I gazed into her blissful blue eyes and took the risk of my life. “What are we waiting for?”
I swear a little animal cry escaped her as we each lurched forward and caught lips.
With Abby, the physical part was glorious, yet always carefully orchestrated by her.
With Jeri, the freedom was a revelation.
EPILOGUE
We live in a cozy house in West Los Angeles, a Craftsman home, one story, old by local standards, built in the nineteen thirties. Behind the house is an alleyway for trash trucks, and the occasional teenager trying to impress a girlfriend by driving fast in a narrow lane.
Our daughter and son play in the backyard; they are seven and five. Their model plane soars over the fence and into the alley. The gate latch is too high for their little arms, but ingenious as they are, one boosts the other and the door is opened.
Tracey, our daughter, scurries into the lane to retrieve her balsa-wood model, just as Andy Buck, privileged son of a Beverly Hills lawyer, decides to show Debbie, his latest honey, the upper limits of his new BMW.
Brakes squeal, trash cans careen, a child screams.
I awake in a sweat. “Damn,” I say to Jeri, “I wipe away one old plague, and another invades. You’re so creative, tell me how I can put an end to these contaminating dreams.”
She holds me close. It is four in the morning. Our home is quiet. The hall light filters in on our faces. Our children sleep the sleep of children.
“No end in sight,” she says, “only accommodations, and the differences between night and day. Learn to live with them.”
In the murk of our darkened room, I can just make out the glisten from her sapphire-blue eyes. So clever, my wife, so aware. Her constancy keeps me sane.
“Thanks,” I say, not letting go, aware of my good fortune.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stan Charnofsky is a professor at California State University, Northridge. He has published seven books: three textbooks, two for the trade (When Women Leave Men, and The Deceived Society) and three novels, Enemies, Ruthless, and Religion. He is the father of two daughters and a son, Kim, Dana, and Jordan, and grandfather of two, Molly and Jack.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Since his parents split, Clare Candle has been a Momma’s boy, and now, past thirty, he retraces his path to adulthood, explores his resentment, the struggle to be his own person, and to clarify the dreams that foul his nights. He meets Abby at a Writer’s Guild Seminar in Los Angeles and the two connect romantically and through their troubled histories. Kentucky “Ken” Prism, another writer wanna be, disrupts their lives with his raunchy tales and nefarious motives. Love is elusive, old hurts exposed, justice uncertain, and family secrets laid bare, as the nocturnal angst is resolved-with startling revelations.
Morpheus Page 18