Floridian nights, p.25
Floridian Nights, page 25
“I said I would.”
“So are we sleeping in the double bed?”
“I told you, no.”
“Then I’m sleeping on a bed with no sheets?”
“Of course not.”
“You’ll find new ones?”
“No. Then she’ll know something was up.”
“Great. So what?”
“We’ll sleep in my bed.”
“The two of us in that little bed?”
“I thought you were so hot to sleep with me.”
Rick shook his head in evident annoyance. “C’mon,” he said, rising suddenly and beginning to strip the sheets off his bed. “Let’s get this done.”
•
Not twenty minutes later, they were none-too-comfortably settled in Gary’s bed. There was more room if they lay on their sides, so Rick’s back was to Gary’s front. “Are you mad at me?” Gary whispered.
“Don’t freak,” came the reply, “I still love you.”
“That’s nice, but it’s not what I asked. You can love me and still be mad at me.”
“I know that.”
“You do, huh? Then you’re very mature for your age.”
“I know.”
Gary was sorely tempted to laugh or at least make a smart remark, but he knew Rick might not appreciate it, so he just smiled broadly and whispered to the back of his neck, “I still love you too, kid.”
“Can we get rid of ‘kid,’ Gare?” Rick said in a voice filled with exasperation, but he drew Gary’s arms more tightly around him.
“It’s an affectionate name.”
“I know, but I don’t really like it. Can you bag it? For me?”
“I’ll try.”
The four-thirty alarm woke Gary, but not the deep-sleeping Rick. Again, as in their first morning together in New York, he extricated himself only with some difficulty. After moving the wet clothes to the dryer and re-setting the alarm, he squeezed very carefully back into the narrow bed, so as not to disturb Rick, only to hear, “Gary?”
“Go back to sleep.”
“No, I’m awake.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t the alarm. It’s the two of us in this little bed.”
“Well, I’m sorry about that, then.”
“Gary?”
“What?”
“How come, since you’ve been out to your parents all these years, you’re doing all this stuff to hide us from them?”
“Because I want to tell them about us in my own good time.”
“Which is when?”
“I’ll know when.”
“How long could that be?”
“A while, maybe.”
“Like longer than the time I’m down here?”
“Maybe.”
There was a pause, then a long sigh. “I can’t go through this every night. Maybe I’ll have to go to the Y after all.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“Then let’s go away.”
“Go away?”
“Yeah. You and me. While I’m down here.”
Gary thought about that. “Maybe we should. I told you I wanted to show you Florida. You wanna see Key West?”
“I’d really like that. But maybe this isn’t the time.”
“Whaddaya mean, ‘isn’t the time’?” Not another fight about Gary paying. He felt Rick take a deep breath.
“I think we should go to Sunbury, Gary.”
He could swear he hadn’t heard right, but no. Finally he said, in a very low voice, “Say what?”
“You heard me.”
“How would you know?–”
“You’ve never been there since he died, have you?”
“No, but what does that–”
“So let’s go. I looked on the map. It’s only about 300 miles, one-way.” Gary said nothing, and after a long silence, Rick added, “Gary?”
“I don’t even know where he’s buried. It could be in another town.”
“We’ll find that out, then.”
“I’d rather show you Key West. But let me sleep on it, okay?”
It seemed mere minutes later that the alarm rang. Then he realized he was hearing a loud buzz, not the high-pitched beep of the alarm clock.
Shit! The dryer had a self-turnoff, complete with buzzer to announce it. He slipped out of Rick’s grasp as quickly as he could, but as he opened the door to the hall he could see that the light in the laundry room was already on. His mother had just arrived there, and was looking dubiously at the dryer. “I’ll get it, Mom,” he said hastily.
She turned sleepily to him. “There must be something wrong with the dryer. I could swear I heard it go off.”
“It did. There’s nothing wrong with it. I put some stuff in to dry.”
“Wha – what time did you put it in?”
“I – um – I couldn’t sleep. I’m sorry. I forgot about the buzzer.”
“Why couldn’t you sleep?” She turned back to the dryer, as if to open it.
“I’ll get it, Mom.” He literally turned her back toward her bedroom. “Let me take care of this, and then I’m sure I’ll get some sleep.”
Back in the kids’ room, he put the warm, clean sheets on the bed that had been Rick’s. Rick himself remained sound asleep in the bed which had been his. He padded back down the hall; all was now dark and quiet in the house. Slipping into the living area of the Florida room, he turned on the dimmest lamp he could find and searched the magazine rack until he found what he wanted: his dad’s well-worn Rand McNally road atlas.
Opening to the Florida map, he studied the revolver-shaped state. Its compact contours were deceptive. Almost 400 miles from St. Pete to Key West. Nearly 600 from Key West back to the Georgia border. Another sixty miles or so to Sunbury. And, just as Rick had said, about 300 miles from Sunbury back to St. Pete. The kid (whoops; he had to stop thinking of him as “the kid” if he was going to stop calling him that) had done his homework.
He checked the mileage against the calendar in his head. It was already the wee hours of Wednesday. Say, Wednesday night in Fort Myers or Naples. Thursday and Friday in Key West. Saturday night in Palm Beach. Sunday in – Gainesville? Monday in…Sunbury. Back to St. Pete by Tuesday night.
Exhausting – and costly, he reminded himself. There was no one to bum lodgings with, except maybe Bubbeleh in Fort Myers. And that would be a hell of a lot of nerve.
He doused the light (still no sound from his parents’ room) and stole back to the kids’ room. As he entered, he heard a familiar “Mmpf” sound from the right-hand bed. He knelt beside it and kissed the mostly-sleeping figure there. “Go back to sleep, Rick. I’m going to sleep in the other bed.”
“Mm?”
“We’re gonna need our sleep. We’re leaving today. For Key West. And Sunbury.”
16.
Despite the fact it was Gary’s sleep that had been so interrupted, it was Rick who still slumbered as Gary groggily made his way to the breakfast table. Though there was no prearranged time for breakfast in their house, his parents were waiting there for him, looking a lot fresher than he did. He noticed that his mother appeared none the worse for having her rest disturbed.
Gary didn’t waste much time in getting to the point. His first words as he sat down were, “Dad, do you know where I can rent a car around here?”
His father paused, but only briefly. Indeed, he seemed unsurprised by the question; maybe they had been talking about him? “You’ll get the best rates at the airport. But if you want to show Rick around, you can use one of our cars–”
“I want to show him around all right, but we’re gonna be going pretty far afield.”
“What do you mean, ‘pretty far afield’?”
“Oh, y’know, Key West.” They nodded, evidently expecting that. He thought about evading the rest of it, then thought better of it: “And then we thought we might go to Sunbury.”
It was obvious from the expressions on both of their faces that his parents hadn’t forgotten the name of Becker’s hometown. “To Sunbury?” his mother said simply.
“Whose idea was that?” his father asked.
“Rick’s, actually. But I think it’s a good one.”
His parents looked at each other, then his dad said, “Perhaps it is. But to go to both Key West and Sunbury – that’s a lot of territory to cover.”
“I know. Close to 1500 miles. Obviously we’d be gone for the better part of a week.”
“Are you going to spend his whole time down here on this trip, then?” his mother asked.
“I don’t know. He has to go back sometime in the middle of next week. Wouldn’t you rather we did?”
They looked at each other again, then his mother said, “When were you planning on being back?”
“I was thinking by next Tuesday night.”
“And he’d have to leave Wednesday?”
“He’d have to leave by Thursday, I guess, at the latest.”
“Why don’t you figure on him leaving Thursday, then?” his mother said. “We’ve hardly had a chance to meet him.”
Gary swallowed. “Okay. That’s fine. So, can we borrow one of your cars to go to the airport?”
“Why don’t you just borrow one of our cars, period?”
“I really want to do it this way, Dad.”
“Let him, Walter,” his mother said quietly.
“You want me to drive you there?”
“No, Dad. Rick and I can drive there, and he can drive our car back here while I drive yours. Or Mom’s, as the case may be.”
“How do you know Rick can drive at all?”
“He must. He’s from the Midwest.”
•
Getting the car went more or less smoothly. Rick turned out to be a decent enough driver. As Gary gathered his things together for the trip, a thought struck him. “Did you ever call Gina to let her know you made it?”
“No.”
“How come?”
“When have I been near a pay phone?”
At this point, it was not a surprising response, but Gary was irritated all the same. “Call her on my parents’ phone, will you? Just do it.”
“You said we might be seeing Julia’s grandmother today?”
“It was a thought, that’s all. I kinda doubt it. Probably isn’t appropriate. What’s that got to do with you calling Gina, anyway?”
“Have you called Julia since the last time you saw her?”
He stared at Rick. “No.”
“Deal, then. I’ll call Gina if you call Julia.”
“There’s no…” Gary let his voice trail off.
“No what?”
“No – rift – between you and Gina.”
“If that means there’s a rift between you and Julia, it’s all the more reason you should call her.”
“It’s still not the same thing.”
“I’m cheap, you’ve had fight with a friend. That makes us even.”
“Well, I’m glad we’ve admitted we’re cheap.”
“Only for you, Gare. And only this once.”
Thus persuaded, Gary went to his parents’ bedroom to use the phone. Rick followed him there but retreated when Gary demanded some privacy.
It was past lunchtime, so his chances of getting her were pretty good. “Andrea?” he said when the familiar voice of Julia’s assistant came on the line.
“Gary! How are you?”
“I’m fine. Is she there?”
“She was a minute ago. Let me check.”
There followed a long minute or more before he heard another phone being picked up, and Julia’s somewhat breathless voice. “Hi, GG. What’s up?”
The tone was so nearly normal that he wondered if he had exaggerated the gulf between them when they’d last been together. “I thought I was overdue to call you.”
“You were. So how’s your health?”
“I did have a recurrence of the walking pneumonia, but I took better care of myself this time, and it cleared right up. I’m fine now.”
“Nothing else?”
“Nothing else. Honest.” She didn’t say anything, so he added, “How were your folks?”
“Fine.”
“Are you moving to Florida?”
“No.”
“Just ‘no’?”
“Right. Just no.”
“You’re still pissed at me, aren’t you?”
“No,” she repeated, but he wasn’t convinced. “Why did you call me, GG?”
“Rick sorta made me.”
“Who?”
“Rick. The waiter?”
“The child waiter?”
“That one.”
“You’ve been talking to him?”
“Actually, he’s down here with me.”
“What?”
“–and we’re about to do a grand tour of Florida. We’ll be going by Fort Myers today–”
“So are you calling Bubbeleh?”
“Well, I thought about it, but then…”
“But then what? You don’t need me with you to call on her. You know that.” She paused briefly, then added, “Rick the waiter! I can’t believe it. When did all this happen? I thought you’d dumped him.”
“No, I–”
“Are you coming back home soon?”
“I think so. Maybe as early as next week.”
“So call me when you get into town. I don’t wanna discuss this at work, on the phone.”
“All right. I love you, Stern.”
“Yeah. Well.” She was still mad at him. “Call me when you get into town. And give Bubbeleh a hug and a kiss for me if you see her.”
•
He was bringing their stuff into the living room when Rick, smiling, motioned him over to the door of his parents’ bedroom. “It’s Gina,” he said. “She wants to talk to you.”
“Hello, Phoebe,” Gary said sarcastically as he took the receiver, prompting laughter on the other end of the line. “Seriously,” he said, changing tone, “thank you for helping get him here.”
“You’re welcome, Gary. Now I got just one thing to ask of you. Don’t you break that boy’s heart again, okay? You got him walking on air. If you mess things up again, you’ll have me to answer to.”
He looked over to Rick, who did indeed look happy, and who clearly had no notion of what Gina had just said. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said matter-of-factly. “So does Laurel like me any better?”
“I’m working on it. Now, can I have my favorite waiter back?”
“If you promise he doesn’t have to be back at work ’til a week from tomorrow.”
There was a moment’s hesitation, then, “We’ll manage. Now put him back on.”
Gary extended the phone to Rick, who came over to retrieve it. “You wouldn’t dream of what?” the younger man asked.
“I’ll never tell.”
•
The goodbyes to his parents were awkward, and he felt compelled to comment as they hit the road, “I’m sorry Mom and Dad are so stiff with you. They don’t know quite what to make of you yet.” Of course, Gary thought, neither do I.
“I don’t think they’re stiff. I think they’re nice. Are we going over that bridge?”
“The golden one, yes. The one next to it’s just a fishing pier now.”
As they ascended the Sunshine Skyway and caught its panoramic view of the bay, Rick, fidgeting, turned to Gary and proclaimed, “This is great, Gare! We’re doing Florida together!”
Gary just smiled; he’d been in Florida, and on the Skyway, plenty of times before. “Can we put on the radio?” Rick asked. Gary nodded, and the younger man fiddled with the station selector until he hit upon one of the popular songs of the day. It had more of a rock edge to it than Gary usually liked, but he thought it particularly apt at this moment, and he relaxed at the wheel as his seatmate sang along lustily to “Simply Irresistible.”
17.
They rode together well, mostly with Rick singing along to the radio and Gary driving in contented silence. The two-hour drive to Fort Myers passed easily. When they got to the outskirts, it was already pretty late in the afternoon. They stopped for gas, and Gary found a pay phone.
“Bubbeleh?”
“Gary! I’ve been waiting for your call.”
“You have?”
“Yes. Julia called and said I might be hearing from you.”
“Ah, she shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t want you waiting by the phone–”
“Don’t flatter yourself that much; I haven’t. I called your parents’ but they said you’d already left, so I went out for a while. I was calling them to ask if you needed a place to stay tonight.”
“Well, I was going to ask if you’d like to meet for dinner, but then I was thinking of driving on after that–”
“You’re gonna drive across Alligator Alley at night?”
“No, I figured on going as far as Naples–”
“What, Naples? That’s less than an hour from here! You might as well as stay with me. Unless you don’t wanna be around an old lady.”
“You know better than that, Bubbeleh. But you know, I’m not traveling alone and–”
“I know that. Julia told me. Of course your friend is welcome too.”
Gary paused and glanced over at Rick, who had just finished up pumping their gas. They could certainly use not spending the money. “Well…thank you! How about you at least let us treat you to dinner, then?”
“Just eating out is a little boring. You know what I used to do on Wednesday nights, before my eyes got too bad to drive in the dark? I’d go to Bonita Springs.”
“What’s that?”
“The dog track.”
That caught Gary somewhat by surprise. “You wanna go to the dog track?”
“I’d love to.”
“Oh. All right, then. I like the races, too. We’ll be glad to take you.”
“They’ve got food there, too,” she reminded him.
“Of a sort.”
“Do you remember the way to my place?”
“I’ll figure it out. See you shortly.”
“Well,” Gary said as he returned to the car, unsure of Rick’s reaction, “Looks like we got a place to stay for the night.”
