Frances sat in her rocking chair in her sitting room, looking at all the birds that were in the large pine tree outside, next to the house. She liked just looking at them as they hopped along the branches, and turned their heads every which way, then fly off and come back to the tree once again. Suddenly a little furry thing climbed up into her lap!
"Why, hello there, Thomas." She chuckled. Frances sat there and petted him and he let out a soft meow.
Frances glanced out the window and saw the postal service man on his 1930's motorcycle drive by and place some mail in their mailbox. "How about we go get the mail now." She said, and the tom cat got right off her lap and ran for her bedroom. "Fine, then, I'll go get the mail by myself." Frances laughed, shaking her head. She walked out the back door and down the porch steps, down the little sidewalk to the little mailbox. She saw just one letter in it. Frances smiled and shook her head when she saw who sent it and who it was addressed to. She walked back inside the house and went to her daughter's room.
"Hey Mama!" Helen smiled as she saw her out of the corner of her eye. She was in the middle of reading a new book.
"Another letter for you...I'm sure you can guess who it's from."
"Eddie?!" Her eyes lit up.
"That's right, my dear." Frances smiled and handed her the letter. Helen read it and looked at the pictures he had sent her. One of him and his C.C.C. football team. He had marked where he was in the photo since it was hard to see...There was another photo of him and two of his friends on a loading dock. Helen smiled. "I wonder what he's doing right now."
"Hopefully missing you." Frances smiled. Helen couldn't help but smile at the thought. "I miss him too...I really miss him!" She thought.
The large brown covered book suddenly caught Frances' attention. "What's this, sweetheart?"
"Oh, one of the books I bought from the book store...It's a children's book. But you know how I love reading...And it's a good book...I'm thinking of saving it for my children someday."
"Little House in the Big Woods..." Frances read the title.
"Yeah...she's a new author...Laura Ingalls...something or other...Wilde? Something like that."
"Wilder..."
"Yeah, that's it!" Helen exclaimed. "I got her second book called "Farmer Boy." as well. And I hear that next year, she'll be publishing another."
"Laura Ingalls Wilder..." Frances said the name to herself. "We better show your father these..."
"Mama, it's a children's book!" Helen laughed a little.
"I know!...But he knows the author!"
"No way! He does not!" Helen laughed.
"She's an old friend...haven't kept in touch in years!"
"Well, you don't say..." Helen smiled.
"We can show him when he gets home from work...Anyway, I'll leave you be...I've got some work to do."
"Anything I can help with, Mama?"
"No, not this time...You just read your letter...I know you will." Frances giggled.
"Mama..." She smiled, but her eyes gave her a look.
"Just think...he'll be home soon!"
With that thought in her mind, Helen couldn't help but smile. She got to thinking about him again...
(
Eddie was sitting in sort of a mess tent-like building, eating with his buddies in the C.C.C. They had been stationed in Red Wing, Minnesota and were now in Fordyce, Arkansas. The work was good,...but the food...wasn't exactly...appetizing...
"What is this...crap?!" A man blurted to the rest of the guys. He was named Jack, and he was one of Eddie friends in the C.C.C.
"Still haven't figured it out, Jack?" The man next to him muttered. "Cook's been feeding us horse meat and beans!"
"No!"
"Damn skippy!" Eddie said. "Been going on for three weeks,...and that's not the only thing! The damn crook pockets some of the money we earn..."
"What a twit."
"Been going on long enough." Eddie said. "I'm sick of it, and I say we DO something about it!"
"What do you suggest?...Beat the hell out of him?!" Another guy asked, laughing. He was middle-aged. His name was Henry. Henry, Jack and Eddie were like the three musketeers. Always together. The men devised a plan to go into a rebellion. They got enough men together and they cornered the cook one day and got him to admit his wrongdoing...it all got a little out of hand and the men started beating on the cook...The officers of the C.C.C. found out about what the cook had been doing.
"I'll have enough of this!" The head officer shouted, and every man in the room stopped in their tracks, stopped swinging their punches and stepped away from the cook. He was bleeding and bruised.
"You!...We're trying to train these men for war! What the Hell do you think you're doing, man?! Feeding them horse meat of all things. Unfit for human consumption..." The head officer for the Civilian Cconservation Corps bellowed.
"I...I.." The cook stuttered.
"Look me in the eyes when you talk to me!"
"I...I've got a crowd to feed! Time's are rough!...Things are hard!" The cook began. "I didn't think..."
"Didn't think they'd notice?!" The officer finished for him. "Didn't think you could pull one over on them..didn't think it would matter? Not so...not so, they're smart men...AND another thing! You've been pocketing the money these good workers have been earning! Stealing! I can't trust a...a theif..." The man scowled. "You're being released, sir..." The head officer looked to the men who saluted him, and he saluted them back. Then he walked out of the room.
"Better find a new job,...cook..." Eddie chuckled. His buddies slapped him on the back. The cook glared back at them all, but walked out of the building and left the camp. Things got better soon after that.
"I'm surprised he didn't pound you, Walbrun!"
"Oh...I woulda fought him again if I had to." He laughed a little.
"Boy, that was some good swingin' at him, Eddie." Henry slapped him on the back.
"Well, I'm a pretty good boxer if I do say so myself..." Eddie bragged.
"I say we have a boxing match!" Jack insisted.
"Might take you up on the offer."
"How 'bout right now?"
"Nah, I've got something to do right now."
"Writing your woman again?"
"Hell, man! You're going to see her in a few weeks!" Henry laughed.
"She'll have my hide if I don't!" Eddie joked.
(
"I just can't wait to see him!" Helen grinned, jumping up and down with a little clap of her hands, she was just so excited! "Mrs. Walbrun just telephoned and wants me to come over to surprise him...Mr. Walbrun is working right now, I think, can you drive me over there, Papa?"
"Sure..." Fred smiled at his daughter as she was just beaming. "You know where it is?"
"Yes.." Helen said as she got into her father's Model T Ford and they drove off. "It's off of Walnut and Jefferson Street...it's a white house with a little white fence around it. Can't miss it."
Fred drove down different streets and pulled over suddenly.
"I...think we're lost...I don't know this part of town, never been out here."
"Papa...you took the wrong street back there!" Helen guided him to the street they were supposed to go down in the first place...
"Papa!...It's THAT house! Back up! You just passed it!"
"Okay! Okay!...I'm backing up!...Calm the heck down." Fred muttered.
"Thanks a bunch!" Helen leaned over and gave her father a quick peck on the cheek.
"Want me to wait here for you?"
"You don't need to.." She smiled. "I'm not a little girl anymore, Papa..."
Fred watched her sprint up the little sidewalk, and sighed as she disappeared inside the house. "No you're not..." He drove for home then, just thinking.
(
Mrs. Walbrun welcomed her in right away. "Zo glad you're here!" She smiled and hugged Helen, explaining that they'll be having a nice little lunch, with her there, as a suprise for Eddie.
"I'm so excited!...he has no idea of this, right?!"
"No idea...just hope he doz not stop at your place virst..." Rose Walbrun chuckled.
"Mother, I think he's here...and Father is to!" Rosey exclaimed looking out the window.
Mrs. Walbrun went by the stairs to call her youngest, John, from his bedroom."John!"
"Yes Mother?!"
"Brother und Father are here!"
"Eddie's here?!" The young teenager shouted and zipped down the stairs as fast as ever.
"Quick! You, hide in the pantry, Helen!" Rosey giggled, ushering her inside and closing the little pantry door after her. "This is going to be so nifty." She whispered to her.
"I know...I wonder what he'll do?" Helen whispered.
"I don't know!" Rosey laughed, whispereing to Helen through the crack in the door.
"What are you giggling at?" Eddie smiled as he came through the front door and into the kitchen.
"Nothing!" Rosey laughed.
"I think my little sister's up to something!" He laughed as he hugged her.
"Yeah, they got a surprise for ya..." John blurted out.
"John!" Rosey exclaimed.
"Well, he said something!" John went and hugged his older brother.
"Hey, kiddo." Eddie grinned and ruffled his 13 year old brother's dark hair. "What's this about a surprise?"
"They told me not to say...So I ain't saying anything more!" John blurted. "Hey, can we go hunting sometime, Eddie?"
"Maybe!" Eddie smiled and let out a chuckle. He patted his little brother on the shoulder and then spoke up. "Okay, what's my surprise? You know I'm like a little kid at Christmastime when it comes to surprises." He chuckled.
"Okay...there's something in the pantry for you..." Rosey giggled.
"In the pantry?..What?...Something to eat?" He said as he opened the pantry door.
"Why hello there..." Helen walked out of the little pantry, smiling at him.
"Why, this is a surprise!" Eddie laughed and hugged her and couldn't help but kiss and hold her. He'd missed that since he had been gone.
"You know...it's sweet...but...a little annoying at the same time..." John said. He and his older sister Rosey were sitting on the little couch in the front room.
"What is?" Rosey asked.
"...Them..." John replied, a little grossed out and he saw them kissing...again.
"Oh, you shut it!" Rosey said, playfully slapping her brother.
"I bet you'll be like that when you get a girlfriend someday."
"Me?...no way!" John spat back. "More like you! If you HAD a boyfriend that is!"
"Shut up, I will someday!"
"Yeah right, like any guy would pay attention to you!"
"Somebody would...":
"Yeah...like who?" John asked.
"Adrial Randall..." Rosey said dreamily.
"He don't even know you're alive!"
"...He will." Rosey smiled.
"Yeah right!" John said, walking up the stairs to his bedroom. "He spends too much time on his hair!" He said at last, before he went up.
Rosey giggled and thought of Adrial. "I love his hair...All swept over to the side, and parted on the left.. Wonder how he makes it stay like that. Hair oil maybe?"
"What's that, sis?" Eddie chuckled.
"Oh nothing Eddie...Tell us about your adventures!" Rosey smiled at her older brother.
"Adventures?" He laughed..."I don't know what to talk about exactly. Things were run like the military. To a T, mind you...We did beat up the cook. That's about as exciting as it gets!" Eddie laughed some more thinking about it again.
"You what?!" Rosey exclaimed. "Why would you do such a thing?!"
"We had a good reason to, trust me..." Eddie smiled. And he told them all about it when they sat down together for lunch.
(
"I've missed you..." Helen said with a sweet whisper. Laying with him in his bed. She smiled and ran her fingers through his black hair. "I love you."
He kissed her so long it made her gasp a little when he stopped. "Bunnie..."
"I've missed you too...and this." He grinned a little mischeviously.
"Me too..." Half whispereing...half sighing. She loved the way they held each other, carressed each other, she adored every kiss and touch. And not just the touch, but the feelings they gave each other. Right then, it was like, they were together again...and that was all that mattered. "Think it'll be like this when were...married?" Helen smiled.
"Hope so..." Eddie smiled back. "There'll be no limits..."
"Seems like there isn't now...according to your parents.."
"And yours?" Eddie softly ran a hand down the length of her body.
"They...don't exactly know, I guess." She said quietly.
"Why you little sneak..." Eddie grinned at her and kissed her on the cheek. "I guess you can break it to them when you want to..."
"I guess so...but...it is our own business, Eddie..." She smiled at him and breathed deeply. "Gosh, you smell good...I think I've forgotten how good you smell...What is that?...It smells...sweet...but smokey."
Eddie chuckled a little. "That's my pipe tobacco...Sir Walter Raliegh."
"I like it..." Helen smiled, snuggling up to him. "Has a homelike aroma to it..."
"I agree." Eddie whispered, kissed her and sat up. "Now...if you don't mind...I think I'll put on some clothes and have a good smoke."
"Go right ahead..." Helen smiled and lay there, tangled in the sheets and watched him dress and then load his pipe with the sweet-smelling tobacco.
A/N: In real life, none of my ancestors knew Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family (though to me, that would have been pretty awesome! I would have love to have met her. I read her books and I can identify with her, like our personalities are the same. Lol.)...but I bet you, my great grandmother read the Little House books just as in this chapter...I of course, fell in love with the books and the tv show. I have both sets now...Years ago, my grandfather, Helen and Eddie's son asked me if he could borrow the books and read them again, as he had read them as a little boy...but at the time, I didn't have the whole set, which he understood that. We lost him to cancer January 17th 2012...and I got the full set of the books just recently, so he never got to read the Little House books again. I am saddened by this and feel that maybe I should have let him borrow the ones I had at the time, given that opportunity. Well, what I've learned in life is mistakes are made, and you just have to learn from them...and do the best you can. This and such other things I've learned from my grandfather. I miss him dearly...I'm glad for the things he wrote down about our ancestry and for the stories he's told of his mother, and grandmother Frances and of himself. I wouldn't be able to write this story without them...and glad that I get my love of writing and story telling from him.
Adrial Randall, the young man Rosey Walbrun mentioned to her younger brother John, later became her husband. It thought it was cute to put that in. :)
If I haven't said this before, which I think I may have, Helen's nickname for Eddie was "Bunnie." It thought it was so sweet, because he signed everything to her (cards, letters, etc.), as "Bunnie."
The story in this chapter of Eddie in the C.C.C was true! Can't believe they beat up the cook like that...Eddie liked sports and did indeed play on a football team in the C.C.C...He did have a friend named Jack and another friend but I couldn't recall his name (I know these things because of pictures I've found, by the way) but I believe it was Henry.
