Love Letters From the Grave(56)

Now they set about moving back into her bedroom, beside Maureen who was also still there, though her sons had moved out with even the youngest at college in Colorado. Maureen was dating a widower with a very nice house of his own, and both she and Jesse were hopeful that she’d move into it if they married. For now, it was nice for Molly to have some support in the frosty atmosphere that surrounded her marriage to Charlie.

They returned to work on Monday, and were instantly confronted by their co-workers about their marriage – and Molly about her divorce from George.

‘I can’t believe you kept it all so quiet,’ bleated Annette from her coveted place at their lunch table. ‘And George, how’s he? Maybe I should have married him! Oh,’ she said, thinking aloud, ‘maybe I still can!’

Molly had to laugh. ‘Maybe you can,’ she said, as Charlie winked and stirred salt into his soup. ‘He’s a lovely, decent man. I enjoyed being married to George, and we are remaining very good friends.’

‘And what about Muriel?’ Danny slid into place beside Charlie. ‘Who’s going to look after her and all those children you kept having?’

‘Well, not that it’s any of your business,’ said Charlie evenly, ‘but Muriel is very well looked after – she’s even got my new car - and I’ll be supporting the kids until they’ve all graduated from high school.’

‘So …’ mused Danny, the confirmed bachelor, ‘Muriel’s single again.’

Charlie laughed. ‘I don’t think so, but feel free to find out for yourself.’

Within a few weeks, they were working in an atmosphere that was nearly the same as it had been before their wedding, except that now they almost always ate lunch together, and they never again passed secret notes to each other.





Chapter 19




* * *



There’s No Place Like Home



* * *





Now I shout it from the highest hills

Even told the golden daffodils

At last, my life’s an open door

And my secret love’s no secret any more



Calamity Jane (Doris Day)



They ended up spending nearly two weeks at Jesse's house, before finding a nice rental home within walking distance of their work, during which time both Jesse and Maureen warmed up to Charlie.

The newly-weds had decided that they would both work at their current jobs until they qualified for a pension, which meant approximately seven years for Molly and seventeen for Charlie. They would live on Molly’s income, supplemented by withdrawals from her savings as needed, and they would give most of Charlie's pay check to Muriel for support of her and the children. In the case of Muriel getting remarried, they would cut Charlie's contribution for support of the children to about fifty percent. When Jesse learned this, he was very pleased, and even more so when he heard that Charlie had given his car to Muriel and paid for her driving lessons. Finally, when he learned that Charlie was an avid fisherman and that Molly was on her way to becoming one herself, he warmed up to Charlie even more. It was clear that, even though he did not believe in divorce, he was now accepting of Charlie being his son-in-law. Molly decided to withhold the information about her financial gifts from George, until a more appropriate time. She was hesitant mainly because she didn't want Maureen to know about it.

On the second weekend at her father's home, they rented a trailer and borrowed Jesse's truck to pull it, moving the small amount of mostly used furniture they had purchased over the past week or so to their new home. They would have a used bed frame, with new box springs, mattress and bed linens, a used kitchen table with four chairs and a used chest of drawers. They also hauled several pieces which her father gave them as a wedding present: an antique settee, a rocking chair, a chenille bedspread, an assortment of kitchen ware, a toaster, and her mother's silverware. He also gave them several boxes of home canned vegetables and fruit, as well as several boxes of potatoes, turnips, onions, tomatoes and green beans from his garden. They would add to their furnishings over the next few months as they shopped around for things which they needed.

For now, they had enough to set up housekeeping in their first home, which was furnished with a small Frigidaire refrigerator, an Amana kitchen stove, and a Whirlpool ringer-style, washer. In the little weedy plot of grass in the backyard, there were two poles strung with rope which served as a clothes-line. The basement included a coal-fired furnace, an ash can, a coal bin, and a lot of shelving for canned goods.

Over the next month or so, they spent most of their free time shopping for their home. Some of the first things which they purchased were an assortment of yard tools including a push grass mower, a hoe, a rake, a soil-turning fork, clippers, and pruning shears. Charlie intended to maintain a nice yard, and to plant vegetable and flower gardens in the Spring.

By the end of two months they had completed the furnishing of their home, stocked their shelves, pantry, and refrigerator with food, and cleaned and trimmed up their yards. Most days, Molly cooked breakfast and dinner for the two of them, and she would wash the dishes and Charlie would dry them and put them away. They ate their lunch in the factory cafeteria, and usually ate out one night during the week and several times on weekends for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Every other weekend, Charlie helped Molly with washing and drying their laundry. His job was mainly carrying the basket of wet laundry into the back yard, hanging the pieces on the clothes lines, using wooden clothes pins, taking them down when they were dry and carrying the basket into the house for Molly to iron and put away. On laundry days, for several hours, the back yard bloomed with a wide assortment of drying clothing, flapping in the wind. Charlie loved the sweet smell of the air-dried clothing as he took them down and put them in the basket.