Love Is Where You Find It

Part 8

"So..." the middle aged man begins, looking over the job application Loretta filled out. "Miss Lynn, you didn't graduate from high school?"

"I have eight years of school," Loretta says. "I wrote it down there."

She tries to tone down her accent as much as she can without sounding ridiculous, but she doesn't think that it's working. He's not going to hire her, she can already tell.

"Did you ever work as a waitress before?"

"Yes, sir, I did some in 1950 or thereabout."

"That was quite some time ago. I assume that in the mean time you had a couple of kids?"

"Yes."

"How many children do you got?"

Loretta wishes that she could say 'two' because she knows that it would give her a much better chance of being hired than- "Four."

Graying eyebrows crawl up with concern. "Ah-huh."

"They're in school," Loretta says. She doesn't look remotely old enough to have four children in school, or old enough to have four children at all.

Clearly, he doesn't believe her but he soldiers on, "So, Miss Lynn, havin' your children wouldn't keep you from showing up at work? If say, one of them got sick...it wouldn't be as if your husband could watch them, no?"

"Oh no. No, I got a sitter."

She needs a sitter, but what she needs first is a job. They can't stay at her parents much longer. It's not like it used to be, it feels as though they aren't one family any more but two separate ones somehow trying to live in a three bedroom, one bathroom home.

"Daddy?" A deep voice calls from somewhere in the diner. Loretta wouldn't have thought much of it if the man she was speaking to, one Mr Norman Carpenter, hadn't whipped around and snapped, "What is it, Henry? I'm talkin' to this here young gal about a job."

Loretta forces a small smile on her face when 'Henry' looks at her. He's tall and looks friendly enough, particularly compared to his father.

"You're hiring?" Henry asks.

"Joyce left," Norman Carpenter says.

"Ah. She was an old grouch anyway." He turns to Loretta. "Are you an old grouch?"

"Henry," Norman forces through gritted teeth. "None of that. Hear that?"

"I was just asking..."

"I don't think I am," Loretta says.

"You don't think you are?" Henry goes on. "You don't look like you are, that's for sure." He takes the application out of his father's hand and looks it over. There's a grin on Henry's face when he cocks his head to the side and says, "You're from up in the mountains, huh?"

"Yes, sir." There is no use in denying that- nor does she really want to.

"And what brings you all the way to Indiana?"

He doesn't sound like he's really from Indiana either, at least as far as Loretta can tell. She's not good at accents.

"My family, really," Loretta says. "My parents live here."

"I didn't decide if I'm gonna hire her or not," Norman says in what seems to be his usual grumpy demeanor. His son doesn't favor him in physical appearance nor disposition. That doesn't matter though, what does is that he seems more willing to give her a chance and all she can do is hope that his father will go along with it.

"Say we give her a chance?" Henry suggests. "She looks like she could use it."

Norman snorted. "The last thing I need is you meddling in everything." He expels a long sigh. "Don't let me down, Miss Lynn."

Loretta stands there, unsure what to say to that.

"That's his way of sayin' he just hired you," Henry says. "And if you can work hard you'll be fine."

"I can do that," Loretta responds.

"Glad to hear." And with that, Henry Carpenter walks away, leaving her behind with his disgruntled father. All she can gather from this is that she has a job now and that is a good thing.

When she gets home, her kids are back from school. Her daddy is happy for her and Cissie is happy because the adults are. The rest of them though, don't seem to care much. Donald and Peggy Sue seem pleased enough when they come home from school. She starts on supper, makes Betty Sue help her because her oldest decided that all she wants to do is follow Loretta around and complain.

When her mommy gets home all the kids finished their homework and supper is on the stove. Loretta is boiling what is probably a whole sack of potatoes when she hears her mother call her name. When no response comes, Clara adds," Loretta, come here and look at that now."

Loretta turns off the stove and comes out to find her mother thrusting Brenda's skinny arm in her face.

"Ernest done that," Clara says. "Ain't that so, Brenda Gail?"

Loretta looks at the collection of little red marks covering Brenda's arm. It's not that she is pleased with her son's alleged actions. She doesn't like the idea of her children doing this, to anyone, but Junior and Herman put the same bruises on her when she was that age. It wasn't such a big deal to her mommy back then. Half the time it was 'And what did you do to him, Loretta?'.

"I'm sorry, Brenda Gail," Loretta says. "Did y'all fight?"

"No," Clara snaps. "Your son put those bruises on her. Brenda Gail don't lie. Not the first time your boy's been picking on her either."

"They pick on each other," Loretta argues.

"Do you see bruises like that on him?"

They are always a whole bunch of bruises on Ernest. Sometimes she'll ask 'How'd that happen' and he'll say 'I don't remember'. Brenda might have gotten a few good licks in herself and with squabbling children it's always hard to figure out who really started it.

"You're gonna have to deal with that," Clara insists. "I'm not gonna have your boy put bruises on my girl. You're his mother, Loretta."

"I know." Loretta suppresses a sigh as she walks out of the room to find her son. She finds Ernest and Jack play wrestling in the hall. "Hey, stop!" She grabs Ernest, who happens to be on top, by the back of his shirt. "Ernest Ray, I gotta talk to you."

"He did it too," Ernest protests. 

"I know. Jack Benny, just go somewhere else for a bit." Jack walks off without uttering a word while Ernest whimpers beside her. "Don't try that," Loretta warns. "Come here."

"I love you," Ernest chimes and Loretta has to try her best not to laugh.

"What is it with you and Brenda Gail?"

Ernest makes a face. "She bothers me."

"I know you both pick on each other all the time. And that's one thing but when you start hitting her...you know what I always tell you about hitting Betty or Cissie..."

"I didn't hit her. I pinched her."

"Well, same difference, Ernest Ray. Brenda Gail don't have a brother that's close to her age so she don't know about how brothers are sometimes. You can't hit her though, yes?"

"But she hits me too."

That doesn't surprise Loretta all that much. She believes it too.

"You're a boy though and Brenda's a girl. She ain't supposed to hit you but boys shouldn't be hitting girls 'specially."

"But I seen daddy hit you before too."

And just like that the air is knocked out of Loretta's lungs. She grabs Ernest and crushes him against her chest.

Doo won't hit her anymore. That is over and done. Things can only get better from here on out, because now she has a job. And that is the thought she clings to for the rest of the day, as she drifts off to sleep that night.