1 post tagged “fiction”

Friday night “babysitting” Terri turned out to be rather uneventful. I have to confess I was anxious about it all day. I worried about her getting bored, or what if we just didn’t get along for some reason. Suppose she went Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde on me and turned out to the spoiled brat teenage girl from hell. What if she insisted on not listening to me or ignoring her mom’s instructions and slipped out after dark while I was in the bathroom.

 

My overactive imagination was in hyper-drive most of the day.

 

Carol dropped Terri off on time. Terri had her laptop and some other stuff in a dark blue Friends of KHPR canvas bag. I later found out the bag contained her iPod and a couple of books, along with hand lotion and a small bag of “girl things’, like cosmetics and small grooming implements.

 

Although this was suggested by Carol as a “get acquainted” visit, Terri and I talked very little. She kept herself entertained doing homework, or whatever on her laptop, which had no problem picking up an internet signal from my DSL modem.

 

She seemed content being quiet and staying busy, and I was glad to play along. If she was happy, I was happy.

 

She had brought rice crackers, or arare to snack on. She offered to share, but I opted for my own wheat crackers and cheddar cheese instead. Typical local kid and typical haole (Caucasian) man. I like arare, but prefer flavored rice cracker covered peanuts, called iso peanuts better than the more plain crackers she had brought. Carol had fed Terri dinner prior to dropping her off.

 

At some point during the day, my gut had told me all my worrying was for naught, and everything would be just fine. Like most people, I don’t usually listen to my gut even though it’s always right. Go figure.

 

Carol picked Terri up around 10:30, right in the middle of the agreed upon window. So far, Carol has been very prompt, very polite and Terri has been very nice. Why do I still feel like the other shoe is going to drop at some point?

 

Carol came in for a couple of minutes when she picked Terri up, but our conversation was pretty much just Carol and Terri thanking me, and me assuring both of them it was no trouble, and I’d be glad to have Terri over anytime. Everyone showing off their best manners and social skills.

 

We didn’t discuss when, or if Terri would return. However, I’m pretty sure we all assumed it would indeed happen again…soon.

 

On Saturday morning my cell phone chirped and vibrated to life around 11:00 AM.

 

Nobody ever calls me on the weekend, especially in the morning, so my immediate thought was, “who the…?” Before I could unleash the expletive on the tip of my tongue, I saw it was Carol.

 

“Hello?”, I answered pleasantly, instantly changing gears.

 

“Good morning Rick. Carol. How are you?”, she answered in her now familiar business-like manner.

 

“I’m good, thanks”, I replied, purposely speaking slower than normal. My way of having some one-sided fun with someone in too much of a hurry to have fun otherwise.

 

“Just wanted to say thanks again for watching out for Terri last night. She had a really nice time.”, was mom’s report after apparently debriefing Terri about her initial visit.

 

“No worries. It was nice for me too, although I have to admit she was very low maintenance and seemed perfectly content to self-entertain pretty much the whole evening.”, I replied truthfully.

 

“She’s really good that way.”, said the proud mom.

 

Before I could reply, Carol continued, “so it’s so far, so good?”

 

“Absolutely”, I said trying to make sure I genuinely sounded positive and sincere.

 

“I think she’s planning on Monday after school again if that’s okay. I told her to call you tomorrow to confirm.”, came the ever efficient business woman.

 

“Works for me”, I confirmed.

 

“I’ll send some money with her for you guys to eat on”, Carol let me know.

 

“Great. Thanks, Carol”, I told her.

 

“Okay. Thanks again. Talk to you next week.”, Carol said ending the conversation.

 

“Bye”, I said as the phone went dead.

 

The rest of the day consisted mostly of a little shopping. I needed a few household things for some extra cleaning up around The Crib. If I’m gonna be having Terri over some more, I should probably upgrade the environment in the apartment.

 

The apartment is always fairly clean and neat, but it’s old-man-bachelor-who-lives-alone clean and neat, not necessarily young-teenage girl-and-her-mom clean and neat. I’m not really sure exactly what that means, but I wanted both of the women to be comfortable when they come over.

 

My mom was a meticulous housekeeper and I’m pretty sure I’ll never be that good, but I do have some reasonable room for improvement. Who knows, I might even dust the tops of the tall bookcases.

 

I was somewhat proud of myself that despite not having lived with a woman for over 14 years, I managed to keep the toilet seat down while Terri was over. When I’m alone, I hardly think about it. Mostly I need the seat to be up when I use the bathroom and on the off occasion when I do need to sit, I never, ever, ever, ever sit my naked butt down anywhere without looking first, so accidentally sitting on the cold slippery rim of the toilet has never been an issue for me.

 

Girls…

 

After a good day shopping and getting my one hour of exercise walking in, I decided to take in a DVD to pass the evening.

 

The feature for the evening was a compilation of Johnny Winter concert performances from the 70’s that I discovered on Netflix pretty much by accident. I typed in Johnny Wi looking for old Tarzan movies and up popped Johnny Winter. Although I’ve become quite fond of and even create, modern electronic music, particularly soulful House music, I still love the kick-ass stuff from the 70’s. Once a rocker…

 

The high energy level is one of the things I like most about some of the electronic music, especially Trance music. The incessant, hard throbbing bass drum beat and the myriad of synthesizers and faux explosions gets me pumped. It ain’t Johnny Winter, or Blackfoot, or The Allman Brothers, but then again, it ain’t 1975 anymore either.

 

Just as I crack open an ice cold Tsing Dao beer imported from China, my cell phone goes off again. A cuckoo clock announcing no particular time. It’s the tone I assigned to Terri’s cell phone. Don’t want to miss her calls.

 

“Terri”, I answered as friendly sounding as possible considering she’s interrupting cold beer and a concert on Saturday night. A nearly unforgivable transgression for almost anyone else.

 

“Hey Rick”, she said in a soft but cheery voice. I like that she chooses not to use the “uncle” honorific when she addresses me. Despite our rather wide difference in age, it’s a little more comfortable to try to think of her as just another friend, although she’s anything but.

 

“Everything okay?”, I wanted to know, always close to paranoia.

 

“Everything’s fine. Are you busy?”, she replied, wondering if she had interrupted.

 

“Not busy at all. Just getting ready to watch a DVD. But no rush on that.”, I told her truthfully.

 

“You talked to mom this morning?”, she wanted to confirm.

 

“Yeah. She was just checking in and thanking me for last night.”, I told Terri.

 

“Well, thanks from me too. It was nice.”, she said and after a short pause, added, “and comfortable”.

 

“Comfortable matters. I’m happy to hear you say that”,  I told her honestly.

 

“Mom’s out for a while tonight, so I thought I’d check in and thank you, too ”, she confessed, sounding a little lonely…or something.

 

I took a sip of the cold beer as I listened to her, then replied, “that’s very sweet of you. Keep in mind though, you really don’t need an excuse to call. I’m usually here by myself, and it’s always nice to have someone to talk to.”

 

“I will keep that in mind. Thanks. Is Monday after school okay for me to hang out again?”, she wanted to know.

 

“It’s just fine. Your mom said you’d call to confirm. Is this that call?”, I wanted to know.

 

“Yeah, this is that call.”, she giggled.

 

“So what’d you do today?”, I asked sensing she might want some company for a bit.

 

We talked about her day, my DVD choice for the evening and some other non-topic kinds of stuff for about half of my beer, which was almost 30 minutes.

 

She didn’t sound sad, or anything, but I couldn’t shake the feeling she might be a little bored, or lonely, or something. I didn’t mention it since I don’t really know her well enough yet to judge such things. I didn’t want to embarrass her, if I was right.

 

She had already spent time on the phone with her friend, Karen, so I guess she was working her way down her phone list to pass the time. I felt good she called. It’s always nice when people think enough to call and chat without any particular reason. This call could certainly have waited had Terri not been in the mood for some casual chatting.

 

After we hung up, I finished the beer, got a fresh one and some kim chee tako poke to munch on during the concert. Had someone told me in 1975, I’d be in Hawaii today drinking Chinese beer and eating a hot, spicy mixture of Korean kim chee flavored nearly raw octopus, I would have been sure their destiny was a quick to trip to a padded room guarded by men in little white jackets, but here I am.

 

Johnny rocked as only he can (can/could?…whatever) and the refreshments were a perfect companion. I finished the beer and poke just as Johnny finished the last song on the DVD. A legendary song about aging rockers penned by one of Johnny’s partners in crime, Rick Derringer, entitled, “Still Alive and Well”. True dat!