A love story you have not heard before.
Chapter Twenty-One
"Family"
Harry slowed Love Jones down and eased the two vehicles over the bump where the blacktop ended. He drove on at just above idle speed in second gear, trying to avoid the largest holes in the dirt road while keeping a check on the rear-view mirrors. The tow-bar had been working loose but Harry was too close to home now to get out and tighten everything.
He glanced to his right where Ivory had been sitting less than an hour before. His dream.
I didn't treat her any better than that fucking Harold did.
Rape is rape. Just because it was me doesn't make it any better.
God gave her to me and I raped her.
Connie looked so happy, running out and hugging her....
They didn't even look around and wave back to me. Ivory didn't even say goodbye....
Harry honked the air-horns when he passed Janey's DEATH TO TRESPASSERS sign, and by the time he made it to the last turn in their driveway, Annie and Perry were running out to greet him.
The sight of Annie's happy face looked so good! Harry slid down out of the cab and hugged her as hard as he could.
"Oh, Annie...."
"You're crying, Harry!"
"Well.... I missed you!"
"Harry -- we've been married so long now -- I know you didn't miss us that much!" Annie was hugging him back.
"Wow!" Perry said. "Will it fly?"
Harry turned away and wiped his eyes with his fingers. Then he gave his son a hug. "It runs pretty good. It's a '51!"
"No, I mean the plane. Is it for me?" Perry had pulled open the leaves of the box in the back of Love Jones. The radio-controlled model airplane Harry had bought for him.
"I hope so! I think it's almost new. We can work on it later."
"What's this other truck, Harry?" Annie was looking into the cab of the Ford F-1. "We each have a pickup already. Plus that damn Lincoln hanging in the barn. So what is this for? We need a new irrigation pump. We need a tractor."
"It's an antique, Annie! It's the Ford I always wanted! It's got a flat-head V-8!"
"Love Jones is the Ford you always wanted, remember? Does it have a title?"
"The Lincoln's going tomorrow. Promise. Day after tomorrow -- it might take all day just to winch it down. After that, the barn is all yours. I'll park this new one outside until I can build a shelter. Look in the back. I brought you a present!"
"Well? Does it have a title, Harry?"
"Annie.... Look back here. Please. Look what I brought you."
"No title." She looked in the back of the old F-1. "An air-conditioner?"
"For over our bed. It's reverse cycle. You can switch it from hot to cold."
"She can flash it from hot to cold!" Perry said. "Thanks for the plane, Pop! When can we fly it?"
"As soon as you help me get the Lincoln down. You help me with that and I promise we'll get that thing in the air next."
"Before he puts my air-conditioner in."
"You can buzz the chickens with it."
"Oh, neat! For sure? You don't have to go back right away?"
"Nope!"
"Oh, good! Mom, did you hear that? Mom? Dad said he doesn't have to leave!"
"For now," Annie said.
"Dad? Janey's been beating up on me all the time and Annie won't stop it."
"Perry!"
"And Janey has crabs, too!"
Annie lashed out with a swat but Perry ducked it. "They fight all the time, Harry. What did you get for Janey?"
"Crab shampoo, I hope!" Perry said. "With conditioners to give her bush more body."
Harry looked at them. He pictured Ivory's sister running out to greet her when he had dropped Ivory off. The happiness and the hugging, and the tears on Connie's face. The two of them walking hand-in-hand to their cabin, the knapsack over Ivory's shoulder....
"Earth to Harry! Annie said: What did you get for Janey?"
"Can everybody just relax a little? I just got here!"
"So what did you get for Janey?" Janey said. She gave her father a hug from behind.
Harry smiled and turned around. "You get more and more beautiful!"
"I toughed up my nipples before I came out," Janey whispered.
"Janey!" Annie screamed. "I heard that!"
"She's no good, Pop."
Harry turned away and fished for a beer in the cooler in the back of Love Jones. He came up with a can of Busch -- shit! pschttt! He sucked down a swallow and looked at the mountains printed on the can, turning it around-and-around in his hands.
He had said: "Is there room in your special place to park your car? It's a Lincoln. A big one."
"Mmmm - hmmmm."
"Will you fix it with your father so I can come over to visit once in a while?"
"Mmmm - hmmmm. I have your necklace now, so...."
"I'll want to make love with you when I visit."
"Mmmm - hmmmm. Well, we be a couple now, so...."
"There he goes again!" Perry said. "Burn-out! Zzzzzzzzztt! Sorry, folks, but we have an electrical problem. Our technicians are standing by, however, so stay tuned!"
Janey followed her father over to the swing seat in their front yard, and sat down with him.
"Your present is in my shirt pocket." Harry pulled down another swallow of Ivory's beer.
Janey looked at the tiny package for a moment before pulling at the string. "I know that grin," she said. "This will be weird." Before pulling the paper off, she looked Harry in the eye. "Who picked it out?"
"Who?"
"Ivory. Ha ha! I knew it! Ha ha!"
"Ivory?"
"Come on, Dad! Anyway, Connie told me she was with you. She didn't tell me right away, but -- we trust each other."
"That's good...." Harry looked at the two trucks out there in the drive, the tow-bar locking them together. The drive home already seemed such a long time ago. He watched Annie climb into the back to inspect the air-conditioner, slicing through the big carton with her pocket knife.
Janey had her package open. "A ruby?"
"Yup."
"Is it real?"
"Yeah -- it's a real ruby. It has some imperfections...."
"Wow! How much did it cost?" Janey was holding it up in the direction of the sun and turning it around.
"Do you have to know how much it cost? Anyway, I got that when we were shopping, when we first got down there -- before I ran out of money, so.... Perry's plane I bought used, so don't make too big a deal out of the ruby, okay?"
"Ivory told you, didn't she! Oh, Dad, this is so neat! Did she tell you what it's for? For my navel, right?"
Harry caught her take a quick, furtive scratch at her crotch.
"I even bought the cement," Harry said. "It's like rubber cement. You can get it off with nail-polish remover."
"Dad, thanks! This is so neat! I told Ivory once that I'd like to have a real ruby to wear in my belly button in the summer, and all she did was cluck her tongue at me. Like what I said was dumb. And then I told her what color stone I thought would look good in her belly button -- an opaque jade, I thought, you know, because she's pitch black. Or an emerald, I told her. A green stone. So she gets up and shows me her belly button and it's like -- sticking out, like a little knot. But her waist was so tiny I couldn't believe it! And when she showed me I said something real dumb, like Oh! You know. And then I thought she was going to cry but she didn't. Did she really pick this out? I guess she never forgot!"
Harry turned his head and brushed a tear away with his thumb. "Yeah, she told me what you wanted. We found it in a fancy pawn shop on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. Seems like a foreign country, from here...."
"Did you have a nice time with her? Did you treat her good?"
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah.... Annie doesn't know, does she?"
"Oh, no! Do you love her? Ivory?"
"Yeah...." Harry fought to keep his voice from choking off. "Yeah. I can't help but love her. Bad."
"I knew you would. I knew it."
"Thank you, Janey."
"Don't cry, Dad. It's okay."
Harry dabbed at his eyes and straightened up.
"You just brought her home, right? She's there now? Well, she doesn't live too far from here. It's not like you'll never see her again."
"I know."
"Did she talk to you?"
"Yeah. Right away! But then she clams up sometimes."
"It's not your fault. Does she want to see you again?"
"I guess so.... I gave her my necklace. My star."
"Oh, neat! You're going steady!" Janey clamped a hand over her mouth and lowered her voice. "Are you going to take her along again next trip?"
"I don't know that there's going to be another trip, Janey. I need to stay home. I'm getting tired. And I feel guilty about leaving you guys all the time. You kids will be all grown up and gone before I know it. I need to be home...."
"Well, what happened to truck driving?"
"Oh, Janey, you wouldn't believe it. First I lose my old job, and then I luck out with a truck. So I thought. My last week in Miami. I signed on for a brand-new Volvo-White, brand new! Moved my stuff into the sleeper and everything, bedding, all my tools, a ton of stuff. A forty-eight-foot flatbed trailer -- I had to sign for everything, even the chains, the straps, the binders.... Then I find out they won't let me take Ivory along. Only a wife -- a spouse, as they put it -- can get a rider pass. And then only after a three month probationary period. For the insurance, they said. So I got all pissed off and stomped out of there, got my stuff out of the tractor and hauled it to my flat, called the faggot boss that I thought was my friend and told him what I thought of him! Which I'm sorry I did because it really wasn't his fault, I guess, the rules. You know what he told me? That I would've flunked the piss test, anyway. Piss test? They never said anything about a piss test before!"
"Harry!" Annie was shouting from the pickup. "It's two-twenty!"
"Two-twenty?"
"Two-hundred-and-twenty volts, Harry! The AC!"
"I was hoping you would stay home, Dad. But I know you won't be able to stand it, ha ha!" Janey lowered her voice again. "Does she like you? Does she love you?"
"No. I don't think so."
"She can't love anybody."
"You don't know that."
Connie said her shrink at the Health Clinic told her parents Ivory lives in her own little world. It's not your fault."
"Yeah.... Thanks, Janey."
"Harry!" Annie said. "Come here!"
Harry sighed and got up.
Annie hopped down from the tail-gate. "Harry! It's two-twenty!"
Harry finished off the Busch, but instead of playfully tossing it at her he carefully placed the empty can on the picnic table.
"Two-twenty? Those are the good ones! We have it in the fuse box. I can run a line to it in no time."
"Oh. Good, Harry. Now I don't have to suffer this summer."
Harry gave Annie a hug. Over her shoulder he watched Janey wave to him, and Perry coming out of the trailer with a jar in his hand.
"It's honey, Pop! See? Annie robbed the bees already! Way too soon according to the bee book. But they'll make more!"
"Perry!" Annie said. "You care!"
"You should see her, Pop! She goes right up to the bee hives -- in shorts! No veil or anything! Just the smoker. And she pries the hive apart and the bees are all over her arms and legs and face and they don't sting! All I have to do is get near there and they sting the fuck out of me! But there's Annie, digging the frames out with her crowbar! You should see how much honey we have! Tons of it!"
Janey laughed. "The bees crawl right up inside her shorts."
"I bought another hive with the money," Annie said.
"Money? I hope you still have most of what I sent, or we're busted."
"From the honey money! I sold a lot! We can't eat a whole drum of honey ourselves -- aren't you proud of me?"
"Drum!" Perry snorted. "How about a one-gallon pail!"
Harry hugged Annie again. It felt good, hugging her, this wife of his, with a brain that ran on all eight. Well, most of the time, anyway.... "I love you, Annie. I love you so much."
"I love you, too, Harry. I know you have problems with it."
"All these mind readers." Harry closed his eyes for a moment.
Annie squeezed him harder and then broke away. "This place here is my dream, Harry. Come with me for a minute." She led him off to one of his favorite spots -- the bench next to the barn. The bench facing the sacred, hanging '79 Lincoln.
They sat down next to each other, Harry feeling Annie's butt spreading as her weight settled. The Lincoln looked down on them. Midnight blue and sparkling chrome. Quiet, heavy, all knowing....
"When I was little," Harry said, "my father left me alone in this big, old church for a few minutes one time – we were on vacation I think. I don't know why we had to stop there. It had something to do with buying the pipe organ before they tore this huge building down. Anyway, he told me to wait on the front pew while he went off somewhere to talk with some people, and there was this big statue of Jesus on the cross looking down on me. I knew it was just a statue, that it wasn't alive – or so I thought.... But I had this feeling Jesus was looking at me – that he could see right into me. I even remember wanting to say something, my lips moving, but I didn't say anything. I can still smell that place, like musty concrete.... I can still feel Jesus looking at me when I remember that day. Sometimes, when I sit here, I can feel the Lincoln looking at me. Looking into me. And I talk to it, and it knows."
"I know what you mean, Harry."
"You do? No...."
"I was wrong to bitch about this car here all the time. I didn't realize it was a special thing. All I saw was the wasted space."
"Well.... It's coming down." Harry sucked in a deep breath and held it. He put an arm around Annie's shoulder.
"No, Harry. It belongs here. It's your thing. I won't mention it again."
Harry sighed. "Too late. I gave it away."
"Oh, Harry! I was just beginning to see it! I even pictured it being famous one day, in color, in Tropic Magazine in The Miami Herald! Who are we giving it to? Can't we sell it?"
"No title."
"Oh. Yeah. Well, that never stopped you before!"
"Forget about the Lincoln."
"Well, I want pictures before you take it down."
"Okay."
"It's not real, you know, this big car up there...."
"Everything is real. Shhhh.... It's listening."
"Nothing is real, Harry. It's all memories. Even a minute ago. Memories. Even now."
"You did too much acid, too."
"Nope! I did just enough!"
"Wrong. If you did enough you wouldn't have started drinking again."
"So did you."
"Yeah, but I stayed off booze longer than you. Eight years."
"That's because you tripped more than I did."
"You ever sorry about it? Do you ever wish you were normal? Had a normal life?"
"Shit no, Harry! I wouldn't trade places with a normal for anything. No normals I ever met, anyway. Would you?"
"No.... Never!"
Annie got up suddenly. "Well, I better get back to the kitchen. Janey and I are whomping up a special, coming-back-home lunch! Are you hungry?"
"Yeah! What time is it?"
"What difference does it make? Here."
"Yeah.... Too much acid, Annie. You."
"Well, who knows...." Annie started for the trailer taking long, tripper's, bell-bottom-style strides. Harry squirmed around on the bench, trying to find a comfortable position for his back. "I'm getting old," he said to the Lincoln.
The headlights looked down at him. Into him. Harry looked back.
You'll like Ivory. I'll miss you, but....
There's not another person on Earth who will know you and love you like Ivory will.
"Except you."
Harry jumped. The hair crawled on his arms. He looked into the headlights. The Lincoln stared back.
Jesus....
Harry got up and walked over to the magnificent machine. He reached up and touched the front bumper. It was warm from the sun angling in.
The dinner bell began to ring. It sounded so good. Harry gave the bumper a final pat.
"You'll love her," Harry said.
<end chapter-21>
Copyright 1979, 2005 John Aalborg
All rights reserved.
Email: aalborg@jbaal.com
Chapter Twenty-Two
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Humanism
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Rev: 10 April 2005