Locomotive to the Past George Schultz (top 10 books to read TXT) 📖

was totally befuddled—as he heard her rapidly climbing the stairs, to the upper story.

She was gone, no longer than two or three minutes. When she returned, she was holding something—a very small object—in her tightly-clenched right hand! She handed it to Jason! It was a ring! A beautiful diamond ring! A dynamic piece of jewelry! Featuring a magnificent stone! The styling, of the setting, was dated! From decades past! In 1942, people seemed to not pay an overwhelming amount of attention—to such things.

“I hope,” her voice was still filled with emotion, “that the two of you will accept this. I’d love . . . more than either of you could possibly know . . . to see you, Jason, put this ring, on Valerie’s finger.” Her voice was faltering—badly—by then.

“Wait a minute, Susie,” gasped the potential groom. “I can’t… we can’t… we couldn’t possibly . . . could never, possibly, accept this! Why, this ring… it must be worth hundreds! Thousands, maybe! Listen…”

“It belonged to my beloved Aunt Agatha,” advised Susan! “She was . . . rest in peace… one of my very favorite people.”

“Favorite… of all time,” endorsed Eric.

“She raised me,” informed Susan. “My own parents, you see… well, they went, and they… they abandoned me! Aunt Agatha… who really wasn’t my aunt, you see… she took me in. And she raised me! Brought me up! And she loved me! Really loved me! Truly loved me!”

“From the looks of that diamond,” noted Jason, “I’m guessing, that she wasn’t hurting for money.”

Valerie winced—at her intended’s reflection, on the monetary side!

“No, she wasn’t,” confirmed his hostess. “Not hurting, at all. Which makes what she did… what she did, for me… all that more wonderful! Made it all that much more unselfish! She was a widow. Lived in a really nice house… out in Livonia, Drove a Cadillac. To this day, I have no idea . . . what she was doing at that goofy Woolworth’s store, on Joy Road and Grand River. I’d had an aunt… a real one, my biological aunt… and an uncle! They’d gone ahead… and taken me in! But, they were not happy about it. Aunt Lillian… she was my mother’s sister. Well, I guess she still is! Oh, listen! It wasn’t the Cinderella . . . or the Snow White . . . thing. Where I’d had to scrub floors, you know.”

“But, damn close,” furnished her husband, darkly. “Awful damn close!”

“I don’t even know what I was doing… at Woolworth’s,” continued Susan. “I was ten-years-old. Listen… I never had any money. Not ever! But, I was looking at this ring! Not this ring! The one I was looking at… at the costume jewelry counter… cost a dime! Ten cents . . . plus two cents, luxury tax! Anyway, this elderly rich woman… she saw me there! And, I guess, I must’ve looked awfully longingly, at the ring. It had a… to me . . . this beautiful red stone! I still have it! I’ll never give that one up! Ever!”

“She values that ring… more than this one,” informed her husband. “Much more… than this one! And that is saying something. May I present? Present my true . . . and wonderful . . . wife?”

“Anyway,” continued Susan, “she bought me that goofy little dime ring.” The eyes, of the hostess were filled with tears, by then. They began to trickle down her cheeks. “We… you know… we got to talking. And she wound up . . . wound up… wound up, taking me home! To her home! In her new Cadillac! I could never have imagined . . .”

“Didn’t your folks… your aunt and uncle,” queried Valerie, “didn’t they warn you? Warn you… against getting into people’s cars? Getting into cars… with strangers?”

“Yes. Yes, they did! But, who listens to them? Well, obviously, I didn’t!”

“Beside,” augmented Eric. “We both think, that… by that time… her ‘folks’ were hoping! Hoping… that she’d, jolly-well, be kidnapped! Be taken! Why else would they have let a ten-year-old kid wander off? Wander off… to some damn dime store? Ten… or twelve… blocks away?”

“To this day,” resumed Susan, “I have no idea what… or how… Aunt Agatha ever got legal custody of me. But, she did! At one point… a week or two, after I’d come to live with her… she’d suggested that I call her ‘Mother’! But, at that time, the word ‘mother’ had such a crappy connotation to me! And Aunt Agatha, she… well, she could see that! She never asked that… ever again! She’d always settled… for ‘Aunt Agatha’.”

“And,” added her husband, “she didn’t schluff Susie off! You know… to be raised by some nanny! Or by a maid… or something. Aunt Agatha raised her! Took an active interest in her schooling… and everything else! Everything else!”

“Yes,” confirmed his wife. “And she never sent me off, to school… in outrageously-priced dresses. I was never forced to… well, to stand out… from the rest of the kids, in school! And she never spoiled me! There was more than one time, when I came out of one of our… ah… ’discussions’, with a really sore bottom!”

“She sounds,” observed Jason. “like a pure saint!”

“She was,” acknowledged his former landlady. “And that’s where I met Father Benjamin. He was a young assistant, back then. Out there… in Livonia. When he took over… as pastor, here at Gate Of Heaven . . . I was positively delighted! It had been years since I’d seen him. Great man!”

“I never knew,” responded Jason, hoarsely. “Never knew any of this.”

“There are a lot of things, you don’t know,” said Eric—in another heretofore unheard tone of voice. “Many things!”

The entire dialogue—over a fast-cooling dinner—had become most disquieting! To both, of the younger couple!

“In any case,” Susie began, once again—after two or three minutes, during which she’d composed herself—slightly. “Aunt Agatha… when she passed away… gave me this ring! Told me to give it… to my son, or daughter! She hoped that they would pass it on! So… Jason and Valerie… I’d like you both to have it! I’m sure that Aunt Agatha would approve! Positive of it!”

“Wait a minute!” Jason seemed on the verge—of coming out of his chair. “What about your son? Shouldn’t he be getting this? His