Authors: Ruth Ann Hixson
"Dad."
"I never noticed until now. I haven't been outside much. It's been work, sleep and try to keep some semblance of order in my house."
"I think he did it yesterday morning after he put the new tire on your car."
"When?"
"After we left for town."
"I must thank him. He must think I'm ungrateful." She pointed to the tree. "When do they get ripe?"
"About the middle of next month. Golden Delicious."
"I remember helping Gram pick them." She felt a nudge against her leg and looked down. "Laddie, why are you here?"
"Go home, Lad," Mark ordered. "You don't live here."
The dog wagged his tail and barked at Mark. He followed them to the house. Mark repeated his order to go home but Laddie ignored him and pushed ahead of Sherry to get inside.
"Let him stay," Sherry said. "You can take him home when you go to help with the milking."
Mark looked at his watch. "Which won't be very long." When he was ready to go, Mark called, "Come on, Laddie."
The dog lay down on the kitchen floor with his head on his paws, his eyes looking pleadingly at Mark. "Come on, Lad!" Mark opened the door.
Sherry giggled and walked to the door. "Here, Laddie."
Laddie jumped up and wagged his tail and followed her to the garage. Mark opened the door and snapped his fingers. "Up, Laddie."
Laddie went around behind Sherry who was barely containing her laughter. "Hold his collar," she told a frustrated Mark. She walked around the vehicle and opened the door. This time Laddie obeyed Mark's order. But when Sherry shut the passenger side door and Mark closed the driver's door, Laddie began to jump around and bark.
"Fooled you, old boy, didn't we?" Mark said. Sherry came to him and he kissed her. "I'll bring supper."
"I'm going to lie down and rest." She allowed him to kiss her again but when the kiss began to turn passionate, she drew back. "Go home, Mark."
"I'll be back when the milking's done." He opened the truck door and crawled in.
Sherry waved and turned back to the house. She had been up almost all day and she was beginning to realize that, in her injured condition, she didn't have the stamina of a couple days ago
She lay there thinking about Mark. How far should she allow their relationship to go? Though she liked him a lot she was certain she wasn't in love with him. She had promised herself a long time ago that she would not have an intimate relationship until her plans for college were fulfilled. She wasn't even near continuing her education.
She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep but Mark kept intruding into her thoughts. She folded her arms across her ribs and did some deep breathing exercises hoping it would relax her but it just made her hurt worse. She tried to think of the most pleasant place she had ever been. The beach where Will used to take her when her mom was working.
Will was the only one of Mom's boyfriends Sherry cared anything about. All the others were jerks. She had hoped Mom and Will would get married and she could have a father. But he simply disappeared. When she asked her mother about it she was told, "I kicked him out. He was getting too interested in you. He told me he loved you."
He had told Sherry he loved her like a daughter and that he was going to ask Alison to marry him. Sherry wondered if her mom had told another one of her lies. Sherry was disappointed not to have him in her life anymore. She made a mental note to ask her mother about it the next time she saw her.
The front doorbell rang and she struggled to sit up. Then she had to sit a moment for the pain to ease. The chimes sounded again. "I'm coming," she called. Just as she unbolted the door, the chimes rang again. Sherry was perturbed when she yanked the door open. "Mom!"
Alison shook the latch to the storm door and shouted, "Unlock it!"
Sherry reluctantly pushed the little catch that held the door locked and Alison pulled it open. Sherry stood with one hand on the door; one hand on the door facing. "What do you want, Mom?"
"Inside, for starters. I heard what happened and came to take care of you."
"Tell me the real reason you're here," she ordered.
"Roy put me out. I have no place to go except here."
"Why did he put you out?"
"He blames me for something Brian did."
"What did Brian do?"
"What's this, the inquisition?"
"Tell me," Sherry ordered. She was already tired of her mother's games though she'd been in the house less than a minute.
Alison shrugged. "He took Roy's key and broke in here last Sunday night. He hit Mark on the head. The cops arrested him yesterday. He's charged with breaking and entering and assault. They released him into Roy and Gail's custody."
It angered Sherry that her cousin had broken into her home and that he was the one who hit Mark on the head. She knew there was more to it than her mother was telling her. "Why did Uncle Roy think you are to blame? You darn well better tell me the truth."
Alison explained, "I called Sunday morning to find out if you were here. Brian answered. Roy and Gail and the two younger boys were at church. Brian was ready to go to work. He works at that convenience store. We talked a while about our money woes. I told him about those diaries Mom had. He said they were in a safe deposit box and the key wasn't found among her belongings. Then he said he had an idea. He said he had to go to work and hung up. I didn't know his idea was to break in here to try to find the key."
"I have the key," Sherry said. "And I have a letter from Gram dated July eleventh giving me the diaries. Gram said they should be kept in the family and that is what I intend to do. She also told me not to let you get your hands on them ever because you'd sell them.
"Now! You can stay until you can get a job and your own place. But this is my house and I make the rules. As long as you live under my roof you will follow my rules. Agreed?"
Alison hesitated. "Agreed."
"Okay. The first rule is no more lying. You lie; you go. Understand?"
"I understand."
"Come with me."
"Where?" Alison wondered.
"To the garage."
Alison followed her daughter to the garage."Pull your car in here." Sherry reached up to hit the blue button on the center post that supported the loft. She gasped in pain and placed her left hand over her right side. "I forgot I'm not supposed to reach up like that."
Alison did as she was told. "I hope you aren't going to make me keep my things in the garage like Roy did."
"Carry them to the living room." Sherry turned and went back to the kitchen where she set the teakettle on a burner and turned on the gas. She got a dish to fill it with the last of the chips. As she sat at the end of the table, her mother went back and forth carrying in bags and boxes of her belongings.
"Where do you want me to put them?" Alison asked as she came back to the kitchen. "Some of those dresses should be hung up."
"Right now we talk. Sit down while I make the tea." When Sherry turned around she saw that her mother had sat down at the end of the table. "That's my seat. I'm the head of this household." She needed to make a statement of who was in charge.
"Well, excuse me!" Alison got up and moved. "I hope you have something to eat. I haven't had anything since breakfast."
"Not much. Mark will bring supper when he comes back from helping with the milking."
"Mark Blakely? Is he living with you?"
"No. He stayed last night because I wasn't supposed to be alone." Sherry stirred sugar into her tea. "You can eat some of the potato chips for now. After we talk I'll see what I can find. First rule. No lying. I sleep on the daybed; you sleep on the mattress. You make a mess; you clean it up. No letting your dirty clothes lie around here or in the bathroom upstairs. There is a clothes basket in the downstairs bathroom. I don't have a washer and dryer so you must take your own clothes to the Laundromat."
Sherry paused to think. "No bringing men home. You must get a job and pay your own way. Once you have an income, you must find your own place. No taking money from my purse or I shall put you out. None of that music you play unless I am not home. I expect you to help with the things I cannot do for myself . That will gradually change as I heal. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. There are a couple eggs in a dish on the counter. You can make them for yourself until supper comes. I need you to help me get clean clothes so I can go take a shower. There is no shower curtain so you must direct the water toward the wall. It's a hand held shower head."
After Alison got Sherry's clothes from the plastic bins, Sherry slung her purse over her shoulder to go upstairs.
"Do you always take your purse with you to the bathroom?"
"No. I'm not fool enough to leave it where you can get your fingers on it." She turned and went upstairs. She knew her mother's presence would complicate things but she would have to deal with it. And she would have to deal with Mark. He would not be happy about the turn of events.
Why worry about it
? she asked herself.
He's not my lord and master
. She dried herself on the one towel she had and dressed in lavender sweat pants and a long-sleeved pastel plaid shirt. She squatted down to pick up her black sweats. It didn't cause her undue pain. Now she had a partial solution to the no-bending rule. With her purse strap over her shoulder, she carried her dirty clothes over her right arm while she rubbed her wet hair with the towel. Her comb was in the downstairs bathroom.
"Mom, do you have any towels?" She asked as she walked into the kitchen.
Alison sat at the table eating a scrambled egg sandwich with a glass of rehydrated powdered milk. "Yeah. You don't think I'd leave my good towels behind, do you? I'll get them after I eat."
Sherry went on through to drop her dirty clothes and the towel in the clothes basket. Then she combed out her wet hair.
Sherry sat down and munched on the potato chips that were left. She picked up her watch to check the time. "Mark won't be here for another hour. That gives us a chance to catch up. Why did you follow me here?"
Alison swallowed the last bite of her sandwich. "Is there any coffee?"
Sherry pointed to the coffeemaker on the counter. "You can make it. You'll have to use a paper towel for a filter. I don't generally drink coffee this late because I have trouble sleeping when I do."
While Alison made coffee she explained, "When you left I felt like I had been abandoned. You know how much I depend on you."
"Mom, you're almost forty. Don't you think it's time you grow up and take responsibility for yourself? I left because I had to. The buzz on the street was that I was being targeted for gang rape after I left that gang leader moaning in the alley. You know what happened at the restaurant that night. You know what happened to Maurice because he warned me. They tortured him and left him to die. I couldn't stay. That letter from Gram's lawyer was a Godsend. I just packed up and left."
"I had to leave, too. The last thing I did before leaving Newark was to stop at a pay phone and call NYPD to tell them Herb is dealing drugs. Then I threw my cell phone in the Delaware so he couldn't call me or trace me here. I made sure the post office understood not to give out my forwarding address. If he ever finds out I turned him in, I'm dead. When I found out what he was doing, I knew I had to do what was right no matter what."
"Herb is a jerk. How did you ever get mixed up with him anyway?"
"I borrowed money from him. He kept coming in the restaurant just to see me. He's handsome, charming and he always seemed to have a lot of money to spend. He said he had a job in Manhattan. I was fool enough to believe him."
"If I ever see him again, I'm going to teach him what I know about karate," Sherry declared. "He walked into my room naked one morning and got in bed with me."
"That's why you put a bolt on your door."
"I had to. I already had enough problems with that gang that was trying to move into our neighborhood. I just wanted to get out of Newark. I did that. Now I have a different set of problems here. I have no clue why Elena has targeted me. She's just crazy. I heard some of what Chad told Mark yesterday. She fought back with two state troopers. She's insane."
"Are you talking about Chad Wertman?"
"Yes, he's a state trooper now."
"What's Mark do for a living? He can't possibly be just a farmer."
"He's an agricultural engineer, but for now, he teaches Ag Tech down at the high school. He still helps his father on the farm though."
"Those two used to be little troublemakers."
"Speaking of angels," Sherry said as she saw the flash of headlights against the window.
Alison got up to pour herself a mug of coffee and remained standing by the sink. Sherry stood up as a knot of apprehension tightened inside her.
Mark came in without knocking, carrying a box of food. "Sherry, who's car is parked in the garage?"
Alison answered, "Mine."
Mark set the box on the counter. "Hello, Alison," he began warily. "I heard you were back in town."
"I came out to take care of my baby."
Sherry winced inwardly when her mother called her "baby."
"I'm taking care of Sherry," Mark informed her.
"Now that Mom's here, you can go home. Do you want us to have the food anyway?"
"Ye-es. Sherry, I'm staying."
Sherry's patience evaporated. "Fine! Then stay! But you'll have to sleep with Mom. I'm sleeping on the daybed."
Mark's eyes widened and his mouth opened but no sound came out.
Alison assumed a sexy pose and wiggled her body suggestively. "It would be nice to have a sexy young stud in my bed."
Mark's mouth went shut to open again. "In your dreams." He wheeled around, grabbed his briefcase from the table and stalked out, slamming the door.
"Mark!" Sherry grabbed his cell phone, unplugged the charger and ran after him. "Mark."
He was getting in his truck but he turned around. "What?"
"You forgot your cell phone." She placed it in his hand. "I'll need the garage door remote for Mom."