If I Should Fall

[ChrisGibson]

IF
I SHOULD
FALL

The Second Book
Of
Geshichte Falls






PART ONE


THE OLD
WORLD



ONE


HAPPY
RETURNS



William B. Dwyer lay on his back in bed, watching the ceiling turn from black to grey as the morning came. He leaned on his left against his wife, pressing his erection into Dena, murmuring to her and kissing her ear.
“Dena,” he murmured. “Deenie.”
“Oh, Bill, not now.”
“Deeeeen,” he continued.
“Bill...”
“Baaaby,” tenderly.
Dena swatted him. “Bill, I said not now.”
The soundn of her voice, the look on her face and the smell of her breath was all equally unattractive and he wilted immediately and turned to pull on his pajama pants. He never wore underwear to bed.
“Well, it’s time to get up,” he said darkly, to his wife.
“First day of school,” Dena said back, pushing herself up and straightening her Victoria’s Secret nighty. “Let me get something ready for breakfast.”
Dena got up leaving her husband sitting on the side of the bed.
“Cameron! Niall! Get up! Don’t be late.”

“How do I look, Dad?”
“Like a hooker, Niall replied, before Bill could say anything.
“Bill,” apple in hand, used the free one to swat his son on the back of the head and scowl.
“Don’t talk that way at the breakfast table. You look real pretty, sweetheart.”
“Thanks Daddy.”
The man with the ginger colored hair cut military fashion, the oversized nose, blue tie and jacket who was juggling coffee, newspaper and apple approved of her and winked at her. This is all that mattered to Cameron.
“I don’t know how you can wonder if you look nice,” Dena began, “when you’re wearing the same plaid jumper and white blouse five hundred other girls are gonna have on.”
“It’s the way you wear it, Mother.”
“It’s the way you wear it, Mother,” Niall mimicked.
“Niall!” Bill snapped.
“Don’t bite the boy’s head off,” Dena muttered to her husband.
“Your father’s just a crab,” she confided in her son. “And I know why, and it’s not your fault.”
“It’s not my fault either,” Bill muttered and Cameron realized, for the first time, looking from parent to parent that she was not the product of a happy marriage.
“Hurry up, Cameron, it’s almost time,” said Dena.
“Bill, are you going to run Niall to school?”
“I don’t have time.”
“It’s three blocks away!”
“I need to pick up Dave and Thom. We’re going to be late for work as it is, and I’m going to have to spend the whole ride to Grand Rapids apologizing to them.”
“You said you’d give Niall and Dave Jr. a ride—”
“Dena, when I was his age,” Bill gave Niall a passing gesture, “I had to walk three times that distance and my father never offered a ride. You’re fifteen, toughen up.”
And with that, Bill was out.
“He’s right. It’s not far. We’ll just walk with Russell,” Niall said and went to get his bag and was out the door before Dena could offer a ride.
Cameron sat at the table, blonde and pretty, uncomfortable.
Finally Dena said, “Well come on, Cam. Rosary isn’t walking distance. Let’s go.”


Russell Lewis, Niall Dwyer and Dave Armstrong had just made it to Kirkland when a rusted yellow El Camino belching smoke began to trail them.
“Russell,” said Dave. “I think it would be politic if we walked a little faster.”
Russell looked back at the weedy sophomore.
“So we could outrun the car?” he suggested with a raised eyebrow. “Whaddo you say, Niall?”
Niall, trying to play it cool, said nothing, then stopped himself from jumping as the car sped up to them.
“Russell!” shouted Bobby Reyes’s voice. And then someone else shouted, “Russell!” too.
But this next shout wasn’t Bobby’s voice. It was a woman’s and she was driving.
“Russell,” she said, stopping the car, and got out, shades over her face. “I told you I’d see you again.”
Russell cocked his head.
“Anigel?”
“Uh hum.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Giving my shit brother a ride to school. I’m back in town and Bobby’s license is revoked. Again. How bout yawl pile on in the car.”
“My sister’s the school bus today,” Bobby laughed, opening up the large car door and letting the three boys pile into the back.
“I’m the Magic School Bus,” she said to her brother, climbing back into the car and revving the loud engine as she murmured, “Biiiiiiiitch.”

“Well,” said David Armstrong from the backseat. “Seems to me like we have a couple of Grumpy Guses in the car this morning.”
He pushed up his glasses.
“Yes,” said Bill Dwyer, voice measured, “and your use of the term Grumpy Gus is not helping my already nasty mood.”
“I guess I’ll shut up now.”
“Always an option,” Bill murmured.
Thom Lewis, beside Bill, said nothing. He passed the sign. NOW LEAVING FORT ATKINS, MICHIGAN. HAVE A NICE DAY
“But what if it was night?”
“What?” Bill looked distractedly toward Thom.
“Nothing,” said Thom, furrowing his brow.
“What if it was night,” David Armstrong completed the thought. “The Fort Atkins sign. What if you were driving out of it at night? Is that what you mean, Thomas?”
“Yeah,” Thom was too distracted to be impressed by his next door neighbor’s attentiveness. In the late spring heat beyond the air conditioned compartment of the car, the road stretched out black shooting through the ultra green of farm fields.
“I’m wondering if this car has bad chi,” David said.
“Huh?”
His brother-in-law wished David would stop talking.
“I mean, no one’s in a really good mood. Everyone looks sort of distracted. Maybe the car’s got bad chi.”
“Nothing seems to be distracting your mood,” Bill muttered.
“Maybe it’s chi,” David repeated to himself, grimacing.
“Maybe it’s just a shitty day?” Bill suggested, turning back to raise an eyebrow which David did not acknowledge.
“If we exit here, we can get onto the highway.”
There, thought, Thom. I’ve made my contribution to car pool conversation.
“Well, if no one really wants to talk about their problems...” David began, And this time, most unsafely, Bill gave his full gaze to David Armstrong, and the other man shut up.

“I gotta apologize for Dave,” Bill said to Thom once they’d dropped the other man off at his office. “He’s into all that psychology crap and he likes talking about feelings and holding hands and all that. He wanted to go to this regaining your manhood conference last year. He talked me into it.”
“I heard something about that,” Thom said.
“Yeah,” Bill said as they swung up to Thom’s building. “The church sponsored it.”
“How was it?”
“Great. Until the loincloth and drum came out.”
“You’re joking.”
William Dwyer looked hard at Thom, his long nose becoming suddenly very sharp.
“No,” said Bill in a deadly voice.

Bill Dwyer was passing the women’s restroom with a cup filled from the water cooler when he heard on the other side of the faux wood door:
“Lynn, you don’t mean Bill Dwyer?”
“Yes,” Lynn—she was the new receptionist, sounded a little indignant, “I exactly mean Bill Dwyer.”
Bill leaned closer to the door.
“But his nose his so big!” said the first girl—Roz.
Bill drew back in horror, and, defensively made a pat at his nose.
Bill was hurt that there was other laughter. But it wasn’t Lynn’s.
“Your ass is so big, Roz.”
Ah, it was Roz.
Undaunted, Roz went on. “It completely dominates his face.”
“He has a beautiful face and a beautiful nose.” “I’ll tell him you said that. Make a memo of it.
“Don’t you dare, what is this, high schoo?”
“Um, hum, and he’s the married school teacher.” Roz reminded Lynn. “Check the wedding band some time.”
“Which means you checked it first.”
“Oh, shut up!”
“Oh, you shut up. Roz! You’ve checked Bill Dwyer out! Admit it.”
“No,”
“Admit it.
“No. Never.... once, twice.... the nose is kinda cute.”
Bill beamed, and touched his nose again.
“We’re almost off break. Com’on, let’s get outta here.”

The door moved., Bill was jostled back into reality and his eyes darted for a place to hide before he threw himself into the men’s room next door and John Caruthers looked up from the urinal at him and said, “What’s with you, Dwyer? you’re white as a sheet?”


By the time Bill Dwyer looked out of his office door to see Lynn Messing struggling at her computer, he’d been touching his nose again and again for about three hours, looking at himself in the mirror and touching his biceps thinking, “You’ve still got it, guy. You’ve still got it.”
Bill straightened his tie and hit save on his computer, and then went to Lynn’s cubicle.
She looked up, startled.
“Mr. Dwyer.”
“That’s not necessary. Bill will do.”
Lynn nodded, sounding the word out in her mind, and then said, “Bill.”
“You look like you need help.”
“I thought I knew how to bring down the accountant files for Jillings Incorporated, but...”
“Here,” Bill leaned in closer to her. “Watch this, “Okay. There’s a trick for Jillings, Rowell and Hammond Iron. They’re not in the regular files. To get to them you move here… Watch, and then, click, click, click. See?”
He smiled right at her.
“Yes,” she said a little breathlessly. “Thank you, Mr.... Bill,”
“Oh no, Mr. Bill!” he made a squeaky noise impersonating the clay man from Saturday Night Live, and then was instantly horrified that he’d done so.
“I’m such a dork.”
Lynn laughed.
He was cool again.
“Any time you need help just ask,”
“Really?”
“Yes,” Bill smiled bravely. “Really. That’s what I’m here for.”
“Well, I do want to go over the Jillings account and the one from Westside, but I can talk to Dana about—”
“Don’t be afraid to show it to me.”
“Tomorrow?” Lynn suggested. “At lunch.”
“Yeah,” Bill said. “I can do that.”







“YOU CAN’T DO THAT !!!” roared David who was sitting shotgun on the ride back.
“Why not?” Bill blew the matter off.
“Because you’re married!”
Then David added. “To my sister.”
Bill scowled at David.
“ I remember through sickness and health, richer for poorer, but I don’t remember never having lunch with your secretary.”
“Under adultery!” David cried.
“I’m having a salad with the woman, not throwing her on a table and fucking her to death. Ease up, David.
“Whaddo you say. Thom?” Bill turned to the backseat.
“Since when did we have morality by consensus,” David demanded.
“Since we got in my car,” snapped Bill. “Now, what’s your take, Thom?”
Thom felt on the spot. He was quiet a moment, his briefcase mounted on his lap.
“Well,” said Thom at last. “How does she make you feel?”
“Whaddo you mean?”
“Bill, please look at the road.”
“Shut up, Dave. Whaddo you mean, Lewis?”
“If she... if you feel like a man around her, I’d watch out.”
The look on Bill’s face in the rearview mirror said that Thom needed to explain.
“If you haven’t felt like a man in a while, or you feel unappreciated and suddenly this woman makes you feel... like a stud... and young and everything.. I’d watch out. That’s all.”


“The Army?” Chayne said.
“I’m already in the National Reserve,” Ted said, “and now I’ve been called up for the next two years.”
“I had no idea you were in the Army,” Ted said.
“I wonder if there’s a lot you have no idea about concerning me,” Ted said seriously.
Chayne frowned and said, “It’s not my job to know every damn thing about you, especially if you aren’t revealing things. How was I to know you were…. You could have said something.”
“You’re right,” Ted said. “I could have. I should have. I am.”
“A bit late though.”
“Yes,” Ted agreed. “It is.”

MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

Excellent to get back to this story. Ted’s army call up was a surprise. Poor Chayne! This book has gotten off to a great start with some good writing. It was nice to see Anigel again and all of the characters of course! I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes, a lot of stuff does kick off immediately, doesn't it. And poor Chayne. He was so happy with Ted and now Ted is bouncing off to the army.

 

[ChrisGibson]

“Sharon, someone’s at the door!”
“Had you considered answering it?”
Sharon, on her end of the couch looked at her husband who was turning the pages of The Saint Gregory Herald, and realized that he had not. She sighed and stood up.
“Thank you, dear.”
“Um hum,” she muttered.
Sharon opened the door and stared at the young man smiling at her.
“It really is you!”
Sharon cocked her head and tried to make sense of the boy. He was tall and thin in blue jeans and a white shirt. He was handsome enough with buzzed white blond hair and he had blue eyes she was sure that she had seen.
“Don’t you know me, Sharon?” he demanded with a laugh.
She looked harder and knew him before he said the name.
“It’s me, Robert!”


“I shouldn’t have just popped up here unannounced and everything,” Robert said shaking his head as he took the glass of Kool-Aid Sharon offered him.
“Yeah,” agreed Graham. “I mean most people would—”
“Shut up, Graham. Robert, the surprise is nice. I didn’t even know you. I didn’t know what a handsome man you really were.”
Now Robert blushed.
“You’re a baby,” Sharon said. “Really.”
Robert took a sip from the Kool-Aid and said, “This baby’s got a plan, though. Well, he thought he did.”
“Which is?” Sharon prompted after watching him for some time.
“I want to write. And I want to know a writer. I want to work for a writer. Be an apprentice and just learn. That’s what I want to do.”
“You got all this money,” Graham began, “and can travel wherever and do whatever, and you want to be a secretary? Boy, that’s really stupid—”
“Graham!”
“That’s what I said,” Robert agreed. “I kept on telling myself that, so finally I just said, Self—I’m not listening to you anymore! And I moved without thinking to come here, because I know you, Sharon, and I thought you’d give me support and because I wondered if... if your son.. if I could get Mr. Kandzierski to get me a job.”
Robert looked hopeful and afraid all at once.
Graham commented, “Mr. Kandzierski! Mr. Kandzierski! Now Chayne’s Mr. Kandzierski!”
“Robert, that’s a great idea.”
“Do you think Mr. Kandzierski would... consider me?”
“Chayne would hire a billy goat just to throw money at,” Graham said, and Sharon, much of the same opinion about her son, said, “Of course he will.”

“Are you the receptionist, Jewell?” Sharon asked, coming into the house.
“I guess I am today, Sharon. Who’s this?”
“This is Robert.”
“Hello, ma’am.” Robert ducked his head.
“I’m not ninety. I’m Jewell Emery. Chayne’s upstairs. I’ll get him.”
“Jewell, where’s the baby?”
“With Tim,” she said, shortly. “You need Chayne?”
“I’d love Chayne,” Sharon said.
Jewell got up, walked to the staircase, put one foot on the first step, and then she bellowed up:
“CHAYNE, YOUR MAMA’S DOWN HERE!”
As Chayne came down the stairs, Robert Keyes, having just finished knuckling his ears, turned to Sharon and said, “Remember when you met me, what I looked like? That Rob was braver than I am right now. It was easier to be him. I wish I was him right now.”
“It’s only Chayne,” Sharon dismissed her son, “And if you were who you were then, you wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Mom?” Chayne said, then turning to Robert Keyes, “Welcome. Can I get you anything? A drink? Cookies?”
True to his rules of hospitality. Chayne didn’t even ask who Robert was.
“You can get him a job,” Sharon said.
“Um?”
Robert stepped forward, thrust his hand out and pressed on a smile. “Mr. Kandzierksi, I’m Robert Keyes—”
“I’ve heard of you--” Chayne smiled.
“And I’m a really big fan of yours. And I would do anything. I would sweep your floors and clean your kitchen with a toothbrush and be they best secretary in the world if I could just learn from you. If you would be my teacher. See, I want to write like you do. Well, not like you do. You’re good and I want to be good too. That’s what I mean!”
“Chayne!”: Jewell swatted him, her jaw wide open.
Chayne looked at Jewell and nodded, then said, “That’s just what I was thinking too.”
“What?” interrupted Sharon. “What What? When you all do that telepathic thing no one else can follow.”
“I was just saying how I wished I had a... ” Chayne smiled looking for the right word. “A Robert, really.”
“Really!” Robert exalted.
“All these coincidences,” Sharon shook her head.
“I ah—” Robert started to say, then stopped.
“Where are you staying tonight?” Chayne asked Robert.
“Well, uh, I...”
“Okay, stay in Russell’s room. No, the spare room. I just made it up. You’ll like it. Welcome to Curtain Street.”
Robert stood in the middle of the living room looking around at nothing, smiling.
“I can’t. I can’t believe this. I’m happy.”
“If you can’t be happy,” said Chayne, “then what the fuck’s the point?”
“Chayne!” Sharon.
Chayne ignored his mother and asked, “Did you bring your stuff with you?”
“A bag,” the young man replied. “I’ve been traveling light.”
“Well, bring your bag over here. The door’s always open even if I’m not here. We’re all going out tonight, though I don’t know when. If you want you can come.”
“Going out where?” Sharon asked.
“One of Chayne’s cousins—one of your cousins,” Jewell corrected herself, “has a band in Saint Gregory’s and we’re all going to hear them tonight.”
“And not at the Blue Jewel?”
“Well, if they’re good, maybe I’ll ask them,” said Jewell. “But I don’t want the Comets to get jealous.”
“If you get Nehru’s group in, we might draw a crowd under thirty,” Chayne suggested while Jewell looked reflective and said, “I’m not sure I want a crowd under thirty.”



“Felice, look at this shit!” Jackie stopped typing, shut off the tape and chewed on her pen in lieu of a cigarette.
Felice came over to the computer.
“Here it says, patient had no problem but that he occasionally likes to throw furniture down the stairs.”
“Should you really be sharing those, Jaclyn. Aren’t the cases confidential?”
“Then it goes on to say, patient finds great satisfaction in his daily routine. His current goals are relearning to tie his shoes. Recently the goal of telling time was achieved. The way they talk on this shit, you think all these crazy people are sitting around in top hats from a Dicken’s novel, nodding their heads saying, “Why yes, I feel that my rehabilitation into the world of ambulation is a great personal achievement. Who the hell uses the word ambulate!”
Felice sat down on her sofa in the living room. Jaclyn was at the computer before the window overlooking Hasling Street and asked, “What’s ambulate?”
“Walk,” Felice said.
“Then why don’t they just say...”
Felice nodded. “Exactly.”
The phone rang. Jackie looked at Felice and Felice said, “I’ll get it.”
“Well,” Jackie murmured, going back to work, “It is your house.”
“Jaclyn, it’s for you!” Felice said in amazement.
Jackie scowled. stopped the tape she was transcribing, and came to the phone.
“Hello?”
“Jaclyn.”
Jackie paused a bit, cocked her head.
“Kristin? How did you know I was here?”
“I called your place first, then Patti and Thom, then I decided you must be here.”
“And you were right, God, I thought you were John.”
“I know I’m sounding a little froggy today, but really—”
“No, I thought he’d be the only one calling here for me.”
“I heard you were....”
“Knocked up. Um hum. I am.”
“Mother told me. Oh my God, Jackie, we’ll be having babies together.”
“How weird is that? How’s your’s coming along?”
“I’m starting to show now. Reese wants to touch my stomach all the time, and he thinks my pregnancy is a turn on. He wants to have sex all the time! It hurts my back. I’m about to tell him no. But it actually feels really good. Despite the pain. I think the whole pregnancy is turning me on, too. I love the way that man feels inside of me.”
“God, Kristin!”
“But that’s not what I’m calling about, I’m calling about you and John. What are you going to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, Mother told me he proposed to you.”
“And I told him no.”
“I know! Why, Jackie?”
“Because, because he was like—now that you’re knocked up I guess I have to marry you.”
“He said that?”
“No. But that’s what it felt like.”
“I heard he came in a three piece suit looking hotter than usual. And I have to say John’s pretty hot in overalls—and he got on one knee and stuck out a bouquet.”
“Yeah,” Jackie admitted.
“And then you decked him!”
“Because I knew why he was saying it.”
There was a long pause on the Minnesota end of the phone, and then Kristin said. “Now, Jaclyn, if you actually believed that it would be okay. But we both know it’s not true. John’s loved you for years. Now, if this is the spur that it finally took to make something happen that should have happened long ago,” Jackie could hear her sister shrugging, “then so be it.”
Jackie was quiet now.
“Jaclyn? What is it?”
“He hasn’t come back. He hasn’t come to talk to me since then. Since, when he proposed.”
“Jaclyn, John’s a good man, but you give him a lot to live up to. You don’t tell him something you’ve known for a very long time. When you tell him, instead of anger, he comes to you, perhaps fumblingly, and he asks you to be his wife. And then you punch his lights out. Jaclyn, he loves you but... Chances are he’s scared.”
Jaclyn lay against the wall. Felice, on the sofa, had the grace to pretend she didn’t see this.
“No one ever thinks that I might be scared.”
“Of the baby?”
“Only a little of that... That’s not it.”
“I think,” Kristin went on, “that what upsets you is the first betrayal.”
“What betrayal?”
“You loved John. Nothing happened, but you knew he loved you too. You thought there was an understanding between you too, and there probably was. We all thought that. Then he came home with Kim, and you knew he was sleeping with her. He married her, had all these kids by her. He broke your trust.”
“I wouldn’t say it like that—”
“But you’d think it like that, Jackie. And you still do, and you need to tell him, and that’s the reason you’re lashing out at him now. That’s what I think. And I also think you better tell him soon, Little Sister. Because if you don’t, you’ll lose him again.”

MORE TOMORROW!

 

[CharmedFan28]

Sounds like Jackie and John really need to talk. I hope she doesn’t loose him. Sounds like Robert has a mentor in Chayne. I think that’s a good thing. Great writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes, Robert has a mentor. Chayne had a house mate, and John and Jackie have some problems they need to work on.

 

[ChrisGibson]

When Russell arrived at 1421 Curtain, he was surprised to see a well dressed, slightly nervous but very pretty white boy typing away at a table turned desk near the front door.
“You must be Russell,” he said. “Chayne will be gone for the afternoon. I am Robert Keyes.”
Because nothing was too unusual in Chayne’s house and in this house courtesy was the first rule, Russell simply said, “It’s good to meet you. I’m getting something to drink. Are you thirsty?”
Rob said that he was, and it was while Russell found himself making lemonade for a well dressed stranger that he learned all about how Rob had met Sharon Kandzierksi and—“That was my mom and my aunt”—in Chicago.
“That foxy white lady with the golden brown hair,” Rob said.
“Yup,” Russell said, handing Rob a glass of of lemonade. “I call her Foxy White Lady all the time.”
“And the other one, the sassy one is your aunt?”
“Yup. She’s pregnant now.”
“Well, damn,” Rob said in a low voice,
There was loud knocking on Chayne’s door and while Rob raised an eyebrow, Russell went to answer it.
“First,” Anigel said without breath. “We went to your house. Then your mother told us you were probably at the Quickie Burger. Then someone mentioned you were here, and we found you.”
Anigel Reyes ashed into the small tray she carried. Even though it was barely sixty degrees, she made it feel seventy. On the street the El Camino was rumbling.
“Com’on,” she said. “I’ve already caught up with Gilead. Now I have to catch up with you.”
The car horn honked, and Russell squinted to see Gilead in the passenger’s seat.
Rob was standing in the living room looking stupid.
“This is Rob,” Russell introduced the young man.
“Pleased to meet you,” Rob put out a hand.
“He can come too,” Anigel said, smiling, and turned around to head back to the El Camino.


“This is my sister, Caroline, and this is my brother-in-law, John.”
If Anigel had not been in denim capri pants, hoop earrings and a white top, her black hair in a pony tail and a packet of Marlboros in her right hand, if she’d been a decently dressed house wife, she would have looked like Caroline.
John, who shook Gilead’s and then Russell’s and Rob’s hand was a small, spare man with a shaved head that was just growing blond spikes and a not unhandsome, slightly monkey face with blue, almond shaped eyes.
“You all. You two...” he pointed to Russell and Gilead, “Go to Our Lady of Mercy?”
“Um hum.”
“I went there.” John took up his own cigarettes and cashed them, but didn’t open the packet. “You all know my brother, Ralph?”
Well, yes, this would have been Ralph’s brother.
“Yeah,” Russell said. “I know Ralph.”
John and Caroline lived on the other end of town, a little south of Keyworthy and the mall, north of Thompson Street and the slums. They had a little shop on Versailles Street, a white general store whose back and upstairs and attic were living space. All of them sat in the living room which overlooked an enclosed porch that in turn overlooked a good sized back yard then the backs of the houses on Royce Street.
John and Caroline were good hosts. They had food ready. They talked about growing up around here, exchanged pleasant stories about high school and how they had both gone to Notre Dame and gotten engaged their, but married at Saint Celestine’s. Then, after the minimum chatter, they got up and got the hell out, sensing that the young people would want to talk to each other.
“The look on your face when John said he was Ralph’s brother,” Anigel chuckled to Russell. “I forgot you all didn’t get along so well.”
“Oh, you’ve been out of the loop for a while,” Gilead said.
“Meaning?” Anigel eyed Gilead.
“Of course,” said Gilead. “So was I. Russell and Ralph were—are... I’m not sure.”
“Me neither,” Russell muttered.
“Friends,” concluded Gilead.
“What?” Anigel looked confused. “Russell, he doesn’t seem like he’d be your type at all.”
“It happened after the party. Something about us not being suspended when everyone else was.”
“It’s a little more than that,” Gilead said, soberly. “I think he always liked you. Him and Jason Lorry.”
“Is that the Indian boy? I forgot all about him.”
“You remembered a little,” Gilead said.
“Well, he’s kind of fine.” Anigel added: “For a kid.”
Rob gagged on his drink, and Anigel shrugged.
“I’m honest,” she said. “At least I’d like to think I am.”
Meanwhile, Russell was looking around the living room and after his third seemingly amazed gaze at the ordinary room and Anigel, she finally said” “What?”
“What?” she said.
“I never expected to be here,” he said. “I never expected to see you again.”
“I told you I’d see you and find you one day.”
“Yeah,” said Russell. “But lots of people say lots of things.”
“And lots of people are full of shit,” Anigel pronounced. “But I’m not. I’m full of surprises, though. I didn’t expect to end up here.”
“What happened?” Gilead asked her.
Anigel shrugged. “I got tired of seeing everyone else go to school while I was waitressing or working in the bookstore. I thought, maybe there’s something to this school business. Then I thought, I don’t want to find out in Barrelon. I don’t like Barrelon.”
“So are you going to the state school in Saint Gregory?” Russell said.
“Naw,” Anigel shook her head. “I don’t wanna fuck with that. I’m going to Soubirous.
“The only thing is I love John and Caroline, but this place isn’t big enough for two babies and an Ani. I lived with them before, but they don’t need that now.”
“Can you cook or clean?” Russell said.
“Yeah,” Anigel looked at him suspiciously.
“I’m sure Chayne would love to have you.”
“Chayne?” Anigel said.



“Well, as long as we’re all living together we might as well all go out together,” Chayne decided.
They were in the station wagon and Anigel sat beside Chayne while Russell, Rob and Gilead were in the back. Behind them Shannon and Jewell were driving with Diggs and Ann Ford.
`When they had all parked, Shannon came up to Chayne, and pointed back at Ann and Diggs who could barely stand to be separated, she demanded:
“Do they fuck?”
“I certainly hope so,” said Chayne.
Saint Gregory was northeast of Geschichte Falls and north of Saint Gregory was Soubirous College.
“When I was a little kid, the nuns used to bring us here,” Chayne told his friends.
The chapel was off to the side of a little college that was centered around a courtyard with a wrap around porch. The wrap around porch led into a red tiled empty lobby.
“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Gilead asked.
“This is Soubirous,” said Chayne. “We just gotta find the right place. The coffeeshop, isn’t it?”
“That’s what Nehru said.”
They went walking through the lobbies and the empty study lounge of the college until they saw a girl sitting in a large winged backed chair studying and Chayne said, “Excuse me? Do you know where the coffeeshop is?”
She was not familiar with it, did not go often and so did not explain where it was very well except that it was in the basement of the church.
“What a weird place.” Robert remarked.
“Right back where we started,” said Russell.
They walked around the church until they saw, at their feet, windows, and then they rounded the chapel until they saw a door in the ground and the door led to a small hall with a door at the end and the door opened on to music.

When I wake up early in the morning
lift my head
—I’m still yawning
when i’m in the middle of a dream
—stay in bed

float up stream
—float up stream

please don’t wake me
no, dont shake me
leave me where i am
i’m only sleepping!


“Beatles,” Anigel noted, smiling at Gilead and Russell. “Can’t go wrong.”
It was not a bright place. The light from very old lamps was mellow and there were chairs and couches lined up along the muraled walls. Tables were in the middle of the floor, and though there weren’t many people, the room buzzed with a type of excitement.


MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a great portion! Good to see so much of Anigel, I hope she sticks around. I am glad Russell is getting to know so many people better. Excellent writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes, there's no going back to the angst of book one. Things are certainly on the move, and now Anigel is back in the picture and not just for a one off event.

 

[ChrisGibson]

They all sat down as everyone else rose up to clap, and then Nehru Alexander took the microphone and said, “We’ll be back in a second. I see some important nearests and dearests have jsut entered the place.”
He smiled and jumped off stage. Russell thought that this Nehru, whom he had never heard of, looked like a cross between Chayne and Gilead. He had all of Gilead’s easy going strut and narrow look, but his jeans were baggy and he had sandals on even in this weather, and he was loud and laughing like Chayne, and myopic like Chayne whom he threw his arms around before embracing Gilead.
“Who are these?” he pointed at Russell, then Robert and lastly Anigel.
Chayne introduced them.
“Ted.”
“The Disappearing Boyfriend?” Nehru said.
Ted frowned and Chayne said, “Yes.”
“I’m not disappearing.”
“You’re literally disappearing for two years,” Chayne said. “To join something I didn’t even know you were in.”
“Anyway—” Russell interrupted.
“Oh, you must be Russell?” Nehru said.
“My reputation proceeds me?”
“It does. Robert—I don’t know you. I guess you all need hugs too. Wow, you’re beautiful!” he said with no guile, embracing Anigel.
“Jewell and Shannon I know, and I promised to buy you a drink when that baby came so I’ll make good on that.”
“You better.”
Nehru laughed loud and emoted much, two qualities which Russell usually hated. But that was because most people laughed to cover up something and threw out personality like a tarp to hide the destruction beneath.
“What’s wrong with you?” Chayne said to Ted who was scowling.
“Really?”
“Really?” Chayne said. “How did you think I’d take things?”
Ted sighed and squeezed Chayne’s hand under the table.
“Can we not fight.”
“I’m not fighting.”
“I know.”
“Well,” Ted said, “can we enjoy the time we have?”
Chayne nodded and squeezed Ted’s hand back.
Cigarette smoke heralded and a tall gangly man who now leaned over Nehru and said, “It’s almost time to go back on stage.”
“Our public waits, Bradley?”
“It does.”
“Brad, these are my cousins, Chayne and Gil and my almost cousins, the distinguished Robert Keyes, the mysterious Anigel Reyes and the Pre Raphaelite Russell Lewis.”
Anigel nodded, taking the honorific as her due.
“I don’t even know what that means, but I like it,” Russell said.
“I don’t know how distinguished I am either.” Robert shook his head and crushed out his cigarette laughing.
“Better to be distinguished, than extinguished.” Nehru noted.
“Too true,” this from Brad. He thrust out his large, alive hand repeating, “Brad Long, pleased to meet you. Brad Long, pleased to meet you.” He was unbelievably tall, and pale with very black, short hair and shadowed eyes that were wide and green. He too was in jeans and tee shirt, and as he smiled warmly and rang everyone’s hands, Russell was at once overjoyed and rattled by the potential loss of an arm.
“I’ll call the waiter over,” said Nehru. “Don’t worry. It’s all free. Have pizza. Have... well, have water. It’s all we’ve got. And have breadsticks. And… Have fun. I’ll be back soon.” Nehru went up with Brad to the stage. Brad took the guitar and Nehru the microphone.
They went from rock to jazz and Russell looked up at Nehru. If Russell thought he had skill, the way Nehru stood at the microphone, his poise, the long hand that gestured and emphasized the words, the eyes that fell on one person in the crowd, then pulled away to another were teaching him something. Nehru’s voice rose and roared and Russell wished he looked like that when he sang, wished he was sure of himself when he was the brief center of attention.
Pizza came with the hot white cheese bubbling, red sauce that hit the paper plate and burnt when it hit their chins, Their were bottles of water, tap water in old frosty plastic Dannon bottles, their signs nearly rubbed off.
“And garlic butter sauce!” marveled Shannon.
Sticking a breadstick in the cup, Robert knocked over the garlic butter and said, “Aw, Man!”
“We’ll, just have to clean it up!” said Gilead and stuck his breadstick in the puddle, and then Russell did the same and they started laughing and Jewell shook her head and murmuring, “Oh, to be young again.”
“Whaddo you mean?” Chayne laughed, and stuck his breadstick in, and they were all laughing.

When somebody loves you
it’s no good unless they love you
allll the way!

Russell looked at Robert staring off into nowhere, but was not brave enough to interrupt the other young man’s reverie.
It was Gilead who nudged Robert and said, “A penny for you thoughts?”
Robert just smiled a sleepy smile, shaking his head and said, “I’m just happy right now. Everything’s so good.”

Half drunk, Rob went up the stairs to his room, watching Chayne put Russell on a sofa and place a blanket over him while Ted watched him. A little while later he heard shower water running and was do sleepy and so inebriated it wasn’t until after the shower was done that Rob realized it hadn’t been him bathing.


“Pound me,” he whispered, and Ted did and the pleasure of the bed shaking, the two of them shaking pushing back, bound together, the pleasure of being pressed by Ted’s love and desire, kissed over and over again stroked while being fucked and fucked made Chayne want to cry out.
“I’m going to… I’m going to…” Ted began.
“Do it.”
But at the same time he felt Ted’s cock swelling and jumping like a heartbeat, at the same moment he felt himself pumped with hot seed, he shuddered as his own body gave way and he knew he was coming all against his stomach, all over the bedsheets.

When he woke up, half drowsy and heard the whir of the air conditioner, Chayne didn’t ask what time it was. None of that seemed to matter. This bed was huge and expensive and soft and he lay on his side and Ted’s arms were about his waist. They had been covered in sweat and come and it didn’t matter. None of it did. The room smelled of sandalwood and Ted’s cologne and his musk and something else that Chayne wondered if it might not be himself. He pressed himself closer to Ted and wanted to lift him up, but Ted was only a little asleep, and instead of lifting up, went down, taking Chayne in his mouth. Chayne didn’t know how long they lay lazy like that, Ted sucking on him, making the cock he didn’t think much about a long, hard, real thing with a geography, a central vein to lick, a helmeted head to trace with his tongue, balls, heavy to hold, to massage, to leisurely suck on this devils road between balls and asshole to be licked and traced and ass to be licked, to be fingered, to still ache after Ted’s entry. Chayne lay in the dark and was serviced by his lover. Ted didn’t know much more about being with boys than Chayne knew, but he knew enough, and he knew far more about went on in the bed. Was he doing to him what he liked done to him? Ted guided him wordlessly, with hand movements and nudges and finally Chayne felt Ted’s thumb and finger massaging him, making his penis hard and curved, longer and heavier than he’d ever known it, and then Chayne was inside of Ted. In the darkness they repeated what they had begun. There was a thrill in the timeless beauty of their sex. Far from Breckinridge or Curtain Street, in a part of a large house built off of much of the house, in a room beyond a room in the deepest part of the night, the bed squeaked with a rhythm, and Ted looked up at him, dark eyes vague and shining, mouth open, his thighs bent to his knees, while kneeling, and then descenind, Chayne fucked him. This time his coming started like a flutter of butterflies from the inside and ended in a corkscrew. He wasn’t able to stop himself from shouting, and as he collapsed between Ted’s thighs, neither was Ted.


As morning light came through the curtain, Chayne sat up in bed to light a cigarette and observe the beauty of Theodore Weirbach’s naked body, watch yellow light touch is sandy hair, mover over his shoulders and down his broad back to the rills of his buttocks. He loved him so much it made him angry and he decided to stay angry because it was better than crying. This fool should have told him, but he was leaving. Well, to hell with him. He shot smoke from his nose and tenderly ran the back of his hand over Ted’s gently breathing body.
Half asleep, Ted said, “I’m sorry, Chayne.”
Chayne couldn’t answer. His hand stopped. He crushed out the cigarette. He was too caught up in emotion to allow himself to make a sound..

END OF CHAPTER ONE

TOMORROW: THE BOOK OF THE BURNING

 

[CharmedFan28]

Poor Chayne, just as things are getting so good with Ted he is leaving. Chayne has a right to be pissed at Ted but I think he will miss him a lot. Great writing and I look forward to The Book Of The Burning tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I know. But all is not lost, and we'll see what good things may come in the future. Still Ted was good while he lasted, and maybe in some way he will continue to last.

 

[ChrisGibson]

As we return to Geschichte Falls, Chayne's birthday and Jackie's wedding are both upon us.

TWO


SURPRISE!















Jaclyn Lewis screamed and nearly dropped her bottle of water.
“You said never knock,” John said, shrugging while Jackie took a few breaths, and pulling a hand through her hair, tried to laugh.
“I’ll get some paper towels for that spill,” John went to the kitchen area. He came back with his paper towels and an expectant look on his face. “You said you needed to talk to me.”
“Yes.”
“:About what?” John was wiping up the water from the floor and looking up at Jackie.
“About. About... I was talking to my sister this morning, and she gave me some good advice.”
“Kristin? And she gave you good advice?” John rose to throw the towels away.
“Yeah, I know,” Jackie shrugged. “And the bottom line is we need to talk about... everything. So, sit down, alright?”
John nodded.
“Alright.”


“And so I’m sorry for hitting you in the face.”
“You probably should have done it a long time ago. About six years ago.”
John sat beside Jackie on the couch, his knees apart, his clasped hands between them. “Awe, Jackie, I was stupid. I knew, but I never knew I just.... I’m not intuitive and all that. You’ve got to tell me stuff. You’ve got to spell things out for me. I—I love you. That’s why I did what I did. Jackie, if I could do it over again, or speak over again. Then I woudl say—”
“Yes.”
John stopped, looked puzzled, and stared at Jackie.
“What?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll marry you.”
John was quiet for a moment, and then he said.
“Well, that was simple.”
“Sometimes some things are.”
“Not very romantic,” John commented.
“Are you disappointed?”
“Yes,” John said truthfully. “A little bit.”
Jackie looked thoughtful for a second, then she lifted a finger, rolled ff the couch and walked to the kitchen. She was rummaging through drawers and John heard the squeal and sqeak of the door to the breadbox, and then a few seconds later, Jackie came back smiling.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
“For?”
Jackie didn’t answer. She got down on one knee and held out a circle made of a bread twist tie.
“John Francis Mc.Larchlahn, Would you like to be my husband?”
John looked suitably touched. He blushed a little and then touched Jackie’s cheek and said, “Can I get back to you on that?”
“Don’t make me hit you again.”
“I meant, yes, Jaclyn. Yes.”

Several things happened the third week in May, Chayne Kandzierski’s surprise birthday party was planned, Jaclyn Lewis’s wedding was planned, it was observed that the two would feature the same guests and be back to back and and everyone decided that was fine. On the outskirts of town, Tim Emery, Jewell’s long tall husband, learned that his uncle Pritchard has slipped hanging something in the spare room, and then it had been decided that what he had been hanging was himself.
“He’s in a better place,” Chayne told his old friend, embracing him. He hated platitudes except for now and again there was a time for platitudes and so he said this and Tim kept clapping him on the back with his large hands and saying, “Thank you, Chayne. Thank you. But I wanna know. I really wanna know.”
Jewell stopped herself from saying, “What can you know?”
But Tim said, “I need to go talk to a priest. I’m going to go talk to those priests at your church, Chayne.”
“They’re kind of idiots,” Chayne said.
“Still,” Tim said, soberly, “they’re God’s idiots, so that must count for something.”

“And then Geoff and I’ll come up, me behind Geoff, and the whole procession,” Robert Heinz informed Jackie and John as the three of them stood near the entrance of Saint Adjeanet’s in the middle of the day, looking up the aisle.
“And then the Wedding Song will start, Jaclyn, and you’ll take long stride like this.”
The tall priest folded his hands over his stomach, and began to stride down the aisle. “And then when you get here,” Robert Heinz stopped at the first pew where Kathleen was sitting beside Patti. “John—Kathleen, you be John, and I’ll be Jackie— comes out, and the two of you link arms and come before the altar—”
“And then kneel like Christopher Plumber and Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music!” cried Abby Devalara.
“Just so,” Father Robert agreed, smiling. He raised an eyebrow toward Jackie, “That is the way you wanted it, right, Jaclyn?”
“That’s just the way,” Jaclyn nodded. “And Chayne will conduct the choir in three hymns before you and Father Geoff come in to ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire’?”
“Right,” Robert nodded.
“And then silence,” Jaclyn said. “And then the Wedding Song from The Marriage of Figaro with me,” she looked at John, “coming to you. How many flowers, Ma?”
“I think we cleaned out the florists.”
“And doves. We’re getting doves! Patti, remember when you and Thom got married?”
Patti nodded, amused, “Vaguely, yes. I think.”
“That is the penultimate wedding to me,” Jackie said. “That’s what I’ve always thought of, but I never thought I’d have my wedding. Let alone here. At Saint Addy’s. Why didn’t you and Thom get married here?”
“That’s not even what penultimate means—” Felice began, but Patti answered:
“Thom thought it was best we get married at a church that meant something to both of us. Hence, the Basilica. But I don’t think it was the Basilica back then. I think it was just the Church of the Sacred Heart.”
“Oh!” Jackie couldn’t decide whose hand to grasp. She grasped John’s, then Kathleen’s, then Patti’s then Robert Heinz’s. “This will be the most perfect wedding ever!”

When they had left the house and met Russell, he asked, “Rob, why are you in the back?”
“So you can sit next to Chayne.”
“That’s silly. I’m sixteen. You’re grown. Get up,” Russell said.
He sat beside Anigel who was sprawled in the back and said she liked it.
“Next stop Gilead?” Russell said. “Or is he at Chayne’s house?”
“He’s not even in town,” Chayne said as he resumed driving again.
“Rob,” Chayne said, slapping his knee, “it’s good to have you up here.”
Rob grinned almost foolishly and said, “It’s good to be up her.e.”
“You now it’s just a passenger seat?” Chayne said because Rob was grinning so hard, and yet he was grinning too. Rob Keyes always made him smile, since the day he had come into this house. The momenth is mother had brough the sunny young man into the house, Chayne had decided he should stay.
“Why are they throwing you a party if you don’t even like parties?” Rob asked, sinking low in his seat.
“Because people are kind of asses,” Chayne answered.
Anigel cackled, but Rob made a noise low in his throat.
“I think you’re right.”
“Well,” Chayne said as he stopped at the red light on Reynolds, “where are you guys taking me for dinner?”

Due to being held up by Tim Emery, Geoff Ford was one of the last to reach 1421 Curtain.
“We thought you’d never get here,” Ann said, from her ladder where Diggs was feeding her red and silver garland to bunting the walls.
“Are you sure, Father?” Tim Emery was asking, and Father Geoff said, “Yeah,” of course, while Tim Emery went from worried to smiling.
“It’s almost time to turn out the light,” Sharon said.
“I thought you and Graham were supposed to be taking Chayne out.”
“We were,” said Sharon. “But Robert and Russell stepped up to do it, and that gave us more time so,” Sharon shrugged. “Thirty-six. If he’s old, does that make me old?”
“Chayne’s not old,” Father Geoff insisted, more to encourage himself—since Chayne was only about four months older than him.
“You know, we should have invited Father Robert,” Diggs said as Ann climbed down the ladder to him.
Geoff Ford shot his sister a look that Diggs missed.
Felice was saying, “Where’s Jackie? John and Jackie were supposed to be here, weren’t they?”
“Jackie said she had to rest or something,” Patti said. “And that’s good. All the Lewises and all the Mc.Larchlahn’s coming in tomorrow! I’m not pregnant on the eve of my wedding and I still need my rest just thinking about it.”
“Don’t worry,” Thom gave his wife a pat on the rump, “I’ll make it up to you.”
“I bet you will,” Patti raised an eyebrow and Felice barked, “Com’on people.”
“Oh, com on you, Felice!” Mickey Wynn said from the kitchen where he and LaVelle were finishing off the last of the food. “It’s good to see other married people gettin’ it on. Good to know the flavah—” he splashed some paprika across the macaroni— “Ain’t dead yeah.”
“No, no,” Patti said, quietly, pasting the last Happy Birthday sign over the doorway of the kitchen, “The flavor’s very much alive.”
“If ye have not salt within you,” murmured Mickey.
“I love it when you misquote Scripture to talk about sex,” LaVelle drawled.

MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a great portion! I am glad Jackie had a talk with John and sorted things out. How exciting that they are getting married! I don’t think Chayne is excited for his birthday but I hope he has a good time anyway. Excellent writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes, Jackie and John are finally taking care of business, and Chayne, hopefully, can be gracious about the whole birthday business even if he doesn't have fun. But let's hope he does.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Shannon’s car pulled up beside them, Her big hair scarcely hid a short man in a large white cowboy hat.
“He, Shan! Who’s the stranger?”
“Pleased to meet you, the mustachioed cowboy, saluted, unable to tip his hat.
“My cousin Bubba from out in Texas. He’s here for the weekend. Are you guys on your way to the thing now?” she demanded.
“To the surprise party?” Chayne asked.
Rob, who was driving, said, “Wait, it’s supposed to be a surprise party?”
“Yeah,” Chayne looked at him.
“Then why aren’t you surprised?”
Russell shrugged from the backseat. “He’s amazing, isn’t he?”
Anigel said, “I have to admit he is.”
“I certainly hope,” Bubba continued, “that you don’t mind me crashing your party on this fine Shabbos.”
“Not at all,” Chayne said. “Shalom.”
“Shalom indeed.”
Russell always forgot Shannon was Jewish and certainly never pictured her celebrating any kind of Sabbath.
Chayne was silent, then let out a long almost painful sigh and shouted.
“You alright?” Russell asked.
“Bubba,” Chayne continued to address, Shannon’s cousin, “you must know I usually hate parties. We’ll go, though. I can’t not go. Turn the hearse around!”
“You know what?” Rob smiled like a fox at Chayne, “if they want a surprise, let’s give em a surprise.”
“Whaddo you mean?” Chayne looked at him.
“I’ll show you,” Rob laughed and in the middle of More Street did a U-turn.


For once no one was glad to see Robert Heinz.
“You’re not my son,” Sharon Kandzierski said, coolly, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I’m Bobby Heinz,” Robert extended his hand. “I’m the new priest at Saint Adjeanet’s.”
Sharon said, “I go to Evervirgin.”
While Robert Heinz was recovering from this, Geoff Ford brought over an excited Tim Emery who said, “Father, I think my uncle killed himself, and Father Geoff says he’s sure if he had a good heart he’ll go to heaven, but the church says he won’t.”
“Well, the first thing,” Robert Heinz said, “is are you sure he did it. Because if he didn’t—”
“Here he comes!” Felice hissed beside Sharon, listening to the door unlock. “Here he comes!”
Tim’s eyes were open, his hands out for an answer, but as the light went out, Robert Heinz said:
“We’ll talk about this later.”
Outside, Robert Keyes kept walking around the porch, and jiggling the door and finally Felice said, “What the hell’s goin’ on!”
At last the door opened. Thom switched the light. Jewell leapt up and was first to scream, “Surprise!”
And then Felice repeated, “What the hell...?” and they all stepped back to see Russell and Robert on either side of Jackie Lewis, laughing and clutching her belly.
“Where’s Chayne?” Sharon demanded as Jackie laughed. “Where’s Chayne! No, seriously.”
“He might be out there.”
Jackie pointed out onto the porch and Ann and Diggs went out followed by Hannah and Will. Everyone was gathering at the door as they heard a trumpet blare, and then a voice shout. “Is he there? Do you see him?”
All eyes turned to Chayne coming out of the kitchen with a rusty old bugle in hand, clutching his gut until he couldn’t walk and finally sat on the floor, laughing.
“Chayne!” Sharon reprimanded. “Oh, Chayne.”
He stopped laughing long enough to look up at Sharon and say: “Surprise!”


Rob was passed out on the sofa with a goofy smile on his face and music was playing low in the background.
“Did you get a drink?” he whispered to Russell.
Russell tipped his hand.
“A very little one?”
“Are you staying here tonight?”
Russell nodded. He added, “And I promise I won’t be driving.”
He assessed how he felt after two beers and added:
“Or walking.”
Anigel, stretching, came forward and said, “You want me to wake him up?” pointing at Rob.
“Nah,” Chayne shook his head. “Just leave him be.”
She nodded.
“Ani, are you going to my aunt’s wedding tomorrow?” Russell said.
“Fuck no.”
“There’ll be lots of food and liquor.”
“What time’s the reception?”
“About two?”
“I’ll see you at three.”
Without thinking, bent down and kissed Russell and then Chayne on the cheek.
“Happy birthday,” Anigel said, and headed to bed.
“What do you think of him?” Chayne asked Russell looking at Rob, who suddenly gave something between a snort and snore.
“He’s cool,” Russell said. “He’s a lot like you. I’m glad he’s around.”
Rob snored loudly again and in his dress slacks and good shirt, curled his knees to his chest.
“Me too,” Chayne said.
Even Chayne was a little bit drunk after an hour and a half, and Robert Heinz was explaining, “No one really knows, but the old teachings of the church would support no hope of heaven for your uncle.”
“The fuck?” Chayne, who only scarcely knew the story began.
Geoff Ford shrugged and belched, looking bleary eyed.
“The church can be cruel like that.”
“Is that all you have to say?” Chayne said.
“Yeah,” Tim was much more animated than Chayne. “Is that all you have to say?”
“God’s a mystery?” Geoff tried, shaking his head.
“God is definitely a mystery,” Robert Heinz said in a way that indicated he might have had too much to drink as well.
“I think I need to get home.”
“You need to get—” Tim Emery began, then said, “Well, what about after cake.”
“Cake,” Father Heinz said.
“I’ll get you another glass,” Tim Emery looked cheered up and Chayne frowned. “Another glass for you too, Father Geoff? Yes. Another glass.”
The priest were well drunk by the time Thom and Russell darkened the room, and then Felice, LaVelle, Sharon and as many others as could crowd their way into the kitchen disappeared and returned a few minutes later, bearing a cake whose flickering candles filled the whole living room with golden light.
“Looks like they put one for every year of your life, Ole man,” Thom chuckled warmly.
“My thirty-sixth birthday,” Chayne muttered. “The one where I got asthma.”


Chayne was sitting on the porch watching the morning begin. The house was filled with sleepers and he held a cold glass of orange juice in his hands.
He was surprised and delighted when Rob came out, quietly, and sat by him.
“Well, happy birthday,” Rob said.
“Thanks,” Chayne smiled a Rob offered his cup of coffee so they could clink glasses.
“Chayne,” Rob said. “I… I just wanted to say sorry about Ted. Leaving and everything.”
“That’s….” Chayne began. “That’s really kind.”
They were quiet for a moment, and one car came slowly down Curtain.
“I’m going to hug you now,” Rob said.
He did so, and then he stood up and heading back into the house, he said, “We should probably start getting dressed.


TOMORROW NIGHT WE BEGIN A NEW CHAPTER OF IF I SHOULD FALL

 

[CharmedFan28]

I am glad Chayne got some enjoyment out of his birthday. It’s sad about Ted leaving but he still has people around so I think he will be ok. Great writing and I look forward to the new chapter tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes, it's totally sad about Ted leaving, but Rob is in the house and Anigel and the birthday turned out much better than he thought it would, so it turns out there's always tomorrow. I hated that Ted had to leave, but I think things will work out for Chayne.

 

[ChrisGibson]

THREE


CONSUMMATION





























When Patricia Lewis opened the door, her cousin Maureen screamed in her face, Patti screamed back and the two women threw their arms around each other.
“Oh, my God, it’s been so long!” Catherine declared. “I don’t even think I’ve been to the house before.”
“Where’s Maureen?”
“Being slow as usual. She and Pierce and the girls Gus are on their way. Jinny just gets bigger and bigger every day and Anne never stops talking.”
But while Catherine was talking, her husband and her sons, Ryan and Jayson came in.
“Well the Family Laujinesse!” Tom greeted them coming down the stairs.
“Tom!” the Gus Laujinesse hooted.
“Russell, come down and see your cousins!” Thom shouted up the stairs.
“Damn,” Thom reached up and thumped Ryan on the shoulder. “You’re gigantic. You got Russ’s hair, and Jay, you look just like my son…”
Frank and Sara arrived less than an hour later in the Wagoneer followed by the red headed Daniel and his children.
“See,” Daniel, a ridiculously tall pale man whose forty-five years had left only a few curls of red hair on his head said, shaking Russell by the shoulder and pinching his cousin Anne in a way that her face showed she did not appreciate, “There are more red headed McLarchlahns.”
“Lewises,” Thom corrected.
“Sure,” Daniel shrugged.
“I’m a red head,” Frank protested beside Sara.
“You’re a baldhead, old man,” Daniel declared.
Frank ignored his cousin, and confided to Thom. “You know that painting I did of you at Christmas? I sold it to the nicest people.”
“Nice little South Bend couple?”
“Yes,” Frank looked amazed. “How’d you know?”


“Oh—my—God!” they heard a loud rich voice piercing the crowd, “This house is so filled with McLlarchlahns I can hardly get through.”
“Aunt Kristin!” Russell greeted his pregnant aunt. As Patti and Thom came to greet her, they noticed that even six months pregnant, she still had her gold brown hair combed to perfection and stood in stilettos that could double as switchblades.
“Where the hell is Jackie?” Kristin demanded beside Reese.
“At her apartment,” Thom replied in a voice that said she should have known better.
“Oh,” said Kristin. “Well.” she turned to Reese Keillor. “Honey, would you stay here while I go over to see Jackie?”
“I’d feel better if I drove.”
“Oh honey,” Kristin looked down at her husband, and ran a sympathetic hand over his buzzed head, “don’t be silly.”
Then she was gone.
“You still can’t tell her anything,” Reese said, shrugging as his wife went sailed regally through the crowded living room.
“Women,” Thom began, and his wife hit him in the back of the head.

“Okay,” Jaclyn put a hand to her hip. “Where’re the priests?”
“I’ve been looking all over for them,” Denise said. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen them since last night when they went to the bar.”
“They went to the—” Jackie leapt up, but Kathleen and Kristin sat her back down. They were in the sacristy of Saint Adjeanet’s overlooking the parking lot to the school.
“Sit down,” Kathleen reprimanded her daughter as she continued straightening her hair and Kristin adjusted the shoulder of the white dress.
“It’s my wedding day and both priests are missing—” Jackie began.
“Oh, take a deep breath, Jaclyn,” Kristin told her sister. “Everything’ll turn out fine. The doves are all here. The rice is ready. The weather’s beautiful, the choir even sounds good and the way I’ve got this dress on you, no one’ll tell that you’re five months pregnant. Or is it six?”
“Kristin,” Kathleen reprimanded in a low voice while Patti came in wearing a rose colored gown like Kristen and Kathleen.
“You know the thing about this wedding is it’s easy enough to find matrons of honor. But a maid?”
“Hell, the bride’s not even a maid,” said Abby, sipping from a gin smelling water bottle, “how can you expect us to be?” and Felice, stubbing out a cigarette cackled and then coughed on smoke as the short, red faced Meg Rice entered.
“I was hoping she’d get lost on the way,” Kathleen whispered in her daughter’s ear.
“Hideeho!” Meg cried, and then ran up, heedless of straightening irons and bobby pins to hug Jackie, “You look beautiful Jacks!”
“Jacks?” began Kristin.
“This is such a big day,” Meg went on. “I feel so close to you, Jacks. I feel like we’re related.”
“I feel like I’m still a virgin,” Felice commented.
“Me and Finn just got in, but he might be a little late. He ran into your old boyfriend, Chip. I think they’re having a drink.”
“What?” Kristin’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, yeah,” Meg went on oblivious, smacking her gum.
“On his sister’s wedding day,” Kristin said, “your significant other is carousing with her ex-boyfriend?”
“Yeah,” Meg nodded, grinning. “Cool, isn’t it?”
Before Kristin could go on, Kathleen laid a hand on her daughter’s and said, “Honey, let it go, we’ve always known Finn was mildly retarded.”
“All this and we still can’t find a damn priest,” Felice commented from the window, lighting another Newport.
“Can’t find a—” Meg stopped. “You all don’t know where the—”
And then Meg Rice, in her short leather skirt, ran out of the sacristy.
“Where the hell did she go?” Felice demanded.
“Haven’t you guessed?” said Patti. “To find a priest.”

When love is found
and hope comes home,
Sing and be glad,
that two are one,
when love explodes
and fills the sky
Praise God and share
our Maker’s joy!

sang the choir.

“Chayne!”
“Chayne!”
To reach beyond
home’s warmth and light
to serve and strive
for truth and right!

“Chayne!” Jewell screamed running into the choir loft as the whole choir hushed and looked at her.
“What?”
“Geoff and Robert have both disappeared!”
“What?” Chayne turned away from the choir.
“That crazy girl in the leather just said that no one can find the priests.”
“Are they still in the Blue Jewel?” Chayne demanded.
“That’s what I was coming to ask you.”
Jewell’s eyes bugged out and she snapped her fingers before clutching her belly. “That’s right!” she said, and then she was gone.
“Denise!” she was shouting as she ran down the aisle crowded with milling people. “Let me into the parish house. I need to make a phone call.”
Then Chayne was with them, followed by Rob Keyes, and they were heading out the side of the church.
“Aren’t you directing a choir?”
“I left them with Russell.”
“You left the with?” Jewell began, then said, “Fuck it.”
Meanwhile they heard Jewell shouting into the cordless:
“You did what? Because he said your mother was—Damnit, Tim! How could you? Well, no I don’t like priests and ordinarily I’d be laughing right with you. I think they could all use a good wheat field. But I told you—I TOLD YOU—that there’s a wedding today, an important wedding and we need them!”
“Wheat field?” Chayne whispered to Denise who shrugged and then continued staring at Jewell and the cordless.
“So where are they now?”
After a great deal of swearing, Jewell switched off the cordless and told Chayne and Denise.
“Well now comes the awful part,” said Chayne.

“So let me get this straight?” Jackie began, one eyelid twitching, her legs straddling the chair back, a cigarette in one hand and a tallboy in the other, “Both priests were last seen in a wheat field roughly an hour outside—north, northwest, northeast—of Grand Rapids?”
Jewell swallowed and nodded.
“Jackie, do you need me?” John demanded from outside the sacristy.
“Stay out!” Jackie barked. “Don’t you know it’s bad luck to see me yet?”
Outside of the sacristy, the large and handsome Ryan Laujinesse tapped John on the back. He stood beside Russell who said, “Uncle John, you need to come out and see something.”
At the front of the church, in black tuxedos the gawky Daniel Mc.Llarchlahn stood juxtaposed to Thom, but both of them looked equally horrified.
“What’s up, guys?” John demanded with false cheer.
“Mr. McLlarchlahn?” said a man in a blue jump suit.
“Yes?” John said.
“Could you… could you come with me?”
“Alright?” John said, doubtfully.
“You might want to bring your friends too.”
He led John, Ryan, Thom, Russell and Daniel to a blue van that read DOVES OF LOVE and whose back doors were swung open.
“Apparently,” the man was explaining, “my boy left the car on last night in the garage, and we’ll be glad to reimburse you, but the doves won’t be ready today.”
While the man was speaking, John went to the back of the van where Daniel and Thom were already stoically observing seven cages filled with the corpses of dead doves.
To the casual viewer it simply looked like John reached out to hold the hands of his cousin and brother in law, but Russell could see his father’s eyes cross a little at the pressure John dealt his knuckles.
“What now?” John wondered, and as if in answer, their came down Kirkland street a red Porche honking merrily and then the car stopped and in beige pants, hemp platforms, yellow halter top, gold bangles and perfectly straightened hair parted on two sides of a perfectly tan face hopped Kim Bayle.
“Happy hitching day, Johnny!” his ex-wife cried, throwing a kiss on his cheek and then gasping at the dead doves and commenting, “Ain’t that a bitch?”

“Shannon, you look beautiful!” Patti sighed as Chayne entered the sacristy with his old friend.
“Right?” Shannon smiled, pleased, “but this isn’t about me. Firstly, Jackie,” she took the beer from the bride’s hand, “Secondly. I’ve got a solution to your problem.”
“Cyanide?”
“No,” Shannon chided Jackie. “My uncle.”
“Howdy, ma’am. I’m Rabbi Bubba Goldstein.”
Jackie only stared at the outstretched hand incredulously. Then her mouth twitched. She turned red and threw back her head, bursting into fits of laughter.
“Great! Great!”: she cried. “This is just wooooonderful!” and Jackie kept laughing so hard that Felice whispered to Patti, “What’s your diagnosis, Doc?”
Patti gave no answer.
“Woooooooohooooo!” Jackie cried and threw her veil into the air.
“We’re also missing a bride’s maid,” Patti said.
“What?”
“She’s a Lewis,” Patti said in disgust. “She disappeared with with Jimmy, one of my cousins. I sent Russell looking for them.”
This was when Hannah Decker, wearing her best floral print, walked in and said, “This would probably be a really bad time to tell everyone that the organ just broke down, wouldn’t it?”
At the look on Jaclyn’s face, Patti said to Felice, “Reach into my pocket and take out some Depakote. Give her as much as she needs.”
“Ma’am, would you like water?”
“Rob?” Jackie said. “I’m glad you’re here. What are you doing here?”
“I’m Chayne’s assistant.”
“Do all assistants look like you?” Hannah asked, looking him up and down.
Rob went red, unable to answer and Chayne turned back to Jackie.
“Jaclyn,” Chayne said beside Bubba and Shannon. “I don’t want you to worry about a thing. I’m conducting this....”
“Fiasco.” she sobbed.
“Fiasco is just another word for....” Chayne started.
“Mess,” Jaclyn concluded.
“Well,” said Chayne. “Well, yes. But I promise you—this will be the best Irish Catholic wedding said by a rabbi for a bride five months carrying that you’ll ever see. I promise!”
“But the doves!” Jackie sobbed.
“The doves are all around us,” Chayne said in a musical and consoling voice. “They’re with Jesus now, looking down from heaven and singing for joy. Rob, tell them about the doves.”
“Doves?”
“You’re a writer….Write… recite.”
And in a panic, but always well dressed, Rob began:

“Doves of love, doves of love
Doves are up and and all above
You are doves, we are doves
We love doves,
doves, doves doves.”

While Rob smiled foolishly, Hannah clapped and cried out, “That was wonderful.”
“You’re just looking at his ass,” Patti murmured.
Hannah kept clapping and smiling and said, “I see you noticed too.”


MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

Well there was some hitches leading up to the wedding but it looks like it will go fine hopefully. I am excited to read about it tomorrow. Great writing!