Gertie's Choice (11 page)

At that moment, had Thelma
and Luna reappeared, Gertie probably would have taken her daughter
by the hand and given Ophelia to them to take back to Enchanted. In
fact, she was not so sure that she would not go with
them.

Chapter 16

“Dance with me, Donald.”
Adela Johnson told Donald. Ophelia was annoyed at how much Adela
showed up on the porch, but at least she bothered Donald more than
her.

“Leave me alone, Adela. Go
dance with yourself.” Donald told her. When Adela finally left
their house to go home to dinner, Ophelia told her so-to-speak
brother, “It is your own fault, you know.”

“What do you mean, my
fault? She comes here because of you, not me.” Donald said. “She is
not my friend.”

“See, that is just it.”
Ophelia said. “She pretends to come see me, but actually she is
here to flirt with you. It is not my friendship that she is hoping
to improve. She has a major crush on you.”

“Don’t go flipping your
wig!”

“It is true. To Adela you
are the cat’s meow, so don’t get your knickers in a bunch.” Ophelia
laughed.

“I wish dad would come
back, he would know how to handle her.” Donald said.

“I miss him too.” Ophelia
said and found herself really meaning it. John’s unit had been
deployed overseas and he was not allowed to tell them where he was
going. He also did not know when he would be able to come
back.

Gertie had been listening
from the kitchen doorway. “We all miss John. Not a day goes why
when I don’t think about him.”

“Have we gotten any letters
this week from him?” Ophelia asked.

“No, only those three we
have so far, but nothing this week, nor for the last three weeks. I
am sure he is busy and that the mail takes a very long time to go
from where he might be to here. We need to trust that he will find
his way back to us.” Gertie said as she poured herself a cup of tea
and went into the living room to play the music that she and John
so loved.

As Gertie was listening to
one of her favorite Glenn Miller records, she thought about the
night before John left on deployment. Ophelia and Donald had
already been asleep for hours when John said that he had to have a
serious talk with her before he left in the morning.

Gertie had been shocked
when John looked her in the eye and said “Do you love me,
Gertie?”

“With all of my heart,
John, how could you even ask me that? Have I not stayed here all
these years with you and raised our family with you?” Gertie said,
a tear in her eye.

John took Gertie’s face in
both of his hands. “I feel that you love me, Gertie, but you have
never made love to me, not even once. Do you still carry such love
in your heart for Ophelia’s father that the thought of being with
me sexually feels like a betrayal to him?”

Gertie could not believe
that John had kept this deep inside him for all of these years and
that she did not know. It was the very first time she realized how
much she had been hurting him all of this time. She had just
assumed John was as happy with her as she had been with him and
felt no need for them to do what a man and wife do together. She
had also been afraid that she would be with child again and she did
not know what that would mean to her or the child.

Gertie took John’s hands
in her own and whispered. “You listen to me, John Ellis. I love you
with all of my heart and I have from the very first time I had laid
my eyes on you when I saw you walking across the street from me and
going into that building. That was the reason you found me trying
to look into that window, I was looking for you.” Gertie paused
here to kiss his cheek before she took a deep breath and
continued.

“John, I was raped.” John
jumped so fast that Ophelia had to hold tight to his hands to keep
him from jumping off of the bed.

“I am O.K., John, it was a
very, very long time ago. Ophelia was the result of that rape. I
love her dearly and have never held her biological father’s sins
against her. In fact, she does not know herself the full story and
I pray she never does. I know sometimes I tend to be more lenient
with her than I am of Donald, but it is only because I know she
must carry pain her in heart deep down, even if she does not
remember or know anything about it. That man, the rapist, has been
the only man who has ever touched me. You are the only man I have
ever kissed.”

“Is this man really dead
like you told me he was?” John asked. “Or is he in prison or God
no, not still walking the streets I pray!”

“He is dead.”

“I am glad and I am very
sorry that I have not had the courage to speak of this to you
sooner. I leave tomorrow and I do not know when we will be seeing
each other again, Gertie. You have made my life complete and I have
loved you since I first saw you as well. But I must know, why is it
that you would never marry me?”

Gertie did not know what to
say. She could continue to lie to him, or she could spill out years
and indeed, centuries of reasons why she could not take a blood
test, why she had no legal documents. She could tell him about
Enchanted and about Thelma and Luna’s visit and while she believed
in that moment that he would understand and forgive her, she was
not willing to take one more precious minute away from this man
whom she loved with her entire being.

“I have never thought of
you as anything less than my husband.” Gertie said. She smiled at
him and said “I think our wedding night is way overdue, don’t you,
John?”

Continuing the
conversation was the last thing on John Ellis’s mind right
then.

Gertie finished her tea
and looked in the mirror. She saw her face as she had always seen,
but this time there was something new there. While she was still a
great beauty and looked very young, she noticed a couple of lines
by her eyes that had not been there before. As shocking as that
was, it was more of a shock to realize that she did not care. Her
sorrow was deep that she had denied John and herself of the
pleasures of being together all because of her ignorance. She would
make everything up to him when next she saw him again.

Just then Ophelia and
Donald came into the living room and changed the record to
something they could dance to.

“Why do I have to learn how
to dance just to take Adela out?” Donald asked.

“This is news.” Gertie
said. “When did you decide to take Adela Johnson out on a date?”
She asked Donald.

“It is not a real date and
that is why I don’t know why I have to learn how to dance for her.”
Donald said.

“Adela comes over here all
the time pretending to be friends with me, but really only because
she comes to see you.” Ophelia told him.

“You don’t know that for
sure.” Donald said.

“You are such a fuddy
duddy, Donald. You can’t see what an eager beaver Adela has been
every time she looks at you?”

“It is true, Donald, I
know that Adela has designs on you, it is written all over her
face.” Gertie said. “She continued to come over many times even
during all of the times Ophelia has taken off.” Gertie pointed out,
giving her daughter a frown.

Ophelia had heard Luna’s
words about the ruby ring being to key to them going back to
Enchanted although she never told her mother than she had heard.
Several times since then Ophelia would take the ring and run off,
trying to find a way it would take her to Enchanted. In fact, the
only reason she was helping Donald learn to dance was so that he
would run off himself with Adela or some other foolish girl and
leave her and her mother free to go back to Enchanted. At least
until John returned. John had been gone a very long time. It hurt
Ophelia when she noticed how his absence had affected her
mother.

The last two times that
Ophelia felt the need to run off in search of the elusive
Enchanted, she could not find the ruby red ring. Her mother must
have hidden it from her somewhere. Since then she had given up on
running away and had instead concentrated on getting Donald out of
the house.

“Yeah. Too bad you always
came back, Ophelia! But I can’t see how turning me into a Ducky
Shincracker will make her leave me alone. How would that make her
take a powder?” Donald asked.

“Don’t you get it? Girls
always want what they can’t have. The fun is in the chase! Once you
actually ask her out on a date the thrill of the chase will be gone
and she will give you a Dear John!” Ophelia said. “Learning to
dance well is a plus in case you meet someone that you would
actually want to dance with.”

“Now you’re cooking with
gas!” Ophelia said as she watched Donald repeat the few dance steps
she was teaching him. “No girl can resist a good
Charleston!”

Gertie was enjoying another
cup of tea and another Glenn Miller record after the kids left for
the dance when the doorbell rang. What happened next would forever
remain a blur to Gertie.

On the porch was a mail
carrier handing Gertie a yellow telegram. She read the
words.

We regret to inform
you….

Missing in
action…..

Unrecoverable……….

Official notice to
follow….

Chapter 17

Gertie and Ophelia had been
fighting non-stop for days. “Why can’t we go back to Enchanted now,
mother? Donald is old enough to take care of his own sorry self!
What more do we have to stay here for?”

“This is our home now,
Ophelia, our home with John.”

“But John is not coming
back, haven’t you realized that yet? Do you even know how many
years ago you received that telegram?” Ophelia said
unkindly.

A knock on the door
startled both mother and daughter. Gertie went to the door. “Hello,
Adela, come in.”

“Is Donald
here?”

“He will be back in just a
few minutes. Ophelia is here, excuse me while I finish the
laundry.” Gertie said, throwing a warning look to her daughter to
be nice to their guest.

“Adela.” Ophelia said,
trying to choose her words carefully. “Have you given any thought
to what I have been trying to do for you? I have done everything I
can to try and hook you up with Donald, but you have to do your
part as well you know!” Ophelia said angrily.

“If course! I have thought
of nothing but! I would do anything to get Donald to love me, you
know that. I have always wanted Donald’s love.” Adela Johnson
said.

Ophelia could never figure
out what it was about her dorky brother that any girl would want to
be in love with him. “Have you told him that you love him? Have you
put out, sorry to be so blunt, but have you?” Ophelia
asked.

“He knows how I feel. Today
is the last straw. I am here to tell him that I am leaving Kentucky
for good and that if he wants any kind of a relationship with me
that he has to leave with me, today!” Adela said.

“That is great, just like I
told you to do. How long are you going to give him to make up his
mind?”

“You don’t understand,
Ophelia, this is it. My bags are in the trunk and I am leaving
today with or without Donald Ellis! My mind is made up!”

“Wait – what? What if he
has to take time to think about it?” Ophelia asked, knowing that
Donald never made up his mind about anything quickly.

“He has had twenty years
of my loving him. That is much longer than I would have given
anyone else to make up their mind.”

“Then you had better make
it good, Adela Johnson! For if you leave here without my stupid
brother in that car with you, well, I don’t know what I will
do!”

“Don’t be so dramatic. I am
prepared to leave with or without him.”

Just then Donald walked in
the door. Ophelia walked out onto the front porch after she noticed
that the living room window was opened, giving her a way to monitor
their conversation.

“Hey, where are you going?
Donald asked Ophelia, not wanting to be left alone in the room with
Adela.

“To some place that is –
Enchanted.” Ophelia said.

After her cousins Thelma
and Luna had come to them in feline form years ago, Ophelia had
from time to time tried to change into a cat herself. It took her
many tries and she was afraid of being stuck in that form, but she
finally was able to accomplish it. She knew that Donald had
developed a fear of cats since that episode even though he did not
consciously remember any of it, due to the chocolate coffee he had
been told to drink. Whenever she was especially angry at Donald,
she would wait until he was mostly asleep and then she would turn
into cat form and jump on his bed.

Ophelia had to laugh at the
memories of those nights. His howl was louder and scarier than any
animal she had ever heard.

Ophelia was furious when
she heard Adela beg Donald to go with her. She knew that Adela
could have been more successful if she had played it cool instead
of acting like a wimp. No one wanted a doormat and that is exactly
what Adela was sounding like. First a doormat and then a demanding
shrew. When she heard Donald tell her that there was not a chance
in hell that he would leave with her and Adela start to cry,
Ophelia could stand it no more.