by Delia Parr
They split the hot dogs, two apiece, and she smeared a couple of packets of mustard on both of hers. “‘They haven’t got a chance.’ What’s that supposed to mean?”
He pointed to a group of teenage boys. “Right there, he’s got his five buddies waiting to find out if he stole a kiss.” He pointed further to the right. “Over there, she’s got her girlfriends waiting to find out if she got him to kiss her. The phone lines will hum all weekend. By Monday morning, when they’re all back in school, two things will happen. The boy will have to decide in favor of hormones or hanging out with his buddies, and the girl will have to decide whether or not she wants to lead him on a merry chase or snatch him up fast before another girl does.”
Andrea laughed. “Dating in high school was a complicated mess, sometimes, wasn’t it?”
“It gets messier and a whole lot more complicated with age, trust me.” He took a bite of his hot dog and held the rest out to make his point. “Take us, for example. At our age, you’d think dating would be easier, but we haven’t been able to have a date yet that didn’t wind up as a disaster or a business meeting, or better still, get cut short because of an emergency of one kind or another. I guess there’s a message there.”
“You forgot to mention that sometimes I fall asleep,” she murmured and stared at the fire for a moment. She had not dated frequently over the years, but she had dated enough to know when she was about to be dumped, as teenagers called it. She should have been relieved. Oddly, she was not.
True, she and Bill had not had an official date that did not involve business one way or another since their first date. No matter what kind of disaster or unexpected interruption, however, he had shown himself to be a man of compassion, understanding, good humor and honor. More importantly, he did not leave his faith in his pew after Sunday services. He lived his faith every day.
Bill was the type of man who came along but once or twice in a woman’s lifetime, if she was fortunate. Andrea had loved and married the first man she had known with those qualities. She would be foolish, indeed, to walk away from the man who could be the second, even if he was eleven years her junior. Character mattered a whole lot more than the number of candles on a birthday cake.
Unfortunately, if she read his meaning correctly, she might have discovered that even if she did want to seriously date him, it might be too late.
“Maybe you should have listened to me. I tried to warn you that dating me wasn’t a good idea,” she suggested, just to test the waters.
“And I definitely remember telling you otherwise.”
“You’re too persistent for your own good,” she countered. Maybe it was not too late after all!
“And you’re a little more stubborn than I thought. No problem,” he insisted, and finished off his hot dog.
She shook her head. “No problem?”
“No. I might be persistent, but I’m also a patient man, in case you haven’t noticed.” He paused to get up and search around for another piece of wood and added it to the fire.
“Is that something you learned as a scout, too?” she asked, hopeful he really had not meant to stop dating or attempting to seriously date.
He sat down again. “What? Keeping a fire going?”
“No. I’ve seen you build a fire from scratch before. I meant being patient.”
He put his hands behind his head and stared up at the stars. She followed his lead and looked overhead. There weren’t quite as many tonight as there had been on the beach, but just enough for her to be able to find an angel’s window. When she did, she fingered the old silver cross that was pinned to her coat and said a prayer for both Mrs. Moore and Miss Huxbaugh.
“I learned patience from my mother,” he murmured, “but I got my persistence from my dad. He was quite a fisherman. When I got old enough, he used to take me with him on Saturdays to the lake where he’d grown up and learned to fish as a boy. There’s no ocean in Ohio,” he explained. “I learned lots of things from him on that old fishing boat, things I couldn’t learn from books.”
She nodded, half-afraid he might still tell her they were finished as a couple, even before they really began. “Such as…?”
“Well, for one, you can drop bait into the water and reel in one fish after the other, if you’re willing to settle for the little ones. To catch the best and the biggest, you have to take it slow. That big fish you want is smart and strong and stubborn. It’ll fight you every inch. If you’re not careful, it’ll snap your line or wriggle that hook out of its mouth right when you’re ready to pull it into the boat. You need patience to catch the best fish, and you need patience when you find a woman you think is the best, too.”
She sputtered, spilled her cocoa and knocked the tray off the log. “You…you think dating is like fishing? You’re comparing me to a…fish? A fish?”
He let her stew for a moment while he put the cardboard tray and cups into the fire. “Don’t go getting all steamed up. You might wind up getting tangled in the line,” he teased.
She pursed her lips. “You…you made that whole story up, didn’t you? Fish, indeed!”
He burst out laughing. “Is it that obvious?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible.”
He grinned. “See that? We’re making progress! I’ve gone from persistent to impossible. If you keep going backward alphabetically, you should get to the letter d pretty soon.”
“D for difficult?” she teased, adding a bit of bait to her own line.
“Go back a little further. I was thinking of ‘datable.”
“You have a one-track mind.”
“And you don’t?” he argued. “Forget I said that. You’ve got a mind that can run over four tracks headed in different directions and switch back and forth pretty quickly. That’s one of the things I liked about you right off.” He cocked a brow. “Now about that date…”
She shrugged. Time to reel him in before he slipped off her hook. “How about an early dinner at my house tomorrow after church? Maybe it’s time to let the ‘girls’ decide if we should date seriously.”
“You’re going to let your cats decide?”
She laughed. “Why not? You made up a story and compared me to a fish.”
He stared at her. “You’re teasing, right?”
“Maybe.”
He checked his watch. “It’s only eight. If we hurry, there’s still time to catch a movie.”
“Not unless tomorrow you want to eat a frozen entrée I’ve heated up for dinner. I need to get to the grocery store. There’s one open twenty-four hours a day in Cherry Hill.”
He stood up and helped her to her feet. “Show me how to get there. I’ll take you to the store on the way back to the restaurant to pick up your car.”
“My car! I forgot!”
“I do come in handy once in a while, don’t I?”
When they got back to the car, he opened the door for her, and she spied her purse on the floor. She slid into her seat and checked her cell phone, dismayed she had forgotten to turn it back on after leaving the hospital. When she did turn it on, the phone beeped and flashed a little envelope in the lower right corner of the screen. She had messages.
“Head north on the avenue,” she told him when he reached the end of the park. “I’ll just be a minute. I need to check my messages.”
He turned north.
She had three messages. She erased the first. Were the telemarketers invading cell phones, too? When she listened to the second message, which had been left more than three hours ago, she tugged on his arm. “Hurry. Turn around. We can’t go to the grocery store. You have to take me back to the hospital. Jenny’s having her baby!”
Chapter Forty
The maternity waiting room was the only waiting room in the hospital Andrea did not mind entering. Happy memories sailed through the door with her. She looked around the crowded room and headed for the far corner. She could not see the woman sitting behind a bouquet of half a dozen balloons, three pink ones that read, “It’
s a Girl!” and three blue ones that read, “It’s a Boy!” But it had to be Madge. Who else would bring both?
With her heart racing, she stopped in front of the balloons and peeked through, just as the thought hit her that maybe someone was going to be delivering twins. The moment she saw Madge’s face, however, she grinned. “Are you expecting twins or just trying to be prepared?” she teased.
“Andrea!” Her sister bolted to her feet and almost tripped over her oversize purse and the ribbons tied to the balloons. “Where have you been? I called your office. I called your house and I called your cell phone. I left messages everywhere, and so did Jenny.”
“I’m sorry. I was out with Bill, and I left my cell phone off for a few hours. He just dropped me off. Any news yet?”
Madge sat down again, and her smile was smug. “Jenny had the baby a little while ago. Michael came back and told me right away. He’s with her now, but he promised I could see them once they’d taken Jenny to her room. I’m not sure I should tell you if she had a boy or a girl since you made me sit here all by myself while you were out on a date. Some sister you turned out to be.”
“Jenny’s due date is still three weeks away!”
“Not anymore.”
Andrea plopped down into the chair next to her sister. “Well, I don’t believe you. You’re just trying to make me feel bad because you didn’t like being here by yourself. If Jenny had had the baby already, you wouldn’t be sitting here with pink and blue balloons right now. You would have gotten rid of one or the other color already.”
Madge waved her arm. “Look around! This place is mobbed. I couldn’t pop three of these balloons. I’d scare someone half to death!”
“You wouldn’t pop the balloons. You’d give them to someone else who is waiting here, now if you don’t tell me the truth right now, I’m going to burst.”
Her sister shrugged her shoulders. “I did tell you the truth. Jenny had the baby, but you’re right. I wouldn’t pop the balloons. I just couldn’t get rid of the balloons I didn’t need.”
“Then we’ll just sit here and wait. As these families find out about the babies they’re waiting for, you’ll have a chance to give the balloons away.”
“Not if they’re all the same as Jenny’s baby,” Madge countered with a grin.
Andrea couldn’t be certain if Madge was bluffing or not, but after being sisters for over fifty years, she still was not prepared to let Madge get the best of her, either. She sat back and hoped that some other family in the room would get some good news sooner rather than later.
She did not have to wait long.
A man burst into the room and raced straight to his family. “A daughter! I have a daughter!” As he provided details to his excited family, Andrea looked to her sister. If Jenny had had a girl, then Madge would not be able to give this family the pink balloons. If Jenny had had a boy, then Andrea would find out within moments.
Andrea’s heart began to race when Madge pulled the balloons down, separated the pink ones from the blues one. “Let’s see. Here. You take the blue balloons, and I’ll take the pink ones.”
Andrea held on to the ribbons attached to the balloons and waited to see if Madge would take the pink ones to the other family.
Madge’s smile got bigger. “Oops. We’ll have to wait to see if any of the others have a boy. We need the pink ones for Jenny.”
“It’s a girl? Jenny had a girl?”
“She had a girl!”
Balloons and all, they hugged and kissed and shed a few tears while Madge told Andrea all of the details. The quick, easy natural childbirth. Both mother and baby were doing fine.
Andrea toyed with the ribbons on the blue balloons. “Another girl,” she murmured as they relaxed in their seats again. “She’s just like Mother so far.”
“I think Jenny’s going to let Mother hold the record at five girls, though. Unless there’s a surprise, I think Jenny’s family is complete now. At least that’s what she told me on the phone before she left for the hospital,” Madge replied.
“Did they give her a name yet?” she asked.
“Michael said Jenny wanted to tell us.” Madge checked her watch. “It’s been half an hour since I talked to him. I hope we don’t have to wait very long to see her and the baby.”
A young man burst into the room and cried, “It’s a boy!” His family rushed from their seats and surrounded him, showering him and each other with hugs and kisses and lots of tears. This time, Madge took the blue balloons and gave them to the family.
Andrea watched a similar scene repeated two more times over the course of the next forty-five minutes when two more proud new fathers announced the birth of a son and a daughter, respectively, and families left to see their new arrivals.
Madge and Andrea now had the waiting room to themselves. Andrea would have been nervous about waiting so long, but Michael had stopped back in to say all was well. There just had been some sort of mix-up about Jenny’s room, and they would have to wait to see Jenny and the baby just a little longer.
Andrea found her thoughts wandering to her two sisters, Kathleen and Sandra, and her parents, and she wished they could be here to share tonight’s joy. She looked around the room, sighed and tried to sort through other thoughts linking life here on earth with life in heaven. “I wonder…do you think this is what it’s like in heaven?”
When Madge looked at her, totally mystified, she tried again. “I mean, we know what it’s like here when a new baby is being born and a soul begins its journey on earth. Families gather together, no matter what day it is or what time it is. They’re so excited and anxious and they’re ready to burst with joy the moment they hear the news that the baby arrived safely. We felt that way tonight, and we saw all the other families who were here. They did, too.”
“Babies tend to make people happy. It’s always like that when babies are born, I think,” Madge replied. “What’s that got to do with heaven?”
Andrea sighed. “I’m not sure. I just was wondering if the same thing happens when a soul is coming Home. Do families get together in heaven, all excited and anxious for the moment to arrive when they can be reunited once again and forever? We never know for sure when our days on earth are over. Maybe they only know the time is near, and they get together like all these families did tonight and wait for the moment that God has chosen, a time known only to Him. And when that soul finally arrives, it’s the same sort of celebration.”
Madge dabbed at her eyes. “I never thought of it that way.”
“I never did, either, until just now.” She handed Madge a tissue and kept one for herself. “Sorry. I spilled everything out of my purse. The tissue is a little mangled, but it’s clean.”
“It’s times like this that I realize how much I miss them all,” Madge whispered.
“Me, too, but maybe if they’re all together in heaven, Mother and Daddy and Kathleen and Sandra, maybe they were there when God decided to send this little one to join our family. While we’re all excited about the days and years ahead, they’re already counting the days until they would be welcoming this little one Home.”
Madge sniffled. “You never mentioned anything like this before.”
“I guess I never really thought so much about life or death as I have…lately. After losing so many people I’ve loved, you’d think I would have thought about it before, but I didn’t. Not until cancer hit me square in the chest…or bladder, I should say.”
Madge took her hand. “You’re doing well, though. You’re halfway through your treatments and everything is fine, isn’t it?”
The worry in Madge’s voice tugged at Andrea’s heartstrings. “Yes, I’m doing well. With God’s grace, I’m going to beat this.” She paused. “I—I took a lot of things for granted before, and I’ve finally realized that I can serve Him better if I stop charging through life and trying to control everything. I’m trying hard to surrender my will for His.”
“I’m learning some lessons, too,” Madge
whispered. “I’m learning to trust in His goodness and His love for all of us. I—I heard from Trish this morning. Sarah’s adoption should be final within a week or two.”
Before Andrea could respond with more than a huge hug, Michael appeared and got another round of congratulatory hugs of his own from Andrea. While he went home to get Jenny some clothes, since he had dropped her suitcase and spilled everything out into the snow on their way into the hospital, Andrea and Madge went to see Jenny and the new baby. They promised to stay with her until he got back.
Carting balloons, purses and overcoats, they paraded to Jenny’s room. Andrea stopped just outside the door and looked at the balloons. “I didn’t bring anything for the baby,” she whispered.
Madge held on to the balloons while she rifled through her oversized purse, which was more like a quilted shopping bag. She pulled out a stuffed pink kitten and handed it to Andrea. “I had a feeling you might need something. I checked the tag. It’s fine for children under three.”
“It’s adorable.” When Andrea tried to peek into Madge’s bag, her sister zipped it shut.
“Yes, I brought a blue one, too, among other things,” she quipped.
Laughing softly together, they went into the room. Jenny was resting in bed with the sleeping baby in her arms. After showering Jenny with more hugs and kisses, Andrea tossed their coats on a chair and put the stuffed kitten on Jenny’s bedside table. Madge sat on the other side of the bed after she tied the balloons to the head of the bed.
Jenny placed the baby on her lap, all seven pounds four ounces of pure joy, and unwrapped the blanket swaddled around her. The infant stirred for a moment, but she did not wake up. “Poor baby girl. She’s all tuckered out,” she crooned. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”
Emotion choked Andrea for a moment. “She’s so perfect, but she’s her own girl. She doesn’t look like either Katy or Hannah. Oh, look at that! She’s got a little dimple in her chin, just like Daddy did.”
“She’s got Mother’s fair skin,” Madge noted before she leaned closer to get a better look. “She doesn’t have much hair, but I think there’s some red in it, too.”