Page 107 of The Fix-Up

Ollie graduated high school two years before Amelia and settled in to work at the café. “Amelia had her heart set on college and Ollie was planning on joining her, not for school—he was a terrible student—but there was talk of a marriage.”

But two weeks before Amelia was to head off to college, Ollie’s father had a stroke. “It was real sad. He couldn’t hardly talk after, let alone walk. He needed care around the clock.”

“And Ollie didn’t have any siblings,” Gil said. “There wasn’t anyone else to take over the café, was there?”

“Indeed. Ollie’s mother had her hands full taking care of her husband.” Teddy finished off his meatloaf and pushed his plate aside. “Is there any more of that apple pie?”

“I’ll get you a piece.” I stood. “Keep talking.”

“So, Amelia went off to school on her own.”

I brought the pie back to the table. “When did she figure out she was pregnant?”

“I’m not exactly sure.” He shoved a forkful of pie into his mouth. Chewing slowly, his eyes drifted shut. “Ellie, I don’t know how you make it so good.”

Gil and I watched him eat for a good three minutes before Gil cleared his throat. “And then what?”

“Oh, right.” Teddy straightened in his seat. If I didn’t know better, I would say he was enjoying having an audience hang on his every word. “Amelia started classes, and she loved it. She would call home once a week to tell us all about it. There were letters, too. There was a boy she met who took a liking to her, I remember her telling us about him. She let him down easy, but they remained friends.”

Gil held up a stack of envelopes, yellowed with age. “She wrote to Ollie, too. Found a whole stack of them.”

“Did they have a plan?” I asked. “Were they still planning on being together?”

“Oh, yes. Ollie planned to move as soon as his father was better and could take over again but…” Teddy shrugged.

“He never got better, did he?”

“’Fraid not. Back then, the Holder family owned most of Main Street. Kept Ollie busy from sunup to sundown. I rarely saw him, and I lived here.”

“I didn’t know they owned more property,” I said.

“Oh, sure. It’s all been sold off now.” Teddy fiddled with his glass of iced tea, his eyes downcast. “About three months after she left for school, we got a phone call. She’d married that boy who had a crush on her. It was right out of the blue and none of us knew what to think. We hadn’t even been invited to the wedding. She told us it was all so sudden because he was shipping out to Vietnam, and they wanted to do it before heleft. That was true. Now I know she was also about four months pregnant.”

“That’s it?” A wave of anger rolled through me on Ollie’s account. “Did Ollie have any say at all in this?”

“You gotta understand, this was the mid-sixties. Being pregnant and unwed was not the done thing. Not like now, anyway.” He smiled sheepishly at me. “Years later, I found out she’d written to Ollie and begged him to come to see her. She didn’t want to tell him in a letter, and she was afraid to come home for fear someone would figure it out.”

“But Ollie didn’t go,” Gil said.

“He was underwater here, trying to keep everything going. He couldn’t just leave for a week.”

“If he’d known…” I whispered.

“If he’d known.” Teddy nodded.

Gil leaned back. “And she didn’t tell anyone about the baby?”

“Not at first, but when your mother was born, I figured it out.” He tapped his head. “Always was good at math. I wrote to her and asked. She made me promise I wouldn’t tell anyone, even Ollie.”

“Why didn’t she ever tell him?” Gil asked, his voice low.

“She knew Ollie was under enough pressure and she didn’t want to pile it on. By then, she was married. Her new husband knew of the baby and agreed to raise her as his own. I told her to tell him, but she was stubborn. Felt like she was protecting Ollie and all and doing right by the baby.”

Gil crossed his arms. “How did Ollie find out?”

His cheeks reddened. “I had a bit too much to drink one night, and I let it slip.”

“What did he do?” I asked.

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