The Daughters of Julian Dane

by Lucile McCluskey

  When the boys and Judy Arnold had left, Addie went upstairs to check on her people. William had just settled the men down for a nap. He gave her another grocery list, and Addie wondered if grocery shopping was going to become an every other day job, an expensive job? She visited a short while with Deena and her mother, then stopped at the Simmons’ bedroom to give Jo Ann the change of address forms. Jo Ann was sitting at the dressing table with a notebook and pen. Addie hoped she wasn’t coming up with more ideas to give her problems. Jo Ann thanked her for getting the forms for her and handed Addie two checks.

  “This is Aunt Beth’s Social Security check and the Stonegate check. They were in the mail that I picked up off the table when I was getting Aunt Beth’s medicine together.”

  “Oh, no, Miss Simmons, I don’t want this,” Addie declared holding the checks back out to Jo Ann.

  “No. I insist,” Jo Ann said firmly. “And I’ve been using your phone. I talked to my insurance company. At first they said since I was not in a skilled nursing facility they couldn’t pay, so I said I’d call an ambulance to take me to Nashville to a rehab facility. Then I’d be looking for new insurance for my office personnel.” She chuckled. “It didn’t take much more argument to get them to change their minds. They agreed to seventy dollars a day for three weeks. So I’ll give you that when it comes.”

  “But, Miss Simmons, I don’t ...”

  “Addie, this is business, and it’s the only way I’ll have it.”

  There seemed to be nothing to do but accept the checks, so she did, thinking it would help with William’s grocery bills.

  Downstairs again, she thought she might go home and see her mother, since she had not called. She was just entering her bedroom when the phone rang. She rushed to it hoping it would be Della, but the deep voice that answered her hello made her heart quicken and her arms tingle.

  “Got any time we could spend together?” Donnie asked. “I just got back from Nashville. I took the bus back and uncle Nate picked me up and drove me to the house. He looked the house over and was real happy that we have such a great place. He told me about Aunt Mel refusing to let mom come to their house.”

  “I’m hope he tells your Aunt Mel that you didn’t need her hospitality. And since you don’t have transportation, I’ll come and pick you up. I’m driving the Lincoln, but I’ll tell you about that. Want to go to the drug store? We can sit in a booth, eat ice cream and talk.”

  “I’d appreciate that, Addie.”

  As she drove to South Street, she thought Donnie sounded rather somber. She wondered what he wanted to talk about? She hoped there was nothing wrong. But it didn’t matter. She just wanted to be with him. She had missed him so much after the week he had spent with them, sleeping on their sofa.

  He was waiting for her at the sidewalk in front of the house. She thought that a little odd. She should have gone in and said hello to his mother and gramps.

  “Mom and Gramps are both taking naps,” he explained as he took his seat in the car. “Wow! You driving this big thing?”

  “Yes. Daddy and I had a big argument over it.” And she proceeded to tell him her daddy’s attitude about the inheritance.

  “Maybe he’ll change, Addie. I hate that you’ve left home over it, but I can see how you didn’t have much of a choice.”

  “I hope he’ll change. I need him, and I miss him. I’m going to try to wait him out, but I know him pretty well. He can be awfully stubborn.”

  “Sometimes we think we know a person when we really don’t. Like me, for instance.” They had parked in the center of the Square’s parking area as close to the drugstore as she could get. Donnie turned to her, “Addie, how old do you think I am?”

  She looked at him wondering why he was asking her. “Well, you’re a junior, so I assumed you were about seventeen, maybe eighteen. You seem more mature than the other junior boys.”

  “I just turned twenty.” He saw the surprised look on her face. “I also left home once. Was gone almost two years. Not going to school, but working in a housing construction business. When mom and Gerald got divorced ... Somehow, kid that I was, I figured it was because of me.” He sighed real big, then, “One day when I started to school, I just kept walking. Walked half way across Nashville. I stopped to rest at a construction sight where houses were being built. There were houses in all stages of being finished, and I found it very interesting. I started hanging around. I’d run errands for the men, pick up trash, anything just to be there. The men were real nice to me. They’d share their lunches with me. And Milt, a great big carpenter, took me home with him. He lived in a trailer. He said he’d had a son about my age, who had run away from home, and he never saw him again. One day, Mr. Peters, the contractor, asked me if I’d like to earn a little money by sleeping in one of the houses at night. But nobody was to know except the three of us. They were having plumbing and electrical fixtures stolen by the truckloads. I was to keep his cell phone and call him if anybody came onto the site after working hours.” Addie was so interested in what he was telling her that they made no move to get out of the car.

  “There had been a load of stuff delivered that day and stored in an almost finished house three houses from the one he wanted me to sleep in. Well, it got to be about two in the morning and I was drifting off to sleep in the bedroll that Milt had supplied, when I heard a truck go slowly by. When I looked out, I saw that it had only the parking lights on, but I knew the sound of the motor. The truck belong to one of the men they called Buster. I was real surprised. Mr. Peters was so good to his men, I couldn’t believe one of them would steal from him. So I called him like he’d told me to – even told him who I was sure it was. He said for me to stay put. He would call the police. So I watched the truck stop in front of the house where everything had been stored that day. Three men got out of the truck. They used flashlights as they went in and out of the house carrying stuff to the truck. I just kept listening for the police, but not a sound. When the men made their last trip and were getting in the truck to leave, I figured I had to do something.

  “I picked up a length of 2x4 and sneaked out to the edge of the street. They had to go out the same way they had come in. I lay down in the ditch, so their lights wouldn’t pick me up. I just kept hoping for the sound of the police, but I planned to jump up as they got close to me and throw the 2x4 at their windshield. But when I threw it, it went right over the hood of the truck. Still, it surprised Buster enough that he jerked the truck to the right, and it stalled in the soft dirt and gravel. And thankfully, the police came roaring in right then.

  “Mr. Peters was real grateful. After that, he let me do work on the houses under his, or one of the men’s supervision. I learned a lot. And I decided I liked what I was learning – enough to know that building houses was what I wanted to do with my life. And one day I discovered I had a talent that I didn’t know I had.

  “Mr. Peters had sold a house to a retired military man who was getting married. Everything was going fine until the lady friend started wanting changes made. Mr. Peters told the man the changes would cost quite a bit more money. And the man said no way. The woman wanted a half bath close to the kitchen, a larger pantry, and a closet close to the back door for his hunting and fishing clothes.

  “I was doing some work in the house while Mr. Peters was studying the plans to see what he could do. When he left the house to see about something, I took a piece of brown paper, and drew off the downstairs floor plan. That night I changed the plans to include about what the woman wanted by eliminating a hallway, and making the dining room smaller.

  “When I showed it to Mr. Peters, he couldn’t believe it, and the woman actually liked it. The buyer of the house gave me fifty dollars and Mr. Peters did too. Then he asked me to look at a set of plans that he really liked and wanted to build, but he seemed to be the only person who liked them, he said.

  “I took the plans to Milt’s that night and studied them from a woman’s point of view, made a few changes, and
Peters sold the house to the next couple who looked at them. He gave me a hundred dollars that time. And that’s when I decided I didn’t want to be a carpenter, I wanted to be the contractor. And I knew that meant going back home and back to school.

  “When I finally did go home, I found that Gramps and mom knew where I was all the time. Gramps had searched until he found me, then left me alone – just kept tabs on me. I only need two more credits after this year to finish high school. I hope I can take them this summer, then get a full time job this fall, then some more education.

  Addie had sat quietly listening. Now, she didn’t know what to say. The boy who made her heart flutter wasn’t a boy. He was a man almost four years her senior. But then her daddy was five years older than her mother, she thought. Then she thought of the truck. “Thank you for telling me,” she said. “There’s something I need to talk to you about. The truck that Mooney is using to move people for me – well, I bought it. He starts his job tomorrow, and he’ll be through with it today. I’m sure there’ll be times when I’ll need it for something again. And I was wondering if you’d keep it for me, and help me if I needed you too. Of course, I’d expect you to use it – probably drive it to school.”

  Donnie laughed. “Addie, don’t you know I can see right through you. You want me to have the truck to get back and forth to school. Right?”

  Addie turned red, and Donnie laughed even more as he reached over and hugged her. “I’ll do anything in the world that you need me to do for you. You should know that. I’ll keep the truck, but I’ll buy the truck from you. I’ve seen it. It’s a great truck, and you got a great buy. But I’ll pay you more than what you gave for it. It’s worth more. You’ll just have to be patient, because I’ve got to support mom and me until she is well enough to work again.” He took both her hands in his, looked her in the eyes and said, “Addie Martin, I plan to marry you one day, when I can afford you.”

  She gasped. “Donnie Whitefield, that’s no way to propose to a girl.”

  “Oh, I’m not proposing, just warning you,” he said with a big smile. “And Mooney has been telling me what all you’ve been doing for other people, even buying his house for him, with your inheritance. Actually, it’s about what I thought you’d do. And I’m real proud of you, and I want to help you do some of the crazy things Mooney says you’ve been doing.” And he leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips. “Now, if you’ll be good enough to take me to Mooney, I want to help him. He’s going to need a good night’s rest. He’ll need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow for his first day on the job.”

  On the way back to Stonegate, Addie was grateful that Donnie had agreed so easily to accept the truck, and she wished she knew what she was going to do about something to drive to school on Monday. But she was smiling with happiness. Donnie was planning to ask her to marry him one day. It made her tingle all over. She wondered if she was in love like Wylene was with Bud. But Donnie hadn’t said he loved her, still, he was planning to marry her. And he had kissed her. That seemed to be all that mattered right now. Her cell phone rang.

  She dug in her bag and found it, opened it, and before she could even say hello, her mother’s excited voice said, “Honey, I want you to tell me what the black headed woman looked like. The one you saw at Lillys.”

  “Why, Mama? What’s going on?”

  “Addie, just tell me. What can you remember about her?”

  “But, all I saw was her head sticking out between those maroon curtains of the first dressing room”

  “Well, think,” Della demanded. “Pull over to the side of the road, close your eyes and try to see her as you saw her last Saturday.”

  She was on River Road and the graveled area to the landing was just ahead. She pulled onto it, stopped and turned the key. “Okay, Mama, let me see now.” She leaned her head back on the headrest of her seat and thought for a moment. “Her hair was very black and thick, parted in the middle and seemed to be pulled back to the back of her head somehow. Her complexion was very fair against the dark curtains. I could only see a little more than one side of her face, but her eyebrow was black and sort of heavy. And her lips seemed to be sort of full, at least not thin. And that’s all I know.”

  “That’s her!” Della exclaimed. “I’ll bet it’s her.”

  “Who, Mama?”

  “The woman who lives two doors down from Grant Cutler’s house.”

  “Did you go there?” Why was she so excited?

  “No. Yes.”

  “Mama, calm down and tell me what’s going on.”

  “I drove by the house. A car was backing out of the driveway, and I had to wait until she got turned around. And it was the black headed woman. I know it was. And, oh, Addie, you won’t believe this. It’s hard for me to believe, and to accept. But I think she’s my sister, Jimmy Lee. I got a pretty good look at her. Her hair is blacker than I remember. She probably colors it. But the almost white complexion, the eyebrows and mouth. It’s her! I just know it is. I know I haven’t seen her in seventeen years, but ...”

  This didn’t make sense. “Mama! If your sister is living in Riverbend, wouldn’t she have gotten in touch with you? That woman is the reason Miss Lilly treated us like she did. I’m sure of it. And your sister wouldn’t ...”

  “I don’t know the answer, Addie, anymore than I know why her crippled maid wouldn’t come to the door. I rang that bell and pounded on that door for an awfully long time. There was only one person in the car, so she had to be in that house. I even tried to go to the back door, but there’s a fence between the house and the garage, and the gate was locked. Addie, I’ve got to see that crippled woman. I think she just might be my sister, Henrietta!”

  “Oh, Mama! Wouldn’t that be great? Maybe daddy can help ...”

  “No.” Della said quickly. “I know he’d know if the black headed woman was Jimmy Lee, but, no.”

  Now what? She wondered. Her mother’s voice had changed with the mention of her daddy. “Mama, what’s wrong? Am I causing problems between you and daddy?”

  “No, honey, nothing’s wrong. Ben’s just working long hours trying to get caught up. That’s all.”

  Addie knew there was more to it than that, but her cell battery was getting weak. “I’ll call you later, Mama. My phone is getting weak.” She sat there for a few moments. She wanted to be excited for her mother at the possibility of finding someone in her family, but she couldn’t. There were too many unanswered questions. But she had to help her. At least help her meet this crippled woman whom Helene Cutler said looked so much like her. But why wouldn’t she come to the door? Was it possible that the black headed woman was Jimmy Lee? Or was her mother’s desire to find her family causing her to reach at straws? Seventeen years was a long time. People’s looks surely change a lot in that length of time.

  While she was so close, she thought she would check on Miss Lettie and Ellie Mae. She wondered about driving the Lincoln down that rutted road. She would drive careful, watching for glass or anything that would harm a tire.

  The first thing she saw was the old Plymouth, or what was left of it. She supposed she was going to have to get it moved. And there was the little house. She smiled at the sight of it. It was like an adult size dollhouse. She wondered if Donnie knew enough about houses to sort of fix it up. Why, she didn’t know, but it intrigued her. Then she thought for the first time, where will I live once Stonegate is a nursing home, and a dinner club, and a child- care center. She didn’t think she’d want to live amid all that. Maybe that’s why she wondered if Donnie could fix it up – to make it a place of her very own. Well, she’d give it some thought.

  At the Neilson house, Ellie Mae’s little car was missing, still she got out of the Lincoln and knocked on the door. No one answered, and she was glad. The two elderly ladies were out and about. She wondered how long it had been since Miss Lettie had left the landing. Still, she wanted to keep in touch with her. Her mother would want her to.

  Then she thought of Mi
ss Judy. She had said she’d be staying at the farm to clean out stuff after Mooney picked up the last of her things. She needed to go see if she could help her, and to tell her that the Mathews would be moving into the farmhouse, and get the keys.

  When she reached the farm she thought there was no one there either until she heard the faint sound of a car door shutting. It must have come from the back of the house since the front door stood open and no one was around.

  She parked in the grass close to the front porch and entered the hollow sounding house through the open front door. She saw that the house wasn’t completely empty. There were odd pieces of furniture still placed here and there, mostly in the living room. She called out, “Miss Judy!”

  “In the kitchen!” came the reply.

  Addie went down the long, wide hallway to the direction of her voice. An old chrome and Formica table and three chairs sat in the middle of the kitchen floor. Boxes were piled on all four pieces of furniture, and Miss Judy stood on the fourth chair at the wall of kitchen cabinets.

  “Addie! I’m so glad to see you. I need your advice.” She was still dressed smartly in dark pants and a soft, white pullover, and not a hair was out of place. Addie couldn’t help but think what an asset she would be to Miss Mattie’s dinner club. She had turned to Addie with a jar of strawberry preserves in her hand. “What am I going to do with all this stuff?” she asked. “There must be a hundred jars of vegetables, fruits, jams, and jellies that I’ve canned, in these cabinets.”

  “Well, if it suits you, you don’t have to move a single one. I came to see if a family could start moving in the house this afternoon? They’ve been living in the slums. I’m sure they could use anything you want to leave behind.”

  “Oh, Addie, that would be such a relief. What about all that stuff?” she asked, pointing to the boxes of dishes, pots, pans, dish towels, cleaning supplies, and such.

  “They’ve been living in rather close quarters. I can imagine they had to sell a lot of their belongings before moving to the slums to try to keep from having to move there. Would you want to leave everything that you don’t want to take with you to see what they can use? And what about all those pieces of furniture?”