The Unicorn

"I'll bet she works for peanuts while the men make a killing."

"Actually, she makes more than most and almost twice as much, or better, a year than I do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to shower and change. I'll probably be late getting home. Do you remember how to set the security system?"

Her reply was to flounce out to her car and drive away.

*****

Angie had more than few ruffled feathers. "How long has she been staying with you?"

"A couple of weeks. I figure another two or three and she'll be gone. I'm like a touchstone to her, plus I look a lot like her deceased husband."

"Is she looking for a clone? I know who she is; anyone who's ever read a fashion magazine knows who she is. I figured she'd be wrinkled and gray by now, but she looks better than my baby sister, and she's 23. Are you sleeping with her?"

I think I dodged that bullet pretty well. "I'm not having sex with her if that's what you're asking."

"Bet she's loaded. How much is she worth?"

"I have no idea. I've never asked and she's never said. How much are you worth?"

That was kind of a sore subject. I had a rough idea what she made and her house was a McMansion. She liked showing me off at business functions, dressed in one of Steve's expensive suits, but she didn't like what I did. She was in banking and told me flat out I needed to quit my job and go into making custom furniture. She even had the financing lined up. I shocked her when I said no, I just wasn't comfortable with that. My parents had struggled all their lives and ended up with nothing. I didn't want that to happen to me.

Our relationship was strained for a while, but got back on track just before she went on her trip. She wisely changed the subject and we went out to dinner, then back to her house for a serious round of makeup sex, trying to catch up from our time apart. it was so exhausting I stayed the night.

When I got home, Jen was gone. I just shrugged. I would miss her. It was eight weeks before I saw her again.

*****

It was at a funeral. A funeral for the little girl who had cancer. The cruel disease finally defeated her. Her mother said she died in her sleep.

I didn't know she had passed until a little whitehaired lady showed up at my door. "Hi, you don't know me, but you know my granddaughter Julie. May I have a minute of your time?"

I brought her in, sat her on the couch, fetched her a glass of tea and a piece of cake. She smiled at the old time hospitality. "Your parents must have raised your right, Jaime."

"They tried."

She had the saddest smile I'd ever seen. "I think most of it stuck. I've got bad news, son. Julie passed last night in her sleep. She knew she was going to die and she begged me to ask you something if she did. Her last request in this world was to ask if you'd weave a band of flowers for her to wear to heaven."

It hit me hard. I'd developed a habit of harvesting the flowers once a week and taking them to the hospital, where Jan and the nurses would arrange them. I'd always stop to see Julie and she'd always smile at me. She had a few toys around and it seemed she loved puzzles. One day I stopped to see her but she was having a treatment. I knew she'd be worn out by the time she got back so I didn't stay. Her unicorn was on her dresser, propped up on a bouquet of my flowers. I took about eight pictures with my cell phone.

The next day I went to a professional photographer and told him what I wanted. He picked the best two photos and blended them, changing the focus slightly until the flowers seemed to glow. He printed it off on special stock. I spent every minute after I got home from work the next week, making a puzzle that fit into the custom frame I'd built. It had eighty pieces and I assembled them into the frame, carefully gluing the photo to the pieces. It was a big puzzle for a five-year-old, but the pieces were pretty big and she seemed pretty smart for her age. When it set I took a utility knife and carefully separated every piece, cutting from the back to assure crisp lines. After that I gave them a light coat of acrylic to bind them even harder. Then I assembled it a couple of times to make sure everything fit. I gave it to her in a big bag with no instructions.

It took her three days to figure it out. Her mother told me she cried with joy when she saw what the puzzle was. Now she was gone.

Just before she left, her grandmother handed me an envelope. "She wanted you to have this. I wrote it out for her and she copied it in her own hand. Something to remember her by."

I'd remained pretty stoic while she was there but when I was alone and opened the note I'm not ashamed to say I cried the tears of the broken-hearted. You could just barely make out the childish scrawl, but the words hit me hard.

"Mr. Jaime,

Thank you and Miss Jen for the flowers and the unicorn and the puzzle. You are my friends and I love you.

Julie."

The next morning I stripped about two thirds of my flower beds, saving the very best for her garland. The rest I took to a florist friend of mine and had him arrange the flowers as her casket spray. My last chance to give her flowers.

I went to visitation that night. Julie lay like a little angel in a white dress, my garland around her bald head. I thought I held it together pretty well until I noticed the purple horn just below her right hand. It was her unicorn. In the left, turned up so I could see it, was a disc of a sunflower, the center-piece in her puzzle. Many thought I was the father the way I cried. Janice was there, came up and hugged me, then led me gently away. There in the corner was the mother, wrapped up in the arms of someone who looked familiar. She looked up and smiled at me through her tears. It was Jen. She motioned for me to sit on the other side of the mother, and when she saw who it was she transferred her tears to my shoulder. Jen got up quietly and walked away. I didn't see her again that night.

I was a pallbearer, one of four. It was devastatingly, heartbreakingly light, as only the casket burying the dreams of a child could be.

The spray made from my flowers covered the whole casket. By now, many of her mother's friends knew they were from me and they all wanted to thank me. I think I got more hugs that day than at any time in my life.

I sat with the other pallbearers during the funeral, but at the graveside service I stood in the back. The preacher spoke of the love of God and how all things happened for a reason before he commended her soul to her Maker. I just stood, numb, when a hand slipped into mine and another took my arm. I automatically wrapped that arm around the person hugging me, looking down at the grief wracked face of Jen. She didn't look like a supermodel just then, but she looked more human than at any other time I'd ever seen her.

I saw the expensive casket, the way the service was put together, and knew who paid for the funeral. Julie's Mom was barely scraping by and her father had disappeared.

I walked Jen to my truck when they started lowering the casket, shoving a big bunch of flowers in her hand. "This is our last chance to give her flowers. Coming?"

We walked back slowly. Janice, Sandy, Melody, and three of her nurses waited, and after each was given a handful of flowers we dropped them into the grave one by one until they were gone. "Goodbye, Julie. Heaven is a better place now that you're in it. I hope you can run and play, and that it has fields of flowers with unicorns roaming in them."

I said it quietly, but most heard me and it set off a fresh round of tears.

*****

Three days later I got home to find a Mercedes SUV in my drive. I wondered who among my friends could afford one of those when Jen got out, looking as timid as I'd ever seen her. "Can I come in?"

I let her in and she automatically went to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. As it brewed she sat with an expression I couldn't read.

"I need to say some things, and I need for you to not interrupt until I'm done. All right?"

I just nodded.

"First, let me apologize for disappearing again. I had this whole fantasy constructed around us. I thought I'd walk back into your life and you'd welcome me with open arms and we'd live happily ever after. Then the reality hit me. I'd disappeared and you hadn't stopped living your life. You had responsibilities, you had a life, you had a girlfriend. Boy, that one hit me hard. You guys still seeing each other?"

"No."

"Why? It wasn't over me was it? I'll call her and explain if it would help."

"It wasn't over you. Not directly, but you did have an impact. The reason we broke up was she decided I wasn't successful enough for her. She'd gotten a huge promotion and was making three times what I was. She wanted me to quit my job and go into custom furniture, and was willing to finance my startup if I gave her 60% of the business. I politely declined and things started going downhill. I hear she's dating a VP now. I hope she's happy."

"I'm sorry. I have to say you don't seem too broken up."

"Oh, I was sad. We'd been together for six months, but I wasn't looking for the long term commitment she wanted, especially since it had to be on her terms."

"So you're single now?"

"Yes."

"Good. I hereby state my intent of being your girlfriend."

"Jen, I..."

"You need to stop talking now and let me finish! I've thought about this a lot. We may not mesh. We may end up despising each other. I'm a little, okay, I'm a lot spoiled. I've had everything I ever wanted handed to me since I was nineteen. When it happens to you that young, it warps your perspective of reality. It's one of the reasons I love you so much. You do it gently, but you don't put up with a lot of foolishness. If we were together I have a feeling I'd be a lot better as a human being."

She paused to gather her thoughts. "I know my money doesn't exactly intimidate you, but it makes you uncomfortable. Yeah, I got lucky and made a bunch of money, then inherited a bunch more when Steve died. There's nothing I can do about it and I don't intend to give it up. There's a lot we could do with that money. Raise children is the first thing that come to my mind, but we could also be a boon to our community. There are people like you out there, people like Julie's mother, the preacher's son, others who could use a helping hand. We could be those hands."

Curiosity got the better of me. "Why do I need a helping hand?"

"Your ex was right about one thing. You do need to go into the furniture business. You're a good construction foreman, I'm sure, but you're an artist with a piece of wood. People, people with money, would be thrilled to own one of your pieces. You have any idea how much a custom bedroom suite like you built for your future daughter would bring? I checked around, showed pictures to some people who were qualified to give an opinion. How much would you say you have in that suite, in man-hours and materials?"

I did some rough calculations. The materials weren't that much, it was the man-hours. I probably spent a hundred hours on it. "About thirty-five hundred."

She gave a soft laugh. "I talked to a woman who purchased something similar and she gave ten grand for it. When she saw yours she told me if you would build one for her she'd give you twelve, five. If you pushed it she'd probably go fifteen. Still don't think you could make a living doing what you love?"

Wow. I did some rough calculations. If I had enough orders, I could gross around one twenty to one fifty a year, based on a forty-hour week. Almost eighty would be profit. Not bad. Best of all I'd still be working with my hands. She could see I was interested.

"Here's the deal. I'll give you a loan. One hundred fifty thousand. I'll give you a ten year term at 4.5 per cent, the current prime rate. This is a strictly business deal and I'm confident you won't default. Regardless of whether we end up together, I believe in your talent."

She sighed, got up, and rinsed her coffee cup. "There, I've stated my intentions. It's all up to you now. Call me if you're interested." With a quick kiss on the cheek she was out the door.

I noticed she had left a packet on the table. Paperwork for the loan with a note to have a lawyer look it over. On top of it was her new phone number.

I thought about it for about three days and called her. I could hear the excitement in her voice. "Hi!"

"Hi, Jen. I've been thinking about our discussion and I think we should meet. If you're not busy Saturday, could you come by the house, say around ten?"

I think she was a little disappointed that I wasn't asking her out on a romantic date, but she agreed instantly. I told her to wear jeans and comfortable shoes.

*****

She was there ten minutes early and found me in the garden, with buckets of fresh flowers around me. I gave her a quick kiss, which surprised her, then told her to get to work arranging the flowers. The season was almost over but we managed to fill twenty vases. I caught her humming as she worked and grinned.

I surprised her when I pulled my new Ford pickup out of the shed. "Where's Steve's truck?"

"On the used lot of the Ford dealership. If this is going to be a brand new start, I don't need his ghost hovering over us."

She jumped into my arms and kissed me! I didn't see that coming. Very nice kiss, anyway.

She was even more surprised when I backed the truck up to my shop. "I have to load a few things and we'll be ready to go." I put the three rockers I'd finished on the back, careful to put padding between them. To her credit, she didn't ask, just helped me strap them down.

We rode in silence until we were almost there. "Jan still talks to me. She told me about your volunteering in the nursery, rocking the babies. She also asked me to look at a couple of the rockers because they were getting a little rickety. They were worn out and the thought of you falling to the ground with a baby in your arms didn't set well with me, so I made these."

She didn't say anything, just locked down on my hand and started humming again. Jan, her three nurses, and two maintenance men were waiting at the door. The maintenance men and I each took a chair and went to the nursery, where we unwrapped them and set them up. The men promised me they would throw the old rockers in the dumpster. Jan and Jen made a list and delivered the flowers. We were there four hours.

I had a little surprise for her. Sarah, the "vertically challenged" woman I'd made a rocker for, had just had her baby. Jen was enthralled when the diminutive woman showed up, obviously pregnant. The chair was for her to rock her baby in.

Sarah was a living doll, a blonde with blue eyes, and she looked like a pixie. Her husband was 6'1" and was pretty sure she was responsible for the sun rising every day. She sat down, got a dreamy look on her face as she rocked and stroked her tummy. Finally getting up, she walked over to a stepstool I had in the shop and stood on it. "Get your ass over here, Jaime. I want to thank you."

Jen giggled as she still had to pull me down slightly to give me a big kiss. "There, I needed to do that. I'll send you a picture of me and the baby on this chair when we take her home from the hospital. Look for two more photos over the years. We decided pretty early we want three. Every one of them is going to hear the story of how Uncle Jaime built this chair for us."

I took Jen down to see her and they hugged as Jen gushed over the pictures.

"We're going down to the nursery now. Jaime made three rockers for the volunteers and I intend to stress test every one."

Sarah smiled and asked the nurse if she'd make sure Jen got to rock her daughter. The nurse smiled back and said something could be arranged. When we got to the nursery Jen and Janice immediately sat down. Janice gave me a pointed look and told he to get my ass in the third chair. Three nurses came out immediately and put a baby in our arms. I didn't get to object; suddenly I had a small bundle of crying humanity in my arms. Janice laughed while Jen and the nurses grinned. "Rock him, Jaime, and talk to him while you do. The motion and the sound of your voice should calm him down."

So I did. I talked about his future, how he could be anything he wanted to be, and how much his parents were going to love him. I talked about little league, video games, even girls when it was time. He stopped crying, cooed twice, and went to sleep. I looked up to see the other two rockers motionless and the nurses in a cluster before us, tears leaking. Way too much estrogen, I suspect. My little man was asleep and they took him from me. My arms felt suddenly very empty.

Jen didn't say a word on the way home and I liked the silence so I didn't break it. When we got back to the house she looked at me. "What now?"

"Well, I think we've done our civic duties for the day. How about a nice dinner and a night at the Barn? I wouldn't mind a little dancing to end the day. Pick you up at seven?"

"On the dot!"

With a quick kiss she was out of the truck and gone. I piddled around for the rest of the afternoon, thinking. Was there a future here? Would she ever miss her old life? Would I offend her sometime down the road and watch her disappear again? Would the money get in the way? Was it worth it to try?

Of course it was. She had been my dream woman since the day I met her.

I didn't get a chance to get out; she came bouncing down the steps before I was in park. Tight jeans, western shirt, red boots, and a hat to match them. She slid in giggling. "I can't wait! I've wanted to do this again since the last time you took me. I tried to talk Steve into going once but he said it was beneath our dignity. Boy did he get an earful. I asked him since when did having fun become undignified? Then I asked him how he could describe his fishing trips as dignified when he came home in dirty clothes, smelling like fish and bait. I asked if thought his business associates would approve and he got pissed. I almost went by myself. I tried calling you but you were out on a date. Things were pretty tense for a while around the house."

"Well, I expect you to have a ball. I want you to keep me and a few more cowboys gasping for breath as we try to keep up with you. Let your hair down, shake that hot rump like you're trying to make it come off, and have a good time!"

She slid over and gave me a loud kiss right on the ear. It rang for three miles.

It was deja vu all over again when we pulled into the parking lot in my truck. I'd gotten all the bells and whistles and it was a four-wheel drive hunk of gleaming chrome and shiny paint. Then Jen got out and once again everyone forgot what vehicle we'd arrived in.

When we met up with my friends it was like we'd just seen them last week. Barb was there with her new husband and they hugged like long lost sisters while she showed her pictures of her wedding. She must have taken our advice to heart. The guy was super nice, successful, and totally in love. Barb told Jen when he went to the bathroom that she had told him all about her past when he asked her to marry him.

"He just stared at me long enough to make me nervous before he spoke."

"You over that shit now? It's all in the past?"

"I told him it was, told him how much I loved him and that I'd sign any kind of prenup he wanted."

"Well then, good enough. Wanna set a date now?"

She was crying by now. "Best of all, my kids love him, especially the oldest boy. The fathers of my other two are still in their lives, but his just walked away. When my man isn't working that boy is his shadow."

When he got back Jen gave him a big kiss, then patted his cheek. "That was for being the man Barb needed. I see many happy years ahead of you."

He glowed. "Thank you Ma'am. I'll dance at your next wedding."