Tales of Fantasy, Fables, and Fiction

by Thomas H. Tribble

  I took the escalator to the second level and walked into Sports Clips. The prices were cheap, the barbers all female, and sports playing on wide-screen TVs. For a change they weren't packed and Stacy, the stylist who usually cut my hair, was working so I was in and out in less than twenty minutes.

  I figured Jules, being female, would still be shopping so I walked around window browsing thinking of this gorgeous woman who'd fallen into my life today. My close friends all know the funk I can sometimes fall into when women are involved. This is the kind of fantasy I've daydreamed about; a beautiful, sexy woman comes out of nowhere immediately attracted to me showing lots of affection. I should stop complaining and savor the moment because reality will crash over me soon enough.

  I got bored looking around and started back towards Macy's. I waded through a crowd of teenager's hanging out with nothing better to do, senior citizens walking purposely around the mall for exercise, and mothers trying to shop with their kids hanging off their skirts begging for useless things.

  I was people watching when I looked down to the first level and caught a glimpse of a stunning redhead through the crowd in a tight Aran knit sweater a few shops below. She was standing outside The Music Box store looking at a music box in an outside display next to a sports memorabilia store. Only then did I realize it was Jules. My breath was momentarily taken away again. My god she was incredibly beautiful, incredibly sexy. I had to stop and stare.

  Even through the noise of the crowd and standing on the second level, I heard a faint piece of music playing. It was coming from the music box Jules was looking at. It was Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," one of my favorite classical pieces.

  Just then, a tall, muscular and handsome man walked out of the sports store and started past the music box store when he caught sight of Jules, did a double take, and walked straight over to her.

  I couldn't believe who I was seeing. It was one of my baseball heroes. He must have been signing some autographs or baseballs for the memorabilia store. Even from where I was standing it was obvious when he started hitting on Jules. She turned around and looked at him while he put forth his best game.

  My first reaction was that I'd now I'll catch her in the act. There's no way she could know I was watching her from above and when a famous sports figure hits on a woman, especially given his looks, money, and reputation with the ladies, she'll cave in and either leave with him or give him her phone number.

  To my surprise, even though I saw him doing his best to be charming, she was having none of it. She looked rather pissed off and tried to ignore him as much as possible after his initial pickup line.

  I thought I heard her say the word "married" but I wasn't completely sure. Things weren't turning out how I expected. He upped his game and put his hand on her shoulder in a possessive manner. Then something strange happened. I got this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. I could have sworn it felt like jealousy but that's ridiculous. This was all just a joke so why should I care if someone was hitting on a stranger I'd known only a few hours?

  I saw her look at the hand on her shoulder as she slowly turned back towards him and smiled. It wasn't a smile of encouragement but rather one an African lion on the Serengeti has just before it pounces on its next meal.

  Oblivious to the predatory smile she gave him, he said, "Come on now baby, you know you like it. Let's leave and head over to my place where it's a lot more intimate, if you know what I mean."

  Jules' smile got bigger.

  "Oh, I know what you be meaning. But I'm wondering I am if Kimberly, your wife knows what you mean?"

  He just blinked a few times unable to respond.

  "Or I'm sure the baseball commissioner would love to know about the THG supplied and administered by your personal trainer Sparky Patterson, hmm?" Jules said sweetly.

  "It'd be a shame," she continued, "for you to lose your job, get reamed in divorce court, and maybe, if you're lucky, play in the minor leagues."

  A red-purple color started creeping up his neck towards his face as his hand dropped from her shoulder.

  "What the hell do you know? I don't' know how you know my wife but it's just your word against mine and I know nothing about no steroids," he said, spitting out the words.

  "Really? Hmm, look a bit above you and to your right. See after that camera? That's one of the mall's security cameras recording both video and sound. Want to bet your future that I can't sweet talk the security guard into giving me a copy and going Basic Instinct on your sorry, cheating ass?"

  If looks could have killed, she would have been dead many times over but she never broke his angry gaze. He quickly turned and walked off in an angry stride muttering under his breath, "Crazy bitch!"

  She grabbed the music box and walked inside the store as if nothing had happened. I stood there for a few minutes stunned. Why'd she do that? Why didn't she take off with him? I'm a nobody and she could have had so much more with him.

  I took an escalator down to the first floor as I pondered what just happened and met her as she walked out of the store with a bag dangling from one hand. Spotting me, her face lit up with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and she rushed over grabbing my hand giving me a lingering kiss on the lips.

  "Danny! Your hair looks great. And what do you think after my new sweater?" she asked as she pulled away and spun around so I could see it from all angles.

  "Beautify, absolutely beautiful" I said truthfully. And this time I wasn't sure if I was talking about her physical beauty or not. It was almost as if she wanted to be around me.

  Pressing against me she said, "Come on Danny, let's get some breakfast. I'm starving."

  We left the mall and headed to IHOP around the corner for breakfast. It wasn't crowded and a waitress seated us immediately. I only wanted a cup of coffee while Jules ordered a huge Denver omelet. I sat and nodded and grunted in response to whatever it was she was saying as I was deep in thought.

  Why would someone who looked like Jules do this even as a practical joke? She could have been a model or actress so it couldn't have been for the money. Maybe she owed someone a favor but I don't recall any of my friends knowing someone as beautiful as her.

  I became aware of silence and looked up to see Jules staring at me.

  "Danny, what's wrong? I've been talking but you've been elsewhere."

  I couldn't bring up the joke theory again as she'd already dismissed the idea earlier. Maybe I could phrase it in a different way and gauge her reaction.

  "Have you ever loved someone with your whole being but it wasn't enough and nothing you did made that person love you more and you would have done anything to keep them? I mean before we got married," I said with a weak grin.

  Our waitress came over and refilled our coffee cups as I waited for Jules' answer.

  She reached across the table and held my hand looking straight into my eyes. "We all have Danny, we all have. It's a part of living and growing up and it teaches us one of life's most important lessons about relationships."

  I thought for a moment but didn't know what she was talking about. "And what lesson would that be?"

  She gave my hand a small squeeze and said, "One of the fundamental turning points coming of age. It doesn't matter how much you care about or love another person, if they don't want to be around you, why would you be wanting to stay around them? You need the courage to move on. And courage is doing the right thing regardless of your feelings. Why would you want to be around someone who doesn't want you around at all, no matter how you feel? If they don't return the same feelings, you best be moving on."

  Without a second thought, as if that settled the issue, she said she had to go to the bathroom, reluctantly let go of my hand, and got up.

  For the first time since this morning, when I looked at her as she walked to the bathroom, I looked at her.

  At that moment I had an epiphany. One of those moments where everything clicks into place and a fundamental truth suddenly becomes crystal and forcef
ully clear.

  Why would anyone want to be around another person if that person doesn't return the same feelings? We can't control other people and we certainly can't control how they feel about us. A good definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different outcome. And that's exactly what I've done in the past with women in my life. The only freedom anyone truly has is how they choose to react.

  A few minutes later she came back from the bathroom and sat back down. We finished our breakfast with some small talk, paid for our meal, and left. Jules felt like driving so I gave her my keys.

  "Are you ready for this Danny? I know how hard these visits are on you."

  I blinked for a moment trying to figure out what she was talking about. Then it hit me. I'd been so caught up in what was going on with Jules that I'd completely forgot. It's Sunday and on Sundays I visit mamó in the nursing home. That name always made my friends laugh but it's all I ever knew her as. It's the only Irish word she ever allowed us to speak around her; "grandmother."

  "I'm as ready as I'll ever be," I said as I stared out the window blankly as Jules drove.

  Putting mamó into a nursing home was the hardest thing I'd ever done. You always expect to take care of your parents in their old age as they took care of theirs. I lost my parents to a car accident five years back. Besides my mamó there was only my little brother who had his own problems. For a few years afterwards, mamó was still able to live on her own but she entered the later stages of Alzheimer's and could no longer care of herself.

  I couldn't take care of her round-the-clock and work to support both of us. That left only one option; a nursing home. I swore I'd never put my parents in one but life is what happens in spite of our plans and the insurance from my parent's deaths allowed me to take care of mamó and my brother.

  I came back to the present when I heard the crunch of gravel as Jules drove down the long driveway to the nursing home. As far as nursing homes go, this one wasn't bad though there were starting to get too many patients for their staff to handle. It looked more like a retirement villa than a nursing home.

  We parked and I reluctantly got out of the car and made our way inside. I nodded to the on-duty nurse who was there every Sunday. She wasn't a bad sort but she was overworked and underpaid doing the best she could.

  She gave me a hurried smile as we walked by. We continued down the hall saying hello to the residents sitting or standing outside of their rooms. Some replied back, some were too far gone to notice.

  God I hated this place but I made it a point to say hi to everyone I saw. Some never saw their families again, dumped here, left to die far from family or friends. Their reward for getting old.

  Usually it smelled like a nursing home but today something was different. Mamó's room was the last room on the left of her wing. Ten feet before we got to the door the smell of urine became obvious.

  "What the hell" I said as we entered her room to be hit by a wall of stench. It almost made me gag and Jules didn't look much better. Mamó was laying half awake in a soiled bed and looked liked she'd been that way all morning.

  "Danny," Jules said as she walked over and held mamó's hand, "I'll watch her, you go now and find someone!"

  It's been a long time since I've been this pissed but dammit, there's no reason for this to happen. I hurried out of the room and headed back down the hall to the nurses station. The regular nurse wasn't there, only an overworked orderly. Before I could say anything he said, "I know, I know, I'm working on it. Let me find your nurse and see what we can do but we had three people call in sick today and two residents die last night in their sleep."

  Before I could say anything he took off at a brisk pace. I stood there and stewed. A few minutes passed, a few more minutes, then ten more. I'd had enough.

  I headed back to mamó's room to tell Jules I was going to hunt someone down but as I got closer I heard mamó talking quite clearly to Jules. Something stopped me just outside the room. I peeked around the door and saw mamó talking to Jules as if she she'd never been sick. I was stunned and could only stand outside listening even though the smell nearly made me retch.

  "Rose, what was your husband's name?" Jules asked sitting in the chair next to mamó's bed holding her hand. Mamó got a big smile on her face and turned her head looking into Jules' eyes with a look of joy.

  "Danny it was. My Danny. My wonderful husband he was. You know he passed away a while ago. Me and my Danny didn't always live here, you know that?" mamó said with a hint of her Irish brogue.

  "Really? Where would you of lived before?"

  "Ah, it was a lovely place. We lived and loved in Newcastle off the western shore of DundrumBay right at the foot of the Mourne Mountains. Never did you see a more lovely place. Truly it broke our hearts to leave," mamó said with a far away look.

  Jules just smiled but said nothing.

  Coming back to the present, mamó continued, "It was a hard time it was when we first made it to shore on Ellis Island around the time of the Great Depression. We had no idea of the hard times to come, we only saw that magnificent lady standing tall she was and proud greeting us like a beacon of hope."

  "At that time many of us arrived without a punt in our pockets and times were getting harder. Danny found what work he could and did odd jobs between work as is. But no matter how hard things got, he always brought me home a flower; a rose for his Rose, as he always said he did."

  Mamó stopped talking for a moment and looked out her window seeing something not outside but far, far back in time. When she turned back around to Jules there were tears in her eyes.

  "At our worst, Danny was reduced to begging for work and handouts to keeps us eating. Danny told me one day that a well-to-do woman came walking by and he asked in his soft-spoken brogue for bread or money to feed his wife. The woman stopped and looked him up and down and meeting his gaze which didn't waver. She saw something in his eyes that moved her."

  "'Sir, I won't give you money but I do have odd jobs need working around my house. I'll pay you 50 cents a day but mark my words, if I catch you lounging about it's out you go with nothing.'"

  "'Yes ma'am,' Danny said, "'A full day's work and then some you'll be getting, I promise.'"

  Mamó continued, "A Model A they took to her house where he tended her rose garden, fixing a window, doing odd jobs as fit, and helped her clean up around the house. She was a widower, you see, whose husband had been well off so she wasn't hurting so much by the Depression.

  Danny did as promised and shortly before dark finished up. He was outside admiring her roses again when she came out to pay him.

  She noticed and asked if he liked her roses. He a saying very much so and that he had his own 'Rose' garden waiting for him at home. He then looked at her for a long moment asking a small favor. If a single rose he could take, she could keep half the money she owed him so he could take it back to his wife.

  The widow walked over and promptly snipped off a rose and handed Danny not only the 50 cents she owed him but another 50 cents then walked back into her house without saying another word."

  Tears still in her eyes, mamó squeezed Jules' hand and said, "One of the happiest moments of my life that was when Danny told me that story, God rest his soul."

  "Danny was very much in love with you wasn't he Rose?" Jules asked.

  An audible sigh escaped Rose's lips, "Yes dear, he is." She looked off towards the window at something only she could see and half closed her eyes not saying another word.

  Jules simply sat there and held mamó's hand.

  I stood in amazement outside the room. I never knew this about mamó. Something nagged at the back of my mind. Something about the power of love but before it could crystallize Jules seemed to come to a decision and stood up. I quickly entered the room before she made it completely up.

  "I found an orderly but the nurse wasn't around and he took off to find her. I got tired of waiting and came back to tell you."

  Before I
could say anymore, I saw a look I'd never seen on Jules' face, which isn't saying much since I'd known her only a short time, but it was a look that plainly said she was pissed off.

  She walked out the door and I followed. She tracked down the orderly, demanded to know where the clean sheets were kept along with a wash cloth, a bucket, and some soap. The orderly saw the look on her face and told her.

  We walked back into mamó's room and Jules cleaned her up while I changed her sheets. We finally got her back into bed and comfortable. The whole time mamó never noticed because she'd slipped back into her own world.

  I'm beginning to lose my confidence that this is all a terrible joke. I'm touched beyond my ability to even comprehend. How can someone I barely know treat my mamó with such care and concern in the state we found her?

  I managed to say, "Thank you Jules. You didn't have to do that but I appreciate it more than I can express."

  Jules gave me a funny look and said, "It was the only thing to do."

  We stayed around another half an hour but it was obvious mamó no longer knew we were there. We decided to leave and Jules bent over to kiss mamó on the forehead.

  As Jules straightened up and turned to make room for me, mamó grabbed her arm. Jules stopped and looked down at Rose.

  Rose's eyes opened with clarity and said, "Your Danny's named after mine you know. Don't hurt him. He's been hurt too much already."

  Instantly Jules' face radiated with a smile. "Don't worry Rose. I can't." Mamó closed her eyes and smiled. I moved over and kissed her goodbye on the cheek but she didn't notice, she just kept smiling.

  As we headed back to the car, I reached out and grabbed Jules' hand pulling her close and hug her tightly.

  A whirlwind of emotions battered back and forth inside me. This act of kindness from someone I considered a stranger touched me deeply. All the other women in my life either wouldn't go with me to the nursing home or made excuses to not go again after the first visit.