by Lisa Smartt
Doug touched my arm and it brought me back to reality. “Carlie, I think they’re getting ready to start cleaning up. You wanna get out of here and go for a drive?”
“That sounds great.”
I stood and hugged Dave and Shannon good-bye. Shannon whispered in my ear, “We’ll talk later at the house. Have fun with Doug, Carlie. Don’t be afraid.” Shannon was the sister I had always begged my mom and dad to have.
I tried to sound friendly and wonderful. “Sandra, it was a pleasure to meet you. And congrats on the Ph.D. I know that wasn’t easy and it sounds like you have a bright future ahead of you.”
“Thanks, Carlie. You too. I don’t think I even asked about your job. Are you in banking too? Is that how you guys met?”
“No. It’s kind of a funny story. You may know his great aunt and uncle, Stanley and Beth Rockford. They were here today. They know me from back home in Commerce and they gave me his business card and suggested I contact him. I did. He wrote back and I don’t know…I guess we just clicked.”
“I can see why. Doug is a great guy. One in a million. I’m sure you know that by now. Enjoy your time here in the metroplex of Sharon. Will you be staying a while?”
“Just till tomorrow afternoon.”
“Well, it was good to meet you, Carlie. Doug, I guess we’ll be seeing each other around town. Or as Grandma used to say, ‘See you at the dollar store!’ Carlie, all the folks around here joke about how they spend most of their time and money at a little place called Dollar General Store. Small town livin’ at its best, y’know.”
Doug looked at me and smiled, “Yeah, I’ll definitely see you at the dollar store, Sandra. I’ve taken a great interest in that place lately. Thanks for comin’ to the funeral and give your parents my best. Mom always thought a lot of you and your mom and dad. You know that.”
“Well, she was a great lady. She’ll be missed, Doug.”
I think Doug could sense that my demeanor had changed since this morning when he walked into the farmhouse. He helped me into the truck and asked, “Carlie, are you feelin’ okay? I know it’s been kind of a stressful and tiring day.”
“Doug, look at you. You’re like the nicest person on the planet. Your mom died. Today was her funeral and her burial and you’re worried about me having a stressful day. You’re the one who has been under stress.”
“Actually, I feel pretty good right now. Kind of like the calm after the storm. Have you ever been to Reelfoot Lake?”
“I haven’t. Are you seriously thinkin’ about drivin’ to the lake?”
“On a day like this? Absolutely. Are you okay in those clothes or would you rather go to the house and change?”
“I’m fine. These shoes are comfortable…uh…unless you’re talkin’ about goin’ mud boggin’ or somethin’.”
“I hardly ever take a girl mud boggin’ on the sixth date.”
“Oh, is our fifth date already over?”
“Yeah, it was kind of a stressful situation, don’t ya think? Maybe it’s best that we move on to the sixth date.” I knew what Doug meant by stressful situation. The whole town had come out to hug him because his mom had taken her own life. He had spoken at the funeral, cried a lot, visited with every person he knew, grieved the death of his last parent. That’s what he meant. And I felt bad for him. Who wouldn’t? Why was it stressful for me? Only one reason. Because in the middle of my falling-in-love moment Sandra Miller had shown up without her dentist.
The weather was perfection. Sunny and 68 degrees. Cool enough for a jacket but not so cold that we wanted to go inside. We walked around parts of the massive lake and Doug explained about the famous eagles’ nests that were everywhere. We stopped on a deck that went out on the water.
“When I was a boy my dad brought me here and we went on an eagle tour. That’s where the park folks take you around and show you where the nests are and where the eagles can be spotted. We rode on a boat later. I was mesmerized. I still love being here. It’s killin’ me not to throw a line in the water.”
“Well, don’t let me be the death of you. If you have anything in the truck, fish away.”
“No, I’m good. Does your family like to fish? Would your dad or mom like a place like this?”
“My dad took us fishin’ a few times. Mom wouldn’t have gone for it though. She’s a little too clean for fishin’. She’s kinda prim and proper.”
“Are you prim and proper?”
“I already told you there’s toothpaste in my bathroom sink. So, if you mean hyper-clean and organized, no. But I do like having company and cooking for people. I like hospitality and decorating and making people feel at home. But Mom…well, Mom cares whether people think she’s…I don’t know…whether she’s acceptable. I know I’m acceptable. I know I’m acceptable for the very reasons you talked about today at the funeral. I want to be more focused on others. I’m not the center of the universe and I wouldn’t want to be.”
“Good philosophy.”
He took my hand and we walked around the other side of the lake. I felt comfortable next to him. That’s saying a lot. I feel kind of clumsy around men sometimes. They feel clumsy around me sometimes too. It’s like they don’t know what to do with a woman who’s as tall as they are. Doug had no such insecurities.
“Doug, do you wanna talk about your parents? I mean, would that help?”
“Truthfully, right now, I wanna just forget the last few days. I wanna pretend it’s the way it should be. I wanna just sit on that bench over there with a beautiful woman and enjoy watching the water.”
“Gosh, that sounds great. I mean, I wanna help you out and all, but where would I find a beautiful woman on such late notice? It looks like we’re the only ones around.” I pretended to be searching the park and then I started laughing quietly. He smiled and grabbed me by the arm and held me, just like in the movies. Only this time it was a hundred times better. It was real. Doug Jameson was wearing a white dress shirt and smelling like sweaty Irish bliss when he looked into my eyes, put his hands on the back of my head and kissed me for the first time. It was our sixth date. And it wasn’t at a funeral. It was at a beautiful park surrounded by eagles’ nests. And everyone knows eagles mate for life.
We sat on the bench at Reelfoot until dusk. Talking. Kissing. Sometimes just sitting quietly hand in hand.
At one point, Doug turned away from me and stared out toward the lake. He placed both hands on his knees the way a basketball coach does when the game is tied and his star player is taking the last free throw shot with only seconds left on the clock. “Carlie, there’s a question I’ve been meaning to ask.”
“Ask away.”
“When Uncle Stanley gave you my card at the dollar store that day, well, you must have been suspect, right? I mean, it must have sounded like I was pretty desperate. Why did you write to me?”
“That’s a great question. And yeah, it did kind of make you seem like a loser.” I hoped my smile would make that information easier for him to process. “Truth is, I didn’t plan on writing to you, Doug. I didn’t. I was nice to Mr. Rockford and I told him I appreciated him for thinking of me. But yeah, my plan was to just throw the card in the trash. ”
“I can’t blame ya. I probably would have felt the same way. People around here have tried to fix me up with their cousins or their old college roommates for years. I’ve gotten pretty suspicious. A guy at the bank came right up to me once and said, ‘Doug, my cousin is comin’ to town this weekend and you’ve just gotta meet her and hey man, she could be the one. She was crowned Corn Queen of Northeast Arkansas in 2009. She’s a lawyer, graduated with honors from Memphis State and she raises German Shepherds on the side.’ I’m serious, Carlie. He said that. Out loud. I don’t know… like I’d been waiting all my life for someone who raised German Shepherds. All the information started running together. Too complicated. Plus, I never really had the goal of marrying a corn queen dog breeding attorney. At least I didn’t think I did.”
“Are you
kidding? You should totally change your priorities, Doug. I mean, all the corn on the cob you could eat for life? Free legal services and a puppy to boot? That would be like strikin’ it rich!”
“Wow, you’re right. Come to think of it, I should have gone out with Shelly Simpson’s cousin who was the Grand Marshall of the Pickle Parade in Dyersburg. She’s a notary public, an opera singer, and a referee for kids’ basketball games. Plus, I coulda gotten some free pickles outta that deal and there’s just nothin’ like a bread n butter pickle on a grilled hamburger.” Doug smiled and put his arm around me again. But I could tell he was still waiting for my answer.
“Okay. So Mr. Rockford gave me your card and I just put it in my pocket. A few days later I saw where I had propped it up on my dresser at home. And well…no, you’ll think it’s silly.”
“I won’t.”
“When I decided to write that note, I wasn’t thinkin’ about you at all, Doug. I could have never known that you’d be this great guy and that things would turn out like this. Truthfully, I was thinkin’ about the Rockfords. Especially Mr. Rockford.”
Doug started laughing. “You have a crush on Uncle Stanley? No offense, but that’s weird, Carlie.”
“Ha ha. Here’s the deal. I’ve known Mr. Rockford my whole life.” Doug brushed a strand of hair away from my forehead and stared into my eyes while I spoke. “People in Commerce, they trust him, Doug. They do. He’s worthy of that trust and he’s kind and hard working and I don’t know…solid. I’ve watched the way he treats Mrs. Rockford, like they’re on a date and he’s hoping she’ll like him and want to go out with him again. And she does. She does like him. She loves him. Even after all these years, she still looks at him like she won the prize or something. And he looks at her, well, like she’s the only woman in the room… or in the world for that matter. So, that’s why I wrote to you that day, Doug. Out of respect for the two of them. Maybe deep down I believed they knew something about life that I didn’t. Something I wanted to know.”
Doug turned his head slightly to look out at the lake. Once again he took the nervous coach position with his fingers tapping lightly on his knees. I could tell he was thinking something he couldn’t say out loud. So was I. For at least two minutes we sat in silence on the bench but it wasn’t uncomfortable silence. No. It was sweet silence.
He kissed me gently before he spoke. “That’s a beautiful story, but we have a problem, Carlie.”
“Oh no. What’s our problem?”
“There are too many fish still swimmin’ around in that lake.”
“Gosh, Doug, that’s shameful. You could have caught a whole mess of ‘em if you hadn’t been wasting all afternoon with me.”
“It wasn’t a wasted afternoon. Thank you, Carlie. Thank you for making today more bearable. Thank you for being here with me. Thank you for sending that e-mail. But as much as I’m enjoying the quiet, we better get back to the chaos. I need to make an appearance at the house. Aunt Clarice is flying out early tomorrow and she asked if I’d be back before she went to bed. I promised I would, but I have an even more important deadline. She takes her teeth out at around 9:00, says they start to make her gums swell. Yeah, I think we both wanna hit the road now, don’t you?”
We both laughed. Doug wanted to kiss me and sit with me on a bench at Reelfoot Lake. Yes. But he also knew that we weren’t the center of the universe. We had to operate in the real world, a world that involved other people and responsibilities. I liked that. Not just a childish fling. Adulthood.
As we approached the Sharon city limits, Doug said in a serious tone, “Carlie, I wish you didn’t have to go back tomorrow. I wish you could stay.”
“Me too.”
I had a feeling the old farmhouse would have several cars in the driveway. I was right.
“Okay. Time to take inventory. Looks like Dave and Shannon, Chester, Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Bart, Uncle Stanley and Aunt Beth, Ralph and Charlene. That’s it. Good. I was thinkin’ there might even be more folks. This won’t be too bad.”
When he opened my door, he reached for my hand and I started walking toward the house. But he pulled me back to the truck.
“Carlie, this’ll be our last moment of privacy before all the family craziness begins. I just wanna thank you again for coming all this way, for being with me through the visitation, the funeral, for being kind to my crazy relatives, and for not yelling at Aunt Clarice when she was…well, being Aunt Clarice.”
“Are you kidding? Doug, this has been an amazing time. I mean, I’m horribly sad about the circumstances, but your family…well, they’re wonderful. Dave and Shannon are like my new best friends. I’m keeping them even if you never wanna see me again. Your aunts and uncles and friends are funny and enjoyable and real. ‘Salt of the earth’ my grandma would say.”
“They’re pretty salty sometimes. I’ll agree with ya there.” He held me close and I could feel him breathing.
Porch light flickered on. “Doug! Carlie! Hey Everyone, they’re back! Honey, come on in. We’ve got food fixed if you’re hungry!” Adulthood had arrived and hit us squarely between the eyes.
“Thanks, Aunt Charlotte! We’ll be there in a minute!”
He grabbed my hands and said quietly, “When can we see each other again? I’ll come to Commerce or do whatever I need to do to make it work.”
“I will too. It hurts me to think of leaving tomorrow. We can talk about a plan in the morning.”
“Okay. I’ll be by around 8:30 and we can spend the morning together. I have to get a bunch of paper work started at the lawyer’s office and the accountant’s place tomorrow afternoon ‘cause I’m planning to go back to work on Monday.”
“I need to leave by noon anyway.”
“I’m gonna miss you, Carlie.”
“I’m gonna miss you too. But we still have tomorrow morning, right? Oh and Doug, we better get in the house. It’s a quarter ‘till 9.”
He held my hand securely as we walked into the house. Something had changed. I was no longer that girl from Georgia. I was Doug Jameson’s girlfriend. Doug Jameson was my boyfriend. Marvelous.
The scene in the farmhouse was priceless though not exactly Norman Rockwell-ish. Mr. Rockford had his arm around Mrs. Rockford and they were sitting so close to each other on the cream-colored couch that my old band director would have separated them for public displays of affection. They both sipped iced tea. Chester was eating a chicken leg at the dining room table and telling Ralph about the time he put a snake in Mrs. Simpson’s school drawer and how she chased him out of the school house with a coal shovel. Despite the chatter, Uncle Bart had fallen asleep in the green recliner with a “Sports Afield” magazine lying on his chest. Charlene and Aunt Charlotte were working in the kitchen and explaining to Doug how he could eat for a week if he’d use freezer bags appropriately. Doug smiled even though I knew he had no plans for using freezer bags ‘cause the food had sat out all day. A man whose coffee mugs are organized according to height doesn’t eat food that has been sitting out all day. I knew that. They’d known him his whole life and hadn’t yet figured it out. I could hear Dave and Shannon talking in the little alcove just off the laundry room. Doug and I walked in to find them seated at the little card table.
Doug was smiling from ear to ear and still holding my hand when he asked, “What’s the game tonight?”
Dave piped up, “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
Dave and Shannon were looking at their cards but another set of cards was lying face down on the table. I heard the bathroom door open but wasn’t prepared for what came next.
“Hey Guys! Trust me. I’m not stalking you. Dave and Shannon asked me to come over for a while. I didn’t have anything to do so I took them up on their offer, but really I was getting ready to leave. I mean, it’s almost nine. I need to get home.” Sandra was no longer in the sophisticated tan suit with her hair pulled back. She was in jeans and a white peasant top. With her hair down, she looked even more beautiful than at the funeral.
“Okay. But I’m just staying through one more hand.” Sandra took her seat at the table and picked up her cards even though she was clearly uncomfortable. Not really. Who am I kidding? She wasn’t uncomfortable at all. She could have gone home a long time ago. She wasn’t playing cards. She was waiting for Doug Jameson to come home from the lake where he’d been kissing his Georgia girlfriend.
Shannon looked at me as if to say, Hey, we invited her because we’re friendly and wonderful but we didn’t really expect her to come. That’s what country people do a lot. When someone is comin’ out of church we say, “You better go home with us.” Then they say something like, “No, I better get back to the house and feed the cows.” Clearly, Sandra had forgotten about feeding the cows.
Doug spoke calmly, “Well, we’ll leave you guys to your game. Is Aunt Clarice still up?”
Dave smiled real big and motioned toward his mouth. “I think she’s in the upstairs bathroom, Doug.” Uh-oh. Too late. But that’s when we heard Aunt Clarice coming down the stairs.
“Has Doug come back yet? Doug promised he’d come see me before bed. It’s getting late!”
“We’re in here, Aunt Clarice!”
“Well, look at you two! You’ve been gone all afternoon and here I am leaving early in the morning on a big dreadful plane that will probably be filled with people wearing flip flops and listening to those ridiculous little music machines. Doug, Honey, I don’t know when I’ll be back. Come see me in California sometime, won’t you?”
