South River Incident (36 page)

“Where do we go?” I asked.

“Claire said to wait in the
lobby. The paperwork should be done and he would be ready by the time we
arrive.”

Billy parked the truck and
we got out. My feet slipped on the snow and before I had a chance to hit the
ground, he grabbed me by the arm.

“Whoa, there, Missy,” I
heard Mom say. “You shouldn’t be out in this snow. It’s too dangerous in your
condition.”

“I’m pregnant, Mom; not an
invalid. When did you arrive?”

“I just pulled up. I saw
you at the stoplight. Didn’t you see me?”

“No, I didn’t. Hey, where
are the kids?”

“Elsie’s watching them.”

“Cole’s mother is
babysitting?”

“She’s at my house with
them. As soon as we get back, she’s going over to Cole’s. He’ll need some help
for a few days.”

“I thought you and Claire
were going to take care of him.”

“Since he’s almost
recovered, Elsie thinks it would be best if she took care of him. She’s his
mother.”

“That sounds like Elsie,”
Billy said.

“What do you mean by that?”
I asked.

Mom and Billy looked at
each other.

“I don’t know her real
well, but she sounds like a whiner to me,” Mom replied. “I’m already tired of
hearing about what she does for Cole, and what a great relationship they have.”

“It’s strange to hear you
talk about someone. You used to be so tight-lipped. You never spoke that way
about a soul.”

“I used to be young, too,”
she mumbled. “That was then and this is now. What’s your point?”

“Nothing; I’m just running
off at the mouth.” I turned to Billy and made a motion as if to zip up my lips.
He shook his head in agreement.

The three of us sat in the
waiting room for twenty minutes, until finally, the elevator door opened and
Claire and Cole exited. Claire was pushing the wheelchair as Cole sat in it and
argued with the nurse walking beside him. He seemed to be a little unnerved.

“I feel fine,” he said.
“Why can’t I walk out of here, now that I can?”

“It’s hospital policy,” the
nurse told him. “And when you leave here, you will need to use this thing until
you are one hundred percent.”

“I’m already one hundred
percent. I can walk by myself.”

“You need to take it easy
for a few days. Isn’t that what the doctor said?” Claire asked him.

The three of us stood and
walked over to Cole.

Mom bent down and gave Cole
a hug.

“We were so worried about
you,” she said. “The Lord was watching over you. I hope you realize that.”

“I sure do,” he replied.
“I’ve been given a second chance at life, and I’m going to live it to the
fullest.”

His remark gave me pause.
It made me think that he might live the rest of his life with unrestrained
freedom. He came very close to dying so now he was going to go wild. Well, good
for him. He had his spunk back.

“It’s good to have you
back, Cole,” Billy said. He reached over and patted Cole on the shoulder. “You
gave us a bit of a scare.”

“It’s good to be back,
buddy. My life’s going to change because of this accident. Things will be
different.”

We waited with Cole until
Claire brought the car up to the entrance.

Billy pushed Cole through
the door and up to the car. He reached down and was going to help him out of
the chair, but Cole stood up and said, “I can make it by myself, thanks, buddy.
Why don’t you come up to the house?” Cole got into the car. “We need to have a
talk.”

We stood there as Claire’s
car disappeared.

“That was strange, wasn’t
it?” Mom asked.

“I don’t know what to make
of it,” Billy replied.

“Oh, I do,” I said. “He has
his life back; everyone else can jump in the lake. He’s got a big chip on his
shoulder because he almost died. That does something to a person.”

“That’s true,” Billy
agreed. “I’ve been there.”

We continued our
conversation until we reached Mom’s car.

“You didn’t have to walk me
to my car. I would have been okay.”

“We wanted to do it, Mom,”
I said. “Let me have my way, will you? I’m going to make you a grandma.”

“You’re trying to blackmail
me already. I sure hope it’s a boy. I don’t think I could handle another one
just like you. You were always getting into something. You wore me out.”

“I know I did.” I started
to cry. “I’m sorry that I was so bad.”

“Oh, honey, you were
adorable. I was only kidding. Billy, make her stop crying. Bless your heart,
you are going to be a handful.”

I cried harder.

“I told her the same thing
earlier,” Billy whispered. He put his arms around me and patted me on the back.
“She’s a little...”

“I understand,” Mom said as
she winked at Billy. “Are you going to Cole’s house when you leave here?”

“Yeah, he might need our
help getting up those steps.”

Billy handed me a
handkerchief. “Dry your tears, sweetheart. Would you rather we go home?”

“N-n-no, I’m fine,” I said
in between sobs. “Let’s go help Cole.”

“After you leave Cole’s
house, stop by and visit me.”

“Sure,” Billy said. He
helped Mom into her car. “We’ll come over for a little while, but I can’t
promise a long visit.” He looked over at me. “Jesse’s a little unpredictable.
She could get sick any minute.”

He led me to the truck and
said, “You’re so emotional. Are you going to be like this for the duration of
your pregnancy?”

My tears returned. I was
happy. I was sad.

“This is going to be a long
nine months. Are you going to be able to deal with the stress of a wedding?
Should we just go and get married by the Justice of the Peace?”

“Are you crazy?” I asked,
drying my tears. “I want a real wedding!”

“Then you shall have a real
wedding with all the trimmings. Nothing’s too good for my girl!”

By the time we got close to
Mom’s house, I was sick to my stomach.

“Lets stop at Mom’s house
first, Billy. I feel sick.”

“Are you going to throw
up?”

“I might.”

He pressed the gas pedal
harder and said, “Hold on, we’re almost there.”

Ten minutes later, I was in
Mom’s bathroom throwing up. I walked out of the bathroom with a wet washcloth
on my forehead. My head ached and my stomach felt terrible. “That sure was
pleasant,” I murmured. “How long is this going to last?”

“Nine months,” Mom and
Billy said in unison.

“I’m ready to go to Cole’s,
if you are. I don’t think I’m going to die this time. I’m not so sure about the
next.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t
make it to Cole’s house in time to help him inside. He was already resting in
his recliner by the time we arrived.

“I’m sorry we’re late
getting here,” I said to Cole. “We had to stop at Mom’s house. I got sick. But
I see that you made it without our help.”

“Yeah,” Claire said. “Cole
walked in all by himself. He’s doing very well. He probably won’t need me after
all.”

“Oh, that’s not true,” Cole
said, getting out of his chair. He walked over to the center of the room where
we were and then put his arm around Claire. “I’ll need someone to take care of
me and keep me warm at night. That is, if you want the job.”

“Sure,” she whispered.
“I’ll take care of you.”

The two of them locked lips
right there in front of everyone.

Elsie almost fainted.

I felt sick again.

“You said you wanted to
talk to me,” Billy announced.

“Yes, I did,” Cole said,
releasing his hold on Claire. “Let’s go to the other room.”

Billy and Cole went
upstairs to talk. A few minutes later, we heard shouting.

Billy came down the stairs,
grabbed me by the hand, and led me out the door. He was furious.

“What was that all about?”
I asked as we climbed into the truck.

“You don’t want to know.”

A
s I expected, Billy was quiet on the drive back to
Mom’s house. When he got angry, he would clam up. And he must have been real
mad, because he had very little to say the whole time we were at her house.

I was glad when we decided
to leave. I like visiting my mom, but it was different this time. This time I
was ready to go home the minute we walked through the front door. We cut the
visit short with the explanation that I didn’t feel well.

“I hope you feel better,
honey,” Mom said. She walked us to the door. “Take care of her, Billy.” She
gave him a wink.

“Oh, you know I will. She’s
my girl!”

We gave Mom a hug and a
kiss, and were on our way. It was a silent ride until we pulled into our
driveway.

“I can’t stand it any
longer,” I said. “What happened at Cole’s house? It’s obvious from the shouting
we heard that the two of you were having an argument. Y’all were pretty loud.”

“We’ll discuss it when we
get inside.” Billy was adamant. The look on his face was hard.

I let it pass and didn’t
say another word. Once we were inside, Billy went straight to the kitchen,
opened the refrigerator door and said, “I’m going to fix a couple of
sandwiches. We need to eat something.”

“I’m not hungry,” I said.
“I want to talk about what happened at Cole’s.”

“We’ll talk after we eat.
You need to take care of yourself.”

I walked to the kitchen,
put one hand on Billy’s shoulder, and closed the refrigerator door with the
other. “We’ll talk now. It’s very upsetting to me to see you like this. I can’t
help, if I don’t know what the problem is. Tell me, please.”

“Cole’s self-destructing.
He has no heart,” Billy said. He turned and started to walk away.

“Please stop! Don’t walk
away. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad. What do you mean, he’s...”

Billy stopped in his tracks
and turned to me with such intense anger on his face, I thought he was going to
explode.

“He said that I could marry
you, but I would never be a father to his child. He also said that the two of
you slept together that day. He said you told him you were still in love with
him, but didn’t know how to tell me you wanted out of the relationship. He said
you didn’t love me.”

“I’ll kill him! That lying,
son of a...” My blood pressure must have shot up twenty points, because my face
felt flushed and my heartbeat pounded in my ears. I felt sick. I ran to the
bathroom.

Billy was hot on my heels.

I lowered the toilet seat
and sat down. I leaned over and took a few deep breaths. After a few seconds, I
looked up at Billy. My eyes were full of tears. My anxiety was out of control.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I don’t understand why he
would say that. None of it is true... not one word. He’s trying to cause
trouble. He wants us to break up.”

“Let me get you a wet
washcloth. You look flushed.” Billy walked over to the sink, retrieved a
washcloth, and ran water over it. He squeezed out the excess water, walked back
over to me and then bent down on his knees. He wiped my face with the
washcloth. “Do you feel better?”

“I’m okay.”

“You looked rough for a
minute. I was afraid you were going to pass out. See, that’s why I didn’t want
to talk about it.”

“Were you just going to
keep it to yourself?”

“I would have said
something. I would not let this pass. I figured it would be better to wait for
a while... until you were feeling better.”

“I’m fine,” I said. I stood
up and poked my finger in his chest. “Let me tell you something, Billy
Blackhawk. I am not a weak woman. I can handle anything, except a lie.”

“Cole really made me angry.
I wanted to hurt him for what he said. It was best that I walked out when I
did. I don’t know what I might have done if I had stayed any longer. I needed
to calm down before I said anything to you. I was going to tell you.”

“I don’t know what happened
to Cole,” I said. “He might have brain damage from his bullet wound. Everything
he said to you was a lie.”

“Everything?”

“There wasn’t a word of
truth to any of it. You’re going to have to trust me on this one. I guess this
will be the ultimate test of our love. You’re going to have to trust that I’m
telling you the truth and I’m going to have to trust that you believe me.”

“I believe you. You do not
lie or I would see it on your face. Cole’s not to be trusted anymore. He’s not
my friend.”

“I don’t know about that. I
wouldn’t write him off just yet. He could be sick in the head. He needs help.”

“You are very wise,” Billy
said. “A lesser woman would have tried to end our friendship over this.”

“It may come to that.”

“We will see.”

Billy and I spent the rest
of the day sitting by the fire, eating lots of food, and discussing our future.
Each of us had definite ideas of where our life was headed. We had decided that
I would take some time off from work. It was too stressful under the
circumstances. Once I got over the so-called morning sickness that occurred
several times during the day, I might be able to handle going back to work.
Billy would take care of the cases that came up and I would be his stay-at-home
secretary for a while. I would do what I could, but I would not go out in the
field.

“I need to have a talk with
Claire,” I said as I crawled into bed. “There are a few things about Cole that
she might want to know.”

“You should let her find
out on her own,” Billy whispered. He snuggled close to me. “I don’t think she
would believe you after what just went down. You know he has probably told her
everything he said to me. If he did, and she cares about him, she’s going to be
angry with you.”

“He wouldn’t tell her that;
he’s not that stupid. She’d walk away from him and he knows it.”

“We will find out soon
enough.”

Billy and I fell asleep in
each other’s arms. Athena and Thor slept at the foot of the bed. Life was
wonderful.

The next day was a
different story.

I had barely opened my eyes
when the phone rang. I heard Billy mumble something and then slam the phone
down.

“Jesse,” he yelled from the
living room. “You might want to get up and come in here.”

I jumped out of bed,
slipped into my robe, and ran to the kitchen.

“That was your mother on
the phone. She wants us to come over. She has something important she wants to
talk to us about.”

“Does it have anything to
do with Cole?”

“I don’t know, but I bet it
does.”

“Do you think he would tell
that lie to my mother?”

“It depends on how crazy
he’s become. I think you’re right about him. He might have suffered brain
damage.”

“He might just be out for
revenge. You did steal his woman.”

“Yes, I did, didn’t I?” he
said. He leaned over and gave me a kiss. “I will not let Cole come between us.”

“Don’t worry, Billy, he
won’t.”

By the time we reached
Mom’s house, she was as upset as a dog with a bee sting on its nose.

“I just don’t know what to
make of it all,” she said. “This family is getting stranger by the minute.”

“What has gotten you so
fired up?” Billy asked her.

“Claire and Cole are
engaged. She was talking about getting married. She’s not even divorced, yet. I
tried to talk some sense into her, but I think she’s fallen off the deep end.
What am I going to do?”

“Let me talk to her, Mom,”
I said. “Where is she?”

“She left about thirty
minutes ago to go to Cole’s house. Elsie called me this morning. Do you have
any idea what that woman had the nerve to say to me? I couldn’t believe it. She
told me to keep my girls away from her son. She said that the two of you were
nothing but trouble. She said y’all were going to ruin him.”

“What’s wrong with that
crazy woman?”

“I’m so mad, I can’t see
straight. I don’t have any control over my kids and I wouldn’t want to. They
are adults. They are responsible for themselves. I’m shocked about the
engagement, but it’s not the end of the world, and it surely isn’t any of my
business. It’s their decision.”

“Don’t let Elsie get you
riled,” Billy told Mom. “She has always been a busy-body. She’s just lonely.”

“Oh, I’m not going to let
her get to me. I just needed to blow off steam. I’m concerned about Cole. Is it
me or is he different?”

“I think he might have
suffered brain damage. He’s been acting weird and saying all kinds of crazy
stuff.”

“What has he been saying?”

“It’s not important,” I
said, brushing off her question. “Billy and I will ride up and have a talk with
them.”

“Try to talk some sense
into your sister. She’s been lonely since she left Carl, and now that Cole has
shown her some attention...”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Billy and I left to go see
Cole and Claire.

“This conversation might
turn out to be a disaster,” I said as we pulled up to Cole’s house.

“I’m sure it will, but
somebody needs to straighten that man out.”

Claire answered the front
door and said, “Cole said you two would probably be paying us a visit. Come on
in.”

Billy and I walked inside.

Cole came down the stairs.
“I’m glad you stopped by. I told Claire that we didn’t need to call you with
the news. I knew you would come by as soon as your mother told you about us.
Isn’t it wonderful? Claire and I are seeing each other. We’re going to get
married. Why waste time?”

Claire walked over to Cole
and put her arm around him. He responded by kissing her on the cheek. “It’s not
official, yet,” he said. “There’s still the matter of a ring. We’ll take care
of that later. Right now, we have many other things to do.”

“Are you serious?” I asked,
baffled at his aloofness. “This has to be a joke. Claire, may I talk to you in
private?”

“Sure,” she said. “But
you’re not going to change my mind.”

Claire and I walked into
the kitchen, away from hearing range.  I turned on her and whispered, “Are you
crazy? When did this happen?”

“I must be honest, Jesse. I
was attracted to Cole from the start, but I put my feelings aside because of
you. Well, you have Billy now. There’s no reason why I can’t have Cole, is
there?”

I was shocked at her
immaturity. I guess she didn’t know the standing rule about dating the
ex-boyfriend of a friend... or a sister. I let it slide.

“There’s something I have
to tell you about Cole. I think he might have a bad temper.”

I didn’t want to tell her
that I thought he might be losing his mind. That would make it sound like I
thought he was crazy for liking her. She would have to come to that conclusion
for herself.  Something else was eating at me. She hadn’t said a word about
what he had said to Billy. Did she know? If she did know, I’m sure she would
say something... I would.

“You must be mistaken,” she
said. “He’s the calmest man I know.”

“Okay,” I said. “If this is
what you want, I’m happy for you.”

She grabbed my hand and
gave it a little squeeze. “I am happy, Jesse. I’m happier than I’ve been in a
long time.”

“I’ll go tell Mom that
everything’s fine.”

“I know she’s worried. Tell
her there’s nothing to worry about. Things couldn’t be better. Everything’s
going to be great.”

I walked back into the
living room and motioned for Billy to follow me. I was ready to get out of that
crazy house. The people in it were beginning to scare me. They were in another
world.

“What did you and Cole talk
about while I was with Claire?” I asked as we walked outside. I turned and
waved to Claire. The two of them were standing at the door, locked in each
other’s arms.

“He didn’t mention a word
about what he said to me yesterday. We sat down and had a pleasant
conversation. It was as if it never happened.”

“Claire didn’t say anything
either. He must not have told her. She would have been hysterically mad at me
if he had.”

“He’s either playing games
with us or his mind is messed up.”

“I don’t know which would
be worse.”

“Let’s go back to your
mom’s house and put her mind at ease.”

“I’ll tell her not to
worry, but I think this is going to get crazy. I have serious doubts about
Cole’s ability to think straight.”

“We’ll just have to wait
and see. Only time will tell,” Billy said.

After several weeks of
planning, Billy and I were married Christmas Eve at his folk’s house on the
Blackhawk compound. Everything was beautiful. The house had been decorated from
top to bottom by just about everyone in the family. White carnations, my
favorite flower, lined every wall, and gave a wonderful touch to the falling
snow outside and the Christmas decorations inside. The kitchen was filled with
platters of everything from seafood to buffalo meat, cooked or brought to the
wedding by someone in the family. The Blackhawks didn’t believe in caterers.