When It Rains: The Umbrella Collection (18 page)

“Hello?” I asked

“Hello Eleanora, Sweetie is your Grandfather there?” the undeniable annoying voice said on the other end.

It was Molly. She is the only person that calls me ‘Eleanora’ unless someone is mad at me and she is the only one that calls Pops, my ‘Grandfather’.
  Pops said she has been calling here so often lately that he had to take the phone off the hook. Yes, off the hook. Haven’t heard that one in a while have you? Pops refuses to get a cell phone so we actually have a landline. I swear he refuses so he isn’t attainable to all his women all the time. A man needs a break too, I guess.

“Oh, hey Molly.
  No, I haven’t seen him yet today,” as these words spewed out of my mouth I looked down the hall and through the family room window.  I saw Pops’ head swaying back and forth.

“Oh, ok Sweetie. Do you know where he went?”

I knew that one was coming, “Nope, haven’t talked to him either.”

“Can you just tell him I called or maybe I’ll call back in a bit. Thanks Eleanora. Bye.”

I didn’t even bother to tell her that I would relay her message and that there was no need to call back because she would just call back anyway. I’ve learned to save my breath.

“Bye, Molly.”

I refilled my orange juice glass, poured an extra and carried them to the front porch. Pops was in his normal spot, the blue rocking chair that had burn marks from where he dropped a cigar on more than one occasion. I took my usual spot on the red one next to him.

“Molly called…..Again,” I said as I handed him his drink.

“Yeah, I figured that was her. That’s why I didn’t run and get the phone.”

“I figured you were dodging her.”
 

“That woman can drive me crazy and yet, you know, I’m going to return that phone call,” he ranted

“I know you will because you like that. You like women chasing after you for some reason and she likes to chase. It’s a match made in heaven, you two,” I said with a hint of exasperation.

He did one of his silent giggles and we sat in silence for a bit.

“You know, I have been meaning to ask you something,” I announced.

“Oh lord, help me now,” he yelled as he lifted his head to aim his voice upward.

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about this most of my life. I’m just curious. “

“Fine. Shoot.”

“Due to the abundance of females that call here and that you take out on dates almost every day of the week, I’ve been wondering why are you such a…a…a..,” I said unable to find the right word.

“A what?” he asked eagerly.

“A man whore?” I asked happy that I finally found the perfect wording.

“What the..?”

“MAN WHORE,” I said slowly making sure he could hear every syllable, “You hop around from woman to woman, or in Molly’s instance woman to mouse. Ouch!” Pops hit me on the arm for that one, “Tearing their hearts to pieces I must add. Every time the phone rings or there’s a knock on the door, it’s one of your ladies looking for you,” I continued, “You are 79 years old have you ever thought about settling down for once?”

“Nah, what’s the point?” asked Pops not really looking for an answer.

I glared at him with an evil eye because I know he didn’t mean that. That man has the biggest heart that I feel a guy is capable of having and yet he never gives it to any of his lady friends.

“What’s the point?!
  Perhaps, to share your life with someone and to grow old with them.  Well, in your instance, to grow older with. 

Pops didn’t answer and we sat in silence for a bit. I’m not sure if he was mad that I ask
ed him a personal question or if he came to his senses and realized I was right and he was mad at himself for being so stupid.

After a few minutes of us sitting there he said, “What if I told you I have already found my true love?”
 

“Who? Molly? If that’s true love, then please let me be alone forever,” I said.

“No, not her. She drives me a bit too insane.”

“Who then?”

“Her Name is Eleanora. Eleanora May,” he said with a smile on his face.

“Excuse me?”

“When you were born I had to fight tooth and nail to be able to name you. I practically sold my soul to your mother for it. “

“I’m named after someone and no one thought it would be a good idea to inform me of that,” I said a little heatedly.

“Relax, you hot head. No one knew except my brothers.”

“Sammy and big mouthed Charlie knew? What the hell.
  Charlie says the same things over and over again and he had new material, but kept it to himself?”

 
“I told them not to,” he chuckled, “I don’t like talking about her much.  A long time ago I made them promise not to talk about it. 

He went silent again and I stopped rocking to turn to him and said, “Hello?
  Are you going to tell me about her or what?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Uh, perhaps everything. Who the hell is she? How did you guys meet? What she looked like? Why did you name me after her? And maybe, I would like to know where the heck this chick is.”

“Alright. Alright.”

“My God, Men. They always think with the wrong head,” I mumbled under my breath as I shook my own head.

“I’m sorry. What was that?” he asked

“Oh, nothing. Carry on. How did you two meet? “ 

“Well, we met when we were nineteen. I was at the ball field hitting pop ups to the guys on my team, warming up for our game later on in the day. My buddy, Fred’s girlfriend walked up with a few of her friends and sat down on a blanket not too far from where I was. One of them caught my eye.

“That would be Eleanora?” I asked with enthusiasm

“Yes, that would be her. She was wearing a red wrap dress wit
h big white flowers all over it and a pair of shiny black shoes on her feet. Her hair was curled and the sides where tucked behind her ears. Her bright blue eyes shimmered in the sunlight and those lips, ooh those lips. She wore this deep red lipstick all the time that just made her lips look like perfection. She was sitting with her knees bent and her legs to one side, holding one hand above her eyes to shield from the sun beating down on her face. I couldn’t even tell you what the other girls looked like because…”

“You only had eyes for her?” I helped him finished.

“Absolutely, only for her. I told the guys that I needed a break and they started to throw the balls in. One rolled over to the girls. So I went over, bent down and as I was down there, her legs caught my eyes. I couldn’t stop from roaming the rest of her. By the time I made it up to her eyes and realized I was caught, she was mad.  She slapped me right across the face. Stung, too! I had a hand print on my cheek the rest of the day,” he stated as he unknowingly took his hand, reached for his cheek and let it stay there for a second, “I was stunned”, he continued. “And then a smirk began to slowly emerge from her lips and the anger left her eyes. She started laughing hysterically which then got me started. We sat talking for a while before I had to start the game. I knew right then that there was something special between us. We hung out with each other every day during that summer and during that time we fell for one another, we fell hard. On the last day before college started up again, we were by the lake laying down just talking. That’s what we did most of the time. We talked about everything and anything. She was telling me about her Uncle Robert tripping over a rug one Christmas Eve and falling into the tree. He tore it down in the process. That’s when I reached and picked a piece of grass. I tied the ends together and stood up. She looked a bit angry because I interrupted her story and then I bent down on one knee. Her mouth dropped open and her hand instantly went to cover her mouth. Her eyes bugged out and she got flushed in the cheeks; so beautiful.  I will never forget that face”

He stopped as if that was the end
of the story.  I was going to have none of that because I was eagerly anticipating how this whole thing ends.  I looked over to him trying to egg him on with my eyes, but he wasn’t getting it.  He just sat there with his head cocked to one side and as he looked out into the front yard.

“So, what did she say?” I asked.

“She said yes, of course!” he said as if I was the ass that stopped mid-story.

“Well, I didn’t know! You paused, I haven’t seen her around here, so I figured maybe something didn’t go so well.”

“No, No, she said yes. Then, she promptly told me that a piece of grass just isn’t going to cut it and that I really should start ring shopping,” he said while laughing, “We waited to tell everyone. The plan was I get the ring, ask her father for her hand and then propose properly. In the meantime, we planned the wedding, kids, and future in secret.”

“Hold on, hold on. You “planned” kids? You always talk about how unplanned your kids were. I thought you didn’t want any and you had 5 little oopsies.”

“Oh, I wanted kids. I wanted kids with Eleanora. I love my sons very much, but they were definitely not planned. Would you have planned five kids with 5 different people?” he asked, “I am starting to see your whole “man whore” point, though,” he added with a smirk.

“I told ya,” I stated matter of factly, “Well, I have to point out to you that I have noticed that this Eleanora hasn’t been around my whole life, so where is she?”

“Right now?  Well, right now she is at the Covington Cemetery.”

“She died?” I wanted to smack myself for that question. Quite obviously, she did.

“I’ve been visiting her every Wednesday and Sunday for the past 59 years.”

“You tell me you go to church every Sunday!”

“Hey, there’s a church across the street. So, close enough,” he said with a flip of his hand as if to shoo me away. 

I looked towards Pops and he seemed more sullen, staring out in the distance seemingly as if he was daydreaming about her. He has always done this and I now wonder if she was always what he was thinking about out here, thinking of old times or wondering what life would be like if she was sitting beside him. I’m shocked that he is opening up so much. I didn’t know if I should keep asking him questions or if I should let him be alone in thought.

 “I’m guessing you want to know how this ends, huh?” he said.

“It would be nice. I mean if you want to.”

“We made this promise with each other when the summer was over. Since we knew we would be busy with work and school, we vowed that we needed to have at least two days a week alone with each other.  We picked Wednesdays and Sundays and then if we met up the rest of the days they were all bonuses. During one of our dates one week, we decided to go on a little hike up a small mountain. She arrived wearing that same dress she wore the first time I saw her. We strolled up the trail until we go to the top which overlooked the small lake where I proposed to her. We were sitting there talking when I felt a raindrop hit my forehead,” he said hesitantly, knowing my dislike for it. “We both decided we should start heading back, so we stood up to leave. She walked towards the edge of the cliff; let her hair blow in the wind with her arms out stretched from her sides and spun in a circle with a huge smile on her face. The wind started to blow stronger and I told her one gust of wind and she was a goner. I turned my back on her to walk away and a big gust came. I spun around and she was gone.”

I stared at Pops stunned, wanting to hear more, but not wanting him to have to feel the pain of saying it. A single tear drop fell from his right eye down his cheek.

“I ran to the edge, peered over, and there she was, grasping onto the edge, paralyzed in fear and unable to speak. The rain started to come down harder. I got down on my stomach, reached for her hand and grabbed it. I looked at her beautiful face, so scared, with tears streaming down.”

I peeked up at him and the single tear was now multiplied flowing out endlessly.

“She mouthed ‘James’ as I tried pulling her up, but our grasp began to loosen and slip. I tried, I tried with everything I had in me, but she was gone. Our hands slipped. They were wet because of the rain.

His voice cracked at the end of the sentence. At that instant, I realized why Pops was the only person never to make fun of me with my umbrella obsession and why he never questioned my fear.
 

“Wow. That’s one hell of a story” I said due to the lack of words to find and say to him.

“Listen, my every breath was for Eleanora. The pain I still feel after 59 years is unbearable. I miss her, Nora. Miss her tremendously and no other woman will ever take her place. No Molly. No Susanne. No Isabella. No Hazel and you know this list could go on and on. No one.  And, I know I ruined Mike and John.  I’m sure they learned how to treat ladies from me.  My heart sank when Mike told me he got three different ladies pregnant within the same year.  But, he handled that situation the best he could have and was always in his boys’ lives.  Thankfully, my ways skipped over Brian and Alex.  Oh and your dad.  He only ever had eyes for Joyce.”   

We sat in silence, both eagerly waiting for one of us to find something to say to help get our minds off of his hurt.

“Hmmmm,” I wondered out loud after a few moments.