Chapter 2. From the vault

[NOTE:  After I wrote Self Absorbed, the few people I let read it (I wrote it to get it out of my system) felt it was too much of a downer. And they wanted to read more. So, with little else to do, I expanded it. It ultimately ended up as 8 1/2 chapters. I submit to you, chapter 2 -- Second Chances. ggg]






SECOND CHANCES


Larry shot straight up in his bed.  “What the hell just happened?”  His alarm was blaring, the phone was ringing and an anchorwoman on TV seemed to be screaming at him.  He must have rolled over the remote control in his sleep, as he had a tendency to do.  He lowered the volume and tried to get his bearings.

He reached to shut off his alarm as he heard his answering machine pick up the call.  “Hi, I guess you left all ready.  I just wanted you to know that I’m running about fifteen minutes late.”  That voice. A bit less groggy, but unmistakable.

“Where the hell am I?” Larry asked the flashing light on his answering machine.  It just continued to flash, taunting him.  “What day is this?” He pushed the play button on the machine and listened to the message again.  As usual, the message ended with the voice of Captain Kirk telling him it was Monday, eight oh five AM.  “Shit, I’m late,” he told the TV.  The newscaster didn’t seem too interested.  She was busy talking about some drive-by shooting that had occurred the night before in Philadelphia.  He jumped up and headed to the bathroom, stopped mid-stride and turned to look at the phone.  He picked up the remote and let his finger hover over the OFF button.  He dropped the remote and headed to the closet.  “No, I should call her first”,  he told the closet door and returned to the phone.  His mind was in a cloud.  He could almost feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

He picked up the phone and dialed a number without thinking.  After what seemed like fifteen rings the receptionist at his office answered.  “Damn, wrong number.”  This was in his head.  What he said sounded slightly like, “Hi, Nancy, it’s Larry.  I may be a few minutes late today.  No more than fifteen minutes.”  He hung up the phone without hearing a response.

He dialed again.  One ring, his stomach started to knot up.  He saw Geri everyday, why was he so nervous calling her?  Two rings. “Answering machine, answering machine, answering machine,” he prayed to the gods of modern technology.  Three rings.  His heart was in his mouth. Click.  “Oh, thank God.”

“Hi this is Geri, I can’t come to the . . . Hello.”  Shit!!!

“Hi,” he cleared his throat, “is Geri there?”

“Are you here already?  I tried to call.”

“No, actually your message woke me up.  I’ll see you in about twenty five minutes.”  He again hung up without waiting for a response.  He sat on the bed and took a well-deserved deep breath.

Less than a minute later, Larry was in the shower.  “It was a dream?”  The soap refused to respond.  Larry had had a few wild dreams in the past, but nothing like this one.  It was so vivid, so real.  The steam fogged his glasses.  He took them off quickly and tossed them to the counter.  They landed in the sink.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time he’d cleaned his glasses in this way.  Seeing dreams is one thing, bathing, well that was something else.  “A dream,” a smile came over his face as his body relaxed for the first time in who knew how long.  He started to laugh uncontrollably.

As Larry left his apartment, he contemplated calling Geri to let her know he was on the way, but thought better of it.  He was already running five minutes late and didn’t want to take anymore time.  She knew he was late, why complicate things.  “See you la . . .” He stopped himself.  He couldn’t remember why.

It was a cloudy morning and a bit chilly.  “Can’t take advantage of the convertible today,” he thought to himself, and in an odd way it pleased him.  The drive to Geri’s apartment was uneventful; the traffic seemed thinner than usual.  Finally, something was going right.  He’d be able to make up some of the time he had lost.

Geri sat on the steps in front of her building applying make-up.  A wave of relief ran through every bone in his body when he first saw her.  He smiled politely as she got in the car.  “Where have you been,” he asked, beating her to the punch.  She smiled at him, a bit confused.

The ride to work was quiet.  Larry responded to Geri’s questions regarding his weekend with nothing more than nods and grunts.  His mind was somewhere else.  He remembered having a disquieting dream but the details evaded him.  He could only remember brief snippets. A park, Stacy’s office, someone being shot, a movie. . .

“So did you see the movie this weekend?”  There was a slight air of concern in her voice.  Larry seemed a bit out of sorts.

“Uh, movie, um, yeah, yeah, it was good.”  There was something familiar here, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“I almost went Saturday but couldn’t find anyone interested.”  This Larry found hard to believe.  Geri was beautiful, young, and energetic.  He couldn’t imagine her having trouble finding a date.  If things were different, he thought, he would’ve leaped at the chance to ask her.  “Maybe I can find someone to go with me this week.”  What was that smile he caught out of the corner of his eye?  A chill ran down his back.  It was as if this conversation had occurred before but for some reason he couldn’t get the image of a park, a tree, a lake out of his mind.

“Are you okay?”  The question didn’t seem to come easy.

“I’m fine.”  It seemed forever before the words were uttered.  “I’m just a bit beat, I didn’t sleep real well last night.”  He noticed a slightly concerned, slightly confused look on her face.  “No big deal.  I had this really strange dream and I can’t seem to remember it.”

“I know what you mean.  I never remember my dreams.  I was reading once that . . .” He heard the words yet didn’t hear them.  He was just glad that she had taken back control of the conversation.

They arrived at work only five minutes late.  They would have been on time, Larry thought, had they not stopped for doughnuts.  Normally Larry would have just driven by the bakery, but today he thought it would be the right thing to do.  Larry just sat in the driver’s seat as Geri got out of the car.  “You coming?”

“In a minute,” he gestured for her to go.  “Stop by for a doughnut.”

“Sure,” she turned back to face him, “Are you okay?”  She seemed genuinely concerned.

“Yeah, just thinking.”  As Geri walked from the car he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.  “If things were only different.”  The words repeated in his head.

Though only a few minutes had passed, it seemed forever before Larry got to his office.  He placed the box of doughnuts on the table and walked behind his desk to turn on his computer.  For the first time today, all weekend for that matter, he felt comfortable.  He sat down and thought, “I’m home.”  A smile played on his lips and the day began.

Stacy walked into his office.  “Sleeping in, I see.”  She smiled politely.  “How was your weekend?”

“Oh the usual, overslept both days.  Thought about cleaning my apartment; watched TV instead.  Thought about coming in here to clean up on Sunday; watched TV instead.”  He thought for a moment.  “Hey, you know something about dreams.  How do you get yourself to remember more than just some small details?”

“You know, there is a belief that dreams are actually reality and all this is the dream.”

“Here we go again,” he thought.  Usually he would laugh these comments off but there was something about the way she said things, could it just be the accent that made her comments more palatable.  “You ask a simple question . . .” They both smiled.

“Dreams bugging you again?”  She sat at the table, poked at a couple of doughnuts and watched as he started to work on the weekly schedule.  “Have you ever considered writing them down as soon as you wake up?”

“The day I wake up and I’m not already running ten minutes behind, or answering the phone, I’ll consider writing them down.  I’m sure I have a pen and paper somewhere.”  By this point the staff started filing into the office stopping at the table to peruse the choice of doughnuts.

“What’s the occasion?”  Katie asked as powered sugar spilled onto her blouse.  “Lose a bet.”  Everyone looked up, anticipating a response.  Stacy gave a stern look to Larry that only he could see.  “Let it go, it’s only Monday.”  She didn’t speak, but he heard the words, loud and clear.

The meeting went off without a hitch.  Katie continuously threw barbs at Larry but he heeded Stacy’s advice (warning?).  At first Stacy was glad to see that harmony was being preserved, but as the meeting continued she started to sense that Larry was a bit disconnected.  There was definitely something on his mind.  “He’ll tell me when the time is right,” she thought.

When the meeting was over, the room cleared.  It seemed quieter than usual.  Stacy got up to close the door and returned to her seat.  “You never cease to amaze me,” she said finally picking a doughnut out of the two that remained.  “I thought for sure you were going to . . .” Larry wasn’t paying attention.  For a moment, she wasn’t even sure if he was in the room.  He was staring out the window, dazed.  She tried to follow his glance, but only saw the door of Geri’s office closing.  “Earth to Larry.”  Nothing.  “Larry.”  She stood and shook his shoulder.  “You in there?”  The phone rang.  Nothing.  It rang again.  As if nothing had happened, Larry picked up the phone and answered it.  Business as usual. Stacy shivered slightly as she sat back down.

The day seemed to fly by.  This was one thing Larry actually enjoyed about Mondays.  There was so much to do that the day seemed like it was over before it started.  He hung up the phone for what he hoped would be the last time and looked at the clock.  Five thirty.  He rubbed is right ear as Stacy walked in.  “I’m out of here,” she said, hoping he’d invite her in for a quick chat.  Maybe to tell her about what had been troubling him earlier.

“Okay, have a nice night.”  He went back to reading a memo he had found on his desk earlier.  God knew how long it had been sitting there.  He felt Stacy’s stare and looked up.  “Is there something else?”  She seemed a bit out of sorts.  He hoped everything was all right.  He hated to see her upset.

“Just wondering if you had any luck remembering that dream.”  Damn it, she had promised herself.

“Dream?” What was she talking about?  He couldn’t remember any dream.  Stacy noticed the confused look on his face and felt another chill.

“Never mind,” she was visibly shaken.  “I must have been thinking of something else.  Oh well, see you in the AM.”  She hoped he didn’t notice how fake her smile was.

“Sure,” he was back to the memo.  Stacy slowly backed out of the office as the phone rang.  Larry reached to pick up the phone but decided to press the speaker button instead.  “Yeah.”

“Fifteen minutes.”  Geri normally sounded tentative when she made her “here’s when I’ll be ready” call.  This time she sounded certain of herself.  This usually meant she was only ten minutes off instead of fifty.

“I’ll be here.”  Larry felt a small pain in his stomach as he disconnected the call.  He began reading the memo for the third time, having no idea what it said.

The drive home started out quietly.  As they drove past a park, Geri looked longingly out the window.  “Nice day.”

A lump formed in Larry’s throat.  “Uh, yeah, I guess.”  There was an air of discomfort in his voice.

“Yeah,” Geri repeated dreamily.

“So any luck finding a date for the flick?”  Larry tried to change the subject and suddenly thought that he might have changed it for the worst.  There was something nagging at him, but he couldn't figure out what it was.

“No,” Geri replied glumly as she turned to face him.  “Guess I’ll wait till it comes out on video.”

“You can’t,” Larry’s voice raised slightly.  “This movie must be seen on the big screen.  It’s not the greatest in the world, but the effects are phenomenal.”  Larry was in his element, if such a thing existed, when he was talking about movies.  “You working tomorrow?”  Geri turned at what seemed an abrupt change of subject.

“Yes,” she replied tentatively, looking straight at him.

“This would be so much easier if she was looking the other way,” Larry thought as he swallowed.  “I’ll take you after work.”  What the hell did he just say?  “If you want,” he added cautiously.

“Sure, why not,” Geri answered without hesitation.  “What time?”

“It’s playing all over the place.  We could probably get to a seven o’clock show.  Later, if you want to go to dinner first.”  What the hell, the door was open.

Geri shrank, ever so slightly, into her seat.  “No, just the movie will be fine.”  Larry’s face flushed.  “We’ll do dinner another time.”  She sat back fully, relaxed.

“Cool.”  Larry often wondered where he had picked up the constant use of that word.  Brady Bunch marathon probably.  Every muscle in his body began to relax.  “Cool,” he thought to himself as he pulled up to her building.

Before the car came to a stop, she had her keys in her hand and her seat belt off.  “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.  I’m going in late, so I won’t need a ride in the morning.”  She opened the door and got out.  She closed the door and bent down to look in the open window.  “Let me know what time the movie is when I get in, okay?”  Her smile seemed too familiar.

“Sure, let me know if you change your mind about dinner.”  He was obviously goading her.  She gave him a mock look of aggravation and then laughed lightly. “Okay, okay, another time.”  Larry’s eyes followed her as she walked from the car, noticing that she didn’t look back.  “She never looks back,” he thought as he drove off.

He turned the car radio on and popped in a tape.  Nilson’s “Without You” started to play.  Larry pulled the tape out and threw it in the back seat.  “Not right now,” he thought as he fumbled with the radio.  “Without You” was playing on his favorite station.  “Damn,” he said out loud as he tuned to a talk station. “How many coincidences can one person endure?”  The host of the radio station was taking calls regarding the drive-by in Philly.  He laughed nervously as he turned the radio off.  He drove the rest of the way home in silence.

As he walked into his apartment, Larry looked around in what could only be described as disgust.  “How can anyone live like this,” he asked the plastic Darth Vader, sitting on a shelf in the hall.  He continued into the bedroom, stripping off his shirt.  Throwing the shirt on the floor he heard the unmistakable voice of his mother, “How hard is it to just hang something up?”  She was never angry, just a bit perplexed that someone who grew up in such a clean house could have such little regard for his own home.  Larry thought about it then tossed the shirt on the floor.  “This weekend,” he thought.  “Definitely this weekend.”  Larry kicked off his shoes and removed his pants.  He stopped as he was about to toss them on the bed, thought a moment, and then, to his own surprise, emptied the pockets, brushed them off, and hung them in the closet.

Suddenly he was energized.  He began picking up clothes from the floor and stacking them by the washer.  He threw a load into the washer and went to the living room.  Stopping briefly at the TV, he continued on and turned on the stereo.  He tuned it immediately to a Jazz station.  Larry wasn’t a major jazz fan, but the songs rarely had words so the chances of him hearing “Without You” were minimal.  Larry moved to the couch and without a thought started sorting through and folding the clean clothes that had piled up there for the past month.