Chapter 20

The rest of the week after Tommy talked to doctor Glickman passed quickly. Tommy was amazed at how quickly time went by when you were happily busy. Tommy was a very busy boy now that he had the goats. He was waking up a half hour earlier now, hopping out of bed at five-thirty to check over his goats and put them out to pasture. The morning inspection was an important part of raising angoras, because of them not being the hardiest of animals.

Checking the Angoras for signs of skin problems was especially important, because their fleeces were thick and matted, making them susceptible to parasites and biting insects. The goats required a bi-weekly dip in a Malathion solution to control parasites. Tommy half buried a hundred gallon dipping trough for that purpose, and was building a cattle chute leading up to it. If things worked as planned, he would march the goats into the chute and through the dip this coming Sunday.

Wednesday, Harold sent an older Mexican man back into the warehouse to see Tommy. The man, Pedro Colón, and his sons, raised sheep for a living and sheared sheep for other herders as a side business. Pedro was sharp around a dollar and he made Tommy a good deal. He would shear the goats and pay Tommy two dollars a pound for the mohair. Mister Colón made his profit by selling the mohair to a buyer from one of the big mills for the subsidized price of two dollars and sixty-five cents. They agreed on the Saturday after next and shook hands on it.

Irv Glickman walked into the McCulloch County Library at a few minutes before noon on Saturday morning. He was happy he’d made it on time, even though he over slept and had a late start. Being a native of New York City, Glickman drove his Jaguar XKE like a maniac anyway, so he’d made the three hour trip in less than two and a half. Irv was very surprised when a cute and petite woman with an arm load of books greeted him just inside the door.

“Shalom, Doctor Glickman, I’m Ruth Silverman, a friend of Tommy’s. He’ll be here as soon as he gets off work at noon, and the Snyders will be here any minute,” she said.

Irv could hear just the hint of a New York accent in Ruth’s pleasant voice.

“I am pleased to meet you, Ruth, and call me Irv. I know a man back in New York named Saul Silverman, he handles my investments,” Irv said.

Ruth laughed and sat the books down on the circulation desk.

“It’s a small world, Irv. Saul Silverman is my father. Wait until I tell my mother I had to move to Texas to meet a nice Jewish doctor.”

Ruth walked Glickman back to the small conference room next to her office and retrieved a couple of bottles of Doctor Pepper from her office fridge. Irv laughed and toasted her with his bottle.

“Don’t tell me you are hooked on this stuff, too,” he chortled.

Ruth shook her head and looked chagrined.

“I’m afraid I’m addicted after three years drinking it. I even drink it hot sometimes when the weather is cold,” she replied.

Ruth and Irv discovered they had a few mutual acquaintances besides her father. One of the people they knew in common was Rachael Simms, the psychotherapist. When Irv mentioned that he thought Rachael was a beautiful and intelligent woman, Ruth’s match-making gene kicked in. She thought Rachael and Irv would be perfect together, and all she had to do was scheme up a way to get Rachael to visit her.

Their conversation came to an end when Rita Fricke and Margie Wilcox bustled into the conference room with Sheriff Wagner in tow. Ruth was curious about the sheriff being there, but shrugged it off and made introductions. Irv knew Margie from her time at Brooke Medical Center. After their horrible initial meeting, they’d become friends of a sort. One thing for sure was that Glickman had a much healthier respect for nurses after his run in with Margie’s boss, Colonel Sarah Phipps.

Ross and Cora Snyder arrived with Molly a few minutes after high noon, and this time, Rita made the introductions.

The Snyders were just as Rita had described them to Tommy; they were goodhearted, hard working country folks. Ross Snyder put his family first, period, end of discussion. Cora Snyder was a fourth-generation cowgirl, and a mother in the mold of Rita Fricke, sweet natured and caring, but with a backbone of iron. She loved her man to death and doted on her children. Anyone who messed with either was in for a serious ass kicking!

Tommy arrived just as Irv and Margie were about to take Molly into Ruth’s office to examine her. Margie had picked up Molly’s school health records and had her nurse’s bag with her. Molly squealed when she saw Tommy and ran over to him. Tommy knelt down and she hugged his neck. Ross solemnly shook his hand and Cora gave him a warm hug. It was obvious right away that Cora was the talker in the family.

“You and Princess is all I’ve heard this week,” Cora told Tommy.

Tommy grinned and tousled Molly’s pretty blonde hair.

“She’s one of the two best ranch hands I ever hired,” he replied.

After the commotion of Tommy’s arrival died down and the flurry of handshakes and hugs dispensed with, Doctor Glickman finally had the opportunity to examine Molly. Irv saw that repairing her palate was straight forward, but that her lip would be a challenge. He felt he could do it though, and told Molly and her parents that.

“I can make Molly’s lip ninety percent normal, but she will have a small scar above and over her lip right here. The scar above the lip will fade with time, but she’ll have a noticeable crease on her lip. When she stops growing, even that might be repairable,” he said.

The Snyders nodded, wearing big grins, and Molly whooped.

Glickman smiled at the Snyders’ happiness. He seldom was the bearer of such joyful news when reconstructing the faces of severely wounded soldiers.

“I’ll take your reaction as approval of the idea, now all we need is a hospital that will loan me an operating room. I think I can con a couple of nurses from Fort Sam to assist me. I’m worried about Tommy being stuck with a big hospital bill though.”

The Snyders looked alarmed at that. They didn’t know Tommy was footing the bill. Margie smiled at them reassuringly.

“Let’s go talk to Sheriff Wagner before anyone becomes discouraged, he might have some good news for us,” Margie said.

The Snyders, Doctor Glickman and Nurse Wilcox trouped out of Ruth’s office and took seats at the conference table where Tommy, Rita and Ruth were waiting. They’d heard Molly’s whoop so they figured Irv had good news at his end. It turned out that Sheriff Wagner had a hell of an idea. As a matter of fact, he had the solution for everything. Cyrus cleared his throat and gave it to them.

“When Margie told me what Tommy wanted to do, I called a friend and fellow Shriner who is the Illustrious Potentate of the Hella Shrine Temple up in Garland. He made a call on Molly’s behalf, to the Houston Shriner’s Hospital. The hospital has agreed to accept Molly as a patient, and provide Doctor Glickman with anything he needs for the surgery. All we have to do is get you all down there. The local Temple in Houston volunteered to provide Missus Snyder, Doctor Glickman and anyone else Molly needs, a place to stay, again, free of charge.”

There was stunned silence at the table for a couple of heart beats, then bedlam as everyone started either laughing or crying with joy. When the hubbub died down, Tommy stood up and grabbed Molly’s hand.

“This calls for a celebration, so let’s go to lunch at the Bluebonnet, my treat. We can work out the details there.”

Over lunch, Irv Glickman told Cy Wagner he would put in for a seven day leave starting in two weeks. If it was approved, Cy would set everything up with the Shriners. Cora Snyder said her mother would be happy to take care of Ross and their other children while she made the trip to Houston with Molly.

After the discussion about Molly’s surgery, the conversation swung around to Tommy’s plan to have all nine kids from Rita’s Sunday school class out to his ranch the next afternoon. The consensus was that Tommy’s good heart was over taxing his ability in this instance.

“You are going to need help, Tommy. None of the children are helpless, but all of them have needs you can’t look after all at one time. I’ll come over and bring someone with me to give you a hand. Besides, I want to see your goats. Maybe you’ll let me pick one out and Molly can teach me how to take care of it,” Momma Rita said.

Molly and Tommy liked that idea just fine. Tommy liked it well enough that he didn’t think to ask who Rita was bringing to help them.

Ruth and Rita had Tommy much better organized Sunday afternoon when the children from the Sunday school class started arriving. For one thing, Rita insisted the children go home from church and change clothes first. Then either the parents dropped the kids off, or Ruth picked them up. One of the kids had a nasty cold, so only eight made it out to Tommy’s ranch.

Tommy started the afternoon off by cooking hotdogs on the small grill he’d bought. Once the children were stuffed with Oscar Meyers, Tommy led them into the pasture to help him herd the goats into the corral. Rex romped joyfully between the goats and children, thrilled to death to have eight little new people with whom to play.

Once the Angoras were in the corral, the fun of choosing one to take care of began. Tommy had picked up a half dozen neckerchiefs at the feed store for the boys, and Ruth purchased a like number of inexpensive scarves at ‘McCrory’s Five and Dime’ for the girls. The docile goats seemed to like the attention, and followed the children around like puppies. In a matter of minutes, the children made their choices and Tommy was teaching them how to tend to the animals.

Tommy was out in the pasture surrounded by children and goats when Rita pulled up at two with the help she had promised. The helper Rita had been intentionally vague about was her daughter Caroline. Caroline had arrived home the evening before on spring break from the Baylor School of Medicine.

Caroline Fricke was not thrilled with being at Tommy’s place, regardless the nobleness of the reason. Caroline had strong feelings for Tommy that she kept tightly under wraps. She no longer thought of Tommy as some sort of hayseed Romeo, but the fact remained that he was not the man she thought she wanted for the long run. She tried to beg out of going, but her mother wouldn’t hear of it.

“This is not about you,” Rita said sternly. “It’s about those sweet, unfortunate children.”

Caroline forgot all about her reasons for not wanting to be there within the first ten minutes of arriving. The children were amazing. Their excitement and happiness, despite their infirmities, blew away her bad mood like so much chaff in a windstorm. Molly shyly took Caroline by the hand and helped her pick out a goat of her own.

Tommy welcomed Caroline home with a big smile and a hug that stirred her to her toes. His simple, heart-felt and sincere, “I’ve missed you,” almost erased all the reservations she had about him. To her, sweet and innocent Tommy was as dangerous in his own way as a cobra ... and just as mesmerizing.

Rita and Ruth sat on the back porch of the ranch house and watched Tommy and Caroline interact with the children and each other. Ruth didn’t feel an ounce of jealousy towards Caroline, she was too sure of Tommy’s love for her for that to happen. Besides, Caroline was in Houston most of the year, and would be for the foreseeable future. If Tommy shared his magic with the young woman, it would not happen often.

Rita Fricke was also watching her daughter and adopted son as they walked around the pasture. She thought that, despite all her daughter’s academic achievements, Caroline was astoundingly bereft of common sense for fighting her attraction to Tommy.

Tommy was happy to see Caroline, even though she was not a really close friend. Caroline’s behavior confused the heck out of him, because one minute she was his friend, and the next she acted as if she hated his guts. Tommy let those ideas stay in the back of his brain as he worked with the children and his goats. Tommy’s objective today was to keep the children talking. He didn’t much care to whom they talked. It could be him, each other, or the Angoras; as long as they interacted.

Tommy didn’t make any distinction between the children like Jamie and Molly, who were normally intelligent with speech impediments, and those like Jimmy Preston, who were slow learners. Neither did the goats, as with heads cocked to the side, they listened to their new friends as they jabbered away.

Up on the porch, Ruth and Rita smiled as one of the unattached goats playfully chased Rex across the pasture.

“In another week, those goats will think they should sleep in the house with us,” Ruth said.

Rita nodded and laughed.

“And Tommy’s so softhearted, he’d probably let them,” she said.

Ruth chuckled briefly, turned to face Rita squarely, and asked the question on her mind.