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"So you didn't actually do anything, he did?" Jeremiah asked.
"I knew what he was doing. So I guess I was guilty too. But how can you turn a guy in that gives you a place to live when you don't have one? I couldn't see me doing that. I owed him. And I didn't have any way of paying him."
"I can understand that. At least you admit it. Why did he steal it?"
"Something to do. When they took him in I found out he had been arrested several times for the same thing."
Jeremiah looked at her strangely. "I don't guess he worked for a living or anything."
"No, he was going to college for a while, until his parents found out he was partying all the time. His parents helped him until he got caught." She defended.
"Maybe if he'd have worked he wouldn't have had the time to steal the car." Jeremiah said and walked off.
She glanced at him, wondering why he suddenly became unfriendly.
What he had said bothered her to some degree, deep down, she knew Jeremiah was right, but still he had no right to judge Leroy. Leah appreciated the fact that Leroy gave her a place to stay, rent free, with no strings attached. But he'd have done it for anyone, not just her. That's why she hung around him, he was kind of nice at least to her, at the time.
Again at supper everyone gathered around, talking and trying to include her in the conversation too but she didn't want to talk, she wanted to see if they were staging all this for her benefit. After all, they weren't the Walton's.
Or were they?
As she lay in her bed that night, she wondered about these people. They had a lot of strange ways, but she had to admit, some of the tension inside her subsided.
The next morning was different though, Carol knocked on her door to wake her up, and deciding to try to get along with everyone, she got up and got dressed, washed her face and went downstairs for breakfast.
They always said grace at the table. That was new to Leah too. Her parents leaned more to the agnostic type. She hadn't thought about the religious side of her family in a long time. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. Only, she knew there was a God, and that Jesus would save her from her sins. So she couldn't really call herself agnostic. It was just another thing she didn't have in common with her folks.
"Now Leah, we are all here for you, so if you have a problem with work, or don't know how to do something, feel free to ask. We don't mind telling you at all. We find that if we work together, there is less stress and no one will be mad if you mess something up a few times. Most do that because they aren't used to farm work." He explained.
"Alright, thanks." Leah nodded. "So if I spill something, you won't chop my head off?"
They stared at her then each other.
But she did one thing that kind of startled everyone, after breakfast, she helped Carol with the dishes. This wasn't part of her job, but she was a girl and figured someone should help her. After all, she didn’t' have a dishwasher and her family was kind of big.
Jeremiah waited patiently for her to finish and then taking a pail, they went outside toward the barn.
"You'll collect the eggs from the chickens now." He told her. "Ever done that before?"
"No." She felt out of her realm.
"Okay, come on, and watch me. After today, you'll do it alone."
She followed him. The henhouse was in back of the barn. Half of them nested and the other half were scattering about the yard.
"Pick up the empty nests first. It gives the others time to move away. If they don't, just gently reach under them, they'll usually stand up or move away when you do, and take the egg."
"Do they only have one egg each?"
"Most of the time, but every now and then Henrietta there on the end might have two." He motioned to the big red chicken at the end.
She nodded. She watched him move down the line of nests and he gently lifted the egg away. The chickens didn't seem to mind.
It looked simple enough.
But she ended up practically running when one hen flew out of her way. And she cracked several eggs trying to get them out. Jeremiah was patient and didn't laugh at her, but encouraged her. "You'll get the hang of it."
When they took the eggs into Carol, she was laughing and happy to see them. "Just set them on the counter, I'll put them away in a sec."
