Kendall remembered saying, “hi Daddy,” cheerily and her father narrowing his eyes into what seemed like tiny slits and staring at her before finally saying, “and what precisely are you up to, pumpkin?” He said it in a serious sounding voice but Kendall knew it was meant to be light-hearted. Daddy was a sweet man and was always nice to Kendall’s older brother Ted and her baby brother Pete and especially to her.
“I’m playing with Annie!” She answered happily.
“Say this is Saturday, why no cartoons?” Her father asked as if it was a most important matter.
“I’ve already finished watching Saturday mornings and so have Ted and Pete.”
“And where are your brothers?” This time Daddy was not being playful, just seeking information.
“Ted’s outside playing with Ronald.” Ronald Burgess was their next door neighbor. He was born the same year Ted was and they were in the same fourth grade class. “I think Mommy put Petey down for a nap.”
“A nap at this time of day? I wonder whatever for.”
Kendall shrugged and kept looking at her father, hoping he’d have more questions, or better yet have something funny to say or an offer to read to her.
“What are you doing, Daddy?
“Oh I was just a little confused. I had woken up thinking that I had a football game to go to but then realized the season starts next Saturday. I guess I stayed up too late last night.”
Kendall knew that her parents had gone to something called a cocktail party the night before and Grandma and Grandpa had come over to babysit. She also knew that when Daddy and Mommy went to a party they sometimes didn’t feel very good the next day. Kendall found it strange that going to a party at night could make you feel bad the next morning. It was one of those grown-ups mysteries that she figured she wouldn’t understand for awhile, not that it was all that important.
“Maybe I’ll sit down in my easy chair for a bit and smoke my pipe. It might help with this awful headache I had.”
Headaches. That was one of the things her dad often had the day after a party.
“You like football a lot, don’t you Daddy?”
“I do pumpkin. I love to see the Bears play, even when they’re not very good. Gotta support your alma mater and Cal is mine.”
“What’s an amla marter?”
“It’s alma mater. It’s just a fancy name for a school you went to. Like right now you’re a kindergartener at Jefferson but when you finish the 6th grade, Jefferson will be your alma mater.”
“Did you play on any football teams, Daddy?”
“Oh no, pumpkin pie, your dear old dad has always been too skinny and too slow to play football. I’ve always been pretty good at tennis. though.”
Kendall had watched her father play tennis on a few occasions and thought it fun to see her Dad do something that was essentially playing a game. She knew it had to be fun for him too because everyday except the weekends he had to drive to an office wearing a necktie and he always came home complaining that he was tired. He’d greet everyone cheerily, then flop in his easy chair, take off his shoes, loosen his tie and Mom would bring him an adult drink called a martini.
“Can I go to a football game with you?”
“Someday pumpkin, you’re a little young yet to appreciate it. Ted is going to come with me once or twice this season. He’s about ready.”
“No fair!” Kendall spat out, sounding a little pouty and a little angry.
“No pumpkin it’s perfectly fair. I don’t want to drag you out there for you to be bored and fidgety like you were when went to the baseball game last Summer.” Dad and Grandpa had taken her and Ted to a Giants game in July. She loved eating a hot dog and drinking an orange soda and had enjoyed the atmosphere and the game itself — for a little while. She’d soon lost interest in the game, and grown increasingly bored.
“But that was different Daddy, that was baseball. This time it’ll be football and the Bear will be there and the band playing and all that other stuff you talk about.”
“Now pumpkin, it’s not a real bear, it’s what’s called a mascot named Oski. But the point is that games goes on for over two hours and you don’t have the attention span for it yet. You’ll just have to trust your dear old dad on this one."
Her father lit his pipe and Kendall focused on her doll, creating an imaginary conversation for the two of them to have inside her head. Kendall guessed she was finished talking about going to a football game. Playing with her doll was suddenly of greater interest anyway. Meanwhile her father began puffing away at his pipe.
They sat in silence together for five minutes when her father spoke again: “I guess your mom is going to get after me about mowing the lawn soon. How ‘bout after I finish I take you and your brothers to get an ice cream cone?”
“Yay! That would be fun.” Kendall’s whole world seem to brighten up. But then she had a thought which she shared with Dad. “What if Mommy won’t let us?” Kendall’s spirits sagged at the idea that her mother would have some reason for them not to go get ice cream, like company was coming, or it was too close to dinner time, or they'd already had too many sweets. Mommy was mostly really nice and a lot of fun but sometimes she could spoil things.
“I’m sure it’ll be all right. You’ll probably have lunch while I’m taking care of the lawn, so it’ll be like a midday dessert.”
As if on cue Kendall’s mother shouted from the kitchen, “Kendall honey, come have some lunch, I made tunafish.”
Oh boy, thought Kendall, she loved tuna fish and the idea of having ice cream afterwards made her especially happy.
“I guess that’s my cue to wage war against tall grass.” Kendall was pretty sure that what Daddy just said was a funny way of saying he was going to mow the lawn.
A minute later Kendall was at the kitchen table with her big brother and their neighbor Ron, eating a tunafish sandwich. An hour after that she was in the car with her Dad and brothers on the way to get ice cream.
Kendall opened her eyes, amazed that she remembered that day in such great detail. It was a happy day not long before a sad time began. A few months later, just before Thanksgiving, her father had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease. It had not been discovered until at an advanced and he died a year later. His death devastated Kendall, her mom and brothers.
Four years later her mother re-married and was much happier. But her step father was cold to Kendall and her brothers and when drunk was downright nasty, on occasion hitting Mom. They finally divorced when Kendall was in high school. After the divorce Kendall’s mother started suffering from severe depression and had trouble looking after her children. While Kendall was in college, her mother crashed the car into a wall and died instantly. Her blood alcohol level had been well over the legal limit. There was strong suspicion that it was suicide.
Kendall thought back on the first 20 years of her life and the sad fates that had befallen her parents and marveled that she and Ted had managed to lead such successful, happy lives. Pete had not been so lucky. He had become a heroin addict by the time he was 21 and died of complications from the HIV virus during the AIDS crisis of the mid 1980s.
Kendall held Curtis tightly to her bosom and sobbed. The cat sensed that he was needed and didn’t struggle to free himself. Tears splashed onto his fur. It had been a long time since Kendall had cried about her parents or Pete. Finally Kendall composed herself and went to the bedroom where her husband was just waking up. She suggested they go for an ice cream cone.
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