Ch 7 The Dinner of a Lifetime
Almost shyly we went hand in hand to the front porch of the Gylers. Jimmy hesitated and then almost too forcefully knocked on the door. After a minute that took forever, Jimmy was going to ring the bell but Sol answered.
"Come in, come in. We've been waiting for you." He stepped aside as Jim and I walked into the small house.
"Dara, they're here! Sometimes she doesn't hear too well. I'll go get her. Please, sit down."
The old man disappeared into the back of the house.
"Dara, where are you?"
Jimmy tried hard not to laugh; his affection for the old couple transcended any quirks in their personalities. When Miriam had died they had maintained the relationship knowing their original displeasure had delayed marriage until it was too late.
Dara came out from the kitchen wiping her hands on a bright pink colored apron.
Jim and I stood up. "Mom... Dad, I'd like you to meet Kaylyn."
Dara gave Jim a kiss on the cheek and then looked up at me and hugged me. "Welcome to our home, Kaylyn. We are so happy to meet you; please, please... make yourself at home.
Would you like to have something to drink? We only have soft drinks and since we knew you were coming I made some ice tea for Jim."
Dara realized she was talking too fast and stopped.
"Ice tea would be fine, thank you."
Meeting the parents of Jimmy's lost fiancé was a most anxious moment for me.
What would they think of me now that I'm actually here? Now that they have seen I'm black? It had to be uncomfortable for them too, for the loss of their daughter was now complete. Would they hate me for taking her place?
"Come with me, dear. Sol, what's the matter with you? Take her sweater and be careful with it. Knowing Jim, it costs a pretty penny."
After Sol had taken my cashmere away, Dara took my hand, led me into the kitchen and motioned me to sit at the small table there.
Dara leaned against the counter near the sink.
A heavy silence had entered the room with us until Dara finally spoke up.
"Kaylyn? May I call you, Kaylyn? When I talked with him on the phone, I'm afraid I did most of the talking. I don't know what Jimmy told you about Miriam, about us or even what I said, so if you don't mind I'd like to start at the beginning."
Impossible to do anything else I nodded, folded my hands in my lap and listened to the woman confessing what she had done to Miriam and Jim.
For years they had balked at the possibility that their daughter would marry Jim. It had something to do with their being Jewish and he was Catholic. It was the same crap that my mother had to endure because of her color.
As time went by their affection slowly grew for him and they gave their blessing, then the shock of their daughter's death and finally how she had told him to pursue me if he could.
I now fully understood how much I owed Dara, the mother of the woman Jimmy had been going to marry.
"Jim... will love you forever... I'll be honest, I don't think he will ever stop loving Miriam, but as we spoke yesterday on the phone I knew his interest in you is so strong I had to tell him to take you with him.
Am I correct, that he's done more than that? It's all right if you don't want to say anything, I'm just a nosy old woman."
