To read the previous Twirl, go here.

For my new Invisible Friends, Twirl is the story of a star-crossed ballerina named Vivi and her handsome cowboy named Wade, who have stumbled into a international ballet scandal and a old Texas legend that might possibly lead to riches! To catch up in the archives, go to the Never Ending Stories Tab at the top of this site.

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Propping her bare feet on the dashboard, Vivi absentmindedly fingered the hem of the worn jeans Susanna had loaned her as she read the only letters they had left.

“I can’t believe Margaret broke into your ranch,” she muttered, glowering at the yellowed papers.

Wade’s jaw tightened.  “Just fixing the stuff she destroyed took all our savings,” he replied.  “Not to mention she may have taken something we needed.  We’re at a disadvantage.”

Vivi glanced over at him.  “It took all your savings?  I thought she only broke out a window!”

“Well, she did a bit more than that,” Wade replied, shifting in the driver’s seat.  “And after my grandfather’s medical bills, paying the ranch hands and manager, feed, vet bills….we’re not saving too much right now.  It’s a hard time out there for folks.  The heat, economy…”

Vivi blinked.  Wade had never talked this much about the ranch’s troubles.  “Well, you’re working at Helga’s and everything, so you’ll still be able to go to college.”  Wade was silent.  “Right?” she asked, biting her lip.  “I mean, Wade, you deserve to go to college!  You could do so much more with the ranch…”

Wade leaned over and patted her leg.  “I don’t deserve anything, darling.  I’ll go to college one of these days.  I just have to make sure the ranch and my grandfather are taken care of.”

“But what about your dad?” Vivi pursued.  “He’s a lawyer, right?  Why can’t he pay for you?”

Wade shrugged.  “He didn’t offer and I didn’t ask.”

“Why not?” Vivi asked, exasperated.

“Of all folks to be beholden to, he’s the last one I’d choose,” Wade replied, an edge in his voice.  His jaw tightened.  “If I asked my dad for money, he’d have a say in what I do.  And considering how he treated his own father, I doubt he’d treat me much better.”  Slowing down at a light, he leaned over and kissed Vivi.  “Don’t worry, Vivi.  If I’m sixty, I’ll still go to school.  It just may take me awhile to get there.”  He cleared his throat and nodded at the yellowed papers.  “So what are you thinking?”

Letting the subject drop, Vivi raised one of the letters.  “Luckily, between the stash at Susanne’s house and my house, we still have a lot of good information.  This letter is from Addy right after she got the locket. It reads, “Dear one, thank you for the gorgeous gift.  I wear it under my dress, all the time.  It’s as though you’re always there with me–at breakfast, during my chores, as I lay down to sleep.  You’re with our child too–the baby moves more when the necklace is on.

“I went to the midwife you told me about–the one you assured me would be safe and not reveal our secret.  She believes I’m carrying a boy, and that he’ll be due around Christmas.  Wouldn’t a Christmas wedding be wonderful?  We could have so much to celebrate–our love, our child, the Lord and all the blessings He has bestowed on us.  My father’s ranch is always a whirlwind at Christmas–I could slip away easily and not be missed.

I’ll have to slip away easily soon, anyway.  I’ve decided I shall travel to my aunt’s home.  She lives on a old homestead on the back part of my grandfather’s ranch, 50 miles away from my father’s.  She is my mother’s sister and won’t betray our secret–plus, she is blind.  I can stay there easily knowing none of the servants will discuss my condition–or size.  You can find me there when you come for us.”

Vivi slid the letter behind another paper, carefully shuffling through them.

Wade sighed.  “That’s so sad.  You can tell she was so happy.  And to think of how it ended….”

“We don’t know how it ended,” Vivi reminded him.  “The legend could be wrong.  Maybe he made one up to cover their disappearance and they moved to Mexico or West or something.”

“True,” Wade replied, drumming the steering wheel with his fingers.  “True.”

Vivi glanced at a paper and frowned,  Flipping to another letter, she peered closely at the date.  “This is strange.”

“What?”  Wade glanced over at her.  “Are we missing letters?”

“No, it’s not that.”  Vivi shook her head.  “Addy wrote that letter in June.  This letter is dated just two weeks after hers, so it should be the reply to her letter.”

Wade’s brow crinkled.  “What’s the problem?”

“It’s not a letter,” Vivi answered, holding up the papers.  “It’s sheet music and lyrics.  It’s a song.  A poorly written song, but a song nonetheless.”

“Sing it to me,” Wade suggested, his lips twitching.

A single eyebrow quivered over Vivi’s head.  “Sing to you?  I don’t sing.”  She straightened the papers, ignoring Wade’s chuckles.  “I’ll read it aloud instead.”  She elbowed Wade in the side.  “Ready?”

“I don’t know,” Wade replied, deadpan.  “I’m heartbroken over the loss of hearing your lovely voice…”

“Oh, shush,” Vivi replied, smacking his arm lightly and giggling.  He tickled her knee, and the lyrics were momentarily abandoned in a tickle fight.  Finally, gasping for air and in fear as the truck swerved, Vivi grabbed the letters.  Holding the papers close to her face, she began to read:

“Across the open desert,

That dark and windy day.

The cowboy rode one last time,

Into the town of Devil’s Bay.

The night was black,

The Devils Bay saloon a glowing.

He tied up his horse,

His parched throat dying for liquor.

And then he saw him,

Standing in the ally,

with death in his eyes.

Lean and mean,

With a smile that would make a baby cry,

The man said to the old cowboy:

“Cowboy, you’re riding hard,

But you won’t take what you’ve come for.

Let’s settle this, you and me,

With my old friend, Pearly Jane.”

“And then he raised his pistol,

Gleaming in the night.

One shot, it was done.

And the cowboy rode into the night.”

“That is a terrible song,” Wade commented, frowning at the paper.  “It didn’t rhyme, it didn’t make sense, nothing.”

Vivi bit her lip, scanning the lyrics again.  “You’re sure you never heard of this?”

“Nope,” Wade grunted, shaking his head.  “I’ve heard everything, too.  Old songs, new songs, bad songs, good songs.  If it’s country, I know it.”

“Devil’s Bay….Pearly jane…” Vivi mused, tapping her chin.  “Wade, what if this isn’t a song?  What if it’s a clue?”

“Huh?”  Wade blinked.  “A clue?  But this is about a cowboy dying, not….”  His eyes widened and he whooped, slapping Vivi’s leg.  “Darling, I think you’re right!  It’s about a cowboy’s last stand!  And Bullet Bill was going to get his girl, even though it could get him killed–his last stand!”

“Exactly!” Vivi cried.  She glanced at the papers and frowned.  “The question is where?  Addy said the ranch was 50 miles away from her dad’s ranch.”

“I remember this!” Wade shouted.  Vivi winced, and Wade lowered his voice.  “Sorry.  Anyway, when you were gone, I was reading this article that talked about historians’ restoring this old German ranch right outside of New Braunfels.  The family name was different, but when you traced it back four or five generations, the owner had the same name as Addy’s father.  It might not be him, of course, but there weren’t too many folks up here at that time who were wealthy enough to have a ranch like that.”

Vivi squeezed his arm.  “So just think of a circle around New Braunfels 50 miles wide–there’s Austin, Sequin, San Marcos, Fredreicksburg…”

“My ranch.”  Wade’s eyes widened.   “Vivi, my grandfather’s ranch is exactly 50 miles from New Bruanfels.”

Vivi’s chest tightened.  “That would make total sense!” she whispered, her brain whirling.  “Because the first clue we found was in that town a few miles away from you.  Addy could have easily been staying with relatives.”

“And the second dancehall was a few miles from that…and the third a few miles from that….”  Wade whooped and banged the steering wheel with his palm.  “That ol’ devil!  He was circling her father’s ranch like a fox around a chicken coop!  I’ll be dipped.”

“But he wouldn’t have hidden clues on her aunt’s ranch,” Vivi mused, gnawing on her lip.  “That would be too dangerous.  He’d have to rescue her once, and only once.  So it would have had to be a dancehall a few miles from there.”

“Wait a minute,” Wade murmured, his eyes dancing with excitement.  “There’s a really old restaurant called Bahia Del Diablo a few miles south of the ranch.  It’s an old Mexican food place that used to be a saloon.”

“Wade, Bahia Del Diablo is Devil’s Bay in Spanish!”  Vivi cried.  “We’ve got to get there before Margaret does!”

To be continued…

Stay tuned, Invisible Friends!  Tomorrow we have a new creative woman of the Pond, Natashya from Living in the Kitchen with Puppies!  Then we have another week of whimsical fun ahead!  Stay tuned!