Warning: In spite of red rimmed eyes too grief stricken to cry and a heart broken by the unfulfilled promise of tomorrow, we endure.
COMPANY
by Phair
“No, you can’t. Please. Don’t. You just couldn’t, I mean wouldn’t. Please, don’t. Never. You shouldn’t, no, no, no,” Ash continued her litany of negatives into the receiver even after the disconnection click and dial tone. “Fuckin’ A!” She whispered back to the hum.
Ash silently replaced the receiver into the duct taped cradle. She tried to steel her emotions. She needed to go explain the situation to Beth. The woman was working in the computer room on the first floor of the house. Ash was going to have to interrupt her with this problem. Even worse than the interruption was the fact Beth was in the computer room; Nikki Pretty’s former bedroom.
“I’d rather crawl up the stairs than go into the computer room,” Ash grumbled to herself.
It was less a work space or spare bedroom than a shrine to the former configuration of the Pretty family. The walls were lined with wedding pictures and baby pictures and school pictures and family Christmas photos. The shelves held statues for excellence in marksmanship, triumphs in sports, outstanding performance in high school dramatics and a couple of television Emmy’s in children’s programming. Ash stopped herself at the threshold of the sanctuary to the past and toed the boundary line before finding her voice.
“Ah, Mrs. Pretty?” her voice cracked under the combined strain of her fear and her envy.
Beth sighed and softly banged her forehead against the computer keyboard, “Yes, Miss Ash.”
“Sorry. I really meant to say Beth.” Lindsey grimaced before diving into her explanation, “Beth, I have a problem. There’s this guy, well, I have, well, I have this friend. And, he won’t ever listen to me or what I say. He won’t listen to no for an answer. No matter how much I say stop, he keeps on charging right ahead…,”
Beth immediately stood up from her computer and crossed the room. Her mouth took a hard line. Her usually bright blue eyes seemed to squint and darken with strain.
“Is he threatening you? Are you afraid of him?” Beth’s voice had a sharp edge.
“Threatening. Afraid. What? No, nothing like that,” Lindsey waved her hands trying to erase the previous statement. “He’s a good friend. A really good person. He’s a bus driver, for God’s sakes. Anyway, he wants to pick me up today to go out for a while. Nothing wild. Nothing too, too late or anything. But he wants, well, he wants to pick me up here but…,”
Beth’s features softened and she placed a hand on each of Lindsey’s shoulders, “But what?”
“But it’s your house. I can’t just let people come over here. And, he wouldn’t wait for me to ask your permission first. I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again. I won’t let it. Promise.” Lindsey apologized as she kept her eyes glued to the floor beneath her sneakers.
“Oh, thank God,” Beth shuddered with relief as she pulled Lindsey into a hug. “I thought it was somebody you were afraid of. Honey, you don’t need permission to have guests come over to visit.”
“But it’s your house,” Lindsey explained after Beth released her from the unexpected embrace. “I can’t invite people into your place.”
“Lindsey, you live here too. You can have anybody you want over to see you.” Beth took a deep breath, “You can have overnight guests if you want as well. It is none of my business or Stu’s business or Puddles business who you visit with or sleep with.”
“OH MY GOD!” Ash’s mind shouted a warning. “She’s gonna do THE SEX TALK. Please, oh, please let me disintegrate into a million, zillion pieces before she starts.”
“Lindsey, if you are in a special relationship or even if it’s just a random sexual encounter…,”
“LaLaLaLa, I can’t hear you, LaLaLaLa…,” Ash’s brain was screaming now even as her face registered pain. “Go ahead. Keep on talking if you want but I can’t hear you, LaLaLaLa...”
“…if there’s a special boy or girl you care enough about to be intimate with…,”
“I have to look like I’m dying now ‘cause that’s how I feel. There is no way she doesn’t see me dying in front of her. Still, she keeps on talking about sex and me and in her house!” Lindsey spoke to herself non- stop as her head swiveled left to right over and over.
“…protection is key...,”
“OH DEAR LORD! She’s still talking. I should just fall over. Maybe then she’ll understand for sure I died of embarrassment but God left me here to suffer,” Ash was rambling internally.
“Are you listening to anything I said?”
Lindsey blinked her eyes and came back to the here and now. “Yep. Sure. Sex. Boy. Girl. Me. Protection. Got it.”
A rhythmic knock at the front door interrupted any reply from Beth. Lindsey froze in a near panic thinking Beth would continue with her sex ed lecture in spite of company. The knocking started again and Beth broke into a big grin.
“It seems your guest has arrived.”
“Beth,” Ash voiced a new concern, “he’s a really great friend. He’s one of the most special people I know. He’s been a big help to me since I’ve been on my own. So, please make him feel welcome.”
“Of course.”
Lindsey walked down the hall to the front door. Beth followed several steps behind her. As they got closer, the knocking became more persistent. Lindsey eagerly reached for the knob and pulled the door open.
“There’s my GIRLIE GIRL!” Frannie shrieked.
The big man bounded into the hallway. He grabbed Lindsey around the middle and lifted her into the air. With a gentle spin, he placed the giggling, but slightly resistant, girl back on the ground.
“Francis?” Beth gasped.
“The one and only, Sweetie Pie!” Frannie announced as he gave a grand hand sweep to his six and a half foot plus sized frame. He was decked out in a Royal purple velvet sweat suit.
Beth lunged toward the man. He caught her mid jump. She wrapped her arms and legs around him before burying her face in the curve between his shoulder and neck.
“I meant welcome but I didn’t mean that welcome,” Ash thought to herself in disgust.
“No, no, don’t you cry baby, no, no, no. Frannie’s holdin’ you,” the big man whispered to the shuddering woman.
“Ah, you two know each other?” Lindsey asked.
“Sure do,” Frannie assured.
Beth wiped her eyes and climbed down from Frannie’s hug. “Francis was my prom date.”
“No way!” Lindsey grunted.
“1976! The Bicentennial. Ford was president. Viet Nam was over. Chicago’s Color My World was our prom song. Our colors; girls were Evergreen and boys were Muddy Brown.” Frannie detailed.
“Dylan was in the Marines.”
Frannie gave a snort, “Saving us all from the communist menace in some supply room in South East Miami.”
“Boy, what fun we had that night,” Beth ignored the jab at Dylan. “Because of the inflation or the recession or the whatever everything was ridiculously expensive. Nobody could afford anything. None of us were going to wear orchids,” Beth offered. “Everybody agreed that carnations were the way to go. Especially the guys.”
“Not me,” Frannie interrupted. “I was the only one in the class to say we should stick with tradition. We should give our girls orchids. Those flowers are too beautiful to ignore.”
Beth winked, “So were you that night!”
“Hi God, this is Lindsey, please beam me up there before things get any weirder down here,” Ash silently pleaded before any additional revelations could be spoken.
“He wore a handsome brown tux with sharpest green shirt I have ever seen. I gave him a green carnation and he gave me the most lovely orchid corsage, the dirty rule breaker.”
“This extraordinary woman is too gorgeous not to have an orchid,” Frannie supplied.
Beth blushed under the compliment.
“Oh, darling, I hate to reminisce and run but Lindsey and I are on a strict schedule,” Frannie explained.
“Oh, of course,” Beth nodded.
“Come on, Girlie Girl, let’s hit the road. And, Sweetie Pie, pick a day for us to do lunch. I want to hear all about you,” Frannie rattled off as he leaned in to kiss Beth’s cheek. “Come on, Lindsey. Let’s get going while the goings stay good!”
Frannie ushered Ash out the door over the goodbyes. Ash stumbled a bit in the driveway when she saw Frannie’s car. It was like a gas guzzling nightmare from the past.
“It’s as big as the bus.”
“Don’t even try to be funny. My ride is exquisite. A beautifully maintained 1975 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. The finest vehicle ever built.”
Ash grinned as she got in, “And the biggest.”
The car bounced like an old mattress when Frannie dropped behind the wheel. He fired up the engine. The eight cylinders roared louder than a twin engine plane.
“Lindsey, are you ashamed of me?” Frannie asked in an uncharacteristically serious tone.
“What? No, of course not,” Ash could barely grasp the question. “Why would you even need to ask me that?”
Frannie shifted into drive before continuing. “You didn’t want me to come over to pick you up. Was you afraid I might not be good enough to meet your new La De Dar friends in the better zip code?”
“No way. I only wanted you to wait for me to ask Beth if I could have a guest. This ain’t my house, you know,” Ash argued. “Maybe she’s got a thing about strangers or something. Maybe she wants some privacy. I can’t be acting like I live here.”
“You do live here, Missy Ooohie Ahhhha,” Frannie reminded her as he eased the loose springed car onto the road.
Ash shook her head no sadly. “I’m staying here not living here. There’s a big difference.”
“If you say so, Girlie Girl.”
