the beds the next morning. She just figured that Jewel went to her own room afterwards, knowing full well how Bull snored till they both thought the house might cave in. She couldn’t blame the girl for getting away from all that noise.
Jewel was relieved that Bull couldn’t do that much with her anymore because she’d found a man who shot her over the moon and all the way up to the stars. Dan Jenkins worked for Bull and she’d run into him one day in Bull’s office. Jewel was just sitting there waiting for Bull to get back from wherever he was and her and Dan got to talking. He was flirting with her, telling her how pretty she was and all and Jewel was eating it up like candy and felt like she’d known him all her life. And he was sure good looking. And young. After she’d seen Dan there, she’d think up any excuse she could to go to Bull’s office and sometimes Dan would be there and sometimes he wouldn’t. Her stomach did flip-flops whenever he was around and she was getting downright obsessed with getting to see Dan Jenkins. And she lived with disappointment when she didn’t.
Dan knew women and after seeing her there in Bull’s office more than a few times, he figured out what she was up to. She must have the ‘hots’ for him and he asked her to meet him somewhere they could be alone. Evidently old Bull just couldn’t satisfy somebody as young as Jewel. The next night they were at a hotel and Dan started kissing around on her and she was hesitant at first because she’d never kissed nobody but Bull. The more Dan kissed on her though, the more she was feeling something she never felt with Bull. Jewel would have never believed it, but she actually wanted to do that nasty thing with Dan!
Before too long, she was giving freely to Dan what Bull had had to take from her. She’d finally found the pleasurable part that she never had with Bull. After that night, Jewel was giving enthusiastically, and she and Dan would find anywhere they could to do the deed, even if they had to do it in the backseat of Bull’s Chrysler that Jewel had learned to drive. Old Bull was none the wiser, but she had to keep her eye out for Matilda, because that woman would tell Bull anything she could to get rid of her.
Bull taught Jewel how to drive the big car because he wasn’t around all the time and Matilda didn’t drive at all. Jewel kept after him until he finally relented and it didn’t take her too long to learn how the gas, brake and clutch was used to get the car going. Steering came naturally to Jewel. Besides, when Bull was home he hardly ever went out anywhere, just wanted to stay home so it was only logical that she learn how to drive. He didn’t go to movies, and Jewel loved them, even if she did have to sit and watch them by herself. Because of her taking his car all the time, he’d decided to buy her a car of her very own and she had nearly died when he brought that new car home. So had Matilda, who gave her a dirty look when she’d grabbed Bull and planted a big old kiss on him. Then she went out in that big, shiny new Chrysler and tried to find Dan to show him what Bull done bought her, but she couldn’t find him. She ended up showing it to the people who worked in Bull’s office, but that wasn’t the same as letting Dan see it.
“There’s yer mail, Mrs. Howser,” Matilda said sarcastically, but sarcasm was lost on Jewel. She didn’t even know what it was. Matilda just downright didn’t like her and she wouldn’t talk to her civil like. When she’d had her first run in with the cantankerous maid, Jewel had tried to get Bull to get rid of Matilda, but he wouldn’t, telling Jewel that the woman had been with him since he was young and he would keep her till she died. That had really got Jewel’s goat, but she hadn’t said nothing more about it, noting the look of absolute coldness on Bull’s face when she’d asked him.
When her toenails dried, she decided to open the mail before doing her fingernails because she didn’t want to mess them up. She was meeting Dan at six o’clock and Bull was down in Kentucky somewhere. She’d told Matilda that she could have the night off because she was just going to read some of her magazines.
Like Matilda needed her permission to do anything. When Bull was out of town, Matilda did pretty much what she pleased and Jewel just left her alone. The house was big enough that they didn’t even have to see one another. Maybe she’d go into Chillicothe and go to the showhouse, Jewel told her. She always tried to cover her bases because Matilda could possibly see her out somewhere in the Chrysler. Although she’d asked Matilda if she could take her into town, Matilda would always decline and ride the bus. Jewel couldn’t understand that unless she was afraid of her driving. Bull had bought him a new Cadillac and her another black Chrysler. She sure liked them Chryslers. Every couple of years he’d buy them new cars because Bull said he wasn’t driving no rattletraps.
Sorting through the mail, most of it was for Bull, bills and such. There was a couple of catalogs for her because she’d found out you could fill out that little order form and stuff would come straight to the house. She figured that’s how Clive got her clothes because she never got to pick them out. He’d just go down to the post office and bring a box of stuff home and there’d be a dress or shoes and underwear for her. Some of the stuff she ordered herself at Bull’s house looked good in the catalog but wasn’t that pretty when you got it but most of the things she got from the Spiegel catalog, she liked. And Bull didn’t pick out her clothes no more. As she got older, her taste in clothing changed, and Bull was pretty well satisfied with what she bought, and if he wasn’t, he didn’t say nothing about it.
She picked up a letter addressed to her in a familiar hand, and it shocked her. A letter from Clive, and the rest of the mail was forgotten. She hadn’t heard from them in years! Staring at the writing on the envelope, she was trying to think back to when she had heard from her family last. Oh, she still sent them Christmas cards, fancy ones, so they’d know how much money she had. And Macie had sent her letters when the kids were born, telling her about them. Maybe Clive and Dorie had had a young’un and they was writing to tell her about it. As far as she knew, they’d never had a young’un as long as they’d been married. She’d never got pregnant herself, and she wondered about that. Was it her, or was it Bull? Had to be her because she’d been carrying on with Dan almost ever since she’d married Bull and she still wasn’t expecting.
She slowly opened the envelope, thinking if it wasn’t a new young’un, that Clive was probably gonna ask her for money. He’d got himself in too deep somewhere and needed her to bail him out. Well, he had another think coming. Jewel had money. Bull give her lots of money to spend and sometimes she didn’t spend it all. But she sure wasn’t gonna send it to Clive. She wasn’t gonna send him one red cent!
What she read, though, made her a little sick at her stomach. It wasn’t a young’un and it wasn’t money that Clive wanted although he did mention it. Clay and Macie had been poisoned by some moonshine they’d drunk to celebrate her birthday. They’d buried them two days before and they’d left three kids that needed a place to stay. Three? She only knew about Clay, Jr. and Shannon. How old was the third one? They hadn’t wrote and told her about that one. Must have come along after he got back from overseas. But Clive went on to explain that Clay, Jr. was seven, Shannon was five and Nathaniel was eight months old. Why couldn’t Clive and Dorie keep ’em? He explained that, too. Dorie was finally expecting and the baby would be born in five months. There was no way Dorie could keep them young’uns, according to Clive, because they had to move up to Logan County and take care of Dorie’s mom and dad. Couldn’t she find it in her heart to take in these young’uns for Clay and Macie’s sake?
Well, don’t that just beat all, Jewel thought as she paced up and down her bedroom, staring at the letter in her hand as if it were some kind of death sentence. What was she supposed to do with them? She had her own life. She didn’t have time to take care of no young’uns. There was Bull who would have a fit and there was Dan who she’d never get to see if she had all them young’uns around all the time. But Clive went on to say that they’d go to a orphan’s home if she didn’t take them in. None of Macie’s family couldn’t take them. They hardly had enough to feed what they had. And Jewel remembered Macie’s family and how poor they was. They even had less than the Logan’s. Lordy, she didn’t know what to do! She wasn’t too bothered that she never saw her family, but she always knew they were there. And Clive and Clay had taken care of her after their mommy and daddy died. What if Clay hadn’t quit school and took care of her when she went into that spell she had that time? What if they’d sent her to a orphan’s home because they