by Linda Ellen
Then before he knew it, she was running down the steps. In seconds, she had reached him and thrown herself into his arms. He caught her and swung her around, both of them laughing joyously.
“Vic! Oh Vic!” Louise gasped, her arms wound around his neck, eyes tightly closed as a tear of joy seeped out. He felt so good in her arms, so right. She realized all over again just how much she needed him…how much of a seemingly bottomless void their four-year separation had dug into her heart. Now, she gloried in having him back, in her arms, and in her life. She breathed in the heavenly scent of his aftershave, still lingering on his cheeks from that morning’s ablutions. The strength and warmth of his strong sure arms felt like home – a home she would never want to leave.
“Ahh babe, I finally made it,” Vic murmured into her hair. Eyes closed, he took in the sweet scent of her perfume, and the warmth and feel of her body pressed to his. She was in his arms at last! Ceasing his motions and allowing her feet to touch the ground again, he kept his arms wrapped closely around her, hugging her tightly. It occurred to him that they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle…like they were created for one another.
And then he pulled his head back a bit and they were kissing, magically, deeply, wildly, each one’s hands finding their way into the other’s hair as they desperately held on. All of the pent up yearning from the past four years shot to the surface for them both, making this reunion even more powerful than the first. On that one, they had both felt the need to tread carefully. Now, there was no need to hold back the tide of emotions that were released from just being together.
When at last they drew back, Vic held her away just far enough to see her face and gaze into those hazel eyes that made him feel tiny jolts of electricity each and every time she trained them on him. “You okay?” he asked softly, his memory of how frail she had looked in the hospital still fresh.
She smiled up at him, her eyes sparkling with health…and love. “I’m fine.”
“That’s good,” he answered, and grinned in relief as he bent to give her another firm kiss, thinking that he would never tire of kissing her – and no amount of kisses would ever make up for the years of longing. The thought went through his mind that just a month before, the reality of standing on the sidewalk with her in his arms, kissing her as much and as long as he wanted, was merely an oft-visited dream.
Finally, Louise realized they were outside and in full view of anyone who might happen to look. Disengaging from him with a satisfied, but slightly self-conscious smile, she took his hand and tugged him toward the door. “C’mon in. There’s a small someone who’s been asking for you.”
Vic smiled genuinely and let out a soft chuckle. “Oh yeah? Well, let’s not keep ’im waitin’, then.”
The instant Vic walked through the door he was bombarded by a toddler.
“Misser Vic! Misser Vic!” two-year-old Tommy gushed as Vic bent down and caught him in his embrace. The little boy’s arms wrapped around Vic’s neck as he exclaimed, “Mama say you come to-day!”
Louise stood with her hands together, fingers interlaced and resting against her lips as she gazed down at the two people she loved most. It felt so good…and so right…to see them together. The future never looked brighter.
“Well, she was right then, huh?” Vic answered little Tommy, before giving the child an affectionate kiss on the forehead. Rising with the boy still in his grasp, Vic turned to Irene and leaned to give her a one-armed hug.
“Miss Irene,” he murmured as he kissed her cheek. He caught a whiff of talcum powder as he hugged her, smiling as he remembered how the scent over the years always reminded him of her, since their first meeting in the damp, chilly OK Storage warehouse during the ’37 Flood.
“Welcome back, Vic,” the delicate but feisty older lady answered warmly as she reached up to make sure her soft gray hair was still in its perfect bun. Her pale blue eyes twinkled as she added, “As you can see, you were greatly missed.”
“Seems so,” he agreed, his eyes sparkling.
“And you’re just in time for lunch,” Irene added, stepping back so that he could see the dining room table set with dishes and bowls of food. He noticed four place settings and he grinned. It felt good to be welcome. It was a feeling he never took for granted.
“Good, I’m starved. I got right on the road this mornin’…” he admitted, meeting Louise’s eyes again. “Didn’t want to waste no time.”
Happily, Louise leaned to kiss his lips with a shy smile, and then reached to take her son from Vic’s arms and carry him to his highchair, which the Blankenbakers had surprisingly been so kind as to bring over, along with other of their grandson’s things that they’d been keeping.
For the next hour as the four consumed their lunch, the two women listened to Vic extol on his time in Evansville, his farewell dinner with his brother and sister-in-law, and stories of several of his regular customers giving him monetary gifts on his last day. His humorous tales of the bumbling clumsiness of his replacement Matt Fleishman, whom he’d had to train, brought amused giggles from the ladies.
As Irene eventually rose to begin clearing the table, she glanced over at Vic. “So Vic, what are your immediate plans?”
Vic took a drink of his iced tea and sat back in his chair, his eyes lovingly resting on Louise as she busied herself with making sure Tommy had eaten his fill. Watching as she lovingly began cleaning her little boy’s hands and face with a napkin, Vic smiled softly at how good of a mother she had made.
“Oh, I figure I’ll get a me a room at the Y,” he began, speaking of the large YMCA facility at Third and Chestnut. “Then I’ll look around for a job. My landlady was real nice and didn’t charge me rent for the last two weeks, seeing that I provided her with a replacement tenant,” he added with a chuckle, although it had felt a bit strange that Fleishman had seemingly usurped his existence. This brought a confusing surge of emotion as Vic briefly acknowledged that there had been aspects of his life in Evansville that he had enjoyed. He had felt he was making his own way in the world, and had friends and a measure of contentment. Still…not having Louise in his life had perpetuated an emptiness that nothing seemed to fill. Absently, he continued, “So I’ve got a bit of money to tide me over.”
Louise paused and met his eyes. “Oh Vic…I hope you can find you a job that you like as much as Diamond…”
Pushing away the disconcerting thoughts, he sent her a wink. “I will, babe. The owner himself wrote me a letter of reference, and I still got the one Doc wrote me, and the one from Major Connors. Don’t you worry none, it’ll be okay,” he added softly.
Irene turned from placing dishes in the sink. “We’ll make that a matter of prayer.”
Louise pressed her lips together so that she wouldn’t blurt out words full of doubt and fear. Instead, as Irene had been gently teaching her to do, she smiled and nodded agreement. “That’s right. This time around, everything will be fine. Nothing’s going to upset our plans.”
Their gazes locked, the couple tried to hold on to the positive and push away the fear. They were finally together. That fact alone made everything so much better.
*
However, things didn’t go as expected.
Vic did take a room at the YMCA, and first thing the following Monday morning, he set out early looking for work – armed with his three recommendation letters. Employers and hiring bosses were polite. They read his letters and commented what a good worker he apparently was…but they just didn’t have an opening at the moment. They would, however, keep him in mind. This went on for job…after job…after job.
By the end of the week, his confidence was beginning to wane.
The only thing that made the difference was Louise. When he would come to see her at the end of each day, tired and fighting the old familiar discouragement, she would meet him at the apartment door and take him in her arms. Just the reality of being in the arms of the girl he loved always made things seem just a little bit better. Imagining the f
uture…coming home to her as her husband…was the dream that kept him going through one disappointment after another.
Several weeks after Vic’s return, he, Louise, and little Tommy were spending the evening with Sonny and Sara. The pregnant Sara, who was about three weeks away from delivery, seemed determined to help with the meal, and it soon became almost a game for the others to jump to her aid. Each one was being so careful of her, as she had reached the stage of swelling ankles, aching back, perpetual fatigue, and occasional mysterious sharp pains. Sonny and Vic were especially solicitous, it being totally out of their mode of experience.
Standing at Sara’s kitchen table peeling potatoes for the meal, Louise glanced over at her sister-in-law as she sat in the overstuffed chair in their living room. As she watched her impatiently flick back a strand of her blonde hair and adjust a pillow at her back to try and alleviate a twinge, Louise pressed her lips together in sympathy. She knew exactly what Sara was going through, as she herself had been absolutely miserable the last few weeks before having Tommy. Being married to TJ at the time hadn’t helped, as he was totally insensitive to her needs. Then came the birth itself, which had been far from pleasant; a two-day affair that she had wondered many times if she would even live through.
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, however, Fleet had sailed through her delivery of Alec Alder, Jr.
Pausing mid-peel, Louise smiled as she recalled hearing Alec’s amusing play-by-play when he had come to visit her in the hospital and give her the news that Fleet was in the maternity ward one floor down. The ladies listening nearby cackled at the antics of life-of-the-party Alec. Louise chuckled as she remembered…
He had breezed into the ward bearing celebratory cigars, which he handed out to each lady in Louise’s proximity, only to make an about face and go back to collect them with a comical “Oops, those are for the guys only.”
Then, after leaning to give Louise a kiss on her cheek, which he explained was from Fleet, he launched into his narrative. It seems that he had come home from his third shift job and let himself in the door to their apartment, only to hear the shower running in the bathroom. Investigating, he found his wife standing in the shower rinsing the shampoo from her hair with one hand, and holding her belly with the other. Fussing at her that she could have waited for him to arrive to help her do that, she had snapped back at him that she had been cleaning the apartment all night and couldn’t wait any longer to get the dirt and sweat off. He had helped her finish rinsing. Then, her eyes had opened wide and she had squealed, “Alec! I think my water just broke!”
“Then I’m running around the apartment like Charlie Chaplin, trying to find the suitcase we packed, and my car keys, and remember all of the stuff she’d told me to do. The whole time, she’s in the bathroom yelling for me to hurry up.” He had laughed and run a hand back through his hair, still in amazement, as he continued, “I’m yelling back at her that we’ve got time if her water just broke, and she’s yelling for me to get in there. So when I finally go back, my hands full of her suitcase and my coat, and my mouth stuffed with the muffin I’d grabbed off a plate in the kitchen ’cause I was hungry – I hear what sounds like a baby squalling.”
“What?” his passel of listeners squawked.
“Yep. She done went and had it – squattin’ in the tub. All I did was turn the shower off,” he added sheepishly, rolling his eyes.
Louise chuckled softly at the memory, whispering, “Some girls have all the luck.”
Just then, Vic looked over at her from his position on the floor, on his knees giving little Tommy a ‘horsey’ ride, and grinned that dimpled smile she adored. Reaching back, he playfully hauled Tommy over his head, amidst the little boy’s delighted peals of laughter, and proceeded to blow ‘raspberries’ on his belly. Tommy squealed some more, chortling and squirming as he tried to get away. Standing, Vic reached down and scooped the child up into his arms and headed into the kitchen.
Tommy leaned, nearly tumbling out of Vic’s arms, to give his mother a kiss. Vic followed suit, although his kiss lingered longer, and was on her lips. He then put Tommy down on the floor and the little boy ran back into the living room, giggling and hollering, “Catch me, Vic!”
Vic laughed and shook his head.
Louise giggled, wiping at her nose with the back of the hand holding the peeling knife. “You’ve created a monster, you know. He won’t leave you alone the rest of the night now that you’ve become his playmate.”
Vic’s smile seemed to light up the kitchen. “I don’t mind. He’s a great kid. I used ta play like that with my niece and nephew when they were little…” he added, pausing as his expression faltered a bit.
He quickly went back to smiling, however, and reached into a bowl to snatch a piece of raw carrot to munch on, but Louise had seen the fleeting cloud on his countenance. Reaching for his hand, she squeezed it for a moment, asking softly, “Have you seen your brother since you’ve been back?”
Vic drew in a deep breath and lifted one shoulder in a shrug, then shook his head and turned to perch one hip on the edge of the table as he watched Louise continue her peeling chore.
“Nah. Not yet. I’ll get around to it… been kind of busy,” he mumbled, his features taking on a bit of a brooding appearance. Louise could tell he was not looking forward to it – and she didn’t blame him for putting it off. Over the months she had known him four years before, he had shared bits and pieces of his family history and the strained relationship between him and his sibling’s family.
“I’ll go with you. The old battle-ax better not be rude in front of me, or I’ll scratch her eyes out,” Louise declared, only half teasing, trying to cheer him up. It worked. He smiled at her with a wink.
“Feisty little thing, ain’t ya,” he murmured, leaning close as she stopped peeling again to receive another kiss. This one grew longer and soon, one they both began to get lost in…until they were interrupted by a certain small person who had come racing back into the kitchen in search of his new favorite friend. Skidding to a stop, Tommy took hold of Vic’s shirt with both hands, trying unsuccessfully to drag him off of the table as he begged, “Misser Vic, we pway horsey again? Pweese?”
Vic pulled back from kissing Louise and with a playful growl, he turned and scooped the little boy up and tossed him up over his shoulder upside down as Tommy shrieked in delight.
“C’mon you. Let’s let your mother finish that supper, or we’ll all starve.”
Contentment infusing her soul, Louise finished peeling the potatoes and set them on to boil as she kept watch out of the corner of her eye at Vic playing with her son. It was a dream come true, as TJ had never really played with Tommy. Although he wasn’t mean or abusive, he mainly just ignored his son. Now, her sweet little boy would have a male role model that he could love and emulate. Reaching for a pack of pork chops and Sara’s iron skillet, Louise found herself humming a happy tune as she continued making their dinner, excited about the future with Vic. She had never been happier. All was finally becoming right with her world.
“Louise, you sure I can’t do something…peel, or slice…” Sara called from the living room.
“No, that’s okay,” Louise called over her shoulder. “I’ve got it.” She leaned back enough to see her sister-in-law and gave her a reassuring smile, which the older girl returned, her pale blue eyes soft and kind in spite of her ongoing discomfort. Louise turned back around with a satisfied sigh, thinking how everything seemed to be better lately. Sara had been nice about the whole deal with TJ and Vic. Sonny had been his loving self, the best brother in the world. Louise closed her eyes for a moment and whispered to God heartfelt thanks for answering her prayers.
Suddenly, amidst Tommy’s cute giggles and the evening dance band music playing on the radio, there was a knock at the door. Sonny got up to answer it.
He opened the portal to find a teenager wearing a uniform jacket with WU on the collar, dark tie, white shirt, and a black-billed cap with the W
estern Union logo on the front. He asked politely, “Is there a Joseph Hoskins here?”
Sonny nodded. “That’s me.”
“Telegram,” the young man replied, holding out the small sealed envelope.
Sonny took the missive and thanked the young man, reaching into his pants pocket for a small tip. The teen nodded with a smile and pocketed the coin as he turned on his heel and retraced his steps.
As Sonny closed the door, the others looked his way, wondering who had sent a telegram and hoping it wasn’t bad news. His instincts abuzz with a sudden, inexplicable sense of foreboding, Vic hushed little Tommy and picked him up, stepping over to Sonny as he ripped open the envelope and read the few words typed in block letters on the tan paper.
Louise came in from the kitchen wiping her hands, pausing near Sara’s chair. The look of devastation on Sonny’s face as he read the message sent chills down her body.
“What is it, Sonny?” Louise asked softly.
Sonny looked up, his eyes meeting his sister’s. He swallowed, fighting a sudden rush of intense emotion as he looked down at the paper again.
His voice choked up, he read: “To Joseph Hoskins. From Lilly Hoskins. Your father has died. I need you. Please come. Mama.”
‡
CHAPTER 5
The Funeral and the Move
“Daddy?” Louise gasped, her voice reduced to a mournful squeak. Tears immediately sprang to her eyes. Daddy’s dead? But…he was fine when I stayed with them in Bowling Green…that was just eight weeks ago…
Although Vic hadn’t known Willis well, his heart went out to the siblings, as he knew all too well the void that losing a parent left in one’s life. Turning, he saw his love standing bereft with watery eyes and he instantly leaned down to place Tommy gently on the floor. Crossing the room to Louise in two strides, he enfolded her in his arms.