Chapter 55

Lee and Amanda weren't surprised to find Abby already at the convalescent center with Jamie when they came by to say goodbye on their way to Mount Rushmore and points west. Bobby and Emily were the first into the room, barely pausing long enough to knock as Amanda instructed and wait for permission to enter.

"Jamie, hi! We had Mickey Mouse pancakes for bre'fast and now we're going to Mount Rushmore!" Emily announced almost breathlessly. "I wish you could go with us 'stead of being stuck in that ol' hospital bed."

"I wish I could too, Emmy, but even though the doc says I can walk with a cane now, he doesn't want me climbing stairs or hills, so Mount Rushmore is out."

"When are you getting out of here, Jamie?" Bobby asked.

"It won't be until my stitches are out a week from Friday. He doesn't want me to climb stairs right now, which rules out staying at Abby's house. Uncle Eddie offered me one of the motel rooms, but they're busy fixing the place up right now, so that's kind of inconvenient for him. They take good care of me here, so I'm just going to stay."

"We need to get going before it gets any warmer," Lee said.

"Sure. I probably won't see you guys until Christmas, unless I have to come to Washington on Agency business, so have a wonderful trip and send me lots of postcards, okay?"

There were hugs and kisses all around, including for Abby, and the Stetsons left. When they were gone, Jamie said, "One of these days I'm going to get up to Mount Rushmore too."

"It's breathtaking; just thinking of the time and effort to carve those faces out of the mountainside on that scale leaves you in awe. Well, J-Man, are you ready to practice walking with that cane?"

"You bet."

Jamie was wearing a pair of loose cotton knit running shorts and a Nebraska Cornhuskers t-shirt. His shoulder and leg were still bandaged, but they were healing so well that they weren't causing him any significant pain. Though he hated that she had to do it because it seemed too demeaning, Abby had put his socks and running shoes on his feet and told him not to be silly when he protested. Now, she handed him the cane the hospital had provided, stood by to make sure he was steady on his feet, and when he stood upright with only the cane for support for the first time since he'd been shot – he'd been allowed up to the toilet the previous day, but only with a walker to support him- her eyes misted. She dashed the back of her hand across her eyes and he said, "Princess? Are you crying?"

"Yes. I'm so happy to see you on your feet, Jamie. These last few days have been such a roller coast that I can't help it."

"I don't mind. I couldn't have come this far, this fast, without you here with me, and that's a fact. The minute you showed up in that hospital room in Billings my pain level dropped like a rock, and I knew I was going to be all right. Let's go see what this place looks like from something besides a hospital bed or a wheelchair."

"Right beside you, J-Man."

"I hope you plan to stay there for a very, very long time."

The highway to Hay Springs took Dotty and Eddie past Carhenge and out of Box Butte County. Shortly after they crossed into Sheridan County, they crossed the Niobrara River. There were no towns between Alliance and Hay Springs, only farms and ranches, and as they drove toward the farm where they hoped to find the furniture, Dotty said, "It had to have taken some very strong people to come out here so far from everything they'd known before and settle this land."

"Yes, but so many came from Eastern Europe, where they were destined to live and die as servants of some nobleman; out here, they could own their own land, live the way they wanted to live. Their lives revolved around their families, the church, and the schools. Even now, kids from these farms ride the bus into Hay Springs to school for as much as an hour, and too many of them leave after high school because there aren't many jobs, but they're the salt of the earth."

"Where I grew up in Vermont, you couldn't go five miles without seeing another village, and of course Northern Virginia is so built up now that it's becoming overcrowded. When we drove out here after Jamie was shot, I was just amazed at how much open space there was once we got past Lincoln. Up here, it's even more evident. Oh, we're coming into Hay Springs. Mr. Strube said that when we get to U.S. Highway 20, we turn right and follow it east to 440th Lane, turn right again, and follow that until we see the farm on the left."

A few minutes later, Eddie stopped the truck in the farmyard, in front of a red-roofed barn. A large mixed-breed dog came running out wriggling with excitement at seeing new people.

"Well, hello there," Dotty said, "what a lovely welcome. What's your name?"

"Sarah," a grizzled farmer with close-cropped gray hair said. "She's the mother of a multitude; she just had eight pups about six weeks ago, and that was her fourth litter. Mike Strube," he said, extending a hand.

"Edward Michulka, and this lady is my decorating advisor, Dorothea Weller."

"Glad you could come up; I haven't had much interest in the stuff, even though it's good stuff; too far to drive, I guess, although we're really not that far from Alliance and Chadron is even closer. All depends on what folks want, I guess. Come on in; my wife went into Chadron to do her weekly grocery shopping, so it's just me here now. Can I offer you a glass of iced tea?"

"That would be wonderful," Dotty said.

Eddie had noticed the eagle, globe and anchor tattoo on Strube's arm, so once they were seated and drinking their tea, he said, " You were in the Corps."

"Yeah. You too?"

"No, Navy, but I worked with plenty of leathernecks on Guadalcanal and later."

"I didn't get into the Corps until '43, Mother wanted me to finish high school first, so my first big one was Tarawa."

"Oh, Lord. Talk about throwing a young recruit in at the deep end."

"How about you? When did you get into the Navy?"

"Joined up in '38, as soon as I turned seventeen. I wasn't able to finish school, the Depression, you know, but as soon as I could, I took the train to Scottsbluff and signed up with the recruiter."

"Where were you when Pearl Harbor happened?"

"Aboard the USS Nevada. I got sunk, ended up in the hospital at Pearl, retrained as an aviation machinist's mate, and sent to the USS Astoria. When she sank off Savo Island, I said, ' Put me ashore, I'm tired of being sunk,' and they did. I worked on Henderson Field, the Cactus Air Force."

"Wow. So, you said you own a motel down in Alliance?"

"Yeah. My late wife and I bought it as an investment back in '72, sold our house and moved in there permanently a few years later, and now it's home. She passed two years ago. Dotty is from Vermont by way of Virginia; one of her grandsons got shot up pretty bad during an undercover operation up in Montana and they brought him down to Alliance to recuperate because his girl, who happens to be one of my great-nieces, lives there. He's with the Federal Counterintelligence Agency, and they were going after some crazy who was plotting another Oklahoma City bombing."

"I'm sorry to hear he got shot. Is he going to be all right?"

"Yes, he's recovering very nicely," Dotty said. "You see, Mr. Strube…"

"Mike. "

"I'm Dotty, and he's Eddie. You see, Mike, the motel is old, and there are several chain hotels in Alliance now, so business is slow. We need a way to attract people that want a quiet place to stay while they explore the area, but don't want to be in an impersonal chain hotel. What we want to do is decorate each room with a theme, and that means something besides mass-produced motel furniture. We want things with character."

"You want things with character, I got 'em."