by Rikki Dyson
It was a big bare room with a fireplace. To the right was another room, also bare, except for a rock fireplace. “That’s gonna’ be our den,” Jessie said. Lora glanced at the staircase. Jessie noticed and said, “We’ll show you upstairs later, but first you have to see Sam’s office.”
The office was toward the back of the house on the right. It was another bare room with a large rock fireplace. “This is going to be your medical office?” Lora asked.
Sam, looked at her as if she were slow-witted and said, “No, Aunt Lora, this is my ranch office.”
Across the hall was a large room with nothing in it. Not even a fireplace. Jessie said with her arms out, “This is our dining room.” The kitchen was worse, it was big too, and it had a sink and part of a cabinet as well as an old stove and a refrigerator.
“How do you manage out here, you have no gas or electricity?”
“No, problem,” Sam said. “We have propane.” Jessie stood beaming beside him.
Lora laughed and said, “You two must have pioneering blood in you. What about a bathroom?”
Sam smiled and said, “Septic tank.”
Jessie took her aunt’s hand and said, “Come upstairs, you’re not gonna’ believe it.” She was right. There were no walls, just bare frames showing. “We’re gonna’ have four or five bedrooms up here as well as two, maybe three bathrooms. Isn’t it wonderful?”
Lora put her arms around her niece and said, “Yes, my darling, it’s absolutely wonderful.”
“Do you remember the big hole in the ground when we first came out here?”
“Yes, of course. How could I forget that?”
“Well come look, we have a surprise for you.”
Lora wasn’t sure she could handle more surprises. The basement turned out to be the best-furnished part of the house. There were two main rooms. “Do you live down here?” she asked.
“Yes, of course we do, when we’re here.”
Sam knocked on the separating door, and a young Chinese man walked through. “Aunt Lora, we would like for you to meet our new friend, Chen Le,” Sam said.
The young man bowed and said, “I am greatly honored, Aunt Lora.”
Lora was quite taken aback, but put her hand out and said, “How do you do, mister Le. It’s very nice to meet you.”
“No, Aunt Lora, his name is Le Chen,” Jessie said. “In China, last names are first. Come, we’ll go upstairs and tell you all about everything.”
“It’s cooler down here. Can’t you tell me here?”
Sam chortled and said, “Sure we can. I’ll bring some iced tea down here.”
Lora wasn’t sure how much English Le Chen understood, but he seemed to follow along. Jessie told of the seventy-two hour visa that they obtained to visit professor Wang at Beijing University. They were assigned a driver to take them to the University and back to the hotel. When they arrived at the university all of a sudden, trouble erupted. Some of the students were revolting. Our car was caught kind of in the middle. The students were chanting. The police were there, and then the army came with tanks rolling. Some students stood in front of the tanks, but the tanks rolled right over them. Then there was shooting and screaming.
Sam saw a young man break away from the police line. He told me to keep the driver busy, that we have to help this young man. Sam managed to get him in the back floorboard and put my coat over him. There was a lull in the shooting, so in the chaos we drove away. At the hotel, Sam did a fantastic job of being indigent while Le and I walked into the hotel as if he was a porter. In the room, Le told us how and where to get a fake passport. He knew if he didn’t get out of China fast they would find him and execute him. They had already executed his uncle and cousin for being intellectuals.
“Therefore, I went shopping,” Jessie, said.
“You did what?” Lora asked.
Jessie laughed and the men smiled. “Yes, we needed money, so I went to the bank to exchange money and cash travelers’ checks. I bought a wig, glasses and large women shoes. I told the driver there was a shop by the market I wanted to stop at for a while. I knew from Le the fake shop was in the market place, so off I went to find it. It was amazingly easy. I repeated what Le told me to say. In no time, at all I had a fake passport with a picture of me with a wig and glasses all in your name, Aunt Lora.”
“My name!” Lora exclaimed.
“Yes,” Jessie said. “We had to get him out of mainland China and into Hong Kong. So if anyone should ask, you were there.”
“Okay,” Lora said. “Tell me what happened in Hong Kong?”
“Nothing and everything,” Jessie said. Then asked, “Do you remember Mary Faye? Of course, you do. Well, her brother works in the embassy there. I went to see him and told him our story. He didn’t wanna’ get involved, therefore I had to blackmail him. He gave me a legal passport with Le’s picture on it and here we are.
Lora sat quietly for a bit, then said, “I’m not even gonna’ ask what you have on Chip Walters. So where do we go from here?”
“Nowhere,” Sam said. “Le’s gonna’ live here at the ranch. He’s gonna’ study English, learn American ways, and then do whatever he wants to with his life. He’s a free man.”
Lora turned to Le and asked, “How old are you Le?”
“Nineteen,” he said. His English wasn’t great, but understandable.
“Do you need my help in anyway?” Lora asked.
“Not yet,” Jessie said. “We think the best place right now is here on the ranch. We live most of the time in Austin. If anyone asks, he’s working here on the ranch.”
“You three know what you did was very dangerous, don’t you?”
“Yes, we know,” Sam said, “But sometimes you have to stand-up and be counted.”
Lora had supper with them and kissed them bye. She shook Mr. Chen’s hand and then drove back to Houston.
Chapter-12
Death of Grandparents
Director of nursing kept Lora busy. She spent as much time with her mother as possible. She seemed to be doing well on the heart medication. Jessie and Sam came for Thanksgiving and brought Le Chen with them to introduce to the family. Lora couldn’t get over how much his English had improved over the past five months. She smiled, every time he called her, ‘Aunt Lora.’
Jessie said, “I hope you don’t mind Le calling you Aunt Lora, it’s a sign of respect.”
“Of course not, darling. Le is a very nice young man.”
Lora didn’t see Jessie, Sam or Le Chen again until February of nineteen-eighty at her mother’s funeral. They had all three been to the castle for Christmas, but Lora had driven her mother to Lake Charles to have Christmas with Douglas and his family. Mary Beth had seemed stronger than she had for some time. Lora had been spending every weekend with her mother. Once again, their company seemed to bolster one another.
On Monday, morning after Valentines Day Mary Beth Flemming didn’t wake up as usual. Jackie sent Tracy up to check on her and found her grandmother still asleep, she thought. She was lying on her side with her knees drawn up and both hands under her cheek. Tracy started to tiptoe out, but something told her to go closer. When she did, she screamed for her mom. Jackie came upstairs, and then called Bradley. He called Lora and Douglas. The funeral was on Saturday. Afterwards, the family and close friends came back to the house for a while.
Two weeks later, Lora drove to the ranch to visit with Jessie. Just before she reached the ranch house, she noticed a doublewide mobile home sitting a few hundred yards from the main house and the foundation of a house was in progress.
The ranch house, had improved considerably since she had been here last summer. It now had a verandah porch with steps. The inside was still bare of furniture, but the kitchen was coming along. There were now cabinets and a working bathroom on the downstairs floor, as well as the basement. The upstairs, was still lacking for walls, but the air-ducts for heating and air conditioning was installed.
Lora asked, “Who lives in the doubl
e wide up the road?”
“Oh, that’s Jake and Sonia’s place. He’s my ranch foreman. We’re gonna’ build his house next. We couldn’t run this place without him. He and I grew up together, he went to agricultural school and I went to medical school. Now we’re putting the two together. We’re gonna’ make this part of Texas sit up and take notice, someday.”
Lora looked around and asked, “Where’s Mr. Chen?”
Sam, just as proudly said, “He’s gone into Waco to pick up supplies for the ranch and the spring round up. He’s gonna’ handle the chuck wagon for the round up.”
Lora had lunch with these two idealists. She decided to ask no more questions. She knew she was out of her element. Sam was so confident and Jessie beamed when she looked at him, as if there was nothing he couldn’t do. Lora smiled to herself all the way back to Houston, thinking, that’s the way love should be.
Speaking of love, three more wedding were rapidly approaching. Suzanne and Paul were to be married the, tenth of June. Suzanne had asked her to be her maid of honor. She had been Jessica’s; therefore, she couldn’t very well refuse. Besides, she loved Suzanne and would never do anything to hurt her.
The twins, Daniel and David’s double wedding was scheduled for August of the same year. Thank goodness, Lynn and Melissa’s families would be taking care of all the planning and arrangements. Lora’s nieces and nephews knew nothing about her life or the pain weddings and the month of June had caused her through the years. She hadn’t discussed her hurtful memories with anyone except her mother, Jonathan and a little with Jessie.
The summer of nineteen-eighty, was uneventful except for the weddings of Suzanne and Paul’s in June, and then two months later, the twins wedding in August. Suzanne and Paul were to honeymoon in Hawaii and the twins in the Bahamas. The fall brought heartache and joy. Jackie’s Father, the influential David Macgregor passed away in October nineteen-eighty. In December on Christmas day, Jessie and Sam announced they were expecting a baby in July. The winter of nineteen-eighty and eighty-one was cold and bitter. It felt as if the cold could cut right through you. Jackie’s mother caught bronchitis in the early spring. Through out the spring and summer it kept reoccurring. In July, she was diagnosed and hospitalized with viral pneumonia. On the twentieth of July, nineteen-eighty-one Eleanor Louise Macgregor died the same day her great-granddaughter, Stacey Leighanne Scott was born.
Chapter-13
Stacey Leighanne Scott
Jessie had gone to bed the on the nineteenth of July with a backache. For the past two weeks, she had been helping Sam set up his office and clinic in Rawhide. This was one of Sam’s dreams, to provide medical care to this rural community. Henry Fairfield knew about Sam’s dream and wanted to help. Henry had known Sam Scott all of his life.
He was six years Sam’s senior and had grown up in Rawhide. He now lived in Austin and owned his own business. He was a self-made man and had great respect for the Scott family. Henry’s dad, Thomas Fairfield, passed away a few years ago, but his mother had just died this passed spring. Henry had no use for the house; therefore, he donated it to Sam to use as a clinic. It was a brick, five-room house, just two blocks over from the school. The living room would be the waiting room, one bedroom his office, the other two bedrooms would be examining rooms. The kitchen would double as a lab and break Room, and there was one bathroom down the hall.
Sam didn’t get home from the clinic on the nineteenth of July until around twelve a.m. At one a.m. Jessie woke with heavy contractions. She didn’t want to bother Sam, she knew he was tired and she thought it was premature labor. By two a.m., she knew better. At three-thirty-three on the twentieth of July nineteen-eighty-one, Doctor Sam Scott delivered his baby daughter. Le Chen was there too and helped all he could. Le took care of the baby girl, while Doctor Sam took care of his wife.
Around eight o’clock that morning; Jessie called to tell her mom and dad about the baby. She asked about her grandmother. Her mom broke down and told her that her grandmother had died thirty minutes before Stacey was born. This news was very hard for Jessie to handle. The funeral was on Sunday, but Jessie was not able to attend. Sam found his wife sliding into a state of depression. The Scotts were there to help as much as possible. Jessie’s family came too. Lora wanted to stay, but Jessie said, “No, I want to take care of my daughter myself.”
For about three weeks, Jessie cried a lot and Sam was becoming concerned about her. Le Chen talked with Jessie. He tried in his own quiet way to explain about his belief in, ‘The breath of life.’ Jessie knew that some people’s belief in reincarnation. Right now, that notion helped her a lot. When Sam got home that night Jessie was up, dressed and greeted her husband with a kiss. Sam told her he was so happy to have his Jessie back. When Stacey was three weeks old, her mother took her to the clinic with her to help Doctor Sam. Mr. Chen kept the house and had food ready when they arrived home.
On the thirty-first of July, nineteen-eighty-one, Le Chen drove Sonia Mendes to the clinic where she delivered a son. Antonio Miguel Mendes. Jake read her note when he got home. Le Chen was waiting for him with his supper ready and then drove Jake to the clinic to see his wife and son.
Ranch life was hard that summer. There was a drought in their part of Texas. Even down by the river and the lake the land lay parched. Jake was trying to keep fodder for the cattle as close to the river and lake as possible. Le Chen found himself helping in that area as well.
After, a day and night at the clinic, Sonia came home and things went back to normal as well as could be. By September, Sam and Jake knew there would be no round up for sale. Sam knew his dad’s cattle had faired no better. Because of the drought, ranchers were hanging on by the skin of their teeth.
The new grandparents and Jessie’s siblings had all been up a few times to see the new member of the family. On Thanksgiving, all the family came up to Rawhide. “Your grandmother left a codicil in her will,” Jessie’s mom informed her. “You and Sam are to have any or all of the furniture you want. The other grandchildren will receive money from the sale of the estate.”
Jessie was happy to have inherited her grandmothers beautiful furniture, but knew they could have used the money more. On December second, nineteen-eighty-one, a big moving van brought the furniture Jessie had chosen. There was a dining table with twelve chairs, a china cabinet and buffet, a grand piano, a Grandfather clock, a Queen Anne writing desk with chair, curio cabinet with contents, three bedroom suits, living room furniture, plus furniture, books and contents from her grandfather’s study, also much china, Crystal and silver.
Jessie asked her mother, “Don’t you want any of this, Mom?”
“No darling, we have no place for it, but you do. Fill up that big empty house Sam has built for you. I think, that’s what your thoughtful grandmother had in mind.”
The twins started their business with their share of the inheritance. Suzanne and Tracy put theirs in stocks for the future. Farley and Bernice’s children did the same.
Stacey was now eleven months old. She was walking and into everything, she could reach. What she couldn’t reach, she would climb to get. She was an audacious, precocious child. When she was nine months old, Jessie took her from the breast and tried to give her a bottle. She screamed and fought her mother until Jessie gave her back the breast. At ten months of age, she quit the breast and took the bottle on her own. When Stacey was eleven months, she quit the bottle and then would only drink from a cup. Stacey loved going to the third or fourth step on the stairs and jumping. They had to put gates on the living room and back hall stairs and keep the doors closed to the basement. She would crawl upon the piano bench, then to the top of the piano, sit there and scream, “Dis mine, dis mine.”
When Stacey was a little over a year old, Jessie had to go back to work. Their cash was almost gone. Doctor Sam was receiving payment more in barter than in cash. Sam didn’t know who but a benevolent benefactor, was paying the utilities for the clinic. Jessie went back to nursing at the hospita
l in Austin and Mr. Chen took over care of Miss Stacey. Stacey loved being with Mr. Chen, but when her mom or dad were home she was under their feet.
Two of the bedrooms, upstairs had been finished. In one large room, they put in a wall and made a nursery for Stacey. They locked the door to the hall so her only way out was through their bedroom. Stacey loved, waking up early and then getting in bed with her mommy and daddy. Sleeping late around her was impossible, and neither would she take a nap in the daytime. Without Mr. Chen, they might have rethought their parental belief in non-spanking.
In the spring of nineteen-eighty-four, the Double SS was getting ready for round up. The cattle were healthy and things were looking good. Jessie asked Sonia to watch Stacey while Mr. Chen was running the chuck wagon for the round up. Sonia had just given birth to their second son Richard in February, but would be happy to help out in any way she could. However, nobody bothered to ask Stacey what she wanted. She ran Sonia ragged the first day. The second day; Jessie took her to Grandy Scott. Grandy didn’t fair much better. Stacey wanted, ‘Her Mr. Chen.’ She kicked, screamed and refused to eat. The next day when Jessie took her to Grandy’s house, she refused to turn her mother loose. She kept asking, for Mr. Chen.
“Stop your cater-wauling and I’ll take you to Mr. Chen,” Grandy said, “And may god help the man.” Grandy saddled up and packed the saddlebags with Stacey’s things. She set her on the saddle in front of her and headed to the far back pasture where the hands were branding. When Mr. Chen saw them, he came running. Stacey was in his arms in an instant. “I love this child, but she’s gonna’ make herself sick pining for you,” Grandy told Mr. Chen.
“Do not worry Grandy Scott; I will manage well with our little daughter.” He was right, for the next two weeks she was a happy well-behaved little girl. That fall they put her in pre-school. That little experiment lasted about ten days. The teacher told Jessica, “I’m so sorry, little Stacey is just too rambunctious for the other children.”
