YEAR END IN SIGHT... (Part 93b)

One of the things that I’d thought about after staying with my grandfather for those few nights was just how happy he was to have someone to play dominoes and to reminisce with. He’d lived an interesting life and I’d just started to scratch the surface of it. I figured that I could stay and eat lunch with him after taking him to the hospital to see my grandmother and still be home by 2 or 2:30pm. The day after meeting ”Buddha“ I was wheeling him though the lobby at the hospital when the lady at the desk called out to me. I had no idea who she was but everyone knew my grandfather. I headed over to where she was and she proceeded to tell me that her son had just met me. I remember smiling but didn’t know what to say. It puzzled me but I put it aside and chalked it up to life in a small town.

My grandfather really appreciated me taking time to spend with him. After eating he proceeded to tell about his life when he was the same age as I was and it was eye opening. It was a call from Elle that broke my grandfather’s ”spell”  on me. I actually looked forward to the following Sunday. That happened to be a Sunday that Jan had worked out a split shift with one of her fellow nurses and she was at the house when we got there. She joined us for lunch and then retreated to her room. However, my grandfather and I were seated right outside her door for his storytelling. It took a while but she appeared in the doorway and asked if she could sit in and listen. I was truly surprised. When I was leaving she walked with me to the door and told me that she’d met a friend of mine. I asked “Who?” and she responded “Brig”. I know I must’ve looked perplexed because I didn’t know anyone with that name and probably had never even heard that name before. Not put off at all she went on that his mother was a volunteer at the hospital. It took more than a few seconds for me to remember the lady who’d hailed me a few weeks prior when I was with my grandfather. Once I put the two pieces together it made sense.

Like any good mother with an unmarried son, Brig’s mother arranged for Jan to meet him. She volunteered that they’d had a “casual” date and during the conversation he’d mentioned race cars. Jan knew I had a race car and mentioned it. Voila! The connection. I had to explain that I knew Brig as “Buddah” and had only met him the one time. She thought the name was funny. He’d told her that we were friends. I had no real problem with that but I wanted to know him better before I'd classify him a "friend". I explained that to her and she commented that he was really a nice guy. I remember her saying that she hoped that he and I would would become friends. I wondered about the full meaning of that.

I always waited to mid month to pay the rent. When I walked up to the park office to pay I saw that all the patio room panels had been removed from the lot where Andy and Lil had lived. The only thing left on the pad was the shed. I still had the key and had yet to take a look inside. I was sure there was nothing of interest for me. I’d given some casual thought about using the shed itself but there was the question of ownership. At the office I asked and was told by Dick, one of the owners, that for all intents and purposes it belonged to him as Andy hadn’t paid the rent going all the way back to May. He told me that if I wanted it, take it. He also told me to do it quickly as a new 60 footer was due in soon and it would need the space occupied by the shed.

Back home I got the key and inspected the contents. As I’d expected most of what was there were broken parts for Andy’s bulldozer. There was also an old bookcase painted a bilious green. It wasn’t very big and there were some parts boxes marked “International”, the make of his truck.  On the bottom were some old wooden cigar boxes. A peek inside of a few showed miscellaneous nets, bolts, screws and the like. I didn’t have any immediate need for them but thought they might come in handy at some time in the future. There were probably eight or nine and I just stacked them up and took them over to the trunk of my car. There wasn’t much room as I had all my tools and spare parts for the race car stuffed in there. I told Elle what I’d found and, in spite of my description of the bookcase she wanted to see it. It ended up in our patio room. As far as the shed was concerned Andy had mixed up some cement to make a floor and when he laid it down he went right over the bottom lip of the panels. That made it impossible to dismantle it without damage. I left thinking it would've been nice but...

At work, the office voted to have the Christmas party in the office with no guests. Once that was decided Mrs K told each of the PT’s (Personnel Technicians) that we were invited to a “real” party at her house with wives and, in Sonny’s case, a guest. Knowing her personality I was sure it would be a good time. The problem was that it was only a few days away. When I told Elle she reminded me that her mother and father would be away that weekend visiting her father’s only living relatives. That meant we needed a baby sitter.

Elle had been volunteering for some time at the church and working with the mother of our sometime babysitter, Karen, so made the call. Karen was playing basketball in a holiday tournament that day. Her mother said she’d use her “influence” to persuade her to help us out even though it would be a bit of a struggle. The way it worked out was I had to go to the school to pick her up immediately after the game. I got there to see her play a few minutes but her team was hopelessly behind and the coach was putting in the bench warmers to close out the game. I caught up with her once the game was over and, still wearing her uniform, we headed home. Even though Elle had told her mother that she could shower and change at our place and that there would be a meal waiting she didn't look very happy.

I liked Karen (and her family) but on this night it was obvious that she was really “beat”. I’d always been able to engage her in small talk but on this night she was quiet. I figured it was because the team had lost in the championship game. Once Karen was inside Elle and I were off to the party.

To be continued...