, Dexter.”
Dexter smiled. “I know her name is Judy.”
Brighton and Jasper looked at each other and raised their eyebrows. Then
Brighton smiled at Dexter and said, “Are you talking to us, Dad?”
“Yes,” Dexter said. “Of course I’m talking to you. There’s no one else in the
room. Who else would I be talking to? Her name is Judy, the housekeeper.” Then he
leaned forward and whispered, “It’s the strangest thing, Brighton. After Marion passed on, I just can’t seem to remember the names of these housekeepers. They are all very nice
people, but no one’s ever been able to replace Marion.” Marion had lived until she was in
her nineties. And after she’d died, Dexter never had another live-in housekeeper again.
He hired daytime help. They came in at eight and left at six, with Thursdays and Sundays
off. Most only lasted a few years at a time.
Brighton reached for his hand and smiled. “I know, Dad. I think about her every
day of my life. She was family. I feel kind of guilty. She would have been mortified to
see us going out to a restaurant on your ninetieth birthday. She would have insisted we
celebrate right here in Keel Cottage, with a large platter of lobsters and a homemade
birthday cake.”
Dexter turned away from Brighton and smiled at Captain Lang. He shrugged his
shoulders. He would have preferred to celebrate his birthday at home, with Lang by his
side. “Yes she would have been upset,” he said. “She knew how I liked celebrating things
like this in my own home.”
“I wish I were more of a cook,” Brighton said.
“Don’t give it a second thought,” Dexter said. “I’ve been looking forward to this
night for a long time. I’m just happy to be with you whenever I can. I’m glad you came
home, Brighton.”
While they were having coffee and light refreshments, Michael returned from his
walk. Brighton hadn’t seen her other father in a long time. She jumped up and hugged
him, then scolded him nicely for not calling her as often as he should have.
When Elliot and James arrived at Keel Cottage, they all walked to the restaurant
together. It was only a five-minute walk and it was pointless to take cars. Provincetown wasn’t crowded with tourists yet, so they almost had the entire restaurant to themselves.
The host escorted them to a private section at the back of the building, overlooking the
ocean. Dexter hooked his cane to the back of a chair and sat down at the head of the table.
After they ordered, Elliot lifted his glass and made a toast, “To the best friend I’ve
ever had,” he said. His hand shook and he almost spilled his drink, but that didn’t stop
him from clicking his glass against Dexter’s.
They laughed about the past, and James Campbell joked about Dexter writing
another book. Dexter had written more than forty books by the time he’d turned seventy.
This even shocked him. He’d never imagined that a child TV star would become a
famous author. All his books were novels about the sea, filled with action and adventure.
And he’d written them all with Captain Lang.
When the waitress brought out a large birthday cake, with ninety burning candles,
Dexter smiled and pressed his palm to his chest. His eyes opened wide and he felt light
headed. Everyone thought he was staring at the cake. But he didn’t even notice the cake.
His right hand started to wobble. He couldn’t control the shaking. The right side of his
body felt numb and his right cheek twitched. When everyone stood up to applaud him,
Dexter’s head went down, he slipped off the chair, and fell to the floor.
The next thing he remembered was waking up in a strange place. Brighton was at
his side. When she saw his eyes open, she leaned forward and whispered, “It’s okay, Dad.
You’re going to be fine. We’re in the hospital in Hyannis.”
Dexter tried to sit up, but he couldn’t move the right side of his body. When he
opened his mouth to speak, the right side wouldn’t move. His voice sounded hollow and
slurred and he couldn’t pronounce hard consonants. He mumbled, “What happened?” Brighton reached for his hand. “You had a stroke, Dad. But you’re going to be
fine.”
Dexter lowered his eyebrows. He slowly lifted his left hand and said, “Home. I
want to go home.” He didn’t care what Brighton or the doctors had to say. He knew he
was dying. He felt it with every fiber of his being.
Brighton tried to placate him, and to reassure him he was in the best possible
place. But he refused to listen. By the end of that day, he turned his head and refused to
look at her. She sat back in a chair and started to cry. Jasper was with her. Michael was
sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. This was the first time in a long time they
had disagreed about anything.
Michael stood up and crossed to where she was sitting. He put his arm on her
shoulder. “Maybe he is better off in his own home.”
She looked up at Michael and tilted her head. He’d turned out to be a decent
father. Even though he’d always lived on the West Coast, Brighton had grown up
knowing him and he’d always been there for the important parts of her life. “I don’t know,
Dad,” she said. “I’m terrified. I’ve never been so scared in my life. I don’t want to lose
him.” She clenched her fists and pressed them to her forehead.
Dexter opened his eyes and stared at her. He lifted his head from the pillow as far
as he could and pointed. Then he smiled and said, “I just want to go home to Keel
Cottage. I don’t want to die here. I want to die in my own home.” He’d been lucky in life;
this was the first time he’d ever been hospitalized. She stood up, leaned against the hospital bed, and rested her head on his chest.
While tears rolled down her face, she hugged Dexter and said, “I’ll take you home, Dad.
I’ll arrange for a discharge tomorrow.”
Michael took a deep breath and patted Dexter’s foot. “You’re doing the right
thing, sweetheart.” Then he winked at Dexter.
Two days later, Dexter was back at Keel Cottage in his own bedroom. Brighton
had hired a nurse and they’d filled his room with hospital equipment. While the nurse
checked the machines and Brighton sat at the foot of the bed, Captain Lang stood at
Dexter’s side. Brighton couldn’t understand why Dexter kept looking up toward the
window all the time. She couldn’t see Lang. She still had no idea he was there and that he
was offering support and guidance to the only man he’d ever loved, in life or death. Her
eyes opened wide when Dexter mumbled to the window. Dexter’s eyes were clear and
the left side of his face went up as if he were trying to smile.
Then one evening while Dexter was staring at Captain Lang, Brighton reached for
Dexter’s hand and said, “You’re looking at him right now, aren’t you?”
Dexter’s head slowly turned in her direction. He raised his one eyebrow and
nodded yes. “You know about him?”
She nodded and squeezed his hand tighter. “I’ve always known someone else was
here in Keel Cottage. When I was a child and I fell from the widow’s walk, I know
someone saved my life. I was too young to realize it then, but when I got older I started to
understand. I remembered being caught in mid-air. Someone, or something, carried me
down to the shrubs and placed me gently on top of them. After that, someone used to tuck
me into bed at night. I think it was a man. I think I even saw him once. He thought I was sleeping. But I was waiting to see if he’d come into the room. I remember a tall man in a
dark suit, just like the one in the painting downstairs.”
Dexter smiled and looked up at Captain Lang. “I’ve had a good, long life,” he said.
After that, Dexter lingered for another week. On a breezy night the Friday of
Memorial Day weekend, he woke from a deep sleep and saw Brighton sitting at the foot
of the bed. Jasper was there, all his grandchildren and great-grandchildren were there, and
Elliot and James were sitting in the wing chairs by the fireplace reminiscing about Jesse
Barlow. They were talking about how much they missed watching Jesse’s shows on TV
and how his death in that awful car accident was way before his time. Michael was sitting
on the window seat. He was staring at Dexter with tears in his eyes, shaking his head.
When Dexter lifted his head, they all stopped talking and stared at him. Brighton
leaned forward and Jasper placed his hand on her back. Dexter smiled and looked over
their shoulders. He saw Marion standing next to Jesse Barlow near the fireplace. They
were illuminated by a soft white light that slowed his heart. Jesse and Marion were not
crying and they were not shaking their heads. They were smiling at Dexter. Their arms
were stretched out and they were motioning him to join them. Dexter smiled back at them
and looked down at the foot of the bed. His little dog Cleo was sitting next to his feet,
wagging his tail. When Cleo barked and shook his head back and forth, the metal
identification tags that had always been attached to his collar clinked softly.
Brighton stood up and went to his side. “What’s wrong, Dad? Do you want
something?”
Dexter rested his head on the pillow and looked up toward the window. Captain
Lang was standing there. His strong hand was on Dexter’s shoulder and he was smiling. “Are you ready, Dexter?” he asked. “I’m going to take you with me now, so we can be
together forever.”
Dexter felt a surge of energy pass through his entire body. He smiled and said, “I
see Marion, and Cleo, and even Jesse Barlow.” He hadn’t thought about Jesse Barlow or
the reality show in years.
“They came for support,” Captain Lang said. “They know you’re ready to join me
now. You don’t have to be afraid anymore. You can let go. It’s time.”
Brighton thought he was talking to her. She pressed her palm to her chest and said,
“You just had a dream, Dad. You’re fine. You’re going to be just fine. I love you. Hang
on.”
Dexter turned to her and smiled. “I love you, too.” His voice still wobbled, but he
spoke almost as clearly as he’d spoken the day before the stroke. He turned to the rest of
them and smiled. He saw his friends and his family. “I love you all,” he said.
Then his eyes opened wide and he took one last shallow breath. His chest heaved,
his body went forward, and his eyes opened wide.
When his body went back and settled into the sheets with a quiet thud, everyone
in the room leaned forward. Brighton let out a soft cry and held his hand. Jasper grabbed
Brighton’s shoulders and said, “He’d gone, sweetheart. He’s at peace now. There’s no
more pain.”
While the rest of them consoled each other with tears in their eyes, Dexter’s
young body appeared in the outline of his ninety-year-old body. The image of the
handsome young Dexter sat up on the bed. It slipped out of the old body with little effort.
Dexter looked down at his arms and legs and shook his head. Captain Lang smiled and leaned forward, then he lifted the young Dexter from the
bed and looked into his eyes. “There’s no more pain, Dexter. You’re the same
magnificent young man you were when I first met you.”
Dexter lifted his arms and rested them on Captain Lang’s shoulders. He placed his
head on Lang’s chest and said, “I can’t believe how wonderful I feel. I haven’t felt this
good in over fifty years.” His arthritic joints were limber again; his body was hard and
strong. He could see clearly without eyeglasses.
“Would you like to go up to the widow’s walk now and look at the stars?”
Captain Lang asked. “We can do anything we want now, Dexter. We’re finally free.”
“Yes,” Dexter said. “Take me up there and show me how much you love me. I
want it to be just like the first time we made love.”
Captain Lang turned toward the fireplace. He carried Dexter across the room.
They passed through Dexter’s friends and family without being noticed. When they
reached the mantel, Captain Lang said, “Are you ready, my love?”
Dexter nodded yes and said, “I’ve been ready for a long time.”
THE END
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