The Colonel
Copyright© 2026 by happyhugo
Chapter 12
I called Amelia, and she wanted to know where I was in the country and if I had found the Army Buddies, I was looking for. “Not yet. Sweetheart, I left Mom this morning. I had a great time with her. We went hiking on a mountain where her home used to be before she got married. Did you meet the man who is going to paint the murals?”
“I did. Ryley couldn’t stop looking at the view from the upstairs hallway. The carpenters putting up the columns are building a scaffold for him to stand on while he is painting. The carpenters promised to build the frames for the two pictures. The frame will surround the surface it incorporates. It will be a huge picture. Maybe, like the small ones, you can hang them in a house or gallery. James and I are damned excited about it.”
“Is there anything, else going on?”
“Not much. Bonny comes by often. She and Molly hang out with me and wonder what you are doing. We all miss you. It isn’t the same without you. Can I tell you a secret?”
“Sure.”
“Bonny is trying to get me a waiver to drive a car again. I’ll have to take a course and pass it with a certified instructor. There may be some other times when I can’t be on the road. However, with you gone, we need one more driver so we can all get together. Oh, another thing: I called the RV place, and they may be interested in the Bus. I told them it was never on the road after they delivered it over three years ago. You still want to go through selling it, don’t you?”
“I do. Are you still okay with giving the money to Gertrude Mims, aren’t you?”
“It’s a great idea. I understand that you spoke with Gertrude before you left. Did you tell her we were donating it?”
“Nope, I didn’t. I was looking for ideas about what to do after finishing the house. Nothing decided, but Gertrude was thinking about what I could do.”
“Bonny is missing you, too, you know. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was trying to decide if you were husband material.”
“You didn’t say anything about it to her?”
“Jimmy, she was wondering how long before she could dance again. I suspect she has you in mind. How long do you think she should wait?”
“Amelia. I have no idea, but eight months should be okay. I would think six months to get over a deceased husband and two months to find a new one. Better if she had known the person before her husband died.”
“Jimmy, you just described yourself.”
“Oh my god, I did, didn’t I? That lets me out. Bonny was very unhappy with me, and I didn’t go near her before I left. Amelia, promise you won’t share this conversation with anyone.”
“I won’t, my love.” I was going to call Bonny, but then I thought I’d probably say something out of place to her and be in a mess again. I’d call her tomorrow night for sure. I picked up the rental car I had reserved and found a motel with a restaurant on site.
I wasn’t hurrying in the morning and had a good breakfast. It was the day I would meet my long-lost Father. I knew he had a wife and two kids; they might be in school if they were old enough. On the other hand, if they had graduated, they would be working for their parents or in Torrington, a town near where I was heading. I did not lag, and at eleven, I saw the Thorpe name on a mailbox.
I had been passing large plots of land, much of which planted, but not very high. There were other fields, some fallow and many ready for planting. I drove into the yard. The large house stood alone, with equipment sheds behind it, at the edge of the fields. The sheds were not all complete, but I could see tractor tire imprints in the dirt in front of the empty ones. I drove near a small entry porch, circled to one side, shut the motor off, sat there for a few minutes, and then got out before heading for the door. It should be the kitchen.
I knocked on the door, and no one came. I knocked louder this time, then I could hear footsteps, and the door opened. A woman stood there looking and staring. “State your business.”
“Tell me, are you Mrs. James Thorpe, the Fourth?”
“What if I am? Who are you, and what do you want?”
“I’m James Thorpe, the Fifth, and I want to meet my Father. The last time I saw him, I was only four years old. I think it is time we met again.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. I have never seen you before. Jim is gone for the day. Come back tomorrow.”
“You mean you are turning me from your door, and I’m your stepson? I can’t believe this.”
“Well, believe it or not, that’s how it is. We need our sleep after planting crops half the night.” Just then, two young people stuck their heads around each side of their mother.”
“Who is he, Mom?”
“Some man who thinks I am his stepmom. He claims to be James Thorpe, the Fifth.”
“He looks just like Daddy, Mom, but not so old. You remember Daddy told us he had a son with his first wife.” The three of them stood now staring.
“I’m not letting him in the house. Come back about five this afternoon, and you can take it up with him.”
“Okay, is it all right if I park my car here and sleep in it until then?”
“Go ahead; you still aren’t getting in the house.”
“Kids, you know I have pictures of your Grandfather and the horse farm where I live now. In addition, you kids have a grandmother. Your grandfather married a little over two years ago. She is the sweetest person I have ever met, and I love her a lot. Did your father mention his second wife, Tessie, who had a child named Molly? Molly loved him very much, but your father left when she was a small child. She was just old enough to begin calling him Daddy.”
“Go sleep in your car if you have to stay; just don’t bother us.”
“Mom, I want to see the pictures!”
“You can see them when your father gets here if this man is who he says he is.”
“I can assure you I am James Thorpe, the Fifth.”
I went to my car and drove it across the yard. The door, to the house closed, and the three people stayed inside. I was about to go to sleep when I heard someone knocking on the car door. “I’m Wendy; open the door, please.”
I unlatched it, and Wendy had crouched down. “Robbie is too chicken to disobey Mom. Can I see the pictures you were telling us about?”
“Sure.” I reached over the seat and retrieved a shoebox full of pictures. I kept the box in my lap and began handing Wendy snapshots one at a time, explaining who each person was and how related to them.
“This snap is of our Grandfather, The Colonel, James Thorpe, The Third. He told me he had never been a Colonel, but when he was about 30 years old and had a trimmed beard, he looked like the man who sold fried chicken. His wife, our first grandmother, pinned the nickname “Colonel” on Grandpa.
“Her father was in the service, and she claimed that her father was the second James in her family’s history. Our grandfather said that was just something Gram came up with and gave Father the title of Colonel. Grandpa became Colonel James Thorpe, the Third, after combining the two family ancestries. The truth is, Grandmother said her father was in the service but never exceeded a Corporal’s rank. Grandpa said Grandmother was always joking around, and that was one of them.
“Our first grandmother died before I was born. Your father divorced my mother when I was four, and we sent back to the North Country in Vermont, where My Mother was from. I guess that is where our Father met my Mom, and this is her picture. I just came from there after spending a week with her and her husband, Bill Craig,
“Here is a picture of our Father and his second wife, Tessie Burns. Tessie was an unwed mother and had Molly as a baby girl when your father married her. Tessie was somewhat unstable, and her health wasn’t perfect. This picture is what Molly looks like now. She did love your Father, but he never cottoned to her. The Colonel told me that Molly would crawl into your father’s lap looking for affection, but your father never had much feeling for the child.”
“She is beautiful,”
“Yes, she is. Molly is now 34 and has never been married. When we first met, I was interested in her and often took her dancing. I didn’t get anywhere with her because she claimed I was her stepbrother, although there was no blood in our veins. I’ve agreed to follow her wishes of being a brother to her.”
“That must be difficult, as pretty as she is.”
“It’s not so bad. Molly is knowledgeable and knows the horse farm business like no other person in the area. The Colonel trained her in harness racing, and she has a knack for learning and remembering horses’ bloodlines. Molly, is partner with another horse farm that specializes in breeding only stallions. When other horse- owners want to improve their studs in the racing industry, Molly is called as the consultant. Here is a picture of the farm when I arrived there three years ago.” I had a dozen snapshots of the property I handed to Wendy.
“That land is hopeless for anything.”
“Not so. Molly wanted to rebuild the horse racing part of the farm. She was only finding short-term jobs on other farms until the Colonel deeded the land to Molly and me. I was to have 80%, and Molly was to have 20 %, which included the racing part of the property. I was convinced that if Molly could restore the 20% profit, it would be profitable again. Molly knew what she needed to fix the business, but I was not interested in horses or racing. I had a few dollars, so we restored that part of what we owned.
“This is what the horse farm and business look like today.” Another few snapshots went to Wendy.
“My God, how many years did that take you? And what did you get out of this?”
“The first part of two years, and then I went about building a home for us.” I showed Wendy the burned-out cellar hole, the chimney reaching for the sky, and dozens of pictures of the new house construction.
“The house is almost finished, and Molly is completing what is left to do. The Columns will all be up this week. The balcony and the front porch will soon be finished immediately after; I hope it will be sometime next week.”
“What’s with the bus in one of the pictures?”
“Amelia Baker and I purchased it to live in when she arrived from Virginia a week after I arrived.”
“And who is Amelia, you didn’t say?”
“That is your new step-grandmother. When the bus came, your grandfather and I moved in. Amelia had one of the other rooms because she helped me buy it. Amelia didn’t have any thought of getting together with The Colonel. I don’t know what the Colonel’s thoughts were. I liked Amelia very much, and although she is the person who injured me, I went about trying to make her forget that she did.”
“What was the injury?”
“Amelia was trying to park her car, and she accidentally backed it over my foot. She paid too much when the DMV took her Insurance away, and she couldn’t drive any longer. When I got out of the hospital, I visited her. I found out she was a widow, losing her husband years before. Now, trapped in her apartment and living in the city, not having any friends, she was depressed. I didn’t want to leave the service, but the injury prevented me from doing so. I convinced her that was what I wanted, and she believed me.
“She and the Colonel made friends, and married before too long. I have not only a Grandfather but also a grandmother. I love both equally.”
“Well, isn’t that something? If I find out you are my brother, I’m proud of you.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I now have a Grandmother, stupid! Also: because I have a stepbrother who is loving and empathic.”
I laughed. “Okay, enough of things about me. Please tell me about you and your family?”
“Not much to tell you about. It’s just a typical farming family, where everyone works together to make a living. Some years, we are at the mercy of the weather, the crops, don’t do well, and money is short. In some years, the prices we sell for are significantly lower. The government subsidizes us through multi-year programs. This year should be good. The ground is firm, and we have prepared the ground to plant early. Dad didn’t have enough money when we began the year to buy all the fertilizer we needed. Dad got another loan from the bank, and that is where he is today, getting what fertilizer, we need for the rest of the year. He’ll be here tonight.
The moon was out right after dusk last night, so step-Mom hitched onto the planter, and we planted the last potatoes. We use a GPS to keep the rows straight. We use a 12-row planter and finished planting just as the moon descended, and that’s why Mom is pissed for being woken. Tomorrow, we’ll stack the new fertilizer in one of the sheds. It’s not too hard work; the bags are only 40 pounds. When we can pay and stockpile it, it comes by bulk truck and blown directly into a shed.
“How did your Mother and Father meet? Did they ever tell you?”
“Yeah, they did, and they laugh about it sometimes. Mom had a brother who died, and the land came to her. For planting crops, only 300 acres were clear. Mom was at least struggling to get seeds into the ground. She was traveling along the road when she could see this beat-up old truck off out in a field beside the road. She stopped the equipment she was driving and found my future Dad sleeping in it, several empty beer cans thrown out along with an empty beer case.
“Mom slapped my future Dad awake and said it was time to go to work. She pushed him into the equipment cab. “You’d better be sober in another half hour and ready for work. We have a field to plant, and I want to plant the seeds today. After that, I’m out of money and can’t do anything until I raise funds for more seed and fertilizer. My Dad was complaining about being hungry.
“Mom started loading the planter with fertilizer and seed when they reached the field. Dad got down and watched Mom work. He didn’t say anything, just helping her. When she was ready to begin, she told him to watch what she was doing. When I get to the other end of the field, you had better watch what I’m doing because you’re coming back driving this rig. Then we load it up and do it all over again.
“Dad told us that he wanted to refuse, but Mom took a beef sandwich from her jumper pocket and handed it to Dad. “Eat this. I’ve had breakfast, so you need it more than I do. Dad ate the food while Mom began running the planter.
“The operation starts at the edge of the field and guides the whole field. Pay attention to the row and lineup after the first pass and on the way back, keeping the planter zeroed in on the center of the last planted row. That’s like the edge of the field again. When we harvest the rows of potatoes, they are spaced the same width apart. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Not sure, but I’m sure you will tell me if I make a mistake.”
“Jesus, you are intelligent. Anyway, Dad drove the planter back and moved more slowly than mom, but Dad made no mistakes. Mom stopped back at Dad’s truck, which was out in the field when Dad finished, and at Dad’s insistence. Mom put him in her brother’s bed that night. Dad stayed with her that year until the fertilizer was all used up, and he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t plant the remaining seed.
“I’m out of fertilizer, and the potatoes won’t grow well without it.”
“How much do you need?”
“I use about $12,000,00 worth for the season; $1,000 to finish this and $11,000,00 when the plants are high enough to run the potato-hiller. The hills are side-dressed at this time in a single operation, and I go back to the bank and beg for more money. Just once, I would love not to have to do this, but it is a way of life. Last year was a good year, and we almost made it. Dad was on top of planting, now and he is usually successful. I’m a woman, and I don’t know yet.”
“Did she get her loan that first year he was here?”
“She didn’t need to go to the bank. My future dad went to his old pickup and got $25,000 from behind the door panel. He told Mom it was the last money he would get from his father, James III. Mom and Dad were married before I popped out. He has been a great father for Robbie and me.”
“Who is the Boss on the farm, your Mother or your Dad?”
“I guess Mom makes most of the decisions about what to plant; and things like that, but let’s Dad appear to be the one to be. Dad has always been the one to make sure that we have fun things to do. He takes us to town, and if we have school things, Dad often goes with us. Was he like that with you?”
“I wasn’t very old, but I knew my mother and Mother and Father didn’t get along that well. Grandpa was disgusted with the way Father acted. He didn’t have an interest in the horses. Dad hated it when he tries to train horses to and keep their gate. He would take off and head for town most evenings. Mom and Father argued a lot. Often, it was about your Dad having another woman on the string when he was married to Mom.
“When Grandpa said it was time for Mom to leave, I remember that Tessie, My Moms replacement was there with a two-year-old child. I never knew much about it then, but Mother cried and talked about it while driving to Vermont. Leaving that day was the last time I saw him. I have figured it’s about time I faced him.”
“That doesn’t sound like Dad at all. Are you sure my Dad is your Father?”
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