Aspiring Novelist Pt. 02

Recovering from shock, Caitlin was full of apologies and so sorry she'd not recognize Billie.

"Oh failing to recognize me is fine Caitlin and I hope other people don't recognize me as well because I'm here for the quiet life and wish to make real progress writing. Thank you very much for that apple pie. It looks delicious and it was a very neighborly thing to do."

"Thank you. Um Billie you are just settling in. Please come and have dinner with us this evening. We won't eat until around 8:30 because we wait until my husband Grady comes off his shift at 8:00."

"A glass of wine Caitlin?"

"No thank you. I only drink wine with lunch or dinner."

"Silvana?"

She looked at her mother whose mouth suddenly had turned thin-lipped.

"I take that's a yes," Billie said and poured a half glass and held it out to the teenager who hesitated and looked at her mother again.

Caitlin said, "Take it Silvana and thank Billie."

"Thank you Billie."

"Well also drink it Silvana. Sip lightly. Always take care with alcohol and by that I mean use discretion wisely and that means never drink heavily and be careful when and where you drink and with whom, especially with whom. You may visit me any late afternoon you wish Silvana and you'll always be offered a small glass of wine, but only one. If your parents object to that then we must abide by their edict."

"Well I have no problem with that Billie," Caitlin said carefully. "My thinking is you'll be an excellent role model for Silvana. You are welcome to treat Silvana as if she were your kid sister. In you I trust Billie."

"Wow that's heaping me with responsibility land me with that last bit Caitlin."

Everyone laughed.

From that night the Struthers family more or less adopted Billie. Grady turned out to be a very pleasant guy, rather reserved but with a good humor and he instantly liked Billie and tumbled into the role of surrogate father. The first thing he took on was to teach Billie how to back her vehicle with the boat trailer attached.

Billie's parents arrived on Saturday from dinner and stayed the night. The Struthers were invited to dinner and Caitlin sent Silvana over to help and to advise that Jim had already arranged to have dinner at his girlfriend's place and sent his apology.

"Don't worry about Jim," Silvana said. "Although he's not hooked on this chick my brother is too dull for you. I think I'll introduce you to my much older cousin Ted who skippers a charter boat for tour parties. He's one of those full-on guys that women like and if he goes out with you he won't be able to play around with married women."

Billie noted that offer and philosophical comment in her writer's diary to use sometime. Silvana, as a teenager beginning to look at the world around her with opening eyes, was becoming a real inspiration to Billie and already they were great friends.

Eleven weeks later Billie sent off her final chapters. The publisher decided to go with Billie's working title of 'Wretched Rachel'. Although pleased about that Billie and was rather disappointed that her editor when contacting her after completion of editing was not ecstatic.

"Are you expecting it to bomb?"

"No," Jocelyn said. "I remain confident about it. In fact it exceeds my expectations. That being said I must say I believe you have written this with the brake half on. You've told a story, a good story in fact, but it's as if there's no passionate you behind this story."

"Restrained like that you are just a competent journeyman at the keyboard. So don't rush into your next work. Just think about how to write something that brings out the passionate you."

"I take your point Jocelyn. Would you like to come down here and spend a few days?"

"Well I'm very busy."

"We could tour some of the most interesting cities in all of Texas, swim, drink wine, fish..."

"Fish, do you fish?"

"I've caught fish by casting out off the front lawn but also have a small boat and I have been invited to use the neighbor's pier."

"Omigod, I haven't been fishing since I left home. Look I be in contact with you... no, that will mean I'll never come. Expect me on Saturday morning and I'll return to New York on Wednesday. How do I get there?"

"Fly to Houston and then take a direct flight to Corpus Christi that is less that an hour away. Send me flight details and I'll meet you."

A week later Billie drove the publishing editor Jocelyn Winter, a widow in her late fifties, back to the airport and listened, smiling, to her guest waxing on about how she'd fallen in love with that part of Texas after having been under the impression that Texas was simply flat, dusty and soulless.

"Darling you have gotten yourself the perfect writer's retreat. God if I never go fishing again I'll remember those hours we wasted away idyllically on the water, and not without hauling in fish I might add. I shall treasure those photos you took of me with my catches."

Ready to board her flight Jocelyn kissed Billie and said softly: You have done the graft to establish yourself darling and will make a good living out of writing if you sustain your effort. Now it's time to lift up above the pack darling. I'm talking to you like this because I believe in you; I believe you have what it takes. Move forward but don't rush it; just make sure you've taken a theme that will allow you to shine as an author."

Billie thought of returning to Philly because Philadelphia had seemed to inspire her. But then she thought no, she was Texan and her big novel, if she had one in her, ought to be written in Texas and set in Texas. She needed to do that to believe in herself.

Out on her flat bottom boat she spent hours thinking and occasionally taking a theme and trying to develop it. To no avail.

Occasionally Jim from next door would call to say he had a one-person charter and would invite her to fly with them. The grandeur of the Gulf of Mexico coastline with its outer natural barriers of islands, waterways plus on the shore lakes, bayous, bays and outcrops fascinated Billie and she liked to think the scenery comforted her soul. Of course when flying one had to discount the offshore drilling wells and the shore-based unsympathetic development including absolute monstrosities to think of the coastal landscape as fodder for the soul.

She was being dated regularly including by Ted, the tourist boat skipper, but those associations were of a transient nature and never reaching her finer senses. At the same time they provided the comfort a woman needs of being desired if not loved. Oh of course the guys made out they practically loved her.

After the TV appearance with Celeste at Houston, well over a hundred emails and letters had been forwarded by the TV station PR people to Billie, mostly from people congratulating her for telling the in-depth story of their favorite or one of their favorite novelists. This correspondence including a few outbursts from people no one could ever please and a couple from apparently deranged people. But within a couple of weeks the feedback had dried up.

It surprised Billie, quite profoundly, a month after that correspondence ceased to receive a forwarded letter from a guy with a great name, Ben Aspen. The letter moved her so much so she decided opportunity had found her. This guy had not forgotten Billie's comment on TV that she didn't ride despite being a Texan because she was afraid of horses.

'I'm back to thinking of your horrifying comment,' wrote Ben.

The use of the word horrifying rather startled Billie.

'You know Billie horses are a little like people, there are good ones and bad ones and I think you ought to come here and stay with me and my extended family -- I'm a seventy-two year old grandfather -- and let you get to know Little Lady. You see Billie, you shocked me saying on public TV you are afraid of horses when I regard horses as the most gracious of God-given animals inhabiting this earth. I know I'm biased but then who isn't about something? Horses are my life and I'm a horse breeder known in many parts of America and even beyond. Billie come and meet Little Lady. Stay with us on our horse ranch and breathe in great air and experience a wholesomeness of a good family living in a great environment.'

Out on the boat next morning Billie pulled Ben's letter out of her pocket and that told her something. Why had she brought it with her? The answer was because it intrigued her. Initially she'd thought he might be a mail stalker because he'd slyly waited until the reaction to her TV appearance would have well and truly died, hoping to catch her unaware and in a soft frame of mind. The second thing was she'd not filed away that letter with all other written correspondence and that told her something.

She now re-read the leader and confirmed there was nothing sinister that she could find. In fact as she examined the words used she though it unlikely a sly man would be able to use a word like wholesomeness; she doubted whether it would be in a stalker's vocabulary. And reading between the lines the writing appeared consistent to how she thought a relatively unsophisticated man living in rural Texas might express himself.

That evening she called Ben and he appeared thrilled he'd contacted her and laughed when she said his was the most unusual correspondence she'd received in her life and she was intrigued.

Laughing he said, "I guess you calling means you've accepting my invitation to come here?"

"Well I'm thinking about it."

"Just a moment Billie, I'll put your on to my wife Martha."

"Good evening Miss Summers," said the woman, obviously a little deaf because she spoke a little loudly. "My husband doesn't take kindly to people who are critical of horses and your comments, although scarcely critical, worried him and he's back on it again because he believes that you saying that to millions of people watching you on TV would have harmed the image of horses, even if only slightly."

"But that wasn't my intention Mrs Aspen."

"Of course not, and we accept that. But you are an author and we loved your writing as we love Celeste. What Ben is attempting to do is to influence you to write a novel set on a horse ranch. He knows you are very busy and..."

"I'm not Mrs Aspen. I have just finished a novel that is being prepared for publication and am in the process of thinking about my next setting."

Billie could hear Martha relaying that information to Ben.

Martha said, "Are you there Miss Summers?"

"Yes."

"We are coming to get you and will leave here in the morning."

"Please don't do that. Your eagerness and courtesy have impressed me Mrs Aspen. I'll leave in the morning to come to you. This is so kind of you."

* * *

Billie left next morning on the all day drive to Sunset some 460 miles north and situated about halfway between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls. When reaching Sunset just after 4:00 that afternoon as arranged, Billie called the Aspen's and Martha excitedly gave her directions to the ranch.

Martha and Ben and their married daughter Elsie with her two children came out to meet Billie. Elsie lived with husband Amos who was out tending cattle. She had a brother Sam who lectured on computer science at a university in Austin.

"God you are so pretty, even better than that air-brushed photo of you on your books."

"More wholesome in the flesh?"

Elsie giggled and at that Billie instantly knew they'd become good friends and the interest deepened when she learned Elsie's college degree was in English Lit and she'd taught at high school until her marriage.

"Well come in beautiful lady and have some nourishment," Martha said, taking Billie's arm. Ben hovered, beaming and looking like a ringmaster about to make a major announcement.

When they were seated and the kids were back at the toy box, Ben said, "Tell me Billie, who do you think Little Lady is?"

"Well I have my initial thought confirmed because Mrs Aspen and Elsie are not short and your grandchildren are boys. That's confirmation that Little Lady is a mare, probably your beloved mare."

Ben laughed delightedly. "I had this idea stewing that you'd not disappoint me. Little Lady is the best mare I've ever bred from although she is small for a Thoroughbred. She's now an old lady, in retirement, aged twenty-six and successfully produced twenty offspring. Two have become very successful breeding stallions, and eight very successful dams while three were outstanding on the race track and all have been even in temperament and made even the poorest of riders look good and good riders look great."

"Excuse my husband for acclaiming Little Lady's success as his own Billie although I admit the choice of sire was his to make."

"That's okay Mrs Aspen. I say if you are proud, be proud."

"Ah yes, that's an alternative way of looking at my boastful husband. Please call me Martha dear."

"I used to ride Little Lady every day but no one rides her now," Elsie said. Her real name is registered as Savannah Symphony but I renamed her in my teens because I thought that name was too pompous for such a darling mare. She was not tall for a Thoroughbred being only 15.1 hands high."

After breakfast next morning Ben took Billie to meet Little Lady. He placed a chair outside facing away from the open door of the barn and sat Billie.

"This is just a little test to determine whether she is apprehensive of you or likes you or really likes you. Try not to be fearful. I promise she won't harm you. I'm going in to let her out. She will come to you in her own time."

Billie could hear the horse approaching and did her best to keep relaxed because she wanted Little Lady to like her. The mare stopped behind her and Billie could hear her sniffing her hair and then her head came beside Billie's for a moment and her muzzle rested over Billie's shoulder momentarily.

Ben appeared and turned Little Lady away from Billie and said Little Lady more than liked her; she really liked her.

"See that stand of trees beside that track way down there?"

"Yes."

"Why don't you walk with Little Lady to those trees and return with her. She needs you to open the gates. Going this way they'll open towards you but she knows to stand back."

"Won't I need to hold her with a bridle thing."

"No she can walk beside you without a halter and lead. But talk to her. She enjoys company.

The following night Billie was over with Elsie and her family for dinner. Amos amazed Billie because although he looked like the cowboys she'd seen in old Western films, was incredibly slim with practically now sign of hips and ass and his jeans appeared to fit like a second skin, he told her they didn't have any horses on their small cattle ranch and he'd rarely ridden a horse since he was twelve years old.

"We use dirt-styled motorbikes and dogs to move cattle and use quad bikes to haul fencing supplies or to take out grain to the feed troughs. The hay is wrapped in big round bales and dumped in the corners of each field to be used when required."

"Oh, um do you have a six-gun... I mean for sentimental reasons?"

"No I shy away from handguns but do have a couple of Winchesters, a modern and an old style one. Are you big into guns?"

"Um no. I've never held a gun and never ridden a motorcycle either."

"Gee lady. Well I want you to come back in the morning and spend a day with me and learn something about real ranching for this book you're going to write."

"What book is that?" Billie asked, noting Elsie frowning at her husband but Amos ignored her. "Ben has got you here to write about horse breeding but I think the book would have great appeal if you made it a cattle ranch with horse breeding as an sideline to help pay some of the bills."

"Okay then. So you use your Winchesters to run down vermin and shoot them through the head?"

"Sort of like that but usually we stop because I'd probably shoot one of my ranch hands attempting to shoot riding over rough ground. Of course when the cattle do down we usually shoot them."

"Oh god, you shoot your own cattle or neighboring strays?"

"Billie you city gal. How would you deal with a critter with a broken leg? Ask the vet for sticking plaster?"

"Oh god I just didn't think did I?"

"A couple of times Ben has had me over to shoot one of his horses when there was a delay with the vet to apply a lethal injection. Poor Ben with his heart of gold; he could never shoot one of his horses."

"Oh god."

"That's enough Amos. You'll be having Billie peeing her pants. Don't worry about this steak darling, it's not from one of our steers or one of dad's horses. Our meat comes from the supermarket."

"You eat horsemeat," Billie asked Amos, wide-eyed.

"Hell no," he laughed. "If I did Ben would knock the crap out of me."

Billie stayed two weeks. She and Ben walked Little Lady most mornings when Billie wasn't out with Amos and the boys (two ranch hands). The boys were both married. The one with a wife and two children lived in a shack he happily called home and the guy with no children lived nearby in an aged RV now without wheels. It now had a permanent lean-to roof under which Lance and Susie spent most of their time because both were outdoors people.

A delighted Billie learned a lot about horse ranching and cattle ranching and seeing the things going on was much better that simply reading websites. The men never swore, or at least she thought they never did, but that changed one afternoon when a young bull charged Lance and he yelled to Amos, "Shoot the crazy fucking bastard" and Amos yelled you silly bastard leap sideways."

As Lance tripped and fell, Amos sent a dog at the hornless bull that only had time to make one head thrust at Lance before being diverted by the dog that sunk its teeth into the polled bull's nose and the critter scurried away in pain, bellowing. Fortunately Lance suffered a greater loss of dignity than serious injury.

"I'm injured," Lance said, standing and dusting his lower body with his Stetson. "I want two days off and fifty bucks compensation."

"Get back to castrating those calves you malingerer," Amos roared.

"Is that what you guys are doing?" Billie said weakly, and Amos only just caught her before she fell face down to the ground.

"Are you okay," he asked anxiously.

"I think so. Everything suddenly went black."

Later Elsie told Billie gently that male cattle without their testicles behaved less aggressively and grew better beef. "The guys should not have had young bulls in the area where they were working on the younger cattle. This is so sloppy."

Billie stayed that night with the McGill's that evening because she was riding out on a quad with Amos at 6:00 to try to repair a water bore than the wireless monitor had indicated had malfunctioned.

Not long after dinner Elsie's brother called from Austin and spoke to his sister and nephews and then to Amos.

A couple of minutes later Amos called, "Billie, Sam would like to say hi."

"Why he doesn't know me?"

"He'll never know you unless you speak to him," Amos called, holding out the wired-in house phone.

"Hi I'm Billie the greenhorn."

"Hi Billie, you sound pretty. What's this about been a greenhorn?"

"I bet Amos told you about me fainting near where the bull calves were being castrated. I hadn't been aware of what they were doing."

"No."

"Liar."

"Oh perhaps Amos did mentioned something like that. So I do lie. But you won't know what bothers can be like."

"Actually I have a brother called Sam although I've not seen him for a couple of years."

"Um Summers is a fairly unusual name. I recalled seeing a Sam Summers play football against the Dallas Cowboys last season."

"Yes that's my brother."

"He's pretty slippery."

"Perhaps he learned that some his sister."

"You sound interesting. Listen, why don't you break your journey on your way home and drop in and meet me for lunch."