EARTHQUAKE - Chapter 19

On Thursday morning Mr.& Mrs. Cartright and I went shopping. Mrs. Cartright decided to go to Penney’s. She took us to the men’s department first. When a salesman came, she said to him,

“Find a chair for my husband. He just got out of the hospital yesterday. He can stand up if you need to measure him. Otherwise, let him sit. You bring the things to him and let him choose what he wants. He was in the earthquake and lost all his clothing. He is getting several changes of clothing to start. He wants four pairs of socks - all cotton, four pairs of underwear – all cotton boxer shorts and tee shirts with sleeves, two pairs of blue jeans and a pair of casual slacks, two colored tee shirts with pockets, two colored short sleeve shirts with button down collar, one long sleeve white dress shirt with button down collar. I’m going to be shopping in the rest of the store. I will come back for him and pay for his selections.”

Melodie took me to the young people’s department.

“Dana, you know what you need. Your father gave me $200 for you to spend on clothes. Keep track of how much the clothes you choose come to. I’ll be back to pay for whatever you choose.”

She walked away. I guess she was going to buy some clothes for herself. I looked for an inexpensive pair of shoes. Summer clothes were on sale even though it was July. I tried to find the things that I needed on the sale counter. I found a pretty dress, some pedal pushers, summer blouses, socks, and underwear.  What I chose came to about $175 according to my figuring in my head. There would be sales tax so I thought that I was close to $200.

When Mrs. Cartright came back for me, she had already taken her purchases to the car, gone for Clifford and his clothes, and was in a hurry to get back to the car. She had started the car and turned on the air conditioning for Clifford. My clothes, including sales tax, came to $188.12. I was proud of myself for staying within the limits of how much Daddy had given her for my clothes.

When we went back to the house, I tried to stay out of the way of Mrs. Stauer.

That night, after supper, Daddy called.

“Dana, I want you to be ready at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. We are going down to Monroe to visit Mary. On Monday they are going to move her to St. Vincent’s in Little Rock. She will be in their residential physical rehabilitation center. We can visit her for one hour Monday evening after they have moved her into her room there. After that we can only visit her certain hours on Saturday and Sunday.”

“Okay, Daddy, I’ll be ready.”

Later, Mr. Stauer asked to speak with all of us.

“I have spoken individually to Clifford and to Karl about this. I want to speak to all of you together and see if it is all right with you. I really need all of you to be in agreement for this to work.

“Wesson Farm is 8,200 acres of rich farm land. We need to get it back in production as soon as possible. I have asked Karl and Clifford to survey the situation and make weekly reports to me. We need to know how many acres of crops will be able to be harvested and how many have been destroyed. They will also locate and assess what pieces of farm equipment are still useable and how many are fixable. If there are crops to be harvested we need to find and fix roads to get to them and then to haul them away to market. Karl will be in charge of gathering the data and then fixing the roads. Clifford will be crunching the numbers for us and paying the bills to survey the damage and make necessary repairs.

“Clifford and Karl will need to live as close to Victoria as possible. The only way Child Services will allow Karl to keep custody of Dana is if Melodie takes care of her when he is away from their home. My question is this: Are all of you agreeable to live in Marked Tree or even Lepanto so that Karl and Clifford can work out of Victoria during the day? For that matter, Clifford, do you want this job or do you want to find another job here in Little Rock. Since you will never be able to drive, it might be easier for you to live in Little Rock or North Little Rock where you could ride the buses.”

“Paul, I’ll do this job for you. It will only last for about a year. After that I think that living in a city with public transportation would be more suitable. Also, I would like to expand my experience beyond Wesson Farm.”

I went up to get ready for bed. I waited to take my shower until Melodie was finished getting the children ready for bed. While I was waiting, I took my new clothes out of the bags, removed the tags, folded them and stacked them on a chair. I didn’t want Mrs, Stauer throwing a fit if I put them into a dresser drawer. I put the pretty dress on a hanger to hang out the wrinkles. I’ll wear it tomorrow when I go to see Mother.

I heard the children come out of the bathroom and then I heard a knock on my door.

“Yes.”

“Dana, would you read a story to the children. They said you are the very bestest story reader in all the world.”

I went over to the children’s room and started to read a story from the Mother Goose Tales.

“No, not that one. Daddy read us that one last night.”

After reading a couple pages they were both asleep. At this rate they are never going to hear the end of any of the stories.

Friday, Daddy picked me up and we drove to Monroe. I told him about Mr. Stauer talking to all of us about Clifford and him working in Victoria and the families living as close to there as possible. I also told him that Clifford said that he would probably only work there for one year.

“Did you know that Mr. Cartright can never drive a car?”

 “No, I didn’t.”

“That is one reason why he only wants to work in Victoria for a year. In the city there is public transportation.”

When we were entering Monroe, Daddy said,

“It’s lunch time. Let’s stop at this Wendy’s for lunch.”

We both got a hamburger, fries, and a Frosty. Then we went on to the hospital. We arrived a little past 1 p.m. and were allowed to go to Mom’s room right away. 

She was sitting on the edge of the bed. I started to run to her and Dad caught my hand.

“Walk carefully so you don’t collide”

I came up on her left side. She reached down and hugged me with her left arm. Her right arm was gripping some handle hanging from a heavy bar overhead.

We both cried.

“I’ll be a lot closer for you to come and see me after Monday. Then I am going to be working hard to be able to come home and be with you all the time. They say that you can complete the process in as little as three months. That is what I am going to work toward.”

Daddy said,

“Since I saw you last, Mr. Stauer assigned Clifford and me the task of getting Wesson Farm back into production. We will be working in Victoria. Mr. & Mrs. Cartright, their children, Dana, and I will move to Marked Tree or Lepanto. That will work out all right for visiting you because St. Vincent’s only allows visits during certain hours on Saturday and Sunday.”

Mother and I chatted nonstop telling each other what had happened since we had seen each other a month ago. It seemed more like three months or even three years.

Telling her about the horrible church camp shelter I had run away from made me wonder about Rosalita and her family. I wondered what would happen to those families whose fathers were killed.

Daddy and I had to leave when it was time for Mother to eat supper. We drove back to Little Rock. Daddy dropped me off at the Stauer’s. They were setting up chairs on the lawn to watch the fireworks on the River. Daddy drove back to the shelter. The men there were getting ready to walk down to the River Market to watch the Fourth of July fireworks.

On Saturday Melodie asked me to watch the children for the next couple days. She and Clifford wanted to go off by themselves to get reacquainted. She had gathered whatever pictures her parents had of them. All of her own pictures had been destroyed in the quake.

I knew that I would have to give Mrs. Stauer a wide berth, but I hoped that what her husband said might have calmed her down. I had a Sunshine Parade for the children and let them make a lot of noise while they were outside. Inside I let them watch one of the children’s channels on television, had a numbers and letters game for them, taught them a few simple songs, read them a story that they didn’t fall asleep on. By 4 p.m. they were tired and so was I. I put them in their room for a nap and then I went to my room and lay down for a nap.

I was awakened by an angry Mrs. Stauer.

 ”Do you know where those children are?”

I could hear Jamie and Joy marching up and down the hallway singing one of the noisy songs we had sung outside.

I got up and went to the hallway.

“My, oh my, you certainly learned that song well. Let’s see how well you learned the numbers and letters while we wait for supper.”

“You will wait a long time. Paul and I are going to a restaurant so I can get out of this noisy house.”

When they left I took the children into the kitchen and sat them at the kitchen table. I don’t know how to cook! I found a box of cereal, some raisins, a bottle of milk and we had a breakfast-supper. The kids thought that was a lot of fun. After that we watched Sponge Bob Square Pants and Dora the Explorer on television. After that it was bed time. By the time the Stauers returned to their home, the children and I were asleep.