Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (7 page)

Tommy stood alone under the tree with tears in his eyes. He squeezed them
very tightly and said a prayer.

When the men returned with the ladder, Tommy was sitting under the tree holding his kitten in his arms and rubbing his damp cheeks in the soft fur. Danny and Greg put the ladder down and Greg asked gently, “How did you get the kitten down, Tommy?”

Tommy answered, “I closed my eyes and said a prayer. When I opened them, Kitty had come down. All I had to do was reach over and get him off the tree.”

Greg looked over at Danny and said, “Out of the mouth of babes.” He pulled his sleeve up to look at his watch. “Angela will be home in a little while. Let’s you and me go back up there and finish putting that last
rafter in place. By then it will be time to knock off for supper.”

“I shouldn’t stay for supper, I should be getting back home,” Danny said not wanting to be trouble for them. He was lonely and wanted human companionship when he came over.

“No problem. Raised nine fine strapping young’uns. The wife, she doesn’t even notice one more plate. Let’s go see what’s for supper,” Greg urged.

Danny followed him into the back door somewhat embarrassed, thinking he really should go home.

Greg walked in the back door and sang to Aimee, “
Hey, good looking, what you got cookin
’.” They turned and looked at each other with a grin on their faces from some old joke only the two of them knew, he continued singing a song written by Hank Williams as he sauntered toward her, “
how about cookin’ somethin’ up with me?”
He looked in the pot she stirred with a long wooden spoon. He took a big whiff and said, “Chicken and noodles. Aah, woman, you make my day.”

She smiled at him and pushed him away, “Go on, Greg. You’ll do well to get your share when all these kids get to the table.”

“Invited Danny to eat supper with us. Been helping me on the greenhouse.” Greg motioned toward Danny.

“Of course, Danny
, she invited warmly. “There is plenty. There’s no need for you to go home and eat by yourself. You are always welcome at our table.”

Danny agreed t
o stay, “Thank you, Mrs. Dodd.” He followed Greg back out to the greenhouse to complete the last rafter and put away the ladder and tools.

When
Danny took his hammer and tossed it in the back of his pickup, he saw Angela drive in with a young man with her. She got out of the car with a big smile on her face, her hair tied in a low ponytail down her back and wearing a yellow and red floral blouse and brown slacks. “Hi, Danny,” she greeted. “It’s good to see you.”

“Hi, yourself,”
Danny answered. “I hear that you have a job now.”

“Yes, I needed a little spending money until I can get the greenhouse going. It’s good experience for me and actually I’m learning a lot, too.”

“Good,” Danny turned to the young man and held out his hand. “My name’s Danny Ray. You ought to know your own.”

The young man turned to his sister and said drily, “Is he a comedian or what?”

Danny answered for her, “I’m just a what.”

“I’m Angela’s brother, Theodore. I’m the end of the litter. Please call me Ted so I won’t have to punch your eyes out.”

“Ouch,” Danny quivered in jest. “He’s tough.” Danny jumped into a karate stance and waited to see what Ted would do.

Ted
did a backflip toward the front door yelping like a hurt pup.

Danny relaxed and both he and Angela laughed all the way to the door.

Sarah and Janie helped set the table and the food was already placed on the table ready for everyone to sit.

“
Grandpa, may Tim and I go fishing tomorrow?” Brad asked.

Greg sat back thinking, “Son, my pond has so m
any pond weeds in it that you would only lose your hooks in it.”

“Would it be okay if they came over and fished in my pond?” Danny offered. “It’s close to the house and it used to be stocked. I guess it still has fish in it.”

“I don’t have a problem with it.” Greg indicated looking at Aimee to see if she cared. She shrugged her shoulders, so he asked the boys, “Do you want to fish in Danny’s pond?”

The boys literally were bouncing in their chairs in anticipation by this time. “Sure.”

“Good,” Danny said eagerly. “You can see my calves and new pigs.”

“Oh, you have new pigs?” Angela inquired.

“Yes, do you want to come over to see my new Hampshire pigs?” Danny asked her. “I just got them today.”

“Absolutely,” she said rising from the table
since she had completed her meal.

Danny stood and asked, “Ted, would you like to come with us?”

Ted shrugged and said, “Nothing else to do.”

After arriving at Danny’s, t
hey walked around and looked at the calves, then ambled toward the pigs. Frisker followed along as Angela carried the kittens. Danny stood with both hands in his back pockets of his jeans leaning against the corner of the barn as he told them about meeting Sam Mitchell and about buying the pigs.

Angela laughed and said, “See that pig on the end? Her tail is straight where all the rest of them have a curly tail.”

Ted frowned as he tried to notice all of their tails. “Humph,” he grunted, “Name that pig Diffy.”

“Why?” Danny inquired.

“Because she is different than the rest,” Ted said matter-of-factly.

“Good call,” Angela said.

“Okay,” Danny replied. “From now on she will be called ‘Diffy’.”

Ted frowned and scratched his head, “Danny, where’s your chickens?”

“Maybe someday,” Danny said. “I hadn’t got to that yet. I haven’t built my brooder house yet.”

“What’s wrong with putting them in this room?” Tim suggested pointing to the old separator room. “You could easily build another fence by connectin
g to that pig pen. Line it with chicken wire and you’d be all set.”

“You know how it is. That’s not what my folks did, so I didn’t think of that room,” Danny said looking around and seeing the possibilities. “That’s a good idea.”

When Danny took them home, Tim recommended, “Danny, there’s a barn dance and karaoke singing out near Justus Hills Saturday night. Would like to come? We’ll be there, Ellie, my girlfriend, Mom and Dad. In fact your mom and Art have started coming. You should see them. They can cut a rug when it comes to square dancing these days.”

Danny thought about it. It was time to get out and have a life. “Sure, I’ll be there.
” His mom must have taken his advice and started in the square dancing school.

After Ted went in the house, Danny asked, “Angela, will you be my date Saturday night?”

She smiled, “Yes, I would be pleased. Be ready at six. We take food and make it a night.”

“Sounds like fun.”

Danny kicked off his shoes and lay back on his bed. His muscles ached from climbing around on top of the greenhouse. His left leg especially hurt from climbing up and down the ladder. The doctor told him to keep exercising it. He hoped he hadn’t over done it. He pulled his pants leg up and looked at it. Sure enough, it needed a bag of ice to take the swelling down. He lay back down with the ice pack glad to have a couple of days for it to rest before Saturday night.

He thought about his impulsive request for Angela to be his date. He hadn’t made any conscious plans to date Angela but on the spur of the moment he had asked her. As he drifted off to sleep he consoled himself, after all it’s just a date.

CHAPTER S
EVEN

The team had arrived at Miami
Gardens, Florida to play the Orange Bowl game. The OU football team was ranked #5 in the nation by AP Poll. Through hard work and determination the team had persevered to have a ten to one winning season. Coach Chuck Fairbanks had led his team well. They arrived a day early to get a good night’s sleep and acclimate to the stadium and weather.

The players all met in the locker room to get suited up and hear the coach’s last instructions before the game. They were going up against Tennessee, a team ranked #2 in the AP Poll. The players were in good spirits.
Testosterone raged high and they felt confident of a win. Tennessee was ranked higher than they were but they had defeated higher teams before.

Danny knew that professional scouts had been watching him all year. So far he had not been offered a
n invitation to the draft. He had his preferences in which professional team he played, but he felt less choosy all the time. It had been his dream all the time he grew up to play professional football. Playing professional football was Danny’s key to buying back his family’s farm.

The Florida stadium was packed for the Orange Bowl game on this first day of the year in 1968.
This was Danny’s the last game as a college football player. Today, he needed to stand out.  Danny had played on the first string ever since he became a college sophomore. He felt happy to be part of the team that led the Sooners in a winning season.

Oklahoma Sooners held Tennessee back until half time. They went back to the locker room during half time feeling really good and on top of their game.
They felt energized and slapped each other on the back. After the brief rest and Couch cautioning them to not get overly confident, they were determined to keep up their momentum.

In spite of all they could do, Tennessee came alive in the third quarter. Ignited by a 36-yard interception return for 6 points
, they now were on the score board. Later Oklahoma broke the Tennessee momentum with a 25-yard interception return making it 26-17, which was countered with a late one yard run.

With only seven seconds remaining, a 43 yard field goal by Tennessee sailed wide right. Oklahoma rejoiced with a narrow win 26-24.

The Sooners walked triumphantly into the celebration party held after the Orange Bowl win. The high they felt lasted for hours. It wasn’t a big win, but a win was a win. Danny and the rest of the seniors rejoiced that their last season ended on a high note.

Lisa waltzed into the
after-game celebration as lovely as ever. She walked up to Danny and jumped into his arms. She kissed him long and hard right in front of all the team creating all kinds of catcalls and comments from the other team members. Danny knew all of the single guys would date her in a second if given the chance. Danny spent the night with her in her hotel. They made love until the early hours of the morning.

On the farm
Danny woke up the next morning still feeling the warmth of their love making. He sat up on the side of the bed and rubbed his knee. It didn’t hurt as much as it did last night. Frisker jumped and wiggled in glee when he saw Danny getting up. He stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the shower. He turned it on full blast and let the stinging hot water soothe his still aching muscles and sore leg. He knew that the pain from climbing up and down on the ladder the day before triggered the dream.

After pulling on some
old faded jeans and a faded OU tee-shirt, Danny reached for his shoes. That’s when he noticed that the shoe strings had been chewed off.

Danny called Frisker in and pointed to his shoe strings and scolded the young dog. Frisker alternately hung his head and wiggled his tail which included his whole body, not sure whether he should be happy or remorseful.

He went into the kitchen to prepare his breakfast. He shook his head wishing he could shake the dream out of his thoughts. Now that he planned a date with Angela, why did Lisa have to haunt his dreams? Maybe, he had it backwards; the date with Angela triggered the dream.

Danny called the feed store and ordered twenty-five
Rhode Island Red baby chicks. Now he had something to put his mind to other than reliving old memories. He headed to the barn to take care of his animals and start on the chicken pen. He needed to buy a walk gate and some chicken wire but he already had the other supplies he needed. He had carried his T-posts and post-hole driver from the hay barn to the milk barn when Frisker barked.

Brad and Tim walked into the yard carrying their fishing poles and tackle box. Then Danny remembered that he had invited them to fish in his pond. He lifted his arm in a wave and called, “Hi, there. I’m at the barn.”

They came to the barn and he showed them his pigs and his calves. He showed them the pen he was building and explained the history of the old milk barn. They played with the kittens and Frisker. After taking them to the house and giving them each a soda, they were finally ready to go fishing.

He led them to the pond and made sure they had everything they needed. “We don’t need any help, do we Tim. We know how to put the bait on the hooks and everything.”

Tim nodded his head in agreement, “Yeah, our dad lets us go fishing at home in the pond.”

Since Danny could see them from where he was working, he went back to his fence building. Danny felt a little fatherly thinking that maybe someday he could have a couple of sons like them. He picked up a T-post and put the driver over it and rammed it several times in
to the ground. He glanced up and the boys were sitting at the edge of the water watching their bobbers. Frisker sat between them as if he was as interested as they were.