The sunlight was on the water. The ducks were in the light. They were swimming. The light moved on the water and Nelson moved his arm around my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. We sat on the bank, eating my fried chicken.
"I like coming up to the lake," he said. "You can catch up on your thinking here."
"Can you?" A lot of times he would start in on something, no telling why. I was afraid this was one.
"Yes," he said. And he put down his drumstick. "Sara, how long we been seeing each other?"
"Don't you remember?"
"Course I do. But go ahead and say. How long?"
I thought it over. He squeezed my shoulder again. I gave him a look so he'd know what I meant. But he didn't let go. His hair was sticking up in one place. He wore it slicked straight back. He had a little too much oil on it and I could see the bald part underneath. I never liked it, but I knew he was a good man. "Eight months," I said.
He said it too. "Eight months," he said.
"Yes. Because it was at that Labor Day barbeque the mill gave you--I mean everybody. That's where we met each other. Remember I came with Ginger McNeil, that works on the second shift?
"I remember. You sure looked pretty that day. You had on that green checked dress of yours. And I can tell you, when I come up to talk to you that day it'd been a long time since I thought about coming up to talk to any woman."
I noticed ever once in awhile a duck would dive headfirst in the water and come up twenty feet away. But sometimes they'd stay in one place with their tailfeathers sticking up and wiggling. Like his hair. "Is that right?" I said.
"It is for a fact."
"Ah, go on! A good looking man like you? You're just trying to flatter me, Nelson Tucker."
"No, no I ain't. Well maybe just a litle bit." And he grinned. I don't know what to think when people say things like that. Was he or wadn't he? Flatter me I mean. He was watching me, so I nodded and then started hunting in the basket. He kept talking.
"I just wasn't innerested after me and my first wife broke up. Then I had so much trouble to take care of Momma before she died that I just hadn't thought about it in years. But I reckon it goes to show the Lord is always preparing you for what's up ahead even when all you think you're doing is trying to hold it in the road."
"Hold a toad? Shoo, what for?"
"Toads? Who the hell said anything about toads?"
He could get kind of snappy. But he was a good church-going man. I didn't hold it against him."
"What're you rootin' around in that basket for? Ain't you been listening to me?"
"Nothing," I said.
He laughed. "Nothing? You're funny."
"Am I?" I smiled.
"Yep. It does my heart good to have you around. In fact, it does me so much good I'd like to have you around me all the time."
The ducks were swimming closer. They were not in the light. It was a path on the water and they were not on it. "Is that right?" I couldn't think of anything else to say. I reached for the chicken. "Care for a thigh?"
"Not now, not now." He said it real quick. He reached in his pocket with his free hand and brought something out. "That's right. So much I been praying on it, and the Lord told me it was time to give you this." It was a ring box. "Go ahead. Open 'er up." I looked inside. It was pretty, but small, seven tiny chips. Not a solitaire. I kept staring at it. "What y'think?" Nelson asked.
He jerked his head back. "What y'mean what about Woody?"
"I mean you think you got room for him at your place?"
"I'd been figuring we'd live at your place seeing it's bigger'n'all. And Woody's a big boy--he'll be getting a fulltime job and wanting a place of his own before long, or going off to join--but them's just details." He reached down and put his wide hand on mine where I was holding the ring box. "The main question is, will you have me, Sara?"
I turned the box a little to catch the sunlight and then looked out over the lake. The ducks had seen us and were quacking and waddling up on the bank. The water was rippling in the breeze and the light was shaking on the water. And I nodded my head.
"Yes," I said, before they came. "I will."
I had always wanted to pick out my own ring.
Holier Than Thou | Main Map | Woody | May
Initial release 1.0: October 19, 1995
Last update 1.1: May 26, 1996