Authors: Carolyn Brown
Dulcie yelled from the kitchen and kept kneading
bread. "I know. Rent is thirty dollars a month and that
includes the breakfast. Supper is another fifty cents a
day. Honey, why don't you find a nice man to step out
with? Folks talk, you know. It's been ten years"
"Of course I know that, but what on earth would the
people talk about if I didn't provide them with a village idiot," Clara laughed. For a whole year, she'd gone to
town every day at 3:00 to sit on the bench in front of
the drug store. That's where Percy was supposed to
come back for her a decade ago. He'd never shown his
face back in Healdton, but she'd sure enough acquired
a reputation for being a bit "touched" Even after she
stopped waiting, the reputation stuck to her like wallpaper paste.
She blinked away the memories and headed out the
door. "And Dulcie, don't you go renting that room to
just anyone. Another widow woman would be nice."
Dulcie shook her head hard enough that all three
chins wobbled. "Yes, Miss Clara. Sweet Jesus, why
did you ever send that scoundrel of a preacher to town
anyway?"
Clara meandered four blocks down Main Street and
sat for a while on the bench in front of the drug store.
She smoothed the skirt of her wine-colored gabardine
dress, adjusted her hat and folded her hands in her lap.
A silly dreamer, that's what folks called Clara
Anderson. Dreaming of the day when the love of her
life would return and carry her away to live happily
ever after.
Ten years ago she thought that was exactly what
would happen. Percy promised he'd return in a week.
Just a fast trip to Guthrie and then he'd come back for
her. Three o'clock in the afternoon in front of the drug
store the next Friday. They'd elope on their way to
Louisiana, where he had a mansion and a whole staff of servants to wait on her hand and foot. She'd waited for
him on Friday, her suitcase packed and ready, sitting
beside her. She'd been all aglow with anticipation and
aglitter with excitement. She took her baggage home at
dark and the rumors began. She took the suitcase with
her every day for another week, and the gossip raged.
After seven days, she left the suitcase at home and carried a purse with revenge tucked neatly inside. Soon a
whole month had passed and then a year and then she
stopped going to the bench. But the local citizens had
never stopped talking about the crazy woman who
walked downtown every day at 3:00, come snow, rain,
blistering sun, a tornado or even a red devil dust storm
for a whole year. Everyone remembered that Clara had
been jilted, and she'd been tagged the oddest one of the
three Anderson cousins. And when someone new came
through town, they told the story of the silly old maid
who had waited on the bench in front of Healdton's
only drug store for a whole year, expecting a traveling
preacher to come back and marry her.
"Clara, darlin', how're you today?" Matilda sat down
beside her cousin on the bench.
"Doin' fine," Clara nodded. "You?"
"Been busy. Business is good," Matilda told her. "I
went over to Ardmore yesterday and ordered a brand
new automobile. It'll be here next week. Could have
brought one home with me, but I wanted some writin'
done on the front. A heavy metal plate with fancy gold lettering. That kind of fancy script, all twirly and pretty like Cletus has got on his safe at the bank"
"Tilly, you didn't?" Clara laughed. Not a giggle, but
a full-fledged laugh that echoed up and down the dusty
dirt streets of Healdton, Oklahoma.
"I sure enough did. A brand new one. Nineteen seventeen model. Won't even have a mile on it when I
drive it home. The old used car I got from Tilman is
starting to be more trouble than it's worth. Lights don't
work half the time, and I'm left drivin' in the middle of
the night with only the moon to guide me. I either had
to go back to driving a wagon like Granny did or get
something better. And honey, business is too far-flung
now to be depending on a wagon. So the words "Sweet
Tilly" will be all scripted out there for the whole world
to see just like it was on Granny's wagon. If those old
mules were important enough for Momma to let
Granny Anderson name me after them, then I'll have
the name on my brand new Model T Ford" Tilly's crystal clear blue eyes twinkled.
"And everyone will think it's just because you are so
vain that you put your name on the front of your car,"
Clara said.
"Mornin', Clara and Tilly." Tucker Anderson tipped
his hat at his lady cousins. "Hot enough for you today?"
"Why, honey, it'd scorch the hair off a frog's tongue.
Looks like we're in for a long, hot summer," Clara said.
"Come and sit with us. I haven't seen you in town since last week sometime. Why haven't you been by for supper? Dulcie's missing you and you know the ladies all
get plumb flitty when you're around."
Tucker, a tall, lanky man with a crop of black hair
and deep-set blue eyes that could pierce pure steel,
eased down on the bench, leaving no room for anyone
else. "That's why I haven't been by and you tell Dulcie
that. Wouldn't hurt her feelings for nothing, but that
Olivia gives me the hives. She acts like she'd like to
break every rule in your momma's house and you know
what I mean. You won't be thinking about renting your
spare room to another one like her, will you?"
"I would just to watch you squirm when you come to
supper." Clara smiled up at her cousin. "But no one's
come asking for it yet. Could rent it tomorrow to oil
well riffraff, but I'm not having one of them in my
house. They've ruined everything, Tucker. Life will
never be the same in Healdton. All those bawdy houses
in Ragtown, barely three miles away. I swear on a still
night you can hear those fools throwing their hardearned money away in the most sinful ways," Clara
told him.
"They call it progress," Tucker said.
"I call it a pure abomination unto the Lord," Clara
said.
Matilda clucked her tongue against the roof of her
mouth. "Clara Anderson, you ain't seen the inside of a
church building in ten years. Not since that hellfire and
damnation preacher man fed you those lies and made a big fool out of you. So don't you be calling the wrath
of God down on those people who are just trying to
make a dollar."
"Afternoon" George, the drug store owner, stepped
outside and looked at the sky. "Don't look like rain
today"
The Anderson female cousins stopped arguing the
minute they heard George open the door. Andersons
might fight within the family, but no one in town was
going to hear it. Granny Anderson had instilled that
into them the whole time they were growing up.
"Bicker and fight among the three of you, but if you
ever let anyone outside the family see such a thing, I'll
take a pecan switch to the lot of you. You can argue and
squabble, but you'd best put up a united Anderson front
when you deal with the rest of the world. Don't you
come running to me when you begin to lose, neither. If
you ain't got blood or broken bones, I don't want to
hear your whinin'," she'd preached to them on more
than one occasion.
All three were remembering her words when George
stared up at the cloudless sky again and made the same
comment.
"No, and we could sure use some," Tucker said.
"Well, good to see you all" George disappeared back
into the store.
"They still out there?" his wife, Inez, asked from
behind the soda counter.
George nodded. "Yep, all three of them"
She wiped the already clean countertop with a wet
rag and whispered to her friend from Ardmore who'd
dropped by for cold lemonade. "Guess they don't hurt
nothing. Just sittin' on the bench and all. Even if they
are a mite odd. That Clara is more than odd. She's
downright crazy, if you ask me, but don't no one ever
want my opinion on anything. Pretty as a picture, that
girl is. Make any man turn and take a second look at her
even though she is past marrying age. And she runs the
Morning Glory with a solid hand. Don't let just anyone
board there. Her mother was the same way, God rest
her soul. A woman with sense and she passed it right on
to Clara.
"Then there's her cousin, Matilda Anderson. Even
prettier than Clara. All that black hair like them
Andersons have and pale blue eyes. I know for a fact
that there was a line of men a mile long after her hand
back when before she turned twenty. Not to mention
she's rich as Midas. I heard she went to Ardmore and
bought a brand new automobile. Paid cash for it."
Her friend gasped. "Women don't do that without a
man with them. My stars! To think she just went in and
bought it. Do you think the rumors are true about her?
We've heard about her. She's never worked a day in her
life. Just stays out to that farm her daddy left her and
spends money like it grew on trees in that high-dollar
dress shop over there. I heard tell that the oil men
offered her more'n a hundred dollars an acre to lease
that farm to drill on it and she just laughed at them"
"Is that a fact? Well, I heard Tucker won't let them on
his farm neither. Wonder what it is they've got against
the oil business. It's puttin' Healdton on the map. Don't
they know that, Minnie?" Inez sniffed loudly.
"I heard that they're against the oil business because
they want things back like they were before the oil
boom. Before that gusher went up four years ago. Well,
they can just dream on, Inez. The world don't stand still
for them, just because they're Andersons and their folks
were big old cotton farmers. Oil makes more money
than cotton and, honey, it don't-" Minnie wasn't
whispering anymore.
"Shhhhh," Inez hissed. "Good evening, Miss Clara
and Miss Matilda. Y'all want a glass of lemonade to
chase away some of this heat. Guess we're in for a long
hot summer."
"That would be nice." Clara removed her gloves as
she sat down at one of the two small tables at the back
of the store. "With lots of ice, please."
"They were talking about us." Tilly winked. "They're
blushing red as the devil's pitchfork."
"So what else is new?" Clara asked.
They both giggled so hard that Inez and Minnie gave
each other a know-it-all nod.
Briar Nelson stepped out of the Hotel Ardmore that
bright, sunny afternoon. He adjusted his hat to shade
his eyes and was already in his car, the engine running,
when a man approached him from the sidewalk.
"Hey, would you be going west toward Healdton or
Hewitt?" he asked.
"Going to Healdton," Briar answered.
"There's five of us just signed on with Crystal Oil.
We could sure use a ride."
"Be glad to take you if you can manage the squeeze,"
Briar told him.
"Thanks. Come on guys. I'm Cletus, the tall one
over there is Jack, the short one is Henry, the red-haired
one is Andy and the one left is Danny." he motioned to
the other four sitting on top of well-worn suitcases.
Talk went to the weather as they rode along the dirt
road, dust boiling up as thick as a Kentucky mountain
fog from the tires of the automobile. It was too dry. It
was too hot. What would July and August be like if it
kept on like this? Yet, if it rained, what would it do to
the roads, which were already near impassable with
ruts and gullies big enough to hide a rig inside? Fill all
that up with water and there'd be no way to get from
Healdton to Ardmore.
"So you signed on with anyone yet, or are you not an
oil man at all?" Cletus asked.
"I'm working for Rose Oil," Briar said.
"Never heard of it," Danny said. "Mustn't be very
big."
"Just a small independent company," Briar said.
"Well, Crystal is still hiring. They said they were
looking for tool pushers and drillers this morning when
they took us on. We come up from Beaumont, Texas. Plenty of work there, but we wanted a change of
scenery," Danny told him.
"Danny's already seen all the loose women down in
that part of the world and wanted to take a peek at a
new bunch," Andy said, poking him in the ribs.
"Ah, y'all are just jealous because I got the good
looks and the brains," Danny teased.
"One of these days there's going to be a filly that's
going to catch him," Andy chuckled.
"This Rose Oil? They working out of the Hotel
Ardmore?" Cletus asked.
"They were. Had a room rented, but they gave it up,"
Briar said.
"Smart thing would've been to keep it. I understand
that's the hotbed in the whole area for trading and buying other company's leases," Cletus said seriously.
"You get tired of working for a little company like that
though, you come on over to where we're roughneckin'
and I'll put in a word for you in appreciation for this
ride."
"Thank you, but I'm pretty happy where I am. You
get tired of Crystal, you come on over to Rose and tell
Cecil I sent you. Where are y' all staying tonight?"
Briar changed the subject.
"Hotel, I hope, but I bet it's full to the brim.
Someone told me it was a couple of doors down from
the pool hall. Guess if there ain't room in Healdton we
can walk out to Ragtown before supper time and see if
there's room to pitch another tent. The man who hired us said everybody still calls it that that even though the
post office went in under the name of Wirt. We'll be
working out there starting tomorrow morning. Crystal's
sending in a truck to haul us to whatever site they want
us at," Cletus said.
"Here we are." Briar passed a sign welcoming them
to Healdton, Oklahoma. Main Street ran east and west.
The hotel was still unpainted, a sure sign that it had
been hastily thrown up to accommodate the sudden
influx of oil field work. Nothing fancy. Just a twostorey frame building with a wooden sidewalk in front.
A simple wooden sign with HOTEL written in red lettering was tacked up above the front door. A sign
propped up in the window said there were vacancies.
"Thanks for the ride and remember what I said. You
get a notion to move up to a bigger company, we'll see
what we can do to get you a job," Danny said.