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The incident with the woman
in church rested on her mind like indigestion. There was nothing there to
make one spiritually sick but just enough of being disagreeable to make
one uncomfortable. No question about it. The woman was unstable. This
wasn't a problem with Dee during these times. It was almost a given, as
the expression goes. So many people confessed to needing and having
psychiatric care especially after the twin towers attack. However,
before that too, she was personally acquainted from a distance with
numbers of folk who were plagued with a very mild mental distress.
The outstanding strength of
the people in her tribe too was lost in the generations. Alcoholism, drug
addiction, and many other forms of ill health were visited upon them.
Diabetes, the most difficult of illness, had become a plague. Even so
much as to having a special day at the clinic reserved every week for
this malady. The tribe also kept on payroll, full time, a psychologist.
Getting back to the thought
of the woman approaching her in particular when there were numbers of
other people at the Bible study was what was now bothering Dee.
Why did this woman
deliberately go out of her way to walk all the way from the front of the
very large room, directly to her in order to become acquainted? What was
involved with the whole scenario? What would the events to transpire with
an old friend do to tie in with this happening at her Bible study? It was
a mystery and Dee was intrigued with questions as to the little towns
secrets and schemes.
It was early morning and
the phone was ringing. Dee knew it was family or someone who knew her
well enough to know she was up early. Before the activities of the day
there was a few minutes to chat.
“Mildred!” Dee recognized
a friend from more than forty years. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh yeah.” Mildred
almost sighed and this told Dee all was not well with her.
Mildred and Dee had been
friends at a distance since they were girls. But now, in the last part of
their life Dee did not feel comfortable with the friendship. Still, there
was such a thing in her mind as to loyalty. Dee knew the woman was
essentially good, but like the other woman she had encountered at Bible
study the fight through the years had left her friend a shadow of her
former self.
So, Dee politely listened
to all the misery the woman related. There were no solutions and no
comment was really necessary. Except, the last part of her conversation
which was another layer added to the saga with the woman who kept
repeating her name and vital statistics at the Bible study.
“Nate and his new live-in
are expecting.” Mildred giggled.
“Oh no! Well, is the
divorce final between Nate and your daughter?” All at once Dee was
interested.
“No! We haven't even
been to court yet.” Mildred was like Dee appalled at the loose slipping
away from the sane life.
“And, guess what else?”
Mildred was bursting with the need to tell someone.
“Nate's girlfriend has
long, beautiful, naturally, curly blond hair and she has bugs!”
“Whoa!” Dee was shocked.
For all the world this was like someone took hold of the legs on her chair
and jerked it out from under her. I mean. We are not talking about run
of the mill people here. Mildred's husband was rumored to be a millionaire
and their son-in-law was hot on his heels in this direction.
“Are you serious?” Dee
was close to being speechless.
“I'm serious. I sat on the
porch swing for two hours working on my granddaughter's hair.”
“Oh my! Where did they get
them?”
“Probably, at church!”
Mildred stated, matter of fact.
“At Church? Oh no!” All
at once Dee's mind went back to the Bible study. Was it possible she was
not imagining the episode with her scratchy, itchy scalp after the
encounter at the Bible study?
She wasn't going to give
her friend another something to weigh her down even more, so she kept
quiet. Dee felt a little dishonest at not being as open and frank with
her friend as the woman was with her. But more than feeling guilty about
that she was trying to see the connection here. Was it just a coincidence
this was happening to her within just days apart? Dee had read that these
little parasites were becoming epidemic, but as her Indian ancestors
always did she kept sage leaves she grew in the back yard poked down into
their shampoo. Evidently, this kept their children free of the menace. If
for some reason sage as she grew it was not available then she made tiny
pillows of the sage she bought at the store to poke down into the shampoo
bottle. This was not as potent as hers though so certainly every effort
was made to save hers.
After Dee hung up the phone
she put her head down on her desk and laughed for a solid five
minutes. What else was going to come up? Certainly, kids were subjected to
the chance of catching anything at school, but not at church, certainly
not, if this was, indeed the case. Did Mildred's granddaughter catch them
and give them to the live-in or vise versa, and where did the live-in
catch them? This is why she was laughing. She felt like she was on a
merry go round of questions.
Sam, now awake, peeked
into where she was. “What's so funny?” He wanted to know.
“It is such a beautiful
day. I have so many wonderful projects in mind. Things of the earth, my
spearmint to gather, peppermint is ready, and the catnip is begging to
go into mice pillows. A friend said her cat was literally rolling in the
catnip I gave her and growled at her when she tried to shoo him out.”
“Is that what you are
laughing about?” Sam persisted with his question.
"No dear, but at this point
in time, I think it is a safer conversation than the one I just had with
Mildred.”
Sam wasn't that interested
anyway and answered her simply. “Oh.” |
