Listen To Me Honey (3 page)

She sat before she heard loud
buzzing. In a top corner was a nest with black wasps crawling on
it. They looked and sounded dangerous. She hoped they stayed
put.

She searched around for the toilet
paper roll. Of all times to be out, it would be now.

In between the two holes was a
stack of newspapers. Strange place to keep newspapers. Grandma said
they didn't spend much time in here so why bring reading material?
Amanda's eyes narrowed when she saw a ripped out piece of the top
page.

“Don't tell me, they use newspapers?” She
mumbled.

Chapter Three

As soon as Amanda came in the
kitchen door, she said, “You're out of toilet paper.”

Tansy replied as she spooned gravy
into a bowl, “We don't use it. Didn't ya see the
newspapers?”

Amanda said dully, “That's what I
used.”

“Good. Years ago, we used to use mail order catalogs such
as Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Wards, but the new magazines
today don't work worth a darn in the outhouse. The pages are too
slick.” Tansy pointed to the corner. “Plates are in that cupboard
with the flour bin on it, and silverware is in the drawer
underneath the counter. Don't forget to wash your hands before you
start.”

Amanda stuck her hands in the cold
water in the wash pan and rubbed a bar of lye soap between them.
She rinsed in the pan and dried with the towel that hung in the
plastic ring on the wall above the pan.

Tansy was stuffing a stick of wood
in a hole on the stove, ramming the wood past flames that shot up
at her hand.

“What kind of stove is that?”

“It's a wood burnin', Majestic cook stove. The top part is
the warmin' oven that keeps food warm after its been dished up.
Kind of comes in handy around here when I'm waitin' for yer grandpa
to come in,” Tansy said, wiping her hands on the end of her white
bib apron.

Amanda set the plates on the table.
“Is this stove what you've always cooked on?”

“Nah, I had an electric stove in town, but this stove was
here when we came. So this is the one I use. Grandpa has to cut
wood for the heatin' stove anyway, so why not cut enough to cook
with at the same time.”

Art carried in two pails full of
milk right after Amanda set the table. The dog came in with him and
stood by the screen door, watching Amanda.

“Ya go on in the parlor and lay by my chair,
Jubel,” Art said as he set the pails on the counter by a large
crock.

Tansy said, “Amanda, put those
bowls and the platter in the warmin' oven on the table while I
strain the milk.” She opened a drawer and took out a large, white
cloth. She placed it over the opening of the crock and poured
slowly until she emptied both pails.

She rolled the white cloth up,
tossed it into the dishpan. She picked up a flat wooden lid and
placed it on the crock. “Best not forget that lid. We'd find a
mouse floating in our milk tomorrow morning.”

“Ugh!” Amanda muttered as she set a bowl on the
table.

“After we eat, I'll take this crock to the spring house,”
Tansy told Amanda.

Art washed his hands and sit at the
end of the table. When Amanda and Tansy were seated, he looked at
Tansy. “Whose turn is it to say the blessin'?”

“Yer's.”

“Reckon so.” He bowed his head and said, “Lord, bless this
food, and the hands that prepared it. Keep close watch on our
granddaughter while she's here and he'p her enjoy her stay. In
Jesus's name. Amen. Now start passin' that food.”

Tansy handed Art a platter of hot
biscuits. He took three and handed the platter to Amanda. As soon
as he tore the biscuits in pieces on his plate, he took a bowl from
Tansy and spooned a white, thick sauce over his plate. He handed
that bowl to Amanda and took the next bowl which was fried
potatoes.

Art handed Amanda the potatoes. She
dipped a spoon full on her plate. She dropped one biscuit beside
the potatoes and studied the bowl of white sauce. “What is this
stuff?”

“White gravy,” Tansy said.

“It
don't look like any gravy I ever saw,” Amanda said, lifting a spoon
full out and dabbing toward her plate to get the gravy to fall off.
“It sure is thick.”

“I
reckon you're used to that thin broth kind that runs all over your
plate,” Tansy said cryptically.

“That gravy sounds more familiar,” Amanda
agreed.

“No
substance to that stuff. You have to chase it down. This gravy
sticks to yer ribs,” Art assured her. He smiled at Tansy. “Although
once in awhile, I've heard yer grandma say her gravy doesn't turn
out like she wanted it to. She says it is thick or thin company
around here as far as gravy goes.”

Her grandparents laughed, but
Amanda saw nothing funny about what Grandpa said. She crumpled up
her biscuit and put more gravy on it. At first, she wasn't sure she
wanted to taste the gravy so she ate the fried potatoes.

“Aren't you goin' to clean up your plate, Mandie?” Art
asked.

Amanda shrugged.

“Listen to me, Honey. Around here we go by the sayin' waste
not want not. Best eat what I cook or go hungry,” Tansy
warned.

Amanda sampled a small bite of
gravy. She swallowed and took another bite. Once she got over the
feeling she was eating Elmer's glue, she decided gravy and biscuits
weren't too bad. Then again, she felt awful hungry, so almost
anything might taste good to her about now. Even Elmer's
glue.

“Weell now, that gravy ain't so bad, is it?” Art
asked.

Amanda shrugged. “It's okay. I
guess I'm just used to different food.”

“Like what, Honey,” Tansy asked.

Amanda perked up. “I like pepperoni
pizza really well. Mom orders it brought to our home. Maybe you
could, too.”

Art waved his fork in her
direction. “I remember pizza pies. How long ago was that Tansy when
pizzas were popular around here?”

“Cain't say. Has it been fifty years ago we had that
one?”

Amanda slumped in her chair at that
news.

Art gazed at his plate, searching
his memory. “Somewhere abouts. All I really remember about that
pizza pie was it was really hot. I bit into it and burned the roof
of my mouth so bad it was a week before I could eat without
smartin'.”

“That's right,” Tansy agreed. “I took a big bite, and that
stringy cheese stretched out and dropped onto my chin. My word, did
that burn. I didn't think I was ever goin' to get my face wiped off
in time to keep my chin from blisterin'. The more I rubbed that
cheese the more it stretched.”

“So
you won't order a pizza?” Amanda asked.

“Cain't, Mandie. Pizza places don't deliver out here in the
country. That just happens in town,” Art explained.

“Well, how about potato chips? I like chips, and you can
buy those at the grocery store,” Amanda said hopefully.

Tansy shook her head in dismay.
“Why would we want to buy greasy, salt covered chips when we have
healthy food we raised. I like to cook, and we eat what I
fix.”

“Oh,” Amanda said.

Art cleared his throat. “When yer
daddy was growin' up we had a rule. If he didn't like the food on
the table, he didn't have to eat it right off. He could sit there
until he got hungry enough he did like it.”

Amanda gave up and ate what she had
on her plate.

After they finished eating, Tansy
set a scrap pail on the table. She looked over at the tea kettle on
the back of the cook stove when it started sizzling. “I'll get you
a dish towel in a second. You can dry dishes.”

She scraped the bits of food off
the last plate into the scrap pail and placed the plate on the
stack.

“I
don't do dishes,” Amanda said.

Tansy couldn't believe her ears.
“Why on earth not? A big girl like y'all don't he'p yer
mother?”

“She
doesn't do dishes, either. We have a cook that does all
that.”

Tansy waved the spoon she'd scraped
plates with at Amanda. “Listen to me, Honey, I'm the cook in this
kitchen and dish washer. Reckon there's a first time for
everythin'. So I'm tellin' ya as long as y'all are here you're the
dish dryer. Got that?”

Tansy pulled a dish towel out of a
drawer and tossed it to Amanda.

After the dishes were done, they
joined Art in the parlor. He had been watching a nature program
about ducks on television. Amanda didn't figure it would do her any
good to complain she'd rather watch something else. Grandpa
wouldn't hear her anyway. He was asleep.

The dog lifted his head off his
paws and eyed her. His ears perked up, and his nose wiggled. That
was a warning sign to Amanda. She better stay away from the
television. Grandpa, too, for that matter, unless Grandpa was awake
to call the dog away from her.

She sat down on the couch by Tansy.
Her grandma reached over the arm of the couch and picked up her
sewing basket. She set it between them and picked up a Rockford
work sock with the heel out. She stuffed a large, round, wooden
ball in the heel of the sock and wove the thread back and forth
over the ball.

Amanda asked, “What are you
doing?”

“Darnin' Grandpa's sock. I declare, he sure wears his socks
out in a hurry. Wonder if he has a tack stickin' out of the shoe
heel? Pay attention how I do this. One of these days, you might
want to darn yer sock.”

“Why
don't you just buy Grandpa new socks. Save you some work.” Amanda
watched Tansy's busy hand pulling the threaded needle in and
out.

Tansy didn't stop mending. “Listen
to me, Honey, that might be less work, but new socks cost money.
I'll save my money thank you very much.”

A few minutes in the quiet room was
all it took for Amanda's eyes to grow heavy.

Tansy put the sewing basket back on
the floor. “I think we all should go to bed. Yer grandpa is already
asleep, and he's goin' to have a stiff neck sittin' that
way.”

“I
am tired,” Amanda admitted.

“Need to go to the outhouse again? The flashlight is behind
the wash pan,” Tansy told her.

“Not
now, but maybe later.”

Tansy shook Art's shoulder. “Wake
up. Get to bed. Before we know it, another day will be
dawnin'.”

“Reckon so,” Art said, rubbing his eyes.

Amanda heard Grandpa go outside
while she put on her pajamas. He talked to the dog as if the animal
was a person when he told Jubel to do his business. It was a long
time until morning.

Her bedroom was stuffy so she
opened the window by the head of her bed a crack. After she flipped
the light off, she pulled the sheet and blanket back on the bed.
When she sat down, she sank. Was the bed broke? She pushed with her
fist against the bottom cover. No matter where she pushed the bed
was soft. She raised her legs up and into the bed, covered herself
up and laid down. She was in a narrow trench. Oh well. She was so
tired she could sleep anywhere.

Before she drifted off, she heard
spooky sounds outside somewhere. A series of yips, eerie and high
pitched, traveled through the nearby timber. The yip, yip, yipeeee
seemed so close. She wondered if it would be safe to go to the
outhouse in the dark by herself. Just to be on the safe side, she
got out of bed and lowered the window.

One bird started its nightlife. It
sang whip poor will over and over again. She did kind of like
listening to the cheerful calls, but she missed her head set. At
home, she always went to sleep listening to music in her ears. She
wanted to bring the headset, but her mom told her she couldn't. The
way Amanda saw it, she was lucky to get out of the house with
several changes of clothes and her makeup.

Chapter Four

The next morning, Amanda woke up
when her grandpa yelled by her bedroom door. “Up and at 'em,
Mandie. It's a new day.” After he said that, the screen door
slammed.

Amanda closed her eyes again until
she heard the lids bang on the cook stove after Grandma started the
fire. If she didn't move, one of her grandparents would be yelling
at her again soon. No use trying to explain she didn't get up early
when she didn't have school. She climbed out of the hole in the
mattress and dressed.

Tansy was humming The Old Rugged Cross when Amanda entered
the kitchen. “Good morning, Grandma.”

“Morning, Amanda.”

“Do
you and Grandpa always get up this early?” Amanda asked.

“Sure we do. You know the sayin' the early bird gets the
worm,” Grandma said.

Amanda shrugged. “Guess I didn't know that about birds.”
What a bird eating a worm had to do with people getting up
early?

“Have a good night's sleep last night?” Tansy asked as she
put a pan of biscuits in the oven.

“After I got used to the mattress I did,” Amanda said
honestly.

Tansy set a cast iron skillet on
the stove. She shaped sausage patties with her hands and put them
in the hot grease. “What was wrong with the mattress?”