Jubilee's Journey (The Wyattsville Series) (45 page)

There’s a spot in my heart that wants to tell Anita,
These kids belong to you, go ahead and take them.
That would be an easy out. It’s an answer that satisfies my selfish soul but puts those two sweet children in a place that a blind man could see wouldn’t be good for them. I watched the way Anita looked at Jubilee, and it wasn’t something you’d expect from a loving aunt. If she feels that way about Jubilee, I can’t imagine how she’d react to having Paul as well. When I come face to face with the reality of measuring my own happiness up against their well-being, it’s a pitiful comparison.

I know the responsibility I’m taking on, but I’ve still got a good chunk of Charlie’s insurance money and if I’m prudent about spending, we’ll be okay. At least I think we’ll be okay. As for the part about leaving my friends, I’m not ready to think about that right now. I’ll do what I’ve got to do, and once it’s done then I can think about wallowing in my own sorrow.

Future Plans

T
he next morning as Olivia and the three children sat at the breakfast table, she told them of her plan.

“I’m pretty sure your Aunt Anita will agree to having you live with me,” she explained. “So once I get her okay, I’ll start looking for a larger place.”

“That’s real generous, Missus Doyle,” Paul said, “but I wasn’t really counting on living with Aunt Anita. I figure—”

Jubilee interrupted with a giggle. “You’re supposed to call her Grandma!”

Paul began again. “Okay, Missus Grandma—”

“Just Grandma,” Olivia cut in. “No missus.”

“Okay, Grandma. What I was trying to tell you is that I can care for Jubilee on my own. I’ll be getting a job and—”

“A full-time job?” Olivia exclaimed. “What about school?”

“I don’t figure on going back to school.”

“If he ain’t going,” Ethan Allen said, “I ain’t going either.”

Olivia grimaced. “There’s to be no more talk about not attending school. It is not a matter for discussion, and that’s that!” She turned to Paul and asked, “Have you already graduated high school?”

He shook his head sheepishly. “I fell behind and missed a few years.”

“Then there’s no question about it,” Olivia declared. “You’ve got to go back to school, because without an education—”

 “I appreciate your kindness, but I’ve got responsibilities.”

She looked at the newcomer; he had the stature of a man but the face of a boy. At a time when lads his age were swinging at a baseball and chasing after pretty girls, Paul was stepping up to the plate ready to be both mother and father to Jubilee. It was unfair. It was something that should never be asked of a child. “Ah, yes, responsibilities,” Olivia murmured.

“I made a promise to Mama and Daddy—”

Olivia cut in. “I made a promise too. I promised Charlie I’d care for Ethan Allen.”

Paul nodded. “Then you can understand why I’ve gotta do this.”

Olivia said nothing for a few moments; she waited to let thoughts settle in and sprout new ideas. Finally she spoke. “I think there’s a way we can both fulfill our responsibilities if you’re willing to listen.”

Paul looked across and gave a slight nod. 

“My taking care of Ethan Allen and your taking care of your sister means making sure they’re happy, right?”

Paul nodded again.

“Well, as you can see, they’re pretty happy being together, so I’m thinking that if you’re willing to stay, they could both keep right on being happy. And I’d be happy to have you to help out with some chores Ethan Allen’s not capable of doing.”

Olivia knew there was nothing Ethan was incapable of doing, but she had to find a way of making Paul feel necessary. The boy had his daddy’s pride, and it was something that stood in the way of anything that remotely resembled charity.

Paul furrowed his brow. “I’m not so sure—”

Before he could give voice to an objection, Olivia suggested they give it a try and see how things worked out.

After a fair bit of back and forth, Paul finally agreed. “Just for a while,” he said and suggested Olivia might want to remain in her apartment since he was none too sure they’d be there on a permanent basis.

“I’m fine with sleeping on the sofa,” he added.

“We’re going to be here for a few weeks anyway,” Olivia explained, knowing she’d need time to find a place. Then there’d be all that packing and moving. She could already imagine the farewell parties and the unabashed tears that would flow. Not from Jim Turner maybe, but certainly by many of the other residents and Olivia herself.

After breakfast she handed Paul a five-dollar bill and asked if he would take the kids to the park and get lunch at the coffee shop on Williams Street. “I’ve a lot to do,” she said, “and it would be a big help if the kids were out of my hair.”

Olivia put on the pretense of this being something the children couldn’t do on their own, but in truth they’d been doing almost the exact same thing since the day after Jubilee arrived. When they left she stood at the window and watched. Ethan Allen and Jubilee rode their bikes, and Paul trotted alongside them. Even in the bright sunlight she could see the same aura she’d seen last night, and she was certain she’d made the right decision.

After the dishes had been cleared from the table, washed, and set in the drainer, Olivia made two telephone calls. The first was to Clara and the second to Seth Porter. What she had to say wasn’t something you shared with friends over a twist of telephone wire, so she invited them both to come for a cup of coffee.

Right off Clara was suspicious of a special invitation to do something she did every day anyway. “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” 

“Not really wrong, just different.”

“I knew it!” Seconds after she hung up the telephone, Clara was at the door.

Seth Porter followed along a heartbeat later.

Olivia led them to the kitchen and poured three cups of coffee. As they sat at the table, she told them of the decision she’d made.

“It’s not that I want to leave here,” she said. “It’s that I have no other choice. These children have no one else. Caring for them is something I have to do.”

She told of her meeting with Anita and how the woman had seen the girl as an unwelcome stranger. Her voice faltered and cracked twice as she spoke about the way Jubilee cried and begged not to be sent to live with Aunt Anita.

“Yes, it will break my heart to leave here,” Olivia said, “but it’s what I have to do.” As Olivia spoke the final words she nervously stirred a third spoonful of sugar into her coffee then looked up. Clara had tears streaming down her face, and Seth Porter had the ghastly pall of a man on the verge of death.

“There’s got to be another way,” Clara sobbed.

“If there was, I’d jump at it,” Olivia replied. “But Jim Turner doesn’t even like Ethan Allen being in the building, so there’s no way he’d allow me to bring in two more kids.”

Seth Porter pulled off his cap and scratched his mostly bald head.  After several moments he suggested that perhaps they could change the building bylaws.

Olivia’s face brightened for a moment, then fell. “It has to be approved unanimously.”

“Oh, right.” Seth then suggested that Paul could live with him.

“Jim’s not going to want him living with you any more than he wants him living with me,” Olivia said. “He just doesn’t want any more kids in the building. He’s already said it was a mistake to allow Ethan Allen to stay.”

They sat there for nearly two hours suggesting first one thing then the other until finally there was nothing more to suggest.

“For the time being,” Olivia said, “let’s keep this quiet.” She explained that she hadn’t yet received Anita’s approval of her keeping the children and still had to find another place to live.

That afternoon Olivia cleared her things out of the bedroom she’d shared with Charlie and moved them into Ethan Allen’s room. The silver tray with a jar of cream and the crystal perfume bottle Charlie had given her was moved to the desk Ethan used for homework. The picture of her and Charlie on their honeymoon moved to Ethan’s nightstand. Three times Olivia started to cry, and three times she brushed back the tears and moved on. There would be time enough to cry in the future; right now she had work to do. From beneath Ethan’s bed she dug out an assortment of dirty clothes, poker chips, and a baseball mitt. The dirty clothes went into the laundry basket, and the remainder was moved into her room. She cleared her desk and set Ethan’s school books atop it.

As she hung Ethan’s pants, shirts, and sweaters in her closet, it became painfully apparent that Paul had nothing to call his own. No clothes, no bicycle, no baseball mitt.

They would go shopping. She would start to build a life for this boy as she had built a life for Ethan Allen. 

When the kids arrived home, the space that had once been hers had been converted into a room that would be shared by the two boys. For however long they stayed in the apartment, no one would sleep on the sofa.

Unlike Ethan Allen, Paul asked for nothing and ate whatever was set in front of him. As Olivia scooped food onto their dinner plates, she turned to him and said, “String beans?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered.

It was the same for the potatoes, the sliced pork, and raisin bread. No matter what was offered he accepted it graciously and never asked for seconds. 

“I want you to feel at home,” Olivia said, “so feel free to say if there’s something you don’t like.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” he answered and continued as he had before.

“You really like those string beans?” Ethan Allen asked suspiciously.

Paul nodded a smile.

Ethan, who had fought tooth and nail against any vegetable on his plate,  gave a shrug of doubt, then told Olivia he’d be willing to try a few. “Not a whole lot; three, maybe four.”

Olivia smiled. Having Paul was going to be a good thing.

After dinner Ethan Allen and Jubilee plopped down in front of the television, and Paul stayed to dry the dishes as Olivia washed. They settled into an easy conversation where he told her about his life in West Virginia. He told how his mama died with the fever and his daddy was killed in the coal mine.

“Daddy made me promise never to be a coal miner,” he said, “and that’s why me and Jubilee came looking for Aunt Anita.”

“Well, I guess that will be an easy enough promise to keep,” Olivia said with a laugh, “because there’s no coal mine in Wyattsville.” After that she asked about Aunt Anita—had he ever met her, had his mother ever spoken of her, did he know what she was like, were there more letters?

All of her questions came back with a simple no. The answers, however ugly they might be, had gone to the grave with Ruth. Two sisters knew the truth of what had happened. One of them was dead and the other unlikely to tell.

Olivia moved on and spoke about going shopping for clothes. “You’re going to need everyday clothes, something to wear to church and for school...” By the time the dishes were put away, she’d decided he also needed a bicycle. Tomorrow they would go shopping. Looking for a new apartment would have to wait a few more days.