Chapter 40

Monday was a day of slush. It had warmed up enough that everything was melting. Mum had breakfast ready and had an announcement for Dad.

“I have been to J C Penney, Sears, Uhlman’s and Montgomery Wards. I haven’t been able to find a dress for New Year’s Eve. We are going to Columbus.”

“Rick, you will be in charge here for the day. Mary can go with us as she does not mind shopping unlike some I could name.”

When Mum is in this type of mood, one says, “Yes ma’am.” There was no discussion here, just marching orders.

It took them about an hour and a half but Mum, Dad, and Mary were on their way. That left Denny, Eddie and me. I wondered what we would do for the day.

Denny spoke up, “Let’s go hunting!”

I thought about it for almost a heartbeat. I could imagine us out with shotguns. Eddie had never been out in the field. I swear my life flashed before my eyes.

“I don’t think so. It’s too nasty out.”

Wet they would understand, logic never.

“It’s early yet. Let’s watch cartoons on TV for a while.”

“Captain Kangaroo is still on. Maybe they will have Rocky and Bullwinkle today.”

“Yeah, it would be neat if they had Boris and Natasha,” Eddie said as the thundering herd moved to the living room.

Well, that bought me half an hour or so. It was more like an hour but then they were back, “I’m bored,” from Denny and “What are we going to do,” whined Eddie.

“We could walk down to the library; see if any new books are in, then I will buy lunch at Don’s.”

Lunch at Don’s interested them. We put on our jackets and headed out. When we got to the library they didn’t have any new books set out. I did have one bright idea. I took them down to the basement and showed them the old newspapers. That proved to be a lifesaver. Denny liked the old advertisements and Eddie the comics.

Eddie started at nineteen thirty-four and started reading every Terry and the Pirates ever released. He also liked Mandrake the Magician which started the same year. He didn’t go back to nineteen twenty-four for Little Orphan Annie.

He just picked it up with the others. By lunchtime, he was up to nineteen thirty-five. He would have many an hour in this basement.

Denny went from the ads to following World War II. He told me he was glad he knew we had won because it didn’t look good at the beginning. He hadn’t realized that Mum’s war was two years longer than Dad’s war. The bombings she had lived through started in nineteen forty and the United States didn’t come into the war until the end of nineteen forty-one.

He asked me what she did in those days. At one time I thought I knew. Now I wasn’t so sure. I told him to ask her. I hoped I was there when he asked. Her answer would be interesting.

After returning the hardbound newspapers to the top of the cabinets where they were kept, and having a good sneeze from all the dust and weird smell of old paper we headed down to Don’s.

At fifteen cents a hamburger and a dime for fries, they managed to eat over a dollars’ worth of food. Well, I did have two hamburgers myself so that was part of the cost. I wondered if I could get the money back from Dad. There wouldn’t be a chance with Mum.

There were a lot of high school kids there and a few from middle school. What I thought was cute was this one middle school girl who made a point of talking to Denny, and saying she hadn’t seen him here before. She hoped he would become a regular.

What was neat was how red he could get. Eddie didn’t help when he said real loud as she walked away, “I bet she has cooties.”

From red to pale took Denny about five seconds. I thought he was going to pass out. He survived. I asked him the girl’s name as he hadn’t introduced us.

“That’s Carla, she never misses anything. You have to be real careful around her. You can’t tell a fib or make anything up. She pays close attention to everything. She is scary.”

“She may be scary, but she is a cute chick.”

“I know that is what’s scary. I think she likes me and I don’t know what to do.”