The Longest Road (45 page)

In the next weeks, the RAF fought off the Luftwaffe so fiercely that Hitler had to postpone plans for sending his armies across the Channel. Besides, German armies were needed to aid Italy's assault on a desperately resisting Greece. In November, Way refused to vote for Roosevelt's third term. “I like most of what FDR's pulled off,” he said before he and Marilys went to vote. “But no human ought to be head of a country that long. Gettin' too much like a king.”

Marilys scrunched her nose at him. “He's got my vote,” she said. “But I'd sooner elect Eleanor. There's a real fine lady.”

Roosevelt won his third term. A German bomber scored a direct hit on Buckingham Palace. Princess Elizabeth was about Laurie's age, with Princess Margaret younger. Laurie was glad they weren't hurt. Japan was angry because the United States had stopped selling it the oil and scrap metal needed for Japan's war with China.

“You know what I'd like to do?” said Way late one night as they sat drinking hot chocolate. “Start a salvage business. Seems like a good time for it when the defense factories are usin' so much steel and iron. There's thousands of dollars' worth of pipes, generators, pumps, tools, boilers—all kinds of stuff that the big companies sell cheap when maybe it just needs a little repair. I'm a fair hand at welding. Reckon there should be a good profit in sellin' good used equipment to small operators who can't afford new.”

“That sounds like a great idea, honey.” Marilys still worried about Way's asthma and wanted him to get work that wouldn't keep him out on the dusty roads. “Guess the problem's getting started, but we have a little saved.”

The trip to Rosalie's had depleted Laurie's hoard but it was building up again and she hadn't spent her share of Mary Halsell's payment for the Ford. “I can put in seventy dollars.”

“I'll give my Ford money,” Buddy volunteered, puffing out his chest with an entrepreneurial glance at Everett.

Sighing, Everett relinquished his weekly movie and chocolate soda. “It's not much, but I'll kick in what's left over from my board and what I have to send Pa.”

“No, you won't,” commanded Laurie. “You don't begin to eat what you pay for board so you're already helping a lot.”

“That's right, son.” Way looked from Buddy to Laurie. “You kiddos sure you want to sink all your money in this?”

“None of my pals own part of a business!” Buddy grinned. He shot a sidelong glance at Laurie. “If you're going to need a helper—”

“You can help after school and on weekends,” Laurie said in her most quelling tone before excitement made her jump up and kiss Way on the cheek. “Oh, Way, that'll be grand! To have your own business!”

“
Our
business,” corrected Way, taking her hand and Marilys's as he beamed at the boys. “I'll start huntin' bargains tomorrow but I won't quit my pumpin' job till I've delivered enough orders to let contractors and purchasing agents know I can hustle up what they need at a fair price.”

“How'll you work your job and do that?” Marilys frowned.

He squeezed her hand reassuringly. “Sugar, until I can afford a big stock, I'll pretty much find my buyer before I put much money into something.” When they all looked puzzled, he explained. “Let's say some major oil company wants to sell some used seamless pipe. I quote 'em a price and ask for a three-day option, or ten days, or whatever I need. If I find a buyer, I use my option, and the buyer gives me a check. I take out my profit and send the rest to the oil company. The buyer picks up his pipe, and everybody's happy.”

“Looks like the company would just sell to the buyer to start with,” said Everett.

“Too much trouble for a big outfit. I earn my profit by connecting the party that wants somethin' with the party that's got it. But sho', soon's as I can, I'll have a regular supply yard. I've already talked this over with Johnny. Wouldn't let him stake me like he wanted to, but I sure won't fuss at any business he sends my way.”

A few days later, on a lead from Johnny, Way put together a deal for three hundred thousand feet of lapweld pipe. With the profit, he bought some tanks and a welding outfit, repaired the leaks, and swapped the tanks and some of the pooled cash for a load of seamless pipe. Within a few weeks of FDR's election, Way had done enough deals to rent a vacant lot. He'd wanted to make the sign read
FIELD-KIRKENDALL SALVAGE
but Laurie argued him out of that. “You can do a lot with your name, Way. The
Way
to save—the
Way
to good used equipment—the
Way
to better deals.”

“Reckon so,” he finally agreed. So the sign read:

W
AY TO SAVE

W
A
Y TO BEST USED EQUIPMENT

WA
Y
TO BETTER DEALS

WAY SALVAGE

The night the sign went up, Laurie was accompanying herself on the guitar as she sang in the dining room. Johnny and Crystal were at their usual corner table. Suddenly, Johnny looked startled, then joyous. Bringing Crystal's hands to his lips, he kissed them.

Laurie struck a wrong chord. What had Crystal told him? It wasn't that often, from all Laurie could see, that she said or did anything to make him glad. The woman was like a—a whirlpool, an irresistible vortex that swallowed everything and wanted more. Laurie recovered herself enough to finish Jimmie Rodgers's “T for Texas.” As she nodded and smiled her thanks at the applause, she sensed a presence.

Glancing up, she looked straight into eyes she thought tawny brown till the young man—boy, really, perhaps her own age—cocked his head so that better light revealed the green in his eyes.

“Are you Laurie?” he asked. “Laurie Field?”

“Yes.” She felt spied on, taken unawares at a vulnerable moment. “Who in the world are you?”

The eagerness faded from his long, straight-planed face. When his flesh filled out to his bones, he'd make a strapping, handsome man. He already had a man's deep voice but something in his manner reminded her of Buddy. She wished she hadn't been so sharp.

“I'm Jim Halsell.”

She stared. “You—you wrote my mother,” he added.

“Mary Halsell?”

The eagerness was back. He nodded. “You met me in the camp outside Eden.” He grinned. “You were Larry then.”

Laurie rose, setting down the guitar, and warmly offered her hand. “I'm glad to see you again, Jim. Have you had supper?”

“No. I just got to town.”

From the rumpled, gaunt look of him, she suspected he'd come on a freight and had missed a lot of meals. She remembered how that was. “I haven't eaten, either. Let's take that little table by the window and talk while we have a bite. The
chilies rellenos
are real good.”

A rush of scarlet covered his freckles. “Sorry I can't treat you, but I—I don't have a dime.”

“You don't need it. My meals are free when I'm working and I can have a guest now and then as long as I don't overdo it.” She'd never tried it but if there was a question, she could settle up quietly.

To spare the waitresses, who were rushed as was usual on Friday nights, she placed their order in the kitchen, asking the cook to give Jim doubles, and went back to join him and cross the room to their table. Johnny watched, frowning. She gave him a brilliant smile.

“Who's your feller, Laurie?” called a black-haired Cajun driller she'd refused to date. “Better toss him back in the lake to grow a little!”

Jim stopped beside the driller, who was short but bull-chested, and renowned for stomping his opponents into the mud. “I reckon, sir, I'm growed enough to say that you better respect this lady.”

The Cajun blinked coal-bright eyes. He started to scoot back his chair, then shrugged and grinned. “No offense, youngster. You bet I respect that lady. Just call me jealous.”

To Laurie's surprise, Jim pulled out a chair for her and pushed it in before he took his own. Johnny did that for Crystal but most men didn't bother. “I want you to tell me everything you remember about my father,” she said. “But first, how's your mother and sister and little Rob?”

“Rob's in second grade and just fine.” Jim's mouth was straight but it curved tenderly as he spoke of his kid brother. “He's everybody's pet. Bernice—well, she's really why I'm here.”

“How come?”

He studied his big hands. “Mom—she's—well, she's expecting a baby. She's having trouble, probably because she's older, so she had to quit her job. Her husband, he's a good man, I guess, and cares about her, but he can't see why a girl needs an education. He thinks Bernice ought to quit school and help Mom till she's up after the baby comes.”

“And then?”

He shrugged. “He wants her to do housework for other folks or get some kind of job. Says she'll get married by the time she's eighteen so what's the use of wasting her time in school?”

“What does your mother say?”

“Oh, she wants Bernice to finish high school but she's not going to fight her husband about it, especially since Bernice isn't set on school herself.”

“Buddy's the same way. I'm having to browbeat him to make him finish ninth grade.” Laurie sighed. “I hope by then he'll have more sense. But how are you going to keep Bernice in school if she doesn't care and her stepfather wants her to quit?”

“
I
want her to stay in school,” Jim said. “Before Dad finally died—it took a while and hurt bad—I promised him I'd see that Bernice and Rob got their educations.” The angle of his jaw ridged tight. “A girl can't always count on a husband taking care of her. Look what happened to Mom and Dad. The way I see it, a girl needs to be able to make a living same as a man. Maybe more, since she may get left with kids to raise.”

Jim might be young but he had a level head on his shoulders. It was too bad no one had cared as much about his schooling as he did about Bernice's and Rob's. The
chilies rellenos
came with refried beans and rice. Jim sailed into his with such gusto that Laurie suspected it was his first square meal since leaving home. She ate slowly in order not to finish before he demolished his double portions.

“The deal I worked out with Mom, her husband, and Bernice,” said Jim when half the spicy food had disappeared, “is that I'll send enough money to make up for what Bernice could earn if she weren't in school. Figured the best way to do that was hit the oil fields. Mom didn't like me coming way out here, but she felt better when I said I'd look you up.” He cast a shy glance from beneath sun-bleached lashes. “You know, we kind of feel like you're family, Laurie, on account of your daddy. He sure was good to us kids—to all of us.”

Laurie's eyes stung. “I want to hear about him but I—I'm afraid I'll cry. And Buddy ought to hear, too. If you don't mind sleeping on the floor, you can come home with me tonight and stay till you get a job.” She looked sideways toward Johnny. He was scowling at them. That sent a thrill of triumph through her. “I know a lot of drillers and I'm sure one of them can take you on. But we'll try first with that dark-haired man sitting back there with the blond woman.”

Jim looked and whistled under his breath. “She sure is pretty.”

“If you like that type.”

“Who doesn't?” Grinning, Jim attacked his last
relleno
. “Your friend's really giving me the evil eye. I wouldn't bet on his hiring me.”

“If he doesn't, we'll get you on someplace else.” Laurie went to get their coffee and chunks of cherry cobbler, cutting Jim's extra big and mounding it with vanilla ice cream. As she set it in front of Jim, Johnny made his way to their table.

“Introduce me to your friend, Laurie.”

It was an order, not a request. Laurie bristled but then remembered she wanted Johnny to give Jim a job. If Johnny took him on, he'd keep an eye out for him the way he did for Everett. The oil patch was a rough, dangerous place. It didn't hurt a bit to have someone experienced sort of look out for you when you first started.

“This is Jim Halsell,” she said. When Johnny's frown deepened, she added, “He's the oldest of the family Daddy sort of lived with out in California. I've told you about that.” She swallowed at the tight lump in her throat. “The Halsells
were
Daddy's family there at the end, I guess.”
He died for one of them, bought a child with his life. I can't let that go for nothing, can I? They have to amount to something
.

“Oh.” Johnny looked a little sheepish but he scanned the younger man closely as he put out his hand. Jim had risen. He was taller than Johnny but beside him looked awkward, all arms and legs. Johnny's every motion showed control, command of a body he'd learned to use to full advantage. “Glad to meet you, Jim. I'm John Morrigan. What brings you out this way?”

“Looking for a job in the oil field, Mr. Morrigan.”

Johnny wasn't all that much older. He gave Jim a sharp look and apparently decided the boy wasn't being a smart-aleck. “Got experience?”

“No, sir, not working on a rig, but I've worked on roads, dug irrigation ditches, driven trucks, and all such stuff as that. You got something I can do?”

“I'll try you. If you're not scared of working with nitro.”

“Johnny!” Laurie remonstrated.

“My last helper went in business for himself,” Johnny said. “If you're game, be at my office at seven tomorrow morning. It's south down this street on the edge of the field.”

Jim shook hands again. “I'll be there. Thanks, Mr. Morrigan! I'll do my darnedest to make you a good hand.”

“You will or I can't keep you. Nitro's nothing to fool around with.” With a nod, Johnny went back to Crystal, who was standing, arms crossed, tapping her foot.