So Long, Chester Wheeler(37)

“I wasn’t going to say that,” she said.

“I know I’ve aged a hundred years since you saw me last.”

“You’ve aged the same numbers of years as I have.”

“You wouldn’t know it to look at us.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but Chester got there first.

“He in there?”

He indicated the house with a flip of his head.

She burst out laughing. “Is that what you think?”

“What was I supposed to think?”

“Honey, that man and I divorced in 1996.”

“Oh,” Chester said. I could see his face change as he digested the information. “Well, I can’t say I’m happy to hear that.”

“You’re totally happy to hear that. Admit it.”

“I’m not. I’m actually not. You blew up our marriage for that. I think it’s even worse if it all went for nothing.”

“I’m surprised Ellie didn’t tell you at least that much.”

“I don’t ask her anything about you. And she doesn’t volunteer anything.”

“Good.”

“Until I got sick, I barely saw her. It’s not like I have a family anymore.”

I could tell from her eyes and her face that she was losing patience fast. Whatever her good points, she was clearly not a woman long on patience. They must have been quite the pair in their day, I thought.

“Go ahead and say what you came here to say to me, Chet.”

Chester stared down at his lap and said nothing.

“Seriously, Chet,” she said, her voice rising. “You came all the way from Buffalo to say something to me. Now what is it?”

“I don’t know,” Chester said.

I felt, suddenly, as though all the air had been sucked out of the meeting, emotionally speaking. Had he really come all this way with no idea of what he wanted to say? Or was he just afraid to say it now that he was looking right into her face? With Chester it was almost impossible to venture a guess.

“You better be about to tell me you’re kidding,” she spat.

And that was it. The guardrails came down, the illegal holds were no longer barred, and it had become a fight, just like that.

“Well, it’s hard,” he shouted. “What am I supposed to say? You tell me I have to be polite or you’ll kick me out again. How do you tell someone they ruined your life and be polite all at the same time?”

“You drove two thousand miles to tell me something you’ve told me a hundred times before? That doesn’t sound right. Or at least it wouldn’t with anybody else. With you I guess I’d be tempted to say it’s par for your course.”

“You haven’t changed a bit,” he shouted.

“Neither have you,” she shouted right back, “except you look a hundred years older!”

“Okay, stop!” I bellowed.

I stood. And then I took a step and stood between them. And I held one hand out to each of them, like twin stop signs. It was a warning. And for reasons unknown to me, they heeded it.

“This is going south fast,” I said. “So here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to take Chester back to the Winnebago. And I’ll see if I can’t figure out what it is he’s been wanting to say to you. And when we come back, he’ll stick to that.”

“I don’t want him coming back,” Sue said. “I don’t want him here. I never wanted him here.”

“Okay. Well. I’ll try to get the message out of him and then I’ll come back and tell you what it is.”

So, there it was. Just like that, I had inserted myself into the process.

I’m sure it goes without saying that it was a decision I would soon regret.





Chapter Twelve:




* * *





The Disconnect

I loaded Chester back into the RV with great effort. I backed him up and sat him down on one of the couches. Tucked a couple of pillows behind his back.

Then, when I was sure he was nice and comfy, I let him have it with both barrels.

“What the hell was that, Chester? Oh my God. What is wrong with you?”

“Me?” he shouted back. “Don’t put this off on me. She started it.”

“She started it? Do you not get that I was there? ‘I know you think I look like crap. I know you’re thinking it. I know you want to say it. Go on! Say it! Say it! Say it!’” I got right up in his face and blasted it out one more time. “‘Say it!’”

He pushed me back with one beefy hand.

“Get out of my damn face, Lewis!”

“I’m sure that’s exactly how she felt. And then she asks what you came all this way to say. And you don’t know.”

“It takes time to get your thoughts together on a thing like that.”

“It was a three-and-a-half-day drive!”

I had very much lost it by then, and it came out so loud it hurt my throat. I briefly pondered whether his ex-wife had heard me in the house.

“I thought I knew,” he said, his voice uncharacteristically quiet. “I thought I had it in my head, but then I was there with her and my thoughts were just scattered all over the place. I couldn’t think.”