Crimson & Clover

The Upset Tummy

We pulled into the driveway at Betty's home in Santa Monica. "It's the end of the road kiddo," I told Billy. He stared at me sadly. "What's wrong?" I asked him.

"Why do you and mommy have to wait until next year to get married?"

"Because that's when the wedding is?" I answered.

"But why?"

"Well, your mommy wants a beautiful summer wedding at some fancy hotel."

"But why?"

"Because weddings are important to women; they dream about what their wedding will be like from the very second they are born."

"But why?"

Was he playing the why game with me? No, I really believed that to Billy these were serious questions.

"Is that why you're sad?" I asked him, "Because the wedding seems so far away?"

"I want you to live with me now," he said to me. He looked as if he was about to cry.

"Next summer will come sooner than you think," I explained. "And honestly, I wish I could live with you and your mom now but that would just be wrong. You understand?"

"No."

A six year old boy wants instant gratification. I completely understood, after all I also had lost my father albeit at a much older age. But for the time being I had no answers that would satisfy Billy so I took the spotlight off of the subject as best I could.

"Billy, your mommy is waiting for you inside and she's going to want to know that you had a terrific time with me so you're just going to have to put on a smile and leave all of the worrying to the adults, alright?"

Billy quickly put on a fake smile and flashed me all of his teeth. "Like this?" he asked.

"Thats just perfect!"

"Did you boys have a good time?" Betty asked as we came in to the house.

"It was fantastic, wonderful, the best time ever," Billy said overly exuberant.

"I'm so glad," Betty told Billy. She kissed him on the cheek then gave me a huge hug and kiss.

"Thank you," she whispered in my ear. "This meant the world to me. Seeing Billy's face completely lets you off the hook for forgetting our one year anniversary today."

I froze. She had remembered.

"Go get washed up," she told Billy. Betty waited for a moment until he had gone upstairs.

"Did you really think I was sick tonight?" she asked me. "I was too angry to go anywhere with you, especially some stupid ballgame with your friends. I like Tom and Julie, really I do, but tonight was our anniversary."

"I'm so sorry," I said to her apologetically. "I'm not good at remembering these things."

"That's only because they aren't important to you but to a women these things are more important than you can possibly imagine."

"Again, I'm sorry."

"Please, it's all forgotten. You made my son very happy tonight so that means you made me happy as well."

"When you say it's forgotten do you mean that it's forgotten forever or until our next argument."

"I'll let you in on secret," she told me. "When a woman says it's forgotten, it means that she'll never bring it up again as long as she believes you've leaned from your mistake. Just try to not to forget important dates again."