Curby Read Online Free PDF Page B

understandable English and dressed and carried herself well. She wore little makeup, though the hard lines of her face cried for more. She appeared masculine, her strong nose and authoritative demeanor, tempered by a kind and soft voice.
    Monday
    Nick went to work, sick with worry. Did she make sure he ate enough, did he make potty and is he wearing the clothes he picked out for him?
    He stopped in as often as he could and everytime he did, his son seemed fine and the house neat and tidy. At 2:45, he returned home to find his son at the door with open arms and missing him very much.
    “How did it go today?” he asked Olga.
    “Everything okey dokey. Curby is gud boy. No problem.”
    “That’s good to hear, Olga. Thanks and have a great rest of the day.”
    Tuesday
    Following breakfast, Olga took Curby for a walk. They didn’t go very far, just to the next corner and back. Before going in, she lit a cigarette, her second for the day so far. For quite a while now, she had tried to cut back. She planned to light up another when the boy took his afternoon nap, around two and not before. By lunch time the urge was too strong to pass up. Taking advantage of the noon break when Nick arrived home for his half hour usual, she excused herself and left for the front stoop. She consumed the cigarette to the stub, absorbing the nicotine rush to the very end. She nearly made it through the rest of the shift before lighting up another.
    Wednesday
    It was Nick’s day off and the plan was to take his son to visit Jaime at her job on 5th Avenue, a clothing store she managed. Wearing construction boots, jeans and a T-shirt, Curby couldn’twait to show off his new baseball glove. During the walk there, he continuously ran his tiny fist into the pocket the way his Dad had showed him, to form a round indentation in the center just like the pros.
    For Jaime, Nick and the boy needed all the help she could give. She liked Nick for the man he was; kind, strong and caring. She felt for his loss of Sandy and the good mother she had proven to be.
    Jaime was on the way up the corporate ladder, albeit the first rung, but one had to start somewhere. The job was stressful at times, at others quite rewarding, and though the hours were long, she had independence. She could make decisions and suggestions and had the wherewithal to insert many of those changes. The last thing she wanted was a relationship. Her life had structure and any other interest at this point in time would only interfere with that future.
    Still, when she saw Nick with little Curby approaching the store hand in hand, it pulled at her heart strings. Their gleeful smiles drew from within her a true nurturing soul replete with matronly desires--matronly desires she knew she would have to reach far down inside of herself to suppress.
    As for Nick, on the other side of that large plate glass window waited a caring neighbor and nothing more. Tall, thin and early in her twenties, Jaime appeared to him as pretty in a very plain way. ‘Though her features were model perfect, her brown eyes cute through black rimmed glasses, nothing else about her stood out for him. But, he did like the way she left her hair in a ponytail.
    Their visit was more for Curby than for anything else. The boy missed his mother and a mature female friend would do him a lot of good.
    “How’s our little munchkin doing?” Jaime took the boy by the hand and walked him inside. She loved showing him off.
    Three months later
    Sunday, Jaime’s only day off, started like any other Sunday; wake up early, sip coffee by the front widow, feed Mutt and Jeff the two gold fish, Scruffy the cat and make breakfast. The laundry, she washed and folded days ago, the apartment, vacuumed after work the day before.
    She tended to a snake plant and a potted rose bush by watering them and breaking off the dead leaves. Clipping off two roses, she placed them in a wine glass which she set on the kitchen table.
    With nothing left to do she