Nobody Knows Your Secret

19

Virgie was so proud.

Then, Cleve got it in his head that the best birthday present of all would be a family day at that amusement park. Virgie thought the idea was ridiculous. 

But Cleve insisted Claire's birthday would be spent riding rides and eating cotton candy. Claire would rather have stayed home. She had no interest in Ferris wheels. She was afraid of heights. She didn't want to ride the swings. 

Going round and round in circles would probably make her sick. And the thought of rocketing up and down on that roller coaster, being slung first one direction and then the other, filled her with dread.

Virgie had bought three yards of material and sewn Claire a new dress. Claire wanted to wear that dress to the Bluegrass Festival the following week, but Cleve insisted she wear it to the amusement park. 

As Cleve sucked on his beer, Claire wanted to tell her father that she'd rather do anything than accompany a half-drunk redneck to an amusement park, but like her mother, Claire decided to go along with her father's plans and not cause a fuss. 

It was her birthday, after all, and it would be wonderful if she could just get through the day without hearing arguments and having a bottle thrown across the room in anger. Maybe her mother and father could manage to get along this one special day.

***

Cleve was working at the coal mine then. It meant a 40 mile drive one way, and the work was dangerous and dirty, but he was making more money than he'd ever made in his life, and he was proud of that fact.

Virgie held her breath that the call-in sick day would not prove to be the straw that broke the camel's back, as far as Cleve's job was concerned. She kept telling her husband that if he kept lying out of work at the drop of a hat, all he'd end up with his empty hat stuck out for folks to throw a pauper's penny into. 

Begging would be the only option Cleve had left. He'd worked in every mill around. He had a reputation as a hot head, and what his temper didn't do to get him into hot water with his superiors, shooting off his mouth did.

Cleve was always in trouble one way or the other.

But he turned a deaf ear to Virgie's protests. His little girl was fast growing up. 

Cleve felt the hands of Time running out. Soon, Claire would marry and leave the nest. It was now or never, he determined. And he made up his mind that Claire's birthday would be spent making memories at the amusement park.

Virgie would forever regret going along with Cleve's harebrained idea of going to that amusement park to celebrate Claire's birthday. She had kept silent, just to keep peace. But after what had happened, she decided peace wasn't worth the high price they had all paid.

* * *

Hardison Branwell hawked and spit. He was about as disgusted as a man could get. Candy was going out with that no good clod of mountain gulley dirt called Kyle Winthrop.

Again.

It was the third time this week. Sixteen, going on thirty, Hardy noted. He hoped she didn't turn up pregnant. That would be just his luck.

The same thing had happened to Hardy Branwell when he'd met Candy's mother, Willie Mae. Hardy had done the honorable thing and married the woman he had gotten pregnant. 

Some men just fathered children and left the mother to raise them on her own. Nowadays, folks didn't bat an eye at such. But Hardy detested the thought of his flesh and blood being branded illegitimate.