Sometime Down The Road

When I received the letter from Barney I imagined everything possible from surprise to relief to fear.  There was great hesitation in opening it because I had not heard from him in three and a half months. I had actually tried to call him a couple of months ago and his phone was no longer in service.  I had worried that something had happened to him
but then I noticed the postmark was two and a half months old. How does a letter take that long to arrive at it's destination?  I guess that was pretty typical of being, in effect, homeless and using General Delivery as your address.

When I finally got the courage to open the letter the first line said how much he missed me and how much he loved me.  He wrote almost a whole page on how it was hard to not talk to me every Tuesday  as we had done for over six years.  Then there were a lot of memories of all the places we had gone to and had done from meeting at the restaurant that had burned down to our day in Atlantic City.  Then he wrote that he was giving into Lauren and that they were going to move to California to be closer to her family.  With his business they could live anywhere and as much as Kansas City would always be home he was finding it difficult not to make the move. With the move he would be out of touch for awhile as they were going to stay with Lauren's parents until their house was completed. Sounded like he was in the same position I had been.

I read the letter so many times that day that I had it  memorized.  At first I took it as a it's been fun, so long, goodbye but that was only because I expected the letter to say that.  Over the course of the next few weeks I thought about the letter and our very complicated relationship. I had never really thought about how much we were alike before and began to see that we were both very non confrontational and did what we thought was expected of us.  We had talked endlessly about our childhoods, hopes, dreams, victories and failures.  Even though we did not talk about each of our marriages there were little comments dropped by both of us that said neither of us were very happy in them. Most of all I knew that my Dudley-Do-Right-Eagle-Scout would have said so long, kid, it's been nice to know you if that is what he meant.  I would miss him terribly until I would hear from him again but there were things I needed to attend to.

The boys and I skated a lot and they made friends with two brothers about their same ages.  Wes got interested in speed skating and Wally joined the Cub Scouts so they were happy and doing well.  I managed to get all the boxes unpacked and mini blinds on all the windows but not much of anything else as far as decorating the house went.  That fall my wallpaper business really picked up.  The first time I had to wallpaper a two story entryway was more than a little terrifying but I got very used to it since every house they were building had one.

Any football fan knows that the University of Michigan's mascot is the Wolverine.  Dennis came up with tickets for a Michigan/Colorado football game.  I am not much of a football fan but I do like halftime and people watching.  The Michigan Stadium sat 109,000 people and was full that day.  We sat amidst yelling fans with bills on ball caps that looked like the mouth of a Wolverine, teeth and all. I cheered for Michigan not because I was a fan or because I even knew what was going on in the game but just because I was afraid one of those hats might eat me if I did not cheer the team on.  

The two cats were happy to be in a house instead of a motel room.  French Fry, who we had since Kansas City, who loved to hunt managed to present us with a dead chipmunk on the steps outside the sliding glass door almost everyday....nice.  Sylvester, the black and white cat, had somehow learned to play fetch.  He really like to play with rabbits feet and if you threw it across the floor he would go get it and bring it back. For Christmas that year the boys bought him a bright pink new one.  A week or so before Christmas they wrapped it up and put it under the tree.  We came home one day and there were bits of wrapping paper all over the hallway floor.  Sylvester evidently was not a cat who wanted to wait for Christmas and he was proudly taking a nap with his new toy in the den.

Christmas came and went.  After Christmas we went skiing just like everyone else in the state of Michigan.  Mom had been on a purging spree at her house and rather than have a garage sale, which she despised, she sent three huge boxes to me.  Besides tons of clothes, not my style and two sets of china there were ski boots and skis.  We went UP North to Traverse City.  Now you need to understand Michigan terminology.  Anyplace north of the middle of the state is simply known as Up North.  However, if you cross the Mackinac Bridge you will still be in Michigan but it is called the U.P. or Upper Peninsula.  Actually you never tell someone you are going to Traverse City or anyplace north of the middle of the state.  You are merely going Up North.

When the ball dropped in Times Square that New Year's  I could have never fathomed what that year was going to bring.