Jylli-210

It was a quiet day.  Three years to the day.  Neither of them knew how to proceed.  No one knows how to deal with memories.

“Mrs. H…”  the taller woman started to say.  She just wanted to be with her friend.  They sat for awhile and then the older woman looked up and started talking.

“It was about eleven years, right?”

“I think almost exactly. You know he was the one, I mean you were the ones, who helped me from the first.  I don’t know where I’d be without year help.”  She put her hand down nest to the older woman.  They had developed wrist hugging as their own special hugging.

“I miss his sense of humor.   His neck made it hard for him to back up the car and truck.  I started moving them so he could just drive out and then he purposely started parking in so it was my regular job.  He’d regularly park and put things around it to make me wonder how he even got out.  We never talked about it - just one of those games we had….”

“That’s Carl.  Every Wednesday he’d write a little love poem to me and put it somewhere  I’d see it.  Once he was away for something and a telegram came.  You know he left on a Tuesday.  I halfway expected to find something the next day.  I went to his desk and found the poem he had been working on.  That’s when I realized he was gone.”

Jylli felt the arms around her wrist tighten and tears came.  It didn’t seem fair.

The two of them started to tell stories.  After an hour or so there was laughter.  

“He kept saying he wanted to do something with that old barn on the North side.”

“I remember that.  It was already starting to fall apart when I came.  We were going to see if we could fix it up for a place for me, but it was too small. The paint was almost gone then anyway.  It must be awful now. He kept talking about wanting to fix it up for storage..”

“We couldn’t afford that.”

“Me?”

“You’re family child.  That’s what’s important.”

“But my jewelry money..  that should have helped…”

“No..  you needed to put that away.  No one knew what the expenses would be or what you could make.  We made it through the depression and knew you save for the future.”

Jylli sighed

“Maybe it should come down now.  I went up there last year and some of the wood’s rotting.  The beams might be worth something.  ‘ think you could take it apart?”

“I could take a look…”

“Are you coming this Sunday?”

“You know me.”

“Dress in something that can get dirty and we’ll go up and have a look.”

“Let’s go up and have a look now.  I won’t take it apart now, but we can see if it’s worth it.”

Jylli stood up and stretched.  Sitting down for a few hours takes a toll.

“Do you want to ride along or walk over by yourself?”

“It’s a pretty day..  you go ahead and I’ll catch up with you.”

The tall young woman walked slowly deep in thought about the place and the man she knew.  Even so she would reach the barn several minutes before her friend.   The weather had done a number on the old building.  Without paint there was a decent amount of rot and many of the shingles were missing.  That huge hail storm eight years ago probably helped.   She waited for the older woman to catch up.

“Well, what do you think?”

“It’s a mess.  The floor beams might be ok and maybe the posts.  I imagine you could sell those.  How old is it?”

“It was here when we moved in.  I think it was built before the 20s…”

Jylli pushed her foot lightly against the side of the barn and suddenly felt a wave of sadness.  Carl wanted so much to do something with it, but her coming stopped that and now it was beyond repair.

“Look..  my shoe just goes through the side.  If we didn’t care about the wood it could come down in minutes, but if I’m careful maybe about an hour.  Can you drive the tractor and pull the hay wagon over here?”

“Why don’t you just make some stacks and I’ll have someone take a look and we can let them bring their own wagon.”

Jylli pulled off some shingles.  Part of the sheets under the shingled came off easily.  “Look! The beams are in pretty good shape.  There might just be enough to sell.”

“On Sunday then.  There should be someone at church who might want to buy some old wood.”