Go West Serial Novel – Page 7

Go West~Chapter 33

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Thirty Three

Letter to Bill continued.

Brother, this is a long letter, but I thought I’d work on it when I had time then I could put it all in one envelope and save on postage.

I’ll tell you about the dance. Once the band got going, every uncle and male cousin asked Ellie to dance. Believe me, she learned fast to keep her feet out of the way of their clodhoppers. Usually no man asks any woman to dance except his wife and sometimes his sister, but Ellie has a way about her that puts you at ease, and she’s so daggone shiny, they couldn’t help themselves. Dieter, then Arn went off the band stand to dance with her, so I did too. When I got right up to her I suddenly turned shy and didn’t know what to say. I might have chickened out altogether, but she smiled and that got me.

The band started the Varsouviana and she shook her head saying, “I can’t do this dance.”

“All right.” I turned away thinking she didn’t want to dance with me.

“Could you teach me, though?” she asked and my heart flipped over.

“Why sure! Here’s how we start.” We had a couple of laughs wrestling for a hold, and it came to me why people like to dance so much. It so’s they can hold each other. All that practice, just so you can put your arms around somebody, Mother never told us about that part. At first Ellie couldn’t get the hang of it, so I showed her a few steps and sang those words the teacher (Ma) taught us: put your little foot, put your little foot, put your little foot right down.

“I hate to tell you, but what I’m seeing is not a little foot,” she said. I laughed so long and hard she finally had to slap me to make me shut up. Ha, not hard, just a tap on the cheek.

She soon got the hang of it and we rotated around the floor with all the other dancers. Throughout the evening, Nancy and Gertrude took turns with their three hefty brothers and with dad’s brother, David, who lost his wife last year.

I was watching Signor Solano’s grandson, Enrico, when he left the dance. I could see him walk over to the man in the long black coat. What else would you expect from someone who likes to spend his nights in the saloon?

Between dances when folks were resting, he went over and bowed to Ellie like those foreigners do, but then he collapsed on the floor as if all the hot air had gone out of him. The band began to play again and the grandson struggled to his feet and pulled Ellie from her chair. That was when I laid my mandolin down and everybody got out of my way. It only took me three strides to get there. I grabbed the guy’s collar in one hand and his belt in the other, drug him across the dance floor, and threw him in the back of the pickup. By this time all the outside drinkers and the inside dancers had come to watch what they hoped would be a good fight. Too bad that man doesn’t have any fight in him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ellie was furious – with me! “You didn’t need to get rough with him, I could have handled it,” she said.

“If you could, why didn’t you?” I had to admire her spunk, but I knew which parts of how you act belong to the man and which belong to the woman. She didn’t. I wished somebody had taught her to tend to the woman part and leave the man part to me.

“You didn’t give me a chance. You knocked him out.” She seemed disappointed in me and that was the worst thing of all.

“He passed out from drinking.”

“Why did you have to go and make a scene?” Ellie lowered her voice. “What must your family think of me — a woman that men fight over?” We heard Enrico moan from the truck bed. She went over and peeked in.

“Ooh, Enrico, are you all right. I’m sorry Aldon did this to you. Are you hurt?” she was all soft and loving.

“I’ll take him home,” she said heading for the driver’s door of my truck.

“You can’t drive my truck.”

“I can drive anything with wheels,” she said. “I’m a woman, not some kind of hothouse flower. Get it through your thick skull that I can take care of myself. Up until now, Aldon, it has been a perfect day. I’ve never had a better one. It’s too bad it had to end like this.”

“Better that he passed out so he couldn’t hurt you. You drive the Touring car.” I told her, and I got in the truck and drove away with Enrico bouncing around in the back.

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 32

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Thirty Two

Aldon

Dear Bill,

After the parade with all the rousing music and the prancing horses, we riders on horses stood under the cottonwood trees near the church, so the people could come up and say hello. Chief showed that he had adopted Summer and Sunrise by biting at any horses that came near him. His teeth came within an inch of Dieter’s horse, but Dieter kicked at him and he backed off.

It seems we’ve done nothing but practice for the grand entry, which is my favorite part of the rodeo. This was the best rodeo because Ellie was there for all the practices. She carried the Colorado flag. We had a stiff wind and it was hard for her to hold on to the flag even though she had the stirrup holster. She and Summer practically flew into the arena. The Spaetzli band played, the crowd cheered, and everyone stood to salute the American flag. The line peeled off into a four-leaf clover smoothly as could be.

That’s a good rodeo grounds. Remember when Dad took us along to build the grandstands and the corrals? Paul and I got into trouble because we played around too much, but you helped like the daddy’s boy you were.

This year I won a cash prize for bull riding. Man, I got a devil of a bull. After the buzzer went he threw me and then tried to gore me. Thank the Lord for Willy. Those clowns save so many lives, it isn’t even funny. Ha.

Ellie couldn’t figure out why a fellow would get on a bucking bull, risk being stomped, and have to run for his life. She does have a point. I plan to have that be my last bull-ride. There are other things in life besides showing how tough you are. I was glad for the prize money, though. I don’t want Signor Solano paying for all the ranch improvements.

Ellie had told me earlier that she wanted to race Summer. I was sorry to inform her that no woman had ever raced on our track before, but when Nancy heard me explaining, she got all huffy and she and Gertrude took off to badger their brothers into letting Ellie race. They’ll do about anything for family so the next thing we knew Ellie was on the list.

When Enrico heard Ellie was racing he wanted to race too. Signor Solano asked me to give him the best horse we had, but that was Chief and I just couldn’t do it. He rode Stardust, the next fastest. We didn’t know how Summer would do, but I wasn’t about to ask Ellie to loan her out. Enrico isn’t any kind of rider, so they came in dead last, anyhow. It wouldn’t have mattered whose horse he rode. Signor was so glad to see his boy interested in something he was satisfied. Chief got first place, Kenny’s horse got second and Summer did well, for a first race, coming in third.

After the rodeo the Fitzgeralds opened the old hotel bathhouse so folks could take baths without going back to the ranches. The Fitz’s still charge two-bits a bath, but they don’t make much profit because they must pay the employees to empty and fill tubs. You’ll recall that some family members share the same water

When Mrs. Fitz was ready to practice before the dance, the band went up to the hall over the general store. The cousins showed up with guitars, fiddles and drums, and Colleen played ragtime on the old Tonk piano while we tuned up.

The women all came up to let us know they were ready for the fireworks out at the reservoir. That was another grand entry, but as far as I was concerned, Ellie was the only woman there. She had on this spring-green dress that set off her golden hair. I tell you brother, the sight of her would make a man weak in the knees.

The town council had voted to spend a lot of money on pyrotechnics this year. About dusk, we workers went around to the other side of the dam to set off the spectacle. You won’t believe this, Bill, but when we got all the fireworks, including spinning wheels and Roman Candles laid out, the first display blew up and set off all the rest. Before we knew it, we had a shower of colored lights that illuminated the sky for miles around. They looked pretty about three minutes as they reflected in the lake for, but then it was over. All gone up in smoke as they say. The mayor was so furious he headed for his automobile saying he was going to the fireworks salesman in Artesia and knock his block off. We managed to talk him out of it, but he took his wife down to City Hall to typewrite a letter of complaint.

It didn’t take us long to get to the dance at the foot of the range. The folks enjoy the dance, but I never really cared about it. From the time we were boys, mother scrubbed us until our skin burned, then slicked back our hair with Madagascar oil. She parted it in the middle, remember that? We looked like little Lord Fauntleroys. We had to wear those suits, and above all, we had to behave like gentlemen. She took turns dancing with us when she wasn’t making us play our instruments. We had to smile the whole time and it made our faces hurt. But my dear brother, when Ellie was at the dance it was a different matter altogether and for the first time I was thankful for Nancy’s determination to make gentlemen of us. Dad’s too.

Go West Chapter~31

Chapter 31

Go West

By DiVoran Lites

Chapter Thirty One

Before the Parade

Ellie

When rodeo day came, Ellie put on the divided doeskin skirt, and fringed jacket Nancy had worn as rodeo queen. The outfit was of the softest leather Ellie had ever felt and she knew it would blend with Summer’s and Sunrise’s palomino coats. For a blouse, she wore a plaid taffeta shirtwaist in red and gold Molly found in the attic and spruced up.Aldon told her she looked like she’d probably be rodeo queen next year if she stayed around. It could be a possibility, she thought if Aldon wanted her to.. The horses dressed up too, wearing hand-tooled tack made by Aldon’s grandfather over fifty years before. It gave Ellie a warm glow to think how much respect and love creations from the past could generate, and how useful they could still be. The final touch was Ellie’s brown Stetson for which she had spent a great deal of money. She knew it would last her a lifetime, but she didn’t know for how long she would be in a place where she could wear it without looking strange. Stetsons for women certainly were not the rage in Chicago.

Aldon had saddled Summer and Chief and brought them to the back door to await her pleasure. Sunrise would follow where his mother led. Aldon gave put his hands under the stirrup so she could use them to mount. He then got on Chief.

The day of the rodeo was clear with puffy clouds. As Aldon and Ellie road along on the gravel road to town they began to sing the songs they had rehearsed for Sunday Meeting the next day. When they spotted the spires of the churches, they sang, “When it’s Springtime in the Rockies,” and “Home on the Range.” Having traveled the road so frequently on their way to town and back, by now each had memorized most of the songs the other knew. They sang: cowboy songs, hymns and some German songs. Ellie had taught Aldon some of the classical ones she knew and he liked them so much he kept asking for more.

As they got closer to town there were horses and wagons behind and in front of them. Everyone in the valley loved rodeo day and every one who could participate. Aldon’s cousins came from their ranches in flivvers, in spring wagons, and on horseback. All of them clustered under the cottonwood trees near the creek at the Community Church from whence the parade would proceed. Cousins from the German band piled out of their big wagon which was pulled by a pair of black and white Clydesdales with huge hooves and broad backs. The men wore their lederhosen and alpine caps. They were a strange enough sight, but when they started warming up, Sunrise got spooked and ran off.

“It’s the tubas.” Aldon said. “My family always has too many tubas. Most of the instruments came from Prussia where, before the war, they made some of the best instruments in the world. You can look in any attic in the valley and there will be a tuba there. The family almost disowned me when I chose the mandolin. One of these days, though, if I have enough wind left in me, I’ll get down the Tuba and play it, too.”

The parade-master walked among the crowd, trying to say out of the way of the horses’ back feet. He spoke to each group, telling them where they belonged in the line-up. The clowns with their brooms and shovels were assigned groups of horses to follow and clean up after. The Artesia school band had come to march too. There was no high-school in the area so that the students who wished to go on must board in town. Few did as no one seemed to see a need for a high-school diploma when they had so much practical and hard-earned experience with ranching.

Summer was almost prancing when she and Chief passed the family on the sidelines who had come in the ranch vehicles. Seraphina jumped up and down and waved her arms. “Ellie, Aldon!” she yelled. Kate tried to quiet her, but the little girl was too excited to calm down.

Go West~Chapter 30

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Thirty

Ellie

Wham, bang, crash! Ellie awoke with a start. Someone was making a ruckus in the house. She slid out of bed, dressed, and stepped carefully down the stairs avoiding the creaky boards discovered from morning trysts with Aldon. From the kitchen, she heard a rough, country voice.” Git the booze if you know what’s good for you.”

“Si, si, but should we not hide from the clan? They followed us from town and will soon arrive.” It was Enrico’s voice. She heard the basement door open and the sound of feet pounding down the stairs.

Ellie knew she must get Aldon. She opened the front door and slipped out into the misty night. Before she could reach the barn, she heard another commotion and ran behind the chicken coop to hide. A soft, no escaped her lips when she peeked out and saw men covered in white-sheets with peaked masks over their faces getting out of a motor car. They lit large torches, which flared in the darkness as if they were the fires of hades. She knew they couldn’t see her from where they were so she ran toward the barn and climbed up the ladder to the loft.

“Aldon!” she hissed standing over his cot. “Wake up!”

“Ellie,” he said as if he were dreaming. He turned on his side facing her and pulled her into the cot beside him. He put his arms around her and snuggled back into sleep.

“Aldon, get up. We’ve got visitors,” Ellie pushed against his chest and he abruptly let go of her. She fell onto the floor and lay there a moment getting her breath back. When she got up, she pulled on his arm. “Come on, there’s something happening out there. We’ve got to go check on it.”

He sprang up causing her to fall again. It was all beginning to seem like a movie horse opera.

“Get that shotgun over there,” he said. As she handed him the weapon that leaned into the corner, he grabbed two shotgun shells from a drawer in the desk and loaded both barrels.

“Stay here,” he said.

“Wait, let me tell you.” She tried for a deep breath but felt so rushed she couldn’t quite manage it. “Enrico’s in the basement going after some liquor. Two more men are waiting for him in the kitchen. I think they’re drunk. The KKK just arrived – four of them in an open flivver. They’re in the barnyard, wearing robes and hoods, and they have lit torches. We’ll have to be careful they don’t burn down the house.”

“Okay, you’ve done a good job, now you stay right here where you’ll be safe and let me handle it.”

“I’m going,” she said. “Just tell me what to do.”

“We don’t have time to argue about it.” He said descending the ladder.

“I’ll show myself and divert their attention and you can get a drop on them.” She scrambled after him, brushed past, and ran out the door before he could forbid it. She screamed to get the marauders’ attention, and they turned and stared.

“Get her,” one of them yelled.

“Put those torches in the air and hold them high. Okay, now, know this. I’m going to shoot the first man that moves.” Aldon stepped out of the shadows pointing the gun. “Ellie come over here by me.”

“It’s a mite late to go visiting, isn’t it?” Aldon said. “Keep your hands in the air and go stand over there in front of the corral.”

“We hear you’re harboring some folk that don’t belong here.” One of the men said.

“Where did you hear that?” Aldon walked toward the men, whose robes crawled with ominous shadows in the light of their torches.

“From that there Eyetalian you got hanging around here. We don’t cotton to any kind of people ‘cept pure white Americans.” The man with the big belly spoke.

“Who are you after?” asked Aldon.

“For now we want that colored woman. Her husband was a murderer. What better reason could we have for taking her away?” Another man spoke.

“Oh, you mean our friend Kate? Why don’t you just head on back down to where you came from and leave us alone. You don’t have any business here.” Aldon cradled the gun under his arm.

“You see, you don’t understand. We are here to protect you and your family from foreigners and strangers coming in and taking over.” A third man spoke.

“How do you know who’s American and who isn’t?” Aldon motioned for one of the men to raise hands that had been slowly descending.

“First off, they got to be white.” The clansman’s hands rose again.

“Not just them, but their folks too.” They seemed to talk in turn, one and then the other. “They got to have American names, American ways, fight for the country.”

“Did you fight for the country?” Aldon asked while Ellie gave a sigh of impatience.

“We’re all respectable businessmen and upstanding citizens, somebody had to stay here and run the country. Our Grand Dragon is the preacher of the biggest church in Artesia. He is a real American. We got half the politicians in Denver on our side. We’re doing what any red-blooded Americans ought to be doing.”

“We hear you’ve got a half-breed kid here, too,” said a different voice. “We could take her off your hands.”

Everybody jumped when the screen door banged shut and Kate came striding out in a long robe with the biggest broom Ellie had ever seen in her hands. She took a swing at the man closest to her and he went down. She went after a second, and he ran, tripping over his sheet.

“Get out of here and leave us alone.” She turned on the third one who stared at her dumbfounded. She hit the fourth man with the broom. In three seconds the automobile was loaded and had put-putted away. Instead of watching it go, Kate looked around for someone else to hit and headed for Aldon, not quite recognizing him in the dark. He took the broom.

“Whoa there, it’s me. You’ve taken care of them. You can relax now.”

Once Enrico and his two cohorts saw that the KKK had moved on, they came skulking out the back door. One of the men was tall and skinny. The other was broad and hairy. By now, Signor Solano had also descended from his aerie.

“What are these men doing here?” Signor Solano asked moving close to Enrico.

“Allow me to introduce my friends,” said Enrico bowing to the company in a drunken move to take control of the situation.

“What are they doing here?” Signor Solano asked again while supporting his grandson against his own increasing strength.

“I know them,” said Aldon. “They’re squatters.”