doing it for you, but are you sure you want to trust me with your kid just like that?”
Her husky voice softened a bit as she answered, “I just don’t have anyone else, Joel.” Now her voice was desperate.
“How old did you say your daughter is?”
“She’s five.”
“Well, at least she’s not in diapers, I don’t know how to deal with diapers, I don’t even know how to deal with an eight-year-old, but OK, bring her on over.”
Thirty minutes later she rang the doorbell. “Hi, come on in.” She was dressed in a suit; she looked completely different from what he saw before. He took the bags of clothes for the girl, and sat them down in the living room.
“Janie, this is Mr. Callahan. He is going to take care of you until Mommy gets back, OK?”
The little girl nodded gravely.
“You can call me Joel. Did you bring any toys?”
“I brought Fanny.”
“Well now, who is Fanny?”
“My Cabbage Patch doll.”
He looked at Sue inquiringly. Sue just winked at him over the girl’s head.
“She can sleep in the extra bedroom; I’ll fix it up for her.”
“I really appreciate this. I’ll call you when I get to Wilmington. Here is the number where I will be staying; it’s my sister’s house.” She handed him a slip of paper, and he laid it on the kitchen counter.
“Take your bags in there, Janie, while I talk to Joel. OK, honey?
“OK.” The little girl walked into the bedroom looking resolute, as if she would deal with whatever life handed her.
“Why don’t you take her with you?”
“My sister is dying of cancer; I just didn’t want her to see this.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Sue.”
“We were always so very close; this is going to be hard,”
“I can imagine.”
“I’ll always be grateful to you, Joel.”
“Let’s just cut with the apologies. If we are going to do this, let’s just get to it, OK?”
She nodded meekly up to him, as a tear rolled down her pretty face. Her shoulder length auburn hair set off the black suit she was wearing, and it made him forget the trade she was in. He suddenly felt good that he had treated her like any other human. He realized that that’s what she was, just another human caught up in the meat grinder that was this life. Joel, if you ever mention to this woman what she is, I’m going to stick a knife in your gut myself. And for the first time in a long time, he felt feelings of kindness rise up in him. He realized the years he had spent climbing the corporate ladder without feeling and without mercy.
Janie came back out of the bed room and stood looking up at her mother. She didn’t look afraid, but she did look uncertain. Sue kneeled down to hug her close, got up, and walked to the door. “You be good for Mr. Callahan; will you, Janie?”
“I’ll be good, Mommy,” the little girl said gravely. A tear slid out of the corner of her eye, and it deeply saddened Joel.
“Want to watch TV?”
“Uhhum”
“You can sit there in my big seat with Fanny; here is the control, OK?”
“OK, Mr. Callahan.”
“Joel, or Joe for short.”
“Joe?”
“Yeah, that’ll do. We friends got to stick together.”
She climbed into his recliner, and he searched the channel until he found cartoons playing.
“You like Bugs Bunny?”
“Yeah, he makes me laugh.”
He handed her the control, “OK, it’s your TV; you watch what you want.”
What do I do if she wants to watch something bad for her? I don’t know how to take care of this kid.
There were a lot of things Joel G. Callahan, lately of New York, didn’t know. He checked on her a couple times during the night, and once he heard her whimper in her sleep. He stood in the doorway watching this bit of human flesh sleep for a while and thought about his life, it made him want to be a better human being.
He took her to work with him, and the secretary’s eyes lit up when she walked in the door, and Joel G. Callahan, lately of New York, found out his secretary wasn’t a lump after all, but a warm and caring human being who just happened to attend the First Baptist Church of Augusta, Georgia. She kept Janie entertained while he made his morning calls, and from the sound of laughter from his outer office, he wondered why he hadn’t said more than two words at one time to his secretary since he had been there.
During that week and into the next, Joel G. Callahan fell so deeply in love with that little five-year-old girl that he would have given his life up for her on the spot without a second thought.
That’s where things got complicated. The divorce was as quick and final as a handful of New York lawyers could make it, which was pretty darn quick, even on New York time. No sooner than the divorce became final, did his ex call him to say that she had made a terrible mistake, and could he please fly back to New York ASAP.
“I can’t come back to New York right now. I have responsibilities.”
She didn’t bother to ask what the responsibilities were. “Well, hell with you then, Joel; stay down there!” The phone went dead.
An hour later he got a call from Sue. He and Janie were eating popcorn, watching Bugs Bunny, and guzzling root beer, and Joel G. Callahan was laughing at cartoons like a kid on a sugar high.
“Joel, I’m coming home tomorrow. Has Janie been too much of a load?”
“Oh no; it’s been just fine. What time will you get to Augusta?”
“About ten in the morning.”
“OK, I’ll take the day off. My secretary can run the office.”
“Take the day off? What for?”
“I’ll pick you up at the airport.”
“I can catch a taxi.”
“No need, we’ll meet you at the gate.”
“OK then, see you then, and thanks, Joel.”
The next day they arrived at the airport gate just as the plane was unloading, and Sue appeared, carrying her bags. How beautiful and radiant she looks. The thought entered Joel’s mind unbidden. It was just there.
“Here, let me take those.” He grabbed for her bags as Janie squealed and jumped into her mother arms.
“How’s my little girl?”
“I’m fine, Mommy. Look at my new dress!”
Sue looked quizzically at Joel.
“Well…to tell the truth, my secretary and I fought over who could take her shopping the most. So I’m only half guilty.”
“Uh huh. So you are saying you spoiled my kid, huh?”
“Oh no, she spoiled us. My office has never been so lively since I’ve been here. Did you know my secretary has three grandkids, and attends the First Baptist Church?”
“Now how could I know that, Joel? I’ve never even met her.”
“Oh yeah. Well…she does.”
When they got back to the apartment, Janie proudly showed off the gifts Joel and his secretary had showered on her. When they were prepared to go, Sue reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “I appreciate all you’ve done for us, Joel.”
“It was nothing. Say, my secretary asked me to attend her church this Sunday. Would you go with me?”
“You know, I have been thinking about doing the same thing. Yes, I’ll go with you.”
“Pick you up at ten Sunday morning, then?”
“We’ll be ready.”
For the next three weeks they attended the First Baptist Church of Augusta, and Joel went about his work, knowing that things were somehow changing. Although he couldn’t quite put his finger on just what was happening, he only knew that they were.
Trouble blew into town in the form of an ex-wife who, in her usual way, had the skinny on Joel before she came to his office to have her papers signed. Joel was sitting at his desk, talking to a customer in Chicago when she barged in. He finished with the customer and hung up the phone.
“Hi Linda, I
didn’t expect to see you.”
“Well, I’ve been in this stick hole for two days!”
“Oh? Why didn’t you notify me?”
“Because you’ve been too busy chasing after your slut whore, that’s why. I mean couldn’t you have done better than a whore, Joel? No, I guess not!”
She walked over and slammed the door in his secretary’s face, who stood looking into the office as if she was upset that Linda had barged in.
Joel felt the fight coming, as his blood pressure rose like a fighter jet streaking for the wild blue yonder.
“If it’s Sue you are talking about, she is a single mother is what she is; a human being just the same as anybody else, and I will not have you come into my office accusing her or me! Now get the hell out before I have you arrested!”
“Just as soon as you sign these papers, Joey boy.” She slammed the papers down on his desk. Her face was pinched and ugly with hate and malice.
Joel’s hand trembled as he scribbled his signature on the papers. He didn’t know what he was signing, and he didn’t care. She snatched up the papers and opened the door to go, turning to look at him, she sneered. She slammed the door again and slammed the outer door to the secretary’s office as she exited.
He felt accused as the hurt and the darkness came at him like a steam