End of the Road (Ghost Stories Trilogy #1) (3 page)

Chapter Four

“Helen!” I called as I
ran down the front walk.

The front screen door
slammed shut behind her as she came out onto the porch. “What is it? What’s
wrong?”

“Nothing! Everything is
great!” I swept her up and spun her around, planting a kiss on her lips before
setting her back down.

“Lawrence, what’s come
over you?” She giggled and pressed against me.

“I got a job with the CCC
and Garfield settled his debt. Well, Buck Carrington paid it for him, but
either way we have cash!”

“Shhh…the neighbors might
hear.” She put the tips of two fingers over my mouth.

“What neighbors?” I joked
and kissed her fingertips. The homes on either side of us had been abandoned
for over a year.

“Stop, you’re terrible,”
she swatted at me and laughed. “Does this mean we’re moving?”

“Yes, I refuse to leave
you and the kids here alone and unprotected. We go on this adventure together.”

“When?”

When I told her we had to
be in Flagstaff in two weeks, her eyebrows pinched together causing a deep
crease to form in the middle of her forehead.

“That doesn’t give us a
lot of time to pack. How long will we be up there? We can leave some of our
things here and come back.”

I took her hands in mine
and gave them a gentle squeeze. “Helen, we’re not coming back. When we leave,
we’re surrendering the house.”

“What?”

“Besides people will
steal, thinking we’ve abandoned the place.”

“The place? This is our home,
Lawrence. We picked it out, had it built.”

“There’s something I need
to tell you.”  Releasing one of her hands, I reached up and caressed her cheek.
“We were doing okay up until six months ago, but I haven’t paid the mortgage in
five months. Either way we’re losing the house.”

She opened her mouth to
say something, but closed it with a snap. Her usually full lips formed a
straight line when she pressed them together.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say
anything, but you’ve been worried enough. Besides I manage the finances, this
was my responsibility.”

Her eyes glittered with
tears when she turned away from me and I could see she was struggling to keep them
in check. She tilted her head back slightly and blinked.

“We have a lot to do
then,” she said finally, her voice rough with emotion. “Let’s tell the
children.”

“In a minute; I want to
discuss something with you first.”

“What else haven’t you
told me, Lawrence?” Her tone was sharp, something I wasn’t used to hearing.

“This opportunity in
Flagstaff is a good one and I’ll be making a dollar more an hour than the
laborers. I think we should save as much as we can and move back East.”

This was something I knew
Helen wanted more than keeping our house. Adjusting to Phoenix had been
difficult for her. While the climate was supposed to be good for her asthma,
she missed the bustling streets of Boston and damp, foggy days. Her jaw
softened and she let the tears spill.

“Oh Lawrence, don’t kid!”

“I’m not.”

“But…what about my
asthma?”

“We’ll figure something
out. Father has made great progress with his research. When the economy went south,
it made me realize just how far away we are from our families.”

“I know. It’s been so
hard these past few years. Are you serious? Because if you’re not I’ll be so mad
at you!”

I laughed when she playfully
swatted at my chest again and drew her towards me for a kiss. I cupped her face
in my hands and said, “I’m serious,” before lowering my lips to hers. While they
were pressed together I felt her smile. At that moment I was so thankful for
what we lacked in material possessions, we more than compensated for with our love.

We stood in the middle of
the kitchen, our arms wrapped loosely around each other, Helen’s head on my
shoulder, Sara and Teddy’s giggles drifting up from the basement. We had come
close to losing everything and I vowed to keep our family together.

“Are you hungry?” Helen
murmured into the collar of my suit jacket.

They had already eaten
lunch, but I was famished and Helen set a hardboiled egg, a slice of toast and
an orange at my place setting. She called the children upstairs and we filled
them in on the news while I ate.

Their reaction was a
mixture of sadness, resignation and a little bit of excitement. I’m glad that
Helen and I had prepared them for the possibility of moving. Helen started
making a list of what needed to be done before our departure. We were busy
discussing when someone knocked on the front door.

“Lawrence?” A male voice
called through the screen door.

I set my napkin on the
table and stood up. Helen had already left to let our guest in. She walked into
the kitchen with John Keeley following close behind.

“He has our horse?”

“Right! In all of the
excitement I forgot you were bringing one by.”

I shook John’s hand and
we went out front. The mare, Sally, chewed on a clump of dried grass and
regarded me with large brown eyes. She had begun to turn gray around her mouth
and some of her ribs were showing under her taut skin, but overall she appeared
to be fairly healthy.

“Sorry I can’t do more
for you Lawrence.”

“I understand. Are you
going to Flagstaff too?”

“Nope, too old. Thought
I’d give it a try, but I couldn’t fool them.” He smiled and his eyes disappeared
into thick wrinkles. With his white hair and leathery skin, he didn’t look a
day under sixty and I wasn’t surprised he had been turned away.

“Well, best of luck to
you and Katherine. We have to be up there in two weeks.”

“Good luck to you and
your family. I’m glad things are working out for you,” John said as he hoisted
himself up on another horse, a tall black one with a glossy coat and not a
single rib showing. He tipped his straw cowboy hat at me and I waved farewell
as he trotted down the street.

Sara and Teddy bounded
out of the house to inspect Sally. She chewed and stared, not fazed at all by
the tiny hands patting her sides. She bumped her nose into Teddy’s thick brown
hair and exhaled. He laughed and twitched his shoulder up to scratch his ear.
Sara jumped up and down.

“Can I ride her, Daddy?”

“No sweetheart, she seems
to be hungry plus we don’t have a saddle your size. You can help me bring her
into the backyard though.”

Both Teddy and Sara
grabbed her bridle, led her up the gravel driveway and around to the backyard.
I opened the gate and closed it securely behind as soon as Sally was through.

She took to the garden
like a fish to water and was soon munching on carrot greens.

“Gee, she is really
hungry,” Teddy commented.

I feared for the garden,
but we weren’t going to be there much longer. What we were going to do with
Sally presented another issue.

“We could sell her,”
Helen suggested when we lay in bed later that night. Even with the fan it was
too hot to sleep, plus both of us were feeling the burden of the move.

“I thought of that, but
before actually seeing Sally. The only reason someone will buy an old horse
like her is for food or glue and I can’t do that, besides the children are
already attached.”

“I don’t think they’re
the only ones,” she said and nudged my side with her elbow. “We can’t afford to
take her with us.”

“I know. Let’s see what
this week brings. I’ll ask around.”

“Okay,” she kissed my
cheek and rolled over. A few minutes later her steady, soft breathing filled
the room. I always envied her ability to fall asleep so easily. I spent the
next couple of hours staring at the ceiling, willing sleep to come.

At some point in the
middle of the night, Helen sought me out and I awoke to her body pressed
against mine as she placed soft kisses along my jawline. Turning my head, I
captured her lips, drawing her into a deep kiss. She sighed and pressed closer.
Rolling her onto her back, I bunched her nightgown up around her hips and
settled between her legs as she pulled down my pajama bottoms. I entered her
and she let out a faint gasp, her nails biting into the skin on my shoulders.
Wordlessly, we moved together. Helen tilted her head to kiss me again and
that’s when I saw tears glistening in the moonlight.
     “Shhh, my love, we’re going to be fine,” I whispered to her and she closed
her eyes before arching against me, a smile curling up her lips. She must have
needed our connection and I didn’t realize how badly I did too until we lay
there afterwards, drowsy and satisfied, on sweat dampened sheets.

The next morning I woke
up perspiring. The familiar whir of our fan was missing. Helen was already out
of bed and I wandered down the hall to the kitchen. She was sitting at the
table, the crease between her eyebrows had returned.

“What’s wrong?”

“The electricity has been
shut off. I can’t even percolate coffee on the stove.”

“Damn it! I thought we’d
have more time. I’ll go downtown and pay our bill using some of the money from Garfield.”

“Sally practically
decimated the garden overnight. She needs feed and we need food.”

“Okay, let’s all go. You
can buy groceries while I take care of the bill.”

The prospect of getting
out of the house cheered Helen and she went to get ready. I took a cold shower,
indoor plumbing being one of the modern conveniences we included when we had
our house built and quickly got dressed.

Helen and the children
were piled into the car. I slid into the driver’s seat, engaged the hand brake,
turned the key to battery in the ignition, and stepped on the starter, but the engine
didn’t start, just clicked. I tried again, checking the choke and the throttle,
and still nothing happened. I didn’t know anything mechanically about cars, but
assumed that it didn’t even have enough gas to turn over the engine.

I smacked the palms of my
hands against the steering wheel and turned to Helen.

“Sorry, I’m going to have
to find a gas station.”

“I understand,” she said
and stepped out of the car. “Come on kiddos.” She held her door open so Teddy
and Sara could scurry out from the backseat.

It took ten minutes to
walk to the light rail line and another twenty for a trolley to arrive.
Fortunately, the rail line ran along Central and a Texaco was only five miles
down the line.

I paid the deposit on a
can, bought five gallons of gas and returned home less than two hours later. The
car sputtered to life after putting fuel in the tank. Helen gathered the children
and we drove downtown.

After parking, our first
task was calling our families in Boston. Helen’s father’s phone was
disconnected. I had better luck with my parents. When we told them of our plans
to move back after the government job, they were thrilled, but also worried.

“It’s a long drive,
Lawrence,” my father cautioned.

“I know, but we want to
come home. It’s so different out here.”

“We want you home too,
just please be careful and phone us when you get to Flagstaff.”

I promised and we said
our goodbyes. Helen took the kids to the store while I went to pay the electric
bill and return the gas can. I also stopped in at the barber and splurged on a
haircut.

When I arrived at the
grocery store, Helen was waiting outside with the children, but she didn’t have
any bags of groceries with her.

“They heard you came into
some money. We need to pay off our balance for the store credit before I can
buy anything else,” she explained.

Phoenix may be the
largest city in the state, but gossip spread like it was a small town.
Obviously my supposed windfall had become news.

“No, we’ll make good on
our debt. The Albertson’s have been kind extending credit to us. Let’s go.”

A bell over the door
signaled our entrance. I handed Helen a dollar and told her to treat her and
the kids to a milkshake at the counter. I strode over to the owner, Sam
Albertson, and squared up what we owed. Before I went to join them, I stopped
and observed Helen and the kids. They were laughing, Sara had ice cream on her
nose and Teddy was sticking his tongue out at her. I marveled at how happy and
ordinary this scene appeared to be and wished we could have an outing like this
every day. When Helen was finished with her shake I stayed with the children
while she shopped. There was a cribbage board at the counter and I took turns
playing them. Most of our debts were paid, the only major one being our
mortgage, yet this didn’t do much to quell the gnawing sense of failure. Perhaps
it was my occupation, or just my own ethics, but guilt consumed me when I
thought about the impending foreclosure.

***

The following week went
by fast. We were busy packing and selling items we couldn’t bring with us. The
extra money, even if it didn’t amount to much, would help pay for our fresh
start. The issue of Sally still existed. Despite asking around no one was interested
in buying an old mare, save for one person - Mr. Albertson. The grocery store
owner was willing to give me five dollars for her and that was practically
giving her away – the saddle was worth more than that amount. By the end of the
week though, I was beginning to reconsider. She cost a small fortune in feed
and had destroyed our garden. The smell of manure was constant and Helen wasn’t
thrilled about the increase in the fly population either.

Despite Teddy and Sara’s
protests, the day before we were set to leave, I rode Sally into town and
dropped her off with Mr. Albertson. He threw in an extra $2.00 for the saddle.
One thing about the Depression, if you had the money, great bargains could be
had.

That night Helen and I
sat at the kitchen table and plotted our course. We debated over which route to
take. I insisted that we take the county road that went up past Black Canyon
City, although not a well-traveled road, it was more direct than the more
popular US 89 which would take us west through Wickenburg and then north.