Epilogue

It was May 2000, and January had passed without the world coming to an end. Elevators didn’t plunge, aircraft didn’t fall out of the sky, stop- lights kept working, ATM machines kept spitting out money and most of the computers in the world kept going just fine. The world had been saved and all the doomsayers had been proven wrong. And the best part of it was I still had an extra pound of coffee in the freezer.

I’d been in the hospital when it all happened, but when I finally was released, the world was still spinning, Sharon was recovering, Jeff L. was out of the hospital and the police wanted to talk to me about what happened on Ross Island on Christmas Day. At least most of what was going on was good.

It was a beautiful May morning and Sharon, and I were sitting in the warmth of the sun on the top deck of a ferry headed across Puget Sound to visit Walter and family, and the heat felt good on my thigh. Other than a slight limp, I’d recovered from my gunshot wound. I was still doing therapy, but the outlook was good, and the pain was infrequent. With Sharon’s head resting on my shoulder, the two of us sat on the bench holding hands, watching the ferry dock fade into the distance.

I glanced to my left, “Wanna a cup of coffee?” I asked Sharon.

Her smile warmed my soul. “Sure, you buyn’?” Sharon slipped her arm over my shoulders and gave me a hug.

“For you, anything, doll.” She knew I was telling her the truth, and she hugged me.

We got our hot drinks and made our way down to the car deck and my new truck. Ol’ Faithful had finally given up the ghost, and I had to purchase a different truck. The new one had a lot more bells and whistles than the old one, but for some reason I really missed Ol’ Faithful. I’ll admit one thing. I don’t do well with change. As I unlocked the truck, it occurred to me I hadn’t come up with a name for this truck. For now, it was just “the new truck.” Not a lot of zip I’ll admit, but I was having a problem coming up with a fitting name. Sharon suggested perhaps I was growing up and no longer needed to name my cars. What I said to her and what I thought were two different things.

I opened the door for Sharon for her to step into the truck and she had to fight for her seat. The two puppies we got a couple of weeks ago were settled in, and it seems they felt since we had left them in the truck, they were entitled to the front seat. It was theirs.

And you ask, “How did we end up with two puppies?” Well, that’s a story by itself. A few days after the hospital released us, Sharon took me for a ride to a farm way out in the sticks. The farm was also a kennel, and the main breed they specialized in was Cocker Spaniels. Sharon had already called ahead, and found out one of their show females had just had a litter of eleven and they were ready for adoption. Sharon was informed all of them were still available.

When we got there, the owner, a pleasant woman named Alice greeted us. Alice was a large round woman with rosy cheeks and curly white hair who was all smiles, and she just looked like a dog-breeding person. She explained to me how I was not going to pick out a puppy, instead, we’d sit on the floor, interact with them, and one of them would pick me. That was the only way she was going to allow me to adopt one of her dogs. Since I knew what she was telling us was truth, I agreed.

When she opened the cage, a pile of wiggling puppies greeted us. Seeing all those beautiful puppies made my eyes water. To avoid any embarrassment, I quickly looked away. Sharon seemed to sense how I was feeling, and she slipped her arms around me and hugged me. As I’ve said before, there’s a reason she’s such a damn good nurse.

Alice, Sharon, and I got down on the floor, and the puppies came bounding out of their cage. There were black dogs, chocolate-colored dogs, and two of them were blond, which I was informed is called buff colored. One of the buff male puppies went at once to Sharon, and started to paw at her leg, wanting her to pick him up. Sharon picked him up and held him in front of her face. Once the puppy was close to her face, he kept lunging forward, trying to lick her, and when she finally tucked the puppy under her chin, you could hear the grunts of happiness across the room. I couldn’t tell who was happier between the two of them since they were both grunting.

I noticed one little female chocolate-colored puppy with pale tan eyebrows waiting off to one side. The other puppies seem to have pushed her off and when I stuck my finger out towards the female, she carefully licked the tip. As I pulled my hand back towards me, she followed my hand. Once she was beside my leg, she put her paws on my thigh and tried to pull herself up. I helped her and picked her up and sat her in my lap. I looked over at Sharon and saw the puppy she’d picked up was now fast asleep in her arms.

The one in my lap grew restless, and tried to stand on my legs, wanting to gain access to my chest. I lifted her up, and when she was close enough to my face, she reached out and started to chew on my mustache. This was exactly what BJ had done when she was happy and content with me. A sob escaped from deep within me, and I could feel the tears flowing down my face. The puppy stopped chewing on my mustache and started to lick away the tears running down my cheeks. Her rough little tongue lapped at the tears, bringing even more tears. There was still a big hole in my heart left from losing BJ, but this little critter in my arms was trying her best to fill the void. As I sat there, holding the puppy, I felt I’d found my new dog, or more correctly, my new dog had found me.

I asked Alice if she’d consider letting us purchase two dogs, since it was plain to see two of her puppies had adopted Sharon and I. Alice seemed touched by my display of emotion at the new puppy and remembering BJ. Alice smiled at me, and replied, “I think those two might have the best homes out of the entire litter. I’d love for the two of you to have them. I’ve never seen a puppy go to a new owner more quickly than those two went for the two of you. It just proves that the puppy will pick the new owner, not the other way around.”

Now as we tried to get into the truck, we had to force our two puppies to move from Sharon’s seat to mine. Then I had to fight with them and coax them to move, so I could get into the vehicle. Once we all settled in, Sharon and I endured some licks and kisses from the two of them. They needed to show us they were happy we were back. After all, we must’ve been gone for at least ten minutes. Since mine was the color of a coffee bean, I’d taken to calling her Beanie. Her full registered name was something like Cinnamon Mist the Sixth, or some such thing, which I knew I’d never call her. To me she was now Beanie or Bean for short.

As I sat in the truck petting my puppy and looking at Sharon, I realized how happy I was with my life right now. I don’t know what I did to deserve such a good life, but I was at peace. Moreover, the main reason I was so at peace was sitting next to me, and also curled up in my lap.

When I pulled up to the gravel parking place, I saw Walter coming out of the woods. I got out and as he came to me, I extended my hand. He pushed my hand away and wrapped his arms around me. “God, am I glad to see you. When I heard what happened, I was so worried.” As he pulled back, I saw tears in the corners of his eyes.

“You have to know by now, I’m indestructible.” I joked.

Walter grinned at me, “Bullshit, remember I was the one who loaded your sorry ass on the chopper back in Nam.” And we both laughed. When I introduced him to Sharon, I felt stunned at the way he held out his arms to her. I’d never considered Walter as a feely-touchy kind of person, but he wanted to hug both of us. Sharon seemed to think nothing about hugging him back, either. She tipped her head back and looked up at Walter. In his gruff voice, I heard him tell her, “Looks like both of us have saved this bum.”

Sharon smiled up at Walter, and murmured, “Yes, but it would seem he has saved both of us as well. You seem happy here, and I know I’ve never been happier since we’ve been together.”

Walter by now had noticed the two little dogs pawing at his legs, and he reached down to pick one up. We introduced him to the two new members of our family, as he hugged and scratched both behind their ears. When he finished becoming acquainted with our new puppies, we headed off for his cabin. Because the dogs’ legs were so short, Sharon and I didn’t have a problem carrying the two most of the way to the cabin. But I was happy to have Beanie in my life and it didn’t matter.

Thien was standing on the deck when we arrived. She went to Sharon first and the two of them hugged each other for a long time, and then finally stepped back. Both were a little misty eyed. Thien spoke first, “I’m so glad to see Matt has somebody in his life. The last time he was here, I could tell he wanted you but was afraid to do anything about it. For all he’s done for Walter and me, I love him just about as much as I love Walter. However, I’ve been so sad for him. He has such a large heart, and he really does need somebody there.”

Sharon smiled and hugged Thien again, “Matt told me he’d talked to you about me the last time he was here. I thank you for helping him understand how I feel about him, and how he feels about me.”

Just then, we heard a baby crying inside the cabin. Thien walked over to the door and picked up the small infant. Without giving it a second thought, Thien opened her blouse and moved one of her breasts to the baby’s mouth. The baby latched onto her nipple and stopped crying at once. Thien brought the child back to where we were all standing. Without removing her breast from the feeding infant, she turned, so Sharon could look at the baby’s face. Looking up at me, Thien said, “This is Matthew. Matthew Rồng McLaughlin.”

I felt stunned. “Why did you name him Matthew?”

Thien smiled, “Because without you, there would be no baby or cabin. Walter would probably have died from a drug overdose, and I’d be living back in Seattle, sad, because Water was dead. Everything that’s here is because of you. What other name could we call our son? This is the son you helped create!”

“What does Rồng mean?” I asked.

“That is Vietnamese for dragon. He is our little dragon.”

They named him Matthew! It seemed that my eyes were leaking again. Ever since the afternoon in the lighthouse tower, my emotions had become difficult to keep in check. The baby had released Thien’s nipple, and she handed the baby to Sharon. Thien stepped up to me and wrapped her arms around me and softly told me, “I want to thank you. Thank you for what you did for Walter. Thank you for bringing Sharon here to meet us and thank you for being such a wonderful person.”

With tears brimming in my eyes, I looked down at her. “I don’t know if you’ll ever understand, but helping Walter was something I needed to do. More than just saving my fat ass, he allowed me to help a person do something. I never expected anything in return, I just wanted to help Walter. I had no idea it would turn out this way. You with the baby, the cabin, and you helping me see I really needed Sharon in my life. I’m the one who owes.”

Thien’s eyes were now brimming as well, and she reached up and pulled my head down. Her lips were soft and gentle on mine. The kiss had passion, but not of a sexual kind. I could feel in her kiss how she felt about me. It was a strange kiss, but I understood why she kissed me, and what it meant. Her voice was just a whisper, “I love you Matt. For everything you have done for us, I love you.” I was happy I had the two of them as friends.