CAPTAIN OBLIVIOUS PART 1
This is a Greenville story.
Preamble Ramble - As with most of my stories I started with a sentence or word that caught my eye and tried to build a story around it. The word Oblivious caught my eye in a story. And I was watching a TV show at the same time when they called someone Captain Obvious.
Is there anything new in this story. Not really. It's hard to come up with something new. The best you can hope for is better writing and or better characters. Maybe make people feel what the characters are feeling.
Its taken me more than a month to finish this story. II have another story I've been working on for 2 months. Oneof the characters from that story is in this one. This is a two part story because I was having issues closing it out on its current trajectory and realized the finish I'm working with this would be good by telling a version of what Helene is dealing with.
For those who say I always have happy endings not in this story.
I encourage comments. Hopefully they have helped me be a better writer.
I hope you enjoy it.
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They say love is blind. In my case its deaf and dumb also. I had been happily married to the love of my life, Helene for sixteen years. We never made it our 17
th
because of the divorce last year.
We met in the Emergency Room of Greenville Memorial of all places. I was there waiting for a friend who had been in an accident and she was there for the same reason. Turned out they were both in the same accident but different cars. We got to talking while waiting to hear word of our friends injuries in the waiting room. I learned she had recently moved to Greenville from High Point for a job at an engineering company 8 months ago. She wasn't an engineer herself. She worked in Human Resources. Had graduated from High Point University. Most of her family lived in Wilmington. She had two older brothers. She's the youngest at 23, three years younger than me. I had noticed she didn't have a ring on so I assumed she was single but didn't broach that subject.
Helene is very pretty. Average height for a woman, 5 foot 5 inches. Auburn hair and brown eyes. She was a little curvy, not pudgy, I think the Black guys would call her thick. You could tell she used to play some type of sports. I thought either softball or field hockey. She had a great smile and considering the circumstances was quite easy to talk to.
After 2 hours a nurse came out to me asking if I was family. I lied and said I was his brother. He told me my buddy Alex would be released soon with a broken arm but overall he was okay. I told her I would wait and take him home.
When the doctor left Helene asked if I was a friend or relative. I explained they would only give information to a relative so I fibbed a little bit. As I was waiting for Alex to be released the nurse came out and explained that her "sister" was more injured then "my brother" so she was to be kept overnight. She was than allowed to go back to her room until they moved her upstairs into a regular room. I took the risk and gave her my number and asked her to call me sometime. She took my number with a smile and walked through the triage doors to her friends room.
Alex came out 45 minutes later. I didn't tell him about meeting Helene. Nothing more embarrassing then bragging about meeting a pretty lady and her never calling. I drove him home stopping at the pharmacy to pick up some pain meds and dropped him off at his apartment. I've known Alex forever. We went to the same high school together. Were on the soccer team our junior and senior years. He went on to play at UNC Pembroke for a couple of years.
Me, I'm Mark Seeny, a hometown boy through and through. Lived in Greenville all my life. I went to Belmont College for a couple of years and majored in business. I always liked working with my hands. My dad had a wood shop in the back yard that I pretty much lived in when I wasn't in school. Those 2 years in college made me realize I wasn't suited for the corporate life if it was anything like school. So with the help of my parents I went into business for myself. First making small wood products I would sell at local farmer markets which lead to doing custom work. If it involves wood I can make it, from tables to cabinets. I've been very successful. I caught the wave of the building boom in the city. I now employee 6 people and a nice older lady who runs my office. Its not glamorous but it more than pays the bills. I could probably double what I do now but its not what I want. I like to be hands on. I don't micro manage. I have good people who know what to do.
Helene called me two weeks later. My phone rang with an unknown number. I answered it because it could be business. I get a lot of referrals so I always answer the phone. "This is Mark"
"Hi Mark, I don't know if you remember me from the ER a couple of weeks ago?"
"How could I forget. I thought you had forgot about me." I hoped she could hear my smile through the phone.
"No, I didn't forget. There was some issues at the job that took a lot of my time and when I got home that night I was pretty wiped out. And I've also been helping Diane when she got out of the hospital."
"How is she doing by the way. I hope her injuries weren't to serious."
"Thanks for asking, she's getting there. She has a broken leg they had to do surgery on and fractured hip. Her mother flew in to help out for a while last week so it took some pressure off me."
We talked for another 30 minutes before agreeing to meet for dinner that weekend. Nothing fancy, Eddies Place in Charlotte on Saturday. Our first date lasted three hours. We ate, sat and talked, took a walk and talked. I felt very comfortable around and with her. We learned a lot about each other that night. Who would have thought it would be another 18 years before I would learn the most important thing about her.
We dated for a year. After the first 6 months I decided she was the one I wanted to share my life with. I proposed to her on a special date to Asheville one weekend.
We had been having Sunday dinner with my parents for 4 months along with my brother Alan and his wife, Nancy and his kid plus my sister, Terri whenever she was home from college. My family took to her the first time they met. I had introduced her to them two months after we started dating.
I met her family two months after she met mine. We took a weekend as it was a 3 hour drive to Wilmington. I had made hotel reservations. I didn't want to put her family in an uncomfortable situation. Yes we were both adults but I wanted to show them respect. Driving to Wilmington in the summer on the weekend can be an adventure. Tourist go to the Outer Banks and locals go to Wilmington. The normal 3 hour ride took 4 and half hours. We didn't get there until 2pm. I drove the whole way so I was pretty tired.
We pulled up to a well maintained 4 bedroom house in an older neighborhood. Her father, John was a big man, easily 6 foot 4 inches tall and very broad shouldered. From what Helene told me he played football at Carolina, starting at offensive lineman his junior and senior years. Had a try out with the Bears and Seahawks but didn't make either team. He came back home and started working in sales at a car dealership. He ended up buying a small used car lot 5 years later and built it into four dealerships in the region. All used cars. Her brothers run the business now.
Her mother, Hope, looked like the cheerleader she used to be. She and Helene shared the same physical appearance. I got a nice hug from her and a firm handshake from John. First impression was he didn't seem impressed with me. I'm not the biggest guy being 5 foot 10 inches and around a solid 190.
Hope was very pleasant, John not so much. We sat in the family room and talked for a minute about what was going on and Helene telling them more about me. I had gotten both of them a small gift, John a bottle of Woodford Reserve Double Oak. It cost a pretty penny and is hard come by. His only comment was. "thanks, I guess they were out of Pappy." For her mother I gave her an original Terrance Osbourne painting. He uses a lot of color in his work. She showed more gratitude then her husband.
John asked about my "little lumberjack business." At that time it was only me and another guy doing custom tables for clients all over the country. I talked about profit margins and potential for growth yet he wasn't impressed at all. I asked him about his football career and starting in the car business but only got short answers.
He mentioned that a Bart had started working at the North Myrtle Beach dealership. I remember his words exactly, even after all this time later. "Guess who started working for us? Bart Kent, He's at the Myrtle Beach Dealership working with Dale to learn how to run it. Now that boy has a REAL future about him." And he gave me a smirk as he said it. I wouldn't know who Bart was until later. I was really oblivious, but I was in love.
I went to check into the hotel while Helene spent more time with her folks. They lived in the house by themselves but didn't make an attempt to offer us a room. I had a feeling me being accepted was going to be an uphill battle.
The room cost a pretty penny as it was summer, the weekend and everything was booked. It wasn't that I couldn't afford it. It was the fact of them being a gracious host and at least offering to let us stay at a minimum.
By the time I got back the brothers had arrived. Dale and Greg were both big guys like their father. Dale played D2 football at Valdosta State in Georgia. Greg never played past high school but graduated from Fairmont State in West Virginia. Both had business degrees.
I was greeted with even less enthusiasm from those two then from John. You know, the too strong hand shake or pat on the back. Over the course of the evening I was the made the butt of several subtle and not so subtle jokes about wood working and not finishing college. I was getting more and more upset. The biggest issue wasn't even the jokes, its was the fact that Helene never defended me. My business had given me my own house, a honest steady income and respectability. I guess they saw someone working with their hands as less than them. Diner was a very unpleasant experience.
It made me question some things about our relationship. I had grown to love Helene. She seemed to be everything I wanted in a woman. She was loving, caring and very kind. She was very smart and could hold a conversation on any topic. All of my friends liked her.
