Once Upon a Misty Bluegrass Hill (34 page)

"
It
'
s all over Paris about
Leona Mason
finding you and
Patrick
rolling
around
in the grass in the rain.
  Right proud of you I was…she is such a bitch and everybody knows it.  Always flashing her tail and titties around town.
"

Jolene sighed.  Would the humiliation ever cease? 

Not in a small town. 

She was certain Leona kept the tongues wagging for sympathy
and to continue her hum
i
liation
. 
"
We were not rolling in the grass.
"

What had she been thinking to let
Patrick
make love to her outside
in the rain
?

Of course, she had not been thinking at all and that was the problem.

Aunt Paula chuckled. 
"
I knew he wanted you the day he brought you by and picked up
your
stuff.  Maybe everybody else is blaming you but I know better.  I saw the way
he was looking at you that day
.
"

Jolene cut off the extreme desire
to
scream. 
"
Thank you for taking up for me Aunt Paula. 
But I think it was as much my fault as his.  I don
'
t know what happened.
"

Paula laughed and fell back on the bed
looking at the ceiling
. 
"
What is to figure out
?
  He is a hunk with a pretty accent.  You are a young woman.  It is spring.  Just nature is all.
"
 
She turned her head and mascara-thick eyes to Jolene. 
"
All the animals are out
fornicating
, so is the same for people.
"

Jolene dropped her face into her hands
. 
"
I don
'
t want to talk about
Patrick
and Leona
.
"

Paula sat up submerging with delight into more gossip. 
"
They are planning a big wedding.  I mean, really big
and
have
'
in out at the Lexington Country Club.
"

Jolene looked up scowling. 
"
Not another word!
"

"
Have you got an apartment yet?
"
  Aunt Paula
sniffed,
tucked her feet under
her and looked at Jolene with
hard
eyes
.

Jolene
stood up and
paced around the motel room as she had done a lot while trying to dig herself up from under the rubble of the last few weeks since she left
Patrick
. 
"
Not yet…I
just heard
back from UK on my application
that I sent out while still at school
. 
I want
ed
to wait to see if I get accepted
before finding a place
. 
I logged in using the
wireless internet
at the coffee
shop on my laptop and found out I had been accepted
.
"
  She stopped and wiped dust from the top of the old television that sat on a rickety stand. 
"
So, y
esterday
I
found a small house with a fenced yard near the school so I can pick up Finnegan and Oliver from
Patrick
'
s place and move us in by Saturday
.
"

Aunt Paula examined her painted
finger
nail tips. 
"
You could come live with me…just have to pay me a little rent.
"

Jolene knew what
that comment
meant.  Aunt Paula was out of money. 
And looking for
cash
.

Nothing new about that.

The very idea of living with Aunt Paula again was enough to make her stomach
queasy
. 
"
I am sorry Aunt Paula.  W
e both know it would never work for me to come live with you
again
.
"

Aunt Paula pouted. 
"
You hurt my feelings.  I know my place ain
'
t fancy like
Patrick
'
s but we get by.
"

Jolene went to the dingy window of the motel
to look outside
rather than face Aunt Paula
.  The
father of the
family that had moved in
to the motel
a few days after her was sitting out in
an
aluminum lawn sea
t
by the cloudy pool. 
His
two small girls were splashing happily in the pool filled with leaves and a tinge of scum
ringing
the cracked tile
. 

"
You know I don
'
t like those parties and all those men that come in and out…and the drugs and so much alcohol.
"

"
Well, young lady now that you went to that fancy girl
'
s college you are too good for your poor old Aunt
Paula
who took you in when you were a
young 'in
without your mom and daddy.
"

The father busted open a beer and leaned back in his aluminum chair. 

Why didn
'
t he find a job so his family could live somewhere besides a dingy motel?

She really should get a better place to stay
herself
between now and when she moved
into her new place
, but it was just too much of a bother.  It was only a few more days after all.
  Everything had been filled up for the Derby so she had to take what she could get.  Now that
the Derby
was over she should find something better.

Of course Summer Storm had won.  She presumed
Patrick
too
k
Leona to the Galt House. 

Ugh.  It was too much.

She didn
'
t have the heart to go
to the Derby
.  She might have seen
Patrick
and Leona in the box seat. 

Probably not...but why risk it?

"
I don
'
t think I am too good for anybody Aunt Paula.
"

The bank account
Patrick
had set up for
her
had been substantial. 
In fact
,
it had been more
plent
iful
than she ever imagined. 
In her thinking, she was rich.  

"
I agree with that....
I
'
d say you were pretty trash
y
by
doing it
out in a pasture…though I have to hand it to you, I ain
'
t never tried that myself.
"

Swimming in humiliation,
Jolene turned back around to Aunt Paula
'
s intense
mascara
stare. 
"
If you are going to be crude,
please don't. 
I just don
'
t need it right now.
"

Aunt Paula took a tissue from the nightstand and touched the corners of her eyes. 
"
Well it is just that you think you are too good to come live with me and pay a little rent,
'
specially since I need the extra cash right now.
"

This was really too much. 
"
What about if I just give you some cash to make up for hurting your feelings?
"
 

Aunt Paula smiled large, her front tooth boasting a trace of her red lipstick.  She
set to
chew
ing
her gum quickly. 
"
Well I would say that would be right nice of you Jolene.
  I always told your mother you were a good girl.
"

"
I bought
a Ford Escape several days ago.  D
o you want me to give you a lift home?  How did you get her
e
anyway?
"
  Jolene picked up her keys hoping Aunt Paula would get the hint just this once. 
Jolene
was heart-weary and tired of thinking about
Patrick
, let alone talk
ing
about him to Aunt Paula.

Aunt Paula pulled the plastic s
trap of her purse over her tank-top-
clad shoulder and stood up. 
"
Why are you in such a hurry to get rid of me?  It isn
'
t like you got a lot of friends, especially now…only Aunt Paula understands what drove you.  You the same as me, we like the
hot
sex.
"

Jolene felt her face
melting with heat
. 
"
Aunt Paula, please!
"

Aunt Paula cackled and walked to the door. 
"
But you ain
'
t never had sex until
then
did you Jolene? 
Hold 'in
out for a good one…now that is smart.
"

"
I don
'
t want to hear another word Aunt Paula.  There was nothing planned, it just happened.  I wish I could go back and undo it
all
now.
"

Aunt Paula opened the door and stepped out. 
"
Heard tell that Leona could hear you two
a' crying
and
a' moaning
all the way down to the house.
"

Jolene was steaming mad now. 
"
Give it up right now, not another word!  Do you need a ride home?  Because if you do
, you better be quiet right now!
"

Aunt Paula put her nose up and sashayed out to Jolene
'
s truck. 
"
Travis dropped me off on his way
in
to town.  I had heard you got a truck so I knew you would give me a lift
on home
.
"

Jolene locked the motel door
,
anger and
abasement
suffusing her
. 
"
I have a million errands to run
and
furniture to purchase for my new place.
"

They got into the Ford and Jolene started the engine.  She wanted to floor the
gas pedal of the
truck
to the floor
board
and race Aunt Paula all the way home
so she could be alone to cry her eyes out
. 

Y
et another time
. 

Instead
,
she backed out of the parking space
with deliberate care
.

"
Don
'
t forget about giving me some money Jolene.  I don
'
t want you to forget about that.
"

Chapter
21

When our twenty-three year old son, Warren Dale died, my husband’s mother and I were setting the table for the gathering after the funeral with my much used china (that looked as good as new) and her with her little-used silverware.  As she placed the silverware on the  table she said to me, “Now Margarette, this is why you save things, so that you will have them for times like this.” 

I turned to her and said gently, “Oh Mother, I’m so glad that I let Dale eat from my best china instead of saving it.  For what person here today is more important to us than he is?”
- Mary Margarette Donnelly Hill - From her vignettes "Moonshine, Mountains and Memories of my Grandmother".