Letters From Al (2 page)

The proposal had been a classic chess move, a last resort to keep her under control. Everything was starting to make sense now. Larry was more interested in his job and money that how she felt. She didn't mind that the ring was small, but it felt more like a prop in a grand production with her as the court jester. What a joke, a sad joke. She had almost fallen for it, but not any more. Apparently Larry thought she was so crazy over him that handling her was a done deal. She had seen the family ruin her parents life, they weren't going to ruin hers.

"I can do this. I can read a map for crying out loud," she muttered under her breath as she drove.. But she seriously doubted anything she did since last week. Talking to herself had become a habit for her, a way of rationalizing things she would have discussed with her parents or family if she had any she could trust. It was when she missed her parents the most. She could always talk to them.

Even her co-workers encouraged her to get out from behind the stack of books and start living again. But her lack of self-confidence with the opposite sex gravitated from non-existent to awful, especially as of late. It was as if a piece of her heart was missing. Something in her was incomplete.

Maddy thought back to her latest boyfriend, Larry Preston, actually her ex-fiancée. A manipulative but very good-looking guy, who didn't realize being engaged meant you didn't date other girls. He was only the latest jerk in a string of bad choices. It was one of the reasons she had taken off on this pie-in-the-sky road trip, to put a little space between them and do some serious thinking.

The envelope from Jack Drake and Associates from Omaha, Nebraska, had arrived with the news that she was the beneficiary of an inheritance from a long-lost relative. Her father's favorite, eccentric, aunt from the past that she'd completely forgotten about.

After a few calls she found the will had been probated and she was indeed the heir to her great aunt's estate in Nielsen, Nebraska. If she was the great-niece of Mrs. Madeline O'Keefe, she needed to show proof of birth and claim her inheritance. With her friends clucking at her in the background, she called, claimed, and climbed into the rent-a-Honda, since her little Buick was in hock at the repair shop.

This was when Larry Preston showed his true colors.

To her astonishment, it seemed Larry had been advised by her uncles to find out about this situation and report back to them. They were actually his bosses. Her anger only was greater than the shock of realizing the man you were supposed to have no secrets from, one who could be trusted and share a life with, was dishonest and greedy.

By accident they had switched cell phones one night and that was how Maddy then found out Larry was not only dishonest but unfaithful. His secretary called and left a not-so-discreet message on the phone. Thinking it was her phone, Maddy answered and found out Larry was also a cheater.

He even had the gall to act like it was no big deal. That was the last straw. Maddy had decided it was the perfect time to break it off with him. Investigating this windfall herself would be the perfect way to get her life in order. With the money from her parents estate tied up in the family business, she could use a little extra cash. So far, she hadn't done so well with men.

From what she remembered, Great Aunt Madeline had been kind, but cool and classy even if she was a bit old- fashioned. Maddy recalled her Chicago relatives more. Most of them had never met Aunt Madeline. As she grew up and the years passed, the closeness dwindled, especially after Great Grandmother Morris died and the family business became a corporation. The old ways died along with her, except for the greed.

If things worked out perhaps she'd have enough to

start over again. Maybe she'd buy a bookstore or something else exciting and interesting. Larry had been against her even contacting anyone or coming here, preferring she let the local attorney get what money was there and send it on to him/them. He'd invest it for her, he informed her. For the first time she had resisted his advice and now, here she was, alone on the Interstate.

"Where'd you get your license, at a discount store?" She yelled fruitlessly after a big rig swept by her, shaking her hand in frustration. A rest stop appeared out of nowhere and darting in, she breathlessly landed in the last parking spot.

Sweat trickling down making her shirt stick uncomfortably to her back. The air-conditioner was on full blast but only now did she notice it was blowing warm air, not cool.

"Great. That's all I need in the middle of the Nebraska summer, no air." She twisted knobs and pushed levers but to no avail. Resting her head on the steering wheel in defeat she noticed the envelope had blown on onto the floor.

"This is all thanks to you and my own greed, thank you very much. I should have known better when I saw it was from an attorney. What am I doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" She stuffed the letter in her pocket and got out of the rented economy car, kicking the front tire with the remaining energy she had left.

"That definitely wasn't worth it," Madeline said through gritted teeth, holding her throbbing toe. Her impatience often got her in trouble. Her Dad used to tease her it was all that red hair. Thinking of him made her smile, feel sad, but still smile. If he and her mom were still alive she wouldn't have to deal with this.

She hopped on one foot for a moment until she realized she was the main attraction for the rest stop crowd and limped into the women's restroom. After splashing cold water on her face, she felt a little better and went out to look around at the tourist information.

She bought a coke from the pop machine and was immediately accosted by a pretty Blonde with a big, too-cheerful smile.

"Chicago." Madeline replied tonelessly without looking up from the giant map. She had just found a yellow arrow that said, "You, are here," when the Blonde told her the same thing.

"Okay, I'm here, but where is Nielsen, Nebraska?" Maddy had directed the question to the guide but got no reply. Blonde guide was now immersed in a lecture of the Oregon Trail with a hunky-looking guy from Detroit.

"Abandoned again," Maddy said and sighed, thinking of her ex-boyfriend and her life in general.

Using her finger and following the yellow sticker detour sign, there was Nielsen, Nebraska, fifty miles to go. Relief flooded her and even her toe stopped throbbing. She might make it yet.

All the thoughts and fears she had as she started out on this ill-conceived trip were coming to pass. The fight with her boyfriend, Larry, had started it. People telling her what to do, her friends and her fiancée, it was all terribly frustrating.

"Thanks for stopping by. I think you'll have a wonderful time in Nebraska." The Blonde guide gushed and batted her eyelashes furiously at Mr. Detroit and Maddy walked out of the building.

"I sure hope you're right." Maddy said under her breath, and smiled back. She threw the brochure in the backseat with all her other stuff. The letter she just stared at. Hefting it in her hand she stared at the formal raised print from a law office. Her name and address looked official in bold black letters. Was she crazy for going off on what could be a wild goose chase?

"Well, my life can't get any more screwed up than it is already, so what have I got to lose?" She shoved the letter back in her pocket and started the car. Turning off the hot, air conditioning, she opened all the windows. Carefully backing out of the busy rest stop she pulled back on the Interstate with renewed hope. Here I come, Nielsen, Nebraska.

Nebraska was really flat, and so hot and dry. She tried to remember how long it had been since she'd been here. She shook her head feeling bad she couldn't. She was a city girl now, skyscrapers and wall-to-wall people. She lived right in the middle of the city, close to the public library where she worked. Yes, this was really different than the Chicago scene.

This was practically desolate, although the little valleys that appeared every so often were pretty, with green pastures, cattle and horses grazing and the little towns visible from the off-ramps.

"I wonder if anyone that I know is still living here. And my first boyfriend, what was his name, Alec? No, he's probably moved away by now if he was smart. Nothing was there then, and I doubt much has changed. Well, except that first kiss. That I remember."

It was easy to daydream about her brief stop in Nebraska years before with the radio not working any better than the air conditioner. She realized she was talking to herself again.

"Get a grip, Girl," she chided herself. Seeing a sign that said "Nielsen 12 miles", she could have wept with relief. "Thank you, thank you." Eagerly she headed down a two-lane highway to a trip back to her childhood, the thing that had made her decide to come to Nielsen personally. There had to be more to her life.

Daydreaming about the time she and her folks came through Nebraska and stayed with her elderly great-aunt, made the miles go faster. Only a few vehicles passed her on the two-lane blacktop, a school bus, a tractor pulling a huge wagon of hay bales, and some pick-ups.

Had it only been a few days since she left Chicago? Had she ever really lived here? Was Nielsen High School still around the corner from the post office? And the all important one, where was her first crush, Alec McKay? Answers to questions she'd never expected to ask herself, now were important.

The unexpected letter that arrived had started it. Somewhere inside her she hoped this letter might change things. Maddy tried to press it flat on the seat beside her, smoothing out the crinkles from being smashed in her pocket. It was twelve years ago, and she was enrolled in her first year of High School. One semester amidst a number of unsettled times for her parents before they gave up trying to make it on their own, and went back to a meaningless job in the lucrative family-owned publishing business in Chicago.

But giving up meant they had to rely on family, family that liked to keep everyone in their place and under the thumb of Grandmother Morris. But she never controlled Aunt Madeline. Stories about her were only whispered in the family because she had defied her grandmother.

She barely recalled her father's favorite aunt, actually her great-aunt, who had settled in the little town of Nielsen, Nebraska, and convinced her parents into moving there, too. Aunt Madeline begged Maddy's father to stick it out, not let the other family members tell them what to do. But, her mother had been sickly and with the cost of medical care, it hadn't been enough.

Her father loved his aunt and he often talked fondly about her in later years. But he also needed the security of a job and he had that back in Chicago. He understood Grandmother Morris was protecting her way of life and the family business in the stern way she had been brought up. He also could empathize with Aunt Madeline's views of independence and being an individual. When Maddy's parents moved back home, they were relegated to acceptable status within the family, but not favored.

Madeline was in her 60s then, with rich red hair in a funny hairdo. Everyone in town called her 'Aunt Madeline'. Stubborn but fair, with a kind and friendly personality, she especially doted on Maddy. With a trace of guilt Maddy remembered thinking how old-fashioned her father's dear aunt was, but in all fairness, it seemed so long ago. The thing Maddy did remember was her first boyfriend, and she'd had to leave him behind along with a good portion of her heart.

Today Alec would probably be considered a hunk. Even then he was sweet natured, handsome, golden haired, captain of the football team. All the girls liked Alec, but he had asked her to her first big dance. She hadn't wanted to leave, and they had promised to write faithfully. She wrote every day for months. He called at first and then, after one letter, he disappeared like a mist, leaving what was left of her young heart broken.

"So much for true love, huh?" She said sarcastically to herself, dodging a farm dog that chased her little blue Honda.

Recalling the pang of first love was still sharp even though it had been a long time ago. It actually made her mad all over again. Brushing damp bangs from her forehead she checked the rearview mirror and watched as the dog gave up in a cloud of dust behind her.

"I wonder if he's married. He'd have a beautiful wife and kids by now. I bet he has a house in the country and two cars. Maybe he's a doctor or lawyer-type. That would be just my luck."

* * *

Another water tower loomed up ahead with the name
Nielsen
printed on it. The street names were commonplace, Maple, Elm, Main.

"Okay, now I just need to find one eleven Main Street, Nielsen, Nebraska."

Seeing a tall church steeple ahead, she felt the excitement grow. Just like her great-aunt's house, the town had remained homey and quaint. A statue of a Civil War soldier stood on a pedestal in the town square surveying the area. It stood proudly surrounded by flowers, shrubs and sidewalks, other streets ultimately scattering off into the half dozen side streets filled with other well-kept homes. Surprisingly the town had grown and as she drove in, she'd noticed a large subdivision of neat, modern homes being built. Her aunt’s house sat in an older section of town, further back than the others on the lot with a large yard and old-fashioned wrought-iron fence surrounding it.

The old house loomed large and silent in the afternoon light as she drove by slowly to get a look. Maddy stared thoughtfully, trying to remember it. Somehow she thought it would be different, even bigger. As a child it seemed huge, but now, it was roomy, just the right size. Of course any house was larger and more impressive than her apartment.