Dorsai - Marilyns Return

On the ride home, Marilyn (in the back seat between the kids so there wouldn't be any fussing about who got a window seat) told us "Thank you, Tito Dan and Tita Kelly, for this afternoon. It was so nice to see everyone again!"

Kelly turned her head to tell Marilyn "Marilyn, it doesn't have to be just this once that you see them. I know that any of them would be delighted to see you, any time you wanted to invite them over, or go over to their place."

Marilyn seemed a little unsure, and asked "Really?"

I caught her eye via the rearview mirror and answered "Really, Marilyn. You are family to us, and they are our friends; so if you will let them, they will be YOUR friends, too."

Reassured that she really was welcome to see them more, she got a happy look on her face before pointing something out to the kids.

The following couple of weeks, we settled into something close to a routine.

After Kelly and I left, Marilyn would catch a city bus to where her Drivers Ed classes were; each class was only a couple of hours, and the first week was spent in the classroom as they taught the students road signs, safety, and all the rest. After classes, Marilyn would come back home and carefully study the material she'd learned that day until Kelly or I brought the kids home. When the classroom instruction was done, an hour or so of each afternoon would be spent at a local game arcade, where she would use one of the road racing games to 'practice' driving. Since her goal was to be safe, versus go fast, her scores were abysmal – something that she took a measure of pride in. Sometimes, Kelly or I would go out with her in her car to let her get a little more practice. By mutual agreement, Kelly and I were intentionally harder on her than we knew the driving examiner would be – our thinking being that finding out how easy-going most examiners were would relax her for the test. We didn't tell her that, though, so the effect wouldn't be lost.

Inevitably, the day came for her to take her test. She passed the written part of the exam with a perfect score. She was visibly nervous when the road test began, but by the time she got back, we could see that she'd calmed considerably. When she got out of the car, she gave us a happy smile, and clapped her hands together in joy when the examiner told us "She did just fine – better than most I have to ride with! If she'll come inside, we'll have her temporary license ready in about five minutes; the regular one will arrive in the mail in a couple of weeks."

It was a very happy, very satisfied Marilyn that came out of the Motor Vehicles building, clutching her U.S. driver's license in her hand. When she got over to where Kelly and I, and the kids, were waiting, she told us "He was a much nicer man than I thought he would be. I thought that you were being kind to me when you were talking to me while I was driving, but you weren't!" – the last accompanied by a look of mild accusation. Kelly smiled and told her what we'd done – and why. Marilyn looked baffled for a few seconds, then understood – and promptly thanked us, admitting that when she'd realized how patient the examiner was, she'd relaxed a lot.

When Kelly and I insisted that she be the one to drive all of us home, she tried to protest – but not too hard, and looked inordinately pleased and happy during the trip.

For the first week or so, Marilyn would ask Kelly or me to keep her company whenever she had to go someplace – she was obviously timing her trips for when we would be home so that we would be available. We agreed, and soon realized that she was using us as a means of building her own confidence. With each assurance that she was doing fine, she got a little surer of herself, and it wasn't long before she was willing to drive herself wherever she needed to go, by herself.

With a driver's license and a car, there wasn't much keeping Marilyn from doing what she wanted to, when she wanted to. She didn't have the slightest hesitation about driving to school and getting herself registered, and buying the books she would need for her classes. She faithfully attended the couple of orientation classes the school held for new freshmen, and was ready to go when her classes started.

For our part, Kelly and I got the kids registered for their school: the primary section of the same Catholic school that Kelly had attended and Jan was teaching at. Jan was teaching the middle school kids, so it would be a few years before anyone had to be 'worried' about our kids being in one of Jan's classes.

A couple of weeks went by before Marilyn approached us with an idea: that she could easily pick the kids up from school, since she finished her classes a full hour before they got out. That way, Kelly and I wouldn't have to interrupt whatever we were doing, and could still be certain that Daniel and Janet were being taken care of properly. Marilyn assured us that the kids weren't any problem, and that she could study for her classes while the kids were home for those couple of hours until Kelly and I arrived.

It sounded like a reasonable thing to do, but Kelly and I were still a bit unsure. Not because we didn't trust Marilyn; far from it. Rather, we wanted to be sure that the kids wouldn't disturb her, and make it harder for her to study. Still, it did seem like a good idea, and we finally agreed to try it.

The kids, of course, thought it was a great idea: they got home sooner, and had Marilyn (who they adored) for company. Marilyn had gotten into the habit of showing us her homework and different quizzes after they'd been graded; after she started picking the kids up from school, we could see from the grades she was getting that she wasn't having any trouble keeping up with her schoolwork. Reassured that Marilyn's education wasn't suffering because of her willingness to try and help us, we decided that it would be appropriate to pay her for what she was doing.

That was the time we had our one and only 'argument' with her.

When we first brought up the idea, Marilyn was horrified, then adamant. We continued to try and reason with her, using every argument we could come up with, and finally got her to concede that watching out for the kids that way was something 'extra'. Then we had the problem of trying to negotiate payment with her – with a twist. Rather than us trying to get the price down, we were trying to convince her to accept more money. It was through a combination of cajolery, threats (to start picking the kids up ourselves, telling her that if she wouldn't accept payment then we weren't going to let her do it, among similar comments), and pure stubbornness that we finally got her to accept the princely sum of $75 a week – and even then, it took a lot of talking to convince her that it wasn't "too much". One of the things that motivated us was the fact that when she'd gone shopping, she'd bought the least expensive things she could, according to Kelly; we were sure that she was already on a tight budget, and wanted to do what we could to help.

The next few months went by quickly. Marilyn was delighted to help us plan a small party for the kids for Halloween, and was honored when she was included in the invitation to spend Thanksgiving at Paul's house.

She couldn't help but notice that Jan or one of the others would sometimes come by for a visit and spend the night with Kelly and me – but she never said word about it.

Marilyn's birthday was December 8th, and Kelly and I and the kids all took her out to eat by way of celebration – and to get her out of the house so Jan and the others could prepare the surprise party we'd planned.

And it was a surprise.

When we got home, Marilyn started to help get the kids out of the car, and Kelly told her to go on in – that she and I would take care of it, it being 'her' night. She smiled at us, and did as we said; we could hear her shriek of surprise when she saw everyone inside, and the birthday cake and trimmings.