North Carolina

Untitled Part 2

In North Carolina, there was a sleepy town called Madison that was stereotypically southern.  The doorbells rang more often than the cell phones and the women gathered around every Sunday for bridge after church and on Wednesday at noon for garden club.  The population of this town was six hundred, give or take and everyone knew each other’s names.  People in cars waved to everyone on the sidewalks wither they were in a rush or not. The teenagers, though rebellious at times, followed the expected social conduct of those born into the Southern royalty and those who were born into the lesser of families got into trouble rarely if ever. 

            The ladies gossiped of nothing more than whose garden was blossoming at peculiar rates and which daughter or son would apply to which college and why.  Actual gossip was rare and after some time, developed into such a story after being told over and over that it was hard to believe whose version was accurate and whose was exaggerated.

            In 1985 Sheila Bates and Corinne Abney couldn’t imagine any other way of life.  They both had memorized the layout of Madison, knew everyone’s name, story and lifestyle, and they both obtained perfect southern accents that made men melt in the knees.  By their sophomore year, Corinne had become student body president and Sheila, captains of the cheerleaders.  By junior year, they each were dating varsity football players. 

For Sheila, her courtship with Henry Monroe had been wild and passionate.  But he was a year older than her, and when he was accepted into Virginia Tech, several miles away and in another state, it looked as if their relationship was doomed.  That changed when Sheila joined him the next year and reunited their content affiliation.

            Corrine’s story was less thrilling and more subdued.  She dated Sebastian Carter for four years.  He never went to college because his father hired him point blank after graduation to run the family’s farm.  Corinne stayed back with him and got a job as an assistant to the regional manager of the local vet’s office.  She liked what she did and she sure as hell like Sebastian.  When he asked her to marry him over a private dinner at a fancy tavern in the city, she cried and said yes.

            Coincidentally, the same night Corinne got engaged, so did Sheila.  Henry waited until the night of Sheila’s graduation and swept her off to a fancy hotel for some drinks.  It happened to be that Christmas was just around the corner, so Henry presented her with a card.  It said, “This year for Christmas, I’m giving you my last name.”  When Sheila looked up from the card, Henry was on his knee and Sheila started screaming yes.  Henry finished the drinks alone as Sheila started calling her family and friends for the following hour, including Corinne, to tell them the good news.

            That’s when the honeymoon phase for Corinne and Sheila ended.  Up until that point they had stayed in touch, visited a few times, and called regularly.  But each felt as if the news of simultaneous engagements stole the thunder from themselves.  They remained nothing but polite, but each was somewhat stung.

            Corrine got married first and the town’s church was filled.  Sheila got married two months later, in a church farther away.  It held twice as many people and each seat was full. 

            Henry and Sheila moved back to Madison after college and Henry took his father’s place of head of the family owned plantation.  The plantation produced jellies, jam and produce shipped off as far as California. 

But Sebastian’s company happened to be rivals of Henry’s.  Sebastian too sold jellies, jam and produce nationwide and had been since the 18th century.  His father, and his father’s father, and his great-great-grandfather and anyone else in the family had in fact been building on the business since the first jam jar sold. 

            Sheila Monroe became the first lady of the Monroe plantation after the wedding and went on to produce not only award winning pears and southern peaches but six children as well.  Her oldest son, Jackson Monroe was a rising senior, enrolled in the single high school Madison hosted and was destined to take over the company the second he graduated.  Although he longed to go to college and study engineering, Jackson knew it was a dream of both of his parents to see him succeed in the family company and it ensured him a comfortable lifestyle. 

            After Jackson immediately came Dixie, a charming Southern belle who followed suit in her mother’s southern behavior and was polished to become a treasured housewife to a lucky, and rich, southern gentleman.  She was adored by all the boys in her junior class and led a very elite group of girls in her school.  She was popular and beautiful and pleased both of her parents with good grades and a promising life.

            The twins followed, Abigale, named after David’s wife in the Bible and Ada, a family name, and they only spoke when spoken too which wasn’t much due to being constantly overshadowed by their lovely sister and prosperous brother.  Though Dixie was born ten months after Jackson, the twins took a longer time coming and would enter their freshman year this fall.

            George was the last son Sheila would have and he was nothing but a troublemaker.  He would steal the sweetest pears and eat them in his treehouse.  He would smear the jam on the kitchen cabinets and blame it on the dog.  He would run amuck around the fields causing instantaneous commotion. He would tease his sisters and distract his brother.  But he had a big heart and was overwhelmingly kind.  He relished school but would attend the sole elementary school as a fifth grader this semester.

            Lastly was Lydia who was a “beautiful little accident” as her parents called her.  Not even old enough for kindergarten, her mother toted along the laughing beauty everywhere she went, bobbing her along on her hip through the fields and on grocery store runs. 

            Though Sheila Monroe bore more children than most women in Madison could fathom, it was a different story for Corinne Carter.  She had a single daughter, Renetta Clover Carter.  Her middle name was Clover because of complications during her extensive birth, Renetta was lucky to be alive.  And, unfortunately, due to the same complication, Corinne could not birth any more children.  Nobody knew for certain what went wrong in the hospital that day.  The nurses signed confidentiality wavers and Corinne viewed the subject as a private matter but it nonetheless shook up some rumors about her and her husband that eventually drifted into the shadows when Corinne resumed her perky demeanor a year after Renetta’s birth which ensured her daughters good health.

            It sparked yet another competition though because Renetta and Jackson were born two months apart, Jackson being the older of the two.  They were forced to coexist in the same grade which always prompted the question, who was getting better grades as if that would correlate directly into whose business would succeed as soon as they both took over each respective company.  It took a lot of coexisting on their part but they survived miraculously. 

            Until senior year.