For a brief time today, Dart thought he might be able to meet Dot’s brother. While he was in port, he saw a ship he thought was Gordon’s and he asked the signalman to send a message over to it. A response came back that they were talking to the wrong ship. Oh well, maybe next time…
As he’s mentioned before, huge waves break over the deck of the Haggard fairly frequently, soaking everyone it their paths. It seems that Dart has developed a reputation of being in the wave’s path more often than anyone else. At times, he thinks there’s a trained shark following the ship, ready to squirt a big spray of salt water whenever Peterson sets foot on deck. A couple of days ago, it reached slapstick comedy levels when first his feet got soaked as a wave washed over the deck on his early morning watch at the bow. Later, as he walked aft, nearly dry from the earlier ducking, another wave came aboard and , Voila! He was wearing wet pants. Everybody laughed, including Dart, I think. He concludes with “It shouldn’t happen to any dog.”
But wait! There’s more. In the late afternoon while he walked the deck, he saw the wave coming. He grabbed the handiest thing which would support his weight and hoisted his feet up. The wave rolled under his feet, up the side of the deck house, bounced off and soaked him from hat to brogans. “It could only happen in the movies, or to me.”
A week from today will be Easter. It was about a year ago that Dot and his parents met for the first time while he was in the hospital, hundreds of miles away. “Maybe some of these years we may all be home together for the holidays. All the holidays. From New Year’s Day through New Year’s Eve, for many years in succession.” Nice dream.
He writes that he is sitting here with Donn Byron recalling how he met Dot, where he met her, how much he liked her from the very first moment. “Golly Dot, you’re swell. Every once in a while the very thought of you overwhelms me. To think that I should know and love a person like you, and then have you love me too, is almost too much to believe.”
I love how each of them feels like they won the lottery when they met each other. Both of them thinks s/he is the lucky one to have the other person love them. Isn’t that the very definition of romantic love?
Dot’s short letter is hard for her to write because she’s sitting in the Miller’s living room and they’re talking and the radio is playing. She’s spending the night because Mr. and Mrs. Miller are leaving at the crack of dawn for a three-day anniversary celebration in NYC. Dot will stay with the boys until a sitter arrives later in the morning.
As happens so often, Dot’s mind is running in the same channel as Dart’s today. She’s thinking how much she’ll miss him again at Easter. Last year she was hoping that by this year they could celebrate the holiday together and now she’s hoping the same thing about next year. These busy kids, surrounded by people and activity are so very lonely for each other. Let’s hope next Easter brings a reunion.
