Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy)

chapter Two

Nora walked into her first hour of class on Monday morning. She sat in her desk hoping that she aced her Trigonometry test on Friday. She put her books in her desk but kept out her math book, a pad of paper and pencil.

“Elenora,” Jeremy sang in a sing-song voice because he knew that irritated her.

She glanced over at him and said, “What do you want?”

He snickered to the boy next to him and poked her in the shoulder with his eraser.

She realized he just wanted attention. She slapped at his hand and eraser playfully hoping he would leave her alone.

The bell rang and saved her from any further bother from Jeremy for a while. After a while the teacher handed the tests back to each student. Nora had received a 100%. “Thank you,” she whispered to herself. She liked math and would have been unhappy with anything less, but she couldn’t help but worry until she received her paper back.

She put her best effort into her school work, especially now. After Jordan’s diagnosis, she had reached a decision to help her family. The only way she knew how was to study as hard as she could.

The first class after lunch was Biology 2. This was another class that intrigued her but she struggled to make the grade she demanded of herself. Today the teacher assigned a science project due two weeks from today.

She rubbed her hand across her forehead to help relieve the stress. This was going to take some time to complete and she had no idea what direction to take with the project. With all the work at home to do and Jordan being sick was also taking a toll on their family because her mother was spending time at Aunt Betty’s house to help her as much as possible.

After class, Mrs. Jenkins called Nora to her desk to talk to her. “I see you seem to be struggling, is there anything I can do?

“No, Ma’am,” Nora replied quietly.

“Is everything alright at home?”

“Yes, Ma’am,”

“I heard about your little cousin, Jordan, being diagnosed with polio. How is everyone at home taking that?” She asked concerned.

“We’re doing fine, except Mom spends a lot of time helping my Aunt Betty.”

“So you’re trying to fill in and do extra to help at home, aren’t you?” Mrs. Jenkins answered intuitively.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“I want you to know that if there is anything I can do to help you, please let me know.”

“Yes, Ma’am, I will.” Nora was edging away wanting to go to her next class.

Mrs. Jenkins didn’t feel satisfied. She was sure that there was something that could be done to help this family. She would take this up with the women of her church who when they for Ladies Night.

Nora left school that evening to get on the bus, there was pesky Jeremy waiting to aggravate her all the way to the school bus.

He sang at the top of his lungs in his sing-song voice, “Eleanora, oh my Eleanora, what can I say to my Eleanora.”

“Go away, Jeremy,” she said like she would like to shoo him away.

She climbed on the bus and sat in her favorite seat. Sometimes boys act like flies, you either want to shoo them away or just swat them.

Saturday morning the family started their chores as usual. Nora watched Laura struggle to keep up with the work so she tried to take on a little more of the heavy lifting. Her dad seemed to slip away to clean the barn which was work but she could really use some help. When she was almost finished separating the cream she stopped to rub her back.

John stopped outside the barn door to watch her. She sensed someone watching her and turned around. Just the fact that he was watching her made her angry. She wanted to yell at him. She had been taught to not be disrespectful to her parents, but how much should a person take without saying something?

When you get finished, I want to talk to you.

“Sure,” she retorted feeling her cheeks hot with anger.

Nora quickly finished her work and walked out where her father was sitting on the bench under the tree between the barn and the house.

He patted the bench beside him. “Sit down, Nora; I have something to tell you.”

“I want you to know that I am aware that you are taking more and more of the hard work. You are strong but you are small and should not have to do the work of a man.

Nora felt the tears that she had suppressed for so long slip down her face. So many times she had pushed herself so hard to get his approval. This show of affection really touched her.

He put his arm around her again and pulled her up to him.

“Danny will be a good man to run the dairy once he is grown, but he is so small, he can’t help much right now. I have held on to this dairy because my father gave it to me. It meant so much to me to know that it was his. It’s all I have of him right now. I always wanted to hand it down to Danny when he grew up.”

Nora sat up and looked at her dad wondering where this was going.

He wiped his hand across his face as if he wanted to wipe his thoughts away so he wouldn’t have to deal with them. “Your mom,” he continued, “has gone about as far as she can. She can’t keep this dairy going and neither can you, and like I said Danny is too little.”

He straightened up and looked her right in the face. “Your mom and I decided some time back to spare you some sad news. We had hoped to not have to tell you so you would not have think about grown up issues for a while, but now it can’t be put off any longer.”

Tears sprang to his eyes, he picked up her hand and patted it, “Baby, I have a bad heart. That’s why I haven’t been able to help in the dairy any more than I have lately. I don’t have much longer to live.”

Nora jumped up and put her arms around his neck while she cried for her guilt of anger, for his shortened life, for her mother losing him, for Danny and herself losing their dad while they were young. She cried for the loss of the dairy, the only home she had ever known.

Finally after the torrent of emotions had eased, she humbly said, “Daddy, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were in pain. I can’t bear to lose you.”

He held her rubbing her back and trying to speak soothing words to her.

After she began to get her sobs under control, he explained, “We have a buyer for the dairy. Soon we will move in town. It will be easier for your mom there. She will have to find a job before long to help out with the groceries. With the money from the dairy, we will be able to buy a house in town and have a little left over. You and Danny will be able to walk to school and not have to ride the bus. We will buy the both of you some new shoes and new clothes.”

Nora’s mind was whirling with all of this information.

“Danny won’t ever get to own the dairy,” she commented almost absent mindedly.

Her dad smiled, “You know what? Most kids don’t want what their parents want to give them anyway. The last I heard from Danny was he wanted to be a policeman.”

A smile eased across her face, “The last I heard was he was going to drive an airplane. Who knows?”

Her mom was waiting when they walked in the house with an anxious expression as she looked into both their faces.

Her dad nodded with a smile.

Nora crossed to her mother and pulled her into an embrace. Nora softly said, “Mom, I will take care of you and Danny, you just wait and see. Everything will be alright.”

Nora went over to the cabinet and poured herself a glass of water. She leaned against the table to drink it. There were so many things to think about. I’m losing my thinking rock. What would it be like to live in town” I’ve never lived in any other house before.

That afternoon they went outside when they heard a car horn honked outside.

The car door opened and out popped Mrs. Jenkins, her school teacher with a big smile on her face. “Hi, I wanted to visit and I’m bringing presents!”

Two more ladies stepped out of the car with big grins on their faces.

“These ladies are from my church, Stella Walker and Maggie Bishop. We are representing the Ladies Auxiliary of the Community Church.” Mrs. Jenkins continued, “Before you say anything, I want you to know that the pastor and us ladies have prayed about these presents, so you should accept them knowing they are straight from the hand of God.” She stopped with a smile splitting from ear to ear.

All three of them, Nora and her parents stood there with their mouths hanging open.

The three Auxiliary Ladies began taking groceries out of their car until the whole kitchen table was full of food. Nora didn’t think she had ever seen that much food in her whole life at once.

After all the food was on the table, her parents finally remembered how to talk.

“Thank you so much, and we will accept this blessing since you say it was ordained from God. We will never forget this. Thank you so much.” Laura said as she hugged Mrs. Jenkins. Then in turn she hugged the other two ladies.

John stood there nodding his thanks then shook hands all around.

Mrs. Jenkins gave Nora a hug and said, “I want to talk to you on Monday. Can you meet me during noon break before class?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Nora answered meekly.

“Well, we want you to enjoy all of this food. Now we have another errand to do. We are on our way to Sarah Timberline’s house. You remember she just lost her mother, poor dear. We have as much food for them as we brought for you. God has blessed.” Mrs. Jenkins announced and the ladies were out the door.

After the food was put away, Nora wanted to go to her thinking rock. Too much had happened too quickly and she wanted to ponder all that her dad had said and Mrs. Jenkins whirlwind visit. So many changes and so quickly!

Wow! What a day! So sad and then so happy. Almost more than a mind can comprehend all at once. My dad said that he would die soon. How can anyone bear that? Her mom, little Danny, and herself live all alone without Dad? Fresh tears sprang to her eyes again. She held her arms around her stomach that ached and swayed back and forth.

What if he doesn’t live to see my husband? If I have one, of course. Of course, I intend to have one. What if I have children? I can never bring them to see him. He will never see my babies. She shuddered. Then Danny may grow up without a father, how will he cope with that?

Nora shook herself; she had made a promise to take care of her mom and Danny. She would make that promise good. At this point she didn’t know what or how she would do it, but she felt the determination that she would meet that need.

Oh, yes, of course, she couldn’t forget the wonderful blessing of food brought to them from Mrs. Jenkins. How kind Mrs. Jenkins was! She wondered if ever she could repay her. Then she thought she would save that for another day. Right now she felt all thought out.

She lay on her thinking rock. She rested until her heart felt at peace.

She sat up and took several deep breaths. Now she felt fortified. She was used to trouble and she would meet trouble head on.