Chapter 28: The Wives Story 01 – Karn Evil Part 1

November – Year 4

I took Blossom out to the rental SUV that we still had until I could buy a car to replace my old car. We walked out of the house to the sound of my other wives raising their voices. I was going to have a lot of work to do when I came home from my visit to Bosco.

I opened the passenger side door and kissed Blossom as she got in. I let myself into the driver side and after belting myself in I pushed the button on the garage door opener, started the truck and backed out when the SUV could clear the door.

“Paul, are you sure that we should leave Lynn and Erin?”

“Yup. They have an issue that they as a married couple need to fix. Anything I do will cause them to compromise along lines that I would steer. They need to get this out of their systems or it is going to fester into something too big to fix.”

I drove to the hospital that I was very familiar with. We walked in and the receptionist, not my friend, asked who I was there to see. We got Bosco’s room number and, hand in hand, Blossom and I walked to the elevator. When we exited we walked to the nurses station and checked in before going to his room and running into Teri as she was leaving.

“Paul!”

Teri broke into tears and wrapped her arms around me. She was giving me a very tight hug when we heard a cough from Blossom.

“Oh! Teri, this is my wife Blossom O’Dell.”

“Actually, Blossom Smith until we take care of some things.”

“Oh my! Another one? That story will have to wait until later. When did you get home, Paul?”

“Yesterday. I didn’t find out until this morning that Bosco was in the hospital. Lynn told me what happened. How is he, Teri?”

“No change. I have been here every day, but there has been no change. The doctors say that his body is getting stronger, but he won’t wake up. They put him in the coma, but when his wounds got better they gave him the drugs to come out of it and he didn’t respond. They don’t know why. I sit here and pray and talk to him. Lynn set up a fund to help pay for the costs, but I don’t now how long that will last.”

“Don’t worry about the money, Teri.” I looked her deeply in the eyes. “Never worry about the money. Can I see him?”

“Yes, of course, come on.”

She led Blossom and I into the room and we sat in the chairs next to the bed, with Blossom in my lap. We sat for the longest time before asking Teri some questions.

“Teri, what do the doctors give as a reason why he is not coming out of it?”

“They don’t give one. They are confused. One says one thing and another says something else. Mess of fucking witchdoctors, if you ask me.”

I gave Blossom a little push and she got off of my lap. I got out of the chair and stood next to the bed.

“Bosco, this is Paul. I hope you can hear me. Thank you for protecting Lynn and Erin while I was gone. My memory was lost and it only recently came back. I am home now, and I have so much to tell you. I want you to know that I will take care of Teri just like you took care of my wives. I also have another wife and you need to meet her. I hope you can come out of this coma soon. I will be back.”

I turned, hugged Teri and the three of us walked out of Bosco’s room.

“Teri, did you two ever get married?”

“No Paul. He was waiting for you to come home. Erin and Lynn both believed that you would. He wanted to wait for you to be his best man. The Brothers keep an eye on me and we have been keeping an eye on Lynn and Ern.”

“I heard about Tim.” I said, and Teri chuckled.

“Oh, he was scared shitless when he had to offer himself to take care of them. He is a great guy. Some girl is going to catch a great one with him.”

“Should I pick on him when I see him?”

“Oh, Paul, he would die.”

“Ok.”

We stayed for a big chunk of the day, Teri and I, and even Blossom, talked to Bosco the entire time. We mostly talked about the things that happened to me. I told him about my music goal for Boise and how I wanted to be his best man. I rose to leave and told Teri I would be back each day and asked when she got there.

“I am here at 9am and I leave at 8pm. If I can’t be here one of the Brothers is.”

“I will see you tomorrow then. Good night, Teri.”

“Good night Paul. Nice to meet you Blossom. When we have time, I need to tell you some good Paul stories.”

“Oh good! I look forward to it.” The women hugged, and Teri went to her car.

“Let’s go to the bar. I want to see the Brothers and Marcus and maybe Mark, if he is there.”

I took Blossom’s hand and led her to the SUV, driving in silence to the bar. So many things going through my head. The attack, the Brothers, my wives and their talk about the baby. My new wife Blossom and how she was going to fit into this mess. This mess. Did I really think of my life as a mess?

We had gone through so much pain. The pain the babies had warned of. The pain of Bosco. The pain of Lynn’s son. The pain of our relationship being put on edge. The pain of my ego being bruised by a lack of control over the things going on around me.

We arrived at The Bar Bar and Blossom laughed at the cool name. She said something about the number of motorcycles in the parking lot. I parked the SUV in a convenient spot and we walked in the door.

“Holy shit!” Well that was a pretty good first response, I guess.

“Paul!” Marcus ran out from behind the bar and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. I was happy that it was not on the lips as then I would have the pain of dealing with his partner or boyfriends jealousy. But I did hold him close to me.

“I heard what you did to protect Erin when the shooting happened. I am forever in your debt, my friend.”

I touched my forehead to his and patted him on the shoulder. The Brothers that were not standing all rose to greet me. They all came to me and we shook hands and we talked about the shooting. The last man to welcome me was Tim.

“Hello Tim.” I shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder. “I want to thank you for being there for Lynn and Erin and I want to thank you for having the honor to not go through with it. I owe you.”

“Paul, we drew lots and I lost. I’m happy that they told me that my services were not needed. I don’t know what I would have done if they said that they needed me.”

“I understand. Thank you. Oh, Tim! This is Blossom. She is my wife.”

The Brothers all gathered around in silence and looked at each other. After a few moments, each member of the Club came over and welcomed Blossom and shook her hand when they introduced themselves. Blossom was gracious and slightly overwhelmed by it all, not the least of which was that the smallest Brother was 6’3” and dwarfed my miniature wife.

Marcus stood off to the side and after the Brothers were done he took her hand and introduced himself. She hugged him.

Even though it was early in the day, there, at the end of the bar was my friend, Mark. I hugged him and looked into his eyes.

“Hello, my friend. Thank you for protecting Lynn that night. Anytime, anywhere. You need me, you call me.”

I was tearing up more than I had expected.

“It was my honor, my friend. Who is the hottie?”

He quickly returned to his normal self.

“Mark, this is Blossom, my wife.”

“Oh great good fuck!” Mark shouted. “Another one?”

Blossom laughed out loud.

“Yes! It is a long story and I will tell it when I have more time. Right now, I really need you to tell me how Lynn and Erin have really been.”

“They have been ok. You know, like any old married couple. They have their moments when they fight and when they are lovey. They love each other and the kids. Erin works her normal shifts and Lynn and Dara stop in a few times a week. Every once in a while, guys come in and hit on them.”

“And?”

“Up until recently they have never given any reason for guys to think they could get lucky.”

“Recently?”

“Yeah. Look Paul, Erin got way more lonely than Lynn. And she started getting really friendly with a guy last month. He kept hitting on her day after day and two weeks ago, she started sending out positive signals to the guy.”

“Positive signals?”

“You know how she always did shit like slap her ass and slip out a nipple? Well she started doing that with him two weeks ago.”

“I am always here at the end of the night and one night he was still here at the end. I think he was expecting to get lucky. I walked up to Erin outside after closing. I just asked her if she and Lynn had finally decided to divorce you. She looked at me with an expression of horror. She looked like one of those stupid chicks in the movies that just opened THAT door. She began to cry and got in her car and took off. The guy looked at me like he was going to do something, so I pulled out my gun and told him not to come back. He hasn’t.”

“Thanks, Mark. I owe you even more. I am guessing that you know about Bosco.”

“Yeah.”

“We were just over there with Teri. How is she holding up?”

“She is struggling. The bills at home pile up and we help. I don’t know how she is handling the medical bills. We ask, and she just tells us that she is managing.”

“I know some things about that. She will not have to worry about medical bills. So, don’t you worry about them either. Pass that on, ok?”

“Yeah sure.”

“As far as her household bills, can she keep up or does she need more help?”

“I don’t know for sure. You need to get that straight from her.”

I waved over at Marcus and when he came to the end of the bar, I ordered a round for the Brother’s and Mark and set money on the bar. I waved to all as Blossom and I prepared to leave. As we were on our way to the door, Erin walked in.

“Oh, hi Paul. Hi Blossom.”

“Hi lover.” I hugged and kissed her.

“Hi, sweetie, are you ok?” Blossom hugged her and kissed her on the lips.

“I guess so. Lynn and I had a talk and then a shouting match and then a cry and then another fight.”

“How did you leave things?” I asked.

“I guess I left things a mess.” Erin took me in her arms and cried.

“Let’s go back to the office. Marcus? Can you watch the front while Erin and I talk?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“I’ll stay out here and see if I can help Marcus.” Blossom offered, actually trying to stay out of the way.

I took Erin by the hand and under the watchful eyes of everybody in the bar we disappeared into the door behind the bar and into the office behind the cooler. We walked in, I closed and locked the door and pointed at the office chair behind the desk. Erin sat there sniffling and I sat in the chair in front of the desk.

“Tell me why you are upset.”

“You know why.”

“No, I really don’t.”