Page 49 of Always to Remember
Sometimes, she thought she might feel a keen sense of loss when he finally did complete the statue; She wasn’t altogether certain that the finished monument could possibly cause the swelling emotions that she felt as she watched the fabric of stone unfold.
Clay was a master at unraveling Nature’s quilt, and Meg often wished the townspeople could see the making of the monument because its creation seemed as significant as its completion.
The clanging of metal against metal ceased. The furrows in his brow lessened, and he pulled down the bandanna. He took a deep breath and touched his fingers to the portion that remained after his latest efforts.
She never could tell if he was pleased with the progress he was making. He stepped down from the stool and walked to the low table where he kept a bucket of water.
Every question Meg had wanted to ask escaped her mind. She jerked her bandanna down, jumped up from the chair, and clambered onto the stool so she could look closely at the silhouette. “This will be Kirk’s head, won’t it?” She swiveled her head around to meet Clay’s gaze. “If you’re going to make that silhouette the horse, you must intend for this one to be Kirk. Am I right?”
A smile of appreciation slowly eased onto his face. “Yes, ma’am.”
She turned her attention back to the stone, and Clay watched her fingers touch the stone with reverence. He wondered how many times she’d touched her husband in the same manner.
“His head wasn’t this big,” she said.
“It won’t be that big when I’m done. I like to leave plenty of stone to work with.”
She nodded in understanding. Clay lifted the wooden lid off the bucket and brought the dipper to his mouth. He let the water trickle slowly down his throat.
With each passing day, he stopped working more often just so he could watch her hop up from that chair, climb onto that stool, and touch the stone.
He returned the dipper to the bucket and covered it so the dust and stone couldn’t get into the water. Then he leaned one hip against the table and crossed his arms over his chest. He so enjoyed watching her excitement. He could hardly wait to begin working on the details.
“Are you going to start carving his face?” she asked.
“No, ma’am.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want to wait until I have all the forms cut out.”
She didn’t like his answer. He could tell by the rapid tapping of her foot. Kirk had warned him about that.When her foot starts tapping, I head for the hills till she cools down.
He didn’t think she was angry, just frustrated. In the past couple of months since he’d begun the project, he’d learned that his patience greatly exceeded hers.
She stopped tapping her foot and tilted her chin. “I don’t see why you can’t work on his face. You know this is his face. It would be nice to go ahead and have it finished.”
Slowly, he shook his head. “I’ll admit I’m tempted, but I know I need to get all the shadows shaped out before I start working on the details. When I’m working on the shapes, I have to keep the whole monument in my head, the relationship of each piece to the other. I don’t want to lose that feeling before I’ve got everything cut down.”
“I don’t think it would hurt to make one exception.”
“When you’re making a quilt, do you start quilting as soon as you’ve finished sewing that first block?”
She stuck out her tongue, and Clay chuckled. The action made her appear so young, almost like the girl she’d once been.
“Want to make yourself useful?” he asked.
Wrinkling her nose, she looked at the stone littering the ground. “You need the area cleaned?”
“No, ma’am. The twins haul the stone out every evening. I need you for something more important.” Picking up his tools, he walked over to the stone. “I have to create the horse and rider from memory, but the woman …” He glanced up at her and smiled—"will be much easier to carve because I have a model. If you’re willing.”
Her face flushed. “You’re going to start working on me? But you haven’t finished the horse and rider.”
“I told you I work on the whole monument. I begin at the top and work my way down. Right now, I’d like to get the size and shape of the woman just right and mark her distance from the rider.”
“What would I have to do?”
“Stand where I can see you and pretend you’re holding a flag.”
