Free My Heart Can't Tell You No by M.K. Heffner Page B

before he moved away. “Your shirt. Put on your shirt. Then go back to Lew’s house.”
    She sat up and looked at him as he remained on his stomach next to her. Her curiosity at his behavior was quite clear. Taking the shirt, she put it on without having to take down the bib of her overalls, then as she stared at him, Lew’s voice boomed from the top of the dike, above them.
    “Get the hell over there before I kick ya so hard you’ll be a permanent fixture on the end of my foot!” Lew yelled at his four sons.
    If Joe hadn’t been in so much pain at the moment, he would have found the empty threat amusing. Not once had Lew actually hit, let alone kicked one of his children. His most vicious act was taking his cap from his head and swatting their rumps once before following up with another empty threat.
    “C’mon, brat. You better go over too.” Lew’s voice was much softer as he looked down at his niece. “Your mom’s wondering where ya got off to.”
    Maddie moved up the dike, leaving Joe lying on his stomach with his head across his folded arms. Joe was hoping Lew had gone with her. When he was finally able to get up without the possibility of someone seeing what had kept him hidden on his stomach in the first place, he saw Lew kneeling on the top of the dike, watching him with an amused eye.
    “Think ya can make it yet?” Lew smiled at him.
    “What are you talking about?” He slowly made his way up the dike to meet the man.
    “I’m thirty-eight today, Joe. Ya don’t make it to thirty-eight without learning a little bit about life. You could have had a pogo stick in your pants for as high as you were propped off the ground over there.” Joe’s shocked expression brought another chuckle from the older man. “Don’t worry. Maddie didn’t see it. And if she did, I’m almost positive she wouldn’t have known what it meant. She might have developed early physically and have a mind as sharp as a tack, but emotionally, she’s still as green as the grass you hid yourself in. And don’t look so guilty. Christ, you’re a man, ya know.”
    “But she’s just a baby.” They walked toward the bridge.
    “No. She’s turning into a young lady, I believe is the term. She’ll always be a baby to John, Tom and me, but you’re starting to see something else.”
    “She’s like a sister,” Joe tried again.
    “I didn’t see John looking at her the way you were looking over home. And I never seen Tom looking at her like that. Bob—that’s different. But then Bob isn’t her brother either.”
    “What’s Bob been doing?!” Joe looked at Lew sharply.
    “Nothing,” he assured him with a chuckle. “I told you. She’s still green. And it would be best if she was left that way for a few years yet. She’ll bloom some day—but not now.”
    “I have no intentions of helping her bloom ,” Joe said irritably.
    “I can see that. And it’s pissing ya the hell off that your body’s trying to tell ya something different. Come on, there’s a cold beer over there waiting for ya. It’ll help calm ya down.”
    “No. I think I better leave.”
    “You sure?”
    “Yeah. I have some things to do.”
    “I can imagine,” Lew laughed. “Okay. We’ll see ya soon then.”
    Joe did get a beer to calm himself, but it was from a bar across town. Two beers, three beers; still not calm. He tried another one, and another, but he knew it would take something other than alcohol to calm him. He often wondered if perhaps a little less alcohol that day would have prevented him from finding himself married four months later with a child on the way.
     
JUNE 1984
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    June 1984
    Joe stayed in the kitchen while waiting for the pizza. He took it from the oven to cool while he leaned against the counter, staring out the window at the moonlit lawn behind the house. In years past he would have blamed his marriage on Maddie. Over the last few