RUNAWAY ROSE
Chapter Fifty-Six
Rose stayed with the Hutchisons for a few
days, resting from her long journey. It was pleasant there, with Will and Deborah
doing their best to cheer her and keep her entertained, but Rose was restless.
Baby Grace crawled around the mansion under the watchful eyes of her nanny,
Deborah, and Rose, reminding Rose painfully of what might have been.
After a couple of days, Rose and Deborah went
into the city to exchange Rose’s wilderness gear for more civilized items. The
knapsack, camping gear, and men’s clothing that had suited Rose so well in the
wilderness had little use in the city, but she was able to sell them to a second-hand
shop. Travelers still came and went from the city, as well as vacationers and
ranch and farm workers, so she was able to obtain a reasonable price for her
belongings.
After she sold most of what she had brought
back with her from Alaska, Rose purchased an inexpensive suitcase at a
department store. Deborah looked at her sorrowfully when she saw this purchase,
knowing that Rose was preparing to leave again, but didn’t try to stop her. She
had seen her friend’s restlessness, and had known that it was only a matter of
time before Rose moved on.
Rose had brought several of the small bags of
gold with her on their excursion and went to a bank to exchange the dust and
nuggets for cash. Most merchants in the city didn’t know how to judge the value
of the gold and had no way of weighing it or placing it in their cash registers
in any case.
Armed with more than sufficient funds—what
she had obtained for the gold was enough to last her for months, if she spent
wisely, and she had more gold still at the Hutchisons’ home—Rose returned to
the department store with Deborah, making her way through the ladies’ clothing
department and buying more garments than she had since she was a member of high
society. Simple, practical dresses, skirts, and blouses made of cotton, linen,
or wool, suitable undergarments and stockings, practical shoes, and even a nice
dress that could be worn to church or a daytime party, if not an evening
function.
Trying the clothes on, looking at herself in
a mirror for the first time in months, Rose had to admit that she liked the way
the dresses looked. The styles had changed somewhat, with the skirts fuller and
easier to walk in than some of the previous fashionable garments she had worn,
and they were a nice change from the shirts and trousers she had worn in
Alaska, and from the cheap, ill-fitting dress she had bought when she returned
to civilization. Most of the clothes were simple and practical, like those she
had worn for years, but they were new and not well-worn as her old dresses had
been. Rose smoothed her hands over the nice dress she had selected. Most of her
old dresses were now weather-beaten, faded strips of cloth marking the way they
had traveled along the tundra.
*****
The Hutchisons were sorry to see Rose go.
During the brief times that Rose had been with them over the past few years,
she and Deborah had become closer than ever, sharing confidences and dreams
just as they had as children, but their memories and dreams were different now,
more grown up, and Deborah understood, in her own way, Rose’s need to travel
on.
The traveling Shakespeare troupe that Rose
had once belonged to was in town, and Will and Deborah offered to take her to a
play, but Rose was still unable to face the people she had once worked with and
called her friends. She knew from reading the newspaper reviews that Richard
was still the leading man, and Evelyn had moved into the role of leading lady,
but she couldn’t go back and see them. Not after the way that her time with
troupe had ended. Marietta still haunted Rose, and she didn’t think she could
even set foot inside the theater where her rival had died.
Rose went places with the Hutchisons a couple
of times, but for the most part she stayed at the mansion, wheeling Deborah
around the neighborhood and visiting with Mrs. Hill, or taking tea with a few
of Deborah’s friends. Often, she and Deborah would sit out front, looking over
the carefully manicured lawn and flower gardens, watching Grace play or the
dogs wrestle.
It amused Rose watch the enormous Tripper, a
grand mixture of husky and mutt, wrestling with the tiny Lamb, Deborah’s pet
toy poodle. Tripper could have crushed the smaller dog simply by sitting on
him, or sent him flying with one wag of his tail, but Lamb always seemed to win
their wrestling matches, and Tripper accepted Lamb’s dominance, rolling over
and showing his belly when the smaller dog snarled. Lamb had lived in the
Hutchison mansion for several years, while Tripper was a newcomer to this
strange environment. Tripper, like many dogs who had been raised in groups,
understood the canine laws of dominance, and rarely challenged the established
dog.
Surprisingly, for a dog who had never been
exposed to children before, Tripper had also taken a liking to Grace. The baby
could crawl all over him, pull herself to her feet using handfuls of his fur,
and even poke curious fingers into his mouth and eyes. Tripper tolerated the
little girl, sometimes lying there with a long-suffering look, other times
licking the child’s face until she giggled. Grace would stuff handfuls of food
into the dog’s mouth, and then screech furiously when she pried open his mouth
and found that the food was gone. Tripper also lay beneath her high chair at
mealtimes, waiting for her to drop tidbits on the floor, though he had to
compete with Lamb for these bits of food.
Initially, Deborah was wary of the dog and
her child. Tripper bore some resemblance to a wolf, and she wasn’t entirely
trusting of the dog. However, as the days passed and Tripper’s only response to
the baby’s over-zealousness was to crawl under the couch or beg to be let
outside, she relaxed. Tripper seemed to know not to bite the child, or even to
roughhouse with her as he did Lamb. He seemed to understand that the baby had
neither the speed nor the agility of a dog, and never harmed her.
*****
After about ten days, Rose decided that it
was time to leave. She had thought carefully about her destination, and had at
last decided that she wanted to continue further south, this time to Los
Angeles. She could easily have returned to New Orleans, but she didn’t really
want to go back. Much as she had liked New Orleans, with her singing career on
the streets and her level-headed great-uncle keeping her from flying off the
handle, she wanted to go somewhere new. Los Angeles would be a good place to
start over. She might even try her hand at film acting.
And so, on July 20, 1915, the Hutchisons
drove Rose to the train station. She had packed her few belongings into her
suitcase and led Tripper along on a leash. The animal disliked the leash, but
she couldn’t let him run free as she had in the wilderness; things were
different in the city. He had already gotten loose once, only to be brought
back by an angry neighbor of the Hutchisons, and she didn’t intend to let it
happen again.
"You know you’ll always be welcome here,
Rosie," Deborah told her as they waited for the train in the busy, milling
station.
Rose hugged her friend. "I know. I may
even be back someday. But for now, though, I think I need to move on. I don’t
know what I’m going to find, but whatever it is, I’ll find it. Maybe I’ll be a
film actress. I always wanted to try that."
Deborah nodded. "I’ll look for you in
the moving pictures, Rosie. And I do understand, I think, why you need to get
away. There were times when I wanted to get away, but I never could. You’re
lucky, Rosie. You can. Good luck. I hope life is good to you."
"Thank you, Debbie." Rose picked up
her suitcase and took Tripper’s leash, then turned to Will. "Thank you
both for all you’ve done for me. I’ll write you as soon as I get the
chance."
The train pulled in, and Rose tugged on her
pet’s leash, leading him towards the train. Tripper whined in fear of the
strange vehicle, filled with noisy, jostling people. Rose coaxed him onto the train,
finding herself a seat and encouraging the dog to lay down on the floor.
Several people stared at the animal, but Rose had paid extra to bring him with
her, and she knew that the dog would be more comfortable in her presence.
As the whistle blew, and the train began to
move away, Rose leaned out the window and waved good-bye, wondering when, or
if, she would ever see her friends again. She was starting a new chapter of her
life, alone again.