forever.” He trotted off to wash his hands.
Across the table his cousin Randi with her black curls drawn to the sides of her head into two pigtails tattled, “Tommy was over by the ditch boudering because someone made fun of his red hair and freckles again.”
Nell’s usually wide brown eyes narrowed. “Who?”
“No one I know,” Randi said and started in on her own pile of mudbugs. “I saw Tommy walking home alone. That’s not allowed, is it? He’s gonna be in big, big trouble.”
“Joe!” Nell called.
Joe had acquired a tray of boiled corn on the cob and small red potatoes to feed his brood. He set the tray down in his best waiter style. “I live to serve you, Madame.” His girls giggled. Their mother did not.
“Tommy got angry and walked home alone. I’ve told him time and again he must learn to deal with looking different from the rest of the family. He’s supposed to say he’s our special adopted child and let it go.”
“I’ve told him to ignore trash talk, too, but he’s young yet. It got worse when he started first grade. New kids who don’t know him see he doesn’t resemble Dean. They can be cruel.”
“I will speak with Sister Ursula about this, but Joe, you have to go after him and bring him back here right now. He can’t be allowed to go into a sulk and worry us.”
“I’m on my way.”
A pair of firm hands pushed him down on the picnic bench. “No, you don’t. Let my boy sit and enjoy his meal. I’ll send one of my grandsons to fetch Tommy. A couple of them can drive now,” MawMaw Nadine intervened.
“Thanks, Ma, but if Tommy set the alarm system and they try to get in, we’ll end up with the police coming out to check. Easier if I go.”
Dean returned, took an ear of corn and sunk his front teeth into it. When he opened his mouth, both remained stuck in the cob. A trickle of blood sauced the corn. “Hey, I lost my two front teef. They were loose anyhow. Do I get a dollar now? No, two dollars, huh?”
Nell tore a corner from a roll of paper towels in the can on the table and dipped it into her glass of ice water. “Here, hold this against your gums to stop the bleeding. What next? That’s all I can say is, ‘What next?’ How can I cope with three more on the way?” She burst into tears and reeled off more paper towels to blot her eyes.
“Now, now, cher heart. That’s just them babies makin’ you nervous. You feed them some crawfish, and they’ll settle down.” Strong as a stranglehold, Nadine squeezed her daughter-in-law’s shoulder.
“If only it were that simple. Joe?”
“I’m going. Save some crawfish for us.”
He loped toward the new red van he’d purchased in anticipation of a larger family. It sat twelve passengers. Nell said the change in vehicles came too soon. She hadn’t had her first ultrasound yet. Yes, she acknowledged she was pregnant, and judging by the bulge with more than one, but why the rush? Why not wait and see? So much could happen between now and October. He brushed her protests aside. He’d been to church on the sly and lit a hundred candles to draw attention to his prayers that all his babies would survive. He had no doubt they would. But first to retrieve Tommy and give him a good talking to about scaring his mother when she had bad baby nerves already.
He drove to the gates of Lorena Ranch lickety-split and used the remote on the dash to open them. Before he had children, before Bijou had tried to kidnap the infant Tommy for money, he’d been much more casual about security, but Knox Polk had urged him to take more care. The gates still being locked meant nothing. Small boys could and did slip in and out of the compound. He never came down hard on Dean and Tommy about that because he wanted them to have the same sort of childhood he’d experienced before football took over his life—the freedom to rove the countryside in search of harmless snakes and bugs to terrify their sisters, to fish in the bayou anywhere along
Across the table his cousin Randi with her black curls drawn to the sides of her head into two pigtails tattled, “Tommy was over by the ditch boudering because someone made fun of his red hair and freckles again.”
Nell’s usually wide brown eyes narrowed. “Who?”
“No one I know,” Randi said and started in on her own pile of mudbugs. “I saw Tommy walking home alone. That’s not allowed, is it? He’s gonna be in big, big trouble.”
“Joe!” Nell called.
Joe had acquired a tray of boiled corn on the cob and small red potatoes to feed his brood. He set the tray down in his best waiter style. “I live to serve you, Madame.” His girls giggled. Their mother did not.
“Tommy got angry and walked home alone. I’ve told him time and again he must learn to deal with looking different from the rest of the family. He’s supposed to say he’s our special adopted child and let it go.”
“I’ve told him to ignore trash talk, too, but he’s young yet. It got worse when he started first grade. New kids who don’t know him see he doesn’t resemble Dean. They can be cruel.”
“I will speak with Sister Ursula about this, but Joe, you have to go after him and bring him back here right now. He can’t be allowed to go into a sulk and worry us.”
“I’m on my way.”
A pair of firm hands pushed him down on the picnic bench. “No, you don’t. Let my boy sit and enjoy his meal. I’ll send one of my grandsons to fetch Tommy. A couple of them can drive now,” MawMaw Nadine intervened.
“Thanks, Ma, but if Tommy set the alarm system and they try to get in, we’ll end up with the police coming out to check. Easier if I go.”
Dean returned, took an ear of corn and sunk his front teeth into it. When he opened his mouth, both remained stuck in the cob. A trickle of blood sauced the corn. “Hey, I lost my two front teef. They were loose anyhow. Do I get a dollar now? No, two dollars, huh?”
Nell tore a corner from a roll of paper towels in the can on the table and dipped it into her glass of ice water. “Here, hold this against your gums to stop the bleeding. What next? That’s all I can say is, ‘What next?’ How can I cope with three more on the way?” She burst into tears and reeled off more paper towels to blot her eyes.
“Now, now, cher heart. That’s just them babies makin’ you nervous. You feed them some crawfish, and they’ll settle down.” Strong as a stranglehold, Nadine squeezed her daughter-in-law’s shoulder.
“If only it were that simple. Joe?”
“I’m going. Save some crawfish for us.”
He loped toward the new red van he’d purchased in anticipation of a larger family. It sat twelve passengers. Nell said the change in vehicles came too soon. She hadn’t had her first ultrasound yet. Yes, she acknowledged she was pregnant, and judging by the bulge with more than one, but why the rush? Why not wait and see? So much could happen between now and October. He brushed her protests aside. He’d been to church on the sly and lit a hundred candles to draw attention to his prayers that all his babies would survive. He had no doubt they would. But first to retrieve Tommy and give him a good talking to about scaring his mother when she had bad baby nerves already.
He drove to the gates of Lorena Ranch lickety-split and used the remote on the dash to open them. Before he had children, before Bijou had tried to kidnap the infant Tommy for money, he’d been much more casual about security, but Knox Polk had urged him to take more care. The gates still being locked meant nothing. Small boys could and did slip in and out of the compound. He never came down hard on Dean and Tommy about that because he wanted them to have the same sort of childhood he’d experienced before football took over his life—the freedom to rove the countryside in search of harmless snakes and bugs to terrify their sisters, to fish in the bayou anywhere along
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