LOVE IS MORE THAN A FEELING
Chapter Twenty-One
Jack and Rose stood outside the train
station, waiting for Fred and Monica’s train to appear. They had written to say
that they would arrive on the one o’clock train on March twenty-seventh, but it
was now 1:15 and there was no sign of the train.
"Do you think everything is all right,
Jack?" Rose asked anxiously, looking down the tracks for the train.
"I’m sure everything is fine," Jack
told her. "The local train is always running late."
They kept watching anxiously down the tracks
for the train to appear. Finally, just after 1:30, they heard the distant
whistle of the train, and a short time later, the train appeared, chugging
slowly into the station.
Fred and Monica were almost the last ones
off. Rose ran up and hugged Monica, a little awkwardly now that she was five
months pregnant. She wasn’t huge yet, but she was beginning to show. Monica
hugged her back, while Jack and Fred shook hands and slapped each other on the
back.
Fred and Jack picked up the luggage and began
the long walk back to the house, Rose and Monica strolling ahead of them. Jack
and Rose eagerly pointed out the sights of their town, promising to take their
friends to see the falls, the lake, and the restaurants and stores of the town
while they were there.
When they reached the house, Jack and Rose
got Fred and Monica settled in the guestroom. Once they were settled, everyone
came downstairs to eat a late lunch and talk.
"So, how is Chippewa Falls?" Fred
asked Jack and Rose, biting into his sandwich.
"It’s beautiful here," Rose
responded, "and so peaceful."
"Yeah," Jack added. "No
traffic, no people talking and yelling late at night, just the quiet sounds of
a small farming town."
"Wait until you see the falls,"
Rose added. "They’re still frozen solid. So is Lake Wissota. Jack and I
visited both on Valentine’s Day. We even went ice-skating on Lake
Wissota."
"But not ice-fishing?" Fred asked.
Jack had told him the story of how he had fallen through the ice on Lake
Wissota years before.
"No, not ice-fishing," Jack said.
"Maybe we can do that while you’re here."
"How are things in New York?" Rose
asked, setting a bowl of apples on the table.
"They’re all right," Monica
responded. "It’s a little warmer there than here, but that just makes the
snow melt and form ice slicks."
Rose nodded, remembering how things had been
in Philadelphia when she was growing up. The winter weather could be unpleasant
in either place. Of course, it could be unpleasant in Chippewa Falls, too, with
the biting cold.
"It’s as noisy and lively as ever,"
Fred added. "People around at all hours, day and night. It’s never
boring."
"Actually, we were thinking of finding a
place a little quieter," Monica told them. "New York is nice, but a
little more peace and quiet would be nice, too."
"Maybe you could move to Chippewa
Falls," Jack suggested. "There’s a house for sale not far from here,
and I know of several places that will be hiring once spring comes and people
go back to working on the farms."
"What do you think, Monica?" Fred
asked, looking at his wife. "Do want to check that house out?"
"Sure," Monica replied. "It
would be nice to see Jack and Rose more often. This seems like a nice little
town, besides."
"Why do you suddenly want to move?"
Rose wanted to know. "I thought you liked New York City."
"We do," Monica told her, "but
like you and Jack said, it’s not the best place to raise a child."
"A child?" Rose asked, her eyes
widening. "Monica, are you..."
"Yes," Monica said, blushing a
little.
Rose squealed. "That’s fantastic!
When?"
"In September."
"Oh, how wonderful! Our babies will be
only a couple of months apart. You’ve got to move to Chippewa Falls—or at least
somewhere near here."
"You see, Fred?" Monica poked her
husband in the ribs. "I told you moving would be a good idea."
"You’re right, honey. As always."
Monica poked him in the ribs again. "We
finally got that straight."
Jack and Rose just laughed.
*****
The next day, the Winkings looked at the
house Jack and Rose had mentioned. It was a two-story Victorian style building,
with four bedrooms, a bathroom, and a big parlor with a view of the
countryside. Jack and Rose came with them, pointing out everything that could
be seen from the windows of the house.
The owner had been trying to sell for several
months, without luck. He looked hopeful as the Winkings explored the house with
increasing interest, Jack and Rose working as hard as him to sell the house to
them.
"Well, what do you think?" he
asked, when the tour was over.
"What’s the price you’re asking?"
Fred asked, looking around the spacious living room.
"Three thousand dollars, though I can go
a little lower."
"What do you think, Monica?"
"Well, since we’ll be selling the
apartment building in New York for more than that, I think we can afford
it." When Fred looked a little reluctant, she added, "It’s such a
nice town—and our best friends are here."
"It’ll take a while to sell the apartment
building, Monica."
"You can make a down payment now,"
the owner interjected, "and pay the rest of it off in installments. Three
hundred dollars for a down payment, and then fifty dollars a month until it is
paid off. You can pay it off sooner if you want."
"I think we should buy it," Monica
said, "even though it’ll be a few months before we can move here."
Fred still looked reluctant, but when Monica,
Jack, and Rose started looking at him beseechingly, he finally relented.
"All right. We’ll take it."
The owner smiled. "Thank you. Thank you
very much. You don’t know how long I’ve been trying to sell this place..."
"Four months," Jack and Rose
interjected. Not much went on unnoticed in Chippewa Falls.
"Yes. Four months," the owner
reluctantly admitted.
"I have just enough money for the down
payment," Fred told him, "and I will send the rest of the payments
from New York, at least until we get the building sold."
"That will be fine. Now, I have all the
papers ready, drawn up by my lawyer. Just read them over and sign, and the
house is yours."
*****
The next day, the Dawsons and the Winkings
visited the falls and Lake Wissota. The Winkings were impressed with the falls,
with the frozen cascades of water set into seemingly eternal icicles, but their
favorite stop was Lake Wissota.
As he had promised, Jack taught the others
how to ice fish. The lake was still frozen several feet deep, making it safe to
walk on. This also made it difficult to chop a hole in the ice, but Jack
remembered a trick he had learned long ago to make it easier.
After walking across the frozen surface for a
while, he found a partially frozen over hole that someone else had chopped, and
went back for the others. As they watched, he opened up the hole in the ice
again. The ice on the lake was three and a half feet thick, but the previously
chopped hole had ice only one and a half feet thick.
Once the hole was chopped, Jack demonstrated
how to ice fish, earning the laughter of the others when he soon proved not to
have been ice fishing in a long time. Live bait was used, small fish that would
attract the attention of larger fish. In order to bait the hook, he had to
remove his mittens and put his hands into the bucket of ice-encrusted water in
which the bait swam. The hook had to be baited in the water, because if it
weren't, the bitter cold would freeze the bait solid and split it open before
it could be placed on the hook. The hook then had to be dropped quickly into
the water under the ice.
Rose didn’t like ice-fishing at first; she
hated having to plunge her bare hands into the cold water to bait the hook, and
she also didn’t like having to grab the squirming fish used as bait. She felt
sorry for them when she put the hook through them, still squirming and trying
to escape.
Her attitude changed somewhat, however, when
she managed to catch the biggest fish of anyone. Something tugged hard at her
line, almost yanking the pole from her hands. Standing up, she stepped
backward, reeling her catch in as Jack watched the hole to see what she had
caught. At the last moment, she yanked on the line, slipping and landing in a
very undignified position—and bringing in her fish.
The fish flopped furiously on the ice, trying
to slip back into the hole and escape. As Fred and Monica helped Rose to her
feet, Jack killed the fish for her, hoisting it high in the air. Giving the
fish back to his wife, he stepped back as Monica pulled out her camera and
snapped a picture of Rose holding up her prize.
They ate part of Rose’s catch for dinner that
night, putting the rest of the fish they had caught in a shed in back of the
house, where it would stay frozen until the spring thaw. Rose had never cooked
fish before, but Monica had, and showed her how to bake it with herbs and
lemon.
Everyone agreed that the fish was good, but
to Rose, it was particularly good because she had caught it herself.
*****
Two days later, Fred and Monica had to return
to New York. Jack and Rose went with them to the train station.
"I’m going to miss you!" Rose
exclaimed, hugging Monica.
"I’ll miss you, too," Monica told
her.
"We’ll be moving here in just a little
while," Fred pointed out. "Just as soon as we sell the apartment
building."
"I know, but still..." Monica
hugged Rose. "I’ll send you copies of the pictures I took here. Especially
that picture of you with the fish."
"Thanks," Rose returned, looking to
see the train pulling in. It was on time, for once.
"Well, we’ll see you soon," Jack
told the Winkings, giving Monica the luggage he had carried to the train station
for her.
"Be sure to write to us," Rose
added, waving as they stepped on board the train.
"We will," Fred called, leaning out
a window to wave back. "Don’t forget to write back!"
Jack and Rose watched, still waving, until
the train pulled out of the station and chugged out of sight.