Desert Moon
William doesn’t understand women. You would think that he would after living
with his nieces for so long. But sadly no.
“Uncle? Uncle?” someone called. William quickly came back to earth. Clover sat
across from him at the table. William blinked for a moment.
“What did you want?” he asked.
“I was trying to ask you if you want me to make dinner tonight,” Clover said.
“Were you listening to me?” She frowned. Come to think of it, she did everything
around the house. The cooking, cleaning, laundry, and even the yard the work.
Liz sometimes helped out. And what did he do?
“No,” he said.
“Huh?” Clover asked.
“Let’s go out tonight,” William said. “I mean, it would be a nice change in pace
and Liz could use a break from all of the moping around.”
“Okay…” Clover said. “But go where?”
“I don’t know,” William said. He never planned this out. But he wasn’t going to
back out this now.
----------
“Ya niece still there?” Clyde asked in the Sunny Plum.
“Yeah,” Lewis said. She tightly shut her eyes.
“Sorry to hear that,” Muriel said. She rubbed the farmer on the back.
“Don’t remind me,” Lewis muttered. She sighed as she buried her head in her
hands.
“What do you plan to do with her?” Aisha asked.
“I don’t know,” the farmer said. She didn’t look up as footsteps approached
their table. Annie stood over them with another frown on her face.
“Anybody ordering yet or are you all going to just sit around her all day?” she
asked.
“Oh,” Aisha said. “Four teas.” Annie wrote down the order.
“Coming up,” she said. She rolled her eyes and headed to the back. Tucker
watched them from the counter. Now he could see why the ladies at the library
couldn’t stand them. Still, the old biddies just wouldn’t go away.
----------
William and his nieces were out on the town. Liz kept her eyes low. Clover
fidgeted with her hands. Their uncle sighed.
“You’re killing me here,” he said. He put his hand on Clover’s shoulder.
“We don’t have to go shopping for anything,” he said. “Just relax until we get
to dinner.” Clover had an easy look on her face. William looked behind him.
“You okay back there?” he asked. Liz mumbled to herself. Her uncle rubbed the
back of his head.
“What you do want?” he asked. The older niece didn’t answer. William sighed.
These girls weren’t going to make it easy for him, were they? He turned his head
and happened to see Clyde waving from him from inside the Sunny Plum. He put up
his hand waved. The man turned to his nieces.
“Want to stop inside?” he asked. Clover and Liz looked at him.
“No,” Liz said in a low voice.
“No,” Clover said. William lowered his shoulders.
“Fine,” he said. Looks like they were going to the park until lunch. Clover
wanted to pack food for them, but he insisted that she rest for the day.
“No,” William said. “No cooking today. You are just taking a rest. I will handle
it.” Hearing that about made her nervous. He had to assure her that this was
going to be fine. Now, it all looked like a mistake. Well, too late to turn back
now. They just had to finish this walk around the town. This wasn’t going to
help him understand his nieces. But he is trying to help them.
Yeah…
End