A fateful plateful, p.6
A Fateful Plateful, page 6
Pa grunted. “Good. Can’t stand having people hover over me.”
“So, I hear you had a bit of a sick tummy.”
Erin smothered a snort. She covered it up with a cough and turned away from Vic and her father.
“A sick tummy,” Pa scoffed. “’bout puked my guts out. Sick as a dawg. Doctor said it was a good thing I got here when I did. But then…” He rubbed his chest, remembering. “I s’pose I had a heart attack.”
“You suppose?” Vic repeated. “You don’t know whether you did or not?”
He grunted. “I know I did.”
“Do you remember it? Did it hurt?”
“Course it hurt. It was a heart attack.”
“I’ve just heard that they don’t always hurt. Sometimes people don’t know when they’ve had a heart attack, or it’s just pressure, or they think it is just indigestion. I just wondered… if it was really a heart attack. And how it felt.”
“Felt like a durn elephant was sitting on my chest, crushing me. That’s what it felt like.”
Vic nodded. She didn’t tell him that she was sorry for what he had suffered. She just continued to talk to him casually, as if this happened every day and was no big deal.
“And do they think that the stomach bug is related? Or are they two separate things? Were you sick because you were having heart problems? Or did being dehydrated cause the heart attack?”
“They don’t know. Ignorant doctors in this Podunk hospital don’t know anything. If they were any good, they’d be working at one of the big city hospitals. Not here.”
“Do you want to be transferred to the city hospital?” Vic asked, raising one eyebrow as if she already knew the answer.
“No,” Pa growled, sullen as a child. “That’s where people go to die.”
Vic smiled sweetly at him. “So you don’t think the doctors here are any good, but it’s the ones in the city who will kill you?”
“Don’t be such a smart aleck.”
“Maybe you just want to go home. Who needs all of these machines and medicines?”
“Would if I could.”
“But you can’t. Because the doctors here are keeping you alive.”
He said nothing.
Footsteps progressed down the corridor outside, and then a young, shaggy-haired blond man stopped in the doorway and looked in. He blew out his breath in a whistle.
“Land sakes, he’s awake. Morning, Vic, I didn’t think you were coming.”
“Jeremy!” Vic jumped to her feet, and they met in the middle of the room and embraced. “How are you?”
Nilla ran up to Jeremy excitedly and got some ear scratches from him.
“Fine as a summer day,” Jeremy answered. “What about you? You and this old coot getting along?”
Vic looked over her shoulder at the hospital bed. “Well… there ain’t been any bloodshed.”
“Yet,” Erin added in a murmur.
Jeremy looked at her and laughed. “And Erin is here to keep the peace. Or to defend you if there is bloodshed.” He reached out a hand to shake, and Erin used it to pull herself up and give him a hug as well.
“How about you? How are you doing?”
He nodded. “Fine, fine. Where’s Ma?”
“At the cafeteria getting something to eat.”
“How did you convince her to do that? I did everything I could to get her to go earlier, and she outright refused.”
“Just used my charms,” Vic said with a smile. She motioned to the chair she had vacated. “You want to sit down?”
“Nah. Best to stay on my feet until I’ve woken up properly.” Jeremy yawned widely.
“Until you’ve woken up?” Vic repeated. “Did you just get out of bed?”
Jeremy ran his fingers through his hair, swiping it back. “Well, I didn’t just get out of bed. But… yes.”
“I didn’t raise my boys to be lazy,” Pa growled from the bed. “Where are Joseph and Daniel? What’s going on at the farm?”
“Nothing is going on at the farm,” Jeremy said with a shrug. He turned around to face his father. “I don’t know where Joseph and Daniel are. Maybe off with the clan.”
CHAPTER 11
There was silence for a few seconds as everyone looked at everyone else. Erin was the outsider and felt that she got the worst of the suspicious looks. She wondered if she should leave the room to give them some privacy to talk. Vic could apparently read this in Erin’s eyes and made a small hand motion for her to stay where she was. She sat back down in the chair that she had previously occupied.
“None of my concern if they are off on clan business,” she commented. “What’s that got to do with me?”
“Is that what they told you?” Pa demanded of Jeremy. “Did someone talk to them?”
“How would I know? I’m not part of that world anymore. Don’t want anything to do with it.”
“The Jackson clan is the reason you had a roof over your head and food on the table,” Pa growled. “If it weren’t for them…”
“Then you would have actually had a producing farm,” Jeremy finished. “Instead of pretending you were growing enough crops to support a family.”
“Farming is a hard business. A few years of droughts, and where do you think the money comes from? The clan saved our bacon more than once.”
“For a price.”
Pa Jackson didn’t appreciate this. “We would not have survived without the help of the clan.”
“Then how do the rest of the farms survive? They’re not all members of the Jackson or Dyson clans. Dysons hardly bother with farmers. The only reason the Jacksons do is because of family members like you who won’t leave their farms. If they could get you into town, they would.”
“What do you know? You don’t know anything about how to run a farm or a business. You left. You decided you were too good for the clan and you ran away.”
“I didn’t want to end up in prison.”
“Am I in prison? Are your brothers? The clan takes care of its own. We’re not going to end up in prison.”
“Because nobody in the clan does?” Jeremy challenged. It was clear from the rise in his voice that he knew better than that, and so did his father. Erin tried to imagine what it must have been like to live with an organized crime syndicate always in the background of their lives. Always there waiting to get them to do a job or take care of something. Knowing that the only thing that stood between them and losing the farm or ending up in prison was the clan. As long as they stayed in the good books of the men leading the clan. Growing up associating with criminals being treated as family. Or criminals who were family.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pa repeated. His voice was getting weaker and his breathing more labored. Erin suspected he would fall asleep again within another minute or two. Talking was tiring him out.
Ma Jackson appeared in the doorway and looked in, past everyone else to her husband. “Is he awake? Pa? Pa, how are you feeling?” She moved past them, pushing herself in between Vic’s chair and the bed.
“Tired, Mother. Need to close my eyes.”
“Are you in any pain?” She leaned over him, shaking him. “Should I get the doctor?”
“No. Just let me rest.”
He closed his eyes and drifted back off to sleep. Ma turned to Vic. “You said you would call me if he woke up! Why didn’t you call me?”
Vic’s jaw dropped. She looked at Erin in disbelief, then back at her mother again. “You wouldn’t give me your number. How was I supposed to call you?”
“Well then… you should have come to get me. Or sent your friend to get me.” Ma nodded in Erin’s direction. “What is she here for? It isn’t her family.”
“Erin is here to support me. She’s my friend. I could have sent her to go get you, but she doesn’t know her way around here, and he was only awake for a minute. By the time she found you, he would have been asleep. You were already on your way back from the cafeteria anyway.”
Ma Jackson shook her head, her mouth a straight, determined line. She had already decided that someone was to blame for her not being there when her husband woke up. She shot a look at Jeremy. He held his hands up defensively.
“I just got here. Just barely walked into the room.”
Vic gave a dramatic shrug. “Whatever. I did what I could. I sat with him, so he wasn’t alone when you were gone to eat. And you got to have a bit of a break. What else can I do for you? Do you need me to get you anything?”
Vic got up and gave her mother her chair back.
“Nothing is being done at the farm,” Ma fussed. “No chores. No cooking. No shopping. Everything is just sitting there. I came to the hospital and I haven’t gone home.”
“What are those no-good brothers of mine doing? Don’t they help out with anything?”
“With shopping and cooking? No! And chores are for kids; they don’t think they have to do them anymore. They’re out at all hours of the night or for days on end, and I can’t rely on them to get anything done. They think the only ones they have to listen to are the Jackson clan. Ma and Pa don’t count.” Her voice broke slightly at the end of the tirade.
Vic nodded slowly. “Tell me what you need me to do. I’ll go back to the farm and take care of things.”
Erin unzipped her purse and pulled out her planner. She turned to a new page and held her pen over the page, ready to begin a list.
Half an hour later, Vic and Erin were climbing back into the bug. Vic patted her lap for Nilla to jump up.
“Well…” Vic drew the word out long. “What do you think of my dysfunctional family now?”
Erin put her purse in the back and settled into the driver’s seat. “I’ve seen worse. They’re stressed. People are more anxious and irritable when they’re under stress.”
Vic stretched her neck, turning her head back and forth. She rolled her shoulders. “Well, they’re stressed, all right. Do you mind helping out with some chores?”
“Put me to work. That’s what I’m here for. We should probably do the shopping first. Pick up what we need and take it out to the farm.”
“Except I don’t know what they already have. With Ma, something like ‘the fridge is empty as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard’ might just mean that she’s almost out of milk.”
“There are four people living there, plus now you and Jeremy are going to be there at least part of the time for a few days, and there will probably be neighbors dropping by to express their condolences or ask how he’s doing. So we should at least get the basics of what they will need for the next few days, and then we can look at the supplies when we get out there and make a list of what else needs to be purchased. You can visit the hospital again after we’re done with the work. Get a good night’s sleep at the hotel. Tomorrow we can do another supply run before we go back out to the farm.”
Vic nodded. “Yeah. that all makes sense.” She smiled. “You sound like you come from a big family. I’d never guess that you grew up without any family.”
“I come from a lot of different families. Some of them big and some of them small,” Erin pointed out. “I do have experience with families. I’ve just never had any of my own.”
“I never thought of it that way.” Vic pulled her door shut, buckled her seatbelt, and got Nilla settled. “You need me to direct you to the grocery store?”
“I think I remember where it is.” Moose River was bigger than Bald Eagle Falls. Still, Erin had learned the basics of its layout on her previous visits there while trying to help Charley and taking care of her pet.
Just thinking about the gecko, with its sticky tongue, eyes that could roll two different directions, and the scampery little crickets he ate made Erin shudder.
She was so not a lizard person.
She put the car into drive and set out to find the grocery store.
CHAPTER 12
There were a lot of chores to be done at the farm, but not as much as Ma had made out needed to be done. She kept the place spic and span, so a couple of days away from home hadn’t exactly resulted in the house turning into a disaster area. There were dirty dishes in the kitchen, mostly confined to the sink, and Erin didn’t see much else that was out of place. They dutifully vacuumed the rugs, washed the dishes, and wiped down the counters, but there was no need for much more. Vic went out to the barn to take care of the animals. She shook her head at Erin’s offer of help.
“No, I know how to take care of things and I don’t need some city girl slowing me down,” she drawled with a smile to let Erin know that she was not actually being disparaging. “You can just put your feet up here for a bit and relax.”
Nilla pattered across the floor toward the door with Vic, his claws clicking on the floor.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Vic told him, pushing him back when he reached the door. “You stay inside with Erin. I don’t need you getting kicked by a goat or eaten by a cat.”
Erin laughed.
“You’ve probably never seen a farm cat,” Vic said, “or you wouldn’t think that was quite so funny. They can be mean. Keep him inside with you; I don’t want anything happening to him.”
“All right,” Erin agreed. “We’ll keep each other company.”
She walked over to Nilla and held on to his collar while Vic exited the kitchen. She let Nilla go, and he stood on his hind legs at the screen door, watching Vic go. He whined and looked back at Erin.
“She’ll be back,” Erin assured him. “Just put your paws up and relax.”
Nilla didn’t. He kept whining for a while, yapped to call Vic back, and whined some more at Erin to let him outside. She ignored him and, eventually, he curled up on the mat inside the door and waited.
Erin went to work baking. That was how she handled stress. She always felt better if she were mixing together a savory or sweet dough, breathing in the smell of the spices, the room heating with the warmth of the preheated oven. That was her heaven.
Though the Tennessee heat wasn’t heavenly. It reminded Erin more of the depictions of that other place, which she didn’t believe in any more than she believed in heaven. The devil would have been very comfortable sitting beside the oven as she put cookies in to bake. She had to keep sponging her forehead off with a clean cloth. She missed her air conditioner and fans at Auntie Clem’s Bakery. Why wouldn’t a farm in Tennessee have the convenience of central air conditioning?
When Vic returned to the farmhouse, Erin was putting in the last sheet of cookies. Vic sniffed at the air.
“Something smells good!”
Nilla barked and danced around her legs, earning a few pets and ear scratches.
“I thought I would make your dad some cookies,” Erin explained.
“He could use some sweetening up, all right.”
Erin laughed. “No, I just thought that with a sick stomach, he probably doesn’t feel like much. Ginger helps to settle down nausea and it will probably help him to have something in his stomach, even if it’s only a few bites.”
Vic gave Erin a quick hug. “What did I say? You’re always thinking of others.”
“Actually, I just needed an excuse to bake.”
Vic laughed. She went over to the cookies that were already on cooling racks and helped herself to a couple.
“Are you all done with your chores?” Erin asked. “Chickens didn’t die with your mom being away for a day?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“Don’t you like chickens? Your mom would have a fit if they died while she was gone.”
“Maybe that’s why I don’t like them.” Vic took a bite of one of the soft ginger cookies and gave a moan of appreciation. “Actually, I don’t like the chickens because they’re stupid and mean. They peck me, peck each other, and anyone else who gets close enough. Orneriest critters around.”
“I thought chickens were smart. I’ve heard of people who have them as pets, train them like dogs, let them sleep in the house.”
“Even my mother wouldn’t let chickens sleep in the house. They’re her critters and she’s the only one that they like. Anyone else, they’d just as soon peck out your eyes. Or whatever other body part they could reach.”
“Even your dad?”
“Especially Pa. You think he’s nice to them? If he’d had his heart attack in the chicken pen, they would have pecked his bones clean. Chickens aren’t quite as good as pigs at getting rid of a body, but give them a chance…”
Erin wrinkled her nose. “How did we get onto this topic? That’s nasty. So, you fed and watered the chickens and all of the other animals?”
Vic nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“And collected the eggs.” Erin nodded to the pail in Vic’s hand. “Where do those go? In the fridge?”
“There’s room, so they may as well go in there until we’re ready to do something with them.”
“Do you sell them or just eat them yourselves?”
“Too many laying hens to just be eating the eggs themselves,” Vic said slowly. “They must be selling at least some of them.”
Vic found some egg cartons to put the eggs into and stacked them in the fridge. “Ma said that the boys didn’t do anything, but someone at least milked the cows this morning. Not that there are very many to milk anymore.”
“You did a lot.”
“I’m not sitting on a stool milking by hand. Only takes a minute to get the machine hooked up. And most of the animals have auto-feeders; I just needed to make sure that everything was topped off.” Vic sat down to eat the rest of her cookies. She stared out one of the kitchen windows. “Pa used a couple of the fields to start an orchard a few years ago, and he’s still planting new trees. Not sure what he’s growing out there or why he’d be changing the farm over to a new crop this late in the game.” She shook her head.
“Maybe trees are more drought-resistant?” Erin suggested.
“Yeah, you’re probably right about that. The trees themselves look okay, but the grass looks poor. Like there’s something making them sick. It would be too bad if Pa plants something new, and then they all come down with the plague.”
