(Author's notes: Hello again and welcome to another one of these preambles of explanation that I have been known to write before each chapter begins. I hope you have enjoyed reading both The Kid & Me and Laurie and Dag. I do appreciate the fact that you have stopped by and taken the time to read my stories. If you are new here, or have landed randomly on this page because of a search engine result or for whatever reason, I hope you see something interesting enough that you might want to take some time out of your schedule to read either story. If you would like to start at the very beginning you can do so by using the links in the right hand margin. The absolute beginning of the story would be Chapter One of The Kid & Me. Laurie and Dag, the story that you are at now, is the sequel. However, if you want to start with Laurie & Dag you can do so by using the links to the right, and you probably wouldn't be totally lost with most of the events, although some of the early references in Laurie and Dag are directly related to events that took place in The Kid & Me. I don't expect that you will be able to read either story or both stories in one sitting but you can always bookmark the web page and return at your leisure.Things I always feel necessary to repeat: Much of Dag's story is based on a 1962 film. Some of you who have been reading may already recognize it. My original idea was to loosely base Dag's story on that film, but as I stated elsewhere, as the story went on I began to lean more and more on that film than I had originally intended. I will explain those reasons again once the last chapter of this story has been posted to the blog. I mention this only to let you know not to write me a letter about something that I am totally aware of.
As for Laurie's story, that is completely my story from beginning to end. Some events in it are loosely based on real events, but in no way is it intended to portray any person living or dead and any similarities are purely coincidental. However, some events mentioned in passing are actual events such as the story surrounding the death of Scott Weaver as told in the previous chapter, and information about that can be found on the web.
In this episode, Glenn's romance with Dina continues, but her relationship with Ronnie gets off to a rocky beginning. Dag's romance with Reggie continues despite her thoughts of Glenn. Laurie receives a call for help from her friend Gail.)
~~~39~~~
~~~Narration by Glenn Hamilton~~~
Between work, Dina, and finding time to spend with Ronnie, I was spreading myself pretty thin. I was finding exactly how difficult it was to balance my 
time between the three so that there was enough of me to go around. I knew it was Ronnie who was getting the short end of the stick, but as my relationship with Dina continued to grow, I felt that eventually things would even out. So by the end of February, I decided it was time for Ronnie to meet Dina in the hopes that the three of us could begin spending some time together, so that hopefully Dina and Ronnie could eventually develop their own bond, much in the way that Ronnie had bonded with Dag.
Dina was a breath of fresh air in my life. She was successful in her own right and made no special demands of me. The fact that she was so successful meant she certainly wasn’t looking to or needed to trap anyone into marriage. I think that’s what I liked about her more than anything. Was I falling for her? Yes. How far was our relationship going to go? A long way I had begun to hope as she seemed to fill a void in my life, but there was still the unanswered question of how she would take to Ronnie and how he much he would like her.
As for Dag, I thought a few times about New Years Eve and why I had kissed her. Okay, being completely honest here, maybe I just was thinking about the kiss itself, how nice it was and how
much I had been tempted to kiss her a bit longer. She certainly hadn’t objected but I guess you could chalk it up to the spirit of the holiday. But there was no denying the fact that I had wanted to kiss her and that I had thought about it several times even before New Years Eve. There was just something about her that naturally attracted me to her. At other times, it almost seemed as if we would be on the verge of another argument over some little thing we didn’t agree about. But unlike the first few months I had known her, those little disagreements usually ended up with either one of us or both of us making a joke about it.
And when I wasn’t at work or with Dina, I saw her often. If she wasn’t over at our place hanging out with Ada, then Ronnie was over at her apartment and I would have to go pick him up. If Dag was at our apartment visiting Ronnie or Ada, often she would stay for dinner and never seemed in a hurry to leave.
For his part, Ronnie hadn’t seemed to mind the fact that I was dating Dina. As a matter of fact he almost seemed to encourage it.
“Since you can’t and won’t date Dag, I guess she will do,” he told me. So with Dina’s okay, one Saturday afternoon about a month before Ronnie’s birthday, we made plans for the three or us to have dinner together.
One thing Ronnie didn’t care for was the fact that I made him scrub himself until he was almost shining.
“You’re going to make me wash my tan off,” he told me.
“Ronnie, that’s not a tan, that’s dirt,” I replied.
When he was finally scrubbed and out of the tub, I dressed him up in a suit and tie. He kept sticking his finger in the collar trying to make the tie a little bit looser.
“Ronnie, quit messing with your collar!” I told him.
“It itches, dad. I don’t know why I have to get all dressed up anyway. I never had to get dressed up when I went out to McDonald’s”
“We’re not going to McDonald’s,” I told him. “We’re going to a nice restaurant where everybody dresses up. Don’t you want to make a good impression on Dina?”
“I s’pose so. As long as it makes you happy, dad.”
“It makes me happy, Ron” I told him. Finally, after a lot of fuss, and a lot of coaching Ronnie on his manners, we left for the restaurant.
Ronnie and I arrived early, and we sat at our table waiting for Dina. Ronnie was as fidgety as ever. After what seemed like an eternity, I spotted Dina in the doorway and she glided over to our table. Ronnie and I both stood up. As Dina approached me she had her arms out to give me a hug.
“I hope I haven’t kept you waiting,” she said as she kissed me on the cheek.
“Ronnie, I’d like you to meet Miss Mason. Dina, this is Ronnie.”
Ronnie eyed her suspiciously, but just as I had told him to, he held his hand out to Dina.
“How do you do,” he said. I said a quick prayer thanking God that he had gotten it right.
“I’m so glad to meet you, Ronnie, I’ve heard so much about you. He’s a charming child, Glenn,” she said turning to me. Just as I had shown him, Ronnie pulled her chair out for her and she sat down, as did Ronnie and I.
“Thank you, Ronnie, you have lovely manners,”
“Well, I did have to coach him a little,” I told her.
“ Ronnie, this is a very special occasion, our first meeting.”
“Yes ma’am,” Ronnie replied. I noticed that he kept staring at her and I got the distinct impression he wasn’t liking what he was seeing. The fact that he kept squinting his eyes was a dead giveaway.
I quickly tried to make conversation. “Ronnie and I were just talking, Dina, and Ronnie’s going to have a birthday next month. He’s going to have his first real birthday party.”
“How wonderful!” she replied turning to face Ronnie. Ronnie didn’t answer. He seemed to be in some kind of a trance. I cleared my throat. “Yes, it’s going to be a big party. Ronnie’s invited everyone from his class.” Ronnie was still his eyes as if he were trying to see something.
“Didn’t you Ronnie?” I asked trying to draw him into the conversation. It didn’t work, so I tapped his foot with mine. All that did was cause him to l
ook under the table.
“Was that your foot, dad?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, Ronnie, I didn’t mean to do that.” I told him. Ronnie gave me a look as if he wasn’t sure he believed me.
“Ronnie, why don’t you tell Dina about your party?” I tried again. He didn’t respond. He was looking around the restaurant as if he wanted to escape. “Ronnie? Ronnie? RONNIE?” I spoke his name louder each time I said it.
He looked as if he had suddenly been awaken from a deep sleep. And he began talking so fast I wasn’t even sure I understood what he said,
“It’sgoingtobebiggerthaneverandAdaisgoingtobakeabigcakeandDagsaidshe’dbringsome
candyandhelpoutlike>"
It almost had come out as one word, and when he had been rattling it off, he had this silly plastic smile forcefully plastered onto his face. But it soon vanished and he quickly turned into a zombie again. But there was one word in Ronnie’s recitation that Dina didn’t miss.
“Dag?” she asked me.
“Yes, she’s our next door neighbor,” I told her.
“I see,” she replied but I wasn’t sure she did. She turned again to Ronnie. “May I come to your party?”
“W….e…..lllllll” he said, about a thousand times slower than his whole last sentence.
“I’d like to help out too,” Dina offered.
Ronnie looked at me as if he was none too pleased. I gave him a stern look to let him know what his answer should be. “Okay, if you want to.” But he sounded as if he was inviting her to be the hangman at his execution.
“Thank you very much,” Dina said more than graciously. I sighed. Things were not going at all as well as I had planned or hoped for and I was becoming more than a little irritated with Ronnie
“Excuse me,” Ronnie said getting up from the table. He walked over and whispered in my ear. “Dad, I have to go to the bathroom.”
I got up. “Can you excuse us for a moment, Dina.” I told her.
“Certainly, Glenn”
I walked Ronnie over to where the restroom was. He started
to go in but I stopped him.
“Ronnie, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” he replied.
“Well, I don’t like the way you’re behaving. When you come back will you please try to smile and act like you’re enjoying yourself”
“Sure, dad. I’ll try.” He said sullenly but at least it sounded as if he meant it.
I returned to the table and sat down.
“He’s just wonderful, Glenn” Dina said enthusiastically. “He’s simply delightful.”
“I have known him to give warmer receptions.”
“Well Glenn, after all I have taken you away from him for quite a few evenings. He’s probably just a little jealous.”
“I suppose so,” I answered her. But I wasn’t sure. I had been out with Dina often, and it had never seemed to bother Ronnie until now.
Dina tried to reassure me. “Don’t worry, Glenn. We’re going to get along just fine.”
That evening when we arrived home, I finally tried to get Ronnie to tell me what was wrong.
“Ronnie, you treated Dina just awful tonight. What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing, dad” he answered. “Can I go to bed?”
“No, not just yet. Is there something you don’t like about Dina?”
“Welllllllllll…..” he said slowly as he always did when he was hesitant to say something.
“Spit it out, Ronnie. There was no reason for you to be so rude tonight.” I thought about threatening some kind of punishment to get him to talk but that would probably have endeared Dina to him even less.
“She’s got hair like Cruella.”
“Who?” I asked. I had drawn a blank. “Who’s Cruella?”
“Cruella is the wicked woman who stole all the puppies so she could make a coat out of them,” he answered.
“Ronnie! Don’t be ridiculous. That’s just a cartoon, and it doesn’t mean anything. People don’t make coats out of puppies in real life and a lot people have platinum hair, that doesn’t make them some kind of a villain. Look at Ada’s hair.”
“Ada’s hair isn’t platinum, Dad. Her hair is that way because she’s old now so it wouldn’t count anyway. She’s really a raving red headed beauty. I know because Ada told me so. And Dina’s wearing a lot of paint on her face just like Cruella”
“I don’t care, Ronnie. It’s still a ridiculous notion so get it out of your head. Dina is a very beautiful woman”
“Okay, dad. I’ll try. Can I go to bed now?”
“Yes, you can,” I told him. He walked slowly into his room with his head down, although I felt more like having him stand in a corner. To not like someone because their hair was the same color as a cartoon character was ridiculous. Of course, I had temporarily forgotten that one of the things that had attracted me to Joyce, Ronnie’s mother, was because she had red hair, just like the teenage Pebbles did when I was growing up on the Pebbles and Bam Bam show.
time between the three so that there was enough of me to go around. I knew it was Ronnie who was getting the short end of the stick, but as my relationship with Dina continued to grow, I felt that eventually things would even out. So by the end of February, I decided it was time for Ronnie to meet Dina in the hopes that the three of us could begin spending some time together, so that hopefully Dina and Ronnie could eventually develop their own bond, much in the way that Ronnie had bonded with Dag.Dina was a breath of fresh air in my life. She was successful in her own right and made no special demands of me. The fact that she was so successful meant she certainly wasn’t looking to or needed to trap anyone into marriage. I think that’s what I liked about her more than anything. Was I falling for her? Yes. How far was our relationship going to go? A long way I had begun to hope as she seemed to fill a void in my life, but there was still the unanswered question of how she would take to Ronnie and how he much he would like her.
As for Dag, I thought a few times about New Years Eve and why I had kissed her. Okay, being completely honest here, maybe I just was thinking about the kiss itself, how nice it was and how
much I had been tempted to kiss her a bit longer. She certainly hadn’t objected but I guess you could chalk it up to the spirit of the holiday. But there was no denying the fact that I had wanted to kiss her and that I had thought about it several times even before New Years Eve. There was just something about her that naturally attracted me to her. At other times, it almost seemed as if we would be on the verge of another argument over some little thing we didn’t agree about. But unlike the first few months I had known her, those little disagreements usually ended up with either one of us or both of us making a joke about it.And when I wasn’t at work or with Dina, I saw her often. If she wasn’t over at our place hanging out with Ada, then Ronnie was over at her apartment and I would have to go pick him up. If Dag was at our apartment visiting Ronnie or Ada, often she would stay for dinner and never seemed in a hurry to leave.
For his part, Ronnie hadn’t seemed to mind the fact that I was dating Dina. As a matter of fact he almost seemed to encourage it.“Since you can’t and won’t date Dag, I guess she will do,” he told me. So with Dina’s okay, one Saturday afternoon about a month before Ronnie’s birthday, we made plans for the three or us to have dinner together.
One thing Ronnie didn’t care for was the fact that I made him scrub himself until he was almost shining.
“You’re going to make me wash my tan off,” he told me.
“Ronnie, that’s not a tan, that’s dirt,” I replied.
When he was finally scrubbed and out of the tub, I dressed him up in a suit and tie. He kept sticking his finger in the collar trying to make the tie a little bit looser.
“Ronnie, quit messing with your collar!” I told him.
“It itches, dad. I don’t know why I have to get all dressed up anyway. I never had to get dressed up when I went out to McDonald’s”“We’re not going to McDonald’s,” I told him. “We’re going to a nice restaurant where everybody dresses up. Don’t you want to make a good impression on Dina?”
“I s’pose so. As long as it makes you happy, dad.”
“It makes me happy, Ron” I told him. Finally, after a lot of fuss, and a lot of coaching Ronnie on his manners, we left for the restaurant.
Ronnie and I arrived early, and we sat at our table waiting for Dina. Ronnie was as fidgety as ever. After what seemed like an eternity, I spotted Dina in the doorway and she glided over to our table. Ronnie and I both stood up. As Dina approached me she had her arms out to give me a hug.
“I hope I haven’t kept you waiting,” she said as she kissed me on the cheek.
“Ronnie, I’d like you to meet Miss Mason. Dina, this is Ronnie.”
Ronnie eyed her suspiciously, but just as I had told him to, he held his hand out to Dina.
“How do you do,” he said. I said a quick prayer thanking God that he had gotten it right.
“I’m so glad to meet you, Ronnie, I’ve heard so much about you. He’s a charming child, Glenn,” she said turning to me. Just as I had shown him, Ronnie pulled her chair out for her and she sat down, as did Ronnie and I.
“Thank you, Ronnie, you have lovely manners,”
“Well, I did have to coach him a little,” I told her.
“ Ronnie, this is a very special occasion, our first meeting.”
“Yes ma’am,” Ronnie replied. I noticed that he kept staring at her and I got the distinct impression he wasn’t liking what he was seeing. The fact that he kept squinting his eyes was a dead giveaway.I quickly tried to make conversation. “Ronnie and I were just talking, Dina, and Ronnie’s going to have a birthday next month. He’s going to have his first real birthday party.”
“How wonderful!” she replied turning to face Ronnie. Ronnie didn’t answer. He seemed to be in some kind of a trance. I cleared my throat. “Yes, it’s going to be a big party. Ronnie’s invited everyone from his class.” Ronnie was still his eyes as if he were trying to see something.
“Didn’t you Ronnie?” I asked trying to draw him into the conversation. It didn’t work, so I tapped his foot with mine. All that did was cause him to l
ook under the table.“Was that your foot, dad?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, Ronnie, I didn’t mean to do that.” I told him. Ronnie gave me a look as if he wasn’t sure he believed me.
“Ronnie, why don’t you tell Dina about your party?” I tried again. He didn’t respond. He was looking around the restaurant as if he wanted to escape. “Ronnie? Ronnie? RONNIE?” I spoke his name louder each time I said it.
He looked as if he had suddenly been awaken from a deep sleep. And he began talking so fast I wasn’t even sure I understood what he said,
“It’sgoingtobebiggerthaneverandAdaisgoingtobakeabigcakeandDagsaidshe’dbringsome
candyandhelpoutlike>"
It almost had come out as one word, and when he had been rattling it off, he had this silly plastic smile forcefully plastered onto his face. But it soon vanished and he quickly turned into a zombie again. But there was one word in Ronnie’s recitation that Dina didn’t miss.
“Dag?” she asked me.
“Yes, she’s our next door neighbor,” I told her.
“I see,” she replied but I wasn’t sure she did. She turned again to Ronnie. “May I come to your party?”“W….e…..lllllll” he said, about a thousand times slower than his whole last sentence.
“I’d like to help out too,” Dina offered.
Ronnie looked at me as if he was none too pleased. I gave him a stern look to let him know what his answer should be. “Okay, if you want to.” But he sounded as if he was inviting her to be the hangman at his execution.
“Thank you very much,” Dina said more than graciously. I sighed. Things were not going at all as well as I had planned or hoped for and I was becoming more than a little irritated with Ronnie
“Excuse me,” Ronnie said getting up from the table. He walked over and whispered in my ear. “Dad, I have to go to the bathroom.”
I got up. “Can you excuse us for a moment, Dina.” I told her.
“Certainly, Glenn”
I walked Ronnie over to where the restroom was. He started
to go in but I stopped him.“Ronnie, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” he replied.
“Well, I don’t like the way you’re behaving. When you come back will you please try to smile and act like you’re enjoying yourself”
“Sure, dad. I’ll try.” He said sullenly but at least it sounded as if he meant it.
I returned to the table and sat down.“He’s just wonderful, Glenn” Dina said enthusiastically. “He’s simply delightful.”
“I have known him to give warmer receptions.”
“Well Glenn, after all I have taken you away from him for quite a few evenings. He’s probably just a little jealous.”
“I suppose so,” I answered her. But I wasn’t sure. I had been out with Dina often, and it had never seemed to bother Ronnie until now.
Dina tried to reassure me. “Don’t worry, Glenn. We’re going to get along just fine.”
That evening when we arrived home, I finally tried to get Ronnie to tell me what was wrong.
“Ronnie, you treated Dina just awful tonight. What’s wrong with you?”“Nothing, dad” he answered. “Can I go to bed?”
“No, not just yet. Is there something you don’t like about Dina?”
“Welllllllllll…..” he said slowly as he always did when he was hesitant to say something.
“Spit it out, Ronnie. There was no reason for you to be so rude tonight.” I thought about threatening some kind of punishment to get him to talk but that would probably have endeared Dina to him even less.
“She’s got hair like Cruella.”
“Who?” I asked. I had drawn a blank. “Who’s Cruella?”
“Cruella is the wicked woman who stole all the puppies so she could make a coat out of them,” he answered.
“Ronnie! Don’t be ridiculous. That’s just a cartoon, and it doesn’t mean anything. People don’t make coats out of puppies in real life and a lot people have platinum hair, that doesn’t make them some kind of a villain. Look at Ada’s hair.”
“Ada’s hair isn’t platinum, Dad. Her hair is that way because she’s old now so it wouldn’t count anyway. She’s really a raving red headed beauty. I know because Ada told me so. And Dina’s wearing a lot of paint on her face just like Cruella”“I don’t care, Ronnie. It’s still a ridiculous notion so get it out of your head. Dina is a very beautiful woman”
“Okay, dad. I’ll try. Can I go to bed now?”
“Yes, you can,” I told him. He walked slowly into his room with his head down, although I felt more like having him stand in a corner. To not like someone because their hair was the same color as a cartoon character was ridiculous. Of course, I had temporarily forgotten that one of the things that had attracted me to Joyce, Ronnie’s mother, was because she had red hair, just like the teenage Pebbles did when I was growing up on the Pebbles and Bam Bam show.
~~~40~~~~
~~~Narration by Dag~~~
When Glenn had kissed me on New Years Eve, I knew he was just doing it in the spirit on the occasion. Come to think of it, it was the first time I had brought the New Years in with a kiss, although technically it was after midnight. The previous New Years, Andy and I were asleep well before midnight. The kiss was kind of sweet, and I have to admit I didn’t mind it in the least. Okay, I’m not being completely honest. The truth is I had often wondered what it would be like to kiss Glenn, and when he had kissed me, I wished it had been more than the light brief glancing kiss he had bestowed on me. If it had gone on a bit longer, I wouldn’t have objected at all.
I sometimes wondered what it would be like to date Glenn on a regular date, but I couldn’t help think that it would lead to disaster. We were getting along great now just as neighbors, but at times we would have a little disagreement and I was always afraid it would blow up into a major battle as it had early in our non-relationship relationship. But there had been no more major blow-ups between us. If we weren’t seeing eye to eye about something it usually ended with either one of us making a joke about it to quickly ease the tension. Often when Ronnie would be over at my apartment after school or on weekend afternoons, Glenn would stop by to pick him up. Most of the time he would end up staying a while and I would end up fixing the three of us dinner, which would relieve Ada of the chore for a day. She would reciprocate however when I would go to their place and have dinner with her, Glenn, and Ronnie.
Then there was sweet, loving, caring, and adorable, Reggie. At school he had helped me get my feet on the ground. When we dated, I always enjoyed his company. He would make jokes about his staid uptight family, and the fact that we were both teachers gave us something in common
which we could always talk about. And when you’re a teacher, there’s often something new and different happening everyday so you never run out of conversation.
Once Reggie had finally worked up the nerve to kiss me, there seemed to be no holding him back. No we hadn’t slept together as the relationship hadn’t quite progressed to that point. Sometimes when we were on the couch making out, I felt like there was something missing, some kind of spark that wasn’t there but should have been. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy those moments when Reggie, because I did. Really. It’s just that…oh hell I don’t know what it was. Maybe I was just becoming too uptight about things.
I guess the first indication that things were getting a little serious, at least for Reggie was the night in my apartment when he began asking a lot of personal questions, such as when and if I ever got married would I want a large family or a small family, would I still want to teach while I raised my family or would I prefer to be able to be a stay at home mom and what was I looking for in a relationship or in a husband if I ever got married. I answered him as honestly as I could, saying I saw no reason why I couldn’t raise a family and continue to teach, that I wasn’t looking for a particular type of guy, just one that would love and care about me and his family, and the kind of relationship I wanted was one of honesty, and one where we treated each other as equals. I then added, “as long as I’m more equal than he is.” Reggie had a good laugh at that. But the truth was, I was still feeling the snake bite of my relationship with Andrew, and I was a long way from wanting to settle down with anyone.
The day after Ronnie had met Dina, he wandered over to my apartment as he often did. His head was down and he didn’t look particularly happy.
“What’s wrong, Ronnie,” I asked him.
“Oh…nuthin’,” he told me.
“Would you like some cake?” I asked.
“Guess so,” he answered.
“Is Glenn working today?”
“Yeah. He had to go down to the station for a while. Ada’s home though.”
I had never seen Ronnie so down. It was as if someone had just told him that his execution date had been set. I sliced him a piece of cake and he sat down to eat it. He hardly took a bite. So I sat down next to him. I finally asked him the question that I was dying to have answered.
“How did you like Dina?” I asked.
“She’s okay I guess. She wears a lot of makeup and has white hair.”
“Was she friendly?”
“Yeah, I s’pose so. She’s coming to my birthday party.”
“Oh? I guess I’ll get the chance to meet her then,” I told him. “But if she was nice and friendly, what’s wrong then?”
“Dad says I can’t tell you. He says it’s silly.”
I could see I wasn’t going to find out any more from him. I was sure I could pry it out of Ronnie if I tried hard enough, but that would have meant having him disobey Glenn, and that I wasn’t going to do. But one thing was for sure: there was something about Dina that Ronny didn’t particularly care for. But then again, what Ronny couldn’t talk about Ada certainly could and more than likely would.
“Well, why don’t we take Ada some cake over,” I told him. “Then later if it’s okay, we can go to the park.”
That seemed to perk him up a bit. “Sure!” he told me.
I picked up the cake and we went across the hall to the apartment. Ronnie had a little bit of his appetite back and sat at the counter eating his cake while Ada and I sat at the table.
“What’s going on?” I asked her in a whisper. “He seems upset.”
“He’s a bit mad. He didn’t hit it off too well with Dina,” she whispered back.
“What happened?” I asked her.
“Oh, you know how kids are. They can pick up on the darndest things. One of Ronnie’s favorite films has always been 101 Dalmatians and he absolutely hates Cruella.”
“Yes, I remember him telling me that. I’ve seen the film several times but what does that have to do with Dina?”
“Dina has platinum hair that makes her look like Cruella according to Ronnie. And she wears a lot of makeup, or war paint as Ronnie calls it.”
I almost burst out laughing but held it in to a chuckle. “Oh God! I bet Glenn is fit to be tied!”
“Yes he is. Ronnie got up first this morning and was telling me about it. Glenn ordered him to never talk about Dina looking like Cruella again. And Ronnie was especially unhappy that Glenn made him invite her to his party.”
“He’ll be okay, you know how kids are.”
Ada looked at me as if she wasn’t so sure. “I suppose you’re right. I just can’t understand why some high falootin’ fashion consultant would want to come to a child’s birthday party all of a sudden. It’s not like she’s shown any inclination to come here with Glenn before. And not only that, Ronnie said she weasled the invitation out of him and that’s when Glenn put his foot down.”
I couldn’t hold my laughter in. “Well, I’m sure she’s a fine lady.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Ada told me. “But if she’s weasling an invitation to Ronnie’s birthday party it must be getting serious between Dina and Glenn. Girlfriends do not go out of their way to go to their boyfriend’s kid’s birthday party unless they have something else in mind. And you know what that something else is.”
“I’m sure she was just trying to be nice to Ronnie,” I said. “That doesn’t mean it’s getting serious.” But for some reason, the thought that their relationship might be hitting that stage bothered me quite a bit. I had to admit it did seem strange that Dina had not visited with Glenn and Ronnie before, especially if things had become as serious as Ada seemed to think they had. Ada simply shrugged. I had to admit it though, I was now more curious than ever to meet Dina Mason. An opportunity I most certainly would have in exactly one month.
“There is one other thing wrong though,” Ada told me. “Ever since we started planning this birthday party, Glenn has absolutely promised that afterwards he
and Ronnie were going to spend the rest of the day alone with him. They’re supposed to go to the cemetery to visit Joyce, then go to a movie and go have a pizza together. Ronnie’s been talking about that more than he has the party. I hope the fact that this Mason woman is coming to the party doesn’t change that and make Glenn forget his promise.”
“I don’t think Glenn would forget on Ronnie’s birthday,” I told her.
Again she shrugged. “I wish I could be as positive as you are. He’s been acting differently lately.”
“I haven’t noticed. But then again, I’d have to agree that the two of them would have included Ronnie in their plans at least once in a while”
Ada frowned. “It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I asked him about it once and he said that Dina is very busy during the day and by the time she frees herself up at night they barely have time to go to dinner. I told him she sure must eat a lot and he gave me a dirty look. It’s almost as if he’s infatuated with the woman. Falling in love is one thing, becoming infatuated with someone is something else altogether. It’s a far cry from being in love.”
I didn’t answer her, for I already knew far too well what she was talking about. I was an expert in that department. It’s not like Glenn’s explanation was totally unreasonable. It was only the fact that Ada and I were so close to Ronnie that made it seem so. And then for some reason I began to have a dislike for a woman I had never met, never spoken to, or knew anything about, other than that she liked telling other people how to dress and could possibly have a penchant for making coats out of spotted puppies.
As it was, Ronnie’s birthday didn’t turn out exactly as Ada or I thought it would. Ada and I had spent the month planning and preparing for Ronnie’s birthday party. Many of Ronnie’s
classmates would be there, and so would Patsy Lynn and LeAnn Faith whom Ronnie had met when he had accompanied me to mom and dad’s house on occasion.
I didn’t really know what to expect from Glenn, as he had never been involved in anything closely resembling a child’s birthday party. As long as Ada and I were there to carry the load though, he seemed amazingly cool, calm, and collected. Still, in between the kid who kept wanting to play in Ronnie’s fish tank, and the kid who wanted to play in the toilet bowl, and the kid who kept running the electric car under everybody’s feet it was quite a ruckus.
As for Dina Mason, she was initially a no show, so I had figured she was waiting until the party was about to die down to make her appearance. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
About half way through the party with kids screaming and yelling, Glenn’s phone rang. Ada was in the kitchen busy making refreshments and Glenn was trying to weed his way through the kids. He finally signaled for me to answer the phone for him.
“Hello!” I said into the phone. I couldn’t hear the response through the din so I yelled it again. “HELLO!
I’m sorry, I can’t make you out there’s too much noise. Wait a minute, I’ll go where it’s quieter,” I yelled into the phone and headed off to the kitchen.
“I’m sorry it’s difficult to hear,” I said into the phone.
“Who am I speaking to?” the feminine voice on the other end of the phone said. Instinct told me it was Dina.
“This is Dag Baker, I’m Glenn’s neighbor.”
“Oh? Miss Baker. Yes, Glenn mentioned you.” For some reason she sounded none too pleased. “This is Miss Mason, could I speak to Glenn please.”
“Oh, Miss. Mason,” I made a face and said it aloud so that Ada would know who it was. She made a face also. For some reason the simple fact that she was calling when she was supposed to be at the party made me uneasy. “Yes, of course, I’ll get him.”
When I went back into the living room, some of the parents were already picking their children up. I yelled at Glenn and then waved to get his attention. He finally made his way over to me.
“You’re wanted on the phone,” I told him.
“Who is it?”
“Miss Mason,” I said. And with that Glenn ran into the kitchen as if he had been shot out of a cannon. Although, it wasn’t particularly a safe thing to do to leave the kids to their own devices, I went into the kitchen to help Ada, and I’m not ashamed to say, find out what Ms. Dina Mason was wanting.
Of course Ada and I could only hear Glenn’s side of the conversation but that was more than enough.
“Hello…oh hi Dina, we were expecting you over here by now………..You got held up………Where are you?........You’re kidding……Stella and Jerry?.....Well I’ll be……..I was supposed to take Ronnie to a birthday dinner tonight but….”
It was at that second that Ada slammed a tray down onto the counter as hard as she could. We both looked at each other and our faces said the same thing, anger that Glenn would even think of breaking his promise to Ronnie.
He continued on the phone. “Well I can’t foul up an engagement party can I……..especially when I’m partially responsible for it………..I’ll tell you what, I’ll be there, I just have to get someone to look after Ronnie (Ada slammed some glasses into the cupboard)….Okay?”
I started to stomp out of the kitchen but not before I heard Glenn ask Ada, “Uh….Ada….”
And that was all he got out before she answered. ‘I’M BUSY!”
“I mean it’s just for tonight, Ada,” he repeated.
“I’M BUSY!” She repeated back to him.
Glenn wasted no time in following me into the living room.
“Uh….Dag,” he said, “What’s up with Ada? Are the kids getting her down or what?”
“She seems all right to me,” I told him sweetly, with a big cup of sarcasm on top.
“She almost bit my head off, all I said was would you help me out tonight.”
“Tonight?” I asked him as if I didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Yes, I had to take Ronnie to dinner but something’s come up. I can’t make it. I was wondering if you could….”
“I’M BUSY,” I told him just as Ada had done.
It didn’t stop him. “I mean all you’d have to do is….”
“I’M BUSY,” I said to him again.
He made a face and just then one of the younger children came running up to me with a picture in his hand.
“What’s this picture of?” he asked.
I looked at the picture. It was a picture of George Bush with a rat photo shopped in. "Well there's two of a kind in your picture. The third of a kind is standing over there.” I said pointing to Glenn. Ask him, because it takes one to know one"
I sometimes wondered what it would be like to date Glenn on a regular date, but I couldn’t help think that it would lead to disaster. We were getting along great now just as neighbors, but at times we would have a little disagreement and I was always afraid it would blow up into a major battle as it had early in our non-relationship relationship. But there had been no more major blow-ups between us. If we weren’t seeing eye to eye about something it usually ended with either one of us making a joke about it to quickly ease the tension. Often when Ronnie would be over at my apartment after school or on weekend afternoons, Glenn would stop by to pick him up. Most of the time he would end up staying a while and I would end up fixing the three of us dinner, which would relieve Ada of the chore for a day. She would reciprocate however when I would go to their place and have dinner with her, Glenn, and Ronnie.Then there was sweet, loving, caring, and adorable, Reggie. At school he had helped me get my feet on the ground. When we dated, I always enjoyed his company. He would make jokes about his staid uptight family, and the fact that we were both teachers gave us something in common
which we could always talk about. And when you’re a teacher, there’s often something new and different happening everyday so you never run out of conversation.Once Reggie had finally worked up the nerve to kiss me, there seemed to be no holding him back. No we hadn’t slept together as the relationship hadn’t quite progressed to that point. Sometimes when we were on the couch making out, I felt like there was something missing, some kind of spark that wasn’t there but should have been. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy those moments when Reggie, because I did. Really. It’s just that…oh hell I don’t know what it was. Maybe I was just becoming too uptight about things.
I guess the first indication that things were getting a little serious, at least for Reggie was the night in my apartment when he began asking a lot of personal questions, such as when and if I ever got married would I want a large family or a small family, would I still want to teach while I raised my family or would I prefer to be able to be a stay at home mom and what was I looking for in a relationship or in a husband if I ever got married. I answered him as honestly as I could, saying I saw no reason why I couldn’t raise a family and continue to teach, that I wasn’t looking for a particular type of guy, just one that would love and care about me and his family, and the kind of relationship I wanted was one of honesty, and one where we treated each other as equals. I then added, “as long as I’m more equal than he is.” Reggie had a good laugh at that. But the truth was, I was still feeling the snake bite of my relationship with Andrew, and I was a long way from wanting to settle down with anyone.
The day after Ronnie had met Dina, he wandered over to my apartment as he often did. His head was down and he didn’t look particularly happy.“What’s wrong, Ronnie,” I asked him.
“Oh…nuthin’,” he told me.
“Would you like some cake?” I asked.
“Guess so,” he answered.
“Is Glenn working today?”
“Yeah. He had to go down to the station for a while. Ada’s home though.”
I had never seen Ronnie so down. It was as if someone had just told him that his execution date had been set. I sliced him a piece of cake and he sat down to eat it. He hardly took a bite. So I sat down next to him. I finally asked him the question that I was dying to have answered.
“How did you like Dina?” I asked.
“She’s okay I guess. She wears a lot of makeup and has white hair.”
“Was she friendly?”
“Yeah, I s’pose so. She’s coming to my birthday party.”
“Oh? I guess I’ll get the chance to meet her then,” I told him. “But if she was nice and friendly, what’s wrong then?”
“Dad says I can’t tell you. He says it’s silly.”
I could see I wasn’t going to find out any more from him. I was sure I could pry it out of Ronnie if I tried hard enough, but that would have meant having him disobey Glenn, and that I wasn’t going to do. But one thing was for sure: there was something about Dina that Ronny didn’t particularly care for. But then again, what Ronny couldn’t talk about Ada certainly could and more than likely would.
“Well, why don’t we take Ada some cake over,” I told him. “Then later if it’s okay, we can go to the park.”
That seemed to perk him up a bit. “Sure!” he told me.
I picked up the cake and we went across the hall to the apartment. Ronnie had a little bit of his appetite back and sat at the counter eating his cake while Ada and I sat at the table.
“What’s going on?” I asked her in a whisper. “He seems upset.”
“He’s a bit mad. He didn’t hit it off too well with Dina,” she whispered back.
“What happened?” I asked her.
“Oh, you know how kids are. They can pick up on the darndest things. One of Ronnie’s favorite films has always been 101 Dalmatians and he absolutely hates Cruella.”
“Yes, I remember him telling me that. I’ve seen the film several times but what does that have to do with Dina?”
“Dina has platinum hair that makes her look like Cruella according to Ronnie. And she wears a lot of makeup, or war paint as Ronnie calls it.”
I almost burst out laughing but held it in to a chuckle. “Oh God! I bet Glenn is fit to be tied!”
“Yes he is. Ronnie got up first this morning and was telling me about it. Glenn ordered him to never talk about Dina looking like Cruella again. And Ronnie was especially unhappy that Glenn made him invite her to his party.”
“He’ll be okay, you know how kids are.”
Ada looked at me as if she wasn’t so sure. “I suppose you’re right. I just can’t understand why some high falootin’ fashion consultant would want to come to a child’s birthday party all of a sudden. It’s not like she’s shown any inclination to come here with Glenn before. And not only that, Ronnie said she weasled the invitation out of him and that’s when Glenn put his foot down.”
I couldn’t hold my laughter in. “Well, I’m sure she’s a fine lady.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Ada told me. “But if she’s weasling an invitation to Ronnie’s birthday party it must be getting serious between Dina and Glenn. Girlfriends do not go out of their way to go to their boyfriend’s kid’s birthday party unless they have something else in mind. And you know what that something else is.”
“I’m sure she was just trying to be nice to Ronnie,” I said. “That doesn’t mean it’s getting serious.” But for some reason, the thought that their relationship might be hitting that stage bothered me quite a bit. I had to admit it did seem strange that Dina had not visited with Glenn and Ronnie before, especially if things had become as serious as Ada seemed to think they had. Ada simply shrugged. I had to admit it though, I was now more curious than ever to meet Dina Mason. An opportunity I most certainly would have in exactly one month.
“There is one other thing wrong though,” Ada told me. “Ever since we started planning this birthday party, Glenn has absolutely promised that afterwards he
and Ronnie were going to spend the rest of the day alone with him. They’re supposed to go to the cemetery to visit Joyce, then go to a movie and go have a pizza together. Ronnie’s been talking about that more than he has the party. I hope the fact that this Mason woman is coming to the party doesn’t change that and make Glenn forget his promise.”“I don’t think Glenn would forget on Ronnie’s birthday,” I told her.
Again she shrugged. “I wish I could be as positive as you are. He’s been acting differently lately.”
“I haven’t noticed. But then again, I’d have to agree that the two of them would have included Ronnie in their plans at least once in a while”
Ada frowned. “It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I asked him about it once and he said that Dina is very busy during the day and by the time she frees herself up at night they barely have time to go to dinner. I told him she sure must eat a lot and he gave me a dirty look. It’s almost as if he’s infatuated with the woman. Falling in love is one thing, becoming infatuated with someone is something else altogether. It’s a far cry from being in love.”
I didn’t answer her, for I already knew far too well what she was talking about. I was an expert in that department. It’s not like Glenn’s explanation was totally unreasonable. It was only the fact that Ada and I were so close to Ronnie that made it seem so. And then for some reason I began to have a dislike for a woman I had never met, never spoken to, or knew anything about, other than that she liked telling other people how to dress and could possibly have a penchant for making coats out of spotted puppies.
As it was, Ronnie’s birthday didn’t turn out exactly as Ada or I thought it would. Ada and I had spent the month planning and preparing for Ronnie’s birthday party. Many of Ronnie’s
classmates would be there, and so would Patsy Lynn and LeAnn Faith whom Ronnie had met when he had accompanied me to mom and dad’s house on occasion.I didn’t really know what to expect from Glenn, as he had never been involved in anything closely resembling a child’s birthday party. As long as Ada and I were there to carry the load though, he seemed amazingly cool, calm, and collected. Still, in between the kid who kept wanting to play in Ronnie’s fish tank, and the kid who wanted to play in the toilet bowl, and the kid who kept running the electric car under everybody’s feet it was quite a ruckus.
As for Dina Mason, she was initially a no show, so I had figured she was waiting until the party was about to die down to make her appearance. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
About half way through the party with kids screaming and yelling, Glenn’s phone rang. Ada was in the kitchen busy making refreshments and Glenn was trying to weed his way through the kids. He finally signaled for me to answer the phone for him.
“Hello!” I said into the phone. I couldn’t hear the response through the din so I yelled it again. “HELLO!I’m sorry, I can’t make you out there’s too much noise. Wait a minute, I’ll go where it’s quieter,” I yelled into the phone and headed off to the kitchen.
“I’m sorry it’s difficult to hear,” I said into the phone.
“Who am I speaking to?” the feminine voice on the other end of the phone said. Instinct told me it was Dina.
“This is Dag Baker, I’m Glenn’s neighbor.”
“Oh? Miss Baker. Yes, Glenn mentioned you.” For some reason she sounded none too pleased. “This is Miss Mason, could I speak to Glenn please.”“Oh, Miss. Mason,” I made a face and said it aloud so that Ada would know who it was. She made a face also. For some reason the simple fact that she was calling when she was supposed to be at the party made me uneasy. “Yes, of course, I’ll get him.”
When I went back into the living room, some of the parents were already picking their children up. I yelled at Glenn and then waved to get his attention. He finally made his way over to me.
“You’re wanted on the phone,” I told him.
“Who is it?”
“Miss Mason,” I said. And with that Glenn ran into the kitchen as if he had been shot out of a cannon. Although, it wasn’t particularly a safe thing to do to leave the kids to their own devices, I went into the kitchen to help Ada, and I’m not ashamed to say, find out what Ms. Dina Mason was wanting.
Of course Ada and I could only hear Glenn’s side of the conversation but that was more than enough.
“Hello…oh hi Dina, we were expecting you over here by now………..You got held up………Where are you?........You’re kidding……Stella and Jerry?.....Well I’ll be……..I was supposed to take Ronnie to a birthday dinner tonight but….”
It was at that second that Ada slammed a tray down onto the counter as hard as she could. We both looked at each other and our faces said the same thing, anger that Glenn would even think of breaking his promise to Ronnie.
He continued on the phone. “Well I can’t foul up an engagement party can I……..especially when I’m partially responsible for it………..I’ll tell you what, I’ll be there, I just have to get someone to look after Ronnie (Ada slammed some glasses into the cupboard)….Okay?”
I started to stomp out of the kitchen but not before I heard Glenn ask Ada, “Uh….Ada….”
And that was all he got out before she answered. ‘I’M BUSY!”“I mean it’s just for tonight, Ada,” he repeated.
“I’M BUSY!” She repeated back to him.
Glenn wasted no time in following me into the living room.
“Uh….Dag,” he said, “What’s up with Ada? Are the kids getting her down or what?”
“She seems all right to me,” I told him sweetly, with a big cup of sarcasm on top.“She almost bit my head off, all I said was would you help me out tonight.”
“Tonight?” I asked him as if I didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Yes, I had to take Ronnie to dinner but something’s come up. I can’t make it. I was wondering if you could….”
“I’M BUSY,” I told him just as Ada had done.
It didn’t stop him. “I mean all you’d have to do is….”
“I’M BUSY,” I said to him again.
He made a face and just then one of the younger children came running up to me with a picture in his hand.“What’s this picture of?” he asked.
I looked at the picture. It was a picture of George Bush with a rat photo shopped in. "Well there's two of a kind in your picture. The third of a kind is standing over there.” I said pointing to Glenn. Ask him, because it takes one to know one"
~~~41~~~
~~~Narration by Glenn Hamilton~~~
The Jerry I had spoken about on the phone was one of our on air anchors. He had been known to be quite a ladies man, but just before Christmas, Dina and I had fixed him up with Dina’s friend Stella. We weren’t sure it would work out as Stella and Jerry were complete opposites. Stella was beautiful, but shy and unsure of her self. Jerry was overly sure of himself, often to the point of being obnoxious and was quite the ladies man.
As it turned out though, opposites do attract and they had become quite an item. When Dina had called about their engagement, it was something I had not expected. But since I had helped get the two of them together, Jerry and Stella insisted that I come to their engagement party. Of course I had told Ronnie we would have dinner together just the two of us, but this was different. Sometimes important things come up that you have no control over, and Ronnie would have to understand that.
Eventually the last kid was out the door, and both Dag and Ada had left soon afterwards.
“Dad, they’re all gone now! Everyone!” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
“I’ll never be the same, Ronnie,”
“You were cool dad. All the kids said so. Boy, I had a wonderful, wonderful birthday.”
I laughed. “That’s good, Ronnie, that’s real good.”
“It’ll be so quiet tonight, I’m glad we’re going out to dinner and a movie.”
Suddenly, all of the reasons I had for bowing out of dinner with Ronnie seemed a bit awkward. I decided I had to tell him.
“Ronnie…..”
“Yes, dad?”
“I’m glad too. Happy birthday, Ronnie” I didn’t have the heart to tell him.
“Can Dag come with us?” he asked enthusiastically.
“Nope, it’ll be just you and me. Dag said she’s busy.”
I had it figured out. We would make a quick trip to McDonald’s then head over to Dina’s engagement party she was giving for Jerry and Stella. That way I was keeping most of my promise to Ronnie, and fulfilling my other obligation. Everything would work out just fine.
We went to the restaurant and had a quick burger together. Ronnie still seemed happy then. But when we got to Dina’s house, he suddenly turned sour.
“What’s this place, dad?” he asked.
“This is Dina’s home,” I told him. “We’re going to visit with her for a while.”
“But Dad!” he said, “I thought we were going to a movie together and to visit Mom?”
I had completely forgotten about our visit to the cemetery. “We’ll go to a movie next weekend, Ronnie, and I’ll take you to visit Joyce then. A friend of mine from work is having a party because he’s going to be getting married. You wouldn’t want me to disappoint my friend would you?”
“I guess not,” he said glumly.
“I promise, Ronnie, I’ll make it up to you.”
He didn’t answer, but followed me up into Dina’s home. When we got there, Jerry and Stella were there along with several of the staff from the station and some friends of Dina’s that I hadn’t met. Dina greeted us at the door.
“Happy Birthday, Ronnie” she said to him. “I’m sorry I missed your party. I would have loved to have been there.”
“That’s okay,” he answered sullenly. “You didn’t miss much.” The tone of Ronnie’s voice told me it may have been a mistake to bring him and that I should have looked for another sitter.
“Ronnie, I have a big television in my entertainment room if you would like to go in and watch it,” Dina told him.
“I’m okay,” he answered. She looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. Then she took my hand.
It was obvious to me that Ronnie was put out by being at Dina’s. I told myself that he would get over it by the time we went to the movies the following week. He walked way to sit in a chair.
“Come on, Glenn. You’re missing the party. I want to introduce you to some of my friends.” She took my hand tightly and guided me away from Ronnie over to a group of her friends.
As parties went it wasn’t bad. There was a lot of congratulations, and a little bit of drinking. Many of Dina’s friends asked me a lot of questions about the station, and they always seemed interested. Dina stayed right by my side, often linking her hand into mine. At one point Ronnie seemed to get bored with sitting in the chair and came over to stand next to me.
Jerry asked if he could take a picture of Dina and me since we were the ones who had brought the two of them together. We obliged him and I put my arm around Dina while he snapped the picture. When he had finished, I planted a kiss on Dina’s cheek, and she smiled. Ronnie saw it also, and after I had kissed her on the cheek he went back to his chair and sat down to sulk once again. In a few moments he motioned me over.
“Dad, can we go home now? I think I’m sick.”
“Sick?”
“Yes, dad. Let’s go home.”
“Look Ronnie, we can’t leave. All these people are expecting us to stay for a while. They all seem to like you.”
“But I don’t feel so good, Dad,” he told me once again. But I knew that wasn’t the problem. Not even close.
“Okay, Ronnie.” I said angrily. “Let’s have it out. What is there about Dina that you don’t like, and if you give me any nonsense about her having hair like Cruella, I’ll ground you for a week”
“But she does, Dad!”
“Ronnie, I don’t care if her hair is pink, yellow, purple, orange or all those colors at once. That’s no reason not to like her.”
His eyes started to tear up. “I’m trying, Dad. Honest!”
“Stop trying and just like her,” I almost yelled it at him. “Do you understand?”
He nodded, and I went to tell Dina we were departing.
“Is there something wrong with Ronnie?” she asked.
“He’s not feeling good. I guess we’re going to have to leave.” I watched as she looked at him for a moment.
“What a shame!” she finally said. “I’m sorry.”
“Well you know how it is with, kids. These things come on real quick sometimes. If you could make my apologies to everyone, I’d appreciate it.”
“Well, you’d better go, if he’s not feeling well.”
“You understand, don’t you?” I asked her.
“Of course,” she said still staring at Ronnie. Then she paused. “I do understand.”
I gave her a quick kiss and motioned to Ronnie that we were going. He didn’t have anything to say on the way home, but I had plenty to say to him. I had also made up my mind that for the time being, it would be best if I kept Dina and Ronnie away from each other.
As it turned out though, opposites do attract and they had become quite an item. When Dina had called about their engagement, it was something I had not expected. But since I had helped get the two of them together, Jerry and Stella insisted that I come to their engagement party. Of course I had told Ronnie we would have dinner together just the two of us, but this was different. Sometimes important things come up that you have no control over, and Ronnie would have to understand that.
Eventually the last kid was out the door, and both Dag and Ada had left soon afterwards.
“Dad, they’re all gone now! Everyone!” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
“I’ll never be the same, Ronnie,”
“You were cool dad. All the kids said so. Boy, I had a wonderful, wonderful birthday.”I laughed. “That’s good, Ronnie, that’s real good.”
“It’ll be so quiet tonight, I’m glad we’re going out to dinner and a movie.”
Suddenly, all of the reasons I had for bowing out of dinner with Ronnie seemed a bit awkward. I decided I had to tell him.
“Ronnie…..”
“Yes, dad?”
“I’m glad too. Happy birthday, Ronnie” I didn’t have the heart to tell him.
“Can Dag come with us?” he asked enthusiastically.
“Nope, it’ll be just you and me. Dag said she’s busy.”
I had it figured out. We would make a quick trip to McDonald’s then head over to Dina’s engagement party she was giving for Jerry and Stella. That way I was keeping most of my promise to Ronnie, and fulfilling my other obligation. Everything would work out just fine.
We went to the restaurant and had a quick burger together. Ronnie still seemed happy then. But when we got to Dina’s house, he suddenly turned sour.
“What’s this place, dad?” he asked.“This is Dina’s home,” I told him. “We’re going to visit with her for a while.”
“But Dad!” he said, “I thought we were going to a movie together and to visit Mom?”
I had completely forgotten about our visit to the cemetery. “We’ll go to a movie next weekend, Ronnie, and I’ll take you to visit Joyce then. A friend of mine from work is having a party because he’s going to be getting married. You wouldn’t want me to disappoint my friend would you?”
“I guess not,” he said glumly.
“I promise, Ronnie, I’ll make it up to you.”
He didn’t answer, but followed me up into Dina’s home. When we got there, Jerry and Stella were there along with several of the staff from the station and some friends of Dina’s that I hadn’t met. Dina greeted us at the door.
“Happy Birthday, Ronnie” she said to him. “I’m sorry I missed your party. I would have loved to have been there.”
“That’s okay,” he answered sullenly. “You didn’t miss much.” The tone of Ronnie’s voice told me it may have been a mistake to bring him and that I should have looked for another sitter.“Ronnie, I have a big television in my entertainment room if you would like to go in and watch it,” Dina told him.
“I’m okay,” he answered. She looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. Then she took my hand.
It was obvious to me that Ronnie was put out by being at Dina’s. I told myself that he would get over it by the time we went to the movies the following week. He walked way to sit in a chair.
“Come on, Glenn. You’re missing the party. I want to introduce you to some of my friends.” She took my hand tightly and guided me away from Ronnie over to a group of her friends.
As parties went it wasn’t bad. There was a lot of congratulations, and a little bit of drinking. Many of Dina’s friends asked me a lot of questions about the station, and they always seemed interested. Dina stayed right by my side, often linking her hand into mine. At one point Ronnie seemed to get bored with sitting in the chair and came over to stand next to me.
Jerry asked if he could take a picture of Dina and me since we were the ones who had brought the two of them together. We obliged him and I put my arm around Dina while he snapped the picture. When he had finished, I planted a kiss on Dina’s cheek, and she smiled. Ronnie saw it also, and after I had kissed her on the cheek he went back to his chair and sat down to sulk once again. In a few moments he motioned me over.
“Dad, can we go home now? I think I’m sick.”
“Sick?”
“Yes, dad. Let’s go home.”
“Look Ronnie, we can’t leave. All these people are expecting us to stay for a while. They all seem to like you.”
“But I don’t feel so good, Dad,” he told me once again. But I knew that wasn’t the problem. Not even close.
“Okay, Ronnie.” I said angrily. “Let’s have it out. What is there about Dina that you don’t like, and if you give me any nonsense about her having hair like Cruella, I’ll ground you for a week”“But she does, Dad!”
“Ronnie, I don’t care if her hair is pink, yellow, purple, orange or all those colors at once. That’s no reason not to like her.”
His eyes started to tear up. “I’m trying, Dad. Honest!”
“Stop trying and just like her,” I almost yelled it at him. “Do you understand?”
He nodded, and I went to tell Dina we were departing.
“Is there something wrong with Ronnie?” she asked.
“He’s not feeling good. I guess we’re going to have to leave.” I watched as she looked at him for a moment.
“What a shame!” she finally said. “I’m sorry.”
“Well you know how it is with, kids. These things come on real quick sometimes. If you could make my apologies to everyone, I’d appreciate it.”“Well, you’d better go, if he’s not feeling well.”
“You understand, don’t you?” I asked her.
“Of course,” she said still staring at Ronnie. Then she paused. “I do understand.”
I gave her a quick kiss and motioned to Ronnie that we were going. He didn’t have anything to say on the way home, but I had plenty to say to him. I had also made up my mind that for the time being, it would be best if I kept Dina and Ronnie away from each other.
~~~42~~~
~~~Narration by Laurie~~~
With each day that went by, my confidence in myself seemed to grow. I had made three new close friends in Abby and her partner, and in Elizabeth Schaeffer. Of course, Elizabeth had been my friend all along but I had never thought of her that way. Often I would stay after newspaper staff meetings and we would talk. Most of the things she would talk about were what we both foresaw as our future. She told me that I had a wonderful future ahead of me, no matter what career I had chosen. One thing I didn’t do and that was to tell her that I was a lesbian. I had no doubt that if she knew, it would go no further especially considering what she had revealed about herself, but when I was ready to come out, I thought it should be with someone I was closer to, someone like my sister Dag.
And of course there was Gail. I had always admired Gail’s carefree ways when she had entered her teen years. It had been a difficult time for Marcella and Gail when she had been growing up, struggling to make ends meet. It was both satisfying and gratifying to see that all of Marcella’s hard work had finally paid off and they could live comfortably without worrying how they were going to pay the light bill. It wasn’t long though before I saw trouble brewing on the horizon, although that wasn’t entirely true. From the day she had locked herself into a relation with Chuck Easterman, I had seen trouble on the horizon.
After Kurt and I had broken up, I had begun to see less and less of Gail. We still saw each other at school, and talked on the phone in the evenings, but Chuck had been occupying most of her time. Then suddenly, not long before spring break, things begin to change. She began to visit more often and although I thought it odd at first that she had managed to pull herself away from Chuck so often, Gail explained it by telling me that Chuck was very busy now that baseball season had arrived. But I wasn’t buying that explanation because Chuck had always been tied up with one sport or the other and it had made no difference.
There was also a noticeable change in Gail’s behavior during this time also. She had always been outgoing and vivacious no matter now dire the circumstances. Now, she was almost the total opposite.
Gail had grown quiet, as if she was drawing inward, and seldom wanted to talk about Chuck anymore. I knew there was something terribly wrong, but I was afraid to be too inquisitive. On most occasions, any negative comment I had about Chuck would have ended up in an argument. Finally one day when we were up in my room, I worked up the nerve to ask her.
“How are things going with you and Chuck?” I asked.
“If you are wondering if he’s mentioned getting married or anything the answer is no,” she replied. “Nor has he asked me to go to Florida with him.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” I told her trying to be reassuring. “He’s going on an athletic scholarship, so it’s not like he’ll have a lot of money for you two to live together.”
“Don’t be naïve, Laurie,” she told me. “Every college in the country was recruiting him. You don’t think he’s going to college on peanuts, not to mention that his parents are almost as well off as yours are. He won’t be hurting and will probably be living off campus whether I’m with him or not.”
“Well, this is only April, Gail. I think Chuck really cares about you. He’s probably just taking his time. He’ll have all summer to ask you to go with him.”
“Do you really think he loves me, Laurie? I know he has his faults, and I know I said once he was my meal ticket out of here. But I really do love him. I mean even if he doesn’t want me to go with him right away, that’s okay. I can wait.”
“I’m sure he loves you, Gail,” I said hesitantly. But I had only told her that to make her feel better. I had been around Chuck long enough to know that the only person Chuck would ever care about was Chuck. She looked at me, and for some reason I think she knew I had lied to make her feel better.
“Thanks, Laurie,” she told me. “It’s just that he’s always making excuses to break our dates all the time. And when we do go out, all he wants is to…….never mind.”
I knew what she was about to say. She wasn’t so dumb as to not know that I knew they had been having sex for a long time. Yet I knew she needed to talk so for the first time I opened the subject for discussion.
“All he wants to do is have sex, Gail?”
She lowered her head. “Yeah, Laurie. I know you’ve known about it forever, I just never felt right discussing it with you. But all he wants to do is have sex, and then he’s ready to go home. He’s making me feel…….more like a slut than that he’s in love with me.”
“Maybe you should break up with him,” I told her. “Maybe it’s time to move on, even if you do love him.”
“I can’t Laurie. Not just yet. If things don’t improve than I…guess I’ll have to. I may have done a lot of things I shouldn’t have, but I don’t want to be nothing but his sex toy. I’ve talked to him about it but he just laughs and says I’m imagining it and that he loves me.”
I shrugged my shoulders but I was deeply troubled not only by what Gail had told me, but because I felt there was something she still wasn't telling me. And I soon found out what that something else was.
One week later, on a Friday night that coincided with the beginning of our spring break, my worst fears were confirmed. It was ten o’clock when the phone rang, and mom answered it.
“Gail, is that you? Yes, she’s here.” Mom handed me the phone. “It’s Gail, and she sounds terribly upset.”
I took the phone. “Hi Gail, what’s wrong?” All I could hear was Gail crying hysterically on the other end. She was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t make it out.
“Gail, are you okay?” I was beginning to become worried. “Gail, please talk to me!” She was finally able to speak through her tears.
“Laurie, please come over. I…..I need you, please! ” she continued to cry.
“What is it, Gail? What’s wrong?”
“I….I…can’t talk to you about it over the phone. Please, Laurie. Mom went to Vegas for a week with a friend.”
“Okay, Gail. Try to calm down. I’ll be right there.”
“Please hurry, Laurie. Don’t knock. Just come on in” She
said and hung up the phone as did I. I turned around to face mom.
“I have to go out,” I told her. “Gail needs me”
“Laurie, it’s ten o’clock at night.”
“I know mom, but it’s important. I’ve never heard Gail like that, something is really wrong.”
She looked at me. “Sure Laurie, but your father will drive you over there. Won’t you Joe?”
“Of course. If you say it’s important," he said folding up his newspaper and rising from the couch.
Dad drove me over to Gail’s house although it was only a five minute stroll. I did as Gail asked and went into the house without knocking. She was still standing by the phone sobbing. I immediately sat down next to her.
“What is it, Gail? What’s wrong?”
“Oh Laurie, it’s awful. Everything is going wrong. Nothing is turning out like it’s supposed to.”
“Is it about Chuck?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yes. But it’s worse than you can imagine.”
I put my arm around her. “Calm down, Gail, and then tell me what it’s all about. She wiped the t
ears away and managed somehow to quit sobbing.
“He came over tonight, and wanted to have sex. But I couldn’t Laurie. And he got mad.” She began sobbing again.
“Why did he get mad? Just because you wouldn’t sleep with him? Did he hit you?” I began looking for bruises on her face but saw none.
“No…..he didn’t do that. Well….I was going to sleep with him later, but there was something I had to tell him first……and then he asked me what could I possibly have to tell him…..and then I told him.” She started sobbing once again.
“What was it, Gail? What did you have to tell him?”
“I had to tell him I was pregnant.” And then she let out the biggest cry of all. “Oh God, Laurie, what am I going to do?”
I led her over to the couch where she sat down. I sat next to her. I had always worried about this possibility with Gail, despite the fact that I was sure she was taking precautions. Although there is no birth control that's a hundred percent effective except just not having sex, when most birth control failed it was because of human error, and this turned out to be no different.
“For crying out loud, Gail, I thought you were using protection,” I yelled the words at her.
“Please, Laurie, don’t yell at me! We were! I was on the pill for a long time and Chuck was using condoms. But I began to put on weight and I thought it was the pills and I quit taking them for a while because Chuck said I was getting fat. I figured it would be okay since Chuck was still using condoms. But one night he forgot to bring anything and we didn’t think that it would hurt just that one time!”
"Dammit, Gail! One time is all it takes!"
“Please, Laurie. Don’t yell at me!” she wailed.
I stood up and begin to pace. I didn’t know what else to do. No amount of comforting was going to stop the tears now.
“And what did Chuck say when you told him?” I asked her.
“He said I was a lying slut because he’d been using protection, so he knew it couldn’t be his and that it was too coincidental that I would get pregnant the one time we didn't. But it is his, Laurie, I haven’t been with anyone else!”
“I know that Gail. And he’ll know it soon enough when he starts paying child support,” I told her. “I take it your mom doesn’t know yet”
She shook her head. “No, Laurie. And she’s not going to know either,” she said adamantly.
“You’re going to have to tell her sooner or later, Gail,” I told her.
“No I don’t, I’m not keeping it,”
“You’re giving it up for adoption?” I asked hoping that was what she was talking about but I knew in my heart it wasn’t.
“I’m going to have an abortion, Laurie. I have to.”
“Don’t’ be ridiculous, Gail” I chastised her. That only brought on more tears. “You don’t have to do that. Chuck can pay child support and I’m sure your mom can help you.”
“That’s just it, Laurie. Mom will insist on keeping it, and would never let me adopt it out. And I can’t do that to her. I grew up watching her struggle from day to day to pay the bills just so we could have a place to live. And now that she finally has a chance to enjoy life, I’m not going to take it away from her after she’s already sacrificed so much. And I don’t want to have my child watch me do the same thing and spend all their life feeling guilty about it the way I did. ”
“But Chuck will have to help you. You won’t have to handle the load alone. And you can get a job.”
“Chuck? What kind of father is he going to be? He’s already shown his true colors and I want no part of him. And how much help is he going to be if he’s going to college for the next four years. He won’t have any real income. And look at me? Do you think I’m ready to raise a child? Don’t you see, I don’t have any choice.”
“But that’s only four years, Gail. Everybody is saying he’ll be in the pros some day.”
“And what if he isn’t? What if he gets injured or isn’t good enough to play professional football?”
“That didn’t bother you when you talked about going off to college with him,” I reminded her.
“But I didn’t expect to be having a baby! And despite what I said about him being my ticket out of here, I did love him. I didn’t know he would turn out to be such a bastard! I need your help Laurie and I need you to stand by me. I can’t go through this alone.”
“I can’t do it, Gail. I can’t be part of this. What if my mother had an abortion? I wouldn’t even be standing here right now talking to you. She gave up her life rather than have an abortion.”
“Damn, Laurie! I know that. But your mother knew she would never be able to have another child. And you know there were other reasons she did what she did. Do you really think that if she hadn’t punished herself over what happened to Emily that she would have made the same decision? And she knew your father would be here to take care of you. I don’t even know where my father is.”
“And your mother will do the same as my father did!” I continued to argue with her.
“Your father was wealthy. My mother had to slave for every penny she’s earned and I’m not taking that away from her. And I won’t be able to support a child with any job I could get right now. That’s a big difference. If you don’t help me with this Laurie, I’ll find some other way to get rid of it. Isn’t that what they did in the olden days? How do you do it? With a coat hanger?”
I looked at her and I knew she meant it. She had made the decision and it was final. To deny my help to her in her time of need would be to deny our friendship, bringing the companionship we had shared for so many years to an end. And who was I to judge? Wasn’t this a private decision that only she could make and should be the one to make? And despite Kurt’s initial reaction when I told him that I was a lesbian, hadn’t he in the end stood by me? How could I do any less for Gail, who had been like a sister to me for so many years?
I sat down next to her once again. “Okay, Gail. You’ll get through this okay. I’ll do what I can to help you.”
She finally managed to dry her tears. I told her to go take a shower and while she did that I called my parents whom I knew would be up waiting for me to let them know everything was okay. The only thing I told them was that Chuck had broken up with her and she was very upset about it. I also told them I wouldn’t be coming home that night.
The shower helped Gail some but not much. She lay in the bed crying for the longest time while I held her hand. All she would say over and over again was how sorry she was. She was an emotional wreck. It was nearly five o’clock in the morning before she finally curled up and went to sleep.
I was very troubled also. I went downstairs to watch some TV for a while hoping to take my mind off things, but it didn't work. I had always believed in a woman's right to make a decision such as the one Gail had made. But yet, I thought about my own mother's decision not to have an abortion, and because of that I was alive and she wasn't. I wondered if I would have come to the same decision or would I have chosen to try and save my own life. I didn't have the answer. But I did know that it was important that my mother had come to that decision on her own and wasn't forced into it. Likewise, Gail had come to her decision on her own. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps the consequences of going through with the pregnancy wouldn't be fair to her or her mother who would surely want to raise it. And Gail was right about something else. She was not ready to be a parent.
By the time I fell asleep, the sun had begun creeping through the windows. I only slept a couple of hours, before awakening. Gail was still sleeping soundly. I quickly went through the phone book. I called the local clinic, and thankfully they were opened. I made an appointment. What I found out was that the the cost would be dependent on a number of factors. She would have to come in for an examination first, and she could do that on Monday morning. I made an appointment for 10 a.m. After finishing the phone call I hurried to take a shower and slip into some of Gail’s clothes.
It was about 12:30 in the afternoon when Gail finally woke up. I told her what I had done.
“Did they say how much it would cost,” she asked.
“No, they didn’t. Don’t worry about it though, because Chuck is going to pay for at least half of it.”
“You know he won’t, Laurie” she told me.
“What’s his number, Gail?” I asked her. She told it to me.
“Get up and take a shower,” I told her. “Then we’ll have something to eat.”
“I don’t think I can eat, Laurie. And I don’t feel up to a shower just yet.”
“Look Gail, you’re an adult now so it’s time to start acting like one. You knew the chances you were taking when you quit taking the pill, so you are at least fifty percent responsible for this mess. Now do as I ask you and go take a shower while I call Chuck.”
She started to sob. “And quit crying,” I told her. “You can cry later. Now please do as I ask.”
I knew I had sounded unsympathetic to her plight, but I was tired, and my mood had turned sour. None of which bode well for Chuck. I placed the call, and was glad it was Chuck who answered the phone so I wouldn’t have to go through his parents.
“Yeah, what do you want,” he yelled from the other end.
Typical for the jerk to answer the phone that way. “Chuck, this is Laurie, I’m over here at Gail’s”
“So? Do you want a medal or something? What has that bitch been telling you?”
“Don’t give me none of your crap, Chuck. I’m not in the mood. You know as well as I do that the baby is yours.”
“So what if it is? What do you want me to do about it? Anyway, you’d have to prove it first.”
“That wouldn’t be too hard to do these days butt wipe.” I told him. “A court order and a little DNA analysis and you're fried and you know it.”
“Well all I’ve got to say is try coming down to Florida to get it, because once I get there I’m not looking back.”
“Don’t be such an idiot, Chuck. You can get all the lawyers and make all the denials you want, but the end result will be the same. Not to mention that the big All Star can start his college career with a crap reputation. How do you think that’s going to look on the front of the sports page? I can see it now….Florida Quarterback Refuses to Support Child. Yeah, that’ll be good. They can run your sperm count underneath it right along with your stats. That should make for some interesting reading.”
I couldn’t believe it was me talking to him that
way. I had always been so mousy in my confrontations, but after the year I had been through, those days were a thing of the past. I had him cornered and he knew it.
“What do you want me to do? Marry her? All right, I’ll marry her!”
Thankfully Gail was still in the shower. “Do you think she really wants to marry your sorry ass? Not in this lifetime, bub. She’s decided to have an abortion. Lucky you, right Chuck? But you’re going to have to pay for at least half of it. I’m taking Gail to a clinic on Monday and I’ll know
Monday afternoon how much money we’ll need. You’d better call here at four o’clock on Monday because if you don’t I’ll do everything I can to talk her out of it. And don’t you think for one minute that I can’t do it.”
“I don’t have any money,” he told me.
“Bull! Like Gail has money laying around? I suggest you find a way of getting it, either from your parents or somewhere. You always have money, Chuck, so get it wherever you always get it. I’m not going to ask again. I’ll be waiting for your phone call Monday. And Chuck?”
“Yeah?” he growled.
“If you tell one single person, utter one word about this to anybody, I’ll make sure it gets out that you forced her into an abortion, and you can put that in your headlines also.”
I hung up the phone just as Gail came down the stairs.
“What did he say?” she asked.
“He says he will come up with half the money. Do you have any money at all, Gail?”
“I have a hundred dollars in the bank,” she told me. “I guess I should have been saving more. What if that isn’t enough?”
“Don’t worry about it, Gail. I’ll lend you the rest.”
“I’ll pay you back, every cent Laurie. And Laurie, I’m sorry to get you involved in this but I know I wouldn’t have been able to do all of this on my own. I hope you can forgive me some day.” She began crying again and I felt bad for the way I had talked to her earlier.
“Don’t worry about it, Gail,” I told her. “I’m just tired. It’s been a helluva year.”
She looked at me strangely. “Since when did you start swearing so much, Laurie?”
“Since today,” I answered. “And don’t look for it
to stop anytime soon.”
It took some fancy explaining to my parents as to why I would be spending the whole spring break week with Gail, but Mom accepted it. I didn’t lie to them; I just didn’t tell them everything. It was a weekend filled with a lot of tears pouring from Gail, and strangely a lot of quiet time. When she wasn’t crying, she would become silent and looked like she was a million miles away lost in thought. And though I may have disagreed with her decision, I knew it was one she had not made lightly, that she had weighed all the possibilities in her mind, and the one she had chosen was the only one to her that seemed reasonable. In a matter of a few days, I watched Gail turn from a naïve teenager into an adult, much in the same way I had been aged in the past few months.
We arrived at the clinic on time early Monday morning. Thankfully it seemed that the usual protestors had slept in that day and were no where to be seen.
The appointment at the clinic took quite a while. Initially there was much paper work to fill out. The women at the reception desk was kind and sympathetic so that was a plus. They gave Gail a stack of pamphlets to read, offering her counseling beforehand and afterwards if it was necessary.
There were a lot of tests, and an ultrasound to boot. Although the ultra sound wa
sn’t mandatory and many doctors wouldn't have bothered with it, the doctor who was going to perform the abortion for Gail liked to take every precaution possible. I expected him to be cold and distant, but he was just the opposite. He explained everything he was doing to Gail every step of the way. Although Gail had managed to hold her tears back most of the day I did catch her brushing them away once or twice.
They made the appointment for her to have the abortion on Wednesday afternoon. Marcella wouldn’t be home until the following Sunday, so that would help. The Abortion would cost us five hundred dollars. That meant Chuck’s share would be two hundred and fifty dollars, Gail had her hundred, and I would throw in the final hundred and fifty dollars. But that wasn’t the only problem. We could walk to the clinic or take a cab there on Wednesday, but we couldn’t walk or take a cab home. It was mandatory that we have our own ride back to the house. It was a stumbling block but not an insurmountable one. I would deal with it on Tuesday.
We managed to make it back to the house to wait for Chuck’s phone call, a phone call that didn’t come. By five o’clock I called and his mother told me he was out. At six o’clock I called and she said the same thing. At seven o’clock his mother told me that he had called home and said he was going to the beach for a few days with some friends. I slammed the phone down, and said a few choice words in regard to Chuck, which didn’t go unnoticed by Gail.
“Let me guess, no Chuck,” she said. “I’m sorry Laurie.”
“Don’t worry about that Gail. I’ve got you covered. I’ll just run down to the bank again tomorrow.”
“Laurie, won’t your parents know you are taking money out of your savings? Isn’t part of that your money for college?”
“Yes, it is. But there’s still plenty in there. No they won’t check it. There would be no reason for them to unless I suddenly return home with a new car.”
“I know I’m being a burden, again. Especially since you don’t agree with what I’m doing.”
I gave her a hug. "It's okay, Gail. You were right. Everybody's circumstances are different, and it's a decision every woman has to make on their own. There's nothing to be sorry about. I'll always be here for you. I'm sorry for the way I talked to you the other morning."
"It's okay, Laurie. Somebody should have talked to me like that a long time ago," she said through her tears. "I thought I was grown up enough to know what I was doing. I guess I wasn't as grown up as I thought I was or I wouldn't have made such a stupid mistake."
"We all make mistakes, Gail. Lord knows I've made more than my share. My father always talks about the mistakes he made in his life."
"But he tells me the most important thing is to learn from those mistakes, so that they are not repeated over and over again in our life."
"I've certainly learned from this one, Laurie. You can count on it," she said softly.
On Tuesday morning I ran to the bank to withdraw the rest of the money we would need. We still needed a ride home from the clinic and there was only one person I knew who had a car and could also be trusted to keep a secret. I called Kurt’s home, but there was no answer. I called his cell phone, and this time his voice greeted me.
“Hey Laurie, what’s up?” he said as soon as he recognized my voice.
I hardly knew where to begin. I decided to start with the obvious because there was no telling how much Chuck had been shooting his mouth off.
“Kurt, you haven’t seen Chuck lately, have you?”
“I haven’t been hanging out with Chuck for a while now, Laurie, especially since I decided not to play baseball this year” he told me. “So no, I haven’t seen him.”
“I need to talk to you Kurt, and I don’t want to do it over the phone. It’s really important or I wouldn’t bother you.”
“I’m at the arcade right now, Laurie. Can you meet me here?”
“Sure Kurt, I’ll be there in about a half an hour. And thanks.”
I headed over to the Arcade and Beanery and Kurt was outside waiting on me when I got there.
"The upstairs lounge isn't being used right now," he told me. "We can go up there to talk and nobody will bother us," he told me.
"That's perfect, Kurt. What I have to tell you is extremely private, but I know I can trust you more than anybody else."
On the way over I had thought I would try to find a way to get Kurt to give us the ride without having to tell him all the details. I thought I could do it, but in the end I decided to take my chances and tell him the truth. I owed him that much.
“You know you can trust me. But gee, Laurie, you look exhausted. Are you getting enough sleep?” He told me as we climbed the stairs to the lounge above The Beanery.
“No, Kurt. But I will soon. I'll explain everything to you in a minute."
"What's wrong, Laurie? What is it you need me to do?" Kurt asked as soon as we had sat down.
I quickly told him everything, beginning with Gail’s call to me the previous Friday. I also tried to explain the best way that I could as to why she had made the decision to have the abortion. Through most of it he frowned, when I told him about Chuck though, he looked angry. When I had finished he didn’t say anything.
“I know this is a big big favor Kurt, but all we need is a ride home. You don’t even have to take us there. If we have to take a cab home from the clinic we will, even if they said they didn’t recommend it and that someone should be there to drive her home.”
“What time is she supposed to be there,” he asked. I told him.
“Don’t worry about it, Laurie. I’ll pick the two of you up at Gail’s house. As for Chuck, I might pay him a visit also. One thing I know for sure is that Chuck didn’t go to any beach. He was out last night with some new girl already. One of the guys inside the arcade told me.”
I won’t write what I called Chuck that time and it caused Kurt to raise an eyebrow. But he didn’t say anything. We worked out the details of when he would pick us up, I thanked him again and hurried back home to be with Gail.
“I’ve got the rest of the money,” I told her. “And I found us a ride.”
“Who?” she asked me. “You didn’t tell them what we needed the ride for did you? Please tell me you didn’t.”
“Kurt. Kurt’s going to take us. And yes I did tell him what we were doing. I wouldn’t lie to him.”
“Laurie, I don’t want everybody to know,” she said as for the first time since the visit to the clinic the tears began falling once again.
“Kurt won’t say anything,” I told her. “I wasn’t going to lie to him. I would trust him with my very life.”
“After what he did to you, cheating on you and all of that?”
“Gail, look at me. Kurt did not cheat on me. That story was made up. He didn’t want people to know that I had broken up with him for no reason, or for what they would think would be no reason. He made that story up to protect me”
“Protect you from what Laurie?” she asked.
“Gossip. And that’s all you need to know about it right now, so please don’t ask me.”
“Sure, Laurie. I won’t. You can tell me about it whenever you want. I guess Kurt is one heckuva guy. I wish Chuck could have been one tenth the person he is.”
“So do I, Gail. So do I” I said softly.
You could argue the point that she had brought all of this on herself but as I had told her, it would be pointless. She wasn't the first woman to have made such a mistake and certainly wouldn't be the last. Even though I was always sure things wouldn’t work out with Chuck the way she had planned I had also hoped that I was wrong. I wondered how she would survive when I went off to college. We had always been there for each other in a time of crises. She had always told me she dreaded the day that I would leave even if it was only a hundred and twenty miles away. “I have lots of friends Laurie, but you’re just like my sister,” she once told me.
The next morning when I went in to wake her up, she was already up, standing at the window looking out. She did not turn around when I came into the room. I walked quietly over and took her by the arm.
“Are you okay, Gail?” I asked softly.
She simply nodded affirmatively.
“You have to take a shower and get ready to go, unless you’ve changed your mind. It’s not too late.”
She shook her head negatively and without saying a word walked off to the bathroom.
I went to her wardrobe and found her something to wear and lay it on the bed. I wanted to be as helpful to her as I possibly could.
When she came out of the bathroom, she didn’t say a word. She walked over to where I had laid her clothes on the bed, but made no effort to start getting dressed.
"Do you need me to stay up here with you?" I asked.
Again she shook her head. The doorbell rang and I knew it would be Kurt so I went to answer it.
“How is she doing,” Kurt whispered after stepping into the house.
“Okay, I guess. I don’t really know. She’s not saying anything and I’m not forcing it. This is extremely difficult for her Kurt, but I think she'll be okay.”
“Here Laurie, I have something for you,” Kurt said holding out his hand. It was a wad of money.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Just take it,” he said.
I did as he asked and counted it. It was five hundred dollars.
“Where did this come from?” I asked.
“Courtesy of Chuck. It took a little convincing but I can be convincing when I want to be. You won’t have any more problems out of him. I told him paying for the whole thing was the right thing to do. And I also told him that if he starts shooting his mouth off, he'll be investing in some new denture work so he can smile for the cameras in college.”
I gave him a hug.
“Kurt, you are one…”
“Yeah, Laurie I know,” he said interrupting. “I’m one great guy.”
“Well, you are Kurt.” I told him. I was quite sure how he had gotten Chuck to part with the money, and the remnants of a black eye Chuck returned to school with the following week pretty much confirmed my suspicions.
It was then that Gail entered the room. “Are you ready to go?” I asked her.
“Sure,” she said. “Thanks for doing this for us, Kurt.”
“Hey, Gail. Not a problem,” he told her. “You deserve better than what you got from Chuck.”
She simply nodded and we left.
I had expected the tears to start falling from Gail again once we got in the car but they didn’t. Instead Gail would simply stare out the window, or she would hang her head down. Nobody dared to speak, and the ride to the clinic seemed to take an eternity.
When we reached the clinic, and before they took her in the tears did begin to fall. She walked over to me.
“I’m sorry, Laurie.” She told me. I had lost count of the many times she had said “I’m Sorry” over the past few days. It must have been thousands. “I know you’ll never think of me in the same way anymore.”
When she said that I felt my own tears starting to form but I fought them off. “Quit it, Gail. Don’t ever say that. I understand, really I do. I know this has been a hard decision for you to make. I’ll always be like your sister, and nothing will ever change that, no matter where we are, no matter how far apart we are.”
She just simply nodded, but I felt a tear drop onto my cheek as she hugged me. “I couldn’t have asked for a better sister,” she whispered. Then she disappeared behind the door with the nurse.
I sat in a chair, staring at the wall opposite me. Kurt stood looking out the window for a long time lost deep in thought. He finally spoke, but didn’t turn around.
“This could have been us that this happened to,” he said.
“What do you mean, Kurt?” I asked.
“This could have been us going through this. If we had gone through with what we were going to do that night you ran off. If you hadn’t changed your mind at the last minute.”
I stood up and walked over to him.
“But didn’t you say you had brought some protection that night,” I reminded him.
“I had Laurie, but no birth control is a hundred percent effective, you know that as well as I do. So it could have been us. You could have gotten pregnant. And then what? If you had, we might have gotten married, and either one of us or both of us would have had to give up our dreams. Not to mention that you would have been very unhappy in a marriage with me, still trying to convince yourself that you loved me. I think Gail is doing the right thing. At least for her. At least she still has a chance for a good future.”
He was right. I had been within a hair’s breadth of going through with what we had started. There’s a better than good chance that I wouldn’t have ended up pregnant, but still you never know.
“I guess what I’m trying to say, Laurie. Is that I’m glad that you are who you are. I wouldn’t change one thing about you. Not one.”
“Not even turn me into a heterosexual if you could?” I asked him.
He smiled. “No Laurie, not even that. You are what you are, absolutely perfect the way you are.” And he hugged me, not as he had when he was in love with me, but as a friend, and he would remain so for the rest of our lives.
And of course there was Gail. I had always admired Gail’s carefree ways when she had entered her teen years. It had been a difficult time for Marcella and Gail when she had been growing up, struggling to make ends meet. It was both satisfying and gratifying to see that all of Marcella’s hard work had finally paid off and they could live comfortably without worrying how they were going to pay the light bill. It wasn’t long though before I saw trouble brewing on the horizon, although that wasn’t entirely true. From the day she had locked herself into a relation with Chuck Easterman, I had seen trouble on the horizon.
After Kurt and I had broken up, I had begun to see less and less of Gail. We still saw each other at school, and talked on the phone in the evenings, but Chuck had been occupying most of her time. Then suddenly, not long before spring break, things begin to change. She began to visit more often and although I thought it odd at first that she had managed to pull herself away from Chuck so often, Gail explained it by telling me that Chuck was very busy now that baseball season had arrived. But I wasn’t buying that explanation because Chuck had always been tied up with one sport or the other and it had made no difference.
There was also a noticeable change in Gail’s behavior during this time also. She had always been outgoing and vivacious no matter now dire the circumstances. Now, she was almost the total opposite.
Gail had grown quiet, as if she was drawing inward, and seldom wanted to talk about Chuck anymore. I knew there was something terribly wrong, but I was afraid to be too inquisitive. On most occasions, any negative comment I had about Chuck would have ended up in an argument. Finally one day when we were up in my room, I worked up the nerve to ask her.
“How are things going with you and Chuck?” I asked.“If you are wondering if he’s mentioned getting married or anything the answer is no,” she replied. “Nor has he asked me to go to Florida with him.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” I told her trying to be reassuring. “He’s going on an athletic scholarship, so it’s not like he’ll have a lot of money for you two to live together.”
“Don’t be naïve, Laurie,” she told me. “Every college in the country was recruiting him. You don’t think he’s going to college on peanuts, not to mention that his parents are almost as well off as yours are. He won’t be hurting and will probably be living off campus whether I’m with him or not.”
“Well, this is only April, Gail. I think Chuck really cares about you. He’s probably just taking his time. He’ll have all summer to ask you to go with him.”
“Do you really think he loves me, Laurie? I know he has his faults, and I know I said once he was my meal ticket out of here. But I really do love him. I mean even if he doesn’t want me to go with him right away, that’s okay. I can wait.”
“I’m sure he loves you, Gail,” I said hesitantly. But I had only told her that to make her feel better. I had been around Chuck long enough to know that the only person Chuck would ever care about was Chuck. She looked at me, and for some reason I think she knew I had lied to make her feel better.
“Thanks, Laurie,” she told me. “It’s just that he’s always making excuses to break our dates all the time. And when we do go out, all he wants is to…….never mind.”
I knew what she was about to say. She wasn’t so dumb as to not know that I knew they had been having sex for a long time. Yet I knew she needed to talk so for the first time I opened the subject for discussion.
“All he wants to do is have sex, Gail?”
She lowered her head. “Yeah, Laurie. I know you’ve known about it forever, I just never felt right discussing it with you. But all he wants to do is have sex, and then he’s ready to go home. He’s making me feel…….more like a slut than that he’s in love with me.”“Maybe you should break up with him,” I told her. “Maybe it’s time to move on, even if you do love him.”
“I can’t Laurie. Not just yet. If things don’t improve than I…guess I’ll have to. I may have done a lot of things I shouldn’t have, but I don’t want to be nothing but his sex toy. I’ve talked to him about it but he just laughs and says I’m imagining it and that he loves me.”
I shrugged my shoulders but I was deeply troubled not only by what Gail had told me, but because I felt there was something she still wasn't telling me. And I soon found out what that something else was.
One week later, on a Friday night that coincided with the beginning of our spring break, my worst fears were confirmed. It was ten o’clock when the phone rang, and mom answered it.
“Gail, is that you? Yes, she’s here.” Mom handed me the phone. “It’s Gail, and she sounds terribly upset.”
I took the phone. “Hi Gail, what’s wrong?” All I could hear was Gail crying hysterically on the other end. She was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t make it out.“Gail, are you okay?” I was beginning to become worried. “Gail, please talk to me!” She was finally able to speak through her tears.
“Laurie, please come over. I…..I need you, please! ” she continued to cry.
“What is it, Gail? What’s wrong?”
“I….I…can’t talk to you about it over the phone. Please, Laurie. Mom went to Vegas for a week with a friend.”
“Okay, Gail. Try to calm down. I’ll be right there.”
“Please hurry, Laurie. Don’t knock. Just come on in” She
said and hung up the phone as did I. I turned around to face mom.“I have to go out,” I told her. “Gail needs me”
“Laurie, it’s ten o’clock at night.”
“I know mom, but it’s important. I’ve never heard Gail like that, something is really wrong.”
She looked at me. “Sure Laurie, but your father will drive you over there. Won’t you Joe?”
“Of course. If you say it’s important," he said folding up his newspaper and rising from the couch.
Dad drove me over to Gail’s house although it was only a five minute stroll. I did as Gail asked and went into the house without knocking. She was still standing by the phone sobbing. I immediately sat down next to her.
“What is it, Gail? What’s wrong?”
“Oh Laurie, it’s awful. Everything is going wrong. Nothing is turning out like it’s supposed to.”
“Is it about Chuck?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yes. But it’s worse than you can imagine.”
I put my arm around her. “Calm down, Gail, and then tell me what it’s all about. She wiped the t
ears away and managed somehow to quit sobbing.“He came over tonight, and wanted to have sex. But I couldn’t Laurie. And he got mad.” She began sobbing again.
“Why did he get mad? Just because you wouldn’t sleep with him? Did he hit you?” I began looking for bruises on her face but saw none.
“No…..he didn’t do that. Well….I was going to sleep with him later, but there was something I had to tell him first……and then he asked me what could I possibly have to tell him…..and then I told him.” She started sobbing once again.
“What was it, Gail? What did you have to tell him?”
“I had to tell him I was pregnant.” And then she let out the biggest cry of all. “Oh God, Laurie, what am I going to do?”
I led her over to the couch where she sat down. I sat next to her. I had always worried about this possibility with Gail, despite the fact that I was sure she was taking precautions. Although there is no birth control that's a hundred percent effective except just not having sex, when most birth control failed it was because of human error, and this turned out to be no different.
“For crying out loud, Gail, I thought you were using protection,” I yelled the words at her.
“Please, Laurie, don’t yell at me! We were! I was on the pill for a long time and Chuck was using condoms. But I began to put on weight and I thought it was the pills and I quit taking them for a while because Chuck said I was getting fat. I figured it would be okay since Chuck was still using condoms. But one night he forgot to bring anything and we didn’t think that it would hurt just that one time!”
"Dammit, Gail! One time is all it takes!"
“Please, Laurie. Don’t yell at me!” she wailed.
I stood up and begin to pace. I didn’t know what else to do. No amount of comforting was going to stop the tears now.
“And what did Chuck say when you told him?” I asked her.
“He said I was a lying slut because he’d been using protection, so he knew it couldn’t be his and that it was too coincidental that I would get pregnant the one time we didn't. But it is his, Laurie, I haven’t been with anyone else!”
“I know that Gail. And he’ll know it soon enough when he starts paying child support,” I told her. “I take it your mom doesn’t know yet”
She shook her head. “No, Laurie. And she’s not going to know either,” she said adamantly.
“You’re going to have to tell her sooner or later, Gail,” I told her.
“No I don’t, I’m not keeping it,”
“You’re giving it up for adoption?” I asked hoping that was what she was talking about but I knew in my heart it wasn’t.
“I’m going to have an abortion, Laurie. I have to.”
“Don’t’ be ridiculous, Gail” I chastised her. That only brought on more tears. “You don’t have to do that. Chuck can pay child support and I’m sure your mom can help you.”
“That’s just it, Laurie. Mom will insist on keeping it, and would never let me adopt it out. And I can’t do that to her. I grew up watching her struggle from day to day to pay the bills just so we could have a place to live. And now that she finally has a chance to enjoy life, I’m not going to take it away from her after she’s already sacrificed so much. And I don’t want to have my child watch me do the same thing and spend all their life feeling guilty about it the way I did. ”
“But Chuck will have to help you. You won’t have to handle the load alone. And you can get a job.”
“Chuck? What kind of father is he going to be? He’s already shown his true colors and I want no part of him. And how much help is he going to be if he’s going to college for the next four years. He won’t have any real income. And look at me? Do you think I’m ready to raise a child? Don’t you see, I don’t have any choice.”
“But that’s only four years, Gail. Everybody is saying he’ll be in the pros some day.”“And what if he isn’t? What if he gets injured or isn’t good enough to play professional football?”
“That didn’t bother you when you talked about going off to college with him,” I reminded her.
“But I didn’t expect to be having a baby! And despite what I said about him being my ticket out of here, I did love him. I didn’t know he would turn out to be such a bastard! I need your help Laurie and I need you to stand by me. I can’t go through this alone.”
“I can’t do it, Gail. I can’t be part of this. What if my mother had an abortion? I wouldn’t even be standing here right now talking to you. She gave up her life rather than have an abortion.”
“Damn, Laurie! I know that. But your mother knew she would never be able to have another child. And you know there were other reasons she did what she did. Do you really think that if she hadn’t punished herself over what happened to Emily that she would have made the same decision? And she knew your father would be here to take care of you. I don’t even know where my father is.”“And your mother will do the same as my father did!” I continued to argue with her.
“Your father was wealthy. My mother had to slave for every penny she’s earned and I’m not taking that away from her. And I won’t be able to support a child with any job I could get right now. That’s a big difference. If you don’t help me with this Laurie, I’ll find some other way to get rid of it. Isn’t that what they did in the olden days? How do you do it? With a coat hanger?”
I looked at her and I knew she meant it. She had made the decision and it was final. To deny my help to her in her time of need would be to deny our friendship, bringing the companionship we had shared for so many years to an end. And who was I to judge? Wasn’t this a private decision that only she could make and should be the one to make? And despite Kurt’s initial reaction when I told him that I was a lesbian, hadn’t he in the end stood by me? How could I do any less for Gail, who had been like a sister to me for so many years?
I sat down next to her once again. “Okay, Gail. You’ll get through this okay. I’ll do what I can to help you.”
She finally managed to dry her tears. I told her to go take a shower and while she did that I called my parents whom I knew would be up waiting for me to let them know everything was okay. The only thing I told them was that Chuck had broken up with her and she was very upset about it. I also told them I wouldn’t be coming home that night.
The shower helped Gail some but not much. She lay in the bed crying for the longest time while I held her hand. All she would say over and over again was how sorry she was. She was an emotional wreck. It was nearly five o’clock in the morning before she finally curled up and went to sleep.
I was very troubled also. I went downstairs to watch some TV for a while hoping to take my mind off things, but it didn't work. I had always believed in a woman's right to make a decision such as the one Gail had made. But yet, I thought about my own mother's decision not to have an abortion, and because of that I was alive and she wasn't. I wondered if I would have come to the same decision or would I have chosen to try and save my own life. I didn't have the answer. But I did know that it was important that my mother had come to that decision on her own and wasn't forced into it. Likewise, Gail had come to her decision on her own. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps the consequences of going through with the pregnancy wouldn't be fair to her or her mother who would surely want to raise it. And Gail was right about something else. She was not ready to be a parent.
By the time I fell asleep, the sun had begun creeping through the windows. I only slept a couple of hours, before awakening. Gail was still sleeping soundly. I quickly went through the phone book. I called the local clinic, and thankfully they were opened. I made an appointment. What I found out was that the the cost would be dependent on a number of factors. She would have to come in for an examination first, and she could do that on Monday morning. I made an appointment for 10 a.m. After finishing the phone call I hurried to take a shower and slip into some of Gail’s clothes.
It was about 12:30 in the afternoon when Gail finally woke up. I told her what I had done.
“Did they say how much it would cost,” she asked.
“No, they didn’t. Don’t worry about it though, because Chuck is going to pay for at least half of it.”
“You know he won’t, Laurie” she told me.
“What’s his number, Gail?” I asked her. She told it to me.
“Get up and take a shower,” I told her. “Then we’ll have something to eat.”
“I don’t think I can eat, Laurie. And I don’t feel up to a shower just yet.”
“Look Gail, you’re an adult now so it’s time to start acting like one. You knew the chances you were taking when you quit taking the pill, so you are at least fifty percent responsible for this mess. Now do as I ask you and go take a shower while I call Chuck.”
She started to sob. “And quit crying,” I told her. “You can cry later. Now please do as I ask.”
I knew I had sounded unsympathetic to her plight, but I was tired, and my mood had turned sour. None of which bode well for Chuck. I placed the call, and was glad it was Chuck who answered the phone so I wouldn’t have to go through his parents.
“Yeah, what do you want,” he yelled from the other end.
Typical for the jerk to answer the phone that way. “Chuck, this is Laurie, I’m over here at Gail’s”
“So? Do you want a medal or something? What has that bitch been telling you?”
“Don’t give me none of your crap, Chuck. I’m not in the mood. You know as well as I do that the baby is yours.”“So what if it is? What do you want me to do about it? Anyway, you’d have to prove it first.”
“That wouldn’t be too hard to do these days butt wipe.” I told him. “A court order and a little DNA analysis and you're fried and you know it.”
“Well all I’ve got to say is try coming down to Florida to get it, because once I get there I’m not looking back.”
“Don’t be such an idiot, Chuck. You can get all the lawyers and make all the denials you want, but the end result will be the same. Not to mention that the big All Star can start his college career with a crap reputation. How do you think that’s going to look on the front of the sports page? I can see it now….Florida Quarterback Refuses to Support Child. Yeah, that’ll be good. They can run your sperm count underneath it right along with your stats. That should make for some interesting reading.”I couldn’t believe it was me talking to him that
way. I had always been so mousy in my confrontations, but after the year I had been through, those days were a thing of the past. I had him cornered and he knew it.“What do you want me to do? Marry her? All right, I’ll marry her!”
Thankfully Gail was still in the shower. “Do you think she really wants to marry your sorry ass? Not in this lifetime, bub. She’s decided to have an abortion. Lucky you, right Chuck? But you’re going to have to pay for at least half of it. I’m taking Gail to a clinic on Monday and I’ll know
Monday afternoon how much money we’ll need. You’d better call here at four o’clock on Monday because if you don’t I’ll do everything I can to talk her out of it. And don’t you think for one minute that I can’t do it.”“I don’t have any money,” he told me.
“Bull! Like Gail has money laying around? I suggest you find a way of getting it, either from your parents or somewhere. You always have money, Chuck, so get it wherever you always get it. I’m not going to ask again. I’ll be waiting for your phone call Monday. And Chuck?”
“Yeah?” he growled.
“If you tell one single person, utter one word about this to anybody, I’ll make sure it gets out that you forced her into an abortion, and you can put that in your headlines also.”
I hung up the phone just as Gail came down the stairs.
“What did he say?” she asked.
“He says he will come up with half the money. Do you have any money at all, Gail?”“I have a hundred dollars in the bank,” she told me. “I guess I should have been saving more. What if that isn’t enough?”
“Don’t worry about it, Gail. I’ll lend you the rest.”
“I’ll pay you back, every cent Laurie. And Laurie, I’m sorry to get you involved in this but I know I wouldn’t have been able to do all of this on my own. I hope you can forgive me some day.” She began crying again and I felt bad for the way I had talked to her earlier.
“Don’t worry about it, Gail,” I told her. “I’m just tired. It’s been a helluva year.”
She looked at me strangely. “Since when did you start swearing so much, Laurie?”
“Since today,” I answered. “And don’t look for it
to stop anytime soon.”It took some fancy explaining to my parents as to why I would be spending the whole spring break week with Gail, but Mom accepted it. I didn’t lie to them; I just didn’t tell them everything. It was a weekend filled with a lot of tears pouring from Gail, and strangely a lot of quiet time. When she wasn’t crying, she would become silent and looked like she was a million miles away lost in thought. And though I may have disagreed with her decision, I knew it was one she had not made lightly, that she had weighed all the possibilities in her mind, and the one she had chosen was the only one to her that seemed reasonable. In a matter of a few days, I watched Gail turn from a naïve teenager into an adult, much in the same way I had been aged in the past few months.
We arrived at the clinic on time early Monday morning. Thankfully it seemed that the usual protestors had slept in that day and were no where to be seen.The appointment at the clinic took quite a while. Initially there was much paper work to fill out. The women at the reception desk was kind and sympathetic so that was a plus. They gave Gail a stack of pamphlets to read, offering her counseling beforehand and afterwards if it was necessary.
There were a lot of tests, and an ultrasound to boot. Although the ultra sound wa
sn’t mandatory and many doctors wouldn't have bothered with it, the doctor who was going to perform the abortion for Gail liked to take every precaution possible. I expected him to be cold and distant, but he was just the opposite. He explained everything he was doing to Gail every step of the way. Although Gail had managed to hold her tears back most of the day I did catch her brushing them away once or twice.They made the appointment for her to have the abortion on Wednesday afternoon. Marcella wouldn’t be home until the following Sunday, so that would help. The Abortion would cost us five hundred dollars. That meant Chuck’s share would be two hundred and fifty dollars, Gail had her hundred, and I would throw in the final hundred and fifty dollars. But that wasn’t the only problem. We could walk to the clinic or take a cab there on Wednesday, but we couldn’t walk or take a cab home. It was mandatory that we have our own ride back to the house. It was a stumbling block but not an insurmountable one. I would deal with it on Tuesday.
We managed to make it back to the house to wait for Chuck’s phone call, a phone call that didn’t come. By five o’clock I called and his mother told me he was out. At six o’clock I called and she said the same thing. At seven o’clock his mother told me that he had called home and said he was going to the beach for a few days with some friends. I slammed the phone down, and said a few choice words in regard to Chuck, which didn’t go unnoticed by Gail.
“Let me guess, no Chuck,” she said. “I’m sorry Laurie.”“Don’t worry about that Gail. I’ve got you covered. I’ll just run down to the bank again tomorrow.”
“Laurie, won’t your parents know you are taking money out of your savings? Isn’t part of that your money for college?”
“Yes, it is. But there’s still plenty in there. No they won’t check it. There would be no reason for them to unless I suddenly return home with a new car.”
“I know I’m being a burden, again. Especially since you don’t agree with what I’m doing.”
I gave her a hug. "It's okay, Gail. You were right. Everybody's circumstances are different, and it's a decision every woman has to make on their own. There's nothing to be sorry about. I'll always be here for you. I'm sorry for the way I talked to you the other morning."
"It's okay, Laurie. Somebody should have talked to me like that a long time ago," she said through her tears. "I thought I was grown up enough to know what I was doing. I guess I wasn't as grown up as I thought I was or I wouldn't have made such a stupid mistake.""We all make mistakes, Gail. Lord knows I've made more than my share. My father always talks about the mistakes he made in his life."
"But he tells me the most important thing is to learn from those mistakes, so that they are not repeated over and over again in our life."
"I've certainly learned from this one, Laurie. You can count on it," she said softly.
On Tuesday morning I ran to the bank to withdraw the rest of the money we would need. We still needed a ride home from the clinic and there was only one person I knew who had a car and could also be trusted to keep a secret. I called Kurt’s home, but there was no answer. I called his cell phone, and this time his voice greeted me.
“Hey Laurie, what’s up?” he said as soon as he recognized my voice.
I hardly knew where to begin. I decided to start with the obvious because there was no telling how much Chuck had been shooting his mouth off.“Kurt, you haven’t seen Chuck lately, have you?”
“I haven’t been hanging out with Chuck for a while now, Laurie, especially since I decided not to play baseball this year” he told me. “So no, I haven’t seen him.”
“I need to talk to you Kurt, and I don’t want to do it over the phone. It’s really important or I wouldn’t bother you.”
“I’m at the arcade right now, Laurie. Can you meet me here?”
“Sure Kurt, I’ll be there in about a half an hour. And thanks.”
I headed over to the Arcade and Beanery and Kurt was outside waiting on me when I got there.
"The upstairs lounge isn't being used right now," he told me. "We can go up there to talk and nobody will bother us," he told me.
"That's perfect, Kurt. What I have to tell you is extremely private, but I know I can trust you more than anybody else."
On the way over I had thought I would try to find a way to get Kurt to give us the ride without having to tell him all the details. I thought I could do it, but in the end I decided to take my chances and tell him the truth. I owed him that much.
“You know you can trust me. But gee, Laurie, you look exhausted. Are you getting enough sleep?” He told me as we climbed the stairs to the lounge above The Beanery.
“No, Kurt. But I will soon. I'll explain everything to you in a minute."
"What's wrong, Laurie? What is it you need me to do?" Kurt asked as soon as we had sat down.
I quickly told him everything, beginning with Gail’s call to me the previous Friday. I also tried to explain the best way that I could as to why she had made the decision to have the abortion. Through most of it he frowned, when I told him about Chuck though, he looked angry. When I had finished he didn’t say anything.“I know this is a big big favor Kurt, but all we need is a ride home. You don’t even have to take us there. If we have to take a cab home from the clinic we will, even if they said they didn’t recommend it and that someone should be there to drive her home.”
“What time is she supposed to be there,” he asked. I told him.
“Don’t worry about it, Laurie. I’ll pick the two of you up at Gail’s house. As for Chuck, I might pay him a visit also. One thing I know for sure is that Chuck didn’t go to any beach. He was out last night with some new girl already. One of the guys inside the arcade told me.”
I won’t write what I called Chuck that time and it caused Kurt to raise an eyebrow. But he didn’t say anything. We worked out the details of when he would pick us up, I thanked him again and hurried back home to be with Gail.
“I’ve got the rest of the money,” I told her. “And I found us a ride.”
“Who?” she asked me. “You didn’t tell them what we needed the ride for did you? Please tell me you didn’t.”
“Kurt. Kurt’s going to take us. And yes I did tell him what we were doing. I wouldn’t lie to him.”
“Laurie, I don’t want everybody to know,” she said as for the first time since the visit to the clinic the tears began falling once again.
“Kurt won’t say anything,” I told her. “I wasn’t going to lie to him. I would trust him with my very life.”
“After what he did to you, cheating on you and all of that?”
“Gail, look at me. Kurt did not cheat on me. That story was made up. He didn’t want people to know that I had broken up with him for no reason, or for what they would think would be no reason. He made that story up to protect me”
“Protect you from what Laurie?” she asked.“Gossip. And that’s all you need to know about it right now, so please don’t ask me.”
“Sure, Laurie. I won’t. You can tell me about it whenever you want. I guess Kurt is one heckuva guy. I wish Chuck could have been one tenth the person he is.”
“So do I, Gail. So do I” I said softly.
You could argue the point that she had brought all of this on herself but as I had told her, it would be pointless. She wasn't the first woman to have made such a mistake and certainly wouldn't be the last. Even though I was always sure things wouldn’t work out with Chuck the way she had planned I had also hoped that I was wrong. I wondered how she would survive when I went off to college. We had always been there for each other in a time of crises. She had always told me she dreaded the day that I would leave even if it was only a hundred and twenty miles away. “I have lots of friends Laurie, but you’re just like my sister,” she once told me.
The next morning when I went in to wake her up, she was already up, standing at the window looking out. She did not turn around when I came into the room. I walked quietly over and took her by the arm.“Are you okay, Gail?” I asked softly.
She simply nodded affirmatively.
“You have to take a shower and get ready to go, unless you’ve changed your mind. It’s not too late.”
She shook her head negatively and without saying a word walked off to the bathroom.
I went to her wardrobe and found her something to wear and lay it on the bed. I wanted to be as helpful to her as I possibly could.
When she came out of the bathroom, she didn’t say a word. She walked over to where I had laid her clothes on the bed, but made no effort to start getting dressed."Do you need me to stay up here with you?" I asked.
Again she shook her head. The doorbell rang and I knew it would be Kurt so I went to answer it.
“How is she doing,” Kurt whispered after stepping into the house.
“Okay, I guess. I don’t really know. She’s not saying anything and I’m not forcing it. This is extremely difficult for her Kurt, but I think she'll be okay.”
“Here Laurie, I have something for you,” Kurt said holding out his hand. It was a wad of money.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Just take it,” he said.I did as he asked and counted it. It was five hundred dollars.
“Where did this come from?” I asked.
“Courtesy of Chuck. It took a little convincing but I can be convincing when I want to be. You won’t have any more problems out of him. I told him paying for the whole thing was the right thing to do. And I also told him that if he starts shooting his mouth off, he'll be investing in some new denture work so he can smile for the cameras in college.”
I gave him a hug.
“Kurt, you are one…”
“Yeah, Laurie I know,” he said interrupting. “I’m one great guy.”
“Well, you are Kurt.” I told him. I was quite sure how he had gotten Chuck to part with the money, and the remnants of a black eye Chuck returned to school with the following week pretty much confirmed my suspicions.
It was then that Gail entered the room. “Are you ready to go?” I asked her.“Sure,” she said. “Thanks for doing this for us, Kurt.”
“Hey, Gail. Not a problem,” he told her. “You deserve better than what you got from Chuck.”
She simply nodded and we left.
I had expected the tears to start falling from Gail again once we got in the car but they didn’t. Instead Gail would simply stare out the window, or she would hang her head down. Nobody dared to speak, and the ride to the clinic seemed to take an eternity.When we reached the clinic, and before they took her in the tears did begin to fall. She walked over to me.
“I’m sorry, Laurie.” She told me. I had lost count of the many times she had said “I’m Sorry” over the past few days. It must have been thousands. “I know you’ll never think of me in the same way anymore.”
When she said that I felt my own tears starting to form but I fought them off. “Quit it, Gail. Don’t ever say that. I understand, really I do. I know this has been a hard decision for you to make. I’ll always be like your sister, and nothing will ever change that, no matter where we are, no matter how far apart we are.”
She just simply nodded, but I felt a tear drop onto my cheek as she hugged me. “I couldn’t have asked for a better sister,” she whispered. Then she disappeared behind the door with the nurse.
I sat in a chair, staring at the wall opposite me. Kurt stood looking out the window for a long time lost deep in thought. He finally spoke, but didn’t turn around.“This could have been us that this happened to,” he said.
“What do you mean, Kurt?” I asked.
“This could have been us going through this. If we had gone through with what we were going to do that night you ran off. If you hadn’t changed your mind at the last minute.”
I stood up and walked over to him.
“But didn’t you say you had brought some protection that night,” I reminded him.
“I had Laurie, but no birth control is a hundred percent effective, you know that as well as I do. So it could have been us. You could have gotten pregnant. And then what? If you had, we might have gotten married, and either one of us or both of us would have had to give up our dreams. Not to mention that you would have been very unhappy in a marriage with me, still trying to convince yourself that you loved me. I think Gail is doing the right thing. At least for her. At least she still has a chance for a good future.”
He was right. I had been within a hair’s breadth of going through with what we had started. There’s a better than good chance that I wouldn’t have ended up pregnant, but still you never know.“I guess what I’m trying to say, Laurie. Is that I’m glad that you are who you are. I wouldn’t change one thing about you. Not one.”
“Not even turn me into a heterosexual if you could?” I asked him.
He smiled. “No Laurie, not even that. You are what you are, absolutely perfect the way you are.” And he hugged me, not as he had when he was in love with me, but as a friend, and he would remain so for the rest of our lives.
~~~43~~~
~~~Narration by Dag~~~
Was I perturbed with Glenn after the stunt he pulled at Eddie’s party? Yes I was as was Ada, and as she got ready to leave the day of Ronnie’s Party, she had confronted me in the hallway.
“Engagement party my foot,” she told me. “I don’t know what’s wrong with that man. She’s got him wrapped around her finger already. He looks like a man on the verge”
“The verge? The verge of what?” I asked her.
“Marriage. He’s on the verge of asking her to marry him. And don’t bother telling me I’m imagining it. If you’re ever going to be making your move you’d better be doing it real quick.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” I told her. “Why should I care what Glenn does with his private life?”
She laughed. “You aren’t fooling me. You’re attracted to him just as he is to you, but like I’ve been saying, you’re both a couple of mules.”
“I think you’re imagining things,” I told her. “Glenn and I our friends and that’s all we’ll ever be.”
“Well that’s true, you’ll be two friendly mules who’ll spend the rest of your life wandering what it would have been like to have at least dated each other. Look, Dag, if it were just you two involved I could care less, but that woman he is seeing will obviously have little use for Ronnie. That boy needs a real mother, not some high falootin fashion consultant.”
”You don’t know that, Ada.” I was beginning to get annoyed with Ada and her constant comparison of Glenn and me to mules. She didn’t know any more about Dina than I did. And all that nonsense about me being attracted to Glenn, was just her imagination running wild.
“Okay, Miss Smarty Pants Schoolteacher, then answer this. Why hasn’t she ever been over here to spend time with Ronnie? Why is it the only time Ronnie went to see her was at that restaurant when he first met her? And that was probably Glenn’s idea not hers. And then, of all days to call here and try to drag Glenn away from Ronnie she picks the day he’s been looking forward to for months? If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and acts like a duck, I’m telling you it’s a duck.”
“But Glenn changed his mind. He said he was taking Ronnie out to eat,” I protested.
“Only because we both told him we were too busy which gave him no choice. I can tell you right now exactly what's going to happen. He's going to rush Ronnie out for a hamburger then head over to Dina's. And the visit to the cemetery probably isn’t going to happen. They’ll never make it to that movie, you mark my word. Anyway, I’ve said what I’ve had to say and I have to be going. You just think about it.”
I followed Ada as she walked down the hall, and down the steps to leave. Then she stopped for a minute as if having thought of something and turned back towards me.
“And Dag, that little New Years Eve kiss and the way you two were looking at each other wasn’t my imagination. So don’t even try that bit about me just being a meddling old woman.” She turned back around and left, leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging wide open.
I walked slowly back into my apartment. She had been faking on New Years Eve. She hadn’t been asleep at all, the sly old devil. But what did she know? So we had a nice quiet talk, a couple of drinks, and shared a kiss. It meant absolutely nothing. Glenn and I a couple? How ridiculous could she be?
I sat on the couch and turned on the television. They were showing Titanic. It was a film I could watch over and over and often did.
I watched as Jack held Rose in his arms on the front of the ship and kissed her, held out her arms to make her feel like she was flying. Then they were in her cabin, Rose had stripped down to nothing except for wearing the heart of the ocean diamond, and Jack proceeded to sketch her. At that point there was a knock on my door and I muttered under my breath.
To my surprise it was Glenn and behind him was a paint easel.
"Where's Ronnie?" I asked.
"He's sound asleep, I had Ada come over and sit with him. I've been taking art lessons and I'm lagging behind in the model painting department. I was just wandering Dag, would you mind posing for me so I can get in some practice?"
"Why of course, not! How do you want me to pose, Glenn? You know I always want to help you in anyway I can."
"If you wouldn't mind, I think lying on the couch will work." he told me, “And would you mind taking off that dress? We’re doing nudes this week.”
"I don't mind a bit, Glenn," I said as I quickly
began to undress while he carried in the easel and set it up.
I finished undressing and posed for him on the couch just as Rose had done for Jack Dawson.
"Sorry, I don't have a diamond to wear like Rose," I told him.
"I didn't even notice," he told me.
"Are you going to be the perfect gentleman while you are painting like Jack was?"
"Yes, while I'm painting," he told me softly. "I can't guarantee anything when I finish painting though.”
I wasn't sure what that meant.
I soon found out. As soon as he finished painting, without saying a word he took off his clothes, came over to the couch and he commenced to kissing me, hot warm wet kisses that I return with a fury.
"Do you want me to stop?" he asked breathlessly.
"Hell no! Not now!" I grabbed him and pulled him tight against me.
Just then there was a wail of sirens as an ambulance and fire truck sped down the street towards some emergency. I awoke with a start and quickly rubbed my eyes looking over at the couch. There was of course, no paint easel, no Glenn, and I still had my clothes on. But I was breathing heavily and I was quite flushed to boot. On the TV, Celine Dion was singing My Heart Will Go On. I quickly turned it off. It would be a while before I would watch Titanic again. As I stretched, I silently cursed Ada for putting nutty thoughts into my head. I hurried into the bedroom, changed into a night gown and lay down on the bed.
“And damn you Glenn and your New Years kisses too” I told myself as I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning I went down by the pool to relax. Ronnie came out and asked if it would be okay if I would watch him while he went swimming. Of course I said it
would, and he dove into the pool without saying much else. I sat there and watched as he swam from one end of the pool to the other. He hardly looked at me.
Finally he climbed out of the pool walked over. He wasn’t smiling and seemed kind of glum.
“Thanks, Dag. I didn’t want to bother Dad. He’s sleeping late this morning and Ada isn’t here yet.”
He didn’t say anything else but started to leave. “Ronnie, aren’t you going to talk with me for a while?” I asked.
He turned back around and shrugged his shoulders. “Did you enjoy your party yesterday?” I asked.
He smiled for the first time that morning. “Yeah, thanks Dag. Thanks for helping Ada and Dad. It was a great party.”
“And what movie did your father take you to see last night?” I asked. His face turned sour again.
“We didn’t go to the movies or to visit mom. We went to Dina’s house and there were a bunch of grown ups there. Dad says we’ll go next week.”
Ada had been right. Glenn had done exactly what she said he would do. It was a good thing he wasn't out by the pool. I would have had a very difficult time biting my tongue.
“I’m sorry, Ron. I’m sure Glenn will make it up to you.”
“I suppose,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “I’ll talk to you later Dag.” He turned and started to walk away. I felt so sorry for him.
“Ronnie, do you think Glenn would care if you went to the movies with me today?” His face brightened up.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, Dag. I’ll run and ask him.” He took off like a lightning bolt, leaving me to ponder how right Ada had been in her guesses the night before. Five minutes later he was back.
“Dad says it’s okay, but he wants to know if I can spend the day with you? Ada’s not feeling well so she won’t be over. And he says he has some business to take care of.”
“Sure Ronnie, I’d be happy to have you spend the day with me. Go get some clothes on and get ready. As soon as I change I’ll be ready to go.” He took off running toward his apartment, as I went to mine to begin to change.
“Yeah, I can just imagine what business Glenn has to take care of on a Sunday afternoon,” I told myself.
It was seven o’clock in the evening before Glenn knocked on my door to pick Ronnie up.
“Hi Ronnie,” Glenn said upon entering.
“Hi Dad,” Ronnie said and turned back towards the TV making no effort to move.
“Come on Ronnie, it’s time to go home. You’ve got school tomorrow and you need to bathe and get your pajamas on.”
“Can’t I finish watching Spiderman,” he asked.
“You can finish watching at home,” Glenn told him. Ronnie turned off the television, got up, and walked past Glenn out the apartment door.
“Thanks for watching him,” he told me after Ronnie had left.
“I’m always glad to do it, Glenn. Did you get all of your BUSINESS taken care of?” I asked while being sure to emphasize the word business.
“Business?” he asked.
“Yes, Glenn. Ronnie said you had some business to attend to. You did get your business taken care of, didn’t you?”
He suddenly appeared uncomfortable as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, which of course he had been. He began shifting his feet nervously. “Oh yeah. Yeah, everything’s fine. We just had some electrical problems at the station and I had to be there to make sure they were taken care of?”
“Oh? An electrical failure? That sounds interesting. What kind of an electrical failure was it?”
“Oh, technical stuff. You really wouldn’t understand. Anway, thanks for looking after, Ron,” He said and then hurriedly left.
“Yeah, Glenn's done put his hand in the old cookie jar,” I thought to myself.
Two weeks later, was spring break. During this time, Reggie and I were going out together almost every night, to a movie, to my apartment to watch TV, to his apartment to watch TV, and of course there were some light making out sessions on the couch. Well, maybe not that light because we didn’t see much of the programs and I had just about decided that it was time to suggest in a subtle way that it was okay for Reggie to spend the night. Our sessions on the couch were beginning to leave me a bit frustrated.
But it was after one of these hot and heavy makeout sessions on the couch that I discovered that Reggie might be wanting to take our relationship to another level, but he wasn’t talking about the same thing that I had on my mind and what he told me worked better on me than any cold shower could have.
“You know, Dag, you’re really a terrific woman,” he told me.
“You’re an okay guy yourself,” I told him.
“I’m serious, Dag. I think any guy would be lucky to have you. I consider myself darn lucky right now.”
I didn’t know what to say to him. It was totally unexpected. I had not had any indication that he was getting that emotionally involved.
“Of course, I know you’re not ready to get real serious just yet,” he said. “Just so long as I know I’m in the game.”
“I didn’t know relationships were a game,” I said trying to be glib.
He laughed. “You know what I mean, Dag. I guess what I’m asking you is whether or not you could possibly ever see yourself being with me. Perhaps building a permanent relationship.”
I grew quiet. I didn’t really have an answer for him. Not a satisfactory one. For all the time we had spent together I had never been able to picture it as a permanent relationship. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t or wouldn’t. After all I was very fond of him.
“I just don’t know, Reg. Not yet. I know we’ve been dating a while now but you’ll just have to give me time. But if I don’t see any future between us, then I’ll tell you. I won’t lead you on Reg.”
He smiled. “I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with that for now,” he said. “But I can wait.”
I kissed him. “Thanks, Reg.” A short time later, he left. I had decided that it would not be wise to have sex with someone who was becoming a lot more serious about the relationship then I seemed to be.
“Engagement party my foot,” she told me. “I don’t know what’s wrong with that man. She’s got him wrapped around her finger already. He looks like a man on the verge”
“The verge? The verge of what?” I asked her.
“Marriage. He’s on the verge of asking her to marry him. And don’t bother telling me I’m imagining it. If you’re ever going to be making your move you’d better be doing it real quick.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” I told her. “Why should I care what Glenn does with his private life?”
She laughed. “You aren’t fooling me. You’re attracted to him just as he is to you, but like I’ve been saying, you’re both a couple of mules.”
“I think you’re imagining things,” I told her. “Glenn and I our friends and that’s all we’ll ever be.”
“Well that’s true, you’ll be two friendly mules who’ll spend the rest of your life wandering what it would have been like to have at least dated each other. Look, Dag, if it were just you two involved I could care less, but that woman he is seeing will obviously have little use for Ronnie. That boy needs a real mother, not some high falootin fashion consultant.”
”You don’t know that, Ada.” I was beginning to get annoyed with Ada and her constant comparison of Glenn and me to mules. She didn’t know any more about Dina than I did. And all that nonsense about me being attracted to Glenn, was just her imagination running wild.
“Okay, Miss Smarty Pants Schoolteacher, then answer this. Why hasn’t she ever been over here to spend time with Ronnie? Why is it the only time Ronnie went to see her was at that restaurant when he first met her? And that was probably Glenn’s idea not hers. And then, of all days to call here and try to drag Glenn away from Ronnie she picks the day he’s been looking forward to for months? If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and acts like a duck, I’m telling you it’s a duck.”“But Glenn changed his mind. He said he was taking Ronnie out to eat,” I protested.
“Only because we both told him we were too busy which gave him no choice. I can tell you right now exactly what's going to happen. He's going to rush Ronnie out for a hamburger then head over to Dina's. And the visit to the cemetery probably isn’t going to happen. They’ll never make it to that movie, you mark my word. Anyway, I’ve said what I’ve had to say and I have to be going. You just think about it.”
I followed Ada as she walked down the hall, and down the steps to leave. Then she stopped for a minute as if having thought of something and turned back towards me.
“And Dag, that little New Years Eve kiss and the way you two were looking at each other wasn’t my imagination. So don’t even try that bit about me just being a meddling old woman.” She turned back around and left, leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging wide open.
I walked slowly back into my apartment. She had been faking on New Years Eve. She hadn’t been asleep at all, the sly old devil. But what did she know? So we had a nice quiet talk, a couple of drinks, and shared a kiss. It meant absolutely nothing. Glenn and I a couple? How ridiculous could she be?
I sat on the couch and turned on the television. They were showing Titanic. It was a film I could watch over and over and often did.
I watched as Jack held Rose in his arms on the front of the ship and kissed her, held out her arms to make her feel like she was flying. Then they were in her cabin, Rose had stripped down to nothing except for wearing the heart of the ocean diamond, and Jack proceeded to sketch her. At that point there was a knock on my door and I muttered under my breath.To my surprise it was Glenn and behind him was a paint easel.
"Where's Ronnie?" I asked.
"He's sound asleep, I had Ada come over and sit with him. I've been taking art lessons and I'm lagging behind in the model painting department. I was just wandering Dag, would you mind posing for me so I can get in some practice?""Why of course, not! How do you want me to pose, Glenn? You know I always want to help you in anyway I can."
"If you wouldn't mind, I think lying on the couch will work." he told me, “And would you mind taking off that dress? We’re doing nudes this week.”
"I don't mind a bit, Glenn," I said as I quickly
began to undress while he carried in the easel and set it up.I finished undressing and posed for him on the couch just as Rose had done for Jack Dawson.
"Sorry, I don't have a diamond to wear like Rose," I told him.
"I didn't even notice," he told me.
"Are you going to be the perfect gentleman while you are painting like Jack was?"
"Yes, while I'm painting," he told me softly. "I can't guarantee anything when I finish painting though.”I wasn't sure what that meant.
I soon found out. As soon as he finished painting, without saying a word he took off his clothes, came over to the couch and he commenced to kissing me, hot warm wet kisses that I return with a fury.
"Do you want me to stop?" he asked breathlessly.
"Hell no! Not now!" I grabbed him and pulled him tight against me.Just then there was a wail of sirens as an ambulance and fire truck sped down the street towards some emergency. I awoke with a start and quickly rubbed my eyes looking over at the couch. There was of course, no paint easel, no Glenn, and I still had my clothes on. But I was breathing heavily and I was quite flushed to boot. On the TV, Celine Dion was singing My Heart Will Go On. I quickly turned it off. It would be a while before I would watch Titanic again. As I stretched, I silently cursed Ada for putting nutty thoughts into my head. I hurried into the bedroom, changed into a night gown and lay down on the bed.
“And damn you Glenn and your New Years kisses too” I told myself as I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning I went down by the pool to relax. Ronnie came out and asked if it would be okay if I would watch him while he went swimming. Of course I said it
would, and he dove into the pool without saying much else. I sat there and watched as he swam from one end of the pool to the other. He hardly looked at me.Finally he climbed out of the pool walked over. He wasn’t smiling and seemed kind of glum.
“Thanks, Dag. I didn’t want to bother Dad. He’s sleeping late this morning and Ada isn’t here yet.”
He didn’t say anything else but started to leave. “Ronnie, aren’t you going to talk with me for a while?” I asked.
He turned back around and shrugged his shoulders. “Did you enjoy your party yesterday?” I asked.
He smiled for the first time that morning. “Yeah, thanks Dag. Thanks for helping Ada and Dad. It was a great party.”
“And what movie did your father take you to see last night?” I asked. His face turned sour again.
“We didn’t go to the movies or to visit mom. We went to Dina’s house and there were a bunch of grown ups there. Dad says we’ll go next week.”
Ada had been right. Glenn had done exactly what she said he would do. It was a good thing he wasn't out by the pool. I would have had a very difficult time biting my tongue.
“I’m sorry, Ron. I’m sure Glenn will make it up to you.”“I suppose,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “I’ll talk to you later Dag.” He turned and started to walk away. I felt so sorry for him.
“Ronnie, do you think Glenn would care if you went to the movies with me today?” His face brightened up.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, Dag. I’ll run and ask him.” He took off like a lightning bolt, leaving me to ponder how right Ada had been in her guesses the night before. Five minutes later he was back.
“Dad says it’s okay, but he wants to know if I can spend the day with you? Ada’s not feeling well so she won’t be over. And he says he has some business to take care of.”
“Sure Ronnie, I’d be happy to have you spend the day with me. Go get some clothes on and get ready. As soon as I change I’ll be ready to go.” He took off running toward his apartment, as I went to mine to begin to change.
“Yeah, I can just imagine what business Glenn has to take care of on a Sunday afternoon,” I told myself.
It was seven o’clock in the evening before Glenn knocked on my door to pick Ronnie up.“Hi Ronnie,” Glenn said upon entering.
“Hi Dad,” Ronnie said and turned back towards the TV making no effort to move.
“Come on Ronnie, it’s time to go home. You’ve got school tomorrow and you need to bathe and get your pajamas on.”
“Can’t I finish watching Spiderman,” he asked.
“You can finish watching at home,” Glenn told him. Ronnie turned off the television, got up, and walked past Glenn out the apartment door.
“Thanks for watching him,” he told me after Ronnie had left.
“I’m always glad to do it, Glenn. Did you get all of your BUSINESS taken care of?” I asked while being sure to emphasize the word business.
“Business?” he asked.
“Yes, Glenn. Ronnie said you had some business to attend to. You did get your business taken care of, didn’t you?”
He suddenly appeared uncomfortable as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, which of course he had been. He began shifting his feet nervously. “Oh yeah. Yeah, everything’s fine. We just had some electrical problems at the station and I had to be there to make sure they were taken care of?”
“Oh? An electrical failure? That sounds interesting. What kind of an electrical failure was it?”
“Oh, technical stuff. You really wouldn’t understand. Anway, thanks for looking after, Ron,” He said and then hurriedly left.
“Yeah, Glenn's done put his hand in the old cookie jar,” I thought to myself.
Two weeks later, was spring break. During this time, Reggie and I were going out together almost every night, to a movie, to my apartment to watch TV, to his apartment to watch TV, and of course there were some light making out sessions on the couch. Well, maybe not that light because we didn’t see much of the programs and I had just about decided that it was time to suggest in a subtle way that it was okay for Reggie to spend the night. Our sessions on the couch were beginning to leave me a bit frustrated.
But it was after one of these hot and heavy makeout sessions on the couch that I discovered that Reggie might be wanting to take our relationship to another level, but he wasn’t talking about the same thing that I had on my mind and what he told me worked better on me than any cold shower could have.“You know, Dag, you’re really a terrific woman,” he told me.
“You’re an okay guy yourself,” I told him.
“I’m serious, Dag. I think any guy would be lucky to have you. I consider myself darn lucky right now.”
I didn’t know what to say to him. It was totally unexpected. I had not had any indication that he was getting that emotionally involved.
“Of course, I know you’re not ready to get real serious just yet,” he said. “Just so long as I know I’m in the game.”
“I didn’t know relationships were a game,” I said trying to be glib.
He laughed. “You know what I mean, Dag. I guess what I’m asking you is whether or not you could possibly ever see yourself being with me. Perhaps building a permanent relationship.”I grew quiet. I didn’t really have an answer for him. Not a satisfactory one. For all the time we had spent together I had never been able to picture it as a permanent relationship. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t or wouldn’t. After all I was very fond of him.
“I just don’t know, Reg. Not yet. I know we’ve been dating a while now but you’ll just have to give me time. But if I don’t see any future between us, then I’ll tell you. I won’t lead you on Reg.”
He smiled. “I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with that for now,” he said. “But I can wait.”
I kissed him. “Thanks, Reg.” A short time later, he left. I had decided that it would not be wise to have sex with someone who was becoming a lot more serious about the relationship then I seemed to be.
~~~45~~~
~~~Written by Glenn Hamilton~~~
I knew that Dag had seen through me that day I had told her I had business to attend to when she took Ronnie to the movies. I also knew that she was none too pleased with it, and obviously Ronnie had probably told her about the engagement party at Dina’s. But in a way I had been amused by her. When she had emphasized the word business with a bit of sarcasm it was something that Joyce would have done when she was perturbed at me by lacing all her comments with sarcasm. It was strange the way I continually drew comparisons between Dag and Joyce. And my thoughts would sometimes return to that New Year’s Eve kiss, and again I wondered what it would have been like to kiss her long and passionately. Then I would brush it aside. It was only natural for me to be curious about it. I mean, once you kiss a girl with a nice kiss like that, and she returned the kiss, it was perfectly normal to want to do it again. It didn’t mean anything special.
As for Dina, I seemed to be growing more and more attached to her. When I was with her, I never thought of Joyce at all. She was completely different from any woman I had met. By Easter break, I had begun to think about asking her to marry me.
There was still the problem of Ronnie however. Even after Ronnie and I spent a few days with Dina during Ronnie’s Spring Vacation, he had not warmed up to her one little bit. I’m sure it was because although he had said he wanted me to date and find someone, when it came right down to it he didn’t want anyone trying to replace Joyce. Of course, I didn’t think Dina would replace Joyce if I married her, but she made me happy and that was what was important. And hadn’t Ronnie himself said that was what he wanted most. The whole Cruella business was ridiculous and if I asked Dina to marry me, he would eventually get used to the idea and accept her. I was sure of that.
I was feeling a bit guilty in some ways about the time I was spending with Dina. I felt as if I had often neglected Ronnie. Perhaps I had been wrong to go to the engagement party. I made it a point to keep my promise to him and take him to the movies the following Saturday, and then I took him for ice cream afterwards. He was disappointed later when I left him with Ada to go see Dina, having once again forgotten we were suppose to go to the cemetery together, but not nearly as disappointed as he had been that night of his birthday.
In early May, McKinley Elementary School had what is called an open house. This is where all the parents converge on the school to talk to the teachers and see what projects they are working on and how far they have progressed in the school year. In other words they were going to let you know if your child was moving on to the next grade or if he was going to be held back.
Of course, all I had to do was walk across the hall and find out from Dag how Ronnie was doing, but it wouldn’t be the same. Ronnie told me that there would be drawings they had done hanging in the room, and that Dag would show some of the things they had written. I decided to make a day of it, going with Ronnie to the Open House, then taking him to the arcade and dinner afterwards. At least this time I was wise enough not to tell him this unless something did come up. A week before the event though, he sat in the living room looking glum.
“Dad, there’s something I have to tell you,” he told me.
“What is it, Ron?” I asked.
“It’s serious. Very serious.”
I looked at him puzzled. “Well then, let’s go over here to the couch and talk about it” He followed me to the sofa.
“I was going to tell you about it sooner dad, but I had to work up the nerve.”
I put on my serious face. “Okay, Ronnie, I’m serious. I’m sure we can take care of whatever is troubling you.”
He looked away, hesitantly.
“I’m sure we can do something about it, Ronnie.” I tried again.
He shook his head negatively. “There is nothing we can do, Dad.”
“Suppose you let me be the judge of that. What seems to be the trouble?”
He finally looked at me. “Do you promise you won’t tell anyone?”
“No, not a soul. This is between you and me.”
Ronnie took a deep breath. “Dad, for the first time in my life, my whole life, I’m in love.”
“That is very serious, Ronnie.” I told him. I quickly tried to think back over the many years to my first crush and what it felt like. I thought of Dora Lou, in the third grade, and suddenly that made it easy to sympathize with Ronnie.
“And she loves me, Dad.”
“That’s good. I’m glad of that, Ronnie. What’s her name?”
“Her name is Cherry.”
“That’s a very pretty name.” I said. And at least that was true.
Ronnie continued. “But her real name is Cheryl Candace.
Cherry for short.”
“Do you know what, you should call her Cherry Candy,” I told him chuckling. He didn’t get the joke.
“Don’t kid me, dad.”
“I’m sorry Ron," I told him as I quickly stifled my laugh. "Is she real pretty?”
“She’s beautiful, dad. Except from behind.”
Now I was puzzled. “Behind?” I asked.
“Girls aren’t so pretty from behind,” he told me. I wasn’t about to ask how he arrived upon that conclusion.
“You must like her an awful lot, Ronnie.”
“I do. I ain’t kidding around, dad. I’d like to give her a present.”
“You would? That’s very nice. What would you like to give her?”
“Money,” he answered.
“Money?” The thought occurred to me that most people liked money which meant that Cherry Candy would fit in with the rest of the world quite well.
“Yes. I’d like to give her money.”
“Why don’t you just give her a book or something?” I offered.
“She can’t read good and I wouldn’t want to make her feel bad. I’d like to give her the things she likes best.”
“And she likes money the best?” I asked. At least the girl was honest about it.
“She loves money. She thinks money is terrific. Honest.”
“Well I’m sorry Ronnie, but you can’t give her money. Why don’t you give her something else? Something of yours, something you like very much? Women like that. It pleases them very much.”
“I know! I can give her my old sneakers.” He told me.
“Ronnie, you aren’t listening to me at all. You can’t give her sneakers.”
“But Dad, she loves my old sneakers that I keep in my locker. She asked if she could borrow them to run a race, and she won. She loves my old sneakers.”
I was trying to keep from laughing. “That would be a perfect gift, Ronnie.”
The next night I was telling Dina about the event at the school. She seemed very interested in it.
“Isn’t your neighbor, Dag, Ronnie’s teacher?” she asked.
“Yes she is, I thought I had told you that before,”
“You did, dear but it must have slipped my mind. You know, Glenn, this would be an excellent time for the three of us to spend some time together. Perhaps Ronnie hasn’t taken to me because I just don’t know enough about him yet. I’m sure if I went to the school with you, it would give me a wonderful opportunity to find out what he likes to do and what his interests are. Then afterwards the three of us can come back here and have dinner”
I thought about it. I know I had promised Ronnie that the two of us would spend the day together, but this would be an opportunity for the two of them to finally break down the wall between them. And I was sure Ronnie would like the fact that Dina was taking such an interest in his school work.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea.” I told her.
Of course Ronnie didn’t appear to be overjoyed when I told him that Dina would be accompanying us to the open house and to the arcade, but at least he didn’t fuss too much about
it. And unlike the day of the birthday party things at least started out much better. Dina did show up on time at our apartment. He was civil and polite to Dina, if not overly enthusiastic.
“You have a real nice apartment, Glenn, although it could use a woman’s touch or just a good decorator.”
“Well, I’ve never been into that sort of thing much. That was always Joyce’s department. Shall we go?”
“Why of course, I am certainly looking forward to meeting Ronnie’s teacher. Imagine, living right next door to her! That must be very convenient when you want to check up on Ronnie’s school work.”
“Dag’s a good person,” I told her. “She just adores Ronnie. They’re more like buddies than teacher and student, at least when they aren’t at school. And she’s helped me out on a number of occasions, watching Ron while I’ve been away, and she often helps Ada out.”
“Well, she sounds very nice, shall we go.”
“Of course,” I said.
The school was crowded with lots of kids, and lots of parents. Dag was busy with one set of
parents so Ronnie showed us a drawing he did that was hanging on the wall.
“That’s simply exquisite, Ronnie,” Dina told him. “You just might be the next Van Gogh”
Ronnie looked puzzle. “Go where in a van?” he asked.
“No Ronnie. Dina’s talking about Vincent Van Gogh. He was a famous painter.”
“Oh!” he answered. “I suppose so. But it's a painting of dad."
"You did a good job Ronnie. It looks just like me."
Finally Dag was free and came over to us.
“Hello Glenn, Hello Ronnie,” She greeted us.
“Hello Dag,” I replied. “Dag, this is Dina Mason.” I told her introducing the two of them.
Dag held out her hand. “Why Miss Mason, we finally meet. Glenn and Ronnie have told me so much about you.”
“And they have told me so much about you also, Miss. Baker,” Dina said while taking Dag’s hand and shaking it.
“Please, call me Dag. I’m glad that you and Glenn were able to take time out of your busy schedules to attend today. As a teacher, we can only do so much and the rest is up to the parents. Of course, Glenn has always taken an interest and pride in Ronnie’s school work, when he has the time of course.”
I wasn’t stupid. I knew Dag was getting in a few zingers because of my current preoccupation with Dina and was putting me in my place. Again it reminded me of what Joyce would have done when I got out of line and every time it happened it was unnerving.
“Well, Glenn is a man of many talents,” Dina said.
“I’m sure he is,” Dag said. “I’m sure you’ve seen many of the talents that Glenn has that I haven’t seen yet. And I know it is difficult especially on those little emergency and electrical problems he keeps getting called away for on the weekends. Of course, my own teaching career keeps me quite busy.”
“Yes, your teaching career,” Dina said. “I think it’s wonderful that you are willing to sacrifice the opportunity for a real career in order to shape the minds of our youth so that they can read, add, multiply, divide and subtract.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m sacrificing anything at all,” Dag said. “Teaching is a career. And I do very little shaping of their minds. All I do is get them to use their own brain power so that they can reason and think things out for themselves. Of course I can imagine that being a fashion consultant is challenging and difficult. Why, I remember when I was a child I use to spend at least fifteen or twenty minutes trying to decide what outfit I should put on my Barbie Doll.”
Dina was scowling. Dag was smiling. It was easy enough to see who was getting the best of whom. I decided to end the match before Dina got skunked.
“Uh, Dag, do you have more of Ronnie’s work you would like me to see?” I asked.
“Sure, Glenn, it’s over here on my desk.” She went to her desk and brought me a sheet of notebook paper with a short essay on it that I began to read aloud:
“My Favorite Person is my dad. He was there to hold me when my mommy was gone. Sometimes he takes me to the movies. He taught me how to swim and ride my bike. Sometimes he is very busy at work, but he loves me just the same. He gave me a birthday party. I never had a birthday party before. It was the best day of my whole life. When my dad is happy, I am happy. When my dad is sad, I am sad. I think my dad is the best dad in the world.”
If Dag had purposely selected this particular paper to show me at the Open House to lay a guilt trip on me, it had done the job well.
“That’s a very nice paper, Ronnie,” I told him. “I think you’re the best son in the whole wide world also.”
“As you already know, Glenn. Ronnie is an exceptional student. He does all his work, and in some aspects is ahead of many of my students in his abilities. I think you’re doing a terrific job with him.” Dag told me.
I looked at her. She had said the words with kindness and caring, not as a clinical analysis. Dag was wrong. Teaching wasn’t just a career for her. It was a passion.
“I think you can take a lot of credit for that also,” I told her. “I just wish all teachers took as much of an interest in their students welfare as you do.”
“Thank you, Glenn.” She said. “I think that’s the highest compliment I’ve received all day.” Her voice trailed off, almost into a soft whisper.
For a brief but passing instant, it almost seemed as if Dag and I were the only ones in the room. I could smell her perfume, not overly strong as Dina often wore it, but just the right amount of it and I wanted to know what kind it was. I had never noticed how soft her coal black hair was and I had the sudden urge to softly run my fingers through it. I had never really taken the time to consider how much I truly admired Dag or how truly beautiful a person she was, both inside and out. And then there were those dark brown eyes of hers which captivated me. I was amazed by the way they sparkled and glistened when she talked about things she truly cared about.
“Well, it’s getting late, Glenn,” Dina said way too loudly to interrupt my thoughts. “I’m sure Ronnie would like to get to the arcade.”
I quickly turned to Ronnie, suddenly embarrassed as if I had been caught doing something I shouldn’t have. Dag had quickly turned away to her desk also and quickly shuffled some papers.
“Can we Dad? Can we go now?” Ronnie asked excitedly.
“Sure, Ronnie. Whatever you say. And Dag, thanks again for everything, and not just for what you’ve done here in the classroom.”
“It’s my pleasure, Glenn.” She said. We walked away and another set of parents immediately
took our place.
As we entered the arcade Ronnie suddenly became very excited and a big grin suddenly appeared on his face. I hadn't seen that big of a smile on his face since his birthday party. He quickly pulled me aside and began whispering to me so that Dina wouldn’t hear.
“It’s her dad. She’s over there on that game!”
“Who Ronnie?”
“Cherry. It’s Cherry. Come with me so she can meet you.”
“What was that all about,” Dina asked.
“Uh…Ronnie just wants us to meet a friend of his.”
We walked over to where Cherry was playing the game. When she saw Ronnie, she smiled. Ronnie smiled back at her and they stood there looking at each other for what seemed like the longest time as if they had both entered into a hypnotic trance. Both of them suddenly became oblivious to me, Dina, and everybody else in the arcade. I had a very uncomfortable feeling that I had played this scene out myself very recently.
“Ronnie, you were going to introduce us to your friend,” I finally reminded him.
“Oh, yeah. Cherry, this is my dad and his friend Dina.”
“Hi, Mr. Baker,” she told me and that was all. Then they went back to staring at each other.
“Would you like to play a game, Ronnie,” she finally asked him.
“Sure, Cherry,” he told her.
They began feeding tokens into the machine, oblivious to Dina and I who were standing there. We watched them for about fifteen minutes then decided to go outside to sit.
“Ronnie, we’ll be right outside when you finish.” I told him.
He nodded. “Sure dad.”
Dina and I went outside, sitting on a bench where we could easily see Ronnie when he emerged.
“I wish you would look at me like that sometimes,” Dina told me.
“Oh, they’re just kids,” I replied.
“I was talking about the way you were looking at Dag,” she said.
“I wasn’t aware that I was looking at Dag in any special way,” I told her. “You’re just imagining things.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” she replied. “Perhaps I should change my profession and become a grade school teacher.”
I laughed. I couldn’t imagine Dina being a school teacher and let out a chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Nothing, nothing at all. Dina, I love you. I care about you a great deal. There’s no reason at all for you to be insecure.”
“I guess you’re right. Of course, you can’t blame me for being jealous. Dag is a very attractive woman.”
"I suppose so," I said shrugging my shoulders. I didn't think it would be a good move to agree too readily with Dina in this instance.
After a while, we saw Cherry leaving the arcade with her parents. Ronnie stood at the top of the steps watching her as she left. He stood there until they had completely walked out of site. Cherry, for her part, had kept looking back at Ronnie and smiling.
“Ronnie,” Dina told him. “You’re really good at those arcade games. You must practice at home a lot.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty good at them.”
“And your little friend, Cherry seemed nice also,” Dina added. “Do I sense love in the air, Ronnie?”
The look that came over Ronnie’s face was horrible.
“Ronnie, I didn’t say anything,” I quickly told him. “Honest,”
“Did I say something wrong?” Dina asked.
“No,” I told her. “It’s okay. Why don’t you get in the car so that I can speak to Ronnie for a moment.” She gave me a look and then walked off.
I looked at Ronnie who was looking at Dina with fire in his eyes as she walked away. He turned to me, on the verge of tears.
“You told her,” he said accusingly.
“I did not tell her, son.”
“Then how did she know?”
“Ronnie, you were practically standing on your head for that girl when you were in the arcade. How could she not know?”
“You mean Dina guessed?”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” I told him hoping it would appease him. It didn’t.
“Is she a fortune teller or something? I don’t like Dina, Dad. She butts in. Don’t you like Dag? What if you marry Dina and she knows everything?”
“Stop it,” I told him pointing my finger at him adamantly. “All right, now let’s get this one thing straight. You’re a boy and I’m a man. When you grow up you’ll live your life. I live my life. That’s what a man is supposed to do. I’m going to tell you something, Ronnie. I’m going to ask Dina to marry me. That’s the way it is, Ronnie.”
The same look he had given to Rita only a few minutes earlier he was now giving to me. I walked towards Dina who still hadn’t gone to the car. For a moment I hesitated and turned back toward Ronnie. He wouldn’t look at me. I put my hand on his shoulder and patted it. “Try to understand, Ronnie.”
When I reached Dina, she asked me if everything was okay.
"Everythings just dandy," I told her teresely. But I think the look on my face told her everything she wanted to know.
The drive to Dina’s house was long and quiet. Even Dina seemed to have nothing to say.
When we went inside, dinner had already been laid out for us. Ronnie said he wasn’t hungry and I didn’t force the issue.
“Ronnie, if you would like, you can go into the entertainment room and watch television,” she told him. “I have a satellite dish so I’m sure you can find something interesting to watch.”
He simply nodded and walked off to the entertainment room with his head down.
Dina and I sat down to eat also, but I had lost a good deal of my appetite. I forced myself to eat so Dina wouldn't be offended. Dina, for her part, kept the conversation going as if there were nothing wrong.
"Ronnie's not getting ill again is he?" she asked.
"No, Ronnie's fine. He's just being a bit moody."
After dinner, I decided that I could wait no longer. The sooner Ronnie was forced to face up to the reality of the situation the better. Dina and I had been sitting on the sofa quite a while, when I finally worked up the nerve.
“It’s been a long and tiring day," she said. “I'm over tired, overhiked, and overfed. In short, I’m deliciously exhausted.”
“Good! Then I’ll take advantage of your weakened condition, and come right out with it now.”
“Sounds ominous. Out with what?”
“I don’t think you’re going to be very surprised. Shall I get down on one knee?”
She didn’t answer but looked away for a minute which was not a good sign.
“What’s the matter, have I botched it up? Have I picked the wrong time, the wrong place?” I asked.
“No, Glenn,” she answered quickly. “Of course not. It’s just that I think there are some things we should discuss. Something that ought to be cleared up between us if we…..” she didn’t finish.
“Go ahead,” I urged her.
She continued. “Glenn, I’ve always been a realist. For better or worse I’ve always tried to say what I think.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” I assured her.
“Then surely you must realize darling that Ronnie isn’t exactly going to welcome me with open arms.”
“Ronnie? You were the one who said that a little bit of jealousy was perfectly normal. You just have to give him time, that’s all.”
“He’s had time. He’s had plenty of time. And it hasn’t done much good.”
“But he’s only a child,” I explained. “I mean, surely you and I can look at this thing in a mature way?”
“Exactly!” she responded. “That’s just what I’m trying to do. Glenn, if there were some way that Ronnie could go and spend a few months with your brother and his family, just at first…..”
It was one thing that I hadn’t expected.
“Send…..Ronnie…away?” I asked slowly emphasizing each word.
“Not forever, Glenn. Just to give us a chance to get our life started together. That’s all I’m asking.”
I didn’t answer her. I looked at my hand then looked away. I wasn’t really sure I needed to say anything, as my face probably said it all. Send Ronnie away? It was something I could never do. Not for several months. Not now when he was so dependent on me after the death of his mother.
“Can you think of anything else?” she asked as if hoping I would come up with another option. “Ronnie’s not going to change suddenly, just because we’re married. Darling, we must face this now.”
“I know,” I told her. “Maybe we should just sit on this for a while.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Think about it Glenn. It won’t be for that long. And maybe he’ll look at the situation differently afterwards.”
“Well, it’s getting late,” I told her. “I should be getting Ronnie home to bed.”
I walked into the entertainment room to retrieve Ronnie. The TV was on, but there was no Ronnie in sight. That didn't bother me as I figured he must have gone to the bathroom or somewhere else. I headed to the bathroom but there was no Ronnie. I hollered his name. There was no response so I quickly headed back down the stairs.
“What’s wrong, Glenn?” Dina asked.
“I can’t find Ronnie,” I told her.
“I’m sure he’s somewhere in the house, we’ll find him.
Why don't you check all the upstairs rooms and I'll look down stairs. He's probably just playing hide and seek or something."
I knew Ronnie wasn't playing hide and seek. I hadn't known anytime that he had refused to answer me when I had called for him.
I began going from room to room, searching every nook and cranny while hollering his name. I could hear Dina doing the same two floors below me. It was obvious he was no where in the house.
I reached the bottom landing just as Dina was coming back up the stairs.
"Well, it's obvious he's not in the house," I told her.
"Perhaps he's outside," Dina offered. And as soon as she said that I wanted to kick myself as thoughts raced through my head. Dina's pool! I raced towards the outside,
hating myself for having been so careless. Hadn't Dag warned me about this before? Hadn't she told me of her own accident in a pool when she was a child?
"At least Ronnie was an excellent swimmer," I thought to myself. But this was the second time I had relied on that excuse.
As I ran down the steps to the pool I quickly breathed a sigh of relief. Ronnie wasn't in the pool. He was no where around. I continually walked the grounds as did Dina, both of us calling his name. We finally met up again on the front porch.
“He’s not out there,” I told her. I yanked out my cell phone to call the police department. They said they would send an officer over right away.
I calculated how long we had been at Dina’s. Ronnie had gone into the Entertainment Room almost immediately after getting there. We had been there for over five hours. So depending on how long ago he had left, he could be anywhere by now. I had no clue as to where to begin to look.
“Glenn, I’m sure we’ll find him,” Dina said putting her hand on my shoulder. I could only nod. I was really frightened and I wasn't nearly as confident as she was.
As for Dina, I seemed to be growing more and more attached to her. When I was with her, I never thought of Joyce at all. She was completely different from any woman I had met. By Easter break, I had begun to think about asking her to marry me.
There was still the problem of Ronnie however. Even after Ronnie and I spent a few days with Dina during Ronnie’s Spring Vacation, he had not warmed up to her one little bit. I’m sure it was because although he had said he wanted me to date and find someone, when it came right down to it he didn’t want anyone trying to replace Joyce. Of course, I didn’t think Dina would replace Joyce if I married her, but she made me happy and that was what was important. And hadn’t Ronnie himself said that was what he wanted most. The whole Cruella business was ridiculous and if I asked Dina to marry me, he would eventually get used to the idea and accept her. I was sure of that.I was feeling a bit guilty in some ways about the time I was spending with Dina. I felt as if I had often neglected Ronnie. Perhaps I had been wrong to go to the engagement party. I made it a point to keep my promise to him and take him to the movies the following Saturday, and then I took him for ice cream afterwards. He was disappointed later when I left him with Ada to go see Dina, having once again forgotten we were suppose to go to the cemetery together, but not nearly as disappointed as he had been that night of his birthday.
In early May, McKinley Elementary School had what is called an open house. This is where all the parents converge on the school to talk to the teachers and see what projects they are working on and how far they have progressed in the school year. In other words they were going to let you know if your child was moving on to the next grade or if he was going to be held back.
Of course, all I had to do was walk across the hall and find out from Dag how Ronnie was doing, but it wouldn’t be the same. Ronnie told me that there would be drawings they had done hanging in the room, and that Dag would show some of the things they had written. I decided to make a day of it, going with Ronnie to the Open House, then taking him to the arcade and dinner afterwards. At least this time I was wise enough not to tell him this unless something did come up. A week before the event though, he sat in the living room looking glum.
“Dad, there’s something I have to tell you,” he told me.“What is it, Ron?” I asked.
“It’s serious. Very serious.”
I looked at him puzzled. “Well then, let’s go over here to the couch and talk about it” He followed me to the sofa.
“I was going to tell you about it sooner dad, but I had to work up the nerve.”
I put on my serious face. “Okay, Ronnie, I’m serious. I’m sure we can take care of whatever is troubling you.”
He looked away, hesitantly.
“I’m sure we can do something about it, Ronnie.” I tried again.
He shook his head negatively. “There is nothing we can do, Dad.”
“Suppose you let me be the judge of that. What seems to be the trouble?”
He finally looked at me. “Do you promise you won’t tell anyone?”
“No, not a soul. This is between you and me.”
Ronnie took a deep breath. “Dad, for the first time in my life, my whole life, I’m in love.”
“That is very serious, Ronnie.” I told him. I quickly tried to think back over the many years to my first crush and what it felt like. I thought of Dora Lou, in the third grade, and suddenly that made it easy to sympathize with Ronnie.
“And she loves me, Dad.”
“That’s good. I’m glad of that, Ronnie. What’s her name?”
“Her name is Cherry.”“That’s a very pretty name.” I said. And at least that was true.
Ronnie continued. “But her real name is Cheryl Candace.
Cherry for short.”
“Do you know what, you should call her Cherry Candy,” I told him chuckling. He didn’t get the joke.
“Don’t kid me, dad.”
“I’m sorry Ron," I told him as I quickly stifled my laugh. "Is she real pretty?”
“She’s beautiful, dad. Except from behind.”Now I was puzzled. “Behind?” I asked.
“Girls aren’t so pretty from behind,” he told me. I wasn’t about to ask how he arrived upon that conclusion.
“You must like her an awful lot, Ronnie.”
“I do. I ain’t kidding around, dad. I’d like to give her a present.”
“You would? That’s very nice. What would you like to give her?”
“Money,” he answered.
“Money?” The thought occurred to me that most people liked money which meant that Cherry Candy would fit in with the rest of the world quite well.“Yes. I’d like to give her money.”
“Why don’t you just give her a book or something?” I offered.
“She can’t read good and I wouldn’t want to make her feel bad. I’d like to give her the things she likes best.”
“And she likes money the best?” I asked. At least the girl was honest about it.
“She loves money. She thinks money is terrific. Honest.”
“Well I’m sorry Ronnie, but you can’t give her money. Why don’t you give her something else? Something of yours, something you like very much? Women like that. It pleases them very much.”“I know! I can give her my old sneakers.” He told me.
“Ronnie, you aren’t listening to me at all. You can’t give her sneakers.”
“But Dad, she loves my old sneakers that I keep in my locker. She asked if she could borrow them to run a race, and she won. She loves my old sneakers.”
I was trying to keep from laughing. “That would be a perfect gift, Ronnie.”
The next night I was telling Dina about the event at the school. She seemed very interested in it.
“Isn’t your neighbor, Dag, Ronnie’s teacher?” she asked.
“Yes she is, I thought I had told you that before,”
“You did, dear but it must have slipped my mind. You know, Glenn, this would be an excellent time for the three of us to spend some time together. Perhaps Ronnie hasn’t taken to me because I just don’t know enough about him yet. I’m sure if I went to the school with you, it would give me a wonderful opportunity to find out what he likes to do and what his interests are. Then afterwards the three of us can come back here and have dinner”I thought about it. I know I had promised Ronnie that the two of us would spend the day together, but this would be an opportunity for the two of them to finally break down the wall between them. And I was sure Ronnie would like the fact that Dina was taking such an interest in his school work.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea.” I told her.
Of course Ronnie didn’t appear to be overjoyed when I told him that Dina would be accompanying us to the open house and to the arcade, but at least he didn’t fuss too much about
it. And unlike the day of the birthday party things at least started out much better. Dina did show up on time at our apartment. He was civil and polite to Dina, if not overly enthusiastic.“You have a real nice apartment, Glenn, although it could use a woman’s touch or just a good decorator.”
“Well, I’ve never been into that sort of thing much. That was always Joyce’s department. Shall we go?”
“Why of course, I am certainly looking forward to meeting Ronnie’s teacher. Imagine, living right next door to her! That must be very convenient when you want to check up on Ronnie’s school work.”
“Dag’s a good person,” I told her. “She just adores Ronnie. They’re more like buddies than teacher and student, at least when they aren’t at school. And she’s helped me out on a number of occasions, watching Ron while I’ve been away, and she often helps Ada out.”
“Well, she sounds very nice, shall we go.”
“Of course,” I said.
The school was crowded with lots of kids, and lots of parents. Dag was busy with one set of
parents so Ronnie showed us a drawing he did that was hanging on the wall.“That’s simply exquisite, Ronnie,” Dina told him. “You just might be the next Van Gogh”
Ronnie looked puzzle. “Go where in a van?” he asked.
“No Ronnie. Dina’s talking about Vincent Van Gogh. He was a famous painter.”
“Oh!” he answered. “I suppose so. But it's a painting of dad."
"You did a good job Ronnie. It looks just like me."
Finally Dag was free and came over to us.
“Hello Glenn, Hello Ronnie,” She greeted us.
“Hello Dag,” I replied. “Dag, this is Dina Mason.” I told her introducing the two of them.
Dag held out her hand. “Why Miss Mason, we finally meet. Glenn and Ronnie have told me so much about you.”
“And they have told me so much about you also, Miss. Baker,” Dina said while taking Dag’s hand and shaking it.
“Please, call me Dag. I’m glad that you and Glenn were able to take time out of your busy schedules to attend today. As a teacher, we can only do so much and the rest is up to the parents. Of course, Glenn has always taken an interest and pride in Ronnie’s school work, when he has the time of course.”
I wasn’t stupid. I knew Dag was getting in a few zingers because of my current preoccupation with Dina and was putting me in my place. Again it reminded me of what Joyce would have done when I got out of line and every time it happened it was unnerving.
“Well, Glenn is a man of many talents,” Dina said.
“I’m sure he is,” Dag said. “I’m sure you’ve seen many of the talents that Glenn has that I haven’t seen yet. And I know it is difficult especially on those little emergency and electrical problems he keeps getting called away for on the weekends. Of course, my own teaching career keeps me quite busy.”
“Yes, your teaching career,” Dina said. “I think it’s wonderful that you are willing to sacrifice the opportunity for a real career in order to shape the minds of our youth so that they can read, add, multiply, divide and subtract.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m sacrificing anything at all,” Dag said. “Teaching is a career. And I do very little shaping of their minds. All I do is get them to use their own brain power so that they can reason and think things out for themselves. Of course I can imagine that being a fashion consultant is challenging and difficult. Why, I remember when I was a child I use to spend at least fifteen or twenty minutes trying to decide what outfit I should put on my Barbie Doll.”Dina was scowling. Dag was smiling. It was easy enough to see who was getting the best of whom. I decided to end the match before Dina got skunked.
“Uh, Dag, do you have more of Ronnie’s work you would like me to see?” I asked.
“Sure, Glenn, it’s over here on my desk.” She went to her desk and brought me a sheet of notebook paper with a short essay on it that I began to read aloud:“My Favorite Person is my dad. He was there to hold me when my mommy was gone. Sometimes he takes me to the movies. He taught me how to swim and ride my bike. Sometimes he is very busy at work, but he loves me just the same. He gave me a birthday party. I never had a birthday party before. It was the best day of my whole life. When my dad is happy, I am happy. When my dad is sad, I am sad. I think my dad is the best dad in the world.”
If Dag had purposely selected this particular paper to show me at the Open House to lay a guilt trip on me, it had done the job well.
“That’s a very nice paper, Ronnie,” I told him. “I think you’re the best son in the whole wide world also.”
“As you already know, Glenn. Ronnie is an exceptional student. He does all his work, and in some aspects is ahead of many of my students in his abilities. I think you’re doing a terrific job with him.” Dag told me.
I looked at her. She had said the words with kindness and caring, not as a clinical analysis. Dag was wrong. Teaching wasn’t just a career for her. It was a passion.
“I think you can take a lot of credit for that also,” I told her. “I just wish all teachers took as much of an interest in their students welfare as you do.”
“Thank you, Glenn.” She said. “I think that’s the highest compliment I’ve received all day.” Her voice trailed off, almost into a soft whisper.For a brief but passing instant, it almost seemed as if Dag and I were the only ones in the room. I could smell her perfume, not overly strong as Dina often wore it, but just the right amount of it and I wanted to know what kind it was. I had never noticed how soft her coal black hair was and I had the sudden urge to softly run my fingers through it. I had never really taken the time to consider how much I truly admired Dag or how truly beautiful a person she was, both inside and out. And then there were those dark brown eyes of hers which captivated me. I was amazed by the way they sparkled and glistened when she talked about things she truly cared about.
“Well, it’s getting late, Glenn,” Dina said way too loudly to interrupt my thoughts. “I’m sure Ronnie would like to get to the arcade.”I quickly turned to Ronnie, suddenly embarrassed as if I had been caught doing something I shouldn’t have. Dag had quickly turned away to her desk also and quickly shuffled some papers.
“Can we Dad? Can we go now?” Ronnie asked excitedly.
“Sure, Ronnie. Whatever you say. And Dag, thanks again for everything, and not just for what you’ve done here in the classroom.”
“It’s my pleasure, Glenn.” She said. We walked away and another set of parents immediately
took our place.As we entered the arcade Ronnie suddenly became very excited and a big grin suddenly appeared on his face. I hadn't seen that big of a smile on his face since his birthday party. He quickly pulled me aside and began whispering to me so that Dina wouldn’t hear.
“It’s her dad. She’s over there on that game!”
“Who Ronnie?”
“Cherry. It’s Cherry. Come with me so she can meet you.”
“What was that all about,” Dina asked.
“Uh…Ronnie just wants us to meet a friend of his.”
We walked over to where Cherry was playing the game. When she saw Ronnie, she smiled. Ronnie smiled back at her and they stood there looking at each other for what seemed like the longest time as if they had both entered into a hypnotic trance. Both of them suddenly became oblivious to me, Dina, and everybody else in the arcade. I had a very uncomfortable feeling that I had played this scene out myself very recently.
“Ronnie, you were going to introduce us to your friend,” I finally reminded him.
“Oh, yeah. Cherry, this is my dad and his friend Dina.”
“Hi, Mr. Baker,” she told me and that was all. Then they went back to staring at each other.
“Would you like to play a game, Ronnie,” she finally asked him.
“Sure, Cherry,” he told her.
They began feeding tokens into the machine, oblivious to Dina and I who were standing there. We watched them for about fifteen minutes then decided to go outside to sit.
“Ronnie, we’ll be right outside when you finish.” I told him.
He nodded. “Sure dad.”
Dina and I went outside, sitting on a bench where we could easily see Ronnie when he emerged.
“I wish you would look at me like that sometimes,” Dina told me.
“Oh, they’re just kids,” I replied.
“I was talking about the way you were looking at Dag,” she said.
“I wasn’t aware that I was looking at Dag in any special way,” I told her. “You’re just imagining things.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” she replied. “Perhaps I should change my profession and become a grade school teacher.”
I laughed. I couldn’t imagine Dina being a school teacher and let out a chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Nothing, nothing at all. Dina, I love you. I care about you a great deal. There’s no reason at all for you to be insecure.”
“I guess you’re right. Of course, you can’t blame me for being jealous. Dag is a very attractive woman.”
"I suppose so," I said shrugging my shoulders. I didn't think it would be a good move to agree too readily with Dina in this instance.
After a while, we saw Cherry leaving the arcade with her parents. Ronnie stood at the top of the steps watching her as she left. He stood there until they had completely walked out of site. Cherry, for her part, had kept looking back at Ronnie and smiling.
“Ronnie,” Dina told him. “You’re really good at those arcade games. You must practice at home a lot.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty good at them.”
“And your little friend, Cherry seemed nice also,” Dina added. “Do I sense love in the air, Ronnie?”The look that came over Ronnie’s face was horrible.
“Ronnie, I didn’t say anything,” I quickly told him. “Honest,”
“Did I say something wrong?” Dina asked.
“No,” I told her. “It’s okay. Why don’t you get in the car so that I can speak to Ronnie for a moment.” She gave me a look and then walked off.
I looked at Ronnie who was looking at Dina with fire in his eyes as she walked away. He turned to me, on the verge of tears.
“You told her,” he said accusingly.“I did not tell her, son.”
“Then how did she know?”
“Ronnie, you were practically standing on your head for that girl when you were in the arcade. How could she not know?”
“You mean Dina guessed?”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” I told him hoping it would appease him. It didn’t.
“Is she a fortune teller or something? I don’t like Dina, Dad. She butts in. Don’t you like Dag? What if you marry Dina and she knows everything?”
“Stop it,” I told him pointing my finger at him adamantly. “All right, now let’s get this one thing straight. You’re a boy and I’m a man. When you grow up you’ll live your life. I live my life. That’s what a man is supposed to do. I’m going to tell you something, Ronnie. I’m going to ask Dina to marry me. That’s the way it is, Ronnie.”
The same look he had given to Rita only a few minutes earlier he was now giving to me. I walked towards Dina who still hadn’t gone to the car. For a moment I hesitated and turned back toward Ronnie. He wouldn’t look at me. I put my hand on his shoulder and patted it. “Try to understand, Ronnie.”
When I reached Dina, she asked me if everything was okay."Everythings just dandy," I told her teresely. But I think the look on my face told her everything she wanted to know.
The drive to Dina’s house was long and quiet. Even Dina seemed to have nothing to say.
When we went inside, dinner had already been laid out for us. Ronnie said he wasn’t hungry and I didn’t force the issue.
“Ronnie, if you would like, you can go into the entertainment room and watch television,” she told him. “I have a satellite dish so I’m sure you can find something interesting to watch.”
He simply nodded and walked off to the entertainment room with his head down.
Dina and I sat down to eat also, but I had lost a good deal of my appetite. I forced myself to eat so Dina wouldn't be offended. Dina, for her part, kept the conversation going as if there were nothing wrong.
"Ronnie's not getting ill again is he?" she asked.
"No, Ronnie's fine. He's just being a bit moody."
After dinner, I decided that I could wait no longer. The sooner Ronnie was forced to face up to the reality of the situation the better. Dina and I had been sitting on the sofa quite a while, when I finally worked up the nerve.“It’s been a long and tiring day," she said. “I'm over tired, overhiked, and overfed. In short, I’m deliciously exhausted.”
“Good! Then I’ll take advantage of your weakened condition, and come right out with it now.”
“Sounds ominous. Out with what?”
“I don’t think you’re going to be very surprised. Shall I get down on one knee?”
She didn’t answer but looked away for a minute which was not a good sign.
“What’s the matter, have I botched it up? Have I picked the wrong time, the wrong place?” I asked.“No, Glenn,” she answered quickly. “Of course not. It’s just that I think there are some things we should discuss. Something that ought to be cleared up between us if we…..” she didn’t finish.
“Go ahead,” I urged her.
She continued. “Glenn, I’ve always been a realist. For better or worse I’ve always tried to say what I think.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” I assured her.
“Then surely you must realize darling that Ronnie isn’t exactly going to welcome me with open arms.”
“Ronnie? You were the one who said that a little bit of jealousy was perfectly normal. You just have to give him time, that’s all.”
“He’s had time. He’s had plenty of time. And it hasn’t done much good.”
“But he’s only a child,” I explained. “I mean, surely you and I can look at this thing in a mature way?”“Exactly!” she responded. “That’s just what I’m trying to do. Glenn, if there were some way that Ronnie could go and spend a few months with your brother and his family, just at first…..”
It was one thing that I hadn’t expected.
“Send…..Ronnie…away?” I asked slowly emphasizing each word.
“Not forever, Glenn. Just to give us a chance to get our life started together. That’s all I’m asking.”
I didn’t answer her. I looked at my hand then looked away. I wasn’t really sure I needed to say anything, as my face probably said it all. Send Ronnie away? It was something I could never do. Not for several months. Not now when he was so dependent on me after the death of his mother.“Can you think of anything else?” she asked as if hoping I would come up with another option. “Ronnie’s not going to change suddenly, just because we’re married. Darling, we must face this now.”
“I know,” I told her. “Maybe we should just sit on this for a while.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Think about it Glenn. It won’t be for that long. And maybe he’ll look at the situation differently afterwards.”
“Well, it’s getting late,” I told her. “I should be getting Ronnie home to bed.”
I walked into the entertainment room to retrieve Ronnie. The TV was on, but there was no Ronnie in sight. That didn't bother me as I figured he must have gone to the bathroom or somewhere else. I headed to the bathroom but there was no Ronnie. I hollered his name. There was no response so I quickly headed back down the stairs.“What’s wrong, Glenn?” Dina asked.
“I can’t find Ronnie,” I told her.
“I’m sure he’s somewhere in the house, we’ll find him.
Why don't you check all the upstairs rooms and I'll look down stairs. He's probably just playing hide and seek or something."I knew Ronnie wasn't playing hide and seek. I hadn't known anytime that he had refused to answer me when I had called for him.
I began going from room to room, searching every nook and cranny while hollering his name. I could hear Dina doing the same two floors below me. It was obvious he was no where in the house.
I reached the bottom landing just as Dina was coming back up the stairs.
"Well, it's obvious he's not in the house," I told her.
"Perhaps he's outside," Dina offered. And as soon as she said that I wanted to kick myself as thoughts raced through my head. Dina's pool! I raced towards the outside,
hating myself for having been so careless. Hadn't Dag warned me about this before? Hadn't she told me of her own accident in a pool when she was a child?
"At least Ronnie was an excellent swimmer," I thought to myself. But this was the second time I had relied on that excuse.
As I ran down the steps to the pool I quickly breathed a sigh of relief. Ronnie wasn't in the pool. He was no where around. I continually walked the grounds as did Dina, both of us calling his name. We finally met up again on the front porch.
“He’s not out there,” I told her. I yanked out my cell phone to call the police department. They said they would send an officer over right away.I calculated how long we had been at Dina’s. Ronnie had gone into the Entertainment Room almost immediately after getting there. We had been there for over five hours. So depending on how long ago he had left, he could be anywhere by now. I had no clue as to where to begin to look.
“Glenn, I’m sure we’ll find him,” Dina said putting her hand on my shoulder. I could only nod. I was really frightened and I wasn't nearly as confident as she was.
To Be Continued
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