From Riches to Rags (21 page)

“I got some ibuprofen today from one of the girls at work, it will help your back.”

She perked up a little, but not enough to change clothes, so I gave her the pills and got a glass of water for her to wash them down with.

“Chris, I don’t think I can do this.” She said staring at the pills in her hand, “Seriously, I’m dying here.”

I almost cried at her sincerity, “You can do it, Melinda. You’ve already worked the two worst days of the year, and tomorrow you have the day off.”

“Thank God, I had forgotten about that.”

“And I promise that I’ll be quiet as a church mouse so you can sleep in all day if you want.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

“And if you’ll change out of those dirty clothes, I’ll um,” I looked around for something else to entice her with, but before I found anything, my mouth made an offer she wouldn’t refuse, “I’ll even throw a back rub in the deal.”

Suddenly she was moving faster than I had seen her move all night. She pulled the curtain across the bed and a minute later, pulled it back, wearing her pajamas with her dirty clothes lying on the floor. I laughed as she pulled the blanket back and stretched out on the bed.

“Okay now, no funny stuff, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am, no funny stuff, promise.”

I used my thumbs to rub up her spine and across her back, pulling and kneading the muscles until she groaned in appreciation. I couldn’t help but admire her muscular shoulders and taut back. Her skin was soft under my touch, and yet so strong. It took me awhile to realize that Melinda was asleep.
Just one more rub and then I’ll quit.

I was too keyed up to sleep, so I leaned against the wall and watched Melinda sleep. The kitten had curled up on Melinda’s back and soon purred herself to sleep as well. But I was wide awake, asking myself the same question over and over again,
what is wrong with me?
I couldn’t come up with an answered. So I changed my tactic and tried to rationalize the situation. I surmised that these unwelcomed feelings I was having toward my roommate were most likely because it had been a year since my last relationship. I’d been incredibly lonely, and now all of a sudden, I was sharing my bed with a beautiful woman, and spending twenty-four hours a day with her. Of course, that’s the reason… so then, what’s the answer? It’s just lust, I tell myself, and it will pass.

What I was absolutely sure of was that I could not act on my lustful feelings and I could not let on to Melinda that I even had them. It wouldn’t be fair to her, not now when she’s struggling so. And besides, I wasn’t being fair to myself either. I couldn’t give in until I knew how this challenge turned out. Who knew if she’d even want to remain friends afterwards?

*

I woke up slowly, like a slug making its way across a tree limb. I even stretch slowly and deeply until every muscle wakened with gratification. Once that was out of the way, I looked around for Chris, but the bed was cold.
Did I imagine it?
Did she really give me a backrub last night?
Damn, I wish I hadn’t fallen asleep!

It was nearly noon when I got up to see if she was in the bathroom. That’s when I saw the note on the door saying she was doing laundry in the basement laundry room. She said if I wasn’t mad at her anymore that I should come down and keep her company. Now how could I be mad at her after the way she took care of me.
Man that was such a nice feeling, to have someone concerned about my needs without expecting a cash reward for their compassion.

I took a quick shower, got dressed and finger combed my hair, and then I bolted down the stairs two at a time until I reached the ground floor. I had not been down there yet and it reeked of several different, disgusting things, so much so that at first I had to hold my breath to keep from gagging. Then I heard Chris talking loudly to someone.

“I told you, stop bothering me or so help me, I’ll hit you with this!”

I rushed toward the sound and found the laundry room at the end of the hallway. Chris was facing a homeless man, a bottle of detergent in her hand, ready to smack him across the head with it if he took a step closer to her.

“Richard? Richard, is that you?” I recognized him from the front stoop. It was Norma’s old boyfriend, now neighborhood drunk. I figured he had come in here to get warm, since it was cold last night.

“Do you know him, Melinda?”

“Yeah, and so do you. You gave him some money, remember?”

“That was him?”

I nodded my head and she took a closer look at him.

He held his hand out to her, palm up, and slurred, “Give me some more money, toots, and I’ll sleep with your friend over there.”

I laughed, but Chris seemed to be considering his offer as she put one hand in her pocket full of quarters. She laughed at the shocked look on my face and then winked at me.

I took Richard by the elbow and led him out of the laundry room, “Go sleep it off somewhere else, big fella.”

When I walked back in, Chris asked me how I knew his first name, and I explained who he was and his relationship to Norma.

“Is that who she meant when she said she fell in love with a gambler?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Oh that’s so sad, for both of them. Norma at least pulled herself out of it, but he will most likely die alone in the street.”

I looked at the sadness in Crystals eyes and marveled at her empathy. “Maybe we can do something to help him, when we’re able.”

Chris’s green eyes shimmered and the sadness disappeared, “Oh yes, that’s a great idea. So, um, are you still mad at me?”

“No, not unless you’re still mad at me? After that wonderful backrub last night, how could I still be mad? We both were just really tired and let our tempers get the best of us.”

“You’re right. Let’s make a pack not to do that again. I didn’t like it much,” Chris said.

“You’ve got a deal, Chris. I didn’t much care for it either.”

We both stood there for a minute, not sure what to say next. The dryer dinged that it was finished and Chris pulled our clothes out and began folding them. I walked over to the folding table and helped her fold.

“I sure appreciate you washing my clothes too, Chris. And if you’ll show me how, I’ll do the laundry the next time.”

“It’s a deal. So, did you plan to do anything special on your day off? I mean other than chase drunks away and fold clothes?”

“Well, we could use our tip money and go shopping or to the movies or something.”

“I am going grocery shopping when we’re finished here, but I’m saving most of my tip money to buy Norma’s Christmas present, oh and yours too of course.”

“A Christmas present for me? What are you getting me?”

“Nothing much, I assure you”

We finished doing the laundry, which was a really boring chore. Chris told me that she couldn’t leave the room until the clothes were washed and dried because someone might come in and steal them, or do nasty things to them. I’m not real sure who would want our pitiful things, but better safe than sorry, I guess.

“I want to check on Norma before we go to the store to see if she needs us to pick up anything for her.”

“Good idea.”

We put away the clothes and then walked down the hall to Norma’s apartment. She said she was feeling just a bit under the weather, and some chicken soup would be nice. I didn’t think a thing about it, but Chris was worried. As we walked to the corner store, she told me about her maternal grandmother, who died when Chris was still living in Collierville. One day she complained of being under the weather and two days later, she died from pneumonia.

“Were you close to your grandmother?” I asked.

“Yes, pretty close. She lived in Maryland but she came down to visit us once a year and we went up there to visit her once a year. I was heartbroken when she died. My mother was devastated, although she put on a brave face.”

“I never knew either of my grandparents. We Blackstone’s tend to die off at a young age.”

“Oh no, don’t say that, now even in jest.”

At the store, Chris was reaching for a can of tuna and I stopped her. I couldn’t help but scrunch up my face at the sight of another tuna can. I never liked tuna when I was rich, and it didn’t matter if it was prepared by the most renowned chef in the world, I still hated it.

“Can’t we afford something else for a change?”

“Well, if we combine our money, we could get a lot more food, don’t you think?

When I moved in, we hadn’t specified that we had to eat the same things or that we had to spend our money collectively, but we both saw the merit in doing that. I handed her the twenty dollar bill Frankie had left as my tip.
I’ll never know what she sees in Meg.

“This is very good. Combined with the twenty George left for me, we can even afford real food. Have you ever had a potpie before? It’s really inexpensive.”

“I’m not sure what that is, but I’ll try it.”

“It’s a pie shaped crust filled with beef and vegetables in a gravy. Only cost eighty-nine cents each and is quite satisfying. You’ve never had one of those?”

“Nope, can’t say that I have.”

“Then let’s try some of that and I want to get some cans of vegetables, they’re really cheap and besides, we should be eating them anyway. Do you like clam chowder?”

“Oh yeah, love it with crackers.”

We picked up a can of chowder, a couple of boxes of the store brand Mac and Cheese, several cans of vegetables that were under ninety cents, some kitten food, which was more expensive than the human food, and I talked Chris into splurging on a decadent dessert. After all, what use is living if you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Of course this was a package of macaroons because we had no way of baking, but the sentiment was the same. Chris got a couple of cans of chicken soup for Norma, along with some chamomile tea, and ibuprofen, because apparently I had used them all up.

As we shopped, I kept thinking about what I could get Chris for Christmas with my pitiful little earnings. If I were rich, which had become my mantra, I could buy her anything her heart desired… but her heart only seemed to desire that I pass the test. Maybe that could be my gift. It’s corny, I know, but if I was clever and creative enough, I could surprise her.

We paid for our items, which took almost all of our tip earnings, and walked home, bracing against the cold breeze. Chris was quiet, contemplating something that left her looking almost glum. It seemed to me that she was having a particularly bad day and I searched my brain for something fun that would cheer her up.

“I’ve got a great idea, let’s decorate the Christmas tree.”

“We don’t have a tree and I don’t know that we can afford one either, not after all this.” She indicated the groceries.

“Who says we have to buy a tree, we can make one from what we have in the apartment.”

“Well, we don’t have much, but it could be fun to try I guess.”

“That’s my girl.”

We got back to the apartment and I put things away while Chris took the soup cans, and some of the tea packets over to Norma. By the time she returned, I had found our Christmas tree.

“See this broom,” I was holding the broom in my hand when she walked back in, “we can use this for our tree.”

“A broom? For a Christmas tree?”

I grinned at her and nodded my head, and though she still looked at me disbelievingly, she was willing to try. “Now, what can we use for decorations?”

She looked around and her eyes brightened suddenly, “We could use the kitten’s toys. Leave her a toy or two to play with, and use these others as ornaments.” Chris gathered up several toys and carried them over to the bed.

“That’s a great idea, but first the tree needs some limbs to hang them on.” I looked around the room for something resembling tree limbs, but found nothing so I looked in the closet.

The kitten used her claws to climb up the mattress and carry off one of her toys. Chris laughed and said, “Well, I guess that’s the one she wants to keep.”

I pulled out a couple of clothes hangers from the closet and straightened them out and then wrapped the middle around the broom handle. It took all the hangers we had, but soon I had a resemblance of a tree. A very thin tree, with only one side, but at least we could decorate it.
Now, how on earth am I going to get it to stand up?

Chris had an old T-shirt that didn’t fit her anymore, and she took a knife and began shredding it into strips. I thought at first it was to tie the ornaments to the tree, but she was also going to use them to tie around the tree limbs to give it some fullness.

“Can I have a couple of those to hold the tree up?”

She handed me a couple of strips of cloth, and then helped me pin the broom to the wall using the cloth to hold it in place. Once the broom was secured, we started decorating the tree. We didn’t’ have lights for the tree, but we tore off strips of foil and shaped them into balls and hung them on the tree. They sparkled when the light hit them, just like twinkling lights.

As we worked on our little tree, we sang Christmas songs, making up our own words because neither one of us remembered the lyrics. It was a cozy, fun way to spend the afternoon, and both of us completely forgot the tension we had gone to bed with, last night.

“Charlie Brown hasn’t got a thing on this tree.” Chris said with a laugh.

We turned off all the lights except the bathroom light, and sat down on the bed, admiring our little makeshift Christmas tree, twinkling in the glow of the bathroom light. For the first time in my life, I felt a kind of peace come over me. Without thinking about it, I wrapped my arm around Chris and she leaned her head on my shoulder. I knew in that moment that this was as close as I would ever get to heaven on earth.

Chapter Seventeen

Midpoint — Meg Bumgartner
and
Christine Livingston

“Is Blackie at work today?” I asked, as Chrissie and I sat down at a table in the Dixie Café. After we ordered, we talked as we munched on cornbread.