When Ben walked in the front door about six o'clock he saw his wife sitting on the couch grading papers with a pencil in her hair. He walked over to her and kissed her forehead.
"Good evening Cindy." Ben said with a smile.
"Hi Ben." Cindy replied without looking up from the paper in her hands. Ben carefully took the paper out of her hand against her protest. "Ben, what are you doing? I have to grade those so the children can have them back tomorrow."
"What are they?" Ben asked looking at them upside down.
"They are spelling tests. The state-wide spelling bee is next week and these words are going to be part of it. Now please can I continue grading?" Cindy asked. Ben handed her the papers back.
"I thought we both agreed that we wouldn't bring work home anymore? You used to get upset when I brought stuff home from the mill." Ben said. Cindy looked up at Ben and took the pen out of her hair.
"That is in no way fair Ben. I have to do a lot of my grading at home and you know that. I teach second graders, they are rambunctious. I can't grade papers and watch the students at the same time." Cindy responded.
"Sure you can. Mama did it." Ben replied with a smile. He took an apple off the kitchen table and took a bite out of it.
"Ben, Olivia Walton could walk on water if she wanted to! I'm not like your Mama." Cindy said as she stood and walked over to him.
"Mama just has experience with a lot of different things; farm life for instance, and raising so many of us kids." Ben said.
"Yes, I grew up in the city Ben. There are a lot of country things that I can't do. I thought we figured this all out when Ginny was born? I had a lot of trouble with Rose, Mary Ellen and Erin about what would be proper for me to do and not do." Cindy exclaimed.
"I know. I remember." Ben replied.
"Oh, by the way; your dinner is in the oven." Cindy stated sitting back down with papers all over the floor.
"I'm not hungry." Ben said. Cindy looked at him.
"Ben, I'm not that bad of a cook. You eat it every other night. Why do you choose tonight to not be hungry?" Cindy asked. Ben took another bite of his apple.
"I ate at Mama and Daddy's tonight. Mama invited me and Drew to stay and eat with them because we got done so late." Ben replied.
"Why didn't you call and tell me you were doing that? I wouldn't have wasted the food saving it back for you. Why did they invite you and Drew, but not me and Elizabeth?" Cindy questioned.
"Probably because it would have taken a while for you guys to get there. I'm not sure. All I know is that by the time we got finished working and I went in to say goodbye to Mama, she was already finished making dinner and she invited me to stay and eat. I didn't think about calling. I'm sorry Cindy; I will call next time." Ben said.
"That's all I ask Ben. Just let me know if you aren't going to be home." Cindy replied and then she took her papers and went upstairs. Ben looked up at the stairs, rolled his eyes, sighed and sat on the couch reading the newspaper.
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When Cindy got upstairs to her office, she closed the door and turned on the light right over the desk. She was intensely grading papers until after about twenty minutes she just stopped. After a minute she stood up and walked over to the wall and looked at the calendar. Cindy saw the date and opened the door. Slowly she walked down the stairs and saw Ben reading the newspaper.
"Ben, I'm sorry." Cindy said and she walked down the stairs and ran over to Ben. He stood up and put the paper down and opened his arms for Cindy. She started crying all over herself and Ben. "I know now why I'm upset like I am."
"Why's that?" Ben asked pulling away from Cindy so he could look into her eyes.
"Today is Virginia's birthday." Cindy replied. Ben thought to himself and then it was like a lightning bolt hit him.
"It is Virginia's birthday today. She's been gone so long that I forget sometimes what day her birthday was." Ben said. Ben hugged Cindy again and wrapped his arms around her.
"I know how worked up I get about it, so I really tried hard to forget it this year, but I guess it didn't work." Cindy replied.
"It's okay Cindy. It was an awful thing that happened all those years ago." Ben responded. "Here, I have an idea; instead of dwelling on Virginia's death, why don't we sit and talk about how we each celebrated her birthday today." Ben said with a smile.
"Okay." Cindy said with the tiniest hint of a smile. They both sat down on the couch. "You go first, what did you do today?"
"Well first I got to the mill about seven. I worked with Daddy and Drew chopping wood, then Drew took that wood to Matt Sarver (A/N: With Matt Sarver's age in SSN 7, when John Walton had his first encounter with him by 1980 I am aware that the man would be dead, but please get past that and keep reading), so I went with Daddy and we talked to the Co-op about a few changes we were going to have to make to improve how we do things. Since Walton's Lumber is the head of the Co-op Daddy feels that he is responsible for it. Well anyway, then we ate lunch, where Elizabeth made the most delicious pot roast I have ever had and sent it with Drew, and we worked some more. I was sent to go into Charlottesville to get a part for one of the saws that we didn't have. Then we worked for about another hour or so before it quit working and we called Jim Bob to see if he could fix it and by the time he got it fixed and got a call from the airport it was already time to go home and Mama invited us to stay and have dinner." Ben said with a loud sigh afterward.
"Sounds like a rough day Ben. I'm sorry." Cindy replied rubbing the top of his shoulders and his neck.
"It's okay. How was your day?" Ben questioned.
"Easier than yours." Cindy said with a laugh. "Well I got to school this morning and forgot that I had left all my paperwork here, so I had to go get Erin from upstairs, who in turn got Olivia to watch my class and I came home and grabbed everything I needed; and then got back up to the school just in time for our history lesson. The kids were really rowdy today so I don't think anybody actually really learned a lot today. But when the kids went out for lunch I went up to talk to Erin and found Olivia up there as well as the school principal. We all talked for a little while, and then when it was time for class again the students had their English lesson for the day and that ended with this spelling test that I was grading when you came in. I came home after school graded for about two hours, started on this dinner, and then went back to grading. Ate my dinner, put yours in the oven and you've been here ever since." Cindy said.
"Sounds like fun." Ben responded.
"It was." Cindy stated and then laughed.
"See, it wasn't so bad today. You weren't really thinking about Virginia's birthday until you went upstairs were you?" Ben asked. "It'll be okay. I love you and I know that it's mutual." Ben hugged her and she leaned on his shoulder.