Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy)

This is a work of
fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without the author’s permission.

For my children and grandchildren

CHAPTER ONE

1969

Danny was doing some serious scrubbing in the bathroom when he heard a knock on the front door. He knew it was somebody who didn’t come often or they would know that everybody came to the back door. He had been kneeling in front of the bathtub with his hands and arms wet with scouring scrub suds. He hastily dried his red shriveled hands and went to the front door.

Through the screen door he saw a young woman close to his age. She had long brown hair tied back in a ponytail at her neck. Her hazel eyes framed by long dark lashes smiled at him. She wore a green tee shirt that said ‘This is my LUCKY DAY’ over blue jean shorts. On her feet were some dime store thongs which exposed her pink painted toenails. Her most remarkable feature other than her beautiful hazel eyes was she almost met him eye to eye in height.

She grinned at him and said, “It’s okay if you close your mouth. I’m human.”

Danny shook himself, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare. Come right in.” He opened the screen door for her to enter. The first thing he looked for was her left hand for the ring. There wasn’t one.

“Danny Ray?” she stated in the form of a question.

“Yes, and you are?”

“You may not remember me. I played on the women’s basketball team when we were in school. My name is Angela Dodd.”

“Now I remember you, you took the
Pryor Tigers to state. Of course! You were outstanding.”

Angela ducked her head shyly, “I don’t know about outstanding, but I loved playing and had a great time.”

He hopped around doing the old cheerleader’s chant, ‘Do-Do-Do-It-Dodd’ that they called when she drove for the basket.

Angela confirmed laughing, “You do remember.”

“What I remember, was that you were a force to be reckoned with,” Danny replied. He looked around the living room wishing he had bought better furniture.

“Forgive my manners,” Danny said hoping to impress her, “Would you like a cola? I was ready for a break.”

“Sure, if you are,” Angela replied following him into the kitchen.

He
handed her a bottle of cola from the refrigerator. “I just bought my furniture and appliances. They delivered them this morning. I’ll have the place up to snuff soon.”

They sat
at the kitchen table to drink their cola and Angela said, “It looks like I interrupted some serious cleaning,” motioning to his red hands.

He grinned, “It’s my lot in life. Somebody has to clean the bathroom. Glad you came by to give me a break.”

She grinned then took a drink of her cola. “Word got around that you bought the old home place back. Everybody around here is proud of you, Danny. We have followed your career ever since you went to college. I wanted to welcome you home again. We, meaning my family, wanted you to know how proud we are of you.”

Now it was Danny’s turn to drop his head. He blinked a couple of times and said, “Thank you for that.” He swallowed and cleared his throat, “Sometimes I get caught off guard and it still really hurts, but I’m fine.”

Her sympathy touched an unhealed wound in his heart. He looked into her face and smiled, “Tell me about you. What have you done with yourself since high school?”

“I went to Arkansas University on a basketball scholarship. I played on the college team but when I got on the team with other
players who were willing to win at any cost, if you understand what I mean, I wouldn’t go that extra mile to win.”

Danny acknowledged his understanding.

She went on, “I continued to play but fell back to the second string after the first year. I didn’t care. My career choice became botany. I love to work with the plants, feel the sun on my back, and dig my hands in the dirt.” She laughed. “Sort of strange for a girl, but I enjoy seeing the plants grow.”

“So what are your plans with that?”

“My parents moved to the old Owen’s place down the road. My dad and I are building a greenhouse for me.” Angela smiled at his surprise. “Anyway, I want to produce enough flowers and vegetable plants to supply this four state area with nursery plants. I thought a mail order business would work for me.”

“Wow!” Danny exclaimed. “That’s pretty ambitious.”

“It will take me a while to get it up and running but eventually I hope to have a nice business.”

Danny agreed, “I can see the possibilities.”

She finished her cola and stood up to leave, “I won’t take any more of your time. I know you want to get back to your bathroom cleaning.”

Danny stood up and stretched to his full six foot four frame in front of her, she grinned.

“You are one of the only women that I know who is almost as tall as I am,” Danny said in amazement.

“I have three sisters and five brothers, and I’m the taller than any of them,” she replied. “My Dad is the only one who is as tall as I am, six foot two.”

Danny held out his hand for her to shake, “Thank you, Angela. This break is the nicest thing that has happened to me since I moved to the farm.”

“Thank you, Danny,
I’ve enjoyed visiting with you,” Angela responded as she walked out the door.

Danny didn’t see a car
when he stepped out on the porch.

Suspecting what he thought, Angela said, “I jog every day. I happened to see your car out front and decided to stop by.”

Danny went back to his bathroom cleaning. He finished the tub and started on the toilet. He admonished himself, if he hadn’t been so tongue tied when she was here, he would have asked her what time she usually jogged or invited her back for coffee or something. Maybe he needed to jog by the old Owen’s place. Then a thought occurred to him,
she had on thongs. Hmm, she wasn’t out jogging
.

After Angela’s visit, the place s
eemed lonely. He turned on his radio just to fill the void. He needed to drop by the telephone company to see about hooking up his line the next time he went to Pryor. A little communication equipment wouldn’t hurt.

Angela walked home from Danny’s house with mixed emotions. She felt happy for him because he was able to fulfill his dream of buying his farm but she knew the circumstances of obtaining the money had come at a great cost to him personally. She remembered Danny from high school. He always had seemed so determined to succeed in football, and he had. He had received his football scholarship to Oklahoma University at a time when Coach Fairbanks was leading the team to some of OU football’s best years.

The county had just graded the gravel road and Angela’s thongs kept flipping the tiny rocks between her feet and her thongs. A country girl ought to know better than to wear thongs on a gravel road, she chastised herself. That’s when she remembered that she told Danny she was out jogging. She shrugged to herself, and smiled.
Oops!
I guess he might be wise to me there
.

The wild roses bloomed along beside the road giving their wonderful fragrance
of spring. The meadows had lost all their winter colors and displayed fresh green grass covering up the grass stalks left from last year. The tiny buds of leaves on the trees had blossomed out into full grown leaves now. The redbud trees that dotted the edge of the road and lined the creek that meandered from the Ray meadows to the Dodd property had given up their red blossoms and formed heart shaped leaves.

Angela breathed in deeply of the fresh smelling spring air. Spring offered such a wonderful time of rebirth. Already their cows had dropped their baby calves. The hens were laying so many eggs that they took the extras to church to distribute to anyone who wanted some.

Danny seemed so serious and grown up today she thought. Back when they were in high school his sense of humor marked him among the other students. Often they heard him bre
ak out in a big laugh that vibrated down the halls. She hoped that soon he would be back to normal. She could tell that his injury had really taken a toll on him.

She remembered Danny on the football team
as their star running back in high school. He had more running yards than any running back in Pryor High history. With Aaron as their quarterback and Bobby in the defense tackle position, the three best friends made Pryor a formidable team. During the boys’ junior and senior years the Tigers had two of the best winning seasons they had ever had. No wonder the college scouts visited often.

Danny had been so happy when he received the offer of a scholarship to Oklahoma University. He had run up the high school hall waving his paper for everyone to see.
Within a few days she followed his example and ran the hall with her scholarship to Arkansas University.

Angela remembered that Danny didn’t date much before he went to college. She secretly had a crush on him
but was too bashful to ask him for a date on Sadie Hawkins day, the only day of the year when it was permissive for girls to ask boys out for a date. She always felt so tall and gawkish. She was a head taller than the girls that were her friends. Danny seemed perfect to her. He stood taller than she did, and he was attractive with a good sense of humor. She was star struck but there was no way she had the courage to ask the star of the football team to date her.

Well
, she thought he’s still a hunk.

CHAPTER TWO

Danny remembered the day he stood by his car looking at the old farm house where he was born. He felt a deep sorrow, mingled with anticipation, hope and inspiration. He had just bought the old rundown farm place that had been in the Ray family for five generations. When his dad John Ray had been unable to maintain the dairy farm due to a weakened heart, he had sold the dairy farm located five miles west of Pryor, Oklahoma and moved his family into town fearing that he wouldn’t live long. He laste
d one and a half years before his heart attack that took his life leaving his wife Laura to finish raising Nora and Danny.

Danny had vowed that when he became a professional football player he would buy back the farm that he should have inherited. In essence, that’s what he did except the circumstances didn’t turn out the way he had planned.

He hadn’t seen the place since he had left for college five years ago. The house looked about the same except the recent owners had felt some strange inspiration to paint the old clapboards mustard yellow. The back porch was still screened in which Danny decided was a plus for the old house. The back door was mostly used as a front door because the front door was to the side of the house and inconvenient to use.

When his family lived here
, the old cistern supplied the family with water from an old hand cranked pump on the back porch. He wondered if it still did.

According to the real estate person whom he had bought the place from sight unseen, said that not much had been done to the place.  He could tell by looking at the outside of the place, it was probably true. He had been told that the owners had given up on
dairy farming and moved out a year ago. The chicken yard fence had been taken down and the old brooder house were they raised their baby chickens was gone. The fruit trees must have died because they were gone.