Friendly ear

Bell was sitting on the couch watching t.v. When the doorbell rang, she jumped out of her skin. She wasn’t expecting company. She had her p.j.’s on and was settled for the night. When she opened the door, there stood Oscar, soaked to the bone.

“Oh dear Lord, get in here. You’re gonna catch your death in this. Did you break down?” For the longest time he never said a word. Bell got him in front of the fire place and gave him a blanket. He wrapped himself up. She’d never really watched a person melt. But Oscar did the closest thing to it as he sat in the floor. “Chet’s on patrol.”

She sat in the floor with him. There was nothing behind his eyes. Nothing! However, they were blood shot. It could have been an effect of the rain.

He finally muttered, “I lost….” He trailed off.

When there was no farther information from him, she mentioned again. “Chet’s not here.”

“I didn’t come here to see Chet. I came here to talk to you.”

“Me?” She was a little shocked. Though they had known each other for a long time, Bell had never been alone with Oscar for more than a few minutes.

“I need to talk. I need to know how you handle being married to a cop?” Still his eyes never left the floor. “I’ve heard you scold him when he starts talking about the fun parts, the exciting parts, that it’s not all fun and games.”

She picked at her fingernails for a moment. “No, it’s not all fun and games. There have been a couple times that I have threatened to divorce him.” Oscar finally looked at her wild eyed. “No time recently.” She smiled and his expression soften. “Chet’s job is important. And I know that he loves me.”

“I know on both points.” Oscar reassured her.

“The introduction of the cellphone into our lives has been a tremendous marriage saver. I don’t text him much because I’m never really sure what he’s doing. But he texts me all the time to let me know where he is, how he is. Especially when he’s out late like this or out of town.” Her phone chirped. “See, there he is.” She smiled. “You have to talk to each other. There was this one time where he went out with the state police and the National Guard on a pot round-up. Two of the National Guardsmen had to be flown out because of injuries they had received. I was so scared that I wouldn’t talk to him for a week. Then, longer than that about what happened. If you have to be mad, be mad, but don’t shut them out. Even though they can’t tell you the who, they need to talk.”

“Do you always live in fear?”

“No, when I’m at work, I get wrapped up in my job. Senior citizens need a lot of attention. But it’s always in the back of my mind. That missed phone call, being in a place where he can’t text. But sometimes it’s the none violent things that are the scariest. An inmate one time threw feces on him. This guy crapped in the floor then as Chet walked past his cell, he threw a big hand full of it on him. You worry about what illness you’ve caught. But thank God there was nothing in it. But you never know.”

“How many guns are in the house?”

“Ten and a Louisville Slugger.” She blushed, “that’s for me. Oscar, why are you asking?”

“One of Esther’s buddies asked her if she was interested in rejoining the force. She wants to know how I feel about it?”

“I’m assuming since you’re here talking to me that you’re not thrilled about it?”

The key rattled in the lock and Chet walked through the door. “Hey baby,” Bell smiled a wide smile.

“Hello, darlin’.” Then Chet realized Oscar was sitting by the fireplace. “Hey buddy.” He looked confused.

Oscar stood, “thank you. I won’t intrude on your evening my friend.” He left the blanket by the fire and walked to the door.

“Wait a minute.” Chet called to him. “Did you walk here?”

“I’m pretty sure I did.” Oscar’s movements were like the old Oscar, slow and depressed. And at the moment, very wet.

“Let me take you home.”

“No, thank you. I need to think.” He stepped onto the porch followed by Chet and Bell.

It was raining harder than it was when he first got there.

“Oscar,” Bell spoke sweetly to him. “You really have to talk to her. About everything.” She was holding on to Chet’s arm.

“I thought I was modern enough to deal with this but I’m not so sure.” He just stared at the porch. “Am I a bad person for feeling this way?”

Bell looked at Chet and wanted to cry. Then she said, “no, you’re not. But you can’t function like this or there won’t be a marriage. If you can’t talk now, you’re surely not going to be able to talk later.”

“Man, let me take you home.” Chet asked again.

Winter Season

The visit

They had a wonderful Labor Day holiday. One that he relived over in his mind when class got boring and the day got long.

He came home to find Ess in the kitchen; which wasn’t unusual. He liked it actually. The smell of food cooking. Even though it had been bland. That wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t heard him come home. The music from the stereo was too loud to hear the gentleness of the front door. He didn’t know this song, it was poppy and fun and she was wiggling to it. The wiggling turned into gyration. Watching her was amazing. The way the fabric of her shorts moved against her movement. He was glued to the floor.  She turned around and squealed when she saw him.

He was able to unglue himself. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” He smiled as he walked toward her, kissing her with THAT KISS. She closed her eyes letting THAT KISS wash over her.

“Dinner smells good.” She had made a pot of beef stew. He leaned over the pot inhaling deeply. “Good heavens that really smells so good.” His stomach growled like a tiger.

“I thought we might mix it up a little. I didn’t put a whole lot of seasoning in it. So I’m hoping that it won’t hurt you.”

“Shall we be brave and have cornbread?”

Just as he spoke a timer went off and she pulled a cast iron skillet from the oven. “Hmm,” he moaned.

He was very careful. Although he wanted to eat the entire pot, he only ate about a cup. It was all he could do.

They retired to the back porch. The chill in the air was nice. They sat all curled up together in a blanket. “How was your day?” She asked.

“Things are getting a little better. More back to normal.” He squeezed her closer to him. “What did you do today other than make a wonderful dinner?” Rain drops started falling, forcing them inside. They took to the couch. She was in her favorite spot; laying on his chest listening to his heartbeat. She wasn’t going to bring up her day unless he mentioned it again. This could go all shades of wrong and she knew it. After some time he finally asked her again, “what did you do today?”

She rose up and sat facing him. “Chaz came by to visit me today.”

Oscar looked at her a moment before saying anything, “he’s the big fellow?”

She smiled, “yeah.” Knowing full well he knew who Chaz was.

“Social call?” He could tell she was nervous. And she could hear the distaste in his voice.

“No, not really.” She played with the sleeves of her oversized sweatshirt. “Three of his co-workers are getting ready to retire. I still have fifth-teen years of service left and he wanted to know if I was interested in one of the positions?”

Oscar set up straighter on the couch. He whispered, “and?”

“I told him that I wanted to talk it over with you. See what your take was and that I would get back to him two weeks from Friday.” She finally looked up at Oscar. He was staring out the window.

“I’m assuming you mean full uniform, guns, tasers, handcuffs; the whole nine yards.” When he made eye contact with her, there was fear in his eyes.

“You assumed correctly. This decision affects both of us. That’s why I want to know how you feel about it.”

“After what happened with the review board, why would you want to?”

“It’s all I know. It’s all I’ve done.”

He was in shock. Could he really let the woman that he loved be in such a dangerous profession? He remembered what he said to her about not having an issue with women being in dangerous jobs. But it was different when that female had a personal connection to you. He loved her. Wanted her to be happy; but wasn’t sure how to feel about this? What if she got killed? What was he supposed to do then? Why couldn’t she be happy with just one income? Why wouldn’t she let him take care of her? His thoughts were going haywire.

She got up.

He was shocked, “what are you going?”

“Clean up the kitchen ,” she replied.

His mind went blank. He stood staring at her. He needed to think but couldn’t.

She watched him walk out the door. It was raining harder now than it had been. His mind wondered to that great night they spent playing in the rain. This rain was much too cold. He was standing in the middle of the road, not really wanting to go home. Wanting to go back to Esther, but was reluctant to. What could he possibly say to her?

So he started walking.

Winter Season

Dinner

Chet and Bell pulled up. “Hello you two love birds.” Bell called to them. They got in the car and drove away to a celebration dinner. Chet and Bell were the first two people Oscar told, other than Esther. Who doesn’t tell their best friend about their bride to be?

Oscar was extremely happy that Cindy hadn’t said a word about his engagement. He wasn’t ready for everyone to know. He knew the day was coming when he’d get that phone call from his mother. She would find out. But he was hoping no time soon.

Over the course of the next couple weeks everyone treated him like he was made of glass; which in a way was nice, because people left him alone.

He and Esther had sat down for dinner. “Do you want to do anything special for Labor Day?” She asked.

“Did you have anything in mind?”

“No not really.”

“I’m boring Ess. My life isn’t exciting. I haven’t been out to the movies in years. Chet and I would go out to eat on occasion. We have to do five outside of the class room events. So I picked the boring ones that no one else wants to do.” He picked at his piece of chicken and didn’t make eye contact. He played with it but didn’t eat it, “and I’m so tired of eating chicken.” He put his head in his hands.

“So now, are you ready to tell me what’s really wrong?”

He looked up at her in defeat. She wasn’t mad. The look on her face was one of quiet concern. “That’s the problem Ess. I don’t know what’s wrong.” He took a deep breath, “everyone at school is treating me like I’m diseased. At first it was nice. But now it’s getting old. I can’t sleep.”

“Labor day is this coming Monday isn’t it?”

He sighed, “yeah.”

“What time do you think you’ll be home Friday?”

“Six at the latest.” He looked at her. “Why?”

“Pack you a little bag Thursday night, put it in the jeep and when you get off work Friday, we’ll roll.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’ll let you know Wednesday so you’ll know what to pack.”

The chill of fall had started biting the morning air. Fog lay on the ground as the light of day took it’s time heating up the Earth. Oscar knew that it wouldn’t be long until his beloved winter came back.

Winter Season