Alright, boys, put your back into it. What do you mean he'll be here at eight? And I'm giving a speech?" Wayne said, looking over at Doc Hatfield and Whitmore. "We have a problem," Wayne said, pulling out the paper he got two days ago, which had slipped his mind from everything happening.
"You've got to be joking, today of all days."
"Nope," Sheriff Downing replies.
"Man, when it rains, it pours," Doc Hatfield said, puffing air out of his mustache as he twisted the corners of it. "Well, if he wants to dance, let's give him one," Doc said, staring at the foundation of one of the barracks. "We'll just have it right here, find some lights, hang a canvas. Make a little shindig, send him on his way," as they pat Wayne on his back. "Heck, why tell him," as they smiled and looked around. "Right, boys?"
"Yes, Doc, we'll just say farmer's code, that's all," they said.
"We'll stick him, Doc," the nurse said, holding the needles as the boys held the scrub brushes and laughed.
"My wife has a new pair of overalls for him, right, boys?" Another man said, Grinning ear to ear.
"Yes, sir."
"Swing your partner around and around fer Judge Parker is comen' into town. Yee haw."
The Sheriff and the boys meet him at the gate. "Hello, Judge, nice evening,' wouldn't ya say?" The boys looked side to side.
"Grab him, boys," as Aunty M. whistled.
Brad yelled. "What's the meaning of this? Ouch, that smarts, hey. OH MY!" As he turned bright, bright red.
"Alright, dear. You can go inside now. Dinner will be ready in two hours; don't be late," his wife said.
"Yes, dear," he grumbled, rubbing his hip after feeling like a pincushion.
"Please sign in here," Granny said as Brad watched a shotgun pass him by, and as the gate closed and locked behind him with a sign swinging underneath, said quarantine.
QUARANTINE!" Judge Parker yelled at the top of his lungs. "Sheriff Downing!" But he only got the wind instead while he watched the buildings being built going on in the distance and the farm up the road a half mile; a sign on a pole said, "Welcome to Cracken Villa," then another, "Clean Zone Downing Farm."
Gate closed where the Sheriff and his boys are headed with shotguns, pacing up and down the road. Judge Parker looked back towards Downing Villa. Ned and the boys smile. "Nope, don't think ya wanna do it, Judge." Held up another scrub brush and second needle, "By orders, it's not safe there," whispered, "Too many unknowns down there," rubbing chills down his arms, giving him the willys. "In fact, Granny has gone to Joe and won't touch the moonshine, no, sir. Nope." Watch him shake his head, pointing at her on the porch, sitting on the farm peeling potatoes for sup.
Judge swallowed hard as if he heard someone scream down the road at Downing Villa. "Nah, just shadows," watching the Judge head quickly to the farm. Judge Parker looked side to side, jumping at his own shadow as it passed him by. "Boo."
Wayne and the boys meet, gather around the table in the house, and go down the list of supplies needed to build the New Downing Villa. "Boys, we're short," Wayne said, looking at the wood outside, running the figures. "I don't have enough to build with, don't have enough mattresses or way to make them," Wayne said, pulling himself off the stool and pouring himself a cup of Joe. "Doc, this isn't half bad once ya get used to it; kind of got an extra kick to it," he said as he swallowed his third cup.
Aunty M. stretched, looked at Doc for a minute, and got up from the stool. "Wayne, I have been meanen' to tell ya something," she said, looked down at the ground, pulled something out of her purse, hands him a piece of paper. Wayne unfolds it reads: You now own 15 percent of a lumber mill, 15 percent of a sheep ranch and cattle steer ranch, 15 percent of a cotton farm—part of an inheritance. Wayne nearly collapsed onto the floor as Doc and the boys catch him. "I want you to have it. It was a baby shower gift and congratulatory pre-adoption present from me and the boys," she said. She placed the stool underneath him, slapped him hard on the back, knocking the wind right out of him, then sat back down in her seat, grinning ear to ear, sipping her Joe.
After a few coughs and sputters, he looked up out the window, slapped his knee, went over, picked her up off the stool, and swung her around laughing like a schoolboy. "Well, I'll be a monkey with ya any day of the week." He dragged her down the hall to Martha, unlocked the door, and showed her and the boys what Aunty M. had done. Martha gave her the biggest kiss and thanked her.
Wayne quickly locked her in the room with the boys to keep her safe except for one. Aunty M. had a pretty good idea about that one too, but she smiled and whispered in his ear, "Just sleep and rest, my boy. It is almost time, dear," wiped the sweat off his face. Then, seeing the worry on the boy's and Martha's faces, she tells them who he's waiting for, and watching their faces go white, she laughs. "No, dears. Not his time; it's not time yet; he still has work to do." Then, she sits on the bed next to him and waits and asks. "Are you boys any good at shaving sheep?" She smiled humming. "Bah, bah, black sheep have ye any wool," looking towards the window.
Wayne dances back to the kitchen, knowing he's found half a solution to the problem. The other is how to get it here, as soon as the phone rings. "Hello, yes, this is the Downing Farm―You have how many of what? Five hundred head―And you are outside Goshen, but be here tomorrow morning. How many bushels of cotton? What,―ten thousand! And six hundred of what? Sheep! And cattle!" Wayne dropped the phone and screamed, "AUNTY M.?" He ran down the hall, opened the door, and looked straight at her as steam came out of his ears.
"Problem, Wayne, dear?" Martha asked, looking at him. She smiled and wiped the sweat off EJ's face. She got up, tucked the boys in their beds, and then walked over to him. "I believe you said something about you got work to do," she said, pushing him out into the hall and closing the door. Wayne stared at the door, walked back, shrugged his shoulders, headed back to the table, then smiled and laughed.
"Yeah, what problem? Boys, let's get crackin.'" He took out his charts and maps and little speech and rubbed his hands together. Then he said to the boys. "Judge wants to dance, so let's dance."
The ladies made a list of things and loaded the supplies and the vittles to the New Downing Villa for the dance. Watching things move up and down the old road to and from the farm is a sight. The Judge on the porch swing, watching the men, went on relaxing in the shade. "Ah, this is more like it, no paperwork, no phone." Wiggling his toes, wearing a new comfy pair of overalls, he watched the kids play on the farm. "Ah, this is the life for my wife and me." Looking over at her sewing a new pillowcase for some bed he knows not what for, dozes off, "Zzzzzzzzzz."
"Aren't you coming, Judge?" A man giving him a nudge.
"Going? Where to?" He asked.
"The dance, we eat at eight, you said," a man pointed to the Sheriff.
"Oh, yes," he replied as he yawned.
"Yes, eight, he's giving the speech, you know; I hear it's going be a humdinger. It's a shame his boys can't be there, tisk, tisk, all sick. All except the little one, strange, very strange. I understand they are feeling better and not taking any chances except for one. No, sir," the man said, looking towards Downing Villa and the stories he heard, rubbing his arms, goose pimples go up and down his arms. "Too many things go bump in the night down there to my liking; I'd stay out of there," the man said as he slapped the Judge hard on the back, leaving him there.
Everything was quiet on the farm. He was the only one left and fell back to sleep. The nurses decided to set up a barracks for all the boys and Martha. That way, they could keep an eye on them since they were all doing better, all except for one. He wasn't any worse, so what was the harm? They bundle him up tight and put a mask on him just to make sure. They cleared the way and went out the back door, the safest way.
They set up a small picnic table in the barracks in the room for the boys. So they could have their own private party just for them, with Ma and Aunty M. and the family later. They were sending in the washerwomen to re-scrub the boys' room to ensure they had a new pair of shorts for each of them when they returned to their room. They didn't want to tell the boys since they burned every pair they had already, including their new shoes and school clothes. That's why Pa tried to give them a day or two until he could get them more.
The music started, and Sheriff, standing at the podium looking for the Judge, laughed. "Boys?" He said, looking at the empty chair beside the Judge's wife. "I believe we forgot the Judge, the man of honor, himself," as everyone laughed, pointing at the empty chair.
Then Doc slapped Ned on the back. "Go get him, boy," he replied.
"Yes, sir." Ned hopped on his horse as the horse raised his legs high in the air. Ned waved his hat. "Yee haw, Judge, here I come." Doc rubbed his sides.
Richard looked out his barracks windows, and the boys laughed inside. Richard looked at EJ, sound asleep. "I wish you could see this. What a sight!"
Ned raced down the road, leaping across the field and zigzagging left and then to the right across the creek bed until he ended back at the farm. Ned picked up the Judge by the back of his overalls, swung him over the back of his horse, and trussed him up like a Thanksgiving turkey. With a smile on his face, Ned yelled. "Yee-haw."
Ned flies back down the field. Clots of dirt flew through the air, over the ditch bank, with Judge on the horse's back, "Yee haw." Ned swung his hat over his head as the horse leaped the ditch bank towards the new town of New Downing. With the Judge speeding down the road across the stream bed, splashing water in the Judge's face, leaped again. Riding rounding another corner. Judge bounced on the horse across his back. Ned held the Judge tight by the seat of his overalls as he leaped across the trench. Ned rolled the Judge on top of the podium. "Here ya go, Sheriff," tipping his hat. "Ma'am, boys."
Ned rides back to the stables and returns to his seat next to Granny, grinning ear to ear. The Sheriff and the boys helped him to his seat next to his wife Mildred hearing her whisper. "Don't sweat the small stuff, dear." Taking a handkerchief, she wiped his face.
Sheriff stands at the podium and clears his throat. "As Sheriff of these here parts," and paused. "I hereby declare this land named New Downing and have elected so ordered by Judge Parker, a simple farmer and the new Mayor of the town New Downing." We all watched him cough and sputter when he said it.
His wife Mildred, whispered again with a smile. "Don't sweat the small stuff, dear!"
"Kollie Whitmore, second Sheriff of New Downing," waiting for him to cough and sputter; Doc grinned, laughed, and slapped them all on their backs.
The names went on and on. Wayne smiled, paused, looking around the room, and pulled his remaining rabbit trick out of his hat. "Now then, we have work to do, boys," he laughed. "There are five hundred steers, and six hundred head of sheep headed this way tomorrow morning with ten thousand bushels of cotton and lumber mill just waiting for me to give the word timber. So let's get crackin' and git this here party started," as he shouted. "Ye haw," he throws his hat into the air. As Sheriff Downing rings the dinner bell, he yells. "COME AND GIT IT!" and walks away. He takes his two girls and two little boys and enters the barracks to join the rest of his family.
They may not have anything to wear. They don't care, but they are all together, which matters most to them. Ma, next to EJ's bed, wiped his head. All the boys on one side, girls on the other with Aunty M. and Pa on the end, happy, all having dinner together.
Aunty M. looked out the window and saw everyone dancing. A figure in the corner nodded to her, and she nodded back. Aunty M. watched him get up, walked over to Mary, bowed, and took her hand. Aunty M. gasped with shock on her face as he winked back. Around and around the dance floor, they dance. Mary kicks up her heels with laughter, then lets her down gently with a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for the dance," he said as she giggled softly.
Aunty M. watched as he approached Lizzy with the same care; he bowed, but she turned her head. He tries again, but she walks away, refuses to take his hand, and leaves him standing there. With a slight whisper to Aunty M. "You didn't tell her a word, you promised."
Aunty M shook her head. "Not a word, no, not even a hint." As he probed her mind, he could tell she was telling the truth and nodded, yet he still wondered.
"To prove that you didn't. Dance with me one dance is all I ask."
Aunty M. looks at EJ lying in the bed. "What about him? If you can, I'll dance with you then."
"I can't, sorry. He belongs to another, and he's not ready yet. All I can do is give him more time. A little, that's it, nothing more, but he must use it sparingly and purposely for another. Think carefully and wisely before you answer, the night is young, and so is he."
Aunty M. watched the figure walk away into a dark corner and disappear where he came from. Thinking about her life with Mike and the life EJ would have or not have. Depending on where he lived here or by some horrible chance, she could not bear it looking at this. A family that loves him so much if things change.
"Oh,' Alright,' whispered, muttering. "Alright, I'll dance with you; do it.' She wiped a tear from her eye, leaving the barracks and closing the door.
"Are you sure?" As the figure steps out holding his hand, she grabs it without a pause.
"If you are going to dance, Sonny, let's dance." Picking up her skirts, she swings her legs high. "Because I can't afford to look back now, can I?" She said, looking into his deep blue crystal eyes.