Ethan pulled a piece of paper from his inside coat pocket, unfolded it and tossed it on the desk at an angle so his mother could see it.
“I’d like my paycheck, now, Mother.” His fists were on his hips and his face was red from his controlled anger.
Esther glanced at the paper, then looked up at Ethan in surprise. “I don’t think there’s enough money in the bank account to cover what you’re demanding.”
“Yes, there is.” Ethan pointed at the cash balance on the book. “Thanks to Helen’s ideas and our hard work, the hotel is running in the black.”
“Well, I still won’t write you a check,” Esther hissed, her arms folded tightly like she refused to touch the book.
Elvin moved around to the front of the desk, pulled out the desk chair and sat down.
“I’ll be happy to write you a check, Ethan. Thank you for the fine work you’ve done for the hotel, both helping to build it and manage it.”
“Elvin, you can’t write a check,” Esther said with a little hesitation in her voice.
“Of course I can. My name is on both the deed and the bank account.” Elvin opened the ink well and dipped the pen in the ink.
“Are you sure you have down all the hours you’ve worked here on this list, Ethan?” Elvin asked as he wrote the date and Ethan’s name on the check.
“Huh, hardly, but I’ll be satisfied with the hours I can prove,” Ethan huffed, looking at his mother.
“Then I’ll add a bonus for a job well done.” Helen couldn’t see the amount Elvin wrote down, but Esther gasped, then glared at her husband.
After Elvin blew on the ink, he handed the check to Ethan. “Thank you for your managing of the hotel, Ethan. You, with Helen’s help I’m sure, have done a fine job.”
“Thank you, Father. I appreciate your check and praise.”
Ethan pushed past his mother and reached for Helen’s hand, pulling her up from the chair and gently pushing her out of the office door in front of him. Once past, Ethan turned back to his parents.
“As of this minute, I have resigned from my job at the Paulson Hotel.” Then Ethan looked from his mother to Helen. “Helen, did you want to stay working here?”
Helen was surprised at Ethan’s announcement and question but she’d agree to it because Esther would fire her anyway if Ethan wasn’t here.
“No, thank you. Um…I received pay on Friday and didn’t work this weekend, so I don’t owe the hotel any more hours, nor does the hotel owe me more pay.”
“Since the girls are already asleep may we wait to move out in the morning, or shall we wake the girls and leave now?” Ethan looked first at his mother, and then his father.
“No, Ethan!” was all Esther said before Elvin interrupted.
“You are all welcome to stay in the manager’s suite until we find someone to replace you. I don’t think we’ll post the open position until after the holidays.”
“Ethan, you can’t resign! Who is going to run the hotel?” Reality was starting to sink in for his mother.
“It’s your hotel, Mother, so you run it.”
Ethan turned to leave then turned back. “Remember tomorrow is June’s day off, so she won’t be in to work. You’ll have to clean twenty rooms and take care of the laundry.
“You’ll be cooking for Irma on Tuesdays, and need to have three dozen cinnamon rolls ready at seven in the morning for the men’s coffee group which meets here.
“Wednesdays you’ll be waiting on tables in the dining room because that’s Naomi’s day off. On Thursday...oh well, you’ll figure out what to do by then for the rest of the week’s events.”
“But this Sunday is the Christmas open house, Ethan,” Helen felt compelled to quit working here as Ethan suggested, but she couldn’t help thinking about all the planning she’d done for the big day.
“Oh yes, Mother. Remember to make the dozens of cookies and candy you need for the two hundred people who will be walking in the door at two o’clock next Sunday afternoon.”
“Ethan, I’m sorry, I spoke hastily,” Esther was tugging on Ethan’s coat sleeve now.
“Yes, you did, Mother. Now Good night—oh, for me—but not for you. You have night clerk duty until seven in the morning.”
Ethan had a big smile on his face when he whirled around and gave Helen a tight hug and a loud, smacking kiss on her lips.
“Oh, I am going to sleep so good tonight, even if it’s on the living room floor in the suite!”
Helen lifted her skirt, trying to keep up as Ethan, holding her other hand, bounded up the stairs with exuberance.
She was glad Ethan had finally stood up to Esther, but Helen still felt sorry for the mother standing downstairs watching them leave. Someday Helen would be watching her four children leave home, too, but she hoped they would have happier partings than this one.
***
Ethan felt like a hundred pound weight had been lifted from his back. He was free from his mother’s clutches, apron strings...he could do whatever he wanted!
By the time he’d pulled Helen upstairs and opened the suite door though, he was starting to feel the pressure of the weight again.
How could he take on the responsibility of a wife and four children when he didn’t have a job or a place for them to live? Ethan quickly felt his coat, wanting to be sure the check was in his pocket. Since his father signed it, he didn’t think his mother could talk the banker out of not cashing the check. At least they’d have money to tide them over until they settled...somewhere.
“Let’s sit down, Ethan.” He felt Helen guide him down onto the settee like she was handling one of the girls.
“Want to talk about what happened downstairs? I doubt you’ve ever had a shouting match with your mother, although it was probably long overdue.”
Ethan wiped his face, trying to erase the memory of the fight. He may forget the words over time, but not the emotions it made him feel.
“I feel good about finding the courage to stand up for myself, but also sad my mother can’t understand why I want to change.” Helen locked her hands in his and pulled them together on her lap.
“There will always be little tug of wars between parents and children, as the next generation searches for their path in life. I don’t look forward to the dramatics of four teenage girls, but everyone has to go through it. Your tug of war probably should have been ten years ago, but your mother didn’t want to let go of her only son, and you didn’t want to hurt your mother.”
Ethan let go of her hands and placed his hands behind his neck as he leaned his head back. He inhaled and exhaled several times before looking back at Helen.
“Well, now that I’m unemployed, I’m at loss of what to do.”
***
Was Ethan so rattled from the confrontation with his mother, that he forgot he was in the act of proposing to her just minutes ago?
Or was he now so unsure of his ability to provide for them, that he’d put off asking until he found another job? Either way, he needed time to process everything that had just happened, and the new possibilities it gave him.
“Well you’re a guest in a nice hotel tonight, so I suggest you grab a pillow and some blankets from the linen closet, and get a good night’s sleep on this plush living room rug,” Helen said as she stood, then leaned down to give him a short kiss on the lips.
“Good night, Ethan. Things will look better in the morning.”
Helen walked down the hall to her bedroom, resisting the urge to look back at Ethan. Hopefully he’d settle down and get some sleep—before the girls found him sleeping on the floor in the morning. Oh, he was in for a surprise, one which she hoped would delight him.
Chapter 13
“Momma! Ethan’s sleeping on the floor in the living room!” Maridell whispered loudly while jumping onto Helen’s bed. Her daughter’s hair was a tangled mess from her sleep, but oh she looked so adorable and happy. How would last night’s conversations between the adults in this hotel change their lives today?
Helen crawled out of bed, picked up her wrapper lying across the foot of the bed and put it on as she followed Maridell out of her bedroom.
Ethan, slightly snoring, was sprawled fully clothed, tangled in two blankets, across the living room floor. Three girls sat cross-legged around him, trying not to giggle, and Maridell joined them by sitting above his head. She had a short piece of yarn between her thumb and fingers and she slowly lowered it to touch Ethan’s nose, and then pull back.
Helen pressed her fist against her lips to keep from laughing as Ethan wiggled his nose and his eyebrows.
Maridell waited a few seconds and lowered the yarn again, this time dragging it across his forehead. Ethan shook his head, like he was trying to shake off a fly.
After a bit he settled back to a solid sleep, his lips slowly opening and closing as he breathed.
Helen, now sitting on the settee, motioned to Maridell to try dipping the yarn in his mouth between breaths. It was bound to wake him up, but the girls giggling would do that soon anyway.
Maridell was quick getting the yarn in and out for three breaths, but then Ethan’s breathing pattern changed and she dropped the yarn in his mouth. It wasn’t so short he’d swallow it, but he woke up with a gasp, and quickly sat up to spit the foreign thing out of his mouth.
The girls rolled on the floor in fits of laughter as Ethan sat trying to figure out what was going on.
“Good morning, Ethan. Did you sleep well?” Helen said to draw his attention to her. She smiled as Ethan tugged Avalee to his lap as she tried to crawl over his shoulder. He tickled her and she squirmed and laughed while trying to get away from him.
“My turn!” Maridell yelled as she leaned against Ethan’s back then jumped back as Ethan tried to grab her ankle.
“Eton! Twetch! Twetch!” Luella tried to push her sisters aside to plop down against Ethan’s chest.
“Is it this way every morning?” Ethan asked Helen as she still sat safely by herself on the settee.
“Depends on the morning and the mood of the girls.”
“I’d like to enjoy this every morning with you, if you’d let me.”
“So you finally remembered the question you were asking, when we were interrupted last night?”
“Yep, so I’m asking it now. Can I have you and them forever?”
“What’s your answer, girls? Do you want Ethan to be your father?”
All squirming stopped as the girls first looked at Helen, and then Ethan.
“I love you all, and I’m as healthy as a horse, so I plan to be around to play with all the grand babies the four of you will give us.”
“Yes!” the girls all answered as they piled on top of Ethan.
Helen still sat alone on the settee watching her daughters’ play with the man who just asked to marry her, but Helen didn’t mind a bit. She and Ethan would celebrate their engagement once the girls settled down.
“Oh but,” Iva Mae stood up and moved to sit by Helen, “will we still live here in the hotel with your parents?”
“Will we have to call your mother, Grandma?” Maridell voiced her worry and moved to stand by the settee.
“She doesn’t like us,” Avalee added as she joined her mother and sisters.
Poor Luella, sitting on Ethan’s lap, looked up at him then crawled away, anxious to join the females on their side of the room.
Suddenly it was Ethan sitting by himself in the middle of the living room floor, and she and her four girls in the settee.
“Yes, well…some things happened last night that you girls should know about,” Ethan looked at Helen, probably wondering where to start.
“Ethan and I…won’t be working this week at the hotel. We still need to talk about this, but we’re thinking of getting different jobs, or maybe….moving to another town. Start over somewhere so it will just be the six of us together, without Ethan’s parents. Helen raised her eyebrows at Ethan, wondering if that was right and if he wanted to add something?
“But I like living in Clear Creek, Momma. Can’t Mr. and Mrs. Paulson leave instead?” Iva Mae remembered the moves they’d had to make over her short lifetime and finally felt settled in this community. How could Helen move her daughters again, even if Ethan was with them?
“My parents will need to stay here and run their hotel…if I get a job elsewhere.”
“So we’d live in a house instead of the hotel?” Maridell asked.
“Can we live out in the country so we can have horses?” Iva Mae’s question brightened the girls’ faces.
“And dogs and cats?” Avalee questioned as she slid off the settee and crawled closer to Ethan.
Now the shock of leaving the hotel was wearing off, and new possibilities were popping up in the girls’ minds.
“I can’t promise anything now, but we have a week to think about it.”
“But in the meantime, two of you have school this morning, so it’s time to get dressed and down to breakfast.”
As soon as Helen said “down to breakfast” she looked at Ethan. “Can we eat downstairs if we’re…not working?”
“Father said we’re still here until…so yes, we eat downstairs as normal.” Ethan’s smile warmed Helen’s heart. She liked his new attitude.
“Helen, may I please speak to you a moment?” Esther stepped out of the office and asked as she, Ethan and the girls descended the staircase.
“Mother, we’re on our way to breakfast. Iva Mae and Maridell need to leave for school soon.” Ethan’s tone was clipped but at least he talked to his mother.
“You go ahead with the girls, Ethan. I’ll be there in a moment.”
Helen watched her family walk into the dining room before turning to Esther. “What do you want?”
“May we please step into the office so we can talk privately?”
At least Esther was being civil to her this morning. Helen walked in ahead of Esther and eased down in one of the guest chairs while Esther closed the door, and walked around to sit in the desk chair.
Helen didn’t say a word as she watched Esther fidget with things on the desk, straightening a stack of papers, lining up the two pens parallel to the ink well, stalling for time apparently.
Esther finally looked over to Helen. “I can’t lose Ethan. Please don’t marry Ethan and take him away from me.” Helen was shocked at Esther’s plea.
“Ethan is a grown man, Esther. And he’s finally realizing he should be making his own decisions about his life. Parents can always advise, but the final decisions should be made by the adult child. Why won’t you let Ethan become his own man?”
“Because he’s all I have left of the babies I birthed.” Now Helen understood the root of Esther’s unrealistic need to control Ethan.
“I’m sorry for your losses, but Ethan is an adult now. You have to let him go.”
“No I won’t! You don’t know what it’s like to lose all your children except one. All my other babies died in my arms.
“That’s why I will always take care of Ethan. He’s my only child. You have four healthy girls and have never lost a loved one. Why can’t you understand I can’t let Ethan go?”
Helen took a long breath, upset with Esther for saying she hadn’t suffered enough to understand Esther’s point of view of why she couldn’t marry Ethan.
If Esther wanted to compare their griefs, then Helen would tell Esther about hers.
“I may have not lost any children myself, but I felt the grief of thousands of mothers as I walked through the bodies around Gettysburg, looking for my loved ones. I saw young boys who shouldn’t have been fighting in the first place, men from my church, community members I’d known all my life, scattered across meadows in crumbled heaps, flies walking across dried blood on their lifeless faces...while I was turning over bodies, looking for my husband, my brothers, my father...none who survived the battle.” Helen’s voice rose and cracked as she talked.
The look of horror on Esther’s face meant she finally understood what Helen was t
alking about when she knew loss.
“I’ve also buried a second husband. I know the grief of losing a good husband’s love, compassion and support. And I’ll always wish my husbands would have lived long enough for my daughters to know their fathers.”
“I’ve also grieved that two of the girls’ fathers hadn’t shown love and support to them or to me. The gift of children is precious and those men saw them as a burden they tossed away.”
Helen would try her hardest to make sure her past, would never cloud her daughters’ future like Esther had done for Ethan’s future.
At least Esther had enough sense to lower her eyes to her hands and be quiet while Helen reined in her emotions.
“Yes, we will always love our children, but they grow up and deserve their own lives. Why can’t Ethan love who he chooses?”
“Because then he won’t love me anymore,” Esther whispered, her face crumpled with pain.
Helen reached across the desk for the older woman’s hands and held them tightly in her own.
“But if you let him love who he wants, he’ll want to share his new love with you, and his children, be it one boy or a dozen girls.”
“I’m afraid...” Helen had felt Esther’s whispered confession many times in the past herself.
“I know what it feels like. I’ve been afraid every time I let a new man into our tiny family circle. Will he love us, take care of us...or die early, or be abusive...”
“How can you be so optimistic, Helen?”
“What’s the alternative? Be bitter, controlling, or withdraw from my girls’ lives? They need me to be a positive person for them to grow into loving, compassionate young women.”
Esther withdrew her hands from Helen and sat back in her chair.
“When Ethan showed an interest in Sarah, I pushed them together, planned their wedding and prepared their suite in the hotel. Unfortunately, as soon as Sarah met Marcus, Ethan’s future with Sarah was over.”
“So it wasn’t the right match for Ethan.”
Esther looked at Helen a long second before asking, “Did Ethan propose marriage to you last night?”
“He started to, but he was…interrupted. Then he was too distraught after your argument to talk about it.”
Helen Heals A Hotelier (Brides With Grit Book 10) Page 12