IT DON’T MATTER Chapter 23 Nan Said, “Fix it,” So I did

Pregnant
courtesy free clip art

We keep all of our buggies and horses at a barn we built.  Then we hired a stable boy to take care of the horses and equipment.  He was pretty good at keeping the harness repaired and oiled up as well as caring for the horses.

We had built a couple of rooms in the barn for him to live, and he had been working for us about three years.  Laddie was the kind of guy you would hardly notice for he was so quiet and reticent.

I assumed that as long as he did his job it didn’t matter if he said much.  He had a brother a little younger that would come over and help him out once in a while but we didn’t hire him cause it was only a one man job.

Laddie was in attendance at church every Sunday and special meetings.  He went to church a lot more than Nan and I did.

He asked if he could talk to me one day and I said if its important I guess so.

Laddie said that he needed a job that would pay him twice as much as he was making.

 

I told him I was paying him a good salary as it was.  He said yes he knew that but he needed more money now.

I said, “You know the job you have doesn’t warrant any more money.”

He said, “Yes I know but I’m hoping you have another job with better pay I could do.”

I said, “I can’t think of anything right now.”

He said thank you and very disappointedly started to walk away.

I said, ‘Maybe if I knew why you needed more money we could figure out something.”

He said, “I would rather not talk about the reason.”

“Would you rather talk to Nan?”

He said, “Yes that would be better.”

That evening he came over to talk to Nan about his problems and he brought one of the young church girls with him.

Nan took one look at them and said, “I hope you are not going to tell me what I think you are going to tell me.”

They both got very red in the face and he said, “Maybe.”

Nan looked at the girl Gracie and asked, “How long has it been since you gave it up.”  

Gracie said, “Two months.”

Nan said, “You are as bad as me getting pregnant.  When I got married I conceived the first time.  You should have known better.  You have been taught in church to wait till you are married.”

He said, “Yes, we know that but at the time it didn’t seem to matter.”

Nan said, “It always matters.”  Then Nan asked, “Do you want to get married?”

They both said yes but we can’t live on what I make and her parents don’t want another mouth to feed.  

Nan said, “Go in the kitchen and get some lemonade while I talk to your boss.”  

Laddie said, “Don’t tell him!”

Nan said, “Everybody is going to know shortly if we can’t work something out.”

Nan laid out the whole situation and said, “Fix it.”

I looked at her and said okay for I didn’t want to spend the next hour arguing with her.  

I told her to get them and started laying out the problem and the solution.  

“In about seven months you are going to present a bastard child to the world unless we do something quick.  Let’s forget about your parents for now for all they will do right now is to holler at both of you and that isn’t going to help.

Both of you meet us at the hall of records when they open in the morning.  I will have a talk with the registrar and have him to fill out the form for a marriage license.  All you will have to do is sign your name and he will marry you.  It should all be over in five minutes.  Then we will go over to the pastor’s house and have him get together with your parents and you and tell them you are married and pregnant.  

The marriage license reflects the date you first had sex so you have been legally married for two months already.  If anyone needs to know when you got married you tell the date on the marriage license.

The registrar can’t remember events only dates so as far as he is concerned you were married two months age.  

Now as to a job you are going to be a chicken farmer.  There is an extra house on the home place and you will be a helper to the man in charge and after he retires you will take over if you learn the business and do as well as he does.  You will make more than twice as much as you do now.

The place is almost fully furnished so you shouldn’t need anything for a while.  It may take a while for the parents to accept what has happened but they will, especially after the grandchild is born.

After you are settled in, you come back and Nan will teach you how to enjoy each other without getting with child unless you want to.  That can wait until after the baby is born.

After they left Nan said, “I knew you could fix it.”

Things worked out pretty much as we wanted it to and they are eighteen years old now and just had a little boy to go with the girl they had before.

Lester dropped the Dr. before his name because people were always thinking he was an M.D. and since he no longer was teaching it wasn’t a positive any longer.

He was still sure the auto business was the way to go and went to see the main overseer at Ford again.  After many contacts he managed to get one of the prototype autos to try out for a while.

They also told him about future plans for a low price car that would be available as soon as they could set up what they referred to as an assembly line.

He discussed with them about setting up a sales store but when he told them where he wanted to establish it that said it couldn’t be profitable and gave him a list of reasons why.

This didn’t discourage him for he started looking toward the big cities.  It was too early to start investing money in the project but there were some properties that had promise.  

After several discussions it became obvious that Lester was going to be looking to the family for the investment cash.  This caused some raised eyebrows among the elders of the family for it was all of their money.

There was no issue raised concerning the investment for it was still some years away. As it turned out Jake was the one who was more favorable toward the new endeavor than any of the rest.

I think it had something to do with the oil business.  There was already an increase in the kinds of autos on the roads today.  I tried to stay neutral in the discussion but I felt surer of making money with farm products such as grain and such.

Both the sheep and the Herefords were beginning to show an increase of profits.  As the herds increased instead of selling part of the herd we would buy additional grazing land and let the herds increase but this year, some of them would have to go.

After a couple of years Nan began to be able to read me and my moods.  I would try to not show my feelings when around her but to no avail.

Each time she would expose some secretive feeling I was trying to keep hidden, and I was weakened and am at the point where I am almost completely open with her.  

We have three children now two of which Nan had with her first husband but are mine now and the one we had together.  

 

For the last few weeks I knew she was observing me and figuring out something that I was desperately trying to keep to myself.  Then one evening after we had retired for the evening she came out with it.

She said, “There isn’t any point of you denying it so confess up.”

I tried to muster up my manhood and said, “I don’t know what you are referring to.”

She said, “We are quite active in the evening wouldn’t you agree?”

I knew she was laying a trap for me but went ahead and answered; :Yes very active.”

“But with all this activity you feel something is missing don’t you?”

I really wanted to lie as badly as I ever had before but gave in and said, “You are right.”

“Then if I’m right you want another child… don’t you?”

I was amazed as to how sensitive she is to understand me.

I had no alternative but to answer truthfully and say, “Yes.”

She laughed and said, “Well I have good news for you.  You are going to be a father again.”

I said, “Are you sure?”

“Am I sure?” she asked?  “Yes I’m sure but this will be the last one for four is enough for us.” 

I told her I wanted a girl like Bessie. 

She smiled and said, “You will get what you get and be happy with it.”

“How did you know for I never mention about having another babe.” 

She said, “I figured it out about three months ago.  Then I became pregnant two months ago. 

When Laddie came over with Gracie and she was with child you began to change and I knew the spirit of fatherhood was upon you.  She said she hoped it would be a girl for me.”

I said “It don’t matter” but in reality, it does matter.