Screenland (May-Oct 1941)

know each other better before we discuss it any more." "But I tell you I do know you !" Harry said and then he sat down beside her and kissed her. And from somewhere up above a bell seemed to ring and the tinkling notes floated in mid air, vibrant and suspended. And Harry must have heard it too, because he kissed her again. "If you want to consider yourself engaged to me, I guess you can," Janie whispered. "Only I think maybe we better keep it a secret." "Look." Harry was smiling. "I'll see you tomorrow night, huh ?" "Oh, no!" Janie came down to earth with a crash. "I have a date with Tom. You know I can't just — " "No, sure," Harry said. "Well, I'll call you." Janie couldn't stop remembering that kiss. She held her fingers against her lips as if she were holding it on her mouth as she lay in bed. And then she was off to the skies again and dreaming as only Janie could dream. Only this time it was Harry who stood beside her in front of a justice of the peace, and he was still dressed in that outrageous polo shirt of his and with his hair all unruly. "And so," the justice was saying. "Because that leaves girls like you for fellers like him, do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband?" And then after Harry had made his responses too, he went on, "I now pronounce you man and wife and Janie, I think you're making a big mistake." Then Harry was picking her up in his arms and carrying her across the threshold of their new home. It was a shanty, but such a charming shanty, it looked more like a stage set than a place on the wrong side of the tracks. And though things went leisurely with Harry, the babies kept coming too, three of them, wasn't that how many the fortune teller had said? and they all looked like Harry, with their hair standing on end. Then there was all of them going fishing and the kids who didn't want to be successful either playing hookey and going along. And at last there was the night when Janie and Harry were sitting in a haystack kissing each other and they heard the radio announce that the Pile of Dough program was ringing their telephone to award them ten thousand dollars, but Harry was kissing her so hard he didn't even stir when the telephone rang. "But Harry, please," Janie protested. "Ten thousand dollars." "I don't believe in it," Harry said and kissed her again. But the next night he came home all excited. "Janie, Janie," he shouted. "I've got great news for you. I'll never have to go to work again. W e can go fishing every day. I just lost my job !" He laughed and the kids started jumping for joy and even Janie didn't worry any. That was what being married to Harry did to a girl ! Janie felt all mixed up as she turned over on her side and tried to get to sleep. She just couldn't make up her mind if all the wonderful things about a future with Harry would be quite worth the bad. Being engaged to two men hadn't solved anything at all. Maybe it would all right itself, Janie thought, the next evening as she came home from work. Maybe being with Tom again would make her know her own mind. But he called the moment she came into the house, breaking their regular Wednesday night date because he had to give a demonstration for a customer. So of course when Harry called to tell her he'd been able to get a car from a friend, she didn't see any reason why she shouldn't go out with him. Only it turned out there ivas a reason, a big one. For when she met Harry, there he was sitting in the car Tom was demonstrating and when he saw Janie he looked madder than she had ever thought Tom could look. So Harry was the prospect for whom he'd given up a date with her ! Well, she'd show him; she wouldn't tell him that Harry didn't even have a dollar eighty in his pocket since he'd spent it all the night before and she couldn't help that grudging admiration for Harry and the way he'd managed to get his date with her after all. He was a go-getter himself in his own unambitious way. So Janie thought it was all very amusing to have Tom drive them around, giving a big sales talk, for evidently he wasn't going to let a little thing like Janie stand in the way of a sale. But after Harry had asked him to drive them out to Inspiration Point she couldn't help that little giggle. "He couldn't even afford to buy a scooter," she said. "But I can." Harry insisted. "I have a keen scooter. Paid spot cash for it !" It was too much for Tom. As if it hadn't been bad enough to see his own Janie two-timing him with someone else, here the customer he was taking for a ride had taken him on a different kind of a ride. "We're always happy to bring people out here," he said as he swung the car to a stop right on the edge of Inspiration Point. "Because we know how many memories a place like this can hold." He gave Janie a look then, a look that said she'd broken his heart and he'd never forgive her, never, and opened the door with a polite flourish and beckoned to them to get out. "This is where you wanted to go, isn't it? Drop in and see us again some time, won't you? Maybe some 69