Her Only Love-50

[Zochitl]

“Please may I have a glass of water?  My throat is parched and I haven’t eaten since yesterday.” Alonzo said in a raspy voice.

O’Connor looked at him and then left the room. He walked down the hall to the water cooler at the end of the room where all the different officers were sitting in their desks.   Some typing away on their computers while others were on the phone making calls or taking calls.

“Say Bill me friend. How’s about you going next door  and picking up a dinner for the prisoner?  I’ll get him some water. It seems the poor boy hasn’t had anything to eat for two days now.” O’Connor yelled across to where Bill was just sitting picking his teeth with a toothpick.

Bill looks up with a frown and slowly gets up and heads for the door.

“That man really should lose some weight.  Fat is not to be had without labor.”  O’Connor said chuckling as he pulled out a paper cup and punched on the handle to get some water for the cooler. He takes it back to the interrogating room where Alonzo had put half of his body resting on top of the table and seemed to be sleeping but as soon as he heard the door open, he straightened up and put his body  to the back of the chair. O’Connot placed the cup next to him and he grabbed it with both hands and drank it like he had just come out of a blazing dessert.

“There’s more of that if you want.” O’Connor said. Alonzo just nodded his head and O’Connor grabbed the cup and went out to the water cooler again.  As he came back into the room he heard Bill’s voice behind him.

 “Say boss I could only get a hamburger at Sally’s Restaurant. She even gave me some fries but I ate them on the way back before they got cold.  They don’t taste good cold.  I guess he can fill up with the hamburger. It does look like she stuck a lot of lettuce and tomato in there to fill it up.”  Bill kept smiling and looking at O’Connor through the top of his glasses.

” A lie looks the better of having a witness with you, Bill.” O’Connor answered shaking his head. Then he took the paper plate with the wrapped food and went inside the room.   Once Alonzo got the plate he began to devour the hamburger as though he hadn’t eaten in a week until O’Connor told him to slow down.

“I think now that your stomach is full you can start and tell me yer story so we can get to the bottom of all this” He said to him as he sat in the chair.

Alonzo licked his lips and then wiping them with the paper napkin.   Then he began slowly to relate to O’Connor how he was told by his uncle in his death bed that he had a cousin whom he never spoke about but nevertheless they were related.  Then he told me  how this elderly couple adopted him and he grew to be a good man, serving his country and after that becoming a very influential businessman until his divorce when he decided to leave New York and buy a home in Connecticut.  He wanted to retire and bring his adoptive mother to live with him.  But he was family and he should know where he came from.

“Yer uncle, was he a doctor by the name of Portman?”  O’ Connor interrupted.

“Yes sir. He was a good doctor and a good man.  Always helping the poor I was told.  He never praised himself.  We always would find out from other people that would pass by our Plantation.  Alonzo Portman was his name.  The last name has been altered.   My own father gave me Uncle Alonzo’s name since he also baptized me and he loved his  brother.   When he passed I went to my father and told him what Uncle Alonzo had made me promise and that’s when I learned the whole story and decided to come and meet my cousin and talk with him.”

“I think I know how the story went Alonzo, but I want to hear it from ye, young man.    It’s not a nice story to be sure but you can help me get to the end of it and make things right for everybody.”   O’Connor leaned over the table and smiled.

“Yes Sir. I guess it’s time.   I tried my best to protect the family name but my Uncle Alonzo is gone and so is my father  now and I’m the only one left with knowing the truth from the lips of two honest men who tried to do best for the family.”  Alonzo began showing the pride that had been handed down from generations past.

We come from a very proud, southern family in Louisiana.   Raised in the best of schools and a proud home we called Hacienda del Lago.    My great-grandfather, Jose Maria Fernandez de Ortega  I was told,  came from another country called Mexico. He was the owner of a hacienda there where his forefathers had settled and raised crops and good cattle for one hundred years, but my grandfather decided to leave all that to his brothers and come to Louisiana.  He loved this country.  He had been sent to New Orleans to study Agriculture and he would go to Louisiana  to visit with one of his friends at school  that lived there, during  his vacations.   That’s where he met my grandmother and after he married her, he decided to settle there.    My grandmother Amelie Port-Monde was a Cajun whose parents were from French and Spanish extraction.  Her parents were both from Acadia and they grew cotton and rice in their plantation becoming one of the big exporters of these products.  They had many free people of color running their grounds.   My grandfather believed in freedom for all.  Things were going very well until the war changed everything for them. Then my grandfather was killed and everything changed. 

“And what about their children?”  O’Connor questioned.

They had three children of course.   One became a doctor, my Uncle Alonzo, and the other, my father Pierre, who was named for my grandfather on my Grand’Mere’s side.  He stayed to run the plantation.  Then there was my aunt Clara.  I was told she always was a fiery woman when she was growing up but because of her beauty and sweet ways, her brothers would constantly be protecting her.  She would go out with the free slaves to their voodoo séances and when she got tired of that,   she turned to the English crowd.  They had many gatherings.   That’s where she met this young man and they began to go out a lot. My father and uncle tried to dissuade her from committing a big mistake and hurting the name of our family but she wouldn’t listen.   That’s when she ran away with him without the consent my grandfather and of Grand-Mere.    At least she  married into a very wealthy family of Tabaco  growers but being that they were not Acadian, my Grand’Mere didn’t care for the marriage because he was English.  His name was Harrington and I heard he was good to her until the faux pas.”

“Aha! That’s how she changed her name.   She took your grandmother’s name and revised it, I see!”  O’Connor excitedly said.

“He was Spanish, that chauffeur I was told.   My aunt Clara being half Spanish and half Cajun was quite a wild lady  and would be attracted to men like that.  I guess she made a big mistake after she married.  I’m sorry she is dead.  But she bore a child before she died I was told.  My Grand’ Mere was heartbroken and a few years afterwards she too passed on.   My Uncle Alonzo also changed his name to Portman to break ties with the family names because he felt too much shame.  Our family from my Spanish great-grandfather were very honorable people and if your name was disgraced, you would either be killed in a duel or leave and change it to protect the rest of the family. 

When I saw my Aunt Clara’s portrait on the mantelpiece,  I knew he was the person my Uncle Alonzo  and my father spoke to me about.   He is her son and I then knew he was my family.”

“Well, lad, death and marriages make changes. But do not despair. This chapter shall be uncovered and we both will get our closings.  ‘Tis good you tried to take those papers from me, otherwise I would still be looking for the truth.

You and I will take a trip to the Harrington Mansion but not before I call the lawyer who knows the whole story that will be told from the beginning.  For tonight you will  sleep in a comfortable cell,  not  to feel ye are a prisoner but I think  you will be more comfortable than in the nearby motel which I wouldn’t place my farm animals in there, if I had any.”  O’Connor said smiling.

 

[RavenDelcor]

A good lesson in history! How to follow the Acadians from Canada, mixing with the Spanish and French already in New Orleans. The "English" were indeed the foreigners and suspect, mostly because of their superior attitude. To find all this rolled into one family story, and have it all connect in Connecticut, wow! Great job! Now, let's see what everyone else thinks in the story. Could be interesting, hopefully no more bumps on the head or blown tires!