Rock Radio (27 page)

“Jill.”

Click.

She hung up on him.

He called her back again, but she didn’t answer.  The third time he tried his call went straight to voicemail.

Jonny didn’t really blame her.  He betrayed her in the worst possible way.  Shamefully, he gathered up his belongings, taking several trips to load them in his car.  On the last trip, he woefully placed his hand on the doorknob, hoping it would open, hoping it wasn’t too late.  In his heart he realized it probably was.

He drove back to the station lost in thought.  Jill was the love of his life, but something in him was never satisfied.  Now that he was losing her he realized he wanted her more than ever.  He was so angry with himself for giving into the temptations of Heather.  With Jill, his life had structure and meaning.  Jill was the type Dana was looking so hard to find and he threw her away.

He rushed through the station to find Dana.  Thankfully she was in her office.

“Dana.”

“Hi Jonny, what’s up?” she asked cheerily.

“Jill threw me out.”

“What!  Why?”

Jonny entered her office and closed the door.  “I blew it.”

“Oh, Jonny,” Dana peered shamefully at him.  “It was true wasn’t it?  You and Heather?”

He nodded slowly.

Dana looked at her friend differently. “Why?  Why would you do something like that
?”  It was more an admonition than a question.

“I...I don’t know,” he lied, not wanting to admit his own twisted dissatisfaction with his wife’s body, not wanting to reveal his inane shallowness.

Dana was incredibly disappointed in him.  “How is Jill?”

“She’s a mess.”

“So now what?”

“Well, I sorta need a place to stay...”

Dana started shaking her head, “Oh no Jonny, don’t you drag me into this.  Jill’s my friend, too.”

“Yeah, but I was your friend first.”

“Don’t play that game with me.  You’re the one wearing the black hat here.”

“I know that...please, Dana, I have no other place to go.”

“What about Heather?”  Her tone cut through him.  “Why not stay with her?”

“I’m not involved with her like that.”

Dana raised her eyebrows.

“I mean...it’s not what you think, it didn’t mean anything.”

“That makes what you did even more stupid.”  Dana crossed her arms, so upset that her friend was the epitome of everything she feared in a man.  “Why would you hurt your wife and betray her with someone you don’t even care about?”

“I have no answer for you,” his voice trailed.  He took a deep breath, “
Dana, I’m begging you...can I please stay at your place?  I won’t get in the way, I swear.  I’ll cook for you, clean, whatever you need.  Please.  I’m calling in a huge favor here, please.”

Dana eyed him with disdain.  “I have no idea why I’m doing this...fine, you can stay.”

“Oh, thank you,” he said, throwing his arms around her.

She shook him off.  “Don’t thank me.  I feel guilty enough as it is.”

“Okay, I get it.  So I guess I’ll just hang out here with you till your shift is over, then we can go home?”

“My home.  To my home.  This is not permanent and I really think you should look into other arrangements.”

“I will.  Thanks again.”

“Don’t mention it...really, don’t mention it.”

It was time for Larry to outline his plan and to do that, he needed space.

He cleared off his kitchen table and took out a stack of crisp white paper, a brand new fine tip black marker and a ruler.  Larry had examined his two-story townhouse very carefully, devising a solution to his lovesick heart.  He recalled hanging a painting in his dining area three years ago.  The nail he had pounded a bit too hard broke through the wall revealing a small crawl space beneath the stairs.  Larry sealed the wall and painted it.  No one could ever tell that there was an imperfection.  It was the painting, a scene of a lone man by the river that inspired Larry.

He measured the wall, visually determining how the stairs ascended upwards.  On the paper he drew the diagonal wall, indicating the staircase railing with two lines.  He measured three feet down from the railing and marked the spot.  It was three feet up from the floor as well.  Larry diligently began to sketch the outline for his project.

A secret room beneath the stairs.

Nimbly
his hands moved across the paper, transcribing the idea in his head.  When it was complete, he took out another sheet of paper and began retracing his drawing with the ruler, creating his project to scale.

Larry eyed his drawing.  It was perfect.

He got in his beat up car and drove to the local home hardware store.  The day was sunny and clear.  It was as if God was giving him his blessing with easy weather for driving.  He entered the store, fortunately it wasn’t that busy.  He was greeted by a man whose badge identified him as Trevor.

“Can I help you, sir?”

Sir.

“Yes,” Larry said, taking out his crude blueprint, “I need wood to build a storage space under my stairs.”

Trevor looked at his plans.  “You going through cinderblock?”

“I think so.”

“You got a drill?”

“Yes.”

“Good, you’ll want to use a masonry bit to get through the block.  You’ll also need some pine.  It’s inexpensive and it’ll work.”

Trevor was a gold mine of information. He walked Larry through the entire process, helping him collect all the supplies.

“Thank you Trevor.  You’ve been a great help.”

“You’re welcome, sir.”

Another sir.
  Trevor showed him great respect.  Larry knew he’d have to put him on the wedding list.

             
The bill for the supplies was a bit hefty, but overall it was a small price to pay for the woman he loved.

Larry returned home and began work on the project that would make Dana his.

Jonny’s short stay at Dana’s turned into a week.  They lived as awkward roommates, Jonny taking residence on the couch.  In a way, Dana liked the company, she just wished it wasn’t under these circumstances.

For Jonny, his time at Dana’s was lonely and scary.  Jill refused any contact with him.  He tried calling her every day – at home and at work.  It was to no avail.  She refused his calls and returned his letters of apology, unopened.

Jonny heard Cody call Dana every day.  He was jealous of their growing intimacy.  It made him long for the closeness he had with Jill.

“So I go to the Bahamas this weekend,” Dana said, interrupting Jonny’s journey into depression.
              “Yep.  You must be excited to see Cody.”
              “Well, yeah.”  Dana looked down, trying not to gloat her happiness.

“You can say you’re excited Dana, it won’t hurt me, I hurt myself, remember?”

She chose to ignore the latter half of his comment.  Avoidance was the only way she could deal with him living with her.  “Okay...truth is I can’t wait.  Are you going to be okay here by yourself?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.  It’ll be good for me.  Time to reflect and wallow.”

“You should wallow...in fact you should stew in your misery.”

“I get the point.”

“I’d hope so.  I still can’t believe you...”

“I did a bad thing, okay?  I don’t want to hear it from you,” Jonny snapped.

“Don’t yell at me.  I’m the one putting a roof over your sorry ass.”

“Let’s just change the subject.  I’ll take care of your place, water your plants...”

“I don’t have any plants.”

“Great that makes my job even easier.”

Dana smirked.  “I’ll leave you my phone number at the hotel so you can reach me in case of an emergency.”

“Okay, Mom.”

Dana glared at him.  “Not funny.”

“Dana I know most of your information...it’s a station trip that I helped set up...remember?  You’re going to promote the hotel, not to rendezvous with Cody.”

“I know that.”  Dana threw a pillow at Jonny.

“Just making sure.”  He threw one back.

Dana ducked to avoid getting hit in the head.  “Okay, so I take the seaplane tomorrow and I come back on Sunday night.”

“Dana, really, I am aware of your schedule.”

“I feel better saying it.  You are house-sitting.”

“If it makes you feel better say it all you want.”

“What a prince you are.”

“That’s me, Prince of Nothing.”

She tossed the pillow at him again. “Don’t depress yourself too much.  I’d hate to find you sprawled unconscious on my couch because you overdosed on Rocky Road ice cream.”

“Won’t happen.  Go, pack...your flight leaves early tomorrow...you start
broadcasting
in the afternoon.”

“Okay, okay.”  She pulled the pillow from him and placed it back neatly on the couch.

“Remember this is work.”

Dana put her hands on her hips, “Yes, I know, work.”

But inside it was all about Cody.

Larry stared at the picture of Dana, took his pen and pushed it into her heart.

“Do you feel the pain I feel?” he pondered aloud, removing the pen, sad to see a deep blue mark marring his picture.  “You brushed me off without even getting to know me.  But I’ll fix that.  You’ll give me a chance and see what I already know...that we were meant to be.”

Larry taped the picture on the wall as inspiration and began work.  This was going to be a grueling job.  It had already taken him days to arrange all the supplies and prepare the house.  He laid sheets down on the floor, taping the edges of the sheets to the walls to prevent any mess from getting on the carpet.  It was a chore to be so organized, but he couldn’t live any other way.  Disorder drove him mad, visual chaos caused internal chaos.

He always attributed it to his childhood.  The never-ending instability of moving from foster home to foster home created a life without order.  Larry took every step necessary to have order in his life.

His desk was a prime example.  Pens were lined up in descending order of size.  Smaller pads were set on top of larger pads, their lower left corners perfectly in line with each other.  To balance out the notepads on the left side of his desk, Larry put his calculator and file folder system on the right side of his desk.  In everything he did there was symmetry.

That included his relationships.  He gave and expected back equally.

He invested so much time listening to Dana on the air and calling her.

But Dana wasn’t reciprocating.

And now he’d have to make her.

Friday morning and Dana was on her way to the Bahamas.  Sharon, the promotions director for the station, picked Dana up at her apartment.  Jonny was there to send her off.

“Be careful and have fun.”

“I will,” she said, kissing him lightly on the cheek.  “Take care.”

Sharon, a pleasant, cherubic brunette, had only been working at the station for six months.  She still had the glow of a radio newbie – so excited for the opportunity to work at a radio station that it compensated for the low wages.

They arrived at the seaport in Miami and boarded the small seaplane.  The craft, which sat seventeen passengers, was full.  Dana sat next to Sharon

“This is awesome,” Sharon said as they buckled up.

“It should be fun,” Dana agreed, absentmindedly looking out the window.

“I mean this is really cool to be going to Nassau like this...for work.”

“It’s a good perk.” Dana answered. 
But it won’t pay your bills.

“I’ll say.”

Dana settled into her seat and thought about Cody.  They had grown so close so fast.  Time, distance and mystery were a powerful elixir for love.  Dana felt herself falling hard.  She couldn’t wait to spend some real time with Cody to find out if this was real.

The propellers started
to spin and the engine roared.  The small plane rode quickly across the water and then up into the sky.  They were just a hop, skip and a jump from Paradise Island, Nassau.

“Oooh we’re off!”  Sharon’s innocent excitement was more contagious than annoying.

Dana decided to join in...she was going to the Bahamas, for work, as Jonny liked to say, but it was also going to be a nice vacation.  “This’ll be terrific,” she confirmed.

Fifty minutes later they were making their descent.  The plane dropped
rapidly from the sky approaching the turquoise water at an alarming rate.  They touched down smoothly on the ocean, sprays of water hit their windows.

“We made it,” Sharon exhaled.

Dana smiled ear to ear.

They exited t
he plane and took a taxi to the Paradise Island Resort and Casino.  The giant pink hotel rose above the casino-lined skyline.  The cab pulled up the driveway passing bright birds of paradise flowers fully in bloom and tall willowy palm trees.  Paradise Island wasn’t false advertising.