Britany's First Babysitting Experiance

References to Don Mauldin run through this narrative. Don and Scharlett were close friends in our first few years of marriage. Don and I studied together, worked at TI together, carpooled to the University together, and played an interminable number of tic-tac-toe five-in-a-row while we waited for computer runs to complete.

They were from Bonham, Texas, near the Red River, but most of all Scharlett wanted a baby. They begged us to let them babysit for us. We were so reluctant. We had already introduced Britany to the drive-in theater, sleeping in her car bassinet while we enjoyed the movie.

Finally, Scharlett broke us down and we agreed to have a real movie date at a real indoor theater — The River Oaks on West Gray. The feature we chose was Rosemary’s Baby — maybe not the best choice.

The movie was a dramatization of a book by Ira Levin, a dark thriller wherein a young couple moves into a weird apartment house in NYC. They are befriended by the other residents, who turn out to be a witches’ coven that contrives to have the young wife impregnated by the devil. Yaaarrrggghhhh! You get the picture.

We came out of the theater quivering. Was Britany OK? Could our dear friends be consumed by evil? We raced with hearts pounding to their apartment to retrieve our precious, innocent daughter from the grasp of these fiends!!!

Well, they were just Don and Scharlett, and Britany was just fine.

We drove home, got her out of the car, and climbed the unlit metal fire escape stairs to our kitchen door. I stepped on the tail of an invisible black cat who screeched and jumped and scared me so badly that I nearly dropped the baby. What a date!