Dorothy Garlock - [Route 66] (12 page)

“Don’t borrow trouble. People don’t die of a broken heart. My hope is that he finds a nice girl, marries and has kids who will love him and look after him when we’re gone.”

“I wish he liked Margie. She’s a steady, sensible girl.”

“Don’t push the girl onto him, Grace.”

“I won’t, but I can wish, can’t I?”

“He’ll make that decision for himself. Brady accepted him in spite of his limitations, just as others have done. The right woman will see beyond his blindness and love him in spite of it.”

They rode without speaking for a while. Then Alvin’s chuckle broke the silence. He asked with a touch of pride in his voice, “Did you see how he handled the shotgun I put in his hands? The crooks didn’t know he was blind.”

“Why couldn’t Brady have left the crooks tied up out there? The sheriff would get them. It’s his job.”

“Because he was afraid that if people came along and turned them loose, the crooks might kill them for their money and car,” Alvin said patiently. “When we get to Sapulpa, I’ll go straight to the sheriff’s office. I told Brady we’d stop alongside the highway in Davenport. He’ll meet us there.”

“Mr. Kinnard is strange,” Grace remarked after Alvin had turned to go into town and she looked back to see that Elmer had pulled to the side of the highway to wait. “I wonder why he’s so unfriendly. His daughter is nothin’ like him.”

“Unfriendly? He’s been downright ornery the last few days. He wasn’t that way when we first talked of taking this trip.”

“I’ve never heard him say a word to Margie. He acts like she isn’t even there.”

“That’s their business, Gracie, and has nothing to do with us. Here we are at Sapulpa. Now, where is the sheriff’s office?”

“Why do we have to wait here?” Sugar complained when Foley pulled over to the side of the highway and stopped. “Why do we always have to follow along behind the Put-mans?”

“We agreed when we planned this trip that Alvin would lead the way. He knows where the campsites are.”

“We could find them if he gave us the maps. Where’s he going?”

“He’s going into Sapulpa to tell the sheriff what happened and that Brady is waiting for him at the campground with the men who woulda robbed us.”

“They looked so pitiful. I just thought they were hungry. I still don’t think that they were going to rob us.” Sugar let her lower lip tremble. “I guess everybody hates me.”

“Nobody hates you.” Foley wrapped his arm around the steering wheel and stared out the windshield.

“Yes, they do. I hate her guts!” Mona, in the backseat, mouthed silently to her brother.

“I explained to Brady and Alvin that you felt sorry for those guys and wanted to give them a meal.” Foley turned to look long and hard at his wife.

Mona made a gagging gesture with her finger in her mouth. Jody shook his head at her, but he was grinning.

“I wish we could go on by ourselves. Just our little family.” Sugar snuggled her face against Foley’s neck.

“We can’t do that. If we had been alone last night, the robbers would have taken everything we have. They might have killed us. I’ll not take that risk with my family.”

“But, darlin’ … I’m tired of traveling.”

“Already? We’ve been gone only ten days.”

“I want a bath. And I want to sleep in a real bed. With you,” she added in a whisper.

“I explained that it would be a rough trip.”

Sugar sniffed. “It’s worse than I thought it would be.”

“When we get to Oklahoma City, I’ll see about getting a motor cabin for the night. How’s that?”

“Would you? Oh, darlin’, you are the sweetest thing.” Sugar threw her arms around his neck and covered his face with kisses.

Mona looked at her brother and crossed her eyes. He burst out laughing.

Foley looked over his shoulder. “What tickled your funny bone?”

“Mona yawned and a fly flew into her mouth.” Jody tried to keep a straight face while telling the lie to his father.

When Foley turned back to Sugar, who was snuggled against him, Jody winked at his sister. She put her hand over her mouth to control her giggles.

While waiting for the Putmans to come back to the highway, Margie passed the time looking at her movie magazines. When Elmer got out of the truck and leaned against the fender to watch the traffic go by, her hands stilled on the magazine and she looked at him through the truck’s dusty windshield. He stood with his arms folded across his chest, his old felt hat pulled down, shielding a face that, no doubt, showed not a trace of expression.

How could he be her father? Could her mother have had a secret lover? No, she told herself. If her granny had had the slightest suspicion that Elmer was not her father, she would have told her, because she had no use for the man at all. Oh, but she wished he were not so uncompromising and obstinate.

She had been embarrassed last night when he hadn’t offered any assistance. And again this morning when he never thanked Alvin or Brady for removing the threat to all of them. She had no doubt that if she mentioned it to him, he would dump her out along the highway like so much garbage.

What would he say if he knew that Brady had kissed her? She answered her own question. Plenty. It would prove to him that she was the slut he believed her to be.

She had relived those kisses a hundred times. Brady’s mouth had been warm and firm and had moved over hers with familiar ease. There had been nothing tentative or hesitant about the kiss. When he raised his head, his eyes had searched hers before he kissed her again. She had been stunned by his brazen action.

It hurt her that he considered kissing her as something to “get out of the way.” She had walked away feeling as if her heart had been stomped on. But during the long sleepless night she had come to realize that she had only herself to blame. He was a man, after all, a very virile man. To be loved by a man like Brady Hoyt would be any girl’s dream.

She could have protested. She could have slapped him as he suggested. Instead she had sat there and let him have his way with her.

It was going to be hard facing him in the light of day, but face him she must. The best way to handle the situation would be to act as if it had meant nothing at all to her. It had happened. There was nothing she could do about it now. But she could make sure that it didn’t happen again and that he never know how his kisses had thrilled her to her curled-up toes.

Margie saw the Putman truck coming back to the highway and behind it a sheriff’s car. Alvin stuck out his arm to signal a left turn. The Sapulpa sheriff turned right to go toward the campground. Elmer got back into the truck, and they were on their way again.

They passed through the towns of Kellyville, Bristow and Depew. The highway between Depew and Stroud was under construction, and Elmer had to dodge around the graders working to prepare it for paving. Stroud was a sleepy little town, but it had once been a tough, prosperous place. The Great Depression and Dust Bowl conditions were leaving deep scars on the towns and emotional wounds on the folks who lived in them.

A dozen years before, cattle drovers had shipped their animals from Stroud, but the bars that had made money selling illegal whiskey were gone, as were most of the businesses on the main street. The worst drought in recent history had reduced the price of wheat to thirty-three cents a bushel. The banks had foreclosed, and the families were moving on.

Davenport was merely a wide spot in the road. Alvin pulled over beneath a row of oak trees and stopped. To Margie’s surprise, Elmer went on around him and pulled into a gas station. A big yellow dog got up, stared at them, then walked a few feet and flopped down again. After the man in grease-covered overalls put gas in the truck, Elmer followed him inside the small brick building, digging into his pocket for money to pay for the gas.

Margie looked back down the highway. Anna Marie and Grace were standing beside the truck. The Lukers were behind the Putmans. There was no sign of Brady’s black sedan.

It was hot inside the cab of the truck even with the windows down and the windshield tilted to let in a breeze. A big blowfly came in the window, and Margie fanned it away with a movie magazine. Soon it got tired and flew out again. Minutes passed. She craned her neck to see inside the station. Elmer was sitting down, his legs stretched out in front of him, his hands clasped across his midsection, as if he planned to stay there awhile.

Margie needed to use the outhouse. She waited for what seemed to her a quarter of an hour before she got out of the truck and went to the door of the station.

“Mister,” she said, and waited until the man acknowledged her. “May I use your outhouse?”

“Yes, ma’am. Ya just go right ahead and help yoreself.”

“Thank you.”

Margie was in the two-hole outhouse before it occurred to her that Elmer might go off and leave her, as Ernie Harding had done when she went to the outhouse at Andy’s campground down near Sayre. She hurriedly finished what she had come to do and went back to the truck. She climbed into the back and filled a fruit jar with water from the keg. It was warm but wet, and soothed her scratchy throat. When she returned to the cab of the truck, she brought a handful of crackers and a hunk of cheese.

She ate slowly, and when she finished, Elmer still lounged in the chair inside the station. Margie suspected that he planned to spend the noon stop there so as to avoid talking to the others in the caravan. She went to the back of the truck again and wet a cloth to wipe her face, after which she spread on a layer of Pond’s cream, enjoying the soothing effect on her windburned skin.

Later she fanned her face with the movie magazine, trying to brace up her sagging eyelids. But she fell asleep with her head resting against the back of the seat. When Elmer got into the truck and slammed the door, she woke with a start. He was eating a hot dog he must have bought at the small café across the street. Alvin’s truck passed, and Elmer pulled out onto the highway and fell in line behind it. Margie looked back and was relieved to see Brady’s sedan following the Lukers.

The afternoon passed slowly. After Chandler they went through several small towns. Near Arcadia, Margie spied the old round barn she had seen when she passed this way before and wondered what advantage it had over the rectangular barns with the big haylofts.

On the outer edge of Oklahoma City, they turned off the highway and followed Alvin into a field already occupied by four other campers. Elmer swung out and away from the others and parked with the back of the truck facing the campground. Margie got out and stretched. Brady passed and waved. She lifted a casual hand and began gathering firewood left by another camper.

Jody Luker came by while Margie was slicing potatoes into a skillet.

“Hi, Margie. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble tonight.” He gestured toward the other campers. “They’ve all got kids.”

“Have you heard what the sheriff had to say this morning when Brady turned over the men who might have robbed us?”

“No, but I’m on my way to find out.”

She was opening a can of corn to serve over the fried potatoes when Jody came back by.

“Brady said the sheriff couldn’t hold them because they hadn’t actually committed the robbery, but he said he’d keep them there until we got on down the highway. Brady took some parts off their old car. He said it’d not be running anytime soon.”

“I’m glad of that.”

“Pa’s unhooking the trailer. He promised Sugar they’d stay in a motor cabin tonight.”

“You and Mona will stay here?”

“Yeah. I’ll put up the tent for Mona. I just hope Sugar don’t run Pa out of money before we get to California.”

Margie watched Jody walk away and thought that he was a son a man should be proud of. Mona was lucky to have a brother like him to look out for her. Foley Luker was ten times a fool, but, then, most of the men she had come in contact with were, including Ernie Harding and her own father. She could even add Brady Hoyt to the list.
He had kissed her as if it were a chore to get out of the way!

On the other side of the list were Mr. Putman and Rusty. They seemed nice and trustworthy. On further thought she added Yates and the funny little man called Deke at Andy’s Garage in Sayre … and Harry back at the café in Conway. He had thought enough of her to give her the pistol and show her how to use it.

“I can’t be cynical like Elmer,” she murmured to herself. “I got into this mess because I wanted to go to California. I’ll stick it out if it kills me.”

Homer Persy watched Brady and then the sheriff drive away from the campground. He went behind the car, dropped his drawers, removed his underwear and attempted to clean himself.

He swore using every foul word he’d ever heard.

“I’ll get that son of a bitch if it takes the rest of my life.” He burned with the desire for revenge.

The hick sheriff had
laughed
and held his nose when he discovered that Homer had messed on himself. The cowboy had sneered at him. “If I’d known he wasn’t housebroke, I’d of put a diaper on him.”

He’d get even.
Nobody treated Homer Persy like that and got away with it.

Homer threw his soiled underwear in the bushes and put on his britches. He had caught a grin on the face of Ross, the man his Uncle Chester had brought along. It hadn’t sat well.

“If not for yore bungling, we’da had a hostage and been long gone. You let that hick get the drop on you.”

“I told you I wasn’t for takin’ a hostage. Kidnappin’ ain’t somethin’ folks sneeze at,” Ross shot back.

“Well, you can just get yoreself on down the road. Ya ain’t ridin’ back in this car.” Homer was itching for a fight.

“Neither are you,” Ross growled. “Unless you know how to put it back together.”

“I suppose you do.”

“Yeah, I do. I’ve already picked up the parts that cowboy threw in the bushes.”

“Well, get at it. That cowboy and them women are headed for California. There ain’t but one way to get there— down old Highway 66.”

“I’ll fix your car, but I ain’t havin’ no part in hurtin’ no women.”

“I ain’t heared nobody askin’ ya to be part. Did you, Uncle Chester? Did you ask him to come with us?”