Almost A Wife

“Mr. Kingsley, you’re back! And with company. How nice!” The desk clerk’s affability did not quite mask her surprise and curiosity. She leaned across the desk and smiled at Sunny. “Such a pretty little girl! What’s your name?”

Sunny didn’t answer. In total silence, she hugged her bear, held on to Tray’s hand, her eyes seeming to grow bigger as she stared at the woman.

Tray couldn’t speak, either, so unnerved was he by what he read in Sunny’s eyes. More clearly than if she had spoken aloud, the eyes revealed what she was feeling. The absence of all that was familiar and dear. The strangeness of the new and unfamiliar…big…crowded. The loneliness…the terror.

He saw what she saw, felt what she felt. Too much weight for that staunch little shoulder. He wished—

“We are happy to have you and your little brother with us.” The clerk smiled at Sunny, then turned to him. “We made the change you requested, Mr. Kingsley. Your things has been moved to the two-bedroom suite, 584.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that,” he said, about to release the girl’s hand to take the key. But the tiny hand closed around his big finger and held on. He shifted the boy slightly, and accepted the key with his left hand. “Thank you,” he said. “Now about the children. I spoke with a Mr. Dancy about arrangements for baby-sitting.”

“Yes. I am sorry that our hotel program is limited to much older children. However, we do have a recommendation for you. Many of our patrons have used Nanny, Inc. from time to time, and found them reliable.” She passed a card and a folder to him which he also took in the hand that held the boy. “If there is any other way we can be of service, please let us know.”

“Thank you,” he said again. He followed the bellboy, his mind in a whirl. All hell was breaking loose at the office, which was normal and expected during this period of drastic change. He’d kept in touch by fax or phone almost every hour of the five days he’d been away, but it wasn’t the same as being there. Especially when he was simultaneously trying to grapple with this unexpected turn of events in his personal life.

Well, too late to get to the office this afternoon. Should he try to meet with Sam tonight? He wanted to have everything in hand for the board meeting in New York on Wednesday.

It was essential that he be at the office in the morning. On a plane Tuesday, headed for New York. He had to see that the children were taken care of. He’d phone that Nanny place immediately.

In the elevator the bell boy tried to talk to Peter, but the boy only buried his face in Tray’s chest, his arms a noose around his neck. The girl’s hand stuck like glue. The message louder than words. You are all we have to hold onto.

He felt burdened. Responsible. Awkward.

“All right! We’re here,” he said, a bantering glad to be home ring in his voice. “Sunny, reach into my back pocket and see if you can find my wallet. That’s a good girl! Thank you. Now, you hold on to Peter while I take care of this gentleman,” he said, standing the boy beside her.

The door closed behind the bellboy, and Tray took a look at the stark and cold perfection of the hotel suite. He should have ordered flowers, fruit. No. Toys, books, or…something.

Her cry startled him. “I don’t…don’t like it here!” The broken sentences tumbled out between a spasm of angry, helpless sobs. “I want…want…to go…I want to go…go home!”

She was still holding onto her brother and her bear, but she was no longer the staunch protector. Just a tiny lost and lonely child. The boy, following her lead, added his cries to hers, and the tumult filled the room, tearing him apart.

He bent to his knees, gathered them in his arms and held them close. Their tears wet his face as their bodies heaved against him in hot convulsive sobs that broke his heart.

“That’s right. Let it all out,” he whispered. It was too much. No way could they hold it in.

What to do!

“I miss your Mommy, too,” he said, guided by pure instinct. “I knew her when she was a little girl just like you.” Not altogether true. Kathy had been much older than Sunny when she first came to play in his yard.

It worked. Sunny choked back a sob and her eyes widened with interest. “You did? You saw Mommy when she was little like me?””

He nodded, and her questions were eager and rapid. “Did she look like me…have a bear like mine? Could she read?”

He sat on the floor, settling them against him, as he talked about Kathy with colorful, exaggerated details that soon had them giggling. After that, it was easier. They consumed some of the peanut butter sandwiches and hot chocolate he’d ordered, splashed in the tub for a short while, helped him find pajamas and books in their luggage. The suite was a mess, but he finally settled them together in one bed and read to them as instructed. “That’s what Mommy does.”

It was after ten when he picked up the phone in his own room. Thank God Nanny, Incorporated was a round-the-clock, twenty-four-hour operation.

“I’m a little worried about my grandfather,” Lisa told Joline. “He’s acting…well, not like himself.”

“Oh? How?”

“Grandma said he got into an altercation with a man at lunch one day. Over passing the salt of all things,” Lisa said, trying to picture her affable, always agreeable grandfather in an altercation with anybody about anything. “And Grandma says he gets very confused at the bridge table.”

“That’s too bad. Has he seen a doctor?”

“Yes. Grandma finally got him to go, and she talked to the doctor later.”

“And?”

“He’s not sure. Maybe just aging he says. Lots of people get irritable when they get older it seems. And forgetful. But Grandpa has always been so mild-mannered. I’m worried.”

“Guess so. Do you think he could be getting that…what is it so many old people are getting now? Alls…something. Mrs. Salter, a lady I work for, says her father got so he didn’t even know her.”

“Oh, Joline, don’t mention that for goodness’ sake. I couldn’t stand that.”

“Couldn’t pay for it neither I reckon. Them places is awful expensive, Mrs. Salter says.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t have to worry about that. My grandparents bought into that senior complex which guarantees continuing life care without raising the cost. That’s why gramps insisted it was the best place. He said he didn’t want me to have that burden in case either of them became ill.”

“That’s the best way. Be prepared.”

“Yes. Grandpa was like that. Extravagant, especially where I was concerned. But really smart.” She chuckled. “So why am I worried about something like Alzheimer’s? Whatever happens, Gramps’s not likely to lose that sharp mind of his.”

The phone rang, and she picked it up.

“Hello, Lisa,” came the voice of Mrs. Dunn, whose house she cleaned every Thursday. “I’m calling for a neighbor, a family that just moved in next door. They are desperately in need of a cleaning person, possibly twice a week. Interested?”

“I certainly am.” Twice a week. She needed as many jobs as she could get. It was getting harder and harder to make the money for her grandparents and take care of herself too. If she didn’t get a decent job soon—

“Good. It’s the house on the right, 168 Pine Grove. This is the phone number…The name is Kingsley.”

Lisa wrote down the number and slowly replaced the phone, wondering…Kingsley. Why did that name ring a bell?

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