Mrs. B and Me

[Gemini Cricket]

You know, I love my landlady. She's just about the sweetest person in the world. She's lovely and she's eighty. But heaven bless her the poor dear is going deaf and as long winded as can be.

Mrs. B and Me
by: me

I see her as I'm walking from my apartment to my car parked on the street in front of the house. 'Ack!' I think but I say, "Hi, Mrs. B!"
"Oh! Hi, Brad. I didn't hear you drive up."
"Actually, I'm heading out."
"I'm doing laundry."
"Ah."
"You haven't seen the maintenance man yet have you?"
"No."
"Because he's supposed to come and change the knobs on the dryer." She said.
"Nope. Haven't seen him."
"Hmm?"
"Haven't seen him!"
"Me neither." Mrs. B stirred up a bucket full of clothespins with her hand. "I was worried that it might be a bigger problem."
"Yes, it could have been something more involved." I said.
"Oh, changing knobs isn't that involved. Heavens. It could be worse."
"Yes."
"Like the time he had to come over and fix my refrigerator. That was something else. He's only down the road. It took him fifteen minutes to come up the hill. My fridge stopped working and all of my ice cream turned to soup. I couldn't save my frozen Jell-o."
As Mrs. B talked, I watched some sort of gecko scurry under the washing machine.
"You ever put Jell-o in the freezer?"
"No."
"I do. So he tells me that he needs to move the fridge out but then he had to take part of the cabinets out to do it. He seemed like he knew how to do it..."
"I have to finish my costume." I thought. "My camouflage pants need to be washed. I wonder if I should distress them a little. Not sure how to do that."
"...and I think he just has my knobs in his pocket. Maybe he forgot. He said he would come by today. I think I'll call him..."
"I have to drive from my house to Hawaii Kai as Mr. Hippie. I wonder if I'll get any looks from people as I drive. Maybe I can put the wig on after I park. But it'll be Halloween, people should expect weirdness." I thought.
"...and I think your fridge may go next. It's old. I should start thinking about getting a new one..."
Strategic really, the hippie costume. Lots of theatre people will be at the party talking about the "Hair" auditions. People will get to see what I look like as a hippie. Maybe keep me in mind for the part. But I really did want to do a costume that didn't deal with a lot of makeup. It would just melt off." I thought. As I came out of that last thought, I saw Mrs. B looking at me like she wanted some sort of response. She was smiling so I returned the smile and gave a little laugh.
"I thought you'd like that." She smiled.
There was a weird pause and I grabbed for my keys. You know, the international sign for 'I'm going to my car now and drive away.'
But for a second my heart kind of melted. She looked kind of lonely standing there playing with the bucket of clothespins. She was eighty. Her husband died three years ago or so. Holidays were coming up. She mentioned something about her son coming to visit for Christmas.
"So, Mrs. B, any big plans for Halloween?"
"Huh?"
"Big plans for Halloween?!"
"Me?" She laughed and covered her mouth with her hand. "No. We don't get many kids up here. But I made some gift bags for the next door neighbor kids. They're really sweet. Other than that, I'm going to sit in the dark watching TV. Don't turn on your outside lights, they'll come."
"Like moths." I laughed.
"Oh, we don't get many moths up here." She said kind of oddly and sternly. "Termites, maybe."
I told her about my plans for Halloween night, the costume party in Hawaii Kai and all that.
"Oh." She said kind of sadly. "You're not going to be here?"
"No." I said. "It should be a fun party. It's a birthday party, too." I said that justifying to her for some reason that I had to make doubly sure I had to go. Not sure why I felt like I had to do that. We rarely talked...
"Well, have a good time. No parties for me. I'm going to watch TV in the dark."
I gave Mrs. B a lame but believable excuse why I had to leave right then. I drove off watching Mrs. B snap a housedress in front of her. She folded it flat against herself and waved at me. I waved back. The housedress was old. It looked quite worn. I thought of her when she bought it, slipping into bed next to her husband who was drifting off to sleep. I thought of her wondering if he knew it was a new housedress which now was almost threadbare. I thought of Mrs. B thinking about him again as she put it on tomorrow night, sitting watching TV in the dark.