Len and Norma Lose a Body

Chapter 10

Dave Olson did indeed go back to the Quonset just to pour himself another cup of coffee. He didn't actually have a good reason not to go into town to go to church with Diane, but he didn't need to whole town knowing that he was useless. Mike had started doing more and more of the work, and Dave enjoyed having his son around to help, but he also needed to be busy. There were only so many times he could gas up the equipment and reorganize tools. Besides, he'd have to change his shirt and then he would have 2 shirts to wash and what a waste. He didn't want to add the extra work to Diane's plate. He nodded to himself as he silently drank his coffee realizing now how considerate he was actually being.

Besides the only reason Diane went to church was to catch up with the other ladies. He'd end up standing outside at the bottom of the church steps with the other men waiting for their wives, kicking stones and repeating the weather forecast. The only other guys that would even be there were the feeble old guys who couldn't be helpful and the handful of non farming types. A little life seemed to surge through Dave either at the thought of being thought of as old enough or feeble enough to be going to church during seeding, or maybe it was the strength of the coffee. Dave hurriedly half set have slid the half full cup on the work bench and turned to walk toward his truck. He pushed back the brim of his hat to assess the sky – blue, clear – it would be a good day to get some work done, and Jesus would have a good view of him doing it. It was time to get back in the field.

The roads were dry and dusty. "Could use some rain," Dave through aloud as he adjusted the radio. Talk, talk, news, country, oldies. Dave was starting to get annoyed by this newfangled music they called country these days. Sounded like a bunch of teeny boppers in boots. That wasn't real country and it had been days since they'd played a real country song on the radio. "Might as well call it pop," Dave said into the windshield proud of the way he used the word 'pop' correctly. The oldies station was where he decided his dial would stay until someone caught a whiff of common sense down at these country music stations and brought back some real music.

Happy with his critical assessment on today's country music and a familiar hit from the decades past playing in the background, Dave put his elbow out the drivers side window and propped his right hand atop the steering wheel in "wave position" in case he crossed paths with another truck. Felt good to be back at 'er.

...

Church is a small town didn't always star Jesus as the main event. The comings and goings of people in town quite often outshone the sermon. Kids in Sunday school are told to be good because God is watching, and when you grow up you realize that everyone else is watching too. Privacy in a small town is something you learn to live without and judgement from others is the price to the pay for other peoples' entertainment. Entertainment was one thing, but shame was another.

Diane had not felt the sting of shame for a long time, and really she had no real reason to feel it now. Their family were hard working farmers who got their crop in and off in respectable time, she showed up in the community when it was expected, just as she was here now walking into church, and of course she would never show up with boughten dainties. The last thought was almost too much to bear. Diane instinctively slowed down and put her hand lightly on the lid of the Tupperware container in the passenger seat. If she showed up to church with her cupcakes all a mess, people would generally jump to the conclusion that their life was a direct reflection of the quality of the church snacks.

The street in front of the Lutheran church was already starting to fill up. There must have been at least 15 cars here already! Diane looked down the street over her steering wheel to the next block where the Catholic Church stood and noticed that there were at least a dozen cars on their block too. Circling the block, Diane waved at a few of the Catholic parishioners filing into the church, but didn't think twice about driving past the few open parking spots on the Catholic block, there were some lines you just didn't cross on a Sunday morning.

Diane finally found a spot she could pull into without parallel parking. Lord knows she didn't need that stress today, and with cupcakes in the passenger side to boot. She turned the ignition, quickly checked her reflection in the mirror and cleared her throat and hummed a few bars of Amazing Grace. Diane would be damned if she was going to walk into that church and sing off key today.

Walking into the church Diane noticed that the ladies of her age were already in their huddle. Probably talking about "our business" she thought rolling her eyes. Sharon taking off, leaving Mike and her and Dave to raise Lauren while she goes of gallivanting off at school like a kid. Diane walked up the circle of backs and cleared her throat so they wouldn't get caught with a foot in their mouth. Norma, the farm wife alpha, turned to Diane and exclaimed in a not so whispering hush, "Did you hear," followed by a dramatic pause, "Oil!"

Norma quickly dove into the details as the other ladies nodded in agreement that yes these were the exact details they had just heard not even five minutes ago from the same person. Carlson's. Two wells to start with, but more to come. In two weeks' time. Diane edited out the filler and focused on committing the details for Dave. "And on a field called Lucky! Can you believe that?" Norma looked at the ladies as she came to the portion of her story where she expected participation from the audience. A round of "What a coincidence!" "How perfect?" and "Naturally!" came from the mouths of the ladies who wanted to contribute, but weren't the original bearers of the news.

Diane making her mental checklist remained silent until the course of exclamations had come to a close. "That is fantastic," Diane finally added, and she meant it. Carlson's field, Lucky, was right next to theirs. This was something that Diane did not add to the conversation. This was a small town, so everyone already knew who held the land around Lucky. Diane also knew not to mention it because she didn't want to seem like she was too excited about it. It's not good to want something too much.

The groups in the hallway began moving towards the doors to the chapel. 'Oh Christ,' Diane thought I still have to go to church. Then winced a bit in case she jinxed the good news. The fact was Diane did want it very much, and wouldn't even risk angering the Father, the son or the Holy Ghost if it meant finding oil on their own land. Over the next hour Diane didn't hear a single word of the sermon. Hell she didn't even remember singing. All she could think about was getting home to tell Dave the big news.