Another Few Pages...

I step out into the rain and let the door swing shut behind me. As I walked home I let my mind wander back to the past. It was hard to believe that Charlie and I had once been best friends. We’d met in basic training and had gone to Vietnam together. We were two of the four surviving members of our platoon who made it home. After our tour was done I’d bounced around the country for a while before following Charlie back to his hometown of Kalispell, Montana and built a house for myself. We’d bought the bar together and through a few other good investments I’d made a name for myself. Around Christmas time his sister returned home from college back east and Charlie introduced us.
From the moment I first saw her I knew she was perfect. Charlie and Carolyn’s mother’s parents had been full blooded Blackfeet. Carolyn had inherited their dark hair, eyes, and golden skin. She was her parents pride and joy. She was smart, top of her class at Rutgers, and her brother and I would sometimes stand in awe at little things she’d say that we’d have never thought of. Carolyn was also the strongest woman I’d ever met. She’d raised a daughter on her own, while she went to school. Like I said she was perfect in every way. We were married in the summer after her graduation, and started to build our life together with Dana who had just turned five. I raised her as my own and in the years to come Carolyn and I had two more daughters together, Jackie and Suzanne.


When Monday night rolled around I was back at the watering hole. On Sundays the place was closed so come Monday the place was usually packed with locals thirsty for a taste of liquor. I’d sold my share of the bar to Charlie years before but I never could help but to come in and see how business was doing a few times a week. I strolled in at around nine o’clock, sat down at my spot at the bar, and waited for Charlie to come over. The bar was indeed busy and it was a few minutes before he could get to me.
“What can get for you?”
“Michelob.”
“Draft or bottle?”
“Bottle.”
He handed me the bottle and tried to walk away but I stopped him.
“Hey Charlie, how are the girls doing?”
“They’re fine.”
“Fine doesn’t tell me how they’re handling life without a man in their lives.”
He frowned a little and I could tell there was something he wanted to tell me.
“Alright, what’s going on?”
“There isn’t anything going on.”
“Yes, there is, you always get that pinched look between your eyes when you’re hiding something from.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yeah you do, you remember that time in Da Nang don’t you?”
“Alright fine, look, Junior was right, Carolyn is seeing someone.”
“Who?” Even to my ears my voice sounded a little odd, like someone had me by the throat and I was still trying to talk.
“You don’t know him. He’s from Browning.”
“Who?” I repeated, though I could already tell what was coming next.
“Dana’s father, but look he’s great for the girls. They love him.”
“They’re my kids.”
Damn right they were my kids, I thought. Nobody was taking them from me and Caroline was my wife. Mine. I raised Dana as my own and never treated her differently then the other two. No, I would never allow them to be taken for me.
“Well, you really fucked that relationship up when they watched you smack their mom around for years. Now you’re just going to have to accept Carolyn’s choices if you want any hope in building that relationship.”
“Where the hell did the bastard come from anyway?”
“I guess he’s been serving in the Marines overseas for years and thought Carolyn wasn’t interested in anything more then quick affair. He didn’t know about Dana.”
“So why come to Montana of all places.”
He got that squinty look between his eyes again.
“We grew up together.”

And also the first two pages of a work in progress...

Turners never did know when to mind their own business. No matter how many times Old Nate got his lip fattened for running off at the mouth he never learned and he passed on his wagging tongue to his son Junior. The way I remember it was Saturday night, we were all sitting in our usually places at the bar, as we had been doing for the last twenty or so years, and Junior comes running in practically foaming at mouth with some piece of gossip he must have heard. He immediately hurried towards me and I looked at my friends and rolled my eyes.
“Ned you ain’t going to believe it when I tell you who I just saw over in Browning.”
I rolled my eyes again and grinned at my buddies, “No, Junior I guess I probably will not believe whatever it is you have to say to me.”
He scowled at me, “You won’t be grinning when I tell you.”
“Well, why don’t you tell me then?”
“I saw Carolyn!”
I could feel my smile freeze on my face and hear my friends fidget behind me. Junior didn’t notice and kept chattering.
“That’s not all Ned! She was at the Legion with that guy who just took over the place, and they were looking really cozy if you know what I mean.”
He winks at me and the next thing I know he’s lying on the floor and clutching his bleeding nose.
“That is my wife you are talking about,” I snarl at him.
“Not for much longer is the way she tells it,” he sneers at me as he picks himself off the floor, “She left you and no matter how long you wait she isn’t going to come crawling back the way you think she is. I was just doing you a favor man, telling you where your woman was, thinking you’d like to know, but see if I ever tell you anything ever again.”
The door slams shut behind him as he walks out and I turn and look at my friends. I try to act like there isn’t anything wrong by grinning. They smile and nod at me and everyone sits back down. The noise level slowly goes up again and people return to the pool tables.
“Hey Charlie,” I say to the bartender, “Why don’t you bring us another round?”
“I think maybe you had enough for tonight, Ned,” he says quietly.
“Can’t ever have enough can you boys?” I say look around me to my friends for agreement.
Theo, sitting to my right, rubs the back of his neck and stares at the scarred bar top avoiding my eyes. I look over at Larry and Paul sitting to my left. They are frowning slightly.
“Sometimes you can have enough,” says Charlie staring directly into my face.
“Well, fine. I guess I’ll just go home then.”
“It’s raining Ned have Theo drive you,” says Charlie.
“I can walk.”
“When are you getting your license back Ned?” asks Charlie before Theo can move.
“I don’t know whenever the judge tells me I can drive.”
“He is not going to give a drunk back his license,” says Charlie.
“And I thought you were my friend, but there you go calling me a drunk just like Caro. I guess with a friend like you I don’t need enemies.”
“Why would I be friends with the man who beat up my sister?” sneers Charlie before dismissing me by grabbing a dish rag to wipe down the counter.
“Ned you know we only want to help,” mutters Theo.
“Yeah, yeah, I could really use some more of your kind of help,” I say as I walk towards the door and push it open. Something stops me and I turn and look at them and say quietly, “You know she’ll come back to me. She always does.”
Charlie freezes for a moment his hands on the bar top.
“I know,” he says quietly.