"I Thought You Said We Were Invited to Supper" (Cont.)
Screen 3 of 3As we were saying goodbye on the front porch, I noticed again the strange look on Miss Kate's face. She seemed to be trying to keep Miss Rebecca from speaking, at the same time both of them were wishing "Cadet Becka" success in his performance that night.
We talked in bursts as we hurried through the darkness. None of us could account for what had happened at the Gormleys'.
"I thought you said we were invited to supper," Wally said to Captain Stutzenberger.
"Well, we were; we certainly were. Miss Rebecca definitely asked us to have supper, tonight, at their home. I just can't imagine what went wrong." Captain Stutzenberger was frowning and making emphatic gestures as he answered.
"But what about her telling Miss Kate that we had eaten before we came?" I put in. "Has that woman lost her mind?"
Time was short. We practically ran back to that awful little cafe, the one we had turned down at noon. We were still very hungry. The little pieces of cake had merely whetted our appetite, and Captain Stutzenberger thought Wally should not play on an empty stomach.
So we had greasy, over-fried eggs, and bitter coffee which Wally said must have been boiled the day before. We ate this food much too fast, some of it while standing in the cafe and the rest as we crossed the street in front of the school.
It was seven thirty-five when we arrived at the auditorium. The first saxophone contestant was already playing his piece, and Wally was second on the program. He would have to begin playing in less than ten minutes or forfeit his right to compete any further.
Gritty Chicago boy that he was, he played on time and did the best he could but it was not good enough. I had never heard him play so poorly. He told me afterward that a part of that fried egg must have stuck in his throat and that once or twice he thought he was going to blow it out through the mouth piece of his horn. All this trouble resulted in his placing sixth or seventh out of eight contestants entered. This was most ironic, because he was thought by many to be one of the finest high-school saxophone players in the State of Kentucky.
What a day! One I'll never forget.
What was the explanation of no supper at the home of the Gormley sisters? We were never sure but before we started back to Kentucky Military Institute later that night we had a pretty good idea.
After Wally's event was over, Captain Stutzenberger found out from a resident of Simpsonville that Miss Rebecca was "sometimes teched in the head." The person giving this information went on to say that she had been sent to the LaGrange hospital for the mentally disturbed on several different occasions--the last time just a few weeks before our evening with the Gormleys'. It was further revealed that Miss Rebecca could not be relied on, either to tell the truth or to remember things that had happened to her recently.
So, we concluded that Miss Rebecca had with the best of intentions invited us to have supper in her home, but had not told her sister Kate anything about the invitation. And we further surmised that by the time we arrived at their home expecting to be fed, Miss Rebecca had even forgotten she had invited us.
A thoughtless comment I made to Wally on the way back to the Institute might better have been left unsaid. In an effort to cheer him up, I said, "Better luck next time, Wally." But immediately after I had spoken I remembered he was to graduate that spring from K. M. I. and that for him there would be no next time.
************ Chester C. Travelstead
[DAVID'S HOME PAGE]
- 30 -