CHAPTER FIFTEEN......................

Friday dawned cold and sunny. Carolyn pulled on a pair of brown leather boots with pencil legged brown slacks and a soft cashmere sweater in a pumpkin orange color.

Wielding a washcloth, she did a quick clean-up of her bathroom vanity. Spritzing the mirror with window cleaner, she reluctantly wiped the “I love you” written in her pink lipstick from the lower right corner. When she closed the door her bathroom was back in order.

Her gym bag was still in the car from the day before, so she headed off for her workout, refreshed from a good night’s sleep and happy in the knowledge that Jeff would be home tomorrow.

She called Jennifer’s cell phone, knowing her friend would be up before the crack of dawn even in a hospital. Jenn answered on the first ring, “You’re on your way to the gym….” she said.

“Yep. And how about you? Did you make potty like a good girl so you can go home today?”

“Don't tell Nurse Ratched, but I faked it.  I told her I did, she told me I can go home, but I haven't seen a real doctor yet," Jenn said.   “Want me to call you later?”

“Yeah, do that. Jeff comes home tomorrow, but I can bring dinner over tonight if you’re going to be home. Is your Mom coming to stay for a few days?”

Jenn groaned, ”Oh, God……I hope not! I’d rather go through another surgery without an anesthetic.  I've tried to convince her I can take care of myself. It was an appendectomy, not a heart transplant for cripes sake!”

“Look at it this way, it’s a chance to get your oven cleaned,” Carolyn chuckled.

“My oven doesn’t need to be cleaned. The only thing I ever use it for is to store panty hose and you know it. Ah…..here comes Dr. Feel-good! Talk to you later!”

Jenn hung up as Carolyn turned right at the bottom of Brainard Road. Her phone rang again, and she assumed it was Jenn calling right back. 

“Hello….”  She could tell by the sound that there was someone on the line, “Hello? ", her exasperation boiled over. " Hey, jerk! You have a wrong number, and it’s been the wrong damned number for weeks.  Look at the number you just called and don't ever call it again!”, and she turned her phone off, tossing it into the waste bag dangling from her radio dial. Some people were so inconsiderate!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.................

Marco watched Carolyn’s car turn out of sight, and he headed back to his house. He adjusted the rear view mirror so he could smile at himself. “Someday we will laugh about these calls,” he said aloud. “She’ll understand once I explain it all to her; we'll crawl into bed at our house laugh about it together.”

Parking in his usual spot and making his usual entry into the basement, Marco took a bag to his hiding place. It contained a bottle of wine he planned to put in the fridge sometime this weekend. Carolyn’s husband wasn’t due home for several days, and before that happened he was going to have a heart to heart talk with her to decide what to do about Jeff when he finally returned.

The accident Marco planned for Mr. Robertson and the illness he devised for Mrs. Catron had both worked well enough to give him confidence in his ability to get rid of Jeff efficiently. But Marco didn’t feel as generous when he thought about Jeff.

“Maybe he needs to suffer,” Marco thought. He knew Jeff was also a gym member, and he let the idea of shooting him in the parking lot roll through his mind. It would have to be the gym or leaving his office, away from the house and in a place Marco could see the man’s face as he slowly understood he was about to die.

Marco wanted to look in Jeff's eyes as he came to the knowledge that he was assuming Jeff's life. “And yes, he is going to suffer,” Marco thought, “I am going to enjoy teaching him that he should never have touched what belonged to me.”

In the kitchen Marco gave JuJu her customary treat then took the stairs two at a time as he headed up to Carolyn’s bedroom for a nap.

Entering the cream colored room he was enveloped by Carolyn’s scent; excited by the thought that she had been standing in this very room less than half an hour before. He could almost see her here, stepping out of the shower, making a towel wrapped walk to her vanity to comb her hair.

He opened Carolyn’s bathroom door and noticed she had cleaned his “I love you” off the mirror. Silly girl, you don’t want to forget how much I love you! 

Whistling, he walked to her vanity and chose one of the four lipsticks in a tiny pink basket. Returning to the bathroom, he once again wrote “I love you” on the lower right hand corner of the frameless mirror. This would be their daily ritual when they were married, he knew.

He smiled into the mirror, running a hand through his unruly black hair then pointing his finger at his own reflection, “You are one good looking devil, you know that?”

Marco urinated in the toilet, closing the lid but again leaving it unflushed,  then went to stretch out on the big bed. He set the alarm on his watch for noon, then sank back and drifted into his customary black, dreamless sleep.


CHAPTER SEVENTEEN............

By ten o’clock Carolyn was standing in the doorway to Wally’s office. 

“Wally, would it be alright if I took half a day off today?  My friend Jennifer just called and she needs a ride home from the hospital.  They’re releasing her about eleven thirty today,” Carolyn asked.

“As long as you have preliminary plans on my desk by noon Monday I don’t care where you do them or how you get them done.   If that works into taking half a day off, go ahead,” Wally’s pale eyes blinked behind the huge black rimmed glasses. 

“That won’t be a problem, sorry for the short notice,” she said.

Wally stood and walked around from behind his desk.  His short sleeved blue shirt showed sweat stains half way down his sides.  His big belly led the way as he jiggled toward Carolyn.   “I know you won’t let me down on this account.  You’re a smart cookie,” he smiled.

For one horrible second Carolyn thought he might be coming on to her.  She was relieved when she heard Marion’s voice behind her.

“Is that the newest Play Land Pools executive I see there?   Congratulations, Carolyn,” Marion’s voice had a musical quality to it that wasn’t entirely attributable to Carolyn’s relief. 

The two women hugged, and Carolyn explained about taking the half day to pick up Jennifer and get her settled at home.

“She and her Mom had a big set-to about whether or not the patient needed twenty four hour mothering and Jennifer won,” Carolyn laughed.

“Good thing she was arguing with her Mom and not mine,” Marion said.  “They’d have to put me back in the hospital if I argued with her!”

The two laughing women walked to the hallway, Marion’s arm protectively over Carolyn’s shoulders.  

Wally sat back down at his desk thinking, “Those two look just as good leaving as they do coming into a room.”   He pulled out is big white handkerchief and mopped his sweaty forehead.

                            CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.............

At eleven forty five Carolyn walked through the door of her best friend's hospital room.  Jennifer was dressed, but stretched out on the bed as if the effort had exhausted her.

“You look a little pale there, girl,” Carolyn said.

“I didn’t think it would hurt so bad, but dressing was a bloody blue bitch,” Jenn groaned.

“Are you certain you don’t want your Mom to stay a few days, hon?   I could play dumb and call her….tell her how pale and tired you look and how cranky you are.   She’d be back here in a shot.”

“Naw.  I can do this; I’ll just take it a little at a time.  Mom will be over tomorrow anyway, mad or not, and we both know it,” Jennifer pushed herself into a sitting position, then slowly to her feet.

Carolyn rang for the nurse, and between the two of them they got Jennifer, who didn't fight them when the nurse insisted she get into a wheel chair,  two over night bags, four floral arrangements and two pillows from her bed at home down to the car.  Once Jennifer was buckled into the passenger seat and her things piled in the trunk Carolyn got in and started the car.

“I’ve got a prescription and I need a couple of things from the grocery, do you mind?” Jennifer asked.

“You kidding?  I’ll put you in a grocery cart and off we’ll go,” Carolyn laughed.

By two thirty the women were pulling into Jennifer’s complex.   After three trips from car to apartment Carolyn finally had everything in the kitchen.  It took another hour to empty bags, put things away and get Jennifer settled on the couch.

“Now for my famous toasted cheese and tomato soup extravaganza,” Carolyn said.   “Thank God for Campbell’s soup.” 

Jeff and Carolyn believed in sharing the chores of married life, and he had taken on the cooking.  Carolyn had neither the patience nor the talent for it, so her kitchen repertoire was limited to four things; scrambled eggs, toasted cheese and tomato soup, or toast.   That provided a food group for every meal and, when fleshed out with 'fruit on the bottom' yogurt,  it was enough to feed Carolyn while Jeff was away.   

Jeff laughed about it, leering at her, grabbing her fanny and saying in his best dirty old man voice, “Well….no woman is good in EVERY room.”

After she had taken a pain pill and finished her soup and sandwich meal, Jenn yawned and stretched out on the couch.  She was almost asleep when the doorbell rang; Carolyn looked out the kitchen window to see Jenn’s Mom carrying a cake and smiling into the peephole in the door. 

“Mrs. Keeler!  We were just wondering if you were going to come over,” Carolyn grinned, throwing the door wide.  “What kind of cake is that?”

Sue Keeler breezed into the room as if she and Jenn had not just had a shouting match that morning.  “It’s red velvet, and if you’ll put the coffee pot on I’ll cut this sucker.” 

She dropped two recyclable bags on the table as she spoke. “There’s a pound of coffee in that bag there, don’t use that awful stuff Jennifer buys,” she ordered.

Carolyn set to work, grinning at Jennifer as she poured water into the coffee pot.

Jennifer lay back on the couch wearing the resigned look of an inmate who had just been strapped into the electric chair and was just waiting for the hood to be placed over his head.

She sighed, resigned to her plight, and said, “There’s coffee creamer in the fridge, Mom.  And I want whipped cream on my cake.”