Sold into Marriage

Chapter 5: Dinner and More

Chapter 5: Dinner and More
Copyright 2021 by John Wells. All Rights Reserved.

When we arrive home, I carry one bag of food to the kitchen, following Jane with the other one. Everyone else is sitting at the table. We place the bags there, which get unpacked by those there. Jane asks me to follow her, so I do. She hands me a stack of plates to take to the table. She fills a tray with glasses. I hand the plates to each person followed by sitting at my seat, after placing Jane’s at hers. She follows, handing out silverware and glasses off the tray. People scoop food out of cartons, so I do the same, taking just a little of each at first. I get a set of chopsticks handed to me from Tom. Jane comes back with a pitcher of Sprite soda, so I fill our glasses before passing it off to Tom.

During our conversation, I learned the food is a mix of Chinese, Japanese, and Thai. I ask for the names of the dishes. Jane lists them in their native tongue. Tom laughs and states them in English. They are Beef Teriyaki, Chicken Curry, Crab Rangoon, Hibachi Scallops, Miso Soup, Orange Chicken, Shrimp Chow Mein, and Szechuan Beef. Jane attempts to teach me using chopsticks. The only thing I manage is the Beef Teriyaki, which has its own stick, so why bother?

Everything is new to me. I have not had crab, shrimp, or scallops previously. At school and home, I had chicken. I had beef only at school. Beyond today’s meals, I have had deer, moose, turkey, and bear at home, some of which I shot myself. My dad shot most before he taught me how. For the last six years, I killed our meat. I also had turkey and haddock at school. My lunches at school were free. I could have eaten breakfast there too. But, usually eat at home with my family.

After eating, everyone helps move my purchases to my closet. They get placed on the floor next to the entrance towards the bathroom door under the shelves there on that wall. The garment bags hang on the other side of the entrance within the U shape.

Dan stays to help me put them away. Mostly, we are quiet, except for some comment on clothing such as how pretty something is or how he is looking forward to seeing me in something.

I fold and place the casual clothes on the shelves above where the bags got dropped. The top shelf I can reach is the fourth from the top. It gets the blouses and dresses. The one below that gets the shorts and pants. The sleepwear is on the bottom shelf, while the shoes stay on the floor.

I get embarrassed with the bras and panties bags so I put them away in a drawer still in their bags. Dan adds to my embarrassment with, “you are not even going to open them up.”

I respond, “not unless you make me,” while praying he does not.

He laughs, “I will never make you.” I calm down a bit. I do not understand why his seeing them matters. At the farm, they were hanging out for everyone that drove by to see. I was never embarrassed getting on the school bus with all the boys being able to see them. You could tell they were mine as mom’s bras were bigger.

I empty the jewelry out of their bags, sorting the sets together into the jewelry box. Dan removes the gold necklace on request so I can place it in the box. I put the bracelet in with it. I am going to have to learn how to put necklaces on myself. Likely start in front and turn them around just like how I started with bras. Eventually, looking no longer mattered, as my hands had muscle memory.

The makeup goes into the bathroom, where the folding mirror is. The counter has a drawer there to hold it. When using it, you can take out what you need, sit in the chair, and see what you are doing.

The outerwear gets the fourth shelf from the top at the back of the U shape. The fur gets hung with the garment bags. I unzip and remove all the stuff from the garment bags. Hanging and sorting the stuff in the order I want them. I grab all the trash from shopping, including all but one of the garment bags, and stuff them into the one I kept.