Christian Fiction – Page 4 – Rebekah Lyn Books

Go West~Chapter 46

Chapter 46 on Track

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Forty Six

Aldon

When Aldon realized he was shivering, he thought he’d better get the quilt over his legs. He found the board Nancy used to cut food on and set himself up on the cot. In a few moments warmth crept into his body and he began writing his letter to God.

Dear Heavenly Father,

The line-cabin is chilly, but I don’t mean to complain. I came away so fast after seeing Ellie and Enrico that I forgot my jacket, my bedroll, and my sidearm. When Molly took me to see what was going on between the two of them, she had my best interests at heart, but, Lord, I wish I’d never seen it. Sir, now that I have a chance to start thinking instead of only reacting, I know I’m as desperate as a misused bronc and as unseeing as a newborn kitten. I need your help.

As you know, heavenly father, we got a letter from Bill that told us he was heading home. I’m sure you know that he has a wife and that he has been married for almost a year. I wish I had known he’d be here to take care of the ranch, Nancy and Molly. I could have asked Ellie to marry me. I could have gone to California and got a job as wrangler with the movies. It’s all too late. Ellie will be gone. Joe and Dieter will marry, but I’ll be alone for the rest of my life. I should have told Ellie that I love her. I don’t care if she is a mehanician from back East, a flapper, or a society lady. She is smart, kind, loving, and wonderful, and I was a fool to miss my chance with her. Protect her, please, Lord, or Enrico Solano, will break her heart. She doesn’t deserve that. It helps to talk to you. I know you hear, and I know you will answer, thank you.

Now, as always when he was finished telling the Lord how he felt, and asking him for help, he began to feel his spirits lift. A different concern seeped into his mind. He recalled a pastor once quoting someone who said, “Do the next thing.” What was the next thing? Oh, yes, he had to deal with the rustlers. He sat with the pencil in his hand until he could think out a plan. Suddenly the whole story was clear. He jumped up and checked the cabin, then seeing again his letter, picked it up. He turned it over, and read Ellie’s list again. Knowing no one could see him, he lifted it and gently kissed the place where it said, Glacier Lilies. Then as he scanned his own writing, more peace flooded back into his soul. Folding the paper into a small packet, he snapped it into the breast pocket of his shirt where it would be safe. He could read it again if he started to slide into the quicksand of self-pity. He whispered another prayer to the only person in the cabin with him, the Holy Spirit.

He grabbed his hat, and ran out to Chief. He was so embarrassed to see that he had left him saddled and uncombed, that he promised him to ride gently and to dish out some extra oats when they got to town

As he rode he tried to put thoughts of Ellie out of his mind. One thing he did know, though: he still loved her. But I also know, Lord, that it won’t do any good to try to hang on to her, even in my mind. She has made her choice and I have to live with it.

His God assignment, as he saw it, became more urgent as he headed down the mountain. He must see Sheriff Oates to talk before someone from the round-up, probably Dieter, got on the party line and told the whole valley about the attack. Aldon knew the men who lived here, and knew they’d deal harshly with the young rustlers. They would, without thought or conscience, become outlaws to protect their livelihood.

He and Chief picked their way down the upper slopes and onto the road past the ranch. The sun had begun its slow ascent over the peaks but as he passed the ranch, he knew he didn’t want to wake anyone. Maybe Ellie was already in the kitchen, but he wasn’t ready to see her, so instead of stopping for an automobile, he urged Chief who was acting frisky to move past the ranch at a canter.

He rode through the sleeping town to the church where Quentin Rudd had recently risen from his bed. The pastor invited Aldon to stay for breakfast, but all he’d come for was to tell him where he’d be in case anyone was looking for him.

When he stopped at the Fitzgeralds, he asked Mr. Fitzgerald to take Chief to the livery, unsaddle him and comb him down. He walked the few blocks to the railroad station and boarded the train when it came. He slept a little. When the train pulled into the Artesia station, he got down. Soon he was on the main street of Artesia, leaning against the hitching post across the street from the Sheriff’s office, waiting for Oates to come down and unlock the door.

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 42

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Forty Two

Aldon

Aldon leaned back supporting himself with a hand on the warm rock. Because Ellie was already peeved with him, he didn’t interrupt her to point out the beaver swimming toward its lodge with a stick in its mouth. He had a hunch something was going to happen soon that would either make his life better or ruin it forever, and it all depended on Ellie.

“It’s warm in California in winter and I figure I could get a job.” Ellie wasn’t looking at him which showed that she knew he was hurting, but he certainly wasn’t going to show it in any way. He’d be as polite as a stranger and then they’d go back down to camp and he’d begin preparing to lose her forever.

“Can’t blame you for that. My brother, Bill, loves it out there.” He forced his words past the lock in his throat.

“Why don’t you go too?” Now she looked quickly at him and away again as if she’d said something unseemly.

“Somebody has to stay here and look after the ranch. Aunt Gertrude’s got a gentleman friend now. New man in town, lawyer, widower. She’s going to get married, and Nancy doesn’t want to be in their way, so she’s coming back to the ranch. But she and Molly can’t run the ranch by themselves. If we didn’t have the Solanos, we wouldn’t be able to pay off the loans we’ve been forced to get…” Aldon paused. When he resumed, his voice was low and gravelly. “Maybe you’ll run into Bill out there. He’s right there in Hollywoodland. Is that close to where you want to be?”

“I think so,” she answered. “I did some reading. Los Angeles has a good climate. There seems to be plenty of jobs.”

“What would you work at then, doin’ hair?” he asked.

“Probably, something like that.” Her blues eyes looked into his and he clenched his teeth to keep his feelings at bay.

“Maybe Bill could help you get a job in the movies. They need people to do hair, don’t they?” He forced himself to smile.

“Yes, and they might need more wranglers and stunt men. Is there any chance Bill would want to come home any time soon?” Now, Ellie’s eyes held pleading that threw him as if he’d been bucked off a mean stallion and was going to get stomped. He decided to speak reasonably, rationally, as if her questions didn’t affect him in the least. It was like trying not to scare a frightened filly away.

“I don’t know. I suppose he might. He could run the ranch, for sure. He’s got a girlfriend now. But I can’t ask him to do it. He’s been sending money right along.” Aldon heard the faint sounds of the cow bell and knew it was time for supper.

“I guess we might as well head back.” Ellie said.

“Yep,” Aldon wiped the back of his hand under his cheek bone and started back down the trail. Ellie followed, meek and quiet.

Go West~Chapter 39

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Ellie and Vera

Vera kept talking long after Ellie’s heart had slid into her stomach. Now she wanted the tale to go back to being a secret, but it was too late. Elegant Mr. Louis Norton had used her mother and discarded her. The result was that Ellie was illegitimate. She knew bad names existed for children whose parents weren’t married, but she never dreamed that they would apply to her. And to have had her mother hurt like that – to have such a wholly self-centered man for a father — well, she wanted to crawl under the bed and stay, never to be seen again.

“Mr. Norton had his chauffer drive me to the convent, and that’s how you came to be born there,” said Vera. “Now, maybe you understand why I never told you.”

When her mother reached for her arm, Ellie steeled herself against moving away. How could anyone be so foolish and naïve, she wondered? Then she recalled that her mother had been only sixteen-years-old when she was duped and manipulated by that evil man. She was pregnant and friendless in the big city.

“The nuns were good to me considering I got myself into all this trouble, but I still felt lonely, and I wanted to keep you. You were the only one born there that week. They planned to send you away to some rich people who wanted a baby. The guard nun, however, fell asleep, so I wrapped you in a blanket and escaped through the courtyard. We needed a place to sleep that night so, right away I looked for a job. I’ll always thank God for sending us to the Williams family who ran a pub on skid row. I reminded them of their daughter, who had recently died in childbirth so they gave me a waitressing job and room and board. They insisted I wait a week to begin work, then because you were a newborn, they let you sleep in a big box behind the bar. You were such a good baby. You were happy and you made everyone who saw you smile.

I wrote my folks and waited for an answer, but instead they came to Chicago to find me. We decided not to meet with Mr. Norton now that we know what a bad man he really was. Dad got a job in the stockyards and mother worked in a general store. By then we had a small apartment and I was able to stay at home and look after you during the day. At night your grandmother and grandad took care of you while I continued to work for the Williamses. The three of us eventually saved enough money to start a small neighborhood store of our own. Here again, the pub owners were a big help. When we began to get ahead and got into the department store business your granddad paid them back many times over for what they had done for us. I’m so ashamed and sorry.” Vera’s voice held tears.

“Dear Mother, I had no idea, A young girl who had never been away from home just wouldn’t know. Shouldn’t your parents have been more wary?” Ellie now patted the hand resting next to her on the bed.

“I’ve thought about it over the years, of course,” said Vera. “But I never have had much confidence in myself since that happened and I keep trying to think what I might have done different. But if I’m honest, I got to say, I’ve always been so glad to have a beautiful and good child like you that I could never regret having you and keeping you.”

“Now I understand why you always warned me about men, especially older men. You wanted me to avoid that kind of a situation. Sometimes I felt confused because it seemed as if Grandmother was trying to marry me off to a rich politician, and you seemed reluctant for me to go anywhere with a boy at all. I am sorry you never married, never had a life of your own. Thanks for loving me and looking after me all my life. You were always there quietly in the background.

Vera took hold of Ellie’s hand and Ellie’s heart was flooded with love and compassion. She gently squeezed the hard-working hand of her mother.

“I love you, Mom,” she whispered.

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 38

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Ellie and Vera

“I don’t think you will understand about your father, but you’re right, it’s time you knew.

I’ll start with my family. Dad was a miner from Wales, and mother was a farm girl he met and married on his way to Colorado. He heard they needed miners in Rockridge, which is high up in the mountains. I was born there in 1864. We lived in such a spread-out community that a cabin could be a mile up the ridge from its neighbor. The town, which was down by the railroad, had seven buildings: an assay and claims office, a general store, a Chinese laundry, a depot for the narrow-gage railway, a general store, and two saloons.” Vera lay down and took a deep breath in preparation for going on with her story.

Ellie settled in next to her mother, happy to be talking with her and listening to her. They hadn’t had enough of that in her young life.

“A handful of children lived in log and wattle cabins, but there was no school. Your grandmother, Hester, taught us to read, write, and cipher and that was all. From then on she taught us practical things like cooking, sewing, and raising chickens. We added to daddy’s meager pay by serving meals to miners on their way to work or on their way home. We assembled baskets full of sandwiches to take to the train for its noon stop in town.

“We also learned to shovel snow to get into and out of the cabin. There were times,” she mused, “when the drifts were up under the eaves and we were snowed in. Fortunately, either our supper or breakfast gang would shovel us out so they could eat, or we might still be trapped.

“When your grandmother hit upon the idea of teaching us to crochet we started ordering yarn from the Sears and Roebuck catalog and making afghans, sweaters, doilies, antimacassars and even doll clothes for a department store in Denver. We sent them down on the train.”

Ellie wished she’d get on with the story, but not wanting to be rude, she remained quiet.

“One day after I turned sixteen, Sis and I went down to the station with some grub. A fine gentleman got down from the train. I’d never seen anyone as elegant – though I didn’t know that word at the time. He called us over, bought four sandwiches, told us his name was Louis Norton and that he was looking for a place to open a dry goods store. He also asked about a place to sleep. There was no hotel, but we thought Mother and Dad might find him a place, so we took him home with us. It was muddy and slippery getting up to the cabin, even though dad had built a wooden stairway. We carried his suitcases and sometimes got behind him to push because we were afraid he’d fall if we didn’t. He and I got to laughing so hard that Mother heard and came out to see what was going on. He was about the same age as Dad, but when dad came home from work we saw a great difference in the city man and the dirty, hardworking miner.

“Mama and Daddy took a liking to him. Daddy cleaned out the woodshed and caulked the gaps between logs so Mr. Norton would have a warm place to sleep. It was real cozy and he said liked it. He asked us girls to show him around and we climbed the hills. He was in fine fettle.

“Each day, when the miners left after supper, the adults sat and talked. Mama and Daddy told him the mine was petering out, and we’d have to move on. It didn’t take long for Mr. Norton to know Rockridge wasn’t the place for a new store and never would be.

“Within a week the miners were moving on. Arthur Schultz made our parents mad by saying they should watch Mr. Norton around their young girls.

“One day he asked Mother and Daddy to come to Chicago and work for him at his store. Daddy said they’d wait until the mine closed and pick up some money for the journey. Mr. Norton couldn’t see any reason we girls didn’t come right away. He said his wife would help us get enrolled in school. Sis was eighteen and done with even the thought of school. She was in love with a young miner so she decided to marry him and go wherever he went.

“To me, though, going to the big city and maybe to school sounded like an adventure. My parents thought I was a good learner and could do well. Besides, I needed polish, and Mr. Norton would be just the person to see I got it. I packed everything I owned in a gunny-sack, and Sis and the parents saw Mr. Norton and me off on the train. After several days, we arrived in Chicago in the middle of the night and because Mr. Norton had sent a telegram from up the line we were met at the station by a long, black automobile. We went directly to his store. Mr. Norton unlocked the door and took me in for what he thought of as proper clothing and outfitted me then and there. I felt all grown up even though the clothes he chose for me looked too fancy for a sixteen year old.

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

Creative Arts