Mooney stopped the Dog right where she had walked to meet him, jumped out, grinning from ear to ear. “Pretty gal, I got you a bargain. You won’t believe it. I didn’t.”
“Well, tell me,” she said.
He cocked his head sideways, “You know something,” he said, “if I didn’t know that Donnie Whitefield would whip my tail royally, I sure could go for you in a big way. You’re the most excitement that’s come my way ever.”
Addie stared at him, a bit stunned, but pleased. “What’s Donnie got to do with anything?”
Mooney chuckled. “As if you didn’t know. He considers you his, and makes no bones about it.”
“I don’t believe that,” she said, her heart beating a little faster, and a warm happy feeling spreading through out her body. “Tell me about the bargain.”
“Do you mind if it’s a bit banged up?”
“Goodness no. I’ll probably bang it up some more before I’ve had it a week. But it isn’t too bad, is it?”
“Just the passenger side, and I can fix it. It’s a white Ford Taurus, only eighteen thousand miles on it, still under warranty. A man in Creek Falls bought it from Westmore for his wife, but their fourteen year old son took his friends joy riding in it. He sideswiped a telephone pole and ended up half turned over in a ditch. He and his friends had to walk almost ten miles home. By the time it was hauled in, thieves had stripped it of wheels, radio, battery, even the spare. Westmore has it parked behind the shop. Mobley says he doesn’t want it on the lot. They’ve replaced everything with good used stuff, and like I said, I can fix the two passenger doors at the Foster Brother’s Body Shop, and it’ll need paint on that side. I got pretty good at bodywork while I was building the Dog. The Fosters taught me bodywork, and I taught them mechanics.
“Mobley said Westmore had to take it back in trade because the man is a regular customer. He made you a good price, but a little more than the seven thousand. But, Addie, it’s a great buy. It’s still like new on the inside. Do you want to go see it?”
“How much, Mooney?”
Well, with sales taxes, license, and your insurance for six months, it’s almost nine thousand.”
Ouch! That would take just about all of her ten thousand by the time she paid him and Wylene. But he thought it a good buy, and she trusted his judgment. “No, Mooney. I don’t have to see it. If you think it’s a great buy, and are satisfied with it, then buy it.”
“You’re going to love it, Addie. The doors on the passenger side won’t open, and both windows are cracked but still intact. I’ll show you the window buttons for them. You don’t want to touch them. And I can fix it anytime you can do without it for a few days.”
“If I can get in it, and you think it’s dependable, it’s fine,” she was saying as she took out the pads of hundred dollar bills. Mooney whistled at the sight of the money. Addie looked around to make sure no one was close by, then counted out the nine thousand and handed it to him.
She watched him leave and was anxious to see her ‘almost new car’. She was also getting anxious about the time left before it got dark. Sooner than she expected, the Dog was returning, followed by a white car.
Both cars stopped beside her, the driver’s side of the white Ford facing her. It was beautiful. She was very pleased. It did look new inside and out, she thought, as she walked around it, with the exception of the dented doors and cracked windows. They looked pretty bad, but Mooney said he could fix them. She wondered what that would cost her? She just hoped her mother wouldn’t be upset with her for buying it. Then she recalled Grandpa Eli’s words ‘stand on your own two feet’. Somehow, she felt she had to do what she had to do.
She signed the necessary papers that Mr. Mobley had brought with him. He assured her that she did have insurance, and thanked her twice before Mooney drove him back to Westmore’s in the Dog.
While they were gone, she sat in her new car checking out everything – automatic windows and door locks, a tape desk, radio, clock, rear window defroster – everything she could possibly want on a car. Yes, she was very pleased – bent in doors and all. She couldn’t wait to show her mother.
When Mooney returned, he handed her two hundred-dollar bills plus a few more, but she refused to take it. “You keep that for getting me the car. I’m very pleased with it, Mooney, and thank you for getting it.” He wanted to refuse the money, but she ignored him, and they headed for Stonegate. She found the Caldwell men still sitting at the big round table in the breakfast room enjoying a last cup of coffee.
“We’ve thanked these two gracious ladies,” Ernest Caldwell said, “but, young lady, we owe you a great big thanks also. I have never eaten so fine a meal, and neither have my boys. You should have heard them complimenting your mother and Miss Horn. Now, we’re ready to take your trolleys anywhere you want us to. If we can get up? We’ve made pigs of ourselves.”
“I hope you’ve left some. Mooney and I will be starving by the time we get back.” They all laughed, and Addie told them about the old fire hall. “I’m hoping it will hold all four of the trolleys. It sure looks big enough.”
“Well, we’ll soon see. You lead the way,” Ernest said. “Come on, boys. If we’re to get it done before dark, we need to get a move on.”
“Mr. Caldwell, you ride with Mooney. Mama, Mooney went to see Mr. Mobley, and they found me a great buy in a used car. I can’t wait to show it to you just as soon as I get back. And Mr. Mobley arranged the insurance, so you don’t have to worry about that.” Addie wasn’t sure she liked the surprised, disapproving look she was getting from her mother, but it couldn’t be helped. “I’ll be back just as soon as the trolleys are settled,” she added to her mother. “And you three will ride with me, but you’ll have to get in from the driver’s side. The passenger side is a little bent in.”
Della watched her daughter go, unsure of her feelings. This Addie was a completely different person from her meek, gentle daughter. Her Addie would never have gone out and bought herself a car without her and Ben’s approval, regardless of how much money she had access to. And the way she was just taking command of this business of those trolley cars? And her buying the trolley cars? This Addie was a completely different person. Was it the inheritance or her being freed of the presence of Vicki Dane? Regardless of what it was, this was going to require getting used to. She was going to have to get reacquainted with her daughter.
When Addie, followed by the four trucks, pulled up to the Fire hall, Wylene’s brother, Billy was pulling weeds around the building, and Wylene was washing the window of the door to the right of the two big metal doors. She was anxious to see how clean they had gotten the place. The Caldwells had parked their trucks on the streets around the building, and they were soon gathered around Addie as she entered the fire hall.
To her surprise, the place was so clean it almost shined. She couldn’t believe it. Never would she have thought they could have gotten it this clean. “Wylene, this is great,” she said to the girl who had followed her inside. “I’ll bet this place has never been this clean.”
“We even cleaned the rooms and baths upstairs.” An older couple walked up who had to be Wylene’s parents. The girl was tall and built big like the man, but her face was smooth skinned and attractive like the woman’s. But the woman’s eyes looked very tired. They were clean and neatly dressed, and the man was carrying a bucket of dirty water. Wylene introduced them to Addie, and she introduced them and Wylene to the Caldwells.
“So there is an apartment up there,” Addie remarked. “And that counter space over there?”
“That was the firemen’s kitchen.”
“Oh,” she said, then to the Caldwells, “what do you think? Will it hold all four of the trolleys?”
Ernest looked around at the cavernous building. “It sure looks big enough. We’ll give it a try. What do you think, boys?”
“All we can do is try,” Brian said.
It was getting dark when Ernest turned to Addie, “They come so near to
fitting in. It’s such a shame,” he said regretfully. “I know you want all four of them stored in here, but it’s not going to happen. We’d need another foot just to close the doors.”
“Even then, you couldn’t get between the cars, and that wouldn’t be safe,” Brian said.
“Oh, now wait a minute,” Mitch, the youngest said. “I’ve been thinking. If we drive two in the back at a slant to the left, and then drive the other two in the front at a slant to the left, I think it could be done.”
They had already turned on the trolley lights for better lighting, and the three others looked at Mitch doubtfully. Then, Ernest said, “What have we got to lose? We’ll try it. We’ve tried everything else.”
Discouraged, Addie felt like he was agreeing just to humor Mitch. Where was she going to put the other two? She watched patiently, carefully, as they maneuvered the four vehicles. And, when at last, they were parked as Mitch had instructed, all four men took a metal door to slowly lower it. Surprisingly enough, the doors came down with room to spare between the cars and the doors. A shout of accomplishment went up from Addie, the Caldwells, and the onlookers who had gathered around.
Joey, the middle brother, slapped Mitch on the back. “Little brother, I always hoped we find some use for you if you stayed around long enough. I think we’ll keep you. You might come in handy again sometime.” Mitch socked his brother on the arm, as everyone laughed.
Addie had paid Wylene the money she owed for the cleaning, plus extra for a job well done. Since they were still there, she thanked them again. Cooter and Wylene’s Bud were not there, and she didn’t see anybody who could be Aunt Ruby or Adam. When she remarked about the missing ones, Wylene said, “Nothing holds Cooter’s interest very long, and Bud and Aunt Ruby had to go to their jobs at the Pink Elephant, where Bud is the bouncer, and Aunt Ruby is a waitress.”
Addie knew that the Pink Elephant was a roadhouse, as her daddy called it, just over the county line – in a county that sold liquor. Wylene told Addie that they would keep an eye on her trolleys before she and her parents crossed the street to the shack they lived in. She had to get the Mitchells out of this neighborhood, and soon.
The Caldwells drove their trucks to Stonegate, parking them in front, and to the side of the tall fence that surrounded the mansion on the unused road that curved around to the front of the gardener’s cottage. Then they took the long uphill drive to the building with Addie and Mooney.
All four of them agreed that they had had a stressful day and were ready to call an end to it when they entered the summer kitchen.
Having seen Addie safely home, Mooney said, “If you don’t need me anymore, Addie, I need to go to the store and get something for our supper. It’s getting late.”
She had paid him all that he would take. He flatly refused the fifty she was to pay him for his afternoon’s work, and she wondered if he would have had the money to go grocery shopping without it.
“Mooney, I’m starving,” she said. “You are coming in with me and eat. I have no intentions of eating by myself. And I’ll bet there’ll be leftovers you can take your mother and sisters. Miss Mattie said she always cooks plenty.”
“Guess, I won’t turn you down then, since I’m pretty hungry too,” he said.
After the Caldwells had gone to their rooms, claiming they were getting up too early for anyone else, and would eat breakfast later on the road, Addie introduced Mooney and Miss Mattie. She told her that Mooney had a mother and two sisters who hadn’t had supper yet, in case there were any leftovers. This seemed to please Miss Mattie, Addie thought, and while she and Mooney enjoyed a bountiful meal of her good cooking, she was busy wrapping food and placing it in a cardboard box from the pantry.
When they had finished and thanked her, she said to Mooney, “Now, I have a large T bone steak, two very big baked potatoes, green bean casserole, mixed salad with a big tomato, plenty of my rolls and peach cobbler. I’ve also added a jar of fruit tea.”
Mooney was speechless when he looked in the box at all the food. He took a deep smell. “My mother will not believe this, but she’ll be so happy to get it. I can’t wait for her to get a whiff of all this good food and hear about the house.” Then he thanked Mattie and Addie and left grinning from ear to ear.
Miss Mattie didn’t ask about the house, which Addie was sure her mother would have, had she been in the kitchen. Addie was glad she had already gone to their bedroom. She knew she needed the rest. She had explained that this part of the pregnancy made her tired and want to sleep a lot. So she helped Miss Mattie clean up the kitchen. Then she took the cup of hot chocolate, that Miss Mattie was sending to her mother, claiming it would help her sleep, and decided it had been a long day for her too. And she was ready to call it to an end.
In their room, Addie answered as many of her mother’s questions about her day as she could without mentioning Grandpa Eli. Then she asked, “What are we wearing to church in the morning? It is Easter, you know.” She couldn’t recall having ever missed church on Easter Sunday, but it saddened her that her daddy wouldn’t be sitting beside her. She missed him, and Donnie too.
“Honey, if it’s alright with you, I’d like to go with Mattie to a sunrise service her church holds on Easter Sunday. It’s a small congregation that meets in the community building on that cul-de-sac off Forrest Lane. They have the service on a hill behind the building where they have erected three crosses.” She certainly wasn’t going to Community Church – probably never again.
“Oh, I’d like that, Mama. You’ve always wanted to go to a sunrise Easter service, but daddy never has. I’m glad I hung up our new outfits. There shouldn’t be any wrinkles in them.”
“I went home to wait for Ben’s call while you were gone,” Della said. “He called early. He was worried about us because he didn’t get us last night. I explained about us staying here and last night’s storm. I didn’t tell him about the car though, and Baker’s Landing. That can wait until he gets home. They got there just fine, but the truck did try to overheat a few times. He said they just took long breaks until it cooled off. He said Donnie was real glad to see his mother and grandfather – Gramps, he calls him.”
“Yes. Did daddy ask about me?”
“Of course, and so did Donnie. They asked if I’d told you they were sorry to leave without saying goodbye? They’ll call again tomorrow night, but at home. I brought back our tooth brushes, and other things that we needed. I put it in the bathroom there. That’s the biggest, and prettiest bathroom I’ve ever seen.”
Addie wondered why her daddy couldn’t call at Stonegate, but thought it best not to ask. How was he going to react to the two cars and the trolleys? She thought back over her day. It all seemed to have just happened, and to somebody other than herself. Now that Vicki Dane no longer ruled her life, she seemed to be another person. She felt free to make decision and do what she wanted to. But then, there was her daddy to please. She sure hoped he approved of what she had already done. Well, she’d find out when he got home. She just knew that nothing was worth her relationship with her parents – either of them. They were her whole world. Suddenly, she realized how tired she was. She couldn’t wait to slide between those soft, white sheets on her side of that big bed and see if it was as comfortable as it looked. She’d shower first. It took her hair so long to dry, and she didn’t want to keep her mother awake with the noise of the hair dryer. And somehow, even if she had to wait until Della was asleep, she had to get upstairs to talk to Grandpa Eli. She wondered if spirits slept?
Later, when Addie opened the bathroom door, the hair dryer in her hand, her mother was examining the new dress she had bought. “It’s going to be chilly early in the morning, and we don’t have our coats or a jacket with us. I guess I need to run back to the house.”
Addie thought of her winter corduroy jacket. She hated to think of covering up that pretty green, lightweight, wool dress that she had bought at Lilly’s with that jacket. She liked the dress, but she hated even the thoug
ht of that woman, and wondered again why she had treated them the way she had?
“I don’t have anything but my winter coat,” Della murmured almost to herself, and wishing she had that lovely lavender suit. But remembering how that woman had treated them, she reminded herself that she still had to talk to Addie. She wished she didn’t have to. “I’ll go tell Mattie that I’m going out. You need to give me the key she gave you to the back door, unless you want to go with me? But your hair is wet.”
“I don’t want you going by yourself. I’ll wrap my hair in a towel. Then it won’t take as much drying when we get back.”
“All right, but let’s hurry. Slip your slacks on over your pajamas.”
Mattie was already in her robe when she answered the knock on her door. Della explained to her what they needed to do. “I have a much better idea,” Mattie said.
They both looked at the woman rather quizzically.
“Come with me.” And she led them to the elevator. “I’m too tired to walk even one floor up those stairs,” she admitted as she closed them in the elevator. “Addie, I told you once that Wilhelmina Stone had some peculiar ways about her. Well, I’m going to show you a very peculiar one,” she said as they reached the third floor.
They followed Mattie down the spacious hallway past the bedrooms where the Caldwell men were sleeping and on to Miss Willy’s bedroom. Opening the big, heavy door, Mattie said, “I’m going to show you coats and jackets – more of them than you’ve ever seen outside of a store, and none of them have ever been worn.” She flipped a light switch, but the big room was still gloomy.
Della looked around at the dark, heavy, ornate furniture, which she figured was walnut or mahogany, as they followed Mattie to a door on the right wall. Why would the woman have coats and jackets when she never went outside the building? She wondered.
The Daughters of Julian Dane Page 38