Lela’s Story Part 2

Seeing her father appear in the doorway of the church would have frightened most anyone, but not Lela. She was very comfortable with these kinds of occurances. After all, had she not prayed for her father to come???

No one knows for sure how long Lela ran that day or where she found herself when her malnourished legs couldn’t take her another step. We do know that she most likely found a “safe” place to hide and to think about the consequences of her actions.

She knew that Polly was going to be quite upset with her. She knew that the church would not supply them with food anymore. And she knew that Polly would tell the Welfare social worker that she ran out of the church to avoid taking the scaraments; that would mean that the welfare woman would just find something for her to do on Sundays.

Lela didn’t know why her father told her to run. All she knew was she could not go through with what was required of her. Maybe, it was this God that she didn’t want to be a part of or maybe it was just that her father knew that what she felt in her heart was not right. After all, how could a loving God allow this much heartache in a child’s life…she didn’t know and she didn’t care. Not anymore. She was done with church and this “White Man’s” God.

As Lela expected, she received a harsh beating with a belt from Polly when she finally found her way home that evening. She knew that she was going to get it, and it hurt a lot. As Lela was receiving her “whippin”, she thought it was so peculiar how that belt was one of the few things of her father’s belongings that Polly kept.

Polly kept the belt and the long duster coat. It was the coat that caused his death. Lela’s father had a habit, a gambling habit. On that fateful day, he was on his way to the racetrack at the fairgrounds in Springfield. He had a hot tip on a horse and he was in a hurry to get his bet placed before the race. He didn’t notice that his coat was entangled on the handrail and as the streetcar took off, he was pulled under the car.

Lela remembered that day as if it was yesterday. Much to everyone’s surprise, her father wasn’t instantly killed, but he survived the intial crushing.  He was taken to St John’s hospital and the police were sent to bring the family. Everyone was there around his bed when he breathed his last. Lela thought that her heart was going to fall out of her chest and shatter in a million pieces; that was how much her heart hurt on that day.

Everyday since that horrible accident, her heart hurt with the memory of her father. Without her father, she felt so alone in this world and Polly made it clear that it wouldn’t bother her a moment if she joined him. It would just be one less mouth to feed. Life seemed so unfair to this small child. She bore the weight of the world on her 10 year old shoulders.

Now, that the church was not helping them, food was even harder to come by. The welfare caseworker arranged for the children to take their lunch pails and walk to the same hospital where their father died, St. Johns, and receive food twice a day.

The hospital was across town, but that didn’t matter. In all weathers, the children would walk twice a day and the hospital would fill each child’s pail with whatever was being served to the patients. It was just not enough.

Somehow, the months melted into years and everyone grew in spite of the meager amount of food that they ate. Lela was becoming a pretty young woman. Now that she was more gown than not, Lela could begin cleaning the large homes of the wealthy without anyone to supervise over her.

Inside these large and spacious mansions, Lela was surrounded by the most beautiful of things. There was Waterford cut glass vases and the finest of china that she had to wash and not break.  The heavy curtains  were made from the richest of fabrics and dressed the windows that she had to wash. The living room had overstuff couches and chairs and the linens on the beds were fit for a king. But, it was the art and the beautiful pictures that hung on the walls that held her spell bound. She wanted to stand and look at the picures, but the length of time that she could enjoy them was measured in the length of time that she used the feather duster to knock off the dust.

Daily,  she would trudge home to a shack with no curtains, no dishes, no rugs on the floor, no colorful art work, just a roof to keep the rain out and windows that had no coverings. That was her home.  Lela vowed to herself that, one day,  she would have beautiful things and a wonderful home of her own to clean!!! 

Polly’s days were full of washing other people’s laundry so it fell to Lela to clean the shack and care for her younger siblings. She didn’t mind. She loved her brothers and sister. She made sure that they had clean clothes, their hair was combed and, even though they were poor, they were clean…it was important to Lela that no one looked down on her brothers and sister even if they were half breeds.  They were going to look as if someone took pride in them.

When she was 15 years old, her world took an unexpected turn. The caseworker had a new home for her to clean. Because Lela was as tall or taller than most men and because she look older than her years, she was left  alone to clean this house.

She always preferred to be alone when she cleaned. She would pretend that this was her home and she would imagine inviting the important people of the town to come in and have dinner at her fine table with all of her beautiful dishes.

This new house was the home of a man who had recently been widowed. He did not have any children so the work load wasn’t as much as the other houses she cleaned. Most people leave the house when she there, but on this particular day, the man of the house did not leave… No matter, Lela began her chores.

As she was cleaning the kitchen, she noticed that he was watching her.  When she went into the dining room, she was too busy to notice where the man went. All  she knew was that she had to quickly finish because the welfare lady was returning soon. She scheduled Lela to clean another house today. She had to work like the wind.

As she finished with the downstairs, she made her way upstairs to the bedroom. She  was making the bed when she heard someone behind her. As she turned, the man of the house was behind her……