[Please read the previous 3 chapters first]
Buddy & Holly
Ch.4. "Martha"
Buster & Holly: Martha
A quarter of a century had come and gone since the divorce. Soon after the old pastor who had married them also divorced himself from the church and moved away. Quick action by the elders soon brought in a brand-new young man, straight out of bible school and shoe-horned into the job. It hadn't taken long for Martha to rein him in and throw the marriage lasso over him. Subsequent to that, in quick succession, came her three rug rats, all male, much to Martha's disappointment. Coming right out of bible school, Jeff was the proverbial greenhorn, still wet behind his ears not only in the work of the pastory but also in experiential female relationships. Unlike Buster, however, Martha (and her mother) had easily maneuvered the young man into the marriage bowl which was capped off having him sign on the dotted line for yet another cracker box domicile. It just so happened to be in the lot right next to Martha's parents.
Jeff was not without his surprises, however, For over the last twenty years he managed scratching and clawing out a way in which to win himself a master's in theology. Then, just two years after that, with great sacrifice to all, his doctorate. All in all, Martha thought him to be a good man and a faithful husband. Today, however, Martha found herself sitting alone in an empty house. Her last child was now flying the coop as he and his dad were headed down the highway to drop Jr. off for his first year of college -which just so happened to be Jeff's old alma mater. Yes, she thought, Jeff had been and was a good husband, all things considered.
Alone and sitting on the couch looking out her front window, Martha reminisced on her life. Looking back over her marriage to Jeff, she had resigned herself to the fact that Jeff had been willing to participated more in the attending to his "flock" and securing an education than in having a close at-home relationship with his own family, which, sadly, included her.
Spring had sprung. Mom and dad were off enjoying the first month of full retirement. Driving off to visit out of state friends who had themselves only recently retired, she already knew what the future held for them. Before leaving, they had commissioned Martha with the daily chore of feeding the fish in daddy's aquarium. Living next door to your parents had both its good points and it's bad. Brian, now headed off to school with his dad had taken over the feeding of fish for the first week. Now, however, the core had landed squarely on her lap. And so it was that Martha now found herself standing in front of that large, bubbling tank, sprinkling the regimented portion of food on top of the water. The feeding of the five thousand, as Jeff had joked.
Locking the door behind her, Martha sauntered back over to her own empty house. Jeff wouldn't be back till the end of the week. Having acquired his PhD., Jeff had, to a degree, outgrown his small, largely simple minded flock. The offering of a teaching position at his old school had been too much to resist. Men! They find it ever so difficult to turn down prestige and money. Martha knew from the first hearing of the offer that Jeff would jump at the position. In turn, it caused no small turmoil for it would require the selling the house and moving away from everything and everyone she had ever known. The thought of it weighed heavy on her, leaving an empty feeling inside along with a bit of nostalgic fear.
Never before had Martha lived in an empty house. That, coupled with the fact that there were also no parents next door to take the edge off of her disorienting loneliness. Martha, therefore, decided she'd grab her shopping bags and drive on into town and do a bit of shopping. Perhaps she would see one of the women from church and hopefully be able to coerce a luncheon gathering of hens.
It had always been a small town. Rural farming had long been its chief reason for continued existence. A new high school had finished being built next to the old one just outside downtown proper. Ed's hardware store was still in business -for now- along with Shirley's A&W root beer stand which had opened over the weekend for yet another summer of rolling skating young car hops and the squealing of teenage tires.
Ed had retired two years prior and turned the business over to his son, Robby. She felt sorry for Robby. For rumor was that a large national chain of hardware stores had recently acquired land over in Fairfield. The writing was on the wall as there was little doubt it would be the death knell to Ed's hardware. Poor Robby. He was such a nice man, just like his father. Located right next to Ed's was Jack's, a local cafe. It had long been established as the area local breakfast and lunch hangout for farmers who made it into town in need supplies and gossip. Right next to Jack's was Kelly's, a barbershop complete with a half dozen or so pool tables in the back. Jeff, in one of his sermons, had labeled it a 'den of iniquity.' Martha didn't always agree with everything that her husband said or preached. For time without memory, she and everyone else in town knew that teenage boys, after school and especially after Friday night football or basketball games, those roaming gangs of dermatological disasters, were known to congregate in the back room to both play pool and on Friday nights, to take advantage of the worst kept secret in town, the buying and drinking of under-the-table beer.
The last building in the row of downtown, sunny side business buildings, was Benson's. It was a centennial grocery store complete with old hardwood flooring, tin paneled ceiling tiles and the ever rotating ceiling fans. As Martha sailed the old rambling Rambler down main street, it was in the passing of Ed's hardware that her heart skipped a beat. It had been at least six months, on Homecoming weekend, since she had last seen him. She knew that by living so far outside of town, he was now more likely to frequent Fairfield businesses than here in his home town. For there stood a certain handsome man, her ex, with phone in hand, probably talking to the woman who had taken her place.
Buster, unlike Jeff, had remained remarkably not just slender but athletically toned, retaining a youthfulness about him which would always have strangers guessing him years younger than he actually was. As with many small rural towns, there were the standard gossip rumor mills of which Martha, due in no small part to her mother, had often participated in. After all, what else was there to do such towns for stay at home moms? But to her credit, she never entered into the conversation when the gaggle of hens spoke of him and his bride living out in the weather beaten house south of town. Martha wasn't stupid. She knew well what the gist of the conversation which they kept to themselves was when she entered the room.
