As She Remembered

AS SHE REMEMBERED

Joyce Peterson

A car pulled up to the curb along the esplanade sidewalk. The engine was left running, while a middle aged woman got out and took a pull-along cart from the back. An elderly woman, got out of the passengers' side and waited on the sidewalk until the cart was placed beside her.

"Thanks for driving me down, honey. I could have walked," the old woman said.

"No problem, Sadie. I was on my way to the grocery when I saw you come out of the house. I'll just put a gold star on my Good Neighbor chart. Looks like it's all yours today," she observed as she motioned to the empty bench that sat in the portioned off square of cement, surrounded by a balustrade, that had been built specifically for it. "It's going to be a good day for doing one of your beach sketches. By the way, how's your grandson getting along?"

"Fine, I guess. We haven't heard from him for a while," she answered as she made her way around the end of the bench.

"I'll tell Angie where I dropped you off." The words came floating over her shoulder as she got back in the car and took off.

Sadie looked after the car as she thought, "Angie and I did ourselves a favor when we bought that little house next to such a good neighbor." Twenty years ago, she and Angie, her daughter, had both lost the men in their lives when Sadie's husband, Frank, had died and, the father of the baby Angie was carrying, had taken off for parts unknown, after she had told him that she was pregnant. The sale of Sadie's house, and the insurance money, had been enough to get them the beach house and enough reserve for Angie to have little Davy, then, time to find a job. Sadie had been Davy's caregiver since the time he was born.

She sat on the end of the bench and pulled the carry-all along side. Taking out her sketch pad, she started on a loose drawing of the people on the beach below her . Her pastels helped her capture the blue-green of the ocean as it broke into white on the shore.

"Why does it change?" she wondered out loud.

"Everything changes. Nothing ever stays the same." The young man in uniform had sat down so quietly that she hadn't realized he was there until she heard the soft words that had been almost a whisper.

Sadie smiled. "I was just talking to myself. I didn't see you sit down. Home on leave?" she asked.

"Something like that," he said. Looking at the sketch, he continued, "You must have a lot of sketches of the beach."

" Yes, and they bring back so many memories but, I guess we both have things to remember. I hope yours are as good as mine." Pointing to a little boy who was trying to get away from a man who was holding his hand, she continued, "I brought my grandson here when he was about six."

"And he ran away from you." The words were uttered softly.

Sadie looked at the young man. He was blond with brown eyes and the uniform looked familiar. "So… do you know my grandson?" She asked. She saw he was a Private, like her grandson

"Yes, yes I do," the soldier answered.

"I assume you are on leave. Will Davy be coming home soon?" She could already feel the happiness she would know when Davy would come up the walk, home on leave. He had volunteered when he graduated from High School. Sadie had heard him tell a friend that by joining up he could save up for college and with help from the government, when his time was up, he could pay his own way. Davy had always been a thoughtful boy. She wished he hadn't been so thoughtful about trying to pay for his college degree. They could have managed without his going away to, who knew what. "Will he be home soon?" She asked again.

"Soon, I think." The young man told her. Pointing to her sketch pad, he said "There must be a lot of memories in there for you."

Sadie looked back at the people on the beach below them. "See those two boys down there? The ones playing catch?" Without waiting for an answer, she continued, "Davy and his friend Billy always did that. One day the ball got away from them and some man caught it and didn't want to give it back. Billy wanted to tell a cop, or somebody, but Davy said he didn't want to cause any trouble. He was that way and now he has put himself in the way of the worst trouble in the world."

"I know." The soldier said, softly

Sadie wished he would speak up more. "We should have kept him from signing up."

"There wasn't anything you could do. He had his reasons." The answer seemed to drift on the air.

"You're right, but I still wish…" She spied a young couple who had put their blanket down among the other bathers. "See that young couple just putting down their blanket?" The soldier was looking to where she pointed. He nodded and smiled as though he knew what was coming. "He had a beautiful girl friend that he left behind. He thinks she will wait for him but I don't know. "

The soldier nodded without agreeing or disagreeing.

"When he gets home on leave, we'll see." Sadie really liked Brittany and had kept her informed about Davy.

"Yes, you'll see." It sounded like a promise as the soldier said it.

Sadie watched the young couple on the beach before she looked around but the young man had gone. "I was going to tell him to have a good time on his furlough but I'm sure he will."

A car had pulled up to the curb and a young woman got out of the passengers side and was waving at her, "Grandma Sadie, we came to take you home. Your neighbor told us where to find you."

"Brittany?" She asked. "What are you doing here? No classes today?"

"They didn't seem very important today." She said as the driver got out of the car. "We wanted to surprise you."

When Sadie saw who the driver was, she must have looked faint because he came around and put his arms around her. "Davy, it's really you, it's really you!! He said you would be home soon."

"He? Who?" Davy asked.

Sadie hugged him, "Another soldier. He sat on the bench with me and seemed to know a lot about my memories. He knew you, so you must have told him about me. He was about your age, with blond hair and brown eyes."

"Must have been Charlie. We talked a lot about home and the folks we would see when we got here. He said, if he was ever in this area, he would look you up to see if you were as great as I had been telling him." Davy's voice had a sad note to it.

"Nothing to be sad about," Sadie told him. "He kept his promise. He came by."

Davy's smile was also sad as he told her, "I know, Gram, but Charlie was killed by a roadside bomb a week before we were both to come home on furlough."