Mail Order Madness (13 page)

Lewis stood drying off just looking at her.  He didn’t have a problem with her seeing
him naked.  “I’ll try to stay clean, Ma.”  He followed his brother up the stairs to
dress.

Susan turned to David who was still watching the show.  “Well, that was fun.  You
ready for lunch?”
 

David walked over to where Susan was standing and pulled her to him hugging her tightly. 
“You are priceless.”

Susan had no idea what he was talking about, but hugged him back.  “I’m hungry.  What
do you think Sadie made for lunch?”

“Let’s go find out.”

*****

That night
in bed
, she snuggled against his side.  “You know, when Mrs. Hackenshleimer isn’t working,
you really should try to be at home.  The boys need your influence.”
  She’d thought all day about how to have this conversation with him, and had decided
to just blurt it out.

“I’m around on Sundays.  You only have one day with them alone.”

“They need you more than that.  You come into the house late in the evenings and are
gone Saturdays as well.  It’s not that I can’t handle them.  I think I’ve proven I
can.  They just need you more than that.”
  She firmly believed that boys needed their father’s influence as much as possible,
just as girls needed their mother’s.

He thought about what she was saying for a moment.  The truth was, he could easily
spend more time with them.  He simply chose not to because they were so difficult. 
“I’ll try.”

She nodded, her eyes closing sleepily.  “That’s all I can ask.

Chapter S
even

Susan woke early on Sunday morning to make sure she could get the boys ready for church
on time.  Sadie took Sundays off, which left Susan in charge of seeing to breakfast. 
She was in the kitchen as soon as the sun was up making French toast and bacon for
her new family.  She was uncertain how much everyone would eat, so she had a small
mountain of food waiting when everyone came down to breakfast. 

Susan had Albert pour the milk, and was thrilled to see he followed her instructions
immediately.  Of course, that was one of the rules she’d made with consequences her
first full day there, and he had yet to disobey those rules.

Once breakfast was finished, she sent the older boys upstairs to get dressed for church
while she went back into the kitchen.  She wanted to go on a picnic after church,
so she had fried some chicken while making breakfast.  She’d boiled potatoes and eggs
for a potato salad, and put it together before going upstairs to get the twins dressed
for church. 

She noticed the boys had only matching outfits and she wondered if that was a good
thing.  She decided she’d make them some clothes that were distinct for each of them
the first chance she got. 

Once the twins were dressed, she sent them to their pa while she got dressed for church
herself.  She put her dark green dress on, and did her best to imitate the hairstyle
Mrs. Duckworth had used for her wedding day.  When she looked in the mirror above
her dresser, she realized it wasn’t perfect, but it was
better than her usual style which was just pulling all her hair back into a bun
. 

She descended the stairs to find all of the boys with her husband waiting in the formal
parlor.  They were all dressed in their Sunday best and looked good, although Albert’s
tie was crooked.  She walked to him and straightened his tie, but he knocked her hands
away.

She raised an eyebrow looking down at him.  “I’m trying to help you and you
will
allow me to do it.”  She spent twice as long as needed straightening his tie, just
to show him she could.

Susan walked into the kitchen to get the picnic basket she’d packed along with the
quilt she’d put with it.  She handed it to David to carry out to the buggy.  “We’re
going on a picnic after church,” she announced.

Albert groaned.  “I don’t want to go on a picnic.”

She stared at him.  “An eight year old boy who doesn’t like picnics?  Do you really
not want to go on a picnic, or do you not want to go because it was my idea?”
 

Albert looked down, giving her the answer.

Lewis ran to her and hugged her.  “
I
like picnics, Ma.”
 

Susan smiled ruffling his hair.  “I’m glad.  I like to go on picnics a lot.”  She
looked at David.  “Are we all ready?”
  She knew she’d taken longer than anyone else to get ready for church, but she’d
also had the most to do.

“I think so.  If no one else needs their tie straightened.” 
David winked at her as he asked the question letting her know he knew she’d spent
more time straightening Albert’s tie than she really needed to.

She grinned at him and said, “I think the rest of your ties are good.”  She led the
way outside and saw the team had already been hitched to the buggy.

David stowed the basket in the back and then helped her up.  He handed her Walter
and Thomas.  She put Walter in the middle and held Thomas
in her lap
while the older two boys scrambled into the back. 

“Where’s a good place for a picnic around here?” she asked David as he pulled out
of the driveway and headed south.  She’d expected him to head north toward Fort Worth,
so she looked at him in surprise.  “Where are we going?”

“There’s a small country church about a mile down the road, so we go there instead
of making the trek into Fort Worth. 
Most of our neighbors are members there as well, so it’s just easier. 
As for where to go for a picnic, a lot of the members of our church have picnics right
there on the lawn after the service.  It’s a way for people to fellowship without
anyone having to go to the trouble of planning a party.  Most Sundays there will be
a group there unless it’s one of the few Sundays where it’s
too cold or
rainy.”

“Would you like to join them
,
or would you rather go somewhere with just the family?”
Susan asked. 
She wasn’t sure which she preferred for herself, but she knew it would be good for
the boys to have other children to play with.

He shrugged.  “If you don’t mind, I’d rather go ahead and join the crowd.  It’ll be
nice to introduce you around.  It’s a small church, and you’ve met several of the
women already, but the sooner you meet the others, the sooner you’ll feel a part of
the community.”

“That sounds good.  I assume there will be other children for the boys to play with
there.”
  She liked the idea of having a picnic with the church.  She did want to meet the
other women and make some more friends.  Being without her family, no matter how much
they annoyed her, in another state made her feel lonely for home.

“Some.”  He didn’t add that several of the families at church didn’t let their children
play with his boys.  Hopefully that ban would be lifted as the boys learned how to
behave.

On the way to church, Susan explained to the boys how she wanted them to behave while
they were there.  “I expect both of you to be on your best behavior.  You need to
act the way you acted the first night you met me.  Before and after the service I
want to be able to reach out and touch either one of you.  In other words, no running
off with friends until I see how you beh
ave.  The better you do
the more freedom I’ll give you next week.”

The small country church was similar in looks to the one she’d attended back home. 
It was a wood building with a tall steeple that had been painted white.  She felt
right at home as she saw the building and was pleased
with
it.
  Someone obviously spent a lot of time seeing to the church property.  The lawn was
well-manicured, and there were several different flowers thriving along the front
of the church.  With the drought they were in, someone must be watering them often.

They left the picnic basket in the buggy as they walked into the church.  She and
David each held the hand of one of the twins, and Susan kept her eyes on the older
boys.  They listened to what she’d said and stayed right beside her and David the
entire time he was introducing her around.  The
whole
congregation only consisted of around thirty people, so there weren’t a lot of people
she needed to meet.  She was pleased with how friendly everyone seemed.

When the preacher got up to start services, she followed David to a pew and they sat
with Albert next to her, the twins between them and Lewis on the other side of David. 
During the first song, she noticed Albert fidgeting and wiggling, and not singing. 
He acted just as her younger brothers had during church service.  She hoped the preacher
wasn’t long winded, because the boys just didn’t have the attention spans for a long
service.

The preacher talked about honoring parents that day, and she found herself nudging
Albert to pay attention when the preacher talked about obedience.  He glared at her,
but seemed to at least be listening at some points.

At the end of the service they once again stood to sing, and she leaned over and whispered,
“How did you manage to keep these four from running up and down the aisles when it
was just you?”

He grinned at her.  “It wasn’t easy, and I never said they didn’t run up and down
the aisles during service.”

She cringed at the mental image that came to her.  She hoped he was kidding, but had
a very strong suspicion he wasn’t.
  No wonder the boys had such a bad reputation with the other parents.

After the song, everyone trooped outside.  David went to the buggy to get their quilt
and picnic basket, and Susan spread
the quilt
on the ground near the church building.
  Once everyone was seated on the ground, she fixed plates for them all.  David said
a prayer for their family and they ate in the sunshine.

After lunch a baseball game was started.  Susan watched as the older boys ran off
to play.  “Are you not going to join in?” she asked David.
  She noticed that a lot of the other men were playing while the women cheered them
on.  David seemed as if he would enjoy a game of baseball so she was genuinely surprised
when he didn’t jump up to join the game.

He shook his head.  “I thought I’d spend some time with my wife.”

She smiled.  The twins were sprawled on the quilt, each of them sleeping.  She was
surprised they were able to fall asleep in the confusion of the day, but realized
they were exhausted from their busy day. 

“It seems strange to sit here at a picnic and be the mom instead of just the oldest
sister.”
  She’d shared a lot of her mother’s duties growing up, and had thought she would
feel nothing different when she became a mother to the young boys, but she’d been
wrong.  The feelings of responsibility were slightly overwhelming for her.

He looked at her.  “That’s right.  You have eleven younger brothers and sisters. 
What was that like?”

“Chaotic.”
  It was the first word to pop into her head, so of course it was the first word that
came out of her mouth.  Nothing had ever seemed to go right at home, and she’d always
blamed her mother for it.  It never occurred to her the sheer number of children could
have anything to do with the overwhelming chaos.

“What does that mean?”
he asked with one raised eyebrow.

She shrugged.  “We never really had any money growing up, so I had to quit school
after eighth grade.  I watched neighbor kids for extra money, which I gave to my parents
to help out with the family expenses.  When I wasn’t working for someone else, I was
watching my younger siblings, or cooking, or cleaning, or sewing.  From the time I
was six or seven when I wasn’t in school I was watching the little ones.”  She stroked
Walter’s hair as he slept quietly on the quilt.  “My childhood wasn’t terrible, don’t
get me wrong.  I just had a lot of responsibilities.  My parents were really strict
with me and my three siblings who were after me in age.  After the four of us, Ma
just kind of gave up.  She said she was too tired to keep fighting.  So the eight
youngest kids are monsters.”

He smiled at her.  “They can’t be that bad.”

“Our congregation referred to them as ‘the demon horde’.  The reason I decided to
answer your brother’s ad was I got home from working all day and found out my younger
siblings had tipped over the outhouse while my sister was in it and painted the cow
purple.
  They did all that after having an egg fight in the kitchen and hitting her in the
side of the head with an egg.
”
  She couldn’t help but grin at the memory.  “She still had egg shell in her hair.”

“Purple?”  The laughter was apparent on David’s face, but he held it in for her sake.

“Purple.  Go ahead and laugh.  I know it’s funny.  I was just so tired of being a
surrogate parent to my brothers and sisters I decided to
get married.”  She traced the pattern on the quilt they were sitting on.  “I told
anyone who would listen that if God ever cursed me with children I’d parent with a
very long switch.”
  Her eyes met his as she wondered how he’d react to her mentioning a switch.