Laura Ray (Ray Series) (13 page)

“Was she an artist?” Laura asked.

“Yes, I believe she paints and also teaches private lessons.”

“I’ll keep her in mind, but I would like to not spend the money for lessons right now, if I can get some ‘how to’ books. If you know what I mean,” Laura reiterated.

“Oh, well, my other thought would be to go to some craft shops in Tulsa. They have books for beginners and also any supplies you might need,” Samantha suggested.

Laura dug out her Tulsa phone book and wrote down all the craft stores. Next, she searched their locations on her map in the phone book and drew herself a map. She and Danny would head to Tulsa first thing next Saturday morning.

Friday night Laura received a phone call from a younger sister she hadn’t heard from since she married John. “Hi, Laura.
It’s me, Becky. I’ve had a time tracking you down. John’s mom, Maggie, well, she’s been gone from here for a while. She found a new boyfriend about a month after you and John got married. So, anyway, her old boss remembered who she took off with and told me that he thought his folks was from Abilene, Texas. So I called around down there and finally found somebody there who knew her. Then she told me where you and John had moved to because I forgot. Well, anyway, the reason I called was to tell you that Mom got sick and died last night. Doctor said she had a real bad stroke. By the time Dad figured that something was wrong with her and got her to the hospital, she was gone. We wondered if you wanted to come to the funeral and all.”

“This is a real shock,” Laura said in a small voice. This was the first time anyone had reached out to her since she left home.
She wished she had called home herself, but she hadn’t felt too kindly to the folks at home considering the way they had treated her during high school and her wedding seemed like a send off that wished her gone, especially her dad.

“Well,” Becky continued, “If you can’t make it nobody will say too much, but if you can I’d be happy for you to stay at my house with Ben and me. We have a house full of young’uns you haven’t met. I can make room for you
and John here.”

Laura hesitated. It had never occurred to her that her family knew nothing about John’
s death or losing the dairy farm. “Becky, John passed a couple of years ago,” she stated regretfully.

“I’m so sorry. It sounds like we have a lot to catch up on.”

“I have a son that I will bring with me, Becky. Would that be okay?” Laura asked. All of a sudden she had a yearning to go home and visit with all her younger brothers and sisters. “I really would like to come. Have you set a date for the funeral?”

“Yes, I know it’s a while to wait but the funeral man said
that we could wait that long if we needed to bring in family. I got to thinking about you and wanted to get in contact with you and all. It’s been so long since any of us seen you,” Becky broke off. “I’m so glad you can come. Do you have a job to think of?”

“Yes, I do have a job but I have a couple of weeks of vacation due so I think I can take them off without any trouble.” Laura added, “We will be there tomorrow afternoon.”
She made a mental note to call her job in the morning to give them notice of the death and her decision to take her vacation at this time.

Laura sat down at the kitchen table to think. She hadn’t really thought about her family much in years. Becky’s still is a talker, that’s for sure. She remembered when she washed dishes that Laura only had to grunt once in a while and Becky would talk all the way through the time it took for her to dry the dishes and put them away.
She had a brother, Jimmy, just younger than Becky. Her Dad was proud of him. At least, he said that a boy can work some to bring in a little extra change. Laura wondered if he did. Then there were the two baby sisters, Sandra and Nancy. They must be all grown up too.

Laura called Mary, “I received a call from my little sister. My Mom passed away last night.
”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Laura. You hadn’t seen her in years had you?”

“No, but I’m going to visit with my brother and sisters for a while.” Laura explained, “I have two week’s vacation due. I will call in the morning to set it up. I’m going to take Danny up to meet them and go to the funeral.”

“I wish you well. Drive carefully,” Mary said.

Next, Laura called Betty Johnson, John’s sister, who lived near their old home place. After giving her the information, Betty replied, “I just received a call from my mother. It was a curious thing. I haven’t heard from her in years and all of a sudden she calls. Your sister Becky had called her for information about you. I was so surprised. My own mother took a notion to call me. Well, we caught up on each other. She wanted to know about John and you, so I told her about John and you selling the farm and John passing and all.”

“That’s good that you brought her up to date. I haven’t seen or heard from her since mine and John’s wedding. Haven’t wanted to, sorry to say
,” Laura responded.

“I am so sorry about your mom. I’m glad you and Danny are going to visit with the family. It will be good for both of you,” Betty reassured.

When Danny came in Laura said, “We can’t go to Tulsa tomorrow like we planned. Set down, Danny, I have a story to tell you.”

Danny started to ask why until he looked at her face. He sat down obediently with a puzzled look on his face.

She told him the story of her and John’s youth and marriage and the circumstances surrounding it; why she and John never brought up their families other than Aunt Betty.

“I had a grandmother and never knew it. Now she’s dead,” Danny said flatly.

Laura had never looked at it from her children’s viewpoint. She realized how selfish that seemed. Her parents had seemed so overwhelmed with raising her and all her siblings, that she felt that they were glad to be rid of her. In retrospect, maybe she and John had been so caught up in trying to work the farm, then the dairy that they had neglected their families as well
. It seems that life itself can take everything you’ve got just to make it.

She needed to call Nora, but dreaded to tell her the news. She wondered if Nora would take it the same way that Danny had. Laura realized that she had some fences to mend, not only with her own children but with her family as well.

She paced the floor. She had told Becky that she would be there tomorrow afternoon not thinking about Nora’s feelings. She wished that she could tell Nora in person but this time the phone would have to suffice. She leaned against the cabinet and made the call.

Nora replied regretfully, “Mom, I’m so sorry. I feel like a stranger but she apparently was my Grandmother. I do want to go to the funeral and meet the rest of the family. The problem is that I have just taken a new position at the hospital
since I am out of school for the summer. It won’t look good for me to take off right now. However, I can take a day of bereavement for a grandparent. I need to talk to Jeremy. I think he will be able to go but I need to talk to him. I’ll call you back as soon as I find out something.”

Laura borrowed some suitcases from Mary and told Danny to pack for two weeks. Laura intended to renew her ties to her family.

She called Art to explain why she wouldn’t be home. He wanted to immediately come over. She told him not to come that she needed to pack and get things ready to go.

“Okay, I won’t come over tonight but I will be there in the morning,” Art insisted.

Nora called, “Jeremy and I will be there at Carthage, Missouri, on Monday morning. We will need to leave after the funeral sometime. Jeremy needs to be back on Tuesday morning.”

“That’s sounds great. At least you will be able to meet everybody. Danny and I are planning to stay for a few days to get acquainted again.”

Danny and Laura had just finished loading the last items in the car when Art drove up in his pickup. He said, “I didn’t know you would leave this early. Laura, if you want, I will go with you.”

“No, Art, I appreciate that you want to be there for us but Danny and I plan to stay for a couple of weeks.”

“I will be at the funeral on Monday, if you would like for me to come,” Art said trying to be supportive.

“I appreciate that you care and want to be there for us,” Laura repeated again
hoping not to offend him. “This is from my past and I need to be with family this time.”

Laura hoped that she wasn’t being too harsh on Art. He had been there for her so much lately. She looked at Danny and he was already waiting in the car.
“Danny, I need to check on something in the house.”

Art followed her into the house. She turned to him and wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t think that I’m ungrateful for everything. It’s just that sometimes a person needs to stand on her own two feet, so to speak.”

Art smiled down and kissed her tenderly, “I will miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too.”

As Laura drove out of town north on Hwy 69, Danny said, “You went in the house to kiss Uncle Art. Didn’t you?”

Laura half laughed, “Well, yes.”

“Mom, you don’t have to hide it from me. It’s okay,” Danny proclaimed derisively.

Chapter Thirteen

Becky lived four miles out in the country from Carthage, Missouri, not far from where Laura lived as a child. She guessed her parents still lived there, at least her father anyway. She wondered if he had let it run down or if he managed to scrape enough cash together to do the repairs her mother had nagged him to do for as long as she could remember. She would know soon, she guessed.

Laura and Danny pulled up to a ranch style house with a small front porch shading the front door. The exterior of the house looked like white Masonite siding which would need another coat of paint in the next year. A large oak tree stood in the front yard and large pecan trees
covered the large yard to the right of the house with rope swings hanging from the limbs. On the left of the house was a play area with a trampoline, volley ball net, and a tether ball hung from a pole set in the ground.

Behind the house Laura could s
ee a large chicken pen with Plymouth Rock chickens and possibly some Leghorns. Laura recognized the breeds that she and John had on their farm, probably, because that’s what her mom and dad had. Laura remembered the old saying, ‘the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree.’ From the looks of things, neither she nor Becky fell as far away as she thought.

Danny almost had his jaw dropping, “Look at all the things they have in the yard. This is like a playground at school.”

A little boy sprang from the front door of the house and jumped down the porch steps. Red hair bounced from the top of his head. His shorts reached to his knees and his sneakers were untied with the strings flying along beside of his bouncing feet. A big smile covered his new teeth coming in as he yelled, “They are here!”

Laura opened the car door and the little boy stopped short of running into her, “Mama told me to watch for you.”

“Hi,” Laura knelt down to his size.

“Hey, Mom!” he yelled to the top of his voice.

By this time Danny had gotten out of the car and came around to see his little cousin. “My name is Danny. What’s yours?”

“My name is Little Ed. That’s what everybody calls me anyways,”

Laura held out her hand to shake, “Hi, Little Ed. My name is Aunt Laura.”

Becky came out of the house wiping her hands on an apron. She got within ten feet of Laura and stopped to put her hands over her mouth. “Oh, my God
! You look so much like Mama!” she exclaimed. “I never realized it when we were kids.” She opened her arms and wept on Laura’s shoulder.

After a moment, Becky turned to Danny, “You must be the son Laura mentioned.” She pulled him into a hug. “I can tell you look like your Dad.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Danny replied with a smile. “That’s what everybody tells me.”

“Well, I’m your Aunt Becky. I don’t want to hear any more of this Ma’am stuff. You call me Aunt Becky.”

“Yes, M—I mean Aunt Becky.”

“Here I am keeping you all out here in the heat. Come right in the house. I’ve been cookin’ up a storm all day. Ever’ since last night when you said you was coming, I haven’t been able to rest. I’ve been so excited. On pins and needles. Ward, that’s my husband, he likes me to get this way. He says I do the best house cleanin’ and cookin’ when I get this way.”

As they entered the house, Laura looked around at the furniture. It looked well-worn but the house looked very clean. Becky might have a large family but she took good care of them as Laura could see.

Laura, being the oldest child and three years older than Becky, was placed into the caretaker roll early in life because her mother continued to have children and had so many other obligations. Laura always felt like she was the other mother
. Laura wondered now, had she stayed near the family when she married, if she and Becky would have been close as adults.

Becky called Laura and Danny to the television console where she had a lot of pictures setting in frames. “These are my children,” Becky patted her chest as she spoke proudly. “I’m proud of my kids. Ward and I had one every two years for a while until we had Little Ed, here.” She said patting the top of his head affectionately.