THE COURTING COUCH

The davenport in the front parlor was made of flower-patterned needlepoint cushions framed in a warm-tone caramel wood.  On it sat, stiffly poised on the edge, a young man in a brown suit, about age seventeen.

The youth didn’t have long to wait, for a young girl soon bounced into the room and

did a little skip as she neared the Victrola on the side table.  Ralph, the young suitor, stood as she entered, but an amused grin spread over his face.  This was not the date he had been anticipating, but her younger eleven-year old sister.  Erma was late again.

While Erma remained in the bedroom, teasing her hair, changing her shoes three times, and powdering her nose, little sister Ruth was in the front room having the time of her life.  Or, as she assumed, entertaining her sister’s date so that he had the time of his life.  She cranked up the song on the Victrola,  Ralph obligingly took her in his arms and danced her around the room, and as the music slowly wound down, Ruth broke away to wind it up again.  She just knew that each of her sister’s beaus liked her the best!

Meanwhile, Erma was still struggling.  She had done everything she could to force her hair into the style of the day – a short wavy bob with pin curls on the sides.  The pin curls wouldn’t stay curled.  Her date was waiting.  She could hear the Victrola start again for the fifth time.  Finally, grabbing her scissors she clipped off a lock of hair from in front of each ear, twirled it into the proper shape, and stabbed a bobby pin through each curl in just the right place on each side of her head.

Later that evening, when Ralph walked Erma back from the movies, the parlor was darkened and the house was silent.  Erma lit the gas lamp on the wall, and they sat together on the sofa.  Secure in the near-darkness from prying eyes, and aware of each others' bodies so close, they began to kiss.  What they didn’t know was that little Ruth was hiding behind the curtain which separated her room from the living room.  She heard every movement and every heavy breath coming from the sofa. 

And when Ralph’s affectionate fingers touched the side of Erma’s face, Ruth clearly heard Ralph’s gasp and Erma’s high-pitched scream as the loose pin curls fell away into Ralph’s astonished hands.