Category: Fiction

The months went by and we grew closer. Dinner at each of our parents’ places provided anxiety, stress, laughter, embarrassment, sharing, relief, affection, and well-being. It was a cycle we each had to go through and we did. Of course each of our dads had to be “hams” as well as – surprisingly – warm. I think I can say for the both of us that the embarrassments were small and enjoyable. I learned of Tess’ long relationship with her stuffed animals, the building blocks of her independence and why she paints each toenail a separate color/pattern. (Isn’t she adorable?!) She learned of my nerd/geeky history in school, my obsession with X-Files, and why I all my clothes are white, black or gray.

Tess and I continued to meet up for coffee when she got off from work and never ran out of things to talk about. She, for some reason I can’t fathom, continued to love me and allowed me to love her. I have to admit things were really good and many a night I would go to bed with the nagging question “why?”  See I am the type of person who believes that experiences in life are not random and that they do not happen without a purpose or reason. Looking at Tess as a wonderful woman who was intelligent, articulate, and beautiful I can’t reason why she would want to love me. It is not like she had been beaten unconscious subconsciously by cupid or some faerie to fall for me. Right? Surely she was not acting of her own will – while being fully aware and sound. Hence my stumbling, bumbling question that was nagging me now daily – “why?”

Being an acquaintance to many but a friend to no one (not by choice by the way) I had no one to talk this through with. Well let me rephrase that, no one that was not family to talk this through with. A few people at work (which was still miserable) I have comradery with but could I actually wisely choose one of them to talk to and expect to receive wise advice?

Tess jumped up and went to her dad mumbling something under her breath. I stood up and looked at my father who had the proud look in his eyes because he knew “he got me”. I walked over to my mom and said “what the heck are you guys doing?”

“It was your father’s idea” she said smiling looking at Tess. “And you must be Tess,” my mom said walking over to give her a hug. Meanwhile Tess’ father circled round behind my father and stuck out his hand to me. “Good to see you again. “I told your father when he came into the store that we better do something or we’d never meet “officially”’, doing the quotes sign in the air. This is my wife, Tess’ mother Vanessa.

“Hello” I said as I grasped her hand. It was very apparent seeing both of her parents that Tess got her looks from her mother but her eyes and stature from her father. Her mother was beautiful, in the classic sense. If she was wearing make-up I could not tell. She had a beautifully proportional oval head with a sleek nose and perfect lips. Lips were one of the first things I noticed about Tess; in fact I would go into a daze watching her mouth as she would speak.  

I turned around to look and Tess was standing with my parents, my mother was holding her hand. I caught my dad wink at me and shook my head. Tess began introducing Harry, Loretta, and Roscoe to our parents. She then stepped back as the greeted one another and came over to me and grabbed my hand. “My father” she started to say and I interrupted, “Our fathers”.

“So son am I gonna get some treats or do I have to”.

“Yes dad” I interrupted and quickly went to the candy bag. I rooted around in there looking for one of my dad’s favorites – dark chocolate Milky Way bars. I gave him a few and he said “first they need to be frozen” as he looked over at Tess’ father.

Our mothers came over and shared “we have made dinner plans for next week and the week after” my mom said nodding at Tess’ mother. “Yes next week the six of us will have dinner at our home,” Tess mom said, “and the following week at our home” my mom finished her sentence. Tess and I looked at each other and at that moment I wanted to stop time and everything in it but Tess and I and allow us to step away and discuss what each of us was thinking. I had a pretty good idea what she was thinking but once the moment passed so would have the true words of emotions. I suspect words like “nice, afraid, fear, eventually had to happen, could be worse, and the unspoken word “sigh””. After the fact, when everyone was gone and we talked it was she was okay, jittery, but okay. BUT I saw her eyes when our moms announced the dinner plans are those big wide eyeballs were proclaiming a lot of things but “okay” wasn’t one of them. Well second thought, it could have been “okay” like when someone is saying something they shouldn’t and you try to shut them down and change the subject. That startled “OKAY” so maybe she just needed to communicate to me what kind of okay it really was. But I digress….

I believe our fathers would have stayed the rest of the evening with us just so they could torture us but the moms said it was time to go and get some dessert which surely had to be some type of bribe to get them all to leave. Tess and I said goodbye to our parents and as they walked away Harry grabbed the back of my pant leg and gave it a yank. “Boy they got yas!” Tess and I turned around to see Loretta and Harry armed with big dirty grins and we laughed – nervously – but still we laughed.

Sitting in front of the apartment building passing out candy with Harry (who is bald), Loretta (not affiliated with Harry, yet), and Harry’s dog Roscoe.

Harry is a widower of ten years and Roscoe has been with him for the past twelve years. Harry is young to be widower, he is 50 and works for the city on the road/property crew. He is the team leader and the job suits him well.

Loretta is a widow of almost twenty years, she is – I am guessing – around 60 because we all know the rule. She works as a book-keeper for several clients. She is her own boss and that suits her well too.

Tess and I have begun to think of trying to hook up Loretta and Harry but we are still cowards in the match making business. Understandable but we are sure these two souls were meant to be together and we have each caught them at different times looking at the other with “that look” which quickly gets shook off.

“Roscoe here was the cutest puppy you’d have ever seen,” Harry said as he was patting Roscoe’s head. “People think he is too big to live with me here but he is rarely here. I take him to work with me, the store, walks, the park, heck even to restaurants during the Spring thru Fall seasons when I can eat outside.”

“He is a handsome dog Harry,” Loretta said, “aren’t you Roscoe?” Which was all it took for Roscoe to move over and cosy up to her. She patted his head and rubbed his ears, “Dashing Roscoe”.

“Trick or treat” said a masked musketeer.

“Trick or treat” quietly almost whispered by the little blonde princess.

“Trick or treat” bellowed aloud for the neighborhood by the little kid in the full mask of Frankenstein.

We all acted startled and chuckled. Roscoe barked once his approval. It was a busy street of characters looking for their share of the candy loot. We saw old favorites like Frankenstein, Mummy, and vampires but more of the characters of today who I recognized but did not know their names. It was an enjoyable evening and it had just begun, a little over an hour had passed and the sky was just now getting dark enough to actually feel like it was Halloween night. Something about Halloween occurring in the daylight just isn’t “right”.

“We always have a good turn out on this street,” Loretta explained. “The majority of the buildings on this block our 4 unit apartment buildings that have been here for over 75 years. They are taken care of by the landlords and the tenants, we all take pride of our places and our place here on the block.” Tess and Harry nodded.

“I fell in love with this block as soon as I arrived to view the vacant apartment. I was sold before I came inside,” Tess shared. Harry and Loretta smiled like proud parents.

“Trick or treat” said Buzz Lightyear.

“I’ll be…” Harry began to say when my eyes moved over to see what he was looking at. Tess grabbed a hold of forearm as she saw the scary sight. It – for whatever reason – felt like we got caught. I don’t know why, we were not doing anything wrong. But “gotcha” was word for the moment; the other was “ugottabekiddingme” (I had to make it one word, sorry Webster).

Up the sidewalk with plastic pumpkin containers for candy strode our parents. Dad with his glow in the dark vampire teeth in muttered, “Trick or treat” while mom just beamed a big  smile.

Evening finally arrived which meant now to the time of the good stuff. Leave work. Leave cubicle-land. Leave the mind numbing job. Leave the condescending boss who is unprofessional and disrespectful. Leave the place of masks and fakes. Leave all the bad, the necessary part of life – for now. Onto the purpose of life. Onto the times with Tess. Onto holding her delicate hand and looking into the green eyes of love. Onto being who I really am, I have discovered – not the job guy. See I realized that was the problem, my personal life and work life shared the same guy. That guy at work who is shackled to a desk and computer. Shackled by bureaucracy and lack of common sense and honesty. Yes, honesty. The place breeds name sake only culture and beliefs. Words only. It is so heavy, suffocating my spirit deliberately, steadily, and quietly. But – Tess – a breath of fresh real air. My spirit realized before it was too late that I am not the job guy. In fact personal life guy is beginning to lead a revolution inside job guy. But I digress….

I arrived at Tess’ apartment building on time armed with costume in my pocket and on top of my head. I was wearing my tall top hat which showed much wear and in my pocket my Groucho eyeglass/nose piece and the glow in the dark vampire teeth. Wearing my black suit and tie with my red and white pinstripe shirt – I was an icon of my humor. Dark and silly. I slid the glasses on and teeth in and knocked on Tess’ door. She opened and almost lost my teeth. Tess was dressed as Snow White and she was breath-taking. She giggled when she saw me and I stood in the door way like Lurch unable to move. Personal guy was counting his blessings and she was the source of the majority of them.

“Come in silly,” she said as she pulled my hand trying to move me. “Will you grab the purple and red bowls over on the table?” I could not get my eyes off of her, heck – I could not get my mind off of her. Not because of some sicko Snow White thing but because it hit me so hard this one thought, no – one fact. It had been a terrific three months but now I knew. I want to marry her. I want to be with her for the rest of our lives. She is the one. The one I never thought I – me – would ever have. She was wife and the fact made me so thankful. Thankful to God for the paths of destiny crossing. Thankful to her parents, for having raised such a precious lady. Thankful.

“Um, yeah sure, I got those, anything else?”

“I already have the chairs pulled behind the stairwell so I will take the refill bags.”

I picked up the bowls and it was like the candy fairies sent me a sign of approval – a bowl of Smarties. My favorite. She could not have known that, I don’t think I ever mentioned it or ate them when we were out. Smarties. I chuckled to myself, nodded to the candy fairies – ok I get it and walked out the door to the front steps.

The days went by and they were much happier ones than all my days in the past. We met for coffee, dinner, lunch, movies, shopping, and any other reason I could come up with just to be with her. Before I knew it the summer had passed and Halloween was next. In our conversations we each shared the pressure coming from our parents to meet the other and for the families to meet. Some parents are subtle (not mine) and some are more direct (not hers). We tried to discuss the “event” but it always became a time of nervous laughing and exaggerations of the impact on everyone’s lives.

I am not sure why what happened on Halloween happened but I do know that Tess and I stood in the grips of a horrible monster and we were being held over a cliff to which we could not see the bottom. Honestly as I sit here trying to share with you the story I can feel the same emotions of that moment.  We would learn later just how desperate and resolved our parents were.

A couple days before Halloween I received a call from my mother, you KNOW how THOSE calls are.

“Hello honey how are you doing?”

“Um, fine mom I saw you and dad yesterday; nothing’s changed.”

“I know, I was just wondering if you will be over to pass candy out to the kids this year on Halloween.” Before I could answer, “You know how much that means to your father, it is you fellas ritual. He has dug up his glow in the dark vampire teeth and black top hat.” Whack – daggers one & two reach their mark.

“Actually mom I was going over to Tess’ this year and we were going to hand out candy at her apartment.”

“Oh, your father will be so disappointed…”

“Mom will you tell him, it will be much easier coming from you. You know how I feel about Tess…”

“Why don’t you two come over and hand out candy over here? Oh, that would be wonderful and your father won’t be disappointed and we can finally meet Tess.”

“Mom you know who Tess is, you go to the grocery store…”

“That is not the same, we can never talk. Why don’t you want us to officially meet her? Are you ashamed…” (No my mom is not a Catholic or Jewish mom. I understand that they are masters of the craft of using guilt to accomplish their wishes.)

“Mom stop you know I am not ashamed of you and dad. Gads – we are just taking things really slow, that’s all.”

“Slow? You guys are together just about every day. It would mean so much to your dad and me, please ask Tess.”

I was completely exasperated and I know that you definitely KNOW the feeling. When did the shoes get put on the other feet? I remember using the tears and eyes and limited vocabulary as a kid to guilt my parents into getting me baseball cards, candy, baseball hat, going to movies without their attendance, money to go to the store with a couple fellow outsiders at school. When exactly did the parents become the bearers of the guilt tool? Come to think of it when did they become the children? Knowing what I know and how this story ended when did it occur that we “protect” our parents from the truth? Watch out for them, making sure they are well, taking them to the doctor, exactly when did the roles get reversed? But I digress…

“Mom I am not going to ask Tess because she has really been looking forward to us doing this together at her place. I don’t want to make things awkward for her.”

Fine son” (the three-letter word that advertises dagger #3 is on its way) “I will tell your father. Don’t worry about us we will handle Halloween alone.” Bullseye.

The pregnant pause but I did not waver. “Thanks mom but I need to go now. Love u and tell dad I love him too.”

“We love you too, son.” Click – no that was not just the phone hanging up, it was also the sound of fourth dagger nailing its mark.