Unexpected Change Ch. 04

The blue F-350 truck carried cleaning supplies and we were under the supervision of Pale Feather. This was her house. Plans were made, trash carried out and the furniture Pale Feather didn't want or like was burned in the yard. We thought about donating some of it, but when we got it outside in the sunlight we saw it was long past useful. Tears fell from Nadine. It had been the house she grew up in. Dad, Walt, Steve and Don went back home that night so they could work the next day. Sue went home with them and took care of them. I stayed in the house with Pale Feather, Donna, Nadine and Maureen. While we continued to clean up late in the day two queen-sized beds were delivered. Maureen and mom got them put together and made. Donna cooked supper with Maureen's help.

At ten I said it was bedtime. Maureen asked, "Where do we sleep?"

"The bed nearest the kitchen is ours." Pale Feather said. "The other one is yours."

I said, "For now, Donna sleeps with Pale Feather. She is still healing. Donna, we ordered you a bed too, but they didn't have three. Your bed should be here next week." She thanked me. I threw down a packing blanket on the clean living room floor and slept good.

Pale Feather made breakfast. Nadine cleaned up then joined Maureen, Donna and me in the barn. We spent the day cleaning. The barn was so dirty I couldn't believe it had ever been cleaned. During the day mom and Maureen threw up twice, each. I went to town and bought more cleaning supplies.

The next day all of us went to town. Pale Feather picked paint for the whole house. I hired four men to come to the farm and paint. We loaded the paint and the supplies in the truck and were loading back into the truck when I said, "We deserve a treat." I stopped at the Dairy Queen and we each had an ice cream. I watched and Nadine, the sophisticated high class woman, licked drips off her hand and arm. She giggled. We all did.

The women helped the men paint the house. They moved drop cloths, swept up debris, held ladders, wiped up spills, stirred paint and made food for the workers. For the first time in my life I saw sweat on my mom. Two of the men worked outside with me, two others worked inside. On the third day instead of four men we had eight. They were Shoshone. I was sitting on the porch when they arrived. Each man walked up to me, told me his name, lineage and offered me a pouch of tobacco. I accepted all of it and them. I told them I wanted a fence built so our children would be safe in our yard and more because Pale Feather thought a fence was pretty. Three others got the job of tilling the garden. Pale Feather went to town and brought back food. She and Donna cooked for the men. Maureen and mom served them.

Each night each of us took turns washing in the claw foot tub in the house. Pale Feather first, then Donna, Maureen and then Nadine. I was last. After a week I hired a man to pour concrete and a plumber to install an outside shower. The men both asked why.

I said, "When you come home filthy do you want your woman happy or upset? If you shower outside you're clean, smelling good and you don't bring the outside in with you."

The concrete guy asked, "You gonna build a wall around it?"

I looked around. "Is there a danger someone will see us naked? Not likely."

They built it and it was ready for use in two days.

At the end of another hard day finishing up the painting, getting the starter garden closer to ready to plant by unloading two pick-up loads of manure and then working it into the soil. Our crew went home, being told that if they brought clean clothes they could clean up at the end of the workday and I'd drive them home.

After they were gone I talked to Pale Feather. We decided the house was far enough along to declare it ready to live in instead of a construction zone. We had a conversation with everyone who would be living with us. .

"We are going to have a clean house. Every day when the day starts you put a towel and clean clothes on your shelf." Pale Feather showed them the shelves out by the shower. "At the end of the day you shower, dry and put on the clean clothes. Dirty boots and shoes don't go in the house. On days the weather is bad you put your shoes and boots in this cabinet. It will allow them to dry. This begins today."

"I suppose you want to watch us shower?" Maureen asked, looking at me.

"I suppose you think seeing you filthy will turn me on?" I answered.

Pale Feather added, "The purpose of the shower is to get clean. You can wash each other or do yourself. However you do it, please get clean. If you're the one with supper duty wash early so supper will be on time and cooked by a clean body. If it's warm and you want to come in the house bare, I won't object, just make sure you sit on a clean towel."

"Like that's going to happen." Maureen said.

Pale Feather looked at me and said, "Now I understand." She meant she understood about the attitude Nadine and Maureen had about nudity. All nudity was about sex in their world.

I kissed her and went to care for my paint. When I came back Pale Feather was struggling out of her clothes. I said, "Can you help?" Donna helped as she blushed. I peeled out of my clothes and Maureen asked, "What happened to your chest?"

"I did a Spirit Dance. Maybe someday you can ask someone what it is and why men do them. Not now and not me." I got soap and washed Pale Feather as she washed me. We enjoyed the washing. Our son enjoyed it too. Maureen and Donna both saw him moving.

Mom said, "Pregnant women shouldn't be seen."

"Then you can wait until we're done to wash. You can voice an opinion like that when you have your own home. This is my home and my family. Voice another painful or hurtful opinion and you will sleep in the barn."

She looked at Pale Feather and said, "I apologize." Pale Feather nodded in acceptance.

Donna, Pale Feather and I finished washing, rinsed and dried. I shut off the water. I said, "Dinner will be ready soon. You cannot come in dirty."

Donna, Pale Feather and I went inside. We carried our clean clothes inside and they dressed. I went back out and cleaned Pale Feather's shoes and Donna's. I was still nude.

Maureen said, "Don't you believe in modesty?"

"Yes. I won't sit in church dressed like this. I will take all my clothes off to get clean. So will you." I got up and carried three sets of dirty clothes to the laundry room. I loaded the colors in and left the lid open.

I heard the water come on. A few minutes later it shut off and a couple minutes later Mom and Maureen came in clean and in clean clothes. Donna said, "It's easier if you bring in your dirty clothes when you come in."

Maureen went out and brought in their dirty clothes. She started the laundry. We ate supper and soon were in bed.

Pale Feather and Donna went to bed. I lay on the floor in the living room. I was already asleep when a hand touched my shoulder. My eyes opened. Donna said, "Let me sleep here. Go be with your wife. She needs you."

She had less than a month to go. We snuggled, with me spooned behind her. She made all the right noises and then she said, "Can we have your mouth?"

She could. I moved slowly and quietly between her legs and took my time bringing her to an orgasm. It did not take long. Her body shook, our baby moved and my wife moaned and she stifled a scream. We fell asleep spooned. In the middle of the night she somehow turned and swallowed my cock. She worked until I was hard, and made the noises and motioned that prompted me to fill her mouth and then kiss her until we slept again.

Donna came in and woke us. She said, "I made breakfast. Come eat." She woke Maureen and Nadine. They didn't say anything about the smell of sex or the noises during the night. Donna had made French toast, bacon, eggs and oatmeal. Pale Feather looked out and said, "Inside work today. It's going to rain."

She was right. We worked in the house and in the barn with Pale Feather and Donna in the house. I wanted someone with Pale Feather at all times. We prepped some of the wood inside the barn so when the weather was dry we could paint. Nadine was getting good at cleaning the floor of the barn. I repaired the pigpen so we could have a couple hogs.

At the end of the day I stood in the barn and stripped down. Nadine had been faced away from me. She saw me and asked, "What's going on?"

I said, "If I wear these clothes to the shower, they get muddy. If I carry them they get wet. Either way I get wet. See you at supper." I ran to the back of the house. I showered quickly, shaved and shampooed. I climbed the stairs and dried off. As I went into the house I saw Donna watching Nadine from the kitchen window. She smiled as Nadine ran to the shower. When she stepped inside she was still dressed. I said, "You need a shower. I'm sure you smell like the barn."

She stared at me for a long time, then stepped back outside.

Donna smiled and took off her clothes. She put them in the washer and walked out and started the shower. The rain was cold. Donna kept moving and very quickly got clean. She carried clean clothes and a towel inside and quickly dried herself. Five minutes later Nadine came in, clean and dressed.

A couple minutes later Maureen went out the door and when she came back she said it was the strangest shower she'd ever taken. She and Nadine stood by the stove for a while to get warm.

That night I went to bed on the floor. The rain had stopped. Donna's hand woke me again. She looked scared. "Her water broke!"

"Get everyone up and dressed. We're going to the hospital."

I rushed into see her. She said, "Open the back door."

I went to the back door, opened it and four women came in. I smelled sage and other herbs a few minutes later. I reached for the phone and Aunt Sue, my Dad and Uncle Walt walked in.

They were almost too late. One hour after her water broke our son was born. Pale, long and blond with a streak of red in his hair. I heard mom say, from the edge of the room, "That's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen."

She was right. We had known for months that he was a boy. We knew he needed a name, but we couldn't pick one. We couldn't even talk about names we liked. Then Donna asked, "What is his name?"

Pale Feather looked at his face, then up at me and we all answered Donna's question, "David." Uncle Walt said it. Aunt Sue said it. My Dad said it. Kay said it. I said it, all of us in one voice.

"Oh." Donna Said. She looked at us like she wondered when we decided. We hadn't. I think he picked it. Maybe someday I'll ask him.

Donna took Nadine and Maureen into the kitchen and gave them tasks to do. The three of them made breakfast for everyone and they served it as a celebration. The midwife corps from the tribe stayed until nearly noon. They buried the placenta and afterbirth in our garden, a ceremony all the women except Pale Feather attended. Men were not present. The corps smudged the house and then they were gone.

For the next three days our home had many visitors. I think over half the tribe within thirty miles came. People from all over the county came to see our son. Aunt Sue told us how it was the same when each of their children were born. I must have been given a hundred pouches of tobacco and a few cartons of cigarettes.

Work on the house, barn, garden and land continued.

Other than the day David was born, Nadine hadn't seen Dad at all since we moved. They didn't talk that day. When she knew I'd been at Walt's she asked about him. I always answered, but didn't say anything to encourage her fantasies. He was re-learning how to be a Peterson and doing very well.

After their crop of sugar beets was growing, the family brought tractors to our farm and we tilled everything under, mixed in fertilizers and turned sheep into the fields for a time. Our next planting would be later in the year. The Evans' had almost killed the land and it needed a rest.

The weather warmed and we spent more and more time outside. Our garden grew and more and more time was spent caring for it and helping others. By the end of summer Dad came to me and we talked about the future, ours and his. He had regained his balance about being a Peterson and wanted to have a small place of his own, maybe the size of Aunt Buzz' in Pocatello, fifteen or twenty acres. We rode around the eight hundred acres I had and picked a place where he could have his twenty acres, a house, a small barn and the garden he wanted. I sold it to him for a dollar. We called the bank and all the paperwork got handled.

We talked about mom and Maureen. He loved them both, knew what they got they both deserved and he wanted mom back. We created a plan to see if what he wanted was possible. He knew she tended towards being a bitch and he believed that all the evil influences of her family could be overcome. I wasn't as sure she was willing to change that far but felt the urge to give her and them every chance to make it work.

The next day Dad drove to Pocatello and visited Buzz. When he came back he brought four magazines full of house plans. He went through them and made a notebook of acceptable plans. He picked plans for single level homes with three bedrooms, two or three bathrooms, and big porches. When he was done he gave me the notebook.

I took Pale Feather and David to town the next afternoon for some shopping and showed her the notebook. I told her the whole plan Dad had. She knew what Dad wanted. She had been working on mom for months, getting her mind to choose the farm rather than the high-heeled life she had before.

When we got home we called Nadine and Maureen into the kitchen and said, "We're thinking we should build you a separate house. You could live there and have more autonomy."

I was surprised at their reaction. They held hands and tears flowed. Nadine asked, "Why are we being punished? Haven't we done everything you wanted?"

"When you came here you were prepared to take Dad for everything you could get and live your lives high on the hog. For these past months you've adapted to your fate quite well, but I think you still want high heels, lace bras and other men. If I build you your own house you can get dressed up and go out with anyone who invites you. You can even bring them home and play if that's what you want."

Mom said, "I deserved everything I got... and worse. I played Nick for the fool. Over these months I've had lots of time to think. I can accept that there are good reasons for Maureen and I to live separate from you, but there's only one man I'd ever sleep with again. Unfortunately, he doesn't want me."

Kay put the notebook on the table. She said, "Please, look through these plans. Pick the one you both like. Let us know tomorrow which one you pick."

I gave them the rest of the day off to consider their options. Donna, Kay, David and I went to Uncle Walt's for dinner. We had fun and the family enjoyed playing with David. By ten we were home and in bed.

After breakfast Mom and Maureen picked. The house had three bedrooms, two baths and a full basement. The porch wrapped three sides of the house. Mom asked if she could have the front door face south. I said I didn't see that as a problem. All they had seen were floor plans. What Dad had picked were log homes that were prefab. The site prep would be done and then all the logs and things delivered. Five days later Dad could move into a nineteen-hundred square foot home, not counting the full basement. Total time start to move in was a month. Site prep was already in process.

After mom and Maureen went to the garden for the morning I called Dad. He was the foreman for the job. I wrote the checks. I rode paint out to the site the next day and a crew was digging the basement and getting the foundations ready to pour. We talked.

"Son, I want her back, but not the way she was. When we first got together she was grateful to be alive. She was fun to be with. When she and I had sex I fell under her spell. She fed my ego, told me what a great lover I was. I loved her even before she told me she was pregnant."

"If you want her, I'm pretty sure you can have her. She may pull some crap on you, but the odds are good she can't take all your money and run away."

He laughed and said, "You're right! I don't have any money!"

We talked about how to set things up so they lived well and didn't risk Mom or Maureen running away with much money. When I rode home we had things set.

At supper that night Maureen asked when construction would start on their house. I answered that it already had begun. Things had been ordered and crews of workers hired. She followed those questions with questions about how I had so much money. In her mind I was her younger brother and there was no way I could have money.

I didn't explain. I simply said there had been some wise investments made by Uncle Walt in my behalf.

On Friday I was in town and found out that the high school was having a dance and had invited the town. When I got home I told Mom and Maureen to take the afternoon off and use the time to get ready to go to the dance. Pale Feather and I would be going too.

Nadine said she'd stay home with David. I said she should go.

"Why? I'm old. No one will want to dance with me."

"Dad will." It was all I said. She got clothes out of her closet that had been in her suitcase when she arrived. She went out to the shower without caring who saw her and she scrubbed, shaved and primped herself getting ready to see her ex-husband, my Dad.

When we sat down for supper Mom, Maureen and Pale Feather were barely dressed. Bras, panties and a slip were seen at the table. They were all extra careful not to get any food on their skin or clothes.

I showered and dressed in less than half an hour. I held and played with David as I watched the ladies get ready. Donna wasn't going to the dance. It was her choice and she said the memories of the last dance were still too fresh, too painful.

Mom came out of her bedroom dressed and ready to go. She wasn't steady on her feet. I asked, "You Ok?"

She looked at me and said, "I haven't had heels on since April. I'm uncomfortable in them."

"Not a lot of need for heels in rural Idaho." I said.

"I'd forgotten how uncomfortable they can be."

"If I can ask, how much would a pair like those cost?"

"I think I paid three hundred for these." Mom said.

"I paid less than that for your whole wardrobe including shoes and they're comfortable."

"Really?" She asked. She was twisting and looking at her nylon encased legs and the shiny black heels. The diva appeared to be back. Not a good sign.

Maureen came into the living room in the famous little-black-dress and three inch heeled sandals. She had no trouble walking in heels. They both looked good. Very good. Pale Feather came into the room and looked country-western incredible. Wonderful bare legs, shiny western boots and a dress meant for twirling. It hugged her from the waist up and looking at her lit a fire inside me. The men of Oneida County were unprepared for what I was bringing to the dance.

When the doors closed on the truck I was aware of the perfume someone was wearing. It was Mom. It was Dad's favorite, "China Rain." Before we got to the school I realized "China Rain" was the only fragrance I smelled. My connection to Pale Feather let me know she and Maureen were helping Mom by wearing "China Rain" too.

The dance was a success. Maureen came to me after half an hour and said, "I'm way over dressed for Idaho."

"Every man in the room watches your every move. Aren't you happy?"

"No. We've been here half a hour and you're the only one who has danced with me!"

""Be brave. Pick a target, walk to him and say, "Please dance with me." You'll dance the rest of the night."

She went across the room and stood in front of a man I barely knew. I knew he played football with Steve and Don. I knew he was a fullback. She said, he said, and then they danced. The music stopped and he didn't let go. The music started again and another football player cut in. I quit watching closely, she would dance as much as she wanted.