Installment #18 Tucker

     Tucker glared at the phone in his hand.  He had been calling all day and no answer.  She lived there, for God’s sake, why wasn’t she home?  Maybe she was ill.  Or maybe she had a boyfriend!  It had been three weeks since they had coffee and as soon as Margie had found her number he had called her.  Well, not that day.  He had lost the number about as soon as he got it.  Well, not lost it exactly.  He just did not know where he had put it.  Then he found it and then it was misplaced again.  And today he had it and called it, and she was not answering.

     This was the story of his life.  No wonder he was so unhappy.  Things conspired against him and time passed and things happened and then when he thought to do it again, things had changed and he had no control over anything in his life.  He glared at the phone and thought about calling her one last time.  He was having no luck on the match.com site for some reason.  Maybe he needed a new profile.  He contemplated that for a moment and then flipped on Fox news.  Margie had tried to tell him that Fox was slanted to the Conservative view point, but what did she know?  He watched the perky little news lady and was enthralled that she looked so much like Cynthia.  Or at least he thought he remembered what she looked like.  He reached for the phone and hit redial.

     It rang twice and then he heard her voice. 

“Hello?” 

He closed his eyes.  He could see her. 

“Hello?” 

He must say something.  He knew that at some level. 

“Hello?”

“Cynthia?”  He had spoken.  “Cynthia!  It is Tucker here.  Margie found your number for me.  I forgot to ask you for it.  It was in the phone book.  She just looked it up and gave it to me.  And then I lost it.  Well, not lost, just misplaced it, but now here you are, and here I am.”  He stopped as he heard her laughing softly.

“Well, yes you are there.  I am very glad you called, Tucker Fuhrman.” 

Tucker could not see her smile, but he knew it was there.  He knew it was there and he knew he would see it again.  And he knew he would look into those green eyes and he felt a feeling of comfort come over him.  She had a way of doing that to him, and he did not even know her.

     And Tucker Fuhrman, the big tall German from St. Louis smiled at the phone and then he turned and smiled at the perky little news lady on Fox news and he pushed his recliner back and began to tell Cynthia Browder about his job, his motorcycles, his knife collection and how much he liked coffee with two creams and two sugars.

     And she listened.