When can you come by ?”, she asked. “Anytime you would like Mom.”, I quickly replied. “How about on your way home, this evening ?”, she aske.... “Sure , no problem, see you then.”, I promised. By the time I pulled into my in-laws drive, my head was reeling from all of the possibilities. They were waiting for me in the den, their faces gave no clue what was in store. I sat down in the chair directly opposite them and waited for the news. My mother-in-law took control of the situation, as usual.. They rode out of the barn and headed east, toward the railroad spur and sidetrack. The train was pulled over on the newly completed sidetrack and some men were unloading equipment onto the ground.When they rode over past the cattle pens and loading chutes, they saw Mr. Howard Claymore standing on the flat car, directing the men as they unloaded what Eli knew had to be cattle weighing scales and boom poles.Mr. Claymore waved to them and walked to the steps at the end of the flat car. He saw Eli. They would laugh ripely among themselves about something, then translate to us what they wanted us to hear I think. Hassan joked, " Yourr motherr is a very nice woman. We say her hair is colour of fire. Hot!"I wasn't quite sure of his meaning. She was smiling and her eyes shining, and I was sure she'd gone a bit pink. He added, "Yes, my friends all agree! Hot Mom!"One of his friends on the fruit stall nearby too two large grapefruit and held them to his chest like breasts, squeezing them. “But that doesn't make me, uh, yeah, saying... your... you know... any better.”I so wished the ground would open up and swallow me. I was mortified.I could see that she too was struggling with expressing her feelings. My best guess, still, was that she was preparing to either kill me right away, torture me to a slow, agonizing death or, at the very least, turn the next two weeks or so of my life to living hell. She tried to hide her face behind the next slice of her pizza. The color of her.