Chapter 2: Chapter 2
“Hi,” I answered. I would have offered to shake hands, but hers looked a little bloody and slippery.
She wiped them on her apron. She tore a sheet of white butcher paper off the roll above the counter and deftly wrapped the chunk of bacon. She tore another, too, and packaged the two slabs of ribs. “These for you?” she asked.
I nodded. “For a family barbeque this weekend.”
“Lucky family,” she said as she slid the bacon onto the scale. She wrote the weight on the paper and exchanged it for the package of ribs.
Mr. Wright placed a large pile of hamburger meat onto the scale. “Oops. I must be getting daft,” he said with a chuckle. “Over-shot this one. This is two-point-two pounds. Want me to take some away or is that okay?”
“Leave it,” I answered. “You can never have too much hamburger meat.”
He laughed as he wrapped it in butcher paper and wrote the weight on the outside.
He rang up the costs on the cash register, and I handed him my credit card.
“Have a good barbeque and give your folks my regards,” he said.
“I will, and I’ll have her call you if she wants more lamb.”
Jody handed me a shopping bag filled with the meat.
“It was nice to meet you,” I said, giving her my best smile.
She smiled back and nodded. I walked out of the shop.
Nice looking woman, I thought as I went out to my car. Very nice.
* * * *
It took me two trips to bring all the groceries into the house.
“Mr. Wright said to tell you hello,” I told my mother as I laid the final package on the counter. “He also said to tell you that they’ll be slaughtering sheep next week. I ordered a boneless shoulder roast.”
“Oh, that’s good. I may call and order some chops, too. That okay with you?”
“You know I love lamb chops,” I told her.
“And his are always so fresh. It’s always nice to have some chops in the freezer in case company comes over. The way they raise their livestock out at that farm is so good. They’re always real tasty.”
“He has his niece working with him. Says she came down from Wyoming to apprentice with him.”
“Oh, that must be Robert’s daughter. I met her when she was just a little thing. I think she’s close to your age.”
“She seemed to be.”
That’s one of the things about living in the Midwest, you knew everyone andtheir families. It was hard to hide anything because everyone talked and talked about everything and everyone. If you wanted to live a different life, you had to move away…which I hadn’t done. I should have. I might have been a lot happier.
I took a deep breath and helped Mom put the food up.
“Those are nice looking peaches,” she said. “Want me to make a cobbler?”
I grinned. “I’d love it,” I replied. Yes, that was what I’d thought when I’d seen them.
“Maybe I shouldn’t send you shopping again,” Mom said with a big sigh. “It always causes me work.”
“Want me to do it?” I asked.
“Nope. I can get it done.” Mom was always complaining, but I don’t think she ever meant it. “What are you going to do today?”
“I’m not sure. I got one of those job-ad flyers so I’ll read through it and see what there is out there.”
“You don’t have to worry about a job, sweetie. I told you that when you moved back.”
“I know, Mom. But it would be nice to have some spendin’ money. I need to keep gas in the car, too.”
“You don’t go that far.”
“I know, but I might.”
She laughed as she put the last of the laundry onto the pile on the table. “You can take these up with you when you go,” she said, pushing a pile of my clothes toward me.
“I’ll take yours, too.”
“Just take the towels up. I’ll put your father’s and mine away later.”
I nodded as I hefted the stack of towels and washcloths and my own clothes and headed for the stairs.
I’d moved back home about a month ago. I’d been away to college for over four years, but, of course, I hadn’t studied anything that might prepare me to get a job. I’d studied English Literature. I could converse about all the classical authors and even about some contemporary Americans, and I could explain all of Robert Frost’s poetry, but the only thing it had prepared me for was an office job or a cashier’s post. I could write a dynamite letter and alphabetize with the best of them so filing would be my greatest asset. I’d put in applications at some of the stores on Main Street and at the mall, but no one had called me yet. I supposed I should make the rounds again to check.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone