The house was much neater, and much warmer, than Rick had ever kept it. The curtains were always open in the daytime, the sink was empty every night, the kitchen counter was kept clear and the Oreos were relegated to the highest cupboard space. The only sticky point in Dan’s housekeeping scheme was that, unlike at Aunt Marie’s house, Rick didn’t take off his boots or hang up his jacket as soon as he came in. But Dan was working on that.
As he left the schoolhouse, Dan locked and checked the door, knowing that Rick did the exact same thing every time he left the house. Then Dan drove down to the farm before heading into Buffalo and went looking for Rick in the barn. He stopped by the maternity pen where a calf had been born just that morning. She was tucked into a corner of the pen, head on her curled forelegs, shivering.
“How are you doing baby?” Dan asked. The calf pricked her ears a little. “They took your Mom away from you didn’t they? Well, I know how that is. You’ll be okay. You got more people looking out for you than I ever did.” He heard someone coming up behind him.
“You talking to yourself Dan?” Rick asked. He was coming in with Mr. Ward.
“I’se just giving the itty-bitter a little encouragement. She looks lonely.”
“She’ll be joining her friends soon enough.” Mr. Ward said. “Aren’t you on your way out?”
“Yep, just wanted to let you know I was going. I should be back by dinner Rick. If not, there’s stir fry in the fridge if you want it. Just got to heat it up.”
“Okay, thanks.” Since the first shopping expedition, Dan made dinners ahead of time and ate at the schoolhouse every night. At first, Rick was hesitant to eat with him, even though Dan invited him every day. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Dan - Rick didn’t’t even feel comfortable at the Ward’s house when their kids came to visit and they weren’t too distantly related. But, with Aunt Marie’s encouragement and Dan’s friendly attitude, Rick ate dinner with Dan every night.
“Well, I’m outta here.” Dan said. “I’ll see y’all later.”
Franklin Street in the Allentown District of Buffalo was an avenue of commanding
old houses, each three full stories high, built around the turn of the century when people
still used horses and buggies, for rich families with batteries of servants. Now, most of the
houses were converted to businesses and shops, the carriage houses to garages and
apartments.
Dan pulled the Chevy into the driveway of one such house that had been transformed into Banks Photography. “Yo Brian! You still asleep?” He called.
A side door opened and Brian came into the driveway. “I’m coming. I’m coming.” He was in his early forties, with short brown hair and a perpetual squint. “Isn’t this a little early for you Bunches?” He asked even though it was mid-afternoon.
“I get up with the cows now, remember?” Dan said. Brian greeted him with a quick one armed hug.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here, Bea wants her parking space back.”
“I’ve only got a few things in the garage, just the bare necessities.”
“Un hunh.” They walked back to the carriage house. Brian unlocked the door and threw it open: one full corner was stacked with boxes. “Hope you got enough room in that car.”
A half hour later, they still hadn’t gotten all the boxes in. Brian surveyed the Chevy
so loaded with boxes and furniture that the trunk was overflowing and the back window
was obscured. There were four more large boxes waiting.
“You have got to be kidding me.” He said. “There’s no way you’ll get the rest of the boxes into your car. How did you get it all here?”
“Two trips...interested in seeing a dairy farm?”
Rick and Russ walked together toward the Ward’s house to have supper after the
evening milking. “Think Dan’s going to last?” Russ asked.
“He’s already lasted longer than I thought he would.” Rick admitted.
“He talks a lot.”
“Yes, he does. He was talking to the new calf today.”
“What did he say?”
Rick shook his head. “I didn’t hear.”
“How is he to live with?”
This took Rick just a touch longer to answer. “He’s okay, y’know. He’s a nice guy, he tries hard.” Just then they heard a child’s laughter from down Sullivan Road and for a moment there was a flash of hope in Rick that it was Merrill. But Dan came into view carrying a small boy in his arms upside down.
“Oh no. I might drop him. Oh no, look out. Oh no.” Dan teased the boy, and the boy kept on laughing. “Hey guys, look what I found. I think it’s a calf. Oh no, what am I going to do with him?” Dan turned him upright - Rick recognized him as Little Dan - before swooping him up in the air and onto his shoulders.
“You’re back early, aren’t you?” Rick asked.
“I got some help with my stuff...you coming to the schoolhouse? I got some people I’d like you to meet. Russ, you too. Got dinner going.”
“Not me, thanks.” Russ said. “Grandma’s making pot roast tonight. I’ll see you later.” He headed to the farmhouse.
“Okay Russ.”
Dan set the little boy down between himself and Rick, and Little Dan immediately reached for both their hands. Rick smiled down at him but thought of Merrill again.
“I didn’t have enough room in my car...” Dan explained. “...so Brian helped me bring the rest of it. Bea and the kids came too. They never seen cows up close. I hope it’s okay. And Bea’s making dinner - she makes the granola...I hope it’s okay.” He said again.
“Oh yeah, that’s okay.” Rick said even while his mind was trying to figure out if it was okay. He was barely used to sharing the house with just Dan.
At the schoolhouse, Brian and Genevieve were standing under the black walnut
tree. Brian was pointing to the house and its foundation as he explained something to his
daughter. Little Dan broke free and ran to his father. Brian scooped him up and walked
toward Dan and Rick. Genevieve skipped along beside.
“Brian, this is Rick Connally. Rick, this is Brian Banks.”
“As in ‘Photography’?” Rick pointed to Dan’s cap.
“The same...”
“I’m Genevieve and I’m five and I’m in Kindergarten and I can print my name and I have a library card...”
“Dan’s told me quite a bit about you.” Brian interrupted her. “How do you like working with him?”
“Trick question.” Dan said. “I’m wonderful to work with. C’mon Viv, we got to get the big garage door open.” He took her hand and they headed off.
When Rick was sure that Dan was out of earshot he said, “Actually he is wonderful to work with. I never have to think of anything to say.” As soon as that was out, Rick worried how Brian might take it but he nodded.
“That’s Dan all over.” They followed Dan and Viv to the garage. “I was admiring your house. The building itself looks old but the foundation is relatively new cinder block.”
“I don’t know when the school was built, but Mr. Ward had the foundation replaced about six years ago when he decided to use the place for the hired help.” Then Rick saw the back of Dan’s car. “How much stuff does he own?”
“Oh, Bunches only has the bare necessities of life. Trouble is, he likes to carry a spare...don’t worry, half the boxes are in already.”
The basement was small and already taken up with the washer, dryer, furnace and
hot water tank. Dan’s boxes took up all the space under the stairs. Rick unloaded the
boxes from the car and left them at the door for Dan and Brian to carry into the basement.
Dan paid attention and saw that Rick never had both feet in the basement at the same
time. Genevieve and Little Dan discovered the novelty of running up the basement stairs,
out the front door and back into the basement from the outside.
It only took ten minutes to get all the boxes in, then Bea called that dinner was ready. Rick paused then said “I’ll go in the front door.” and shut the garage door. He went up the front steps and into the kitchen, and came face to face with Bea. She had black hair, perfect teeth and perfect skin. She smiled at Rick and his only thought was that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
“You must be Rick. I’m Bea.” She offered her hand. Her voice was deep and even. “I hope you don’t mind that I’ve borrowed your kitchen.”
Rick shook her hand. Even her handshake was perfect - warm and secure, and she put her other hand on top of his. “I like your granola.” The words came out of his mouth but he didn’t know from where.
“Thank you, I’m glad you like it. I’ve brought more.”
“...and my grandparents are coming to visit for Easter and I made a picture of a bunny rabbit at school out of cotton balls and Dan - my Dan not Uncle Dan - might be allergic to chocolate but Mom says it’s okay because too much sugar isn’t good for you and...” Rick ate his dinner not needing to say a word as he listened to Genevieve chatter on in a childish stream of consciousness.
“You can shut her off if you’d like.” Bea said. The three of them were at the island. Dan, Brian and Little Dan were on the sofa and overstuffed chair.
“No, I don’t mind. I have a little brother, Merrill. He’s just her age and he talks just about as much. It’s nice to have kids around.”
Genevieve let their conversation interrupt her only long enough to take a breath of air and a swallow of milk and she was off again.
“Bea is real nice.” Rick said. He was on the couch, taking off his boots. Dan was
in the empty room just off the stairs, opening some of his boxes. Work was over, the
dinner dishes were soaking, and the house was warm from a fire in the woodstove.
“She’s real beautiful ain’t she? I had a crush on her for years.” Dan said. He had brought up a small desk with Brian’s help and was unpacking a computer onto it.
“Not anymore?”
“Not since I met my Carly. Now she’s the only light in my life.”
Rick considered this romantic but odd: “If she’s the light of your life, how come you haven’t gone out with her in at least two weeks?” Unless Dan was sneaking out in the middle of the night, he hadn’t been off the farm since his first day.
Dan cleared his throat and rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, well, we kinda had an argument the night before I started here and - umm - she’s not taking my phone calls.”
“Poor Dan.” Rick stretched out on the sofa and took a book off the end table to read.
“Might rain.” Dan said. He’d heard it on the radio.
“Smells like it.”
“Smells?”
“Yeah, you can smell it. It’s got something to do with the ozone or ions or something.”
Dan sniffed the air. “I don’t smell nothing...so, your family owns a dairy farm in Ohio?” He sat near the door of the room and leaned over every now and again as he talked to Rick.
. “Yep, Manneville.”
“Never heard of it.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” Rick said, continuing to read through the conversation. “Manneville is a blink between Cleveland and nowhere.”
“If your family already has a farm, how come you work here?”
“Aunt Marie is my Mom’s cousin. They needed help so I came out here...can I get you one of the cookies Bea left?” Rick wearily hauled his body off the sofa and wavered a minute, waiting for Dan’s answer, expecting the junk food phobic to decline.
“Sure, thanks.”
“Really? You don’t eat cookies. What kind of cookies are they?”
“I told you, Bea makes all-natural cookies. She grinds her own flour and everything.” Dan saw the suspicious look on Rick’s face. “No, really. They’re good.” Rick brought the cookies back and went into the little room to survey the possessions Dan had brought up from the basement. There was a rocking chair, a large stereo, a box of albums, a microwave, a large color TV. But the one thing that caught Rick’s eye was a very old sewing machine sitting in the corner.
“That’s nice.” Rick pointed to it. “Do you crochet as well?”
“Very funny. I do got about eight pounds of fabric squares somewhere to make some quilts. It used to be a treadle machine but somewhere back in the twenties or thirties somebody converted it to electric.”
“These cookies are good, I’m surprised. What are they? Oatmeal spice?”
“Well, all you got to compare them to is Oreos.”
“Oreos with Double Stuff.” Rick corrected him. “Oh I guess I can’t put it off any longer, I have to go to bed. We’ll be inseminating #29 tomorrow if you’re interested in seeing how it’s done.”
“I can’t wait...I think I’ll go up with you. Just let me check the door in the basement and make sure it’s locked.”
Rick followed him to the basement stairs but didn’t follow him down. “You worried about somebody coming in?” He supposed with all Dan’s worldly possessions stashed down there, he’d want to double check the door.
“Ain’t you?”
Rick shook his head and looked down the basement stairs. “I worry about who might already be in here, wanting to get out.”
After the morning milking, Rick prepared to inseminate the cow. She was in the
pen where the calf was born the day before, bellowing and stretching her neck over the
side of the pen. Rick pulled his sweatshirt off, underneath he was wearing an old Notre
Dame T-shirt. He slid his left hand and arm into a long rubber glove and proceeded to
insert his left arm into a part of the cow that he Didn’t care to know existed, much less
become familiar with.
“Why in the world are you doing that?” Dan asked but instantly regretted.
“I have to get hold of her cervix through her large intestine -.”
“Please spare me the graphic details Rick. I won’t be eating again for the rest of my life as it is.”
“Wouldn’t you like to learn how to do this?”
Dan turned green and Rick told him he could find something else to do.
Dan didn’t show up at Aunt Marie’s for lunch. Rick caught up with him afterwards
but they separated again before dinner and Rick trudged home alone, with sore feet and a
low grade headache. Dan didn’t seem to be in the house and Rick went up to his room to
get a few minutes rest. He stopped dead in his door. The room was transformed: the
books which had been in a pile on the floor were lined up neatly on the top of his dresser,
the wastebasket was empty, the bed was completely stripped of blankets, sheets and pillow
cases. Rick went in search of the culprit.
“Dan, you around?” He called.
“In the basement.” Dan called back. Rick walked less than halfway down the basement stairs. Dan was at the washer and dryer.
“Somebody ransacked my room.”
“Ransacked? Try blitzed. There wasn’t even a path ‘tween the junk food wrappers, old magazines and your bed.”
“You didn’t throw the magazines out did you?” Rick asked.
“No, they got stacked in the bottom of your closet. I came here at lunch since after I saw you violate that cow I didn’t really feel like eating anything. I took all your dirty clothes off the floor and everything off the bed to wash.”
“But all those clothes weren’t dirty.” Rick protested.
“They were so dirty they knocked on your door to be let out. All I had to do was open the washer, they hopped in.”
“Well...maybe...”
“Maybe.” Dan echoed. “Here, I got some clean clothes for you, so you can take a shower.” He didn’t wait to see if Rick would come down for the pile of neatly folded clothes, he brought them up the stairs.
“Am I going to take a shower?”
“I saw what you did to that cow Rick. You are not going to sit down to eat dinner with me without taking a shower.”
Rick grumbled but took the clothes. “I hope you didn’t throw out my Doonesbury collection."
Home
Chapter Three
Chapter Five
