AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I couldn't wait for Monday to publish another chapter, and I realized my original Chapter 2 was bigger than my usual 1000-1500 word size, so I split it so that I can publish today and still publish Monday without messing up my timetable.

It's Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., so I wish a nice holiday to you folks and a nice day to everyone else.


Chapter 2 - Brooke's Background Story

"I suppose growing up in Ogacich was all right," Brooke said in response to Cole's question about her home city. "Daddy was a factory man, so we lived in a neighborhood where other factory families lived. It was kind of a rough area, but everyone knew Daddy was a decent man, so the thugs left our family alone. Daddy didn't make much money, but he and Mama made sure there was something to eat on the table every night for me and my sisters and brothers. Though sometimes supper was only a cupful of beans."

"How many sisters and brothers do you have?" Cole asked.

"Three brothers and five sisters. I'm the oldest of them all."

Cole chuckled. "Whoa! Your house sure had a passel of little shavers!"

Brooke chuckled with him. "Our rowhouse was cozy indeed! Especially as everyone got older."

Because she was sitting behind him on the horse, Cole could not see her face, but by her voice he could tell her demeanor had changed from jovial to serious when she said, "Everyone getting older also meant the stomachs got bigger and more food was needed to fill them. I know Mama and Daddy didn't want to, but they arranged for me to work after school as a barmaid at a neighborhood tavern owned by my aunt and her husband. I liked the fancy dress I had to wear, but otherwise it was...rough. But I learned what to say and how to act in order to get the biggest tips out of the customers."

Suddenly she said, "I'm sorry. I should stop yammering about unhappy things."

"No, go on," Cole urged. "I asked because I wanted to know about your time growing up." He was interested in learning the story of the lovely, willowy young woman currently holding on to his waist. She was close enough for him to detect her wonderful vanilla scent.

Brooke continued. "Well, all right, then." She took a breath. "One day, when I was cleaning up tables just before the supper hour, there was a loud noise and the ground rumbled. There'd been an explosion at the factory. Dozens of workers died, including every man on Daddy's line."

Upon hearing the awful information, the cowboy let out a low whistle.

"Daddy survived," she said, "despite the terrible burns on his back, but his injuries weren't just physical. Every night for months he'd wake up screaming from nightmares about the explosion. But he wouldn't talk about his dreams to Mama or me."

Brooke paused to slightly shift her position on the horse before continuing. "Mama met with this doctor that the company brought in. This doctor wasn't like a usual doctor. He was an expert in this new thing called...um...psychology. This doctor thought maybe Daddy was having nightmares because he saw the gruesome way his friends died. Some of them had their arms and legs blown off. One man even lost his head."

She sighed. "The doctor would meet with Daddy regularly to talk about what happened. And I guess it's helped, 'cause according to Mama's letters over the past few years, he has nightmares a lot less often now, and he meets with the doctor less often now."

"So it sounds like he's doing better," Cole said.

"He is," Brooke confirmed. "He eventually started working again, helping to make pianos in a small workshop. He doesn't want to do factory work anymore, and no one can blame him for that choice. As it was, he couldn't work at all for a long time due to his burns. While he was healing, I had to quit school and go to work at the tavern all the time."

"Mmm," Cole murmured in sympathy. "That must have been tough."

"It was," Brooke agreed. "And in addition to all that, my aunt died shortly after that. She was my mama's sister."

"Her husband got lonely after my aunt passed away. And, unfortunately, he began to pay more attention to me - the wrong kind of attention. I was always tall for my age, so maybe he thought I was older than I was. One day, while he was paying me my weekly wages, he went a little too far."

Cole began to get upset at this man who had not treated Brooke like the lady she was, but he had no time to dwell on the thought, for the saloon girl went on with her story.

"I got away from him and ran to tell Mama, but she said she didn't believe me. This man had been married to her older sister for twenty years, so she thought that after knowing him for so long, he wasn't capable of that sort of thing."

"Well, I knew I'd be in a bad situation if I stayed, so I decided to run away. It meant leaving Daddy and Mama and my brothers and sisters without a steady income, but I figured my brother was old enough to start bringing in some money. I used the wages I'd just been paid and I bought a train ticket to Sasnak City, the farthest stop on the line from Ogacich."

"Thank goodness I met Jenny on the train ride," Brooke said, speaking of her fellow saloon girl. "Jenny said she was heading out here on the stagecoach from Sasnak City to start working for Morro, so I tagged along."

"When I got settled here, I wrote to Mama to tell her where I was. Mama wrote back and said that if I hadn't have skedaddled so suddenly, maybe something could have been done, but at that point she couldn't do anything. But she said she loved me, and so I started sending some money back home every time I got paid. Been doing that for a little over three years now."

Cole thought for a moment. "That's right. You came to Ninjago Town just before I did," he commented. "Have you thought about going back to Ogacich for a visit?"

Brooke didn't respond right away. Cole didn't say anything as he waited for her to speak again. But after waiting a whole minute, all he heard from her was a sniffle.