The Daughters of Julian Dane

by Lucile McCluskey

Addie waited. She already knew that her mother didn’t want her in the bathroom when she was being sick, but it was so wonderful knowing that she was going to have a baby brother or sister. She was going to have a hard time waiting. If it just wasn’t for her daddy’s attitude about the money.

  Regardless of how much or how little she would get, Mr. Cutler had said the income from the bank stock would give them a good living. Life would be better for them. They deserved a better life. No more penny pinching, better clothes, a better and bigger place to live where the baby could have a real nursery. Oh, it would be so wonderful helping her mother buy things for a nursery. Surely, her mother could make her daddy see reason. She just had to.

  Della came back into the kitchen holding her middle. “Honey, would you heat up that coffee for me? I still feel so nauseous.” She took her seat at the table and put her head in her hands. “Get me a couple of crackers too.”

  As she attended to her mother’s needs, she asked, “Mama, do you think we could use some of the fifteen thousand to get me some new clothes today before your doctor’s appointment? My jeans are getting so tight they’re really uncomfortable.”

  “Mr. Cutler said you could go ahead and use those checks he gave you, so I don’t see why not. If I can just get over this sickness.”

  “What time is your appointment? May I go with you?”

  “Two o’clock, and I expect you to go with me.” She had sipped the coffee and munched on a cracker. “I think I’ll have to go lay down a little while before I can shower and dress.”

  Addie busied herself drying a load of wash, Donnie’s bedding. When she folded them to put in the linen closet, she found that she liked handling the sheets he had been sleeping on. I wonder if this is love? she thought.

  By the time they were ready to leave the house, Addie had coaxed her mother into eating half a ham and cheese sandwich left from the lunch she had packed for her daddy and Donnie, and she seemed to be feeling better. She carried her box of keys as they went out the back door.

  “The car seems to be doing fine now,” Della remarked as they drove off. “I hope it lasts until Ben gets back. That Mooney seems to know what he’s doing.”

  “He does. He built that crazy car out of junk yard parts and pieces.”

  “I guess that’s why it’s called ‘Junk Yard Dog’, Della chuckled. It’s a good looking little car. I believe you could see yourself in that black shine.”

  “Yeah. All the boys at school want it. Mama, if you’re not feeling too good, I could drive,” Addie said.

  “Honey, I know you’re a good driver. Ben said he was real proud of the way you learned so well, but he said you were to drive only in an emergency until we can afford to add you to our insurance.”

  “We can use some of the fifteen thousand to do that,” Addie said.

  Della didn’t remark. She still wasn’t feeling well when they reached the Riverbend Shopping Center where Doctors’ offices had been built on a rise behind the stores. She asked Addie if she would mind doing her own shopping and letting her rest in the car and wait for her? Addie agreed that she should, and Della parked in the first line of parking in front of the department store.

  The store was crowded with Easter shoppers, but Addie carefully chose two three, piece pant suits, four extra tops, some under clothes, socks, shoes and a new shoulder bag. She was hoping her mother would approve of her selections as she stood at the cash register counter waiting for the sales lady to ring up her purchases.

  She took out one of the checks that Mr. Cutler had given her, and was filling it out when the clerk told her the amount. She wrote it in and handed the check to the lady. The woman looked at it for a moment, then said, “Excuse me a minute.”

  Addie had never written a check before, and she wondered what she could have done wrong. It seemed so simple. She watched as the clerk took the check to a woman whose back was turned to Addie, as she talked to another clerk. When she turned to face the clerk with her check, Addie saw that it was Mrs. Leslie, who attended Community Church. The woman said something to Mrs. Leslie, who then shook her head without even looking toward Addie.

  The clerk returned to Addie and said, “I’m sorry, but we can’t accept this check. It’s not a printed check with your identification, and the bank is closed, so we can’t call to verify it.”

  Addie was dumfounded. She was embarrassed. She didn’t know what to say or do. The clerk was holding the check out to her. She took the check back, and leaving the clothes with the clerk, turned and walked out of the store. When she reached the car, she opened the passenger door, sat down and burst into tears.

  “Addie! What on earth is wrong? Where are your new clothes?” Della put her arms around her daughter and pulled her to her, and waited.

  After a couple of minutes of tears, Addie raised her head from her mother’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Mama. That was dumb of me. I chose some clothes, over three hundred dollars worth, but they wouldn’t accept the check – said it wasn’t a personalized check, and the bank was closed, so they couldn’t verify it. I don’t know why it made me cry. It just did,” she said as she wiped her eyes and her nose.

  “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. It must have been very embarrassing.”

  “It was, but I guess they have to be careful. Oh, well, we can get clothes another day.”

  “I should have gone in with you.”

  “It wouldn’t have mattered, Mama. Mrs. Leslie, from church, turned the check down. She didn’t even look at me.” She wasn’t going to let it bother her. She picked up the box of tagged keys from the seat between them and placed it on her lap.

  “Mama, do you know where Baker’s Landing is? This bunch of keys that are tied together say ‘Baker’s Landing’, and each key has a number tagged to it. They must all be empty houses.”

  “Yes. I know where it is, and I’m sure they’re empty. They are all very old houses. However, according to Ben, two of them are still occupied.”

  “Where are they?”

  “You know where the drive to Stonegate turns off River Road on the left? Well, on the right side of the road is just a lot of cedar and pine trees until you get to the river. They’ve grown so thick through the years that you can’t see the houses of Baker’s Landing, which is across the road from the trees. The houses all back up to the river. I guess most people don’t know they’re there. Ben had to repair a busted water pipe in one last winter, so he went on down to the other occupied one to see if she needed any help. It’s just an elderly woman who lives alone in the last house before you get to the river. He said the county doesn’t even keep up the road any longer, since there’s no traffic on it.”

  “I have to find Deena and her mother some place to move to, so I guess that’s a good place to start looking.”

  “They’re pretty old houses, Addie. There is a graveled area on the right side of River Road where the trees begin. If you drive off the road onto the graveled area, you’ll see the beginning of the row of houses. People used to put their boats into the river at the end of the road, but there was a bad flooding one time, and the last house actually slid into the river. The flood changed the bank of the river, and it wasn’t safe anymore for boats.”

  “After we go to the doctor up the hill there, could we go to Baker’s Landing?”

  “I guess so, but, honey, remember they are old, and some of them could be falling down by now. It probably wouldn’t be safe to go in some of them.”

  “But I own them.”

  Della chuckled. “I guess you do. We’ll go.”

  “When daddy calls tonight, and you have to tell him you didn’t get to see the doctor because she had to go deliver a baby, he’s not going to like it. He’s hoping she’ll give you something for the morning sickness.”

  “I know, but he’ll have to wait until Monday. Lets get on down to your Baker’s Landing. It’s three-thirty, and I’d rather we weren’t out after dark. It’s so cloudy, it’ll get dark early.”

  Addie wanted
to suggest that they have supper at the Log House Restaurant since they were so close to it, but she knew her mother would have given her daddy all the extra cash in her purse ‘just for emergencies’. That was going to change, as soon as the bank opens tomorrow morning.

  Della took extra care driving the car off River Road and onto the rocks and ruts that was once the street in front of the houses of Baker’s Landing. The first house was right at the beginning of the old road. Addie said, “I see what you mean. That one looks like its about to fall down, and should be torn down.”

  The next house was no more than twenty feet or so from the first one. “That one, and the last one, are the ones still occupied, according to Ben,” Della said as she drove slowly past the houses.

  “It looks it, and the next one doesn’t look too bad, nor the one next to it. They are all so close together. The one that was there is missing,” Addie remarked. A few foundation stones was the only sign that there had been a house. “Wonder what happened to it?”

  “That might have been the one that some homeless people spent a winter in. They burned all the wood they could rip off the inside of the house, even the stairs, to keep warm. And what was left had to be torn down.”

  “Oh, my!” Addie exclaimed. Then she thought the next two looked worth investigating. Then there was the biggest one she had seen yet. They were all made of wood, and this one had a porch almost all the way across the front and there were three sets of French doors with their glass intact so far as she could tell. It looked very promising. And then she saw it and gasped, “Mama! Would you look at that? That’s the smallest house I’ve ever seen! And it doesn’t look bad at all. Let’s stop and look at it. Please.”

  Della smiled. “You’re right. It can’t be more than twelve feet wide, if that much. It looks like it had been blue at one time. Okay, we’ll stop. I’ll park here under this big tree off this rutted road. But let’s not stay long. It looks like a good rain is coming.”

  “Look at all that fancy wood trim.”

  “I think it’s called gingerbread. If you’ll notice, some of the other houses have it too. Most of these houses were built in the early years of the century, during the Victorian time.”

  The little house stood, a narrow, two stories tall. Its front door, was surrounded by a tiny porch with a railing around it. The top half of the door was glass, and there were sheer curtains over it on the inside. Addie noticed that there was also curtains on the small bay windows. “Are you sure this house isn’t lived in?” she asked as they got out of the car. “It looks lived in. Even the upstairs windows have curtains.”

  “You’re right, it does. But Ben said there was only two.” Della was crossing the short space of grass between the street and the little house. “Be careful, Addie,” she cautioned, as Addie stepped up onto the small porch. “The wood could be rotted. You don’t want a broken leg, or even a twisted ankle.”

  Addie had counted. This was the ninth house counting the empty lot. The keys were numbered. She had key number nine in her hand. She inserted it in the lock. The sky had suddenly become dark. As soon as she turned the key and the door was opened, she automatically reached to the right wall and flipped the light switch, then gasped when the lights came on. “Mama, the lights are on! Are you sure this house is vacant?”

  “Well, you have the key to it,” Della said from behind her. “Aren’t all the keys supposed to be to empty places?”

  They had moved into a small space in front of the stairs to the second floor. “All I know is what Ben told me. There’s no furniture in it, but look! That portrait of a man.” It was a life size bust of a handsome, dark headed man with brown eyes and a pleasant smile. The painting was in a gold frame and hung on the inside wall of what apparently was the small living room space. There was a brass light over the portrait that had come on when Addie flipped the light switch.

  “This is strange,” Addie said. “Mama, do you smell perfume, or something?”

  Della sniffed. “Oh, yes, Addie. I think we should go. No doubt somebody uses this house. I’d say someone has just left it.”

  “But no one has a right to use it. It belongs to me. I’m going upstairs. Will you look around down here? It looks like a storm might be coming, and we should go.”

  “I think so too, but I promised you, and I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

  “Thanks, Mama. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes,” Addie said as she ran up the narrow stairs. She found a good size room with a good size closet on the back wall next to a door to a nice size bathroom. The smell of perfume was strong. She flipped the light switch. The bath tub had recently been used, and a wicker chair sitting nearby had a damp towel across its seat. She turned on the hot water faucet in the sink, and hot water came almost immediately. She hurried back downstairs.

  Della stood in the space between the stairs and the front door where Addie had left her. “Someone is most definitely using this house. There is instant coffee and tea in the kitchen cabinets, and a cup. We’ll ask Mr. Cutler about it. Perhaps he knows that someone is using it. If he doesn’t, he should.”

  A sharp crackle of thunder startled them both and shook the small house, then lightening lit up the place with a flash of bright light, a terrible, crackling, crashing sound followed, and the electricity went out. They both screamed and grabbed each other.

  “That struck something!” Della exclaimed.

  Addie was facing the glass of the front door, her arm tight around her mother. Another flash of lightening showed her clearly what had been hit. “Mama! Oh, Mama! Look!” Immediately, she was yanking open the door.

  Della screamed, “The car!” The big tree, she had parked the car under, had been split into by the bolt of lightening. Half of it lay smoldering on the crushed roof of the old Plymouth. The electric wires had been pulled down by the tree, and they were crackling and jumping about. Then the rain began in big drops, that were followed by heavy sheets of it being blown their way.

  “Shut the door!”

  “What are we going to do?” Addie asked after slamming the door.

  Della sank down on the second stair step. “I don’t know,” she moaned. “I feel like bursting into tears like you did. All we can do is wait here until the storm is over. Maybe I’ll think of something.”

  “Are you all right?” Addie asked with concern.

  “Oh, I’m sure I am. It’s just so frightening.” The rain and thunder was making so much noise, she had to talk loud, and the little house was so dark. “There’s one thing sure, we won’t be able to go out the front because of those electric wires. Thankfully, there’s a back door.”

  Addie sat in the floor in front of Della as the storm raged. The stairs weren’t wide enough for them to sit side by side. She rested her head on her mother’s knees. “I feel so responsible. I shouldn’t have suggested coming down here. Daddy will blame me.”

  “Now, Addie, that’s foolish talk. You had no way of knowing this was going to happen. For that matter, I should have known better than to park the car under that tree. But what does Roman’s 8:28 say?”

  “That all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. But I don’t think daddy believes that.”

  “Well, I believe it, and I’ve taught you to believe it, and God knows where we are and the position we’re in. And we have to trust Him to guide us in the right direction of what to do about it.”

  “My box of keys is still in the car.”

  “That’s the least of our concerns right now. I’m sure you’ll get them back as soon as the car is freed of the tree and power lines.”

  Several minutes later as they sat in silence, the rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun. The sky was still dark, and it was still thundering off in the distance. They looked at each other. Addie looked at her watch. It was four-thirty. “I’ve been thinking,” Della said. “If we go out the back door, we should be able to get to the last house two doors down. I think Ben said the woman’s name was Nelson. That
rain is not going to let up long enough for us to try to get out the back way and to the shopping center. It’s going to be dark soon. She might put us up for the night. What do you think?”

  “This house is getting rather chilly. I guess we’d better try it,” Addie said, then led the way through the small living room, the eating area and kitchen to the back door. She took her mother’s hand as they picked their way down the few back stairs to the wet yard, across the back yards of the next two houses to the back porch of the last house.

  Two five-gallon buckets of dirt took up most of the space of the small porch. Addie knocked on the glass of the upper portion of the door and waited. Nothing. She knocked again, louder. The woman was old. She might be hard of hearing. Still nothing – no sound from the inside after a couple of minutes. “Mama, you stay here. I know your feet are as wet as mine, and its going to rain again any minute and you don’t need to get any wetter. I’m going around to the front door. I’ll watch where I’m going. If I see any downed wires between me and there, I’ll come back. I’ll tell her I’m the daughter of the man who checked on her water pipes last winter,” she added as she went down the few steps of the porch.

  At the front door, Addie had knocked twice before she heard sounds of shuffling foot steps on the inside. Then the door was opened by a small, slight, elderly woman, her gray hair plated neatly and wound into a crown on the top of her head. She put her face close to the screen door, squinting.

  “I thought I heard knocking, but the storm has been making so much noise .... What do you want?”

  “Ma’am, do you recall a man checking on your water pipes last winter to make sure you didn’t have any frozen ones or any leaks?” Addie asked, hoping there was nothing wrong with her memory.

  “Of course I do. Nothing’s wrong with my memory. His name was Martin, a very nice man. Said if I ever needed him, just to call. Left me his phone number too. Course I don’t have a phone, but the Simmons do.”

  “I’m Mr. Martin’s daughter, Addie. My mother and I are stranded down here. A tree fell on our car and took all the electric wires with it. We came the back way to your house. She’s on your back porch ...”