Her Port in the Storm – Extended Epilogue

Loren looked out into the distance, watching for the train to arrive. She was excited to meet the new young teacher who would be taking her place with the little ones.

She had taken over as head of the schoolhouse a little over a year ago, when Candace decided to leave town to get married and start her own family.

Loren was excited for her friend. She and Edison had decided when they got married more than two years ago that they would stay in Bridgestone, as it really had become their home together. They wanted to raise their children there and have a big family to add to the Bridgestone population.

They were well on their way to starting their family. Loren was going to have a baby in five months. Though it was early in her pregnancy, she had a feeling it was going to be a boy. She knew that would delight Edison, even though he would have been happy to have either a boy or a girl. He had expressed that much to her.

The heat was becoming a bit much for Loren. The inside of the building was much cooler, as it was made of Adobe. She decided to go back in and talk to her father, who was in charge of selling the train tickets. Although he had experience in mining and there was always a need for miners in Bridgestone, he told Loren and Edison he decided he was too old to be going down in the mines, where the atmosphere was not good and it was a somewhat dangerous environment. Best to leave that to the younger generations, he said.

She pushed the door open and went through, looking around at the several other people in the place. One man was sitting with a newspaper held open in front of his face. She couldn’t see who it was but he was dressed nicely and had his legs crossed to reveal black socks and shiny shoes. He was a businessman, no doubt. Either going out or waiting for someone to come in.

A family of four was seated by the fireplace, which was unlit nine months out of the years. There was simply no need for fires in Bridgestone, Arizona, even when the nighttime desert air came in, which could often be quite cold.

She crossed the room to the ticket counter, which was empty and leaned on it, sticking her head through the opening and looking for her father. He was standing to the right side of her, looking up at a board on the wall where he had written several reminders.

“Psst,” she whispered, smiling. He turned to look and smiled back.

“There’s my beautiful daughter. How are you feeling? Are you okay?”

Loren chuckled softly. “I’m fine, Pa. How are you?”

“Right as rain, as always,” he answered.

She pulled back and leaned on the counter with one elbow when he came over to stand in front of her.

“You know I’m always worried about you, my dear,” Hank said, reaching up to brush the blond hair from his daughter’s forehead. “Especially now. Having a baby is risky.”

“It can be,” Loren replied. “But I am very healthy and I have God on my side. I don’t think I have to worry about a thing. Although…” She placed a concerned expression on her face and dropped her eyes to the counter. Hank lost his smile.

“What is it, dear?”

Loren looked back up at him. “I don’t know what it’s like to have a child and Ma says it’s real painful. I know I’m gonna have my own experience but from what I’ve been told, it’s gonna hurt like the dickens.”

Hank pressed his lips together, pulling in a deep breath through his nose. He lifted his shoulders. “I wish I could tell you otherwise. I do remember when your mother was in labor. They wouldn’t let me in the room and I could hear her from the outside, where I was pacing.”

“Ma says it’s different for everyone but… well, I don’t mind telling you that’s the one thing that scares me. As far as staying alive and having a healthy baby? I’m not worried about that at all.”

Hank nodded, running his hand affectionately down his daughter’s face and cupping her chin briefly. “Good. The less you worry, the less trouble you will have through your pregnancy.”

The word sounded so odd coming from his mouth, Loren had to turn the subject to something else.

“So you are going to Ma’s tonight for dinner, are you?”

“I am,” Hank said, nodding. He leaned to the side and looked around her, causing her to twist and look behind her, as well. She gave him a curious look but he just laughed. “I was just checking to see if anyone else had come in. No one has. The train will be arriving soon. There are quite a few people joining our community. I do believe a dozen men are coming to work in the mines.”

“Oh, my,” Loren said, lifting her eyebrows. “A dozen. That’s a lot. Where will they stay? Is there enough room in the mining camp?”

“I believe they’ve expanded it by quite a few more tents. And several of these men coming have families. Not just one child but several. The schoolhouse is going to get bigger. I know you will appreciate that.”

Loren grinned wide. The thought of having new children joining her school delighted her to no end. She nodded vigorously. “Yes, yes. I’m very happy to hear that. There really aren’t very many children there now. I would love to see more coming in.”

“You know what that means, too, don’t you?” Hank grinned, giving Loren the impression she was missing something important. She tried to think quickly but didn’t know to what her father was referring to.

She lifted her eyebrows, not asking the question verbally.

Hank laughed in a delighted way. “That means your husband will be here any minute. That’s who I was looking for. You know he likes to greet all the new miners. Let them know he won’t tolerate any shenanigans or tomfoolery. You know how he is.”

Loren laughed. “I do. I do know that. And yes, I had forgotten. Well, no, I hadn’t forgotten because I didn’t even know we were getting a lot of new miners. You know that means I’ll be able to meet the children, too.”

The thought sent a shiver of excitement through Loren. Meeting new children was such a blessing to her. She loved her job as a schoolteacher. She wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world. And to be teaching at the schoolhouse she had grown up in was even better. She knew exactly where everything was and knew the best places to go berry picking with her students.

She turned around again and scanned the lobby. Still no sign of Edison.

“How long before the train actually arrives?”

“It should be along any minute,” Hank said. “Did you tell your husband you would be coming to meet the new teacher today?”

Loren lifted her eyebrows in surprise. She had told Edison. She wondered why he hadn’t told her he would be there, too.

“Are you sure a dozen men are coming on this train?” she asked.

Hank nodded. “I got a telegram from Minnesota where they are from. They are definitely on this train. I have no doubt about it.”

Loren looked nonchalant, raising one shoulder. “Well, I suppose he may not have been thinking about this when we discussed me coming here to meet the new girl.”

“And what is this girl’s name and story?” Hank leaned on the counter, crossing his arms in front of her, looking like a child about to be told an exciting bedtime story.

Loren laughed, thinking how funny her father looked like that.

“Her name is Sandra Madison. She is twenty years old and has two years of experience as a teaching assistant.”

“Does she know you won’t be giving up your position for the rest of your natural life?”

Loren laughed, enjoying her father’s sense of humor. “That was actually discussed in our correspondence, if you can believe that. She said she doesn’t want to be a schoolteacher. She enjoys being an assistant and working only half days.”

“Will she be able to survive well with only a half salary? Assistants get off earlier in the day, don’t they?”

Loren nodded, surprised that her father knew anything about the schedule of the schoolhouse. “They do. But apparently, her parents own a huge ranch in South Dakota and she is not wanting for money. She has plenty and only works because she likes to. She has no children of her own and no husband but says she has a great fondness for children. So until she has her own, she’s going to take care of the littlest ones in our schoolhouse. And I will take a month or so off after I have my baby so she is very needed to take over that spot during that time. Someone has to teach the children. They shouldn’t be forced to stay out of school because the good old teacher is having a baby.”

The two of them laughed together.

“And what, might I ask, is so funny?”

Loren spun around to see her husband had snuck up behind them and heard what they were saying.

“Edison!” she said delightedly, throwing her arms around her husband. He returned her hug with a laugh and placed a soft kiss on her waiting lips. “How is my little buttercup?”

“I feel great!”

Edison reached around her, extending his hand to shake his father-in-law’s. “Howdy, Hank. How is the job going?”

“I’ve been here over a year, Sheriff,” Hank said, using a dark tone that the immediate smile after he spoke betrayed. “I love this job. Steady income, peaceful and quiet, except when the train comes rolling in, and humans are walking all around chattering like chickens.”

The three of them laughed.

“I forgot you would be here, my love,” Edison said, turning his eyes to his wife. She felt like she fell in love with him all over again in that instance. Her heart thumped hard and she pressed herself against him, going in for another hug. He laughed and continued, “I’ve got to meet these miners, you know. I don’t even think I had a chance to tell you about it. You sent me that messenger, what two or three hours ago?” He directed the last question to Hank, who nodded.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

The question Loren had been thinking, wondering why Edison didn’t tell her there were miners coming was suddenly answered in her mind.

She pulled back just a little looking up at him. “I hear the mines are getting a dozen new men and I’ll have more children to teach.”

Edison nodded, a pleasant look on his face. “You certainly will. I don’t know how much you heard from ol’ Hank here but more than half of these men have wives and children. We’re adding quite a bit to our local population, should they choose to stay if the mine dries up.”

Loren felt a trace of shock run through her. “Is the mine going to dry up?” she asked breathlessly.

Edison chuckled, cupping her chin the way her father had. He leaned over and gave her another soft kiss on the lips and followed it by one on her forehead.

“No, dear, I doubt it. And that’s just my best guess. I don’t know a thing about mining. I am a lawman. That’s what I know. That’s what I’ve always known and what I’ve always wanted to be. Ever since I saw Wyatt and his brother and Doc taking down the Cowboys.”

Loren watched her husband go into his memory. She had heard the story several times, not just when he recounted it to her but when he told her father, her mother, and every friend they had dinner with.

She didn’t mind. She never tired of his retelling of the story. He was animated and excited, like a little child on Christmas morn. Except instead of opening presents for himself, he considered it to be a present he was opening for others.

“How long till these men get here?” Edison asked, taking out his timepiece and flipping open the top. “Looks like the train is late.”

Hank turned his head to look at the clock on the counter next to him. “It is a little late. But so far it’s only been a minute or two. I don’t think it will be much longer.”

Edison got Loren’s attention, resting one hand on her arm and squeezing gently. “You want to go outside and wait with me? It’s a little warm but it’s cooled off in the last few minutes as the storm clouds are moving in.”

Loren rolled her eyes. “Ugh. The storms. The monsoons. I wish the rain would disperse itself through the year so we didn’t have to watch our water consumption for long periods of time.”

“Come on,” Edison urged her. “Come on out with me.”

Loren grinned, unable to resist her husband. “Of course I’ll come sit with you. Just don’t cuddle up with me. That will be way too much warmth.”

“You don’t want everyone under the sun seeing that anyway,” Hank quipped from behind the counter. “You have a house where you can do that. I know because I helped you build it.”

Edison and Loren laughed, gave him see-you-later waves, and headed toward the door.

“I’ll bet you are very excited about these new children, aren’t you?” Edison said, holding the door open for her to pass through first. She crossed in front of him, giving him a big smile.

“I sure am. Very, very much. I didn’t even know about it. And you realize that these children have been traveling this whole way with a teacher they will be taught by, too!”

Edison chuckled. “How convenient. You can introduce them all. The other kids in the school will be jealous that these have met her and you first.”

“Well, maybe her. I am commonplace now.”

They both laughed heartily, drawing the attention of the man with the newspaper, who had come outside with it tucked under his arm in anticipation of the train arriving soon. He smiled at them and they smiled back.

Edison looked down at his wife. “Do you know who that is?”

Loren shook her head, actively avoiding looking at the man again, not wanting to be rude. Edison leaned close to her and said in an even lower voice than the first time. “That man is from New York. He buys up land and develops it into something much, much better, and bigger. He’s put in irrigation systems and practically started towns of his own all between here and New York state.”

Loren was impressed. She leaned forward slightly, unable to avoid looking at the man again. To her utter embarrassment, he hadn’t taken his eyes from them and saw her looking. His immediate smile stretched from one ear to the other. He took the folded newspaper from under his arm and used it to salute Loren.

She giggled and stood up straight, her eyes on her husband.

“He seems very nice,” she said. “Is he staying here?”

“He bought the old Cooper place. I don’t know if he plans to live there or not but he checks out as one of the nicest, richest men I’ve ever met.”

Loren’s eyebrow shot up. “So you’ve already met him?”

Edison gave her a sarcastic look. “Loren, my dear, you know I meet everyone I can who plans to come to Bridgestone to make deals, make money, or start a family. You should know that after almost three years.”

Loren laughed at herself. He was right. She knew Edison was frequently at the train station, having been made aware that new people were coming to their town. If they weren’t planning to stay, Edison didn’t make it so much of a point. But if they weren’t just passing through in less than a day or two, he made sure to meet them. This was common knowledge and something a good wife should remember.

She chided herself gently and then laughed at herself again.

“I think I hear it. Do you hear it?”

They both took steps toward the end of the platform at the same time, looking as far down the tracks as they could.

“Do you see it?” Loren asked.

“I don’t but I do hear it. It’s definitely coming.”

Loren felt a jolt of anticipation and excitement. She clapped her hands together softly and hopped in place, just a little bit.

“You are such a silly woman, Lori,” Edison said through his laughter. “I really adore you so much.”

Loren pretended to sulk. “You think I’m silly? Like a child?”

“Like a beautiful woman that’s just silly,” he retorted, mocking admonition.

They both laughed.

“Well, I hope you like this silly woman a lot,” Loren said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

It was Edison’s turn to lift his eyebrows and give her a look of surprise. “No one said anything about you going anywhere. Till death do us part is in those vows and you better not be going to Heaven anytime soon. You’re my woman. I need you to give me lots of beautiful children, just like their mother.”

“I would hope that some of them, especially the boys, take after you. I can’t imagine having a little girl as tall and muscular as you are.”

They laughed together once again.

Loren was happy. She knew her husband was equally happy.

She was looking forward to a very long and successful life with the man she loved more than anything on earth. She had her husband. She had her father, back from the “grave.” She had a loving, confident mother.

Loren was blessed.

THE END

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