Cliff found Chancy was a serious distraction. He thought of her at odd times. She apparently didn’t see him as a potent male. That was very different. He wondered if she was flawed.
She never wore a dress. Why not? She’d cut her hair into such a short bunch that she could pass for a teenage boy. Naw. Her chest was female. Even trying her darnedest, she couldn’t ever get past that. But she looked like she was trying to be male.
How would she look in a soft gown that went along her body?
She distracted him from his work.
He began to have trouble sleeping at night.
He found reasons to take her along in his plane. That nubile woman was thrilled scary, like being in a roller coaster, when she was in the plane. And he didn’t even swoop or show off. They just went up so that she could see the overall picture of the place.
She was fascinated. She found things from a dif ferent angle, and she never oohed or aahed over his ability to fly. She accepted that he could and she just went along and was awed—by the sights. Not by him.
Once he told her in order to save himself from concentrating on her presence, “If you didn’t hang around at lunch, the guys could talk.”
And she replied patiently, “My being around keeps them aware of ladies. It’s good for them to watch their language. Then they aren’t tongue-tied when they see a woman they want to talk with.”
He nodded slowly a number of times as he considered. “How’d you know that?”
“My daddy told me.”
“Oh.”
But knowing why she was around didn’t help Cliff any in his intense awareness of her. If she wasn’t there, he could think better. More aligned. With her around, his thinking scattered away and just left his mind on—her.
Actually, it was very strange for Chancy to share the house with Cliff. And she was very conscious of his presence. She accepted the crew, the household and yard and barn people Without a tremor. Why should her radar be so aware of Cliff?
She was such an innocent.
Chancy found the occasion and seriously warmed Cliff about the cleanup crew. She told him, “Once a month, a team comes from the closest town, Uvalde, to turn the house upside down and clean everything. And I do mean everything. They never miss a thing.”
She went on, “One gets all the dogs and cats out of the house, and one learns quickly to be sure anything one cares about is tidy and put away...first. Otherwise, single socks or perfect, uh, underwear could be washed in—boiling lye? Whatever they use, it’s something horrific.”
Then Cliff found out that even everything in the kitchen was scrubbed by the cleanup crew. Tolly told Cliff, “I’ve tried to form limits with that cleanup crew, but that hasn’t entirely worked. It’s as if the crew was a swarm of grasshoppers. The entire place is blighted when pounced upon by the crew.” He moved his face as he frowned. “It’s really pretty scary.”
Chancy said thoughtfully, “That’s probably because the crew never talks. They’re sober-faced, efficient... and relentless! But they’re the best and most reliable around these parts.”
When the day came, the cleaning crew descended upon them, and it was exactly as Cliff had been warned. It was Cliffs first experience and, with the-day past and the crew gone, he was carrying around a drastically shrunken web belt. He appeared in shock.
Chancy told him gently, “You’ll quickly realize that you have to keep everything in the places you want them to be. Anything left on a chair or forgotten on the floor is in jeopardy.”
“Look at my belt.” Just his manner of speech proved that it had been precious.
So she did look. It was a belt. Getting emotional over a belt was a challenge. She put it around her own waist and commented, “It was stretched.”
Cliff frowned at her and snarled, “It’s shrunk.”
She grinned. “I’ll find you a new one and keep this one. It’s almost my size.” And she went on off as if she’d solved the whole problem.
Tolly’s food was so rich and involved that Cliff’s stomach complained. Tolly was startled when Cliff mentioned that he’d like just plain food. That was a challenge to Tolly. And he considered how one could serve—just—plain—food?
So while Tolly made the clever, indulgent bits of beauty for the others’ meals, he gave Cliff the basic foods. But, however basic, it was artistically arranged, and there were always celery tops, sliced olives or sprigs of parsley to decorate the plate.
Cliff didn’t notice, and he ate the decorations like a horse at a bush.
The next week, Cliff eased back from the table and scolded Tolly, “In another month, I’ll weigh a ton.”
Tolly dismissed that. “I don’t feed you enough to gain even two pounds.”
“I can hardly get up on Jasper. And he complains about carrying my weight around.”
Tolly pulled in the comers of his mouth and retorted, “You can’t possibly weigh any more than you did when you came here.”
“My pants have trouble zipping up.”
Tolly gasped. “Those house cleaners found your pants and washed them in lye?”
Cliff replied earnestly, “I hopc that’s what happened. I’d hate to starve myself and then find I wasn’t fattening but becoming a skeleton.”
And Tolly promised, “I’ll find out
Chancy volunteered, “Come upstairs and weigh on my scale. It’s accurate.”
Cliff looked at her naked-eyed and asked, “Your... scale?” He would get to go upstairs and see the rest of the house? Enter Valhalla? Actually see where she lay—dreaming of him? Sure.
She was saying earnestly, “I really don’t think you’ve gained any weight. You just haven’t been careful to keep your things neat and tidy.”
“In the laundry basket?”
“Oh. Well, they think they’re helping you in washing the clothes. You need to use the lock we gave you on the basket.”
“What kind of crew are they?”
“Very earnest.” She was serious. Then she was also earnest. “You didn’t see them.”
“No. I was off trying to unstick that da—recalcitrant bull. He was dragging his—belly in the mud His valuable...beily. All’s he did was bellow.”
Tom said, “We heard him,”
The rest at the table had to agree. One of the crew snorted in his laughter,
