Jo's birthday
"Marmee! Isn't Laurie due back today?" Jo came stampeding down the stairs, waving a letter. She stepped on the hem of her own dress and nearly flew down the stairs.
The sweet strains of Mendelssohn stopped abruptly and Beth appeared around the corner. "Jo! Are you hurt?"
Josephine March picked herself off the landing and managed to get down the rest of the steps without mishap. "Beth, dear, isn't Laurie coming back today? He wrote me last week saying his train would arrive at half past three. I'm late to get him!"
Beth smiled. Her sister was such a hurricane. Forever whirling around in active effervescence, her rambunctious sister exuded such a sense of perfect chaos.
"Tell Marmee I'm going off to the train station to get him. Can't wait for dinner time." Jo fairly breezed through the door, slamming it after her.
"Jo, you left behind your hat!" called Beth before Jo could disappear down the street. Jo halted abruptly in her dead run and turned around.
"Bother, must I wear it? Confounded thing, ribbons and all," was Jo's reply, as she panted from her run. Beth tied the 'confounded thing' on to her head, and pushed an umbrella at her sister. "Take it; I feel it might rain."
"Beth, you're a darling," said Jo gratefully, kissing her sister on the cheek. "I'll be back in time for dinner. Don't forget to remind Meg to bring the extra china over for the celebration."
The door banged shut after her. Two seconds later, it blasted open again.
"Bethy, could you please buy some raisins and nuts from the fruiterer when you head off to town to buy the groceries? I promised Demi some, and he I won't hear the end of it if he finds out the jar is empty."
Fifteen minutes later, Jo, having almost boarded a bus to the wrong side of town, finds herself at the train station.
"Oh dear, I'm late. It's already ten to four." Jo stood on her toes, trying to espy Laurie through the bustling crowd. "Maybe he thinks I've forgotten and has taken the bus home by himself."
In her haste to find her best friend, Jo stepped on the toes of an old lady who brandished her cane at her, as well as upset some baggage that was on the platform. Jo hurried to righten the suitcases and was apprehended by an irascible old Russian gentlemen who was under the delusion that Jo was trying to steal his luggage. To add to the confusion, having got away from the Russian man who lapsed in to a fit of wheezing after shouting himself hoarse, Jo bumped right in to a young maid who dropped her bag on the dirty station floor, covered with grime by the rush of hundreds of weary feet.
Turning around, Jo collided in to a broad chest and found her nose an inch or so away from a large brown waistcoat.
"I'm sorry, so sorry; I didn't mean that. I've been banging in to so many people and I can't find my friend," muttered Jo, whose many mishaps had reduced her to a state of continuous babbling. "Then there was the old fellow who spoke nothing but Russian and a handful of French and that poor, poor lady who dropped her silk bag then the old woman who hit me with her stick; I get in to nothing but trouble. I should just stay away from train sta…"
A choke of laughter made her look up and Jo's tired face broke in to a happy beam as Laurie's familiar brown eyes laughed back at her.
"Jo, dear, Happy Birthday! Dreadfully sorry you had to come all this way and get in to such a mess. You should have just stayed home," began Laurie, after enveloping the delighted Jo in a massive hug.
"Nonsense, Teddy! You know I love to come greet you myself. Thanks awfully for taking the day off to come home. I know it must have been such a hassle, what with the exams so near." Jo tried to hoist up the biggest suitcase with grace and almost ended up on the floor.
Laurie quickly relieved Jo off the bag, lest she get in to more trouble.
"You surely didn't think I'd stay at college and miss all the fun? Besides, I needed a couple days off to clear my head. Too much study does no one good and my head was starting to ache unbearably after too many lessons."
"So you have been studying? I'm glad, for I was afraid you were starting to waste all your grandfather's money for nothing but poker games and more awful hats," Jo said, pulling off the awful hat that was currently in fashion and giving the thing a disapproving shove down Laurie's pocket, while linking her arm with Laurie's.
Laurie went quite for a while, feeling that nothing was as good as being home with family and friends and having Jo's arm around his. So like Jo to worry about him.
"Teddy? Why so quiet?" Jo stopped and turned around to face him. "Not anything wrong at college with the fellows, surely?"
Laurie was quick to answer. "No, no, of course not. I haven't drank in ages, and neither have I smoked. You know I'd keep my promise to Meg." Only smoking and alcohol were far from his mind just now. Only Jo was bothering his thoughts.
Jo, perfectly oblivious to the look her Teddy was directing at her, gave a happy nod, and resumed her place by his side.
Together they hailed a bus down, and got in, towards home, and a celebrative reunion.