Forcing herself to the bathroom, she washed, dressed and hurriedly combed her hair. This was the first morning that the Cross Roads Motor Court would be serving breakfast, and she wanted to look fresh.
Feeling as if she were being poked in the back with a pitchfork, she was now grateful that she and Eli had set the table the night before. Trudy would be arriving shortly, but Mary Lee wanted to have the biscuits made and the first pan ready for the oven by the time she got here.
It was six-thirty before the couple in number three came to breakfast. After that came the man who had thought her price was too high. He ate as if he were starved, and only grunted a good-bye when he left. The couple Eli had rented to had left in the night. After the guests had eaten, Jake knocked on the back door.
“Anything left?”
“Howdy, amigo. Come in.” Trudy flounced around and put a clean plate and utensils on the table. “Got a pan of biscuits left. Thought I’d have to hide them from that one hog who ate everything in sight.”
“He’s the one who thought the price was steep,” Mary Lee added. She had remained seated and looked at Jake for the first time.
“How do you feel this morning?” he asked.
“Oh, fine.” She looked away from him. “Eli was in earlier. He was afraid that there wouldn’t be anything left for him.”
“I know. I saw him coming out of number five with an armload of things to be washed.”
“Bless his sweet little heart,” Trudy exclaimed. “If he was a little older, I’d marry him.”
“You’d have a heck of a time getting him away from me.” Mary Lee’s dancing eyes went to Jake. He was looking at her with that expressionless face of his that always caused her to wonder what he was thinking.
His thoughts were about her. Did the fall hurt her more than she let on? She stays seated while Trudy bustles from the table to the stove. It isn’t like her to let someone take over her work. I’ve got to find out if she’s all right before I leave to go out to Quitman’s.
Last night after Mary Lee had gone to bed, Jake had told Eli he would be gone for a while and went over to the Benders’ to see if Trudy could spend the day. He told Ruby and Trudy about someone grabbing Mary Lee’s foot, causing her to fall on the stairs.
“Somebody doesn’t want her to have the baby and tried to send her headfirst down the stairs. I think I know who, but he’s too much of a coward to do it himself. If I have to kill him to keep him from hurting her, I will.”
“Lon Delano.” Ruby spit out the name. “He expects to inherit the Circle C. It would put a crimp in his plans if Ocie takes a liking to Mary Lee’s baby.”
“Ocie has an interest, all right. He was out to the motor court tonight because he heard that she had fallen on the doctor’s stairs. She doesn’t want anything to do with him, but he doesn’t pay much attention.” Jake grinned. “She called him a nasty-minded old buzzard. I think he likes it when she talks back to him. He even told me to look out for her. He wants nothing to happen to her until that baby is born.”
“Well, glory! That’s somethin’, isn’t it? That old skinflint didn’t have any use for his own son. Now he wants Mary Lee’s.”
“I have to say in defense of Ocie that Bobby wasn’t a son a man could be proud of.”
“I agree. He shoulda put his foot down on him when he was a tadpole. After Bobby got to be a frog, it was too late.” The silence that followed was broken only by the squeaking floorboards beneath Ruby’s rocking chair.
“Trudy can spend the day out at the court, that is … if she wants to. I can get along without her until the evening meal.”
“I want to, Mama. It tears me up that someone wants to hurt Mary Lee.”
“I’ll pay you something, Trudy,” Jake said. “But I don’t want her to know about it. She’d have a cat-fit.”
Trudy laughed. “She’d go up in blue smoke is what she’d do. You’ll not pay me anything, Jake Ramero. Mary Lee was my staunch defender all the while we were in school. It’s time I paid her back.”
“You got feelin’s for her, don’t you, Jake?” Ruby asked bluntly.
“We’re friends.”
“Hockey!” Ruby snorted, then laughed when she saw the red come up under the tan on Jake’s face. “You don’t have anyone, Jake. Mary Lee has only that good-for-nothing mother. You need each other.”
“I owe Scott Finley a favor for what he did for me a long time ago. That’s all there is to it.”
“All right, if you say so. But I’ll bake a cake for the wedding.”
Thinking about what Ruby had said caused a warmth to flood Jake’s heart. He was jarred away from the pleasant thought when Trudy placed a dish of plum preserves beside his plate.
“Clean up that plate of biscuits, Jake. I’ve saved some back for Mrs. Finley.”
Jake watched Mary Lee from the corner of his eye. When she turned to look back at the doorway, he slipped a half-dollar under the edge of his plate.
“More coffee, Jake?”
“Thanks, Trudy, but I’ve got to be going. Mary Lee, can I have a word with you on the porch?”
“Go on, boss lady,” said Trudy. “I’ll take care of things in here.”
“I’ve no secrets from Trudy.”
“Sure ya have,” Trudy said briskly. “Better move around, or ya’ll get stiffer than ya are.”
Jake watched as Mary Lee put her hands on the table and eased herself out of the chair. He moved to the door and waited, then opened it so she could go out onto the porch.
“What did you want to talk about that you didn’t want to say in front of Trudy?”
“Nothing. I wanted to see you move out of that chair. Where are you hurtin’?”
“My knees are sore and I’m stiff is all,” she said crossly. “It’s no more than I expected.” She took a step back and leaned against the house. “I’ll be all right by the end of the day.”
Jake’s eyes traveled from her face down to her toes. His eyes lingered on her protruding abdomen.
“Gaston all right?” He grinned suddenly, and it was so endearing she couldn’t look away.
“I’ve heard no complaints.” It was a good thing he hadn’t asked about her back. It felt as it were being jabbed with a hot poker. Her belly felt so heavy this morning that she could hardly resist the temptation to support it with her two hands.
“Good. I’ve got to go out to Quitman’s. Eli will keep an eye out and Trudy will be here.”
“Trudy can’t stay all day. I can’t afford to pay her.”
“She’ll stay as long as she can. I’ll be back before supper-time.”
“Jake? I saw the money you put under your plate.” Her hands moved up his chest and slipped the coin in his shirt pocket.
He tried to look shocked. “You don’t miss much, do you? I guess I’m not as slick as I thought I was.”
“I can’t take the money.”
“Then I can’t eat here again — and I would sure like to.”
“You do so much for me.”
“Nothing I don’t want to do.” Deciding not to argue with her for now, he stepped close to her and put his fingers under her chin. “Don’t deprive me of the pleasure.”
“I feel I’m taking from you and giving nothing back.”
“I’ve got a cheap place to live.”
“For three dollars a week you can get a room in town.”
“But the landlady wouldn’t be as pretty as you.” He took a step back. “Hey, now. I see you’re getting your dander up. We’re friends, remember?”
“Someone was trying to hurt me yesterday. Do you think they’ll come out here?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Do Frank and his friends want Mama and the court that bad?”
“It may be someone who doesn’t want your baby to be Ocie Clawson’s heir.”
“No! Why would he make my baby his heir when he disinherited his own son?” Her hands came up to grasp Jake’s arms. “I’l
l not have my baby grow up under his thumb if Clawson promised to leave him the entire state of New Mexico!”
“I know that, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to accept his protection for now.”
“I don’t want to be obligated to him. He scares me, Jake.”
“Don’t worry about him. If the truth were known, he’s just as scared of you as you are of him.” Jake looked down the lane and saw Eli coming out of number five with an armload of towels. He watched him trot up to the porch.
“Mary Lee, they didn’t even get under the sheets,” he said with an expression of disgust on his young face. “Just on top. Do we have to change them?”
“I’m afraid so.” Embarrassed to be holding this conversation in front of Jake, Mary Lee moved over to the porch post.
Jake remembered that when he was Eli’s age, he was fascinated with anything to do with that mysterious thing called sex. Then one day he and Temple Clawson had a long talk while riding up the big hill to look for strays. Temple’s explanation had been sketchy and on the rough side, but he’d gotten the message that man was pretty much the same as a bull or a stallion. That cravin’ for a female, Temple had said, was God’s way of keeping humans and animals on earth. He hadn’t mentioned that it was the love a man had for a woman that made him different from a rutting stag, a bull or a stallion. His mother had explained that.
As Eli walked away, Jake called to him. “I’ll be gone most of the day. Do you have … what I gave you?”
“Right here in the bib of my overalls.”
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that, Jake.” Mary Lee’s face was creased with concern. “He showed me what you had given him and how he was to use them. He’s just a boy. Don’t encourage him to fight someone twice his size.”
“He won’t use them unless he’s protecting himself or you. He’s smart enough for that. I wanted him to have some kind of an equalizer in case someone jumped him.”
“If you didn’t think he’d need them you wouldn’t have given them to him. I can tell that he’s taken with you and will do whatever you say.”
“How about you, mi paloma. Are you taken with me?”
“Darn it, Jake. I never learned to speak Spanish. I know that ‘mi’ means ‘my.’ What are you calling me?”
His laughing eyes drank in her every expression. “It wasn’t bad, madrecita.”
“ ‘Madre’ means mother. I’m not your mother, Jake.” When she shot him an accusing glare, he flashed her a broad, guileless grin.
“Thank God for that.”
“What was the other word?”
“ ‘Madrecita’ means ‘little mother,’ which you are or will be.” He nudged her under the chin with his fist and walked away, still smiling.
Mary Lee hung on to the porch post and watched him. During the past few weeks he had become an important part of her life. She had come to depend on him. Now it occurred to her that she might be falling in love with him. And that simply wouldn’t do. She couldn’t afford a broken heart. It would distract her from her goal of getting this motor court free of debt so that she’d have a way of making a living for herself and her child.
When he reached his truck, he turned and waved. How did he know that she was watching him?
Her heart thumped painfully.
Chapter 15
IT WAS A MISERABLE DAY. Mary Lee was sure that she would not have been able to endure it if not for Trudy and Eli. They insisted on doing the washing and the cleaning of the cabins. They were like two thirteen-year-olds, fussing and teasing each other, making play of the work. Just watching and listening to them made Mary Lee feel old and tired.
Allowing herself to sit down often, she cooked beans and ham hocks and corn bread for the noon meal. In the middle of the morning she heard her mother in the bathroom throwing up. Later she tried to open the door, but it was locked.
After the noon meal and while the sheets and towels were drying on the line, she sent Eli down to Mr. Santez’s filling station to pay him the ten dollars she had borrowed for the mattress.
“You and Eli make a team,” Mary Lee commented as she and Trudy cleaned up the noon dishes.
“I like him. He’ll amount to somethin’ someday.”
“I’m going to do all I can to see to it that it happens.” Mary Lee hung up a wet dish towel. “Thank you for helping Eli today. I didn’t expect you to stay and clean cabins. I’ll pay you extra for today.”
“If you don’t beat all,” Trudy said. “You’re so afraid that someone is goin’ to do somethin’ for you. You’re not payin’ me for this afternoon and that’s that.”
“I appreciate it … you know that. I’ll not be so sore tomorrow.”
“I think I’ll stay tomorrow too. Stay and flirt with Jake,” she added, and pinched Mary Lee on the rear. “Not that I stand a chance of getting him away from you.”
“He isn’t mine!”
“Oh, no? Have you told him that?”
The click of the bathroom door drew Mary Lee’s attention. “Mama’s sick. She’s been back to the bathroom.”
“Do you think she’s sick sick, or sick from a hangover?” “She hasn’t eaten anything today and very little yesterday.” “Why don’t we fix a plate and I’ll take it in through the bathroom door if she hasn’t locked it.”
“She’ll say something mean to you. I’d better take it.”
“She’ll not get my goat. I know she’s got a mean mouth. I’ll put a few beans in a bowl. Butter a piece of corn bread, kiddo.” Trudy placed a dish towel over a big platter and used it for a tray. “Do we dare take her a glass of milk?”
“Goodness, no! She’d throw it at you. Give her tea.”
Carrying the food, Trudy followed Mary Lee to the bathroom, where she eased open the connecting door. Trudy breezed in. Dolly was lying on the bed.
“Hello, Mrs. Finley. I brought you something to eat.”
Dark smudges circled Dolly’s eyes, making them look like two burned holes in a blanket. Her cheeks were sunken, and her thin, dry hair looked as if she’d been in a whirlwind. She lifted herself up in bed and leaned on a bony elbow.
“Get out of my room, you ugly little bitch. Don’t come back unless you bring me a drink of booze.”
Out of sight in the bathroom, Mary Lee cringed, but Trudy didn’t seem to take offense.
“Ah, shoot, Mrs. Finley. Ya don’t mean that. My brother was a drunk like you are, and he’d throw up a drink if he took one on an empty stomach. It’s just a waste of good whiskey. So you’d better eat before ya take another one. Eat the beans and corn bread, and by night you may be able to hold one down.”
“I’m not a drunk!”
“You could have fooled me, Mrs. Finley. Seems to me like ya got the granddaddy of all hangovers or ya wouldn’t be throwin’ up your socks. I’ll get a wet cloth so ya can wash your face and hands before you eat.”
Trudy winked at Mary Lee when she went to the bathroom for the cloth, then hurried back to Dolly.
“If ya decide ya want more beans and corn bread, Mrs. Finley, call out. Ya may want a glass of cold buttermilk.”
The look Dolly gave Trudy made it plain that she wanted to kill her. “Where’s Saint Mary Lee?”
“She’s around here somewhere,” Trudy answered matter-of-factly. “She may be in the washhouse. Want me to send her in?”
“Not less ya want me to throw this mess of beans at her.” Mary Lee was in the kitchen when Trudy left Dolly’s room.
“I’m sorry, Trudy. She’s mean when she’s got a hangover.”
“It’s all right. She calmed down. She’d still be yellin’ at you. I’ll get us some tea. Then let’s go sit on the porch for a while and watch the cars go by.”
Mary Lee went to her bedroom and returned with her sewing basket and a handful of cloth.
“While we’re sitting I’ll hem a diaper or two.”
“Why not use the sewing machine?”
“It’s not here. I imagine Mama sold it for a couple o
f dollars. Several things are gone: Daddy’s car for one, the mantel clock, the ice-cream freezer.”
“Weeell … ,” Trudy drew out the word, “for goodness’ sakes. I’ll take the material home and hem the diapers on our machine. Won’t take but a jiffy.”
Trudy led the way to the front porch, where it was shady this time of day. On the way through the living room Mary Lee picked up a cushion and dropped it into the old wooden rocking chair that had been on the porch for as long as she could remember. She dropped gratefully into the chair, fitted the cushion to the middle of her back and stretched her sore legs out in front of her. Trudy sat down on the top step and lifted her short arms up to hold her thick, curly, soft brown hair off her neck.
“Have you ever wondered where all the people are going when they pass by here?” Trudy leaned back against the porch post.
“Most of them are going on to Albuquerque or Gallup, but some of them have bigger dreams and are headed for the promised land of California.”
“Have you ever wanted to go there?”
“Sure. I’d like to see it.”
“It takes guts to pull out from all you know and resettle someplace else. I guess you know. You did it once.”
“Yeah. I know now that I jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
“That bad, huh?”
“For a week or two it was all right. When the money started to run out, all Bobby did was whine. I realized then that I had taken a grown man to raise.”
Trudy glanced at her friend, then back at the highway. “Look at that car? They’ve got everything they own in it and on top of it. Do you think they’ll make it all the way to California?”
“They’ll make it. They’ve come this far. Bet they’re Okies.”
“The April dust storm destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of wheat crops, forcing people to leave their farms. I heard on the radio that dust piled up inside houses. Businesses and schools closed, traffic stopped and even the birds refused to fly. We’re lucky that we just got a tiny bit of it here.”
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