Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (13 page)

Another man arrived and gathered up the driver in his arms to comfort him. There appeared very little the police could do. It obviously had been a gross unintentional accident.

In the late afternoon, Eve finally managed to get back to her desk to write her story. She needed to submit it by five in order for it to be in the next
morning’s paper. First she took a few minutes to lay her head across her arms to quiet the pain she felt for the family who lost their sons due to a stupid negligent accident which should have been avoided.

The scene replayed itself over and over in her mind about the father who rolled on the asphalt overcome with grief due to the death of his two sons. Eve
balled her fists and wanted to rail at the man for not realizing that his sons were in danger. How could he have not known that there wasn’t enough room?

She raised her head from her desk and placed her finger tips over her eyes to wipe away the tears.
Leaning against her elbows on her desk she pitied the man who would live the rest of his years knowing that he drove the truck during the accident which killed his sons. God forbid that his wife hold that against him!

She went to get a cup of coffee. Somehow she had to clear her head enough to write this story.

At five minutes until five Eve walked into Mr. Green’s office to hand him the story of the accident along with the pictures she had taken at the scene. He had intended to brag on her article about Danny but seeing the grief on her face, he simple accepted her accident article and handed her Danny’s article and nodded his approval. Not a word was exchanged; she accepted the papers and left the room. She packed her briefcase and left for home.

She entered her quiet apartment and turned on the record player to some soft music to sooth her soul. She had never missed having someone to come home to before. She thought about calling her mother, but why
depress her? She went to her bed and placed a pillow to her stomach and curled up. Soon she drifted off to sleep.

In an hour she awoke to her stomach reminding her that she never
ate lunch today. She walked into her kitchen knowing there was nothing prepared in her refrigerator. Either she would have to cook or go buy something. She acknowledged to herself that although she felt hungry, the foremost thing she wanted was Danny’s arms around her again. She grabbed her briefcase, jacket, and purse and headed out the door.

She arrived at Danny’s door carrying a bucket of KFC along with sides. When he opened the door the aroma of fried chicken assaulted his senses, he pulled Eve into the warm room and collected her into his arms.
She stood there with her arms outspread holding a bag in each hand but she savored the embrace to her core.

When he stepped back and looked into her eyes he could see the grief written there and realized her face was not made up as usual. “What has happened?” he asked taking the parcels from her hands and leading her into the kitchen to sit them on the table.

“There was an accident today at the underpass north of town. It was awful.” She had worked lots of accidents but never one so sorrowful. This one had really touched her.

“You had to work it?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He took her by the hand and led her to the couch where he sat her on his lap and gathered her into his arms again.

She placed her hands on each side of his face and kissed him. After an hour of lovemaking and talking they went into the kitchen to ravenously eat their fill of chicken. She spent the night with Danny on his twin bed. He was a big man but by snuggling close and half on top of him she felt comfortably rested the next morning at six when he awoke to feed his animals. She rolled off the bed and pulled her clothes on. She just had time to rush to her apartment and shower before work. She kissed him lovingly and left quickly.

She walked into Mr. Green’s office feeling refreshed with a smile on her face.
She handed him Danny’s article with Danny’s signature of approval on it. “He liked it,” she added.

“Good,” he replied. “I’ll get this submitted for Thursday’s paper.” As she was leaving for her office, just for fun, he added, “By the way, Eve, I’m glad you got some……rest.” He finally added.

Her eyes squinted at him and she shut his door behind her which he preferred it left open. She wasn’t really angry at the nosy old man, but goodness! She thought, does it show that much? She could hear him chuckling behind the door.

When you work as closely together as the two of them, sometimes too much personal information bleeds into the relationship. She knew he only looked at her as a daughter figure. He had mentored and helped her so much it was hard to not appreciate him
in that capacity.

Thursday afternoon when Eve left the office for the day she picked up a complimentary copy of the paper and headed out to Danny’s house.
She wanted him to see her article about him. His picture prominently displayed above his story reminded all the locals who read the story who the hero was.

After seeing the story in the newspaper, Danny called his mom, Nora, Art still at work, and Aaron’s family. Eve sat back and watched him feeling proud that she made him happy.

“Danny, let’s celebrate.” She encouraged, “You take care of your animals and I’ll go home and change clothes. Would you like to go somewhere nice to eat?”

“Sure, I’m always ready to eat,” he leaned down to kiss her, “especially with you.” He breathed in her fragrance and promised to meet her at her apartment.

As he left the farm in his pickup he passed Angela coming home from work with Ted in the passenger seat. He stuck his arm out his rolled down window and waved at them. They both waved back. Danny felt a little twinge of conscience knowing that he was meeting Eve, but this was just a congratulatory dinner after all. If this kept up he knew that he would have to break it off with Angela. It was something he would have to think about some more.

In retrospect, he should have told Eve that he was seeing someone but Angela was out of town and the feelings that he felt for Eve sort of swept him up like a storm. That’s not much of an excuse but he needed to examine his feelings and make some decisions. He wasn’t sure whether Eve took their relationship seriously.
On the other hand Angela and he had not spoken to each other about a committed relationship either.

By Saturday, Danny felt like he needed to hire a person to answer his phone. It rang incessantly by well-wishers and fans who he never knew he had. To top it off the
Tulsa World
had a copy of the story and wanted to interview him. Danny was flattered by all the attention in spite of the annoyance of it all.

By the middle of next week Danny met with a reporter for an interview for the
Tulsa World
.

Mr. Green secretly tipped of
f a biographer that he knew by sending a copy of Eve’s human interest story to him. A man by the name of Roger Sinclair contacted Danny for exclusive rights to his biography.

Danny’s head was in a spin. He had no idea anyone would be interested in him or his story. A month ago the only thing he had on his mind was to
build his new house and get his ranch running before he ran out of money. It was still a big concern but now he had this man offering to pay him an advancement of money for rights to his biography.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The
last week in November the mayor of Pryor, Stewart J. Robertson,         called to tell him that the Pryor council had voted to have a day to honor him. They wanted to make it an all-day affair at the Pryor Banquet Hall. They would sell booths for people to set up crafts, and offer a barbeque dinner provided by the Amish community for people to buy. At four in the afternoon they would have a ceremony in which to give Danny an honorary plaque from the city of Pryor and a key to the city. They set the date to the first Saturday in December. They wanted to combine it with the Christmas parade in the evening at six as a big send off for the Christmas shopping season. What he didn’t tell Danny was that the rest of the program was already set up; they just decided to include him into the celebration.

It rained all night, Pryor had received over an inch of rain according to the tiny gauge that Eve had mounted on the post on her tiny balcony. It was still overcast and drizzly outside but she needed to release some pent up energy. After pulling on some sweats and tennis shoes, she bounced down the stairs leading up to her apartment and began jogging down Elliott Street. She cut across the street onto 17
th
street to avoid the extra traffic.

Eve had also been in the limelight
because of the article. Now she also was in a quandary. Several large newspapers had recognized her writing and hinted at offers for her to apply at their newspapers. A month ago before she met Danny, this was her dream. All she wanted was for her work to be recognized so she could move to a larger publication. As circumstances stood now, she figured that she could easily take over Mr. Green’s position someday.

She turned down Vann Street and headed north.
Not long ago, it looked very possible until he rallied from his throat cancer. Now maybe he would live to be a ripe old age of eighty and sit in the editor-in-chief’s chair until then.

Eve
studied upon the situation. She needed to take the opportunity that presented itself which she had struggled for years to achieve but would Danny be willing to have a long distance relationship. He was the first person in a long time that actually tempted her to consider a long relationship.

She crossed Ninth Street and continued north.  As she thought about it, her relationship with Danny was very new. Maybe it would last and maybe not. Could she afford to miss the opportunity of a lifetime to work for one of these prestigious newspapers?

It started to
sprinkle lightly when she reached Park Street. She turned east toward the park. She didn’t care if she got a little damp from the rain as long as she didn’t get saturated to the bone. She reached the park shelter just in time when she saw the lightening flash and then the big boom from the thunder. Then it started raining heavily. She sat down on the bench by the park table and popped a piece of gum in her mouth.

It was her day off,
so she sat back and enjoyed watching the rain come down until she began to shiver. It wasn’t a cold day, but she needed to keep warm. More exercise seemed to be the only answer she could think of in this situation. How many times, she thought had she gotten herself into situations where the only answer had been to rely on her own resources to get herself out?

Was that her answer? She jogged the mile back to her apartment south on Elliott. She had always been self-sufficient. Could she start depending on other people at this time to provide her needs and happiness? Finally, she felt that she had the answer.

Angela
popped open the umbrella outside her parents back door. She walked quickly toward the barn careful to walk on the stepping stone in the path to avoid the mud puddles along the way. Danny hadn’t called since she came back from Kansas City. Before she left they always got together on the weekends for a movie or the dance or whatever else seemed fun at the time.

She opened the creaky old barn door and closed her umbrella. Tammy neighed from her stall. She kittens gathered around her feet so she picked up the only two remaining kittens from the litter. They purred in her arms and lovingly rubbed their faces against her hand. She brought the kittens up and held them against her cheeks. “I know, I love you, too,” she cooed to them.

They scampered off when she sat them back down. She walked over to Tammy and picked up the curry comb. “How’s my old loveable mare this morning?”

Tammy nudged her with her nose, impatient for her back scratch.
Angela laughed and patted her face between her eyes, “You are such a baby.” Tears sprang to her eyes as she curried the old mare. This was one of her favorite chores when she needed to think. Today was no exception.

She knew that
Danny was very busy with his new fame, but she puzzled in her mind that if he loved her, surely he would want to share his experience with her. It seemed to her that the only time she saw him anymore was when she made the overture to visit him.

She had received her portfolio of pictures last week but hesitated to send them off. She knew that if she got a job away from home probably her relationship with Danny would be completely over. Maybe, she conjectured, it would only be the difference of a trace of moisture next to something totally dried up.

Leaving home was a big decision; a tear trickled down her cheek. Leaving home meant leaving all the things she loved and starting her life totally in a new direction, at least temporarily. She wondered what she would miss most. Danny? Her parents? The animals? Her dream of her own business?

That night she addressed the brown manila envelope
s to be sent off on her way to work the next morning. It was time to try her wings. Maybe it wasn’t meant for her to run her own business; for sure she couldn’t without more capital.

The next morning Angela showed her mother Aimee what she had in her hand. “I think it’s time to try something new. I promise one way or the other I will repay Dad for his expense in building the greenhouse for me.” Angela kis
sed her mother and hugged her, “
If
I get a modeling job I promise.”