The train whistle blew as they approached Euston Station. They were traveling now at breakneck speed and the train didn’t seem to be slowing down. Kathleen watched her dad put his top hat on top of the cake as if to protect it from the crash which would surely come. She looked at Nina who was shaking her head patronizingly the way she always did. But she reached anxiously for Kathleen’s hand, just as the train was about to slam into the buffers at the end of the line. If only the train’s whistle would stop, maybe they wouldn’t crash, but it just kept right on screaming…
Kathleen sat bolt upright in her bed. The whistle of the train in the dream had turned into the shrill ringing of the phone in her house on Petrie Avenue. She switched on the bedside lamp and glanced at her alarm clock. It was one o’clock in the morning. In a sleepy haze she scrambled out of bed and hurried into the living room to pick up the phone.
She knew without a doubt this call had to be regarding her husband. “Hello?” Oh God, please let him be all right.
“Is that Kathleen? Kathleen McCreadie?”
“Yes, I’m Kathleen,” she whispered, her insides turning over at the sound of the familiar English voice.
“Hello Kath. This is Ron.”
Immediately wide-awake and feeling she couldn’t trust her legs to support her, she slid down the wall and sat on the floor, the phone clutched tightly in her hand.
“Ron? Ron who?”
The question was stupid of course. She’d known immediately who it was but was so stunned, she couldn’t think of anything else to say.
She heard his familiar throaty laugh.
“It’s Ron Velnes, you little dope. How many Rons do you know? Especially ones with English accents?”
Even though he’d laughed, she picked up on the nervous tone of his voice. Was he wondering how she’d react to his telephoning her?
“Ron, where are you? It’s the middle of the night.” Her own voice sounded cracked, parched.
“I’m in Montreal listening to the snow hitting my window. There’s a blizzard raging outside. You’ll have to forgive the lateness of the hour, Kath. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about you.”
“But how did you know where to find me?”
“Dorothy told me you lived in Eddisville in South Carolina. I also know your husband’s gone to Korea and that you live alone.”
The voice was suddenly unsure. “You are alone aren’t you?”
“Yes, yes I am. I just, well, I still can’t believe it’s you.”
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, “but I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I had to ring to see if everything’s all right.”
“Yes, of course everything’s all right,” she said, in what she hoped was a confident voice. Ron Velnes had always known if she were telling the truth. “But you didn’t call all this distance and at this time of night just to ask me that did you, Ron?”
“Yes, I did, in a way. I was going to stay out of your life forever, but tonight my good intentions flew out the window. You see, when I ate at my usual restaurant, I picked up a newspaper to read while I waited. Down in the corner of the middle page was a piece about a Preacher Conroy from Eddisville in South Carolina. I’d heard from my sister by way of Dorothy that your father-in-law was a minister of some sort and I wondered if this could possibly be the same man. It isn’t is it?”
“Yes, yes it is.” She tried hard not to sound defensive. “Preacher Conroy is Bob’s father.”
“But this man, he sounds like a—”
She cut him off. “Oh, you know how papers are. They’ve blown the whole thing out of proportion. My father-in-law is a Southern evangelist and his type of religion isn’t understood in a lot of places.”
“Are you sure? This chap sounds weird to me. When I read the article, it made him sound, well, almost sinister.”
Kathleen faked a laugh. “There’s nothing sinister about him. Otis, I mean my father-in-law, well he does get sort of carried away, but basically he’s a very decent man.”
This had to be her biggest lie to date but she could bear anything but Ron Velnes’s pity. “Who told you Bob had gone to Korea?” she asked, trying to get the conversation away from Otis.
“A woman who gets her hair done in Nina’s shop wrote and told my sister.”
The urgency in his voice came down the phone loud and clear. “Kath, for God’s sake, will you stop trying to act like everything’s normal down there. What kind of a bastard did you marry, anyway? I can’t believe he’d get you all the way to South Carolina and then take off for Korea. He must be insane.”
What should she say? That her husband had left her after he’d been sacked from his job because he couldn’t read the orders?
“It’s nothing like you think,” she said, telling him the same old lie. “Bob didn’t leave me. He loves me very dearly. He reenlisted in the hope he’d get stationed in England again. Everything he did, he did for me. He was heartbroken when he found out he was being sent to Korea.”
“Are you still in love with him?”
“Yes, yes I am. I love him more than ever.”
Her voice was breaking and she felt rather than heard the heaving sob leave her throat.
“Kath, you’re crying. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“I don’t know why I’m crying. Maybe it’s because this is the first time I’ve heard an English voice in ages.”
She grasped the phone tightly, longing to tell him the tears were for him, but her pride wouldn’t let her.
“You think I’m sorry I came here don’t you, but I’m not you know.”
“No, of course you’re not.”
“You’ve no right to come back into my life like this, Ron. It isn’t fair.”
“Yes it is. I’d made up my mind to try to forget you but then I read about some crazy Bible-thumping preacher who just happens to be your father-in-law. On top of that, your husband’s reenlisted and gone to Korea, and even though you’d rather die than admit it, you’re all alone down there, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not all alone.” Her voice was stubborn, defensive. “I have friends, my mother-in-law is wonderful, and I also have a great job.”
“OK, OK, Kath. It all sounds great. But for old time’s sake, if nothing else, can you meet me for New Year’s Eve in Atlanta?”
The last sentence came out in a rush, as if he’d been afraid to say it. Had she heard him right?
“Did you ask if I could meet you in Atlanta for New Year’s?”
“Yes.”
“You mean spend the night in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“Ron, you must be out of your mind. I’m married now. I can’t just leave here and spend New Year’s with you in a hotel.”
“Why not? I’m not asking you to come for a dirty weekend. I still care for you too much even to suggest such a thing. But please, I’m begging you, Kath. Think of some excuse to get away and meet me at the Morrowcroft Hotel in Atlanta. The company I work for has a branch in Atlanta. I’m attending a meeting there on January second, so thought I’d go early and spend New Year’s there. I arrive at the Morrowcroft on December thirtieth and leave on January second.”
Her mind began to race. Could she do this? Was it possible?
“Please Kath, please say you’ll come, for old time’s sake.”
“I don’t see how I can make it.”
“You can if you want to badly enough.”
She knew then he was right. This was Ron Velnes on the other end of the line, and she wanted to see him more than anything in the world. Her mind reeled with the thrill of it all, and she was swept away from all the loneliness and sadness as she pictured herself walking toward him as he stood waiting in the hotel lobby. Yet still, in spite of every spine-tingling thought she harbored, she felt she must be cautious.
“I’ll try, Ron. I honestly will try.”
There was a relieved sigh. “Well, that’s good enough for me. At least
I’ll fly down to Atlanta thinking you might be there.”
His voice now was like a caress, coming down the wires from all those miles away.
“Do you ever think of me, Kath? Do you remember the old days?”
“Yes, yes I do,” she said, trying hard not to sound too emotional. “I hear tunes on the radio that remind me of things. You know, stuff we used to dance to.”
“Me too. We had good times together didn’t we, you and I. I’ll always love you, Kath. Remember that and carry it with you wherever you go.”
“Ah Ron, you should try to forget me. Don’t waste your life living with a memory.”
“Oh, I’ll probably forget you one day. Maybe a hundred years from now.”
She knew then, although she didn’t say it, that she’d never forget him either.
“I’ll be there,” she said. “Somehow I’ll get to Atlanta.”
“That’s the Morrowcroft Hotel on Peachtree.”
“Yes, I’ll remember.”
“Goodnight, Kath, and Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Ron.”
She heard the click of the phone.
With sleep now out of the question, she went into the kitchen and put the kettle on for a cup of tea. She sat at the kitchen table and lit a cigarette with shaky hands, while she held on to the wonderful glow that enfolded her.
As she’d watched her dreams crumble one by one, her mind had returned more and more to Ron Velnes. Now he’d come back into her life so unexpectedly. As she drained her cup she knew she’d do her best to make it to Atlanta. If she didn’t snatch at this one chance of a few days of happiness, would it ever come her way again?
* * *
The next morning, she rang Eastern Air Lines and booked a flight from Columbia to Atlanta on December 30, returning on New Year’s Day. The reservation clerk told her she’d been given the last available seat.
When she rang the Morrowcroft, she was told they were sold out. They gave her phone numbers for four other hotels and she finally found rooms at the Banks Hotel just two blocks down from the Morrowcroft. She assured them she’d send a deposit that very day. There, now it was done. More and more she looked forward to seeing Ron. What would he have to say, where would they go, what would they do? Even though she told herself this was nothing more than a reunion of two old friends, deep down she knew better. Ron Velnes still carried a torch for her and she realized now she still cared for him more than even she herself had known.
Somehow she made it through Christmas with Ron hardly ever out of her mind. On Christmas Eve though, she tried hard to concentrate on Bob. It was already Christmas Day in Korea. She watched the six o’clock news which devoted whole segments to the GIs sitting down to Christmas dinner. It showed others fighting in the freezing cold under awful conditions. She watched the television special of Bob Hope entertaining the troops, and searched in vain through the faces on the off chance Bob was in the audience. Please God, let him be all right, she prayed. Please let him come back home safe and sound. Wasn’t it all her fault after all that he was in the wilds of Korea with his life on the line. Yet here she was excited about New Year’s Eve because she was flying to Atlanta to meet an old love. Even though she had no idea how their marriage would go when Bob returned to Eddisville, didn’t she owe it to him to stay until then? Surely this was the least she could do, to see if there was any way of salvaging their marriage.
On Christmas morning, when she knew Otis, Selma and Beulah would be in church, she went by their house with Christmas presents. Only because of her deep feelings for Beulah, did she take presents for all three. There were slippers for Otis, a blouse for Selma and a dress for Beulah. The door was unlocked as usual, and she pushed it open, placing the gaily wrapped packages just inside the door. She looked around the dismal room and felt a rush of the same desolation she’d felt the first day she’d walked into this house. Quietly she closed the door and hurried to her car.
* * *
At last it was the morning of December 30. Her flight was leaving at eleven-thirty, arriving in Atlanta one hour later. She would get to her hotel and ring Ron from there. Now that she knew she was really going, she walked from room to room unable to concentrate on anything except that she would be seeing Ron Velnes that very night. She’d told her first lie to the Tates. A friend whom she’d met on the ship was spending New Year’s Eve in Atlanta with her family and had asked her to join them. She was getting good at telling lies. They just rolled off her tongue or flowed from her pen. She planned to drive to the airport in Columbia and park her car. Her first thought had been to ask Freddie to drive her but this might cause complications. What if she let something slip? In her excitement, anything was possible. So she’d told him the same lie.
At ten o’clock, unable to wait another minute, she picked up her suitcase and walked toward the door. With her hand on the doorknob, she jumped at the shrill ringing of the telephone. She shook her head and looked at her watch. Should she let it ring? Better not. It could be Eastern Airlines to stay the plane was delayed, or maybe it could even be Ron.
She picked up the receiver.
“Hello.”
Beulah’s voice came faintly down the line.
“Kathleen, can you come over? Otis and Selma ain’t here and I’m not feelin’ so good. Somethin’s wrong with me. I…”
There was a clatter as if her mother-in-law had dropped the phone.
“Beulah, are you there?”
The line was dead. Had Beulah fainted, or even worse?
“Not now, Beulah, please not now,” she pleaded aloud in the middle of the empty room.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kathleen stood by the phone feeling her very life hung in the balance. For over a minute she struggled to think more clearly. Maybe with a bit of luck, she could still do both. There was a chance she could drive to the house on Bennington Street, reassure herself Beulah was all right, and then leave for the airport from there. After all, Otis and Selma couldn’t be all that far away. Maybe they’d even be at the house by the time she got there. She hurried out the door, flung her suitcase in the trunk of her car, and pulled out of the driveway. Relief surged through her when she found Beulah lying on the bed in Selma’s room.
“Thank God you’re all right. What happened?”
“I don’t rightly know.” Beulah’s voice was weak and trembling. “I’ve been havin’ this pain on and off for a couple of months. Today it was real bad and I got to feelin’ awful dizzy. I got down the hall to the phone but while I was talkin’ to you, I sort of cramped up. I don’t remember no more. I guess I must’ve passed out. When I came to, I got up and came in here. It was closest to the phone. I knew you’d be comin’, so I waited for you.”
The words came out in gasps and her face had a pallor about it that frightened Kathleen.
“I’m calling Dr. Parker to take a look at you.” She tried to keep the emotion out of her voice, surprised at the same time by the depth of her feeling for her mother-in-law.
The telephone was on a small table at the end of the narrow hallway. She gave a cursory glance into the little shabby bedroom she’d occupied on arrival in Eddisville, seeing again Otis’s ghostly face watching her and Bob through the door.
Dr. Parker’s examination of Beulah lasted about fifteen minutes. When he joined Kathleen in the living room his face was serious.
“How is she?” Kathleen asked.
“Not good. Her abdomen is very tender, her blood pressure’s up and so is her temperature. What worries me is she told me she’s been bleeding for weeks now.”
He replaced his stethoscope in his bag and then glanced at his watch. “Where in the hell is Otis? The sawmill’s closed today. Beulah needs to be in the hospital, but I’d like to discuss it with him first.”
“I don’t know where he is, or Selma. Beulah said they’d gone out and she didn’t know where. I suppose I am the next of kin, so I’ll take responsibility for the decision. Should we send for an ambulance?�
��
“Yes, we can do that,” Dr. Parker said, “but it would be faster if you drove her there. Can you do this?”
Kathleen’s hesitation was so slight as to go unnoticed. “Yes, of course. Just give me a minute to pack her a few things.”
“Good girl. While you’re doing that, I’ll call Memorial Hospital so they’ll be expecting you.”
Kathleen rummaged through Beulah’s drawers, looking for something suitable for her to wear, but all she could find were two tattered nightgowns. She felt a kind of ache deep down somewhere inside as she hurried out to her car and opened the suitcase she’d packed with such care. She tossed everything out except her own two nightgowns, a robe, and some toiletries. Then, unable to think of anything else Beulah might need, she placed the suitcase on the front seat and returned to the house.
“Have you told her yet?” she asked Dr. Parker softly.
He shook his head. “It might be better if you did. I hope she’s not going to be stubborn about this.”
Kathleen sat gently on the edge of the bed and placed a hand on Beulah’s arm. “Dr. Parker wants you to spend a few days in the hospital. That bleeding you’ve been having needs to be checked. He thinks you may have fainted from loss of blood. There’s no point in hanging around waiting for Otis and Selma so I’m going to take you. I’ll leave them a note to call Dr. Parker.”
Beulah looked anxious. “But ain’t you supposed to be goin’ to Atlanta. I knowed you was lookin’ forward to it and what’s your friend gonna think?”
Kathleen forced a smile. “It doesn’t matter.”
As she looked into her mother-in-law’s trusting eyes, the stab of guilt was like a blade. What would Beulah say if she knew her son’s wife had planned a rendezvous with an old love? Together she and Dr. Parker carried Beulah to the car, and placed her gently on the back seat. Kathleen put a pillow under her head and covered her with the most presentable blanket she’d been able to find in the house.
Different Drummers Page 14