Bartle Clunes - Chapter 34
Two Women and a Lemon Pie
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El Dorado County - 1952
Vida Lee sat at the table in Louvina's busy kitchen, holding seven-month-old Pearly against her shoulder, lightly rubbing the baby's back. Pearly drooled and grabbed at Vida Lee’s glasses. Vida Lee, who volunteered in the Book Exchange every week, had met Louvina there, and was invited up to the Daughters of Zeus Dairy for coffee and lemon pie. She accepted the invitation, curious to see the home in which the goat cheese and soap were made, and to get acquainted with her neighbor.
“My four children have scattered like dandelion seed in the wind,” she was telling Louvina. “My oldest, Patrice, lives in Loma Linda now. She and her husband have become Jehovah’s Witnesses. I love her, but I find there is not much we can talk about any more. We are just trying to be patient with each other. Mostly we talk about the past, the days before her conversion.”
“Oh, that’s hard,” said Louvina, shaking her head. “Separation from a child by distance, well, that's bad enough, but to lose one to religion is hardly bearable, I am sure. Physical distance can always be spanned, but personal beliefs and convictions, I don't know, maybe that's not so easy.”
“No, not easy, but it is her choice. Long as she’s happy, I don't interfere.”
Louvina was moving around the kitchen from stove to sink to table, working on soap as they chatted. The room smelled like eucalyptus and rosemary, a new fragrance she was experimenting with. It did not appeal to Maggie. He sneezed and went out to sleep on the porch, then he scratched at the back door to come right back in out of the cold.
“Now my youngest girl, Camille, has taken herself off to Belgium, of all places. Says she's in love with a man named Gunther that she met in school. I get a letter once in a while. Don't know when she's fixing to come home.”
Pearly fell asleep in Vida Lee's arms, so she lay her down in the basket. “Both my boys have moved away now, too. Marvin is in San Francisco, pretending to be a potter. Oh, dear! I shouldn't say that! He is actually very talented — makes beautiful and useful things. What he can't seem to make is a living. He came up here to Riles Crossing a couple of weeks ago to 'check on me in my new home’, he said, see how I was doing. I think he wanted to borrow more money from me, but I beat him to the punch this time, told him I had some unexpected expenses this month and could he please pay me back the $30 he borrowed in October. He didn't stay long, which I was sorry about, but the boy has to grow up, right? Time to face facts.”
Louvina nodded, absorbing this family saga and feeling more fortunate by the minute that her own life was so uncomplicated by comparison. Maggie sauntered over to sit next to Vida Lee, leaning against her knee. She rubbed his ears, he closed his eyes and made a soft noise in his head, somewhere between a whine and a hum.
“And Jerome, well, that boy is sort of a maverick. I cannot keep track of him. Last I heard he was traveling up the Atlantic seaboard on foot! Hitch-hiking! Not sure what he is looking for, but he does not seem capable of settling down anywhere. Sand in his shoes, he says. Oh, he calls sometimes. These kids! My husband and I tried to love them and treat them all the same and each one turned out different! Imagine a Jehovah's Witness on the one end, and a hitch-hiking free spirit on the other!”
“And your husband, Vida Lee? Is he still living?”
“Well, no, he’s not. One day about four years ago he came home from work, said he was feeling a little tired and was going to take a short nap before dinner. He never got up from that bed. I found him dead of a heart attack about an hour later.”
“Oh no! Vida Lee! Goodness, how horrible for you!”
“He just quietly faded away. I thank God he had the good sense to not leave me alone until the children were about grown. He was a good man in most respects, I will say that. But … well … truthfully? He was the kind of man who could start an argument in an empty house!” They both laughed. “I kind of miss him sometimes, really. How about you, Louvina, do you have other children?”
“No, Vida Lee, I don't. I had married real young, when I was still in Iowa, but my husband and my baby died in 1937 of the influenza. It was a terrible time. My Kirsti was only two, the sweetest little thing. I came out here afterward to heal myself and also to help my brother who was not well. This was his house, then he left it to me when he died in ‘49.”
“Such a sad story, sweetheart. I am so sorry to hear it. My oh my, how strong we women are! We just accept what we are dealt and move forward, always looking for the goodness to come. Bartle seems a good man, though, and so handsome!” Louvina smiled. “Have you two been married long?”
“About two years. He is the best of husbands and I thank the Lord he found me. And we have his wonderful daughter, Ayla, too, who is a treasure to me. And, well, Pearly! She has been such a gift to us in our old age! I am 38 and Bartle's 47. We sure never thought we would have a new baby. How did that happen I wonder?” Both women laughed at the question.
“Well, I could explain it to you, honey, but you will surely figure it out on your own eventually.”
Vida Lee finished her pie and had a second cup of coffee, then she went out with Louvina to meet the goats, Thalia and Melpomene in their pen. Louvina took her on a little tour of the operation, gave her some goat's milk and honey cheese and a bar of the new camomile soap, saying, “Please come back to see me, Vida Lee – any day of the week but Saturday, because I have both Pearly and Philo on Saturdays. On second thought – please do come on Saturdays!” She laughed again and waved as Vida Lee rolled down the drive in her old wood paneled station wagon.
New friends are such treasures.