Free Rough Ride by Rebecca Avery Page A

tell him I do so he’ll be happy.” She sighed.
     
    “Why wouldn’t you want to go to school?” She asked.
     
    “I told you, I’m gonna work in Uncle Bobby’s shop when I’m bigger so I don’t need to go to school cause’ I already know what I want to be when I grow up.” She said clearly irritated at Lilly’s intellectual shortcomings.
     
    “Have you ever watched what your Daddy and Uncle Bobby do at the shop?” She asked
     
    “Yea they fix motorcycles and sometimes they build them.” Gretchen replied as though she had no sense at all.
     
    “Well don’t you think they had to learn about how big to make each of the parts or how those parts all fit together?” She asked.
     
    Gretchen was quiet for a while and stared out the window.  She had thought the child was ignoring her or done talking about that topic when she finally said “Yea”
     
    “Everyone has to go to school, even if they already know what kind of job they want to get.”  She said.
     
    “Did you always want to work in an office?” Gretchen asked.
     
    “Yes, and I went to college for it for many years after I went to regular school.” She replied
     
    “Where did you work before you worked at the shop?” Gretchen asked
     
    “Well actually this is my first job, can you believe that?  When I was married I didn’t work, I stayed at home and took care of my house.” She answered
     
    Looking thoughtful for a moment Gretchen said “So you went to college for a long time but then stayed at home, didn’t you want to work?”
     
    She didn’t know how to answer the child.  She and Darren had argued many times over her wanting to get a job outside the home.  Looking back she often felt guilty that she could be so angry at Darren even though he was gone now. 
     
    He had convinced her that he needed her at home to support his dream at least for a while until after any children they had were in school.  Only after his death did she realize he had wanted her home because he had been laundering money by claiming her as an employee.
     
    “Yes, I did but until I came here I hadn’t found the right job.” She finally answered.
     
    “Daddy told my Dickie that Uncle Bobby has the hots for you real bad, does that mean he wants to be married to you now instead of your husband?” Gretchen asked
     
    “I doubt that very much Gretchen and you shouldn’t gossip.” She said even though she wanted to ask the child why her Daddy thought that about Bobby.  Had he said something to Tommy?
     
    “What is gossip?” Gretchen asked
     
    “Never mind, but can you see how important school is now?” She asked in return.
     
    “Yea, but I won’t be good in school cause’ my Dickie says I cuss like a trucker.  I will not say bad words in school…I won’t… but I’m scared cause’ I don’t know my numbers and stuff very well.” Gretchen said
     
    “Well we got the whole rest of today and all day tomorrow yet.  Maybe we can work on them together and by the time we get where we’re going you’ll know them all and nobody will ever know you didn’t” She suggested.
     
    For the next hour they sang the alphabet song over and over and counted to fifty several times.  Gretchen seemed to know her colors well enough and her shapes.  When they stopped for lunch she wrote Gretchen’s name on a piece of paper and after her nap the child practiced writing her name for a while and then watched a movie.  It had been a long day behind the wheel when they finally stopped for the night at a campsite a couple of hours outside of San Antonio, Texas.
     
    Gretchen once again was showered and out for the count just as the sun was setting.  She wasn’t quite as tired as she’d been the previous day so she sat outside with the group for a while.  She could tell the women of the group had been talking about her amongst themselves as they would look at her and then at each other.  They didn’t make an effort to talk to her or befriend