Bartle Clunes - Chapter 29
A change is coming
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El Dorado County 1951
The next morning, over at the Clunes' house, Bartle was sitting on the sofa perusing the wide world as reported in the Mountain Democrat, and read to his wife, who was gathering up the ingredients for apple pies. “Here is a good joke for you, Louvina. You'll like this one. A farmer asks his dog, How many sheep did you bring in, Skippy? The dog answers, I brought in thirty. Thirty? says the farmer. I thought we only had 27. The dog says, I rounded up.”
Bartle barked out a laugh. Louvina rolled her eyes. A few minutes later, Bartle saw Eizer's want ad. He read it aloud to her. “Now that is an interesting development, don't you think? I wonder what is going on over there? You don't think he's planning to sell up, do you?” Maggie, wandered in from outside covered with burrs and dust, and lay down by Bartle's sock feet. He'd been out rolling in the new grass again.
Louvina said, “Well, no, I can't imagine that, Bartle. I reckon the Griggs’ have lived in that spot since forever. But Ayla told me that Eizer had a young boy with him over at the store yesterday. Said he was staying with him now. Maybe that’s something to do with it?”
“Is that right? Now there's a wonder. Who could he be?”
“No idea … but maybe … maybe Ayla and I should just go over there and see what's up,” she said, curiosity getting the better of her. “Maybe that sweet man could use a little help? You never know.”
In the event, the two women invited themselves over to Eizer's the next day. “Let's just drop in on him,” Louvina had said to Ayla. “Not to be nosy or anything, but … well … yes ... just to be nosy.” They took a basket with a few bars of Daughters of Zeus soap and some Goat's Milk and Honey cheese. Louvina also took one of the apple pies she'd made.
On arriving, they found two large pickup trucks parked in the yard already filled with trash and brush. Eizer was out in the yard pointing around, giving instructions to three men, telling them what to take away, which looked like almost everything but the cow. They were having no trouble loading those trucks to capacity and would no doubt come back for several more loads by the looks of it. Eli was watching the action, walking around in his brand new boots with Finn sitting on his shoulder, crying, “Caaawk!” and pulling at Eli's hair. Eizer was astonished to turn and find the two pregnant women walking toward him. Neither had ever been to his house before.
“Hello, there, Eizer,” called Louvina. “For goodness' sake! Looks like you have quite a project going on here. We saw your ad in the paper yesterday,” she said, “and just thought we would come by to see if there is any kind of help we women could offer you.”
Ayla said, “Looks like you've already found yourself some help! They don't seem to be wasting any time.” She was impressed with how his place was being transformed. “It is going to look like a million dollars when they get done around here,” she said. “This is such a fine old house.”
“Oh, yah. Just thought I’d try to neaten things up a bit, no need for all this junk. It is about time. I got these three men here doing a fine job. They don't speak much English, but I believe we are understanding each other. I offered them leche and they said gracias,” he laughed.
“We brought you some of our handmade soap and one of our cheeses,” Ayla said. “I hope you like them. And Louvina made you an apple pie for your lunch. I will just put them in the house for you.” Louvina went across the yard to meet Eli and the crow. Eizer continued supervising.
About five minutes later, Louvina said, “Eizer, I have a neighbor who is a wonderful house-keeper and she has two sisters. May I ask them to come see you about the work you need done inside the house? They would do very efficient work for you, I am sure of it, and they really need employment. The sisters don't speak any English at all, but Filomena does all right.”
On the way home, Ayla, who'd gone into the house and had had a look around, said, “I sure hope Filomena and her sisters do not discourage easily.”
Filomena Sanchez and her sisters applied at the Griggs residence the very next morning to inquire about the job as house cleaners. They came to see what needed to be done, and would have turned right back around and run out, had they not needed the work. “Que desmadre,” whispered Filomena, shaking her head. “Un disastre total.” And she’d seen a lot of disasters in her life. After a heated discussion among themselves in Spanish that Eizer could not follow, Filomena told him they would take the job and they would finish in four days, on one condition only: he had to get some bookcases first, wipe off the mountains of books that were scattered throughout every room of the house and shelve them. Then they could clean. Eizer got a serious nod from Eli and agreed to the deal with a handshake.
By Monday night, Eizer and Eli had stacked all the books, wiped them free of dust and spiders, and put them away higgledy-piggledy in the four large bookcases that had been delivered to them by Sutter Mill Furniture Barn in Placerville.
The women, true to their word, had the house clean and orderly by the end of the week, which was not bad, considering it was the first time it had been cleaned in probably 15 years or more. Filomena, in her very best English, persuaded Eizer to hire a couple of house painters (her cousins, as it turned out) to spruce up the place with a little fresh enamel. She also insisted that now that he had a little boy to care for, he needed to hire her to come to his house at least one day a week to clean and do the laundry. Eizer found Filomena Sanchez to be as irresistible as a steam roller. He now had a housekeeper.
By the 15th of June, the Griggs residence was unrecognizable to his neighbors. It was clean, orderly, freshly painted inside and out. The weeds were mowed. The yard junk was all cleared away. It became the talk of El Dorado county, that county being particularly short of any good gossip at the time. People drove by slowly to have a look. Everyone wondered what had come over Eizer Griggs. Some guessed it was all due to the advent of that little boy, the arrival of a companion into Eizer’s solitary life.
Eli had been living with Eizer for about two months. He had taken over as egg man, chicken feeder, dish dryer, car cleaner. He brought in the mail and the newspaper. He had established a friendship with Rosie, but his hands were still too little to do the milking. He was now a full-fledged member of the household. Griggs and Flounder had become quite a team.
Eli went for three-mile walks with Eizer nearly every day, keeping up, learning about the natural history of the foothills, asking a thousand questions. If Eizer didn't know the answer to one of Eli's questions, he would allow himself the license to invent a good one. He wanted Eli to have confidence in him, to believe he was a man who could be trusted to know just about everything, in the same way he, himself, had trusted his own father.
One evening, sitting on the sofa, they were taking turns reading aloud to each other. It was London's 'White Fang' and they agreed it was their absolute all-time favorite story. Suddenly Eli paused in his reading and said, “Eizer, do you think my mama is ever going to come back and get me?
Eizer looked him in the eye, he sighed and he didn't lie. “Well, son, sometimes mothers do come back and sometimes they don't. But whether she comes back or not, you will always have a home here with me and I will take care of you. And when you are older, you can take care of me. We have nothing to be scared of.”
Eli thought about that. He scooted over closer to Eizer, laying his head against his shoulder. “Okay,” he said, and continued reading.
The end is touching and revealing. They need each other.
I love your writing. it's so descriptive, inviting, engaging and reveals real life stories that are touching and profound. Thank you.