Maria's Misconceptions

After arriving in Columbus, she visited the law office of JWB & Porter Carlson. Jace was quite happy to see her and invited her to lunch, they discussed her plans for the future since moving to the city, and ended up at Jace's home in bed.

Maria moved into Jace's home and within the year, they were married. Once again, Maria lived a life of luxury. They built a new home, a million dollar home. Jace kept her in new cars yearly, ironically, she chose to drive Monte Carlos rather than the more expensive cars Jace had offered. She also stayed with Grand Cherokees as her winter drivers, while Jace drove a Jaguar. They attended parties at the Governor's (a close friend of Jace)mansion. There were frequent trips to Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and also plenty of trips to Europe. This was much more extravagant than her life with James had ever been.

More and more time passed. . . Maria loved Jace, but she still felt an emptiness, something was missing. She had become bored, so she became her husband's personal secretary, just as a hobby. She had even starred with him as the spokesperson for their new TV ad Campaign.

It was now 2010, Maria and Jace watched television late on a Friday evening, waiting for their new commercial to be aired for the first time on WBNS TV 10. Maria was nervous, scared that she would seem ridiculous on screen. She felt a hint of shame, when she thought about her last appearance on film. She had forgotten about the short segment that she had done with Edison at Tyler Park.

When the commercial was over, something came over Maria, a sadness, she couldn't explain it. She rose from the couch and went quickly into the bedroom, lying down on the bed, she started to sob. Jace followed,

"Maria, are you OK? What's wrong? You were positively stunning on TV," he comforted her.

"No, no, that's not it. . . I can't explain it, I ju. . . It just came over me, I don't know what's wrong, I just feel so sad all at once," Maria cried.

At that same moment, sixty miles south southwest of Columbus, Gary had just stumbled out of the front door of his mother's home.

After that night, Gary no longer watched channel 10. Gary's mom happened to see the commercial the following week, but she never told him. Neither Josh nor Jake paid enough attention to commercials to realize that it was their mother in the JWB & PC ad, and no one brought the subject up to them, or to Gary for that matter either.

The following year Gary's mother died from cancer, he sank into a deeper depression, Josh and Jake checked on him regularly and his brother Jack had come and stayed with him for several months.

2012, Maria was helping Jace with a personal injury case and had made a trip to Riverside Manor, an assisted living and long term care facility, to visit a client for a deposition. While there, the feelings of sadness came over her again, she was able to compose herself until she made it to her car, where she held herself together reasonably well, but she still shed a few tears. She thought about seeing a psychiatrist to try and find out why she kept having these bouts of sadness.

"I'll talk to Jace and see what he thinks," she said to herself.

While driving back to the office, she pulled up to a stop light with a similar set up to the intersection back home, where she had seen Gary for the last time, twenty years before. The time of day, the lighting and the surrounding scenery were almost identical. As those thoughts ran through her mind, a car pulled up next to her in the turning lane, she looked over and there was a young woman, probably in her early thirties with two young boys, about the ages of her boys when she had last saw them. The arrow for the turning lane turned green, and she watched, as the car with the young mother and boys went around the corner. She couldn't believe it, surely it wasn't. Was that her old 84 wagon? Either that was it, or it was one identical to it. As she stared at the car driving away, she heard a car honking behind her, she snapped out of the daze she was in and drove on.

As she went along, the sad feeling came over her again, it wasn't as strong as before, but nonetheless it was there. Back at the office, she told Jace about the feelings that she had experienced while at Riverside Manor, and then again on the way home. Jace made a phone call to Dr. William Spencer, a psychiatrist who he'd represented in a divorce case a few years before. He asked for the Dr. to speak with Maria as soon as possible. There had been a cancellation, and he would be able to see Maria the next afternoon at 4 pm.

That evening, Jace and Maria went out to dinner. Jace could tell that something was bothering Maria, he asked her if anything was wrong.

"No, not right off hand, but I have a feeling. . . I can't explain it. . . a feeling that something is wrong, like I forgot to do something important, I didn't skip out on anything at your office did I?"

"No, but we have to go back to Riverside tomorrow at one tho," said Jace.

"What for, I thought Mr. Green told me everything he could remember, at least he said that was all."

"His wife filmed the whole thing with her cell phone, she was so shaken, she forgot about it until she played back what was on her phone before she deleted it. Seems she's lost several videos of their grand kids, because she forgotten that she'd taped them. Now she checks to make sure before she deletes anything," Jace chuckled as he explained.

"Why doesn't she just come to the office and show us her phone there?" Maria asked.

"She doesn't want to do anything, unless her husband is right there with her, " Jace responded.

For some reason, the last words that Jace had spoken gave Maria goosebumps, she couldn't understand why, but she literally had chills after what he'd said.

After dinner Jace and Maria drove North on Interstate 71, then West on 36 to North 3 BS & K Rd. Jace turned West again onto Howard Rd. went a short distance, again turning North, onto Hogback Rd. A short time later he turned into a small parking lot, located near Bald Lick on Alum Creek Lake. It was a spot away from light, where they had a good view of the night time stars.

They got out of the car and walked a little as they held hands. Although she was with Jace, Maria couldn't shake the thoughts of Gary, something about the view of the stars and the feel of the night air reminded her of him so much. Why? Why couldn't she get him out of her head, she hadn't laid eyes on him in over twenty years now. What was wrong with her?

After they arrived home, Maria logged onto to her Facebook account, she had a strong urge to see if Gary was on FB. She didn't know why she hadn't looked before, but for some reason, it had never occurred to her to do so. She found gary's brother, Jack Arthur and his wife, no mention of Gary at all anywhere on their pages. She typed in his name, there were fifteen Gary Arthur's with a FB page, but none was him, apparently he wasn't on FB. She wanted to try and find her children, but was scared that they may reject her, she logged off and shut the computer down.

A short time later Maria told Jace that she was extremely tired and went to bed. Maria had a dream so vivid and realistic, that when she awoke in the morning, she was so confused that she wasn't sure what was the dream and what was reality. It was still dark when she awoke, she was aware that the man lying in bed beside her was her husband. . . But she had to check something, Maria arose and went to the window and looked out. . . She was in Columbus, in the home that Jace had had built, not back home in her old house, it was Jace lying there, not Gary. Her heart sank, wishing that it was the last twenty two years that had been a dream.

Maria had dreamed that her and Gary had taken their still preteen boys out on a picnic, the boys had gone off to play and her and Gary had held each other and there had been a lot of kissing and words of love passed back and forth between them. It all seemed so real, she remembered every word of the conversations that they'd had. They'd driven home and after the boys were asleep, Gary had made tender, sweet love to her. Afterwards, she had gone to sleep and was having a dream that her and Gary were driving around up and down country roads in their Corvette convertible with the top down. Then, when she had awoken in her dream, she had snuggled up to Gary and held on for all she was worth. Then, she awoke for real, but it felt more like she had just dozed back off after awakening in her dream. She was really confused (and you probably are too).

Maria wondered into the kitchen, completely lost in thought, memories of her life with Gary were invading her whole being. When Jace crawled out of bed a short time later, he came into the kitchen to find Maria crying.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"It's Gary, my first husband, I never told you the details about our divorce, or how I treated him and what I did to him. It wasn't fair. . . I was dreaming about him last night."

"I figured as much, you hugged me and said, I love you Gary," said Jace, "Do you want to talk about it? Or do you want to wait til this afternoon, when you see Dr. Spencer?"

"I'll wait, but I promise that I'll explain it to you later on. I have made up my mind to something tho. The Corvette. . . My Vette, I almost forgot about it. It's back home in Edison's old warehouse. . . I've decided. . . I. . . I almost feel like I owe it to him. . . I've decided that I'm going to give my Vette to Gary, he always did love Chevy's, ha ha. He had a 69 Chevelle when we got married. . . A-n-d. . . the last time I saw him, I was driving the Vette and. . . He noticed it more than he did me, ha ha."

Maria laughed as she spoke, but Jace could feel the sadness in her voice.

"We have a busy day ahead of us, we'd better get showered and ready to go," said Maria.

They showered together, but there was no love making, Maria just wanted Jace to hold her.

Just after lunch, Maria and Jace drove to Riverside Manor to meet with Mr. and Mrs. Green. Jace spoke with them and transferred Mrs. Green's video onto his laptop. While standing in Mr. Green's room, again, a wave of extreme sadness came over Maria. She excused herself and went quickly into the ladies restroom across the hall. Once inside, she broke down, this was much worse than any of the other 'episodes,' the sense of loss was overwhelming. She spent ten minutes trying to compose herself. Finally, she was able to calm down enough to return to the room.

"I hope Dr. Spencer is able to draw whatever is in me out," she said to herself, as she left the restroom.

Jace was just finishing up with the Greens when Maria returned.

"Are you OK hon?" Mrs. Green asked.

"Y. . . Y. . . Yes, I'm fine, I think it's just allergies, Maria replied.

Jace glanced at her as they left the room, he could tell that she'd been crying. He started to ask her if she was OK, when he heard Maria speak to someone.

Maria had walked out of the room ahead of Jace and turned to her right, almost running into Gary's younger brother, Jack, who was walking down the hallway,

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

Her first assumption was that Jack and Gary's mother was here at Riverside. Maria was 58 now, Jack and Gary's mom had to to be in her 80's by now. She had no idea that their mother had died the year before. She glanced past him to see if maybe Gary had come with. Jack looked at her with a blank expression, not really sure if he was seeing what he thought he was,

"Hello. . . Maria?" he said.

They were both at a loss for words. Jace just looked on, a little puzzled.

"Oooh, Jace, tthiss is my first husband's brother, Jack Arthur. Jack, this is my husband Jace Ballard," said Maria nervously.

Jack recognized Jace from the JWB & PC commercials. The two shook hands while Maria explained the reason why her and Jace were here at Riverside. Maria, not sure how to continue, hesitated, then asked,

"Is your mother here in this facility?"

Before he could respond, she blurted out,

"What's Gary been doing, lately, is he remarried now?"

Jack, not really sure where to go with this, just asked,

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

Maria's mind was racing, not sure that she wanted to know whether Gary was remarried or not. Could these feelings of sadness be from her being able to sense the pain that Gary was feeling, because of his mother? Was she ill? Was she in bad health?

She thought about her decision to give Gary the Corvette, and decided to tell Jack that she had something for Gary that she thought he would really like a lot.

"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. He turned and walked three doors down from where they stood, stopping in front of room 214, Maria and Jace had followed.

Not long after his mother died, Gary had had another stroke, he had been in Riverside Manor for several months now. Riverside was the only LTC facility within several hundred miles, that specialized in his condition.

Jack told her to wait in the hall for just a moment and he went inside. Maria was nervous, but also a bit excited,

"Gary must be inside," she thought.

Would he not want to see her? Would he send her away? How would she react when she saw him? She was conflicted. Deep inside, she knew that she wanted to run to him and ask his forgiveness, that she was still very much in love with him, but she knew that would never happen. She also loved Jace and she couldn't do to him what she had done to Gary. . . She wanted to turn and run away. . .

A few minutes later, the door opened just enough that Jack slipped back out of the room.

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

Jack opened the door as he started clarifying the events of the last two decades. . .

Maria stood there astonished at what she saw. Joshua, now 35 stood there as a very pretty young woman clung to him. Next to him was 33 year old Jake, he also had his arms around a pretty young woman. There were two young boys sitting in a chair behind them, they looked to be 9 or 10 years old. Looking all over but not seeing Gary, her heart felt empty, she'd really wanted to see him. Maria also noticed that everyone looked as tho they'd been crying, no one was smiling.

Only hearing part of what Jack had said, Maria zoned back in and listened closely to his words, hoping to find out about Gary,

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

"What did he just say!!" she thought, as she focused her attention to the person lying in the bed.

There lying in the bed, was Gary. He'd died a few minutes before, she had been only a few doors down the hall when he passed away. Jack had left the room to collect a nurse, and so Gary's boys and their wives could be alone with him for a few minutes to say their last goodbyes, but Jack had run into Maria.

Maria stared at Gary, his hair was still black and wild, only now with a hint of grey. She saw his thin frame, and remembered poking him on the shoulder that day in class so long ago. . . Here laid the love of her life. . . And he was gone. . . She would never get to tell him that she still loved him. . . She looked at her children, now grown. . . And the tears came,

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

This story, for the most part, is true. Gary (not his real name) was a close friend of mine's older brother. I remember him and Maria in high school and when they married. And when they divorced, I never in my wildest dreams, thought that Maria could ever do what she did to Gary. I knew her and her family, she sure didn't seem like the type to do the things she did. I watched, as Gary slowly faded away after their divorce. Their places of employment and some of the details of the story are fictional, but the basic outline of the story is all true. I used to drive by Gary and Jacks mother's almost daily as my wife and I would be out and about, and I would see him on the porch with his wild hair. I used to tell my wife; that there was a real 'blast from the past.' I also visited him a couple of times while with my friend. My friend cued me in on some of the things that Maria had done after she left Gary, the family had kept track a little. We never really knew for sure if Maria still loved Gary or not. But, the events that happened at the LTC facility, happened just as I wrote them here. Maria was there with her husband on business, unaware that Gary was right down the hall.