by Lori Wick
Jackie did pray for her, every night. She also prayed that someday they would see each other again, but it didn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon. Jackie’s mind swam in all directions for a while before she told herself to get on with what she was doing.
She picked up Clayton’s letters, opened both of them just enough to see which one he’d written first, and then started in. She was in for a pleasant surprise.
“I thought we were going to be on that stage forever. But,” he had underlined that word, “we caught the train in Forks and was that an adventure! I’ve never moved so fast in my life. Poor Miner would have dropped dead from heart failure.” Jackie laughed in delight at this description and thought of Miner, now housed in the stable behind the store. She avidly read on.
My grandmother’s house is nothing like I expected. She has enough room to house the whole of Denver. I think I mentioned to you that I would stay with her only if it worked out. Well, believe me, Jackie, it has been fine. She’s so loving and really delighted to have us here.
I haven’t actually walked to the school, so I don’t know exactly how far away the school is right now, but I’m going tomorrow. I’m a little nervous about checking in at the school, but Grandma says there’s nothing to worry about.
My father starts work tomorrow too. My mother tried to get him to take it easy for a time, but he’s raring to go.
It’s certainly noisy here. I haven’t slept as well because of it, but my mom says I’ll adjust. Milly has cried every day for Danny and Paddy, but the sights and sounds of the big city have certainly helped to distract her.
Jackie had to stop reading. She was so amazed she couldn’t go on. Why, it sounded just like him! At times it was difficult to picture Eddie and Robert, but Clayton’s letters were just an extension of the man, and Jackie could see his face and hear his voice as she read. Relieved by this revelation, Jackie gave way to her exhaustion. She lay back on her bed and let the wonderfulness of it flow over her.
However, she sobered swiftly. It didn’t mean he would keep writing. She finished the first letter and turned to the next one. It was just as much fun as the first and ended with a postscript. “Don’t forget, Miss Fontaine, you said you would reply to every letter. You now owe me two.”
Jackie scrambled off the bed, forgetting all about being cautious. She pulled out paper and immediately started to write. The things she could never say to Clayton’s face now came easily. She swiftly told him that she missed him and all of his family and then went on to talk about events in Georgetown. She was careful to address only the things in the first letter with plans to answer the other one as well.
She started the second one by saying, “If you haven’t received my first letter, don’t read this or it will be all out of whack.” She then put a little smiling face on the page and smiled herself. The second letter went on for three pages. Jackie would have written more, but her father stuck his head in the door and told her to get to bed. Addy came soon after to kiss her. Jackie scrambled up into the big bed, feeling five years old all over again.
“That’s certainly a happy face,” Addy commented, kissing her brow.
“He wrote, Mother. Clay wrote to me.”
“Danny told me.”
“Two letters, Mother, and they sound just like Clay.”
Addy sat down now and just listened to the sound of her voice. Addy didn’t know what she would do if Clayton didn’t follow through. It would almost be easier never to hear from him again if he wasn’t going to remain her friend, but that decision was out of her hands. Then Addy asked herself what she expected the man to do if he met a girl in Denver and fell in love. Right now she couldn’t find an answer.
A moment later she kissed Jackie and told her good-night. She went to her own room, giving Jackie and Clayton over to God in prayer and taking them back again in worry not two minutes later. Go to sleep, Addy, she finally said to herself. You can pray about this in the morning.
Denver
Jackie’s letter began with “Merry Christmas.” Clayton smiled at the words and then laughed about her explanation.
“I assume my letters are taking as long to get to you as yours are to me, so I’m getting a jump on the stage. Who knows? I may even be 17 before you get this. I don’t suppose a man of your advanced years (20, isn’t it now?) can possibly remember these young, carefree days, but I’ll try to fill you in.”
Jackie went on to tell him about an afternoon at school, followed by an evening of work at the store. He laughed until tears ran down his face. Everything that could go wrong, had, and then some. She asked him all about school and whether or not he’d had his first exam. She said she hoped he was making friends and wasn’t lonely. Clayton finished her letter and then sat staring into space.
Had she really been so shy, or was another girl writing these letters? This was the fourth he’d received, and he couldn’t believe what fun she was and how caring. School was such hard work that going to church and reading her letters were the only bright spots in his week. As had become the pattern, Clayton got ready to write back to her. He knew somehow that he would never hear from her unless he wrote first, and for some reason the idea of not getting a letter from her utterly depressed him. Christmas was still more than two weeks away, but if he mailed the letter tomorrow, he was certain that she would receive it in plenty of time.
In the sawmill where his father worked they had a machine that allowed them to call one another within the building. It was the most wondrous thing he had ever seen. His father could pick up the instrument at his desk and a bell would ring down in the warehouse. Someone could pick-up down there and talk to him. It would be wonderful to talk to Jackie through that instrument. It would have done his heart good to hear her laugh.
Clayton was about to put ink to paper when he heard his father’s wheeled chair in the hall. A knock sounded a moment later.
“Come on in,” Clayton called, turning from his desk to see his father come through the door.
“I saw your light. Studying late?”
“No, I’m just getting ready to write to Jackie.”
“How is she?”
Clayton smiled. “Doing well, I think. A little tired of the snow but looking forward to Christmas.”
“Your mother said that Eddie was in touch yesterday.”
“Yes, she was. She and Robert are busy in a small church, and God is doing mighty things. She admitted she’s so busy in Boulder that she feels likes she’s losing touch with Georgetown and her family.”
Kevin nodded. “Is that why you write Jackie regularly? Because you feel sorry for her?”
“It was at first,” Clayton admitted, remembering how he’d told her he would. “But now I look forward to hearing from her. She’s so different on paper than in real life.”
“What do you mean?”
Clayton shrugged. “I don’t know exactly, but I’d see her laughing with a group and then I’d come on the scene. She would act as though she was pleased to see me, but she wouldn’t have two words to say. Her face would get red for no reason.”
Kevin stared at his son. Could he really be so unsuspecting? Kevin thought about the way Jackie looked when she came up to his bedroom to say goodbye. She had not been upstairs one time before that day, but Elaine had told him of the way she’d come in and quietly helped around the house. They had never had much contact, and Kevin had still been thinking of her the way she was that first summer when she despised Clayton. He had struggled with his feelings toward her for that very reason, but the young woman who’d come to his room to tell him she was praying and to have a good trip was not the same girl.
“You have an odd look on your face,” Clayton commented.
“Do I?”
“Yes. Are you going to tell me what it means?”
Kevin looked at him and made a decision. “You can’t force feelings that are not there, Clay, but I want you to think long and hard about the way you just described Jackie to me.”
“Just think about it, Clay. I’m glad you have tremendous respect for women, and that you have chosen to comport yourself in a way that pleases God, but you’re being naive where Jackie is concerned.”
Understanding came to Clayton like a bee sting. He literally started in his seat and stared, slack-jawed, at his father. He started to shake his head, but Kevin only smiled.
“I hope I haven’t ruined things between the two of you, Clay, but I felt it was only fair to her that you should know.”
“I can’t believe it,” he admitted softly. “I mean, it’s not the way I would think anyone would act.”
Kevin tilted his head to one side, his smile still in place. “I can’t agree with you, Clay. I think that’s exactly the way she would act. After all, you’ve never done anything to encourage her, so she couldn’t exactly let her feelings show.”
Clayton’s hand came to his mouth and then rubbed over his jaw. He was still trying to take it in, but his father said a soft “good-night” and went out.
Oh, Jackie, how could I have missed that. I felt such a peace about not being in love with you that it never occurred to me that you might not share that feeling. The thinness of her wrists and the way her cheeks sank in just before he left Georgetown jumped starkly into Clayton’s mind. The young man’s eyes slid shut. Jackie was feeling more than friendship to have his leaving affect her like that.
He had been on the verge of picking up the pen to write to her about school, but now he only shook his head.
“Every letter is all about me,” he told the quiet room. “Every letter is filled with Clayton’s world.” This was not exactly true, but Clayton was upset. “You are an incredibly selfish person, Clayton Taggart, and it’s nothing short of self-centeredness that it has taken this long for you to see it.”
Clayton did write Jackie a letter that night, but it was one with her in mind. He answered the questions she’d asked of him, but then sent back dozens of his own. He suddenly wanted to know so much. His heart ached that he’d been so insensitive. He hadn’t suddenly fallen in love with her because of his father’s words, but he saw now that he could have been so much kinder and more caring of her needs. He mailed it the next day with a prayer that she would be encouraged. He was already in class before he realized that he hadn’t remembered to say anything about her birthday.
“Happy birthday,” Morgan said. Jackie’s eyes widened. Her birthday had been over a week ago, but her father was holding a gift for her. “This came to the store.”
“Oh!” Her eyes sparkled with pleasure. “Is it from Eddie?”
“Not unless she’s moved to Denver.”
Jackie became very still.
“Denver?”
“That’s right,” he said with a flourish, and set the box on the table beside her plate. Her sisters were all watching her.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Lexa wanted to know.
“Yes, but I don’t want to hold up dinner.”
“Well,” her mother said practically, “let’s pray and get started, and you can open it when you want to.”
Jackie nodded and all heads bowed. It was Sammy’s turn to pray, but Jackie didn’t hear a word. Her eyes were on the box. She put food on her plate without really seeing it. Morgan and Addy shared a smile when she took a huge helping of beets. Jackie hated beets.
“I want you to open it now, Jackie,” Danny admitted suddenly. “The rest of us don’t have birthdays for weeks to come and any gift, even someone else’s, is fun.”
Jackie looked at her and chuckled.
“You might as well, Jackie,” her father put it. “You’re sure not interested in eating.”
She blushed a little at that and, using her knife, opened the box. There were all sorts of wrappings inside, and it took some work, but when the floor was finally littered with paper Jackie brought forth the most delicate crystal bell she’d ever seen.
“Ohhh.” Her sisters gave a collective sigh as she held it up for inspection.
“Ring it, Jackie,” Sammy urged her. When she did, the room filled with a delightful tinkling sound.
“I have to go and write to him right now,” Jackie said in a dreamy voice. She began to move, but Morgan waved her back.
“After you eat,” he told her in a voice that she knew better than to argue with.
Nodding, Jackie set the bell carefully by her plate and just looked at it. It was several more minutes before she picked up her fork.
“All right,” she said to the sisters on either side of her. “Who’s the joker? Who put all the beets on my plate?”
The whole family laughed at her expense.
23
Jackie had thought that winter would last forever, but the mud, sucking at her boots, gave lie to that myth. Spring was upon them, and the snow was melting fast and furiously. Flowers were already working their way out of the ground, and Jackie had only to close her eyes to envision how lovely they were going to be.
Her attitude at the moment could have used some of that same loveliness. The soggy ground was getting to her. She looked down at her skirt to see that she had spattered mud up the front of herself. She was going to have to go to work like this, and the thought made her want to explode with anger. She heard a wagon slogging its way along, but she didn’t even look up. In her irritation she missed a step and fell down. By the time the wagon drew abreast of her, she was struggling up from her hands and knees and was literally black with mud.
She had just gained her footing when she realized the wagon had stopped. Jackie looked up, straight into the eyes of her sister.
“Eddie,” she whispered and then screamed, “Eddie!”
Eddie laughed and Robert joined her. Jackie nearly did a dance in her exasperation.
“You didn’t tell anyone, and look at me—I can’t even touch you!”
“Climb in the back, and we’ll take you home,” Eddie told her, a huge smile still in place. “We’re going to surprise Mother.”
“All right,” Jackie agreed, “but just let me clean up quickly so I can see her face. Take the wagon around the back,” she instructed Robert. “I’ll let you in that way and she’ll faint.”
Eddie turned on the seat to talk to her filthy sister as Jackie climbed in. She turned a beaming face to her.
“You look wonderful, Eddie.”
“You do too. I think.”
They both laughed hilariously at this until Robert reminded them they were going to alert Addy if they didn’t quiet down. They tried to be calm, but it was like being 10 and 12 all over again and both just wanted to giggle for the fun of it.
“How have you been?” Eddie asked in a soft voice.
Jackie gave her a mock frown. “You’d know that, Eddie Langley, if you wrote more often.”
Eddie looked very contrite, but her eyes were still shining.
“Don’t be too long,” Eddie admonished Jackie when the team halted around back.
“I won’t,” Jackie promised, climbing down in an undignified fashion.
Robert had left the wagon as well, and leaning from his great height, dropped a kiss on her forehead. He managed to do this and not get anywhere near that mud. Jackie smiled up at him with loving eyes and darted into the back door.
“It’s just me, Mother,” she called from the kitchen.
“What’s wrong?” Addy was dusting the front room and remained there.
“I fell in the mud. I’m going to change and head back out.”
“All right. Be certain to leave your things in the kitchen.”
Normally Jackie would have undressed without a thought, but with Robert in the backyard, she was careful to stay away from the window. She made quick work of her muddy face and hands and then dashed up the stairs for fresh clothing. She dressed in record time, and when she got back down, Robert and Eddie were waiting right outside the kitchen door. She let them in silently, hugged them both, and then st
rolled nonchalantly to the living room to see her mother.
“All clean now, dear?” Addy only glanced at her.
“Yes, Mother. I’ll get going pretty soon, but I wanted to ask you something.”
“That’s fine with me, dear, but your father will be looking for you.” Addy’s cloth attacked a small vase.
“Well, I’ll hurry. Mother, do you think I could make my bedroom in the small room off the kitchen?”
“Whatever for?” Addy’s face was still bent over her work.
“Well, I think it would be a nice change.”
“I don’t think so, Jackie.” She set the vase down and positioned it on the shelf, her back to her daughter. “I mean it’s so much smaller than your room, and I really don’t think you’ll be as comfortable.”
“Well, couldn’t I just try it for a week?”
“I don’t know, dear.” Addy shook her head, still not looking at Jackie as she reached for a tiny china doll. “I don’t really see the point.”
“But if she can’t take that room, Mother,” Eddie now stepped into the room, “where will Robert and I sleep for the next week?”
“Eddie.” Her mother breathed the word as she spun around. The doll and dust cloth landed on a chair as Addy swiftly navigated through furniture to get to her daughter. Eddie met her halfway across the room. By the time they touched, the tears were flowing unchecked. More than a year. Her precious Eddie had been Mrs. Robert Langley for more than a year. It was like a wonderful present from the Lord to be able to hold her again.
“Oh, Robert,” Addy said, moving to hug her son-in-law. She then held him at arm’s length and looked him over.
“You look wonderful, Robert. Married life must agree with you.”
“Indeed, it does. If the girl is anything like my Eddie, I highly recommend it.”
Husband and wife shared a smile, and Addy urged them into chairs.
“Have you been to the store? Have you seen Morgan?”