A Matter of Pride Read online

  By early afternoon the family trip was nearly over. Zach took the Bunnell exit slowly. The sky was a predictable Florida bright blue. Here and there, puffy white clouds skiffed their way toward the horizon.

  “Ah!” Zach said as he pulled into the hotel lot. “This is why everybody comes to Florida. It’s warm, the sun is shinin’ and the sky is clear. You gotta love it.”

  Chapter Six

  The Holiday Inn Express was just down the road from Bunnell and not far from the farm. As soon as she laid out her toiletries and hung up their clothes for the funeral, Lu dialed her father’s house.

  “Hey,” she said when her brother answered. “We’re finally here.”

  “Good,” Martin said. “I’m figurin’ we can meet for dinner about six.”

  “That’s fine. Just tell me where to meet you and how to get there,” she said.

  As they drove down Route 100 they passed a stone greeting on the roadside, ‘Welcome to Bunnell, Crossroads of Flagler County’. Lu sniffed to herself, Yeah, she thought, some crossroads. In the back of her mind her conscience was telling her that life was full of crossroads. She decided to ignore it.

  “Did you know on the Flagler County website, the seal has a potato on it?” Susan said.

  “A potato?” William sniffed.

  “Yes, a potato,” Lu answered smugly. “Most northerners think Florida’s all theme parks, but it’s a huge agricultural state. My father and just about everybody around here raised Irish potatoes.”

  “Irish?” Susan asked.

  “Right,” Lu said. “They’re the potatoes most used for potato chips.” She suddenly felt good having come to the defense of the county, of the farm, herself as a child, and Martin. One of her earliest memories was the day he came home from the hospital.

  She spent the morning scurrying back and forth between the kitchen and the front door. Momma was coming home from the hospital today. She was bringing home Luella’s new baby brother. Grammy scrubbed Luella’s face and hands almost raw. She clipped her fingernails short as she lectured her about not touching the baby around his face or head. She twisted her hair into little pigtails all over her head, and fastened each with a tiny colored barrette. Grammy didn’t do it as nice as Momma did. Momma would hum a little tune and then put her finger under Luella’s chin and tell her how pretty she looked. Grammy just told her to sit still, but none of that mattered now. Miss Pearl came over right after breakfast and now held Luella on her lap, hugging her tightly as she chuckled over Luella’s excitement.

  “Now, that new little brother of yours is going to be sleeping a lot, Luella, honey,” she cautioned. “You’re gonna have to be quiet sometimes so as you don’t wake him up.”

  “I know, I know.” Luella whined. At three years of age she didn’t quite understand everything she’d been told about having a new baby around, but a baby was a baby and she could hardly wait to see it.

  She wriggled out of Miss Pearl’s lap and stood with her tiny hands and her nose pressed against the screen door. She stared down the road that led to her house. At last she saw Daddy’s truck slowly rumbling and bumping into the yard.

  “Momma, Momma,” she squealed, slamming open the door and running onto the porch closely followed by Miss Pearl and Grammy. The truck pulled up next to the house, and Daddy got out, crossing quickly around front to help Momma. Luella started to scamper out into the yard, but Grammy had her hands on Luella’s shoulders.

  “Now, wait, child. Don’t go runnin’ up and knockin’ your momma over,” she cautioned. “Let her get on into the house.”

  Luella dutifully muttered,”Yes’m.”

  Momma, held steady by Daddy’s strong arm, stepped up onto the porch and carefully bent over to show Luella the tiny bundle she held in her arms.

  “Oh, my goodness, oh, what a blessin’,” Miss Pearl exclaimed almost in a whisper. “Lookit there, Luella,” she said, her warm hand gently rubbing Luella’s back. “Your very own baby brother. My, my, ain’t he somethin’?” she crooned. “And lookit here, Martin, this here’s your big sister, Luella.” Luella stared at him. The baby scrunched his face up, tiny fingers pawing his cheek as he peeped open one eye.

  “He sees me,” she squealed. The baby jumped, both of his eyes flew open and he began to wail. Everyone chuckled. Daddy reached down, picked Luella up and planted a kiss on her cheek. That was a day Luella treasured. Surrounded by those who loved her, welcoming home her very own baby. The world was a wonderful place.

  As the days passed, Luella spent most of her time following Momma around. She cradled her doll in her arms, and whatever Momma did with baby Martin, Luella mimicked. Her baby doll and Martin always napped at the same time, and Momma gave her scraps of fabric to make pretend diapers.Martin was a good baby. Grammy said he was a lot better than Luella had been. Luella, she said, had the colic and kept everybody awake night after night until she turned three months old. Momma said that just meant that Luella was smart and she wanted to be awake for everything. Grammy frowned and said how she hoped Martin didn’t get the colic.

  Martin was soon crawling around the house and trying to put everything into his mouth. Luella gave herself the job of keeping an eye on him and making sure she hollered when he tried to eat anything he wasn’t supposed to. Grammy Mayetta took to clucking her tongue from time to time and cautioning Luella not to be “little Miss Boss.”

  In no time at all Martin was walking and talking. He stubbornly took to wanting to be his own boss, and Luella’s self-appointed babysitting job lost some of its appeal.

  Chapter Seven

  “Turn here,” Lu instructed. “This is Airport Road.”

  “What was the name of the place again?” Zach asked as he made the turn.

  “Highjackers,” she said.

  Lu struggled to hold her emotions at bay. She’d been nervous ever since she talked to Martin on the phone. She found herself chatting nonstop to Zach and the kids about nothing. She hoped if she did all the talking they wouldn’t ask her the question she couldn’t answer. How had she let so many years go by—and why?

  They quickly reached the end of the road which was at the edge of the small airfield. Before them was a one-story, fluorescent green cinderblock building. It was trimmed with an equally garish orange and sat next to the airfield fence. The windows were open, and diners were visible through the screens. When she entered the restaurant and saw diners seated in wooden booths, their meals before them in plastic baskets, Lu was glad she hadn’t dressed for dinner. Model airplanes swayed from open beams in the ceiling, the ceiling fans spinning only at half-pace. A seperate dining area on the left boasted a big flat-screen TV high on the wall. Thankfully, it was on mute. The walls were decorated with Miami Dolphin logos, shirts, and pennants proclaiming “Fans for Fins.”

  Lu looked into the dining room. A black family was seated at a wooden table in the far corner. A middle-aged man in a denim shirt, wearing a Highjackers baseball cap pushed his chair back and motioned to her. He had her father’s face, not her brother’s. She saw he was at a table with a woman in a white ruffled blouse and three young girls in multi-colored T-shirts. Her stomach tightened involuntarily, but she managed to flash a broad smile in greeting.

  “Oh, my gosh,” she said as she led her family to his table. “Oh, my, I can’t believe it.” She hugged his neck, and Martin awkwardly patted her shoulder.

  His wife Elizabeth took Lu’s hand in greeting, it was soft and warm. She proudly introduced her daughters. She first put her arm around her fourteen-year-old. “This here’s Shanice,” she said. She touched the middle child on her shoulder, “and this is our Jasmine. She just turned twelve.”

  “Yeah,” Martin teasingly pointed a finger. “And that little one there, she’s the trouble-maker already, and she’s only eight, huh, Ashanti?”

  Little Ashanti bowed her head, trying to hide a tiny grin. Lu could see she was used to her father’s teasing. Her hair was carefully braided in tight little rows anchored by colorful b
arrettes and Lu immediately saw a family resemblance. Ashanti had Lu’s mother’s dimple and bore such a strong resemblance to her that Lu couldn’t take it all in at once. She pulled her eyes away from the child and looked to Martin.

  “Where does the time go?” she asked. Without giving him time to respond she began to introduce Zach and her own children.

  “This is our eldest, Susan,” she said. “She’s just finishing her first year of college.” Susan graciously put her hand out to shake first her uncle’s hand, and then her Aunt Elizabeth’s. Lu put her hand on William’s shoulder. “And our son, William, will graduate high school next year.”

  Zach stuck his hand out to Martin. “How you doin’?” he asked. “That makes me the old man.” He winked toward the girls which got a giggle from them, especially Ashanti.

  The introductions over, Lu quickly sat down, hoping no one could see her knees knocking. “It seems like I just got a Christmas picture of these girls of yours on Santa’s lap and now, just look at them! They’re almost grown, for heaven’s sake.” She addressed Elizabeth, afraid that Martin would recognize that she was babbling. She picked up a paper napkin and began to toy with its edges, but her own silence was too much for her to bear. She could hardly take her eyes off little Ashanti. “Do you know you look just like your Grandma Lovie?” she asked.

  “Yes’m,” Ashanti replied politely.

  “You even have her dimple,” Lu assured her.

  “I know,” said Ashanti shyly, leaning close to her father.

  “Until just now,” Elizabeth said, “I didn’t realize Ashanti looked so much like you, Luella.”

  Martin leaned back and looked at Lu. He furrowed his brow and then lifted Ashanti’s face with a touch on her chin. “Yeah,” he said in mock seriousness. “That’s too bad, Ashanti, that’s too bad.” Then he laughed out loud at his own joke. Little Ashanti lowered her eyes, obviously hurt. Lu detected a slight tremor of the table and guessed that Elizabeth had given Martin a quick kick in the shin. She liked that.

  “So,” Elizabeth said, addressing Susan, “finishing your first year of college, huh? What are you majoring in?”

  “Uh,” Susan said. Lu noticed the hesitation and was about to chime in when Susan spoke up. “Mostly this first year I’ve been working on the basic degree requirements. All the boring stuff.”

  “She thinks she’s going to win a ‘Poolitzer’ writing some big novel someday,” William interjected.

  Susan pursed her lips. “Just ignore him,” she said, turning her attention to her young cousins. “See, this is what happens when you have a brother. He thinks he’s a jock, but he just likes to show off.”

  The girls giggled, staring more at William than Susan. Amused, Lu guessed they were thinking William was a pretty cute cousin.

  Elizabeth covered Shanice’s hand with her own. “I’m working on these girls all the time about college,” she said in a velvet tone. Shanice and Jasmine nodded their heads and rolled their eyes at each other, indicating their mom did work on them all the time. Despite their teenaged self-consciousness, Lu found them charming.

  When they finished their meal and the dishes were removed, Lu turned her attention back to Ashanti, asking her the routine questions about her favorite subjects in school. Although at first the little girl appeared to have an outgoing personality, Lu noticed she looked to her father before answering, as if she sought his approval.

  Martin interrupted Lu’s attempted exchange with his daughter. “Hey,” he said, “we’ve had a long day. How about we get down to some brass tacks.” His abruptness brought immediate silence to the table. Elizabeth directed her attention to the handle of her coffee cup. “Miss Pearl arranged the service,” he continued, “so we don’t need to do anything but show up tomorrow morning. The ladies at the church are goin’ to provide a lunch afterwards and that’s pretty much it,” he announced.

  “Oh, how nice,” Lu responded. “Miss Pearl is so good to do all that.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s what they do for everybody,” Martin commented. “But, we gotta figure out the rest of this. I mean the farm and all.”

  “Of course,” Lu said. “Have you got any ideas about selling it? I’m sure it’s worth quite a bit. I mean, I don’t know about you, but with putting two kids through college we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

  Martin looked hard at her. “Well, it’s good land, that’s for sure,” he said, “but my farmin’ days is long over with.”

  His remark caught her off guard. “Oh, did you want to keep it?” she asked, stunned.

  “Now, don’t go listenin’ to him. He’s pullin’ your leg, is all.” Elizabeth reached over and lightly tapped Martin’s hand. “You stop that, Martin,” she scolded. “You know you don’t mean it.”

  “Naw,” he said, correcting himself. “A man can’t make no livin’ down here these days runnin’ a farm—no matter what Daddy wanted. The fella that’s been leasing most of the land this last couple of years ain’t had such good luck either. So I don’t expect he’d be able to buy it even if he wanted to. ‘Sides, truth is there’s hardly any farms left, what with all the developers that’s moved in.”

  “Daddy was leasing out the farm?” Lu asked.

  “Most of it,” Martin said. “He wasn’t able to keep farming all that anymore. He kept two acres next to Miss Pearl’s property, and he and Jerome worked that as a truck patch mostly.”

  “Oh,” Lu said, not knowing what else to say. “Of course, I haven’t seen much here yet, but I think real estate is always booming in Florida.”

  “Yeah,” Martin responded. “I think the sooner we can get all this done and over with, the better. The way the banks are tanking, who knows what’s gonna happen?”

  “You got a good point there,” Zach said.

  “Then let’s try to see a realtor on Wednesday and get some idea of what the land is worth,” Lu said. She didn’t want to offer what she learned from the internet about property values just yet.

  “I’m goin’ back home right after the service tomorrow,” Martin replied, draining his coffee cup. “It’s a long haul back up to Atlanta. I ain’t got time to hang around down here to see no realtor.” He nodded toward his wife. “Elizabeth and me, we gotta get back to work.”

  His announcement hung over the table. Elizabeth and the girls were dead silent, although Elizabeth offered a weak smile in confirmation.

  Zach seized the opportunity. “Where you workin’ up in Atlanta?” he asked.

  “I got a good job,” Martin said. “Work for UPS.”

  “UPS is a good company,” Zach affirmed.

  “Yeah, well I been there awhile now,” Martin said. “I’m in line for head mechanic pretty soon.” Lu’s eyes were drawn to the grease stains on his cuticles.

  “That’s pretty much what I do.” Zach grinned. “Air conditioning and the like.”

  Elizabeth started to say something, but Lu interrupted. “Well, actually,” she said, “Zach and his brother own the business.” When she saw the smile leave Zach’s face, she knew immediately what she’d done. She quickly went back to talking about the farm. “So, Martin, if you’re leaving right after the service, does that mean you’re not going to be able to stay and help me?”

  “No, not if we’re going to keep our jobs.” He looked at his wife. “We pulled the kids out of school for this—they gotta get back, too.” He leaned back in his chair and smirked. “Besides, I figure, hey, you the college girl. Can’t you just go out to the house and figure out what to do? I don’t know nothin’ about all this stuff.” He reached up and adjusted his baseball cap.

  Lu immediately tensed. The server brought the check, and Zach pulled out his credit card. Martin nodded toward the waitress, calling her over. Lu expected he was going to pay his family’s share of the bill. Instead, he gave the girl a wink, grabbed her hand and put a folded $10 bill into it. “Thanks, Martin,” she said, hurrying off with Zach’s credit card.

  Lu had to bite her tongue.
Finally, she said, “Well, if you can’t stay, you can’t stay.” She knew her comment was condescending, but she didn’t care. She laid her napkin on the table. “I thought we’d be doing this together. I’ll do what I can while I’m here. I’ll have to call you. I can’t just make decisions on my own.” She was about to stand up when Martin leaned his forearms on the table and looked intently at her.

  “No, you ain’t makin’ no decisions on your own,” he directed. “You call me once you find out about things, is all.” He leaned back and adjusted his cap once more. “I ain’t hard to deal with.”

  Not much, Lu thought. Determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her frustration, she took a breath and forced a smile. “Before you leave, why don’t you go through the house,” she said, “You know, pick out whatever you want—pictures, or tools. You should take them with you.”

  He glanced at his wife but didn’t answer right away, so she continued, “Or, if you can’t take them right now, just box them up and put your name on them, and I’ll send them to you before I leave. I can only stay a few days myself.”

  Martin leaned forward in his chair again. “Yeah, yeah, that sounds good,” he said with an air of decisiveness. “There’s some stuff I want, like you said, tools. And, the truck. It’s a classic.” He patted Ashanti’s head. “We sure had a lot of fun in that old turquoise truck. Ford introduced the super cab in 1974. Your Grandpa was so proud! We went everywhere in that truck. I’m lookin’ forward to some real good times in that.”