Beyond the Valley Gate Two

By David R. Odell and Natalie Davis

Welcome Home

Sitting on the steps of his cabin Dakota Walker Randell sipped his coffee as he looked toward the mountains. He had never expected his family to throw him a party when he started spending more time at home. Still it would have been nice if they had at least been happy to see him. His kids didnt really know him, his ex-wife wasnt talking to him even Susan was ignoring him. All he had for company was the dog and he wasnt even sure where the dog had come from. It was hard to explain the dog was just there at the cabin when he was in the valley.
Dakota was a man who had to set things straight with his family but that was not going to be as easy as he had hoped. After all where do you start? What do you say to your children and their mothers?
He had parked his truck for a time because his father and uncle had asked for his help. They hadnt told him what they needed his help with. Over the years the valley had changed it was a place for tourists these days Dakota wasnt sure he liked that.
He wasnt sure being around his ex-wife and his ex-girlfriend at the same time really sound like a fun time to him. Those two women were not the sharing type years earlier. He was sure they were not going to be in a sharing mood now. He should have stayed in his truck but he had said he would help the family.
If he was going to keep his word he was going to have to stay around. If he was going to have any company at all while he was in the valley it looked like the dog was going to have to learn how to talk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483627632

David R. Odell

I am David Robert Odell I was born in Springfield Massachusetts 71 years ago. I started writing when I was thirteen years old. Back then I wrote westerns because that is what my Father liked to read.I was the oldest of four children, my Dad was a truck driver and my Mom a hair dresser. We moved around a lot as my Dad changed jobs. Though we were pour we never wanted for anything our lives were good.I spent summers on my Uncle's farm learning to care for the animals. At the age of thirteen I found out that I had Epilepsy which changed the way I saw myself which is another reason I started to write.I have been married twice, the first time for five years and the second time for forty-four years so far. I have eight children, two girls and six boys. I have quite a few grandchildren as well as some great-grandchildren. I spent most of my life in Massachusetts and the last twenty years in Ohio. I spent my life working in factories or on farms or both from time to time. Now that I am retired my wife and I do foster care.

Book preview

LOOKING BACK

Dakota Walker Randell sat in his rig looking at the rising sun. His life had not started out all that bad his mother was a teacher his father a preacher in a small church. He had a twin sister who he thought the world of it wasn’t perfect but it was a whole lot more than other people had. They were not a rich family but they were happy which counted more than money.

By the time his sister and he were twelve their mother was dead their father was a drunk. His sister had been taken to live with their Aunt Karen. Their Aunt Penny had moved out of the valley and gone to Denver. Dakota had cared for his father but he was not alone he had his best friend his cousin Ash as well as the other children who lived in the valley.

From the beginning it seemed there was always Susan. He never called her Sue or Susie always Susan. Right there that should have told him something though he couldn’t tell you what. It should at least have told him that he had trouble there. Maybe he should have known that from the first, there was just something about her. By the time they graduated high school their wedding day was set.

His father had stopped drinking then remarried. He had married his Aunt Penny Mom’s younger sister. Dakota had been happy for them they had both been alone and now they were happy he could find nothing wrong with that.

Dakota thought about his own love life he had not done as well so far. Susan ran off right before their wedding no one knew where she had gone or why. He didn’t handle her disappearance well it was said by some he never really dealt with it at all.

He left the valley with Marcie they had some laughs got married, she had a son then she died. Dakota went home to his son but he knew he wouldn’t stay he couldn’t not then. He married again this time to Harley he told her he would change. He never did.

They had four children and his son from his first marriage Harley cared for them all. Dakota never spent much time at home he always had a load of something going somewhere. One more long haul one more trip he had to make then he would slow down. He would spend some time at home he would just make one more run. The problem was there had always been one more run for him to make.

In nineteen seventy-nine Harley kicked him out of the house sending him to the cabin at Russell’s Bridge she had finally had enough. Now it was nineteen eighty-six Dakota still was living in that cabin when he was home. Now he had met his daughter Rachael a daughter he had never known about, Susan’s daughter.

Rachael and her mother had gone back to the valley to live with Susan’s parents in that big house at the far end of the valley. Susan was there, Harley was there and all of his children were there too. There were other reasons he should be there as well but they were not as important as his children.

Maybe it was time to go home and find out just where he really did belong. Maybe it was already too late to go home he would never know unless he tried. He kept going over it in his mind until he finally fell asleep a half cup of coffee in his hand.

CHAPTER ONE

It was just after first light when Dakota saddled his horse. He led the horse to the porch where his coffee cup was sitting on the top step. Picking up the cup he sat on the top step then sipped the hot black liquid. He had thought a lot about his family over the last few weeks. It seemed that his family was waiting to see what he was going to do next.

Dakota finished his coffee then took the cup back into the cabin setting it in the sink. Walking back outside he mounted his horse then headed down the road. He took his time there was no rush his Father and his Daughter would not leave without him. It was not that he had been doing anything special as of late. The truth as he had not left the valley in a month.

He had been working around the cabin fixing fence, caring for his horses as well as starting work on a new barn. He had marked out the ground where the new barn would stand. He had plans to add a room or two to the cabin as well. If he was going to do everything he had planned on he was going to have to stay home.

It was not easy for him to stay away from his job he liked driving his tractor trailer. The trouble was things in his life had changed he needed time to sort things out. He needed to be home there were things he had to do like get to know his six children. Rachael was nineteen, David was seventeen, Denise was sixteen, and Joshua was fourteen while Barbara and Warren were thirteen. Rachael lived with her mother Susan and her Grandparents at the Martin house. While Rachael worked at the Hope Restaurant as a waitress sometimes cook. The restaurant was owned by his Uncle Mark.

His son David was working at the Leather Shop which was owned by Uncle Jack. Though David was only seventeen it was old enough to work in the Leather Shop. They made everything from belts to saddles most of it was made to order. He liked the work and the independence that seemed to come with it.

Dakota rode slowly down the road from the cabin toward town thinking about how life had changed in the valley over the last twenty years. Most of the changes had come because his Sister and Brother-in-law had worked hard to rebuild the town. He had helped from time to time but not enough to really leave his mark on anything. His parents lived in the parsonage; his Father was the pastor of the church again.

Riding up the road into the town of Hope he stopped by the church looking at the buildings that lined the only street of the town. The church was old the parsonage beside it was new. There were two schools now a two room school house that held grades one through four as well as five through eight. The old building had grades nine through twelve. His sister Liz was the principle of the school as well as the teacher of grades nine through twelve. His sister Kim Harris taught grades one through four. Grades five through eight were taught by his cousin Pamela Fields.

Nick Martin and his wife Shannon ran the feed store while Brian Thornton owned the barber shop which was run by his wife Gina and Robin Wilson. Next was the gun shop which was owned and operated by Ash Wilson a fitting job for Ash. He may have mellowed out a little over the years but not as much as he liked people to think.

The hotel which he owned his ex-wife Harley had named the Randell House was managed by Harley. Karen Harris was the desk clerk while Linda King was the chamber maid. The place did a fair business all things considered they paid the taxes and the help with a little left over.

The jail came next a lot of work had been done to restore the building. There were wanted posters in the window as well as inside on the bulletin board. There were three cells which could hold prisoners if they had to. The desk, chair and rifle rack had all been restored.

The Golden Slipper saloon was owned and managed by April Wilson. She had restored both the upstairs and the bar to look as it had when it was first built. She had three waitresses and a bartender working for her. Though there was no real gambling allowed there was almost always a card game going on at one of the tables.

The new Doctors Office came next Larry Travis owned the building as well as running his practice out of there. DR. Clifton Huff also practiced out of the office as well having an office in Willow Ridge. Both men worked at the hospital in Willow Ridge as well. There were three nurses and two receptionists also working in the office.

A Post Office /telegraph office had been built and it was owned by the town. Cathy Easton ran the post office while Emma Randell ran the telegraph. Cathy also delivered mail to all the houses in the valley including his cabin. She made all her deliveries in a buckboard which was covered with canvas.

Next came the Wagon Barn owned by William Greene. He had two carpenters working with him Jason Randell and Mitch Jackson. The three men built every part of the new wagons. They also restored old wagons when they found them or when people outside the valley asked them too.

The next building was also a new building it was the lawyer’s office. James Wilson owned the building. Both James and his son Eric worked out of the office.

Susan Martin was the office secretary she might not have liked the idea at first but it had turned out that she liked it more than she thought she would.

One the other side of the street the first building was the old leather shop. The building was owned by his Uncle Jack he was also the man who worked the leather making just about anything people ordered. David was working for him learning the business something that would at least keep him close to home.

Next on that side of the street was the general store. This was owned by Martin Post a new comer to the valley. He had spent a summer helping to rebuild some of the buildings before he built a house then bought the store. His wife Anna worked in the store with him in the store as a clerk. They were a fine couple with four teenage children.

Chuck Thornton owned and operated the newspaper office with the help of his wife Mary. They had restored the old printing press as well as collecting all the old books in town. With the books that they collected they started the town library in the rooms above the office. Mary acted as the librarian when she was not helping put out the paper.

Dakota’s Uncle Mark Randell owned the Randell Family Restaurant which was the next building on that side of the street. He had worked hard to get it back into shape a job that took almost two years. He had three employees all of them family. In Hope working with family could almost not be avoid as most of the people were related in one way or another.

After the restaurant came the dress shop owned and operated by his Aunt Karen Wilson. She had sold her home in Willow Ridge then moved back to the valley to be closer to the family. She had bought a house fixed it up then found herself with nothing to do. Her husband James was now a judge in Willow Ridge which meant she was home alone all day something she did not like. That was when she bought the dress shop just to stay busy. Once she started making dresses she found she liked it.

Douglas Randell was a new comer to the valley who had been researching his family tree back in his home in Kentucky when he learned about the valley. With his wife and five young children he had come to visit the valley one summer and had never left. He built a house then the drugstore he said he belonged to the forgotten part of the family tree.

Beside the drugstore stood the hardware store owned and operated by his Uncle Blake Colton and Aunt Brenda. They had seen a chance to be a part of something special in the valley. With the help of most of the people in town they built a house then the drugstore.

Another new building in town was the stage depot run by his cousin Hank Parker and his wife Mary. They had found an old stage that had been built for the old western movies in the fifties. Now they gave people rides up and down the valley. People could park their car just inside the valley then take the stage into Hope. The stage ran up and down the valley several times a day.

Dakota’s cousin Roger Colton and his son Dave ran the livery stable which they had restored to what old picture of the town showed it to have looked like. Dakota was glad they had taken over the old place where he had kept his horses while he had worked on that old jeep when he was young. There had been a lot of bad memories that went with that building but now that was changing.

The last business on that side of the street was the blacksmith shop owned and run by his cousin Gary Harris. His nephew Donald worked with his father learning the trade. Gary had given up his job at the lumber yard to become part of the new growth of the town.

There were nine old houses in the town as well as four new ones. The street was longer than it had been when he was a kid. It was good to see the town coming back to life though he was not sure he liked the crowds of strangers walking the street every day.

Dakota sat looking at the town thinking it might be nice if he could get a cup of coffee. He heard the horses walking up behind him it was his Father, his Uncle Jack and his daughter Rachael. Without a word the four of them rode out of town heading down the valley.

Harley Randell walked out of the hotel and looked at her step-son David who was sitting in a chair. I thought you were going to work.

I thought I was too but Uncle Jack just rode out of town with Grandpa, Dad and Rachael. He told her wondering what the three men were up to.

I wonder what that is all about. She said more to herself than her son.

I don’t know but if I had to guess I would guess they have a plan to get him to stay in the valley. It won’t work whatever it is he is a truck driver and that is all that is important to him. David told her.

Let me know when they get back I will be in the office working on the bills it is that time again. Harley told him then went back into the hotel.

David sat looking down the street toward the place where the three men and Rachael had disappeared from sight as they rode down to the road that ran the length of the valley. Things for him had not changed much except that he had an older sister now. Rachael was okay though he really did not know her all that well. He knew her as well as he knew his Father. That was not something he was proud of but it was the way that things were. He could have gone on trips during the summer with his Father but he was always too busy or to mad at his Father.

The three men and Rachael rode down the road toward the mouth of the valley a Border collie dog walking with them.