deere golf cart. When they arrived, the area was a hive of activity. Sylvia spotted Shawn straight away, he had his shirt off, splitting wood, he looked up at her and winked, she grinned and winked back. Climbing from the golf cart, walking to the pavilion shelter that was just a bit smaller than the ones she remembered at the Chicago forest preserves. This one was on a smaller scale, but big enough to shelter the whole family, while they boiled down the sap into maple syrup in a large eighty-gallon galvanized oval washtub that was stationed above a welded iron grate rack. Underneath it was a cast iron tray to fill with firewood to bring the washtub filled with the gathered sap to a high boil. Growing up in the city, living in Chicago, this was a new world to her. This world where everything was made by hand, pickling, preserving and boiling down sap for maple syrup, farmland and farm living, was a completely new experience that she was enjoying every step of the way.
"Sylvia! Hey, girl! Finally meeting the family!" Meribel greeted her. She was standing at one of the three grill pits, cooking up sausage links, patties, and bacon. The kids were hauling in buckets of sap sitting in the back of a trailer that Derrick was pulling behind a four-wheeler with a hitch on it. They'd climb out, passed their filled buckets to Marcus, who emptied them into a huge plastic fill tank that had a drain hose connected to it. As soon as the sap in the tub was boiled down to a certain point, Kathy Ann would add more to it from the tank; the process would go on through the day. She'd already extracted enough from the batch to set aside for them to eat that morning.
Standing, chit-chatting with Meribel and Shanna, Sylvia noticed that Kathy Ann didn't make a move to come over and meet her. She wasn't sure what to think about that as she observed her through her peripheral while listening to Meribel. Gert was setting up the griddle on one of the other grill pits to start frying up flapjacks and Shanna was laughing at something Meribel said, heading over to get the tables set up. Sylvia glanced back at Kathy Ann and caught her looking at her as well. Kathy Ann nodded to her and then lifted her Budweiser to her lips and kept on skimming off the surface foam and whatever else came to the top.
Kathy Ann was a big girl. Not a fat girl...but an Amazon. Sylvia figured if she wasn't six foot, she was close. Thick boned, solid body and tough looking as any motorcycle gang member's bar-brawling girlfriend. Her arms had tattoos, and she wore silver rings on every finger, silver on her wrist, around her neck and several ear piercings. She wasn't unattractive, just rough-looking; she could believe she was a wrestler if someone said it was so. One of those white girls who could pick someone up and toss them like they were a rag doll. She wore blue jeans and a black t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her underarms and shoulders. The girl had biceps to boot. Sylvia figured, rather than fight someone like her, it was best to either shoot her, or run like hell. Like Derrick, they were duplications of their father. She had a broad mandible jaw, very similar to the actress, Geena Davis, with large eyes that she deliberately narrowed to look more menacing, and it worked. A wide nose that really didn't hurt her features, not that she would care if it did, and incredible strawberry blonde hair like her baby sister Shanna. Both of them kept it long, past their shoulder blades, somewhat wavy and wildly blowing in the wind. That one feature made Kathy Ann more feminine. She also smoked; she and Jake were the only two of them all who did. If she cared to be, in truth, she could be very attractive, but she didn't seem to care one way or the other.
Shawn walked up to the wood pile, his arms loaded with split logs, bending, he added to the stack. Taking a deep breath, he was going to speak to Kathy Ann. They'd been edging around each other for the last hour or more.
He stood and smiled at her, about to say something to her, but before he could, she lifted her beer as a toast to him. "Mother's favorite has struck again," she commented, successful in removing the smile from his face, then she gestured toward Sylvia with the tilt of her head. "Nice…the perfect way to ease on back in, now that you've finally returned home."
"Well, obviously not everyone is happy about that, hm? Guess you're going to have to just get used to the idea, lil sister. Because I'm home to stay."
"Good for you…but you'll have to excuse me if I don't build a three storey apartment up your ass like the rest, and welcome you back with sweet kisses."
Shawn stood a moment, using his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. "Why…why does it have to be this way between us? What in the hell have I done to you, to have you resent me so much?"
She looked away from him, feeling awkward, and grabbed her pack of cigarettes from her top pocket, tapping it on her fingers before she opened it to remove a cigarette, which she lit. Inhaling deep, she turned and blew the smoke above her brother's head. "You know what, Shawn…let's not do this today…okay?" She laid down her strainer and walked away from him towards the tables, grabbed a fork, and then went to the grill where Meribel stood and stabbed a sausage. She blew it, took a bite, chewed it and looked up at Sylvia.
"Welcome to the family. I'm Kathy Ann, nice to meet you," she offered Sylvia, and held her hand out to shake Sylvia's. Sylvia nervously held hers out to her. "Kathy Ann." She nodded and greeted in return as they shook hands. Kathy Ann nodded to her and smiled, saying to her mother while looking straight into Sylvia's eyes, "Well, mama, you finally got your lil black Barbie doll! Shawn's done you proud again."
That made Sylvia draw back, stunned. "Excuse me?"
Gert slammed down her spatula and turned to Kathy Ann, pointing at her. "I've already told your brother…and now I'm telling you, you watch your mouth or you go home!"
By then, Shawn was red in the face and by Sylvia's side. "What's your fuckin' problem, Kathy Ann?" he shouted, angry, glaring at his smirking sister.
"I got no problems! Hey…Sylvia! Got nothing against you. Don't take it personal…it's him I don't like."
"Go home, Kathy…go home," Gert demanded. "You've been drinking, and been talking trash all last night! Now you're starting first thing…Sylvia's first time here, and this is what she has to be subjected to...go home and sleep it off," Gert ordered her daughter.
"I don't wanna go home! Why me? I tried to avoid him, he came up to me! I've been here all along! Jake's been here, Derricks been here! An' I had to go get Shanna! But the favorite comes home after leaving, visiting only when he wants to show off!Decides he wants to all o'sudden come back, and I can't go nowhere without hearing about Shawn's moving back! Shawn coming home! We bought the house for Shawn! We have to get furniture for Shawn!"
Derrick stepped up to be the peacekeeper.
"Kathy Ann, drop it, okay?" Derrick tried to calm her down, but she was deep into a 12-pack.
"No! Why does the friggin' world…have to revolve around Shawn? Hm, mama?"
"Kathy Ann, you're talking nonsense out of a beer can! We've done no more for Shawn than we have for the rest of you!"
"Yeah, but we deserved it, mama! We earned it! We stayed here and listened and did as you and dad wanted us to do—"
"Excuse me? I don't remember you bringing home a degree in anything, Kathy Ann! You stayed here and did what you did because you wanted to! You didn't have to!" Gert interrupted.
"Oh, that's easy to say now, mama! But every time I turned around, you was asking me, Kathy Ann come do this for us, come do that for us! Come help your daddy with the field or the barn! I was always here helping you and dad all the time with the farm! Me and Jake! Derrick went off to school and didn't look back. Shanna took off with some loser, ended up gettin' her ass kicked around for years before I had to go and get her! But where was your favorite when you needed him? Hm, mama? Fair enough, okay…okay, yeah, fine…but why should he get anything? He so high and mighty, he should have bought his own ga'damn house! His own ga'damn furniture! All I ask you for was twelve hundred dollars, mama, I told you what I need it for, was gone pay it back! Noooo, but when Shawn needs—"
"Is that what you're having a fit over? Twelve hundred dollars? I'll give you twelve hu
ndred, you don't have to pay shit back!" Shawn shouted angrily. By then, the family was crowding around, Angela had run to Sylvia's side, looking afraid to see her father and aunt arguing.
"I don't want your goddamn money! See, I know where it comes from!" she blasted back at him with accusing eyes. Shawn's eyes got wide, then narrowed at her. Derrick grabbed her arm and started hustling her out of the pavilion, growling at her, "You take your ass home and sleep it off! Don't say another word, or I'll be getting in on this one," he threatened, pulling her clear of the pavilion and to the golf cart. "Get in," he ordered. She sat down, and he climbed in next to her, started it and pulled off toward the house so he could take her home.
Shawn turned to Sylvia. "Get your stuff, let's go."
"Oh, daddy…please…nooo!"
"Shawn, don't go!" Shanna pleaded. "Kathy Ann is drunk! Once she sleeps it off, she'll be okay." She turned to Sylvia. "We're sorry; it's not always like this…really it isn't."
"No…just when I show up," Shawn entered.
"Shawn…nobody's going nowhere. You've been gone long enough! This is your family, this is where you belong! Don't you get tired of taking off? One would think you'd be man enough to deal with someone like Kathy Ann without taking off!"
"I don't need the stress, mama, and neither does Sylvia."
Gert turned from her son to Sylvia. "Darlin', let me tell you something. This is one helluva family. We all have strong passions, pains, and problems. Regardless of that, you're a welcome and necessary member. I'm telling you now, we are all in this together! When you say them vows to him, you're marrying into the whole lot! And in this lot, only the strong can survive…so if you doubt you have the backbone to stand toe to toe, make up your mind now. That last one, lord bless her, got nothing against her, she your mama…" Gert said down to Angela, then back to Sylvia, "…didn't have what it takes. I sure hope you do." She turned to Shawn. "Go stir that maple. I ain't ruined my syrup batch in all these years, don't intend to today. Go on."
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