Mark and Francis had a date to go grocery shopping, while Julie was seeing her young man again. During Mark's study of the cereal aisle, Francis' mind drifted to the night before. What in the world had happened? Francis felt frightened at finding a man in her room, close to her, but then he faded and then wasn't there. So was he there or wasn't he? Did she have something to be worried about? Was she going crazy? No, it was just the stress she had been going through. It was just a stress related hallucination. Mark finished picking out his Fruit Loops and Cap'n Crunch and mother and son moved on to the deli where they got some roast beef and ham and then they finished the shopping and got home in time for the plumber and Mr. Tippleton.
Well, between fixing supper and answering questions from the men, Francis didn't have the mental energy to revisit that experience from last night again. Mr. Tippleton got the wires replaced and accepted her offer of a glass of sweet tea. He said over the tea, " Mrs. Long, we have a square dance every Saturday at the VFW hall. My wife and I always go. There are plenty of young men about your age. You should try it out."
She answered, "I've never learned to square dance and I have two left feet, but I thank you for the kind offer." He left shortly.
Their plumber, Martin Upham, found quite a bit wrong that he needed to take care of and got to work on it. Martin was chubby and wore a flannel shirt and blue jeans. He reminded Francis of a chipmunk with chubby cheeks and teeth that stuck out. Julie, Mark and Francis walked into the kitchen while he was checking out under the sink and Julie clapped her hands to her mouth and Mark and Francis started laughing. Mr. Upham had the classic plumber's crack, just begging for some flowers! Francis grabbed the kids' hands and they all ran outside before they said something to embarrass him! He did a great job that day, although there was more to be done. Mr. Upham managed to finagle a way to get water to the shower and the kitchen to get them through until all of the rest of the plumbing was repaired.
Rather than get a wash tub and scrub board, they opted to all go to the laundromat after supper and get all of their laundry caught up, as Martin said things were nowhere near ready to install the washer and dryer. Julie graced them with her presence, as her friend had to work the next five days and wouldn't be coming over to see her.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
While the clothes were washing, Francis asked Julie about her date with Carl. "Mom, I had so much fun! We rode horses for an hour and then Carl taught me how to scrub them down after the ride and curry them. Then he said he had a special treat. He taught me how to harness a horse to a buggy and let me drive the horse around! Then he had me unharness the horse alone to see if I remembered how we had put it all together in the first place! I'm sure it took longer than if he had done it, but I did really good! What a fun day!"
"Well, have you kissed yet?" Francis asked her.
"Mother!" Julie said, embarrassedly. And then she grinned. "He kissed me one day when we were rubbing down the horses! It was really sweet. I like him a lot and am learning so much from him, but I'm still not sure if I want to get romantically involved."
"I'm glad you are keeping your head about you Julie," Francis said. "That's sometimes hard to do when your hormones are raging, as a teenager. Today you can want a guy so badly that you would give up everything to be with him and then tomorrow you scratch your head, and wonder what you were thinking. It is good to be cautious, because decisions we make now affect our future."
"I knew you were going to lecture me!" Julie said and huffed off.
"Oh Lord, " Francis thought, "Why does life have to be so difficult?"
Julie came back after she cooled down and asked, "Mom, can we please start working on the garden tomorrow? We'll miss the growing season if we don't get the plants out soon and all of the plants will be gone at the nursery. I know we got some, but I can think of a lot more vegetables I would like to grow."
"You're right Julie. I'm sorry we have been so busy with the plumbing and the laundry and settling in." Francis said. "I suggest you grab a pen and notebook and start writing down what we need to do and what other supplies we will need." Pretty soon, amid yawns, they had a nice list going and planned to get started first thing in the morning.
