Chapter 51

Just before five o'clock that same afternoon, the phone in Jamie's hospital room rang, and since Abby was closer, she answered. "Room 110, James King's room," she said.

"They're here, Abbygirl," her great-uncle Eddie said. " I sure am glad I didn't fill in the swimming pool, even if the liability insurance is highway robbery. Those kids took one look at the water and started begging to go in, so that boy Phillip is out there watching to make sure they don't drown each other. They're going to unload the luggage and then come over to the hospital and bring your truck. Well, not Phillip, he says he'll stay here, but Lee and Amanda and Miss Dotty. How's our boy doing?"

"He's fine, Uncle Eddie; he was a bit groggy from the sedatives they gave him before the plane ride down here, but he's doing better now."

"That's good. I tell you what, Abbygirl, that Dotty is some looker. She sure is a nice lady, and it's too bad that she's lost not just one but two husbands. Anyway, I invited her to bingo at the legion hall tomorrow and she said that she'd go."

"That's great, Uncle Eddie. Tell them we'll see them soon."

"Will do. Bye now."

Abby hung up and started giggling.

"What?" Jamie asked.

"Uncle Eddie has a crush on your grandmother."

"What?"

"You heard me, J-Man. Uncle Eddie says your grandmother is 'some looker' and he's invited her to bingo at the legion hall tomorrow night. She accepted."

"My God."

"Lee and Amanda are going to finish unloading their luggage and then they and Dotty will come over here to see you. The kids have already found the pool at the motel and are splashing away, with Phillip there to watch them. They'll bring my truck when they come over, Eddie says."

"That works."

Twenty minutes later, the new arrivals walked into Jamie's room. Abby could see that he was bracing himself to be gushed over by his grandmother, but although she hugged him – very carefully- and told him how glad she was that he was doing so well, she didn't gush. Instead, while Lee and Amanda were talking to Jamie, she pulled Abby aside and said, "Eddie invited me to bingo at the legion hall on Tuesday night and I said yes."

"Yes, he told me."

"Well, give me the scoop, Abigail."

"To do that will take more time than we have here and now, Dotty. Oh, it's not bad, in fact he's overcome tremendous challenges to be where he is today, but it will take some time to explain, and you've been driving for three days now."

"True. All right, tomorrow morning, then, if Jamie can spare you. Phillip needs to fly home; he's got a big project for Matt Davis in the works, and he only came on this trip so Lee and Amanda wouldn't have to do all the driving, since I can't. Lee checked and found out he can fly out of Scottsbluff."

"Yes. He'll have to connect through Chicago, but there are flights."

"That's what Lee said. They'll take Phillip to the airport and then take the kids sightseeing to Chimney Rock before they come back here to let them cool off in the pool."

"That sounds good."

They all met at the hospital on Tuesday morning. Phillip said goodbye to Jamie, the mob left in the minivan, and Abby drove Dotty back to the motel. They changed into their swimsuits and went out to the pool, where Eddie was churning up the water doing laps. The pool was small, only thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, so he had to turn frequently. About five minutes after they arrived, he finished his lap swim and levered himself out of the pool at the opposite end, grabbed the towel he'd left there, and slung it around his shoulders. He walked over to them and said, "Hello, ladies. Got the water all nice and warm for you, if you want to take a dip."

"Thanks, Uncle Eddie."

"Everybody get off all right?"

"Yes, and Mom is taking Bobby and Sammy over to the hospital to see Jamie this morning, so Dotty and I decided to come and chill out by the pool."

"Sounds good."

"How far do you swim, Mr. Michulka?" Dotty asked.

"Ed, or Eddie, Miss Dotty. I do 175 laps, that's just under a mile in that pool. It takes me about forty minutes now, mainly because I have to turn every ten yards. That slows me down. I'm doing better, though; when I started, it took me over an hour."

"How often do you swim?"

"Every day that it isn't freezing cold or pouring rain. Abbygirl, if I bring the cordless phone out here, could you catch any calls? I need to run to the grocery store."

"Sure, Uncle Eddie."

"Thanks. I'll bring it out to you after I shower and change."

He was back out in less than ten minutes, dressed in a pair of khaki shorts, a golf shirt, and sandals. He handed Abby the phone, said, "See you girls later."

When he was gone, Dotty said, "Oh, my. How old did you say he is?"

"He's seventy-six, Grandma. He was born in 1921 to my mother's grandparents, Herman and Albina Michulka. He was the oldest of eight, although two of them died early. In 1936, he dropped out of high school to go to work to help support the family; two years later, he joined the navy. He was aboard the USS Nevada when she sank at Pearl Harbor; he was wounded and spent a couple of months in the hospital there before they sent him back to the mainland to retrain as an aircraft mechanic."

"Aviation machinist's mate," Dotty said. " Curt was a naval aviator, you see."

"That's right. They assigned him to a heavy cruiser, the USS Astoria, which sank off Guadalcanal in the summer of 1942. Well, after being sunk twice, he asked for a shore assignment, and they sent him ashore to maintain the planes at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. They called themselves the "Cactus Air Force', which is how the motel here got its name. He stayed there until late 1943, when he was reassigned to an escort carrier for the rest of the war. He retired in 1960 as a senior chief petty officer, but he was only thirty-nine, so he came home to Alliance, went to work for Burlington Northern railroad as a master machinist – Uncle Eddie can fix anything- and started a handyman business on the side. One of his first customers was Eloise Blomquist, a math teacher at the high school. She was forty years old, had never been married, but a year later they got married. She was Lutheran, so they got married in her church. They bought this motel in 1972 from the previous owner's heirs, just as an investment. They lived in a little house Eddie built for them not far from the railroad yards back then. He retired from the railroad in 1980, the same year she retired from the schools, and they sold the house and moved into the motel. They'd been married thirty-four years when she died of a stroke two years ago. Eddie was devastated."

"I can just imagine. Then what happened?"

"He started drinking heavily. About a year ago, when he was on the verge of losing the motel, he said he dreamed that Eloise came and chewed him out for trying to kill himself with booze. He quit cold turkey that same day and hasn't touched a drop since. He started swimming, even when the water was ice cold, to keep himself from reaching for the booze; he lost a lot of unhealthy weight, cut out most meat from his diet, started going back to church, and even joined the choir. "

"Well, he sure doesn't look like he's seventy-six; I'd have guessed he was in his late sixties at the most. I'm seventy-one, and Curt was seven years younger. We met in 1986, got married a year later and I was sure he'd outlive me, since he was so much younger, but his heart just gave out five years ago."

"I'm so sorry, Dotty."

"Thank you. I don't know what I would have done without Lee and Amanda and the kids. The younger ones were only four and two, and back then I could still see well enough to drive, so I spent a lot of time with them. It helped."

"The kids around here love Eddie. He teaches a small engine and appliance repair class at the alternative school, mostly boys, but a few girls too, and those kids know better than to give him attitude. They learn a useful, marketable skill, but they also learn a good work ethic. Not bad for a kid who had to drop out of school sixty years ago. He got his high school equivalency certificate and then a bachelor's degree while he was in the navy, making up for lost time, he said."

They talked for another half hour before Eddie came back. He was carrying two canvas grocery bags, and they could see a stalk of celery and a bunch of carrots sticking out of the bag.

"Got some good produce at Handy Saver today," he said. "I can grow tomatoes and green beans in those beds yonder, but I have to buy most of the rest of my fresh produce. Do you like to garden, Dotty?"

"I do, but mostly I like to grow flowers," Dotty said. "My house in Virginia has a wonderful flower garden. I've never tried growing vegetables, though."

"Out here, if you want good tomatoes, you gotta grow them yourself. Eloise loved to grow flowers, but I'm no good at it. There's a flower bed in front that's just gone to seed since she died. Maybe you could give me some ideas of what would look good there?'

"I'd be happy to do that."

"The place needs updating, too; I need to rip out those shag carpets and put in something more contemporary."

"Yes, it is a bit dated," Dotty agreed.

"A bit? A lot. How are you at decorating?"

"Well, after my second husband, Curt, and I bought our house from Amanda ten years ago, we updated it quite a bit, to make it more our house, you know? Amanda has great taste, but it still looked like it did when she and her first husband, Joe, bought the place in 1979. They divorced in 1982, it was a friendly divorce, but I'd recently lost Amanda's father, Carl West, and she needed someone to help her look after the boys, so I moved in with them."

"Eloise and I married so late that we never had kids. It must be great to have grandkids. That Jamie is tops."

"Yes, he is," Dotty said, smiling at Abby.

"And speaking of our J-Man, I think I'll go over to the hospital and see how he's doing. You two have fun," Abby said.

She hugged them and went out to her truck; as she drove away, she was smiling. "Oh, wow, wait 'til I tell Jamie about this!"