A Summer in Time

A Summer in Time

The afternoon train sped westward, smoothly across Cape Cod. Leaving Hyannis behind. It was a short trip to Providence. The train's horns sounded, passing through intersections, only the sound of the steel wheels sounding on the rails beneath. The sun filled the train car's windows. The passengers seemed comfortable with the air conditioning working fairly well. Most of the seats were taken. People going home from their summer retreat.

 Shifting nervously in your seat, you had to make an effort to settle in and find the right spot to feel relaxed, comfortable. Holding a leather bag in your lap, much like a horse's feedbag. It was brand new. Paul bought it for you.

Funny--you just met him on Craigville Beach last week! It is hard to imagine the events that brought two strangers together.  This fact is not a big thing, by any means. Some how things were very different for you. Many people go on vacation and meet someone. The only difference--this was serious. Not so much for you, as it was for Paul. A transformation was happening both for you and for Paul.

Sadly starring out the smudged window, trying to make sense out of the week that just past. Not looking forward to the coming tomorrows.

By then, a little more relaxed, attempting to close your eyes, supposedly to take a nap. You had made this trip many times before. Knowing you would not really fall asleep. It felt good, at any rate.

"Blair! Blair!" A loud voice filled your inner ear.  An unfamiliar voice it was. A spirit from out of space. The voice seemed to know you well. Your curiosity now got the better of you. With your head leaning back even more on the seat, anxiously trying to listen to hear more from this sub-conscience voice.

"Blair! That fine young man of yours, their at the train station, is very much in love with you! How do you feel about him?" Paul and his friend David, drove you to the station, as you would have it, saying good-bye, is never easy.

The voice of a woman.  Perhaps someone in your youth. Or, it may have surely sounded like someone you knew?  Nevertheless the tension thickened. This was crazy! Could you have been so quickly having a nightmare, on a sunny afternoon on a train? It was sort of exhausting. A series of flash backs took over all your thoughts.

Seated next to you, reading the New Yorker magazine was your sister Sheila, a career women, caught up in the advertising business.  She was a year and a half older than you, and a good relationship was meant to be with each other.

Here it was Sunday already. Tomorrow was Labor Day. The summer was over for 1950. The season as always is too short. Soon cold winds and leaves beginning to change colors within a matter of days.  Children preparing to go back to school. Some start in August.

Both you and your sister stayed at a quaint cottage in Hyannisport. Rented out to summer guests. Just north a ways from Craigeville Beach. It wasn't a large beach by any means. More like a neighborhood beach, facing out to Nantucket Sound.

The cottage was white; having been painted at the beginning of the summer the shingles had been nailed up there a long time ago. There were five rooms. A beautiful spacious living room filled with furniture with much history. During the winter, rooms were rented to people who had business in Hyannis. Pains were taken to find the right furniture to give it charm, which it had. The cottage was sitting on a large lawn, which sloped somewhat down to the street. A large wooden mailbox had the same shingles on it as the roof. Withstanding age, weathered, still tall and straight, by the sidewalks edge.

It was Sheila who arranged to find and reserve two rooms for both you and her for a two week stay. The cottage offered the freedom of sunning one's self. Lounging out on the lawn. The other girls that stayed at the cottage, brought newly found friends, and helped to make it lively. It was great fun. New England youth at it's best.

Meeting new people and making new friends, not expecting much, no disappointment.  It was fine. You had your own room, your own privacy.

The trip home was uneventful.  The train by then still had a way to go to Providence where you were born and lived with your parents and your sister. Not much had happened. Going to school, writing to a boyfriend in the service in Europe, other than that, things were rather routine.

The afternoon shadows, which you did not see were moving across the sky.   A week went by. Not such a terrible thing, when you don't want time to especially slip by. It does though!

It's just not fair...

Coming next week: Chapter Two
Craigville Beach in Centerville, becomes a matchmaker! It is more than “Boy meets Girl”, nor another summer beach romance. It involves a relationship bonded, extending over a period of time, with intensity, forever lasting. Far exceeding relationships  commonly experienced today.

A Summer in Time: Table of Contents