Thunder In Her Body (31 page)

“I almost don’t know what to say about that, but if they’ve had their questions answered, then I’m pleased, too,” she replied.

“Oh, by the way,
look at what I’m going to do for the invitations.  Saves money, too,” she added, forgetting temporarily the overheard restaurant conversation.  “It’s simple, I can use a special font and print them out this evening on the computer, and have them in the mail tomorrow.  Can you hand deliver the special ones yourself tomorrow?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

She pulled out the white papers with the beautifully raised, embossed eagle.  He liked the symbolism.  “They will read:”

The families of

Blaze Michael Snow Comes Down

And

Lynette Beatrice Trudeaux

Request the honor of your presence

As they celebrate the

Sacred union of Marriage

On

Saturday, July 15
th

2 o’clock in the afternoon

at

Rancho
Whitehall

“Ordinarily, the bride’s name comes first, but in deference to you, this is your home, the place you’ve grown up, where you’re well known, I want to put your name first.  Anyway, we can ignore convention and, for me, it sets a tone.  Do you understand what I mean,” Lynette asked.  Blaze nodded in agreement.  He understood and appreciated the respect.

“We won’t do an RSVP, we’ll just plan for 125 people and have more just in case.  I’ll need your help drawing the road map to get here, and I’ll create the list of pick-up places and times while I’m at it.  Will you help me fold later tonight?” she asked, showing almost a child-like excitement at the wedding to come.

Lynette beamed with a glow and radiance that thrilled Blaze.  A woman should look like this, sound like this, and act like this when she makes preparation to marry the man she loves, he thought to himself.  And he knew without any question that this woman, his woman, loved him with all her being.  He was learning, too, that she was a single-minded, steam roller when there was something to do.  Now Blaze understood why she had been so successful in her career, despite all the disappointments and misery she’d endured in her private life.  He was proud of her.  He trusted her.  And he loved her more than he could explain.

“Honey, are you planning to buy any property in the near future?” Lynette asked Blaze as they folded the invitations.

“Yes I am,” he answered nonchalantly, “why do you ask?” Lynette related what she’d seen and heard at the restaurant.

“What did the grey-haired man look like?” Blaze asked.  As Lynette described him, Blaze’s contented countenance, turned somber, and he listened intently to what she recalled of the conversation.

“Do you know this man?” she asked.

“Yeah – I do.  I know the Indian too,” he added.  “If they have anything whatsoever to do with what I’ve been planning, then it’s bad news.  Bad news,” he repeated.

“What’s going on?” Lynette asked seriously.

“I found some heretofore undeeded parcels of land that lay on both sides of the Arapaho and San Tome county lines near the boundary of the tribal lands.  They’ve just been sitting there for God knows how long and there’s no apparent owner.  They don’t look like much now, but in a few years the state will need them to push through a highway.  Aaron’s been checking the titles and land grants to see if there’s any problem with purchasing them.  We felt that they might turn out to be a good long-term investment.  Couldn’t find any reason why they hadn’t been picked up before now, especially with their proximity to the tribal boundary.  Looks like we’ve missed something,” he added.

“Somehow, I had a feeling that they were talking about you, with the ethnic designation and the crack about all the land,” Lynette said.  “Bastards.  Just can’t let Indians alone can they, after all these generations,” she quipped.  “And the Indian, what’s that all about?” she asked.

“Been bad blood.  Goes way back,
Lynn.  I thought the Indian was serving a ten-year sentence somewhere.  And the white guy, he’s a flat out crook, known all around here for shady dealings.”

“What did he go to jail for,” Lynette questioned, as she slipped the last invitation into an envelope.

“Armed robbery.  I was the foreman of the jury that convicted him,” Blaze replied.

“Looks like the Universe put you in the right place at just the right time, doesn’t it Babe?  It’s funny how that happens, isn’t it?  I’ll talk to Aaron.  We haven’t laid out any money yet, and there’s no paperwork done.  What’s curious is how they found out we were interested in those properties,” Blaze finished with a quizzical frown on his brow.  He stood up, leaned across the table and kissed Lynette gently on the forehead.  “You are my angel, aren’t you?” he smiled.

C
HAPTER 20

¤

The Misunderstanding

“
I
was over to the building site this afternoon, and Alberto mentioned that Lynette comes over almost every day, and when she’s there, she spends an inordinate amount of time with one of the laborers.  He’s a black guy.  She ever mention anything about him to you?” Aaron asked Blaze.

“No.  She hasn’t said anything, why?” he asked, with a frown on his face.

“Well, I think Alberto feels it doesn’t look right for her to single out this one guy over all the others,” he answered.

“I know she takes cookies, and pies over there when she goes sometimes.  She likes to watch what they’re doing, but I really don’t think much of her talking to some guy,” he said with an honest air of unconcern.

“Ok.  Just thought I’d mention it,” Aaron ended the conversation.

Aaron also mentioned the comment by Alberto to Clare.

“What did you say to Blaze?” she asked.  Aaron related the conversation.

“I can tell you Lynette is going to be pissed that you said anything to Blaze.  She’ll feel you should have brought any concern you have to her, not her husband,” Clare added emphatically.  “If I were you, I’d say something to her before Blaze does.  I know my friend.  I know her values.  I know her temper, and she’s gonna be pissed,” Clare

warned.

Blaze had not discarded the information Aaron shared with him.  He was a thoughtful man and was sure that whatever was happening had been misread.  After what caused a temporary rift between them the week of their formal engagement, he knew that he must trust her, but he thought he might bring it up that evening for her sake.  He did.

“And you heard this from whom?” she said, immediately irritated.

“Alberto said something to Aaron, and you know how protective Aaron is.  He just thought that maybe you’re making the wrong impression out there,” Blaze explained.

Lynette kept cutting up the cucumber, but Blaze noticed that her strikes at the vegetable became more pronounced, almost violent.

“Aaron,” she yelled in an uncharacteristically loud voice, without turning around.  He emerged through the doorway from the deck.

“Is there some question you have about my behavior?” she asked pointedly, still hacking on the cucumber.

“Oh, shit,” he sputtered.  “You told her about…”

Blaze nodded his head.

There was a really long, uneasy silence.  Lynette turned to the men, one sitting on the bar stool at the kitchen island, the other standing a ways back.  She was aware that she was in someone else’s house, so she wanted to be careful, but she would not have her reputation or actions questioned.

“Why didn’t you bring this issue to me, not my husband?” she asked, turning around slowly with the knife in her hand.  It was the look on her face that concerned Blaze.  He had never seen it before.  It was a cold, angry expression.  Her eyes were narrowed and she spoke in an unsettlingly calm voice.

“I…I just thought Blaze should know before he heard it from anyone else, that’s all Dear Lady,” he said in a patronizing voice.

“Then let me help you understand something.  I am deeply and earnestly in love with your brother.  If you thought my behavior cast any doubt on that, you should have come to me first.  I will cut off my right arm before I’ll do anything to hurt this beautiful man.  I am an adult; I am neither chattel nor bondwoman born in a third-world country. I am a free-born woman, and I don’t need to be chastened or watched like a child.  And I am neither a fool nor whore.  If anyone came to me with some crap about your business dealings that affected Blaze, I would stand before you and discuss what I’d been told.  I would not go running to Blaze.  I don’t like what you did.  It was patently dishonest.  But just for the record, let me explain this.  I don’t get to see many blacks out here.  It’s either Hispanics, Indians or Whites.  We, he and I, are decidedly in the minority, and that status causes people to gravitate toward one another.  He has an estranged wife who is playing havoc with his life and the lives of his children.  I mentioned one day that I had been a manager in a child support division during my state tenure.  We sit and talk about what he can and can’t do.  He is in arrears, they are garnishing 50 percent of his wages because there are six children, and he believes that only two of them are his.”  She wanted to look at Blaze, but she kept her angry gaze fixed on Aaron.  “I’m trying to help him.  I sat across a desk for twelve years and had to make some men pay for children that weren’t theirs because the law said so.  If I can make some of that right by helping this one, single, human being who happens to be black, then I will do it.  Now if you, or Alberto, would prefer that I meet him at some out-of-the way place, to talk, like there’s something to hide, it isn’t going to happen.  I’m fully out in the open.  I’m not going to risk my reputation, or Blaze’s, to do what I’m doing – in some clandestine manner, trying to help him.  This man needs a lawyer, he needs to file suit for paternity tests; he needs to know that there are people out here who can care about a rank stranger.  I have contacts in Texas and I have put him in touch with three of them, who can maybe help him.  And, Clare is one of them.”

Lynette stopped momentarily to draw a breath and to exercise her jaw muscles which had tightened in her anger.  She spoke again.

“I will change my behavior in only one way.  I will wait until his lunch hour to talk with him when he needs it, and if Blaze is out there at the time, I’ll ask Blaze to come with me and visit with this man.  I don’t have a godda…,” she started to say and checked her speech. “I don’t have a thing to hide, and this will be the one and only time that I’ll defend my behavior to you or anyone else but Blaze,” she said, still with that steely tone in her voice.  “Forgive me for being blunt in your home.  My upbringing says I should not challenge you under your roof, but my sense of self and truth says, still, what you did was sneaky, paternalistic and dishonest,” she finished and turned around to resume cutting vegetables for the salad.  There was dead silence in the room as Aaron turned around and walked back out onto the deck.  After a long minute of watching her shoulders rise and fall, and hearing the heavy breathing through her nose, Blaze joined Aaron on the deck.  Before he could say anything, Aaron laughed and spoke up, “I’ve never had my ass kicked so calmly in my life.  Look, I’m sorry,” he said to Blaze.

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to,” Blaze said.

“You know, she’s right, and I need to make it up to her, too,” he said.  “I’ll buy her something nice tomorrow when I go into town,” Aaron offered.

“Ooohhhh, noooo!  Whatever you do, don’t try to buy her favor.  I can guarantee you you’ll regret it if you do.  Just talk to her.  You all talk this thing out.  Maybe there’s more she needs to hear from you.  Maybe you need to get to know her a little better,” he said.

L
ynette was all the way down in the steaming hot water, with only her face and hair sticking out.  Her pony tail sat on top of her head like Pebbles from the Flintstones Cartoon.   The bathroom smelled of lavender and peppermint, of all the combinations.  She lay immobile, eyes closed, as if sleep.  Some people drink, some people smoke, some people play music to relax.  Lynette soaked.

She was almost asleep when that soft, masculine voice, interrupted her meditation.

“Are you angry with me?” Blaze asked.

She did not answer right away.
  He waited.

“No,” she finally answered.  “A little bit peeved, but not angry,” she admitted.

“Wanna talk about it?” he asked softly.

“That you asked me about it, tells me the information carried some weight with you.  That I put myself and you in a position to even
have
to talk about it, makes me furious with myself,” she admitted.

“I am a very caring person.  I am a passionate and compassionate person, and in my zeal to help people sometimes, maybe I don’t use the best judgment.  I’m irritated that I had to get crossways with Aaron.  I’m irritated at you, I’m irritated at me, shit, I’m just plain damned irritated.  Everything has been going so well, it’s just a sense of temporary loss I guess.  Loss of equilibrium – homeostasis.  Do you know what I mean?” she asked, not expecting an answer.