It’s 11:30 on Saturday night, and Dart misses Dot. Even her little radio by his bed doesn’t bring much solace. It’s dial is bringing in lots of stations, but they all seem to be playing such inanities as “Never Put Bananas in the Refrigerator.”

Last night’s gathering of his train buddies went over very well. The 10 members talked until about 10:15 and then adjourned to the basement to see Dart’s set up. “The gentlemen were fascinated with the trolley wire operation and with the odd-looking little narrow-gauge engines and cars. Everything worked far better than I had expected, including the fact that the bothersome little narrow-gauge cars stayed on the track most of the time. Of course there were some mishaps but as far as my fears were concerned, the derailments and inoperation were very minor troubles.” The guys were especially impressed when Dart’s little interuban cars navigated around the S-curve in his tracks, shooting sparks from the trolley pole, “just like downtown!”

The group returned upstairs for their “Dagwood” sandwiches, coffee and two kinds of his mother’s delicious cakes. They talked about the possibility of having a display at the Sportsmen Show next March to drive interest in their hobby.

With as clean as he got the basement prior to the meeting, he’s beginning to worry that the place is losing its character. Some of the nice, clean basements he’s seen lately “just look like a big, square, cement-lined hole under the house.”

Dart is more impressed with his psychology professor every class. On Friday, they had a long discussion on child-rearing. Dr. Wallen boiled all of the theories down to a simple statement. He believes children should be enjoyed and enjoyable. Dart loves the way the man talks so lovingly about his wife and daughter and their joyful life together. “He’s so sincere, and so effusive in his lectures that even the cynics and skeptics who believe such happiness can’t last in a marriage are becoming shaken. … His attitude makes me long for you, Dot, and it also strengthens my awareness that you and I have promise for the same sort of life.”

He speaks about how Dr. Wallen’s lectures about family life contrast so sharply with what Dart hears from his neighbor’s apartment. The Glanz children cry all day and night, lacking basic attention that their “too-busy” mama is unwilling to give them. Both parents yell, hit and threaten their children constantly. It grieves Dart to hear such chaos and sadness.

Speaking of the neighbors, another resident of their apartment block called the authorities about the Glanz’s failure to throw out their trash into the garbage cans – preferring instead to toss everything down their basement steps! When it started attracting rats, the neighbors had enough. The police came by the other day and gave the family two hours to clean out the filth in the basement or be evicted from the premises. Now Mr. Glanz is threatening to “sue the cops because of public humiliation.”

Dart is terrified about the political science midterm exam on Monday. He likes the lectures very much, but Dr. Heckman gives impossibly hard tests. As usual, Dart is feeling insecure about his ability to do well on the exam.

He’s sorry he forgot to remember the 11 month anniversary of their official engagement, but he’s happy they’ll be spending the 1-year anniversary together. To him, it seems like only a month ago that he gave her that ring.

“Good night, Dot. I wish I could tell you in a new way how very much I love you and miss you. I’ve told you so many ways, and now the biggest thing is to show you, now and forever, how much I love you and need you and trust you. It’s as hard to say good night to you tonight as it was the night you held onto my finger as I started to leave you. I wish we could be saying good night that way right now.”

#          #          #

Dot went to bed very early last night because she felt so poorly. After sleeping only about two hours throughout the night, she awoke suddenly at 6:00 am and lost just about everything she’d eaten over the last two days.

Of course this was the day she was supposed to judge the activities at Island Beach Day. Her boss was none too happy when she had to call off, but with a fever of 101 degrees, her father put his foot down and ordered her to bed for the day. A short time later, she decided to get up anyway. She took three steps and collapsed on the floor.

Mrs. Reynolds, the shut-in Dot has been caring for on Sundays, called today to say she had finally found permanent help and no longer needs Dot’s services. Dot’s relieved because “working seven days a week was beginning to get me down.” (And make her sick?)

She’s getting dizzy from sitting up, so she asks Dart’s forgiveness and puts her pen down.

When she picks it up again, it is the next day.  She’s feeling much better and has done a load of laundry and cleaned her room. Now she’s listening to Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4 in F Minor.” She notes that it started out quite melancholy but gradually became joyful. Curious, she read the album cover. She learned that the first two movements were written when the composer was preparing to marry, and the exuberant Finale was written as he was “liberated” from his marital bonds.

She writes in very glowing terms about a book she read this afternoon called “Men, Women, and God,” which she says is about “life.”  It was written by a minister, assisted by his physician brother, and it was the first such information that Dot has ever read, having found it by accident in the third floor bookcase. She was surprised to learn that it was written in 1922 because the ideas presented in it are very modern. “It was written for young married couples and couples about to be married. It answered many questions I didn’t know I had and gave me a new perspective on the human race as a whole.”

The book made her miss Dart more than ever. She’s so upset with missing him that she couldn’t even eat dinner. The reason she’s upset is that she has so much feeling locked up inside that she has no way to adequately express. “The feelings are there, but you will probably never know how very much I love you. That’s the best I can do now, but someday…!”

Three weeks from today, they will finally be at Sunapee together!