A NEW YEAR... and a ray of hope (Part 41g)

Elle’s school was closed for 3 days as well. It was the first time in many years that they had closed for snow. During her time off she was able to make contact with the girl who was to room with her at her next assignment. Ironically, the girl who had given Elle the name of her aunt had been a Freshman roommate of Elle’s upcoming roommate. She told Elle she was OK with whatever Elle chose. But, Elle being Elle, put the pressure on me for us to go meet the woman as soon as possible.

I’ve been a believer in “omens” since I was a young teen. That following Saturday looked a lot like the previous one with the cold, gray skies and soap powder type snow. I remember actually telling Mr B that I didn’t like what I was seeing when I left the store to go pick up Elle but I went anyway. When I reached the place where I’d bulled my way through the snow drift the week before I couldn’t believe my eyes. The drift was almost a quarter mile long and it was at least 8 feet high. It was like driving through a tunnel without a roof. It was also obvious where the other two places were where the road had been closed.

I don’t know why I thought it would be just Elle and I to go meet the lady. But there was Teresa, ready to go with us. We followed the directions that the lady had given Elle and ended up at the school where she’d be teaching. It was kind of a surprise as it looked like a mirror image of the school that Elle had attended. It was a K through 12 school built in the same style. It must have been some sort of standard for the times. It was a little more than a half mile to the lady’s house. That distance concerned Elle. As we pulled into the driveway it was hard to see much of the house as the plowed snow from the road obscured most of it. There was a car parked in the driveway with just enough room for us to pull in. I could see Elle was nervous. All we’d talked about was making sure that she didn’t duplicate “The Stalag”.

I will tell you that I was somewhat surprised in seeing the lady. I guess my mind was tainted by the fact that my two aunts were in their 50’s so when I saw this young(ish) woman I wasn’t expecting it. It only took her a few minutes for Elle to warm up to her. She introduced herself as Miss Bea and after all the introductions and some brief small talk, the two girls who were living there joined us. Miss Bea's niece (the girl who Elle knew) pretty much took over in “selling” Elle on why she should live there. I felt like a fish out of water and so did the woman. She saw how uncomfortable I was and suggested that we go out into the kitchen to talk. It was a very enlightening conversation.

She’d been married right out of High School. Right after that WWII started. Her husband joined the army and, with field promotions, had become an officer. When the war was over he came home. He’d worked in the motor pool and had sort of invented some kind of gadget to enhance hydraulics on heavy equipment. When he got out he got a patent for it and then sold it to a truck manufacturer. He took the money, bought some property and built the house we were sitting in. Then he started a trucking company. He was killed in an accident and the woman had lived alone for about 5 years. To help with money and to keep her company she’d signed up to house girls who were practice teaching in the local school. Just listening to her I felt she was a perfect fit for Elle.

When we rejoined the girls it was obvious that Elle was all set with her mind made up. By that time it was now late afternoon. When we made ready to leave Miss Bea asked (begged) us to stay for supper. I felt a little uncomfortable because we’d just met but the practical side of me said “YES!” because it would save me money. As it turned out, she was treating the girls who were living there to the movies that night. During dinner they all implored us to join them. We (Elle, Teresa and I) hadn’t yet discussed what we were going to do that evening after we finished up with the meeting. I won’t say we were “pressured” to join them but we finally said we would.

What seems incredulous to me in writing this is that, in spite of my trepidation about the weather when I left Mr B’s store, once in the house I never once checked to see what was going on outside. When we left the house there was about an inch of new snow on my car. I didn’t like it but we headed North to the town where Elle and Teresa lived to go to the movies anyway. It was dark and the snow, plowed to the sides of the road, seemed to close in on me as we drove the eight miles to the movie. I can remember feeling more than a bit uncomfortable.

I definitely remember the name of the movie (Desire Under the Elms with Sophia Loren) and it was like deja vu when we all walked out into the street after it was over. It wasn’t as windy but it was snowing as hard as it had been the week before. There was easily 2+ inches of new snow on our cars. Bea and the other girls headed South and I took the girls back to “The Stalag”. Elle tried persuading me not to drive back but neither she nor I could come up with an alternative.

To be continued...