Chapter 25

SANDY -- Saturday, October 14, 1961

As I was afraid would happen, Saturday turned out to be a blustery, gray day, with a threat of rain. Steve woke me up with a kiss, and, after quick bathroom visits, we were soon entwined in a loving embrace. The day was getting off to a marvelous start!

Much later, as we were lying happily in bed, I stretched and exclaimed, "My, that was nice!"

The hug and kiss that Steve gave me in response made it evident to me that he felt the same way. He got up, saying, "I'll finish in the bathroom and then start fixing breakfast. Hurry down, my love; we have shopping to do today!"

When I got downstairs, the coffee was ready. Steve was mixing up some batter and had unearthed Mom's waffle iron. He said, "I hope this works. I've never made these before, but Ma told me what to put in the batter."

I said, "I'm sure it will!" as I got cups and glasses and poured juice and coffee. I also found the jug of maple syrup and put it on the table, along with butter, plates, and silverware. We quickly polished off the waffles, which were excellent. After cleaning up, we headed out the door. I said, "Steve, let's take my car for a change. I'll drive!"

He said, "That's fine with me. Let's see, we need to go to the bookstore, drop off the film, J. Arnold Wood, and Adams Farm stand. Anything else?"

I said, "That should do it!" as I started the engine and drove off. The first stop was Arax on Main Street, where I dropped off the film. We then headed out Main Street and soon we were parked in front of the jewelry store. When we went in, a distinguished looking older man was behind the counter. Steve said, "This lovely lady has agreed to marry me, and we're looking for a diamond ring."

The man, who, it turned out, was Mr. Wood himself, smiled, and said, "My congratulations! Let's take a look at these, and you can tell me what style you like."

He pulled out a tray with samples of different cuts and settings. I said, "I don't care as much for those with the smaller stones around the main one, and I like this cut. Let's see some like that one" as I pointed to a round diamond in a simple setting.

Mr. Wood said, "That's an excellent choice!" as he put the first tray back and brought out another one. He said, "I don't know what your budget runs to, but these are all under a thousand dollars. Should I bring out the next tray with larger stones?"

Steve gulped, and said, "No, I don't think so! Sandy, what do you see here that you like?"

While I was looking at the rings, Steve and Mr. Wood were having a whispered conversation, almost certainly about how much he could afford. I saw one that I really liked, and asked to try it on. Mr. Wood took it, along with a similar ring with a slightly larger stone out of the tray and said, "They may not be the right size, but we can reset the stone in a ring that will fit you. Here, let's measure your finger."

He tried several ring sizers on my finger, and said, "This looks right. Fortunately, the larger of these two rings is exactly your size. Try it on."

I did, and it was perfect. I asked Steve, "Do you like this one? Is it OK?"

He answered, "Yes, and yes! Keep it on, it's yours!"

I hugged him for a moment. Mr. Wood asked us, "When is the wedding?"

I said, "We haven't set a date yet, but right now it looks like early spring. It shouldn't be too hard; we are thinking of a very small wedding, just family."

He said, "If that's the case, you don't need to do anything about this right now, but you should take a look at these wedding rings." He put the tray back and got a tray of gold bands from another case. He pulled one out, saying, "This one, in particular, is an excellent match for the ring you have just selected, or you could get a thicker band that would still match it." He turned to Steve, and asked, "Did you plan to wear a ring also?"

Steve said, "I hadn't thought about that, but yes, I'd like that!"

He pulled out yet another tray, with larger men's wedding rings. Steve and I saw a pattern that we liked, a fairly wide plain gold band, and picked out the rings we wanted. Mr. Wood noted down what we had selected, and then measured Steve's finger for size. He said, "You don't need to do anything about these until a few weeks before the wedding, but you should think about what you might want engraved inside them. I've made a note of your selections and sizes for our files."

Then he and Steve went to the back of the store, where Mr. Wood prepared paperwork describing the diamond and a bill of sale. Steve opened his wallet, and pulled out a number of hundred dollar bills, saying, "My bank is in Washington D. C., so I came prepared with cash."

Mr. Wood said, "Well, that's fine, but I'm sorry you went to that trouble. With proper identification, I would have been happy to take your check."

We both thanked him, and left the store. We got into my car, but just sat there for a moment. I looked at the ring, looked at Steve, looked at the ring again, and then reached over to him for a big hug. He nuzzled my ear and my neck, and then said, "Come on, let's get out to the farm stand!"

I drove off, still on cloud nine! We went back out on Main Street, through Arlington, stopping at the bookstore, where I bought the Peterson Field Guide. Finally, we headed out Route 44 up the hill to Adams. As I drove, the sky was getting darker, and I was sure that there would be a thunderstorm soon. I parked, and we consulted for a minute. We agreed that we wanted a vegetable, some stuff for salad, plenty of local tomatoes, since they were still in season, and maybe some fruit, and got out of the car and went in. I was looking over the lettuce, when I heard a voice calling, "Sandy!"

It was Sarah, who was there with Nigel! When she saw Steve next to me, she said, "You two look very happy today! Any special reason?"

I didn't say anything, but just held out my left hand. Sarah shrieked, "Oh, that's so wonderful! Congratulations to both of you!"

Nigel gave Steve a hearty handshake, and then consulted briefly with Sarah. She said, "Can you two come for lunch tomorrow? I promise we won't talk about work, at least not a lot, and we'd love to have you!"

It was my turn to huddle briefly with Steve, and then I said, "We'd love to come! Draw us a map and let us know what time."

Sarah told us that it was so easy to find their place that we didn't need a map, and gave me some fairly simple directions. We made our farewells, finished our shopping, and soon were back in my car, heading home. Steve said, "Did your Mom say anything to you about wine for tonight?"

I said, "No, but that's a good idea. Let's pick up something, along with a bottle to take to Sarah tomorrow. We also need to get any groceries that we might want for Sunday evening. Did you have any ideas for what we might do for them?"

Steve said, "Well, you liked that Indian restaurant in Washington. I think I know how to come up with a passable curry sauce, and we could do something with a chicken curry over rice. Does that sound OK?"

I replied, "Oh, yum! Let's do that!"

STEVE -- Saturday, October 14, 1961

After a stop for wine, and a quick visit to the supermarket, we arrived back at Sandy's house, carried everything in, and put the vegetables away in the refrigerator. We were lucky; it started to rain just after we had everything inside. She fixed some sandwiches for us for lunch, and then we settled down on the couch, looking carefully at the bird book that she had bought. I was able to identify several of the birds that we had seen yesterday, and Sandy was entranced by the pictures, the descriptions, and the phonetic representations of the bird calls. She exclaimed, "We have to take this book with us whenever we go out for a hike!"

I said, as I kissed her neck, "That's a good idea! I wish we had some binoculars; all too often, the birds we want to see are too far away to identify reliably by the naked eye."

Sandy said, "Wait a minute!" as she got up and rummaged around in the hall closet. She came back with a pair of binoculars, in a leather case that apparently hadn't been opened in several years. She said, "These belonged to my father. I guess Mom just moved them down here and stashed them away in the closet; I've never seen her using them."

I took them out of the case, tried them out, pointing them at a tree out the window, and said, "Not bad! I wish we'd had them yesterday!"

Sandy said, mischievously, "Well, you'll just have to come back again so we can try them!"

I said, as I hugged her, "Actually, maybe we should try them on the canal trail outside Washington. Do you think you could come down sometime soon, maybe early November? I'd like to come back here around Thanksgiving; we could go visit my parents, and combine it with my running the acceptance test program on Reaper."

She said, "Dear, I'd love to! That way I'll see you once before you come here at the end of next month. Oh, Steve, I can't wait to move into your apartment!"

I held her, overcome with love for this wonderful woman who would soon be my wife. Finally, I said, "Dear love, I can't wait for that to happen!"

We sat on the couch, holding each other for a few minutes, when we heard Sheila come in through the back door. Sandy jumped up, and cried, "Mom! Look!" as she held out her hand.

Sheila' eyes widened, and she exclaimed, "Wow! Steve, that was quick! You just got engaged yesterday, and already you bought her the ring! It's lovely!"

I replied, "Well, I'd been thinking about this for a while, and had enough sense to bring cash with me, so there wouldn't be a problem with an out-of-state check. If you must know, it was barely two weeks ago when I received a check for a totally unexpected inheritance from my uncle's estate."

Sheila said, "Steve, you are one in a million! You are so considerate, and so very good to Sandy! I'm so glad that soon you will be my son-in-law!"

She paused, her face becoming troubled. She finally said, "Make that my only son-in-law! I don't know how much Sandy has told you about her sister's marriage. It looks like it's over except for the final divorce decree. I won't say anything more except that I know you well enough by now to be quite certain that you are nothing like that rotten son of a..." she paused, and went on, "that no-good scoundrel who married my other daughter Mary."

She got up, and gave me a hug. I said, "Sheila, can I call you Mom? My mother has always been Ma, and I think my heart has room enough for both Mom and Ma!"

Sheila said, "Steve, of course!" After hugging me again, she gave me a kiss on the cheek.

I said, "Sandy told me a little bit of what was going on, and allowed as how she never liked Don, but I didn't get much other than that apparently Don had had a number of affairs since her first child was born."

Sheila said, "That was bad enough, but his last fling turned into something more serious. He moved out just before Mary threw him out of the house. She filed for divorce, and he's been doing well enough at his law firm that he didn't give her any trouble; she has an agreement that she can keep the house, and he's paying fairly generous child support. She's lucky; she has an excellent job that she loves, and there's an office at Cornell that looks after the special needs of foreign students. Some of their wives are available for child care, which makes it much easier for her to work!"