February 6, Afternoon
They heard the hallway door open.
“Well, look what the cat drug in,” said Miss Jasmine. “Did you get your sandwiches?” Whale had followed her out.
“Yes, ma’am. Perfect as always, just the right amount of mayonnaise and tuna to keep body and soul together.”
“And Mr. McArdle, I mean Sam. Did you nap?”
“No, ma’am, I looked over the books, didn’t touch them, and started to read about one of them on the internet.”
“The Internet? Don’t got no— We don’t have Internet here.”
“On my phone. I got… I have Internet on my phone.”
“Oh, of course you do—you’re a whippersnapper.”
“My dad loved the word whippersnapper. On my phone I started to read about Whale but got distracted to let Jackass in to collect his welfare.”
“Excuse me, Mr. McArdle, but only I can call him Jackass. Isn’t that right, Jackass?”
“Yes, ma’am. I told him that.”
Then Kenneth came out, walked to the kitchen, and got a glass of water. He returned, looked at Larry, and said, “Well, look what the cat drug in.”
Miss Jasmine walked over to the couch, Whale following her.
“I’m going to do my chair squats. Please don’t mind me, Sam. After I do these, we can talk about Sheriff Ortega. Jackass is going to take Whale out. Then we can start.”
“Yes ma’am,” said Sam.
Miss Jasmine stood in front of the couch, sat down, stood up, and stretched her arms up over her head, then repeated ten times. After the last one she said, “That’s my main exercise, three times a day. I read decades ago that the most difficult thing for many seniors is to sit down or stand up. Chair squats make you practice; I’m going on forty years of chair squats now.”
“That’s awesome,” said McArdle. “I do chair squats, but not three times a day.”
“Well, sitting all day is not just sedentary, it’s boring. If you’re sixty now and keep at it, when you’re my age…”
Kenneth interrupted, “Aunt Jasmine, we ain’t gonna make it to your age. We’re gonna kick the bucket long before.”
“Perish the thought,” she said. “Anyway, I feel today is a special day. I’m going to tell you all some things I never told anybody before. Sit wherever you like as long as you can hear.”
Larry came back in with Whale, and she ran over to Miss Jasmine’s feet and sat down. She was rewarded with a pat on the head.
McArdle sat on the far end of the couch. Larry and Kenneth just sat at the dining table.
Miss Jasmine began.
“I’ll start with the sheriff’s father. His name was João. He was born in Brazil around 1865, lived in a small town where his family raised chickens, mostly for an egg business. When João is about twenty, an American shows up in the little town near the farm. The little town had a brothel, but no hotel, so he stays at the brothel, with five ladies and the madame. This man seems to have money, is having the time of his life, and soon he pays all the other men not to come to the brothel. Then he makes plans to buy the brothel as his main residence and keep the six women as ‘house help.’
“Even though he has most of the cash to buy the brothel, he’s a little short. The American has met João and convinces João to buy his piece of land, which is in Tallahassee. João’s family thinks João wants to travel and sow some wild oats, so they agree to give the American the money, and he gets all the papers drawn up. I don’t know how that would have worked, but the American writes some letters to his banker friends in Tallahassee, so that all João has to do is show up and claim the land. The American also realizes João might be lonely even though he is outgoing and has learned some basic English. So, the American convinces João’s family to have him marry one of the prostitutes and take her to Tallahassee to start an egg farm.
“My mother told me all of this. I can’t say it’s a hundred percent true but it seems reliable. In 1890 João shows up in Tallahassee at the train station with his wife, a curvaceous eyeful. They make their way to the lodging house and stay there for a short time to settle in.
“You can imagine how awkward it would’ve been for these two Portuguese speakers to show up in some hick town with little English. No cars or roads as we think of them, and a lot of commerce was still done by barter. Henry Ford’s first car was made in 1895, but cars were not manufactured on a mass scale yet, so all the local transport was by horse cart.
“João shows up at the bank with the papers and his wife. and before you know it the bank friend helps him set up a deal to build a small dwelling on the land he bought plus a shed for chickens. I think João was able to communicate some by writing, but speaking was difficult.
“Before you know it, he’s sold eggs to half the people in Tallahassee, making friends and making a killing. His wife made some female friends and had started to learn English. Soon she’s pregnant. By the end of the year in 1891, she gives birth to Frank, who eventually becomes sheriff. Sadly, Mrs. Ortega dies a few weeks later due to complications from the birth.
“It seemed that João was on the road to becoming wealthy. João had been quite in love with his prostitute wife and didn’t seem to have a desire to look for a new one.
“João’s son Frank finished high school about 1909, which back then was like graduating college. By 1915 he got a job on the tiny police force. In his time growing up his father had taught him Portuguese, just like Sheriff Ortega would teach me not much later.”