Jim & Chi-Chi

8/2/2012

            “…Oh, and by the way, I am meeting Jimmy on Thursday for coffee, if you want to join us…” Sandy let on while we chatted on the phone Tuesday night.

            “What time?” I needed to know, as I had volunteered to do some data entry for Tammy Baldwin’s campaign.

            “1:00.” Sandy replied.

            Wow, I thought, as I mentally looked back at Jim’s past coffee-date records. He’ll probably be late for a 1:00 date, I said to myself. That will give me plenty of time to get over there from Bassett Street. If I just go early and adjust my schedule….”I can be there.”

            “Great!” Sandy is always so accommodating except when she’s not; then she’s so diplomatic and open.

            Thursday turned out as expected: I got to the Bassett Street location early, when perky, twenty year old, starry-eyed, Arielle put me to work stuffing “thank you” envelopes.

            With only twenty five minutes left, Arielle relocated me to computer data entry, which took fifteen minutes of training! Oh, well, I thought, it’s not my job to tell what I should do. Perhaps she’s banking on me coming back to work the computer again next time. Oops! I punched the wrong button, and, oops! Where is Arielle?

            Well, one thing is certain: Jimmy and Sandy are waiting for me, so I am leaving here on time. Arielle got me back onto the computer screen I needed, so I completed five more minutes of data entry, clearly marked where I stopped, saved everything on the computer, and turned in my paperwork. On Time!

            Walking to State Street felt renewing, as so many thoughts flashed through my mind. I am going to see my brother and sister again! How wonderful to have this in my life! I wonder what I will learn. I hope I behave in a way that promotes Jim to release a piece or two of his inner genuine self as we had known him. Be aware. Don’t be all slobbery like Mom. Don’t have a big agenda. Be his little sis. Give him time. Trust him.

            Oh, shoot, what coffee shop, anyway? Well, at least it isn’t raining, so they’ll be sitting outside, since Jimmy smokes. I’ll try “Michelangelo’s” first and go down the line. Well, at least it’s summer, so it’s not too busy out here…sure enough, that looks like Sandy’s slim body walking up ahead. Jimmy is already there! Wow, did he make it fast!

            Jim was seated at one of the outside tables next to large outdoor potted plants, facing State Street. In his cigarette stained but well-trained fingers he held one of his hand-rolled cigs as he shakily drew it to his puckered mouth. Jim was dressed for the weather: striped  Osh-Kosh B’gosh shorts with his signature faded Mexican rug-weave belt, short sleeve maroon tie-dyed Henley, and red neckerchief. His brown, gray, and wiry silver hair had recently been cut, and those sundry color tones looked shockingly attractive with his deeply tanned facial hue and distinct bone structure. (Jim, you look good, today!)

            I stepped inside behind Sandy and greeted her first. “He got here first!” Sandy exclaimed, grinning.

            “Yeah, I really wondered if he’d get here at 1:00; that seems much too early for him to make it. Wow!” We ordered at the counter and went out to join Jim.

            “Debbie is back, and my voice was completely gone yesterday, so I couldn’t even say one thing to her; not one thing!” Jim initiated before we even sat down. His busting out with all that information took me by so much surprise that I wasn’t ready to take it all in so fast.

            “You couldn’t talk, Jim? Did you have a sore throat? Wow, that must have been something to see Debbie after all this time, and not be able to talk to her.” Sandy was much more controlled in her response and quicker than I in grasping what Jim was trying to impart. She also picked up on the importance he felt this information had in his heightened vocal tone and his rush to tell us about it.

            As it soaked in for me, I realized that Jim was sitting there, just bursting to tell us his news! He was holding it in his brain; chain smoking until he saw us, and couldn’t contain himself long enough to even let us sit down! Wow! We are important in Jim’s life! Outstanding!

            Sandy continued, composed, to talk about Debbie, and the fact that she’s been out for such a long time. “It must have been really good to see her again, Jim.”

            “Yeah,” he replied, almost savoring the memory. “And I could not say one thing; not one word.”

            Sandy and I had small talk on our own and with Jim for a while, and then things got quiet.

            Sandy leaned forward at the table and looked right at Jimmy. She told him she had something she wanted to know. She asked Jim how Chi-Chi ever came into our family. “Did you and Dad get him?”

            Jim nodded, “Yeah.”

            “So how did that work? What happened? Where did you get Chi-Chi?”

            “From a farmer at a big farm house; they had him there.”

            “So, did you and Dad go in and pick chi-Chi out?”

            “Yeah, Dad and I got in the car, and he said, ‘Let’s get the dog.’ we went in the farm house and the family was in there, but we didn’t see them.”

            ‘Were there a lot of pups?”

            As Jim paused to recall the experience, his eyes widened, as he answered, “Yeah, there were a lot of ‘em!”

            “And how big were they?”

            “Oh, they were real-ly small (holding his hands out about an inch and a half apart)! He was only about two weeks old; maybe three weeks old.”

            “And, did you name it-who named it?”

            “Dad did; I couldn’t decide for about four days, so Dad just named him.”

            “And when was that? I think I was a baby-.”

            “About four or five days before Christmas or four or five days before Thanksgiving, either one,…it was in Marshfield because it was in the house across from the railroad tracks by the ….

            “How did Mom take it? Was she OK with having a dog in the house?

            Pausing to recall, then nodding, Jim responded, “She said she’d do it, she said she’d do it.”  Then he went on to add, “And, we got him a box; a really big box, (he described with his arms up and out) and we put some cloths in there, and the he stayed in there; that little dog stayed in there only one night!”

            “Where’d he stay after that Jim?”

            “In my bed,” Jim answered, with a reminiscent grin.

            Finally, I got a chance to talk, after listening to this captivating interaction and drawing-out of Jimmy’s sweet memories. “Well, Jimmy, Chi-Chi WAS YOUR dog, so he should have slept with you! He needed to sleep with you.”

            Jimmy just gazed at me and sort of soaked in my words. That’s humble Jim; never getting high on his horse about anything. But it WAS Jimmy’s dog, and we all knew it.

            And this time, I watched myself to maintain my own and Jimmy’s dignity a bit higher.

            Sandy mentioned that she had brought her camera along with her, and asked if it would be ok to get a picture of the three of us together. “Ok,” was Jim’s pat answer after his standard three second pause.

            Sandy turned and asked the fellow seated behind her if he would do the honors. He agreed, as she jokingly turned over her camera. “Now, you’re not gonna take off with it, are you?” The group joked with her as we prepared to pose around Jim, who remained seated. What a gift! It felt like Jimmy trusted anything Sandy came up with to ask from him! He has come so far with her! Bless their relationship! Bless us all!