how i met my husband

The story is about a young girl, Edie, who is hired help for Dr. Peebles and his family. One afternoon while the family is away in town, Edie meets Chris Watters, a pilot who travels from town to town giving rides in his plane for a fee. Edie falls in love with him, but soon learns that he is engaged to another woman, Alice Kelling. Alice is crazy and has been following Chris everywhere in hopes of marrying him. One day while Alice, Mrs. Peebles and the children were away on a picnic, Edie goes to Chris's campsite to talk with him. He reveals to her that he plans on leaving, but promises to write her. They kiss, and he leaves town. When the other women are told by the local gossip Loretta Bird that Chris has left, Alice Kelling verbally abuses Edie under the mistaken impression that Edie and Chris had sex. Mrs. Peebles protects Edie, and Alice leaves too. Edie waits day after day at the mailbox for Chris's letter, which never comes. Eventually, Edie realizes Chris will never write and marries the mailman, who believes that she waited by the mailbox for him every day, although Edie never tells him that she had waited for Chris because she likes "for people to think what pleases them and makes them happy."

How I Met My Husband Summary

A red-and-silver plane lands at the old fairgrounds across the road from the home of the Peebles, for whom Edie works. Edie’s first close-up view of an airplane leads to her first encounter with romance.
Edie is both eager for and rather innocent about romance. She is quite proudly aware of her blossoming womanhood, and the day after the plane lands, Edie gets the impulse to dress herself up in Mrs. Peebles’s finery, put on makeup, and play the part of a sophisticated beauty while Mrs. Peebles is out for the afternoon. This is how she is discovered by Chris Watters, who is looking for a drink of cool water from the pump. Edie is embarrassed but also irresistibly attracted to the pilot when he tells her she looks beautiful.