Forty Days of the Weasel Ch. 03

"Roxanne, I have to talk with you, it's me--"

"Oh God, Mary called me, I haven't stopped crying since!"

A voice interrupted. "Mom?"

Roxanne looked up. Don was on the landing. She covered the 'phone. "What is it, Don?"

"Nothing, sorry." His mother looked so much in control, he just faded up the stairs. Was she dating again? She'd been out sometimes lately. He decided he would be out of high school and out of the house come summer, so he didn't have to care.

He seemed to Roxanne to have gone, but he could still be listening. Roxanne set her jaw, told Glenn to come and see her and gave a time for it Friday. He agreed. She said she would call him in an hour or so, and didn't wait for him to agree, but hung up the 'phone. Don will have to be out of the house while Lisa's at rehearsal, at least from 6:30. It'll be Friday night, he may already be planning to be gone, I'll see.

"Don?" She pitched her voice to carry and aimed in up the stairwell. "I'll be going out tonight right after supper, it shouldn't be very long, but I have an errand."

"Okay, Mom."

"That means no guests 'til I'm back."

"I getcha."

Once supper finished, she went out and found a pay 'phone. She grilled Glenn, eliciting in quick unvarnished answers confirmation of Mary's story. "I'm not very happy about this," she told him. Furious would be a good description, though.

"I'm not, either. We've had so much fun! But I just have to," Glenn began, but Roxanne wasn't buying any bullshit today.

"Now you listen. You can't just dump me, we have business."

"I'm still working on the big package." Or Felix is.

"Good. And I don't have to share you with Mary any more."

"Don't, Roxanne, please." I am gonna twist Mary's neck! What the fuck made her call ahead of me and fuck this up!! I'm not even face-to-face for it now!

"Why? Why should I want to do you a favor? You're leaving me for a younger woman! What do you expect, fuckin' roses? You come see me Friday at my house! What time?"

"You said after 6:30, before seven," replied he. He heard her snap, "Right!" at the telephone as she hung it up. It didn't look good for the home team.

Glenn dialed her right back, though. The fire was in him, now. Weasels are at their best when cornered. But he got Don. He hung up as quietly as the mechanism would allow.

"Faack!" he blatted. "Double fuck, with nuts!"

Her kids would be home, how could he--? He could watch until he saw she'd gotten home, and then, quick, hit a pay 'phone. Except he had to tell his mother something if he was going to leave the house in the night. It could be hours, easily, if Roxanne decided to go drink.

"Fuck again!" He was screwed. He fumed and fretted about what sort of things Roxanne was going to demand or threaten. But he was stuck in his house and she wasn't home.

"Did you want Glenn for something, Mom?" Don asked his mother that night while she was cleaning the kitchen.

"Oh, not Glenn again!" huffed Lisa.

"No, what would I want Glenn for?"

"Well, it didn't really sound much like him, but I think it was a young guy."

"A young guy what?"

He explained the 'phone call. There was one hello, he had asked who it was, they had hung up. Roxanne said to think about it, Glenn wouldn't do that, unless maybe he'd dialed the wrong number by mistake.

Lisa chimed in, certain he was calling his girl friend and dialed his ex.

It all was explained away nicely, as it turned out, but it had thrown a scare into Roxanne. She didn't want to call Glenn's parents twice so close together, but did she dare not to call? Didn't he realize? Was he trying to ruin everything--

"Oh no. He wouldn't!" she breathed. But he might. Doubt is a powerful thing.

"Another 'phone call for Glenn!" Dorothy Svoboda sang out.

"Is it his girlfriend again?" his father demanded. "I'm getting sick of--"

"No, it's Mrs. Fein, shh! Get Glenn, would you, Barb? He has a 'phone call."

"He's got it up there, Mom!" his sister sang out shortly. Dorothy's son's voice, "Hi, Glenn Svoboda speaking," came immediately into her ear. Dorothy excused herself and got off the line.

"Glenn--" Her breathlessly fearful voice began. He cut her off with a crisp, flat question; her tone told him all he needed to know.

"How much of a reminder do you need?"

"Reminder?!"

"Well? You need me to spell out why you should do me a favor?"

"No! I--"

"I'll see you at 6:40 tomorrow. At the apartment, not the house."

He hung up deliberately and went downstairs. He addressed his father. "That was Mrs. Fein. I'm wanted for more work on the soffit by that gutter, 6:15 or 6:30 tomorrow. I said sure, if you guys were all right with it. Can I go?"

"Will you need a ride?"

"Not strictly, but I'll take one if you're offering."

"Well, that's just it, I don't think either of us can get you over there."

"I'll go catch the bus right after supper, then."

______________________

She was waiting in her car outside on Charles Street, but she got out to meet him hastily.

"Glenn, I've changed the lock," she said very rapidly, "I'll have to let you in!"

He gestured after you! and she hurried ahead and had it open for him when he got there. She gave him the key, which just made his day. He continued to say nothing, just looking at her insolently. She offered him the apartment indefinitely and she was profusely sorry.

His victory secure, he widened her cage so she'd be more comfortable in it.

"I can't take this, Roxanne, it's bound to wind up costing you too much money and you'll start to hate me." He took her hand and folded it around the key. "I never want you to hate me." He kissed her forehead. She didn't know what to imagine.

"But I want to see you again!" she said without thinking. "What are you going to do?"

Get laid less often, Glenn thought. He opened his arms and she came in. He folded around her and hugged. Releasing her, he said he didn't want to lose touch either. But before he could jolly her to the next step, she cut in.

"So take the apartment! Look, think about Lisa! Girlfriends don't always last! She could dump you or whatever, and then I'd still be here! If you'll come back-- but don't go back to Mary, just me!-- you can have it 'til you graduate! It doesn't cost me as much as you think. Please!" She tucked the key into his shirt pocket from the circle of his arms.

"You're giving me the apartment as a retainer?"

"Okay, yes, I guess that's what I mean, yes. Will you do it?"

It had T-R-A-P written on it in big bill-poster letters. But he wanted it! Pussy! Apartment!

"No. Forget it." In the end, though, it was still the pussy and the apartment that he'd decided to do without, already.

"You don't trust me."

You want me too much, it makes me worry. He decided how much to say.

"I want to trust you, but you're so emotional right now. What I'm going to do, I guess, is trust myself. And you'll have to trust me, too. I might come back, like you say, sort of between girlfriends--"

"Oh, yes, thank you!"

"But I'll tell you why I wouldn't!"

"No! What do you mean?"

"Now be quiet a second. Look, sit down, get a deep breath. Talking like this you're only scaring me."

"Okay, okay, let's go sit down, but why wouldn't you?"

"I wouldn't come back if I even suspected you seemed to be monitoring me!"

"You hate me." She wasn't thinking, she was reacting on pure emotion.

"I don't! I always thought you were so fine, you can be the sexiest thing alive sometimes. I can't explain all the reasons I'm gonna miss you. But if I have this place, you'll expect something. You have to just trust me. I'll never forget you-- my God, how could I? But you can't dog me around, you'll drive me if you do."

"I love you, though. This is very hard. You have tissues here?"

"Paper towels, or wait!" He got her his brand new dishtowel. "Here!"

"God, I'm so pathetic."

"You're fine," he said, dismissing that idea, "Mary just sprung it on you and you got panicky. I wanted to be the one to tell you, and kiss you goodbye and have a cry with you. I'm really going to miss you, awful."

"You're going to miss fucking my ass, you mean." She blew her nose.

"I sure am."

She laughed one note-- "Ha!"-- and rumpled his hair. "All right, you monkey. I want you happy. But remember this ass. It's available! Okay?"

He took his leave and wandered down Ohio Street. He had a wish to crow to someone that he'd done it! I could say, Hey Jackie, I don't fuck all those other women any more! He chuckled to himself.

Or Guess what, Mr. Reiner, I'm not going to buttfuck Mrs. Fein now, just your little girl! That'd be a smart thing to do...

Glenn was mumbling to himself, but in that neighborhood, you see that kind of thing often enough.

A car pulled up behind him and stopped. He ignored it until the power window whine came to his ear. It was Roxanne again. "You still have the key," she said. "I need to lock up..."

"Oh. Yeah. Here it is."

In a moment she was back again, and he accepted a ride home.

"I've been acting so stupidly. I hope I didn't make you decide I'm a nut case! I've never known anyone like you, you seem to know me through and through. I'm blabbering now, aren't I? It'll be a while before I can adjust."

"I know what you mean."

"Will you meet me for coffee or something, talk to me sometimes? Just once in a while. I care about what happens to you, you know?"

"I don't want to just fade away, either," he lied. "Knowing you changed my whole life!"

"Just so we don't lose track entirely. Will you call?"

"Of course. But I can't do it this week, I wouldn't trust myself not to start in all over again. I need a week or ten days to get used to this."

"Thank goodness. I hope you make a really good life for yourself. I want to see how it turns out, help if I can in some small way, maybe, you know?"

"Okay, look, thanks for the ride; I'll see you soon. Don't forget the smoke, either, we'd have had to meet anyhow."

"That's right."

"It may be any time in the next week or two, then. You should know, by the way: I worked on the soffit up by the gutter, there, from last time. Okay? G'bye, now."

"The soffit? You better have some money for that job, then, here... there you are."

He protested he could cover it, but she insisted. He looked at it only after she'd driven off. Fifty dollars! Like a picador, sinking hooks in his flesh.

He'd put himself through a wringer to get this done, and it wasn't really done. The scene had been only a month, though, total, one intense month. Maybe there was hope, after all, that he could taper her off a little, maybe even, ultimately, breathe free air.

Glenn sighed. He'd already realigned his feelings from poignant regret for lost ass to relief and a desire to forget. Women will recognize the syndrome.

He called Jackie. "Jackie, I've got something to say: I love you."

A fat lot he knew about it.