Read Online The Impressionist by Tim Clinton, Max Davis - Free Book Online
Authors: Tim Clinton, Max Davis
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what you mean,” said Jim Ed.
“Paige was a year and a half younger than me and literally blossomed over the summer. Before then, I had never paid much attention to her. On that day, however, when she came sashaying down the north hall of our school and our eyes met for the first time that year, like I said, I really saw her. After that there was no one else, period. She was
the
one.” I tilted my head back and laughed.
“You’re gonna love this, Jim Ed. At the time, I was a big jock on campus, and she was on the dance team that performed with the band at halftimes of the football games. In the huddle on the field during a game while the quarterback was trying to call the plays, I’d be gazing up in the stands watching her. Paige always had that kind of effect on me.”
“Sounds like a special gal,” said Jim Ed smiling.
“The night of the prom was quite an event. It was pouring down rain, and I was driving my Chevy Nova Sport to pick up Paige when I took a curve just a little too fast, sending my car sliding through a ditch and into someone’s chain-link fence, eventually spinning to a stop in the front yard. No one was home and I was off the road, so undeterred from my goal, I wrote a note, stuck it in the window and left the car in the person’s front yard, then hitchhiked in the downpour to Paige’s house. You could imagine Paige’s face when I showed up at her front door soaking wet. Her father, bless his heart, let us borrow his station wagon to go to the dance. Later that night when Paige dropped me off at home, a cop and my dad were having coffee! My car had been impounded, and I got a ticket for leaving the scene of an accident. Dad was not a happy man, but for Paige, it was well worth it.
For the next year we were inseparable until I graduated and received a football scholarship out of town. The separation was hard. Paige cried because she was sure I would meet someone else and forget her, but like I said, she was the one. As fate would have it, a year later she enrolled in the same college. We were married my junior year. When I blew out my knee, ending my career and dashing my pro-football dreams, it was Paige who kept me going. In fact, she’s kept me going many times through the years.”
“Sounds like you need to see her again, with fresh eyes,” said Jim Ed.
“Yep.”
12
After the first day they met, Christina and Jim Ed saw each other almost every day for the next two weeks until he was shipped back overseas. For nearly a year the romance continued via letters. And the letters got spicy at times. They wrote about more than just their enduring love for one another, however. Christina kept Jim Ed up to date on family and happenings around Pine Grove. They shared their dreams and frustrations and wrote often about their racial struggles.
Discrimination was becoming more and more pronounced at home as well as in the military. The more injustice Jim Ed saw in the army, the more bitter he became, until he was eaten alive, filled with hate for the world, for the white man, for the government, and for himself. It amazed him how he could put his life on the line for his country in the war, see so many of his brothers get shot up and blown to bits, yet he couldn’t exercise the very freedoms he’ d just fought for. To cope, he’ d spill out his anger to Christina in his letters, oftentimes ranting on God. Yet, no matter how great the injustice, Christina always responded in love, her letters written in nearly perfect calligraphy.
September 27, 1954
Dearest Jim Ed,
I received your letter last night and was anxious to respond. I’m sorry to hear of your homesickness and of the discrimination you are dealing with. I know it must be a terribly difficult time for you, as it is for all of us. I’m speaking of the discrimination, not the war. I can’t imagine how hard that must be on you. If it’s any comfort, there are many people here in Pine Grove who love you dearly and
“Paige was a year and a half younger than me and literally blossomed over the summer. Before then, I had never paid much attention to her. On that day, however, when she came sashaying down the north hall of our school and our eyes met for the first time that year, like I said, I really saw her. After that there was no one else, period. She was
the
one.” I tilted my head back and laughed.
“You’re gonna love this, Jim Ed. At the time, I was a big jock on campus, and she was on the dance team that performed with the band at halftimes of the football games. In the huddle on the field during a game while the quarterback was trying to call the plays, I’d be gazing up in the stands watching her. Paige always had that kind of effect on me.”
“Sounds like a special gal,” said Jim Ed smiling.
“The night of the prom was quite an event. It was pouring down rain, and I was driving my Chevy Nova Sport to pick up Paige when I took a curve just a little too fast, sending my car sliding through a ditch and into someone’s chain-link fence, eventually spinning to a stop in the front yard. No one was home and I was off the road, so undeterred from my goal, I wrote a note, stuck it in the window and left the car in the person’s front yard, then hitchhiked in the downpour to Paige’s house. You could imagine Paige’s face when I showed up at her front door soaking wet. Her father, bless his heart, let us borrow his station wagon to go to the dance. Later that night when Paige dropped me off at home, a cop and my dad were having coffee! My car had been impounded, and I got a ticket for leaving the scene of an accident. Dad was not a happy man, but for Paige, it was well worth it.
For the next year we were inseparable until I graduated and received a football scholarship out of town. The separation was hard. Paige cried because she was sure I would meet someone else and forget her, but like I said, she was the one. As fate would have it, a year later she enrolled in the same college. We were married my junior year. When I blew out my knee, ending my career and dashing my pro-football dreams, it was Paige who kept me going. In fact, she’s kept me going many times through the years.”
“Sounds like you need to see her again, with fresh eyes,” said Jim Ed.
“Yep.”
12
After the first day they met, Christina and Jim Ed saw each other almost every day for the next two weeks until he was shipped back overseas. For nearly a year the romance continued via letters. And the letters got spicy at times. They wrote about more than just their enduring love for one another, however. Christina kept Jim Ed up to date on family and happenings around Pine Grove. They shared their dreams and frustrations and wrote often about their racial struggles.
Discrimination was becoming more and more pronounced at home as well as in the military. The more injustice Jim Ed saw in the army, the more bitter he became, until he was eaten alive, filled with hate for the world, for the white man, for the government, and for himself. It amazed him how he could put his life on the line for his country in the war, see so many of his brothers get shot up and blown to bits, yet he couldn’t exercise the very freedoms he’ d just fought for. To cope, he’ d spill out his anger to Christina in his letters, oftentimes ranting on God. Yet, no matter how great the injustice, Christina always responded in love, her letters written in nearly perfect calligraphy.
September 27, 1954
Dearest Jim Ed,
I received your letter last night and was anxious to respond. I’m sorry to hear of your homesickness and of the discrimination you are dealing with. I know it must be a terribly difficult time for you, as it is for all of us. I’m speaking of the discrimination, not the war. I can’t imagine how hard that must be on you. If it’s any comfort, there are many people here in Pine Grove who love you dearly and
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