Sagehen Mesa - Part 5 - Chuck E's in Love
Hello, Charles Elmer Culpepper here, but you can call me Chuck. I’m often referred to as Ben Culpepper’s less offensive brother. I’m not sure that’s a compliment, but I’ll take it.
I love my brother, but I know he’s got issues. The man has no filter and never considers the consequences of his actions. I just want you to know he’s not a bad man - just a lonely one who hasn’t accepted the fact that he’s getting old, and young women are out of his league. Dating younger women is so different from when we were young men. Back in our day, women appreciated a take-charge kind of guy. Now that kind of take-charge behavior is frowned upon. Don’t get me wrong - I understand the problem. If I had a daughter, I would be very concerned if an older man was plaguing her with unwanted attention.
I don’t have a daughter, however. Milly and I never had children, but we had a wonderful life together. Milly passed away from health issues about five years ago, and I miss her.
Ben wasn’t as fortunate as me. His wife Magnolia died suddenly of food poisoning (bad jelly bean) a few years after they were married. They had an infant son named Paul at the time of Magnolia’s death. We all knew, including Ben himself, that he wasn’t cut out to be a single parent, so our parents took Paul in and raised him. Ben was a long-haul trucker and away from home a lot, so his relationship with Paul suffered. Paul is now married with a family of his own. The last I heard, he owned his own business in Riverview.
As I mentioned, my dear Milly passed away a few years back. After she passed, I moved in with Ben who was living at our childhood home. The guy is a stereotypical bachelor: likes to go out honky tonkin’ and stay out ‘til the wee hours of the morning, is an atrocious housekeeper, and is into sports. In fact he had a football scholarship out of high school, but ruined his knee during his first semester and had to drop out of college. Our family was never wealthy, and college wasn’t considered all that important back then.
Enough about my brother Ben. You’ll either like him or you won’t, and that’s your prerogative. I just wanted you to better understand what makes him tick.
I thought I would spend my twilight years living with my brother, fishing, and waiting for the reaper, but my life drastically changed this past year.
Kellee Hirsh moved to town. Kellee is the woman of my dreams! She’s attractive, loves to fish, and keeps a tidy house. We first met at the grocery store, where she was asking if they sold live bait.
We talked about fishing and I even told her where my favorite fishing spot was, which I never do, so I guess I was head-over-heels even then. I'm kind of a shy fella, so I'm glad she took the initiative.
We started seeing each other, mostly fishing, but sometimes we had more formal dates.
Life is short, and we never know how much time we have in this world, so I confided in my friend Maria that I was planning to ask Kellee to marry me.
Maria’s expecting another little one, so she will soon have her hands full. I regret not having any children of my own, but Kellee has a daughter and two grandsons. I expect they will be out to visit us at some point, and I could do grandpa things with the boys.
I go to church from time to time to help support my old friend Josie Williams. I thought I’d invite Kellee to church. Then Ben said he wanted to go along too.
“You’re not going to harass Josie’s granddaughter again are you?” I asked, concerned.
“No, of course not!” Ben retorted. “What kind of a man do you think I am?”
After church I asked her if she would like to accompany me to Sunday brunch down at the Pit Stop. We had a great time having brunch and playing gnubb, . . .
. . . and I figured then was as good a time as any, so I mustered up my courage and asked her to be my wife.
To my relief she said yes!
Time is fickle, so we quickly arranged to have a small ceremony at the church, followed by cake out in the church’s garden.
I knew most of our guests, but there was one woman in a red dress who crashed the party. She didn’t cause no trouble, but she was a sight to see.
She swooped in and nabbed the first piece of cake. I guess she was afraid we'd run out being as she wasn't invited and all.
Josie, bless her, struck up a conversation to see what she was about. It turns out she recently bought the little green cottage kitty-corner from the church. She saw a gathering here and decided to investigate. Her name is Bobbie Faulkner, and she works as a photographer. I wish I’d have known at the time; we could have had some nice pictures taken in exchange for the cake she ate.
We decided I would move in with Kellee as she lived alone in a very nice house on the coast.
I was concerned about how well Ben might be taking care of himself without me around to pick up after him and doing all the housework, so we dropped in on him a few days after the wedding.
Kellee and I began cleaning up the place, because it comes natural to us, but Ben seemed a little put out over it. He was being snippy with Kellee who was only trying to help him.
I guess he was embarrassed to have a virtual stranger come in and start cleaning up after him without asking. I had to point out how inappropriate and rude he was being.
I don't think Kellee is too fond of Ben.
We managed to clean up some of the mess before leaving, but I guess he’ll have to figure out his own laundry.
A few days later, Kellee got a call from Josie. Apparently she has started dating Ben! What?!?
Apparently they have been out on a few fishing expeditions lately.
What is that woman thinking? She and Ben have never gotten along that well, and I was sure his going after her granddaughter would have been the icing on the cake. Is her mind going? Don't get me wrong, I love my brother, but I can't for the life of me see how this is going to work out.
I guess now I know why he was so interested in going to church!
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