It made me feel uneasy. but I just wanted to get all this over with as quickly as we could. He followed me out of the motor home,
"This is my father. Mr Montgomery." I said, introducing him to Chubs.
"Pleased to meet you," Chubs said. His hand all but swallowed up Uncle Linden's. "Let's see if we can get you people back on your way."
"Yes, well, thank you." Uncle Linden said.
"You get into the truck with Hannah. Uncle Linden." Heyden instructed.
I led Uncle Linden to the truck, and he got in. Heyden leaped into the back. I got in and closed the door. and Chubs started up, shifted, and pulled away. I looked back at the crippled old motor home. To me it resembled a corpse that faded back into the darkness as we drove an. It probably belonged in Chub's friend's car cemetery.
"I've lived here all my life." Chubs began. "Worked for Mr. Stanton and his daddy from the day I could lift a hammer and hold a saw. We was once the biggest peach orchard round here. The farm then was a little more than 250 acres. We growed cling, semisweet, and freestone peaches, harvesting cling all of May. Semisweet, May and June, and freestone midJune to the end of July. After Mr. Stanton Senior passed, we struggled along and eventually had to sell off about 170 acres to some land developers who wanted to build custom homes. Times got harder and harder for us, and without a son to take over, Mr, Stanton Junior just decided to let it all go. He sold off another fifty acres,
"Made me feel like the world was closing in on us from all sides. We had to let all the farm workers go until there was just me left to keep things up at the house and such. We raise all the vegetables we need, gat some chickens, pigs and some cows, but it ain't nothin' like it once was."
"Casa de la Luna is an interesting name for a farm." I said.
"Is that what it's called?" Uncle Linden asked.
Chubs laughed. "During the good days. Mr. and Mrs. Stanton used to do a European trip every year. One year she come back from France throwing them parlezyous's around and decided they just had to rename the farm Casa de le Luna cause of the way the moon spills itself over the place when it's full and such. Mr. Stanton, he just smiled at me and told me to go make a sign. He was always tryin' to please her until the day he died. He did what he could to make it seem as if they was still ridin' high.
"Where you folks from?" Chubs asked without pausing for a breath.
"We're from West Palm Beach." I said quickly. "This was supposed to be a little vacation for us."
"Well. it'll still be once we get you fixed and back on the road." he said optimistically. "What sort of work you in. Mr. Montgomery?"
"Work?"
"My father's an artist." I said quickly.
"An ar-teest? No foolin'. You make pictures end up in museums and such?"
"No, not museums." Uncle Linden said. smiling. "Galleries."
"Oh, that right?" Chubs said. but I could tell from the hesitation in his voice that he didn't quite understand. "Well, long as you make a livin' at what you like to do, you're a lucky man in this world. Yes. sir."
"That's very, very true." Uncle Linden said. "Most of the people I knew who ended up where I am were depressed and upset about the way they had spent their lives."
'Don't say? Where is that?"
"What?"
"Where is you at?"
"Oh, my father means old friends he's known, People his age," I quickly explained.
"I don't have any old friends left. I'm afraid," Chubs said. "Left 'em behind, pushin' up daisies and such. as Mr. Stanton Senior used to say."
"Chubs is eighty-one, Daddy." I told Uncle Linden.
"Eighty-one? Remarkable. What's your secret?"
Chubs laughed. "Ain't got no secret. sir. I just get up every day and say, 'Hello, sunshine!' no matter what kind of day it is."
"That's your secret," Uncle Linden said. "You refuse to be unhappy and say no to gloom and doom. I haven't felt that way for a long, long time, but I feel that way now, now that we've left."
"That so? Well. I guess that's mighty good then, a mighty good thing. There she is ahead. Casa de le Luna!" Chubs cried. nodding.