The Wooden Nickel

by Alisha Paige

  “Oh, you want your own?” she asked, as he nodded and smiled, understanding far more than he could say.

  “Is it okay, Sis?” Dianna called to Annalisa.

  “Is what okay?” Annalisa asked as she explained a photo of her parents in the anniversary spread to Frank.

  “That one was taken in the hospital in Berlin. Look how thin Dad was.”

  Frank nodded as he read the caption.

  “Can Eric have a cookie?” Dianna called again.

  “If you cut it into tiny pieces,” Annalisa answered without looking up.

  A knock interrupted her explanation of another photo. “Who could that be and at this hour?” Annalisa asked, rising. “Mom? Are you expecting anyone?”

  “No,” Louise called from the kitchen. She picked up Eric and held him on her hip as she made her way to the living room. Annalisa had already opened the door. A man in a hat stood on the porch, speaking softly. Louise stopped near the couch, sensing that she shouldn’t interrupt, feeling a sort of dread wash over her. She recognized something about the man’s voice. God, she hoped it wasn’t Lily or Hank or any of their kids. A knock after nine o’clock was never good news.

  Annalisa let out a gasp. Louise looked at Frank and he suddenly stood, walking over to investigate. Louise stood her ground in the center of the living room with Eric glued to her hip. Dianna put an arm around her, sensing something ominous as well. Why tonight, when today had been so perfect? Dianna felt sure it was Aunt Lily or Aunt Ida, both of whom were not in the best of health these days. Both of them watched as the man handed something to Frank and shook hands with him. It looked like an envelope of some sort.

  “Come on in, Ralph,” Louise heard Annalisa say.

  Did she say Ralph? Ralph Fines? It sure was him! Louise set Eric down on the sofa and walked forward.

  “Come in, Ralph. What brings you out tonight?” Louise asked politely, curious as to the nature of his visit at such a late hour.

  She hadn’t seen Ralph in what, ten years at least. “How long has it been Ralph?” Louise asked.

  “Oh, I suspect the last time we met was at my retirement party around ten years ago,” Ralph replied scratching his head.

  Ralph was a year younger than Cliff and one of Bill’s international reporters during the war. He had traveled to Germany to report on the war shortly after Cliff’s disappearance, but had returned unscathed, years before Cliff. He and Cliff had become great friends over the years, sharing a sort of brotherhood, both of them seeing horrors of war that were an unspoken understanding between the two of them and Ralph had lost a brother in the Battle of the Bulge.

  “Would you like some cake and coffee, Ralph? We’re celebrating our fiftieth anniversary tonight,” Louise explained softly.

  Ralph sighed and it seemed as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders as he gladly accepted cake and coffee. “I would love some. Thank you.”

  “Have a seat,” Annalisa offered, patting the sofa beside her. “Can I take your hat and coat?”

  “Certainly,” Ralph answered, shrugging his long coat off and taking the hat off of his thinning head.

  Annalisa hung them on the hall tree and then picked up Eric, setting him between Frank and her on the love seat.

  “Lovely piece you put together there, Annalisa,” Ralph said, looking toward the newspaper spread open before them on the coffee table.

  “Thank you, Ralph. I take that as quite a compliment, coming from you. Dad said you were one of the best.”

  Louise emerged with a steaming mug of coffee and a slice of carrot cake for Ralph.

  “Thank you, Louise.” He paused to take a sip before continuing. “I know how proud your father was of you, Annalisa.”

  Dianna looked away for a moment, wishing she were dead and hating herself for feeling so jealous. How many times had she heard this speech?

  Ralph went on. “Oh, Dianna, he was equally as proud of you.”

  “Sure he was,” Dianna muttered, shifting uncomfortably in the rocking chair.

  “He certainly was, young lady. He just couldn’t believe he had created a child who turned out to be a scientist. Now, he could understand Annalisa’s love for writing, but he was forever puzzled as to where you got all your brains.”

  Dianna managed a half smile. Ralph hadn’t said anything she hadn’t heard a million times before. Sure, she was the weirdo, brainy child, interested in strange rocks and soil from thousands of years ago.

  Louise eyed the yellowed envelope sitting in Frank’s lap and noticed his mouth drawn into a pale, thin, reflective line. “Whatcha got there, Frank?” Louise asked, motioning to the envelope and wondering what had brought Ralph to them on tonight of all nights.

  Frank looked at Ralph and then at his wife before holding it out to her.

  “It’s from Daddy,” Annalisa explained in a quivering voice.

  “What?” Louise asked, confused as she recognized that scribble that she loved so much. He had written her full name in red ink, Mrs. Marjorie Louise Emberton, some of which bled through the fading envelope.

  “Cliff wrote this letter five years ago. He made me promise to give it to you the night of your fiftieth anniversary, if he wasn’t able to attend that is.”

  “He must have had some sort of a feeling that he wouldn’t be here,” Louise replied softly as she stared at the writing.

  Ralph nodded sadly, agreeing with her comments. “I was really nervous to come over here, but he made me promise. I nearly didn’t, but something told me I should and Cliff was so good to me over the years. I just couldn’t break my promise. I’m sorry I waited until it was nearly too late.”

  Louise barely heard him as she opened the letter. All eyes were fixed on her and the overpowering sense of something beyond this world, enveloping all of them together. Warm love seeped through the walls and into all of their hearts as they watched Louise’s face, hanging on to each word as she read them out loud, taking all of them back to 1933, into a dusty afternoon filled with hunger and hope.

  February 20, 1983

  My Dearest, Darling Louise-

  If you are reading this today, you know that I am watching over you, just as I was the instant I saw you in the middle of the filthiest dust bowl ever. The second I laid eyes on the pretty blonde in the little white bonnet, I knew I was looking at my future. Sweetheart, you were and still are the prettiest creature alive. I would have given my life for you that very day. Just to think that you might go hungry, like everyone else at the time, filled me with sadness that I’d never known.

  How silly of me to think that an old wooden nickel could buy you lunch. But, darling, didn’t it buy us much more than that? There was a lot of magic in that ole wooden buffalo. Remember when you snuck Hank and me into your dad’s old barn? Not only were you the prettiest thing alive, you were the sweetest, too, keeping us alive with your very own dinner scraps and I know you too well, my love. I would bet you anything that back then, you hardly ate, just so you could feed us boys. Remember when you gave us your lunch on our first day at school?

  You must have gotten your heart of gold from your father, because he found jobs for both of us. Was it the magic from the wooden nickel that kept us together? Hank went off to work for the TVA and I began working for the paper and before I knew it, you were half grown. I couldn’t leave for Europe without marrying the love of my life.

  What we thought would be a few long months apart turned out to be seven years. I missed the birth of our first baby, but the memory of you kept me alive and something else. That old wooden nickel. I slept with that old buffalo in Sachsenhausen. You had sent it to me in your last letter, telling me to hold onto it for good luck and a safe return home. That buffalo got the job done, but darn it, it took him seven long years and at last, I saw your sweet face again in Berlin! And back home again, I was privileged enough to meet an amazing little person. A little girl named Annalisa that we had unbelievably created before I had left for Europe! How odd to miss out on seven y
ears and I tried to make up for it. Oh, how I tried and then we were blessed again, with our little Dianna! What in God’s name had we done in past lives, before the days of the wooden nickel to deserve so many days of bliss in this one?

  I’m hoping you still have our little wooden nickel. May it take you back whenever you wish to dream of me, of us and our beautiful life together. It’s a lucky sliver of wood that would be worth nothing to most, but priceless to us. And if over the years, it’s been lost somehow, don’t worry. It will always come back to you again. Remember? Somehow the old buffalo found a way. A way to bring us back together.

  Happy Anniversary, Darling. I love you and miss you. Give my love to our girls and to our grandchildren. I’m sure we have at least one little rascal running around by now.

  Waiting for you with my biggest smile ever!

  I love you,

  Cliff

  The End