Heaven's Gate Bridge fifteen

HG fifteen

With so many things on his mind, William almost forgot the time to go home to get his wife and daughter to take them to the doctor. Their friend, Dr. Carson was so nice in stopping by the house for the examination when the children had the measles. The city was trying to contain the measles outbreak to the small part of town where it seemed to have started. The health inspector figured that it started in a part of town where some immigrants had just moved in. When they newcomers went to some stores to look for jobs or buy a few items of food, the official guessed that one of the children had the disease which was spread to other people by his sneezes. The city was not going to let other immigrants in town until they had shown proper health certificates that they had received from Ellis Island health officials or been vouched for by a person in good standing.

Mr. Miller saw that Harriet looked better. She was still concerned by her hearing problem. Mrs. Miller seemed to be a little more fatigued than usual and getting the a very flushed look of fever in her face. Mrs. Miller did admit that the baby still seemed alright but she wanted to have the doctor run any tests in his office if he needed to do so.

“Frances, I do hope that you are comfortable now. Please tell me if you have any discomfort.” Mr. Miller said with a stern voice. “Harriet, I am happy to see that you are much better.”

Harriet just nodded. She had started feeling better but would not get excited until the doctor had completed the examination on both ears. She was keeping her fingers crossed that the ear wax removal procedure would solve her problem. The car pulled out of the driveway and down the street slowly. Many people turned to look at the one of the few cars in this part of town.

William and Timothy waved from the front yard. They had Mrs. Hunt as a babysitter until their parents returned along with Harriet. It was not going to be a difficult task since both boys had been playing with Buddy. They wanted Mrs. Hunt to see how fast he could run and fetch a stick. Mrs. Hunt had always loved dogs and decided to give the boys ten extra minutes before they had to go inside to do their reading, arithmetic and spelling practice.

Catherine was in the kitchen drying the dishes. She enjoyed playing with the soap bubbles that floated on top of the water. She also enjoyed the warm feeling of the water. Her mother always put a little hot water in the sink to make the grease come off the dishes easier. As she was looking out the window, she saw a few birds perched on the fence. She knew that some birds already had started building their nests and laying eggs. She listened to their songs and tried to recreate the birds’ song with words of her own. She tried to hit the high notes but was still not able to sing that high.

Behind the fence, in the back, she thought she saw a young boy run towards the area where there was a trail that lead to Heaven’s Gate Bridge. Next she saw three more boys running after the first boy. One boy had a stick and the other two had what could have been rocks that they were throwing. The three boys were yelling for the first boy to stop and called him a “coward, chicken and baby.” They stopped and shouted at the boy and then looked like they were planning another route to take. The final thing that Catherine heard was one boy saying, “this will be the last time.” and then they started running again.

William and Timothy came into the kitchen and asked for a glass to get some water to drink. Teaching a new puppy is thirsty work. Catherine saw that both boys had a little dirt on their shoes. They also left a trail of dirt and leaves on the nice clean kitchen floor.

“You better take those dirty shoes off and clean them.” she said in the manner her mother would use. “And then clean up the dirt you brought into our clean kitchen. If our parents saw that you would have to stay in your room tonight.”

Both boys grinned at Catherine, but agreed that the price of being sent to their rooms was not worth a little dirt. Mrs. Hunt stepped into the kitchen and smiled at the three children who seem to act more mature now that they had grown up. She remembered them as little toddlers who had lovely baby clothes on and rode in the pram that their mother got from her sister.


“Catherine I think you have done a fine job here. I think I can take over now. You might want to sit down and read or study your spelling words.” she said as she reached for the towel.

“Thank you. I would like to study the words I missed in the practice this morning. I do have some problems with ‘i before e, except after c’ words. I just wish that there weren’t so many of those tricky words on this list.” she replied after she relinquished the towel.

Catherine was going to study in the family room because it had a larger window. She also had hoped to practice her music too. This all depended on the boys who usually let her have twenty minutes before they requested that she stop.

William came in from cleaning the dirt he dropped off his shoes. He had the knack of getting his shoes cleaned fast. He also tried to hide the big hole that was in his sock. Timothy was slower to clean his shoes, but he wanted to make sure that the gate was closed and that Buddy could not get out.

“Oh William, did you hear anybody in the back on the other side of the fence?” Catherine asked as she sat in her favorite chair.

“Why no. I guess I was not paying attention but I don’t think I heard anything. Why do you ask?”

“When I was drying the dishes, a boy ran by and then three more were following him. I was just wondering if any of the boys came back this way. I don’t think that the three boys were up to anything good with this boy. I feel like they were going to hurt him.” she said as her voice trailed off with that thought.

“No. Did you get a look at them?” he asked he stepped closer.

“Not really. I don’t know the first boy, because he had a blue cap on. He was running very fast. But one of the three boys did sound like Paul, the boy in the class ahead of yours. You know the boy who was suspended from school because he hit someone on the playground. I think that he has two other boys that follow him around all the time.”

“Yes Paul if rough. He even tries to bully kids into giving up things. I think he may be asked to leave if he gets caught.”

Timothy entered the room next. He had already taken his socks off. Catherine repeated her observation and asked if he had heard anything. He responded that he had not.

“But now that we have Buddy, I think that if anyone would be going past our yard, he might bark at them. He is very smart.” he said as he turned to go upstairs and get some house shoes on.

“Well I would hope so. Anyway I do hope that other boy got away from him. He had a stick and looked like he really wanted to use it on the boy who was running fast. “ she let the subject drop and picked up her spelling list. Her heart was set on winning this years’ ribbon and showing her parents her accomplishment.