Dawn Byrne

Grandma’s tired eyes didn’t see me on the other side of the silly glass in the apartment door peephole. I hopped down from the chair that helped me see outside, and let her in. She hugged me and looked around. I asked if she wanted to meet my flower.

"What time does your mother get home from work?"

Maybe Grandma didn’t hear my question. I scooped up Orangina from the table and lifted her to Grandma’s nose. She moved her face away and said, "Marigolds don't have a pleasant odor. They keep insects away from tomato plants."

"I like its smell. I guess because I'm not a bug." I laughed. Grandma made a snap sound with her tongue. She did that when she worried about Mommy.

"Sometimes Mommy comes home at 6:30." When she came in later than that, me and Orangina snuggled up to each other with all the lights on until she came in and hollered about the electric bill.

I put Orangina by the window. She was happier there. My finger tingled to touch her clean dirt. Would I hurt her roots if I did that? I loved the dirt smelled after I watered her.

"How did you get home from school?" Grandma looked down at me. She touched my head the same way the minister did.

"I walked. It's not far. The crossing guards are real nice." I always made sure to walk close to an adult with a kid to make it easier for the guard to cross us. I pretended the adult and kid were my family.

Grandma ordered from Lee's Pizza & Sub Shop two blocks to the left from our corner and the next block to the right. Mommy kept the paper that has the list of food you can order from Lee’s on the refrigerator. Grandma helped me with my spelling words while we waited for the delivery person.

Mommy must have thrown away the sad bouquet. I told Grandma about it. She slid Orangina in front of my papers, and explained Orangina was magic. "Don't worry when the flower withers. Just like the dandelion, she's getting ready to give you a present. At the top of the stem is a pouch." Grandma pointed under Orangina’s petals. "When the flower dries up, it leaves seeds."

Mommy came in. Grandma kissed my head and got up from the table. "I thought you were putting her in the after school program."

"It's too expensive,” Mommy said.

Is dirt expensive? I needed more for those seeds.

Mommy was still talking. “I thought I could afford it, but it's costing me more than I thought to live here."

How many seeds were growing under Orangina’s petals? Could a new marigold grow from each seed? Orangina had a teeny bud next to her opened flower. More seeds could be in that one too.

"Deenie, she's not safe walking home alone in this neighborhood to an empty apartment." Grandma forgot about Orangina being in the apartment.

"Okay, I'm a bad parent." I picked up my flower to take it to Mommy. If Orangina got closer to her, she’d feel better. But she wasn’t done talking to Grandma. "What're you going to do? Turn me in to the state?"

State. That was a curse word, so I tried not to say it and hurt God’s feelings. Grandma didn’t like it and neither did Mom. A counselor from the state came to Mommy’s apartment. Even Mommy had to listen to the state when she didn’t want to. It hates families and tries to break them up and make them pay for things they don’t have money for, like after school programs and work training.

"No, no. I know you're trying your best. I'll go see how much the after school program is. Maybe I can pay for it."

Mommy breathed heavy. Did she catch a whiff of Orangina?

"Deenie, Aubrie said the school's not far, so it won't take you long to get her after work. It can be your quality time together."

"We have plenty of time together. Right, Aubrie?" Mommy spun around to me. That quick I forgot what she asked. I couldn’t answer her. She turned back around to Grandma. "We had a great time shopping yesterday at the mall."

Next time Mommy takes me shopping, I’ll look for a pot to plant the seeds in.

Grandma kissed me again, and said to Mommy, "I'll call you, Deenie. Please answer. I love you."

Mommy whipped around to me after closing the apartment door behind Grandma. "Did you call her?"

My belly felt funny. I sniffed Orangina. Grandma had dropped her cell phone into my schoolbag after I let her inside the apartment. Mommy had taken the other one and lost it. I thought of telling Mommy about the new one. It didn't seem like a game anymore.

She pulled the refrigerator door open behind my chair. I swiveled around on my knees. Mommy took out the American hoagie and the Styrofoam container of pickles. She always ate them separate, not on the hoagie.

"Is this for me?"

I nodded my blooming head, and used my leaves to hold onto the chair. Did Mommy understand flower talk?

Last Valentine’s Day, hubby and I bought bedroom carpeting for our love nest. The installation ended with a restoration company repairing a main beam that was cracking underneath our bed. You can read those stories here and here.

This Valentine’s Day, we gave each other a new kitchen floor. Not as romantic as bedroom carpeting. Or as scary as the floor almost collapsing under us while we slept. But, since our elderly house is feeling its age, frustration stymied us again. A sales representative quote $2,140.00 for Luxury Vinyl Plank flooring. This surprised me because our kitchen and pantry are small rooms.

Days later, an installer pointed to the bottom of our crumbling wall at the back door. He said he could put the floor in, but not molding. He needed a solid wall to tack the molding onto. And, no guarantee the strip molding wouldn’t pull away from drywall; strip molding on drywall needs a wood backing. My sales rep. had boasted she was a 16-year veteran of the large flooring company. Why didn’t she mention the crumbling wall when she sized and surveyed our kitchen and pantry? I cancelled.

Hubby repaired the walls. Then, dug out the name of our sales rep. from last year’s carpet installation. This new kitchen floor quote, for the same materials, from the same company, was $1,875.00.

Days after that, the second installer couldn’t put down the LVP because the floor was too unlevel. A supervisor from the large flooring company explained I needed to hire a contractor to install sub-flooring before rescheduling with them to lay the LVP. Once that phone conversation ended, the second installer told me someone from his home improvement company could lay a sub-floor the next day. Hmm.

The large flooring company sub-contracts their installation work to small contractors. I thought the installer was taking a risk; offering me his contracting services. But, after more than a week without my kitchen, I was desperate to get the floor installed so hubby could hook the stove back up.

Next day, all day, one carpenter worked putting down ¼ inch plywood that was supported on the lower areas of the floors with shims. He didn’t cover a small area near the doorway into our dining room. When I asked about it, he said it was okay because the LVP floor installers would cover it. As I walked on the sub-floor, the shims popped. I bounced where the plywood was hollow underneath. Again, the carpenter said it was okay, the new floor would take care of that too. I paid him $684.00. Tire tracks from his truck run along our side yard, and on our front lawn where he did a K-turn.

More days later, a third installer from the large flooring company bounced on the sub-floor. “That’s not a shot you’re hearing, it’s a shim,” he said into his phone to his boss at the large flooring company. The sub-floor had to be taken up and replaced with 7/16 inch material. The third installer took pictures of the business cards of the second installer and the carpenter who worked all day in our kitchen. I also asked him to take a picture of the receipt that I insisted the second installer give me before the ¼ inch sub-floor was laid.

Days after that, the third installer worked with an apprentice for 5 ½ hours. They pulled up the sub-floor, replaced it with 7/16 inch material, laid the LVP, installed wood backing around the bottom of the walls, and tacked strip molding. Thresholds to the basement, back door and dining room are clean. Transition from kitchen to pantry is capped beautifully. Gaps are sealed flawlessly.

The upside is that we got the proper sub-floor for more than $300.00 less than if the large flooring company had originally put it on our bill. Because of their employee’s mistake in selling us the wrong sub-flooring, we weren’t charged the extra money the large flooring company typically requires for sub-flooring. Add this to the money we saved going with the second sales rep., and we saved more than $565.00. However, since we weren’t told we needed a sub-floor to begin with, we put out $684.00 we hadn’t intended.

Initially, going with the large flooring company was disappointing. However, they made good on giving us the floor we wanted and sucked up their loss with the sub-flooring. The saddest take away is the back of the carpenter’s business card. It says ‘Thank You’ above biblical scripture on love.

We started this process in January. It ended after Valentine’s Day. Hubby and I shouldn’t have put pressure, again, on our poor old house to make Valentine’s Day memorable. This day of love, lays enough pressure on relationships, let alone houses.

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