Mystics of the Tuolumne

Rectification #

Dahlia was up early and dressed in her Levi-Strauss dungarees, her canvas work shirt, and she carried her Wellingtons and tiptoed down the stairs not wanting to awaken Albert.  She opened the door to Robert and Marie's bedroom.  She walked over to see if Robert was alright.

"You nearly killed me last night."  He was moaning and sleep deprived. "I hurt everywhere."

Dahlia was a truly compassionate person. "I have some laudanum here for you.  Take a large spoonful.  Your pain will go away and you'll sleep."

"I thought you were more sporting."  Robert Jr.'s right hand was swollen and discolored.

"Through your behavior, you brought all this on yourself.  I am not a common guttersnipe. And I did not touch you."  She was adamant but, not cruel.  "I have to be leaving now"

After a long day treating injured and sick animals and listening to lectures, Dahlia took the trolley home. m  "Albert, Albert...are you home yet?"   She walked upstairs after placing her Wellingtons outside the kitchen door.

"Please don't scream anymore.  I have a headache."  Albert stumbled out of his room onto the landing holding his head with his left hand.  With his right hand, he propped himself up against the wall.  He stunk of tobacco smoke, cheap perfume, and acetone, the smell of spent liquor.

"You are drunk and disgusting.  You don't love me.  You are more in love with the bottle and the floozy women who serve it to you."  She was enraged.  She turned toward her room then turned again toward him. "You want to marry me in June?   This man, this drunk?  Do you still have your gifts?"  She continued and slammed the door. to her room.  Dahlia was furious.  "Do I want to be part of this family?" She thought.

Everything was going so well.  She should have known a Miwok person could not walk proudly in the Yankee's world.  She wanted mother and Joel.  She wanted BJ to wrap is huge strong arms around her and make her feel like a safe little girl again.  She took of her work clothes and settled into casual wear and started studying in their mutual library.  She went to bed without supper she was so nauseated about Albert's betrayal of her trust.

The following day she threw herself into her veterinary  work and her studies.  It was noticed by her department head.  "Young lady, what is wrong?  You haven't smiled once today.  You're usually smiling all day every day."  

"I have so much to think about with my future.  I am touched that you noticed."  She had not realized how much her emotional turmoil had shown to others.

"After a few years in practice, you could be an excellent professor.  Think about that too."  Her Department professors had enormous regard for her talents and intellect.

The trolley ride home was relaxing.  The clop...clomp...clomp of the horses' hooves, the lavender flowering jacaranda trees, and the children playing in their front yards like still lifes  were like riding through a Claude Monet painting.

The house was quiet when she arrived home.  Robert Jr.'s bedroom door was open and Robert was absent.  There were no sounds from upstairs.  Only the faint sounds of the house staff finishing the preparations for the supper service.  She went upstairs and found Albert sprawled on his bed in urine and vomit.  She quietly closed the door, went to her room and changed for supper.  

"I'll be eating alone this evening.  Would you join me?"  She loved the staff and they loved her.  Supper was lively and all manner of chatter took place.  Dahlia felt much better when she returned upstairs to study.   She studied until just past midnight and turned in without any appearance by either of the McKinley brothers.

"Dahlia I'm sorry, I don't know what got into me.  I...."  Albert hung his head and stood in the doorway of the dining room/.

"The Albert I agreed to marry was a man.  Someone who made me feel safe and loved.  You, this Albert, Is someone Who I would rather not associate."  She was blunt and matter of fact. "You will keep your conversation to me at a minimum.  I merely have a room here and a study library.  I'll be moving out on my own when I graduate."  

"I don't understand." Albert was shocked.

"It is perfectly clear that you do not understand.  You need help from your own psychology."   Dahlia stood up from the table and left for the trolley.

Dahlia was asked by two of her professors to accompany them to Bayshore Race Track for a large animal clinic.  "You are the only one in the entire vet school that we would ask to come here.  Some of these horses are worth $10,000.00."

"Thank you for having that much faith in me."  Dahlia's face was luminous.

"It isn't faith, Dahlia, we have observed your brilliance in the classroom and in the field and your maturity."  The racehorses were like putty in her hands.  She had the gift.

Robert Jr. did not return for the duration of Marie Therese's visit to her parents'.  Even though Albert tried to converse with Dahlia, she cut him off with curt replies.  Dahlia self-imposed asceticism continued until Marie Therese returned home.

"Dahlia, I brought you something my grandmother mad for you.  I was telling her all about you.  She said she already loved you.  So she tatted this lace mantilla for you.  The yarn comes from the silkworms that have eaten on our mulberry trees.  It's Californi silk. washed, carded, spun by Mestizo ladies, hand tatted by  French grandmother.  It is the only one in existence," Marie was so vivacious she was tweaking everyone's cheeks.  "My father is sending a redwood cask of 500 liters of his wine as soon as it is finished resting."

"Marie, I am so happy you are home."  Dahlia embraced her and hugged so hard that Marie immediately knew something was wrong.

"I'll come upstairs as soon as I get refreshed."  Marie was concerned that Dahlias smile was forced.  They had been such good friends, it was almost as id Marie Therese had the gift too.