by Donis Casey
Alafair sat for a moment to let the car clear a bit before she made her move, though Grace was pulling on her hand in a rush to get on with this adventure. “Look out here, shug.” She lifted the little girl bodily and plunked her down before the window. “Did you ever see so many folks all at one time? And look yonder! There’s your cousin Olivia waiting for us. Look, Martha. She looks good. She came to fetch us herself, and she don’t look broke up. I’m guessing her dad is still alive and that Kenneth has showed up. That’s a nice bonnet she has on.”
She continued prattling on in order to distract the girls for a couple of minutes, but she wasn’t really paying much attention to her own words. She was always awed in spite of herself whenever she came to Enid. Enid was one of the Oklahoma Territory towns that had literally sprung up overnight after the Cherokee Strip land run. On September 15, 1893, the prairie was devoid of habitation. On September 16, Enid was a fully formed town of five thousand souls. Now, as the town readied itself to celebrate the twenty-second anniversary of its founding, it boasted a population of nearly twenty thousand people and was the fourth-biggest city in the state, after Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Muskogee. Alafair could barely imagine such a number, and since the Founders’ Day Jubilee was in a couple of days, the population would be swelling with visitors from all around Garfield County, and in fact, the entire Cherokee Strip. The noise and perpetual motion of the busy town literally made her dizzy.
The car had emptied enough to allow easy movement, and the three of them picked their way through the humanity and onto the platform where a thin, dark blond, bespectacled young woman in a mauve suit with a matching hat was jumping up and down and waving to get their attention. “Aunt Alafair, Martha!”
Martha set one of the suitcases down on the platform and waved back. “Here we are, Olivia.”
Olivia squeezed her way between a prosperously hefty couple and threw her arms around her aunt. “My, oh my, but y’all are a sight for sore eyes. Grace, I declare, look how big you are! What a pretty bow you have in your hair!”
Grace gave her a grin full of little white pearl teeth and patted the big floppy bow that Alafair had tied onto a hank of her thick, black, bowl-cut hair.
Olivia laughed. “Why last time I saw you, you were just a little baby.”
“I’m two,” Grace informed her. “On my birthday, I’ll be three and we’ll have cake.”
“Four weeks to go,” Alafair said. “Well, Olivia, we sure do appreciate you going to all this trouble to come fetch us off the train.”
“It’s no trouble at all, Aunt Alafair.” She pushed her glasses up her long nose before she led them off the platform and through the station. “In fact, I have to admit I’m relieved to get out of there for a little bit. I want to help Mama as much as I can, but it’s all so sad that Daddy’s sick.” Her voice caught but she took herself in hand and continued briskly. “It’s a relief that y’all have come, especially with Kenneth away.”
“Oh, I’m glad to hear Lester is holding on. I feared we’d be too late.”
“Daddy’s been doing a little better for the last week, a little stronger. Seems he doesn’t tire quite so easy. But the doctor says it’s just a temporary rally. He doesn’t expect Daddy to last more than another few days at the most.”
“But Kenneth hasn’t turned up?” Martha asked.
“No, but he told us he’d be back in time for the Founders’ Day doings, so I expect him directly. He must be really busy, though. He usually wires or telephones me once or twice when he’s gone over a week, and I haven’t heard from him.”
“Are you worried?”
“My stars, Martha, I haven’t had time to be worried what with trying to help Mr. Beams at the warehouse and take care of little Ron and Mama, too. I’m sure he’s fine. Now, come on, you all, give me one of those bags and let’s get to the house. Mama can’t wait to see you.”
Olivia led them through the station and down the steps to a sharp new 1915 model Oldsmobile roadster and began to pile their suitcases onto the back floorboard. There was still plenty of room for Alafair and Grace to settle themselves in the backseat. Olivia hoisted herself into the driver’s seat, and Martha jumped in beside her after giving the starter a crank. Olivia stepped on the clutch and pushed the gear shift and they roared off, Grace squealing with glee and Alafair clutching her daughter and her hat in alarm.
“When are Grandma and Grandpa coming, Olivia?” Alafair was yelling over the noise of the wind and the engine.
“Not for a while, yet,” Olivia yelled back. “Grandpa is leading a revival at Lone Elm this week, and next week at Mulberry. He’s asked Elder Knox to preach for him at Mulberry, but the elder can’t get there until after the revival’s been going a day or two. Grandma and Grandpa probably won’t make it here for ten days or two weeks.”
Alafair grimaced and sat back in the seat. She had forgotten that this was the time of year for her father’s quarterly revivals at some of the Franklin County Freewill Baptist Churches. She hoped her parents made it before Lester passed, or before she had to go home.
***
It was only a matter of blocks from the train station to Ruth Ann’s house, but Olivia took them on an abbreviated tour of the town, since it had been so long since they had visited. From the station, she drove down Maine to Grand, where the office and warehouse of the Yeager Transfer and Storage Company were housed in an enormous three-story red brick building, which took up most of the block between Maine and Cherokee. She didn’t stop, but shouted a running narration at them as they rattled over the brick streets and bumped over trolley tracks.
“We own four trucks, now, Aunt Alafair, and I expect we’ll need to order another before the year is out. The building looks about the same as when y’all last saw it, from the front, but Daddy bought most of the block behind and almost doubled the warehouse space. That’s where he put the refrigeration unit. You wouldn’t believe the machinery in there. I’ll have to show you how it works, if we get a chance.” She was enlightening her passengers at the top of her lungs, and Alafair began to wonder how long she’d be able to go on before her voice gave out.
“Anyway, now we can store perishables before shipping. We do a land office business in frozen chickens. Daddy added a big old cold storage unit right between the warehouse and the freezer, where people can rent chests and lockers just about any size, from a drawer to a walk-in. Why, with one of them, a family of two can buy a whole side of beef or a whole hog, have it butchered and wrapped, and have enough meat to last them the entire year. Then they can store it here and get to it whenever they want. It’s really economical for city folks not to have to buy their meat fresh from the butcher shop every day or risk it spoiling on them.” Olivia shifted and they sped off down the street with a jerk.
She ferried them west down Randolph, through the large town square and past the county courthouse and the Federal Building. A team of shirt-sleeved men were constructing a wooden platform near the street, from where dignitaries would preside over the upcoming Founders’ Day celebration. They turned north on Washington, then up to Elm, where Olivia’s parents’ enormous white house sat right on the corner. The house was relatively new. Lester had had it built in ’05, twelve years after he had made the Cherokee Strip run in ’93. On the day of the run, he had staked his claim on a platted space right in the middle of an empty prairie, and on the next day he owned a lot near the center of town, by the railroad tracks. A week later, he had begun building a warehouse, and by the turn of the century, Lester was, if not rich as Balthazar, then at least more than comfortable. So, he had built a more than comfortable house for his wife and one beloved daughter. In fact, in Alafair’s opinion, the three-story Victorian with the wraparound porch and five bedrooms was awfully big for what were now only two people. Alafair was in the midst of raising ten children in her perfectly adequate two-bedroom farmhouse, after all.
But, Ruth Ann had insisted that they needed all that space to entertain Lester’s business a
nd political associates, and Alafair had to admit that her sister did run what amounted to a high-quality bed-and-breakfast inn, what with all of Lester’s social connections and Kenneth’s big plans. Not to mention the continual parade of their Gunn relations who loved to take lengthy advantage of Ruth Ann’s hospitality.
Ruth Ann herself was standing on the sidewalk, holding her infant grandson, little Ron, cradled in the crook of one arm. She had begun waving a white handkerchief at them the minute they rounded the corner onto Washington. Alafair broke into a smile when she caught sight of her sister.
Ruth Ann was barely a year younger than Alafair, and they had grown up practically in each other’s pockets. In truth, Alafair hadn’t realized her name wasn’t “Alafairandruthann” until she was almost big enough to start school. As close as they had been when they were children, they had little in common, now, and saw each other seldom. Alafair felt bad about it. She’d always had the feeling that Ruth Ann had not been happy to grow up in her older sister’s shadow, and had spent her life trying to be as different from Alafair as she could. She belonged to every woman’s club and charitable organization in town. In fact, she ran most of them. Her husband was an important man, after all.
She looked well, Alafair thought, as the roadster pulled up the unpaved drive at the side of the house. Ruth Ann had always been just a slip of a woman, small, like their mother, delicate and neat, always decked out in the latest fashion. Today she was dressed all in beige, from the silk blouse with the frilly jabot cascading down the front to the beige stockings and pumps that matched her ankle-length linen skirt to a tee. The afternoon sun highlighted the reddish undertones in her chestnut hair.
When they first dismounted the roadster, the women had to stand a while and ooh and aah over four-month-old Ron, whom Alafair had never seen, and then exclaim for a bit longer over how big Grace had gotten. Then, while the younger women unloaded the luggage from the back of the roadster, Ruth Ann and Alafair, Grace and little Ron in arms, walked up the paved sidewalk past dozens of gloriously blooming rosebushes, then across the large covered porch to enter the house through the lead-glass-paned front door. To the left of the spacious entryway, a wide staircase wound its way past a stained glass window up to the second floor. To the right, the house opened up into a huge parlor with French doors in the south and in the east walls, both of which opened onto the shady, potted plant laden porch. Pocket doors on the parlor’s north side led to the formal dining room, with its long, oval mahogany dining table and a grand bay window that overlooked the garden.
As Olivia was taking their hats in the foyer, a plump animal the color of soot trotted down the stairs to inspect the newcomers.
“Kitty!” Grace cried, and the creature did an immediate about-face and disappeared back up the stairs.
“Whoa!” Alafair exclaimed. “I declare, Ruth Ann. I thought that was a dog, he’s so big! What happened to his face?”
“Why, nothing.” Ruth Ann was slightly affronted at the aspersion on her cat’s beauty. “That’s Ike. I bought him from my neighbor, who breeds them. He’s a Persian cat, Alafair. All Persian cats have pug noses like that.”
“You paid money for a cat?” Alafair asked, so surprised that for a moment she forgot not to be rude. Fortunately, Ruth Ann didn’t hear her, because at the same time, Grace said, “Where’s the kitty?”
“He’s particular about meeting folks, honey,” Ruth Ann told her. “He’ll introduce himself in his own good time.”
Ruth Ann led them into the parlor, and Grace immediately wriggled down and began flitting around the room, curious about her new environment. She knew better than to touch anything, at least with her mother watching her, gimlet eyed, but she took good note of prospective playthings for later. Then she stopped in front of Alafair and spread her arms wide to take in the whole room. “It’s beautiful, Mama.”
“It sure is, sugar.” Alafair looked up at Ruth Ann. “‘Beautiful’ is her favorite word, these days.”
“Well, then, Miss Grace, I surely am glad you approve of the décor.” Ruth Ann sat down and arranged the wiggly Ron on her lap. “I declare, girls, y’all must be parched. I’ve got some tea to going and a big pitcher of lemonade. What’s your pleasure?”
“Lemonade sounds good.”
Olivia strode through the room and toward the kitchen while withdrawing her hatpin. “I’ll do the honors, Mama. You stay there and get to visiting with Aunt Alafair.”
“I’ll help you,” Martha interjected. “Come on, Grace. You can carry the napkins.”
After the girls disappeared through the dining room, Alafair sat down on the red velvet settee. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ike the cat peering at them from the entryway, assessing the situation. “Olivia says that Lester is doing better and that Kenneth is still out of town.”
Ruth Ann shifted the baby to a sitting position and tried to put on a cheerful expression, but her pinched little smile looked more like a heroic effort not to cry. “Yes, Lester has had a rally, praise the Lord. He seems to have a lot more energy than he did when I wrote you a while back. His color is a little better, too. I was real hopeful when he got to feeling so much better, but the doctor told me it probably was but a temporary thing. Said he’s seen this before in folks who are about to pass. Anyway, it’s a mercy. Lester sure felt bad before, and now I feel like we’ve got him back for a little while, anyway.
“As for Kenneth, well, that poor fellow is just working himself to a frazzle, running hither and yon trying to take care of clients. Why, in the last couple of months, he’s been to Woodward, Guthrie, Wichita, and all points in between. He’s probably on his way home from Guymon or Buffalo right about now. I expect he’ll be home by tomorrow or Wednesday, though.”
“Yes, Olivia said he planned to be home by the time the Founders’ Day Jubilee starts on Wednesday.”
“I hope he makes it home soon. We really miss him.”
“Does seem to be a bad time to go on a business trip,” Alafair ventured.
“Well, he told Olivia that her dad would be happier to know that he was doing everything he could to make sure the company is doing as well as possible.”
“He could have sent someone…”
The pug-faced cat had strolled into the parlor and was now sitting at Alafair’s feet, staring casually off into the distance, his tail twitching on the floor.
“Lester asked him to take care of it personal. Besides, that boy doesn’t trust anybody to do it as well as he can. And Lester sure appreciates his efforts. He’s real concerned that Olivia and us are taken care of proper. Anyway, you’d better catch me up on your bunch. Martha looks good. She looks more like you every time I see her. Is she still working?”
“Yes, she loves her job. And she’s really saving money for her future.”
Ike leaped up into Alafair’s lap and practically knocked the breath out of her. She laughed as he settled himself on her knees. “Oof! This cat must weigh twenty pounds! Are you sure this is a cat and not a horse?”
“Why, look at that! He likes you, Alafair. He generally takes a long while to warm up.”
“I’m flattered.”
“How’s Gee Dub liking A&M?” Ruth Ann returned to the subject.
“He just started the term at the first of the month, but the way he writes, he likes it fine. He’s like any young fellow away from home for the first time. It’s all a big adventure for him. Me and Shaw sure miss his shining face, though. I was kind of hoping we might be able to catch up with him on this trip, but he’s so busy with his studies—and whatever else he’s into that he’s not telling his ma—that I don’t expect it’ll happen. Yesterday was his birthday, you know. He’s nineteen years old.”
“You don’t say! That just don’t seem right.”
“That’s for certain.”
“How about Phoebe and her husband, and that baby girl of theirs?”
“Oh, they’re fine. Just working like ants. John Lee is putting a bedroom on their lit
tle house. It’s a big dusty mess, and Phoebe and the baby spend a lot of time over to our place. Baby Zeltha is cuter than a speckled pup, and real sweet-natured. Grace thinks the baby is her own personal real live doll. She’s not walking yet, though, and she’s just turned one. Phoebe frets about that some, but I told her they walk and talk when they get around to it.”
“How about Alice? Any new grandchildren on that horizon?”
“Not yet. Tell you the truth, I don’t think Alice is in any hurry for a family. She’s too busy keeping Walter happy. They go to more socials and gatherings and parties than anybody has a right to. Throw their own, too. Makes me tired just to hear about it. She wouldn’t say it to me, but I hear from Phoebe that if Alice doesn’t come up with things for Walter to do, he’s liable to go off on his own for a night on the town. I have a feeling she’s worried about her figure, too, if she goes to having babies. Of course, it’ll happen sooner or later, and they’ll wonder why they didn’t just go ahead and do it right away.”
Ruth Ann snorted a laugh. “You’d better not mention to Daddy that Alice is holding back from a family.”
Alafair laughed, too. “I’m not witless, Ruth Ann. Mary plans to marry in a few months, after her second year of teaching is done, and to hear her tell it, her and Kurt will be having as many kids as they can as fast as they can. That should make Daddy happy.”
“She’s still planning on marrying that German fellow?”
Ruth Ann’s tone gave Alafair pause, and she raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Does that worry you?”
“Well, with all the awful things the Huns are doing over in Europe right now, I half expected she’d reconsider.”
“That has nothing to do with Kurt…”
Ruth Ann plowed ahead as though Alafair hadn’t spoken. “And after all those innocent people died on the Lusitania last spring! Why, they didn’t have no call to go sinking a passenger ship, and especially one with Americans on it. And Mr.Wilson making such an effort to stay out of it! You’d think the Germans would be grateful to the president, but they keep shooting at one ship after another. Why just today I was reading in the paper that they tried to torpedo a ship called the Arabia or the Orbia or some such…”