by Stan Morris
“A little while longer, please,” he said.
“You’re the Chief,” Jacob grumbled.
The next day it snowed, and the temperature plunged once again. It dropped down to five degrees that night. They endured three more days of intense cold outside, but, inside, the barrels and the fire kept it bearable. They had used only three quarters of their wood, so Mike allowed the fire to be built higher.
Then the skies lightened, and it turned warmer again. At first light on the fifteenth of March, Mike let Jacob go into the forest, after making Jacob swear that he would return at the first sign of a cloud and not later than sunset. Jacob was back by noon.
“I slipped and fell into a gulch,” he explained. “It was packed with snow. I fell through powder snow up to my armpits. Something stopped me. I think I was standing on a body. I think it was an animal.”
Mike sent Jean and Howard with ropes to help Jacob. By sunset, they had brought the body of a deer back to the Lodge.
“It’s a doe,” said Jacob with regret. Probably died in that big freeze we had.
“Do you think the meat is safe to eat?” Mike asked.
“I think so,” said Jean. “It must have frozen quickly and the stomach and intestines were not open. It will be gamey though. I’ll eat a very small portion to start. If I don’t get sick or have diarrhea then it should be okay.”
The next day, they butchered the deer. They moved all of the remaining food into one freezer, and they packed the deer meat in snow until they were sure that it was safe to eat.
“Not bad, Jacob, for your first day out,” Mike said cheerfully.
“Blind luck,” Jacob muttered.
“I hope everyone at the Brown farm is also having some luck,” said Mike with a worried frown.
Chapter Eight
DAVIS BROWN FARM
At the Brown farm no one was hungry, or sick. There had been problems, but most of them were of a personal nature. Ralph and the other kids said goodbye to Hector with mixed emotions. The younger kids were excited to be at the farm. The girls, especially, had missed the comfort of an older woman. They had never met Mary Brown, but everyone who had met her, claimed that she was a very nice person. The twins were excited to see the horses and the cows, but they were leery of being under the direction of Ralph. In the past, he had been known to bully some of the younger boys.
Mary and her kids began by taking them on a tour of the farm. As they walked, Mary kept up a running commentary.
“We planted ten acres of wheat, four acres of feed and one acre of potatoes. And I always grow plenty of winter squash.”
Ralph looked at the fields that had been cut low to the ground. “You harvested the wheat and alfalfa by yourself?” he asked incredulously.
“Well, the combine did most of the work,” Mary said with a laugh. “I cut it after that rain luckily.”
“Where’s the wheat now?” Nathan asked.
“After fanning it, we put it in big plastic tubs with tight lids,” Mary replied. “Then we stored it in the sheds. If it has bugs in it, the cold will hold them down. The alfalfa is in the loft of the barn.”
“Can we make French fries with the potatoes?” Paige asked.
“You bet,” Mary answered. “I grow the Green Mountain potato variety. They don’t look as pretty as Russets but they taste sweeter. There are still a lot in the ground, and one of our biggest tasks will be to harvest the rest. Before this happened, I sold only my best produce at the stores down in the foothills, but now we need to harvest as much as we can for spring planting and to make bread and soup. Your friends at your camp will run out of food sometime in the spring. Our task will be to feed them as well as we can. I plan to make potato bread and potato soup for them. We’ll freeze some of that, put it in containers, and pack it in snow. But we’ll have plenty for French fries. I’ve got lard for that. I like to save the butter for my cookies.”
“Yum, yum,” Kylie exclaimed while rubbing her stomach.
Mary pointed to the water tower. “My husband’s idea was to try drip irrigation. We have about a thousand feet of black tubing. We never did used it though. Usually, we receive enough rain and snow during the year to dry farm our crops.”
She took them into the hen house and the rabbit hutch. “We have to remember to check their feed, so they don’t run out,” she warned the kids.
“That’s my job,” said Star proudly.
“Me too!” Comet added.
Then Mary showed them the corral and the barn with the attached solar room. The kids were surprised to see spinach and lettuce growing in the warm room.
“I thought you had cucumbers and tomatoes in here,” Kylie said.
“That was what I grew during the summer. I grow leafy vegetables in the winter time,” Mary explained.
“Why is the cow so fat?” Kevin asked.
“She is going to have a baby soon, that’s why,” said Mary. “After that she will give a lot of milk for awhile.”
“Will the other cow give milk, too?” Nathan asked.
“She’s about ready to breed, but I don’t know if we can find a bull now,” answered Mary. “If the calf is a bull then we can breed her in a couple of years.”
“Yuck, that would be her brother,” said Paige, wrinkling her nose.
“Yes, and that is definitely not the best combination,” Mary agreed. “But we may not have a choice.”
“If Hector and I could build another barn, this one could be converted into a house,” suggested Ralph, looking around thoughtfully.
“That is a good idea,” Mary replied, “I’ve been thinking that same thought because there are so many kids at that camp. It doesn’t have a bathroom though, so we would have to build an outhouse for it and maybe a cesspool. Maybe next spring, I’ll talk to Hector about converting this barn into apartments.”
Ralph looked at her. “You’re doing a really nice thing, taking us in. You didn’t have to do this.”
Mary smiled at him. “Yes,” she said simply. “I did. When you become a parent, you will understand why.”
“Mama, I’m hungry,” Comet announced. Mary showed them the storage sheds, and then they went back to the house.
Mary’s house had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen, a large family room, a cellar where she stored food, and an attic. The campers had brought two bunk beds for the younger kids and one of the counselor beds for Ralph. The twins shared Comet’s room. The girls shared Star’s room, and Ralph slept in the attic. Mary was quite embarrassed about that, but Ralph assured her that he was very comfortable upstairs. The staircase was narrow, and the attic was unfinished, but Mary’s husband had insulated it. The heat from downstairs rose and was trapped in the attic, making it warm and livable. The living room had a large flag stone fireplace and the kitchen had a cast iron pot bellied stove.
“I sure appreciate Hector bringing me those cords of firewood,” Mary said to Ralph. “I cut as much as I could this summer, but I still would have depended on the propane stove for heat by the end of winter, if he hadn’t delivered that wood.”
Everyone settled in as best as they could. At first the little ones were excited at the prospect of having someone to share their rooms with, but after a while they began to feel like their space was being usurped. It didn’t help that Ralph would yell at the other campers sometimes, order them around often, and generally act obnoxious when he talked to them. By the end of November, Mary was feeling very stressed. Finally she gathered them all together for a talk.
“Look, we have a long winter ahead of us,” she began. “We have to try to get along. We have to learn to make allowances for each other.
“Comet, Star, your rooms are these kids’ rooms too. You will just have to make room for some of their things. Nathan, Kevin, Comet is a lot younger than you, and he plays with the kinds of toys that little kids play with. I know it can be boring, but try to play with him the way that you used to play with your toys.
“Paige, Kylie, Star i
s a little girl. Don’t make fun of her dolls. Ralph, I appreciate the help you are giving me. Believe me, I do. And I appreciate that you think Nathan, Kevin, Paige, and Kylie need to help me with the chores around the house. It’s okay to point that out. It’s not okay to push them, or threaten them. If they don’t help as much as you wish, you are simply going to have to back off and let me deal with them.”
Mary soft manner of speaking and her soothing demeanor was effective somewhat, and the kids heeded her words.
Paige and Kylie felt guilty about laughing at Star’s dolls. One day, they handed Star a lovely handwritten note, inviting her and her dolls to a tea party. With Mary’s help, they took over the living room and held their tea party. Star dressed all of her dolls in their finest clothes, and she sat them around the coffee table on pails. Mary let Paige and Kylie dress up in some of her frilly dresses instead of their jeans. For the next hour they sat around the coffee table, pretending that they were at a tea party. Mary made real tea, and she served it in her most elegant coffee cups. Kylie and Paige made polite conversation with the dolls, and the dolls responded in Star’s squeaky high pitched voice. A good time was had by all. The boys thought the whole thing was silly, but they were banished to Comet’s room for the duration.
Meanwhile, Nathan and Kevin had agreed to play with Comet’s toys, especially his plastic logs, his model cars, and his action figures. Lying on the floor, pretending to be Spears, racecar drivers, and astronauts, they soon reverted to the children that they still were.
Mary’s real problem was Ralph, who appeared to be socially challenged in her mind. He sneered at the girls, he snarled at the boys, and he even grumbled at Mary. Once, they got into a shouting match. Sullenly he offered to move into the barn. Mary briefly considered it, and then she realized that she would be constantly worried about him, so she vetoed the idea. It was unfortunate that he has such a surly attitude, she thought. With his dark hair, grey eyes, and the shallow cleft in his strong chin, she considered him to be a very handsome, if dissatisfied, young man.
And yet, for all the trouble he caused, she could not be unhappy that he was staying with them. He was a tireless worker, and in a hundred different ways, he helped her cope with the struggle that was her life now. Ralph brought in firewood without being asked. The other boys would grouse if they were asked. Ralph helped her feed the horses and the cows. After the calf was born, he learned to attach the milking machine, and he learned how to milk the cow by hand, so that he was prepared for those days when the solar milking machine would not work. He watered the plants in the solar room. Once after dinner, when Mary was feeling so exhausted that she left the dishes and went to her room to take a short nap, she returned to discover that Ralph had washed and dried the dishes and was putting them away. If she asked the girls to do the same, she could count on hearing them whine.
And considering how difficult he was with the older boys, to her surprise he was kind to her children. He never talked down to them. He admired Star’s cartoon posters, and he told Comet stories at bedtime. Comet, especially, became attached to him.
She had to admit that the other kids did do some work. The girls would cheerfully help her clean the house, although they hated to do the dishes, and the boys faithfully fed the rabbits and gathered eggs when the snow was not too high to wade through. And they had all helped to harvest the potatoes, to blanch them, and to stow them in the insulated sheds or in the cellar.
They had a large meal for Thanksgiving, with ham, venison, fresh bread and real butter, spinach and potatoes, and tasty cold whole milk. In the morning, Mary opened a package of DVD’s that contained an entire comedy series she and Davis had neglected to watch, and throughout the day members of the household stopped to watch the silly antics of the actors. It was a fun filled day, and Mary was thankful that the kids from the camp seemed happy and were thriving under her care. But that night, she thought of her missing husband, and she cried for a long time.
A few days later, Mary was in the kitchen preparing dinner when Kylie rushed in the door almost in tears.
“Come quick, Mrs. Brown,” she begged. “Ralph is beating up Nathan.”
Mary flew out of the house and ran to the barn. When she arrived, she saw that Ralph had Nathan in a headlock. The two boys struggled as Ralph tried to fend off Kevin, who was circling them and kicking Ralph at every opportunity.
“Stop it! Stop it right now,” she cried. The boys sprang apart. They were panting heavily.
Mary had been toiling hard all day and she was tired. “What is it this time?” she asked wearily.
“He started hitting me for no reason,” Nathan shouted angrily, but Ralph was silent.
“Ralph told him to feed the horses, and Nathan said ‘F you,’” said Paige.
Mary was too tired to referee. “Ralph, you stay here. The rest of you go to the house.” She waited until the kids left, and then she said to Ralph, “I’ll bring you your dinner in a little while.”
“Don’t bother,” replied Ralph sullenly.
Mary felt a rush of heat to her head. “Don’t tell me what to do,” she yelled. “This is my place, not yours.” She stalked out of the barn.
The mood at dinner was subdued. The boys avoided Mary’s eyes. She suspected that they were feeling guilty. In a whiny voice, Comet asked several times where Ralph was, and when he was coming in to dinner.
After dinner, Mary, in a voice that brooked no nonsense, told the kids to clean up, wash the dishes, dry them, and put them away. No one argued with her, or suggested that it was not their turn. Mary made a plate of food for Ralph, and then she clomped to the barn through a light layer of snow.
Ralph was mucking out the stalls. He looked up when she came in, his eyes brightening for one instant, and then he ducked his head and went back to his task. Mary sat down on a low wooden bench.
“Please, come and eat,” she said.
Ralph hesitated. He wanted to say that he was not hungry, but the truth was that he had been working all day, and he was starving. He put down the square shovel sat down on the bench next to Mary. Mary handed him his plate and a moist towel. Ralph wiped his hands and brow, and then he picked up his fork and began to eat. Mary said nothing while he ate. He didn’t speak as he wolfed down his meal, for as usual the food was delicious. At last, sated, he put his plate down, sighed appreciatively, and wiped his face.
“I want to talk to you,” Mary began.
“I know. I screwed up again,” Ralph said with a grunt.
“I want to talk about that, too, but first I want to thank you.”
“What?” Ralph asked.
“I said, I want to thank you. And maybe that’s part of the problem. I haven’t thanked you enough, and so I haven’t been a good example,” she said.
“You don’t need to thank me for anything. I’m staying alive because of you,” Ralph replied.
“We are staying alive together, Ralph. Gee, we sound like the Beegees.”
“Who?” he asked, his brow wrinkling.
“Never mind,” she said. “Ralph, even if I was doing everything, I would still need to thank you now and then. For talking to me, if nothing else. I need adult conversation, now and then. The other kids are a little too close in maturity to my own children.”
“Sorry, I don’t get it.”
“Why did you say, ‘sorry’?” she asked.
“What?”
“Just now, you could have said, ‘I don’t get it’, but instead you said, ‘sorry, I don’t get it,’” she said pointedly.
“Uh…I guess I was apologizing for not understanding,” he answered.
“Yes, you were. You were apologizing. But why?”
“Just trying to be polite.”
“No, you weren’t trying to be polite, you were being polite,” she explained knowing that he could see the difference. “Ralph, that’s most of your problem. You are not polite most of the time, and most of the time you don’t even try to be polite. Hear me out,” she said, a
s his face clouded over.
“Think about a little ball bearing,” she said. “It rolls around on its track doing its job. But rubbing against metal causes it to heat up. It gets angry. And the metal track gets angry, right back. Something has to be done to calm that anger. So grease is put on that ball bearing. It soothes the friction between the ball bearing and the metal. Bumping up against each other still makes the ball bearing and the metal a little peeved, but that grease cools off both of them. Ralph, politeness is human grease.
“Ralph, you are a decent person. I can say that, because I trust you with my kids. But you don’t practice politeness on a daily basis. I want you to try a few things, please. I want you never to ask anyone in the house to do anything without saying, ‘please.’ And when someone does something that you have asked them to do, I want you to say, ‘thank you.’ If you do that for me consistently, well then, at the end of a month if they don’t start responding better, I’ll, well, I’ll… knock ’em on their butts.”
Ralph laughed that vision. “No you won’t.”
“Well, no I won’t, but I’ll want to,” she answered with her own laugh.
“Say, ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ huh?” Ralph said. “All right.”
“I have something else I want you to do for me,” she said. “I want you to learn something about each of those kids. Where they come from, who their families are, and what they like. And I want you to tell them things about you, just like you told me about you. Did you know that the twins are going to have a birthday in February? They will be thirteen years old. Talk to them about something other than work and survival. Trust me; it will help you, and it will be good for them.”
Ralph stared down at his hands, and he said, “All right.” Mary got up to leave.
“Mrs. Brown?” she heard him say. She turned. “Thank you for putting up with me.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome, Ralph. And when we are alone, you may call me, Mary.”
During the following month, Ralph made an honest effort to do as Mary had asked. He curbed his sarcasm. He made sure that he said, “please” when he asked someone to do something. On the rare occasion that someone actually responded, he made sure that he said, “thank you.” It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes he forgot. Sometimes he remembered, but his effort was not reciprocated. Sometimes he had to walk away and stew for a while, but gradually things got better between him and the twins.
