Am I Standing in You Way

I contacted Tim the next day.

"I know," I said. Cost is no object. "I just want to know what's happening. I have to know. Okay? I have to know."

Tim didn't argue.

Patient Adrienne Whitley, age forty-three was wheeled into surgery the next day. Her radical mastectomy and the first stages of the reconstructive follow up procedures were completed in six hours.

Here hospital stay was five days. Her next procedures were scheduled and set to be completed in five separate stages over a period of a few months. The good news is she was cancer free—crossed fingers that it didn't recur.

When she was released I was there. No, not to pick her up. Just to see her come out. She was picked up by her friend, Mavis Billings.

I never liked Mavis. Married three times. Each divorce the result of her cheating. I had to think that she was responsible for a lot of Adrienne's screwin' around.

Adrienne looked wan, but happy. I never felt more in love and happier in my life. I had given what I could, and I was feeling' real fine about it. But, she could never know.

******

I was talking with Larry and Ben when she came in. At first I was alarmed. I was afraid she knew. I needn't have worried.

"Hi, Clyde. Ben. Larry. Good to see you all," she said.

"Hello, Adrienne. You're looking good," I said.

"Better than I deserve," she said. "I had a bit of luck. Anyway, I'm fine now. Clyde, could I talk to you? I really need to talk to you."

I was suspicious, at this point I was certain that she knew what I'd done. "Yeah, I guess. Over there," I said. We headed for the same table she and the cowboy had been at that last night I'd seen him and her dancing.

Seated she got right to the point. "Clyde, I need to tell you some things, and I would be infinitely grateful if you'd let me get it all out before you say anything. Okay?"

"Okay, I guess," I said.

"Clyde, I love you. I know you don't love me anymore. Well, I don't think you do. But even so, I need to say some things." She swallowed.

"Clyde, I just got out of the hospital. I was dying, Clyde. But almost at the last minute someone, some anonymous person came to this woman's rescue. And no, before you ask, I don't know who, and anyone who might know isn't saying. I am just sick about that. I wanted to thank him-her whoever and do it on my knees.

"Clyde, that's the good news. The bad news is that to save me they had to cut off my breasts. I am undergoing reconstructive surgeries over the next few months, so I won't look too bad after it's all done. But, my C-cups are gone forever, I'm afraid. I will definitely be a small A-cup when all is said and done." I started to say something. She placed her little hand on my lips.

"No, Clyde, let me finish. I have to do this and it's real hard.

"While I was in the hospital. I had time to think. Hell that's all I had time to do. I decided that when I got out I was going to come to you and apologize for being a perfect asshole. I risked it all and lost it all for a cheap thrill that frankly wasn't even much of a thrill cheap or any other kind.

"And—"

"And?" I said, breaking my agreement not to talk.

"And, I am begging you to take me back. Yes, I'm damaged goods, Clyde. Yes, I treated you like shit. Yes, I deserve to be unceremoniously kicked to the curb where I belong. But...

I looked at her and "I" began to cry. She noticed and she wiped my tear away with her hand.

"Clyde, no one will ever treat a husband better than I will treat you if you have mercy on this old broad," she said.

I couldn't talk even if I'd wanted to. I took her in my arms and held her. I held my little woman. My woman!

"Clyde?"

"Yes," I managed, "yes." Now we both cried. Actually, I cried; she howled.

You might have thought that that was the end. But oh no. Fate had one last little trick to play on old Clyde.

******

The wedding was held in the old Baptist church by our old house. The reception saw many of our old friends come out for our second time around.

Ben and his wife were there, and Morgan, and Mavis, and Larry and his wife, and Tim; it was a good show.

Ben was talking to Mavis. He shouldn't have been; he was drunk.

"You're saying that our Clyde is rich?"

"Uh-huh."

"And he is Adrienne's savior, and she doesn't know it even now? Is that what you're saying?"

The two did not see the bride, who had just changed into street clothes for the ride to the airport to start her honeymoon. She was standing behind a curtain that covered the sliding glass door to the patio.

Adrienne almost fainted hearing them. She may not have been the swiftest in the race, but she sure as heck understood what they were saying. Her Clyde—he was her knight in shining armor. She knew what she had to do.

Passing through the door. Mavis and Ben shut up and smiled. Adrienne smiled back at them.

"Ben would you call everyone together, Please, I want to make a final toast before Clyde and I head out," said Adrienne.

"Sure, bet, girl," he said.

In less than five minutes thirty guests were assembled on the patio. Clyde was off to her left four or five feet.

"Friends, I have an announcement and a toast to make.

"That I am the luckiest woman on the planet today there is now doubt. I have just married the greatest guy on the planet and that makes it so. But, there is one more thing I must do. And something I thought I would never have the opportunity to do. But first a toast to happy days and my good man."

The "here-here's" echoed for a full minute.

Adrienne put her drink down. She went to her smiling husband—and sank to her knees. "Clyde, I love you. Thank you for saving me, my dear husband."

She burst out crying, and I stood there like a dumb ox. But the cheers went up right after her final words and I could do nothing but smile.

Married life was lookin' pretty good to me.

The End