David C. McLavic - 7. Chapter 7

We walked with Dad, holding my hand and Beth Ann’s. I looked back and Mom was following. We stopped at a house at the end of the street . Dad went to the door and knocked. They had a metal knocker and the knock was really loud. He must have done that three times when the door was opened, rather angrily, by the woman wearing an apron.

“I’m sorry Miss Elly. I thought you may have been in the kitchen.”

Then this woman grabbed Dad in a hug. “Master David, is this really you? We thought we would never see you again.” I thought if this woman squeezed Dad anymore, he would die.

Then Miss Elly saw Mom. She headed to hug Mom, I’m sure. Mom stepped back and held out her hand. Miss Elly stopped and shook Mom’s hand.

Then Miss Elly saw me, “You look a lot like your father did at your age.” This she said after my hug. Then she saw Beth Ann. I watched as her expression changed, the smile disappeared and then there were tears in her eyes and on her cheeks,

“Miss Elly, this is my youngest, Beth Ann.”

Now I was confused. I didn’t know why Miss Elly had a reaction to Beth Ann and why Dad said my youngest instead of our youngest. When I looked at Mom, she had her back to us and was looking up the street we had just walked.

“Miss Elly, is Dorothy at home?”

“She is in the sitting room. She will be so surprised to see you.”

We followed Miss Elly, into the house. “Miss Dorothy, you will never guess who came to see you.”

That was when Miss Dorothy looked up and saw Dad. More hugs and tears.

“David, is this really you? Wait until Frank knows you are here.’

After greeting Dad, Aunt Dorothy turned to meet Mom. As she approached Mom, Mom stepped back and held out her hand. Aunt Dorothy took her hand and then sat down. Miss Elly brought a tray of tea with cups, a milk pitcher, sugar, and a dish of lemon slices. Aunt Dorothy offered Mom a cup of tea, which Mom accepted but no sugar, cream, or lemon. Miss Elly brought Dad a large cup of coffee and Beth Ann and me a glass of milk with some cookies. I noticed Aunt Dorothy kept looking at Beth Ann. She said something to Miss Elly and Miss Elly left the room returning with a large photograph. Showing it to Dad, I saw it. If I didn’t know better I would have sworn it was a photo of Beth Ann a few years older.

“Dad, who is that? She looks like Beth Ann.”

“She was my sister. Her name was Jean and she died when she was 12 years old. There was a virus that affected the city, not enough doctors or medicine. A lot of people died. One of them was Jean. My parents took her death hard. Mom got ill and died shortly after Jean. My dad became lost, people who meant the most to him left him. My brother was in the university and I was on an expedition to Egypt when this occurred. I came home, your Uncle Frank dropped out of school. It was Miss Elly who pulled us back to life. Your Uncle Frank went back to school, I went back to Egypt and Dad went back to work. It took a long time for us to get over the loss. I don’t think my dad ever did.”

Looking at Dad, I saw the tears in his eyes. He was remembering.