by Linda Ellen
Louise stood up straight from stooping down to put her pots and pans away in the bottom drawers of her new kitchen’s GE range. It sported four burners on the left side, surface space to prepare on the right, two ovens, and a window in the door. It was the newest cooking stove she had ever owned – and the first electric powered. Having always used gas ranges in the past, she couldn’t wait to prepare a meal on it. Briefly, she wondered how different cooking with electric would be, but dismissed the thought, assuring herself that she would get the hang of it in no time.
Her new kitchen was so modern and clean, with pale mint green walls, sparkling white cabinets (which she and Lilly had scrubbed to a polished shine), bright green counters, a white porcelain double sink – the first she’d ever had – and shiny white appliances. Matching corner shelves, on which she had placed some of her prettier knickknacks, bracketed a large window behind the sink overlooking the back yard. She was grateful that Mr. Hazelwood had taken such good care of the house while he had occupied it.
It’s sure a far cry from some of the places I’ve lived…and some of the kitchens I’ve had to cook in… With a shiver, she remembered one of the places she had lived with her first husband, T.J. – a dark, drafty, depressing place, and they couldn’t seem to get rid of the roaches. While living there, she had come down with tonsillitis, twice! Thankfully, they hadn’t lived there long. Even with Vic, she’d had her share of not-so-pleasant experiences in the places they lived – like their visit from Mr. Rat at their second apartment. Ewww! One time seeing him was enough!
Wiping her hands on her apron and smoothing her hair back with one hand, she gazed around at the room, pleased with how everything was shaping up. She was quite surprised with how easy this move had been compared to times past.
The thirty days, which had at first seemed as though it would be an eternity, had flown by, with all of the preparations, packing, and details that had to be sorted out to make the move across town. It felt like they had moved to another county!
Until that first day of loading their belongings into boxes, and satisfying the curiosity of friends and neighbors who had dropped by, Louise hadn’t thought about the fact that they were leaving the familiar West End of Louisville. It was there that she had been born and raised – where she knew all of the best meat and produce markets, drug stores, and everything else. Louisville was a big city, and yet the neighborhood seemed like a small town, where she walked the familiar streets, met friends and neighbors going about their day, window-shopped on Fourth, hopped on the streetcar or the bus, or caught a cab. The boys had to pull up roots and would be starting at new schools come Monday morning – a fact that made none of them happy. And their beloved church, with their precious friends – and especially Doc – would now be so far away.
But, it’s all for the good. Life out here in the suburbs will be easier, with Vic so much closer to the station. She gave a quick nod, pushing away any melancholy thoughts, especially since, except for Lilly, she was now farther away from the other members of her family. Her brother Sonny, his wife Sarah, and their two daughters, still lived in a large apartment on Breckinridge. Louise’s younger brother, Billy, had rented a room in a boarding house nearby for a stint, before moving downtown to be closer to his work. Until then, both of her brothers had dropped in, at least for a few minutes, nearly every week at the old place.
Turning, she readjusted the new white and green ivy print curtains, and spied the little plant that Ruth had given her as a housewarming present, resting on the windowsill above the sink. Its pretty little bowl, white and decorated with a spray of ivy across the front, went perfectly with the room’s décor. “I saw this and thought you’d love it,” her friend had said when presenting the gift.
Ruth had been especially complimentary of everything Louise had done in regard to arranging and decorating the house, and it had gone a long way in helping Louise forget the biting comments she had made the night they had bought the house. Deep down, Louise knew Ruth hadn’t meant anything hurtful by her words. She understood that it was simply a matter of her mouth working before her brain was engaged. At any rate, the two had, of course, remained friends.
Humming along with the tune on the small radio sitting on the counter – Elvis Presley’s silly rockabilly song, Baby Let’s Play House – Louise found herself moving her feet and hips to the fast beat of the music as she filled a glass with water and gave the plant a drink.
Glancing out the window to make sure Buddy and Jimmy were still playing in the back yard, she paused as a red cardinal landed on the sill outside the window and promptly turned its head to look through the glass at her.
Louise stopped all motion, watching to see what the beautiful little bird would do, as she remembered something her father, Willis, used to say. When a red cardinal visits you or crosses your path, it’s good luck, or a loved one in heaven is trying to say, “Hello! I’m with you!” Her breath caught as she stared at the little bird, marveling that it seemed to see right into her spirit…and then one of its eyes seem to wink at her! Just like her father used to do! Almost immediately, it was as if she heard her father’s gentle voice murmur, “I’m here, Sweet pea…I love you, baby girl…My pride and joy…My pretty Mary Louise…”
Tears sprang to her eyes and she closed them, shutting out the world, the song on the radio, and everything else, just to bask for a moment in her father’s love as she whispered, “I love you too, Daddy.” Oh Daddy…I wish you hadn’t been taken from us so soon. I wasn’t ready to lose you.
Memories floated down like leaves on a sunny Autumn day…of her father’s beloved face, with his wire rim glasses, eyes crinkled in a chuckle as he laughed… of his big, gnarled hand, firm, but gentle as he calmed her or meted out some sort of discipline…of him trying valiantly to stem the influx of water into the apartment house during the flood, and then when he realized it was hopeless, how he set about an orderly evacuation of their home… but mostly of the feeling of his arms around her as he pressed her to his chest in a warm, firm hug, and his voice murmuring that she was his precious girl…
All too soon, however, reality intruded on her memories.
“Hey Mom, I don’t think this is gonna work,” Tommy complained as he made his way into the kitchen, stepping over empty boxes in the hallway.
Louise opened her eyes with a sigh and raised her hands to her face. Noticing the redbird took one more look inside before flitting away out of sight, she turned to confront the problem. “What’s not working, Tommy?”
“Me and Buddy’s furniture in that little bitty bedroom. No matter how I rearrange the beds and the dressers, something doesn’t fit. And there’s no basement, no place to store anything, except the carport,” he grumbled, huffing a sigh as he came into the kitchen and flopped down in a chair. “I wish Dad were here. He can always figure out stuff like this.”
Louise smiled lovingly and walked over to him, laying one hand on his head and running her fingers lightly through his thick, wavy, light brown locks. Although his features resembled his biological father, Louise thanked the Lord that he had not inherited his personality. It wasn’t like Tommy to whine and complain, but he had been a trifle moody about the whole situation of the move. She knew that part of the problem was he was having separation anxieties from his latest girlfriend – a cute little number named Betty, who was a cheerleader at his old school, Shawnee High.
“At least you two have a room now,” Louise reminded him, referring to the fact that they had carved out a portion of the living room at the old house to make a sleeping area for he and Buddy. “What if all of us had to live in one room?”
He gave her a shocked look, as if he couldn’t imagine such a thing.
Louise nodded with a chuckle. “When I was young, there were six of us, Grandma and Grandpa, your Uncle Sonny, Aunt Edna, me, and Uncle Billy. For years, after Daddy lost his job at the mill, we had to all live in one room. It was on the first floor of a big apartment house and the only bathroom was on the second floo
r – and we had to share it with the other tenants. Compared to that, this is a castle,” she admonished.
“How in the world could six people live in one room?” he asked incredulously, trying to picture such a scene and wondering if his mother was exaggerating. His earliest memories placed him, his mother, and his beloved stepfather in a nice apartment with a large living room, a big dining room, their own bathroom, and even a little room of his own. He remembered when the hateful landlord divided the apartment and gave half of it to a mean old woman who always seemed to be in a bad mood. It hadn’t been very long at all before Mom and Chief had looked around for a bigger place.
“I don’t know, but we did,” his mother answered, her eyes staring straight ahead for a moment as she pictured the situation. “It was all we had, so we had to make do. And if we could do it then, you can do this now, when circumstances are so much better. Hmm?” She gazed into his eyes, brows arched.
He dipped his head with a sigh and nodded, accepting the chastisement.
Louise softened again, leaning to wrap an arm around his shoulder. “Don’t worry, everything will work out. Maybe Vic will come home a little early again tonight. Floyd and Oscar can close up. I’ll give him a call and see… oh, I forgot, the phone’s still not hooked up,” she murmured, once again feeling frustration at knowing that they would have to wait two weeks for a telephone, since the previous owner had never bothered to have one installed in the house and wires would have to be run.
Then with an encouraging smile, she added, “In the meantime, why don’t you gather up the boxes…” she paused as the doorbell rang, followed by raucous knocking on the front door.
Glancing at the clock on the wall by the refrigerator, she murmured, “I wonder who that could be,” even as she made her way over boxes and crushed newspaper to the door.
Wishing for the sidelights surrounding the front door at the old house, through which she could always take a peek to identify a visitor, she swung the door open. There stood Ruth, Fleet with little Alexa on her hip, and two ladies she didn’t know, one of which was holding a pie while the other held an overflowing basket.
“Surprise!” Fleet hollered in her customary boisterous manner. Louise opened the screen door to let them in.
“I hope we’re not coming at a bad time,” one of the other ladies offered as the four filed inside. The tall woman with jet black hair styled in a bun, a long face, and black-rimmed glasses, held out one hand for Louise to shake. “My name is Elizabeth Ross, and this is Barbara Dixon,” she gestured to the fourth woman, a petite, pretty lady with wavy, light brown hair and gorgeous green eyes who was smiling a greeting. “She lives three doors down, and I live at the head of the street,” the larger woman continued. “We wanted to come and welcome you to the neighborhood.”
“And just as they were walking up your sidewalk, me and Ruth pulled up for a visit and to see if we could help you get settled. Party time!” Fleet added jokingly. Mrs. Ross and Mrs. Dixon gave her a sidelong glance, but Louise was used to her wacky friend’s sense of humor.
Laughing, she answered, “I would love the help, although there isn’t much left to do…”
“Well, this is for you,” Mrs. Ross offered, handing the basket to Louise with a friendly smile. Tommy stepped up behind his mother to see what was in the basket, and she introduced him to their new neighbors.
The shorter lady handed him the pie. With a twinkle in his eyes, he licked his lips and said, “Mmm, apple, my favorite!” before taking it to the kitchen with a grin that said there wouldn’t be much left for the others when he was through.
Taken by surprise at the unexpected visit, Louise hesitatingly took the basket, perusing its contents, which included baked goods, coffee and tea, cleaning products, and even a set of hand towels for the bathroom. Mrs. Dixon removed a small bottle of apple wine from underneath her arm and handed it to Louise with a friendly smile.
“Thank you very much, ladies,” Louise gushed, truly overwhelmed by their thoughtfulness. No one had ever welcomed her to a new place before, and she was momentarily rendered speechless. The thought sprang to her mind about the first day they moved into Mrs. Despaine’s apartment house, and what a horrible “welcome” that had been. What a nice thing for these ladies to do…and just another good thing about moving here…
“So we bring you a little bit of help, a basketful of fun, and a barrel full of laughs,” Fleet announced with a snort, causing all of the ladies to laugh as she produced, with a flourish, a frilly white-ruffled apron with a green ivy motif. “Ruth here told me about you decorating with ivy in the kitchen. I had to go to three stores to find that gem,” Fleet announced to the group, adding with a dramatic swipe of her hand against her forehead, “Thought I was going to have to break down and make you something, heaven forbid!” She punctuated that bit with a shudder.
Good old Fleet, always the life of the party. She and that husband of hers were sure made for one another, Louise mused as she gestured for the chuckling ladies to have a seat on the couch.
Making themselves comfortable, they shared small talk for a while, with Louise telling her new neighbors a bit about the family and that her husband managed a Phillips 66 station for a living; the ladies shared about their own homes and families. Louise took note that the pretty Mrs. Dixon’s husband was in the military and stationed overseas, so she lived alone with their two school-aged children.
Finally, the taller of the two, Mrs. Ross, stood to her feet and proclaimed that they should be running along. Louise politely asked them to stay longer and offered to make them a glass of tea.
“Oh no, we don’t want to keep you from what ever you were doing,” Mrs. Dixon remarked kindly as she declined the offer. “We just wanted to come by and welcome you to the neighborhood, and to tell you that we are just down the way should you need anything. Liz is at two twenty-two, and I’m three doors down the other way at two forty-three.”
“Thank you so much. I’ll remember,” Louise nodded as the two made their way to the door. With a few more words and a promise to see them soon, the ladies departed.
Louise closed the door and turned to her friends with a smile. “Well don’t that beat all? A welcome committee. I think I’m going to like living here.”
“Two ladies welcomed us like that when we first moved here, too,” Ruth grinned.
“Yeah, that’s swell,” Fleet agreed. “So, show me around the place,” she added, adjusting Alexa on her hip as the little girl began to fuss. Although Alec had helped the day of the move, Fleet had stayed home with a sick Alexa; thus, she hadn’t had the opportunity to see her friends’ new house. Louise automatically reached out and took the child from Fleet’s arms, relieving the mother for a few moments. Alexa quieted immediately and stared up at Louise with that expression babies always get – something akin to fascination.
“Well, this is the living room…and right through here is the kitchen and dinette…” she began as Lilly came in the kitchen door from the back yard, where she had been hanging up a large load of laundry. She greeted the ladies as she walked through with a large basket of freshly dried towels.
When the tour ended in the back yard and the ladies were watching Jimmy and Buddy kick a ball back and forth, Fleet turned to Louise with a twinkle in her eyes and a toss of her head.
“Think I’ll see if I can talk my man into moving out here. It’d be like old times again, huh? I sure don’t want to be left downtown with everybody moving to the burbs!”
And that’s just what she did. Within a month, the house right next door became available and the Alders’ snapped it up.
The gang was together again!
‡
CHAPTER 7
The Robbery
Vic handed the customer his change and the required number of green trading stamps, and stepped back to allow the car to roll past him from its place at the gas pumps. Seconds later, its tires caused the driveway bell to sound its twin dings.
Taking a small wad
of bills from his shirt pocket, Vic added the single dollar and refolded the paper before slipping the roll back in his pocket.
Vic watched the customer drive away, the vehicle’s motor emitting a loud knocking sound. The poor schnook…his car’s about to go on the fritz, right here at Christmas, and he don’t have the money to pay me to fix it. Maybe I could let him make payments… The man had told him he would be back after the first of the year to get the motor worked on. Maybe he will…maybe he won’t. From the sound of it, it might just seize up before then…
Glancing up at the cloud cover, he zipped his jacket up a little higher and involuntarily shivered, thinking the weatherman might be right for a change and they were in for a snow. The kids would love that. It might be a White Christmas after all.
With no vehicles to work on and no other customers wheeling in, he stood for a few moments at the center island, his hands deep in the pockets of his tan uniform trousers as he surveyed his domain. His station was still the last vestige of civilization before acres and acres of cornfields stretched out on the road to Shelbyville. Only the East Drive-In Theater, which was so far up the road one couldn’t see it from the station, interrupted the fields. He had heard a rumor that the owners of the farm had been thinking about selling off some acreage for a big ‘mall’, but so far nothing definite had been decided. Until then, Matthews Service Station was the last stop, a driver’s last chance to get gas if they wanted to cruise to Shelbyville on a Sunday afternoon. Thus far, that had worked just fine for Vic and his small crew.
The contract with U-Haul had infused some much-needed cash into Vic’s coffers, and the bonus of having his trusted friend Floyd there to oversee that part of the operation was a godsend. Only one U-Haul trailer was parked on the smooth concrete of his station’s lot at the moment, as the other two had been rented.
Just then, movement caught his attention and Vic glanced to the right, toward the Frisch’s Big Boy Restaurant next door. He saw a little girl break away from her mother and run over to the small, newly built walking bridge that spanned the drainage ditch between the two properties, the mother hot on the little girl’s heels. The woman grabbed the child’s hand and fussed at her not to run off that way. Vic watched as the mother towed her little girl toward Shelbyville Road and the bus stop. It being past time for breakfast, but not quite the lunch hour, something made him wonder if she had been inside asking about a waitress job.
