Oregon Trails

by Olivia Gaines

  “No, you silly girl. You too were off limits. No one would dare lay a hand on my children. Either of you,” Hurley said. “I would have put a bullet in someone if they did.”

  “Whatever, Mr. Lancaster,” Kalinda said with twisted lips. “Connie got all the benefits of having you as her daddy. Lucky me, I managed to get your protection.”

  “Oh shut up. I am so sick of your poor me song. I have had it up to my mustache with this poor Mary Jane bull puckey. I am up to my white hair with you reinventing yourself or whatever in Nate’s name you want to call it because you believe I didn’t love you,” Hurley said.

  His hands were fisted. His eyes were determined as he opened his mouth to change everything that Mary Jane thought she knew about her life. He told her, “I have been at every major, minor, and insignificant event in your life. I made every one of them God awful dance recitals. You were such a bad dancer that I had Annie put you in singing classes. You were horrible at that, too. We tried you in everything we could to find your niche.”

  “Yes, but you never came to my school day like you did for Connie,” she told him.

  “Mary Jane, I built you a damned school! I created that Charter School for you to attend because I knew you were smart. I couldn’t put you in private school so I built one under the guise of bettering the community so you could have a better education,” he said to her. “I never missed a teacher’s conference, a graduation, or even your prom night.”

  Annie and Paul had come inside as well and taken a seat on the couch at this point. Kalinda’s eyes were misting as she looked at her father. She was seeing Hurley Lancaster in the role of father for the first time.

  She blinked her eyes, trying to stave off the tears as she asked him, “My prom night?”

  Hurley moved closer to her. His voice lowered in a soothing tone, “I was there. I sat in my car across the street as you came out the front door wearing that pretty pink dress and matching pink shoes that I sent all the way to New York to buy for you. I even had a word with the knotty-headed date of yours, letting him know if he got the wrong idea about you that he was going to have to deal with me.”

  “Really?” she said with her eyes tearing up.

  “Yes, really. I don’t know why you went out with him anyway. His hair was so nappy when he combed it, it sounded like he was eating an apple,” Hurley said, looking over at Annie.

  “You have gotten the wrong idea about me as well, Mary Jane. I saw you in that store when you were waiting. I also saw what the store owner’s son was trying to do. That is why I walked in there and stood at that counter next to you. I was letting those jack holes know not to try anything with my baby,” Hurley said.

  “But you were married. All those years and you are still married, showing up at our door so you can commit adultery with my mother,” she contorted her face as she delivered the words.

  “I am married in name only. The Lancasters make furniture. Dorrie’s family owned a lumber yard. The woman hates my guts. I am not fond of her, either. We had to produce a child. When we conceived our son, we thought that was the end of it, but she miscarried. We tried twice more, but with two more failures before we got Connie. After she was born, I never touched Dorrie again,” he confessed. “It really didn’t matter much, the woman wanted nothing to do with me or Connie; that is why Annie raised you both.”

  “I’m sorry about your losses,” Kalinda said.

  “I got you, Mary Jane, and I have Connie. I love you both. Maybe you a little bit more, but I am not supposed to say that. You are so independent whereas Connie has to be hand fed every little thing. Lord knows I hoped and prayed that being around you would make her stronger, but it didn’t. She went off and married the idiot football playing lunkhead who dove into the shallow end of the lake and lost his scholarship. Now he works for me.”

  Hurley frowned as if a bad taste had settled into his mouth. “I don’t like him much either,” he scowled.

  Kalinda was trying fervently to process Hurley’s words, repeating what he’d just spoken. She asked softly, “You wanted Connie to be like me?”

  “I wish I had a house full of kids like you, but Annie had so much trouble bringing you into the world, that we were scared to try for anymore,” he told her.

  Kalinda was shaking her head. “You can’t expect me to believe any of this,” she told Hurley.

  “You don’t have to believe it, but it’s the truth. I have been there every step of your way. Mary Jane, I never missed any event in your life, big or small. I flew across the country with your sister to give your hand in marriage and to make sure that on your wedding day, your family was with you. I even bought ads on your website to make sure your business got off the ground. I am here. I have always been there, maybe not in the traditional sense of the word, but I know all the details of your life because I lived them with you,” he told her. “I love you and I am proud that you are my daughter. I have always been proud that you are mine. Everyone in Bainbridge knows it as well.”

  “Sure thing, Mr. Lancaster. You were so proud of me that you gave me your name. Oh yeah, everyone knows Mary Jane Lancaster!” she added facetiously.

  Hurley’s smiled at her. “No, it’s true, no one knows Mary Jane Lancaster. But everyone knew Mary Jane Bowie. That was my Mama. I gave you an even better name than Lancaster. I named you after the only woman I ever loved more than your Mama, and that was my own,” he told her. “My father was a racist shithead. I never wanted the Lancaster name but I was stuck with it and an obligation to run that business to keep the town afloat and the community employed. I had to stay in Bainbridge but I was going to keep the woman I loved in my life and at my side no matter what I had to do. She had a vision and so did I. We worked it together to make the community for all residents better.”

  That did it.

  Kalinda Marsh began to cry. The last time she remembered crying was when she discovered all the roaches in her cheap suitcase in college. A cold crept into her as she remembered the ragged house.

  “What about the house you put us in with the holes in the walls?” she wanted to know.

  “You mean the house I bought and gave your mother as a present. The house that she owned in her name? Yes, it had holes in the walls and we nearly froze to death, but I had to hire African American contractors to work on that house and there weren’t many skilled ones in town. My father thought it was a rental property since I purchased the two on either side of you. I had those torn down. Your mother owned those as well,” he told her.

  Kalinda wiped her snotty nose on the back of her shirt. Watery eyes looked at her mother, “You did?”

  Annie nodded her head yes.

  “I have always taken care of my family, Mary Jane – both of them. You also had a college fund. I thought it was cute you bargaining with me when you were 16. Yes, I had money to buy you a car when you left for college, but Annie wanted you to go on the bus and make your own way. I followed that damned bus all the way to Atlanta to make sure you were safe,” he told her.

  “You are telling me all of this now, why? You need my kidney or something? Are you about to die, Mr. Lancaster?” Kalinda asked.

  “No. Stop being so dramatic. I came...I’m here...,” he stopped and sighed. “I am here because I thought it would be nice for a change to sit down and have dinner with a son-in-law that I like and my daughter. I have never had dinner with you and Annie at the same table and for once in my life, I wanted to sit down to dinner with my family in peace. Is that too much for an old man to ask?” Hurley shouted.

  “Is that all you want, Mr. Lancaster?” Kalinda wanted to know.

  He sighed loudly. “What I would like is something to eat,” he said with some vinegar in his intonation.

  Hurley Lancaster wasn’t done. He looked over at Paul asking, “While I am making a list of what I want, when are you two going to give me some damned grandkids before I am too old to hold them or someone has to change my diaper and theirs too? You know what else would be a
lso be really nice – if for once in your life you called me Daddy!”

  Kalinda was tired. She still smelled like smoke and sweat, and the scent of her Mama’s pork chops was making her salivate.

  “Fine, Daddy. I need a shower first and then we can eat,” she told Hurley. She didn’t look back as she wiped away tears before walking away to go the bedroom.

  Hurley’s bottom lip quivered as he looked at Annie. “She said Daddy.”

  Annie moved over to Hurley, pulling him into her arms. “It isn’t the first time, Hurley. It’s just the first time you’ve heard it.”

  “It sounds real nice,” he said, dabbing at his eyes with a white handkerchief. Kalinda had already left the room as her parents stood in a private moment. QT, peeping through the window, wiped away the tears from the tender moment she witnessed. She walked down the three front stairs to her car. She would try for dinner another time.

  Paul, on the other hand, washed his hands, cut off a corner of one of Annie’s pork chops, and popped it in his mouth. He squealed like a pig at the perfect seasoning.

  “Out of that pan, Paul,” Annie shouted at him. “Go get cleaned up so we can eat before everything gets ice cold.”

  “Yes Ma’am,” he said scampering around the counter with the rest of the chop in his hand. “Thank you.”

  “For what– the pork chop?”

  “No, for telling Kalinda the whole story. She doesn’t have to make up a life filled with people who love and adore her. It is real for her now,” he said to them. “It is going to make each day as we go forward pretty darn awesome.”

  Chapter 29

  T he pork chop wasn’t the only thing that was awesome. It only took a day and a half for Kalinda to understand why her mother fell hard and stayed in love with Hurley Lancaster for so many years. Paul could barely get through a meal without nearly choking on something from laughing so hard. It also helped endear Paul to the man when he gave Hurley three pieces of wood and a hammer, then he returned home from work to find new shelves in the office, a sitting stool on the back patio, and the starting design for the railing for the back deck.

  Hurley was also funny.

  That portion, Kalinda had not expected.

  It started simply with a statement about Uncle Randy. “Yeah, he told me he was coming out to deliver your furniture. I sure as heck hope he didn’t take off his shoes while he was inside of your house, Paul,” he said with downturned lips.

  Paul wanted to know, “Why do you ask that Hurley?”

  “Man! He came through one night after a long haul, claiming he didn’t want to wake his wife and kids. When that man took off his shoes, his feet smelled so bad I yawned and tasted three of his funky toes,” Hurley said pretending to wipe off his tongue with the napkin.

  Kalinda had to jump up to hit Paul in the back to keep him from choking on the piece of pork chop. Hurley kept the table that night in stitches. He continued his storytelling on Wednesday night to George and Buster, telling them Annie’s youngest brother was so knock-kneed, it looked as if one knee were giving the other one permission to pass. Hurley started walking across the floor saying, “No you go first. No, please, it’s your turn.” All the while rocking his knees from side to side as he walked.

  QT and Curly Joe made it over for dinner on Thursday night, and Hurley stayed true to form, telling more stories about the men who tried to steal Annie away from him. “When I went off to college, that joker made a move on you. I had only been gone for two months when Randy set you up with Theodore Benchman,” Hurley claimed.

  Kalinda’s eyes were wide. “Daddy, are you talking about the Reverend Benchman over at Tabernacle Methodist?”

  “Yes, that Bible thumping slime sucker. He couldn’t wait until I went off to college. He came sidling up to my Annie, preaching the gospel, offering to make her an honest woman because I never would,” Hurley confessed.

  “What did you do about him, Hurley?” Paul wanted to know.

  “I showed him how dishonest I could be son. When I came home from Spring Break, I snuck Annie away for four days,” he said and looked over at Annie, who lowered her eyes.

  “What happened, Mama?”

  Annie was too dark to blush, but she bit her bottom lip. She was grinning mischievously when she gave Kalinda the side eye, “We made you.”

  “Yuck!” Kalinda said, standing up from the table.

  “Don’t say yuck, girlie. It was as beautiful as the product we created,” Hurley said with laughter.

  “Double yuck,” she said again as Paul held his side in laughter.

  Friday night after all the guests were checked in and settled, melancholy hit her as she realized it would be her parents last night with them. Kalinda sat on the patio, with a cup of tea in her hand to be joined by Hurley, who sat close. “I like this house, it is so warm and full of love and life. You have something here with him. I was worried, but by God that man loves you,” he commented into his own cup.

  “And I love him, Daddy,” she responded.

  “I do hope you will extend the offer for me to come back, maybe bring your sister,” he said looking at her out the side of his eye.

  “Of course,” she told him. “Paul and I would love to have you.”

  “Good, I never liked the house you had in Atlanta. It was too big, cold, and although it was filled with expensive, nice things, it just didn’t feel like my Mary Jane lived there,” he told her.

  Kalinda turned in the seat to face him. Annie came out on the porch with a cup of tea, followed by Paul.

  “I never knew you came to my house in Atlanta. I didn’t think you even knew where I lived,” she told him.

  Hurley rubbed his mustache, “I was there every other weekend, from the moment your Mama moved in.”

  She now turned to face her mother, looking at her in an accusatory stare. Annie didn’t flinch, but instead took a seat, looking down at the hot tub.

  “Mama, what do you have to say for yourself?” Kalinda wanted to know.

  “I don’t have a damned thing to say. I am grown and he is my man. Let us not forget I am your Mama, do as I say, not as I do,” Annie said to her. She quickly changed the subject. “Paul, can you fire up that hot tub. I think me and Mr. Lancaster need to go and soak our old bones.”

  Hurley sprang to his feet, grinning, moving over to give Annie his arm. “I think that is a right splendid idea. I am going to wash your back...I hope you will wash mine,” he told her.

  “I will wash anything you need me to, Hurley,” Annie responded.

  “Yuck! Triple yuck. Get me some soap to wash out my eyes, ears, and clean my taste buds. I just threw up in my mouth,” Kalinda said to Paul, who was laughing like a maniac as he walked down to start the fire for the tub.

  He only wished his parents showed half as much interest in his life as Hurley and Annie showed in Kalinda’s. Heck, he would settle for them coming for a visit.

  Paul regretted thinking the thought. As soon as Kalinda’s parents made it down the hill of canyon and to the open road, Jeremiah and Beverly Darton pulled up at the house. Beverly’s inability to make a facial expression amused Kalinda to no end. The amusement stopped for Paul when his parents took two suitcases out of the car.

  Chapter 30

  B everly wanted to make a facial expression on what she was witnessing, but she simply did not have the ability to move the paralyzed facial muscles. Jeremiah had no problems at all. His mouth formed an O as he took in all the activity of people coming and going. To all of their surprise, a bus came up the hill loaded with teenage children.

  The bus driver yelled out the window, slinging spit while talking, “Hey, you Darton? Our campsite got washed out down the way and we drove all night to get up here for a stay. I would hate to disappoint the kids. We don’t need a large space to camp for the night, maybe hike a trail or two.”

  Paul greeted the driver, “Sure thing. Bring that bus on over to the side. The campsite is down the hill, but I am going to have to charge you
for the space.”

  “No worries. The McKenny man gave us back all of our money. We were planning to fish to catch us some grub though,” the driver said to Paul.

  “We got you covered. At the base of Broken Top Trail, that is trail three, you will run right into the Imnaha River. It is quite possibly the best fishing around here,” Paul said proudly.

  “What about facilities? I have about 12 kids on here ready to pop if they don’t get to a bathroom soon,” he told Paul.

  Paul clapped his hands loudly four times garnering all of the kid’s attention. “Listen up! At the bottom of this hill is your campsite. Take the open site on the left. The facilities are on the right-hand side. Do not! I repeat, do not let me catch you doing any horseplay or non-sense or I will make you pack it up and leave immediately. You will take care of these grounds, trails, and my land. Are we clear?”

  “Yes sir,” the kids all echoed back.

  “Welcome to Oregon Trails and Wide Open Spaces. I am Paul Darton, and this is my wife Kalinda, my parents, and my cousin George over there who will take you up the first trail and teach you about the understory of this old growth forest,” he said.

  Kids started climbing out of the bus like roaches when the lights are turned on in a dirty kitchen.

  “Good Lord,” Beverly said as a third of them broke left, a third broke right, two of them took off running for the latrine, and the rest made a beeline for the store looking for food.

  Kalinda opened the office, trying desperately to sell trail mix, cookies, and anything else she had that they could gobble up. Money was flying across the counter, little grubby hands were grabbing everything in sight, and Beverly came behind the counter.

  “What do you need me to do, Kaluna?”

  “It’s Kalinda. The cookies are $3 and the trail mix is $4. Grab the money. I will take the credit cards,” she told Beverly.

  “How much is the soap, Kahlua?” Beverly asked.

  “It’s Kalinda. The small bars are one dollar, full sized bars are $3.50,” she told Beverly.