Cascade (48 page)

Thursday Night — 7:15 P.M

The Castle

“
I made dinner.” Sandy
rushed around their apartment. “Delphie will be here…”

Sandy ran to answer a knock at the door.
Delphie came in and hugged Sandy. Seated at the dining room table,
Noelle watched Sandy run through the apartment. Her mouth hung open
and her eyes tracked Sandy from room to room.

“
Come on Nash,” Sandy
yelled down the hall. “You have to get up.”

“
NO,” Nash
yelled. “I
told
you
before
. I’m sleeping.
I’m tired. I don’t know what your
problem
is but I
worked and worked and worked and…”

“
I’ll get him,” Delphie
said.

Sandy nodded to Delphie.

“
Sandy?” Noelle
asked.

Sandy had run into the bedroom to change
into something warmer.

“
Sandy?”

Sandy didn’t respond.

“
SANDY!”

Dressed in her underwear, Sandy poked her
head out of her bedroom. Noelle blushed at Sandy’s puzzled
eyes.

“
What’s going on?” Sandy
pulled a long sleeved T-shirt over her head.

“
Where are you going? You
haven’t said. You just got of the phone and started running
around!” Noelle began to cry. “I don’t know what’s going on
and…”

Dressed just in the T-shirt, Sandy pulled
the little girl close to her. She held her arm out for Nash when he
came into the room. He joined their hug.

“
Your father and his
friend, Mr. Pete, have been injured. They’ve been airlifted to a
trauma hospital in Colorado Springs,” Sandy said.

“
What?” Nash and Noelle
broke into tears.

“
Uncle Seth is coming to
get me. We’re dropping Jake off to take care of Mrs. Molly’s kids.
She’s coming with us. I don’t know any more than that.”

Sandy held them. Delphie peeled Nash then
Noelle off her.

“
Sandy has to run,”
Delphie said. “It’s a two hour drive and Seth is almost
here.”

“
Are you coming back?”
Noelle’s face was wet with tears. Her partly healed cheekbone left
the little girl with a black eye and a yellow streak of a bruise on
her face.

“
Of course,” Sandy mussed
Noelle’s hair. “We’re going to see the baby tomorrow
afternoon.”

“
We all are going to meet
him, right?” Nash asked.

“
Her, Nash. She’s a girl,”
Noelle said.

“
We are all going to meet
your new brother or sister for the first time tomorrow,” Sandy
said. “I only get a half hour to see your Dad. And I only get that
because of Seth and my Uncle Howard. I guess the prison screwed up
or… I don’t know. You know what I don’t have any idea what’s going
on.”

Sandy shrugged.

“
I should know more when I
get back,” Sandy said.

“
But you’re coming back,”
Nash said.

“
I’m definitely coming
back,” Sandy said. “Definitely.”

“
I’m sorry I was…” Nash’s
wet, sorrow filled eyes tore at Sandy’s core.

“
We’re fine,” Sandy said.
“I need to get dressed!”

Sandy ran into her bedroom. Delphie asked
Noelle to clear her school work off the table so they could have
dinner. Nash went to get the silverware and set the table. By the
time Sandy returned, the kids were seated at the table. Delphie was
serving them Sandy’s spaghetti and meatballs. Sandy kissed Noelle
and Nash’s head. She took Noelle’s right hand and Nash’s left
hand.

“
I will be back tonight,”
she said. “Should I wake you?”

The children nodded.

There was a knock at the door and Seth stuck
his head in.

“
Sandy, we have to go,”
Seth said.

She kissed the children again then ran out
the door. She was just about to close the door when Noelle ran up
to her.

“
Give these to Daddy,” she
said. “Please.”

Sandy looked at the pictures Noelle and Nash
had drawn and smiled.

“
I will,” Sandy
said.

With a wave, she was out the door.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday Night — 8:12 P.M.
City Park

Blane and Mack rounded the Martin Luther
King monument circle and turned toward the tennis courts. Dressed
in his fleece suit, Mack was strapped into the three-wheeled
jogging stroller. Usually, Blane and Mack met Jacob and Sarah for
an evening run. But tonight, Jacob was caring for Molly’s kids.
They would catch him in the morning.

Mack liked to eat about every four or five
hours. They found that he was restless and irritable after his
evening breast milk meal. One night, Blane took him out in the
stroller and Mack settled down. Walking was good, but running was
better. Their evening runs had become a part of their regular
routine. Heather dressed them up in warm reflective gear and out
the door they went. Jacob and his yellow Labrador, Sarah, often
joined them to spend some time with Blane.

The last few weeks had been sheer heaven for
Blane. He could only describe them as falling in love. He was
absolutely in love with Mack and Heather. Every cell in his body
vibrated with real happiness. Everything that mattered before –
acupuncture, work, hockey, money, status – took a second place to
Heather and Mack. He was positively swept off his feet by his own
happiness. While he knew he wasn’t ‘in love’, he had no other way
to describe the intoxicating feeling of holding his son and being
around his son’s mother.

‘
In love’ would have to
do.

Blane and Mack ran the circle near the
tennis courts. As they crossed Twenty-First Avenue, Blane saw a man
run toward them. Not thinking anything of it, he continued around
the circle. They were almost to the Graham-Bible House when the man
caught up with them. The man slowed to run next to Blane.

The man said something that Blane didn’t
understand.

“
What?” he asked in
English.

Turning toward the man, Blane groaned.
Enrique. He stopped running.

“
What do you want? My life
is really happy right now. Are you here to fuck it up again?” Blane
asked in Spanish.

“
Whoa,” Enrique said in
Spanish. “I deserve that. I do. But, whoa.”

Mack let out a sound somewhere between a
squeal and a cry.

“
I have to keep moving,”
Blane said. “He likes to keep moving.”

“
Keep moving, Daddy?”
Enrique asked.

“
He likes to keep moving,”
Blane began jogging again.

Enrique fell in next to him. They ran down
the road then turned East toward the Thatcher Fountain.

“
Why are you here?” Blane
asked.

“
I miss you. I want to
make things right between us,” Enrique said. “And I’m really sorry.
You’ve heard me say this before. I’ve said it before, but you
really have no idea how sorry I am. I totally fucked
up.”

“
Why did you do it?” Blane
asked. “Why did you smear me everywhere? I lost my career! I
couldn’t find another job because the entire city knew I had AIDS.
I lost everything – my home, my career, my friends. If it hadn’t
been for Jake, I would have killed myself.”

“
I freaked out when I
found out I had Hep C.”

“
You mean,
you freaked out when you found out you infected
me
with
Hep C that you caught at a bathhouse while you were
whoring
around the city.”

“
That’s a way to put it,”
Enrique said.

“
Let me get
this straight,” Blane said. “Instead of telling our friends that
you were a cheating lying whore that almost killed
me
with Hep C, you told them I used to prostitute for money
when I was a starving drug addicted homeless orphan.”

“
Yes. That’s what I did,”
Enrique said. “But I left out the starving part.

“
And the homeless orphan
part.”

“
And the homeless orphan
part. Yes, I left that out too.”

“
Why?”

“
I don’t know,” Enrique
said. “I told everyone. Your boss. Our friends.
Everyone.”

“
I don’t know doesn’t cut
it, Enrique,” Blane said.

“
I know.”

They ran in silence through the circle and
past the Thatcher fountain. Blane turned toward Ferril Lake.

“
Let’s start with lying
cheating whore,” Blane said. “After you promised to stop, you kept
going to the bathhouses and book stores. Why?”

“
I have a sexual
addiction,” Enrique said.

“
That’s
honest.”

“
I cover my addiction by
saying this is how gay men behave. But I know better.”

“
You should. We knew
plenty of men who don’t whore around,” Blane said. “Why did you
come around pretending to be single when you’re with Calvin? My
God, you came to my home, had dinner with Heather… You hung around
like you were available. But it’s just another lie from the
cheating whore.”

“
Calvin and I have a
complicated relationship,” Enrique said. “We weren’t together when
I came to the clinic. He found out I quit smoking and wanted to
start again. I…”

“
You were living together
entire time, right? Still having sex?”

Enrique was silent.

“
Just another lie,” Blane
said. “How do you live with yourself?”

“
Not well,” Enrique
said.

They ran to the path in front of the Natural
History Museum, they were almost to the road before Enrique spoke
again.

“
How’s your
Hepatitis?”

“
I no longer have virus,”
Blane said. “I’m very healthy. My liver seems to be healing with
acupuncture and diet. You?”

“
I’m still
sick.”

“
Why not do the
Ribavirin?”

“
Who would take care of
me? Calvin?” Enrique snorted. “I’m a lying cheating whore. I’m
surrounded by liars, cheaters, and whores.”

“
What did the doctor
say?”

“
I need a liver
replacement but I won’t live long enough to get one,” Enrique said.
“I’m rotting on the inside… dying the way I deserve.”

Blane stopped short to look at Enrique.
Enrique nodded. When Mack cried, Blane went around the stroller to
pick him up. Under the moon and stars, the two men stared at each
other.

“
Why are you doing this to
yourself?” Blane asked.

“
I’d think you’d be
delighted,” Enrique said. “I’m finally getting my just deserts for
being such an asshole.”

“
I don’t want this,” Blane
said. “I don’t wish you harm. If anything, I’m grateful for you. If
you hadn’t done what you did, I would still be cooking and trying
to fix you. I’d never have gone to acupuncture school or worked at
Lipson. I own shares in that company now. Me! I’m an owner. I’d
never have met Heather or have had Mack.”

The men looked at the tiny bundle nestled in
Blane’s arms. Mack yawned. His fluorescent lime green fleece cap
shifted to the side. Blane put the cap back on his head.

“
He looks just like you,
Blane,” Enrique said. “You’re sure he’s…”

“
His biological father has
dark hair and hazel eyes. It’s fairly common. We don’t know if his
blue eyes will change. I like them like this.”

Enrique gave a curt nod.

“
You’re life has really
taken off,” Enrique said. “If I had a dying wish, it would be that
you were happy.”

“
You’re not dead yet,”
Blane said. “Why give up?”

“
I don’t see any other
way,” Enrique said. “You and I tried everything to break my
addiction. I…”

“
Go to therapy. Get
honest. Clean up your life, your diet and your mind. Hell, join a
12 step program. You belong in any of them,” Blane said. “God, I
can’t believe you never went to therapy.”

“
I didn’t,” Enrique said.
“I think about going but then… Why bother going now?”

“
Because you’re young and
strong,” Blane said. “You can beat this thing.”

“
Come on. I’d like to run
while I still can.”

Blane settled Mack back in the jog stroller
and they took off down the road toward the Duck Lake. They were
almost to the tennis courts again when Enrique broke their
silence.

“
I’m scared,
Blane.”

“
I know,” Blane
said.

“
If I go to therapy, will
you go with me?”

“
Not until you clean up
your life,” Blane said. “Get honest. Either commit to Calvin or get
out of that relationship. Quit the job you hate. You can freelance
and you know it. You gave me such a gift by throwing me out of my
comfortable, horrible old life. It was awful, terrifying, and very
liberating. You need to give yourself the same gift.”

Without saying another word, Enrique ran
down Twenty-First Avenue back toward his house. Blane shook his
head at Enrique and continued toward home. By the time he arrived,
Mack was sound asleep. He helped Heather bathe Mack and put him in
his bassinette.

“
What happened?” Heather
whispered over Mack’s sleeping form.