Bringing Home the Duncan Phyfe: Chapter 16

The past few weeks have been busy. Lots of distractions from the Duncan Phyfe, but I've been writing when I can and am determined to continue brushing up my notes for the remaining chapters. Thanks for your patience. At the end of Chapter 15, Mom had just told Dad that she was pretty sure she was expecting. She had to go in for "a rabbit test" that afternoon, and they'd know in a week.

Secret Smiles. Secret Fear

Mom and Dad decided not to tell anyone the news until the doctor told them for sure, but between them their secret prompted smiles out of the blue, followed by a gentle "What?" followed by "Nothing..." and another smile. In front of others, their eyes smiled while their mouths tried not to. Dad was a natural whistler, but when he was especially happy, he almost forgot he was whistling and embellished his tunes with trills. Around the apartment and at work, he'd been whistling "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" like a song bird since Friday.

The last two days of waiting for the rabbit's news were filled with quiet anxiety for Mom. What if she'd miscalculated? What if she wasn't pregnant at all? In her most private moments, behind closed doors, she winced to cast a downward glance for fear that it might break her heart. Strange that the very thing that made her scream that day she stepped from childhood, the thing that brought her grandmother up the stairs, the thing that by then had become a pattern of life, a monthly mask to wear, a private conversation with herself… The thought of it happening now, she knew, was more than she could bear.

Star Oil was not Mom’s first job. My mom had worked at the Dime Store before taking a job as the elevator operator at Sperry’s, the biggest department store in Port Huron. The job paid only 40 cents per hour, but she liked it because she worked with her friend Donna (who would later become my Aunt). Whenever the K__ brothers, Don and Jack, came into Sperry’s Mom would zip up the second floor to tell Donna and then they’d both act surprised to see their boyfriends in the store. Mom obviously had her mind on the job at all times. Unfortunately, she once got so flustered when her high school typing teacher, Miss French, got on the elevator and saw her talking through the closing door to Dad, that she went down instead of up and went past the basement—the one thing she was warned not to do. Somehow the Sperry’s elevator could go three feet past the lowest level, and when it did it got stuck and the maintenance man had to up to the roof to wench the elevator up out of the pit. Mom apologized to her teacher as she was crawling up out of the elevator onto the basement floor, but her boss was standing there with less of a smile than her teacher had. Some time after that, Mom no longer worked at Sperry’s.

She then worked as a long distance operator on the switchboard. Mom thought she would like it because she liked talking to people, but nobody really wants to talk to an operator. One customer was asking for Jeddo, a small town north of Port Huron, but Mom thought the man was saying "Jello." The two had a laugh, and that was the closest thing to a conversation she had while working the board. She never talked much about this job. In fact, I didn't know she and Dad had both worked at Bell together (for a short time) until writing this chapter.

She applied at Star Oil and got called back the same day, but in response to “When can you start?” she said “Mr. Kellerman, you don’t want to hire me for accounts receivable… I flunked bookkeeping. The only thing I remember from the class is that bookkeeping is the one word in the English language with three double letters in a row.” But her new boss assured her that they would teach her everything they expected of her.

She liked this job, and didn’t want to do anything to disappoint Mr. Kellerman, but on this day, she had to bend one of the rules just a little bit.

And so it was when Friday morning came, seven days after her visit to Dr. Licker’s office, at 11:01, mom picked up the phone she had been staring at all morning and called for the results of the pregnancy test.

Personal calls were not permitted during office hours, but Mom was certain Mr. Kellerman would consider this an exception…if he knew its importance...which, of course, he could not know..

Her desk was not far in the corner, so she acted all-business as she dialed the number and was told that the doctor would be with her in a few minutes. She nodded to the silence as if listening to an important customer, nonchalantly doodling on a steno pad for effect. Without thinking, her pencil began sketching the torso and head of an upright rabbit, paws poised as if in prayer..

Suddenly she sat up in her chair, eyes wide, hiding her mouth behind the phone. “Are you sure?” she whispered. Still listening, the pencil finished the face of the rabbit with two straight lines for eyes, and she turned the pad sideways as if to lay the poor creature to rest..

“Thank you, Dr. Licker. So…I’ll see you next when?… a month or so? What do I do 'til then?”

Dr. Licker's voice was calming but the words themselves seemed to fall like buttons from a jar. Whatever else he said, she didn’t hear. If she mumbled a farewell, she did not recall. She sat there in a daze with the mute phone pressed against her ear until a sudden dial tone brought the room back into focus. She took a deep breath, cradled the phone in place, and tried to hide her smile.

.

A few miles away, Dad was packing his Bell truck at a phone installation. He'd finished the job sooner than usual, and drove along the river to pause at the place mom first told him the news. He would not be swimming today. He knew, in fact, that it would be some time before he'd swim across the river again, and it was that thought that drew him to the spot. He was not disappointed—he was not afraid, but a serious look from somewhere deep behind his eyes peered out at the passing water. He was still happy at the thought of becoming a dad, but there in that moment the playful song of the week changed to a different tune, Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy."

.As he idled down the street toward Pine Grove, the September breeze came in through his rolled-down window. He began whistling the tune that was playing in his mind. He did not recall its name; he did not recall that he'd first heard it a few summers before; he did not know all the words.… he did not know he was whistling at all. He only knew that he was meeting his wife for lunch in ten minutes, and she would know for sure by then. Turning off the truck not far from their picnic spot, the whistling melody faded, and he softly sang the part of the song he knew....

............. “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn
............. Is just to love and be loved in return…”

.

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[That last link, Nature Boy, is a song that had been number one the summer after Dad graduated from high school. He still sang and whistled it later in life sometimes when I was working with him on the house. I was hoping to find a Youtube video of someone like Bing Crosby whistling, because that is what Dad sounded like, but I didn't find anything (except this Whistling Jack Smith hit from the Sixties. (My brother Paul bought that 45, and all us boys used to whistle along, but Dad did not act like that guy when he whistled. He just breathed out a tune and went on with whatever else he was doing.]