A Girl's Story Chapter 40
As we moved into the holidays in 1997 I was still feeling the loss of my friend Dr. Hirschhorn. It's one of the hardest parts of facing profound loss, life keeps moving forward.
Part 40: Holidays, Some Music, and Yet Another Health Scare
Thanksgiving came and went; Lisa went to Arizona with her parents to celebrate with her grandmother and her uncle, Granddad and Aunt Carla came to our house but the center of attention was, not surprisingly, Little Ray. He was growing fast and it was agreed by everyone he could best be described as "A chunk." I tried my best not to stare at Cherie's boobs when she was feeding the little dude, but it was really hard because they were beautifully full.
Now that Rita's mom was on the school board her parents were going to be spending a lot more time at the house. Before I went back to school I went out to the house to see Rita while they were at some sort of law school reunion in Urbana. Jan had stayed in Chicago, global transport never sleeps, and so I had Rita all to myself. Well not all to myself, Ellie joined us too. Both girls were sad Lisa wasn't there but I assured them she would be back for Christmas.
I hadn't seen Ellie for a while, at least not a naked Ellie, and that meant Rita had to wait her turn while Ellie and I rolled on the floor in a 69, getting quite loud. I rolled on my back, grabbing her long, black hair and pulling her pretty face tight to my pussy. By now Rita was tired of just rubbing herself, she was between Ellie's legs sucking on her clit and pushing two fingers into her butt. Rita and Ellie then pinned me down, Ellie sitting on my face and Rita rubbing her hard nipple against my pussy. After Ellie's very loud orgasm we rolled Rita onto her hand and knees, her bubble-butt up in the air and I went to work licking her butthole while Ellie was pushing her tongue deep into Rita's cunt. By now Rita was on the precipice of a huge orgasm and we pushed her right over the edgy, the two of us sitting on the floor rubbing each other's pussy and watching Rita shaking and moaning with pleasure.
We talked about our plans for after college, Rita could hardly wait for me and Lisa to move closer to her while Ellie would be taking the LSAT in the summer and applying for law school in the fall. She said her mom really wanted her to stay close to home and go to the University of Illinois in Urbana but Ellie had grown to love the big city life and having some separation from her chaotic family was an added bonus, so she hoped for Illinois-Chicago or (and these would be a longshot) the University of Chicago or Northwestern. Rita did tell me, in considerable detail, about fun evenings with her, Ellie and Cassie all taking on Jan.
I gave Rita's big, soft tit a squeeze, "I like Jan, he's a decent guy; please don't fuck him to death." That brought on the giggles from both girls.
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Lisa and I were working hard to build up our savings; we figured that between rent and security deposits we would need several thousand dollars saved us get a place, sot that meant I was working all the jobs I could get. Lisa had her part-time job at the church, but that didn't pay much, so when she saw an advertisement for Christmas help in the Santa's Village she applied for, and got, a seasonal job as one of Santa's (wildly sexy) elves.
Before her first night at the mall she modeled her elf costume for me. It was all red and green, with a cute green pointed hat with a silver bell on the end. Lisa flipped up her little red skirt to show she didn't have any panties on under it and I got the message. I bent her over the couch, spread her butt cheeks and pushed my tongue right into her pussy from behind. Lisa was gripping the back of the couch tight, her legs and butt quivering as I devoured my sweetie. Between my tongue in her cunt, two fingers in her butt, and her overall gleeful feeling of naughtiness I got the full firehose in just a few minutes. I would have to change my clothes, and mop the kitchen, but it was well worth it. She got herself cleaned up, put on some panties and her green tights, and headed out to the mall. I got to stay home and work on a case study, which was one of my final exams that semester; I would have much rather spent the evening with my sexy elf at the mall.
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I would wait for Lisa to get home from the mall to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we enjoyed watching it together. Lisa was sure I would make an excellent lesbian Buffy and I really wished Willow had white hair, just to make the two of them the perfect couple. This week's episode was one of the ones now considered a classic, "The Wish." We particularly loved it because we got to see Cordelia in a sports bra and Evil Vampire Willow all in black leather and lace. I have no doubt we scared the staff at the head shop when, after returning to the "normal" world Willow says, "And I think I might be kind of gay." We had been longing for a show with an actual lesbian character, not just a one-off, and we had high hopes for the show going forward. Yes Dear Readers, I know theirs is a really sad arc for Willow's character but we didn't know that in 1997. Lisa did pick up the habit of saying "Bored Now" when she wanted me (or anyone else) to get rough. I loved it.
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As we got closer to Christmas the weather turned icky, bringing us the wonderful mix of rain snow. I was at home in our nice, warm apartment when the phone rang; it was Lisa.
"Can you come out to the mall? One of my fellow elf's car won't start and I don't have jumper cables in my car."
"I'm on my way babe."
I found Lisa's white Subaru and I could see she was inside with someone else. Lisa got out and so did the other person; fortunately for them both had brought clothes to change in so that weren't out in the cold and damp in their cute elf costumes. Getting closer I could see the other person for a cute girl with shoulder-length blonde hair.
"Hi sweetie," Lisa pushed the other girl forward, "This is my fellow elf Astrid. She lives a ways out in the country and her car won't start."
Astrid had a blue Volkswagen Rabbit, reminding me some of my old Volkswagen, the Yellow Submarine. I opened the hood of the Jeep and hooked up my jumper cables (I always had a plastic tote in the back that Lisa called "The Box of Useful Objects") and Astrid hooked up the other end to her battery; I was pleased that she knew precisely what to do. We gave it a minute and she tried starting her car and she was clearly relived when it started right up.
I leaned in her window, "You want some dinner? I have some chicken and noodles in the crockpot at home."
She smiled, "That would beat the hell out of Burger King, thank you."
Based on the way Lisa kissed me before she got back in her car it was obvious that she was fine with her new friend knowing we were a couple. Back at home I got us all nice, big bowls and chicken and noodles and we learned more about Astrid. She was in high school (Darn!) and, like Lisa, she was involved in theater and choir. Now that she was in better light I could see she was quite pretty with some very nice tits. She lived a short way out of town on a farm and she had a horse named Martha. I mentioned that she would like to meet our friends Sam and Tracey who were horse girls themselves. Lisa raised her eyebrow a little so I did not detail what kind of friends we were.
We told Astrid she was welcome to come by anytime she wanted to and we gave her definite good-girl hugs good-night.
"She seems nice a nice girl."
"She's also 17, so we have to be good girls."
I gave Lisa's wonderful butt a firm squeeze, "As You Wish," doing my best Westley.
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During Advent the church did the traditional Lessons and Carols service. I always enjoyed this, after all it was at one of these services that my whole family got to hear Lisa sing for the first time. She was a little sad this year because this would be her last Christmas at this church, by next Christmas we would be somewhere in the Chicago area. Lisa had a solo, once again, this year; she would be singing "Angels from the Realms of Glory," and she would be directing the children's choir when they sang "We Three Kings." I had gotten to hear her practice as she played the song on her little keyboard. She had gotten pretty good on the piano but she often said that she was never going to be Elton John or George Winston; she often compared her piano playing to my karaoke singing. I would tell her she was still better than me.
The Sunday before the Lessons and Carols service I was waiting for Lisa to get her robe put away as I sat sipping my tea in the parish hall and missing my friend Dr. Hirschhorn. Eileen came over and sat next to me.
"You miss Ira too, don't you?"
"I really do. How are you holding up?"
"I'm grateful for all the wonderful years we had together and that we had the time to prepare for his passing, but that still doesn't make it any easier. Now I need to ask a favor of you."
"What's that?"
"For this service Ira always read the passage from the gospel of Matthew that tells the story of the visit of the Wise Men. I was asked to read it this year but I think that you, being an astronomer in your heart, should do it. I think Ira would have liked that."
Lisa had made it downstairs and was holding my hand. I swallowed hard, trying to hold back the tears, "I'll do it. For Dr. H."
Eileen smiled at me wistfully, "I was even ready to bribe you with a sugar cookie." She got up to go talk to some other folks, but I grabbed her wrist.
"I'll still take the cookie."
All three of us laughed at that as I ate my cookie.
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Lisa and I discussed at length what I should wear. I had this wild idea that I should dress like Mickey Mouse in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," but Lisa shot that one down. It was after almost a week of scouring thrift stores that we found something for me. It was a black dress with all sorts of Christmas needlework on it; I had to admit it was really pretty and the fact the me wearing it sent Lisa into a total frenzy of lust was a bonus. I was a little surprised that whoever had owned it before me had been, let us say, heftier than me. Certainly she had possessed bigger tits than me, and also (amazingly) a bigger butt.
The dress fit O.K., but we both thought it needed some alternations. None of the shops in town could do something on this short a notice; Lisa suggested we drive home and see if her mom, or maybe Mrs. G, could help us. I decided to try something else first; I called Rita to see if she and Jan wanted to come visit us for the weekend and, oh by the way, alter my dress. Rita was eager to help out, she told me that the two of them needed to escape the city for a few days anyway and Jan wanted to hear Lisa sing in church.
We picked them up at the train station on Friday morning and Rita went straight to work. She had me standing on a little rotating stool so she could pin up the dress as she slowly spun me around, occasionally reaching up to grab one of my tits. Lisa had to go to campus to have her instructor sign off on her experienced-based class and she took Jan with her. She had to go to the church to pick up the form, signed off on by the rector and the music director attesting to her work with the children's choir and her singing in the chancel choir, then it would be off to campus to get everything finalized so she got academic credit for her work. That left me at home being groped by our best friend and occasionally being poked with pins. I felt like a big voodoo doll.
When she was done pinning it up, she said it wouldn't take her very long to take things in, she pulled off her top and took off her bra, I was just in my panties, and pushed me down into our disreputable old chair. She sat in my lap and pressed my face into her big, soft tits and I sank my teeth into the soft flesh (she loved this), alternating biting on her breasts with sucking on her puffed-out nipples. I had one hand inside her panties, rubbing her almost hairless pussy, and soon she was gripping my curly hair tight as she came, holding on tight to me. She got out of my lap and knelt on the floor, pulled my panties off, and proceeded to rub her puffy nipple against my clit. I had my fingers buried in her dark hair and my hips were thrashing hard; just as a gave a loud groan of pleasure Lisa and Jan returned home.
Jan shook his head is mock disgust, "I hope she got done with her dress before she ravished you Cindy."
I was pulling my panties back on, Jan had seen me naked multiple times so I wasn't that embarrassed, "Rita says she will be done by tomorrow afternoon."
I got dressed and got to work in the kitchen making one of mine and Lisa's favorites, spaghetti carbonara; Jan, being the thoughtful guest, had picked up several bottles of chianti while he and Lisa were out. I was happy I had pancetta on hand to do everything properly; bacon will work in a pinch but pancetta is better.
As we ate Lisa described her day with Jan; he was always fascinated by small town life and she had showed him around our college home (that didn't take long). When they got to campus they ran into Izzy and Aubrey (who were now every inch of the adorable couple). They assured her they would show Jan around the campus while she met with her instructor.
"I do wonder if they had their way with our dear Mr. Van den Vodel," Lisa said with a wicked smile. Jan smiled enigmatically, which confirmed for me that both Izzy and Aubrey had sampled Jan's massive cock and that he had enjoyed himself just as much as I had this afternoon. Lisa looked over at me, one white eyebrow arched up as if to say, "I'm going to fuck you senseless tonight, you naughty girl."
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We took Rita and Jan to the Mersey Ferry; it was karaoke night and besides Amber had asked us to meet her there. I should have guessed that a plan was afoot when Amber and Lisa began playing me with Dark & Stormy's. Amber was with a very pretty girl; her name was Greta and she had very cute, short blonde hair. I looked at Amber doing my best Spock eyebrow; I was wondering where her last girlfriend, Tawney, had gone to. Amber looked at me with her big brown eyes and a guileless smile, "It was never going to work with us."
I was a little surprised when I saw Abigail and Andre come in. Both of them came from very religious families and hanging out in even a respectable gay-friendly bar was definitely outside their experience. My next surprise was Lisa and Andre going up on the stage together, I looked over at Abigail and she just giggled at me (it was adorable). I knew the song "Proud Mary," at least the Creedence Clearwater Revival version; but this was the version made famous by Tina Turner. I knew Lisa was stretching her vocal range, she told me she was down in the alto range for this, but Andre's booming bass voice was a perfect counterpoint to Lisa. Lisa had gone into what she called "Dancing Fool" mode and she was out of breath when the song ended. "That song keeps me humble. I'm 37 years younger than Tina Turner and there is still no way I would be able to keep up with her."
"Don't see yourself short baby, Miss Tina is a goddess and it's exhausting to try to make yourself equal to the gods."
Lisa was pushing for me to do a song and so was Amber. Even Abigail was encouraging me to get up on the little stage; I was sure they were up to something but I also had enough rum in me not to care. I picked my standard, George Thorogood's "Born to Be Bad" with the requisite gender changes; I threw myself into it, inspired by my friends and by some very good rum. A little while later, after Lisa had gotten up to sing "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young," from the movie Streets of Fire (one of my favorites), I got up on stage again to sing another one of my favorites, AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long," getting exceptionally dirty (and horny) with the line "She was the best damn woman that I ever seen" while pointing right at Lisa.
I sat back down; I was rather sweaty but that did not deter Lisa from wrapping her arms around me and torturing me by kissing my neck. I looked over at Amber, "So Amber, why are you suddenly interested in my singing. Even the stray dogs laying in the road know that Lisa's the singer, so what's up?"
Amber looked over at Greta, who nodded back at her, "O, K. sweetie, here's the deal. Every spring there is a two-campus talent show and me and Greta have had thoughts of entering an all-girl hard rock band into the show."
"That's cool, but Lisa's the singer, I'm the tomboy girlfriend who plays with electricity."
"You're right, in terms of a pure singing voice Lisa's better than you, but we don't want an otherworldly beauty singing. Lisa looks like an angel, or an elf queen, but we need a dirty girl and you, my dear, are that girl."
I leaned over and kissed Lisa, "They don't know you like I do baby."
Amber laughed, she knew just how dirty we could be, "Cindy, you've got something Lisa doesn't."
"What's that?"
Greta leaned in, "Girl, you have serious rock and roll swagger. You're sexy as all fuck and you totally throw yourself into a song, at least once there's enough rum in you."
Lisa's kissed me hard, with a delicious amount of tongue, "That's it! I never had a word for it, but swagger sums it up."
All our friends looked at her quizzically and with that Lisa told them the story (again) of how we came to be so in love with each other. "I know the date as well as I know our birthdays, the 21st of September 1991. Amber knows this story, and it always makes Cindy laugh," and Lisa proceeded to tell the whole tale of the two of us sitting under a maple tree in front of the high school eating Subway and kissing for the first time. "I had never felt about a girl like I felt about Cindy. She was so cool and confident with her black jeans and her Joan Jett t-shirts and her black high-tops. I never had a word for it, but Greta nailed it; Cindy has a swagger that I will never have. Babe you need to do this, for me. Please!"
"You know I can never say know to you baby. O.K. girls, I'm in. What do we do?"
Amber's smile was dazzling, "We'll get to work after Christmas break. She and Greta got up to leave, both of them giving me and Lisa very tongue-filled kisses." Lisa took me home, it was good she drove, and got me into bed so she could snuggle up to me.
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Rita had done an excellent job altering my thrift store Christmas dress. I was really nervous, I had never spoken in a church before, but Lisa reminded me that this was a tribute to my friend Dr. Hirschhorn and holding on to that thought gave me the courage I needed. We got there early so that Lisa could have one final practice with the kids. I was sitting in one of the front pews, lost in my thoughts and not really aware of my surroundings, when I sensed someone slide in beside me. I looked over to see Rita and Jan. Rita patted my arm, "You got this sweetie." Abigail and Andre sat in the row behind me, they both knew how much today meant to Lisa but they were there for me as well. I knew Sam and Tracey would be here too, they came in both wearing cute western skirts and fancy cowboy boots. I was pretty surprised to see Amber come in; she had never heard Lisa sing in church and she had told us she would try to be there. She was wearing some of her dance regalia, along with her beautiful choker, and she was very much the image of an Indian princess.
Lisa had a solo when the choir sang "Angels from the Realms of Glory" and she was, in my rather biased opinion, absolutely perfect. Jan had never heard Lisa singing with the choir and he was reaching for his silk handkerchief to dab at his eyes. Amber knew how talented her old roommate was, but this was the first time she got to hear her in church and her pretty dark eyes were bright with tears.
When my turn came I went up to the lectern to read from the gospel of Matthew. I decided I had to say what was on my mind before I started, "I'm really feeling Dr. Hirschhorn's loss today and I think many of you are as well. He once told me how this passage spoke to him and how astronomers will travel ridiculous distances to observe something new." I started reading and my voice broke a little when I got to "For we have seen his star in the east," and I remembered Dr. Hirschhorn had told me how astronomers tend to have mystical souls. I made it through the reading and sat down so I could see Lisa leading the children's choir as they sang "We Three Kings" and fortunately for me I had a bandanna with me to wipe my eyes. Lisa headed back to the choir loft, but from her smile I knew she was really proud of the kids.
I was getting my tea in the parish hall, heading over to join our friends when I saw Eileen. She came over to me and gave me a big hug, "Thank you Cindy. You did a great job and I know Ira would be so proud of you." I mumbled my thanks to her, trying very hard not to go total Weepy Lesbian Girl right there in front of everyone. When Lisa came into the parish hall I got up and gave her a big hug. She was so very proud of her work with the children's choir and it was her last Christmas with them, which had tears coming from her bright blue eyes. We both received loads of compliments from our friends, which made keeping Weepy Lesbian Girl at bay even more difficult but the dam broke as we were mauled by a gaggle of kids and lots of excited cries of "Miss Lisa!" and "Miss Cindy!".
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Back at home Lisa carefully unzipped my dress and hung it up and I did the same for her. Removing our bras and panties we knelt on the bed facing each other, hard nipples pressed together, rubbing each other's damp pussy fur and enjoying some energetic tongue wrestling. Lisa sat on the bed, her legs wide, and pulled me in. I held on tight to her naked body. Pressing my very wet pussy against her so that we could grind together while keeping up our tongue duel as well. Fortunately for our sheets neither of us had a particularly wet orgasm, but they were still very nice orgasms.
We had invited Holly to spend Christmas with us again but she happily told us she was going to Cleveland to spend Christmas with her sister Pam and her family. We were as discreet as we could manage when we dropped her off at the Bloomington airport for her flight; we just gave her nice, long hugs. We got the definite idea that she had inherited a rather substantial sum from her grandparents because she was flying first class.
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Christmas at my parent's house was different this year; me, Rob, and Janet were no longer the centers of attention; that role was now filled by Little Ray. He seemed like a happy little guy; he could almost sit up on his own and he could reach for his toys (his favorite was a battered old stuffed dog that had belonged to Cherie). When she came over to the house he was fascinated by Lisa's hair and he kept pulling on it; Lisa was quick to comment the little guy had a good grip. Cherie told me and Lisa she was not looking forward to his teeth starting to come in because her nipples were already sore, "He's a hungry little guy;" That made us both kind of jealous of the little dude. For only being five months old he got loads of presents, Lisa and I got him a little stuffed Winne-the-Pooh and Piglet, both of which he immediately started to chew on. Cherie and Rob loved the little red and white stocking cap Dennis' grandmother had made for him, as well as a gift "From All Your Friends at the Mersey Ferry" of a baby-sized (he'd still have to grow into it some) Liverpool FC jersey. We stayed through New Year's Day and headed back home after the Rose Parade (I still wanted so bad to go to southern California someday to see the parade in person).
Back at home I was getting steady work with Zander doing the wiring for a new wing at the hospital. Quite a bit of what we were doing involved data lines, as well as electricity and this job had many more people checking our work because hospitals have to have multiple redundant systems. I was proud to tell people that I never had to re-do any of my part of the job (neither did Zander, she was very skilled at her job and a good teacher on top of that).
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Because of all the quality checks there were some days we didn't work. I was enjoying one of those days, savoring some downtime before my last college semester and really wishing Lisa was home for some nice mid-day fucking. She had auditioned for the IWU spring show, it was Jesus Christ Superstar, and she had gotten (much to her delight) the role of Mary Magdalene. Our friend Izzy had really wanted the role of Jesus but, in his words, "I guess they weren't ready for a gay, Jewish Jesus." He did get the role of Herod and he was happy when the director said he would be playing Herod as an Elvis imitator and that Izzy could play it as over-the-top as he wanted. Abigail's friend Andre (we weren't sure where their relationship was) got the role of Caiaphas, which totally suited his booming bass voice. Lisa was over at the theater going through the initial blocking and I was at home rubbing myself and missing her when the phone rang.
"Is this Cindy?" I didn't recognize the voice.
"Yes. Who is this?"
"Thank goodness your home! This is Grant, my wife Penny and I live in the downstairs apartment of your grandfather's house." Granddad's house had been built as a duplex in the early 1950's and my grandparents had bought it shortly after my dad was born. They had used it as a single-family house until Ginny and Paula had moved out and after that they rented out the downstairs (it had its own kitchen and everything) to bring in some extra money. "We heard a loud noise around lunchtime coming from upstairs, like something heavy falling. We knocked on Ray's door but there was no answer so Penny went outside and looked in the front window and saw what looked like him lying on the kitchen floor. We used the key he had given us for an emergency and went and we found him on the kitchen floor. He was really confused and we were afraid he might have hit his head. The paramedics are here now and they are going to take him to the hospital. I tried to call your aunts and your dad but I couldn't reach anyone until I got to you."
"Is he O.K.?" I was beyond scared now; I had lost Dr. Hirschhorn and I could not bear the thought of losing Granddad too.
"He's conscious but he's really out of it. We have to go to work now but I hoped you could call the rest of your family."
"I will, and we will be up there in a couple of hours. Thanks for calling me."
"No problem, you let us know when you learn something; we really like that old man."
I was shaking when I hung up the phone. I tried to call Lisa on her mobile phone but she wasn't answering. I tried calling Mom and Dad at their jobs but they weren't at their desks. I was able to get in contact with my aunts Ginny and Paula and finally with Aunt Carla. It was almost as far from her house in Indiana to Granddad's as it was from our house but she said she was leaving right now.
I drove to the IWU campus, having grabbed some of Lisa's clothes from home, and thankfully I found a place to park close to the theater. I was out of breath when I got to the theater and I arrived just as they were taking a break. I pulled Lisa aside and told her what was going on; her pretty face turned very pale and she went over to explain to the director that she needed to leave and she needed to leave right now.
Lisa was making phone calls all the while as I drove us north, attempting not to exceed the speed limit by too much. Lisa was able to reach my mom; she told her they would be on the way north very soon as well and she also told Janet what was going on (I could hear Janet crying over the phone). I felt a little better when I heard Lisa talking to the parish secretary (a very grandmotherly woman name Irene) who assured her Granddad would be in everyone's prayers. She also called Rita so that, if we needed it, we would have a place to stay.
I have to confess I squealed the tires pulling into the hospital parking lot. Lisa reminded me we did not need to run inside, but we were still walking fast toward the ER entrance. The guy at the desk said they were still doing some tests on Granddad but that he would let him know that we were here and that he would come get us when the time came that we could see him. Lisa was holding on to me tight, I was scared enough that even Weepy Lesbian Girl stayed hidden, and I was relieved when Aunt Carla arrived. Carla was very much a take-charge woman so she got the run-down from the guy at the desk.
Carla came back over and sat next to me, her arm tight around me. When she saw Lisa was trying her best not to start bawling she moved in between us so she could hug us both; that really helped. We had been there about two hours when Mom and Dad got there. Carla got them up to speed on the situation; she had already called Ginny and Paula. Finally, a nurse into the waiting room came to collect us; Granddad had been moved to a hospital room where they would keep him for a day or two while they did more tests. The nurse, her name was Violet, was a very cute (and quite short blonde woman), and she took us up to his room.
Granddad was his usual, feisty self, telling us all we shouldn't be making such a fuss over him. This made me feel better, he was definitely his usual self. A doctor came in to tell us all, hopefully, what was going on; she was an imposing woman, she almost looked like a beefier version of Katherine. "Mr. Manning had a transient ischemic attack, what some people call a mini-stroke. He seems to be O.K. now but I want to do some more test before we send him home."
Granddad looked like he was about to say something but Carla gave him a severe look, "Dad, you don't get to argue right now. You are going to do what they ask you to do and then we will have to figure out where to go from here."
It was late so we went to Granddad's house for the night, Lisa and I would go home in the morning while Mom, Dad, and Carla would stay until Granddad came home. Grant and Penny came up from the downstairs apartment to see how he was doing; we all told them how thankful we were that they had called the paramedics as quick as they did.
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Early the next week Dad called me to see if we both could come north to Aurora on the weekend. He was somewhat cagey as to why he wanted us to come but I checked with Lisa and told him we would be there.
Arriving at his house I was a little surprised to see Ginny and Paula there, as well as Dad (Mom had gone to Rockford to see Little Ray, she loved being a grandma) and Carla. There was also another woman sitting on one of the kitchen chairs who I did not know. Carla, as she often did, took charge, "Girls, this is Marisol. We've hired her to come check on Dad twice a day just to make sure he's O.K. and to make sure he's taking all his medicines." Granddad opened his mouth but Carla cut him off, "Dad, we've talked about this. We can't count on Grant and Penny to be here if something goes wrong; besides, they are moving out in May."
Marisol was (to me) short, probably about 5'3" with brown skin (a little darker than our friend Ellie's) and long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. Lisa agreed with me that she was very pretty, she reminded us both of Jan's friend Zara. Marisol had come from El Salvador when she was a little girl as a refugee. She was a few years older than me and Lisa and she told us she that had a little girl, Rosa, who was two years old. She had worked as a home health aide for several years and she really like doing that sort of work; she also told us she was working on getting her nursing credentials from the community college.
Carla could be downright bossy sometimes, Dad said she had always been like that, but (to the great annoyance of her siblings) she was almost always right. "So, here's why we asked you girls to come up here to meet with all of us. We have finally gotten Dad to admit that he can't live here by himself. We were wondering what to do, because Dad absolutely refuses to move out of his house, and it was Paula who came up with this idea. I know you two are planning to move up here, somewhere in the Chicago area, after you graduate but I also know that you've run headlong into the absurd rents that people around here want. How would you feel about moving into the downstairs apartment when Grant and Penny move out in May? We've all talked it over and if you girls were able to pay most of the utilities, the taxes, and the insurance on the house that would be your rent. You'd have your own place, but if Dad needed someone you two would be close by."
I looked over at Lisa, who had both hands over her mouth (it's that ever-so-cute thing she does when she's excited or overcome with emotion), "What do you think Lisa?"
"Yes! Yes, Yes, Yes! We wouldn't be in the middle of the city but we aren't far from the Metra station so we can get almost anywhere in the area when we need to."
I looked back at my dad and my aunts with a serious shit-eating grin, "We humbly accept your offer."
Granddad was smiling broadly, "Does this mean you'll cook dinner sometimes?"
I laughed, "Count on it."
Granddad's house was built on a hillside so it had a walk-out basement that he rented out as an apartment. He had paid off the mortgage years ago and he actually owned several other houses in Aurora that he rented out also. I introduced Lisa to Penny and Grant; they had put down a deposit on a townhouse being built in Wheaton that would be done in time for them to move out in May. Penny was very excited to tell us she was pregnant and that the baby was due in June; she promised to send us photos when the Player to be Named Later arrived. The apartment was very much still in the style of the late 1970's but I was pleased to see that Granddad had put in newer appliances (he had renovated the upstairs kitchen as well). The apartment had three bedrooms, one large, one small, and one really small (that one had been dad's when he was a kid). Lisa was already making plans to turn one of the small bedrooms into a practice space; we both were pleased to see Grant and Penny had a king-sized bed in the main bedroom and Lisa was quite happy to see a relatively new washer and drier in the apartment as well.
I took her outside to walk over to the garage. Dad had told me how, when he was in high school, he had worked with Granddad, and some of his friends from the American Legion post, to build the garage. Right now Grant's Ford Explorer and Granddad's old Oldsmobile were parked in it but it was still a quite roomy building, especially for that area. There was a nice workbench in the front and I noted, with approval, lots of lights. I would certainly be able to park Bill (my motorcycle) in it and we could park one of our cars in it too.
I pulled Lisa in close, facing me with our boobs mashed together, and grabbed her butt (she grabbed mine too), "You ready for the next step?"
We kissed for a long time and she looked at me with those amazing blue eyes, "Where you go, I will go and your family will be my family," paraphrasing from the book of Ruth.
Our first stop when we got home was to go see Reena. She had been a great landlord to us and we felt we owed her ample notice that we would be moving out at the end of May. She was quite excited for us, me bringing her some gumbo probably didn't hurt.
After that stop we went to the Mersey Ferry so that, hopefully, I would only have to tell the story one time (I was not lucky on that front). Our news was almost overshadowed by Sam and Tracey coming into the bar with great flourish. Tracey was practically bouncing, which made her nice boobs bounce too); Sam was happy but I could see some worry in her eyes.
"I did it!"
I grabbed her hand, "Not enough information sweetie. What did you do?"
"I got my acceptance letter from Illinois! I'm going to be a veterinarian and I even will get financial aid from the state since I want to work in a rural area."
There were many hugs all around but I pulled Sam off to the side, "I can tell you're worried sweetie. What's wrong?"
"I'm worried we won't stay together. I have no idea where I may wind up and long-distance relationships rarely work."
I pulled her pretty face down to me and kissed her long and hard, "Let's not panic until we have to. It's like my friend Dr. Hirschhorn liked to say, `The universe will unfold as it should.'"
"Thanks Cindy." She hugged me tight and gave my butt a squeeze. I gave her firm butt a squeeze right back.
The death of the friendly old man who is the basis for the character of Dr. Hirschhorn was, at the time, the most profound loss I had ever experienced. My friends let me grieve, but they also kept me from just spiraling inward into despair. I love hearing from you, my readers (cattingcindy@yahoo.com) and please donate to Nifty (https://donate.nifty.org)