Mabel Maney - The Case Of The Good-For-Nothing Girlfriend

Cherry opened the bathroom door and tiptoed out to greet her friend. “Did you two have fun?” she whispered, before realizing that the person standing in the middle of the room wasn’t Velma at all! It was the casually dressed, middle-aged, blond-haired woman from the restaurant, the one Cherry had nearly knocked over earlier that evening. And right next to her was her helpful husband, Harold!

“Eek!” Cherry cried as she dropped her travel kit and hurriedly folded her arms over the front of her nightie. “Why didn’t I don the matching robe?” she chastised herself.

The couple looked as surprised to see Cherry as she was to see them. Their mouths dropped open at the sight of the startled nurse.

“We must have the wrong cabin,” they chorused in alarm.

Cherry pointed to her sleeping chum and signaled for them to be quiet. To her great relief, they understood and immediately lowered their voices.

“We took your suggestion and decided to stay here for the night,” the man whispered as he backed out of the cabin.

“I’m terribly embarrassed,” the woman said, taking care to keep her voice low. She sounded truly alarmed! “Our cabin must be the one right next door. I must have mixed up the numbers on the door,” she smiled, explaining, “It’s awfully dark out.”

“The manager should really put more lights outside,” Cherry agreed. “Why, a person could fall and get hurt!” After tossing on a robe, Cherry borrowed Nancy’s flashlight from her purse and pointed the couple toward the correct cabin. “You were really lucky to get a cabin,” Cherry whispered to them. “And how odd that it’s the one right next to ours.”

They all agreed it was a happy coincidence.

“And lucky for us, we opened your door by mistake,” the woman gasped. “What if we had wandered into some else’s room? Someone we didn’t already know. Why, they might have thought we were thieves!”

They all had a good laugh at the thought. Cherry bade them a good night. “I must get back indoors. Wet hair and cool mountain air are a sure prescription for a cold,” she explained.

“You know best. After all, you’re the nurse,” Harold agreed. “Goodnight, miss, and thank you, once again, for all your help,” Harold said.

Once back in the room, Cherry took care to lock the door before slipping into bed next to Nancy. Velma had the key and could let herself and Lauren in. Goodness knows how many people could walk into their cabin by accident!

“I could be directing people towards their rooms all night,” Cherry thought sleepily. She had to giggle at the thought. In the course of her career, she had been many things. A Cruise Nurse on a ship bound for the high seas, a Department-Store Nurse called in to handle the fainting spells at a big girdle sale, even a Dude-Ranch Nurse for a summer. But she had never been a tour guide, or a Cabin Nurse, for that matter, although she would most certainly throw on her uniform and come running whenever and wherever a call for help reached her ears!

Her thoughts drifted toward the friendly couple staying next door. At first she hadn’t thought they were very nice and had been put off by their cheap, garish clothing. But they had turned out to be lovely people. “To think I accused them of being those awful people in that dusty brown Impala who passed us by,” Cherry admonished herself. “It just goes to show, you can’t judge a book by its cover.” It struck Cherry as funny that they had run into each other two times in one day. “By now we’re practically old friends!” she chuckled to herself.

“Mother was right. You do meet the nicest people when you travel,” she thought as she snuggled up to Nancy and planted a little kiss on her soft neck. Nancy didn’t respond, so Cherry closed her eyes, and a few minutes later, she, too, was sound asleep. So sound asleep, in fact, that she didn’t hear the urgent whispering going on outside her door, or the rattling of the knob, or the angry cries followed by retreating footfalls.

All Cherry knew as she drifted through layers of sleep was that she was in her beloved home state with her true love by her side. What more could a girl ask for?

“Good-bye, majestic mountains! Good-bye, raging rivers! Good-bye, lush, green forests!” Cherry cried as she drove their newly repaired convertible across the Idaho state line and into the rugged state of Wyoming. She felt a little teary as she left behind her beloved Idaho. Who knew when she would be back to partake of its natural splendors?

Cherry turned her mind to the trip ahead. According to her calculations, and barring any complications, it would take them ten hours to cross Wyoming, upon which time they would be halfway through their trip. “Then there’s only Nebraska and Iowa, and, before you know it, we’ll be in River Depths!” She shivered with excitement when she thought of the picturesque ten hours ahead!

“Girls, did you know that today we’ll be traveling through some of the finest scenery in the country?” Cherry chirped cheerfully. She checked her sturdy nurse’s watch. It was just after eight a.m. They had been on the road for about an hour.

“In another four hours, we’ll be crossing the Rocky Mountains, one of the world’s main mountain systems. That will be the perfect time for us to stop and have a nourishing lunch and stretch our legs while viewing some of the most spectacular scenery in all of America! Aren’t you excited, Midge?”

Midge, who was curled up on the passenger side of the front seat with her eyes closed, just smiled.

“We’ll miss the Grand Tetons,” Cherry continued, “We’re too far south, and we shouldn’t really take the time to go out of our way. It’s really a shame, though, don’t you think? I’ve always wanted to see them, haven’t you?”

Midge groaned, which Cherry took as a yes. Who in her right mind, if given the opportunity, wouldn’t want to see such a sight?

Cherry made a mental note to send her mother a picture postcard showing the spectacular scenery from this strange and enchanting land. Funny, when she had called her mother just a half hour before, she had received no answer. Oh, well! It was a lovely Idaho day, and her mother was probably out tending her rose bushes before the summer sun got too high in the sky.

“Look! There’s a meadowlark!” Cherry called out in excitement, pointing at a yellow-breasted bird flying overhead, while taking care to keep one eye on the road. It would never do for them to have another car mishap like the one they had had yesterday, for that repair had taken all but thirty dollars of their car-trip kitty. Thirty dollars would be plenty for meals and gasoline, for the girls planned to drive all day and all night until they reached Illinois. “We’ll be fine, barring any unforeseen disasters,” Cherry thought.

Cherry was positive they’d have no more trouble like the day before. Seeing the meadowlark was a good sign, she thought with a smile. “It’s the official state bird of Wyoming, and, despite its name, it’s not really a lark at all,” she informed her traveling companions. “It’s a blackbird, although it does live in the meadows, just like a lark. I guess you could say they’re not related, but they are neighbors,” she chuckled.

“I sure could use some coffee from that thermos,” Cherry hinted to Midge. “There’s nothing better than a cup of good, hot coffee drunk outdoors,” she added. “Don’t you think? Midge? Are you listening?”

“Don’t I think what?” Midge grumbled sleepily. Midge had gotten up at six a.m. with the rest of them, and stayed awake just long enough to gulp down a cup of black coffee, smoke a cigarette, and, using tape from Cherry’s first-aid kit, alter the letters of Nancy’s license plate so as to throw the police off their trail. Then she had sacked out in the front seat.