“Another day, another phone call, another letter. Sounds drab, doesn’t it? Oh, but it isn’t! Especially since it’s one more day I’ve known you, one less day until we meet again, one more phone call to the love of my life*, and one more letter from the sweetest girl in the world**.”
As predicted, Dart didn’t wash the walls today. Instead, he cleaned and sorted the work bench and installed a new electrical circuit so that Pop could have a separate one for his grinder motor. He also worked on his trains a little and is pleased with his progress.
He tells her about an uneventful Hi-Y night where the group had a working party, spreading stones beside a sidewalk. Lots of the kids are going to a dance in East Cleveland on the 29th, and he thought how much fun it would be if he and Dot could stop by for a little while. He also received word of an inter-fraternity dance that he’d like to attend with Dot.
His membership card to the National Association of Model Railroaders arrived today, along with a questionnaire. They’ve asked him if he’d send photos and blueprints of any cars he’s built in case anyone else wants to build the same ones.
He’s so sorry to hear about her toothache. He’ll try to make an appointment with his dentist as soon as possible. Speaking of dentist appointments, didn’t he give her the ring immediately after another such appointment? “Yes, I remember that day in Bruce Park. We hardly knew how to kiss back then. I still felt a bit awkward when I put my arm around you. Oh, thank you, Dot, for wearing that ring so honorably since then, and for everything you are and have done.”
Homer is not yet interested enough in a date to go out with a short girl. He doesn’t want to look like Frankenstein when they walk side-by-side. (Dart draws a funny sketch of a big goon and a diminutive woman holding hands.) Someday, Dart predicts, he’ll be so ready for a date that he’ll be willing to go out with a small girl, even if he could pick her up in one of his huge, hairy hands.
I was glad to read that Dart has included his Navy buddy Hal Martin on the list of possible best men and ushers. Those two seemed to have some great times together. He asks Dot what style of wedding she thinks they’ll have.
Sending his sympathy for her difficult job, he reminds her that the best new way he can think of to express hi love for her is doing what they already plan – getting married.
* That’s you. ** That’s you, too.
# # #
Dot is kicking herself for wasting so much valuable time on the phone call tonight by blowing off steam about her job. She’s ashamed of letting the Robin Hood Restaurant get under her skin so badly when she has so many more positive things going on in her life.
She sure hopes she can get an appointment for her tooth pretty soon. The pain is driving her mad. It’s a good thing she got an “extra mushy” love letter from Dart today. It thrilled her to the core and took her mind off her troubles. “I often wonder if, when you’re alone, you dream as much as I do about the times we’ve been together. Today’s letter was proof that you do. Isn’t it fun? Of course, it can hardly compare with the actual experience, but think about how much worse things would be without memories of the past and dreams for the future.”
Like Dart, she has also been thinking more of them than she has of herself. “I guess that’s what love is: the willingness and desire to share with one person, above all others, every experience and emotion; to work on everything as a team.”
She’s in the mood to write a long letter, but she has a history test tomorrow, and she craves sleep as an escape from the pain of her tooth. She’ll see him Friday night around 7:30 at Robin Hood. That’s 43 1/2 hours from now and she doesn’t know how she’ll survive the wait.