I finished installing my eight track player and tried it out with a Grass Roots tape. The song,"Monday Night Confession" sounded great!
I just let it play and went to get a wrench from dad who was in the garage working on mom's toaster oven. As I looked for a half inch wrench, dad asked me why I was talking to that old crazy bat...Mrs Lanehart.
I guessed that he didn't see me working on her car and I smarted off,"She's my new girlfriend." He lowered his head, looked over his glasses and said,"Son...don't be a smart ass...what did the old bat want?" I told him that I just fixed her car and was going to go to her house and finish the job.
Of course, mom heard us talking and came in the garage from the kitchen and said,"You stay away from that woman...I have heard so many awful things about her....she is a harlot....a filthy old harlot!"
Dad grinned and spoke up,"Well Jenny...darling....I doubt very much that she is still in business." Mom gave dad one of those,"You'll pay for that one looks" and stomped back in the house.
I yelled out to mom,"I'm just going to fix her car....she seems like a nice old lady to me!" I heard mom shout back,"Just shut up and do as I said!" Dad looked at me grinning and said in a whisper,"Go ahead...fix the old bat's car and then do as your mother said."
I grinned back at dad and whispered,"Thanks dad." I walked out of the garage, looked up at the summer sky and smiled at a lone white cloud that was just lazing in the blue.
I left out for Mrs. Lanehart's house and drove almost to the "You Are Now Leaving The Town Of Sunrise Indiana" sign. I turned left on to Berry Street. I could see her old house at the end of the street.
It was a three story Victorian house with all of the fancy trimmings. The paint was peeling here and there....vines were growing up over the front porch and the old oak trees seemed to hug the old place like children around a mother.
The yard was full of gnomes and bird baths. A "No Trespassing" sign was hanging by one corner on the rust spotted, black wrought iron fence.
I pulled in the drive by her garage door....got out and walked up to her door. When I pushed the door bell button...I was surprised to hear what sounded like a loud school bell.
I heard her shout,"Come in...it's open...come on in!" I felt a little nervous as I opened the door. Mrs. Lanehart was trying to coax her gray cat down from the top of a large book case. She shouted,"You get down from there right now Mr. Johnson....I have told you a thousand times....stay off the bloody books!" She flopped down in an old wing back chair and said,"I give up...that cat is as dumb as my first husband!"
I smiled as she welcomed me and asked me to have a seat while she got some tea and cakes. She got up and went to the kitchen as I looked up at the cat on the book case. There were hundreds of books....mostly old novels and a few history collections. Her house was amazingly clean...really...near perfect.
She had tons of old stuff...it was like walking into a 1930s movie set. There were old pictures hanging between two large stained glass windows.
Mrs. Lanehart soon came in with cup cakes, a pot of tea and two cups...all on a silver tray.
