Chapter 3

“Dear Virginia I fell-love with Blake that first day when we met. Everyday, every minute with her that feeling grew. She is not a part of my life, SHE IS MY LIFE. We are not asking you to say or do anything different. Hell we all live together already, nothing will change until we both decide it’s time for children.”

Whew, my mirror image, Blake was holding my hand, more like squeezing me and nodding her head like a ‘Bobble-Head’ doll.

Virginia spoke: “So do you have anything to tell me that I don’t already know?”

“Ahh ... no one is going to call you Grandma now if that’s what you mean, Blake will finish High School and go on as far as she wants. Both of you already live with me, have I ever acted in less than the kind of man you could call ‘Son’?”

Our hands were replicating ‘Niagara Falls’.

“Let’s see, she cooks, cleans, does the laundry, the shopping, pays the bills and from time to time her bed is empty. MMMM let me ask you ... what exactly do you want me to say?”

We both shrugged, turned as to head back to bed then ran to give her hugs.

Blake’s: “I want a raise buddy!” was almost believable.

“OK, bend over and I’ll give you a boot!”

She gave me a mean, pouty look before she hit me; followed by a hug and her reaching up to give me a kiss.”

Meanwhile her mom was laughing before she said: “OK OK, enough, can we go out to eat, I need to do game tonight and won’t be home until tomorrow night.”

No words were said but her wicked smile said loads.

They say life goes on, so we went on as we had. Her school and chums there were not the problem, her BFF, Brook was possibly becoming one. Maybe I was wrong, but there were some indications of that. Just a few, like Mon -Thurs she would want to help Blake study, clean and cook dinner. Friday she thought that ‘we’ should watch a movie. When my curfew call would come guess who would race to answer it.

“Oh, hello, this is Brook, we’re just watching a movie before bed. Do you need to speak to him?”

Blake made the ‘claim to her man’ the first time Brook wanted to stay over, Blake just jumped up, took Brook by the arm, showed her to her room and sort of sneered: “Use this room tonight, night clothes are in the closet area. Use what fits you, ‘we’ don’t wear anything to bed, so stay up as long as you want before you go to sleep. We may still be in bed when you leave in the morning, Mike has a game Sunday so I try to let him rest up a bit after ... well, I’m sure YOU can understand what I mean!”

Blake’s ‘cat that swallowed the canary’ look left Brook’s mouth open as Blake dragged me to now obviously ‘OUR’ room. It seems a message had been delivered. High School was never like this, Oh, Right, Yes it was.

That next week, no Brook at school; she seemed to be avoiding Blake. Friday rolled around but still no Brook. We really had no way to contact Brook outside of school. That night we discussed what we thought had happened to Miss Brook.

I had an away game at Pittsburgh, Blake was going with me. Virginia had left last night to cover a game in Green Bay. We forgot about Brook for a bit. Monday no Brook. On Tuesday she was back. The only one who seemed to notice she had been missing was Blake, by association, me too. No reason for her lack of presence was given.

Whether it was a feeling of guilt or the exhilaration of seeing her back, a not so subtle invite to ‘help; make dinner that night was made. Blake knew something was wrong. Brook was wearing the same clothes she had on when we last saw her. It was obvious something was not right by any way of thinking. She looked haggard, almost bleary-eyed. Blake went to find Brook after class to ensure that they went home together.

I made certain we had more fresh and nutritious ingredients than normal. Pasta, Sea Bass, Fresh Greens, whole Cherry Tomatoes, and apple crisp with our coffees was our meal. Not a word was said during the meal. Blake looked at me, I shrugged; Blake said: “Could I use a whirlpool about now.”