Free Gertie's Choice by Carol Colbert Page A

expression on
Gertie’s face, John put his arm around Gertie and said “I can sit
here with you awhile longer and we can talk.” He said, guessing
correctly that she was not ready to be with him in that
way.
    “You need your sleep.” She
said. John kissed Gertie on the cheek and said “Don’t stay up too
long, the children will no doubt be up early tomorrow
morning.”
    When John woke up the next
morning, Gertie was still on the couch, although she had fallen
asleep sometime during the night. John wondered if the love Gertie
had for Ophelia’s father would override her feelings for him much
longer. Gertie had never told him anything about Ophelia’s father,
other than the fact that he was deceased. He vowed to give her as
much time as she needed to feel comfortable with him, hoping that
one day she would change her mind and marry him and be able to
enjoy all aspects of married life.
    Time went on and not much
changed. Mrs. Davis was very helpful and came over often. Her son
Ted would cut the grass and help out with other small chores the
days that John had to be back on the base.
    Gertie missed Enchanted
and the people there. When she and Ophelia found themselves all
alone when Donald was sleeping or engrossed in some game he was
playing, Gertie would talk about Enchanted to Ophelia. She was
careful what she said because of all of the changes this little
girl had been through in her life. There was no way of knowing how
much Ophelia had taken on of her father. She knew not how much
being born so many years later than she should have been because of
the lightening tunnels that brought them to this new world might
have affected her. Although Ophelia looked like any other four year
old child, she was actually decades older than that.
    Gertie did tell Ophelia
stories of her aunt Ophelia for whom she had been named. She told
her that her name sake lived far away with her husband William and
her grandmother. Ophelia did not like to hear those stories because
Gertie always looked so sad while telling them.
     
    Gertie also worried about
herself, would her own beauty fade? Gertie had always done what she
wanted to do and there were many times that she questioned her
decision to give up Enchanted and her life there for living in this
little box of a house. She had no time to just be herself because
although John was gone a lot with his military job, the ever
present Donald was there and Gertie knew that he would report to
his father any unusual activities he would notice.
    One day Donald and Ophelia
were playing and got into yet another argument. Donald had grabbed
a ribbon out of Ophelia’s hair and was running away with it to
tease her. Ophelia became quite upset and started to chase Donald
to get her ribbon back. Donald was running in a circle with Ophelia
closely behind him yelling for him to stop.
    Suddenly, a big puff of
blue smoke appeared, stopping both children in their tracks. Donald
dropped the ribbon and ran into the house and under his bed.
Ophelia ran to her mother.
    “Mom! There is blue fog
outside!”
    Gertie looked out the
window at the now dissipating blue mist. “What were you doing when
you saw the blue?” She asked.
    “Donald took my hair ribbon
and I was chasing him around trying to get it back.” She
said.
    “Donald saw it too?” Gertie
asked her frightened daughter.
    “Yes, it is probably all
his fault! Can’t we just go back home to Enchanted, mother? This
place scares me and Donald scares me too!”
    Instead of the explanation
Ophelia was waiting for, or the answer to her question about going
back to Enchanted, Gertie just took Ophelia by the shoulders. “You
are not to run around in circles like that, young lady. You must
listen to me and never do that again, do you hear me?”
    Ophelia looked at her
mother “That is it? No reason why I had blue smoke coming from me?
Donald never had blue smoke coming out of his butt and he farts all
the time! What is wrong with me?”
    “There is