Montana (Modern Mail Order Bride Book 2) (11 page)

I want some babies, too
.

T
he McKinley rooster was right on time with the rising of the sun.  Groans and moans came from waking bodies, crying babies and fussing mothers as the men rose to put on boots and set to work on raising the barn walls for Jeb McKinley. Billy Joe ran a dry toothbrush across his teeth then took a quick swig from a jug of drinking water on the table.  Mouth full of water, he opened the tent flap and spit outside.

“The house is over to the right. Her name is Molly and she’s a very nice lady,” he told Pecola.

Pecola had his black Stetson in her hand as she walked over to the tent flap to kiss him goodbye.  It was a brief kiss, nothing special added to it, and he tilted his hat and headed out.  She watched her husband stop at the back of his truck to grab a large toolbox.  Firm legs carried him across the plain to meet up with the other menfolk. Since she had never seen anything like it, she pulled one of the chairs outside of the tent and took a seat. Words floated in front of her face as the sun peeked over the horizon.  Men in varying shapes and sizes greeted each other.  The round-bellied man in the center of the pack must have been Jeb, and he gave orders to the gathering crowd.  About 30 men were present with their families.  She even spotted the familiar forms of Kovey and Pap as the men pulled lumber from the large truck and placed it on the ground.  Half of the men worked on the right side, the other half of the erecting crew on the left.

It barely took an hour with 30 men working to have all four frames laid out and hoisted in the air for joining.  Billy Joe was easy to spot in the crowd.  His muscles strained against the cotton of his shirt as he pulled on the rope, calling out the cadence as the men raised the right side of the wall.  The back wall came up followed by a hammer which was heard as the friends worked furiously to connect the two pieces. 

Three hours in, the two sides of the barn were up.  Pecola’s bladder was screaming and she had no choice but to make her way to the farmhouse.  The lights were on, welcoming all with the sweet smell of cinnamon cookies or cinnamon buns drifting through the screen door to greet her. She tapped on the frame of the well-worn door.  The woman in the kitchen turned, saw Pecola, and screamed.

This scared Pecola and she screamed, too.  The men came running and she was two seconds from releasing her bladder on the spot. Billy Joe was at her side.  “What’s wrong, Honey?”

“She screamed and scared me, which made me scream.  I only came to use the bathroom, but goodness...,” she said holding her chest.

Almost everyone had stopped doing whatever they had been working on since sunrise to come over and see what was happening.  Billy Joe made the introductions. “Molly, this here’s my wife, Pecola.”

Mary Megan bust through the crowd, “Hey there, Pecola!  Needing to whee a little, heh?”

“Nice to meet you Molly; I was hoping I could use the little girl’s room?” Pecola asked.  Molly was still standing there with her mouth open.

“Don’t mind my sister none; she ain’t never left Montana, so you may be her very first one,” Mary Megan said.

“Her first what?” Pecola asked with some attitude in her voice.

“Black person.  She ain’t never seent one of you before,” she whispered. Pecola turned to look at the crowd.  It was obvious many of them hadn’t either.  “Come on, sweetheart, I will show you to the bathroom.”

Pecola smiled at the woman as she walked past her in the small kitchen.  The house was moderately clean. The living room held nothing more than a flat screen, a coffee table, and two chairs.  One of the chairs had the permanent indent of Jeb’s rather large ass imprinted in it.  Her eyes took in every detail of the house as she entered the tiny bathroom that smelled of lemon cleaner and bleach.  Not enough bleach could have ever been used to kill the yellow stains on the toilet seat or the ring of mold around the bathtub caulk, and those details were important to Pecola. 

Another important detail was that she was not going to sit on that toilet seat.  This tidbit she did share with Molly in case the woman wanted to change it out after she had used it.  People could be strange about some things.  She returned to the kitchen to find a calmer Molly standing there, but Pecola wanted no part of her.

“Thank you so much,” she said.  On the small back porch, she was greeted by what looked like every third person in the county.

“Everyone, this here’s my wife, Pecola.  She’s from Brooklyn, New York,” Billy Joe said with pride.  “I know you all are going to make her feel welcome and loved.”

Someone in the crowd asked, “Can I touch her hair?”

“No!  You may not!  She is not a pet, George Miller.  I know that’s you back there,” Billy Joe yelled over the crowd.  He couldn’t say anything more as a hand grabbed her and began to tug her off the porch.  Hands came at her touching her skin and someone did touch her hair while a little red headed boy ran over to grab her hand.

A little imp with freckles pushed through the crowd. “Look, Mama, I am touching the black lady!”

“Whose child is this?” Pecola asked aloud. A very protective Billy Joe jumped into the middle of the crowd, pushing people away.

“Okay folks, we still have two more sides to get up as well as half of the floor if we’re going to get to some dancing tonight,” he called out. “Let’s get moving. Break time is over.”

A grumbling voice called Billy Joe a taskmaster.  She recognized one of the men from the wedding, the one who molested her shoe.  “Hey, I want my shoe back!”  She said to the man who darted into the throng of people and disappeared.

“You okay, Honey?”

“I’m fine. I do think someone groped me, but I’m okay.  It all felt like a typical subway ride on a Friday evening,” she said with a smile.

“I’m sorry.  I thought with as much as Mary Megan gossiped, it would be no surprise to anyone today,” he said.

“Telling people about a scary monster is not the same as coming face to face with one.  If you look behind us, Molly is still in the screen door staring at me.  I told her my ass never actually touched her toilet seat,” she said.

Billy Joe’s eyebrows shot up, “You didn’t?”

“I garunbetcha I did,” she told him.

The two of them stood in the morning sun, laughing at something only they understood.  Life for the plain plains people was about to change.

I
t was a slow walk back to their tent as she paid close attention to every weed, wildflower, and blade of grass in the field.  Her eyes combed the horizon, taking a closer look at all the tents of the people who had come over to help Jeb raise the barn.  It was a social time for the community.  Babies could be heard crying as mothers gathered the kids close while others played games of horse shoe or lay on blankets with coloring books and checkers. Idyllic was the right word to call it.

Mary Megan began to bellow orders and every available woman calling each down to the area closest to the barn.  A medium sized tent arose next to the structure. Pecola had no idea what she needed to do, but she grabbed her gloves and the hammer she had used to drive in the stakes for their tent and headed down.

“Pecola, I want you to drive the stakes in and tie off the draw ropes,” Mary Megan told her. 

“On it,” Pecola called back.  A rather big-chested brunette in shorts that left little to the imagination came over to lend her a hand.

“Hey, there.  I’m Joanna.  Joanna McFie,” she told her.

“Pecola...,” she had to pause as she gathered her thoughts, “Pecola Johnson.  Billy Joe’s wife.”

“I heard,” Joanna told her as she grabbed the rope.  She cinched off the end, tying it to the stake as they moved down the line to drive the next piece of metal and tie that one off as well.

“I tried to date Billy Joe, but it didn’t work out.  I mean I tried as hard as I could to get that man, but once he gets a notion in his head, ain’t no turning him away,” she confessed to Pecola.

“You two dated for a while?” she asked, truly wanting to know if this woman was her husband’s type.

“Naw, I never could understand a word he was saying...all about retreats and lodges and stuff.  He even talked about some
New York Times
writer stuff, but I didn’t understand it,” she said, tying off the next line.

“I mean, Pecola, is that your name?”  She asked, not giving Pecola a chance to respond before continuing, “I tried to Google the things he was talking about so I could, you know, act like I understood, but I didn’t.”

Pecola was uncertain what to say to her, so she changed the subject with small talk. “Joanna, what is it you do?”

“I’m a teacher,” she said.

This was a shock to Pecola. “May I ask what you teach?”

“I mean, I am really nothing more than a glorified babysitter at the elementary school.  My official title is teacher’s aide, but I thought, since I was in the education field like Billy Joe, that we would hit it off and all...but we didn’t.”  She was looking a Pecola with a peculiar stare.  “Are you smart and went to college and stuff like he did?”

“Are you asking if I went to college like Billy Joe?”

“Yeah, is that where you two met, at his college?”

“Yes, we did,” Pecola lied.

“You like to read books and stuff, too?”

“I love to read as well as write,” she added.

“Yeah, when I saw you, I figured you had to be something special for him to marry you.  I can’t tell you how many of us tried to win that man.  He’s such a gentleman too.  Alice Fay tried one time to give him a BJ after a dance when he gave her a ride home.  She was all drunk and stuff, or so she said, but he wouldn’t let her do it.”  She eyed Pecola.  “He’s funny like that about sex.  If he don’t like you, he won’t sex you.”

“That’s good to know,” Pecola told her with some discomfort.

“None of us, outside of maybe one or two in high school who spent some time with him, know what he is like in that department,” Joanna told her.  “I bet he is hella good in the sack.”

Pecola was becoming very uncomfortable with the turn in conversation when a raven-haired woman in a loose fitting pair of jeans walked up. “Joanna, I know you are not bothering Billy Joe’s wife with your stories of unrequited love.  You are going to have to get over it; he’s married now.  You will never have him.”

The interruption was a welcome break for Pecola. Joanna didn’t care for it at all. She was on a fact-finding mission and there were things she needed to know.

“Awww, Avery, you ruin everything.  I just had one question,” Joanna leaned in.  “Pecola, what does he like you to call him when you two are alone?”

It was too much.  It was far too intimate of a question from someone she didn’t even know.  It was also far too great of an opportunity to pass up.

“Joanna, I can’t say it out loud,” she said and pretended to be embarrassed.

This brought the big buxom woman even closer. “I swear I won’t tell a soul, Pecola.  My hand to the Lord,” Joanna said with her hand was pointing down to the ground.

Pecola wanted to play devil’s advocate with the devil’s advocate, “You sure you won’t tell a soul, Joanna?  I mean, right now, you are my only friend in Montana. I just don’t know if I should say it out loud.”

It came out so sweet and pure that even Avery’s eyes were wide when Joanna responded. “I tell you, Pecola, it is so hard to find a good friend that you can confide in, but I am here for you.”

Avery started to cough.  The spark flashing in Pecola’s eyes made Avery pause. It was a feeble attempt to hold back the laughter that she knew was going to bubble up.

“Okay, Joanna, I am trusting you,” Pecola told her.  She sidled up closer to the woman, saying it loud enough for Avery to hear.  “When we are alone...he likes me to call him...” she paused, covering her cheeks as if she were embarrassed.  “He likes me to call him William!”  She exclaimed, nodding her head to accentuate the statement.

Joanna’s mouth was wide.  “You don’t say?  Is that his sexy name he likes you to use?”

Pecola nodded her head yes.

“Your sexy secret is safe with me,” Joanna told her. For some odd reason, she had to run off, leaving Avery and Pecola standing alone.

Avery could not allow it to pass. “You do know she is going to tell everyone in earshot don’t you?”

“I’m counting on it,” she said.

The two ladies laughed, Avery louder than Pecola.  “I can’t wait to see the look on his face when everyone starts calling him William tonight at the dance.  That is going to piss him the hell off!”

“I know right!” Pecola laughed harder.

She turned to the lady. “I’m Pecola. Billy Joe’s wife.”

“I am Avery Johnson, Billy Joe’s cousin, which I guess makes you my cousin now, too,” she said with a smile.

“Nope, it makes us best friends,” Pecola told the young woman.

“I could sure use one of those,” Avery said to her. And that is how the relationship began between two women whose lives would be forever intertwined.

T
he tent went up just before eleven and the men began to take breaks from the hot morning sun.  All four sides of the barn were up and sweaty bodies wandered into to the tent for ice cold cups of unsweetened tea and too sweet lemonade.  Cookies and baked goods were on the table when Molly herself came over to speak with Pecola.