Once Upon a Misty Bluegrass Hill (12 page)

From there they had
completed her home with
bedding and towels for the kitchen and bathrooms. 

Jolene, in turn, immediately started working at the barn helping to take care of the horses.  She took care of Storm since Bernie had such problems with him.

"
Hey, that is my job!
"
  A
tiny
girl wi
th light brown hair in pigtails,
pink flowered rubber boots
and a printed cotton dress
with
bright orange tights
ran from the creek toward Jolene
.  A taller girl with chestnut colored hair and big brown eyes
trailed the little girl wearing a long purple
plaid
shirt and jeans with her own tall purple rubber boots
. 
"
Who are you?
"
 

They stopped and stared up at Jolene
. 
"
My name is Jolene
.
   And what
are
your names?
"

The
taller girl poked her chest, grinned and
push
ed
back a lock of her thick shiny hair
over her shoulder
. 
"
I am Bea and this is my sister Lacy.
"

The little girl jumped up and down. 
"
Her name is really Beatrix, but we call her Bea.
"
 

Bea crouched down to pet one of the hens. 
"
Why did you let them out before we got here?
"

Jolene bent down also. 
"
They are usually out when I come outside but they
were
not today.
  I felt sorry for them because they were calling to me as I walked by.
"

The smaller girl grinned, revealing missing front teeth. 
"
That
'
s because
we
always
let them out, but we were late because Bea stayed up too late reading last night and slept in.
"

The taller girl scowled down at the little one. 
"
It is your fault Lacy, because you had a tummy ache and couldn
'
t sleep…beside
s
you were reading too and you got us both into trouble with your big mouth!
"

"
I don
'
t have a big mouth
!  I
t is smaller than yours!
"
  Lacy turned on her booted foot popping her nose in the air and stomped away to chase the chickens.
 
"
You
are the one with the big flashlight that you didn
'
t turn off in time afor mamma got to the door.
"

Losing interest in the argument
Bea went to investigate a lo
o
se hinge on the
hen house
door. 
"
Did you feed them yet?
"
 

Jolene had not gotten that far yet. 
"
Well, actually no.
"

"
How about collecting the eggs
, did you do that part
?
"

Jolene peered through the henhouse door. 
"
Um, no.
"

Bea pulled a small screwdriver out
of
a
leather
pack hitched around her waist
and tightened a screw into the hinge.
 
"
The
chicken feed
is i
n the garden shed
over there.
"

Lacy
gave up chasing the hens
and
started running toward the little yellow wooden
shed
.  It was painted with flowers on the shudders just like the chicken house. 
"
I'll
get the food!
"

Jolene had noticed the
cute
shed and wondered about its origins.  It, nor the chicken house
,
were there when she lived on the farm.  The chicken house her father had built had been destroyed in the storm along with the barn. 
"
Did you paint the house?
"

Bea stood and examined her repair job thoughtfully. 
"
Yup.  We used stencils but did
a lot
of it free hand.
"

Patrick
emerg
ed from the barn. 
"
Fine job the
girls did didn
'
t they?
"

Lacy dropped her can of food and the chickens attacked the scattered corn.

Jolene smiled at Bea. 
"
Indeed, I wish I had her at Aunt Paula
'
s house, she probably could fix the screen better than I ever did.
"

"
Patrick
!
"
  The girls both shrieked and ran to
Patrick
nearly knocking him over in a competition for the biggest hug.

A scene from her childhood flitted across Jolene
'
s mind leaving behind a hollow hole in her heart.  She
used
to
run to her Daddy
just the same way
when she was really small
when
he
came in from working all day with the horses.  Then when she was older she got to go out with him
, which was even better
. 

Patrick
swung Lacy up in his arms and held Bea
'
s hand. 
"
How is the
schooling
goin
g
?
"

Lacy
'
s little mouth formed an exaggerated frown and her hazel
green
eyes affected as much sympathy as possible
. 
"
Boring.
"

Patrick
laughed. 
"
Well it
is a fine thing ye
r mother taking time to teach yer
so you donna have to ride the bus so far ta school and you help with the gardens and my hens.
"

Bea swung out
Patrick
'
s
free
arm and danced under
his elbow
in a ballroom step. 
"
We are going to DC with Dad next week.
"

"
All of yer
?
"
 
Patrick
set Lacy down and walked with them toward the hen house.

"
Yes and we are going to lots of museums while dad is working.
"

"
Boring!
"
  Lacy chimed in.

Bea tapped her sister
'
s head. 
"
It is not boring!
"

Patrick
laughed.  
"
Okay girls no
w
that is enough
of
that.  Let us go see the handy work Bea has done to repair the house.
"

Jolene watched them crouch in front of the hen door. 
"
I ain
'
t never been to DC, what is it like?
"
  Jolene asked.

Bea opened the hen door to wordlessly illustrate her repair job. 
"
A lot of historical buildings.  We toured the Capital building last time.
"
 

"
Bea
'
s and Lacy
'
s father is an Air
F
orce lawyer.
"

Jolene stepped forward. 
"
Oh. Wow.  Well my Daddy was in Vietnam a long time ago.
"

Patrick
stood up shaking his head. 
"
Wasted war, that.  War is a waste.
"

Jolene felt
a familiar
burn in her stomach
come to
a rising anger that made her want to scream at
Patrick
even
though
he had saved her from Aunt Paula and brought her home again
.

Such talk
always did that to her
.

Her father had a flag pole that he
erected at the end of their driveway long before she was born. 
Every day
he raised two flags.  The American flag and the black POW flag.  At night he took them down or put on the flood light. 

The flag pole and the flags were gone. 

They had been lost in the storm that took everything else.

"
My Daddy didn
'
t think it was a waste.  He said that we don
'
t know what would have happened with the
communists if we didn
'
t take a stand.
"
  Jolene felt the heat rise
across her face and neck
under
Patrick
'
s close
study
. 
"
Daddy said
the Russians
wasted resources on that war and
so
that helped win the cold war.
"
  Jolene hesitated, gathering strength under her words.
"
Daddy said
maybe with no Vietnam, they
'
d have kept marching across everywhere.
"

Patrick
looked thoughtful. 
"
Well that is an interesting notion.
"

"
My daddy had a flag pole with an American flag and a POW flag out there by the road.
"

Bea started to lift the nesting box lids and pluck out the eggs. 
"
We have a flag pole too!
"
  Bea
rolled the
eggs i
n her shirt. 
"
I am going up to the house to clean the eggs.
"

"
Go on then,
"
Patrick
s
aid.  
"
P
ack some up for your mum.
"

Patrick
walked closer to Jolene
,
his morning glory eyes intense on her face
. 
"
What about now Jolene
?
D
o you think America should have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan?
  Don
'
t you think
those were
a waste?
"

Jolene looked off in the distance
searching for words to match her feelings
.  She had thought about it a lot. 
She missed Flint more than anybody.  That was her greatest loss.  But then maybe Flint would have died no matter where he was when h
is
girlfriend dumped him like she did.

Timmy Johnson
had gone too
.  H
e was a Marine
.  He was back already with a wife and a new baby
. 
He had gotten an award for something he did there but didn
'
t talk about.

Tommy Parker helped her father on the farm.  He was a few years older than Jolene.  He died in Afghanistan
when his vehicle was hit by a road bomb
.   His parents were so proud of him
.  T
hey had his picture on a stone with a flag flying next to his image
.

Then there was
their own Bernie
Cox
who worked at the farm with Patrick
who lost his leg.  He had a new advanced
prosthetic
leg that even allowed him to run...they gave it to him at the
v
et
eran's
hospital just down the road toward Lexington. 
He
said
was going to run a marathon
as soon as he could work himself into being able to
.  Bernie didn't really ever seem to live with regret, in fact, he was mighty proud as far as she could see.