Special Visit

  

“Surprise!, Surprise!”; Eva, Maries mother, called out as she came up the walk.  We had noticed the familiar car slowly pull around the corner and park at the end of the walk.  Marie let out a gasp and started straightening up the front room.  I went to the front door and let them in.  Arnie was all grins and Eva was talking a mile a minute.  Their excuse for driving over to see us just a month and a half since we left their place was, “to bring over a few things you had forgotten”.  That explanation didn’t hold water with Marie.  She suspected as I did that they wanted to check on how we were living.  They had rented a motel room down by the highway entrance and had looked around town some before coming by to surprise us.  Marie bluntly asked how long they were going to stay.  Arnie replied they would like to look around at the country a little so probably a couple days.

Eva wanted to unload the car which held a wealth of wedding presents.  This changed the focus of the discussion as the thrill of opening presents took over.  All of Marie’s relatives had left their gifts with Eva.  Because of the late notice, they had no time to purchase a present and bring it to the wedding.  It was getting toward evening so I asked Marie if she wanted me to start dinner.  Eva announced she had put together a little something that was in the ice chest in the car.  She asked if I would mind bringing it in.  We soon had a cold casserole in the oven and plates of home made bread, vegetables, and cookies on the table.  I put on some coffee water and as we finished the unwrapping of presents the casserole warmed and filled the kitchen with mouth watering fragrance.

I could tell Arnie was enjoying his road trip.  He related a conversation he had with a service station attendant.  He had asked, jokingly what all the white things were out in some of the fields, knowing full well they were boulders.  The service station attendant, only slightly younger than Arnie, responded, that they were fertilizer.  Then Arnie wanted to know why there was a worker in one of the fields, picking up the fertilizer.  The attendant was quick to respond that the guy that owned that field must be gone and that worker is stealing his fertilizer.  Both men had a good laugh over their exchange.

It was the weekend, so we went for a ride with them and visited along the way.  I felt comfortable with them now.  I sensed they had decided we were going to make it, and the community and residents weren’t too different from Saint John.  They packed and left early Monday morning for Washington State.

It was a delicious meal, enjoyed by almost all.  When I glanced at Marie she looked uncomfortable and I had to excuse ourselves to take her back to the apartment.  I’m not sure what every one thought about our quick exit.  Our thanks were expressed as was regret we had to leave so suddenly.  There may have been speculation that Marie was pregnant.  I felt very sure that wasn’t the problem as we were taking measures to delay a couple years until we were more settled and could afford a baby.  However, it evolved that it was longer than that before we were able to have our first child


* Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 2, Roles and Responsibilities of an Educator", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill.