[2016] In Good Time

by Aqua Allsopp

  Stunned, Sarah could only manage to ask, “And what of my Sister and Nathaniel? Rebecca cannot manage without me now. When Nathaniel is released from Rehab next week the doctors say that he cannot go back to the community, we will have to stay here in the apartment near the hospital. How can you ask me to leave my sister with an ill husband and a baby coming soon?”

  “Sarah, I think you enjoy being among the English too much. You always were a wild and untamed girl and now you are a disobedient woman. If you are to be my wife I demand that you return to your people now or….” Jergen’s voice trailed off before delivering the ultimatum that was on the tip of his tongue.

  “Or what Jergen, or you won’t marry me? I shall never marry a man who could put his own insecurities before his brother’s health and his sister and child’s wellbeing. I think you have your answer Jergen, but if you demand a reply here it is.

  “I shall not marry you, not now, not ever,” Sarah yelled as she stormed away to Nathaniel’s side. Jergen uttered not a single word as he watched her walk away, knowing in his heart that he had just lost Sarah forever.

  When Sarah reached Nathaniel's bedside, he was sitting up and staring at her wide-eyed. He had never heard this mouse of a girl raise her voice before. When their eyes met Nathaniel simply raised his arms as high as he could to offer his sister a hug.

  “I heard the whole thing Sister, I am sorry that my brother made this demand of you, but I am sorrier because I feel it is all my fault that my injury has come between you.”

  Sarah sobbed into Nathaniel’s shoulder. “No Nathaniel, I am happy that Jergen’s stubborn and selfish nature was revealed to me before we were wed, or I might have spent my entire life with this brooding and most demanding man.”

  Having completed a doctor’s appointment across the street, Rebecca stopped by the hospital to spend a few hours with Nathaniel and found her sister crying in his arms.

  “Sarah, what is it? Nathaniel, have you received some disturbing news today?” Rebecca said with a start.

  “No, my love, but your sister has. He and Sarah took turns at filling Rebecca in on what happened between her and Jergen. Rebecca listened intently until they were finished.

  “Oh Sister, I am so sorry that you have lost the only man you have ever loved. If it would spare you this pain, please return to the Amish community. I shall manage.”

  “No! I will never leave you, Rebecca, I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it,” she said.

  “Thank you, Sarah, then we shall ask one more thing of you,” Rebecca said. Turning to Nathaniel, she continued, “husband I think you should ask my sister.”

  Clearing his throat more out of nervousness than necessity, Nathaniel said; “Sister Sarah, my wife and I have decided that we can no longer live a simple life in our community because of my injury and the health challenges our baby may face. We used to think of you as such a child, incapable of adult responsibilities, but the truth is that you have taken to our new temporary lives as English better than Rebecca or me. What we need to ask you is if you would become English with us and go to University to become a doctor?”

  Sarah’s eyes grew wide with fear at what she was being asked to do. She felt her temples throb beneath her bonnet.

  “Before you answer, we could use a doctor in the family to help out with our health needs and Rebecca has been spending time away from me to work with Dr. Richardson to arrange a part-time job and a scholarship for you. What do you say, Sister Sarah?” Nathanial asked.

  Sarah was so elated that she could hardly speak, but managed to utter, “well if we are all to become English, the first thing you will need to do is to stop calling me Sister Sarah, as I am your sister-in-law so I’m just Sarah,” she said through tears of joy. The trio laughed, embraced, and talked into the night about their plans for a new English life.

  *****

  In the weeks that followed, Dr. Richardson helped Sarah and Rebecca to get a driver’s license, buy a rust-bucket of a used car, and find conservative English clothes at the Goodwill.

  Sarah enrolled for her first semester at University and began her first night at work on the front desk at an urgent care center. One cold evening a handsome middle-aged man walked in.

  Sarah was busy on her computer as the man walked in.; “I’m sorry sir, but we are closing for the night,” she said, barely looking up.

  “Might you have time to chat with an old friend, Sarah?”

  Stunned that the gentleman knew her name, Sarah’s head snapped up, making her strawberry blonde curls bounce with excitement. Even in her pink scrubs she looked radiant.

  “Doctor Hedulund?” Sarah asked in surprise at seeing him stand before her.

  Thomas chuckled boyishly at her surprise.

  “Hello Sarah, Dr. Richardson told me that you worked here so I thought that I’d come by and see if you had time for coffee with an old friend.”

  Sarah beamed with excitement, and Dr. Hedulund noticed that she was the same, yet different. She still had that girlish innocence that he grew to love but noticed that Sarah was really a woman now. He could see that the things that she has experienced in the past year had made her grow up into a mature and lovely young woman.

  He could also see and hear Dr. Richardson’s influence on Sarah. He laughed to himself at how one could never know how lives could be altered so much by a chance encounter. Dr. Richardson had been a wonderful mentor to Sarah.

  Over coffee, Sarah filled Thomas in on how in love Dr. Richardson and Dr. Guatauma had become, and the progress that Nathaniel and their new baby boy had made. She remarked on how Nathaniel aimed to beat his son at learning to walk.

  She talked about her classes at University, and Thomas spoke about his trip to Brazil for work on a Zika research project.

  While walking Sarah to her car, Dr. Hedulund stopped and coughed nervously.

  “Sarah, I know that there is a big age difference between us, but if I'm not too much of an old man for you I’d really like to see you again,” he said.

  “Thomas, if I have read you correctly, I think you are a man who has decided to never grow up. If you chose now to grow into an adult, I invite you to grow older and wiser together with me. If you can do this, then I would like to see you again,” she responded with a smile.

  Taking her hand and kissing it gently, Thomas said, “Sarah I would love to grow old with you.”

  THE END

  Another bonus story is on the next page.

  Bonus Story 4 of 6

  The Last Cowboy in West Texas

  All that could be heard was the soft crunch, crunch, crunch of Lizbeth’s athletic shoes power walking through the remnants of fallen summer leaves and branches after a rainstorm.

  The little white feet of her otherwise auburn dog, Lady fell softly as she padded alongside her. The high pitched, rapidly squeaking song, “tweet-tweet, tweet-tweet-tweet” of a Mourning Dove kept perfect cadence with the pecking of a Red-bellied Woodpecker, which was accompanied by a babbling brook, brimming over after yesterday’s rainfall.

  Lizbeth, 120-days sober, bristles at the smell of alcohol that she swears leaches out of her pores every time that she sweats. She is determined to stay clean this time, that is why her morning and evening routines of exercise and prayer have become so important to her. She believes they are the keys to her sobriety.

  Lizbeth Collins’ ancestors may have come to America on the Mayflower, but her descendant, William Bradford, never seemed to find his fortune as a Pilgrim in the new world. Instead, Bradford’s distant relative, Lizbeth’s father, grew up poor and struggling in the slums of Bedford Stuyvesant (Bed Stuy), Brooklyn.

  As a child growing up in Bed Stuy, Lizbeth left the embattled home of her parent’s fourth-floor walk-up apartment, where she shared a room with two sisters and a screaming baby brother; born to an alcoholic and already raging at the world. Lizbeth walked past crack-houses and addicts to go to a high performing charter school where she was only one of a handful of white f
aces, and two of them were her sisters.

  Lizbeth’s grandparents were alcoholics. Her parents were addicted to crack in their youth then became semi-sober, functional alcoholics only long enough to birth three children before becoming so addicted to alcohol, that they have now dropped out of society altogether.

  On this beautiful summer morning, Lizbeth was not thinking about her dysfunctional family or even her own struggles with alcohol. She was appreciating her walk through the park with Lady and enjoying the sights and sounds of nature. Then she was jarred back to the real world by the sound of her mobile phone vibrating in the waistband of her gray and pink, Lycra, capris yoga pants.

  Lizbeth peeks at the name on the caller ID, looks skyward, shakes her head and lets out a deep sigh. She stops walking and takes the call. The dutiful Lady halts, then sits right on cue waiting for her partner to resume the walk.

  “Hi mom”, Lizbeth says in an underwhelmed tone, as if she were being forced to be nice. Lady instinctively knows this conversation is going to take a while and decides to make herself comfortable by extending her front paws in a cross-legged fashion, then she lays her auburn and white face on her top leg. She has been laying like this since she was a pup. It’s how she got her name, by the way that she crosses her legs like a lady.

  “Lizzy, I got a bill I can’t pay”, Ellen, Lizbeth’s mother says, in a voice that sounds both irritated and accusing. As if Lizbeth were the reason that her mother could not pay her bills. Having moved out of her parents’ home when she went off to college at eighteen, Lizbeth, now thirty-two, has not been a financial burden to her parents for fourteen years. Which is why her mother’s call is more vexing than usual to Lizbeth.

  “What else is new mom?” Lizbeth asked with a little sting in her voice.

  “What is it this time?”

  “Did the car break down and cause another unexpected expense, or did you and dad blow the rent money at an Atlantic City casino again, and why are you talking to me as if I had something to do with you being short on your bills?”

  “Oh Jesus Lizzy, stop being so dramatic, I’m just talkin’ over here, for Christ sake. You always gotta take everything so personal!

  Me and your father are just….”

  Lizbeth interrupts abruptly, “Save it, mom, how much do you need this time?

  “Oh God’ll bless you Lizbeth for helpin’ out your old ma like this. I just need a couple thousand to get me through the end of the month, that’s all.” Replies Ellen, as if holding back the excitement that would have resulted in a loud, and high-pitched voice, in a way that sounds of begging and gratitude.

  “Mom, a couple thousand? I gave you a couple thousand last month, and a thousand the month before. Why don’t I just set up an automatic draft to you for $1,000 a month?” Lizbeth asks.

  “Really Lizbeth, would you do that for me, ‘cause it would really help me out a lot?”

  “No mom, I’m not serious. I was trying to get you to see how ridiculous it is that you have to call your children every month to help you pay your bills. This is the last time mom, I mean it!” Lizbeth shouts into the phone.

  “Lizbeth Collins do not yell at your mother! Who are you to tell me how to run my house? I gave birth to you so show some respect!” Ellen spat back in a shout.

  Softly, Lizbeth said, “Respect is earned mom, not given just because you’re biologically related. You need to start respecting yourself. It’s time to get clean mom and rebuild your life. You’re still young, it’s not too late. I’ll pay for it, for you and dad both. I’m sorry for yelling, but it’s hard to respect the woman that was so drunk that I had to be raised by a sister who’s only two years older than me. It’s hard to respect a woman that has to rely on her kids to pay her bills each month. It’s hard to respect you, mom, when you don’t respect the one life you’ve been given. I’ll put the money in your PayPal account right now mom, but it’s time for you to get clean.” Lizbeth said as she clicked the hang-up icon on her mobile phone.

  Lizbeth stood in place, completing the transaction to send her mother $2,000 for God knows what, then knelt down and sobbed into Lady’s coat. Lady licked her face dry, eliciting little girl-like giggles from Lizbeth before they resumed their walk home.

  *****

  Upon arriving home, Lizbeth washed the sweat from her face and hands, chugged a glass of water and knelt before her home alter to pray.

  “Come on Lady, it’s time for Daimoku”, Lizbeth said as she lit smokeless incents and candles while Lady padded to her position, seated on Lizbeth’s right side.

  Lizbeth picked up her Juzu beads and began to breathe in deeply through her nose in a long slow inhalation. Then she exhaled slowly through her mouth as she chanted, “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, Nam-Myoho…”

  Buzz, buzz, buzz went the sound of Lizbeth’s mobile again. Normally she would ignore it during prayer, but since she had only just begun she decided to answer the call, rather than to be distracted and wondering who it was while she chanted and prayed.

  “Hello,” Lizbeth said, as she waited for the caller to respond.

  “Lizbeth, it’s Clay. How are you?”

  “Hi Clay,” Lizbeth said with a smile, “I was wondering when you might call. I’m good, how are you?”

  “Are you all packed for your trip to Texas”?

  “Yeah, as a matter of fact. We’ll be leaving to go to the airport in about three hours,” Lizbeth said, still smiling into the telephone.

  “Good, I’m glad that I caught you before you left. The editor loves this piece you’re working on, this 21st Century cowboys of North America article is turning out to be fantastic. That segment that you wrote about the Vaqueros of Mexico is just phenomenal, and they are really looking forward to how it ties into the history of how the Mexican cowboys taught the newly settled Texans how to operate a cattle ranch. I know that you haven’t found the right cowboy to write about in Texas so I just want you to take all of the time that you need down there. The magazine wants your Texas segment to really be spectacular.”

  “Thanks for working that out Clay, I really appreciate how you’ve gone to bat for me with Travel + Leisure magazine to get me more time. I can’t believe they’ve decided to turn each segment into its own article, 12-months of articles in Travel + Leisure? This is insane, I’m super excited. Thank you again,” the beaming Lizbeth said.

  “Ha, ha, I wish I could take credit for making it happen, but it was all you Lizbeth. Your excellent writing meant that I only needed to ask and the answer was yes, without hesitation. So, enjoy your trip, take your time, find the perfect cowboy to wrap of this piece, and in the meantime, I’ll be looking for your next assignment.”

  “With dude ranches all over the country buying up advertising space in the magazine because of your upcoming articles, you’re making my job almost too easy. Keep up the great job, and safe travels,” Clay said.

  “Thanks, Clay, take care. Bye.” Lizbeth, who was positively giddy, grabbed the sleeping Lady and kissed her wildly until Lady had had enough and wriggled out of Lizbeth’s grip. Lizbeth was ecstatic, about how happy the magazine is with her writing, but she’s giddy for another reason.

  Since becoming his client after leaving rehab, Lizbeth has wanted her handsome new publicist to notice her as more than just another person that he represents. Hearing his praise and the excitement in his voice has Lizbeth thinking maybe there is a chance that Clay will see her as an eligible bachelorette, and not just some formerly strung out, new client that he’s taking a huge risk on.

  “This is our chance, Lady. When the first article’s released surely Clay will want to take me to dinner to celebrate. I’ll look stunning and he’ll really see me. Oh Lady,” Lizbeth says as she buries her right cheek in Lady’s rabbit soft Coates and nuzzles Lady’s neck, “I wish you could talk back.”

  “What am I doing? I’m wishing that my dog could talk to me now? I really need to make more friends.” Lizbeth says aloud as she laughs to herself, pi
cking up her prayer beads to resume Daimoku. “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo”.

  *****

  The trip to her hometown airport, as well as the flight to the Reagan County Airport in Big Lake, Texas was uneventful. The temperature on this August day is 92°F.

  Lizbeth has just started her rental car’s ignition. “What will it be Lady, windows up or down?” Lady looked away from Lizbeth and poked her nose against the rear, passenger side window and gave one sad whine. “Down it is, little girl.”

  Lizbeth rolled down the window as the car began to roll out of the rental car parking lot. The Garmin GPS gave infrequent directions in a voice, devoid of affect, much like Thomas Morgan of Viceland, no matter what Thomas is saying, his affect, tone facial expression, etc., is the same. Somehow, Lizbeth needed more communication and with greater emotional engagement than she was receiving from Andy, the voice on her GPS. Lizbeth was feeling emotionally needy and Andy was not filling that void. Instinctively, Lady withdrew her head from the car window. Her previously flapping ears had now come to rest, she leaned forward and began licking Lizbeth’s right cheek.

  “Thank you for the kisses Lady, I love you too,” Lizbeth said as she leaned into Lady for a quick nuzzle. “Am I so in need of a friend that my dog can sense it? Well, that’s attractive!” Lizbeth said out loud, her voice full of irony and disdain for her emotional state.

  Since getting sober, Lizbeth has become a different person. No longer the overly energized, loud-mouth, party girl from Brooklyn, who just so happens to be a Harvard Graduate School of Journalism alumna. Now she’s a grounded, compassionate, and a more—humanistic version of her old self. The change is great for her soul and her sobriety, but not for her social life. After Lizbeth got sober, all of her so called friends stopped calling her because she’s “no fun anymore” as her ex-friends say. Hesitant to admit it, Lizbeth is lonely and these long and silent Texas roads are not helping.