Maria's Misconceptions Ch. 02

Thank you for the positive responses to Maria's Misconceptions. As for the ending, I personally hate movies that end this way (I like happy endings or paybacks), but that was all of Gary and Maria's story that I actually had at the time. My friend was very close to his brother and after he passed on, didn't discuss him much, just some memories from when they were children. Until the first week of July, I hadn't broached the subject of Gary and Maria with him since he told me about what had happened at the LTC facility almost two years ago.

To get an understanding of how we are at the point of Gary's death, please read Maria's Misconceptions.

Sorry that it took so long to get this finished, I started this installment a few days after my friend and I talked, but ended up spending the next three weekends of July going out of town (picnics, swimming and fishing) with my wife, son / wife and grand kids.

In the first story, as for the use of tho compared to though, I also have a habit of using thru instead of through. I haven't written anything in years for, or to anyone, so in instances of writing anything at all, I did that as a shortcut. Oddly enough, when I ran this through the spell checker, it showed that thru should be through, but never showed tho as being wrong (even though I knew it was). I have seen in numerous publications and news stories where the words then and than are used improperly, so I kind of let the tho's slide. I can assure you, that I won't from now on. I also am now aware that I used wondered instead of wandered, I DO know the difference, it was just an oversight on my part. I read back through the story three times and didn't catch it. My wife and I have two teenage grandsons staying with us, it's sometimes hard to read through anything without interruptions.

After speaking with my friend last month, he elaborated on what happened after Gary died. I embellished on that with some truths, some half truths, and some fiction. I've known Maria since high school, since she was my best friend's brother's girlfriend / wife. I had many conversations with her before she got involved with the guy she left Gary for, and she seemed to be a decent woman. In the first part of this, I try to bring out some of the decency that I knew was inside of her, but did that decency prevail?

The businesses and the names of the characters in this story are mostly made up. Some of them are real, but have no significance other than they are in the story to give it some authenticity.

There is some sex in this story, but not a large amount. There is no sex with anyone under the age of 18.

*

Riverside Manor Assisted Living and Long Term Care Facility, September, 2012.

The heart monitor gave out a steady 'beep beep beep' as Gary faded in and out of consciousness. Occasionally, the beeps became erratic, and would speed up and then slow down.

He was well aware that his two sons, Joshua and Jacob were here with their wives. Two of Gary's grandchildren, Joshua's two sons, were here too. Tim and Jeff sat in the big chair behind their parents, all to Gary's left. His little brother, Jack was to his right.

Gary's health had taken a turn for the worse, he had seemed to be responding to treatment fairly well, until the day before. It was mid afternoon and Gary was sleeping, Jack had been sitting in a chair reading and was about to doze off himself, when Gary started calling out to his ex-wife,

"Maria honey, come here for just a minute. . . Maria, where are you? Come here for a minute. . ." he called out.

Jack sat up and turned to look at his brother, Gary was staring intently at the closed door leading to the hallway.

"What you babbling about now?" asked Jack.

Gary slowly looked over at Jack with a confused look on his face.

"Why won't she answer me? She's just out in the hall there, go tell her to come here, I need to talk to her, she's going to K mart to get some shoes for the boys. . . And I want her to pick me up some. . ."

Gary's voice trailed off and he stared at Jack for a moment.

"Maria's not here Gary," said Jack.

"Huh. . .? What are you talking about?" asked Gary.

"You were calling out for Maria just a minute ago, you must have been dreaming or something."

"No, I think YOU are the one dreaming!" replied Gary.

After some idle 'chit chat,' Jack went back to reading and it wasn't long after, he heard Gary's even breathing and knew that he was asleep again. A while later, Jack heard Gary's breathing becoming more labored and the heart monitor was all over the place, so he pushed the button on the nurse's call.

After the nurse arrived, she took some vitals on Gary and the look on her face was troubling, she left the room and returned with a doctor immediately. Jack rose from the chair and told them that he was going down to the cafeteria for a bite to eat and to get out of their way. He had a feeling that what was happening was not good.

While he was out, Jack called his wife and told her that he was going to stay the night, and that it would probably be a good idea to get in touch with Gary's sons and tell them to come up.

When Jack returned to the room, there were still two nurses inside and he noticed that Gary had two new IV's. Gary looked to be awake, but was struggling to keep his eyes open, Jack looked at his brother and said,

"How you doing now, you feeling any better?"

Gary just stared straight ahead like he was in a daze.

"I don't believe that he can hear you," the nurse said quietly, "Are you his only family?"

"No, I've already called for his children to come up," he said.

The nurse gave him a sad look,

"I'm sorry," she said.

Just then, the doctor came back into the room,

"You are Mr Arthur's brother, correct?" he asked.

"Yes."

The doctor started to speak, but Jack cut in,

"You don't have to give me details about a bunch of medical bull crap. . . How long. . .? How long does he have?"

"Well, another day or two. . . Maybe less. . . Maybe more, but I doubt it. . . We are trying to make him as comfortable as possible. I'm very sorry Mr Arthur."

Jack looked at his brother, he knew this day was coming, but he thought it would be a little ways down the road. Gary had made it perfectly clear that he did not want to be kept alive by artificial means. Jack said a prayer, asking God to please let Gary's sons get to the facility before he passed.

Along in the evening, Gary looked over and spoke with Jack for a few minutes, he was very alert and spoke with Jack about going fishing once he got to feeling better. It was short lived though, Gary slipped back into slumber land a little later.

Jack had fallen asleep in the chair beside Gary's bed, it had a reclining feature and was actually quite comfortable. During the night, Jack awoke to the sound of Gary speaking to someone. He listened closely as Gary spoke candidly as if they were right there.

"He must be dreaming," thought Jack.

Jack became amused, because as he laid there and listened to Gary, it was obvious that he was speaking words of love to someone. A while later, he heard Gary gasp, he rose from the chair quickly to press the nurse's call, but realized that Gary looked to be having an erotic dream. He was lying on his back and his hands were above his gyrating hips a few inches and moving up and down as though someone was riding him. Jack smiled and let out a little chuckle.

"I love you Maria," said Gary.

Jack wasn't sure weather to cry or scream. He knew how much Gary had loved Maria. He also knew what she had done to him, and what she had done with all of those men. He'd seen a few moments of one of Maria's gang bang tapes and it had infuriated him, he couldn't watch it. Up until he'd seen it with his own eyes, he thought that it had to be someone that just looked like her. In all the time that Maria had been married to Gary, Jack had the utmost respect for her. She was also good friends with Jack's wife, what had happened to her? What had caused her to do all of those things? It tore at his heart.

Joshua and Jacob arrived early the next morning along with their wives, Josh brought his two young boys along too.

Gary was awake and alert, speaking and laughing with his sons, grandsons, and Jack. He even had a pretty good appetite for lunch, but right after, he leaned back into his pillow and started fading in and out. Just after one, he sat up a little and looked at the closed door like he had the day before,

"Maria?"

He looked back at Josh and Jake,

"Go tell your mother to come here, I need to talk to her, hurry, I have to get ready for work."

Joshua's two young boys were too young to understand, but it was all the rest of them could do to hold it together. Gary turned back towards the door,

"I've got to go Maria, I'll see you later. . . I love you!" he called out.

He closed his eyes and laid back onto the pillow. . . 'BEEEEEEEE. . .' The heart monitor screamed. Gary was gone.

Jack leaned down and kissed his big brother on the forehead, then reached over and turned off the heart monitor. After a few moments, he looked at the others and said,

"I'm going to get the nurse, I'll give you guys a few minutes by yourselves."

Jack turned around and exited the room looking down at the floor. Turning to his left, had taken a few steps when he realized someone was right in front of him. Snapping out of his thoughts, he stopped abruptly and looked up, but before he could speak,

"Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry I wa. . . Jack??"

Jack just stared for a few seconds,

"There's no way, it's not possible," he thought, "Did Gary know that she was here. . .? How?"

A chill ran up his spine when he thought about it.

"Hello. . . Maria?" he said.

There were a few moments of silence, then Maria introduced her husband, Jace Ballard to Jack. Then she asked,

"Is your mother here in this facility. . .? What's Gary been doing, lately, is he remarried now?"

"Wow. . .!" Jack thought, "Has she been that detached from everybody for that long!!?"

"Been out of the loop for a while, haven't you, Maria?" he said.

"Is Gary here? I would like to see him, I've got something that I would like to giv. . ."

Jack put his hand up to stop her from speaking, and motioned for her to follow him.

"Oh my God. . . How am I going to explain this? This is so weird!" Jack thought.

He turned and walked three doors down from where they stood. Jack told her to wait in the hall for just a moment and he went inside.

He looked at his brother's children, not knowing where to start,

"Um. . . There's someone outside here. . . Aaaaa. . . She thinks it's your grandmother in here, she doesn't know that she passed on last year, in fact. . . I don't even think she knew that your dad was sick. . . "

"It's mom, isn't it?" asked Joshua.

Jack gave him a solemn look and nodded his head.

"How in the hell did she find out he was here, you didn't tell her did you?" Jacob asked.

"No, I ran into her in the hallway. . . She says that her and her husband were here on business," Jack replied.

"I thought her husband was some CEO, or something. . . Did she dump him too? Is she married to a doctor now?" Joshua replied angrily.

"All I know is. . . she's right outside the door, she said that she wanted to speak to your dad. . . She doesn't have a clue that it's not your grandmother lying here in this bed," Jack said.

"Let her in!" said Jacob, "Let her see what she did to him."

"Are you guys sure you're ready, I mean I don't want there to be a scene."

Gary's boys looked at one another for a moment, then back to Jack,

"Alright, let her in," said Joshua.

Jack slipped out of the room to speak to Maria.

"I talked to everybody. . . And they said it's OK. . . I need to explain some things to you though. . ."

He opened the door and started telling Maria what had transpired in the last two decades, while he watched her face. She didn't seem to be listening to him, he saw her look at her boys, then around the room. He assumed she was looking for Gary, and when he got to the end of his dialogue, his last words were,

"We lost Ma last year. . . And Gary about 15 minutes ago. . ."

Jack could tell that those last words got her attention, her gaze went to the bed and he saw the color drain from her face.

"NO NO NO," she cried out, as she stumbled into the room and collapsed onto the bed and Gary.

Even after all of the animosity that both Joshua and Jacob felt towards their mother, the scene unfolding in front of them brought tears to their eyes. This was the first time in over twenty years, that they had all been in the same room together.

Jace came in to comfort his wife and the tears were streaming down his cheeks too. Maria clung to Gary and sobbed,

"I still loved him. . . I'm so sorry Gary. . . Oh my God NO, this can't be happening!"

Jack stepped into the hallway and waved to a nurse that had come out of a room down the hall. When she approached, Jack explained to her that his brother had passed and that his ex-wife might need some attention, because she wasn't taking it too well.

The nurse told him that she would be right back and walked away from him down the hall quickly. She returned shortly with a doctor and they entered the room to see Maria holding onto Gary tightly, while Jace was trying to coax her away.

"Miss, miss. . . We' ll have to ask you to step back please, if you don't, we're going to have to give you a sedative. . . Do you understand?" the doctor said.

Maria released her grip on Gary and stood, her knees couldn't hold her though and she started to go down. The doctor and Jace caught her before she hit the floor and they moved her around to the chair and sat her down.

The doctor checked her over and said that she should be fine after a while, that he believed that she was suffering from a mild case of shock.

Jack looked at Gary and Maria's sons and told them that the man with their mother was their step father, Jace Ballard.

"Yeah , we know who he is, we've been watching his commercials on TV for years. . . But we sure didn't know that the woman in the last couple three were her. Never paid that much attention," said Joshua.

"I told you last year, that the woman in those commercials kinda looked like her didn't I?" Jacob added, "It's been what. . .? Twenty one years since we last laid eyes on her."

Jace looked at the two boys, not sure what to say to them. He knew that she hadn't seen them for quite some time, but he never realized that it had been that long. He felt a sense of guilt for his wife,

"Why did she not contact them, or go and see them?" he thought to himself.

He knew how loving and caring he thought she was, he just couldn't fathom why she would ever do that.

Jace stuck out his hand and shook both of their's,

"I'm sorry boys, I never realized that you had not seen her for that long, your mother and I never really discussed it. For some reason, I had it in my mind that you were almost adults when your mom and dad divorced," said Jace.

"How long have you two been together?" asked Jacob.

"We were married in 2002. . . Actually I met her back in 1997, when I handled her divorce from James Wilkens."

"That's the guy she left dad for, he was her boss. I remember going to a cookout or something at his mansion. . . We all went, me and Jake, mom and dad. . . It wasn't long after that. . . Hell, I. . . I mean we only met the bastard once and the next thing we knew she was gone. . . Well, I guess it was a year or so later, but. . ." said Joshua.

"How old were you guys when she left?" asked Jace.

"I was thirteen and Jake was eleven," replied Joshua.

"Wow, I never knew, she only mentioned that she had two sons with her first husband, not really any details, and. . . Well her divorce from Mr Wilkens was in '97, I was under the impression that she was only married to him for a very short time and for some reason, I thought that you guys were in your late teens or early twenties. . . I sure am sorry, I didn't know that you were so young," Jace explained.

"So, she divorced old man Wilkens in '97 huh?" said Jacob.

Maria started to stir and everyone turned their attention to her. Looking at her two boys, she said,

"I'm so sorry, can you ever forgive me? I don't know why I did what I did."

The doctor and the nurse were now about ready to move Gary's body out of the room and heard Maria stirring. The doctor walked over and stood between her and Gary so that she couldn't see him. Jace spoke up,

"Doc, she has a doctor's appointment at 4 pm, will she be alright by then to make it?" he asked.

The doctor looked at his watch, it was 1:45.

"Let her rest for another hour or so, and I think she'll be fine," he said.

Then, he whispered to Jace to move to the spot where he was to block Maria's view from seeing Gary moved.

After Gary was wheeled out, Jace looked at Joshua and Jacob,

"Would you boys like to go down to the cafeteria, where we could talk some more? Maybe your wives would be kind enough to stay with Maria while she rests some more. . . Would you ladies mind?" said Jace, "I'm sure you two would like to know a little about your mother-in-law, wouldn't you?"

The wives said that it would be fine, they would try and talk with her and comfort her for a while.

Jace looked at Jack and told him that he was welcome to join, that he would like to know all he could about Gary, because Maria had never really discussed him or her boys. Jace leaned down and told Maria, that he would be back in a little while, and for her to rest,

"These two beautiful young ladies here are your daughters in law, and they need to introduce you to your two handsome grandsons standing right back here."

Even though he was a ruthless lawyer, Jace was still a very compassionate man, he genuinely felt sad for Maria's boys and couldn't understand why she had not contacted them over the years.

When they all arrived in the cafeteria, Jace told them to get anything they wished, it was his treat. They all grabbed a soda and sat down to talk.

Jace explained how Maria had never said much, other than she had two sons with her first husband, she'd never told him how long they'd been married or when she had divorced him. She'd never even told him their father's name until this morning.

"This morning? Why did she tell you his name this morning? Did she know he was here?" asked Joshua.

"It's kind of hard to explain, Maria was here in this facility yesterday afternoon. . ." Jace started, but Jack cut in.

"She was here yesterday afternoon?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes, she was right down the hall in room 211 speaking with Mr Green about an accident case, why?"

Jack's eyes grew a little misty as he explained how Gary had called out for Maria the day before, and said that she was in the hallway.

The two boys and Jace stared at Jack in disbelief.

"So, she probably WAS out there. . . That's just weird," Jack said.

Jace then told them about Maria becoming suddenly depressed while she was at the facility yesterday, and that she had an appointment to see a psychiatrist today at 4 pm."

It became very quiet for a few moments while they all tried to comprehend what they had just heard.

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Back in the room, Maria sat staring into space, an occasional tear running down her cheek. She thought about the dream she'd had the night before, it had seemed so real. Was this just a dream? She so wished that it was.

Joshua's wife had managed to start a conversation with Maria and introduced her to her grandchildren, and Jacob's wife. She held out her arms to the two boys and hugged them, while she cried,

"Oh my God, I can't believe it!! I can't believe what I've done, I just can't," Maria sobbed, "I've missed out on so much."