War and Peas

was forever. I suppose Miss Snellen had in mind then that she might leave most of her fortune to the museum, but she didn’t even hint at that. Anyway, Regina took the job.”
    Lisa had been looking at the wall behind Jane as she spoke and suddenly recalled herself. “I’m sorry. This must be awfully boring to you.“
    “Not at all. I’m fascinated,“ Jane said. It wasn’t quite the truth, but she sensed that Lisa needed to talk, and she was more than willing to listen if it would help assuage her grief. “What happened next?“
    “Regina took over the directorship, found an apartment, and got to work. She’d only been here about a month or two before she figured out her long-term plans. She called and explained to me some of what she had in mind—more involvement in the Pea Festival, renovations in the budget structure, and such. But she said the one thing the museum desperately needed was a good public-relations and promotion plan. And she wanted me to do that. I was ready to enroll for my last semester, but I dropped all my courses and signed up instead for advertising classes. Whole new world to me!“
    “It must have been,“ Jane said. That helped explain why Lisa hadn’t seemed to fit the stereotypical mold of the aggressive, outgoing publicity person. She was basically a scholarly type who’d taken up promotion for purely practical reasons.
    “It would have been the most hideous semester of my life, except that I had so much to look forward to. Regina convinced Miss Snellen that although I didn’t have much training in promotion, I knew history and was a hard worker. Miss Snellen agreed to give me a chance—well, after all, qualifications didn’t mean so much then. The former director had been a retired high-school science teacher. So I came here. Regina found a bigger apartment so that we could live together and work on museum concerns in the evenings without having to cart paperwork back and forth.“
    “You’re smiling as if that was fun, to work day and night,“ Jane said.
    “It was fun, really. The challenge of it. The Snellen Museum was like a lump of clay just waiting to be formed into something. When I came here, it was only open three afternoons a week, and as often as not, the only volunteer guide we had was Miss Snellen herself. But Regina solicited some women’s clubs to sponsor volunteer guides. I trained them and then we opened the museum six days a week, charging a small admissions fee to help with the finances. Regina and I began visiting local schools, hauling along exhibits and encouraging teachers to bring classes here. Meanwhile, Regina hired Sharlene, who took over a lot of the paperwork, and that allowed Regina and me to finally start spiffing up the exhibits themselves.“
    “What a huge amount of work!“ Jane said.
    “Yes, and sometimes it seemed to go so slowly. But almost always in the right direction. Of course, there was one summer that the city was putting in a new sewer line and the street was closed. I think we had about fourteen hearty souls the whole season who went to the trouble of climbing through the construction rubble to get here.“
    “How discouraging!“
    “Yes, but Miss Snellen was wonderful. When she realized that the museum really could be an attraction, not just a personal hobby of hers, she got behind us with the funding. She even manned the gift shop a day a week, though standing for long periods was hard for her. She encouraged Regina to write articles for various publications that would make the Snellen, if not a household name, at least a name that a few history buffs had heard of. I remember the first time somebody actually came from out of town specifically to visit the museum. We were so excited that we nearly buried the guy in attention.”
    Lisa paused and looked away as Shelley came in with their lunches, and said, almost under her breath, “There were good times.”
    The longing in her tone broke Jane’s heart. “There will be lots more good times,“ she said. “Just think how exciting it’ll be when the new museum starts taking shape and when you are moving things.“
    “Yes, you’re right,“ Lisa said with , a sigh. “But Regina won’t be here to see it.“
    “But she’ll be with all of you in spirit,“ Jane said, cringing inwardly at the cliché but unable to think of anything else comforting to say.
    Shelley set out their food, distributed napkins and plastic forks, and said, “Who will be in charge now?