PREVIEWS FOR 

MYSTERIOUS EMILY

This is a very humouous mystery and it is also among the Historical Fiction Books in this lineup of Online e-Books by Leonard Hogue about a family that had lived in the southern town of Springerville for many years when the plant there closed and Nathan was transferred back to Chicago where he had worked for the same company fresh out of college before he was transferred south. This book, along with Hair Affair and Camping in Alaska are all available as e-Book Downloads. It is also among Historical Romance Novels because he was forced to leave his family behind. One daughter went away to school and when her mother could not locate her she lost her mind and talks strange throughout the book.  

            Nathan was sitting in his vastly overstuffed office chair behind his immensely large and shiny black matching desk in his ridiculously large room; everything was oversized for the small amount of business that the company was generating. He had little to do for the company that he had been with for many years, especially since they had transferred him from the plant that they had closed in Springerville back to where he had started working full time for the company fresh out of college after having worked for other people at other jobs on a part time basis throughout all of his college years. 

He had little choice except to accept the transfer, this being among Realistic Fiction Books about the trials and tribulations of the depression years of the nineteen thirties because when they informed him that the plant that he had worked  for as a bookkeeper and general manager for many years was closing, he went to the other plant in town and to every other business, tendering applications to no avail.

When he arrived there they had instructed him to use the small office that the previous superintendent had used before they had decided that he was shirking his duties and had discharged him,

When the board of directors decided that one of the officers and stockholders; a minor stockholder they had hired when business had been booming to take care of the previous job of head bookkeeper that Nathan had before his transfer to Springerville was not needed because one bookkeeper could handle the job, he resigned; resigned was not the word; he had been kicked out.

 Nathan didn’t need or even appreciate such an elaborate office but when that office became vacant they moved him so they could use his old office as a storage room; the office that had been known for years as the cubby hole,  but he had made out with it fine until the large one had come vacant.

Nathan, having absolutely nothing to do at the moment was sitting leaned over his desk with his elbows on the desk and his fingers laced together; making a huge fist on which his chin was resting. He was remorseful; no not merely remorseful, but hurting to the depths of his soul as he had been since he had to leave his family behind when he had no choice except to transfer; that was the first time they had been separated for any length of time since he and his wife, Dolores, had been married; for over twenty years.

During the depression years of the nineteen thirties many families were struggling to make a bare living. Many banks and many businesses closed after the stock market crash of nineteen twenty nine and many men were forced to relocate if they were lucky enough to find work in another city and since property values were at a lower point than they had been in many years, and homes would not readily sell, many were forced to leave their families behind. Some men were forced to migrate to another state, quite often many miles distant from their homes.

Many families that had money in banks when they closed after the crash found themselves penniless and the pressure was so great on their minds that many of them committed suicide by jumping from windows or by many other means. Many of them would not normally be self destructive, or even have thought of suicide, but suddenly became so when they found themselves with no means of supporting their families in the lifestyle that they were accustomed; or worse yet, bare survival in the town in which they had lived for many years. That was the case within the lives of Nathan and Dolores Williamson and their two daughters, Emily and Saralee.

Such was their dilemma that Nathan had gone to Chicago to take the job that had been offered him, but since the previous superintendent had been dismissed, he had no time to prepare for the move. He decided to go there and when he could save enough money, he would rent or buy a house and have his family follow him; that was, except their daughter Emily. She had gone to a college near where Nathan went; partly because she thought that she could get a better education and partly because her mother insisted that she go to the college that she and Nathan had graduated from many years before.

There was another consideration for Emily going to Chicago; there was a much better chance of her getting a part time job to pay her tuition, since her father, with the extra expenses of living away from home and keeping up their present house, could not possibly also pay for her college expenses.     

Nathan sat behind his enormous desk feeling dejected and morose thinking about the new responsibilities that the board had placed on his shoulders that very morning; they had given him the task of reversing the losses that they had been experiencing since the beginning of the depression. They had not operated in the red every year, seeming to pull out of their slump one year, but the general trend had been toward eventual bankruptcy. The board of directors had their collective ideas of how to operate and they thought themselves right, especially when the red bookkeeping ink had turned black that one year and they were not inclined to listen to anyone else.

Of course one of the directors, as is usually the case during a meeting when so much is at stake, was vehement in his objections to their ideas, but they overrode his objections and voted for the ideas of the majority; of course no one would probably agree that there was a connection, but shortly after that there was no need of that particular person’s services.

Nathan was feeling remorseful; mentally thrashing himself for leaving his family behind, thinking that he could have, if he really put his thoughts and abilities into practice, been saving much more money than he had during the many years that he had been working at Springerville; but if he had saved more money it would have surely been in the local bank and it had been one of the first ones that had closed. Although he knew that it had been no fault of his that he had left them behind, he felt as if he had failed them; even deserted them.

That was not the case because he was sending them every dime over his bare living costs for their support. But he knew that their budget was extremely tight; there was barely enough money to survive and pay the bills. They were in a nice house all right; he had seen to that many years before but he still felt blue; he felt badly because he could not be with them when they needed him.   

***

“Why can’t you be more like Emily?” Dolores angrily asked Saralee one day. “She was so happy when you were born, but you have never liked her.”

“Mom, don’t you remember? Emily had not only been my sister but she had always been my best friend before she left; we did everything together,” Saralee answered.

“You did not; you were always with that girl Denise instead of your sister. She is white and doesn’t even go to your school and doesn’t even go to our church; we go to the one across the railroad tracks, so why would you always associate with her instead of your sister?”

“Mom, after Emily, my next best friend has always been Denise. Besides, don’t you remember, one of Dad’s best friends and associates has always been her father? Dad said that they had worked together since he had been here because he had been the company’s attorney at the plant here before they closed it and not only had they become business associates but had become good social friends.

“We sat on this porch many times and ate together and then you and Dad talked and played games with them while the three of us played house under the floor in our playhouse.”

“Now I remember, we went to their house and played games sometimes. And I seem to remember them coming to our house sometimes. And I remember having ice cream; now I remember taking turns and turning that crank around and around for hours before it was ready. But why would you and Denise always be together and you would sometimes ignore Emily; was it because at that time you were both younger?”

“Try to remember, Mom, we would usually all three get together and do our homework. Since Emily was in a higher grade and knew more about our assignments than we did she was always ready to help us with our lessons.”

“If your father hadn’t run off to who knows where when Emily left, maybe he could control you and keep you away from those young hoodlums that you have been associating with after school.”

“But Mom, I don’t need any controlling. All I do is go straight to school and come home and take care of you and I told you before that I don’t know any hoodlums.”

“You do not take care of me; I take care of you. I have always taken care of you and gotten you dressed for school since you started going to school yesterday.”

“Mom, that was years ago. You haven’t dressed me since I was in the second or third grade. I’m in the third year of high school now.”

“How did you get that far in school without your father here to keep you going? He slipped away in the middle of the night when he ran off.”
           

“ He didn’t run away to anyplace and he didn’t slip away. He had to be ready for work Monday morning, so he left here Saturday night to drive there by Sunday evening. Don’t you remember him telling us that he would need to leave during the night?”

“He did not have to leave during the night; it’s only a little ways to where he works. He always walked to work before he ran off; and sometimes came home for lunch.  He would leave for work early in the morning and almost always came home before dark.”

“Mom, I told you that he doesn’t work at the plant here anymore.”

“Then why did he quit working here? Why didn’t he stay here and work like he had always done? They liked him so well that they would let him work whenever he wanted.”

“The company had closed their plant here and if he kept his position he had to transfer to their plant in Chicago. After he told us that he would have to leave at night, you went to sleep and he didn’t want to wake you.

“Don‘t you remember how happy you were about him working so hard and getting that promotion? You talked all of the time about him working himself up to general manager. And when the superintendent left they made him superintendent of production before they closed. He couldn’t find another job here that would pay all of the expenses so when they offered to transfer him to Chicago he had no choice except going there to work.”

“If he’s working in Chicago why can’t he come home every day when Emily does? She can only stay a few hours before she has to go away again; why can’t she spend more time here so I can talk to her?”

“Mom, she hasn’t been here since she went back to college near the end of last year when her Christmas vacation was over. Don’t you remember how happy you were that she would be in her second year?”

“Went back to college; why would she do that? I always ask her why she has to leave so soon, but she seldom talks to me; she just sits and listens. You are going to school here, so why can’t Emily?”

“Mom, don’t you remember insisting on her going to the same college that you and Dad went to before you were married. Don’t you remember going to college? You have told me about you and Dad meeting while you were going to the same school. After you finished college and the company Dad was working for offered him a job at this plant, which they had just completed, you married and moved here. Don’t you remember telling me how happy you both were to find this house when you arrived here/”

"Why do you keep saying that your father came here to take this job? He has always worked here and we have always lived in this house.”

“Mom, Dad transferred here from their plant in Chicago where he’s working now and he had no choice except to take their offer to transfer there when they closed their plant here.”

Dolores had been raised as an only child in a well to do family near Chicago and had gone to one of the prestigious schools about two hours by car from their home, where she and the girl’s father had been among the top students of their classes. She had told Saralee and Emily many times how people had talked about what a fine couple they were even before they were married. Everyone they knew had assumed that they would marry.

 FOR ALL OF YOU E-BOOK READERS, DON’T FORGET MY OTHER ONLINE E-BOOKS

THIS BOOK, MYSTERIOUS EMILY ALONG WITH HAIR AFFAIR AND CAMPING IN ALASKA ARE

AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE AS E-BOOK DOWNLOADS ONLY

You can go to MORE ELECTRONIC BOOKS from the home page and click on add to cart

under Mysterious Emily, Hair Affair or Camping In Alaska

or the three book combination.

If you cannot download them send a check to the address on the home page for the purchase price plus $5.00 postage and handling for one, two or three disks off your choice and  they will be mailed when the check clears the bank.

Mysterious Emily in Electronic: