Kansas Summer

Home At Last

It took two weeks for Jenna to recover, but it didn’t seem that long to me.  Most of my time wasn’t spent in the hospital, though.  Now that the light at the end of the tunnel seemed imminent, Jenna and I decided that we wanted to be married as soon as possible.  I was responsible for making the necessary arrangements, although Jenna was always informed of everything that I did. 

“I’m so excited about this wedding,” Jenna confides to me two days before her scheduled release.  “A month seems so far away.  But, there is something else on my mind.”

“Tell me about it sweetheart,” I tell her confidently, making myself comfortable in the mall hospital chair.

“We need money.  I know that you spent most of it waiting for me to get well and all, so the fact is that you need a job.”

I twiddle my fingers.  “Well, I don’t want to go back to Washington.  My heart is in Kansas, and it will always be in Kansas.”

“Then will you try and find a job in Wichita?  I know there are aerospace companies there.  It’s far away from Goodland, but I think it’s where we should settle.  It would be best for us, and also for our kids.”

I look at Jenna quickly.  “Kids?”

My fiancée maintains her nonchalant expression.  “Yes, kids.  I would like to start a family.  You can’t raise one on nothing, Colin.”

I ponder the dilemma with little thought.  “Well, how were we raised?”

Jenna sighs.  “We didn’t have a lot.”

“But we had each other,” I continue.  “I’ve made up my mind.  I’m going back to Goodland.  I’ve seen enough of the outside world, and I can’t honestly think of a better place that I would want to start a family.  We were raised there, and we turned out alright.  Why can’t our next generation have the same experience?”

“But the money…”

“Jen, money’s not important.  What’s important is our family.  Now, I’m going to get back into my dad’s old business.  I’m going to restart it if need be, and that’s what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.”

“Colin, you have a college degree.  You could do something far better than run a feed and tack shop.”

“But it’s what I want to do, Jen.  You know the outside world even better than I do.  We can’t leave Kansas, and you know that.”

Jenna nods her head in acknowledgement.  “I guess you are right.  I trust you, Colin.”

“Aww, I love you, Jen.  I would never do anything that would jeopardize us.”  I kiss her forehead.  Jenna tinges red, revealing her smile that makes my heart melt.  “I do have something for you.”

Jenna looks at me quizzically.  “What could you possibly have for me that you haven’t given me already?”

I stare at the ground sheepishly.  “Nothing.  Still, I hope you enjoy it.”  I pull a small box from my jacket pocket and give it to Jenna.  She beams.

“Colin, I’m touched.”  She opens the box to reveal a silver engagement ring with a garnet set on the top.  “I said yes before, and I will say yes again.  Yes, Colin.  Yes!”

As soon as Jenna was released from the hospital, I booked us both on a plane back to Denver.  We were finally going home.  Even though we left many friends in New York City, and even other places, we knew we would see them again soon. 

I remember looking at Jenna and how incredibly sick she looked when I first found her that Chicago winter’s night: pale, thin, dirty, bedraggled.  It was hard to imagine that that had been the smiling Jenna that cheered for me on the sidelines in Topeka at the State Championship, the same Jenna that had taught me how to ride a horse, the same Jenna who made me feel at ease with the world at the foot of an apple tree by a small lake.  It was hard for me to imagine what the world had done with my precious wildflower.  Scenes too horrifying to describe flash through my mind: violent rape, cold nights with tattered clothes, rowdy drunkards’ abuse.  Now, sitting beside me was a woman, no longer the girl that I had left in Denver those long six years ago.  The world had taken its toll on her just as it had me, but I can’t say that I was jealous of her treatment.