Dart’s salutation today is “Dear Favorite Fiance’,” mimicking Dot’s sign-off from a recent letter. He got another nice bunch of letters today, from Dot, his folks and his old pal Fred. Fred warned him not to write to him anymore. What a strange guy he’s turned out to be.

The free verse that Janie wrote in Dot’s latest letter inspired Dart to try something he’s been working on since his days at sea. I won’t insert it here, but soon, I’ll add a new section to the blog to include some of his poetry written throughout these years.

He’s concerned about Dot having to cut class the other day and he’s discerned the reason for it — the debilitating periods that she suffers through each month. He worries she may be struck down during her final exams. She’d mentioned that getting married was often a remedy, and he asks if it was marriage or child bearing that brought relief. “If you’d rather we didn’t mention it, just say the word. I wish I could be with you to at least try and comfort you during these trying times. Knowing those things about you, especially learning about them from you, helped to make me love you so much more. It seems like things like our last talk bring us so much closer together. I love you more each day…but those talks and others of a less personal nature seem to double that day’s increase.”

I’ve thought about this before: Some of today’s young people struggle to find true intimacy in relationships, yet they have grown up in a world where intimate things are discussed openly and often, by nearly everyone. Could it be that one key to that personal closeness of the earlier generations is the fact that intimate talk was reserved for intimate relationships?

Dart continues that there are still some things about women that he’d like to clear up someday. “Later. Much later.”

He certainly gives her credit for all the advances she’s made since last November, as far as expressing her affection is concerned. “I’m glad we like each other so much. Some people are in love but they never get to like their partner.”

Another thing he’s happy about is that she told him what those coded initials on one of her early letters meant. He’d always hoped he’d learn their message someday, but had, frankly forgotten about them for a while. It’s a nice thought they expressed.

“I like that ‘favorite fiance’ thing. What’s great about us is that there could never be more than one fiance. With us, our favorite is our one, our only.”

How can I ever tell you how much I love you? The only thing I can do is try my best, and try it all the time.”

Between studying and dinner, Dot had time to squeeze in a couple of letters to Dart tonight.  A letter from her mother today raised the question of whether Dot would like to attend classes over the summer so she could finish college earlier. She rather likes the idea, but she’s afraid she’ll be so homesick by June that nothing will keep her from going home. She asks Dart his thoughts on the subject.

Ellie’s been calling Dot Dorothy Peterson all week. When Dot asked her why, she hadn’t realized she was doing it. She just said it seemed to come out easier than Chamberlain. She’ll get no complaints from Dot!

All evening she kept her ear tuned for the sound of a phone ringing, but there were no calls for her. She always loves to hear Dart’s voice, and was hoping she would tonight, but she’ll try not to be to disappointed.

She can only imagine how unbearable Norfolk must be with Hal gone. Although she’s happy for Hal that he was stationed close to home, she was hoping he and Dart would get to stay together in their next assignment. Now all she can hope for is that he’ll not be sent back to Shoemaker, which he loathed far more than he does Norfolk.

It had seemed like she and Mr. Chapman, her science teacher were becoming good buddies, but that delusion came to an end when he returned her exam from last Friday today. Although she got an 89%, it was labeled a C, and she was none too happy. Her only recourse is to get a 100 on the next exam. That’ll show him!

But her deflated ego got an influx of air in English class. She reminds Dart of that exam she’d mentioned last week where she had to write a theme that was then graded by three professors. While she waited for all her classmates’ themes to be returned and saw how many of them had failed, she broke out in a cold sweat. But…she passed! She’s more confident now about the longer theme she’ll have to write for her final exam. By the way, the topic she chose was “Why Go to College?”

She’s counting the days until her Thanksgiving visit back to his parents’ home for Thanksgiving. That weekend, some of her classmates from Andrews who are in the Cleveland area hope to have a little reunion.

It’s midnight and her heavy eyelids are begging for sleep. She recalls a year ago tonight as she lay in bed, thinking of Dart speeding west to California to await his assignment to a ship. Thank goodness the worst is over for him. Thanks goodness, also, for sleep and dreams…