Chapter 9: The Glory Trail

Jimmy felt out of place as he sat beside Ruby in the Haven Of Rest Baptist Church. He sat straight and fidgeted. He wanted it to all be over with. From the podium, he looked out over the sea of faces, all strangers. Ruby seemed more at ease as they waited for Reverend Friend to give the bible lesson to the Sunday night congregation.

Because of the incident with Leech that afternoon and the radio coverage of the affair, the church was full to overflowing. People stood in the aisles while others listened to the service piped out into the parking lot.

Henry Friend turned to Ruby and asked, "If we ask you please, would you sing a song or two? These folks would surely love to hear our beautiful West Oklahoma meadowlark sing. I know I would."

"Jimmy, get me that guitar behind the organ. I'll start without it." Ruby patted his arm and stepped up to the pulpit. The congregation stared up at the demure looking young woman and waited for her to begin.

"It surely gives me great pleasure to sing for you this evening. That is because it always feels good to sing about the Lord and His blessings. Reverend Friend asked us up here and I want to repay him in part by singing this hymn." The overhead lights all dimmed and only the backlights behind her remained bright.

As the back lighting created an aura that enclosed her, Ruby's red hair caught all the lights and diffused it into a reddish halo. More than one woman in the audience mentally likened her to an angel and imagined she could see a hint of wings.

A cappella, she began to sing, "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our grief and joys to share. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer..." every time she sang the word "friend" she emphasized it. Her voice sounded lonely, as if she were many miles from anyone else and singing into the wind.

At the appropriate time, she stopped her song and began to speak. "We sure are lucky," she told the congregation, "that we have a man running for office who is a friend in name and deed. You all heard about that horrible man in the parking lot. Just imagine, a church parking lot. He tried to beat me up and he would have beaten me if my Jimmy hadn't protected me. That man came here to make trouble because Brother Friend would not bow down to the crooked politicians."

Jimmy handed her the guitar and she strummed and began to sing play, "Stand up, stand up for Jesus ... Let's all stand up for Jesus and sing together. Come on now, join with me." She started over and slowly the members of the congregation stood and sang with her. Reverend Friend felt himself ready to salivate as he watched her play the crowd.

Two men in the back began to heckle her. "With a voice like that you sure make a lie sound good." Another voice called, "Go back where you came from. We got enough women like you already hangin' around downtown."

Jimmy was outside the spotlight, unseen by the audience. Unnoticed, stood up and left the stage. Ruby sang over the disruptive voices while Friend turned the lights up. Jimmy spied one heckler as the people around him backed away. The man saw Jimmy coming and tried to slip back into the crowd. Jimmy grabbed the man before he could escape.

Jimmy's face was white with anger, as he grabbed the troublemaker by the back of his belt. Jimmy lifted him one handed and said in a loud voice, "I don't believe in violence in church. People come here to get away from violence. On the other hand, I remember that Jesus ran the moneychangers out of the church one time. So you tell me who sent you here." He still had a firm grip on the man's belt as he raised the man into the air and shook him hard.

"Lee ... Lee ... Leech," came the terrified answer.

"Well, here's my answer to that money changer Willard Leech," Jimmy said as he lowered and dragged the heckler out through the front doors and threw him down the steps. He returned inside and asked in a loud voice, "Where's that other one?"

"That blue streak you saw running away was the other guy," one of the congregation answered. Those who stood near enough to hear the exchange laughed.

Someone who also wanted to be a wit said, "That streak coming from his backside sure wasn't blue, it was brown." There was more laughter. Then everyone became quiet as they remembered where they were.

Still behind the pulpit, Ruby saw the chance to use the incident to advantage. She told the people, "That does it. I want to work for Reverend Friend in his campaign to do the Lord's work in Washington DC among all those moneychangers like my Jimmy was just talking about.

"Now Brother Friend is not a rich man. As you know, sincere men of God seldom are. Reverend Henry Friend needs our help. Let's all start a campaign to raise money to send our Friend to Washington. We will call it 'Friendly Dollars.' We need money and volunteers. Our Friend needs his friends to stand behind him." She turned to the open mouthed Henry Friend. "Reverend, would it be all right if we passed the collection plates for a special love offering?" He nodded.

"Well, we aren't rich and I don't have a cent with me so I ask Jimmy to empty his billfold into a collection plate. How much you have on you, Sweetie?"

He shook his head, "About a hundred or so." She held out her hand and he removed the money and handed it to her.

"Thank you, Honey," she said in a sweet voice.

"We're going to have the most expensive marriage in history if you keep this up." The microphone caught his every word and relayed it to the audience. The congregation laughed.

Jimmy added, "But I love you anyway." Ruby patted his cheek. Many in the congregation applauded. Wally had taken pictures and the radio announcer kept a running description of the action. Everything was sent over the phone line from the church to the radio station.

The next day Jimmy was likened to Jesus chasing the moneychangers out of the temple. The newspaper put out a thicker edition than was usual with ten more pages of advertising mixed in. Wally's pictures were displayed with prominence throughout. Only Russia and the evil communists got more coverage, just barely.

Stanley Green called Jimmy to his office. "Do you like working here?" he asked as Jimmy came through the door.

"Yes sir, why?" Jimmy asked.

"That was my next question, why?" Stanley stared hard at this big man who became more of an enigma every day.

Jimmy saw no mystery. "I came here out of high school and worked until I was drafted. Then I went to France and Germany and got shot and was sent home. Then I come back here and went to work again. It's what I do."

"In all the years you have worked here no press room foreman ever said anything nice about you and yet nobody ever tried to fire you. Why?" Now the publisher looked hard at his employee.

"I guess it's because I try to keep out of trouble and work hard." He looked at the floor, embarrassed. "And I kind of redesigned the presses when we couldn't get parts. I just figured ways to keep them running." Jimmy felt uncomfortable to stand in his boss's office. He preferred the anonymity of the noisy pressroom.

Stanley nodded to himself. "I was impressed when I heard how you mixed used car oil and paraffin together to keep the big rollers going. Who taught you all those things?"

"Nobody," he answered. "I figured there had to be a way to keep things going through the war and I set down and figured out what to do with what was at hand."

"I've told personnel to ease the present press room foreman out. He can't handle the job anymore. You want it?"

Jimmy looked at Stanley Green in surprise and said simply, "No sir. Ruby has other plans."

"Oh, would you mind telling me what great plans she has for you?" Jimmy's refusal shocked Stanley Green. To his dismay he already learned Jimmy had innovated and redesigned nearly all the equipment in the pressroom, even the linotype machine had Jimmy's stamp on it. Only he, Jimmy knew how everything was put together.

According to the linotype company representative, there were three separate applications they could get patents for on his machinery alone. "The man who did this work is a very well trained and talented engineer."

"Oh," had been Green's answer.

The engineer from the printing machinery company said pretty much the same. "If that man ever wants a job with us, he has one."

Jimmy tried to reassure his boss. "Oh, I won't quit without giving notice and I'll help train someone to take my place. This paper has treated me right and I intend to do right by the paper."

There it was again, that dullard façade that fooled everybody. This man is anything but simple. What in hell does he really want? "Now, about Sunday," the publisher said, "Do you have the guest list?"

Surprised, Jimmy said, "No sir. Henry Friend has that covered. He also said as soon as he is seated in Congress and I have taken his place as state senator he wanted to have people beholden to us." He explained, "Ruby has a plan for him too."

"Then I had better call Henry and find out what is happening and about to happen." He changed subjects he asked Jimmy, "Did you really throw Willard Leech in the trash upside down? And one handed throw an agitator down the steps?"

"Yes sir, I did. That Leech was going to hit Ruby and that other guy tried to disrupt her music. I will hurt anybody who messes with Ruby. I'll hurt 'em bad"

All at once Stanley Green understood. It was almost like a divine revelation to him. What you see is all there is to see about Jimmy Ray Haggard. There was no artifice in the man. Here is the most dangerous man in the world, Stanley Green decided. Here is an honest man of principle who will not back down. "Thank you, Jimmy, go on to work." Jimmy turned and left.

Green smiled as he reached for the intercom button. "Send Chubb up here," he told his secretary. "I believe it's time to for our intrepid reporter to move up in the world." He smiled to himself and decided it was also time to take a more personal interest in Oklahoma state politics.

The snazzy looking ass on that fine little red head had a lot to do with his decision. Thinking of his childless, lumpy, late and unlamented wife with the perpetual whine, he was sorry that more Jewish women weren't as good to look at as Ruby Skye. Or, more to the point, that he had not found one for himself.

"Mister Chubb is here, sir," came his secretary's voice sounded tinny over the intercom.

"Send him in, please."

Wally felt nervous as he strode through the door, "Yes sir, you wanted to see me?"

In a dry voice, Stanley Green answered, "Yes, otherwise you would never have been summoned to my office."

Without preamble he began, "I am aware you have been seeking employment elsewhere. That's fine. A man should look out for his own interests first. I have an assignment for you that should make the letters you sent out in the last two months unnecessary."

"You are a very good photographer, better than anyone here ever realized. Although a little flowery, your prose carries its message quite well."

"Yes sir?" Wally Chubb felt he was standing on quicksand. One word from Stanley Green and he would be unemployed and unemployable.

"You are now the political reporter at large for this paper. You are answerable to me and me only. Your first assignment is to follow the Friend campaign and find nice things to write about our worthy candidate. Miss Skye and her fiancé are part and parcel of that campaign. Flattering references to the two of them would not be remiss. Think creatively." He smiled at the dumbfounded reporter.

"Chubb, This newspaper will soon engage in that television craze sweeping the country. You carry this assignment off in a credible manner and you get a shot as the one who reads the news and comments on it."

Stanley looked up at Wally Chubb and smiled. He pushed a manila envelope partway across his desk toward the reporter. "Please give this envelope to the good reverend when you see him. He may need what is in here. Get busy." He picked the thick envelope up and tossed it to his newest political reporter. Without another word, Wally Chubb caught it in midair and nodded once. The reporter turned to leave as fast as he could. He was afraid Mister Green just might change his mind.

The reporter smiled to himself as he left the room. It surprised him to learn the dried up old son of a bitch had a few human emotions after all. He smiled all the way back to his desk.

"Milt went home sick," the news editor told him as he started to sit down. "You cover the boy scout awards ceremony. One picture of the new Eagle Scout with the others around him is fine."

Howard Smith, the news editor of the Green News Syndicate's Tulsa Clarion was jealous of Wally Chubb's recent notoriety and celebrity status around the paper. Smith decided to rein Chubb in before he became a threat to the editor's authority. A demeaning assignment, usually reserved for the newest reporter on the paper, was one certain way to do it.

"Sorry Howard, Mister Green has me on special assignment covering Henry Friend's campaign and the wedding next week of our own Jimmy Ray Haggard to that beautiful redhead, Ruby Skye." Wally was well aware of the reasons behind the attempt to "put him in his place."

"Why wasn't I informed of this?" the angry editor demanded.

"You just were." Wally gave the editor a thin-lipped mean smile. "And Howard? Do not mess with my pictures or my copy. If you do you will be in for a world of hurts. Take it up with Mister Green. It was his decision all the way."

He turned his back on the unhappy editor and walked out of the building. After five years of the perpetual nit picking he endured from Howard Smith it felt good to put him in his place.

His first stop was The Haven Of Rest Baptist Church. He entered the church building and went straight back to Friend's office. "Reverend, I have been assigned to cover your campaign through to victory at the polls." He handed the surprised candidate the thick envelope. "You did not get this from me, I never ever saw it and, well, you know how it goes."

"Holy smoke!" Henry Friend exclaimed as he ripped open the envelope and saw its contents. Ten fresh printed five hundred dollar bills peeked out of the torn end of the envelope. A single photograph fluttered to the floor. He picked it up, stared at it, looked back at the money and laughed. "Here," he grunted and handed the photo to Wally.

"Who is the guy with the dick in his mouth?" Wally asked.

"I don't know. However the other one getting his dick sucked is the man the party has picked to endorse instead of me after Leech got trashed." He led the way into his office. "Sit," he ordered.

"Your Stanley Green is not a man to be taken lightly." He shook his head in wonder. He tapped the envelope against his desk and a second picture fell out. That picture was of the Republican candidate and two very much under age young girls, one black and one white. All three were naked and the two girls looked scared.

"Henry," Ruby's voice came from the door. "I would like to take that guitar home with me and practice for Wednesday night prayer meeting. I..." Her voice trailed off as she spied the picture of the adult and the two young girls. "If this is your secret vice, Henry, Jimmy and I are gone from your life. How could..." She got no further.