Return to Harmony (11 page)

Bethan raised both hands to hide her face and giggles. But his bold statement proved too much for Moira. She rose in her seat and whacked at the soldier with her fan. To the cheers of his fellow soldiers up and down the coach, the young man raised arms in protection over his head and slid back down into his seat.

Moira harrumphed herself back down, her face red with exertion. She looked across the aisle to where her husband sat and huffed, “A fat lot of help you were.”

“Oh, Moira,” Gavin said shakily, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “I wish you could have seen yourself, I truly do.”

“Well, somebody had to defend our daughter’s honor, and it surely wasn’t you.” She snapped open her fan in disgust, and the poor thing gave up the ghost, showering Moira’s lap with shreds of bamboo and colored paper. She looked back at her husband. “Just look what you’ve gone and done now.”

This was the final straw. Mirth spilled out of Jodie in great waves of laughter, as though all the months of grayness were being pushed away in a single moment of release. Gavin sat beside his daughter, his solid girth bouncing in glee, while Bethan covered her face with both hands and tried to smother her giggles. Moira looked askance from one to the other, until she too gave into the moment, and laughed out loud. She raised the poor battered fan and made a parody of trying to fan herself, sending further shreds in every direction. The soldiers to either side joined in the laughter, then crowded close, demanding to know who they were, where they were going, and what for.

News that Jodie was traveling to compete in the state spelling bee resulted in pandemonium. Before she knew it, strong arms had her up and steadied on top of a seat and against the compartment wall. From the position where everyone could see her, with every face turned her way, voices throughout the coach began shouting out words for her to spell.

On and on the words kept coming. Her face flaming with some embarrassment and even more excitement, Jodie spelled out the answers. As the words became more and more difficult and her answers continued to be correct, the coach gradually quietened.

Finally there was only one who kept calling out words, a darksuited gentleman near the far wall, resplendent in a pearl-colored silk waistcoat and mutton-chop sideburns. His voice resonated throughout the now-silent car as he called, “Leprechaun.”

Jodie spelled it swiftly.

“Pneumonia.”

“Obfuscate.”

“Illiterate.”

“Conundrum.”

After that word, there was a long pause as the man studied her. Then he simply said, “Remarkable.”

Jodie started to spell it as well but stopped as the entire compartment began cheering, and she realized that he had meant the word as a compliment. The soldiers whistled and clapped their hands and shouted as the man walked over and extended his hand. “I am Dr. Walton Connolley,” he said when the noise died down. “And you are a most astounding young woman. What is your name?”

Jodie blushed and slid back down into her seat before introducing herself.

“Do you have any plans for your future, Miss Harland?”

“I want to be a scientist,” Jodie said, her voice quiet but firm.

Dr. Connolley’s face did not mirror the surprise shown by Gavin and Moira Keane at this announcement. Instead, he studied her for a moment, then gave a single brief nod. “I am Chancellor of the State College in Raleigh. When you have completed your schooling, I suggest you write to me. We shall see then what fur-ther can be done.” He tipped his hat to the group. “Now I shall bid you good day.”

The four of them remained in astonished silence as Dr. Connolley walked back and resumed his seat. Gavin finally breathed, “Well if that don’t beat all, I don’t know what does.”

The handsome face appeared above the seat, and the young man announced to Bethan, “You’re still the one who’s won my heart, missie. Say you’ll stay truly mine ’til we’re back home again.”

“That will do, young man!” Moira’s voice rang out, to the repeated mirth of all the surrounding soldiers. “And this time it won’t be a fan I’ll be applying to your head.”

Jodie joined in the laughter, watched her friend blush once more with pleasure, and decided this trip was already the best thing that had happened to her in a long, long while.

Bethan had never seen anything like Raleigh. And the more she saw of the city, the less she was certain if she liked it.

For one thing, the war was everywhere. Uncle Sam pointed at her from every wall, every mailbox. He looked big and strong and accusing, demanding that she give up her precious brother to a war she did not understand. Not at all. For once she agreed with the irascible old men who gathered on the courthouse steps back home and wished they had never even heard of all those countries over in Europe.

Ribbons and bunting were strung throughout the city’s main streets, for Raleigh had recently had its own enlistment and war bond parade. Bethan could not abide the thought of celebrating the war, so she imagined as hard as she could that all the red, white, and blue banners were really there to celebrate Jodie’s arrival.

Her friend could scarcely have been happier. They checked into the Hotel Sir Walter, a great bastion of stone and big windows right in the heart of downtown. While Bethan was still sitting on the edge of the bed and trying it out for bounce, reveling in the fact that she and her friend were to share one whole room to themselves while her parents slept next door, Jodie was already impatient to return downstairs to the lobby.

When they were settled in chairs by the side wall in the ornate reception area, Jodie watched the world with wide-eyed fascination. After the longest while, she breathed, “Isn’t this grand?”

Bethan looked around the lobby, wondering if she was missing something. To be honest, she was becoming somewhat bored. She searched for something positive to say and settled on, “It surely is big.”

“Not the room,” Jodie said.
“Everything
. The people, see how they come parading through here as though they owned the whole world? And look over there, the waiter serving those people tea; I bet it’s real silver, that pot. And look at the stole that woman has around her neck, and here it is, warm as anything. And look out front, that man climbing out of that automobile; he’s got himself a driver opening the door for him. Have you ever seen the like?” Her words tumbled over each other in her excitement.

“No, never,” Bethan answered quietly.

With a sudden flash of understanding, Bethan knew Jodie was leaving. That someday, somehow, Jodie was going to make her home somewhere other than Harmony. That Jodie would leave Harmony with the ease and the eagerness that she might cast aside an uncomfortable corset. That Bethan was going to lose her best friend.

“Everything is so different here,” Jodie said, as though confirming Bethan’s thoughts. “It’s all so gray at home these days. I don’t mean the color gray. How it feels. Daddy hardly ever speaks once he’s done with work. He walks around sighing or humming these little tunes I don’t think he even hears. He’ll sit for hours with a journal in his lap, not turning the page.”

“It’s been so hard for you,” Bethan said softly. “And you’ve been so brave.” But her thoughts remained fastened upon the realization. Everything which defined Bethan’s world, everything she loved besides this brilliant flame of a young lady, would never be enough to hold Jodie. It did not matter that Jodie’s departure was going to be long in coming. That it was to come at all was almost more than her poor heart could stand.

“What’s the matter?” Jodie demanded, peering at her. “You’ve gone all white.”

“It’s nothing, really,” Bethan said, rising to her feet. “Maybe just a little tired out from the trip. I’ll go see if Momma and Daddy are ready for dinner.”

EIGHT

THE NEXT MORNING
Bethan found Jodie downstairs sitting in the same overstuffed horsehair chair. “There you are. What time did you get up?”

“I don’t know. Early. I didn’t sleep very well—the spelling bee and all.” Her eyes inspected Bethan’s outfit. “Is that new?”

“Yes.” She wore a Gibson girl dress and a straw hat with a blue ribbon. She lifted the hem and asked shyly, “Do you like it?”

Jodie smiled her approval. “It’s beautiful.”

“Momma bought one, too. She says it’s the first new dress she’s bought herself in she didn’t know how long, and while she was out, she might as well…” Bethan’s voice trailed off as she watched her friend’s face crumple. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. It’s…” Jodie stopped, then said through a trembly little smile, “It’s beautiful, Bethan. Really.”

“I’ve said something wrong, haven’t I?” Bethan felt the brightness fade from the day. “I’m always doing that.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. You do nothing of the sort. You’re the kindest, sweetest person I’ve ever met.”

“Then why did you get so sad all of a sudden?”

“I was just thinking…” Jodie had to stop a moment. “Of my momma.”

“Oh, Jodie.” Bethan reached out her hand. “And just listen to me chatter on.” She turned to briskness. “Well, we’ve got plenty of time for a nice breakfast, and then we can go back up to the room and have a little prayer together before we go to the meeting hall.”

“Thank you, but I’m not hungry,” was Jodie’s response.

“Well, at least come and sit with me. Then we can go back upstairs and ask God to be with us through the day.” Bethan smiled in anticipation. “And for His help for you in the spelling bee.”

Jodie’s gaze turned blank. “Thank you for the invitation,” she said calmly. “But I don’t wish to pray.”

Bethan’s voice mirrored her confusion. “What on earth do you mean?”

“I would appreciate it if you never speak to me about religion ever again.” Jodie said the words with frankness and determination.

Bethan could not hide the shocked look that washed over her face. “What?”

“You heard me. It’s something I do not ever care to discuss again.”

The tears sprang to Bethan’s eyes, as though the shock had to have some way of expressing itself immediately. “But what are you saying?”

“I am saying exactly what I mean.”

“But I see you in church, every Sunday you’re there—”

“With my father,” Jodie finished for her. “Daddy needs me. I don’t want to cause him any more trouble than he’s already got. But I’m not sure God even exists, and if He does, then I don’t want to have any part of Him.”

Bethan’s mouth opened and closed, but the words did not come. Finally she whispered, “You don’t mean that.”

“Oh, but I do.” The calm iciness of Jodie’s voice was more brutal 94 and frightening than any rage. “As far as I am concerned, no God worth worshiping would ever have taken away my mother.”

Bethan reached for her friend. “But, Jodie—”

“You heard me,” she said, sitting upright and calm in her chair.

“Not ever again.”

The hall was the largest Jodie had ever seen. Bigger even than the church back home. When she walked in and looked around, saw the big banner welcoming the contestants and visitors to the Fiftieth Annual Statewide Spelling Bee, her legs almost gave way. Jodie waited while Moira gave her name to the woman behind the table, then accepted the hugs and final best wishes from the Keanes, all with a feeling of numbness and unreality. Her head was filled with a rushing sound that drowned out all else. Her legs automatically carried her off behind the woman with the big blue ribbon bow under her collar, but her feet did not seem to be in contact with the floor, and her knees felt as if they were filled with water.