I began this story on Tuesday
September 20, 2011, 10:10 PM

The Jewel Box ~ We Have This Moment
By Ora Lea Harrison



      Zoe stood beside her dresser looking down at her jewel box, her most important material possession.
      Picking it up and turning it over, she traced where her Father had carved so long ago, ‘To Zoe, 14 years, Father, Wm. W. Duncan, June 3, 1841‘ and was proud to have been his daughter as well as being her Mother’s daughter.
      Even though William had followed Anne in passing not long after the war was over, they were still very much alive in Zoe’s heart and mind and in the faces of her children and grandchildren.   It did seem to Zoe that they knew that they had finished their work on Earth in caring for their loved ones through the hardships that life had brought them and went on to their rest.
      Before William had died, he had talked with Zoe about his burial and the distribution of his earthly wealth.
      He specified that he not be buried in his traditional Scottish dress but that it be given to Deborah for her to give to one of her son’s.   He felt that maybe this would make up a little for giving Zoe the family gems in the jewel box that he’d given her on her fourteenth birthday.
      He also hoped that it would help the boy’s to reflect that they not only were of English blood that their own father, Edward, had passed to them but that they had the noble blood that their Scottish ancestor, David, the Earl of Duncan, had passed to them.
      “Lady Zoe,”   Zoe spoke aloud to herself.   She had wondered at times, what it would have been like to have been nobility.
      She wondered again what the jewels in the hidden compartment of the jewel box looked like.   She had often been tempted to break open the seal to look at them but hadn’t, so far.   It was certainly a strange situation, the jewels were within her reach and yet completely out of it, at the same time.
     
      When the war broke out, Charley was needed at home with Zoe and the children but being Charley, he wound up doing what he could for the war without officially signing up.
      She and the children spent much time with her Mother and Father while he was away from home.
      Her parents home wasn’t far from their’s so she and the children would pack what they needed and take the carriage down the back road to their house.
      Deborah, her sister, was a permanent guest since her husband and both sons decided to join up.
      Anne and William were delighted to have their daughters with them but they were always worried about their men being in the midst of the battles so weren’t really the best of company.
      Both of them turned prematurely gray.   Deborah kept a henna rinse on her’s but Zoe couldn’t be bothered.   She knew that she looked older than her years but hoped it wouldn’t matter to Charley and the children.
      She spent a lot of her time helping her father in the kitchen garden and her mother with the storage of the food for the winter and lean months.
      Everyone’s servant’s had gone to the war effort.
      Deborah helped around the house and with the children.   She did things to create a young woman out of Bridget that Zoe hadn’t been able to do.
      Then Bridget decided to go to the city to work in the hospital like her friends were doing.
      Zoe was against it but Deborah said that she’d go with her, she needed to do something for the war effort besides contribute her family to the front lines.
      Actually, Edward and the boys were educated and made officers.   Zoe doubted that they would really be in harm’s way but didn’t say anything.
      Zoe was glad that her own boys were too young to enlist, although she knew that some did, anyhow.   Poppa kept them too busy to consider such nonsense.
     
      When the war began, just as she’d been admonished in the dream, so long ago, Zoe packed up her jewel box, the family coat of arms for the Duncan’s and the Graham’s and took them to her Father’s home.
      Their neighbor’s, the Hemphill’s, kept a close eye on their home for them while they were away.   They felt that it was the least that they could do after the help Charley and Zoe had given them in their times of need when they were working for the Underground Railroad helping Negro’s to escape their lives of undue hardship as slaves.
      Michael wasn’t all gung ho about the war the way Charley was.
      There did seem to be something in Charley’s blood that urged him on to help other’s in desperate times.   It could be the fact that along with Zoe’s own family, his people had also had to leave Scotland as Jacobite’s, rebels against the new English rulers of Scotland.
     
      “Momma, Poppa?”
      Zoe heard Bridget calling from below and went into the hall and peered over the balcony.
      Bridget was standing in the foyer with the twins, Harry and Hugh, on either side of her.   Campbell was putting his head in the front door trying to get her attention.
      Zoe went down to welcome her daughter and her family.   They had come for a holiday and Zoe hoped that they would be able to stay for a few days.   She didn’t get to see them often enough.
      Bridget had married a doctor that she had met while she was working in the hospital during the war.   They had to live in the city where the large hospital was.
      Hearing his daughter’s voice, Charley walked into the room; kissed Bridget on the cheek, shook hands with Campbell and taking the boys hands, walked them out to the front veranda.   With his own children grown and mostly gone, these little tykes were the light of his life.
      Zoe, Bridget and Campbell followed Charley and the boys outside and sat on the veranda and visited while the boys played.
      Charley and Campbell began reminiscing about old war stories so Zoe and Bridget motioned to them to watch the boys and they went to the kitchen to prepare their dinner.
     
      “Momma, I’m expecting again,”   Bridget told her Mother her news.
      Zoe was beside herself, thinking of another grandchild to have around her.   She and Bridget talked of the coming little one while they prepared the meal.
      “Oh, Bridget, it may be a girl, of course, a boy would be welcome but a little girl would be so nice.   So far, we already have six boys to the one girl, you know.”
      Bridget, spoiled as the only granddaughter in the whole Duncan family, knew only too well.
      “It’s funny the way it turned out, my Mother had two daughters, Deborah had two sons, I had one daughter and two sons and now you have two sons.”   Zoe laughed.   “You should be the one to tell your Father, won’t he be tickled!   He just adores his grandchildren.”
      “Are Wayne and Tommy going to get to come or do they have to stay at school?”   Bridget asked.
      Wayne and Tommy were so close that when Wayne graduated high school, he worked around home until Tommy was ready to join him in college.
      “Bridget, Wayne and Tommy have begun seeing sisters and they seem to be serious about them.   They may decide to live in Montgomery if they marry these girls.   I hope they don’t, I would miss all of you then.”
      “We’ll hope that they’ll bring the girls home with them to stay.”   Bridget consoled her Mother.
      Charley showed up at the kitchen door,   “How long till’ dinner?   Campbell and I want to take the boys fishing for a while.”
      “Oh, Pop, if you could wait until after their naps, everyone will enjoy the fishing trip more.”   Bridget smiled up at her father.
     
      After dinner, Zoe insisted on Bridget laying down with the boys while she did the kitchen.
      She enjoyed listening to the banter of the men while they checked out the fishing gear on the back porch.
     
      Hearing a carriage out front, she stiffened and put her hand to her mouth.   Even though it had been years since the war days when you don’t know who may be arriving, that was one habit that she hadn’t been able to shake.
      Going to the front window, she saw two strange young women getting out of a carriage.   She then saw Wayne and Tommy coming from behind the carriage, bringing the women’s dress cases.
      Excited, she ran to the front door to greet her unexpected visitors.
      The boys grabbed their Mother and introduced her to their friends, Margaret and Amelia.
      “We knew you wouldn’t mind us bringing them without notice.”   Tommy said, holding his girl Amelia‘s hand.
      “Of course not!”   Zoe felt that this was a good sign of things to come.
      First the new baby and now, two new daughter’s, possibly, she mustn’t get the cart before the horse.
      “Your father and Campbell are on the back porch, I’ll show the girl’s to the guest room.”
      The sound of her brother’s voices woke Bridget up and leaving the twins in her bedroom, she went out on the balcony to see them.
      The brother’s gave a whoop at the sight of their sister and bounded up the stairs to see her.
      The twins, being frightened from their sleep, opened the bedroom door to see what all the hullabaloo was about.
      Zoe and the girls began to climb the stairs when Charley and Campbell, wondering at the noise in the house, showed up at the foot of the stairs, exclaiming at the sight of the boys.
     
      After the young people and the twins had donned their fishing apparel, they disappeared with Charley and Campbell, leaving Zoe and Bridget to prepare a light supper to go with the expected fish and desserts for later.
      “Are you alright, Momma?” Bridget was looking at her Mother who had begun to tear up.
      “We have this moment, today,“ answered Zoe and she began to smile and hum a little tune.

The End



Finished writing: Friday
September 23, 2011, 12:15 AM

      The background music is 'Eriskay Love Lilt, a pretty melody.
I'd love your feedback on my stories.   You can email me at ora.lea @ gmail.com   Thank You
These stories have been written by me, Ora Lea Harrison.

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