“Well my dear. We have a friend living in Niagara Falls and he will pick up our crate, store it for us until needed, and put us up in his home for the three or four days we'll need there.”
My ears perked up when he said this.
Ma asked, “Have I met this new friend of ours and is he truly such a gentleman that he would let himself be so inconvenienced by us invading his home?”
“Pa?” I asked after Mama had said the word gentleman.
“Oh, I don't think he'll mind at all.” He said smiling. “As long as Murray is with us. Gentleman Jim won't mind at all. He has been corresponding with me through letters since we were up here last Spring.”
“What?” I screamed, butting in. “You've been writing to him and he has been writing back?”
I paused here confused while Mama and Papa sat staring at me. Waiting for another outburst.
Instead, I quietly asked Pa, “Didn't Jim ever ask about me or want to write to me?”
He could see the hurt inside of me. Saying sympathetically, “Oh, my dear. I wanted to see if you cared about him as much as he seems to care about you. I didn't know if you were going to forget about him once we left Niagara the last time. But you've been moping around for almost five months now. By your reaction today and the lack of enthusiasm you've been showing doing your chores, I'm pretty sure you do have feelings for him.”
Papa then walked over and hugged me real hard.
“You see Murray. It was Gentleman Jim's idea to write to me every week so he could prove to me his honorable intentions towards you. I'm going to spoil his big surprise right now, but I feel you deserve to understand why.”
I was nervous as Heck. Excuse my French. What was my Pa going to tell me.
“You see dear. Gentleman Jim asked for your hand in marriage when we were talking alone that last night in Niagara when we were there in the Spring. I wasn't sure if someone could fall in love after only one day, so I told him we would be back in the early fall and if he could prove to me his intentions, I would let him ask you.”
Pa paused, for only a second, saying emphatically, “But the decision is yours alone. It will be up to you to decide if you want to marry him or not. I will not influence you one way or another.”
“He said he would abide by my wishes of waiting until the fall came but would write to me every week to convince me on how sincere he truly was.”
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be mad at Pa for not telling me sooner or ecstatic that I was going to see Jim again.
And he cared about me.
In the end, I decided being ecstatic was much more fun than being angry.
I'm an old fashioned kind of gal, so talking about my abbreviated courtship with Jim is still a private matter between us, in my eyes. I will say though, and you have probably figured it out for yourself, my last name changed from Lynskeys to King in a matter of six months once we got back together. We've been happily married for 37 years now. All of my extended family still call him Gentleman Jim to this very day because that is the kind of person he really is.
Upon our arrival, at the train station in the city of Niagara Falls, Gentleman Jim was waiting for us on the platform. It looked to me as though he had his best Sunday suit on to greet us. He was going all out to impress us.
We got off the train and gathered around him. He smiled at me. I wanted to say something right then and there but Pa interjected before I could say a word. He said the first issue to be settled was to get the introductions out of the way between Gentleman Jim, my Ma, and my little brother. After that, I could have a word with Jim alone, if I like.
Gentleman Jim shook Pa's hand first. Then he was introduced to my Mother and he kissed the back of her hand. The show off.
Pa then gave the introductions between Jim and my little brother. With Jim squeezing John's hand hard. To his credit, my brother never backed down on the hand shake and didn't cry out.
Finally, he came over to greet me. “Before you say a word Miss Lynskey,” Jim smartly says before I can let out a little steam. Rage had been building up inside of me ever since I saw him standing on the platform, wondering why he never wrote to me. “You must understand, your Father was right to question my intentions. How could he be sure that anyone could fall in love with someone after being with that person for only one day?” Jim then grabs my hands with his, looks me in eyes and says, “But I instantly fell in love with you. With your defiant determination you showed towards those hoodlums, your self confidence when speaking, how you didn't panic in a crisis situation, and finally, you're beautiful too.”
What could I say after that? My defenses were shattered. I was infatuated with his eyes, and he knew what to say and when to say it at the right time. So I closed in on him, rested my head on his chest, and I hugged him for all I was worth.
I looked over at Ma and she was staring at the two of us smiling. I knew then that Ma was pleased with him too.
This is,
Getting Exciting
Jim Hauenstein
And,
“For the record, I would like to point out that it is NOT being
obsessive to memorize a boy's schedule so that you can accidentally bump
into him. It is called being efficient.”
-
That is my story and I am sticking to it!
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