35
After Susie was securely deposited at her birthday party, I dropped Bobby off to play at Janet’s house. Janet looked noticeably frazzled. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked her as the two boys scampered off to play.
“I’m fine,” she said, waving me away. “You need the break more than I do.”
I offered to take Paula for a few hours on Monday to give her a break as well, which she gratefully accepted. “I don’t even remember the last time I got my hair done,” Janet admitted. “That would be wonderful. Thank you.”
“All you ever have to do is ask,” I reminded her. “You know that.”
She looked at me, but her usual wry face was gone, and a naked honesty shone in her eyes. “I never want to ask. Especially not you.”
“Janet,” I said. “You can always ask me.”
She smiled grimly. “I just know how much you have on your plate.”
I wrapped my arms around her in a hug. For a moment, she hung there limply, then hugged me back fiercely. “I am never too busy for you. I couldn’t have gotten through those early days if you hadn’t been there forcing me out of bed. Promise you’ll lean on me when you need to?”
“I promise,” Janet said. She pulled out of the hug, visibly fortified by it.
There was a small crash followed by a yelp from upstairs.
“Now get out of here. I’ll go deal with that.
” She went thundering up the stairs. “Nothing better be broken, and that includes you two,” she called ahead of her. I shook my head as I left.
Then I went home and told Ruth we were going shopping.
“I don’t want to run into Joseph at the store,” she said.
“Not food shopping. We’re buying you a dress for tonight.”
“No.”
“My treat.”
Pepper’s ears perked up and I could have sworn Ruth’s did the same. “I suppose I can look good while convincing him that I’m not interested.”
Or while you discover that you are, I thought. “Exactly. Now come on. We’ll go to Woodies.”
“Fine,” Ruth said, rising with a sigh. “Let me just get my pocketbook.”
Outfitted in a flattering new dress (which took me and no fewer than four salesgirls to convince her was the current style and that no, a crinoline would ruin the svelte silhouette), Ruth came down the stairs shortly before Mr. Greene was due to arrive.
“How do I look?” she asked the children, turning around for their benefit.
“Beautiful,” Susie said, walking around her appreciatively in a circle.
“Like you’re younger!” Bobby chimed in. I swatted playfully at him, but Ruth laughed.
“Maybe I should change, then. I don’t want Joseph getting the wrong idea.”
“No,” I said quickly. “It’s perfect. Right, Bobby?”
“Right,” he said. “That’s what I meant.”
There was a knock at the door, and Ruth reached for her handbag, but I stopped her.
“It just needs one thing.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a tube of Revlon’s Snow Peach.
“This,” I said, uncapping the lipstick. I applied it to her bottom lip before she took the tube from me and studied it.
“It’s a little . . . pink . . .”
“It looks really good on you,” I assured her. “And Vogue says this is the hottest new color.”
“Whatever happened to classic red?”
“I heard Jackie Kennedy is wearing this shade now.”
“Fine,” Ruth said, crossing to the mirror and running a finger under her bottom lip to catch any that I had gone astray with. I hadn’t, but she still had to make sure.
There was another knock at the door.
“Will someone let him in?” she asked before pressing her lips together.
I started toward the door, but Bobby beat me to it. He flung the door open, then looked disappointed.
“Where are your flowers?” he asked.
“Bobby!” I said, restraining myself from clapping a hand over his mouth. “He was here this morning with flowers!”
“Don’t worry, young man,” he said with a wink. “I didn’t come empty handed.” He pulled the top of a long jewelry box out of his jacket pocket.
At least it isn’t a ring box, I thought. But oh my. Jewelry was a bit much for a first date.
Ruth eyed him warily from behind us. “Joseph,” she said warningly.
“It’s not what you think,” he said, removing the box. “I promise.” He opened it to reveal an ornate hatpin.
“A hatpin?”
“No hat required,” he said. “I know you’re not as keen as I am—yet.
And Eddie said I’ve been coming on a bit too strong.
When I met Gertrude, she carried a hatpin in case any men got fresh.
I know it’s been a long time since ...
well, a long time, and I thought, this way, maybe you’ll feel a little more comfortable going out with me. ”
Ruth looked from the hatpin to him, back to the pin, then back to him. “That’s—”
Bizarre, I finished in my head.
“Extremely thoughtful,” she said. I looked at her in surprise. “My father gave me a hatpin—a much plainer one—when I was a young girl for much the same reason.” Then she peered around him. “There are flowers in the car though, aren’t there?”
“Well, yes,” Mr. Greene said sheepishly.
Ruth started to laugh, then slipped a hand into the crook of his elbow. “Don’t wait up,” she called to us over her shoulder.
I picked my jaw up off the ground and looked at the children. “I ... didn’t see that coming.”
Bobby looked up at me hopefully. “Does Grandma being gone mean we can have pancakes for dinner?”
“Sure,” I said, shaking my head. “This day is upside down as it is.”
“Yay!” both kids cried, scampering off as I tried to process the unexpected success of a hatpin—designed for stabbing an overzealous suitor—as a gift before a date.
The best conclusion I could come to was that the generation that spawned me was simply inexplicably strange.
I wondered if my own children would someday feel the same about me.