Driving around the ample wooded lots in her neighborhood, a prissy, precise but lonely widow, Margaret, gazed wistfully at the handsome silver-haired man working in his yard. His sinewy muscles rippled, glistening with perspiration at the hot sun trickled through the scanty trees in the yard. So devout to his tasks was he, going around pruning his trees, cleaning and weeding, that he didn’t look up. She wondered if he were in mourning. Rumor had it that his wife had undergone major surgery some time ago and she hadn’t been seen for a while.
Impulsively, Margie drove home, freshened up from her morning shopping spree and took off walking. With no hesitation, she stopped at the end of his driveway thrusting her hands in and out of her jeans pocket trying to decide how best to approach him. Something fell out but she paid it no mind but, instead, headed straight up to the stranger.
She stood a few feet from him, watching the sweat roll off his shirtless chest, but grew anxious. He still ignored her presence! With little other choice, Margie cleared her throat … not once but several times. Again, he went about his work. Finally, a bit annoyed, Margie touched his shoulder.
“Damn!” Paul turned around angrily. “Never touch me when I’ve got a chain saw!”
Blinking through goggled eyes, it suddenly registered that this person, the woman, apparently wasn’t who he thought it was. He removed the protective glasses and his ear-plugs. “Sorry!” He motioned to the two items in his hands. “Safety features, you know.”
“Are you here about the ad?” He’s recently advertised his availability for ‘handyman services’ in the local newspaper. “I didn’t expect anyone to call in person.”
“Well,” she hesitated to say anything.
“Please, go on up to the house. My grandson is there. I’ll be with you in a jiffy.”
Taken aback by this strange turn of events, Margie nearly turned to leave but stumbled over a freshly severed tree limb.
The gentleman caught her by the elbow and got an eyeball of her cleavage as her blouse slipped down in the center front. He smiled … you know that smile!
Smiling appreciatively, knowing he’d taken a personal interest in her well-being, Margie ambled up to the house and rang the door bell.
She heard something being dragged across the floor. Then a small voice inquired, “Who are you? What do you want?”
“The man in the yard …”
“Grandfather?”
“Okay … if you say so. Well, he told me to come up here to wait for him as he’s busy right now.” Margie felt a bit uncomfortable going into a stranger’s house to sit with a child. “May I wait inside or would you prefer that I sit on the front porch?”
Slowly the door opened to reveal a young boy, around six, with black hair and big, brown eyes. His smile revealed two missing front teeth. Margie had to push, give a little shove, to swing the door open wider. As she walked in, she noticed a chair behind the front door and looked up on the door where there was a peep hole. Smart kid!
“Half a seat.” He gestured toward the sofa. “I’m vatching T.V.”
“Thank you.” Margie sat down, all the while observing how tidy the house was and wondering how to inquire about the grandmother. “My name is Margaret. What’s yours?”
“Josh.” Someone took great care of him, she noticed even his clipped nails, but he turned his intense attention back to the cartoon.
“I heard that your grandmother had surgery.”
“Yeth.” Nothing could unglue his eyes from the large screen television. She ached to know more though a conversation with this child was nearly dental work.
“How is she doing?” Margaret bit her lip apprehensively, knowing she was prying but unable to help herself. She also, instinctively, ran her right hand through her short, dark hair. Would his grandfather notice, or care, that she tinted it?
“She’s deft.”
Although Margaret couldn’t help noticing his missing teeth, she was sure he said, ‘she’s dead’. Being of gentle heart, she didn’t dare ask the poor child to repeat himself. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”
There was a long pause, until the next commercial, then Josh smiled as the middle-aged woman. “It’s O.K.,” he shrugged. “She’s gone, that’s all!”
Kids, Margaret sighed, they get over things so quickly. However she breathed more freely relieved that she was right. The poor man was now fair game. She couldn’t help but smile … inside and out. What a catch!
Paul came in the house through the back door just then, paused to wipe his feet and them looked in on them. “Let me wash up. I’ll be right with you.”
Margie smiled, very friendly, “Take you’re time. I’m in no hurry.” Smirking to herself, she thought he was more handsome now than before … in the yard.
The commercial came on, again, so Josh stood up and walked over to Margaret. “Grandma will be coming back soon.”
The blood drained out of Margaret’s face, “but I thought you said she was gone?”
“She is, but,” Paul chuckled in the bathroom, “try as I might, there’s no getting rid of her. She always comes back!”
Paul entered the living room smiling and extended his right hand to Margaret. “My name’s Paul.” Just then he looked over the back of the sofa, out the front window and sighed. “Speak of the devil, here she comes.”
Margaret bolted upright, looked out the window and saw only the glare of the sun. Stammering she trembled, “I . . I .. I’ve really got to go now.”
Paul pointed toward the bathroom with the assumption that was what she meant. However, she jumped to her feet, ran out of the house and bounded down the driveway—all the while watching the road but not seeing anyone.
Moments later the door opened. Alice, deaf but a proficient lip-reader, breathlessly walked in and sat down. “Who was that lady who flew out of here like a bat fleeing light?”
Paul grinned. “Beats me! I thought she came about the ad but when I mentioned seeing you coming up toward the house, she took off, said she had to go.”
He shook his head in puzzlement. “By the way, you disappeared for a bit. What happened?”
“Oh,” Alice fished a twenty dollar bill out of her pocket, “this was laying tangled up in the bottom of those bushes at the end of the driveway. I thought I’d better fetch it before it blew free and the wind caught it.”
“Grandma?” Josh, momentarily paying attention to his elders smiled, “That lady was asking about you.”
“She was?”
“Yeth.”
“What did she ask?”
“She asked how you were and I told her that you were deft.”
Alice and Paul both laughed and retorted in unison, “Deaf, honey, deaf.”
Only then did it register that the woman was scared. “Bet she thought I was dead!” Alice gasped.
Paul teased wickedly. “I told her we couldn’t get rid of you, that you always came back.”
They couldn’t stop laughing the rest of the evening. “Can you imagine the ‘handy man’ job she had in mind?”
Alice hit her husband over the head with a pillow. “Shame on you!”
Undercover Reunion, a novel of romance and adventure for Baby Boomers,fans of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and anyone who has ever attended their high school reunion!
Children will enjoy reading and hearing about the silly antics of a puppy still learning how to be a good listener. This story is about Riley, a cute, little, rescue puppy who gets into all sorts of predicaments.
Crowley County Series, Novels 4-6
An uplifting series with romance, mystery and suspense.
Join the people of Crowleyville as they face the challenges of small town life while struggling to welcome an influx of newcomers.
