Esther

by Jim Cox

  “Wow,” said Joan, “I didn’t know big cities looked like this.”

  They were still gawking around when the driver pulled the team to a halt. “Here you are, ma’am,” he said. “That’ll be thirty-five cents.”

  “Are you sure this is the correct place; we’re in the middle of the business district,” Esther asked.

  “Yes, ma’am; the mercantile we’re in front of is 637 Bourbon Street. She nodded, handed the driver fifty cents, and climbed down.

  As they stood in front of the mercantile with folks circling past, Joan asked, “What are we gonna do, Ma? This is not a place where we can live.”

  Before her mother could answer, Mark quickly butted in, “If Mr. Doyle said to come here, it must be okay. He’s never led us astray before, so I say let’s go inside and meet the folks.”

  »»•««

  A male clerk wearing a white apron was helping a man in the hardware section, and a woman was with a lady looking at fabrics when the Taylors entered the store. “Be with ʼya in a few minutes,” the male clerk called out. Esther nodded with a smile.

  The clerk who had called out was a pleasant looking, middle age man, an inch or two under six feet, and on the thin side. His red hair was streaked with gray and parted in the middle above dark green eyes. His face was clean shaven except for a tidy mustache. A white apron fronted his light blue shirt and dark wool pants.

  The woman was nearly as tall as the clerk, also rather thin, and had thick red hair twisted into a bun on the back of her head. Her skin was whiter than most women’s, and her eyes were green. She too wore a white apron over her light brown dress.

  “May I help you?” the male clerk asked as the customer he’d been waiting on left the store.

  Esther cleared her throat and introduced herself, “Mr. Hendrix, my name is Esther Taylor, and these are my children, Joan and Mark. My friend Doyle Owens sent me here with this letter,” she said handing him the envelope.

  After reading Doyle’s letter, Mr. Hendrix smiled and introduced his wife, Marie, as he passed the letter on to her. When she finished reading it, she also smiled and said, “Welcome to our home.” Her husband echoed her welcome with a nod. Then Mrs. Hendrix turned to her husband and said, “Robert, why don’t you tend the store while I take our guests up to our living quarters and get them settled.”

  Mrs. Hendrix led the way through a back room filled with merchandise to a stairway in one corner. They climbed the stairs to an upstairs foyer with adjoining rooms. “Before I take you to your bedrooms, why don’t we go to the kitchen and get acquainted over coffee and cookies—I baked a batch of macaroon beignets last evening.” As they followed their hostess through a large sitting room, they admired the fireplace and bookshelves from floor to ceiling. The shelves were full of books except for one in the center displaying drawings and trinkets looking as though they were made by children. The room had a polished hardwood floor and was nicely decorated with cushioned chairs and oriental rugs. Across from the sitting room, a short corridor led onto three good sized bedrooms with their doors ajar. Esther saw one had two narrow beds.

  The kitchen they settled in had all of the modern conveniences. A cast iron cooking stove with an oven and a hot water tank. There was even a new-fangled Pitcher Pump beside a sink draining to the outside. “Look, Ma,” Joan whispered, “There’s a room off of the kitchen with a large bathtub in it.” Her mother nodded.

  Mrs. Hendrix filled cups and handed Esther a platter of macaroons to be passed. After placing the coffee pot back on the stove, she sat and joined them. Esther determined Mrs. Hendrix was a talker for as soon as she pulled her chair to the table, she started speaking enthusiastically in her Irish accent about how she and her husband had become acquainted with Mr. Doyle. She said they’d been newcomers to the United States on their way to an adventure in the Wild West. Back home in Ireland, they’d heard the West was a land of excitement. But they ran out of money in Cairo and found themselves stranded with no resources to continue their journey. It was there they crossed paths with Doyle and eventually told him about their predicament. He was a crew worker on the steamer at the time and somehow managed to get them passage on down to New Orleans without cost. He even stayed with them for a few days, while his boat was docked, helping them get settled. On top of that, he’d loaned them two hundred dollars which they’d managed to pay back within a couple of years.

  Mrs. Hendrix paused to pour more coffee and to refill the pastry platter since Joan and Mark had eaten them all. Then she continued. “An elderly man and his wife owned and operated this mercantile and needed help. My husband and I interviewed and got the jobs. At the time it was a sparsely stocked run-down facility and not making much money. After we worked for them for a few weeks, we purchased partial interest in the store with the money Doyle had loaned us and began making a few improvements. The couple were growing older, and their health was failing, so two years after our arrival we bought the old couple’s remaining interest and started making major changes. Our timing was good because the city was in a prosperous period with people’s lifestyles increasing considerably which helped our sales. We were able to pay back Doyle, remodel the store and our living quarters, and increase our inventory to its present level. During those years Doyle visited us often, but after his wife died, we’ve only seen him once a little over a year ago.” She paused, took a deep breath, and said, “Doyle will always have a special place in our hearts.”

  After a long minute, she said, “I’ll fill our cups and then why don’t you tell me how you got to know Doyle?”

  Esther spent a good bit of time telling Mrs. Hendrix how she became acquainted with Doyle, starting with the bank forcing them off of their farm in Albertville. She told her the story of husband’s robbery, his subsequence trouble with the law, and a few of the other incidences causing her to leave him, but Esther did not speak of his cruelty to her. She concluded by telling of her trip to the Cherokee River where she’d met Doyle and Charles and negotiated passage on their raft. Esther had Mrs. Hendrix full attention as she described in detail the stressfulness of the kidnapping, especially for Joan.

  When Esther got to the story about their relief at the surprise appearance of Doyle and Mark during the abduction of the thugs, Mrs. Hendrix expressed great relief saying, “That’s quite a story, Mrs. Taylor; you and your children have been through a lot. Thank you for sharing it with me.” Then after a short pause, Mrs. Hendrix stood and said, “I bet you’re tired and would like to freshen up. It won’t be long ʼtil Robert will be coming up for supper, and I’d better get busy. But first, let me show you and the children to your bedrooms.”

  Esther reached for Mrs. Hendrix hand, “Thank you for taking us in. We’ll move on as soon as I can get situated and find a place.”

  Mrs. Hendrix smiled and squeezed Esther’s hand saying, “Please don’t be in any hurry. There’s a lot you should know about New Orleans before you go off on your own. You need to know the city’s neighborhoods—where it’s safe and where it isn’t. You need to learn our customs, our habits, what’s acceptable, and even the names of certain people you’ll want to stay away from. This city has all sorts.”

  Mrs. Hendrix smiled even bigger and concluded. “Since we’re going to be living together, why don’t we drop the formality and use one another’s given names—I’m Marie, and my husband is Robert.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Esther replied with a smile. “Please call me Esther, but I think Joan and Mark should continue to address you as mister and misses.”

  During the evening supper, Marie brought up her favorite subject—their two children—who were now married and both living in Philadelphia; neither had yet given them any grandchildren. Katie was their oldest and Michael their youngest. Both had been born and raised above the mercantile and grew up helping in the store. As they grew, the children had attended the entire regiments of classes available in the New Orleans school system before going to Philadelphia to college. After their college
days, they’d both found employment in the Philadelphia area, married, and set up permanent residence there. They had only been back to New Orleans one time since leaving as students years before.

  »»•««

  The two families hit it off quite well from the start. It wasn’t long until Joan and Mark started hanging out in the store with Mr. and Mrs. Hendrix doing odd jobs, and within a short period, Mr. Hendrix made them employees of the store, paying each thirty-five cents a day. Following each day, he spent his spare time teaching them the ins-and-outs of the business, and as their store-knowledge grew, they were given more difficult jobs and more responsibility; within weeks they were allowed to tend the store by themselves. With the continuous pleading from Mr. and Mrs. Hendrix, who enjoyed having a full house again, Esther and the children agreed to remain under their roof for an undetermined period of time.

  Esther had easily found a job serving tables in an upscale hotel dining room a short distance from the mercantile. She started at six in the morning serving breakfast and worked until three in the afternoon. The hotel wages weren’t much, but she was attentive to her tables, so her tips were quite good. Some days they’d amount to three dollars.

  The days were busy and enjoyable. Time passed by rather quickly. Weeks became months, and soon the summer had passed. Esther and Marie kept one another company in the evenings during this period, while the children spent time in the library with Mr. Hendrix. Sometimes he pretended to be a school teacher, instructing them on various subjects; sometimes he would discuss a particular time in history, and he often discussed a book he wanted them to read. However, their greatest passion during their time together was when Mr. Hendrix talked about the development of New Orleans—illustrating its past and busy present.

  He explained how New Orleans became a part of our country in 1803 when the United States purchased over 825,000 square miles of territory west of the Mississippi River from France for $15 million. Since then, New Orleans’s population had grown to more than one-hundred thousand people, making her the largest city west of the Mississippi River, and the third largest city in the United States. She had become the wealthiest city in the nation, mostly from three major industries. First and foremost was the export business. Nearly all of the country’s exports came down the Mississippi River and on through the New Orleans ports before going on to the Caribbean, South America, and Europe. The second major industry for New Orleans were the large sugar plantations outside the city. Some consisted of forty thousand acres of land and owning up to two hundred slaves. Mr. Hendrix explained the plantation owners thought it was necessary to own slaves if their sugar farming endeavors were to survive. It was disheartening for him, but he described the slave auctions in the city’s downtown area where hundreds of slaves were sold each week. The third major industry in New Orleans was the government’s printing of paper money and metal coin production which had become the largest mint facility in the United States.

  He told about the Pontchartrain Railroad system starting up in the city in 1830 which was one of the earliest railroads in the United States. He told how natural gas was brought into the city in the early thirties, and how the public-school system was developed during this same period. He also explained how the steam-powered cotton press impacted cotton production in the eighteen-thirties and the dramatic change it had on cotton exports.

  When Esther and the children were by themselves, they would sometimes wonder aloud about their father, but as time passed, these discussions became fewer.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  1858 had been a trying year for Esther and the children, but it passed, along with the winter and spring of 1859. They’d settled into a peaceful and pleasurable lifestyle with Mr. and Mrs. Hendrix. Joan turned fourteen in January, and Mark celebrated his sixteenth birthday in April.

  The mercantile was busy this time of the year, receiving their springtime merchandise from eastern suppliers, and serving more than its normal share of store customers. Many items were in demand at this time of the year; such as flower and garden seeds, material for lightweight clothing, shoes and boots, items for the newborn livestock, and many other things. Business was good, everyone stayed busy, and evenings passed with their normal routine.

  However, by late spring the easy-going lifestyle of the people of New Orleans was turned upside-down by the powers of Mother Nature. The rains in the northern states had been excessive all spring, and the river’s water-level reached an all-time recorded high. On May 9th the water pressure broke the river levee at Pierre Sauvé, a small town seventeen miles upstream from New Orleans. The water raged through the flat swampland of southern Louisiana, first filling Lake Pontchartrain and then overflowing into the streets of New Orleans. At first, only a few business district streets were flooded, but the relentless northern rains continued. By the end of the month, the entire business area was under water, and over twelve thousand residents were forced to higher ground including Mr. and Mrs. Hendrix, and Esther’s family. The state’s congress voted to move the State Capital from New Orleans to Baton Rouge during this time, so people could meet somewhere they could travel to.

  The flood waters took a precious toll—many lives were lost. Hundreds of families were displaced permanently, and nearly all of the area’s crops were destroyed. The water finally receded, and on June 22nd the city authorities permitted the homeowners to return and businesses to reopen. Repairs to homes, businesses, and municipal structures cost millions of dollars. It was mid-August before the Hendrix mercantile was cleaned of mud and debris. Needed repairs were made and the store restocked for business.

  Within days of reopening, business was brisk; even better than usual because folks needed to replenish their supplies and other needs. However, Mr. Hendrix seemed to be in another world as he rebuilt his store and didn’t act like his old self before the flood. He was quieter than normal, lost much of his appetite and wasn’t as active with store customers. On top of this, he was plagued by a cough that wouldn’t go away.

  One morning an older, distinguishing looking man carrying a leather satchel entered the mercantile and was immediately escorted upstairs by Mr. and Mrs. Hendrix, leaving Mark and Joan to tend the store. “Do you think that man is a doctor?” Joan asked her brother.

  “I’m sure he is. Mr. Hendrix hasn’t been acting the best for a while, and his coughing is getting worse. Ma’s been saying he needed to see a doctor.”

  Esther and the children were on pins-and-needles during supper that evening waiting for Mr. Hendrix or his wife to explain the doctor’s diagnosis concerning his health. After the dirty dishes had been gathered and coffee poured, Mrs. Hendrix cleared her throat and reluctantly said, “As you know, Robert’s coughing and other symptoms have been worsening. He had a doctor’s visit this morning.”

  Esther saw the tears well-up in Marie’s eyes as her chin started quivering, so she reached across the table for her friend’s hand. “It might be easier to talk if you took a swallow of coffee, Marie.”

  But Mr. Hendrix gently interjected, “Let me do the explaining, sweetheart,” he suggested to his wife who nodded as he continued. “The doctor said my exposure to the high humidity in this area over the years has given me a bad case of chronic chest congestion and the remedy he recommended is a move to a drier climate, like New Mexico. He says several people in this locality have moved out there to relieve similar symptoms.”

  “What happens if you stay here—if you don’t move?” Mark asked.

  “The doctor says if I don’t move to a dryer climate, the congestion will likely get worse and turn into pneumonia. My days would be numbered if I got that sick at my age.”

  Marie gasped, “We’re moving,” she said between sobs. “I love it here, but I’ll not allow the life of my husband to be in jeopardy because I’m afraid to move. As soon as we sell the store, we’ll move to New Mexico.” Silence gripped the table as Marie wiped her eyes with her apron, excused herself, and went to her bedroom. Mr. Hendrix took on a bewilder
ed expression below a furrowed forehead, excused himself with a nod, and followed his wife.

  There was a long silence as Esther and the children sat alone at the table absorbing what they’d just been told—Joan’s eyes were watery. “I knew something was wrong with Mr. Hendrix, but I didn’t think it was anything this serious,” Mark said. “Mrs. Hendrix is right; the only thing for them to do is move to New Mexico.”

  “What are we gonna do, Ma?” Joan asked.

  Esther gave the question some thought and then answered, “Mr. and Mrs. Hendrix have become very special friends and has helped us in every way possible. We’ll stay here and do whatever is needed until they move.” Esther paused and then continued, “They’ll need our emotional support along with our physical help while getting ready to move.”

  “Maybe we should go with them, Ma,” Mark suggested. “They need help, and we don’t have anything keeping us here.”

  “We’ll let things play out, Mark. I haven’t had time to give the matter much thought, but right now I’m thinking we should stay in New Orleans and get our own lives established. I need to find employment that will support our financial needs close to where we’ll be living and I…”

  Mark interrupted, “I can get a job too, Ma. You don’t have to do it all on your own.”

  “What about me?” Joan said. “I’m fourteen and should be able to find a job doing something.”

  Esther smiled. “Hopefully, we can all contribute, but both of you will be wanting to go off on your own in a couple of years as you establish yourselves, meet someone and start your own families. We need to keep that in mind as we develop our plans.”

  “I’ll never leave you to fend for yourself, Ma,” Mark said.