Courting

Courting
by Thelly Reahm - Tidbits of Time

1964

The Laundromat up on Turquoise in 'Baja La Jolla', formerly known as Pacific Beach, became our night out. When you're in the process of 'blending' five children into a second marriage, the laundry doesn't wait. Consequently, many of our dates seemed to either begin or end with the laundromat.

My friend Beverly was concerned about this. She knew of our tight financial times, the lack of fun dates or dinners out, or privacy to talk and make plans for our wedding. Unlike many friends, she put her concern into action.

"I'm going to Palm Springs next weekend," she said "How would you guys like to use my apartment. You could have candlelight and wine....cook some steaks and have a quiet evening by yourselves."

"Sounds too good to be true," I said, not even having a premonition that when things are too good to be true, that they are too good to be true.

Friday night after work we headed for Beverly's apartment armed with steaks, pre-baked potatoes, a can of mushrooms and a bottle of Chianti. The kids were all set up with a pizza and Kathy and Linda for babysitters.

"The key is under the doormat," I said, lifting up a corner of the coco mat at Beverly's front door. She lived upstairs and toward the back of the complex on Hornblend Street.

"Nothing's here!" I was shocked.

"Maybe you mis-understood," Dick said, looking under a potted plant.

"No," I said frantically, laying down the package of meat I had picked up at the supermarket. I looked along the balcony railing, underneath a deck chair and another piece of pottery. I felt along the window ledge. Dick reached up above the door casing.

Nothing. The key was nowhere to be found.

We walked down the stairs dejectedly in the dark, dodging patio furniture as we headed back to the car.

"What do you think happened?" I asked as we got out to the street.

"Do you suppose she just forgot to put the key there?" Dick asked. “Is she like that? Is she kind of scatterbrained? I don't know....she's your friend." he said helping me into the little aqua Volkswagen bug that he drove.

"No....she's not like that....she's detail oriented. She's an Escrow Officer, for gosh sakes!" I said defending her, "she's no ding-a-ling!"

Dick looked up at the building before he got into the bug. Then he got right out again.

"Wait a minute....wait right here," he said half running to the back side of the apartment complex.

I waited in the dark. A couple left the building, their voices muffled in the cloak of darkness.

The car door opened and Dick got in, huffing just a little bit. His office job left him physically a bit out of shape, even at age thirty-five.

"There's a ladder back by the garages. I set it up on the side of the building. It's really dark back there. I think I can make it up to her bedroom window and go in that way....then I'll open the front door. You stand guard out here on the street....if you see a patrol car or anyone else....come back and stop me."

"This is crazy," I said, but getting a little charge just thinking of the break in. "What if you get caught?" I shuddered to think of what that would involve. It wasn't our apartment. How would we explain our need to come through a window? How would we explain to a cop our desperate need to get away from the kids and laundromat dates?

Dick took off into the darkness. I began to shiver uncontrollably. I was really getting scared. No cars were coming either direction and nobody was leaving or coming to the apartments. I just kept walking back and forth in front of the complex like I was waiting for someone. Adrenalin surged through my veins. I looked up to the balcony to see if he had gotten through.

Nothing.

What could be keeping him I wondered? It couldn't take this long to go up a ladder and in through a window. Could it? I started to shiver again. I walked to the back side of the building and peered into the darkness. I couldn't see anyone. It was pitch black and the grass was tall and wet against my legs.

I walked back out to the front to stand guard again.

Suddenly Dick emerged out of the darkness. Running. Full blast this time. It must have gone badly.

"Get in the car," he hissed. I didn't know he could talk so harshly in a whisper. I jumped into the Volkswagen and he started it up and sped off without headlights. He turned the first corner and then parked the car in front of a truck.

"What happened?" I asked as calmly as I could.

He was still breathing really hard. Between his gasps for breath, I pieced the story together.

He had gone up the ladder easily, took out his little pocket knife and pried off the window screen . The window was open. He slid it back very quietly, lifted the venetian blind and crawled through, falling gently to the carpeted bedroom floor. He got up and walked to the hallway door, opened it and started toward the living room of the apartment when he heard voices. He peered down the hallway into the kitchen and there was a couple sitting at the kitchen table having dinner. A little poodle was curled up at their feet. He froze in his steps, then began quietly retracing his path back to the bedroom, back through the venetian blinds, the sliding window and down the ladder again, through the tall grass and back to the safety of the Volkswagen.

"I must have mis-counted the windows, because I was in the Manager's apartment next door to Beverly's and they were having dinner! Can you believe it? And I lived to tell the tale!" Dick started to laugh and we both laughed hysterically over what a mess this escapade could have been.

"Oh, my God," he said really slow.

"What now?" I gasped.

"My little pocket knife....I must have dropped it on the floor of the bedroom when I came through the window."

"Well....that's no great loss is it....you're alive and well....you can get another pocket knife!" I said hugging him.

"The knife has the RCA company logo on it," he looked really worried, then with his usual good nature, he laughed and said, "We give those knives to all our customers as advertising....nobody could pin that one to me....let's go have a drink someplace!"

We stopped at the nearest bar, calmed our shaky nerves with a drink and headed to my place up in Clairemont with our special steaks.

"We'll have a late supper, just the two of us after we put the kids down." I should have known that apartment deal was too good to be true.