Jane explained Mel's reasoning, and Shelley admitted he might have a good point. And it might even be interesting.
While Jane was planning all she had to do before the wedding, she and Shelley went to take their first class in Women's Safety. On the way, Jane said, "I e-mailed my
dad that I was going to marry Mel and wanted them here. He e-mailed back, `Please tell me you're not pregnant.' He has a good sense of humor — he thinks."
The class was held on the ground floor of one of the buildings in a group of middle-class apartment buildings with what appeared to be a little-used community center in the middle of them. There were grocery stores, florists, and drugstores on the ground floors of a lot of them.
Most of the class had already assembled. There were only seven of them at the meeting. The leader called them to attention. She was something of a surprise. She looked to be around fifty years of age, but Mel had referred to her as an old lady.
Jane whispered this fact to Shelley. "We're getting closer to being fifty ourselves."
"Never say that again," Shelley snapped. "She must be older than we think. Lots of plastic surgery until you look at the turkey skin on her throat."
The woman called the class to order. "I'm Miss Elinor Brooker Welbourne. And never call me Ms. Let's get your first names sorted out."
Everyone obeyed in turn. Except the youngest, a girl of about twenty who was dressed in a long-sleeved blouse and jeans in spite of it being a hot afternoon. She said she was Sara Tokay.
"All right. Show me your purses before we begin."
An odd request, Jane thought, but they all obediently complied.
"Jane has the best. But you kept it under your chair. Don't ever do that again."
"Why?" Jane asked boldly.
"Because it's dangerous. Anybody behind you could have hooked it with their foot and gone through it."
This remark resulted in some outraged muttering from two of the other women. "As if we'd steal someone's purse!" one said.
Miss Welbourne ignored this. "Purses are important. Jane's has a long strap. But she should wear it crossed over her opposite shoulder and in front of her. Purse snatchers would be glad to take any of the other purses the rest of you brought with you."
She went on, "I have the names of two cobblers in Chicago who could install a flexible steel wire in the strap, so purse snatchers couldn't cut through it with a sharp knife or box cutter. I'll give you their names and addresses at the end of this session."
"That's interesting," Shelley whispered to Jane.
Miss Welbourne went on to explain about pickpockets. She said, "Always buy trousers, skirts, and jackets with pockets, preferably with button closures, and put your cash and one credit card in one front pocket. Leave the other credit cards behind in a safe place at home. Also put your driver's license in your other front pocket. And never put a house key in your handbag or billfold. If you have a driver's license in your purse, it gives them your home address and the key to your front door." She suggested
as well that women who operated on largely a cash basis, only take along with them to the grocery store or a shop what they could afford to lose.
"Leave the rest of your cash at home, well hidden. It would be a good idea to purchase a small, fireproof, waterproof safe and keep it somewhere it's unlikely to be found easily."
Jane was sitting next to Shelley with Sara Tokay on her other side. Sara pushed her sleeve back to look at her wristwatch.
"This is enough for you to absorb in this first meeting. We'll get together and go over some other matters on Thursday morning."
Jane was doing as she'd been told, holding her purse in front of her passing the strap over one shoulder and under and in front of the other arm.
"That was good advice," she said as she hauled herself up into Shelley's minivan. "Did you see that young girl's arm when she looked at her wristwatch?"
"I didn't notice she did that. Why do you ask?" Shelley said, shoving the car into drive and shooting out of the parking lot at a furious rate. Jane, as always, had her foot firmly on the nonexistent brake pedal on the passenger side.
"Because the girl had a terrible bruise on her arm."
"That's a bit alarming. But maybe she was careless and got it herself," Shelley said, taking a sharp right turn that felt as if she'd done it on only the right wheels.
"Maybe. Or maybe not,"Jane said.Chapter
FOUR
T
he next day, Jane called Shelley to borrow Shelley's son, John. "Sure. What for?"
"I need to get all the stuff in the other half of my garage either thrown away or put into a shed at the side of the house. I want John and Todd to go with me to Home Depot and Sears to pick one out."
"May I come along?" Shelley asked. "I fancy I'd be good at picking out a shed that looked nice."
"Sure. The more the merrier. I want whoever will put
it together for free."
When they were ready to go, and told the boys about the project, both of them said, "Putting a shed together is
easy. We can do it for you. Also pick up another trash bin to throw out the junk."
It was, naturally, Shelley who took a measurement of how much width could fit between the fence and the
house. "And you need two big doors that open out," she said as they took off at warp speed in her minivan.
Todd and John didn't seem to mind riding with Shelley at the wheel. Jane thought it was because they were too
young to contemplate imminent death in a fire-engulfed vehicle. Or simply because they had male genes.
They found a perfect steel shed that met the requirements and could be delivered and stacked in the driveway the next day. In the meantime, Jane went out to buy a new trash bin and started filling it. It would probably take two weeks to get everything disposable in the garage into it.
Jane then turned her attention to making an office for Mel. She hadn't consulted him yet. But she called her honorary uncle Jim. He'd had a room tacked onto the back of his house three years earlier. He was close to retirement
and wanted to set up a woodworking room with lots of windows for good light.
"Don't mention this to Mel yet. I want to tell him about it and figure out how much room he needs."
Jim said, "You'll need an architect to draw up tentative plans, and get the township's permission. I can help you
with that. I've been through it, and know the ropes and the right people to hire."
"Uncle Jim, you really are a treasure."
"I'm looking forward to the wedding. I haven't seenCecily and Michael for two years." Uncle Jim had been a long-term Chicago cop. Before that he served as a bodyguard for five years when Jane's parents traveled to different countries. They'd always been close to him.
"We scheduled the wedding around their timetable."
Jane had already called her son, Mike, to tell him she was getting married. His response was merely, "It's about time, Mom. You're not getting any younger."
Katie was slightly less enthusiastic, but pretended prettily that she was pleased.
Todd had taken the news easily, "Cool, Mom. Somebody else to take out the trash every week."
Thelma took it very badly. "At your age, you're getting married? What's the point in doing something so foolish?"
"That's my business, Thelma. It's not your concern."