Donald came for supper last night. Here’s is what I imagined happening when I invited him: A young, university man comes to dine with his aunt who has made his favourite meal and his charming little cousin gives him non-stop positive attention because she likes him a lot. After supper, the three go to the backyard (or maybe the park) to play and finally the aunt and cousin drive him home, stopping to run any errands that are difficult for a guy to do on the bus.
Here’s what happened: I got home late from work because I had a meeting in the west end of the city that started at 4:00 which is when I usually finish work for the day at my office downtown which is 20 minutes closer to town. As far as I could tell, Reid was giving Donald positive attention. I nursed Reid and chatted with Donald. She is such an acrobat when she nurses that she provided entertainement and we had a nice visit – so far so good, I think, despite being late. Well, I’m late and tired so I propose a restaurant meal. I can rationalize that – a university student can’t eat out that often. We get to the restaurant and Donald commits a horrible crime (don’t know what, Reid doesn’t have the words to describe it) and the waitress (the witch) says to Reid in a stern voice with an ugly look on her face, “you can’t yell, little girl, my customers are trying to enjoy their meals.” Reid had been crying and saying, “No, Donald” no more than 2 minutes. We left. She cried on the way home because she was still trying to tell me what the crime was Donald had committed and how to fix it – I think he sat in the chair she wanted and she wanted to go back, sit in that chair and have supper. So, then we ordered Chinese food and ate a picnic on a blanket in the living room. Reid was nice to Donald (Donald is always nice to Reid) and gave him a kiss and hug when he left to take the bus home. I’d forgotten we have only one car (duh :+) and Ken needed it to go to the museum.
The crazy thing is that I think Donald will come again! Maybe it’s not saintly but it sure is good that he stayed through the tough part of the evening.