Once Upon a Misty Bluegrass Hill (27 page)

Patrick
tickled her ribs sending Jolene into a frenzy of laughter and wiggles.

"
Patrick
! Really!
"
 

It was Leona. 
Patrick
released Jolene and
stood
,
up his eyes going
grim
.  He turned to Leona who was already dressed in an elegant black silk jumper.  She glared hard at
Patrick
then turned to Jolene who stood up and brushed herself off.  Her hair had pulled out of her pony tail.

"
I am sorry Leona.
I was just having fun with the girls.
"
 

"
Jolene is not a girl
Patrick
.  She is a grown woman
even though she hasn
'
t got much of a shape and her hair is a mess
all the time
.
"

Patrick
turned back and looked at Jolene from head to toe. 
Jolene felt the heat of
Patrick
'
s gaze for an instant before he smothered his thoughts. 
"
You are right, I should not be wrestling her to the ground and well I know it.
"

Jolene wanted to sink into the ground…but first
she wished she could find just the right come back to put Leona in her place
.

Instead she looked down at her
cut off shorts and a t-shirt from her college. 
Her legs were sprinkled with a light dusting of freckles on her fair skin. 
Her fingertips were blue and she completed her look with little scratches on her arms and legs from the blackberry bushes. 
Next to Leona she looked like a
complete
bum.

Leona
'
s voice dropped husky and she walked to
Patrick
and pressed into his arms. 
"
You can
'
t help it if she throws her
self at you.  After all, she has a crush on you.
  What a joke
that is.   And very embarrassing for all of us
.  We really need to find her a boyfriend.
"

Jolene could have died right then
. S
he felt her face go hot with humiliation
. 
Patrick
turned his gaze sharply
back
to her and looked into her eyes
with confusion and
a question hanging in the air
. 

"
Jolene, you don
'
t have a crush on me do yer
?
"

Jolene could not believe this complete humiliation. 
"
You liar Leona!
I hate you!"
"
 

Jolene turned and sped toward where the girls were now
playing and thankfully
distracted by the dogs.
 

Leona
'
s laugher chased her steps.
 

Jolene could hear
Leona's
low murmur of persuasion
to
Patrick
.  
"
S
he is so immature
Patrick
.  We
should
have left
her at school during the summer
so she
could
gain some maturity and take some extra classes.
"

"
Let us not talk of that just now Leona…you have hurt her feelings
...made her embarrassed
.
"
 

Jolene stopped running and walked several steps catching her breath. 

"
Jolene, come back.  Leona didn
'
t mean it
the way it sounded
,
"
Patrick
called to her back.

Jolene stopped and turned around holding up her hand, anger and humiliation saturating her to her soul.
"
Talk to the hand
Patrick
because I am not listening.
"

****

Later that night Jolene and the girls got their jars out to capture fireflies
while
Patrick
and Leona had their dinner party.

Patrick
walked out on the front porch several times to watch them. 
 

Finally he called out. 
"
Jolene, I am sorry.
"

"
Sorry about what
Patrick
?
"

"
About what Leona said.
"

Jolene tried to look passive and indifferent in the shadows of the evening. 
"
Don
'
t feel sorry
Patrick
, she doesn
'
t know anything.  I don
'
t have a crush on you.  As if I ever would!
"

"
Then don
'
t be mad or hurt.
  She is right that I shouldna
'
be wrestling you to the ground.  You are a grown woman.
"

"
Don
'
t be mad at
Patrick
!
"
  Lacy demanded as she chased a firefly and whisked him into her jar.

Jolene
chased her own firefly. 
"
Am I a grown woman
Patrick
?
"

Bea stopped and looked at her quizzically from behind her glasses. 
"
Of course you are a grown woman.
"

"
Ar
a
ah woman, of course you are grown.
"

"
Really?  I didn
'
t think you noticed.
"

"
Jolene.
"
 
Patrick
was too far away and standing up on the lighted porch so
she
could not be sure of his expression but she figured his eyes had gone dark like the
y
always did when he scolded her. 

The screen door slammed and Leona stepped outside. 
"
Come on
Patrick
, it is time for desser
t.
"

"
Oh
, that sounds great. 
I
'
ve been waiting to try some of the blackberry pie
,
"
he said.

They moved toward the door together.  Leona laughed. 
"
We are not having blackberry pie. 
I was not going to serve our guests something so provincial
as pie,
Patrick
, really!  I asked
Mata
to make a chocolate soufflé.
"

The screen door slammed leaving Jolene standing there with her jar filled with fireflies and humiliated again. 
"
What is a soufflé?
"
 

Bea looked up at her. 
"
I would rather have a blackberry pie than a soufflé…it doesn
'
t sound very good, except the chocolate part.
"

"
Aaand with
marshm
e
llows
.
"
Lacy chimed in
lifting her jar filled with fireflies for Jolene to inspect.

"
I say girls, why don
'
t we go and have some of that pie before I send you home.  Your mom will be calling you
back
soon
and I will walk you to the creek because it is dark now
.
"

They started toward Jolene
'
s house. 
"
I don
'
t like Leona
,
"
Bea said.

Jolene sighed and pulled back her instinctive
ugly
response. 
"
Maybe we will
all
grow to like her in time.
"

Chapter
16

Daddy was not a heavy drinker and that moonshine is powerful stuff.  He must have thought spending ten dollars on moonshine was a wise investment at the time.  But when Mother found out, she was fit to be tied.  You did not want my mother mad at you.

Somehow she found out where they had bought the whiskey.  It was at a neighbor’s house just out of sight.  She marched down that dirt road like a soldier going to war.  Charles Junior and I followed her.  We were afraid for her because we had heard moonshiners were easily riled.  Besides, they had guns.  Didn’t everyone? 

We were careful to keep out of her sight as we did not want her wrath visited upon us.  She didn’t go into the house.  She called them out.  We were surprised to see they looked like ordinary people.  There were two men, two women and several children.  There were also lots of hound dogs. 

We were not close enough to hear all that was said but we could see Mother had her hands on her hips and she was really holding forth.  I guess all those years of playing the organ or the piano and singing in the Church really came in handy. 
Mary Margarette Donnelley Hill - From her vignettes "Moonshine, Mountains and Memories of my Grandmother."

Jolene woke early and went to ride Storm as she always did before the heat came in.  There was su
pposed to be a terrible thunder
storm later in the afternoon and she wanted him
out and back in
before the clouds even gathered.  If she was lucky she would be sitting on her front porch watching the rain c
ome in with a glass of ice tea i
n a
B
all jar.

Leona
was having
another one of her stupid dinner parties. 

So
Jolene
would just keep to herself today, sit on the porch with some iced tea…some lemon-sun tea. 

Oh and a good book. 
A glass of tea in a B
all jar with a romantic novel.  She could avoid
Patrick
and Leona completely while enjoying her porch
..and the rain coming in
. 
They needed rain. 
Even though you could see
Patrick
's house well from the porch, i
t faced out to the pasture hills.

She had taken to cooking for herself
even though
Mata
always made enough for a small army…but she wanted
to avoid going to
Patrick
'
s and seeing him and the cooing Leona. 
Besides, Leona was a vegetarian. 

Egg plant…ugh!
 

Veggie lasagna? 

Who ever heard of something so horrible? 

Mata
couldn
'
t stand her either.
She had to learn a whole new set of recipes and go to special stores to get food that was
particularly
processed
, or not processed
.
  If one could tolerate the food she could not tolerate the nasal voice of Leona explaining why people should only eat vegetables. 

Leona was not just a pain in the
backside
she
was fake and
just so
horrible.  Could
Patrick
not see this?
  Did he
actually
like
eating veggie burgers? 

No…but he liked her perfect blonde hair and pretty spa
-
tanned legs. 

Leona didn
'
t have freckles either.

After riding S
torm
,
Jolene spent the day cleaning and putting down more seeds since some of her tomatoes had fallen to the bugs.
  They needed more Guinea to cut down the bugs.

She put her mind to
p
lotting her revenge because
Patrick
had not even come over to say hello
for two days
.