Surprise!, Part III

March 1958

Lois smiled.  “I know we don’t have to explain ourselves, but I’m really thinking of our folks. I don’t want to put them in the position of having to explain it to their friends or feel ashamed at church.”  

Bill watched her for a few seconds while he puffed his cigarette. “And you’re sure about this? Not having a church wedding and all?”

“Yes.” Lois looked down and patted her stomach again. When she looked up her smile was as soft as her eyes. “All I care about is marrying you and getting our family started.”

He got up and walked around next to her. Crouching beside her, he put his big hand on top of hers on her belly. “We’ll do whatever you want sweetheart, because that’s all I care about too.”

The screen door banged and Lorraine came trotting across the floor with a big smile on her pretty pixie face and a big fish dangling from her fingers by its gill slit. “Uncle Bill, look at the carp I caught.” She beamed at him and then glanced over at Lois. “Hi, Aunt Lois.” 

Lois shook her head and laughed. “Hi, Rainy.”

“Wow,” Bill said, standing up. “Man, that’s a beauty.  He grabbed the fish’s slimy tail.  “Would you look at that,” he whistled, “must be over a foot long.”

Rainy nodded and gazed up at her Uncle, adoration shining from her eyes. “Let’s go measure it.”

“You got it, kiddo.” Bill let the tail flop down and put a big hand on the girl’s shoulder. He grinned over his shoulder at Lois who made a shooing motion with her hand.

“Don’t mind me. Go on, you two peas-in-a-pod, and get that fish measured so Rainy can brag to her brothers.” 

to be continued...

Surprise!, Part II

March, 1958

...continued

Bill’s eyes crinkled as his face split into a huge grin, but he lowered his voice. “You bet I do. I’m going to be a daddy and I want to tell the whole world”

He picked up his chair and sat back down. With shaking hands, he picked up the undone cigarette, stuffed it all back together and rolled it up nice and neat. A tear rolled down his cheek. After wiping it away, he let out a shaky sigh, licked the gummed edge of the paper and stuck it between his lips. Laughing, he reached across the table and took her hand.  

“This is just swell,” he said, talking around the cigarette. “You just made me the happiest guy in the world for the second time and I want to shout it out from the rooftops.”

Lois smiled. “I know. I’m happy too, but I think we should keep it to ourselves. Just for now.”

Raising his eyebrows, he said, “Even if we don’t tell anybody, they’ll figure it out.”

“I know, but…” Lois sighed. “I just don’t want to give the gossips something to talk about. Besides, if we get married in mid-April most people won’t do the math. They’ll just assume the baby is a little early.”

Bill lit his cigarette, puffed out a few clouds and settled back in his chair. The chair creaked softly and the river gurgled. Birds whistled and chirped. Mosquitoes flung themselves at the screen, tiny vampires hungry for warm blood. He looked over at his soon to be wife and mother of his soon to be child. “Well, I don’t think we should worry about it. We’re both adults, you’re twenty-three and I’ll be thirty-four when this baby is born.”

Tapping  the ash end of the cigarette into the ashtray on the table, he lifted his eyes to hers. “I don’t think we need to explain ourselves to anybody at our ages.”

to be continued...

Surprise!

March, 1958

“I don’t really think we should get married at church,” Lois said. “And, I think we should do it next month.”

Bill stopped rolling his cigarette, set the half-formed cigarette down and looked at her across the table.

The river paid them no mind as it meandered past the screened porch on the back of Florence and Clair’s house.

“What? Why?” Bill asked. “I thought you wanted to get married at your church and you and Flo have already started planning the wedding.”

Lois watched as the thin cigarette paper slowly unrolled and the tobacco strands unraveled to lay like brown straw on the white paper. She lifted her eyes to his. “Well, I thought that too, but now it just doesn’t seem all that important. She patted her stomach.

“Let’s just get married at the courthouse. That way we can do it faster.” She averted her gaze, stared out over the swirling water. “You know, before I start showing.”

“Showing? Showing what?”

Looking at him, she smiled. “I’m pregnant.”

Mouth dropping open, he jumped up, knocking his chair over. “What?” he said, almost yelling.

“Shh, not so loud,” Lois said, looking around. “Do you want everybody to know?”

to be continued...

*Author's note: This is a fictionalized version of what I was told by Mom.