🎧 254: Bertha and Clara . . .

BERTHA AND CLARA were married to Richard Reuter and Harold Russell in the summer, in a dual wedding. Richard Huber grumbled publicly over the expense but savored a secret satisfaction, since the expense of a dual wedding had been much less than the expense of two would have been. The following year Bertha and Clara each gave birth to a boy, conceived that warm spring night when Luther took Lorna for a row on Lake Serenity.
     Lorna built a wall between herself and Luther. She spoke with him at the mill or in her parents’ house — he was a rare visitor now — but she had no more to say to him than what was necessary to keep people from suspecting that something was wrong. He had spoiled everything she had felt for him. Her memories of his kindnesses to her, of the way that he had taught her to model in papier-mâché and to carve ivory, were pleasant ones, but they were difficult to recall when he was present. She knew all the gossip about him now; she heard it from other workers at the link-and-stud mill. She knew that he took girls riding in his new automobile, a Studebaker Big Six, and she knew — or guessed — that many of the papier-mâché models that Luther made for the ivory carvers to copy in the room behind the unmarked door recorded his own amorous experiments. Worst of all, she knew that what he had felt for Bertha — and for her — was nothing more than what the rooster felt for the chickens or the boar for the sows.

ON A COLD AND RAINY NIGHT the next September, Richard and Lena and Lorna were sitting in their living room, in front of a fire in the stone fireplace that was set into the north wall. The air was still heavy with the aromas of dinner — fresh ham, sauerkraut, boiled potatoes, turnips, and rye bread. Richard Huber was dozing in his chair; Lena was darning socks. Lorna was playing anagrams alone.
     From outside came the sound of a car on the steep road beside the house. The car stopped, and from its sound Lorna decided that it must have stopped at the bend, in front of the house. It might be Uncle Luther. Lorna decided that she would go up to her room if it was.
    She went to the window. There was a car outside, but it wasn’t Luther’s. Footsteps on the porch. A knock at the door. Lena looked up. Richard snorted.
     “I’ll go,” said Lorna.
     She pulled the curtain aside and looked out through the glass before she opened the door. A young man was on the porch, collapsing his umbrella. He was wearing a wool suit, and he seemed nervous. It was Herb.

In Topical Guide 254, Mark Dorset considers Atmosphere: Rain and Unforgettable Moments from this episode.

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