Getting Old Is a Disaster Read Online Free PDF Page A

starts to fall. Hoorah, saved by the weather. We all

    grab our things and run home before it becomes worse and we get soaked.

    * * *
    But when I reach my apartment, it hits me—what was different about the pool scene today. Someone was missing. Enya, our concentration camp survivor, who is always there, reading a book and never talking to anyone, didn't show up. She never misses a day. I hope nothing happened to her while we were away.

    * * *
    It was all confusion. Driving rain and impenetra ble fog. Bodies pushed every which way, prodded by bayonets, useless struggling, nowhere to run, lights zigzagging, pinning them down, their pa thetic screaming turned into wailing. Clutching their loved ones, their soggy flesh herded, smashed together until they were one mass of seething hu manity. Hopeless.
      Enya wakes up. She knows she should get up, but she can't. Her body feels paralyzed.
       The nightmares have come back.

4

    Dance Around the

    Dumpsters

    J ack covers his ears against the noise of the
        garbage trucks as they empty the trash behind my building. It's early afternoon and once again I've snuck away from the girls to be with him. We have yet to get enough time alone to make some plans.
      "I thought you were kidding when you said we should meet here," he shouts.
      Between the clatter of the garbage trucks and the heavy traffic on this back road and the ambulances that speed by in a direct route to the hospital across the way, we can hardly hear each other.
      "Well, I figured no one would think to look for us in this place, but then again, I thought we were safe at the front gate," I yell back at him. "You've already learned there's hardly any way to have a private conversation around my girls."
      "We're not in jail, you know. We could have met off the premises." He grimaces as one of the trash men heavily drops the lid of the Dumpster nearby.
      "Yes, but we have a visitor coming soon, so it wouldn't have been convenient. Guess who."
      "Somebody I know?"
      "Intimately."
      "Really? Morrie?"
      I nod. He looks at me, surprised. "My son, the cop, does house calls? I'm impressed."
      "Well. Not quite. He's giving a lecture in the main clubhouse on avoiding senior scams and I asked him to drop by afterward to chat with us about an odd letter we received from the man who calls himself Grandpa Bandit.
      "I've already filled him in on the phone about the challenge thrown down to us. Naturally, Morrie's interested in the article sent to us with the man's handwriting on it. He's coming by to pick it up. Care to listen in?"
      "Sure. Why not."
      I give him a hug. "So, quick, let's get to our own agenda. We need a plan."
      "I have a plan. We go out to dinner. Afterward, we go to my place. Plain and simple."
      "You mean I sneak away and come over? I can walk this back route most of the way." I pause. "Wait, that's a problem. I have to tell someone where I'll be. If they keep phoning and I don't answer, they'll panic."
      "That's not what I mean. No more hiding. Tell them you will be with me tonight. All night."
      I am pleasantly surprised and a little shocked. "Are you sure you want to go so public? You may regret it . . ."
      He tips my chin up so I can gaze into his eyes. Those gorgeous blue eyes that I want to sink into. "Chicken," he says sweetly.
      He knows what I'm thinking. He always knows what I'm thinking. We have yet to consummate our love. Not for lack of trying to find an opportunity, though.
      "Be brave, my sweet," he continues. "Since you won't marry and make an honest man of me, then you have to deal with being a fallen woman."
      "Are you sure?" I ask tentatively.
      "Yes!" he cries out dramatically. "Shout it out. Be strong. Who cares if the whole world knows!"
      "Gladdy. Jackie. Hello down there." We hear Bella's lilting voice from up above. We look and she is half-hanging out of her Florida back room window on the third floor. "Morrie