Beach Ride

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Authors: Bonnie Bryant
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Your dad isn’t the problem.”
    “Then what is?” Carole asked.
    Midge paused at a cart that sold popcorn and soda. She bought a bag of popcorn and a soda for each of them. Then they sat down on a nearby bench and rested their feet while they talked.
    “There are two problems, Carole,” Midge began. “The first is that I’ve been divorced for just a short time. It’s been a very difficult time for me and hard on my son as well. Something like this makes wounds.The wounds heal in time, but right now they’re still not healed and they hurt.”
    “You mean you’re not ready to see anybody yet?” she asked.
    “I’m ready to see people. I’m just not ready to get serious about anybody or anything. That’s going to take a long time.”
    “I can understand that. You mean you like being with my dad, but you couldn’t fall in love with anybody right now?”
    Midge nodded.
    “Okay, so what’s the other problem?”
    “The other problem is your aunt Joanna. She’s a meddler. She thinks she knows what’s right for me and she thinks she knows what’s right for your dad. I think she’s wrong on both counts, but she’s a good friend of mine and I love her a lot. I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but I’m not going to pretend something just to make her feel good. Besides that, if your father and I
were
to start seeing one another—a tricky business considering how far apart we live—Joanna would never be able to keep her fingers out of it. She’d be telling him things about me constantly and she’d be telling me things about him all the time. She’d want to run the whole thing. Why, I’m telling you, Carole, I swear that somewhere in the back of hermind are wedding plans for us. She asked me what size dress I wore, and I’ll bet you she’s got her own wedding dress in the attic and that’s what she’s thinking!”
    Carole started laughing and found herself choking on some popcorn. Midge waited patiently until she recovered.
    “What was that all about?” she asked.
    Carole took a sip of her soda. “Well, Midge, if she’s got a wedding dress in her attic, she may also have some bridesmaid’s dresses, too, because she was asking me what size dress
I
wore.”
    Midge laughed then, too. “And what did you tell her?”
    “I told her I don’t wear dresses. I’m usually in jeans or riding clothes. That made her scowl.”
    Carole thought for a minute then. “I suppose that if you and Dad each reminded Aunt Joanna that you’ve been doing fine on your own for some time now and don’t really need her help, she just wouldn’t believe you, would she?”
    “I considered it,” Midge said. “But you’re right. Either she wouldn’t believe me or else she’d be hurt. Besides, someday I may be ready to fall for a guy she says is perfect for me. Someday that might be your dad. Not today, though. Incidentally, I have the feeling that he feels about the same way. He’s talked anawful lot about another woman, one named Dana? I think he’s more than a little sweet on her, and I think she’s a very lucky woman.”
    “I think so, too,” said Carole. She wouldn’t have minded telling Midge more about Mrs. Dana, but she thought it was her father’s job to do that. She didn’t want to meddle. One meddler in the family was enough.
    “Now don’t we have some shopping to do?” Midge asked.
    They did, indeed. In the next hour and a half, Carole thought they went into forty shops, and she also thought they’d left another forty untouched. She’d intended to buy only little gifts for Stevie and Lisa, but found that there was so much to buy that, well, she couldn’t help herself. She stopped only when she ran out of money. By then, it was time for the parade.
    While they waited for the parade to begin, Carole scribbled a postcard to Lisa and Stevie. She wrote, “This place is fantastic. And tomorrow may be even better. I’m going riding on the beach with Sheila. Can’t wait. And can’t wait to see you!

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