The Slow Road by Jerry D. Young Read Free Book Online Page B

bread, they had one day a week where they ate only a whole loaf of bread apiece, and had only water to drink. Both seemed to be healthier as their diet had changed over to home grown foods.
    Jasper and Millie both liked honey in their hot tea, and had been buying the small containers for a long time. But the more they read on the internet about the benefits of natural raw honey; they became convinced that it was what they wanted to start using.
    Both wanted to get beehives to ensure good pollination of the garden and orchard, but Millie was allergic to the stings and they couldn’t take the chance. The garden and orchard were doing fine with the natural bee population so Jasper started looking around the area for someone with honeybee hives that would trade raw, unprocessed honey for labor. If he could get several five-gallon buckets of it, they would have enough to last them for years.
    He finally found someone through Alvin. It didn’t surprise Jasper very much when Alvin went along and paid cash for four buckets of the honey when Jasper collected his after working part time for six months around the man’s large farming operation doing odd jobs and mechanic work. The honey was stored in the shelter. Millie would transfer a little each month for use that month, from the bucket to a stainless steel honey canister that Jasper had found for her.
    The two years had passed since Millie’s first miscarriage and she and Jasper again let nature take its course. If she got pregnant again, fine. If she didn’t, well… that was God’s will. They were trying.
    And it worked. Millie again found herself two months pregnant at Christmas time. And it was going to be twins. Jasper began looking for a decent paying day job so he could be with Millie during more normal hours.
    He had been applying for a job with the county maintenance crew every time an opening came up for several years. But Harry Harleson had been a county commissioner for years. He and Jasper had been mortal enemies since high school. Jasper was sure that Harry kept him from getting any county job.
    Harry lost his seat on the commission amidst a slew of accusations of wrong doing. Jasper’s application was approved for a job on the county maintenance crew a week after he put it in for the newest open position. Not only was Jasper pay going to be significantly higher, he would get medical and retirement benefits.
    But Millie and Jasper gave up on ever building their dream home. They were going to have to do something. The forty-foot park model trailer was soon going to be too small for the family.
    The two had long talks about the situation and finally came up with a plan. Again, it certainly wasn’t their dream house, but it would be much better than what they had. Never one to laze around, except on Sundays, after the animals were taken care of, Jasper started two new major projects.
    Millie had been after him for a long time to find a day job, since the graveyard shift was so hard on him. He was putting in the same number of hours, with the projects going, but he began to look a bit better and wasn’t as tired all the time the way he had been before, despite the equal hours of work.
    The first project Jasper hoped to finish before the birth of the babies and it got both financial and time priority. They were going to need a vehicle with a rear seat once the babies came and Jasper and Millie knew exactly what they wanted. And Jasper knew how to get it. The same garage where he had built the pickup was more than willing to get his part time help for the use of the garage for him to build a new vehicle.
    It went well, and quickly, as Jasper was basically building a rig identical to the pickup, except it would have the body of a Suburban when he was finished. Another reinforced and gusseted frame from a wrecked pickup. Another Pontiac Super Duty 455 engine. Another five fuel tanks. The Suburban body was a year younger than the pickup, but the design had not changed