BILLY HILL Chapter Eighteen

"Lets have a Man to Man Talk"
courtesy photobucket.com

 

It was only two months until Linda finished her schooling and Billy knew those months were going to be the longest ever both for him and her.

Linda's mother was doing much of the work preparing for the wedding which was now scheduled for two weeks after her graduation.  Her mother had made her wedding dress from a pattern Linda had picked out and she was hoping she had not put on any weight for the seams couldn't be let out very much.

As it turned out she had kept her weight under control but she had developed in the bust line which was to be expected of a growing girl.

Her dad tried to look at ease, but Billy could tell he was more nervous than her mother Ellen was.  He wanted to give Billy some fatherly advice concerning a man’s responsibility to his wife and her pleasure, but each time he would chicken out and change the subject.

He did say to Billy you better talk to your brothers about ... he wanted to say; "The wedding night" but he couldn't bring himself to say it so he just said; “When you first get married.”  

He was beginning to make Billy nervous!  Finally Billy told him not to worry, as everything will be alright, people have been doing this since time began.  Her dad breathed a sigh of relief, feeling he had done his duty.

Billy's brothers had cornered him and the advice they gave him made him blush. They were enjoying ragging on him, and he took it in a good mood for he knew they were having fun with him.

The day to day work was being done without much input from Billy and though he had accumulated several hundred acres there was a quiet period until the harvest started in earnest about six weeks from now.

 
The details of the next few weeks were not very interesting; a nephew with a broken arm, a bad case of poison oak here and there and a new baby announcing its arrival with a loud scream.  

All of this was the ordinary run of things but the days were counting down, and in one week Linda would be home. Then two weeks after that if everything went well the wedding would occur.

Billy began to feel guilty about not visiting his parents very often.  Most of the time when he saw them there was something associated with the farm that needed repairing, and he would go and check it out.

He decided to make time for a visit and so he went to see them. His mother was alone in the kitchen having just finished the washing that she hung on the clothes line.  When he came in she was surprised to see him for this wasn't normal for him just to show up. After asking where his father was he hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.

Mom - Courtesy
photobucket

He did another thing that was out of the ordinary; he sat down and talked to her for an hour. He talked about when he was a boy, and the hard times they went through. She reminded him of many things he had done as a boy much of which deserved a whipping but she let him get by with most of it.

 
As he looked at her he realized she was only in her late forties and looking directly at her was something he had not done for a long time. Here was the woman who gave him life and raised him and yet for the longest time he had all but ignored her and scarcely acknowledged her presence.

As he looked around the kitchen he realized they didn't have many appliances that would have made her life so much easier.

Wash tub
courtesy photobucket

There was the ice box that didn't have ice in it part of the time; the washboard and tub out on the back porch and hardly a decent rug and yet she never complained.

He had managed to install electricity in the house and tomorrow he would order and pay for several appliances that would bring relief from much of her back breaking work.

To be Continued