Tag: open-skies

Water in the Wilderness

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Excerpt

…ently held out his hands to her. His missing fingers did not seem to faze him; he appeared to be learning to compensate for the loss.
“An’ you know what, too, Auntie Tyne?” He gazed up at her when she stood, his eyes like saucers now. “Rachael says we’re goin’ home on the really biggest old bus she’s ever seen, with a long dog on the side.”
Tyne chuckled. “You sure are, Bobby. And when Uncle Morley and I come home you’ll be able to tell us all about it. Okay?”
Solemnly, he nodded his head then offered his hand to Tyne’s mother. Shoulders erect and head held high, he escorted her through the door.
A few days later Emily Milligan brought the children back to the Holy Cross, to say goodbye before starting their trip home to Emblem. Tyne took them to see Morley. Following Sister Carol Ann’s gentle instructions, they approached the bed quietly, and stared in wonder at the man they scarcely recognized as the jovial person whom they called Uncle Morley. His hair had grown a little so that he didn’t appear bald anymore, and the bruises around his eyes and cheeks had faded to a pale yellow, tinged with blue. But Tyne knew that he must look strange to the children who were seeing him for the first time since the beating.
She had been of two minds about bringing them to his room, but Morley had asked to see them. And when he opened his eyes and smiled at them, she knew she had made the right decision. There was something she and Morley wanted to do together before the kids left for home.
“Do you … have the gifts, hon?” Morley asked haltingly.
Tyne removed a large bag from the bottom of the bedside table. Opening it, she drew out a brightly painted dump truck followed by a Shirley Temple doll. The looks on the faces of Rachael and Bobby brought tears to her eyes.
When they had gone, Tyne took Ronald to a quiet waiting room. He had tried, without success, to hold back the tears. She wanted to hug him, but knew he already felt embarrassed because of loss of control over his emotions, so she sat quietly by his side and let him talk.
“I wish I could go with them, Mrs. Cresswell. Do you think the doctors will let me go soon?”

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Prairie Roots

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Excerpt

The picnic brought out most of the people who lived in the vicinity
of the school or whose children attended the school. As
well, because it was a Sunday, people from other school districts as
well as relatives and friends of the parents came to gossip and to
munch on a few goodies. It was usually a relaxing day for the
adults and their only concern was to avoid sunburn and prevent
their children from consuming so much food that their little
stomachs would rebel and reject the contents. Which frequently
happened. They came on foot or in wagons and some even in cars.
Those who arrived by wagon would unhitch their horses, lead
them into the barn for the day and join their friends and neighbours
beside the school and the confectionery stalls. They stood
around in circles or brought out chairs or sat on the grass in the
shade to smoke and talk. Thewomen watched their children, compared
notes and exchanged information on various women things.
We found out in the evening whether any of our school indiscretions
had been leaked from the loose lips of our friends, then
through their mothers to our mother, and were relieved when no
accusations were made or suspicious questions posed to us.
The children did what children always do; they began by
spending some of their money on the various goodies before gathering
on the sports field to play games, as they waited for the official
program to begin. On a nice warm day, the merchants would
be very busy selling pop and ice cream, not to mention a variety of
candies, suckers and chocolate bars as well as items such as oranges
and hundreds of hot dogs. Even though the prizes awarded
to the winners were chits for food items, the children could not resist
the temptation of the smells and sights and just had to have
some of the good things before the races started.
At approximately 1:00 PM the main organizer, usually the principal,
would get his teachers and other helpers together and they
would walk out to the sports field to begin the various races.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562900

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897920

He Rode Tall

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Excerpt

But for the most part, it was a year or so here and there with postings
to what sounds like exotic locations, such as New Guinea,
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cape Town, Chile, South Korea, and Lisbon.
A long time ago, Joel had figured out that he wasn’t getting the top
assignments any longer, but at this point, he was just thankful to
have a job, any job as an engineer and he knew that he was desperately
hanging onto this posting.
Early on at Empire, he figured out that Mr. Lee wasn’t a fan of
his hard-drinking nightlife and was less than excited about tolerating
it. Mr. Lee had explained to Joel on his first day at the new
office that he had asked the home office to consider sending
another engineer to help with this project. It wasn’t that Mr. Lee
didn’t know Joel’s abilities yet; it was that Mr. Lee already knew
of Joel. In the maritime engineering community, word gets
around fairly quickly, and the word on Joel was that he was a
has-been, or maybe more accurately, a never-been. Recruited to
the firm right out of university at the age of twenty-two, Joel was
marked for great things. There was no doubt that Joel had an
incredible wealth of potential, but that potential seemed to dry
up a long time ago.
So here he was, six months into a project to shore up the foundation
of an old terminal, and after a twenty-five year career with
the same firm, Joel could sense that the end was near. Already
the project was way behind and significantly over budget. And
Joel knew that although they couldn’t pin everything on him,
many of the problems were a direct result of him screwing up.
Being as he was, from consuming vast quantities of alcohol daily

Joel just couldn’t keep up anymore. At best he was
half the engineer that he used to be and even back then he was
only putting in half the effort. If his calculations were right, Joel
figured that he was probably functioning at something close to a
quarter of an engineer. This project really needed a fully functioning,
experienced senior engineer. He knew it. But he wasn’t
about to change. Or even if he wanted to, and some mornings he
certainly felt like he wanted to, but he just didn’t even know how…

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897955

He Rode Tall

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Excerpt

…those comments, the meeting blew up. Joel could understand that
all Mr. Johansson was trying to do was help, but if there were two
things you wouldn’t want to be telling Edward Hooper, it would be
suggesting government help and calling his child underprivileged.
There was no doubt that the Hoopers could sure use some help to
finance Joel’s education, but the last thing that was going to happen
in the hills that night was for Edward to admit it to any fancy
dressed school teacher.
Later, the school year came to an end. Joel graduated from high
school, and Mr. Johansson, after once again encouraging Joel to
consider the possibility of going further with his education, left
town for wherever he went every summer. Joel spent the next few
weeks working for his father, riding the high ridges, checking the
cattle, counting cows and calves, and making sure that all was
well in the pasture.
Back then, on July 20, 1969, as seventeen-year-old Joel rode
along, he thought of the hurt that he had experienced at home,
especially during the last few weeks of high school, the brutal treatment
of his mother by his drunken father, and the hard way that his
dad treated him. Back then, the Circle H was not a healthy place for
this seventeen-year-old boy to be; and really, not a healthy place for
anyone, and certainly not a place with a future.
That hot summer day back in July of 1969, Joel found himself
a long way from home at the end of the afternoon. Feeling mighty
hungry and needing to water both himself and his horse, Joel
dropped down out of the hills to the Ladners’ place. Larry Ladner
and his wife Erica were a dirt-poor young couple trying to eek out
a living for themselves and their four children on a small patch of
rented land. Their dream was to one day be able to put a
down-payment on a place of their own, but the way things were
going it looked like it wouldn’t be long before the Ladners would
be forced off of the land. Larry had been coming in from a day of
fieldwork on the tractor when he welcomed Joel. He knew the
Hoopers were good neighbors. As Joel sat with the Ladners and
ate his evening meal, he heard some exciting news on the radio.

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897955

Wellspring of Love

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Excerpt

…friends she made last year – two teenage girls and a younger boy who
lived next door to Pa with their widowed mother. They’d grown very
close over the summer, and Rachael had been excited at the prospect
of seeing them again. What she hadn’t anticipated was that Pa would
marry the widow lady and take on those two girls and boy as his own.
Rachael kicked at a small rock and sent it flying into the ditch. She
wouldn’t even have Lyssa here this summer because her cousin was
leaving in a couple of weeks for Vancouver.
Lyssa had told Aunt Ruby she was going for a holiday to see the West
Coast but would come home in the fall. Rachael didn’t believe her. When
Lyssa got to the big city, she probably wouldn’t ever come home. When
she had learned that Rachael couldn’t go to Ontario, Lyssa had tried to
talk her into going to the Coast with her on the bus. How she would love
to do that, but her parents would never let her go even for a few weeks.
Seemed they didn’t want her to have any fun at all anymore.
Thoughts of Lyssa made Rachael remember the party at the
Harrisons’ tonight. It would be in full swing, and where was she?
Walking alone on a dusty highway on a beautiful evening at the end
of the school year. Oh no, she wouldn’t be allowed to go to Vancouver
– she wasn’t even allowed to go to her cousin’s grad party.
She heard a car approaching from behind but paid little attention
until it slowed and pulled up beside her. She looked up, expecting to
see one of the district farmers or a hired hand on his way to town. But
a thatch of red hair above a freckled face made her stop abruptly and
stare. Kevin. She had not seen him since the disastrous night of the
dance at Spirit Lake.
“Well, hello, sweetheart.” He grinned at her from the open window.
“Fancy meeting you here, and on a Saturday night. How come
you’re not at Lyssa’s party? Or is that where you’re heading? Hop in,
I’ll give you a lift.”
“No thanks, I’m not going. I have too much to do to go to parties.”
She started to walk on.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562917

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763327

Water in the Wilderness

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Excerpt

“You shouldn’t have bothered, Moe. I could get a bite at the hospital, you know.”
“It’s no bother. And you need something home cooked after that hospital food you’ve been surviving on. The meals aren’t any better than they were when we were students.”
It was only after Tyne had eaten that Moe, sitting at the table with her, said lightly, “Aunt Millie called a little while ago. No, it’s all right. And I didn’t tell you earlier because I knew you’d go rushing off without breakfast if I did.”
Tyne sat forward, her heart in her throat, ready to bolt from her chair. “What is it? Why did Auntie call?”
Moe smiled. “Morley is awake and asking for you.”
Tyne let her breath out on a deep sigh, sat back and covered her face with her hands. “Thank you, God, thank you,” she whispered, then shot out of her chair and ran to get her coat. Moe was right behind her, car keys in hand.
Rachael didn’t think she would like riding in a bus. Not a bus this big, anyway. As the huge vehicle, with the long skinny greyhound painted on its side, drew to a stop in the bay behind the Emblem bus depot, she shuddered and moved closer to Mrs. Milligan. A man in a sort of uniform was standing beside the open door, taking tickets from people, punching holes in them, then handing them back. When it came their turn in line, he did the same with the tickets Mrs. Milligan handed him.
The man looked down at Rachael. “Hello there, little lady. Where are you going today?”
Rachael thought he must already know that, but he was trying to be nice to her so she said quietly, “We’re going to Calgary.”
“It’s her first bus ride,” Mrs. Milligan informed him.
“Is it? Well, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Be sure to sit beside a window so you can see everything. And look for the herd of deer on the right hand side; they’re usually grazing in the field there.” He held out his hand to the person behind them as Mrs. Milligan guided Rachael up the steps, and led the way along the aisle to seats half way back.

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/192676319X

He Rode Tall

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Excerpt

Sun-bleached and weather-worn grave markers of varying
dimensions dotted the plot. What the graves all shared, with the
exception of one, was that the prairie had overtaken them. The
old man’s grave, the only fresh grave, was already starting to be
blanketed by grass. The first thing Joel noticed was that there
wasn’t a marker for the old man’s plot so he made a mental note
that he would eventually get around to doing something about
that. But there was no rush. It was too late for any acts of kindness.
Much too late.
Even though Joel felt the way he did about the old man, essentially
being emotionally abandoned at such an early age, he still
found himself dropping to a knee at the side of the tiny grave on the
knoll in the middle of nowhere and saying a quiet prayer. It was at
this point, still full of bitterness and hatred for everything that the
old man had put his mother and himself through, that Joel recognized
that your dad is always your dad. No matter what.
Walking over to the horse, picking up the long thick leather
reins from the ground, and mounting the orange gelding, Joel
slowly turned the horse and headed back to the ranch yard. Drifting
along the ridges of the hills, the horse started to perk up as
they got closer to home and even broke into a bit of a trot which
Joel mastered by desperately hanging onto the saddle horn. Joel
thought that they probably would have broken into a canter if he
hadn’t reined the gelding back to a fast walk. Joel had always been
a good horseman as a boy, but that was a lot of years ago. He wasn’t
about to test his equestrian competency the first morning
back on the ranch. As they climbed the final hill and started to
drift down the coulee into the ranch yard, Joel was surprised to
smell the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the scent of bacon
from the forlorn-looking little ranch house below.
Looking down from the top of the knoll into the coulee below,
Joel could clearly see everything that was the homestead. The
buildings stood pretty much the way they did when he left that…

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897955

Wellspring of Love

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excerpt

She’s not a bad person. The kids from church call her fast, whatever
that means, but she’s not what they make it sound like.”
“If you say so. Anyway, you were at her graduation ceremony yesterday.
Isn’t that enough?”
“It’s not the same thing, Ronnie, and you know it. The party
tonight is at her place and it’s just for special friends.”
“Well, you’d just better forget it.” Ronnie picked up his mug and
got to his feet. “I’ve got to get to work. Morley’ll be ready to start the
cutting. And listen, Rachael, give your mom a break and don’t make
things harder for her. She has enough to worry about with Aunt
Millie being sick.”
Rachael’s look changed from one of self-pity to a worried frown.
She stood up. “Ronnie, do you think … that is … is Aunt Millie going
to make it?”
A cloud passed over his face. “I hope so, I really hope so. But only
God knows that, and all we can do is pray for her.” He put his mug in
the sink, retrieved his cap and went out.
Rachael stood for a minute longer staring at the closed door, then
she went to the phone to call Lyssa.
ͣMorley and Ronald were sitting at the kitchen table when Tyne walked
in a little before nine o’clock that evening. Both men turned quickly
to look at her. The aroma of coffee drew her eyes to the stove where a
pot hissed and bubbled an invitation. Responding to their greeting, she
bent to kiss Morley’s cheek. Sensing his intention as he started to rise,
she murmured, “Don’t get up, honey. I’ll help myself to the coffee.”
“But you look worn out, Sweetheart.”
“And you have been working all day in the fields.” She filled a mug
with coffee and sat down at the table.
Both men spoke at once. “How’s Aunt Millie?”

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763327

Water in the Wilderness

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Tyne held her breath, partly from anxiety, partly to avoid breathing in the stale, musty odour coupled with an even stronger smell of cigarette smoke than she had detected in the lobby.
“Here it is,” Arthur said suddenly with a slight tug on her arm, “room 312.” He rapped lightly on the door and waited. When there was no response, he raised his hand and rapped louder and longer.
They heard the creak of bed springs followed by a low groan. Arthur rapped again. A muffled voice from inside the room rasped, “Whatdaya want? Go away.”
“Corky Conrad,” Arthur boomed, “is that you?”
The answer was drowned out by several doors along the corridor opening simultaneously. Tyne swung around to see three grizzled heads peering out. A woman from the room across the hall pulled a threadbare dressing gown around her and whined, “Why don’t you shut up? It’s enough to wake the dead. Whatchadoin’ here, anyway? It’s the middle of the night, and you won’t get any response from old Corky for hours yet.”
Arthur ignored her and banged on the door again. “Come on, Corky, open up. There’s someone here to see you.”
From inside the room they heard a shuffling sound accompanied by angry muttering. “Can’t ya even wait till a man gets his pants on? All right, I’m comin’, I’m coming.”
Tyne felt weak in the knees. She longed to lean against the wall for support, but one glance at the greasy, peeling paint changed her mind. She wanted to yell at Corky to hurry up; she could stand the suspense no longer.
Finally, the door opened a crack, and Tyne saw an unshaven face with bloodshot eyes below rumpled graying hair. Corky Conrad had deteriorated even since she saw him in December. Holding tight to the door with one hand and the waist of his pants with the other, he glared at Arthur, then squinted hard at Tyne.
“Wha … Tyne? What’re ya doing here?”
Tyne started to answer but Arthur took her arm and propelled her through the door. “We’d like to come in if you don’t mind.”

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/192676319X

Fury of the Wind

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…and Sarah did not complain. The old house had no insulation,
and the wind found its way in through walls that, in other seasons,
appeared sturdy enough. It was not unusual for them to awaken in
the morning with the flannelette sheet and blankets, where their
breath had dampened the material, frozen against their chins. Each
night Sarah moved the house plants – geraniums and begonias
that Ben said his mother had lovingly tended – to the centre of the
kitchen table where she covered them with a light cloth. She did the
same with the pitchers of milk and cream, carrying them from the
pantry to the kitchen where the cookstove would provide enough
warmth until the early morning hours to keep them from freezing.
The weeks passed slowly. No one came to the house, and Sarah
was unable to ride Flicka or drive the old pickup truck to the Mc-
Neill farm. She spent the days sewing new curtains and knitting
socks and mitts from the wool she had bought on her last trip to
Nimkus in late October. She wrote endless letters to Margaret and
Elizabeth in Ontario, and waited impatiently for the mail that Ben
brought home from his infrequent trips to town with the team and
sleigh.
For the most part they lived by their own resources on the provisions
they had in the house. But Sarah looked forward to the vegetable
garden she planned to plant in the spring. She had searched
out Mrs. Fielding’s canning jars so that she could preserve everything
she could get her hands on through the summer months.
These plans and activities helped to pass the long days and the
even longer evenings. But she missed the companionship of others,
especially Penny. What would she give to be able to sit down to a
cup of tea in Penny’s cheerful kitchen? And how she longed to see
little David who, when she had last seen him, was beginning to take
a few faltering steps around the furniture. By now he would be running
all over the house.
She thought of David when she read Margaret’s latest letter. It
was four pages of the delights of motherhood, along with every
detail of her new daughter’s first two months of life. As she read,
Sarah felt a familiar ache deep inside her where she had been sure
that, by now, new life would be growing. Why wasn’t it? Could there
be something wrong with her? Ben never spoke of a family and,
although she had once casually mentioned that he needed a son to…

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