Sharing Corrie

Chapter Fourteen

 Pen poised over paper, Corrie struggled to find the words to express how she felt. Stranded, perhaps. Standing over a chasm with one foot planted in two different worlds. However, all of the ways she tried to describe this feeling sounded trite and banal. Craving inspiration, Corrie flopped onto the bed in her childhood bedroom, opening one of the books of poetry she had borrowed from Dr. Benjamin.

Emily Dickinson. She flipped open the book, stopping on a page where only a few brief lines were penned:

Sometimes with the Heart
Seldom with the Soul
Scarcer once with the Might
Few - love at all.

Corrie sighed at the words. Love. She had heard absolutely nothing from the man she was supposed to love, and while she knew that this should be tearing her soul asunder, she felt nothing beyond mild irritation at his lack of responsiveness. Love. No, she was certain that she did not yet understand it.

"Cornelia!" Anita called, voice echoing down the hallway.

Corrie closed the book with another sigh and left her room to find her mother standing at the bottom of the stairs beside the telephone her father had insisted they install.

"It's Edwin, for you," Anita announced, a triumphant smile on her narrow features.

"For me?" Corrie whispered, wondering what could have happened to make him call her.

Perhaps he is calling to break the courtship, Corrie wondered, walking down the steps and taking the receiver from her mother and speaking into the mouthpiece.

"Hello?"
"Cornelia!" Edwin's voice sounded through the static. "I have received your letters, both of them. Tell me, what is the meaning of this? You are not to return for months?"
Perhaps years, she wanted to add, but hearing the irritation in his voice, she refrained. "As my letter stated, my sister's condition is very serious and she is..." Corrie stumbled for words, not wanting to insult her parents within her mother's hearing. "She needs me here, so I must stay until she is fully recovered."

"She has a doctor, doesn't she?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"Then what good could you possibly do for her?"

You must be joking, Corrie wanted to say. She took a deep breath, restraining her frustration.

"I'm her sister, Edwin. She needs someone to care for her while she waits for her fiance to return from the war, if he ever returns."

"Don't try to make me feel bad for not volunteering," Edwin defended himself. "I don't have the constitution for war."

Corrie wanted to ask how he had also managed to avoid the draft, but she was all too certain the answer would anger her. She knew Edwin was rich enough to buy his way out of the draft, but the fact that he would do so painted him a coward.

"I wasn't," Corrie answered haltingly. "But I'm not coming back to New York, not until Christina is better."

"But what about me? What about our courtship?" Edwin asked.

"I...I don't know."

"Cornelia, you know how I feel about you," Edwin said.

Do I? Do I know how you feel about me? Or how I feel about you?

"I can't just let our courtship fall to shambles. Perhaps I will come to visit you, closer to the end of summer, and we can see how things proceed from there. It is about time I meet your parents, after all."
Corrie was taken aback by his words; she had expected anger and retaliation. Perhaps she had misjudged his feelings; if he was willing to visit her in Irvington, he must be more invested in their courtship than she had realized.