Chapter 17
Old Friends
The doorbell rang at the most inconvenient moment possible. She was stirring the white sauce, and the cookbook said it must be stirred continuously. "Damn!" She pulled the pan off the heat, and started for the front door. If it was the Avon lady, she was going to get blasted.
It wasn’t Avon calling. It was Johner, and he was carrying in his arms another man; a little wizened man who looked very unwell. Connor opened the door wide to let them in, staring at Johner with covert astonishment.
"Sorry, I couldn’t manage the lock. Connor, this is Vriess. You’ve heard me mention his name many times, I’m sure." He looked at her meaningfully. "Right?"
"Sure, I remember. Glad to meet one of Johner’s old shipmates. Come in, come in." She led the way to the kitchen, the place where most of the living in the house was done. Johner put Vriess down carefully in a chair at the kitchen table, and sat down himself in another one.
"What can I get you? Coffee?
A beer?" Sarah smiled at Vriess. He smiled back hesitantly.
"A beer would go good."
"Johner?"
"Yeah, a beer."
When Sarah returned from the fridge with two beers, Vriess was surveying the kitchen. "You live here?" he said to Johner.
"Yeah."
"With her?"
"Yeah."
Vriess put the bottle to his lips and took a long swig. "Christ Almighty! You lucky son of a bitch! You come out of the Betty without a scratch, and then you fall into this! You goddamn lucky son of a bitch!" He stopped talking suddenly and looked over at Sarah, embarrassed. "Sorry, ma’am. Excuse my language."
"It’s OK, don’t excuse yourself. He is a lucky son of a bitch; that’s what I’ve been telling him ever since he walked in here." Sarah grinned at him.
Vriess grinned back, and turned to Johner. "She’s OK!"
"She’s better than OK. And I am a lucky son of a bitch." Johner stood up and put his arm around Sarah. As he did so, his glance lighted on the stove. "Connor? Are you cooking?"
"Yes. So what?" She moved defensively in front of the stove, shielding what was there from him.
"Let’s see." He moved to see behind her, grinning broadly.
"Never mind. Just mind you own business!" She fended him off, laughing, shifting to keep herself between him and the stove.
"Hm-m, I see you’ve got the cookbook out. You were serious, weren’t you!" He turned to Vriess. "She can’t boil water; TV dinners are her specialty. I do the cooking around here." He made a sudden move and got past Sarah’s defense. "What’s this? White sauce? What were you going to put it on?"
Sarah was laughing helplessly. "I hadn’t got that far yet. I thought I should start with something basic; you know, white sauce. The cookbook says it’s the basis for ‘a myriad of delicious sauces.’ And it would have turned out, too, but the doorbell rang right in the middle! What are you doing home anyway? I thought I had time to do this in private."
"Connor, I’m going to be here for a long, long time. You don’t have to cook. Please." He grinned at her and turned to Vriess again.
"Hey, looks like you’re about played out." Vriess was slumped in the chair, his head hanging down. "Let’s get you in bed." He picked Vriess up in his arms and headed for the hall, motioning Sarah with his head to come along. "He’s just out of the hospital. He needs to get horizontal."
Vriess’s head came up. "I’m all right. Chrissake, Johner, I’m OK!"
"Shut up, Vriess. You’re going to bed."
Sarah moved ahead of Johner to open the door to his bedroom, crossed the floor to the bed, and turned down the covers. "Get him undressed, Johner. I’ll bring some pajamas." She left the room, and came back a minute later with a pair of John’s pajamas. "Do you need any other help? No? Then I’ll let you get on with it."
When Johner returned to the kitchen a few minutes later, she was scraping the last of the white sauce into the sink. She ran water in the pan, and then came to sit across from him at the table. "Tell me about it."
"I finally remembered to go by the hospital to pick up that sweater you left there. When I came out, I saw Vriess sitting in a wheel chair outside. I hadn’t got anything out of my mouth but ‘Hello’ when the nurse with him starts yelling at me. "So you finally showed up. I’ve got better things to do than stand outside with this unpleasant little man for two hours!" and she turned around and stomped into the hospital.
"It seems that someone was supposed to come by and pick him up, but they never showed. Well, I couldn’t just leave him there. I hope it’s OK with you?"
"Yes, of course it’s OK. You certainly couldn’t leave him there. What’s the matter with him? I mean outside of the paralysis. What was he in the hospital for?"
"I couldn’t get much but swearing out of him about the hospital. He liked it about as much as I did." He grinned at her, but sobered quickly. "I don’t think he’s in very good shape. He looks thinner and sicker than I remember him being."
Sarah nodded. "He doesn’t look good. I’ll call the hospital and find out who his doctor is. We’ll need to know what to do for him."
"You’re just going to take him in, aren’t you? Just like that, no questions asked."
"Johner, he’s the last person left of your old shipmates. Of course we’ll take him in. He’s helpless; he needs us."
"God, I love you, Connor."
********
"I talked to the doctor. He’s very sick. He’s not going to live very long."
Johner looked down at his hands. "I was afraid of that. God, I’m glad I happened to go by the hospital. He’s been staying in a rooming house for disabled people. He hasn’t said much, but I think waiting for two hours for someone to come and get him at the hospital is typical. It wasn’t a good place."
"Poor man! He’s had a terrible deal from life, but the last part will be better. We’ll see to it."
"Thank you, Connor. Taking
in my dying buddies wasn’t part of the original deal. I don’t know
how to get it across just how grateful I am for this; there aren’t any
words for it." Johner took her hand, lifted it to his mouth and kissed
the palm, his mouth lingering until she brought up her other hand to cup
his chin, and kissed him softly. He looked down at her with
adoration. "I love you more every day---every day."
"It’s a question of human kindness; he’s got no one but us. You don’t owe me for this, Johner. We’re going to do it together, and we’ll like ourselves more when it’s done."
*******
John and Vriess got along like nobody’s business. Vreiss’s stories delighted John, and he loved having an appreciative audience.
"I think his happiest hours have been those spent with John. Whoever would have thought it." Sarah smiled up at Johner. "And John is having the time of his life. He’s never been around anyone like Vriess since he was old enough to be accepted as an adult. When he was a kid there were people like Vriess, but they always shut up when he was around, and he knew he was missing the best stories. But Vriess is giving him the full treatment, he’s not missing a thing.
"Some of the stories are about you, Johner. John’s getting a new slant on you too. Is that worrying you?"
"Yes, to tell you the truth it is, a little. I wasn’t someone that he would have liked, Connor. I wasn’t someone that anyone would have liked." Johner turned his face away from her. "I’m not proud of my past life; I try not to think about it. What I have now---what we have---is so---" He stopped, shaking his head. "There’s no way to make the two halves of my life fit together."
"They don’t have to, Johner. You’re here with me now, and it’s the way you are now that’s important. John understands that."
"Yes. Yes, that’s right" His arms went around her, and he held her tightly to him, "Now is what’s important."
********
Johner and Vriess didn’t talk much about the days on the Betty, or about their shipmates. Those days were gone, and the people were gone too.
"But you sure came up smelling like a damn rose!" Vriess shook his head. "How in the hell did you ever get her? She’s something else. She’s a real woman!"
"She sure is. I don’t know how it happened, I’m still amazed by the whole thing."
"Is it her doing that you’ve changed so much?"
"Have I?"
"Ha! You know damn well! In the old days you’d have dumped me in the trash and walked away."
He looked away from Johner, turning his head so his face couldn’t be seen. When he spoke again his voice was very low. "Thanks, Johner."
Johner was seized with embarrassment. "Hey, it must be her doing. I can’t figure why anyone would want to keep a bum like you around! I’d never do it on my own."
"Sure, you wouldn’t. You didn’t pick me up and carry me away from the hospital, did you. You didn’t haul me all the way home and plunk me down in her kitchen, did you. You dumb shit, take credit for it! It’s prob’ly the only thing that’ll get you into Heaven!"
They laughed, both relieved at having got over the moment of emotion so foreign to their relationship.
*******
Vriess died in Johner’s bed, two months to the day from the day Johner brought him home. He didn’t seem to suffer, the doctor agreed that he wasn’t in pain; his paralysis simply crept up and killed him. His last days were peaceful, he just ate less, and talked less, and at last quit breathing very quietly while Johner sat with him in companionable silence.
"It was good. It was a good way for him to go. I think we did good." Johner held Sarah in his arms, rocking her a little. They had just come home from taking care of the last arrangements; it was all over.
"Yes. We did good." Sarah reached up to kiss him.
"Do that again. I like that." He kissed her again, with rising passion. "We’re alive, Connor. Let’s go to bed. I love you."
********
Johner stretched and turned over to his side, propping himself on his elbow. "It’s funny how death does that; makes you want to make love. Is that because you’re trying to make a baby to replace the person that’s gone?"
"I don’t know. I didn’t know that even happens. Is that true?" She sat up, her interest caught.
"I think it is. It’s happened to me before." His face became still as his thoughts turned inward. In a minute he said, "I’ve seen a few people die, more than I like to think about, and it’s been right there every time. I couldn’t always do anything about it, but it’s sure been there."
"I thought about going to bed with you all the way home, but I thought it was just because you’re so sexy." She grinned at him.
"Well, that too." His eyes laughed at her. "I don’t know how you ever resist me long enough to get out of bed."
"I don’t either. Maybe I’ll just stay here with you. John can bring us food on the weekends."
"If we don’t go to work, there won’t be any food."
"Oh. That’s right. We’ll have to get up."
"Maybe so, but not yet. Come
here." Laughing, he pulled her down beside him, and rolled his big
body to cover hers.