Chapter 25: Herbert's Last Hoorah

The brisk spring breeze skirted around Laura Dell as she emerged onto the sidewalk outside her apartment complex.
“It’s about time we had some nice weather,” she thought to herself. It had been a long winter, and Laura Dell could only hope that the changing seasons would bring about better circumstances, but somehow she couldn’t convince herself of that fact, not with Herbert slowly fading in front of her very eyes. As she walked down the narrow sidewalk, she considered what spring would look like without him.
“He must make it through the spring,” she said out loud, oblivious to the little boy that shot her a funny glance as she passed him and his mother.
She had almost made it to the museum, not to beg for Feinman’s forgiveness, but only to meet Mr. Dresden out front. She thought taking the sparrow with her to Herbert’s apartment would surely brighten his day.
“Oh Mr. Dresden, over here,” Laura Dell called when she was a few feet from the front entrance. She wanted to avoid seeing Feinman at all costs. “Thanks so much for taking care of the little guy.”
“It was no problem, really. He’s actually on the mend. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was ready to be released within a week or two.”
“We’ll see about that. You know we spent a lot of time together at the museum, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he couldn’t bring himself to leave me at all.”
“Well, let me know if you have any questions.”
Laura Dell assured him that she wouldn’t hesitate to call if anything arose. Continuing her walk, she held the small wire cage up to eye level and peered inside at the little sparrow.
“What a trouble maker you’ve been,” she sighed to herself, but couldn’t help smiling at his small pointed face. “I hope Herbert won’t mind your company. Just don’t leave any surprises on his furniture, and I promise not to pull out the nets again.”
When Herbert opened the door, he beamed with excitement.
“I always welcome aviary visitors! Malynne and I used to have a parrot you know. Winslow was his name. She came up with that one---don’t ask me how,” he said with a chuckle. It seemed to Laura Dell that with every day she knew Herbert she continued to find out more and more about him. His life stories never ceased; they came one after the other, like the colorful segments of a magician’s handkerchief. She wondered if she would ever know them all.
“Your apartment, or home I should say, is just beautiful. I don’t feel like I’m in the city at all.” The walls were all painted a light blue, like the color of a robin’s egg without the faint speckling. Sepia photographs were displayed all around her, the faces of Herbert’s cousins, sisters, and of course, Malynne. The smell reminded Laura Dell of her grandparents’ home. What was it about age in a house? It was as if the walls knew they were supposed to take on the scent of Vicks Save and stale crackers. It was lovely.
They shared the leftover dumplings and strawberry salad that Laura Dell had packed for Herbert the night before, but most of their conversation was interrupted by the shrill chirping of the sparrow. After only a few minutes in the apartment, he had grown adjusted and had begun to sing. Soon after, a small grey kitten frolicked into the room.
“Oh Herbert, the kitten!” Laura Dell left her lunch half eaten, to lean down and scoop him up. “No sparrow for lunch today, you cute thing.” She had never considered herself a cat person, but because he belonged to Herbert, she couldn’t’ help but think him special.
Herbert smiled the smile of an adoring father as he watched Laura Dell stroke the
white fur beneath the kitten’s head.
“You two make quite a pair there, my dear.”
“Well look what you’ve done to us! We’ve got a regular zoo on our hands here! In a minute I’m going to have to start calling you Dr. Doolittle instead of Dr. Walters.” They both laughed deep throated belly laughs that caused their sides to ache. It seemed that all the world was at peace inside that blue apartment, and for a few moments, it was. After a while though, Herbert began to yawn and Laura Dell got the impression that it might be time for his afternoon nap. She wondered if Herbert was at all like her own grandfather, who had passed away a few years ago. Every afternoon at exactly three o’clock, he used to undress from his work clothes, put on a full suit of pajamas, and get into bed as if it were nighttime.
“Why don’t I let you get some rest? I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”
“Oh, I’m not that tired; it’s just that my body is giving me the signal that I need to rest up for my big event tonight.”
“Big event?”
“Oh yes, didn’t I tell you? I’m taking a lovely young lady to the theater again. That is, if she’ll accept my invitation.”
“But Herbert, do you really think you should---”
“Now Laura Dell, I’ve got twelve nurses over there at that hospital if I want to be told what I can and cannot do. Let them worry about that.” Despite his assurance, it did worry Laura Dell to think of what might happen while taking Herbert out on a busy Friday night. But still, they had been looking forward to making another visit to the theater.
“Well in that case, I’d be delighted.” She smiled at him, trying to conceal any misgivings about his fragile condition. “Pick you up at seven?”
“Don’t be late!”
“And what show might we be seeing?”
“All in due time my dear. Surprises can be fun, you know.”
At his request, she left the sparrow at Herbert’s, and there was nothing to encumber her light steps on the way back to her apartment. If she had been little again, she might have skipped all the way home. She made up her mind that they would have a good time that night, and that she would not let her protective fears spoil their evening. Herbert had been right. The theater was the best idea he could have had.
Her girlish mood continued as Laura Dell dressed for the special occasion. She found a cocktail dress pushed to the back of her closet that she had worn to a social in college. It was turquoise chiffon and still fit beautifully. Normally, Laura Dell would have worn black or some other muted tone like the other women of Chicago, but with the spring weather and the excitement of their night out and all, she decided it was time to have a little fun. She hoped Herbert would like it too.
By the time she made it up to Herbert’s floor, she found herself almost out of breath. Perhaps the elevator would have been a better decision for her strappy sandaled feet. She was in no mood to let a minor setback like that weight her down though. She went up to his door, and rapped on it with a pompous look on her face, if only for her own entertainment. A few moments went by without any sound from within.
“Herbert? Herbert? It’s Laura Dell.” She tried to keep her voice calm. She didn’t want to alarm him if he was on his way. A few minutes more, and her mind began to race. She pounded harder on his door this time, her hands beginning to shake with every hit. Deciding it was time to use the key Herbert had given her earlier, Laura Dell searched the contents of her purse, halfway hoping that Herbert would throw back the door any moment, catching her in the act.
But no such surprise came. She finally found the small gold key, and inserted into the lock. When she entered the blue apartment the smell that only hours before had greeted her with warm nostalgia now struck her with unfamiliarity. There was no sight or sound of Herbert. She felt like a stranger in his house.
“Herbert? Herbert!” Again, no answer. Only a second later, she began to hear a faint chirp coming from the kitchen. Still hoping Herbert might not have heard her and was perhaps occupied with the bird, she followed the sound. To her dismay she walked in only to find the small wire cage knocked over, the flimsy door still swinging on its hinge. A few feet away the small grey kitten lay crouched over the sparrow, it’s small white teeth gnawing the birds broken foot. Laura Dell’s heart wretched within her. She ran over to scoop up the little bird, which the kitten continued to paw at as she pried its leg out of his teeth. He was at least still alive and would be fine in the cage, for a few minutes at least.
“Herbert! Where are you?” Laura Dell became more frightened than anything, and she began to run towards the back of the apartment, her mind in a frenzy. The bedroom door at the end of the hallway was slightly cracked, and Laura Dell could hear the low hum of the ceiling fan as she approached. It all looked so normal, only she couldn’t get her hand to push the door open. She wanted to run, run all the way back to Siloam, run anywhere but in that room. She knew she had to do it though; if not she, who?
The door creaked as it opened, but Herbert did not stir as the sharp sound sliced the silence in the room. He only lie still, his chest motionless.
“Herbert!” She ran to his bedside, and her eyes were flooded with tears before her hands could reach him. She continued calling his name as if he could hear her, though she knew he could not, at first in a forced whisper, but as she kept repeating it, it grew to a shrill scream. Laura Dell threw herself on him, her sobs becoming muffled in his starched white shirt. His body was still warm, his cologne still fresh. Laura Dell’s dress cascaded around the bed, a waterfall of blue.

Herbert's Story Unfolds

With Trudy keeping Mr. Feinman busy, Laura Dell felt she had the perfect opportunity to spend a few uninterrupted minutes with Herbert. Not only had John William’s assessing comments made her feel she really needed to spend some time getting to know Herbert the person and not just Dr. Walters, the scientist, she was becoming increasingly concerned about his health.
“One too many Southern Pecans last night?” she said with a wink, trying to lighten the mood.
“Ah yes, not this time, but I wish that’s what had kept me up half the night.” Herbert winked in response, as if to reciprocate a special joke, shared by the two of them. “Instead, I’m afraid I was only busy pondering things that Sue probably wouldn’t even find interesting.”
“Well wait just a minute. We’ve have dozens of conversations, hundreds maybe, and I can’t recall a single one where I wasn’t the least bit entertained. Just try me.”
“Ok then, I have malignant melanoma, how’s that for entertaining.” He laughed as if it was comical, but the pain on his face sent a different message. Laura Dell didn’t know how to react. She was at first struck by the extreme bluntness from a man whom she had known to be nothing but gentle, if not always tactful.
“You have a what?”
“Malignant melanoma, a malignant tumor of melanocytes, several of them actually.” Herbert pushed back his linen sleeve so that she could see the array of bandages cascading down his left arm, as if in a waterfall of gauze.”
“So this has been what all your testing has been about then?”
“Yes, those doctors at the University Medical Center have been taking shavings for months. You’d have thought I was a sculpture by now. Aparently, all that time I was out digging in the sun, didn't do my skin a while lot of good.”
“And they are proposing treatment, I assume?”
“It’s malignant, and inoperable. I’m afraid we caught it too late.”
Laura Dell felt her stomach grow queasy, and she wondered if she was the one who needed the cane to support herself. Thoughts and worries began to ricochet like bullets in her head. Not this, not again, she thought to herself. Death, the old friend that she knew too well was not about to follow her to Chicago, in this new world of science, pleace, order. Not with her closest friend. With her father’s death, it had been sudden, unexpected. It had come as quickly as a summer afternoon shower, but the memory of it had lingered far too long. The night it had happened, her mother had been cooking spaghetti for the family; John William had been lounging in front of an episode of “The Cosby Show.” No forewarning, no preparation, just a sudden explosion in their little Siloam world that had shattered them to bits with just one telephone call.
“No, this just can’t be. I refuse to believe that there’s not some king of treat…”
“Laura Dell, can you do me a favor?”
“Anything.” The tears had come now, slow and steady, but they were only the brim of what lay behind her searching eyes.
“I don’t need any more doctors, any more experts. What I need is a friend, which I already have in you my dear. Just go on being that for me. That’s what I need the most.”
Laura Dell nodded with every word he said, in exaggerated agreement.
“That, Herbert, is something you don’t have to ask me for.”

***

Still annoyed by his mother’s surprise visit, Mr. Feinman hurried towards Laura Dell and Herbert. Laura Dell had just enough time to blot her eyes with her thick wool sleeve.
“Miss Dell, I have just received a complaint that there are animal droppings in various places across the museum, one little collection in the Cenozoic Time Machine room and another near the Stegosaurus exhibit. God knows where else.”
“Oh, yes Sir. I’ll get right on it.”
“I can only assume they are from that little varmint that got in a few weeks ago. I thought surely you would have found a way to exterminate him by now, but obviously, that hasn’t happened yet. I suggest you find a way Miss Dell.” Laura Dell and Herbert could see Trudy peering at them down the hall, and they wondered if Feinman’s reverting back to his old pompous self was an attempt to show off in front of his mother.
As he walked away, Laura Dell nudged Herbert. “It’s closing time. I can deal with that mess tomorrow. Why don’t we head over Dead Yellowhammer, my treat.”
“The very thing I was going to suggest myself, as long as it’s not a sympathy date, for an old, dying man.” Herbert said with a chuckle, but too soon for Laura Dell to enjoy any humor in it.
“No, no sympathy date. Actually, would you mind running with me to see John William off first? He wanted to meet me at the coffee shop next door before his flight home.”
“Yes, of course, but let’s not burden him with my news. I’d rather not have to explain things. It would make for a messy goodbye anyway, I’m afraid.”
“Our secret.” Laura Dell squeezed his arm tightly and closed her eyes as she breathed in the smell of Vick’s Save and musty cologne. Nothing could have smelled sweeter.

***

John William was surprised to see Herbert walk up with Laura Dell, and he was even more taken aback by the peculiar spectacle of his 22-year-old sister perched on the arm of this surrogate grandfather. He had hoped to say his goodbyes alone, but he was at least comforted in the fact that she wouldn’t be walking home alone. He noticed her swollen eyes and assumed she was more emotional than he had thought about his departure.
“Well Sis, don’t be a stranger. You know it’s just as easy to buy a plane ticket back to Alabama as it is for me to get one to Chicago.”
Laura Dell glanced over at Herbert, realizing that she could not leave him in this condition, not any time soon. “Yes, as soon as I can.” Herbert too considered John William’s request, but he didn’t want Laura Dell leaving Chicago any more than she did.

***

It was nice to be back at The Dead Yellow Hammer with Herbert. Although Laura Dell had treasured every moment with John William, but she was glad to have some time with Herbert, one-on-one.
The booth they had sat in the last time was occupied by a young couple that saw no need to hide their affection in public, so Herbert and Laura Dell opted for the corner table at the back of the room.
“Ok, friend. No sick talk tonight. Tell me something about Herbert, something before he became Dr. Walters.” This request seemed to charm Herbert into a trance.
“All right then, let’s see. 1945, that’s a good year to start. I had just gotten home from the war, ready to live life as a civilian for a change. As a welcome home party, My mother and father and the other neighbors had an ice cream social one night, for all the returning G.I.’s. All the women wore their best dresses and they had even strung up paper mache lanterns all across our back yard. I had been there an hour, just talking to my brother Jim, when I saw Malynne walk up. She was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen; Here eyes were so green back then---everybody said she looked just like Ava Gardner. ‘Ava who?’ I said.” Herbert laughed and Laura Dell joined him, glad he had slipped out of the previous sadness that had seemed to envelop him most of the day. She was glad to laugh too, but she knew the pleasantries of the evening would be short-lived. She dreaded going home alone. Then she wouldn’t be able to escape the thoughts of Herbert’s illness.
“So did anything become of your Malynne, or was she just one of the many hearts you broke in your youth?”
“On the contrary, we were married two months later.” Herbert fished into his pocket for his wallet and slid out a photograph, yellowed with age and slightly curled around the edges. He thumped it across the table to Laura as if it was a paper football. She glanced down at a handsome, young Herbert, wearing a tuxedo. His chest was broad and his arms appeared strong and able, no blemishes, no bandages, much too robust for the cane he now held. Malynne was just as he had described her, the very picture of a lovely war bride. She wore a simple tea-length white gown and an expression of grace and gentility. Laura Dell knew she must have been a wonderful person; she couldn’t imagine Herbert choosing anything less.
“Oh Herbert, y’all were such a handsome couple. And Malynne, she’s so beautiful. You both look so happy.”
“We were. We had no reasons not to back then. Those were the happiest days of my life, Malynne’s too. Laura Dell could have listened to Herbert talk forever, but before she could ask what had become of Malynne, Herbert interrupted her.
“That’s enough of the history channel for tonight. Let’s order. I’m starved.”
Laura Dell knew there had to be more to Herbert’s relationship with Malynne. What she didn’t understand was why he hadn’t told her the whole story.

***

When Laura Dell got back to her apartment, she was greeted by the monotonous red blink of her answering machine. She deleted the message halfway through, before it even ended. Her mother loved to leave her long, detailed messages that usually exceeded the time limit anyway. It was only 8 o’clock, and Laura Dell knew her mother would be up waiting to hear from her. Her mother picked up on the first ring, and Laura Dell could picture her, half-asleep in the rocking chair by the phone at home.
“Laura Dell? Well it’s about time.” Her mother was in no mood for polite conversation tonight.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I just got home, and it’s been a long day.”
“Did you have to work late tonight or something? It’s half past eight already.”
“Oh, I’ve been off work for a while, just went to grab some dinner with a friend.”
“Oh really? Dating a nice Yankee already?
“Well, I went out with Herbert, but he’s no Yankee.”
“Is this the same old man John William told me about?” Laura Dell wasn’t sure just how much John William had told her, and she didn’t want to volunteer any new information. She knew her mother all too well to think that she would be pleased to find out her only close friend was old enough to be her grandfather.
“Yes, it’s the same Herbert that joined us for dinner the other night.”
“I see. So you two are very close, I take it.”
“Oh mother, he’s so wonderful, and it’s just so nice to have someone to talk to that cares enough to listen, that’s all.” But Laura Dell knew that that wasn’t all. She just wondered if it showed.