The rest of the week after Tommy talked to doctor Glickman passed quickly. Tommy was amazed at how quickly time went by when you were happily busy. And Tommy was a very busy boy now that he had the goats. He was waking up a half hour earlier now, hopping out of bed at five-thirty to check over his goats and put them out to pasture. The morning inspection was an important part of raising angoras, because of them not being the hardiest of animals.
Checking the Angoras for signs of skin problems was especially important, because their fleeces were thick and matted, making them susceptible to parasites and biting insects. The goats required a bi-weekly dip in a Malathion solution to control parasites. Tommy half buried a hundred gallon dipping trough for that purpose, and was building a cattle chute leading up to it. If things worked as planned, he would march the goats into the chute and through the dip this coming Sunday.
Wednesday, Harold sent an older Mexican man back into the warehouse to see Tommy. The man, Pedro Colón, and his sons, raised sheep for a living and sheared sheep for other herders as a side business. Pedro was sharp around a dollar and he made Tommy a good deal. He would shear the goats and pay Tommy two dollars a pound for the mohair. Mister Colón made his profit by selling the mohair to a buyer from one of the big mills for the subsidized price of two dollars and sixty-five cents. They agreed on the Saturday after next and shook hands on it.
Irv Glickman walked into the McCulloch County Library at a few minutes before noon on Saturday morning. He was happy he'd made it on time, even though he over slept and had a late start. Being a native of New York City, Glickman drove his Jaguar XKE like a maniac anyway, so he'd made the three hour trip in less than two and a half. Irv was very surprised when a cute and petite woman with an arm load of books greeted him just inside the door.
"Shalom, Doctor Glickman, I'm Ruth Silverman, a friend of Tommy. He'll be here as soon as he gets off work at noon, and the Snyders will be here any minute," she said.
Irv could hear just the hint of a New York accent in Ruth's pleasant voice.
"I am pleased to meet you, Ruth, and call me Irv. I know a man back in New York named Saul Silverman, he handles my investments," Irv said.
Ruth laughed and sat the books down on the circulation desk.
"It's a small world Irv; Saul Silverman is my father. Wait until I tell my mother I had to move to Texas to meet a nice Jewish doctor."
Ruth walked Glickman back to the small conference room next to her office and retrieved a couple of bottles of Doctor Pepper from her office fridge. Irv laughed and toasted her with his bottle.
"Don't tell me you are hooked on this stuff, too," he chortled.
Ruth shook her head and looked chagrined.
"I'm afraid I'm addicted after three years drinking it. I even drink it hot sometimes when the weather is cold," she replied.
Ruth and Irv discovered they had a few mutual acquaintances besides her father. One of the people they knew in common was Rachael Simms, the psychotherapist. When Irv mentioned that he thought Rachael was a beautiful and intelligent woman, Ruth's match-making gene kicked in. She thought Rachael and Irv would be perfect together, and all she had to do was scheme up a way to get Rachael to visit her.
Their conversation came to an end when Rita Fricke and Margie Wilcox bustled into the conference room with Sheriff Wagner in tow. Ruth was curious about the sheriff being there, but shrugged it off and made introductions. Irv knew Margie from her time at Brooke Medical Center. After their horrible initial meeting, they'd become friends of a sort. One thing for sure was that Glickman had a much healthier respect for nurses after his run in with Margie's boss, Colonel Sarah Phipps.
Ross and Cora Snyder arrived with Molly a few minutes after high noon, and this time, Rita made the introductions.
The Snyders were just as Rita had described them to Tommy; they were good-hearted, hard working country folks. Ross Snyder put his family first, period, end of discussion. Cora Snyder was a fourth-generation cowgirl, and a mother in the mold of Rita Fricke, sweet natured and caring, but with a backbone of iron. She loved her man to death and doted on her children. Anyone who messed with either was in for a serious ass-kicking.
Tommy arrived just as Irv and Margie were about to take Molly into Ruth's office to examine her. Margie had picked up Molly's school health records and had her nurse's bag with her. Molly squealed when she saw Tommy and ran over to him. Tommy knelt down and she hugged his neck. Ross solemnly shook his hand and Cora gave him a warm hug. It was obvious right away that Cora was the talker in the family.
"You and Princess is all I've heard this week," Cora told Tommy.
Tommy grinned and tousled Molly's pretty blond hair.
"She's one of the two best ranch hands I ever hired," he replied.
After the commotion of Tommy's arrival died down and the flurry of handshakes and hugs dispensed with, Doctor Glickman finally had the opportunity to examine Molly. Irv saw that repairing her palate was straight forward, but that her lip would be a challenge. He felt he could do it though, and told Molly and her parents that.
"I can make Molly's lip ninety percent normal, but she will have a small scar above and over her lip right here. The scar above the lip will fade with time, but she'll have a noticeable crease on her lip. When she stops growing, even that might be repairable," he said.
The Snyders nodded, wearing big grins and Molly whooped.
Glickman smiled at the Snyders' happiness. He seldom was the bearer of such joyful news when reconstructing the faces of severely wounded soldiers.
"I'll take your reaction as approval of the idea, now all we need is a hospital that will loan me an operating room. I think I can con a couple of nurses from Fort Sam to assist me. I'm worried about Tommy being stuck with a big hospital bill though."
The Snyders looked alarmed at that; they didn't know Tommy was footing the bill. Margie smiled at them reassuringly.
"Let's go talk to Sheriff Wagner before anyone becomes discouraged, he might have some good news for us," Margie said.
The Snyders, Doctor Glickman and Nurse Wilcox trouped out of Ruth's office and took seats at the conference table where Tommy, Rita and Ruth were waiting. They'd heard Molly's whoop so they figured Irv had good news at his end. It turned out that Sheriff Wagner had a hell of an idea. As a matter of fact, he had the solution for everything. Cyrus cleared his throat and gave it to them.
"When Margie told me what Tommy wanted to do, I called a friend and fellow Shriner who is the Illustrious Potentate of the Hella Temple up in Garland. He made a call on Molly's behalf, to the Houston Shriner Hospital. The hospital has agreed to accept Molly as a patient, and provide Doctor Glickman with anything he needs for the surgery. All we have to do is get you all down there. The local Temple in Houston volunteered to provide Missus Snyder and Doctor Glickman a place to stay while they are down there, again free of charge.
There was stunned silence at the table for a couple of heart beats, then bedlam as everyone started either laughing or crying with joy. When the hubbub died down, Tommy stood up and grabbed Molly's hand.
"This calls for a celebration, so let's go to lunch at the Bluebonnet, my treat. We can work out the details there."
Over lunch, Irv Glickman told Cy Wagner he would put in for a seven day leave starting in two weeks. If it was approved, Cy would set everything up with the Shriners. Cora Snyder said her mother would be happy to take care of Ross and their other children while she made the trip to Houston with Molly.
After the discussion about Molly's surgery, the conversation swung around to Tommy's plan to have all nine kids from Rita's Sunday school class out to his ranch the next afternoon. The consensus was that Tommy's good heart was over taxing his ability in this instance.
"You are going to need help, Tommy. None of the children are helpless, but all of them have needs you can't look after at one time. I'll come over and bring someone with me to give you a hand. Besides, I want to see your goats. Maybe you'll let me pick one out and Molly can teach me how to take care of it," Mama Rita said.
Molly and Tommy liked that idea just fine. Tommy liked it well enough that he didn't think to ask who Rita was bringing to help them.
Ruth and Rita had Tommy much better organized Sunday afternoon when the children from the Sunday school class started arriving. For one thing, Rita insisted the children go home from church and change clothes first. Then either the parents dropped the kids off, or Ruth picked them up. One of the kids had a nasty cold, so only eight made it out to Tommy's ranch.
Tommy started the afternoon off by cooking hot dogs on the small grill he'd bought. Once the children were stuffed with Oscar Meyers, Tommy led them into the pasture to help him herd the goats into the corral. Rex romped joyfully between the goats and children, thrilled to death to have eight little new people with whom to play.
Once the Angoras were in the corral, the fun of choosing one to take care of began. Tommy had picked up a half dozen neckerchiefs at the feed store for the boys, and Ruth purchased a like number of inexpensive scarves at Mc Crory's five and dime for the girls. The docile goats seemed to like the attention, and followed the children around like puppies. In a matter of minutes, the children made their choices and Tommy was teaching them how to tend to the animals.
Tommy was out in the pasture surrounded by children and goats when Rita pulled up at two with the help she promised. The helper Rita had been intentionally vague about was her daughter Caroline. Caroline had arrived home the evening before on spring break from the Baylor School of Medicine.
Caroline Fricke was not thrilled with being at Tommy's place, regardless the nobleness of the reason. Caroline had strong feelings for Tommy that she kept tightly under wraps. She no longer thought of Tommy as some sort of hayseed Romeo, but the fact remained that he was not the man she thought she wanted for the long run. She tried to beg out of going, but her mother wouldn't hear of it.
"This is not about you," Rita said sternly. "It's about those sweet, unfortunate children."
Caroline forgot all about her reasons for not wanting to be there within the first ten minutes of arriving. The children were amazing. Their excitement and happiness, despite their infirmities, blew away her bad mood like so much chaff in a windstorm. Molly shyly took Caroline by the hand and helped her pick out a goat of her own.
Tommy welcomed Caroline home with a big smile and a hug that stirred her to her toes. His simple, heart-felt and sincere, "I've missed you," almost erased all the reservations she had about him. To her, sweet and innocent Tommy was as dangerous in his own way as a cobra ... and just as mesmerizing.
Rita and Ruth sat on the back porch of the ranch house and watched Tommy and Caroline interact with the children and each other. Ruth didn't feel an ounce of jealousy towards Caroline, she was too sure of Tommy's love for her for that to happen. Besides, Caroline was in Houston most of the year, and would be for the foreseeable future. If Tommy shared his magic with the young woman, it would not happen often.
Rita Fricke was also watching her daughter and adopted son as they walked around the pasture. She thought that, despite all her daughter's academic achievements, Caroline was astoundingly bereft of common sense for fighting her attraction to Tommy.
Tommy was happy to see Caroline, even though she was not a really close friend. Caroline's behavior confused the heck out of him, because one minute she was his friend, and the next she acted as if she hated his guts. Tommy let those ideas stay in the back of his brain as he worked with the children and his goats. Tommy's objective today was to keep the children talking. He didn't much care to whom they talked; it could be him, each other or the Angoras, as long as they interacted.
Tommy didn't make any distinction between the children like Jamie and Molly, who were normally intelligent with speech impediments, and those like Jimmy Preston, who were slow learners. Neither did the goats, as with heads cocked to the side, they listened to their new friends as they jabbered away.
Up on the porch, Ruth and Rita smiled as one of the unattached goats playfully chased Rex across the pasture.
"In another week, those goats will think they should sleep in the house with us," Ruth said.
Rita nodded and laughed.
"And Tommy's so soft-hearted, he'd probably let them," she said.
Ruth chuckled briefly, turned to face Rita squarely, and asked the question on her mind.
"So why is Caroline so stand offish around Thomas? You'd think after all that's happened, she could at least be friends with him."
Rita Fricke frowned and nodded her agreement.
"My daughter has big city plans for her future and doesn't want to be tied down here in Brantley. She's attracted to Tommy, but knows he'll never leave here, so she tries to remain aloof to keep from getting too close to him."
"She doesn't know what she's missing," Ruth said softly, then blushed crimson when she realized Rita had heard her.
Rita chuckled and patted her hand.
"He's an amazing young man, so I agree with you a hundred percent."
Ruth and Rita cut their conversation short when Tommy hailed them from the corral fence.
"Mama, can you and Ruth keep an eye on my ranch hands while Caroline and I cut up some rope to make leashes?"
While Rita and Ruth wandered around among the children and Angoras, Caroline and Tommy were alone in the barn's tack room, cutting six foot pieces off a hundred foot long, half inch thick, jute rope. Caroline was holding the rope as Tommy cut it with his pocket knife. Tommy's pocket knife was a Barlow that Harold Fricke gave him for Christmas. As Tommy cut a section of rope, Caroline would loop it around his neck and then measure out the next piece.
"It's wonderful what you are doing for Molly," Caroline remarked.
Tommy shook his head negatively.
"I'm not doing anything, Doctor Glickman and Sheriff Wagner are," Tommy corrected her.
She looked up at him in exasperation at what she perceived as his 'aw shucks' false modesty. When she spoke, her tone was sharper than she intended.
"You know what I mean, Tommy. I know you made it all happen. It irritates me when you act all modest like this."
Tommy was taken aback by her tone of voice and what she said, because he was telling her the absolute truth as he knew it. Yes, he had the idea of helping Molly, but his smarter friends were really the ones who were making it happen. He did not know how to communicate that fact to her without making her even angrier, so he kept silent. It made Tommy sad that it would probably always be that way with Caroline, no matter what the subject.
Four days after having the children from Sunday school at his ranch, Tommy stood at the international arrival gate at the Dallas airport. He held a single red rose in his left hand and his Stetson in his right. It was Thursday, the 19th of March, 1970, and Tommy was patiently waiting for Connie to clear customs. Instead of a week to ten days, Connie had stayed in England over two weeks, and Tommy had missed her.
Connie's return had been delayed because the director of the movie liked her performance enough that he had expanded her role, and she had a number of additional scenes to shoot. As a result, her billing went from featured performer to co-star, and her salary doubled. Even after paying her agent his ten percent, Connie netted over twenty-five thousand dollars. It was an obscene amount of money, considering how little she did to earn it, but she wasn't about to turn it down. Connie had plans for that money.
Connie's Happy Endings Ranch had once been a working horse ranch, so she had stables, paddocks and five hundred acres of pasture that were so far nothing but a drain on her to maintain. She loved horses and had been seriously thinking about actually turning her ranch into a money making enterprise again. Connie had been toying with the idea of an upscale dude ranch for some of her Hollywood acquaintances. She knew any number of Hollywood types that needed an out of the way place in which to decompress from the stresses of their careers. What better way to do that than as a cowhand on a working ranch?
Connie swept into the waiting area and made a beeline towards Tommy. She was both laughing and crying as he swept her up in his arms.
"Oh Tommy, am I ever happy to see you!" she yelped as she smothered his face in kisses.
Tommy hugged her fiercely and agreed whole-heartedly.
They caught each other up on their lives for the last couple of weeks while Tommy piloted them back towards Brantley. Tommy was very happy that Connie's trip had been so successful, and he was even happier at her idea of putting her ranch to its intended use. He even speculated about buying the piece of property that separated their ranches.
Connie knew that Ruth owned the property, but was sworn to secrecy about it, so she could only say that it might be possible. She had already planned on discussing that possibility with her little librarian lover as soon as possible.
Connie listened in amazement as Tommy recounted his adventures while she was gone. She laughed at his stories of goats and children and marveled once again at his simple goodness and compassion when he told her about little Molly. That so many other people had jumped in to help Molly didn't surprise Connie one bit, because Tommy brought out the best in people.
Ruth was already home waiting for them when they pulled in the driveway at five-thirty. She was as excited about Connie's return as Tommy. She had missed Connie's friendship for sure, but the last week or so, Ruth had mostly been yearning for Connie's plush body.
Connie was not put off by Ruth's eagerness. If anything, she was as ready as her little friend when Ruth grabbed her and Tommy's hands and dragged them towards the bathroom.
"I want a short warm shower and a long hot night," Ruth explained.
There wasn't room in the shower for the three of them, so Tommy volunteered to take his last, so the women could shower together.
While they were in the shower, he lit a couple of scented candles in the bedroom and headed towards the kitchen to fetch a bottle of white wine he had chilling in the fridge.
Tommy had picked up the wine down at Big Al's liquor store. Since his ladies drank wine, he had been making himself smarter on the subject through reading a couple of books and talking to Al. Big Al's selection of French wine was thin, but Tommy found a dusty bottle of Moulin Rouge Chablis and carried it to the counter where Al presided over the cash register.
Al Plotnick was all of five foot eight inches tall and weighed a skinny one-thirty. His stature is not why they called him Big Al. According to Harold Fricke, he earned the moniker because his Johnson was about the same size as a Jumbo Hickory Farms Summer Sausage. Zeke had buck teeth and big ears, yet, again according to Harold, women actually fought over who got to go home with him on Saturday nights.
"I once heard a woman say that he was not only big but he was also tireless as well. She said he was a veritable love machine," Harold confided.
Tommy didn't know about all that, but he had to admit that the pretty, heavy set young senorita sitting next to Al looked awfully contented and she looked to be half his age.
Al looked at the bottle with disdain when Tommy plonked it down on the counter.
"You would be paying a lot of money just for the label on this one, Tommy. I have a nice Spanish Chablis that costs half as much and tastes twice as good. It's an unpretentious little wine, with a nice bouquet and a slight zest of fruitiness. You want a couple of bottles of it instead?"
Al was the wine connoisseur that Tommy hoped to become and always keen on saving money, Tommy quickly agreed.
"Sure, Al," he replied.
Al smiled and turned to the young woman sitting on a stool next to him.
"Juanita, run back to the storeroom and pull a couple of bottles of the El Cid please."
"Okay Big Daddy," she said cheekily.
Al pretended to swat her on her broad derriere as she walked by. Juanita giggled and swished her hips saucily.
"That's a mighty fine woman right there," Big Al allowed. "She's built for comfort, not for speed, but she is always in the mood, she doesn't talk much and treats me like a king. I'm seriously considering making her my next future ex-wife."
His thoughts back to the present, Tommy smiled wryly as he expertly uncorked the bottle. It was ironic that he was learning all about wines, yet all of them tasted about the same to him. He was the same way about beer and whiskey, to Tommy, none of them tasted that great. Tommy did not drink much other than socially, because he'd read that alcohol destroyed brain cells and he figured he didn't have many to spare.
Tommy walked into the bedroom, bottle in one hand, stemmed glasses in the other, just as Ruth chased a giggling Connie out of the bathroom. Both were naked as jaybirds, silvery drops of water still glistened on their bodies. Connie dove onto the bed and Ruth piled in behind her. The women were locked in a passionate kiss as Tommy hustled to the shower.
Tommy hopped off the forklift and groaned as he stretched his back. It was Friday morning after Connie's return from England, and Tommy had some strange aches and pains from the workout the women put him through the night before. Connie and Ruth had been insatiable and he was both the beneficiary and the victim of their ardor. It was after nine before they let him out of bed to secure his goats in the barn. They had stayed lost in each other and their passions for three hours.
While Tommy was easing his aching back, Connie was across town telling Ruth about her dude ranch idea. Ruth liked the idea and quickly agreed to lease Connie the four hundred acres that separated the Happy Endings Ranch from Tommy's property.
Connie went from the library to the feed store. Connie needed the name of someone who could bulldoze a road between her and Tommy's place and put in a couple of gates. Since Rita and Harold Fricke seemed to know everyone in the county, Connie thought they'd know someone.
They did, and at two that afternoon, Connie met with Antonio Salazar, Ramon's brother, at her ranch. Antonio and his wife's brother had a land clearing and excavation business. They owned a D-8 Caterpillar bulldozer, a medium sized backhoe and a ten cubic yard dump-truck. Antonio brought a map and compass with him and spent about an hour and a half walking through the woods and fields between the two properties. When he returned, he gave Connie his estimate.
"Missus Delgado, if you aren't dead set on an arrow straight road, there is an old logging road about five hundred yards into the woods that snakes almost all the way over to Tommy's fence line. I could cut a road from here to the logging road without much trouble. I'll clean up and smooth out the logging road, put in a couple of three foot culverts so you can go across the creek, and install both gates for nine hundred dollars. You buy the gates and gate posts."
Connie quickly agreed and wrote him a hundred dollar check for the gates and posts.
When Antonio left, Connie went into her house and sat at the antique desk that dominated her home office. She pulled out a notepad and a pen and started listing things she needed to do to open a dude ranch. The list grew longer and longer, but that didn't discourage Connie in the least. She had overcome too much adversity in her life to let a hard job get her down.
On Wednesday, April 1, 1970, Cora Snyder drove her daughter Molly to Houston for surgery. The operation was scheduled for Friday morning.
Doctor Irv Glickman was also speeding toward Houston. He would be there with Molly while she underwent some mandated testing in preparation of her surgery. Glickman had spoken twice to the Chief of Surgery at the Shriner Hospital and both times had been assured that everything would be ready for him Friday. Irv was very impressed with the level of courtesy the hospital was extending him. The Shriners were incredibly generous when it came to children.
Tommy was also going to make the trip to Houston, but he wasn't leaving until Friday morning, and planned to return Saturday night. Tommy realized that there wasn't much he could do to help anyone, but he felt compelled to go see Molly anyway.
Rita had insisted that Tommy stay at Caroline's while he was in Houston. Caroline shared a four bedroom rental house with two other female medical students and, according to Rita, they had a guest room. Caroline was unhappy about the idea, but her mother shamed her into agreeing.
"Caroline, you were raised better than that," Rita chided. "Tommy was willing to spend all of his savings so Molly could have this surgery, and you don't want to share a house for one night."
Staying at Caroline's house was no big deal to Tommy. He figured he'd be at the hospital most of the time anyway. It was a big deal for Caroline though, because she was scared of what might happen if they were alone together. No, she wasn't worried about what Tommy would do; he was always a perfect gentleman. Instead, she was worried about controlling herself when she was around him. She hated it that every time she was near him, she either wanted to jump his bones or murder him.