Flesh and Bone

Chapter 3: Not My Cup of Tea

The trip to the Hewitt place was mostly peaceful. The old pickup truck Luda Mae drove creaked and groaned as she turned off of the old state road and onto a lesser maintained county road that cut through a swath of abandoned farmland and forgotten homesteads. For the most part, Grace was content to enjoy the breeze from the rolled down windows and watch the scenery roll by. She imagined what the area must have looked like in its heyday. She could picture fields full of grazing cattle and golden wheat dancing in the wind. She envisioned ranchers and farmers tending to their herds and crops under the hot Texan sun. Fuller must have been a thriving community at some point based on the ruins that remained. It was sad, she thought, how an entire town could disappear off the face of the earth leaving behind only the slowly crumbling remnants of civilization to show they were ever there at all.

"What happened to the town?" Grace asked, genuinely curious and eager to think about anything other than her own sad situation. "Where'd everybody go?"

"On to greener pastures, I suppose," Luda Mae answered, briefly taking her eyes off the road to glance at Grace. "The town had been slowly dyin' off for a while, but when the state inspectors came in and closed the slaughterhouse down it killed off what was left if it. Weren't no other jobs around here, so most moved on lookin' for work. My youngest boy, Thomas, was working at the slaughterhouse when they shut it down."

"Really? That's unfortunate." Grace quickly clarified, "That he lost his job, I mean. Not that he worked there. My grandparents used to own a cattle ranch back in Colorado," she shared. "They would butcher their own meat. I know it can be hard work."

Luda Mae hummed and nodded in agreement. "Tommy's a good boy," she stated proudly. "He's a good provider. He's never been one to shy away from an honest day's work. He makes sure the family's taken care of and that there's food on the table."

"That's very respectable," Grace confirmed with a nod. "It's nice to hear there's still some decent men out there in the world." She turned back toward the window, missing the bright smile the woman gave her at having complimented her son. "I'm learning that they're hard to come by."

"What about you, darlin'?" Luda Mae asked. "Do you work?"

"Once we got back home, I was supposed to have an interview for a teaching position at a school in Gunnison. Now," Grace shrugged. "With everything else, I'm not sure that's going to happen."

Luda Mae glanced at her again as she turned the truck onto a long dirt drive. "You're a teacher then?"

"Technically," Grace nodded. "I got my license not that long ago. I was hoping to get this position as a kindergarten teacher. It would've been my first actual job teaching."

"Bless your heart," Luda Mae murmured, then added. "You must enjoy children."

"I do," Grace confirmed with a sad smile. Thinking back to the conversation she'd had not 24 hours earlier with Davis about their own hypothetical family, she felt a pang of emptiness in her chest. It was just one more thing, she supposed, that would never be. "I always have."

The older woman nodded in approval. Finally declaring as the truck bounced to a stop in front of the Hewitt residence, "Here we are, child." Finessing the aging gearshift into park, she turned to Grace and cheerfully ordered, "Let's get you on inside and get you cleaned up and then we'll get supper started."

"Yes, ma'am," Grace agreed softly, looking slightly agape at the monstrosity of a house that loomed before her.

Like everything else in and around Fuller, the home had certainly seen better times. In its prime, Grace could tell it had been beautiful. She supposed it still was in a haunting sort of way. The old plantation-style mansion stood like a silent and foreboding sentinel over the rough and neglected landscape. It caused an unfamiliar feeling of anxiety to form in the pit of her stomach as she took in its imposing presence. She couldn't really put her finger on why she felt that way. A strange, almost giddy, impulse to jump from the truck and run screaming back the way they'd come briefly entered her mind, but she quickly pushed the notion away as she noticed Luda Mae smiling kindly and patiently waiting for her to exit the truck. Ignoring her unease, Grace forced a pleasant expression and climbed from the cab.