Brian and Christine
Book Three
Saint Jane's
Part 45
Brian finished his cigarette, rose, saw in the distance the little girl doing cartwheels and then returned to his home refreshed. His anger had subsided. He thought that the day would come soon when all of the experiences he and Christy had shared together would eventually purchase enough recovery from her most recent nightmarish episode to allow her to appear back into his life once again Patience and compassion were the tools he needed now more than anything. Forget your toes, he said to himself, they’re gone. Forget the troll brains. Forget that bitch Mother Magda, the faux nun, and her “enterprise.” And if Lojak doesn’t want to do your film, then to hell with him. He’s not the only actor in Hollywood.
Back home he wanted some companionship, so he went into the kitchen and found Mrs. Romero fussing with dishes and things.
“Hello Mr. Sims. What can I get you? A drink? Some coffee?”
“Is there a pot on?”
“I put one on right now.” She did.
Brian sat at the table and said “How are things with you?”
“Oh they’re fine Mr. Sims. Juan is out in the back working in the yard. Do you want to see him?”
“No, if he’s busy let him be.”
“Oh. Here he is.”
Just at that moment Juan Romero came in through the back door, took off some work gloves and said “Hello Mr. Sims. Is there a problem, sir?”
“No Juan, no problem. I just thought I’d sit in my own kitchen, have a cup of coffee and some company. Will you have a seat?”
“Thank you, sir.” Juan sat at the table leaving room for Maria.
“How are things?”
“Oh, fine, sir. I put some more fertilizer under that one palm tree that was looking not good. And I clipped the hedge.”
“Sounds good.”
Maria poured a cup of coffee for Brian and set it in front of him.
“Will you join me?”
She smiled, poured two more cups, brought them to the table and sat.
“When will be the wedding?” she asked.
“We don’t quite know yet. We have to wait for Christy to get adjusted to being away from that place she was in and readjusted to me.”
“Such a sweet girl. They came over to swim and she came right in here first thing to say hello.”
“Were you here, Juan, when she came in?”
“No, sir, why?”
“She is apparently having a little trouble dealing with men.”
“Oh, she will get over that” said Mrs. Romero.
“I hope so” said Brian.
“She will.”
“I wanted to ask you something, sir.”
“Yes.”
“After you are married will there be any changes?”
“Oh, no doubt there will be a lot of changes. But you mean will there be any changes in your positions here?”
“Yes, sir.”
“No, none at all. I’m very satisfied having the two of you here. You’ve been a great help to me. I plan to stay living here. I’m hoping that Wendy and Christy will also live here. That will give you more to do, I’m sure. So I’ll raise you wages accordingly. If you don’t mind.”
They laughed.
“You take good care of us, sir, but, no, we don’t mind.”
“It will be nice to have them here” said Mrs. Romero.
After some small talk, Brian finished his coffee, thanked them for the chat and went back to his computer.
He sat down in front of it, thought for a moment about the Romeros, about his quiet time in the park and about Jane. Then he reached over, deleted “I’m angry” and started a new page about a young girl who does cartwheels.
(To be continued.)
3 comments:
That was a nice entry. Glad Brian found a way to get past the anger and look forward, and that the Romero's will stay on :o)
Oh, I liked this very much, too. I'm so glad that Brian has regained his equilibrium and is now focusing on the future in a positive way. Yay!
Hugs, Beth
*sigh* This was a good way to for Brian to find a peace of mind. Sometimes, you don't know when your relief is going to arrive, but you do know it when it does!
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