The Fulfillment by Lavyrle Spencer Page A

front room a good spring cleaning tomorrow.”
    â€œSpring getting to you, Mary?” Aaron asked, reaching again for the sugar bowl.
    â€œI guess it has. Me and Jonathan both, I guess. Did I hear you whistling today, Jonathan?”
    But her effort fell flat, for Aaron made none of his usual jokes about his brother’s whistling. There followed an uncomfortable silence.
    Finally Aaron said, “We can take the wood stove out after supper, so it’ll be out of your way come morning.”
    â€œYes, do that.”
    When they were done eating, she cleaned up the kitchen while they dismantled the black stovepipe and carried it in pieces out to the back porch, followed by the stove itself and the silver asbestos pad from the floor under it. It was dirty work, and they needed washing to get rid of the soot they’d gathered while doing it. Mary had finished putting the kitchen back in order and left it to them. Aaron’s unaccustomed modesty had made her uncomfortable once already today while he was washing up. But he’d better snap out of it, and quick, she thought, because she wasn’t catering to such foolishness after today!
    Jonathan finished washing first and turned the sink over to Aaron. Aaron was dipping warm water from the reservoir when Jonathan said, “You know that Black Angus we talked about this winter?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œYou still in favor of me buying it, like you said?”
    â€œYou know more about it than I do. If it sounds like sound business, then go ahead.”
    â€œMary said the same thing.”
    â€œThen do it. You don’t need our okays, but you got ’em just the same. So what’s holding you up?”
    â€œNothin’. Nothin’ at all,” Jonathan replied.
    Aaron was bent over the washbasin lathering his face and neck when Jonathan continued.
    â€œExcept, I’ll have to make a trip to Minneapolis to do it.”
    â€œMary’d enjoy a trip like that.”
    â€œShe agreed to stay behind and help you with the sowing. I figure we won’t have it done yet when it’s time for me to go.”
    â€œYou know she can’t take the field work,” Aaron argued, not able to say that Jonathan must not leave her behind, no matter what.
    â€œIt’ll only be for a few days, is all.”
    â€œWhen you going?”
    â€œCattle Exposition is the last week in May. I’d want to go then to get my pick of the bulls. And so I can talk to the sellers and learn a little more about the breed.”
    â€œThere must be someplace around here you can buy one and save yourself the trip.”
    â€œLike I said before, nobody in these parts ever tried breeding Angus. All they think of is pork. I mean to get the jump on the beef business around here. The magazines say beef is the way the whole country’ll be eating before long, and they claim it’s Angus they’ll prefer.”
    They’d talked this over during the winter, and Jonathan, as usual, made good sense.
    â€œSo go ahead if you’ve decided. Maybe we’ll have all the crops in by then. It’s hard to tell.”
    â€œYou sure you don’t mind?”
    â€œNaw,” Aaron mumbled into the towel.
    â€œGood.”
    Jonathan left the kitchen and headed upstairs to bed. Left behind in the kitchen, Aaron leaned both hands on the edge of the sink, gripping it, staring down at the floor. He felt drained. Only one day since Jonathan had brought this unspeakable idea up among them, and his nerves were already strung out like fence wire. Now his brother had taken it one step further, providing a time when he and Mary would be left alone. Hah! If it weren’t so absurd, it would almost be laughable. But there was nothing funny about the situation at all. Today he’d acted like a schoolboy, flinching every time Mary came within touching distance, but he saw that this must end and knew he’d best treat her like he always had before.