Betty and Adam

“Volunteer hours. It counts on my application. For college.” Adam told the lady at the reception desk. 

“You will be with Mrs. Hildegard, room 201. She’s blind.”

“Okay.” Adam accepted a blue folder that contained some background information about Mrs. Hildegard. 

“Julie will take you to Mrs. Hildegard’s room now.”

“Okay.”

.....

“Mrs. Hildegard is nice,” said Julie pushing the elevator button.”

“That’s nice,” said Adam. The elevator door opened and he and the nurse Julie stepped into the hall. 

“This is where residents take their meals.” They walked more. “This is the rec area, or day room. And here is Mrs. Hildegard’s room. Room 201.” She lightly tapped and spoke in a soft voice. “Mrs. Hildegard?” Julie opened the door. “Mrs. Hildegard is sleeping.” There was a tray of food by her bed. Uneaten. White bread, a tin of peaches. “Well, I’ll leave you with her, and when she wakes up, you two can get acquainted.”

Adam sat down in the chair beside Mrs. Hildegard’s bed. He surveyed her face. Eighty, it says in her folder. But she looked so youthful, he thought. Every wrinkle in her skin seemed well-placed. Sunlight coming through that window made her appear to glow. The room was quiet. 

“I’m not really asleep,” said Mrs. Hildegard without opening her eyes. 

“Mrs. Hildegard!” Said Adam with a start. 

“Please, call me Betty.”

“Okay.”

“I wasn’t really sleeping, I just didn’t want to talk to Julie.”

“What’s wrong with Julie?”

“Nothing is wrong with Julie, I just didn’t want to talk to her right now.”

“Okay.”

“It’s all…How do you feel today? Are you eating enough? Tell me about your bowels…. Dammit, I feel fine!”

Adam reached for the peaches. “Do you want your peaches?”

“No, I don’t want my peaches.” He set them back down. 

They were quiet. 

“Do you want me to…read you a story or anything?”

“Opera.” Said Betty. 

“Ma’am?”

“I want you to sing opera to me.”

“Ma’am…erm…Betty…I am hardly a singer.”

“I’m kidding.”

“Oh.”

“Here’s what you can do. Come here. Come on.”

Adam went to her bedside. 

“Come. Lean in.” He did. 

Betty felt his face with her papery hands. “Handsome boy,” she concluded. “You remind me of my husband.”

Adam sat down again. 

“What’s out there?”

“Ma’am?”

“What do you see out there right now? What’s going on outside the window?”

Adam looked out. The sun had gone behind the clouds and it was grayer now. There was a storefront with a red pulldown door that was closed. The store looked to be out of business. A bus stop bench with an advertisement for insurance. Some garbage on the ground. 

“It’s…uh…a city street, I guess.”

“Is it nice?”

“Um, not really. I don’t know.”

“What’s nice about it?” She asked. “Tell me something nice.”

Adam looked again. “There’s a bird.”

“What color is it? Is it flying? Does it look happy?”

“It’s uh…basically gray. And it’s walking.” A man walked by and the pigeon flapped its wings and jumped then continued looking for food. 

“It looks happy,” he said. 

Betty smiled. “That’s wonderful,” she said. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

A bus had come and some people got off. 

“Erm, yeah.”

.....

The next day, the sun was shining and when Adam arrived, Betty was eating her peaches. 

“Good afternoon, Miss Betty.”

“Mmm, these peaches.”

“They look good, Miss Betty.”

“Well, I wouldn’t know.”

Adam sat down in the sea green chair. Looked out. The bench. The closed store. 

As if she could feel him, she asked, “What’s going on out there today?”

The garbage. The street. Only, today it was sunny. He looked for something nice. A young woman in a pink sweater sat down at the bus stop. 

“There’s a lovely, young woman on the bench now.” 

He thought she has nice tits. 

“Is she auburn-haired, the young woman?” Asked Betty. 

She was. “She is.”

“I imagined she was auburn-haired.”

A bus came and went. The girl remained. A young gentleman sat down next to here. 

“There’s a guy now,” said Adam. 

“Oh?”

The young man and the woman in the pink sweater had not acknowledged each other.

Betty sat up in bed and adjusted her gown around the waist. “Let’s see how this plays out.”

“I don’t think there’s much to play out here, sorry to disappoint.”

“Is the fellow good-looking? Tell me about his chin. My husband had a nice chin.”

Adam strained to see the man’s chin. 

“Yes. Nice chin. He has a nice chin, Betty.”

The bus came they were gone. 

“Those two will become lovers,” she said. 

“How?”

“I have a hunch. A hunch I have. That young lady in the bright pink sweater, and that dashing young man with the beautiful, strong chin…those two will become lovers. Just you wait. I just have a hunch.”

The bus stop was empty and a few pigeons went looking for food when the sun went behind the clouds.•The day after that, Adam saw the young man at the bus stop but not the young woman. And the day after that, he saw the young woman but not the man. And the day after that, he didn’t see either of them. It wasn’t until the following day that he saw them both again. 

This time, the man spoke, and the young lady replied with her arms folded in front of her chest. 

“They’re speaking,” he said. 

“Yes. The ice has been broken.” Betty had plastic spoon in hand but not yet pulled the aluminum off the peach container. 

“What about body language? What are they telling you?”

Adam looked again. Each was looking down and they were no longer talking. 

“Things are…warming up.” He said. 

“How long until their bus comes?”

“Miss Betty…”

“It’s the 405, is it not? I asked Fred. Fred’s the janitor. He’s a negro.” She whispered. “I had dear old Fred check. That’s the 405 bus. Arrives at 4:12. What time is it now?” 

Adam looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s 4:10.”

“How about a bet?” Said Betty pulling the lid off. “The bus blows by and they go get coffee together.”

“Miss Betty, I don’t…”

“Oh, coffee, tea, whatever. They go somewhere! That’s how it starts. First coffee, then a date, then they make love. That’s how it happens! Now how about it? Hell, if that bus blows by and they go and do it…I mean, get coffee, you know, and everything…tomorrow I’ll give you my peaches!”

“Okay, Miss Betty. It’s a deal.”

At 4:12 the bus came.

“The bus blocks our view…” she said. 

“Yes.”

Her eyes are like glass in the sunlight. 

“Adam thinks they’re getting in the bus….”

“I…”

The bus drove away. And the man and woman were gone. 

Miss Betty gripped her spoon. 

“They’re…there.” He said. “Just like you said, Betty. You and those hunches of yours.”

“I’m never wrong!” She cheered and sipped the syrupy juice. “And this…is so sweet.”

.....

“My Edward had such a nice chin.”

“Yes, Miss Betty.”

It was gray day.

“And he had a nice cock, too.”

“Jesus. Okay.”

“And the way he made love to me, the way he fucked me...”

“Jesus! Okay.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“What’s going on out there today?” She asked. 

Adam looked out as he had many times. There was…

“The most wondrous this as happened,” he said. “They’ve put in a park.”

“Have they?”

“And it’s marvelous.”

“I’ve said for years they need to put in a park somewhere instead of these ugly, stinking old factories and buildings.”

“Well, now they have, Miss Betty. A real esplanade.”

“How lovely!” She exclaimed. “And how is it?”

“Golden. There’s a fine lake, just fine. Swans swimming, fish jumping, cherry blossoms blossoming.”

“And are they there…the lovers?”

“They’re there. They’re walking and holding hands.”

“Have they kissed?”

“They’ve just kissed.”

“Wonderful!”

“And the golden sunlight makes them appear to glow.”

Miss Betty jerked her head in Adam’s direction and frowned. 

“It is NOT sunny.”

“Ma’am?”

“You said there was golden sunlight around them as they kissed in the park. But it is not sunny.”

She was right. 

“When it’s almost going to rain, my elbows feel funny. And my elbows feel funny today. That’s how I know it’s not sunny today. You lied.”

Adam adjusted himself in the green hospital chair. 

“You’re right, Miss Betty. I’m sorry. I made the last part up.”

Betty settled back into her bed. “It’s all right. It’s wonderful. Imagination is wonderful, isn’t it?”

.....

A few days passed and Adam didn’t visit Miss Betty. When he arrived on a Friday afternoon, the nurse Julie met Adam in the lobby. 

“Mrs. Hildegard passed away in her sleep Wednesday night. We tried to call you, there wasn’t…”

Adam stood against the wall. Julie was quiet. 

“She…. There’s going to be a service for her. Tomorrow.” Adam sat down on the lobby bench. 

Julie left then came back. “You technically have a few more volunteer hours to complete…but we’re happy to sign off on it. You’ve done so much, really. We hadn’t seen Mrs. Hildegard so happy in years. You must have some kind of magic touch.”

Adam stepped out onto the street and turned the corner. It was a gray day. There was the bus stop. The red closed door. He got on the bus and rode until it came to a park. It was a park he had never seen before, and he decided to get off. 

He strolled for a bit, and the sun came out from behind the clouds. He found a bench by the small lake and sat down. He was lost in thought when a woman sat down next to him. He looked at her she and she looked at him and smiled. 

The girl in the bright pink sweater.