Page 20 of Mornings By the Linden Tree
“I think I tweaked his ego a bit by paying for our food.” I dabbed at a dollop of mayo on her chin. “Try to lean up when you take a bite of your sandwich.”
“Okay.” She took a bite and did not lean up. Mayo dropped onto her lap. I sighed loudly. I would have to give Mrs. Polkowski a raise just to cover the extra time she spent spot cleaning Valeria’s clothing. “That man is doing hand dancing.” She waved her sloppy sandwich in the direction of an elderly man in flowy pants and a slim top doing tai chi beside the still dry pond.
“That is called tai chi,” I said as I dug into her backpack for a stain remover packet.
“I like it. Can I do it too?” she asked. I nodded. “Yay! Oh here is Lennon. Are you put up with Uncle Wes because he buyed your food?”
I jerked up at her question, my hand still in her backpack, to look at Lennon taking his seat.
“No, I’m not put out with your uncle,” he replied with his usual kindness. “I was just feeling a little bad about myself and took it out on your uncle.” He turned those beautiful eyes to me. “I’m sorry. It’s been a rough morning. Thank you for lunch. To be honest, the cash saved would have helped me buy a new battery, so your graciousness is appreciated but unneeded.”
Oh my. Such honesty. I was taken aback for a moment. Most people did not confess to acting poorly with such candor. Perhaps he was always this way, or maybe he was just using thisas a teaching moment for Valeria. He did seem to be rather in tune with children.
“No need to apologize. Financial worries affect us all.” He gave me a look that read as a firm “Really dude?” but said nothing in reply. “Why don’t we all just enjoy our lunch?”
“That sounds good.” We then tucked into our food as Percy would say. Percy. Huh. That was the first I had thought of him since the last time. What did it say about me that I didn’t even miss him at all? Not that we were close. Not really. Yes, we had sex on occasion, but as for personal shared moments where we connected, I could not recall any. Nothing like the times I spent with Lennon, who, it seemed, pulled things out of me that most didn’t care to try.
“In a few weeks the pond will have water and you’ll be able to come here every day to play in the fountain,” Lennon commented as we were close to being done eating. He’d torn through his food, his hunger obvious, but I said nothing about it for fear of tweaking his pride.
Valeria’s dark eyes flew to me. I wiped at my face with a paper napkin before I spoke. “We’ll have to see where we are at the end of the month,” I told her before glancing to my side to speak to Lennon. “I’d like to try to return to work even if only part time, but I’ve not been able to find a daycare or nanny that I think is suitable to watch over Valeria when I’m gone.”
“I’ll watch her,” he tossed out before popping his last fry into his mouth. I stared openly while Valeria fairly vibrated in her seat with excitement. His freedom to just toss something out as if it were nothing stunned me. “I mean, if you want. I think you know me pretty well. I’d be happy to send you my background check paperwork from when I applied at Happy Day.”
“Oh well, I…” My thoughts were tangled like Valeria’s sneaker strings. “I thought…you do have a job with the party company,though…” I fumbled about as some small part of me wondered where the hell the sharp litigator had disappeared to.
“Yeah, but they’re only part time at best, and I think the owner is not sending me out because I’m gay,” he said with a mellow shrug that looked as if he didn’t care, but he did. That kind of dig would hurt any queer person.
“That is highly illegal. You need to reach out to the Massachusetts Commission on Discrimination and file a complaint against the owner. It’s not my area of expertise, but I can also recommend a friend who deals with discrimination in the workplace cases if you’d like to reach out to her as well.”
“Oh, no, see I don’t have proof to begin with, but it’s just a feeling, you know? Like, I get far less parties than other performers, but he always has reasons why that is. And to be fair, Iamthe newest employee, so yeah…” He shrugged. “And as for hiring a lawyer? Not going to happen. I now have to choose between a battery and food for next week, and we know it will be the battery since I do have a rare gig over in Dorchester tomorrow.”
The poor man. I recalled quite well how it felt to be hungry. “I’m sorry times have been so tough.”
“Meh.” He pasted on a smile that did little to light his usually bright eyes. “I’d like to start my own company but that takes cash I don’t have so…” He smiled broadly at me. “You don’t need to hear me whine about my empty wallet. Just know I would be thrilled to watch her anytime you want. I’m good with kids, and I’m assuming you’d pay me well.”
“I…well, of course the pay would be well. Good. The pay is good but…” I was waffling, but not because I had doubts about Lennon being able to supervise Valeria when I was at work. She adored him, and he had shown how adept he was with children. I just wasn’t sure if I could handle seeing him more than once a week. Just sitting here beside him, breathing in hislime scent and watching him chit-chat with my niece was doing terribly unsettling things to my ability to rationalize things. Not to mention how his nearness made me want to lean over and lick the mustard from his plush lips. How would I handle him being in my home three or four days a week? Poorly. Very poorly. I’d be prone to daydreaming about inhaling his skin or touching his soft gold hair or asking him to fall to his knees and slowly unzip my—
“I’ll have to talk it over with Valeria,” I blurted out. As soon as the words fell onto the green table, I knew they were rubbish words. Talk it over with a nearly four-year-old. What nonsense. I glanced her way. She was nodding so hard the bunny barrettes in her bangs had fallen into her lap. “I mean, we’d have to see your paperwork, of course, and have an official interview. And then—”
“Cool. I can go home with you when we’re done here and do the interview. Oh, I think I can email you my paperwork now if you want to give me your email?” He dug out his cell, then watched me flounder. “Or not.”
“No, it’s just…unexpected is all.” I shook off the shakiness his offer had produced. The lack of sleep was making me lackluster and dull. “I’m sorry. We’ve not slept well, and I’m more than a bit foggy. Please, yes, send me your paperwork.”
I rattled off my personal email. Within seconds, my phone pinged. “I’ll look them over later, rest assured. We can do the interview here if you wish?” I offered, motioning to the Common with my hand. “The house is a bit of a mess at the moment.”
Bit of a mess was being polite. The house was a fright. We’d had a very bad night, and I’d not bothered to pick up a thing yet.
“Sounds good.” Lennon rose, gathered up our baskets, and took our trash to a receptacle. Valeria was fading fast by the looks. Soon she would conk out and sleep for hours and then be up all night. I needed to find a way to break that cycle, but whenshe didn’t rest at night, it seemed cruel to deny her sleep when she found it. Dr. Bajaj had better be working on some of that magic the social service workers had bragged about soon.
Valeria hung onto my hand as we made our way to the famed bronze Embrace statue by the Parkman bandstand. I’d been here when the homage to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King’s, deep love had been revealed a few years ago. It had been a very moving ceremony.
We sat on one of the circular bench walls near the sculpture, Valeria dashing about under the large arms and hands, giving us a moment to speak alone.
“I’m sorry if I made this uncomfortable for you,” Lennon said before running his fingers through his flat hair. Top hats did little good for hairstyles, not that the man really styled his hair. It just kind of did its own thing. “I shouldn’t have leaped on the opening like that in front of Valeria.”
“It’s fine, truly. To be honest, I was taken aback by the offer since I had never thought of asking you to fill the position, and not because I don’t feel you can be a good childcare provider. It’s just that…” And here I stumbled because it seemed rank to mention how often I thought of him during the week.
“I’m too young?” he offered. Valeria was now sitting under the statue, picking at something in the sole of her shoe.
