"In the spring of '27, something bright and alien flashed across the sky. A young Minnesotan who seemed to have nothing to do with his generation did a heroic thing, and for a moment people set down their glasses in country clubs and speakeasies and thought their old best dreams."
Late in May, everyone became increasingly interested in the news, especially Shirley. Apparently, there was a great race to see who, if anyone would be the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an aeroplane. Some eight years before, a New York City businessman offered a 25,000 prize for the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris. Several attempts had been made and failed, though as time passed; it had become some sort of obsession and more practical. Two French aviators had taken off on the eighth of the month yet were never heard of again. One had to wonder if such a feat was really possible.
Shirley would gaze out into the horizon after reading the evening paper, and silently dream and wonder. He had flown in France what seemed a lifetime before, in a world that thankfully, was gone. He reconciled himself to the knowledge that he may never break any records or gain unwanted fame, but he had flown to make the world a beautiful place again. He had helped make it safe for dreamers and daredevils to explore unknown possibilities again, and that was good enough for him.
He turned to help his wife out of their car in the manse drive. The month wasn't the only thing that was late. They had expected their child over a week and a half before, and though his father reassured him that such was often the case with a first child, he couldn't help but worry, especially with the knowledge that his guests would soon have to return to Glen St. Mary.
Nan and Diana weren't the only ones who wanted their parents near when a child was born. Shirley took a great amount of comfort in having his capable father staying in the same house and his mother keeping both of their cares down to a minimum. He knew that he would also greatly miss Walter and his two children, especially the little girl that had grown to love sitting silently on the old pasture fence with him, quietly dreaming.
Shirley and Rebecca entered Nan and Jerry's home hand in hand. Gilbert, Anne, Walter, and the children were already there, as was Diana's family. Everyone was gathered around Gilbert as he read the newspaper aloud. Everyone looked up when the young couple entered.
Gilbert smiled at his youngest son. "Shirley, come here quick, and read this. Some young man from Minnesota named Charles A. Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in New York in hopes to be the first to fly across the Atlantic."
Shirley gladly gazed at the paper. "Do you think he'll make it, alone?"
"It will be very hard to stay awake all alone," Jack commented.
Walter added his optimistic two cents, "I think he'll do it."
"What makes him different from the rest?" Diana asked, nestling Laura in the crook of her arm.
Walter tickled the baby's chin and pulled Barry into his lap. "For starters, he already broke the record for the fasted transcontinental flight in United States history just trying to get to New York."
Shirley eagerly took the entire newspaper, "Really? That's amazing!"
Nan walked in, carrying a sumptuously smelling ham. "What's amazing is that I asked for someone to set the table, Jerry, and you're all still clamored around that newspaper." She tried to sound annoyed, but couldn't. She too was very interested in this news. She couldn't blame anyone for focusing only on that.
Jerry glanced in the front parlor and nodded to an empty spot in the room, as he finally helped set the table, "I think that it's about time that we invested in a radio, Nan-girl."
"Oh Jerry, we probably can't afford one."
"Nonsense! We may not get one as flashy as Father Gilbert's, but we can get one that is nice enough and will do the job. The church elders just approved a raise, and I don't know how we can afford not to have one, dear. We have two daughters now, and I don't want them to feel impoverished because they are minister's girls. Faith, Carl, Una, and I were always worried that Father couldn't afford us, when there was no need. We were never rich, but we weren't nearly as destitute as we were led by some people and did believe."
Nan thought about Jerry's proposal a bit. She did remember Faith and Una often worrying needlessly about finances. "It would be nice to hear the news as it comes in, rather than waiting on it to be printed out and delivered."
He took that as a yes and promptly told her, "It's settled then. I'll order one in the morning."
"Jerry." Exasperated, Nan gave up. "I'll settle for you're bringing the children downstairs. They've been up in Cecilia's room all afternoon."
"On a pleasant May day like this?" Diana asked.
"They've been trying to draw their own cartoon after they saw that Felix the Cat cartoon when Shirley took them the Charlottetown yesterday," Anne answered.
"That should be very impressive. At the age of six, she draws better than I do at my age," Diana said.
The children and Jerry were coming downstairs when there was a knock at the front door. "I wonder who's here at the dinner hour?" Jerry asked as he walked over to answer it.
He barely was able to answer the door when Hope noticed who was there through the lace curtain, and ran past her uncle to greet the visitor. "Una!"
Everyone was very surprised to see Una at the door, not that she was unwelcome, just unexpected. "Una, what are you doing here?" her brother asked, letting her in the house.
"Nothing's wrong, is it?" Nan asked concerned.
Una hadn't expected everyone to be at the manse. She imagined that they would spend most of their time at Green Gables seeing as that was where the visitors were roomed. She shyly shook her head no. "Nothing's wrong at home. I just need to ask a favor of Jerry, and it is important enough to do it in person."
Everyone had an idea of what Una was going to ask Jerry, but no one really wanted to spoil the good mood of the evening with talk of that certain subject. They left that for Jerry to discuss with her long after they left for the evening. So, after the meal was over, all of Nan and Jerry's visitors left earlier than they intended so Jerry and his sister could have their talk.
They waited until Nan was upstairs tucking Cecilia in for the night. Jerry invited Una to join him in his study. He sat behind his desk with a concerned look in his eyes, and Una couldn't help but think how much he looked like their father.
Jerry didn't know where to begin. He knew that she came with some request concerning her upcoming nuptials. He wasn't sure what kind of answer he could give her. He wasn't sure what answer he wanted to give her, and mostly didn't wish to go against his father's wishes which still weren't known to him. "Una, what is it you've come to ask of me?"
She looked just as she had when they were children, and he knew that once she looked at him with her imploring, anguished eyes, that he would not be able to deny or request.
She did look at her brother with very imploring and anguished eyes. "I've come to ask you to perform my wedding ceremony to Samson, Jerry."
Jerry thumbed the gold-leafed pages of his Bible without looking at Una. He couldn't look at her and ask his next question. "Has Father given his blessing yet?"
She was sitting in a rather uncomfortable leather chair that had been a gift to the parson from the Pye family. It was neither pretty nor nice, but it was a gift, and Jerry always felt he needed to display it despite Nan's protestations. With its high, straight back and its low flat seat, Una felt as if she was Cecilia waiting on her father to admonish her for something. "He has neither given his consent nor has he refused. As Rosemary says, he just needs to get to know Samson better and will when he comes to the Glen next week."
Sitting on Jerry's desk was a framed photograph that Jem had taken of all the Merediths not long after they moved to the Glen. Faith stood tall and strong by herself. Carl's eyes were focused on an anthill behind Jem. Jerry stood in the center, keeping them all together with Una leaning on her brother's sturdy arm. Una still needed to lean on him from time to time. Maybe had he been more accessible after the war, she wouldn't have felt the need to run off and become a missionary.
Still yet, this situation didn't rest easy with him. He still remembered that night late last summer, and what he witnessed from his father's study. He didn't intrude because what saw seemed right to him, that Providence was in charge. The scenes he saw the next day only made him feel the opposite.
However, things were as they were. If nothing else, he wouldn't let his sister down by refusing her. "I will be honored to perform the ceremony. I'm only sad that Nan and the baby probably won't be able to attend."
Una didn't seem as happy as Jerry had hoped she would be when he accepted. She just thanked him and went upstairs to see the baby. Had she shown any more joy, it would have made him feel better, and not like she was just doing something out of some misguided sense of duty.
Una walked through the upstairs hallway with care. She could hear Cecilia's soft breathing in her bedroom. She looked around. Nan had done a lot to make the manse beautiful since she last visited years before. The soft yellow light of a lamp could be seen down the hall, and the creaking of a rocker could be heard. There was another sound; Nan's velvety smooth voice could be heard as she sang a lullaby to the wide-eyed baby Elizabeth.
Una quietly knocked on the door that was only partially closed. "Come in," Nan called out in a hushed voice.
Una walked to Nan and gazed upon her new niece lovingly. "May I hold her?" she asked.
"Of course, Una. You're her aunt. I hope that you and she will get to be very close."
Una took Nan's place in the rocker, and Elizabeth grabbed her finger just as she had Cecilia's the day she was born. She looked up at her aunt with her sky blue eyes and smiled. "She's smiling at me!" Una exclaimed.
Nan glanced down. "She certainly is. You know some doctors say that babies don't smile when they're this young, but I know different. Both Cecilia and Elizabeth smiled at me the day they were born."
"They knew they were blessed with a wonderful mother. I want my own baby to smile at me like that some day."
Nan cocked her head and stared at Una who was too interested in Elizabeth to notice. "Maybe you'll get that chance."
"I'm betting my life and happiness on it."
Una left for Glen St. Mary the next day right after breakfast. Hope hastily ate her breakfast, and was horribly upset to find that Una had already left the manse without saying goodbye. Walter brought her back to Green Gables, her cheeks red and soaked from tears. No one could console her, but she eventually stopped crying and joined Shirley for a ride in his plane.
"Come Josephine, come with me again in my flying machine and let the wind take all our cares away," he held his hands out to his Josephine, his brown eyes flooding sincerity, and she readily accepted.
They sailed through the clouds and Hope's heart grew lighter. They return when the sun washed Green Gables' white walls a pinkish red, and found the old farmhouse livid with activity.
Hope was riding her uncle's shoulders when Anne met them at the steps. Her eyes flashing with excitement, "Shirley, hurry and get upstairs to your wife! Rebecca just went upstairs and asked your father to check on her and call a nurse! You know what that means!"
After making certain that Hope was safely on the ground, he disappeared in a brown flash. However, he was soon sent back downstairs. It was to be a long night, and Aunt Diana asked Hope and Tenny to come spend the evening with them at Orchard Slope. They could see every light on at Green Gables before they went to bed.
As the crickets and frogs chirped in the night air, Shirley almost paced a path through the Green Gables porch. Walter joined him outside. "Shirley, calm down. If Aunt Marilla were here she would scold you for wearing out her green painted porch!"
"Aunt Marilla never had a wife in labor."
Walter laughed. "No, she definitely didn't have that. However, I know for a fact that she walked the floor every time one of us was born, especially when you were born."
"That almost killed Mother," Shirley admitted, his eyes growing wilder with fear.
Walter shook his head. "She lived, as will Rebecca. She has a strong constitution about her."
Shirley looked to Walter for support, "Was it this bad when the twins were born?"
"Worse, Shirley, really. It snowed so much that the doctor couldn't make it to Dovedale, and Ginny had to assist Katie."
"I guess that it's not that I'm overreacting."
Walter patted his brother on the back. "No, you're just a new father. Welcome to the brotherhood, it's the most rewarding and most heart wrenching job that will never go away."
The two brothers seemed to find something new in common. Shirley smiled at his older brother and wanted to help him the best way he knew how. "She loves you, you know." A flash of lightning raced across the sky.
Walter turned to Shirley, confused, "Who, Hope? I know, she may think Uncle Shirley can hand the moon as he flies in his aeroplane, but she will always be my baby girl."
Shirley shook his head. "No Walter. I mean, yes, Hope loves you, but not her, Una. Una is in love with you. She always has been. That's why she wouldn't marry me." The Heavens roared with thunder.
Walter started to walk away. "No Shirley. She's marrying Samson Belle in a week. She doesn't love me."
Shirley followed after him just as he had as a little boy, even though confrontation directly went against his character, and a steady rain began to fall. "Walter, I know what I'm talking about. I had a crush on her for years. I watched every move she ever made. I analyzed her reactions towards other people and how different they were compared to the looks she saved for you. I saw the light fade from her eyes when we got that mistaken news about Courcelette. I thought that I could make her happy, but she knew better for both of us. She did me a great favor not marrying me. I love Rebecca infinitely more than I ever imagined I loved Una. I have to do the same for her. She doesn't deserve to spend her life chained to the odious man, Walter."
Walter turned to face Shirley, "So she should marry me because I'm the last single member of our group? I'm not single by choice, Shirley! My wife was taken from me!"
"You love her too!" Shirley yelled at him.
"No I don't!" Walter denied.
"Yes you do! Yes you do! I know it! I see how you look at her. I see the emotion almost bursting from your chest when you watch her with your children. You understand each other. You complete each other, Walter. You belong with Una, not that horrible man! He doesn't deserve her love. You do, and only you deserve it." Shirley's voice grew quieter.
Walter whispered so softly that it could hardly be heard against the sputtering rain and roaring thunder. "If she loved me, she would have ended things with Belle ages ago."
"She might have, had you asked her rather than running away to Oklahoma, then spending all of your time with Persis, denying what we all know is in your hearts."
Walter laughed and put his wet arm around his brother's wet shoulders. "Possibly, Shirley. Possibly. Maybe I shall try to find out when we return home, but first I will have to think things over and speak about this to someone else. Now, let's go inside and get out of these wet clothes. I won't have Rebecca's child growing up without a father because he caught pneumonia while trying to get me to see the light."
The morning's newspaper headline read: "Lindbergh Does It! To Paris in 33 1/2 Hours; Flies 1,000 Miles Through Snow and Sleet; Cheering French Carry Him Off Field."
Shirley brought it along with breakfast upstairs to his wife as she held their newborn son. He traded the newspaper for the baby and sat next to his wife. "How is little Jonas this morning?"
Rebecca shook her head. "No Shirley, he doesn't look at all like a Jonas. He is every bit the image of you. We have another little brown boy on our hands. I think he needs a different name."
Shirley kissed his wife and asked, "What do you have in mind?"
Rebecca looked over the newspaper again, and said, "I think that he looks like a Charles Lindbergh Blythe to me. After all, he was born on the day his namesake landed in Paris, and his father is a bit of an aviation buff."
Shirley laughed. "A bit. Charles Lindbergh Blythe. Now that is a strong, wise sounding name, and that you may tie to!"
Thank you to everyone for your wonderful reviews! Things are progressing a lot now! Keep reviewing, I love all comments. Also, if you would like to further discuss this or any other Montgomery ff, then please visit this website I just set up. It's under my homepage here.
The quote at the beginning of the chapter is one of my favorite bits by F. Scott Fitzgerald. - "Echoes of the Jazz Age," The Crack-Up, 1945.
The newspaper headline was from the May 21, 1927 NY Times.