QUEENOLA BELL chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Tuesday morning I got up feeling like some one had beat the tar out of me. I’m dressed, ready for work. I noticed that I had slept in my robe last night. I halfway remember why, but I don’t remember all of it. I walk down the hall holding my head. David said good morning, I said, for who; he laughs at me as usual. I go on into the kitchen with Aunt Sybil, I pour a cup of coffee and ask, where’s the sugar. Aunt Sybil asks me when did I start drinking coffee. I said now. David is in the kitchen now. He gets me the sugar. I ask for milk, he gets the milk, I sat down at the table with my spoon and noticed I’d forgot my coffee on the counter. David picks up the coffee and brings it to the table. I start to pour the sugar out of the container and pour it all over the table. David rushes to the rescue again he takes the spoon from me and asks me how many, I said how many do most people use, he smiles and puts two spoons of sugar, then he pours a good bit of milk, he stirs it and tells me it’s ready to drink. David cleans the sugar off the table and puts everything back up. Aunt Sybil is sitting there looking at me funny. She asks if I’m sick. I said I have a sinus headache, she nods her head and didn’t ask anything else.

I drank my coffee it was pretty good, I started to get up for more when David jumps up and says I’ll get it, so I let him get me another cup. Aunt Sybil gets up and says are you ready? I get up to go I pick up my cup to put in the sink and David says just leave that I’ll clean it up. I look at him kind of funny then we go to work.

Work went a little better today at least so far and I was feeling better. I was whistling doing my work when this boy steps in the isle and blocks my path, I said excuse me he said sure why not but he didn’t move. I look up at him and see that he is very good looking, I said who are you? He said I live down the road with the lady that helps your Aunt Sybil. I ask if he is her son, he said no I just stay there sometimes, and my name is Neal. I said my name is Queenie he said I know. I’ve seen you here before, in fact I saw you here last summer, but you didn’t see me. I said no I didn’t, and I wonder how I missed you. Neal helped me pick up eggs for the rest of the day. Neal told me he’s twenty years old and he’s going to college next year to become a Vet. When I stand by Neal I notice he’s very tall and he’s a big boy or should I say man. Neal follows me to the house after work we walk in the kitchen and David’s sitting at the table, he notices Neal and says who’s this? I introduce them and David just nods his head. I left them in the kitchen and went to take a shower. I walk out of the shower and David is standing in the bedroom looking real pissed off. I say what do you want David, this is not a good time (because I’m standing in front of him again with only a towel on). David says, what’s that guy doing here? I say we’re a friend that’s all. Then David tells me to be careful and stomps out of the room. I put on my jeans and T-shirt and went to the kitchen where Neal’s sitting at the table he tells me about a party this weekend and asks me if I want to go. I said sure that will be fun. He asks me if I drink I say sometimes. He asks what I drink (I had to think fast and I remember the white wine David gave me) I said I drink wine every now and then, he said cool, I’ll pick you up Saturday around 8:00 then he walks out the door to this truck and leaves.

David walks in the kitchen real mad for some reason. He pops off at me, well I hear you have a date and you’re going to have some wine. I say yes, I do and I am. David said he’s a jerk you know that don’t you? I say don’t be so quick to judge. He said well if I had anything to do with it you wouldn’t go, I say but you don’t. David slams out the door.

Aunt Sybil comes up to me after supper that night and said. Queenie we are taking tomorrow off, we’re going shopping (of course David’s sitting here taking everything in) I said okay Aunt Sybil, I need to buy an outfit for my date Saturday will you help me pick something out? Aunt Sybil smiles and said yes I will.

Well I was excited that night about my first date, I like to have never went to sleep, but when I did fall asleep I don’t think I moved all night, I was so tired.

I got up the next morning and got dressed for going shopping. I walk into the den and Aunt Sybil is on the phone with mama she said daddy had to go to the hospital last night. Aunt Sybil is telling me this while she’s trying to talk to mama. I was about to panic when I hear Aunt Sybil tell mama we’ll be right there. Aunt Sybil turns to David who’s standing at the kitchen door and says David you hand everything okay. A David walk over to me puts his arm around my shoulder and says mama go ahead don’t worry about anything, I’ll take care of it. So we walk out to go to the hospital.

We said in the waiting room for hours while the doctor worked on daddy, they had put him in intensive care. Aunt Sybil sat with us most of the day, mama said that daddy had gained twenty pounds in a month he’s up to 360 now. She said it took four paramedics to load him in the ambulance. My daddy just keeps gaining weight, he won’t stay on a diet and he won’t do anything to get any exercise. Every time daddy goes to the doctor for his check up the doctor fusses at him about losing weight. My daddy had a heart attack three years ago, he had bypass surgery, but he didn’t take care of himself and he’s going down hill, he just keeps on getting bigger and bigger, and now he’s a diabetic. He has to take shots every day.

Well the doctors finally come out and tells us we can see daddy, we take off into his room. Daddy looks real bad; he’s got machines hooked to him. The doctor told us that he pulled through this time but the next time if he keeps gaining weight he may not be so lucky. Aunt Sybil goes on home when she sees daddy. We’ll be okay. I stay at the hospital with mama. We sat at the hospital for two days and two nights, until we hear daddy will go home soon. Ken kept us plenty of food or anything else we needed. Ken was even nice to me. Lisa stayed with us most of the time. She looks a lot better. She said that the farm thing is not for her. Well Aunt Sybil comes back to the hospital Friday evening to pick me up. When I got back to her house I felt so tired I could hardly hold my head up. I walk in the kitchen and guess who’s sitting in his usual place at the kitchen table? David. I was not in the mood to hear his mouth today and I think he got the message real quick. I walked over and sat down, Aunt Sybil was already at the chicken house. I put my head down on my arms on the table. David walks over and squats down beside me. He said, Queen you need to go to bed and get some rest. I said I know but I want a shower first. All of a sudden David pulls out my chair, picks me up and starts around the table. I’m to tired to fight him so I just laid my head on his shoulder and let him carry me (he carries me easily like I only weight fifty pounds). He takes me to the bedroom and sits me on the bed, he starts to take off my shirt, I try to fight him, but I’m too weak and he’s firm so I let him take over. David takes off all my clothes, even my bra with ease, he puts his T-shirt on me then puts me in the bed. I remember him kissing me on the head and playing with my hair. I went to sleep. I woke up at 1:00 P.M.; I jump out of bed without giving my self-time to wake up. I go running down the hall hitting the wall as I go. A David step out in front of me and says whoa, slow down, he grabs me, and holds me until I steady myself. David says why don’t you wake up before you start running up and down the hall. I was still kind of weak from lack of sleep. David takes me to the kitchen, sits me at the table and says, Queenie, you just sit there and I’ll fix you something to eat, he made me some coffee just the way I like it and cooked me breakfast. I didn’t care that it was the middle of the day, I like breakfast any time. David sits the food in front of me and fills up my coffee cup again. I start cramming the food in. David says Queenie slow down. When’s the last time you ate? I said I ate this morning, he said no you didn’t you just got up. He said what day do you think it is? I said Friday, David said no Queenie it’s Saturday afternoon. I almost choke on my food, I couldn’t believe I had slept so long. David is standing behind me now playing with my hair. I said David I have to go to town I don’t have anything to wear for my date tonight. David said Queenie, have you ever had your hair cut short? I said no I haven’t but I’m thinking about it. David said please don’t cut your hair, I really like it. Can I brush it sometimes? I said sure David I’ll let you brush my hair. By then I know David was trying to change the subject he didn’t want to talk about my date for some reason.

I ate all my breakfast and started to get up to clean the table. David puts his hands on my shoulders and pushes me back down, he says I’ll take care of this you just rest. I don’t understand David he is so hateful to me sometimes but he always wants to do everything for me.

Aunt Sybil comes in and asks if I’m okay, I say yes. I ask her if she knows Neal’s phone number she says why, because I’m going to break our date, I didn’t get anything to wear and I don’t have anything here. Aunt Sybil gives me his number; I get up to go the den to call. I pick up the phone and David reaches around me and takes the phone out of my hand. I just look at him because I don’t know what to say. David takes my hand and pulls me down the hall to my room. He reaches under my bed and pulls out a big box. He said Queenie I knew you wouldn’t have time to shop because you were at the hospital so I kind of guessed the sizes. He gave me the box and said open it; it’s for you. I am very surprised; no one ever gave me a present unless it was my birthday or Christmas. I open the box and pull out a red short sleeve shirt that buttons down the front and a little black skirt. I looked at David and said thank you then I threw my arms around him and kissed him dead on the lips. David is just as surprised as I am about this. He said, wow if you’ll do that every time I’ll buy you lots of new clothes. I start to blush and David touches me under my chin then leaves the room. I tried on my new clothes and show them to Aunt Sybil, she likes them too. She said she would help me put on make-up for my date. I told her that I didn’t want much on. She said I know you don’t need much you are very pretty without it.

At 5:30 I’m sitting in my bedroom looking at myself in the mirror. I’m wondering why I have all these funny feelings lately. Aunt Sybil says it’s because of my age. David walks up behind me. I say don’t you ever knock. He said no, but I will start if you want me to. I say yes I want you to. I say there in the vanity chair while David is standing behind me looking at me in the mirror. I say why are you always looking at me, you do it all the time. He said because I like what I see. I smile and say; well in that case you can look. Then he reaches over my shoulder gets the hairbrush and starts brushing my hair. We talk to each other. I ask David, what I’m supposed to do because I’ve never been on a date. David tells me to be careful but I don’t understand why.

Well when we finish talking. I go take a shower and get dressed in my new clothes. I tried to curl my hair but it’s too long to curl so I just wear it straight. Aunt Sybil brings some of her make-up in my room and helps me put some on. She tells me what each things for and what it is as she puts it on me. First she puts eye shadow on my eyelids, just a little, and then she puts on mascara, which was hard and messy. I couldn’t be still and she kept poking it in my eyes. The only thing left is lipstick, which I’ve never worn before either. I’ve only put on chapstick but she let me do the lipstick while she watched.

Aunt Sybil stands up and says; now Queenie stand up so I can look at you. I stood up, she says “you are a very pretty girl, now you have a good time okay”. I said okay she hugs me and walks out. I look at myself in the long mirror and I like what I see, the make-up looks good, I’ll have to get me some for home. My skirt fit perfect it was not to long or to short. My red shirt hangs right at the top of my skirt with little silver buttons all the way down the front. I notice that I have a pretty good figure, and I’m full busted (as my mama always says) which means I’m grown I guess. I turn to walk out of the room because it’s almost time for my date. I look down at my barefeet and say, well I guess I’d better put on shoes, I pull out my little black shoes, which are kind of worn and put them on. I took a wet rag form the bathroom and wiped the dust off them, and they look half way good. I start down the hall and as I’m passing David’s room he reaches out grabs my arm and pulls me into his room. He hugs and kisses me and says I just wanted to be the first to kiss you this evening. I got mad because he messed up my lipstick. I pulled away and went into the den where Neal was waiting for me. We go out to his truck and he opens the door for me to get in. We get in and go to the party.

We pull up to a big fancy house on the rich side of town, Neal gets out comes around and opens my door for me. We go inside and I almost gag from all the cigarette smoke and the smell of beer, and liquor. Neal walks over to talk to someone and I’m standing here by myself. These girls walk towards me and I notice it’s the rich girls from the mustang, all four of them. They walk up and offer me a beer, I say sure I’ll take one. They ask me if I want a puff on their cigarette. They were all four smoking one cigarette, taking turns. The girls ask me questions like how old I am, and where I live, who I come here with, but every time I answered a question they laugh at me. They were just standing there making fun of me. I just ignored it and start walking around talking to everyone. I didn’t know any of the people I talked to so I didn’t worry to much about making a fool of myself, plus I was feeling the beer pretty good and didn’t care anyway. After a very long time I see Neal standing over in the corner smoking a cigarette, no he was smoking a joint at least that’s what the girls told me it was. I smoked a joint with them; it really didn’t effect me that much I just laughed a lot. Neal sees me walking toward him and he pushes the girl he’s kissing on away, I walk up to him and say Neal take me home. He said Queenie we’ve only been here a few hours. I said, take me home I’m ready to go. Plus I could hardly stand up by myself after the joint and six beers. Neal walks me out to the truck, puts me in. He gets in and drives me home. We are in Aunt Sybil’s yard now there is no light on and it’s very dark except for Neal’s dashboard lights. I’m feeling kind of rough now so I open the truck door to get out. Neal reaches over me and grabs the door handle and shuts the door. Then he takes my face in his hands. I knew what he was going to do because David did the same thing before he kissed me. Neal pulls my face close to his and kisses me but he hurts me he’s real rough. I try to pull away but the more I try to the worse he gets. I finally relax a little and tell Neal that he’s hurting me, I thought if I relaxed he would be easier with me. I could not pull away from him and he starts touching me in my private places. I keep telling him to stop. Neal is very rough now he’s pulling my hair tearing at my clothes, I’m scared to death. I finally scream out. Stop Neal you are hurting me that’s when he slaps the crap out of me. I kick him as hard as I can. Neal is just too big and strong. All of a sudden Neal’s door swings open and David has him on the ground before I knew what was happening. I didn’t know what David did to him all I know is that my face hurts real bad. David opened my door grabs me up in his arms and carries me in the house. He sits me at the table, gets an ice bag and holds it on my face. He asks if I’m okay, I say yes. David tells me, “I told you he was a jerk didn’t I,” I say David just let it go, I’m not in the mood. He says what all did you do at the party? I stood around, smoked joints, and drunk beer that’s all. He said where was Neal all this time? I say, Neal was in the corner smooching on some girl and smoking joints. David said Queen, I knew something like this would happen that’s why I sat outside and waited on you. He takes the ice bag and puts it in the sink. He takes my hand and leads me down the hall to my bedroom. I get undressed and put on my T-shirt. David helps me do this, he has seen me naked before but for some reason I trust David, he gets a little protective sometimes, but I’m real glad he was earlier tonight.

I couldn’t go to sleep so I talked to David, I asked him why was Neal so rough, he was not gentle like you, he hurt me, is that what dating is all about?

David got up on the bed and laid down beside me he put his arms around me and said Queenie you are so naive and you need someone to look after you, but no that’s not what it’s all about, you’ve just had a bad experience and it’s real bad that it happened on your first date. David said that he was real pissed off. I fell asleep.

Sunday morning I can hardly get out of bed except to run to the toilet to puke. My head feels like I’ve been run over by a train. Aunt Sybil comes in to wake me up (of course I’ve been up a few times already). She tells me it’s time to get ready for church. David walks in the room and hands me something to drink. He says it will help my hangover, I told David I’d never drink again if I could just get rid of this headache and this sick feeling. He said drink this and take these aspirin, you should feel better after awhile, I drunk the nasty stuff in the glass and took two aspirin and prayed it would work real soon.

Well I made it to church alive, sat through church, not as scared this time because I half knew what to expect, after church I was still making it barely. This morning I just knew I was gonna die. I walk to the car and this girl is leaning against it. She says hi I’m Jo. I’m your Aunt Sybil’s neighbor; mama and me help in the chicken houses sometimes. I say hi, I’m Queen, she says what kind of name is Queen? I still feel bad so I say the kind of name my mama gave me. She looks puzzled at me and says oh. We stood there and talked awhile about where we lived, what we liked to do, stuff like that. I noticed that Jo is a big girl she probably weighed 190 pounds of course I wouldn’t say that to her, but I really think she would. We plan to do something this evening and she turns to walk away. I’m starting to feel a little better now and I can’t wait to get home and get some lunch.

After lunch I walked down to the horse barn to pet the ponies and Jo is standing there waiting on me, she says what do you want to do? I say it don’t matter to me whatever comes to mind. Jo says let’s go out to the pig barn; I say okay let’s go. I had not been to the pig barn yet so I was all for that. We got there and open the door, the pigs start squealing, and I grab my ears because they are real loud. There were six stalls with pigs, all colors, shapes, forms and fashion. We get all the way to the end when we see this mama pig with little babies. I bet the mama weighs 300 pounds and she as about fifteen babies. They are so cute, I’ve never seen a baby pig so I wanted to get a closer look and I want to hug on the baby pigs. Jo said you want to go in, and of course I get excited and say yea. We open the gate; the mama pig must be asleep because she never moves. We walk in with the pigs. I pick a couple of the babies up and start loving on them as long as I could keep them still. We are sitting in the hay in front of the mama pig with our backs to her. All of a sudden this big mama jumps up and starts snorting at us. We jump up and haul butt out the gate, not taking time to shut it back because this mama pig is real mad. She’s right behind us we run up to the barn to go outside and she’s still after us. We run down through the chicken houses, through the pasture, right through the middle of Aunt Sybil’s roses, we were screaming our heads off. I heard Aunt Sybil hollering at Sally (which was the mama pigs name) Aunt Sybil got a stick and starts running after Sally, but all Sally had on her mind was killing us. We start back toward the barn and I see Neal standing at the barn door motioning for us to run that way, so we tore off towards the barn, Sally hot on our heals. We make it to the barn and run inside. I see David on the other end of the barn yelling this way Queenie so I tore off towards David; he had opened the doors on the other end of the barn for us to run all the way through while they trapped Sally. Well it worked, me and Jo collapsed on the ground we were so tired. I saw Aunt Sybil coming through the barn, I said oh Lord Aunt Sybil’s gonna skin my hide, she told me not to go around the pigs. Well here she comes and when she gets close enough I see she is about to fall out laughing at us, she said Queenie now you see why I said to stay away form the pigs. I say yes maim.

Aunt Sybil turns and asks David to go help her do something and they walk off. I hear somebody laughing and saying that was so funny, you two running from that big old pig. Neal walks up, I say Neal it was not that funny, what if that big pit had caught us. She

‘d have chewed us up in little pieces. Neal says, well I would really hate to see my girlfriend get chewed up. I say you are not my boyfriend and I’m not your girlfriend. Neal smiled and says that’s not what you said last night. He turns around to walk off. I go after him; Jo is trying to hold me back. I walk through the barn and there is the big stick Aunt Sybil had. I pick up the stick and go after Neal. Jo is running by me saying Queen what are you going to do? Before she could get an answer out of me I see Neal he’s kneeling down petting the cat. I walk up behind him and whap him in the back of the head with the stick. Jo takes off running to the house hollering Aunt Sybil, Queen is killing Neal. Everyone comes running out of the house. Before I could hit him again David had me in a bear hug. I’m kicking and screaming I’m not your girlfriend don’t you ever say that again. David finally calms me down then he turns to Neal and says, Neal I don’t ever want to see you again, next time it’ll be me with the stick. Neal drops his head still rubbing the big knot on his head and walks away. Aunt Sybil looks and me and says Queenie that’s what happened to you’re face isn’t it, Neal hit you. I said yes maim. Aunt Sybil said I’d knock the crap out of him to. The she goes back in the house.

Jo’s jumping all around excited saying Queenie I thought you was gonna kill him.