Dart explains that he didn’t write yesterday because he’d been ordered back to bed and he wasn’t in a very good mood. It seems the “nurse who rides a broom to work” forced him onto a work detail on his 8th day in the ward because policy dictates that patients be assigned to a crew after 7 days. The doctor was not pleased with the results. Dart is swollen up again and feels lousy.
He likes Dot’s comment that she’d like to have him around when she’s doing dishes (because he makes everything interesting). He says he knows at least one other person who would like to help her dry those dishes any time.
He’s convinced the beauty of Greenwich is Dot Chamberlain. He claims that if he were there, all he would notice of his surroundings would be her. Awwww!
He ends the letter rather abruptly, saying the ice bag on his jaw does not stimulate good thoughts. He asks her to accept his hasty declarations of love. But he adds a P.S. asking again for the date of her birthday and he filled the back page with a drawing of a gremlin, with a cleverly sarcastic caption.
Dot’s letter-writing is falling into a pattern. Once again, she dashes off a quick response to his most recent letters before plopping, exhausted, into bed. After all, she’s on her feet six days a week, and babysits several evenings. No wonder the kid can’t stay awake!
She establishes that she and Dart were not at the World’s Fair on the same day in 1930-something. She then steps up to defend Lois a bit from Dart’s unfavorable review. She sounds like an unusual character, and I can see there’s a powerful contrast between her and Dot. No wonder Dart had such an easy time “choosing” between them on that first, fateful blind date.
Giving in to Dart’s persuasive arguments, she provides him with her Greenwich phone number. She advises that if he gets a whim to call her, he should let her know about it far in advance because she’s away from home so much of the time. “If your heart’s so foolish as to desire to call me – well, three cheers for your heart!” Sounds like she sort of likes the idea. I wager it won’t be long before he puts that phone number to good use.
She confirms that her father would be a handy man to have around the house – except that he is so busy fixing things around other people’s houses that he’s rarely home to fix his own.
In discussing her recent dream of Dart, she confirmed that he was, indeed, wearing his sailor suit. She told him not to fret too much about the menu for his visit. If he just gets himself there, she’ll handle the details. She suggests that if they are going to have “sand” for their sandwiches, they should also have “greens” for their Greenwich. I would add a little “pun”kin pie.
She appreciated his “word picture” of his current ward and is certain that his clever Marine friend, Fred cannot possibly write a letter as interesting or masterful as his own.
