Chapter 53

By eight-thirty on Tuesday night, Bobby and Emily were out of the pool at the motel, into their pajamas, and sound asleep. Lee went back out to the pool, where Amanda was enjoying the quiet of the evening after watching a gorgeous sunset; an old cassette player that Eddie had loaned them was playing Big Band music, also courtesy Eddie. Most of the cassette tapes in the minivan were the 70's rock that Lee and Amanda had loved when they were in high school and college, but although they were great for keeping the driver awake during long drives, they were hardly relaxing. As the music changed and Tex Benecke's mellow voice came through the speakers, Amanda said, "My mother is out on a date."

"Yes, but since she's not fifteen, you really don't have to wait up, Manda. He's a great guy, and she's had time to work through her grief over losing Curt."

"I know. I'm not saying I disapprove, I'm just wondering if it will go anywhere, that's all."

"And if it does? If five or six months from now Dotty decides to marry him, would you be all right with that, even if it means she'll move out here?"

"Yes."

When bingo ended at nine, Dotty claimed her winnings – fifty dollars- and she and Eddie went out to his truck. They'd spent the evening in a special nonsmoking area Eddie had prevailed upon the legion to create several years before so that he wouldn't have to breathe secondhand smoke. In the early days, he'd been the only one in the room, but his standing with the organization was such that no one even thought of suggesting that he move back into the main room, and over time several more players had joined him so that now the nonsmoking area was more popular than the main room. "That was so much fun," Dotty said. "I've played bingo at PTA fundraisers over the years, but it was fun to play with a new group of people."

"I'm glad you liked it, and I'm glad you won."

"Beginner's luck, probably, but it helped that you bought me four bingo cards. Next time, I'm going to see if I can juggle six like you do."

"It's my one vice, and it's for a good cause, so I don't mind chipping in a few bucks each week to buy the cards. They use the money for scholarships for our graduating seniors; Abby won one of them three years ago. How about a nightcap? Just coffee, of course."

"Sure. Where are we going?"

"Well, there's a good place in Scottsbluff, but since you want to be up early to see Lee and Amanda off tomorrow, we'll just settle for the pancake house. Tomorrow, though, we're going down to look at carpet and paint samples for the rooms."

"That sounds like fun. Are there any good places to shop for furniture? I don't mean one of those big chain stores, though; I'm thinking an antique mall or a really good secondhand place."

"Antiques? You mean furniture as old as I am?" Eddie teased.

"Older, maybe. The rooms are spacious and very well kept, Eddie, but they're, well, bland."

"Early 70's motel mass produced furniture bland, you mean?"

"Well, yes. See, I have an idea."

"Oh, this is going to take more than one cup of coffee; we'd better get Doreen over at the pancake house to leave us the pot, and I could go for a piece of pie, if she's got any left."

On the way into the pancake house, Dotty saw a display rack with copies of a local free advertising paper, the Panhandle Pennysaver. She picked one up, and since they were the only people in the pancake house, Doreen met them at the cash desk, said, "Pick a spot, any spot. What'll it be, folks?"

"Coffee, and bring the pot; Miss Dotty here has some ideas we need to talk about. Got any pie left?" Eddie asked.

"Couple slices of apple, one of cherry, but that's it."

"Dotty?"

"Apple with ice cream for me."

"I'll have the same. Dotty's treating; she won fifty smackers at the legion bingo."

"That's right," Dotty said. "He bought the cards I won on, so it's only right that I buy the pie and coffee."

"I wasn't serious," Eddie protested.

"I was. You give me the bill, Doreen, you hear?"

"Yes, ma'am! No, Edward, I am not going to give you the bill. The lady wants the bill, so the lady gets the bill, and that's that. I'll have that pie and coffee right out to you."

They sat in Eddie's regular booth and Dotty opened the Pennysaver .

"There's never much of anything worth buying in that thing," Eddie warned.

"Maybe not, but you never know." She found the furniture ads and, with her glasses perched on the end of her nose – something that Eddie thought was adorable – began reading down the columns. She took a ballpoint pen out of her purse and circled a few ads,but didn't say much. Doreen brought their coffee and pie, handed Dotty the check with a flourish, and winked as if to say, "You go, girl", before returning to her counter.

Dotty creamed and sugared her coffee, took the first bite of apple pie a la mode, and smiled. "Oh, that hits the spot," she said when she'd swallowed. "Edward, where is Hay Springs?"

"About forty-five miles northeast up in Sheridan County, why?"

"Because there's a listing here for a whole barn full of furniture."

"Dorothea, if it's been sitting in the barn, it's likely full of dry rot, covered in dirt and God knows what else, and not worth what they're asking for it."

"Maybe so, but it's less than an hour away, and we'd call first to make sure they haven't sold it all. I'm looking for small tables, dressers, bedframes, maybe a rocking chair or two, so it's not just a motel, it's a place to come and stay for a week or two. There's plenty of hunting and fishing around here, places to explore the great outdoors, aren't there?"

"Sure, and we've got Carhenge and some other historic sites too. Old Fort Robinson's less than an hour away; it was the last cavalry remount depot in the army, still active when World War II started, and they even trained some of the war dogs up there. It goes back to the days when the cavalry was fighting the Sioux up here."

"So there's plenty to see, plenty to do, and for people like my family, a chance to get out of the city and the traffic and relax. Lee and Amanda haven't had a real vacation since before Emily was born; working for the Agency doesn't lend itself to long vacations, but it does cause a lot of stress. I'm sure there are plenty of people just like them in places like Denver and Omaha and Kansas City. If we revamp the motel into a vacation destination, I think we might be able draw some of those people in. They aren't looking for luxury, necessarily, but they'll want the rooms to have some character, something to set them apart from motel rooms everywhere else."

"Yeah, I get your drift." He raised a hand. "Doreen?"

"Yeah?" she called back.

"Do you have a notebook or a pad of paper somewhere we can use?"

"How about the legal pad I use for my shopping list? Will that work?"

"Perfect. Dotty here is brainstorming and I have a memory like a sieve, so I want to start writing things down."

"You got it." Doreen came over with the yellow legal pad and handed it to Eddie. "Keep it; I just bought a whole pack of them at the warehouse club down in Scottsbluff, and that one's almost used up anyway. There should be enough paper for your lists, though."

"There's plenty, and thanks."

Eddie took a pen out of his shirt pocket and said, "All right, Dorothea, tell me what's going on in that busy mind of yours."

"Well, suppose we decorate each room with a separate theme," Dotty began. "We can have the Cornhusker Room, with all kinds of University of Nebraska memorabilia, for example."

"Go Big Red."

"What?"

"That's what we say around here, cheering the teams on, you know? 'Go Big Red'."

" I get it. I thought you said, "Gobi Gred' and I was really confused."

Eddie just laughed. "We'll make a Cornhusker out of you yet, Miss Dorothea from Vermont by way of Virginia."