Gulch

Nina Gulch

She is smiling a little scornfully from the doorway.  She is watching Nina finish her prayer as she kneels upon the ground by her bed.  That praying stuff is for kids, she thinks to herself.  Almira herself is twelve and Nina is only a year younger.  Her sister should have grown out of it by now.  Their father had after their mother died.  He has no time for God, he is making himself rich.

But now Nina looks up at her sister, and Almira's condescending smile changes instantly to one of genuine affection.  Nina yawns a good morning and stands up.

"Shall we go down to breakfast?" Almira asks.

"Yes, one moment while I get dressed."

Almira shuffles her feet impatiently by the door as she waits for Nina to get ready.  It is Saturday, a day for fun and games.  A day with only her and her sister. 

They are finally ready.  They wolf down their breakfast, see their father off as he goes to work and run out to play in the sunshine.  They take out their dolls and...

"M-Miss Gulch?  M-may I speak with you, ma'am?"

Almira Gulch, a strait-backed, upright, rich landowner, was jerked from out the past.  It was May of 1939, and the Reverend Mr. Tisdale was hovering over her like a scared bird. 

Her dark eyes flashed with annoyance at the young reverend.  She was sitting on a park bench in a small town in Kansas. 

Tisdale took a hasty step backward when he caught her glance, not wishing to incur her wrath.  He knew he had already bungled his chance, but pressed on anyway.  "M-Miss Gulch, would you care to possibly, maybe... well..."

He faltered, seeing the stony look on the woman's face.  Running a hand through his dark hair and moping his boyish face with a handkerchief, he stammered onward towards his doom.  "I was w-wondering if you would b-be so kind, that is, if you could find it in your heart to... would you donate to the tornado relief fund at the church?"

He finished all in a rush, and as soon as he said the words, he knew one and for all that his cause was hopeless.  He had ruined everything with his overhasty actions. 

The young reverend was mentally cudgeling himself for his mistakes, but in reality, Almira had not, did not, and would not donate anything.  She sat staring contemptuously at the poor man who was crushing his hat in his shaking hands.  A cruel smile played at the corners of her lips at his discomfort. 

"I'm sorry Mr. Tisdale," Miss Gulch said with relish, "but I do not care to waste my money in such a way."

Tisdale was crushed, but still not defeated.  At that moment, he would have gone through almost any other trial than face this formidable adversary, but this would help his church.  With his last ounce of failing nerve, he flung himself into one last desperate attack.  "Believe me, ma'am, it isn't a waste! It goes to help poor people, and the farmers that aid us."

"The farmers that aid us?  Like whom?  The Gales?"

Tisdale seized on this chance, not being in the town long enough to know of Miss Gulch's feud with the Gales.   "Y-yes, like the Gales!  It helps them to rebuild their barns and replace damaged items.  I have heard that the Gales are in a bad way now, and if there was to be a twister... well, it wouldn't go well for them, or anyone like them."

"Hm!  In that case... let it go badly with them. What's it to me?"

For once, the energetic reverend was at a loss for words.  He simply gaped at the rich landowner.  It was as if he had seen a hideous carved stone gargoyle.  And that gargoyle had frightened him out of his wits. 

Almira allowed herself another crooked smile, then stood up from her seat and took hold of her bike.  "I am going now Reverend.  Have a nice day."

She mounted her bike and rode away, noting the utterly demolished look on Tisdale's face.  She stored the picture in her mind where she could dwell on it again.

Almira arrived at her house and, having nothing better to do, she sat on the post he in her rocking chair. She let her mind wander once again to the past.  This time, she thought of Henry Gulch.

It was the summer of 19o2 when the sisters were seventeen and eighteen. Nina had stopped eating. Almira noticed a strange excitement and nervousness about her sister. She tried by roundabout means to get her to tell her what was going on, but to no avail. At last, however, she directly attacked the problem.

Nina was sitting with her sister in their spacious living room, when Almira at last spoke. She put down her book, one page of which she had been starting at for close to a half an hour, and addressed her sister seriously.

"Nina, I need to speak with you."

"What is it?"

"You... you've been acting strangely lately and I think I have an in king of what's bothering you. It's that Henry Gale isn't it?"

Nina started, then turned bright pink. She nodded.

"What? Do you like him?"

Nina nodded again.

"Lord above! Why didn't you tell me before this?"

There was no answer.

"Well," Almira's voice softened. "Have you spoken with him about it? Does he like you too?"

Nina did not meet her sister's eyes. "N-no... I-I don't know... I haven't spoken to him, but I think he knows."

"And?"

"I don't know how he feels... it's... it's all so strange! Oh Almira, I just don't understand it!"

Miss Gulch was jerked out of her reverie for the second time that day. This time by a bark. She clenched her fist. It was that dog! Dorothy Gale's good-for-nothing dog!

Dorothy was Henry Gale's niece who had lived with her uncle and aunt for most of her life. Her parents were dead. The dog she had was a little black terrier named Toto. He had been given to her in her birthday by her three friends who worked on the Gale's farm.

Almira hated Toto. He was constantly getting into her yard and terrorizing her precious cat, Luna.

The Gale's lived on the extreme outskirts of the town and Dorothy had to walk by Miss Gulch's house to get home. Therefore, Toto had many chances to attack the cat.

Almira leapt up from her chair and saw a sight that made her heart stand still with fury. Toto was running across the lawn with something red in his mouth. It was a red slipper. It was Nina's slipper.

Almira had painstakingly washed the slippers after they had fallen off her shelf and into some dishwasher. She had set them on the windowsill to dry. Luna, in her haste to escape from Toto, knocked one of them into the yard. Now, that hideous little dog had Nina's slipper!

Almira grabbed the first weapon that came to hand, a garden rake, and ran towards the dog with it.

"Let go of that slipper! That's my sister's slipper! Give it back to me! Give it back!"

She heard Dorothy yell, but she disregarded it and struck at Toto. She did not know if she hit him, but in another instant, the dog was gone and the slipper was lying covered in dirt and drool. She next started towards Dorothy, but Toto growled and lunged at her, nipping her leg.

Miss Gulch cried out and kicked at the dog, who skipped away. The bite on her leg was not serious, Toto's teeth hadn't broken skin.

Almira picked up the slipper as if it was a precious delicate artifact and shook her fist at the retreating forms of Dorothy and Toto. As she brought the slipper inside to clean and restore it, she vowed what she must do. The dog was going to go, if it was the last thing she did.