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through the colorful
woods, bundled in coats and scarves, eventually found a blueberry grove still
bearing fruit, far past season, and feasted on blueberries until they were
sick. To avoid any run-ins with Josiah, they ventured out more frequently to
surrounding towns to grab dinner and a movie. Afterward, they spent deliciously
long, passionate hours in Leo’s Coupe, the warmth of their bodies pitted
against the cool autumn night air made the car windows so thick with steam you
could paint your picture in them.
    “Run away with me,” Leo said one afternoon, as he held her
in his arms. He hadn’t asked since that night in the woods—he had a feeling
what the answer would be, but the thought of being without her was too
horrible. Why couldn’t she defy what was expected of her just this once?
    Catherine sighed. “You know I can’t,” she said. “What would
my parents say?”
    Leo shrugged. “I’d take care of you. They’d see that,
eventually. They’d understand that we were good for each other… that I love
their daughter just as much as they do.”
    She snuggled deeper into his embrace. What she didn’t say was that it wasn’t just her parents’ approval she worried about. She feared
what would ultimately become of them. What if they ended up hating each other
the way her parents did? What if all the magic and passion of their forbidden
romance fizzled once there was no longer a need for secrecy? What if Leo, her
darling Leo, couldn’t be the stable partner so many adult women wanted?
    That night, she made it home for dinner with her family, an
event becoming increasingly rare. Her mother had made sirloin steak tips with
green peas and mashed potatoes.
    “How’s work going at the drugstore?” Elaine asked,
attempting to be cordial.
    “ It’s fine,” Catherine replied. The
tension was so thick, she wasn’t sure even her steak knife could slice it.
    “If she even works there anymore,” Josiah added. “I wouldn’t
be surprised if it’s all a cover.”
    Catherine looked away from the table. The three younger
children spooned peas into their mouths without making a sound.
     “It’s not respectable work, anyway,” Josiah continued.
“No daughter of mine should be working at a drugstore.”
    “Sorry to embarrass you,” Catherine said, her temperature
rising. Then, she played her trump card. “Maybe you’d rather I leave town with
Leo Taylor. He suggested we elope today.”
    Her attempt to anger her father worked as the judge exploded
in rage, spewing peas everywhere.
    “ Ludicrous! ” he
spat. “What a ludicrous proposal. I hope you know that although you might enjoy
disobeying me here in Woodsville, ‘having your kicks,’ as they say, if you
pursue a life path with that boy, ultimately, only you will suffer. You will
never have security. Without security, you will never have happiness. Never. Do you understand me?” He picked up a steak
knife and ferociously sawed into his meat. “The next time I see that gutter
rat, you can expect a confrontation, I’ll promise you that.”
    Catherine stared into her mashed potatoes. Later that night,
she couldn’t sleep. On a whim, she fastened a red flag to her bedroom window,
hoping Leo might come by on a late-night stroll.
    He did. As soon as he saw her signal, he went to the old
tree and waited. But as she slipped out the door onto the front porch, she
caught her father’s silhouette in the rocking chair a moment too late.
    “Stop,” he hissed. “Don’t go another inch.”
    She lingered, debating whether she should run.
    “If you run,” he said, “there will be hell to pay.”
    The judge motioned to an empty rocking chair beside him.
“Sit,” he commanded. “If this boy loves you so much, he’ll come to you.”
    So, Catherine waited in agonizing silence beside her father
in the dark waiting; she didn’t have to wait for long. Leo, worried that the red flag meant Catherine was hurt or in serious trouble,
bounded up to the front,