“The treatment won’t take long, but I can’t promise it won’t hurt. If you could talk, you’d thank me. Nobody wants to live in a hospital, Tommy. It just isn’t right. Someone needs to show you a little mercy.”
The visitor undid one of Tommy’s IVs and hooked the catheter line into the bag of fluid, then titrated the flow.
The last words Tommy heard were, “I am merciful.”
CHAPTER 6
Sam Talbot lived on the kind of wide, tree-lined street where Julie had once imagined she would raise her family. The houses here were spacious, but not too grand. Her ex-husband, Paul, had railed against the trappings of suburban life, so they’d ended up buying a condo in Cambridge. And Julie, to her surprise, fell in love with urban living. The conveniences were hard to beat. Once the excitement of her engagement to Sam had worn off, Julie made clear her concerns regarding living arrangements. She was a full-fledged city mouse, and Sam was of the country variety.
“We’ll work it out,” Sam had assured her.
That was almost a year ago. They had yet to reach any decision. Now the wedding was fast approaching-six months and counting down-and some sort of resolution was in order.
“He’ll be fine here,” Sam said, speaking of Trevor.
“Well, I know he’ll adjust,” Julie replied. “But how long will it take? How well can he manage?”
They were working side by side in Sam’s two-car garage. Julie had an underground parking space, but no storage, and a real garage was one of many amenities suburban living had to offer. Julie attended to her motorcycle and Sam to his in preparation for the day’s long ride.
“He’ll make new friends,” Sam said. “How many middle school chums are you still close with?”
“Plenty,” Julie answered. Julie did not make eye contact with Sam. She was too busy going through her pre-ride checklist, which she approached with the same fastidiousness she brought to a bedside exam.
Sam was less diligent, in part because he was far more experienced. He rode a BMW K1600, which had an engine roughly seven times the cubic capacity of Julie’s bike. Julie’s ride was plenty powerful and she had confidence in her ability to control her bike, thanks to fifteen hours of instruction from Training Wheels, a premier motorcycle riding school. It was the other motorists she worried about.
“Who are you still close with from middle school?” Sam asked.
Her focus still on her bike, Julie answered, “Sandy, Claire, and Eileen.” She rattled those names off the top of her head, but she could have mentioned others as well.
“You talk to them only on Facebook,” Sam said with a grin.
“They’re still my friends, and isn’t Facebook how we reconnected?” Julie strode over to Sam, giving her hips an extra playful swagger. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He was taller than Julie by five inches, but she did not mind stretching to meet his lips. His close-cropped beard, sandy-colored like his thick, wavy hair, tickled her face and she enjoyed the sensation. She threw herself into the kiss, making it clear that wherever she and Trevor lived, Sam would be in her life forever.
“Maybe I’ll keep my condo for a while, you keep your house, and we’ll see each other when Trevor is with Paul.”
Sam frowned. “We sound like we’re already divorced.”
“I just don’t know if I can move him now, sweetheart. He’s acting out at school and at home. The whole notion is daunting.”
Sam fell silent, not brooding, but thinking. “What if I sold my house and we bought a new place together in Cambridge?”
Julie was stunned. “You would do that for us?”
“That way Trevor could go to the same school, and we could be together as a family.”
“Why not just move into my place, then? There’s more than enough room for the three of us.”
“That’s your place with Paul,” Sam said. “I want something that’s just about us. A place where we can make memories from scratch.”
“And you can make new cabinets,” Julie said, smiling.
Mostly self-taught, Sam had painstakingly stripped his house down to the studs and rebuilt it using secondhand tools and limitless ingenuity. It was a true labor of love. From decorative moldings with intricate carvings to the kitchen cabinetry and furniture, Sam was an artist with wood.
“But you hate the city,” Julie said. “And now you’ll have a commute.”
“I’d hate living apart from you even more. Trevor’s not the only one who can adjust.”
Julie purred and pressed her body against him, running her hands along his backside in a playful, teasing way. Sam’s hazel eyes flickered with excitement.
“How about after this ride I help lube your throttle cable?” Julie whispered in his ear.
Sam laughed and kissed Julie with passion. “I love it when you talk motorcycle to me.”
Julie pulled away and her expression became more serious. “We’ll figure it out, okay? I love you and I’m excited to spend the rest of my life showing you how much.”
Their lips met again.
“Thank goodness for Facebook,” Sam breathed in Julie’s ear.
Back in high school, Sam Talbot had hovered near Julie’s close circle of friends, but they remained acquaintances and nothing more. Occasionally they would bump into each other at a party or some school happening, but Sam was a band and drama club kid. Julie was more of a jock, and for the most part, those groups didn’t interact.
But then came life, and later Facebook, and suddenly Julie’s friend list was replete with people from her past whose names she could barely recall, including Sam Talbot’s.
When Sam posted about his divorce, a year after Julie’s had been finalized, she worked up the nerve to send him a message. It was the tone of his post that had her so intrigued. She could still recall some of that text verbatim.
Life can be a magical journey and the only anchors we have are the ones we tie to ourselves. So anchors away and bon voyage, my friends. I’m sailing off on a new adventure!
Julie loved the visual, and wanted to believe she embraced her own upheaval with the same degree of optimism. She wrote a friendly note to Sam, to whom she had not spoken since graduation. They made a date to meet for drinks, which led to more drinks, and now, almost two years later, plans to marry.
“I have a lot of papers to grade tonight,” Sam said. “Can you stay over and keep me company?”
“I have to be home for Trevor,” Julie said.
“That’s it, I’m calling the real estate agent soon as we get back.”
Julie laughed warmly as Sam fired up his engine.
“Don’t laugh, I’m serious,” he said.
Julie climbed on her bike and blew him a kiss. “And I’m glad.”
They backed their bikes out of the garage. Skill with a motorcycle had more to do with correct technique than brute strength, and Julie was all about doing things the right way. She led by example at work and at home. She hoped Trevor would adopt her ways, but it seemed Paul’s influence was winning out.
Still, Trevor could recite on command Julie’s list of three things in life not to waste-time, money, and potential-and this gave her hope that Trevor would one day mature into better life habits.
Soon they were on the road, headed west to the Berkshires. Julie felt peaceful and exhilarated all at once. Thin clouds scudded in front of the morning sun, darkening a splendid blue sky. It was the first Sunday of September, the long Labor Day weekend, and an unseasonable chill in the air hinted at summer’s final good-bye. Julie’s leather jacket provided warmth against the biting wind.
They took the highway so they could make good time getting to the day’s main event, a thirty-five-mile stretch of Route 20 called Jacob’s Ladder Trail Scenic Byway. The road wound through Russell, Huntington, Chester, and Becket before ending in downtown Lee.