“There’s a hiring freeze I—I think it’s permanent, they aren’t taking anyone” said Warren as he wiped his eyes on his shirt sleeve.
“It’s all right Warren, Pete will find something—things have a way of working out” Lisa said in softer tone trying to sooth Warren “It’s all right Warren, it’s all right”.
Warren looked over at Lisa and with a final act of defiance before he collapsed in on himself “It’s not all right Lisa. It will never be all right—now Pete knows that his father is a nobody—a goddamn nobody”.
Lisa helped the broken hearted Warren out of the truck and into the house. She led him to the bedroom and he collapsed onto the bed and cried until he fell asleep. After dark Lisa crept into the room and turned the light on in the bathroom and cracked the door until it illuminated Warren’s face. She bent down close to him and kissed his cheek gently enough so that he did not know that she was there. She pressed her lips just hard enough into his cheek as to pull him slightly out of sleep, and, when she detected that he was leaving slumber; she pulled back and watched as he fell back into a deep, deep, sleep. Chapter-4
Eleven
Charlotte sat with her mother in the living room of the apartment that they had shared since her father had died. After they had lost the house; Charlotte went to work, rather than to college, to support her aging mother. The silence between them was unbearable and confining and was only broken by the continual sounds of the rain as it cascaded down the windows and fell into the puddles that were outside the door.
Charlotte stood and went to the window. She pulled back the curtains that her mother had sewn together so that the apartment would feel more like the home that they had lost. Charlotte watched as the grey hues of the rain would sometimes flash in different colors from whatever objects’ light they could capture as she thought unconscious thoughts of how her life seemed as one of the helpless colors trapped within the grayness of the cold rain.
Charlotte turned to look at her mother who rocked peacefully in the padded rocking chair that had once sat in unison with other rockers on the front porch of the house that was no more. She watched her mother’s peaceful motions and hesitated to speak because she did not want to disturb this moment of solitude that only came when she was thinking of the past. But Charlotte could wait no longer. She had to speak and the words came out abruptly and tearfully. “Momma, I don’t want to see him” pleaded Charlotte.
Her mother looked up her and said back to her “Charlotte this has all been settled. Mr. Conrad is a good man—he will provide for you....us”.
“But momma, he’s twelve years older than me and I don’t love him” the tearful Charlotte replied.
“Don’t be foolish girl; you’ll grow to love him. He’s a good God fearing man and will be a good father and a good provider”.
“God fearing huh” said Charlotte as she turned back to the window. Her voice softened to a mumble “I know he’s only going to church to drum up business and to find a wife”.
“I heard that and what’s so wrong with that....where else is he going to find a good girl like you?” she snapped back.
Charlotte voice was still in a mumble as she looked out of the window “I don’t know momma, but why me?”
“What did you say? Turn around here girl, I can’t hear what you’re saying”.
Charlotte turned around and lashed out “I said why me....what does he want with me?”
“I’ll tell you what he wants with you” she said. “He wants a good upstanding wife and a good
mother for his children....this is how things work Charlotte. You’ve been working all this time and don’t know how things work. This is your chance. Don’t you want someone to take care of you? Don’t you want a family?”
Charlotte broke down and began to cry. She kneeled by her mother’s side and put her head in her mothers lap. “Yes momma. I want those things” She cried as she gripped her mothers dress. “I want all of those things. I just don’t want them with him.”
Her mother’s voice became gentle. She asked Charlotte “Well if not him then who then?”
Charlotte wiped her eyes with her hands, sat up and looked at the mother. “Momma, there’s a boy. There’s a boy my age that comes into the store. His names Pete”.
“Pete who?”
“I don’t know momma. All I know is his name is Pete and he’s been coming into the store for a few months. We talk some. I know he likes me because he only comes through my line and never really buy’s much”
Charlotte’s mother looked down at her shaking her head “so all we know about this Pete is that he comes through your line and doesn’t buy much”
“Oh momma, he’s shy and sometimes he says things that don’t mean anything but I know he likes me and he’s just waiting for the right time to ask me on a date.” Charlotte’s voice became excited. She held her mother’s hands in hers. “Momma, the other day he came through my line and waited through several orders and bought a pack of gum. I was nervous and I told him that that was the kind I liked and he offered me a piece....I didn’t take it because were not suppose to chew gum at the register. Anyway, I went on my break and when I came back, there was a stick of the gum and a wild flower at my register.”
“Oh dear” Charlotte’s mother replied “This is foolish....your getting excited abut a young man who doesn’t have anything to give you but a flower that he probably picked it off the side of the road. How long is this going to go on.....what makes you think he’s going to ask you on a date let alone afford to?”
“I don’t know momma. I just have a feeling”
“I won’t have it” Charlotte’s mother denounced. “You will give Mr. Conrad a chance. I already have it arranged. You two will be married before this Pete even gets the courage to ask you out. You’ll see.”
Charlotte stood and went to the window and watched as the colors tried to escape from the rain.
Across From the Bayou: Copyright 2010 by Harold Robert Hunsaker
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