Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (2 page)

He walked out to the dairy barn. It had been turned into a storage room filled with numerous unknown objects which he would have to clean out someday. The room where they used to milk the cows only had five stalls. He peeked into the feed room and into the room where they used to separate the milk amazed at how small the rooms were. As a nine year old child he remembered these rooms being much larger.

Danny decided to bypass the two story smoke house and the hay barn for now and go back to the house. He wondered if he needed a place to sleep at night or could he bunk here. Since the place had been vacant for a while, he didn’t know in what kind of shape it had been left. He didn’t feel too keen about sleeping with rats if they had infested the house.

A padlock held the back door secure. Danny couldn’t ever remember using a key on the door while his family lived there. The padlock looked new so it probably had been placed there when the other family moved out.

He remembered the day when the other family that bought the farm came out to care for the dairy for the first time. About six in the morning a pickup rolled into their driveway. A man and three boys piled out and headed to the barn to milk the cows. What a relief his parents and Nora felt that they didn’t have that responsibility anymore. He watched as his dad went to the barn with the men to walk them through what needed done, but his mom and Nora sat down at the table and smiled as they drank a cup of tea. They claimed they were now ladies of leisure. Soon they moved into a house in town that his dad had bought with the money from the sale of the farm. It was a happy time to have a new house where he could live close to his friends, but a bittersweet time too. His dad had lost the farm that had been in his family for generations and Danny lost his inheritance as well.

Danny opened the kitchen door for the first time in fourteen years. The smell of mouse droppings and cockroaches permeated t
he air. He swung the door open and stepped back to let some fresh air into the house. He filled his lungs with fresh air and went in holding his breath to open windows in the dining and living room. He also opened the front door to help ventilate the house.

Now that he could breathe, he went back to the kitchen. The cabinets had been replaced but were not good quality.
He saw a sink, which had been installed with the cabinets and he turned on the faucet. No water. He stepped into the bathroom and turned on the sink there. No water. Still, he wondered if maybe rural water had reached the farm. From what he could see, it gave him hope. He made a mental note to check on that tomorrow.

There was no furniture in the house. The old wood heater still stood in the living room. At least he could have heat when winte
r came. Right now he needed four-twenty; four windows open with a twenty mile an hour breeze to cool him off.

When he entered the bedrooms, he was surprised. They looked exactly as they had left them with the same color of paint that he remembered his dad and mom painting them. His dad had built both of the closets, not even the
old wooden square door knobs had been changed.

To think that these people had lived here for years and very little had changed except the kitchen cabinets. Probably, Danny surmised, he had changed the most. He left as a nine year old boy and returned
as a twenty four year old man.

He lowered the windows so that they would still vent the house and he locked the padlock on the back door. Now that he knew what he needed, he headed to Laura and Art’s house that they bought when they got married.

Danny stopped by Art’s Garage at Third and Mill Street on his way through town. He saw Fred, Art’s foreman and right hand man.

“Hi, I’m back in town,” Danny called out over the noise of the machinery. He waved to Brian Jackson, Bobby’s dad, who peeked through the door from the back and waved to him. Brian used to be an alcoholic, but due to help from Alcohol Anonymous and friends he finally got his life back together and became the father to Bobby that he needed. Bobby went to school with Danny and Aaron but bullied them after school. Thanks to the football coach
, Art, and Harold, Aaron’s dad, the situation was resolved and the boys became good friends.

Fred broke out in a grin and came over and slapped him on the back, “Good to see you, kid, except you’re not such a kid anymore.”

“No, guess not,” Danny said with a laugh, “Since I’m a head taller than you.” He patted Fred on the head. “Where’s Uncle Art?”

“See those feet sticking out from under that car over there?”  Fred stated as he pointed toward a blue car. “He’s been there most of the day.” He leaned toward Danny with his hand shielding his mouth. “I think he’s sleeping.”

“I’ll check him out,” Danny whispered back conspiratorially. He went over and popped the boots together.

Both Danny and Fred glanced at each other smiling when there was a grunt and yell from under the car. The boots grew legs and a body
, as Art scooted out from under the car on a creeper.

As soon as he saw Danny, a big smile broke out on his face. He stood up and enveloped Danny in a hug. “How are you, Son?”

Danny returned the hug and said, “I’m fine. I have news.”

“Great! Did you get married?” Art
asked teasing.

“Better than that,” Danny said proudly. “I just bought the old farm.”

Art took a deep breath and said, “Oh, Danny. I’m so happy for you. I know how much that means to you.”

Danny nodded his head without speaking.

Fred patted him on the back again.

“I do have a request,” Danny finally said.

“Sure, Son, what can I do for you?”

“I need to trade in my old car for a used pickup to use on the farm. I know that you could spot a really good one for me.”

“I think I know about one. I’ll check to see if the man still has it for sale,” Art replied.

“Have you been by to see your mom yet?” Art asked.

“I was headed that way when I passed your garage and I figured that you were here. I wanted to stop and say hi.” Danny turned with a smile and a wave and got in his car.

First, he drove by the old house in town where they used to live. His mom’s car was there. He waved when he saw her peek out the window as he stepped out of the car.

He bounded up the steps and she squealed as she met him on the porch with a hug. She pulled his face down so she could peck him on the cheek.

“You’re home, really home now,” Laura said meaningfully.

“Yes, Mom, I’m as home as I’ll ever be,” Danny said with a smile. “I just bought the old dairy farm.”

“Oh!” she placed her hand over her heart.

“Yes, it’s mine. I paid cash,” he said proudly. “I’ve done what I set out to do.”

“I’m proud of you, Son, but what a price to pay.”

“It’s okay.” Danny said ready to change the subject. “I want to see what you have done to this old house.”

In the living room she had covered the walls with finished canvasses. She had converted her old bedroom where she and John had slept into an art studio where she could shut the door if a client came to buy her art.

“Come see my latest effort.” She led him into the art studio where mounds of new canvasses were piled into the old closet ready for her artist brush. Many sizes of brushes lay organized on the table where she could comfortably reach them. A canvass stood propped up on the easel where she had just finished her last touches. It was a picture of their old farmhouse as it was when they lived there.

“Do you miss the old place?” Danny asked.

“I had a lot of good memories there, Danny,” Laura said thoughtfully. She raised her head and flipped her hair back. “I have a very happy life now. I don’t want to go back, but I don’t want to forget either.”

He knew the hardships that she and Nora had endured trying to keep the dairy farm running after his dad had been diagnosed with heart failure. It never had been a successful enterprise at any time. They had lived in near poverty from what he could remember, but almost all the farmers in the mid-fifties did. It was a hard backbreaking life. When they sold the farm, in spite of his dad being unable to work, they felt
contented and comfortable. That is, until his dad died and the money began running out.

F
ortunately his dad wisely put aside money for Nora and Danny to have for college. Nora used her money for a car and Med-School. Danny felt fortunate that he had been able to work enough to save his college fund. By wise investment, thanks to Donald Littlefield, Nora’s father-in-law, the money had tripled in the last fourteen years. He still had that nest egg for his farm.

“I made this picture of the farm for you, I hope you like it.” Laura said bringing his attention back to her.”

“Thank you, Mom,” he commented hoarsely. “I will always treasure it.”

“I was wondering do you still have my old bedroom suit?” he continued.

“Sure,” she said leading him back to his old bedroom.

Everything looked almost the same as it did when he lived here except she had stored useless things
that she didn’t want to throw away around on the floor and on the bed. “Would you mind if I took this bedroom suit out to the farm? I have no furniture.”

“It’s yours if you want it,” she said waving her hand. “It’s old. I have more sheets that I can toss in.”

“Good.” Danny put his arm across her shoulders.

He looked down loving at his little mother who had given so much. Her blond hair hung to her shoulders as she always wore it, but he could see some sprigs of gray shining due to the overhead light. She still was a skinny little thing not much more than a hundred pounds and stood about five foot, two inches. He towered over her
more than a foot taller. He took after his father, so he was told. He had the build of a football player, suited to his chosen profession that had quickly gone sour.

The twin bed would hold him for a while until he could buy something larger later. Right now he could deal with his feet hanging off the end for a while.

  At the new house, Laura started making the preparations for the evening meal, Danny sat at the bar watching her. “How are Aaron and his family?” Danny asked. Aaron was Danny’s best buddy since beginning grade school. Since he left for college they hadn’t seen much of each other except during school breaks. A lot of the time Danny had not come home because he was obligated to work to keep his part time job.

“Aaron
is still at college. He’ll soon be ready to start his second year of his Master’s degree to be a CMA. Harold and Mary are basically the same but older,” Laura said thoughtfully. She straightened up and laughed, “Harold and Mary have taken up square dancing. They are trying to get us to join them. You should see them dressed in their country get up.”

“You should do it, Mom. You and Uncle Art would have a lot of fun,” Danny encouraged. “Remember when Uncle Art taught you to dance so you could go to the Cain’s Ballroom with him?”

Laura smiled remembering how hard Art tried to get her to date him, “That was a long time ago. I had a lot of fun.”

“See?” Danny encouraged.

“I’ll think about it. Art still has his Kuk Sool Won karate school at night. He has a lot on his plate between the school and his garage.”

“Funny that Aaron turned out to be an accountant after all the years of football, isn’t it?” Danny commented.

Laura turned and smiled at him with her hand on her hip, “Aaron was really good at football like you were. That’s why he received a scholarship like you did, but he only had the drive because of you. You were so determined to be a professional football player that he wanted it, too.”

Danny thought for a minute, “I never looked at it that way. We practiced every spare minute we had every summer. He always enjoyed it.”

“In the end, he decided to be a CMA like his dad.” Laura replied perceptively, “Most kids pick up a profession similar to their parents because it is something they know about and it feels comfortable. Have you compared that to your life?”

“Wow, I never thought about that. I’ve come full circle, haven’t I?”

Laura smiled in agreement.

“I have a different plan, though than Dad. I studied about this in college.” He stopped to grin at her, “See? Jeremy had some influence, too. I took agricultural courses along with my other macho football courses. I plan to raise Herford’s and eventually breed horses.”

Danny referred to Jeremy, Nora’s husband. His father insisted he go to Harvard to study law but his heart wasn’t in it. On the side he studied biochemistry and horticulture. He excelled in such a way that his father, Donald Littlefield relented and let him follow his own interests. By the time Jeremy had earned his master’s degree, he had become known nationwide for his theory in increasing nutritional value in foods grown by farmers.

“That’s an ambitious plan, are you up to it physically?”

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, the doctor’s say they have done all they can for me. I feel fit, so I plan to make my living on the farm,” Danny replied determinedly. “I know that it will take time but that’s my plan.”

The next morning Danny got his water and electric turned on. He went by the propane company and procured a tank. Next he
went by the local Ward’s store and bought a refrigerator, a gas range, along with a couple of gas wall heaters for the living room and the bedroom. It was time to throw out that old wood heater he decided.  He left there and bought a small kitchen table and living room suit at the second hand store to be delivered that afternoon. Finally, he felt that he could make the farm inhabitable, but only after a trip to the grocery store to buy cleaning supplies and a little food.