ch. 12

The Big Roundup

            Lee  thought back to the day his brothers, John, ken and his sister sat at the kitchen table discussing how to pay his dads bills when the phone call from the hospital came in as if on cue. Their dad had passed away. This made the job of doing what they had to easier for all except Lee who was being put out of a lifelong job , of being subject to the needs and wants of the farm. They were to sell the farm. The sale of the cattle and equipment would go to Lee for helping take care of dad and the rest would be split between them after they sold the real estate to cover their Dad’s bills and  if there was anything left it would be split four ways. Lee stood by the gate to the paddock and thought about all he had accomplished there at the farm as he gazed upon his cattle munching on some hay in the muddy paddock area. It was early spring and in some cases newborn babies were starting to dot the landscape.  He thought about buying another farm and continuing on in farming, instead he opted for the buyout.

    Lee had enough of this day to day 365 day a year 24 hr. a day responsibility he had. at 57 he had enough, lee was going to find a place close to me,  down by the river and help me with my carving, lee had become quite good at what he did. His carvings were beginning to fetch some pretty good prices when put up beside mine. He was going to miss the times he had on the old home place. The parties they used to have and solitude of living in a remote area of this busy confusing world we live in. but he would not miss the work. Her started really  young as a kid riding hay wagons at first, then it was stacking hay whether it be on a wagon in the field or up in the hayloft.

      His dad Carl was mean and abusive then. He worked a job at the fertilizer plant blending fertilizers for bulk sale and then he would drink and carouse with other women .Then he would come home and bitch at his kids as if they were the reason he was a drunken slob. Lee couldn't stand him when he was this way. At times he got forceful with Darla and would smack her around in front of his brothers and sisters . Lee told of a time when his brother John would grab him and head to the barn and hide in the hayloft. They were real young and Lee was around five when this happened.

  It seems this one time as Lee recalled the events to me, that his Dad was caught running around with the secretary at the fertilizer plant. Shamelessly acting out in public when everyone in the small town knew Carl was married to Darla. Until Darla confronted them at Whitey’s tavern one fall evening. Darla walked in after getting a phone call from her girlfriend that Carl was drunk and needed a ride home. Oh she forgot to mention the girlfriend part on carl’s arm. Darla walked in behind carl’s booth and was looking over the booth as  carl had his arms reaching around  to the front of this lady who was sitting between his legs and ran his hand up the leg shifting her short skirt high. The girl turned around to look at Carl as he made this overt gesture and when she did caught sight of Darla just as she was leaning over to slap Carl up alongside the head. His hands went up over his head as if to protect himself and as he turned around Darla stared him in the eye and turned on her heels and walked out the door. Not a word was said. Everyone in the bar including Darla’s friend who  she never talked to again were stunned , till laughter broke out as they looked at Carl’s red face. The secretary soon found  new job at the telephone company and Carl started coming home drunk and mean , and he started to beat on Darla more now than ever and Darla told John to take the kids to the barn and hide them where Carl could not find them in case he started beating on them next.

     Lee said another time they had went to the barn and John had taken it upon his own to construct a hiding place in the haymow where they couldn't be found, where if you were absolutely quiet no one could never find you. John showed Lee, and Claire, and Ken the hiding place by pulling a bale out of the face of the haymow front to reveal a room built inside the hay mow.  Then when the bale was placed back in you could never tell the room was there. They all climbed in and from inside the bale was pushed back in place. then his brother lit a match and revealed a candle on a board with melted wax around its base assuring it had probably been used before ,as he lit the candle with the lit match in his hands . This revealed a room fairly good size to accommodate 4 kids, with seats made out of square bales.  And hay all around in a haymow with tons of weight overhead and beside. They didn’t know what kind of storm was brewing outside as they sat safe in their little room in the hay with a candle for light. Not realizing that it could all seriously burn them alive if that candle ever caught that hay on fire and no one would ever know they were there or hear their screams for help.

    Carl had a habit of getting drunk coming home beating on Darla for whatever little thing he could think of and Darla took it as she was becoming more frustrated with him but felt it was phase he was going through and who was going to take a woman with four  kids . Black eyes and busted lips were common place on a daily basis as Carl helped Darla with her makeup as he called it. Darla later told Lee as he got older that Carl would was helpful as both eyes needed to be blackened to get the right effect, she smiled as woman would who was at her last straw. Killing him in her sleep was not going to happen. After waking up from a drunk Carl would be ever so apologetic at times begging forgiveness and next bumming money to get drunk and come home and beat her revealing a vicious cycle of booze and wife beating from a coward.

    After seeing her kids hiding in the barn every time he came around, she thought to herself what is this all about? Next she took to picking him up at the fertilizer plant daily taking his car and cash; he had little choice but to go along. . He had 4 kids and he damn well was going to start taking care of them. The guys at the fertilizer plant laughed at Carl at first, always having the wife and kids sitting in the plant parking lot at quitting time but soon accepted that Carl was on a path to the sobriety and Darla had enough. She never left him alone a minute it seemed. she took to following him around on the farm , helping him do things and never saying a word but small talk would exist on a certain level as Carl would say to her finally if you are just going to stand there then you might as well help me, and she did . day after day and years passed as the 2 of them finally turned the farm her  father gave her into this fine looking place Lee was looking out over . Realizing in a couple of days it would soon be gone and so would the memories. the good times when they sneaked off to the strip pit and swam in the ponds they were forbidden to be in. Laying on the hill in the sun on his back with his brothers  beside the house and laying on your back  watching clouds roll by imagining faces. It will never be the same but what is life but changes. As he thought this an arm snaked  around him as he leaned his  long lanky body   against the fence. Then another body pressed up close to him and he looked down ,  it was Ann, which he knew from the first touch. He soaked it in .