1929 (46 page)

“Well, there’s no guarantee with running your
own fishing business. I mean, we’d be taking a gamble.”

“We would,” Aryl replied bluntly.

“That’s scary,” she said. “Especially after
what we’ve been through.” She was hesitant to say anything more,
although she loved the idea of leaving the tenement.

“But when you’ve got nothing, you’ve got
nothing to lose,” Jonathan said firmly. Aryl turned to Arianna.

“What about you?”

“Well, you know what my biggest concern is.”
Everyone at the table collectively looked at her stomach. “I guess
I wouldn’t mind the idea of the baby being born in the country. I
wonder where we would stay and whether we’d have our own place by
the time the baby came, that sort of thing.”

“Well, I want to go. I think it’s the
opportunity of a lifetime and I don’t want to miss it. Why would we
want to stay in this crummy place a day longer than we had to?”
Claire asked.

Silence reigned again for several minutes.
Claire nudged Aryl’s leg and gave him a stern look.

“We’re going. Claire and me.” Caleb looked as
if he’d been slapped.

“What about us? We haven’t decided yet.”

“Well, I want you to go; of course, I want us
all to go. I want Jon to run the business, you to find buyers and
work on expanding when the time comes, and I want us to each have
our own boat and really make this happen. But if you decide to stay
here . . . .” He looked as if he were in pain as he spoke, “I’m
still leaving within the week. I know it’s a lot to think about.
You don’t have to decide right now. Take tonight to mull it over,
and we’ll meet at my place tomorrow after work.”

Jonathan and Caleb looked at each other,
knowing now that they must decide between staying behind and hoping
for opportunities or going with him and taking the risk.

Aryl and Claire left everyone sitting at the
table, silent and deep in thought.

“What are you thinking, Caleb?” Arianna asked
softly.

“I’m thinking that this would be the perfect
opportunity, if only me and my dad weren’t on the outs. I don’t
know where we’d stay besides with them.”

“I think they’d understand.” She took his
hand, now leaning toward the idea of starting over in a cleaner,
nicer place for the baby. He put his head in his hands.

“My mom would. But not my dad. He’ll never
forgive me.”

“But would he turn you away? If you showed up
on his doorstep tomorrow, would he literally turn you and your
pregnant wife away?” Jonathan asked, knowing that as mad as he was,
Caleb's father would never go that far. Caleb shrugged his
shoulders. “C’mon, Caleb. You know he wouldn’t. And if he started
getting nasty, you know your mother would rein him in.” Caleb
remained unconvinced and stood to leave.

“Let’s get home, Ahna.”

She followed, leaving Ava and Jonathan alone
at the table, the room dimming quickly as evening approached. He
took her hand, and she spoke before he could.

“What do you want to do, Jonathan?”

“I want to go,” he said, surprising her
completely.

“Really? You’ve already decided?”

“Yes. I want to learn to fish or lobster or
whatever it is Aryl’s uncle did. I want to organize a profitable
business, which I know I can do. I want to get out of Victor’s
building and buy us a house by the beach. Claire’s right, this is a
good opportunity. We should go with it.” He tugged at her hand and
she stood up, letting him pull her over to sit on his lap. “Who
knows?” He nuzzled her neck with light kisses that sent shivers up
her back. “Maybe we’ll find our own lighthouse or cave or abandoned
car–”

“Abandoned car?” she laughed, swatting at his
wandering hands. “I hate to put on airs, Mr. Garrett, but I’m going
to have to insist on at least a candlelit cave for our romantic
rendezvous.”

“I think I can manage that.” He settled his
hands around her waist and looked at her more seriously. “So, we’ll
go then?”

“We’ll go.”

∞∞∞

“Caleb, stop pacing,” Arianna pleaded again.
“Come sit with me.”

Arianna sat by the fire with her knitting,
reworking another hopelessly crooked little sweater. Caleb paced,
occasionally grumbled to himself and, after a while, Arianna got up
to turn the radio on to drown him out. The evening news broadcast
was mostly depressing news of the economy. Caleb’s ears perked up
when he heard the updated unemployment numbers and bank failures
followed by contrasting reports of the stock market’s rally and
reports that things were good again. Or at least getting there.

“I swear,” Arianna huffed, not looking up
from her knitting. “They really don’t have any idea what’s going
on, do they? It’s up, down, yes, no, better, worse. I wish they’d
make up their minds.”

He watched her for a few moments as she
stubbornly ripped out and reworked sections of the sweater. She
brought her work up closer to her eyes to check for missed
stitches, revealing her midsection, which seemed to get bigger with
every passing day. He had insisted that she go back to the midwife
while he was at work today, concerned that she was farther along
than they thought.

“Ahna.” He went to sit beside her, feeling
like a heel. “I’m so sorry. With everything that’s going on, I
forgot to ask you what the midwife said. You did go today, didn’t
you?”

“I did and wasted money on a visit. She said
everything is fine, just like I told you.” She put the little
sweater in a basket by the hearth.

“Did she have any explanation?”

“She did.” She looked at Caleb and smiled.
“She said it’s probably a big, strong boy and that’s why I’m so
big. I just don’t know, though. I really feel like it’s a
girl.”

“I’ll go with what the midwife thinks. Have
you gained any weight?” He looked her over, knowing the answer.

“Well, no.” She avoided his eyes. “Actually,
I lost a little.”

“Ahna, you need to eat more.”

“I’m eating what I can.”

He remembered from his youth that animals
bred on the farm would get extra feed and nutrient supplements.
They gained weight and produced healthy calves, foals, and kids. He
sat back on the couch and crossed his arms, frustrated that he
couldn’t do the same for his wife. She wasn’t going to have a
healthy baby living on potatoes and sardines. He sighed heavily.
“It’s time to make some hard decisions, Ahna.” She moved from the
chair and sat next to him on the couch. He draped one arm around
her and she leaned on him, folding both hands on her stomach. “I
don’t want to go,” he said apologetically. Her eyes darted, anxious
for him to finish his sentence. She had been certain that he would
decide to go, even if only for the reason that Jonathan and Aryl
were leaving. She thought surely he wouldn’t want to be left here
alone. “This is easy for the others. It’s simply a matter of to
stay here and struggle or to go there and struggle. Aryl and Claire
have this whole romantic history there, and Jon is drooling at the
chance to run a successful business again.” Arianna wanted to say
so much then, but she bit her tongue for the first time in her
life. “There’s a little more to consider with us.” He placed his
free hand on her stomach and felt a strong kick. “Hey, little guy,”
he said with a grin and leaned down close to her stomach. “Why
don’t you help your old man out here? One kick for stay and two
kicks for go.”

“Are you really talking to my stomach?” She
looked down at him as if he’d lost his mind.

“No. I’m talking to Samuel.”

“You’ve named him? Thanks for letting me
know,” she said with joking irritation.

“I figured we could decide that- Hey!” Caleb
looked up and laughed. “Well, that’s his two cents. Or two kicks
rather. I guess he thinks we should go.”

“Why wouldn’t we, Caleb? Why on earth would
we stay here?”

“Because we’d have to live with my parents in
the beginning. My father hates me. It will be uncomfortable and
awkward. I’ll have to go off every day and leave you to deal with
it, and I don’t know how long we’d be there. I don’t even know how
to fish. It may be a few months before we can be in our own place.”
He sat back on the couch and crossed his arms again. “There’s even
a chance that the baby could be born at my parents’ house.”

“Would that be so bad? It’s clean and quiet,
I’d have plenty of help while you’re gone, and you know it would
make your mother happy to have her grandchild born in the same
house you were. She’s sentimental.”

“Ahna, you’re not realizing what this really
means.”

“Then enlighten me.” He looked frustrated and
looked away. “I’ll tell you what this means, Caleb. It means you
will have to face your father, and I know you don’t want to do
that.”

“I really don’t,” he admitted. She couldn’t
see the conversation going anywhere, and she was growing tired.

“I’m going to bed. We can talk more
tomorrow.”

“They want a decision tomorrow.”

“Then make one, Caleb.” He looked over at
her; how docile she looked, her facial features soft and her eyes
kind. “I love you. I think you know what I want to do, but you have
to be okay with it, too. I will be right here, by your side, no
matter what you ultimately choose to do.” She kissed his cheek, and
he watched her leave the room, still amazed at how much she had
changed in the last few months. He wondered if this more humane and
devoted side of her recently was what her family spoke of years ago
when they referred to how she used to be.

He sat for many hours in the dark, debating
and sighing, weighing possibilities and organizing priorities until
finally he made a decision he could live with. After flipping on
the light and getting a pen and paper, he wrote a telegram.

‘Mom and Dad. Clean out my old room. Coming
home.’

February 20th 1930

Caleb fell in with Aryl and Jonathan, who
were waiting outside and talking about details of the move back to
Rockport. They quieted when he walked up, watching him anxiously,
waiting for his decision.

“I’m going to need to stop and send a
telegram on the way home from work today.” Caleb pulled out the
edited paper from his pocket and looked it over.

“Does that mean you’re in?” Jonathan looked
hopeful. His reply was less than enthusiastic.

“I’m in.”

Visible relief washed over Aryl, and Jonathan
set right in on reassuring him that everything would work out with
his father.

“The only question now is when should we go?”
Aryl wondered aloud. The contrast of the city was so stark; the
smell, grit, and commotion of the city grated on his nerves and
gave him a headache. He would be happy to leave today.

“Why don’t we finish the week,” Jonathan
suggested, “collect our pay and leave on Saturday?”

Caleb was surprised. “That fast?”

“Why not?” Aryl said. “What’s holding us
here?” They passed by a secondhand store and Jonathan looked in the
window and added to ideas he had jotted down the night before. “We
should buy a few of those steamer trunks for moving.” He started
walking again and handed Caleb a list.

“What’s this?” Caleb asked, reading off the
note to himself.

“A list of things I need you to take care of
before we leave,” Jonathan said.

“Really? Who made you the boss?” Aryl
teased.

“You did.” Jonathan held a list out to him
with a smirk.

“Well, then, boss–” Aryl took the paper and
glanced over it. “It’s nice to have you back.”

He looked at Aryl with immeasurable gratitude
in his eyes. “It’s nice to be back.”

They started walking again and Caleb was
completely distracted by the stress of imminent reunion with his
father, and he didn’t notice when Aryl handed something to
Jonathan.

“I know you have another one, but it’s
probably time to give this back.”

Jonathan didn’t say anything as he took his
straight razor from Aryl’s hand and slipped it in his right pocket,
next to the straw cross he carried with him everywhere.

∞∞∞

“What’s this?” Ava had handed Claire a piece
of paper when she opened her door.

“These are things we need to do before the
end of the week. Jonathan was up half the night planning and this
morning asked me to give these to you and Arianna and see to it
that these things get done.”

Claire read over the list, nodding her head.
“These are good ideas, actually. Let’s go get Arianna and get
started.”

“Get rid of the furs!” Arianna looked
horrified. Claire and Ava had had a feeling this wouldn’t go
well.

“It’s the practical thing to do, Arianna,”
Claire said. No matter how domesticated Arianna had become
recently, she was still, to her core, Arianna. “We’d look
ridiculous wearing furs around Rockport, and it makes more sense to
barter them for things we’ll need more.”

She huffed and fussed but went along,
carrying the two fur coats she had smuggled out of the house last
October down the street. The others each carried a carpetbag of
fancy dresses and uncomfortable shoes that would be nonsensical to
bring to their new life.

Ava pulled Arianna aside before they went
into the shop with the ‘Barters Welcome’ sign in the window.

“Jon specifically said to tell you to be sure
to trade not only for sensible clothes now, but for when you’re,
well, bigger. It will be easier to find the things you’ll need here
rather than there. Thankfully, you’ll be your biggest in the
summer, so you won’t need to buy a second coat. Try to get some
baby things as well, if they have them.”

Arianna rolled her eyes and walked inside.
The shop owner’s eyes lit up when she saw the white, floor-length
and black, thigh-length furs draped over her arm. Ava and Claire
had one fur each and a half-dozen dresses that were far too elegant
to be of any practical use. They saved out one nice dress for
holidays and family gatherings, and traded the rest for practical
clothes; cotton dresses, gingham skirts and wool sweaters. Ava
suggested they each get two pair of practical and, dreadfully
hideous, according to Arianna - shoes that would be more useful
than the delicate and uncomfortable heels of their previous
life.