Reunion (10 page)

I sobbed and my hands remained over my eyes. I sat down on the curb and Tyler joined me. He put his arm around my shoulder. He didn’t speak. He was just there.

“Tyler I need him back. I’ve made so many mistakes that I can’t change but I have to tell him how I feel.”

“He’s really angry about the way you acted. I followed him out here and I stayed with him until a cab came for him. I told him you were drunk. You need to go to him Savannah. Tell him the mistakes. I’m sure he has a few of his own he needs to talk to you about.”

“You don’t understand Ty. Some mistakes are unforgivable.”

“Sav you aren’t making any sense. Just go to him. I’ll give you his address and I’ll grab you a cab.”

“What if he doesn’t want to talk to me Tyler? Then what?”

“Sav I’ve known the kid since 1
^st
grade. He is about listening and giving second chances. He will listen. I’ll let the girls know where you are. I love you Sav. You’re my best friend.”

“I love you too Ty and thanks.”

Tyler hailed a cab for me and I was on my way to fight for the man I loved. I inched closer to the partition in the cab and asked the driver, “ sir do you think you can drive faster. There’s an extra $20 here if you do” and then we were going 80 down I- 95 towards Center City. The drive seemed to take forever. With no traffic we pulled up to his building within 40 minutes. I gave the cabbie his extra money like promised. I got out of the cab and stood there looking up towards his apartment building. The street it was on was busy with several local bars lining the street. Patrons were walking about in the warm October air. People looked happy and were laughing and conversing with one another. It looked like a safe, fun place in the city to live. I saw I needed to be buzzed into the building and I didn’t want to have Sam buzz me in so I decided to slip through the door when another person came out of the building. When I finally got through after about 10 minutes of waiting for someone to come out, I walked up to apartment 6. I took in a deep breath and knocked on the door. I waited. No answer so I knocked again. He wasn’t there. I held my hand onto the number 6 on the door and rested my far head against the wood. I fought back tears. It was too late. I paused there for what seemed like eternity.

“What are you doing here?” I heard from behind me. I turned around to see Sam standing there in a pair of black sweat shorts and a long sleeved tight fitted t-shirt, and his baseball cap was on backwards . It made his wavy hair stick out the back. He had a brown paper bag in his hands. He just stared at me until I spoke. Holy shit he was hot. I felt sweat bead up on my far head.

“I came here to talk to you.”

“How did you know where I lived?”

“Tyler” I replied. Sam just shook his head. He moved towards the door and I got out of his way. He fumbled with the key to his apartment.

“Well you might as well come in. I’m curious to hear what you have to say.” I walked in slowly and he set the brown paper bag on the counter of his kitchen. He took out a six pack of beer.

“Would you like one?” he asked me.

“Um I’m good. I think I’ve had enough alcohol for one night.” He popped off the cap to his bottle of beer and lifted it in the air and said “ Huh, I’ll drink to that.” He took a sip and sighed. He made his way over to his sofa and sat down putting his feet crisscrossed on his coffee table.

“So Savannah what brings you to my apartment almost an hour away from your big debut tonight.” He looked very disinterested. He grabbed the remote and flipped through the channels. Sam settled on a sports channel. “Aw man I cannot believe the Phils lost again. Damn it!” I was so angry with the way he was acting. He didn’t want me there. What the hell was I doing?

“Um well I really just wanted to see how you were since you left so abruptly tonight. I was just checking on you.” I remained standing still in his living room.

“Oh I’m fine Savannah. I’m actually more than fine. For the first time in a long time I am thinking clearly. Life is great. You like my new place?” I nodded yes. “I love this neighborhood so much. It’s chaotic and noisy on the weekends. A welcomed break from my regimented Monday through Friday. Now that I’m basically grounded from my job and I work mostly here.”

“You work in the Philadelphia office most of the time?”

“Yep.” He took any sip of his beer and got up from the sofa and stretched. “I travel to DC and New York for meetings every once in a while but it’s only for a few hours at a time.”

“So no more overseas visits?”

“Not really. London 2 or 3 times a year for a week but I played my cards right. I did my job well and I proved myself. And I got promoted. The more initiative I put into my job, the more they wanted me to help run the Philadelphia projects. So here I am.”

He walked away from the sofa. “Will you excuse me? I need to use the bathroom.”

Sam went into the bathroom. He yelled from inside. “ Make yourself comfortable and take a look around. If you want to.” Then I heard the water being turned on. I felt uncomfortable and I just stood there. I began looking around. He had a leather sofa and two arm chairs across from the sofa and in between that was a coffee table with sports magazines spread across it. He had one wall that was exposed brick and a flat screen t.v. hung on it. He had a bookshelf on the same brick wall and on top were a few pictures of him and his mom and then one of his whole family. There was also a small picture of friends from his fraternity at LaSalle and one of him with all the guys from high school. His kitchen was small with just a small Ikea table off to the side of it. A bowl of fresh fruit sat on top of it. I looked down the small hall way off the kitchen. I knew one door was the bathroom and I figured the other two were bedrooms. I opened the one door cautiously and peeked in. It was a very small room with a twin bed, end table and a small desk with his laptop on it. The laptop was turned on and I could see images on it but I couldn’t make them out. I inched in closer to see what the pictures were flashing on the slide show. As I moved towards the laptop I gasped and realized that the slide show was pictures of us. Sam and I. Pictures from high school, pictures from college, our trip to Florida we took one spring break, at both of our college graduations and then the last one I saw was the last picture we took together five years ago. The night of our reunion. I quickly tip toed backwards out of the room. I pulled the door shut quietly and there he was standing behind me. I jumped when my back hit his chest.

“Jesus Sam you scared the shit out of me. Don’t do that.” He let out a small laugh. I had a feeling he knew that I saw the slideshow. I walked back towards the living room.

“So Savannah is there anything you would like to discuss? Oh I forgot to ask you how’s Dr. Becker? You two looked quite cozy out on the dance floor. It’s so nice to get reacquainted with old friends isn’t it? But I guess you are the one who got lucky. I mean he was the captain of the Lacrosse team our senior year and now he’s a doctor.” He started clapping his hands. “Bravo Savannah. Bravo. You landed yourself a good one. Did you set a date for the wedding? I’ll be invited right? That will look great. Savannah’s ex being invited to the wedding. Gee how did he ever let her get away? Inquiring minds want to know.”

He took a long drink of his beer and finished it. He slammed the bottle on his coffee table. I could feel my blood pressure rise and my eyes began swelling with tears. I shook my head and he started towards the door.

“So I guess there is nothing more to say then Savannah. I’m sure you and Jack will live happily ever after.” He began opening the door. I took my hand and slapped the door shut. “ You think you’re so smart don’t you jock. You think you know everything. Well you know jack shit. There is nothing going on between me and Jack Bender. I flirted with him to make you jealous. Just like you did with the skank of the year Christa. I saw right through your little plan. I can’t play these games anymore Sam. My heart can’t take it.”

“See that’s the thing with you Savannah. Something goes wrong and not your way, you run. You are always running. Running away from your problems. You ran to Boston, you ran away from your family after your dad died. You are a runner.”

I got into his face so close that I could feel him breathing on me. “ How could you say that to me about me. I tried to get here as often as I possibly could but I spent so much time here when he was sick, I needed to focus on me for a while. Besides Georgia was here. Where were you Sam? You weren’t there for me when he passed. You called my mom but you didn’t call me. I got your card and I read it then threw it away.”

“I was in London when he died Savannah. I could not leave my job. I had to be there for a month. I was running the project. No one else was capable of doing it. I sent flowers to your mom. I went to see her when I got back from London. I cried when my mom called to tell me he passed. I loved that man. He treated me like a son.” I just shook my head. We remained quiet for a few moments.

“I miss him Sam.” Tears began to form in my eyes.

“I know you do. I miss him too. He was one the sweetest men I’ve ever had the privilege knowing. I know you held his hand when he passed. Your mom told me. Do you want to talk about?” He motioned to me to sit on the sofa. I wiped the tears away from my eyes and walked over. He sat on one of the arm chairs across from me and I sat on the sofa.

“He passed quiet and peaceful. The day of his death, well that’s another story.” I looked down at the coffee table. “Talk to me Savannah.” He said leaning back in his chair.

“I remember it was a warm day and that when I woke up this morning I realized my dad was going to die today. On a day with blue skies and sunshine. I was angry about that. I thought about the fact that he would never see a day like this again. We knew that he would be taken off the respirator. We went to the hospital that morning. The doctor told us that he didn’t think it would be long after they took him off. They had us wait in another room while they took it out. When we went back in about 20 minutes later we saw that the nurses had cleaned him up a bit. They washed him and combed his hair. He even smelled good. You remember how he loved his cologne.” Sam chuckled a bit.

“I remember. It was like he bathed in it.” I smiled back at him. “Then what?”

“Well the nurse told us he was very heavily medicated and that when the time came he would just slip away. She told us to talk to him because he could hear us. She told us to tell him all the things we have ever wanted to say to him. He struggled to breath. I hated watching it. Georgia was at the foot of his bed with her head resting on his covered leg. Mom was on one side holding his hand and I was on the other side doing the same.” Sam sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. “ How long were you there for ?”

“Not too long. I prayed that it would be like that. I didn’t want him to suffer and I didn’t want to see my mom and Georgia to suffer either.”

“Did you get to say what you wanted to say to him?”

“Yes. At the nurses suggestion we all took turns saying a private goodbye to him.”

“Do you want to tell me what you said to him. If you don’t that’s ok. I understand.”

“I never told anyone before what I said to him. Not even Georgia or my mom. I went last to talk to him. The room was quiet. I sat down and held his hand. I felt funny at first talking allowed and no one was going to answer me back. I asked him how we got into this mess. I told him I didn’t want this to be the last time he heard my voice but I know that this is going to happen. Don’t be afraid. I will take care of mom and Georgia. Thank you for teaching me ride a bike. Thank you for teaching me manners and for teaching me to drive. Thank you for helping me with my homework. I would of never gotten through algebra without your help. I am going to miss our chats about the Phillies and our disagreements about who was the best singer in the Rat Pack. I know Frank was your favorite but my heart belongs to Dean and always will. I’m going to miss you making fun of me and Georgia waking up on school days with our hair all disheveled and our eyes half open. You gave us a reason to wake up. He used to say to us. “ Get up and get going girls. There’s a big world for you to discover and conquer out there.” I’ll miss you playing Santa on Christmas Eve even when we were teenagers you still did it. You were always in the front row for all my school plays. I always knew where you were and I spotted you while I was on the stage. You were at every single track meet I’d run around the track and I would see you on the side lines. You mouthed to me a few times” Love you squirt.”

Sam interrupted. “Haha I remembered he called you that. I always told him I loved when he called you that and he used to say to me that it was his nickname for you and don’t I dare steal it.” I gave him a slight smile.

“I said to him I can’t believe you will never call me that again. I can’t believe that you will never kiss the top of my head again and tell me to have a great day squirt.” The tears started to flow like a roaring river. Sam stood up and sat next to me on the couch and handed me a tissue.

“Anything else?”

“I asked him to watch over me. I told him to protect me and keep me safe. I told him I would do my best to make him proud of me. I asked him to watch over my mom and Georgia” I paused before I told him what I asked from my father next. I looked up at Sam who was very close in proximity to me.

“I asked him to watch over you and I asked him to bring you back to me. Make me stop running from you. Make you love me again.”

Sam didn’t speak. He didn’t try to interrupt. He sat there in disbelief.

I buried my face in my hands and began to sob. I spoke through my tears while my hands covered my eyes.

“A few minutes later he let out a gasp of air. I knew it would be his last breath. I yelled for my mom and Georgia to come in and we watched as his body relaxed and he drifted into nothingness. I watched him die Sam.”