فصل 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Sons and Brothers

Cal gave himself the task of learning all he could about Kate so that he could protect his father. He reasoned that what she could do before, she could do again. A known enemy is less dangerous, less able to surprise. Sometimes in the afternoon he lay hidden in the tall grass across the street, watching Kate’s place. He found that she came out every Monday at one-thirty.

One Monday, she turned in at her gate as usual. Cal waited a moment then walked past the house. Kate was waiting in the yard. She said to him coldly, “This isn’t the first time you’ve followed me. What do you want?”

Cal froze in his steps and stared at her. And he realized that Aron had the same wide-apart blue eyes and the same color of hair. He lowered his head. “Nothing, ma’am.”

“You won’t tell me, will you?”

Cal heard his own speech with amazement. “You’re my mother and I wanted to see what you’re like.”

“What? What is this? Who are you?”

“I’m Cal Trask.”

She looked at him closely, and a faintly remembered picture of Charles leaped into her mind. Suddenly she said, “Come with me!”

Cal followed her into the house, down a hall, and into her room. Then, she opened a new door cut in the wall at the end of her room and went into a box of a room with no windows and no decorations. Its walls were painted a dark gray and there was a solid gray carpet on the floor. The only furniture was a huge armchair and a covered floor lamp that gave out a weak circle of light. “Come in and bring that chair with you,” she said. “Close the door.”

Kate sat down in the armchair and carefully removed her gloves. The fingers of both hands were bandaged. “Don’t stare,” she said angrily. “It’s arthritis. Oh - so you want to see, do you?” She unwrapped the bandage from her right hand and held her crooked fingers under the low light. “There, look!” She cried out in pain as she wrapped the bandage loosely. “You’ll probably get it. My grandmother had it and my mother was just beginning to get it.” She stopped. The room was very silent.

“I saw you looking at this room,” she went on. “The light hurts my eyes. I come here to rest.” She settled back in her chair. “How’s your father?”

“I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Oh, no! You like him then?”

“I love him,” said Cal. “Why’d you shoot my father and run away from us?”

Kate looked at him and her eyes were cold and shallow. “Because he tried to stop me from going. When I was hurt, all broken up, he took me in and he looked after me, cooked for me. He tried to tie me down by making me grateful. But nobody can hold me. I waited until I was strong and then I broke out.” A kind of realization came over her. “Maybe you’re like me. Why wouldn’t you be?”

Cal shook his head. “I’m going,” he said happily. “What Lee said is true. I was afraid I had you in me.”

“You have,” said Kate.

“No, I haven’t. I’m my own person. If I’m mean, it’s my own meanness. And I don’t think the light hurts your eyes. I think you’re afraid.”

“Get out,” she cried. “Go on, get out!”

“I’m going.” He walked to the door. “I don’t hate you,” he said. “But I’m glad you’re afraid.” He went out and banged the door behind him.

Kate sat back in her chair and thought suddenly of the only person who had ever made her feel this fear and hatred. It was Samuel Hamilton, with his white beard and his laughing eyes that looked underneath her skin. Cal’s words kept repeating themselves over and over in her head, “I think you’re afraid.”

With her bandaged hand she pulled out a fine chain which hung around her neck inside her dress. On the chain were two safe-deposit box keys, a gold watch with “to C with all my heart from A” on the back, and a little steel tube with a ring on the top. Very carefully she unscrewed the top from the tube and shook out a capsule. She held the capsule under the light and saw the white powder inside - six grains of morphine, more than enough. Very gently she slid the capsule into its tube, screwed on the cap, and dropped the chain inside her dress.

The nation moved little by little toward war. Business improved and prices began to rise. Little groups of British purchasing agents traveled around the country in their uniforms, buying food and cloth and metals and chemicals. One of the things they bought was beans because beans are easy to transport and they do not spoil and a man can live on them. Beans were twelve and a half cents a pound and hard to find. And farmers wished they had not agreed to sell their beans for five cents a pound six months ago.

Cal walked to school with Aron. “How would you like to leave school and go back to the ranch?” said Cal.

“What for?”

“We could make some money for Father.”

“I’m going to college. I wish I could go now. Everybody is laughing at us because of the lettuce. I want to get out of town, but I don’t know if there’s enough money for college.”

Cal said, “If you worked hard you could take entrance examinations next summer and go in the fall.”

Aron swung around. “I couldn’t do it.”

“I think you could,” said Cal. “Mr. Rolf could help you.” Cal thought for a moment. “I’ll tell you what. I’m going to try to make some money. If you pass your examinations a year early, I’ll help you through college.”

“You will? I’ll go and see the principal right away.”

After supper that night Cal said, “Father, would you mind if I went down to the ranch Friday afternoon?”

Adam turned in his chair. “What for?”

“Just want to see. Just want to look around.”

“Thinking seriously of going into farming?” asked Lee.

“I might. If you’d let me take it over, I’d farm it, Father.”

“Well, we’ll see,” said Adam. “You might want to go to college.”

When Cal started for the front door, Lee followed and walked out with him. “Cal,” he called. “I’ve got $5,000 if you ever need it.”

“Why would I need it?”

“I don’t know,” said Lee.

One Saturday morning, Cal came in to Will Hamilton’s office in his car showroom. Seeing Will’s puzzled look, he said, “I’m Cal. Trask.”

“Oh, sure. You’re getting to be a big boy. I suppose you’ll be going into business soon.”

“Yes, sir. I thought I might run the ranch when I get out of high school.”

“There’s no money in that,” said Will. “Farmers don’t make money. It’s the man who buys from him and sells.”

“Would you give me some advice?” Cal asked.

Will felt pleased. He looked at the dark-faced boy and he liked him. “If I can, I’ll be glad to. What do you want to know?”

Cal said, “I want to make a lot of money. I want you to tell me how.”

“Everybody wants that,” Will said. “What do you mean by a lot of money?”

“Twenty or thirty thousand dollars.”

Will smiled kindly. “Can you tell me why you want to make so much?”

“My father lost a lot of money. I want to make enough money to give him back what he lost.”

Will looked at him in surprise. “Why?”

“Because I love him.”

Will felt a sudden warmth toward this boy. Will understood him, felt him, sensed him, recognized him. This was the son he should have had, or the brother.

“Listen - you have a brother. Does your father like him better than you?”

“Everybody loves Aron,” said Cal calmly.

“One more question,” he said, “and I won’t mind if you don’t answer it. Is it possible that you’re trying to buy your father’s love?”

“Yes, sir, it is.”

“That’s all I want to ask,” said Will. He looked straight ahead. “Cal - do you want to be partners with me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I don’t like to take a partner without money.”

“I can get five thousand dollars,” said Cal.

“Where will you get it?”

“I won’t tell you, sir.”

Will shook his head and laughed. “I believe you. Now I want you to listen. We’re going to be in this war any time. Do you know the present price of beans?”

“I’m not sure. I think around three and a half cents a pound.”

“Right, but you don’t want to farm. You’re too smart. The man who rented your father’s farm is called Rantani. He’s a good farmer. If we offer him five cents a pound and give him a seed loan, he’ll plant beans. So will every other farmer around here.”

Cal said, “What are we going to do with five-cent beans in a three-cent market?”

Will said, “Are we partners?”

“Yes, sir.” They shook hands seriously.

“I have a contact with the British Purchasing Agency,” Will said. “I bet we can sell all the dried beans we can find at ten cents a pound or more. Now would you like to go up to the old place and talk to Rantani?”

“Yes, sir,” said Cal.

One late summer day, when Lee came back from the market, he found Adam leaning back in his chair and smiling at the ceiling. “Today I met Mr. Kilkenny, from the high school. Do you know what Aron is doing?”

’ “No,” said Lee.

“He’s covered all next year’s work. He’s going to take examinations for college and save a year. What do you think of that?”

“Remarkable,” said Lee. “But why does he want to save a year?”

“Because he’s ambitious,” said Adam. “I didn’t know anything about it. I’m proud of him, Lee. I wish Cal had some ambition.”

“Maybe he has,” said Lee. “Maybe he has some kind of a secret too”

“Just think,” said Adam. “When Aron tells us, we ought to have a present for him.”

“A gold watch,” said Lee.

“That’s right. I’m going to get one and have it ready.”

Adam waited impatiently for Aron to bring news of his examinations. The gold watch lay in his drawer and Lee had his instructions. On the evening of the day of the announcement, he would cook a turkey and bake a cake.

One evening Cal came in and asked Adam, “Where’s Aron?”

“His teacher asked him to have dinner with him,” said Adam.

“I guess they want to celebrate,” said Cal.

“Celebrate?”

“The exams. Didn’t he tell you? He passed them.”

When Aron came home, Lee was waiting for him on the porch. “Sit down! I want to talk to you. Why didn’t you tell your father you passed the tests?”

“He wouldn’t understand.”

“Aron, can’t you tell me what’s the matter with you? You always used to.”

Suddenly Aron broke down. “I want to go away. I don’t belong here. I wish we hadn’t ever come here.”

Lee put his arm around his shoulder to comfort him. “You’re growing up,” he said. “Maybe that’s it. Wait a little while and it will be over. Go to bed now, and in the morning get up early and tell your father about the tests. Make it exciting. He’s lonelier than you are because he has no lovely future to dream about. And, Aron - your father left a present on your pillow.”

Kate was feeling better. The new medicine seemed to be doing her some good. Her hands were less painful and she had had a good night’s sleep, the first in a long time. The difference in her rested face was amazing. She looked ten years younger. As she looked in the mirror, her thoughts jumped to that other face so like hers - what was his name? Alec?

She laughed - mother of two sons and she looked like one. And if anyone had seen her with the blond one - could they have any doubt? But what would - Aron, that was his name - what would he do if he knew? His brother knew.

Suddenly she knew that she did not want Aron to know about her. Maybe he could come to her when she started a new life in New York. She would take him to the theater, to the opera, and people would see them together and wonder at their loveliness, and recognize that they were either brother and sister or mother and son.