27. Melanie #3
Unable to find the strength to ride the bike home, she was walking beside it when her father-in-law pulled up in an old pickup.
William Livingston, the only member of Henry’s family who treated her with any kindness.
“Mellie. What are you doing? It’s hot as blazes out here.
” Hopping out of the truck, he took the bike from her limp hands.
“Go on up; I’ll give you a ride back to the house.
” Melanie climbed into the truck as William threw the bike in the back.
“On second thought, how about some ice cream?” Instead of heading home, they drove out of town.
Listening to The Beach Boys in companionable silence, she laid her head back, almost asleep when William stopped the truck.
“Where are we?”
“We’re at The Dairy Barn; this place makes the best ice cream in South Dakota.
Have you never been here?” At the shake of her head, William responded with disbelief, “I can’t believe Henry hasn’t brought you here.
Catie and I used to round up the kids when they were little and bring them over here on Sunday nights.
The little hellions loved it—well, George and Beatrice were hellions.
Henry was always quiet.” He opened his door, then came to her side.
“Come on, this is guaranteed to put a smile on your face and a pep in your step.”
After ordering a banana split with strawberry and chocolate ice cream, Melanie sat down at a picnic table outside the barn. On the bench across from her, William sat down. “When Catie and I first got married, we almost moved here, you know.”
“Really? Where are we?” With the exception of a river flowing behind the barn, Melanie was unable to identify anything but farmland around them.
“Oh, just outside Beverley.” William shook his head.
“About as far as I go these days, which is not how I envisioned my life. You know I was in the army?” Melanie shook her head.
“One reason I joined after high school was to travel, to see the places I had heard or read about, like the pyramids in Egypt, the Great Wall of China, or castles in Europe. Joke was on me, though, because unlike my dad, I never made it out of America.”
A head wearing a paper hat stuck out from the ordering window. “William?” He hopped up and retrieved it. Handing Melanie her ice cream boat, he sipped his chocolate malt. “Mmm, still as good as I remember.”
Melanie took a small bite of her ice cream. “How come? If you really wanted to see those places, why didn’t you ever go?”
Squinting at the sun in his eyes, William drank more malt.
“Love. Once I was out of the army, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I came back to Clover Lake.
Wasn’t home one day when I ran into Catie.
We were both on bicycles, ended up riding together along the river.
Didn’t even notice we’d gone ten miles out of town.
This was before the paved bike lanes connecting all these spots.
We sat by a stretch of the river, talked for hours.
I was in love by the time we rode home. With Catie, I didn’t need to travel…
she was my world. And then, of course, we had the kids, and they came boom, boom, boom, one after the other, three in three,” William chuckled.
“We actually wanted a bigger family, but three was it.”
Melanie shuddered, unsure how she was going to cope with the one she was carrying.
Just because she was going to have a kid didn’t mean she still couldn’t go to Hollywood.
She could leave after the baby was born, right?
It could grow up with Henry, maybe she could visit every few months?
She knew how much he wanted to be a father, had brought up the subject more than once, but she kept telling him they weren’t ready.
Melanie quickly dismissed that idea. She could never leave her own child.
She may be selfish, but she wasn’t cold-blooded.
Could she raise the baby on her own? Continue packing her bag back at the house, catch the next bus out of town and head to Hollywood.
Did she have what it took to be a single mother?
If that was her plan, she had to do it immediately because if Henry found out she was pregnant, he would never let her leave, not with his baby.
Her only alternative seemed to be to stay where she was, have the baby, and try to be satisfied with a drab and boring life, but that would be the end of her dreams, once and for all.
Was she strong enough to sacrifice herself?
“Each of my kids has followed their own paths, Mellie. I know you and Henry got married fast, but my son loves you something fierce. All that business with him having feelings for DD is ancient history. She never gave him anything but heartache. You are the one who makes him happy.” William looked directly at her for the first time since they had sat down.
“I get the feeling you’ve got a lot of things to think about…
some decisions to make…but just know that Henry will do whatever he can to make a good life for the two of you. ”
“Thank you, William.” Hugging him, she wondered how different her life would have been if her mom had found a man like this: loving and generous.
Without a doubt, she knew this was how Henry would be as a father.
As she and William departed the Dairy Barn, she made up her mind, eager to see Henry.
Maybe Hollywood was still possible for her if she could make him see that she and the baby were his family.
For the first time in a long while, Melanie smiled, sure that her life was about to take a turn in the direction she wanted, for once in her life.