Undermind: Nine Stories (28 page)

Lance’s phone vibrated on the coffee table. He
looked at it and saw the display reading “1 New Voicemail.” He had
forgotten that it was the phone that had woken him up from crazy
violent dream that still had him feeling rattled inside. He picked
it up and pressed a few buttons, then hit the speaker button and
set the phone back down. His hands were still shaking from whatever
hadn’t just happened to him.

“Please don’t hang up,” the voice began.
Domino’s ears perked up and he turned his head toward the phone. “I
know you told me you never want to talk to me again, but please
just listen to this one message. You owe me that much for taking
care of Domino. What I did was terrible and I can’t tell you how
sorry I am. But one thing you have to know, even if you never talk
to me again - it was just that one night and we were both drunk and
stupid. It never happened again. I swear.

“Tom and I have barely talked since we saw you
in the hospital. I think seeing each other reminds us too much of
how shitty we were for doing what we did. I tried to talk to Tom
about it, but he won’t really say anything. I know he loves you,
but I don’t know if he’ll admit how wrong he was.
 
I will though
. I was wrong, Lance.
Totally wrong. And I’m more sorry than you’ll ever know. And if
you’ll… um… if you’ll just talk to me…”

Kim’s voice caught and there was a few seconds
of silence. Lance could hear it in her breathing; she was trying
hard not to cry. He was surprised that he felt so sorry for her and
he yearned to comfort her. Where was
 
that
 
coming
from?

“If you’ll just talk to me, Lance…” Now she was
clearly crying, unable to conceal it anymore. “You’ll know that I
really do love you. I could kill myself for what I did. And I
really might if you truly don’t have any feelings left for me at
all. I’ve had a lot of time to really think about what I want for
the rest of my life. And I literally can’t live without you.”

After that, there was a few seconds of crying,
followed by what sounded like, “I love you” before the call
ended.

“Okay, Domino. Let’s walk!”

Domino jumped up and he looked from Lance to the
door and back again. Lance unhooked the leash from Domino’s collar
then un-looped it from the coffee table leg, then reconnected it to
the collar. Domino cocked his head and watched, wondering if he was
going on a walk or not, then concluded that he was and hoped this
didn’t become a new routine. It was confusing. It would be quicker
if Lance just put the leash on him from the beginning and left the
coffee table out of the process.

Lance got up and positioned his crutches. He
held Domino’s leash and told him to heel. They went outside and
Lance carefully went down the porch steps and then started walking.
Domino wanted to run but sensed that Lance wasn’t going to be able
to run with him as he usually did. He suspected that he knew why
too. It was those big new walking sticks that were slowing Lance
down. Domino was sure of it. He wished he could tell Lance what he
suspected so Lance could drop them and see if he was right.

As the pair made their way down the street,
Lance felt a little badly for leaving Kim hanging. He pictured her
sitting in her house, crying and wondering if Lance was going to
call or not, or if he had even heard her voicemail yet - or did he
hate her so much he wouldn’t even listen to her final plea before
deleting it from his phone. He felt guilty, knowing that she was
agonizing right now and that he had the power to end it.

And he
 
was
 
going
to end it - as soon as he was done walking his dog. He just
couldn’t manage two crutches, the leash, and a cell phone all at
the same time. Besides, after what she had done, he figured that
she deserved to wait a few more minutes to hear him say that he
still loved her, and he forgave her.
 

***

After Lance returned from taking Domino on a
much shorter walk than usual, he sent Kim a text message saying
that they needed to talk, and asked her to come to his house. She
arrived faster than he thought was possible. After an emotional
embrace during which both of them cried, Lance told Kim he forgave
her and asked her to marry him. Kim moved in with him and they were
married one month later.

Lance continued to receive income from work he
sub-contracted out to his former employer, but he also started a
consulting firm in which he assessed and analyzed businesses and
gave a comprehensive report on how to improve operations, make the
employees like their jobs better and make a greater profit.

Tom and Lance never spoke again. After Lance got
over the pain of his friend betraying him a second time, he found
that he didn’t even miss having Tom in his life and he wondered how
he had ever been so close to him. There was something missing
inside of Tom. One day Lance realized what it was. Tom had never
known love.  It was sad to think that he probably never would
either. Lance resolved to be much more selective when it came to
the people he allowed into his personal life.

###

Dear Reader,

Thank you for reading this collection of
stories. I hope you enjoyed at least some of the stories. If you
did, please tell a friend who might also enjoy them. (You’ll
probably just want to tell your weird friends. The normal ones will
just end up thinking
you’re
weird for referring them to this
book.)

If you’d like to be notified when the next book
comes out, sign up for my newsletter. I only use it to announce new
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http://edwardmwolfe.com/contact.html

“The author” –
that being me, is just a regular working guy with a dream of one
day being a full-time writer. Each book is an audition for the job,
and you, dear readers, are the bosses.

While I’ve been developing my skills and
learning the trade, I’ve managed to single-handedly raise two
utterly amazing and talented children. But compared to making a
book, and making it good enough that people will pay to read it, I
can tell you it was much easier making the kids. So easy in fact,
I’m sure I could do it blindfolded.

Damn. That could summon the wrong image.
Okay, scratch that, and let’s just say that raising kids and
writing books are both very difficult and take a lot of time and
energy.

Other than writing and the kids (who are
young adults now) I spend my time with our border collies, riding
my motorcycle, playing Call of Duty, and mostly working on books by
other authors when I’m not working on my own.

Equal Signs

Reaching Kendra

In The End

Audiobooks narrated by
Edward M Wolfe

Inheritance

Dr. Val’s Short Story Collection

Addictive Rimeshade

Finding Will Hennie