You know? Alone, by myself, no company, no attention paid to me.
Yeah. I know. I think the universe revolves around me. Til I don’t.
It’s big hunting time. No guys around to make do chores.
Someone else is sick and resting.
The Moms have the grandwrex busy with stuff.
Young adults are running around, as usual.
Ivy is here. But she’s quiet today. No chewing me out or making me do things I’d rather not.
So alone in my room I sit.
Then a brain storm. I’ll bug the Dopers. They won’t mind. Just this once😉
I’ll tell a story. Yeah that’s it.
Here goes:
My Friend Tink
This was a woman I knew early in my 20s.
About her: your basic hippie type earth mother. Eclectic in her fashion sense. Had the first pink hair I ever saw. She lived in a hoarded out old family house. It had an “antiques for sale” sign in the yard. She never sold anything I heard of. Just collected more. Unmarried. She had a boyfriend, kinda. I never heard his name.
Drove an old beat up car. A Duster or something like that. She was cheerful and talkative and kids liked her.
I had the two older kids. Preschool. They went to playgroup twice a week. Tink, no kids, worked there. She loved my kids. Almost in a creepy way. She said repeatedly, I want children just like these two. Umm…ok. I watched her carefully for signs of a kidnapping vibe. That meant I spent two mornings a week at playgroup too. So much for getting errands ran or god forbid, a break.
She eventually got pregnant. Oh, thank god. She’ll find her own baby way better than mine and quit fawning.
Pregnancy turned her into a ogre. Or the backstory did. Not sure. Anyway it got her fired.
She called me wanting a reference if she had an opportunity to work in the same kinda situation. Not likely in that town. Small, rumors flying. She lost that kinda gig. She then offered to private babysitting for mine. I turned her down saying it wasn’t something I needed. And she was creepy, in my mind.
No, I didn’t listen to rumors. No one told me crap. I knew her, firsthand. She was weird. Nice, but weird.
Soon her baby was born. A boy. She named him Spencer. I sent a gift. I’m nice like that.
Of course she called to thank me. And called, and called, and called. I began to try and psychic the phone when it rang. I hoped to figure out a pattern. But, dang it, she wasn’t one to follow psychic rules. No pattern to that girl. It seems Spencer wasn’t all she’d hoped for. He was a cranky, colicky baby. Wouldn’t sleep. Wouldn’t smile. I was worried for her and the baby. Boyfriend had ran out.
Then one day, no Tink. No calls. No chasing me down at the grocery store.
I think Tink moved or something. I drove by her house on regular routes and her car was gone.
Move up a few years. My kids are in elementary school. One day I see a new librarian person in the Library. She looked familiar. Oh no. It couldn’t be Tink. Her hair was mousey brown and she had on regular clothes. I asked someone and they said her name is Belle Surname .
Now I know where Tink came from!
I made a point to avoid her. Didn’t want all those phone calls again. Alas, the book fair was happening and I got volunteered to work two days. I would have to talk to her. And I did. She was still very talkative. I’m a good listener. She had had a tough go. Boyfriend fell through on helping her with Spencer. She got into a bad bunch of people when she left to go to college. Lost parental rights to her baby. And eventually he was adopted. He has developmental disabilities. She never said what.
She said she lost all hope of being a parent. So decided to work with children with a degree. And so she did.
My kids didn’t remember her. She never mentioned them the few times we talked.
She was not nearly as interesting as a normal librarian in an elementary school as she had been.
The last time I saw her she was at a doctor’s office. She looked very sick. No hair, thin and drawn in the face. I assumed some kinda cancer therapy was happening. She didn’t ever look up or see me. And I just let it go. I heard she died a few weeks later.
I think I was remiss, but what ya gonna do?
I worried needlessly about her early on. I dismissed her as a young mother. I ignored her as a person who dedicated her life to working in an almost thankless job, with children. And I let her die without even a by-your-leave. I didn’t think Tink .
No wonder I sit here, all by my lonesome.