February, 2012

Issue #29

The Wagoner's Present
by Willy Whiskers, Constable of Calliope NV

Dorothy La Blanc stepped onto the train in Mansfield Massachusetts as she had done every June for the last five years. Teaching school in the little nearby town of Easton was a respectable profession for an unmarried young woman, but it paid so poorly that it was difficult to keep body and soul together during the long New England winters. So, each year she made the trek west when school ended and returned in September for the next year.

"Going to see your sisters again?" asked the conductor as he punched her ticket.

She smiled, "Yes, I miss them so much."

Now in her mid-twenties, she ran the risk of being an old maid but the school policy was no married woman could teach. So, if she gave up her life to a husband it would mean the end of her beloved profession. Trapped in this strict Puritanical predicament, she still had her own life to live.

That evening the train arrived at Grand Central Station where she arranged to have her nearly empty trunk sent to a hotel on 42nd street. Checking in, she spent a couple days shopping and haunting her favorite book stores.

With her trunk soon filled with new clothes and books, Dorothy or Dot as she was called out west, bought a ticket to St. Louis. There she had girl friends and needed no hotel. After a week, with her purse refilled, she tripped on to Denver to visit other sisters — as she called them — and finally arrived in Calliope, Nevada where Madame Betsy Lovey and some of her girls greeted Dot at the station. Kisses and hugs went all around as the women reacquainted. All still abuzz, they piled into one great carriage for the trip to Betsy's establishment.

Dedicated to his family's freight business, Harvey McCallian seldom left work until late and then went straight home. A bit dour and having the sense of responsibility of the first born, he knew his younger brothers, John and Pete, had wives to attend and gave them the space he felt they needed. However, this was his birthday and his brothers had a celebration in mind. They dragged him from the wagon barn to Madame Betsy's for a few drinks and perhaps a special birthday present.

The brothers kept Harvey's glass full and it was not long before the older brother started forgetting about wagons and turned his attention to the frilly dresses flitting about the room. He was not averse to the activities of Madame Betsy's establishment and had spent many a payday there at another point in his life. At odd moments, when his sisters-in-law were around he pondered his solitary life and each time he was with his invalid father, the old man never missed a chance to poke him about needing a woman. Still, no woman he met seemed to suit him.

Making her rounds in the spacious parlor, Betsy greeted the boys. "We're lookin' to give Harvey a present tonight," said John. "She's got to be special."

Knowing Harvey personally, Betsy already had someone in mind that might make a good fit. Her eye fell on Dot who was standing by the piano flipping through a stack of sheet music with one of the patrons. "She's a good one — just arrived from the east. Perfect for a old stick-in-the-mud like you." She smiled at Harvey and tousled his hair.

"You fellas don't need to do this," the wagoner protested

"Nonsense!" rejected Pete. "Betsy says this is the girl for you and we're gonna get her for ya."

Betsy called Dot over. "These are the McCallian brothers and it's Harvey's birthday. Do you think you can make this a night to remember?"

The schoolmarm rocked back on one leg and regarded the wagoner with a cock of her head. "Sweetie, you and I are going to have a great time." With that she took his hand and led him up the wide spiral staircase leading to the private rooms. John and Pete hooted encouragement to their brother who still felt a little sheepish about his present.

At Betsy's, each girl had her own room where she lived and there were other rooms for the business. Dot passed by the common rooms and brought Harvey to her own room. As the door closed behind them, Harvey thought to himself that it showed a distinct woman's sensibilities. Dominated by a big brass bed with intricate scrollwork, a wide wingbacked chair sat in the corner between two windows. There was a large dresser with mirror along one wall next to a carved wardrobe with Mexican iconography. "Make yourself comfortable," instructed the lady as she poured a drink from a cut glass decanter sitting on a side table.

Standing in the middle of the large carpet, Harvey continued marveling at her room. This was the first time he had seen how the girls lived. A book on the bed table caught his attention — Pride and Prejudice.

"My mother use to love that book," he said.

"I bought it in New York on my way out. With all the reading I do, you'd have thought that I'd have read it long ago, but no. I'm just reading it for the first time." Dot handed him his drink.

Awkwardly, they looked at each other without making eye contact for a long few moments, then the man asked, "Could you read some of it to me?"

"The book?"

"Ya."

"Aren't you sure you want something else?"

"Just a few pages, if you don't mind."

"Very well." Dot took her book and sat on the bed as Harvey settled into the wing back chair. Turning to her bookmark she began reading "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife . . . ."

As she read, calmness washed over him. His head cleared and time disappeared. If he bothered to think if it, he would have realized that the best times of his childhood were sitting at his mother's knee listening to her read to him. He was only four or five when Pete was born. With three boys to raise while his father was off driving wagons their reading sessions became fewer and fewer. By the time he was nine she was gone and life became hard after that.

They both drifted through the English countryside following the Bennet girls until a strong rap on the door brought them around. "Dot, how is it going dear?" asked Betsy.

"Oh, fine" she replied. "Be out soon."

"Guess we lost track," said Harvey. "But it was wonderful."

"I feel like I owe you one."

"Don't tell my brothers, but this is the best birthday present I've ever had."

"It was fun for me too. Perhaps we could do this again sometime."

"You know," he paused. "I happen to own a buggy and there's a nice place on the other side of the lake under some oaks."

Dot smiled coyly as she began wondering what her students would do without her next September.

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