Page 12 of Leo and His Love Bunny

“You have to try things sometimes not knowing whether they’ll work or not.” Leslie sits beside Carrie, carefully sanding the leg of one of the chairs.

“I think it was a bad idea.” Tammy has to add her typically negative opinion as she continues to measure the sofa she kneels beside, the one they are getting ready to reupholster.

“You think everything is a bad idea,” Phyllis says, pushing to her feet and ignoring the cracking in her knees as well as the pain. When a person gets to a certain age, pain was to be expected on a daily basis. That was something that no one had mentioned to her when she was young and pain-free. That she ought to enjoy it, because those days were limited. And then, once the pain started, it was never ending, not until death.

Most of the time, she pushes it aside, but there must be a storm coming because she can feel it in her back and knees particularly bad.

But the idea of putting into practice the things that she and the ladies have been talking about is exciting enough to take her mind off the pain.

“There are so many unmarried people in this apartment building,” she starts.

“That’s because they’re one-bedroom apartments. Not very big. If people are going to get married and have children, they’re going to go somewhere else,” Tammy says, sounding practical as well as negative. A trait that seemed unique to her personality.

“Regardless, it’s a wide-open field ready for harvest. All of these singles we see on a daily basis, but come and go at different times and might not even realize that their soulmate was right in the building.”

“I think the parakeet might have been a little bit much,” Leslie says, cautious as always.

“Training him to say love words? Or giving him to Nora?” Phyllis asks, always willing to be wrong and to correct herself. That was how a person grew. By seeing the areas that needed to be fixed, and being willing to fix them. A person just stayed stagnant when they refused to see their flaws or refused to do anything about them. Or refused to listen to anyone criticize them or, even worse, dissolving in a puddle of tears every time someone said something unkind to them.

Phyllis is of the mind that a person needs to examine what is said to them and decide whether or not it is necessary to make any changes.

Of course, she was in her late seventies before she got to that point in her life. But still, she is there, and she would glory in the fact that she no longer is bothered by criticism. Inspired by it, yes, sometimes. But bothered? No.

“Both?” Leslie says, grimacing.

Leslie is at least ten years younger than Phyllis, and Phyllis knows Leslie doesn’t have the experience that she has.

“Well, if it doesn’t work out, what do we have to lose?” That is another question she’s learned to ask herself.

“We don’t have anything to lose. But we could ruin two people’s lives. Plus, what if she doesn’t take care of Trixie? Did you remind her that she needs to water him morning and evening?”

“She’s an adult. She will take care of the parakeet, and he will be fine.” Phyllis isn’t even going to think of the possibility of anything else. She wouldn’t have given Nora the parakeet if she didn’t think Nora was a responsible pet owner.

But when someone was down, a lot of times they let their responsibilities go.

“I think we agreed that we would try and see. If this doesn’t work, maybe we’re not meant to be matchmakers. Maybe we’re just meant to see these people passing each other and barely realizing they’re there.”

“Are you sure we picked the right man for her?” Leslie says, biting her lip again, her wrinkled skin stretching out as her forehead wrinkles in consternation.

“We’ll see. We prayed about it, and we took copious notes. They might not realize how compatible they are, but we do.”

Phyllis nods. It is true that she learned that she needed to take correction, but she also learned from her long and storied life that a person also needs to show confidence. Especially at those times when they are the least confident.

“We’ll give them two weeks. And unless something really terrible happens, if this doesn’t work, we’ll try at least one more. We can’t give up after the first time, just because we weren’t successful right out of the gate. You don’t expect to be successful at something the first time you try it.”

“At our age, we don’t have too much time to not be successful,” Tammy says, again mixing practicality with negativity, as only Tammy could.

Phyllis glances at her and then continues working on the chair. Time will tell. And that is another thing she’s learned over her lifetime. Sometimes things just take patience.

Chapter 6

Leo

Pete, a policeman who lives in my building, is sitting with me and Cal, one of my Icebreaker teammates.

I like Pete. He’s serious and the most honest man I’ve ever met. He makes a good cop. The three of us went to school together, and I know that the odds that Cal and I would end up on the same hockey team are almost impossible, but there’s a reason for that. It has to do with the team owner, Glenda Pringle, and that she has more than money in mind when she signs players.

She gave us both a chance when most people wouldn’t have. But that’s another story.

---