Sunday morning Shay went to his parents’ and I went home. His plane was taking off at 6 p.m. that evening, and around 2 p.m., he came to the door.
“Are you taking me to the airport, princess?”
“Of course,” I told him
When I got in the car, his class ring was laying on the dashboard, strung on a chain.
“That’s for you,” he grinned, “and I’m leaving my car with you, too.”
I knew he was getting serious if he was leaving that Impala with me for three months!
***
When boot camp was finally over, I picked Shay up at the airport with his car. His hair had really grown. He wanted to go to his house first, and then into Hudson. When we got to his house no one was home (he said his mother was in Watertown, Christmas shopping.) This gave Shay the perfect chance to flip my back against the wall and pin my arms above my head. He got no argument from me. This time we ended up in his room; a twin bed is better than a car seat.
After we had showered together, we went to the kitchen to get a snack and I saw something that made my stomach turn, a note for Shay telling him to call a Phyllis Shelby.
“Who’s Phyllis Shelby?” I asked him.
“Who knows?” Shay took me into his arms. “Let’s go out tonight. I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“Okay,” I said, letting it go.
He took me home. 7 p.m. came and went: no Shay.
At 9 p.m. I called Susie and said, “Let’s go somewhere, this is ridiculous.”
We went to King’s Drive-Thru, parked and ordered.
“Hey, Kevin Poole’s car is parked over there,” said Susie, looking through the window.
“Maybe he’s seen Shay,” I said.
We walked up to Kevin’s car. I was holding a Cherry Coke and at that moment I saw Shay in the backseat with a girl (Phyllis Shelby, I presumed.) I didn’t think or even hesitate. I was quick with my reactions (always have been.) I sloshed that Cherry Coke directly through the window and onto both of them. Then I took off running to my car.
Shay was one fast dude. I think he still holds the track record in several areas at Larimer High. He was out of that backseat in a flash, caught me just as I reached my car. Well, it must have been quite the little show for anyone watching. I was hitting him on the chest, crying and calling him names. He pinned my arms straight out against my car, saying, “Settle down, Callie, just settle down.”
But I still had my legs free and I started kicking him. Then he pinned my legs with his legs.
“Let go of me, you bastard! Let go of me!”
“Not until you settle down,” he said, holding me.
That’s when for the first and only time in my life, I spit in his face.
“Oh that’s cute.”
“I hate you! Let go of me. Let go of me or I’m going to scream!”
“Well you just scream. I’ll let go if you promise to settle down.”
We stood there several minutes, me pinned to the car. Finally I got control of myself and said, “Okay, Shay, I’m settled down. Now you just let go of me because I want to leave.”
He loosened slowly, ready to grab again if necessary. I opened the door and got in. Susie was already inside and we took off down the road. I took Susie home and went home myself, completely numb.
***
I had waited six months for him and his first night home he was with someone else. The stories I heard about him being a player were all true.
About 1 a.m. the doorbell rang. I answered; it was Shay.
“I want to talk to you, Callie.”
“Go away.”
“I’m not leaving until you hear me out.”
We went out and sat on the porch.
“Kevin introduced me to her when I was home three months ago. She had been writing me and Kevin wanted to date her friend, so we went on a foursome.”
I knew what he was saying didn’t really change anything, but looking into his sad, brown eyes I felt myself forgiving him against my will.
“Callie, she means nothing to me, nothing.”
I finally gave in to the pleading and soft touches and he ended up sleeping on our sofa that night.
***
We went on as if nothing had happened. Spent Christmas Eve at my parents’ house; it was casual and fun. Kelly was now a year old and a total riot. We spent Christmas day at the Westovers’, all formal, etc. Not my thing. Big turkey dinner, cocktails, and, of course, the house was decorated professionally. How fun could that have been? I thought. Putting up the tree and all the decorations is part of Christmas!
I was asked to bring Kelly to Christmas, as Shay’s parent’s, Sterling and Maggie, had never seen her. I took her in and took off her little coat and hat. She was standing on a kitchen chair when Maggie walked in and just about went bonkers.
“I can’t believe it!” exclaimed Maggie. “Is she real?” Then she went running out of the door yelling, “Sterling, Sterling! You just have to come in and see this child!”
Margaret Westover, or Maggie as everyone called her, was tall, slim and very pretty. She was in her mid-forties, had large green eyes, and wore her auburn hair in a short bouffant; she just about dripped elegance.
Kelly was pretty much the whole party the rest of the night. She could say, “Uh-oh, skeddy-o’s,” and I think Shay’s family had her saying that the whole time she was there. I met Shay’s grandparents, Grandpa Shannon and Grandma Lila; they were polite but remote.
Toward the end of the evening, I heard Maggie ask Shay why he had never told her what Kelly looked like, and I heard him say, “Never thought about the fact you’d never seen her.”
“Well,” said Maggie, “she is an unusually adorable child.”
A little blond beauty with cupid lips, Kelly did resemble a living doll. She wasn’t fussy and rarely cried. That kid was a hit wherever she went.
***
Big New Year’s Eve party at the club—I was becoming quite the party person even though I didn’t drink. I had no problem with anyone else drinking. Well, we really were having some great times. I could push my questions about other women aside for the most part; for one thing because I saw so much of Shay. I couldn’t imagine him having any energy left over, after our hours and hours of thrills and chills.
***
After the holidays, we had the weekend alone at the farmstead. Every night that we made love was erotic, but this one night we were alone in the house seemed different. Even Shay noticed.
“Your body was extra warm and twingey tonight, princess. You’re just totally glowing from the moonlight shining in the window.”
“Maybe it’s my Indian spirit!”
“Your what?”
“Never mind.” I smiled and stroked his face, stretching out before him, feeling bathed in love.
“I just felt an extra warmth,” he continued, rubbing his hands down my body. “Twinges I’d never felt before tonight when I came inside of your life.”
He always said that, just like our first night together. I loved it.
We lay in the moonlight, just basking in the afterglow.
“I wonder what was different,” I mused absentmindedly, as Shay traced an aimless pattern on my belly.
1965
Motel Angel
Well, Shay and I were having lots of fun together; like the time he finished the milking for the crew and told the hands to take off and have a beer.
“Well, then I guess that’s about 70 head,” he said.
I opened the back door of the barn and said, “No, Shay, wait there’s one more out here.”
“Well call her in.”
“How do I do that?”
“Just coax her.”
“Gosh, this is an ugly cow,” I said. It was very wide between the eyes and had a mean look.
I was saying, “Come on, Cowie, come on, come in here…” when I noticed Shay was standing behind me with his arms outstretched, like he might have to roll me fast to one side at any minute.
I asked him what in the world he was doing.
“Well, princess, that just happens to be our stud bull you’re calling Cowie.” He broke into a wide, tickled grin. “If he charges, baby, you’re going to need to get out of the way fast. But see, he’s not stomping one foot yet, so you’re okay. Just move real slow now and back your way into the barn.”
When we were both safely behind the closed barn door, I said, “How could you let me do that?”
“It was funny,” he said, chuckling. “Oh, come now.” He pulled me close. “I’m just trying to help make you less afraid of everything.” He touched the tip of my nose lightly, grinning. “You should have seen yourself.”
I had to burst out laughing. Shay made me laugh at myself. No one had done that before.
We had great times, from mud fights in the irrigation ditch to long romantic dinner dates.
***
One time when Shay’s parents were out of town for the weekend, he invited me on “a real, dress-up night date,” as he called it—dinner and dancing at the club.
That sounded good to me. What a beautiful date. He was so attentive, always with a hand somewhere on my body, rubbing sweetly.
Around midnight we went home to his parents’ house.
“Let’s sleep in the master,” he said.
“So don’t I get the pink silk PJs?”
“Are you getting shy on me now?” he said. “No PJs for you! Let’s dance awhile,” and he took me in his arms.
We danced while undressing each other. Then Shay scooped me up in his arms. “Let’s go to bed, princess,” he said and whisked me into the bedroom.
He opened the bed sheets and put me inside, crawling in beside me, kissing me very softly. He had his left arm around me and with one flip he had me on my stomach. (He’d never just flipped me like that. It startled me, but kind of aroused me as well.) Then he climbed on my back, his hands on each of my wrists, and sort of held them out from my head on the bed, using one of his legs to push one of mine outward, then the other. I felt totally pinned under him, like I didn’t have any control, and tried to squirm my way out.
“Now please, Callie, just settle down,” he said. “Please, just settle down and hush. Just hush for one minute. I want to talk to you. Can you feel my heart beating?”
“Yes,” I said from underneath him. It beat discernibly against my bare back, steady and strong. “Well every one of those heartbeats is for you,” he said. “You belong in my heart. So remember, if you ever don’t have a place to stay, just stay in my heart, because my heart is your home.”
I lay there listening as he ran his right hand gently down my arm, over my shoulders and my neck and down my spine. Then he said, “Turn your head to the right.”
I said, “Why?”
“Damn, woman, just do it!”
I did, and he turned his hand over, palm up, and in the little amber glow from the nightlight I saw that he had this beautiful diamond engagement ring on his pinky, diamond side down.
He had been running it over my body, he said.
“I love you so much, Callie. I want you to marry me. I can’t live without you.”
Now here is where Callie should have said something equally romantic. But what did I do? I lifted my head as far as I could and blurted:
“Who told you I was pregnant!?”
“You did. Just now!” Shay lowered his face near mine, eye to eye. “Well, I say we just got ourselves a head start!” His eyes were sparkling.
He turned me over to face him, holding me close and speaking softly, his lips against my ear. “And you know what, baby, I know exactly the night it happened. Remember that night you were so warm and twingey…? The night you glowed in the moonlight? That was it.”
This man never ceased to amaze me. He wanted the baby! Didn’t even question what I’d say to the proposal. Guess my confession had served as an acceptance. Fine by me.
***
When his parents got home, Shay was working on the engine of his car with the hood popped open. I was lying on his bed reading. His parents knew he was going to ask me to marry him when they were gone, so his mother came straight to me and said, “Well, do you two have any news?”
I held my finger up with the diamond on it and she ran outside to Shay. He must have given her the extra news, because she kept running back and forth between the two of us, saying, “You have to get married right away. Why are you two just doing your own thing? Come on, Shay, you guys have to do something!”
Shay, who had just walked in with greasy hands and rolled-up shirtsleeves, stood in the door and said proudly in his casual way, “I already did something. It’s Callie’s turn to do something. You ladies can figure out the rest. Just tell me when and where and I’ll be there.”
***
What a time we had getting ready for the wedding! We worked fast in a flurry of bridal preparations. I wanted a small family wedding, which the Westovers agreed to. In turn, I agreed to a large, two-hundred-and-fifty-person reception following the wedding at the Holiday Party and Convention Center.
There was a lot to do. I designed my own wedding gown in a light Wedgewood blue. It was fitted and floor-length, with spaghetti straps, a six-inch long train at the back and matching satin, Wedgewood blue three-inch heels. Over the bodice I wore a top of Chantilly lace, with scallops at the bottoms of the sleeves. I had a five-strand pearl choker necklace, pearl drop earrings and a veil of the same blue in Chantilly lace; a three-inch crown and matching blue gloves. The bridal bouquet was blue and white, with four red roses scattered around the bouquet to signify our little family of four becoming one.
***
I got to the church a couple of hours early because I wanted some time alone with God. There was a thunderstorm brewing on the horizon and I judged it would hit about the same time as the service. I sat on the church steps and asked God how I could be so blessed—to be marrying the man of my dreams, the father of the child I was carrying, someone who loved Kelly and me so much.
“Thank you, God, I am so blessed,” I said. Yet at the same time I had a creeping fear in the back of my mind. What if the thunderstorm was a sign? What if he’d gotten cold feet? It wasn’t like him, but as I never forgot (and if I did, he reminded me): Shay was his own man.
As the crowd gathered, I peeped down the long aisle and saw him standing, dressed so smartly, waiting at the altar.
“Oh my gosh, he’s there, he’s there, he’s there,” I whispered to my bridesmaids, who were all bustling around me with last minute adjustments, teasing out the train of my dress. Martha, my sister; Debbie, Shay’s sister, and myself were all waiting in the bridal room for the music to start. Then the music struck up and Debbie started down the aisle, followed by Martha.
I met Daddy at the entrance, where he walked me down the aisle and gave me away for good to Shannon James Westover. Shay had told me after giving me the ring that he had asked Daddy’s permission the week before, and he had given his blessing.
***
After the beautiful service, while Shay and I were driving in his car toward the reception, he told me that at the altar he had asked himself, ‘What am I doing? Do I want to give up this great single life? The parties, the women… Am I ready for a baby? Can I handle a high-spirited woman like Callie…?”
I was a handful! (But, as he said he reminded himself, I was his handful.)
Right around this time he said he looked up and couldn’t believe the vision he saw. There was a great radiance of light around me, a glow. He said he had never seen anything so beautiful in is life. And the second he saw me, all his doubts melted away.
He kept saying in the car, “You are so beautiful, princess. You are so beautiful.”
This sure was a far cry from Dane saying I was a ‘pretty thing and it was too bad.’
I knew if Shay was saying it, he meant it. That was the thing I liked best about Shay; and also, at times, the least. He always said it like he saw it.
***
Well, on this little trip to the reception I got a craving for chicken noodle soup. I told Shay I just had to have some.
“No,” he said. “We have to get to the reception. Everyone will be there.”
Samson and Sunset Page 6