When The Dust Settles

By Barbara Scott

1935
Jolene Jensen was so weary of fighting the never ending dust storms that became the ruination of her family’s farm in northwest Kansas. When dust pneumonia finally took her family, it was time to leave. The bank took the farm and everything in it besides her most personal belongings, and there was nothing left to stay for. She dreamed of lush, verdant land with clean air and blue skies. But where would that be? Where could she get a job during the Depression? The roads and railways were full of unemployed men looking from town to town for work. How would a woman fare in such a search?
*
Dylan Garrison was in quite a pickle. His wife had died giving birth two weeks ago and now he had a newborn baby girl to look after. And he didn’t know what to do or how to take care of her. She cried pitifully and never stopped. In town one day speaking with the owner of the general store, he asked his good friend, “What am I to do? She won’t stop crying!” And that’s when his saving grace walked through the door and took over...completely. His life would never be the same.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barbara Scott
• Release date: Jan 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781733343800

Book preview

When The Dust Settles

By Barbara Scott

Chapter One

Heaven’s Hollow, Kansas

1935

The dust, the infernal, never ending, and insidious dirt and dust that insinuated itself into every miniscule crack and crevice of the house. It was ever present no matter how many times one swept it out the door. During a dust storm, it would be back within five minutes, taunting those within who already suffered fits of coughing from working the wheat fields.

It defied the imagination as to how one might escape its deleterious effects; the wearing of scarves or handkerchiefs was the only manner in which one could diminish, if at all, breathing the powdered plague into the lungs. It was almost demonic.

Jolene Jensen was woefully tired of doing battle with it, and felt a fair amount of guilt that she was mostly able to stay indoors thereby escaping the constant exposure that her father and brothers had to face. Bless her mother’s heart, she insisted on doing the outdoor chores of feeding the animals, collecting eggs, and the like, so Jolene didn’t have to battle the wind and dust. Jolene argued and pleaded with her mother to relent as she felt being younger meant a greater immunity to the obvious health hazards.

I won’t hear of it, Jolene, now stop pestering me about it. Someone has to stay healthy to take care of the rest of us if we fall ill. Don’t forget it’s laundry day, all right? Better get started so the clothes can hopefully dry before the boys come in for dinner.

Augh, laundry day, she thought. She wished sometimes that she had a camera with which to take pictures of the house on laundry day. It looked like an immense Cat’s Cradle with rope crisscrossed around the parlor and dining room as clothes lines. There was no way clothes could be hung outside to dry.

Later that afternoon, Jolene was keeping an eye on a pot of potato soup and rising bread dough on the kitchen counter while she took down the clothes that had already dried. She heard it before the door even opened; the coughing and painful hacking. It was her father. She ran to the kitchen door and opened it so her father and two brothers could enter while she quickly shut it behind them.

Pa, that cough is getting worse. I think it’s time to go see the doctor, don’t you?

Jolene, it’s nothing. It’s just a dry throat, is all. What’s for dinner?

Jolene’s younger brother, Jim, was also coughing. That blasted wind and dust is enough to make a man go crazy! Get me a drink of water, Sis?

She and her oldest brother, John, exchanged looks of concern that their youngest sibling was also at risk for what was called dust pneumonia. Farmers were falling ill with it all over the county. Just last week Mr. Reddick, a couple of farms over, passed away from the malady. What if her pa and brothers were to succumb to the disease? Roland Jensen was a strong man but he was getting on in years and wasn’t the work horse he used to be. The thought of losing her pa was too much to even contemplate. She would be lost without him.

Answering her pa’s previous question, she said, Potato soup and fresh yeast rolls. Now get yourselves cleaned up and I’ll put the rolls in the oven.

That night she could hear her father lying in bed, coughing and unable to catch his breath. Surely it would rain soon. It had to. Jolene didn’t think her father could make it much longer without some relief.

~

Two months had gone by and Jolene’s worst nightmare had come true. Her pa had passed away. She had no time to grieve as her mother and little brother also had pneumonia, and the doctor told her that she and John should prepare themselves for the possibility that they too would follow her pa.

One day between nursing her mother and little brother, John, the oldest, sat her down at the kitchen table and began a conversation she was loath to have.

"Sis, I can’t handle everything. Hell, it was really more than me, Jim, and Pa could handle. Nothing is growing out there. We’ve been crazy to think anything would. There’s no rain in sight. It’s been wasted faith to think we’d get enough rain to save a crop.

We need to start thinking of what we’re going to do after . . . well, you know, if Mama and Jim pass on.

Jolene was aghast. What? I refuse to even acknowledge what you just said! How can you even think that way? You know our neighbors will help out with whatever needs to be done for a while. We can’t just give up!

Sis, stop being so emotional and start thinking practically. Pa is gone. Mama and Jim are deathly ill, the doctor said so. I’m sorry but as the man of the family now, I’ve got to plan for any possibility. You understand that, don’t you?

Jolene broke down in tears. "I guess so, Johnny, but the thought hurts so badly that I just don’t have the energy to carry the hurt and take care of Mama and Jim. Please don’t take my hope away."

~

Hope can be a cruel thing in the face of so much evidence that one’s prayers are going to be denied. Until her mother’s last breath, Jolene hoped and prayed to no avail. She and John buried their beloved Mama next to their father, hoping the dirt wouldn’t blow away from their graves.

Jim would have good days and then bad until one morning he coughed so hard one of his lungs collapsed. His other lung was in such bad shape that before the doctor ever arrived their little brother had gone to be with Mama and Pa. John had been right. They would have to plan on what to do with the mess that had once been Pa’s dream.

John let two days pass after Jim’s funeral before he approached Jolene with the prospect of moving on.

"Sis, put on a pot of coffee and let’s sit at the kitchen table and talk, all right? We need to start moving forward.

I contacted the bank right after Pa passed away and it looks like they’ll foreclose on the farm. There’s nothing to be done about it. All the furniture and whatever is not of personal necessity will be auctioned off with the house. I know this is painful, Sis. I know how you are feeling because I’m feeling the same way, but reality has set in and we can’t ignore it any longer.

Jolene sat gripping her coffee cup, valiantly trying to keep her tears from falling. John took her hand and tried to comfort her. I was thinking we might go to California, where there is no damned wind and dust. What do you say, huh?

Jolene looked into Johnny’s eyes and knew her brother had already made up his mind. But Calfornia? She had no desire to go there. Actually, she had been daydreaming of going east. She had heard the Depression wasn’t quite as painful near Washington, D.C. Because of the climate, people could live off the land, and barter with each other for various foods and other necessities.

No, Johnny, I won’t go with you to California. But you go. I can see the notion has been taking shape in your mind for a while. You go on. I’m going east. I’ll be fine. I’m old enough to take care of myself.

Then brother and sister sat just staring at one another, weighing the possible consequences of traveling alone. John definitely didn’t want Jolene to travel alone and thought about forcing her to travel with him so he could keep an eye on her.

Sis, I’m not going to let you….

Jolene put her hand up to stop him from going further. Johnny, you heard me. You’ll have your adventure and I’ll have mine. I’ll dress like a man and ride the rails. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

Sis, the men who ride the rails can be dangerous. You’ll have to watch your back every single second. Do you think you can handle that? Do you really think you can? No, it’s not going to happen. You’re going with me, and that’s the end of it.

Jolene nodded and remained silent for a while before getting up to start dinner. Later, Johnny would walk down the road to visit Sally Collins, for possibly the last time. She knew he would be gone a good while. When he closed the door behind him, Jolene sat down at the piano and started playing a Bach prelude. Would she ever have the opportunity to play the piano again? The thought of never again gliding her fingers over piano keys brought tears to her eyes.

Becoming too maudlin, Jolene got up and walked to her bedroom where she allowed herself a minute or two to inhale the lingering fragrance of her favorite perfume, and to look at her treasures one more time. After committing it all to memory, she removed a sheet from her bed, cut a good sized square from it, and collected what was possible to comfortably carry. She would carry her own bindle just like the ones she had seen in newspaper pictures of unfortunate men who traveled from town to town looking for work. She grinned when she thought of herself as a bindlestick which was what the wandering homeless were called.

In the end, she bundled her parents’ wedding rings, her mother’s ruby necklace and earrings, two tortoise shell combs, a brush and comb, a tooth brush, the family Bible, one dress, two pair of clean underwear, clean socks, a piece of soap, a small pad of paper and a pencil, and a chunk of charred wood from the wood stove. The rest would be auctioned off at foreclosure.

Then she went into Jim’s bedroom and rifled through his clothes, looking for items that might fit her loosely enough to hide her being a female. A pair of overalls should do it and they had plenty of pockets for storage. Perhaps she would also wear trousers under the overalls.

His boots were only a bit too large but she could stuff the toes with newspaper. His cherished Stetson hat fit her perfectly and into the top she would stuff her long chestnut hair. At the last minute, she remembered needing a strip of sheeting with which to bind her breasts. Looking in the mirror when she was done, she was satisfied that she could pass for a young man. After leaving town she would use the charred wood to create an acceptable five o’clock shadow.

Bringing her bundle downstairs, she looked for Mama’s wooden yardstick that she would use as her bindle stick. She looked longingly one more time at her beloved piano, wiped the tears from her eyes, and moved on to the kitchen where she took half of the money that was in a jar next to the stove. With her hand on the door knob, she stopped and thought for a few seconds. Should she? Deciding it was the best choice, she opened the dining room hutch and withdrew her pa’s Remington pistol and a box of bullets. She stuffed the pistol in the waistband of her trousers under the overalls so no one would be the wiser. As she would close the drawer, she spied a pocket knife and knew it would come in handy.

Walking toward the kitchen door to start her journey, she loaded the pockets of her overalls and shirt with apples, cheese and nuts. If she was very frugal, she could afford to buy food until she found work. At least she hoped so.

Taking the final steps toward her future, she prayed that a neighbor might pick her up and take her to town. If not, it would be a long and dusty walk down the road.

Goodbye, Johnny. May God bless and keep you.

~

After she had walked approximately two miles, Jolene heard an automobile driving up from behind. Looking expectantly over her shoulder, she was pleased to see Mrs. Hawthorne slowing to a stop.

Son, you need a ride?

Hello, Mrs. Hawthorne. It’s me, Jolene Jensen. Can you please give me a ride into town?

"Well, I swan,