JOHN AND ROSE
Chapter Eleven

The newly engaged couple stepped through the front door of the Calvert home hand-in-hand. They could hear the sound of the phonograph playing and the three teenagers chattering away from the parlor.

Rose smiled at John, a little nervously, as they walked toward the parlor. Mary and Nadia would undoubtedly be thrilled at their news, but she had a feeling that Christopher would not be so happy. When Rose married John, they would be moving from Los Angeles to Cedar Rapids, a place that both Christopher and Mary deemed horribly boring. They would undoubtedly be happier if the Calverts moved to California, but John had worked too long and hard establishing Anders Cedar Rapids to simply leave it, and Rose was ready for a change.

She quelled her nervousness. Christopher would simply have to learn to accept it. He was only thirteen years old, far too young to be on his own, and he would adapt soon enough. If he didn’t, he would be eighteen in less than five years, and able to do as he pleased.

They stepped into the parlor, watching the three adolescents cavort about the room. Mary was singing along with the phonograph, trying to do one of the popular dances by herself. The others watched her, Christopher smirking as she again got the steps wrong. Evidently, she had never actually seen this dance performed.

Rose just watched her for a moment. Mary danced very well for one who had never seen the dance performed. Most likely, she had learned about it from one of her magazines or the newspaper, or perhaps a moving picture, because she didn’t have it exactly right. Of course, Christopher was a fine one to smirk, since the adolescent boy was all arms and legs and tripped over himself if he tried to dance.

John cleared his throat, getting the attention of the teenagers. Mary stopped dancing, blushing at being seen by her father, and stopped the phonograph. Nadia stopped talking to Christopher and turned to face the adults.

All three pairs of eyes widened at the sight of John and Rose holding hands. Christopher rolled his eyes, while Mary sighed softly, enthralled at the romantic idea of her father dating a movie star. Nadia looked at their faces, immediately suspecting that something was up.

"Christopher, Mary, Nadia...we have an announcement to make," Rose began, sitting down on the couch. John sat beside her, still holding her hand.

"Your Aunt Rose and I have decided to get married," John told them, watching the three teenagers.

Mary squealed softly, dreamy-eyed at the idea. Christopher scowled, none too pleased with the notion of suddenly gaining two sisters and a father. Nadia looked at them strangely.

"I thought people who were related weren’t supposed to get married," she said, her expression showing her confusion. "Aren’t you two cousins or something?"

"Well...not quite," Rose told her, suddenly realizing that they had a lot of explaining to do. Of course it wouldn’t do for cousins to marry–not in Cedar Rapids, at least. But she and John were not really related by blood.

"Rose and I aren’t really cousins," John explained. "But when you were very young, you needed a caretaker, and she needed a place to live. Of course, it was very unusual for someone in that neighborhood to have live-in help–it was the tenements, after all. And it certainly wasn’t proper for me to have an unmarried woman living in my home, unless she was related to me. And so we became cousins, and it was only natural that she was Aunt Rose to you, because you were so young, and I became Uncle John to Christopher. We aren’t really related."

"So you were living in sin?" Christopher asked, eyes wide, remembering all the times his mother had lectured him about his behavior.

"No, we weren’t living in sin," Rose told him. "Maybe you’re too young to remember, but I shared a room with you and the girls. John slept alone."

"All the time?" Christopher persisted, tantalized by the hint of scandal.

"All the time," Rose confirmed. At least, she had never shared his room, and he had never brought anyone home in the time that she was there. And whatever he had done outside of the apartment was his business, and not something she would have pried into unless she had felt it was a threat to the children, which she never had.

"Don’t you dare say anything," Mary told him. "Dad and Aunt Rose were only thinking of us, and they didn’t do anything wrong. Besides, I think it’s romantic." Her eyes lit up. "Thrown together by circumstance, both widowed, and three young children to take care of. Well...two," she amended, looking at Christopher. "You didn’t come along until later. And Aunt Rose always remembering her first husband, and Dad his wife, and then Aunt Rose left to be a movie star. And now, after all these years, they’ve met again–because I got into trouble–and they’ve fallen in love and are getting married." She sighed. "It would make a wonderful moving picture."

Christopher made a face. "You like some weird things, Mary. You sound like a girl."

"I am a girl, cactus boy."

"That’s enough!" John interjected, not wanting the two to argue, something they did with aplomb.

Christopher scowled at Mary, but turned his attention to the couple sitting on the couch. "They’ll be moving to Los Angeles, right?"

Rose sighed. This was the moment she had been dreading. "No, Christopher. You and I will be moving here."

It took a moment for her words to register. "No!" Christopher shouted, startling Allegro, who had been lying at his feet.

"But Aunt Rose, what about your career?" Mary wanted to know. "How can you be a movie star if you’re here? Will you go back and forth to Hollywood?"

Rose ignored her son’s protests and turned to Mary. "Mary, my career is slowly fading. I don’t think I’ll be a movie star for much longer. And I want to try something else. I still want to act, but I also want to direct and produce. I want to try starting my own moving picture company here, using local talent. If it doesn’t work–well, I’ll worry about that then."

"You want to make movies here?" Mary thought about it for a moment, her eyes lighting up. "I can help you. I’m a good actress, and I know other people who can act." She smiled widely. "I can be discovered without going to Hollywood–even though Cedar Rapids is boring. Maybe this will make it more interesting! I can’t wait to tell my friends!"

"If it works out, Mary," Rose gently reminded her. "It might not."

"It will," Mary told her confidently. "Everyone will want to work for a movie star. And I bet Nadia can write some scripts for you. She gets all A’s in English."

Rose laughed at Mary’s enthusiasm. "We’ll see. And that would be up to Nadia, if she wanted write anything."

"I could," Nadia spoke up. "But I’m not going to be in any pictures. I don’t like getting up in front of people."

"You don’t have to," Rose assured her. "Whatever happens, it will be your choice whether you want to take part or not."

"Mom," Christopher complained, "I don’t want to move here. It’s boring."

"It’s not that bad, Christopher," Nadia told him. "Especially not after school starts."

"It really has to be boring to make school fun." He made a face. "Besides, we can’t move here. Mom just got cast for another picture."

"What?" Rose hadn’t heard anything about that. "Christopher, what are you talking about?"

"You got a telephone call while you and Uncle John were out. Mr. Hinesdale wants you for his new moving picture, Hamlet. He wants you to play...uh..." Christopher screwed up his face, trying to remember the name of the character. "...Hamlet’s mother," he concluded.

"Christopher, did that really happen, or are you just trying to keep us from moving?"

"It really happened," Mary told her glumly. "I overheard him on the telephone. This doesn’t mean you’re not going to marry Dad, does it?"

"No, I have every intention of marrying your father. I will call Mr. Hinesdale in the morning and see exactly what is going on. If he really does want me in this role, I’ll take it." She looked at John. "Forgive me, but I’ve always wanted to do Hamlet, even though none of the words can be heard. If this works out, I’ll make the picture and come back here. I need to settle things in California and sell the house, anyway. We can set a date once we know what’s going on."

"So you’re really getting married?" Mary asked, eyes gleaming with delight.

"Yes," John confirmed. "We’re really getting married."

"Oh, a wedding." Mary sighed, looking at Nadia, who, in spite of her shock over learning about the real relationship between her father and aunt, looked enthralled. "This will be so much fun. There’s never been a wedding in this family before, at least not that I can remember."

She knew that she had been there when John had married Miriam, but she had been too young to remember it, and there hadn’t been any weddings amongst John’s family members in England in the past few years–and before that, there hadn’t been the money to travel overseas. John was none too fond of sailing anyway, after his experience on the Titanic, and he wasn’t eager to let his children go off on their own to a foreign country. The Anders’ had allowed Miriam to go to Europe on her own when she had been Mary and Nadia’s age–and she had promptly gone looking for trouble. Not that John was sorry that she had, since he had treasured the months they had been together, but he knew Mary’s penchant for getting into just as much trouble, and wanted to keep her closer to home until she was grown.

"You can be my bridesmaids, if you want," Rose offered, watching the two girls exchange excited looks. This was definitely something out of the ordinary!

"Oh, yes, that sounds like fun," Nadia replied, her face lighting in a smile. Then she frowned. "Aunt Rose, what will we call you after you marry Dad?"

Rose thought for a moment. "Well, I suppose you could continue to call me Aunt Rose, or maybe Mom, if you want, or Mrs. Calvert, if you want to be formal about it. I never really thought about it."

"Really? We can call you Mom?" Mary asked, a little shyly. "I’d like that."

"And Christopher," John said, "you can call me Uncle John, or Dad, or Mr. Calvert–whichever you choose."

Christopher just scowled, unhappy with the prospect of moving to Cedar Rapids and of gaining a new family. He was happy just the way things were, but he knew that if he said so, his mother would just tell him to cheer up and consider it an adventure, and remind him that in five years he could do whatever he wanted. To the thirteen-year-old, though, five years seemed like an incredibly long time.

"We’ll go back to California as planned," Rose decided, "and figure out from there what we’re going to do. If we’re lucky, we can have a June wedding." She glanced at John, gauging his reaction.

He nodded. "A June wedding sounds good. It’s traditional, at least, even if it does leave a lot for you to do, selling your house and maybe making another picture. I may be able to help you find a buyer, if you need," he added.

"Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind." Rose glanced up as the clock chimed eleven. "It’s getting late, so I think it’s time you three were in bed," she told the adolescents.

"You’re acting like a mother already," Nadia grumbled, getting up and heading for the door.

"She is a mother," Christopher reminded her, annoyed at being told to go to bed. Why did they need to go to sleep so early? It was a summer night, and they could sleep until noon if they wanted.

Mary just grinned knowingly at the two adults, hurrying out of the room and closing the door, hurrying the others up the stairs and away to give the couple some privacy. "They want to be alone," she told the others, loud enough to be heard through the door.

John and Rose and looked at each other, then began to laugh. Sometimes impulsive decisions were the best ones.

Chapter Twelve
Stories