TEN MINUTES PAST TWO
by
Paul R. Meredith
Chapter 1
Estelle Mercer was sipping her first cup of coffee of the new day. She looked out the window and saw the breaking sun turn the sky from the dark of night into the bright of early morning. It was a huge and beautifully brilliant yellowish orange ball, now just half visible above the tree line on the distant horizon. She saw the gorgeous work of God being displayed in a magnificent fashion, and it somehow gave her new hope and inspiration for the future.
As the sun slowly rose in the east, her Florida room was flooded with the rush of the day rapidly heading west. The light quickly grew so bright it nearly blinded her from being able to continue looking eastward. She donned the pair of sunglasses that were conveniently in front of her on the table. She kept a pair there for just this very reason, because she dearly loved to watch the sun come up these last few mornings when it was not possible for her to sleep well. This is the day I must start living the rest of my life, Estelle thought. I must put my troubles behind me and look to the future. Paul is gone now. I’m on my own from here on out.
Estelle Mercer’s husband Paul died exactly two weeks before in a horrible work-related accident at the relatively young age of fifty. For the ten days since his funeral, Estelle had found sleep hard to come by. She had had her soul mate by her side nearly constantly for all thirty of the years since they married. She smiled as she thought back to that day so long ago. She was eighteen and Paul was twenty. They had fallen in love three years before in high school and had gone steady from that moment forward.
When Estelle’s father turned down Paul’s petition to marry his daughter, she was heartbroken. She devised the plan to run away and get married. Paul was nervous about the idea, but he knew her dad was firm in his decision, and as much as Paul loved Estelle, he knew he couldn’t live four more years without her. That was her dad’s decision—to wait. He wanted the kids to wait until Estelle was out of college. After that he would give his blessings on their marriage.
Paul told Estelle, “Honey, let me go back and ask him one more time. Maybe he will give in and let us get married. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”
“He won’t ever give in Paul. He says I will never finish school if I get married first. Dad told me it was his obligation as a father to make sure I get started in life with a chance to make it, and it takes a college education to make it these days. He won’t cave on it, I’m telling you,” Estelle said. “I know my dad.”
“I’ve got to try it one more time, but if it doesn’t work, we’ll just elope as we planned. But somehow, I just feel he will allow us to go ahead and get married,” Paul told Estelle.
Paul begged Estelle’s father the next evening to let them go ahead and get married. He promised that he would continue with his last two years of college and make certain that Estelle started and finished her own college education. Her father would have none of it, saying to Paul, “No, her mother and I know that Estelle would most likely get pregnant and cut her education short. You kids can’t afford to do that anyway. College is expensive as hell these days.”
“But sir, my folks would probably help us a little if we needed them to. I think we could do it, and we’d be careful not to get in a family way.”
“Look Paul, I like you a lot. I think you are a fine young man, and there will come a time when I will be more than happy to welcome you into our family with open arms, but it will have to be after Estelle gets out of school. The two of you are young. Four years will be a good test of your love.”
“But sir, we have already been tested for three years. I love her so much, and she’s the only girl I would ever want to be my wife,” Paul argued.
“That’s good, but the answer is still the same, and you shouldn’t expect your folks to help support you kids after you’re married. Being married is a grown up responsibility. Your folks have a lot on their plate anyway. They can’t afford a burden like that,” Bryan Sager said.
Estelle and Paul did elope to Arkansas and got married. The parents were upset at first because they feared the worst—that Estelle and Paul would never get their college degrees.
Now, as Estelle recalled those days so long ago, she at first smiled, and eventually openly laughed out loud at how it had all turned out.
Paul worked hard at two part-time jobs during college, while Estelle worked at a good part-time job. They were both able to secure a little scholarship money from various sources, and yes, the folks on both sides helped them some when they got in tight pinches. Paul graduated and was lucky enough to land a great starting job in a local industry as a mechanical engineer. Estelle continued on with school and was able to graduate two years after Paul. She immediately went to work as an accountant in a local firm that was growing rapidly.
There was no pregnancy during that time, nor were there any huge problems of any kind. The pieces just sort of fell into place for the young couple. Paul insisted on paying the parents back the money they had provided when they were desperate. He had carefully and completely kept track of every penny given them, and even though the money was never considered a loan by any of the parents, Paul always considered it as such. Paul and Estelle paid back every single dollar to their parents, even though it wasn’t required. Paul never let the parents refuse the payments—told them they owed it and would not feel free until they reimbursed them.
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