Chapter VI: Part 6

Gerald reddened. “You _are_ a forgiving man, then.”

Ralph slipped an arm around Jean. “She wrote me all about how you drilled her so well before her exams.”

Eileen put down her cup of punch. “It’s a marvelous party,” she said.

“Yes, it is,” Gerald agreed. “And we appreciate it more than we can tell you. On account of the fact that circumstances are holding up our own wedding, we enjoy ourselves cutting in on other people’s celebrations.”

“Eileen!” Jean cried. “You didn’t tell me!”

“She’s spoke fer,” Gerald laughed. “And if I keep up the payments, she can even keep the ring.”

“You goose!” Eileen cried, holding out her hand. “Do you like it?”

Jean examined the ring with squeals of enthusiasm. “Oh, golly,” she sighed. “It’s perfect! But what on earth will Dr. Barsch do ... if you get married?”

“That’s one of the circumstances,” Gerald said. “I’ve a feeling he’d ride me out of town on a rail if I snatched away his second Supervisor of Nurses.”

The music started again, and Ralph set down his cup. “May I borrow your fiancee for a dance, doctor?”

Gerald smiled and nodded. “Take care of her. She’s all I have.” He held out his arms to Jean and whisked her away.

“Happy?” he asked her.

“Oh, yes!” she cried. “I can’t really believe that we’re actually going to be married!”

Gerald smiled wistfully. “He’s a very nice fellow,” he said. “Even now I have a little twinge of conscience when I think about trying to cut in on him.” He laughed. “Guys like me are always the worst. If anyone tried to date Eileen, now, I’d really be sore.”

“She’s a wonderful girl,” Jean agreed. “And I don’t think you have to worry.”

“It still seems too good to be true,” Gerald said.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I acted like such a jerk when I first came. Things are different with everyone now. I’ve got my girl, and I’ve made good friends with the doctors at the clinic. You know, I graduate, myself, pretty soon.”

“That’s right,” Jean said. “Your internship is almost over.”

Gerald fought back a lump in his throat. “But the thing that gets me is that they want me to stay on. Dr. Barsch, Ted Loring ... Daley, Jenkins ... all of them. Jean, you know, this is the first time in my life I realize that people like me just because of myself.”

Jean squeezed his hand in quick sympathy.

Gerald cleared his throat. “And that poses a problem,” he said in a very business-like voice. “Dr. Barsch is trying to convince me to go into surgery. I’ve always been interested in psychiatry. But I think I’ll stay on for a while and see what surgery is all about. After all, they’re sort of my family, now. And I’ve been away from home too long.”

Jean was so touched that tears came to her eyes.

“Hey, here’s your sister, Kit,” Gerald said gruffly.

Jean slipped away from him. “And Frank Howard. Come and meet him.”

Kit and Frank were standing in the doorway, arm in arm.

“Is this my party, Jean?” Frank teased as she and Gerald came over to them.

“No, sir, it’s mine,” Jean retorted. “But come in, anyway, and have a good time.”

Frank smiled down at Kit. “It’s not for us,” he said with mock wistfulness. “Shall we stay? Or shall we get up our own party?”

Kit sighed with pretended disappointment. “I guess we’ll have to make the best of it. Let’s stay. It’s the only dance band in town.”

“If you two idiots will stop talking for a minute, I’d like Frank to meet Dr. Gerald Benson,” Jean cried.

The two men shook hands. Before they could get past the door, Eileen and Ralph joined them. Frank and Ralph shook hands.

“Where’re your mother and father, Kit?” Frank asked. “Oh, I see them.” The small crowd made its way across the dance floor to Mr. and Mrs. Craig. Mrs. Craig took both of Frank’s hands in hers and kissed him on the cheek. Mr. Craig shook his hand.

“This is what you call the grand entrance,” Mr. Craig said. “I hope you don’t mind a little dancing after a day of traveling.”

“Not at all,” Frank said, slipping his arm around Kit’s waist. “It’s a fine idea.”

“You’ve got to meet someone else,” Kit whispered as they danced off. “I haven’t told you yet about Doris’s young man, have I?”

Frank looked at her in astonishment. “Doris!” he exclaimed. “That child!”

“Doris is exactly the age I was when I met you,” Kit reminded him.

“Oh, my goodness!” Frank cried. “I forgot what an old woman you are, now.”

“Well, anyhow,” Kit said, ignoring his remark, “they should be around here somewhere.” She scanned the ballroom. “I don’t see them, but they’ll turn up.”

After intermission, the band leader played _Stardust_ again for Jean and Ralph. Then, when the music ended, he held up his hand.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “I have a real surprise for you tonight. Miss Craig has requested that my boys move over and make room for a duet. Now, these are real musicians. They play classics. And they’ve a number they want to play for the bride tonight.”

Everyone applauded as Doris and Bert came to the stage and prepared to play. In the hush that preceded their opening notes, the outer door to the ballroom banged open. Everyone turned around to look.

“I might have known,” Jean said under her breath to Ralph. “It’s Ted and Ethel. He’s making his usual entrance.”

Ethel, blushing furiously, turned to her husband, who was blithely walking towards Jean and Ralph. “I _told_ you there was something going on!” she hissed.

Ted glanced up at the stage and saw Doris and Bert waiting for the confusion to stop. “I guess I did it again,” he admitted sheepishly. “Hush, everyone,” he said in an ineffectual effort to quiet the crowd.

“Hush, yourself,” Ethel commanded in indignation. She turned to Jean. “How on earth can I apologize?”

Jean laughed. “Don’t try, Ethel,” she giggled. “Someday Ted is going to make a quiet entrance somewhere, and we’ll all pass out from the shock.”

The guests quieted down, and Doris and Bert began to play. Ralph touched Jean’s arm and beckoned to her to follow him to the porch. They stepped through the French windows and stood listening to the music. Ralph put his arm around Jean and she put her head on his shoulder. With reverence he touched a curl on the top of her head. “It wasn’t very polite to sneak away from the concert, was it?” he whispered in her ear.

Jean shook her head. “No,” she whispered back, “it wasn’t.”

“But I wanted to hear them play just with you,” Ralph continued in a whisper.

Jean reached up and squeezed his hand. The soft strains of the violin drifted out to the porch and engulfed them. They listened breathlessly till the last notes died away. Then Ralph leaned over and whispered, “Miss Craig, I love you!”

21. Summer’s End

Mrs. Craig surveyed the chaotic parlor, sighed and sat down. She picked up a small black notebook and a pencil and started to write headings on separate pages. The first page was devoted to Kit and the things she would need before she returned to Hope College. The second page she labeled “Doris.” Then, with a nostalgic sigh, she headed the third page “Jean.” She knew that plans for the wedding would fill the rest of the book.

Two trunks stood near the door to the hall. Two trunks which would go in almost opposite directions. Mrs. Craig smiled as she looked at the two piles of clothes to be packed. One could tell the differences between Kit and Doris just from looking at those piles.

Kit’s was the larger. Her wardrobe was gay, collegiate and nearly complete. Doris’s was much more utilitarian, but at the same time, more feminine. Mrs. Craig shook herself out of her contemplations and got up. Going to the foot of the stairs, she called:

“Kit! Doris! Girls, please come down. Your things are all over the parlor waiting to be packed!”

Arm in arm, Kit and Doris appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Coming, Mother,” Kit called. They scrambled down the stairs.

“Golly, I don’t know where the summer’s gone,” Kit protested. “Here it is August, and Frank has to go back home, and I have to go back to school, and it’s almost time for Jean’s wedding ... and, oh, Mother!” she threw herself into her mother’s arms. “Why does she have to go so far away!”

“Never mind, dear,” Mrs. Craig said.

Doris looked at the mess in the parlor and shook her head. “How’re we going to get everything in?”

Kit shrugged. “We always do,” she said philosophically. “Come on. Let’s get to work.”

As they packed, Mrs. Craig jotted down the errands which must be done in the remaining two months before the wedding. Invitations, lists of bridesmaids and ushers, parties, flowers and decorations for the house....

“Somehow, it hardly seems worthwhile _going_ to school till after the wedding,” Kit said. “I’ll no sooner get settled than I’ll have to turn around and come back.”

“Me, too,” said Doris.

“Is Bert going to drive you down?” Kit asked nonchalantly.

“Great heavens!” Mrs. Craig exclaimed.

“Don’t be silly,” Doris said. “He isn’t even going to drive. He’s afraid to take the car on such a long trip. It’s pretty old, you know.”

“With Jean working so hard,” Mrs. Craig commented, “I’ll have to do all this myself.”

“Well, certainly Becky will help you, Mother,” Kit said.

“Of course she will,” Mrs. Craig said. “But you know Becky. You ask her for an inch, and she gives a mile. Land, she’s busy enough, these days.”

“By the way, where are all the men in this house?” Doris asked.

“Oh, around,” Kit said, jamming her sweaters into a trunk drawer.

“Tommy and Jack are down with the chickens,” Mrs. Craig said. “Your father and Frank are downtown. Ralph is upstairs waiting for Jean to call from the hospital. They have an appointment with Dr. Fisher this afternoon.”

“Dr. who?” Kit asked. “What for?”

“The Reverend Dr. Fisher,” Doris said. “The man who’s going to _marry_ them.”

“Oh,” said Kit. She started to hang her skirts on the trunk’s hangers. “Getting married is an awful nuisance,” she said.

“Why, Kit!” Mrs. Craig cried.

Kit smiled. “I guess I’ll have to elope. Think of all the trouble I’ll save you.”

“You can finish your packing, young lady, and stop talking nonsense if you want to save me trouble,” Mrs. Craig said.

As Kit finished packing her trunk, Frank poked his head in the doorway. “Hi,” he called. “Anyone need any help?”

“Nope,” Doris said. “We’re all through.”

Mrs. Craig laughed helplessly. “Why don’t you young people run along? I want to concentrate.”

Frank grinned. “Come on, Kit. Let’s take a walk.”

“Just a minute,” Kit said. “I’ll meet you down by the mailbox.”

Kit and Doris walked out into the hall.

“Before I go out, Doris, I want to give you something,” Kit said, handing her a small, ugly doll.

Doris took it and looked at it.

“It’s some sort of good luck charm that Uncle Bart and I found in that mummy we were examining together. You know, when I first went up to Hope. I want you to have it.”

Doris’s fingers closed around the doll. “Gee, thanks, Kit,” she said.

“You know why, I guess,” Kit said. “I kept it with me all year at school. And it’s pretty exciting, going away to school for the first time. I guess you know how proud we all are of you.” Kit looked down. “Jean and I ... well, we always have a lot of things going. And of course now Jean has graduated, and that was pretty exciting. But neither of us ever did anything like winning an honest-to-goodness scholarship. Sometimes I think people get the wrong impression. They always think we can do things. But it’s _you_ who can _really_ do _wonderful_ things.”

Doris hugged her sister. “Kit, you shouldn’t talk like that,” she cried. “All in the world I ever want is to live up to you!”

“You’ll do better than that,” Kit said. “And another thing. It was mean of me to tease you about Bert. He’s one of the nicest boys I’ve ever met.”

Doris looked down. “Thanks, Kit,” she said softly. “I think so, too.”

Kit turned and ran out of the front door. Doris watched her as she waved to Frank and dashed down the long driveway.

Frank took her hand, and together they started down towards the river.

“The end of summer,” Kit said moodily. “All year long you live with the hope of the benevolent season, and then it comes and goes.”

“My goodness, but you sound gloomy today,” Frank said, sitting down on the bank of the stream.

“Oh, I’m glad to be going back to college, I guess,” Kit said. “Only I sort of wish this summer hadn’t had such _definite_ results. It makes me feel all empty inside when I think about going away to Wisconsin when you’ll be in Washington.”

Frank lifted her hand and studied her palm. “Empty, Kit?” he asked. “It shouldn’t. You should be fuller than before. Wherever you go, I go,” he said softly.

Kit threw herself into his arms. “Oh, Frank, think about me all the time! Sometimes I think I won’t be so lonely if I know you’ll have me in your thoughts!”

“You know I will, Kit.”

“And next summer will come before we know it,” she said bravely.

Frank nodded. “We’ll both be here for the wedding. And maybe at Christmas time. Kit, the year will go by before you realize it.”

She nestled in his arms. “Oh, look,” she said. “Here comes Jean. She must have changed her mind about calling Ralph from the hospital.”

They watched Jean stroll up the driveway. Then they saw Ralph come out onto the porch. And as they watched, Jean and Ralph ran towards each other, met, and embraced with the tenderness and ardor of a precious and invaluable love.

Transcriber’s Note:

Punctuation has been standardised. Hyphenation has been retained as published in the original publication. Changes have been made as follows:

Page 13
thinking of Jack, the Craig’s _changed to_
thinking of Jack, the Craigs’

Page 14
be at the hopital now _changed to_
be at the hospital now

Page 30
the Craig’s farmhouse _changed to_
the Craigs’ farmhouse

Page 43
choose sodium pentathol _changed to_
choose sodium pentothal

Page 58
Mr. Craig came downtairs _changed to_
Mr. Craig came downstairs

Page 64
The following lines in the original book have been moved
from the fifth to sixth paragraph:

minerals have calories. The function of the mineral
is not to provide body heat.” She flipped a page. “Now

Page 65
Sally nooded _changed to_
Sally nodded

Page 69
Dr. Benson pounded his first _changed to_
Dr. Benson pounded his fist

Page 90
a decent meals in months _changed to_
a decent meal in months

Page 147
the tour started for the center of town _changed to_
the four started for the center of town

Page 171
the doorway, She saw Tommy _changed to_
the doorway, she saw Tommy

Page 175
he hold timself _changed to_
he told himself

Page 197
he he exclaimed _changed to_
he exclaimed

Page 211
whispered back, “It wasn’t.” _changed to_
whispered back, “it wasn’t.”

Page 215
in that mummy we were examing _changed to_
in that mummy we were examining