Chapter nine
Matt stepped out of the bathroom an hour later, shaved, showered and feeling just about as good as he ever had, at least in recent memory. The first thing he noticed was that Sean wasn’t on the couch. He did a quick search of the house without finding either Sean or John. He then went out on the porch and scanned the yard. He walked around the house and went to the barn. Sean’s pickup was in the barn but Etty’s car was gone.
When he came through the back door Etty, who was clearly agitated said, “Where are the boys?”
“I don’t know, but your car is gone.”
“What about Sean’s pickup?”
“No, his pickups there, I have the keys in my pocket.”
“Where do you think they went Matt?”
“I don’t know but John must have gone willingly. Sean’s rifle is locked in his truck.”
“What do we do now?”
Matt walked over, bent down, kissed her on the forehead and said, “I’m going to make breakfast.”
While Matt was making breakfast his mind was running in circles like a dog chasing his tail, and with about the same results. Although he certainly didn’t wish he hadn’t found the ball, he was getting more and more worried about the future. His thought was that prior to this he led a relatively carefree existence. His only real worry had been the increasing frailty of his deteriorating body and the inevitable outcome. That however was the normal flow of life and there had been damn little that could be considered normal since his discovery. Then on a happier note, he thought, “my sex life sure has improved though.”
While they were eating breakfast, they talked about the boys, and tried to figure out what they were plotting. Both Matt and Etty agreed that the most likely thing was they had gone to get Sean’s sister. It seemed to make the most sense since both boys were adamant about Matt using the ball to heal her. After much discussion, Matt allowed as how he would heal her if they were right about what the boys were up to this morning. Matt said, “We have to leave here anyway, there’s no way around that, and maybe we can concoct a story that Sean can sell. Almost anything would be as plausible as the truth.”
They carried the dirty dishes to the sink and Etty began filling it with soapy water. Matt went to the bedroom and came back with a rifle and a handgun. Etty asked, “What are those for?”
“Just in case.”
Matt would have been the first to admit that he was becoming paranoid, but felt he had sufficient cause. He recalled a quip that he had heard while in the army, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean the bastards aren’t out to get you.” It brought a smile to his face and lightened his mood.
He helped Etty with the dishes and then said, “Let’s go out and sit on the porch. That way we can see if anyone comes.”
He leaned the rifle against the wall by the swing. He shoved the pistol down in the waistband of his pants at the small of his back and settled down on the swing. Etty sat down beside him, gazed out across the vast expanse, and said, “It must have been really pleasant growing up here on the ranch.”
“I guess it was. I never gave it a lot of thought. It was just always home.”
“Matt I can’t imagine what you think of me after the way I acted last night.”
“I think I love you Etty.”
This brought a wide grin to Etty’s face.
“I’ll confess something to you Etty. I’m aware that men like to think of themselves as being sophisticated when it comes to women, but the truth is I’ve only been with one woman in my life, until last night that is. Jeanie and I married very young. Shortly after we were married, I was drafted. She lived here on the ranch with my Dad while I was gone.”
“What about your mom?”
“My Mom died when I was young.”
“That must have been awful. I remember how hard it was on John when his father died.”
“It was one of the saddest times of my life, but at least I had my Dad. It was very hard on him, too. It seemed like there would be whole days when neither of us spoke.”
“Anyway, I stayed true to Jeanie while in the army. I was young and in love. When I came home from the service, I settled down to ranching with my Dad. She didn’t care much for the ranch but I convinced her it would be a great place to raise kids. The kids never came and when it became obvious that there wouldn’t be any, she pretty much lost interest in sex. I don’t think she ever cared much for that part of marriage anyway.”
“I can’t imagine anyone being uninterested in having sex with you.”
“Thank you, but the truth is, I was likely as much at fault as her. I had no experience and she may have just been to bashful to tell me what I needed to know.”
“I doubt that it was your fault Matt. You’re the most loving person I’ve ever known.”
“What I’m trying to say in my long winded inept way is that you make me happier than I’ve ever been.”
Etty put her arms around Matt’s neck, kissed him passionately, and said, “No one on this planet is happier than me right now.”
“Matt, If you don’t mind, why did you stay with her all those years?”
“I’m ashamed to say that I was afraid a divorce would cost me the ranch and I would have put up with just about anything to keep this ranch. Beside I still loved her I guess. You know how it is, you keep going along thinking it will get better and after awhile you get used to things the way they are and just accept it. Besides I was naive enough to think that most, if not all women were like that. When Dad died, she expected me to sell the ranch and move to town. For a while, she showed a renewed interest in our love life, but only as a ploy to get me to sell. Even as naïve as I was I could see through that. When it didn’t work her passion soon dried up. Enough of whining about poor old me. Etty, tell me about you.”
The change in Etty’s expression and body language was so sudden and severe that Matt was certain he had said or done something very wrong.
“What did I do?”
“You didn’t do anything Matt.”
Etty thought about how different her life and his was. She was certain that she could never make him understand and she wasn’t about to try. She was almost certain it would result in her losing him and she wasn’t going to take that chance. The thought of losing Matt was the most frightening thing she could imagine. After a long pause, she spoke in almost a whisper.
“Matt, I can’t talk about my life before I knew you. I didn’t have the kind of childhood you did and I’m afraid that if you knew the way I lived you might lose respect for me and I couldn’t stand that.”
“Etty, I can’t imagine anything that would affect the way I feel about you. I know I’ve led a fairly sheltered life but you may find me more understanding than you think.”
“Matt please don’t ask me. I promise I’ll never lie to you, but there are things I just can’t share. Maybe some day, maybe when were old again,”
A slight smile appeared and she brushed away a tear.
“I didn’t mean to spoil the mood. Do you still think you love me?”
“Yes. I’m certain.”
“Good, because I think I am truly in love for the fist time in my life. I will tell you one secret. John’s dad and I were not married. I would have married him but he never asked. John doesn’t know that and I’d appreciate if he never found out.”
“He’ll never hear it from me, you have my word.”
After a long silence he said, “Etty I won’t try to push you into anything, but I want you to know that I would like to share your life, both the good and the bad, whenever you’re ready.”
They sat on the porch, drinking coffee and talking the entire morning. They were just about to go inside to get out of the heat when Matt saw dust on the ranch road. About the same time Etty looked up and said, “Matt.”
“I see it.”
He glanced at the rifle, but left it where it was. When the car got within sight, Etty said, “That’s my car.”
When it pulled into the yard and stopped, a thick cloud of dust enveloped the car. When the dust cleared, they could see that John was in the driver’s seat. There was a young girl in the front passenger seat, and Sean was in the back. Matt assumed that the girl was Molly. The boys got out, went around to the trunk and got out a wheelchair. They put Molly in the chair and pushed it to the porch. They lifted the chair along with Molly, carried it up the steps and sat it on the porch.
Matt scowled at the boys, picked up the rifle and went inside to put it away. Etty said, “I’ll go fix lunch.”
Molly said, “I’d like to help” and followed her to the kitchen. Matt walked back out on the porch, looked at the boys and said, “You boys have brought a world of hurt on both of our families as sure as I’m standing on this porch.”
“Matt I think you’re blowing this all out of proportion.”
“You’re an idiot John. Your mother and I are leaving here first thing in the morning, and you will be with us.”
“Mister Macklin, I swear I won’t tell a soul.”
“Sean you’re an idiot too. How are you going to explain Molly walking? A sudden miracle?”
“That’s a good idea Mister Macklin. It’s at least as believable as the truth.”
“It might work if you could keep you’re mouth shut, but I don’t believe you will. I trusted John and look where that got me.”
“You can trust me.”
“Not enough to risk my life on. I’ll do what you want… not for you, but because it is what Etty wants, and because I figure it’s the right thing to do. You guys go on in the house now. I’ll be in shortly.”
Mat went to the Toyota and opened the front passenger door. He reached in and pushed down on the bar that is normally lifted to adjust the seat forward and backward. When he pushed down on it, the seat unlocked in the front and flipped back on a hinge. Matt lifted a flap of carpet inserted his key and unlocked the box. He took out the little leather pouch containing the ball and put it in his pocket. He also took a surgical glove out of the box and shoved that down in his back pocket. He then took the gun out of his waistband, put it in the safe, relocked it and locked the seat back in position.
No one had much to say during lunch. They were all lost in their own thoughts. Sean was thinking about what Matt had said and was trying to concoct a story about Molly walking that would be believable. Molly was thinking about what Sean had told her. That Matt could make her walk. It sounded so impossible yet she really wanted to believe. He had told her that Matt was seventy-nine years old, but that too seemed impossible.
John was thinking about how his whole world had turned upside down, but mostly he was thinking about the fact that Matt was sleeping with his mother. She had always been a stickler for morals, but now that she had her youth back, she was jumping in bed with the first guy that came along. It never occurred to him that he was jealous of Matt.
Matt was thinking of how to start their life over in a way they could never be found. In the back of his mind was the nagging thought that no matter how well they hid, they would still have John with them and that he couldn’t be trusted to keep quiet.
Etty was just thinking about how much in love she was and that Matt had said he loved her. She was a little reluctant to put her future in the hands of another man, but she told herself that this man was not like Bobby. She absolutely could not imagine him asking her to do what Bobby had, no matter how bad things got.
After lunch Matt told Molly, he wanted to see her in private. He pushed her wheelchair out to the front porch and locked it in place beside the swing. He put on the glove, took the ball out of its pouch and sat down on the swing. If Molly saw anything strange in this ritual, she kept it to herself. Matt pressed the ball against the back of her neck, and a feeling of well being engulfed her. Matt held the ball there for about fifteen minutes while he explained the danger to him and his family if anyone learned of his ability. Before removing his hand, he asked Molly how she felt.
“I feel…This is really embarrassing Mister Macklin, but I feel…I feel like I want to have sex with you.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry but you asked. Mister Macklin. I don’t understand it myself, I did not even realize what the feeling was at first. I have never had a feeling like this in my life.”
“Don’t worry about it Molly. It’s just how it affects people. How old are you Molly?”
“I’m thirteen Mr. Macklin. I didn’t mean anything, I mean I wasn’t coming on to you or anything….I don’t know what to say.”
At first, Matt couldn’t imagine why it affected Molly the way it did but then realized he had never touched anyone while holding the ball, and thought maybe it effected everyone of the opposite sex that way. Matt thought that the powers of this object may be even greater than he had so far realized.
“Don’t be embarrassed Molly. It’s just a natural reaction to the process. It will pass quickly.”
That night Molly slept on the couch, and Sean and John slept in Matt’s room. Matt and Etty went to their room like a couple of kids in love, albeit with more knowledge.
The next morning Molly was acting as if it was Christmas morning. She said her legs . started tingling during the night and this morning she could move her feet,
After breakfast, Matt sat down with Sean on the front porch.“Sean this is what I came up with, you tell your Dad that you met an itinerant preacher in Roswell yesterday and he claimed he could heal Molly.”
“A what kind of preacher?”
“Never mind, Just say a wandering preacher. Say that he laid his hand on Molly’s head and prayed but nothing happened. You figured he was some sort of nut and went on your way. John had told you that he would be here at the ranch so you stopped on the way home. Time got away from you and we offered to have you stay over night. This morning Molly had feeling in her legs so you headed for home with the good news. Keep the story simple. Don’t embellish it. The simpler it is the easier it will be to keep from being tripped up.”
Although he further admonished Sean to keep his secret, he had no faith what so ever that he would. Matt figured his only hope was that when Sean changed his story that no one would believe him or that if they did that no one could find them.
After his talk with Sean, he went in the house and packed what things of his mothers and fathers that he didn’t want to leave behind. There wasn’t a great many things to pack. There were two picture albums, his mother’s jewelry, his father’s coin collection, and his grandfathers gold watch. The coins weren’t really a collection, just a dozen or so gold coins that his grandfather put aside when the treasury switched over to silver. He also took a dozen framed pictures and some silver knick-knacks that had been dear to his mother. The whole of his past life fit into one large suitcase.
Before going to bed, Matt and Etty sat at the kitchen table and drafted a will, since the ranch was in trust for Etty the will was in her name. She left the restaurant to her cook and portions of the ranch to friends. Five thousand acres along with the house and out buildings were left to Matt’s friend John Thomas. Neither of them was sure that it would stand up in court, but they did the best they could and both signed it. Matt drove to the mail box and posted it.
In the morning Matt packed the car, gave Sean back his keys, put Toby in the back seat of the Toyota and gathered up John and Etty. Everyone said his or her goodbyes and the four of them headed for the highway. Matt tried to see the ranch house in his rearview mirrors, but all he could see was the dust cloud that followed them. He was overcome with a feeling of loss, the likes of which he hadn’t felt since his mother died.
He recalled how he had felt when he rode down this same road with his father on his way to the bus station, when leaving for the service. This, however, was much worse, because he knew he would never be back.
Matt had never given much thought to his life growing up on the ranch, but if he had, he would have just considered it normal. As a child, he spent most of his time playing in the barn, hunting frogs and pollywogs around the pond or riding his bike up and down the ranch road. When he was a little older, he would sometimes swim in the Pecos. Sometimes on a Sunday afternoon, his father and he would spend a couple hours fishing the Pecos. They fished the Pecos for fun, but if they wanted fish to eat, they took them from the pond.
He had been expected to work for as long as he could remember. At first, he helped his mother with the housework. He would sweep the front porch, weed the vegetable garden and flower beds. As he grew older he spent less and less time with his mother and more with his father, but he still worked. His father was as stern as his mother was soft and loving. He always called his father Sir or Father, as did his mother.
He always knew that his father loved him although he couldn’t remember him ever saying so. He could tell by the tone in his voice when teaching him or explaining how things were to be done on the ranch. It was the same tone he had used with his mother or when talking about the ranch or the country. When Matt went in the service, he said goodbye to his wife at the ranch and rode to the bus station with his father. On the trip to town, they talked of the weather and ranching as always. Just before Matt boarded the bus however, his father took his hand and laid the other hand on Matt’s shoulder.
“Son make your country proud of you and make sure that everyone you meet knows that folks from New Mexico are decent people. Bring yourself home to your wife in one piece.”
Matt sighed as he turned the car on to the highway. He knew that a way of life had ended, a way of life that he was going to miss perhaps more than he could fathom.