Whispers in the Wind (2 page)

Then he flipped back to the front of the book and looked at the first page. “Mm-hmm. Just as the paper said, the contributing authors went back and began in 200
B.C
. and have brought it up to today.”

At that point, Fay noted the price where it was penciled on the inside of the cover. She looked up at her husband, a small frown marring her pretty face. “Twelve dollars, honey,” she said in an undertone. “The newspaper didn’t tell us the price. I—I’ve only got seven dollars saved up. Can we afford twelve dollars?”

Craig smiled. “Yes, sweetheart. I’ve been saving up, too. Let’s use my nine dollars, and three of yours. This is going to be the best birthday surprise Dane has ever had. He’s going to love it.”

“He sure will!” said Fay, her eyes sparkling as she reached into her coat pocket, drew out a worn envelope, and handed it to him. “We want to do all we can to encourage and support him. Let’s go buy it.”

Craig opened the envelope and extracted three one-dollar bills.

“We can use all of my savings, honey,” she said softly.

Craig shook his head and handed the envelope back. “That’s all right. You keep the rest of it.” A wide grin split his face and he added, “You have really been cutting some corners from your household and grocery money, love, to save this much!”

She giggled. “Well, you’d be surprised at what can be done when a woman sets her heart and mind to it!”

Craig reached into his pocket and brought out his own tattered envelope. He took out the nine one-dollar bills and placed her three with them.

Fay’s dark eyes shone with happy tears. “Oh, Dane’s going to be so thrilled with this book! He will probably have his head buried in it for weeks and months to come. What a very special birthday he is going to have!”

Craig smiled. “That’s for sure!”

Fay gave him an impish look.

He looked at her skeptically. “Yes, honey?”

“You know what I’d like to do with some of this money I have left?”

“What?”

“Well, we don’t get to eat out very often. And since Dane’s eating with the Baxters this evening, how about we walk the half-block down to the Twenty-Third Street Café and have supper when we leave here?”

“Well, why not?” He shook his head and frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. I just have to marvel at how you were able to save such an amount of money on the small bit I can give you each week.”

Fay smiled and wrinkled her nose. “Oh, you know the old saying: ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’”

Craig tweaked her nose, grinning. “Well, my love, let’s go pay for this book and head for the café.”

She took hold of his arm, and as they headed for the front of the store, Fay called to Diane and Ronnie, who were still at the children’s book section. “Come on, children. We found the book. Let’s go.”

Diane and Ronnie hurried and caught up with their parents, both happy to hear that their parents had found the book they wanted to give their big brother for his birthday.

When they drew up to the counter, Frank Chadwick was just finishing with his last customer, except for the Westons. When the man walked away, clutching a paper bag, Chadwick smiled.
“Hello, Weston family. Where’s Dane?”

“He’s spending the evening with one of his friends in the neighborhood,” Craig advised him. “We worked this out so we could come in here and buy this book for him. His birthday is next Tuesday, April 25.”

Chadwick eyed the thick book as Craig laid it on the counter. “Ah, yes.
The History of Medicine
. He will love it. I’ve sold you several books on medicine for him, but this is the best yet. It will give him insight on medicine all the way back to 200
B.C
.”

Craig nodded. “When we saw the advertisement on this book in the
New York Times
a few weeks ago, and that it covered such a tremendous span of time, Fay and I agreed that no matter what it cost, we would find a way to buy it for Dane and give it to him for his birthday.”

Chadwick smiled. “You two should be very proud of that boy.”

“We are indeed very proud of him, Mr. Chadwick.”

“Yes,” put in Fay. “Ever since Dane had scarlet fever when he was ten and had to be hospitalized with it, he has been fascinated with medicine, doctors, nurses, and hospitals. From that time on, he has had one ambition: to become a medical doctor and a surgeon.”

“We have no idea how we’re going to pay for his medical education,” said Craig, “but since he’s just turning fifteen, we still have time to figure it out. We’ll work something out, I can tell you that for sure.”

“I have no doubt of that,” said Chadwick as he placed the book into a paper bag.

Craig paid him, and as he picked up the paper bag, Chadwick said, “I’d like to know how Dane likes the book.”

Fay smiled. “We’ll have Dane come in and tell you himself.”

“Good!”

Chadwick followed the Westons to the door, and since it was closing time, when they moved outside, he locked the door behind
them and put the
closed
sign in the window.

The cold rain was still coming down as the happy foursome made their way down the street, with both Craig and Fay carrying umbrellas. Ronnie was walking close to his mother, and Diane was under her father’s umbrella.

“I’m so excited!” said Diane. “Dane is going to love that book!”

“Yeah!” said Ronnie. “I can’t wait to see his face at his birthday party when he opens that present!”

Suddenly it dawned on Diane that they were going the opposite direction than they would in order to go home. “Papa, how come we’re going this way?”

Ronnie’s eyes widened. “Oh. Yeah! How come?”

“We’re going to eat supper down here at the café!” said Fay.

Both children let out a squeal, and soon they had covered the half-block, and turned into the Twenty-Third Street Café, their spirits high.

Warm air and delicious aromas greeted them, and immediately everybody in the family was hungry. They chose a table in the corner next to the large rain-streaked window that overlooked the street. A waitress approached them and took their orders.

While they were waiting for their food, they talked about Dane’s upcoming birthday party. Fay told the others that she had been able to secretly contact Dane’s five closest friends from school: Todd Baxter, Henry Wilson, Willie Thornton, Becky Simpson, and Matilda Andrews. They all planned to be at the party.

“That’s great!” exclaimed Diane. “Dane’s going to be so surprised. I’m so glad that he and Todd are best friends. Todd is such a nice boy.”

Ronnie giggled and looked at his sister. “Todd’s a nice boy, all right, and you’re in love with him!”

Diane blushed. “Oh, Ronnie, I’m not in love with him. I just think he’s a nice boy.”

Fay smiled. “Ronnie, Diane is too young to be in love.”

“That’s for sure.” A sly grin curved Craig’s lips as he looked at his daughter. “She won’t be old enough to fall in love and get married until she’s forty-five. Until then, she will stay home with her papa!”

They all had a good laugh, and at that moment the waitress arrived with their food.

At the Baxter home, where there were four children, including Dane Weston’s friend, Todd, everyone was enjoying the meal prepared by Mona Baxter and her daughters, Letha, Angie, and Tippy, who were twelve, ten, and eight.

While they were eating, Dane and Todd were talking about school things. Todd snickered and gave his friend a teasing look. “If you don’t keep your grades up for the next three years, ol’ pal, you’ll never qualify to enter medical school.”

Dane knew his friend was teasing him. He set his dark-brown eyes on him and made a face.

Mona said, “Todd, wouldn’t it be marvelous if you had such good grades? I happen to know that Dane is a straight-A student. His mother told me so.”

Todd laughed. “I know it, Mama. I was just giving my pal a hard time.”

Dolph Baxter frowned playfully at his son. “Tell you what, Todd. If you don’t get your grades to look more like Dane’s, I’m going to give
you
a hard time!”

“Yes, sir,” said Todd. “I promise to do better, Papa.”

Dolph chuckled. “I’m not really complaining, son. Sure, I’d like to see you getting A’s, but at least you’re not giving your mother and me the kind of heartaches that these boys in the teenage gangs are giving
their
parents. We’re thankful for that.”

“That’s for sure,” said Mona. “You said something about the gangs when you were reading the newspaper this afternoon, dear, but I was passing by your chair on my way to answer the door
when that salesman was here, and didn’t get to ask you what was in the paper about them.”

Dolph shook his head in disgust. “The front page of the
New York Herald
was loaded with it, as well as two articles inside. Those gangs are getting bolder and meaner all the time. They are robbing, beating, and killing people in the five New York boroughs every day. The front-page article declared that the mayors in all five boroughs are working with the police chiefs on a plan to crack down on the gangs, as well as other criminals, and make the streets of New York safer. Governor Halstead has offered his complete backing of the plan.”

“So what is the plan?”

Dolph had everyone’s attention. “The plan is to hire more policemen in all five boroughs so that those officers who walk beats or ride the streets on horseback will each have a partner. There will be no more officers walking or riding by themselves. In the past month just here in Manhattan, three officers working alone have been killed and seven have been seriously injured. The other boroughs have had similar incidents.”

“So when are they going to put the plan into action, Mr. Baxter?” asked Dane.

“It already is. The police departments of all five boroughs already have hundreds of new men in training. They will be ready for duty in a matter of weeks, and then the streets will be safer.”

Dolph, Mona, and the boys discussed the citizens who had been beaten and robbed in their own neighborhood in the past few weeks, and stories they had heard about the orphans who lived in the alleys and on the streets of downtown Manhattan who had been attacked and beaten by the teenage gangs. Dolph pointed out that Governor Merle Halstead had announced there were going to be stiffer penalties for the gang members and any other criminals who were caught and sentenced.

Mona sighed. “It’s bad enough to have this kind of crime on
New York’s streets to endanger its citizens, but at least most of them have homes where they can go at night and lock their doors. But I so often think of those poor orphan children who live in the alleys and on the streets who have no such protection. Not only are many orphans starving to death year-round and freezing to death in the winter months, but they are vulnerable to the gangs at all times.”

“Yes,” said Dolph. “It’s a pitiful shame. I wish there were more orphanages in this city. Every one of them is already overcrowded. Craig Weston and I have talked about it. We both wish we had a giant-sized orphanage where we could give all of the orphans homes. But with what little money we make being janitors, it is all we can do to keep a roof over the heads of our families, clothes on their bodies, and food on the tables.”

Mona drained her coffee cup and set it down. “Fay and I have talked about this orphan problem several times. We have the same wish. That’s why I so much appreciate the Children’s Aid Society. They send so many of those poor orphans out West on the orphan trains. This orphan problem would be much greater than it is if it wasn’t for Charles Loring Brace and his staff.”

“Right. Brace has done a marvelous thing with those orphan trains. At least those children who have been transported out West are off the dangerous streets of New York and for the most part, according to the newspapers, in good foster homes on farms and ranches.” Dolph paused and chuckled. “Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind being one of those fortunate orphans myself. I’ve always wanted to go out West and see the great wide open country where the air is fresh and clean—not like the smelly, putrid air here in the big city.”

Mona touched fingertips to her temple. “That reminds me. Dolph, did you see that article in the
Herald
last week about the orphan trains and the song the orphans sing while they’re on the trains, heading west?”

“No. I missed that one.”

“I’d like you to hear the words of that little song. That copy of the
Herald
is still in the cupboard, waiting to be used as shelf paper. I’ll go get it. I’d like for all of you to hear it.”

As Mona spoke, she pushed her chair back, but before she could rise, Todd jumped up. “I’ll get it for you, Mama. What’s the date on it?”

Mona eased back on the chair. “It was exactly a week ago. Thursday, April 6. You know where the stack of papers is—in the left section of the cupboard, bottom shelf.”

“Uh-huh.”

Todd dashed to the cupboard, and after sifting through the newspapers briefly, he returned with the previous Thursday’s edition of the paper. He handed it to his mother.

Mona thanked him and began flipping pages. “Yes. Here it is. The article says the song was made up by one of the ladies who travels as a sponsor with the girls in their coaches on the orphan trains. Both the boys and the girls learn the song while they are on the train and sing it often while traveling west. Talk about the difference between the big city and the wide open spaces. Listen to this:

Dane chuckled. “Hey, Mrs. Baxter, I really like that! If I didn’t have such a good home with my wonderful parents and sister and brother, I wouldn’t mind going out there on the western frontier where the fragrant breezes sigh myself! When those fragrant breezes sigh to the orphans out there, maybe each one hears whispers in the wind, welcoming them to a new and wonderful life.”

Mona smiled. “Whispers in the wind welcoming them. That’s good. Yes, from what I’ve read, I think they do, Dane. I think they do.”