Bits of life

A-16 Words-1225

at her as though he saw a vision. After couple of minutes he stirred from his fixed position and stretched his hand to greet her and welcome her to his beautiful place under the sun thus,
“Oh, yes, you are most welcome. I feel proud that my home merited a visit from a person like you. Thank you for coming. As far as your interference is concerned, please put your doubts to rest. Our family feels happy meeting new people and welcoming them into our midst.”
I sensed that uncle John somehow knew Elvira in the past.

The way he said, “a person like you...” triggered off my suspicion that perhaps they were in touch in the past.
I asked uncle John, “do you know her uncle?”
“Yes, of course, I know her father is Mr. Malcolm Bradley. He was our senator from South Carolina. We, I mean Elvira and I met at a convention years back when I was a young buck full of dreams to do good for the country. She used to accompany her dad sometimes to these public functions. She might not have recognized me, for there were thousands of young men like me full of drive and enthusiasm to support and campaign for a gentleman like Bradley,” said uncle as he gazed at Elvira as if she would disappear if he as much as batted his eyelids.

Elvira too was looking at him with a new interest. The minute he mentioned her father, the complexion of their meeting changed and attained an air or familiarity. Of course I don’t know what exactly took place between the two of them, but judging by uncle John’s reaction to seeing her certainly made it clear to me that he knew her better than she was aware of.

“John, oh yes; now I recall. That evening at that convention when I was being insulted and attacked by those goons belonging to the opposition party, weren’t you the one who rescued me? I was about to faint. But you were there in the nick of time to whisk me away from the crowd. I remember being carried in your arms and then I lost consciousness completely. By the time I came around I was in a hospital, in the intensive care unit. Outside the door of the intensive care unit, I could see my family through the glass. In my half awake state I could hardly remember you or the reason why I had to be brought to the hospital in an ambulance,” confessed Elvira in her own natural way.

By then all the members of our family crowded around us and were listening to the episode and absorbing the details. They must have found it as curious as I did; I mean uncle John’s connections with Elvira in the past.

Uncle John was the first person to recover from this sudden departure to the past.
He hurried us into the main hall and asked Betty and her young assistant Kitty to show us our rooms located on the right and left wings of the mansion. While Kitty took the ladies to their accommodation, Betty showed us men folk our rooms.

“Hi Betty, how are you? How are Tom and Al?” I asked.
Betty beamed at me. “Little Jim, you remember my boys!”
“Of course Betty. Weren’t we play mates during the time I had spent here/”
“Of course dear Jim. They too recall those times. I am glad they found jobs of their own in the big city and visit me and their Pa once a month,” she elaborated.
“How is Tom Betty?” I enquired. Tom, Betty’s dear husband, used to look after the stables.
“well, dear, he is as good as a man of his age could be. I thank God for blessing him with good habits and a hard working nature,” sighed Betty in satisfaction.
As a parting shot I said “we will all meet one of these days and travel down the memory lane together, I am sure.”
“Oh, that will be wonderful for all you. You see, past cannot be forgotten. It is the past that gives way to present and then to future.” She observed.
With that I bid good bye to Betty, wishing her good day for the time being.

I knew Betty way back from the time of my grandfather. She was a young maid at that time. She was a gem of a housekeeper. She managed the whole housekeeping herself by guiding two younger girls how to go about keeping the place spotless and changing linen at regular intervals. There were umpteen chores around the house. She used shop for the pantry too. I remember my trips with her to stores like J.C. Penny, Woodward’s and Macy’s. She used to get me ice cream and chocolates. During most of the time that she shopped I used to have a grand time amusing myself with toys and books.

We relaxed a bit and then freshened ourselves before coming down to the dining hall in the right wing. It also housed the pantry and the storage space for everything needed for cooking and dining. Napery, crockery and cutlery were all stocked neatly in the wall shelves and were prettily displayed in different shades. Some old photographs of famous people dining in the hall were displayed on the walls surrounding the dining table. Uncle John arrived on the spot. He saw me looking at the photographs hung on the walls. Then came to me and pointed out one particular snap with my grandfather and another very impressive looking tall man standing in the rose garden.

“That’s who Malcolm Bradley was. Pa was interested in meeting political bigwigs of his time, particularly those with a reputation of being honest and being natural leaders,” said uncle John reflectively.
“Malcolm Bradley was truly a good leader and there was no doubt he had the charisma that national leader should have,” continued uncle John.
The question that was bothering me came out involuntarily.
“What happened to the election uncle? Did he win?” I blurted out.
Uncle John looked at me as if I had lost my mind.
“Haven’t you heard of what happened to him?” he asked.
“No. I was too busy coming to grips with the loss of my own father.” I replied.
“Oh yes. Sorry Jim. I forgot that you were too young back in those times,” he felt truly sorry I could see.
“Well he was killed in an accident on the night before the election day. So they had to postpone the election by a month.
I was stunned beyond words. Poor Elvira!
We heard voices in the hall way and one by one everyone came down and conversation took another turn.

The dining table with twenty chairs had absolutely accommodated all of us with a lot of chairs to spare. Cooking was remarkable and the menu a diner’s delight.
There were mouth watering preparations like crab curry, fish fry, chicken Manchurian bread rolls and croissants and plenty of salad made of a variety of vegetables such as spinach, tomato, coleslaw, peas, cucumber, carrot and beetroot and cilantro.
I sat between Ashley and Elvira. John took the seat by Elvira. My Mom sat next to her. On Ashley’s other side sat aunt Sarah and then sat Jonathan. In a