The Bold Venture (The Cherished Memories Book 2)

by Linda Ellen

  Louise detected a slight edge to her voice and turned to observe her mother, who had taken Buddy out of the crib and was busy bouncing him on one hip. “Mama…? Is anything wrong?”

  Lilly shrugged noncommittally, her expression tight-lipped. Louise sighed softly, wishing her mother wasn’t such a proud, quiet woman who kept her feelings inside, never sharing them with anyone. It made it quite difficult to interact with her at times.

  Lilly carried the baby out to the kitchen, sitting in a chair to hold him on her lap and play with him as Louise washed the breakfast dishes. Several times, Louise glanced over at her mother, who was staring out the window, deep in thought, while the baby played with the buttons on her dress. The grandmother seemed to be only half listening to Tommy’s chatter about something that had happened at school.

  Finally, Louise finished up and walked over to take Buddy into her arms. “Tommy, why don’t you take Buddy in the living room and see if you can get him to play with your old blocks like you did yesterday? And – the Abbott and Costello show is about to come on,” she reminded him, speaking of a new children’s program that the famous vaudeville comedy performers had begun hosting on Saturday mornings. Tommy loved it, as it was filled with games, quizzes and child performers.

  “Oh boy, that’s keen!” Tommy responded, reaching for his little brother and hefting him up in his arms to carry him down the hall. “Come on, Bud, let’s go listen.”

  In a few moments, the opening strains of music and laughter floated down the hall.

  Reaching for a bag of fresh green beans she had picked up at the market the day before, Louise sat down at the table with a large pot and opened the bag, silently offering for Lilly to help her snap and string the beans in preparation for that night’s supper.

  After a few minutes of watching her mother concentrating on the work, her mouth pinched, brow furrowed, Louise asked softly, “What’s wrong, Mama?”

  Lilly stopped mid-snap and glanced up at her daughter for a moment, then drew in a deep breath through her nose and murmured, “Your brother isn’t happy. He’s…he’s tired of living with his mother…and I don’t blame him. He’s twenty-one and feeling restless. By now he should be married and raising his own family…” she trailed off, worry knitting her brow again.

  Louise instantly understood – if Billy did get married and get his own place, Lilly would have no one to support her, she would be out in the cold. But, I would never let that happen…

  “Yes, the rest of us were married by twenty. Is…is he interested in any particular girl?”

  Lilly shook her head, continuing to vigorously snap the beans. “Not that I know of. But a nice, handsome young man like Billy, surely the girls would jump at the chance to snag him.”

  Reaching out and placing a hand over her mother’s, stilling her movement, Louise’s eyes met Lilly’s. “You know you’ll always have a place…either with me, or with Sonny. Or even in New York with Edna,” she added with an impish grin.

  “Oh heavens, bite your tongue!” Lilly chuckled, and then sobered again, obviously wondering what she would do to support herself when the time came that she would be on her own. “I appreciate it, but…you and Vic have your own life to live…Sonny and Sara have theirs. I wouldn’t want to be in the way…”

  Louise just shook her head. “That’s what families are for, Mama.”

  Her comments relieved some of Lilly’s stress and they lapsed into silence as they finished their chore, occasionally chuckling over Abbott and Costello’s antics they could hear from the living room radio.

  *

  That evening, Louise and Lilly were sitting in chairs on the small grassy area in front of the apartment house, watching while Vic patiently coached Tommy on how to ride his new bicycle. For his ninth birthday, they had splurged and bought him a brand spanking new red and black Roadmaster Luxury Liner, complete with a working battery-powered headlight and cargo rack. In no time at all, with Vic’s gentle encouragement, Tommy was gliding down the sidewalk on his own. Mother and grandmother cheered and clapped from the sidelines.

  Everyone looked over when a car pulled up at the curb, and a moment later Louise’s mouth fell open in surprise. She quickly handed the baby to Lilly and rose to hurry to the passenger window as Tommy skidded to a stop next to the car. Leaning in past Alec’s grinning face, Louise met the amused gaze of her best friend.

  “When did you start driving?” Louise demanded, in shock to see Fleet behind the wheel, looking quite confident and proud.

  Six-year-old AJ piped up from the back seat, “Mama drives now! Daddy says he’s aged ten years already!”

  Vic burst out laughing as he and Alec exchanged amused grins.

  Fleet ignored them. “Oh, about a month ago,” she answered, batting her eyes at her friend and needlessly patting her flawless hair in place like a Hollywood starlet.

  Alec chuckled at Louise’s stunned expression. “She’s been practicing every day and wanted to get good and confident before she told you.” He winked and leaned closer, raising one hand as if to shield his voice from his wife’s keen ears as he confided in a pseudo whisper, “You shoulda seen her three weeks ago, it was a mess – she nearly took out three telephone poles, a mailbox, two stop signs, and a little old lady with a grocery cart.” He giggled gleefully when Fleet reached over and smacked him on the arm.

  “Quit lyin’, I only made a few mistakes,” she protested, albeit good-naturedly.

  The family exited the car and came up the walk, chatting amiably. AJ took off running beside Tommy’s bike as the latter took off down the sidewalk again. “We can’t stay long, just wanted to stop by and say Hi,” Fleet announced as she scooped the baby from Lilly’s arms and held him up high, delighting in his sweet giggle.

  “I declare, Mr. Buddy Matthews, you get cuter every time I see you. You’re gonna be a heartbreaker for sure one day, yes you are,” she cooed to the infant, laughing and leaning back when he reached out and tried to grasp hold of a lock of her hair.

  “I swear he’s both of you made over. No way you could deny this kid,” she joked to Vic as she bounced the baby on her hip, the proud parents looking on. Louise smiled up into her husband’s face as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

  The adults stood around making small talk and cheering for Tommy each time he rode past.

  However, true to her word, the Alders didn’t stay long, but soon made their excuses and climbed back in their automobile. Alec joked, leaning out the window as Fleet pulled out onto Floyd Street, “Twelve blocks, don’t know if my nerves can take it!” Everyone laughed as Fleet gunned the motor and Alec exaggeratedly flung himself back onto his seat.

  A few minutes later, as dusk swiftly turned into evening, a thoughtful Louise helped bring in the folding chairs and haul them back upstairs, bidding her mother goodnight at her door.

  As they filed into their apartment and closed the hall door, Louise turned to Vic and declared with gusto, “Well…I want to drive…if she can drive, I can drive!”

  Warming to the idea, she looked him straight in the eye. “Sometimes you’re tired or busy and I want to go somewhere…I should know how to drive, too. Can I get my license?”

  Blinking at her, he shrugged one shoulder. “Well, I guess…you never talked about it before.”

  Louise pressed her lips together and crossed her arms. “Well…I didn’t really think about it before.”

  And she can’t stand for Fleet to be one up on her, he thought, although he wisely kept silent.

  “Okay. I’ll get you a book. You study up on it and take the test.”

  And that was that.

  The next day, Vic brought a dog-eared copy of the driver’s manual home with him, explaining that his boss’ son had used it to study for his license. It sported several grease smudges from the station.

  Louise studied the book, reading and re-reading the different sections until she knew it forwards and backwards.

  Finally after several weeks of studying
the manual, and begging Vic to trade in their small stick shift coupe for a family sedan, Vic took her out to the Kentucky State Police location at Bowman Field airport, in the eastern section of the city, to try for her permit. But she flunked the eye test! This surprised Louise, as she had begun wearing glasses a year before and thought she could see quite well. She ended up getting new lenses, delaying her permit by several weeks.

  When the day finally came, new lenses in place and talking with Fleet on the telephone, her friend said, “Come on, I’ll go with you to get your permit.”

  Fleet drove over to pick her up. The boys were out of school, and Lilly agreed to babysit Buddy. So, armed with her manual, her new eyeglasses, and a barrel full of determination, they struck out for Bowman Field once again.

  That time around, she passed the written test with flying colors and received her permit. Fleet offered as they walked back to the car, “Let’s just go up in the park and you can drive around to get the feel of it.”

  That sounded like an excellent idea to Louise, so she agreed, and soon they were on their way to Cherokee Park, one of the loveliest parks in the city. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, it boasted a pastoral setting amid rolling hills, open meadows and woodlands; Beargrass Creek flowed throughout, spanned by decorative concrete bridges. The most useful of its features that day, however, was a nearly two and a half mile Scenic Loop, with separate lanes for vehicles. Perfect for learning how to drive – away from the confusion of car horns, impatient drivers, and traffic.

  Fleet drove to the park and turned onto the Loop, stopping far enough in to pull over and allow Louise to get behind the wheel. With a bit of instruction from her “knowledgeable” friend, Louise put the car in gear and glanced into the back seat at the two boys, who were busy looking at a comic book. Tommy looked up at his mother and grinned encouragement. “Come on, Mama! You can do it!”

  They started off, with Fleet giving running commentary about not getting too close to the edge of the pavement, looking in the rearview mirror to make sure of what was behind her, watching out for pedestrians or any stray animals that might venture across the road, keeping a look out for vehicles coming the other way, and making sure she kept aiming to the left at junctions so they would stay in the park and not end up on the main road outside the park. With so many instructions swirling in her head, Louise didn’t realize she had been steadily increasing speed. Fleet didn’t either, as she had turned her attention to the backseat when her son asked her a question.

  All of a sudden, an unexpected curve loomed immediately ahead. Startled, Louise gripped the wheel, white-knuckled, determined to stay the course and steer through the curve. Unused to the mechanics of driving, she didn’t think to take her foot off the gas. Matter of fact, in her nervousness, she pressed it down even further. She was going so fast, the passenger side wheels nearly left the ground!

  Fleet whipped her head around and squealed, “Slow down! Slow down!” as the boys simultaneously hollered with glee. Louise nearly closed her eyes in fright, but by sheer determination, managed to keep them open. As the road straightened up, she shakily pulled the car to the side and pressed the footbrake to stop, gulping in large amounts of air, her heart pounding so hard she thought she might pass out.

  “Woman, what are you, the Red Baron?” Fleet huffed and puffed, one hand pressed to her chest as she fanned her suddenly perspiring forehead.

  “That was fun, Mama! Do it again!” Tommy cheered from the backseat. “Wait ’til Chief hears how good you can drive,” he innocently teased.

  Sucking in a breath, Louise turned her head and met her son’s eyes. “Young man, don’t you dare tell him I did that,” she ordered, striving to sound stern, but the twinkle in her eyes belied her tone. The sweet innocent grin he shot back at her became her undoing.

  After a moment, she snickered and began emitting a few chortles from sheer nerves and relief. Fleet soon joined, followed by the boys in the back. Fleet laughed so hard tears flowed as she gasped, “If you could have seen your face! You looked like you’d seen a ghost!”

  “Yours wasn’t much better!” Louise shot back with more laughter, swiping tears from her cheeks with the back of one hand. “I never realized your eyes could get that big.”

  The boys scooted up to the back of the seat, giggling along with their mothers, as little AJ piped, “That was funner than the Comet at Fountain Ferry!”

  “Yeah!” agreed Tommy.

  “Or maybe the Tilt-a-Whirl,” Fleet chortled as Louise shook her head and laughed with them.

  When they’d all had a good laugh and dispelled the heart-pounding tension, Fleet encouraged Louise to try it again – slower. Putting the car carefully in gear, she spent the next hour slowly driving the scenic route all through the park – and to the disappointment of the two back seat riders, there were no more two-wheeled shenanigans.

  From the day she got her driving permit, Louise really began to badger Vic to get a different car, one she could practice in. One day when he came home from work, he told her about a car their detective friend, John Womack, knew about – a dark green Oldsmobile. It was just what Louise had hoped for.

  Vic obliged, sold his treasured Buick, and purchased the Olds.

  Every chance she got, Louise climbed behind the wheel to practice driving. It had become her main obsession. If she couldn’t get Vic or another driver to go along, she would drive up and down the alleys, both kids in the back seat. The Olds was big, and she had to put the seat almost all the way forward, but it was a smooth driving car and she loved it.

  Finally after the required three months, one Saturday morning in October, Vic went with her out to Bowman Field to take her road test.

  “I’m so nervous,” Louise mumbled, drying perspiring palms on the skirt of her dress once she pulled the big car into a space, moved the lever into neutral, and set the brake.

  Vic grinned over at her, the look on his face showing his obvious feelings of pride and love. “You’ll do fine, sweetheart. Just remember ta breathe and try to relax, don’t grip the wheel too tight.”

  He stepped out of the car to allow the road test official to slide in, acknowledging him with a nod.

  The officer, a man in his early fifties, introduced himself as Officer Ross and calmly explained the test and what was expected. Then he instructed Louise to start the engine while he went through the checklist of brakes, horn, turn signals, etc. Once they were finished there, he motioned for her to start the course.

  Taking extreme care with every turn, using her signals, and braking appropriately, Louise and the examiner were both pleased with her performance.

  However…when she got to the end of the course and the inspector exited the car to observe her in executing the parallel parking, suddenly all of her confidence flew out the window and she couldn’t remember a thing Vic had told her about how far to back up and what direction the wheel should go. With erratic starts and stops, becoming more flustered by the second, and even driving up over the curb, she nearly burst into tears as the car jerked to a halt.

  Biting her lip, she turned her head and looked out the window at the examiner’s face, able to see he was pressing his lips together as if he were trying not to laugh as he made notations on his clipboard. She was absolutely sure she had flunked the test and didn’t even want to see the look of levity she just knew would be on Vic’s face. Dang this stupid parallel parking! Why didn’t I practice this more?

  Suffice it to say, she got the surprise of her life when the officer stepped toward her driver’s window and, with a kind, understanding smile…and a bit of a glimmer in his eye…held out a slip of paper and said, “Okay, young lady, you passed. Go on inside and hand this to the clerk at the window so you can get your new license.”

  Shocked, Louise’s mouth dropped open as she stared up at him.

  With a wink, he murmured, “You might want to work a bit more on that parking…someday it might come in handy.”

  A giggle escaped her mouth as
she took the paper, thanked him, and drove around to pull into a parking space, thinking wonders never cease.

  ‡

  CHAPTER 28

  Life With Lilly

  Lilly’s concerns about her own situation had proven true. Mere days after Louise got her license, Billy set his mother down and told her that he had signed up to go in the service, explaining that he felt if he didn’t shake the city’s dust off his feet, break loose and see the world, he would go stark raving mad.

  “I’m sorry, Mama,” he had murmured as the dreaded look of fear and sadness overtook his mother’s tired countenance. Even as he watched her grapple with conflicting feelings of understanding her youngest child’s discontentment versus her own state of need, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of affection for this woman who had nurtured and protected him all of his life. At sixty-eight, Lilly was still an attractive woman. Her face remained for the most part unlined, her cheeks smooth and soft, her eyes alert. Although her hair had turned almost entirely a soft gray/white from the years of worry and stress, blessedly, her other features remained young. She could still get around like a young woman, and never seemed to tire of the endless chores that made up the bulk of her life.

  “I’ve talked it over with Vic and Louise and we’ve made a plan,” the young man continued. “Louise is sick to death of going up and down the steps of that apartment house lugging a one-year-old, so…they’re gonna look for a house to rent…one with room for you to live with them, too…” he paused, watching her expression. He knew she didn’t relish the thought of giving up her independence, but for the present, he also knew if he were to find any kind of life for himself, it was the best they could do. It felt so unnatural for him to still be sharing a tiny apartment with his mother. Once again, as he had thousands of times since that terrible day six years before, he wished his father hadn’t been so much older than his mother…wished he were still with them and taking care of their mom, his wife, the way it should be.