Thursday, February 23, 2006

I just can't tear myself away from Melvin. I call my supervisor and tell him I will be taking the rest of the week off and will see him on Monday. We both go back to sleep.
Melvin wakes me up with a kiss to tell me he is going with JB for his chemo appointment. He tells me to plan to have fun with him when he gets home. I sleep for the rest of the day. I guess I am hibernating, because for the next year I will rarely sleep. Melvin comes home and has brought me a oscillating fan for my side of the bed. I sweat at night and he tried to fix the ceiling fan, to no avail, so this was my surprise for my hot flashes. I had asked for it months ago and when he sat it by the bed I thought it might be a pair of boots by the shape of the box. I jumped straight up, "Are these boots?," I was even more suprised to have my fan. Melvin always bought me great gifts of clothes or jewelery, I am hard to please but he, my grandmother and my triangle girlfriends choose well my gifts.
I finally get up, shower and join Melvin in the kitchen. I entertain him while he cooks. I still don't feel bad, I just don't feel good. My grandmother would share with me, some months later, how she felt the same way just before her son was killed in Vietnam. She said she told her supervisor she didn't know why but she just needed to take off and be alone. She stayed in a hotel room for a week, alone. When she arrived home the Western Union message met her, "Your son has been killed in Vietnam..." My mother has been my sister and my grandmother has been my mother, my life has mirrored hers on many occasion.
We talk and laugh, dance and eat. We discuss how I am feeling about my job and where we are going to travel. We decide that this year for Thanksgiving, we're going on a cruise. I will call and make the reservations this week. We decide it's time to let the kids fend for themselves and enjoy our time together doing just what we want to do. "Poo I'm so happy and scared at the same time. I just hope nothing happens, 'cause we're just too happy," Melvin says. "Ah Poody, us'll be fine," I say in one of my theatrical voices. Due to the difference in our ages and the illness we both suffered, I had deduced that we had, at least 20 more years together.
We play a game of Dominoes, I win, and get to brag. The winner always gets bragging rights. We watch Jay Leno, then fall asleep. We were going to eat ice cream, but Melvin's acid reflux dictates we indulge in that pleasure early in the day while he's up moving around.

Tomorrow