The Cat That Went to Homecoming (9 page)

She held me out in front of her and looked me
over. I suddenly felt awkward and uneasy.

“Ellen, you’re all grown up and you sure are
a beauty!” she said, probably just trying to be nice. I knew I
wasn’t beautiful, but it was nice to have two people say it to me
in one day. I thanked her.

She offered Brandon and me a soda and called
out for Cindy who was in the pool with Sarah and Margaret.

“Look who’s here, Cindy!” Mrs. Haskel called
out. Cindy waved at us and told us to get in the pool. Oh brother!
That meant I had to take off my shorts and t-shirt. I felt pretty
confident in the swim suit when I tried it on in the dressing room,
and in the shelter of my own bedroom, but suddenly I didn’t feel so
courageous.

“Come on,” Brandon said as he tugged me
towards the pool. Momentarily, I considered hopping in fully
dressed, but quickly decided that was a bad idea. I wouldn’t have
any dry clothes to put on after we were finished in the pool.
Brandon pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside as he
climbed the ladder. Mrs. Haskel shook her head and walked over,
picking up Brandon’s shirt. “I’ll take your clothes for you and put
them on a lawn chair. You do have a swim suit on, right?”

I nodded, took a deep breath, and pulled off
my shorts and shirt. I handed them to Mrs. Haskel and wound my arms
around myself in an attempt to hide. I made my way to the ladder
and started to climb, my legs shaking a little in apprehension. I
sat on the top platform of the ladder and dangled my feet in the
water while I had my arms wrapped around my trunk. Brandon swam up
to me and pulled me in the water by my feet. Splash!

Wow! It was cold! The shock of sinking into
the cool water made me forget my insecurity and when I surfaced, I
scolded Brandon who was laughing hysterically.

“I like that suit, Ellen, where did you get
it?” Margaret asked.

“Me, too,” added Sarah, “I love tankinis, but
they’re hard to find.” Sarah had swum over to me to get a closer
look at my suit. I really wanted them to focus on something other
than me and my suit, and I think Brandon sensed that because he
said “Geez, enough with the fashion talk, let’s play some water
volleyball!”

Cindy set up a floating net in the center of
the pool and we split into teams. We decided that whoever was with
Brandon had an unfair advantage since Brandon was a guy, so it was
three on two, Cindy and Brandon against Sara, Margaret, and me.

Somehow in the midst of playing in the pool,
I forgot all my insecurities and dropped my guard. I was enjoying
myself immensely! We played for hours, switching teams around,
taking breaks between games to just float on air mattresses, and to
slide down the slide.

Mrs. Haskel made burgers for lunch and after
we ate, we all laid out on beach towels in the sun. “You can’t go
in the water for twenty minutes after eating,” Mrs. Haskel told
us.

Sarah and Margaret were both on their cell
phones, taking goofy pictures of themselves and posting them to
Facebook, and Brandon was napping. Cindy and I were sitting in
awkward silence, so I decided to break the silence.

“Hershey and I are officially a therapy
team,” I said to her, “I just got the confirmation today.”

“That’s awesome!’ Cindy said. “When do you
start?”

“I’m not sure, I’ll talk to Jane when I go to
work next week and find out.”

“Wait a minute, you have a job?” she asked in
surprise.

“Yes, but just for the summer,” I told Cindy
about Jane, Pet Partners, and how Jane had given me a job to help
me to get to this point with Hershey and all the steps I had taken
with him.

“Wow, I think you are going to make a lot of
people happy. What made you decide to do this?” she asked.

I paused and thought about it. Why
did
I take that leap?

“Cindy, I’m never going to be a cheerleader
or the Prom Queen and in all honesty, I don’t care. Those are such
frivolous goals for shallow-minded people. I just want to have a
genuine purpose in life.” She remained quiet and still, just
looking at me, so I went on. “I understand isolation and
loneliness. Life has not been great for me, but Hershey has been my
support through it all. I decided one day that if he could make me
happy, he could make others happy. We could do it together.”

I looked around and discovered that Sarah,
Margaret, and Brandon were no longer sitting with us, they were in
the pool. I looked over at Brandon and he winked at me. He gave me
this time alone with Cindy. Boy, that Brandon sure was one hell of
a guy!

Cindy was fidgeting with her hands and
looking down at them, “Ellen, why did you isolate yourself for so
long?” She looked up and looked me right in the eyes. “Why did you
stop being my friend?”

“Honestly, I thought I was doing you a favor.
I mean, look at you Cindy, you’re beautiful, you’re smart, and you
were meant to be popular. I was holding you back.”

“So you think I’m shallow and that I would
rather be like Darcel?” she asked in astonishment.

“Oh, gosh, no, I don’t mean it like that.” I
defended myself, but the more I thought about it, wasn’t she
right?

“Cindy, I didn’t want you to feel obligated
to the fat girl in the class,” I said with tears in my eyes.

“Ellen, some people tease other people about
an imperfection so that their peers won’t notice what’s wrong with
them,” she said, “and the weaker the person that’s being shamed is,
the more successful the bully is.”

I had to stop and let what she had said sink
in. Should I be offended that she was implying that I’m weak? I
wasn’t offended. It never occurred to me that I was partly to blame
for my circumstances.

“Ellen,” she said as she stood up and held
her hand out to help me up, “come with me for a second.” We walked
to the garage. She removed a dusty shoe box from a shelf and blew
away the dust. She opened the lid, and when I saw our old Bratz
dolls looking up at me, I put my hand over my mouth.

“These are our Jade dolls. Remember, she was
our favorite Bratz. We never fought over who got to use Jade and
who had to use another doll, we both got to use Jade and keep the
name Jade!”

I picked my Jade out of the box and looked at
her. She was wearing a leopard print dress and big goofy pink
boots. I knew she was mine instantly because I remembered how I
swore I’d own boots like hers someday.

“We didn’t care that they were exactly the
same doll. We were just happy to have her,” she said, “and as much
as I loved my Bratz dolls, I could not look at them anymore after
we stopped being friends.”

“Can I have her back?” I asked timidly. She
wasn’t really mine per se, Cindy’s Mom had bought her for me
because I didn’t have a Bratz doll and I wanted her so bad. I would
play with Cindy’s other Bratz, but we both loved the dark-haired
Jade the most. Cindy had talked her mom into buying her for me to
use so we would both have a Jade doll.

“She’s yours Ellen. I think I’m going to
bring my Jade back into the house and have her sit on my dresser,”
she said.

“I will too,” I said. “I’ll put her on my
vanity as a reminder of better times.”

Cindy smiled and hugged me. “Let’s go hide
these dolls and get in the pool before the others wonder what we’re
up to.”

The day was a blast and at the end of it, we
all exchanged phone numbers. To my knowledge, no one ever saw our
Jade dolls, but if they had, I was pretty confident that none of my
new friends would judge us for it.

Chapter
Thirteen

Hershey and I had our first visitation on a
Wednesday afternoon, and what a learning experience it was.

Jane had asked me to join her at a nursing
home and rehabilitation center. She and her dog, Lucky, were
regular visitors to this facility. She told me that she had
encountered a woman in the rehab center who was very depressed, and
after visiting with her, she discovered the woman loved cats. Jane
thought the woman would benefit from a visit with Hershey.

The day before the visit, after my yard
duties were finished for the day, Jane and I sat together in her
barn and went over the details.

“Ellen, how much do you know about nursing
homes?”

“Not much, really, just that the elderly live
there,” I said.

“Not all nursing home residents are elderly.
People who cannot be cared for at home live in nursing homes, such
as people with debilitating physical or mental diseases. The
residents are under twenty-four hour care by registered nurses or
certified nursing assistants who assist them with their daily
living activities, administer their medications, and help them
eat.

“The nursing home we are visiting also has a
post-surgical rehabilitation unit. The residents are only living
there until they recover enough to take care of themselves at home.
Some of these residents are only there a few weeks, some for
several months. While living at the facility, they undergo various
physical therapy exercises geared towards their particular
recovery.”

“So, it’s like an apartment complex inside of
a hospital?” I asked. Jane chuckled.

“That’s a good way of putting it! Yes, they
have their own living quarters, but there is always a medical team
available at any time if they need assistance.”

Jane told me that she didn’t usually send
handlers as young as me to nursing homes. She said the sights and
smells tend to scare people my age. This made me wonder just what I
was getting into.

“Ellen, it’s just a fact of life, we all grow
old. As the body ages, we lose certain physical abilities, one of
which is the ability to control our bladders. You may notice the
smell of urine in a nursing home. That can turn many people your
age off, but I’m hoping that by warning you in advance, you won’t
be startled.

“Sometimes residents with dementia yell or
scream. They can be frightening, but you just need to realize that
they themselves are frightened. They don’t remember who they are or
where they are.”

I could sense she was studying my face for
emotion. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to react. I didn’t want
to blow my chance, but did I really want to go to this place?

And then she said something that struck a
chord in me. “No matter what stage a person is in their life, they
should be treated with dignity and respect.” I couldn’t agree
more.

“Jane, I appreciate your candidness. I think
I’m ready to meet this challenge.” I said, and I meant it.

The following day, Jane picked up Hershey and
me and drove us to the nursing home. She left Lucky at home because
she was going to follow me and observe. I was nervous; it was going
to feel like it did being watched at the chalkboard in class!

I had spent the night brushing up on my cat
facts to share with whoever I visited. Jane had given me trading
cards with Hershey’s picture and his biography printed on them to
hand out, and I had several of them tucked away in a bag with
Hershey’s treats, his brush, and a bottle of water.

When we arrived, I felt my heart pounding
fast and I was worried that I would hyperventilate! Hershey was
just as calm as could be in his carrier, not making any noise
whatsoever.

I followed Jane through the door and down the
corridor until we reached a nurses station. I smelled the smell she
warned me about right away and I must say, thank God she warned me.
If I hadn’t known it would smell like that in there, I would have
been completely grossed out.

“Good morning Ladies,” she said to the group
of nurses who all greeted her back by name. “I’d like you to meet
Ellen and Hershey. I brought them today to sit with Janet
Henderson.”

“Hello, Ellen,” one nurse said in
greeting.

“Oh, thank goodness you brought a cat! Janet
will be so happy,” another said. I smiled at each of them and shook
hands with them.

One of the nurses came around to the front of
the desk and kneeled down to peek at Hershey. “He’s adorable,” she
said. “Ellen, I want to give you a little history about Janet. She
has been very depressed since she arrived and we would love to see
her cheer up. She had her hip replaced, and since she has no one to
take care of her at home, she came here to recover. Because she has
no family here in Wisconsin, she has had no visitors and she’s very
lonely. We’re extremely concerned that her depression could be
hindering her recovery.”

“Hershey and I will try our best to cheer her
up,” I said, trying my hardest to look poised, but inside I was
terrified.

We walked to her room, the nurse knocked on
her door and announced herself, and then we entered the room.

“Janet, we brought a friend in to see you
today.”

Janet was seated in a wheel chair facing a
window with her head bowed down and her body trembling because she
was crying. I could only see the back of her head, but I recognized
her immediately because I had seen the back of her head thousands
of times as she drove me home from school every day! Janet was my
bus driver!

I did not think with my brain anymore. My
mind did not do its usual job of planning how I should bend over
without my shirt rising in back, or pray that my words came out
right and that I didn’t stutter when I spoke. My brain and my mind
let my heart take over instead. I no longer worried about how I
would be perceived; all I cared about was this poor woman in front
of me. I lifted Hershey out of his carrier. He was wearing his
harness and leash, and for some reason he seemed to know he was
needed. I walked over to Janet and he was right alongside of me. I
kneeled beside her and put my hand on her knee.

“Hello, Janet, I brought my cat Hershey with
me today to visit with you,” I said to her. She looked down at me
and I saw recognition in her eyes. There was a box of Kleenex on
the window sill. I stood up, pulled a tissue out, and handed it to
her. She dabbed at her eyes. “Well, fancy meeting you here,” she
said to me.