Bodark Creek - 53. Chapter 53

When I got back from Tucson, I found that Ruth, Leona, and Pat were making some plans. “What’s this all about?” I asked, when I heard a bit of it from Del.

“Well, you know how I want to go back to school,” Pat told me. “And how many years I’ve talked about finishing my degree.”

I laughed at that. Almost anytime I asked Pat what she wanted for her birthday or for Christmas, she said, “How about getting me my RN?” And she’d take classes, and she’d usually do well. But it always seemed she had two years left.

“Is it really that long?” I’d ask.

“Just about.”

“I thought it was two years two years ago. And you’ve taken at least three classes.”

“But the college keeps adding requirements. Or changing courses I already took. So something I passed ten years ago doesn’t count anymore.”

“Why don’t you take a year off and go to school?” Del suggested. “That’s what Susan did.”

When Susan wanted to know more about business, she said the only way she was going to learn was to concentrate on that and raising the children. So Del ran the insurance office for a year and two summers.

“I keep thinking about that,” Pat said. “And I’ve asked around the hospital to see if they’d really miss me. But they always say, ‘What would we do without you?’ And that makes me feel too important.”

“Do you really need an RN?” I asked.

“No, I can go on working without it. But it’s something I’ve really wanted, and now I’m almost forty. Besides, once I get the degree, they’ll have to pay me more.”

“There’s the reason they won’t let you go,” Neal kidded. “No matter what they say.”

“And the reason I can’t leave is the money. There’s the house payment, and the new car...”

Pat always liked her cars. And just before the motorcycle accident, she and Eddie bought a house. It wasn’t a new one, but it was one of the nicer ones in the good part of town. They figured they could easily pay for it with two salaries. Then Eddie died, and Pat was fighting with the mortgage by herself. But she wouldn’t let go of the house.

“Eddie liked it so much,” she said. “It helps keep him in my mind.”

Still, when Ruth and Leona decided to move in together, it gave Pat another thought.

“It’s not the money,” Ruth explained to me. “It’s having too many rooms. At least, they’re all on the same floor, so we can get to them. Not like at our old houses. But Leona and I both have extra bedrooms we only use when the family’s visiting. And neither of us needs a big dining room.”

“I spend most of my day at Ruth’s anyway,” Leona added. “So why not move in?”

“And we’re getting to the age where we can always use some help,” Ruth went on. “So we asked Pat if she knew some nice young nurse who needed a place to live. We couldn’t pay her. But we could give her a clean bedroom and make sure she had all her meals. And she’d be there in case anything terrible happened.”

“It’s always good having someone younger around,” Leona finished. “The nearest of any of our children is in Dallas.”

Pat must have thought about that for a couple of weeks. Then she offered something they hadn’t considered.

“I’ll rent out my own house,” she said. “Rent it furnished and just move a few of the family things into the attic. Then I won’t have to worry about money and I can go to school.”

“Will the hospital let you?” I asked.

“I don’t care. I’m not worried about finding another job. It’s not like there’s ever too many nurses.”

So Pat rented her house. And Ruth and Leona decided they liked Ruth’s home best, “Because it’s on the sunnier side of the street.” So Leona sold her place and bought half interest in Ruth’s. “That way, after we’re gone, none of our children will feel cheated.”

“You’ve really thought this out,” I said.

“If we had another bedroom,” Ruth suggested, “you could move in, too. Or wait until after Pat finishes her classes.”

“I may do that,” I admitted. “In another few years, I’ll be having trouble climbing my own stairs.”

“You’re always welcome,” I was assured, and I felt that way. I spent a good deal of time with Ruth and Leona anyway, but had one advantage over them. Most of my grandchildren lived in town. So I got to see Del’s son and daughter, and Neal’s two younger boys, and the oldest of my grandchildren, Joann’s Paul and Lilah.

Paul was already eighteen, and he was never without a girlfriend. I tried to keep track of them, but when I was traveling with William, we were away too long. “Whatever happened to that nice girl you were seeing last summer?” I once asked Paul.

“She isn’t a nice girl anymore,” he’d answered, grinning. Then he showed me a picture of a girl who was even prettier.

“I’d worry about him,” Joann confessed, “but he really knows what he’s doing. He all set to start school in the fall.”

“College?” I asked.

“No, he wants to be an electrician. He likes working with his hands.”

Lilah was less sure of herself, though she was no less pretty than any of Paul’s girlfriends. “I don’t know what I want to do,” she’d tell me. “Maybe just stay home and have babies.”

“You’re only fifteen,” Joann insisted. “You’ll change your mind.”

Joann had already changed hers. After almost three years, she slowly began dating. Some of the men she met through the VA, and others she knew from our prayer group at church. For a while, she was always going out with someone, but it never got serious. “I’m not sure I want to spend my life with anyone new,” she said.

There was also the problem that when Joann liked a particular man, sometimes Paul or Lilah didn’t. “You’re not gonna make that man our daddy,” Lilah would say. Or Paul would offer, “That guy drinks too much, Ma.” Joann was also free with her opinions. “He’s not like Rod,” she’d acknowledge. “And he’s not even like Bobby.” That would make everyone laugh, and it left Joann just where she wanted.

“I thought you wanted to get married again,” I said.

“No, you thought that. But I always claimed otherwise.”

“Mama’s right, Grandma,” Lilah put in. “She always said two husbands were enough.”

Soon after Ruth and Leona and Pat got settled, Charley’s wife called to tell us that he had a heart attack. “He’s all right,” Faye said immediately. “He’s mostly surprised he got a second chance. He didn’t think that happened.”

“Is he in the hospital?” I asked.

“No, he’s right here,” she said, laughing. “He wants to talk to you, but he’s pretending he’s too weak to dial.”

I laughed at that while Faye put Charley on. So the first thing he heard was my laughter.

“What’s so funny?” he insisted.

“Nothing,” I had to admit. “But too many people have been dying, and I’m glad you’re not one more.”

“Me, too,” he joked. “Though one of the good things about getting older is you outlast all the folks you never liked.”

“Unfortunately, you outlast your friends, too.”

“I know that. Hell, half the fellas I knew in the Navy are gone. And some of them were years younger than me.”

“But you’re all right?”

“That’s what the doctors say. Though they want to do some more tests, and maybe a little surgery. They say it’s to keep this from happening again. After that, they think I’ll last another ten years.”

“That’s good news.”

“Yeah, but who wants to be counting down? It’s like having birthdays backwards. Nine more years. Eight to go. Only another seven...”

That made me laugh again, and I told Charley he needed some rest. “I’ll phone everyone else and let them know you’re all right.”

He thanked me for that, then put Faye back on.

“Is he really as strong as he sounds?” I asked.

“Yes,” she assured me. “We were lucky this time.” And we both prayed that would go on.