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Chapter 2: Amen
Diana sat at the kitchen table chopping and listening to her children laughing and giggling as they played a rough and tumble game of wrestling with their Dad in the small dusty dirt lot that served as a back yard to the bungalow where they were living. The Hanson family of five had been assigned a tiny four room bungalow. The kitchen was so tiny that they had put the kitchen table in the room that was supposed to be the living room. It to, was barely large enough for a small couch and one chair and the bedrooms were only large enough for a double bed in each. Their request for bunk beds for the boys room had been ignored, as had most of their requests. The baby bed and playpen that they had requested for Jessica had been in such dangerous shape that they had returned them to the warehouse rather than take a chance of their baby being hurt. Living conditions at the company compound were not exactly what they had expected but they had learned to make do. Their three boys shared one double bed at night, and the baby shared their bed. During the day, Diana made a pallet on the floor out of blankets and just let the baby roll around in just a diaper. The heat and humidity in Venezuela was oppressive and the electricity allotments in the compound didn’t allow for air-conditioning, had been available, which it wasn’t. As it was, they survived the heat the best they could and used the one small rotating fan at night, placed in the hallway between the two bedrooms to circulate the air a little and to make sleeping easier.
Walker lumbered toward the house with their three year old sitting on his shoulders and hanging on with fistfuls of hair, and giggling, wiggling boys tucked up under his arms. As he entered the house he ducked down so Zac wouldn’t get knocked off and stood in the doorway with his arms full.
Diana looked up and laughed at them. “Don’t stop there with them. Take them on into the bathroom for a bath!”
Shouts of laughter and bellows of complaints and denials were ignored as Walker carried his boys onward toward to the bathroom and wrestled them out of their shorts and into the bath tub.
Diana listened and
continued with her task. After a while Walker reappeared and she
could hear the boys arguing and playing in the water.
“I can’t tell where
the dirt ends and the tan begins on them anymore,” Walker declared as he
sat down in a chair opposite his wife at the table.
“I know, if they
get any darker and the sun bleaches their hair any lighter, they’re liable
to glow in the dark.” Diana agreed with a laugh.
Walker looked at
a pile of chopped peanuts his wife had just finished. “What are you
making?”
Diana opened one
of the kitchen cabinets and handed him a jar of peanut butter. “Chunky
peanut butter. It’s Ikes’ favorite and the market doesn’t carry it,”
she answered and handed him a bowl and a large spoon. “I chopped,
you stir.”
Walker dumped and
scraped the contents of the jar out into the bowl and Diana poured the
chopped nuts into it. “Wow, this is tough,” he grumbled as
he tried to stir the thick mixture.
“It’s a generic
brand, but the boys aren’t complaining, and neither am I, so as long as
they carry it.” Diana exclaimed.
“You never complain
about anything,” Walker said with smile. “Oh, I forgot. There
are some batteries in my briefcase for the cassette player. I’ve
been talking to the guy who runs the supply depot and he’s working on getting
me a constant supply, plus he’s going to take me into the warehouse over
the weekend so I can see if there is anything we can use there.”
“We need a crib,
although where we’d put it I don’t know,” Diana said. “We’d better
get the boys out before they totally soak the bathroom.”
“Too late for that,”
Walker laughed. “The floor was soaked even before I left, but I don’t
blame them, its so darn hot.”
“You get them out,
I’ll set up a snack before we put them bed,” Diana suggested, opening and
standing in front of the refrigerator for a moment to enjoy the cool air.
“I saw that!’ Walker
exclaimed and Diana laughed. It was a constant struggle to keep the
boys out of the refrigerator. With the constant opening of the door,
it was difficult to keep any food or drink cold.
A few minutes later
three happy children lined up ready for a snack before bedtime. Ike
wrinkled his nose at the milk which had been mixed from a powder but drank
it anyway. Taylor grabbed for half of a peanut butter sandwich while
Zac was still struggling to get up in his chair.
“Hey, hey,” Walker
admonished gently. “Don’t we say grace or even a thank you to Mommy
for snacks around here anymore?”
“Sorry, Daddy,”
Ike mumbled. “Thank you, Mommy,” Taylor exclaimed and three year
old Zac finally up in his chair just yelled “Me want some too!”
Walker handed his
son a sandwich, as his mother set a plastic glass down in front of him.
But then he held up his hand and all three sets of eyes looked at him.
“First we say grace, then you thank Mommy and then you get to eat.”
“Yes, sir.” two
boys chorused together and the youngest just looked on with large solemn
brown eyes.
Walker said a short
grace and all the boys chorused Amen and then awaiting a nod of permission
began to eat their sandwiches.
“You know you guys
sound pretty good together,” Walker said directing his words at Ike and
Taylor.
“Good at what?”
Ike asked.
“I mean you are
harmonizing.” Walker said and when he received confused looks he explained.
‘I mean that your voices are blending well together.”
Ike and Taylor
were still looking at him confused. “Finish you snack and then I’ll
show you what I mean.” Walker promised.
A half hour later,
with a sleepy three year old curled up in Diana’s lap, Walker was still
teaching voice scales to Ike and Taylor. They had accomplished perfect
harmony on one word. Amen.