Another one-page letter from Dart begins, “When I get letters like the one from you I got today, I really don’t know what to say. No, I’ll modify that statement. I know what to say, but I can’t find the right combination of words to express all that’s in me. It’s all on the simple three-word theme which we’ve been elaborating so much on recently, but so help me, you’ve said it all. The delicious letter I’m talking about is the one you wrote on 27 May, after you’d seen ‘The Enchanted Cottage.’ Sounds like a movie I’d like to see — with you.”
He tells her his family’s news that Burke received a full one-year scholarship to the University of Chicago. Everyone is waiting to learn whether or not they’ll hold it until he’s out of the Navy after the war.
Dart is wrapping up his brief note by flashlight after the lights have “been secured.” He says that’s one good thing about “real love-making; it can go on without any lights at all.” Why Dart, how risque of you! “I’m always looking forward to a certain letter from you. Barring delays and so forth, it should be here in about five or six days. Oh, Dot, I love you so much, it will seem like ages.”
Here’s another letter from Dot, written over two days. I’ll quote the real meat of the first section – the one written on the 11th.
“Taking first things first, (and in this case, a very important subject) I will tell you I had the talk with Mother. She agrees with me 100% that you’re a mighty swell guy and such opportunities should not be passed up. As a matter of fact, she didn’t seem too surprised when I told her your plan.
Yes, Dart. I will be pleased and proud to become officially engaged to you on your next leave. You didn’t doubt that I would, did you? Anyway, now you have it in black and white, or rather blue and white.”
She continues the letter the next day.
Apologizing for not writing more the night before, she explains that Nancy came over for a visit and kept her up talking.
She tells him that he is fully forgiven for writing to her so much about not joining the Waves. “You did it for my own good, and I really wasn’t angry.
She’s happy he started getting Readers’ Digest. They mixed up some of the information about her father’s business, but they got the gist of it. The magazine is planning to publish a book with the stories of all the winners, as soon as they can get their hands on enough paper.
Congratulations are in order for having some of his letter published in his high school newspaper. Obviously his former teacher knows a good thing when she sees it. Her cousin Waddy just got his first check for writing his newsletter for the local paper – $29.00, which Dot deems “not bad for a hobby!”
Do his parents know about Dart’s latest plan? She’s sure they will feel, just as her parents do, that Dot is awfully young to be taking such an important step, but she’s older than her mother was when her parents got engaged. She admits, though that her mother had been much more mature than Dot. (I seriously doubt that!)
Dot is delighted that Dart’s back is doing so well. She hopes he goes the rest of his life without any physical mishaps. She’s also happy to know that her Easter package finally arrived. In response to his query about Fifi, her sister’s cat who was expecting kittens, she has sad news. The cat required a rare C-section delivery of her two kittens, but they did not survive long. It was quite upsetting to the Meyerinks, and a financial set-back as well. Not only must they pay for the surgery and two weeks in the pet hospital, but they had hoped to sell her kittens for about $30 each. Apparently, Fifi is a high quality Siamese.
She interjects the following brief statement: “Leave us not carry the “ice-cube incident” too far. In fact, let’s drop it, but not down my back.”
The proof that she had a grand vacation is in the fact that she’s not happy to be home. The weather has gotten quite hot and she’s not looking forward to going back to work. She had such a great time in Massachusetts, where she “delivered oil, learned to run the dishwashing machine, helped plant 23 rows of potatoes, mowed lawns and delivered hay and coal. You’d be surprised how efficient I am on an oil truck.”
She can’t end the letter without bragging about another accomplishment; beating her cousin David at five games of ping-pong. That was foreshadowing her future as the women’s ping-pong champion of the retirement village where she and Dart moved when they retired.
She closes by telling Dart he’s made her the happiest person in the world and she insists that he come home soon!
Dart didn’t write on the 12, and Dot’s letter spanned two days, so I’ll see you back her on the 13th.
