Radio Mirror: The Magazine of Radio Romances (Jan-June 1943)

T0 Locked in Alma's heart was a secret of the past — and then one day the past came back to threaten the shining promise that the future seemed to hold I STOOD by the window, I remember, looking out at the little New England town in the evening snow and feeling happier than ever in my life. I felt as if I'd climbed to the crest of a hill, and now the past lay in the shadows behind me and the future, bright and clear, beckoned ahead. Those friendly lights out there meant home, the only place I'd ever really belonged. Those mellowed stone buildings over to the right were Winston College where I'd found the job that had brought security and peace. Not much money — but enough. And then, I enumerated happily, and then there was Julian, my young brother. In the last four years he'd changed from the wild, headstrong youngster who had brought me only worry and fear, into a fine, high-spirited boy of sixteen who made me proud. True, I'd promised he could join the Navy when he was seventeen. He was all I had, and it wrenched my heart to have him go; but other boys were going, and that he wanted to so desperately filled me with a sense of humility and pride. And there was Andy. Most certainly there was Andy. Andrew Pendleton was head of the English department at the College. Thirtyish, an ex-football player, he had a heart as big as the world and a face that made you like him on sight. If it hadn't been for a bad shoulder Andy himself would have been marching off to war. -As it was, he was coming to see me tonight — again. "Something special to tell you," he'd said this afternoon in the hall. And I felt like an excited schoolgirl with a heavy crush, instead of a woman of twenty-five with a past to forget. For the first time, I could forget it. The past was way back in the past, where it belonged, and my years of flight and hiding over. All the ugliness was gone, and my little world was good. "Alma Clinton," I said aloud, "you're the luckiest girl on earth." The doorbell buzzed — Andy's special ring. I gave one look around the tiny livingroom. Firelight glowed on the chintz curtains I'd made, and hid the shabbiness of the old easy chairs. Julian was out at a 4-H meeting, and for once I was glad he wasn't home. My heart thudded as I opened the door to Andy, as it always did. He grinned that grin of his that made him younger than any of his students and said, "Let's get the good news over with right away, so we'll have plenty of time to celebrate. You've been promoted." I laughed. In the treasurer's office of a small college, you might get your salary raised but you didn't get promoted. There was nowhere to be promoted to. "Dean Fuller's job?" I said. "To my office. My secretary's leaving. I've had my eye on you for some time, wasting all that secretarial sweetness on the desert air of the business office, and I asked the Dean about it today. He said okay. So you start tomorrow — with a nice fat raise. How about it, Alma?" It was as if my small cup of happy contentment were suddenly overflowing. Not only was it a vastly more interesting job, not only would the extra money help a lot — but it meant I would be with Andy every day. I could talk to him and look at him and — to my embarrassment, my eyes filled with tears. "It — it's wonderful! I don't know how to thank you, to — " "Here, here, none of that. Wait till you see what a Simon Legree I am with secretaries. Besides, I ought to be thanking you." But I wasn't to be stopped. "It's not only this — it's all you've done. The way you took Julian in hand and made a man of him. The way you've made him look A Theater of Today Drama