Barri Bryan - Return to Paradise.html

by Return to Paradise (NCP) (lit)

  Kate ignored Belle's sly suggestion. "Which way to the utility company?"

  Belle pointed. "That way."

  The youth behind the service counter at the South Texas Power and Light Company wore jeans, one ear ring, and a big smile. "May I help you?"

  Kate cleared her throat. "I want to apply for new electrical service."

  The young man asked, "Rural or city?"

  "Rural. Our place is Northwest of here, about twenty miles."

  "Oh, then, you have to see the field man." The youth inclined his head to the right. "Over there. It says Mr. Barnett on the door."

  Kate tapped her foot on the floor as she tapped her hand on the door, and waited.

  From the other side came a resonant, "Come in."

  Kate peeked inside. "Mr. Barnett?"

  The balding man rose to his feet. "I am Edward Barnett." Pulling two chairs near his desk, he invited Kate and Belle to sit down. "You wish to apply for a new service meter?"

  Belle's voice held enough sarcasm to set Kate's nerves on edge, "No we came here looking for..."

  With a withering look, Kate silenced her mother, then hastily explained her predicament.

  The man listened, his eyes shifting from Kate to Belle, then back to Kate again. "No problem, Mrs. McClure. As soon as you put up your deposit and install your meter loop, we will be glad to provide service."

  "You don't install the meter loop? " Kate had no idea what a meter loop was. She carefully refrained from saying so.

  "No. We don't. That's a job for an electrician. You can pick up the instruction sheet and the meter can at the desk when you make your deposit. When the loop is installed, call us, we will come out, inspect the loop, and set a meter."

  Belle stood to her feet. "Katie baby, I think our luck just ran out."

  Kate was putting the meter can in the back seat of the car before Belle asked, "Kate, what do we do now?"

  Kate slammed the back door. "There's an instruction sheet. Maybe we can do it ourselves. If we can't, we will have to hire an electrician."

  "First things first." Belle fastened her seat belt. "Let's find a place to eat. I'm starved."

  Kate shifted into reverse, and pulled into the street. "Maybe York Taylor can help us find an electrician."

  "Look," Belle pointed as they drove down the main street of St. Agnes. "A McDonald's. Let's have a Big Mac."

  They stood in line to order. "Noon rush," the waitress explained, as she shoveled French fries into a cardboard holder.

  Kate pushed her tray across the long table, then squeezed in between a young woman and her small son on one side, and an elderly gentleman on the other. She bit into her hamburger. "What do you think, Mamma?"

  "I think I wish I'd ordered French fries."

  "Do you want me to get you some?"

  "No thanks." Belle reached across the table. "I'll just munch a few of yours."

  Kate took the meter loop instruction sheet from her pocket, unfolded it and smoothed it out on the table. "Mamma, this thing is complicated. What does three phase mean?"

  Belle pulled the sheet across the table, and studied it for several seconds. "My Lord, Kate! This looks like it was written in hieroglyphics. We can't even read this. How can we put the contraption together?"

  Kate took a gulp of coke. "Maybe Mr. Barnett was right. We may have to find an electrician."

  The small child seated to Kate's right, stood up and howled, "Wanna go outside." He pointed to the playground. "Take me now, Mommy."

  The young woman wiped a napkin across the child's mustard smeared face. "All right. Put a lid on it. We're going."

  The woman collected napkins and wrappers from the table, then hoisted the child on her hip, and scooted toward the playground.

  Kate patted the space beside her, "Come around on this side, Mamma, and try to help me figure this thing out."

  Belle pushed her tray across the table, and came to sit beside Kate. "Who do you think I am, Einstein?"

  Completely absorbed, the two women studied the instruction sheet. "Do you know what conduit is?" Kate stuck a French fry into her mouth.

  "Don't talk with your mouth full," Belle said. "I told you, I'm not Einstein."

  The elderly man seated next to Kate cleared his throat. "Excuse me."

  Two heads snapped up in unison to stare at him. He looked like a modern replica of Buffalo Bill. "Conduit is thin wall galvanized pipe." Extending his hand, he asked, "May I see your diagram? I may be able to help you."

  Kate slid the instruction sheet across the table, thinking as she did so, that she had never before seen anyone with eyes the color of burnished silver.

  After scanning the sheet for a few moments, the man asked, "Is this for a commercial building?"

  Kate shook her head in negation. "It's for our house. We live on a ranch."

  "Then a good portion of this is unimportant." A smile creased his face, lit the silver in his eyes. "You don't have to worry about three phase if this is for a house."

  "The problem is," Belle chimed in, "we don't know which portion is important, and which portion is not."

  "Well, Mrs...." The man reached across Kate and grasped Belle's hand. "My name is Carter, Cody Carter. I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs.... "

  "Sullivan," Belle dropped his hand. "My name is Belle Sullivan, and this is my daughter, Kate McClure."

  "Well, Mrs. Sullivan, I wouldn't worry too much. The men folk at your place will understand this."

  "There are no men folk at our place." Kate got a jab in her ribs from Belle's elbow for her honesty.

  "Where do you live," Cody's eyes never left Belle's face.

  Before Kate could answer, Belle countered with, "Where do you live?"

  "There." Cody pointed toward a battered pickup with a camper, parked near the entrance of the drive-in.

  In unison the women questioned, "You live in a camper?"

  "Yep, me and Lady."

  "Who is Lady?" Belle asked.

  "Lady's my dog. We took to the road after my wife died in 'eighty-five. I've had lots of jobs since then. One of them was as an electrician's helper. Lived on a ranch once, too, up in Wyoming. I liked the wide-open spaces, but the cold winters froze me out."

  Belle stood to her feet. "It was nice meeting you, Mr. Carter. We have to go now. Thanks for your help." She grabbed her handbag and the instruction sheet, and hurried toward the door.

  Kate raced after her. Once outside, Kate caught up to Belle, and grabbed her arm. "Mamma, what is wrong with you? You were down right rude to a man who was offering to help us."

  "How do you know he wants to help? Kate sometimes you are so dumb. You told that man we live out in the country, and that we live alone. He could be a serial killer for all you know."

  "He is not a serial killer, Mamma. He's a nice old man who might be able to help us put in a meter loop."

  People in the parking area were staring. Neither Belle nor Kate noticed.

  "I don't know, Kate. I saw a movie on TV once about a serial killer. He looked just like anybody else, only he was a lot more handsome."

  "Mamma, that man was not the real killer. That was Mark Harmon. He's a movie star. He's supposed to be handsome." Kate began to lead Belle back toward McDonald's.

  Belle pulled back. "What are you up to, Kate?"

  "Mamma, you're always complaining because I am afraid to take a chance. Then, when I decide I will, you balk. I am going to try to hire that nice man to put in that damn meter loop. Now come on, let's catch him before he gets away."

  Belle dragged her feet. "You're swearing again, Kate."

  "Come on, Mamma. We can't let this man escape."

  "And chasing men, What has come over you?"

  "Stop it, Mamma." Kate stepped back as two teenagers rushed around her, and hurried inside.

  Cody was still sitting where they left him. "Forget something?"

  "Mr. Carter?" Kate slipped back into her old seat. "Give me the instruction sheet, Mamma."

  Reluctant
ly, Belle surrendered the piece of paper, and sat down across from Kate, pursing her lips and wearing a look of long suffering forbearance.

  "Mr. Carter, Mamma and I..."

  "Why don't you call me Cody? Most folks do."

  Kate swallowed. "Cody, Mamma and I have just moved to St. Agnes from up north..."

  "How far up north?"

  Kate looked toward her mother with a glance that begged, help me, and was rewarded with a bland uncomprehending stare. She swallowed again. "Dallas."

  "I lived there once for a couple of months." Cody was looking at Mamma as he spoke. "Nice place."

  "Yes, it is," Kate agreed. "Cody, Mamma and I..."

  "You want me to get you a glass of water?" Cody asked.

  "No." Kate answered, "I want to offer you a job." The words found their way over the lump in her throat. "We need someone to help us install this meter loop." She tapped the instruction sheet with her finger. "We would be glad to pay you the standard fee." She had said it. Kate folded her hands and waited.

  "Can I call you Kate?"

  Dear God, Kate thought, he's worse than Mamma. "Please do."

  "Kate," Cody said the word slowly, savoring the sound that rolled from his tongue. "Is that your real name?"

  "My full name is Kathleen Jane Sullivan McClure. Everybody calls me Kate."

  Turning to Mamma, Cody asked, "Did you give her that mouthful of a name?"

  "Her daddy thought up the Kathleen. I named her Jane after my Grandma Donovan." Sighing, Belle added, "We never called her anything but Kate, though."

  Kate thought, I can't put up with these conversational shenanigans. Then she remembered the meter loop. "How much would you charge?"

  Cody took his eyes off Mamma long enough to give Kate a searching stare. "I'd have to figure that out. I guess it would depend on how long it took me to do the job."

  An alarm sounded in Kate's head. She had hoped Cody would quote an overall price. What if he charged by the hour? "Could you give me a ball park figure?"

  Cody took a pencil from his shirt pocket, and began to scribble on his napkin. "Let me figure how much a day I get in pay. The government sends me one hundred and sixty-four dollars and forty-four cents every month." He mumbled under his breath and used his fingers to count. "That figures out to about forty-one dollars and eleven cents a week. A frown deepened the wrinkles in his forehead. "That's about five dollars and eighty-seven cents a day. I should be able to do that job in say, two, three days."

  Kate breathed a tremendous sigh of relief. "When can you start?"

  "That don't include the materials for the job." Cody warned. "You have to buy that."

  "Make a list," Kate instructed. "I'll get everything you need before I go home."

  "You'll have to tell me how to get there. Maybe you can draw a map. I don't want to get out on a back road and get lost." Cody began to make a list of materials on the back of another napkin.

  Kate couldn't believe her ears when she heard Belle say, "Why don't you meet us at the north edge of town in about three hours? You can follow us out." After forty-six years, Mamma could still confound Kate completely. She had too many other things on her mind to worry about that now.

  "Could you do that, Cody?"

  "One other thing." Cody held up a gnarled hand. "It's about Lady, my dog. If she isn't welcome, I can't go either."

  "We would love to have Lady, wouldn't we Mamma?"

  "I don't know yet." Belle said. "Dogs are like people. I have to get to know them before I decide if I like them."

  Through clenched teeth, Kate threatened, "Mamma." She hoped her narrowed eyes and furrowed brow sent her mother a message. If Belle messed up this deal, Kate would never forgive her.

  Belle asked, "Do you have any children, Cody?"

  "Not anymore. I had one son, but he died. Lady's my family now."

  "Then you know Kate is mad at me because I didn't lie and say I knew I'd like your dog."

  Cody chuckled. "I know. But I'm not worried. Lady's a thoroughbred. You'll like her. What's the name of this ranch I'm going to?"

  "Paradise," Kate told him, then watched as his face shaped into a puzzled grin.

  "Paradise? That's a strange name."

  "For a ranch you mean? My dad named it," Kate explained. "Mamma said it looked like paradise to him."

  "I haven't seen anything around here that looks like paradise, but then, a cow pile looks like paradise to a fly." Cody reached for his hat. "I'll see you in three hours out by the city limit sign north of town." He stood and put his hat on his head, then began to stack the refuse from his meal on a tray.

  "Let's go, Mamma." All Kate could think of now, was getting Mamma out of Cody's sight before she said something that would make him change his mind.

  They were almost to the hardware store before Kate ventured, "I can't believe you invited Cody to come to the ranch, Mamma. What made you decide he isn't a serial killer?"

  She had never seen her mother's face take on such a glow. "Those eyes. They look like polished pewter."

  "I was thinking burnished silver."

  "I like polished pewter better. I'm glad you hired him, Kate." Belle propped her boots on the dashboard. "Let's get the rest of our shopping done. We need to go to a grocery store, too."

  "Mamma, I've asked you a thousand times not to put your feet on the dashboard."

  "Fussy, fussy, " Belle complained. "You lived with that fuss budget Jim McClure too long." But she took her feet down, and began to hum, off key.

  Three hours and fifteen minutes later Belle was not so happy. "What do you suppose happened to him, Kate?" They were parked beside the city limit sign at the north end of St. Agnes. "Do you think he changed his mind?"

  "Give the man time, Mamma. You're waiting for the hired help, not your first date." Kate looked across the rolling countryside that followed the little rise of hills into the distance. Out of the blue it hit her, the memory of her first date with Jim. She had been a senior in high school, and Jim was a college junior. How excited she had been.

  From nowhere came a feeling of depression that deepened to total despair. Tension tightened her stomach, as a rip of anguish clawed at her heart. She should have known, should have guessed. But she hadn't. Not until Jim had told her, "I'm in love with Lila, Kate. I want a divorce." Wiping at the tears that gathered in her eyes, Kate turned her head away for Belle.

  Gently, Belle laid her hand on Kate's shoulder. "Mamma loves her Katie baby." Belle's standard words of comfort for every hurt from a skinned knee to a broken heart.

  Kate collapsed in her mother's arms, and wept, briefly and bitterly.

  "Get it all out." Belle folded Kate into her bony embrace.

  After a brief but determined struggle, Kate gained a degree of control. "I'm sorry, Mamma." She wiped her face, and sat up in her seat. "I'm acting like a big baby."

  "You're acting like a woman who had her heart broken." Belle's eyes were moist. "A heartbroken woman is like a recovering alcoholic. You begin to get better by admitting you won't ever completely recover, then you learn to survive by living one day at a time."

  "Mamma, some of your analogies are terrible." Kate smiled through her tears.

  Belle smoothed Kate's hair back from her face. "We're going to make it Katie, mostly because we don't have a choice."

  Mamma was right, they didn't have a choice. "You do have a way with words, Mamma."

  Belle sat up, and pointed down the road toward St. Agnes. "Look, here comes old pewter eyes." Belle put her fingers in the sides of her mouth, leaned out the window and gave a most unladylike whistle, then swung her arm in a forward motion.

  Kate shifted gears, and pulled into the road, then watched through the rear view mirror as the battered pickup fell in behind them. "Fasten your seat belt, Mamma. We're headed for Paradise."

  CHAPTER THREE

  The sun was an orange ball on the western horizon by the time Kate braked her car before the gate to Paradise. Shadows stretched long fingers thro
ugh the trees that grew along the fence row."I hate having to stop and open gates."

  "That's something you won't ever learn to like." Belle opened the car door. "Someday maybe we can afford a cattle guard. I hate opening gates."

  "But you'll get used to it," Kate jibed.

  "For that little remark, you can drive to the house by yourself. I'm going to ride the rest of the way with Cody."

  "If you want to ride with Cody, you don't need an excuse. All you have to do..." Belle slammed the car door hard. "Is say so," Kate finished, over the jarring echo of the banging door.

  Kate stopped her car beside the porch. The sound of an animal in distress ripped through the still air. Her eyes focused on a cow moving around the front yard in frantic circles, and lowing mournfully.

  Before Kate had time to collect her scattered senses, Cody had stopped his pickup, and was hurrying toward the suffering animal, with Belle in close pursuit.

  "What's wrong with her?" Kate called over the pitiful lowing.

  "She's trying to drop a calf," Cody began to unbutton his shirt. "Your cow's in trouble. If we don't do something fast, you're going to lose her and the calf." By now his shirt was in his hand. "Do you have a calf puller?"

  "A what?" As Kate stared, in total confusion, Belle took to her heels. "No puller, I'll get a rope."

  "Hurry! I'll try to keep her on her feet until you get back!" Cody pitched his shirt on the porch.

  Belle raced toward the barn, calling over her shoulder as she ran, "Get the olive oil from the kitchen. Kate, and bring it to Cody."

  Kate ran. After a frantic search, she found the oil, and got back to Cody and the cow just as Belle raced from the barn with a rope in her hand.

  "Ever pull a calf?" Cody tied the rope around the front feet of the emerging calf.

  "It's been a while." Belle rubbed olive oil over the exposed part of the calf, and around the cow's vagina. "I know you will pull toward the cow's hocks. I'll keep them both lubricated, and I won't get in the way."

  "Good girl." Each time the cow strained, Cody pulled the rope. With each yank, the calf moved a fraction, and the cow bellowed in agony.

  Kate put her hands over her ears, trying to shut out the cow's distressing cries of pain.