Chapter 15: New Beginnings

"When we get to Woodward I'll take you to the hospital and have a doctor look at you. We need to get you checked out, Martha. I'm quite worried about you."

Jake West turned his head to look in the back seat. Martha lay curled on her side. Her eyes were closed. Her face was contorted with pain. Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead. He flinched when her faint moans reached his ears. "Oh Jakey, I hurt bad.

"I'm scared, Mister West," Reba told him, "real scared." He did not answer. "Please help her."

Once they reached the city limits Jake asked directions to the county hospital. He pulled up to the ambulance entrance and hurried inside to get a wheelchair. Martha was taken to an examining room while Reba and Jake waited in a small alcove with four old and uncomfortable chairs in it. They sat in silence. Neither could think of anything to say. Sometime in the late evening, they both dozed off.

Later a nurse's voice woke them up. "Mister West? Your wife has just come out of surgery."

Reba tried to correct the mistake in identity. "But." She got no further.

"When can we see my wife?" Jake asked in a firm voice.

"She should be awake in another hour or so. She is a very lucky woman. If you had not brought her in when you did, she would be gone. Her appendix had completely ruptured. You are a fortunate man. And she is lucky you acted when you did. " The nurse turned gave Jake and Reba a reassuring smile and left.

"Mister West, My ma's name ain't the same as yours. Why didn't you let me set it straight?" Reba looked at him as if he might be trying a scam on her and her mother.

"A man and two unmarried women traveling together could raise questions we might not have answers for, especially when one is as beautiful as you. You look so much as your mother did at your age."

A wistful smile flittered over his face, "Besides, who knows what the future will bring? Perhaps..." He looked down at the floor, too embarrassed to continue his line of thought.

He pulled out his old railroad watch. "My word! It is five in the morning. We have slept the night away." He smiled and sat back in his chair and closed his eyes.

"How can you sleep at a time like this?" Reba demanded, indignant he did not share her unease and excitement.

There was no answer except a soft snore. He was sound asleep again.

"Ma, how you feeling?" Reba stood barely within the doorway.

More impatient, Jake West pushed past her and hurried to Martha's bedside. "Is there anything you need, my dear?" He took her right hand and brought it to his lips. Reba stared at these two old people who made fools of themselves. She felt it was not right for old people to carry on like that.

"Oh Jakey, now that you're here I don't need nothing' more." Her face glowed with a radiance that made her appear ten years younger, in spite of her worn features.

Not certain of his reception, Jake bent over the bed to kiss her cheek. Martha was having none of a kiss on her cheek. She turned her lips to him and puckered up. Jake kissed her lips and smiled his satisfaction. "I love you, Martha," he whispered in her ear.

"Oh Jakey, you know how much I love you." She turned her tear-streaked face toward him. "Am I still your honey pot?"

"This is horrible," Reba griped and left to go for a walk. She decided she could not stay around while her mother and Mister West acted like old fools with each other. They acted just like a pair of horny kids. She decided she would be glad when they reached Tulsa. Then they could say goodbye to that pot-bellied old man who had her ma acting so giddy and foolish.

"Martha, I must leave you now and deliver the quarterly records to the home office. You will not be able to travel for two or three more days. I cannot wait."

"I understand, Jakey." She looked sad as she added, "Well I thank you for carrying me this far. I do appreciate it."

Jake looked at her sad face and hurried to correct her, "No, my dear. You misunderstand me. I shall drive straight through to the home office, nonstop, deliver the papers and return here as quickly as I can make it."

He looked at the surprise on her face and added, "I shall miss you every mile we are apart. And when we are together again it will be as if I had never gone."

"Oh Jakey, you sound just like one of those poets. Will you kiss me goodbye?"

He kissed her with newfound tenderness and stepped back. Then, all at once he became the practical man of affairs. He opened his wallet and pulled out two twenty-dollar bills. "Here, in case you need something." He laid them on the bed beside her. You might give one to Reba if she has no money so she can get a room at the Baker Hotel. Tell her to lock her door so there can be no misunderstandings." He kissed her again and left.

Two days later Jake returned. He carried a single red rose in his left hand and a flat box in his right. "The bill is paid, the rose is to tell you of my love for you and the box holds a change of clothing. The nurse told me your size and we guessed on the shoes. I want you to look your very best when I take you to our new home."

"Oh my god, Jake West. Are you... ?" She could not continue as she took the rose from him and pressed it to her between her breasts. "Oh, oh, oh Jakey."

"You made my ma cry," Reba accused him. She began to feel jealous at the way those two old people acted around each other.

They both ignored her. "Jakey, kiss me."

"Any time for you, my dear." He bent over and kissed her on the lips. He also pressed the rose stem against her soft flesh.

"Ouch! You just pricked me." She protested.

"The first of many such times, my dear," his smug face matched his smug voice. He had forgotten Reba was in the room with them.

"I think I am going to throw up." Reba made gestures of sticking two fingers down her throat. "I'll wait outside in your car." Reba stalked out of the room. Neither Jake nor Martha heard Reba's complaints nor noticed her leave.

Minutes later a nurse wheeled Martha outside. Jake helped her up out of the wheelchair and into the front seat of his car. Reba sat in back with her old banjo. "Oh Jakey, please don't let this be a dream."

"If it is a dream, then we share that dream my beloved." He had an eager look on his face. Martha is right, I do sound like one of those long dead poets, Robert Burns perhaps. He felt even more happy and elated and so very much more as he slipped in behind the steering wheel and started the engine. He kept to the thirty-five miles an hour speed limit as he steered toward Tulsa to drop Reba off.

"I still can't believe it. Here we are together at last. Jakey, I feel hopeful for the first time since I don't know when. Reba told me about what happened when we drove away, about how he tried to shoot us and the mud in the barrel and all."

"Is it wrong of me that I'm glad he's dead?" She rubbed her face on his shoulder. "That is all I feel, just glad."

As they neared Watonga, Oklahoma Martha felt an electric jolt run through her. A woman's voice asked, "Well Ruby, what are you going to sing next?"

The car was filled with the rich sounds of a guitar played by someone who understood guitar music. "I feel kind of partial to that Margaret Whiting song, 'Tree In A Meadow.' Then I want you to tell our listeners the inside scoop on your mysterious Mister X."

As Ruby began to sing Reba shouted, "That's Big Sis!"

Martha shushed her noisy daughter and listened. Jake listened with intense concentration until he got the call letters of the radio station. When the announcer said, "We pause for station identification," Jake noted the call letters again and that the location of the radio station was in Tulsa. When they stopped in Watonga he escorted them to a café. A waitress pointed them toward a booth. As soon as they ordered, Jake went to the cashier and bought a roll of quarters. He called the radio station and was passed on to Greta.

As soon as Greta answered, Jake began, "My name is Jake West. Would you inform Ruby her father is dead?"

"Mister, this had better not be a joke."

"Oh no, I assure you this is no joke. Give her my name. She knows me and I'll wait."

"Ruby," Greta asked, "Do you know someone named Jake West from your home town?"

Fear shot through her. "I surely do, please tell him I'll take the call on another phone. You go ahead and tell our listeners about the latest adventures of Mister X." Ruby hurried out of the studio and told the switchboard operator to transfer the call.

"Hello, Mister West, what may I do for you?" No hint of her inner fear showed in her voice.

"Ruby, I am sorry to tell you your father is dead. Your mother is here with me and your sister Reba."

"Where is here?" she asked. She felt the excitement grow in her. "Is my Mama all right? Is Reba all right? How are you, Mister West?" She could not stop her tongue from clattering.

He laughed at her excitement and told her, "We have stopped in Watonga to eat a bite and stretch our bodies. Your mother was discharged from the hospital this morning. Would you like to speak with her?"

"Please," Ruby told him in a small voice.

While she still tried to digest what she had heard so far, her mother came on the phone. "Ruby? Are you there?"

"Yes Ma, I'm here. What happened? He said Pa was dead."

"Your Pa stomped me and ruptured my appendix. Reba spiked his deer gun with mud and it blew up when he shot at us. Can we come see you? If you don't want it, I'll understand."

Reba's voice cut in, "Hey big sis, let me play my banjo on the radio with you. I'm good."

Ruby laughed. Reba was good. Maybe she wasn't as good as she thought she was, but she was passable. "Let me talk to Mister West."

Jake's voice came on. "I'm here, Ruby. I did not ask how you have fared since you left home. Yet, you must be doing quite well if you have your own radio show. I am happy for you."

"It hasn't been a bed of roses by a long shot. However, I married a wonderful man and we shall have our first baby in a few short months. I have friends and I have roots." She paused to gather her thoughts.

"It is about two hours from where you are to Tulsa. I have a meeting in an hour here with the station management about my contract. I'll stay around and show you how to get to my house."