Chapter 1
1874
Nicholas Jessabee gripped his chair tightly until his knuckles were sore and white from his hold on the train seat he sat in. He bit his lip until it bled and curled his toes in his shoes. He could barely breath out of nervousness and the little breath he did get was filled with the smoke from the cigar that the man across from him in the train puffed like a chimney. The man leaned over and tapped Nicholas on the knee and he jumped so high he came very close to knocking his head against the ceiling of the train. The man chuckled as he took another big puff of his cigar. “What’s a matter sonny? You got a crocodile under your backside?” He asked as he puffed his cigar once again. He laughed heartily then and his big potbelly jiggled as he breathed in and out. Nicholas managed a smile but as much as he wanted not to be nervous, the flock of butterflies that consumed his stomach would not let him forget it. It had been eight years since he had seen her. Eight years since she had gripped his hand and told him how much she loved him. It had been eight years since he promised to write her every week until they were reunited. Eight years since he had been drafted into the United States armed forces. Eight years since he held her in his arms and promised to love her forever. Eight long, lonely, painful years it had been. It was true that he had the opportunity to come back many times but couldn’t make himself do it.
He had been in the combat zone for only two weeks before he was shot in the back by a fellow soldier. It took him nearly a year to recover physically, but it took 3 years to get over his amnesia. By then, it was too late, she would have found a nice looking young man and they had probably gotten married and had a child by the time he was well enough to travel home. But he never forgot her, even after eight years, she still consumed his thoughts daily.
Now here he was, on a train back home to Hart, Texas to see her. He had to know, he had to be sure, and until he was, he couldn’t live peacefully or move on with his life. The usher walked by, calling “Next destination, Hart! All riders unloading at Hart please walk to the middle car.” Nicholas’ heart found its way into his stomach and down the back of his legs as he had to meander to the center car of this train that had brought him home for the first time in eight, long years…
There it was, almost exactly the same as it had been so many years ago. There was a new building here and there, new paint on a couple buildings but in all, it was still the same old town he remembered. But now all he could think about was her. People scurried about him, getting their bags, embracing family members. He stood in the middle of it all with his mind going three times as fast as the people around him. “What now? Where do I go? What do I say?” he thought to himself and after a long, hard deliberation he decided to go to “Aunt Jill’s Café and Eatery” maybe he could find out more about her there. He was always close to Jillian Marcus, but he was fairly sure that she wouldn’t recognize him. It had been eight years and he had matured physically quite substantially and though he had always been a muscular man, the military added quite a bit more and he had lost a lot of weight with his injury and of course there was his beard. All together he looked quite different from the young man that had left the little town of Hart in 1866. He had only been 19 then and he was head over heels, six feet under, hopelessly in love. And in so many ways he was still in love with her.
He walked down the main street towards the café not walking too quickly to take in every building and person he passed. He recognized a great number of them and some them were new faces entirely. He searched the buildings for where the café used to be and found no building by the name of “Aunt Jill’s Café and Eatery” then he saw it. Not the one he was exactly looking for, but something even better. He saw her name written across a beautifully colored sign in front of a gorgeous restaurant. He smiled; He even chuckled a bit under his breath. He told himself to walk, but his feet would not budge. He willed with all his might but his feet just would not move.
Finally he just stood looking at it, in all its beauty. The building itself was as beautiful as buildings come. But it was a building and nothing more. But it was HER building. And if it was HER building than she would most certainly be in that building. His love, his heart, his very breath dwelt within the building across the street. O, how he longed to just run into it and scream to all the world his love for her. But she would surely not recognize him, and if she did, whose to say she wouldn’t throw him out the door for not telling her what happened to him and just leaving her like that. His mind raced, he just knew what he had to do, but he just couldn’t bear to go in there. Finally he took a very deep breath and he started to walk towards the diner. He approached the building, climbed each step, and placed his hand carefully on the doorknob to the diner. He hesitated; soon he would be with her, he only hoped that she wasn’t promised to another man.
It was a wonderful restaurant inside, big bay windows with deep red curtains that hung from them. Nice blue velvet chairs, surrounding large, round, mahogany wood tables. He saw a young woman almost instantly when he walked in. His heart dropped into his ankles, she was turned slightly, her face still looking and speaking to her customer. But the part of her that was turned towards him spoke in volumes that she was obviously expecting a little bundle of joy. Nicholas stood there feeling that he had just fought a great war and lost disgracefully. He felt a pinching pain in the very depths of his soul, but somehow he wasn’t surprised. However, it still hurt him to see her like that. She turned her face towards him and he felt a great since of relief, it wasn’t her, it wasn’t his love.
Nicholas Jessabee sat down at one of the smaller tables with only two chairs and observed the room carefully. He began to dream of their old times together. He dreamed of one of their last days together. They had been having a picnic on a hill over looking a field of Marigolds. “Nicholas,” she said, “have you ever wanted to just go leaping and running through the beautiful Marigolds?” and with that she smiled and jumped up and started running through the field. He dreamed of her beautiful golden locks of hair, and how it bounced with every step she ran. He loved how her smile glinted in the sun as she turned and laughed from her big long run down the hill into the middle of the field. Even from yards away he could still hear her laugh echoing over the trees. He smiled at this thought; he smiled at his remembrances of the most gorgeous woman to walk the universe.
Out of the corner of his eye he could sense someone approaching, probably the waitress. He quickly glanced at the menu on the table and immediately saw biscuits and gravy with coffee. He turned so he could order and he saw what he had come to see. He saw the girl whose face had occupied his mind from the moment he saw her. He saw what his very soul had been searching for for 8 years. He saw HER…
She smiled at him and said, “Hello, my name is Rebekah Anthony, and welcome to the “Hart” of Texas. What can I get for you today?”
Chapter 2
1863
Nicholas scooped up his school books into his arms. He held them tightly to his chest as he approached the teacher. “Mrs. Peterson, I know you said it was alright to talk to about anything we had troubles with. And I have troubles…” he said dryly. He looked at her with pleading eyes, begging her to help him. “Well, now Nicholas, what can your teacher do for you?” said Mrs. Peterson with an overwhelming gentleness. Her very demeanor just emitted a frequency that could only be read as gentle. But still, Nicholas’s face turned the color of a ripened tomato. “Well, if a… When there’s a… Well can a… Once upon a time…” he stuttered. “Yes?” said she gently. “Well if a fellow, I mean if a certain young man were to maybe see a girl and were to maybe think that this certain young woman was sort of pretty. What would this certain young man say or do… or see… or, or , or hear… or say… or d d do?” Mrs. Peterson chuckled at his struggling to find the words. “Well, what is this certain young woman’s name?” Nicholas blushed again, even worse than the last time. “Well, Mrs. Peterson… I’m not exactly sure… She’s the uh… new girl. I was kind of hoping you would help me with that.” She laughed and gently put her hand on his shoulder. “I see, Nicholas, I believe that the young lady that you are referring to would be… Well maybe I shouldn’t say, she might want to tell you herself… Well I guess it wouldn’t hurt… Ok, her name is, Dotty Holly
“Dotty Holly?” He thought, that didn’t sound very extravagant. But one doesn’t need a fancy name. When you are as beautiful as she was, a name doesn’t much matter. He thanked Mrs. Peterson and walked out of the one room school house. All the walk home he couldn’t think of anything but Dotty Holly. She was very beautiful, and she made every boy in school nutty just by walking in the room. This was the first girl that had ever been in Hart that had ever even turned Nicholas’s head. Rightfully so, she was absolutely gorgeous. Dotty Holly had only been in Hart for a few weeks, and she had already caused a bigger ruckus than when Mr. Kirkus brought in ten new black foals for his daughter.
Nicholas saw her across the school house the very next day. He smiled to himself at the thought of her and him together. Dotty looked over just then and smiled at him. He could almost see her eyelashes batting a bit at him. He smiled and sighed to himself. He placed his chin in his hands and rested his elbows on his desk. He was dreaming of Dotty and him running together through a field. He dreamed they carved their initials in the old oak tree out in the back field behind the candy shop. He dreamt they sipped sarsaparilla together at Johnson’s Soda Fountain. He dreamed they held hands in the library behind a good book. He dreamed they ate lunch together at the box social. He was right in the middle of eating homemade fried chicken when Mrs. Peterson interrupted his thoughts. “Nicholas Jessabee, NICHOLAS JESSABEE!” She hollered trying to claim his attention. He jumped, startled, and stuttered out a quick reply. “I said, What is the definition of the word on the board?” she said harshly. Nicholas stared at the board, trying to see the word but only saw a blur. He hesitated, “Uh...I ... I don’t know Mrs. Peterson.” He said shamefully, his face red with horror. He heard a couple girls giggle, some boys snicker, and Mrs. Peterson huffed loudly. “Well, you may look it up in the class dictionary. And you may spend the rest of the day writing out the definition 50 times.”
She turned to the board and began to erase the words. She set the eraser down and walked down the aisles of desks. First walking past the girls side and then slowly coming down the boys side. Nicholas jumped up and walked ashamedly down to Mrs. Peterson’s desk to where the class dictionary laid. He slowly opened the front cover, and turned the pages to where the word was. He read the words before it and after searching for it. Finally he saw it, he didn’t know whether to take the dictionary with him or to copy down the definition on a separate piece of paper. He struggled with the decision going back and forth for awhile, but finally decided to copy it down. Nicholas turned around, and seeing Mrs. Peterson, dropped his eyes and slowly walked back to his desk. He passed the first stage students, and the second stage students, and he got to his spot in the third stage students. Mrs. Peterson met his eyes for a split second. But he didn’t need to see her eyes. He could sense her disappointment, and he couldn’t help feeling guilty. He didn’t feel guilty that he had been daydreaming when he should have been listening. He felt guilty because he thought she was overreacting about the whole situation.
He was at his desk now; he lifted the top and pulled out his loose leaf notebook. Being careful not to make eye contact with the teacher he pulled out a page and slowly walked back up to Mrs. Peterson’s desk. He didn’t remember closing the dictionary, but as he got up to the desk he saw that it was closed. It took him awhile to find it again, but he did find it. He quickly copied down the definition.
Bucolic: a country person, an individual having an aspect of being in residence of the country, rustic.
He turned to walk back to his desk and found Mrs. Peterson waiting for him with a death glare. “Is it really that big of an ordeal?” He thought to himself. He sat down at his desk without eye contact or a word. She bent down next to him and got her face as close to his ear as possible without swallowing it. “You will stay after school today. We need to talk. And you may finish your definitions at home.” She stood and walked to her desk with authority. Nicholas stared at her for a moment in confusion. Then he put away his definitions as he shook his head. “Everyone put away your readers and when you are done please stand so we may recite our tables.”
Time did not pass quickly like he had hoped. As a matter of a fact, the time lulled like a snail pulling a turtle. Finally it was 3 o’clock and it was time to leave school. For everyone except for Nicholas that is. He was nervous as they come. He watched each student walk out the back of the one room classroom. As the boys passed by him they slapped on the back and wished him luck. The girls, as they passed him, gave him looks of sympathy, Dotty mouthed “good luck”. One girl even kissed him on the cheek and whispered “goodbye”. Why was everyone making such a big deal about this? What was so big about daydreaming in class? He shrugged it off and waited for everyone to leave. Mrs. Peterson sat at her desk writing something as everyone trooped out of the room.
For a long time there was nothing but silence, nothing but stillness. Then came her soft, voice. “I am very disappointed with you today, Nicholas. You humiliated me today and I do not appreciate that at all.” Nicholas sat looking at his teacher with confusion in his eyes and pleading on his lips. “What you did, I did not expect from anyone, much less you. I am shocked and embarrassed. Now go home, and if this ever happens again, I will send a note home to your mother. Do you understand?” she said seriously, yet with a softness in her voice. Nicholas was still very confused. “But Mrs. Peterson…” he started but she interrupted him with a snap. “ I said do you understand, Nicholas?” He only nodded now. “You may go, then” Nicholas turned and walked past his desk, picked up his book bundle and almost walked out the door but hesitated. “Mrs. Peterson?” she didn’t even look up. She only continued writing and quietly said “Goodbye, Nicholas” He walked out the door, not understanding at all what had just happened inside the school.
Right outside the door was Nicholas’s cousin Samuel Wheeler. When he saw Nicholas he ran up with a hundred questions “What happened? What did she say? Did she give you erasers duty? Did she give you a note for your mom?” Nicholas, still confused, looked at Sam, and told him “Nothing, very little, no, and not this time.” It took Samuel a little while to process what just happened but it didn’t take long. Then Nicholas turned and said, “Sam, I am so confused . What is the big deal of dreaming in class?” Sam’s eyes grew a little, “Its not the dream, Nick… Its what you say aloud while your dreaming. And why didn’t you ever tell me you had a crush on Mrs. Peterson?” Nicholas’ jaw nearly fell on the floor and his eyes bugged out like a banana out of a peel. “What… What I said? CRUSH ON MRS. PETERSON?!?!?” He nearly screamed. He was so confused and baffled by it all he didn’t know what to say. Sam looked just as confused, “You don’t know what you did, do you?” said he with a whisper. “Well, apparently NOT.” Said Nicholas with a tone of acrimony. “Would you like to explain?” So Sam told him all about how he had professed his love to Mrs. Peterson, telling her how beautiful she was. “And then you started saying something about fried chicken when she stopped you. I can’t ever imagine you, liking Mrs. Peterson though…” Suddenly Nicholas started laughing, a deep, and sweet, smooth laugh. Now it was Sam’s turn to be completely confused. Nicholas then began to explain his dream and everything that had been going on in his mind.
Samuel and Nicholas laughed together all the walk home. Sam’s house was first, so he had to leave. But he didn’t leave without a good laugh.
Nicholas laughed to himself as continued walking past Sam’s house. He laughed all the way until he spotted her. He spotted Dotty Hall up ahead. He stopped for a moment. He inhaled, and exhaled and inhaled and exhaled and finally started walking again. He was approaching fast and he knew what he must do. He walked with determination and a goal towards her. He was now right next to her. He would introduce himself if it was the last thing he did. He opened his mouth and managed to get out, “Hi there, we haven’t met but my name is …” and he was just about to introduce himself when he tripped over a rock in the road and fell down. And if that wasn’t bad enough, on his way down, he managed to bring Dotty with him. They both ended up on the ground in a heap. They quickly separated but were still on the ground. Nicholas looked at her waiting to see what her reaction was. They looked at each other for a long time. Then she cracked a smile. Then she sputtered, and then he sputtered, they chuckled. Then by the end of it, the road was filled with their laughter. They laughed for awhile, until they were out of breath. They looked at each other, and both of them agreed that this was a lovely way to start a good friendship. They stood and brushed themselves off and fixed their clothes. Then you couldn’t measure the size of Nicholas’s eyes when Dotty stuck out her hand and said. “Hi, you were right. We haven’t met. I’m the new girl. My name is Rebekah Anthony…”
