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Fiction Short Story

Betty Kreier-Lubinski

Just One Woman

Cousin Jefferson was different from other people. Even in our small town, growing up, Cousin Jefferson was considered a nerd. He trapped skunks for their bounty to help the family's farm income after his daddy died, and he always smelled slightly like his catch. He was tall, gangly, very serious, and he stuttered.

Despite all that, he grew into an ambitious young man with big plans, and he was continually expecting things to get better. When his family barn burned down, Cousin Jefferson was upbeat. "We are so lucky. We got all the animals out safely. Now we'll have a chance to build us a real barn, the way one ought to be built," and he went off to look for bargain lumber. That's just the way he was.

When Katie Jehnsen ran off to the big city two weeks before she was scheduled to marry Cousin Jefferson, he went right on putting the finishing touches on the house he was building and allowed, "It's not like there's just one woman left in the world. I guess I'll have to marry someone else."

And he did. Two weeks later the wedding went on as planned, only he married Laurie, Katie's younger sister, and seemed perfectly happy for it. Laurie and I were good friends, being the same age and living next door and all, and I'd known about Laurie's crush on Cousin Jefferson for years. Still, I was aghast when she called me on the phone, so excited she was screaming. "I'm going to marry Jefferson."

"You what?"

"He asked me. Last night he called me up and asked me, and I said yes."

"Laurie, are you sure? What'll folks think? Katie's only been gone for a week."

"I don't care what folks think, Patty. I love Jefferson, and I've always known he was meant for me, not Katie. It's about time he knew it, too. And Katie's dress fits me better than it fit her."

Whatever else you say about Cousin Jefferson, he definitely sees a half-empty glass as half full. The wedding was already planned, the house was almost finished, and Laurie was a pretty girl who'd make a fine wife.

It was a good five years before Katie stepped one foot back in Garretsville, and by that time Laurie and Jefferson had two children and a third on the way.

"The big city wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be," Katie told my mama her first night back. Her own mama had died when she was fourteen, and Katie always had borrowed mine whenever she wanted. Mama had told Katie she could stay with us for a few days. She sat in our kitchen and drank coffee, plain, black, just like regular folks do. "I never could get a taste for cappuccino," she said. "Nasty stuff. You know, I ran into more dishonest skuzzy men in town than I knew existed. Wasn't a one of them as interested in getting into my brain as they were into my panties."

"Laurie and Jeff are very happy," Mama warned. We all knew she wasn't really changing the subject.

"Laurie's put on a little weight, though, hasn't she? She looked a bit ragged at the edges when I saw her downtown on my way in. Jeff, though the extra weight looks good on him."

"Katie, let me warn you right now. Cousin Jefferson may have loved you once, but&"

"Don't worry. I don't think Jeff ever really loved me. He just thought it was time to get married."

"Nonetheless, I wouldn't take kindly to your interfering with their marriage in any way."

"Not me," Katie promised. "Not for one minute."

But Katie brought back with her an air of pizzazz like we hadn't seen anywhere but on TV, certainly not alive in our small town. She wore those spike-heeled naked looking shoes with her painted toenails showing and her perfume. Lordy, the smell made me feel like throwing up, but then I always did have a queasy stomach. I could tell it didn't have the same effect on the men who passed us in the grocery store. She wore the new styles with her belly button hanging out for all the world to see, and her shiny hair floating lazily in the breeze, like the hair color models on TV. She looked sophisticated, I'll tell you.

Laurie was worried. After all, it was her own sister, and she couldn't get away with ignoring that. "I have to invite her to dinner, don't I?" Laurie asked me.

"I wouldn't. You know as well as I do that what Katie wants, Katie gets."

"But I can't assume she wants my husband. After all, she ran away and left him."

"I sat right there in my mother's kitchen and heard her say she'd made a mistake leaving Garretsville."

"Patty, I feel so damned pregnant right now. I don't think I can compete. I have to have help tying my shoes, for heaven's sake. And my face is all blotchy."

"Don't invite her."

"She called me yesterday when she got into town. Said she wanted to meet my kids. I stalled her off by saying I was throwing up, which wasn't true but I knew she wouldn't want to be around the smell of vomit."

"Laurie, you're worrying too much."

"I know my sister. She just let me borrow Jeff. Now she probably wants him back."

It was true that Cousin Jefferson was more attractive than he'd been when Katie dumped him. Under Laurie's tutelage, he'd given up farming, skunk-trapping, and wearing overalls and manure- smelly shoes. He was now making a living reading meters for the electric company and expected a promotion any day. On his days off, he kept his hair trimmed, wore crisp jeans which fit snugly across his tight rear (if that kind of thing turns you on), and he didn't make dumb, irrelevant announcements to the world as he had in high school. In fact, he had lots of friends, and no one but me called him Jefferson anymore.

Laurie decided to solve her problem by throwing a coming home party for Katie and inviting all the single men in town, good-looking or not. Actually most of the town was invited, and the gathering would fill all the corners of their large comfy home and probably even spread to the back yard. Jeff and I both helped Laurie prepare all the fancy food although he commented, "You're really putting on the dog for your sis, aren't you, kid?"

"I just want her to have fun," Laurie said., "and for us to look good compared to the big city."

"Well, I don't want you working so hard. You gotta take care of this baby here," Jeff said, patting her bulging tummy.

"You take care of the other two, and I'll manage this one," Laurie said.

Laurie had bought a new dress for the occasion, but when she took time out from her food preparations to go put it on, she didn't come back. I finally went up to the bedroom to see what was keeping her. She was sitting on the bed, her bra hanging off one shoulder, a run in her nylons, and the new shimmery dress wadded up on the floor. Tears, mixed with dripping mascara, rolled down her face and her eyes were swollen.

"No matter what I do, I don't look good," she wailed. "I might as well wear my worn out jeans. Katie is going to look beautiful, and I look like an overstuffed cow."

"A pregnant overstuffed cow. Come on, now, what do you expect at eight month's pregnant?"

"Jeff has never really said he loved me in all the years we've been married." She swiped her hand across her face, making the mascara look more like war paint. I grabbed a Kleenex and started dabbing. The party was supposed to start in less than an hour, and I couldn't have my best friend greet her guests looking like last night's hangover.

"Jeff loves you," I said.

"Jeff has never said he loved me."

"Then it doesn't matter. You have enough love for the both of you. Laurie, come on. Jeff goes to work every morning and comes home every night, and he never looks twice at another woman. He even does the dishes every night. You want words, too?"

"Yes," she blubbered. "And romance. I thought when we got married, that he really did love me under all that absentminded stupidity, and that it was just a matter of time before he realized it. But I don't think he's ever going to realize it. He takes me for granted. I'm his wife, his newspaper, his kitchen, his dinner, and his comfortable chair to sit in. I'm not exciting. Just good old Laurie."

It took me the best share of forty minutes to calm her down and ten minutes to get that dress on her. She looked quite pretty in it, and when she went down to answer the door, Katie said so the minute she came in. "Laurie, sweetie, you look magnificent. You certainly are pregnant, aren't you?"

"I believe in keeping them barefoot and pregnant," Jeff said, coming up from behind. "That way, they won't run off to the city and leave me behind."

Typical Cousin Jefferson statement. He actually thought he was funny. Katie laughed, but Laurie's face turned stark white. Those words didn't sound much like "I love you."

"Gotta go check the food," she muttered, and fled to the kitchen.

"You idiot, Cousin Jefferson. You don't have a brain in your head." I glowered at him.

"Yes, I do," he answered with a grin. "Katie, I'm glad to see you because I've been wanting to thank you for running away from our wedding. I'm the luckiest man in the world, having Laurie for my wife. She's the only woman in the world for me."

Katie frowned, but I just shoved Jeff in the direction of the kitchen. "You stupid goof, go in the kitchen and tell Laurie that."

"I don't need to," he said. "She already knows."

"She needs you to tell her," I said. "And by the way, tell her you love her, too."

He did.