The Third Time is the Charm (fanfic)

[tdr]

This fanfic is a story of how Ward and June met, courted, and married; a flashback within a continuation of an earlier story, "Summer of '59." In trying to put as much of the info from the series that the dialogue tells about, this may complicate things a bit, but I am going to give it a try.

THE THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM-- Part 1



The Cleavers had had fun during their week at the lake—boating, fishing, swimming, picnicking, and just enjoying their time away in the mid-August sunshine. The summer was coming to a close, and school would be starting again in just a couple of weeks. But their new house on Pine Avenue was waiting for them with all their furniture and belongings safely inside. They had accomplished what seemed almost impossible in the early summer of 1959, when the problems with a boundary dispute made completing their purchase of the new house, and closing on the sale of their old house, two deeds unlikely to be completed during the summer. But “fortune must have stepped in,” as Ward put it, and they not only got their old house sold, their new house bought and everything moved in, but Ward still had the opportunity to take two weeks of vacation in August. So, as the family came to its last night at their rented lake cabin, Wally and Beaver were left alone, with many instructions from June and Ward. The boys cooked their supper, then did some walking and wading around, looking for a few interesting-looking shells to take home as souvenirs. Ward and June, during this time, had gotten dressed up and drove to a romantic restaurant they had heard about which was 25 miles away. They were having a “belated” anniversary dinner, since they had skipped that annual celebration in late May, with so many worries on their minds. But their lakeside vacation had been a time of celebrating, so they decided to make up for not having celebrated their fifteenth on its date, May 31, 1959.

Wally and Beaver were still awake after 11 o’clock, with the television in the cabin going while playing their second game of Monopoly. They heard their parents drive up and as they approached the cabin door, thinking the boys would already be in bed, Ward said, loudly enough for them to hear, “Honey, you know I would enjoy staying out dancing for another hour or two, but the products of the love we’re celebrating still aren’t old enough to be left alone for half the night.”

June, in a more whimsical tone than the boys were used to, said, “Yes, I know that’s true, dear, but we did—“ and she stopped abruptly as Ward opened the door and they saw the boys in the main room. “Oh, my,” said June, with a little giggle.

“Hi Mom; hi Dad,” said Wally, looking a little embarrassed.

Beaver looked a bit confused. “Gee Dad, what you were saying sounded almost like that mushy talk we hear in the movies.”

Ward looked blankly at first, then he smiled. “Well boys, I suppose it would surprise you to learn that your parents once said these ‘mushy’ things, and on occasions like this, as we’re belatedly celebrating our anniversary, I suppose we still do.”

“I guess I still don’t understand why you couldn’t have your anniversary when it really was,” said Beaver. “But I hope you had a good dinner.”

“Oh we certainly did, Beaver,” replied June. “We had a five-course dinner, and then we danced, and we even had a little champagne.”

“Wow, you guys really went all-out!” said Wally. “I know Beaver’s just a little kid, but I’m grown up enough to know that even when you get old you still talk mushy and do mushy stuff sometimes.”

“Well you know, Wally” said Ward, “it really wasn’t that long ago that we weren’t that ‘old,’ and we did a lot of ‘mushy’ things that you’ll probably be doing in a few years.”

“Yeah,” said Wally. “You know, I never have really heard the whole story about how you two met and got married and everything. And heck—I’m not sleepy. Since you were probably thinking about it tonight anyway, why don’t you tell us the story?”

June and Ward eyed each other. “Well, Wally, I don’t know if we can tell the WHOLE story just in a late-night conversation,” said June. “Ward, do you think—“

“Yes, I do,” cut in the man of the family. “And yes—we can’t tell the WHOLE story,” he added, grinning at June, “at least not in the time before we drop off to sleep. But I’ll get us all some of that punch we have left, and Beaver you turn off the television, and your mother can begin the story at any time.”

June: “Well, it may come as a surprise to you boys that your father and I met each other not once, but three different times. You see, I was staying with Aunt Martha in the summer of 1937. I was 16 and I had one more year of boarding school before I was to graduate. As you know, Aunt Martha lives in Riverside, and State University is not too many miles away. State was one college I was considering for after I graduated from boarding school, so I went up there to visit the campus one day in June. I went to the library and to some of the lecture halls and the research buildings and the athletic stadium. Then as I got hungry and noticed it was past lunchtime, I thought I had just enough money to buy a sandwich and a drink in the cafeteria. Well, I got the sandwich, but I had to settle for a cup of tap water. There were a few students there taking some summer courses, but the only other person in that small room in the cafeteria had his back turned to me while he drank coffee and was studying from a book. To tell you the truth, I was a little bit afraid of when he finally got up or turned around and noticed me. After all, it was only the two of us in the entire room. But before I was finished he did get up and turn around, and he stopped as our eyes met. Of course, I looked away for a second, but I still noticed his blue eyes, his handsome build, and then his nice smile. He took up his book, and then started on his way out, but he looked back at me and smiled one more time before he went out the door. So at the time, I thought that was the first and last time I would ever see that fellow.”

“Gee, Mom, was that Dad you met in the cafeteria?” asked Wally.

Ward: “Yes, Wally, it certainly was I. I was in the cafeteria studying hard for an exam in my structural design course. That was the last course I needed to finish my degree in engineering. The fraternity house wasn’t open that summer, so I was living in a cheap boarding house and working as an errand boy to support myself while I finished up that degree. There weren’t many coeds on campus at that time, and that’s why when I suddenly noticed such a beautiful young lady, well—it was hard not to do anything that would let her know that I noticed. But I had to get to class to take that exam, so I didn’t expect to see her again after that first look.”

June: “But after I went to a couple of the girls’ dormitories to get a look, I thought I had seen all that I could see for the day, so I went back to the bus stop. The bus back to Riverside was going to be another half-hour wait, so I sat down on the bench and started reading a newspaper someone had left. After a few minutes, someone sat down on the other end of the bench, but I didn’t look up until I finished an article about Jean Harlow. So when I did look up, there was that same handsome man with blue eyes I had seen in the cafeteria. I know I must have looked startled, and your father’s first words to me were: ‘I hope you don’t mind me taking the liberty of a seat on this bench. You seemed quite involved with whatever you were reading.’ I just said, ‘Oh no, that’s quite alright.’ Then he said, ‘My name is Ward Cleaver. I’m very pleased to see you again, Miss--?’ ‘Bronson,’ I said. ‘It’s June Bronson. I’m just waiting for the bus back to Riverside.’”

Ward: “So I told her I was waiting for my bus back to the other side of town near my boarding house. I wanted to ask her if she would care to go to a movie or out for a hamburger some time, but I couldn’t help noticing that she was so young, I was twenty-one at the time, and it turned out she was even younger than I thought, and she still had a year of high school left. So all I did was look like I was interested, but dumbfounded.”

June: “I was interested too, but of course, being a proper young lady, I couldn’t just speak up and say so. So just before my bus was due, I decided to mention that I was staying with my Aunt Martha Bronson and helping her, as she sometimes takes in one or two ladies as boarders in her big house, and she also does needlework. Ward didn’t look like he was paying much attention, but I was soon to find out that right after I got on my bus he wrote down Aunt Martha’s name and what I said about her big house. The next Saturday I got a phone call, but before Aunt Martha let me have the phone she insisted on knowing who the caller was. Then she told me it was someone named Ward Cleaver. But she asked him where he was calling from and how he happened to know me. I finally just grabbed the phone from Aunt Martha, although I always hated to cross her in any way. Ward told me he got the operator to look up Aunt Martha’s number, and he told me there was going to be a dance on campus the next Saturday night at the end of the session, and he wanted to meet me there. I told him I would come. But facing Aunt Martha was difficult. That was the worst week I ever had with her, and I had stayed with her almost every summer since I was 8 years old. When she got it out of me that Ward was 21, she threatened to call my parents to forbid me from going to that dance. She said, 'June dear, 16 and 21 is simply too much of an age difference. Now if it were 26 and 31, well, that might be different...' So the next Tuesday I went back to the campus and I found Ward at the cafeteria at lunch time. I explained about Aunt Martha, and he offered to come to Riverside the next night. When I told Aunt Martha he was coming she almost had a tantrum. But when Ward showed up, she was so taken by how sophistocated and mannerly he was that she allowed me to go the dance afterall. She was impressed by your father’s hobbies of collecting and researching geneologies. So after he left that night Aunt Martha said she wouldn’t call my parents, but that it was only one dance and if I did see Ward again she would have to call them.

"So when Saturday came and I took the bus to the State campus, Ward was waiting there in a suit that didn’t look very new, and he had an orchid for me. I asked him how he could afford such an expensive flower, and he just said he found a way. Well, we had a good time at the dance, even though there were only about a dozen there, with it being a summer session; and I didn’t hear from Ward again for 3 weeks. So naturally I thought he didn’t care to see me again. But then he finally did come calling at Aunt Martha’s house, and he told me he had decided to join the navy because jobs were hard to find once again. He hoped he would be approved for officer’s training after he went through camp. And since I was the only girl he had dated any time recently, he just wanted someone to say 'goodbye' to. I liked your father from the first time I saw him, of course, but it wasn’t as if that was an emotional goodbye; after all, we had only been to one dance together. But I told him I would keep him in my thoughts, and he said likewise, and we were sure that was the last time we would see each other.”

Ward: “And it was the last time for about 4 years.”

[DarleneIllyria]

This story is coming along terrific! I can't wait to read part 2.

[tdr]

THE THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM—Part 2

“Gee Dad,” said Wally, “I didn’t know you joined the navy before the war even got started. I thought you waited till they dragged you into it.”

“No Wally, I had a tour of duty before they ‘dragged’ me into the war. Maybe I’ll tell you more about that some time, if you’re interested. But I think for right now your mother’s doing fine in telling the story from her point of view.”

June: "Thank you, dear. Well, I finished boarding school in East St. Louis, and I went to college at State, living with Aunt Martha almost the year around. My mother and father still lived here in Mayfield; that is, when they were home from so many months out of the year they were abroad as missionaries. So in case you’ve heard me say that Aunt Martha was really more of a mother to me than my real mother, that’s what I mean. But at state, I never could really decide what I wanted to study. I didn’t choose a major at all until my second year and they required that of me, so I chose business administration; except they called in ‘commerce’ then. But I found out I’m not very much of a numbers person and I didn’t like the adding machines and trying to memorize all the financial terms. So I switched to education. I thought if I had to go to work, I would like working with children better than businessmen. But most of us college girls shared the joke that our real major was marriage. We hoped to meet a nice, intelligent young man while we were there, then we would get married and be wives and mothers soon. So I did meet 3 or 4 boys I dated a few times, but either we didn’t see eye-to-eye, or Aunt Martha insisted on meeting him and she wasn’t at all impressed.

"But for those 4 years I never forgot your father. I know it was funny—I only knew him for about a month, and we just had our first meeting, a dance, and 2 brief visits at Aunt Martha’s. But Ward Cleaver, in that short time, became the measuring stick I used whenever I met another boy who called on me or invited me to a dance or a movie.

"Well, in the summer of 1941 my parents were home for about 2 months, so I stayed with them in Mayfield while I was trying to decide if I wanted to go back to State at all the next year, since my credits were so messed up with my changing majors. I found out a book store had an opening for a sales clerk, so I applied and I got the job. It only lasted for a week—because of my not having the knack for keeping papers and receipts in order—but in the middle of that week, while I was trying to use the adding machine, a customer in the store somehow got my attention. I made another mistake on the machine, then I looked up with a little disgust, and I saw him standing there—your father! He was looking at me with that same smile that I remembered so well, and I just didn’t have a doubt that it was he. He kept looking, then he finally said, ‘Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?’ I could hardly believe that my measuring stick I used to evaluate boys was standing there, so long and so far from when and where we met the first time. But the store manager, whose bad side I was already on, was standing close, so I went back to my adding, but still looking up at Ward on occasion. Finally he came by and asked if I had a break any time soon. I told him yes, in about 40 minutes. He offered to wait for me and to buy me a soda pop at the drug store a little way down the street.”

Ward: “You see boys, before I finished my tour of duty I decided that I would go back to school on some educational benefits the service had started. I had questions as to whether I really wanted to be an engineer all my life. So I was going to begin studying for a Masters in Business Administration the next fall. When your mother and I had known each other before, we never even got into any discussion about where we were from. I didn’t know her folks lived in Mayfield, and she didn’t know I was from near Shaker Heights. So I came into the bookstore that day looking for some material I might use to get ready for my business studies, and there she was. And like your mother, I met someone else to have a few dates with from time to time, but I suppose I was just hard to please; besides not wanting to take the chance of getting too serious while the economy was down and I was a struggling ensign. So I finished the tour of duty, and stayed in the reserve so I could use the benefits and just be on active duty a weekend a month for a while.”

June: “Yes, all this, and a lot more, is what your father told me while we were in the drug store, and I lost track of time and was very late in getting back to work. But I knew the store was probably going to let me go anyway. Well, Ward happened to show up at that bookstore again on my last day, and I told him not to expect to see me there again. So he asked me if I had seen Gone With the Wind, which was playing at the Globe. I told him I had—and actually I had seen it 3 times, but I didn’t mention that much—so we made a date to meet at the Globe. I think my parents suspected I was going to meet someone special, because I wore my best dress, but they didn’t question me directly until after I was home that night. When I told them about Ward, they remembered Aunt Martha having mentioned his name, saying he was the first and the best gentleman caller I ever had at her house. I really didn’t know that Aunt Martha ever told them anything about Ward. They were guardedly approving, but they said they wanted to meet Ward if we were to have any further social contact. So when he called me the next day—as I had asked him to do—I invited him to come to dinner at my parents’ house on Sunday. He wasn’t enthused, but he agreed to come. And when he came my parents were as impressed as Aunt Martha had been by his suave and respectful etiquette. Then when it came time to do the dishes, he offered to help; and even though my mother told him ‘no thank you,’ he kept insisting until she agreed.

“So, he won over my parents, but we really didn’t get to see much of each other the rest of the summer because your father was living on the farm and doing most of the work there. But I did get to go see him on the farm a couple of times and I met his parents, too—and I thought they were a lot like mine; maybe even stricter. Later, I decided that I would be going back to State, and of course what really clinched my decision was knowing your father would be going back there, too. But even then I thought we didn’t see each other very much. Ward went back to living in his fraternity house, and I was still staying with Aunt Martha. I thought there must be something wrong between us, so one day I waited near the fraternity house for him to tell him how I felt. He acted at first like he thought it was funny, but then he asked me to go walking around the park and then he let me know what was on his mind.”

Ward: “Yes, I certainly remember that too well. When I went to my installation for monthly weekend duty there was always talk about our building defenses and dispatching more ships in the Pacific. No one there was of such authority that they were privy to what we knew about the Japanese and their war machine, but we put 2 and 2 together and we knew that we were going to be forced into the war in Asia and the Pacific sooner or later. Most of the eastern press only covered what was going on in Europe. And I did know for sure that the Navy that same year had begun organizing their new Construction Battalions—called by the initials, C.B.’s— eventually spelled s-e-a-b-e-e-s—so, being a construction engineer and an ensign in the reserve, it was really inevitable that I would be going off where the action was. So, as fond as I already was of June, I didn’t think it was a good idea for us to get too close at that time. She might wait 2 or 3 years for me to come back, while there was a real possibility that I never would.”

June: “Well, I understood what your father was talking about, but it was hard for me to really agree with his stand. So, we kept in contact that fall, but Ward turned down 2 or 3 invitations to come to dinner at Aunt Martha’s. Then finally, when another young man asked me to a harvest festival and dance, I accepted. But then I turned down a couple of other invitations from him, and he stopped calling me. After Thanksgiving I decided I wanted to have another honest talk with Ward. I was going to tell him that I wish we could clarify what was between us again. He told me he dated 2 other women that semester, but they only fell short of what he saw in me. So for a week there, I thought we were going to go home for Christmas with an—‘agreement--‘ which we would tell our families. We decided to go to church together the next Sunday, the seventh. We heard a good sermon about keeping our faith and hope in trying times. But just before the service was over a man came running into the sanctuary and whispered something to the minister. Then the minister announced that it was reported that the Japanese had launched a surprise attack on our naval base at Pearl Harbor.”

[DarleneIllyria]

It's coming along even better with Part 2. I love it so far! Can't wait to read the next part.

[tdr]

THE THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM—Part 3

Beaver, who had been getting a little drowsy, looked up and said, “Boy Dad, I remember Mr. Willit told us about Pearl Harbor. That’s in Hawaii! Is that where you had to go?”

Ward: “No, Beaver. Well, in fact, I was there about 3 years later, when we put in to refuel and resupply our transport. But that’s getting a little ahead of the story. The day after the attack, the President called an emergency session of Congress, and war was declared on Japan. And since Japan was allied with Germany and Italy, we knew all 3 would declare war against us, too. So from that week onward, the country knew we were in it until it was over, and that would probably take years.”

June: “I wasn’t sure what to think right after Pearl Harbor. It seemed to hit me all at once that Ward had been right—he would be leaving, knowing he may never come back. And I felt just close enough to him to cry about the whole thing, but I couldn’t let myself do that in front of him. I felt like I had to pretend I wasn’t as attached to him as I really was, because he was treating the situation so realistically.

“So, we didn’t go home for Christmas announcing any agreement; instead it became just the opposite. I was afraid to mention Ward at all, because I didn’t want Aunt Martha or my parents to think—well, to think I was committed to a man who, if he came back at all, would surely be changed from such an untroubled young gentleman.”

Ward: “Well, I’m not sure if that’s a good way of putting it or not. But certainly I knew things weren’t going to be the same later on; I would be different, your mother would be different, and the country would be different. And of course I expected a lot of hardships in trying to win this thing. So I thought it best that June and I just face the facts that we were going to have radically different futures, so we should think in terms of going our separate ways.”

June: “Although I had to agree with your father on that, it was still a struggle for me. So with things as they were, I decided not to go back to State for the spring semester. I went back to Mayfield and my parents helped me to start working part time for the missionary society they worked for. It was almost like the bookstore—I wasn’t very good at keeping records or answering business questions, but I did stay with it for a few months, as it went from part time to almost no time, with their operations being phased out. Then I heard about a club the new USO had put together in Mayfield. More troops had already started being drafted during ’41, so a lot of communities had their own clubs for the servicemen who were going away or passing through. I didn’t know much about the USO until I ran into a old childhood friend, Ruth James, who told me she was going to be a volunteer, and she encouraged me to do the same. So, with my parents not being sent overseas because of the danger, I spent most of my time in Mayfield, volunteering weekly, or sometimes more often, to serve at the USO club, and a few times I was talked into being part of an act by Ruth or someone else. And I remember at least once they wanted me to do something in one of those acts I was quite unwilling to do; so from then on, I basically stuck to being a server. I also looked after my grandmother, whose health was failing, and occasionally Aunt Martha asked me to come to Riverside and help out, as she sometimes had 4 or even 5 boarders, with women staying in Riverside to work in the mills and factories.

“And that was pretty much how I lived for the next 2 years. I never got involved with another man, and hardly ever saw any besides all those troops I served. But I knew if I did meet another man who wasn’t just passing through or going away immediately, I would probably compare him to Ward, and I was sure he wouldn’t measure up to that standard. But then, in the spring of 1944, I had another surprise meeting. A man who was going to be in the area for at least a little while caught my attention at the club, and he did measure up to my Ward Cleaver standard.”

June looked Ward and smiled shrewdly.

Ward: “You see, fellows, I was in the Fiji Islands where we were building bases, and by early ’44 my phase of the projects there was just about concluded. I was temporarily reassigned back to this area to oversee the land transport of supplies. I knew we were still a year or 2 away from victory in the Pacific, and the worst fighting was probably yet to come. So I hoped we in the Seabees had done our jobs well so that our attacking forces could now do theirs. So I had the chance to come back near home for about 3 months, and I went to the USO club with a couple of buddies. I can’t say June hadn’t entered my mind when I knew I was coming back, but I did not intend to get in touch with her, based on what I had said before; although I really waned to. And besides, some of those gradual changes we had both talked about as going to happen did—well, they did happen to an extent. Well, after we walked into the club, I saw a beautiful young lady serving a table, with her back turned to me. I was so taken by her attractive—uh, figure-- from that angle, that I was on the verge of letting out a whistle. Yes, it was true that living for 2 years around a company of rough men, with no women around, had done something to change me. But she turned around with her tray, and our eyes met, and—well, that was about the most pleasant surprise, as well as shock , that I have ever experienced. It was June, who I had tried to forget about, but couldn’t. We gazed at each other, and she looked like she was about to drop her tray. I’m glad she didn’t.”

June: “Well, your father remembers that I didn’t drop the tray, but maybe he forgot that a cup and saucer did bounce off onto the floor and they broke. It took a little time before I was able to take my tray of dishes back and get a broom to clean up the broken cup and saucer, but when I did Ward was still there. Then he walked up and said, “You know, you’re the most pleasant sight I’ve seen for quite a while—I’d say a for little over 2 years.” He asked me where he should sit that I would be his server, so I told him. He invited me to join him, and I told him it would be alright for a few minutes-- we were volunteers, not paid waitresses, and part of our task was to be ‘accommodating,’ to a reasonable extent, with the servicemen. So as we sat there and chatted for about 5 minutes, he told me a few wild tales of things he had seen on those islands which we surely wouldn’t expect to see on the US mainland, at least in our lifetimes. He told me what it’s like to live in close quarters and be very lonely at the same time. I told him I might see 50 or 100 new faces a week—sometimes a lot more—but meeting him again in that club was better than if every soldier and sailor who passed through was a Fred Astaire and I could dance with every one of them. So then I told him I was staying at my parents’ house—the same house he had been to a few times—and to please get in touch if he could. He said he may have a chance in a week or 2, but not to count on it.

“It was about 10 days later that I got a telegram from your father saying he managed to get a pass and he was coming to see me in Mayfield. From the time I read that wire, I knew I had to think of how best to let Ward know that I’m going to be ‘hung up’ on him, no matter whether we’re together or we’re separated by half the world. Seeing him again was almost like being cured of a disease; and I suppose it really was—the disease of boredom and discontent; the disease of reading of 20 million people killed in the last 2 years; the disease of wondering when it’s all going to end. And by that time I felt as if Ward’s appearing one more time was a miracle of hope. And I didn’t want it to be wasted. I wanted us to have an agreement; even more than that. And I firmly resolved that if he didn’t pick up by my hinting about it, then I was going to forget about the propriety Aunt Martha taught me, and make it as plain as I could.”

Ward: “When I got that pass, I was perhaps a little too anxious to see June. I realized that some of the rules of behavior I had always been taught and lived with had become eroded in my time in the Seabees. I really wondered if it would prove too difficult to restrain my words and actions when I was with her. Fortunately, I hadn’t changed that much. We sat in her living room for a while, but we both looked uncomfortable about what to say. Finally I said, ‘Let’s go for a walk.’ We walked for a half hour, even though there was getting to be quite a chill. When we came in front of the same drug store we had gone to that day we met in the bookstore, I said, ‘Let’s go in and have a soda.”

June: “And while we were there, I decided to put my plan into operation. His first words in there were about the spring weather, so I said, ‘You know this war is like a never-ending storm we just have to weather. We have to wait and wait and wait for things to get back to normal!’ Of course he looked surprised at my snapping like that just because he brought up the weather. Then he mentioned that his battalion will probably be sent to New Guinea or the Philippines by July. To that I said, ‘Oh, you’re going to just leave once more, with no words about when we’ll meet still again? That’s probably a good thing, Ward Cleaver, because after 3 times there probably won’t be another ‘again!’’ He said, ‘June, are you concerned that I want to just go off again and try to forget you?’ I said, “My, you have really become perceptive in these past 2 years!’

“He put his hands on my shoulders, looked me straight in the eyes and said, ‘June, honey, 2 years of building bases and airstrips in the Pacific couldn’t make me forget you, even though sometimes I wished I could have. I never knew how much to believe about all the bragging my buddies did about the women they had known, but I knew I’d never become like them in that way. I’m a 'one-woman man,' and you were that one that I couldn’t forget. Now, I’ll admit I’m inclined to go about this differently, but before I go away again I don’t want any reasons to want to forget you. No, I want reasons to not forget you. So, uh—‘ And as your father stammerd for his next words, I said, ‘Now Ward Cleaver, if you really think that I would—“

June stopped suddenly, for she had almost forgotten she was telling this story to her own sons, a 14-year-old and a 9-year-old. Ward had noticed she was getting herself out on a limb by taking it that far, but he did not intend to interrupt. He grinned.

June: “Well, your father said, ‘June, we’re both lonely, we’re both tired of this war, and we’re each other’s standard by which we measure anyone else. I don’t think there’s any reason to deny that we feel impatient, as well as that we feel that a short time together—if that proves to be all that we have-- is better than no time at all. June, I’d certainly have no reason to forget you if you were my wife. I love you very much. Will you please marry me?’

“So maybe my instincts were right about what Ward was thinking, but it really did come as a shock that he was proposing marriage right then and there. My wanting to let him know I would continue to be hung up on him was suddenly not needed. For a brief moment I just forgot that the war was still on and he would be leaving again in 2 or 3 months. And I forgot some of my propriety too—I told you I might do that, so I didn’t care what the dozen or so people in the drug store thought as I threw my arms around Ward and said ‘Yes!—oh, Ward I want that more than anything in the world right now! Yes!”

[FOL85NatandMrsGRock]

Originally posted by tdr
Now, I’ll admit I’m inclined to go about this differently, but before I go away again I don’t want any reasons to want to forget you. No, I want reasons to not forget you. So, uh—‘ And as your father stammerd for his next words, I said, ‘Now Ward Cleaver, if you really think that I would—“

HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! that's great stuff!!!! haha, i could NOT stop laughign at that part!!!!

but i started to shed a little tear at the end, i hope that isn't the end of your story! cuz i just love it!!!!!


Toodles!

[DarleneIllyria]

I've got goosebumps. That is such a wonderful story! I love romantic stories. *goes off to cry for awhile*

[tdr]

THE THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM—Part 4


“Boy, Mom,” said Wally, “it’s hard to think of you throwing your arms around Dad and hollering ‘Yes!’ right there in a drug store.”

June: “I know it is, Wally. And I think it is the only time I’ve ever reacted to that extent in public. But when we get a marriage proposal from the only man we ever had any thoughts about marrying—well, I suppose we’re allowed that one. At least we should be.

“So then—when, where and how? Ward was going to have to go back to the Pacific in 2 or 3 months, and if we waited for the war to be over it could be 2 or 3 more years. But I knew, going by your father’s words, that he didn’t intend to wait for such a long time, or to have me wait indefinitely in case the worst happened. By the time we got back to my parents’ house—which was a longer walk than would be expected; and the chill didn’t bother us at all—we were already discussing how to arrange things to have the wedding before the month of June. We didn’t waste any time telling my mother and father what our intentions were after we walked in. Then they both stood there and didn’t know what to say; or just not how to say it. But I think we knew anyway—or at least I did: This decision was sudden—yet it was almost 7 years in the making… We had put off thinking in terms of marriage because of the war issue—but now we were disregarding the same issue. After Ward left, which was soon after we had arrived back, they told me these things which I already knew they would be thinking. We stayed up until after midnight talking about the situation. They tried to point out everything that might be against this being a wise decision, but in the end they agreed that, at 23, I was capable of making my own good decisions, or else they and Aunt Martha had somewhere failed. So, we had only a few weeks to plan a wedding.”

Ward: “As for me, after I left your mother’s house I got a taxi and went as far as the driver would go toward the farm, so then I had to walk a few miles in the dark. But my mother and father were expecting me, since I had told them I was coming, and they were so glad to see me that, even so late at night, we had ham and potatoes, and pie and coffee. The homecoming was enjoyable, but after an hour I knew that I’d better not put off any longer telling them that in a few weeks they would have a new daughter-in-law. They were somewhat shocked; the same as June’s parents. But they thought it was wonderful, really. They remembered June from a couple of years before and they adored her. Of course they did question why June and I hadn’t stayed in touch for the 2 years I’d been gone, and why all of a sudden we decide to take this major step under such circumstances. So I just explained the best I could, and they said we have their blessing.”

June: “Well boys, at this point, I think we’ll try to condense the story considerably. But starting the next day, we looked into reserving the church, arranging the minister, I did my first shopping for a wedding gown, and I called a few friends about being in the wedding party. When I made the necessary contacts and got back in touch with Ward, we chose May 31 as the date. We wanted to arrange it for even sooner than that, but unless it was just going to be a little chapel thing with a dozen people, we had to plan for a later date. But at least that gave us about 6 weeks, so we could make it a more memorable event. And I had been a bridesmaid in a couple of weddings before, but I never knew how much there really is to be concerned about and how much tension there is until I faced my own wedding. In fact, it was getting to me so much that your father and I had a—well, a misunderstanding—with less than 2 weeks to go. I won’t go into details about that, but we did start questioning the whole thing once again. And I know it was because I was just getting so nervous about having things as perfect as we could make them. But we did finally smooth things down by going back and trying to remember why we were doing this in the first place. And that was very simple—we just loved each other that much, and it was worth the trouble and the risks.”

Beaver yawned again and said, “Gee, Mom, you took me to a wedding once and there was no arguing or people getting mad or anything. Everybody was all dressed up and real nice.”

Ward: “Well, Beaver, when you attend a wedding, all you see is the ‘finished product’ that the bride and her family have been working on and agonizing over for, usually, a long time. I’m sure some day you’ll get an idea of how much is involved in pulling one of these off.”

June: “Well, there is a lot to do to have a nice wedding. But when the day finally comes, all that trouble seems worth it. But in the meantime, I didn’t see much of your father because it was so difficult for him to get away. Perhaps if he could have, then he also could have helped more than he did—but I understood that. Aunt Martha came and stayed the entire week before the big day at my parents’ house. She was really a big help. There seemed to be no questions as to what is proper that she couldn’t answer. And since she herself had been—well, disappointed—once in her earlier years when she thought she had met the man she would marry, she really fussed over how glad she was to have had such a role in my upbringing and how proud she felt over this event. And between her, my parents, and myself, she did just a little bit of gloating about how she recognized what a wonderful man Ward was that day she first met him.

“My maid of honor was Ruth James—who was getting married herself under rather similar circumstances just a few weeks later. The day before the wedding we talked about how, when we were little girls, what we wanted our weddings to be like, and how we’d like to have children at the same time. Then my parents and Aunt Martha all went over some of those stories that show how fast we grow up—well, I suppose that kind of conversation is natural before a wedding day.”

Ward: “In the weeks and the days leading up to the wedding, I had to remind my Commander several times about getting the pass for 5 days, which was all they would allow. Then one of my buddies who was going to be a groomsman dropped out of the plans and I had find another who would and could replace him with just a week to go. Then there were some friends of my family who were coming, and they ran into rationing problems in coming by car…”

“What do you mean ‘rationing problems, Dad?” asked Wally.

Ward: “Oh, uh, you see, during the war all the country’s resources had to be directed at the war effort; so gasoline, among other commodities, had to be rationed among people, according to need. The government issued ‘rationing cards’ for a lot of things and they limited how much of that product one could buy. But anyway, they all did make it one way or another, so then all that was left was the big event itself.”

June: “After all that planning, the wedding ceremony itself lasts probably less than a half-hour, where there’s a couple of songs, and the march, and then standing before the minister and making those vows and saying ‘I will’ or ‘I do,’ and then the kiss—which, in our case, was long enough to gather a few giggles—and then we were officially married. Of course, the reception is a lot longer than the wedding itself. We stood there while all the guests came around to congratulate us, and we had cake and punch. One of your father’s uniformed friends complained that the punch didn’t have a lot of ‘taste,’ and after he said that, I remember there were some guests who said their second cup did taste a little different from the first.”

June looked Ward with a subdued smile.

Ward: “And I remember the couple who were friends of Aunt Martha—General and Mrs. Hathaway, who were rather undone about her niece marrying a Seabee. But overall, the reception went nicely too, like the wedding. We had a car ready to drive to this resort where we were going to spend the next few days, and during the reception a couple more of my friends tied an old shoe onto the back and painted ‘JUST MARRIED’ on the back glass. I knew I would have to get that paint off or I would have to pay for it when I returned the car, but I thought we had to drive off with the message still there. There weren’t many other cars on the road, of course, but there were a few who honked at us and pointed and laughed. I’m sure we’ll always remember that.”

June: “Well, I remember all the rice that came raining down on our heads, and my mother’s and Aunt Martha’s tears as I hugged them goodbye, and how it felt like such a thrill to be called ‘Mrs. Cleaver’ for the first time. We did go by my parents’ house to change our clothes before we started on the drive to the resort, and I was glad of that. Once you’re away after the wedding, then you don’t want to feel too conspicuous. So after we got some of the attention because of the painted sign and the old shoe, we did stop to take off the shoe and clean off the paint. And it felt like such a thrill again when we got there to where we would be staying, and your father signed the register, and then we went together to our room. We went for dinner and dancing, then some of our friends had ordered a bottle of champagne sent to our room. So—we had a very nice evening on that day. And on that evening of May 31, I remember your father saying, as we raised our glasses of champagne, ‘We got married among the sweet flowers of May—but June will be even sweeter tomorrow.”

[BBF]

Originally posted by tdr
‘We got married among the sweet flowers of May—but June will be even sweeter tomorrow.”

OMG! That's so sweet!!!!!!!!! *wipes away a tear* Awwww!
Anyway, AWESOME story! I wish my fanfics were this good! Excellent job!
BBF

[tdr]

THE THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM

Part 5 (Conclusion)
War-time baby

Beaver yawned as Wally stretched out his arms and sat up straighter saying, “Gee, Mom, this sure is an interesting story. Thanks a lot for telling us about it.”

June: “Of course it doesn’t end with our wedding day. It goes right on up until today, more than 15 years later. But we can’t cover all of that in a short time.”

“Yeah, I know, Mom” replied Wally. “But I was born March 21, 1945. Maybe you can still tell us what happened till then.”

Ward: “Well, I only had until July 9 of ’44 to enjoy married life before we set out for the Pacific again. And even during those few weeks it wasn’t exactly like a newlywed couple setting up housekeeping.”

June: “No, it certainly wasn’t. After 4 beautiful days at the resort on our short wedding trip, your father had to report back for duty, and I went right back to my parents’ house. That seemed strange, but we knew exactly how things would be when we decided to get married. Unless Aunt Martha needed my help, there was really nowhere else for me to go until Ward was home to stay. But Ward did come to see me 3 of the next 4 weekends before he had to go off to the Philippines. Although I treasured being with him, as the time came closer for him to be leaving for who-knows-how-long, I was sure I was going to feel devastated. And I did. I was still there living in a room by myself at my parents’ house, so it was almost like the wedding hadn’t happened, or it was just a dream. And I actually had the fear that if Ward really didn’t come back, that I would honestly wonder if it had been real or not. Well, that’s what I thought for those first few weeks when I tried to go to sleep at night. Morning always brought me back to my senses, of course; and then I would volunteer to cook breakfast for my parents and do most of the housecleaning. I guess it helped a little to look forward with practice to what I so much wanted to be doing as the wife of the man I loved, and hopefully the mother of his children. I still volunteered at the USO, but I didn’t want to serve tables any more, so they let me help out in the kitchen or do the cleaning during daylight hours. But then the smell of the food and the coffee started to make me sick almost every day I was there. And I was waking up sick in the mornings, too. By the first week in August, I put this sick feeling together with a couple of other signs and I suspected what was happening, and I went to the doctor to have it confirmed.”

“Was it the enemy poisoning the USO food, Mom?” asked Beaver. June, Ward, and Wally laughed, and Beaver had no idea why.

June: “No, Beaver, it wasn’t anything like that. It’s just that, when a woman is going to have a baby, during that time when she’s just beginning to find it out, it’s common to feel sick, especially in the morning, and at the smell of certain foods. But anyway, after the doctor’s report made it certain, it took me almost a week to figure out what I was going to tell your father in my next letter. And letter was the only way we had to get word to each other at that time—there was no way to call him at sea or on a little island, since any method was cut off except for official wartime communications. And the mail, of course, would still be slow with the FPO—the Navy’s mail delivery—not always being allowed to go through, depending on what’s happening at a location. But after a week and maybe 2 dozen papers I ended up throwing away, I finally got that letter written. And I remember saying, “Ward, we knew what we were up against when we decided to get married before the war is all over, and we even talked about this particular part of it while we were alone at the resort and while we were together in my parents’ house. I’m not sure we took it seriously enough as we talked about it then, but—we’re going to have a baby! The doctor thinks it will be around the first week in April. Oh Ward!--I hope and pray that you will be safe and that you can be home by that time! I’m trying to be realistic, but I know not a day will go by that I don’t cry for your return.”

Ward: “Your mother sent that letter the tenth of August, but it was September before they let the mail through to where we were working in New Guinea. When our transport put in at Pearl Harbor, and we got to see where the Arizona was sunk and some of the devastation still unremoved, we had a change in orders to go to New Guinea. Our operation was getting closer to Asia, where to end it we were going to have to force the Japanese forces back toward their own country, then maybe to invade their country. The Allies had already started a similar campaign by invading central Europe. And it wasn’t just your mother who had the feeling of going back to what we were doing before as if the wedding almost had happened only in some sort of fantasy. But there was so much work, and so much anxiety that we could be attacked while doing construction without enough skilled defenses, that the day just didn’t afford any philosophical thought about going back home to a normal life with my new wife. But then when I got that letter, I thought about June and our baby day and night, and I’m sure some of my work suffered just a little because of it.”

June: “And I remember that I was so anxious to hear back from your father that I was just miserable for a month there until I finally got his letter in return. Of course he said he was as happy as he could be about the baby, but being ‘realistic’—there’s that word again—he didn’t think he could possibly be coming home by April, and in fact unless he was to be reassigned back here again, which wasn’t likely, he could be gone for another 2 years! The idea of our baby being old enough to walk and put 2 words together before his father ever saw him—if he saw him at all-- was almost heartbreaking. But we were able to exchange a couple more letters by Thanksgiving, and we agreed that if the baby were a boy, he would be named for someone in your father’s family; if it were to be a girl, she would be named for someone from my family. So at least we decided the baby would be named either Martha or Wallace—your father had a grandfather named Wallace and an uncle with Wallace for a middle name. And then, in our Christmas letters, we also agreed that that the next baby, if there were to be one, would be named after the other family beside the first, regardless of girl or boy. So considering the names was a little fun, but in the end it couldn’t replace the realities of things as they were. So as spring approached, I prepared to have the baby with daily tears that its father was on the other side of the world.”

Ward: “Yes, it was certainly difficult doing construction in a war zone, knowing that I should be a father by April and I couldn’t go home. And to make things worse, our battalion was being moved to Okinawa to start work there, and we knew that probably meant we would be there at least until fall of ’45. And getting the mail through would go from difficult to more difficult with our getting that close to Japan and its final strongholds. So as April came around I was waiting and hoping every day that some word somehow would come.”

June: “I started sending your father a letter every week in March, just in case any were lost or the ship was damaged or anything. And I wasn’t expecting it at all on the night of March 20 when a sudden pain hit me, which I told my mother about, and she said I would be giving birth in a matter of hours. The fact that it was 2 or 3 weeks early didn’t matter now. They took me to the hospital, and in the early morning of March 21—the spring equinox, when we know there is more light coming than darkness—our baby was born. As soon as they told me it was a boy I told them his name is Wallace. My mother and father were there, and Aunt Martha came as soon as she could, 2 days later. And then I cried because I was happy and sad at the same time. The only thing that could make me completely happy was when your father would come back safe.”

Ward: “I started getting your mother’s March letters 2, 3, or sometimes 4, weeks after they were written, so it was frustrating to not be able to stay up-to-date about things back home. I recall it was on April 11 that I got the letter telling me about Wally being born on March 21. There’s just no way to describe how much I wanted to be back and see my son for the first time, but it was still impossible for a while. However, on Okinawa some of our specialists were assigned to this mysterious project with some scientists from the mainland. They were putting up metal storage building which were later being loaded with materials under heavy guard. By mid-July we knew plans were being made for an invasion of Japan, and we thought that once we occupied some strategic beachfronts that we would be going there to start more bases and hangars. But it soon proved that those secret materials we had seen were being made into a new weapon called an atomic bomb. Back home it had been developed in a special project and tested in New Mexico. Then they gave Japan a chance to surrender, making them aware that we had such a weapon. They refused, so we dropped 2 of them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then on August 15, Japan surrendered and victory was ours; so we weren’t going to have to invade Japan. Then I was among the first of the battalions heading back home by early September. So Wally was a little less than 6 months old when I finally saw him and held him for the first time.”

June: “And I will never forget the day your father came home for good! 14 months seemed like an eternity, but at last we were a family together for the first time. That first night, it seemed like the 2 of us just stared at Wally sleeping in his crib for 2 hours straight. We knew we had a lot of things ahead of us to do—to find our own place, and your father to find a job and maybe to finish his MBA. And my parents were talking about going overseas to stay where they might be needed, and Ward’s family intended to sell the farm before long. But all that was to come soon enough. For the first few weeks we thought we were entitled to the joys of being together—the 3 of us-- and we certainly made the most of it.”

As June ended the story with a smile, Beaver had finally fallen asleep on the sofa. Ward simply got a blanket and spread it over him and motioned that it was time to retire for the night. As Ward and June embraced, Wally said, “I never knew how much you guys went through back before you were married, and then through the war, and then there was me. I want you to know I feel lucky, and I appreciate you more than I ever did. And happy anniversary!”

With those words Wally quickly stepped into the room that had been his and Beaver’s. Ward and June embraced again and did a little dance step in front of the sleeping Beaver, then they locked arms and retired with smiles into their own room.

THE END

[BBF]

That was a GREAT fan fic! I absolutely LOVED it! You are a very talented writer, tdr! Thanks for the awesome story!

[maranatha]

Thanks for the story tdr. It was fantastic! I really enjoyed it.