Ruth and I arrived a split second before Mike and were walking towards her apartment when his car pulled in. That’s when I learned of their scheduled 6 o’clock date. That was a surprise for me. Of the two surprises Mike and I received within a minute of each other, I’ll go with mine. While I learned of their date, he was about to be given the old “heave ho.”
The next portion of this recounting of this milestone in my life is based upon what “I think” happened because I wasn’t there for every single moment.
(Fact) Ruth walked towards his car and got in. (Conjecture) Once inside the car Mike said something like…”Ruth, is that Bob? He’s a lot better looking than I remember. Taller too.”
Truth be told, they broke up sitting in his green 1971 Mustang. (Seeing any pattern to this tale? For further clarification please review the first installment of the story). He wasn’t happy and didn’t take the news well. The only thing that I know for sure is he wanted his engagement ring returned, and she had to dig it out of her purse.
She got out of the car, walked towards me, and he drove away. (When the movie comes out, this will be shown on a split screen with no dialog, just dramatic music.)
We walked into her apartment and Ruth started packing. The packing was moving forward nicely when there was a knock on the door. (Suspenseful pause)
It was Chuck. He’d reported our impending nuptials to two of our former apartment neighbors, Jean and Debbie. The five us held an excited conversation while Ruth packed. Phrases like, “This is so exciting!” “I’ve never known anyone who actually eloped before!” and “Are you really going to do this?” Followed by, “Yes, we are.” were thrown about.
We needed to add new underwear to our shopping list because Ruth was clean out. (Pun intended) We asked Chuck and the girls to retrieve Ruth’s car from the Hi-Lo parking lot and headed to Steketee’s Department Store for our shopping needs. We ran into the parents of a high school friend of Ruth’s, Mr. and Mrs. Labby, in the underwear department. We shared our news with them and they, in turn, told us that they had eloped. Small world. The first married couple we encounter are fellow elopees. (Probably not a word)
After we completed our shopping, we headed to Chicago. As we crossed the Illinois line, seven people knew of our recent engagement … Chuck, Jean, Debbie, the Labbys, Judge Westra and Mike.
The drive is completely gone from my memory. We drove, and I know we spoke, but I remember zip, zero, nada. We checked into a hotel and …
TBC