 Chapters 1 & 2 "The House and the Church" <br/>_1.jpg "Winter is Coming (Growing Old - A Story Out of Minnesota) Chapters 1 & 2 \"The House and the Church\" <br/>-1")
Winter is Coming
Characters:
Dr. Sammy H. Jeffers
Ezra L. Davis
Robert Brandt (Children: One boy, two sisters)
Chapter One
The House
Sammy, who had all the false notions of a green one, seemed worried, but then the heat bills would be less if it was was green, and less folks would die in Minnesota of the cold, then, he welcomed the mild or if not mild winter that was approaching, and if it be snowy weather all the same, but at present it was damp weather for the most part, and autumn was the best part of the year in The place, his home had to friendly to him, the rigid skies, their frosty mornings, frost on the tiles on roofs of houses, his house in particular, his roof, yes, he beckoned to himself: one way or the other, winter was coming.
He and Ezra Davis got gradually more relationship each summer, winters seemed to take the best out of them; it was a relationship a mutual relationship, both owning the house, having their own privacy at any given time, the house was old, but well kept by them, Sammy living upstairs, the other down. Sammy had four rooms, and Ezra had six, thin-walled, a stairway that rounded going up to Sammy & # 39; s rooms, a garden in the back, and along side of the except for occasionally meeting down there by accident, and infrequently wanting to talk of as planning something, and as time went on, they met less and less, spent their evening alone covered with a blanket and a good book to read, as every winter came creeping in, and by.
Her private letters are all lost and I read them of Roberta had gone from Munich, Germany to Vicenza, Italy; when Sammy asked for news of her, Ezra said, "She & # 39; s been to a number of countries over in Europe. "I'm sorry I still do not think of that something to say, he added," We & # 39; re both used to it by now I suppose ... I really do not care that much anymore. "
Ezra, usually did not follow up such comments, and did not comment, and Sammy offered no more.
"Oh, incidentally, what happened to that woman who almost died at the church - the one you saved I hear ...?" Said Sammy to Ezra.
"Excuse me ... what woman?" Asked Ezra L.
"Well," said Sammy smartly, "for once you can not remember what you do, so I do not feel so bad, we are both getting old. Now you know family family, the Brandt & # 39; s. She & # 39; sa widower, I fancy. She and her boy and daughter live out in White Bear Lake.
"Oh, now I remember, that was a year ago ...!" Said Ezra.
"You still are a good doctor, old but good!" Said Sammy H.
"The children are not very posed, rather uptight, sort of worried they may lose a gold mine if she gets married off at 78 - years old, and the boy - Donald, is not the main problem, it ' mind, I dare say. "I am not sure what you are talking about.
Sammy said casually, "I run into her at the old Market Place downtown, during last summer, twice at the bagel stand, I like cheese on mine, and she eats hers with meat. Activities, but of course I did not. "
"Ah yes, I & # 39; ve heard she likes to do this and that, but she never, her kids again, fearful she might meet someone, her husband was killed in Korea, I think anyways - left her with enough money to live quietly on for the rest of her life I expect. I guess the kids do not want any gigolos around her, "commented Ezra.
"Yes, I'm seeing it after, that they have been talking over the phone, Sammy had called Ezra downstairs.
Neither Sammy nor Ezra had plans for Thanksgiving, they never did. Sammy H. who had a large family in Kansas City, was too ill and weak to go (nor was asked), and his family would not come up to Minnesota to visit - Ezra was eager to receive his family whom lived in town, a daughter across the street, but they are now used to doing such events without him, so he took his medicine and fell to sleep as usual, a book in hand . They both really did not look forward to the festivals of the holidays, a gloom by the prospect that they were families were so preoccupied, they were too busy who they were, perhaps a phone call, if indeed they did that, or could remember to do it, but seldom did they do it.
And she was mutually grateful for her children who kept She told her children she was saving to go to Las Vegas, she liked to get away, and gambling was a kind of sport for her, something to do, and it seemed safe for her children to allow it , since she went alone. Actually, she wanted to go on Thanksgiving, and her children did not like that idea, they wanted her around for the grandchildren, maybe do a little baby sitting, if time allowed, and she cooked a good huge pot of chicken soup with the turkey usually.
It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and she received a card in the mail, it was was Sammy, it was written very neatly, "When are you coming to Church next?" It read, then she turned it over, something seemed unusual, It was a talking card, it seemed to irritate her, that he could not make a phone call or have talked to her in the past in Church, thinking this was not adult behavior, and she pushed the card onto the floor from the end table , where the phone was.
I have had some time to thanks giving, and she could hardly remember what's something like that, that some times they met, at the market and church, and during each of those times have but a few minutes encounter, they had little to offer each other , so she said to herself, it was a mere coincidence, and now he writes a card, what is he contriving, to bond with her, drag her out in to the woods at 78 - years old, he talked very little to her, Now he writes a card, is frank on it, writes as if, was not about nothing, was really about nothing, apart from he said he was, or used to be a doctor. His structure, his face was not vivid to her even, emphatic if anything, unclear, only that sparkling concentration could she remember he had .
As soon as she had pushed the card onto the floor, it did not resolve a thing in her mind, it was not a pleasant moment, she was diffident for the moment, waiting for the card to leap back up, to finish the reading, She had a few more, there was a few more to be read, but if she picked it up, it would strike another discord with her, a good question she thought.
He did it himself, he told himself, I did it, not quite mannishly, but calculated sudeness, that was what he was, he told himself, he surprised himself he Meanwhile, Ezra, called her on the phone, he was not as shy as Sammy.
That night it got very cold, Ezra had to bring extra blankets out of the storeroom, and Sammy had a hard time going to sleep, he woke up several times to go to the bathroom, his eyelids half opened, pale from stiffness, and cold He rubbed his hands to thaw them out. Looked at the phone, & did not call, she was not call, & # 39; he told himself, & # 39; ... but perhaps later on..
Sammy looked out his window, the first real frost had come, it was thick on the roses, thick like cat fuzz, the leaves on the trees hand white cobwebs of frost other veins, or so it appeared. The bird nests in the trees in Feeling the tingling Cool air of the house, looking, just looking, thinking another day closer to the windows looking out to the road, eyeing the frost, the trees, the roses. Thanksgiving, and Christmas beyond that, and a New Year; Sammy would be 87, and Ezra, 83, before the New Year started.
The first snow fall, the grass crisp like wool, she rushed not to be late for beach, she had to drive her She had forgotten where she put the keys, a lapse in mind for the moment. Sammy had dressed up in a black suit and black tie, exquisitely. His mind was not much concerned about private lie, but he was surprised if she would be there, if if so, wounded her children also be with her.
Perhaps it was obviously the bus driver, thought Sammy, he & # 39; d forget the address , he had to look at a piece of paper, but old age, he told himself, cuts into the brain, the short term memory, and leaves all the long term for man to go over, and over and over, it was a way , he thought, for God to punish man for all the wrongs he did, that, he had them to remembered like it or not. And now, old as the hills, he was too old to do wrong.
He saw the brown of the telephone poles one by one pass him, the buildings flash in a clap of an eye, bulk and solid the buildings were, walls, and streets, and frozen gardens now, crystallized with frost, passed the eyes.
Chapter Two
The Church
The streets were still stolid, not icy yet, under the frost was a sheet of sand and salt the city had sprayed the night before in the fear the first snow would fall and ice build up on the streets by early morning, while folks were going to to church, thus creating a crisis with accidents, Minnesota was good for prevention in this area.
The bus stopped, and Roberta parked her car in the lot, and walked a few steps to the church doors. Sammy walked up Rice street to Wheelock, to Jackson, took a right, and a hundred feet or so was the church, he took He left this overcast inside the church, in the coatroom, and buttoned up his woolen sweater to the front door, and Roberta was walking in from the side of the church. rim of the bottom of his neck.
They both found themselves unexpectedly by one another as they started walking down the isle to be sorted, sometimes pleased, but are one made a full gap at the other, Roberta said conventionally, "Thank you for the card, it was was charming." Now She asked why she said, "I'm afraid of what she said," I & # 39; m glad you liked it. it was kind of grubby handwriting. "She laughed, he was right she thought, it was grubby.
"It & # 39; ll do, for a doctor!" She said.
"I wish I thought like that," Sammy commented. Wish the sun would come again and stay, but you know these winters, I mean fall of the time we get out of fall and winter, I 'll be another year older , at my age every year counts as triple. "
"I was thinking that, too." She moved a little ahead of Sammy, and scooted over to a pew, looking at him, she clean them along, to join her. Some kind of a thrill excitement came over both of them, a Almost as if they were both empty of words, then suddenly he dragged out some thoughts, her fingers tapping on her bible, "I see here the sermon is going to be on & # 39; ... irrational feelings, & # 39; the preacher here has an attitude for psychology issues if I recall right.
"I hope it helps the young folks here." Said Roberta.
He looked at his watch; it was ten minutes to nine, "A few minutes more."
She paused for a moment, watching him fix his tie, move his watch about on his wrist she looked deep into his blue eyes from the side, the shadows around them, almost dark, and his copper skin from the sun, it was fading "Roberta broke out with a heavy sight, looked about, the light coming through the windows, then looking up from the windows to the ceiling," Did you know they painted them angels on the ceiling a year ago?
He did not speak for the next five minutes, his expressions shown insignificance, so she examined, and felt, but it was the autumn of 1989. Sammy felt as if, without warning, a squeezing hand around his heart. Then with insignificant seriousness, she said, "Try to work up a bit of cheer, the holidays are close.
"Yes, I know. I could not figure out the word myself, but that will do you fine, I need to overlook so much."
He stopped abruptly then, and turned his eyes to her, folks were filling up the pews now, and the preacher had stepped out of a door, along the podium.
"I actually go no place without my children, or by myself, never with a man alone, since my husband has passed away, especially not on the spot.
"Roberta you absurd woman; what are you doing asking me to sit here with you then?" Said Sammy.
"We are just beginning." She said politely.
Sammy thought how different his vice was now, it must sound unrelated, expansive. It was really not his sky style today it was something new for him to be so open with his wants.
"Maybe I rarely overdone my expectations, but I & # 39; m working too hard to see it, I & # 39; m working on humor.
"For some reason, I do not feel prepared this encounter," said Roberta.
"I tried to snatch up the situation; I was hiring you would consider Turkey at my house, and chicken soup."
"Why, Dr. Sammy H. Jeffers. I was thinking that we could probably be good friends, and cum about occasional. Impatient, twenty-four hours after I meet you, from what I remember, and what my children tell me now days it is even worse. You must not let this be a nuisance for us.
It is seems the words and the looks must have first though, the ansuspoke, with friendly regret. graceful, pleasant, but this was work for both of them, and new.
Sammy said, "I was just hoping you could come, and I could admire your loveliness."
"At our age loveiness is not in the mirror, as much as I & # 39; d like it to be, or in a gracious figure, as I once had, but in dress and dignity and taste, softness, we expect it, it & # 39; s rarity is a spice we need, and it is of course a realistic work of art.
Sammy smoked, "I'm working at it," he said, and she laughed, wave a societal smile; her beauty did seem to withdraw itself from inside of her. "You are a quite hopeless romantic, I & # 39; m afraid. I suggest you unbutton your sweater, it & # 39; s getting hot in here.
He was starting to sweat, "Of course" he said, - she then turned courteously toward the preacher, he was about to address the congregation.
Chapter Three
Thanksgiving
 Chapters 1 & 2 "The House and the Church" <br/>_2.jpg "Winter is Coming (Growing Old - A Story Out of Minnesota) Chapters 1 & 2 \"The House and the Church\" <br/>-2")
 Chapters 1 & 2 "The House and the Church" <br/>_3.jpg "Winter is Coming (Growing Old - A Story Out of Minnesota) Chapters 1 & 2 \"The House and the Church\" <br/>-3")
