Pink dogwoods next to white dogwoods bloomed along Emmitsburg Pike. Azaleas were open, although not quite to their fullest. The daffodils had come and gone. Now late-blooming tulips dotted flower beds with red, white, yellow, pink. The early blooming tulips were already done.
Swallows darted in and out of the barn, a warning chirp as they swooped low. Henry put up Roland. Celeste gave the handsome horse a lump of sugar before returning to the house.
Cora, newspaper spread over the kitchen table, placed loving cups on it to polish.
“Silver tarnishes quickly, doesn’t it?” Celeste noted as she entered the kitchen.
“I try to keep up with it. Juts promises to do the silverware, but I like to shine up the trophies.”
A loud knock on the door caused Cora to rise.
“I’ll get it.” Celeste left.
“Mrs. Chalfonte.” Outside, the Western Union young man lifted his cap.
“Ah, Johnny, what have you here?” She opened the door and took the envelope from him. “Wait a minute.”
Returning, she gave him a good tip, fifty cents, then walked into the library and tore open the small yellow envelope and read the message inside.
May 2, 1920
3:45 P.M.
Spottiswood Bowman Chalfonte born 6 ½ pounds. Female
Mother, child fine.
Love, Curtis
“Cora!”
Celeste hurried into the kitchen and she read the telegram to Cora.
“Thank the good Lord for everyone’s health.” Cora smiled.
“Yes.” Celeste sat down opposite Cora. “I suppose I should go down to the Western Union office and send a telegram in return.” She put the envelope and opened message on the table. “How did you feel after giving birth?”
“Tired.” She was still smiling, though. “It will be good to have the baby here. No doubt she’ll be beautiful.”
“I’m sure she will. She won’t be here for months, but…” Celeste paused. “Where am I going to put her?”
“If Ramelle and Curtis come with a nurse, third floor.”
“I’m sure they’ll come with a nurse.” Celeste picked up the message again. “I’ll do my best.”
“Of course you will,” Cora reassuringly said.
“Cora, I know nothing about babies.”
“I do.” Cora smiled. “Everything will be fine.”
“Yes. I’ll buy her a pony.”
Cora reached over to touch Celeste’s hand. “Wait a few years.”
“You’re right.” Celeste laughed. “It’s the only thing I know to do. Well, let me go down to Western Union.”
The office was on the northern side of Runnymede. Once there, Celeste sent congratulations, then, she didn’t know why, sent a telegram to Ben announcing the birth. She also sent one to Carlotta and Stirling. She wasn’t really sure why she did that either.
Then she walked through the square, exceptionally beautiful on this May day. Stopping at the Confederate statue, she heard a car horn’s beep.
Fairy slowed down. She was driving a lot these days.
Waving, Celeste trotted across the square. Fairy had pulled to the side of the road.
“Ramelle had a girl,” Celeste announced.
“Get in.” Fairy motioned to the door. “We’ll take a celebratory ride.”
“Just think, Fairy, you can always be a lady chauffeur if life changes dramatically.”
Fairy laughed. “It would have to be quite dramatic. Well, congratulations to all concerned. You must be relieved and excited.”
“I guess. Fairy, what I feel is trapped.”
Heading west, Fairy soothingly said, “It’s a big day, although none of it was your decision. But trapped? No. You’ll be a wonderful aunt and you won’t have to be a wonderful aunt every single day.”
“Everything has changed.”
“It has,” Fairy honestly replied. “But you will change with it and in time, you’ll love watching—”
“Spotts.”
“Ah, of course. How good of Ramelle. Well, you’ll love watching Spotts grow.”
“She’s growing up in a different world than we did.”
“I guess every generation does. One glorious thing is she will never know war, 1918 took care of that. Although with my reading I’m starting to wonder if we won’t experience violence in different ways.”
“I expect we will always have violence, but this morning I walked into the library, turned on the radio for a moment, then turned it off. I don’t want to hear about Mary Pickford. If I have to hear about something or someone I don’t know, it should be important, not entertainment. I think, Fairy, that Spotts’s world will be vastly different than our own. Superficial, or perhaps I might say more superficial.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You’re a little lost right now, Celeste. Don’t make judgments,” Fairy said, as only an old and true friend can say.
Watching the emerald-green fields slide by, Celeste sighed. “You’re right. I don’t know why I’m confused. It’s not my baby. I’m not the one who has my whole life turned upside down.”
“Strange, isn’t it? I would have done anything to be a mother. You never wanted to be one but Ramelle did. I suspect it’s something one is born with and most of us are meant to be mothers and fathers but some of us aren’t.”
“Well, one can’t say that publicly.”
“No, of course not, but you can say it to your dearest friends.” Fairy glanced at Celeste for a moment, then returned her eyes to the road. “You should put an announcement in both papers.”
“Yes.”
“And Cora should put in an announcement about Louise’s engagement to stop the silly gossip.”
“I’ll do it. I should have suggested that when he asked Louise, but he couldn’t give her a ring. If the poor fellow had to wait until he could afford even a diamond chip, that would be a year. The proposal was spontaneous.” Celeste smiled. “And all the better for it. What she has is the cigar band off one of Spotts’s cigars.”
“You put both announcements in the papers. As for a ring, maybe you, Fannie, and I can come up with something.”
“A ring?” Celeste was surprised.
“The three of us can go through our jewelry. There’s got to be something we can lend or even give Paul.”
“That’s a good idea. He has to agree to it. I am learning about getting men on board, so to speak. It’s not anything I’ve ever mastered,” Celeste confessed.
“Oh, don’t worry. I can help you there.” Fairy laughed lightly. “If there’s one thing marriage teaches you, it’s how to manage men. Both Fannie and I have gotten quite good at it. The key is to make them think whatever it is, is their idea.”
Celeste inhaled. “Seems like a lot of work.”
“It can be. You grew up with three brothers. Consider that a head start. With men who aren’t your brothers, though, you can’t haul off and hit them, something at which you excelled.”
Celeste, spirits climbing, nodded. “Guess I did.”
“But you encountered the male need to be in charge, to dominate, and to compete with other men.”
“I don’t know. I never thought of it that way.”
“Essentially you listen to every word out of their mouth as though it is of supreme importance and they are terribly smart and you tell them they are. You also point out every mistake every man around them makes. And if you’re married, you tell them how physically competent they are. Simple.”
“Good God, Fairy, have you been doing this for the last twenty years?”
“Twenty-one. I married at twenty-two, remember?”
“I’m deeply impressed, but it’s so much work.”
“Oh, now, dealing with Ramelle was work, too. You just say different things and you spend more money. Archie spends money on me. You had to spend money on Ramelle. You did. Let’s drive to Fannie’s. You can tell her your good news.”
As Fairy turned toward Runnymede, it occurred to Celeste that Fairy was also managing her, just as she managed her husband. It also occurred to her that her friends knew her intimately and had been managing her since college. All this time she’d thought she was in charge. She burst out laughing.
Fairy laughed, too. “See, you’re your old self again.”
“What would I do without you?”
“Suffer.” Fairy laughed louder, joined by Celeste.