Chapter 6: …we kissed over and over again.
I was sitting on the front porch when a strange car pulled up to the curb. The soldier at the wheel didn’t look familiar until he stepped out of the car and turned toward me.
“Bob,” I screamed and ran down the stairs to meet him. Our arms closed around each other and we kissed over and over again. He held me at arm’s length, looked me up and down and said, “Laurel, you look great! You lost that high school girl look.”
“Well thank you! You are the handsomest soldier I ever saw in my entire life. You look great in your uniform — just like the GI’s on the billboards. I’m so glad you’re home….you‘ll never know how much I‘ve missed you.…” We leaned against the car for while and talked about things happening around town when, out of curiosity I asked, “Where’s your car?”
“It’s a long story….we’ll talk about it later. I borrowed this one from my brother. “Why don’t you get dressed and I’ll pick you up in about an hour?”
“I’ll be ready,” and I watched him drive off.
We had dinner at the same old inn where we dined before he left for camp. It didn’t seem possible that so much had happened since we were last there.
I glanced around the dining room for Penny Parker — she wasn‘t there. When I mentioned to Bob that I had seen her driving his car, he seemed uncomfortable and I hated myself for mentioning it.
“Laurel, there is something about Penny that you may not understand. We dated for about a year, but the trust that I had expected from her was not in the relationship. I knew that she was dating several men, some seriously at the time, and we were just friends. A few days before I left for camp, she came to my house and asked if I’d sell her my car or perhaps loan it to her until I got back from service. She claimed she had relatives in Haddonfield and hated to ride the bus to visit them.”
“I really enjoyed driving the coupe, but since I wouldn’t be using it for a while and because she seemed so sincere, I gave her permission to use it. I left the keys under the front seat with the understanding that she would take care of it and get it serviced.”
“She wrecked it the second week she had it. She and her boyfriend were on their way to be married when he ran the car off the road and into a tree. Neither of them was hurt. They just left the car and took a cab to the justice of the peace and got married. My car was towed away by the police and I had all kinds of problems with the insurance company.”
more tomorrow – Now that she’s married…
