"Well, I'll be. You a mechanic, then?"
"Been one all my life." Lucas furthered, now in the house.
"My father was a farmer, as well a preacher. So I've been a farmer most my life, then went in the military, come out to farming again. I do a little mechanics out of necessity. Learn some things along the way, don't do so bad, just wishin' I knew more. Workin' on a old truck I been slowly restorin'. How 'bout we head out to my pole barn, I show you what I been doing?" Bart asked, hopeful.
"That's a good idea, Bart. Lucas, you leave your bag, I take it up to your room for you. Come on, Lydia, I show you where ya'll be sleepin'."
"We really appreciate this. What a beautiful home, much rather this, than some ol'hotel." Lydia complimented them.
"That's why I wouldn't hear of it, like I said, we got plenty of room here."
"How much land ya'll got to this property?" Lucas asked, turning to follow Bart back outside.
"We got three lots of land. This one here, for our home and woods surroundin' it, come to about 45 acres." Bart stated, leading the way, leaving the women to carry on in the house, "Then I figured I was needing more for the crops for rotatin', bought another lot of 25 acres, and then, ten years ago we buy another lot of 20. All together, I'd say, that rounds it off to 90 acres. It was hell gettin' it all, had some hard times along the way, but we come out okay."
Lucas stood with his mouth open in disbelief, but then wondered why he was so surprised. That was the one thing the white man always had up on the black man, land. The white man never failed an opportunity to buy more land. "So, you work all that land?" He asked.
"Not alone. My son, Jake...from time to time, when I need a bit extra help, he pitches in and helps me get the plowing done, then cultivating and come harvest, he'll pitch in then, too. But I've got enough machinery to keep me busy. I put in a full days work every day, that's for sure."
"Seem to me, all that land, you oughts t'have somebody working for you."
"Can't afford to pay nobody."
'Em-hm, too greedy! Don't wanna part with no money. Rather keep it and buy more land!' Lucas thought cynically.
Chapter 172
The ladies made it to the room that Lydia and Lucas would be sharing. It was the one guest room that Gert had insisted upon. Her children all had a room in their home that would always be for them. When Sylvia came, she slept in Shawn's, and Vivian had slept in Jake's. Long time ago, when Meribel had lived with them, she had slept in Derrick's bedroom. Same for their girls. This way, when guest came, they had this specially decorated room, which had its own bathroom in it, that Gert was showing to Lydia.
"Lo-o-ord, would you look at this. I think we gone sleep just fine tonight."
"I sure hope so, because I want you to feel at home. You got your own bathroom and everything."
"I know it must make you proud, this home. Love everything about it." Lydia complimented.
"Everything you see, done by my husband and my boys. My Shanna, she help me with most all the decorating."
"What you mean?"
"We didn't buy it like this. When we first move here, we live in a little ol'rented room in a boarding house. At the time it was just Bart, me and Shawn. We was looking for property, you see, a home. Then we heard about this place. Come to look at it and Lord, Lydia, I tell you the truth—it was a sight. I didn't want nothing to do with it. Wasn't what I was use to." Gert started, helping Lydia by placing Lucas's bag on the bed so she could open and unpack it.
"Was it that bad?" Lydia asked.
"Last person that lived here, died in it. An old man. It was filled with garbage galore because he collected more than he ever threw away. Windows were broke out. Rats, squirrels, field mice, and bats galore filled the place, spider webs up all over, with many a spider. I was horrified. Needless to say, I started crying and threatened to go back home to my father if he bought it."
"Whoooeee. Well, what make you stay?"
"I didn't at first. I couldn't stand it. Bart told me if I wasn't woman enough to stand by him, then to go on back home to my daddy. I thought he was crazy for bringing me to live there because he got the property dirt cheap. There was so much garbage, wrecked cars, rusty kitchen cabinets, ol'toilet bowl, just anything you can think of, you name it, it was piled up on this land."
"Chile, I'd been gone too! I can't stand no garbage up around me. Junk everywhere—nothing put me in a bad mood quicker than nastiness. And please, don't even mention no rats and mice, and BATS?! Been gone!"
"I'm with you, Lydia. Didn't help either that I'd come from a life of privilege. My family is wealthy, you see, but Bart would never let me—or us, rather, fall back on what my father offered. Knowing that I had a trust fund, he almost dared me to bring it up. Bart told me time and time again, if I wanted that, I couldn't have him. Either I was gone live on what he brought home, or I could run back to my daddy and let him see to me. One time I did. Cryin', blubbering to my daddy. He was always such a gentle and understanding man. He just hug me and say, "There there, you stay long enough to get your second wind. Wrap your head around what's expected as his wife, then you go on back home. He beat you?" He asked, and of course, being honest, I said, "No." because he didn't. Never would. It's not in my Bart to ever strike a woman. He raised our sons the same way. Ruthie, our maid, heard that I was home, blubbering and said to me, "Em-hm, back already! And here I thought you made of sterner stuff than that! You better get yo'tail back to that man! Don't let me see you back here again, unless he with you and ya'll visitin'!" Gert shook her head laughing, just thinking about it.
"She sound black!"
"She is! And didn't take no stuff from me! Needless to say, I came back. When I returned, the yard was all clear, and the house as well. Bart had the windows fixed, and had been doing repairs when the taxi with Shawn and I pulled up."
"He take you right back?"
"He acted as if I'd gone just to visit. He walked up to the taxi, took our bags out. The taxi backed up, turned and left, and he carried our things in the house. Taking a deep breath, holding Shawn's hand, we walked back in. I've been here ever since. Other things happened along the way, where I left two or three more times. But—I always came back." Gert smiled, thinking about the really hard times from the past. She was sitting on the bed, opposite to Lydia, "Back then, this place was just an old greyed-out wood frame house. Pokey old kitchen, one bath, lil' ol'living room. No dining room, two bedrooms and an old attic room. That I swore, that dead old man haunted." She laughed.
"You got more mettle than me, that's for sure!"
"Well, there are things that I'm not proud of, that I've done to him. Things that, well... maybe wasn't right. I felt I owed him for that."
Lydia sighed, she could relate to that. "Did you love'im?"
"At first I did. Then I didn't. Then I did again. Then I didn't again. In the end, I guess I did. 'Cause I stayed. And I'm here now, 40 some odd years later."
"How long it take before you get yo' house the way it is now?"
"Took years. For the longest time, I had to be content with second hand everything. Most of our stuff in the beginning came from yard sales, garage sales. Bart did plumbing work, home repairs, whatever he could do on the side to earn, while we gathered enough seed to start our first crop. It was pitiful!" Gert smiled.
"Honey, I'mo tell you right now, if I had money, my family rich—ain't no man gone tell me, I got to live like a pauper! Well, maybe—but I'ah be sneakin' that money in! Sho'nuff!" Lydia laughed, and so did Gert, "Believe me... I did every now and then. I couldn't help myself, Lydia. It was just too hard! There were times when I thought I'd lose my mind! Then I got pregnant again. And by then, we had chickens, and two little piglets and he was working toward buying his first bull and two heifers. I'm tellin' you now, Lydia, he would have me up at 4:00 in the mornin', talking about fix his breakfast and let's get going, we got things to do."
"Like what!? What's there to do at that time in the mornin'?!"
"We had to see to them animals, and then, he got himself regular work at a construction site where they were building up in an area about an hours drive from here. He had to be there at 6:00 and didn't wanna leave me stranded at home because we didn't have a phone at the time. Couldn't really afford one. So he left me with the truck, which meant—"
"You had to get up and take him, an' go get him, too." Lydia filled in what was obvious.
"You got it. Every dime he earned, went into this farm. No new furniture. No new anything. We bought land. We bought seed. We bought old equipment. We bought livestock. He worked with that construction company for five or six years, I'm thinkin'. My husband worked hard, he put in an hour out in the fields before it was time for him to leave for work, and then another hour when he got home. He was busy, quiet and withdrawn a lot. So on top of everything else, I was lonely. He finally come home one day with a TV for me, and it could only get three channels. But lemme' tell you, I was happy to see it. The house was clean, what little there was to do in it, and I wasn't allowed to spend no money, so me and the boys spent most of our day at the library. Then Shawn started kindergarten, and it was me—pregnant by now with Kathy Ann, holding onto Derrick, and carrying Jake on my hip. I started selling Amway behind Bart's back."
"You sold Amway! So did I!" Lydia laughed.
"Lydia, I had my boys going with me everywhere I went. Dropped Shawn off at school, dress up Derrick and Jake, ohhh, they looked smart! To be honest, I think I sold as much as I did because I dragged them around with me! Didn't have no choice! That's when I started buying things for the house, like my curtains for the windows. Instead of sheets I sewed up."
"How in the worl' you go from being in a wealthy household, to sewin' sheets!? You musta been in love!"
"Or crazy as hell!" Gert inserted laughing. "Oh, honey, and he had the nerve to accuse me of asking my father for money! Oh, the fight we had, 'til I showed him that I earned it myself selling Amway while he was at work. Then he had a fit because he said I made him look like he couldn't feed his own family. Said that I had people talkin' about him, and that he had his wife out peddlin' for sympathy sales!"
"Well—you was." Lydia spoke up, sniggering.
"True—I was...but, I had to do something! I was bored out of my mind! Tired of not being able to spend the money he made, and since I wasn't allowed to ask for it from my daddy, I made my own. He demanded that I stop. I refused. Then one morning I woke up to take him to work, he had gotten up, and left with the truck, so I couldn't do my rounds."
"There ain't nothin' more stubborn than a man—addicted to his pride!"
"Lydia, that is the gospel truth!"
"How you get Shawn to school?"
"He missed that first day that he took the truck. When he got home, we had another big fight. I said, how am I to get Shawn to school? He wouldn't answer. Lord, I got up the next morning, he was gone, and so was Shawn. I found out later, he was taking him to his work site, leaving him in the truck to sleep, and then when it was time for him to go to school, he would tell his boss he had to take him. And told me, he was taking him and waiting for school to start and then going to work."
"So, he had the chile sleeping in the truck?"
"Lydia, I'm telling you, the things I've gone through with this man, the things he put our oldest boy through..." Gert shook her head. She looked at Lydia, wondering what she thought of her. Here they were, together for the first time, after having spoken on the phone three times, and she was practically telling her their life history and marriage. She figured maybe it was because she was starved of women friends. Her entire married life had been centered around her husband, the farm, their children, and then their grandchildren. She had time for little else. Now, it was like she couldn't stop herself from talking.
"But, you still with him, so—was it worth it? All that you went through with'im?"
Gert sighed, fact was, forty some years later, Bart was all she knew. "Now that we've made it out on the other end, yeah...at the time—going through it all, I questioned myself many times. My husband served in the army, you know?" She stated, Lydia remained quiet, enjoying hearing about them. "...he was in the Vietnam war. He had a chance to see how things were there. How the women there worked in rice fields and any where else they might eke out a meager wage. Sun up, sun down, they worked. He told me so. Said to me, if they can do it, villages being shot up, bombs going off, children being killed, daughters being raped...if they can do it...you can do it."
"Do what?!" Lydia asked.
"Churn them fields. Plant those crops...while pregnant with Kathy Ann, mind you."
"Lo-o-ord, that's crazy!"
"Don't get me wrong, he done the brunt of the work, but he wanted me up first thing—dressed and ready, after feedin' him and the boys. We all hit it together."
"What you mean?!" Lydia asked, taken aback.
"He had Shawn up, constructed him a little pitch fork, perfect for his size, and had Derrick trailing behind him with a hoe. Jake, poor baby, he just end up eatin' dirt most of the time. But from real young, he put them boys to work."
"That's insane!"
"He said in Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, the minute they can walk, they start teaching them to do work, follow along to learn."
"Darlin', I'on mean no harm, but he crazy! That war mess that man's mind up!"
"I suppose it's true. Once he saw that Shawn was learning what he showed him, and that Derrick was trying, he wakes up and decides—it was time to start making this farm work for him. That's when I was truly convinced he was insane. I don't know how many times I marched out in that field and grabbed my boys, bringing them in because it seemed that's all he wanted them for, work! The first ten years of our marriage was pure-d hell!"
"Yet you stayed. You stuck it out."
Gert nodded. What she couldn't say, tell Lydia, was that she stayed because her conscience ate her alive over Edwin Piercey. What she said instead was, "I had to give him time, time to sort himself out. So many come back from the war—messed up in the head. I just couldn't leave him, not for good."
"I'm happy to say, my Lucas didn't have to go. He was the youngest son of four boys. His two older brothers went—come back with a flag, he told me."
"They—died?" Gert asked carefully.
Lydia nodded, then said, "Yep. Both of them killed over there. The third boy was in school. He's a college professor now. He and Lucas don't get along. He feel that Lucas shoulda been somethin' better than what he turn out to be. He consider an auto mechanic the trade of a common man."
"This country built on the backs of common men. How soon they forget that, the so-called professionals." Gert imparted softly. "All the craziness aside, I know no man, that works harder than my Bart. Glad to say, because of him, our boys never had to stoop to common labor if they didn't wish it; he'd always wanted them to get a college education. Derrick did it, and Shawn did it while away from home—living in California. My two middle ones ended up settling for less, but our youngest went to school for interior design, upholstery and all that come with it." Gert informed her, smiling and asked, "What's happening with your two sons? Sylvia said she has two older brothers?"
Lydia sighed long and deep. What could she say? She hadn't centered her life around her man and children. So her sons didn't dote on her and her husband had left her. Because of Shawn finding him—she'd just gotten him back.
"No need for you to answer that. I ask too many questions, and talk too much."
"Don't matter none. Let's just say, I too, have a lot to regret. I haven't seen my sons in years. The last time I saw my oldest boy, Lucas Henry Jr., was ohhh, I'm thinking five—six years ago. I heard, not sure how true it is, but I heard, that he plays in a jazz band. Traveling around. Think he might be in Memphis, maybe New Orleans. And David, that's the middle one, he—I last saw him, ohhh, maybe a little over two years ago. I try not to think about him. He took not having his father around the hardest—maybe."
"What do you mean?
"
"Lucas and I haven't always been together. Fact is, we just now got back together. I's a long story, too long to get into. My kids went through too much 'cause of it. One by one, they all grow up and leave home. Sylvia the only one that come back to see about me, even with the way things were for her—she still come back to see about me. In fact, the last time I saw David—in his—incoherent, crazy way—he tol' me—that her first husband was hittin' on her."
"You kiddin' me? Her too? My Shanna's going through a divorce right now because of the same thing!"
"Well, Sylvia's husband died in a car accident, a couple of years ago, around the same time I last saw David. If he hadn't, David might of gone after him, he was so upset over it. I don't know—he hated that we were all apart. Yet he took off years ago, and ain't never called me again. He was going through so much, couldn't keep a job. I got reason to believe he mighta been takin' drugs...don't know for sure. But last time I see him, talk to him, he told me he was going to see about her. She just come back from Texas two years before that, 'cause her husband was in the army, too."
"His name Armundo, right?" Gert asked.
"Em-hm. You know the whole time they was married, he never once, come to my home. Not once! Not one time! She come with the kids. He drop her off and take off. Ignit'ass fool! I was glad he never come up in my house, 'cause I would've had to tell him somethin'! I told Sylvia that too! Probably why he never came in, knowin' I don't like him. I saw him a few times when they was just datin'. He come to the house then, you know what? I looked into his eyes—and I knew he wasn't no good. Somethin' 'bout him. I don't know for the life of me, why my daughter married him, let him get her pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I love my grandchildren, both of'em! But bein' pregnant, that's—I think—the reason she married him. 'Cause he sho' ain't have nothin' else goin' for him. David said he was gonna start seein' about her. Hard as it is to admit, you couldn't depend on David. You couldn't believe nothin' he say from one moment to the next. I never tell Sylvia, because I know him. He may say it, it don't mean he gonna do it. I'm glad I didn't tella, 'cause he take off, and I ain't seen him since. Ain't heard from him."
BOMAW 7-9 Page 38
