Mary and Alvin

Baby Business

Mary tried to remember what it was like to not be tired. She was thankful that she had a job that allowed her a full year of maternity leave; she could not imagine how she would manage if she had to go to work each day while taking care of a newborn. Of course, Alvin was a tremendous help. In addition to being willing to take as much of the burden as he could, his experience with parenthood proved invaluable. And having Jennifer and Danni and their new baby just a short walk away was a godsend. But she was the mother, the heaviest burden fell to her.

She dressed Hannah in the New England Patriots jumper her Uncle Tim had bought her, then put on the carrier sling and tucked her inside it. She draped a sweater over her shoulders and stepped outside.

With the end of the summer tourist season, life had grown quiet, calmer. It was as if everyone let out a sigh of relief when Labor Day passed. The first chill of autumn was in the air.

It was the weekend of the Faulkner's annual trek up to their camp in northern Maine. Neither Mary nor Jennifer wanted to take their newborn babies out in the woods, so they stayed home. The truth was, they were both looking forward to some relative peace and quiet. Danni stayed home as well, but she would be spending much of the weekend on duty.

Mary walked down the lane toward the new house, between the browning stalks of corn, listening to them rustle in the wind. They would be giving up their last ears in the next week or so, and there were still pumpkins and winter squash to harvest, but the growing season, like summer, was winding down.

A dozen Canada geese grazed near the pond and watched her as she walked around the house to the front steps. She gave a soft tap on the storm door, then pushed it open and stuck her head inside.

"Hey, Jen, it's me."

"Come on in, Mary," Jen said quietly from the living room. Mary stepped into the house and kicked off her shoes. Jennifer was sitting on the couch, Bonita sleeping snugly against her hip.

Mary sat down at the other end of the couch. Hannah stirred a bit, then she fell sleep as well.

"Do you want some ice tea?" Jennifer asked, carefully rising and tucking a pillow between Bonita and the edge of the couch.

"That sound's great," Mary said. "Is Danni still sleeping?"

"Yeah. These late shifts are actually a blessing, because we are awake at different times to deal with the baby." Jennifer took a few steps, then turned and looked down at her daughter.

"Do you find that you don't want to lose contact with your baby? Like, you can hardly stand to not be right there with her every minute?"

"I did for the first couple of weeks," Mary nodded, "but it wears you out after a while and you want to say, I love you, baby, but leave me the fuck alone for a while."

Jennifer laughed and went to the kitchen. She came back a few minutes later with two tall glasses of tea. She handed one to Mary then sat down on the coffee table, leaning over her sleeping baby.

"I can't wait for her to go to sleep, then I can't wait for her to wake up."

Mary closed her eyes and shook her head. "I just wish Hannah would sleep more than a couple of hours at a time."

"I'll tell you what, Mary, when we stop nursing, you and me are going to go out and get shit faced drunk."

Mary raised her glass and tapped it against Jennifer's. "Then spend the whole next day sleeping it off."

"That's a date," Jennifer said, taking a long sip of tea.

Hannah began to kick, so Mary slipped her out of the sling and laid her down on the couch next to Bonita. She looked around for a minute, then went back to sleep.

"Kind of funny to see them side by side and think that Hannah is Bonita's aunt," Jennifer chuckled.

"Not any stranger than me being your stepmother, I suppose," Mary said.

"And her grandmother," Jennifer added.

"Do you think of me as her grandmother?"

"Of course. I need to start supper," Jennifer said, standing up.

"Can I help?"

"You know what, Mary, you look exhausted. Why don't you just take a nap or something. I'll keep an ear open for the girls."

"Oh, that sounds like a dream come true," Mary said.

"I'm going to wake Danni up in a little bit, and I'll wake you when supper is ready."

"Thank you, Jen." Mary lifted her legs on to the couch and curled up, her feet near the sleeping babies. She closed her eyes and listened to Jennifer puttering in the kitchen and humming to herself. In a matter of minutes, she was sound asleep.

She awoke and for a minute was not sure where she was. She sat up, blinking. She looked down at her feet, remembered that Hannah had been lying there, and for a second, felt a rush of panic.

"Hey, Mar, you awake?" she heard Jennifer call, "Supper is just about ready."

Mary got up and went into the kitchen. Jennifer stood at the stove, stirring something in a wok while balancing Bonita on her hip. Danni was sitting at the table, cradling Hannah against her chest.

"I think she's hungry," Danni said, "She doesn't seem to understand why I can't feed her."

Mary laughed and took Hannah into her arms. She sat, unbuttoned her shirt and raised her baby to her breast. Danni smiled at her, but something in her eyes made her look sad.

"Hey, I changed her a little while ago," Jennifer said as she placed a steaming bowl of rice on the table.

"Thanks, I owe you one. Can I help you with serving supper?"

"Nope, all set."

"She is determined to never need help," Danni shrugged.

"Remind you of anyone?" Mary laughed.

Jennifer had made a stir fry of chicken, onions, red peppers and broccoli.

"Is this one of yours?" Mary asked as she took a bite of chicken.

"No, it's store bought. Everything else is home grown though."

Danni cleared her throat and looked at Jennifer. "As long as we are talking about the farm..."

Jennifer grimaced, then put down her fork. "Yeah, Mary, I was wondering if we could talk about, I guess I'd call it a business matter."

"Don't know what else you'd call it," Danni muttered.

"Sure," Mary replied, "What's up?"

Jennifer got up and moved Bonita to the couch, then came back. "Alright," she said, "So I call this my farm, but it's really not, is it? Technically it belongs to my Dad, Uncle Tim and Aunt Di, because they inherited the property from their parents."

"Well, not exactly," Mary replied, "owning the real estate doesn't necessarily mean they own the business."

Jennifer wagged her finger at Danni. "See, isn't that basically what I was saying?"

Danni shrugged. "It's a distinction without a difference. It's a farm, the business doesn't exist without the land."

"So, what's your concern?" Mary asked.

"So the family company, also known as Dad, Tim and Di, let me use the land and invested the cash for equipment, seed, the livestock and all that. But nobody ever really said if it was a loan or a gift or even if my fucking sweat equity makes me an equal partner."

"Yeah, that should have all been spelled out," Mary said. And would have been if I hadn't been in on the discussions, she thought.

"So, all the money that we've brought in, we just keep it. I haven't paid anything back or anything. But I am looking at the ledgers," she picked up a spiral bound notebook from the table and set it in front of Mary, "And I think that next year, the farm will make a profit above our budgeted expenses."

"And whose money is that?" Mary nodded.

"Exactly. Should I start paying them back? Invest it in more stock? Go to Las Vegas? What?"

Mary flipped open the notebook and glanced over some of the entries. "That's a good question. Leaving out Vegas, what do you think you should do?"

Jennifer stared at her plate for a moment, then looked up and said, "I'd like to buy them all out."

Mary sat up straight. "You obviously are not going to have enough to do that in one year."

"No, but I might have enough to make a mortgage payment."

"Which is what every bankrupt farmer in America said at some point," Danni interjected.

"But I have a secret weapon," Jennifer told her.

"What secret weapon?" Mary asked.

"You."

"Me?"

"Yep. My idea is that I register the farm as an independent business, negotiate a price to buy out my Dad and his sibs and take out a mortgage to pay them off."

"And you figure I have the financial experience and expertise to advise you in making that work."

"No. I mean, yes, but not as an advisor. I want you to be my business partner."

Mary didn't know what to say. Jennifer's offer put her in an awkward position. She liked the idea of helping Jennifer make the farm more profitable, but she was not sure that she wanted the responsibility, and the risk, of being her partner. Even more importantly, she saw how accepting such an offer would create a problem for her.

"I'm really honored that you would want me to be your partner," she said, "But there's some serious issues with it."

"Conflict of interest," Danni nodded.

"Very big conflict." Mary reached across the table and laid her hand on Jennifer's. "Honey, as your father's wife, I am, in a legal sense, also a partner in the business we'd be negotiating with."

"I didn't think about it that way," Jennifer said, with a trace of a pout. "Honestly, I haven't been thinking about that part of it at all. I tend to skip over the business details, and think about the actual farming, you know?"

"I get that, honey. Tell you what, I will help you find a good financial advisor. You get things straightened out with the family, then we can talk about this. Okay?"

Jennifer's face brightened. "That sounds great, Mary, thanks."

Danni shook her head. "I won't object, but I am still worried about the risk of going into so much debt."

Mary flipped through the notebook. "I think that a solid, long term business plan is essential. Jen, let me ask you a question."

"Sure."

"How long do alpacas live?"

"Fifteen, twenty years."

"And how much can you make in a year selling the wool?"

"About five hundred dollars each."

Mary frowned. "So, in it's lifetime, each alpaca will bring in three or four thousand dollars in wool."

"Right, which is less than they cost to buy. That's why the money is in the breeding, not the wool."

"Can you hold her?" Mary asked Danni, handing over the baby. When Danni took her, Mary took her phone from her pocket. After a few minutes on the internet, she looked up at Jennifer.

"Value added," she said.

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning, yarn is worth more than a bag of wool. So, don't sell the wool, make yarn and sell that."

"Mary, that's not easy, like, oh let's just make some yarn. That would take a big investment of time and effort. We'd have to put up another building, buy equipment, probably have to hire people."

Mary shrugged. "And it would take years to make it worth those costs. But honey, successful businesses think in those terms. Not what next years numbers look like, but what they'll look like going forward."

Jennifer smiled and poked Danni on the shoulder. "See what I mean?" she asked. "We have a secret weapon."

Mary blushed and finished her supper.

"You know I can't keep this secret from your father, right?" she asked Jennifer as they took their plates to the sink.

"Yeah, I know," Jennifer replied.

Danni got ready for her shift and said her goodbyes. Mary and Jennifer spent the evening on the couch, watching television. It wasn't long before they both began to doze off. They came wide awake, though, when Bonita began to wail, waking up Hannah, who joined her.

"Alright, I guess I'll take the princess home," Mary said, standing and stretching.

"Maybe you can take them both," Jennifer grumbled.

"See, I told you you'd get to this point," Mary laughed.

She carried her baby home, between the dark stands of whispering corn and under a luminous night sky. She looked up and saw a falling star. I should make a wish, she thought, but could not think of anything she did not have.

***

Alvin came home on Sunday afternoon with a cooler full of lake trout. He cleaned them at the kitchen sink while Mary sat at the table, bouncing Hannah on her knee.

"So, how was camp? Did Uncle Harry see any UFOs?" she asked him.

"Not this year. Claimed there's been a wolverine skulking around his yard lately, though."

"Are there wolverines in Maine?"

"Not as I've ever heard." He finished prepping the last fish, then took a beer from the refrigerator and sat down at the table. He took Hannah from Mary and held her up in front of him, gazing closely at her face.

"What are you looking at?" Mary asked.

"I was trying to see if one of her eyes was bigger than the other, like yours."

Mary shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Hannah, you are as pretty as your mama, and she's the prettiest woman I've ever seen."

"Even with mismatched eyes."

"In old Persia, the rug makers always made one tiny mistake, because only God is perfect." He gave Hannah back to Mary. "But them old Persians never saw the two of you."

Alvin panfried the trout and served it with fresh corn and green beans. It still gave him a little bit of a thrill to eat food that his daughter had grown only steps from the door.

"Oh, Di had some good news," he told Mary as they ate, "Coast Guard is finally putting through Andy's transfer to Maine. You remember her boy Andy, you danced with him at our wedding."

"I definitely remember him," she smiled, "He's too handsome to forget."

Alvin stopped with his fork halfway to his mouth and stared at her. Mary laughed. "Oh silly, I just said that as a joke because he looks so much like you."

Alvin swallowed his corn and nodded. "Now that you mention it, he is a wicked handsome fella. Anyway, he'll be stationed right down in Rockland."

Mary was considering how to broach the subject of her conversation with Jennifer when Alvin asked her, "So how was your weekend, sweetheart?"

"Well, I missed you," she said, "But it was nice spending some time with Jen and Danni."

"That's good," he said, standing up to clear the dishes, "It makes me proud to see the way you support each other."

"That brings up something I want to talk to you about, Alvin."

He leaned on the sink, crossing his arms. "What is it? Is everything alright?"

"Let me put the baby down, then we'll talk." Mary took Hannah into the living room and tucked her into her bassinet. "By the way, I baked an apple pie, you want some?" she asked as she returned to the kitchen.

"You did? Hell, yes, I'd like some."

Mary cut two wedges of pie and plated them.

"Let's sit on the porch and have them," Alvin said, "we don't have many more evenings this nice ahead of us." He fetched the bassinet while Mary carried the pie out to the front porch.

The sun was low in the west and its light cast a golden glow over the long rows of corn and the pine trees beyond them. Mary described her conversation with Jennifer while Alvin ate his pie and Hannah cooed between them. He remained silent while he finished eating. He rubbed his finger through the last smear of pie filling on his plate, then reached his hand down to Hannah. She took hold of his finger and licked it clean.

"When that gives her gas, you're going to burp her," Mary said with a chuckle.

"Fair enough," he nodded, then paused. After a moment, he said, "I have to say, Miss Mary, you did tell me that we needed to have these ducks in a row from the get-go."

"I'm not trying to say I told you so, Alvin."

"I know that. But you did tell me so."

"Well, what do you think?"

Alvin frowned. "I think the farm would likely be more successful if you took a hand."

"But?"

"But I expect Diana won't see it that way."

"Alvin, I've been biting my tongue this whole time. I know you don't want to rock the boat, but think about this. Someday, you'll be gone, Diana and Tim will be gone, and who will be making the decisions then? Should Theo and Rachel and Andy, or their spouses or children, have say over the management of the farm that Jennifer has put her life's work into?"

"No, of course not."

"You know what, ask Charlotte about this, see what she says from a legal, as well as a personal point of view."

"Honey, I get it."

Mary waved her arm toward the field. "How much is a bushel of corn going for right now?"

"I have no idea. But Mary, we have not interfered with anything Jen wanted to do."

"Not yet, but what will happen if she comes to you and says she needs more money for expansion or to buy equipment?"

"I expect we'd do what we can."

"You can't run a business that way, Alvin. She needs to be able to make long term plans."

"Alright, I hear what you're saying."

Mary took his plate and set it with hers. She held his hand and leaned her shoulder into his. "Sweetie, you'd sail right into the eye of a hurricane for one of your children. You ought to be able to stand up to your sister."

Alvin kissed the top of her head. "Hannah's asleep," he whispered.

Mary checked on their daughter. "Yep, she's out."

"I heard you say you missed me."

"I missed you terribly."

"I missed you as well. Maybe we ought to..."

"Yeah, maybe we ought to." Mary stood up and carefully lifted the bassinet. Alvin picked up the dishes and held the door open for her. She tiptoed up the stairs and put Hannah in her crib. When she turned, she saw Alvin standing in the doorway. She crossed to him, put her hands on his chest, and lifted her face to kiss him. He returned the kiss, then took her hand and led her into the bedroom.

They fell on to the bed together. Alvin pulled Mary close and rolled on to his back. She leaned with her elbows on his chest and looked down at him.

"I didn't like sleeping in this big bed alone," she said.

"You had a bed, at least, I was sleeping in a tent."

"Oh, you love that."

She leaned forward and kissed him. He slid his hands down her back and under the waist of her sweat pants as she began unbuttoning his shirt. She slowly moved down his body, trailing kisses across his chest and stomach. When she reached his waistline, she tugged his belt open, slid down his zipper, and reached inside. As she pulled his cock out, Hannah began to cry.

Mary hung her head and chuckled. "That's a gas cry," she said.

"How can you tell the difference?" Alvin asked.

"I'm her Mom." She rolled over on her back and patted Alvin's thigh. "You're the guy who thought a six week old baby ought to have apple pie, buddy."

Alvin sat up with a moan, stuffed his penis into his pants and rose from the bed. He padded into the nursery and tossed a hand towel over his shoulder. He lifted Hannah from her crib and held her to his chest, gently patting her back. After a couple of minutes, she spit up on the towel. Alvin sat in the rocking chair and wiped her face.

Hannah looked up at him with inquisitive eyes. "I'm going to have a good time watching you grow up, little girl," he told her, "So don't be in too big a rush."

He rocked her back and forth, waiting for her to go back to sleep, but she continued to look around the room with curiosity.

Struggling not to doze off himself, he talked to the baby. "I rocked one little girl in this chair, and and she's going to be a lawyer. How about that? Rocked another one and she's a farmer, of all things. And on the same land her great great great grandparents farmed. Ain't that something?"

He chuckled to himself. "And maybe she's going to be my landlady, what do you think of that?"

He looked down at his daughter. She was asleep. He laid her in the cradle, then stood looking down at her.

"I wonder what great things you will do, little sweetheart." He crossed the room and turned off the light. I just hope I'll be here to see it, he thought.

He looked into the bedroom. Mary was sleeping. He tiptoed into the room and pulled the blanket up around her. She turned and muttered but did not awaken. Alvin felt disappointed, but let her sleep, and went downstairs to have another piece of apple pie.