Chapter 6

I got up the next morning and went over to New London to see a woman in Children's Services that my father had recommended to me. I introduced myself to Mrs. Taggart and then told her of the problems that Ellen and I were having. At first, she was reluctant to even discuss the possibility of Ellen being a short term foster care parent, explaining to me the State's requirements and the parameters to get qualified. I got her to give me the application papers anyway, although she assured me that I was wasting my time in doing so.

I then drove back too Groton and went to see Mr. Bennett. Mr. Bennett and my father were good friends, not socially, but professionally. They had been doing favors for each other for a number of years. If Mr. Bennett needed someone to show up somewhere and file a complaint, someone would. If an element came to town and started doing something that interfered with another, entrenched local enterprise, that element would find it difficult to get their permits and their deliveries would be unreliable, either too late or somehow forgotten. Mr. Bennett was always able to rely on a certain high turn out of voters on election day, all of whom voted the way Mr. Bennett wanted them to vote. In our part of the state, Mr. Bennett was called an 'influence peddler', and was well thought of by politicians and those dependent on political patronage. My father was a small cog in that wheel, a very reliable cog though and known to carry through on his promises.

After I explained everything to Mr. Bennett he made three phone calls and sent me back to New London to meet with Mrs. Taggart again. It took another hour to arrange everything, but when I left her office, Ellen and I were both licensed foster care parents, and my house and Ellen's parent's home were authorized and approved for foster care residences. I had the address in Groton for the children's shelter, and a call had been made there to authorize me to pick up a child for an overnight placement. I picked up a little six month old girl named Theresa, whose mother was in the women's jail for creating a public disturbance, and whose father was unknown. they gave me a bag with a dozen diapers, a pack of diaper pins, some baby powder, two small blankets, some glass baby bottles and nipples, and some little baby clothes. I signed two pieces of paper and was out of there with Theresa in fifteen minutes. What a system.

I drove over to Ellen's parent's house and brought Theresa and the bag to the front door and knocked. Ellen's youngest sister opened the door and her eyes got big when she saw me standing there with a baby in one arm and a baby bag in the other. I walked in and went through the living room and into the kitchen. Ellen wasn't there, but Mrs. DePaul was. I was in the middle of explaining Theresa to Ellen's mom when Ellen came running into the kitchen and her sister trailing behind her.

"Is that for me, Jackie?"

"Yes, but not to keep. Her name's Theresa and she's six months old." I handed her the baby and went into the living room and sat down. Ellen and her mom disappeared into the back of the house and were gone for about fifteen minutes. When Ellen came back she sat down beside me and started asking me the obvious questions. "I went to see Mr. Bennett and he set it up so we can check out children from the shelter whenever you want to. You can keep them for awhile, but you have to bring them back when they find permanent foster parents or when the children's family are able and willing to care for them. They get tiny babies too, but they didn't have any when I went over there today."

"So it's like a library then? I check them out and return them when they become due? Is there a fine if I return one late?"

"I think they suspend your borrowing privileges if you do it too often. You can keep her here or you can keep her at our house, but you can't take her on trips or anything without checking first with the shelter."

"Can I sell her?"

"Not until she's at least seven."

"So is this your compromise?"

"If it was, would it be enough?"

"Well, it's a lot better than flowers or a box of chocolates, that's for sure."

"Ellen, with this, I've gone as far as I can go. I love you and want you back home with me if this is now going to be enough. If it isn't, you can still do the foster parenting as much as you want to. I've set it up in your name alone as well as with us as a couple."

"Suppose I think it's enough now and come back, and then it turns out that it isn't enough."

"Then you come to me and give me a kiss goodbye and we part as friends. You take the kid with you when you go though, Ok?"

"Did you think of this all by yourself or did you get the idea from someone else?"

"No, it was all mine, a last, desperate, idea, but mine alone."

"I'd have come back just for you, the love and the sex Jackie. I've wanted to call you a thousand times and tell you that. If you'd just once told me that you couldn't get along without me, I'd have come back."

"Ellen, if me coming over here with a borrowed baby doesn't scream that very message out to you, my saying the words wouldn't either."

"Can we go get a little boy too?"

"Sure, but the smallest one is around four or five years old, not really what I'd call a baby."

"That's small enough for me, Jackie. I've always wanted a little boy ever since my brother Eddie died. Can we go get him now?"

"Let's stick to one at a time until you get used to it, Ok? We'll take Theresa back soon, and then you can pick out the next one."

It took an hour for Ellen to pack up her things and get it all loaded into my car. Theresa was in her arms most of that time. I did the carrying and the storing of Ellen's things, but we somehow made it home before Theresa needed changing again. I think we held on to Theresa for almost a week before her mother was turned loose. We got two little boys, brothers, the next time. There have been so many over the years, that most of their names have faded from my memory. Not Ellen's though, she remembers them all, and has photos of them too. On the back of the pictures she would write the date that we got them and the date that they left, their birth dates and how tall they were, with lots of little comments and notations about each one. For years, when she was having her monthlies, she'd get out one of her big picture albums and sit there looking at page after page of pictures of 'her' children. I'm not sure whether it helped her or it hurt her, probably some of each. Over the years, we've had our ups and downs. We argue a lot, mostly to a stand off, but sometimes one of us will decide to leave for a short time, a week or less.

Ellen had been back for a couple days when her mother and father paid us a visit. Tom was all grins and happy looking and Mrs. DePaul was obviously very uncomfortable. Theresa was sleeping in the new crib that Ellen had purchased, along with about a thousand dollars of other children's toys and furniture she said we'd need. After I'd gotten the two of them drinks, Tom announced their reason for visiting. "Jackie, when you and Ellen first got separated, both Flo and I thought it was just another of your lover's spats. After it became plain to the both of us that this time it was far more serious, we made a wager between the two of us. We bet on whether you'd ever reconcile again. If I lost, Flo and I would finally go on one of those cruises that they have to the islands in the Caribbean. If I won, we agreed that she'd have to kiss my ass, and give me twenty minutes to draw a crowd. Well, I won!"

Right in front of the both of us he lowered his trousers to his knees and then dropped his shorts as well. "Pucker up Flo!" I'll give her credit, she got up from her seat and walked over and planted one on his left cheek, leaving a lipstick mark and all. She turned around so that she was facing Ellen and I, both of us trying really hard not to laugh, and threw us a little curtsy and then sat back down again. Tom was as happy as I'd ever seen him.

"I'm happy to have lost that particular bet. I've been kissing your ass figuratively for twenty five years, Tom, doing it for real was actually easier and more pleasant. If you take me on that cruise, I might kiss the other side as well." Tom's face got red and he didn't look that happy anymore. Even in a rare moment of victory his wife had bested him. I got my first insight into where Ellen had received her saucy attitude from. Sad to say, Ellen's mother and I never got to the point where we could consider ourselves friends. At times we were allies, at times foes, just never friends. She did get to go on her cruise though, several of them through the years. I don't know whether Tom ever collected on her promise or not, but there must have been something there that I couldn't ever see. They were together until Ellen's mom passed away in 1996. Tom lasted less than six more months, before succumbing himself to heart disease.