A Dry Creek Courtship. Janet Tronstad

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СКАЧАТЬ a couple of quick steps to bring himself even with Edith. He reached out and took her elbow without asking. The woman shouldn’t be walking these coulees without even a stick to balance herself.

      “There’s no need for me to make any biscuits,” Edith said and he heard her take another quick breath. “Not when we don’t have the jelly.”

      “Oh, boy,” Charley said. He was in trouble now. All of the men he sat with around that old woodstove looked forward to Edith’s biscuits as much as her jelly. They claimed they were the lightest, fluffiest biscuits they’d ever eaten. Charley figured he’d have to drink his coffee at home until spring if he didn’t get some chokecherries.

      He couldn’t help but notice that Edith was upset about something. She’d let him take her elbow and help her on the climb, but she kept her arm stiff, as if she didn’t want his help even though she knew she needed it.

      It must be the chokecherries, Charley finally decided. She kept saying she didn’t need any berries and she wouldn’t make any jelly this year. But she didn’t speak with the free and easy style she usually had when she talked to him.

      Charley suddenly realized what was going on. Edith was being polite to him.

      “I’m sorry,” Charley repeated softly for lack of anything better to say. He’d already apologized three times in as many minutes, but he would do it again if it would make Edith talk to him like she used to. It made him feel lonesome, her being so polite.

      Edith waved his words away. Charley wasn’t sure if that meant she’d already forgiven him or that there was no way she’d ever forgive him. They finished the walk up the coulee in silence.

      They reached their vehicles at the top of the incline before Charley got a good clear look at Edith.

      “What’d you do to your hair?”

      “It’s just falling down,” she said, lifting a hand to her neck. “Doris June was going to cut it, but we decided not to.”

      “Oh, well, it looks nice.”

      Edith didn’t answer.

      “I’ll wait to see that you get it started,” Charley said as they reached the door of Edith’s car.

      “Thank you,” Edith said as she slid under the steering wheel of her car. Charley closed the car door for her.

      “It should start fine,” Edith said as she rolled down her window. “I took the car out and let the battery recharge after Pastor Matthew helped me with it yesterday.”

      Charley grunted.

      “He said I should get a new battery. Maybe your nephew has a used one.”

      “He sells used cars, not used batteries. No one buys a used battery. That’s something that needs to work right in a car.”

      “Well, Pastor Matthew fixed mine.”

      “Temporarily,” Charley said as he started to walk toward his pickup.

      “It’s fine right now,” he heard her say.

      Charley climbed in his truck before Edith had a chance tell him that he didn’t need to coast along behind her. He felt protective of her and that was just the way it was. He’d started feeling that way even before Harold had died.

      Charley’s wife Sue had started it all, asking him one day if he thought Edith hadn’t looked a little sad the last time they’d seen her. His wife had assumed the Hargroves had been arguing and she’d asked him to talk some sense to Harold. Not that Charley ever did. He’d given Harold every chance to talk to him about any problems, but the man kept quiet. The only thing Charley had known to do was to suggest his wife invite Edith over to visit more often.

      Charley wondered what his wife would think if she could see Edith now, driving so slowly and deliberately down the gravel road leading back to Dry Creek.

      Now, of course, no one—probably not even Edith—remembered those days when she’d seemed so vulnerable. Both Sue and Harold were dead. But that left Charley. He knew. Everyone, including Edith, might think she was well able to take care of herself, but he knew better. Sometimes she needed help, just like everyone else.

      Charley looked down at his gas gauge. He was going to need to keep his tank full if he intended to continue following her car around like the fool that he was.

      Chapter Three

      Edith had forgotten all about Elmer. Her hands were gripping the steering wheel of her car and it had nothing to do with driving down the gravel road. Until Charley had mentioned him, Edith had completely overlooked the fact that Elmer had been in Billings that winter, too. When Harold had assured her that he hadn’t told anyone about Jasmine, she hadn’t thought to ask if anyone had seen him with Jasmine. Like maybe Elmer.

      There had been another man from Dry Creek in Billings that winter, too, but he’d moved his family away the following spring. They hadn’t lived in Dry Creek long and they’d moved south to Tennessee shortly after that hard winter. His name had been William something. She thought it was William Townsend.

      Edith looked out the rearview mirror and saw Charley faithfully following behind her in his pickup. She almost wished Charley had known about Harold’s affair so she could ask his advice about what to do now. It didn’t seem right to just announce the affair now that Harold wasn’t even alive to defend himself. And, after all these years, she wondered if there was any point to making it public. Maybe all it would do was shatter Doris June’s heart.

      But on the other hand, maybe the reason Jasmine contacted her was because she was planning to tell people what had happened. Edith watched enough daytime television to know people like that existed. She would rather the story came from her mouth than Jasmine’s.

      She just didn’t know what to do.

      Edith could see why people who tried to cover up things almost always got caught, assuming they didn’t have a heart attack from the stress first. It was too hard to remember everything. And to know what to do at every twist and turn.

      Edith arrived in Dry Creek and she honked her horn to signal Charley that she had made it back safely and that, while she’d appreciated his escort, she hadn’t really needed it since her car had made it to town just fine. As usual.

      In response, Charley rolled down his window and put his arm out to point at the café.

      Edith smiled. Now that he’d shaved his moustache, her world had settled back into place. She had to admit she could use a cup of tea. It was the middle of the morning and she’d like nothing better than to sit with Charley and try to think of a way to get his advice without telling him anything he didn’t already know.

      Charley pulled up beside her car and was at her door to open it before she could get her hat pulled off. She reached up to anchor the pins in her hair better as she looked at Charley.

      “You could have gone ahead of me,” Edith said as she finished with her hair. “There was no need to wait.”

      Charley grunted. “I won’t always be there following behind you and what then? That’s when your car’s going to break down.”

      Edith СКАЧАТЬ