Free Gertie's Choice by Carol Colbert Page B

nothing wrong
with you, Ophelia. We are just different than Donald and his
father. We have to be careful what we say and do. Your mortal body
is small, but you are wise way beyond what your size would
indicate.” Gertie said.
    “I know that mother, but
why do we have to stay here? Why can’t we go back to Enchanted? Why
is everything different here? Why is Donald growing taller than I
am when he is so much younger? Can’t we just give Donald to Mrs.
Davis? She seems to love him and misses taking care of him since we
arrived and it’s not like we love him or anything!” Ophelia
cried.
    “I do care about Donald,
and I love his father.” Gertie told her daughter. It was an
explanation that Ophelia was to hear repeated many times more over
the years.
    When Donald and Ophelia
started school, Gertie had a lot more time to herself. She did not
involve herself too much with the school at first because she was
afraid of being different. She had already overheard some of the
other mothers talking about how young and beautiful she was.
Although that was a great compliment, it only drew more attention
to herself.
    Gertie started to give
money to various charities in town and after a while she got
involved in the volunteer programs. Finally, Gertie felt like she
was being useful and filling her time away from John and the
children helping others made the days go by quicker.
    They lived off of John’s
meager wages, but Gertie used her own wealth that John did not know
about, to help out the poor and elderly, as well as for the
disadvantaged children in the area. Although this brought peace to
her, it also made her very well known in their town. Gertie did her
best to give her help and her money without drawing attention to
herself, but a great beauty that also had a beautiful heart was not
to be overlooked.
    John was proud of his
wife, as he always had been. His heart broke that although she had
finally agreed to sleep in the same bed as he, that there had been
no intimate relations between the two. For her mindset, Gertie
thought that the issue was settled and thought no more about it.
She liked when John held her until she fell asleep, but she was
content with that and never imagined that he longed for much
more.
    John believed that it was
Gertie’s morals that kept them together, but not living as man and
wife. He also wondered if she still could not let Ophelia’s father
go in her heart and so he would asked Gertie every few months to
marry him. Gertie’s answer always remained the same. “I love you,
John, but no.”

Chapter 14
     
     
    Time went on and although
both children were doing well in school, Ophelia soon became
restless and bored. She loved to hear her mother’s stories about
this wonderful place called Enchanted and it was all Ophelia could
think about. She wanted to go there and at night she even had
dreams that she was actually there. She had little bits and pieces
of actual memories, but she had had so many changes and
environments in her lifetime, that it was all very confusing to
her.
    There was a little girl in
Ophelia’s class named Adela Johnson who seemed to be everywhere
that Ophelia was. She had done everything she could do to become
friends with Ophelia. Adela lived two blocks from Ophelia’s house
and it seemed to Ophelia that Adela had camped out on her porch
more days than not after school.
    Gertie was glad that
Ophelia had found a friend, but noticed that Adela seemed to follow
Donald around more than Ophelia. This was good news to Gertie. She
knew that Ophelia would be just fine, but that Donald needed to
have more friends and socialize more. Donald was a rather awkward
child. She felt sorry for him that he had lost his mother at his
birth and that his father was away so much, so Gertie did try and
spend as much time with him as she could without angering
Ophelia.
    Fact was, everything
seemed to anger Ophelia. She was rude to her mother, indifferent to
John, and downright mean to Donald.