The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-09-21
Chapter 10
The Future?

The Future?
HECILY turned down the lamps
Yin her bedroom and went to
the window, dropping to her knees
and staring out into the night. The
same night that enclosed him in
his little shack a few miles away.
There was a very small bird on
q branch that swept by her win
dow.
EYou ought to be home in your
little straw bed" she scolded. But
I'm glad you're not. feel like
talking to someone"
The bird said, "Cheerp!"
Cecily laughed. 81 don't know
whether you're saying, Cheer up
or 'cheep' but we could discuss it.
In the first place, | don't need
cheering up because I'm so happy
that my heart is singing-and isn't
that being happy?"
Was she happy? She tried to
sound her emotions. Could girl
be happy when the man who had
become the center of her universe
was cloaked in mystery? Why
wouldn't he tell her his name?
Why did he grow suddenly remote
in those moments when she felt
that they were closest?
AS she had done so many times
before, she brought out all the,
memories of the times that they
had been together. Two weeks be-
fore there had been the unforget-
table day of their picnic Then
there had been the night of the
church fair when she had come out
with Laura and heard his whistle
and he had walked back to Laura's
cottage with them. He had said he
was taking her home and they had
taken the long way.
There was the day of the circus
twelve miles away when he had
hired a rattletrap car from the
garage and over-ridden her OBJ
jections about leaving the shop.
What fun they had had, eating
hot-dogs and drinking poisonous
pop like two kids. He had bought
her a pin wheel which even now
was tenderly put away in drawer
in her trunk. They had held hands
while the trapeZe artistes dangled
overhead and Cecily had felt that
Paradise must be like circus tent.
The day that he brought her
Mary POppinS and said that Mary
had nothing on him; he could slide
up banisters and promised to show
her one day,
''He talks about the future. He's
going TO take me to the Battery TO
see the wells of fog at dusk. We're
going to sit in the Stadium with
the stars and hear TschaikoWsky.
He's going to take me to Little
Italy. TO see the Fete of St. Cen
nsro. He's going to slide up BAN
lister but :"
But.
But, in the meantime, he talked
about the past, about the future,
yet ne was as elusive as a moon
beam. There was an incomplete
ness a bout their relationship,
about his very self that haggled at
her happiness. There was an air
of unreality about the whole thing,
as though Locke were a character
she had read about who had
stepped out of the pages of book
and returned to them and she had
forgotten the title of it.
Or rather, as though she had
never known the title.
He's Maddening'
LIE had a way of turning off her
Il i questions as though she had
never asked them, a way that was
done so gracefully that she was
not aware of it until the question
came to her again. She hadn't
meant to ask him questions, yet
she could not control her impulses.
He had an Irish way of answer
ing her questions by using ques-
tons of his own. He knew all
about her. He knew about her
childhood, her schooling, the
things she liked and the things
she didn't like, her code and her
acceptanceS. She had told him
things she had never told anyone.
Hes maddening," she confided
10 the small bird who fingered on
for some reason of his own.
"Cheep!" the bird retorted un-
mistakably.
ooh. yes, cheap! But I'm not,
my fine feathered friend. protest!
You mustn't get the idea I'm
throwing myself at him. Indeed.
] am cool as can be when | see him.
He doesn't dream that every time
that little bell tinkles over the
door, my heart does cartwheels all
over my inSides. He doesn't know
that / walk along the street with
eyes in the back of my head. No.
indeedl
"He doesn't even know that /
don't live except when I'm at the
shop. This"-She spread her arms
TO include the house-"iS merely
an interlude that must be endured
every night. But he doesn't know.
And / shall never tell him and if
he doesn't speak :. but he will!
He will"
Later, lying open-eyed in her
bed, Cecily wondered if she had
dreamed all the things she wanted