Stormwatch - A Serene Summer Day

"You think?" asked Veronica.

"Yeah," said Josh as he considered them. "Yeah, set a two by twelve across like this," he said as he laid a long stick across a pair of posts. "Now look, you have about eight rows of benches and an aisle down the middle." He looked around and nodded, "we just need some lumber and a Weed Wacker."

"Ok, I've decided on the venue," said Veronica firmly. "When do the leaves start to turn? I want a fall wedding." He was starting to warm up, she sighed happily.

"Terry said you found a diamond ball too," said Audrey.

"Over here," They walked through the path to the open area with the chain link fence, "I think you're right, come on help me look," said Veronica and as they looked through the weeds Audrey and Mike walked around with them searching for evidence of what this area was.

Josh called out, "Found it! Home plate!" and sure enough, there was the hard rubber pentagon, showing its age, but it was still there. The four gathered around artifact like they found a key to a deep mystery.

"Do you remember how far you have to go?" Mike asked Veronica.

"Fifteenteen paces," she smiled as she stood on home plate.

"Step it off honey," said Mike and he gave her a little league pat on the butt sending her on her way.

"One... two... three..." she counted taking big steps straight back into the field covered with brush, long grass, and not a few saplings. "...thirteen ...fourteen ... fifteen." She stopped and looked down and looked around then cried "Here it is!" she stepped a few feet to her left and a pace back toward home plate. "Found it!"

Josh stepped up and saw that she was standing on a plank of rubber. The Pitchers' Rubber. "You look comfortable here," said Josh.

"Best damn softball pitcher in the southside city little league!" grinned Mike.

Just then the rumble of a tractor came to them, and they looked toward the main road and saw Andi Jarecki driving up on an orange Kubota tractor. "Someone said you need a brush hog," called Andi. Attached to the back of the tractor was a device perfect for what they need, a brush hog which truly is a weed whacker from hell. Andi found a ditch crossing that Josh never noticed before and brought the tractor with brush hog on to the ball diamond and Andi shut the tractor down. This was a true testament of love that Paul has for his diminutive wife that he would allow her to drive off with his beloved Kubota tractor and his favorite implement to cut some brush he's never looked at.

Andi hopped off and said, "Whatta ya got here?"

"Looks like we found a ball diamond, Doc," said Mike and gave her a good layout of how big he suspected the diamond to be.

"Let's take a look and make sure there's nothing you don't want me chopping up, I brought a few rakes," said Andi as she untied the rakes from the brush hog.

"What are we looking for?" asked Audrey.

"Oh, you know, stuff, garbage. Jerks toss out tons of garbage. Cans and bottles, we can pay for the gas for this jaunt on deposit returns... I don't know... third base? An old umpire? Disgruntled fans?"

While Veronica sped back to the took shed to grab a weed whacker and a chain saw to knock back the saplings and a few garbage bags, Josh, Mike and Audrey started poking through the undergrowth and found quite a few cans and bottles and stacked them up on the side where Andi would avoid them. They also found several metal fence posts hiding among the saplings and a long stretch of knocked down chain link fence. Now Josh was starting to get excited, they could put this fence back up! He tended to worry about intruders coming in through the woods uninvited.

Then Andi climbed up on the Kubota and fired it up, lowered the brush hog, engaged the PTO and went to work on the field. The brush hog roared and groaned and atomized the bushes, weeds, and saplings to tiny, tiny chips. She worked the edge of the field first and trimmed away all the overgrown weeds and saplings growing up through the fallen chain link and while she was trimming the rest of the field, Josh, Mike and Audrey propped the chain link up against its ancient supports while Veronica ran back to the garage for a spool of fencing wire and a pair of pliers to hold the chain link fence up.

Josh was going to run back but Andi said "No, we need you here to supervise," she stood up and pointed to Veronica, "You go blondie." Josh didn't see the wink, but Veronica did, and she rushed off to hop on the golf cart before Josh could react. She retrieved the wire and pliers wondering what the tiny doctor was winking about but when she came out of the garage, there was a crowd around the porch of her cabin, all the Friedmans (Friedmen?) were there as well as Paul, John, Macy and the twins.

"What's going on?" she asked Terri who was setting up a stereo.

"Why doesn't Josh fly a flag? There's nothing wrong with this flagpole," said Terri in reply.

"I don't know, I asked him once, but he didn't say anything," replied Veronica.

"We plan to find out, give us a blow on the whistle when you're ready to head back for lunch," said Paul and with a wave of her hand Veronica headed back to the ball field.

They worked cleaning up the ball diamond and found it could be used for a nice pickup game of ball with the addition of bases and a pair of foul poles. Andi cut a path through the underbrush to the Pavilion, putting a nice curve in the path to prevent guests from having a direct line of sight to the pavilion until they were almost on top of it. "Let's go back for lunch," called Veronica and she blew a long note on her whistle, and they headed back in the golf cart with Andi following on the Kubota tractor.

When they got to the cabin the entire Friedman family and both Jarecki families were all standing and looking at the flagpole. Morgan and David were laughing for some reason, and the twins were glaring at them like angry mothers. Billie was standing at the flagpole, her arms filled with colored cloth and Paul Jarecki, a retired Lieutenant Colonel stood on the other side of the pole from her holding the lanyard. In a voice that would put many first sergeants to shame, Paul called out, "HAND SALUTE!"

As soon as he did that, Macy Jarecki hit play on a portable stereo and suddenly the air was filled with the national anthem. All of the participants placed their hands on their hearts and Paul began to raise the flag. It was a big American flag that caught the light breeze and filled out as it rose and connected to the lanyards below it was a crimson flag with a large letter G for the university of Georgia. The Dawgs.

Startled by the sudden ceremony Josh stood with his hand on his heart (it's still hard not to salute) and watched the flag catch the breeze as Paul tied off the lanyard and placed his hand on his heart. "Terri wanted to cheer you up," whispered Veronica.

"Shhh," said Paul, it may be a little late in the day and impromptu, but it is still a flag ceremony. With his free hand he pulled her close. Finally at the end of the anthem, Paul called "Ready TOO!" thankfully nobody cried "Play Ball!" as their hands dropped to their sides.

Andi came up and nudged Josh, "the university of Georgia flag was a Christmas present but it got lost and we found it a week ago."

"It's beautiful, thanks." Josh couldn't believe how much this meant to him, he gazed at the flags for a long time. He finally thanked everyone for coming as Marj, Macy, and Veronica started to put together the picnic lunch for the gang, hotdogs, potato salad and cupcakes for Linda's birthday. He started to seek out Terri in the crowd when he felt a tug at his leg, looking down it was little Madeline, the quiet twin. She held her hands up showing she wanted to be lifted up. He scooped the tiny child up and said "What's up little one? You never want me to pick you up."

"Auntie Terri said you were sad," said the tiny girl.

"Yeah, a little. But I'm better now. You cheered me up."

Madeline nodded at him. "Don't. Be. Sad." And she punctuated each word with the shake of a tiny fist with a tiny finger extended. Then she looked around and said, "Down."

"I guess she told me," Josh said to Veronica after he set Madeline down and they watched the tiny moppet run off to reunite with her sister.

"It's a hard lesson, but someone had to teach you."

They joined the gang who was seating children at the picnic table and feeding them. The meal was filled with laughter as the kids planned an afternoon of hiking in the woods. As they ate, Josh stood and said, "I want to thank you all for the flag ceremony, it truly means a lot to me."

"Why don't you ever put the flag up?" asked Terri making sure everyone could hear her ask.

"Because if you lift it too high the snaffle gets caught in the pulley."

Terri looked up at the tall, tall pole with the two flags now hanging limp without a breeze. "Shit," which brought a chorus of heckling from the kids, "You said a bad word!"

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

After a day spent giving the kids rides on the pontoon boat and leading nature walks through the woods, a bonfire was set by the pond and the Friedman family sat around the fire toasting marshmallows and singing songs. Audrey and Mike sat side by side on the porch of their cabin watching the fun across the pond, the fire reflected against the glassy surface of the pond and occasionally when Ant sets off a firework it was magical to watch the rocket arch skyward, its trajectory echoed on the surface of the pond. Occasionally a pop or a bang echoed from across the road at Paul and Andi's cabin.

"Knock, knock!" called Veronica in a singsong voice as she and Josh stepped around the corner of the cabin. "Would you mind some company?"

"Not at all," said Mike, "Pull up a chair. Care for some coffee?"

"No thank you, no coffee for me," said Josh as he and Veronica opened a pair of folding chairs and sat close to each other.

"I'm good, thank you dad," said Veronica. She suddenly got very serious. "Dad, we need to talk to you about something."

"I think I know what you're going to say," said Mike. "And we've already made up our minds..."

"Dad please, listen to Nica," said Josh, and he placed his hand on Mikes hand.

Mike stopped suddenly and his eyes softened. "My mom used to call her Nica."

"And she calls me Effi, which is what my grandmother used to call me."

"Daddy, Audrey, please." Veronica took a deep, shaking breath. "Effi and I have been watching you and Audrey since the day you met, and we saw that spark..." She slid out of her chair and crouched down in front of her dad and held his hand. "What I'm trying to say is that whatever happens with you two we want to be there to help, and if you want other kinds of help Macy said she'd be available. She's a trained psychologist and can provide counseling. All we want is to be your help, your partners."

Mike and Audrey were speechless, they didn't know what to say. "We thought you were going to throw us out," Audrey finally said.

"We want to help," said Josh. "We don't throw family away, you and Audrey are more than welcome in our house, in our cabins. We love you, and we can't lose you."

"But what if," Mike was having trouble forming the words. "Things happen and... uhh..."

"Babies?" asked Veronica.

Audrey nervously nodded yes, "I wasn't raised umm... normally. I don't know how to do it right..."

"I don't either," admitted Josh. "The only way I knew how to avoid beatings was to mow lawns until I had money to buy my folks some whiskey, which was the only thing that would make them happy."

Veronica shuddered at the thought of the shattered home life that Josh somehow survived. "We will figure it out. Daddy raised me and did a pretty good job, momma left not long after I was born, and daddy did it all."

"Does that answer your questions dad?" Josh asked.

Mike's voice shuddered with relief as Audrey leaned on him, the joy on their faces was contagious. "Thank you son, thank you baby," he said as he patted Veronica's hand. "I'm sure more questions will pop up in the future, thank you so much. We've been trying to hide our feelings for each other... finally this weekend we decided to stop hiding what we felt, to just be us and we prayed you didn't kick us out."

"Oh, I'm sorry daddy, it must have been horrible for you, cried Veronica as she hugged Audrey and her father."

"You know," said Josh, "If you're so inclined, we can make extra space at the altar in September."