"Juliet!" Bea came bursting into Juliet's room one afternoon when school had let out for the day. "Oh, I'm so glad I found you! You never stay around in the yard to chat like you used to. Why--why--why?"
Each "why" was punctuated by a stamp as Bea pounded her penny-loafer against the floor.
Juliet opened and closed her mouth in surprise. She went right home after school to check the mail. There was a letter from Blair every day now. Now a long letter--sometimes it was just a scrap with the words "I LOVE YOU" scrawled across it--like the one she had gotten today. Juliet had been reading it before Bea burst in, and dreaming of sun-lit castles in the sky. But now, with Bea not five feet away Juliet quickly shoved the envelope behind her mattress, where she'd taken to keeping all of her letters. The sheer volume of them had soon overflowed the cubbyhole in the mantle.
"Juliet!" Mother called from the stairs.
"Sit," Juliet told Bea. "We'll talk in a minute."
"Why don't you see if Bea wants to stay for supper, after the Junior Reds meeting?" Mother asked. "You haven't been seeing much of each other lately--you've been busy withother things?" Mother arched an eyebrow and Juliet realized that she knew.
"I'd hate to see your friendship grow cold because you are both over-extended," said Mother with a warm smile.
What a dear Mother! Juliet gave her a fierce hug and flew back upstairs to her room.
Bea was sitting at the desk chair, looking out of the window. Juliet plopped back down on her bed. Goodness--there was a corner of one of Blair's letters sticking up behind the headboard! She really must be more careful! Suppose Bea had seen it? Juliet pushed the paper down so that it did not show and glanced at Bea guiltily. She really must tell her--soon. Now that her dream was to become a reality.
"Juliet," said Bea quietly. "Oh, won't you please do me a favor!"
"Depends what it is," Juliet laughed. But there were tears in Bea's eyes when she turned around. "Bea? What is it?"
"Oh," Bea laughed. "It's just that John Jacob Snyder has been bugging me for weeks. He fancies he's in love with me--but I don't have a whit of feeling for him. Juliet--will you help me write a letter telling him to bug off? I've no idea what to say to him."
"Me!" Juliet said. "Bea, I want to help, but how would I know what to tell him?"
"Your mother's a writer!"
"But I'm not."
"It's in your blood, Juliet," Bea said. "Besides, you've a lot of experience with romance."
Juliet stared at her, stricken.
"With Allan," Bea clarified. "Before you broke his heart." She smiled.
"Oh, of course," said Juliet. She reached over and pulled her Jimmy-book towards her, found a pen, and sat poised. "So. Tell me what you want to say."
"Write, 'I want you to know that the circumstances have changed, and I don't love you anymore,'" Bea began.
"Anymore?" Juliet said.
"I might have thought I did, once," Bea explained.
"Should I write, 'Dear John Jacob?'"
"No," said Bea. "Leave it off. This is just a draft. Don't sign it, either--I'll copy it over when I get home."
"What else, then?" asked Juliet.
By the time the girls left for the Junior Reds meeting, the letter had been completed. Bea folded it up and placed it in her bag.
"Thank you, Juliet," she said. "It's perfect. I definitely think John Jacob will get the hint."
The letter went something like this:
I want you to know that the circumstances have changed, and I don't love you anymore. I don't think I ever did--I was carried away by the moonlight. In fact, I'm in love with someone else! So if you please, I want to call off anything that might have been understood between us. I've given this issue a lot of thought, and I hope that you will understand that this is no reflection on you, just on my fickle nature. But as of this moment, we are nothing to each other.
"I don't know, Bea," Juliet said uneasily. "Are you sure you want to send something like that? It's awfullyharsh."
"I'm sure!" said Bea blithely, and skipped down the steps. "Thank you, Juliet, a thousand times over. You'll never know how much this means to me."
"Do you want to come over for dinner?" Juliet called, as Bea started off cross-lots.
"Can't!" Bea yelled back. "I've got something really important to do!"
* * *
Juliet could not believe what she was seeing. She smoothed the paper out in front of her and tried again to read what was written. But couldn't. Her eyes were blurred from tears. She blinked a few times to clear them, and then breathed deeply for a moment. Then she looked down and read the black, definite words that were scrawled on the paper.
I think it is a wise decision to call off our engagement. Given your change of heart, that is. I can't imagine what would have caused it. But then I keep telling myself that for all we've pretended, we don't really know each other at all. I suppose you're not the girl I thought you were--not the girl I wanted you to be. She would never have acted so fickle.
I'm being transferred to a carrier in the South Pacific. You won't be able to write to me at this address anymore. I'd send you the new one, but I don't suppose you have anything else to say to me--and I nothing to say to you. You are entirely right. As of this moment, we are nothing to each other.
Blair Stanley King.
"Oh, God," Juliet whispered. " Oh God--God! What could have happened? What is he talking about? God! I don't understand it. Blair!"
She wept--for a long time. She didn't know how long, but when she lifted her head again the sun had set, and the kitchen was dark. There was Mother, coming through the door--her arms laden with groceries from town.
"Juliet!" she cried dropping the bags and going to her daughter. "What is it, my darling? Has anything happened? Teddy--Douglas--are they all right? Is--it--Allan?"
"It's not any of that," Juliet sobbed, fresh tears running down her damp face. "It's--this--oh, Mother!"
Emily Kent picked up the paper that was now crumpled and tearstained, and read the harsh words to herself. When she came to an especially brutal point she flinched, as if someone had stuck her with a pin. All the while Juliet cried, covering her face with the skirt of her dress so that her slip showed.
"Juliet," said Mother, putting the letter aside and enveloping her in her arms. "My poor babe. My dear little girl! Hush, darling."
Juliet squeezed her eyes shut but still the tears dripped out, down her cheeks and chin, and onto Mother's comforting shoulder. How good it felt to be cuddled by Mother, to be rocked as if she were still a wee baby.
"Did you know?" Juliet whispered. "About--my--engagement?"
Mother paused. She knew how delicious secrets could be between two people in love. But--
"Yes, dear," she said. "A Mother always knows. Oh, Juliet, darling, what happened? What did you quarrel about?"
"We didn't have a quarrel," Juliet moaned. "I don't have any idea what he's talking about!" She pulled the small parcel of letters from her pocket and thumbed through them. "I've been over them all, Mother! He sent me this one last week--and this little note saying 'I love you' is the last thing I got from him. How could his feelings have changed in that time? I got it on Monday--the same day that Bea was over"
Something cold touched Juliet's spine. She took up the letter and read it again. Didn't parts of it seem--familiar? Blair wrote that she was fickle. Juliet was a lot of things, but she was not fickle! And--'As of this moment, we are nothing to each other'? Hadn't she just read that somewhere--written it--?
The tears stopped as suddenly as they'd come. Juliet felt very empty and dead inside.
* * *
"Jewel!" Aunt Ilse opened the door and leaned forward for a kiss. "Darling, we've missed you."
But Juliet pushed passed her without seeing her. "Beatrice!" she screamed. "Beatrice!" She thundered up the stairs to Bea's room.
Bea was lying on the bed, filing her nails, and listening to a soap opera on the radio. Juliet knocked the radio off the chair. It hit the floor with a hiss and the sound of broken glass.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" Bea shouted. "That radio cost a lot of money, Juliet. Juliet!"
Juliet had taken Bea by the shoulders and was gripping them tightly.
"I just had a letter from my fiance," she spat, her eyes blazing. "Beatrice, he said the most amazing things to me. And now he's thrown me over, and I can't imagine why."
"Well, I'm sure I don't know," said Bea with a smirk. "Maybe he got tired of you. I'm sure he's meeting a lot of nice girls overseas. And Blair is a very handsome--"
"How did you know?" Juliet asked, her voice dangerously low. "How did you know about us?"
"I found your letters," Bea said wrathfully. She broke away from Juliet's grasp and sat back down on the bed, looking very nonchalant.
"And you were angry, so you sent that awful letter you made me write to Blair," Juliet finished for her.
"Yes," said Bea defiantly. "What you did wasn't fair, Juliet. You shouldn't have lied to me! Oh, how angry I was--you knew what I felt for him! And you took him for your own--and didn't say a thing. So I sent that letter. It was already in your writing--I just signed it. I thought he'd break it off with you. So I forgive you now, because we're even."
Juliet walked deliberately to Bea and slapped her just as deliberately--twice, across the face. A hot red spot flared up on each cheek.
"One for me--and one for Blair!" Juliet said, as Bea held a hand to her burning face. "We were so happy--and you ruined it! I loved him, Bea! I love him! What you did was unforgivable, and so--I will never forgive you!"
She ran down the stairs and past Aunt Ilse and Uncle Perry, who had been listening in the corridor. Aunt Ilse tried to grab Juliet's arm, but Juliet shook her off and kept going. She ran out into the night. She would have to get used to it now, the dark. She felt there were very dark days ahead.