Читать книгу Opal Whiteley's Beginning and Hoops and Hoopla - David H. Rosen - Страница 9

Opal Irene Whiteley was born on December 11, 1897 in Colton, Washington. In her memoir, Opal maintained that she was an orphan. Her parents, Ed and Lizzie, claimed that this was not true. The following is a work of historical fiction that imagines Opal’s origins.

Opal was conceived on a clear, early Autumn day in a mossy lea near a forest. Her father, Ed, was a lumberjack. On one of his excursions into the nearby hills east of the Snake River, Ed was surveying trees to cut for a new cabin. He was tall, strong, and fair-skinned. Deep in the woods, he sat down to have his lunch, which his wife Lizzie had made. It consisted of homemade bread, two apples, and a bit of cheese. Ed and Lizzie had decided to settle in Colton where the fertile hills meet the prairie north of the Snake River. Ed had learned to be in the wild as a young boy and his father had taught him to hunt with a bow and arrow.

Ed found a huge tree to cut down for lumber. After sawing for hours, he was exhausted, so he lay down. To his surprise, he had slept for several hours.