Chapter Thirty seven
When the Hearst’s returned from Canada, One of the first things Dolly said to Sarah was, “You’ve got to have Rick work his miracle on me. Ollie’s turned into a stud bull and I’m ashamed to even undress with him in the room, given what I look like and what he looks like.”
Sarah called Rick’s office to tell him that Dolly and Ollie were back. Jackie said that he was out showing a property, but that she would have him call her when he returned.
“Is everything okay?”
“Sure I just need to talk to him. I also want to hear all about you and José, could we get together for lunch?”
“I’d love to. I’ll call to set a time for Thursday if that is okay.”
“That would be great. I’ll talk to you then.”
When she got off the phone, she said to Dolly, “You can’t believe what your love life is going to be like after this.”
When Rick came home, Sarah and the Hearsts were sitting at the kitchen table. The girls were having iced tea and Ollie was nursing a beer. After saying his hellos and learning how things went in London, Rick said, “There is no time like the present.” and went to the garage.
After the incident with Sean Rick had decided to make some changes. He had a cabinetmaker design a secret compartment into the kitchen cupboards. The man had done an excellent job and Rick doubted that anyone could find it without knowing where it was and how to open it. He had then searched craft and gift shops until he found a reasonable replica of the ball. The secret compartment was simply a ploy. He put the fake ball in the t compartment along with a few hundred dollars. He thought that if Sean came back it would be enough to fool him. He could readily give it up and hope that Sean would be placated enough to give him time to handle the situation. He put the real ball in a jar filled with ball bearings and marbles of varying sizes. He then placed the jar in a cluttered cupboard in the garage.
Rick now put on a glove, retrieved the ball from it’s hiding place and returned to the kitchen. He sat down beside Dolly, took her hand in his ungloved hand and laid the gloved hand against her forearm.
“How do you feel?”
“I don’t know how to explain it. Happy… No, that’s not it exactly...Serene, that’s it, I feel serene.”
“Good. We’ll wait awhile. I’m not sure how long it takes. It seems to be almost instant, but why take a chance?”
“What’s the glove for Rick? I noticed you used that when you healed Oliver.”
“Dolly the less you know the better off you are.”
“Uh oh!”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, this is really embarrassing.”
Oliver said, “what’s embarrassing?”
“I don’t want to say. It’s just a feeling. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Come on Dolly, tell me what’s going on.”
“No Ollie. I can’t talk about this so just let it go.”
Rick could see she was embarrassed and had a good idea why, but he kept it to himself.
In a short time, Rick returned the ball to the jar and came back inside. He went to his home office, retrieved a file folder and returned to the kitchen.
“Ollie, these are all the papers on the sale of your house to me. Once Dolly is young again we can complete your identity changes and sell the property back to you. No money has changed hands or will there, but according to the government there has and taxes will be due. I don’t mean to pry, but are you going to be able to handle this cost?”
“Of course, and I’ll pay whatever your taxes are from the transaction. Dolly and I are very well off. If I wanted, I would never need to work another day of my life. Since I’m young again I did give some thought as to what I might do. I was in the car business all my life and God knows the last thing Crystal River needs is another car dealership. We have rather decided we wouldn’t do anything for awhile. We liked being Snowbirds so maybe we’ll get a motor home and travel for awhile. We could travel in the summer and come back here in the winter. Dolly…Dot and I talked it over and we’ve basically decided not to do anything right away. We Figure we best get used to being young again and see how we feel before making any big decisions.”
“By the way, I caught the Michigan Notre Dame game Sunday. That kid of yours was the star for Michigan. The Announcers couldn’t stop raving about him.”
Rick said, “I know, he called me a few days ago to talk about football. He said some of the pro teams are starting to contact him about playing for them when he graduates. He said a couple of them have actually made offers. The Lions have tried to talk him into dropping out and signing with them right now.”
“What’s he going to do?”
“He doesn’t really know yet. He knows for sure he is going to finish school before he decides and that will take two more years, or maybe four if he goes for his masters. He’s not sure that football is what he wants to do for a living, but the money they are offering may be too good to turn down.”
“I understand that. There aren’t very many places that you can make that kind of money.”
“That’s for sure. One of the things he is thinking about is maybe signing a two-year contract. At the end of his contract, he could decide if that’s what he wants to be doing. If not he would at least have a pile of money to do something else with.”
“Do you think they would go for that?”
“I think that the way John plays they would go for almost anything to sign him.”
By the time John got home in the spring, Dot and Don were settled into their new life. The first time he saw Dot he said , “Wow Mrs. Hearst, you’re a real babe.”
“Thanks John, but its Mrs. Swain. You can call me Dot. I don’t care for it as much as Dolly but I guess it will have to do. Oliver is now Donald. We had to get married again to share a name.”
“Did you have a big wedding, Dot?”
“No we just went in front of a judge. Rick and Sarah stood up with us. It was kind of nice.”
“Don’t tell Aunt Sarah Dot, but I…
“Stop right there John. Don’t tell me anything that you don’t want your Aunt to know. She is the best friend I’ve ever had and if you tell me something that I think she should know, I’ll tell her in a heart beat.”
“Well I guess I’ll wait to tell you until I’ve told her then.”
“No offense John, but you know how I feel about Sarah.”
“None taken. It wouldn’t be fair of me to expect you to keep a secret from her. I just wasn’t thinking.”
That evening, at the supper table John told Rick and Sarah that he was engaged to Molly and that she planned on coming for a visit that summer.”
Although Sarah had her misgivings, she told him that she was very happy for him and wished him all the luck in the world. John knew his mother very well and could see she had reservations.
“You’re worried about Sean aren’t you?”
“A little, it stands to reason that he will contact his sister.”
“Well he hasn’t so far and both she and I hope we’ve seen the last of him. If he did contact her she wouldn’t mention us.”
Rick spoke up and said, “I’m sure she wouldn’t but she will tell her parents and if he contacts them it seems like they would mention it.”
“They have pretty well washed their hands of him too, but I guess it could happen. I just hope that we have all seen the last of Sean. Look Uncle Rick we have plenty of time to think about it, were not going to get married until I graduate anyway.”
Both Rick and Sarah agreed that that was wise. John said, “Molly will still has four years, but most of that will be as an intern and she is hoping to get into a hospital where I can find a job. Of course if I decide to turn pro it won’t really matter since I’ll be on the road a lot of the time for two years at least.”
“Is Molly okay with you being a pro football player?”
“Aunt Sarah, Molly is wonderful, she is all for whatever makes me happy.”
“Well I certainly hope you take her feelings into consideration too. A woman in love doesn’t always articulate what she wants.”
“Mom, You raised me pretty well. I promise I will never do anything to hurt her.”
“Aunt Sarah”
“Well son, it certainly will be nice having a daughter.”
“Niece”
Then Sarah asked when they planned to have the wedding and where. John told her that they hadn’t even talked about that other than that Molly was afraid her father wouldn’t accept the fact that she was marrying a white man. She was afraid that they wouldn’t be able to have the wedding there and that it would break her mothers heart.
Sarah got Molly’s number and right after supper called her and they talked for an hour.
Sara asked if her mother had a phone and would it be alright to call her.
“No Sara, we never got a phone. It might cause trouble for Mom anyway. My Dad would not like Mom talking to you. I think he still holds you and Matt, I mean Rick, responsible in some way for Sean’s troubles.”
“Do your parents know about what happened here?”
“No, and I don’t have the heart to tell them. Besides, that would be just one more source of animosity for Dad against your family.”
“Molly you can’t know how much I wish that I could repair this rift. It’s something that will effect You and John your entire life.”
“I know Sara. I think about it all the time.”
“I would like it if you stated calling me mom, if it wouldn’t bother you?”
“I would love that Mom.”
Before they hung up, they both promised to keep in touch and Sarah said she was looking forward to seeing her that summer.
After supper, John asked Rick if he would like to go fishing and he said, “Sure. Would you like to ask Don too?”
“No, I just wanted to get off by ourselves for a while. I thought maybe we could just talk like we used to on your front porch.”
“I would like that.”
“ Why don’t you pull the covers off the boat while I fill a cooler.”
Once they were on the water, they forgot all about fishing. They talked about what school was like and about what John’s plans were after he graduated. John talked a lot about Molly and it was obvious that he was very much in love with her. They talked about football. Rick admitted that what little he knew about football was what he had learned from watching John play for Michigan. He confessed, however, that he was becoming a fan. They talked about Sean and John apologized once more for telling him about the ball. Rick allowed as how if that was the only mistake he had made at fifteen he got off very lucky.
Then John got around to the reason he had asked Rick out on the boat. Rick had wondered how long it would take.
“Rick, I wanted to tell you how thankful I am that you came into our lives. I’m not talking about the things you’ve given us or the fact that you made it possible for me to go to college, although I am thankful for that.”
He hesitated a very long time before speaking again, he finally said, “Before you took us away from Cholla, my mother was very unhappy. She always put up a good front around people, even around me, but I knew. I would awake in the night and hear her crying. When I was little, I would go get in bed with her but that only seemed to make it worse so I stopped. I don’t think she was happy even when my dad was alive, it was always like she was getting by, not actually living.”
“Did she ever talk about her life before Cholla?”
“Not really. When Dad was still alive I would hear them talking occasionally about somewhere they’d been. That sort of thing, but that’s about it. Does she talk to you about it?”
“Never. I don’t know a thing about your mom before she came to Cholla.”
“Mom was a very troubled person, but she’s happy now. I guess that is all that really matters. I just wanted to let you know that I’m thankful.”
“John I didn’t really do anything for you guys. I love your mother more than I could possibly express. Actually it was you two that did something for me, not the other way around.”
“You can say what you want Rick, but you made my mother happy and I am grateful. The funny part is that when it first happened I was jealous of you. I know it was kind of childish, but after all I was a child.”
“Well, I’ll let you in on a secret, I knew you were. In fact there was a couple times when I thought you wanted to take a swing at me.”
“Yeah, like the first time I realized that you guys were sleeping together.”
“The teens are a very difficult time under the best circumstances, and that time was anything but.”
“I guess I’ve said all I wanted to and since we didn’t catch any fish, I guess we should head in, and by the way, I’d rather you didn’t mention any of this to Mom.”
“Hey, she’ll never hear from me that her kid likes her.”
When they got back, Sarah asked what they had been talking about. Rick and John replied in unison, “Fishing.”
Sarah said, “If you didn’t want me to know you could have just said so.”
As she walked away she muttered “Men.”
That night in bed, Rick said, “You mentioned Dot bugging you about your statement of where we swim. Would you like to show them the cabin?”
“I don’t know Rick. I kind of like it being our secret place. How do you feel?”
“I guess the same as you. The problem is, once we let the cat out of the bag there is no getting it back in, so we should be very sure before we do.”
“I think I’d rather hold off for awhile. Donald has been very nice since returning from Canada, but I can’t help thinking of his attitude before they left. Since then I’m not sure I trust him to be discreet, unless of course it’s in his best interest.”
“I must admit to the same misgivings. I really like Doll… Dot but I’ve sort of come to the conclusion that Don is pretty self centered. I guess it’s settled then. We will hold off for a while. I’ve been thinking of building a barn and getting a few horses. If I do that, We’ll need to put in electricity and a drive. It won’t be a very well kept secret at that point anyway.”
“I think that would be wonderful. I know how you miss riding, but couldn’t we do that on the cleared portion and still have our little secret?”
“That might work. We should start planning for how we want to set it up. What would you think of building a real house there and selling this one?”
Sarah was less than enthusiastic. She liked living on the river and she liked having Dot next door to visit with. She also had got to know most of the other neighbors and enjoyed their company. She was afraid that even a short move would interfere with those friendships. Besides she liked having the cabin to go to when they wanted to be alone. Rick went along with Sarah as usual, but did say, “I think I will at least add a regular bathroom. I can but in a septic system and use a gas generator for running water.”
Sarah agreed that running water would be nice.
Sarah told Rick that she had been thinking of giving the kids a few acres on the gulf for a wedding present. Rick agreed that would be a nice thing to do and even if they didn’t want to live here, they would always have it if they changed their mind. They might even want to build a vacation home someday. Sarah was sure that John would want to live in Crystal River, but then once he took a wife things could change.
“Now do you want to tell me what you two were cooking up on the boat tonight?”
“Nothing really, just man talk. I think he misses the time we spent on the front porch at the ranch. You know, he was fifteen and I let him drink beer. He thought it was a big deal, or maybe he thinks since I’m in my eighties that I might have some wisdom to impart.”
“Did you talk about me?”
“Of course not. Men don’t talk about their women folk when their drinking and having fun.”
Sara gave him a very dubious look but decided to let it go.