All Bedlam Courses Past (part one hundred twenty-six)

All Bedlam Courses Past

Chapter Five

Collecting Debts

(part one hundred twenty-six)

My friends, let me recall to you a time…if you will forgive my speaking not yet of the Great Emancipator, but of those virtues so vital to our Union, that their eternal affirmation was inscribed in the blood of a generation. I too, served the cause of Mr. Lincoln, achieving the rank of first lieutenant in the sixth Indiana cavalry, Army of the Cumberland, under Colonel Biddle. There will be occasions for reminiscence, others besides this day. I don’t speak of the war.

The time I recall is a bittersweet passage, perhaps, but one we must all traverse—that from carefree youth to settled householder.

Élucide, craning under cover of Papa’s coattails, took a careful look at her mother. Meeting eyes would be wrong, noticed possibly by Yeager, who had not gone far. Was it bittersweet though? Married pairs ought to bill and coo into senescence, embarrassing their kin ad nauseum, if courting were the sweeter…

Where, if it were the bitter…

Thinking this, she managed to catch an eye after all, her sister’s.

I hail from Jasper, the town of my early married life. Fern and I lived under my father’s roof, newlyweds at nineteen years. We were country people. I looked after my father’s stock and stables, at my father’s side. My wife rose admirably to her role as lady of the house, for my father had long been widowed.

In Indianapolis, I studied law under Judge Heilmann, an eminent practitioner who became a trusted friend, and at my father’s death, I made our capital my home. By the late fifties, I’d put a portion of my inheritance into the land I own hereabouts, but the rebellion intervened. I was mustered out in ’65, and took up dealings with Henry Nachfolger, who welcomed me kindly to his home and city.

I came to Lincoln Street…to that little house, painted yellow, easy to spot from here…

A pause, for the amusement in Papa’s voice to draw smiles from the crowd.

I came to Lincoln Street, Fern and I, with our children, nine, six, and three years of age.

Élucide bent to the audience, a head-tilt under her hat, with the thought: And here are the consequences before you. [One suppressed snort from a well-wisher.] Remarks on the fine family atmosphere of Cookesville. A humble hope that Dr. and Mrs. Horace, who had taken that yellow house…

“Paid Henry Nachfolger a price for it, which I would not do.” [Laughter.]

…stood regarded a boon to the community. [Scattered amens.]

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Bedlam

All Bedlam Courses Past (part one hundred twenty-seven)

(2024, Stephanie Foster)