The Outer Edge of Heaven (7 page)

Eventually Charlie hauled them all out and up to the house for dinner, and then did her best to remedy the hair situation. When she was through, Evie and Elsa no longer looked like twins which was probably a good thing since they weren't. Evie still had her long, silken tresses but Elsa now sported a wispy, short pixie that was actually adorable and just fit her. Jamie was now the proud owner of a crew cut, and though Charlie was sad to see his little, endearing curls go, he could never be anything but darling. Charlie did the best she could under the circumstances and hoped Richard wasn't as upset as Angela when he got home.

Once the little ones were safely down in bed asleep, Charlie left them with Madge and took Tuckett with her to go out with Fo and Luke on the bunkhouse porch to keep him away from Angela again. Her drinking had picked up steam. An hour later, Charlie heard her musical laugh and was horrified to realize Angela actually had a male friend with her in the swimming pool right here at Richard's own house. Luke and Fo realized the same thing at about that same second and the four of them abruptly picked up and went inside the bunkhouse.

She was sure they'd all been hoping Tuckett hadn't seen what they'd seen, but she could tell from his expression that he had as well. Deciding to deal with it head on she said, "I'm sorry you have to deal with something like this at your own house, Tuck. Some people have zero respect or character. At least you can be aware that some people can't be trusted and can try to avoid this kind of thing in your own family when you grow up, huh?"

In a voice full of disgust and sadness, he replied, "Yeah, I guess so. I don't know why Dad doesn't boot her. He ought to. I don't think he even really loves her anymore."

Luke dropped a big hand to his shoulder. "He doesn't want to teach us that marriage is disposable is all, bud. He knows he's made a huge mistake. He just wants us to know that when you get married, you stay married."

Bitterly, Tuckett looked up, "Yeah, I only hope he doesn't get some terrible disease from her because of all the other men." His answer about ripped Charlie's heart right out of her chest. What an awful thing for a fourteen year old kid to have to worry about. The worst of it was he was right. Richard probably was at risk for something like that.

They ended up just keeping Tuckett out there and putting him to bed in one of the other bunks and then calling Madge to let her know that. Once he was asleep, Luke turned on the stereo low and came back to Charlie and Fo on the couch with a long, sad sigh. "Between Angela and Chase and Summer, this has been a long day."

Charlie didn't know what Chase had pulled and she didn't want to, so instead of asking, she teased, "What you need Luke, is a screen writer. Look on the bright side. There's a lot of money in film. You could call it something about putting the fun in dysfunctional. So you might have an X rating, but it'd be riveting entertainment."

"That's not very funny, Charlie."

She laughed and said, "Oh, it was too! You have to admit that was one of my cleverest of the day. C'mon"

Fo laughed at her and Luke finally cracked a smile and shook his head. He glanced over at Fo. "Has she always been this much of a nut?"

"Or worse. You should have known her in that awkward, giggly training bra stage. She was awful!"

Charlie elbowed him. "You're not supposed to use the words training bra in mixed company. Nice people don't do that. Not to mention that that is the all time hardest part of life in this universe. A fact that the entire male population doesn't even come close to understanding. It's not very fair."

"Oh, quit whining. You survived beautifully and turned out gorgeous and brilliant. We guys had to survive way worse stuff. And we couldn't bawl about it like you could."

"Hey, I didn't know bawling was allowed. Why didn't you tell me? It would have come in very handy sometimes." She was thoughtful for a minute. "What could be worse than a training bra anyway?"

He chuckled. "We can only divulge that on threat of death."

"Ah." She waved a hand. "I'm too tired tonight to threaten anyone." She got up and gave them both a high five as she went by. "I gotta go to bed. Watching infidelity is exhausting. See you guys in the morning." She stopped and put a gentle hand on Tuckett's head and whispered, "'Night Tuck.”

****

The next day went better, thank heavens. Surprisingly, without even being asked, Chase helped out more while they were short handed from Richard’s absence. And Angela got up and left for the airport almost immediately, in spite of the fact that she was miserably hung over. Charlie was surprised, but she had to respect Angela for it.

A few hours after she left, Richard got home. Charlie wondered all afternoon if she should try to talk to him about what happened. Finally, after dinner when Luke said he had a surprise for the three little ones and they all headed outside to see what it was, she pulled him aside. "Luke, should we tell your dad what went on here last night?"

"I already did, but it's not like he doesn't know she's doing it. He was pretty crushed when I told him what Tuckett worries about. The only thing is if they get divorced he'd have to let the kids go with her sometimes and then he'd have no way of making sure they're okay. He said he'd talk to Tuckett about it."

"Oh, good. It's none of my business, but I feel guilty hiding it from him. I saw her with another guy at the airport the very first night when I came in."

He shook his head in disgust. "Man, nothing like breaking you right in. I'm surprised you even decided to stay after that. I think she's been this way from not long after they were married. Dad says she was raised that way."

"Why did she even marry him?"

Luke gave her a lopsided grin. “Some of us think he’s pretty loveable.”

“He is. I’m sorry. But you know what I mean. Why get married and narrow the field?”

“I think it had a lot to do with the fact that he's kind of well-to-do. She wanted a chunk of Montana real estate to her name."

Charlie looked all around at the glorious mountains and valley, brilliant green in the late evening sunshine. Quietly, she said, "It is amazingly beautiful here. I can hardly blame her except that that's an awful reason to get married."

"Not if you're a mercenary.”

“If she’s that mercenary, he could offer her a tidy little sum to grant him irrevocable full custody.” She nodded at the three children skipping ahead. “It’s not like they’re her life’s passion.”

“No. But he’d rather put up with Angela’s stunts than have them feel like they are disposable to their own mother, at least this young. He knows from wife number two what kind of scars a mom walking out can leave on a very small child. I’m sure he’ll dump her once they’re older and can understand better. Otherwise, he’d just be teaching them that her escapades are acceptable. As it is, I’m pretty sure she won’t be entertaining any more men in our own pool, or drink around here either. He threatened to cut off her funds.”

“Good for him.”

They caught up with the children and Luke asked, “Aren't you even going to ask where we're going?"

"Nope. It doesn't matter. It's all joy."

"There's a new litter of pigs."

"Really? Cool! That’s a wonderful change of subject! Now I'm excited!"

"Just plan to be careful. The mother would eat these guys if she could. Literally." He nodded at the children. "Don't ever let them come out here by themselves."

"She truly would? That's horrible!"

He scooped Jamie up and lifted him to his shoulders. "The babies are cute, but pigs aren't pretty. They're big and mean and dangerous."

She took both of the little girls by the hand as they entered the barn. The smell was every bit as big and mean as Luke claimed the mother pig was, but when they got a glimpse of the babies they forgot all about the pungent odor. Luke was right. The babies were adorable and Charlie could see why Charlotte had been so enamored in the movie.

Luke tossed some feed into the trough and then leaned in and scooped up one of the babies. He handed it squealing to Charlie and then leaned in and snagged another one. They helped the little ones hold the piglets for several minutes and then put them back in and watched from outside the pen for a while longer. There were ten of them and they were fascinating as they rooted around their mother.

Just like in Charlotte's Web, there was one that was smaller than the rest. Charlie looked up at Luke. "Will that little one be okay? Will it be able to compete with the others?"

He hesitated. "We'll simply have to see. I can't do anything about it if it doesn't do well. There's no way I could take on an orphan piglet right now. Reality isn't like the cartoons, you know."

"No. I suppose not. We'll have to pray for it, -that the momma will be able to take care of it just fine."

He smiled down at her. "Pray away Charlie. God loves baby pigs."

****

She ended up on her front porch rockers again that night with Fo and Luke. She wondered out loud why he never brought Lindie with him when they hung out like this. He was somewhat hesitant when he replied, "The baby makes her really tired. By this time of night she's pretty beat."

Charlie decided to level with him. "Lindie told me the baby was Chase's."

There was no hiding his bitterness when Luke replied into the dark, "Chase told her he'd always loved her. She trusted him and made some poor choices she'll have to live with forever now."

"He's twenty-seven years old, Luke. You can't change him unless he wants to change. He's another one that all we can do is pray over."

"I know that. Although, there have been a few times that I’ve done a lot more to him than just pray for him. There’s no way I can stand by and watch him disrespect women, or Dad without doing something about it. Still, I can't help being thoroughly disgusted that he can hurt people so deeply without a second thought about it. Until the day I die, I'll never be able to understand the way he thinks."

"Be grateful for that. It's a good thing. A truly good thing."

****

The next morning, before they'd even eaten breakfast the three little ones wanted to head straight out to the pig pen again. Charlie was having a time convincing them that they should eat first until Luke showed up. He quietly said they had to eat first or no pigs and the kids didn't even try to argue with him.

When they were through and it was cleaned up, he came with them to see the babies again. By the time they made it to the pig shed, Evie was getting a piggy back from him, Elsa was on his shoulders and Jamie wouldn't rest until he was seated right on top of Luke's head.

Charlie took pity on him and made jokes about getting piggy back rides to see the piggies and insisted Jamie get down and she'd give him a piggy back instead. Luke handed him to her with a grateful sigh. "Thanks, they're all getting so big they're gonna kill me."

"They kind of like you, apparently."

He reached up and tickled Elsa. "I kind of like them too. Don't I?" Elsa squealed and began to wiggle until he nearly dropped them both before they made it to the door of the barn.

Inside it didn't take long to notice that the littlest pig wasn't holding its own all that well. It was still active, but its little sides were sunken in and it rooted around hungrily while the others were fat and lazily nursing. Charlie looked up at Luke with concern, but he only shook his head in resignation.

On the way back up to the house when the kids ran ahead, she turned to him and asked, "Will it make it?"

Again he shook his head. "Probably not. It'll probably do okay for a day or two until the others get so big and strong that it can't compete at all. Then it'll starve."

Charlie was quiet for a minute and then asked, "Is there nothing that can be done? Can it really not be bottle fed?"

"Charlie, you'd have to feed it like every two hours and it'd probably still struggle. Not to mention that pigs aren't the sweetest smelling little beasts. It's not like you could keep it in a box in the house."

As they walked, Charlie had a thought. "What if we left it in there with its momma and supplemented it with a bottle? Would that work?"

He looked at her with a slow smile and a shake of his head. "It might. It would depend on how it took the bottle I guess. You could give it a try."

That morning she went to the farm and ranch supply once again and came back armed with piglet survival gear. She had two glass bottles with black rubber nipples and twenty five pounds of milk replacer. The kids thought it was a grand idea and they rushed out to the pig barn with the warm bottle with enthusiasm. They were so excited that Charlie worried about what would happen if her idea didn't work and the runt died after all. As they went, she prayed silently and then when the little pig began to suck hungrily on the bottle almost instantly she prayed again to say thank you.

Their little pig became the highlight of their day and Charlie had to admit Luke had been right. Caring for it was a time consuming project. Every few hours during the day they would take it a bottle and then just before she went to bed and first thing in the morning before her run, Charlie would take it one as well. She didn't give it one in the middle of the night, but it seemed to be doing fine anyway. As it got stronger it was able to compete better with its siblings and sometimes when they were out there she was glad to notice it nursed its mother as well.

They'd only been at it a couple of days when Charlie realized the children had begun to share the bottle with any of the little pigs that cared to stick their noses through the fence and try to reach the bottle. She smiled when eventually there was a whole group of little piglets trying to reach for the bottle at once.

The mother pig began to try to reach the bottle as well and Charlie was concerned with how aggressive she was to the children. The next morning Charlie brought a pair of wire cutters with them and carefully cut a neat hole in the fence that was barely big enough for the piglets to get out of. It worked beautifully and the little pigs could get clear out and away from the fence. Charlie no longer worried one of the children would be bitten by the mother during their bottle feeding sessions.