“And during that time, you had surgery?” Goodie asks, not having forgotten that detail.
I tell her about the cancer scare and the precautionary treatment that prompted the mastectomy.
“Heidi was extremely helpful through it all, but I didn’t want to impose any longer than necessary. As bad as my luck had been, after I’d recovered from the surgery, I reached out and sure enough, there was still an opening at Blancbourg.” Excitement about my new position builds as the plane coasts over the Atlantic Ocean.
Goodie’s expression turns soft as if she senses I’m not telling a perfect stranger the whole story, but appreciates that I trusted her with some details. “I’m glad to hear that the challenges you’ve experienced may have slowed you down and taken you to unexpected places, but they haven’t stopped you. I hope I’ll be able to say the same for Britta.”
“If she’s anything like you, I bet there are still many more adventures to be had.”
“I’ll say. If I’ve learned anything in life, even through trials and tough times, it’s to never lose your sense of humor. In the same conversation when Britta told me she was sick, we were laughing so loud, her husband had to ask her to keep it down or we risked waking the neighbors.”
This brings a smile to my face because I see the same thing in myself, especially with Heidi. “There’s a lot to be said for laughter, sisterhood, and best friends.”
“Yes, and a lot of delicious ground to cover. I want to do a Concordia cake crawl. I’ve heard they have the best chocolate cake in the world. And because I can’t let myself get too fluffy, after we crawl, we’ll hike. I hear there are wolves in those mountains and I’d like to see one.” The corner of her lip trembles. “Bjorn loved wolves.”
I sense she has a lot more to her story, including losing someone she loved. We chat for a few more minutes before she tunes into an episode of Miss Marple on the mini-screen attached to the seat in front of her.
Midway through the flight, Manimal creeps closer. Presumably, he’s still asleep as he smooshes me against the window of the plane. I gaze at the clouds, imagining, as I so often did when I was a child, riding a Pegasus and going on adventures to magical lands where I’d find my mom waiting for me.
I’m not sure if Goodie has kids, but I bet she’d tell great bedtime stories. I hope that the bad parts of mine are behind me and I’m getting closer to my happily ever after, even if it won’t be with the Viking.
4
GREY
I’d bet good money that not one of the other Boston Bruiser players loses sleep over the mooning incident as the actual full moon hangs high in the sky over the city.
Can’t say the same for myself. While the press rolls out headlines about moon-gate and social media chatters about #BruiserButt, my mind churns, trying to figure out what my ex was thinking. If it’s true or if someone is trying to extort me.
Most of all, I want to make sure that my kid is safe and the best place for that to happen would be with me. The whole situation gnaws on what’s left of my hide, chewing me up.
My ex is deplorable, but instead of making her pay for abandoning our son and not having the decency to leave him with me, I just want to make sure he’s okay.
The faint ringing in my ears from earlier continues. Unable to sleep, I pace in the condo where I stay when in Boston. The leather sofa, entertainment unit, wet bar, and houseplants take on a surreal quality as the original conversation with Ted Brown comes back. I’d asked if he was sure my ex went AWOL and that she renounced custody. That I had the chance to do the right thing after thinking my son was better off with his mother whenwe couldn’t find a way to get along and I got lost after everything with my brother. It didn’t help that she cheated on me, either.
Ted knows everything, but said the case isn’t iron-clad. That there were holes. But he gave me hope that we’ll be the ones to fill them by exposing a great deception.
I just want my kid back. He’s too young to be going through this, to be without parents who love him.
And according to Nancy, by law, I have to be married unless Ted can find a way for me to wiggle out of that. However, what he doesn’t know is that I am married. But I’d prefer to keep that to myself because, in a fit of grief, I said yes to my brother’s best friend’s sister’s best friend, who needed health insurance.
The web is as tangled as it sounds.
I scrub my hand through my shoulder-length hair, which is also tangled. My mother would be appalled if she saw the current state of my grooming habits.
So would the woman I married. Probably. Actually, I don’t know a thing about her other than she grew up with Heidi and Jimmy in northern Michigan, like me. It’s not surprising that our paths didn’t cross since she’s quite a bit younger than me. Let’s see. Jimmy was Bran’s age and his little sister must be about seven or eight years younger than he is because there are at least two other Weaver siblings between them.
I’ll admit it’s weird being married but only knowing that my wife has brown wavy hair, a summer tan, and is on the shorter side, at least compared to my six-plus feet.
Then again, I’ll never, not even if I got concussed, forget our kiss. It was the closest I felt to being alive since I learned about Bran’s status. Since I lost hope that he was still alive.
They found the wreckage. No body. No way he survived it.
Her lips on mine were the stuff of shock and awe. Like seeing fighter pilots overhead for the first time. A football game where giants battled it out on the field. Only, everything abouther was soft and sunny, nothing aggressive or fierce about her. Human sunshine. Pure beauty. The exact opposite of me, but a complement in every way.
The kiss reminded me that I’m still alive. But all too soon, it was over.
I’m guessing whenever she no longer needs the insurance, I’ll receive divorce papers. That means I’ll have to tell my lawyer, which could complicate this custody issue, unless he finds a loophole in the interstate laws Nancy mentioned.
