17

A new day. A new life continues.

Well, he went and joined the camper people next door and has been harvesting all week.  They pulled up last Sunday next to us, three single men and one older couple who were the leaders of the group.  They are harvesters from down south, at the bottom of Texas.  I really like all of them and so does my man, my Moondoggie, my Lord Bryon, my Diego Rivera.

So, they go...last Sunday.

"We're having some of these catfish we caught this morning,"  Marybelle said to us across the little wooden fence that separated each camping space.  "More than enough for an army, come and join us."

Looking back I think that meeting these people could be the nicest thing that has happened to us all year.  Especially for my Big Kahuna.  He was under the van tightening something that had caught his attention when we had driven to this new campground.

"Hmm,  I love catfish," I told her.  I hadn't had any good catfish since I left the Kentucky mountains. 

"Great, come on over, the men will be back soon."

"We were goin to have hot dogs again," I told her.  I'd been meaning to look up some Hawaiian recipes on either Diego's computer book or my droid but hadn't got around to it yet.  Diego peeked out from under the van. 

"We'll be right over," he said.

I went over and introduced myself and pointed to Diego, still under the van, and told her that he'd be over as soon as he was finished playing with the van.

"Is he your brother?" She asked, just to make conversation.

"No, he's my Big Kahuna."

"Big Kahuna?"

"We're together, a family," I told her.  She looked a little confused but I didn't explain.  Let her guess.  She was real old, like some of the church ladies, at least 40 or over.

"Well, I'm Marybelle, and my husband is Bobby Jefferson, but we just call him BJ.  You'll meet the boys when they get back.  They're our crew for this harvest."

"Harvest?  What y'all harvesting?"  I asked.

"Anything and everything.  The combine is down the road a bit.  BJ and the boys are finishing up a partial holding down the way today and we'll rest here tonight.  Then we'll have to go on tomorrow."

I sat down in one of her folding chairs and kept company with her while we waited for the guys.

"So, you all drive around and do harvesting?"

"Yep, every year for the last 20 years.  BJ clears enough to keep our own land with a few head on it back home."

I found out that back home was way down in west Texas, almost to Mexico.  I found out a lot of things as the week went on forever while I waited for the harvesters to finish everyday.  Sometimes Marybelle would be gone and other times I would go to the small towns we headquartered in as the week happened.

Marybelle had a gas grill loaded with catfish she'd pulled out of a ice box.  She kept cooking, it must of been twenty good sized fish as we waited until the guys finally showed up.  That's when Diego got out from under the van and started to come over.

BJ drove up in this big truck, like a dump truck but not a dump truck.  Diego would know what kind of truck it was.  It was a lot bigger than the camper and had to be parked across the road in a little patch of grass no one had camped in. 

Bobby Jefferson climbed down from the driver's side of the truck.  He was just a regular guy from a distance when a person couldn't see his blue eyes.  When he came over to the camper he smiled sooo bright at Marybelle while he put his hands on her waist and gave her a big, dramatic kiss, a person could see those bright blue eyes.  Wow!  His whole face lit up when he kissed her.  So did Marybelle's face. 

BJ was shorter than Diego and just as thin.  Much darker tanned though.  With brown hair and wearing cowboy boots and button down cowboy shirt and jeans.  He looked like he should be back in Texas.  With him were three guys, also wearing jeans and boots, except one had a cast on his right foot.  The cast looked new and didn't have dirt on it that you usually see on old cast.  So, he must of just got it that week.

The guys with BJ were all younger.  Not that much for two of them.  One a Mexican and the other an Asian.  They looked older than a teenager but not as old as BJ.  The third was also a Mexican guy.  They walked together, a little back from BJ, like they knew that they had to BJ a few seconds alone with Marybelle.  Maybe this happend everytime BJ saw Marybelle?