Serial Western Romance Novel – Page 6

Go West~Chapter 35

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Thirty-five

Ellie

“Where were you born? “ Ellie sat with her back against the head of the bed while Nancy lay flat.

“My people came from Germany in 1876 and built this ranch,” said Nancy, so I was born on a neighboring ranch.

“My mother and her sister were born here in Colorado, but the stork dropped me in Chicago.” Ellie settled in for a short chat with Aldon’s mother. “Was Trudy your only sister?” Ellie wanted to know about Aldon’s family whether she stayed at the ranch or not. It would be something to think about when she was alone.

“Yes, Trudy was the eldest. After me, Papa got what the ranch needed, which was a passel of boys.”

“How many is a passel?” Amazed at how much better she felt talking to Nancy, Ellie began to relax.

“For us it was four. Karl died of the Spanish Influenza in 1918.” Nancy’s voice faltered.

“I’m so sorry. Your brothers are quite the gentlemen. I danced with them, you know.” Ellie smiled to herself thinking of the gallant older men who each in his own way reminded her of a giant.”

“Those big old fellows are as easy-going as they come, but they’ve had a great deal of hardship in their lives. They told me you were a sweet little thing. You received their blessing.” Nancy said.

“A sweet little thing?” Ellie sat up fully awake staring at Nancy. “That’s not how I want to be thought of.”

“Oh, no? How do you want them to think of you?” Nancy touched Ellie’s elbow as if to console her.

“As a good, strong, capable woman like you.” Ellie felt the anger simmering again as she recalled Aldon’s embarrassing and unnecessary rescue.

“You are strong and capable.” Nancy reached up and laid her warm hand against Ellie’s cheek. “And beautiful, too, no wonder Aldon is enraptured by you.”

“He’s what?” Ellie jerked her head back.

“Are you attracted to him? “Nancy asked.

“Well, I was, but…”

“His temper worries you.” Nancy nodded.

“I don’t like the idea of men fighting over me. That doesn’t do a woman’s reputation any good, does it?” Ellie started to get up, but when her feet hit the cold floor, she changed her mind. Ready now to talk in earnest she rested her back against a pillow and the iron rungs of the bedstead.

“I have never seen him jealous before. Maybe he’s going to have to learn not to be, but he has always been protective and that will stay with him.” Nancy pulled herself into a sitting position like Ellie’s.

Chapter 35 Robert “He hasn’t said much about his father,” Ellie glanced at Nancy to gauge her expression in reaction to the question.

“Robert had a rough upbringing, but he was a good man. He believed in discipline for children and horses, all our people did.”

“When did you know you loved Robert?” Ellie asked. Both pair of legs stretched toward the foot of the bed and Ellie pulled up the quilt.

“Being neighbors, our families worked the ranches together. On joint workdays, Robert kept my brothers from teasing me too much. They had a lot of respect for him. At haying time one year, when I was about eight, I was wearing a blue-print flour sack dress and running in the meadow with my hair flying. Robert caught me up under the arms and turned in circles with me. It made me dizzy, but when he set me down, he said I was as pretty as a Mountain Bluebird. It always makes me happy to think about that time. Eleven-year-old boys don’t usually speak kindly to small girls let alone protect them from their brothers. I knew he must have thought a lot of me to call me after a Mountain Bluebird. They are one of the prettiest things you ever saw.” She sighed. “They get their color from the sky.”

“Robert was small and dark-headed. Men sometimes called him Shorty and sometimes Pee Wee. He always resented it, but once he proved he was a fighter, they stopped. When I got my growth, I was taller than he was, and when we started stepping out we took some teasing. Inside, though, he was the biggest man I ever knew.”

“What happened to your Robert?” Ellie scooted down in the bed taking her pillow with her.

“After the war — after Paul…” Nancy sighed and drew her knees up under the cover with a low moan. “He got so sad he’d barely speak. It broke my heart, and I tried everything to cheer him. I grieved for Paul, too, but I knew I would see him again. It was awful to lose my husband to bitterness, but I still had two that needed me.

“When you lose your best friend and want to tell somebody about it, it would be your best friend whom you would tell, it’s the loneliest feeling in the world.” Ellie wondered if that made sense as she closed her eyes for a moment. In her imagination she saw Aldon’s face looking surprised and hurt. Biting her lower lip, she willed herself not to cry.

“You’re right, Robert always did his work, but he couldn’t find any peace, so he took to sitting at the kitchen table late into the night drinking beer. At first, I tried to stay and visit, but I couldn’t stay awake all night and do chores the next day, so I started coming upstairs without him. One morning in the wee hours, I realized he hadn’t come to bed, so I went downstairs and he was still at the table. I thought he had just laid his head down, but when I touched him, I knew he was gone.” Nancy dabbed at her eyes with the sheet.

Go West~Chapter 34

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter thirty-four

Ellie

In her room at the ranch, Ellie picked up the hog’s-hair brush from her dressing table, yanked it through her hair one hundred times, and threw it back on the table. Maybe I should go out to the barn and try to make Aldon understand how I feel, she thought. She dug her fingers into a jar of cold cream and slathered it onto her face while she pictured herself telling Aldon off. I can take care of myself. Don’t you know that if people see men fighting over me, they’ll think I’m a hussy? What business is it of yours who I dance with?

She touched the corner of her eye and felt moisture but knew she wasn’t crying. She had cream in her eye. She wiped it all off with a towel, grabbed her nail file, and sawed away at the nail on the index finger of her right hand.

“May I come in?” Someone knocked gently on the frame of the open door. Glancing up, Ellie saw Aldon’s mother, Nancy, smiling at her.

Forcing a smile Ellie invited Nancy to sit on the bed while she did the calisthenics she was taught in gymnasium at school.

As Nancy walked across the floor her bedroom slippers made a soft padding sound on the linoleum. Ellie noticed that Aldon’s mother was almost as tall as her son and that her hair was the same champagne color as his. A long braid hung down her back and a nimbus of curls framed her face, reminding Ellie of one of the Gish sisters in the moving pictures. Was it Dorothy or Lillian? She couldn’t decide. Ellie’s smile began to feel more genuine because Nancy had come to visit. She was, of course, still furious with Aldon, but now, Nancy’s quiet spirit began to calm her.

“I admire you young girls. You take such good care of your figures. I hope you won’t mind if I rest my back. I thought maybe we could talk while the house is quiet. I don’t plan to stay long.” She watched from the bed as Ellie jumped up and down flapping her arms. After she had done twenty-five jumping jacks, she touched her toes without bending her knees for the same number of times.

“This has been a long day,” Ellie said, throwing herself on the bed next to Aldon’s mother. She propped herself up on her elbow so she could look into Nancy’s face.

“The boys slept in this room,” Nancy said looking at the ceiling. “They had two beds, but like puppies in a nest, all piled into the same one. By the time they were seven, nine, and ten, they were horsing around so much that we gave each of them his own room. It didn’t do any good, though. Every night, Paul and Bill sneaked into bed with Aldon as soon as he fell asleep, which was immediately.”

“You really love your boys, don’t you?” Ellie lay back on the pillow.

“Aldon was always their hero, especially Paul’s.” Nancy paused and Ellie knew she was thinking about the son that had not returned from the war. If only Ellie could load him into her ambulance and bring him back. But, in war days, bringing anyone back for a complete cure was rare. It was so sad, but many of the lads had already died by the time the medics arrived on the battle field.

“Aldon blames himself for setting an example for him by enlisting.” Nancy seemed transfixed by the light bulb above the bed. “It’s not Aldon’s fault, Paul would have gone anyway if only to prove to himself he was a man.” Nancy spoke without emotion as if her grief had become a dull, but familiar ache. “It was always one of his dreams to become a soldier.”

“But Bill didn’t go to war.” Ellie said.

“No, they thought he had a heart murmur, so they classified him 4-F. We had no idea, except that he never had the stamina the others had. He was built small and never gained weight; which made him an excellent jockey. After the army rejected him he received quite a few white feathers in the mail. That made him feel as if people thought he was a coward.

“What did he do about that?” Ellie asked.

“He’s still trying to prove himself out there in Hollywoodland by taking on the most daring stunts they have,” Nancy answered.

“Lots of boys and men had heart conditions and other problems too.”

“Not one of my boys was ever afraid of anything, though,” Nancy continued. “Paul was a daredevil. He decided one day that he and his brothers would play a game they called Icarus. Bill jumped off the barn first, but he wasn’t’ hurt, neither was Aldon, but Paul broke his leg and was on crutches for weeks.”

“I hate for any man to have to go to war.” Ellie said, covering a yawn. The mattress felt just right, and she liked hearing about Aldon and his brothers even though in some parts it was heartbreaking.

“We gals sometimes don’t understand the things men have to do.” Nancy’s voice grew softer. “They are willing to fight for their country and we’re grateful for that.”

“I don’t understand any man except my granddad,” Ellie said.

“Tell me about your family,” Nancy raised up to fluff her pillow then lay back down again. “Your opa makes his living from cattle too?”

“Not now, he did before I was born. He helps Grandmother run the department store.” Sudden gratitude for Nancy’s gentle company filled Ellie, but she reminded herself that she still had reason to resent the lovely woman’s son.

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 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.