On The Other Side

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Love, It's a Beautiful Thing

         Saturday, the day the ‘Proposals’ are to take place, dawns sunny and beautiful. I woke early this morning, my bones aching, my chest paining me. I pull on a light jacket, make my way slowly outside, breathing in the fresh air, I light up my pipe, the tobacco smoothing out the rough edges.

            The city is quiet, grimy, even on this early spring morning, the Depression still clutching the country in its firm grip, seeming never to loosen its hold. People sleep on the sidewalks, in the ally’s, any place they can find to lay their heads.

          There are immigrant camps all over the city. These poor souls, living in tents, lean-tos, even cardboard boxes. Their thin emancipated bodies wander the streets searching for food, standing in bread lines, looking for work.

         I know Declan doesn’t do business with his cousin Matteo after the beating he took, and I don’t ask questions about how and where he’s still getting all the hard to come by items. How he acquires canned milk for the hungry babes, blankets for the cold.

         Flour, sugar, eggs. I don’t know the answers, but I do know a lot of people count on him, count on the food he can get for them to survive.

         I hear the bell above the door jingle it’s merry tune, Dec coming to stand beside me, “There’s never been a more beautiful morning, don’t you agree, Crag?”

            I chuckle at his mood, pat his shoulder, “I think it’s the love talking, boyo.” I think of Claire, Aggie, and Alex, what a picture they are, “But a luckier man there never was, to be sure.”

            Dec nods, closing his eyes to the rising sun, smoothing a hand over his freshly shaven face, “I am lucky, to be loved by such a woman as Claire is something that comes around once in a lifetime.”

            “If even then. Some people aren’t so lucky.” I take a puff on my pipe, feeling an ache rising in my chest. I massage my fingers over the ache, the pain, the tightness not easing a bit.

            I feel Dec’s intense gaze on me, “How’s the pain, old friend?”
I scratch my beard, more white than red these days, “Some days are worse than others.”

            “Let me know when it’s too much to bear, I can mix something up to ease the pain for you,” he steps closer, pulling a small white packet from his vest pocket, “I was able to get a hold of some aspirin, only a small bottle full, but here,” Dec hands me the packet, nestled inside are a few chalky white tablets, “Take these for the bad days.”

            I try to hand them back, “No, save these for the people that really need them, I’m an old man, Dec, not worth wasting hard to come by medicine on.”

            “You’re worth everything to me, Crag. You’re my family, and I’ll do anything for you.” He tucks them into my coat pocket, patting them in place, “Now, come help me set up for the proposal of a lifetime.”

            I guffaw, following Dec back into the store. It will be the proposal of a lifetime, with both Dec and Claire planning on proposing to each other today.
           Aggie’s been looking forward to this day, to see both their secret plans in action. Claire got Miriam in on her secret, asking her to make the cream puffs with Dec’s ring inside a specific one.

          Then, Dec asked her to make cream puffs, too. Making a specific cream puff with the emerald ring inside. We’re all in on the secret except the secret planners, who know nothing about the double proposal happening tonight.

          Dec and I get to work, opening the store, helping customers throughout the day. I set up a couple of sawhorses, laying a piece of wood on top for a table big enough to fit all of us. I find as many chairs as I can, then gather a few buckets for chairs of sorts.