Samson and Sunset (14 page)

  “I’m sorry, Shay, I’m so sorry.” He
held me close and even patted my back to console me. “I know you’re
mad at me, and you have every right.”

  “Now hush, princess, calm down. You’re
shaking. I’m not mad at you. Granted, I was upset with you for
awhile, but when we were down on the floor picking up all those
checkers, Joe said to me, ‘Man, Shay, you’re goin’ home to a
wild woman
tonight.’”

  He stroked my back thoughtfully.

  “I drove home real slowly so I’d calm
down, and I kept remembering what Joe had said. I
was
going
home to a wild woman. Heck, all those guys in the bar should be so
lucky. They were going home to drab, run-of-the-mill sex (if they
were going home to sex at all) and I was going home to a wild
woman! They had no idea how wild my woman could be, and I know how
lucky I am, so there, little wild woman, you’re okay. So calm
down.”

  I looked up at him with tears in my
eyes. He stroked my hair and we didn’t make it off that sofa for a
while. I tell you, those sofas were good for more than sitting!

  ***

However, all good things must end and in the
morning Shay did make it clear that he never wanted a scene like
that again. I asked him not to tell Sterling.

  “Are you kidding? By now everyone in
Larimer and Westover will know.”

  “What will your dad say?”

  “Well, he’s not very tolerant. I once
saw him pin Maggie against a wall and slap her.”

  “What did you do!”

  “Nothing. Wasn’t my business. I
figured she must have done something to deserve it.”

  “Shay, why do you always stick up for
your dad?” I asked, shaking my head. It seemed he had a blind spot
when it came to Sterling. “I’ve heard you call your mom a bitch
once when you were mad at her. Please don’t do that to me.”

  “Then don’t rise to the occasion,” he
said as he went out the door.

  I think at this point I knew I needed
to learn to walk on eggshells and that just wasn’t me. I was a
smart mouth with a hot little temper.

  ***

The last incident worth mentioning should be
filed under Stupidity.

  Shay and his best friend Kevin decided
to take the boat to Harvard City Dam before water skiing season was
over. I didn’t want to go, with my dislike of boats and all, but
Shay talked me into going. He had used his new red and white boat a
lot since he got it, out at Westover Lake. It was a couple hundred
miles to the dam.

  Once we were there, after Shay had
backed the boat down the long boat ramp to launch it, Kevin yelled
from outside, “Hey, Shay, do we have enough beer?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “Shall we get more?”

  “Hey, Callie, sit in the driver’s seat
while Kevin and I run up the hill to the marina to get some more
supplies.”

  “What do I do?” I asked.

  “Nothing, just sit there with your
foot on the brake.”

  “Okay, but hurry. This scares me.”

  I wasn’t sitting there too long before
I heard this grinding sound. It was like it was coming from the
engine. There it went again, I got so scared I jumped out, and as I
stood there yelling for Shay, the entire trailer, boat and pickup,
slid backward into the water, further and further.

  I heard Shay yelling, ”Callie, jump in
and hit the brake,” as he came running down the hill. Too late, it
was gone; totally submerged and out of sight. Shay just stood
there, frozen. Kevin came down the hill and gawked at us both
standing there.

  “Shay, where’s the rig?”

  “At the bottom of the lake,” Shay said
dazedly.

  We must have stood there like idiots
for ten or fifteen minutes, until Shay said finally, “Well, we
might as well go up to the marina and call home for a ride.”

  When the people in the marina heard
about it, it became the talk of the lake for the day. We sat in a
booth for a while and the guys had a beer. Some of Shay’s old
friends came in.

  “Hi, Shay, heard you got a new boat!
Gotta see that!”

  “Well,” said Shay dully, “if ya can
swim good you can see it. It’s at the bottom of the lake, with the
trailer and my pickup.”

  They didn’t quite know what to say to
this.

  I don’t think to this point Shay had
said one word to me directly, or even asked me what had happened. I
think he was in shock. He finally went to the payphone hanging on
the wall and called home, collect. Judging from the conversation,
Sterling answered.

  “Can you send one of the guys to come
and get us?” Pause. “Well, we’re at Harvard City Dam.” Pause. “The
bottom of the lake.” Pause. “I really don’t want to talk about it
right now.” Pause. “No, no, don’t send the chopper.” Silence.
“Well, she’s not your wife, she’s mine, and I don’t do things like
that to my wife.”

  When Shay got back to the table, I
said, “Your dad’s mad at me.”

  “Well it’s not him you have to worry
about, it’s me,” was the reply.

  “Shay—”

  “Don’t bother telling me what happened
right now; you can tell me tonight when we’re home.”

  “Are you mad, Shay?”

  “No, not really, it’s insured.”

  “Well, who’s going to go down and get
it tomorrow?”

  “I am,” Shay said. “I have some diving
equipment.”

  “No, please, I don’t want you to go
down in that deep water.”

  “Well, I’m not letting someone else do
it. It could be dangerous.”

  I looked down at my half-eaten
hamburger. There was nothing more to say. I knew there was no
convincing Shay to make another do a dangerous job he considered
his own.

  Joe and Cookie came and got us. I was
so glad to see her. The first thing she did was hug me and tell me
not to let myself get stressed.

  “Ya know, sweetie, it’s just a
material thing, and you’re carrying a live thing...my Shay’s
baby!”

  Shay must have heard that, because he
got more attentive after Cookie said that, and during lovemaking
that night he was extra attentive.

  But my name will always be notorious
at the Harvard City Dam, as in, ‘Hide your boats folks; it’s The
Boat Sinker!’

  ***

October was a good month. We took Kelly
trick-or-treating around Westover, and then around my parents’
house in Hudson. Of course the minute Kelly saw Mom and Dad she had
to stay with them. I truly enjoyed sharing Kelly with Mom and Dad;
they loved her as much as I loved them.

  ***

November flew by, with Thanksgiving Day at my
parents’, and the evening meal at the Big House. As I ate my
turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce (which were,
of course, excellent) I couldn’t help thinking about the contrast
between our two families. Where my parents were loving toward one
another, Shay’s were cutting and hard. In private, of course. In
public they oozed charm. Where my parents were eager to be generous
to anyone in need, the Westovers were selfish to the last; what was
theirs was theirs, they made that clear. My parents accepted
everyone. Maggie and Sterling looked down their noses at most
people. They gave the appearance of class, but that was just it: it
was all about appearances. They could be in the middle of a huge
argument and if someone drove into the yard, they were suddenly all
relaxed smiles and charm.

  I was the opposite; I loved to give
and to be who I was. If I was angry at Shay at the store, I was
angry at Shay at the store. I couldn’t put on the phony airs his
parents did, and didn’t want to. I guess Shay was right; I was a
wild woman.

  Christmas

  That December was a cold one. We
celebrated Kelly’s second birthday, with Mom and Cookie both baking
her cakes. I couldn’t believe how much had changed in my life in
just two years. Just two Christmases ago, Kelly had no daddy and
the future looked bleak. Now I was living in this beautiful suite,
in love with my soul mate and about to have his baby.

  I didn’t want our suite professionally
decorated for Christmas like the Westovers did with the rest of the
house. Decorating was part of the fun! Shay flocked our seven-foot
tree with wonderful, thick, white “snow” and I hung the branches
with red, gold and green bulbs to match the room. I arranged pine
boughs and red and gold candles on the mantle of the fireplace.

  We had a lot of company. In the weeks
leading up to Christmas, I think all of Westover and Larimer came
to visit us in our suite. Lots of tea and cookies. Our own Cookie
had spread the word about the suite and everyone wanted a peek.
Several of Shay’s old flames tried for invitations from him, but I
put the kibosh on that.

  Christmastime was my absolute favorite
time of year. By the first of December, I’d already bought and
wrapped everybody’s gifts with the exception of having to wrap a
few more of Shay’s gifts from me. I asked Shay if he’d let me get a
holiday job as a gift-wrapper (I wrapped fast and with perfection.)
He agreed, on the condition that it didn’t interfere with our
lives, so I got a job at Penney’s and scheduled my work around our
holiday parties (of which there were many.)

  One day, a few days before Christmas,
Shay dropped me off in my car at work (couldn’t get a flake of snow
on the prized Impala) and told me he’d be back to pick me up when I
got off at 9 p.m. It was snowing hard and kept snowing all day.

  9:45 found me standing in the freezing
snow outside Penney’s, with no sign of Shay. Everyone I worked with
had gone home. I didn’t know what to do, except keep waiting. By
10, I was too cold to stand still, so I walked several miles to my
parents’ house, eight months pregnant, in the heavy snow.

  I was frostbitten, aching and numb by
the time I got to Mom and Dad’s. Let me tell you, they were furious
with Shay. Daddy said Shay could have called him and he would have
picked me up. Mom kept rubbing my feet to get them warm. But what
hurt the most was the fall I’d taken on the way from Penney’s—I’d
slipped off the curb and landed hard on my back.

  After getting warmed up with a blanket
and some hot green tea, Mom put me to bed in my old room. I was so
tired I went right to sleep. At around 6 a.m. I woke up and took a
hot bath, hoping it would help my back. Mom asked if I wanted
breakfast and I told her, no, thank you, I wanted to sleep awhile
longer. So I took two Excedrin for my back pain and crawled back
into bed, dropping off to sleep right away.

  It was about 7 a.m. when I awoke to
the sound of the bedroom door opening and Shay’s voice, saying,
“Callie! Thank gosh you’re safe. I was so worried!”

  I lifted my head from the pillow and
said dryly, “Not so worried you didn’t leave me stranded in a
blizzard. Not so worried you didn’t come home all night or
call.”

  “Well, princess,” he said, sitting
down on the bed, “I’m sorry. I went to a party and got too drunk,
so I slept in my car.”

  He tried to pull me into his arms, but
I pushed him back. “You reek of cigarettes, booze and cheap
perfume,” I said. “And you know what, Shay, your body isn’t one bit
cold. I don’t even want to know where you’ve been or who you were
with. And I don’t want to hear any lies, either; my back hurts too
much.”

  “Why is your back hurting,
Callie?”

  “What difference does it make?” I
asked. “If you cared you’d have been there to pick me up when I got
off work.”

  “Want me to rub your back,
princess?”

  “No. Just go away,” I said, turning my
back to him.

  “Well, I want to crawl in there and
sleep with you.”

  “You reek,” I said. “Go take a
shower.”

  “I don’t have any clean clothes,
Callie.”

  “Well you’re in luck, Shay. I did all
my Christmas shopping early, so in the bottom of my closet you’ll
find black underwear, matching t-shirts, tube socks and three sweat
suits; I got them as part of your Christmas presents.”

  He went to the closet. I could hear
him opening sacks. “Wow,” he said, “Santa is being good to me this
year.”

  “You deserve coal in your stocking
this year, Shay.”

  “My, aren’t you just the little
grouch, princess,” he remarked as he headed down the hall to the
shower.

  While he was gone, Mom brought in two
cups of hot tea and put one on each bedside table. “I made some
fresh cinnamon rolls,” she said. “I’ll go get a little plate of
them for you two.” I thanked her. She kept standing there, looking
down at me like she wanted to say more.

  “What?” I asked.

  She sat down on the bed. “You know,
Kathrine,” she said softly, “you need to work this out between the
two of you, and you had better make it clear how wrong he was,
because I’m telling you, Kathrine, if you let him get away with
this now, it won’t stop. Trust me.”

  “I know you’re right, Mom, and I
am
angry with him, but every time I see him I just melt. I
can’t be angry and say what I feel. I’m putty in his hands and he
knows it.” Mom took my hand. “He knows I’ll put up with his crap.”
I shook my head. “But I’ll try to stay strong, okay?”

  She squeezed my hand and smiled.
“Okay, good.”

  ***

While Shay was in the shower, I lay in bed
planning everything I knew I had to say when he got back. But my
mind kept going back to the day of our wedding when I sat on the
steps of the church and prayed; thanking God for loving me so much
He’d given me Shay.

  I hadn’t known love existed like the
kind I felt for Shay; and for me of all people, the girl from the
wrong side of the tracks. The love I had for Shay would not and
could not die. It had wormed its way deep into my heart and soul.
If he needed a heart transplant, I would have taken my own life so
he could have my heart. I would give up my life for him. This was a
love created by God; nothing and no one could tear it asunder. I
would fight for this marriage. I never wanted see the inside of a
courtroom for a divorce again. Shay was stuck with Kelly, the baby
and me.