“Okay, I got one last question.” I twisted my lips to the side, letting him know I didn't believe him.
“I'm serious, one last question.” He put his big hand on his chest. “What made him bipolar instead of just a mean bull?”
“Well, cause, sometimes he'd come over and he be in a real good mood. He'd want you to pet him like a dog!”
I had to clutch his arms because once again he nearly sent me falling off his lap to the floor when he collapsed in laughter again. What the world was wrong with this man. I didn't know what was so funny. It took him a minute to get himself together this time.
“Bae, just stop talking about the bipolar bull for now. We'll revisit that conversation later. So you agreed to wear the disguise.” He gestured for me to continue at that point of the story as he wiped tears from his eyes.
Frowning at him, I cleared my throat. Only city folks would think a bull with a mental illness was funny!
“Like I was saying, this is how my disguise was born. It went so well at the mall that pa-pa started letting me go into town with him to make the deliveries. I'd just pull my ball-cap as low as I could get it and walk with my head down, and nobody would pay me no never mind. I got so used to wearing the disguise that it became second nature for me to put it on every morning. Everything was perfect. But then pa-pa started acting strange.” I looked off into the distance remembering.
“He was complaining about wasting stuff around the farm. With mama and grandma gone it was only me to do the baking. He grew the berries and I turned them into our delicacies. He asked me what I thought about taking on some more orders. I told him with my schooling and me helping him in the grove, I was barely filling the orders we had. I said maybe if he hired on a few hands to help around the place we can expand the business, but he got to mumbling about paying them. I asked him what was going on. If we was short on money, and he told me everything was fine.”
“I asked him several times, and each time he said things were fine. In April we started to get an idea of what our crop for the first half the year was going to look like. That Thursday he left out to go inspect the blueberry bushes, said it looked like some kind of fungus was trying to grow on the ground around the roots, and not the good kind.”
“When he didn't come in for lunch, I went out looking for him. I didn't see him in the blueberry grove, so I walked over to where we grew the raspberries. And I saw him hunched over at the base of one of the bushes.”
I looked down at my mother’s ring as I twisted it around my finger. The pain of that day feeling fresh like it had happened yesterday.
Gabriel picked up my hand and brought it to his lips, kissing my mother's ring.
“It's okay baby, I'm here. Take your time.”
I nodded taking a deep shaking breath. “At first I thought he was down there fooling with the roots, but the closer I got I knew something was wrong. I ran to him and when…” My words died out as a shiver went through me.
“When I touched him he was cold. I ran in the house and called 911. They said he had a heart attack and died that morning.” By this point my words were barely coming out above a whisper.
“The next few days went by in a blur. Our distant cousins came and lend a hand, helped me make funeral arrangements. They all thought I was a little strange cause I was always wearing that hat and wig.” I chuckled without any humor.
“Which was fine with me, because after getting to know most of them, I understood why my pa-pa kept to himself and I couldn't wait till the funeral was over so that I could be by myself. I had so much to think about and do. I didn't know how I was going to continue running the business by myself, but I was going to try, cause what else was I going to do?”
“After my grandfather’s funeral, I bid all my great-aunts and what not, good bye and good riddance. I had just made it back in the house when the Mayor knocked on the door. I was real surprised because I couldn't figure out why in the world the Mayor was at my door, and at that time of night.”
“He wanted me to let him in, but I was scared because I had never been alone with a man that wasn't my pa-pa. And he always warned me never to be. But then the Mayor said he had bad news about the farm, said I was losing it. So, I let him in.”
I shook my head as tears came to my eyes. “I don't know what happened. One minute he was sitting on the couch telling me that my pa-pa owed a lot of money on the farm and the bank was coming to take it away, and the next he was talking real crazy.” I looked down at our joined hands.
“What did he say baby?” Gabe asked quietly.
“He said...” My words faltered, how can I explain what I didn't understand?
“He said he didn't want me to worry my pretty head about the farm. Said he had it all worked out. I was confused. I didn't understand what he had to do with our farm. Then he asked me to marry him. And that caught me completely off guard. And I think I insulted him with my response because he went crazy on me.”
I squeezed
