Spring Harvest by Gladys Taber

Author:Gladys Taber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Valmy Publishing
Published: 2019-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

18.

Julie sat on their special log by the edge of the river, and her eyes were swollen almost shut with weeping. Michael was going to State, and when he told her, the resulting storm was so catastrophic it made her battles with her father seem inconsequential. And when it ended, Mike flung away in a sullen rage.

That afternoon he took Marcy to Tree Day. This was the end of everything. Naturally nobody asked Julie, for she was Mike’s steady. So she sat miserably on the damp log, without a tear left in her but with a sickness in her bones. She wished she were dead, and she wished Marcy were dead. Her best friend, going out with Mike! She wished Mike would break his collarbone and not be able to play football at all anywhere. That would fix him. They wouldn’t want him at State then. Not that it mattered to her. Her neck was rigid and the pain sliced down to her shoulders. She probably would die.

Why did people keep saying it was so wonderful to be young? It was dreadful, nothing but suffering. Parents were enough trouble without trouble with the man you loved desperately, hopelessly. Now her father kept talking about the advantages of an eastern women’s college and there was absolutely nothing left to live for. Well, Mike would have a fine time at State. All those rich Chicago girls would invite him to their big houses on the Lake Shore Drive. Their parents would welcome the big football star. In the end, Mike would marry one of them, a very rich one. He would spend his time cruising around on a white yacht—she could just see him sitting on deck sipping an iced drink or dancing in tropical moonlight. She found she could still sob, even without tears falling. It made her chest ache.

“I thought I’d find you here,” said Mike, pushing the clover aside.

“Mike—”

“Speaking.” He sat down and fished for his handkerchief.

“I didn’t expect—” she hiccupped.

Mike held her hands. “Who else would it be?”

Now was the time to rise and flounce away, stiff with pride.

But all she could do was bury her face in his handkerchief. He lifted her face and kissed the tear streaks, in a way not in the books at all. “Let’s have no more of this,” he said.

“I—I gave you up.”

“Sure you did. I gave you up too. I’ve spent some time giving you up like crazy. You’re the silliest, most difficult, most unreasonable girl in all the world, and I’m nuts about you. Now I’m not going to give you up again. And I don’t give a damn whether it’s a square deal for you or not. I just don’t care.”

Julie came alive, feeling his arms tight around her.

“Made up my mind after Tree Day,” he explained. “Marcy’s a nice girl, and so pretty and all that, and no trouble at all. Her folks don’t interfere either, they don’t care who she picks. There is not one thing wrong with her, believe me.

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