Light of Dusk Ch. 04

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Mused
Mused
1,268 Followers

"When did this nasty habit start?" Jeff asked.

Vince took the cigarette from his mouth and flipped it away. The half-gone cigarette smoldered amongst a patch of delicate baby's-breath. "Your mother made me quit when she was pregnant with you. Now, I only smoke when I'm really, really nervous." His hands trembled as he reached into his tuxedo pocket for the pack of Marlboro non-filters. He extracted a new cigarette and put it in his mouth without lighting it.

Jeff felt his father's eyes assessing his attire. "Didn't you get the memo, Son? Wedding starts in an hour." Jeff had dressed in khaki cargo shorts and a gray sweatshirt; a tan Old Navy ball cap and aviator sunglasses finished the outfit.

"Are you supposed to be in disguise or something?" Vince asked. "Because if you are, you're a bit too tall to be inconspicuous."

Jeff grabbed the bill of the cap and pulled it down snug over his head. "I didn't come here to chitchat."

"Well, I hope you didn't come here to shove me around again. You nicked me up pretty good yesterday morning."

Jeff checked his father's right hand. It was still red from the coffee burn.

Jeff made a move to back away. Reaching for the cell phone in his pocket, he prepared to call the taxi that waited for him.

"I tried to see you last night," Vince said. "I want to know what's going on with you. Why did you check out of the motel early?" When Jeff didn't answer, Vince asked another question. "Where did you stay the night?"

"Is it any of your goddamned business?" Jeff momentarily forgot the phone in his pocket. "I still have some friends around here, believe it or not."

"You're right. It's not my business, but still, I worry."

Old Vinnie Kramer, he's still pretending to be the concerned father.

"I tried to find you last night because I have something to give you." Vince dug in the hip pocket of his pleated black slacks. He extracted a gold ring, which he handed to Jeff.

Jeff pinched the ring between his thumb and forefinger. The gold glinted in the sunlight, as did the tiny diamond and flanking emeralds.

"Do you know what this is?" Vince asked.

Jeff took off his sunglasses and nodded. He never expected to see Mom's wedding ring again. He always assumed it had been buried with her.

"Why are you giving it to me?" he asked.

"I thought about giving the ring to Dawn, but it would have looked like something out of a gumball machine next to that giant rock Roger bought her. Besides, you were always so special to your mother. You were always her perfect little boy."

Perfect? No one is perfect, especially not me.

"You're going to find her someday, Jeff, the girl who makes you feel ten feet tall, the girl who holds your hand when you feel so utterly alone. When you do find her, I want to see your mom's ring on her finger."

Jeff pocketed the ring. The gesture, though noble enough, could not possibly make up for Vince Kramer's infidelity, nor the fifteen years of hell that followed.

"What time is your flight to Miami?"

Jeff squeezed the bridge of his nose. He felt the knot of damaged cartilage beneath his thumb.She told, of course she told. "Five, I have to be on the plane by five."

"You're going to do great. You're the best athlete I've ever seen."

"Do you really think I need the pep talk?" Jeff asked. His hand went into the pocket of his shorts. He found the ring and turned it in a circle, feeling the smoothness of the gold, and the roughness of the gemstones. He took a clumsy step backward. The heel of his hiking boot slid off the cobblestone path and into a freshly watered flowerbed. Mud clung to the sole of his boot, and no amount of scraping would remove it all.

As Jeff turned to leave forever, Vince cleared his throat. "I'm sorry if you hate me so much you would miss your sister's wedding. I've done a lot of bad--terrible--things as a father, but Dawn has never done anything to hurt you."

Jeff bit his lip. Vince Kramer had never hurt Jeff the way Dawn had.

"I tried to be everything Dawn needed, a father, a friend, but it never seemed to be enough. She always loved you more and looked up to you more than she ever has me, and it used to drive me crazy. I think that's why, sometimes, I was a little too harsh with you."

"Sometimes you were too harsh?" Jeff shook his head.

"Sometimes," Vince reiterated. "You can be kind of tough to live with, you know?"

Jeff smirked. "That's what I hear." He felt so uneasy inside. He could stand next to his father; they could kid and joke and trade stories about Mom and Dawn and family, but they would never make peace.

Again, Jeff felt for the ring in his pocket.

"Talk to her, Junior. Say goodbye, and do it right this time."

It took twenty-five years, but Jeff had finally received some usable advice from his father.

Jeff weighed his options. He could call the cab and gracefully escape to Miami, or he could stay just a little while longer and endure the torture of seeing her once more. The solution seemed simple enough, yet Jeff rarely settled for the simplest solutions.

Vince lit the cigarette, while Jeff decided.

Swallowing for courage, Jeff headed for the chapel. Dawn was exiting the dressing room with her bridesmaids when he found her. Jesse, Tara, and Jenny looked exceedingly lovely in peach gowns, but Dawn trumped them all. Her little body managed the illusion of sleekness in an ankle-length ivory wedding gown. Not quite white, he noticed.

Jesse and Tara were visibly happy to see him, Jenny less so. Dawn was unreadable. However, it was clear she had to force herself to look at him.

"Can I talk to you, alone?" Jeff asked.

Dawn reflected for a moment, before nodding yes.

As he followed her inside the dressing room, Jeff noticed Jenny whisper something to Dawn. It sounded like, "Be strong," but he wasn't sure.

Tara squeezed Jeff's ice-cold hand for just a moment, offering support of her own.

"I thought you had gone," Dawn said, as soon as the door closed behind them.

He sat on the bench in front of the full-size mirror, contorting his legs to offer her the space beside him.

Dawn chose to remain standing. "I tried to call, but you didn't answer your cell, and the motel said you had gone."

"I stayed with a friend."

"A friend," Dawn scoffed. "What was her name?"

Jeff narrowed his eyes. "Tara." He could only guess that she was jealous; her face was unreadable. "Don't be mad at her, nothing happened." That was the truth. Jeff had slept on the couch, while Tara slept in her own bedroom. The fact that her parents and little sisters were in the house acted as a buffer.

"I know you didn't come here to talk, Jeff. We said everything that needed to be said yesterday."

She was right; she was always right. There was nothing left to say and no way to change her mind. Still, standing there basking in her radiance almost dulled the pain. No woman had ever looked more beautiful.

Jeff shifted his position on the bench; as he moved something poked him in the hip. Reaching into his pocket, he found the ring.

Dawn regarded the ring curiously. Though the decision had been made the moment his father had handed it to him, Jeff pretended to mull over what to do with the ring. Mom's wedding ring, by all rights, belonged to her daughter.

"Here." He rose from the bench and took command of her left hand. Since Roger's obscene engagement ring had already taken up residence on her ring finger, Jeff slipped Mom's emerald and diamond wedding ring around Dawn's middle finger. The fit was perfect.

She looked at the ring, as if studying every cut in every gem. "It's beautiful."

Roger's ring may have been stunning in its garishness, but Mom's ring and the harmonious marriage of its tiny diamond to the twin emeralds seemed better suited to Dawn's demure beauty.

"Thanks, I..." Her words faded as she sat beside him. She touched his cheek. He hadn't shaved, so his jaw was dusted with fine, reddish-black stubble. "You don't have to leave."

Cupping her hand in his, Jeff sighed sullenly. "I can't stay. You understand that I can't."

She nodded.

With that, he abandoned Dawn to her tears.

***

The organ played sadly. Vince didn't recognize the tune. Dawn explained that the tune was one of Roger's favorites and it usually sounded cheerier. Vince nodded. No matter how upbeat the melody, organ music always sounded depressing to him.

The guests were in place; the young bridesmaids and not-so-young groomsmen were in place; the groom had found his mark before the minister. The first chords of Mendelssohn's Wedding March moaned forth from the organ.

Dawn winced when he gently took her right arm.

This was their moment, the moment when the father would walk his little girl down the aisle and give her away to the lucky Dr. Roger Walker. Every girl dreams of this moment, wants it to be just perfect, yet Dawn seemed to be miles away.

As much as he tried to focus on his little girl, Vince's thoughts often drifted to his son. Any jealousy had faded long ago. More than just one athlete's respect for another, Vince was proud of the man his son had become. Jeff had sacrificed everything, worked so hard to regain it, and now through some karmic sense of justice, he was once more poised to be rich, famous, and successful.

Vince took a small step forward; Dawn failed to follow suit. The first step was always the hardest. The first step led to the last step and the last time she would be ever be called Dawn Kramer. Dawn Walker, it sounded wrong, somehow.

He noticed a sheen of sweat forming on her brow. She looked weak and dizzy.

"I need to sit down," she announced.

He helped her to sit on the bench in front of the giant mirror in the changing room. He tried to soothe her, assuming her nerves had gotten the better of her.

Jeff was always better suited for these type of moments; he exuded calm. "The kid pisses ice water," a coach had once told Vince. Maybe, that's why Dawn tended to lean on Jeff when she was upset.

"Don't worry, Sunshine, everyone gets cold feet before their wedding; it's a completely normal reaction." He took the handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at her sweaty brow.

"It's not normal!" Dawn hunched over as her body rocked with a dry heave. "Oh God, stop saying it's normal." She covered her mouth, as if holding back bile.

Vince's arms went around her. He could tell she found neither comfort nor safety in her father's arms. Once more, he wished for Jeff. She looked up to her older brother, almost worshipping him.

"Sweet thing," he began, taking her hand, "You wouldn't believe how nervous your mom was on our wedding day. She spent as much time hunched over the toilet as she did..." His words trailed as he stared at the freckled little hand covering her mouth.

The ring, the tiny band of gold, ornamented with three tiny gemstones, rested around her middle finger, her mom's ring, the ring he had given Jeff.

A veil suddenly lifted. The touches he had chosen not to notice, the hushed voices behind locked doors, the way Dawn looked at Jeff and the way Jeff looked at her, Vince finally understood the significance.

While Jeff was away, she had hardly smiled once; when Jeff returned, she was a bubbly ray of sunshine. Now, that Jeff had gone again, Vince saw the effect it had on his little girl.

"Your mother," he muttered, "she made me promise one thing before she died: You had to be happy, both of you, no matter what. She made me promise...That's all she wanted. The two of you, her little boy, and her little ray of Sunshine, she wanted..." Vince swallowed hard. "Sunshine, are you happy?"

Dawn rose from the bench. She made a brave attempt at nodding. She was such a bad liar.

Vince took her arm, and they started down the aisle, again.

Ahead, the minister waited, the bridesmaids waited, the groomsmen and Roger all waited. Every head in every pew turned to watch the pretty, young bride. Vince gazed down at his daughter's hand. He saw more than an old wedding ring on her little finger; he saw the way to forgiveness.

Vince halted in the middle of the aisle. Dawn went forward a step before she halted, too.

Dawn looked puzzled by her Daddy's actions.

The organ stopped. The groom nervously adjusted his tie, as whispers filled the chapel.

"Do you love him?" Vince asked.

"Daddy, what...?" Her nervous eyes darted from one side of the chapel to the other.

Vince took Dawn's left hand and removed Roger's gaudy diamond ring. There would be no question about whom he meant. He forced her to look at the diamond and emerald ring, the ring Jeff had given her. "Do you love him?"

Her eyes darted to Roger, then to Jenny. She closed her eyes and swallowed for courage. "Yes, I love him more than anything." Following the confession, tears flowed over her freckled cheeks. She must have thought her world was ending.

Vince fought stinging tears of his own as he prepared his next move. Walking her down the aisle would have been so much easier than this. "Then go. Be happy. Both of you be happy." He could hardly speak, could hardly stand, yet he maintained the illusion of strength and of support. He did it for her sake. Dawn took a step backwards, but he caught her arm. "It has to be forever, Sunshine. I won't let you go if it's not forever."

Dawn wiped tears with both hands and nodded. She wrapped her arms tight around her Daddy's neck, and whispered that she loved him and that she would miss him.

Vince Kramer let her go, doubting he would ever see her again.

***

In the backyard of his former home, Jeff sat on the glider beside Mom's rose garden. He and Dawn had spent many evenings on the glider, cuddling as the last light of dusk settled beyond the clouds.

Jeff had never felt more lost. A life alone, would it turn him into a bitter old man like his father, or something worse? Maybe he would find someone someday, someone he could delude himself into falling in love with. After all, Dawn had done it.

Lost in thought, Jeff never heard theswoosh of the sliding-glass patio door as it opened. He never heard the soft, approaching footsteps.

He flinched as a freckly little hand softly touched his shoulder.

"Dawn?" he asked. "How did you know I was here?"

"I didn't. I just came home to pack." She had changed clothes, trading her wedding gown for denim capris pants and an olive-green tank top. She looked no less beautiful.

Roger's ring had been removed. Mom's ring still ornamented her left hand.

Why did he think of it as Mom's ring? It was Dawn's ring now, young, beautiful Dawn.

She made a move to sit beside him, but Jeff grabbed her waist and pulled her down to his lap. Her freckled arms hooked his neck, as she settled in to find a comfortable position atop his lanky legs.

He wanted to tease, to prove that he could still be the big brother. He even came up with the perfect line: What happened, Old Man Roger couldn't get it up for the honeymoon? He never got a chance to use it. Dawn pressed their lips together and twined her fingers through his hair. He could only return her kiss.

***

Between flannel-lined jeans, a fleece pullover, and a wool coat, Dawn managed to find some measure of warmth. When her brother had signed with the Miami Dolphins, six months ago, she hadn't considered the implications of traveling to Buffalo in December. Ice coated the handrail and piles of snow littered the sidelines of Ralph Wilson Stadium.

The scoreboard showed a thermometer reading of twenty degrees Fahrenheit. "Must be a warm front," the frost-bearded man next to her commented. She wasn't sure if he was half-serious, or half-kidding.

Dawn pulled a wool stocking cap from her coat pocket and rolled it over her red head. She shivered, and not just from the cold.

The Dolphins were bundled in their winter whites. Jeff looked especially handsome, even if he did so while toting a clipboard and wearing a headset instead of his helmet. Poor Jeff, he was third string. The official term was emergency quarterback, but everyone knew better. He was the backup's backup.

Whereas the rest of his teammates wore long-sleeved thermal shirts beneath their uniforms, Jeff's arms were gloriously bare. He hadn't been in Florida long enough to de-acclimate to the cold winters where he grew up.

The crowd erupted as the Bills charged onto the field. Dawn checked the scoreboard, only minutes until kickoff.

As a chill wind moaned through the stadium, Dawn realized how much she missed the Florida sun, even if it had multiplied her already numerous freckles.

A snowball flew out of the stands and struck Jeff right across the number twelve. The Bills fans around her laughed as the video board replayed the direct hit over and over. Dawn felt anger build. She tried hard to control herself. The doctor said it was important that she limit stress. She had an appointment the following Wednesday, and Dr. Hightower vowed to get to the bottom of Dawn's recent bouts with nausea. Dawn had a pretty clear idea of what was wrong with her. She had already begun the informal process of picking out an obstetrician.

Distracted from her thoughts by theoohs andaahs of the crowd, Dawn noticed what had drawn half the stadium's attention. Jeff was standing in the end zone, heaving passes to the opposite twenty-yard line.

"Holy shit," the frosty-bearded man next to her said. "That kid can throw. Why the Hell don't we try to get him?" His question condensed into cold fog.

Ted Michaels, Jeff's agent, had been preparing the couple for the possibility of a trade. The Dolphins might be wary of playing a Canadian League castoff with small-time college experience, but plenty of other teams had been impressed by Jeff Kramer's impressive arm. Leaving Miami weather would be tragic, but she figured Jeff would look just as handsome playing in purple, blue, or maybe even red.

Red would be nice. Daddy wouldn't have so far to travel when he came to see his grandchild.

The End

That's all folks. Thanks for choosing and taking the time to read my story. I'll be away from Literotica for a little while (as far as submissions go), but when I return, I'll have plenty of new stories to post. Until then, don't forget to vote and/or comment. I respond to any e-mails I can.

Mused
Mused
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AnonymousAnonymous6 months ago

You had me going up until the end there. Thought she might go through with it. But then you turn it around with the ring reveal and her dad figuring it out. A nice ending though an epilogue would make it perfect, showing a little bit of their future with their child and what not.

AnonymousAnonymousabout 1 year ago

Great story man this was one of your . Pay no attention to any and all naysayers

ScottishTexanScottishTexanalmost 2 years ago

Okay, I gave you 5/5 four times in a row. When I was reading Light of Dawn, I almost exclusively gave you nothing but ones. Consider yourself forgiven and redeemed. Light of Dusk was far far better than Light of Dawn. The ending sentence was excellent. But a scene with Daddy visiting his kids at their home in Florida and they are not fighting would have been welcome.

WargamerWargamerover 3 years ago

Great story loved it. Now in favourites

Scores 5/5

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