The Power They Cut In The Freeze

Bob

Siler Propane sits on the edge of Brinley behind a chain link fence, a yard of white tanks and two bobtail trucks with their engines running to keep the lines from gelling. Bob Siler has been delivering propane to half this county for forty-six years. He was in the shop with a cup of coffee and a seed cap, and he stood up when he saw Norma come through the door ahead of a seventy-six-year-old woman, an eighty-one-year-old woman and me.

I told him who I was.

“Orval Sperry’s girl,” he said slowly. “I sat on the school board with your father.”

He listened to the whole thing, standing, with his thumbs hooked in his belt. When I finished he did not say anything for a bit.

“Now Deborah, I’ll tell you how this works,” he said at last, carefully. “The board sets policy. The manager runs the operation. If I pick up the phone every time a member’s got a complaint, I’d be pulling Dennis’s strings from my propane office.”

“Yes sir. I understand.”

“So I’m not sure…”

“Mr. Siler,” I said, and I kept my voice as flat as I could, because I had promised myself I would not raise it. “I’m not asking you to run the co-op. I’m not even asking you to call him. I’m asking you to look at my mother.”

He turned and looked at her.

My mother had sat down on a stack of ice melt bags against the wall, because her hip was talking, and she had her hands folded in her lap over her cane. She looked back at him.

“Bob,” she said, “I made your wedding cake.”

“I know you did, Rosemary.”

“It was six degrees at eleven o’clock this morning,” my mother said. “I’m not asking for anything. I’m only telling you what the man did in your name.”

Bob Siler took off his seed cap and rubbed his head with his hand. Then he put the cap back on.

“What do the bylaws say, Norma?” he said, not turning around. “Special meeting.”

“Article four. The president, or any three directors, can call one. Three is a quorum. No notice needed if the directors waive it.”

“So that’s you, me and Elmer.”

“Elmer’s coming.”

He nodded slowly.

“Last fall we sat in that meeting and told Dennis to tighten up the collections,” he said. “We had $38,000 in unpaid accounts and a bank covenant to meet, and I said the words myself. I didn’t say freeze a widow.”

“Bob,” Norma said.

“I’m going to call Dean and Marge.” He picked up his phone. “Give me a minute.”

He made the calls from the shop. Neither picked up. Dean was on a tractor somewhere, and Marge, Norma said, was at her sister’s. Bob left them both a message that said the time and the place and the reason in one sentence.

He took a ring of keys off a nail.

“The co-op office,” he said. “It’s a quarter to three. We’ll have it at three thirty. Open to members, that’s the rule. Rosemary, you’re a member. Deborah, you’re family. You both come.”

“What about Dennis?” Norma said.

“Dennis gets a phone call.” Bob shook his head. “I’ll make it myself.”