Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (22 page)

Danny narrowed his eyes and asked
, “Is that what this trip was about? Lisa, do you love me?”

“I love you with all my heart, Danny. I have never dated anyone like you.”
She reached to kiss him.

Her be
auty and earnestness over whelmed him. He kissed her again and again.

She grab
bed his hand and rushed him upstairs to her room again. Frantically, they undressed each other and made love again.

Danny noticed the time and he realized that he needed
to pack quickly in order to make it to the airport in time. Christopher stood by waiting outside with the limousine ready.

“Please think about what we talked about this morning,” she requested.

“I will,” he promised as he headed up to the terminal for his flight home.

He
slept most of the way home. When his airplane pulled into the Tulsa International Airport, he was glad to see Tulsa again. It wasn’t long until he tossed his suitcase into the back of his pickup and headed home down HWY 66. He reached up and patted the dash of his beloved used pickup and said, “You’re mine, Baby. You’re paid for with my own money.”

The closer he got to home the more relaxed he felt and the happier he became.
He didn’t have any regrets about visiting the lovely Lisa and the whirlwind trip he had taken.

He could see as he thought about her on his way home, Lisa was definitely in her element in New York City. She was exciting, loving, and intelligent. He knew
she had a lot to offer aside from her dad offering him a position with the fast promotions and the promise of a big salary someday.

He could see how Oklahoma would be a little back woodsy and boring to her. She was beautiful. Life with her could be like living in a dream.

CHAPTER TWENTY
FOUR

He entered his gravel driveway shortly after eight in the evening. It had been dark for over two hours now. He glanced over at the old mustard clapboards of the house
. He hated that color but he thought it’s mine, paid for with my own money.

Frisker bounced around the truck making playful yapping sounds. Danny opened the door and Frisker jumped into his arms so happy to see him. Usually he didn’t let Frisker lick his face but this time he let him show his appreciation. He put him back down and said, “Come on, boy. Let’s go see our calves and pigs.”

Danny surveyed all his barns and livestock, and peeked in on the roosting chickens. This is my inheritance he thought. A peace came over him. Frisker still was wriggling all over and licking his lips. He reached down, scratched behind his ears, and petted the pup, “Yeah, ol’ boy, I missed you, too.”

He could tell that Ted had taken good care of everything. Water and feed was readily available for all the animals.
When he reached the house, the kittens were hanging on the screen waiting for him. He went in the house and poured them a bowl of milk. Then he called Ted, “Thank you for taking care of everything so well. Anytime you need anything, all you need to do is ask.”

Ted answered, “Okay, Danny. I was happy to help out. Now, about that other thing I need,
I’ll sit down and start making a list.”

Danny laughed, knowing that Ted was teasing. He thought about how nice it was to have good neighbors on whom he could depend.

Next he called his mom to let her know that he was safe and sound back on the farm. It took him at least an hour to tell her everything she wanted to know about his trip.

He went back out and retrieved his suitcase from the back of the pickup and set it inside his bedroom.
Next, in the kitchen he pulled out a couple of cans of Vienna sausages and wrapped them in the last of his stale loaf of bread. Pulled a cola from the refrigerator and sat at his old used table. My, it was good to be back home. He turned on the radio and shared his sausages with Frisker who gulped them down hardly chewing them. He tossed the bread wrapper and the empty cans in the trash and poured himself a large glass of milk. He reached into the bottom drawer of the refrigerator and got an apple and an orange to finish off his meal. His banana was already black so he tossed it in the trash.

He told Frisker, “This is good home
cookin’.”

Frisker responded with his usual wiggles watching to see if another Vienna sausage would be forthcoming.

Danny lay back on his bed without tossing the kittens out and stretched out on his bed with his feet hanging off the bed. The kittens immediately curled up on the bed by his legs. Frisker curled up on the floor beside the bed and laid his head across Danny’s shoes.

As he drifted off to sleep he remembered that he forgot to put his shoes up on the shelf in the closet, but he was too sleepy to do anything about it. The next thing that hit his brain was that if Lisa loved him as much as she claimed why did she wait so many months to contact him? He was too tired to give that much thought.

When he awoke the next morning he stretched and smiled. How good it was to be back home again! He put the kittens and dog outside and then took care of his own ablutions.

He went about all morning humming and singing the song
, Ain’t
It Good To Be Back Home Again
. After checking his mail he noticed another sack of fan mail to deal with. He tied into them with renewed vigor and got them out of the way. He went into town to deliver them to the post office and bought more groceries. He remembered that Roger Sinclair the biographer should contact him within the next few days to get started.

Back in New York City when Lisa got back home from the airport, Mr. Marvel asked her, “What’s the status? Did he give you an answer?”

She shook her head, “No, Dad. He only said that he would think about it.” She moped around the house all afternoon. She tried reading in her dad’s library but now it had too memories of Danny. She could still visualize the concern written all over his face as he questioned her about her mother. She thought about the hope he tried to impart to her as he advised her to look on the good side of the situation. Only Danny could find something hopeful in such a tragedy in her life. The only good thing about it that she could find was how close she and her father had become.

She went out to her favorite hangout but she found memories of Danny there, too. She danced with abandonment
still not eradicating any memories. After a couple of hours she went back home and went to her room. When she entered the door the first thing she saw was Danny’s t-shirt that he wore the night before laying on her bed where he left it. He intended to put it in his suitcase. Apparently, she thought he never got it done. She picked it up and smelled of his scent on the shirt then kissed it. She looked over at the picture of them so happy that night after a game and burst into tears.

Quickly she took off her own clothes and
pulled his t-shirt over her naked breast feeling the material slide down her body. She slipped under her sheets and let the tears slide down her face. She pondered, how could anyone turn down the offer Danny was given? She already missed him so much. She spread herself across the bed where they had made love so many times while he was here.

Tears continued to slide
out the corners of her eyes; she wished he was still here. Intuitively she already knew what his decision would be.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

With mixed feelings Angela drove past Danny’s house noticing his pickup was back in the driveway. She had pondered if she was doing the right thing by going to Los Angeles for her audition for the modeling agency, but when Ted had told her that Danny had asked him to take care of his animals so that he could go to New York with his old girl friend, she knew that she had made the right decision.

How could she live next door to him and still make it from one day to the next? It was better to move on. She could make it as a model. It would be interesting work, she would get to travel, and as a model she would make good money.

She made the decision to drive to Los Angeles because she didn’t want to be stranded with no transportation to get to her appointments. The old car might not be as fancy as what a lot of other people owned but it was hers and paid for to boot. Fortunately, her friend Teresa Meyers had offered to let her stay in her apartment until she could get on her feet. Teresa explained that she was rarely there anyway
. Angela pulled all her money out of savings. If she got really desperate and needed to crawl home shamefully embarrassed, she knew her father would bale her out and send her enough money to make it home.

She pushed aside the thought that her parents needed her to help plant the vegetable garden and tend it. A guilty twinge touched Angela’s heart thinking of all the work that her mother would have to do mostly by herself now that she
was leaving home again. Still there were plenty of other brothers and sisters who lived close by to help her if necessary. Ted still lived at home and her dad helped in a pinch. She tried to think of the future and not worry about what was at home.

Three days later Angela pulled into the address that Teresa had given her. She gave her name to doorman. He was a small man with a big mustache that wiggled when he talked. He introduced himself, “My name is Sam Whitely. Teresa
said you would be coming. I have a key for you. If there is anything you need, please feel free to ask. I will assist you in any way I can.”

He picked up her luggage and rode with her
up the elevator to the apartment on the third floor. He unlocked the door to #312 and carried her luggage inside the door. He handed her the key. She reached in her purse and gave him a tip and thanked him for helping her.

Angela walked through the living room admiring the décor. It appeared to have the latest in modern designs with
avocado shag carpet, matching avocado drapes. Avocado tile continued into the kitchen area with harvest gold appliances. Burnt orange splashes of color in the counter and other orange accents in vases and silk flowers displayed in the kitchen and living room area.

She pulled back the drapes lighting the room with brilliant sunshine. The view from the window showed the parking lot below. Not
as beautiful as the farm, Angela decided but she did like that she could look down and see her car from her living room window.

Maybe in a short while she could afford her own apartment. She saw a door that opened up on a small balcony from her
kitchen. She stepped out and could see rows and rows of other apartment buildings. Well, she thought, she would put some plants out here to soften the view and make a reason why she would want to come out here.

She went in to unpack and found that all the dresser drawers were full of Teresa’s things. In a quandary about what to do, she mentally apologized to Teresa and began moving all of her things into one side of the dresser so that she could have the other side.

In the kitchen she found a few spices in the cabinets along with a can of tomato sauce, some cans of soup, and a box of spaghetti. In the refrigerator she found a box of soda along with some mustard and ketchup. Well, obviously, Teresa doesn’t cook much or she isn’t here often, Angela thought.

She hadn’t eaten since she left the edge of Arizona early that morning, so she consoled herself with the idea that she was due an indulgence. She picked up the phone, thankful that she heard the dial tone and ordered in pizza from the phone book lying nearby. She knew that if she became a model that her days of ordering pizza were at an end.

Her interview was still a few more days away and she promised herself that during that time she would watch what she ate and cream and pamper her skin with all the products that Teresa left for her stacked in the bathroom. She also had given Angela permission to use any of it she wanted.

She felt really tired from three days of traveling by herself, so when the pizza came she stretched out comfortably on the couch, turned on the television and indulged on the wonderful forbidden pizza.

When Angela walked into AFFINITY Talent and Model Agency she felt like a small entity within a large overwhelming mass of people who had come to apply for a job. She wondered how she could ever have a chance among this throng of applicants. Still, she decided, she had pulled all her savings and driven all this way, she wouldn’t leave without at least giving it a fair shot.

After standing quite a while in line she finally approached the desk and gave her name. She showed the card that she had received offering her an interview. The woman asked her to step into a waiting room #14 down the left hall.

Another thirty minutes went by while she waited among several other applicants who already sat waiting. She appreciated that at least she could sit while she waited. Finally, a tall woman wearing a royal blue suit and whose dyed black hair which had been severely pulled back in a bun on the nap of her neck entered the room called for Angela Dodd.

Angela rose with a smile and held out her hand to the woman who glanced at Angela’s offered hand and whirled and said, “Follow me.”

Angela glanced around at the others waiting, raised her eyebrows and smiled, and then followed the woman already walking down the hall. She took her to a nicely decorated office with live green plants sitting by the only window. A middle aged woman with blond hair that curled softly around her shoulders and wore a soft yellow suit which matched her hair rose from her desk when Angela entered the room and introduced herself, “Hello, I’m Pamela Shelby. I understand you are a friend of Teresa Meyers.”