The café owner declared
emphatically , that very moment, the two of them were heading down to the local
dress shop to buy Anna Jane a new dress – and for some inconceivable reason,
the woman made the new dress Anna Jane’s pay for the week.
This did not sit well at all with
Anna Jane’s father. The boys were doing
their part, working the farm. She was
supposed to do her part, earning money at the café and delivering that pay to
her father for the family – not buying selfish items for herself.
Without a word of discussion on the
matter, she was kicked out of her family home; and she had been living at the
hotel there in Greeley ever since. She
paid for her room with what money she made from the café; and the lady owner of
the café felt somewhat responsible, so she gave her meals at no cost.
Oftentimes with the gallant young
man, whenever hearing such damsel-in-distress stories, the young man’s
chivalrous nature will rise up, seeking to right the wrong and save the
beautiful princess from the dragon. Such
was certainly no different a matter facing Oscar, listening to Anna Jane tells
her tale. He wished to help her; but
how? Was there anything he could
do? And if so, what?
One thing he knew for certain was
he definitely wished to continue seeing the girl; which they naturally did; and
the more they saw of one another, the more they talked and the more he
learned. This was a young woman of
incredible inner strength, who never uttered a single harsh word against her
father, nor expressed outrage at the injustice of it all. There existed a measure of pain in between
the words, a sadness he felt simpatico with due to his own family troubles,
which made her humanity all that more appealing.
Anna Jane could not continue living
in a hotel room forever; yet what could be done? What should be done? The thought of asking the input of others:
his partner, some of the men he knew in town, the café owners who knew Anna
Jane longest – he considered, but quickly dismissed when recalling his own
family troubles back in Kansas. The
people he should have been closest to, they chided him ceaselessly over his
interest in mechanics, rather than the farming.
Why should people in Colorado prove to be any different?
His family’s argument stemmed from
the fact Oscar came from a long line of farmers. He was meant to be applying his energies tilling
the land, raising the crops, tending to the farm animals. Let others waste time with these foolish
motorcar contraptions!
No, Oscar would ponder over how to
help Anna Jane on his own. Coloradoans
were probably no different to the Kansans back home. If Anna Jane were an automobile, it would
prove a simple matter of applying basic mechanical reasoning to discern the
trouble. His confidence in his mechanical ability had grown significantly in
the short time. Yet Anna Jane was no
automobile, and troubles like hers were more substantial than something
contained underneath the automobile’s hood.
Ironically, as Oscar mused over
these family problems, the similarities between with what he faced, and what
she was forced to endure, were eerily striking.
One night following a typical walk
home, Anna Jane dropped a bombshell into Oscar’s lap. She told him her older brother Eddie
contacted her, informing her of his intent for moving to California on the next
train heading out of Greeley. There were
two tickets in his hands – one, of which, was for her passage.
Accompanying this startling news
was a simple piece of paper she handed Oscar as they parted that evening. On it was written the address she and her
brother would be staying at in Long Beach California. She hoped he would write.
The next day, the girl was gone.
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