“Ms. Dexter came by this morning. She said you’d fessed up and encouraged her to come and work out the details to have her move forward on our house. She questioned whether we were seeing one another and I walked around that, naturally.”
Him saying that encouraged me that what I had just walked around fell securely under the “walk around” rule we had between us.
He continued. “She mentioned that she’d been by Brandon’s office to have something signed and saw your car there, covered with overnight snow. The rest… well, you can imagine where my mind went from there.”
I smiled and stood up, walked around his desk and kissed him on the cheek, hugging him from behind. “Yes, I can imagine where your mind went from there and you can rest assured, Brandon and I did nothing you wouldn’t approve of. Let’s put this behind us, shall we? I can understand why you were angry and now you understand why there was no reason to be, right?”
He nodded.
“Okay, why don’t you show me around the construction before I leave?” I asked and this seemed to lighten his mood considerably.
Worth walked from area to area of the office space and explained where the various therapies would be conducted and how they would work together in an overall healing process. I was proud of his good business sense, and proud of the fact that he would be growing a business that would obviously put him light years ahead of his peers in embracing more than just talk therapy. “It’s beautiful, Worth, and it’s not even done. I can’t wait until it’s all ready. When do you think that will be?”
“A week,” he said and I nodded in approval. One thing about Worth, he did not waste time. He walked me to the door and out to my car. “I want you,” he said simply. “No, I need you,” he emphasized.
My mind went blank. I couldn’t sleep with Worth until all the questions were answered. It would take several days to get the tests back. “I can’t right now, Worth… a woman thing. But I want you to know I want you, too!” I kissed him lovingly and left.
I drove straight to the doctor’s office and went in the back door as instructed. I dropped off the toothbrush and the signed form. The nurse didn’t question anything. She’d already been instructed by Brandon to expedite things.
When I got home, Mother was in the living room. I heard her voice. “Auggie, is that you?”
“Yes,” was all I could manage.
“Come here, please,” she called.
“No, not feeling well. I’ll be down later,” I called and when I went into my room, I locked the door behind me. How was I going to spend the next two weeks of my life avoiding being alone with two major players in my future? I chose the coward’s way out. I took up residence at Sunset Village.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Auggie
Sunset Village had a single room vacancy and as long as I paid the fees out of pocket, I took over the room and set it up as a working/sleeping space. This let me come in constant contact with the very people I needed to further my project and kept me out of contact with those I wished to avoid.
Brandon, upon learning I was there, spent most of his spare time there. It turned out that he was extremely patient with older people and even handled some simple legal matters for them pro bono. There were wills to be written, powers of attorney and simple letters to distant family members letting them know where they were. I cried through many of these. It was like being with a building full of injured troops who would never see their families again.
I spent my days scouring for ideas of what to put in the recreation room, as we had decided to call it. Some of the first things I ordered were sets of state-of-the-art computers equipped with mini cams so residents could visit with their families via Skype. I poured through catalogs of crafts, storage systems and aids designed for those who had lost mobility. I chose a theater system with sound and made sure that every seat would come equipped with a headphone that could be adjusted for individual sound.
Then I turned to the seed catalogs and nursery offerings. Beverly and I drew up plans to show the space and sun exposure we would have to work with. We planned fountains and plenty of comfortable seating next to raised flowerbeds so the residents could garden from their wheelchairs or one of the many benches. This saved them from stooping or reaching. I consulted with experts at retirement homes across the country and decided we were to have the best of everything.
On the days when the workmen were a bit noisy, I hosted movies in the dining room and turned the sound up nice and loud. We had filtered off the annex debris with layers of overlapping heavy tarps and then painted the tarps to show the images of giant presents — giving the residents a child-like anticipation of what lay behind. It also helped to keep down the complaints regarding the inconveniences. The sickest patients were relocated to the opposite end of the building so their privacy and comfort could be respected.
It was, without a doubt, one of the most powerful short periods in my life. It allowed me a perspective that was one-hundred and eight degrees from the privileged, self-absorbed, entitled life I’d led up to that point. It taught me to walk in others’ shoes and how the little things, like using someone’s first name when you spoke with them, or listening to what they used to do when they were young were so important.
I kept in constant contact with Worth by phone, careful to follow up on his progress with the clinic, all the while sharing what was going on at my end and then together we’d talk about the house. If he realized I was avoiding him, he didn’t say anything. I think in some small sense he knew we had to get through this busy period of involvement before we could completely be together.
Beverly was true to her word. The work at Sunset moved swiftly and the day came when they were installing the wheelchair-friendly seating in the theater. I had ordered hundreds of films on reels, just like the residents had seen in their younger years. They were fans of movies from the thirties through the eighties. They had no need for Star Wars or the Friday the 13th horror films.
I took some time to plan party themes and we ordered costumes. I had a grand piano brought in and was delighted to learn that we had several accomplished pianists in our midst and they were all willing to perform on a rotating basis. Once the weather was warmer, the piano could be wheeled out into the garden and the residents would be able to enjoy Chopin by moonlight. I was having great fun and my imagination was running rampant.