Dickens and Me

CHAPTER TEN
(copyright 2009 Anita Birt)
Aching and dog-tired Caroline fell into bed as daylight faded into early evening. The accident on Sunday had ruined her three day week-end. The bruises and after shock had shaken her up. The car racing straight towards her. Her life hanging in the balance.
She'd gone into work for a few hours in the morning hoping to feel normal.
Normal?
What was normal any more?
Sleep eluded her. Trapped on an emotional roller coaster ride, unable to get off, she was up one minute and down the next.
Greg's return to Markbridge. The accident. His involvement.
She should phone and tell him she had passed his information about Big Jack Weaver to Sergeant Masters and the police had tracked him down. Or was keeping in touch with Greg asking for trouble?
Trouble? What kind of trouble?
Seeing Greg at the airport with his wife and baby. Peter Somerville's marriage to Dr. Moreland's daughter, that kind of trouble. Too many people from the past circling her.
She hadn't handled the situation with Greg well. It was as if he'd dropped into her life and put down roots.
He wasn't leaving Markbridge. Unless she changed her mind and cancelled her contract neither was she. She'd phone him after work tomorrow, tell him the police had succeeded in locating Big Jack and the threatened lawsuit had collapsed. Then she'd deal with the problem she'd created.
Unanswered questions buzzed in her. Unable to relax she got out of bed, put the kettle on and made some tea.
Mug in hand, she wandered over to the sitting room window that overlooked the park across the street. A full moon slowly crested the trees.
A June moon. A lover's moon.
Why a lover's moon?
Why not?
The ringing phone startled her. Thinking there might be an emergency at the hospital, she grabbed it on the second ring. The familiar ID on the display lifted her spirits.
"Hi Vickie."
"Hi, yourself. I've been expecting you to call."
Caroline blinked. "You have?" Although her old college roommate lived in Hawaii she had an uncanny sense of knowing when Caroline needed her.
"Okay, what's up? I've been thinking about you all day."
"How much time do you have?"
"All the time in the world. The baby's in bed and Seth is building a bat house in his workshop."
Caroline's spirits lifted. She'd been Vickie's only bridesmaid when she married Seth. He'd whisked Vickie off to live in Kauai but distance hadn't affected their friendship.
Caroline curled up on the sofa and imagined her friend doing the same. "Remember I told you about Greg Fraser?"
"The rat dumped you when you were pregnant."
"He's back in town."
"So? Avoid him."
"It's not that easy. Here's what's happened."
Vickie didn't say a word until Caroline had finished.
"Rotten luck about your bike but you're damned lucky to be alive so what are you going to do about Greg?"
"I can't avoid running into him. Markbridge is a small town.
"You can give him the cold shoulder. I've seen you freeze guys in their tracks who came on to you."
"I've been thinking I'd meet with Dr. Halliday and Dr. Moreland and ask them to release me from my contract."
"Can you do that? Last time we talked you told me the clinic was short staffed."
Caroline sighed. "You're right. For the time being breaking my contract is out of the question. We're already stretched to the limit." She'd signed for two years with an option to stay on if she wished.
Wished?
She wished she had never returned.
Everything would have been fine if Greg had stayed in Africa. If he hadn't walked in to the clinic. If she hadn't met him at the lake. If she hadn't had the accident. If she hadn't seen him at the airport.
If.
"Here's what I think," Vickie said. "Greg hasn't recognized you. If it'd make you feel better, talk to him, tell him who you are, get it off your chest, then forget him. He's nothing to you. Never has been."
Caroline sipped her cold tea. "That's what I should have done, but haven't got around to it."
"Then do it. And phone me next week."
Feeling as though a burden had been lifted from her shoulders, Caroline hung up the phone. Sensible Vickie had hit the nail right on the head.
She dumped the cold tea in the kitchen sink, rinsed the mug and returned to bed.
Greg had wiped her from his memory and was married with a baby.
Strange, she thought. He claimed to have a photographic memory but hadn't remembered her. Her eyes hadn't changed. A long time ago he'd looked into them and remarked on the color.
"Blue shading to violet," he'd said.
In the midst of noisy laughter from the students grouped around the drink-laden table at the Ottawa hotel, a warm glow had swept through her. No one had ever remarked on her eyes. For the best looking boy there to notice them made her feel special. She'd ordered another drink not to appear shy.
A shaft of moonlight shimmering through her bedroom curtains wove a pattern on the wall. Something like her life, Caroline thought, a weaving of her thirty-one years. By coming back to Markbridge she had complicated her life and it was up to her to uncomplicate it.
She'd work out her two year contract at the clinic. It would be dishonorable to abandon her patients.
If someone remembered Kate Southern it wouldn't be the worst thing that had ever happened to her.
Breathing deeply, she turned her back on the moonlight and snuggled under the covers.
* * * * *
Greg picked up the spoon David had thrown across the room and dropped it on the kitchen table. "I guess you won't need this."
Jar of peaches in his hand, Greg pulled his chair in front of David and sat down. "It's getting late, little fella, time to eat."
He dipped the teaspoon into the jar of peaches. Full of good will and confidence he prepared to feed the baby. "Open your mouth."
David grabbed at the spoon. Greg lost his grip. The spoon ricocheted off the tray, spilled the contents on Greg's lap and clattered on the floor.
"Wawawa!" David bounced in the chair. "Wawawa!"
Greg studied his soiled pants. How could one teaspoon of baby peaches make such a mess? He had baby puke on his shirt, baby pee on his face and baby peaches on his pants.
"Wawawa!" David shrieked and pointed at the spoon on the table.
His confidence evaporating by the minute, Greg puzzled over the meaning of wawawa as David bounced higher in his chair and thumped his fists on the tray.
A light dawned in Greg's befuddled brain. Spoon! Maybe wawawa means spoon. Smiling at his brilliance he handed David the spoon.
Bang! He drummed on the tray.
Greg put the jar of peaches on the kitchen counter and wiped peaches off his pants. He got a clean spoon, grasped the little jar, sat down and dipped the spoon into the fruit.
Like a soldier going into battle he approached David cautiously. "Time to eat. Open your mouth for Uncle Greg."
David clamped his lips together and shook his head.
"Come on. Be a sport. Open your mouth." Greg pleaded hoping the kid felt sorry for him.
David drummed on the tray.
"You have to eat. If you don't eat you'll get sick and it'll be my fault."
Greg tried different tactics. Peaches balanced on the spoon he sneaked up from behind the chair hoping to catch David by surprise. Didn't work.
He pretended the spoon was an airplane and flew it towards David's mouth. Didn't work.
The resistance of a six month old kid defeated him. He dropped the spoon in the sink and emptied the half eaten jar of peaches into the trash. First round to David.
Another tactic was called for. Greg freed him from the chair and lifted him up. "Let's go outside and look at the ducks before it gets too dark."
He pried the banging spoon from David's fingers. "Sorry, kid. I don't want you whacking me on the head. You've got a wicked throwing arm."
"Wawawa!" David shrieked and bounced in Greg's arms.
"No spoon. We're going for a walk."
With Kim dogging his footsteps Greg carried David out on the veranda and down the steps.
A blue jay flew down and perched on the swing. "Look at that! That's a blue jay."
David pointed. "Wa."
"Blue jay," Greg said.
"Wa." David smiled.
A good omen, Greg decided. "I'm going to call you, Davie, from now on. It's a better name for a baby. It's got a peaceful sound. What do you think, Davie?"
"Wa."
"That's what I figured."
Most of the light had left the sky by the time they finished talking to the blue jay. Anything for a quiet life, Greg thought. If Davie liked talking to birds, they'd talk to birds.
They meandered down to the duck pond where a couple of inches of muddy water remained. The moon rose slowly over the eastern hills.
Davie bounced. "Wa!" He pointed at the ducks messing around in the shallows.
"Ducks," Greg said. Caroline had interrupted his pond digging yesterday and he'd left his shovel on the pile of muck he'd dredged from the pond. She'd seemed okay drinking the beer, a bit edgy, but he hadn't expected her to fly off the handle when he'd mentioned relationship.
He wasn't talking about jumping into bed. He meant a couple of unattached people getting to know each other. After that...?
"Wa," said Davie and pointed at Kim.
"Wa." Greg nodded agreeably. Wa was an all-purpose word good for any number of things. Babies had a lot to teach adults. Keep it simple.
Ducks had limited entertainment value. "Time for a change of scene, Davie. We'll sit on the swing for a while. Then it'll be time for bed."
Greg dreaded putting the kid to bed. What if he wouldn't go? What if he screamed the place down? What if he held his breath?
His nephew had a powerful presence. He wasn't the logical little creature Greg had envisioned. He'd expected a docile, amenable child. What he got was a force to be reckoned with. Probably a sign of superior intelligence or a developing criminal mind.
Greg sat on the swing hoping to soothe Davie into a somnolent state. He'd only had the kid for a couple of hours and was exhausted. How did mothers cope?
He pushed the slats beneath his feet and the swing moved gently back and forth. Closing his eyes, he hummed tunelessly and Davie relaxed against his shoulder. The wiry little body rested quietly in his arms. Temporarily at peace Greg breathed deeply.
A car driving up disturbed his reverie. Resenting the intrusion, he opened his eyes. The driver had parked beside the house. Greg didn't recognize the car. Kim barked and raced to intercept the visitor.
Davie jerked up like a jack-in-the box.
"Wa," he cried. "Wa!"
"Oh damn," Greg muttered. "The kids going to have a tantrum."
He patted Davie's back in a fatherly manner and stepped off the swing.
"Greg, call off the brute." A man leaned out the car window.
"Jack?" Greg hustled up the slope. "Where the hell did you come from?" He hadn't seen his old high school buddy for years.
"Does the animal bite?" Jack got out of the car.
"Hasn't yet." Greg grabbed his hand. "How did you know I was home?"
Davie buried his face on Greg's shoulder. "Wa," he cried.
"Somebody told me you were back in Canada but I didn't know you were married." Jack grinned. "Who's the lucky lady?"
"No lucky lady. I'm minding Laura's baby for a couple of days. She left me with a book of instructions. Come on in. What are you doing in town?"
"Came to visit Pete and his wife. He's married and living in Markbridge."
Greg cuddled Davie and led the way to the kitchen. "Let's have a beer and tell me what you've been up to. I've lost touch with the old crowd."
He got two beers from the fridge. "You open them." He sat at the kitchen table with Davie crooked in his left arm.
Jack opened the bottles and pulled out a chair. "How long have you been home?"
"A few weeks." Greg swigged some beer. "I've visited your old house a couple of times. When did your parents sell?"
"Two years ago." Jack said. "Do you know someone living there?"
"Dr. Caroline Balfour. She's on the staff at the medical clinic."
Jack tipped back in his chair. "Young? Pretty? Are you dating? It's time you settled down."
"I'm not dating and I'd think twice about dating Caroline."
"Hasn't she fallen for your legendary charm?" Jack hooted and chugged down his beer.
Greg smiled at the memory. "You entered me in that stupid contest when I was eighteen. I should have throttled you on the spot."
"But you won the prize as Most Charming Student."
"Against my will, I might add." The baby squirmed. Greg held him up against his shoulder and patted his back. "You said Pete was married. What about you?"
"Married with three kids. Mary is six, Bobby is four and Melanie is two. We're expecting our fourth in September."
Greg could not imagine three children and a fourth on the way. It boggled his mind. "So how long have you been married?"
"Tansy's my second wife. We've been married eight years. I came home to visit my folks after the divorce and met Tansy Thomas. Do you remember her? She went to school with us. Wonderful woman."
Greg almost choked on his beer. Tansy Thomas? He'd lost his virginity to Tansy when he was fifteen and she was fourteen. She'd sizzled with sex. Sexy Tansy had offered herself to every boy in her privileged circle. How in the hell had Jack fallen for her?
"Sure I remember her." He changed the subject. "Are you still coaching at Michigan State?"
"Left after five years. I'm with a brokerage firm in Detroit. What about you?"
"Spent eight years in Africa. Haven't decided what to do now I'm home. My parents are out of the country for a couple of months so I'm holding the fort here until they return. After that I'm not sure whether I'll stay in Canada or do more climbing.
"I'm supposed to meet with an international team in London in October to clean up Mt. Everest. It's littered with oxygen bottles and other junk."
"Tansy would have my hide if I suggested getting involved in something like that."
Davie stiffened and squeezed. Greg had his hand cupped around the baby's bum. Something soft and smelly bubbled into the kid's diaper. Even through his baby jeans he smelled awful.
Greg stood, put his beer on the table and held Davie at arm's length. "I think he's pooped." His voice quavered. "I've got to change him. I've never done it before."
"Hey, man, let me help. I'm an expert at cleaning babies."
"You're on." Greg led Jack upstairs and opened the bedroom window to freshen the air. "I didn't know babies smelled so bad."
Jack laughed. "Put him on the change table. This is nothing. Wait until he's eating lots of solid food. That's when he'll stink."
"But I won't be minding him then." Greg said.

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