Part 2 of "The Three of Us"

205. Now and Then

205. Now and Then

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im sorry its short but i figured something was better than nothing? its just a bit of wedding talk...and a snippet of their future life. More next time! im sorry.

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"I'm just stopping by to let you know that Walter won't be able to come over to our house during the weekend," Mrs. Andrews said gently. "But Monday should be all right, if Walter would like to come then."

She did not elaborate.

Anne nodded. "Good. Thank you for letting me know."

After she'd gone, Marilla wanted to know why she'd come.

"They're having B...their son...visit this weekend," Anne began, not saying the name because Walter trailed in after Marilla. "When we talked about...boundaries. I told them they had to let me know when they'd be having...a visitor. I want to know, because I don't want to risk running into him. Not with Walter."

"I'm glad she seems to be trying to keep her word," Marilla said. "That's encouraging."

"She told me, back when we talked about all this, that he won't be going into town or attending church while he's here. But I think just to be certain I'll stay home. Walter won't go to church this weekend either...I just have to be...careful."

"Well," Marilla responded, "I hate for Walter to miss church, but I agree it's for the best, just in case they don't keep their word."

"No church?" Walter asked, delighted.

He liked church because it was something to do, a diversion from every day life, and he got to see his friends there. But he did not like the way mama fussed over his clothes and hair before they left, and he did not like his Sunday school class, because he found it boring. He preferred last year, when he was still young enough to be in the nursery- that was just play time. Now that he was four and in Sunday school, he had to listen and try to remember things.

"No church this week," Anne told him brightly. "But we'll go see your friends so you can still play with them. All right? Rosalie is away visiting her grandmother, but you can see Dennis. And maybe we'll go see some of the others."

"And Clara?" Walter asked.

"Of course Clara; you always see Clara."

"Clara's my favorite," Walter said. "We're going to get married."

"Yes, yes, I know," Anne said with a laugh.

"Walter, show your mama what you showed me," Marilla encouraged.

Walter came over and grabbed his mama's hands.

Anne, curious, waited to see what he was going to do.

"Clara's papa said we can get married in summer. But not next summer, he said we have to wait for maybe twenty more summers. ...I asked grandma how many twenty was."

Anne sank to the floor as Walter slowly began counting on his fingers.

"One, two, three, four ," he said easily. Then he slowed down. "Five...six...seven. Eight...nine. Ten."

Anne was happy, but Walter wasn't finished: "Grandma said that's half of twenty. Now look." Walter took Anne's hands, and continued counting. "Eleven...twelve," he said as he tapped on her fingers.

But then he got stuck.

"Thirteen," Marilla softly coached.

"Thirteen. Four...teen. Fifteen..." Walter tapped on Anne's fingers as he slowly made his way to twenty.