by Shawn Inmon
Then, back in the Mustang she drove straight to Starwood Estates. Starwood was where the wealthy of Middle Falls lived if they weren’t named Collins.
The houses were all two stories, many with columns in front, as if Tara had picked up stakes and moved west. All had manicured lawns and understated elegance.
Cassandra pulled into the driveway of the nicest of those houses, and found Jimmy Coleman in the driveway, washing his Corvette. His car wasn’t as new as Cassandra’s Mustang. Jimmy’s Corvette had been a gift from his older brother Danny, who had decided to grow up and give up his sports car two years before.
Jimmy wore a tight white t-shirt and shorts. Cassandra took in his long, toned legs as he reached across the hood to wash an invisible blemish.
Cassandra pulled alongside and said, “Hiya, hot stuff. What’s a girl gotta do to get a car wash around here?”
“It’s easy. Just say you’ll marry the poor car washer, and he will give you a lifetime of free car washes.”
Cassandra slipped out of the Mustang, and easily into Jimmy’s arms.
“Thank you, for giving me time to think about it. There was so much going on last night, I couldn’t catch my breath or my balance.”
“And? Now that you’ve caught your breath?” Jimmy was smiling, but it faltered just a bit.
“Now that I have, I see I was foolish to ever have any doubts. You are the one for me, James Andrew Coleman.” She snuggled her head against his chest. “I never had any doubts, really.”
Confidence restored, Jimmy picked Cassandra up and swung her around and around. When her feet touched the ground again, she was dizzy, but smiling.
“I’ll be a good husband, Cassie. I promise.”
I believe you. I just don’t know what that means. I wonder if you do?
“Come on, let’s go tell Mom and Dad.”
They burst inside like they were blown in by a hurricane. The Colemans were sitting in the living room. Stan Coleman had a book open in his lap and Thelma Coleman was leafing through a copy of Good Housekeeping.
“She said yes!”
The Colemans didn’t look surprised, but they did appear to be pleased. Thelma hugged Cassandra and said, “Welcome to the family.” She held her out at arm’s length. “I guess I’d best get on the phone with Dorothea. We have a wedding to plan.” She looked appraisingly at Cassandra’s slim figure. “There’s, umm, no need to hurry the wedding, is there?”
Jimmy answered first, clueless as to context. “Well, we love each other, and we don’t want to wait too long. But I’ll be starting school in a few months, so we’ll probably want to wait until next summer, don’t you think?”
Cassandra understood the implication, though, and caught her future mother-in-law’s eye. She gave her head a small shake. No, I’m not pregnant. It’s not even possible.
Chapter Six
The wedding was held almost exactly a year later. Because the Colemans were Lutheran, and the Collins were Catholic, they decided that it would be best to have a non-church wedding. It fell once again to the Collins to handle the soiree.
If Kristen and Cassandra had thought the graduation night bash was posh, they hadn’t seen anything yet.
In the weeks and months leading up to the wedding, Cassandra had gotten to know Danny’s wife, Veronica, a red-haired, green-eyed beauty who was everything that Cassandra wanted to be. She was lithe, self-possessed, and seemed effortlessly at home in her marriage to Danny.
On more than one occasion, Cassandra thought, If Jimmy and I can be as happy as Danny and Ronnie, it will be a good life.
Cassandra found herself spending more and more time with Veronica.
A week before the wedding, Veronica showed up at the Collins Estate and rang the doorbell, which bonged deep within the bowels of the house. It was a Saturday, and Cassandra was alone in the huge house.
It was an odd feeling for Cassandra to answer the door, as she was so seldom the only person in the house. She opened the heavy door tentatively, then saw Veronica and threw it open wide.
“Ronnie! What a great surprise! What are you doing here?”
Veronica stepped inside the entryway and dropped her sunglasses down her nose, revealing her remarkable, emerald-green eyes.
“Is it too terrible that I just wanted to see how everything was shaping up for the wedding? Everyone’s talking about it, but I wanted to see for myself.”
“Of course! Come on, I’ll show you.”
Even a week in advance, everything was in full swing in the immense Collins backyard. Workmen were driving the final nails on the new pergola, while painters were already at work staining it a deep redwood color. Gardeners were trimming bushes, mowing the lawn, and one man was actually on his hands and knees, pulling stray weeds from the grass with what looked like tweezers.
Veronica turned to Cassandra with a broad smile. “This is going to be so perfect. It’s going to look like a fairyland here.”
Cassandra nodded, pleased and warmed that Veronica approved. “Where did you and Danny get married?”
“In a church. I think I’m going to like yours much better than ours. Thanks for giving me a sneak peek.” She turned back toward the door, but stopped. “Are you alone today? Nowhere else you have to be?”
“Nope. Footloose and fancy free. Every time I try to say anything about wedding preparations, I get shooed off to the sideline.”
“Well, you and Jimmy are the last kids in the two families, so Thelma and Dorothea are flexing their muscles, knowing they will probably never get to do it again. But, since that leaves you at loose ends, let’s go out for lunch. Have you eaten?”
Cassandra was a little ashamed to say she was starving but didn’t know how to make anything in the massive kitchen. Instead, she said, “I could eat.”
“Come on, then. Let’s run into town and grab a bite.”
They took Veronica’s car, a late model, sedate four-door. It made Cassandra feel like a little girl, riding with her mom, even though Veronica was only six years older than she was.
“Where to, do you think?” Cassandra asked.
“Only one place to go on a Saturday afternoon in Middle Falls. It’s gotta be Artie’s for us. I worked there when I was in high school, and I still go back every chance I get. You don’t mind Artie’s, do you?”
“Mind it? I love it, but trying to get Mom and Dad to go there is impossible. Can we get a chocolate shake?”
Veronica patted her purse. “I’m buying. You don’t look like you’re going to have any trouble fitting into whatever wedding dress you have picked out, and I don’t care if I gain a few pounds, so we can get whatever we want.”
Veronica pulled into the parking lot at Artie’s and into one of the spots without the speaker used to order from the car.
“Let’s go in, okay? I want to see if Perry Zimmerman is working. He’s my old boss, and such a sweetheart.”
They walked through the front door and took a seat at a corner table. There was a speaker in the corner playing KMFR. You Can’t Hurry Love by The Supremes was playing.
Veronica approached the counter and said, “Hey, Zimm, are you serving food today, or just tempting everybody with those delicious smells?”
A thin man dressed in an Artie’s uniform said, “Well, Ronnie. We don’t see you often enough, now that you’ve gone and become one of Middle Falls’ social elites. Thank you for gracing us today.”
Veronica waved a dismissive hand at him, leaned forward, and said, “I married into it. Over in the corner is the real deal—Cassandra Collins.”
Perry Zimmerman looked over at Cassandra and smiled. “Glad you ladies are here, classing the joint up. Whaddya need?”
“Two Artie’s burgers with fries and two chocolate shakes. We’re throwing caution and calories to the wind today.”
“Hey, DJ’s not here today, is he?”
“See, you don’t come in often enough. He got married and moved away a couple of years ago. Best grill man I ever had, too
. We do manage to stumble along without him, though. I’ll bring your order out shortly.”
Veronica laid a five-dollar bill on the counter and slid it toward Zimm.
“Your money’s no good here, Ronnie.”
“You are the sweetest, Zimm. Do this for me, then, will you? Give it to whichever one of your carhops needs it the most.”
Perry hesitated, but finally nodded. “You’re one of the good ones, Ronnie.”
Veronica looked out at the parking lot. “Did you know KMFR used to broadcast live from Artie’s every Friday and Saturday night?”
“That’s right, I was too little to cruise then, but I remember lying on my bed, listening to my transistor radio. I’ll bet that was so fun.”
“It was. That whole time was fun. At least until that car ran into the tower and almost killed the deejay. That was the end of that.”
“I wonder if I could talk to Daddy and get him to start that up again.” She considered, then said, “Probably not. Dad doesn’t listen to much of anything I have to say.”
“Because you’re a woman.”
“I’d love for that to change, but I don’t think it ever will.”
“It will, a little at a time.”
“I don’t know if women’s lib will ever reach Middle Falls,” Cassandra said, as Perry Zimmerman brought their tray to the table.
Fifteen minutes later, Cassandra threw a napkin in her now-empty plastic basket, then sucked up the remainder of her chocolate shake.
“I think that will hold me until the wedding.”
Veronica nodded and finished the last bite of her own burger. Like Cassandra, Veronica was thin. She might eat what she wanted, but her metabolism worked on overdrive.
Out of nowhere, Cassandra said, “I got accepted into Berkeley.”
That set Veronica back a bit. “Today?”
“No, last year. I got the letter the same day Jimmy asked me to marry him. My dad said I could do whatever I wanted, but if I wanted to go to school, I was on my own.”
“Did you think about doing that anyway?”
“For about an hour. Then I took the easy way out.” Suddenly, Cassandra realized she was talking to her future sister-in-law, not just a friend. She started to backtrack a bit. “But I love Jimmy, of course. He’s perfect.”
Veronica laid her hand on Cassandra’s, and said, “You don’t have to worry about me. I keep my eyes on my own paper. Don’t forget, I’m married to one of those perfect Coleman boys, too.”
Cassandra breathed easier. “I know I did the right thing. Where would I be now, if I had chosen school? I can’t even imagine.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anyway. I made my choice. I don’t know why I keep wondering if I chose the right path.”
Veronica held eye contact but didn’t speak.
Cassandra took a deep breath and held it. “You only live once, right, but that’s no excuse to do something stupid.”
“You only live once,” Veronica agreed absent-mindedly.
Chapter Seven
A week later, the wedding went off without a hitch. Dorothea and Thelma had spent every available minute making sure everything was perfect, and it was.
Since Jamison Collins owned The Middle Falls Chronicle, there was both a photographer and reporter there to cover the event. Monday’s edition of The Chronicle would feature a picture of the happy couple walking down the aisle. It was above the fold on the front page of the Local section. What could be more important local news than the merger of Middle Falls’ two great families?
The Collins also hired a wedding photographer to drive from Portland and create the loveliest wedding photos anyone had ever seen.
Jimmy and Cassandra themselves could have been the model for every cake topper couple that ever adorned a wedding cake.
Jimmy had just turned nineteen, and his lanky frame had begun to fill out. Cassandra was as willowy and lovely as ever. She had entertained the idea of wearing a less-formal wedding dress, perhaps even something above the knee, but in the end, she wore the same gown both her mother and grandmother had. In fact, everything about the wedding—from the color of the bridesmaids’ dresses to what flavor of wedding cake would be served—was decided by the two matriarchs.
Scott Patrick, the morning drive deejay from KMFR, emceed the whole wedding, playing music and introducing Jimmy and Cassandra for the first time as husband and wife. Two long tables were so overflowing with gifts, they overflowed onto new stacks beneath and behind.
Kristen was Cassandra’s maid of honor, while Jimmy’s brother Danny served as his best man.
If Cassandra harbored any doubts as to whether she had made the right decision or not, they didn’t show.
When the sun touched the horizon, the newlyweds jetted off to Niagara Falls, courtesy of the Colemans, then returned and settled in to married life.
Four boys from Cassandra’s class went to Vietnam, but never came home. That included Phillip Norris, who had parked cars at her graduation bash. Many more went and returned but were never the same. Jimmy got a deferment because he still had three years of college left. When that ran out, he had the good fortune to have his birthday pulled in the last twenty percent of the draft order.
During the years Jimmy was finishing up school, the newlyweds lived near Portland State University. Those were difficult years, as Cassandra knew no one but Jimmy. He had reason to be out of their small apartment, but she felt trapped there. Finally, she took a job waitressing, not because they needed the money, but just to get out, meet people, and feel like she had a life, too.
As soon as Jimmy graduated with his degree in business, they moved home to Middle Falls. Jamison Collins gifted them the down payment on a nice starter home in a good neighborhood. Jimmy went to work at Coleman’s furniture and Cassandra began to make a home.
For the first few years, they tried desperately to start a family, but it never happened. Veronica and Danny were in the same boat, so there were no Coleman grandchildren to love and spoil.
Without children to build her life around, Cassandra’s life fell into a schedule that rarely changed. Jimmy worked six days a week, then golfed with his brother Danny on Sunday. After the first infatuating intensity of Oh my God, we’re married! had passed, they didn’t spend a lot of time together. Because of that, they rarely fought.
It wasn’t a bad marriage. They were rarely cruel to each other and took comfort in the increasingly long string of shared memories that stretched out behind them.
That day Cassandra had sat on the hood of her Mustang, looking out over Middle Falls, she had chosen safety. And she had that. She never worried about anything financially. Jimmy did well, and he took care of everything.
And still.
And still... there were times, when she sat alone at the kitchen table of their home, drinking the coffee she had become accustomed to, and she wondered. There were long hours in the middle of the night when she woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, so she spent the time wondering some more.
She wondered about the road not taken. She tried to imagine what her life would have been like.
Harder, for sure. No guarantees. Probably wouldn’t have as nice a car. Certainly wouldn’t have a house like this. And, I wouldn’t have Jimmy. I wondered once if I loved him, or if I even knew what love was. Now I know.
But what would have been down that other road? School, music, artistic fulfillment?
She had taken a pottery class and an art class at Middle Falls Community College, but they were entry-level classes. She enjoyed getting out of the house and meeting new people, but the classes themselves were not challenging.
Part of me, she would think in the midst of one of those long nights, with Jimmy sleeping beside her, is dying. I never gave that part of me a chance to live, so it is dying.
Jimmy went to work at Coleman’s Furniture as the second-in-command to his big brother Danny. Together, the two of them took the Coleman fortune into the future. They bought a parcel of land where an
old office building had once stood downtown. They had it torn down and built the single-largest building in Middle Falls. In 1974, they opened Coleman’s Department Store.
Thirteen years after Cassandra married Jimmy, Danny and Veronica Coleman divorced. That news sat Cassandra back on her heels.
They were the marriage I wanted to emulate. The fact they didn’t make it is a little scary.
A few months later, Cassandra ran into Veronica at the grocery store and insisted on taking her to Artie’s for lunch. The young, vivacious woman was gone. A spark had gone out of Veronica.
Sitting once again inside Artie’s small dining room, Veronica had said, “I can’t seem to get anything right.”
That was completely counter to what Cassandra knew about Veronica and she told her that, but she seemed to be unreachable.
At the end of 1979, Veronica and a friend had flown to Acapulco to recharge their batteries. While they were there, Veronica’s parents had been in a horrible car accident and were killed. Cassandra had gone to the funeral as a show of support. Veronica was devastated, and Cassandra felt helpless to do anything to help.
That night, she told Jimmy, “I’m so worried about her. I’ve never seen someone so low.”
“Of course she’s low—her parents were just killed. Ronnie’s a great person. She’ll pull out of it.”
She hadn’t, though. Less than two months later, she had overdosed on sleeping pills while cleaning out her parents’ home.
It was the first major death in Cassandra’s life, but it was only the first of many.
The Collins family did well financially over the next few decades. But the businesses that kept them wealthy through the last half of the twentieth century began to lose their luster as the turn of the new century approached.
Small, family-owned radio stations and newspapers became much harder to run profitably. The Middle Falls Drive-In was sold off for the land in 1989. The Pickwick needed expensive new technology to continue to operate. Middle Falls Lanes, which had had been a thriving business since 1945, became run-down and the cash flow ran in the red month after month. Their chain of video stores were successful money makers in the eighties and nineties, but streaming video and Redbox blew them out of the water in the new century. Jamison Collins was a stubborn man, though, and constantly believed he could turn things around, even in the face of all evidence to the contrary.