Chapter 33 Moving Up #2
“This is oddly caveman-like of you,” Susie said.
“And here I’ve been telling Fred that you’re the model of a modern man.
You’ll be glad to hear that your wife and I have answered all your decorating questions.
Well, except for actually going to the hardware store.
What do you think, Marguerite? No time like the present?
Say … we could look at sinks, too. Surely you’re replacing these awful things.
I’m really starting to be able to picture this place.
Will it be finished by summer, do you think? ”
“By fall, anyway,” Joe said. “Even if I have to be here with my boot on some backsides to get it there. Or if Marguerite does.”
“Your studies come first,” I said. “I’ll only involve you if necessary.
I’ve already found that offering a bonus to be paid only if the work is completed on time is a very great incentive, and writing a very specific contract is important, too.
Joe has been helping with that. He’s learned a great deal about business law even while still in college. ”
“With some help from my dad,” Joe said. He and Fred were still unscrewing metal cabinet doors. Some things, one couldn’t do any faster than the hand could turn, and many of these things, it seemed, were part of home construction.
“So are you going to live here yourselves?” Susie asked. “It sure beats our place, doesn’t it? Well, it will eventually. If Myrna and I weren’t graduating in June, I’d be asking you to reserve a unit for us.”
“Or,” Fred said, “I could ask them to reserve a unit for us.”
“What?” Susie stared at him.
Fred said, “I’ll have another year of college after you finish—that darned war again—so I probably shouldn’t be suggesting it, but then, you’ve got that promise of a job teaching Home Ec, don’t you?
And there’s the GI Bill, too. Seems like we could go ahead and do it now.
What’s that saying? ‘Poor as church mice’? ”
“Do what now?” Susie asked.
“Get married, of course,” Fred said. “What else am I talking about?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Susie said. “As this isn’t exactly the proposal of a woman’s dreams. ‘Let’s get married, because you’ll be making money even if I’m not?’ Some romantic you are.”
“Hey,” Fred said, “I’ll be working too. Sure, I break a few dishes at the restaurant now and then, but they haven’t fired me yet.
And after I’ve graduated—well, we’ll need Marguerite to find us a house then, won’t we?
They can’t get enough men up there at Moffett Field, and I’ve decided I like designing electrical systems for aircraft a whole lot better than riding in them.
Once that happens, you can kiss that Home Ec class goodbye, because we’ll be off to the races. ”
Susie had her hands on her hips. “Fred Bartholomew. I’ve worked too hard for that degree to give up my career just like that. What, you think I went to college just to catch a husband?”
“Nope.” Fred was grinning. “I’m hoping you went so I could catch you. And sure, honey, you can go on and teach girls to sew aprons. Who am I to stop you? But you seemed a little put off when I mentioned it, so …”
“Because this isn’t any kind of proposal!
” Susie said. “It’s supposed to be a tender moment a woman remembers forever!
What do I tell our kids someday? ‘Oh, it was so romantic. He was unscrewing a cabinet door in a filthy old apartment building—sorry, Marguerite—and he said, “Well, you’ll have a job, anyway, so let’s get married.
”’ It doesn’t quite have that special ring to it, does it? Would Bing Crosby do it that way?”
“No,” Fred said. “But Cary Grant might, if it were one of those comic pictures. Humphrey Bogart would just growl, ‘We’re getting married and that’s that.’ Would you like that better?”
“Oh …” Susie said, but then Fred set down his cabinet door and came over to kiss her, and that was that.
“So,” Fred said, when they’d come up for air—he still had his arm around Susie’s waist, though, and she was laughing and very pink in the face—“What do you folks say? Going to stand up with me, Joe, and make sure I don’t get cold feet and bolt for the door?”
“You bet,” Joe said. “I think this calls for a celebration, don’t you? What do you say we head on over to Peninsula Creamery once we’re done here and let Marguerite and me treat you two to burgers and malteds?” He sniffed at himself. “Maybe once I take a shower.”
“And you can tell Fred the story of how you proposed,” said Susie, “and explain how it’s done.”
Joe looked at me, and I laughed. He offered Fred a wry grin and said, “I believe it was something like, ‘Well, we could get married, I guess. Wouldn’t that solve the problem?’ Upon which she turned me down flat for a whole lot of good reasons that I somehow forget at this moment.
She may have burst into tears, too, and not in a good way.
I’ve kind of blanked it out of the memory banks.
It could be that GIs aren’t the most romantic guys on the planet. ”
“Nonsense,” I said. “You proposed most lovingly. If rather spontaneously.”
“See?” Fred told Susie. “Lovingly and spontaneously. That’s me.”
“And,” said Joe, “we’ll be right by Weltner Pontiac when we go for those hamburgers, which means you can take a look at our new car. Marguerite needs it for her real-estate business, not to mention her property-buying business, because the woman is on some tear.”
“Do you know how to drive, Marguerite?” Susie asked.
“Not at all,” I said. “But everybody does it in America, even quite young teenagers, so it must not be very hard, I think.”
“Hmm,” Susie said. Her eyes were dancing again. Was it hard, then? It had never seemed so when Joe did it.
Joe himself said, “I’ll be teaching her soon enough. Well, not exactly soon enough. You’ll be taking a look at the model, because we’re still nearly three months out. Who knew so many people would want a car after the end of the war?”
“Only about every single person who lived through the war,” Susie said. “There you go, Fred. That’s another step for us to hunger for. Here’s a hint: put a big red bow on the thing and surprise me. And if you buy it used, for heaven’s sake, wash it first.”
“Now, you see,” Fred said, “that’s what I like. Clear instructions. Yes, ma’am.”