CHANGE OF LIFE - Chapter 13

I slept soundly on the couch. Even the sun coming in through the window did not awaken me. What did awaken me was a little hand gently patting my arm.

“Mrs. O’Reilly, we are dressed and ready for our breakfast.”

My eyes snapped open. I sat up, saw the phone still plugged in, and went over to disconnect it.  I slipped into my slippers, put on my bathrobe, and went out to the kitchen. On the table was Maggie’s note with the address and phone number on it. I slipped it into my robe pocket.

 Looking in the cabinet, I saw a box of oats and a box of raisins. I found a pan, measured the amount of water in it, put a pinch of salt into the water, and a sparse handful of raisins. Kaitlynn was watching me.

“Where is Karen?”

“She’s upstairs brushing her hair a hundred times.”

“I’m going downstairs to get dressed. I want you to watch this pan. It will simmer and then begin to boil. When you see it boil, call me. I’ll come up, put the oats in the pan, and turn down the burner. After that, I’ll have you watch the clock for me and call me when it is ready. Would you like to do that?”

Kaitlynn smiled broadly.

I ran downstairs and dressed rapidly. I was just pulling my dress over my head when Kaitlynn called. I ran up the stairs barefoot and into the kitchen. I measured the oats and poured them into the boiling water. Then I turned the burner down while I was stirring the bubbling mixture. Soon they were simmering.

“Okay, Kaitlynn, this is very important. Sit here on this chair and watch that clock. Do you see the big hand?  What number is it pointing to?”

“One.”

“When it is pointing to two, I want you to call me, okay.”

I ran downstairs again and put on my socks and shoes. I went through my purse, straightened it, and removed unnecessary papers. I had unstitched the pockets of the dress, removed the money, and put it into my purse before washing the dress.

Just then Kaitlynn called. I closed the purse and ran upstairs with it.

Karen had still not come down from her room. I turned off the burner, stirred the oatmeal, and went to the bottom of the stairs.

“Karen.”

Karen came out of her room.

“Breakfast is ready. I want you to come down and join us in the kitchen.”

Karen came into the kitchen, sat down at her place at the table, and sat with her face hung down. I divided the oatmeal into three bowls. I set them on the table and poured glasses of milk for the girls. I had some individual serving packets of coffee left from the ones I bought when I was at the Hostel. I looked for another pan, but couldn’t find one. I washed the pan that the oats had been cooked in and boiled some water in it.

Kaitlynn said, “We usually say grace before we eat.”

I turned from the stove and said, “Karen, would you say grace?”

Karen said the grace in such low voice that I couldn’t hear what she was saying. Afterward, the girls began to eat their bowls of oatmeal. I sat down and began eating while I was waiting for the water to boil. It finally boiled and I made a cup of coffee.

“What is your daily schedule?”

There was silence.

“As soon as you are finished breakfast, brush your teeth. Then go up to your rooms and make your beds and straighten your rooms. I will be up there soon to see what sort of job you’ve done.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Yes, Mrs. O’Reilly.”

I went into the living room to straighten it from my night sleeping there. Then I counted my money and put it in a zippered pocket inside the pocketbook. I called the credit card company which held the card in my maiden name to change the billing address, to ask to start receiving paper bills at that address, to find out my current balance, and to find out the address to which I could send a payment.

I started walking up the stairs. “Are you ready for me to inspect?”

The girls had done a fair job of making their beds and straightening their room                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

“I’m going to have you girls to be my guide in the neighborhood. Beginning today we will go walking every day unless it is raining.

“First, I want you to show me where the library is located. We are going to stay together. Don’t get too far ahead or drag too far behind.”

The library was about four blocks away. Next, I had them lead me to the post office. I went into the post office and told the clerk to add my name to the persons who are receiving mail at the O’Toole’s address. I bought a money order for the amount that was due on my credit card and a stamped envelope. I made out the money order, addressed the envelope, and mailed the payment.

I saw a bank across the street, went into the bank, and asked to open an account. I decided on a savings account initially, deposited $2500, and kept a little over $500 in my pocketbook.

Coming out of the bank I said to the girls, “I’m going to have to find a used furniture store and a place where they sell used clothing. We can save that for another day. I’ll try to plan some walks to places that you will want to go – playgrounds, the Zoo, the Aquarium, museums, movies once in a while. For now, let’s go home and make some lunch.”

At our rather late lunch I let Karen set the table and Kaitlynn spread the peanut butter and jelly on her sandwich. She was a little careless and splashed some on her dress. She looked like she was going to cry, but I quickly wiped it off of her dress.

After lunch I had them go up to their room and try to take a nap for one hour. After washing the breakfast and lunch dishes I lay down on the couch and was soon sound asleep. I awoke with a start. Maggie had come home.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

“I’m sorry that I awakened you. You were in a deep sleep.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I promise it will never happen again.”

“No harm was done. I’m sure that at times I have fallen asleep during the day myself. The girls were both in their rooms chatting when I came home. They couldn’t wait to tell me all about you. They told me about the oatmeal you cooked that had raisins in it. Kaitlynn was proud that she was the cook’s assistant. She told me that for lunch she was allowed to spread the peanut butter and jelly on her sandwich all by herself. Karen told me that you had her say the grace before they ate breakfast and let her set the table for lunch.

“They told me about the walk you took them on and how you are going to take them walking every day that it doesn’t rain. They were so happy and that makes me happy. It eases my guilt about having to leave them to go off to work.”

“Thank you. When we have time, I’d like for you to tell me the location of some used furniture stores and some used clothing stores. I can sleep on the couch for a while, but I would like to get an old chest of drawers and something on which to hang my clothes. Also, I need some more clothes. I just have what I brought in that little suitcase.”

“Okay. We’ll do that after supper. I’m going in now to fix supper. Tell the girls that they can come down now. I told them you were sleeping.”

On Wednesday, the girls and I walked to one of the used furniture stores which Maggie told me about. There I bought a dresser, and a rack which seemed to be an inverted squared “U”  made out of one inch pipe. There were legs at each end with wheels. It wasn’t attractive, had probably been used in a dress factory, but it had room to hang a lot of clothes. I also bought a Queen Anne upholstered chair, an end table, and a floor lamp. The total was $150 plus tax.

“If you will deliver them this afternoon, it’s a deal. I think someone else could have haggled you down to $100 but I need these things delivered this afternoon. Deal?”

“Deal.”

I hurried home with the children. On the way we passed a grocery store. We went inside and I bought a frozen pizza. I let each one pick their favorite soda. At home while the pizza was in the oven, I let them take turns watching from the living room to let me know when the furniture man had come to deliver the furniture.

Just as the pizza was out of the oven and I was cutting it into slices, Kaitlynn squealed from the living room, “He’s here!”  I told Karen to put a slice on a plate for herself, a slice on a plate for Kaitlynn, to get the sodas out, and to be sure and say grace before they ate. Then I went down to open the door for the furniture delivery. The delivery man was not the man I dealt with in the store. He put the pieces in my room where I showed him. When he was done I gave him $20.

When I went back upstairs, the girls had both finished their slice. Almost together they chorused, “May we have another piece?”  I was surprised and pleased that they had waited to ask permission.  

“Maggie has certainly done a marvelous job raising these girls.”

I asked them if there was anything they would like to do this afternoon. They asked if they could go outside and play with their jump ropes.  I told them to wait until I finished eating my lunch and cleaning up the dishes so that I could go out with them.

Outside, I sat on the front steps while Karen and Kaitlynn were playing jump rope on the sidewalk. After a while, a woman from several doors up walked down to where I was sitting. The woman had “Neighborhood Gossip” and “Troublemaker” written all over her.

“And who might you be, stranger?”

“My name is Dolores Kosciuszko. I am renting a room from Maggie O’Toole.  Right now I am babysitting her two girls while Maggie is at work.”

“It is a shame the way she neglects those darlings.”

“I beg to differ with you. I think that she takes better care of them than the majority of children in Chicago. Those girls are so well behaved, so polite, and so smart. That shows that she has spent a lot of time training them. Do you know she reads the Bible to them and they pray every evening?  How many mothers do that?”

“Well, I know that she isn’t a good Catholic.”

“If only the Pope had a million more mothers just like her!”

“Harrumph!”

With that, she charged down the street back to her house and deliberately bumped into Kaitlynn.  Kaitlynn fell and skinned her knee. She came crying to me. I hugged her and said,

“Let’s go upstairs and get something on that knee. Karen, gather up the ropes. We are going inside.”

Upstairs, I washed Kaitlynn’s knee with a soapy wash rag and then rinsed it. It wasn’t bleeding. The skin was scraped up. Then I ran cold water on the wash rag, wrung it out, and held that on the knee. Finally, I blew on it until it was dry. The final part of her treatment was to kiss it and make it all better.

When Maggie came home, I told her about the neighbor.

“I know who it is. She is my husband’s aunt. She will cause trouble if she can.”

“I think that it would be a good idea if you would have a letter typed and then notarized saying that you are the legal mother of Karen O’Toole and Kaitlynn O’Toole and that you have hired Dolores Kosciuszko to babysit your children on the days and during the hours when you are at work.

“Also, I bought a chest of drawers, a clothes rack, a chair, an end table and a floor lamp today. If it is all right with you, I’ll continue sleeping on the couch for the next month until I can get something with a new mattress. I don’t want to buy a used mattress. I’m afraid of bedbugs, and disease.”

“If it is all right with you, it is fine with me. That pizza was sure a hit with the girls.”