Texas Born

by Gould, Judith

  He nodded doubtfully.

  'The field all around you has been mown down . . . the weeds are gone and there's short grass everywhere . . . right behind you is a huge building facing the highway . . . one story, but very long . . . a series of buildings, actually.' Her voice came from a different direction now; she was walking around. 'Now, each building consists of an individual room with a bathroom and a covered parking place for a car. And in the center of it all is the office. In fact, the very spot where you're sitting right now is a large curving driveway. To your left, facing the road, is a huge sign that's lit up at night. It reads: 'Tourist Court.' '

  His eyes opened.

  'Do you like the idea?' she asked hopefully, coming back over to the buggy. She looked up at him, her eyes shining.

  'It might be a good idea,' he conceded, nodding.

  'Imagine the business this place will do!' She looked at him closely. 'Don't you think it would make a good spot for a tourist court?'

  'It makes sense,' he said carefully.

  'Just think! There won't be another one for a hundred miles around! It'll do a booming business. But before it's begun, I still have to convince one of the parties involved.'

  He frowned and said slowly, 'And who is this other party?'

  'Guess.'

  He made a face. 'I'm afraid to.'

  She smiled. 'You know I'm never one to be frivolous with money. But this isn't throwing it out the window. It's an investment, Zaccheus! It's the opportunity I've been waiting for. Really, darling, this is the chance of a lifetime!'

  'It's the chance to go broke, too. What you're proposing would cost a fortune!'

  'We've got money,' she said quietly.

  'I don't know . . .'he mused slowly, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'We'll really have to think it over well. We can't go rushing into something like this blindly. There are a lot of things to consider. Building costs, financing, purchasing the property . . .'

  'The property's already taken care of,' she said softly.

  'What?'

  'It's ours, Zaccheus. I. . .I've already bought it.'

  He stared at her. 'I thought that whatever we did, we did it together. That's what we always agreed upon.'

  'Yes, but I . . .' She whirled suddenly and threw her hands in the air. 'Dammit!' she cried, 'I wanted to surprise you.'

  'You did surprise me,' he pointed out quietly, hopping down off the buggy.

  She glared at him. 'Well, you're suddenly acting as if I stabbed you in the back. As if I cheated you.'

  He tightened his lips across his teeth. 'I suppose you've made up your mind?'

  She nodded.

  His jaw trembled, but somehow he managed to keep his voice from quivering. 'I only hope to God it works out.'

  'Why shouldn't it?'

  'It just seems . . . so quick.' He sought her hands and held them desperately. 'Elizabeth-Anne, it isn't that I don't want us to do it. Believe me, that's not it at all. It's just . . . well, like you're rushing into it.'

  'You've got to take advantage of opportunities when they arise,' she said stubbornly. 'God knows, they don't crop up often around here.'

  Well, what is done is done, he thought stolidly, his cheeks ticking. He might as well yield to the inevitable and make the best of it. Otherwise, a battle between them could rage, causing irreparable harm to their relationship. Nothing was worth that. Not all the money in the world.

  He took a deep breath and asked, 'Who owned this property before us?'

  'Who owned it? Why, Tex Sexton, of course.' She laughed shortly. 'Who else owns any land around here?'

  'Did the highway commission buy the land for the highway yet?'

  She shook her head. 'They're in the process of doing that right now.''

  'How far does our property reach?'

  She pointed.

  'And the highway?' He looked at her hopefully. 'Is it going to run through our property?'

  'If you're asking is the commission going to have to buy the land from us, the answer is no. Everything surrounding us is Sexton's property, and it's coming through his.' She laughed shortly. 'You don't think he'd throw that in too, and give us an easy profit as a present, do you? The commission's paying top dollar for highway land. Tex Sexton has got his own little thing going.'

  Like fleecing the highway commission, he thought.

  'May I ask,' he said slowly, 'how much you paid for this property?'

  'A hundred and fifty dollars.'

  'A hundred and fifty!' Zaccheus stared at her incredulously.

  'What's the matter? Why are you looking at me like that? It's dirt cheap.'

  'That's exactly what I mean,' he said dryly. He looked at her closely. 'Don't you think it was a little too cheap?'

  And a pessimistic voice inside his head said: Why would Tex Sexton have sold it this cheaply now, when it would surely be worth so much more once the highway was built? Besides, Sextons didn't sell land. Not ever. Somehow, their selling Elizabeth-Anne this property didn't add up.

  'You've got a bill of sale and a deed, of course?'

  Elizabeth-Anne laughed. 'What do you take me for? A fool? Everything's in order. I consulted Eblin Keyes and he's drawing up the papers.'

  A Sexton lawyer, he thought, and sighed. There was small choice in rotten apples. How far did you have to travel to make sure your lawyer wasn't a Sexton lawyer? Then he put a screeching stop to his wandering imagination. Perhaps he was making a mountain out of a molehill. After all, wasn't he getting along just fine with Tex Sexton? Didn't his raises come as regularly as clockwork? Didn't Jenny carefully steer clear of him and Elizabeth-Anne? So what was there to worry about?

  Zaccheus swallowed the frog clogging his throat. 'All right, darting,' he said hoarsely, 'if it means that much to you, and if you're sure everything's in order, go ahead and build it. I'll help in any way I can.'

  'You mean that?'

  He nodded and she threw her arms around him.

  'It'll work out, darling!' she cried excitedly. 'You'll see! And you won't be sorry, either! This is going to be the biggest, most successful tourist court in all Texas!'

  The long refectory table was draped with a priceless Kashan rug. The sterling Edwardian candelabra bristled with glowing white candles, the china was English cobalt blue rimmed in gold, the napkins were thick, creamy Irish linen monogrammed with the ubiquitous S, and the cutlery was sterling, each heavy piece intricately made from a single length of silver. The food was as splendid as the setting. There were giant shrimp, trucked in that very morning from the gulf, and three-inch-thick rib-eye steaks which had been aged right out back of the ranch house.

  Jenny moved slightly sideways as the Mexican serving girl wordlessly placed the bowl of crushed ice, crowned with four giant pink shrimp, in front of her. She ignored the food, leaned her bare elbows on the table, and steepled her fingers. She tapped her index fingers against her lips as she stared across the table at Tex.

  He felt her gaze as he speared a shrimp, his lean, taut face and usually predatory eyes carefully impassive. Without even looking over at her, he could feel the intense excitement emanating from her face. It seemed to hit him in radiant waves.

  'Well? Have you set things up?' she asked finally, unable to contain her impatience any longer.

  He chewed his shrimp reflectively and didn't reply.

  'Did you talk to Jesse about the loan?'

  He finished his shrimp in his own sweet time and reached for the massive crystal goblet of white wine, letting her wait, making the tension within her grow unbearably. It was amazing, he thought, how when she wanted something badly enough, she managed to swallow all remnants of her pride and revulsion and barter for it.

  He was waiting for that now. When she'd initially brought up the subject of his telling Jesse to let Elizabeth-Anne and Zaccheus have a big loan, he'd let her wait and stew in her own juices before consenting to do so. Only after she had promised to take him— not from the front as man and wife, but from behind, li
ke an animal—had he agreed to talk to Jesse. If nothing else, he had to admit that Jenny at least kept her end of the bargain. Despite her obvious pain and discomfiture, she hadn't cried out once. She had, in fact, pretended to relish it so much that afterwards he wasn't quite so sure she really hadn't enjoyed it.

  She was like no other woman he had ever known. And yet, after nearly four years of marriage, he often felt as though he did not know her at all. In many ways, they were very much alike; in many others, they were still strangers. They had sex frequently, but he knew that it was not lovemaking by any means. It was grim and determined. Fierce and energetic. It was coupling, but it was not love—and he knew it.

  He looked across the table, eyes intent, studying her. She was wearing a thin, low-cut blue dress, her shoulders bare, the rows of diagonal silver fringe which trimmed it flickering in the candlelight. He wasn't quite so sure he liked this new 'Roaring Twenties' style she had picked up on her travels. The flapper fashion was too boyish to really suit her, he thought.

  She was waiting with barely controlled expectancy.

  Somehow he imagined her to be a panther, poised to pounce at a scrap of meat.

  'Well, did you talk to Jesse yet?' she asked again. 'And what about Roy? Did you ask him about jacking up prices and delaying the deliveries?'

  'Not so quick.' He smiled benignly at her. 'What's it worth to you?'

  She rubbed her lips together, as though she had just applied a layer of lipstick. 'What do you want, Tex?' she asked finally.

  He dabbed his lips with his napkin. 'Show me your tongue.' He gestured with his hand.

  She glanced quickly behind her to see if any of the servants were looking, or if Ross had finished eating in the breakfast room and the nanny was bringing him in to say good night. Other than the serving girl, whose eyes were studiously averted, the coast was clear.

  She glanced significantly in the girl's direction.

  Tex shrugged. 'Let's see your tongue,' he said again.

  Jenny opened her mouth and showed him her tongue. It was pink and moist.

  'You know where that tongue hasn't been yet?' he asked with deliberate cruelty.

  Her tongue slid back between her lips and she clamped her mouth shut.

  'Well?'

  Wearily she sighed.

  'Are you gonna do it?'

  She stared at him in sudden loathing, then nodded.

  'But you've got to like doing it,' he said softly. 'You've got to promise me you'll enjoy it.'

  Her smile was sickly. 'I'll enjoy it,' she whispered in a strained voice.

  But later, when he lowered his bared buttocks down into her face, she had to struggle to keep from being sick. Even then, as soon as he was through, she jumped from the bed and barely made it to the bathroom.

  As she vomited, Jenny realized for the first time just how much she had come to despise her husband.

  16

  They applied for a loan of ten thousand dollars at the Quebeck Savings and Loan, the Sexton-owned bank.

  'Hell,' Tex Sexton had magnanimously told Zaccheus, 'tell old Jesse to make it twelve thousand. There are always unforeseen expenses when you're building something. Won't do to be on too tight a budget. I've seen too many good businesses never take off because they were underfinanced.'

  'Twelve thousand dollars is . . . well, a fortune!' Elizabeth-Anne told Zaccheus anxiously as they left the bank. 'Maybe we should have borrowed less. After all, we have nine thousand saved up.'

  He shook his head. 'Tex is right, I think,' he said levelly. 'Besides, we can always return what we don't need.'

  'But I still don't understand about the collateral! Why the café?' she asked. 'Why not the rooming house? As a piece of property, it's worth a lot more. It would only stand to reason they'd want to protect their interests.'

  Zaccheus shrugged. 'Beats me.' Suddenly he laid a hand on her arm. 'Don't worry so much, Mama,' he said softly. 'Maybe they're trying to give us a break. Have you ever considered that?'

  No, I haven't, she thought uneasily. Sextons never give anyone a break.

  Out at the Sexton ranch, Jenny celebrated the news of Elizabeth-Anne's bank loan with a glass of bootleg French champagne. Prohibition had certainly had no effect on the Sextons.

  'I still don't understand why you wanted them to put up the café as collateral instead of the rooming house,' Tex said. 'It's the far less valuable property.'

  'It's simple, really,' Jenny said. 'You see, the rooming house doesn't mean half as much to her. It's the café where she spends most of her time. And they live right upstairs. Besides, the café brings in a lot more money than the rooming house.' She smiled. 'It'll hurt them worse to lose it.'

  In due course the highway surveyors were done and the blueprints of the tourist court were drawn up. Elizabeth-Anne and Zaccheus finally broke ground and work began in earnest.

  Each morning thereafter, the two Hales rode out to the site long before daylight made its appearance in order to be there by sunrise to inspect the progress of the previous day. Sometimes the girls went along with them, and although they were invariably sleepy on the drive out, by the time they reached the site they were wide-awake with excitement. There was no playground quite like a construction site, Elizabeth-Anne thought dryly as she watched them get dusty and dirty and scrape their shins. When she voiced her worries that they were all growing up to become tomboys, Zaccheus laughed. 'They'll outgrow it soon enough. You'll see. In a few years you'll wish they hadn't.'

  Neither Elizabeth-Anne nor Zaccheus could quite explain how they managed to juggle their time. There was so much to do it was mind-boggling. Every phase of construction had to be overseen. Zaccheus suggested that the Sexton Construction Company build the tourist court, but Elizabeth Anne had other ideas. Wisely, she made it seem that they were his.

  During one of their planning discussions before ground was broken, she looked sideways at him. 'It's wonderful how well things are going, don't you think? And you know, we're really very lucky. The girls are pitching in, and I didn't even have to ask Rosa to come to work early. Imagine! She knows how busy we are, and suddenly she starts showing up two hours early.'

  'She is a jewel,' Zaccheus agreed. Then he laughed. 'A big two-hundred-pound jewel, at that.'

  Elizabeth-Anne poked him in the ribs with a sharp jab of her elbow. 'Now, that's not nice, and you know it. There's no one as devoted to us as she is. I thank God we have her.'

  'Sorry, Mama,' he said, pulling a straight face. 'I stand corrected. She is worth her weight in gold. A lot of the Mexicans are, you know. It's a pity they don't have more opportunities. Everyone likes to say they're lazy, but they're not. The problem is, nobody wants to give them any responsibility. Everyone's afraid they'll take away jobs from the whites.'

  'Why, Zaccheus!' Elizabeth-Anne exclaimed. 'What a good idea!' She clapped her hands together in delight and rested her head against his shoulder.

  He frowned. 'What's a good idea?'

  'What you just said. Hiring Mexicans and giving them a chance. I should have thought of that myself! Rosa's nephew, Carlos Cortez, is an engineer, and he's never had the opportunity he needs. I hear he's very talented. He can be in charge of building the tourist court, and he'll see about hiring everyone we need. His people will work hard. It's like you said, they have to, just to prove how capable they are.' She sighed happily. 'Sometimes you make me so happy. I'm proud of you!'

  And after that, he thought ruefully, what choice did he have but to follow through with 'his' suggestion? He couldn't help but feel that he'd been very cleverly railroaded.

  He thought to himself: She's a clever cookie, that wife of mine.

  Despite all there was to do, life was comfortable; week after week brought new plateaus of happiness and peaks of surprises.

  Six-year-old Rebecca found her first boyfriend, a schoolmate named Gentry Olivant. 'Yech!' her sisters teased her mercilessly. 'Nobody's named Gentry Olivant. At least nobody human. Besides, he's got elephant ears and ch
ipped front teeth.'

  'I think he's handsome!' Rebecca cried loyally every time they teased her and called him 'Gentry Elephant.'

  Regina celebrated her eleventh birthday and Elizabeth-Anne took the time out to plan a surprise party for her and invited all her school friends over to the café that afternoon.

  Elizabeth-Anne and Zaccheus contemplated purchasing a car, but frugality won out. Eventually they would buy one, they decided, but not just yet. They would wait until the tourist court was completed and bringing in money.

  Elizabeth-Anne would never forget that spring of 1923. Her joy knew no bounds. She was pregnant again. 'This time it'll be a boy!' she promised an exultant Zaccheus. 'I know it will!'

  'I don't care what it is!' he declared joyfully. 'Son, daughter, twins—I'll love him or her or them all the same!'

  'I'm worried though,' Elizabeth-Anne confided to him. 'It's bad timing. Having the baby now will slow me down. And there's so much to do!'

  He laughed. 'Mama,' he told her, 'in the twelve years since we've been together, I've never seen you let anything slow you down yet.'

  How wonderful those months seemed as they raced through them. The stormy clouds on the horizon had yet to come, and nothing gave them an inkling of the web Jenny had spun.

  They were at the construction site, Elizabeth-Anne and Zaccheus, with the girls playing tag in the fields.

  'It's really coming along,' Elizabeth-Anne said. 'Look, part of the concrete foundations have already been poured!'

  'By next week sometime, the timber framework will start to go up. It is amazing, isn't it?'

  They both turned to look at the horizon. Beyond it somewhere, slowly but surely, yard by yard and mile by mile, the highway coming north from Brownsville was approaching ever closer.

  Summer came, and with it the first indication that treacherous waters lay ahead.

  Doing paperwork and accounting, paying the bills and making financial projections was Zaccheus' responsibility, so he was the first to see the storm clouds gathering. He waited awhile before mentioning anything to Elizabeth-Anne. He didn't want to scare her unduly. And besides, he wanted to have absolute proof before confronting the issue.