Pearl Grace Parker

Chapter Ten

It's hours before we need to get on the boat. I say to Betty as she is throwing my clothes into my suitcase, "Betty could you unwrap all of my wedding presents and put them into Oliver's and my new house?" She smiles as she shoves shoes in the suitcase, "I would love to do that Pearl. Would you like me to bring the designer over and have him fix up the house a bit?" I smile and say, "Sure, but nothing too fancy." She says, "Alright, Pearl." I grab my makeup and hair oils and put them into a second suitcase. Oliver walks in and says, "You almost ready dear?" I say, "I think so." I shove the second suitcase closed and turn to Oliver who is now wearing comfy clothes. I hugged Betty and my father. Oliver quickly talks to my father about business stuff and I say to Betty, "I'll be back in a month." We wave and walk out the door. We put our suitcases in the trunk. Then we get into the car and start driving to the dock. I say to Oliver as we hold hands and drive, "I feel so relaxed now." He turns and says, "I feel happy." I look over at him and give him a funny look. He laughs and says, "I am happy because I feel like I got all of my life together. I married the woman of my dreams." I move over and kiss him on the cheek. I say to him, "And I married the man of my dreams." We giggle at each other and finally arrive at the dock. It's dark outside. We let servants take our luggage onto the giant ship. We walk up the long raft to the top of the boat. We get to the top and look around and see all of the high class tables and glasses. I look at Oliver and say, "My grandmother is the best." We are escorted to the master quarters where we will be staying. We quickly make ourselves comfortable and I lay down on the bed. I say to Oliver, "Now you want to talk about my half-siblings?" He lays down beside me and says, "Sure." I continued, "So, my mother told me about them. After, Helen tugged on my dress. She also told me about what happened to Mae." He looks over at me and says, "Mae? As in the one you were close to before they left?" I nod and say, "Yeah, she died in 1919 from the flu outbreak." He says, "Oh." I continue, "I kind of abandoned her. Afterwards, I found out what my mother did. I don't want to do that to these other half-siblings. I look at Helen and she looks like Mae to me." He slides over and hugs me while I just spill everything. He kisses my cheek and says, "Pearl, you didn't cause Mae to die. That is your mother's fault for not protecting her from the virus well enough. I also encourage you to be a part of these new half-siblings' lives." I smile and curl into his body and we fall asleep.

A Month Later

We arrived back at the dock after our long honeymoon. I walk slowly down the steps to greet my father, half-siblings, Henry and Henry's new lady. I immediately hugged my father. He says, "How was the trip?" I smile and say, "Oh, grand." I go off on a rampage on how our entire trip was. I tell them about everywhere we went to go sightseeing while we are on our way back to the mansion. I say to my father as Helen sits on my lap and as I look outside, "Wow. When did it get so dry here?" My dad tells me about how the stocks have apparently gone to shit and we are lucky we took ours out right before it happened. He continues and talks about everything that has been happening. People are being laid off by the minute to keep stores in business. The farming is now shot since everything is dry and nothing is growing. There is apparently a drought happening. When the crop is growing it's being eaten by insects or destroyed by sand storms. I detangle Helen's hair and look at my father. Things have plummeted. No one thought it would get this bad. People are trying to help constantly but it is not working. We are one of the lucky ones. However, my mother is not. She is suffering with keeping a job and trying to keep the kids fed. Lester has been getting drunk constantly since he thinks he has nothing to live for. There have apparently been suicides on the bridges also. This is crazy, it is only 1930.