Passing through Perfect (Wyattsville #3)(80)
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In early January, Sid Klaussner received a letter postmarked Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Dear Mister Sidney,
I hope you, Miss Carmella, Paul, and Jubilee is all doing well. We surely did enjoy that box of Christmas presents you sent. Isaac said he ain’t never tasted a cookie good as the ones Miss Carmella makes. He loves his new school and has made lots of friends but still misses Jubilee and talks about her often.
Settling in has been real easy. Mister Marty had a house ready and waiting for us. It’s not big as yours, but it’s got plumbing and electricity inside. We been here less than two months, but already it feels like home.
I’m real happy working for Mister Marty. He lets me manage the place by myself. Once or twice a week he stops by to check on things but don’t stay long. His missus makes sure of that. She says he’s still recuperating, but he says he ain’t never felt so good.
The real exciting news is that soon as the snow melts, Mister Marty is gonna start teaching me to fly. He figures six months maybe, then I can get a license and do the crop dusting.
Life’s funny, ain’t it? I joined the army air force thinking I’d learn to fly and never got to so much as sit in the pilot’s seat. Now here I am. Pittsburgh’s a long way from Grinder’s Corner and it’s a whole different world, that’s for sure.
The letter continued for three pages. Benjamin talked of the town, of how they’d had Christmas dinner at the Hinckleys’, and how Marty had given Isaac a train set he’d had as a boy.
As Sidney sat there and read, he could feel the joy in every word.
That evening when they sat down to dinner, he read the letter aloud for the family. Despite the fact that Carmella had made a double chocolate fudge cake for dessert, there was no clattering of forks. Everyone sat still and listened.
When Sidney finished reading, he looked up and his eyes glistened with a few teardrops not yet spilled.
“Sidney Klaussner,” Carmella said, “are you crying?”
“No, I am not,” he replied gruffly. “I’m just glad things worked out for Benjamin. He’s a good man.”
“He sure is,” Paul added.
“Can Isaac and his daddy come visit us?” Jubilee asked.
Carmella smiled. “I doubt they want to come back to Wyattsville,” she said sadly.
“Maybe not,” Sidney replied. “But I think a visit to see my old pal Marty is long overdue…and who knows, we might even pay a call on Benjamin and Isaac.”
~
The future is always an unknown, but this much I can tell you: Sidney and Benjamin remained friends for the rest of their lives. Isaac went off to college just as Delia had wanted, but he became neither a doctor nor pastor. He studied engineering, and when he returned to Pittsburgh he became the manager and co-owner of the airport Benjamin eventually inherited from Marty.