In Those Days Book 2 On the Run

By Dusty Kohl

Nellie loved her parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. When they fled crop failure back home to find a temporary living in Oklahoma, all of them believed they could pull through the worst of circumstances. Instead, they barely scraped by with enough to eat.

Nellie’s aunts teased her about becoming an old maid. “They filled my head with romance and other nonsense.” As oldest daughter, her mother married but remained at home with the extended family. That’s what oldest daughters did in her family from generation to generation. That’s what she knew of family life. As far as she knew, that would someday be her role, too. In this book, she tells of how that role was taken from her and what she wound up with in its place.

On the run for his life since kidnapping and marrying her, Nellie is dragged along when her husband fears death at the hand of her father. From boardinghouses, to cheap hotel rooms, and then a winter in a boxcar, she’s had enough and demands a decent roof over their heads before the baby comes. Nellie makes many new friends along the way. Her trail of friends irritates her spouse, except for whatever he can get from them. She learns that survival isn’t only about the base necessities for living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dusty Kohl
• Release date: Jun 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310216091

Dusty Kohl

Dusty Kohl taught as a classroom teacher and reading specialist for nearly two decades. He began writing poems and short stories during his own elementary school days. Dusty is one in a long line of storytellers of oral traditions from family history. When he isn’t remodeling, landscaping or kicking back with his dogs, he’s out people watching and interacting. His goal is to keep his storyline characters realistic while his plots take twists, turns, and surprises.

Book preview

In Those Days

Book 2

On the Run

Second in the series

Copyright 2015 Dusty Kohl

Published by Dusty Kohl at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Table of Contents

Other books in this series

Introduction from Dusty Kohl

Book 2 On the Run

Chapter 1 Foolish Mistake

Chapter 2 Shawnee

Chapter 3 Yukon

Chapter 4 The Boxcar

Chapter 5 Enid

Epilogue

About the Author

Connect with Dusty Kohl

Acknowledgements

Books from the series In Those Days

Novels from the series Swim Coach

Other books from Dusty Kohl

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Other books in this series by Dusty Kohl include:

In Those Days Book 1 The Ties That Bind

In Those Days Book 2 On the Run

In Those Days Book 3 Hiding from the Great World War

In Those Days Book 4 Where Home Is

Other books in this series will be published soon.

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Introduction from Dusty Kohl

This is Book 2 of the series, In Those Days. It begins after Book #1 which is In Those Days Book 1 The Ties That Bind. Book 1 carries my deepest introduction and the first eight chapters of the series. I strongly urge that this series be read in numerical order.

Nellie loved her parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. When they fled crop failure back home to find a temporary living in Oklahoma, all of them believed they could pull through the worst of circumstances. Instead, they barely scraped by to eat.

Her grandfather led the exodus with twelve other families from East Texas. He and her father felt responsible for their family and for those who came along with them. They knew only one man in the new state. He allowed them to camp on his land near Cement. Their struggle would have gone unnoticed except for the welcoming preacher from a local church. One affluent family hired her mother and grandmother. Their pay was what they needed the most, food.

Nellie’s aunts teased her about becoming an old maid. They filled my head with romance and other nonsense. As oldest daughter, her mother married but remained at home with the extended family. That’s what oldest daughters did in her family from generation to generation. That’s what she knew of family life. As far as she knew, that would someday be her role, too.

In this book, she tells of how that role was taken from her and what she wound up with in its place.

In 1909, my grandmother was kidnapped and married at the age of fourteen. She raised five children from a husband who never really did right by her. Yet, she guided her family through World War I, The Great Depression of Dust Bowl Oklahoma, The Okie Migration to California, World War II, Korea, and Viet Nam. She was a fighter and a survivor. She had to be.

This book is based on the stories Grandma told me repeatedly through the years. It is not my intention to give an accurate day to day biography of her life. I changed all of the names for the privacy of the descendants. Some characters became amalgamated among the stories. A few people I simply omitted as they did not play a significant role in her life. So any resemblance to people either living of dead should be taken as purely coincidental and not as fact. Some of the stories worked well together, accordingly I combined them for the sake of text.

Places and events Grandma described to me prove to be historically accurate. I’ve visited and researched those. Not surprisingly, her accounts of detail were amazing. Her mind was sharp. Even at ninety years old, she could still recite the known genealogy of her parents and her husband, giving dates and details of births, children, marriages, deaths and burial places. She was a resource for the publication of her husband’s father’s genealogy.

I can never go back to those wonderful years I spent with her. So many of her stories I’d love to hear her tell again. Here I am trying to write those stories so other people can learn about her life. Perhaps they can even learn a few lessons about life from her as I did. By the time you finish reading these books, you may come to know What’s it all about? from the life she lived in those days.

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Chapter 1 Foolish Mistake

Britt sped the surrey much too fast for my comfort. I said nothing. I was too busy trying to figure out how I got in this fix. Sunset was almost on us. We headed southeast going through three little towns or at least what would one day be towns. He determined to make it to Paul's Valley by nightfall. I couldn’t see the sunset behind us, though I tried.

Foolish mistake, kept running through my mind.

It was going to be just as Aunt Hattie predicted. Bobby Anderson proposed to Aunt Lotar. They planned a double wedding when the families returned home. If and when. In the meantime, there were no prospects of a husband for me there. No boys my age back home and the older ones were married. I would surely wind up an old maid like Hattie foretold.

Looking back on the whole situation years later, I realize Hattie and Lotar filled my head with romance and other such ridiculous nonsense. I should’ve stayed with my parents. My Mamma needed me!

I thought after Britt and I were married, we’d return to my life with my family. After all, hadn’t his family kicked him out? He had other plans for reasons not soon to become obvious. I tried to focus on the buggy. Black with fringes and high quality as ’twas, I assumed he rented it. His big black horse galloped, nearly running. The small streams we crossed did not much slow her pace. She seemed to take them without hesitation at such a jumble I needed to hang on and brace myself when I saw them coming.

About half-past six, Britt informed me. We’re almost th..there. It was past sunset. What little daylight left looked eerie. I thought it would be a good night for one of Grandpa’s scary stories. Like The Headless Horseman, which was less scary than it was a tale about bullying and the cowardice of giving into being bullied.

When we rolled into town, Paul's Valley, the horse slowed to keep her footing on the brick streets. Britt drove straightaway to a particular house. He helped me step down out of the buggy, gentleman that he was. He knocked on the door, greeted the man who answered it, and introduced me as his fiancée.

She’s a might young, ain’t she? asked the minister.

Britt responded quickly, My b..bride’s of age. This is the woman I told you ’bout.

I started to correct him about my age. I was fourteen! He wrapped my waist with one arm and pulled me up hard next to him. Fear gripped me all over. Breathless. Scared.

The minister’s home looked nice enough. His wife held rich taste. Obvious. A candle chandelier hung in the dining room. Lit, it reflected on mirrors and gold embossed deep red wallpaper in both rooms. The large front room showed signs of being used in a recent meeting with several rows of simple wooden chairs facing away from us. The heavy dark wood trim based the walls at the floor, topped the walls at the ceiling, and divided the walls midway. I’d never seen carpet that went wall to wall. The green floral print witnessed particular wear patterns from the front door to the dining room, and witnessed the sun's bleaching below the window.

Ya’ll might as well c’mon in, invited the minister. We did. The small tables in the front room were stained mahogany like the wall trim, and displayed expensive things like a Tiffany lamp. It cast its brilliant colors randomly through the room. A wooden box on the wall caught my attention. From it swung a black cord attached to a black handle hung from the side of it. A small crank protruded from that side as well as a cone from the lower front. Noticeable was a large round table whose tilted top faced us. Several different woods inlaid the top in a rose pattern. The carved feet of the single pedestal looked like eagle’s claws and held large clear glass balls.

Papa and Grandpa were still at work. Aunt Lotar went with Grandma and Mamma to help Mrs. Galvany. The doctor’s wife took a strong liking to us and seemed to come up with chores she didn’t favor from time to time. None of us complained as she always paid well with things we needed, like chickens, eggs, whole milk, bacon, and even beef. They seemed to have more than they needed. I think she felt sorry for us and wanted to help. But I do know we worked hard chores to earn those things. None of my parents nor my grandparents would’ve accepted charity. No. We worked. Aunt Hattie planned to put the children to bed and tell the folks that I retired early. Tomorrow morning she’d catch what-for, without a doubt.

Pay mind, Nellie, Britt’s stern voice snapped me back into reality.

Do you, Nellie Collins, take this man to be your lawful wedded husband? To love, honor and obey him, to stand by him for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others as long as ye both shall live, until death do ye part, so help you God?

Britt nudged me, Say, ‘I do.’ He prompted.

Our wedding was over. So this is what it was like to be married. Didn’t seem much more never-you-mind than changing my socks. Certainly were no bells and no whistles as Hattie promised.

Britt paid the minister with coin money. He received a piece of paper from him. We mounted back in the surrey and drove slowly over the brick roads for the sake of the horse and my body being rattled. He pulled up in front of the local boarding house or hotel I guess ’twas. He paid for a room at the front desk. We went upstairs to the rented room. He kissed me. I’d never