Chapter 1
There was nothing like having the all the family gathered together around the table for dinner except for two as Peggy and Dona stared down at him, making him feel small and uncomfortable. Peggy was just a year younger than EJ. Even though she always liked to claim she was the oldest by default, considering EJ seldom lived at home. Therefore he was considered an unwanted visitor. Not her actual brother, blood nor genes had any bearing.
She would prefer him nonexistent, again no love lost there. She had the same bearing as her mother except some would say more often than not, considered her pretty unlike her mother she wore her dark brown hair long so it hung loosely at her waist. Blue eyed beauty like a porcelain doll. Four-feet, three inches broad shoulder like her father button-cute nose with a fair complexion, thin and peaty, unlike her mother that could outweigh an elephant. Some would say calculating as a chessboard, mean and spoiled. Takes after her father, but has her mothers’ disposition.
Her younger sister Dona age eight born in the month May had always claimed she is the prettiest due to her dishwater blond hair. Which came from her mothers’ side of the family, not sure if that was true or not, EJ had never met them in person, but has seen pictures mostly in black and white. But unlike her mother straight her hair Dona’s hair curled as she kept it shoulder length, Blue-eyed dyed blond. Pretty as a picture her mother would always say “perfection.” Not too thin and not too fat either. One of her fathers favorites just like her sister Peggy. She had the same disposition as her mother when it came to temperament. She could be playful one minute and mean as a snake in the next second, but dumb as an Ox’s.
No. Peggy hated the idea of being in the same home as EJ and Danny because she could not control the people around the table that sat with her on both sides. No, she hated the fact most of all unlike home, having her parents wrapped around her little finger unlike here she had no control and that made it even worse. She hated Mr. Mrs. Downing and their goody, goody to shoe children, which seemed that they could do no wrong. Gullible and stupid she considered them for not seeing what in front of their very eyes as she stared down at EJ that worthless piece of trash and his brother Danny the runt of the litter another bad apple through and through.
Danny was the spitting image of his brother EJ. Mosey brown hair, blue eyes and he was short for his age and too skinny unlike most kids his age he could replace a skeleton. The runt of them all and just as worthless, always getting in her way as she wrinkled up her nose smelling the swill around her. She could not figure out for the life of her why they insisted on eating outside like filthy animals. Then there was her grandmother, Peggy would sometimes think how nice it would be to have her in her pocket and on her side when she pushed EJ and Danny to the curb, but no longer since she the one that took her away from her father and dumped her in this hick backwoods home. Instead of returning her and her sister Dona home where they belong.
Betty Stuart known as Grandma Stuart to everyone else was a strong-willed woman in her early fifties according to her grandfather who passed away when she was five. She served in the war as a nurse. Her hair silvers white now and had blue eyes, while her grandfather's eyes were brown and warm whenever she looked into his eyes from the pictures that she had seen at her grandmother's house. Yet she was never h is favorite and hated him for it compared to her father that always seemed to put a smile on her face and gave her whatever she wanted.
Peggy grinned as she watched EJ fall to the ground. For the life of her, she couldn’t understand why everyone called him that, when his real name, his given name was Eric, so what that name came from one of her mother's dolls. Personally, it was far better then what everyone called him, just to make her parents mad. No, she didn’t care if he died, in fact, she hoped he would, it would make her life easier if he did as she reached over and grabbed a roll and buttered it while everyone else panicked over nothing. She had to admit however that Mrs. Downing was a far better cook than her mother will ever be. She took a bite having the bread melt in her mouth and kicked her sister under the table, oh that felt so good.
EJ knew he was loved whenever he looked around the table with his Ma near him and his brother Will and Robert would ease his mind removing any doubts and from his mind Whenever he glanced up at his sisters Peggy and Dona would scowl when she was caught looking at him. EJ felt strange as a wisp of black smoke seemed to encircle his body. His body felt heavy making it hard to breathe, his eyes felt heavy as they began to close feeling his body fall to the ground into a heap of nothingness. Darkness surrounded him as he heard strange words he couldn’t move and he couldn’t breathe. The darkness felt like death, cold as the grave and he knew that he was dying.
Ma glanced over at EJ watching him starting to slump over and breathing haggard as he ate sweat just poured off his little body nearly falling off the cot. Ma jumped from her chair, to catch him as he began to fall to the ground with his head in her lap. Pa raced over from the table next to him. “Wayne he’s really is burning up and fast,” she said.
Pa yelled to Robert; “Fill the tub quickly; Will, go grab the bucket of water from the living room.” Everyone dashed about as fast they could, Pa taking the bucket of water from Will, throwing it over EJ while Ma tries to cover what she can of the stitches with a table napkin and kitchen towel. Pa picked up EJ in his arms running down hall soaking wet placed him into the tub, with Grandma on the phone calling the Doc back.
With EJ in the tub Ma and Pa cooled him back down, EJ slowly started to come back around. His breathing became more steadier. Ma and Pa sighed looking more relieved as Grandma came in the room. “Doc says we need to leave him in that tub until he gets here. Then we might have to take him over to the hospital get an x-ray and reopen that wound and try to keep those stitches dry Martha." Grandma went over to EJ. “You silly boy, what are we going do with you?” She asked.
“Grandma I'm fine really, really hot that's all,” he said and tries to smile. EJ looked round the room and at the base of the tub looking worried. “Where's my sheet Pa?” He asked started to blush bright red from embarrassment.
“EJ, I'll get you another one son.” Ma giggled bends down and kissed his forehead, also checking his temperature. Martha, a loving wife, and mother of five children and a husband, some would say she was very beautiful with her long brown hair tied into a nice neat bun. Her deep blue eyes and her soft cheekbones which seemed to make you smile and feel safe in her arms. She also had the voice of an angel whenever she sang to her children at night when they were younger or sick in bed.
It is true what they say regarding her status when came to things that need to be done around the house. She wore the pants in the family and her husband Wayne would not trade it for the world. Her cooking was one of the best to be found next to her husband if she allowed him in the kitchen at all or near her stove. Martha had a heart of gold when came to her children needs, but she always expected more from them when it came to discipline, she always helps them choose what was the right thing to do and never encourage bad behavior or tolerated fighting.
She was a stay at home mom by all counts that are important, to be there when her children needed her. Plus she always had her husband Wayne closes by if she needed him. Martha has always lied heavily on her gut instincts when comes down to strange occurrences or making hard decisions, regarding family matters. You also learn to never crosser when she wants something done badly enough expect it to be done come hell or high water.
Grandma wanders back down the hall seeing the sheet outside lying by the cot. She laughed. “He just needed some fresh air, that's all,” shook her head. “That's my grandson,” she said and laughed. Everyone outside waiting for news as Grandma came back to the table. “He's all right folks,” as she laughed and looked at the sheet on the ground by the cot. “He just needed to take a dip in the tub that's all.”
Wayne brings Martha a stool to sit on placing some towels behind EJ's back to make it a little bit more comfortable. Julie brought Ma and EJ a plate of food on a tray and placed it across the tub. “EJ for a brother, you are going to be the cleanest boy around,” Julie said as she bent down and tickled his feet then gives him a kiss on the cheek. Julie was the oldest of the five children at the young age of nineteen and took after her mother with the same hair coloring, but wore her hair down slightly below the shoulders and liked to put flowers in her hair. Julie had deep blue eyes like her mother and her brothers except for Anna and Sam the youngest of her three brothers. She had a small petite frame and was considered very mature and pretty for her age.
She loved all her brothers and her sister Anna, considered them her best friends. She was a tomboy at heart loved to tease and wrestle with them on the floor or in the dirt. Had done so often enough when they and she were younger while other girls went to parties or played with their dolls. She’d rather stay home and spend time with her family. More so since she graduated from Payson High School two years ago and never looked back while her friends went on to college. A family was her most important goal.
EJ blushed just a little then smiled. “Julie, nobody saw anything right?” He asked as he blushes bright red.
“EJ don't worry,” as she winked back at him. “What do you think a big sister is for? I took care of it. So did your Aunts, your brothers, and your uncles. All they saw was the wind as we covered their eyes. Now finish your dinner. Ma, can I get you anything before we clear the table?” She asked.
“No dear I'm fine thank you,” she said.
Pa and Julie return to the family and guest, everyone busy about the house. Girls cleared the table, boys doing the chores while everyone visited among themselves. Mary came down to visit with Martha and EJ for a while. “Martha we all want you to know we are all here for you dear,” putting her arm around her. “So if you need anything at all, just ask,” she said. Reached down giving EJ a small hug, watching him turn red and went back down the hall.
Mary who likes to think she’s the wiser woman of her two sisters Lizzy and Betty. Despite her hair has turned gray and dyed to the color of blue silver. She considered a high society woman. With her lengthy built as she towered over her two sisters gaining the advantage from her fathers’ second wife. Whom she regards as hideous witch woman until house fell on her. Yes, you could say she was spoiled because she always got her way one way or the other.
She never got along with her younger sister Lizzy when they still played house and with their dolls, her green eyes sparkled as they set off her long aristocratic nose and drawn down chin into a petite triangle. She had never married like her two sisters or fell in love, never saw the point when she was younger. Yet now she has regrets now that she still lives alone in a small apartment built for two. Her livelihood a librarian going on thirty years, until this day she believes in romance. That somewhere out there is a man of her dreams and all she has to do is wait for him.
Wayne looked at the suitcase by the door began to worry. “Where I am going put everyone?" As he looked down the hall and around the room; he hadn't mentioned it yet to Martha, he hasn’t had the chance to tell her yet about our new house guests. There just not here for dinner not that it would matter, “there's always room for more as long we have a corner or two." The thing is he was running out of corners, “well there is always the barn and I could put up the tepee.”
Wayne Downing always had a gentle side to him, but you would not know it unless you met him and looked into his bright blue eyes. Soft brown hair with a tan complexion from working on a farm and the fields as he provided for his family with traded goods handmade wooden furniture and crops from the fields. Taller than any average man standing seven feet ten inches, Built like an oak tree and had arms of a bodybuilder. His face chiseled by arc angel Michael himself, his wife Martha quoted to him on occasion or two; a farmer and wood craftsman by trade. Gentle as they come, but had a stubborn streak true to any mule alive.
He was the type of man that would go out of his way to help a neighbor in trouble and not ask for anything in return. An honest loving man and father of five children three boys and two girls, who he loves more than the earth itself. Wayne strongly believed in honesty and hard discipline, not in the use of anger or words, but in deeds to fit the punishment and well-placed handshake when taking someone at their word or a promise when striking a deal.
Steve seeing the worry look on his face just walks over to him and laughed. “Wayne walk with me a minute,” and pats him on the shoulder. “Doc says you like to build things I'm right? And you are a master craftsman by the looks of it.” Steve said looking at the house and paused, “Wayne I have a question; how partial would say you are to that house?” He asked as they both looked at.
Steve married young right after he served an LDS mission to a gal named Loraine. Had made his money designing and building houses and was a brick mason on the side when things were slow. He looked a lot like his father, dark brown hair or what’s left of it and brown eyes which seemed to turn gold when the sun hit him just right. Steve worked out a lot from carrying lumber and bricks and large wheelbarrows of cement, which in turn gave him the broad shoulders. And stood tall like his father, reaching the height of five-feet-nine-inches, his face and skin harden by the long hours in the sun, he had a hard jawline like the rest of the family.
“Why Steve?” Wayne asked.
“Well, for one thing, it's not big enough. Second,” he laughed. “Do you need another reason think about your wife… 6 boys and 2 girls and another on the way. I know as temporary as it may be… 6 boys 4 girls a grandmother three aunts, two uncles plus you and your wife. That makes a total of… heck, I'd might have to remove my shoes to count them all,” he said as he laughed.
“But Steve, there's no way I can build another house, not by spring. Three rooms yes… I've already ordered the lumber and the plans have been drawn. A new house! It's not possible.” Wayne said over and over again. As he looked over the Downing farm which sat on two hundred fifty acres of the best farming soil in Santaquin County. The Downing’s lived in log type one story farmhouse with hard wooden floors and meager furnishing that was built by Wayne and his father before he married Martha as a wedding presents.
His father died soon after they had their first child. Wayne like his father were farmers and spent his most his time with his boys in the fields growing corn, wheat, and hay plus ten acres in fruit trees. He owned twenty chickens and one roaster mostly for eggs, and two dozen pigs and four horses and one colt, born this past winter. But when the planting was done he and his boys would build furniture and sell what they built and raised to Stringum and other merchants around town for their main livelihood and did very well for themselves. They may not be rich, but they made it up in love for their family.
“Wayne my boy, never sweat the small stuff,” he said and slapped him on the back. Steve took a seat on the porch steps next to Wayne, as they waited for Doctor Hatfield.
“Well, it’s about time,” Wayne said and Steve seeing Doc pull back into the farm. Doctor Hatfield known as Doctor Richard Hatfield, the last of his breed known too makes house calls in Santaquin county. His office 113 main street, three stores down from Stringum Goods & Hardware and right next to the Santaquin Pharmacy and Ice cream shop. If you ever been in Santaquin you’d blink you miss it, but Doc didn’t mind. He loved small towns where everyone knew everyone and their business.
Heck, he’s birthed and raised half the county for going on sixty years. Some would say back in the days he was a ladies man. With his dark brown hair now white as snow right down to his handlebar mustache and bushy eyebrows. Most people would think he be an impostor to Kernel Sanders if it wasn’t for his height just below four feet and seven inches. He served in Second World War, trained the best doctors and nursing staff a hospital could have back in the day, including EJ’s Grandmother Doris Stuart.
He may be old fashion but no doctor could beat his bedside manner and his temper. Known to toss a gurney and or the nurse on it through the door, but all said and done, he did his job and he did it well, better than most Doctors today. He always looked his best with a smart bow-tie with different colored spots to get the attention of his clientele. Man or beast paid him sometimes in coin sometimes in whatever they got or made. All he cared was their welfare, not his own greed or the power that was at his fingertips.
Doc shook his head when he opened the car door. “Wayne I swear I spend more time on this farm than my office. I should just set up shop right here. You give me enough business to last me a lifetime. All right let's go see what he got himself into that fool headed squirrel of a son of yours.” Wayne followed Doc back into the house down the hall into the bathroom. “Well, Martha?” Doc said seeing EJ in the tub. “Change of scenery considering the last few times I have been here lately?” He said as he looked around the room rubbed EJ's head. “I understand you are frying hotter than egg on a rock son?”
EJ sweating as Ma wiped off his face then runs more cold water down across his chest down his back. “Yes, sir. I can't seem to stay cool long enough sir, gets hard to breathe sir,” he replied.
Doc scratched his chin eyed Wayne and Martha. “Martha that infection has gotten worse. EJ let’s take another look at ch'ya…You been working those shoulders as I told you to son?” He asked.
Wayne, EJ nodded their heads. “Yes, Doc.”
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