The Unlikely Quarterback Ch. 13

He turned beet red and balled up his fists. I thought he was going to get violent, but he calmed down.

"What do you want?"

"Simple, I want to help you."

"How are you going to 'help' me?" he asked.

"I have a solution to both of your problems; all I want in return is your help."

"I don't know what you think of me son, but I'm no crook!"

"I'm not asking you to do anything illegal, as a matter of fact, it will benefit you. Hear me out."

"Fine, what's your proposal?"

"First off, Jack is fighting custody of his son. I want you to convince him to sign the divorce papers and sign legal documents giving up his custodial rights as a parent to his son," I said, and the Ambassador looked leery.

"Second, I want you to allow Jack to marry your daughter..."

"You must be out of your mind! Why the hell would I want to do that?"

"It's simple. Kill two birds with one stone. By marrying your daughter, with your blessing, people would be less likely to believe that you were trying to kill him. Second, your daughter's child would grow up with its father, and you would be able to show off your 'war-hero' son-in-law and not have to hide your daughter's condition."

"Why do I need you, when I could do that by myself?" he asked.

"You don't... but I'm willing to pay up to fifty grand towards your daughter's wedding. Which, seeing as I already 'know' Jack, wouldn't be seen as a political contribution since it could be taken as a gift from me to him for his wedding."

He looked like he was mulling it over then he said, "I'll have to think about it."

"Just so you know, I have no intention of using this information against you, whether you decide or not. I've got plenty of money to fight Jack in court if it comes down to it. But let me remind you that any dirt being drug out in court regarding Jack, will be a public record. The dirtier it gets the more likely it could come back to haunt your campaign in some way."

"If you can just fight him in court, what do you get out of all this then?" he asked.

"Peace of mind."

"You're willing to front fifty-thousand dollars for 'peace of mind'?" he asked, incredulously.

"Yes."

"Let me think it over and I'll get back to you," he said.

A couple days later, his lawyers met with my lawyers and had a notarized copy of Jack's notice to terminate his parental rights. Candy's divorce lawyer also received his signature on the divorce paperwork. I had to hand over a check for fifty-grand, and with that Candy was finally free and single again.

*

Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went. Stephanie came down for Christmas and finally got to see her niece and nephew for the first time. There were tears of happiness and a lot of family bonding. I missed my sister and could not wait for her to finish her degree.

In the spring of 93 Simone and Candy both went back to school part time. Candy went on Monday and Wednesday, and Simone went on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Along with Pamela, I hired a girl from the neighborhood to help babysit the babies so that Pamela could run errands for the girls while they studied.

As the babies got bigger Candy moved to the downstairs master bedroom. I slept with Candy most nights, even when Simone and I had sex we rarely slept together. As time progressed, Simone and I had sex less and less and I found Candy my main source of relief. Do not get me wrong, it was not like I was having sex every day, most days the girls were exhausted from school and taking care of babies. I was not any better, I was working 14-hour days, six days a week and taking care of babies in my spare time.

I wanted to ask Candy to marry me, but I literally had no time to plan anything romantic. It is not like she was unhappy with me though, because we acted like we were already married.

The girls finished their finals in early June, and I thought, "great things will get easier with the summer break," but that was not how life worked out.

I was so busy at work that I did not notice the distance that Simone was creating with little Stephy. I came home early when Talia (the babysitter) called me to tell me Simone was packing her bags for some reason. I rushed home to find her dragging her luggage to the door.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Simone looked sad but determined. "I'm leaving."

"You're leaving? Why?" I asked, distressed.

"You know why," she said.

"If I haven't given you enough attention, I could..." I stammered.

"It's not you, Mikey. I love you, probably always will. But I'm just not cut out to be a mother. I'm sorry."

"What do you mean? You're abandoning Stephy?" I asked, a little pissed. "You're her mother..."

"I know. I'm a horrible person... but Mike, she's better off without me."

"How can you say that?!" I yelled. "She needs you!"

"She needs a mother, Mike. She needs to be loved... I'm just not cut out for it," she cried, tears rolling down her cheeks. "If things were different, I'd fake it and stick with her and do the best I could. But I'm young, Mikey, I'm barely twenty for god's sake! I need to live my life."

"What do you mean if things were different?"

"I mean, Stephy will be fine without me. She'll have Candy and you. You're her daddy and you know damn well you're going to marry Candy. Candy will love her better than I'm capable... besides I'll be around. I'll come visit as her Aunty or something... Just not as her mother... that is if you'll let me. Anyway, I left you a notarized copy of my intent to give up my parental rights."

She looked at me seriously as I was crying.

"You were just going to leave and not say anything?"

"I'm really sorry, Mike. But it's better this way. Help me with my bags, please?"

*

"She what?!" Candy screamed. "And you just let her?"

"Candy." I called and she continued to rant, "Candy!" I finally yelled.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes, "I love her too, Baby. But, it's for the best - really."

"How can you say that?" she asked, horrified.

"Baby... she hates being a mother..."

"I'm struggling to get through school myself Mike. How am I going to do that with my baby and hers? I can't do this by myself!"

"You're not going to do this by yourself. You act like you're going to be a single parent!" I said, sternly and grabbed her hand and patted it.

"I stepped down as CEO of Inotech today. I can't stand being away from my babies all day every day. Lorry is taking over for me... I'll still work there part time... I'm the ideas guy after all, but I'm not a people person... besides, I'm rich! Not with money per se although I do have some of that too. What I mean is, I'm rich... I've got the most beautiful woman in the world right here by my side every day and I..." I paused, and Candy stood there almost in shock.

"I wanted to save this for a more romantic occasion but..." I got down on one knee and pulled out the box that was burning a hole in my pocket all day. "Candy... Baby... I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

Her face was a mess of tears, snot pouring out of her nose, mascara running down her face, yet she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen at that point.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! One thousand times yes!" she screamed, throwing herself into my arms as I stood back up.

I held her for a long time while she bawled into my shoulder.

"What are we going to do about Stephy? She needs a mother," she asked, stupidly.

"You're going to adopt her, and I am going to adopt Ryan. They are both our children, they have been since they were born, and legally speaking they will be until we die... You up for that?" I asked.

She nodded quickly, then finally we kissed.

I want to say it was the most passionate kiss of our lives, but she pulled away quickly and said, "Oh, God! I've got to tell Mom and..." she ranted rushing off to make phone calls.

I used the second line to make my own phone call. Stephanie just arrived home for the summer and was busy catching up with mom. She was supposed to come over later that night, but once I told her the good news all I could hear were screams on the other end. I had to hold the receiver a couple of inches away just to protect my eardrums from damage.

"It's about time!" Stephanie finally said. "We're coming over right now! Call Lorry, she'll want to know."

I called Lorry, her secretary said she was in a meeting. I told her it was important, so Lorry took the call.

"What's so important, Mike. I'm in a meeting..."

"I'm engaged!" I said.

"What?" she asked dumbfounded.

"I asked Candy to marry me and she said yes!"

And once again, more screaming. Lorry cancelled the meeting and had her secretary reschedule it for another day and rushed home as fast as rush hour traffic would take her.

That night we catered a feast, and everyone from all around seemed to pack my house. The men drank beers and talked, and the women discussed wedding plans. Every now and again, you would hear a squeal from the group of women as they planned their fantasy wedding throwing out all their ideas for Candy to digest.

After everyone left, the babies were exhausted from being passed around so much and went right to sleep. We made love for hours, trying our best to get as much loving in before the babies broke the spell. It was a long day, and although we did have one long sexfest, we fell asleep around two a.m., exhausted.

Simone moved the rest of her stuff out that weekend, and we had to find ourselves a new nanny. You see, unbeknownst to us, Pamela and Simone were secretly lovers, apparently for months, and Pamela quit her job and moved in with Simone.

I guess I could have been vindictive, but I gave Simone some money to live off of while she still went to school. My attitude was, this was meant to be, so I saw no reason to be hurt by it. I knew she was not trying to hurt me, as a matter of fact, she did it out of love. She knew that eventually all the things she was hiding would bubble up to the surface and eventually we would end up hating each other. So, I decided to wish her luck instead.

When all the dust settled, Candy forgave Simone and she became Candy's maid of honor. We did not need a long engagement and would have married that very day but weddings take a lot of planning and the soonest we could get anything reasonable done without running down to the courthouse or Vegas and eloping was in the middle of August.

*

On August 12th we got married at the Japanese gardens at Cal State Long Beach. Mom, Lorry, Stephanie and Simone watched the babies for us for a week while we flew off to Kauai. We saw the sights, toured the island, went on a snorkel cruise and made a lot of love. When it was time to leave, we grew depressed knowing that we had to leave paradise. But our babies were waiting, and we had jobs to do.

After the Rodney King riots in April 1992, there were a lot of reminders of the unrest in Long Beach. Burned out store fronts, whole blocks of businesses in ruins, and fear covered the city like a blanket.

Although we lived in a nice part of town that saw little action from the rioting, Candy decided that she wanted to live someplace safer. So, we decided to find a place in Orange County. However, we didn't want to move too far away from our family or friends, so we looked for a place in Huntington Beach (two cities over). We had a lot of money to work with, so we didn't need to compromise on where we lived. The nicer places were close to the beach however the closer to the ocean the less yard and square footage we seemed to get.

Since money was no object, we found a beautiful place right in Huntington Harbor. It was an island community accessible by bridge from PCH where a strip of land and beach separated our harbor from the ocean. Our new home was a five-bedroom five bath home with a small yard and a boat dock right outside the back door. From our dock we could use a boat to traverse the bay and head out into the ocean. The place was beautiful but big. Far too many rooms for our small family, but Candy wanted more children after she graduated school, so she said it had room for us to grow into.

Candy went back to school and I took over watching the babies along with a nanny and personal assistant. Thank god we had money because it became hard to watch two babies by myself. I was able to work from home most days, and teleconferenced in when I brainstormed new ideas, so you would think that two babies with two assistants would not be that big of a deal.

The problem was Ryan. With Ryan's colicky behavior and me being the only one besides Candy that was able to calm him down, the nannies often used me as a pacifier. When I cradled him in my arms, he quieted down immediately but I needed to work so it was difficult for me to get much done. I found myself typing one handed a lot, while cradling Ryan with the other. Often, I would wait until Candy got home to take over and I would work into the night and catch up on all the work I did not do during the day.

The older he got the worse he got too, normally colic babies grow out of it, so I suspected there was something else wrong with him. I took him to a bunch of specialists and finally in 1994 when Ryan turned 20 months, Ryan was diagnosed with Asperger's or what we now know as high-functioning Autism.

On the positive side, Asperger's was not as bad as full-blown Autism. He would have behavioral problems and quirks but with a lot of love and support he would likely be able to lead a normal life.

Candy, however, did not take the news very well. She blamed herself and went into a deep depression. I tried to love her out of it, and although she put on a brave face, I caught her crying from time to time and I knew why.

I loved both my children equally, but I paid more attention to Ryan than Stephy mainly because he was more demanding of my time. I did a lot of research by reading papers and doctoral theses on Autism. I bought a lot of books and attended a few support groups trying to find out the best way to cope with him. I heard a lot of stories about frustration and violence and I knew that if there was a god, he sent Ryan down to test my patience.

The surprising thing that I got out of all my research, was not how to treat Ryan but that I was likely an Aspie too. When I reviewed my life it all made sense. I was never diagnosed because my mother was always way worse. Some of the symptoms I had were easily explained by masking circumstances. Like my need for isolation and avoidance of social interaction with large groups, were explained by my age difference with my peers and my trauma from almost being murdered by my step-father not to mention my being out of school for so long.

I never interacted well with groups, especially men. I did have a lot of girl - friends but I think that came about because I was really attractive and that made the women more likely to accept a social oddball and the fact that I was attracted to them made me work harder to be acceptable to them and fit their expectations.

Candy came out of her depression when she realized how much I loved Ryan, a lot of it stemmed from her worry that her passing on a defective child to me would make me love her less. Not only was that not the case but when I explained to her that I probably had Asperger's too, I posed the question, "Did her realizing that make her love me less?" She realized that if she could love me as much as she did then she could love him just as much and her fears seemed to melt away.

I think that whole experience brought us closer together. Taking care of Ryan, we realized, was meant to be. She would often make the comment that she was glad I was his father; she could not imagine Jack having the patience for him and would have abandoned them or worse if she stayed with him.

Despite all of that, Candy decided against having more children. Stephy and Ryan were more than enough. I thought that it was a cop out. I believed that she just did not want to risk having more kids with problems. I did not fight her on it though; two kids were a blessing as far as I was concerned.

I know I am not talking about Stephy much when I reflect but the truth is, she was the perfect baby. She was quiet, smart and obedient. She was beautiful and she knew it. She was intelligent and very loving. As she and Ryan got older, she practically worshipped her older brother. As a child, Stephy would often sneak into Ryan's room so she could sleep with him. She could not stand being separated from him, even in her sleep.

As Ryan got older, he started developing odd behaviors like banging his head into his pillow at night in order to get to sleep. When he would get excited watching a TV show he would often rock himself back and forth.

As he got older, he got quirkier. He needed to follow certain routines. For example, every day he would go to the store, buy a ham sandwich on rye with mayo and mustard. If things interrupted his routine, he would blow up emotionally and have a meltdown.

He also had sensory issues with food, he could not eat his food after it cooled down. Strong smells bothered him too, Candy stopped wearing perfume afraid she would put too much on and set him off. He also had problems with loud noises, especially long-lasting noisy environments. I solved that by buying him noise cancelling headphones and earplugs.

Despite all his issues, Ryan was a very smart kid; he was not a genius or anything, but he was always top in his class on anything academic.

The older he got the more atypical he was of an Aspie. By the time he entered middle school he was really into UFO's and of course reruns of the X-Files and shows like it was his favorite thing to watch. He also tended to wear the same clothes every day. Well not the SAME clothes, but all his clothes tended to be the same color and style. He also had a hard time understanding sarcasm and jokes. He often talked too fast and took things too literally. He was very strict on his interests and if you talked about something, he was not interested about he would shut down.

And so it went, and despite all of his quirks, we came to love him for his nuances and were proud of him when he rose above his limitations.

I lived in heaven and nothing could ever bother me because I had Candy by my side. When 9/11 came, I had Candy right there to tell me it was going to be alright. When our country went to Afghanistan and our troops came home in body bags after nobly hunting down Bin Laden, we coped by forming charities around reintegrating our troops back into society. I had Lorry implement policies to specifically find and train veterans to work for our company. I was too old to fight but I did what I could for those that were not.

For fourteen year everything was great until that fateful day when it wasn't. Not everything great lasts. Just like a flower blooms for a short time then withers and dies, so did Candy's life when it was cut short by cancer.

*******

Fall 2010 - 18 years after I married Candy

*******

The stadium was packed, everyone was excited, and wanted blood. They lost in overtime to their rivals in an away game and the mood was one of an amped up crowd ready to riot. Ryan's hard work and perseverance paid off and tonight he was the backup quarterback sitting on the bench, a big upgrade from the JV squad. His sister Stephy was head cheerleader following in Simone's footsteps. She was excited at the possibility of her big brother finally getting his due and wanted everyone to see what she saw in him.

I sat all the way in the back of the stands, and although I was proud of my kids for their accomplishments, I was also sad that Candy was not here to see this. I had been mourning her for the past four years. Cancer took her so suddenly I did not even feel I got to say goodbye correctly. Her love made me religious, I think because I wanted any kind of hope that I would see her again, if only in an afterlife.