Carson Chronicles: The First Three Novels by Heldt John A

Author:Heldt, John A. [Heldt, John A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 49: NATALIE

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – Saturday, September 7, 1918

Natalie watched with interest and amusement as Emma Bauer Jackson carried a bottle of whiskey and four tumblers to her kitchen table. She could see that times had changed in twenty-nine years. She stifled a laugh when Emma placed the bottle on the table and distributed the glasses to four people, including two eighteen-year-olds.

"Emma?"

"Yes?"

"I have a question," Natalie said.

"Oh? What's that?"

"When did the prim-and-proper preacher's daughter from Johnstown, the one raised by Lutheran teetotalers, start drinking hard liquor and serving it to minors?"

Emma looked at her kitchen wall clock.

"Since seven fifteen."

The twins laughed.

"I don't mind," Natalie said. She chuckled. "I don't think my siblings mind either. It's just that you are so much different than the girl I remember. You've changed."

Emma poured four glasses and took her seat at the table. She sat opposite Natalie and to the left and right of Cody and Caitlin, respectively, in the small, dimly lit room.

"We've all changed," Emma said. She took a sip and gazed at Natalie. "Even my father changed. He bought this bottle on a mission trip to Kentucky the year before he died and gave it to us as a present. I've been waiting for a special occasion to open it."

"That's thoughtful of you."

"It's practical too. Cody tells me that Prohibition is coming. If I don't serve this whiskey now, some unscrupulous men with badges may take it away."

Natalie laughed.

"He has that right."

Emma looked at the twins.

"If either of you would prefer lemonade, I have that too."

"No, no," Caitlin said. "Whiskey is fine."

"Cody?"

The only male at the table grinned.

"I'm good."

Emma offered a satisfied smile.

"I thought so. Now where were we?"

"I was just saying how much you've changed," Natalie said. "You're much different than the girl I remember, with one very notable exception."

"What's that?"

"You're still drop-dead gorgeous."

Emma looked down and then at Natalie.

"Thank you. I don't hear that very often."

"That surprises me," Natalie said.

Emma took another sip.

"Why? I'm old and wrinkled. I'm a shadow of the woman I used to be. Only my husband and my sons think I'm the sun and the moon."

"That's not true," Cody said. "I do too."

The women laughed heartily.

"Your brother is a charmer. It's been nice having him here," Emma said to Natalie. She looked at Caitlin and then again at Natalie. "It's been nice having both of them."

Natalie sipped her whiskey.

"Where are your children tonight?"

"Freddie went to a picture show. Greta is attending a dance with a young man she met this week. Like my youngest son, Theodore is a freshman at Pennsylvania College."

"Caitlin told me that Freddie decided to attend college instead of joining the Army like his father and his brothers. She said he made the decision just this week."

"She should know. She talked him into it."

"That's an exaggeration," Caitlin said.

Emma gazed at Caitlin with great affection.

"I don't think so. You said something to him the other day that set his mind on fire and changed the way he looks at the world. For that, dear, you have my eternal gratitude.

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