Live in a cave?

“When we get married, where do you want to live?” Oscar asked.

Esther was curled up in his lap as they sat on her back porch watching a storm roll in. “I’ve not given it any thought.”

He held her a little tighter. “I could move in here with you.”

“Could you really be happy? My house is so much smaller than yours. Haven’t you lived over there your entire adult life?”

“When you and I went down in the basement looking for Christmas decorations, that was the first time I’ve been down there since Karen died. I haven’t been in the attic.”

A clap of thunder tore through their conversation. Esther rose up to look at him, “ever?”

“What if we give it a try? It was for a horrific reason but those two weeks I stayed here with you were,” he stopped thinking of the right word. There wasn’t one. Peaceful? Liberating? Loving? Welcoming? Calming?

“You’ll loose the guest room. And the den.”

“I could turn the basement into a workspace.”

“There’s no heat or air.”

“That’s an easy fix.”

“You would need more light and plug ins.”

“Esther, we could live in a cave. As long as you are with me.”

“What about your gas fireplace?” He just smiled. “Do you really hate that house?”

“It’s a roof.”

“Alright.” Lightning lite up the sky. “When I get an answer to the thing I can’t talk about, I think we can start seriously planning. This needs serious thought. I would like for you to think about all the things you’d be giving up.”

“Planning for a future with you. I’m not giving anything up.”

She blushed, “a future for us.” As she spoke the full force of the storm broke.

“You know what we could do? Turn your back porch into a sunroom.”

She curled back into his arms. “I’d like that.”

Chet came to visit them. He brought knew news about the case. He made sure Oscar was sitting down. “I’m not really sure how to tell you this, so I’m just going to say it.” Chet paused for a moment. “Oat turned himself in today. He is saying that he shot into your house. He was able to describe the gun, the kind of ammo it had in it and where he disposed of it.”

Esther could feel Oscar’s body temperature rise and his hands shook slightly.

“Esther, you never did tell me how you wanted us to proceed with this.”

She squeezed Oscar’s hand. Through gritted teeth, he said, “throw the book at him.”

Esther repeated what he said, “throw the book at him. You have everything from me that you need.” She paused. “I would like to add, you can hear Oat’s truck a mile away. Even though we did have music playing, I don’t remember hearing his truck.”

Oscar looked at her, “you’re right. No matter how hard he could try, you can’t hide that. Unless he pushed it past the house.”

Chet added, “he could have parked at the tree line and walked over.”

“Possible but we aren’t taking into account that my brother is lazy. He wouldn’t breathe if he could get someone else to do it for him.”

Chet left.

Oscar set on the couch and didn’t move for a long time. Esther wasn’t sure how to help him. So she made up the bed, cleaned up the kitchen from the dinner they hadn’t eaten and was getting ready to take a shower. She had only taken two showers in the last two weeks.

Oscar put his hands around her waist, lifting her shirt, removing her sports bra. The doctor hadn’t let her wear a real bra yet. He rubbed his hand over her back. The two deepest wounds were still sore and she flinched as he moved over them. He kissed her neck, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I know.”

Sunday evening they were wadded up on the couch, “tell me about your week?” Esther played with his hair.

“We have testing for the next two weeks. Two more weeks of normal classes, and then summer vacation. God I can’t wait.” He pulled her to him.

“What kind of testing?”

“It’s a standardized test that we have to give the students. It determines our ranking and what kind of money we will receive.”

“No stress there.”

“None,” he said sarcastically.

“I love you Mr. Patterson.”

He smiled a great big smile as he let his fingers do the talking. It didn’t matter what he did, he could get to her.

“I love you Miss Morrison”

Monday after Oscar had gone to work, she called Chet.

“Good morning, how are you feeling today?” He asked.

“I’m almost healed. How about you? How are you today?”

“Great. Thanks for asking.”

“I know you’re busy. But something has been eating at me all weekend. The Patterson’s all live in that house. I have no doubt that Oat knows what that gun looks like and what kind of ammo it has in it. Do you think it is possible that he is covering for someone?” There was silence on Chet’s end of the phone. He didn’t know what to think. She continued, “I have no love of his family but I also don’t want the wrong person going to jail over this.”

“Honestly, I’d never really thought about it. I know what his family has done to him and as his best friend I wish they’d all move to Mexico.”

“If you don’t care, just keep your ears open because, I don’t think this is over.”

“You got it.”

Winter Season

The fall?

If you read my work, you might be scratching your head thinking, ‘I read this’. You did. I got out of order. Sorry about this. The other post has been deleted so that we can keep the story in order.

The fall?

Two weeks after she had been shot, the wounds were almost healed. Oscar was the best nurse ever. She assumed it was because of all those years of being a caregiver. So every morning she made sure he had breakfast, and every night, she cooked him dinner. If he could take care of her, she could take care of him. Plus the fact he had been staying with her made it easier to make sure he was eating right.

It felt nice having someone around. She really liked having him in her life. She was trying so hard not to fall head over heels in love. It was obvious that she loved him. But she wanted to keep her feet on the ground. She didn’t want to get swept up only to be pulled away. It scared her to no end.

It was Friday, and she had fixed a big meatloaf. Oscar looked like a dead dog when he walked through her door. She wrapped him up in a big hug. He melted in her arms.

“Rough day?”

“I don’t want to think about school or students. All I want is lots of you.”

She smiled as he caressed her face, “is that a promise?”

“Oh, you better know it. You are going to get so sick of me.”

“How do you figure?”

He kissed her, gently at first but as the kiss progressed it was filled with fierce unspoken passion.

“Does that mean my meatloaf is going to be a midnight snack?” She panted.

“It might even be breakfast.” He continued kissing her.

They spend the night wrapped up in each other. He loved talking to her. Just laying on the bed, in the floor, on the couch, as long as she was in his arms.

“May I ask you something?” She was wrapped up in the warmth of his body and was almost asleep.

“You may ask me anything.”

He kissed her shoulder and then hesitated.  “How’s your back feeling today?”

“Good.” She snuggled closer to him. “That wasn’t your question I presume?”

He took a deep breath, “no. I have noticed that when I get close you pull away. These last two weeks have been the most time that we have spent together consistently. And I must say it has been amazing.”

She rolled over in his arms. “You are right.”

She kissed him, “I’m scared.”

“Of what?”

It was her turn to let out the long sigh. “I very much love you. And like I said, depending on the outcome of the thing I can’t talk about, I do want to marry you.” She paused, sighing again. “What if the outcome of that thing I can’t talk about is bad? I might never see you again.”

She felt his breathing stop. “Is that a possibility?”

“A very real one.”

“Then why not love like there’s no tomorrow?”

“It’s not in me. That saying, ‘it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ Tell me how that works. Tell me how the loosing isn’t more painful than never having known love?” There was a moment of silence between them. “I’m sorry that you are able to since my hesitation. I in no way want to hurt you.”

“I love you.” He whispered in her ear. “I don’t know what this dark cloud hanging over your head is but I do know that I want you. I have never felt like this and I like it. I love the way you feel. The way my stress melts away when you touch me. The sound of your voice lightens my heart. I like me better. Esther, I’m so in love with you.”

She held him tightly and cried into his chest, “please don’t give up on me.”

He held her has she cried and his heart broke. He wished she could tell him about this cloud. About this weight holding her down. But he loved her and would wait as long as it took.

Winter Season

A million things

There were a million things going through Oscar’s head. Was this really his family? Did they really do this? Why? Why did they shoot into his house? Did they know they would hit Esther? Or him? What if they would have killed her? Was it to scare him? To let him know that they were pissed? To scare him back to them? Dear God, WHY?! What if they would have killed her? Would it have mattered to them that it would have broken his heart? This is the first woman he’d ever loved. And he knew that. It would have destroyed him. Did that matter? Did they think he had everything left to them? If this was aimed at him, WHY!? Did they really want to hurt him? But what if someone stole the gun? What then? Was it too big of a coincidence? As far as he knew, he had no enemies that wanted to hurt him or warn him of anything? He laid his head in his hands. He couldn’t think about one thought. He couldn’t line out his emotions.

“Talk to me.” She encouraged. “Chet’s gone.” He didn’t move. “May I offer a suggestion?”

He lifted his head. Big tears were rolling down his face. “Please.” He sobbed.

“This is going to be hard, but please try. Your mind wants to go in a million different directions and come up with a million different ideas. Let Chet finish his investigation before your mind goes to those places.”

“Too late,” he sniffed, wiping desperately at his face. She put her hand over his that was trying to wipe away the tears.

“All of them but one, but possibly all of them will be wrong. Don’t put yourself through the agony.”

He stood up looking from her to the wall. The tubes from the IV machine were behind her coming down her right arm. He laid on the bed with her. She wrapped him up the best she could. In the quiet darkness of the room, they heard a low growl.

She giggled. “Was that your stomach?”

Despite everything he smiled, “perhaps.”

“Let’s get you something to eat.”

He kissed her, “what would I have done if anything would have happened to you?”

She caressed his face, “go on.”

The nurse came into the room and flipped on the light. “Good afternoon.”

Oscar clamored out of the bed.

The nurse checked Esther’s bandages, “I think someone can go home today.” She showed Oscar how to change the dressings and what medicines to put on them.

Around three, they let Esther go home. As they were walking out the door, her four state trooper friends and Chet were waiting for them. They all went out for breakfast. You should have seen the looks on the people’s faces that were in the restaurant. Four state troopers at one time in one place in this town was uncommon; unless it was a drug bust. There was a glass room in the back of the restaurant that they chose.

No one talked about the current event. It was all about old times. They all got to know each other better.

Winter Season