O Little Town: A Novel by Don Reid

Author:Don Reid [Reid, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Family Life, Fiction, General, Christian, Religious, Christmas stories, Friendship, City and town life, Marriage, christmas, Christian fiction, Faith, forgiveness, Statler Brothers, Illness, 1950s, 1950's, Mt. Jefferson, Bad decisions, 1958
ISBN: 9781434799302
Publisher: David C Cook
Published: 2008-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Mt. Jefferson was not a large town but it was more than a roadside attraction. It boasted near twenty-two thousand citizens according to the 1950 census and had enough stores to fulfill every need of those twenty-two thousand people. There were times it couldn’t fulfill every wish, but every need— be it clothes, food, or shelter, church, social life, or new car—was seen to sufficiently. Mayor MacHaney summed it up best when he said Mt. Jefferson was big enough that when you walked down the street you wouldn’t know everyone you met, but small enough that you couldn’t walk down the street without seeing someone you knew. And though that folksy logic didn’t keep him in office for a second term, he hit the nail dead center on the head.

Mt. Jefferson had department stores, grocery stores, dress shops, jewelers, haberdasheries, appliance stores, newsstands, theaters, and restaurants, ranging from cafes with checkered table cloths to lunch counters and ice cream and soda fountains too numerous to count. Auto supply stores, funeral parlors, hardware stores, and drug stores filled the side streets. You could get anything you needed in about eight blocks of easy walking. The streets were full twelve hours a day, six days a week, with happy shoppers, and Macalbee’s sat right in the thick of it all.

But right now it was ten minutes after nine. Macalbee’s was closed. The main floor was dark and empty of customers and clerks. The only light still on was one in the upstairs office, where Lois Pence was buttoning up her cloth coat while talking over her shoulder to Milton Sandridge.

“Do you want me to stay?”

“No. I’m just going to finish this row of figures and then I’m going, too.”

“Mr. Sandridge, I don’t mean to be personal, but I know it’s been a hard day for you what with that Millie Franklin mess and the news you got about your father-in-law. If there is anything I can do …”

“Thank you, Lois. But there’s nothing.”

“Give my regards to Mrs. Sandridge, and I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good night, Lois.”

The last noise he heard, besides the random cracking of the old wooden floors, was the back door opening and closing as Lois Pence went out onto the snow-covered sidewalk. He was finally alone. He tapped out a Chesterfield cigarette from the pack and struck a match. He loosened his tie and put his feet on his desk. Walter was on his mind. Their dinner together had been the highlight of his day, not that it would have taken much to highlight this particular day. They talked and laughed and shared a little downtown gossip and a couple of jokes, and Walter had been more open about his feelings than usual.

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