Come and Talk to Me

by June Kramin

  “I’m sorry. I wasn’t going to let that asshole get away with no ramifications for what he did to you.”

  “So, you’ll what? Kill him yourself and let me spend the next twenty years alone while you rot in jail?”

  “I wouldn’t have killed him, killed him, baby.”

  That was another running joke between them. They had watched a comedian in Key West who did a whole skit on how saying the same word twice changes its meaning.

  “Not funny, Van!”

  A fisherman pulled up and honked that he wanted to get down a path Van was blocking. Van drove down the road a little way and parked low on a hill against the bridge. He killed the engine, unbuckled his seat belt and slid closer to her. “Nice shot, Bravo Tango Whiskey.” He kissed her neck.

  “I’m happy to put the military behind us, Van. A simple BTW or just friggin’ say ‘by the way’ from now on, dammit.”

  “Five by five, baby.”

  “Stop it!” She laughed. She didn’t want to, but she did. “Fine, you heard me loud and clear but now stop it. Please. I really want all of this behind us…everything.”

  “Okay.” He continued kissing her neck. “Hey, we haven’t done it in Key Largo, have we?”

  She pretended to go through a mental checklist, counting off on her fingers, naming the different keys. “Nope.”

  “Ya wanna?”

  ~*~

  The drive to Minnesota took them a total of nine days to do. They took two days for themselves at Disneyworld and two days with her parents, which was two days too many. Thankfully her brother and his wife and kids were there for one of the days. Reggie enjoyed her aunt time. It was a good reminder for her of how much work kids were, but she also knew she still wanted them very much.

  They took their time driving and stayed at hotels so they weren’t completely worn out each night. When they hit Minnesota, they visited the Mall of America where they played like kids at the theme park. They stayed across the street at a water park where they swam until it closed. They drove into Bemidji the following day and spent time investigating the town. Van suggested they spend a few days driving around before they committed to buying a house.

  Reggie instantly loved the town. There was a small mall with a JCPenney and Kmart, but also a downtown that was still very active. There was a huge lake right off the main road and two others that were even more stunning fifteen minutes in each direction.

  They found an eager real estate agent that had a list of properties to show them, but Reggie fell in love at the third showing. Unlike many of the other lots where the neighbor’s houses almost touched, this one had a double-wide lot. The house was in desperate need of some fixing so the price was perfect. They signed the purchase agreement and ‘christened’ the house when the realtor left.

  They drove to Big Lake that night to tell his family the great news. His mother planned a welcome home dinner and had his sisters over. Reggie hoped it would go over better than their last visit.

  A year ago they had driven up to Big Lake to visit for his father’s birthday party. “You two don’t go to church?” His younger sister said. You would have thought she had been shot by the way she reacted.

  “Not currently, no.” Reggie answered. “Van’s schedule has always been so crazy, we never got into the routine of it.”

  “Well, you’ll find something,” she said with a pat to her leg.

  “I suppose we will.” Reggie struggled to put on a smile. She knew Van had attended church regularly as a Lutheran growing up. They had never discussed going after they were married. She went to Catholic school, but when she graduated and her parents left, she rarely attended a service again on her own.

  She sat, silent, while the family carried on about playing in church, singing in church, helping with Sunday school…It was a large part of their lives and she respected it. She just hoped it wouldn’t be something that would form a constant wedge between them. Reggie considered herself a believer in God; she didn’t feel like she had to sit in a church on Sunday and prove it to anyone else. She had attended a church a few times on Oahu with a ‘significant other’ and didn’t particularly care for the style. She liked to go for an uplifting sermon or some ‘make you feel good’ music. She didn’t care for the ‘you are not welcome to receive communion if you don’t belong to this church’ attitude. Uh huh. There’s a nice welcome. Oh wait, you did say ‘welcome, sinner’ when I showed up. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside now. Thanks.

  The man she attended with was colorful, to say the least. How could he do what he did, yet sit there for an hour on Sunday to show everyone how ‘good’ he was? It was a two-faced act that Reggie always carried in her memory. She began to see things for what they were. Whether or not someone went to church, and to which one, wasn’t a concern to her. She had always prided herself on being a bitch, but never a judgmental bitch. Someone’s religion or the color of their skin was never an issue for her.

  Her friends ranged from every nationality on the planet. Hawaii was diverse if nothing else. The islands consisted mostly of Japanese and Filipino, but she also had classmates from Fiji, Tonga, China and Korea. She never put a label to color and only asked for that in return. Being white, she was the minority. She never wanted to treat someone as she had, on rare occasion, been treated when mistaken for a tourist in a shadier area of Oahu.

  Although mixed marriages were commonplace and the island was streaming with gorgeous babies they referred to as ‘hapa’ from the combination of their parents nationalities, for some reason there was still indifference to the fact that Sabrina was black and Troy was Caucasian. It was one point that especially held them dear to her. Love had no boundaries for them. She wished more people were that way.

  “So, did you look into churches near your new house?” Van’s sister asked immediately after they said they had put money down on a quaint two bedroom with a nice yard. She had hoped after their last fight, the subject wouldn’t be brought up again.

  “The realtor told us about a great non-denominational Christian church out of town. We thought about going to check it out once we’re settled.”

  “Why would you do that? You’re going to go to a Lutheran church, aren’t you? You’ll only have to take classes for about a year so you can become a member.”

  Reggie sighed. “I wasn’t that keen on the last Lutheran church I went to. I guess we’ll have to see. I really don’t get the whole class and the member thing anyway. Why can’t someone just go there and everyone be okay with that?”

  “It’s the way it is. Van’s Lutheran; you should go to a Lutheran church.”

  “Do we have to do this again, Kristi? Really?” Reggie had two glasses of wine and was tired from the drive. She was in no mood to have the church fight again.

  “It’s the right thing to do,” Kristi continued.

  “Right thing for who? You don’t know me or even like me. How can you presume to know what’s best for me?”

  “Van went before he met you.”

  Reggie stood up and walked out of the house. Van followed her. She stood by the car with her arms crossed. “You never stick up for me! You just sit there and let them run me up and down every damn time!”

  “I don’t let it get to me. We don’t usually talk about things like you do. Someone pisses someone off and we don’t talk for a couple days, then we act like it never happened.”

  “Dysfunction at its finest,” she said, turning away.

  “You know how I feel about it, Reggie. We’ll go if you want to go.”

  “But what about you?”

  “I’m fine. There’s other ways we can get involved in the community if you rather not do the hellfire and brimstone routine. We can do volunteer stuff for veterans, the food shelf…you can volunteer at the animal shelter and get all the cat loving you can handle.” She lit up when he said that.

  “I think I’m going to like it here, Van,” she finally said.

  “Because we’re still three hours away from my
family?”

  “Yup.”

  ~*~

  Despite wanting a change in career, Reggie again found employment with a local lumberyard. It was what she knew and she did it well. She was already calculating their home improvement savings in employee discounts.

  Van received a monthly allotment for his injuries and they were still able to keep their military benefits such as their IDs to be able to shop at a commissary, which Reggie wanted nothing to do with. Van still had periodic doctor appointment for follow-ups. Reggie was sure they were a waste of time since they never revealed anything and just offered him more pills. He, of course, had to go where they sent him, never to anyone local. It was usually to a doctor four hours away to the cities; sometimes it was only the three to Fargo. At least he was reimbursed for gas.

  Since Van was honorably discharged and couldn’t find work in the same kind of field because of his job-related back injury, the service had to offer him training in a new field. Reggie had recently purchased them both laptops with a tax return and he had really taken to trying to learn their ins and outs. The opportunity for computer training class came up and he was excited about it. Reggie was a little less than thrilled.

  “In Fargo? Why do you have to do the classes in Fargo?”

  “Because that’s where they are.”

  “There’s a college right here in town.”

  “But these classes will be paid for by the VA and so will the housing.”

  “Goddammit, Van! We’re out of the friggin’ military and you’re still at their beck and call.”

  “It’s a Monday through Thursday class. I’ll be home for three-day weekends and I can get up and leave early Monday mornings. You won’t even know I’m gone.”

  “Like hell.” She went outside and sat on the swing that was in the yard, left by the previous owner. Sometimes it made her sad, causing her to think about kids, but sometimes it was nice for her to plop in herself, too. Van joined her outside, carrying two beers.

  “I really want to do this, Reg,” he said, handing her one.

  “You’re going to do it no matter what I say.”

  “No, I won’t. If you’re really going to be upset about this, I won’t do it.”

  “Then that makes me selfish.”

  “Yes and no, baby. I ask a lot of you. My schedules have always sucked, not to mention the crap with my back. If you don’t want me to go, I won’t.”

  She got off the swing, straddled his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him tight. “I don’t want you to go…” After a long hesitation she said, “But go.”

  “Really?”

  “I don’t want to keep you from something you want to do just because I’ll be lonely.”

  “It’ll go fast.”

  “How long is it anyway?”

  “Six months to a year.”

  “I know you; that means a year. Dammit, Van, just say a year. When you say a drive is two or three hours it’s always three. When are you going to learn to give me the high end so I’m happy when it’s the low end instead? It’ll be a freaking year.”

  “Really. I could finish in six months. It depends how many certifications I take. I commend you on your usage of the ‘swear, once removed’ technique, by the way. It is a slight improvement.”

  “Bite me.”

  “Can I?”

  “No. I’m still mad.”

  “We don’t have time for mad. We have to start saving up so I can still average once a day while I’m gone.”

  “You’re underway all over again.” She dropped her head to his shoulder.

  “It’ll only be for six months.”

  A year later, he brought his bags home for the last time. The course was finally over. The time miraculously flew by. They were online every night together using instant messenger; it was almost as if he were home. A few months into the course, Van discovered an online game they could play together. Reggie had really enjoyed it. She always loved castles and stories about medieval times. The game was Stronghold. You built castles and maintained your own kingdom. Eventually a war broke out between your kingdoms and Reggie usually won; whether or not Van let her win was yet to be determined. She always knew he was in trouble when he’d load his trebuchet with dead cows for ammo. That always brought her to tears laughing. He called himself Sir Kimball the Gimp and she was Lady Reggie the Kittenless. That was still a sour subject.

  Now that he was home for good, it finally seemed like they were going to have a normal life. He had a great job with a computer company that he really enjoyed and he got along great with his boss and other co-workers. Their weekends were filled with fun with other couples. Reggie thought of this as home and wanted to bring up the subject of adopting again when Van called her at work. “You gotta come home, baby.”

  “What is it?”

  After a long silence he said, “My back.”

  “How bad? Do I stop and get the pizza or you want me straight there?”

  Chapter 14

  VAN AND REGGIE WERE IN FARGO at the hospital. He was about to be taken into surgery.

  “Some man of your dreams I turned out to be, huh.”

  “Don’t be silly. Of course you’re the man of my dreams.” She lay next to him in the hospital bed and ran her fingers through his hair. “Of course, in my dreams you speak with a Croatian accent and your name is Luca.”

  He laughed. “You’re such a bitch.”

  “That’s why you love me.” She leaned in and gently kissed his cheek.

  “You sure you’ll be here when I wake up?”

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Maybe because you said three strikes and I’m out.”

  “No. I said you didn’t get a third one; I was gonna shoot you instead.” She stroked his cheek then kissed it again. They had fought so well and so often, their love talk would have sounded like a fight to someone who didn’t know them.

  Usually in the morning when he picked up his coffee, she’d throw the beer bottles he left by the sink into the recycle bin two feet away so he’d know he was in trouble for leaving them on the counter again. Undaunted, he’d smile and kiss her on the cheek and sang, “I love the way you poison my coffee just a little each day.” It worked every time. She’d give him a smack on the butt then a kiss. If he was really lucky, they went back to bed for ‘second breakfast.’

  “Close enough.” He let out a heavy sigh. “I’m so sick of this bullshit.”

  “You’ll feel better when it’s done.”

  “That’s what they said last time. I don’t know, babe.” He started to choke up. “I can’t do wheelchair.”

  “You’re not going to end up in a wheelchair. They never said wheelchair to you…did they? Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “It’s never going to end. I’ll be there eventually.”

  “Stop it. You’ll come through with flying colors.”

  “I’ve let you down.”

  “Quit it, Van. No, you haven’t. What did I say to you when you asked me to marry you?”

  “Refresh my memory. I’m still in shock you said yes.”

  “You were worried I wouldn’t like military life. What did I say?”

  “That you’d live in an outhouse with me.”

  “An outhouse in Timbuktu to be more specific.” She leaned in close. “I don’t care if that outhouse has a wheelchair ramp. I love you.”

  “I want to be all the man you deserve.”

  “You are that and more, Luca…I mean, Van.”

  He laughed. “Bitch.”

  “Jackass.” She kissed his nose. “I’ll see you in three and a half to four hours.”

  “Not if I see you first.” He gave her a forced smile then winked.

  ~*~

  The doctor walked out to the waiting room two hours after the surgery had started. Reggie hurried to her feet with a smile. “That was fast. You said it would be closer to four hours. I take it everything went great.”

 
; “Not exactly.” He tried to pull her to sit down.

  She shook his hand away. “What do you mean ‘not exactly’?”

  “Please sit.” He pointed toward the seat.

  “I’d rather stand. What have you done?”

  “It’s nothing we’ve done. His heart gave out.”

  “His heart gave out? He’s twenty-seven years old! What do you mean his heart gave out? Did you have to stop the procedure?”

  “Mrs. Kimball…he’s gone.”

  “Gone?” she screamed. “What do you mean gone?”

  He reached for her hands again and managed to pull her down to the sofa with him this time. “He’s passed on. His body couldn’t take the strain anymore.”

  “You killed him?”

  “We didn’t kill him, Mrs. Kimball. If we suspected he’d have this kind of reaction to the anesthetic, we never would have attempted a third surgery.”

  “What do you mean reaction to the anesthetic? You just said his heart gave out.”

  “It was a combination of things. He was on so many medications…the strain on his system—”

  “You don’t have a fucking clue, do you? You don’t know him like I do. He’ll snap out of it and be fine.”

  “No. Please sit back down. He’s gone.”

  “You’re lying. I want to see him.”

  “I can’t take you in to see him yet. They’re closing. I wanted to come tell you right away. I didn’t think a nurse should have to—”

  Not able to sit any longer, she ran down the hall and pushed through the swinging door that the doctor had come from.

  “Donovan!” she shouted as she ran down the hallway looking in the surgery rooms. When she found what had to be him, she swung open the door. “Van!” The nurses were rolling him onto his back. The intubation tube was still in his mouth, but it was disconnected from the tanks. She looked up at a nurse who was standing there with a blank stare.