Go West Serial Novel – Page 14

Go West Chapter 5~Aldon

Go West

DiVoran Lites

Chapter Five

Aldon

“Ah yes, my new compagno.” Lia stepped into the hallway and embraced Miss Morgan saying, “Welcome, we will have wonderful time together.” Aldon had learned that compagno meant companion, so apparently Signora had big plans for using the newly hired Chicagoan. Molly, however, meant to use her for a kitchen maid. In all this scrambling, Aldon hoped there would be time for him to teach her to ride.

“Giovanni is asleeping in his room, but won’t you come in?” The Signora was always hungry for company. Aldon couldn’t blame her; the ranch was a good piece from town. But Aldon was concerned about the city gal’s need for rest.

“Come on, we gotta get movin’.” He tugged on her elbow, but she jerked her arm out of his hand and gave him a dirty look. Even so, she went along the corridor with him.
*
“Home sweet home,” He flung open the door to the room he’d slept in most of his life. The plank floor was clean, and the dresser that his grandfather had fashioned with cherry wood, glowed with polish. His old quilt lay across the foot of the bed. He now preferred to sleep under the thick, woolen army blanket he’d been allowed to bring home after his service in the Great War.

“If you keep going in the same direction we were headed, you’ll come to the bathroom,” he told her standing aside so she could enter the room.

“Thank you for everything.” Miss Morgan’s voice was cool and distant. He wondered what kind of a savage he appeared to her, manhandling her as he just had. He vowed to do better from here on out.

“If you can wait a few minutes, I’ll fetch your trunk.” He left then but sensed her slipping from the room and down the hall to the new bathroom with its long, German-made bathtub and flush toilet.
*
When he returned with the trunk, she was lying across the bed still fully dressed, but now sound asleep. She didn’t stir when he removed her boots, rotated her by her feet until her head was on the pillow, and covered her with the quilt.

In the barn, he checked the tires on the Touring car for air, put them on the car, jacked it off the blocks, and lowered the car to the ground. He made sure of the oil level, then after filtering the gasoline, he funneled it into the tank. Tomorrow would be the automobile’s first time out since autumn, and he was looking forward to getting behind the wheel. Mechanical things always worked for him. But he didn’t know much about females. Ma, fed the boys, kept them clean, and tried to make gentlemen of them, and one of the things she insisted upon was that they knew how to treat a lady. Another was that they never kept company with the other kind of woman. She told them what to look out for so that they didn’t fall into a lifetime of having their hearts broken.

He grabbed the clean clothes Molly had laid out for him in the barn, picked up his towel and soap, and headed for the lake in the light of the stars and the crescent moon. The lake was one-of-a-kind as far as he knew. Of course, he hadn’t seen every lake in the world, but this one had a hot spring at one end, and a place where the creek entered by waterfall at the other. In winter, they plunged into the perfect warm water to bathe and in summer; they cooled off in the cold. What he liked was that both had shallow parts and deep parts. What he didn’t like was the place in the middle where the water stayed tepid. He’d take hot or cold any day, but not the wishy-washy stuff in between.

He got out, dried off, and dressed, appreciating the clean clothes. Molly said she didn’t mind washing for him because she admired him for keeping clean. He mentally thanked his mother, Nancy, who had trained him that way. He did wish Nancy would come on home where she belonged. He didn’t get why she thought her sister Gertrude needed her more that he and Molly did. She’s the best mother anyone ever had, he thought. She helped us stay morally clean by having us read the Bible to her every night before bed. She talked things over with us so that we understood how to work, how to save our money, and how to get along with other people. Dad taught us all about ranching. He never spared the rod where it might be needed for discipline, and I’m thankful for that, too.

He lay down on the cot in the loft alcove and pulled the heavy army blanket up to his chest. As soon as he let his body relax, his mind got to work again. He was back in his BeBe flying over France and into Germany not knowing whether he would die or return home a cripple. He rolled over and deliberately turned his mind to the young woman he’d just met. I hope she and I will be good friends, he thought. I’ll see her again tomorrow. And maybe sometimes we can talk. I’ll plant more wildflowers in the garden, she’ll probably like those. He had many good things to think about: the songs he’d play on his mandolin tomorrow at church, the young woman, and driving the Ford Touring car to church tomorrow.

DiVoran’s Promise Posters, Paintings from Go West as well as other art can be purchased as note cards and framable art

Creative Arts.

Go West Chapter 4~Aldon

Go West

DiVoran Lites

Chapter four

Aldon

“Sure’n you took your time, Aldon,” Molly said in her inherited brogue. With her thumb and finger, she rubbed the bridge of her nose where her glasses usually rested. Aldon slipped into the room to find them for her before she had to ask him to.

“The missus screamed her head off at poor, dear Mr. Solano all evening,” Molly said, putting on the glasses when Aldon came back with them.

“You know what it is, boyo. Have we not been hearing it since Master Enrico wrote he was coming across the sea? His train arrives at noon tomorrow and the missus isn’t happy with the way the house looks. You and your brothers never cared what a house looked like, that’s certain sure. It’s clean, but it’ll never be as fancy as what he’s used to. Palaces, they are, the schools he goes to in Switzerland, or so I’ve heard. Well, don’t just stand there. Where’s the girleen?”

“I’m calling her Miss Morgan.” He stepped out of the way, as Molly brushed past, “but I reckon when she gets to know us better she’ll let us call her Elizabeth like in her letter.”

“Maybe we’ll call her Miss Hoity-toity,” Molly said moving along the corridor at the speed of a freight train.

“You have to go easy with a filly like her,” he said, hoping his aunt, who prided herself on saying exactly what she thought, would be courteous to the tired young woman downstairs.

“Aldon, you must begin as you mean to go on. You can’t be too chummy with the help or they take advantage of you.” Her words flowed back as her lace-up shoes hit the bottom stair and she strode toward the kitchen. “Come on, let’s meet this filly.” She settled into a sedate walk, patting her crown-braid as he paused at the closed swinging door. When he reached around it to push it open, she entered then stopped short at the entrance. “Well, I never,” she said.

Miss Morgan was slumped over the kitchen table asleep and snoring gently. Aldon stared in wonder. He never knew a lady could snore.

“Ha,” Molly poked the slender back and Miss Morgan jumped to her feet standing at attention.

“I’m ready,” Miss Morgan said, her eyes wild. Did she think she was somewhere else, he wondered.

“I got some stew on the stove,” Molly spoke loudly as if to a simpleton. “Get plates and spoons and help yourselves.”

Aldon went to get stew for both of them leaving Miss Morgan to figure out where she was and what was going on. “I wonder if you would consider going to church with us tomorrow,” he said, dipping a mug into the stew and emptying it into the bowls. He took them to the table and Miss Morgan sat down.

“I guess…” she hesitated.

“You can go to the Community Church with Aldon or the Catholic Church with Mr. Solano and me,” Molly sat across from her, lowering her chin and studying the girl over the tops of her glasses.

“My mother tells me I was born in a convent home,” Miss Morgan said. “So maybe I’m a Catholic. My grandparents are Scottish Presbyterian, though.” She closed her eyes and rested her head back on the top rung of the chair.

“You don’t have to go to church, though,” Aldon said concerned now about her exhaustion. “You might want to sleep in.”

“No, no, I’ll be fine,” Miss Morgan said. “There’s a God up there somewhere, and I’d like know what he wants from me, if anything.”

When they had finished Molly’s delicious beef stew, he asked Miss Morgan to come along so he could show her where she would sleep.

“The car will be ready to go at seven in the morning. Molly attends early mass and I practice with my pastor before the service begins.” He looked at Molly, “You want her in my old room?”

“Yes, but first take her to the Solano’s rooms, knock on the door, and introduce her, but watch out the missus doesn’t get to talking. She’s as lonely as a stray dog.” Molly got the dishrag and wiped the table, which they had left as clean as when they started eating.

Upstairs, Miss Morgan slowed to look at the framed paintings on both sides of the hallway. Aldon waited remembering that when the Solanos moved in last year, the Signora ordered a tool with which to cut mats and a load of frames to put the pictures in. She demonstrated claiming that all self-respecting artists can frame their own work and set him to it so she could have more time to paint. He kept up with the demand because he made it his after-supper job in the evenings. Now that it was spring again and they were preparing to push the cattle into the mountains, Lia – Signora would have to stockpile her artworks or go back to framing them herself until the push was over.

The boss’s wife had asked him to pose for her, but he knew he never would unless it was out-of-doors, and Chief was in the picture. He had to admit she was an excellent painter, and he wouldn’t mind having a portrait of his fine Appaloosa, especially if he could afford to buy it. When he tapped on the door, the woman opened it wearing a black, satin kimono with a big red poppy on it and her hair tumbling, shiny as obsidian, to her waist. Aldon looked away and introduced Miss Morgan without glancing at the Signora again.

Go West Chapter 3~Aldon

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter three

Aldon

As Ribbons pulled the wagon through the open door of the barn, Aldon glanced at Signor Solano’s Ford Touring Car, which was up on blocks at the back. It was now spring and he wanted to get it ready for church tomorrow, since they’d be picking up the boss’s grandson. He hoped that someday, he’d be able to use an automobile in wintertime, but not yet. The snow was too deep, the ice was too slippery, and the hilly roads were too steep. His own flivver had spent the winter on the leeward side of the barn covered with a tarpaulin.

“If you don’t mind, you can take a seat on that hay bale while I put Ribbons up. We’ll have supper in the kitchen, and I’ll come back and get the automobile ready to run us to church in the morning.” He helped Miss Morgan down.

“I’d be glad to assist you with the automobile,” she said.

Reaching for the lantern and turning up the wick, Aldon avoided answering her. He’d never thought about a woman working on a motorized vehicle before. It didn’t seem proper somehow.

She sat where he had indicated while he removed the traces, currycombed Ribbons, and checked her feet for gravel stones. Glancing over at Miss Morgan, he saw that her head was down as she watched him tend to the horse. Even though it was narrow, the brim of her hat shadowed most of her face. He saw full lips, a just right nose, and a purposeful chin. He could tell she had a delicate complexion and planned to get her into a hat with a real brim. He wondered if she would consent to wear a sunbonnet, then recalled his brother, Bill acting up in one. He chuckled.

“Is something funny?” Miss Morgan asked looking up. The light from the lantern turned her blues eyes into sapphires like the ones he’d seen at the Denver Museum.

“I’m thinking about my brother, he’s a real clown.”

“In the circus?” She asked with a smile.

“No, ma’am, but he makes us laugh a lot. Right now, he’s in Hollywoodland working as a stuntman and horse wrangler for the moving pictures shows.”

“I love the movies,” Miss Morgan said. “Before I left, Granddad and I saw Cooper Randolph in ‘Colt 45.’” She tilted her head and examined him. “Come to think of it, you remind me of him.”

“What does this Cooper Randolph fellow do?” he asked.

“He gets rid of the bad guys.” Miss Morgan stood and waited until he retrieved her carpetbag, the only baggage she needed for the night. “Was your brother in the war?” she asked as they left the barn.

“No, he was four F – heart murmur. We couldn’t believe it. He ran circles around the rest of us.” Aldon took her arm and guided her over the straw-littered floor.

“Who lives in the house?” She asked as they exited the barn.

“Right now, Signor and Signora Solano and Molly.”

“Not you?”

“Now that the weather’s warming up, I’ve moved into the loft for the summer.” On the enclosed back porch, he pulled the string of a light fixture. Wiring the house had been easy once he figured out how to harness the creek for power.

“Take off your coat and hat and stay awhile. That’s what my family says when company comes.” He helped Miss Morgan out of her cape and hung it on the peg Molly had cleared for her. The other pegs held coats, jackets, and dusters from the past two generations of ranchers. He liked having them there because they reminded him of family members who had gone on to be with the Lord. Besides, it could be useful even now. A row of galoshes and boots sat lined up, ready for work. No need to buy new ones while these were still good.

Miss Morgan took off her hat and handed it to him. Now he could see that her hair was a beautiful palomino blond. She smoothed curls over her cheeks while he placed the hat on the shelf where he knew his grandmother’s sunbonnet lived. When they entered the kitchen, he drew in the smell of simmering stew.

“So this is a ranch kitchen,” Miss Morgan looked around.

“Yep, that big stove has been here since 1900, but it’s a good stove and can use either coal or wood. Ma used it until she moved to town. After Ma left, I ate mostly biscuits, bacon and beans until Molly moved in, but she loves the stove, wouldn’t use any other.

He pulled out a chair at the long table so she could look at the glimmer of a few lights in the town below.

“What a lovely view,” she said resting back with a sigh.

“So you fix cars, huh?” he said wondering why a woman would do such a thing.

“You read my letter of application?” she spoke slowly, and he nodded. “Well, wouldn’t it stand to reason that if I can drive an ambulance, I can maintain and repair an engine and change tires? Who do you think, did all that?”

“You?” He turned and got her a glass of water out of the spigot. The ranch water came from the mountains and was cold, and delicious. She drank the whole glass as though she hadn’t been watered since Illinois.

“I’ll get Molly,” he said.

When he reached the second floor, He heard soft voices coming from the Solano rooms. At least they weren’t fighting for once. He hated the way the young Mrs. yelled at her husband, who was old enough to be her father, if not her grandfather. He was the kindest and gentlest man Aldon knew. He walked on past to Molly’s door, tapped and waited.

“You took your time,” Molly wore a clean apron over her cotton dress, a sign she was ready for company. A line creased her cheek. She’d been napping, or as she called it, resting her eyes. In her opinion, only lazy people took naps.

Go West Chapter 2~Ellie

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Two

Ellie

How do, ma’am.” You don’t look much like a ranch hand, the livery owner said.

Ellie opened her mouth to tell him she could handle about anything but the entrance of a young man captured her attention.

“This is Kenny, Donald Fitzgerald’s son” Mr. Leitzinger said.

“How do, ma’am,” the tall young man touched his forehead in a gesture of respect which usually included tipping a hat. She nodded.

“You’ll have to hold Ribbons back a bit,” the boy spoke to Mr. Leitzinger. “She’ll break into a run the first chance she gets.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” He moved past Ellie and reached for the halter and then backed the mare between the wagon traces.

“Put your cape on, Miss Morgan.” Mr. Leitzinger took the satin-lined garment from her arm, opened it, and settled it over her shoulders. She sighed as the warmth spread through her entire body. Capes had been a godsend in the ambulance corps. They protected the women drivers from the cold during the daytime and in an emergency, substituted for blankets at night. They could also be used to staunch blood.

Mr. Leitzinger watched as she pulled her doeskin gloves from the pockets of her cape and smoothed them over her fingers one by one. He looked away when she lifted her eyes to meet his gaze.

He then got busy setting her cases amongst other parcels in the wagon bed. In one graceful move, he was on the narrow seat with the boy handing him the reins.

“Put your foot on the axle and give me your hand,” he said reaching down for Ellie. When he hauled her up by one arm, Mr. Fitzgerald boosted her bottom from below as if she were a sack of goods. The men were so matter-of-fact about the process that she didn’t bother to be embarrassed.

“Take hold of that bar under the seat until we get out on the road,” Mr. Leitzinger suggested. She groped and felt the cold of the springy steel through her glove.

To her dismay, Mr. Leitzinger handed over the reins while he reached for a leather jacket amongst the parcels in the back. When he had shoved his arms into the sleeves, he took the reins again. A clucking noise from his tongue urged the big gray forward and the wagon moved out of the shed.

“You didn’t pay the liveryman,” Ellie reminded him looking back to see if anyone was coming after them. In her grandparent’s store anyone who didn’t pay for services rendered was a lowlife. She hoped this cowboy person did not fall into that category.

“It’s all right, Mr. Solano has me bring him to town once a month so he can pay the bills. At first he never left the ranch, but he’s getting better now.”

“Has he been ill?” she asked with a pang of anxiety. Surely they wouldn’t expect her to add nursing to her other duties. She had developed such an aversion to pain and suffering she couldn’t even listen to sad stories without weeping.

“Signor Solano came to Colorado to get cured of his tuberculosis, and he is getting well.” As he spoke, Mr. Leitzinger pulled back slightly on the reins.

“I thought TB was incurable,” said Ellie.

“People do get well here,” he answered. “It’s the clean, dry air and good food. They might have to stay a few years, and it’s important to take it easy, but a cure is possible. Signor Solano feels that the oranges he orders shipped from California and Florida are the main healers.

They headed straight for the edge of town toward the snow-topped mountain peaks to the west. They passed several small houses that looked as if they had grown out of the land surrounding them. “Those belong to our family,” he said. “The settlers around here started with log cabins. When they prospered in the cattle business, they built big houses closer to the range. Most family members worked the ranches, but when they got old they sometimes moved to town. We have strong families here. Strong families make strong countries, or so I believe. What do you think?”

“I’m in favor of families though sometimes you have to get away from them,” Ellie said. What she didn’t say was that she was also in favor of as much independence as possible.

“It takes guts to leave, but it feels good to come back home,” said Mr. Leitzinger. “Signor Solano’s grandson is coming from Switzerland tomorrow. We graded the road especially for his visit. It’s a good thing the spring thaw is over. Water rushes through the canyons when the creeks flood and it can destroy the roads and the railroad tracks. A gully-washer has taken the tracks out twice.

“I know what you’re saying, the roads in France were awful in winter and spring.

As the horse settled into a steady pace, Mr. Leitzinger handed Ellie the reins again. She held them tightly, hoping Ribbons wouldn’t take a notion to bolt.

Mr. Leitzinger pulled a mouth-harp from his jacket pocket and cupping it in his hands he began to play “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” Ellie hummed along. It was a song she knew well from singing with ambulatory patients and off-duty nurses. At those times, she felt as if she were with family members even though they might never meet again.

“That’s a flier’s jacket, isn’t it? Were you in the war?” she asked.

“The Great War. People don’t want to think we’ll ever have another like it.” He slid the harmonica back into his pocket and re-possessed the reins.

“No sane person wants a war.” Hoping he wouldn’t notice, she inched closer to the warmth of his body.

“I wanted to be in the thick of the dog fighting,” he said. “But they needed men who could read maps and memorize terrain, so they taught me to fly and put me in a surveillance bus instead. A BeBe. That’s a pretty good little airplane. My brother was in the infantry, but he didn’t make it back home.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” She felt the sting of tears at the back of her eyes and dreaded the crying she felt approaching. After the war ended, she had spent five years in the beauty salon at the department store. She fell apart every time a patron told a sad story, war-related or not.

Without saying anything further, he shrugged, handed her the reins and took out his harmonica again. He breathed into the instrument and snappy Dixieland jazz emerged.

The lively tune distracted and soothed her. Now she wouldn’t have to make a fool of herself with her tears.

* * *

The wagon turned and dipped under a large wooden board entrance with hieroglyphics burned into it.

“Is that your ranch brand?” she asked.

“How do you know about brands?” He looked at her and smiled.

“My grandfather was raised on a ranch, and he always wanted to go back. He’d tell any callers who came to the house, ‘go west, young man and grown up with the country.” He got that from a man named Horace Greely. I’m Granddad’s first convert, even though I’m not a young man.”

“We’ll have to invite him for a visit,” Mr. Leitzinger said.

“On your sign, I saw an L…? She glanced back, but they were on the other side of it by now.

“Circle L-Z,” he said. “That’s our family brand, but we’re leasing to Mr. Solano for the time being.

They drew up to a large Victorian house with windows across each of three floors. The lights on the ground floor issued a welcome. Large spruce trees grew as tall as the house on both sides.