Christian Fiction – Page 8 – Rebekah Lyn Books

Go West~Chapter 27

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Twenty Seven

Ellie

As Ellie’s spirit quieted, she began to see her surroundings again. When she looked up at the Ferris wheel she saw that it was slowing to a stop, and that someone was waving and calling to her from a gondola.

“It’s getting late and the Signora is probably wondering how to get a taxi back to the hotel.” Aldon said standing up.

“Look over there, she’s on the Ferris wheel,” Ellie said.

“Hoo, hoo,” Lia waved and called again, and they walked over to wait until the attendant released her.

“Where have you been!” Lia demanded. “I have lost Enrico!”

”Are you all right?” Forgetting her own former emotional state, Ellie slipped her arm around Lia’s shoulders. “

“Am I all right?” Lia said shaking Ellie off. “You left me without a fare-thee-well, and now Enrico has disappeared. No, I am notta all right. We must find him so we can go back to the hotel.”

“I’ll get him.” Aldon strode away, and the women hurried after him so that he wouldn’t become as lost to them as Enrico already was. As fast as they walked, Lia could still chatter, and because she didn’t lower her voice people kept stopping and staring at her.

“Really, that Enrico, he is too bad. He has no self-discipline. He is always going to the saloon in town, I give him money and money and he always needs more. If Giovanni knew how he was taking from me, he would have a heart attack.”

“I presumed Enrico was in the suite with you and the Signor at night, or in his own room.” Ellie tried to keep an eye on Aldon while weaving through the crowd and conversing with Lia.

“He comes home broken every night.” In the garish carnival lights, Lia stopped and rubbed her fingers together in Ellie’s face. It was the ancient sign for money.

“You mean broke?” Ellie asked, imagining how the local people would say it.

“Yes, n-ever no m-oney and in his chips, as well.” In her anger Lia stammered.

“In his cups, you mean…drunk?”

“Drunk, yes. I will tell my Giovanni he must send his grandson to Switzerland, or Italy, or wherever he wants to go. I want my peace back. I want my home again.”

As the crowd thinned on the outskirts of the amusement park, Aldon cut between two tents toward the sound of men’s threatening voices. When the women came into the small alleyway, they saw Enrico crumpled against a tent wall like a rag doll. A man came at Aldon, but Lia, in her hurry to get to Enrico, rushed past and the man accidently knocked her down. Ellie rushed to her, but Lia was getting to her feet unharmed.

“Stop this nonsense at once,” Ellie cried. When Aldon heard her voice, it took his mind off protecting himself. A punch landed on his jaw, and he fell. The three men looked for someone else to punish, but could find no further victims. One of them ran over to where Enrico lay and went through his pockets. He pulled out a roll of bills and shoved them down his shirt. He nodded to the others and they took off.

Ellie rushed out onto the fairway looking for help, and a policeman, who must have heard about the fight, came on the run, waving a nightstick. He pulled back to hit Aldon but Ellie grabbed his arm and held on as hard as she could.

“Not him,” Ellie said, shaking all over. “The bad guys are already gone. See if that other man is all right.”

“A word to the wise,” the policeman said trying to get Enrico to his feet, “Take this man home and don’t bring him back to town again. He don’t pay his gambling debts. They were only after what belonged to them. If I ever see any of you again, I’ll arrest you all.”

Aldon took Enrico from the policeman and Ellie put her arm around the young man’s waist to help support him. Lia followed them to the Packard Six, and Aldon stuffed Enrico into the back seat. He shoved him over, and got in.

“You’ll have to drive,” Aldon told Ellie. “I’m still woozy from that punch. We leave for the valley at six o’clock in the morning.”

Go West~Chapter 26

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Twenty Six

Ellie

”We’d better get back to town, somebody will be missing us,” Aldon said at the end of a dance. He twirled Ellie out and then brought her back into his arms. Taking her hand, he walked her over to the register where he paid the bill. They stopped at the table to leave a tip for the waitress. Once they were in the car, Aldon pressed the electric starter and the engine responded immediately. They looked at each other and grinned.

“No more cranking,” Aldon said.

“This car’s got the moxy.” Ellie felt giddy and carefree as they picked up speed curving down the mountain road. When Aldon shifted into second gear to slow the car, Ellie clapped.

“Saves the brakes,” Aldon looked over at her and nodded. As they left the mountains behind, the road leveled out and he shifted into third gear. Back at the hotel, they discovered that Lia and Enrico were missing, then Ellie remembered Lia’s plan to visit the Tuileries Amusement Park.

“We might as well go on over there,” Aldon said. “We can give them a ride back to the hotel.”

As they approached the park, Ellie gazed at a halo of light beaming from the permanent fairground. She wound down the side window the better to hear the faraway throbbing of a drum. The Ferris wheel, its lights gleaming, rotated against the night sky. Terrified, but delighted screams pierced the atmosphere as a string of roller-coaster cars steamed up one loop and roared down the next.

After Aldon parked, they walked into a thin cloud of dust and the smell of cotton candy. When they came to a shooting gallery, Ellie felt her confidence rise. Now was the time to show Aldon that the lessons he’d given her in spare bits of time had made her into a sharp shooter.

“Step right up! Three shots for a nickel,” the man behind the counter shouted. Aldon gave him money and the two of them started competing for points. They only grew tired of the game when it became obvious that their scores would forever match. Ellie laid down her rifle and the booth tender started shoving stuffed animals into her arms.

“Well done,” Aldon said, patting her on the back. He took some of the animals from her. “Won’t Seraphina be surprised when we get home?” He placed a free arm around her waist. “Let’s go put these in the car so we won’t have to carry them around.”

As they left the parking lot after depositing the toys, Ellie asked if they could go to the merry go round. She hadn’t been on one since she was a child, but recalled it as a happy experience. Aldon bought tickets and they stepped onto the platform just as the carousel music began and the giant machine started to rotate. Ellie sat sidesaddle while Aldon straddled his horse, his feet firmly on the wooden floor which turned with the horses. The various carved animals rose and fell pulling Ellie into a kind of dream as if she were being rocked in a cradle. Soon, tears ran down her cheeks, and yet she had no feeling of melancholy or sadness. The sound of the booming drum, the ragtime piano, and the majestic notes from the steam organ seeped into her heart. She felt as if something inside her was softening and melting, but had no idea what it could be. Perhaps a sort of healing was taking place in her soul. When the merry go round came to rest, Aldon helped her down, and steered her to a bench. He gave her a handkerchief and sat down next to her, holding her hand while she continued to sob.

“Why are you crying?” he asked when the emotional storm quieted.

“I don’t know. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me. In fact, I haven’t felt this happy since I was a child. Isn’t that strange?” She looked up into his face searching for an answer.

Go West~Chapter 25

Go West

Chapter Twenty five

Ellie

After a morning of shopping, Ellie, Lia and Enrico followed a haughty waiter to a table in the hotel dining room. They ordered chicken cordon bleu, which was delivered to their table accompanied by fresh, tender green beans and scalloped potatoes. After a baked Alaska for dessert, Lia persuaded Ellie to go with her to a shoe store she’d seen on the way there. They left Enrico with enough money to pay the bill and arranged to meet him later at the hotel.

Lia wanted to look at every shoe in the downtown area. Although they found the perfect footwear to match their ensembles, Ellie wanted nothing more than to go back to the hotel. If she had wanted to spend her time in stores, she might as well have stayed in Chicago.

When Ellie eventually got back to her room, she lay down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep. An hour later, something awakened her, and she jumped up to look out the window. There she saw the top of a long, black automobile at the curb. Aldon got out and stood looking up. He must have come earlier to find out where their rooms were located. She waved and he motioned for her to come down. Although her granddad had taught her to wait for a gentleman to knock on the door, she shelved the rule, threw on her new, green, tea-dress, grabbed her light, cream jacket with the embroidery on it, and ran down the stairs.

In the lobby, she looked around for Aldon and saw him though one of the glass panes in the revolving door. There was a woman in one of the other enclosures. He let her get out, then maneuvered his glass box so Ellie could get into it with him. They had to stand close and synchronize the movement of their feet, but before Ellie had time to get in step Aldon had somehow wafted her out onto the sidewalk. He took her hand and they ran for the car.

As they pulled away, Ellie realized she hadn’t told Lia where she was going. She knew her employer would pout, but she’d like some time free from Lia’s possessiveness. She looked straight ahead as the car slid around a corner leaving the hotel and its guests behind.

Ellie had noticed that once the sun went down, the heat of the day passed quickly. She rolled up the windows on her side, and Aldon rolled his up too.

“Cold? Come sit close to me. My brothers always said I give off as much heat as a pot-bellied stove.

As she moved closer, she recalled how standoffish she had felt when they first met. He laid his hand open in the seat between them and she put hers into it. He was warm, indeed. He actually radiated love and comfort.

“Let the lower lights be burning,” Aldon began a chorus in his light tenor, and the joy in Ellie’s heart reached a new level. “Send a gleam across the wave.” They had sung that one in church several times now, and she loved it. “Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save.”

They were on the open road approaching the foothills of the Rocky Mountains when the stars came out and began to twinkle as the sun receded behind the mountains. She knew she should feel guilty for running away from Lia and Enrico, but it was tiresome trying to please someone else all the time. Now, it pleased her to be with Aldon instead of just thinking about him all the time.

As the road began to rise, he let go of her hand to maneuver the curves. On their left, Ellie saw a rustic roadhouse. They parked and when they got out of the car, the air was sharp and fragrant with the aroma of hickory smoke coming from a brick chimney.

“Here’s the Oklahoma Inn. It’s run by one of my war buddies. I think you’ll like him. It’s the only commercial place where you can get real barbecue and it’s so good I’d eat it every day if I could.”

The door opened to a blast of noise and heat. A cowboy band played, “California Here I Come.” The room felt cozy with the odor of bathed bodies, Evening in Paris perfume, and hair pomade. Underneath, she smelled the pine that had been carpentered into walls and booths. Her mouth watered when she smelled the meat grilling under a vent. A tall man in a sauce-stained apron set down a pair of tongs and came to wait on them. Aldon jumped up to shake his hand, then the two men slapped each other on the back, a semi-violent rite that seemed strange to Ellie. She saw, though, that the two of them were simply hiding their liking for each other under a manly presence.

“This here’s my buddy, “Oklahoma,” Aldon said.

“How do you do?” Ellie stuck out her hand to shake the huge paw shoved toward her.

“How-do, ma’am. Welcome to, “Oklahoma Inn. I’m Oklahoma.”

“Oklahoma is his nickname, it was because that’s where he’s from. He was a code-talker during the war.” Aldon told Ellie. The big man grinned when he saw the puzzled look in Ellie’s eyes.

“I’m half Choctaw, half white. I lived with the Indians then with my white folks off and on. I learned both languages. When my Choctaw brother went to war, I went too. All we did was tell secrets in our own language. The Huns were flummoxed. My buddy here,” he slapped Aldon on the back, recommended I come to Denver for a job and I got on here. Eventually saved up enough to buy the place. He motioned for Ellie to sit down and then sat next to her squashing her up against the wall.

Ellie had believed that Indians were stoical and close-mouthed, but Oklahoma nodded and smiled and went on talking at Aldon. “That Aldon, he’s a fine man. We weren’t in the same division, but when we found out how much we both liked horses we got to be real good friends.”

When they finished the meal, Aldon stood and held out his arms inviting Ellie to dance. Hoping the evening would never end, she tried to concentrate as he led her in the two-step to the tune of, “Putting on the Ritz.”

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 24

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Twenty Four -Shopping in Denver

Ellie

Ellie couldn’t help a sigh of relief at being surrounded by tall buildings and noisy traffic. She loved the mountains and the clear fresh air in the valley, but she supposed most people felt more at home in the kind of place where they grew up.

Denver, she had heard, was the capitol of Colorado and growing fast. She could hardly believe that when it came time to choose a capitol, one of the small towns in the Wet Mountain Valley had lost the designation by only one vote. Just think, if it had won, it would be the city, now and maybe Denver would be the almost abandoned ghost town. At the hotel, bellboys carried the luggage to the separate third-story bedrooms assigned to the three of them.

Ellie’s room had a large double bed with art-deco designs in the duvet and pillows. A window looked out over the busy Denver street. She went into the tiled bathroom and washed her face with a generously sized, pristine-white wash-cloth.

A knock came at the door, and when Ellie opened it, Lia swept into the room, walked straight to the window, and stood looking down at the traffic.

“Are you ready to go shopping, now? Enrico is waiting.” Lia had changed into a light summer dress. The skirt floated out as she turned back to Ellie. “He is excited to get his measure for the new suit. He wants a black fedora, two ties, shirts, and I believe I will buy him a set of diamond cuff-links. What do you think of that? I did not want to wear any of my old hats. They would not fit now that my hair is cut. We will select a new one first thing and they will let me wear it. We will tell them to throw the old one away. Straw, I think.

“Am I all right like this?” Ellie asked. She was wearing the same blue serge suit she’d traveled in.” Looking at Lia’s voile made her feel hot and uncomfortable by comparison.

“Oh, poof, you are, of course, fine. For it will be a new dress, perhaps of the chiffon for you. That suit will go into a box and be sent back here. You must have also a light summer jacket for evenings. We will buy dresses for Molly’s birthday party and for the Independence Day Dance. No one in the valley has ever seen any such as we will be in our finery. Come now.” She led the way to the elevator and they went down to meet Enrico in the lobby.

“Please go ahead,” Ellie said as they walked along the crowded street. “I’ll catch up with you at the store. I assume you’ll be in men’s outfitters or ladies apparel?” She nodded first at Enrico who stood in his soiled white suit with his hair falling over the collar of the jacket. “They may have a barber shop.”

“Oh yes,” said Lia. “He will have a hair-cut.”

“Yes, signora,” he bowed, then turned and stalked off. Ellie noted that Lia and her step-grandson were not getting along as well as they had at first. Enrico’s appearance was not her business, but he wasn’t as attractive now as she had at first thought. He could never approach Aldon in manliness.

Ellie went into the bank on the corner to cash the check her grandmother had sent for the wigs and postiches she had made from Lia’s hair. The hair that had grown all her life was a gold-mine for Ellie. She would thank her again for the gift of it. Grandmother was thrilled with the strength and thickness of the wigs and with Ellie’s workmanship, too. She had surprised Ellie with a large amount of money, and Ellie knew the profit for the store would be good, as well. She could well afford the two dresses, new summer coat, a Stetson, a pair of boots, a long-sleeved tailored shirt, and trousers that would stand up to riding.

After cashing the check, she waited for the light to change and crossed the street to the May Company. In the elevator, she watched the numbers climb. When it stopped with a ding the operator slid the door open and Ellie emerged into the ladies department. When she heard Lia’s voice shouting, she knew exactly which direction to go. She saw three clerks in long-sleeved black dresses rushing back and forth with piles of chiffon and taffeta over their arms before she saw Lia. One of the clerks nodded in the direction of the voice which was coming from a dressing room.

“Go to the men’s department,” Lia commanded when Ellie stuck her head through the curtains.“See to Enrico. He is such a child! The suit will have to be measured perfect because it will come in the mail barely in time for the parties and there will be no time to send it back so they can alter it.”

Ellie went downstairs where Enrico postured while a tailor attempted to wrap a measuring tape around his waist. She decided to wait a few moments before she approached the two men, each intent on a goal.

“Yes sir,” sighed the clerk, at last, bowing in mock humility.

For the rest of her time in the men’s department, Ellie nodded or shook her head over the clothes and accessories offered to Enrico. He tried on a black suit and the hat he wanted. He and Ellie then went to find Lia who, when she heard them talking, stuck her head between the curtains and commanded, “Enrico, you sit over there in the slipper chair and Ellie you come in here with me. I have selected a few things for you to try.”

When Ellie saw the pale green-gold frock with gold embroidery on the wide belt, she threw off her skirt and blouse and tried it on over her chemise. It flowed over her slender body as if cut and fashioned just for her.

“You will wear this one to Molly’s birthday,” said, Lia. “And here is mine,” she picked up a rose colored with layers of gathered silk falling to mid-ankle in tiers. Ellie admired how it balanced Lia’s small hips with her larger top.

They bought casual clothes, too and when they stepped into the lunch room each of them wore something new.

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

Creative Arts