Tall Timbers

Knowing Goldie

Tall Timbers

Walking along, feeling the cool squish of the summer moss beneath her feet, Goldie relished her moments of complete solace in just being with herself. She knew it was time to go back, go back home where she was most needed. She passed grandmother's house seeing how grand it looked to her; tall, cold, hard, red brick structure well taken care of in every way. She continued walking down the dirt road until she met with the yard of her home, she walked down the sloping hill enjoying the last moments of freedom before she would be in the middle of the chaos that was her home life. Wiping her feet on the harsh wooden porch to get them as clean as she could before entering the already messy house that she would need to help clean the moment she set foot inside. She heard her dear mother inside moving around, trying to get things done. Goldie knew it was far from easy for her mother to do even the most simple of house chores. Knowing this and being as understanding as she could be didn't make anything easier for Goldie either.

Goldie walked inside, noting the dirty laundry, dishes piled in the sink and scattered items all over from her little brother's daily antics. As she walked through she began picking things up, putting them where they belong. She walked to her mother who was at the sink trying to do the dishes; hair looking as if rats had nested there for some time. It made Goldie so sad, because her mother was the most beautiful woman in the entire county even to this day but the sickness had brought her down to this shell of what she sees before her, today would be a bad day.

"Mother, please go lie down. You know that being up and trying to do all of this will only make you get worse off," Goldie pleaded with her mother as she guided her back to her bed and pulled the blankets over her.

The next morning as usual Goldie was up by dawn to get her little brother, Johnny, out of bed, dressed and their lunches packed so that they could walk to school. Their mother was still in her bed and would probably be there for days. Goldie attempted to tell her mother goodbye but it was no use, her mother was too sick to know any of what was going on. Goldie stared at her mother wondering how her father could have left them behind and where exactly he had gone to. He sent money each month; barely enough to keep them in enough food to struggle by. Goldie's mother picked up sewing and cleaning, when the sickness was at bay to buy them clothing and other needs, at times needs went without being met, even the food to pay for doctor visits and medicines.

Goldie dropped Johnny off to his teacher and went to her own classroom just a few doors down in the one building school house. As she sat in class Goldie waiting for the teacher to begin, she happened to see Marie, the Mayor's daughter, sitting with her nose in the air as usual. Goldie envied Marie, even though Goldie knew it was wrong to envy anyone, Marie had the finest of clothes; Goldie had heard from her friend Eve that Marie's clothes came all the way from New York City by train. Marie always had the most recent hair styles, hair clips, clothing, shoes, two parents that loved her and anything else a girl could possibly ask for and on top of that she was a very beautiful girl with her jet black hair and brown eyes. It just didn't seem quite fair to Goldie that Marie have everything in the world and be beautiful.

The girl population in the classroom began tittering and giggling as Tate Masterson walked in the door. He was the tallest boy Goldie had ever seen in her entire life. Tate had a father who was a Cherokee Indian and a mother that was the daughter of a white senator; their marriage at the time had caused quite an uproar but most everyone managed to get over their old-fashioned ideas about Indians after they got to know the couple. Not to say that they don't still meet resistance outside of our little county about differences. All of that aside those two people had made one gorgeous son. Goldie had accidentally seen him with his shirt off one day this summer; he was chopping wood and Goldie had been walking to town to get some groceries for her mother. He was standing there all 6'3" of tanned muscle, his jet black, straight hair pulled back out of his face, sweat trickling down his chest as he swung the splitting maul with a thwack that snapped Goldie out of her gawking. Although, it had not been before he had noticed her standing there with drool practically hanging from her mouth. He smiled and waved like he hadn't caught her ogling him and went right back to chopping his wood.

He found his chair in the classroom right next to Butch Steel, the meanest boy Goldie had ever met. That boy had picked on her since they were five years old. From pulling her ponytails at five years old to knocking her books out of her hand last week she despised the very air that went into his lungs. One day she was going to punch him square in the nose and run because the boy was bigger than an ox, probably smelled like one too, she thought to herself. That snide thought caused her to smile to herself.

"What are you smiling about valley trash?" Marie said harshly with a disapproving glare. As if there could be nothing in Goldie's life worth smiling about. Goldie just stopped smiling and turned away from Marie, which in turn caused Marie to smile. She liked making the poor kids feel inferior to her because she truly felt superior because her parents had money and a lot of it.

"Okay, everyone pay attention today we are going to go over everything that you will need to know for your test Friday." Mrs. Burnett told the class.

"Class remember, we have the Summer Dance this Saturday night, wear your Sunday best and get ready to have fun." Mrs. Burnett said cheerfully. This only made Goldie smile sadly, she would help decorate but she wouldn't go, she had nothing to wear to a dance and she would not wear the same old dresses that she wears to church to a dance and be made fun of even more by Marie.

Once class was over, Marie was getting very close to Tate in what appeared to be trying to look appealing. Unfortunately, Goldie ended up close enough behind them that she overheard part of the conversation.

"So, Tate, the dance is comin' up real soon and I have been expecting to be asked. It only seems logical that the Mayor's daughter and a senator's grandson go together." Marie said. Goldie hurried in the other direction as she did not want to hear anything that Tate had to say to Marie. Marie being the prettiest girl and Tate the most handsome of boys they would surely go together and probably end up married, one big happy political family, if Marie had her way.

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