Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [25]

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Chapter 25. The Ranch

Claude made it home in about the time it would have taken riding a horse. And driving the automobile was hard work and quickly became tiresome on the long trip from Houston. He planned to go back to Houston the next day, but it would be by train.
    He parked in front of the house and everybody came running out to see the new automobile. James said, “I hope you didn’t trade my horse for that damn contraption.”
    Claude frowned. “Your horse is doing just fine in a stable in San Antonio. I’ll take a man to San Antonio with me tomorrow on my way to Houston. He can bring the horse back.”
    “You’re going back to Houston?” Dominique asked, concerned. She was moving around better, but the birth of their son had been hard on her.
    Claude walked onto the porch, put his arm around her, and started into the house. “I have to go back. They struck oil in Corsicana. I’ll need to get a drilling crew together.”
    James was behind them. “Did you say they hit oil in Corsicana? We’ve got leases there.”
    Claude turned to his father for a moment. “Get the leases and the map out. I’ll meet you in the study as soon as I take Dominique back to our room.”
    In their room, he helped Dominique to the chair by the window, and Rosa came in. “Rosa, could you see that my wife gets something to drink? I’ll be in the study if you need me.” He kissed Dominique on the forehead and started to the study. She put her hand on his and let it slid way.

    In the study, James was already pouring drinks. “The map is on the desk. All the areas where we have leases are marked.”
    Claude went to the desk and looked at the map. “I was afraid of this – no leases downtown. The oil, it happens, is under the town itself. I have Ricardo contacting the men you hired before. Hopefully, we can get some of the homeowners to sign the rights to drill over to us before they’re all gone.”
    “You said you were going back to Houston tomorrow. Why?”
    Claude had his glass turned up, and his month was full of whiskey. He swallowed and said, “I have to put a drilling crew together. I also have a prefabricated steel drilling tower coming into Houston by rail in three days. I got the idea from Eiffel and his tower. Prefabrication was how they constructed the tower – a number of components shipped to the site and assembled. But I still need to get the rigging, the drill bit, and a crew ready by then. I’d planned to put everything together over the next month, when I thought we had more time. But now it looks like the race has started.”
    “What about your family? Are you taking them with you?”
    Claude set his empty glass on the desk. “I was hoping they could stay here with you. Dominique isn’t well enough to make a move like that.”
    “This is their home, and they’ll be well taken care of. Besides, I have gotten used to the sound of children in the house and would miss it.” James sipped his drink, looking over the top of the glass at his son. “You haven’t said how things are between you and Ricardo.”
    Claude picked up his empty glass and walked to the bar. “It seems to be okay for now. It’s not like he is happy about the way things have turned out, but I think he knows there isn’t anything to be done about it. Besides, he’s a money man. He won’t lose money over hurt feelings.”
    James kicked back in his chair and put his feet up on the corner of his desk. “Is there anything I can do to help move things along?”
    “Not right now. In fact, I wish I could slow things down a little. I’m taking the map and leases with me. I believe we need to open an office in Houston, so I plan to book a suite at the Royal Houston Hotel. I’ll see how much they want for a year’s rent, because we may want to keep it. If this oil strike is as big as I think it is, finding a place to stay in Houston will become impossible.”
    “You’re in charge of this oil thing. You run it your way. I’m here if you need me.”
    Claude smiled. “I’ll remind you of those words if we go broke.”
    They finished their drinks while looking at the map and wondering where the next strike would be.
    It was close to 11 o’clock when Claude returned to Dominique, who was in bed, having given Trey his late-night feeding before Rosa took him back with her to the children’s room, where she had a bed also.

    Dominique watched Claude undress and felt a deep longing for him to hold her. “Hurry to bed. I need to feel your arms around me and hear you say everything is going to be all right.”
    He slid under the cover and she laid her head on his chest. He had one arm under her and was running his fingers through her hair. “Everything will be fine. Once you are back on your feet, we’ll buy a house in Houston and live there part-time and here part-time. We’ll always be a family, and I’ll always love you.”
    She raised herself and kissed him. “You became my entire life the moment we met. I don’t want to be in a world without you.”
    “You have given me more than I could ever have hoped for: two beautiful babies and a love I never thought I would know. I can’t express the love I have you, my darling Dominique.”
    The next morning he and a young ranch hand drove back to San Antonio where he paid the stable owner and watched the ranch hand ride off on his house. He realized at that moment how much his life had changed. He had always thought of himself as a cattleman. Not that he really was, but it was what his father was, so he must be one also. He didn’t even know the name of the young man riding off on his horse, and, even worse, he didn’t care to know.

    He stored his auto – he didn’t like the term “horseless carriage” – and headed toward the train station. His overpowering feeling that the world had changed in the blink of an eye wouldn’t leave him. He felt jubilation and freedom, but, in the pit of his stomach, he also felt afraid. One wrong step, one slip of the tongue, and everything might be lost. He began to rethink his relationship with Ricardo.
    By the time the train was halfway to Houston, Claude knew there was no one he could trust outside of his wife and father, and he wasn’t sure how much information he could share even with them. He was alone, trapped within his own thoughts.

Copyright © 2019 by Ed Rogers