JOHN AND ROSE
Chapter Twenty-One
July 27, 1927
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
John and Rose stood as the train came to a
halt at the station in Cedar Rapids. Picking up the bags they had carried with
them, they moved slowly into the aisle, ready to leave the train and go home.
Ruth, Elizabeth, and the three teenagers were
waiting when they stepped off the train. They had been gone for longer than
they had originally thought, and in spite of enjoying the vacation from their
parents, Mary, Nadia, and Christopher had missed them and were eager to see
them again.
Nadia ran up to them first. "Dad! Mom!
You’re back! Did you have a good trip?"
"It was wonderful, Nadia," Rose
told her, hugging her stepdaughter.
John nodded in agreement. "Yes. We saw
so many new things, and we took several rolls of pictures, which you can see
after we have them developed. We also brought a few things back for you
kids."
"You did?" Christopher asked
curiously, wondering what they had brought him.
Mary pushed past him. "Mom, you look
great!" She stared admiringly at Rose’s African-style dress, purchased in
Luanda the day before they set sail for home.
"Thank you, Mary. I brought one for each
of you girls, too."
Ruth and Elizabeth followed their
grandchildren, walking more sedately. "You look like you enjoyed yourself,
Rose," Ruth told her, eyeing her exotic dress.
"Oh, I did, Mother. I did. Perhaps we’ll
go back one of these years, and bring you, Elizabeth, and the children. I think
you might enjoy it, too."
"Well…" Ruth looked a little
reluctant, so Rose changed the subject. "How were things while we
gone?"
"Fine, for the most part,"
Elizabeth told her, glancing at John.
"For the most part?" John wondered
what hadn’t gone well.
"Allegro died, Mom," Christopher said,
ducking his head sadly. He had quickly grown attached to the dog.
"Oh, no! How sad."
"He was pretty old," Mary consoled.
"But we miss him anyway. We dug a grave for him in the backyard and buried
him with his favorite bone, and Grandma and Nana Ruth came to the funeral we
had for him. He was a good dog."
"Yes, he was," John told them.
"When did he die?"
"Two weeks ago. And then the next night,
we got a cat," Nadia replied.
"A cat?" John and Rose stared at
the three teenagers, who looked a little guilty.
"Yeah," Christopher said. "She
showed up at the front step in the middle of the night, all wet from the rain
and meowing really loud. We let her come in, and gave her some food, even
though she looked pretty fat."
"How do you know the cat is a she?"
Rose wanted to know.
"A week after she came, she crawled into
Mary’s bed and had kittens. That’s why she was so fat."
Mary shuddered. "I found them when I
went to bed. The kittens were nursing under the quilt, and the mama cat was
looking at me nervously. My bed was all messy, and I had to change it myself
because the housekeeper wasn’t there."
"Grandma told you not to let the cat
sleep on your bed," Christopher pointed out, a bit smugly.
"Shut up, Christopher." Mary glared
at her stepbrother. "Now the cat and her kittens are in a big box in a
spare bedroom closet. Grandma and Nana Ruth let us keep them until you came
home, so that you could decide what to do with them. Can we keep them?"
she begged. "Please?"
"We’ll see," John told them.
"I want to see this cat and her kittens first."
"Well, if we can’t keep the kittens
forever, can we at least keep them until they’re old enough to leave their
mother?" Nadia pleaded. "They don’t even have their eyes open
yet."
"I suppose we could do that," Rose
told her, glancing at John, who sighed. "We can’t very well turn them out
to fend for themselves right now, but if they’re sick, we might have to move
them out of the house."
"They’re not sick," Christopher
assured her. "They’re all good and healthy."
"Well, we’ll see when we get home.
Okay?"
"Okay," Christopher agreed
reluctantly. "Can we go now?"
"As soon as we get our luggage. If
you’ll help us get it to the car, we can be on our way sooner. It’ll be good to
be home again."
"But you haven’t lived in the house
before," Christopher told her. "Isn’t it a brand new home for
you?"
"I’ve visited enough times. It’s home,
Christopher." She suspected that he still held out hope that they would
return to Los Angeles, but it wasn’t going to happen. The sooner he realized
that, the better.
He sighed, looking at his stepsisters.
"Let’s go get their stuff," he told them. "Then we can go home,
and they can see the cat and her kittens."
"I hope they let us keep them,"
Mary remarked, as the three adolescents scurried off to where the luggage was
being unloaded.
"I hope you keep an open mind about the
pets," Ruth told them. "They were so upset over Allegro, we didn’t
have the heart to tell them they couldn’t have the cat."
Rose stared at her mother, remembering when
she had forbidden her to keep the alley cat she had been secretly feeding, and
had had the animal shipped off to the pound to keep Rose from sneaking him into
the house. Now Ruth was championing the cause of her three grandchildren?
Ruth smiled, obviously remembering the
incident, too. "It’s easier to spoil one’s grandchildren than one’s
children," she told Rose, "and I’m much more open-minded now than I
was when you were a little girl."
"Well, we’ll see," John told them.
"I suppose, if the animals are healthy and the kids take care of them, we
can allow it."
"Yeah!" They turned to see the
three teenagers standing behind them, arms loaded down with luggage.
"Thank you, Uncle John,"
Christopher told him. He had wanted a pet for years, but in the early days
after he and his mother had moved to California, there had been no space for a
pet, and later his mother was too busy to take care of a dog or a cat, and
didn’t think that Christopher was old enough for the responsibility. She had been
considering letting him get a dog when she had decided to marry John, but that
had been postponed until they moved to Iowa.
"We took care of Allegro," Mary
pointed out.
"Well, it’s not for sure that you can
keep them, but I will consider it. Now, how about we load up the car and go
home?"
*****
Everyone sat in the parlor, drinking tea or
soda and eating the cake that Mary and Nadia had baked to celebrate their
parents’ homecoming. John and Rose had looked at the cat and her kittens, and
had finally agreed that they could keep them, although John had stipulated that
they be taught to go outside as soon as the kittens were big enough.
The three teenagers had whooped and rejoiced,
startling the mother cat so much that she had rushed to stand between them and
the kittens, determined to protect her offspring. John and Rose had finally
escorted them downstairs, where they had settled into the parlor to eat and
examine the gifts and souvenirs the newlyweds had brought back.
Mary and Nadia were delighted with the
African dresses Rose had bought for them, and with the exotic jewelry from
their father. Christopher had examined the native artwork that his mother had
brought him in puzzlement at first, and then with interest. He shared his
mother’s fondness for art, though he had little of his father’s talent for it.
John had brought him a section of rhinoceros horn, knowing the boy’s penchant
for collecting unusual things.
John and Rose had also brought gifts for
Elizabeth and Ruth, exotic pieces of jewelry that, while not highly
fashionable, would nevertheless stand the test of time, unusual pieces that
captured Elizabeth’s imagination and Ruth’s desire to be noticed.
They had also brought back souvenirs for
themselves, especially Rose, who had bought half a dozen outfits, several
pieces of jewelry, and a few pieces of artwork to decorate her new home with.
John had purchased a few items, too, but he was not nearly so interested in
shopping as Rose was.
Rose sat back, watching everyone examine
their gifts. She took a sip of tea, pushing the rest of her cake away as a
slight feeling of queasiness came over her. The cake itself was fine, but she
had been feeling ill off and on since they had boarded the ship home. At first,
she had thought that it was seasickness, but she had never been bothered by
seasickness before, and when the illness had continued after they had docked in
New York and boarded the train home, she had thought back and recognized some
other symptoms, as well.
She smiled to herself, suspecting that she would
soon have some good news for her husband, but she wanted to be sure first.
Setting her cup down, she put the thoughts out of her head and leaned forward
to point out a detail of the bracelet she had brought for her mother. She
wouldn’t say anything until she was sure.