Chapter Two, Episode 164 - More than Just Friends - Situationally Theirs

Samuel and Elizabeth had been out to a movie. There was an old movie house in a neighbouring village that played the classics each weekend. Complete with hand cranked buttered popcorn, worn velvet seats and cartoon shorts. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall had entertained them. When the lights went down and the reels started, they felt like teenagers again. As the credits rolled, they pointed out their favourite actors ~ not just the stars, but the bit players. When the lights came up and it was time to go, real life began again. With a difference. Their hearts were lighter. These evenings together and away from the Estate were their own. They had no kitchen, no garden, just the two of them enjoying each other’s company. 

As they drove home they took the scenic ocean route. The night hid the foliage and flowers, but the stars were bright. If it was a moonlit night, its bright light traced a path across the water. They would park at an overlook to the water. On a clear night, they walked hand in hand on a familiar path. Listened to distant foghorns. Pointed out the Big Dipper, Orion, the North Star. 

On this night, they were in the park when the snow started. Big, soft flakes that disappeared in the black water, clung to the fencing, brightened the night. Elizabeth shivered. “Time to get home and get warm, Samuel. Tea and coffee cake?” 

“Suppose we should. Don’t want to be on these roads if this snow keeps up. Sure is pretty though.” He opened her door for her, brushed the snow off the windshield and climbed in for the drive back to the Estate. “It’ll be gone by morning, don’t you think? It’s not cold enough to stay much into the morning.”

~~~~~

“Hasn’t been much to talk about tonight, Elizabeth. With the two couples off traipsing around the country and Martha and James keeping to themselves, the old place is pretty quiet.”

“I like it quiet. May be strange but, when I hear the news, and all the troubles in the world, quiet is just like I like it. I guess I’m not much of a talker. There was time when all I could do was talk and argue. Have opinions about the state of the world, life in general, whether I was being treated right. Guess that wisdom we heard so much about when we were young, has slowed that talking down.”

Samuel laughed. “You just might have something there, Elizabeth. All the talking that does carry on is just a bunch of going around in circles. The same circles folks have been going around for as long as there’s been life.” He cut himself another big cut of coffee cake, held it up where he could take a good look at it. “But for where I’m sittin’, this cake and the woman that made it, are all I need. There’s just no fight in me anymore. Does that sound like I’ve given up on things?”

Elizabeth’s cheeks felt warm when she heard Samuel’s sideways speech about his feelings for her. She knew some women would be offended, but she had known him for a long time. He did tell a good story, but feelings?

“That’s why I like going to the movies, or read a book. Listen to stories. That makes the troubles of that world all get fixed. When the story’s been told, it’s done. I can think of all the different ways that a story could be told, could end and leave it at that. I can’t fix what’s going on in the rest of the world, but I can take care of where I am.” She knew she was no better at talking about feelings than Samuel was, but had paid attention to the things that he liked. Those things she did take care of.

“Snow followed us here, Elizabeth.” Samuel had gotten up to get his coat on and looked out the window. Heavy wet snow was falling. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, two of their favourites, came to their minds at the same time singing “Baby it’s cold outside.”

“Get your coat off, Samuel. No point in you going out in that. You can go in the morning.”

“Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, 

continue firm and constant.”

~ Socrates