Mrs. D

(Names have been changed)

In my early twenties, I was friends with Jack and his sister Sue. Jack and Sue’s parents were divorced and they lived with their mother, Mrs. Dockerly. Now Mrs. Dockerly was pretty attractive for a mother and was always very friendly whenever I saw her.

One fine summer evening Sue had a party, I don’t recall the occasion, but I was in attendance with a couple of friends. One of these friends was Mike. Mike was brother of a high school classmate and we had become friends in college at Millersville. Mike, two years older than I, was one of the nicest guys I ever knew, in addition he had, what only be described as a cherubic face.

Much to my surprise, Mrs. Dockerly and her sister were both at the party, both of these older woman were attractive and as the night progressed were showing the tell tale signs of alcohol consumption. At one point, a few of us are in the living room listening to some guy play an acoustic guitar. Mrs. Dockerly comes in and sits on the arm of the sofa, right next to Mike. I was seated directly across from them when Mrs. Dockerly says to Mike, “My God you are cute.” She then leans over, locks Mike in an embrace and engages him in a long deep kiss. My jaw dropped, but as the kiss ends, I break into a huge, laughter suppressing grin, as Mike looks dreamily into Mrs. Dockerly’s eyes and proclaims, “Gee Mrs. Dockerly, you sure kiss good.” Classic.

Soon afterward, a fight broke out, Mrs Dockerly starts screaming, threatening to call the police. We hightailed to my car, a 1967 MGB, and headed to Millersville to see what parties we could find. Going much too fast, coming up to a stop sign, I mistakenly downshift into first gear. Every one knows, you don’t downshift into first gear in a 67 MGB, they are not synchronized into first gear. Anyway, it promptly ripped out that gear. Lesson learned.

Later that summer, a very distraught Sue calls, sobbingly asking me to come help with her mother. She is very inebriated, fell and was bleeding profusely. Sue had called the ambulance, but she needed support. I immediately left and arrived before the EMTs. Sue says her mother in is the bathroom, please check on her. Without a thought, I enter the bathroom to find a bloody and naked Mrs. Dockerly. She is attempting to apply make up, red lipstick and blood smeared all over her face. She says, “I need to look good for the ambulance people.”

Thinking to myself, that ship has already sailed, I cover her with a towel and have Sue get a bathrobe. The ambulance comes and they whisk her to the hospital. Thankfully after this incident, Mrs. Dockerly enters some sort of rehab and gets sober.

Fast forward a few years, I am a Sous Chef at a large hotel. In the afternoons, I am in charge of an intern from a local high school. One day he comes in all excited, talking about the speaker he had in health class that morning. She was a member of AA and was describing the low points of her drinking life. He relates her story of making out with one of her daughter’s friends, how another one of her friends helped her as she stood naked and bleeding in her bathroom. I stopped him and said, wait a minute, I know this lady, I was there for the first incident, that was me in the second. He shook his head and said holy hell, that’s nuts, what are the chances? I have to admit, crazy coincidence.