I get a phone call Sunday night. It was the past a ringing. That wasn't anything new because he and I talk a lot. It was the fact that he was calling to tell me that he was coming to my town with a friend to hang out for a couple of days that was the surprise. "Don't tell my people," he said, meaning my girls.
After the mess of things back in September when we were reunited for the first time in 14 years, I was more than a little anxious. A part of me wanted to tell him that the visit wouldn't work. There were a thousand reasons to tell him why he couldn't come; there was one to tell him that he could. Yep, I love the big old crazy bearded black man to death.
He called me yesterday morning on his way out of town. There was a snow day here so I had all day to clean up around the house and think about his arrival. As usual, I was met with a sense of peace and calm when I thought about it. Either everything was going to be alright or it wasn't; it was that simple.
I had told him that if he was here, he would be required to go to G's Christmas concert at school. He pointed out to me yesterday within minutes of being in my truck that he had brought a shirt and tie for the occasion.
He came to the house and just fit right in. That's my most favorite thing about him: he just IS. There was no need to put on airs or be uncomfortable. Hell, I don't think things could get more uncomfortable between us than what they were in September. We got all that nasty stuff out of the way then.
I cooked supper, we ate, he hung out with the girls. I kept my distance, sitting across the room in my chair, watching him and my girls. They love him. He is such a man of peace and calm. M has loved him right from the start. G was being a bit of an ass with him. I took her into the kitchen with me once and told her that everything was okay. I told her that he was a friend who wanted to come and spend time with us, nothing more, nothing less, and that there was no reason for her to feel threatened or unnerved by his presence. She asked me if he could spend the night. *grin* Maybe that's what had her panties in a wad, she wanted more of him and didn't know how to go about getting it.
He didn't spend the night. He stayed for a couple of hours after the girls went to sleep. We sat on my couch and watched a movie. We just were.
I took him some leftover chili this morning on my way to work. The hotel he stayed in was literally right next to my job. I picked him up on the way home from work. He went with me to pick up G from school. She went right to him and they walked to the truck hand-in-hand.
We came home and he gave her another piano lesson. I cooked supper and then we went to the concert. I turned once to get M's hand and he said, "I got both of them now." And there he went with my chicks.
Now, it was a bit strange for me. There has been one man in my house in 5 years, and we all know how that turned out. So just a man's presence created a small shift. But there was something else; I just don't know if I know how to put it into words...
Several times I would look at them (meaning him with at least one of my girls, though most times he had both of them), and he would be looking at them full of love, smoothing their hair or teaching Grace something, either math or piano. There was just something so tender about such a big and dark man being so kind and gentle with my girls. They need that. Shit, I need that. *sigh*
M went into the bedroom tonight to pout because G was getting all of his attention. He motioned for her to come out. She walked into the living room, head down, bottom lip out. And she curled up in his lap.
Then he told me that he had to go.
That quick.
I told him on the ride to the hotel that he was like the Grinch. M and G made his heart grow to three times its normal size and he had to get away before he was lured in. OF course, being who he is, he adamantly denied it and attempted to correct me about the Grinch. But we knew it was there: He loves my girls.
I don't know how many times he told me that he had more fun with us than he had ever had in his whole life. Maybe so. I don't have much in ways of money or things, but I do have the ability to love. And I am a dedicated mom. I have cool chicks.
There's just something about the two of us. There always has been.
Take, for instance, that we were laughing on the way to pick up G, about the days we had met. Those days were spent in a marijuana haze. We rode around from gig to gig on a magic bus. We were different people then. It seems as if it was forever ago. And then we spotted a billboard that read, "Get Buds," advertising Budweiser. That made us both laugh. It was as if it had been put there just for us.
Then there was the fact that we were walking to the truck and the front porch light flipped on. First of all, it is not a motion light. Secondly, it hasn't been on in months. But there it was, lighting up just for us. We have that kind of energy together. Things inexplicable happen for us. They always have. We both giggled when it happened. Then I spent a second or two explaining why it was so outrageous. This was followed by an utterance of "Lord" from both of us.
We laughed about how long it would be before Assthew (M's dad) to call me because I was waaaay out in public with a black man. See, individually we are the kind of people that people pay attention to. I don't know why, but some of us are just made like that. He had people wondering about him before he had walked in the door. And then when they saw him with me, well, we were the stuff that exciting gossip is made of. *grin*
We talked about Ass' mole, the one that always tells him what the girls and I are doing. I don't know how, but I am positive the mole was there tonight. And Ass will have a fit when he finds out that I was out in public with his daughters with a black man. And the guy that we saw from church...And the wonderful friend of mine that was thrown completely off guard.
It's the stuff smiles are made of. And I would love to have written something much deeper about the visit, but I have to go to bed. I am sure that I will have a much better post later. For now, I just wanted to get it out and down.
And for that distance sister of mine, there was no squinting. But I considered suggesting it. *snort*