The Widow's Choice (2 page)

A laugh bubbled up out of his throat, and as he held her
pinioned with his face inches from hers, he winked playfully and said, “I’ve got great plans for you, beautiful.”

“Save your strength for the ball game,” she teased, scrambling out of his grasp and to her feet.

Truman swung his legs out of the bed with an easy motion. “Hey,” he said, grabbing her again. “Come back here. I don’t need to pitch till this afternoon.”

Alona laughed and ruffled his hair. “If you win, I may have a reward for you tonight.” She winked. “Now, hurry up and get down to breakfast.”

She went back to the kitchen, where she found Buddy, their six-month-old collie, waiting for her at the screen door. “Hello, Buddy. Come on in.” She opened the door, and he came in, jumped up on her, and tried to lick her face. “Get down, Buddy! I don’t have time to fool with you.” The dog whined, as he always did when he didn’t get his way. His coloring was a beautiful mahogany on white. Truman had bought him for her birthday, and they had all spoiled him to distraction. The boys often stopped by the butcher to beg bones for him, and Alona put an egg in his food once in a while to keep his coat glossy. Buddy still hadn’t gotten down, so she reached out and tapped his hind foot with the toe of her shoe. “Get down now.”

Buddy yelped, dropped to all fours, and looked up at her with a comical, reproachful look. He whirled and went over to his corner, where he lay down, facing the wall. It was something he did every time his feelings got hurt. “You’re too sensitive, Buddy.” He refused to look around at her, so she tore a fragment of the roast from the night before and took it over to him. “If you’ll be sweet, I’ll give you this meat.” Instantly Buddy turned around, sat up, and begged as they had taught him. She gave him the meat, patted his silky hair, and said, “Now, I’ve got work to do.”

****

Truman chewed a huge mouthful of scrambled eggs mixed
with bacon and winked across at the boys. “Your ma is a terrible cook, but no matter, boys, just try your best to keep it down.”

“Ah, Dad, Mom isn’t a terrible cook!” Tim protested. He was ten, the oldest of the boys, with light brown hair and blue eyes. His face was quite thin and sensitive. It was not for nothing he was called a mama’s boy, for he worshiped his mother.

Zachary, who sat next to him, was two years younger. He had brown hair and brown eyes, and was already showing signs of the same rangy strength that his father had. He was good at sports and good with his hands, and if he was afraid of anything, nobody ever found out about it. “Dad’s just kidding, Tim. Don’t you know anything?”

“I think you’re a good cook!” Six-year-old Carl had blond hair, bright blue eyes, and an insatiable curiosity. He had an imaginary friend named Hootie that was very real to Carl. Even now he turned and said, “Hootie, you’d better have some of these eggs.”

“Too late! I’m havin’ the rest of ’em myself,” Truman spouted, spooning out the last of the eggs. “You’ll have to give Hootie a biscuit.”

“There’s no such person as Hootie!” Zac told his younger brother.

“There is too!” Carl insisted.

“Well, why can’t I see him?”

“Because he doesn’t want you to.”

The two boys argued until Zac finally intervened. “Pa, when you asked the blessing, you prayed for everything, but you forgot to ask God to let you win the ball game today.”

Tim was puzzled by this. “Dad, you don’t think God cares about who wins baseball games, do you?”

“Why, He does too care!” Carl said argumentatively. “You think God doesn’t know about baseball?”

The two argued back and forth, and finally Alona spoke
up. “Children, stop arguing. I’m not sure that the Lord is really concerned about the score of some baseball game.”

“Why, of course he is,” Truman said, his eyes dancing. “I don’t want you teachin’ these boys bad theology, wife.”

Alona was accustomed to Truman’s teasing. He was a fine Christian man, although his Christianity was somewhat unconventional. Sometimes he would even tease during the blessing, thanking God for every item on the table, including the salt and pepper shakers and the plates they were eating from. It was a side of him that she loved, although she pretended to dislike it.

“What kind of stuff will they be havin’ at the celebration, Dad?” Tim asked.

“Well, let’s see. I guess there are going to be all kinds of races and contests later this morning—three-legged race, shoe-kicking contest, watermelon-spitting contest—and then there’ll be lots of boring patriotic speeches about how great the politicians are.” Truman shrugged.

“Don’t you talk like that, Truman. We live in a great country, and I want our family to always be proud of our heritage.” She turned to the boys. “You know that before I married your father I was a Winslow, and the first Winslow in this country was a man named Gilbert who came all the way over from England. And ever since then there have been Winslows in the Revolutionary War, in the War of 1812, in the Civil War. Why, one of our family was an ace in the Great War! You need to be proud of the men and women who bore that name.” She felt strongly about this, proud of being a Winslow. It was one of the griefs of her life that she lived far away from the other members of the family and had never been able to be close to her relatives—or Truman’s, for that matter.

Truman winked at the boys. “Well, I’ve been afraid to look back and see who my ancestors were. I’d prob’ly find a bunch of horse thieves. If you boys are done, why don’t you go out and play. I’m gonna show your mama how to wash the dishes.”

The boys carried their dishes to the sink and then ran outside, their sounds of gleeful yelling barely muted inside the kitchen.

“You don’t have to help with the dishes, Truman.”

“Why, shoot—I do it so much better’n you do,” he said solemnly. “I’ve been meanin’ to talk to you about your dish washin’. It’s such a shame. Here, let me show you how a real dish washer operates.”

Alona laughed at his teasing. She was glad that Truman had never been afraid to help her with housework or to change diapers when the boys were babies. She didn’t know of too many other men like that. It was her opinion that men who were afraid of such things were in grave doubt about their own masculinity.

As they washed the dishes, Truman became serious. “I forgot to tell you yesterday I got a promotion at work. We’ll be makin’ more money now. We’ll be able to buy some things for the house.”

Alona stopped washing and looked at him. “What will you be doing? Not handling explosives?”

“Why, sure. That’s what you do in a quarry. It pays more.”

“I wish you wouldn’t do it, Truman. It’s such dangerous work.”

“Now, Alona, it’s all I can find, and we need the money. Don’t worry. I won’t get hurt.”

She did not answer, but her brow was wrinkled as they finished washing the dishes.

After the last dish was dried, Truman hugged his wife tightly and kissed her. “I’ll go out and play with those no-account sons of yours. We should leave about quarter to eleven, I guess. I think the games start at eleven.”

He went outside, whistling as he went, and she watched through the screen door as he ran toward his three sons, grabbed Zachary, and fell to the ground. The other boys plunged into the fray, yelling and screaming, and as Alona watched them, she felt a warm glow. She was proud of her
family, but she was worried about Truman working at such a dangerous occupation.

She stepped outside and sat down on the back stoop. As she did, a raucous sound came from the sky, and she looked up and saw an enormous flock of crows passing overhead, filling the sky. Truman pulled himself away from his sons and came over to sit down beside her. “I’ve never seen so many crows,” she commented. “There must be thousands of them.”

“Yeah, it’s gonna be a raincrow summer.”

“A raincrow summer? What kind of a summer is that?”

“You’ve never heard of a raincrow summer? Shucks, I thought everyone knew about that.” He looked up at the sky for a moment, then shrugged. “When you get big flocks of crows like that bunch it means the winter is gonna be bad—lots of rain and cold. My grandma Jewell always said it was a bad sign. She claimed that a raincrow summer meant something really bad was comin’—not just bad weather.”

“Oh, that’s foolish!”

“I reckon so—but the old folks had wisdom that we ain’t got these days.” He turned to face her and saw that she was worried. “Aw, shoot, Alona, you’re right. A bunch of crows, that’s all they are.” He sprang to his feet, pulled her up, and hugged her. “Don’t forget about that reward for winning this ball game.”

Alona smiled, but she looked up at the sky, which was still filled with crows. She didn’t believe in such things, but there seemed to be something evil about the birds as they fled across the sky.
It doesn’t mean anything—just superstition!
she told herself sternly.

****

The boys sat beside Alona in the stands, cheering and screaming every time Truman pitched. She had learned a little about baseball herself and had come to admire the lazy grace with which Truman threw the ball. He had a deceptive windup that made it look as if he were just going to toss the
ball. No matter how lazy his windup looked, when the ball left his hand, it seemed to explode. He had struck out nine men already, and the Mountaineers were leading three to nothing.

All during the game a large boy and a big man, apparently the boy’s father, sat on the front bench, directly in front of Alona and the boys. They were rooting for the other team, and the man’s language was so bad Alona finally had to speak to him. “Would you mind not using such language, sir?”

“If you don’t like my language, sit somewhere else,” the man grunted. The red-faced man with veins in his nose and inflamed eyes had obviously been drinking. His son, who looked to be about thirteen, was keeping up a running stream of invectives against Truman, and finally Zac had had enough.

“You shut up about my father!”

“Your old man ain’t worth spit!” the boy said and turned around. He had small piggish eyes and was fat but muscular too.

Zac, with his hair-trigger temper, threw himself at the bigger boy. It seemed a hopeless contest, but Zac managed to overturn the boy, and the two fell in the dust.

“Beat his head in, son!” The big man laughed.

The boy struck Zac directly in the face, knocking him over backward. The big boy went after him, fists flailing, but as he did, Tim jumped into the fight, and Zac managed to get up, and now he and his brother were both pounding on the boy.

With a curse the big man jumped down and grabbed Tim by the arm, slapped him in the face, and then made a grab at Zac.

“Truman!” Alona yelled, and she saw Truman break from the mound and come flying across the field just as the big man caught Zac in the chest with his fist and knocked him down.

Truman seized the big man and shouted, “You keep your hands off my boys!”

“I’ll break your face!” the man yelled. He drew back his fist, but Truman was ready. With the same motion he used on the pitcher’s mound—one that looked almost lazy but
was deceitful in its power—Truman delivered a punch to the man’s midsection. It sounded like a bass drum being hit, and the man fell over backward, his mouth opening as he gasped for breath. Truman looked down at him and grinned. “When you get up, I’ll do it to you again.”

By this time the umpire was over there too, shouting, “You’re out of the game, Jennings!”

“Fine with me,” Truman said cheerfully. He stood looking down at the fallen man and then reached over and helped him up. “Let’s shake hands. No sense spoilin’ the Fourth of July.”

The big man was finally regaining his breath in hoarse, agonizing gasps. He pulled his arm away roughly and muttered, “Come on, son,” and lumbered off.

“Well, he didn’t have to be so rude about it,” Truman remarked. “Are you okay, boys?” he asked his sons as he inspected a reddening spot on Zac’s face.

“I’m fine, Dad,” he said.

“Me too,” Tim added.

“All right then. Let’s go get somethin’ to eat.”

“This here restaurant’s a good one,” Truman said. The family was seated at a table, waiting to order. “You can tell this is a good restaurant by the calendars.”

The boys all looked around. “How can you tell what the food’s like by looking at calendars, Dad?” Carl inquired.

“The more calendars, the better the food in a restaurant. I’ve been meanin’ to teach you boys that. Now, you take a restaurant with no calendar at all on the wall, and you might as well forget that one. The food will probably make you sick. If you got one calendar, it’ll be so-so. But look at this place. They got four calendars. The food’s gonna be great here. It never fails.” He opened the menu, then shook his head. “Sure is expensive to eat in here,” he remarked. “Look at these prices!”

The boys all wanted hamburgers. Truman ordered a barbecued pork sandwich, and Alona ordered a bacon, lettuce,
and tomato sandwich. The hamburgers were big and juicy, and the French fries, which they baptized in plenty of ketchup, were hot and crunchy. They washed them down with red Nehi sodas, and Truman left a quarter tip for the waitress. “We’re livin’ high, honey.” He winked at Alona. “Now, let’s go see about that movie.”

They walked down the block to the Majestic Theater, where
Flash Gordon Conquers Mars
was playing. Truman paid for the tickets—ten cents for the boys, twenty-three cents for the adults—and they marched inside. After buying popcorn, they went in and found seats. For the next hour they watched Flash Gordon battle the Merciless Ming, and Alona smiled every time the boys cheered, Truman cheering right along with them. They watched a newsreel showing a man with a silly-looking mustache and Babe Ruth hitting three home runs in one game and then cartoons.

As they left the theater, they could hear that the fireworks were starting. They hurried to find a good place to watch and oohed and ahhed with the crowds of people watching. After the grand finale was over, Tim took his mother’s hand and said, “This was the best Fourth of July ever!”

“I wish every day was the Fourth of July,” Zachary said.