A Girl in the Night

A week after Davy came out of the coma and two days before he was to be released, Cindy wanted to meet me for dinner to talk about his future. She drove their rental and we went into San Antone, to a nice restaurant along the River Walk.

"Tom, I don't want you to get upset but this is a bit of a fait accompli. Once you think about it I don't think you will have any objection. We have talked a lot with Davy, Dawn and Dawn's parents. We're going to take Davy home with us on the Lear we came up on. Dawn and her sister will be coming down with us. Dawn and Davy will finish high school down there early next November. Connie will be there as a chaperone/companion for Dawn. Their parents are okay with this.

"Davy wants to go to the University of Texas in Austin for pre-law. Dawn will go there too. She wants to major in Latin American Studies with a major in Spanish. She has been taking Spanish in high school and should become fluent pretty quickly."

She took a deep breath and continued as I stared at her. "They plan on getting married next Christmas on her parents' ranch. Rod is buying them a house in Austin, a new car for each of them and all school expenses. Now don't go getting on your high horse. Rod doesn't have any children of his own and all we have will go to Davy eventually. Rod is just setting up a trust to see that Davy is educated to the point that he will be able to manage the estate. So he will also be getting a cash allowance each month that should allow them to go to nice restaurants and live comfortably."

She leaned back and told me, "Okay, now you can start yelling at me."

I looked at her, looked down at my hands and thought about what she had said. Finally I stood up and walked around the table. I took her hands and lifted her up. Giving her a big hug I breathed into her ear, "Thank you. I think it makes a lot of sense."

Before I knew it I was alone again. Kathy and I were invited to Dawn's folks fairly often. They seemed fairly happy with everything, but being parents they planned on flying down to Argentina every couple of months "... to make sure the girls are happy and okay."

Kathy and I became closer as time passed and on Easter we were married. Rod flew the girls and Davy up for the wedding but Cindy chose not to attend. We decided to keep my place but I had several large rooms added.

At the end of everything we were happy and got along well. The sex was ... great. When it came time for Kathy to dress for Davy's wedding I heard some down home cowboy swearing coming out of the bedroom. Solicitously I went in to see if I could help. It seemed that Kathy was having a hell of a time getting her dress on. She finally did but was quite uncomfortable. Funny, I hadn't noticed her getting fat at all, but damn, she was a bit thick around the waist.

So I was standing there looking perplexed and Kathy took pity on me. "You really don't know, do you? I've known for a few weeks but I just never found the right time to tell you. You do remember how to change diapers, don't you?"

Well, damn!

~~~~~~

The years have passed gracefully and I'm at the reception for our oldest (of two) daughter's wedding reception. Kathy was giving Liz a hug with both of them crying tears of joy. To be honest my eyes were kind of misty also. Mary Anne slipped up next to me and I put my arm around her while she looked on at her mom and sister.

Watching Kathy I was struck by an image of her sitting alone at the table in Willy's Tavern those many years ago. Her sad beauty remembered with a deep poignancy in my memory was at odds with the image before me. Her beauty had greatly multiplied in my eyes but the sadness was a distant memory. She was no longer just ... a girl in the night.