Song of the Road (13 page)

“Someone wanted to get you in trouble with the law.”

“I think I know who, but I don’t know why.”

“Today is the first time I’ve seen Mr. Clawson since I married Bobby.” Mary Lee’s hands were clenched tightly together. “He seems to think he’ll have a say in how my baby is raised. I’ve news for him. I’ll take my baby far away before I let him have anything to do with it.”

“He didn’t take a hand in raising Bobby until he was already set in his ways. Bobby’s mother spoiled him. She was at odds with Ocie and took pleasure in bucking him every time he tried to make a man out of Bobby.”

“You knew Bobby when he was a kid?”

“We went to the same school.”

Mary Lee and Jake had gone a distance in companionable silence before he spoke again.

“There’s no sky as beautiful as New Mexico sky at twilight.”

“Have you been to a lot of other places?”

“I worked for a year on a ranch in Oklahoma. I liked it there. The Fleming people were good to work for, but New Mexico is my home.”

“Where exactly is your home?” Mary Lee drew in a deep breath. “Oh . . . oh—” Her eyes met his when he turned at the sound. “I’m sorry. I seem to be asking a lot of questions.”

“It’s all right. My home is anywhere within a radius of fifty miles north of Cross Roads. There are little villages in the mountains you’ve never heard of. My mother was from one of them.”

Jake turned off the highway and onto a graveled road. The steel structure of the bridge was outlined against the darkening sky. He pulled over and stopped.

“It’s two hundred feet long and spans a gorge that’s a hundred feet deep.”

“Oh, my. Is it about finished?”

“My part of the job will be done in a couple of days.”

“What did you do?”

“See that girder that slants up to the top and levels off? I put in the bolts, then welded the joints.”

“Not . . . up there on top?”

“Yes, up there on top. Some days the wind was so strong, I couldn’t go up.”

“Oh, Jake . . .” Unaware that she was doing so, she clutched his arm. “It gives me the shivers to think of you up there.”

“At times it gave me the shivers to be there.”
Especially after two men plunged to the floor of the canyon.
He put his hand over hers for the brief instant before she withdrew it.

“Then why do you do it?”

“It’s good pay.”

“It should be for the risk you’re taking.”

“It’ll be over soon. I’ll take my money and break horses until another job comes along.”

“Are there more bridges to be built around here?”

“One more that I know of. This bridge will take a big kink out of the highway and shorten the route between here and Sante Fe by at least five miles.”

“I hope they don’t decide to bypass Cross Roads. I’d be sunk.”

“There’s no danger of that. They won’t bypass a strip that’s already paved.”

A few stars were appearing in the sky. Jake didn’t want to start the truck and head back to the motor court. The ride would be all too short. He glanced at her. She was relaxed and comfortable with him. He wanted to ask her why she had married a no-good like Bobby, but was afraid to risk the possibility of her resenting his question about her personal life.

“A friend of mine will be coming in a few days,” he said, wanting to keep the conversation going. “I worked with him on the Fleming ranch in Oklahoma.”

“Is he a cowboy?”

“No, he’s a mechanic. He can fix a motor if it’s at all fixable. He kept the machinery on the ranch going while I was there. Later he bought a garage on the highway. He’s right fond of motorcycles and will be riding one when he gets here.”

“Is he coming for a visit?”

“I don’t know how long he’ll stay. A couple of other fellows took over his garage after his mother died, so I guess he’s footloose. He said something about visiting a friend up in Colorado. You’ll like Deke. He’s a funny-looking little man, but you don’t notice it after you get to know him.” Jake was smiling broadly. “He’s not any bigger than you are, and that’s not saying much.”

“Well, thank you, Mr. Ramero. I’m not so small. Especially now.”

“You’re not much bigger than a mosquito,” he teased.

“A mosquito after a full meal?”

Had she stopped to think about it, she would have been surprised at how comfortable she was speaking to him and to Eli about her pregnancy. Talk of having babies was not a subject mentioned between a woman and a man who was not her husband or close relative.

She felt warm and giddy, basking in his teasing smile.

“You’d better start this truck and head back to the motor court before this skeeter bites you.”

“Yes, ma’am. Nothin’ I hate worse than a skeeter bite.”

When they were back on the highway, she said, “We didn’t look for places to put up the signs.”

“How many signs will you have?”

“Four. Two on the east side of the court and two on the west.”

“I’ll take care of it. You want the first one about five miles out?”

“And the second one about a mile out, but you don’t need to do it. Eli thinks he can get a ride out with someone and walk back.”

“I’ll do it. Eli shouldn’t leave you alone at the court.”

“He’s just a boy.”

“He’s more of a man then you think he is. He didn’t let Frank back him down.”

“He’s only thirteen.”

“Hard knocks have made him older.”

“I don’t know what I would have done these past weeks without him. If I could, I’d keep him with me always.”

“Does he have folks?”

“An uncle who doesn’t want him and sent him to the orphanage.”

“Bastard,” Jake muttered under his breath. Aloud he said, “There it is. The court is still there.”

“So is Frank. There’s a light on in number one.”

“He’ll not be playing a radio unless he’s got a new one.”

“I thought you only took out the tubes.”

“I broke a little something taking them out.” She saw the flash of white teeth as he grinned at her. “Do you want me to let you out at the house?”

“Go on down. Frank might be watching.”

Jake parked the truck beside his cabin. She had opened the door and slid out by the time he got around to help her.

“Thank you for showing me the bridge.”

“My pleasure.” He took her hand, and she didn’t pull it away. “Will you go with me to look at another bridge . . . if I can find one?”

She laughed up at him, pulled her hand free of his and looped her hair behind her ears. “I think I’ve seen the only bridge worth seeing within fifty miles.”

“Mary Lee.” He liked saying her name. “At the end of the week, I will have been here two months. I’ll move out and get a room uptown so you can rent this cabin by the night.” They were walking behind the cabins toward the house. “Two months for forty dollars is still a bargain.”

“Mama rented to you for four months and you have the receipt. The law says you can stay.”

“The law may say so, but your mother wasn’t playing with a full deck when she rented to me. You could be getting another twelve dollars a week from my cabin and afford to hire some help.”

She stopped, turned and looked up at him. “Why would you do that?”

He looked down at her for a long time, his eyes roaming her face. Her mouth was soft and sweet, her expression troubled. All her doubts and hurt were there in her eyes.

“Why, Jake?”

“Because . . . I . . . want to help you and this is one way I can do it.”

“Don’t move out.” The words burst from her. “With you here, Frank won’t try anything.”

His hands came up to grip her shoulders. “I know about the note the bank holds. You need every dime you can get.”

“How come you know about that?” Her hands came up to hold on to his forearms.

“Frank, trying to be a big dog, told Paco at the Red Pepper Corral. He said after the bank takes over, he and Dolly will run the place.”

“I’ll burn it down first!” Tight-lipped, she glared at him.

“I’ll help you.”

“I suppose everyone in town is waiting to see me lose the motor court.”

“You won’t lose it. You’ll make it and we’ll celebrate. You and me and Eli will go to Sante Fe and have a barbecue dinner.”

“You sound sure.”

“I am sure.”

“Well, then, what’s there to worry about? I’d better go in. Mama’s probably out there with Frank. She’ll be drunk if she isn’t already. They might come in the house.” Her hands dropped from his arms, and she turned away.

“Mary Lee.” She stopped. He was still standing where she’d left him. “Do you really want the baby?”

“Of course I do. Whatever gave you the idea I didn’t?” “Do you want it because it’s Bobby’s?”

“No! I want it because it’s mine.” She brought her hand up and slapped her chest. “Bobby merely sowed a seed in the wind.”

Jake lifted his hand, turned, and went back toward his cabin.

Mary Lee stepped up on the back porch. Her opinion of Jake had changed drastically. When she first met him, she had thought the look in his cold green eyes was possessive and ruthless. After getting to know him, she saw him as being both gentle and protective, and genuinely concerned about her, the baby, and the motor court.

Eli was sitting at the kitchen table playing a game of solitaire.

“Is Mama over with Frank?”

“Yeah. I didn’t come in till she left. I looked in the window and saw her tryin’ to get in your suitcase.”

“She wouldn’t find anything there. I put all the money in a fruit jar and hid it.”

“Did you decide where to put the signs?”

“Jake said he would take care of it. He insisted.”

“Are you going to let him?”

“It would be rude to turn down help when it’s offered.”

Eli ducked his head and grinned. “Yeah, it would.”

Chapter 9

M
ARY LEE HAD A LOT TO THINK ABOUT
and was glad that her mother was out of the house. As soon as Eli finished his game and went to his cot in the washhouse, she kicked off her shoes and sank wearily down on her bed.

She had enjoyed being with Jake. There was a sadness about him that reminded her of a small, lonesome little boy. Tonight he had shown none of the animosity he had displayed the first time they met. She had felt safe with him, as if nothing in the world could hurt her. Bobby had said that he was mean, a womanizer and a thief. The steers he rustled were not the first thing he’d stolen from the Circle C ranch, according to Bobby. He also said that he fornicated with every woman under forty he could get his hands on from a little village of Mexican workers and their families on the ranch.

She had believed Bobby until now. Knowing that Bobby was a convincing liar, she felt a trifle ashamed because Jake didn’t seem to fit that pattern at all. Jake had said that he and Bobby went to the same school. Alongside Jake, Bobby would be weak by comparison. Was jealousy the reason for Bobby’s animosity toward him?

She didn’t want him to move out. Without being aware of it, she felt a measure of security with him there.

Her thoughts turned to her mother, who was more than likely out in number one cabin with Frank Pierce. She had been home three weeks, and during that time her mother had not done one thing to help her in the house or with the cabins. She hadn’t washed one dish or fixed a meal, except for herself. She was on a fast road to destruction, and Mary Lee didn’t know what to do about it.

When she was little, her father always explained that her mother was sick when she went on one of her binges. The first time Mary Lee became aware that something other than being sick was wrong with her mother was when she was about eight years old. Before that, she knew to stay out of her way when the woman laughed too loudly or hugged her too hard, and when she talked nastily to Daddy. Sometimes Dolly would disappear, and Daddy would walk the floor and wait for her to come home. When Mary Lee was older, he would leave her and go look for Dolly, oftentimes bringing her home screaming obscenities at him.

One time she had crawled up into her daddy’s lap and asked, “Why isn’t Mama like other mamas? I don’t want her to come to school. The kids call her names ’cause she acts funny.”

“Your mama’s got a craving for liquor, honey. It’s like she can’t live without it. We wouldn’t turn our back on her if she was sick with the measles or whooping cough. We can’t turn from her because she has this other sickness. She’s nice some of the time, now, isn’t she?”

“Sometimes. But . . . I want a mama who brings cookies to school on my birthday like Trudy’s mama does.”

“Cookies on your birthday? Why didn’t you tell me, love? You’ll have cookies on your birthday . . . big ones with your name on them.”

“Really?”

“Really. I’ll see to it.”

Her daddy had brought the cookies, and they were special because he’d had a lady at the bakery bake them. The kids had enjoyed them, and for a while she had basked in their goodwill; but later one of them asked if her daddy had to get them at the bakery because her mama had been too drunk to bake them.