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Part of her argued that she was already doing a lot of things to serve and help other people, but if he could improve, couldn’t she?
“It’s so nice to meet you. Did you guys get some cookies to eat?”
They shook their heads, so sweet and endearing, and she looked back at Pierre. “Can I take you to the food tables?”
“I would love it if you would,” Pierre said..
She led them over to the food tables, and helped all the children grab plates and fill them with their selections from the different offerings. They found seats at the picnic tables that were set up around the perimeter of the dance floor, and Pierre invited her to sit while they ate.
She declined, although she wanted to accept.
Pierre had impressed her beyond words. Impressed her with how he had put action and time and sacrifice behind his words and made a real life change, rather than just giving it a bunch of lip service, and then continuing to do whatever he wanted.
Throughout the evening she kept an eye on the small family, noticing that several of her daughters and other town members went over to welcome them. At one point, the children got up and joined in the organized games that the entertainment committee had come up with.
Pierre disappeared, and Lana busied herself making sure the punch bowl stayed filled up and the cookie trays were never empty.
“Would you dance with me?” a voice said from behind her as she retied a stray balloon to a light pole.
“Oh my goodness. You scared me,” she said, turning and putting her hand to her chest, and speaking more to give herself a moment to think than because she was so startled.
It was Pierre, and he was asking her to dance.
He wasn’t playing fair.
“I’m sorry. I just... I’ve been waiting for a chance, and right now my kids are playing games with the other children. I asked the girl in charge of the games if she would keep an eye on them so I could have one dance. She seemed happy to do that,” he said with a smile. “And so I’m here. Spending my one dance on you if you’ll have me.”
“Of course I’ll have you,” she said, putting her hand in his outstretched palm, trying to ignore the fact that her throat was suddenly dry and his hand felt warm and strong and seemed to fit with hers perfectly.
“Thank you,” he said, leading her to the dance floor.
She gave herself a little lecture on the way. Reminding herself that she was a half-century old, and was too old to have silly schoolgirl dreams. The kind of dreams that Pierre seemed to incite in her. The rest of the time she tried to think of questions she could ask him to keep the conversation going, so she could try to hide the fact that she was really looking forward to dancing with him.
He stopped at the edge of the floor, turned, put an arm around her waist while holding her other hand in his.
She put a hand on his shoulder and fell into step with him. They moved easily together, not perfectly, but just like her hand in his had felt right, moving across from him felt right as well.
“After I spoke with you, I realize that you were right. That I had raised a daughter, and I felt like I deserved a break from children, and I liked that my life was orderly and perfect, and I didn’t realize that I never stopped to think that there was a lot of suffering in the world, and I could do something to alleviate it. It’s easy to sit in my comfortable chair in my comfortable office and expect someone else to do something, while I maybe scroll social media and like a few posts and talk about how someone should be doing something, or criticizing people who are doing things, but never thinking that maybe I should take action.”
“That’s a big lie from social media. We feel like we’ve done something if we press the like button and leave an encouraging comment.”
“And that’s not nothing. But, I can be doing far more. I just...was selfish.”
“We’re all selfish.” She didn’t want him to think that she thought she wasn’t. “So you ended up with three children?”
“I had three spare bedrooms. I’ve got a big empty apartment, and no one in it.”
“And now there is someone. Lots of someones.”
“Kind of funny how quickly you can fall in love with them. I’m not saying that everything is easy.”
“I was wondering about it, but I didn’t want to ask and make you feel like you need to talk about it if you didn’t want to.”
“It’s been quite an adjustment. But, I can tell already that I’ve grown, and hopefully will continue to do so. It’s opened up a lot of doors for me, and...I’m thinking pretty strongly about adopting them.”
“Adopting three children?”
“Crazy, isn’t it? And I’m fifty-five. That almost seems too old.”
