"Every town needs a newspaper."
"Not my favorite subject, but I can talk about it. I met Beth in the early spring of '71, courted her proper I did. We married before the end of summer. Sort of what they call a whirlwind affair. Fast for some folks, too long for us." He related, "Now we were not kids by any means, I was twenty-eight, she, but seventeen. Her folks weren't happy about her choice, but then too, they were happy to pass on her support to me."
"We married and settled into a small place that I bought for us, and we were happy as a couple could be. Oh we tried for a child, we did, but to no avail. Just wasn't in the cards for us I suppose. But we had one another, and that was enough. Without a child to raise, we were free to do as we pleased, so we attended socials, dances, concerts in the park. Had friends in, as well as visiting them at their homes." He paused.
"The winter of '74 Beth took a serious fall while I was at work. By the time I got home her leg was swollen, the house was like ice, and I was in a panic." He paused again. "I got her to the doctor who had her admitted to the hospital where they tended to her leg, but within days pneumonia set in. Not having the necessary strength to fight it, she succumbed." He fained a smile, but his now red rimmed eyes were forming tears. "And, here I am."
"Everybody can feather their nest, but it's not just anybody that can lay an egg!"
Arabella listened with rapt attention to Mr. McVay's story about how he and his late wife had met and married. Oh, it was no heart-pounding tale of wild romance, as might be found within the yellow tinged pages of a dime novel; but neither was it the cold and stodgy retelling of some arranged twinning based upon financial dowries and settlements, as was so often the case. No, it was a nice, cosy, warm story: and Arabella smiled happily through the bulk of it.
But then came the dreaded and awful denouement.
"The winter of '74 Beth took a serious fall while I was at work. By the time I got home her leg was swollen, the house was like ice, and I was in a panic."
Arabella, who had been imagining Mr. and Mrs. McVay's idyllic life together so vividly, gasped, and her face fell.
He paused again. "I got her to the doctor who had her admitted to the hospital where they tended to her leg, but within days pneumonia set in. Not having the necessary strength to fight it, she succumbed."
"Oh, McVay..." sighed Arabella, leaning forward, eyes wide, her lower lip beginning to tremble.
He fained a smile, but his now red rimmed eyes were forming tears. "And, here I am."
The girl from Virginia, who was given to wearing her heart on her sleeve and crying at the drop of a hat at the best of times, now burst fully into great sobbing tears and running over threw her arms around the hard bitten reporter and wrapped him in a chaste and heartfelt hug.
"Oh poor Beth! And poor Mr. McVay!" she wept, before disentangling herself and wiping her nose on her sleeve. "and now you're here and... you're all... all alone in the world. Sniff."
"Every town needs a newspaper."
"Now, now, Arabella, I assure you that yes, I was filled with self pity after Elizabeth passed, however I have come to terms with the fact that there was very little I could do about the pneumonia, or it's results." He explained. "But, what I can do is to be the best me that I can be. I can understand your distress that I find myself alone, but she is always with me. In spirit. In memories."
"You will learn, as your life progresses, to shoulder setbacks and loss. It is as much a part of living as breathing. It will then be what you do a bout all of it that matters. How you move forward rather than remain in place that will count. You are stronger than you know young lady, and I'm sorry to say, you will learn just how strong as time and life goes on."
"Everybody can feather their nest, but it's not just anybody that can lay an egg!"
Arabella nodded her understanding as Mr. McVay explained how, although losing his wife had been painful, he felt her presence still. It was exactly how she felt about her dear, dear Father, her dear, dear little brother, and her mother. Well, Mother was a more distant memory: and maybe less pleasant, but still, she felt her with her, especially at times when fortitude and bravery were required.
The editor of the Kalispell Union had more words of wisdom to impart.
"You will learn, as your life progresses, to shoulder setbacks and loss. It is as much a part of living as breathing. It will then be what you do a bout all of it that matters. How you move forward rather than remain in place that will count. You are stronger than you know young lady, and I'm sorry to say, you will learn just how strong as time and life goes on."
She straightened as he spoke these inspirational words. "I will grow stronger!" she intoned, somewhat misty eyed.
"Mr. McVay, people laugh at me when I say I want to be an actress and sometimes I think maybe they're right: but, why, your wise words have put new heart into me!" she said emphatically, standing up.
"Every town needs a newspaper."
"Yes well, if acting is what you want, if entertaining others is your ambition, then let nothing deter you. Forge ahead with your plan to attain that goal. And, perhaps Kalispell is not the place to launch your career on the stage, we are no metropolis by any stretch of the imagination, just a sort of wide spot in the road. Oh, with good upstanding, people to be sure. But a place where an actress could begin her career? I wouldn't know if, in fact, that would be in the best interest of beginning your journey to the footlights as a career."
"I realize that Mister Ben Simmons has talked of building a theater here. Many western towns have theaters, Opera Houses, and there are tent shows in the mining camps. Now I have no doubt the man means to do just as he says, but nary a board has been cut for it, and time for such a project is fast disappearing, just ask Miss Steelgrave whose own project is looking at a delay." A hard truth, but a real one. "Just some food for thought, Arabella."
"Everybody can feather their nest, but it's not just anybody that can lay an egg!"
Arabella listened to Mr. McVay's sage advice, and stiffened with excitement as he encouraged her thespian ambitions. But she disagreed with his idea that Kalispell was a bad place to start her march up the ladder of starlight success.
"Oh, Mr. McVay, I wanna be famous in New York one day, but I ain't sufferin' under no delusions: when I first get started, I reckon I'll be pretty terrible: and I ... well, I realise that play acting all day long ain't the same as gettin' on a stage and pullin' off the same spell-bindin' performance every single night - oh and matinees, o' course. I plan to iron out my wrinkles on the folks in Kalispell before I go on and wow 'em all on Broadway!" she reasoned. "Just need a stage here to do it on!"
"I realize that Mister Ben Simmons has talked of building a theater here. Many western towns have theaters, Opera Houses, and there are tent shows in the mining camps. Now I have no doubt the man means to do just as he says, but nary a board has been cut for it, and time for such a project is fast disappearing, just ask Miss Steelgrave whose own project is looking at a delay." A hard truth, but a real one. "Just some food for thought, Arabella."
"Hmmm" sighed Arabella, plonking herself back in the chair looking down in the dumps. "I think he was gonna get Mr. Ryker to help him, he's awful good with wood, but I heard a rumour he's run off so he don't have to marry Addy Chappel." she looked up quickly, remembering who she was talking to "Say, if you print that: don't go namin' your sources!"
She slumped in thought again.
"If only there was someone else in Kalispell who was good at that kinda woodworkin'" she sighed.
"Every town needs a newspaper."
Phinn had to laugh. "Miss Mudd, I'll have you know that the Kalispell Union does not dabble in the romantic trials and tribulations of it's citizens. We here consider it our duty to report news worthy stories that will appeal to all of our readers." Though at one time he had considered a lonely hearts column, he quickly dashed the thought as being unappealing to the customers and advertisers of the paper. A risk not worth taking.
"As far as carpenters to build such a thing, and I have no idea what his plans might look like for this theater, there is a crew out at The Pike's ranch building the house and out buildings, however, that is probably of no help to Mister Simmons at this point, since they are no where near completion." He said. "The other option ids to find an empty building to rent, if there is one, out to the barn, like Mister Crabbe and associates have done, though that still calls for a stage to be built for either one. You might suggest that to Mister Simon when you see him."
"Everybody can feather their nest, but it's not just anybody that can lay an egg!"
Phinn had to laugh. "Miss Mudd, I'll have you know that the Kalispell Union does not dabble in the romantic trials and tribulations of it's citizens. We here consider it our duty to report news worthy stories that will appeal to all of our readers." Though at one time he had considered a lonely hearts column, he quickly dashed the thought as being unappealing to the customers and advertisers of the paper. A risk not worth taking.
"Hmmm" Arabella moped. How much more interesting a read the Kalispell Union would be if it did publish the 'romantic trials and tribulations of it's citizens' instead of all that boring political news and reports on worthy causes and what not. She herself had offered to write an interesting and funny advice column, where everybody could have a good laugh at other people's problems, but Mr. McVay had conveniently 'lost' her sample piece - Ask Old Sump.
But now the newspaperman was thinking about the putative theatre again.
"As far as carpenters to build such a thing, and I have no idea what his plans might look like for this theater, there is a crew out at The Pike's ranch building the house and out buildings, however, that is probably of no help to Mister Simmons at this point, since they are no where near completion." He said. "The other option ids to find an empty building to rent, if there is one, out to the barn, like Mister Crabbe and associates have done, though that still calls for a stage to be built for either one. You might suggest that to Mister Simon when you see him."
"Well, o' course, it ain't just a simple job, I mean, yuh gotta decide whether you wanna raked stage so's everybody can see what' happenin' - but then all the folks actin' on the stage look like they're limpin' around like they got shot in the leg! Course, yuh can can have 'terraced seatin'" instead - that's like the seats is in steps..." she pontificated on. She might not be very experienced in theatre practice, but she had learned all she could from books and magazines and theatre reviews in newspaper brought in from such metropolises as Helena and Missoula.
"Every town needs a newspaper."
"While those stage and seating arrangements are quite common all over the east, parts of the mid-western states, and, even out here in places, what will remain are the choices that Mister Simmons considers, and then has constructed. He may well find that Kalispell is not quite large enough to support a theater." Phinn pointed out.
"Production costs will most likely outpace ticket sales, of course I could be wrong, and theater might well flourish here. I really couldn't say. What I do know is that the area has maybe thirty store fronts, including the Church, Livery and the Municiple Building. How many are vacant? I'm not sure."
"This community is at the moment ranchers and farmers. The farmers are not what I would call the upper crust of society hereabouts, that would be the business owners, the ones that are successful, and of course the Lost Lake and Evergreen ranches. I know I tend to paint a dreary picture of the possibilities here, but Arabella, the facts are the facts, unpopular as they may be."
"Everybody can feather their nest, but it's not just anybody that can lay an egg!"
Arabella gasped in horror, in suitably dramatic style, at Mr. McVay's horrible suggestion that the little town might be too small to support a proper theatre of the type Mr. Simons was proposing.
"Production costs will most likely outpace ticket sales, of course I could be wrong, and theater might well flourish here. I really couldn't say. What I do know is that the area has maybe thirty store fronts, including the Church, Livery and the Municiple Building. How many are vacant? I'm not sure."
"Oh. but Mr. McVay, this place is growing all the time. And soon there'll be a railroad station an' a hospital an' a orphanage and, who knows what else! Or are you thinkin' the folks round here might not care to go to the theatre, even if there's lots of 'em." She leaned in a little conspiratorially.
"T' tell the truth, quite a bunch of 'em ain't too sophisticated, if yuh know what I mean, not like you an' me!"
"This community is at the moment ranchers and farmers. The farmers are not what I would call the upper crust of society hereabouts, that would be the business owners, the ones that are successful, and of course the Lost Lake and Evergreen ranches. I know I tend to paint a dreary picture of the possibilities here, but Arabella, the facts are the facts, unpopular as they may be."
"Oh, don't be such a misery, Mr. McVay!" countered Arabella cheerfully, jumping up from her chair and gathering together the fliers. "Why, boxing matches, theatre, music... in a couple o' months good old Kalispell's gonna be the entertainment centre of the whole Fat-head Valley!"
She had never quite grasped the name of the area they lived in.