Growing Grounds

Chapter 17: Crow's Cage and Foliage

Tammy made a beeline for the door of the shop and walked straight to the farthest corner, hoping Matt wouldn’t follow. She wanted to look around and leash her temper before trying to speak to Matt with any civility. Especially in public.

The bell sounded over the door when Matt walked inside. Tammy bent her attention to the numerous and varied useless items on a shelf in front of her. The shopkeeper greeted Matt—more than she had done when Tammy walked in. But then again, the expression on Tammy’s face might have warded off anyone’s greeting. Still, Tammy found it irritating that the woman had not spoken to her, but went out of her way to greet and then make small talk with Matt. Did she not know they were a couple? Married and expecting twins? Heat rushed from under her collar and the urge to throw something in the woman’s face overwhelmed Tammy.

Tammy had never been one for showing her temper, especially in public. Gripping a small wooden Dutch shoe that was meant to be used as a planter, Tammy had to squeeze her eyes shut and count to twenty to keep from chucking the shoe at the shopkeeper and Matt.

As she waited for the urge to pass, an episode with Cindy came to mind. She and Tammy had gone to a consignment shop that sold kids toys and clothes to let Cindy pick out something to play with in the yard. The clerk had spoken to Tammy and Mom as Cindy ran off to the toy section of the store. Grabbing a toy and running back to the front, Cindy became irate when the clerk didn’t immediately stop talking to Mom. Cindy’s temper tantrum was so out of control, loud, and violent that Tammy had backed up to the door and stared at her sister, horrified at the way she acted.

Mom had finally gotten hold of Cindy and physically restrained her from doing any more damage. She walked away with a busted lip after paying for the shelf and the glass case Cindy broke. They never took Cindy into another small shop again. As a matter of fact, they never took her into public again unless it was absolutely necessary.

Counting to twenty helped ease Tammy’s sudden anger, but Cindy stopped it dead in its tracks. Cindy, living up at Daisy Lawn. Cindy, ranting and raving. Cindy. The thought of her had acted like a bucket of water over a fire. All that remained of Tammy’s rage afterward was the smoldering memory of it.

Matt had made his way to the end of the aisle where Tammy stood with the wooden, painted, adorable Dutch shoe in her hand, which she did not chuck at him. She also didn’t try to smile at him to cover her anger; that would have been pointless. He knew she was upset at him over the way he had acted all the way to town.

Pointing to the shoe, he asked, “Going to start a new fashion around here?”

Tilting it back and forth in her hand, Tammy accomplished a smile that didn’t feel carnivorous, and replied, “Nope. I thought about throwing it at you, and then I decided it would make a much better planter than an assault weapon.” The smile turned into a smirk and she turned away from him.

“Wow. Okay. Well, I’m glad you found a better use for it than beating me up. Why are you so upset with me anyway?” Matt stepped close, blocking her into the corner in such a way as to force her to face him if she got out.

Opting to keep her back to him, Tammy asked, “What were you so upset about all the way here? Why were you so mad at me that you wouldn’t even turn down the radio to speak to me. You wouldn’t even look at me. I didn’t do anything for you to be mad at me about, Matt.” She turned sideways, but would not look at her husband for fear that she would end up acting just like Cindy had all those years ago.

“Oh! So you did notice, huh? I’m very upset, not mad, at you. Yes. I admit that much. If you don’t know why, then I’ll spell it out for you.”

Tammy did face him then. His expression had gone dark, an anger rested fitfully there in his expression that scared her. She had never been afraid of Matt, but this expression was unbridled anger that bordered on hatred.

Matt stepped forward so he could keep his voice low. Tammy took a small compensatory step backward.

“I don’t know why you’re mad at me, Matt.”

Swiping his hand through his hair, a sign of agitation she’d seen many times, Matt bit down hard to keep from yelling. “You’ve been going to the doctor without me. Having tests done and not even asking if I would like to be there, if I would like to be involved every step of the way with our twins. A boy and a girl. Who knew? Well, obviously not me. Nope! It was just unceremoniously dumped in my lap by accident when you were correcting me about the sexes of the babies this afternoon.”

“I have not been to the doctor without you, Matt.” Placing the planter on the nearest shelf, Tammy turned back to Matt. “I told you that I just know this stuff, Matt. I’m not lying.”

That was her sincere belief. She was not lying. She did just know that she was having twins. It was because she could hear their voices, but that was irrelevant. The light jacket proved too warm and Tammy shed it, draping it over her purse hanging at her side.

Matt reached around her and picked up the planter. “You want this? It’s cute. You said you were going to put plants in the nurseries.”

He bounced the wooden shoe in his hand, smiling, head tilted to the right. In the light from the storefront windows, Tammy could see the sixteen-year-old Matt that she had first fallen in love with a million years ago in high school. Could he still see the fifteen-year-old Tammy? She doubted it. Not today and not if he thought she was lying and deceiving him.

Tammy nodded. “Yes, I think it’s lovely and the babies would like it.”

Matt leaned in for a kiss. “I love you.” He looked down, laid a hand on her belly, and added, “All of you.”

The anger, even the smoldering memory of it, was gone that quickly. Extinguished by the memory of her love for Matt when it was a brand new thing. It had been exciting, fun, adventurous, spontaneous, untamed, and wild. Somewhere along the way, that had changed.

They walked around the store, hand in hand, picking up doo-dads and knick-knacks, remnants of other people’s lives, discarded for whatever reasons. Going through antiques always made Tammy feel a little like an interloper, an intruder, a voyeur, peeking into the lives of others, wondering at the story behind each object of interest—every object had a story, everyone knew that.

****

Being a nosybody is what I call it, Tammy. No one has a right to go through other people’s things; it’s not anyone’s business but the person who owns them.****

Tammy had always known her mother was wrong on that count. If there was a good reason, it was okay to snoop and be a nosybody.

“There are no cages here, Matt. Where do we go now?”

Tammy held the planter and Matt had picked out two wooden shutters that he thought would be nice on the inside of the downstairs nursery window. He wanted to paint the alphabet on them.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. There are about three more of these antique shops around town. Guess we’ll stop at one of them.” He set the shutters on the pay counter with the planter.

The shopkeeper stopped ringing up the items and said, “We have an upstairs, too, if you would like to go up and see if what you’re looking for is up there.” She pointed to a hidden stairwell at the back of the store in a dark corner, shrouded by a clothes rack.

Matt asked, “Do you have any bird cages?”

Tammy added, “Big bird cages.” She smiled and was relieved that she didn’t have to force it.

The other woman’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Absolutely. My great-grandmother used to keep a couple of crows, I know that sounds strange, but granny was a bit strange, and she bought a few cages and she actually built one. I think you might like it.” She walked briskly through the store, her nurse’s shoes whispering along the ancient tiles, to the stairwell and flipped on the lights. “If I kept birds, I would take the one she made, but I just can’t abide by them.” She went up in front of them and continued chattering. “I tried budgies one time—messiest damn birds in the world, if you ask me! So I have a fat, lazy cat that won’t even chase a mouse. She lays around the house all day, shedding and then acts like a diva when I go home in the evenings.” She reached the top of the stairs and flipped on another set of lights. “Well, here you go, folks. I’ve talked enough. Yell if you need anything. I’ll be downstairs.”

Matt whispered to Tammy, “If only her talking would have disappeared as quickly as she does…Whew!”

Tammy snorted laughter and buried her face in Matt’s shoulder until the laughter was under control.

The upstairs of the store was nothing like the downstairs. The floor was wooden and dusty. All the items were helter skelter stacked and pushed together to make tiny, uneven aisles. The light was horribly dim. The only windows sat behind closed shutters on the front and back sides of the large, open room.

Tammy spotted the cages, sitting at the wall closest to them. The black cages were from stores, Tammy was sure of that. Matt worked at the pile of cages, the bars of one entwined with the bars of three others.

Tammy wondered farther along the wall and spotted something under a sheet. She pulled the sheet away and saw the cage she wanted. “Matt! This is it! Stop fooling with those, baby. I want this cage.”

Matt stood straight and looked to the cage. “Wish you would have found that one about five minutes ago.” He laughed, let the cage he was holding flop back to the tangled pile, and walked to inspect the other cage.

“Isn’t it beautiful? I love it! I think Crow will love it, too.” Tammy ran her hand over the branches that made up the whole of the huge cage.

Matt said, “Well, I guess it’s a good thing we brought the truck! This thing’s enormous. Where are we going to put it at home?” He backed up and seemed to be sizing up the thing.

“In the living room. It’ll go good with the chair you brought home.”

“I guess so.” Matt lifted the large rounded cage off the wooden stand and eyed the stairwell. “I hope it will fit down the stairs. I’ll come back for the stand.”

“I’ll wait up here. I want to look around some more.”

Matt nodded and disappeared to the stairs. Tammy could hear him struggling with the cage, banging it against the walls of the stairwell as he made his way slowly to the bottom.

Bending to one knee, Tammy ran her fingers over the thick, sturdy, tall slab of wood that was the stand. There were markings on the wood but the lighting was too poor for her to make them out. The stand and the cage actually seemed to have been made by the same person who made the chair. They shared similar features, just as a brother and sister will, or cousins maybe.

Nothing strange happened when she touched the stand. No visions, no wood turning to flesh. But still, she thought the maker of the chair had also had a hand in the making of the cage and the stand.

A voice deep in her subconscious, one that didn’t belong to her twins or her mother, whispered, And maybe that’s why it seemed so perfect for your crow, for your situation, for you.

Gooseflesh raced over her entire body. Tammy hadn’t recognized the male voice as she did all the others. Quickly making her way downstairs, Tammy slowed only long enough to thank the shopkeeper and went to the truck.