Chapter 20

"Mom. What's all this Dr. stuff?"

She blushed a little. "It's a game your father and I have played since before you were born. I guess I can tell you about it. I never told you how we met, did I?"

"No."

"You know your father's older than I am. He was in the Navy during World War II. One of the ports he was stationed in was San Diego. He liked it so much he decided to move here after the war. We actually met in the drugstore after school one day. I was a senior in high school and was about two weeks away from graduation. A bunch of us girls would go down to the drugstore after school, sit at the counter and spend most of the afternoon drinking one coke or a shake and talk about boys. Boy, we had such romantic ideas of men and women. None of us knew what we were talking about.

"Anyway, your father showed up and all of us spent about an hour staring at him, checking him out, while pretending we didn't even notice him. We thought we were being inconspicuous. Your Dad told me later that we were so obvious he had to keep from laughing. After an hour or so of sitting at the counter, looking at magazines and generally staying where we could see him, he went to the druggist and got change for a dollar. There was a jukebox near the counter and he put a quarter in. Now in those days, you could get 10 or 12 records for a quarter. We all thought he was rich to waste a whole quarter on music. Well, he was about 5 feet away, and we're all checking him out, thinking he doesn't notice it. He's looking at the titles, flipping through the pages on the jukebox. All of a sudden he turns around and looks right at me. I know I turned red as a beet cause I'd been looking at his butt while he was bent over the jukebox.

"Like I said, he was looking right at me and I thought he'd caught me. I was so embarrassed. "Hey, Red, ' he said. I didn't even think about my hair, I thought he was talking about my face. 'Come over here and help me pick out some songs.'

"I looked over at my girlfriends and they looked at him, then looked back at me. We all had hands over our mouths, giggling. We looked like a bunch of schoolgirls, which we were, of course.

"'Come on, Red. I ain't gonna bite you.' He looked me right in the eyes and smiled that smile of his. I think I fell in love with him right then.

"I stood up and started walking toward him... My girlfriends were telling me to be careful, people would think I was a hussy, all kinds of things. I wasn't listening. All my attention was on your father. We found enough songs to use up that quarter and I started to walk away, back to the counter. He reached out and grabbed my arm. He pulled me towards him and the next thing I knew we were arm in arm, dancing to the jukebox. We danced until all the records were done playing. Halfway through he had both arms around my waist. I had my arms around his neck and my head laying on his chest.

"By the time the music was over, we were both in love. He said 'Can I walk you home?' and I said 'Uh huh.' I didn't pay any attention to the girls sitting there staring at us, we just left the drugstore. We never let go of each other, all the way home. On the way, he asked about me and found out I was graduating in two weeks on Friday. He asked if I'd like to get married the day after, on Saturday. I told him I would and we kissed on my front porch.

"He met me every day after school in the drugstore, bought me a shake and spent a quarter on the jukebox. After the third day, my girlfriends gave up on me. We would dance, then walk home, then kiss. My mother finally told me to bring him in for supper one afternoon. It was then that he told Grandma and Grandpa that we were going to get married in a week. They weren't thrilled with the idea, but they'd noticed the way I'd been kind of floating around the house for the past week, not paying attention to anything. They figured I was in love and it was either marriage or I'd end up being pregnant and they decided marriage was the better choice...

"Your Dad came to my school in a suit for my graduation. It impressed the hell out of my girlfriends. It also impressed them when I told them we were getting married tomorrow. I'd kept it quiet because I didn't want it going around the school. I didn't want every person who heard I was getting married to ask me if I had to.

"There were steps up to the auditorium where we held graduation. I walked outside holding your father's arm. I was on Cloud Nine. Somebody must have spilled something on the steps. I had new shoes on, so the leather sole was slick. I hit a wet spot and I just flew. My feet came out from under me and I would have landed on my ass if it wasn't for your father. Somehow he pulled my arm and spun me around so that I fell on top of him. He stuck the arm I wasn't holding out to break his fall and he ended up breaking his arm.

"We went to my old family doctor. Mom and Dad wanted to go with us but we assured them we'd be fine and would stop by for dinner after we saw the doctor. He examined your Dad, told him the arm was broken and that it would have to be set. Your father was lying on the examination table. I was on one side, holding his head so he couldn't see the doctor and doing my best to hold him down on the table. I could see the doctor on the other side of the table. He had your father's wrist in both hands, had one foot on the floor and worked the other foot into your father's armpit. He then pulled until we actually heard the bone click into place. Your father was pretty brave but he yelled out when that arm was being pulled.