The next morning, I was awake long before my alarm sounded. The night before had been magical even
before we hit the dance floor. On the 30-minute drive to her house, I replayed our impromptu date to
evaluate my performance and realized there had not been one. Mel relaxed me and let me be myself.
She listened attentively and her smile started in her green eyes and settled on the cutest dimples. I had
noticed her before, of course, but she always came across as formal and reserved, keeping to herself
and reading her latest novel or textbook during breaks or lunch. I was driving her baby-blue, two-door
Fiat and glad that the seat was perfectly adjusted, and I wouldn’t have to figure out the controls. She
kept the vehicle spotless and well organized, her daughter’s booster seat had a cup holder and a few of
her toys were on top of a small sweater, neatly folded in the other seat. Melanie did not smoke in the
car and her scent filled the air as if she were there next to me. I pulled up in the driveway of a small
townhouse, on a quiet cul-de-sac. Palm trees lined the street and cactus plants combined with oversized rocks to provide desert landscaping at its finest. Melanie swung the door open as I approached the
small porch landing. She grabbed my elbow and led me to a small breakfast nook with a view of the
Las Vegas Country Club’s back nine. Two places were set with mats and silverware. The table was
functional, but looked like a showroom exhibit. I looked around and could see the quality of the
furnishings. There was no way she could afford this place, the Fiat, and the cost of raising a daughter,
with her job at the Circus-Circus.
She motioned me to one of the chairs and filled my cup with steaming coffee.
“Cream and sugar? Mel asked, on her way to the kitchen.
“No, after last night, I should drink it black. Thank you for great time and…….”
“Let’s leave it at that.” She smiled and went into the kitchen.
I must have had more drinks than I realized last night. I swallowed the coffee as fast as my mouth let
me and the caffeine began to energize me. I walked to the kitchen and found Mel at the stove, pulling a
dish out of the oven. Mel was about 5ft.10in and her legs went on forever. She was wearing formfitting shorts, white with patterns of pink roses. Her silk blouse was a matching pink and I had noticed the jewelry that flashed as she had poured my coffee.
“Do you need a hand?”, I asked, walking over behind her.
“No, I got this. The coffee is on the sideboard if you need a refill” She pulled a breakfast casserole out of the oven and carried it to the table.

.
“I hope you brought an appetite. It’s been a while since I cooked for someone, and I got a little carried
away.”
“It smells and looks delicious. If I don’t eat it all, I’ll just take it home with me.” We both laughed and
sat down to eat.
Melanie enjoyed sharing her recipe and beamed when I gave her well-deserved compliments and
thanks for breakfast. I helped her clear the table and we stepped out through sliding glass to a back
patio. It was large enough to hold a swinging lawn chair. We sat down and lit up. Melanie smoked
Virginia Slims, the long slender cigarettes accentuating her freshly manicured hands. When she held
the cigarette by her ear and slowly exhaled, she reminded me of the glamour queens and female stars of
the 1920’s. I asked her if she had ever considered modeling, she had the perfect look, and it was all
natural. The hair, eyes, shape and carriage that stood out in the Las Vegas crowds. The conversation
turned to why I had not finished my degree and then left the Air Force. I went into a long monologue
about how I was disappointed in college and the Air Force. I wasn’t prepared for college educationally,
socially, or financially. By the time I found out how to survive, I was already on the way home. The Air
Force was too easy, my missile electronics job consisting of washing and painting missiles, not
building or repairing them. That was the job I had signed up for, something that would transfer to a
good paying job in civilian life.
Melanie had met her husband during her freshman year in college. She was a cheerleader, pursuing a
nursing career. He was a star athlete, finishing his second year and projected to be a starter in two
sports his junior year. Their daughter Suzy, was conceived during Homecoming Week, and their plans
changed. Both sets of parents blamed the others, so they decided to elope and make it on their own. She
began to have issues in her seventh month and her parents took her home to Philadelphia to have the
baby. Her husband surprised her with the announcement that he had enlisted and both of their parents
had agreed to provide them with a proper wedding and send off. The Fiat was one of the wedding gifts,
another was the remaining balances of their college funds. When they received orders for Nellis, they
agreed he would not reenlist, and they would make Las Vegas their home. He died one year short of
finishing his military commitment. The death clause in their mortgage gave her free and clear title to
the townhouse, which was really a condominium. She spent the first two years raising her baby girl and
resisting the grandparents offers to move in with one of them. The next year she lost her parents to an
auto accident, they were hit by a drunk driver. Melanie had a mental breakdown and was placed in a
ninety-day recovery program. When she was discharged, she had to fight for custody of Suzy. She
started working at the casino to provide for monthly expenses. With no house payment, she could easily
afford to pay expenses without using her college account or other savings.
“That’s why I need your help.”, she finished.
“I’m ready when you are. Let’s get started.”, I said.
Secretly, I was glad to be with her in a setting apart from work. We started with Math, and I gave her
some problems in simple addition and subtraction. Mel looked at the paper and looked at me.
“These are too easy. I work all day making change. I know how to count.”, she pouted.
“Then you should be done by the time I finish my cigarette.”
I went out the sliding glass door. Mel stuck out her tongue and making a face, she started on the
worksheet.
A few minutes later, she joined me outside and handed me the paper. She lit a cigarette and sat beside
me as I went over her work. I handed it back to her 30 seconds later.
“You got them all right”
“See, I told you I know simple Math.”, she grinned.
“It should have taken you less than a minute. The key to higher math is knowing the basic operations.
Addition, Division, and Multiplication should be as easy as knowing your name.”, I replied.
“You forgot subtraction. “
“No, subtraction does not exist. A long time ago, students wrote their problem1s like this.”, I moved
over so she could see the paper.

+1+1=+2 and +2-(+1) =+1

“Over time we dropped the plus signs and kept the minus symbol. The mathematical equation should still be read

and understood as written above. plus1 and plus 1= plus2 and plus2 minus plus 1= plus 1.
We know the plus and minus signs are there, we just too lazy to write them.”

“See, that’s why I knew you could help me! You make everything sound simple and easy. I’m glad I got
the courage to ask you. Sometimes you look like you’re mad at the world and don’t want to be
bothered.”
I laughed, “That’s an old defense mechanism from my high school days. I was too shy to talk to
anyone, so I made my face a mask to hide behind.”
We studied for two hours. I showed her simple ways of remembering math tables and how everybody
hates word problems. Word problems are nearly impossible if students do not understand English well
enough to see what the question is. That started a discussion on English sentence diagramming and I
gave her tips for finding the subject and the verb. We cooked dinner together and I used it as an
opportunity to talk about measurements and the difference between our system and the metric system.
After clearing the dinner and cleaning up, I felt I needed to go home.
Mel grabbed my hand, and we started up the stairs. She turned and looked at me at the top of the stairs,
“Do you smoke weed?”, she asked.
“Yes, I thought you knew all about me.”, I teased
We sat on the bed, and she reached under the bed and pulled out a wooden cigar box. Inside were
different bags of weed, rolling papers, a pipe, and roach clips. She handed me a baggie and the papers.
“You start rolling some joints, I’m going to run us a bath and get the wine.”
The master bathroom was huge. Melanie had dimmed the lights and the scented candles bathed her with waves of flickering intensity. The fluffy white robe she wore was closed but the belt was tied in a manner that revealed her bosom and parted as she walked to show off her long, shapely legs. She handed me a matching robe, in exchange for the tray holding three perfectly rolled joints. She watched as I undressed, lighting a joint and holding the smoke in before letting it escape slowly from her mouth and nostrils. She took off her robe and got into the tub, curling her finger for me to join her.

See you next time,

Barron Broomfield