24 hours, 5 years, 10 months Ch. 04

The door bell rang and Marie yelled out from the kitchen, "Jim, should be my folks, I'm draining the pasta. Where do you hide the colander, quick before I over cook it."

Walking to the front door I yelled back, "Wall with the fridge, floor cabinet, third door from the right." The door bell rang again as I opened it. Standing there looking slightly amused and very tired were Dot and Carl, Marie's parents. "Well, come on in, I can take your sweaters and you can put your luggage off to the side now. Sit down and take a rest. The two extra hours in rush hour traffic in Chicago had to be draining. Marie's in the kitchen cooking. What can I get you to drink?"

Dot grabbed me and gave me a big hug. "Jim, thanks so much for allowing us to have an overnight here. I love my daughter, but a blow-up air mattress in her tiny apartment does not do good things to my bones. You're a life saver."

"Well Dot, what would you like to drink before dinner? We have all kinds of wine, red and white and pink, box and jug, cork and screw top..."

Marie called out from the kitchen, "Mom, just come on in here. Besides, I could use your help on the main course. Everything to drink is supposed to be in here."

That's when Carl approached me and gave me a big hug. "It's been a long time Jim, it's been a lifetime."

Great to have dinner with those two again. They are good people and I've really missed them. "What can I get you drink? Wine and beer in the kitchen, and I will gladly run the gauntlet to get some, but the harder stuff is about 10 feet behind me, and I filled the ice bucket. You won't be driving till morning, so could I interest you in a little Templeton Rye before dinner? We can drink the cheaper stuff or go to beer later."

"Man after my own heart. This being retired is one thing. Rush hour traffic on a weekend in not my idea of fun. Would you join me in two fingers worth? I glanced in the kitchen and we have about 20 minutes before they'll be ready."

"I was looking just before you came and I saw 30. This is the first time she's cooked here and has no idea where I hide things."

"I have to thank you once again for letting us have dinner here and spend the night. She has this tiny apartment and tiny kitchen. The actual size of her stove is on par with a smaller Coleman stove. To add to that, Dot has real trouble getting up from the blow up air mattress on the floor."

"I hadn't seen Marie for a couple of weeks after we sat down together and talked things out. Our friends Bill and Terry invited us both for dinner at their house. It was a lot less tense that time." At this we both laughed. Marie has been honest and open with her parents and I knew she would have told them.

"Well, during dinner she said that you two were taking a three week tour of the west and were going to spend a night with here, both ways. A little later she talked about borrowing the air mattress pump from Terry. That's when I found out you were going to be on the floor. I've wanted to see both of you, so I offered.

"I get down to Cincinnati about once a year to visit my parent's graves and spend an overnight or two with my Uncle and Aunt. They have a one bedroom condo and I get to sleep on their air mattress in the living room. It's not fun for me and it had to be worse for you two."

Then I put on a very serious look on my face. "I had ulterior motives for having you both down here, but she saw through me right away." Carl looked at me very seriously. "I knew that she would have to cook here, and I'd claim the leftovers."

He chuckled and toasted me. "Carl, Gail Marie was always a good cook and I'll never be. I love good cooking, but I'll never be invested in it enough to do it.

"But she got back at me right away. She asked how clean the house was and I said that it was clean. Then she asked, as her parents were going to spend the night there, was it Mom clean or Dad clean? Busted big time. All I've done in the past year was Dad level cleaning. I haven't done a top to bottom cleaning since Charlene left after the divorce. I've spent the past three days working at it. When Marie walked in here for the first time earlier today, she gave me her seal of approval."

Carl chuckled, "That's good. You have no idea how long I would hear about it if it wasn't just so. But you knew that routine." Then he shook his glass for a refill. Mine was empty too, but I only poured a single finger now. "We'd better slow down or we could get into real trouble." He nodded in agreement.

"I'm only planning on having dinner with you and then I'll disappear so you can spend time with Marie. You all need that quiet time together. I'll come back later this evening."

"Don't you dare. This is your house, we are your guests and don't you dare disappear. We have things to catch up on too. Besides, while we were stuck in downtown Chicago traffic, Gail Marie told us that she has to start early tomorrow morning. The regular charge nurse will be out for a family death and she has to cover. It probably slipped her mind. It was a crazy day for her at work. No, stay and visit with us all."

Carl and I sat and talked about things for about 25 minutes when we heard a come-and-get-it from the kitchen, then a set-the-damn-table-while-you're-at-it. We both laughed. The whiskey was helping our attitudes with the women we were familiar with.

We set the table in the dining room. It hasn't been set in over a year and a half. That's when Charlene and I started addressing the trouble in our marriage. No more dinners with our friends happened after that.

As Carl and I sat down, the mother and daughter started placing the dinner on the table. Dot brought out, as I call it, a fancy-schmancy salad with walnuts, cranberries, feta and other stuff. This was followed by several kinds of vegetables and slightly floured chicken breasts pan fired in olive oil and seasonings. I remember meals like that at Dot's and Carl's house with Gail. Now I'm experiencing it with Marie at my own house. The world is a strange place.

The great part about this dinner was that it was not strained, not on edge. I always got along well with my once future in-laws. They and I were genuinely glad to see one another. All of the conversation was animated and warm. We all knew our limits with one another, but we were grateful to be with one another. It was a typical dinner for the four of us, about 2 hours, only over 5 years later.

When it came time for desert, Carl excused himself and went to the living room. He returned with a bottle of grappa. He always had a little bit of grappa in the espresso after dinner and this was not going to be an exception. It tasted like it always had, strong, substantial and different. Italian moonshine with a strong flavor.

It was getting on to 9:30 and Marie apologized for needing to leave. She wanted to clean up, but her mother demanded to be allowed to clean up and put everything away under my direction. Saturday morning at 4:30 would be here sooner than she planned and Marie said her goodbye to her parents, hugged them and bade me a thank you with a good night and left.

Dot told Carl to keep me busy for the next 15 minutes while she started cleaning up. I wasn't going to have any of that and said that if I helped, we'd all be able to relax. It took the three of us less than 10 minutes to clean up and wash everything.

That's when Dot said that she'd like some of that rye. I grabbed three clean glasses, the rye and some bourbon and we retired to the living room where it was most comfortable.

"So I hear retirement is a good thing Carl?"

"Well, it beats getting up and going to work. But to be real, no job, no money. We've lived our lives being cheap and we'll do it until we die. It was nice of you to let us have your spare bedroom tonight."

"And you and Dot are invited to be here when you come back on your way home."

"Ok, on one condition Jim. I get to bar-b-que. You get the grill and the coals, and I'll do a slab of short ribs with garlic and onion salt that will send you to the moon."

"Carl, this is Wisconsin, I'll get some brats too. It's required by law.

"I do remember those bar-b-qued short ribs. No sauce. I mean I sometimes still dream about them. You got a deal if I bring the beer and the whiskey."

"Sold."

"Excuse me gentlemen, but as the only female member of this gathering, I'd like to add my two cents." She paused and we chuckled with her. Dot was a wonderful warm and very human woman. "I'll be responsible for the mojito's if you can find me a source of mint."

"My back yard has a 2 by 5 foot patch of fresh mint. Good thing that I'll be able to crawl home."

We talked for the next hour. At one point, I made a comment about Marie telling me that she didn't speak to Carl or Dot for 6 months.

"Jim, you haven't spent enough time with Gail Marie to find out everything. Right after I confronted her, I went to see my sister here in Milwaukee. I knew she had a very close friend in admissions at the nursing school. I begged and pleaded my sister to talk with that woman. We got her transcripts and found out she could be accepted. My sister agreed to host her until she found some roommates.

"When you exposed Gail Marie, you showed us that the Princess that we raised wasn't going to make it. She needed to step up to the plate, get on her own two feet, be responsible. We couldn't set her adrift, but we could set it up that she'd have to perform in life. And we did.

"My sister was giving us daily then after a couple of months, twice weekly reports on her. Then at 6 months, Gail Marie showed up on our doorstep. She was not the same girl we saw 6 months before. We saw a woman that was rapidly growing up. It wasn't only rough for her. It was as bad for us.

"Jim, you were the one that was grounding her. We had great hopes you would 'cure' what we allowed to happen with her. Then she fucked it all up." That's when Dot wacked his arm. She wasn't anti-vulgarity, it just had to be a damn good reason to use it.

Dot spoke to both of us, "Carl, you know how I feel, but Jim doesn't. Jim, I told you the last time I spoke to you that you were better than she was. I can say at this point, I think that you both are neck and neck. Before I hoped that your presence would cause her to grow. Your taking away that life she had actually did it. Thank you. It was painful for all of us, but she is such a better person than she ever was before."

Carl looked directly at me and asked, "Jim, may I ask you a real personal question that you don't have to answer? We have a good relationship and I don't want to put it into jeopardy."

"How about if I don't want to answer it, I'll tell you that?" They both nodded.

"Where are you at with Gail Marie? I'm not pushing." Then Dot broke in with "He's only probing" and we all laughed.

"I'll answer but you may not like the answer, only because I don't really know the answer. It's all been so new. But to be honest, I'm scared of getting involved with her again. I've been making it a point of not physically touching her in any way at all. Keeping that moat between us."

Dot replied, "Only with your hands you haven't touched her. You have no idea how much you have touched her that first day and since then. No idea. I am damn proud of you for that. Not damn proud." She looked at Carl and chuckled, "God Damn proud." And we all laughed. It wasn't a joke, it was a statement.

We ended opening up another bottle of bourbon and the sweet vermouth and finally got to bed by 3. It was all worth it. Dot cooked us brunch at 10:30 and they left at 11:30. Such fine people.