Celia's Puppies (26 page)

“
We’re all going to Maine,
girlie.” Tanesha was carrying a tray of McDonald’s food. “Let’s
eat. Then we’ll catch our exclusive corporate jet.”

“
Why are we going to
Maine?” Jill asked.

“
God Jill, you are out of
it,” Sandy said. Sandy gave Jill an open hug. “The Lipson retreat
started early. The board wanted to meet to go over how Lipson was
going to respond to the economic down turn. The entire sale to the
employees is on the table again. The whole management team left
right after Jacob’s surgery.”

“
Nash left last week with
Delphie to drive to Maine. He says the place is really neat. They
went fishing and had real boy time. Whatever that means,” Noelle
said. “I got to stay with Sandy.”

“
We’ve had fun,” Sandy
smiled. “I’ve missed my Jill.”

“
I’ve missed my Jill,”
Jill said under her breath.

“
We’re flying to Maine for
some...” Sandy started.

“
Shopping!” Tanesha
said.

“
Play time!” Heather
said.

“
We’re all booked into at
least one full spa day,” Sandy said. “It’s all Jill recovery time.
We’re along as a sacrifice for our girl, Jill.”

“
I get to go too!” Noelle
said.

“
Oh.” Jill looked at Katy
then at her friends. “Oh.”

“
There’s our ride,”
Heather said.

Jill turned to see Jacob running toward
them.

“
Oh my God, I was so
worried,” he said. He took Katy from Jill.

“
Your arm!”

“
Works.” Grimacing, he
shifted Katy to his left arm. “Sort of.”

Life stopped as Jill and Jacob stood,
staring at the walls, only a step away from each other. Then Jill
threw her arms around his neck.

And life returned.

“
It’s over, Jill,” Jacob
said.

“
What about the estate and
all of that?” Jill asked.

“
We’ll let the lawyers
work out the rest.”

Stepping back, Jill nodded.

“
Mommy, can we eat now?”
Katy asked.

Jill looked at Katy and laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Honey’s physical therapist lowered the pull
up bar so she could grab on. After wrapping her wrist straps around
the bar, Honey hooked her not-so-working ring and little fingers
on. She held the bar with her mostly working fingers and thumb. The
physical therapist turned on the mechanical pulley that lifted the
bar and pulled Honey from her wheelchair.

“
Ten pull ups,” her
physical therapist said. “Get going.”

With his help, Honey squeezed out ten pull
ups. She’d always been able to do pull ups. As soon as her scars
healed, she wanted back in the gym and back on the pull up bar.
Sweaty from her workout, she went slowly today to warm down.

“
Ok, let’s finish up with
hanging sit ups again,” the physical therapist said. “You were
almost there yesterday. Just five.”

Using her stomach muscles, Honey lifted her
legs. With the physical therapist’s assistance, she was able to do
five hanging sit ups. She could almost do the entire range of
motion. Everything, except for the part that required her leg and
hip muscles to work. Together. Like they used to. But didn’t
now.

“
The muscles are receiving
signals, just very softly,” MJ had said. “Like a low voice on the
telephone.”

Honey wasn’t convinced the muscles were
listening at all.

“
Let’s stretch it out.”
The physical therapist moved behind Honey. While Honey hung on the
bar, the therapist stretched her right leg. “Hey, how’s your
boyfriend?”

“
What boyfriend is that?”
Honey asked.

“
The red-haired guy,” the
therapist said.

“
That guy? He’s out of
town most of my life.”

“
He’s not your boyfriend?”
the therapist moved to stretch her left leg.

“
How can you have a
boyfriend that’s never around? Sheez, I haven’t seen him
in...”

“
Twenty days, two hours,
and forty-eight minutes,” MJ said from behind her. “Can I do
that?”

“
Sure,” the therapist
said. “I’ll leave you here. You’ll make sure she gets back to her
room?”

“
You bet,” MJ
said.

MJ’s hands stroked her body. Slowly, he took
her through stretches for her legs, hips, and waist. Lifting her
slightly, he stretched her shoulders and arms. His fingers found
her sorest spots and worked to relieve the knots. Honey had to
focus all of her attention on the bar to keep from melting to the
ground. In this moment, she was sure she’d never felt as cherished,
as loved, for exactly who, what and where she was.

She had been angry with him for his little
secret missions that kept him away. She knew she was being
unreasonable, but she missed him. Especially when Jake was out of
town. Even though she’d made friends with a few other patients
here, being in the hospital sucked.

“
You can drop,” he
said.

Honey unwrapped her straps then let go of
the bar. She dropped into his arms.

“
Hi,” he said.

“
Hi,” she
replied.

“
Would you like to be
carried back to your room?”

“
I won’t be able to show
you my cool wheeling skills,” she said.

“
How about a
kiss?”

Turning away from him, Honey’s limited
mobility in her arms hadn’t stopped her from practicing crossing
her arms. She crossed her arms across her chest. He laughed at her
stubborn look.

“
In that case,” MJ
said.

He tossed the tiny Honey over his shoulder.
While Honey giggled, he carried her back to her room.

~~~~~~~~

Jill sat down next to Sandy in one of the
Learjet’s comfy chairs. She held her hand out to Sandy. Sandy took
her hand.

“
I’m sorry I’ve been so
absent,” Jill said. “I can’t really describe what’s been going on
with me. Will you forgive me?”

“
I understand. Some things
we have to do ourselves,” Sandy said. “I’ve missed you
terribly.”

“
I’ve missed you,” Jill
said. “Can we catch up this week?”

“
Of course,” Sandy said.
“We’re not that far behind. Mostly I’ve worked and hung out with
Aden and the kids. Summer in Denver, you know. Movies at Red Rocks,
Jazz in the Park, camping on a weekends, stuff like
that.”

“
You guys are doing well?”
Jill beamed.

“
Weird, huh!?” Sandy
smiled. “I like him.”

“
I like him too.” Jill
hugged Sandy. “I’m so happy for you.”

“
Me too. Um, Jill?” Sandy
moved back from the hug. “Can you do something for me?”

“
Anything,” Jill
said.

Sandy reached into her purse and pulled out
a stack of white business envelopes held together with a rubber
band. Each envelope seemed to have something in it.

“
For the last six or seven
weeks, my fucktard sperm donor has been leaving these with the
receptionist at work. She says he comes in, gives her the envelope
then leaves. He doesn’t say anything. The envelopes all have my
name on them. Would you?”

Jill took the envelopes from Sandy. Taking
the rubber band off, she saw that Sandy’s biological father wrote,
‘YOUR SHARE’ under Sandy’s name on each of the envelopes. Jill’s
brow creased with concern.

“
They are in order of when
I got them. The first one’s on the bottom,” Sandy said. “Ok, I’m
going to close my eyes.”

Sandy covered her eyes with her hands. Jill
opened the first envelope. Inside was a stack of hundred dollar
bills and a note that said:

“
Your grown now. You shud
get the money the courts forced me to give your mom. Your father
don’t cheat nobody.”

Jill ripped the rest of the envelopes open
to find more hundred dollar bills. The envelopes held many
thousands of dollars.

“
What is it?” Sandy asked
from behind her hands.

“
Money,” Jill said.
“Thousands of dollars. Cash.”

Sandy dropped her hands to take a look. Jill
gave her the stack of money.

“
Mom said he doesn’t have
any money,” Sandy said. “What is all of this?”

“
Maybe he feels guilty,”
Jill said. “He’s trying to make it up to you.”

The women looked at each other then both
said, “Nah.”

“
There’s a note in the
first one. Your father don’t cheat nobody,” Jill read.

Sandy’s warm face turned a shade of
gray.

“
I’m sure it doesn’t mean
that,” Jill said.

“
That’s what he’s doing
for money.”

“
Oh God, Sandy. We have to
tell your Godfather Seth,” Jill said.

“
No.”

“
Aden? Jacob?”

“
No. God, Jill, please
don’t tell them either. Please.”

Sandy’s eyes pleaded for Jill to come up
with a solution.

“
How about this? Why don’t
we spend the money in Maine? We’ll have a great time, buy all kinds
of ridiculous things, then when we get back to Denver, we’ll decide
what we want to do.”

Sandy’s head shook back and forth.

“
No,” Sandy’s voice was
quiet but firm. “Then I’ll benefit from his… stuff. Like he used to
say.”

“
I’m doing this for you,”
Jill and Sandy said together.

“
I’ll keep it for you.
How’s that?” Jill asked. “When we decide what to do, we’ll have it
all. Like evidence.”

Sandy nodded.

“
We’ll do this together.”
Jill hugged Sandy.

“
Just when everything’s
perfect,” Sandy whispered.

“
Together. We’ll take care
of this.”

Jill’s voice was confident, but her heart
broke for Sandy. This was very, very bad. But no matter what, she
would stand by what Sandy wanted. That was all that mattered.

“
Here’s one thing I know,”
Jill said with absolute clarity. “He didn’t destroy you before. He
won’t destroy you now.”

“
Oh God Jill, I hope
so.”

~~~~~~~~

Saturday afternoon — 1:40 P.M. PDT
Santa Monica Mountains, California

“
There’s no way around it,
Michael,” Mike said out loud while he ran. Wearing only exercise
shorts, he was trail running in the Santa Monica Hills. “You hate
it here.”

“
And what’s not to hate?”
Mike continued talking to himself. He ran down a thin dusty trail
toward the ocean. “There’s the lovely smog, the traffic, the heat,
the stupid people, the noise, and...”

He ran a few miles along the dusty path
through the dry sage bushes.

“
No hockey.”

Running up a steep embankment, he reached a
cliff overlooking the mountains. He had been running fast with the
hope of taking the edge off his frustration. Breathing hard, he
jogged along the top of the cliff.

“
The ocean is beautiful.
Valerie is beautiful. God, I love Val.”

Turning back around, he went back to his
fast pace. He ran another few miles.

“
I can’t paint here. I
don’t fit in with the people or the place. I’m not me
here.”

Heading down another steep embankment, he
slowed to pass a woman and her trainer out for a fitness run. The
women leered at him. He waited another few miles before talking to
himself again.

“
I hate the ‘Come fuck me
now and no one will know.’ All the fucking time. Phone numbers in
my jacket pockets. Women follow me to the bathroom. Friends of
Val’s. Fuck.”

He sped up to try to release some of the
tension.

“
I get to touch Val every
single day. Sometimes more. Why would I want anything
else?”

As if to emphasize his point, he ran for a
mile straight uphill. Turning a corner, he slowed to a jog.

“
I miss Jake. I miss Jill.
I miss my art. I miss a bowl of Crunch Berries. I miss Monday
nights at Alex’s house. I miss Megan’s family pot lucks. I miss
Delphie and her stupid bees. And, God damn it! I miss
me!”

Mike’s voice echoed on the canyon as he ran
through. He ran the rest of the way to his
leased-by-the-studio-for-the-vet-husband black Humvee. Every time
he was close to the black monstrosity, he thought, “What the fuck?
When did Michael Roper want a Humvee?”

Toweling off, he pulled on his shirt.
Nodding to another set of leering women, he got in the car. With
the air conditioner and the radio blasting, he made his way toward
his new ‘home’. Pulling up in front of the house, he sighed.

“
What am I going to
do?”

Chapter Forty-Three
I choose!

Three days later

“
Do you mind if I join
you?” Delphie asked Jill.

Jill looked up from her cup of coffee and
smiled. She was sitting on a quiet balcony overlooking the lake.
The house in Maine was set back off the lake among the tall
evergreen trees. She was watching their nearest neighbor from
across the lake teach Katy, Noelle and Nash to fish.

“
Please,” Jill
said.

“
I’ve missed you, Jill,”
Delphie said.