Gertie's Choice by Carol Colbert Page B

dinner and stood by the sink washing the
dishes. With John gone and Ophelia not there to eat dinner, there
were not many plates and Gertie wanted that time to spend in idle
busy work so that she could think things out.
    “Did Ophelia ask you to
give me any sort of a message, Donald? Was she angry when she left?
Had you two been fighting again?” Gertie asked him, anxious to gain
any insight at all about where her daughter might have taken off
to.
    “No, she wasn’t mad at me,
for a change. I was angry with Adela Johnson and that was the last
time I saw either one of them.”
    “You mean she has been gone
since Adela was here this morning?”
    “Yep.”
     

Chapter 19
     
     
    The years went by and
there was no word from or about Ophelia. Ted Davis who had lived
next door married and his mother, Mrs. Davis had sold her house to
move to Iowa with her son and his new wife. The new owners were a
family that had been transferred from the husband’s job in
Michigan.
    Jim and Sarah Gaunter had
been good neighbors. They were polite and their two little girls,
Suzanne and Riley were well behaved. Jim and Sarah put in a
swimming pool in the backyard and had done many other repairs to
the old house.
    Donald was still hanging
around the house even though a few years back Gertie had purchased
a new home for him on the other side of town. She had finally come
to the realization that John was not coming back and that
apparently, neither was Ophelia.
    On rare occasions Sarah
Gaunter would ask Gertie if she could look after the little girls
for a few hours while she and her husband attended some social or
business event. Gertie did not mind and in fact she enjoyed telling
stories to Suzanne.
    When little Suzanne
pointed out how a picture of Gertie that had been in the newspaper
from forty years ago looked just as Gertie looked today, that was a
wakeup call for her. Gertie went back into all of the newspaper
clippings of her in the papers and magazines over the years that
were from various charity events or political meetings. She found a
few mentions of the age which she had given at the time. Counting
the years she was shocked to realize that her neighbors would
realize that she should be around one hundred and two or three in
mortal years. Still, she was beautiful and looked not over thirty
years old. She wondered if people had begun to talk and then
wondered how they could not.
    Gertie started walking
with a slight hunch to her back and a slight limp. She bought some
silver gray hair color from the drugstore and colored her beautiful
still bright red hair with it. She then set about ordering herself
a new set of clothes which were appropriate for an elderly lady.
She started cutting down on the number of meetings and events she
attended, telling people on the phone that she was just not up to
it these days. Although she tried to incorporate these changes
gradually, she was quite anxious to proceed with her plans. She
made sure that she was seen in town several times a week and she
always acted weak and frail when she knew someone was watching or
someone stopped to talk with her.
    Gertie took out a piece of
paper and wrote down the following poem:
    The warmth of the sun will
show you the way
    To open arms where you will
stay
    By the shine of the red on
your finger
    Hurry now, do not
linger
    Be aware of what you will
find
    When the stone is allowed
to shine
    Follow it quickly, for it
will not last
    Soon the rocks will not let
you pass
    She found the deed to the
house and she placed the ring, the deed, some other papers about
John and some blankets and clothes and other items into a trunk.
She forged a journal and placed that inside the trunk as well. She
then spun her magic and placed the heavy trunk upstairs in the
attic and made cobwebs appear on it, as if the trunk had been there
for many decades.
    When Donald showed up for
dinner that night Gertie looked at him in wonder. When did you get so old, Donald? Her grief over losing John