Our story thus far: Charles Crafton is at work one afternoon when his mother calls. He is awaiting the arrival of Alina Stanton, his girlfriend. They are going to have a lunch date.
"Hello, son!" his mother said over the phone, her fine voice as nice as ever. "It has been such a while since I've heard from you I was wondering how you were doing!"
"I'm fine, Mother, I'm fine," Charles said. He was sure Alina would arrive any second.
"That's nice, dear," she said. She didn't seem to notice the odd tone in his voice. "Listen, I was wondering if you'd have dinner with me and my friend Christine Fairbanks. She has this wonderful daughter that I would love for you to meet!"
Charles sighed inwardly; he hadn't yet had the courage to introduce Alina to his mother, and usually the 'wonderful girls' his mother wanted him to meet were anything but.
"Well, Mother, I'll have to see," he began, but just then Agnes ushered Alina into his office. "Yes, that would be fine," he said hurriedly, then hung up the phone to greet Alina.
He had quite forgotten about the conversation with his mother and his promise to meet the daughter of her friend, when she called him on the phone one Thursday evening.
"Are we all set?" His mother's voice asked. It sounded like she was vigorously cleaning something.
"Are we all set for what?" He asked mildly. It was quite like his mother to make plans for him without actually consulting him.
She sighed loudly, then continued. "I do believe you agreed to meet my friend's daughter, and tomorrow is the day set for this meeting." She sighed again, then said, "Christine is one of my dearest friends, and we both agreed that you and her daughter Marissa would get along famously."
Charles muttered to himself; he really had no desire to meet this Marissa Fairbanks. Besides, he and Alina had plans to spend the evening together.
"I'm very sorry, Mother, but I already have plans made for tomorrow evening," he said.
"I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to cancel them," she said in a firm voice. It was the tone of voice she had used when he was younger to make sure he brushed his teeth and washed behind his ears. There was no arguing with that voice.
"Alright Mother," he said, and sighed just loud enough for her to hear. The cleaning sounds had continued, so he asked: "Whatever are you doing?"
"Well, I ran across my grandmother's silver, and decided it needed cleaning. It is quite tarnished!" She laughed, then added, "You know you're old when cleaning the family silver is exciting to you!"
Charles laughed, said, "Mother, you're not old!", then asked for the details of the evening.
He called Alina as soon as he could.
"I'm terribly, terribly sorry," he began, "but I'm going to have to break our plans for tomorrow evening. I forgot I agreed to meet a friend of my Mother's, and I'm afraid I can't get out of it."
She only expressed mild regret, and he felt better about the night as they ended the conversation.
