by Jim Wetton
Lizzy raised her arms to settle the crowd. “Please, please! Listen to me; it doesn’t have to be like this.” She knew that she only had a few closing words to make, but it was the stranger’s last words that caused her heart to skip a beat and her mind to race:
And if I could, I’d tell all of you fine people that if this woman’s momma was alive today, she too would be right up here. “Please, please, ladies and gentlemen!” Lizzy raised her hands in the air and tried as she could to control the crowd. “I just want to thank all of you for coming out tonight. We don’t move stones overnight, but in time and with your blessings, we can move mountains. God Bless all of you!”
The crowd’s reaction was mixed. Some gave Lizzy a raucous ovation while others continued to heckle. Lizzy walked over to the right side of the stage. She looked up at Henry, standing just inside the curtain.
“What in the Sam Hill was that all about?” Lizzy asked breathlessly. She scanned the crowd as they began to leave. “Could you see who that was? Not the heckler, but the man talking as if he knew me and my mother.”
“No, Mrs. M. The lights were too bright, but it did seem to be coming from the very back and. . . .”
“And what, Henry?”
“Mrs. M., it just seemed to me like the man knew you, that’s all.”
Lizzy paused in thought. She turned from the wings of the stage and watched the crowd leave. While Henry gathered up Lizzy’s equipment and her personal belongings, a stranger brushed the side of his arm.
“Can I help you, sir?” Henry asked, still bent over.
“No, I know where I’m going.”
The man walked swiftly past Henry. Henry watched him slowly pull his hand from his pocket as he walked to the other side of the stage, the side where Lizzy now stood.
Henry’s heart sank. He dropped Lizzy’s equipment and rushed towards her but he was not in time. When he reached her, he could see that she was shaking and weeping uncontrollably.
Henry reached for her feeling pure panic. “M . . . M . . . Mrs. M.?”
Lizzy wiped her eyes with her hand and slowly looked away from the stranger and towards Henry. She stared up at Henry’s worried face, her hands still visibly shaking.
“Henry, this, uh, oh my dear God.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Henry, this here is my brother, Johnny Russell.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Heart Unbroken Is Broken
1899
The first night was the hardest to comprehend. As the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months, the idea that Johnny Russell was back in her life seemed surreal but oh so wonderful. They were both back together again. As hard as it was for Lizzy to make sense of it all, it was God’s awesome truth. Sister and brother. Little brother and big sister. Even though she’d cried rivers of joyful tears on the night they were initially reunited, once she’d come down from her prancing in the clouds, she had to admit that there were so many questions left unanswered, and, so much pain that had been relieved.
* * * *
Still thinking back on that fateful night, Lizzy sat with an obvious glow about her. She knew that while reuniting with her brother had brought a fair share of the aura that surrounded her, the real glow came from the expectant joy she knew was coming if only her daughter would get on with what God had planned for her.
“I just don’t know how you can look so calm and blissful,” Henry stuttered from across the room. “It’s pure hell for this expectant father and I wish my dear wife would get on with it, if you know what I mean. Just don’t know how long this ol’ boy can hold on and I’m not even birthing a thing!”
Lizzy tilted her head and smiled at her very nervous son-in-law. “Do have to admit it, Henry, the house does seem eerily quiet, but that’s a good thing; means the end is coming real soon.”
Hannah and Bonnie Louise were sound asleep in their room at the top of the stairs. The doctor and nurse were busy in Nellie and Henry’s bedroom doing what they did best.
Lizzy thought of the words she’d just spoken to Henry. She returned to the day when she was amongst many who were waiting for the arrival of a newborn baby into their family. Yet, as she thought back to those times, those happy moments quickly faded, and with it her life would never be the same.
She remembered being confused. She’d heard and seen her father weeping and even at the age of nine, she knew they weren’t tears of joy. Her father was wailing and hurting. I had no idea why.
It wasn’t until later that evening that Lizzy would eventually understand the magnitude of the whole situation. She was only a child at the time, but to witness the death of her mother while giving birth would become a cornerstone on how she would raise her own children and define what kind of woman she would eventually become. She remembered how she wanted so desperately to console her father, but he was far too upset. Her world would now revolve around the raising of her little brother. Johnny Russell would be, from that moment on, her responsibility. That fact went without saying as she fully understood her new role and accepted it without a flinch of doubt.
* * * *
As Lizzy sat outside Nellie’s door, she thought more of the day that had changed her childhood. With the passing of her mother, Lizzy quickly realized that she’d been thrust into the role as an adopted caretaker who was now going to have to look after three growing young men and a very distraught father who had just lost the love of his life.
Lizzy shook her head and breathed in hard. This too is a new and glorious beginning, Lizzy. Who would have ever thought it possible? I’m being given two gifts. One, the return of a brother I thought long lost and two, a newborn, one that I’ll be able to love and nurture just as our good Lord has taught me to do.
For some reason, Lizzy and Johnny Russell had been reconnected in time. Their pasts had been interwoven together by an act of God and now, once again, God had brought them back together again. But how and, better yet, why?
Lizzy, still waiting to hear the news of her newest grandchild, fell back into thought. She smiled at the thought of Johnny Russell’s first night in her home, one which began tentatively but soon warmed into an all-night affair.
* * * *
Johnny Russell placed his valise in the hall and looked up at the various pictures, plates and spoons. He smiled at the memories they evoked, but choked up as he walked closer to the mantel.
“I see the portrait is still in great shape,” Johnny Russell remarked. “To be honest, I never thought I’d see it again.”
Lizzy walked into the room carrying two snifters full of brandy. “Didn’t ask, don’t care. I just know that I need at least one of these right now!”
She offered Johnny Russell a chair while handing him a drink. She took in a large swallow and then proceeded to sit next to him in the older but still comfortable leather couch.
Henry had driven them to Lizzy’s house and after saying his goodnights, he had left to most assuredly give Nellie the big news that her long-lost uncle had returned.
“OK, little brother . . . ,” Lizzy began, her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes narrow. “Do you want to start or shall I?”
“Oh please, let me start,” Johnny Russell began with a laugh. “I can tell by the look on your face that I’d be better off telling my side of the story before you have a chance to tell me what you really want to, right?”
They shared a laugh while Johnny Russell began to tell his big sister where he’d been for the past twenty years. The brandy kept coming. The mood changed from joyful to sorrowful and then back to joyful as they talked well into the early morning.
Much to Lizzy’s amazement, Johnny Russell had indeed followed their brother Micah west. They had worked together for over a year and, according to Johnny Russell, it was the best years of his life. He explained, in detail, how close he and Micah had become. In his words, “Working on the transcontinental railroad project was a very lonesome and tiresome job. If I didn’t have M
icah, I’d be either in jail or dead and not sitting here talking with my sister.”
Lizzy was amazed to hear about how they started far to the east and yet before they knew it, they were pounding down a gold stake in the middle of Utah. Lizzy continued to listen. Her story could wait.
She learned that after the railroad was completed, the two of them had been offered a job with the railroad. She laughed when she saw the expression coming from her brother. “So, you didn’t take it, I gather.”
It had been revealed that the two brothers had been given a choice. Continue working on the railroad, which was now paying quite well, according to Johnny Russel, or . . . in his own words, “Join up with a Civil War hero to save the West from savages.”
“What could we do?” He stopped with a wide grin on his face.
Lizzy laughed again at her brother’s response, absently wishing they’d chosen the alternative.
After another hour or two and several more snifters of brandy, Johnny Russell spoke quietly as if reluctant to say more than he should. Lizzy encouraged him to continue with a warm smile and an ample refill. He began slowly and carefully to spare his sister the gory details of finding Micah on the hills of Little Big Horn. Soon the alcohol loosened his tongue and Johnny Russell spoke the truth. Lizzy’s heart broke when she heard her brothers’ voice crack while describing in detail what he’d seen.
“You never should have seen any of that; no one should have.” Lizzy cried out. “To see your own brother, fighting for his life, be driven through by not one, but three. . . .” Lizzy broke down and wept. She closed her eyes and envisioned her brother surrounded by other frightened, yet brave young men. All of them fighting for their lives, yet as she well knew, none would survive.
“It was Custer’s fault, you know!?” Johnny Russell exclaimed, his words now drunk with clarity.
“He sent me out to find a better way, and I did!” He took another drink. “By God, I did! But I never had a chance to give it to him. By the time I made it back to the valley, they were all surrounded. I tried to get to them.”
Lizzy reached for him.
“I tried!” Johnny Russell yelled. “You have to believe me, I tried!”
Lizzy leaned forward and pulled her little brother in. Johnny Russell, now forty-six, still felt like the little boy that Lizzy once held and read stories to before tucking him into bed.
“I know you did, sweet man; I know you did.”
* * * *
Lizzy saddened when her little brother disclosed that he’d once married. He described her as a fair maiden from the Far East. They’d met in San Francisco, married and tried to have a family.
“Never happened.”
The tone in her brother’s voice made her not want to pursue it, but to her surprise, he continued. “They hated the Chinese out west, just hated them. Now, I can see being angry over them taking jobs and what not, but to hate the women, too?”
Lizzy felt a need to console her brother again.
“That’s when it clicked, Lizzy; that’s when it clicked. You see, my Mia, well, she was found dead in an alley not far from our home. I was beyond upset, but if I would have ever revealed that to anyone, hell I would have been. . . . Well, let’s just say it wouldn’t have fared well for me, that’s for sure, and between you and me, Sis, I’d kind of like to hang around a spell, if you know what I mean.”
Lizzy brought two newly brewed cups of coffee. “Just think this is more appropriate, since daylight will be upon us soon.”
They laughed, but Johnny Russell wanted to continue, much to Lizzy’s surprise. “It’s just, well, my Mia didn’t get herself killed for being Chinese. No, she got herself killed because she was a woman. She’d taken a man’s job and she got herself killed for that, and that, my dear sister, that’s just not right!”
Lizzy reached over and held her brother’s hand and when she looked at him, she could tell he had much more to say.
“That’s when I decided to put my journalism connections to use.”
Lizzy looked at him inquisitively.
“To be a voice for the rights of all women, Mia and whoever else spoke out. You know, like. . . .”
Lizzy tilted her head and squinted at Johnny Russell’s expression.
“That’s when I found you, silly!”
Johnny Russell explained further how through his work on the West Coast, it brought him to the East Coast and to the biggest hotspot for women’s rights organizing, Washington, D.C. He told Lizzy that it had only been a week prior that he’d learned that a woman named Lizzy McKeever would be one of the speakers. That name alone caused him to look into it more. He had to admit that after the massacre on Little Big Horn, he’d given up on family. He’d fought with himself for years over his own abandonment, but to him, he’d seen too much carnage and too much pain. To sustain any more was asking too much. He’d told her that he often thought of their father, but it was the loss of being apart from Lizzy that caused him the most grief.
“You were more of a mother to me than a sister. I hope you know that. I just didn’t know how to start again after losing Micah and then Mia too. I tried at first, but then I just didn’t know where to turn, so I just gave up. Trust me; it wasn’t without night after night of me howling to the wind with tears. You were my everything, Sis. You were my Lizzy; you’ve got to know that, just got to!”
After many tears and endless hugs, they decided to get what sleep they could. Lizzy offered up Mary Elizabeth’s room but Johnny Russell declined, saying that he’d never intrude on sacred land.
For the next several weeks, Lizzy and Johnny Russell spent every waking hour together. They talked, they laughed and many times, they’d cry. He was introduced to a very pregnant Nellie and then to Hannah and then to Bonnie Louise. Henry had offered to take him out to the local pubs for a “manly night out” but Johnny Russell always declined, stating that he “wanted to be close to his Lizzy.”
* * * *
“Congratulations, Nana!” Henry yelled out from outside the bedroom door. After several minutes of special family moments, Henry had opened the door to invite Lizzy in.
At first glance of the room, Lizzy shivered. She thought back to when her mother had died giving birth to Johnny Russell. They were similar to the thoughts she had when she and Johnny Russell were first reunited, but this time she was actually in the room, smelling the smells and hearing the sounds. It’s not the same this time, not the same. This is your grandchild, and everyone is doing just great. Get ahold of yourself.
To her delight, Nellie looked perfectly healthy with her new baby at her breast. Just like it’s supposed to look!
Henry carefully picked up his newborn son and handed him gently to Lizzy. “Theodore,” he whispered, “meet your nana. Lizzy, meet your grandson, Theodore.”
Lizzy held baby Theodore in her arms and kissed him lightly. She thought of Martin and choked in a need to cry. “Three grandchildren . . . no, four! Oh my goodness, almost forgot; gonna have to start numbering them before too long.”
As Lizzy handed little Theodore back to his daddy, she turned to her own daughter and bent over to give her a kiss on her forehead. “Couldn’t be happier, Nellie; just couldn’t be happier. Thank you so much for another Monroe.”
Lizzy turned around and wiped the tears from her cheek. She slowly walked to the doorway and then turned around. She marveled at the love she saw. Mother holding child. Father and husband standing beside her with his hand caressing the side of her cheek.
“Thank you, Lord,” she prayed. Her whisper was faint at best.
Out on the porch, Lizzy sat in an old rocker that had been given to Henry and Nellie by an elderly couple who were moving away. It was old and rusty in spots, but had a soothing creak when it rocked. As Lizzy looked up at the night sky above, she remembered that her father once told her that she was going to have as many offspring as the stars above. I think I told him that was Abraham in the Bible, not me. But the thought
brought a smile to her anyways.
“Need some company?”
Lizzy stopped rocking for a moment and laughed. “Just like old times, huh?”
“No, my favorite is still beating the pants off of you when you challenged me to race you home from school. Never thought in a million years that the same boy I ran into on that porch would someday be my brother-in-law and the bastard who would take you away from me.”
“Johnny Russell!” Lizzy yelled out in disgust. “I never taught you to talk that way and I’d still be obliged if you’d refrain yourself. You hear?”
Johnny Russell laughed and joined Lizzy on the porch. “Now, now, Sis. Don’t get your bloomers in a twist. I was just teasing; no harm done. Johnny Russell plopped down in a chair beside her. Lizzy rocked back and forth while Johnny Russell leaned back and placed his feet up on the railing. He pulled out a cigar and lit it. He exhaled a large blue plume into the cool night air before continuing. “It’s an odd feeling. I’m much older, seen some mighty hard sights, but it seems like I always want to do what’s right in your eyes. Be it my church going, language or what not, I’ve always wanted to see you happy.”
Lizzy looked vacantly into the distance. She heard a night owl. The smell of cigar made her think of Martin. She thought of the words just spoken and the two of them sitting together on a porch while just inside a newborn was getting acquainted with his loving family.
She thought of her mother and what might have been.
* * * *
The following day, Lizzy invited Johnny Russell to join her in the city but only if her duties as grandmother weren’t needed. She had cancelled two speeches and a town hall meeting in order to be there for Nellie if called upon. By the noon hour, Henry had convinced them both that the day need not be wasted on talks from the porch. He suggested the Potomac Mall and Lizzy couldn’t have agreed more.
“It’s odd to think of this government without a vice president,” Johnny Russell began.