Dirty Faces- Book 1

Chapter 23: Pockets

Chapter 23: Pockets

Susan climbed out the passenger's door of Ralph's delivery truck and stretched to relieve the ache in her lower back and the stiffness in her neck. The delivery truck certainly rode rougher than Lilly, but perhaps all the soreness was just a reminder that she was getting old. Across the yard, the faithful old green truck sat in its usual parking spot, yet the front door remained shut. That was disappointing; she'd hoped her children would be home when she got there.

"I'm gonna take me a cold bath," Ralph announced before they even reached the the porch.

She smiled and nodded. "I'll see what I can get going for supper." Though truly, nothing sounded better than a bath. Even with the truck windows down, their clothes were plastered to their bodies and when she wiped the sweat from her neck, her hand came away gritty. The dirt from those back mountain roads had left granny beads on her neck like the one's on Ginny's after a day of hard playing, and Susan couldn't help but smile at the thought.

She followed Ralph into the house. He emptied his pockets on the side table and went straight to their bedroom for a change of clothes, while Susan stood just inside the door looking around. It was good to be home, even if only for a couple days.

The house wasn't as clean as she would have liked, but she was just glad it was still standing. When she walked into the kitchen, she noticed the truck keys laying on the table and wondered if Kody had driven it only when necessary as he'd been instructed. She hoped not. It would do him good to get into a little trouble and having access to Lilly had been a good opportunity to do just that.

She tied on her apron and began looking through the cupboard for something to cook, but judging by what she found, it looked like that was going to be quite a challenge. As she'd suspected, all those times she had tried to show Ginny how to cook had been in vain. That girl's attention was always everywhere but where it was supposed to be. And it was clear she hadn't raised a son who could cook for himself, either. She sighed as she accepted that the first meal she would cook on her own stove after all these weeks would be fried bologna sandwiches.

After getting a fire going in the firebox, she wandered out of the kitchen while the stove heated up. She walked back through the front room and to the kids' room. Not surprisingly, neither bed was made and there was a pile of dirty laundry in the floor. The pile of laundry wasn't overwhelmingly large, though. She supposed that was because, ever since Ralph had bought her that wonderful motorized wringer washer, Ginny had regarded it as something of a toy. Susan was always having to tell her to shut the lid because she liked to watch the agitator swish the clothes and suds and water about, and she absolutely delighted in running the wet clothes through the wringer.

Susan walked back to the kitchen to get the detergent then returned to the bedroom and gathered up the dirty clothes. When she stepped out onto the back porch, she was greeted by the mild, pleasant fragrance of ivory soap. Ralph was finished with his bath and was just changing into his clean clothes.

"What's for supper?" he asked as she began filling the washer's tub.

"Fried baloney sandwiches. 'Fraid there wasn't much in the cupboard."

He snorted. "I coulda told ya that much. That girl of yours is hopeless when it comes to cooking."

Susan clenched her jaw. "I'll work with her on that."

She poured some detergent into the tub then began tossing in garments so thoughtlessly that she nearly tossed in a pair of Kody's pants without checking the pockets. Fortunately, she caught herself. She knew all too well there was no telling what one might find in that boy's pockets - things that might even lead to the demise of her beloved washer.