Friday, October 31st, 1958
11:20 p.m.
"Louise is pregnant." Dannie blurted out.
Therese looked back into the dining room, noticing Louise with a bottle of Coca-Cola in her hands rather than her usual glass of red wine as she talked to Carol. She was laughing and smiling, just her same giddy self, fiddling with the edges of her scarf. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary other than the Coke bottle.
"I'm not sure if it's 'whaddya gonna do?' or 'congratulations,' but either way I'm not entirely surprised." Therese stated.
Dannie snorted, wiping his nose with a flick of his finger. "It's a little of both really, and partly your fault."
"Mine?" Therese incredulously asked, pointing to herself. "I'm pretty sure I had nothing to do with it."
"Yeah, well, if you hadn't told me how to make a girl's eyes roll back in her head… " Therese swatted his arm. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"
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"Louise. Glass of wine?" Carol offered, holding out a glass of red to her.
Louise smiled back at Carol then eyed over to the balcony where Dannie and Therese sat chatting, "I'll pass, thanks." She held up her Coke bottle by the neck to show Carol she already had something to drink.
Carol gave her the once over, honing in on what could possibly be different about Louise today, but Carol instantly knew. She could tell from her demeanor and how she was carrying herself all night. "How far along are you?"
"Seriously? You can tell?" Louise smoothed back her hair, and looked to see if anyone else had noticed too.
"Well, there are," Carol cleared her throat and vaguely gestured to Louise's chest, "signs and - "
"I blame you though." Louise jokingly interrupted.
"Me?"
Louise took a sip of pop, "You're the one who told me about that - you know - trick with the - " She moved her hands in an awkward way before Phil popped around the corner looking for Carol.
"You got any beers, Carol? I'm dyin' here." he asked. Phil tilted his head as he saw Louise quickly shuffle her legs and hide her hands behind her back. "What the hell were ya doin', Louise?"
"Mind your own business."
"There are more in the fridge, dear." Carol said with a gesture toward the kitchen, distracting him from their discussion. Phil hurriedly trotted over to find a drink and then plopped onto the couch holding one of the throw pillows. Carol and Louise silently watched his entire quest for beer until he found his way to the sofa and then resumed chatting. "Have you told Dannie?"
"Oh, yes, he knows. My parents - they don't. We also haven't told Phil yet."
"Do you two want to get married?"
Louise looked at her feet and back out the window toward Dannie. "We do, and it's not the marriage part that gets me any. That's fine. It's just, I like my job."
"There are options, you know." Carol didn't think before she spoke, realizing what she said sounded much worse than she had intended, and hastily continued. "I mean, childcare, relatives, things like that."
"I just didn't expect it so soon. I want to do so much and don't know… " Louise trailed off again, looking back to the Therese and Dannie on the balcony laughing and throwing back their beers.
Carol reached out and hugged Louise, who very eagerly hugged her back.
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Therese caught the commotion in the dining room with Phil and kept looking out of the corner of her eye as to what was happening in there.
"I don't know if I'm ready to be a dad."
"You'll be a good dad, Dannie." Therese said before sipping her beer.
Dannie lightly tapped the metal of the railing and looked beneath him into the courtyard. "Now we gotta get married, she's gotta quit her job… "
"You'll be fine."
"Easy for you, you didn't have a whole ceremony or whatever it is with family and friends, and gawking people everywhere. Neither of you had to stop doin' what you love."
"You'll be fine." Therese again reassured him. She looked back into the living room and saw Carol hug Louise. With a tilt of her head, she spoke to Dannie, "Looks like Carol knows."
"How's that possible?"
Therese laughed and finished the rest of her beer in one swig. "Carol can just… She can just tell."
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Holding her bag of Halloween candy, Rindy wandered out into the living room. All of the guests had left except for the usual stragglers of Phil, Dannie, and Louise. Of course Abby was bound to make an appearance once her housewarming party upstairs was over or when she was out of ice or vermouth. Rindy took note of Dannie and Therese sitting out on the balcony, and Louise and Carol talking in the living room. Then there was Phil, all by himself, sitting on the couch in front of the television.
"What are you doing?"
Phil looked over to see Rindy, carrying her bag of candy. "Oh, just waiting for Jack Paar to come on." Rindy sat on the couch next to him and starting to rifle through the bag. "You get anything good tonight?"
"I think so. I got some Milky Ways, Junior Mints - " She looked up when she said Junior Mints, knowing full well that if her mother was within an earshot, all the Junior Mints would be gone by morning. " - don't say anything about the Junior Mints though otherwise Mommy will steal them - there's some Cracker Jacks, Necco wafers, oh, you know, the usual."
"You're lucky. When I was your age, the war was going on and I got nothing but apples and popcorn balls for four years."
"You make yourself sound so old."
Phil looked at the extra bottle of beer sitting next to him and back at the candy. "I'll trade you a beer for a Milky Way." he jokingly offered.
"Phil, I'm ten-and-a-half. You can't trade me beer, but I'll take a Coke." Rindy laughed. "You should try hanging out with my Aunt Abby."
"I can't keep up with your Aunt Abby, or your mother for that matter." he insisted, recalling the time they drank shot after shot of whiskey for some reason he couldn't quite remember. Phil got up from the couch to go into the kitchen where he found the last bottle of pop in the fridge and opened it with a church key for Rindy. "Say, shouldn't you be in bed?"
"Maybe." she answered.
"Your mothers gonna be upset with me for giving you a Coke after eleven?"
"Probably, but it's Halloween. They can live a little. Plus Mommy likes you."
"Does she now?" Phil laughed as he passed the bottle to Rindy once he was back in the room and she smiled and thanked him. Rindy, in turn, pulled one of the candy bars from her bag and handed it to Phil. They toasted each other with the soda and candy bar, and settled in to watch television together. He found a blanket on the couch next to him and showed it to Rindy.
"You cold?"
"Yeah." Phil took the throw and placed it over Rindy's legs and let her adjust it as she needed. "Thank you." As soon as the commercials came on, Rindy turned to Phil, "Do you have a girlfriend?"
"No."
"A boyfriend?"
Phil chuckled, not that he thought it was silly, rather he liked how upfront Rindy was for such a young girl. "No," he pleasantly replied.
"It's all right with us if you do."
"I know," Phil smiled, then his face turned a touch dour. "I used to have a girlfriend though, but the two of us broke up a couple days ago."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay." he said and took her hand, "She was supposed to come here with me tonight, and when I told her who's hosting the party, and well, brought up your family, she, uh, made some pretty, uh, disparaging remarks… "
"'Disparaging'?"
"Uh, it's negative, meaning rude or mean-spirited, kind of."
"Oh."
"I don't like anyone making rude comments about your mothers, not when they've been so nice to me and my brother and Louise." Phil stopped to compose himself
Rindy leaned her head against Phil's arm and squeezed his hand. "I think Louise is pretty swell." she whispered.
"Me too. Dannie's really lucky." he whispered back with a nod of his head.
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"Looks as though Phil is going to be a good babysitter when the time comes." Carol noted to Louise. "Although he will need to learn that you can't negotiate drinking pop with a ten year old after eight o'clock."
Louise stood up from the dining table, followed by Carol who walked into the living room. She knocked on the glass window to the balcony, beckoning Therese and Dannie to come inside.
"What are you two watching?" Therese asked once she took off her jacket.
"New Jack Paar, but he's out, so Virginia Graham is subbing in." Phil answered.
"Oooh, I love Jack Paar." Louise said settling down on the other side of Phil on the couch. Dannie sat next to Louise and held her hand, not saying anything, but ultimately putting his head on her shoulder.
"Who's on?" asked Carol.
Phil paused for a moment as he tried to think of the names. "Betty Johnson, Gig Young, and Gypsy Rose Lee."
"Okay, Rindy, it's definitely bedtime." Therese interjected.
"But I haven't finished my soda!" Rindy raised her bottle in the air for her mother to see.
"Bedtime. Now." Carol sternly said, peeling the half-consumed bottle of Coke from her hands and passing it to Therese. No one needed to tell Rindy twice that she needed to get to bed. She could have pleaded; it was Halloween night and a Friday at that. There was no point though, the grown-ups wanted to have their fun and watch their grown-up programming, whatever that was.
After giving everyone a hug, Rindy retreated to her bedroom with her bag of candy as the adult continued their merriment and chatter.
Carol laughed as she sat down in a plush armchair once Rindy was out of sight, "Sweetheart, it's not like Gypsy's going to strip on TV in front of millions." Carol patted her lap and Therese begrudgingly sat down where she had been directed so the guests had all the seats on the couch. "If they show that on TV before we see, God forbid, a married couple in the same bed, that be something else."