Dart begins by apologizing to Dot for neglecting her lately. Between studying for his tests, he wrote to Hal Martin regarding a certain wiener roast at the lake. After that, his Aunt Jean and his cousins stopped by the house around 10:00 pm for a short visit. He remembered at the last minute tonight that he had to write a character sketch for psychology class, so that’s how he spent his letter-writing time.
“Today brought the news of your illness. I wonder what it was. Once in a while a circumstance like that defies explanation. It didn’t sound like what I was expecting, but on the basis of something you said, I’ll bet that it happened a short time afterward. (We had a lecture on it in psych today.) There are seven or eight girls in the class of about 40 and some of the stuff that goes on in the class must really embarrass them.” From that quote, I would imagine that Dart is cryptically referring to the fascinating subject of menstrual cycles. I believe his frequent mention of Dot’s monthly troubles is his attempt to develop a deeper intimacy between them by discussing one of the most personal topics they have between them.
In poli sci class today they did a review of the test from last week. Now Dart thinks he did even worse than he’d expected. Since that midterm exam, Dr. Heckman has given the class six unannounced quizzes, including one the day after the big test, and another the day after that! Apparently, he likes to give pop quizzes when there is a high percentage of students who have skipped class that day, because they’re not allowed to make up work they missed by being absent. “His one question today, counting maybe 5% of the final grade: What is the name and number of the course? The guy must have been raised in a coal mine to be as dirty as that!”
He writes that Dot’s long, luxurious bubble bath must have felt great. He has a secret longing to see for himself what one of those things feels like.
His mother’s cold is much better, but she still has it. Consequently, they skipped their plans to go to an outdoor theater tonight, especially since it had rained all day and they didn’t want to sit in all that dampness.
Having a visit from Uncle Guy’s family last night got Dart to thinking about all the damage the mean and miserly Guy has wrought on Dart, Sr. over the years. He writes that he was shielded from his uncle’s nastiness while he was growing up, but now has come to see and recognize it. (He credits the study of psychology, and how it encourages the releasing of pent-up emotions.) He says his mother feels better when she can vent her feelings about Pop having been broken to an old man 20 years too soon. “I think that you, too, feel better after having told me some things about your feelings toward your own mother. An honest confession of doubts, worries, and feelings can be of the greatest value in relieving internal tensions.” Spoken like a true first-year psychology student!
In regard to Betty and Gordon being in $800 debt at the time of their marriage, Dart has a different feeling. Gordon was in the Navy, earning a fairly decent wage. Betty probably also had a job. That’s a different situation than he and Dot will face, with him in school and not earning much money. Still, he feels fairly certain that they’ll be able to manage alright.
He liked the fabric sample she enclosed of her new bedspread. It’ll surely brighten up her room.
How he prays that she’ll never keel over anytime when they are alone together because it would “scare the daylights” out of him.
He’s ready a “lousy biography” about Tchaikovsky for a psych report. “He was indeed a strange man. Lived most of his life in a strange love affair with his brother Modeste.”
“You weren’t very specific about ‘Life’ as you learned it from Men, Women, and God, but I think I know something of the nature of the subject matter. I’ll look for it in the library downtown. Can you tell me some of the questions you didn’t know you had?”
He hopes she feels, as he does, that their discussions of sex in general, and themselves specifically, have helped them both a great deal. ‘I know that I’m more sure of myself and generally more well-adjusted than before. Even though all reference to it, and our marriage in any way makes me almost unbearably lonely for you, I feel better for knowing what is in store for us.”
“Good night, lovely lady. I miss you somepin’ awful.”
# # #
El brought Dot another swell letter from Dart tonight. She and Norman were on their way to Stamford to see a movie – their third date in as many nights. “Hope it isn’t serious. Oh, he’s nice enough, but he’s very tall, very skinny, has a very high forehead, and is very quiet. He owns a jewelry store in Greenwich but I still can’t see what she sees in him.”
She’s glad his railroad meeting went so well, but she’s not surprised. Her little fella Chuck Pecsok is also a big train buff, and when she told him about Dart’s train layout, he practically demanded that she take him with her the next time she went to Cleveland.
She thinks Dr. Wallen sounds like the kind of professor who is very popular, yet very hard to come by.
She asks if Dart ever notices that when one of them is missing the other one more than usual, they both are experiencing that same thing? She knows it could be a coincidence, but she thinks there’s more to it than that.
How sad that his mother has a summer cold. They’re the worst kind. “Speaking of colds, let me emphasize again that you bring warm clothing to Sunapee. Mom writes that it’s plenty cool up there, even now. Ah, but there’s a consolation for you. There’s a whole forest full of trees that need to be chopped up into kindling. That does wonders for warming a person up, I hear. It may be that we’ll have to break a thin layer of ice before taking out morning dip. But we won’t let that stop us, will we, Dear?”
She answers that she’d love to go to dinner at Mrs. Carle’s with him and Homer, if she’s there. There’s still some question about whether she’ll be able to afford the rip without dipping into her savings, which she doesn’t want to do. And she thinks it would be a good idea to put their pennies in a bank account.
It’s only 10:30, but her days at the Pecsok home begin rather early, so she’ll turn in now, sending all her love to Cleveland.