It turned out, my day wasn't over.
When I got back to Mamie Mama's house I said goodbye, Margie said, "see you tomorrow," and I went inside, kind of in a daze.
"Did you have fun?" she asked, looking up from the embroidery in her lap.
"I did," I said, not meeting her eyes.
She giggled and said something I didn't quite catch, maybe, "I'll just bet you did."
I think I blushed as I went into my bedroom.
I was reading when she said, "Come on, honey, dinner."
Talk about country cookin'. We had meatloaf and mashed potatoes and corn on the cob with iced tea. Afterward, she washed dishes and I dried and put away. She went back to her chair and embroidery and I listened to her old console radio, KOA out of Denver, the original talk radio, and a local celebrity Bill Barker and his "crazy crew" were reading, of all things, Bram Stoker's
Dracula
. We gathered around like I always imagined they did when radio was young.
When Bill signed off Mamie Mama went into her room and I to mine.
When I heard her call, "Davey," I went to see what was up.
After a day of embroidery, her arthritic fingers were being defeated by the small buttons on her dress.
She looked almost childlike, almost like a little girl defeated by the buttons.
"Help me, please," she said.
She had on one of those old-fashioned dresses with, by my actual count. 34 buttons down the front. She had managed the top two.
I started and even my young fingers had trouble with the tiny buttons. I was trying to picture how she had gotten them done up in the first place.
By the sixth one her bra, and along with it an expanse of cleavage, was showing.
I looked up for the first time since I had started on the buttons and met her eyes. She was smiling, a smile that I would, in later years, think of as a "satisfied" smile.
"It's okay, Davey," she said, "don't stop."
By the 22nd button I was bending uncomfortably so I slipped to my knees.
She giggled, an oddly young sound from her, and when I looked up she was smiling down at me but now it was more a grin than a smile.
"It's been a while since I had a man on his knees before me," she said, and she brushed my hair with her fingers.
With my newfound experience, I was feeling, well, experienced. So I looked up at her and said, "sounds like you like it."
She smiled, a very happy smile, and said, "am I that obvious?"
I didn't say anything, just finished the last dozen buttons before I lifted her foot, forcing her to grab my shoulders for balance, and laid it in my lap while I worked her shoe off. Then I did the other shoe before standing and gently working the dress off of her shoulders and tossing it onto the chair.
I stepped back and looked.