She woke with a start. She’d fallen asleep in the chaise and noticed the sun had moved quite a bit so that she was totally in the shade now. How long had she been asleep? She reached for her phone and noticed it was one o’clock.
“Are you kidding me?” she said out loud. “I’ve been asleep for over two hours?” She couldn’t believe it. She checked to see if there were any messages on her cell phone and saw there were none. She quickly got up from the chaise and started to go into the condo. She noticed a note taped on the large patio door. She unfolded the note and read:
“Came by to have lunch with you but you were out cold. Didn’t have the heart to wake you. There’s lunch in the fridge. Otherwise, I’ll see you at six, and we are going out.” Matt.
Oh, great. He came to see her and she was asleep.
She crumbled up the note and went into the kitchen. Opening the fridge she found the lunch he had brought her, chicken pasta salad. Not really hungry, she grabbed a diet soda and closed the door, leaving the salad.
As she was returning to the patio, she glanced at the journal. She hesitated and then picked it up. Might as well, she thought. I’m going to eventually.
She sat down again on the chaise and took a long drink of the diet soda. It tasted good and refreshing. She looked down at the journal in her lap.
“Oh, Amelia, can you help me? Can you tell me who wanted to hurt me last night? What in the world happened back in the forties?
She took another sip, then opened the journal to where she had left off. To her, it read like a high school girl’s diary. Well, Amelia was only eighteen!
Mommy, we went onto the walkway, and he told me about himself, and we had champagne together. Then he took my hand and he said he had to go. He said that he hoped we would see each other again soon. He kissed my hand, turned and walked away. It was really strange. I followed him into the ballroom, and my friend from school, Sylvia, grabbed me to talk about the boy she had just met.
Mommy, I didn’t see Jonathan again that night. He had left the ball.
LeAnn skimmed through the pages that told of a young girl pining over someone she had met on the greatest night of her life. Jonathan Armstrong didn’t show up again until August.
August 9, 1940
Mommy, Papa took me to Hayward today to do some shopping. I couldn’t believe my eyes when Mr. Armstrong came across the street toward us! I hadn’t seen him since the ball.
He greeted Papa and then me with an incredible smile. He said he was in town to finalize the purchase of the lot for the new bank. He told Papa he would like to meet with him to discuss Papa possibly designing the new bank. Papa said to come by his office, and he gave Mr. Armstrong his business card. I couldn’t stop staring at him Mommy. He is so handsome.
Papa and Mr. Armstrong shook hands, and then he turned to me and said, “It is a pleasure to have seen you again, Miss Tabor. You’re just as beautiful today as you were at the ball.” Oh, that smile Mommy! I felt like I was melting. He turned and told Papa he would be hearing from him soon. Then he said good-bye and walked away.
I wish I could have spent more time with him. I know I don’t know him, Mommy, but I do really think I love him. How can you love someone you’ve only been with a few hours? It’s just a feeling. Oh, I do wish you were here Mommy. Papa is wonderful, but I just can’t talk to him about things like this. Maybe Aunt Mira? No, not her either. She’s too stern and serious.
LeAnn skipped forward.
August 20, 1940
Papa came home and said he had lunch with Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong asked Papa to design and oversee the construction of new bank in Hayward.
Oh, Mommy, then Papa said Mr. Armstrong had asked if he could take me to lunch! Papa asked me if I would like to go, and I almost jumped out of my chair saying yes. Of course I didn’t really jump out of my chair. I didn’t want Papa to get the wrong impression. He said Mr. Armstrong wanted to meet with me the following week. Papa told me he would arrange it.
I love living on the island Mommy, but this not having a telephone and either going to Ridgewood’s or doing everything by mail is quite a nuisance.
August 26, 1940
Mommy! I had the most wonderful lunch with Jonathan! I’m not to call him Mr. Armstrong any longer. He told me I needed to call him Jonathan. He is the most wonderful man I’ve ever met. I know, I haven’t known any others really, but he truly is a gentleman and very kind.
I could hardly eat a thing, and I had to be careful not to stare at him. We talked about many things and he actually wanted to know my interests. I told him that I loved flowers and gardening, pretty much as my mother had. He told me he noticed the garden around the main house when he came to the ball and thought it was beautiful. He also said he had been to a few of the balls and was very impressed with how beautiful they always were. I did confess that I had seen him two years before when I had snuck to see the ball.
He laughed and said he had seen me being escorted, unwillingly, out of the ballroom. We both had a good laugh.
Mommy, he wants to see me again the next time he is in town, and I said yes. Again, I love the island, but it is so hard for communicating and to see anyone. Luckily, it’s only a five minute boat ride to the mainland. He is supposed to call Ridgewood’s when he will be back in town, and leave me a message.
LeAnn put the journal down. Thank goodness for cell phones. She couldn’t imagine not having a phone on the island. So she figured if anyone wanted to reach any of the Tabor’s they had to call the resort and leave a message. Thinking about it, she assumed life was so laid back then it really wasn’t an issue when the messages were picked up. Then again, Mr. Tabor had a business to run, so he probably checked the messages everyday when he went to Ridgewood’s and into his office in Hayward.
Heck, she thought, before cell phones everyone had voice mail on their phone and waited to get their messages when they got home and before that people just called back when you were not home. Really, when you thought about it, people today are impatient and attached to equipment!
As LeAnn read farther into the journal, she learned that things were going pretty well for Amelia. Jonathan and she had gone out a few times. Mostly they went out for lunch or on picnics when he was in town, but there were a few dinners at Ridgewood’s. Jonathan stayed at Ridgewood’s instead of in Hayward to be closer to Amelia. If he had a meeting regarding the new bank, he stayed in Hayward, and Amelia usually didn’t see him.
LeAnn read on.
December 22, 1940
I don’t understand, Mommy. I haven’t heard from Jonathan since just before Thanksgiving. Did I do something to upset him? The last time we were together, we went to the park and he held my hand, then kissed me. He told me that he loved me and had never felt this way about any other woman. I told him that I felt the same way too. He also told me that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, and I truly thought he was going to propose, but then he backed off. I don’t understand. I asked him if everything was all right and he took my face in his hands and kissed me ever so gently. He said that everything would be fine and that I was not to worry. “I don’t understand,” I said. He kissed me again and said, “I know. Just trust me.” His eyes had looked sad.
I haven’t heard from him since. I asked Papa if he had seen Jonathan and he told me no. He said that he had been sending one of his associates to all of the meetings.
LeAnn skimmed through quickly to see what happened to Jonathan. Mostly, Amelia had written about how she didn’t know what she had done to make Jonathan stop communicating with her. She had been writing to him, but there had been no response.
Then LeAnn found an entry written two months later.
March 1, 1941
Oh, Mommy, I’m going to die! Papa just got home and told me I was never to try to contact Mr. Armstrong ever again! I can’t understand why, and Papa said he isn’t going to tell me! When I wouldn’t stop hounding him, he told me. Jonathan got married!!
I don’t believe it! I won’t believe it! He is in love with me! What in the world happened? Papa said he didn’t know, just that one of his associates had come to check on the progress of the bank. He told him that Jonathan would no longer be coming out to Hayward to check on the status of the new bank because he had gotten married. Papa said that he did not want to hear of me seeing or having any further contact with Jonathan Armstrong. Papa was very angry, Mommy, and my heart is breaking.
What a nightmare Mommy! What am I going to do? I love him so much!
LeAnn put the journal down. “Wow, that poor girl,” she said sadly. “I sure didn’t see that coming. I’ll bet Amelia didn’t either!” Just then her phone rang. Absentmindedly, she answered.
“Hello?” LeAnn said somewhat spacey, her mind on what she just read.
“LeAnn? Is that you?”
“Hi, Matt. Yeah, it’s me.”
“Did I wake you? You don’t sound like yourself. Are you okay?”
“No. I’m fine. I’ve been reading the journal.”
Matt sighed disapprovingly.
“I just read where Amelia was supposed to marry Jonathan. Well, he didn’t actually propose, but he sure led her on. Then he married someone else. It’s so sad!”
“What?” Matt asked confused.
“I’ll tell you when I see you.”
“You still up for dinner?” He asked hopeful.
“Definitely. What time should I be ready?”
“I’ll come by at six o’clock just like my note said. Is that okay?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry. I saw your note; guess I fell asleep. I’ll be ready!” she added, a little more upbeat.
“Great. See you then.”
LeAnn said good bye quickly and went back to the journal.
March 10, 1941
I tried to talk to Papa again today about Jonathan, Mommy, and he got extremely angry with me. He told me I need to stop thinking of Mr. Armstrong, that it was indecent since he was now a married man. I guess there are rumors that the new Mrs. Armstrong is pregnant. I cannot tell you, Mommy, how badly my heart is breaking! Papa told me that my mind should now be on getting things started for the ball and meeting someone else. It’s still three months away, but I think Papa just wants me to keep busy so that I won’t mope around. I definitely do not want to meet anyone else! I will never fall in love again!
A wife and a baby!? How could Jonathan be so cruel?
LeAnn checked the clock and saw that it was time to get ready for dinner. She reluctantly put the journal down on the coffee table and went into the kitchen. There was a bottle of chardonnay in the refrigerator and she thought a glass of wine would taste good. She poured herself a glass and headed for the shower.
She couldn’t stop thinking about how heartbroken Amelia must have been. The poor girl was only eighteen years old and so vulnerable. “What a jerk. He even told her to trust him. He said he loved her! What a creep he turned out to be!”
LeAnn took a big drink of her wine and turned on the water in the shower. As she got in the shower she shouted, “Jerk!” and slammed the shower door shut behind her.