sounds good. And Sunny?”
“Yeah?”
“Call him. He likes you. Bye.”
“Bye.” I hung up and took another swig of beer
for courage and I dialed his number.
I waited holding my breath, running glib comments
through my mind. In another ten seconds, I planned to hang up. Ten, nine,
eight, seven, six, five…
“Hello?”
“Um, hi, Lloyd? This is Sunny, returning your
call.” Whew. I managed to spit that much out. Now for a real conversation.
“Oh, hi. Sorry, I dialed your number by mistake.”
Crap. Now what. I felt like an idiot.
“Well, I’ll let you go then.” The sooner the
better.
“No, wait,” he pleaded, “I meant to call you
later tonight anyway.”
Yeah, sure, I thought.
“So, have you had a chance to check on my dad’s
roommate?”
“Well, yeah. I managed to have a run-in with his
daughter. We argued about juice.”
“Juice?”
“Yeah. She wants him to have
it and he feels pressured into drinking it. His nurse said it wasn’t prescribed
but it was okay for him to have. I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right.”
“That’s what my dad said. That daughter is always
hovering over him, sneaking his medical chart from the nurses’ station. She
makes notes on a little pad she keeps in her purse. My dad said he’d disinherit
a daughter like that.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” It seemed
like an easy segue to a more personal topic.
“One brother, Ethan, one sister, Dale.”
Dale. The big date?
“Is she younger or older?” I
inquired.
“Thirty-six, older by four years. She’s married
with two kids, twin girls—Dana and Deena. Ethan is thirty-four and divorced.”
Before I could ask him if she was the big date,
he answered my question.
“On Valentine’s Day the girls turned eight and we
celebrated at Chucky Cheese. Her kids are great but the other little brats
drove me nuts.”
Suddenly my whole outlook changed from bad to
good, as quoted by the Winter Warlock in Santa Claus is Coming to Town .
Only my gift was better than a wooden choo-choo train.
We continued talking for another thirty minutes
about this and that. His tenor voice flowed like sweet music to my ears. He
seemed to know something about everything. By the time we concluded our
conversation, I felt I knew him better than I did Sam.
Chapter
18
Thursday,
February 16th
This morning I did something I hadn’t done in months.
I curled my hair and applied eye shadow, eyeliner and mascara. One tends to lean
towards the natural look when your day is spent with old, senile people who
have bad vision. Today however, Lloyd was stopping in to visit his dad. With
Donna walking around looking like a model, I didn’t want to take any chances.
What the hell, I’ll even iron my wool slacks. Ten
to one everyone I saw today would comment on my appearance.
Hard to believe, but Lloyd was
the first handsome guy ever to enter the nursing home while I was present.
That’s a lot of years without some eye candy. Hey, a girl likes looking as much
as a guy does. We’re just more subtle, which is probably why women spend so
much time sitting at home without a date. We should just stare at their male
packages and lick our lips. I bet my phone would be ringing off the hook.
Brandi strolled into my
bedroom and went straight to my closet. I don’t know why, since she spent twice
what I did on clothes.
“Hey, Brandi, what are you
doing up already?”
She yawned. “Got an interview
today.”
This is the first I heard
about it. “Oh yeah, where? I thought you loved Hot Pants?”
She pulled out a gray,
cable-knit dress, one of my newer purchases, and held it up to her chest.
“Cute,” she said. She turned toward me, “Good for an interview?”
“That depends on
“Yeah?”
“Call him. He likes you. Bye.”
“Bye.” I hung up and took another swig of beer
for courage and I dialed his number.
I waited holding my breath, running glib comments
through my mind. In another ten seconds, I planned to hang up. Ten, nine,
eight, seven, six, five…
“Hello?”
“Um, hi, Lloyd? This is Sunny, returning your
call.” Whew. I managed to spit that much out. Now for a real conversation.
“Oh, hi. Sorry, I dialed your number by mistake.”
Crap. Now what. I felt like an idiot.
“Well, I’ll let you go then.” The sooner the
better.
“No, wait,” he pleaded, “I meant to call you
later tonight anyway.”
Yeah, sure, I thought.
“So, have you had a chance to check on my dad’s
roommate?”
“Well, yeah. I managed to have a run-in with his
daughter. We argued about juice.”
“Juice?”
“Yeah. She wants him to have
it and he feels pressured into drinking it. His nurse said it wasn’t prescribed
but it was okay for him to have. I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right.”
“That’s what my dad said. That daughter is always
hovering over him, sneaking his medical chart from the nurses’ station. She
makes notes on a little pad she keeps in her purse. My dad said he’d disinherit
a daughter like that.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” It seemed
like an easy segue to a more personal topic.
“One brother, Ethan, one sister, Dale.”
Dale. The big date?
“Is she younger or older?” I
inquired.
“Thirty-six, older by four years. She’s married
with two kids, twin girls—Dana and Deena. Ethan is thirty-four and divorced.”
Before I could ask him if she was the big date,
he answered my question.
“On Valentine’s Day the girls turned eight and we
celebrated at Chucky Cheese. Her kids are great but the other little brats
drove me nuts.”
Suddenly my whole outlook changed from bad to
good, as quoted by the Winter Warlock in Santa Claus is Coming to Town .
Only my gift was better than a wooden choo-choo train.
We continued talking for another thirty minutes
about this and that. His tenor voice flowed like sweet music to my ears. He
seemed to know something about everything. By the time we concluded our
conversation, I felt I knew him better than I did Sam.
Chapter
18
Thursday,
February 16th
This morning I did something I hadn’t done in months.
I curled my hair and applied eye shadow, eyeliner and mascara. One tends to lean
towards the natural look when your day is spent with old, senile people who
have bad vision. Today however, Lloyd was stopping in to visit his dad. With
Donna walking around looking like a model, I didn’t want to take any chances.
What the hell, I’ll even iron my wool slacks. Ten
to one everyone I saw today would comment on my appearance.
Hard to believe, but Lloyd was
the first handsome guy ever to enter the nursing home while I was present.
That’s a lot of years without some eye candy. Hey, a girl likes looking as much
as a guy does. We’re just more subtle, which is probably why women spend so
much time sitting at home without a date. We should just stare at their male
packages and lick our lips. I bet my phone would be ringing off the hook.
Brandi strolled into my
bedroom and went straight to my closet. I don’t know why, since she spent twice
what I did on clothes.
“Hey, Brandi, what are you
doing up already?”
She yawned. “Got an interview
today.”
This is the first I heard
about it. “Oh yeah, where? I thought you loved Hot Pants?”
She pulled out a gray,
cable-knit dress, one of my newer purchases, and held it up to her chest.
“Cute,” she said. She turned toward me, “Good for an interview?”
“That depends on
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