Chapter 5: Heroes Are Made

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and noisy. Loud pounding on the front door woke Ruby from a sound sleep. "Who is it?" she called from the couch. She barely raised her head when the door flew open. Wally Chubb appeared only a little hung over. She recognized him as the reporter who started all the events in motion last evening.

He took in Ruby lying covered on the sofa, her shoe and sock on the floor, and her outer garments draped across the end of the sofa. "Where's Jimmy? He doesn't have a phone and Mister Green wants him to call. We need the details for the afternoon edition." He grinned and continued, "You two are featured in the society column. There will be two whole pages of pictures with Senator Friend and you and the party last night at the Planter's Steak House."

Wally was aware he was babbling, but could not stop. "Now that Senator Friend has volunteered the use of his church and intends to do the ceremony himself, there will be two more pages. I intend to cover the reception separately. Right now, you two are news. Even the mayor called and asked for an invite to attend."

With the whole story under his by-line and every one of the pictures credited to him, Wally Chubb wanted everything just right. "This might well be the social event of the year." He grinned at Ruby. " You know our boss, Mr. Green? He wants to present you all with an all paid honeymoon in Miami."

He whipped out his note pad and pencil just as Jimmy, naked and hairy, stumbled out of the bedroom. "What's going on out here? I heard a yell."

"Jimmy!" she screamed, "You're naked. Get some clothes on yourself right now." Ruby made a big show of turning her back as if embarrassed by his nudity.

Still befuddled, Jimmy turned around and shambled back into the bedroom. He returned with his trousers on and his shirt half buttoned. "Oh, I feel horrible. I got sick last night."

"Button your shirt and comb your hair. I don't want to see you looking bad." Obedient to her command, Jimmy turned back toward the bedroom.

"You get out of here," Ruby ordered the reporter. "I will not talk to a man while I am undressed." She stared hard at him.

"Too bad," Wally muttered to himself as he stepped back out the door and onto the front porch. As soon as the door closed, Ruby jumped up and hurried into the bedroom. She removed yesterday's undergarments and replaced them with fresh.

Inside Ruby felt scared. Visions of her past life flitted through her mind. She was determined no one would know she was living "in sin" with Jimmy. From personal experience, she knew well how malicious gossip started and grew. She chose a skirt and blouse close to what she had worn the previous evening.

Ruby clumped her way back to the couch and slipped her loafer on her bare foot. Then and only then, would she go to the front door and call the reporter back in. "You may come in now," she told him in a prim and proper voice.

Boy, this woman is one real cold fish to look like such a hot tomato, Wally thought to himself. I bet after they get married Jimmy will have to make an appointment a week in advance just to get a little. I bet even then she will make him sit up and beg like a dog.

Ruby could tell by the smirk on his face pretty much what Wally's thoughts were right then. She was satisfied their reputations would remain undamaged.

Minutes later Jimmy came out of the bedroom in a clean set of work clothes. He was unshaved but his hair was combed. He had on shoes and socks.

Ruby went to the cupboard and asked, "Jimmy, where's your coffee?" She was determined to play out the pretense they did not share the house together. Her main concern was that Jimmy's reputation was not marred. People looked down on those who "shacked up." Ruby decided it made no difference what people thought of her, so long as it did not affect Jimmy in a bad way.

Puzzled, Jimmy pointed toward the cupboard. "Over there." He wondered what was wrong with her? After all, she had arranged everything in the cupboards to her own satisfaction. She ought to know where she put things.

Ruby put the coffee pot on the stove and sat at the table across from Jimmy. Wally invited himself to sit down and started the questions.

"Exactly who are you?" he asked Ruby. 'I looked through the morgue at the paper and couldn't find any reference to you anywhere. Where are you from? How and when did you meet? When did you say yes and when do you plan to be married?"

Ruby thought fast. "My family came to America from England and settled in Willow, West Virginia many years ago. Grandfather was in mining. When the mines played out, he came out to western Oklahoma and tried to revive a played out zinc mine. That was when they moved to a small town over in Texas county to try one last time to recoup the family fortunes." She tried to project the proper amount of sad dignity as she spun her tale.

"Then came the final blow. My family lost everything we had when the stock market crashed and the mine played out. So now, I am all alone, except for Jimmy. He is my protector and my whole world." She looked at Jimmy with adoring eyes. She did not have to fake the look she gave him. I love you so much Jimmy Ray, she told him with her eyes.

"Is your father deceased?" Wally asked.

She looked down at the table and said, "I would rather not talk about it; it's too painful."

"And your mother?" he persisted. She shook her head in the negative and didn't answer. One last try, "When did you lose your parents?"

"That is all in the past. I have Jimmy now and Jimmy is all that matters." She got up from the table, walked around to Jimmy and kissed him on the forehead. The one simple sentence from the heart told Wally how much she loved Jimmy. "With Jimmy I am secure."

If Wally had read old romances from the turn of the century he might have recognized the mixing of "Fate's Orphan" and a couple of other Victorian romances.

From early on Ruby read every book she could get her hands on. She was an authority on old romances of that bygone era of the eighteen hundreds, even the more risqué tales of Edwardian sex novels she found in one house.

After the mines in the area played out, nearly all the owners and mine bosses moved on. Many books were left behind. It was not worth the effort to pack them for shipping. Mine owners were interested in profit ledgers, not books.

From one abandoned house, Ruby carried away five boxes of books; some were even leather bound classics and others were "nickel novels" with lurid pictures on the covers. In other empty houses, she found books on philosophy and history. She read them all. What else was there for a young girl with an inquiring mind to do?

Wally was only familiar with the likes of Tom Swift and other boys' adventure books. On the other hand, Ruby had read Jonathan Swift and many of the old philosophers. Therefore, Wally was not familiar with her literary allusions. The Hardy Boys and other boys' adventures were where his childhood reading ended.

He heard what she said and inserted his own thoughts about what was left unsaid. His mind conjured up a tragic story of the son of a wealthy English family, a man who brought his bride to the American shores in the past century and lost most of his fortune in the Virginia coalmines.

Then his son later finished the job in the played out west Oklahoma zinc mines. Of course, the fact that the subject of his story was a great looking young woman with long red hair that hung down to the middle of her back and beautiful wide jade green eyes helped him spin the tragic tale.

A few times Jimmy opened his mouth to correct Ruby's story. What little she had already told him of her past did not jibe with her present tale. Ruby quickly shushed him before he could ruin her creation. Finally, he stopped trying and decided to ask her later what all that was about. Literal minded Jimmy Ray read textbooks as a boy and manuals as an adult. He became lost in the drama Ruby spun and acted in. To Jimmy it was both fascinating theater and so much bullshit.

"Well I better get back to the paper." Wally looked at Ruby and asked, "What is your middle name?"

"Jade," she answered simply.

"Ah, the eyes, yes, I didn't know your middle name was Jade," Jimmy exclaimed.

"You didn't ask me. Your thoughts were elsewhere than my eyes," she answered him.

Wally smiled and left to rewrite Ruby's whole life story. "Don't forget to telephone Mister Green," he called over his shoulder as he closed the door.

As soon as the reporter left, Jimmy asked, "Now what was that all about? He got things all wrong." Jimmy was puzzled and showed it.

"Jimmy, would you rather be married to a lady of breeding or someone who comes from white trash hillbillies?" She stared at him in exasperation.

"Well, as long as it was you, I don't care," he answered in his simple and direct way.

"Well, I do care. Jimmy, it's not all that important to me what people think about me. I am concerned about you and our baby. Do you want people talking about us? People gossip and that gossip is mostly cruel. I know, Jimmy, how well I know."

She remembered the slights and snubs her family and others in the same straits got from the so-called solid citizens. "Now, I did not exactly lie to that reporter, I just let him draw his own conclusions. Besides, my family did come from Leeds, England almost a hundred years ago and they were coal miners over there. Great grandpa told me."

He sighed and shook his head. "It just seems so complicated. I never knew getting engaged was so complicated."

"Well, here is something simple for you," she grinned and had him stand up. When he did, she pulled down his pants and shorts and took his soft penis in her mouth.

She smiled to herself and just at the right time, she took him deep in her throat as he came. Jimmy sighed as he fell back into his chair and sat with his pants and boxer shorts down around his ankles. She giggled at the sight.

She went to the sink for a drink of water and said, "You better get your pants up, Jimmy Ray. Mister Green might be offended if you come calling like that."

He shook his head to clear it and stood. He bent over to pull his boxers up, then his trousers. She went into the bedroom and removed her loafer. She slipped an anklet on her right foot, and then replaced the shoe. He ambled along behind her as she went out the front door.

She hopped into the car and sat back while he got in on the driver's side and started the engine. As they out onto the road, both were silent. Then, little while later he asked, "How did we get home last night? Who brought the car to us?"

"I drove us home last night. I can drive, you know." She grinned as she looked up at him.

"No, I didn't know. I guess I got a lot to learn about you, too." He winced as the car hit a small pothole. "I still have a headache. Maybe we can stop for coffee somewhere."

"Over there," she told him as she pointed to a café just inside the city limits sign. He pulled to a stop in front of the café and they got out.

They ordered coffee and sat in silence. Ruby asked him, "Honey, there is one question they are going to ask. They will want to know when the wedding is. How much do you remember about last night?"

Shame faced, he admitted, "Not too much."

"Do you remember that you agreed to have that preacher, State Senator Henry Friend marry us at his church? Do you remember how the wedding reception will be held at the Planter's Steak House? Did you know the newspaper is going to send us to Miami on our honeymoon?"

He kept shaking his head negative until she stopped with the uncomfortable questions. Finally, he said, "I guess there's a lot I don't remember."