I agreed. What else could I do? June first would still give me a little time with the place. I’d have over a week in June before I left to spend time back home ahead of the wedding.
Things were turning out differently than I expected about the house, that was for sure. But everything else was going well. Sarah called me to tell me they’d be leaving on tomorrow’s train. She’d wanted her mother and Katie and Emmie to all come too, but they decided they’d do that after the wedding, once we were situated. The train would be at the depot tomorrow evening. I had such a fluttery excitement I couldn’t hardly stand it.
They planned to stay three days, and Mrs. Haywood and Mr. Willings both said they’d like to feed ’em while they were here. But that was my job more than theirs. I figured I’d let them each cook us one meal if they really wanted to, and I’d take care a’ the rest. I had a table and chairs now, and a couple of pots to cook with. We’d make it just fine.
I fixed the store to look as nice as it could. What carvings I had were sitting pretty on a shelf with four wall plaques hanging above that. The furniture was arranged along the south side and around the workstation I’d set up to sharpen things or sit and carve where I could talk to the customers who came in. Mr. Pratt’s stoves and lamps were only along the north wall, and I was pleased with the way they added to the place, even though I hoped they’d sell for him quick.
It was hard to concentrate on anything the morning of the day they were due. I thought I oughta finish Mr. Willings’s horse for the bank, but I didn’t think I wanted to put my hand to something that delicate when I was feeling almost giddy with anticipation. Didn’t want to work at something big inside, either, lest I get wood scrap all around. I might have worked outside. It was a nice day, and I knew any customers’d see me plain enough in the side yard. But I wanted to be sure I’d hear the telephone, just in case. The train might get delayed or something. I didn’t wanna miss a call.
I decided to take walnut scrap and start whittlin’ those chess pieces Mr. Willings favored. They didn’t have to be fancy, at least not my first set. I was working on a bishop when a skinny young lady come in. I hadn’t ever seen her before. She didn’t claim to be needin’ anything particular, just lookin’ around, so I told her to let me know if she needed help, and I went back to my carving. Pretty quick she was right next to my workstation.
“What’s that?”
“Chess piece.” I showed her the knight and pawn I’d already roughed out.
“I heard you were good,” she said, leaning close with a smile. “I had to come and see for myself. You are very, very good.”
“My fiancée’s coming tonight on the train,” I blurted out real quick, not a bit comfortable with the way she was lookin’ at me. “We’re gettin’ married in June.”
“Oh? That’s nice.” She didn’t look like she meant that. “Where’s she from?”
“Down by Dearing.”
“Illinois?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Don’t call me ma’am! I’m only twenty. Call me Shirley.”
I didn’t call her anything. I just set my attention back on my whittling.
“Are you from that Dearing town too?”
“Close by. A farm.”
“Could’ve guessed that. I like farm boys. They’re always good workers.”
“I’ve known exceptions,” I said without looking up. “And plenty a’ fellas from town that don’t do no shirkin’.”
“Oh, I know. I guess you’re right.” She went to eyeing a cedar chest, rubbing her hand along the lion’s head carved on the front. “This is sooo pretty,” she cooed.
“Thank you.”
“My mother would love this. Can you come down on the price?”
“No. Sorry about that. Took a lot a’ work. First time I ever did a lion on a cedar chest. I’m kinda proud of it.”
She smiled in my direction and moved on to admire the rocking chair.
I seen a shadow of movement outside the front window, and Mr. Pratt pushed his way through the door. Just then I was glad to see him.
“Sold anything yet?” he asked immediately.
“Not of yours, if that’s what you mean. Only been three days.”
He walked over to look at his inventory like he was worried somebody mighta broke something. Satisfied that everything was all right, he came back over and sat in the nearest sale chair.
“Do you know how to play gin rummy?”
I looked up. Mr. Pratt was a character, I could tell that. I was going to have an interesting time with him. “No, sir. Heard of it, but never played.”
“Ain’t hard. Want me to teach you?”
“Don’t have time for that. No thank you.”
“How about checkers? What you makin’? Oh, sakes a’ living! It’s chess pieces. You’re not one a’ them, are you?”
“One a’ what?”
“Chess enthusiasts. You know. Those that think themselves above everybody else. Now, checkers—that’s a game for the common man. No pride involved. Same way with gin rummy.”
I didn’t answer. I had no idea where he was gettin’ his information, but it didn’t mesh with anything I ever heard before.
The skinny gal give us a funny look. She admired the carved eagle on a shelf and then pretended to be looking extra close at the cedar chest again. She left after that, and I was relieved.
“That wasn’t your girlfriend, was it?” Mr. Pratt asked me.
“No. She’ll be here on tonight’s train. That was just somebody lookin’ around.”
“Oh. Got any coffee?”
“A little in a pot in back. But it’s cold and strong by now.”
“I don’t care. It’ll be all right if you heat it up.”
I might’ve drunk it myself after a while. I didn’t mind lettin’ him have it, but the request seemed peculiar. Why wouldn’t he rather go to the restaurant where other men in town seemed to like to gather and talk sometimes? He must have been lonely without Sam and Thelma’s bunch to drop in on. But I wasn’t sure how it’d work out if he started droppin’ in on me.
I got him the coffee. I needed to empty the pot and wash it anyway. And then I considered that maybe the Lord had called me up here for the people, especially my elders. Here was another widower, like Pastor Willings. And there was Mrs. Haywood. She and other elderly widows made up almost a third of my Sunday night congregation. I was ministering to ’em regular, in more ways than one. I got called quite a bit anymore, if one of ’em needed something done and this or that neighbor or friend wasn’t available. I guessed I’d have room in my days to fit Mr. Pratt in too once in a while, even if all he wanted was my old coffee and another look at his stuff.
“Sure would be nice if Lindbergh or one of them other barnstormers would come through here again,” he mused. “I miss those days. Did you know Lindbergh brought his plane to a field not half a mile from here?”
“Charles Lindbergh?”
“Yes, indeed. It was 1925, I think. Friend of mine went right up in the air with him. You ever been flyin’?”
“No, sir.”
“That’s right. You wasn’t one that went off to the war.” He took a long drink of my stale coffee. I went back to my carving, and he sat and watched me for a while. “You know,” he finally said, “I’m glad you didn’t rent my store.”
I looked up, not sure how he meant that. “Good. I’m glad we’re both happy.”
“I don’t think I’d like chess sets in my windows.”
I smiled. “Pardon me sayin’, but I don’t think I’d like ’em bein’ your windows.”
He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I know. You’re the independent one. Sam says you’d rather drown than grab hold on a dock made by somebody else.”
“It’s not quite that bad.”
“Um-hm.”
He gulped at the coffee, which couldn’t be very good anymore. “You gonna advertise my things?”
“I can. Next time I talk to the newspaper.”
“When will that be?”
I thought a minute. “I already got an ad running that’s got one more edition to go. I’ll go see ’em after my fiancée’s visit to start a new ad for a few weeks and mention your merchandise then.”
He drained his coffee and stood up. “You’re gonna need one of them stoves, you know. Mrs. Bellor’s taking hers with her.”
I wondered how he’d heard that and how many other people in town knew pieces of my business. But it didn’t matter. “If there’s a stove to be bought, I’ll let Sarah do the pickin’ out. Along with most everything else. That’s only right, since I was the one to pick the house.”
He didn’t have much more to say, just thanked me for the coffee, took his cane in hand, and went back out to the street.
That afternoon I closed the store and went and got a haircut. Couldn’t concentrate much more on work anyhow. I cleaned up and put on my Sunday clothes. I knew when the train was due to arrive, but I couldn’t keep myself from being early. Just couldn’t stand to wait no longer. Only stop I made on the way was at Jacob and Judy Hurley’s house to offer a dime for a bouquet of flowers. I prob’ly wouldn’t a’ been so bold, except that Mrs. Hurley was right out in the flower patch and she started the conversation herself as I walked by.
This’d be the first time I ever walked to meet a train. All the other times we’d ever been was in Dearing for somebody going a long ways away, or coming back. Like the day Willy and Robert and so many other boys we knew had gone off to the war. And the day Robert come home wounded. I’d dreamed about seeing my pa off on a train, but that wasn’t the way he’d left us. The dream was stubborn about it, though, coming into my head several different nights, leaving me standing by the tracks while Pa and the railcar faded off in the distance.
Lord, he didn’t really leave my life even when he left, did he? Sometimes I think he’s still with me every day.
On purpose I hadn’t let myself think on what Pa would’ve said if he was around to see me marry Sarah Wortham. But those thoughts come rushing at me all at once now. He wouldn’t object outright. Not to my face, at least. He might talk it over with Mr. and Mrs. Wortham and see if they could really accept such a strange turn of events. He might even try to talk them out of it. But he wouldn’t talk to Sarah Jean at all. She’d been bold to him once, standing up for me and my brothers and sisters, and I couldn’t think of one time after that when he’d said even one more word to her.
Pa still got in my head sometimes, telling me I didn’t know what I was doing or I was the same old clumsy mess as ever. And preaching? That wouldn’t surprise him. Not one bit, but that didn’t mean he’d have accepted me to be any good at it.
Stepping up to the depot, I breathed a painful sigh.
Why’d you have to leave us, Pa? If you’d only stayed, sharing your grief with the rest of us, then we wouldn’t a’ had to be burying you too. It was bad enough about Joe. But you hurt us, Pa, runnin’ off like you done. You made it worse.
I wiped my brow, trying to push those thoughts away. I needed to get my mind on happier things. Wouldn’t do to have Sarah Jean finding me glum-faced. She oughta know how glad I was to see her. I stood for a while against the outside wall of the depot, but then I started pacing on the platform. Soon it wasn’t so early anymore, and after a while it wasn’t early at all. I wasn’t sure how long I’d waited. But when I finally heard the train whistle, my heart beat faster just thinking about holding Sarah Jean. I’d have to thank her father. I’d have to make real clear how much I appreciated him bringing her up here.
I knew he figured the trip was as much for him as it was her. He wanted to look over things and be able to tell Mrs. Wortham and his own heart that I’d done all right and everything’d be fine for their little girl. I took a deep breath. What would he think? My business had a long way to go before it was truly prospering.
Sarah was the first one off the train, looking fresh and perky in a pink jacket and pretty high-heeled shoes. Oh, I was glad she was here and folks’d see her and know that I was the one that’d made quite a catch.
I run up and took her in my arms. She dropped the bag she was carrying and hugged at me too. I didn’t even notice her father at first, till I saw him alongside the train claiming their luggage and doing his best to leave us alone for a minute.
“Your father’s a wonderful man,” I whispered to Sarah.
“He says the same about you.”
“I think he’s the one I learned it from.”
She smiled and kissed me right there in the open. Just a little kiss. But I knew there was folks that seen. “It looks like a nice town,” she said, a little timidly.
“It is. I got so much to show you.”
She looked around. “Where’s the truck?”
“I didn’t bring it. The store’s close enough to walk.” And then I thought,
What a stupid idiot I am
. I forgot all about them having luggage. Sure, we could carry it a few blocks. I could carry most of it myself. There wasn’t that much. But what a picture that’d make for them to remember.
“Let me speak a word to the man in the depot,” I told her real quick. “We’re just down the street from the square. It’s a beautiful evening. Maybe you’d like to walk to the railroad park and have an ice cream ’fore we go home. I can bring the truck up for the luggage later.”
“Oh, a walk would be nice,” she agreed. “We did so much sitting on the train.”
Now I had to pray that the man in the depot would let me leave the luggage. He chuckled a little about it. “Got to get out on the town first thing, huh? It’s all right. But I’ll only be here a little while and then it’s gonna sit outside. So don’t wait too long.”
Sarah loved the flowers I’d gotten for her. We all enjoyed the walk. But we took our ice cream with us to my store and didn’t linger in the park because Sarah said she wanted to put my flowers in water before it was too late for them. I didn’t have a vase, but I gave her a pickle jar I’d emptied and washed to use for a drinking glass.
“We could have sent more dishes with you,” she reminded me.
“I been makin’ it fine. Don’t wanna get too comfortable over here in the shop, you know.”
She looked around only a little before we went back after the luggage. Just Sarah and me. Mr. Wortham wanted to stay at the store.
I didn’t know what he’d tell me when we got back. But when we came in, he was in the storefront with the electric lights on, sitting in my workstation. “I’ve been looking over your work, Frank. It keeps getting better. You outpaced me a long time ago. You’re one of the best I’ve ever seen.”