A Kind Of Flirtatious Way

A silence fell upon us, during a moment or two, a silence that brought something of discomfort in its train, and stealing a glance at him I was reminded more than ever of my Gentleman Unknown who, cloaked and secret, walked a corridor by night.
-Daphne du Maurier
"Rebecca"

Twenty-five years ago today:

July 21, 1985
Sunday

I made up for not doing my five-hundred sit-ups by doing one-thousand this morning!

Rachelle called to say, “I won’t be going to Lance’s birthday party because I’m too tired.”
I kept it simple and just said, “Okay.”
I figured it was better to just leave it at that even if I was sort of pissed.
I continued to do my ironing and other domestic chores.

I stopped by mom’s house for a breakfast nibble. Ashley was there and we were wearing matching outfits. I was wearing a white and gray sleeveless sweater with a pink outline. Ashley had a pink dress and a white jacket. We looked cute together.

When I first arrived at Margaret’s party I noticed a number of oriental people. Stephanie Bautista, my boss, was there with her two boys. Cindy Chow and her beau showed up (He’s ugly). Ryan Hargrave came, too. Tim Matthews was there. It was fun. The food was good and the roasted pig they had was displayed neatly. I was only there until 3PM. It was a delightful change from the usual. Ashley seemed to have a good time, too. I only felt bad when Margaret had to help me clean up Ashley’s ‘number two’ mess that she made in her diaper.

I went to mom’s house and Helen and Tony were there. Helen is bigger—but not that much bigger since the last time I saw her. She’s so sweet. I love my sister-in-laws. Tony fiddled with mom’s VCR in an attempt to fine-tune it. I left mom’s house for my pad and received a call from Dale.
Dale said, “We’re in the area. Do you want to go to the Ice Cream Dock with me, Dee and Andrew?”
“Sure, come on over.”
So, I went with them and that was fun. We also went to Robert’s place in Alameda for a while.
Dale said, “I want to see that movie MAD MAX. We should go see it.”
“Yeah, I want to see that. I haven’t seen it yet.”
We all stopped at Sherri’s house again. It was another brief visit. By 8:30PM I was on my way home.

Mike Miller called to say, “I won’t be joining the gym after all. I went over there yesterday. I spoke with that Lorraine girl.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, she said she didn’t understand you.”
“Why did she say that?”
“I think she said that you were supposed to call her for breakfast the other morning and you didn’t.”
“Oh, I forgot.”
“Well, she was talking in a kind of flirtatious way but I think it was just to get to know you better.”
I laughed.
Mike continued, “She talked more like saying you should break-up with Rachelle for a more mature relationship.”
“Give me a break! I can’t believe she said all of this to you.”
Now it was Mike’s turn to laugh.

Rachelle telephoned a little later. She was all pissed-off after I was honest with her, telling her all about Lorraine.
“Well, if you hadn’t led her on to begin with,” Rachelle yelled impolitely.
She kept going on and on…blah blah blah!

I escaped to mom’s house for a short visit and munched on a peanut butter and Knotts Berry Farm jelly sandwich. I watched the end of “The End”, a movie mom was watching.

When I returned home I decided to call Rachelle again. There was no answer. She eventually called me back but I was too tired to talk.

Dale called.
“I’m just checking to make sure you’re all packed for the trip.”
…blah blah blah…

I got off of the phone and fell asleep…finally.

How good and thoughtful he is. The world seems full of good men, even if there are monsters in it.
-Bram Stoker
"Dracula"