Spring Eternal

Chapter 10
A Night Out with the Girls

Chapter Description: Iris decides to take Cal for a night out on the town

Iris had just lowered a freshly diapered Cal from the changing table onto his socked feet when the phone rang. In a quick motion, her hands left Cal’s small body that his body swayed in response to her lack of support. His hand went quickly to the leg of the changing table in order to steady himself on his feet as he watched Iris’ quick departure. As she soon as she reached the doorway, Iris quickly spun and grabbed the baby gate. In a gesture honed by years of practice, she placed and secured it across the doorway in a symphony of smooth motions, sealing Cal in his room.

“I’ll be right back, honey.” She informed him as the sound of the bar clicking the gate closed was engaged. In the next moment, she was gone, rushing off to catch the phone.

Cal watched the action with a sense of disbelief. He stood there stunned by how quickly his world had been tossed upside down in the last few days alone with Iris. He wandered up to the baby gate, examining the barrier that had trapped him in his room.

The top of the gate was taller than him by several inches. He wrapped his fingers through the plastic coated grill of the gate. The sensation of the softly gummy wires pressing against the tender pads of his fingers allowed old memories from his own childhood to surface. A pre-verbal memory of pressing his forehead against a similar barrier, looking for someone intensely important to him. It was someone who was his world, who nurtured his body and soul, celebrating his victories and holding him when disasters struck. As he stood there, his mind played back a silhouette of a woman in a skirt and heels from another decade moving toward him. A long ago buried primitive part of his psyche came to the fore and made a guttural sound in response to the image coming toward him as he stood next to the gate. As the sound exited his mouth, Cal suddenly became aware and cleared his throat several times as he internally lambasted himself for indulging in such infantile nostalgia.

He peered down the hallway to see where Iris had gone. He did not see here but it seemed that she had gone to the kitchen to answer the phone call. Although he could not hear definite words, he could just discern the happy tone in her answers to the other party. He wondered if it was Randall or Patrice calling. At the thought, he became invigorated with the thought of ending the preposterous treatment he had been suffering at Iris’ hands. He became increasingly more indignant as he stood there as he began to pull at the baby gate as he felt justice was at hand. Once he got on the phone, boy, was he going to blow the whistle on Iris. He was totally fed up with this entire reverie back to babyhood. Things needed to get back on course. Randall and Patrice would automatically side with him. It just made sense. Naturally, they would ask to talk to him. He held his breath as he waited for Iris to bring him the phone. Finally, blowing out his breath, he continued to wait. And waited. And waited. He noticed Iris’ voice did not falter as she happily continued to chat on the phone. He could just imagine her sitting back in one of the dinette chairs, sipping a cup of coffee, idly chatting and laughing while he was interred in his room.

The thought occurred to him that perhaps it wasn’t his friends on the phone. ‘Could she be talking to one of her friends?’ he reasoned. He easily discarded that idea as ridiculous, Iris hadn’t been here long enough to make friends. Then with a sudden sense of dread, it registered that, perhaps, Iris would not allow him to the phone. Maybe, she had made up some excuse that he couldn’t come to the phone, like he was asleep or something. He couldn’t allow that. He was determined to let the caller know of his presence anyway he could. He began to call out to Iris, demanding her to bring him the phone. He called and called, each time his voice becoming more strident and urgent. He paused in his pattern of caterwauling to hear Iris’ voice as she wound up her phone call.

“Uph. There’s the baby. Gotta go. See ya soon. Bye.” Iris’s voice carried back to Cal followed by the resounding click of the receiver back into the phone’s cradle.

Cal could feel the floor slightly bounce as Iris exited the kitchen and came down the hallway.

“Hey, noisy boy. Did you get lonesome?” Iris called out with a maternal smile.

“Iwis...Hu dat on da pa fone? Wa-wa it Wanduu an Patwees.” Cal said as he took a few steps back, looking up doubtfully at Iris.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I took so long, but you were soooo good.” Iris crooned as she released the gate from Cal’s room. There was no sign of cognition of Cal’s words appearing on her face. She stepped in the room and swung Cal up on to her hip. “Come on, we need to hurry and have dinner. We’re going out tonight!”

……..

As it turned out, Lancine had been the one who called. She had been preparing to take her two visiting grandchildren to a concert of the Rumpletones. She had bought the tickets long ago to secure premium seating to the popular family show. It was surprising that the older of her two granddaughters had decided that she would prefer to go to camp than visit her grandmother. Since the older girl was nearing her difficult adolescent years, Lancine was not too upset with the choice. As a result, she had an extra ticket, she remembered her new friend from the mall with the charming grandson. Luckily, children under the age of two did not need a ticket, so Iris could keep Cal on her lap and use the extra ticket.

After a hurried dinner, Iris took a washcloth and scrubbed Cal’s face and hands. Leaving him standing in his shirt, diaper and socks, Iris opened up the door to Cal’s closet.

“Hmm. What to wear? We don’t want that cold to get any worse, do we?” Iris called over her should as she perused the selection of clothing in Cal’s closet. Something seemed to catch her eye as she began to dig back in the far side of the closet. “What do we have here?”

To Cal’s horror, Iris pulled out the one thing that he truly detested: a dark russet colored pinwale corduroy romper which had been sent to him from a nurse at the hospital where he had stayed during the first phase of the virus. It was a totally infantile item that stripped him of any dignity that he might cling to with his adult mind. Iris, seemingly well pleased with her discovery, pulled it off the hanger and was bunching it into a ring of cloth in her hands as she came near him. Cal held up his hands to stop her but found that it was another battle he would lose of many in the past days. Iris only guided the item over his upraised hands and slid the rest down over his torso. Without a fanfare, her hands smoothly snapped the interior of the legs closed. The next instant, she was pulling a navy cardigan over his arms. Without due exertion, she got his shoes on, his hair brushed and wrestled him into a hooded jacket to keep out the night air in a few short minutes. Iris making sure that Cal was dressed warmly due to his runny nose he had developed.

It was still early evening when the pair met Lancine and her granddaughter, Mindy by the press box of the concert hall. Due to the target audience of the show being below school age, the show was to start at 6:30. After navigating the courtyard filled with a milling crowd of over-excited children and their parents, the two women managed to meet in front of the theatre. Lancine appeared with an energetic dynamo that must have been her granddaughter. Mindy was a cute little girl of about five years old who seemed thrilled to be going to the concert. Her hair had been pulled up into pigtails that seemed to be in constantly bobbing as the little girl twined on Lancine’s hand. The little girl was obviously feeding off the frenetic toddler mob mentality that was palpable in the area, but she did her best to be patient and hold her grandmother’s hand. It was frightening to see such raw excitement surrounding him, Cal clutched onto Iris coat for security as the group entered the hall.

It was a laborious process since everyone had to go through security. There were numerous signs about not outside food would be allowed in the building. All bags were opened and inspected, not that any weapons were to be found; but juice boxes, cookies and assorted junk food was apprehended. Thereby securing the safety and cleanliness of the concert hall but also forcing parents to go to the concession stand during intermission to quiet the whines of their thirsty and hungry children. Only baby bottles were spared from this process, since the management had undergone a nasty publicity exposure in the past. So, the contents of Cal’s bag was relatively untouched in comparison to the others.

When the group got to their seats in the front row. The women setting Mindy in between them and Cal on Iris’ lap. Cal looked around the concert hall as if he had never seen it before. When he had been adult sized, he had been to several productions a year at this concert hall but it never impressed him more than now. The scale of everything now seemed mammoth and awe inspiring. Before he knew it the music began as a booming voice announced the Rumpletones. The audience of children screamed their approval like a jungle animal. When four affable looking men in primary colored turtle necks appeared on white tandem bikes, the crowd went wild. Mindy jumped up from her seat and began dancing to some song she recognized. Iris leaned her head down to whisper with soft excitement in Cal’s ear, point at the stage “See the Rumpletones.” Cal did not respond to her, but looked away with a pained eye-roll.

The men sang several nonthreatening songs, including about getting up in the morning or going on a picnic. Cal thought it was absolutely puerile drivel, the canned jokes, the old sight gags and the simplistic morality lessons slipped in for good measure. Worse yet, Iris seemed intent on him participating with the songs. She rocked back and forth and grasping each of his wrists in her hands, so she could clap them in time. The audience seemed to already know the songs and sang back their part with fervor when the men paused on stage. It was one song about taking a bath that got Mindy very excited. She leaned over to Iris, she leaned over the armrest.

“I want Cal to dance with me.” She asked, looking at the small figure on Iris’ lap.

“Okay, but stay right here, so I can watch. Don’t be rough. Remember he’s a little guy, so be gentle.” Iris stated as she re-orientated Cal to set him on his feet.

“Okay. I will.” Mindy quickly agreed as she nodded wildly.

With that agreement, Cal was slid off Iris’ lap to stand in front of her facing the unknown factor of Mindy. Cal retreated in between Iris legs, not wanting to venture forward. Mindy reached over and gently drew Cal away from Iris toward her.

“Do this!” Mindy commanded as she wriggled her body back and forth to the music. The men on stage continued to sing about the fun in tub. Mindy seemed to be having a lot of fun and wanted a partner. Cal looked over uncertainly at Iris who was encouraging him to attempt to participate.

Slowly, Cal began to awkwardly sway his hips from side to side. Succeeding at the small movement, a shy grin appeared on his face. Mindy seemed to take his dancing as a personal compliment. She took Cal’s hand in her own as they both continued to wiggle to the song. Cal began to gain more confidence as his wriggling became more pronounced.

Suddenly, the song stopped. Cal looked at Mindy, who did not seem surprised, but leaned forward.

“We gotta splash now!” she announced as a chorus of “Splash-Splash-Splash!” started up.

She bent over and with a scooping motion of her arms, managed to pretend to splash Cal with imaginary water. Picking up on the trick, Cal responded with his own ungainly version of Mindy’s actions. After several more rounds of wriggling followed by the splash pantomime, the song finally ended. Slightly winded from his exertion but happy, Cal turned to smile at Iris while leaning on her leg.

Cal was not paying attention to what was going on up stage. A new song had started about wanting to be a clown at the circus and all the performers put on clown noses and fluorescently colored wigs upon their heads. As it happened, this was a song where the performers interacted with the audience. Mindy was clapping, bouncing and talking at the top of her lungs at something.

Hearing the commotion, Cal looked back at her only to notice a strange face with a unearthly red nose and bright hair was suspended just over him. It was terrifying. He stopped breathing as the bizarre face of the ominous stranger was just inches away. He could not move. He started to breathe again, but it came in hitches, his chest getting further and further inflated. He instinctively needed help, he needed to be away from this frightening being as soon as possible. He opened his mouth to say Iris, but only the first consonant would come out. His breathing made the noise sound like a scratched record.

At about his third attempt, he felt Iris’ hands around his torso. She was mercifully pulling him out of danger and back to the security of her lap. He lost all self composure as he found safe haven on her lap. He flung himself against her to get away from the danger, his arms wrapping themselves as best they could around her. He felt her gentle pats on his back as she rocked him to calm him down. He did not realize it since he had shut his eyes to close out the world but he was bawling like the baby he appeared to be on her shoulder.