Mabel returns, part one

Leta could not remain on the couch. She kept leaving the living room to check her hair. Then she would go to the front door and look as far as she could down the street. After a few moments there, she would return to her seat at the couch. She would sit still for a few seconds and then start to fidget again. This would go on for as long as she could stand it, and then she would be up again, repeating what was quickly turning into a ritual. Meanwhile, her husband Bob was calmly smoking a cigar and reading the paper. After the third repetition, once Leta stood, Bob snapped the paper back.

“For Pete’s sake, Leta,” he said, “sit still. You’re worse than a child.”

Leta stopped where she was standing and twisted her hands.

“I’m just so nervous,” she confessed. “What if I don’t recognize her? What if she doesn’t recognize me? What if I don’t like her? Do I look all right? What if she doesn’t like me?”

Bob sighed loudly. “You won’t recognize her, darling. She left when you were a very little girl, and you have not seen her in more than 35 years!”

“Yes, of course, of course,” Leta agreed, pacing back and forth in front of the couch. “But—“

“—And she will like you. You’ll know each other. You’re sisters. Now, please sit down already.”

“You’re right,” Leta agreed and returned to the couch. A moment later she was up again.

“Did you hear that?” she inquired. “It sounded like a car.”

Then she ran to the front door, but the vehicle she heard was parking two houses down. Her shoulders slumped, but her husband was there. He put his arms around her gently.

“Come on, my darling,” he said gently. “They’ll be here when they get here. You’re getting yourself all worked up about this. It’s very unlike you.”

“I know,” she sighed, as he led her back to the couch. This time he sat beside her, holding her hand. “At first, I was so excited. When the telegram came from Louise saying that she and Little Leta were bringing Mabel back from Vancouver with them, I couldn’t wait to see her—meet her. I don’t remember here at all. A letter here and there over the years isn’t the same thing as actually seeing someone. I mean, she left us. She moved to Canada!”

“And now she’s coming to see you,” Bob said. “I think that’s pretty good.”

“I know you’re right,” Leta agreed. “I’m just….”

He squeezed her hand. “It’ll be fine.”

Over the previous five years, Leta’s sister Louise, her daughter Leta (whom they called Little Leta) and sometimes Louise’s husband Hiram had been taking annual trips with friends. They would pile four or five of them into an automobile and take up to three weeks to explore the country. Their first journey was to Chicago, some 245 miles away. The following year they went to the newly dedicated Smoky Mountain National Park in the East. The year after they had traveled to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Louise announced that their next journey would be all the way to Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, to see their distant sister and meet her family there. While the sisters had corresponded over the years, none of them had seen each other since Mabel left Ohio at age 18, more than 35 years earlier. While Hiram wanted to join them, his employment prohibited him leaving for a month, so Louise, Little Leta, and two of Little Leta’s friends from university left in mid-June.

Two weeks after they were gone, Leta received a telegram that informed her that Mabel would be coming back to Ohio with her sister for a reunion. They would arrive in ten days. Initially, Leta did not know how to respond. She only knew that she needed to sit down. Before she could reach the sofa, however, the telephone rang. Her sister Nellie had also received a telegram.

“I can’t believe it,” Louise said. “After all these years. Will we even know what she looks like?”

“Louise said they were going to ask her,” Leta said.

“I wonder what made her say yes,” Louise said.

“She didn’t even come to Ma’s funeral,” Leta noted.

“Well…,” Louise responded.

Then there was silence.

They shared a few more related but not especially connected thoughts. Then Nellie excused herself to return to her cooking.

“We’ll talk more,” she said.

“Yes,” Leta agreed.

“Just imagine!”

Now, it was nine days later. The tourists and their guest had made good time driving across the country and had arrived the previous evening. Nellie was staying with Louise, Hiram, and Little Leta for the moment, but Leta hoped she would stay with them for a week. She wanted to get to know her sister.

To be continued.