As Time Goes By (The Californians 2) (19 page)

Only Nate noticed how quiet Jeff had been through the entire exchange and the way he watched Bobbie. Jeff's eyes studied her face when she wasn't even aware of his scrutiny.

"Here we go again," Nate mumbled so no one heard him, but he couldn't have been too upset, since it didn't keep him from reaching for another slice of gingerbread and the pitcher of cider.

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twenty-six

Bobble went straight to Riggs Mercantile on her next half-Saturday because the next day was Marcail's tenth birthday party. She had wandered around for a good 20

minutes when Rigg appeared at her side.

"Hi, Bobbie, how are you?"

"I'm fine, Rigg, but I'd be even better if I knew what your sister-in-law would like for her birthday."

'adah," Rigg said with a smile. "I honestly think you could just bring yourself. Marcail would consider you gift enough."

Bobbie smiled. "I think she's pretty special too. How is Kaiflin?"

"She's feeling better physically, but she just heard from her father and he's decided to stay in Hawaii for at least a year. It was difficult to hear, but in the long run it will be easier than getting news with every letter that he's going to be delayed."

"I think you must be right," Bobbie answered with more knowledge than Rigg realized.

She had written to Cleve and told him how she was

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feeling about their relationship. He seemed almost panicked because his next letter said he was coming to Santa Rosa right away. Wanting to settle things with Cleve as soon as possible, Bobbie had been relieved, but another letter came right after that to say that he wouldn't be able to get away until the spring and quite possibly the summer. It was a tremendous letdown, and Bobbie was discovering that the feeling of being in limbo was not,pleasant.

"I saw Marcail looking at these last week," Rigg was saying as he pointed to some hair combs and ribbons. "Tknd I know she likes lacy undergarments because she touches them and holds them to the front of herself every time she comes in."

Bobbie's interest was immediately piqued. "Does Kait-lin usually buy her this type of thing?" Bobbie held up a child's shift that was bordered with bright blue ribbon.

"I don't think she does. Kate's pretty drawn to that stuff too, so I think it's probably something they haven't had a lot of."

"Thanks, Rigg, I don't think you need to show me anything else," Bobbie said without looking at him, her eyes on the clothing before her. Ordinarily she might have been embarrassed to discuss intimate apparel with Rigg, but right now her mind was too busy figuring out what she could afford and exactly what Marcail might like.

Bobbie's stomach was beginning to growl from hunger before she made her final selection and started home. She was very pleased with her purchase and hoped her ten-year-old friend would be as well. She had only about 24 hours to wait before she found out because Marcail's party was right after church the next day.

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Bobbie had checked with May about what she could bring for lunch but May told her that she and Kaitlin were preparing everything. The weather over the week end would have been perfect for a camping trip but Bobbie told herself that she wouldn't miss Marcail's party for anything. She also asked the Lord to give them sun shine for the party. It was a selfish request, but Bobbie's heart was tender toward Marcail ad she wanted every thing to be just right.

Just right were the perfect words to describe the day of the party. Marcail waited outside the church and then asked Bobbie to sit with her during the service.

Their pew was full, with Sean on the far end and then Rigg, Kaiflin, Jeff, Bobbie, and Marcail on the outside aisle. Bobble and Jeff only had a chance to exchange smiles before the service began, but on the first song Jeff leaned to whisper in her ear.

"Why aren't you singing?"

"I'm trying to hear Marcail's voice." Bobbie's eyes were wide with wonder.

"You need to hear her when she sings with Kate and Sean. The word beautiful doesn't do them justice."

Bobble was awestruck. Marcail's voice was the clearest soprano she had ever heard, and as Bobbie turned to watch her she could see that it was effortless. The whole morning was special and it was with high spirits that Bobble made her way to the Taylors'.

'You're going to have to face facts, Jeffrey,' he said to himself. 'You're finding Bobbie Bradford more and more

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distracting all the time.' Jeff sat in the living room of his house and couldn't believe he was having this conversa tion with himself.

The room was packed. Jeff's folks were there, along with all his brothers, plus Kate, Sean, and of course Marcail. Mr. Parker and Joey Parker were also present. They were friends to whom the family had a special outreach, but the only person Jeff had eyes for was a curly-headed blonde who wore glasses on her delight fully upturned nose.

Jeff couldn't believe how many times he had thought about kissing that nose over the last two weeks. Maybe it was because Sylvia had kissed him, but Jeff knew he was ,terribly preoccupied with hugging and kissing lately. He found himself envying Rigg, who had a wife to hold whenever he so wanted.

Jeff always assumed that he would marry someday, but lately it was becoming something of an obsession. He even found himself imagining what his and Bobbie's children would look like. He had never had such thoughts of Sylvia, and Jeff spent a lot of time asking God to show him what it all meant.

What if he
was
falling in love with Bobbie? She was committed to Cleve. Jeff found the name more distaste ful all the time. And on the rare moments when he thought about Bobbie kissing Cleve, he felt something akin to grief. He had almost slipped one day at work and asked her if they had kissed much. He knew the question was none of his business, but it plagued him nonethe less. Maybe he should just ask her, get his face slapped, and have it out of his system.

The room had emptied while Jeff sat in a daze. Marcail had opened all her gifts and the family was gathered in the kitchen for cake. Bobbie noticed that Jeff wasn't

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180 Lori Wick

present and went back to find him in a chair in the far comer of the living room.

"Jeff, are you coming to the kitchen?" Bobble asked the question after she had stopped by his chair.

"Yes, I'll come right now," Jeff answered, glad for the diversion.

Marcail shot into the room just then and made straight for her presents. She scooped up the lovely undergarments that Bobbie had picked out for her and rushed over to left.

"Jeff, did you see these? Bobbie gave them to me. Aren't they pretty?"

"Very nice," Jeff answered, thinking how grownup Bobbie had made Marcail feel with such a gift. Marcail was holding up a cotton undershirt and bloomers; both were piped in pink braid.

"Marc!" Kate's voice called from the kitchen and the three went out together. Marcail skipped out to have her cake, thinking
that
this day had been almost as good as Christmas.

twenty-se.ve,-,

Oh Sean, not again." The words were uttered in agony and came from the 15-year-old's sister. Kaitlin had been sitting in the living room for hours waiting for Sean to come home. Rigg had sat with her until close to midnight, but he had to work the next day and Kate told him to go to bed. They were both too tired to give thought to the fact that Kaitlin had to work in the morning as well.

"Sit down, Sean." Kate moved toward her brother and then almost stepped back when a wave of alcohol fumes assailed her senses.

Sean mumbled something unintelligible as Kate put her arm around him, but she ignored her inebriated brother. Her pregnancy made her ungainly, and when Sean tripped on the edge of the rug, he almost took them both to the floor.

Kate wanted to rail at her brother. This was the second time he had come home drunk and she was just sick as she looked at him. It had all started around Marcail's birthday, when their Father had written to say he would

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be away at least a year. A few days after Marcail's party, Sean had gone out with friends on a Friday night and been gone until dawn. He had come back so drunk that his family barely recognized him. Now it was weeks later and it wasn't a Friday night, so they wouldn't have the weekend to recover.

For a long time Sean had been very sorry over what he had done and it looked to everyone like he had learned his lesson, but the boys Sean ran with were a strong lure, and in a matter of weeks he was seeing them again. He managed to keep this a secret for over a month, but now he saw them every afternoon that he wasn't working.

Rigg and Kate discussed the possibility of Sean work ing every day, but they knew that would be treating the symptoms and not the cause. Kate didn't like to think what was going to happen when school let out in two weeks. Unless Sean agreed to work at the mercantile, he would have hours of free time on his hands every day.

Kate was afraid to try the stairs with Sean, so she led him to the couch and helped him lie down. He fell asleep as she removed his shoes. Rigg came out to check on her just as she was covering him with a blanket.

"I could smell him from across the room." Rigg's voice was thick with pain. "How are you holding up?"

"I think I'll be okay. I came to some conclusions to night as I was sitting here waiting, and I think I'm going to give Sean a choice; he can straighten up or I'm going to put him on the next ship for Hawaii."

"Will you be able to go through with it if he chooses to sail?"

"I don't know, Rigg, I honestly don't know." The tears that had threatened for hours finally spilled forth.

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Rigg quickly checked Sean, tucking the blanket close around him, and then lifted his sobbing wife in his arms. The pregnancy made her heavier but she was still no problem for Rigg to carry.

He laid her gently in their bed and then crawled in beside her, covering them both with a light blanket. Rigg didn't try to talk to Kate as she cried against his chest because he half-expected she would cry herself to sleep. But Kate needed to talk, and after her tears were spent

spoke.

sh'e'I don't know what to do nexL I love my brother, Rigg, but he's become so hard against me that I feel I barely know him. I know he's a different person when he's with his .friends, and I feel that everything he says or does around here is a lie."

"It
probably is. I mean, he's embracing the world with both arms right now and that means he has to weigh every word he says when he's here."

"What are we going to do, Rigg?" Kate said after a moment of silence.

'q don't know. I haven't wanted to involve my whole family even though I'm sure they've noticed Sean's behavior."

"But now you're thinking of talking to your dad?" "Yes. He loves Sean, but he's not as emotionally in volved as we are, and maybe he can shed some light on things for us. And just maybe, Kate--and this is some thing we'll have to face--Sean will have to make his own choice on this. He has a free will, and God wants Sean to come to Him of that free will."

They didn't talk much after that and it wasn't long before they were both asleep. Morning was a trial with so little rest, but they were up on time anyway. Rigg moved

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his hung-over brother-in-law to his own bedroom upstairs, and then left him a note telling him not to leave the house before Rigg returned at lunch.

Kate and Rigg sat down with Sean that very night and talked over the options available to him. Kaitlin did not give her brother any ultimatums, but she did ask him if he wanted to sail for Hawaii. He was immediately against the idea and Kate found that she was relieved.

Rigg took over the conversation about halfway through, and most of what he told Sean echoed the advice he had received from his father that morning.

Sean was given until school let out to find a full-time job for the summer, not a job with Rigg or at the shipping office, but one where he walked in, introduced himself, and asked for fullrtime work for the summer.

"And what if I refuse?" Sean asked, not belligerently, but needing to know his boundaries.

"Then you'll find yourself out on your ear, because this is what it's going to cost you to live here this summer."

Rigg pushed a piece of paper toward the young man. On it were the weekly costs for Sean's 'rent and food for the entire summer. Rigg also told him he would have to buy his own clothing. Sean read the list over several times, and ther/looked into the eyes of Rigg and his sister. They were regretful, but serious.

Sean nodded slowly. He hated to admit it, but he knew he had no one to blame but himself. Maybe a job would help him say no to the friends who got him into the most trouble. Not that he blamed them completely; he knew the choice was his.

The next day being Friday, Sean knew he had just one more day before setting off to find a summer job. He thought he might have seen a sign at the livery. He didn't know the pay, but it had to be fairly high or else he would have to put in plenty of hours for his rent and expenses.