Chapter Nine: Blossom and the Engagement Party

When Alexander made love to me that day, I just wasn't with him at first. I felt strange and shy. When I had first taken up with Alexander, I'd nearly always been the one in charge. Now we were not just friends, and he was not the little boy he'd been. He was a man, and I was a woman. We were partners and lovers now.

Maybe I was able to see that because it was so different that time. The first time I'd been able to look up at the stars sparkling through green leaves. Now I concentrated on the afternoon sun shining through the window, and the patterns that shadows were making on the wall. Then, slowly, I began to feel differently, and then I was truly with Alexander. I was with him all the way.

When we left the house, we talked a bit about it.

"Could you live in that house for awhile, if we were really to get married?" I asked.

"It would be a good place to start," Alexander said simply. "Anywhere we are together will be home, though."

It was awfully hard to spend the afternoon with him like that, though, and then go back to his house for dinner, and sit with his parents, eating their food.

"Did you go to see the old Dabney House?" Alexander's father asked.

"Yes," said Alexander, talking like a true construction worker. "It's not in bad shape. It's kind of dark in the halls, and nothing has been done to it in an age, but it's a well-built house. It'll probably stand for a hundred more years. It needs paint for sure."

"It needs a new kitchen, I would expect," said Mrs. Armsworth.

"I don't think we'd want to mess with the kitchen," I said hastily, thinking of Minerva. "I would only be using it. It wouldn't be right to make any big changes, at least without Mrs. Birdsall's saying it's all right. We should be hearing from her soon. We wrote to her about our engagement. Maybe she'll have some more to say about the house. I still don't feel comfortable making any permanent changes, though, without her permission."

"I suppose you're right," said Mrs. Armsworth, as she passed me the fried chicken. "How do you feel about going to live there, though?"

"It has advantages and disadvantages," I answered. "It's nicer than where I am now, and probably safer, I'll admit. It would be a help to the Birdsalls, though, to have someone living there. It's sat empty for a long, long time. I would be farther away from you all, though, and I'd miss you."

"Oh, I think we'd still see you often enough," Mr. Armsworth said with a smile that made me feel good again.

"I couldn't just come running across the yard," though," I pointed out.

"I would hope you would not find yourself in any situations at the Dabney house where you would have to run out at all," Alexander's mother replied. "We'll help you see the place set right and made suitable to live in, of course." She then changed the subject and began to talk about the adorable cakes she had ordered for the engagement party.

Mr. Armsworth let Alexander have a couple of men to help him paint the Dabney house, so it would be ready for me to move into, and it did look a whole lot better after that. Minerva even stayed out of their way, for which I was very grateful. I moved in two days before the engagement party. I was busier than a one-armed paper-hanger that week. Alexander and I had lots of schoolwork to do, being as we were getting close to graduation, and the engagement party plans were going full speed.

I was having a new dress made, and had to have a final fitting for it. It was a cream-colored dress, trimmed with tatting that Mrs. Wysock had made herself. Tatting, which is a way of making lace, is known as the poor man's lace. That's because it takes so long to do, you can't get rich making it. I thought it was very dressy looking, though, and asked Mrs. Wysock if she could teach me to do it. She was thrilled at the thought. All I needed to tat, she said, was a shuttle and a ball of thread, and she promised to get me started in on the lessons right after the party. Mrs. Armsworth, who was not into that kind of thing, although she was pleased with the way the dress was coming along, just kept asking me questions about the decorations, and telling me about who had responded and who had not.

She wanted to hire a girl special to serve the refreshments, and I begged her to just let Gladys do it. Hiring another servant would remind me of Mama, who had spent many a day piling fancy food on trays in the Armsworth kitchen. I also knew it hurt Gladys' feelings when they kept her in the back of the house at parties. She wasn't what Mrs. Armsworth considered a proper person to have on display, but I knew it would mean a lot to Gladys if she were able to circulate that afternoon. Mr. Armsworth backed me up, but for other reasons. The party was getting expensive and he couldn't see paying another person just to stand around with a tray. He is practical to a fault, and I can't blame him for that. Gladys was pleased as punch with both of us.

I had packing and sorting to do, even if I didn't have much to move. We just used Alexander's old Mercer instead of hiring a moving van. I took Mama's cards, and her old fortune telling shawl for good luck, and some of our family papers. I carefully packed the framed picture of Alexander and me at the Junior Ring Dance, and my clothes.

Alexander had given me a pretty wooden jewelry box as an engagement present. He had picked it out for my birthday, but had not been able to give it to me then. There was nothing in it but my pearl pin and Inez Dumaine's hair flower brooch that I'd gotten when Alexander and I had gone to New Orleans. Before we left the shack, though, I had reached under the mattress and got out the picture Jeremy's mother had taken the night of the Winter Formal.

Alexander saw me pull it out, and asked to see it, so I let him.

"This is a picture like they take in the 1980s?" Alexander asked me, as I extended it. Then he looked at it carefully, and looked surprised. "Why he's just a kid!"

"Younger than us, " I admitted, and I finally told Alexander the whole story about Heather, and how lonely Jeremy had been, and how I had helped him see that he needed friends.

He handed the picture back to me, with a guilty look on his face. There wasn't nothing more to say as I slid the picture into the box. As we were putting my things into the Mercer, we saw Brent McCallister sitting in front of his shack, He was across the trail, but we could see him in his doorway.

"Moving up in the word, ain't you Blossom?" Brent called to me. "You think the Armsworth money and that rich lady's house make you something special? Well, take it from me, they don't make you nothing." He shook his head then, and took a long swig out of a pint bottle.

"Why aren't you at work, Brent?" Alexander asked sharply.

"You think just cause your daddy's got money that you can run the rest of us?" Brent drawled. "You don't run me, Mister Alexander Armsworth. I do what I please when I please, which is more than I can say for you. Yore pa has got you harnessed like a mule."

Alexander looked angry, but I quickly laid my hand on his arm and told him to forget it. We all knew Brent was out of his head half the time. Alexander agreed not to cause a scene saying anything else to Brent, but swore he was going to have a word with his father about Brent's attitude.

We drove to the Fairview House in silence, and after Alexander had the Mercer parked in front of the place, he helped me unload my things and carry them in. I put the picture of me and Alexander in the sitting room, and hung my clothes in the closet. The house was dead quiet. Apparently Minerva wasn't up to any ghostly baking or any other activity on this day. When we had everything unpacked, I turned to Alexander with a sigh.

"Brent McCallister isn't any different than anyone else in this town, Alexander. They all think here that I don't know my place, and that I'm after you for your money. That's what you get for picking a poor girl. Bluff City knows you could do better."

"Bluff City doesn't know anything," Alexander said. "I love you for who you are, and for who I am when we're together, not for what you have or don't have." He drew me into his arms, and I thought I knew how the afternoon was going to end, but I was only partly right.

It was quite some time later, when I was lying in Alexander's arms, under a soft down comforter that was almost as warm as his skin against mine, that we began to talk about what had happened in Chicago again. I still didn't feel any different, and it was hard to get used to the idea that we were going to have a child together.

"Do you know anything yet, Blossom?"

"Alexander," I said truthfully, "I've been waiting all week, and I am definitely late. I'm afraid we're stuck, and I don't mind admitting, I'm scared."

"You know I don't mind being stuck with you," Alexander said, opening his eyes and looking right into mine. "Don't be scared. We'll be all right together. As soon as graduation's over, we can go get a license, and go over to the judge's office downtown and get married. I promised my dad I'd graduate first, but after that, I'm all yours. I'll take care of you."

"I'm not scared about marrying you. I'm scared about having this baby. Bluff City is still going to have a fine time at our expense, and besides that, I can't help worrying about how this baby will turn out. I hope it's all right."

"Blossom, that spirit said she was giving you a gift. When someone gives a gift, they don't send anything but the best they can. I'm sure it'll be fine."

That made sense and pleased me very much. I snuggled up closer to Alexander, laying my head on his chest. I was enjoying the feel of his arms around me, and the sound of his heart beating. Then I heard another kind of noise coming from downstairs.

"Maybe Minerva is making lunch," Alexander said, nuzzling his lips against my hair.

"You wish," I said, smiling, and lifting my face to kiss him.

It wasn't Minerva making that noise, though. We heard a gasp from the bedroom doorway, and saw Gladys, the Armsworth's hired girl, standing there, looking like she'd just seen ten ghosts, instead of two teenagers, who were obviously buck naked, under a comforter.

"Alexander Armsworth! Shame on you! What will your Ma say about this! You two get dressed and get yourselves downstairs this instant!" Face flaming, Gladys marched out of the room.

"Oh, gee whiz!" Alexander whined, as he tends to do when he's under a lot of pressure.

We were downstairs in record time. Gladys was sitting on a straight-backed chair in the front hall near the grandfather clock, looking grim.

"Gladys," Alexander said in a faltering voice, "what are you doing here?"

"Your ma sent me over with some things for Blossom. She figured there wasn't anything left in the kitchen for her to get started with." She indicated a couple of big baskets at her feet. "There's a pound of good coffee, some flour, sugar, and spices…just a few basic things. I knew you were here because I saw the Mercer, so I just walked in. I never expected to walk into anything like THAT, though! I am ashamed of the both of you!"

"Gladys," I said in a placating voice, "you aren't going to really tell Alexander's ma, are you? What good would that do? It won't change anything. You'd just get her all worked up, and right before the engagement party, too."

'What you're doing ain't right," Gladys said, but not as firmly as before.

"We love each other, and we're going to get married. Alexander is all I've got. Can't you see that?" I said in a pleading way.

"No, I can't see. You two kids can't wait…always have to jump the gun. I should have known! I won't tell your ma," she said looking at Alexander, exasperated, "but you had just better be careful. What if she'd come with me like she wanted to at first? You'd worry ten years off her life, if she knew what you were up to in here."

Gladys was getting up a fine had of steam and there was no stopping her.

"Has this been going on a long time?" she continued, glaring at Alexander. "Are you being careful, or are we going to see another premature baby on the way soon? I wouldn't be surprised. Well, iffen there was," she said, looking over at me sternly, "at least you wouldn't be the first Bluff City girl to go to the altar pregnant, and probably not the last, either."

Alexander squirmed and stuttered at that, but I spoke up quickly. "This is just since Chicago," I said, deciding that part of the truth was better than a total lie at this point. "If she finds that out, then Mr. Armsworth will be in his wife's bad graces, too, and she might put you back in the kitchen for the party just to spite us. So I'm glad you aren't going to tell."

She considered this and could see my point, "Oh, well, most first babies are premature anyway aren't they? And the rest always show up on time." She sighed. "I'd better get back before yore ma comes looking for me and finds all of us." She got up from the chair. "Put those things in the kitchen and bring the baskets home for me in the car, Alexander."

She headed out the door, straightening her shawl and muttering about how she didn't know what the world was coming to.

Alexander looked at me and shook his head. "Blossom Culp, you are the biggest blackmailer I have ever met."

"Let's put the groceries away, Alexander."

As we did that, I could almost see Alexander's mind working. Finally he spoke. "Blossom, how many kids do you want? We never talked about it. It's strange. We had a choice to be anything we wanted to be, and now we don't. I don't mind that, because it's something I would have chosen anyway, but what about later on?"

"Aren't you the one who told me whatever happens will just happen?" I asked.

"Well, there's ways around it." Alexander could still blush all the way up to the tips of his ears when the subject deserved it. "I asked around and found out."

"Tell me about it," I said, so he did. I considered what he was saying. I'd heard of such things, but never seen one. I thought about it, then finally answered, "Ask me after we have this one, and I'll have a better idea of how I handle it."

Mrs. Wysock came to the Fairview house with my dress the day of the party to help me get dressed, and the cream gown looked beautiful. I decided right then that I was going to wear this dress when Alexander and I went to the judge's office to get married. I might not be able to have a big wedding, but I was going to be married in a pretty dress.

Alexander came fairly early to pick me up, and he was in a new suit that made him look very distinguished. I told him how handsome he looked, but he went on even longer about how beautiful I looked. I could always count on Alexander to compliment me when I needed a boost of courage. As we were riding in the Mercer down Fairview Avenue going to the party, I asked him, "Alexander, if we get married in a judge's office, can we still have a wedding picture?"

"I guess so," he answered, startled by the question. "We could just nip over to Ledbetter's Studio afterwards and get one made. Why do you ask?"

"Because I want you to wear that suit when we get married and I want to wear this dress. This is how I want to remember us looking, because I think we make a mighty fine pair this way."

"My mother will probably take pictures of us at the party in these clothes, with her box camera," Alexander said.

"It's not the same," I replied. "I want a real wedding picture."

"I guess you'll just have to have one, then," said Alexander, leaning over and kissing my nose, as we waited for a delivery wagon to pass us by.

For Lucille's coming out party, the Armsworth's had tried to put up a pavilion to serve the punch in, but it had fallen down not long afterwards. They'd held her engagement party in their house and her wedding reception in the bottom of the Episcopal Church.

For Alexander's engagement party to me, they had just put up a canopy tent between the flower beds to serve as a place to keep the punch. We were supposed to receive the guests on the porch, and then direct them down to the tent, where Mrs. Armsworth's cousin, Elvera Schumate, who was quite close to the family, would be in charge of the punch, as usual. There would be little cakes in there, too, like the ones they had ordered for Lucille's party. They were called petit fours, and Gladys, who had gotten a nice, new, black dress, lace cap, and apron for the occasion, was to circulate with a tray, offering seconds on them. She gave me several dark looks, but kept her promise and held her tongue.

One of the first people to arrive was Mrs. Van Deeter, and I was thrilled to see her Cadillac in the lane. Mrs. Van Deeter is a lady of quality, and had been a loyal friend. She gave me a kiss on the cheek, and gave Alexander a hug. She also gave us a handsome cream colored envelope, that just matched my dress, and I was curious as to what was in it, but we didn't get to open any of our cards then. We had a big white box that was decorated with ribbons to look like a giant present, on the porch to put them into, and a plank table for engagement gifts. Most of the Armsworth's friends came, including the Hochhuths, the Breckenridges and the Beasleys.

A lot of girls from school came, not to honor me, or wish Alexander the best, but to satisfy their curiosity. I was ready for them. I knew for a fact my dress was beautiful, my ring was impressive, and Alexander was mine forever. They could choke on all that, for all I cared.

Most of Alexander's friends from the fraternity came, and they lured him off the porch as soon as the receiving was over and they could safely do so without incurring Luella Armsworths's wrath. I saw them at the corner of the house, slapping Alexander on the back. Someone (I couldn't see who!) produced a small flask from underneath his coattails, and I knew the party was well and truly on. I went over to Lucille, and we began to reminisce about the time she had caught me kissing Alexander under the porch at her coming-out party.

"I could tell right then that Alexander was sweet on you, Blossom," said Lucille, looking fondly down into the snowball bushes.

"That was the day we met," Lowell remarked, looking dreamily at Lucille.

"You were so wonderful that day," said Lucille to her husband, dramatically. "You were my hero."

Lowell had tossed Lucille's drunken beau, Tom Hackett, out of that party for Mrs. Armsworth, but I heard from Alexander later that Tom had returned later that night and Lucille had almost taken him back, but I decided not to remind either of them of that.

The party was a great success, and we received quite a bit in engagement presents. Most of the folks gave us money, which Mrs. Armsworth said we should save for the wedding. Alexander and I just looked at each other and shrugged when she said that. We hadn't the heart yet to tell her we weren't in any shape for a big wedding.

After the party Alexander and I buckled down to school so we could graduate with style. The graduation ceremony was held at the high school about three weeks after the engagement party. I wore my cream dress, figuring I might as well get the most use out of it I could. Mr. and Mrs. Armsworth, and Lucille and Lowell came to see us graduate. Lucille had left the boys with Gladys, and I wondered what the Armsworth house would look like when we got home, as Gladys was getting too old to keep up with two little ones like that.

It was the fashion that year for the girls to wear flower corsages in the graduation procession. I hadn't bought myself one, thinking it foolish for a girl to buy herself flowers. I knew Alexander hadn't bought one either, since he had nothing of the kind with him when he picked me up in the Mercer to take me over to the high school. He probably hadn't even thought of it. When we arrived, though, his family was already there, and Joe Armsworth had a corsage of white rosebuds in his hand for me.

"Oh, Mr. Armsworth, You shouldn't have," I said, pleased and proud. Then I saw the card on the flowers. It had Mama's mark on it, the mark she always made when she was told to sign her name. I looked at Mr. Armsworth in wonder. "How…"

"Blossom," he said gently, "when we all went to court that day, your mother stopped me in the hall afterwards and gave me some money and that card. She told me to buy you a corsage for graduation, in case she wasn't up to it."

Tears spilled out of my eyes, Alexander gave me a hug, and Lucille handed me a handkerchief. We didn't have to say anything else. We all understood each other perfectly.

Once graduation was over, Alexander went to work for his father full time. They were well into their busy season and things had gotten even more complicated when they'd had to let Brent McCallister go. I had seen it coming. Brent was drunk nearly all the time now and swearing about the government killing his son, and the flour mill making his wife too sick to survive. Brent was suspicious of everyone and everything when he got into one of his moods.

He'd spent two days in jail in May for shooting flagpoles off various buildings in town and was just not reliable at all anymore. The building crews were tired of him either not showing up, or showing up three sheets to the wind and leaving after a few hours. It was a sorry situation.

While Alexander was working, I started going over to Mrs. Wysock's house to learn how to tat. It took me three hours just to learn to make the basic double knot, but once I had that down, I caught on quickly. I wanted to learn to make lace edging. She suggested that I make some for a wedding veil, and promised to help me put it all together. I gently told her that I would rather make it for a Christening dress, and bless her heart, she understood at once, but never said a word about it to anyone that I know of.

Mrs. Wysock wasn't telling anyone, and Gladys wasn't telling anyone, but Alexander and I knew we were going to have to tell his family something soon. I was already two months along. Nothing showed yet, but it was only a matter of time.

"After my birthday," Alexander said decisively when I brought up the subject one day after we had spent the afternoon making love in the Fairview house. "I don't expect my parents to give us too much trouble, but I will be eighteen then, and if we have to I can get married without their permission when I'm eighteen. It's just one more month, Blossom."

"But I won't be eighteen until February," I told him. "What am I going to do?"

"Oh, Blossom, everyone in town knows your parents have passed on. Under the circumstances, I don't expect anyone to get in our way."

I gave it some thought, though, and began to form a backup plan, based on the letter of congratulations I had gotten from Mr. and Mrs. Birdsall, and other papers I had. Mrs. Birdsall had told us that the engagement was no surprise to her, that she'd been expecting it, and that she wished us every happiness. She also said that she hoped we'd continue to live in the house on Fairview Avenue, and asked us how we'd feel about getting it as a wedding present. We decided to give that some thought.