Chapter 29
“John got a new job in Maryland”, Mrs. Wheeler told me after dinner when we were all sitting on the couch with drinks in our hands.
“Oh congratulations!”, I said.
“Yes, he will still be a detective, but the office is nicer”, continued Mrs. Wheeler, while her husband sat there taking in the news about his own job.
I wondered what she meant with that, but thought it would have been out of place to ask. “So you guys are going to move on”, I said instead, speaking directly to him, “when are you going to be moving?”.
One of their little ones, the girl, who was playing on the floor with a rag doll dropped her head, “I don’t want to go”.
“Oh honey, we will be just fine”, reassured her Mrs. Wheeler.
“In a month”, replied John answering my question. “We’ve already began to box up few things here but there’s always more than you expect when you start to put some order in your affairs”.
John laughed nervously and rolled the stem of his glass between his fingers as he spoke. I couldn’t understand why he was ill at ease, but he certainly was.
“I wish you all the best, although I must say that I am so used to having you people as neighbours it will be sad for me to see you go”.
“I am sad to go”, echoed the girl from her playground in a corner of the living-room. Nobody replied to what she said this time.
“I wish you all the best, really”, I reiterated, trying to chase away the odd vibes running through our conversation.
The room fell silent. We sat there with our drinks, each of us likely hoping we were elsewhere.
But then the boy rushed through the room with Wooster shouting, “It’s gigantic! Wooster dug a GIGANTIC hole in the garden”.
I laughed with relief at the boy’s bewildered expression and the dog’s muzzle caked with dirt.
“Honey, please call me if you see Wooster doing that again”, Mrs. Wheeler said, “We will have to sell this house and the holes in the garden will not look good”.
The boy shrugged and walked out.
“We’ll have to have another dinner before you guys leave”, I said, struggling to find the right words to end this evening.
“You bet”, replied Mrs. Wheeler.
“Thanks for the wonderful evening, I think I will be heading home now…”.
John gave me a nod and Mrs. Wheeler said, “Thank you for coming over, let me see you to the door darling”.
I shook hands with John, hugged Mrs. Wheeler and left. I was halfway to my door when I realized I would terribly miss Wooster.
The anticipated feeling of the loss burdened me as I opened the door, and walking up the stairs the loneliness sank in, and I found myself longing for Jack’s presence more intensely than I ever had before.
I dialed his number, nervously running my hand on the base of the phone.
“It’s me”, I said when he picked up.
“Your evening at your neighbours place wasn’t that long after all”. I could sense he was smiling on the other side of the line.
“I cut it short. I wasn’t in the mood when I got there and then things evolved in a very strange way…”.
“In a strange way?”, he asked.
“Yeah, Mrs. Wheeler told me her husband got a new job and that they will move to Maryland…”, I began and paused.
“And why is that strange?”.
“It wasn’t the fact, but the way they told me. John just sat there and Mrs. Wheeler did all the talking. The few times John spoke he was tense...I don’t know what’s going on in that family”.
“Why don’t you come over”, he said
“I’ll take a short shower and I’ll get there”. There was a moment of silence on the line. “I want Wooster”, I added.
“I don’t know about Wooster, but for the shower, well, you can have one at my place”, Jack laughed.
I laughed back, “Well, I suppose I should begin by taking what I can”.
There was another pause.
“Jack?”
“Tell me”, he said.
When the night swarms with buzzing insects and stars, when the heat soaks the bodies and makes emotions sizzle beyond our control, then words are of no use. All you have to do is be, shattered by joy, sadness, lust and sensorial madness, in the beautiful frenzy of a world you cannot understand.
“I will be there in five minutes”, I said, and hang up.