Three Loves (Chapter Five)

Most of my friends and relatives who knew about my DEMOCRAT LAWYER were very happy for me and very impressed by him.


Of course, several knew him only by what I'd told them.


However, there were some who knew him personally as well as some who knew him from his being in the news for different reasons over the years.


Most of these people had a good impression of him.


However, one relative and one friend found him to be disgusting.


The relative was my mother's first cousin, Georgia.


When I told her that this guy and I had become very close and I was in love with him, she tried to talk some sense into me.


She told me that she felt so sorry for his mother.


I asked her if she knew his mother personally, and she told me that she didn't--but some good friends of hers did and said that she was taking what had happened to her son pretty hard.


Georgia told me that she was a good woman who never should have had to go through having her family name smeared by her son's stupidity.


I told her that I didn't condone some of his actions but that he was a really good person. Someday, I promised, I'd introduce them.


"I don't want to be introduced to him! I want nothing to do with him!" Georgia was adamant.


"He really likes you," I told her.


"How can he like me when he doesn't even know me?"


"I've told him a little about you," I replied--and added that he'd always admired her late husband (well-known Indiana high school basketball coach, Marion Crawley, for those who don't know already from reading some of my other writings).


"I hope you haven't told him too much about me, because I don't want him knowing too much about me!"


I told her how I'd told him the stories about the motel room and the dog in Munich and that he was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes.


"Well, don't tell him anything else!" She then paused as she remembered something she thought was important to say, then added: "And certainly don't tell him the story about those pills that gave me gas!!!"


Georgia had always found the poem I'd written about her to be a real scream, and she actually seemed proud to have been the main character in it.


Now, she was telling me not to ever again--until she passed on--disclose that she was the infamous Mrs. C.


I kept that promise to her.


The poem continued to be a favorite at open-mike sessions and as part of poet-student match-ups, but, only after her passing, did I disclose Georgia's identity.


And I STILL think that she would have really liked my DEMOCRAT LAWYER, if she'd just gotten the chance to get to know him--in SPITE of the fact that she was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, herself, and even looked a lot like Barbara Bush!


A good friend of many years was even MORE cutting of my new friend. What she said seemed to imply that he was someone with a flawed personality--like a sociopath--who would never change because he wasn't capable of changing.


Somehow--while Georgia's ranting was rather amusing to me--the words of this other friend cut right through me, because she was almost implying that he was evil and demonic.


It was the day after he and I had gotten together at McDonald's, and I was missing him already. Then, to hear hurtful words like that directed towards him. It broke my heart.


I really needed to talk to him, but I didn't want to tell him why.


I called him, and his friendly voice took on an even more light and cheerful tone when he recognized my voice.


He asked me how I was doing, and I told him that I was feeling a little down and needed to be cheered up--so I was wondering if he had any good news for me.


Not realizing what I'd just been through in the way of a conversation, he asked me what was wrong--and I told him a half-truth. I said that a friend had said something that really hurt my feelings.


He was very sweet with me and told me that friends had misunderstandings at times, and he was sure that it wouldn't be long before we were back to being on good terms again.


He added that, while he didn't have any really good news, he had a funny story I would probably like hearing.


He had been living in this one apartment since the middle of December, and the person who had lived there before him had, obviously, not paid his electric bill for a few months.


Although my DEMOCRAT LAWYER had been prompt about paying since being there, somehow, the computer system had finally caught onto the fact that somebody living in that apartment hadn't been paying his bills on time.


So, that morning, he'd gone to take a shower, adjusting the knobs to where the water would be nice and warm for him to get under after he'd gone to the bathroom.


He must have not tried to turn on any lights that morning, or he would have discovered what had happened in a less shocking way.


Anyway, he'd gotten into the shower and his cute, little birthday suit (just guessing that it's cute--don't know firsthand LOL) got attacked by ice water, causing him to give a blood-curdling scream and jump out of there like a cat!


As he told the story, he was laughing his delightful laugh, and I just wanted to reach right through the telephone connection, pull him through, and hug him to pieces!


And I wanted to be there in his life to keep reminding him that he was an okay person, even when there were those who thought otherwise!


I was his friend, his sweetheart, and the mother lioness for the little cub within him!!!


TO BE CONTINUED. . . "Three Loves (Chapter Six)"