Lost And Found Ch. 02: Where The Heart Is

"'Finally, my love, understand that my devotion has never wavered, even given the nature of our relationship'..."

Penny looked up again. "'The nature of our relationship'...I wonder what that means?

"...'Of all the men I and the other nurses will treat, all the men fighting among our ranks for their wives and children, none could ever be so privileged as to have that which we have. Please, Mabel, never be ashamed that our love may not be spoken freely'..."

Penny gasped. "Oh my gosh!...Cessy, I think this is a...lesbian troop salute!"

"I think you're right! Keep reading, keep reading."

"...'While others' may. The world is unjust, my love. But never let this diminish our bond in your eyes. 'Tis as the song says: "Our love's too precious/People hate a broken rule/People won't accept us/But someday the world might change/And a love like ours might belong/But until that day comes along—"

"'Thank you, Mabel, for all of your letters and your heart. I love you, ever so truly and purely, as certain as the birds greet each new dawn and the stars watch over us in the night. Never forget...yours always, Adelle.'"

Penny and Cesse whipped their gazes back up to each other once again.

"Whoa! Triple and quadruple wow!" Penny remarked. "We were right! It was a female troop going to Vietnam, writing to her girlfriend! They must have worked here, or-or stayed here back then or something! Oh, Cessy, this is amazing!"

"It is!" Cesse exclaimed. "And...but...so heartbreaking!"

"Well, that must be the most recent one," Penny presumed. "Le'ssee..." She unfolded the letter on the other end to see more of the same handwriting.

"...Oh, yes! Here we go, '11 Oct. 1967.' This is probably the first one.

"'Dear Mabel: Thank you so for your letter. I was very pleased and touched by your sweet words. I can only imagine what courage it must have taken you to pen such genuine emotion, let alone to deliver. Especially as I didn't presume you were aware of my feelings, or the truth of my sexuality. I cannot allow it to become known, unfortunately, but I too cannot deny my nature. I like you and find you beautiful as well, but Mabel, my dear, we must keep our feelings secret. I'm afraid we wouldn't be free to share our fragile love. But we shall let time along its way and see. In the meantime, I very much look forward to further wonderful letters. Do write more, my sweet. I treasure each word. Until our pens meet again...yours, Adelle.'"

"Awww!" Cesse gushed. "My gosh! Those poor girls!"

Penny shook her head. "Y'know, Cessy, as incredible as these letters are...I'm willing to bet they were just kids at the time."

"Let's keep reading!" insisted Cesse. "I wanna find out more!"

"Oh," Penny noted. "Little more curious than before, are we?"

"Of course! Now I have to know what happens between that one and...that one! Can I read the next letter?"

The minutes snuck by as they took turns reading Adelle's letters to Mabel from October of 1967 leading to the following June. They read them out loud chronologically, piecing the details of these Sixties Chicksies and their pen-gal relationship. Adelle Smythe was an attendant at the facility, whose fledgling girlfriend Mabel Malliday was the daughter of a patient. Her father was a disabled widower, so she spent lots of time here. Penny had been right, they found; Adelle and Mabel really were only kids at this time, in their 20s. They also deduced that Adelle was a child genius, both gifted scholastically and blessed with good fortune. She had a bright future ahead of her in the field of medicine, and relatives in the military. Her family history was in the armed forces, and more than anything, she wanted to join the ranks. She planned to volunteer as a nurse.

They went on reading into the wee hours of the morning, one letter after another. Each was sweeter and lovelier than the last. They were too excited to sleep, reading the chronicle of this half-century-old correspondence. They'd have loved to read Mabel's to Adelle as well, but only Adelle's were compiled in the box. Finally, they reached the last and most recent letter before that first one Penny read. It was dated June 8th.

"...Oh my God!" Penny exclaimed in a shocked whisper. She looked up to Cesse in stunned consternation. "The facility...they found out Adelle was a lesbian, and...and..."

"...Fired her!" Cesse finished. "Based on nothing but that! Just because she was gay!"

Penny sighed, shook her head and sniffled, blinking back approaching tears.

"It was a very different time, Cessy...people weren't nearly as accepting or enlightened as they are today. At least she had the military nurse thing."

"Yeah...wonder what she did after Vietnam?" Cesse mused.

"And what's Mabel been doing all these years?" Penny added.

"Are they still with us?" Cesse asked.

"Are they still single??" Penny asked.

"If they were, wouldn't it be a kick if we could get 'em together again?" chuckled Cesse.

"I could totally pay for their airfare!" chortled Penny.

They laughed over the idea several more seconds, gazing into each other's giggly eyes.

Then...they stopped laughing.

*****

Capsule Revisited

Tuesday, September 15th, 2015, 6:07 p.m.

It took another month, and a lot of Internet sleuthing, but Penny and Cesse successfully managed to track down the insidely famous Adelle Smythe and Mabel Malliday. They were in fact still around, two of the more vital links in the senior set, on the way to seventy. And astonishingly enough, they'd in fact remained free, single and unattached all of these years. Adelle was discharged in 1975, and returned to civilian life. She'd have looked up Mabel, but didn't know how to find her. On top of which, she didn't imagine Mabel could possibly have remained available all this time. She'd never had the heart to look for love elsewhere. She failed to anticipate the same being true of Mabel.

To say the least, she was dumbfounded to receive a phone call out of the blue one day from this young lady named Penelope, who apparently had taken over the building that used to be her nursing home, and transformed it into a different kind of home. Cesse elicited a similar reaction from Mabel. It was quite an effort convincing the elderly gals that this was not a joke, that they had found Adelle's old letters to Mabel, and wanted to bring them back together. Since Mabel had relocated to Chicago and Adelle to Tucson, they indeed explained that the lotto-wealthy Penny would pay for their trips.

This was the most difficult part for the ladies to process. Finally, conviction accomplished, both golden girls needed a minute to think. They questioned themselves. Were they really ready to see each other again, after all these decades?

Yes. Yes, they were. Once locating a patch of unoccupied days, Cesse and Penny flew them in, all expenses paid—complete with a chauffeur, hotel reservations, the whole shebang. It was a logistical job, but they pulled it off. When they got the word that both Adelle and Mabel had arrived in town, late afternoon on the 15th of September, they sent the chauffeur to collect them. They then made the announcement for everyone who wished to come to the front lobby to welcome them. The senior ladies weren't expecting a crowd, but they were going to get one.

Mabel was first to be picked up and arrive, just by 5:30. Half an hour later, the driver came back with Adelle. The introductions and pleasantries went by them like a blur. The second they saw one another again, time stood still. Suddenly, everything vanished. They noticed nothing...not the moved expressions on the faces of their hostesses or their guests, not the changes in their surroundings in the last fifty years...nothing, except...each other. They were children again.

"Adelle? Darling? Is it really you?"

"Mabel...oh, my dearest, I can't believe it!"

"Neither can I. Oh, Adelle, I...I never gave up hoping...we'd meet again one day."

Numerous eyes in the room welled up.

"Mabel, my love...it's...it's all come back to me: my infinite love for you, all over again."

Mabel beat her to it. She began to cry.

"Adelle, sweetheart! I love you so much!!" she wept for joy, throwing her arms around her. "Oh, if only I could have told you back then! You don't know how long I've spent missing you so terribly! Never thinking I'd see you again!"

"Nor I you, Mabel. I want to cry your name to the heavens, to hear it echo thousands of times over. My dear...our lives've come so short. I never want to leave your side again."

"Oh, Adelle...if only we could wed! I would be just so happy. If only!"

A wide-eyed Penny and Cesse turned to each other. They were apparently unaware.

"Um...ladies?" Penny raised her hand. "'Scuse me for sticking my big nose in here, but...if you mean legally wed, well...you actually can now."

Adelle and Mabel turned back to their hostesses.

"What?"

"Well, yes," Cesse added. "In case you didn't know, gay marriage became legal in the U.S. just earlier this year. And Minnesota actually legalized it two years ago."

The old ladies' faces filled with elation.

"My goodness!" crowed Mabel. "You mean that we can declare our sacred union, and spend the rest of our lives together?"

Penny nodded happily. "Absolutely. As soon as a week, if you'd like. We could get a justice to come over. I can handle all the technical stuff for ya, get the license...even take care of your rings if you want. I, eh...am still pretty rich, after all."

The next thing Penny and Cessy knew, they were drowned in an avalanche of grateful old lady affection.

*****

Lost And Found: Epilogue

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015, 10:07 a.m.

A week later it was. The girls trotted about, making sure everything was taken care of.

"Omigosh, this is so exciting! We're gonna have a wedding!" Cesse said.

"I know!" cried Penny. "Our very first!"

The old ladies indeed could barely wait to become one another's wives. It was surreal to them, after such a long spell in the dark 20th century, that their love could and did now belong. And they wanted every last second out of it they could squeeze. So they had no one bother with a lavish ceremony or formal dress. They simply had the officiant come to the building, and the girls whipped them up a makeshift bouquet, which they held together as they took their vows.

"Do you, Adelle Catherine Smythe, take Mabel, to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, to love, honor and cherish, forever and ever, till death do you part?"

"I do," Adelle proclaimed, practically weeping already.

"And do you, Mabel Emma Malliday, take Adelle, to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, to love, honor and cherish, forever and ever, till death do you part?"

"I do!" shouted Mabel, barely able to wait for the whole question.

"Then by the power vested in me by this marriage license, and the state of Minnesota, I now pronounce you wife, and wife. You may kiss the bride...as may you."

Mabel and Adelle did as the minister said, to a chorus of "aww!"s and applause from Penny, Cesse, their staff, and guests.

It was the most beautiful wedding they'd ever seen.

"I knew it was a wonderful idea to bring them back here," Penny whispered to Cesse. "This is their home, after all."

And when all was said and done, it truly was, and would always be, where the heart is.

Later the same day, after Mabel and Adelle'd bestowed another shower of thanks upon the girls and adjourned off in the limo, things eventually returned to business as usual. Cesse was working in her office when she heard a knock on the door. She looked up.

"...Oh, hey, sweetie! Boy, that was one heck of a wedding, huh? I'm really glad you made me check out what was in that box."

"Cessy...babe...I have something I wanna tell you."

"...You do?...Am I gonna like it?"

"Well...I hope."

"Oh...my gosh...Penny, are you about to propose to me?"

"Uh, well, no, not exactly."

"Oh! Okay. Whew!...That's a relief. No, no, I mea—...not that I don't want to marry you, Penny, I-I certainly do, someday, it's just—"

"Cesse?"

"No, it's just that, y'know, weddings get me kinda emotional, and I've never organized one myself, even a small little one like we had toda—"

"Cesse, I want a baby."

Silence.

"...P—...Penny...are you telling me that...?"

"Yes. Yes, sweetheart, that's exactly what I'm telling you."

"You mean, like...like when we were...?"

"Absolutely. Cesse, I have never stopped thinking about what happened when I was 23. And...well, now I'm 35. My clock's ticking. And something that Mabel and Adelle said last week really stuck with me. I mean, you and me, we're still kinda young. To someone who's twice our age, life really is short. And depending on how you look at it, it can seem short for us too. And it's gotten me to thinking, all the past week, and...yes, babe. I've decided, this really is what I want right now. It's perfect; we're still at a good age, we have money, time, energy, more wisdom than young parents...and I barely have any relatives left, and I'd still love to pass on my family name. Oh, Cessy, I really, really wanna do this, hunny. Please say this is what you want too. Please!"

"Oh, my...gosh. Um...well, wha—...uh, gee whiz, Penny, I really don't wanna bring this up, but...wh-what happens if..."

"I've already thought about that, Cessy. I know, last year I said I couldn't bear to go through that again. And to be honest, I can do without the pregnancy. I already dealt with it once. It was less than desirable, and quite frankly, I dunno if I trust my body so much after last time. And I wouldn't wanna put you through it either. But there're alternatives. We could get a donor to help us, and find a surrogate."

"Wow...well, I suppose you're right, and...this feels like the part where I'm supposed to ask you if you're really sure, but...you kinda just answered that question."

"Cesse Helmsley, my love, I have never been so sure of anything in my life. C'mon, sweetie, what do you say?"

Cesse's mind was pretty blown right about now. It was already taking her quite a while to get over finding the box with the letters, bringing their correspondents back together half a century later, and then marrying them, none the less. But now...wow, she repeated to herself. She felt a little overwhelmed. She was in the midst of some serious big events. If she went back in time a year ago and told her homeless self all this would happen to her, she'd have proclaimed herself insane. Yet...

Penelope James, she reminded herself, was the love of her life. She'd never again meet someone like her, and might never again see a proposition like this. As it slowly came together in her mind, all her thoughts clicked into place. And just like that, she had her answer. She couldn't tell if she'd ever been so sure of anything in her life either. Her next thought would sum it all up. She voiced it to Penny out loud. She stood, nearing her, and clasped her hands.

"Penny Isabel James, my angel...if we can do what we've just done in the last week...in the last four months...in the last year...then I'm convinced that we can do anything. So with that in mind and being said...

"...Yes, darling. My answer is yes. I would be honored to have a baby with you."