Love's Labors Tossed by Robert Farrell Smith

Author:Robert Farrell Smith [Smith, Robert Farrell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Humor, LDS Fiction
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2000-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

27

Definitions

At five I picked a bunch of wildflowers and ran down the path to meet up with Grace on her return. She was nowhere to be seen when I got to the trailhead, so I hung out with Leo and CleeDee for a little while to wait. I filled the two of them in on everything they had been missing in Thelma’s Way.

“There’s gonna be a road?” Leo asked in amazement.

“Looks that way,” I said.

“That’d be great. Then we could drag one of these houses in there for us.” CleeDee clapped while frying up a big pan of bacon on a portable gas stove. Grease popped and crackled. A large splatter popped against her dry face, causing her to wince.

I suddenly realized that I should have voted against the road. I was so anti-Paul’s weather shelter that I was temporarily blinded to what I was supporting. With a road and the possibility of financing, the entire Thelma’s Way valley could soon be littered with little Leonard houses. Sure, the homes there now were not as well equipped and were somewhat aesthetically lacking, but they had character and represented the inhabitants better than fabricated boxes made by unknowns.

“How long are you guys going to stay here in this place?” I asked Leo.

“As long as Leonard will let us.”

“Don’t you miss Thelma’s Way?”

“Luxury is awful distracting.”

“What about you, CleeDee?”

“I’ll go where Leo’s job takes us.”

“Leo has no job,” I pointed out.

“I’m working on some things with Leonard,” Leo told us.

“Really?”

“Big things,” he went on. “Larger than wife.”

His miswording didn’t go unnoticed. CleeDee glared at him and then whipped him on the back of his head with a dish towel.

“Bacon, anyone?” she said, sitting down to the biggest plate of fried pork I had ever seen.

“She’s eating for two,” Leo explained. He reached for a piece of bacon and got a stare from his wife. He withdrew his hand. “So I guess Paul’s pretty upset.”

“He seems okay.”

“That weather thing would have been neat.”

“And impossible,” I added.

“Nothing’s impossible,” CleeDee chewed. “Look at us.”

“You guys have done well.” I meant in a broad sense.

“It’s like this, Trust,” Leo said. “A man’s supposed to cleave unto his wife and no other.”

I was about to change the subject when I heard someone coming down the trail. I jumped out of the mobile home and faced Grace and her mother.

“Trust, what are you doing here?” Grace asked.

I handed her my now-limp flowers.

“I’ll walk on ahead,” Patty said, taking her cue. She stepped away from us and down the trail.

“I wanted to say sorry.” I tried to look meek. “Are you mad?”

“A little.” Grace nodded, indicating that she wanted to walk. We shuffled slowly so as not to catch up to her mother.

“So, I go out of town, and you take a strange girl to the cemetery,” Grace painfully recapped.

“Sort of.”

“Sort of what?”

“Sort of dumb.”

Grace smiled. “Trust.”

“We were only talking,” I explained. “She was explaining why she was here, and I couldn’t just not listen.”

“Heaven forbid.”

“I’m glad you understand.”

“Why is she here?”

“She wants to paint a picture for her dying dad.

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