by Rita Hestand
"Well, we'll have a bit of breakfast and go then," Judy brought the food to the table and Lori set it for them. "I'm glad you feel so at home here, honey. And I'm extra glad you'll go to church with me."
"I didn't even think to ask if you had friends you go with." Lori looked a bit bashful.
"No, I usually go alone, but I sit with Mark and his family."
"His family?" She questioned.
"Yeah, he's got three married brothers and his mother is a widow and we get along well." She explained. "Oh and Frances will be there so we can talk to her about you coming to work for her."
"Oh that would be great." Lori nodded as she helped herself to the bacon and scrambled eggs.
"This jelly is magnificent," Lori bragged. "Did you put it up yourself?"
"Oh yes, that's wild plum, got a couple of trees out back, make it up every year. You like it?"
"Mmm…. yes. I'm going to get fat; I better be finding me a bike quickly." She laughed.
"You're far from fat, honey." Jude glanced at her.
"It's another New York thing, everyone expects you to be thin as a model there. Everyone's always on a diet."
"You make New York sound almost unappealing." Her aunt chuckled.
"I'm sorry. It isn't. It's so big, and there is so much to see there. If you have the time to look. I didn't get around to looking as much as I wanted. I guess I could have taken a cab but they are expensive." Lori remarked. "And walking all over New York isn't something I wanted to do. I stand on my feet to work all day, I don't want to spend my days off doing the same.
"You still don't drive dear?"
"No…but maybe I won't have to worry about that here. I can get a bike, and go where ever I need to here. Can't I?" She looked at her as she sipped her coffee.
"I imagine so, yes." Her aunt nodded. "But it is a shame, I have a little Volkswagen you could run about town in."
Lori hung her head.
"You don't have to, and a bike will take you almost anywhere you need to."
"I'm sorry I have so many hang ups…"
"Don't apologize dear. I understand it."
"That's the one thing that is different here. You see in New York, only out of towners drove anywhere, you either lived in walking distance or you commuted by subway, bus, or cab, or even walked. I forgot how everyone down here drives everywhere. I guess I look like a duck out of water, so to speak." Lori said on a sad note.
"Don't you go fretting. A bike will be just fine, and I'm ever so glad Mark suggested it." Her aunt patted her hand.
"Thanks for being so understanding."
"Now let's finish getting ready or we'll be late."
"How will we get there?" She asked.
"It's only a couple of blocks down the street, we'll walk." Her aunt told her.
"Great." Lori went to check her hair and lipstick.
Looping their arms together they walked to church that morning.
Chapter Four
The pews were quickly filling up and Judy motioned for Lori to scoot in by Mark. Then she went around to sit with his mother.
Lori felt uneasy at the way her aunt threw her at Mark. But Mark was friendly and smiling, so she tried to settle her nerves.
Mark handed her a hymnal and showed her the page to turn to. She nodded and smiled.
She didn't recognize the preacher but he was very good. After the sermon, everyone filed out of the pews to talk to each other and socialize a bit.
Lori stood nervously waiting to be introduced to her aunt's friends. "Lori, this is Mark's mother, Helen."
Lori looked at the woman who barely smiled at her, "So you're Judy's niece. Good you could come for a visit."
"Oh no, Helen, Lori's moving back down here to stay with me." Judy explained.
"Really, leaving such an exciting city as New York, I daresay you'll be bored within a week dear." Helen said as she noticed how Mark was hovering over her.
Mark took her elbow and introduced her to his brother and his wife. "This is Seth my brother and his wife Amy. And this rascal on her shoulder is Jacob."
"Oh, he's beautiful," Lori gushed.
"Thanks, are you just visiting or staying Lori?" Amy asked.
"I'm staying, if I can find a job." Lori told her. Amy was a sweet little lady, with long golden brown hair and blue eyes. Her husband looked at lot like his brother only a bit taller and broader.
"Well, we'll have to have you over for supper one night soon then. So very nice to meet you, but I've got to run to the car and get a bottle or this one is going to be spewing a fit." She laughed.
Lori chuckled. "Would you like me to hold him while you get his bottle?"
"You sure you don't mind?" Amy glanced at her.
"Not at all." She took the little tyke in her arms and smiled. He was so little. He couldn't be over a month old. "He's precious."
Mark watched her curiously as she seemed so at home with the baby.
"You like children?"
"Oh yes, I actually babysat a lot for my friends back in New York. They had so many meetings and things to attend to, and I get along well with children, even though I'm an only child." She put the baby on her shoulder with a pad so in case he spit up. Mark watched with fascination.
Judy brought Frances to meet Lori then.
Frances was a cute lady of nearly the same age. She was dressed in a fashionable outfit, with lots of jewelry and perfume, Lori noticed.
"You're a hairdresser I'm told?" Frances asked looking her over.
"Yes, been working in Macy's in New York for five years. But I want to settle down here with my aunt, and I really need a job." She told her sincerely as she rocked the baby on her shoulder.
"She's multi-talented, she can entertain a baby and do hair, wow, you are hired. You can start Tuesday if you like, I've got plenty of customers and really need someone to take the load off me. Can you cut and style?"
"Oh yes, I've done many up do's and I have my own tools." Lori told her with enthusiasm.
"Great, you couldn't have come at a better time, honey. I need you. So be there, or be square." She chuckled.
"Thank you, I will." Lori beamed.
Frances saw a man she knew and ran to see him, waving her a goodbye.
"Wow, that was fast." Lori looked wide-eyed at her aunt.
"I knew she'd put you on." She cast Frances a glance and explained. "That's her boyfriend. They are quite serious and we are all hoping they get married, she has a two-year-old in Sunday school. Her husband ran off and left her before the baby was born, but Lanny is a good one, a keeper." Her aunt chuckled.
"She seems really friendly." Lori smiled. "Everyone does. Where did your friend Helen go?"
She glanced around for Mark, "Over there. Don't mind her so much dear, I'll tell you all about her when we get home."
Lori nodded.
Amy came back and took her baby, "That was sweet of you to watch him for me." She took her baby.
"No problem, he's been sleeping. I love babies. Maybe I can babysit for you off and on."
Amy did a double take, "Did you say babysit?"
"Yes," Lori stared at her. "Why?"
"Well, this might sound a bit forward for me to ask, but since you brought it up, Seth has an important party to attend the middle of the month and we honestly didn't know how we were going to get away with the kids. Would you be interested in babysitting the kids that night?"
"Sure, just remind me, if you will. How many children do you have?"
"Three, the other two are in Sunday school. I'm about to go get them, why don't you come with me?" Amy suggested.
"Sure," she told her aunt, and followed Amy to the class for younger children.
"This is Lucy, and Mike. This is Lori, she's going to babysit you while daddy and I go to a function later this month. I wanted you to meet her." Amy was telling them.
"How old are they?" Lori asked.
"Lucy is five and Mike is three and a half."
"I'm very pleased
to meet you guys. I hope we'll have a lot of fun." Lori told them.
The little girl smiled, "I started kindergarten this year."
"You did, well you are a big girl, aren't you?"
"Yes."
Mike didn't pay her much mind, but he did smile.
"You think you can handle them?" She asked.
"Sure, they look delightful."
"Well, Mike can be a handful at times. And the baby gets fussy sometimes, especially if he doesn't burp." Amy touched his lip where milk oozed out.
"I'll look forward to it then." Lori told her.
"You are a gem. I can't tell you how happy I am to know you." Amy told her.
"Thank you, I think we'll be great friends."
They walked back to the crowd, and Mark suggested they all go out for dinner.
"Great, I don't have to cook," Aunt Judy laughed.
Helen was quiet.
Lori and Judy rode with Mark, Helen sat with her grandkids in the back of his brother's car.
"Let's go to Jim's steakhouse, on the highway." Mark suggested.
"All right, we'll meet you there." Seth told them.
While they were in the truck, Mark talked small talk with them then glancing over at Lori he added. "If my mom seems a little stand offish, don't mind her. My father died last Christmas and she hasn't quite got over it yet."
"Oh I'm so sorry. That's tragic and at Christmas?" Lori said sincerely.
Mark shot her an appraising glance.
"Well, I've already got a job as a hairdresser and a babysitter." Lori announced.
"Babysitter, for who?" Mark asked shocked that she had gotten that friendly so quickly.
"Your sister. She said they had an important function with his work at the middle of the month and so I offered to babysit for her. Isn't that grand?"
Aunt Judy cackled. "You're going to fit right in here, honey."
"Sure looks like it, doesn't it?" He flashed Lori a smile.
At the dinner, Mark's mother hardly said a word, and then only to Judy. But Amy and Seth were keeping Lori company.
Mark sat beside her, but he watched the interplay between his sister-in-law and her and smiled.
Seth had a very prominent job with a big company in Dallas. He was quite the executive, but still able to function on small town level with his wife. Amy worked at the local hospital as a nurse. They were both very busy people.
When Mark drove Lori and her aunt home, he asked Lori to stay a minute. Judy winked and got out.
"I thought we'd go find you a decent bike tomorrow, if you aren't too busy. You'll need it if you are starting work so soon."
"Oh, that's kind of you. Do you know where we might find a good one?"
"I do as a matter of fact. And, I wanted to thank you for volunteering to babysit my sister's kids. I mean, it is a lapful of kids, and you are so new here. I hope you know what you're getting into." He chuckled.
"Well, I'm good with kids. Usually if I can keep them preoccupied with something, they give little trouble." She told him. "I find baking cookies is a real winner, and the kids can have a lot of fun too."
"You are an unusual girl." He remarked shaking his head.
"What do you mean?" She looked puzzled.
"You aren't here two days and you have two jobs. You've met my family. I'm afraid when Judy told me about you I had a lot of preconceived ideas about you." He smiled warmly at her now.
"And not good ones I suppose?"
"Well, for one thing, no one has visited her in so long. And for another, I figured you'd be a real uptight lady, like most of the people from New York." He told her.
"No one has visited, there's only me. And granted I was busy with my life in New York, but it certainly wasn't some glamorous life, I can tell you. And that's why I'm here, to get back to some kind of normal. And live my life. I got to thinking maybe we needed each other. I could tell by her long letters that she was lonely, and so was I. I saw no reason to remain that way."
"You know, we're alike in one way."
"Oh, how so?"
"Well, you're a hairdresser, I'm a handyman."
"We aren't very ambitious, are we?"
"Do we have to be?" He asked watching her expressive face.
"No. I guess not. Jason really didn't like my kind of work. Said I lacked ambition. I think I kind of embarrassed him with his friends. Most of them had really classy jobs."
"Did you go to college?" He asked
"No, my parents were in a fatal car accident the year I graduated, and that set me back a while. I was a basket case for a couple of years. When I did get my act together, so to speak, I went to cosmetology school, got my licensed and began working. I'm sorry to say, I never had any ambition to do anything else. I was happy, except for standing on my feet so much. How about you, did you go to college?"
"No, I worked on a ranch after I got out of high school for a while, joined the Air Force, then came home and became a handyman to the shock of my mother. I like working with my hands. Never had the ambition either." He chuckled.
"We are, what we are!" She chuckled.
He smiled broadly, "I think I'm going to like you, Miss Lori."
She smiled, "I better go in now. See you tomorrow. What time do you want to start looking for a bike?"
"I got a few things to do in the morning. How about noonish, we can get a burger and check the places out?"
"Sounds good, see you then." She smiled.
She started to get out of the truck, but he came around to open the door for her as she was getting out he told her, "I'm glad you've come home, Lori, your aunt needs you."
The way he said that, had her crooking her head.
"Yeah," she murmured, "So am I."
And then he was gone, and she stared after him again as he drove down the street.
Chapter Five
After a good night's sleep, Lori was up early and helping her aunt prepare breakfast. She found it exhilarating to have someone to do mundane chores with.
"You're in a very good mood. Is there any special reason?" Judy asked.
Lori couldn't stop the grin leaking over her face, "It's been a very long time that I had anyone to work with in the kitchen."
"Me too, honey. And it's very nice." Judy chuckled.
"I see you made pancake batter this morning." Lori glanced at the bowl full of batter.
"Not just any pancake batter, it's sour dough batter, and they are delicious." Judy placed the first scoop of batter in the hot frying pan.
"I remember those!" Lori nearly shouted. "They are so good. You'll have to teach me the secret to making them." She insisted.
"Well, there's really no secret, it's just you sour the milk before you put it in the batter." Her aunt was telling her.
"Sour the milk, and how do you do that?"
"You add vinegar to the milk and let it set for a few minutes, then you add it to the batter mix."
"I'll have to remember that." Lori watched as the pancake turned a golden color and her aunt flipped it.
"If you can't remember, I'll write it down for you. I want you to have all my recipes." Judy was saying offhandedly.
"Well, I'm not going anywhere, I won't need them right now." Lori laughed.
"No, but someday you'll have a husband and family of your own and I want you to have the recipes. After all, I'm not going to live forever, you know."
"Yes you are," Lori informed her. "But I'll write them down, I promise."
"You won't have to. I've got most of them already written but it might be a good idea if you could put them on your little laptop so you'd have them handy." Judy informed her sweetly.
"That's a good idea. Tell you what, you give me ten recipes a day, and I will put them on the computer and if need be print them out, later."
"Wonderful. Do you use your computer a lot?" Judy asked.
"Oh yes, I write children's stories all the time on it." She told her.
Judy stopped what she was doing and turned to l
ook at her, "You do?"
"Yeah, I get these ideas when I babysit and I come home and write them down. I've got a stack of them." She told her. "I self-publish them on line and sell them. It brings in a little money."
"I'd like to see some of them."
"Sure, tonight I'll show you some. I've got to go look for a bike today with Mark. He thinks he knows where I can get one."
"A bike?"
"Yeah, so I can ride it to work every day."
"Land sakes, that's a wonderful idea." Judy smiled. "Who came up with that idea?"
"He did actually. And around here it will really come in handy. I couldn't have used it in New York though, there is just too much traffic in the downtown area and too many people. But here, it would be ideal."
"I agree, it's a great idea, hon. Well, looks like you are going to be set then for your job. I was worried how you'd get to and from, unless I took you."
"No need for that. Worst comes to worse I could walk."
"You know dear; my little car would be wonderful for you." Judy encouraged.
"Thanks, but I'd rather use a bike, if you don't mind." Lori insisted.
"You really don't want to drive, do you?" Judy asked.
"No, I'd rather not."
"Did you ever get your license?"
"No, I knew I wouldn't be driving, so I didn't take the test."
"But how did you get around in New York?"
"I walked most places."
"Land sakes child, no wonder you are so thin and in such good shape." Judy chuckled but couldn't help but shoot her a strange look.
"Hmm…." Lori smeared butter and syrup on one of the pancakes and bit into it, and looked dreamily up at Judy. "This is heavenly."
"Aren't they good?"
"Next time I want to make them." Lori insisted.
"Alright dear. Did I hear you tell Amy you would babysit?" Judy suddenly asked.
"Well yeah, I did. Is there something wrong with that?"
"No of course not, but Helen usually does that."