Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:11:57 -0400 From: J K <imawriter123@gmail.com> Subject: Funny things happen Part 22 Funny things happen – Part 22 As always comments welcome at imawriter123@gmail.com As I lay there waiting for the alarm to actually go off before getting out of bed, I had tears rolling down my face, the things I wanted so badly the feelings that I had I just didn't know what to do with myself other than do as Mark said, get threw graduation come back here and do what I had to. And just as I finished that thought the alarm went off, and as I started to sit up in bed, the 2 arms wrapped around me just tightened up again. I chuckled to myself about how this was really kind of a repeat just like the first time we woke up next to each other. I leaned back and kissed him on the cheek and said, "Come on babe, we need to get up, we have a plane to catch up to Stanford in 2 hours." He mumbled something but then finally let go of me and sat up, smiled at me and said, "I know, I can't wait to see him graduate! Can't believe it's happening already." And I just smiled and said, "Yea tell me about it, but like we said years ago, if he's in it, he's in it to win it. And he did." He smiled at me and then leaned over and kissed me for what seemed like ages but probably wasn't more than two minutes and said, "Yes he did. Now get your ass in the shower so we can get out of here on time." Before I could blink an eye we were sitting on the plane on our way up to Stanford and while holding my hand, turned to me and said, "Did Josh mention anything to you about the ceremony? Or where we are sitting?" I shook my head no and said, "No, why? Did he say anything to you?" and then said, "No, not at all, was just curious. Actually a little relieved, because you know him, if he's got something up his sleeve he usually leaks it out to one of us. So should be a perfectly normal thing." I just looked at him smiled, squeezed his hand and said, "You are absolutely right, usually if he's going to pull something one of us will know at least something about it." And for the most part I felt very confident about that thought. But now in thinking again, who the hell knows with this kid. There were times where we were totally in the dark on things. And I just looked at Mark and said again, "You know what? We might as well be prepared for anything, let's remember just who it is that we are dealing with here." We both laughed out loud at that because of the fact that it was all too true. We got off the plane in Stanford and by surprise were met by Josh at the gate. And as he came running to me like when he was a little kid I chuckled to myself about how he melted me every single time. All I had to do was see the smile on his face and I just melted inside. And without even realizing it, I had two arms squeezing the life out of me and whispering in my ear "I love you". And then he let go of me and went over to Mark and gave him a big hug as well, but at the same time keeping his eyes locked on mine. Yup I knew it then, he had something up his sleeve. I didn't know what, but I had a feeling it was something that we weren't expecting or god knows what else. After he finally let go, and we asked him what the hell he was doing at the airport, he just said, "Because I wanted to see you, I haven't seen you in so long that I didn't want to wait until you got over to the campus area." Once again, another alarm bell went off, we had seen him just over a month ago when he had come down to look into those internships. Something very fishy was going on here, but I decided to just go with the flow and see what happens. As we were walking through the terminal to go and pick up the rental car, Josh was talking a mile a minute, about this that and the other, just as he had so many years ago when we were making that initial road-trip out here from Florida. And at that point, for the first time in almost 6 years I thought of his mother, and wondered what it was that she was doing, where she had ended up in life. From the day we left we never heard from her again. Not a word. Which really amazed me for the moment, the fact that as much as she didn't want to be married she was still a mother and should at least have some part in her son's life. Then again, maybe not, maybe it was better this way that was not a part of anything, leave the past in the past. Truthfully she was a vindictive bitch and deserved nothing at all, but even so she was still his mother. And that's when it hit me, he came to the airport to head us off before we ran into her. And I stopped in my tracks, grabbed Josh's arm, looked straight into his eyes and deep inside him, something I hadn't done in a while and said, "She's here isn't she." He gave me that stare and almost a look of shock as he was he surprised that I had figured it out, and slowly nodded his head yes. I had a feeling of deep and vicious anger to the point that I wanted to crawl out of my skin. But I realized he had every right to have what and who he wanted here. And I looked back at him and said, "Don't worry about it, I won't cause any problems, you have a right to have anyone you want here. It is your day and you deserve it. I assume we are separated as much as possible, right?" He again looked at me nodded his head yes, and then smiled at me, and we went on walking to the rental car counter. As the car was brought around and we all got in, there was an eerie silence as we drove back to campus. I'm sure if Mark understood what was going on, I had to think that he did, but regardless, it would be discussed later on after we got settled in. We dropped Josh back off back on campus, agreed to pick him up in 2 hours to go out for dinner, and Mark and I went off to the hotel. As we drove down the street, Mark took my hand in his squeezed it tight and just smiled at me. Another one that knew me all too well, about the fact that I was trying so hard to hold the tears in my eyes until we got back to the hotel room. When we finally got into the room put the luggage down, I just fell into the bed and started to cry and laugh at the same time. Mark just came over, lay down next to me and said, "David, I know what she did, and I know how much she hurt you. She was wrong in every sense of it, you did not deserve any of it. And I am so sorry that you had to go through all of that. But remember what the one good thing that did come from it. You got Josh. And look what he turned into. Look at what a man that YOU raised. After all the two of you went through, and experiences that you and Josh shared, consider the fact that maybe in the smallest miniscule way, she did have one good ounce to her. And I highly doubt that she is going to want to be anywhere near you either. So let's just do this, for Josh. Like you said, this is his day and he can do whatever he wants. And then it's over and we leave and go home, it's as simple as that, and I'll be next to you the whole time. So don't worry it will all be fine. I promise." I hated to believe him, but I knew he was right. And I guess that as long as we were able to steer clear of each other it would all be fine. At dinner that night as I Josh and Mark sat at the table in the restaurant just talking about random things, well really it was just Josh running about a million miles a minute from the beginning of school right up to the end, of course ignoring what happened in the middle, I finally had to stop him, and said, and before I even opened my mouth Mark kicked me under the table, but I didn't care, I had to ask. "Not to put a damper on tonight, or the events that are going to happen but I need to know something. What made you call her? What's going to happen that she needed to be here for this? After everything that happened to you and she was never a part of any of it – by your choice, why all of a sudden is she here for this?" All he did was give me a blank stare. No emotion, fire, no light, just a blank stare and responded, "Because that's the way I wanted it to be." There was no reason to fight him on it, he made his point clear, and I just said `OK' and left it at that. But there was a pit in my stomach that told me there was more to it that he just wasn't saying. However, just like everything else has in the past 21 years it would come out in due time. After being given our tickets for the event tomorrow, we dropped him off and Mark and I drove back to the hotel and after getting into the room, Mark finally said to me, "I can see the wheels spinning in your head. What do you think it is?" And I just looked at him, smiled and said, "You can still see straight through me. I can't stand that! But, honestly I don't know. It is something, I just don't know what. It's been 8 years since we left there, and now she finally shows up? Maybe I'm off here, maybe he's been in contact with her all the time and I just never knew about it. Granted she is his mother and I guess has a right to be here, but it just doesn't make sense. Something isn't right here." Mark just said, "Well no sense in driving yourself crazy over it tonight, you'll find out tomorrow. So let's just get some sleep, we've got to be up early tomorrow anyway and get to our seats before it becomes a mob scene." That said, I just crawled into his arms and pulled the covers over us and thought to myself, `well he's right about one thing, we'll find out soon enough' and finally closed my eyes and fell asleep. The following morning as I was standing in front of the mirror getting doing up the tie to my suit, Mark came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me and said, "David I love you, and I'm so proud of our son, and I'm so honored to have been able to be a part of all this. He deserves this, and so do you. " I smiled back at him leaned up to kiss him and said, "As I do and am as well." As we walked over to the campus grounds and were directed to the football field where ceremony was being held and ushered to our seats, I noticed that we were in a different section than the general audience, but didn't really think much of it other than Josh probably pulled one of his things and got us good seats. I actually chuckled to myself and thought maybe he slept with the event director to get the good seats. But then thought to myself again, what a stupid thought, he'd never do anything like that. As I was watching the audience continue to fill in, I felt Mark tug on my jacket and I turned to him to see him holding the program and tears streaming down his face and I immediately got freaked out. And said, "What's wrong?!?! What happened??" He just looked at me and in almost a whisper said, "I know why she's here." It was such an odd statement, especially coming from him, and then he just handed me the program and said, "Hold my hand and Read." I look at him strangely took the program from his hand and looked at the first page which was the agenda of events. 1. Graduate March 2. Keynote address - University President 3. Valedictory address - Joshua Miller 4. Special Awa- And before finishing reading number 4, my eyes blinked and went back to number 3. `Valedictory address-Joshua Miller'. I read it over a hundred times and then finally looked up at Mark who still had tears dripping down his cheeks but this time with a big smile. And that was all it took. The program fell from my hands to the floor and we just fell into each other, and were both almost sobbing out of pride and excitement. Our son was the valedictorian of his class. And now everything finally made sense, the special seats, his mother showing up, his reason for meeting us at the airport, his blank stare last night, it all now finally fell into place.