"Frances! I'm home early!" Fred said, walking through the front door one November afternoon..."Honey?"
Fred saw his eight months pregnant, 18 year old wife, crying in her rocking chair. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?"
"I took a walk into town today...And...and...the widow, Mrs. Carlson...She..." Frances said, with tears sliding down her cheeks.
"She what?" Fred asked.
"She said I look like a watermelon on a toothpick!" Frances wailed..."I laughed it off and said that's how I feel now sometimes...but it really hurt my feelings!"
"Its all right..." Fred said, wrapping her up into an embrace.
"No,...no its not all right, Fred!...These are the times where I hate being pregnant!...My legs cramp up! My feet and ankles are swollen!...And WHY are they swollen?...Because I craved salt! Why did I crave salt? Because my body needed it...WHY did I need it?...Because I'm pregnant! And WHY am I pregnant?...Because YOU couldn't keep that thing in your trousers!"
"It wasn't JUST me...It takes two people, you know..."
"Of course I know!..." She yelled. "Because I was a wild, fiesty, sex-crazed, 17 year old girl who just wanted one special night with her 25 year old fiance!...I'm bad and rotten and immoral...and I don't want any of our children to make the same mistake we did!" She sat there sobbing onto Fred's shoulder. "I'm sooooo hoooorrible!" She wailed after minutes of sobbing..."George or John never made this mistake! And look at Joe and Nona! They did it right! Look how happy they are!...I'm the bad seed!...I'm the black sheep of the family!" Frances sobbed. "Look up the word 'immoral' in the dictionary and there's my name as plain as the nose on your face! Frances Gruber Lay!...I'm the immoral woman from Proverbs 7!" She wailed.
"Möchten Sie die Klappe?" Fred yelled "Would you shut up?" in German at her. "According to me...you're NONE of those things! That night, Frances, you wanted me...and I wanted you! You made me feel so good about myself! I was encouraged...and even to this day I still don't see in me what you see in me!...Sweetheart, we're married now, we love each other...THAT's all that matters!"
"Have you been talking to my mother?" Frances asked, sniffing. She dried her tears that stained her cheeks with a handkercheif. "And what about when folks ask how long we've been married and then they see how pregnant I am!...I'm out to here, Fred!..." She said, looking down at herself, gesturing how big she was...and then she looked back up at her husband's face..."Or in the future when they ask how old this child is!...You KNOW what they're going to think of us!"
"Who the Hell cares? Let them think what they want to! Its none of their business anyway!...And I'll have you know, we aren't the only ones! It happens a lot Frances! More than you think! Sometimes with folks even younger than us!...Now stop it...All this yelling and stress and carryin' on isn't good for you OR the baby!...You're beating yourself up over this and I won't have it!"
"Fine..." Frances sighed.
"C'mon. How about we talk a little walk into town...together."
"I'll go get my shawl." She said, getting up from the rocking chair.
A train was pulling into the Dubuque station...amongst its passengers were a young 26 year old woman...and her daughter, a cute, baby-faced, dark-haired 10 year old little girl.
"I just can't wait to see him, Ma!...I wonder what he's like?" The little girl said, swinging her feet, as they didn't reach the floor. She was a little short for her age.
"Mary Jane...Stop that, please."
"Yes Ma..." Mary Jane said and stopped swinging her feet...Her hands folded neatly in her lap.
We're here...Dubuque County, IA." She sighed.
"Yippeee!...I can't wait to see him!" Mary Jane clapped her hands excitedly.
"Just let me grab our things and we'll set out...but don't go anywhere without me!" Her mother said, as she saw her daughter jump off the train. "Mary Jane, you stay right there where you are! You hear me?"
"Yes Ma!" Came the reply.
Fred and Frances had seen the train stop, so with all the other people, they waited to see the train in, and were going to continue their little walk through town afterward.
"Excuse me...but I'm trying to locate the Gruber family..." The young lady said to the one of the conductors.
"Well, you're in luck!...That lady right over there was a Gruber!"
"Thank you..." She said, and turned to her daughter. "Mary Jane. Stay right here...I'll be right back..." She said, taking a deep breath and headed on over to speak with Fred and Frances.
"Hello Ma'am..." The woman said, addressing Frances..."I'm...Melania Loney. I believe I courted your older brother George when we were 16. You were only 8 years old then...I don't even know if you remember me!..." She smiled.
"Melania Mary Agnes Loney!...Not remember you?...Of course I do!...My goodness, we had some fun times! I looked up to you so much!"
"We did have some fun times, didn't we, Frances?" Melania smiled. "Umm...how is George?"
"Just fine...Oh, he'll want to see you!...C'mon, we'll head on back to our place...My parents place, where George is living, is just up the road from there...This is my husband, Fred Lay, by the way..." Frances smiled up at him as Fred extended his hand to the lady.
"Well, we best be going...Can't let you stand for long...in your condition." Melania said, noticing the fact that Frances was VERY pregnant. "Congratualations, by the way...When are you due?"
"Next month." Frances smiled.
"Just let me get Mary Jane and we can be on our way..." The woman smiled and left momentarily to find the ten year old.
"Mary Jane!..." She exclaimed as she saw the girl, FIST FIGHTING, with a boy her own age, it looked like. "Stop it, Mary Jane!..." Melania shouted, pulling her away from the boy..."What do you think you're doing? Fighting with a boy!"
"He hit me first!" Mary Jane screamed. "He started it!"
"I don't care, I'm finishing it!..." Melania Loney said, "Good Lord, WHERE does she get this fiesty attitude of hers?...Where?"
"My word...It sure has been awhile, Melania!" Franziska said, sitting at the kitchen table with her. "Ten whole years!...I remember you were the sweetest girl ever! It surely broke our hearts when you left for California years ago!...What brings you to Dubuque, sweetheart?"
"My daughter...She wanted to see where her Ma grew up." Melania half-lied. "Been dying to move back here...Mary Jane and I are both so tired of California..." That was the truth. They were planning to move back this month.
"Land sakes, I can't believe you're a mother already!...Then again, I myself can't believe I'm going to be a grandmother next month!" Franziska smiled at her daughter, who beamed a smile back at her.
"Such a beautiful and sweet little girl, like her Ma, I'm sure..." Franziska smiled. "She looks like you." She said, glancing out the window at the girl running around outside, with Fred there to keep her occupied.
"She looks like her Pa too...Has his eyes." Melania stated. "That's another reason why I'm here...I have something to confess..."
"You can tell us anything, Melania..."
"I don't know how you're going to take this...but I'll just come right out and say it... My daughter is Mary Jane...Gruber...George is her father..." Melania choked out the words and put her head down, ashamed to look at them. She braced herself...and looked up at George Jr..."I'm sorry I've kept this from you all these years...When I found out I was pregnant, I was so afraid of what you would think...Of what your folks would say...What MY folks would say...So that's why I left and fled to California...I'm sorry." She said as tears began to spill from her eyes. "I'm so sorry I kept this from you! I was so ashamed at what I did and I was scared and I just didn't know what you would think..."
"I just thought you didn't want someone like me...and that's why you left." George Jr. said.
"George...That wasn't it at all." Melania started weeping again..."I loved you, I promise you I did!...I just didn't know what to do!"
"We would've worked things out...I know I would've been understanding..."
"I'm sorry...I was terrified, George!"
"We understand, child." Franziska layed a hand on Melania's.
"I just can't believe I'm...a father." George said...but then a slight smile crept across his face.
"I know..." Melania smiled...Wiping away a few tears. "She begged and begged and begged me to make this trip...She wanted to meet you...She kept wondering about you...and why her last name was...different...from mine." She said, and felt tears well up in her blue eyes again..."She just kept it up until I said, "Okay, let's go!" She laughed, sniffling and dabbing tears from her tearducts with a tip of a finger.
Mary Jane ran through the door and into her mother's arms...
"Mary Jane...I told you not to run...If you don't do it at our house, then you don't do it here..."
"Yes Ma...I'm sorry."
"Tell Mrs. Gruber that please..."
The ten year old's brown eyes looked up at the older woman. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Gruber."
"That's all right, sweetheart." Franziska smiled. "You just listen to your Ma from now on."
"Mary Jane...I'd like you to finally meet...your father...George Michael Gruber Jr."
The young girl, without hesitation, went to Little George and wrapped her arms around the stocky young man..."I'm glad to meet you...Pa." Mary Jane whispered. "I nagged the fire out of Ma to bring me here..." She laughed. "I wanted so VERY much to meet you!" Mary Jane squeezed him gently. She looked up and noticed tears were seeping out of his eyes. "Don't cry Pa...I love you."
George Jr. planted a kiss on her forehead..."I just can't believe it...My daughter. You seem so grown up for your age!" He smiled at his 'new' daughter.
Big George, through all of this, was silent. He was a man of few words as it was. He listened. He was a thinker...and thought things through before he did or said them.
"I'm sorry about all of this, Mr. Gruber...I understand if you're mad at me...I never planned this to happen..."
Big George shrugged and said in German, "Big Deal haarigen Arsch ... Meine Enkelin ein uneheliches Kind! ... Es macht keinen Unterschied für mich in keiner Weise...Sie ist immer noch meine Enkelin!... Und junge Dame, ich nehme Sie als wenn Sie meine eigene zu...Schlicht und einfach." In English, it meant..."Big hairy ass deal...My granddaughter's an illegitimate child!...It makes no difference to me in any way...She's still my granddaughter!...And young lady, I'm taking you in as if you were my own too...Plain and simple."
"What is Grandpa saying, Ma?" Mary Jane asked, wide-eyed. Everyone else knew what he was saying!
"Never you mind..." She said, placing her hands over her daughter's ears. Yes, what he was saying was in German, but she did it just in case...She knew children picked things up easily.
George went on to say, "Ich meine es, Melania! Ich behandle Sie als wenn Sie meine eigene Tochter...Frances machte diese gleichen Fehler, und ich wusste nicht behandeln sie anders...Ich nehme Sie in...aber nur, wenn du mich willst zu." The English translation, "I mean it, Melania! I'm treating you as if you were my own daughter...Frances made this same mistake, and I didn't treat her any different...I'm taking you in...but only if you want me to..."
"Mary Jane...run along outside for a moment, please."
"Yes Ma." She said, and left.
"It is different, Mr. Gruber...I'm not your daughter...and...George and I aren't married...Whereas, Fred and Frances are."
"Yes...I know that...but they still committed the same sin, made the same mistake... And we will figure things out. For now, you two are staying with us. For as long as you need to...Besides, this does involve my son...and my granddaughter..." He smiled, looking out the window at Mary Jane.
"I don't really understand this...but I'll have you know...I know that your trust in me has been broken...and I'll strive to earn your trust again."
"It hasn't, Melania...And trust is given...not earned...You still have my trust, little lady. You were such a sweet girl back then...and as far as I'm concerned, you still are."
"Thank you, Mr. Gruber..."
"You're welcome...Now, go get my sweet little granddaughter and bring her in here!" Big George smiled.
"We've been grandparents all this time!" Franziska smiled, wrapping her arms around her husband. "We've got a lot of catching up to do!"
"Ten years worth!" Big George smiled as Mary Jane ran into his arms, and he lifted her up on his shoulders.
