Still Riding Horses.
Tattered and Worn. Episode 2.
Set in rural Kansas just prior to the turn of the century and continuing through the early 1900s, this series follows the Strong family through the challenges and joys of life in Midwest America. Still Riding Horses is the seventh series in the Dusty Town sequence, original historical fiction by Mary Ann DiLorenzo.
Tattered and Worn. Episode 2.
After a long silence of thoughts of days gone by, Willie broke the quiet, “Betty Lou?” he asked.
“Yes dear, what is it?”
“I was wondering some, would it be alright if I called you Ma? You have been like a mother to me since my first ma’s been gone.”
“Oh, Willie, that would mean a whole lot to me, if’n you wanted to and all.”
“Then it’s settled. Ma!” Willie hugged Betty Lou then and it made her smile. “Stay here in the big house with Jake and me tonight so you won’t be alone.”
“I think I need to be alone and to be back in our house. I’ll cry some and think some. I need to, dear, I need to.”
“Alright Ma. You need anything at all, shine a light and one of us will come running. We’ll take turns getting some sleep and keeping watch over you.” Betty Lou’s eyes filled up with tears at his sweetness, and with a catch in her throat, she kissed Willie and Jake on the forehead, gave them a hug. It was time to go to her house, hers and Jacob’s for some years now, and she turned to go.
The walk along the dirt path leading between the farmhouses was different tonight. Jacob would not be waiting for her by the fire nodding off. Before he got sick and forgetful, they would walk the path together at the end of the day discussing and worrying and being happy, all at the same time. Then they would sit in the little porch swing on their tidy front porch and marvel everything the years had brought to their family and their little dusty town.
Tonight, the sturdy tall old tree just off the porch caught her eye, almost for the first time it seemed. When Willie had built the house for his pa, he left that tree standing as a landmark and as a connection to the past generations of their family that had farmed in this part of rural Kansas.
When Jake was a little boy, he had carved into that tree his initials, and Jacob had carved, “AIN’T NO FINER PLACE THAN HERE IN KANSAS WITH THE ONES I LOVE.” Betty Lou smiled remembering the pretty sunset that night he had carved it, deep blue, rich purple, bursts of orange and yellow and red! And then it was gone. But it always came back on another night, for them all to enjoy again.
Then Betty Lou went into the house to get something tattered and worn. Brought it out and sat back down, holding it tight in her arms. It was the teddy bear, Jake’s treasured teddy bear, that he brought to this house, only his grampa’s house back then, so Jacob would never feel alone. Jacob had kept it always. He was hugging it when the end came and Betty Lou wondered if he remembered.
Betty Lou sat the teddy bear on her lap and began, “Well, little bear, I’m feeling tattered and worn like you tonight. Maybe you can be a friend to me like you were to Jacob when he needed one.” Betty Lou picked the bear up and hugged him, rocking the bear silently as she listened to the gentle spring breeze rustle the trees and the crickets singing their happy songs. They didn’t know she was so sad tonight, Betty Lou thought.
She put her head back and looked up at the sturdy old connection tree. It had seen the years before the country’s Civil War, the Civil War itself, furious winter storms, children playing in its branches, birds making nests, light spring breezes that barely brushed their leaves, and thunderstorm winds that ripped off leaves and branches at will. It had laughed at picnics, watched over playing children, shaded animals and the Strong family on the summer’s hottest days. The swing Jacob had made for Jake was still there, though it wouldn’t be able to hold his weight anymore. “Time passes, little bear, time passes. And so quickly!”
That old tree is me, Betty Lou thought. On accounta we’re both a little long in the teeth now, but more because our roots are down deep in this Kansas dirt in this dusty little town. We have been through so much, yet we keep going forward, we hold on, our roots are deep. We won’t be shaken in any storm.
Betty Lou felt then, as she had once encouraged Jacob, that even though the pain would never go away, eventually the thoughts of days gone by would be remembered with more smiles than tears. And like that old tree, Betty Lou had lasted through many things and she wouldn’t be shaken either.
Prior Episodes of Still Riding Horses
A Living Legacy. Episode 1.
