Pretty Special Woman

The Arrival

The Arrival

At long last, the plane landed in Anchorage around noon. Ethel felt well rested. Edward did not. They walked across the street to the car rental location. It took another hour to wait in line and initial a dozen places on the lengthy forms. Bleary eyed Edward handed the car keys to Ethel who had already mapped out their route. It would take about two to three hours to drive to the fishing lodge on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage. Once they exited the airport and entered the highway, Ethel felt confident of the way since there was virtually only one road to follow.

Within minutes, the two witnessed the unspeakable beauty of their first glimpse of Alaska. They rode in silence for awhile along the picturesque Turnagain Arm, an inlet along the northern border of the peninsula. Edward finally broke the silence.

“I feel numb,” he muttered. “I feel tired and awake at the same time.”

“Jetlag?” Ethel inquired. Edward merely nodded in response.

“I know I should stay awake. I’m too tired to talk but not to listen.”

“You want me to talk to keep you awake?” Again he nodded. “What do you want me to talk about?”

“Tell me why you like to drive,” Edward said as he reclined his seat slightly.

“It’s a long story,” Ethel warned.

“Good.”

Yes, Ethel’s father Harry Finklestein met Sally at Penn State. The two sat together in a sophomore English lit class. Spring in this mountainous central Pennsylvania college town inspired raging hormones of even its most serious students. Harry considered himself one of those students. Sally preferred to play and was already on academic probation. They thought of themselves a “couple” in a matter of weeks which of course meant sleeping together. Nonetheless, Harry continued studying. By semester’s end, Sally’s GPA had fallen too low to continue. She returned for the summer to her home in a small town in western Pennsylvania. Harry worked at the creamery on campus and took a few easy classes. One day in July when he called her, Sally’s parents grimly informed him that she had left with a friend to hitchhike across the country. Unbeknownst to all of them, Sally was pregnant.

Harry went on to finish his degree in secondary English education. He returned to his hometown of Philadelphia and was hired at Torresdale High School. He lived alone in a cramped apartment above a store on Frankford Avenue near the el station. Although noisy and smelly, his piddling salary allowed for nothing better. A cute bleached-blond girl named Pinky worked in Summer’s Dry Cleaners below. Harry owned not a single piece of clothing worth dry cleaning so he had no legitimate reason to enter the store. But on several occasions, they rode the train together and eventually began hanging out. What Pinky lacked in IQ points, she more than made up for in availability. Their opinions often differed on topics from politics to food preferences. This, Harry surmised, was a result of her limited intellectual capacity. Better to stick with what they had in common – old movies, TV shows and sex -none of which came with a high price tag, or so he thought.  After paying rent, utilities, carfare, groceries and student loans little funds remained. For the next year Pinky simply enjoyed her title of girlfriend to a handsome college graduate. She had plans to obtain a GED and assured Harry she was on the pill. So when she announced her pregnancy, Pinky feigned shock. Although Harry opposed the idea of marriage to Pinky, the prospect of fatherhood appealed to him. They debated the options for several weeks. One blustery January day the two took the el to City Hall and wed.

Pinky gave birth to Ethel at Frankford Hospital in early July. The two continued to live above the dry cleaners for another year until Harry returned home early from school with a fever. There he found Pinky entertaining Dick Summer, proprietor of the dry cleaners below, in her underwear. Baby Ethel napped in the next room.