In Search of Satisfaction (35 page)

Phillip and his father Richard had spent many, many long times together. Richard had wanted to prepare Phillip for his future. Among the things he had told Phillip was that in Yoville, Creed would be a true friend and would tell him whatever he wanted to know and would help him do whatever he wanted to do if he could. Phillip went to see Creed from the riverboat. Later, he had walked the streets of the little town of Yoville. He had stood looking at the Befoe mansion for the first time. He had been on vacations and to special events at the other mansion that had belonged to his great-grandmother, but this house he had not known. He had been told that his grandmother Carlene did not want to be reminded of the unplesantness of his birth. He awaited the day of the funeral to go see his “grandfather” for the last time. He was grieving.

When Arabella arrived, Sally told Carlene, the grieving widow. Her quick response was, “That bitch cannot stay in my house! Richard had nothing to do with her! Just because she married my father does not mean she is part of my family! She won’t climb up in society on me! She is tainted forever!”

Sally sent word to Yin, who was upset because she might not be well enough after the birth of her son, to attend the funeral and she knew, just knew! that many rich men would be there. Yin sent word back, “Of course, Arabella Befoe is welcome in my house. Please extend my invitation to her and I will prepare a room immediately.”

Before Arabella left for Yin’s, she gave Sally her father’s present. It was a diamond locket that had belonged to her mother, Victoria Befoe. Sally was overcome when she opened the small package. “Oh! Oh, he did love me, didn’t he? He thought of me?!”

Arabella laughed gently, “Of course he thought of you. He loved you. You are his daughter! I would even say his favorite daughter, in the end.”

Sally shook her mature and still pretty head. “Oh, no. I cannot believe that. He left all he had to Carlene. He left me nothing to say good-bye, farewell.”

Arabella frowned. “Are you sure? I’m positive he left you half of his estate, after he took care of me and our children. It was a huge estate. He left trusts for Richlene. I KNOW he left you half of his estate.”

Sally, bewildered, said, “I have a letter from his attorneys telling me there was nothing for me. That he thought my husband’s family would take care of me.” Arabella looked confused and distressed until she heard Sally continue, “They told me not to contact them, they would contact me if something was to come up for me.”

Arabella narrowed her eyes. “Who gave you the letter?”

“It was in the mail.”

“Anyone can mail a letter. Did you never contact them?”

“Oh, no. They said not to.”

“Sally, you are your father’s daughter, are you not?”

“I am.”

“Then how could you be such a foolish woman? Any fool would look into their business! For God’s sake!”

Sally was confused and too overwhelmed to think. Servants were seeking her out constantly for some information or other. She turned Arabella over to Luke who would take her to Yin Yang’s house. “I will bring the letter to you. I would like you to read it and tell me what you think. And …” She touched the locket fondly. “Thank you, so much, so much.” Then she was off to her sister’s business and her dear friend’s funeral arrangements. Carlene had sent word she was unable to do anything.

b
efore the funeral began, Carlene cried openly, emotionally, as though she had lost the love of her life. Her gown, specially ordered, flowed full to the floor in black silk bombazine, with many tucks to hide the lumps that were now part of her body. The dressmaker had done quite well; Carlene looked rich and lovely. The veils covered her face in stark light were pushed back when the lights were more flattering to her.

Clutching the arms of the rich and, some, handsome men who extended a hand to her with sympathy or other plans, Carlene looked at
them all. And they all looked at her. Some with schemes, some with ambitions, some wondering how much she knew of her husband’s business, his very private financial business. Of course, there were some there who were as well off as Richard had been or better. They came because others like themselves would be there and it was going on 1916 and there were things to be addressed in private. Like the coming wars. Or other devious plans. The labor business. The international business. Of course Satan was there, he saw many friends of his own in one place that day.

This was a rich woman indeed! She controlled millions and millions. A woman with no new husband to advise her. Everyone milled around her. Wives of ambitious men fluttered near her offering condolences and friendship. A proper squeeze of the hand may mean an invitation to one who looked to get ahead in life and only lacked a bit of power. No one looked at her with love or true sympathy.

Richlene sat in the garden that she knew her father had loved, where he had sat so often talking with Luke or Creed. She had chosen to wear white. It was a full-length, quiet dress. She would sometimes go into the little chapel Richard had built and there she would think of him and cry a little. Her tears were almost all shed, she had cried so much. “He was my friend as well as my father. He loved me. Really loved me,” she thought to herself. “Now, there is only Sally and Luke. And no, I do not like my son, Carl, God. He is like my mother. He does not love anyone. Oh, he tries to fool her, but I know him.” Then she would cry again quietly. “Oh, Daddy. Why did you leave me here in this house alone?”

In another proper room, Richard Befoe lay upon a bier. And there was no one in there with him except Phillip his son by his half-sister. The flags on Wall Street and other places in the financial world were at half-mast for Richard and here he lay, a man who had no real children by those from whom he would have wanted children. Children he could have raised, loved and shown to the world from their birth. A man, he was, who had cried himself to sleep sometimes. Whose wife had helped to kill him. A man who had been lied to by some of those nearest and dearest to him. A man who had wanted love. Love. Who had love to give. Would now miss giving it to the son who would want it in his adult years and would have given him love in return. Had Phillip not done so already? A man whose legal wife, in name only, had slapped him even as he lay dying. A man who never rested comfortably in the arms of love,
carnal or married. But then … but then, he was loved. Richlene and his son, Phillip, truly loved him. That is far more than some have.

Satan lay his head in his hand and laughed and laughed and laughed. He looked among those at the funeral and said, though of course, they could not hear, “Look, see, what many of you will have … or not have. What you too will come to.” He laughed at them, but he did not leave. There was too much capacity for evil at this assembly for him to leave. Some of these very men were controllers of great parts of the world, of wars, of poverty, of pain. Many friends of his. He could not leave. He had many suggestions to make to many there who might join forces, businesses. He looked at Carlton standing near his grandmother, solicitously listening for and doing her simplest request. “Ahh, there is such duplicity, such ambition, greed. Not too much backbone, but a good liar nevertheless. Such potential for evil. There was hate there also. Good! The one weakness was that the boy, way in the back of his mind, wanted love. Well. When the time comes, we will see what we will see.”

Satan looked at Richlene. “She will have so much money of her own now. That should make her interesting. But … she does not know evil from the inside of herself. She does not really hate anyone, not even her mother. She just does not want to be around her. But I can reach her through her love. Ahhhh, that is such a weakness humans have.”

Satan looked at Emily, sitting close to her mother. He smiled, “That one is going to be someone to deal with! She knows love, though. She has learned through her mother. Well, never mind, she loves money and the power it will bring. Let’s see what happens to the love then!” He turned his ravaging eyes to more positive people with more possibilities.

c
arlene had urged the minister to be quick because “no one really feels like standing around the dead for too long. And I am too sad and full of grief to take too much, so … if you will hurry through your text. That is what you call it, isn’t it?”

Soon the funeral was over and Richard had been laid to rest. Carlene noticed Richard’s attorney standing over the gravesite, shaking his head sadly. “Hmmmm, I didn’t know he cared. Or that he was such a good actor!” Then she was lifted into her carriage and taken to her house.

Carlene was still being courted or honored by all the rich men of
opportunity. Everyone planned to stay for the supper. They had heard, somehow, of the cook. The cook was Hosanna and the food was going to be marvelous. The smells wafted even to the outside of the Befoe house. Hosanna had several helpers and had even brought her sister Lovey in the wagon to help and make some small money for herself, and to learn, of course.

Arabella was there now; many gentlemen admired her and showed it. Carlene said nothing. When Sally came near to offer a drink to the gentlemen surrounding Carlene, she was wearing the locket that had belonged to her mother. Carlene saw it at once and spoke sharply to Sally, “Where did you get that, my necklace, Sally?” Hearing the sharpness in her own voice, Carlene softened it. “That is our dear mother’s locket. She gave it to me, she loved me so. I had it put away. Where did you find it, dear Sally?”

“Why, it is my necklace, Carlene.”

Carlene stiffened, she did not expect to be opposed by Sally. “I know what belongs to me and what does not, Sally dear. You may wear it today, of course, but return it to me tonight. It is very dear to me.”

Arabella spoke from almost across the room, “You must be mistaken, Carlene. Your dear father gave it to me to give to Sally from her mother. Sally was too young when your dear mother died. He kept it for her, for love. I brought it just yesterday. Dear.”

Flustered, Carlene answered, “Well then, I must be mistaken. Oh, yes … I see now, it is not the one she gave to me herself. Forgive me, dear Sally.”

Arabella smiled. “How can she not?”

Carlene leaned back in her chair, whispering, “My smelling salts, please.”

c
reed’s son, Lincoln, came with his father. He stood back from the general crowd. He could see Lovey who had been carried out of the kitchen in the red wagon where she finished her work. She was forced to remain outside now in the garden and on the sidelines of everything so she would not be in anyone’s way. She did not want to be too noticed. However, she had seen the tall, handsome colored man who was dressed so nice. She caught his eye, she stared at him so, he stepped to the side
of the red wagon. He thought she was a very pretty child. “Too bad about her legs,” he thought. “She would have been a real heartbreaker. May still be one, for some fellow like her.”

He spoke to Lovey, “Hello! Enjoying yourself? These are lovely gardens, aren’t they?”

Lovey smiled, shyly, “Yes, sir, they sho are.” Her face lit up and her pretty, clean teeth showed in her smile. “My brother, Luke, he do the gardening here. Sometime I help him and Miz Richlene work in it.”

Lincoln smiled back larger, “You do? You are very smart!” He knelt down beside her. “Is this your little automobile?”

Lovey laughed softly, shyly. “No, sir. My sister Hosanna, she just came here carrying her things in it.” Her eyes widened. “From Washington D.C.” Lincoln laughed. She continued, “It just a easy way to bring me here so I wouldn’t have to stay home alone again.” She thought a moment. “But I wouldn’t want to miss this. All the ladies in them pretty clothes. I would’a trudged over here on my knees like I usual do if I’d a had to!”

Hosanna had come up to them and heard the last few things Lovey had said. “Here my sister, Hosanna, now! She the cook here! Don’t that food smell sure nuff good!”

Lincoln turned to Hosanna. “That food sure does smell sure nuff good.” He smiled at her.

Hosanna smiled back politely. “Are you Mr. Creed’s son, Lincoln?”

“Yes, I am his son.”

“I have heard of you. You are the one who is away in college?”

“For now. If there is a war, I may be away in the army.”

“What army? I haven’t heard of any new war.”

“After they settle it in Washington, you will hear of it.”

“You study all those big important things in college, don’t you?”

“Well, they’re important to me. I’m studying law.”

“Do you learn how to fix things? You know about cars?”

“I only know the principle behind them. I haven’t built one.” He laughed, amused.

Hosanna was now serious. “Well, Mr. Lincoln, I would like you to see what you can do to this wagon for my sister. It would be a good way to make her more independent if she could get around in the street without being on her knees.” She leaned down to the wagon where Lovey was sitting looking up at them. “See, this handle could be made
so she can work it better from the inside of the wagon. You know what I mean? Then if she had a stick or something like an oar they use on boats? Well, she could push herself where she want to go, mostly.”

Lincoln knelt down. “Yes, I do see what you mean. It’s not really something I know, exactly. But I sure can think about it. I think I can come up with something that will help a little bit.”

Hosanna smiled her brightest smile to him, even though she was tired as she could be. She and Lovey had been there cooking and preparing since before daylight. “Lovey, Miz Sally say I can lay down on her bed a little minute. I’ve got to rest my back, chile. You want to go with me or you want to stay out here?”

The answer came quickly, “Oh, I wanna stay out here and watch all the people! You go ’head, I’ll be right here.”

“Okay.” Hosanna was gone with a “bye, Mr. Lincoln, thank you” over her shoulder.

Lovey looked up at Lincoln, waiting for him to move away, but he didn’t. Her little young, twelve-year-old heart was so proud, so pleased that this tall, handsome brown city man had even stopped to talk to her. Strangely, tears came to her throat, but she would not have cried for all the world. He looked down at her, noticing the misty eyes. “Are you alright? What’s your name?”