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Hank Williams: "The silence of a falling star, lights up a purple sky, and as I wonder where you are, I'm so lonesome I could cry."
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Around 11 pm my work cell phone started making its annoying little noise. I had changed the ring tone, for emergency alerts, to that nerve grating children's song 'The wheels on the bus go round and round'. I can't tell you how much I hate that song now. Like a man on his way to the gallows, I shuffled over and heard the dispatcher announce my next adventure.
I'm Peter Collins, a crew supervisor for the power company. This is my weekend to take the emergency calls. Of course it's not the power station two blocks from me, it's the one in the hills, about two hours north. I called the site inspector for the details. Once I had an idea of the work effort, I called dispatch and gave them the names of three others whose weekend was about to turn to shit.
It was just shy of 2 am when all of the crew and equipment arrived. I had stopped along the way and picked up coffee and donuts, enough I hoped, to satisfy four grumpy guys for a few hours.
As I waited for the crew to complete the job, I had, what seemed at the time, a great idea. My fiancé, Julie, lives another thirty minutes north. She's an administrator, at the university, and has an apartment near campus. Normally she would stay with me on the weekends, but when it's my weekend to handle emergencies, she stays at her place. I'll head over and take her out to breakfast.
I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a spray of flowers. I waited at her door, having pressed the doorbell a few times, I heard her dog, DimWit, making it known to all, that there was stranger danger. A very sleepy Julie, wearing a robe, cracked the door open. The latch kept it from opening more than an inch or two.
Julie's eyes lit up "Hey babe, this is a surprise!"
The door closed and this time opened completely. "What are you doing here?"
Handing her the flowers "We had a problem up in the hills. Instead of heading home I decided to take you out to breakfast."
"Awww, thanks! Sit, play with DimWit, I'll get dressed."
Julie headed into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
DimWit loves to play tug-of-war with me. "Hey DimWit, where's your rope? Get your rope!"
It wasn't a rope that DimWit brought back. It was a man's size 11 sneaker. Once I won the tug-of-war, I tucked it into my coat.
Shouting loudly "Julie, bad news, I just got another emergency call!"
A mostly dressed Julie came out of the bedroom "Oh well, you tried, thanks for the flowers though!"
I gave Julie a sisterly like hug and kiss, getting an odd look from her, and was out the door. I moved my car to the nearby church lot, blending in with the Sunday morning sinners. I walked back to the apartment complex and waited. I knew what to expect, but I desperately wanted to believe it wouldn't happen. I spent my waiting time taking my pocket knife to the sneaker, pretty juvenile, but hey, I'm not apologizing. It was almost 10 am before a man, in socks, carrying one shoe, left Julie's apartment. I took a few photos. He looks familiar but I just can't seem to place him.
Julie is not a texting person. Not surprisingly, I received a text 'Thanks for the flowers. I love you.'
I thought about replying, but decided that a long sentence, made up entirely of short words, could wait.
I watched sock man as he left the parking lot. I got a few more photos then headed to the Walgreens to print out the photos. I picked up a sympathy card, the kind with the 'Sorry to hear about your loss' kind, with somber overtones.
'Glad I caught it now, saves me a lot a grief later on. We are finished.'
I returned to Julie's apartment complex. Stuffing the pictures into the shoe, along with the card, I tied the shoe to the railing, across from Julie's door.
My phone started ringing, about an hour into my drive. My ringtone for Julie is the start of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. No need to guess who is calling. I let it go to voicemail, then again, and again, and again, and again. She was persistent. For someone who doesn't like to text, I was getting bombarded. I really didn't have the stomach to read any of them. Once I was back home, I called my boss and asked for a week off.
It took me less than thirty minutes to grab enough clothes and toiletries to get by. I knew of a little campground, back by where I just finished working, which rented cabins. I stopped and grabbed a few days' worth of fast food. I reserved a cabin until Friday.
The first night was the toughest. I rarely had a drink and about now I was starting to think that might have to change. It was nearly impossible for me to wrap my head around this.
I'm thirty-two, never married, quite conservative in my dating. Julie is thirty-one, never married, and she's so conservative in her dating she makes me look like a liberal. We met at a charity fund raising gala about five years ago. We, or is it I, became 'friends with benefits'. Neither of us wanted to get married, but the sex was great.
After a few years of random hook-ups, always at my place, we became more than FWB. We started doing things couples do, movies, shows, and vacations. It was about three years ago that we decided to date each other exclusively.
I first asked Julie to marry me two years ago. She put me off, saying she still wasn't ready. I asked, at that time, whether there was someone else. She insisted that no, she was still exclusively dating me, but that she wanted more time.
It wasn't more than a month later when Julie first spent the night. All through our FWB period, and dating, one of us would always leave after sex. Neither of us wanted to be seen exiting in the morning. That first full night was special.
