Love Blooms in Winter (16 page)

“Haven’t had time to give that solid thought, but we gotta move it quick. We can still salvage the meat before it freezes.” She latched on to Mae’s arm and urged her out of the store and down the steps.

“Now, just a minute—”

“No time to jaw, Mae. We got to dress that bull.”

“How did it die?”

“Train got it. The poor thing got knocked so far back from where the train stopped that no one noticed it till a short while ago.”

“Do you have your butchering tools and a lantern?”

“No. I wasn’t planning on butchering anything when I came to town today.”

“Wait here. I’ll get some things.” Whirling, Mae went back into the store and returned a few minutes later with a large saw, two of the sharpest knives she could find, a meat cleaver, and a lantern. Lil immediately began thinking aloud about ways to move a two-thousand-pound animal.

“We need Esau.”

“Lil, listen to you. When he comes around folks get nervous, you know that. Besides, are you planning to drag the bull to your place?” Mae put the tools in the back of the wagon and climbed aboard.

“We can’t drag it to my place. There’d be nothing left. That’s why we’ll have to butcher it where it is.”

“You know more about this kind of stuff than I do. Where is it?”

“Not far from the accident site. It must have wandered onto the track and caused the wreck. George Stewart was hot under his collar because the accident killed one of his stock. He wanted fifty dollars, but Curtis held firm. He gave him ten, but we have to clean up the mess.”

“Tom said
I
have to clean up the mess? How dare he make that commitment for me!”

“Easy, girl. I offered to clean it up. And it was my idea to ask you to help me. No use letting good meat go to waste.”

“I guess not, but couldn’t one of the men in town take care of the matter?” Exhaustion was overtaking her. Mae didn’t know if she had it in her to dress a bull tonight. The accident had stripped her of energy. Her bones ached, and she longed for a hot bath to sooth them.

“No one was available.” Lil climbed up onto the driver’s seat of the wagon. “Typical, ain’t it? Can’t find a man when you need one.” She looked at Mae. “Guess that’s why we ain’t married!”

“Maybe.” Climbing up the side of the wagon and onto the seat, her so-called beau ran through her mind. But Jake would ask for her hand someday, she was sure of it. Lil slapped the reins across the horses’ hindquarters and the wagon lurched forward.

When they rode past Pauline’s house, Mae noticed the lamplight in the window. Undoubtedly her elderly friend was sound asleep in her chair.

They arrived at the broken track and Lil followed it. They came upon the carcass a ways beyond the accident site. The felled animal was huge—more bull than Mae wanted to tackle, but she had no choice. She was here now, and she would make the best of it. She thanked the Lord for the moon or the task before them would have been even more daunting.

Lil quickly built a fire and then grabbed the tools while Mae positioned the lantern for good light. Lil made the first cut and then began skinning the animal before Mae stepped in to help. Within thirty minutes she had stripped out of her gloves and discarded them. Her fingers quickly lost feeling, but she couldn’t work with her hands covered.

“There’s some nice roasts here,” Lil said.

“Very nice, but I’m not hungry. I’m tired and cold.” Mae heard a noise in the distance. It was dark and quite late. Who—or what—was out there? “Lil, did you hear that?”

“Yep. No telling who it is.” In the distance dogs approached. Jeremy kept Pauline’s dogs penned at night, so they shouldn’t be hers. The ruckus grew louder, and Mae paused as she watched a small figure, with a familiar pack of dogs on her heels, enter the ring of light. Pauline. Dressed in long johns that were covered with her new robe.

“Oh, Pauline.” She dropped her knife and went to offer the elderly woman her coat. She would catch her death. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be sound asleep.”

“Saw you and Lil go past the house and knew something was up. We got another train wreck?”

“No.” Poor Pauline. When had the train ever run at this hour? “You need to go on back home. Here. Put on my coat. It’s too cold outside for you.”

“I can’t do that. If I leave with your coat, you won’t have anything to wear. Besides, I’m not cold. I’ll just sit by this cozy fire.”

Lil was never one to coddle. “Pauline, put on that coat and git home.”

“I don’t want to go home. Maybe I’ll go tell Fisk what you’re doing out here in the middle of the night.”

Lil snorted. “Go ahead. He won’t care.”

Nodding, Pauline sat down on the railroad track in front of the fire. “You’re right.”

“Then why bring it up?”

“Will you two stop it? Let’s just get this job done and go home.” Mae bit her lip to keep her teeth from chattering as she went back to work on a hind quarter. “Pauline, can you at least keep the dogs away from the meat, please?”

“Okay.” The old woman whooshed her hand through the air. “Git away from the meat.”

The gesture and command did little good, and the animals nosed along the ground, tracing the fresh scent of blood. Pauline huddled on the rail. “Want me to help?”

Both Mae and Lil simultaneously turned, answering, “No!”

Mae softened the response. “You just watch.”

“Git away from the meat! Sonny would do this if you asked him to.”

“‘Sonny’ is the reason I’m out here at this unmerciful hour,” Mae groused. She intended to give Tom a piece of her mind tomorrow morning. Lil might be grateful for his generosity, but right now Mae would give twenty dollars to be asleep in her warm bed. The cold moon climbed higher.

She watched as Lil took three big slop feeders from the back of her wagon to hold the meat. Mae figured they could wrap up the bounty and distribute it tomorrow, but she didn’t know where. The store didn’t have capacity for this amount of fresh meat. Maybe Lil intended to keep it.

“Are you taking the meat home?”

“When would I eat all of it?”

“You wanted it.”

“I didn’t want to see it go to waste. There’s bound to be folks who could use it.”

The dogs milled about as Mae wielded her knife. “Jeremy would like to have one of these big roasts.” Shooing the pesky animals aside, she glanced at Pauline, who was now trying to move a couple of steaks to the feeders. “Sit down, Pauline. You’re getting your lovely new robe messy.” Blood splattered the front of the garment. Mae grew faint when she thought of how much Tom had spent on the frivolous piece of clothing.

“Git away from the meat! Go!” Wiping her sticky fingers down the front of her robe Pauline smiled. “It’s a purty thing, isn’t it? Sonny bought it for me. He was always a thoughtful child.”

Lil glanced up. “You remember him?”

Reseating herself on the rail, Pauline smiled as she spread her fingers toward the fire. “No, but a man’s bound to be good if he’d pay nineteen dollars for this piece of junk.”

Lil turned to Mae. “Make her go home.”

“I can’t make her do anything, Lil.”

“She’s gonna die of exposure, and these dogs are slowing us down. They are even getting away with some of the meat!”

“She’ll get cold enough that she’ll leave.”

“Where’s Esau?” Pauline asked.

“In his shelter.” Lil dropped a steak in a makeshift pan.

“What shelter?”

Lil continued to slice meat. “The one I built for him, old woman.”

“Lil,” Mae rebuked.

“Well, she gets on my nerves.”

“Be kind.”

“Why?” Pauline asked.

Mae sighed. “Why what?”

“Why is he in the shelter?”

“He belongs there. It’s cold out, and he has to take care of his skin.”

“Humph. Why does it get dark so much?”

Lifting her head, Mae frowned. “What?”

“When did they change the time? I eat breakfast and it’s dark. Then I eat dinner and it’s dark again. That’s all I do. Eat in the dark.”

“You get up too early,” Lil said.

“I get up when I wake up.”

“That’s earlier than most folks.”

“Why, I suppose it’s not. When the good Lord opens my eyes, I get up.”

“You don’t have to get up the moment your eyes open.” Mae sliced a piece of loin. “I’ve noticed your lamp burning at all hours.”

“Then you must be up.”

“No. I happen to wake up and look out the window.” Mae straightened. This situation was beginning to try her fortitude. Fortunately, they were nearly finished. “If you don’t mind, Lil, I’ll take Pauline and the dogs home before she freezes to the rail.”

“Mind? I’d give you a—”

Mae cut off the not-so-patient response. “Thanks. Do you want me to come back?”

Lil continued her work. “No need. I’ll be done soon.”

Pauline peered up at Mae, toothless. “I suppose it’s time to eat again?”

She glanced at the night’s clear winter sky. “By the moon’s location, I’d say it’s close to midnight.”

Pauline whistled. “It’s past my bedtime—or it’s time to get up. I’m not sure which.”

Saying goodbye to her friend, Mae wrapped her arm around the woman’s thin shoulders, sheltering her as much as she could from the cold wind that had sprung up. She turned and whistled for the dogs to follow. Pauline’s lovely new housecoat was ruined. Mae would try to get the bloodstains out of the fabric, but she doubted she’d have much success. Tom Curtis was a generous man, but he needed to choose his purchases for his aunt more wisely. “It’s past my bedtime too.”

By the time she got Pauline home, cleaned up, and tucked in warmly, it was well after two a.m. before Mae crawled between the sheets in Dale’s bed behind the store. Stirring, Jeremy lifted his head from his pallet and called into the bedroom. “Mae, you tired?”

“Mae’s really tired.” Stretching out, she wiggled her cold feet under the blanket. Her soft bed and warm covers felt like a small part of heaven. The wind howled around the eaves, but she was safe and secure. She could only pray that Lil was home and in her own bed as well.

“I left a plate of food for you in the warming oven.”

“Thank you, darling, but I’m too tired to eat.” She was too tired to move.

“I talked to Mr. Curtis tonight when I took Dale’s supper to him.”

“Oh?”

“He told me he’d put me to work.”

“That’s nice. Did Mr. Curtis assign you a job?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Jeremy yawned and laid his head back on his pillow. “I wanted to do a man’s work, but he said I would be the best at carrying water and keeping the dogs away, and he didn’t want anyone else to do it except me.”

“That’s very nice. Not every man is good with animals like you are.” Poor darling.
God, please allow him one day to do a man’s work. I’m not asking for a miracle. Just a life of purpose that fulfills his needs. Jeremy will never be like other men, but he is gifted in so many ways
.

“I work very hard,” his sleepy voice drifted to her. “I’m gonna fry fourteen chickens for the workers’ dinner on Monday.”

She closed her eyes. “Oh, Jeremy.” That meant he’d wring fourteen chickens’ necks, heat boiling water, pluck feathers, dress and cut up all those birds, and then fry the meat in order to help. If that wasn’t a man’s work, she didn’t know what would be. “I’m sure the workers will deeply appreciate your efforts.”

When she looked in the living room, she saw that the boy was already fast asleep. She’d wanted to tell him that Pauline was trying to build a large pen to contain the animals and soon that job might be easier, but there would be time tomorrow.

Pauline building a pen? She smothered a chuckle. That should be interesting.

S
unday morning dawned with a hint of snow in the air, yet as the sun peeked over the distant hills Tom was pleased that seventeen men turned out before church to sign up to repair track. Dale stood on the General Store’s front steps and silently registered each name in a log book.

This morning the store owner wore a suit, white shirt, and tie. Tom had heard him get up earlier than usual, and then he’d left the house before the first pot of coffee boiled. Taking a second glance, Tom noticed that nearly every man in the crowd looked to be in their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.