by Stephen Bly
“Yep, I ain’t twelve any more. But you look just as purdy as ever. You sorta filled out just fine. My-oh-my, you are a true vision of feminine loveliness. How was your trip?”
“Long and tiresome.” She rubbed her forehead hoping that would slow down her mind. “I expected you to be in Sacramento.”
“I couldn’t get away from the store.” Phillip looped his thumbs in his canvass apron. “I’m the only clerk left.”
“Clerk? But you own the store.”
His wide smile accented the lower gold tooth. “Not yet, but I will soon.”
Catherine folded her arms across her chest. “You told me it was your store. Drapers Mercantile and Groceries.”
“And it will be real soon, darlin’. Mr. Draper is comin’ down by the end of the month and we’ll finalize the deal.”
“Phillip, I don’t understand.”
“Well, you see, when the Paradise Springs diggin’ played out, Mr. Draper built a new store in Faraway Basin. He left me in charge here. But he’s been promising to sell me this store as soon as I raise one thousand cash dollars.”
“When did he make that deal with you?”
“About seven years ago, when he built the new store.”
Catherine peered into the shadows of the building. “And you finally have the funds?”
“I do now.” He took her arm. “Let me show you the place.”
The one, large room had a twelve foot high ceiling covered with hammered tin panels and smelled of gun powder and vanilla. Six foot shelves displayed sparse merchandise on both sides. Empty glass cases lined the east wall. A broken chair held up by a nail keg was shoved up to a table that contained some well worn playing cards spread in a solitaire layout.
A few signs decorated the walls, but the prices had been scratched off so many times, she couldn’t tell which ones were still valid. The clothing on the racks looked used, but the ammunition boxes were new, almost dust free.
After a serpentine stroll down each aisle, they returned to the fresh air on the front porch. “Phillip, the store is half-empty. Don’t you need more inventory?”
“That’s what I’ve been telling Mr. Champion for five years. But you and me will be getting more goods soon. I already made out an order of what we need.”
He slipped his arm around her shoulder. “Catherine, you and me will get this store up and running like it was in the old days.”
She scrutinized the empty street. “But if town has changed and you lost most of the population, how can it ever be a booming business again?”
“I reckon the presence of a purdy lady will bring in a few more of the prospectors.”
“You’re counting on me as an attraction?”
“Well, I do have some other ideas. Ain’t had many customers lately and it gives me lots of time to think and plan.”
“Phillip, I just got here, but I’m wondering if this might not be the best location for a store anymore. You might want to take that thousand dollars of your hard earned money and open a store in some other town.”
“Nope. Paradise Springs is the place to be. I’ve lived here since I was twelve. Besides, it’s not my hard earned money. Shoot, I don’t have more than eighty dollars of my own. It’s your hard earned money. At least your daddy, rest his soul, worked hard for it.”
“My money? What are you talking about?”
“We’re going to take one thousand from your inheritance and buy the store. Another one thousand for new inventory.”
“Phillip, you don’t understand. I don’t . . . .”
“Now, don’t worry. I figured out how we can repay your inheritance, if you’d like to keep it intact. I’ve got it all written out on paper.”
“Phillip, I don’t have any inheritance.”
“Now, that’s a good one. You always were a tease. Or was that Catelynn? The Goodwins are the most prosperous business people in northern Virginia. I’m sure the war weakened ever’thing. But even a reduced sum will be just fine for all the things we need to do. I ain’t talkin’ about a lot of money.”
“Phillip, look at me.” She reached into her purse. “I have two dollars and eighty cents. That’s all. The war destroyed everything we had in Virginia. The carpetbaggers even took away our land. There is no Goodwin inheritance except for the faith, love and laughter of my childhood.”
Phillip’s jaw dropped like a cannon ball falling off a ship’s deck. “Are you serious? No inheritance? But, you said . . . .”
“I said absolutely nothing about money in any letter I wrote to you. I told you I had been a schoolteacher. And you know what kind of salary they get. That is all I mentioned.”
“But I assumed . . . .”
“That I would come out here and buy you a store?”
“We are goin’ to get married. That’s the kind of thing a wife does, ain’t it?”
Catherine let out a long, slow breath. “Yes, I suppose you are right. And if I had funds, I might have been convinced to invest in the store.”
“Besides, I had to use my funds to get our place. I paid thirty cash dollars each for those two lots.”
Catherine’s eyes searched around Paradise Springs. “Oh, yes, how is the house construction coming? You’ve written all about what it looks like.”
“I’ve got the plans back there in my room. Let me show them to you.”
They hiked through the store into the musty, dank storeroom at the rear.
She gaped at a bed and table against the wall. “This is where you live?”
“Yep, until our place is finished. We get free rent too.”
“We?”
“Well, we’ll have to stay here until the house is built. I know it’s a tad dusty and all right now, but I know you’ll spruce it up. There’s a back door right next to the basin. The privy isn’t more than ten feet behind the building. That’s mighty handy in the winter.”
Catherine grit her teeth. Lord, my beautiful dream took a wrong turn somewhere. This is not what you are leading me to. It can’t be.
“I know how new all these ideas are to you. Kind of tough to take it all in, I reckon.”
“I’m speechless.”
“Here’s the plans for the house. I bought these plans from a mail order house in Chicago. Ain’t it a swell lookin’ house?”
“It is beautiful. I want to see how it looks.”
“This is how it looks.”
“No, I mean I want to go to the site and see it.”
She marched back through the store and out to the porch. “Aren’t you going to lock the store?”
“Shoot, we don’t get many customers. Besides, I lost the key and I ain’t been in a hurry to tell Mr. Champion, if you catch my drift.”
“You never lock the front door?”
“Nope. But I do throw a sack of feed against it during a blizzard.”
Diagonally across the street they ran into a red-haired lady trying to harness a tall, black gelding to a black leather buggy.”
Phillip yanked off his hat. “Doc Dechert, this is my fiancé, Miss Catherine Goodwin from Virginia.”
“Catherine, nice to meet you. I’m Patricia Dechert.” She held out her gloved hand. “And congratulations to both of you.”
Phillip grinned from ear to ear. “Yes, ma’am, it’s an excitin’ day, that’s for sure. Looks like you are having trouble hitching up your horse. Where’s Marcus?”
“He decided to move to Butte, Montana. No driver, so I’m on my own now.” She wiped perspiration from her forehead onto her dark blue dress sleeve. “Can you help me?”
“Sorry, doc, I ain’t never owned a horse in my life. Don’t know a thing about them.”
Catherine grabbed the harness and leathers. “We had many horses when I was young. I’ll do it for you.”
Within moments, the horse was rigged and ready to go.
The doc pulled her hair back over her ears and reset her hat. “Can you teach me how to do that?”
“I would be delighted,” Catherin
e said.
“Let’s plan on some tea and a visit soon. I’m going to call on the Kellers at Soda Falls, but I should be home before dark.”
Two blocks later, Phillip pointed to a marshy part of the meadow covered in cat-tails and willows. “Here it is. Ain’t it a purdy location? There’s going to be a street right over there one day. It’s been all surveyed. As soon as town grows, they’ll put in the street.”
“It’s just a lot?”
“No, ma’am, it’s two forty-five foot lots with a corner location.”
“But it’s muddy and full of reeds growing. It’s a swamp.”
“That’s why I bought it. Is has a spring. Imagine that, our own spring. We’ll rock off the spring, dry the ground, bring in some fill dirt. We can get tailings for free. And then build that beautiful house.”
“Phillip, in the letters you said the house was being built.”
“I got a little anxious, I reckon.”
“What will we use for money?”
“That’s a good question now.”
Catherine rubbed her temples again. “You figured on my inheritance to build the house, too?”
“Now it won’t take long to build it. You see, this company in Chicago sells pre-cut houses. It’s a package deal. They load the entire house on a flatcar and ship it to Sacramento. We just have to freight it up here. Then you and me can build it in our spare time . It said in the catalog that it came with easy to follow instructions. It can go up it no time. I mean, If we had the money to buy it.”
They cut across another lot, then hiked towards the church.
“Rev. Whiteside said he would be proud to marry us.”
She studied the peeling paint of the church. “I’d like to meet him.”
“He’ll be here the last Sunday of the month.”
“Last Sunday?”
“Yep, he’s got nine different churches he looks after. He stops by here the last Sunday of every month.”
“And just where do I stay while I wait for him?”
“You stay with me, of course,” he blushed. “Shoot, we’re going to be married for a long, long time. Ain’t no one goin’ to care if we jump the gun a few weeks.”
“I will care. Phillip, I will not stay with you unmarried. That would be sin. I will have no part of it.”
“But Catherine, where will you go? There ain’t no hotel left in town.”
“I’m aware of that. I’ll figure out something.”
“What do you aim to do right now?”
“I want to sit on that bench in front of Champion’s store and think things through.”
“I ain’t got nothing else to do. I’ll sit there with you.”
“No. I need a little time for myself.”
Phillip stared down at his worn, brown shoes. “This surely didn’t turn out the way I was thinkin’.”
“In that, we both agree.”
Catherine counted fourteen people who passed the store during the three hours she sat on the bench. Four of them entered the store. Two actually bought something.
She had pulled her shawl out of her valise and had it draped across her shoulders when Dr. Dechert returned. Catherine hiked down the street to greet her.
“Catherine, good to see you. I should have had you drive me. I’m not good at making this horse mind.”
“Dr. Dechert . . . .”
“Patricia.”
“Patricia, I’ll be quite honest. Things . . . .”
“Between you and Phillip didn’t turn out to be what you expected?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“The way Phillip talked, I suspected expectations didn’t match up with facts.”
“I need time to let it all settle in.”
“How much time do you have?”
“It’s three weeks until the preacher arrives.” Catherine took a deep breath. “I know this is being very presumptuous. Is there a possibility that I could be your driver and help you in other ways, in exchange for room and board for these three weeks? I did some volunteer nursing during the war. I wasn’t sure where else to turn in Paradise Springs.”
Dr. Dechert handed her the lead lines. “You’re hired. Park the wagon, turn the horse into the corral and give him some oats. Then come on into the kitchen and help me fix supper. I’ve got plenty of room and will enjoy the company.”
Catherine sensed tears welling up. “Thank you so much. I know this all sounds crazy.”
“Staying with me sounds logical. Marrying someone you haven’t seen in seventeen years . . . that’s crazy.”
“I need time.”
“And I need tea. See you in the kitchen.”
Catherine finished her third cup of black Chinese tea “Well, that’s about all there is. Now you know the life and times of Catherine Marie Goodwin. I trust I haven’t wasted your evening.”
“My goodness, it’s the most excitement I’ve had since the explosion in the Victoria Mine. And you put up with my paltry account of a lady doctor in the West.”
“I feel better being able to talk to someone and the hot bath has made me feel human again. But I couldn’t help comparing what you have accomplished and what I haven’t. I feel like I’ve wasted my life away,” Catherine sighed.
“I’m not sure I’ve accomplished all that much. But I like what I do. You asked me why I’ve never married. One reason is that I had certain goals for my life. College . . . medical school . . . my own practice. I was too stubborn to allow someone to divert me from those goals. So, here I am, over forty and single. And I’ve reached those goals. But I’m not sure they are worth the price. It’s lonely in this big house. And there is no one to warm me up in the middle of a frigid night.”
Catherine touched Patricia’s arm. “You’re not too old to marry.”
“There isn’t a likely candidate within fifty miles. I hope that is not being too judgmental on your Phillip. I just never viewed him as a potential husband.”
“No offense,” Catherine said. “At this point, I’d agree with that assessment.”
“But I believe the Lord evaluates our deeds at the end of life, not in the middle. Perhaps both of us have our best work yet to come.”
“I will need to find a teaching job.”
“Please, not for a while. I selfishly want you here. Oh, I’ll learn to manage that horse some day. But I will so enjoy a few more evening chats over a cup of tea. You are a blessing.”
Catherine took another sip of dark, black tea and placed the hand-painted, porcelain cup down on the saucer. “Patricia, you heard my story. You know of my depression over Catelynn and Marie’s death . . . and the drama with Zane . . . .”
“And the strong, handsome Texan.”
“Ah yes, Race Hillyard. Well, lounging on that bench today produced the most helpless feeling. I couldn’t think, or talk or move. I didn’t know what to do. I asked the Lord to lead me by the hand or take me home with Him because I was at the end of my . . . well, the end of everything. We all have dreams about the future and what we will do next. Imagine coming to the place in your mind and in your life, where all the dreams run out. No more left. No plans for next week. Nothing to look forward to for tomorrow. No ideas for the next ten minutes. Just one big black hole.”
Doctor Dechert folded her hands. “Oh, my, that is gloomy.”
“Then you drove back into town. It wasn’t a giant revelation, just a tiny stream of hope. I remembered how good it felt to hitch up your team. How comfortable it was to know that I still had a few skills.”
“I was surprised how easy it was for you.”
“Compared to that big, black hole, tending your horse and driving you on your rounds seems like a wonderful adventure. You are my angel.”
“Well, this land can soon bore you. Or, as it does for some women, drive you mad. But I love it here. The smell of the pines. The wood smoke coiling up to the heavens. The sweet taste of a good venison steak. And most of all, the look of trust and gratitude in the patients’ eyes when so
meone cares enough to tend their wounds. This is my place, Catherine. The Lord has lead me here. And he’s lead you here, for a time. Enjoy the peace and quiet.”
“I will try. I need to really think though my commitment to Phillip.”
“And with your Mr. Hillyard.”
“Yes, he is in my thoughts. But I will never see him again. Patricia, what would you do if someone like Race suddenly appeared in your life?”
“You mean, a tall, square shouldered, ruggedly handsome man walked through my door? One who is principled, moral and a man of faith? One who made me . . . what did you say . . . made my heart ‘flutter like a butterfly in a jar?’”
“Yes, what would you do with such a man?”
“You mean after I knocked him out with ether, dragged him to the altar, and tossed him in my bed?” They both laughed. “Well, I would aim to make life so wonderful for him he wouldn’t want to leave my sight.”
She paused as Catherine blushed.
“That blunt kind of talk doesn’t sound like an angel’s advice, does it?”
“It sounds like wisdom from a woman who knows what she is missing.”
“I have a feeling you know what you are missing, too, Catherine. And what you have to decide is whether your Phillip is the one to provide that or not.”
Catherine slept one whole day in the big bed with clean sheets and soft pillows. After that, the September days fell into a pattern. She cooked breakfast for the doctor and herself, did the dishes, then hiked down to Champion’s and drank coffee with Phillip as they sat on the front porch.
She steered the conversation to their youth in Virginia.
He always discussed the Goodwin wealth and how it might be recovered.
The subject of an upcoming wedding was seldom brought up. When it was, Catherine used it as a signal to leave.
After she rigged up the buggy, she drove the doctor on her rounds. Each day headed in a different direction. Catherine admired the compassion, skill and generosity of the only doctor within fifty miles.
Catherine held the babies, comforted the mourning, revived the fainting, and bandaged wounds. Each day left the women tired, but content. When they returned to Paradise Springs, Doctor Drefert took care of local patients. Catherine rode the black horse bareback into the hills.