When the Fig Tree Blooms
A Story of Savannah:Book Two of the Maria Seriesl
by Beverly Jennings

Chapter One

Walter first showed me the house in the woods a few months before we were married. I still remember my shock seeing it for the first time, looking at the sorry shape it was in and knowing it was so very far away from Savannah and civilization, although Walter said Garden City wasn’t but five miles from Momma’s.

Walter had said, “You’ll be living here too, Maria and I want you to love it as much as I do.” I couldn’t imagine living in that mess of a house and didn’t see how it would ever be fixed up enough for us to do that. Even when I agreed to live there, I never believed in my heart it would ever be finished, or that it would ever feel like home to me. But I loved Walter so much, and had for many, many years, I was willing to try and I knew too, Walter had his heart set on living way out in the country. He had talked about it as long as I had known him.

Until I married Walter, I had lived in Savannah with my family, my momma and poppa, my great-grandmother Old Grammy, my sister Estelle and brother Joey. It wasn’t a very big city, but it was a city and I was used to living around other folks and being able to walk to the stores and most everywhere else I needed to go. So I knew it would be different living in the middle of nowhere, and I didn’t think I’d ever learn to drive like Walter wanted me to. I was too nervous driving a car and didn’t want to do it at all. So when I walked away from Momma and Poppa’s house for the first time as a married lady, I knew I’d have a lot of changes to make, and learning to live in the boondocks was only one of them.

The country was still living under the Depression. It seemed we would take a step forward and then another back, it looked like it was getting better at times and then something else would happen to make us think the Depression would never be gone. It was a heavy cloud over everyone’s head you’d meet, and mostly what everyone talked about first when you’d see them were the hard times they were having.

The year was 1936, the year Walter and I were married, and Grammy’s Franklin Roosevelt was running the White House. So many people had looked to him to get us out of our troubles and we were still waiting on him to do that. Everyone would say from time to time he wasn’t doing much more than ole Hoover had done, but Grammy never said a word against him. It seemed after having finally taken a Yankee to her heart,  Grammy wasn’t about to give up on him so quick, if she did, she’d have to admit she was wrong and Grammy wasn’t about to do that.

But I’m getting a little way in front of myself now, and have to admit when I set out to live with Walter, the Depression and Mr. Roosevelt were not on my mind at all, and I put the house in the woods in the back of my mind too. I told myself I’d be happy and Walter and I’d take care of anything that came along. I told myself, that’s how I would think. Life was hard enough and I didn’t want to ruin my happy times thinking about what might happen or how bad things could still get. Walter was lucky enough to have a job when so many didn’t and we had our love together and our whole lives ahead of us, like Momma had said, and so when we walked through the door of our house for the first time as a married couple, I didn’t let myself have any bad thoughts.

And it’s funny how I grew to love that old house and how in the end I never wanted to move away from it. Funny how boards and nails become walls and ceilings, and how they can work their way into your very self and make themselves a part of you, how they can become a home. Funny how the land can become part of your blood and how you can love something you once had such a bad, uneasy feeling about. Walter always loved the house and could see things in his mind, ways he could make it better and how it could be.

At first, all I could see was a house that was old, a house like the one Grammy lived in as a young girl, a house that was a lot of work like Grammy said she had always had to do, hauling water and trying to scrub wood floors clean. Grammy had always made her life seem to be full of misery and when she had said the house reminded her so much of the one she grew up in, well, my heart just sank. I couldn’t see Walter’s dream at first, but as I lived there with him with all the love between us, and us doing the work on the house ourselves, I began to see it the way he did, and I finally loved it with all my being. I still do.

I think it really began with the fig tree. Before we moved there we had a lot of fixing to do and some of it was to cut down the weeds and trees that had grown up around the house. It had sat empty for many years and it was even hard to get to the front porch through all the growth. One day when Walter and his brothers were cutting down the little trees they noticed the one closest to the back porch was a fig tree and they left it hoping it would grow. Later we discovered there was another much bigger fig tree further out from the yard and Walter left that one too. But that first fig tree was special. When Grammy saw it, she made us promise if it ever had figs we would give her some so she could make some fig jam, and after that I always thought of it as Grammy’s fig tree. I tended that tree like it was a young’un helping to make it grow and give us some figs for Grammy.

It was sure scrawny. It had sat there so many years, unattended, and it had hardly been noticed. Grammy said it needed a little love and care and she said too, it needed to be trimmed. But she told us it was one that had never been cursed and if we tended to it proper, it would surely be fruitful. So Walter trimmed some of the branches and I thought at the time, well, now he’s ruined it for sure, it was scrawny enough before and when Walter was finished with it, it was a sorry sight to behold. But as spring came, it leafed out and I thought maybe Grammy was right, with care and all it should bloom and maybe have figs for us all.

The fig tree wasn’t the only thing we discovered around the house. That first spring the yard was a blanket of color. There were several azaleas grown wild around the yard and they all bloomed in different colors, shades of pink and red and purple, and there were dogwoods abounding, redbud trees, and two very old live oaks that were most likely even older than the house with ribbons of moss hanging down making it look homey and welcome. There was a very tall and wide magnolia tree at the edge of the woods, and its blossoms looked like they were ready to burst. Elephant ears popped up and ferns and wild jasmine sweetly scenting the air sprung up around the house. Out over the fields, in front of where the woods took over, it was a field of color with all the weeds blooming blue and red. It looked so much better, just the plants having leaves, for the house had not only been abandoned for years, it had gone unpainted even longer and its boards had weathered a dark silvery gray.

Grammy had a lot of what Walter called common sense and she trusted in her Jesus for everything, but Grammy also tended to believe every superstition she ever heard, and some time way back when she first came to Savannah with my grandfather, just a young child then, she had asked why so many shutters and doors were painted blue. People told her it was to keep bad luck and bad spirits from coming inside. Grammy never asked why the color made a difference, she just set out to make sure any house she lived in had a blue front door and she made sure Walter painted ours blue too. She said she never was one to take chances when it came to bad luck. So along with the weathered gray of our old house we had a brightly painted blue door. I had thought of the house as our house in the woods, but that first spring I would have called it the Candy House with its many colors and hues.

All of the folks we knew were in the same boat we were, and some worse off with half the country out of work and none to be found. Walter and I had felt fortunate when he found his job as a bookkeeper at one of the companies over by the ports. He made ten dollars a week and we both felt for the times we were in that was good money. But we knew there wouldn’t be much left over after we paid our bills so after we were married, we went over to Hardeeville, which was the first town in South Carolina, and only spent the night and half the next day there in a little cabin we rented.

Not only couldn’t we afford to have a longer honeymoon, we wanted to set up things in our new home before Walter went back to work and both of us were anxious to do that and start on our new lives together. Momma and Poppa had promised they’d go to our house while we were gone and set out the new things we had gotten from our wedding and to bring Walter’s grandmother’s bedroom suite his folks gave us. When we walked in the door the first thing we saw was Walter’s dog, Queenie, who he had found when she was a puppy, waiting to greet us. We learned later that Poppa had brought her over earlier in the morning so she’d be there for Walter when we came home.

Walter sure loved that dog, but there had been one time Queenie had growled at me and seemed  threatening and caused me to sit on a chair until Walter came home. It was in the days before we were keeping company, one day when I had gone to his house to visit with his sister, Maggie, back when Walter was so shy he barely said hey to me without running off. Someone in Walter’s family could have controlled Queenie and told her leave me alone, but I know now that they were doing their best to see Walter and me be together. But after Queenie and I lived in the same house, she seemed to know I belonged there too, or whatever went on in a dog’s mind, because she never growled at me ever again. Perhaps she had been doing her part to get Walter and me together too.

Walter and I saw signs of Grammy’s idea of decorating. Right over the fireplace mantle in the front room was a nicely framed picture of President Roosevelt exactly like the one that hung in Momma’s house. It was another little piece of home and a little part of Grammy and it made me happy because I knew there would be plenty of days ahead when living in the wilderness would make me mighty lonely.

We were like any other newly married couple, and happy we were finally together. We had fun setting up all the furniture we had gathered piece by piece, odds and ends from family and a few old pieces we managed to afford. We had the piping in for running water and a commode in place, but the waste wasn’t completely hooked up yet, so we did have to use what I had feared we might have to, the old privy in the back yard. But I had used one before and knew soon as they could, Walter and his brothers would get around to hooking the waste pipes where they belonged.

That old house had needed a lot more work than they figured on when they first thought they could get it finished by our wedding, and it had more to go yet. But like Walter said, we had a  tight roof over our heads to keep us dry and were much better off than some. I feared our first fight but I reckoned most people didn’t fight and got along when they were first married, and we found nothing to fight about either in those first months. Through the years we never did have many harsh words between us. And we worked so hard on the house we didn’t have time for many angry words. Like everyone else, we did say things we shouldn’t have said to one another a few times through the years, but our fussing  never lasted long.

What made me edgy though, was being alone after Walter went to work. I had never been alone before, not like I was then, way out in the middle of nowhere and with not even a telephone to use. The day after we came here to live, I had my first fright and ended up making Walter a little nervous too. He had such a level head and nothing much riled him like it did me. I thought I was a lot like Momma who saw danger in everything, and although I tried not to be like her, I’m afraid I was. We had taken a break from moving furniture and setting it in place and were just sitting in the front room with the radio on, relaxing some and both of us dozed off. It was that quiet and peaceful when a little knock on the front door woke me.

Queenie perked her ears up a bit and walked to the door, but she didn’t bark at all, just stood there cocking her head and listening. Before I could get to the door, someone knocked again, just a light tap. I remember thinking stupidly that whoever it was didn’t want to wake Walter, how silly, how could anyone know he was asleep. I thought it could only be Momma and Poppa, or maybe Mom and Pop Tanner. The knock came again and I opened the door with a smile, thinking this was our first company.

No one was there! I looked around from the doorway, thinking it had to be Poppa, playing one of his jokes again, but there was no one and no car or truck in the yard. I thought, how odd, but I went back in and turned the radio down some so it wouldn’t wake Walter. I just sat for a few minutes listening to the music. About the time I was thinking I should get up and unpack a few more boxes, Queenie and I both heard the tapping again. I knew this time I was going to give whoever it was a piece of my mind, funning around like that. Again no one was there and then I got plumb scared. Here we were all alone out in this place so far from other folks and someone was trying to play the fool and get me upset.

I woke Walter.

I told him someone kept knocking at the door and then ran off every time I opened it. Walter said maybe I had fallen asleep and just dreamed I heard a knock. He said maybe it was something on the radio that sounded like a knocking sound. I said it wasn’t the radio and that Queenie had heard it too. So Walter got up and went to the door himself, and sure enough, there was no one around. He said there might have been someone there before but whoever it had been must have changed his mind.

“There’s no car or truck in the yard, might have been Mr. Taylor come to see if everything’s okay here and then changed his mind, thinking it was so quiet he didn’t want to disturb us. Maybe he thought we were, well, maybe he thought we were too quiet and didn’t want to bother us just then.”

Mr. Taylor was the man who rented us the house and he and his wife lived in the big farmhouse across the field.

“Walter, I went to the door twice, if it was Mr. Taylor and he changed his mind, he wouldn’t knock again.”

“Whoever it was is gone now so let’s not worry about it.”

There was no sense to doing that, I reckoned and as long as we were awake anyway, we went back to unpacking the boxes and finding places for what we found inside. I didn’t forget that knock, but like Walter said, whoever it was had gone and I thought someday I’d have someone say, “I came to your house but . . . . “ Of course, I didn’t know what the “but” would be, and what excuse anyone would have to knock twice like that but soon after I forgot about it.

The next morning came around much too quick to suit us, but sure enough it did and Walter had to go to work. He said I’d be fine and would have so much to do I wouldn’t even notice I had no one to talk to and he said I had the radio and Queenie for company. He said not to worry so and that Queenie would protect me, he added there was nothing to protect me from, but I might feel better with Queenie being in the house with me. I started to clean a little and to unpack the last few boxes, but I thought I’d go in the parlor and turn the radio up some so I could hear it in the kitchen while I unwrapped the rest of the dishes we had gotten from dish nights at the movies. Dish Night was what we called the nights the movie houses held once a week or so, hoping to bring in more customers by giving away a set of dishes one piece at a time, or sometimes a milk or water pitcher. Walter and I had collected many different pieces and even a large glass bowl with etching on it and matching candlestick holders.

I heard knocking on the front room door again. I didn’t know if I should answer it or not, and here I was all alone with that knocking again. And all day to wait until Walter came home! I went to one of the windows and peeked out but like I thought, there was no one there.

It really scared me and all I could think of was that it was a spirit or a haint. Certainly this house was old enough for a spirit to have lived here and maybe it was mad because for years it had lived with no one around and then here were Walter and me moving in and upsetting it. Oh goodness gracious, I didn’t know what to think, I knew better than to believe in ghosts and silly things like that. I heard the knock again and felt my scalp tingle and the hairs on my head feel like they had stood up. It was a feeling like those someone would say they had and Grammy would come along and say it was someone walking over your future grave!

If I had a telephone I would have called Walter, or I’d have called Momma or someone, but here I was, the first day I was alone in this house in the woods and someone was knocking at the door, someone no one could see, maybe a spirit mad enough to harm me for living in its house.

There were one or two more knocks and I raced to the kitchen and stayed in there most of the day. I was too nervous to do much and just sat and wondered who or what it could be. I had to open the door a few times to let Queenie out but I was sure glad when she wanted to come back in. She didn’t seem to see anything strange out there so that comforted me some. I wouldn’t even go out to use the privy and had to use the old chamber pot we had for using at night.

Walter finally came home and I raced to the door and flung myself in his arms, and he said what a good and welcome homecoming he had gotten from me. “I guess you missed me a lot,” he said.

I said, “That nasty person was back again knocking. I’m scared we might have a ghost living here because this time I looked out the front room window and there was no one there but a minute or so later he knocked again. I was so scared, I sat in the kitchen all day!”

“Ah, Maria,” he said and held me in his arms, rocking with me a little bit. “What did Queenie do when you heard the knock?”

“She heard it too and went to the door with me, but after the first time, she paid it no attention. But she did hear it, I’m not losing my mind!”

Walter said to stay inside and he’d take Queenie and they’d walk in the yard and see if he saw some tracks or any sign of someone being here. He didn’t have to tell me to stay inside and I felt I didn’t quite like the idea of him going out either. It seemed they were gone a long time and I followed Walter by looking through the windows as he walked around the house, across the lawn, and back around the house, finally he came inside again.

“Beats me what it is. Didn’t see even one sign someone’s been there other than us.”

“I won’t stay here by myself if that knocking don’t stop. I’m afraid it could be anything, anyone, just something out there that shouldn’t be there!

“I bet it’s a haint!”

“It’s not a haint.”

He might tell me there wasn’t a haint, but I could tell Walter was baffled, same as me, and like always, he thought he could figure it out, and I knew next he’d be telling me I was being silly. But he didn’t do that, what he did say was maybe he should carry me to see Momma before he went to work in the morning. I knew then Walter was scared and worrying about me too, but it didn’t make me feel better, it felt worse knowing even he was afraid. We didn’t have such a good night and I think both of us were still wondering about the noise even though neither of us mentioned it again.

We got up a little earlier the next morning so Walter had time to carry me to Savannah and still be able to be at work on time. We were about to leave, but I had forgotten to shut the radio off so I went back in the parlor to do that and there was that knocking again! I screamed for Walter and he came running.

“I just heard it again!”

Walter said, “Don’t open the door! Let me see if I can lay for him and see what he’s up to.” And with that, Walter went through the kitchen and out the back door, quiet as he could be, and I stayed near the front room door, waiting to hear shouting or whatever when Walter saw whoever it was doing all that knocking. It stayed so quiet, no knocking, nothing, of course, by then I was huddled up back in the kitchen and directly Walter came in laughing and told me to be quiet like and come with him outside. He whispered to me to be still and I’d see our little visitor.

He put me over behind a large azalea bush and said not to move and to keep my eye on our front door. It didn’t take long, us sitting there like that, and I waited for the man, the thing, to come and knock again. Walter whispered, “There’s your haint.”

I didn’t see a thing. For a second that alone scared me because Walter could see it and I couldn’t and I whispered back, “I don’t see anything.”

Walter said, “Wait a bit. Ah, there, here it comes again.”

All I saw was a gray stripety bird with a red head and little plume fly and circle the door, but then I saw him bunch up to it in the air, seem to grab the doorknocker with his feet, and bang his beak into the wood, “Tap, tap, tap.” That was the sound I had heard!

“It’s a woodpecker,” Walter said. “See what he’s doing, he’s pecking the door for bugs, don’t know why with all the trees around, but that’s what he’s a’doin’, sure enough.”

A little ole woody-woodpecker, that’s what had put me in such a panic, a little ole pecking bird! If I wasn’t so relieved I would have been more embarrassed to have acted so silly, but I was too happy it wasn’t a haint to feel anything but relief.

I told Walter I’d be fine then and would stay home since I had wasted yesterday and wanted to do the things I should have been doing while I sat in the kitchen thinking all kinds of things and worrying myself to death.

Walter went off with a laugh and I thought to myself, I hoped I wouldn’t turn into a crazy, lonely ole woman with all my fears and imaginings. I ran and kissed and hugged Walter when he came home that night too, but not because I was so scared, I just was glad to see him.

I was glad I hadn’t let some little redheaded pecking bird scare me off, but the birds weren’t finished with me just yet. I heard knocking on the door after that but then I just smiled to myself and thought that the ole woody bird had really been our first visitor.  

* * *

It was so nice and warm the next day I thought I just might take Queenie and go out and see what all was growing around the house and walk through the fields some. In Savannah we only had an empty lot behind us for a yard, this was like living on a big farm all of our own. Once it had been a big dairy farm, and I knew before too long Walter would want to bring in a few chickens and maybe a goat. So I thought I’d pick out a nice place to put a chicken coop. Queenie and I walked all around the house and out towards the field, just looking at the pretty flowering weeds and the grass getting green and starting to grow really tall. It sure was peaceful, it sure was lonely too, the only house I could see was way over across the field where the Taylors lived and I saw no one in the yard. This will take some doing, I thought, to get used to this much quiet and being so alone.

Someone whistled.

I stopped. It sounded like one of those wolf whistles I’d hear if Maggie and I walked through Savannah and passed some fresh young man. I looked around and saw no one and thought, maybe it’s Mr. Taylor, whistling and doing something in his yard. I didn’t see Mr. Taylor and it was pretty far from his house to ours but it was so quiet, maybe you could hear better in the country.

I heard it again. Someone giving me a wolf whistle. I told myself I wouldn’t be silly, I had been foolish enough about that ole woody bird, I wasn’t about to think now some fresh man was whistling at me in my own yard, some man I couldn’t even see. Which made me think, if there’s a man there, he’s hiding in the woods. He seemed to have stopped whistling and all I heard were birds calling to one another from the trees. Queenie and I finished our walk and I went inside to listen to the radio and see what work I could find to do. I wished I could do what the men folks could and work on the waste so we’d be able to hook up the commode but I didn’t know a thing about that and forgot it. There was always plenty of women’s work to be done, I didn’t want for work to keep me busy.

A few hours later Queenie wanted to go out and it was still so nice I sat on the back stoop and waited for her. There was that wolf whistle again. Now he was making me jumpy. It didn’t seem to bother Queenie none and I took heart in that. And I thought, just a few days ago you were scared of an ole woody bird, now don’t go getting yourself riled again over nothing. But there was someone whistling at me that was for sure, and no one who kept doing that was up to any good.

So that night I told Walter there was a man hiding out in the woods who gave me a wolf whistle every time I went outside, and I said it was bothering me some. Walter said maybe I should go see my momma so I could talk to her, he said maybe I needed to be around my folks for a little bit so I could get over my jitters. He didn’t say I was being silly, but he might have thought my imagination was running away with itself  because he didn’t seem to mind that someone whistled at me, if he did, he kept quiet about it.

I was glad Walter only had that day to work and then he and I would have the weekend and I was going to tell him he had to walk around and see if there was anything out there that looked funny. I was bound and determined I wasn’t going to let living in the country turn me a nervous person like Momma was.

The next morning we got up a little earlier than usual and Walter carried me to Momma’s. She and Grammy said they were surprised to see me so soon and asked after us, and asked how we were getting along. Momma seemed a little strange around me at first, and I think it had something to do with my being married, and that I now knew what married folks did, and Momma would never talk about that. I felt she wanted to ask me things, but I knew she wouldn’t and I sure wasn’t about to say anything. Folks didn’t talk about those kind of things. But I did tell her some of our honeymoon trip, and how we had run into Walter’s pop and Charlie and Robbie coming back from fishing and how I had cooked the fish they gave us. I told Momma too, how Walter said the fish tasted good and that his mom couldn’t have cooked it better. And I told them about the ole woody bird and how it had me so scared thinking it was a haint.

Momma said she’d think the same thing and said again, how she worried about me way out there by myself so much. Grammy said I’d be fine, she had been alone many times in her life, and she said she had never been scared of an old woody bird, but she could understand how I would be, coming from a big city like I did. Grammy said too, until I got used to living in the country I should just stay in the clearing and not go walking in the woods because I might get myself lost. Momma heard her and said, “Something else to make me worry.”

I might have told Grammy about the man who whistled and was sneaking around the house but I didn’t want to upset Momma and I never had a chance to be alone with Grammy before it was time for Walter to come and carry us home. But we had had a nice day and it was good to see Estelle again, and Joey, and when Poppa came home I had a chance to see him, so after work when Walter came for me, I felt better and not as nervous as before.

When we turned into the yard to the house, I had a welcome feeling I hadn’t felt before, so I thought maybe I was beginning to feel at home here now. But that next morning I went outside to the privy and that man, or whoever it was, whistled at me and I ran back to the house and hollered for Walter to come see if he could find him and tell him he had to stop. Walter said if he did find someone, he’d cause him to be sorry he ever whistled at me and made me nervous, and he and Queenie went marching out the door.

He came back in short order, laughing again and said, “Someday you’ll tell our young’uns about when we were first married and the rate you’re going, you’ll have plenty for them to laugh about. Come on, I want you to meet your admirer.”

“You’re not mad at him? You want me to meet him!”  

I wondered what was wrong with Walter, if some girl whistled  at him, I’d have a thing or two to tell her, that’s for sure, now here was Walter wanting me to meet this fresh person!

We walked into the field and Walter said, “Maria, you’ve got to get used to living in the country. Things are different out here, but they’re not bad. You’re making yourself a wreck with thinking folks are knocking on doors and whistling at you and then running off trying to upset you. Just stand here a minute and I’ll introduce you to this guy who thinks you rate a whistle or two.”

I wondered how he could be so calm and think it was fine that someone whistled at me like he was doing and it didn’t make sense for Walter not to be mad. I wondered what was wrong with him.

Walter said, “Stand still and listen,” and sure enough, there he was whistling that wolf whistle at me again. Walter said, “You and your birds. There’s our fresh man out there on that branch, and he’s not the only one. It’s a mockin’ bird is all, just talking the way mockin’ birds talk.”

Sure enough, there he went with that whistle that had scared me so, and in between he made a few other bird sounds and once even sounded like a jaybird, squawking and screeching. If Walter said I was acting silly now I wouldn’t blame him, but all he said was that I’d get used to living here soon and would be fine. We had mockingbirds in Savannah too, and I had heard them whistle like that before. I guess in town I hadn’t worried so about things like that and too, I hadn’t been alone. Here everything seemed to upset me so. I hoped I’d get over this feeling soon. I sure wasn’t starting out good the way I was going.

Nothing else happened that weekend to spoil us being together and we even found time to take a walk in the piney woods behind the house and came upon a little creek. Walter wondered if it had any fish good to eat in it, we did see some crawfish and a school of minnows but that was all at the time. Walter showed me some deer tracks leading into the creek and said there was a family of deer living nearby. He said if we were cautious and looked out the window in the evening or early in the morning, we might see them grazing in the field as he had seen their tracks and some deer droppings laying about there. I didn’t think I had ever seen a live deer before, I had seen them tied on cars at times when folks had gone hunting and got them one.

We picked out a spot in the yard for a chicken coop and Walter told me the next weekend they would get back to putting in the drum and hooking up the waste so we could finally flush the commode. He had made us a hole where the sink drained, that and the bathtub, but we couldn’t very well use it for waste. But at least I could let water go down and run a bath without carrying the water outside and flinging it away, and I told him I’d surely be glad when we didn’t have to use the ole privy anymore.

Walter said after we got the waste all hooked up he’d start on the chicken coop and then we could think about getting some hens and a rooster to keep them happy. Well, I knew who would be taking care of them but I didn’t mind as that was part of women’s work. After I got over my fear of being pecked by the chickens we had in Savannah, I kind of enjoyed gathering eggs and sometimes watching biddies running around if Poppa borrowed a rooster. We never kept our own rooster because Momma said hens would be broody and lay eggs all over to hatch and broody hens were hard to find times when they were setting on eggs.

And again, all too soon, Monday came around and Walter went off to work. I thought this should be a good week. I had solved the mysteries of last week, of the haint that wasn’t there and of the man I thought was whistling at me, and felt rather annoyed at myself for being so scatterbrained. I thought it was good Walter was so patient with me and didn’t fuss at me over how silly I had been.

* * *

One thing I had wanted to do was see if I could scrub up the bathtub really good as it was so dirty looking. Walter had found a place that sold used tubs and commodes and bought ours there and the tub most likely had never been cleaned proper like. I scrubbed hard and finally got it to come out cleaner than it had been. I felt right proud of myself when I was done and was glad I had some idea of keeping house and wasn’t as lazy as Mrs. Mason was. Now what had made her pop into my mind—I hadn’t thought of the Masons in some time.

It wasn’t that long ago when I worked for them and took care of Old Mr. Mason, and was so scared of his daughter-in-law, how different she seemed the day Old Mr. Mason died. At least I knew how to use the cook stove, when I first went to work for the Masons they had a brand-new electric stove and I recalled burning not a few eggs and grits on that stove until I got used to using it. At least I had learned how to set the fire right in the kind of cook stove we had and I did quite well on that. And from helping Momma and Grammy in the kitchen I had learned a bit about keeping house, so I felt that was saying something and at least I could clean and do it proper. I guess, like all new brides, I was worried some and knew I had a lot to learn.

But I did feel I knew what I was doing when it came to women’s work, I thought what I’d really have to learn was living with someone other than Momma and them, and learn all the things Walter liked and his ways about things. Already it was different from when we were keeping company. And already I knew I couldn’t just say goodnight and be alone to get over it if we fussed over something. Not that we had yet, but we had fussed before, and I knew we would again because like Momma and Grammy said, married people fussed at times and no one could live together without disagreeing every once in awhile.  

I decided to start supper and while it was cooking I’d run a bath and dress up pretty for when Walter came home. When I switched on the light over the kitchen table, I noticed the shade was still dirty looking smudged with fingerprints. I had meant to ask Walter to get it down so I could wash it, but I had forgotten all about it. I didn’t want to be so much like Momma, who left things like climbing up to unhook a shade for Poppa to do, so I stood on the kitchen table and unscrewed the globe and took it on down. I washed and dried it and climbed onto the table again so I could reach to put it back on. Now that would take some doing to get it sitting just right but I finally did and tightened the screws, then cleaned off the table and set it pretty for supper. I was right proud of myself for getting the bathroom so nice and shiny and for cleaning the shade and after I got our supper going, I washed up and sat and listened to the radio until Walter came home.

Walter was right on time and hugged and kissed me and he rubbed Queenie’s ears. I had seen him do that lots of times and it was how he knew Inky liked having his ears rubbed. Walter had a way with dogs and all dogs seemed to like him, even strange dogs, if one was to come up on us, it seemed to know Walter understood it. I made fried chicken and green tomatoes and cooked up some hopping John for supper. Walter said it sure smelled good and told me he was extra hungry that night because they were having some trouble at work and he hadn’t had much time to eat his lunch. I had the table all set so I put out the chicken and the fried tomatoes and the rice and peas for us and like Poppa always did at home, Walter said the blessing.

I reckon I wasn’t doing as well as I thought, knowing how to be a housewife, because we didn’t get any further than putting the food on our plates when the shade came loose and fell with a loud crash right in the middle of the table. Glass went everywhere, in the food, all over the table and the floor and Queenie picked herself up and ran from the kitchen. For a second I didn’t know what happened and I had screamed, it had scared me so. Walter had jumped too and then we both sat and looked at our ruined supper. I burst into tears, I was that upset and thought, here I did something dumb again and went and ruined our supper.

Everything was covered with glass and besides that, I didn’t have anything cooked besides what was on the table and no one for sure could eat that. And Walter saying he was extra hungry and supper just flat out filled with little pieces of that shade!

Walter said it sure had scared him and wondered how the shade could fall like it had. “Good thing it didn’t fall on one of our heads. Now what the devil made it come loose like that? I thought when I put the bulb in there it was tight as I could get it. I can’t believe I did that, gee, Maria, I’m sure sorry.”

I bet if I was Mrs. Mason I would have let Walter go on thinking he had done it and hadn’t put the shade up right, but I couldn’t be like that. So I told him how I had stood on the table and got the shade down and how I thought I had made the screws as tight as they had been before. Oh glory be, I just couldn’t go long without playing the fool, all that craziness last week with the birds and all and now I went and ruined supper.

Walter said I didn’t have any business getting up on the table because I could have lost my balance and fell and there’s no one around to help me if I hurt myself. He said, “You should have told me to get that shade down, I’d have been glad to do that for you.”

I told him I forgot to ask and wanted to get it nice and clean without bothering him and Walter said helping me was never a problem. He wasn’t mad and looked around for Queenie so he could check to see if she was all right and hadn’t gotten cut by the glass. Then he made her stay in the other room so she wouldn’t walk on the glass and cut her feet. We cleaned up the mess and threw all the food in the garbage sack and then Walter asked me if we had any weenies in the icebox. I told him yes, and I cooked them up for us and that’s what we had in place of my nice dinner, plain ole weenies, after I had worked so hard on supper. And now we had to spend money to buy a new shade. I was just so upset with myself but Walter said not to worry. I had already done so many stupid things since we were married that I wondered how Walter could put up with me.

I told Walter I felt just absolutely stupid, and he laughed and said it wasn’t anything to worry myself about, I’d get better at things. He chuckled and said, “It’s a good thing I love you so much.” I thought it sure was a good thing he did, for more reasons than just him not getting mad at me for all the dumb things I had done to him, and here we weren’t even married two whole weeks yet.

It all seemed to straighten out after that and I began to feel sure of myself again, I kept on doing little things inside the house to make it seem homey, and I went out in the yard and pulled weeds away from the plants that had come up around the house. Walter started talking about having a garden and I thought that would be nice, although it was April and planting season for many things started in February, we’d never get collards to grow good now. They liked it cold and didn’t grow very good in the heat we were having now that summer was on its way.

But instead of digging for the garden or building the chicken coop, Walter was true to his word and him and his brothers worked that weekend and set the barrel in for the waste and before the weekend was over, we had it hooked up to the commode and we could finally use it. I really felt we had come a long way from when I first laid eyes on this old house and the mess it was in, and I was as pleased as punch at finally getting an inside commode again.

I had written Momma a letter that Walter mailed for me on his way to work, and Momma wrote back and asked us to come to supper Sunday afternoon. We did that and the next weekend we would start on the chicken coop. In the middle of that week I ran into a problem I knew was going to happen and I wondered and worried how I was going to work it out.

Ever since I got my monthlies, they had come right on time. I felt those cramps I always seemed to get anymore and when I went to check, sure enough, there it was! Momma had made sure I had packed some clean rags just for that when I packed all my clothes to move out, so I had rags to use. But I didn’t know how I was going to tell Walter, or if I wanted to, and how I was going to hide it from him. It was such a shameful thing, it didn’t matter to me if Maggie had said it was normal and natural, she was raised different than me. I wasn’t raised like that. I was raised by Momma who wouldn’t even explain why I was having it or what it was for. Course, I knew by now what it was and why but only because Grammy had told me one day shortly after it happened for the first time.

And I remembered Maggie talking about it like it was nothing, right out she did, like she was talking about the weather outside, like it was nothing to fuss over. I thought, now, how do I go about not letting Walter know a thing about this? I didn’t think there was any way I could do that, not wearing those big ole rags and all, he’d be sure to notice, and what if he, oh good merciful heavens, what if he wanted to . . . gracious, what was I going to do? What did Momma do? What did anyone do? I couldn’t ask Momma for sure and there was no way I could ask Grammy, who wouldn’t mind telling me, but she was so far away.

I felt like crying but I kept telling myself this happened to every married lady and they seemed to go through it fine and there must be something they did as not to let their husbands know. I felt again like I had so many times, so stupid about the ways of the world and the ways of men and women and marriage and all. I was a little mad at Momma then, that she never told me anything I needed to know about things like this and had thought I’d just figure it all out myself. Even now, I knew Momma would never talk about it and me a married woman too now.

I don’t know why but I always felt I could cry so easy when I had my time of the month and I felt blue and nervous and upset enough just having it come, I worked myself into a fit and by the time Walter came home that night I was a wreck. I had some bad cramps too and hadn’t even made us a good supper and for sure I didn’t dare sit in a bath, not with this curse, so I was just a blue feeling mess by the time Walter walked in the door all smiley like he always was when he came home. I knew my eyes were red from crying and the first thing Walter said was, “What’s wrong?” because I didn’t run to hug him like I always did, I just stood there away from him, I felt if he got too close he might feel the rag I was wearing and then he’d know.

I told him nothing was wrong. I knew that was a story but I didn’t know what to say.

“Well, there sure is something wrong, you look sick and you’ve been cryin’, your eyes are all red. What’s the matter, what happened, did something happen to somebody, did you hear bad news, Maria? What’s wrong, did I do something?”

Then I really started to cry. I felt so silly, so embarrassed and then I shocked myself because I said right out, “I got my monthlies today and I’m just so ashamed!” I declare, I couldn’t understand myself at all, blurting it out like that!

I knew Walter didn’t understand because all he said was, “Ah Maria, I know you want young’uns but we have plenty of time. Most people don’t start families when they’re first married, sometimes it takes time, young’uns’ll come—don’t work yourself into a state. Ah, don’t cry, we’ll keep trying and you’ll have a baby someday. It’s not so bad, we ought to get to know each other better yet and maybe wait until we can afford one better. It’s okay, really, it’s okay.”

“Oh, I’m just so ashamed!” And I cried even more because Walter didn’t understand at all.

“Ah, honey, sometimes it takes a long time to have a baby, I wasn’t expectin’ you to be in the family way so soon. Nothing to be ashamed of, gee, why would . . . ?”

“That’s not what I’m ashamed of!”   

“Well, what then?”

What could I tell him? I had gone this far, so I said, “Having my monthlies isn’t something I’m supposed to talk about, especially to you. And here I just blurted it out like that.”

Walter seemed to smile, but he didn’t say anything, he just let me go on, “Momma told me never to tell anyone about it, oh my, especially you, I mean, what do you think, it’s just not something people talk about, it’s a private thing, oh, why are you makin’ me talk like this? Maggie said you knew all about it from the dogs, and . . . ”

I stopped because Walter started to laugh. “Ah, Maria, didn’t anyone ever talk to you about this, gee, I mean, I’m not just anyone, I’m your husband. If your momma really did say that, she didn’t mean after you got married, how could I not know, and besides, that’s nothing to worry about, gee, I mean . . .  Maggie, what did Maggie say, was Maggie here today, what do you mean about the dogs? Is having your monthlies and you not wanting me to know what’s got you so upset?”

“Yes, it’s got me right upset wondering how I can hide it and not let you know, but now you do, and it’s not something folks talk about. Maggie—Maggie once told me she knew all there was to know from your mom telling her and she said she saw the dogs together and knew what they were doing, she said she and all of y’all knew about women’s things . . . oh, I don’t know what I mean . . . ”

“I think your momma’s wrong about some things. She should have told you this. Do you really think she lived all those years with your pop and had three young’uns and him not knowing about women’s doings? She didn’t mean your husband shouldn’t know. How could I not know? This is silly, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, no matter what your momma said, it’s something that happens, golly, what did you think I was going to do? I knew this would happen, I just didn’t know when, but I expected it.”

I started to cry again, but I think it was from relief that Walter didn’t make a big deal out of it like I had. He held me and talked some more and after I had a good cry and stopped feeling so silly we went in the kitchen and I put our supper out and things was all right again. But I knew I had a lot to think about and wondered about Momma and her ways because Walter sure didn’t act the way I thought he would and he wasn’t mad or disappointed. I guess I still had a lot to learn about the ways of folks and all, but I did think too, if I ever had a daughter I would tell her what she should know and not let her worry and suffer over it like I had done. Walter was right, Momma was wrong about this. But of course, I couldn’t tell her that, but I think Grammy had a better idea on it, and Mrs. Tanner too, who told Maggie all there was to know. I wondered if she had actually told Walter too, else wise, how did he know?

I couldn’t picture Mrs. Tanner telling her boys something like this, most likely Mr. Tanner did, if Mrs. Tanner was like this, then he must be too, besides, that was a thing for men folks to tell their sons, not mommas. I thought again it would take me a long time to learn the ways of folks. I felt blessed by having Walter too, and I wondered again how he could put up with me with all that I had done since we were married that could have upset him.

I felt better the next morning and my cramps had gone, and I felt better too, because now I didn’t have to worry about hiding this from Walter and that was one less thing for me to worry about. I began to look forward to the weekend when we were going to build the chicken coop. I loved to watch Walter do things, and he had said I could help him so we’d be together the whole weekend working side by side. I thought that was the way it should be.

* * *

Walter kept me busy too, and like I had done the weekend they hooked up the waste, I ran sweet tea out to Walter and ran back and forth to the house to get him what he needed, like tools he had forgotten to carry out with him. He had a right good idea, too, he built each side of the coop on the ground and then he and I lifted it up and Walter nailed it in place. That way I was able to help because I had a hard time reaching where some of the nails had to go and Walter thought I might fall off the ladder. He didn’t say that but I knew that’s what it meant because he said I might fall off the kitchen table, so we did it that way.

We got it almost built and all it needed as a roof and some boxes built in so the hens would have a place to set and lay eggs. We finished it the next weekend and Walter said he’d ask around where he could buy grown hens, then soon we’d have fresh eggs and Walter said too, he missed hearing the roosters crow in the morning and would be glad to hear them again to start off his day. He had dug us a small place for the garden so Monday after Walter went to work, I took Queenie and she sat with me while I planted tomato seeds and some okra and snap beans.