Chapter 3

It was now almost three weeks that Elizabeth had written to her nephew in Atlantic City.

She no longer had any hope of hearing from him and she was now resigned to sell the house. It was therefore a great surprise when she saw the mailman riding his bicycle one sunny morning in June, stopped in front of her mailbox by the road. From her kitchen window she watched him place a brown envelope into the box and lift the small metal flag to indicate that there was mail in the box. At first she thought that it was a letter from the township asking her one last time payment for her taxes, but she had just talk to Mr. Brown the city clerk the day before and he had given her another two weeks to come up with the money.

As soon as she saw that the envelope came from Atlantic City, she knew that Martin; her nephew had not forgotten her.

In the envelope, there were two twenties and a ten, a total of fifty dollars. She hadn't seen that much money at the same time for many years and with shaking hands she hurried to read the single page of fancy paper that was in the envelope with the money. It was neatly written in blue ink and she had to read it three times before she began to understand what Martin was asking her. He was willing to pay her one hundred and fifty dollars each month if she would agreed to take care of his sister Anna who was sick in mind. In the letter he asked her to let him know her answer as soon as possible.

After the third reading, Elizabeth was finally able to explain to Jimmy - who was now beside her sharing her joy of discovering the money in the envelope - what his cousin Martin was asking of her.

"He will give you every month one hundred and fifty dollars, but that is more money than father used to earn in two months."

"Yes I agree, it is a large sum of money."

Jimmy couldn't understand why his mother seemed to hesitate to accept Martin's more than generous offer. Even though she hadn't said so, he could tell that she had not made up her mind yet.

"But surely, " he went on " you must accept, no one in his right mind would refuse such an offer."

"I was not thinking of the money. There is Anna, your cousin to think about. She might not feel at ease living here with us."

"Why worry about her. You have read what he wrote about her, she lost her wits, beside we will take good care of her."

Yes, she told herself. Jimmy was right, no one had the right to refuse such a proposal, beside she was doing Martin a favor by accepting to kept his sister.

Therefore, she immediately wrote back that Anna would be most welcome to live with them and that she would be well taken care of. The next morning she watched the mailman pick the letter from her mailbox.

It took another two weeks for Elizabeth to get an answer from Martin.

But by now she had paid the overdue taxes on the house and she was less nervous.

There were only a few lines written on an expensive paper. It was accompanies by a smaller envelope.

The message simply said that on Wednesday, the ten of July, Anna would be arriving in Norwidge on the five o'clock train. Her nurse who would immediately return back would accompany her. The message went on to say that Anna had many pieces of luggage with her and to make sure to rent a mean of transportation from Norwidge station to the house.

When Elizabeth opened the smaller envelope she found inside fifteen ten dollars bills and an extra five clipped to a small piece of paper. On the paper were only two words, 'for transportation'.

With a dollar you could go far in those days of misery. It was with joy and hope in their heart that Elizabeth and Jimmy went into Norwidge the following day to buy a few much needed items. First, they went into James Clayton's General Store to pay the twenty-two dollars bill and to buy foodstuff that they were running out off. Then it was to Assaly's Clothing where Elizabeth bought a few shirts for Jimmy and a dress for herself.

She then made the arrangements to have a taxi come to her house at half past four on the afternoon of Wednesday the twenty-nine.