Millie's Courtship

Millie lived two doors down from us, on the other side of Aunt Lizzie. She was the youngest girl and last born child of her family, a pale and delicate thing in frail health from the beginning, prone to frequent illnessess, unexplained fevers and housebound for most of her childhood. She lived and learned through books that the islanders collected and brought to her and Jimmy made a point of visiting three times a week with her lessons, bringing magazines and newspapers and old copies of The Readers Digest. Like to never have seen a brighter or more curious child, he told my grandmother, She eats up book learnin' without half tryin'.

After hearing that Millie loved music, Aunt Pearl and Aunt Vi took up a collection one Sunday and brought her a used turntable and a stack of 45's. Nana found an old portable radio that she took to Dev who repaired and rewired it for free and Uncle Shad added his prized picture book of classical composers - everything was neatly packed in a picnic basket and delivered on Millie's birthday, along with a two layer chocolate cake from Miss Hilda and a gallon of homemade ice cream from Bill Allbright and his wife. The old house rang with music and celebration and Millie was even allowed to sit on the porch for a brief time and join in. Sparrow came by, producing a small furry ball of a puppy from his overalls pocket and carefully placing it in Millie's lap. Reckon everybody needs somethin' to care for, he told her gruffly, He won't eat much, he'll be good company on rainy days and he'll watch out for you. Millie hugged the puppy and then hugged Sparrow's neck fiercely, her eyes shining with tears and the old pirate kissed her cheek then turned abruptly and made his exit. Ain't much for birthdays, he muttered, Damn fool nonsense if you ask me.

Millie named the puppy Seeker and as Sparrow had said, he didn't each much, he was the best company on rainy days, and he rarely left her side. Millie made it to twelve, then fifteen, then in the blink of an eye, twenty - a slender, dark haired young woman with a pretty smile and a soft voice. By that time there was a second Seeker and she and the dog were often seen on the porch together, the dog stretched out in the sunshine and the girl curled up in a rocking chair, a book in her hands and music coming through the windows.

A lifetime of being treated differently - special as her mother had always said, isolated as Millie liked to say - had made her shy, a little frightened, but also anxious to be like everyone else, to come and go without precautions, to explore and discover and participate and be a part of things. She began leaving the porch, Seeker trailing along faithfully, and walk to the breakwater, then round the Old Road, up to McIntyre's and back. On one late afternoon trek to the post office, she met Johnny Elliot's brother, Aaron, who offered her a ride home. Before she had time to say no, she found herself and Seeker in the front seat of an old Chevy, her first ever ride in a car, her first ever adventure - she was giddy and so excited that she was tongue tied and barely remembered to thank him. Aaron, intrigued and as Nana later said, Smitten instantly, said little but the following day the old Chevy pulled into the driveway in a cloud of dust and he emerged with a bouquet of daisies, a tin of cookies still warm from his mother's oven, and his own dog, a small, short legged and shaggy mix of unknown origin named Doc. Neither her dog nor the girl he had come to court ever had a chance.

Millie might have been sheltered and over protected, her body might have been her enemy at times, but when life offered itself up in the form of an old Chevy and an island boy with stars in in his eyes, she didn't stop to think about the past or her mother's warnings. We are all stronger and braver than we imagine.