Conrad stood frozen, the familiar candy jar in his arms, his face all confusion.
I rushed forward, joyful, ready to throw my arms around him, but my body passed straight through.
Vera, who I hadn't seen in so long, stepped up to him and asked softly,
"What's wrong?"
Conrad knit his brows, staring at the jar, lost in thought.
"Isn't this Thelma's candy jar?"
"That man just said 'my condolences' and walked off. Could something have happened to Thelma?"
Since moving to the city, Vera had painted her nails a pretty red, and a shiny ring circled her wrist. She looked lovely.
She let out a light laugh and took the jar from him.
"You know how Thelma is."
"She must have eaten all her candy and roped some villager into hauling her precious jar over here, all to guilt you into buying her more."
"Conrad, don't go spoiling her this time."
"She's about to be a mother, after all. Too much candy isn't good for the baby."
Hearing that, tears welled up in my eyes.
I pointed frantically at my stomach, scrambling to explain.
"Brother, I was scared you'd find out and be angry, so whatever I snuck I made up for later."
"And the little baby in my belly is gone now, so candy doesn't matter anymore..."
"I just missed you and Vera. I came along to see you both."
But Conrad didn't react, as though he couldn't hear a word.
Then, as if something had struck him, he turned and asked,
"The jar feels like it's got some weight to it. Is there something inside?"
The truth was, Vera had already quietly opened the jar earlier and spotted the letter inside.
She shook her head, certain. "Nothing. Just a jar of dirt."
With that, she tipped out the contents at the base of the tree in the corner of the yard, using it as plant fertilizer.
The pale gray earth buried the letter completely in an instant.
Conrad sighed, a melancholy weighing on him as he asked her,
"Was I too hasty, deciding to marry Thelma off?"
Vera took his hand, her face full of conviction.
"Conrad, Thelma was always going to have to marry someone. Did you really think you could care for her your whole life?"
"What's done is done now. Blowing it up wouldn't do anyone any good."
"Better than handing her off to some idiot. Isn't marrying a normal man the best place for her to end up?"
"Besides, Thelma's mind was always muddled. She doesn't understand birth control, so her ending up pregnant without knowing how, that only stands to reason."
"That whole string of names in the letter, those are just men suspected of having had contact with her. It doesn't say any of them actually did anything. Why fixate on it?"
"Setting aside that you'd be wronging them, if I hadn't stopped you last time, word that she got pregnant out of wedlock would have spread everywhere, and then Thelma's life really would have been ruined for good."
Conrad was left with nothing to say. In the end he nodded, letting it go.
"If I hadn't grabbed the wrong medicine when we were kids and burned out her mind with that fever, Thelma never would have turned out this way."
"At the end of it all, I'm just afraid of her being mistreated."
The words had barely left his mouth when an older man walked into the yard, his face bright with good news.
"Conrad! The plant approved your family leave!"
"Get moving, hurry up and bring your sister to the city to see a doctor."
I followed Conrad all the way back to Clearbrook Village.
The same few bachelors stood clustered together at the village entrance.
I pointed at them, hurrying to tattle.
"Brother, those are the ones who beat me!"
Sure enough, the moment they saw my brother, they scattered in terror, heads tucked low.
But Conrad cut off their path.
He reached into his bag, and what he drew out wasn't a fist, but a handful of wedding candy.
"Thelma got married in such a rush, I never made it back to help arrange things."
"I heard you all pitched in at my brother-in-law's place on the wedding day. That was good of you."
"This wedding candy, consider it the gift I'm making up for now!"
