Love Letters From the Grave(40)

‘Of course I did!’ said Molly, stunned. ‘Did you not hear everything we were just saying? It was wonderful! You should definitely try it.’

‘There!’ cried Maureen triumphantly. ‘That’s about the fourth time you’ve said that, like you didn’t really think it was wonderful at all.’

Molly applied her lipstick, not quite sure what to say.

‘I think there are only so many wonderful adventures you can have in one lifetime, Maureen,’ she said with a sigh, ‘before they all become a little … empty.’

Maureen didn’t reply, but simply rubbed her sister’s back in great sympathy.

With a sinking heart, Molly noticed that it was exactly the same thing she had done to Maureen when Angus died.



As the couple struggled with their marriage, and began to noticeably drift apart, they looked for ways to recover the carefree happiness they had enjoyed during the first seven years together. They took pains to plan a very special honeymoon vacation for the start of their ninth year of marriage. Their decision was to take the romantic river cruise in Europe that they had been promising themselves for years, cruising to London on the Big U, catching a ferry across the English Channel to Amsterdam, taking an exciting train ride to Amsterdam and a Rhine River cruise back to Amsterdam; and then a ferry toward the white cliffs of Dover, back to London, where they boarded the Big U for the cruise back to New York.

Both George and Molly agreed that it was an amazing, enjoyable, and jam-packed vacation, highlighted by visiting parts of Europe that had been war-torn and ravaged - like Cologne Cathedral and the bridges along the Rhine.

For George, the only thing which spoiled the trip for him was his inability to make proper love to his lovely wife. He failed every night of the trip, and even though Molly was very understanding, and showed not a bit of disappointment in his failure, he was, nevertheless, highly disappointed in himself.

For Molly, it seemed that their years were simply blending into one, punctuated only by sad events in their families and the next cruise or holiday that they’d booked.

After the Europe cruise, they went over to visit with Jesse and Maureen and go through the annual ritual of sharing the details of their vacation with them. However, it simply was not the same with Aunt Dolores missing.

It simply wasn’t the same any more, period.

Her marriage was adrift, and they both knew it.

And so did the man at work – the one who had fallen in love with her.

As much as it broke her heart, Molly knew that she couldn’t stay married to George. Despite everything they shared, it was no longer enough. It was her soul that needed love and vacations, not her body.





Chapter 12




* * *



Love at first sight



* * *





You looked very beautiful tonight standing by the store room door.

After you left, Danny asked me who the pretty girl was.

I told him just a friend.

I’d like to tell them all that you are my one and only.



Charlie’s first love letter



He was helplessly smitten in an instant. He didn't even know who she was, although she obviously worked in the factory. She simply came to the window of the tool and stock room, where he had worked for the past six months, to requisition a box of pencils.

He took the requisition slip from her in a daze, his hand trembling.

The woman began to flush under the intensity of his gaze, so he tore his eyes away from her and forced himself to look at the slip. Pencils. Pencils. Think of something to say about pencils, he told himself. But she seemed to have taken away his power of speech.

He found the box he needed instantly and yet he still leaned against the shelf for a moment, pretending he was still searching. What was happening to him? This was a woman he had never seen before. He didn't even know her name. And how could he even find it out? She was dressed in typical factory attire, including the usual smock worn by the female employees, and while she was very attractive and seemed to be about his age, he wasn’t sure how that description was going to help him in a factory employing dozens of women. “Attractive and about my age” could apply to many of them.

When he could sustain his fake search no longer, he returned to the window and slid the box across to her, signing the requisition slip at the same time.

‘Don’t use them all at once,’ he said in an attempt at a joke, but even as the words were leaving his lips he chastised himself. She should use them all at once. Then she’d have to come back.

‘I promise,’ said the woman solemnly, but her eyes were twinkling above freckled cheeks that were still tinged with pink. ‘Bye.’

Too soon she was gone, leaving her impression imprinted eternally on Charlie’s heart.

Her smile was devastatingly beautiful. Charlie was so flustered that he hadn’t even thought to introduce himself, or find out her name. Feeling foolish, he realised that he could easily have made her sign the requisition slip too. He could have made something up. Instead he had let her slip through his fingers, and he began to panic, thinking that he might never see her again. That, too, was highly unlikely, as all employees visited the stock room from time to time, but deep down he was aware that he wasn’t prepared to leave it to chance.