The Lone Texan. Lass Small

      After noon, Tom came up to see Ellen. An empty tray was outside her door. Her door was not locked. He opened it softly saying, “You here?” But he did go inside her room. She was asleep. He considered her.

      If it had been she who’d emptied the tray, it was their first victory. She needed some attention. He’d see to it that others hounded her with such care that she wouldn’t notice they were helping her.

      He carried her tray back to the kitchen and bragged on the cooks for being so innovative. And he complained because he never got anything like that...as an appetizer! He talked to the kitchen crew and got all the various things he wanted to eat while he teased and complained that he was always ignored.

      Knowing full well that Tom Keeper had his life...well, his food exactly as he wanted it, the crew only laughed at him... and with him. Tom was very humorous. He was especially so that day. How interesting.

      

      Probably the most intriguing thing that Ellen found in that house was that the. Keeper cat jumped up on the porch railing and stretched out to ring the doorbell. That way the cat got attention right away and got inside without having to wait.

      Dressed in a shirt and long trousers, Ellen was reading a book the next day and the doorbell rang. Mrs. Keeper called down, “It’s probably the cat, would you let him in?”

      Ellen did go to the door and opened it but it was a woman her age. She was casually dressed. Her name was Lu Parsons and she was the sister of the throwback Andrew, but Lu lived in one of the ranch houses with the pilot Rip Morris.

      Ellen smiled and said, “Come inside. I thought you were the cat.”

      Lu blinked.

      Ellen laughed softly and said, “I know. I wonder, too. But they’ve told me to answer the doorbell because it might be the cat They say that it reaches over from the railing and presses the doorbell. I just wonder if this is a joke they pull on guests.”

      Lu grinned. “I’ll have to stay now just to see that.”

      “I’d appreciate the backup. They are probably just giving us something to think about in this rather isolated place.”

      Lu considered the idea and then agreed, “You’re more than likely right.”

      Ellen moved slowly to a chair, indicated the other to Lu, and sat carefully.

      “Are you all right? I’ve heard you were skinny as a rail, and you’re really elegant. Thin.” She considered thin, then she said, “You could use some padding. Have a caramel.”

      Very sadly, Ellen told her guest, “I lost a baby.”

      Lu knew that already. In their area, gossip hardly passed the original lips before everyone had heard it and knew all the details. But Lu didn’t say she’d heard that. She said, “I’m sorry.”

      A great tear trembled on the bottoms of Ellen’s eyelashes.

      Lu shook her head and told her companion, “Don’t you dare cry because I will too, and I get blotchy. What’s past is past. Look ahead.”

      In halting words, Ellen said, “I’m not sure I know how to do that.”

      “Look around and see all the other people who cope or need help.”

      Ellen replied, “Right now, if I found someone else was grieving, I’d just cry more.”

      Lu advised, “Go see Angela Becker. She has five kids and a very busy husband who is out and around and not available. She’s at her wit’s end. The kids are just one year apart. She’s going nuts. Why not go over and give her a fifteen-minute break?”

      “Fifteen minutes?”

      “It would be stark relief for Angela. She could catch her breath. Do it once in the middle of the morning and again in the middle of the afternoon. And, Ellen, do not get wishy-washy and stay longer. The fifteen minutes is all! Understand?”

      “I’m...not sure...exactly how to deal with children. How old are they?”

      Lu repeated, “Six months to age five.”

      “My word!”

      “I believe she responds to the phenomenon with that same kind of shock. If you do go, she could sit for fifteen minutes, without having to do anything or listen to anybody!”

      Hesitantly, Ellen confessed with some caution, “I’m not very sturdy.”

      “Neither is Angela.”

      Slowly, Ellen rose from her chair and went to the window to look out at the other houses. “Which one is—Angela’s?”

      Lu went over and pointed out the house. “Want to come along with me and see the house and kids? Then you could decide.”

      “I’m not at all strong.”

      “None of us is.”

      Ellen asked, “Five children and the eldest is just—five?”

      Lu nodded. She watched with great interest. How would the fragile woman respond?

      Ellen said softly, “I’m not sure—I can handle—someone’s—children.”

      Lu shrugged. “Kids are kids.”

      Ellen lifted her watery eyes and said, “Yes. They are all precious.”

      Lu grinned at the weepy woman as she said, “When they’re asleep?”

      Ellen shook her head, trying to control herself.

      “One of these days you’ll have to face the fact that there are—other children.”

      “I know.”

      

      In another few minutes, Ellen called to Mrs. Keeper who had to take big steps backward so that her voice reply wasn’t too close. She innocently asked, “Yes?”

      Ellen called back in explanation, “Lu Parsons is taking me over to meet Angela Becker? We won’t be long.”

      Mrs. Keeper called down, “Hello, Lu. How nice of you to call on us. Just see to it that Ellen takes it easy.”

      Lu called back, “Sure.”

      Ellen had no clue—at all—that it had all been carefully plotted by those two women.

      

      The two young women got into Rip Morris’s car and drove the couple of blocks over to Angela’s house. Anyone else would have commented on having to use the car in that short distance, but the fragile Ellen accepted that the drive would be just that.

      Angela Becker answered their knock almost before they managed it. She was rather in disarray and her hair was not tidy. She held one child under one arm. But she was calm and apparently delighted to have guests. She did not appear harassed.

      Angela and Lu talked after Ellen had been introduced. As that was being done, a two-year-old came to them yelling bloody murder.

      With some effort, Ellen picked that one up. With her lax muscles, the baby weighed a ton! She asked soothingly what could be wrong? And the baby didn’t squirm out of her hands or arms but babbled baby talk while he pointed.

      Ellen carried the little one in the direction he’d pointed, so Ellen missed seeing the exchanged glances made by Angela and Lu who smiled. Angela lifted her eyebrows in pleased shock and stared at Lu.

      Lu shrugged, looked at her watch and said in a whisper, “We’ll see. Hers was a little girl.”

      “Ahhh.”

      The little one in Angela’s arm wriggled free and was set down to the floor. She went to see where her little brother and the lady went. So Angela and Lu sat down in the stiff chairs that had been discarded to the entrance hall because nobody liked the chairs.