Samson and Sunset

by Dorothy Annie Schritt

  “Well, you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow, princess.”

  Shay went to sleep before I did, and why not? He hadn’t gotten a full day in bed like me. We got up at 6:30 a.m., showered, dressed and went to the dining room for breakfast.

  Wow, they had a full buffet in silver chafing ware. You could just get whatever you wanted; two types of eggs, bacon, sausage links, waffles, breakfast potatoes, fruit, and several different juices. Let me tell you, I was not used to this, and to top it off, I’d be eating at the same table with Sterling! Conversation was kept light. There were some questions and answers about our trip. Sterling said he heard we’d gotten a couple of pretty fancy horses. We said, yes, we had and they were beautiful.

  After breakfast we were out the door for Hudson.

  “You sure are anxious to get my account closed,” I remarked.

  We went to the bank first, and I closed my account.

  Then Shay said to the banker, “Now she wants to open a new account in her new name. Here’s her first deposit,” and handed the banker a check for $1,000.

  When we got outside of the bank, I said, “Shay, why didn’t you tell me I was going to get a new account?”

  “Well, woman, do you have to know everything?

  “Well, yes! When it’s important.”

  But as we walked to the car I couldn’t help smiling. I had never had that much money in my life! I felt like a kid in a candy store.

  “Where are we going now?” I asked, taking Shay’s arm.

  “Well, we’re going to look at all the new showroom cars. All the 1966 models have just come out and I’d like to see them.”

  We went to four or five dealerships. There were some cool new cars. Then we went to The Weiner Wagon for a couple of Max’s famous conies and chili. Max knew us all by name—since high school he had called me Chatty Kathy.

  Max picked up the check, saying, “Just a little wedding present, guys.”

  While we were eating, Shay asked me which car I liked the very best of all the new models.

  “Oh, that’s easy,” I said, “the ’66, two-door Chevelle Super Sport, in the exact color they have, metallic blue, with white leather interior, bucket seats and chrome rims.”

  “Well, that’s the one I liked, so when we’re done here, we are going back to the Chevy garage and I’m going to buy it for you.”

  “Really? Oh my gosh!”

  “Yep. But you are responsible for keeping it in that condition.”

  “No problem!”

  “Also, remember that beautiful pickup; the candy apple red one they were displaying with that big red and white boat and trailer?”

  “Uh-huh.” I stirred a fry in some ketchup.

  “I think I’m going to trade my boat in and get that for us.”

  “Get it for you, Shay, not me. You know I don’t like boats.”

  ***

  We went back to the garage and Shay took care of all the business on the car and the red pickup. Then we went to get Kelly.

  She knew her mommy’s voice. The second I walked through the door, saying “Hello?” she came running to my arms. I visited with Mom and Dad, while Shay loaded Kelly’s things into the car. Mom told me Daddy was having a real hard time with Kelly leaving. He had raised her since she was born; she was his whole world.

  I guess when you’re older you bond to your babies in a different way. That’s why God lets us have them when we’re younger, although the child is a major part of our life, we are young enough to still be a little self-absorbed. I got this little piece of wisdom having raised my own granddaughter since birth—you just live and breathe every second for that child.

  As we got ready to leave, Daddy had tears in his eyes. I told him he could come get her whenever he wanted.

  “I’m not taking her from you,” I said, although I felt like I was. “She can still have her room here and this will always be her second home.”

  Kelly was anxious to get in the pickup to go with us, but when she looked back at Mom and Dad, she started crying. They were her security blanket. It took a while to settle her down. I kept telling her she’d see them tomorrow, hoping in her little world I could distract her enough to make several days fly by and seem like less.

  Maggie told me I could decorate the suite and the nursery however I liked, which was good because I had big plans and my own taste. I was determined to make that little area of the Big House feel like home for the next ten months.

  That would require new bedding—not that Maggie’s wasn’t fancy; it just wasn’t mine—nick-knacks and framed pictures for the walls. I didn’t want Shay’s mom to feel bad, though, so I asked her to help me pick things out for the nursery; new wallpaper, a new carpet, and a new bassinet (I wanted to get Kelly a little bed of her own, as the baby would soon get the crib.)

  I don’t know how many times Maggie told me she hoped Shay and I didn’t have girls because they could never look like Kelly, and that wouldn’t be fair to Shay. This is when I got my first glimpse of how superficial Maggie could be. This was her grandchild she was talking about. Was she saying she couldn’t love the baby if it wasn’t pretty? Sure seemed like it.

  “Well, Shay wants a girl,” I told her, hoping this would conclude the conversation. “I want a boy. I think Shay would love having a son, but he insists he wants a baby girl.”

  ***

  I truly enjoyed driving my new car. I got to drive it to Larimer several times a week to get little things I needed. Larimer was about seven miles away; all gravel roads. I drove slowly, as I didn’t want rock pits in the new paint. This was a little lesson I had learned from Shay—he always drove gravel roads with his paint job in mind, except the time we were rushing Karen to the hospital.

  ***

  Two days after I’d settled in, Daddy came to get Kelly for a few days. There was no way I’d deny him that. I loved my parents so much; we were spiritually connected. We could probably tell exactly how much money each of us had in our pockets; there was an invisible thread that ran between us. When Daddy came to take Kelly home, I wanted to go home too. Then I had to remind myself that this was my home now.

  ***

  Well, one day the pickup Shay used to drive around the farm was in the shop. He hadn’t gotten the new red truck yet, so he poked his head in the door and asked if he could use my car to go to Hudson.

  “Fine with me,” I said, “you bought it.

  Around 1 p.m. Maggie said, “Kathrine, let’s go shopping and get some of the things you wanted for the nursery.”

  Kelly was at Mom and Dad’s that day, so I said, “that sounds good, but you’ll have to drive, because Shay has my car.”

  “Oh dear,” Maggie said, “Sterling took our car to a meeting. What about the Impala?”

  “Oh no, I’m not driving that without permission.”

  “Well, do you have the car keys?” asked Maggie.

  “Well, yes...”

  “I’ll drive,” she said. “You just give me the keys.”

  “Gosh, Maggie, do you think we should?”

  “Well, how can he get mad at you if I drive?”

  “Well, maybe if we get home before they do.”

  I knew how Shay was about that car. He treated it like pure gold. Come to think of it, it was a material thing; maybe he was a lot like Maggie.

  “They’ll never know, come on, let’s go for it,” she pushed.

  “Well, Shay’s in Hudson…”

  “So we’ll go to Watertown. That way we won’t run into him.”

  “Okay…” I said, unconvinced.

  We both cleaned up, I got the keys and we were off in the prize mobile. We had a nice late afternoon lunch, and then went shopping.

  Around 5 p.m. I said, “We better get the car home.”

  Maggie agreed. We put our things in the trunk and I noticed the cars on either side of the Impala had us blocked in pretty tight. Maggie backed out slowly, inch by inch. We had just made it, feeling quite victorious, when we both hea
rd a loud and terrible scrape. We jumped out to see what had happened and saw that Maggie had swung the right fender against the curb, leaving a huge 6 to 7 inch scratch in the candy-apple-red paint.

  “Oh, God, no!” yelled Maggie, “Shay’s going to kill me! He’s going to be so upset!”

  “Well, just get in and drive, Maggie. We can think about what to do on the way. We have to get this thing back before he gets home.”

  She got back in, looking shaky. “Oh, Kathrine.” She started up the car. “What are we going to do? He won’t be mad at you, he’ll be mad at me.”

  “Oh, yes he will be upset with me—I’m your accomplice! I gave you the keys. You didn’t force me into the car. Let me think, just let me think a minute.”

  After sitting silently for a while, I thought I’d come up with a plan. “Look Maggie, it’s a real hot day, things dry quick.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Well, we’ll stop next to one of the fields. We have some soda pop; we’ll make some mud, rub it around the scratch so it looks like it was there from the night it rained this week. The last time he drove it he went to town while it was raining. He’ll think he didn’t notice it because of the mud!”

  “Oh gosh,” she said, looking relieved. “I knew I liked you.”

  “We found a field, made a mud pile and gobbed it on the fender so it looked natural. Then we put a gob or two on the other side for good measure. When it dried, I was amazed at what a good job we’d done. We rushed home. Shay and Sterling weren’t back yet. We parked the Impala right where it had been before, got our things out of the trunk in a hurry, locked the shop and ran inside.

  We were home free! We’d pulled it off, the big caper!

  ***

  Shay and I had a great night. We ate dinner with Sterling and Maggie (Maggie and I exchanging a few nervous, knowing glances), went back up to our room, showered and made love, watched a little television and were off to sleep.

  I never wanted to go through a day like that again, even though it seemed like everything had worked out. The stress was too much. When Shay woke in the morning, he asked me if I was sick.

  “You tossed and turned all night, honey. I heard you get up several times.”

  “No, I’m fine, just couldn’t sleep.”

  I couldn’t tell him how bothered I was keeping the car scratch from him. I came from a family where honesty was everything. I’d been deceitful and I felt guilty as hell. It was really bothering me. At one point in the middle of the night, lying awake in the dark I thought for a moment about waking Shay up and telling him everything. But then again, if we had gotten away with it, what was the point of getting Maggie in trouble?

  Instead, I prayed and asked God to forgive me, saying I’d learned my lesson and would never do it again. The next morning at breakfast, Maggie and I gave each other several ‘we got away with it’ glances. It was our first real bonding experience, even if it wasn’t the best thing to bond over. Still, I was no tattletale. So I kept my mouth shut.

  Five days passed. I guess Maggie and I were feeling pretty comfortable. Sunday lunch at the Westovers’ was always a big meal, and while we were all sitting around eating, I innocently asked Shay what we were going to do the rest of the day.

  “Well,” he said, putting down his fork. “They’re having race car time trials in Plymouth out at the old airstrip this afternoon. Think we’ll run over and watch them. But first I want to wash the car.”

  My stomach dropped, as I know Maggie’s did as well; our eyes met in shared, secret terror. After the meal, Shay jumped into his cut-offs and was out the door. He brought the car up the circle drive and started hosing it down.

  Maggie was watching out the window and she yelled, “Kathrine, come here.” Then in a low voice, “Look. He’s washing the fenders.”

  I came over and watched as he washed the right fender. After washing the scratch, he stood up and just stood there looking at the fender while the hose ran. Then he went around the car and washed the other fender. We watched as he stood in front of the Impala looking straight at the scratch. It looked like he was summing up the little accident he must have had, driving home in the rain after having a few beers at the Larimer bar. We held our breath as he stood there, then he just continued washing and shining the car and the chrome. Maggie and I breathed a collective sigh of relief at the window.

  When the car was sparkling, Shay came into our room and jumped in the shower. After he got out and dried off he dressed in neat blue jeans, a t-shirt and white tennis shoes. As he was putting his billfold in his pocket, he said:

  “Oh, Callie, we have to get up early tomorrow. You need to follow me to Hudson. I’ve got to take the Impala into the garage to get some bodywork done. Then we should go pick up Kelly and bring her home. I miss her.”

  “So do I,” I answered, trying to sound natural as I picked out my clothes. “Sounds good to me.”

  Both dressed sportily, with our sunglasses on, we were out the door to the races. I could still wear regular clothes; I never looked pregnant until my last month, and even then, barely.

  We had a fun time. I knew for sure now we’d gotten away with our big caper, and I finally allowed myself to relax. There were a lot of our couple friends there, and all the wives gathered under the bleachers to gossip. I couldn’t believe they asked so many questions about the honeymoon and sex with Shay. Gosh! Some of these questions were very personal, but I realize now that a lot of those girls had either dated him, slept with him, or fantasized about him. I kept my answers limited, as I really didn’t have anything to compare my sexual experiences to, except Dane, and there was no comparison.

  Afterward, we stopped at a drive-in for supper and headed home. All dusty, we spent our usual half hour in the shower. When we got out, Shay dried us off and scooped me off to bed for our usual steamy romp between the covers before sleep. Later, when we were spooning and about to fall asleep, he lifted his head and moved his mouth to my ear, kissing it very tenderly. Then he said softly, almost a whisper:

  “Princess, next time you take the Impala out without my permission, dent it, then hide it; expect to be grounded from driving for a month. Your mud paint job was good, but next time you get the urge to be all artistic, get a brush and paint the barn.”

  Wild Woman

  By the end of the first week in August, I’d finished decorating our suite and made it feel like ours—not just another room in the Big House.

  It was a great space to work with; there was a den, a master bedroom, a nice bathroom with two sinks and a vanity, and a little room that would be perfect for the nursery. I did all of the decorating myself. It was my project and I took it seriously. Couldn’t have Maggie looking down her nose at our part of the house. But it was more than that: this was our home for the next nine months; I had to make it magnificent!

  Our suite was large, the den was 16’ by 20’, with the master bedroom about 16’ by 18’. There was a door to the right in the bedroom and it went into an empty room about 13’ by 15’. What a great room this was for the kids, then on the same wall, just further down was a door to the bathroom. It was big and had a soaking tub, shower, ceramic tile floors, a long counter with double sinks and a dressing vanity between the two sinks.

  When you opened the door to enter the suite, you stepped into the den. The walls were already papered in a silver sage flocked striped paper with a small coin-gold stripe every 9 inches. The colors were a perfect green that would make sage green pop—that was the color I worked from. The den floors were beautiful shiny hardwood, so I bought three matching Persian rugs in sage greens, reds, and golds. The 10’ by 12’ ran oblong in front of the beautiful cherry-wood scrolled fireplace. Since I liked the way Maggie had the two sofas at the ranch house in the Sand Hills, I placed the two velvet sage green sofas facing each other. I’d found a huge 50-inch round skirted ottoman with an English hunt scene on it that brought out the reds, greens and golds. I was able to get matching material so I had Magg
ie’s seamstress make matching sofa pillows and lined drapes with plain sage green puff valances with gold braid fringe draping down. The tie backs were gold braided rope. I found a wonderful hunt scene print, beautifully framed, that I hung above the fireplace.

  The cherry wood desk had been facing the wall, so I angled it to face out into the room, sat it on one of the smaller rugs, put a beautiful antique gold lamp on it and used the tufted leather chair that was already there—it made the tufts really pop. There were built-in bookcases behind the desk, and I placed books with gold embossed lettering on the covers so they would stand out. On the other side of the room under the large picture window, I placed two sage and gold striped wingback chairs with a table in the middle. Maggie was with me when I bought the five matching lamps. The shades had little gold braid fringe hanging from them. I know at the time Maggie was scratching her head, wondering what I was doing. One lamp went on the table in front of the window. I had purchased two sofa tables, one for behind each sofa. This house was built so wonderfully that there were floor plug outlets, so no cords would be showing, and I placed two lamps on each table to off-set the balance. Then I put in beautiful red and gold crystal glass accents, and bronze horses to accent the sofa tables. On the ottoman I placed a cherry-wood tray with a tall gold china teapot, sugar, creamer, and four stacked cups and saucers. Hanging directly down above the center of the ottoman was a beautiful crystal chandelier. Then I finished with greenery, ferns with one big fern draped over a cherry pedestal. I stepped back, and it was stunning, everything just came together.