“That despite my constant neglect towards you, you can still sit with me on a giant cannon, appreciate the splendor of the Atlantic Ocean, and point out things that you love about me.” She smiled a little
“You don’t neglect me.”
“I do. I spend so much time with Juliet during the day and I feel guilty every time because I know that Trinidad was supposed to be all about us.”
“So if you feel guilty then why don’t you do something about it?” I asked.
“Because…” there was a gap in her prose. “I feel like you’re better suited to be without me than Juliet. I’m more fearful of you getting a paper cut while I’m gone than anything else. But Juliet is just so fragile and I feel like if I leave her for one second she’d do something stupid. It’s not that I don’t like hanging around you anymore it’s just that Juliet needs me more and it’s a matter of life and death. Juliet is suicidal, you’re not.”
“To be fair, I had no idea that she was suicidal.”
“No one knows about it but I think that not smiling should be enough of a hint of her depression. What kind of twelve-year-old girl doesn’t smile? The other kids at the shelter have been through a lot in their life as well but they can still find it in them to smile or laugh at a TV show. Juliet is different and she needs someone who she can relate to.”
“I understand.”
“Maybe you should take one of the kids under your wings like I did with Juliet. There are enough of them at the shelter.”
“I think I have enough people in my life to worry about already,” I said.
“Like who?”
“Like-“
“Samantha,” Kate interrupted.
For some strange reason, my heart skipped a beat when I heard Samantha’s name coming from Kate’s mouth. “Well, she is my best friend.”
“Yeah.”
“Whatever happened between you two anyway?” I asked.
“It’s a long story,” Kate said.
“I don’t think that it’s a very long story. I think you just don’t want to tell me.”
“There you go, reading my mind again.”
“Well, we’re writers and whatnot.”
Kate laughed a little.
“So what happened?”
She sighed and then started. “Samantha was team Ron.”
“Team Ron?”
“Yeah, she didn’t like the way I left you and was trying to urge me to leave Tom. She wasn’t particularly happy about you and me getting together in the first place but she didn’t want to see you get hurt nor did she want to see me get hurt. Obviously, at that moment, I didn’t want to hear what she had to say but thinking back on it, I probably should have listened.”
“You shouldn’t be too hard on yourself. Maybe the light that illuminates your dark universe isn’t supposed to be from one particular light source. Maybe Tom, Vince, Samantha, Juliet, Tanty Mavis, Kyle, and all the kids at the shelter are sources of light no matter how dark and dismal some may seem. They all shed some light on the human experience. Your human experience. The idea is to gravitate towards the ones that shine the brightest, not the hottest.”
“That’s deep,” Kate acknowledged.
“I know how much you like it deep and philosophical,” I stressed on the word deep.
Kate playfully hit me on my foot as though I had said something wrong.
“You know it’s true.”
Without responding to my comment Kate said, “Maybe we should give Samantha a call. Do you have her number?”
“Ummm, yeah.”
I took my phone from my pocket, dialed Samantha’s number, and put the phone on loudspeaker. After the third ring, Samantha picked up, her voice a bit husky and dry. “Hello.”
“Hey Samantha, it’s me, Ron.”
“And Kate!!”
“Hey, how are you guys?” Samantha asked, chipper.
“Don’t worry about us, we’re fine. How are you? Are you feeling better?” Kate asked.
“The doctors said that my blood pressure is still way too high for a teenager but my memory is coming back slowly but surely. My older memories are back but I can’t seem to recall my new ones. My doctor gave me medication and said that I’ll be fine but there is one problem….” She stopped.
“And what’s that?” Kate asked.
Samantha went silent on the other side of the phone for a second, so much so that I actually thought she had hung up.
“Sam?” Kate sounded concerned.
“Sam, are you there?” I asked.
There was a brief pause and I heard her sigh deeply. “I’m pregnant.”