Donners Bend (21 page)

He crawled atop his brother’s lap and looked up at him anxiously
. 
Jamie scratched his head and pushed the air out of his eyes
. 
He tried to put on the most content face he could for his little brother, and gave a small, forced smile, “What is that you want, little man?”

“Peter,” Wesley repeated, “Peter Pan
. 
We need it and you were the last to have it.”

Jamie rolled up his shirt
sleeves to his elbows and gave a small sigh, rubbing his head again, “Well, I suppose it’s somewhere around here.”

He got up, taking Wesley in his arms, set his cigar in an ashtray, and they searched around the office first
, but
then, after having no success, they left to search around the house
. 
Ellie
was just about to follow when she caught a glimpse of some things on the desk and got t
he
urge to see what had been stressing Jamie so much
. 

On one portion of the desk there were papers from various universities and a note from
Louise
Rhodes that
read, “Just in case you decide to go back.” There were also brochures from the different sections of the military: the navy, army, marines, etc
. 
Ellie
knew those were from
Robert
Rhodes
; Jamie had told her how his father had been pressuring him to go into the military
. 
There were also sections of job offerings found in the newspapers of several nearby cities
.

And on the other side of the desk there were several letters from
Sarah
. 
From looking at the date of the letter on top,
Ellie
knew it was the one she’d seen Juliet with earlier
. 
Beside the letter there was another, blank letter that Jamie had begun writing
. 
So far it only read, “Dear Miss Walsh,”

As she moved over to get a better look, an open drawer caught
Ellie
’s eye
. 
It was found at the bottom of the desk, but it was one of the largest drawers there
. 
Ellie
kneeled down and found that it was stuffed with tons and tons of envelopes
. 
They all
contained a letter and were sent to either “James
Rhodes
”, “Jamie”, “J
.
I
.
Rhodes
”, “James
Robert
Rhodes
”,
“
Mr.
J
.
Rhodes
” or one of the millions of other names
Sarah
had used
. 
Ellie
hadn’t realized how large
Sarah
’s infatuation was or how long it had gone on, but what she now knew rather shocked her
.

Before she could look any farther, Wesley ran in with
Peter Pan
in his hand and shouted, “We found it,
Ellie
! 
Come on!”

Wesley waited out in the hall impatiently and
Jamie
walked back into the office.

“Having a good day,
Ellie
?” he asked casually.

“Yes, fine,” she answered quickly, hoping he hadn’t seen her snooping in on his private affairs and papers, “And you?”

He took a seat and lit another cigar, “Not so good.”

“I’m sorry to hear that
. 
You know, if you ever want to join the children and I
today, I’m sure they’d love to have you.”

“Thanks for the offer,” Jamie answered, “But I’d rather not.”

“Come on,
Ellie
,” Wesley repeated as he ran back in and tugged on his nanny’s arm.

“Well,” said
Ellie
, “I should probably get going
. 
Goodbye
, Jamie.”

“G’bye
Ellie
, Wes.” His voice was solemn, monotonous
.

As they walked up the stairs to the playroom again, Wesley looked up at
Ellie
and said, “I don’t think Jamie’s having a very good day.”

Since she knew Wesley hadn’t heard Jamie and her conversation,
Ellie
asked curiously, “How can you tell?”

“Whenever Jamie’s stressed
,
he smokes
. 
Of course, he smokes some other days too, but I can usually tell when he’s stressed smoking and when he’s regular smoking
, a
nd today, he’s stressed
. 
I don’t think he’s been having a very good day.”

“Me neither.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,”
Ellie
lied.

The next afternoon, Jamie,
Ellie
, and the children packed up a picnic basket full of sandwiches, cookies, and fruit
. 
They loaded it into the
Rhodes
’
carriage along with some foils for fencing, a few books, and the girls’ dolls
. 

Jamie led them to a lake nearby and they set up a little picnic beneath the sunny, clear blue sky
. 
Just as he was able to change characters so quickly before, he’d lost the glasses, cigarette, and distressed look to be the youthful man he’d been before.

It was a perfect day
. 
With the beautiful emerald hills of
Donners Bend
as their surrounding
landscape
, Gracie and Leah played with their dolls beneath the oak tree, Wesley sat in
Ellie
’s lap as she read him a story, and Jamie and Wesley fenced on the lush green grass
.

Once all the contents of the picnic basket had vanished but for a few spare cookie crumbs, Jamie decided to go get out the rowboats for a little fun
o
n the lake
. 
The
Rhodes
’
mansion was the closest house to the lake in all of
Donners Bend
, so it was generally considered to be “theirs”, though everyone was allowed to use and enjoy it
. 
So, a good many years ago, when
Robert
had been but a boy, he and his father built a little shed nearby in which to keep their things
. 
It was painted white and had cute little black shutters that matched the black-shingled roof
. 
From out of it Jamie found two wooden rowboats complete with oars
.

“Shall we?” he asked
,
as he held his hand out to
Ellie
.

“
I’d l
ove to,” she replied, letting him pull her up onto her feet
.

The girls, complete in cute gingham, striped, and polka-dot dresses, ran to the boats with their hair flying behind them
. 
Wesley followed, in a blue shirt and brown trousers folded up to the knee from when he’d been wading earlier
. 
Jamie and
Ellie
came next; Jamie walked quickly and pulled
Ellie
along by the hand behind him
. 
He was dressed just like Wesley except his sleeves were rolled up instead of his pants and he wore a white shirt instead of a blue one
. 
With her hair down and loose, for it rarely was,
Ellie
wore a thin, careless pale green dress that blew with the breeze and upon her head sat a large, floppy white hat
. 
All six were barefoot.

First they boarded the boats and floated around slowly, laughing and talking and relaxing in the calm water under the shining sun
. 
Then, Demi came up with the idea of racing the boats across to the other side and all the children agreed it would be a wonderful game
. 
Surprisingly though, when they chose which sides they’d be on, the children chose to be in a boat by themselves and
Ellie
and Jamie were left to the other.

With each rowboat starting at one end of the lake and the rower for each side, Leah and
Ellie
, in place, the race began
. 
It wasn’t as easy as one might have though
t
. 
Minutes passed and both boats had barely moved at all
. 
Finally, Jamie said he’d take the oars from
Ellie
, but the children screamed and wouldn’t let him
. 
They said it was a rule that in his boat only
Ellie
could row, but in their boat anyone could row because of the age difference
. 
Jamie, not wanting to start a fight, let them do as they wished and followed their made-up rule
. 

As the two sluggish boats moved like snails across the water, the non-rowing members of each side grew very patriotic towards their side and began trying to oppress their enemy
.

“You’re going down, Jame!” Gracie shouted.

“Yeah
! 
Eat our dust!” Demi added
.

“I would gladly do so if I were losing, but I don’t believe I have anything to worry about,” Jamie replied with a smile and easygoing attitude, acting as though he and
Ellie
could win the race without much effort.

“We’ll be waiting for you at the finish
li
n
e!”
Wesley exclaimed as their boat inched forward.

“Oh yeah, little man?” Jamie shot back.

“Yeah!” a determined Wesley returned.

“Oh it’s on now,” Jamie said with fake malice.

The boats had reached halfway now, and both girls began
struggling
to keep their boat ahead
. 
Ellie
could have actually been far ahead of Leah now if she’d wanted to, but she didn’t want to damage the girl’s pride.

Insults began flying back and forth and everyone was shouting at their rowers to go faster as they smiled and laughed
. 
And then, it happened
. 
No one saw it coming
un
t
il
it was too late
.

Jamie, in the excitement of the moment, stood up in the little rowboat, pointed his finger forward, and shouted, “Full speed ahead, Captain!”

If you’ve ever been in a rowboat before, you know that this is not always such a good idea
. 
On
e
minute he was standing confidently, waving his fist at the enemy, and the next the entire boat had flipped upside down,
spilling
its occupants into the cool lake water
.

“Man overboard!” shouted Wesley.

After a slight hesitation, Jamie and
Ellie
emerged from beneath the formerly calm water
. 
Obviously, both were soaking wet and
Ellie
’s floppy hat had fallen off her head and was now floating atop the water.

“Are you alright?” Gracie asked with a worried expression as she leaned over the side of her boat.

Ellie
laughed, “I’m fine.”

Jamie grabbed
Ellie
’s hat and set it over his head as he floated on his back, “Just going for a little mid-afternoon swim is all
. 
Would any of you care to join us?”