Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
This story is a very slow work in progress ladies, but thank you for reading and for the encouraging messages. I have a new addition for today, hope you all enjoy.
HugZ, Noni _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
Wed May 27, 2009 9:01 am
MysteryGirl Moderators
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
To be truthful she didn’t really have a clue what she wanted to do or where she was going but anywhere had to be better than this flat, hot Godforsaken cowtown. Her first view of Amarillo had been through the rose tinted spectacles of love, she’d settled into her new workplace reasonably easily, though there wasn’t the scope for artistic freedom that there had been in a huge place like L.A. but it was a job and seeing Karla so ecstatic to be home, had made it seem worthwhile.
But the first big crack in the façade of her seemingly happy new world had come early, on only the second night in their new home, they had spent the better part of two days unpacking and setting up without really seeing two many people as it was the middle of a work week. But that night, they were to drive out to Karla’s family ranch, some 30 miles south of town to meet up with her parents and Dianne didn’t need to ask to know her gal was as nervous as a cat on hot bricks. She remembered trying to defuse the tension, making a joke as she exited the shower about how neat and pretty she was in a ironed pair of jeans and a new shirt, bought especially for the occasion, rather more feminine than her usual style, but she wanted to make a good first impression. They were a fairly elderly couple, both fast approaching 70, Karla was their only child who had come along very late in their marriage and apparently was the light of their life. She admitted it had broken their hearts when she had left town some three years ago and they were very excited about her moving back, in their enthusiasm having gone ahead and rented and partly furnished the apartment without asking permission from either of them. But her attempts that night to dispel Karla’s nervousness met with no answering smile or smart quip, so eventually she sat them both down on the sofa to talk.
“OK babe, out with it, tell me what is dancing around in that pretty little head of yours”
Karla’s eyes were everywhere but looking straight at her, finally she spoke in almost a whisper.
“Di, honey, there is something that I didn’t tell you about my folks, I meant too, honestly, I was going to discuss it on the trip but what with Mischief yowling all the time and you getting so tense and me having a headache, well I just didn’t get around to it.”
Karla looked so damn miserable that Dianne’s heart melted, like it always did when she saw that her ‘sunshine girl’, a nickname she had given Karla on the day they met, was unhappy.
“Hey sweetie, what could be so bad hey? I know it will be a little awkward at first, they are bound to be a little jealous seeing their baby girl has someone new in her life that loves her as much as they do, but I’m sure they will get used to it, especially when they see how good we are together and how well I treat you. I promise to be on my best behavior tonight, so c’mon babe, tell me, what is this big secret?”
“I didn’t tell them about you.”
Karla’s quiet words hung in the air as if they had been shouted out loud and initially the statement made no sense to Dianne, of course they knew about her, she had even talked briefly to Karla’s Mom on the phone several times in the days before they left L.A..
“Hon, I’m sorry, I don’t understand what………..”
Karla interrupted her in a voice full of misery “I didn’t tell them about US, they don’t know you are my partner, they think you are just a friend, you know, a straight girlfriend”.
It had taken a few seconds for Karla’s words to sink in but when they eventually did, Dianne had been shocked to her core.
“What, you mean they don’t know we are a couple? But why…….oh hell Karla, they don’t know you are gay,? You haven’t told them, have you? How could you do this, ask me to leave my job and come here with you and not tell them? I don’t understand this at all, are you ashamed of me, what? Talk to me babe”
The conversation that followed had been long and painful and ended with Dianne sending Karla off to her visit with her parents alone, she needed time to take in the implications of this non disclosure and what it meant for her, for them. Whilst living in L.A., of the two of them, Karla had definitely been the most ‘out’, in her workplace and her social life, in fact she had introduced Dianne to a whole range of lesbian bars, clubs and social groups that she had never known existed. So to find that her lifestyle was totally hidden to her gal’s parents, and that she herself was seen as nothing more than their daughter’s friend, had her head spinning and her stomach tied in nervous knots, it was the first time she had doubted even slightly, Karla’s commitment to their union.
Later that night, she held Karla close in the darkness of their bedroom and listened to her tale of two people who had tried to have a child for so long, understanding that the conceiving of this baby when they had both long given up hope, had been treated as a minor miracle. Karla had always admitted quite cheerfully to being a spoiled brat and thinking back to any rare times of friction between the pair of them, Dianne was slowly coming to the realization that these always occurred when Karla didn’t get her own way. But she had been a good natured, sunny tempered child who was indulged by all who knew her and so there had been no real reason to rebel against any of her parent’s restrictions, most of which centered, as Karla entered her teenage, years around how she was to conduct herself with the opposite sex. Even then, she admitted to Dianne, her head buried in her lover’s shoulder and the words escaping her lips in short bursts, along with a steady trickle of hot tears, she still hadn’t felt any need to oppose her parent’s mandates, as at 15 she’d already begun to understand that it was other girls who made her heart skip. So ignoring the boys and burying herself in her studies had been an easy compliance.
“Oh hon” she sniffled into the supply of tissues that Dianne was handing her “I just didn’t know what to do, Momma and Daddy took me to Church every Sundays and they taught that homosexuality was a huge sin, against God, how could I turn around and tell them their little girl was gay, it would have destroyed them. It was only when I went away to college in Dallas that I began to explore that side of myself and I surely did, with a vengeance. Afterwards, when I got a job there and only came home on holidays, well I was just too scared to upset them, especially Mom, you know her heart is bad. I kept telling myself, after I moved to L.A. that I‘d find a way to tell them but it just never seemed to be the right time. I‘m such a coward babe, but I truly tried in that last week, every time I opened my mouth to tell Mom on the phone, she just talked over me, prattling on about the apartment and stuff, she was so happy and all, I just chickened out.” Turning her tearstained face to hold Dianne’s gaze, she begged
“Please babe, I’m so sorry, I’m not ashamed of you or us, I just got caught between my parent’s over protectiveness and doing the right thing, please don’t hate me”
As always, the sight of tears in those big blue eyes was Dianne ‘s undoing and she ruffled her Karla’s hair and wiped her eyes.
“Well baby girl, that was then and now is now, you are a big girl and it’s time your folks knew who you are. I know it won’t be easy and I’m not asking you to do it all at once. But bit by bit you are going to have to get them used to the idea cause I’m here to stay and I’m proud of being your gal.”
The loud blasting of a vehicle horn right behind her brought Dianne abruptly back to the present day, she was still sitting at the Highway T junction with a long line of traffic banked up behind her.
“Ummmm, earth to Dianne” chuckled Krystal “You want for me to drive cause at this rate we are gonna get to work in time to clock off”. She laughed again at Dianne’s muttered exclamation of horror as she threw the truck into gear and screeched out into the highway, revving the engine in a futile attempt to coax more than 55 MPH from the old crate. She really needed a whole new vehicle if she was going to make it all the way back to Oregon. _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
Wed May 27, 2009 9:03 am
ThatGirlFierce
Joined: 17 Apr 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Florida
awsome add love this story
Wed May 27, 2009 6:38 pm
MdmPrez
Joined: 16 Oct 2007
Posts: 803
Location: US of A
Noni
This is a great write. You're putting down such a wonderfully descriptive
foundation. However, I never expected the twist in this last installment.
It took me by total surprise. Good job.
Cat
Wed May 27, 2009 7:27 pm
MysteryGirl Moderators
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
Im very glad you are enjoying it TGF
And Cat, surprise is good, I'd hate to be too presictable.
HugZ, Noni _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
Thu May 28, 2009 1:24 pm
MysteryGirl Moderators
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
Her workday passed much as all the others before it, the Boss was his usual charming self (NOT) and the customers were a mix of delightful right thru to the assholes than ran her ragged and then stiffed her for a tip. One table of five men in suits left her a handful of small change on their table that when counted yielded the princely sum of $1.17 and that after they had spent at least $100 on drinks alone. It was all she could do not to throw it after them as they left and suggest that they probably needed it more than her.
“I need this job, I need this job” was a mantra she was finding it necessary to repeat to herself more and more often these days, but to come down to serving at tables after the responsibility and good money she had earned in advertising for so many years had been a bitter pill to swallow. There were times when she had to remind herself that the way this global recession was biting all over, she could just as easily have lost her job in L.A. by now too. Finally 6pm rolled around and she opened the back kitchen door to be met by a wall of heat that almost knocked her backwards.
“Holy shit, it must be 105 deg out here” she gasped to Mariano, one of the kitchen hands who was headed to the car park with her.
“No way Ms Matson, more like 110” he replied with a grin “You’re not a native of Texas, that’s easy to see, don’t worry, after a few more Summers you will get used to it,”
“Not a chance” she thought to herself, climbing into her oven of a truck, first removing the towel she had learned to drape over the steering wheel to prevent it being too hot to touch. By the time next Summer came around she had plans to be anywhere but here, away from the heat, the dust and the arrogant ‘everything is bigger and better in Texas’ attitude that seemed to prevail in these parts. Away from the intolerant redneck attitude to gays she had come across too, sometimes it felt like she had been sucked into a time warp in that regard, having come from more laid back and accepting communities in California and Oregon. In part, she conceded, this way of thinking had been what had made it so hard for Karla to own their relationship once they moved back to Amarillo, both to her parents and just in general. Mostly though, and she knew this to be true, Karla had reverted back to her role as the spoiled, only child and this ‘new’ person she suddenly had to deal with had left Dianne confused and at time, downright angry.
And of course, Karla’s Mom’s health scare had just added to the mix. They hadn’t been back maybe three weeks, she reminded herself, that the woman had been rushed to the local Hospital after suffering a major heart attack, from there they had air lifted her to a top cardiac unit in Dallas where it was touch and go for at least the first week.
It had been under these uncertain and stressful circumstances that she had met Karla’s father for the first time, when she drove the two of them to the airport to catch a flight to the Hospital, Mr. Gruenwald was a short, unassuming man with just a hint of his German ancestry still clinging to his speech. The shock of his wife’s illness made him look older than his 69 years and he hardly spoke more than a dozen words during the short trip in which he sat in the back seat, clinging to Karla’s hand,. In fact Dianne was later to recall that he looked more like a bewildered child himself, desperately seeking reassurance from a parent that all would be well. Mrs. Gruenwald survived but was in hospital for nearly three weeks, then flown back to the local medical facility for another week, before she was allowed to go home on strict bed rest.
Karla spent nearly every moment possible at her Mother’s bedside and Dianne knew that then was not the time to be pushing her girl to reveal the true nature of their relationship. Instead she had worked hard at settling into her new position, inwardly chafing at the lack of artistic freedom that came with it, in truth this branch was more just a glorified copy shop with very little scope for one off or individual art work. At night she curled up in bed in the new apartment, alone except for Mischief purring at her feet. _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
Thu May 28, 2009 1:53 pm
angelsheart
Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 496
Location: Nis/ Serbia
Poor Diane
Nice story , noni! Thank you!
_________________ There used to be a grayin' tower all alone on the sea... You became the light on the dark side of me...
Thu May 28, 2009 3:15 pm
ThatGirlFierce
Joined: 17 Apr 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Florida
thanks for posting so quickly im definetly enjoying this story alot lol hope to see more soon
Thu May 28, 2009 8:07 pm
lina
Joined: 17 Aug 2008
Posts: 50
great story, Noni love it. _________________ In sum, I must admit to the crime of adoring you; should you wish to punish me, the very punishment will be a reward. ~~~Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.~~~
Fri May 29, 2009 4:38 am
Allison
Joined: 12 Oct 2005
Posts: 4216
Location: Florida
Noni......Softball, The Judds and a black cat. You have me hooked already Great start sweets. Keep it coming.
Alli _________________ Alli
Fri May 29, 2009 7:51 pm
MysteryGirl Moderators
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
TGF, you are a slave driver LOL. It's the weekend now so I'll try to add some more after work if I can.
Lina - nice to see you, glad you are enjoying.
ALLLLLLIIIIIII - I've missed you girl! You are hooked huh, well that is part of my devious plan to make you come back here more often and MAYBE finish your story lol
Hugs, Noni _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
Fri May 29, 2009 10:36 pm
PipSqueak
Joined: 04 Jul 2008
Posts: 987
Location: S.W. England
Poor Dianne, this is so sad. Lil princesses hey!
(Noni-what job did you get in the end? Sorry I didn't hear you had one, think the last I heard you were going for interviews.....I know I should go into chat but then I'd never get off my laptop )
Sat May 30, 2009 6:17 pm
MysteryGirl Moderators
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
OOPS sorry angelsheart, I missed your post, thanks for being such a loyal reader of my paltry offerings LOL
Hi Purp - nice to see ya. Yeah, Im working in th ekiosk of a Mental Health Authority Hospital which is certainly can be a challenge sometimes but you meet an intersting assortment of characters LOL
HugZ, Noni _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
Sat May 30, 2009 11:18 pm
MysteryGirl Moderators
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
A bead of sweat, rolling off her forehead and stinging her eye, took her mind off the past and jerked her back into the sauna that was Friday afternoon traffic in downtown Amarillo, which she had to admit was pretty tame compared to the L.A. freeways, that was one part of her previous life she didn’t miss at all. Krystal had been picked by her Mom an hour earlier and they invited Dianne to eat with the family around the pool that evening, so although the hygiene of the pool water was as dubious as the rest of the facilities in Sunny Acres, it was so damn hot she figured that heat stroke was not an attractive way to die,. Anyhow Laverne’s cooking, though not on a par with Maria’s, was always tasty and filling.
Later that evening, as she splashed around in the pool with Randy, Laverne’s youngest and what seemed like a thousand other youngsters, she was glad she had accepted the invite, as spending each night alone in the trailer with Mischief and each day with her conversation limited to variations on “What can I get you to eat”, she was beginning to lose the art of adult communication.
“Randy! Shane! Krystal! Dianne! Dinner‘s ready, let‘s eat. ” Laverne’s voice rose above the shrieking and screaming of the juvenile hordes and Dianne grinned to hear her own name included with those of the kids, although she was only about 5 years younger, Laverne seemed to treat her as a part of her own brood. A plastic picnic table had been lugged down to the grassed pool area by the boys and Dianne’s eye widened and her tummy rumbled at the spread laid out on a checked table cloth - cold fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, bread rolls and wieners, along with two large pitchers of iced tea and soda.
“Hey Laverne, this looks just great, how on earth did you manage to put all this together when you’ve been working all day, hell you make me feel guilty”. Dianne’s words bought a grin of thanks from Laverne as they all began to heap plastic plates with food, the boys having been told in no uncertain terms to wait until the women had got their share first.
“Well, if the truth be known, I did cheat a bit tonight” Laverne admitted as she and Dianne settled down on lawn chairs to eat. “I cooked the chicken for dinner last night and just did a double quantity, but I bought the salads home from the market today, I’m not fussed with the dressing they use on the potatoes but sometimes you just have to cut some corners, what with having to pick Jazzy up from the Centre and her Momma from work on my way home, I didn‘t have time to make my own”
As she bit into the tender, spicy chicken Dianne groaned appreciatively. “It tastes divine hon. Krystal was just deploring my lack of cooking skills on the way to work this morning and she’s right. I’m ashamed of myself, I doubt I could boil the water to cook the potatoes myself, much less make a dressing from scratch.”
Laverne looked a little anxious as she replied “Yeah, Krystal was telling me about the conversation you two had. I sure hope that gal of mine didn’t upset you too much, she’s about as clumsy as a baby elephant when it comes to blundering into other folks’ private business, that mouth of hers just never seems to know when to quit. But you need to know Dianne, her heart’s in the right place, she’s really taken to you and it worries her to see you alone and hurting”. Laverne looked over to where the others were sprawled on a rug and for a moment Krystal, in her new white bikini, looked no different to the dozen other teenage girls around the pool area, pretending not to be watching the boys watching them back. But there was one major difference and she sat in a little folding cot, playing with some stuffed toys and laughing as her young uncle’s vied with each other to make the silliest faces for her amusement. From the worry lines on her forehead Dianne knew that Laverne was silently wondering what the future would hold for the young mother, more than likely hoping it would yield something better than a trailer park home and a bunch of kids to support on her own.
“Krystal didn’t upset me hon, she’s a great kid and a wonderful Mom, you can be really proud of the way you‘ve brought her up, she has more commonsense that most adults I know”. At these words Laverne’s tense body posture relaxed and her eyes smiled her pleasure at the compliment. For a moment Dianne hesitated, her natural inclination was to keep her emotions strictly to herself, but these past few days she just hadn’t been able to stop her mind thinking about Karla and their breakup, and in truth she longed to talk a little, maybe saying the words out loud might just quiet down her head.
But still, she hesitated, unsure of just how to begin such an intimate conversation with another woman, Dianne had never really been one to spend endless hours chatting with girlfriends when she was a teenager, her interests had all centered around doing things, playing softball, hiking and fishing or her more solitary pastimes of drawing and photography. So it helped when Laverne’s many years of interpreting her kid’s moods enabled her to read the signs and initiate the conversation herself.
“You know, you can just tell me to butt out if you don’t wanna talk about it, but I can see when a person is struggling hon. I’ve had a lot of troubles in my own life, both romantic and financial, and one thing I learned was keeping it all inside rarely helps solve a one of them. Course I’m not suggesting for a minute I can be of any real help to you, but sometimes just putting it all out there in words and out of your head for a little bit can make a world of difference. Laverne left the invitation hanging in the air between them for a second, then noting the grateful expression on her companion’s face she ploughed ahead , sensing rightly that Dianne would need to be pushed a little to break down her reserve and start her talking.
“You know Dianne, I much appreciated your telling me a little about yourself and what was happening in your life when you and my Krystal first started riding to work together. It took a lot of guts to reveal yourself to someone you had only just met when in truth you could’ve just kept quiet and I would have been none the wiser. That you did showed me that you were a person of character and honesty and that just might be the two things I most look for in someone that is gonna be around my kids. And in someone I’d be proud to call a friend! So what do you say we do what all good friends are meant to do, cry on each other’s shoulder, drink a few beers and curse all the no good men in our lives”
At this sentiment, Dianne gave a wry smile and raised one eyebrow and as she realized what she had just said, Laverne began to giggle and the more she tried to suppress her laughter , the more it bubbled out. “Oh hell hon, in your case I should have said ‘all the no good women ’ I guess”. Her chuckles were infectious and Dianne couldn’t stop herself from joining in, soon the two women were helpless with laughter, tears rolling down their faces and clutching their plates to stop them sliding off their laps. At last Laverne wiped her eyes and raising her eyebrows she gave Dianne a surreptitious wink as she reached into the cooler at her feet and extracted two icy cold bottles of Corona.
“Okay girlfriend, I have provided the beer and the shoulder, now all you have to do is tell me your troubles, I promise it will make you feel a damn side lighter and it will take my mind off all of mine. So tell me, what happened to make that gal of yours………what was her name again………Karrie?….…leave you to try and make the rent on that apartment all by yourself? You know, I aint even met her and I’m thinking I don’t like her very much at all” With this pronouncement Laverne took a long swig of her beer and settled back in her chair.
“Karla, her name is Karla and, oh Laverne, if you had met her in L.A. you wouldn’t have been able to stop yourself liking her, she was pretty and smart and funny, everyone just loved her to bits. I know I did, from the moment we met she was all I could think about and it made me the happiest girl on this planet when she agreed to us moving in together. Seems to me we scarcely had a cross word until I was stupid enough to bring her back here to Amarillo cause she was so homesick.”
With every passing second the words that had always stuck in her throat seemed easier to speak and Dianne found herself pouring her heart out to her friend about the tense trip, her resentment at the apartment being chosen and rented without their say so, the incredible bombshell that Karla’s folks not only didn’t know about her but that they weren’t even aware their only daughter was gay. She progressed through Karla’s Mom’s heart attack and the weeks that followed where she saw less and less of her gal, Karla choosing to sleep out at the ranch, rather than making the trip back to town each night, and then the gradual friction between the two of them as Dianne found herself in the position of being responsible for the rent payments and all the other bills as Karla declared herself unable to look for work whilst looking after her Mom.
“I swear Laverne, I was caught between a rock and a hard place. If I complained to her about the financial burden I was bearing, it made me look like a heartless creep that valued money over the health of a parent, but the more I tried to soldier on and support her, the more she took advantage of my generosity. While Karla was out at the ranch, she had started reorganizing her Dad’s office when her Mom was napping and she discovered that the whole accounting system for the ranch was in an unworkable mess. I mean, that’s the sort of thing she had been doing in L.A., working for some executive or CEO and totally taking over every little detail of his life to make it run smoothly, and in the process make herself indispensable. The trouble was that was exactly how her Dad began to feel in a very short time.” _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
Sun May 31, 2009 1:38 pm
Allison
Joined: 12 Oct 2005
Posts: 4216
Location: Florida
Noni...I am really loving this story. Great write. Keep it coming hun
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im definetly enjoying this story alot lol hope to see more soon 
