Meeting Another Half of My Family

Meeting Another Half of My Family

"Ron, phone call for you."

"Okay." I acknowledged to Marry my lady friend. When the telephone rang I asked her to answer it if she would for me, as I got her and me something cold to drink.

I handed Marry her drink and took the receiver from her as she handed it to me. "Hello, this is Ron Roberson."

"Hello. I am Alice your grandma your dad's mom. Your Brother John gave me your number. I hope you don't mind. I was calling to ask you if you would like to come to the Roberson family reunion. Your dad... Ronny will be there if you would like to see him."

"Yes, I would like to go. I just need to know when and where. That way I can wrap up any work that may need doing before I'm able to get off from work. How bad does... Ronny wants to see me?" Not sure I want to call Ronny, dad, or not.

The last time I saw my dad Ronny was around twenty-three to twenty-four years ago when I was around six or seven years old. After he and mom divorced, I didn't remember seeing or hearing from him after that. I never got a letter or a card from him that I know of. I do know my grandma tried to stay in touch with me but mom usually blocked her from contacting me by not giving her my phone number or mailing address. That upset me when I found out about it and I guess it upset my brother as well.

Grandma Alice gave me all the information where the reunion is to be and when. We decided to wait till closer to time for the reunion, to set a time and place to meet, on the day the reunion starts. The reunion is to be a week-long event and my dad is to be the entertainment for the event. He sings and plays the guitar. He's no big name entertainer like we hear on the radio or see on the television, though he is said to be talented.

I got the phone call in May and the reunion is to start on a Friday in August. I requested time off for one week and one day which was the dates for the reunion to take place. My boss approved my vacation time. Then the day before I was to leave, my boss came to me and said I could have the Friday off but, he wanted me back on the job on Monday three days from the Thursday to be my last day for the week and one day off, I was given, to begin with. He told me that if I didn't show up I was fired. I told him I couldn't change my plans now, and that I still had sick time left as well as vacation time, which I was taking one sick day and one week of my vacation time. I told him, 'no job when I come back' he will hear from my attorney.

Early Friday morning I left Tulsa Oklahoma and drove the three hours to Fletcher Oklahoma. It took a little over three hours actually since I took some back roads to avoid paying toll to save some money. I found the restaurant where we agreed to meet without any problem. I even arrived ahead of the set time. I ordered a cheeseburger and a drink to eat while I waited.

When I was halfway through my cheeseburger, a man walks through the door that looked identical to me but an older version. He stops and looks around at the other fifteen to twenty people sitting at the other tables before looking at me. As soon as we made eye contact, I wave to stop his roaming eyes as my grandma and another woman followed the man in. He led the way toward me and asks. "Ron?"

"Yes, I am."

"Hello, I am Ronny..."

"Dad." Standing up and taking his hand. I turn to grandma and said. "Hi, you must be my grandma Alice. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing good son," Alice said stepping in and hugging me. My grandma is still just as hot looking as I remember her being when I was younger.

Alice stands five feet four inches tall with a slender build and blue eyes. Her tits looked to be the average size of B cup and she still has the slender waist.

"May I ask who this other pretty woman is?" I asked. She looked to be around my age with the same size tits as my Grandma Alice had.

"This is my wife Clare. Clare this is Ron, my son." Dad said stepping aside and putting his arm around her waist. I wasn't sure how to read Ronny's look on his face when I asked who the beautiful woman with him and grandma was.

"Please sit down while I finish eating. If you all are hungry go ahead and order a meal on me."

The waitress walked up to the table as everyone got seated and took drink orders. "We'll wait till we get to John's property to eat," Ronny said. "Dinner will be ready around one o'clock in the afternoon. I will wait for the thirty minutes it will take to get there." Ronny added.

I had noticed that Ronny sat next to me with grandma on my right and Clare sat between Ronny and Alice but closer to dad than grandma. I also noticed that Ronny was watching Clare like someone jealous and not confident in their relationship. I saw all the signs from an ex-friend of mine toward his girlfriend, as I am seeing in Ronny right now.

"How long has it been now since the last time we saw each other?" Ronny asked me.

"I'm thirty years old now and I was either six or seven years old the last time I remember seeing you."

"I'll be thirty October the eleventh." Replied Clare.

"Happy birthday in case I forget to tell you at that time." Noticing the look Ronny gave the two of us out the corner of his eye.

"What kind of work do you do son?" Ronny asked me.

I wasn't sure how I felt with him calling me son before we got reacquainted. "I'm a carpenter for a construction company."

"Do they keep you pretty busy?"

"Yes, they do. In a couple of months, I'll be down here in Lawton working if the bad weather holds off."

"How far away is Lawton from here?" Clare asked.

"About twenty or twenty-five minutes to the south from here. Depending on how bad the traffic is" Grandma said.

After a short visit while I finished my meal and drinking our drinks Ronny paid for everything as I was pulling money out for a tip for the waitress. Grandma and Clare walked ahead of Ronny and me, he asked. "Do you want to follow us to Uncle Clyde's farm or do you know the way?"

"I have no idea who Uncle Clyde is or his wife much less where his farm is," I answered as we walked out toward my pickup and their van.

"Is that your pickup beside our van?"

"Yes, it is. Is that your van?"

"No that is your Grandma Alice's van. I have a Dodge pickup which doesn't give us a lot of room. Besides the van gets better mileage and is more comfortable."

"Okay. I'll be right behind you." I said turning toward the driver's side of my pickup and Ronny, turned toward the driver's door on the van.

I followed them through town, a short way out of town they turned down another road. After a few turns, I saw a house sitting back off the dirt road, dad turned onto a one-lane car path through the gate left open to a pasture that leads the way back towards a tree line on the backside of the pasture. Halfway across the pasture, we topped off the backside of a hill where I could see cars and trucks campers and tents and two lines of tables coming out to the side of a big tent. Also, kids running around and adults moving around all over the place next to the tree line. Ronny parked near a car parked next to a tent under some trees and I parked beside him on the passenger side of the van.

I got out of my pickup while grandma and Clare got out of the van next to me. As Ronny got out of the driver's door of the van he was met by a man older than Clare and I but younger than him. "Ronny said we may have to move our rigs so that we can set up camp," Clare said as she helped grandma shut the van sliding door.

The five nights went well without any hiccups that I know of anyway. I met some long-forgotten first and second cousins, as well as aunts uncles and great uncles and great aunts. I met people that I had never met before and still don't even know how we are related to each other.

One cousin, I had met once at another reunion when I was a kid around ten or eleven years of age Ronny told me she had turned to drugs shortly after she met her husband. They had a couple of kids running around with a lot of other kids. Ronny said grandma Alice spoke her bad eye site into existence but I was told by her sister (my great aunt) what Alice has run in their mom's side of the family. It is degeneration of the eyes causing things to go black. She will not be able to see anything in front of her. I had noticed grandma had been turning her head, looking sideways one way and then to the other side at people, that had walked up to her from the front. Ronny was quick to point out the bad habits of family members, which got under my skin. With such negativity, I can see why my mom divorced Ronny now.

I noticed Clare didn't get very far from Ronny's side. I also noticed the looks Clare and other male family members got that even said hi to her or her saying hi to one of them got. I also noticed I got a look if Ronny saw me helping grandma out when she was the one that asks me to help her with something. I was glad Ronny didn't see me helping grandma out every time she would ask me for help during those five days.

After the last day of the reunion, I decided to follow Ronny, Clare, and grandma to where they live to see a part of Oklahoma I have never seen before. I left their place the day before I had to be back at work.

** ONE YEAR LATER**

I had kept in touch with grandma by phone during the year following the reunion. Grandma Alice had decided to move from the house she helped her second husband build on Ronny's property in the hills just outside of Talihina, Ok. to live in Talihina. She could then go to the church of her choice and not have to go where Ronny and Clare always go.

I decided to go and help my grandma move since I was not able to help her in the past due to living away from her and not knowing where she lived before the reunion. I never met her second husband before he died. With what grandma had told me about him I would have liked him.

When I arrived at grandma's house on Ronny's property he was at work and Clare was helping pack grandma's things that wouldn't be needed until after the move to her new house.

Grandma Alice answered the door when I knocked. "Hello, son! I'm so glad you could come and help me!"

"Glad to be of help. Where do you need me to start?" I asked as grandma closed the door behind me.

"We were just fixing to sit down to dinner before taking a carload to the new house. Have you had any dinner yet?"

"No. I didn't realize it was noon already. I thought it was another hour away. You know I don't turn down food when it is offered to me."

"Hehe. You're a true Roberson when it comes to food. No Roberson turns down food." Grandma answered with a chuckle.

Sitting down at the dinner table I sat across from grandma with Clare sitting next to grandma. While we were eating, the three of us caught up on what all has happened to us, since grandma's and my last phone call.

After eating and while Clare and grandma cleaned up the kitchen, I put the last three boxes that were packed in grandma's van. As Clare sat in the front passenger seat of the van, grandma climbed into the back seat of the van and said. "Ron you can drive to the new house if you would so that you will know where it is."

"Okay," I said then closing the van door.

Once we got to the house I had to ask what did she pay for. The house was small with two bedrooms with a door going from one bedroom to the other bedroom. The first bedroom had a door off the living room. The second bedroom had a door leading to a real short hallway with the bathroom door on the right one step from the bedroom door. Another step from the bathroom door on the left, another door leading back into the living room. Another step past the door on the left the hall took a turn to the right. At the end of the short hallway was a window looking out in the back yard. At the turn and halfway between the turn and the window were two closet doors to one long closet the length of the hallway. The second door opened to the water heater and the other for hanging clothes.

Back in the living room, there was an archway for a door leading into the kitchen dining room. The dining room to the left and kitchen to the right. The room was like ten feet across but twenty-five feet long. The cookstove sat next to the archway and the refrigerator sat across from the archway beside a door leading to a closed-in porch. The kitchen sink was to the right of the archway on the back kitchen wall under a window looking into the back yard. The porch was the same as the kitchen in width and length. To the right, all the way to the back wall is where the washer and dryer hookups are. Halfway between the front wall of the porch and the back wall is a side door to the side yard. The side yard was twelve feet across from the house to the fence looking at the side of the neighbor's house ten feet away from the fence.

"From wide open space to neighbor's being on top of you. Not my kind of move. But at least you can walk across the street to your church of choice instead of driving all that way every Sunday when you're able to get someone to drive you. I wish there was another way to make it easier for you and still have the open space."

"I know the woman that lives next door so it's not so bad."

"That's good that you know someone that will help you if you need her till a family member gets here. That is bad..." I said looking up over the stove and kitchen counter. "That big open hole in the kitchen ceiling," I said looking at the bottom side of the roof and ceiling joists.

"That was one reason I wanted your help moving me, was to ask if you would or could fix the ceiling?" Grandma asked setting a small box down on the counter across from the cookstove.

"Yes if I can get some help to hold the sheetrock up till I get a couple of screws in it. That way there will be less taping and mudding if it can be done in one piece. Without any help, I will have to cut it into three or four pieces which then takes more tap and more joint compound to get it ready to paint." We decided that Clare and I would come the next day and fit the sheetrock and then she would go help grandma pack more boxes while I taped and mud the seams.

The next morning I drove into town and stopped at the local lumber yard and picked up a sheet of rock along with the tape and joint compound. Five minutes after getting tools and supplies offloaded from my pickup, I began measuring the hole in the ceiling. Just as I got the first measurement Clare came into the house. "Hello! I'm here now Ron."

"I'm already started here. Careful you don't step on the sheetrock."

"Okay. What do you want me to do? Anything?"

"Sure..." Clare climbed up on the second ladder I had set up and helped me finish measuring various angles of the hole.

After getting all the different measurements of the hole I laid out the angles on the sheetrock. Just as I had the last measurement and made the last mark I needed to follow for cutting Clare jumped up and said. "There's Ronny! He's walking across the street from the church!" Clare was out the door as soon as she finished saying 'church'. I stood up and looked out the window and saw Ronny in a crouch position as he crossed the street just before Clare got out the front door. The two met at the gate in the front yard and started talking in loud voices.

I could just make out that Ronny was accusing Clare and me of having sex. Clare and I had talked about a lot of things but never said anything about sex or even indicated that we wanted to have sex. Sex between her and Ronny was their business, not mine. When I finished cutting out the sheetrock I stepped out the front door of the house to see what I could say to help end the argument between Ronny and Clare since there was nothing between her and me except for work fixing the hole in grandma's ceiling.

As soon as I was out the door Ronny looked at me and left in a hurry. Clare turned and walked back into the house saying. "I've got to go! He is accusing us of having sex and thinks he walked upon us and saw us fucking our brains out!" Clare walked back out with her purse and to her car as Ronny spun his tires out of the church's parking lot.

I walked over to the grocery store across the highway from the church and called grandma from the payphone. Grandma answered, "hello."

"Hi, grandma. This is Ron. Do you by chance know what got into Ronny thinking that Clare and I are having sex on the ceiling of your new house? And how we can hang from the ceiling to even think about doing it from there?"

"What?!!! He wouldn't think anything like that! I had called Ronny to see if he knew how far along you and Clare were fixing the ceiling."

"Well because of that he parked at the church parking lot across from the house and tried sneaking across the street to see what we were up to instead of just driving over and parking and walking in like a normal person would do. Clare met him at the gate where they got into a heated discussion for a little bit before I stepped out onto the porch and then Ronny walked off across the street and got in his pickup and spun his tires getting out of dodge. Now I have no help putting the sheetrock up because of Ronny's jealousy."

"I'll call and see if Ronny is back at his store and see if Clare is there. Maybe she can go back and help you. The new neighbor that you said you know is home. Maybe you can call her and let me know what you find out since my pager doesn't work in this part of the state."

"Okay, I will call her. I'll be out in the yard waiting for a little while." Grandma and I hung up and I went into the grocery store and got something cold to drink and walked back to the house.

Looking at the time it had taken me all of ten minutes to hang up the phone get a drink and pay for it after waiting for a customer in front of me to cash out at the register and then for me to walk the short distance back to the house. Another minute more grandma's new neighbor walked out of her house and to the fence dividing her yard from grandma's yard and asked. "Are you Ron, Alice's grandson?"

"Yes."

"She said to tell you Clare is not coming back to help because of Ronny. That is all she told me to tell you."

"Okay thank you..."

I went in and cut the sheetrock into four pieces and put them up on the ceiling in the kitchen. With the first coat of joint compound and tape on all the joints, I left for grandma's old house.

"You're just in time for supper Ron. As soon as you are cleaned up."

I got cleaned up and sat down at the dinner table across from where grandma sat waiting for me. While we ate, grandma and I talked about Ronny and his jealousy. She told me it is bigger than Talihina which is smaller than one thousand people living there. That was the last she knew of when she looked up to see what the population was before she lost most of her eyesight.

Clare was her cheerful self the next morning as I loaded the last box of stuff into grandma's van. Looking toward the trailer house her and Ronny lived in sitting about twenty-five feet away, Ronny had left to open his store, he has in the valley.

"Hello, Ron. How are you doing today?" Clare asked

"I'm doing good. What about you? I see you survived the fall out you and Ronny had or did you?"

"I did but he still thinks you and I had sex and that he saw us. No matter what he is told he will still think he saw us doing something."

Clare and I walked into the house and I finished drinking my cup of coffee then said to grandma and Clare. "I'm going to go on ahead and stop off at Ronny's store to see what he has in some sponge sanders if any and if not I will need to stop at the hardware store. Do you have another box ready to go into the van yet?"

"Not right now. The rest will have to wait until I make the final move. I hope we can do that the day after tomorrow." Grandma said setting her coffee cup in the sink.