Melinda and the Wild West (18 page)

“How were you different?”

Gilbert kicked a chunk of snow out of the way and
looked at Melinda. “She was a city girl from the East. She loved
parties and dances and the social life. I didn’t. I was a farm boy
and I wanted to have a ranch of my own. I loved her a lot, Melinda.
I would have done anything for her.”

He sighed. “Everyone thought we had an ideal
marriage because we never argued. She always wanted to please me,
but that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to know her opinions, her
likes, and her dislikes. If we could only have had a few
disagreements so I could’ve just known where I stood in our
marriage, I would have liked it. I wanted to know her feelings
inside but she kept them from me. I suspected she was unhappy and
missed the East and all its finery. One day I found a letter she
wrote to her parents that was lying on the table. She had expressed
her unhappiness to them and her longing to return home for a visit.
My heart wrenched when I read those words. Why hadn’t she expressed
them to me? Why couldn’t we talk?”

Gilbert’s voice became constricted with
emotion and he quickly cleared his throat and continued. “When she
was with child, her health went downhill because of the morning
sickness. She couldn’t keep anything down. When I saw how unhappy
she was, that was when I realized that the West was too tough for
her. And when Jenny was born, she died. I blamed myself for her
death because I felt I should have been more in tune to her
feelings and I wasn’t. If I had only known how unhappy she was,
then I would have tried harder to make her life easier. We had only
been married for nine months and then she was gone.”

Melinda’s heart went out to Gilbert. She squeezed
his hand and said, “But you can’t blame yourself. Complications
happen in pregnancy even in the city. And you say that because of
your differences she was unhappy. That may not have been the
reason. She had morning sickness and was miserable for several
months. When one is miserable, that’s when we long for home. Her
longing to be with her parents is only natural. You have assumed
that it was your differences, but you may have been wrong.”

Gilbert shook his head. “But…”

“Hey,” interrupted Melinda. “Sometimes differences
are good and we can help one another grow. My parents were as
different as night and day. My father was a city lawyer. My mother
was a country girl. She was a spiritual woman and my father knew
nothing of spiritual things. But because of his love for her, he
tried hard by reading the scriptures and going to church with her.
Their differences gradually decreased with time. But there were two
differences that never changed—their personalities and
temperaments.”

“Temperaments?”

“Yes. My father is a calm and even-tempered
man and my mother is vivacious and has the Irish temper…” she
hesitated and quickly put her hand to her mouth as she looked up at
Gilbert.

He grinned from ear to ear. Melinda knew he
had remembered their discussion about her “Irish temper.”

She flushed a rosy color and then continued
her thoughts. “What I mean is that she has a mind of her own. She
is a strong-headed woman, but my father loves her the way she is.
So, you see, differences aren’t always bad. They can complement a
marriage. Besides, she knew you wanted to be a rancher so she
didn’t complain. She wanted you to be happy. In other words, she
must have had a great deal of love for you, and I can see why.
You’re a very gentle and loving man. You care for others, including
those who work for you.”

Out of the door came Henry, yelling at the
top of his voice, “Melinda. Hey, Melinda. Come on in. Let’s dance.”
He sounded a little irritable and impatient.

“I’ll be right there, Henry.” She turned to
Gilbert and gave a dry smile. “He brought me here. I must go,
Gilbert.”

He squeezed her hand gently to thank her for
the words that she had said, but did not say a thing. He felt
speechless after everything she had just told him.

Melinda felt the warmth of Gilbert’s hand
around hers as he squeezed it and then she reluctantly slid her
hand from his. She slipped off his coat and handed it to him and
then walked toward Henry. After a few steps, she stopped and turned
around. Her love for this man was evident as she gave him one last
glance. When their eyes met, she smiled lovingly and her eyes
sparkled as she softly gazed into the depths of his dark eyes. Then
she quickly turned and continued on her way.

As Gilbert watched her, he thought about
what she had said to him. She had said that some differences could
be valuable and help people grow while other differences diminish
with time. As he thought about it, his wife’s goals would become
his goals and his goals would become hers. Gilbert liked that idea.
Then he thought about the last thing she had said just before she
left: “She must have had a great deal of love for you, and I can
see why.” He smiled. Melinda knew just how to uplift him and make
him feel good about himself.

As he watched the woman he dearly loved walk
toward the Social Hall, he saw her look up at Henry. They were
discussing something and Henry was not happy at all. Melinda shook
her head at him and then she put her hands on her hips in a
stubborn and indignant stance.

Gilbert chuckled. He had seen that stance before
and he knew that she was not happy. Then Henry tried to make up to
her and put his arm around her shoulder, but Melinda pushed him
away and stomped up the steps.

Gilbert chuckled again as he gazed after her.
“What a spunky woman!”

It was now March. The weather had warmed up
but the snow was still in the tops of the mountains and was melting
in the valley of Paris. The warmth created restlessness among the
students and Melinda noticed that it was harder for them to
concentrate on their studies.

During the week, Billy had
caught a spider, tied a string tightly around its body, and then
tied the string to a stick. He brought it to school and hid it in
his desk. When the class was silently reading, he pulled it out and
hung the stick over Peggy’s head, dangling the spider in front of
her face. When Peggy saw something wiggling in front of her, she
lifted her eyes from her book and let out
a
shrill scream
, frightening a few of the students as they jumped from their
seats
.

Billy quickly hid his stick in his desk, hoping
Peggy would think the spider had come down from the ceiling. He
could not help the euphoria he felt when she screamed and he
instantly put his hand over his mouth to conceal his laughter. Then
he looked at his book as if he were innocently reading. Melinda,
however, had witnessed the whole thing.

She told Billy that he could help her sweep
the floor of the classroom and wash the blackboard for her after
school was over. He accepted his duties without any argument.

One day, Melinda peacefully stood at the
doorway of the school, as the children played during recess. She
was thinking about Gilbert. She had not seen him since the
Valentine’s Dance, but since their conversation that night she had
realized what had been bothering him. He had blamed himself for his
wife’s death and felt that his wife could not handle the West.
Melinda adored him and hoped she would be able to help him through
his frustrations. She knew that their differences were causing him
much concern.

As she leaned against the doorframe, she
listened to the prattle of the children. Mark was only a few feet
from her. He was a slim young man with sky-blue eyes, auburn hair,
and freckles that covered his face. He was always cheerful and had
a smile for anyone passing. Mark was telling Billy about the
problem he had with skunks getting into his chicken coop and eating
the eggs.

“So, do you know what Pa did, Billy? He went
out in the dark with his rifle and just sat by the chicken coop
waiting. Pretty soon the skunk showed up and Pa shot him. Boy, the
smell from that skunk was disgusting.”

“How big was he, Mark?”

“About as big as a cat with the purtiest
white stripe right down its back. So, do you want to know what I
did?”

“What?”

“When Pa told me to bury him in the morning,
I drained the skunk oil from his glands first and put it in a
little bottle.”

“You did? I’d sure like to see it,
Mark.”

“Really? Come with me to my desk and I’ll
show you.”

Mark and Billy walked past Melinda just as a
fight broke out in the yard. Melinda ran to see what all the
commotion was about. The first thing that came to her mind was
Jenny, but it had been months since she had been in a fight with a
boy. As Melinda ran toward the fight, she could hear shouting and
cheering. The children were circled around the two fighting boys
and were cheering them on. Melinda was so frustrated by this sort
of behavior.

“Boys, stop this fighting right now.”

The firmness in her voice did not hinder the
boys one bit. They ignored her. When she tried to separate them,
one of the boys stepped back onto her foot with all of his weight.
She let out a gasp as she instantly let go of the boy and backed
up, limping in pain. Her foot was throbbing and bruised and she had
no way of separating them.

Why were they so angry with one another? She
looked around and saw Jenny smiling from ear to ear. Why was Jenny
so happy? Had she done something to provoke this behavior?

Melinda knelt down beside Jenny and asked,
“Do you know anything about this, Jenny?”

“Yup.” Jenny grinned.

“Why are these boys fighting?”

Jenny looked into Melinda’s eyes and said
proudly, “They’re fighting over me. Tom gave me a valentine and so
did Sam. When Tom found out, he got furious and told Sam that I was
his girl and Sam said that I wasn’t and that he could give a
valentine to any girl he pleased.”

Melinda’s eyes widened in disbelief. This
was something new to her. Then she yelled to the boys, “If you
don’t stop fighting this instant, then you will go home and you
won’t come back to school for a week.”

Without hesitation, the boys stopped. She
knew the last thing they wanted was to be barred from school. What
would their parents think? Then she told them that they would stay
after school to wash all the desks.

“Okay, children. Recess is over. Time to go
in,” Melinda announced.

As she walked toward the school, she began
to worry that she would run out of jobs for the children to do if
they continued with this kind of behavior. Why were children so
restless when spring approached? Was it the warm air? For these
boys, it was infatuation.

Then she thought of Gilbert and began to wonder
if he would actually fight for her. Gilbert knew that Henry had
been dating her. Hadn’t he cared at all? Would he fight for her
love as these two young boys had fought for love’s sake? Oh, how
she wished Gilbert would fight for her!

As the children piled in, Melinda walked to
her desk and sat down. She put her elbows on her desk and rested
her face in the palm of her hands to relieve the tension. Just then
the sound of a broken bottle splattered on the floor. Instantly the
room filled with the most putrid, foul, detestable odor that
Melinda had ever breathed in. The smell was so nauseating and
repulsive that it could not be described in words.

The children moaned, “O-o-o-oh yuck!
Disgusting!” Then they instantly held their noses with their
fingers.

Melinda’s stomach turned over a couple of
times before she yelled out, “Children, out of this room quickly
before we suffocate from this stench.”

The children did not have to process what
their teacher told them. It was an instant reflex to jump out of
their seats and run out the door for fresh air. Melinda followed
the children with her fingers holding tightly to her nose. It
seemed as if no one could run fast enough as the children stumbled
over one another, racing toward the door.

Melinda gasped in the fresh air as soon as
she stepped outside and the nauseating feeling gradually began to
leave. The last thing she wanted to see was what she had eaten for
breakfast.

After everyone settled down and had taken in
some fresh air, Melinda asked, “What was that foul stench?”

Mark looked up at his teacher with
embarrassment and said shyly, “It was a bottle of skunk oil, Miss
Gamble.”

Melinda saw his embarrassment in his reddened
face and did not have the heart to scold him when she saw Mark’s
pleading eyes.

Billy beamed from ear to ear and said,
“Whoa! Miss Gamble, wasn’t that something how fast we ran outside
after the bottle broke?”

Melinda tried not to laugh, but she saw the
sense of humor in the whole incident. “Well, class, we won’t be
having school for the rest of the day. I’m going to find Henry so
he can clean up inside. My only problem is that I left my purse in
the room and I’m not about to go back inside to get it. My stomach
couldn’t handle it.”

Mark looked up at Melinda as if he wanted to
be reprieved from his deed. “Miss Gamble, I can hold my breath
longer than anyone else. I’ll go in to get it for you.”

Then he quickly disappeared, running at top
speed into the school and back out again. As he came to a stop, he
let out a big puff of air. After getting his breath back, he smiled
broadly and said, “You see, Miss Gamble, I held my breath the whole
time.”

Melinda burst out laughing at the funny
situation they were all in. This wouldn’t have happened in Boston.
That was certain! Why hadn’t she been aware of what the boys were
doing?

She smiled at the humor of it and yelled,
“Class dismissed.”

A cheer rose to high heaven as everyone
headed home for the day. Melinda started in the direction of
Henry’s office. He was in charge of the school grounds and the
cleaning of the school. When Melinda brought Henry back to the
schoolroom, he became annoyed when he smelled the foul odor from
the doorway. The room reeked, to say the least.