El Paso - Jake Rivers Ch. 02

Lina stood there in the glow of Luna's light, stood there both proud and humble. She slowly pulled the baby doll over her head, teasing me in the pale light of the moon. With pride of her body she stood there a moment – a thousand years - and slowly, graciously lowered herself on the bed.

She was every woman, she was my woman. She was everything and more than I could have dreamed about. She was lovely, she was sensuous. I lay there on the bed with her. Our touches were at first hesitant, then urgent. Our kisses at first gentle then filled with a mutual passion of pent up longing that overwhelmed us.

The early morning light found us intertwined with each other and the sheets. It felt so right to wake up with Lina. She came to me with a smile and a kiss. There was no hesitancy between us that I might have expected to be there.

I took her to the airport later that morning and we both knew our goodbyes were just temporary.

LIFE IS ... AS IT IS – LINA

Blessing the first class upgrade from mileage gained attending many conferences for Stanford, I mused over all that had happened ... all so suddenly. How quickly my love had grown for Jack! It was so unexpected, yet such a blessing. I remembered something I had read by Edwin Arnold while I was still in college:

Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours

For one lone soul another lonely soul,

Each choosing each through all the weary hours,

And meeting strangely at one sudden goal,

Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,

Into one beautiful perfect whole.

And life's long night is ended, and the way

Lies open onward to eternal day.

I think too many people feel that love is taking two disparate parts and making one new whole. That image of green leaves blending with flowers comforted me. I was still myself and Jack would remain Jack ... but our love would intertwine us in many ways, some obvious, others to be discovered as our love and life together unfolded together.

We hadn't talked of marriage in specific words but we knew it was there. We were wise enough to know we needed to take the time to get to know each other better than we did, while at the same time we knew our love was real and eternal. We made plans for Jack to come to Palo Alto just before school started in the fall. I was planning to go to the ranch in Tierra Amarilla for Thanksgiving.

Jack thought there might be an opening for a teaching position in UTEP's Department of Teacher Education coming up in mid-term. That was something I knew I would enjoy and I would be able to continue on with my research in early childhood education. I wasn't really worried about it; I felt a sense of calmness that everything would work out okay.

I was excited about what we had found out about Faleena – I knew her name was really spelled the same as mine but somehow it seemed right to use the Faleena spelling. The courage she must have had! She took on Texas Red's name, Matt Donahue, and as Felina Donahue moved to California on her own.

The rest of the story I knew from family history. The girl that moved to California with the baby boy growing unknown inside her changed her life. She was no longer the flirt, the tease. After the baby, Matthew Donahue, was born, she met a young rancher at the mission church in Los Angeles, Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles. They fell in love and made a good life together. Felina insisted that the baby keep his father's name in memory of the fiery Texas Red.

I looked anew at the ruby/diamond ring on my finger and wondered at all that it had seen. Andy Sheedy said it was much more valuable now that there was a clear link to Dallas Stoudenmire. I didn't care about its material value – this ring that would be both my wedding and engagement ring had a value to me that couldn't be defined by dollars.

As the plane droned across the desert, I fell into a deep sleep. I dreamed of the girl and her lover lying in the Texas dust in that alley behind Rosa's Cantina, and the miracle of the life granted to her by God.