During summer vacations, Marianne had to take Shelby with her when she played. The summer when she was ten, the kids played in an abandoned farm right on the edge of town near the woods. Aniston had always been a General Motors town, until the world learned a new word, “Outsourcing.” Jobs were sent to Mexico, Hungary, India and other parts of the world where labor and buildings were cheaper. The layoffs had been massive and the impact on the town devastating. People packed up their families and went to other states in search of work. Local businesses closed their doors, while apartment buildings, bars, grocery stores and even farms sat empty. Buildings sat decaying for lack of attention. Overgrown with weeds, the old Hanley farm sat gray, forlorn and forsaken. The house and barn were weather beaten, the barn just on the verge of falling down. The kids had broken all the windows in the house and there were gaping holes in the roof. It was supposed to be torn down but the kids were glad it wasn’t yet. They were a little scared out there but thought it was a great place to play. They called it their “hideout.”
The girls liked playing house. Sometimes they played that they were waiting for their husbands to come home from the war. Dressing and cuddling their dolls, talking to them, comforting them telling them, “Don’t cry, Daddy will soon be home.” They played a game of “The farmer in the dell,” to let the boys choose their wives.
The game always started with a "farmer" in the center of a circle of children, all singing: The farmer in the Dell, the farmer in the Dell, Hi - Ho - the dairy - o, the farmer in the dell. The farmer wants a wife, the farmer wants a wife Hi - Ho - the dairy - o the farmer wants a wife. Who do you want for your wife, who do you want for your wife? Michael, a neighborhood boy, always seemed to choose Marianne. Michael was nearly 13 but still liked to play with the kids. Marianne always ran to join him in the center of the circle while the children continued to sing: “The wife wants a child, the wife wants a child, Hi - Ho - the dairy – o, the wife wants a child.” Marianne naturally always chose Shelby and Shelby then got to choose a nurse that was always someone different. “The child wants a nurse.... The nurse wants a dog..... The dog wants a pat........ We all pat the dog.” They all patted the dog vigorously on the back and the dog became the "farmer" in the next round of the game until all the boys had a wife and all the girls had a child. The boys played war and killed each other. They played Robin Hood and stole from the rich and gave to the poor. They took away little girls bracelets, necklaces and rings and gave them to other little girls.
Michael didn’t believe in stealing for any reason or in war or and anyway, someone had to stay at home to care for the women and children. They all went into the woods to use the bathroom. Giggling and pushing each other, with loud screeched warnings that someone was coming, someone was peeking, they went out in the woods instead of going all the way home. One hot summery day when Marianne went out to the barn to play, no one was there but Michael. He had his bible in his hand and he was standing up behind a make shift pulpit, made from old wooden crates. “I want to be a preacher when I grow up,” he said, flipping through the bible. “That means we will have to make a lot of sacrifices” he said. “Maybe we can be a husband and wife team and go to Africa or China or somewhere to be missionaries.” She always had Shelby with her but Michael said that would be alright. “We can take her with us.” Michael knew a lot of interesting things and when Marianne brought him a picture of Jesus, he was real pleased. “A wife can be a big help to a husband in that kind of work,” he said. In some ways Michael was very smart and in other ways he was still a child. He overheard his parents talking one evening when he came home lugging the huge family bible with him. “There’s something wrong with that boy, always carrying that bible around with him like that. He should be out playing cops and robbers like the rest of the kids.” They nodded their heads in agreement.
“Why don’t you ever come home?” Mavis asked. “What do you do out there in the woods when you have to go to the bathroom?” Marianne told her she could hold it. “There are wild animals in there,” her mother told her. “I don’t want you going out there anymore.” Marianne told her she never saw any wild animals out there.
They went on a picnic there once. “Show her where they are,” Rex said. “You’re making so much noise you’ve chased them all away,” Mavis told them. They all caught poison ivy. “You’re lucky I didn’t get it there,” Rex said to Mavis. “Why is she lucky?” Marianne asked, but Mavis got mad and wouldn’t let him say. Marianne knew then that it was about sex. She knew about sex. One day when Shelby had made waves in the bathtub and had gotten the floor all wet. Marianne had to mop the floor and then she got into the bathtub herself. When her mother came in, she had her hand down there. “You’ll wear it out,” Mavis said. “The next time I catch you at it, you’ll have to go stand in the dark closet.”
“Shelby does it too,” she cried. “How come Shelby never has to go stand in the closet?”
“Shelby is only a little girl, too little to have to stand in the dark closet.”
Sometimes, to show off, the big boys would go to the woods with a big girl. Then they came back laughing and swaggering and pushing each other. One day Josh came out to the woods. “I want to take you for a walk in the woods, Marianne,” Josh said. He was so polite she could tell that he wanted to please her. “What about Shelby?” she asked.
“Michael will watch her for you,” he said.
Josh was very quiet on the way out to the woods. He didn’t talk at all. Marianne had to walk real fast to keep up with him. When they reached a place where it was shady and quiet, he asked what all the kids did out there in the woods. “I heard you say that you play house,” he said.
Marianne told him how the boys went to war and he said that was just kid stuff. She even told him about using the woods for a restroom and he laughed. “I’ll show you the real way to play house,” he said, and he pushed her a little. Marianne didn’t know what to expect and worried that she wouldn’t do good. “There’s poison ivy in the woods,” she said. “There’s no poison ivy here,” he said and pushed her again. He pulled her down to the ground and started kissing her.
“Why, Marianne. You fooled me. You’re not a little girl at all, you’re a woman,” he said afterward.
“I love you,” Marianne said, the way they did when they played house.
That upset him. He began to shake. Even his teeth chattered. A drop of sweat fell from his forehead to Marianne’s face. She was afraid to wipe it away. She was afraid to make him mad. If he got mad at her he wouldn’t love her anymore and she just found out that Josh loved her and she loved him. He turned his back and Marianne thought he was disappointed in her. She didn’t know if she did alright, if she did what mamas did. She was ashamed too, because she had to pee. He was very polite and didn’t look. Then he walked her back where she could see the rest of the kids and left.
That night Josh and Rex had a big fight and Josh slammed out of the house. He didn’t come back for a week and Marianne missed him. After all, she had just found out he loved her and she loved him.