Best Friends Forever

"You got it," he said. "You absolutely got it." His happiness almost made me wish I'd turned him down. Happiness was not something I wanted to be party to supplying him with. But, I guess I was going to come to his little do. I could always call later and cancel. I wouldn't but the possibility was mine if nothing else.

He promised to call with the details the next day. It was Wednesday, and it was August third, and it was turning into something I would not have guessed possible before my stupid attempt to off myself. The one thing that the shrink had given me was the realization that I had been stupid and that I had to stop living in the past, at least not so much of the time. That I would ever totally forgive or forget the dirty hand I'd been dealt by the dynamic duo was highly unlikely, as he said, but that didn't mean I had to let it rule and ruin my life, what was left of it.

We talked quite a bit at Denny's and much of my conversation was indeed with my daughter, the same girl that had held me to be such a pain in the ass not so long before. But if my conversation with Rebecca was long and friendly, and it was, the attention I was getting per that conversation from my ex-best friend was almost certifiable. I mean he looked to be analyzing me or, more accurately, my unstated motivation. We'd be talking soon him and me; I was sure of it. And it wouldn't be me initiating the conversation, oh no, that would be him and it wouldn't be long in the happening. I figured the barbecue on Saturday was likely.

******

He'd picked me up early in that same fancy dancy SUV with the elevator; well, it was kind of a long drive. Jesus I wish I had that car. Had to cost a ton even without the elevator which would have cost a ton in itself. I had to ask.

"So, Rodney, how much did a ride like this cost you if I may be so bold?" I said. He gave me a look.

"You don't wanna know," he said.

"Yes, I do," I said, pushing it. He sighed.

"Two hundred," he said.

"Huh? Two hundred dollars?" I said. My implied question was stupid, but it's what he'd said, sort of.

"Thousand," he said.

"Oh," I said, suitably impressed. "Wish I could afford one. Hell I wish I could drive one," and I laughed. "That elevator on the passenger side is real useful."

"It has the same thing on the driver's side," he said. "Oh, and it has the capacity to install controls you could use to navigate around too." Now I was really impressed.

"Yeah, now if I could only find me a couple hundred grand lying around somewhere," I said.

"You could have this one if you want, James. You have to know I had it built to make things easier for you," he said. I did know it. And, boy did I wish I didn't. I didn't respond to his obvious offer.

The drive to their place was kinda quiet after that, not silent exactly, but definitely quiet. And then we were there and getting out of the elevator and crossing the few feet of the hall to the Penthouse door. I was on my skitterboard. He paused before keying the door.

"Jim, just for today, okay if you transfer to the chair I've provided inside to get around. I mean just for today," he said. I looked him askance, but nodded. It would be easier to socialize in the chair than on my board.

She must have heard the elevator coming up. She was waiting for us. And she was waiting with the chair. They'd obviously planned, and planned well. "I'm glad you decided to come," said Claire. I hoisted myself into the chair. It was much the same as me hoisting myself onto my couch at home.

She was holding her wine, probably merlot I thought, and sporting and earnest expression as I made the transfer. "Jim, are we good?" she sure as heck wasn't waiting to go through all of the niceties of greeting and settling down, not my Claire! I cut to the chase.

"I don't know, Claire, things are kind of roiling around in my head. If you mean am I in control of my emotions now, well, I'm done with the suicidal stuff. If you mean am I good with you and him being together, rest assured I will never be good with that. Dealing with it? Maybe that but good with it, no," I said. She nodded.

"Okay, I think I can understand where you're coming from, Jim. And as I've said before I just hope that at some point you'll find yourself a woman who you can love and help you to forget 'me' in those respects. I mean what Rodney and I did to you," she said.

"Yeah well, the odds of that happening aren't real good if you know what I mean," I said. "But, I'm here and I hope the food will be good."

Claire and I had wandered out on the expansive first floor patio with drinks and had been conversing for a while about nothing of significance for some time. Actually we'd been talking mostly about her pursuit of her hobby, cooking.

I should note here, that Rebecca, with her other dad, had gone to pick up other guests as soon as we'd arrived at their place. They'd just gotten back. I was glad for that; being cooped up with my ex-wife for the half hour just past had been kind of a test for me, and one that I wasn't sure I could pass; but, I guess I had. I wasn't emotional like every single other time I'd been around her since our breakup sixteen years gone.

Rodney came out on the patio and joined us. Following immediately behind him was Rebecca who came to me—I was sure under orders—and gave me a big old kiss on the cheek. She'd startled me, but I guess I did appreciate her expression of affection.

"That was nice," I said reacting to her.

"Love you, dad," she said. She seemed to genuinely mean it, but she could have been acting; I suspected that she was.

"Jim, this is Denise my indispensable right hand at the shop. And this is Ann her sister," he said. Suddenly I was staring. Denise was a very pretty woman who I'd met before. And her sister, Ann, who I'd never met was even prettier, stunning actually. Oh, and she only had one leg and one arm, that is Ann did!

"Jim, are you with us, man?" said Rodney. I let my staring gaze slowly float in his direction. I think I nodded.

"Uh—yes, nice to see you Denise, Ann," I said. I'd met Denise of course several times over the years, but this was the first time I'd met Ann.

Ann came forward a step using a crutch to support her progress; she was smirking. I was in my wheelchair with an afghan covering my lap. It wasn't actually cold but it was a little cool and plus it kinda protected me from the overly sympathetic gaze of people who didn't know me well.

"Afghanistan," she said, "a roadside bomb." I nodded.

"Oh sure, sorry," I said.

"I hear a building fell on you," she said.

"Not a building exactly, I said, "just a part of one."

"Oh, okay," she said. "I'm glad you cleared that one up." It was clear to me that this girl had it together—unlike me.

Pretty soon everybody had a drink in their hand. Rebecca though only seventeen had a glass in her hand too. Well, she was at home and only six months or so shy of legal adulthood.

The patio was a good forty by forty feet: bigger than most apartments. I'd talked to Claire at some length before the other guests arrived. And after they arrived I'd had a few mundane words with Rod, while the drinks were being put together; I'd actually helped him with that. The heavy conversation that I had anticipated him initiating didn't look to be happening. Well, that was just as well with me. I'd also had a few words with Denise while Claire and Ann got together for a few words of their own; and now I was near the outer wall of the patio and Ann was leaning against it supporting herself, her crutch unattended also leaned against the railing; she was talking to me.

"I have to say I was surprised to find another gimp here today," said Ann.

"No more surprised than was I," I said. "And might I add the surprise was more than pleasant. I have to say that I do suspect my brother of planning this."

"Thank you for that," she said. "As for him planning this, not so, my sister told him I was in need of a job. I think I'm here to get the once over to see if I can qualify to work for him. But he's never met or seen me before."

"Hmm, okay," I said, "maybe. Anyway, so, no husband for an American hero?" I said.

"Hah!" she said. "No, no husband. He took off with some teenybopper as soon as I got back stateside. Told me it had nothing to do with the fact that I was half the person he married. Oh no, it was just that he'd met his soulmate and the feelings he had for her just couldn't be denied. Words to that affect at any rate."

"Hmm," I said. "I'm familiar."

"How about you?" she said. "Your wife leave you because of your situation? Denise told me you weren't married but had been."

"Huh?" I said. "I mean you don't know?"

"Know? Know what?" she said.

"About my situation?" I said.

"No, not really. I know you saved our hosts, the whole family, and lost your legs in the doing of it," she said. "That, and that you're divorced, but that's about all. Am I in no trespass territory here?"

I couldn't believe it, but I did believe her. Her tone was such that it was clear to me that she didn't have a clue about the big thing. That put me in an uncomfortable place. I wasn't sure that I wanted her to be in the know. No, that's not right, I did want her to be, but I just wasn't sure that this was the best time. I decided to hedge my bets.

"Well, it was very bad," I said. "But as to the details, maybe another time if that would be all right."

"Sure, I can dig it," she said. It was right then that our host shanghaied me to help with the barbecuing. Boy did I want to talk to the woman some more. But, that would have to wait until later. I was busy making the best hamburgers east of the Far East. Well, I was putting the veggies in the burgers while my ex-best friend was flipping the patties. They'd be good, the burgers.

"And they were good, and I had two of them. I'd have to burn off some calories on the morrow.

We were on our second drinks and Denise and Claire were in the kitchen clearing the dishes. I didn't know where Rodney and Rebecca had got to, but I wasn't as concerned about them as I was about the renewed conversation I was having with Ann Rogers at that particular moment.

We'd been talking for a good while and I had decided to chance it and ask her out. We'd not be dancing but we could do other stuff: dinner, movies, exhibits, live shows lots of stuff. At the least of it we'd be good company for each other. I sure as hell needed someone to talk to and a woman was the kind of someone that I most wanted to talk to in the whole world. And, Ann Rogers was so damn pretty. Yes, she was missing some body parts, but boy could I relate to that.

"So any chance?" I said.

"Sure, I guess," she said. "Why not. We sure as hell have some stuff in common for darn sure."

"Okay, then if next Friday evening is good for you, I'll pick you up at say sevenish," I said.

"That'd be fine," she said. She didn't ask how a guy with no legs could do any picking up; I considered that a good thing.

******

The Red Barron had the best steaks in town. I hadn't been to dinner there since getting dumped by Nadine. But, maybe my new friend would be willing to extend our relationship and go out with me on a more or less regular basis; that was what I was shooting for. To my mind's eye she was for damn sure a winner, and a singular beauty. Light brown shoulder length hair, a delicate porcelain complexion, green eyes, maybe five-eight and slender, 34Bs if my judgement was any good: yeah, she was the total package. I sure was glad that her soon to be ex-husband was dumb enough to dump her, callous as that might seem to anyone I said such words to.

"So, how long before your divorce is final?" I said.

She slumped in her seat. I could see I'd stung her. "A couple of months more," she said. I nodded.

"Didn't mean to open any wounds," I said. "I know how divorces can be. Even after sixteen years what my woman did to me still rankles. I'll likely never really get over it totally."

"No, that's all right," she said. "It does hurt. I mean you give your heart to someone and then discover that it meant nothing to him, or her in your case, I guess."

"Exactly. Exactly!

"Ann, I'd like to say that I sure am glad I met you. If I get out of line or anything just slap me around. I'll take my punishment, apologize, and ask you to do it again. Okay?" I said. She smirked.

"You got it bub. So since we're sharing our personal marital catastrophes, how about yours?" she said.

I gave her a look that she misinterpreted.

"I'm sorry, if you'd rather not talk about it, it's okay," she said.

"No, no," I said. "I just can't believe you don't already know."

"Huh?" she said. "How would I know? I'm missing something here aren't I."

"No, it's just that your sister knows, so . . ." I said.

"Denise? My sister Denise knows?" she said.

"Yes, she works for the guy. Rodney Pollard is the man in the middle and Claire Pollard is my ex-wife," I said. She suddenly became semi-catatonic. I waited for her to come back to me.

"The people whose house we were at last week?" she said.

"Yes, and their child is actually my daughter, something I didn't know till she was six years-old," I said. "So, you can see, I really am in the know about how it feels to be dumped on. There's more, but all of that can wait for another time."

"No, no, let me get this straight. She divorced you to marry Mister Pollard. You saved their lives. You lost your legs doing it. And, your daughter lives with them. Do you have joint custody, I mean . . .?"

"All correct, but no, I do not have any custodial rights, legal ones, at all. They do allow me to see her any time I want though, I mean to be fair," I said.

"Wow, you must have been hurting real bad all of this time, I mean emotionally, and you still get along with them? And you say there's even more to this story?" she said.

"Yes and yes, sort of," I said. "The rest of the story is biggest the reason I still hurt so bad even after all of this time." She folded her hands in front of her and waited clearly spellbound for the final chapter of the story. She really wasn't brooking me dodging the issue.

"Claire and I were married nineteen years ago, actually twenty now. After we got back from our honeymoon, to make a short story even shorter, she immediately began doing my then best friend. We had, he and I, been tight since the second grade. The cheating went on for three years before I discovered them doing each other in my house and talking smack about me.

"The two of them tried to apologize and get me to agree to an open marriage of sorts: I'd get to remain her loving husband and they'd continue to do each other once or twice a month. Claimed they saw us, the three of us, as a single nuclear family and that it made sense for us to continue on as before. Her as a hot wife and me as her willing cuckold. I took exception to their proposed arrangement, so she divorced me and married him. But there was a fly in the ointment unknown to all of us; well, that's what they later assured me was the case.

"The last night we were together, Claire and I, I mean the last night we did the deed together, I'd gotten her pregers. It was six more years before any of us, again, according to them, knew the baby was mine. A quirk of fate occurred when the baby's doctor discovered that Rodney could not have been the father: he was the wrong blood type. But, oh joy, I was the right blood type. So anyway that's pretty much the whole story," I said.

"Sweet fucking Jesus!" she said.

"Yeah, all of that," I said.

"I take it that the only reason you allow yourself to be around them is because of the child," she said."

"More or less. To tell you the truth I really don't know why I'm still around them. I mean Rebecca yes, but even there, I discovered a while back that she considers me kind of a bother and in the way. She likes me well enough, and I suppose she's appropriately grateful that I saved her life, but the truth is I'm not much more than a distant uncle as far as she's concerned. So is that enough reason to be around them? Hell I don't know. You tell me," I said.

CHAPTER 19:

"I found out today that he's dating Denise's sister," said Rodney. "Denise told me. Cross your fingers."

"Really! Thank God," said Claire. "Oh and consider them crossed!"

"Yes, for damn sure," he said.

"Serious?" she said.

"Who knows? Probably too soon. But, Denise says that they went our four days in a row last week, so . . ." he said, leaving his words hanging in the air.

"Oh man, maybe we caught a lucky break. She is pretty, very pretty. And, they do have you know what in common," she said.

"Yeah, they're both heroes who lost body parts becoming one," he said.

"Yes, our hero got his legs cut off saving us. Kind of gives us bragging rights don't yuh think!" she said.

"I guess. But all I can think of is how bad it would be if she eventually shines him on. I mean like Nadine did. It's looking good right now, but as nervous as he doubtless is, I'm even more nervous!" said Rodney.

"Yes, I see what you mean," she said. "I just crossed my toes too."

"Good idea, I'll join you," he said, and he wasn't smiling.

"On another score, Rebecca asked me about him yesterday," she said. "I think she misses him at least on some level. He doesn't call or ask to visit or email her or anything. He answers her calls when she makes them and that has happened twice since the barbecue last month. But he makes no such moves on his own. I think she is beginning to realize just how hurt he was that time he heard her talking to Jill."

"I don't know. He's her daddy. He knows teenagers say and do dumb things. I can't believe he's holding on to those kinds of bad feelings this long," he said.

She shook her head. "Maybe not, but I'm mildly concerned that he might be. His feelings are still, even after all this time, so delicate so raw. I mean you know," she said. Just then there was a commotion at the front door.

"You mean since the divorce," he said.

"Yes, since the divorce. Him losing his legs to save us just kind of compounded everything. But now with this Ann woman, maybe . . ."

"Yes, well that is the hope," he said.

******

Date number nine was at the Crossroads. I'd set up camp at the Randall Arms, my old stomping grounds. I'd made the move back to the Valley because and only because of my new relationship with Ann.

Until this night, the only ones who knew about my new old address were the Traynors; they'd seen me at church and we'd talked. They were more than supportive of my relationship with my new woman.

At any rate the two of us awaited my buds, Sammy and Henry. I was feeling good. Nothing like a woman to make a guy's day. I hadn't even thought about Claire in any meaningful way in days; that had to be a positive for sure.

"Here they are," I said, as Sam and Henry sidled up to us. "Have a seat guys." They sat, and I slid an inch or two closer to Ann.

"Sam, Henry, this is Ann Rogers the prettiest girl in the place," I said. The two men hey-hey'd me for the next couple of minutes.

Our conversation and drinking and laughing and nonsense went on for an hour plus.

"Anyway, you two met at the Pollard's place?" said Sammy. "That is one heckuva coincidence for sure."

"Yes it was," I said. "I mean go figure." He gave me a look that I could not figure out.

"Sam?" I said.

"Nothing," he said. "Just a helluva a coincidence, like I said." I nodded. But, now I was thinking and my thoughts weren't good thoughts. I put them out of my head for the time being.

The four of us partied for some time. Colleen joined us near the end, around 11:00 P.M.: she'd had shift duty at the hospital or she would have been with us earlier.

The night ended and the van delivered us to her place first. We were in the back seat. As the vehicle came to a stop, I got the sweetest kiss I'd ever gotten or so it seemed to me.