Page 45 of Grounded
After the dinner and movie, they stopped for a cappuccino. And this time Annie bought a bean grinder and beans to leave at her grandmother’s house. There was still hope she might persuade her grandmother to leave off the cheap stuff.
Chapter Eighteen
Beulah tied her orange apron around her waist, the one given to her by her Aunt Sara years ago. It was still her favorite, despite her having half a dozen now. Soft as a lamb’s ear, it felt the best to her and she needed a little comfort today. Slices of country ham sizzled in the iron skillet. A dozen store-bought eggs sat awaiting their turn in the frying pan. They were pale, anemic little things compared to the rich eggs she used to gather from her own chickens. That was one of the many things she had let go of after losing Fred. One by one, the hens died of old age, and she never replaced them.
Tomorrow was her surgery, and she dreaded it. The nurse told Beulah not to eat a thing after midnight, but who in the world ate anything after midnight? Yet somehow, hearing what she couldn’t do made her feel deprived. Surgery was not for the weak, but neither was growing old. She flipped the ham slices, breathing in the salty aroma. Well, the Lord knew best, and she had to trust Him. That was all there was to it.
Preparations were made. Every closet and drawer in the house had been organized and cleaned. The garden was growing and beans would be ready for picking soon. She might even be able to help Annie break beans, if the Lord let her live through the surgery.
There, she had pulled the niggling thought out into the open. What if she went to sleep and never woke up? It wasn’t that she was afraid to die; no, the Lord had taken care of that for her. It was Annie. Beulah felt the child was in the middle of a great transition and needed her right now. With everyone else in her life abandoning her either by choice or by death, Beulah did not want to leave Annie alone, and especially as their relationship had taken a subtle turnabout.
Beulah’s stubborn streak had almost reared and made Annie go back. But Annie’s offer to stay and help had touched her in a deep place, and by God’s grace, she accepted. Pride. She had struggled with that old sin all her life and reckoned she would until the end.
Beulah poured water on top of the ham. A little boiling made the slices good and tender. Black coffee sat on the counter, ready to make red-eye gravy as soon as the water boiled off and the ham was removed from the pan.
“Lord, your will be done tomorrow. I’m in your hands,” she whispered.
“What can I do?” Annie asked. Beulah noticed she had changed out of her church clothes into jeans and a short-sleeved top.
“You can get the biscuits out of the freezer and put them in the oven. When I made them up I froze them in the pan, so they’re all ready to go.”
Annie did as Beulah asked, then set about dressing the table. “Lindy won’t be coming today. Do you know who might be here?”
“Scott can’t come this week. Set for five, and we can add to or take away if necessary.”
“What happened with Mary Beth’s marriage?” Annie asked.
“Her husband took up with a beautician over in Rutherford. Met her through taking his son to little league games. Left Mary Beth and didn’t look back.”
“Do you think she and Scott will get together?”
“Hard to say. They seem compatible, but he’s never been married before, and it might be hard for him to take on a woman, two children and an ex-husband who will always be in the background. We’ll see. Were you interested in Scott?”
Annie smiled, but shook her head firmly. “I’m not interested in anybody. I guess there’s a romantic inside me who would like to see people be happy together. How did you and Grandpa meet?” Annie asked, pulling glasses out of the cabinet.
“Oh my goodness, I haven’t thought about that in years.” Beulah eased into the chair and took a deep breath.
“You know the old stone house is where I grew up. It’s also where I met your grandfather.” Beulah watched Annie fill the glasses with ice and tea.
“Did you go to school together?”
“Oh, no. Fred’s people were from Gravel Switch, over in Boyle County. In September, after World War II ended in August, Daddy hired on two brothers from over there who were just back from fighting. They needed work, and he needed help getting his tobacco in the barn and we had lost my brother Ephraim in the war, you know. He fell in Italy, at Anzio.”
Annie sat down and nodded, her eyes wide.
“The first day they worked, Mama had me take a glass jug of water out to them midmorning. That was when I met the brothers, Fred and Pete Campbell. Of course, I’d been eyeing them at a distance from my room upstairs anytime I could slip away from my chores. When Mama asked me to take water out to them, I was so nervous I couldn’t even speak. I was used to the boys around home, but these two were strangers.”
Beulah could remember the way Fred looked as if it were only hours before. Before he nodded his hello, he wiped the curtain of sweat off his forehead, as if he were making himself presentable to her. Dark hair and sparkling brown eyes under thick eyebrows—that was what she remembered most. Pete had red hair and freckles. They were different as two brothers could be. Both were a little skinny, but the war had taken a toll on most of the boys coming back. It wouldn’t take long to get the muscle back on them, Mama had said, but it would take years longer to get the haunted look out of their eyes.
“They were hard workers, getting to the house early and sometimes sleeping in the barn at night if they worked an extra-long day. Fred and me, we started looking at each other all the time. It was like we couldn’t help ourselves. But never once did we have a conversation alone.” Beulah felt the tears fill her eyes. “I was so sad when that last leaf of tobacco was hung in the barn. I thought I would never see Fred again. I watched them leave from the upstairs window of the house, until they disappeared behind the trees on Gibson Creek Road.”
Beulah took a long drink of the tea. “That night at supper, I was so low I had to look up to see a snake’s belly. Daddy said, ‘Beuly, there’s no sense in mopin’ around. That boy’ll be back around here before the month is out.’” Beulah chuckled. “He was right. Fred came a courtin’ the next weekend, all cleaned up and combed so that I barely knew him.”
“It was no time at all until we knew we wanted to marry, but I was not quite fifteen and had more schooling left. Daddy said I had to wait until after I graduated from high school. Education was important to him, since he didn’t get past the eighth grade. We agreed, but the day after graduation, I was married in the yard of the stone house.” Beulah felt a tear slide down her cheek.
“I had no idea the house had all that family history,” Annie said.
“Honey, the stone house has been in my family for six generations. This house was part of a tract my Daddy bought when he added this front section. Fred and I moved here when we got married, and after Mama and Daddy passed, we rented out the stone house.
