Installment #4...Him

He stepped quickly from the Jeep Cherokee and hurried across the parking lot and into the airport. He better not miss this flight or he would be setting right in her lap and that would never do. It was so much easier before 9-11. Then it was just catch a flight. Now there was all the security and everything to go through. Damned inconvenience was about all it was to him. He emptied his pockets into the tray and stepped into the machine that would show anything he had missed. Lot better then being groped, but there was a lot to be said for that also. He smiled to himself and the security guard smiled back at him. Damn fool. Like a man of his standing would ever give some one like her a second look. He belonged to Meg, heart and soul and very soon she would know it. As the big jet lifted off and the earth fell behind and below him, he closed his eyes and envisioned the perfect world that would soon be his. And for the briefest of moments he thought he felt her breathe on his cheek.

Installment #3 EBay

Meg moved the mouse over the eBay logo and double clicked.  While the computer called the program to the forefront and automatically did the things necessary to get her screen open she set a cup of water in the microwave and punched “Beverage”.  Technology.  Where would she be without it?  After Tom had died and the memorial service was behind her, life became very mundane and tedious.  She had friends, but she was the widow woman now.  The third wheel that just did not fit in.  Her friends tried to include her in the social life, but she was always the “extra” at the table.  They tried inviting a single man, but that was not the answer.  There did not seem to be an answer so she had drawn further inward and found herself taking quilting classes, or art classes and had even learned to weave.  Then she discovered eBay. 

EBay offered hours of entertaining buying.  Then she tried her hand at selling.  By opening a store for only $14.95 a month she could keep track and list and paypal collected her money and sent it to her bank when she wanted it.  She started out just listing a few things on the auction.  First was a quilt she had snagged at the local Goodwill for $15.00.  She had it appraised and found it to be worth $437.00.  She put it up for auction with a $49.00 opening bid.  The next morning she had her bid and 6 watchers.  Soon it was up to $179.00.  This was getting to be kind of exciting.  By the time the week was up she had 26 watchers and a high bid of $189.50.  It sold in the middle of the night for $198.50.  Meg’s Market was a success!  She began to list things at a Buy It Now price in her store with a Good Till Cancelled  time limit.  She enjoyed writing the descriptions and researching what they were worth.  She read everything eBay had to offer on how to have a successful store and put it all into practice.  Her minister turned over  a Lion and Lamb collection and this opened more doors.  She began to haunt the second hand stores,  the estate sales and garage sales.  Her friends put items on consignment and soon she was a power seller with 100% feed back.  EBay was becoming a lucrative venture.

She began visiting the chat rooms that eBay maintained for members.  Just now and then at first and only one or two.  But then she made friends.  This was now a social network.  Meg had been making jewelry and now she started listing that.  More sales.  It seemed in the golden world of the Internet she was quite the success.  Customers messaged her through eBay and asked her questions and visited and wished her well and bought her products.  One guy in particular caught her fancy in the chat room and she began looking forward to visiting him in the evening.  Redranger.  Just a little harmless flirting.  What could it hurt?  But then she checked her messages and found one from redr726584433.  That was how eBay disguised him to protect his identity.

“Meg, I would like to contact you outside the chat room.  I think we have a lot in common and I would love to know you better.  I need your email.”

She remembered how she had blushed as she hit the reply button and typed the email address.   The  marketlady@hotmail.com  .   That had been almost a year ago.  The emails came every day.  Sometimes many, many times a day.  They visited at all hours and laughed and Meg began to feel alive again.  His name was Eldon.  No last name, just Eldon.  He lived up North.  Way up North.  She had no intention of ever meeting him, so addresses and all that were pretty much a moot point.  He worked as an engineer in New York and did a lot of philanthropic work.  He spent 2 days a week in the local soup kitchen.  That was all she needed to know.  They were friends and Meg needed a friend she could talk to.  It was nice to discuss Kevin with someone.  He understood about Tommy and shared her loss as he was a widower.  She could vent to Eldon and he would tell her she was special.  She needed the strokes sometimes just to get through the day or the night.  And what better way than with a faceless stranger 2000 miles away.  She joked that this was the best kind of relationship because she could leave him in a box at night and not bother with him for days if she chose.  He was always kind because he had no reason not to be.  And of course money was never a problem.  The perfect man. 

As Summer turned to Fall and then to Winter Meg began to notice a pattern with Eldon.  It seemed that about every 4 weeks he would disappear for 6 or 7 days.  Nothing.  No forwards.  No “Meg?”  No nothing.  Dead silence on the mail page.  Then as suddenly as he disappeared he would pop back in her life.  No explanation.  Just the email with “Meg?”  and they resumed where they had left off. 
In June she decided to fly out to San Francisco and spend a few days with Kevin.  Getting away was not easy with the chickens needing daily care and the two dogs and the insane cat, but it could be worked out.  She called a friend of Kevin’s who still lived in town.  Sure, he would be happy to come out a couple times a day and gather the eggs and put them in the walkin cooler and play with the dogs and ignore the cat.  Daisy and Elvira were very easy dogs.  Couch potatoes to the max.  The cat, Icarus was another matter, but then anyone who has ever owned a cat knows that cats are not owned.
Meg sent the note to Eldon.  “Hey sweetie, I am going to San Francisco to spend a few days with Kevin.  I will holler when I get back.”  There was an immediate reply.

“Meg!  Do you think it is wise to be flying with all the terrorist stuff going on?  Can’t he come and see you?  Who will take care of the farm?  What about your eBay store?” 

This was very uncharacteristic of Eldon.  Actually a bit disturbing.  She replied, “I have not seen Kevin in almost a year and have never been to California.  I have a friend of his coming to watch the farm.  I will put the store on vacation.  I just don’t see the problem.”

“Meg, I just worry about you going off like that by yourself.  When are you leaving?  I want flight numbers and times.  I will pray for you.”

“Oh, Eldon, you are so sweet.  I will be fine and I am attaching my itinerary, so quit worrying.”  She hit the attach button, chose browse and clicked on the itinerary file, and then hit send.  There.  But it did feel good to know he would be worried about her.  Must care a little bit.  Who knows, maybe someday.

She heard no more from Eldon that day or the next.  The morning of her trip arrived and she emailed him a happy little note and heard nothing in return.  So she drove to Denver, parked in the long term parking and caught the jet to San Francisco.  This would be a glorious 4 days with Kevin.  Nothing could spoil it for her, and when she came out of the tunnel and say Kevin she ran to him.  Her son!  He was brown and healthy and seemed happy.  That was all she could hope for at this time.

The next few days were spent sight seeing and eating in Kevin’s favorite places.  She visited his job site and met his staff.  They all seemed pleasant enough.  He had taken a few days off, so they were bumming.  Meg had brought her jogging shoes and they ran on the trail behind his apartment each morning.  The last day they went to the Golden Gate Bridge.  The bridge glowed golden and the bay was calm and serene as they stood looking down from  the bluff.  “ I see why you love this place, son.   California is definitely different than Colorado or Montana.”

Meg suddenly shuddered.  Kevin looked startled.  “What was that all about?  Are you cold mom? “
She laughed. “No, it was just a rabbit ran across my grave, I guess.  That is what Momma always used to say.  I don’t know.”  Meg turned slowly and caught sight of a tall man getting into a silver SUV.  She had thought they were alone on the bluff, but apparently they were not.  As she and Kevin started down the incline to the parking lot she watched the silver Jeep Cherokee slowly leave the lot and turn onto the highway.   She wondered at the uneasy feeling in her chest, but dismissed it as a mother not wanting to leave her only son.  That was all.

Kevin

Kevin:

Kevin Jakson traced a raindrop down the inside of the window pane with a well manicured fingernail. It had been a rough day at work and he was homesick. He had left Massachusetts 5 months earlier to follow a dream to San Francisco and now he wondered if he had thought the whole thing completely through. Boston had been home for 2 years and he had a lot of friends there. San Francisco was proving to be harder than it should be. Of course before Boston, it had been Dallas and before that Denver, followed by Kansas City. It was not that he was a drifter, it was just that his jobs became boring after a time and a change of scenery was in order. But San Francisco should have been better. They had the largest gay population and programs and doctors to help him manage his HIV/AIDS, so why was he unhappy now.

Work was great and the staff he worked with in Alameda County were a bunch of caring people. The program was one he had wanted to oversee and was a challenge which helped bolster up his resume in case he ever decided to move to another hospital.

Then there was that little problem of home ownership. In Boston he had rented but he still had $150,000 in his escrow account from the sale of his home in Dallas. But this was California and that kind of money would not even make a good down payment on a home of any kind. So he contented him self with an apartment on the second floor of a complex 45 minutes from the hospital where he worked. The view was of the next row of apartments, but there was the little courtyard so it was not that bad. Usually any extra time would be spent on the trail running. Kevin liked to do at least 3 miles every day and the weekends were good for 7-10, but not in the rain. Rain was good for keeping him inside and being inside was depressing. It made him think too much. Like now.
His mind drifted back to Montana and a very lonely childhood. Mom tried, but mom did not understand the teenage boy struggling with his sexuality. Then along came Tommy. Tom was great, but by then he knew and there was no reason to talk it over with anyone. He was a freak who liked boys. Talk was cheap. Just how to keep mom from finding out now.
He remembered the move to Colorado. He tried to fit in at the high school, but found no acceptance until he joined the Drama Club. They were his kind of friends Eric and he really hit it off. He remembered the night of the Senior prom. He and Eric both had dates and after the dance they took them home. Then he and Eric had gone to the Nature Center to walk along the river. That was his first experience with a person, male or female and it was not an easy memory to recall.  They wereboth new at this, but they knew what they wanted.

So long ago and far away. Now there were only fond memories of Eric and there would never be any more made. Eric had died in 1997 while Kevin was away at College. No one had told him. No one had told him how he suffered with the Pneumonia that is common in AIDS cases. He learned from his mom on Christmas break that Eric had died of cancer or some such thing. “ Did you know him well, honey?”

“No, mom, not real well.” Only as well as I knew myself and loved him with every fiber of my being, because he was just like me. But those were thoughts best kept to himself. Or they were until he had gone in for regular testing a year later and learned that love was not the only thing he shared with Eric.

He left the trail of the rain drop down the window and reached up to trace the tracks of his own tears. Today was not a good day. Would there ever be another good day in his life?

Oh, Eric!

My first installment-Meg

*Meg

Meg Jakson stood very still in the gathering dusk as she watched the sun slowly slip below the Western rim of the Rockie Mountains. This little farm in the foothills had been very good to her. True it was lonely, but not really. Since Tommy had been killed in the avalanche 3 years ago, she had made new friends and kept the old ones. The acre here in "next to paradise" gave her security and enough to support her volunteer causes. What had begun as a hobby of a few chickens for eggs had grown into a chicken farm that put money in her pocket. Lot of dirty work, but she liked work.

Hard work and perseverance by both her and Tommy had actually been a blessing in disguise. Tommy had been an over the road trucker all of his life. When they had met in a truck stop in Montana back in 1990 it was the end of the road for both of them. Kevin was just 14 and almost past the need for a daddy, but he and Tommy had hit it off as buddies. Since Kevin had never known his father it seemed an ideal arrangement.

Meg sighed as she remembered the man she knew only as John Horner. She had been working in a cafe in Selda, Kansas at the time. Selda was her home and the only one she knew until John came along. She had graduated and gone to work at the Steak Shop instead of going to college as her parents had hoped. Waiting tables paid good in tips and while there were no benefits, there was a lot to be said for the social contacts and meals were free. She never tired of the banter with the customers and sometimes even accepted a date with one of the fellows. She had just celebrated her 19th birthday when John Horner walked into her life and turned it completely upside down.

Meg knew when the door opened and the tall stranger walked in that he was different from the local boys. And she was right! He was over 6 foot tall and walked with an air about him that made everyone's eyes follow him across the room and to the counter. He knew who he was and he knew what he wanted. Tonight he wanted food. As Meg handed him the menu their fingers touched briefly and their eyes met. As she stared into his brown eyes she felt a jolt to the bottom of her soul. This was fate as surely as fate had ever walked, and it had just walked into her life.

The next two days were spent in an agitated state as she waited for him to enter the Steak Shop again. And then, there he was. He gave her a fleeting smile as he settled at the counter. But tonight she had the dining room and Greta had the counter. Greta was married with kids at home and the stranger held no interest for her, but Meg could not help but admire him as he chatted with a couple at the counter and with the cook who was running the Charcoal that night. After an agonizing period of time he paid his bill and left without a backward glance. Meg was crushed. Then Greta handed her a napkin.

"Your sweetie pie left you this. Quite taken with you, I think. Asked a million questions, but you better watch him. Guys like that leave girls like us crying in the dust." Then she laughed and began wiping the counter.

Meg stared at the note in her hand. "Tomorrow-7:30. Ted's Roadhouse. Drinks and a dance."

There was no where to check yes or no. No telephone to call and say "Sorry, can't make it." Presumptuous bastard! Then she smiled softly to herself. No reason not to go. She was off the next two nights and this man gave her an itch she could not scratch. She would go, just out of idle curiosity was all. Just find out who this guy was.

And find out she did! John was a pipe fitter working on the construction at the new hospital on the east side of town. He was from Nebraska; twenty-six years old and still lived at home with mom and dad on the farm. He had a wonderful sense of humor and as he guided her to the dance floor and took her in his arms she knew that life as she knew it was over. And the last thing that went through her mind as drifted off to sleep in his bed at the Motel 6 that night was an old adage she had heard years ago…”Eyes of blue; a love that’s true. Eyes of brown will let you down.” But tonight was not a night for adages, it was a night for new beginnings.

Meg began to dread the day the hospital would be done as she knew John would leave, probably. Days were spent in work and nights were spent in his arms. They laughed, they loved and talked of future plans. It seemed they lived in an idyllic world and were not touched by the mundane. He talked little about his life in Nebraska and not at all about his plans when the job here was done. Two months and she was late on her period. She wondered briefly what John would say, but instinctively knew he would be happy. They could start their lives together. As she walked across the hotel lobby to pick up the room key a headline caught her eye. She stopped to study the front page. HOSPITAL NEARS COMPLETION.

Well, there it was. Things were nearing completion and her and John could make some decisions. She reached the desk and smiled at the clerk. Nebraska might be a welcome change from the humidity of Kansas.

“Room 609, please.” The clerk looked at her knowingly.

“Sorry, Meg, he checked out this morning. He is gone.”

“No! He is not.”

“Here. See for yourself.” The clerk smirked as he handed her the key.

Meg took the key which suddenly felt very big and very cold and started the ascent in the elevator. At room 609 she placed the key in the lock and turned it to the right. The door swung open into a big, cold, empty room. It smelled of Lysol and Tropical Flowers, but not of John Horner. There was nothing personal anywhere. No sign that John had ever been there. No warmth or laughter or anything that would show how much happiness she had known.

On feet of lead she approached the desk for the second time and handed the key to the clerk, Brian , she recalled suddenly.

“When did he check out?”

“Right after you left this morning. Hell bent on putting this town behind him, it seemed.”

“Did he leave a forwarding address?” She suddenly remembered all the things they had not discussed. “Where do you send the final bill?”

“Paid cash, Meg. His business here is done.” Brian smiled ruefully. “Sorry, I know you really had the hots for him, but maybe now somebody else will have a chance.” He winked playfully and Meg suddenly felt a sob welling up in her throat and turned and ran from the Motel 6 and into the bright sun outside.

Meg wiped a tear from her eye as she noticed it was dark now and the sun was only a bit or rose color on the far horizon. She had hoped against hope that John would come back, but he hadn’t. When she had inquired at the construction company about him, they had never heard of John Horner. Was she insane? Maybe, but the child growing inside of her was not a figment of her imagination. So she had taken her meager savings and moved to Montana to at least spare her mom and dad the humiliation of her transgressions. Kevin Lee Jakson was born in the county hospital and his bill was paid by the state of Montana. A welfare baby. But her baby.

And it was all water under the bridge because now she was a widow in Colorado and Kevin was a computer programmer and system analyst in San Francisco. And he was gay and he was HIV positive. He had his life and she had hers. She had Tommy’s ashes on the nightstand by her bed and a very long road to travel before she could ever reach the prize whatever it might be.

As Meg turned toward the house she once more heard a country western song play through her mind, “Brown Eyed Handsome Man“ She rarely thought of John Horner and the eyes of brown that let her down and she would not think of him tonight. Tonight she would remember her Tommy. Tommy, 5’9” and eyes of sky blue. Tommy with his laughter, and honesty and kindness and love that had brought her from the footloose girl in Montana to the settled, secure, kind, caring, compassionate, giving woman in Colorado; the woman who faced the West and had no desire to cross the mountain.

Preliminary screening.

I took my first two istallments to the craft fair and let 2 people read it.  The church secretary got through the first paragraph and decided she was way to tired to try reading.  Diane read it and thought it was great and is ready for the third installment.  I did have a friend who read it earlier tell me that my writing is "honest and earthy".  I was flattered beyond beleif by that statement because it came from a very wise man.
So, kids, be sure and check in here tomorrow.  I am thinking that I will get started on this and then pick up the pace, but who knows.  My brain may go completely blank and then where will we be?  Worst case scenario is this fizzles and fails.  Would not be my first rodeo so to speak.
See you tomorrow!

Well, I think I am about ready here.

I now have the first two installments ready and here is the plan.  I will publish one installment every 3 days.  This is going to be an adventure for all of us.  Now we all know that this site is pure fiction, but like life imitating art or vice versa, so there is some truth in fiction.  I will not tell you which parts are truth and which are pure imagination, but do know that both are going to come into play here at Chapter One.
I named this site Chapter One because I think it will be  a whole new beginning in my literary endeavors.  You know my Words of Wisdom are the truth as I see it.  By being truth I am limited by the boundaries of that truth.  But here in Chapter One I will be limited only by my imagination.  Now I never was one to remember the lies I told so when I write this little tale and you see that Meg was 55 years old on page one and 30 pages later she is 40 with a 35 year old son, just take that with a grain of salt.  I wrote all this stuff down before I started writing, but in typical Lou Mercer fashion I filed it away and hopefully I will remember where some day. 
In my world time is irrelevant.  Places are irrelevant.  The only things that really matter are emotions and eating.  Stuff like that and not necessarily in that order.  I have read a lot of Jackie Collins, so there may be some romance.  I worship Jean Auel and her Clan of the Cave Bear series so there may be a lot of herbs and homeopathic cures, or not.  And I fell on my knees at the feet of Steven King so the ending may surprise you.  But I do not want to give away my trade secrets here at 4:38 in the morning so I am just going to tell you to add me to your favorite blogs so you will be notified and look for my first rendering here in three days, which will be Monday, November 7.
And hang on; it is going to be a bumpy ride!