The CBB :: View topic - For the Price of a Penny

#1: For the Price of a Penny Author: CBB Secret Santa,

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 3:09 pm

"Penny for them, Joey?"

The slim, young girl perched on the fence at the end of the garden gave him a small smile in welcome. "Hello, Doctor Jack! I wasn't doing anything much, really - just enjoying the view." She waved a hand at the snow-laden mountains spread across the horizon, which lay startlingly white beneath the weak winter rays of the setting sun.

He swung himself easily up next to her, and this time, she laughed - the golden, bell-like laugh he loved - as the fence shook beneath her. "Be careful, Jack! I'm as well-wrapped-up as I'll ever be, but you know what Madge and Jem and Matey - if she found out about it! - would have to say if you upset me into a snow drift!" Her eyes - pools of sparkling, black light - danced with mischief.

"Consider me suitably chastened, Jo," he returned drily, as he shifted into a more comfortable position. "Spare me the threat of Matey any time - on her better days, she has me back in my school-boy boots and quaking as if I'd just done something thoroughly reprehensible!"

In response, she flashed him a big, heart-melting grin, before she turned her gaze out onto the sunset again... too quickly for him to see her eyes cloud over, as she sank back into her thoughts of a few moments before.

He studied her closely, first giving her the practised doctor's once-over that had become second nature to him every time he saw her. Joey was presently as healthy a young girl as her family could have ever hoped for her to be, but even now, an unusual flush or a worrying brightness in her eyes still touched a lingering fear in the hearts of those who had knowledge of her medical history and sensitive, excitable nature.

Reassured that she was as fit as she could be, his eyes softened as he continued to study her profile - her pale, creamy skin - her pointed, determined chin - the long, glossy black hair pulled into a thick plait down her back - and then he gave himself a shake, and forced himself to look away.

He cleared his throat, which was frustratingly dry. For all his medical training, he would never have a scientific explanation for why he always seemed to be thirsty when Joey was around. So far, no one had caught him in the act of just staring at Joey when they were in the same room, or mooning around in the dispensary when he should have been on duty. In fact, he had been completely surprised when he had caught himself doing these things some months ago - admittedly with increasing frequency the more time she spent at the Sonnalpe after finishing school. He was glad that no one seemed to be the wiser as yet, certainly not his employer and friend Jem Russell, or even Jem's usually very perceptive wife - who also happened to be Jo's sister - Madge.

But what concerned him wasn't how he felt about her. This had become increasingly clear, and increasingly natural, to him over the past year. No, it was Joey herself - as far as he could tell, Joey showed no interest in anything of this sort, and in fact, had often and firmly avowed in public her intention to remain a spinster aunt to all of Madge's children. There was a part of him that worried if Joey would ever be ready to grow up as he hoped she would, and to see the world more for what it could become than what she hoped it would stay.

He sighed inwardly, just as she heaved a shuddery sigh of her own.

"What's wrong?" he asked immediately, his worried eyes tracing her face for signs of weariness or pain.

She glanced over at him, saw the concern etched on his brow, and laughed ruefully. "Oh, Jack, I'm sorry - I didn't mean to scare you. I'm fit as a fiddle, honest Injun! I was just... thinking." Her eyes were troubled, he could see that now, the mischievous light that usually burned in them temporarily dampened.

"And those great thoughts of yours aren't worth even a penny?" he ventured, pulling a shiny coin from his coat pocket. "You sell yourself short, Jo!" - he teased, before adding in a far more serious tone - "You know you can talk to me if you like, don't you? I may not be able to help much, but sometimes all you need is to have someone who'll listen." As he spoke, he took her right hand and carefully placed the coin in her palm.

Her fingers curled over the penny, until she held it in a tight fist. She dropped her hand to her side and sighed, and again, her gaze drifted towards the horizon. Companionable silence settled on them for a few minutes.

Finally, she spoke. "It's just little things I've been hearing, Jack - from Jem and Madge, and Gottfried, and Miss An - I mean, Hilda and Nell. I've been listening to the wireless too, though you can't ever get much on there these days. I don't pretend to know very much about what's really going on. But it just seems - everything that's happening... in Germany, Italy, even Spain... it all feels wrong to me, somehow."

He looked at her gravely - this was more than he'd expected from Joey, for sensitive and intelligent as she was, sometimes beyond her tender eighteen years, she remained in many respects a young girl at heart. But, in that moment, he realised - beyond the shadow of a doubt and with no small measure of relief - that there was considerable good and any amount of love and wisdom in Jo, and she would one day very soon willingly set down the familiar armour of her reckless youth.

"If it's any comfort, Joey, it feels just as wrong to me," he told her. "I won't pretend to you that I think everything will come right. No - with things as they are now, I very much fear that they will go very wrong, and very badly, before they improve."

"Will there -" Joey gulped, "will there be a... war, do you think?" She stumbled over the hateful word, her eyes now trained on his, as if clinging to him for reassurance that the world - their world, here in the serene, beautiful Tyrol - would not change for the worse.

"There are no signs of war yet," he replied. "But you can declare a war in deed without ever saying one word about it, Jo, and there are those who fear that Austria is in a very poor position, caught as we are between Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. He - Hitler - will want us, you know, if only as an ally - however unwilling."

Again, Jo turned to look at the sun, which now barely peeked over the crests of the mountains in the distance, colouring them a pale, silvery orange. He knew her eyes were now brimming with unshed tears, so he tactfully turned his head, but lightly placed his left hand over her still-clenched fist.

As the promise of a winter's evening darkened the air around them, more quiet minutes slipped by.

This time, he broke the silence. "If you don't mind my asking, Jo, did... something happen?" - at the slightly puzzled look on her face, he hastened to add - "I just wondered if you'd spoken to someone, or heard anything, that made you worry so much."

"I did," Jo admitted quietly. "Emmie Linders told me, the last time she was up at the Sonnalpe, a little about what's going on in Germany these days. She didn't have details, of course - not many people would have risked their lives to smuggle information like that out of the country! But what she said - what he's doing to his country, Jack, his own people..." Joey's voice broke.

She struggled to compose herself. But the flood-gates were now open, and she rushed on, the words now tumbling quickly from her. "I guess - I didn't think of it, for a while. I tried as hard as I could not to. But today - today especially, it's been so much harder to ignore it, or pretend it's not happening, and try to tell myself we're still safe. We are, in a way, since we're British - at least we have another country waiting for us half a continent away. But what about Herr Braun, or Herr Marani and Onkel Reise, and Vater Bar and all the wonderful people who've helped us and the school since we've been here?"

Turning to bury her face against his shoulder, she allowed herself a few small, choking sobs. He pulled her against him with his arm and cradled her as she wept, something he knew she would never have submitted to at any other time. But now, she welcomed it, for a few brief moments, before she pulled herself together, scrubbing her face with the back of her glove.

Wordlessly, for he knew Jo and suspected that her handkerchief was forgotten in her dresser upstairs, he handed her his own.

Looking up at him, she managed a teary smile. "Thanks for letting me be a moke and crying all over you like that, Jack."

Since she appeared to have recovered her composure, he reluctantly dropped his arm from her shoulders, not wanting to make her feel awkward with the situation. But - was he imagining it? - for a fraction of a second, he thought he saw something flicker in her eyes, as if she wanted to protest his action, to urge him to leave his arm wrapped around her.

Just as quickly, however, that look in her face had vanished and he couldn't be sure if it had been there at all.

Before he could even think about what it might all mean, she was talking earnestly to him again, her eyes tinged with a deep, heartfelt sorrow. "If Hitler takes Austria, Jack - if he does to the people here what he's done to his own countrymen... if he hurts them, how can God expect us to be kind and merciful and to... to 'pray for the Lord his soul to keep'? How can we ever forgive him?"

"As best we can," he replied immediately, with the simple, unshakeable faith he had always had in his God, in humanity, and in her. "It will not be easy, Jo, and there will be days and times when it seems nigh on impossible. We will probably fail, more times than we succeed. But it is not for us to pass judgement, or to withhold mercy should it ever be called for. We forgive him and his actions the way we do everyone else - with love, with strength, with understanding. At the very least, we owe it to those whose lives he has ruined, for it will do them no justice if we allowed ourselves to become as twisted with hate as he is on their behalf."

She sat silently beside him, turning this little speech over in her mind. She did not know it at this precise moment, but his words - which carried with them the quiet, steady trust he had long ago placed in his God - would remain with her and give her strength in the days and years ahead.

As she continued to sit, deep in thought, the first, light flakes of snow drifted down from the purple-blue sky.

"It's snowing," he pointed out, rather unnecessarily. "You had better go back into the house, Jo. Madge will be wondering what's been keeping you from Kaffee - that's one of the reasons I came out here in the first place!"

"All - my - stars - and - stripes!" she gasped, recovering her spirits and command of slang in an instant. "Is it almost eighteen already? Madge will hang me out to dry!" With this uncharitable libel on her sister's character, Joey dropped lightly to her feet, dusting the hints of snow from her hair. "You'll come in for some cake, won't you, Jack?"

He nodded, but stayed where he was. "I have to run over to my car to get some papers for Jem, but I'll join you in a few minutes."

Turning toward the house, she paused, then moved so that she stood right in front of him. She looked up at him with a solemn smile of gratitude that lit up her eyes wreathed across her pale, sensitive face. Putting out a mittened hand, she gripped his fingers briefly. "Thank you," she said simply.

Jack's heart leapt - and for a brief moment he thought he would fall off the fence with the sheer force of it.

Then she turned, and started down the walk to the house. Just before she disappeared behind the door, she looked back at him and waved, holding up the penny he had given her, and winked.

"Merry Christmas, Joey," he said to himself, and smiled.

#2: Author: JustJen, Location: Dorval, Quebec

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:01 pm

What a beautiful drabble. Thank you for sharing

#3: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:11 pm

That was lovely. Thank you Santa.

#4: Author: Rosy, Location: Gloucestershire-London-Aberystwyth

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:29 pm

That was gorgeous. So lovely. Thankyou!

#5: Author: Gerrie, Location: Ireland

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:18 pm

Oh they were both lovely in that and so was the Sonnalpe....thanks Santa

#6: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:29 pm

Thanks, Secret Santa. Joey is a lucky girl. I'm glad I know that the two of them will end up together.

#7: Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!!

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:31 pm

That was great Santa. We know so little about this period of Jo and Jack's romance.

#8: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 8:08 pm

That was wonderful Santa, thank you.

#9: Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 10:31 pm

How beautiful.

#10: Author: Michelle, Location: Near London

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 10:55 pm

Thank you, Santa. Jo and Jack do have a lovely relationship, and there's so little about how it all began.

Michelle

#11: Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:39 pm

How thoughtful and perceptive. Thank you.

#12: Author: Miss Di, Location: Newcastle, NSW

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 2:04 am

Aww, that's sweet. I knew they didn't just 'suddenly' discover how much they meant to each other. Thanks Santa.

#13: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 7:18 am

That was so beautiful, thank you, Santa. They were lovely together.

#14: Author: Joey, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 7:58 am

O wow, Santa, thank you so much! That's amazing.

I shall print it out and read it again on my journey on Christmas Eve. It's so beautiful.

#15: Author: MaryR, Location: Sale Cheshire

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:44 am

That was one of the most beautiful, moving, tender scenes I have ever read on here.

And what a lovely evocation of Joey at that age - so much promise of what was to come.

Thank you and Joey is one lucky girl to receive this.

#16: Author: Amanda M, Location: Wakefield

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 5:39 pm

That was beautiful, Santa, and the characters have been captured so well.

Thank you.

Star Wars

#17: Author: RuthY, Location: Anyone's guess

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 6:07 pm

Lovely!

Thanks Santa!!!!!

#18: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 7:09 pm

Very nice indeed. Very Happy

Thank you, Joey's-Santa!

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