We had a drawing at the company I worked at a month ago. It was an end of the year raffle for those who participated in the "Sunshine Fund". Most people who worked at Filex had contributed $30 the previous January. Whenever an employee was ill or had a death in the family etc. flowers or some other thing was sent which were paid for from the fund. In early October the organizers of the fund would have a company party (paid for from extra proceeds from the fund) which included a raffle they had solicited from various vendors and businesses in the Community that had enough "prizes" so that each participant in the fund would win something ..often worth more than their cash contribution.
I won two tickets to a performance of the Baltimore Symphony Pops worth on their face $116.00. Now classical music is not my favorite but I do appreciate well played real music and I grew up listening to such music because my late Father was a fan. So I was not unappreciative of the tickets. The problem was I am a bachelor living alone with no one to take to such an event so I began wondering what to do with the tickets. I didn't think it would look good if I got myself arrested attempting to scalp them so I decided maybe I would just go by myself.
I mentioned this to Carla a good friend and associate of mine. Carla empathized with my problem and then went back to her duties. She came back to see me about a half an hour later and said. "You know, Kate, Mr. Rollinger's secretary likes classical music. Maybe she would like to go with you."
"Oh God ," I groaned. If there was one person in the whole company I wouldn't want to go somewhere with it was Kate.
"It was just a suggestion." Carla said. "Actually Renee told me Kate solicited the tickets in the first place. I've heard her talk about how she can't afford to go to the symphony because her wages got garnished from that accident where she hit a pedestrian a couple years ago."
"I didn't mean to act so negatively Carla." I said. "I just don't care for the prospect of hanging out with Kate for more than five minutes.
Carla shrugged her shoulders.
After a while an idea occurred to me. Why not just give Kate the tickets? It would certainly be nice to have an IOU from her when dealing with Mr. Rollinger at some future date. At least I could try to make the effort.
Now Kate was not an unattractive woman. She wore simple glasses most of the time and dressed very modestly at work. My problem with her was that she held the keys to the kingdom in that you had to talk your way by her to get to see Mr. Rollinger THE BIG BOSS who was far from a pleasant person himself. That and she wore her "born again religion" on her sleeve which is a turnoff with me. Any discussion with her usually wound up in the realm of "coming to Jesus."
The next morning I approached her desk with trepidation. "Hi Kate" I said smiling.
"How are you doing Don", she said in an upbeat mood "I saw you won the symphony tickets...lucky guy."
"Yeah I did.. I was wondering, could you use the tickets? I really don't have anyone to take to something like that." I replied.
"When is it?" she asked.
"It's a week from tomorrow, Saturday, the 19th 8:00 PM"
"Don, I couldn't take both tickets, they're worth too much.. And I don't have anyone to go with either...unless you might like to go together.?"
"We could do that." I said making a flash decision on the spot. I found myself wondering if I might glean inside information about Rollinger going this route.
"Well that sounds great. Would you like me to drive?" she asked.
"No I can handle that and we could get a bite to eat beforehand."
"Why don't we talk later in the week and I'll let you know where I live. You'll have to dress up a little, you know, like you do at work.
"Sure. We'll talk again soon," I said excusing myself .
The next day Carla came by to needle me. "So you are going to the symphony with the 'church lady'," she laughed. "Can you afford to tithed at the 2nd Avenue Pentecostal Cathedral?"
"What have I gotten myself into?" I laughed.
I'd watch out if I were you," Carla grinned. "She got divorced three years ago and might want to make up for lost time."
"Somehow I don't think that will be a problem," I said.
"Yeah. Well I've seen her dressed casually when she wasn't at work and she's got a body to die for."
"Carla, I don't believe that for a second," I replied.
"You just better watch yourself."
The big night arrived sooner than I expected. I picked Kate up at the apartment address she had given me and we headed to Cliff's Seafood about a block from Symphony Hall. Over dinner we had a nice talk, a little about work, then mostly about me. She got me talking about my past, my successes at William and Mary, my 12 years in the Navy. I found out she had gone to Baltimore City College for two years and worked at Fidex since then.
The most traumatic thing to happen to her was that driving home from work one night she had hit a "hooker" who had suddenly dashed into the street in front of her. The pedestrian was now a paraplegic from the accident and had sued her and gotten an award far more than her liability coverage. The Court had garnished her wages and she was having $ 440 a month taken from her pay after taxes which didn't leave her much. Surprisingly over dinner she never mentioned her Church.
We went to the Symphony Hall and heard Marvin Hamlisch lead the Baltimore Pops Symphony in several classical numbers and then a bunch of Henri Mancini tunes which I found myself singing along with.
She elbowed me in the ribs and told me that I sang really well but the other concert goers were getting annoyed.
Oh, I didn't mention the pretty blue dress she was wearing. It fit her perfectly with half inch shoulder straps and though it wouldn't be considered "too low cut" sitting beside her was in some ways more interesting than the music.
After the concert on the ride home we talked about Rollinger. It seems she was just as scared of him as the rest of us. She didn't really control his schedule she told me. He was just well organized. He would see different department people on certain days during planned blocks of time. He didn't ever take phone calls, always called people back at fixed times of the day. She said he claimed he got a lot more done that way.
We got back to her apartment and she asked me to come in for a bit, have a beer.
Why not I thought. The evening had been pleasant enough. I was enjoying seeing this side of the "wicked church lady".
She hung my coat up, showed me where the head was and gestured toward the couch. After I'd settled down she brought me a Coors Light and said. "If you'll excuse me a minute I have to get out of this dress."
As she disappeared into a bedroom I joked to myself that maybe I should have offered to "help her out" She came back soon enough wearing a two piece apricot colored play suit, bare in much of the back and cut nicely in the front. It matched her skin perfectly. I found myself wondering if she was still wearing the flowery revealing beige bra I'd seen most of at the Symphony? No she couldn't be, the bare back was too low.
