Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (23 page)

“Yes, Ma’am.
We went to college together.”

“Teresa has given me a recommendation for you, but would you tell me about yourself?”

By the end of the day, Angela had been shuffled around to so many people that she hoped she remembered all their names. She was given some scripts and asked to memorize them. On Monday morning she needed to return to audition for the parts. Wow! She thought. She had parts for commercials and soaps. She knew that AFFINITY handled the auditions for these but hadn’t seriously considered herself as a candidate. She thought her strength lay in being tall and slim which worked for her benefit in being a model.

Angela didn’t intend to be picky. Wherever they placed her, at least she would have a job. Right now, a job was a job. Any paycheck that could cover her expenses would be welcome. Maybe she could be
particular later.

Driving back to the apartment she picked up a chicken to bake and more salad greens. She craved
a nice lasagna with lots of cheese and French bread slathered in butter and garlic. She could always add a little garlic to the chicken and pretend.

When she walked by Sam, the doorman, she always stopped to visit with him for a minute. Not only was he a nice man but it amused her to watch his mustache wiggle as he talked. She found out that he had a wife and four small children, a huge mortgage and two da
chshund dogs.

Monday morning arrived and Angela crawled out of bed early and stepped into the shower. She wanted to fit the part so she went through Teresa’s clothes and picked out what she hoped were the appropriate clothing for each part. The parts had been easy for Angela to learn so she went through several different approaches that she thought might work for them.
Before she auditioned for each part she talked to them for a few minutes to get a sense of what she thought they wanted. She easily slid into character and performed her best hoping that she read them right.

At the end of the day, she waited hopefully to hear if she earned the contract but was told to go home and wait for a call. Somewhat discouraged she went home and wished she could curry Tammy and hold her kittens. Instead she called her mother and told her all the news.

CHAPTER TWENTY
SIX

According to Aimee, a ten inch snow had fallen in Oklahoma during the first week of January. Power outages and frozen water pipes had crippled most of northeastern Oklahoma and parts of Arkansas and Kansas. Fortunately, the rural water in the area survived the blizzard’s assault but the people who lived in mobile homes were hurting unless they had the foresight to surround their homes with a well-insulated skirting.

Aimee reported that the power company had told them that they would be without electricity for possibly two weeks before they could get around to everybody. They had gas heating but were using candles and gas lamps to see at night in the house. At times like this most people tended to go to bed early to keep warm and save the hassle of dealing with the gas lights.

For the first time Angela was glad she wasn’t in Oklahoma. A fleeting thought ran across her mind wondering how Danny was faring alone on his farm, but pushed the thought aside. Danny wasn’t her problem.

Danny was as warm as a bug in a rug. He pulled his twin bed into the living room to sleep next to the big wood heater. He kept his calves in the hay barn for the duration of the snow. He
opened up access for his pigs into the milk room of the barn. His hens were safely tucked into their room. He bundled up in his heaviest coat and went out in his high topped leather boots and tended to them twice a day.

In Oklahoma, the snow might be melted in two days or maybe last for a week or two, but the electricity damage could last for however long it took the
power company to correct all the problems.

Danny took it all in stride and didn’t worry overly much. Most of the problems didn’t come from the snow anyway; it came
from the sleet or the melted snow refreezing over the highways night after night causing black ice. Usually on the first big snow of the year, there were a lot of wrecks from people sliding off in the ditches, but after that Oklahomans usually got the ‘ah-ha’ lesson to slow down and take it more seriously.

After a week of being snowbound Danny went to the Dodd’s house to see how they fared during the snow storm.
“Come right in out of the snow before you freeze your toes off,” Greg called out holding the door open.

“Thank you, Sir. I’ll do that. How are all of you doing?” Danny asked pulling off his hat and coat.

“We’re all fine, toasty and warm,” Greg answered taking Danny’s coat.

“I see that. How are you, Aimee?”

“I’m fine.” She laughed, “We’re having a lot of early nights.” She went in the kitchen and brought him a cup of steaming coffee. “Here, this will warm your bones.”

“Ah. Thank you.”

“You know, you don’t have to stay down there in that house alone. You could come over here,” Aimee offered.

“I appreciate that. I may take you up on that offer.” Danny set his coffee cup down and went to the front door to retrieve a roll of paper that he had sat down by the front door. “I brought my house plan over to show you. I want Angela’s opinion; she always thinks of something that I need to adjust.”

Aimee and Greg stopped and regarded each other. A full minute passed while Danny looked from one to the other wondering what he said wrong.

Finally, Greg hesitantly spoke, “Angela’s not here.”

“She went to Los Angeles.” Aimee added.

Danny stood frowning in confusion. “She never told me she was leaving,” he managed to utter.

“Danny,” Aimee slowly said as talking to a child. “You went to New York.”

Finally, the light began to come on in Danny’s eyes. He sat down at the table. “I’m sorry.”
  After a couple of minutes he rolled up his house plan and said, “I need to go home.”

“You don’t have to go home on our account,” Gregg spoke up.

“You’ve been better to me than I deserve,” he replied, giving them both a hug. “I need to go home and do some thinking.”

As soon as the snow abated and the electricity was restored, Roger Sinclair, the biographer and Danny spent the next two months getting the book underway.

Angela called home announcing that she had won the contract to star in two commercials. From her contact in the agency, she had been told that she was being considered for a guest part in
a soap. At this point that’s all she had been told.

By the end of March, bulldozers, backhoes, and chain saws buzzed as they busily cleared the land for the new house and built Danny’s new road. As soon as the pad for the new house had been leveled, a new set of construction workers set in. Concrete finishers, plumbers, air conditioning, and electrician contractors swarmed the place for days. Soon the lumber yard delivered several loads of lumber and the builders got in earnest and the house began to take shape.

Along with shuffling all the contractors, Danny bred his hogs, sold his steers, and bought forty more head of Hereford calves to build his herd. His hens were laying ten eggs every
day. He ate more eggs than he ever wanted until he got wise enough to start giving them to everybody else. Frisker had a full time job trying to observe and approve of all the workers that came on the farm.

Danny stood at the lumber yard sorting through all the colors of paint. He scratched his head wishing Angela was there to tell him which color of paint to buy.
Yes, he realized as he scratched his head, he was out of his league, he definitely needed help. Since Angela wasn’t available, it was time to consult his mom.

He went by the feed store and bought a pickup load of feed for his livestock, and then bought a loaf of bread and some more milk for him and the cats. He just got the milk put in the refrigerator when the phone rang. It was Lisa, the phone call he had been dreading ever since he came home from New York.

“Hi, Danny,” she greeted him. “I’ve been waiting for a phone call from you. I finally decided to call myself. How are you?”

“I’m good,” he replied. “I’ve been building my house.”

After a pause, she slowly said, “So you aren’t making plans to move to New York?”

“No, Lisa,” Danny wished he could make this easy for her. “Your father made a wonderful offer but I can’t live like that.”

“I don’t understand, Danny. Everything! All of New York would be at your fingertips. We could be married and have a great life. Don’t you understand? I love you, Danny.”

“
Lisa, I have always loved you from the moment that I first saw you. Would you consider moving to Oklahoma and living on my ranch? I am building my new house and I have a good herd started.”

He
heard her catch a sob, and could tell she was speaking with a tear filled voice when she said, “I belong in New York. If you had continued to play professional football, I would have followed you anywhere, but, Danny, I could never be happy living on that farm. I’m sorry. I will never be a farmer’s wife.”

“Goodbye, Lisa.”

He shook his head, and rubbed his hands over his face. That call had gone just as badly as he expected it would. He remembered that he thought he had lost Lisa after the accident. She hadn’t called or come around for so long. She didn’t return his calls after he lost his pro football status. He had been surprised and flattered when she had contacted him again just after Christmas.

He mulled it over in his mind. She didn’t love him enough to be a farmer’s wife. He didn’t love her enough to move to New York. The last thing he wanted to do
, no matter how sweet the deal, was to become their puppet. He would earn his own way on his own steam, and live with the consequences.

Surprisingly enough,
he thought, he and Lisa had loved one another and they had been good together. Their lives were too different and their love wasn’t enough to bridge the gap.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

Nora, Danny’s older sister and Jeremy, her husband, along with
Lauren, Laura and Uncle Art came to see the construction of Danny’s new house after the plea he made to his mom for help. He took them out to see the construction and explained the process of what they were seeing. The shingles had been laid, the windows were in place, and the brick partially lain.

Danny explained why he relocated the house
and why he moved the driveway. He took them on a tour of the house and heard their comments. All of them watched out for Lauren, hoping she didn’t step on a nail or something.

Laura commented, “It looks like you have a handle on everything, what could you possible need from us?”

Danny wrinkled his face and confessed, “I need a woman’s touch.”

All of them laughed at him, “So you finally confess that a woman is important?” Nora teased.

Danny put up his hands and laughed, “Hey, did you ever hear me say that a woman is not important?”

Laura sobered a little and asked, “Who is the woman, Danny? Is it the one from New York?” A question she had wanted to ask for a long time but refused to ask until now.

Danny ducked his head and leaned against a stud. He understood her curiosity and answered, “No, Mom. Lisa is finally out of my life for good.”

After waiting a moment, he added,
“Angela is the only woman I am interested in. I plan to finish this house for her.”

Laura glanced at the others and nodded her head in approval, “A good choice, Son. I’ll pray for your success.”

“Thanks, Mom.” He gave her a hug. I’ve always been able to depend on you.”

By this time Nora and Laura were both wiping tears. Lauren put her arms around Danny’s waist and hugged him. “Thanks, Cookie.”

“Okay, now that we got through that,” Danny breathed a deep sigh and smiled regaining his usually happy attitude. “What I need from you,” Danny put his arm across his mother’s shoulder and led her to the kitchen.

Nora spoke up, “Danny, count me in. Would you let me help Mom pick out paint
, and help decorate the inside? We took off work for a week, so we’ll be here to help, too. That is, if you want our help.”

“Of course, Sis
, Danny said. “All of you, I can use all the help I can get, the more the better.” He was getting excited that most of the interior decisions would not be left up to him.

Art asked, “What about cabinets, Son. Are you building custom cabinets?”

“Do you have any advice?”

Jeremy drifted outside looking at the lay of the land. Soon the bricks would be completed and the yard would be ready to level. He walked around to the back of the house where the old house needed to be removed and thought about building a patio against the
wide back porch. With the old house removed he would plant an elm tree for shade and plant flowers and shrubs to enhance the view. A sprinkler system needs to be installed for easy watering.

He walked back in where Art and Danny were still discussing
cabinets in the bathrooms and kitchen and asked, “Danny, would you let me landscape your yard for you?”