April
1958
Michigan
Lois started laughing which
got her sisters, all six of them, going and pretty soon the Allen girls were
laughing so hard tears rolled down their cheeks. Smiling, Bill shook his
head.
Cliff and Violet Allen and
Bill’s folks, Willy and Ida Schoppe sat in chairs at the front
of the crowded room across the table from the couple. Cliff leaned over to
their future son-in-law’s parents. “You
do know your son is marrying into a crazy family, don’t you?” Cliff said with a
grin.
Willy and Ida smiled. “We
do now,” Willy said.
Then somebody shouted, “open
the presents,” and Lois wiped her tears away with the handkerchief Bill handed
her.
Still giggling, Lois picked
up a silver-wrapped gift and held it out to Bill to help with the ripping and
tearing.
Later, after everyone had
left. Lois surveyed the room. They were surrounded by ribbons, torn wrapping
paper and slightly tattered paper decorations. The crumbling remnants of the
beautiful cake Florence had taken hours to create and everybody had gobbled
down in minutes still sat in the middle of the table. She grabbed a trashcan
and started cleaning up. Bill, Florence, Clair and the kids joined her and in
thirty minutes they had the room back to normal.
“That
was fun,” Lois said, dropping the last handful of crinkled paper in the trash.
She looked at her sister. “Thank you for doing this.” Turning to her
brother-in-law, she added, “You too, Clair.
We really appreciate you donating your home to have this party for us.”
Clair, tall, thin, and
stoic, chewed the ever-present cigar stub in his mouth and thought for a moment
before plucking the stub out of his mouth. He walked over to Lois and put a
hand on her shoulder. “Lois, after all you’ve done for us
over the years, having an engagement party for you is the least we can do.”
Lois’s
eyes glistened as she stared up at Clair. The room went quiet as everybody
turned to listen.
“In
fact, Florence and I have decided that after you get married, we want to, not
only throw your reception party here at Camp Withers but, we want to give you a
great deal on that nice little trailer you’ve been living in. We want you to
live here, close to us.” He glanced down at her waistline. “And raise your kids
with ours.”
Lois blushed and put a hand
to her cheek. “Oh…” The glistening turned into
real tears and a couple slipped out when she turned to Bill. “Bill? Would that
be alright with you? To live here, I mean. I know the party is fine, but what
do you think about living here? That way we could-”
“Sweetheart,”
Bill said, interrupting her flow of words. He walked over and grabbed Clair’s
hand, shook it, and looked at Florence. She stood beaming from the far corner
of the room with a half full garbage bag dangling from her hand. “I think
that’s one of the best idea’s I’ve heard in a long time. And thank you, to both of you. We accept your
offer as long as the price is fair. For you. Don’t go too easy on us just
because we’re family.” He raised his eyebrows at Clair who stuck the stogy back
in his teeth and nodded. “Plus,” he went back to his fiancée and draped his arm
over her shoulders, “It’ll only be temporary.”
Lois’s
eyebrows shot up and she raised wide eyes to his face.
“Once
we save up enough money to buy a house,” Bill said with a smile. “Or move to
Alaska.”
The kids ran forward and shouted
at once. “You’re going to live here!”
“Yay!”
“Alaska?”
Larry’s
eyes shone like a beacon. “If you move to Alaska can we come and visit? I’ve
always wanted to go there.”
“Of
course, you can,” Bill said.
Larry beamed.
“But,
Uncle Bill,” Lorraine said, her eyes wide. “That’s too far away.”
Bill glanced down at Lois.
She remained silent, but her lips were in a tight line and her eyes flashed up
at him. He smiled at his niece. “Don’t
worry, we’ll be here for a long time. He glanced at his fiancée. “Maybe
forever.”
Keeping her eyes on the
kids, she nodded. “We haven’t even talked about it
yet.” She shrugged out from under his arm. “But we’ll be discussing it
later.”
She grabbed her sister’s
hand. “Thank you, Florence.” Smiled at Clair.
“And you too, Clair. We would love to accept your offer.”
She threw Bill a look filled
with daggers, but he continued his conversation with the Larry and Fred. She
raised her voice to carry through the din of the excited boys. “I
can’t think of any place I would rather live than here at Camp Withers with
you.”
“I’m
so glad,” Florence said.
Lorraine stepped between her
mom and her aunt. “Please don’t leave us Aunt Lois.
We’d miss you too much.”
Lois hugged her. “Don’t
worry, we’re not going anywhere. We’ll be right here. With you.”
“Good.”
Rainy sniffled and hugged Lois hard around the waist. “Because I can’t imagine
growing up without you and Uncle Bill around.”
“Don’t worry, you
won’t,” Lois said, glancing at Bill with her eyebrows pinched together.
