The Pride of Howard County

by Kevin Bachman

  Chapter 25

  The first few mornings as John walked across the road to go to work it was a numbing sadness that enveloped him. It seemed impossible that there would be no freshly brewed coffee waiting for him in Gus’s kitchen.

  Abby had meetings she was obligated to and had left Howard County for Denver. Although she promised John she would be back as soon as possible he still experienced a depth of loneliness he had never felt before. The young farmer felt as if he were a tiny speck in a universe of enormity.

  The Bobwhite quail still sang their song, the whippoorwill and the tree frogs tuned up in the warm spring late afternoons. One day John thought of painting Graces white picket fence but instead he left it as it was. Remembering Gus’s talk of taking it down he thought about it but just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  Lucky was glad to sleep over at Muncie’s house but still missed her own blanket in the kitchen across the road. She looked all over for Gus but he was no where to be found.

  Several days later when John was out in the fields planting he looked over to the edge of the field and saw a bare foot red-headed beauty standing there with a dog on either side of her. She had on a brightly colored sundress, a big floppy hat and she wore a smile the young farmer could see from a hundred yards away. From that moment forward the dark cloud that had lingered over John simply vanished.

  Abby and John made Lucky a nest of blankets in the spare bedroom closet. They researched dog pregnancy, birthing and gestation length trying to get an idea of what to expect. Eventually, they figured out that there wasn’t a whole lot they could do. It was pretty much going to be all up to Lucky to pull this thing off.

  Within a week they began to remember Gus as he would have wanted them to. They made trips to Fayette and Columbia to get away from the farm for a while and sat in restaurants and coffee shops talking.

  Abby had a habit of kicking off her shoes, crossing her feet and laying them across one of John’s knees. John would say, “Tell me about your week,” and Abby would catch him up on all the latest with the shelters. Abby was delighted that John was actually interested in what she had to say. Then Abby would want to know about how everything was going on the farm. They would get another cup of coffee and laugh at each others crises realizing they were indeed not the crises they had only momentarily ago believed them to be. Sometimes they talked about Abby’s life, sometimes John’s and sometimes Gus’s. She talked about how grateful she was she had reunited with her father before it was too late. She told John how she felt he had in some way become the brother she had lost all those years ago. She felt like had they never met she may have never recovered from the accident and would have had to carry that pain with her all of her days.

  John shared how his relationship with Gus had in some way repaired the broken relationship with his own father. Gus had become the father that he needed to restore his faith in fatherhood. They talked about how after the accident Gus was a wounded man and John was surely put into his life for a purpose. John had become a surrogate son, a replacement for the one he’d lost. Through their conversations John and Abby once again realized the details didn’t matter, the small differences that make everyone special or different didn’t matter or the paths they had taken to get to this point. The important thing was that they were here and here together, now. John and Abby had become brother and sister reunited after decades of space filled with their travels. They each felt safe with the other. They finally had that soft place to fall at the end of the day. A special bond felt only between a brother and sister on a farm far away from the rest of the world.

  Each of their childhoods had been broken in some way. They had been given adversities they had never asked for. There were times in each of their lives when they could see no way out. And yet it was this gift that had given them the backbone they needed to survive. And now the little child within could grow up and recover their lost innocence.

  Abby and John met with Gus’s attorney, Buddy J. Cravens a few weeks after Gus had gone to be with his beloved Grace. The old attorney had been Grace and Gus’s attorney for as long as anyone could remember. Buddy J. and Gus had rabbit hunted together as kids, He and Gus considered each other good friends.

  When Buddy walked into the room he looked about as sad as any man could be.

  “I am so sorry,” he said as he extended his hand to John. He looked at Abby and said, “And you must be little Abigail,” as he shook her hand he said “It sure is nice to have you back home.”

  Buddy then said with a smile, “By God you’re a spittin image of your momma, she was a heck of a gal I’ll tell ya,” shaking his head from side to side as he thought of the belle of Howard County.

  Eventually they all sat down in a small conference room and Buddy J. opened the envelope containing Gus Roger’s last will and testament.

  He put on his glasses and slowly read the will. “One thousand acres, all farm equipment, machinery and the house at County Road 116 I leave to John A. Lincoln, one thousand acres I leave for Abigail A. Wilhite Rogers and the remaining nine hundred and sixty acres is to be bequeathed to the Missouri Department of Conservation to be used as a public conservation area to be named by my daughter, Abigail. Lucky shall be the property of and responsibility of John A. Lincoln. Any and all stocks and bonds are to be bequeathed to the Red Roof Methodist Church.

  Buddy J. took off his glasses and professionally asked if there were any questions.

  The attorney then said, “Gus told me he wanted it simple, no legal mumbo jumbo,” this brought a smile to the two otherwise serious faces.

  After a moment of silence they all got to their feet, Buddy J. then shook their hands again and told them if there was anything he could do be sure to call him. Buddy J. walked them to the door telling them, “I mean it; you call me if you ever need anything. Gus was a damn fine man, we was good friends.”

  Buddy J. stood on the sidewalk outside the office building keeping a watchful eye on them until they got into the truck and with one final wave disappeared into the office building.

  John’s work on the farm kept him busy and Abby had her business responsibilities as well. At first they spoke on the phone daily but after a few days every two or three days seemed to be good enough.

  John would come in from the fields to find Terry had already taken care of most of the chores around the house. Terry had taken it upon himself to try to figure out Gus’s paperwork. He scheduled an appointment with Gus’s accountant and with John’s signature of permission they went over the basics of Gus’s style of keeping the books. Some things he kept true to Gus’s way but in other areas he modified the routine with his own way of doing things. It was a challenge but Terry was more than competent. This helped John enormously as he could concentrate on what he was best at, and enjoyed the most,which was farming.

  After a couple of months John finally decided to move into Gus’s house and did so with reservations. Once he settled in it didn’t seem so weird. At first he didn’t want to change anything but Terry and Abby both told him he would have to make it “his” home. And so, he carefully took down the pictures and neatly labeled and stored them in the attic. Eventually, he updated the kitchen and bath and had the hardwood floors refinished throughout the first level of the house. He and Terry repainted the entire house inside and out and upstairs he had all the carpeting replaced. Slowly, bit by bit it began to feel more and more like the dream home he had always wanted.

  Abby found a perfect photo of Gus and Grace taken on their twentieth wedding anniversary. She had it digitally enhanced, enlarged and professionally framed. John mounted it on the wall above the mantel of the big stone fireplace in the living room.

  Abby was visiting the farm so often she and John joked, she might as well move in. And as time went on they became serious about it. Finally, with help from Terry they converted Gus’s and Graces’ old bedroom into Abby’s new office and she moved in shortly after that. She still traveled quite a bit and was sometimes
gone a few days or a week at a time but a lot of her work could be done via the computer. Gus’s daughter immediately came to love the farm of her childhood as a place to recover from the tragedies she witnessed daily in the shelters. It was an incredible experience for her as she once thought of her childhood on her parent’s farm as a source of her pain and now she had come full circle. John, Terry, Abby and the kids were a third generation modern family, it was exciting times indeed.

  They sat on the porch in the evenings and heard the eerie sound of the screech owl that lived in the barn. Frogs, toads and crickets filled the air with music. On some nights coyotes howled off in the distance which did not go unnoticed by Lucky. They watched the spectacular Howard County sunsets, talked politics and religion among other things. An occasional jet airliner blinked red lights across the night sky reminding them of a world out there beyond the farm until a shooting star streaked across the sky. Eventually, they settled into long pleasant evenings of uneventful blissful nothingness.

  Everyone was beginning to realize that life would go on even without Gus.

  The sun rose every morning bringing the gift of another day. Lucky was still, technically at war with the intruding Groundhog although a temporary truce was in effect until she was resolved of her maternal duties. The Piney still flowed through Howard County just as she always had and they were still doing the boot scootin’bogie down at the Honky Tonk.