Chapter Twenty-one—Dan Reese Visits Ingleside
The entire Blythe household rejoiced at Walter's return. Anne could barely allow him out of her sight the entire evening, while Susan cast rheumatism and Sunday tradition aside in order to mix up a batch of monkey-face cookies, Walter's childhood favorite. Gilbert disappeared mysteriously for a while, only to come back with eyes that held traces of tears in them. Knowing that the rest of the clan would want to know as soon as possible about it, Faith took it upon herself to call everyone. Walt, Matt, and Meredith just stared.
Una attempted to help Susan seed raisins, but she couldn't keep her mind on her work. A complete sense of relief permeated her entire being. Walter's doubts about his reception had begun to seep into her mind during the journey home, but she was grateful that none of them had been fulfilled.
Maybe now that we're home, things won't be quite so awkward between us, she thought. Ever since…ever since we kissed, there's been a constraint there. It's to be expected, of course, but I don't think that we were ever completely at ease in each other's company for the rest of the journey. We only talked about commonplace things…that, and his homecoming. I wonder what he'll do now. I suppose he doesn't know that himself.
The kitchen door swung open to admit Jem. "Una! You're home!" He caught sight of the cookie sheets. "Cookies? Susan, you shouldn't have!" he said, grabbing two. "What's the occasion? Una's homecoming?"
"They're for Walter," Susan said simply, wiping her floury hands on her apron. "They're his favorite."
"I thought Matt liked monkey-face cookies and Walt liked gingersnaps," Jem said, puzzled.
"Not Walt, Walter," Susan attempted to explain. "Your brother. He's in the living-room with your parents."
Jem raised his eyebrows at Una. "Susan, are you feeling all right? If you aren't feeling well, you should lie down and rest. The cookies aren't that important."
"He really is here, Jem. We…met in Europe. It's a horrendously long story, but the gist of it is that he thought that we all had rejected him and so he stayed in Germany and France ever since the War. The misunderstanding was cleared up, and he came back with me," Una told him.
Meredith burst into the room. "Daddy, Daddy, Uncle Walter's alive!"
Jem sat down shakily on a kitchen chair. "My brother." He suddenly stood up and almost ran to the living-room. "My brother!" Una followed him just in time to see the two brothers embrace, both with tears in their eyes.
Faith peered over her shoulder. "I can't believe it," she said softly. "All these years…and we never knew. I hardly know how to react, except to be joyful." She looked curiously at her sister. "Una—how did you ever find him?"
"I went to the cemetery at Courcelette…I thought it would be the right thing to do—to pay my last respects. I fell and twisted my weak ankle. Walter came to my aid. We just started talking and all of a sudden, I knew who he was."
"I wonder what he'll do now," Faith mused. "Walter had so much talent. It would be a shame if all of it was wasted."
Una felt as if she were turned to stone. Even though she knew that there was nothing behind Faith's words than sisterly concern, it sent a pang through her to hear Walter's name on her lips.
But there's no reason for me to feel that way. I'm just being silly, she thought to herself.
**************
Gilbert stood in the doorway of the room he and Anne had shared for so many years, watching her brush out her hair before going to bed. Joy radiated from her face.
"Gilbert, I'm almost afraid to be this happy. Ever since we thought Walter died, it was as though a piece of me was missing. I grieved after Joyce's death, but I never knew her. I watched Walter grow up, which made the loss that much harder. Now I want to dance and sing and be like a girl again!"
"You've always been my Anne-girl."
"Do you think he's changed much, Gilbert? I'm sure he must have…it's been so many years. But I hope that the little boy who read me his poems is still in there. I'm sure he is."
Gilbert said nothing, but came to her and kissed her. He wasn't quite as sure.
************
Glen St. Mary's was in complete shock at the return of Walter Blythe.
"I never heard of such a thing in all my life," Mrs. Billy Shakespeare Drews, nee Sissy Flagg, said to Fannie Reese as they worked on Fannie's new crazy quilt. "It almost seems unnatural."
Fannie was Jem's nurse, a brisk, practical woman. "Odd, at the very least," she commented as she bit off a thread.
"And to think he actually lived with those Germans for years! Why, when you think of all the beastly things that they did in the War, it makes you wonder about his sanity. He was always a little off in school, though. There's some sort of new-fangled thing out there called brainwashing. Do you think he was brainwashed?"
Fannie decided it was time to throw in a higher authority. "Young Dr. Blythe takes no stock in brainwashing," she said. "He says that there are kind people in all parts of the world, even in Germany." And she walked off—ostensibly to get refreshments for Sissy, but Sissy knew when she was being snubbed.
*************
Young Dr. Blythe was, at that moment, having a long-overdue conversation with his brother in the garret of Ingleside, where they had often played together. Although Walter had been home for several days, this was the first chance that they had had to talk.
"So it was you that night."
"Yes. I thought you hated me."
"I hated the fact that my enemy looked like my brother. And I hated war."
They sat in companionable silence for a while, merely enjoying each other's company in a way they hadn't been able to in years.
"So what do you plan to do now?" Jem asked.
"Honestly? I have no idea as of yet. I worked partway to a BA at Redmond before the war, but I can't see myself going back and finishing it. I'd be years older than any of the other students, and I fear I've lost my interest for such things. Right now, I'm just trying to reacquaint myself with my family." Walter stretched out on the floor, his back against an old chintz-covered sofa.
Jem was draped over Gilbert's favorite old blue chair, looking much closer to fourteen than forty. "God bless Una for happening to come across your path. As we used to say back in Rainbow Valley days, she's a brick. I don't think anyone knows how to thank her enough."
"I certainly don't," Walter agreed. "I feel as if she's given me my life back, though I don't know quite what to do with it yet."
"You could always marry and raise a family," Jem grinned. "It's done wonders for me." He looked at his brother more seriously. "After we received word of your death, Mother was cleaning out your room and found a series of sonnets to 'Rosamond'. She was pretty special to you, wasn't she? I mean, you never mentioned her to me, so she would have had to be someone who meant a lot to you."
Walter merely nodded.
"Maybe you should look her up, see whatever happened to her. You never know…she could still be waiting for you after all these years."
Walter stood up to go downstairs. "She never knew," he replied almost bitterly. "She's married now, but I never had a chance anyway."
***********
At the same time, Una and Faith were sitting on Hezekiah Pollock's tombstone in the old Methodist graveyard. Faith studied her sister closely.
"You're different, Una," she finally said. "Different in a good way, though. It's not looks, exactly, but more your whole presence. I think this trip was good for you; it seems to have given you a lot more self-confidence."
"I never thought of it that way."
"Well, you were on your own without any of us for several months. You had to rely on yourself. And then convincing Walter to come back home—well, I don't think anyone in the family has figured out how to tell you how grateful they are."
Una flushed. Even though she knew that Faith only thought of Walter as a friend and brother, it still hurt to hear his name on her lips. However, it hurt more to hear Faith's name on his lips. But what was she thinking of? There was no reason for her to care about Walter's feelings for Faith, no reason at all.
"So what are you going to do now?" Faith asked. "I know that before you left, you said that when you returned you were planning to visit around for a while."
"That seems to be the most logical idea," Una told her. "Since Rosemary's living with Norman and Ellen, I'll need to find some other abode. Bruce will stay with them during the summers—did I tell you that he's planning to go to Redmond next fall?"
Faith grinned. "No. I told you. You're flustered these days—must be all that traveling went to your head or something. Or is it the thought of your eventual nuptials?"
Una turned an even deeper crimson. Ignoring Faith's jibe, she continued. "When Nan and Jerry came to see Walter earlier this week, they asked if I'd like to stay with them until about mid-December. I think I'll do that and then go to Kingsport for Christmas to see Di and Philip and…Shirley."
Faith looked ready to insert a teasing comment when Meredith ran up. "Mummy! Aunt Una! Mr. Reese is here, and he's saying horrible things about Uncle Walter!"
"Which Mr. Reese, dear?" Faith asked.
"Mr. Dan Reese. He's calling Uncle Walter a Hun-lover and a yellow-bellied coward and…and…well, you washed out Walt's mouth with soap when he said this, so I'll just whisper it to you. Is that all right, Mummy?" Meredith looked more solemn than Una had ever seen her, but there was almost a twinkle in her eye in hopes of being allowed to say a forbidden word.
Faith soon squelched that notion. "You don't need to repeat it to me, Meredith. Some things are best left to the imagination. Go play; Aunt Una and I will go back to the house and see what's going on." As Meredith scampered off to find her brothers, Faith sighed. "I hoped it wouldn't come to this. Fannie told Jem—Fannie's a cousin of Dan's, you know—that she thought there might be trouble, especially because Walter beat Dan in that fight all those years ago. The Glen prides itself on its patriotism, and some people find Walter's story a bit preposterous. Right now, they tend to equate him with Whiskers-on-the-Moon."
"Surely you don't think that, do you, Faith?" Una asked as they crossed through Rainbow Valley to Ingleside.
"Of course not! But I'm just telling you what's been said around the village."
The two women reached Ingleside in time to see Jem buttoning the cuffs of his sleeves. "Dan Reese won't be saying anything more about my brother for a while," he told them. "I gave him a piece of my mind and a piece of my fist."
"And do you intend to do that to everyone who insults me?" Walter cried. "You can't, Jem!"
"Why not? I'm not about to let some…some…"
Faith coughed discreetly, perhaps trying to avert words being used that would have garnered a mouth-washing from any of the children.
"…some person speak of my brother that way!"
"So you're going to hit them all?" Walter asked sarcastically. "That will do wonders for your medical practice, not to mention your family's reputation in the area." He started to walk away. "I've been fighting my own battles for years, Jem. I'll handle it."
***********
Anne Blythe was enjoying the autumn evening by sitting with her husband on the verandah of Ingleside. Gilbert's hand was in hers, her lost son had returned, and there were still late flowers in her garden. I'm a completely happy woman, she thought.
Gilbert was not quite as composed. Although Anne only knew the basic story of Dan Reese's visit, he had seen the entire episode. Although he abhorred what Dan had done, he didn't feel that he could condone Jem's behavior either, though he found it the less reprehensible of the two. It's like something Anne would have done, perhaps, he thought. Not a slate over the head, but along the same lines.
Walter came out of the house and sat down on the steps in front of them.
"I can't stay here," he said abruptly.
Anne was indignant. "Of course you can! Just because one person comes and says insulting things about you doesn't mean that you can't live here with us—this is your home. Why, we haven't seen you in so long! We've barely had a chance to catch up. You can't go again…so soon!"
"I have to, Mother," Walter said, looking up at her with eyes that pleaded for her understanding. "It's not that I don't want to be here with you—I do, more than anything else. But it will affect the rest of you—Dad and Jem's medical practice especially. I can't do that to you all. And the Glen isn't home anymore to me; it hasn't been for years. I thought I could just pick up where I left off, but I can't. Too many waves have rolled past Four Winds Light for that to happen."
Gilbert looked at his son with compassion and understanding. "So what do you plan to do now?" he asked. "Return to France?"
"No, I think that part of my life's behind me," Walter told him. "I actually thought that I might go to Toronto for a while. Rilla and Ken would be close by, and I could find work somewhere."
Anne's face was grey. "Tell him it's all right to stay here, Gilbert. Tell him!" Her voice cracked, and there were tears in her eyes. Had she found her son only to lose him again?
"He has to make this decision for himself, Anne-girl."
"It's not for forever, Mother. I'll still come and visit…in all probability, so frequently that you'll beg me to stay away. But I can't live here. It's not just the people like Dan Reese. It's the memories of things that were and things that could have been."
Anne shut her eyes against the pain, comparing the idealistic boy of yesteryear with the embittered man before her. "I love you, Walter. Do what you have to do, but remember that we love you."
Gilbert put his hand on Walter's shoulder. "God go with you."
"He hasn't been with me in ages. Why should He start now?" Walter asked cynically. He walked off.
Anne started to follow him, but Gilbert held her back.
"There's nothing we can do for him, Anne-girl. He'll have to get through this on his own."