When the restaurant burned down that Barney and I had been meeting at for lunch over the course of eight months I wondered what we would do now. In a phone call he said he thought of several options which I found was a strange way to put it.
It was a beautiful almost spring day when I met him by the fountain at the Plaza. The first thing he asked was did I have quarter, I did and he said he used to ride his bike up the the Plaza as a kid to make wishes in the fountain. He discovered that throwing pennies in really did not work but quarters did. It took a minute to think of a wish I really wanted to come true and pitched my quarter in. Then he said he had three options for lunch. One was a picnic, number two was a nice little place a block away and number three was room service in the huge hotel behind us.
I am not normally fast thinking on my feet or very clever. Somehow I managed that day to tell him it was like Let's Make A Deal and which of the three doors would be the big prize. When he stopped laughing and wanted an answer I asked him if he had brought a picnic lunch. He said no so I had it narrowed down to two doors which got a little harder. How do I tell him without losing him that door number three was not an option as there were too many other people to consider? While he was sitting there smiling that smile of his I knew this subject would come up at some point in time. Finally I came up with an answer and told him that I had just made a big wish in the fountain that he said would come true. Then I told him I didn't want all my wishes to come true at the same time so it would have to be number two - lunch around the corner. He grabbed my hand as we headed off down the street and told me I was priceless.
The little place a block away turned out to be a piano bar that happened to have very good hamburgers. Naturally everyone working in the place knew him. To my surprise they asked if he was going to play for them today. He explained that he hadn't had a piano since Columbia and would come in there when they were not busy and play. So after lunch we sat down at the piano and he started off with Billy Joel's Piano Man. We both ended up singing until it was time to go. It was the most fun I had had in a long time. When he walked me to the car he said I had chosen the right door and that he had never had more fun with anyone than he had with me. I agreed with him but it was a lot more than just fun.
It was some times hard to slip back into reality after a lunch with Barney. By the time I picked up sweet little Wally from Mother's Day Out and Wes and Ninette arrived home from school I managed. That particular day my neighbor, Frances, was coming by. Dennis expected dinner ready when he walked in the door at 6:00 so between a quick pick up on the house, starting dinner and checking with the kids on how their day went there was not much time to think about much before Frances arrived.
Frances lived directly behind me and was probably about my Mother's age. I had met her at a few neighborhood gatherings, saw grandchildren playing in the yard and knew she was a nurse at the Health Department. It was hard for me to imagine why she was coming. Did the kids do something terrible? I really could not imagine.
When she arrived we sat in the kitchen so I could watch over dinner cooking on the stove. She began by telling me that she was actually the Director of the Olathe branch of the Health Department just south of where we lived. I found out they provided some medical services to people in lower income brackets that could not afford to go to the doctor. A big part of their work was in Family Planning, Well Baby Clinics, immunizations for school children and many other services. It was quite interesting that at the age of thirty-three that I had never really heard what a county health department did.
Frances said that she had a staff of four young nurses but because of some budget problems she was short on help especially on Monday nights when an intern from the Osteopathic medical school came for female check-ups. She had heard I had a science degree and was applying to medical school. Would I be interested in being a volunteer on Mondays nights? A lot of what they did did not require a registered nurse but she wanted someone with a little background, they could teach me what I needed to know and thought I might like it.
As Frances talked I could catch all the caring and compassion she had for her clients and her job. I remembered how I had asked Dr. Chandler, the plastic surgeon in Dallas, if I could go to work for him but he said no because I would never finish school and besides he did not pay his people very well not that money meant that much to me. I had applied to the osteopathic school in Kansas City without really knowing much about it. Now someone was offering me a chance to help out in what I wanted to do. What other answer was there but yes? Plans were made for the next Monday night.
After I said yes to Frances about the Health Department I knew Dennis was not going to be happy about it. Actually he was at a point where he was not happy about anything. We rarely ever went anywhere except a few times we went out to dinner with some people he worked with or we took the kids to the zoo, a museum or on his famous Sunday afternoon rides through the country the children hated. He endured some of the New Neighbors gatherings for couples but never made any attempt to be very friendly to any of the other men and there were very few of the neighbors he paid any attention to or liked.
I really tried to be the perfect wife and actually got very good at it. Dinner was always on the table at the precise time, the yard was mowed every Friday afternoon so he didn't have to do it on the weekends, house was usually immaculate when he walked in the door, laundry and grocery shopping done. One of my most memorable Mother's Day was being the only parent sitting in a slight dusting of snow at one of Wes's soccer games while he sat at home watching TV. But I always had a happy face when he was home.
I didn't mention the Health Department the evening after Frances came over as Dennis arrived home cursing about his job and wanting to move back to Dallas. I had a few days to formulate a plan on how to tell him - forget asking permission as his answer was always a big no. But a phone call the next day from Gary, our neighbor and builder, gave me a way to ease into telling him about my volunteer job.
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