Bartle Clunes - Ending
Happily ever after...
If you are new to this tale, start at - Introduction to Bartle Clunes .
The year 1952 was coming to a close. It had been an interesting year to be alive. England had a new queen. Humphrey Bogart won the oscar for best actor. Mr. Potato Head was born. Jetliner passenger service was offered for the first time. Nehru was elected president of India. Ernest Hemingway published The Old Man and The Sea. The Yankees edged out the Dodgers in the world series with a score of 4 to 3. Dwight Eisenhower was elected president of the nation, removing the democrats from the White House after twenty years. It was an eventful year by all accounts, yet little of it touched the daily life of the people in the foothills of El Dorado County.
On New Years Eve, a pot luck dinner was held at the Clunes' for several of their friends and family. The table was laden with baked ham, mashed potatoes, turnip greens, Jello salad, home made baking powder biscuits, goat's milk cheese and pies. The house was warm and crowded, a fire crackled in the hearth.
Extra chairs had been found and all the neighbors were seated shoulder to shoulder at the table. Filomena sat next to Eli, helping him fill his plate and retrieving his napkin from the floor. Vida Lee had a handsome man on each side – Rollie who was the kindest person she’d ever met and Bartle, who was also kind. And he was very charming — he knew how to listen to women, which she thought was a most unusual quality in a man. Lonnie sat with Eizer. Rose and Ruth tended to the babies between mouthfuls of ham and sips of wine. Louvina and Ayla looked around the table, then looked at each other and nodded. It was New Years Eve, and it was all good.
First of all, everyone raised their glasses to toast Ayla and Lonnie who had not only become Eli's legal god-parents just the day before, but also announced that they were expecting another baby in August.
“Here's to Ayla and Lonnie – who have apparently decided to do their part to augment the waning population of Riles Crossing. May their family grow and prosper!” said Bartle.
Vida Lee banged on her glass with a spoon and said, “I would like to hear what you all are hoping for this coming year. Any plans anyone?”
Bartle said, “Louvina and Pearly and I are going to take a journey down to the sea in mid-summer. Neither of us has ever even seen the ocean, and we’re going to drive down to the Monterey Bay and spend a few days in a little town called Santa Cruz.”
“Yes,” said Louvina, who had been reading all about Santa Cruz in the tour guide she'd picked up at the library. “I am going to get my feet wet in the Pacific Ocean and walk on the sand in the moonlight. And eat fresh-caught fish on the wharf. And ride on the Ferris Wheel and Rolley Coaster on the Boardwalk! It will be just like a honeymoon, well … except for the two-year-old, of course!”
The platters went around the table for the second time. Eizer talked of how the free Book Exchange was turning out to be a real center of activity, and he thanked Eli for having the original idea. “And now,” said Eizer, “construction is going to begin on a classroom for our after-school academy. Another fine adventure dedicated to the children of Riles Crossing.”
“Here's to Eli, and Eizer, and to the academy,” Lonnie said, and everyone cheered.
Rollie said he was looking forward to helping with the building of a new room onto Bartle’s house and to repairing the drystone walls as well. “Eizer,” he said, “ I can help with the new academy room too, if you need me. I hope to stay here in the foothills, you know. You have all become like my family,” he said shyly. Vida Lee kissed him on the cheek, to much applause.
“I have big plan for nex’ year,” announced Filomena. “I decide get married!”
“Married?” said Louvina. “ Filomena! I didn't even know you had a boyfriend! Just who is this fortunate man? Do we know him?”
“Well, no! I don't find a man yet, but I looking. You think I maybe find somebody to marry with me?”
Ayla said, “I am sure we can help! But it has to be someone really good. We’ll see what worthy man we can find for you, Filomena.” She and Louvina glanced casually at Eizer Griggs, who got busy dishing out more mashed potatoes onto his plate, eyes down.
Vida Lee, her usual loquacious self, said she had a rather delicate situation to work out this year. “You know I have four grown children who have all flung themselves off to various parts. I have hardly seen any of them in two years. Now two of them want to come to Riles Crossing and move into my house – to live with their mother! These children! You know, I love each one of them, but the way I see it, a good parent should help her children become independent adults. I don't see how letting them move into my house would further that aim. Why, they would no doubt expect me to cook for them and do their laundry and not charge them any rent, and I don’t know what all. So I told them I would love to have them live near me, and I would help them find their own house to rent, but I said I would not do them the disservice of allowing them to be dependent on me like little children. No sir. And, well, frankly, they would drive me insane!” Everyone praised and honored her plan with another toast.
Philo and Pearly, now nineteen months old, were in their wooden high chairs with the matching yellow duck decals, food bits scattered on the tray in front of them and in their hair and on the floor. Pearly started banging her empty plastic cup on the tray. Philo studied his auntie with keen interest and began banging his cup as well.
“You see there, friends,” said Bartle. “I can predict right this minute how it will be with those two. Pearly will invent mischief wherever she can, and Philo will watch and learn and go along with it without question. We are in for some trouble, I can see the hand-writing on the wall. We are going to need your help.”
Over dessert, Ayla suggested, “Why don’t we all go out for a walk in the hills tomorrow to bring in the New Year. What do you think? Shall we survey our kingdom?”
New Year's Day found a party of thirteen amblers, wrapped up in jackets, and wooly mittens and caps, setting out for a leisurely winter walk through the hills. They were meandering noisily up the slope north of Riles Crossing, talking, laughing, teasing, singing Oh, Susanna! The entire tribe was there —Bartle and Louvina, Ayla and Lonnie, Eizer and Filomena with Eli between them, Vida Lee holding hands with Rollie, and the sisters, Rose and Ruth, shepherding the two toddlers.
And how beautiful their kingdom seemed to them all on that cold, sparkling day. The round topped, snow-sprinkled hills spread out in all directions, clambering up toward the Sierra. The sky, a cloudless blue-white, arched its endless, kind roof over oaks, pine and madrone from valley to peak. Sunlight as pale as fireweed honey poured over them as they followed the path forward.
In this life, it seems that sometimes the unlikeliest of friendships turn out to be the strongest, and the most enduring, as they are founded on no less than the complete and perfect acceptance of one by another. These solitary folks had traveled a long road before finding each other in the foothills, and in contrast with the trials of their earlier years, El Dorado County was to them the heart, the exact center, of God's green earth, and as close to heaven as they could ever imagine.
Yes, yes, and a few more applauses.
Such a delightful, heartwarming story. A community of good people who love each other.
Thanks for writing it, Sharron. 🤓