Six Miles From Nashville (4 page)

Trudy interrupted her thoughts by blasting her cousin with a lilting tirade, “Buck, this is Betty. She didn’t get any of your stuff. You know you only brought one suitcase.” She turned to Betty. “He is staying a couple of days and
then going back to Abilene.”

“I see.”

He knew the power he held over new girls he met and it made him almost giddy when it played out like this. “Nice to meet you, Betty.”

“Thanks. I mean, nice to meet you, ah...Buck.”

“Come on, let’s get settled in our room. You will have a lot of time for old Buck to spark you.”

Betty ke
pt step with Trudy. Her face reddened because she reacted to this boy so differently than anyone else. She was afraid of him because she was helpless when he was near. She had never lost her nerve in front of anyone like that before.

“Don’t let him get to you. He is a collector.”

“Collector?”

“Every new place he goes, he gets another girl for his collection.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“
He has a leather book where he writes down names of girls that like him. He shows it to his friends. I saw it in his room one day and opened it. There were columns on the page that detailed how well the girl kissed and other things. There was some information in there that I wish I didn’t know.”

“I have heard of ‘little black books’, but...”

“Listen, I like you and think we can become really good friends. I don’t want you to be one of his trophies. He is a good cousin, but he needs to learn how to treat girls better.”

Betty’s heart pounded. As much as she was attracted to Buck, she didn’t want to be hurt again.

As the weeks progressed, Betty and Trudy were inseparable. They did homework together and were always on leaf detail at the same time. They enjoyed the male students who joined them in the work.

One boy was always on their work detail. He told funny stories to the group as a whole, but never spoke directly to any of the girls who were on the job.

“Do you know that guy’s name?” Betty asked Trudy.

“He is
Johnny. I think he likes you.”

“Don’t be funny, Tru.”

“Just watch him. He will find a way to always be at your elbow as the works moves on.”

The girls observed him and Betty agreed with Trudy. The boy was always next to them.

“How do you know he is not after you?” Betty asked.

“He doesn’t look at me the way he looks at you.”

“Oh, brother.”

The pickup truck bed was full of leaves and the team jumped up on the top of them to ride to the dump in order to help the driver with unloading. Riding on the le
aves was like a dream to Betty. After they pushed the leaves off the bed of the pickup, they all jumped back in. Betty found that Johnny sat next to her for the ride back to campus. Trudy sat across from her and had a funny smirk on her face.

Johnny
leaned down to Betty’s ear and spoke softly, “Do you think that you could go with me to the bowling alley on Friday night? Ask Trudy to go with us. There is someone that wants to ask her to go, too.”

“Okay,” Betty said.

Trudy winked at her. Most everyone in the pickup bed heard them. Johnny had a voice that carried far even when he whispered.

Johnny and Earnest arrived at the building promptly at seven. Betty and Trudy were waiting for them in the first floor reception area next to the RA’s room. No men were allowed further than this room and the girls were required to be waiting when their dates arrived.

Johnny and Earnest wore their best clothes. She liked the way he looked in his blue double knit trousers and matching shirt. The white leather dress shoes and belt topped off the latest fashion.

Betty opted to wear stacked platform wedged shoes with her long maxi skirt and peasant blouse. She wore her hair in loose
light brown curls hanging down her back. Trudy whispered, “I’m glad I decided to wear my pantsuit instead of my hip-hugger jeans. These guys are dressed up.”

“I know.”

When Betty greeted Johnny she noticed that his hair was still damp. It curled in a flip just below the collar of his shirt. His long bangs brushed past his eyebrows. She was glad his bright blue eyes weren’t covered by his thick blond hair. “We’re ready,” she said.

“Let’s go see how good you girls are at bowling,” Earnest said.

They jumped into the large old Ford and drove off to the small town’s bowling alley. Johnny’s car was almost out of gas and that was as far as he could afford to take them on this date if he was to provide a Pepsi and pizza for himself and Betty.

When they arrived at the dorm just before curfew, he stood at the door to tell her goodbye. He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. She was relieved that he wasn’t
disappointed in her and took the kiss to mean that he had a good time on the date.

After that first double date
, Johnny and Betty were always together. He was a shy farm boy who loved living in the country. Betty was easy for him to talk to about things that mattered to him. Most of the girls that he grew up with were longing to leave Oklahoma and go somewhere more important. He couldn’t see that other places had anything better than his home offered. Betty grew up a couple hours away from his home and she seemed to understand his connection to the land.

Most weeks, the only days Johnny and Betty could be together were Friday and Saturday. That left a lot of time for couples to live
separate lives and build friendships with people of their own gender.

Because it was two o’clock,
Betty and Trudy were watching “The Young and the Restless” in Trudy’s room. Each of them had a Pepsi and sat on the floor leaning against the foot of the bed.

Betty was really into the storyline. “I hope Snapper
, or whatever his name is, doesn’t go for the sister. She is a trip!”

“You know he has to or it wouldn’t be an interesting story.”

“You’re right. Did you finish your prophecy and doctrine homework?”

Trudy frowned and said, “I don’t have to do it. I am going back home.”

“What?”

“My heart is acting up and Mom wants me to be close to my heart doctor.”

Tears threatened in the back of Betty’s eyes. “What will I do without you?” She paused a moment before continuing. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know your heart was bad. Are you going to be alright?

“I will live.”

The room was quiet except for the theme music for the next soap opera. Trudy got up and turned the TV off.

“I’m leaving tomorrow. Buck is
coming this evening. He has to get back to work as fast as he can.”

“Have you known
you were leaving for long?”

Trudy strode to her window and kept her back to Betty. “I have known that I might not be able to stay from the time I came here. The doctor thought I couldn’t ‘endure to the end’, as professor Stevens says in prophecy.”

Betty shook her head. “You even try to make sad times humorous.”

Chapter 5

Johnny
stood with her as they watched the pickup truck until it turned the corner and was out of sight. She wished he could wrap his arms around her to comfort her, but the Bible college had a ‘do not touch’ on campus rule.

“I know I can’t replace her, but I will stick with you if you want me to.”

Betty sucked in her breath. “Okay, that would be nice.”

He took a risk and patted her roughly on the back. “I have found that I do care for you. One day, I hope you will care for me
, too. When that day comes, I will ask you to marry me.”

She turned with tears flowing down her cheeks. “You are everything I have always needed.”

“Consider yourself engaged.”

“Okay.”

The bell rang out through the quiet town, indicating the start of the daily chapel service. Johnny and Betty entered the building and took seats toward the back. The students were required to leave an empty chair between them during  chapel. Betty usually sat with Trudy, so sitting with Johnny caused some of the girls to talk.

Soon, her roommates started rumors
about her. They told that she was a flirt and liked to break up couples. Tight friendships had been formed within the dorm before Trudy left. Now, no one seemed interested in befriending her. Her roommates took different classes and their schedules hardly ever placed them in the room at the same time. Because of the school rules, there was a lot of time that Betty was alone.

The teachers at the school were kind. She
identified mostly with the elderly women cooks. They were sweet German ladies who patiently showed her the duties she must do in the kitchen. They shared their recipes from the old country and joked with her about her boyfriend.

Her cheeks felt hot as Johnny
entered the dining hall early and walked her through to the front of the line. She always had to be at the front so that she could get through before the others finished. As it was, dishes were stacked up each day when she got to her post at the commercial dishwashing machine.

They sat at the end of one of the long tables and he brushed his fingers across her hand as she reached for her napkin. “You look real pretty today.”

“Oh, I don’t.”

“Bet, just say ‘thanks’. It’s okay to take a compliment. It doesn’t mean that you are stuck on yourself.”

“But we aren’t supposed to think more highly of ourselves than we ought,” she explained.

“And we aren’t supposed to be ungrateful either. You are a very pretty girl and the guy that likes to look at your face wants you to know that he enjoys the view. Just say, ‘Thank you ever so much,
Johnny’.”

She grinned at him and used her most elaborate Southern drawl, “Thank you ever so much, sir.”

“Why, you’re welcome, little lady.”

“The food is pretty good today.”

“Yep. Some of the guys and I are going to play football in the park after we finish afternoon detail. Would you come watch me? I don’t have anyone to cheer for me when I make a good tackle and stuff.”

“Are you sure?”

“Does this mean you will go?”

“Yes. I’ll watch you.”

“You will have to holler some, too.”

“Okay, I will yell for you. Good grief! You are getting bossy.”

Warmth of the afternoon sun shown on the ever-present autumn leaves almost turning them into lanterns shining across the grassy field in the park. One of the frequent players of this rag tag football team stood with crutches watching from the sideline and yelling instructions to his teammates. Betty noticed that several stood beside him with various injuries.

Why haven’t I noticed all the arms in slings and knee wraps before this? When did Gary break his leg?
She studied the faces of the wounded and determined that they were third and fourth year students. There was no reason for her to know them well because they had no real interaction.
Surely I should have noticed in the cafeteria.

Johnny
saw her and yelled across the freshly mown lawn. “Hey, watch this!”

She waved and sat on the ground with her legs crossed.
It was fun watching the young men on the attack for the prize of a small football. Soon each player was covered in mud from the end zones. It seemed that it didn’t matter if the runner made the touchdown, the others chased him and took him to the mud hole to make him pay for the points he earned. All of them laughed at the ‘baptism of mud’ as they called it.

Johnny
looked to have gotten more than his share of dunking when he ran up to her and reached for her to give him a hug.

“Oh
, no, you don’t. I brought you a towel. Trudy warned me about this silly tradition.”

“That’s okay ‘cause I wouldn’t want to get your little
overalls all dirty. How did my little ‘suspender girl’ enjoy the game?”

“It was fun. I lost track of the score.”

His frown cracked the dried mud on his face. “I’ll have you know that us men never lose track of any score. I mean, I could tell you the score from three weeks ago!”