by Marja McGraw
“Coral was just yankin’ his chain.” Chris Sr. was more talkative than I’d ever heard him. “It’s Carol he’s got to watch out for, in my opinion. She’s the… I can’t remember what word you used, but you had an animal name for women like her. Snake? Lizard? Lion?” He was watching Judith.
“Cougar. That’s what you’re thinking of, Chris. Older women who go after younger men are called cougars. I think it’s a new term. I’d never heard it until recently.”
“I suggested he bring his girlfriend with him the next time he goes to the house.” I watched Chris Sr. for a reaction.
I’m not sure why.
He nodded and leaned back in his chair, finally done with dinner. “That’s a good idea, if she can handle herself.”
“Trust me, she’ll put a stop to the twins’ antics. Sharon is a take-no-prisoners type of woman. I think that’s one of the reasons Big D cares for her. He’s really kind of a pussycat to her lioness.”
Judith began cleaning up the dinner dishes. “I’ll call Coral as soon as we get settled in the motor home, and I’ll have her talk to Carol. They’re always looking for an excuse to fuss with each other anyway.”
After the dishes were put in the dishwasher, my in-laws retired to their motor home. Before they left Judith helped me take off the sling, and it felt good to move my arm. It was terribly sore, and yet moving it seemed to help. Maybe not using it was making it stiffen up.
I settled down on the couch to wait for Chris and turned on a mystery show. What else would I watch? Maybe Mikey had picked up his love for mysteries from me. I smiled at the thought.
Chris came in around eleven-thirty. I’d fallen asleep on the couch. He gently shook me awake.
Opening my eyes, I saw that he had a paper sack with him. “What’s that?”
“I remembered your Honey Bunch story and stopped at an all night store to pick up a few small birthday presents for Ace. I’m going to hide them around the house and when I ask him to do a chore, he’ll find them.”
I reached up and pulled Chris’s head down to my level. “You’re such a good father,” I said, kissing him.
Before we went to bed, we wrapped the small presents quickly, with no fanfare and no ribbons. Chris hid them in various places, like in the cupboard with the dishes, in the cabinet where I kept the dish soap, in the container of dog food, and in the drawer by Mikey’s toothpaste.
Chris took a peek at Mikey and picked up a Hardy Boys book which was lying open on the bed before leaving the room.
“Luis told me Mikey wants to be a private eye when he grows up.” I glanced at Chris wondering how he might take the information.
“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me, Cookie.”
“I wonder why he hasn’t told us about his plans.”
“Probably because you’d try to talk him out of it.”
Chris was right.
Chapter Thirty-eight
Early Sunday morning Mikey knocked on the door. Pounded would be a better word for it.
“Come in,” I said in my hoarse morning voice.
“Guess what day it is!” Mikey jumped up on the bed and Chris grunted.
Obviously Mikey had already been downstairs because Sherlock and Watson followed suit and jumped up on the bed, tails swinging wildly.
Chris sat up and rolled his upper lip under. “Dogs, off! Child, sit!”
No one listened to him.
“Okay, I know when I’m licked.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “Let me see. If this is Sunday, then it must be Mikey’s birthday.”
“It is! I’m finally eight.”
The dogs were excited with Mikey – they just didn’t know why. Watson leaped over Mikey’s feet and licked Chris’s nose. He none-too-gently pushed her away.
“Why don’t you go wake up your grandparents? Your mom and I will be down in a few minutes.”
“They’re already up. A new storm is moving in so they went for a walk before it rains.”
“Then go wait for them on the porch.” Chris sounded just a bit cranky.
Mikey jumped off the bed and headed for the bedroom door.
“Brush your teeth before you go downstairs,” I yelled. I wanted to get the birthday surprise going, and I thought it might perk Chris up, too.
Mikey left our room, turning in the direction of the bathroom. The dogs bounded out and headed down the stairs. Chris and I were alone, if only for a moment.
“Woohoo!” Mikey yelled.
“I guess he found the first surprise.” Chris climbed out of bed and headed for the closet.
“Guess so, Bogey Man.”
“Are you going to church this morning?” He pulled on his bathrobe and glanced over his shoulder at me.
“I’d skip just this once, but the Sunday school class will be doing something for Mikey’s birthday.”
“How’s your arm this morning?” Chris put on his slippers.
I wiggled it around. “It’s still sore, but overall it’s not bad. I really didn’t think it would feel so much better this fast.”
“And your knees?”
I sat up and hung my legs off the bed, taking a peek at them. “Stiff, sore and very bruised.”
“You’ll live.” Mr. Sympathy wasn’t going to give me room to complain.
Chris left the bedroom while I pulled on my robe and slippers. After brushing my teeth, I limped down the stairs and into to the kitchen. I wanted to prepare a special breakfast for Mikey on his birthday. Chris stood in the doorway leading to the service porch, and I could see our son picking up one of
the dog dishes. Time for breakfast for everyone.
“Yes!” Mikey yelled.
Chris heard me and turned around. “He just found another present.”
I smiled. “Ya could have fooled me.”
Chris turned back to Mikey. “Listen, Ace, you’ve got to feed the mongrels before you open that.”
Mikey complied and then sat down at the table with his present. He opened it and smiled. It was a magnifying glass.
“Someone told your mother that you want to be a private dick when you grow up. I figured you’d need one of those.” Almost everything Chris bought had something to do with the private eye theme.
Mikey jumped up and hugged Chris before running over and giving me a light hug. “I don’t want to hurt you, Mom.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Now, what else do you need done.”
I laughed. “Too bad everyday isn’t your birthday.”
While I mixed up the batter for waffles, Chris had Mikey do a few more chores. I kept my eye on things, and our son was having a great time. It was going to be a good day for all of us. I could feel it.
The phone rang while I started the first batch of waffles. It was Danny’s mother. Her youngest child was sick and her husband had been called in to work.
“On a Sunday?”
“Yes, the other manager at the store called in sick. I guess something is going around.” Her husband worked for a large auto parts store. “Anyway, unfortunately this means that Danny won’t be able to come to Mikey’s birthday party. I can’t take the baby out while she’s sick.”
“What if we pick Danny up? We’d be happy to do that. The party just wouldn’t be the same without him.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t mind?” She sounded
relieved. “My husband can pick him up from the party. I just couldn’t get him there.”
“Not a problem. We’ll come by and pick him up after church. In fact, why don’t we pick him up first and he can go to church with us?”
After coordinating times, we hung up.
The doorbell rang and Mikey ran out to let his grandparents in. I set two more places at the table, knowing they’d be hungry after their walk – and I enjoyed their company so much. Chris brought in an extra chair from the formal dining set.
I could hear Mikey telling them about his “chore presents” as they walked through the house. Judith laughed and told him she wa
s glad he was having so much fun.
Once they reached the kitchen, Mikey pulled out a chair for his grandmother. She looked at me over his head and smiled. “Someone’s really bucking for more presents, isn’t he?”
The morning went by quickly, with Mikey finding the rest of his presents.
Judith begged off going to church with us because she and Chris Sr. were going to Turnbal House to do a little work before Mikey’s party. She asked me to give Lila her best, and she wanted me to tell her she hoped they could sing together again soon. For a change they took the motor home to the house instead of using my Jeep. Judith said she figured I’d better keep it because of the party.
Chris said he’d follow his parents to the house and head over to the restaurant from there. I’d picked up party decorations a couple of weeks earlier, and he said he’d take those with him. At least I’d done something right.
I stopped at Danny’s house. He was ready and waiting on the porch. Mikey could hardly get the words out fast enough when he told his friend about his morning. When we arrived at the church the boys sat through the first part of the
service before heading for Sunday School. The kids sang the birthday song and the teacher gave Mikey a pocket-sized Bible.
After church we drove home where I gave the boys a light snack to hold them over until the party. That was our morning, in a nutshell, and it had been busy.
“Chef Luis made up a special lunch for you and your friends,” I said.
Mikey turned to Danny with an expression of special knowledge on his face. “Wait ‘til you taste the food Luis fixes. He’s really good.”
“When are we going?” Danny was anxious to party.
“Soon. Let’s go up to my room and play… I mean, hang out.”
Danny nodded his head knowingly. After all, he was about to turn eight himself.
If they were trying so hard to grow up at eight, I wondered what they’d be like at nine. It seemed like children were growing up faster than they did when I was young.
Half an hour later I called the boys downstairs. “Come on. It’s Party Time.”
“Here, Mrs. Cross. I almost forgot I had this in my hand.” Danny handed me the magnifying glass. “I want to be a gumshoe, too.”
The word gumshoe didn’t sound natural coming out of Danny’s mouth. That startled me for just a moment, because it did sound natural when Mikey said it.
We drove to the restaurant and parked in back. I’d asked all of the guests to leave their cars in the rear and come in through the back door so people wouldn’t think the restaurant was open. We were early, of course, so none of the guests had arrived yet. I’d left Sherlock and Watson at home so the party guests wouldn’t have to fend off the overly friendly dogs.
I was surprised to see Luis’s and Gloria’s cars parked in
the lot. Maybe Luis was finishing up the sandwiches, and Gloria had picked up the cake or something.
Entering the rear door, we walked through the kitchen and out to the restaurant.
“Surprise!”
My heart did a back flip and I almost dropped Mikey’s present before I saw the entire restaurant staff standing under a banner that said, “Happy Birthday, Ace!” Chris, Janet and Don stood behind them grinning.
I patted my chest while Mikey and Danny giggled.
Now that I thought about it, there had been more cars than normal parked on the street.
“We wanted to be part of the party.” Daniel, the bartender, stood with his arm around Donna, one of our waitresses, who looked as happy as a little clam. Donna didn’t look like anyone famous, but she could sew and she wore some of the most outstanding forties styles to work.
Phyllis and Gloria stood beside a table with George, tanned from his vacation. In street clothes and with normal hairdos, they didn’t look quite as much like Marilyn Monroe and Myrna Loy as they did when they were working, but of course George still resembled George Raft. The table held about half a dozen presents.
The rest of the staff had spread out around the room.
Big D stood next to Chris, and my in-laws were grinning from their seats at one of the tables. Constance, my friend and Mikey’s regular babysitter, stood behind them, apparently having introduced herself.
“We only dropped some things off at the Turnbal House,” Judith explained. “Then we came over here to decorate. Luis called Chris on his cell phone and told him everyone wanted to be here for Mikey’s birthday party. Any excuse for a party, right?”
Nate and Lila joined me and the kids, and Lila gave Mikey a hug.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this at church this morning?” I asked.
Lila hugged Danny, too. He looked uncomfortable for a moment, and then seemed to enjoy the attention. “Because the only time I had a chance to talk to you, Mikey was by your side.”
The two boys left us to check out the presents on the table before Mikey grabbed Janet’s hand and began introducing her to his friends. The kid’s eyes were big and they seemed impressed.
“I can’t speak for Mikey, but you all just about gave me a heart attack.”
Almost everyone had heard about my so-called accident, although they’d heard an abbreviated version that didn’t involve the word push, and they wanted to know how I was. I told them and gave Chris a look that said, “If you’re not going to baby me, at least they are.”
He laughed before coming over to put his arms around me.
Constance asked for more details. “What really happened, Pamela?”
“Oh, it really was just a little accident. You know how those things go.”
“Yes, I’ve been privy to the truth about some of your other little mishaps.” She knew me well.
“Okay, Constance, someone pushed me down the stairs. I’m lucky I didn’t break my neck.”
“Oh. Well. Uh, are you really okay? Do you know who did it?”
“I’m really okay, and I don’t have a clue.”
The rest of the younger party guests started showing up not long after that and dropped their presents on the table before approaching Mikey. I invited the parents to join the party, and most of them did. I had to admit, Mikey’s celebration was turning out to be pretty festive.
“You’ve got to come see this.” Judith pulled me toward the table covered with presents.
“What?”
“Look at the cards on those presents.”
I did. Every one of them was addressed to Ace, not Mikey. “I forgot. He started asking the kids to call him Ace last year after Chris tagged him with the nickname.”
Judith looked around the room, obviously searching for something. “I can’t find my purse. Oh! I remember now. I set it down in the kitchen at Turnbal house. We left in such a hurry that I forgot it. Mikey’s present is here, but his card is in my purse, and I don’t want to take the motor home back over there. It’s such a gas guzzler.”
“After the party is over Chris and I will go get it for you. We’ll meet you at our house later.”
“Thanks, Pamela. I’ll just explain to Mikey that he’ll get his card at home.”
So what I thought was going to be a good day really was turning out to be a lot of fun. Only two things marred the day.
I glanced out the window and saw that the sky was quickly darkening, and rain began to fall. The second cloud in my day was that as I glanced across the street I saw someone in a car that looked suspiciously like Ryan Gable, and he was watching Bogey Nights. Before I could call Chris over, he started the car and pulled away from the curb.
With the party in full swing, I quickly forgot about Ryan, if it had actually been him.
Chapter Thirty-nine
Mikey’s party was a roaring success. After everyone sang the birthday song to him, Lila and Judith did their own 1940s rendition of the same tune.
Chris was in Bogey mode and the parents seemed to enjoy his banter thoroughly. Men can sometimes be the harshest judges of each other, but I heard a few fathers using some of Chris’s s
lang and realized they didn’t think it was silly. After all, the real Bogey portrayed a man’s man, and so does Chris.
Mikey opened his presents and each one was like a new adventure for him. One of the things I appreciate about my son is his enthusiasm. It didn’t matter what anyone gave him, his response was the same – amazement and joy. He particularly liked the Hardy Boys books Chris gave him.
Unfortunately, Janet and Don had to leave early after he received a call about a crime. So much for his day off.
The party lasted longer than we expected because everyone had such a good time. We turned on music, there was plenty of food, and we got to know the parents of Mikey’s friends a little better. They all seemed to know a lot about us
because of my son sharing his stories at school. They wanted to know if the stories their kids brought home were exaggerations or not. They weren’t, for the most part.
“Some of us wish we lived your lifestyle,” Danny’s father said. He’d joined the party when he got off work, and after calling his wife he decided to stay and let his son have a good time. “Danny always has stories to tell us.”
“Always? If that’s the case, then I guess Mikey must embellish at least a little.”
I glanced at my son who’d suddenly found his shoes to be quite fascinating. He looked up at me and grinned before turning away to go hang out with his friends.
Once when I walked to the kitchen to make more punch, one of the mothers followed along to help.
“I see you’re limping,” she said. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, I just had a little accident – bruised my knees. I’ll be fine.”
“What? Did someone push you down the porch steps?” She snorted when she laughed, which struck me funny, and then added water to the punch mix.
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Oh.” She stopped laughing and squinted at me like she was trying to figure out if I was joking or not. We returned to the party without further discussion.
The restaurant staff ingratiated themselves by staying through the party and socializing with both the kids and parents. Well, I noticed that Luis spent his time with the adults rather than the children, but he had warned me he wasn’t big on kids.