Girl to Come Home To (2 page)

“The little rotten rat!” blurted Jeremy. “I’d like to wring her pretty little false neck for her!”

“Yes, I felt that way for some time, but then I reflected that I didn’t want to even give her that much satisfaction. She isn’t worth so much consideration.”

“Perhaps not,” said Jeremy, “but all the same I’d like to class her with our enemies and let her take her chances with them.”

The older brother gave an appreciative look.

“Thanks, pard!” he said with a wry grin. “Well, enough said. It’s good to know you’ll stand by if an occasion arises.”

“Yes, brother, I’ll stand by,” said Jeremy solemnly, and then after a moment, “And what about Mom and the rest?”

“Oh, they’ll have to be told I suppose, but at least not the first minute. The time may come soon, but probably not tonight.”

There was silence for several minutes, and then Jeremy spoke slowly, speculatively. “Ten to one Mom knows,” he said. “You know she always had a way of sort of thinking out things and knowing beforehand what had happened to us before we even got home.”

“Yes, that’s true. Dad always said it was her seventh sense. That she sort of smelled ’em out ahead of time. Still, I don’t see how she could this. However, it’s all right with me if she has. I guess I can take it. Gosh, I hate to tell her. I hate to be pitied.”

Another long silence, then Jeremy said, “Yes, I know. But I guess you can trust Mother.”

“Yes, of course,” said the older brother, lifting his chin with a brave gesture. “Yes, Mother’s all right. Mother’s wonderful! And it ought to be enough for any fellow to be getting home to her without worrying about some little two-timing brat of a gold-digger.”

Jeremy flashed a quick look at his brother. “Was that what she did? Was it money?”

“Yes, I figured that was what did it. A guy I met in the navy mentioned his name once and said he was just rolling in wealth. Had something to do with the black market he thought, though when I came to question closer, he wouldn’t tell any more. He said he guessed he oughtn’t to have mentioned it. Seems the fellow is an uncle of a buddy of his on his ship, and he was afraid it might get back to him that he had been talking. Well, what difference did it make? She’d thrown me over. Why should I care what for?”

“But Rod, we’re not exactly poverty-stricken. And as for you, Jessica knew Uncle Seymour left you a nice sum. You had a good start in life for a young man.”

“My shekels wouldn’t hold a candle to what a black market man could make now,” Rodney said, grinning.

“No, I suppose not,” said his brother with an answering grin. Then there followed a long silence, the brothers thinking over what had been said. Rodney had perhaps been more confidential with Jeremy than ever before in his life, and the younger brother had a lot to think over.

Rodney had dropped his head back on the seat and closed his eyes, as if the confidence was over for the time being, and Jeremy stared out the window unseeingly. They were not far from home now, another half hour, but it was too dark to notice the changes that might have come in the landscape. Jeremy was interested, after his long absence from his own land, in even an old barn or a dilapidated station they passed. Anything looked good over here, for this was home.

But there were adjustments to be made in the light of what Rodney had just told him. He had come home expecting a wedding soon, and now that was all off, and there was a gloomy settled look of disappointment on the face of the brother who had always been so bright and cheery, so utterly sure of himself, and what he was going to do. Was this thing going to change Rod? How hard that he not only had the memory of war and his terrible experiences at sea, but he had to have this great disappointment, too, this feeling of almost shame—for that is what it had sounded like as Rod told it—that his girl had gone back on him. The girl whose name had been linked with his ever since they had been in high school together. What a rotten deal to give him! Good old Rod! And he had always been so proud of Jessica! Proud of her unusual beauty, proud of her wonderful gold hair, her blue eyes, her long lashes, her grace and charm!

Jeremy searched his own heart and found that for a long time he himself had never cared so much for Jessica. Perhaps it was because she had always treated him like a younger brother, sort of like a little kid, always sending him on errands, asking favors of him, just a sweep of her long lashes and expecting him to do her will, do her errands, give up anything he had that she chose to want, like tickets to ball games. Well, he thought he had conquered those things, because he had been expecting ever since he went overseas that she would sometime soon be his sister-in-law, and he wanted no childish jealousy or hurt feelings to break the beautiful harmony that had always been between his brother and himself. The family must be a unit. And so he had disciplined his feelings until he was all ready to welcome his new-to-be sister with a brotherly kiss.

But now that was out! And Mom didn’t know anything about it yet? Or did she? Could a thing like that fail to reach their mother? If she didn’t know, how would she take it? Had she been fond of Jessica? He tried to think back. He could dimly remember a sigh now and then, a shadow on her placid brow. When was that? Could that have been when Rod first began to go with Jessica? But Mom had later seemed to be quite fond of Jessica, hadn’t she? Jeremy couldn’t quite remember. He had been more engrossed in himself at that time. About then was when he got that crush on Beryl Sanderson, the banker’s daughter. Of course that was ridiculous. He, the son of a quiet farmer, living outside the village, on a staid old farm that had been in the family for over a hundred years, without any of the frills and fancies that the modern homes had. And she the daughter of a most influential banker, who lived in a great gray stone mansion, went to private schools, then away to a great college, dressed with expensive simplicity, and never even looked his way. Beryl Sanderson! Even now the memory of her stirred his thoughts, although he hadn’t been pondering on her at all, he was sure, since he went away to war. Well, that was that, and he wasn’t mooning around about any of his childhood fancies. He had a big job to do for his country, and there wasn’t time for anything else then.

Suddenly Rodney broke the silence. “How about you, kid? Did you pick up some pretty girl across seas, or was there a girl you left behind you? Come, out with it, and let us know where we both stand now that we’re getting home.”

Jeremy grinned. “No girl!” he said.

“No kidding?” said the older brother, turning his keen eyes a bit anxiously toward the younger man, with a pleasant recognition of the goodly countenance he wore, his fine physique, his strong, dependable face. There was nothing of which to be ashamed in that brother.

“No kidding,” said Jeremy soberly. “Not after the line of talk Mom gave me before I went away. She didn’t exactly hold you up as a horrible example of one who had got himself engaged before time, but she did warn me that it was a great deal better to wait for big decisions like that till one was matured enough to be sure.”

“Hm! Yes, well maybe Mom felt a little uncertain about what I’d done, though she never batted an eye about it. Of course I went away so soon after Jessica and I thrashed things out, and Mom was always fair. She never jumped to conclusions nor antagonized one of us. Probably she didn’t want to have me go away with any unpleasantness between us. She took her worries, if she had any about us, to God. She was that way. She had a wonderful trust that God could and would work
any
thing out that she couldn’t manage. Mom was wonderful that way. It somehow strengthened me a couple of times when I had a close call, just to remember that Mom was probably on her knees putting a wall of her prayers around me, maybe right at that time.”

“Yes, she’s been a wonderful mom,” said Jeremy thoughtfully. “That’s why I don’t want anything to upset her now. I gotta go slow and let her know I haven’t got away from her teaching. But say, aren’t we coming into our station? Isn’t that the old Clark place? Yes, it is. Now it won’t be long before we’re home. Boy, but I’m hungering for a sight of the old house and Mom and Dad and Kathie and even old Hetty. Won’t it be good to eat some of her cooking again? I’m hungry enough to eat a bear.”

“Here, too,” said Rodney, looking eagerly out the window. “But a bear wouldn’t be in it compared with Hetty’s fried chicken. Nobody ever fried chicken to beat old Hetty. Maybe we ought to have let ’em know we were coming. It takes time to go out and kill a chicken and cook it.”

“Have you forgotten, brother, that they have an ice plant in the cellar? Ten to one Mom’s had chickens galore, frozen and ready to fry, just in case. You know Mom never got caught asleep. She’s probably been getting ready for this supper for the last two months. She won’t be caught napping.”

“No,” said the older brother with solemn shining light in his eyes. “Well, here’s our station. Shall we go? It’s time to get our luggage in hand.”

“Here, I’ll reach that bag, Rod. You oughtn’t to be straining that shoulder of yours, remember. You don’t want to go back to the hospital again, you know.”

And so, laughing, kidding, eager, they arose and gathering their effects, trooped out to the platform.

Casting a quick glance about, they made a dash toward the upper end of the station, and using the tactics known to them of old in their school days, they escaped meeting the crowd that usually assembled around an arriving train. They cut across a vacant lot and so were not detained but strode on down the country road toward their home. That was where they desired above all things to be as rapidly as possible. That was what they had come across the ocean for. Mother and home were like heaven in their thoughts, and at present there was no one they knew of by whom they were willing to be delayed one extra minute.

They were unaware, as they hurried along with great strides, of the eyes of some who saw them as they dashed around the end of the station, and pointed them out, questioned who they were. For though the uniforms of servicemen were numerous, in that town as well as in others, they shone out with their gold braid and brass buttons and attracted attention as they passed under the station lights.

“Well, if I didn’t know that man was overseas in a hospital, I’d say that was Rodney Graeme,” said one girl stretching her neck to peer down the platform behind her. “He walks just as Rod did.”

“You’re dreaming,” said another. “Rodney Graeme has been overseas for four years. Besides, there are two of them, Jess. Which one did you think looked like Rod?”

“The one on the right,” said the first girl. “I tell you he walks just like Rod.”

“I guess that’s wishful thinking,” said Emma Galt, an older girl with a sour mouth, a sharp tongue, and a hateful glance.

“That other one might be Rod’s younger brother, Jerry,” said Garetha Sloan.

“Nonsense! Jerry wasn’t as tall as Rod; he was only a kid in high school when Rod went away.”

“You seem greatly interested for a married woman, Jess,” sneered Emma Galt.

“Really!” said Jessica. “Is your idea of a married woman one who forgets all her old friends?”

But out upon the highway the two brothers made great progress, striding along.

“Well, we beat ’em to it all right,” said Jeremy.

“Okay! That’s all right with me,” said his brother. “I’ll take my old comrades later. Just now I want to get home and see Mom. I didn’t notice who they were, did you?”

“No, I didn’t wait to identify anybody but old Ben, the stationmaster. He looked hale and hearty. There were a bunch of girls, or women, headed toward the drugstore, but I didn’t stop to see if I knew them. I certainly am glad we escaped. I don’t want to be gushed over.”

“Well, maybe we’ve escaped notice. You can’t always tell. We’ll see later,” said Rodney. “But there’s the end gable of the house around the bend, and the old elm still standing. I was afraid some storm might have destroyed it. Somehow I forget that they haven’t had falling bombs over here. It looks wonderful to see the old places all intact. And a light on our front porch. Good to see houses and trees after so much sea. And isn’t that our cow, old Taffy, in the pasture by the barn?”

“It sure is,” said Jeremy excitedly, “and my horse, Prince! Oh boy! We’re home at last!”

They did the last few laps almost on a run and went storming up the front steps to meet the mother who according to her late afternoon custom had been shadowing the window, looking toward the road by which they would have to come if they ever came back. Not that she was exactly expecting them, but it seemed she was not content to let the twilight settle down for the night without always taking a last glimpse up the road as if they might be coming yet before she was content to sleep.

In an instant she was in their big strong arms, almost smothered with their kisses, big fellows as they were.

“Mom! Oh, Mom!” they said and then embraced her again, both of them together, till she had to hold them off and study them to tell which was which.

“My babies! My babies grown into great men,
both
of you! And both of you come back to me
at once
! Am I dreaming, or is this real?”

She passed her frail, trembling hand over eyes that had grown weary watching out the window all these months for her lads.

“This is real, Mom!” said Jeremy, and he hugged her again. “And where’s Dad? Don’t tell me he’s gone to the village! We can’t wait to see him.”

“No, he’s here somewhere,” said the mother’s voice, full of sweet motherly joy. “He just got back from bringing Kathleen from her day at the hospital, nursing. He went out to milk the cow. Kathie, oh, Kathie! Father! Where are you?
The boys
have come!”

There was a rush down the stairs, and the pretty Kathleen sister was among them, and the kindly father, beaming upon them all. It was a wonderful time. And good old Hetty came in for her share of greeting, too.

And then the boys hung their coats and caps up on the hall rack, in all the glory of gold braid and decorations, dumped their baggage on the hall table and chair, and went to the big living room where the father had already started a blaze in the ever-ready fireplace that was always prepared for the match to bring good cheer.