Tag: Christian Authors

Go West~Chapter 17

Chapter 17 Shelf Road

Go West 

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Seventeen

Ellie

The wagon swayed as Aldon took the reins to drive the mules onto the shelf road. He and Ellie were returning home the way they had come. The only other choice they had was to pick their way over a meadow strewn with rocks and runoff channels, either dried or filled with water, and Aldon had said the obstructions were camouflaged by grasses and wildflowers, and could trap a wheel or a hoof in an instant.

“Oh, my goodness! Look how far it is down to the creek. If either of us tumbled off the wagon we’d surely break our necks.” Ellie clung to the wagon seat until her knuckles turned white.

“Don’t look down. Look up there at timberline, instead. Anyhow, we’re almost over the shelf road where you’ll feel safer.”

“Why don’t trees grow up there,” she asked, looking where he had pointed.

“We think it’s the altitude.” Aldon said. “Hey, we’re here.” The mules pulled the wagon off the shelf road and onto a level trail.

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They arrived back at the ranch at four o’clock in the afternoon. Ellie was looking forward to a bath, and maybe a short rest, so Aldon let her off at the door saying he would unhitch the mules and take them home to Joe’s family.

When Ellie entered the kitchen, Molly was waiting for somebody to talk to about the day’s work.

“We caught three fat hens and butchered them. We saved the feathers for pillows. We dredged the pieces in eggs and flour and fried them. Now wait,” she held up her hand when she saw that Ellie was losing interest,. “that’s not all. We brought a peck of potatoes in from the root cellar and peeled, cut, cooked and mashed them. We’re bushed. Kate’s resting and I need your help finishing the supper.”

At six-o’clock, the back door opened and in came Aldon and Kenny.

“It’s about time you got here. Supper’s ready.” Molly said looking at Aldon, her eyes soft with a mother-like love. Ellie was reminded that Molly had never married or had children, and was suddenly glad that she’d been around to help rear Aldon, she was a good woman at heart, and she had helped to turn him into a special kind of man.

Aldon took Molly in his arms and waltzed her around the small amount of leftover space in the kitchen. When they got to the stove, Aldon stopped to admire the chicken and to peer into the other pot on the stove.

“Fried chicken and peas in cream sauce with new onions. Molly’s the best cook in the world.” He shot a glance at Ellie who smiled and nodded at his exuberance.

“Now, who’s been kissin’ the Blarney stone?” Molly put her head down, trying to look modest, but when she looked up, her shining eyes showed her pride.

“You’ve mentioned that Blarney Stone before, but I never thought to ask what a Blarney Stone was.” Aldon said.

“I do believe it’s about buttering people up and some bit rock in Ireland, but I really don’t know. My family just says it. None of us has been in Ireland for over a hundred years.” As Molly bustled over to check on the peas, the door from the dining room swung open and young Mr. Enrico walked in.

He came straight to Ellie, grabbed her hand, and kissed it. “Ciao, Signorina, how are you? Please tell me about your drive.” He continued to hold her hand.

Ellie looked at Aldon and caught sight of a scowl that would make a dog crawl under the table. When he realized she was reacting to his dour his expression, he forced a smile.

“Come on Kenny; let’s get washed up for supper.” Aldon and Kenny went out letting the screen door bang behind them. Ellie could hear their footsteps going up the side stairway.

“Signora Solano wants Aldon, Ellie, and the bambina to eat with us in the dining room.” Enrico dropped Ellie’s hand. “She says we will talk about the musicale we’re planning. The Fitzgerald boy will remain in the kitchen with the rest of the help.”

“Yes, Sir,” Molly said, her eyes narrowed in resentment. Ellie knew she must have been looking forward to having Aldon and Kenny to herself at the supper table.

“Check what we need in there.” Molly told her.

When Ellie came back, she reported that the Signora wanted them to serve tea right away and that they needed to think of a way to seat Seraphina tall enough so she’d be able to feed herself.

“Tea!” Molly put her fists on her hips and shook her head. “Get out some books and cover them with a towel for the bairn. Her highness wants to train her to be a great lady. That’s probably the reason for the tea party. Oh, well, I’ll put the kettle on, and you see to the cups and saucers. When you finish, go ahead and get into your prettiest dress. You’re dining with royalty tonight.”

“All I have is my suit skirt and blouse, or one of my work dresses.

“Oh, I’d say the blue skirt and white shirtwaist. They like to dress up and that’s the best you have, which is plenty good enough.” Molly grabbed a dishtowel, wrapped it around the handle of the chicken skillet, and slid it into the warming oven.

Go West~Chapter 15

 

 

Chapter 15 Reflections jpg

Go West 

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Fifteen

Aldon

When supper was over and the clean up finished, Aldon decided to hike up to the beaver pond for a bath. He grabbed a bar of Molly’s homemade soap, and an old towel from his saddlebag and joined Joe and Dieter on the trail. At the pond, the men raced to see who could get into the water first. Joe had to stop and help Dieter get his boots off, so Aldon made the big splash. He started swimming as fast as he could in the icy water, all the time wishing for the hot and cold spring so it would be more comfortable. He was half way across by the time Joe jumped in, and Dieter came next. The three of them wrestled over the soap like dogs over a bone, and when Aldon finally got hold of it, he washed quickly and then threw the soap to Joe. He got out and while the two of them continued to struggle, he dried off and put on fresh jeans and a flannel shirt. For a while, he sat on the large, flat boulder that was like a ramp extending into the water. The top part of the rock was still warm from the sun shining on it all day. It felt so good that he wanted to lie down and sleep right then. He took a deep breath of clean, pine-scented air, held it and breathed out the weariness of the trail with a sigh of satisfaction. They had arrived safely with all the men, the woman, the horses, dogs, and cattle. His cousins quieted as they came out of the water as if they two had started to relax after the long day on the trail.

When they arrived back at camp, Aldon found Ellie sitting on the chuck wagon tailgate with her head against a post that supported the canopy. She looked so bedraggled, he felt sorry for her.

“No more travel until tomorrow when we leave the cattle and ride back down to the ranch,” he said.

“Any chance of my getting a bath, too?” Ellie slid off the tailgate and stood looking up at him in the gathering dusk.

“Sure.” Aldon swallowed hard at the thought of Ellie taking a bath anywhere, but this was practically out in public. He’d need to go with her and keep her safe, but who would keep her safe with him? He shook the thoughts away. After all, bringing Ellie along was his idea and that made her his responsiblity.

“You sure it’s okay? I don’t want to be any trouble.” Her eyebrows went up in consternation.

“Come with me.” Aldon felt heat in his face and chastised himself. Blushing was for women and children, but he hadn’t been able to break himself of it yet. He found another towel and they were on their way. Ellie carried a bundle of clothes clutched to her chest.

“You need a packhorse?” he quipped.

“I have to have clean clothes; I can’t stand these another minute.” As they ascended the trail with Aldon in the lead, he stopped, turned, and took the clothing from her.

“I am perfectly capable of being my own pack horse, thank you.” She tugged at the shirt in his arms but he held on to it until she let go.

“The trail is rocky. Since it’s new to you, maybe I’d better be the pack horse, in case you need to grab a bush to steady yourself.” He moved on.

As they arrived, they heard a splash and saw several beavers glide away toward a mound of brush. Aldon helped Ellie step up onto the boulder, and then he pointed out the sights.

“The beavers live over there,” he explained, indicating the far side of the pond where a pile of sticks stuck up at the edge of the water.

“Yes?” Ellie waited for more.

“It’s called a beaver lodge,” he continued. “They swim under the woven branches and into a warm, dry den. See the pointed stumps over there?” She nodded and he went on. “Beavers cut the saplings down with their teeth in order to use them for making the lodge. They also eat the spongy wood beneath the bark.”

“No wonder people say, busy as a beaver,” she said. “Imagine having to chew down a tree before you can eat breakfast.” They chuckled.

“Beavers mate for life,” he looked at her then cast his gaze out over the pond.

“Do they? That’s good, like people.”

“I’ll sit at the top of this rock. You go down there and get in the water. Here’s the soap.” He handed it to her. “The water is so cold; you won’t want to stay in long. I promise I won’t look.” Aldon listened to the faint sounds Ellie made as she undressed. He heard a squeal of outrage, evidence that she had dipped into the freezing water. After a few minutes, he stretched out on the warm rock and listened to a series of whimpers, feeling like a lout for not heating water on the campfire and letting her bathe inside the cabin.

“Coming out,” she said waking him from a short nap. He took the warm towel and her clothes down to her at the water’s edge. Without looking, he laid the towel across her shoulders. She was shivering so badly that he wanted to take her in his arms and warm her body with his, but knowing it would be the action of a cad, he hoped his hands alone might help.

“It’s okay, I’m decent,” she said. When he looked at her, he had to reckon that her idea of decent was different from his. The towel covered her top, but he could see that high on her bare legs were edges of something pink and silky. What he could see of the garment looked like a cross between fancy underwear and a racy bathing suit. He hadn’t seen anything like it since the war when a fellow flier insisted he look at a picture in a French catalog.

“Let me go, you big lug,” Ellie said between clenched teeth. “You’re squashing me so I can hardly breathe.” Realizing that he had been tightening his grip, he released her so quickly she almost fell.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Let’s hurry now; I don’t want you to catch pneumonia.”

He handed her the bundle of clean clothes and stepped once again to the top of the rock to wait for her.

Go West~Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter  Fourteen

Aldon

Three days later, before sunrise, Aldon arranged himself on the seat of the chuck wagon with Ellie beside him. He was glad to have the use of Dieter’s mules, as he slapped the reins lightly along their backs. Mules were good value. They weren’t as pretty as horses, but they were stronger. They had better horse sense and enough self-respect not to allow folks to ride them to death.

“Git-up,” he shouted as the animals pulled the wagon forward through the pasture and upward into the range. Next to him, Ellie smiled, and at the same moment, a rim of sunshine came up over the top of the treeless peaks.

Aldon knew everyone was in formation. He and Ellie headed the group. Dieter, temporary trail boss, rode to their right with a point man on either side of the herd behind him. They had one swingman and one flank man, on opposite sides of the herd. Joe led three horses toward the left of the chuck wagon.

If we do this again next year, Aldon thought, I’ll let Kenny wrangle the horses. Once someone as bright and willing as Kenny has ridden drag all the way, with the dirt in his nostrils, stinging his eyes, and gritting between his teeth, he deserves a promotion.

As the group moved farther up the mountain, Aldon looked back at half a thousand bobbing heads. Cattle ranching had been good for his family, but if he had a choice, he’d rather be training horses in Hollywoodland, like his brother, Bill, than herding cows.

“Well, Miss Morgan, here you are in the Wild West. What do you think of it?”

“I’m going to have to get a hat. Where did you get yours, Mr. Leitzinger?”

“Colleen will order you one, or I can let you use Granny’s sun bonnet.” Aldon felt sorry that he hadn’t thought to give it to her before they started out.

“Is that the one I saw hanging on the porch?” Ellie asked with a sidewise grin. “I took the liberty of trying it on, and I probably should have worn it, but I guess you might say I was too vain. It’s not my style. I like your John B. Stetson better; you think I could get one of those?”

“You know the brand of my hat?” This gal was full of surprises.

“Morgan’s department store carries them. I believe Mr. Stetson was inspired by the ten-gallon cowboy hats when he visited Colorado.”

“You don’t say?” Aldon thought she must be the smartest woman he’d ever met, except maybe for his mother, Nancy. “We’ll get you a Stetson, one way or the other.”

“By the way, thanks for letting me wear your mother’s clothes. Are you sure she won’t mind?” Ellie asked.

Aldon and Molly had both known that Nancy would want Ellie to wear her long johns, jeans, and flannel shirt, anything she owned, but hadn’t taken with her to Artesia. The young woman from Chicago, of course, had not brought that kind of working duds, and she’d need them for a rough job at high altitude. He had given her the soft, leather sheepskin jacket he’d grown out of at sixteen. Looking at her in it, he remembered how warm the wool felt on the other side of his shirt when the temperature dropped.

At first, the trail was plenty wide enough, but it soon got so narrow that the herd no longer walked spread out, as it had through the pastures. Instead, the cattle fell naturally into single file as they followed the wagon onto the shelf road that Aldon’s ancestors had dynamited out of the side of the mountain. It was a quicker and easier way than trying to drive the wagon over boulders that hid beneath grass and wildflowers in the high meadows. Aldon knew the trail ran more than seventy feet above the creek in some places and was almost too narrow for the wagon, but the chance of the wagon sliding off had never worried him before now.

Knowing that most Easterners got antsy about such heights he glanced at Ellie to see how she was doing. She stopped staring at the creek far below long enough to lift questioning eyes to his.

“You see up there where the trees don’t grow?” In order to distract her, he directed her attention to timberline.

“Yes, I do. Did somebody cut them all down for firewood or what?” she asked searching the high horizon.

“No, they just won’t grow at that altitude.”

“That’s strange.” She continued to look up.

“ ‘I will lift up my eyes to the hills. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth,’ ” he murmured thoughtfully.

“What?” She seemed startled. “I wouldn’t think you’d need much help. You can do anything.”

“Oh, I’ve got my problems,” he said. “But when I think about the Master, they fade away because I know He’s taking care of me. I’ve needed to know that since I got home from the war.”

She gave him such an eager look that he wondered if he should tell her more. He’d try it and if she lost interest, he’d quit.

“For one thing, I sometimes need help holding my temper. It might have something to do with the way my brothers and I always fought when we were coming up. We only had to look at each other cross-eyed and we were in a tangle.”

“Everybody has faults of one kind or another.” Ellie slipped her arm through his. “I think you’re a good man.”

“Thank you ma’am, but I wouldn’t mind being a bit more saintly.”

“Nobody is a saint,” she said.

“I beg to differ, kid,” he said, “followers of Christ are always called saints.”

“Why?”

“The Bible says we are.” Suddenly he decided that he’d said enough. He had her respect, why risk losing it by being too preachy.

 

By noontime, they had arrived at a high, wide meadow ringed with shimmering aspens. Bunch grass, Indian paintbrush, and daisies covered the ground. In the sky, fleecy gray-lined clouds gave only a bit of shade from the sun, but a cooling breeze rolled past on its way down the mountainside. Some cows lay down while others slowly foraged as their calves nursed.