MY HEART BELONGS TO YOU
Chapter Nine
It was spring. Rose was over her hypothermia,
which was wonderful news to the town of Chippewa Falls. The general store was
doing wonderful, and everyone could tell that a baby was on its way. It was
almost due. Rose was glowing all the time, and her appetite was becoming
greater by the day. Her mood swings were changing, and she was showing.
It was a nice day. The sun had been glowing
powerfully with its warming glow. Rose decided to walk to the store to see how
Jack was. She entered the store, and Jack was ringing up the cost of a young
woman's groceries. She left, and she gave Rose a smile. Rose gave a smile back,
and then looked at things here and there that caught her eye.
"May I help you?" Jack asked.
Rose giggled, and said, "Well, I'm
supposed to meet my husband here for lunch. You wouldn't happen to know where
he is now, would you?" Jack chuckled and smiled. He looked down at her
stomach and smiled. "I need to talk to you," Rose said.
"Is it them?" Jack asked, patting
her stomach gently.
"Oh no, not that," Rose said with a
giggle. Jack raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I was over at the Ballet Center.
And I told the teacher that I used to be in ballet. And she said that she has
an opening for a teacher, for students around the ages of thirteen to
seventeen," Rose said, smiling.
"Rose, that's wonderful!" Jack
said.
"They want me to start tomorrow. I can
hardly wait," Rose said with eagerness.
"What time do you start?" Jack
asked.
"At ten. The children come from their
school to do the class and go back to the school after class," Rose
replied.
"When do you get done?" Jack asked.
"Four in the afternoon. Will that be all
right?" Rose asked.
"It will be great," Jack said,
smiling. "I'm so proud of you." Jack put his hand on Rose's cheek.
*****
Jessica came up from the field. She was
carrying a bouquet of wildflowers, and had her hair put up. Donald came walking
out of the boarding house.
Jessica smiled. "Donald." She put
her arms around him and gave him a kiss.
"I take it someone was in the flower
field again," Donald said.
"Well, I can't help it. It's so
beautiful up there. It's hard to ignore," Jessica said, smiling. Jessica
noticed that Donald had his coat on and was carrying a suitcase. "Donald,
where are you going?" Jessica asked.
"I'm sorry, Jess. I was asked to go to
New York," Donald said.
"What is it this time?" Jessica
asked.
"New girl. They want to see if she is
good enough for show business," Donald said.
"I hope she gets it. I remember the way
I felt when I was interviewed," Jessica said, and straightened his tie for
him.
"Well, they said she was really good. I'm
sure she will get the part. I will be back tomorrow, early in the
morning," Donald said.
"Promise?" Jessica asked.
"With all my heart." Jessica smiled
and she kissed him. "Bye," Donald whispered.
"Good-bye," Jessica whispered.
*****
Rachel tidied up her place after her last
patient, who had the flu. The bell that was attached to the door made its
magical sound, and Hannah stepped in.
"Rachel? Are you in here?" Hannah
said.
"I'm in here, Hannah." Hannah
started to come back to the room. "Oh, you might not want to come in here.
The McFadden’s boy had the flu," Rachel said.
Hannah stopped in her tracks, and said,
"I'll just wait in here."
Rachel chuckled and came out. "All
done," Rachel said, and came out to the waiting room.
Hannah kind of gave a faint smile, and said,
"Lovely."
This meant to Rachel that something was
wrong, and she went over to sit next to Hannah. "All right, Hannah, spill
it. What's wrong?" Rachel asked.
Hannah gave out a sigh. "I'm getting
second thoughts about the marriage," Hannah said.
"Oh," Rachel said. There was a
pause between the two. "I bet it's just cold feet, like everyone
gets," Rachel said.
"It feels like more than cold feet,
though. It feels like a combination of cold feet, nervousness, and the need to
run out of the chapel, riding on a white horse and fleeing to the next country,
and--" Hannah said.
"Hannah!" Rachel said,
interrupting.
"What?" Hannah asked.
"I think that we need to go somewhere.
Come on," Rachel said, taking Hannah by the hand, with Hannah in total
curiosity as to where Rachel was taking her.
They finally stopped at the chapel, and
entered. The chapel was empty. Rachel and Hannah went to the top of the stairs.
"Now, we are going to pretend that today is your wedding day. All right?"
Rachel said. Hannah nodded. "Now, go to the back of the chapel, and when I
tell you to, I want you to start walking," Rachel said.
"Okay, but I don't know how this will do
me any good," Hannah said, and she started walking back. She turned around
and waited.
"Now!" Rachel yelled back. Hannah
started to walk down the aisle. "Dum, dum, du-dum, dum, duh, du-dum,"
Rachel sang. Hannah smiled, and went to the top of the stairs. "Well, how
did it feel?" Rachel asked.
Hannah shrugged her shoulders. "Besides
the horrible tune of the Wedding March, no dress, no people, and not a real
groom, it went okay," Hannah said.
Rachel laughed, and the church doors opened
to reveal Kevin and Teddy coming in. "There you are," Teddy said,
running towards Hannah.
Kevin leaned against the archway and smiled
at Rachel. Hannah and Teddy hugged and gave each other a kiss. "Teddy, I
changed my mind," Hannah said.
"What?" Teddy asked, perplexedly.
"Remember how I mentioned that we should
call off the wedding for a while? Well, I changed my mind," Hannah said.
Teddy chuckled and gave Hannah another kiss.
Rachel ran over to Kevin and fell into his
arms. "Hey," Kevin said.
"Hi," Rachel said. "Can you
walk with me back to the office?"
"Of course," Kevin said.