I Will Love You Forever Pt. 2 Ch. 03

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kalamazoo707
kalamazoo707
1,664 Followers

There was another issue as well; she had some staunch supporters including the dean and Paul Mynt. The fact of the matter was that he couldn't do anything that would get her put out of school without it looking suspicious. There were too many people on the faculty who were aware of his politics and it would come back to bite him in the ass if anything happened to her academically in his class. From what he heard, she was doing equally as well in the English Comp class she was taking therefore eliminating any chance of getting rid of her.

He had to consider her a necessary evil that he had to use to his advantage but in the meantime, he would pretend to make amends, if anything happened; they couldn't accuse him of racism. He swallowed his bile and plastered a fake smile on his face when Patricia looked up at him.

"Well done Mrs. Takeda!" he exclaimed. "You've passed yet again with flying colors."

Patricia looked at him warily and said a polite "thank you".

She watched him teach the rest of the class and wondered what was happening. She did not trust him. Her experiences taught her that change didn't occur that quickly and that Professor Hathaway really hadn't changed his opinion of her.

After class, he approached her.

"I would really like to know how you manage to pass my quizzes."

"I pretend that I'm you." Patricia replied. "When I read, I ask myself, if I were Professor Hathaway, what would I ask?"

In spite of himself, Hathaway was impressed.

"What do you really want?" Patricia asked suddenly, "for weeks you deliberately mispronounce my last name, you glare at me when you think no one is watching and suddenly that's changed."

He was unprepared for Patricia's bluntness. No one, not even his wife spoke to him the way that Patricia had just spoken to him. He jammed his hands in his pockets so that he wouldn't slap her as he wanted to. Instead, he kept his tone light.

"I must apologize for my earlier behavior." He said, "I'm afraid that I was caught up in the whole post war mentality of having the enemy in our midst."

"You consider me the enemy?" Patricia asked.

"What I meant was the Japanese; your last name surprised me..."

Patricia remembered Kenji's advice to choose her battle carefully and let it go even though she didn't believe a word of what Hathaway was saying.

"I'm glad that you've gotten over your post war mentality." Patricia said with a slight smile, "if you will excuse me, my husband is waiting for me."

As soon as he was gone from the classroom, Professor Hathaway swore, "black bitch!"

****** "You are late." Kenji said as soon as he saw Patricia.

"I know, I'm sorry but Professor Hathaway kept me after class."

"Why?" Kenji asked concerned.

"Some hogwash about getting over the post war mentality of having the enemy living amongst us." she replied.

"You do not believe him." Kenji stated.

"Not one single word of it," she replied, "how was your class?"

Patricia listened silently as Kenji gave her his impressions on what was happening.

"I would like for you to join Niko, Marie and I for the self defense lessons, you may not be able to defeat an attacker but you will be able to provide more time to escape." he told her.

"Do you really think that it's necessary?"

"Yes kirei, I do."

******

Joel met Kenji in time for the next class looking quite pleased with himself. He had sold the store and put the money into his bank account. The only thing left to do was to go pick up his meager belongings from the store and to find a cheap hotel close to the school.

Joel sprang his news on them during lunch.

"You owned a store?" Patricia asked.

" I used to." Joel replied, "I sold it this afternoon."

"And you were living there without electricity? Why?"

"It's a long story but basically, it belonged to my parents and it was the last place that I had good memories of and felt safe." Joel replied.

"Where will you live?" Kenji asked.

"I'll stay at a hotel close to school until I find a room to rent." Joel replied.

Patricia and Kenji looked at each other and then at Joel.

"Joel," Kenji said, "come stay with us, you can keep the room in the basement."

"I can't do that!" Joel exclaimed.

"Why not?" Patricia replied, "We have room and we'll have you fattened up in no time."

By the end of lunch, it was decided. Joel would move in with them under the condition that he paid rent and contributed to the food budget.

******

Andrew watched the trio as they shared lunch and talked. What it was about that scene that made him add Joel back to his list he didn't know and he really didn't care. Maybe it was the fact that Joel had lost a little of the perpetual fear that was usually on his face, but whatever it was, he would pay for it.

******

By the end of December 1945, John H. Johnson published the first issue of the magazine 'Ebony', Charles De Gaulle is elected head of the provisional French Government, Harry S. Truman, Clement Atlee and Mackenzie King call for a U.N. Atomic Energy Commission, the United States imports 88 German scientist to help in the production of rocket technology, the movie 'The lost weekend' starring Ray Milland is released , the Nuremburg Trials begin- 24 Nazi war criminals are tried, the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia is declared and General George S. Patton dies from injuries sustained from a car accident.

******

Kenji and Patricia's household adjusted quickly to Joel's moving in. Niko and Marie loved having him there because he was another adult that would read to them and didn't mind playing with them if he had time. All of them, children included were looking forward to the Christmas break. There would still be things to do for school but there wouldn't be the drive back and forth and the days spent away from home.

Patricia looked out of the kitchen window watching Joel, Kenji and the children play with a ball. She noted with satisfaction that between eating good meals and working out with Kenji that Joel had begun to fill out. She thought him rather handsome with his dark hair and dark expressive eyes. He was shorter than Kenji by a good six inches and would always be slight of build but one day he was going to catch some woman's eye.

The other thing that she noticed was that little by little, the haunted look and reticent demeanor was disappearing and a more fun loving, confident man was appearing. Every one was noticing and commented on the change making Joel blush furiously.

Kenji looked up and saw Patricia watching them, smiled and then waved at her before motioning for her to come out to join them. Patricia waved back, shut off the oven that was preheating for the sugar cookies that she was baking to be decorated and packaged as Christmas gifts and went outside.

Kenji, she realized several weeks before was very concerned about Andrew Kelley and his friends and was serious about the self-defense classes. She remembered quite a bit from the lessons that he gave her a few years ago and like then, found that she really did enjoy the lessons.

As she walked toward them, Kenji's heart sped up. Coming toward him was the woman who had been to hell and back with him, his lover, his wife, the mother of his children; his kirei. Even after all of this time, his mouth went dry when he saw her, he almost felt like that tongue-tied man who first saw her in 1939. Had six years passed already? He thought as Patricia closed the distance between them. He walked toward her forgetting that Joel was watching them, for just a few moments it was as if no one or anything else existed. He had experienced the sensation before and loved it every time it came.

When they met, Kenji pulled Patricia into is arms, bent down and kissed her deeply. He experienced one of those times when love wasn't a strong enough word for what he felt for her but was the best word that he could come up with.

"What was that for?" Patricia asked when he broke the kiss.

"For no other reason than I love you." Kenji replied and kissed her again before releasing her.

"I love you too." Patricia replied, "But I think we'd better pay attention to our children and housemate."

Kenji turned to look behind him and saw Niko, Marie and Joel watching them. Without the slightest hint of embarrassment, he took Patricia's hand and led her back to the waiting group.

******

As Joel watched Patricia and Kenji, he felt a pain in his heart. His parents had loved each other in the same way that Kenji and Patricia loved each other and like them, they weren't afraid to show it. His fondest dream, other than being a doctor was to have a marriage like that. He could only hope that now that he had filled out and didn't look so... frightened and lost that he would become more attractive to the opposite sex.

In his heart of hearts, he found himself hoping that she-whoever she was would be like Patricia, a woman full of grace, courage and intelligence. He was also aware that if he wasn't careful, he could fall in love with his best friend's wife. As far as he was concerned, it would be the ultimate betrayal and one that he wouldn't allow to happen under any circumstances. She was the wife of his best friend and his friend as well and that is where it ended.

******

Harlon was growing more and more concerned about Andrew. He acted as if he understood about hate and the uselessness of it but Harlon was no longer sure that he did. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but Andrew was changing and it wasn't for the better. Even Evelyn noticed and commented on it but neither of them said anything to him.

Harlon looked across the lunch table at Andrew, trying to understand where the hate that he knew his only child was harboring came from. He himself didn't consider himself a bigot although he had used racial epithets freely while at the same time preaching respect for all people especially women. It hadn't struck him until then how contradictory he had been.

He had used the "N" word freely as well as the names used for the Hispanics and the Orientals not thinking about how it would sound to a child. To Andrew, it probably did sound like hatred and then Pearl Harbor happened and Harlon like every other enraged American ranted against the Japanese and at one point had joined in on the vandalizing of Japanese owned businesses.

"What's up pop?" Andrew asked when he caught Harlon looking at him.

"Nothing son," Harlon replied having decided that he had no room or the right to preach to Andrew about hatred.

"You sure?" Andrew asked, "You look like you got something on your mind."

"I'm sure... hey, I was thinking, it's been awhile since we cooked out back, what about tonight?"

Andrew hesitated but then agreed, it had been awhile since he and his father spent an evening together.

*******

Carl Tucker wheeled himself across his office in his wheelchair. He had barely made it out of the federal prison of South Carolina with his life. It would have been of no consequence if he had died as long as the information he gathered on Lawrence Goodman and his merry band of followers reached the right people.

He only had hours to go before he was going to walk out but somehow, Lawrence figured out who and what he was. It had to be someone from within the agency, there was no other explanation but who? He wondered. It was a mystery that he planned to solve no matter how long it took.

The thing that galled Carl the most was that even with all of the information that he had, they couldn't pin any of the murders that happened in the prison on Lawrence. he always took great pains to distance himself and Carl never once heard him say anything that could be even remotely construed as an order to kill or hurt someone other than the names of the people that he said that he wanted to "visit" after he got out of prison.

It didn't take a genius to know what he meant by "visit" but there was no way to prove that he meant other than what he said. Carl consoled himself with the fact that he had managed to gather as much information as he had and the safe houses were under surveillance. As of yet, none of them had been infiltrated by agents which was probably a prudent move. Since he had been discovered, everyone who showed an interest in joining the group was carefully scrutinized and to ensure loyalty, the names and addresses of family members were taken, the threat unspoken.

Carl rubbed his now useless legs as he looked out of the window. As of yet, no one knew why he risked his life to go into the prison and it was going to stay that way until the day he died and he hoped that day came after Lawrence Goodman had taken his last breath.

********

Sally was making cookies when the phone rang. She quickly wiped the flour from her hands and answered the phone.

"How are you darlin?" a deep voice resonated in her ear.

Sally froze. Her mouth had gone dry.

"You still there darlin?" Lawrence asked his voice filled with amusement at the reaction that he knew he as getting.

"Lawrence?" Sally whispered.

"It's me.," he said cheerfully, "how are you and the babies?"

"Fine... how are you?" Sally asked not knowing what else to say.

"Good and looking forward to seeing you and my kids in a couple of years." Lawrence replied.

Sally felt her stomach drop; she read between the lines and knew what he meant. He had just threatened her but covertly, she would never be able to prove anything.

"How is it that you can call me?" she asked.

"I've been a good boy, staying out of trouble and all." he replied, "Calling you is a little gift from my friend the warden. Merry Christmas darlin'" he said and hung up.

*******

Lawrence hung up and chuckled. He had enjoyed his little game with the cheating bitch known as his wife. He knew all about the man that lived with her, it was none other than the man who had put him prison. He didn't know if she was fucking him or not but it didn't matter, she was giving food and comfort to the enemy. He almost told her that he knew about the man but decided to save it for another time; it would give him something to look forward to the next time he called her.

It saddened him that he had to consider the mother of his children a traitor and that she would have to die a traitor's death. However, it was war and he had to rescue his children from the type of thinking that was threatening the country. He only hoped that he wouldn't be too late, "I should have listened to you Kenny." he murmured as he walked back to his cell.

********

William found Sally still gripping the phone and shaking.

"Sally? What's wrong?" he asked.

"La.... Lawrence, he just called. He wants to kill me."

"Did he say that?" William asked.

"No... he just said that he was looking forward to visiting me."

William took the phone out of Sally's hand and placed it on its cradle.

"Sally, listen to me," he said softly, "I won't let anything happen to you or the kids, and you have my word on that."

She nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks with her hands.

"I'm scared." Sally confessed as she felt William's arms go around her.

After she had gone to bed, William called Nick.

It was time to be proactive.

********

Abby looked over at Ralph, he just didn't look quite right to her although he insisted that he was fine. She offered to take him to the doctor and wasn't surprised when he refused.

"I'm not taking no for an answer you stubborn old coot!" she snapped, "Now get your jacket and lets go!"

"Abby, I'm...."

That was all he got out before he stumbled and fell to the floor.

"Ralph!" Abby screamed.

He looked up at her with panic in his eyes and tried to speak but all that came out was gibberish, the left side of his face had a marked droop to it.

Abby tried to help him up by grabbing his left arm and was horrified to find it completely flaccid. Not knowing what else to do, she called Kenji and hysterically tried to tell him what happened.

"Abby, calm down and tell me what is happening." Kenji said.

As soon as he had the whole story, he calmly assured Abby that he and Joel would be right over.

"Keep him comfortable until we get there."

A few minutes later, Kenji and Joel were at the house and examining Ralph.

"He had a stroke," Kenji said, "We have to take him to the hospital."

Between the two of them, they got Ralph to the car and laid him in the back seat. Kenji laid a hand on Ralph's right arm and gave a gentle squeeze before getting into the driver's seat and taking off. Abby made several quick phone calls before getting into her own car and following.

"Don you dare die on me you old fool!" she whispered as she drove off.

*******

Nick and Hana went to Kenji and Patricia's house to wait with Patricia and the children. By the time they got there, Patricia was a basket case. Ralph was like another father to her, she didn't want to lose him, and as much as she wanted to be at the hospital, she knew that the children shouldn't go and forced herself to wait for word from Kenji.

"He's a tough old man, he'll be fine." Nick assured her.

Patricia wasn't so sure about that. She looked in Kenji's medical books and read that if Ralph didn't die, he could suffer permanent damages from the stroke. Knowing Ralph as she did, she knew that he would rather die than have someone take care of him or live as an invalid.

She offered up a silent prayer for him that if he lived, the damage would be minimal and if the damage was severe, that god be kind and give Ralph what he would want.

******

Paul Mynt met them at the hospital and was able to expedite things by getting Ralph seen immediately and into a room. He confirmed Kenji's diagnosis.

"He's had a massive stroke, how much damage will be permanent? It's too soon to tell but there will be some damage of that I'm sure."

Kenji put an arm around Abby, he was thinking the same thing that Patricia was thinking and the same thing that Abby was thinking, Ralph would sooner die than be dependent on someone for his care. That all of them would gladly take care of him wouldn't matter.

"Can we see him?" Abby asked.

"Sure but don't stay too long, he needs to rest." Paul said gently.

Abby, Kenji and Joel went into the room to find Ralph already asleep. Each of the men touched Ralph's arm lightly and then left Abby alone with him. She bent down and kissed his right cheek, her tears wetting it, "Come on you old fool, fight this... I... we love you."

As soon as she left the room, Ralph opened his right eye and let the tears fall freely, "I love you too," he thought not wanting to hear the garbled version of the words and then he closed his eyes.

kalamazoo707
kalamazoo707
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Buxombeauty2Buxombeauty2over 10 years ago
I Love This Story...

Good read. True love story. Will you be finishing it soon? How about bringing in the near year with new chapters to story line?

zia27zia27almost 12 years ago
five stars

You are a genius and I can't wait for an update on Ralph.

katgoddess1katgoddess1almost 12 years ago
Hah!

I knew there was something between those two! He's stubborn enough to keep fighting. Now if you could fix up Joel and take out Lawrence and Andrew, everything will be fine!

QuietmahoganystormQuietmahoganystormalmost 12 years ago
Please don't kill Ralph

I know you are the author (and an awesome one at that), but please don't kill Ralph. I was wondering with the closeness between Abby and Ralph when she would realize that she has real feelings for him. And Andrew! Him wants some brown sugar, but can't fathom taking that step - how awkward to be him. No wonder he hates Kenji - he doesn't even want to admit that he's got his eye on Patty (big huge watch out for Patty & Kenji). I like Joel's character & hope that he finds a love of his own like what his parents had and what his friends have.

Another five star story. Anxiously awaiting more (and wondering what the next new story will be).... :D

Iread2relaxIread2relaxalmost 12 years ago
Awesome

OK, I will wait patiently for the next chapter. I will not cry, beg, plead, send repeated emails, or stalk your page. I will not keep asking "Is it done yet?" But please post the next chapter soon. I need it. Like I need air or water. I gotta know what happens next. Hurry! Oh, BTW I love this story.

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