Discover Smith Mountain Lake
WINTER 2015/16
13
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say as she caressed their hair or hugged
them against her plump body. “You
Ellie’s babies.”
John smiled against the blanket as he
remembered those tender moments,
and a tear slipped from the corner of
his eye into his pillow. He relished his
childhood and the memories of Ellie.
Yet, as he grew to manhood, he was
determined that his own children would
never have a nanny. His older brother,
Phil, had made the same decision.
How could he have forgotten that sweet
woman he had once loved more than
his mother? As he buried his face in
the blankets, he remembered the feel
of her smooth, warm cheek against his
own, and her freshly laundered smell.
He would make it a point of finding
Ellie, he decided. He would bring
her to his house to meet his children.
Have her over for the holidays. Get her
something special for Christmas. Bring
her back into the family if she will just
consent. Shame for not having kept in
touch with her all these years swept over
him, and made him shiver more than
the cold morning air. Ellie would have
chastised him for such neglect.
“You know better, young man,” she
would have told him. “Ellie taught you
better than that.”
He eased out of bed and went to shower,
where he continued to muse about the
past. After Ellie had first left, John and
Phil kept in touch. She remembered
their birthdays; they took Christmas
gifts to her, and occasionally even wrote.
When they had a problem or needed to
talk, they would call her, and she would
dole out homespun advice and try to
cheer them. For months, they clung
to her. But as the months turned into
years, school chums and girl friends
took priority, and they lost track of
Ellie. She, too, got on with her own life.
She had moved a couple of times, and
John seemed to remember that she lived
with a sister for a while. It seemed, too,
that she had remarried.
During the routine of his work day,
John’s thoughts centered on his duties.
At lunch break and in moments of
solitude, however, his thoughts returned
to the dream. He worked for his father,
so finding an excuse to talk to him was
not difficult. He stuck his head in his
dad’s office. As usual, the aging business
man was bent over a stack of papers.
“Hi Dad,” he said in his most cheerful
voice. “Was wondering if you wanted
me to check on our Alabama account
today.”
“Hey, John,” his father replied without
looking up from his work, “No. Don’t
call them yet. Give them until Monday
to look over those figures we sent.”
“Will do. By the way, Dad, do you
know what ever happened to our old
nanny, Ellie?”
His father dropped his pen, and for the
first time looked into John’s eyes.
“Why on earth are you asking about
her?”
“Just curious. I had this strange dream...”
“You’ll need to talk to your mother,”
his father interrupted. Clearly, the
interview was over. His father was not
a person who put stock in dreams, no
matter how disturbing they might be.
Hard, cold facts, that’s what he worked
with. “Your mother is the one who
hired her.”
Back at his desk, John picked up the
phone and dialed his mother’s law firm.
Her secretary patched him through to
her personal phone.
“Hi, Mom. Jill wanted me to call and
find out if there’s anything she can bring
to dinner Saturday night.”
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“You know better,
young man,” she
would have told him.
“Ellie taught you
better than that.”
