Chapter 5: 1967-1968

It was still early when they pulled up in front of missus Rogers older two-bedroom place. There was a child to pick up and an impromptu meeting to take place.

“We’re agreed, then. We tell missus Rogers about our basic plans. Martin will be talking to her later on about the details and what all,” said Herbert. Valerie, sitting in the seat next to him, nodded her agreement. They got out and went up to the door together. It was still light out; it was just after 6:00 p.m.

Missus Rogers answered the door. “Valerie?” She stared at the male companion beside her.

“Carla, this is Herbert Cooper,” said Valerie.

“Nice to meet you, ma’am.” He’d not met her in the months since Valerie and he had been in the process of hooking up. But now he had.

“And you too,” said missus Rogers.

Valerie noticed that Carla Rogers had noticed the different ring, the very different ring, the very much bigger different ring on her finger.

“Yes, Carla, mister Cooper here, Herbert, and I are engaged. I will be divorcing Chase.”

“Oh my,” said Carla. “Well congratulations?” And it was a question.

“It’s kind of a long story, and we would like to talk to you for a little bit. Would that be all right?” said Valerie.

“Surely. Jillian is in the back watching TV. Tea?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Herbert.

“Yes, for me too,” said Valerie.

Teas in front of them. The sipping went on for s short minute before Herbert took the lead.

“Missus Rogers...”

“Carla,” she said. The man smiled.

“Herb, let me,” said Valerie. Herb nodded and waved her to go on.

“Carla, some months ago, Herb and I had occasion to meet. To make a long story shorter than maybe it should be, we hit it off and have finally gotten to the place where—well—we find that we are in love. Carla...

“Val, my turn, please,” said Herb. She nodded her willingness to let her now fiancée take over.

“Carla yes, Valerie is still currently married to her first husband, but as she mentioned; that will be ending one day soon. Her current husband’s situation is so, well, complicated that it almost demands that Valerie ask for a divorce to be able to make a better life for Jillian and for herself.

“Additionally, until now, Valerie has been working full time, and getting as much overtime in at work as possible. That because she is having to struggle since she is essentially a single mom, and well, things have been hard for her.

“You have been sitting for her regularly over the past several years. We will be asking you to be on call to sit for us permanently and exclusively. I know she has, up to this point, been paying you some one hundred dollars a week. That now becomes two thousand monthly. We hope that that will be acceptable to you,” he said.

“Huh?” said Carla. Herbert Cooper waited for Carla Rogers to form a complete sentence.

“Uh, yes,” she said finally. “That would be very good, yes.”

“Excellent,” he said. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a check book and wrote a check for twenty-seven hundred dollars and handed it to her.

“For the rest of December and the month of January,” he said. The middle-aged woman was nodding.

“Thank you, sir. Any time you need me.”

“And oh, my lawyer will be by at some point to set things in stone for you.” Herbert smiled but said nothing else.

“One thing, I didn’t think of till just now,” said Val. “Carla, I will need you as usual for the next couple of weeks because I have to give notice at work. Okay?”

“Of course, Val, of course.” Herbert was smiling and nodding.

“I’ll gather up Jillian,” said Valerie.

The about to be new family was on its way minutes later.

“Val, we’re engaged. You and Jillian will be moving in tonight. We will need to stop at your apartment and pick up a few things to take care of you for tonight and tomorrow morning. We will get the rest of your things tomorrow afternoon if that will be all right.”

“Yes, that would be good.”

“Also, I think we need to invite Reinhard and Lilly to dinner on Christmas Day; I mean if you think that would be good. I mean we do have one heckuva an announcement to make.”

“Yes, and Lilly’s mom too?” she said.

“Of course,” said Herb.

“Herb, I know you know what I’m about to say, but...”

“Okay?” he said, not having a clue as to what she was about to say.

“I haven’t introduced you to a lot of folks who I’m close to because all of them know I’m married. And ... well ... that my husband’s in prison. Until now it wouldn’t have been too good an idea to be flaunting my new significant other. Lori, Lilly’s mom, is one of those.

“No, no, I understand, really. But, like you say, now things are different.”

“Yes, and over time, you’ll be meeting everybody, well, except for Chase of course.”

“And even him at some point. I have already made some tentative plans for Chase, but yes, it is going to be a while before I can pose them to him directly.

“That said, I am going to be setting up a protective screen around him right away to, if possible, guarantee his safety. It’s going to be tricky; I know that; I mean while trying to keep him ‘not’ in the know. But I’ll be working something out. Promise,” he said. She nodded her approval. Her look was hopeful.

Valerie was learning about how things were done at the Cooper mansion. A cleaning crew came in once a week whether anyone was in residence or not. A twenty-four-seven gardener slash caretaker, Max, a former boxer, who lived in a cottage behind the pool house; also did duty as a mechanic responsible for maintaining the fleet of four cars and a pickup truck; and as well, served as security for the expansive estate.

An on-call cook, Cassandra Mills; and an on-call maid, Zoe Howard, appeared whenever people were in residence but would now be in residence themselves full time; quartering in a duplex on the grounds used by the aforementioned servants as had occasionally been required. Herbert had, in recent times, been living virtually one hundred percent of the time in his two-bedroom condo in the city. But now with a family in residence, things would be changing.

And now there were announcements to be made.

Apart from Herb and Val: Lilly, Reinhard Bach, Lori Jensen, and six-year-old Jillian: were collectively the Christmas day attendees. All were currently seated around the table in the mini dinette used for smaller groups.

Herbert tapped the side of his glass drawing the attention of the throng.

“Ladies, Rein, I have an announcement. Valerie and I are engaged; and, except for Jillian’s babysitter, you are first to know. And it has been for good reasons, complicated reasons, that we have waited to make the announcement.”

“Wow!” said Lilly.

“Yes!” said Rein.

“My goodness,” said Lori.

The confab was on. The eating and drinking and talking went on for an hour plus. As dinner waned, the group took their drinks out onto the spacious patio, which was kept warmish by a special heating system, well it was December, and continued their visiting.

“You could have clued your best friend in the whole world,” said Lilly. She and Val had stepped over to the far side of the patio.

“He just asked me a few days ago. I was shocked of course, but he and I are a good match; well, I hope we are.”

“And your current husband?” said Lilly.

“Yes, that’s going to be a tough one, but soon,” said Val. “Can I ask? You and Rein?”

“We’ve had some dates. Okay, a lot of dates. But things are just casual. I’m not sure he’s the marrying kind, or if I am. But we are an item casual or not.” Her friend nodded.

“Hmm,” said Valerie. “Well, keep me in the loop. Okay?”

“Yes, and well that’s a loop that swings both ways, girlfriend,” said Lil.

Carmen Reyes was a good nurse for my money. Over my time in the joint, she had so far taken care of the superficial problems that I’d endured requiring her services. I liked Carmen. She didn’t ask a lot of questions and seemed to care what happened to me, and I supposed the same was true for her other patients. But now...

I hadn’t seen my wife since Thanksgiving. And I was kind of glad for that: I didn’t want her to see me like this. I was a mess: the beat down had been bad. I hurt all over. A broken arm, a concussion, a face twice its usual size—oh, and any hope I may have been harboring as to having children in the future was now in doubt. At any rate, other than those I was in great shape.

“You have a letter,” said Carmen, coming in to check my numbers. She handed it to me. It was from my wife. It was just a short note.