She walked down the steps in front of her house, following him to the sidewalk. “What is it that you have to show me? And no matter, you better not be here when my daddy gets home. It ain’t no secret that he doesn’t like your daddy so he surely won’t be happy to see you around here.”

No matter what she said or what her daddy did, John David Jenkins loved her. He’d loved Meg the very day he’d first seen her in the third grade almost two years before. She was taller than him, athletic with long legs, and not a single freckle spotted her cheeks like they did on the faces of all of the other girls. There was simply nothing he’d seen that was more beautiful than Meg Adcox.

And she was smart. Oh God knows she was smart. She never missed a single spelling word and once, when she’d gotten in trouble for talking to her best friend Paige and was sent to the board to do math problems, she’d gotten them all finished before Miss Horton could even assign the problems to the rest of the class. So JD had set out to show her that he, too, was smart, maybe even a bit of a scientist. He pulled the magnifying glass from the back pocket of his jeans.

“You see that ant right there? Watch him through this magnifying glass.”

Meg leaned closer and watched the ant sizzle into the sidewalk. “JD! You just killed him!”

“I know,” he beamed.

“Why did you do that, JD? Why did you kill that ant?”

“Calm down, Meg, it ain’t nothing but an ant anyway. There’s no need for you to get to fussing about anything.”

“I can’t believe you just did that. I can’t—you’re just—I can’t believe you could be so cruel,” she stammered as she stood up and looked down, not necessarily at him, but towards the general area where he was still seated on the sidewalk. Her perfect cheeks were now speckled with dots of red-hot anger.

“Heck, Meg, it’s just an ant—you step on them all the time,” he pleaded to her as she ran towards her front door, her soft brown hair swooshing up against her back as she took the front steps two at a time.

“You’d best leave now, JD, before my daddy gets home and I tell him what you did,” she screamed at him over her shoulder, not once looking back at him before she slammed her way through the door.

JD looked up at the summer sun and figured he was in trouble anyway, not being home in time for what was surely lunchtime by now. He’d either get a whipping or get sent to bed early. Or he’d have to work all day the next day or two with his dad.

He decided that, instead of trying to hurry home, he needed to walk for a while and think. He knew that he should head off down the dirt road not far behind Meg’s house that led towards his, but he followed the sidewalk back towards town square a few blocks away. He hadn’t gotten far when he heard a familiar voice call to him from a car rumbling from behind.

“That Adcox girl break your heart again, John David?” It was his dad, the man who he admired and feared more than anyone else on this whole earth. JD turned and saw his father leaning through the passenger-side window of a new car, one he’d never seen before. “She’s ain’t good enough for you if she keeps turning you away like this, boy. Now hop in Leon’s car with us and let’s get on to the house to see what your momma has us cooked for lunch.”

JD did as he was told, climbing into the seat behind his daddy. He smelled a hint of whiskey in the air of the car as Leon drove towards the dirt road for home. The warm wind blew through the open window straight into his eyes and he did his best to keep from blinking, hoping that the steady force of air would keep him from crying.

*****************

JD was the oldest of three boys, and, in part from being the first one born, he was the one who got the most attention, both good and bad, from his daddy. He was four years older than the next oldest and thus the other two boys were too young to be much of a help to his father. His younger brothers stayed mostly around the house with his momma, helping her with small chores, but JD shadowed his daddy, helping him work and sometimes, when he could slip away, blazing down trails he’d been unaware had been cleared by his daddy.

They lived in a white house that had been built by JD’s granddaddy on top of a small rising in the land. The house was small and seemed smaller, with every room packed with big, heavy furniture and old, dusty books. There were paths through the house from one room to the next, but nothing more than that, just paths, wide enough for only one person to pass through at a time. The only area in the whole house that was just slightly clear was the area in the front sitting room, the area around an out-of-tune piano that was so old the keys were as yellow as corn. JD’s daddy occasionally wrestled a tune from it, and there was nothing that those boys loved more than those nights when they all stood around, singing songs with their parents.

Outside, all around the house was a big, open field that was dotted with cows, horses, and an occasional dog, and edged in trees, trees that helped to hide even more of the land. JD’s daddy owned more land than any other person in the whole county, something that sometimes gave him great pride, but on most days, it just served as the very source of work that seemed to be unending.

By the time they got home, Leon’s car was covered in the red dust it had kicked up on the dirt roads. And JD could taste that very same dust in his mouth. He got out of the car as quickly as he could and, while Leon and his daddy leaned on the car, talking, spitting into the ground, JD went inside, the screen door slamming hard behind him as he stepped into the kitchen.

“Where’s your daddy? Lunch has been ready for a while now. Me and the boys got tired of waiting and went on and ate without you two.”

He looked at his momma, a sweet-faced woman if there ever was one, her hair tied up in one of those fancy scarves she had that matched whatever dress she had on, the front of her apron wet from the dishwater where she’d probably already washed up from the meal. She always fussed over meals more than any woman he knew, but no matter, the food she cooked wasn’t really all that good. He lifted the lid on the pot that she’d sat out on the stove and saw a roast inside, shriveled up and gray. Lumps of flour floated past the onions, the potatoes, and some carrots that she hadn’t cleaned very well. “I’ll dish you up a plate while you go wash up.”

He shook his head, then looked at the middle of the table where the cheese dome was. “Momma, I ain’t all that hungry. I think I just want a hunk of cheese to take with me before I go lie down.” She crossed the room with her knife, lifted the glass dome, and cut him a slice of the hoop cheese that always sat right in the middle of the table. She handed him the cheese and then the knife, allowing him to cut the red wax rind off himself, a ritual the two had taken to a few years earlier when he wanted to prove to her that he could be trusted with the knife. “Are you okay? You ain’t getting sick, now are you? I think your daddy’s going to need your help tomorrow.”

“No, Momma, that stupid owl kept me awake all last night and I just need a nap.” With that, he went to his room, closed the door, and slept until she woke him up for supper.

*****************

Raiford Adcox walked into the kitchen just as Lizzie was putting a plate of fried chicken in the center of the table. She was good help for him during the summer, taking care of his two girls, but she sometimes didn’t mind after them as closely as he wished she would. “Was that the Jenkins boy I saw out on the road?”

“Oh, now, Mister Raiford, I’ve been in here busying after this chicken so I just don’t know. I can’t be paying no mind as to who is out on the street when I’m fixing your favorite lunch.” Raiford smiled, knowing that she put a lot of care into her fried chicken, the best he’d eaten since his own momma’s. She turned to face him, grease speckled on her white apron, and put her hands on her hips. “Besides, I don’t know why you’re so against those Jenkins folks. The seem like nice people and Lord knows they got more money than God up above.”

“Now, Lizzie, just because a man has money doesn’t make him a good person. And just because a man owns a lot of land doesn’t mean he’s got a lot of money. Anyway those Jenkins people are just no good and I don’t want that boy of theirs sniffing around my little girls.” He paused as his two daughters ran in and threw their arms around his neck, each picking one of his cheeks to kiss repeatedly. Their hands were still dripping from having washed up for lunch. The girls sat down quietly in their chairs, kicking each other beneath the table, and their father continued. “Besides, Jenkins has a bit more money in his pocket today, but less land than he did when he woke up because I just bought twenty acres off of him. Nice land, already cleared, right on the edge of where that new county road is going in.”

Lizzie’s hands dropped from her hips then rose to the sides of her face, her pinkie fingers covering the corners of her mouth. “Mister Raiford, you’re not going to take these precious little girls and move them out there in the country, now are you?” The girls stilled themselves suddenly then turned to their father, their faces washed with anxiety waiting for his answer.

“Good heavens, no, Lizzie, where in the world would you get an idea like that? Jenkins needed some money to help pay off his credit at the feed store so I bought some of his land off of him. I told him I’d sell it back for the same price as soon as he got back on his feet. I don’t know how long it will take him to get back on his feet, but I told him my offer stood for two years. For most folks, that would be plenty of time, but for Jenkins, well, I reckon we’re going to have to wait and see.”

Meg and Christina went back to kicking each other under the table. Lizzie, however, wasn’t nearly satisfied on the matter. “Why did he need so much money? How in the world could he get so far behind down there that he’d actually sell his own family’s land?” She plucked a tomato from the line of them that she’d set on the windowsill and started slicing it on a plate on the kitchen counter. Raiford quietly stared in her direction, seemingly focusing on the motion of her elbows while her back was turned. When she spun around, the plate of freshly sliced tomatoes in her hand, and walked towards the table, he shook his head of whatever thoughts had been occupying his mind.

“Lizzie, I didn’t get into the man’s business. I ran into him outside the drugstore last week and we got to talking. The only thing I know is what I’ve said—he needed some money, I bought the only land of his that I’d attach my name to, and that’s it.”

And the girls bowed their heads, waiting for their father to say grace before the chicken got too cold.

*****************

Six years of time saw JD grow into a man while other boys his age were just chasing after girls around town square. He became more and more responsible for the family business that was somehow, some way tied to the land, forcing the earth to provide a living for his parents and his younger brothers any way he could. He worked hard, both before and after school, sometimes following behind his daddy, but more and more often, just doing what needed to be done without his daddy telling him to do it.

Indeed, JD had grown into a man. It showed in the way he walked, in the way he carried himself. And his shoulders had grown broad, his back layered in muscles that jumped with even the slightest of movement. He’d become a short man, stocky, “built like a tree stump,” his daddy would say. Just the same, there were certainly girls who turned their heads towards him, but the only girl who turned his head was still Meg Adcox.

“Get that horse down off of my steps right now, boy. What in the world are you thinking?”

“I’m sorry--I didn’t mean nothing, sir. I was just coming by to see your daughter. Is Meg in?”

Raiford stepped down from the porch, grabbing the horse by the bridle and pulling it along with him. He walked out to the middle of his front yard where he crossed his arms over his chest and stood, looking up to JD who sat squirming in the saddle. “First off, if you’re coming to see my daughter, you’d best be wearing a shirt. This is not your farm over here, son, this is my home. And do you see that there? It’s a road. With a sidewalk. It’s for cars. You might think you’re cute riding that horse everywhere, making a name for yourself by sticking out, which may well be the case, but no boy is going to ride a horse up onto my porch and think he is going to see my daughter. Especially if he doesn’t have the decency to put on a shirt before he comes over here. Just what kind of impression do you think you are going to make looking like that?”

“I’m sorry, sir. I really didn’t mean no harm. I just wanted to come over here and see Meg one last time and to try to talk to her, to try to explain some things. I can promise you though, sir, that this really will be the last time. I promise you that much, sir.”

“JD, why is that you think she wants to see you, last time or otherwise? What in the world is it that you think you have to explain?”

JD jumped down from the horse and stood next to Raiford, a man fully six inches taller. “Mr. Adcox, I’m not sure. Daddy’s been upset about that timber company coming in and buying up so much of our land. But today he was mad at me. I don’t know what I’ve done yet, really, but he sure came in hot at lunch and said that he wasn’t ever supposed to hear of me talking to Meg again and that no matter how much I loved her, he was forbidding me to see her. No matter what. He was real forceful about it so I reckon he means it too. I told him that I had to come tell her this myself, so as to keep her from wondering and starting to hate me for just ignoring her all of a sudden. He knows I’m here, but this is my last time. Please, Mr. Adcox, I sure don’t know what has him so agitated, but I do need to see Meg just one last time.”

Raiford stood over the teenager, listening, then slowly he unfolded his arms. “JD, I’m sorry. I don’t know if Meg wants to see you right now, but I do know why your daddy is so mad. He’s mad at me, not you, not Meg, but he’s taking it out on who he can. Now I promise you that I can explain this all to Meg so that she won’t hate you, but I think it best if you just go ahead and go on home now.” He extended his open hand to JD who slowly took it and shook it with a firm grip.

“I sure do appreciate this, Mr. Adcox, I do. I reckon I can see her at school and all and that Daddy can’t get too upset about that. Can you tell her that too?”

“Sure I can, JD. I’ll tell her right away. Now you should be going, son.”

JD smiled and said, “Yes sir, Mr. Adcox,” and climbed back on his horse and headed back down the street towards town square.

Raiford stepped back into the house and found Meg peeking out the window from behind the curtains. “What did you say to him to get him to leave so fast, Daddy?”

“Meg, I didn’t have to say much of anything, actually. He was coming to tell you that he wouldn’t be bothering you any longer, that he thought you were a pretty girl, a smart girl, and that he was sure you’d find someone much better than him.”

She giggled and hugged her father. “I didn’t need the likes of him to say that, but it sure is nice to know. If it’s true, it’s going to be really nice to be at home without having to pretend that I’m not here. He’d gotten to where he was popping by twice a week, Daddy, and I just never knew when it was going to happen. Are you sure, though, that he won’t be back this way?”

He rubbed his daughter’s check with his thumb and said, “I’m fairly certain that he won’t be back.” Meg, having received the answer she wanted, content with no more information, went back towards the kitchen, humming softly to herself.

Raiford watched her walk away then headed towards the room he used for an office, walking directly to the filing cabinet in the corner where he kept all of his business papers. He had to put away the envelope he’d gotten from the courthouse earlier in the morning, the papers they’d given him after he’d sold twenty acres of land to the timber company. Jenkins was at the courthouse too, and when their eyes met, they both knew why the other one was there. There was not a word spoken between the two of them, Raiford simply smiled sheepishly, and Jenkins glared fiercely in return. In the end, though, Raiford had gotten more money than he’d paid for the land, a lot more money, enough to pay for his girls to go to college. And he was feeling mighty fine about it all.

*****************

His father’s land beneath his boots, his father’s name attached to his, JD feared that he’d spend his entire life without ever being his own man. His younger brothers had both left town the year before, and then he’d heard that Meg had graduated from college and was dating some boy. Her sister had said they were probably going to be getting married, that everyone liked him, especially her daddy.

JD was looking at the sky that was peeping through the treetops when he heard dried leaves crackle beneath someone’s footsteps behind him. When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw his father stop, reach into his pocket, then tilt his heads upwards, his lips on the receiving end of an upturned but already half-empty bottle.

“You want a swig of this? I reckon you do it when I’m not around and as long as your momma don’t find out, there ain’t no harm.”

“Thanks, Dad, but no.” JD looked down at the ax he was holding, figuring he should get back to work before his father noticed that not much had gotten done that morning.

“You know tonight is Friday night—you going to see that cute little Creek girl again?”

“I don’t know yet. I just ain’t so sure I need to keep spending so much time with her.”

“Ahh, boy, now she’s about as cute as they come. I ain’t never seen a Creek girl with such freckles on her face, but she sure does have them. Cute, cute, cute. Besides she’s a good girl, looking after all those dirty-legged kids her momma keeps popping out, so I figure she’s going to make someone a fine wife someday, John David. And it may as well be you, you know.”

“How do you know so much about Teesha and her family, Daddy? I didn’t think you knew any of the Indian folks around here, let alone the ones who lived clear on the other side of the county.”

“Aw, son, that girl’s momma used to always come into Grant’s when I would be down there doing my trading and she’d beg to sweep the floors to help get herself something or other on credit. She was always fretting about feeding those kids of hers and when she’d get too pregnant with one or the other, that oldest girl would come in and do the sweeping, sometimes with a younger sister or brother in tow. I reckon I’ve seen the entire family, one or two kids at a time.”

JD shuffled his feet into the leaves on the ground and then lifted the ax and propped it on his shoulder, ready to end the conversation and get to work. His daddy, he thought, had come to talk, however.

“I just want you to know that when it comes time to get married, I can handle talking to your momma about this. She don’t like no Creeks, you know that, but she will be pleased as punch once a grandbaby comes along, and if that girl’s anything like her momma, you two will start having babies directly. That won’t give your momma much time to fuss, especially if we tell her early on that your girl is already pregnant.”

JD understood. He understood every word his father had said to him and even some of the words he hadn’t. Plain and simple, it was time to get married. And Teesha was just as good as any. If the truth be told, he’d been spending plenty of time with her for the past six months, and although she was still in high school, she wasn’t too young to get married. Besides, he hadn’t dated any other girl besides her ever, really, and he’d often considered that there just came a time when you married who you were with. Teesha was who he was with, so maybe his daddy was right.

“Well I’ll think on it some then, but I ain’t going to be able to go see her tonight if I don’t get some of this work done.” His daddy smiled and walked back towards the clearing.

*****************

She was sitting there on the steps of Grant’s, the steps she’d just finished sweeping. It was about time to lock up and go home but he’d shown up ready to talk and was standing up in front of her, pacing back and forth in the parking lot, hugging himself to stay warm. She squinched up her face and looked at him, her elbows on her knees, her face cradled in her hands. “Just where is it that you reckon we’re going to live?”

He stopped his pacing right in front of her. She could kind of tell he was getting angry so that when he leaned his face towards hers, she didn’t even flinch. “Girl, I just told you that. Daddy said we’d build us a house…”

“JD, I know that. It ain’t like I wasn’t listening. I have no choice, as loud as you get when you think you ain’t going to get your way.” She broke away from his gaze by looking down at her dress, fumbling for the store keys in her front pocket. “But where is it that we’re going to live while the house is getting built?”

He pulled his face from hers and looked up in the sky, talking really slowly to make sure she understood. “Daddy and Momma both said that we could live there with them, that way we could be right there, watching the house even when we weren’t working on it. And we’d be close by, so it wouldn’t be far away when we did want to work on it.”

She stood up and walked down the steps, walked past him and on out towards the edge of the parking lot, her back turned to him the whole time, then she kicked a rock as hard as she could and it bounced all the way to the other side of the road and into the grass. When she turned back around, she saw that he had sat down on the steps where she’d been sitting. His arms were outstretched in front of him, his elbows resting on his bended knees, his hands clasped together like he wasn’t sure if he was going to make a fist or say a prayer.

“I don’t know about this. Your momma’s never laid eyes on me and now I am supposed to believe that she wants me living in her house while we try to build us a house right there in the shadows of hers? Have you even talked to her about us getting married?”

“Of course I have, Teesha. And she ain’t never laid eyes on you through no fault of her own. I told you that you can show up for Sunday dinner any time you want.”

“I can’t just show up for Sunday dinner. It ain’t right to just drop in. Besides, I spend Sundays helping my momma—you remember, I have a momma too, you know.”

He stood and walked towards her as she turned her back to him, looking towards the road. He wrapped his arms around her waist and talked softly into the hair on the back of her head. “Well, all I was saying was that you’ve been invited. And now you’re sure acting like you don’t want to get married. All on accounts of your momma and my momma.”

She broke free from him and turned to face him. “JD, that ain’t what I’m saying at all. Why do you get like this when you can’t get what you want? All I’m saying is that we should wait. There ain’t no hurry. Besides, that’ll give me time to finish high school, for us to get us a house built, and for Jabbo and Misty to get a little older so that Momma don’t need me as much to help watch over them.”

And with that, JD and Teesha officially became engaged and they got married eight months later. A few of the people outside the drugstore down on town square whispered that Teesha was pregnant, but that first baby of theirs didn’t come along until nearly ten months after they got married and then that was when JD really started to work hard to get that house of his finished. They moved in before the baby had her first tooth.

*****************

“Daddy Jenkins, you know JD ain’t here right now. He went back into town to get something for that tractor and he told me not to expect him back for a few hours.”

He pushed his way on past her, on into the kitchen, where he threw his hat on the table and looked around at the clean, white walls of her new home. She closed the door behind him and started back towards her work at the sink. “Oh, that’s ok. Sometimes I’m going to come by when he ain’t here just so as I can see this grandbaby of mine,” and he walked to where the baby was rolling around on the floor, playing with a drool-covered wooden spoon. His dirty boot landed right next to the baby’s head.

Teesha quickly wiped her hands on a dishtowel and rushed over and picked up the baby from the floor, cradling her against her chest. She kissed the top of her head and then said to her, “This here’s your granddaddy, Maggie. Say hello to your granddaddy.”

“Aw, don’t do that to that baby. She ain’t even old enough to talk yet, let alone know who all these people are who keeping coming by to see this house. I really just wanted to stop in and say hello,” and he licked his fingertips then reached out, trying to smooth down the baby’s hair by rubbing it with the wet thumb that was made shiny on account of his spit. “Looks like she’s got a cowlick right there that ain’t nobody paid no mind to.”

Teesha moved away from Jenkins and towards the playpen in the corner. “It ain’t no cowlick. It’s a curl. JD says that there ain’t no curly-haired folks in his family that he knows of so we reckon it comes from my side of the family. My little brother and my little sister, they both got curly hair.” She bent over and put Maggie in the playpen, and then she just stood there, leaning on the mesh side of the playpen, watching her daughter and talking to Jenkins without turning to look at him.

“No, I reckon there’s plenty of curly hair from us Jenkins folks. JD just don’t know everything about us, no matter what he tells you.” And then she heard his footsteps as Jenkins started walking toward the playpen. Teesha turned to face him and then, when he was getting closer, she stepped out of his way, thinking he was trying to get closer to look at Baby Maggie. Instead, he kept moving right towards her. He reached out with both of his hands and he grabbed her by the waist then pulled her towards him, putting his face in hers, his lips puckered up and extended. She whipped her face to the side and when she did, her dark hair smacked him in the cheek. She could smell the whisky on him once that he had hold of her.

“Daddy Jenkins, what do you think you’re doing?” she said as she put her hands on his wrists and wriggled her waist from out of his grip. Once she was free, she went back towards the sink and tied on her apron, then turned to look at him, deciding that she needed to keep her eyes on him as opposed to having her back turned to him again.

“I wasn’t doing nothing, girl, except I was just letting you know how happy I am that you’re in this family and that we got us a brand new grandbaby here too. Us granddaddies get proud sometimes and we just want to hug on folks to let them know how happy we are.”

Teesha folded her arms across her waist and tried to think of what to say. “I’ll be sure to tell JD that you come by today,” was the only thing she could come up with.

“No need in doing that. I’d already told him I was going to be coming by to check on you, make sure you were okay while he was in town this afternoon.” With that, he picked his hat up from the center of the table and walked towards the door. His hand on the doorknob, he turned and said, “Now don’t you think twice about hollering at me if there’s anything you ever need me to do for you, girl,” and then he opened the door and left without bothering to close it behind him. She listened for his truck to start up and then she walked to the door and watched it, making sure those taillights were heading through the field, back towards the house where she’d lived with her in-laws for a short time.

*****************

She’d had a funny feeling for a few days, her energy leaving her long before she’d gotten everything done. The dishes were lingering in the sink a bit longer, the clothes, both the dirty ones and the clean ones, were piling up here and there, while some had blown about on the clothesline for days. The kitchen, well, she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d mopped the floor, but she’d been pretty good about sweeping it fairly regularly.

But that morning when she’d tried to finish eating some eggs and grits that she’d cooked for JD and then couldn’t keep them down, she knew what she’d been feeling: she was pregnant again.

Teesha hesitated to tell JD about it, although she wasn’t sure why. He’d said that he wanted more kids, that he definitely wanted a son, but maybe the problem was that she wasn’t so sure that she wanted any more kids. She had her hands full, chasing after Maggie all day, and she wished that she lived closer to her people, wished she had someone she could talk to during the day. The only person around was Momma Jenkins, though, and she wasn’t much of anyone Teesha could talk to.

It was almost a week later when she looked at JD across the dinner table and said, “Well, I guess we’re going to have us another baby here directly.”

He’d just torn a piece of bread that he was using to sop up the gravy from his plate but he stopped, his bread only halfway around the circle of his plate, and then held his hand still, his bread just lingering in the gravy. “Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Well, I am guessing that I’m pregnant again, JD. What else could I mean by that?”

He dropped the bread, pushed his chair back from the table, stood up, and walked over to her. He bent slightly and kissed her cheek. “That’s great. We’ll keep it from everyone for a while, I think, and we’ll tell them at Christmas. That’ll be a nice present for everyone, don’t you think?”

“I reckon so, for your family, but I am going to tell Momma next time I see her. You reckon we can’t take a ride over to Grant’s some day so I can tell her?”

“Sure, I don’t see no reason why not. You know what days she’s going to be working?”

Her sadness was visible when she remembered that, no, she really didn’t know when her momma would be working, when was going to be the best day to go over there. “Well, if we go and she ain’t there, at least I can ask and figure out when we can come back,” which is exactly what ended up happening.

And just like Teesha knew she would, her momma hugged her neck and whispered, “I don’t hardly get to see the one grandbaby I’ve got and here you are bringing another one into the world. Promise me I’ll get to see this one more.”

Teesha smiled and said, “Of course you will, Momma,” the whole time thinking to herself that she’d likely see the new baby even less, considering that another baby would add more work to her day and make it harder for her to just slip away to see her kin. “But we ain’t told JD’s people yet because he wants to surprise them at Christmas, so if you see Jenkins come in here, don’t you tell him, okay, Momma?” Her momma nodded about the time JD honked the horn on the truck. “I have to go now, Momma, but I’ll get him to bring me back up here more often so you can see me get fatter.” They gave each other a quick hug, Teesha kissing her momma’s cheek during the embrace, and then she turned and walked back to the truck, smiling when she looked up and saw that Maggie was sitting in JD’s lap. When she climbed in and closed the door, Maggie held out her arms, reaching for her momma, and Teesha pulled her daughter into her lap.

*****************

By the time Teesha and Maggie walked down to help Momma Jenkins, it was late in the morning. When they opened the back door and stepped into the kitchen, the warmth of the house and the smell of pumpkin pie filled the air and welcomed them in. There was nobody in the kitchen but they could hear shuffling in the dining room. “You sit right here at this table and I’ll be right back.” Maggie sat momentarily in the chair as she was told, then followed behind her momma into the dining room.

Jackson’s wife was standing at one end of the table, Momma Jenkins at the other. They were tugging at each end, the leaf they were trying to put in was standing upright, leaning against the wall. “Momma Jenkins, you go mind after Maggie for a minute and let me help Jenny with this,” and Teesha nudged her way into position at the end of the table. Momma Jenkins, relieved, edged her way behind Teesha, sliding her rear against the wall, and went back towards the kitchen. Maggie was standing in the doorway. With the promise of a gingerbread cookie, Momma Jenkins was able to talk Maggie into leaving her Momma behind and going back into the kitchen.

“I am so glad you showed up when you did. Momma Jenkins is getting on my last nerve. I swear I don’t think that woman knows what she’s doing any more and I am working my fingers to the bone trying to get everything done and she’s just standing over me, telling me what to do. Mind you, she isn’t lifting a finger to help, in her very own house even, and then she has the nerve to tell me I’m not doing things the way she does them. I am this close from telling her that she can do it all her way, every single thing she can do her way, if she doesn’t ease up some.” Teesha looked at her sister-in-law, a pretty blonde with blue eyes, long legs, and a strong jaw line. She hadn’t been married to Jackson for long and already she’d made quite a splash with the family. Everyone, it seemed, just loved her.

“Oh now, Momma Jenkins don’t mean no harm, Jenny. She’s just getting old and wants to see that we know her way so that we can take care of her boys as she sees fit. She really is a good woman, I promise you, you just got to get to know here some. And having all of the family here for Christmas just means the world to her, so it just makes her that much more antsy about things, you know?”

“Well, I think she’s pure evil, I do. And you, of all people, talking about her with such kind words. She just acts like she doesn’t like anyone, that nobody is good enough for her or her boys…” but Teesha stopped Jenny from saying anything else by getting a firm grip of the table again and pulling with all of her might. The entire table jumped, which startled Jenny enough to quiet her.

“We can talk some more once we get some of this work done, Jenny, but if we just stand around doing nothing but yammering, Momma Jenkins will surely be upset then,” and then Jenny tugged at her end of the table again, sliding the table completely apart. “Now let’s get that leaf in place and then go work some in the kitchen.”

Jenny didn’t move but instead, folded her arms across her waist. “The doctor told me I’m not supposed to do any heavy lifting so you’re going to be on your own with that leaf.”

“Oh, girl, it ain’t that heavy. Just grab that top end when I tilt it your way.”

“No, Teesha, you don’t understand. I am not going to touch that leaf. We haven’t told anyone yet but we just found out I’m pregnant. Jackson says he’s going to make the announcement after we eat supper.”

“Oh? Well, congratulations, I reckon.” Teesha tilted the leaf from the wall and grabbed it in the middle, lifting it towards the table. She heaved it into the opening, then pushed and pulled until it locked into position.

“Teesha, please, I’ve trusted you that you won’t tell anyone before Jackson makes the announcement. You see, we really want to surprise his parents. We’ll be going back to Atlanta for New Year’s and we’ll tell my parents then. I’m certain that they’ll be overjoyed.”

Teesha smiled at her sister-in-law, pretty, petite, with her make-up and her hair just so, even the clothes she was wearing to work in looked like they were bought to be worn together as an outfit as opposed to just putting on two things that were clean. Teesha looked down at her own hands, covered with the dust and cobwebs from the bottom of the table and the leaf, and wiped them across her stomach. “That’s real nice, Jenny. Yes, I’m sure they’ll be real happy for you but you know you don’t have to worry about me ‘cause you know I won’t tell nobody.”

“Oh thank you, Teesha. I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to blurt out our little secret or anything, but I thought I should offer you a reason as to why I couldn’t help with the table.”

“No, I didn’t think nothing of it, Jenny. Nothing at all.”

“Teesha, if you don’t mind me asking, what is it like to have a baby? I mean, I know it will be different for us since Jackson and I waited until we were a bit older than you were when you had you daughter, it’s ‘Maggie,’ right? Anyway, does it hurt as much as they say it does?”

Teesha stared at the wall, right where the leaf had been standing upright, and without looking at her said, “Jenny, you’re going to be fine. Jackson will see to that, I’m sure. And if he don’t, y’all got all those doctors in Atlanta to help you, so you’ll be just fine. So instead of us standing here and fretting over things that ain’t never going to come to pass, let’s get on in that kitchen and help Momma Jenkins put together this meal,” and with that, she walked into the kitchen, where she found her mother-in-law sitting at the table peeling potatoes, Maggie on the floor beneath her, trying to catch the peelings as they dropped.

Momma Jenkins looked up and smiled. “Oh, Teesha,” she said and pointed towards the kitchen sink, “be a dear and smear that turkey with some oleo and put it in the oven for me, won’t you? I don’t guess it’s going to cook itself just sitting under the kitchen window, huh?” And Teesha moved towards the sink and stared out the window towards the house she had helped build herself.

*************

By the time the meal was cooked, the house was burning up hot. Teesha slipped into one of the spare bedrooms at Momma Jenkins’s house to change clothes. She pulled off her shirt then balled it up in her hand and used it to wipe the sweat off of her. She reached down and pulled off her pants, then lay down on the bed to relax for a bit and to cool off. Her body jolted upright when she heard her father-in-law’s voice through the bedroom door.

She stood up and quickly dressed, knowing that, with the men back from their trip to the liquor store, they’d all be ready to eat. She pulled on her panty hose and then the black wool skirt her own momma had once worn. The red sweater she had brought with her was one she’d had since high school, but it was just about the only nice-looking blouse she had for the holiday. As she opened the bedroom door to walk back to the dining room, she felt a stream of sweat trickle from her breasts down her belly to the waist of her skirt.

When she walked into the dining room, most all of the adults were seated. Her seat next to JD was on the other side of the room and he patted on the seat of her chair, motioning her to come take her seat. But with the leaf in the table and the chairs pulled out enough to sit down, there was barely any room to move around the table. Just then, Momma Jenkins asked Jackson to say grace, and instead of making a big commotion trying to get to her seat, Teesha just decided to stand.

Everyone bowed their heads and Jackson’s voice filled the room. He thanked the Lord for gathering all of the family together for the holiday and for everyone’s good health. He had started to say something about all the food on the table when Teesha felt something move behind her. She stood still but, even without opening her eyes, she knew JD’s daddy was behind her. He pressed his body into her back, his finger beneath the waistband of her skirt, tugging at the zipper. Jackson’s blessing was still going on, but Teesha couldn’t hear his words any longer, her mind focusing on JD’s dad. When his other hand smoothed across the rounds of her bottom, she pushed backwards, falling into him with such a force that she slammed him into the wall. Jackson quit talking and everyone looked up as both Teesha and Jenkins stumbled to regain their balance.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, everyone. I reckon all this work and this heat has gotten to me. I’m so sorry, Jackson, I really didn’t mean to mess all of those pretty words you were saying, but if y’all can excuse me for just a little while, I think I need some fresh air.” She walked through the kitchen and out the back door. By the time JD came out to find her, she was next to his truck, bending over and vomiting into the gnarled roots of an oak tree.

“JD, I don’t know what come over me in there, but I think I need to go home and lie down. Can you drive me back to the house?”

“Sure I can. Let me go back inside and tell them where I’m going, and I’ll grab Maggie too so you won’t be up at the house by yourself.”

Teesha climbed up into the truck and waited for JD, who came right back out carrying their sleeping daughter across his outstretched arms. He handed her to Teesha through the open truck door then softly shut it and walked around to the driver’s side. He didn’t say a word when he got in the truck nor on the drive up to their house. Once he carried Maggie into her bedroom, he kissed Teesha’s cheek and left to go back to his parents’ house.

*****************

Teesha loved the game of letting the bar of soap drop into Maggie’s bathwater. It made the little girl giggle and besides, Teesha loved to watch the clouds of white billow out into the water from the bar of Ivory soap. They dropped it over and over until the water was so soapy that Teesha couldn’t see the white puffs of soap in the water, and then the game, sadly for both of them, was over.

Maggie was getting bigger now, which was good, considering that Teesha was going to need her to be a bit more independent if the doctor was right about things. The way she figured, she wouldn’t have the new baby until May, but Dr. Andrews said it would come at the end of March. Maggie wasn’t old enough to understand much, so she hadn’t even bothered to tell her that she was going to be a big sister to that growing bump in her momma’s belly.

Teesha had just pushed herself up from the floor using her arms against the side of the tub when she heard a car door slam. Or maybe it was a truck door. She moved quickly, grabbing Maggie from the bathwater, wrapping her in a towel, and turning off the bathroom light. “We’re going to be just fine in here for a few minutes. Let’s just see who can sit here the longest in the dark being quiet.” Maggie giggled, the excitement of a new game overwhelming her, before Teesha reminded her, “laughing counts as noise and we got to see who can be the most quiet.” She put her fingers over Maggie’s lips to show her exactly what she meant just as she heard boots on the front steps, then the front porch, then scraping across the doormat.

Teesha sat in silence, listening to the breathing of her daughter, and thought back to what JD had told her that morning.

“Daddy says that someone has knocked down the fence down near the creek on the other side of Jackson’s Bluff so I am going to go into town this morning and get everything I need to fix it and then I am going to stay out there all day until it’s done. I reckon I should pack me a sandwich or two, unless you mind fixing them for me.” He winked at her, and, with no other response but a heavy sigh, she moved towards the kitchen counter to start making sandwiches. She silently pulled the bread down from the cabinet then reached into the refrigerator for the bologna. She didn’t even look at him. “You ain’t mad about me asking you to help pack me a lunch, now are you? The baby ain’t even up yet so I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“If you want some cheese, you need to cut me some of that hoop cheese from the table,” she said, her eyes focused on pulling the red rind off the slices of bologna. He could tell she was bothered by something, but when he stepped closer to her, she turned around and looked at him right in the eye, tears welling up in her own, and asked, “JD, you’re going to be gone all day? Why is it going to take you all day?”

She didn’t sound mad like he thought she would. Instead, he thought he heard her voice crack like she was about to really cry, the type of crying she only did when something was bothering her really bad. He looked around on the floor for his boots then, when he saw them under the table, he pulled out a chair, sat down, and started hiking up his jeans to pull them on. “I reckon, from what Daddy said. He said it was in bad disrepair, almost like someone meant to tear it up or something. Probably some guy who lost a buck or something and just took it out on what he could find.”

“Well, why don’t you work on it for a while and then you can come by here and have lunch?”

His boots on, he grabbed for his hat on the table and lifted it towards his head. “Who knows, Teesha. You know that Daddy sometimes can talk things up worse than they really are. I’ll be by as soon as I finish,” and with that, he grabbed the two sandwiches from the counter, put them in the paper bag she’d just gotten from under the sink, kissed her cheek and walked out. And when she heard those boots on the front porch while she was sitting in the bathroom with Maggie, she knew it wasn’t JD coming back early.

She felt her heart beating pretty fast inside her chest when she heard the doorknob rattle. She’d locked it, she thought, once JD had left, but she couldn’t remember if she’d gone out it since then. If she had, she just wasn’t in the habit of locking it so she feared that she’d forgotten, that the door was unlocked.

But it wasn’t. She heard the boots scrape across the doormat a few times then move across the porch and down the steps. She and Maggie waited for several minutes, listening for the sound of a truck door slamming shut, an engine starting, and the tires rolling away. She never heard any of it.

Maggie was getting squirmy though, and she knew she’d have to go out at some point anyway. She slowly opened the door, peeked around the corner, then waved Maggie out into the hallway as if they were playing a game. Maggie giggled out loud and Teesha laughed silently to herself, wondering why in the world she was sneaking around when she knew she’d heard him leave the front porch. She’d been paying so much attention to listening for him to drive off, she thought, that she’d probably not even heard him when he had.

She grabbed Maggie by the hand and the two of them walked together towards Maggie’s room. She grabbed a clean dress for Maggie from the pile of clothes in the hallway that she hadn’t yet sorted, and the moment she opened Maggie’s bedroom door, right outside the window, she saw the truck. It was still sitting in front of the house. With her right hand, she gently pushed Maggie back through the doorway and out into the hall, and with her left hand, she closed the door. “Let’s just get dressed right here in the hallway, just to be silly today,” and she got down on her knees, pulling the towel off of her little girl, and began to dress her.

*****************

JD noticed his daddy’s truck parked out in front of the house as he was pulling up. His daddy turned from the front door when he heard the truck approaching and had made it down the front steps by the time JD had pulled up and put the engine in park. JD fumbled for his pistol in the passenger’s seat, put it in the glove box, and by the time he went to open the door to get out, his daddy was standing there.

“I don’t know where your wife is, John David, but she ain’t here. I reckon some of her kinfolks came and got her and they’re out running the roads or something.” Jenkins spit in the ground, then walked to the back of JD’s truck and pulled down the tailgate. He didn’t sit on it, but he sure leaned heavily onto it. JD got out and circled around to his father.

“If she ain’t here, I don’t know where she is. She acted like she wanted me to come by for some lunch with her so that’s what I was trying to do.”

“Well, she ain’t here now. I knocked on the door for a while and didn’t hear nothing inside, plus it’s locked. I reckon y’all lock your doors when y’all leave now, huh?”

JD wasn’t so sure. He couldn’t ever remember locking the door and he got to thinking. He dug down into his front pockets, his fingers feeling around, searching through his keyring as he was trying to determine if he even had a key for the door without pulling them out and looking. And as the two of them stood there, his daddy pulled a yellow onion from his coat pocket and peeled away the skin with his pocketknife. He bit into it like an apple.

“Now son, you’ve gotten quiet on me again and I don’t want you worrying about nothing. I mean, she’s just an ol’ Creek girl so even if she is out there running the roads, ain’t no man with any respect for hisself going to want anything to do with her. If she keeps getting fatter and fatter, won’t nobody even look at her anymore except to laugh at her once she’s passed by.”

JD looked down and kicked at his rear tire, his hands still tucked into the front pockets of his jeans, the keys still buried into his right thigh. “Well, I reckon I’m going to go on in for a bit before I head back out to finish up that fence. I’ll stop by this evening and let you know how much I get done on that fence. Someone really messed it up something fierce, though. I didn’t think it could be as bad as you was telling me, but I reckon it’s even worse. It’s likely going to take me until tomorrow to finish, to get all that new fencing strung. But I’ll stop by this evening and let you know.”

“Alright, son, I’ll be seeing you later on.”

JD walked towards the porch and by the time he put his hand on the doorknob, he remembered he needed to check for that key. He could feel his daddy’s hot gaze on the back of his neck and he sure didn’t want him to see his own son locked out of his own house. For that reason alone, he was relieved when he pulled out his keys and saw a shiny silver one, one he wasn’t sure what it opened, but just from thinking quickly what it could possibly be a key to, he was fairly certain it would be the one to get him in his house. And it did.

When he closed the door behind him, something moving in the hallway caught his attention. It took a second for his eyes to adjust, given that the hallway light was turned off, but then he recognized the figures of his wife and daughter, squatting in the doorframe of Maggie’s bedroom. “What in the world?” he said as he walked towards them. “Daddy said he’s been out there pounding on the door and that there wasn’t nobody at home.”

Teesha stood, then bent back down to grab the wet towel from the floor. “I didn’t hear him. I’ve been giving Maggie a bath and maybe the running water just drowned out his knocking, I reckon.” Maggie stood next to her momma, one arm wrapped around Teesha’s leg, the other dangling to her side. She didn’t look up at her daddy but instead, watched her momma’s hair as it bounced and moved when she talked.

“Daddy also said that you was getting fat.”

“Who is that old man to say anything about me?”

He stepped closer to her and raised his finger towards his wife’s face. “Now whoa up, girl, that’s my daddy you’re carrying on about.”

She reached up and pulled his finger from her face, her own fingers wrapped around his wrist. “Well, when you was standing there letting your daddy badmouth me, your daddy of all people, did you ever stop him and say, ‘whoa up, daddy, that’s my wife you’re talking about?’ I know you didn’t. I know it never even crossed your mind because you just don’t think about that. You don’t never even think about what I am going through, JD, all that this is doing to me. I mean, you told me you was going to tell them about me being pregnant at Christmas and you didn’t do it. Why, JD, why?”

“I don’t know, Teesha, I don’t know. It just didn’t seem like the right thing to do at the time.”

“Well, you reckon it’ll be the right time something before I have this one? Or do we just show up one day with another kid just tagging along?”

JD’s fingers danced nervously along the brim of his hat, lifting it then replacing it over and over. “I ain’t going to talk about this subject right now. I came home for lunch but now, I am going to go back and finish up that fence. I’ll just eat those sandwiches after all. And when I come back in this evening, just don’t have that door locked. A man shouldn’t have to use keys to walk into his own house,” and he turned, grabbed the doorknob, flung the door open and walked outside without bothering to close the door. Teesha walked to the doorway and watched his truck drive off, her tears balancing on the edge of her lower eyelid.

*****************

It was after dark by the time JD made it back to his momma and daddy’s house. His momma had surely gone to bed so he wasn’t at all surprised to find his daddy sitting alone at the kitchen table, a bottle of whiskey in front of him. JD pulled out a chair and sat down next to his father, who seemed startled in spite of that he’d just watched him come in.

“Hey, boy, how’s that fence coming along?”

“I almost finished it. I don’t reckon it’ll take more than just another hour or two tomorrow to finish it completely.”

“Yeah, well, you always was quite a worker,” and he reached over and grabbed his grown son by the shoulder and shook him. “You’re just like me, you know, because when I was your age, I could outwork any man around, colored or otherwise.”

JD nodded his head. “Well, daddy, I just wanted to stop by and let you know where I was. I reckon I need to get on home and tend to Teesha some, she’s not feeling so well lately, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know. Didn’t know at all. What’s ailing her?”

“Well, we’d meant to say something when everyone was here for Christmas but things just, well, it didn’t work out. Anyway, she’s pregnant again.”

“Oh son, I had no idea.”

“Yeah, we figure this baby will be born in the late spring. That’s why she’s been looking so fat and worn out here lately, I reckon.”

“Lord, son, that girl’s just like her momma, huh? I reckon the only difference being that we have a better chance of knowing who the daddy is when she gets pregnant as opposed to how her momma is.”

JD tilted his head slightly, not sure if his daddy was trying to imply something about his wife or not. “No, daddy, there ain’t no question as to who is the father. Teesha don’t never go nowhere to get in any trouble no ways, and she ain’t never been that type anyhow.”

Jenkins studied his son’s face, then pushed himself up from the table and walked to the kitchen window, staring up at JD’s house. “I hope you’re right, boy, for your sake, I sure hope you’re right.”

*****************

That night in early May when Teesha had the baby, her momma got a ride out to the house from one of the customers she knew from Grant’s. She’d always promised that, if she didn’t get to see Maggie as much as she’d wanted, she’d at least get to babysit her whenever another baby was born. She brought along Teesha’s little brother and sister, who she thought could help with Maggie. Instead, every single one of them, her grandma, her young uncle and aunt, all seemed to scare the child. She cried for her momma most of the time, the flow of tears only slowing when she was sound asleep.

JD and Teesha came in the next evening, Teesha carrying the new baby wrapped up in the same pink blanket they’d used to bring home Maggie. When they came through the door, they all rushed towards Teesha, who bent down slightly so that everyone could see the sleeping child, then stood upright again, pressing the baby back into her shoulder.

Jabbo was the first to say anything. “What is it?”

Misty giggled and smacked her brother in the arm. “It’s a baby, you dummy, what do you think?”

“Aw, I know that. I meant is it a boy or a girl?”

Teesha smiled at them then looked at her momma. “It’s another girl. JD named this one ‘Peg.’ He sure does know how to name some babies, huh? I was sure he’d outdone hisself with Maggie, but I really like Peg too,” but when she looked at her husband, he was looking out the kitchen window into the night, his back to everyone. “JD,” she called to him, “we’re over here talking about you.”

He kept looking out the window and said, “I don’t reckon I ever noticed how dark it is out here. There’s lights all over that hospital and you get back out here, and there doesn’t seem to be nothing.”

Teesha laughed and said, “That’s ‘cause you’re looking outside, silly. The lights are on the inside.”

JD lifted his hat slightly when he scratched his forehead then looked back over at his wife, her long, dark hair glistening, spilling over the blanket where their new daughter lay sleeping. “I reckon you’re right.”

*****************

While the baby was sleeping, she put on her coat and then grabbed Maggie by the hand. “Let’s go for a walk and see what those boys are doing over yonder,” and they set off for the edge of the field where they could see the truck parked under the trees. As the walked, Maggie pointed out every cow patty along the way and said “yuck,” then circled around to the other side of her Momma, not letting go of one hand until she’d reached and had hold of the other. Teesha smiled, remembering that she’d done the very same thing as a kid and expected that Maggie’s daughter would likely too.

The closer they got to the truck, the more they could smell it, that hot, metallic smell of blood. The deer was already strung on a chain looped over a tree, it’s belly split open. Smitty’s dog thwacked its tail against the ground when it woke up and saw them approaching and JD, his hands inside the deer, was the first to turn to see as to what had roused the dog. “What brings you two out this far?” he asked.

Smitty turned, touched the tip of his cap as if to act polite and respectful towards a lady with her child, then his boy did the same. His boy, his shirttail cut, his faced smeared with blood, was smiling. His first deer.

Teesha reached down and gently pushed Maggie’s head into the side of her hip, forcing her daughter to look back away from the deer, the blood, the smiling boy, and back towards the house. “We came up here to remind you that folks are going to be coming round here pretty quick like, maybe in the next hour or two. Y’all need to be washed up before then. And Smitty, wash that boy’s face off before y’all come in the house. It’ll scare the young ones and we don’t need more folks crying and carrying on than we’re already bound to have anyway.”

Smitty smiled and said, “I expect you’re right,” while his boy began to protest. “Son, we’ll get some pictures before long so as to show everyone. And I reckon we can bring folks out here if need be so we can show them your deer. One of us is going to need to stay out here anyway,” but by then, Teesha and Maggie had already started walking back towards the house, letting the men figure it out as to how they were going to accomplish cleaning and dressing that deer while folks were coming by to sit and visit.

*****************

She was working in the kitchen, trying to get some sandwich makings put together to put out on the dining room table. She had been listening to the murmur of voices from out in the living room, occasionally able to figure out who was talking, who was laughing, who was crying. It startled her when the kitchen door squeaked open and Reggie Culpepper’s dough-faced wife poked her head in. “Teesha, girl, come on in here with us and sit down. We’ve already got plenty of food out here already and we sure don’t need no more. Plus, you’re wearing us all out just watching you work like this and folks are starting to worry about you, staying so busy all the time. Lord, we’re afraid that you’re going to drop too and then what will we do? Oh, Lordy, can you imagine that? What would we do then, huh? Did you ever think about that?”

Teesha smiled. Mrs. Culpepper took in a deep breath and was about to start talking again, but Teesha stopped her before she could. “There’s no need to fuss over me because I’m just fine in here. Besides, I got to get this stuff done in here because there ain’t no one else who can do it right now. And the busier I stay, the better I feel about everything.”

“Aw, you’ve always been the sweetest thing,” and she came towards Teesha, wrapping her up in her fleshy arms, then pulling away from her just far enough to stroke the dark hair that fell around Teesha’s face. “I know you two was real close and all and that them finding him out in the field like that must’ve been something awful for you. But ol’ man Jenkins had led a good life and I know he wouldn’t want you to work yourself into an early grave, tending to all of his grown-up kinfolk. You need to take care of yourself, sugar. Now you promise me you’ll come right on out here with us once you finish up what you’re doing.”

“Yes, ma’am, I will,” Teesha said but Mrs. Culpepper was already pushing her way back through the kitchen door, back to the murmur of voices, back to where the other folks were sitting, talking, crying, and eating.

Teesha was glad she had left though, glad to have the kitchen all to herself again. She started to hum softly as she threw a dollop of mayonnaise into the bowl of hard-boiled eggs she’d just finished crumbling between her fingers.