Epilogue

If you think my life was a rosy deal after Jerry and I reconnected, you’ve been reading the wrong story. I was steadfast in my resolve not to leave my home just as he was reluctant to leave his. In the meantime, we made up for the distance by meeting in a small town in Colorado: the exact center between the spaces we inhabited.

There was a small bed and breakfast we liked to stay at. The lady who ran the place always reserved a room for us that had an unobscured view of the mountains. I would wake up in the morning and they would be the first things that I would see. My heart would begin pounding because before I could even register where I was or who I was with, that image indicated to me that it was going to be a good day.

When I would turn around to the other side, Jerry would inevitably be there, wide awake. He always woke up before I did, but never woke me up or shifted from where he lay before I woke up.

“It’s because I like to just be by you when you’re at your most peaceful,” he explained to me once.

Were we to meet in ordinary circumstances or even enter some sort of domestic arrangement, things would not be that way. He would more than likely have responsibilities he would need to see to or either one of us would have to get up for work in the morning. There would be no long, soulful, lazy lie-ins first thing in the morning.

However, it just wasn’t the same as living together and I missed him every day we were apart. It was difficult to schedule time for us to be together every other month, especially with me running my own consulting firm.

Ever since I had hired Shelby, however, things had gotten a lot easier. It wasn’t that difficult to snap her up from Green and Associates. I suspect I didn’t even have to match the pay that they gave her, but I did anyway. She was just happy to have more time to dedicate to her family.

When we stayed at the Bed and Breakfast in Colorado, I would often dedicate a good portion of the time running the business remotely via my cell phone. Jerry didn’t mind this because he would often go off into the wilderness and paint the things he saw.

On one particular day, though, I used my time away from Jerry to speak with Elijah as he would be moving almost as soon as I returned to the West Coast.

“Don’t be such a big baby about it,” Elijah said to me. “They’ve got offices in California; I’ll be back to see you all the time.”

Elijah had just acquired a job with a publishing firm over on the East Coast. He was to move three days after I was scheduled to return.

We knew we had to plan a final night to spend time together and that was the primary topic of our phone call.

“But New York is such a long way to go,” I said. “Are you sure this doesn’t have anything to do with Sara being out there?”

“Don’t even start, Ron,” said Elijah.

But I could tell by the way he said it, he was smiling. He wouldn’t explicitly tell me how it came about, but I know he confessed how he felt to her. Upon asking him what she said in response all he would say is, “she wasn’t instantly repulsed.” Not terribly encouraging, but, from what I gathered, this was Elijah’s typically pessimistic way of saying that she reciprocated. After all, why would he move all the way across the country if the publisher, as he said, had offices where he resided in California? It wasn’t that hard of a case to crack.

“Hey, it’s cool, man,” I said. “I’m just asking.”

“Look after your own,” he said. “By the way, how are things going with Jerry?”

I glanced out the window. Below was the winding path Jerry had taken three hours previously. He had said that he wanted to paint the ants scurrying around outside of their hills. He liked the way they glistened like obsidian. Frankly, I didn’t understand the fascination, but I knew I would once I caught a glimpse of the painting that would result from it. It would inevitably be breath-taking.

“Oh, you know,” I said. “It’s all right.”

“Have you spoken any more about him possibly moving to California?” Elijah asked.

The last time Jerry and I had met up, he asked me if it would be okay to move in with me if he ever moved over to the West Coast. My answer was an enthusiastic “yes.” Upon hearing that, Jerry’s face lit up like a metropolitan area at night that could be seen from space.

“I’m trying not to bring it up myself,” I said. “I don’t want to seem too pushy, but then Caroline called me last week and she said that he’s talking about making the move soon.”

“How does she feel about it?” Elijah asked.

“She’s practically pushing him out the door already,” I said.

I smiled at the memory. Caroline had an aggressive way of encouraging what she thought of as “true love.” That was for certain. I had begun to speak with her on the phone every week as well; she provided an interesting counterpoint to Elijah’s point of view. I wondered what sort of fights could be provoked if I ever got them in the same room together.

“Like I said,” said Elijah. “The publishing company that just hired me has offices in California. If it’s a matter of getting him a job, they definitely need people in their art department.”

“Like designing covers for books?” I asked.

“So much more than that!” Elijah exclaimed. “They do all their own advertising, too! With Jerry’s experience working in the art department at an advertising company for years, he’s a shoe in.”

“That’s good to know,” I said. “If he brings it up, I’ll mention it to him. At this point, I think it’s a matter of him building up the courage to take the leap.”

“If he’s sensible at all,” said Elijah. “He’ll do it and he’ll do it soon. You’re more than worth it.”

“Thanks,” I said.

That was the standard sort of thing that any supportive friend would typically say, but, coming from Elijah who typically had a poor view of humanity, it meant the world.

“Hey,” Elijah said so briskly, it gave me whiplash. “So, you’ll never believe the article I saw while rummaging through the weird news section.”

“Aren’t you the one who’s always saying that journalism is dying?” I teased Elijah.

“Yes,” Elijah confirmed. “But I like to keep up with the news just to make sure that I’m still correct about that.”

He couldn’t see me roll my eyes, but he probably knew that I did, anyway.

“In any case,” Elijah continued. “That gig you had out in Milwaukee…?”

“The Fresh Face Co-Op?” I asked.

“You never met the general manager, did you?” Elijah asked.

“Cassie Bobeck? It was the weirdest thing,” I said. “She was on vacation from day one and was gone even on the day when the entire place burned down even though she was supposedly running the protest herself.”

“She was a criminal,” said Elijah. “She had taken out loans on behalf of the Co-Op, never told the owners and ran away.”

You could have knocked me over with a feather in that moment. I wasn’t surprised, not in the least. Honestly, the thing that surprised me was that I hadn’t figured it out for myself.

“But I had access to all their financial information!” I exclaimed. “Nothing of the sort showed up in their records!”

“Nothing would have,” Elijah said, coolly. “Ms. Bobeck simply took out a multi-million dollar loan from a less-than-reputable bank representative and hopped on the plane.”

There were no words that would express how I felt in that moment. That was quite possibly the stupidest con job I had ever heard of in my life!

“The most amazing part about all of this is that she got away with it!” I said.

“Oh no she didn’t,” said Elijah. “She spent all her money and was apprehended when she tried to get a flight out of the resort she was staying at.”

“How could anyone spend that much money?” I asked.

“Ron,” Elijah said.

His voice was dripping with condescension.

“You worked with these people for months on end,” he said. “You should know better than anyone.”

He was right about that.

“Well,” I said. “At least I’m not tangled up with those people anymore.”

And I wasn’t. I was completely free of all the people that had latched onto my psyche during my Midwestern Exile with the exception of all the people I wanted to be latched onto.

Speaking of people I wanted to be latched onto, Jerry appeared over the hill, just as the sun was starting to set.

“Hey, Elijah,” I said. “I’m going to have to let you go.”

Sometimes, when I spent too long talking on the phone with work, Jerry would come into the room and give me a smile that told me that I had spent too much time on work. Really, it turned out to be the best thing for me as I had the tendency to not think as sharply when I had exhausted myself. Jerry somehow inherently knew when I was at my limit and would inform me of such. It was just another reason why I wanted him to live with me. It would all be a part of living a better lifestyle.

“Tell Jerry I said ‘hi,” Elijah said.

“Will do,” I said before hanging up.

Jerry had barely stepped through the door before I had wrapped my arms around him and plied him with vociferous kisses. Don’t gag; I know it’s mushy, but it’s just the way we are.

In return, he smiled at me and my heart melted.

“Hey Ron,” he said.

“Yes?” I asked.

“I think I’m ready to move to California.”