Dancing in the Sky

Mary sat on her bed and didn’t know whether to laugh of cry. She’d spent the day going from giddy with excitement to deep depression. Next to her on the floor was a set of packed suitcases. Her window was open, and the breeze was ruffling her drapes. Then she heard the gravel crunching in the driveway. It was time.

She walked over to the window and looked down. Ted Hammond stood next to the shrubs beneath her window, gazing up at her. Ted. Can I go through with it? Do I want to? Does he want this? She said to herself.

“What?” Ted whisper-shouted from below.

“Nothing,” she replied. I need to keep my thoughts inside.

Mary hoisted her first suitcase to the sill of the window and carefully hung it over the side. She lowered it on a rope she’d hijacked from the barn just for tonight. She dropped her hat case to Ted, and he caught it, then she lowered her small suitcase. As he got each one, he ran it over to the old pick-up truck that was parked behind the bushes, hidden from the house.

Finally, she climbed out the window herself, onto the trellis. If her father knew how many times she transited that old trellis, he would have flipped. Then she thought to herself that if she hadn’t climbed down that old thing the month before, she might not be climbing down it now.

That had been an amazing night. Anyone that cared to look should have seen it coming. She had just come back from Radford, having earned a degree in education, she had planned to take the summer off before starting her teaching job at the school in Gallipolis. But when she saw Ted, it was all over. She’d had a crush on him as long as she’d had crushes.

On her second night back, after going to a barn dance with her younger sister, she snuck back out of her parent’s house. After their first night of unbridled passion, she figured out she was pregnant. Before the words were all the way out of her mouth, he was on his knee in front of her begging for her hand in marriage. When she told him, she had expected he would offer marriage. Out of duty if nothing else.

It was after she accepted and they made love again… the second time ever for her, and she went home to bed, that she started to have second thoughts.

Does he want to be married to me?

Her doubts crept back into her mind even as she slowly lowered herself along the thorny trellis. But then when she slipped, she fell into his arms… his strong and comforting arms. As she looked up into his eyes, her doubts crept away from her consciousness again.

“Ted Hammond, you make it impossible for me to think?” she said before she smothered him with a passionate kiss as he stood there holding her under her window.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be… and we better git before my father figures out what’s happening.”

He didn’t bother to set her down, instead, carrying her off and depositing her into the passenger seat of his old truck before she could think to protest.

Mary’s mother quietly crept into the room and closed her daughter’s window, then watched as the truck bounced down the driveway and turned onto the road and drove out of site… away from the Hammond farm. She wiped a tear from her eye, she headed back to her own bed and slipped back in next to her husband.

***

Mary Kirby was exhausted and exhilarated. Not Mary Kirby… Mary Hammond, now, she thought, then smiled. She pulled Ted a little closer as he carried her over the threshold into the train’s private berth. He kicked the door closed and kissed her deeply again.

“Your accommodations for the trip, Mrs. Hammond,” he said, unable to contain his grin. There was a gentle knock at the door. “Oh, jeepers,” Ted said, spinning and opening the door. “Sorry,” he said to the porter. “We just got married, I forgot all about you.”

“No problem, sir,” the porter replied, setting the suitcases down. “I expect you’ll want me to get going,” he said, holding his hand out for a tip.

Ted slipped him a few bills and waved as the man stepped outside of the compartment, closing the door behind him.

“You didn’t tell me where we were going, Mr. Hammond,” Mary said, never letting go over her husband’s shoulder.

“Do you remember that one night… I guess almost six years ago… the night before I left for the Navy? You told me that you had a dream and showed me a picture from the National Geographic.”

“You remembered that?”

“I haven’t forgotten it. Mary, I knew before then that I wanted to marry you, but at that moment, I started planning everything out… well, not everything… almost everything.” He smiled at her, her return smile warming his heart.

Mary loved Ted Hammond. She always had. At least every time she saw him. But part of the doubt was because she didn’t think he really loved her. He graduated from high school and went into the Navy… the last two years of the war… but then they had only spent a few weeks together again the summer before she left. They didn’t write each other. Well, she wrote for a while, but he barely lifted a pen to respond. And when she was home on breaks, he was off working. She had assumed that her affections weren’t returned the same way.

Until the month before. June, 1949. She graduated and headed home. Her sister talked her into going to the barn dance at the Hammond place, and she gave in and went.

The train whistle blew, and she felt the jolt as it started to pull out of the station in Cincinnati, bound for Chicago. She grabbed onto Ted to steady herself as he put his hand onto the rail around the wall.

“So… are you going to tell me?”

“That’s all I’m going to say. And we’ll be gone for three weeks. Aunt Teresa made all the arrangements when I told her my plan. For now, why don’t we go to the dining car and get dinner, then we can come back here. In the morning, we’ll be in Chicago.”

As she looked up into his eyes again, she couldn’t help but smile. He was just so proud of himself. She gave him another kiss and let him lead her out of the room.

***

They had been travelling almost constantly for four days. She’d managed to send postcards to her family from Chicago and Sault Ste. Marie. Aside from that, it had been a whirlwind. But as she sat, bundled in a blanket next to her husband, it all became clear.

They were sitting in a carriage on top of a low hill, the sky laid out before them to the north. The Northern Lights danced in front of them, lighting the sky with their brilliant colors above the horizon. Tears filled Mary’s eyes as she watched the green lights shimmer, brilliant purples and golds invading and receding.

“I know it isn’t Alaska… I really wanted to pull that off, but I didn’t have time. I knew I could give you this, though,” Ted said. “You told me that night your dream was to see the Northern Lights. I never forgot. When you told me that was your dream, it became my dream to give them to you.”

She nuzzled deeper into him as he wrapped his arm around her to ward off the chill.

“Mary, I know that you thought that I only wanted to marry you to do the right thing… and you aren’t wrong that I would have married you on account of that. But you need to know that I have been in love with you for a long time. I just thought that you…” he stopped talking.

“What’s wrong?” Mary said, seeing him choke up.

“I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving that I’m worthy of you, Mary.” He looked down at her, his eyes as serious as she’d ever seen. “I want to be worthy of your love. I’ve noticed since I asked you to marry me that you have been hesitant. I understand.”

She was stunned to silence.

***

Nellie Donnelly stepped from the porch of the Cloghaun Inn on Mackinac Island. She waved and greeted the newlyweds, hugging them and welcoming them to her house. She was all smiles as she ushered them into a suite on the second floor, their balcony overlooking the harbor.

“Mrs. Donnelly, this is so beautiful,” Mary said to the older woman.

“Thank you so much for being accommodating,” Ted added.

“I’m glad that we could be a part of this special time of your life, Mr. And Mrs. Hammond. When you are ready, I’d love to point out someplace wonderful for dinner.” She backed out of the room, the bellman leaving their luggage near the door.

“I wanted to get the Grand Hotel,” Ted said, “but it was already fully booked. We can come back, though, if you’d like.”

“This is perfect, Ted.”

That evening, they walked to dinner. Following dinner, at Mrs. Donnelly’s suggestion they followed the path to Sunset Rock, overlooking the Straits of Mackinac. Ted laid out the blanket the innkeeper had provided, and they sat down to watch the sun setting over Saint Ignace to the west. Mary leaned back into her husband, taking in his scent and feeling his strength as he wrapped his arms around her.

“Ted,” she said, “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Mary.”

“I need you to know that I have loved you for a long time.”

“Me, too,” he replied.

He felt her shake slightly. His insecurities came rushing back, and he wrapped his arms around her a little tighter. It had been two weeks since they were married in Gallipolis. Since then, they had taken a riverboat to Cincinnati, a train to Chicago, a steamer to Sault Ste. Marie, a train up into the wilds of Canada and back, and another steamer to Mackinac Island. They had been too busy travelling for the enormity of everything that had transpired to have settled in. Even when they sat and watched the Northern Lights, there had been too much going on.

Mary turned in Ted’s arms. She needed to look into his eyes. Those eyes that quieted her fears and doubts.

“I used to dream that you’d ask me to marry you, Ted. Then, you didn’t. I knew you liked me. And I knew that you liked being with me. But until the last few days, I never knew you really loved me. When I found out we were going to have a baby, I was so scared… full of uncertainty. I didn’t want you to marry me because I was pregnant, but I may have been willing to let you... I should have said so when you asked me to marry you.”

“Mary, I tried to tell you before… I asked you to marry me because it’s what I’ve always wanted. I just never thought I could be good enough.”

“You are good enough, Ted. You were always more than good enough.”

She kissed him, then turned away and relaxed into his arms again, her heart soaring.

***

Ted took Mary’s hand as she stepped from the truck. She held his arm as she walked up the steps to her parent’s house. It had been almost a month since she had snuck out in the middle of the night. She knocked on the door.

Her father opened the door and looked down at her hand. Then he smiled.

“It’s about time.” He hugged her.

The next installment of the Hammond series is linked here.

Check out my profile here for more stories, and my Amazon Author Page to see my novels.