The Folds Page 3

  BBQ AND HORSESHOES

  T ommy, Sarah, and Danny arrived back at home from church at around twelve thirty. Tommy pulled his midnight blue 1978 GMC Jimmy into the gravel driveway of the white, two-story, wood panel house built by Sarah’s grandparents, Jeffrey and Sally Childress, in 1888. The meticulously kept home stood as a testament to the love and dedication of not only Tommy and Sarah, but those family members who pioneered this community and region.

  The trio entered the spacious dwelling and proceeded to climb the carpeted stairs to their respective rooms. Danny’s room was immediately to the left at the top of the landing with a three-quarter bath next to it. A small guest room, used by Sarah as a workroom, was to the right of the bathroom, with her and Tommy’s room at the end of the hall. The house was originally built with four small bedrooms upstairs with a larger master bedroom downstairs. But when Danny was born, Tommy and Sarah decided to take down the wall separating the third and fourth bedrooms, built a new bathroom, and moved everything upstairs, leaving the old master bedroom to become their new office and study. To get to Tommy and Sarah’s room, one had to pass through a hall where there was no more than one square inch of visible drywall space due to Sarah’s hanging of the family tree in pictures. They were all there: the moms and dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews. And like the house, the pictures silently bid them good-bye each morning, and at night, welcomed them back in constant, quiet love.

  Danny entered his room to change clothes from church, which was actually more like throwing his clothes on the floor. Even though only worn for two hours, he considered the clothing dirty and tossed them about as he stripped.

  From down the hall Sarah called from her closet, “Danny? I want you to hang your pants and shirt! We just had them cleaned and pressed!”

  He begrudgingly untangled his wadded-up Wranglers, folded them over a cardboard hanger, then wedged himself between the bed and wall to find the yellow shirt he threw across the room.

  “Dano?” Tommy called while putting his uniform away. “I want you to get your stall cleaned up ’fore supper!”

  “Dad!” Danny lamented, slumping on the mattress in his underwear and socks, rolling his eyes.

  “We’re having supper ’round four thirty,” Tommy bellowed. “‘N your granddaddy will be here ’round four!”

  Danny flopped back onto his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He’d always embraced his family’s ties to law enforcement, but last year, after turning nine, his pride in his grandfather and father culminated in an equally strong interest and admiration for Gene Autry and Superman. Like a star in the sky, the law of the West was captured in the persona of Autry. With his white hat and clean, soft mannerism, he reminded Danny of his grandfather. But on the other end of the spectrum was his father and the fantasy of law enforcement, personified by the image of Superman. Like the stripes on his uniform, both Tommy and Superman wore red and blue. They were both very brave, told the truth, and always got their man. Danny’s room had grown into nothing short of a shrine of posters, banners, comics, pajamas, robes, hats, shirts, and night-lights of his two heroes.

  Tommy entered his closet as a barefooted Sarah exited hers, buttoning a light blouse over faded blue jeans with frayed leg bottoms and holes in the knees. Tommy came back out and turned on the record player, spinning an old thirty-three of Frank Sinatra’s. “Old Blue Eyes” belted out “You Make Me Feel So Young” as Tommy sang along, swinging his hips and snapping his fingers, then gliding back into the walk-in closet. Sarah sat on the edge of the bed, putting on her socks and boots as her husband bellowed loudly and out of key.

  Danny sprang to life upon hearing the song down the hall and yanked down the pants he just hung moments ago, breaking the cardboard hanger, then pulled down a different freshly laundered shirt. As he pulled up his pants, one thought ran through his mind: Jessica.

  Tommy emerged from his walk-in closet wearing only his hat, holster, boots, and striped boxers. Sarah was taken aback at the sight of her husband and laughed out loud as he began to serenade her. After a few moments, though, she smiled like a schoolgirl, all a giddy with her first crush as she watched Tommy dance in his underwear. She pranced over to the dresser, took a dried rose from a vase, and placed it in her mouth. Sarah began to slowly unbutton her blouse as she rocked her hips and strutted to the beat of the music toward Tommy. He took her by the hand, reeled her in, and dipped her.

  It was at that moment the two wanna-be teenagers stopped to acknowledge a nine-year-old cowboy standing in the doorway. Tommy raised Sarah to her feet; she quickly took the rose from her mouth and darted toward the bathroom to button her shirt.

  “You need to knock, young man!” Tommy snorted.

  “The door was open!” Danny exclaimed in his own defense. “Besides, I’m not the one dancing around in my underwear eating dead roses!”

  “What your father is trying to say,” Sarah interjected, as she exited from the closet, fully dressed, “is that you need to be more respectful of people’s privacy.”

  “What are ya dressed up for again?” Tommy asked, pulling a T-shirt over his head.

  “Well…” Danny began to plea, “I was just thinking… Can I go ask Jessica to come over for supper?”

  “Now?” Sarah asked. “Why didn’t you ask us earlier when we were all at church?”

  “I didn’t think about it at the time. Please?” Danny begged, butting out his chin.

  “Funny how you ‘just thought’ of this as soon as I asked you to clean your stalls!” Tommy snapped.

  Sarah went about and tidied up the room as she explained, “Well, son, it’s almost one. By the time you saddle up and ride over there it’ll be two, two fifteen. You gotta talk to Mr. Holder, get her saddled, and ride back. By that time, it’ll be four or four thirty. It’ll be time for supper, your grand-dad will have been here already, and your stalls won’t be cleaned out!”

  Both parents stood silently for a moment to see Danny’s reaction.

  “Well, maybe—” Danny started to respond, but was cut off by Sarah.

  “Then it won’t be ’til next weekend that you’ll have the extra time to…well, no, never mind that ’cuz you’ll be—” A pillow flew across the room and hit Sarah in the head. “Hey!” she snapped.

  “What your mother is trying to say is that you need to think about what you’re doin’, get your chores taken care of early in the week, and not wait until the last minute!” Tommy ordered, glaring at Sarah. “You got two hours. Ya hear? Two hours!” Tommy finally declared. Danny turned and bolted down the hall without saying a word as Tommy hollered, “You talk to her daddy first!”

  “I will!” Danny shouted, leaping down multiple stairs at a time.

  Tommy and Sarah watched from their bedroom window as the excited boy ran to Tommy’s patrol car, opened the passenger door, and reached into the glove compartment for his father’s bottle of Stetson cologne. “Don’t use it all!” Tommy bellowed from the second floor.

  Danny looked up and smiled, splashed on some cologne, slammed the car door, and zipped across the front yard to the stables.

  “Go get her, Casanova!” Tommy chuckled. He then turned to his wife and said, “Are ya just trying to blow his surprise?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it,” Sarah meekly answered.

  “I don’t want him to think anything is going on next weekend, and comments like that will only get him goin’!”

  “I’m sorry, baby. I just didn’t know you were so sly and foxy!” she said, crawling on the bed on her hands and knees.

  “You know I’m foxy!” Tommy grinned. “I’m a sly, foxy fox!”

  “Oh yeah? Just how foxy are you?” she asked seductively, wrapping her arms around Tommy’s waist.

  Tommy kissed his wife passionately. They broke their kiss and turned in unison as they heard the door of the barn swing open. They then dashed to and leaned out the window and watched the barn door. After a brief moment, the sound of
horse hoofs and braying echoed from the stalls. Danny emerged from the barn and into the bright sunlight and led the horse to the water trough. He let the horse drink for a couple of seconds, then turned around and began a slow gallop through the young cotton bowls.

  Tommy stood Sarah up and whispered in her ear, pulling her backward toward the bed, “How long for him to get there and back?”

  “Ah…” Sarah hypothesized as her husband kissed her neck, “…maybe two and a half hours.”

  “And how long ’fore you need to start getting supper ready?” he breathed heavily as he unbuttoned her shirt.

  Closing her eyes in sweet anticipation, Sarah softly replied, “Two hours and fifteen minutes.”

  Tommy playfully pushed Sarah onto the bed and slowly climbed up on her.

  “Ya think your daddy would mind PB and J’s, Pringles, and hot Dr. Peppers?” she joked.

  “Nah, I think he’s probl’y tired of the Sunday feasts.”

  The two rolled on the bed laughing and kissing.

  Two hours later, Sarah hurriedly finished setting up the table in the backyard under the shade of the large oak trees. Half an hour earlier, while slipping his pants on, Tommy phoned in an order to the Longhorn Ranch House for some ribs, chopped brisket, honey baked beans with jalapeños, cornbread, and potato salad. Sarah rushed outside with a vase of flowers in one hand and place settings in the other. She looked up to see Tommy flying down to the easement road with a billowing cloud of dust in tow. Not too far behind him were Johnny Lee and Doris, early for lunch. From the right side of the barn, Danny Lee and Jessica came trotting, also early.

  Sarah quickly added a full cup of sugar to two-gallon jugs of sun tea that sat on the picnic table. After coming to a skidding stop in the gravel driveway, Tommy jumped out with plastic bags, Styrofoam cups, and aluminum pans. The recently physically satisfied couple was now in a panic. They frantically struggled to get lunch set for six as the grandparents and kids arrived prematurely.

  No better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to be under the blue Texas sky, blanketed by the shade of an oak with the slightest breeze whipping through the leaves.

  “That’s good ribbin’. Good ribbin’!” Johnny Lee complimented.

  “Mm, mm!” Doris hummed with her mouth full.

  “I’d take a couple more, if you please,” Johnny requested and began to pass his plate down to Tommy.

  “Oh, gee, Daddy,” Tommy lamented. “I only cooked enough for today, what with such a busy week comin’ up and all.”

  “We didn’t think you’d eat so much,” Sarah offered.

  “Oh, that’s all right.” Johnny smiled, taking his plate back. He glanced at the grill with its cover still on, undisturbed.

  Tommy glanced behind him to see what his father was looking at. Johnny winked at Tommy, who then smiled to himself, knowing that he’d been caught lying.

  “So, did ya have to go ‘tend the fields’?” Johnny snickered. Both men had a laugh, but were quickly slapped or pinched by their wives.

  “Why did your mom and grandma hit your dad and grandpa?” Jessica whispered to Danny.

  “I dunno,” he answered, confused. “Daddy told me we don’t have to work the field for two more weeks.”

  Johnny and Tommy spent the rest of the afternoon with Jessica and Danny, working on cutting and racing their horses in the barrels, while Sarah and Doris passed their time talking over coffee on the patio. In the early evening, just before dusk, Johnny and Jessica challenged Tommy and Danny to a game of horseshoes. Jessica, a mean shoe thrower for her age, quickly landed a ringer and a leaner, bruising Danny’s pride.

  Tommy, with his trademark Shiner in hand, spoke up after another round of tosses. “Danny, you ’n Jess better saddle up and git her on home. Coyotes will be out soon.”

  “I don’ care ’bout no coyotes! I ain’t scared of nuthin’!” Danny puffed.

  Jessica stopped her throw to hear the conversation.

  “Didn’t say you were scared, but you got a young lady to take care of tonight and I’m more worried about what her daddy thinks of a two thousand dollar cuttin’ horse walking out in the dark with coyotes runnin’ ’round! C’mon! Saddle up!” Tommy gently ordered before turning with Johnny to head to the porch.

  Danny and Jessica begrudgingly tossed their shoes into the sand before heading to the stables. The two men came to rest on the porch rail, joining their wives, and gazed out at the large, red setting sun.

  Danny and Jessica emerged from the barn, leading their mounts, then climbed into their saddles.

  “G’nite, Mr. and Mrs. Albright. Thanks, Tommy. Thank you for dinner, Sarah!” Jessica hollered, waving.

  Danny also waived, moping.

  “Dear, sweet, courageous son of mine…fare thee well as you travel the hostile lands on your arduous journey, guiding the fair Jessica along the way,” Tommy rattled off.

  Sarah slapped her sarcastic husband on the shoulder.

  “What? He knows I’m kidding.”

  The two couples watched as the young cowboy and his girl trotted down the gravel road.

  “Look kinda familiar?” Tommy asked as he wrapped his arms around Sarah.

  “Yup!” Johnny interjected, then kissed Doris on the head.

  One hour later, at the Holder home, by the moonlight and one solitary yellow flood lamp, Jessica and Danny slowly walked their horses to the stable. Danny tied his horse to the split-rail fence while Jessica walked hers into the stall to take off the saddle. He helped to put away the tack and brushed the back of the sweaty mare; Jessica fetched some corn and alfalfa.

  The two had just exited the barn when they heard Mr. Holder’s distinct whistle. It was time for Jessica to go in. While standing in the shadows, Jessica quietly asked, “So ya’ll going to the fair on Saturday?”

  “Yeah,” Danny whispered, “and they also wanna go to the dance on Friday.”

  Jessica paused briefly, then informed her beau, “I think my mom and dad wanna go to the dance, too.” Another but longer whistle pierced the still darkness. Jessica peeked around the corner and saw her dad standing on the porch. “I’ll see ya tomorrow.”

  Danny mumbled as he climbed into the saddle. Jessica stood in silence as he trotted by. He stopped and circled back to Jessica and dismounted. “Um,” he stammered shyly, “you can be with me at the dance…if you want to.” He lunged forward in a swell of confidence, kissed Jessica’s cheek, then quickly hopped back into the saddle and galloped away under the full moonlight. The young Romeo turned to look once more at his golden girl before breaking into a full run.

  Jessica held her hand to her cheek, smiled, and skipped her way to the house.

  While walking his horse into the driveway of his parents’ house, Danny heard some coyotes in the cotton fields, just yards away. It was then when he noticed that the house and barn, usually lit up at night, were completely dark with the exception of one dim light bulb above the back porch door that flickered off and on. The wind had suddenly picked up and like a wisp of smoke, one long, thin cloud was spreading itself in front of the large, pale-yellow moon. The stars shone brightly; Danny heard himself breathing heavily as he stood alone in the dark.

  He led his horse to the barn, but was more mindful now to look all around as he crept about. Danny tied his horse off to the fence while still in the light of the porch, removed the saddle, and then slowly swung open the large wooden door. The old painted hinge creaked to life with the weight of the wood. A large, ominous black void greeted him as the sounds of something moving around in the straw filled his ears. He lowered the saddle down his left leg to rest on the ground, then rubbed his right hand on the wall to find the light switch and gave it a flick. The damp and musty stable remained dark. Danny poked his head around the doorframe and stood on tiptoes. From the other end of the long stable he could see the moon and stars shining through one small window above his father’s workbench. He rubbed his eyes to help adjust to the dark and timidly scooted in. When almost to th
e edge of the bench, he reached out and searched the blackness for the dangling string to turn on the work light.

  A deep, guttural growl emanated from the top of the storage lockers, followed by something heavy landing in front of him. Danny turned with a jump to face the beast in the dark while his hands waved aimlessly above him, trying to find the string. Suddenly, a bright light illuminated a distorted face that twisted with a loud, wicked groan like that of a wounded animal. Danny sprinted to the other end of the barn, tripping over his saddle in the process, all the while screaming, “Mom! Dad! Mom! Dad!”

  Tommy turned off his flashlight and quickly followed Danny, unable to control his laughter. “Ain’t afraid of nuttin’, are ya?” he called out.

  Tommy and Sarah knelt beside Danny’s bed and listened to his short prayer. “And God bless Mom and Dad ’n Grandpa and Grandma, and Jessica. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

  “Amen,” the couple echoed in closing.

  “You are such a good boy!” Sarah stated, kissing her son’s head. “How did you get to be so good?”

  “He got it from his daddy!” Tommy answered.

  “I said ‘good,’ not ‘goofy,’” Sarah quipped.

  “Oh, so you think it’s funny to insult the old man?” He grinned.

  Sarah and Danny curled up in the sheets as Tommy slowly crouched down and held his hands in the air.

  “Well, maybe it’s time you both had a visit from Tommy Claws!” he exclaimed, then jumped on the bed, pinching their knees between his thumb and middle finger. The two screamed simultaneously with laughter and pain.

  Sarah broke free and ran down the hall, but not before shrieking, “Good night, Danny. I love you!”

  Tommy, in his best Hitler voice, pointed sharply and blared out, “All rrrright now! Evyvone vill listen to mi.”

  Danny tucked his head under his sheets with the exception of his eyes. Even though his mouth was hidden by the sheet, his eyes gave it away that he was happy and smiling.