Almost Home

by Valerie Fraser Luesse

  Jesse smiled. “You were wearing a white blouse and pink-checked shorts, and your hair was in a ponytail.”

  “You had on dungarees and a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up.”

  “Here’s something you don’t know,” Jesse confessed. “We didn’t really bump into each other.”

  “What?”

  “I found out when you delivered eggs, and then I made sure my father’s pickup was low on gas that day.”

  Anna stopped and turned to him. “Are you serious?”

  “I was too scared to ask you for a date and too embarrassed to try talking to you in front of everybody at school or church. Had to do a little scheming.”

  She shook her head. “I thought my heart was going to jump right out of my throat when I came out of that store and found you waiting for me.”

  “I thought mine would beat itself to death before you finally came back outside.”

  “I would’ve sat there on that tailgate and talked to you all day and all night if Mother hadn’t sent for me. I remember you told me you were saving up to buy some cows.”

  “And you said I’d have them in no time. I had no idea why, but it was like you believed in me back then—something about the way you looked at me.”

  “I still look at you like that, Jesse. And I never stopped believing in you. You just stopped believing in yourself.”

  He gave her a sad smile and kissed her on the forehead. “I know.”

  Hand in hand, they walked on into the woods, until Anna said, “Do you remember that spring dance—the first one I was ever allowed to go to—when the band started playing—”

  “The ‘Missouri Waltz,’” Jesse said. “Just as you stepped inside the town hall in that lilac-colored dress with the floaty skirt. My brothers told me that if I didn’t go ask you to dance after I’d been mooning over you for a month, they’d take me to the woodshed and tan my hide. So I worked up my courage as quick as I could. Probably stepped all over you with my two left feet.”

  “No, you didn’t. But I wouldn’t have cared if you did.”

  Again, they were quiet before Jesse said, “Do you miss home—having one of our own, I mean?”

  “Sometimes. Mostly I miss all the time we had together when it was just the two of us on the farm. But we couldn’t have found a better place to stay than Dolly’s. They treat us like family. As long as we’re together, that’s all that matters.”

  Jesse took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. “I failed you, Anna. And you’re the last person on earth I’d ever want to let down. For the life of me, I don’t know why I couldn’t figure out a way to get us through.”

  She stopped walking and turned to face him. “Don’t you see, Jesse? You didn’t fail me, or our farm. We just got swallowed up. Look around you. Harry’s got all kinds of college degrees, but he couldn’t figure out a way to stay in Chicago. Joe’s got as much horse sense as anybody I’ve ever met, but he’s right here under the same roof with us. Even Dolly—she grew up in such a fine house, but now she has to rent it out to strangers. You couldn’t find a way through because there wasn’t one.”

  Jesse had misty eyes when he kissed her hand then looked away. Anna knew he needed a happier topic. “I wonder what Snowflake’s doing right about now?”

  “Probably ruling your mother’s porch the same way she ruled ours,” Jesse said with a smile.

  Snowflake was a gorgeous white long-haired cat with brilliant blue eyes. She had mysteriously appeared, healthy and well fed, on Jesse and Anna’s porch the day after their wedding and refused to leave. No one ever came looking for her. Anna had always seen the cat as a kind of guardian angel and a sign of good things to come.

  “Remember how she hopped up in your grandmother’s porch rocker and settled in like she was ready to receive callers?” Anna asked. “The first time I saw her, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. I got to be your wife and live in your grandparents’ house, and then on top of all that, we had this beautiful cat to watch over us.”

  Jesse put his arms around her. “Anna, you’ve always been so easy to please. And you deserve so much more.”

  She was about to answer when something startled a covey of quail in the trees. The flapping of wings in flight caught Jesse and Anna’s attention, and they looked up to see that they were standing in a clearing dotted with headstones.

  Anna gasped. “Oh my gosh, Jesse.”

  They walked together to the center of the graveyard and stopped before a tall obelisk of a monument. Anna ran her hand over the lettering. “Wyatt Gunter Talmadge. This must be Dolly’s grandfather.”

  Jesse stepped a few feet to the side and read the names on a simple, unadorned headstone. “This one’s Dolly and Si’s. Anna, come over here—you need to see this.”

  He was pointing to a very small marker less than a foot tall. It had a marble lamb on top and a marble vase holding a fresh magnolia blossom and honeysuckle at its base.

  Anna knelt on the ground and gently ran her fingers over the lamb. “Samuel Josiah Chandler. Born April 12, 1922. Died October 1, 1927. Oh no, Jesse.”

  He knelt beside her and held her as she cried for Dolly and Si and a precious child that would never grow up.

  CHAPTER

  eight

  Sunday morning had the women of Dolly’s house scrambling all over the kitchen. The Baptist church was having guest singers in the morning worship service, with dinner on the grounds after, so Dolly had to serve breakfast to her boarders and get her covered dishes ready at the same time.

  “If it wasn’t for y’all, I’d have to throw myself in the Coosa River!” Dolly called to Anna and Evelyn, who were clearing the breakfast buffet they had set up earlier to speed the morning meal. Dolly hastily wrapped plates and platters as well as she could, given that tinfoil was so hard to come by these days. Luckily, she had several tureens with lids, and Si had secured those with elaborately tied fishing line.

  Harry, Evelyn, and Joe were Methodists, while Jesse and Anna were Presbyterians, but they had come to feel like family in Dolly’s house, so they all went to the Baptist church together.

  “Si, I’m ready for you,” Dolly called from the kitchen.

  Si led Joe and Jesse into the kitchen to help load all of Dolly’s food into the trunk of their car. “Let’s hope the old Ford holds together with all this extra weight,” Si said.

  “You tryin’ to tell me I’m gonna be walkin’?” Joe asked with a grin.

  “Naw, Joe, we’ll strap you to the hood if it comes to that.”

  Anna hurried out to hand Si one more casserole dish before he closed the trunk. She looked up just in time to see Daisy stepping off the far end of the porch at the skating rink and disappearing into the woods.

  Dolly sighed. “She still won’t go to church?”

  Anna shook her head. “Not just yet. She says it makes her cry to even think about hearing all the old hymns Charlie loved, so she’ll just have to do her praying in the woods for now. I feel bad going off and leaving her all alone every Sunday.”

  “She’s where she needs to be right now, honey. And she understands that you’re where you need to be.” Dolly smiled and nodded toward the truck, where Anna was happy to see Jesse waiting for her.

  For months and months before they came to Alabama, he had been climbing into the driver’s seat and staring straight ahead till she got herself in. But this place was changing him. Now he waited for her the way he used to.

  He walked around the truck with her and opened her door. After he climbed in, he didn’t start the engine right away but instead turned to look at her, as if he were about to say something.

  “What is it, Jesse?”

  He tilted his head a little to the side, the way he always did when he was working out a problem. “I’m not sure. But I think I can figure it out if you can bear with me just a little longer?”

  “I can manage that,” she said with a smile.

  He took her hand and kissed it before cranking his tru
ck and following what soon became a caravan of cars leaving the loop and heading for Blackberry Springs Baptist Church.

  The parking lot was covered with cars when they arrived, and a swarm of women was buzzing around a long concrete table underneath an open-air shed next to the church. It was fast getting filled with platters, bowls, and casserole dishes, while a smaller table beside it held gallon jugs of sweet tea, ice water, and lemonade. Some of the men had come early to set up folding chairs and spread cotton quilts under all the shade trees around the church.

  After Anna and Jesse helped unload Dolly’s food and get it on the table, they drifted back together. Standing a little distance from the fellowship table, they tried to take it all in.

  “Never saw an outdoor table at a church,” Jesse said.

  “I never saw anything like any of this,” Anna said. She looked up at him and smiled. “But I don’t mind seeing something new now and again.”

  Just then the preacher rang a big bell in the churchyard, calling all the worshipers to the service. Jesse took Anna’s hand as they went inside together.

  After the singing, the congregation formed a long line that snaked around the fellowship table, and then they took their overladen plates and scattered all over the churchyard in search of shade. Anna and Jesse were looking for an empty spot when they heard Joe Dolphus calling to them. “Over here!” He was waving to them from a big oak at the far edge of the lawn.

  As Anna and Jesse approached the tree, Si pointed them to a couple of empty folding chairs. All of Dolly and Si’s boarders had gathered together, along with two of the “loop girls”—Daisy’s shorthand for Alyce, Jo-Jo, and Dolly’s other young cousins.

  “Hey, y’all!” Alyce waved to them from a quilt where she was sitting with her cousin.

  “It’s good to see you again,” Anna said as she and Jesse settled in.

  “Say, Jesse, how long have y’all been married?” Jo-Jo asked out of the blue.

  Dolly looked mortified. “Jo-Jo! Where on earth did that come from? Quit your pryin’ in the churchyard, honey.”

  “I’m not pryin’—I just want to know.”

  Jesse grinned. “Well, that’s different, I guess. We’ve been married . . . four years?” He looked at Anna for confirmation.

  She nodded.

  “How’d you meet?” Jo-Jo asked. “Was it romantic like in the movies?”

  “Would you let them alone so they can eat their chicken in peace?” Alyce said.

  Jo-Jo rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. All the other married people around here are so old!”

  “Dolly, I believe we should take offense,” Evelyn said.

  “Absolutely,” Dolly agreed. “Si, go to Childersburg first thing tomorrow and rent us a room at the nursin’ home.”

  “Oh, y’all know what I mean!” Jo-Jo said as they all laughed at her.

  “If y’all are ready for the old folks’ home, Dolly, I reckon that puts me in the graveyard,” Joe said.

  “We can drop you off at the cemetery on our way home,” Si answered.

  “C’mon and tell me,” Jo-Jo pleaded. “How’d you meet Anna?”

  Anna felt that old familiar knot in her stomach. She wondered what Jesse was about to say.

  “We grew up in the same church and went to the same school.” He looked at Anna, whose heart was suddenly pounding. “When we were teenagers, I started finding ways to talk to her without anybody around. Then there was this spring dance, and I just remember looking up as she walked in, and, well . . . that was that.”

  “I had been waiting for him to notice me since I was about twelve,” Anna added, which made everybody laugh.

  “That is so romantic!” Jo-Jo exclaimed. “Tell us some more.”

  “No—eat your chicken,” Jesse said sternly, but then he smiled.

  “You’ll have to excuse Jo-Jo,” Alyce said. “She has marriage fever.”

  “Well, can you blame me? I’m already seventeen! All the good ones are gettin’ gone! They’ll prob’ly all come home from the war married to girls from Italy and France.”

  “As a veteran myself, I can assure you that there’s little time for courtin’ when you spend your days in a foxhole,” Joe said.

  “Well, that’s somethin’ to hang on to, I guess.”

  “You would prefer to have a potential beau dodging bullets in a foxhole than pitching woo with a French girl?” Evelyn asked.

  “You better believe it!” Jo-Jo said, which brought more laughter from the group.

  “Heart o’ gold,” Alyce said, shaking her head.

  Dolly uncovered a plate of sliced cake. “Who wants dessert?”

  “Me!” her cousins shouted.

  “Dolly, m’dear, you’ve outdone yourself today,” Si said as he passed the cake around.

  “Well, I hope it’s fit to eat. I was in such a hurry that I’m worried I left out something critical.”

  “It’s wonderful,” Anna said as she tasted the cake. “Do you think I could learn how to make it?”

  “Why, of course! It’s just an old-fashioned yellow cake with Little Mama’s chocolate icin’.”

  “Don’t let her fool you, Anna,” Evelyn cautioned. “I’ve watched her make it, and that recipe is not, well, a piece of cake. Aren’t I clever?”

  “You’ve never cared for baking, though, Evelyn.” Harry winked at the group.

  Evelyn raised her hand in protest. “Do not bring up the incident of 1937. How was I to know that baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable?”

  “Oh no!” Dolly exclaimed.

  “Those biscuits were no thicker than a nickel,” Evelyn said, “and about as dense.”

  “Dolly, whatever you do, keep that woman outta your kitchen,” Si said, which brought more laughter from the group as they finished their dessert and enjoyed Sunday dinner on a spring afternoon.

  CHAPTER

  nine

  Anna and Daisy stood in the middle of Dolly’s attic, amazed by what they saw. It was a real treasure trove, with everything neatly stacked and arranged: old trunks that must have been a hundred years old, headboards and footboards and rocking chairs, a cradle and crib, wooden toys and dolls with china faces, grand old ball gowns that looked like something out of a movie, even a Confederate uniform and rifle.

  “Dang!” Daisy exclaimed.

  Their morning work done, Anna and Daisy had asked Dolly if they could explore her attic and look for clues about the pirate Chauvin and his bride. Now Daisy was sitting on the floor, looking through a small trunk filled with letters and pictures. Anna was wandering around the attic, trying to decide where to start, when the door to a large cedar wardrobe screeched open.

  “Did you see that?” Anna pointed to the open door.

  “Maybe it’s Catherine’s ghost,” Daisy said with a grin.

  Anna reached into the wardrobe, took out an emerald ball gown, and held it in front of her. “How do I look?”

  “Like Scarlett O’Hara. If we dig around up here long enough, we might find Rhett.” She walked over to the cradle and rocked it. Lowering her voice, she asked Anna, “Why you reckon Si and Dolly never had kids? They’d be such great parents.”

  Anna put the dress back and glanced at the attic steps to make sure no one was coming. Then she went to Daisy and whispered, “Jesse and I went walking on Saturday and followed a trail way back in the woods. It led to Dolly’s family cemetery. Right next to Si and Dolly’s headstone, there was a grave with a little marble lamb at the head and fresh flowers on it.”

  Daisy stared down at the cradle and ran her hand over the empty blanket inside it. “So sad. Such a sweet lady.” Then she looked at Anna. “You and Jesse slippin’ off to the woods now?”

  Anna shook her head. “I wish. We just went for a walk—but he held my hand the whole way. And we actually talked, hallelujah.”

  “You do realize you’re datin’ your husband, right? I thought we were gonna take that bull by the horns.”

  “I know! It’s ridiculo
us! But Jesse’s trying so hard. I’m just doing my best to let him find his way back.”

  Daisy giggled. “Maybe you need to leave him a trail o’ satin and lace.”

  “Stop!”

  They laughed together as they renewed their search in the attic.

  “Hey, look at this.” Daisy held up a yellowed photograph. “Si and Dolly’s wedding picture.”

  “Wasn’t she pretty?” Anna said.

  “They’re strange, ain’t they—old pictures? When this one was taken, Si and Dolly were younger than we are now. They didn’t have no idea they were gonna suffer heartbreak together, or live through a Great Depression and two wars, or open up their home to people like us. They were just happy and excited to be together—same as Charlie and me, same as you and Jesse.”

  Anna nodded but couldn’t find her voice.

  Daisy laid her hand over Anna’s. “Be about it, Anna. Be about it.”

  “Dolly’s gonna strangle us!”

  “No, she won’t—she’ll think it’s fun!”

  Anna still wasn’t sure she wanted to go along with Daisy’s latest adventure. She’d said the attic was making them sad, and they needed something fun to bring them out of the “mully-grubs,” as she called it. She had talked Anna into putting on the green ball gown and coming downstairs to sit for a portrait.

  “Hey, Dolly!” Daisy called toward the kitchen. “Come in here and see Scarlett O’Hara!”

  “What?” Dolly called back, just before she hurried into the front parlor and saw Anna standing there in the ball gown. “Oh, honey, you look beautiful!”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?” Anna was still afraid she had overstepped her bounds.

  “I pushed her into it, Dolly,” Daisy said. “I thought it would be fun to draw Anna’s portrait in the ball gown—you know, as a little present for Jesse.”

  Anna was so busy fussing with a brooch on the gown that she paid no attention to the look that passed between her friends.

  “Why, I can’t think of a better activity for us on a rainy afternoon,” Dolly said. “But if we’re gonna do it, let’s do it up right. Y’all pick a spot for the portrait and I’ll be right back.”