My Mind is Made Up

© 2014 Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Chapter Ten

I learned a few weeks later that Mrs. Lanteen had been in New York caring for her mother when those chapters were printed. She had left a dozen completed chapters with the entertainment editor, none which dealt with my characters or plot. It had been the entertainment editor who had falsified my signature and one of his best writers (as well as drinking buddies) who had written it. Their reasoning? A hick farm girl wouldn’t know what to do and by the time that she did it wouldn’t matter. Instead both were summarily dismissed, Mrs. Lanteen’s original chapters were printed and to hell with those few subscribers who wrote in complaining that a very interesting story had vanished, they wanted it back and wanted to know why it was gone. The paper reprinted their explanation, then pointed people at me which soon made my life difficult. Newspapers and society could be nasty, very, very nasty.

It ended up that about thirty letters arrived for me, sent directly to my home as the newspaper had so graciously printed my address, without my permission. A fact that caused my lawyer to file suit against them for violating an Imperial law, that being publishing personal information without written, signed permission. This also cost me twenty dollars because ‘I know that you have it Miss Baker, and I assure you that you will get it back in spades.” Wonderful, I was going to be drained dry by the very man I had hired to save my copyright.

Anyway, back to the letters. Every one wanted to know exactly why I had stopped the story from being written and what I was going to do about it, apparently even the paper had been shocked at the popularity of a female hero figure. There were three that threatened bodily harm, one even stated that the unnamed writer was going to hunt me down and kill me for destroying the first hero that she could relate to. Those three letters my lawyer plucked from my hands, adding them to the suit as evidence to add even another Imperial law to the suit, that being ‘placing a minor into a position of deathly danger by act, or deed.’ Yes, Heather was still a minor and would be for another year until she turned eighteen, me? I had been twenty six but that didn’t count, in no way a minor but the law was on Heathers side so I took it and waited.

It was the next Saturday that things went South for a while, I had just the day before received a letter from Most Interesting Stories that they had accepted my story and, with minor grammar corrections would be publishing it as two parts. It would be the May and June issues as their April issue was already being laid out. Inclosed had been a cheque for sixty-two dollars and a note that I was responsible for all state and local income taxes. There wasn’t an Imperial Income tax, not yet but any idiot could see that one was coming. Locally Tippecanoe County, where our family farm was located, only had property and school tax, we actually didn’t live in Lafayette, the city limits was a mile North of our farm but Indiana would pass a Gross income tax in 1928, this I remembered from my ‘local government history’ classes. In short, I owed nothing, in the long term though I would welcome an income tax because turning over half of what I made to my family meant that I only received thirty-one dollars.

One thing that I did do was subscribe to the three newspapers in my area, when mother asked why I honestly explained that I needed to keep up with the news, now that my name and address was out there. What I didn’t tell her was that I knew that the stock market was going to crash in October of 1929, at least in my world. From what little I could discover about business from my currently limited sources it appeared that the same would occur in this world, so if I bought a lot of stock that would go up, then cashed out in April or May of 1929 would do two things. One, I would have a large capital gain to pay taxes on, two, I would get out far in enough in advance that I wouldn’t even be a blip on any investigators radar. Then I could buy near bankrupt stock in companies that I knew would survive, the phone company, certain steel companies and the bigger train companies. I wouldn’t end up even near owning them but the dividends would be nice enough to live comfortable at a mid-income level, what would one day be called middle income, a group that one now banned political part had successfully declared war upon in the early 21^st century.

Life was already getting complicated.

So lets get back to Saturday shall we? I was helping mother peel potatoes for dinner when there was a roaring noise from outside, being the daughter it was my responsibility to determine what was going on so wiping my hands on a towel I went to the screen door. What I found walking up to the house wearing dark green leathers was a handsome young man of maybe twenty-three, or four. He had his leather helmet and mica-glass goggles in one hand and a envelope in the other. My sister’s would go ga-ga over this fellow, honestly, so would heather I realized as a memory rose, to wash away against what Heather was now.

“May I help you?” I asked as he walked up the two steps to our porch, opening the door before remembering that I was in my weekend worjk dress, a dress somewhat threadbare thus it tended to show more than a proper city woman would want to. A farm girl? What was, was.

He stopped, probably letting his eyes adjust but just as likely taking in the form standing before him, I am a farm girl, pretty and look to be of age though I still have a year to go, so to him I was probably a very delightful view. I let him look while I waited silently for his answer.

“Excuse me” he apologized suddenly, his face going very dark purple. So he had been looking, hey inside I’m still male but the female part of me liked that she was pretty enough to be looked at. “I’m lookin for a Miss Baker?”

“Which one” I asked, “There are three of us living here.” At those words I could see his interest peaking, three? At least one had to be an adult he must have decided. I decided to toss him a meaty bone. “My older sisters are Charollett and Mary, I’m Heather.” That let him know that the other two were adult, so visiting again might just be profitable and though he didn’t know it, Mary had started thinking about boys again, she was the right age for this handsome hunk with the deep baritone voice.

“That would be you Miss Baker, I have ahn envelope for you from yer lawyer. Yah just need to sign for it.”

“A moment please then, I must get my mother to sign as I am still a minor” I explained. Stepping back into the house I called for my mother, then took the three steps to where Mary was busy ironing and whispered that it might be a good idea for her to bring a glass of fresh well water for the man outside. Her eyes widened and a tiny smile came to her lips, Mary wasn’t man hungry, the loss of her husband had left a scar in her soul that would never truly heal but it had been long enough, it was time to move on and here her little sister was giving her a chance. Besides, that baritone had to have reached her.

So mother came to the door, Mary only steps behind her and I explained what I knew. Mother signed for the envelope, thanking the young man for bringing it out, I thanked him then mother and I retreated while Mary waited for the empty glass. Later I noted that she had waited some time, then she looked more like mother than I did, as they would say one day she was easy on the eyes and had great tracks of land. Meanwhile I opened the envelope, it was more a full page size rather than a letter sized envelope, to find legal documents inside along with a short note from my lawyer. It seemed that Mrs. Keeling had, in a fit of anger informed her editor to just publish my address and let the complainers write to me directly. Neither one had realized that I was still a minor, thus under Imperial Law publishing my address without my written permission was a felony, and that as this was their second offense against me in less than a year it qulified as official harassment. Now that was a law I had never heard of before.

Attached to the note was a check for over six thousand dollars, a number so great that my mother and I both had to sit down. The actual settlement had been ten thousand dollars, most likely as facing an Imperial courts, especially with the two threatening letters, would have put both owner and Lead Editor in jail, at hard labor, for ten years. Even so they must have gotten off rather easily, even for this cities newspaper then thousand dollars was chicken feed, they would make it up in a week at most. Since my lawer took his third out, as always, the final amount was six thousand six hundred.

“Mother” I whispered softly. “Even with the half I give the family jar, I am going to Indiana State University, its only 800 dollars a year, dorms and all.”

“But, that is in Terre Haute” Mother countered. “You will be so far from home.”

“With this money I know that Charollett is going, I will be one year behind her so she can keep an eye on her little sister yes mother?” I asked.

“Yes, yes she can” Mother agreed, “And I shall make certain that she will. I will not have you coming home a watermelon in your belly, your money wasted. This is too much to hide away, we will take it to the bank right now and open an account for you so get the rest of your money.” There was an unstated fact that if that much money was in the house, Grandmama would find it and give it to her church so off I went. Mary was still waiting for her glass back I noted.

Getting to the bank required a mile and a half walk to the closest bus stop, then a ride on the Green Car, a rail car that went through town. Even so we made it with over two hours to spare but getting an account set up was a pain of paperwork. Was I certain that I did not want an investment account?”I was asked at least four times. Finally we had all the money deposited, half in a savings account for myself, the other half in the farm account with a big smile on mothers face, there was now more than enough for both her youngest daughters to attend state university and still a buffer for the farm. Why, father would not have to take a seed loan out next year, not one penny. Being in the black was a rare thing for a dryland farmer I had learned, almost always the farmer owed someone something. Mother was proud, father would look stoic but I knew as well as mother that he would be relieved. I decided then that as long as my parents were alive I would give them half of what I earned, it would be my tithe for giving me the body of their youngest daughter. A healthy, and rather attractive body at that when I thought about it, it could have been a lot worse, fat, ugly, smelly. Anyway, there was little I could do, but helping Heathers family monetarily was certainly one way that they would accept.

By the time we returned home, unexpected rarely seen groceries in hand, Mary and Charollett had finished dinner and father was expected soon. Mother quickly set out the store bought jams and some candy for the younger boys dessert, fathers favorite cigars were just as carefully added to the round, home made wooden vase that held them. By the time that father came in from the fields there everything was either set out or hidden, such as the cherry brandy that he and mother had enjoyed on their wedding night. Yes, having extra money was fun, as long as you were careful not to over spend. Listening to mother explain everything to father was fun too, it was strange how my ideas of entertainment had shifted since arriving in this world. Before, had I spent a night at home mother and father would most likely been grilling me on my work, they had already been to Luna and were on the short list for an interstellar flight, to search for a new Earth. I wonder if they made in, by now the ship TRUMP CARD would have left Earth’s orbit on its way to the nearest start with a possible Earth-like planet.

After dinner I helped clean up as always and it was time for bed, it got dark so you could burn candles or kerosine lanterns, expensive after all, so you went to bed to get up with the sun. Instead Mother and Father drew me aside to talk in the parlor, making certain that everyone was asleep before they turned to the really important things that they wanted to talk about.

“Heather” my father started. “Your mother tells me that you want to go to the state University with your money, wouldn’t a husband be a better choice? That much money would give you security for a family.”

I could see in my mothers eyes a touch of hurt and fear, she well remembered my comment about a woman and father looked down on women who slept with women, it went against the bible. This was a path that I would have to walk very carefully. “Father, Charollett is going to university for the summer session, if I can get my grades up enough I can join her when I graduate from High School. A woman with a good education will be able to find employment and bring in more money, making a family much easier to care for.”

I took another breath, holding up one hand palm flat towards my father before he could break in. “There is this to father, once that money is gone, it is gone. However should I use it to earn a degree and be successful, then I will have an income mush greater than that of a farmers wife. That money would return, then return and return. An education is the first step to a better life and I refuse to be a farmers baby factory.”

“Baby factory” my father repeated. “Is that how you see your mother?”

Biting my upper lip I looked to my mother a moment, seeing the fear in her eyes grow, then I took a deep breath and looked back at my father. “Father, I love mother, I love her as only a true daughter can love her mother but I will not do what she has done, I cannot. Seven living children, five miscarriages, twelve pregnancies in total in fourteen years. Father, what do you call that?” I had just thrown his question back at him.

It was a shock to see the look in his face as he realized what I had just said, “But... But.. Oh my God you are right.” Turning to mother he begged her forgiveness, I could see the tears falling from his face. Heathers memories told me that father rarely ever showed emotion, when he did though it was true emotion. Very quietly I stood, saw my mother looking at me and bowed my head, then I quietly walked to my shared room and crawled into bed.