Helping the New Neighbor - Cover

Helping the New Neighbor

Copyright© 2021 by D. Fritz

Chapter 12: Civilian Life

After the wedding, the physical act of moving from Norfolk to Chicago was seamless. Darren’s well-paying job meant they were able to buy a small house right away and not stay in an apartment until they could afford something of their own. After moving in their belongings brought with them from Virginia, the newlyweds headed south to St. Louis for a short four-day honeymoon.

The first month in Chicago goes quickly. Almost every day Beth has something on her calendar. One day it may be a delivery of new furniture. The next could be a handyman hired to upgrade the house – tile flooring in the kitchen, new lighting in the dining room, or the installation of a shed in the backyard. When there is nothing on the calendar there is cleaning, organizing, and decorating that takes up most of the day.

A month after the move Beth has the house mostly settled. It is quite pretty and she is very proud of her new home, but she is lonely. Very lonely. She felt like she could not show her true feelings to her mother, and other than the few neighbors that introduced themselves after the Brimbles arrived, she did not really know anyone. She certainly did not know anyone well enough to consider them a ‘friend.’

Complicating Beth’s loneliness is their new hometown. It is not Chicago. It is technically a suburb almost an hour from downtown, but Darren always refers to his hometown as Chicago because no one has ever heard of the actual town where they live. Her expectations before the move were that she could be in the hustle-and-bustle of downtown city life whenever she needed to get out for an afternoon.

A silver lining is that Darren is doing very well at his job, even if it means he regularly works eighty-hour weeks. When the long weeks start Beth is annoyed at how little she sees her husband. As time progresses, though, she starts to relish her alone time instead of the prescribed schedule established by her husband, such as dinner on the table at 7:30 every night. He investigated the grocer’s delivery scheduled and told Beth that she was to go to the store only on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday afternoons to ensure she got the freshest ingredients. He also told her that he expected sex before bedtime a minimum of twice a week. Once on Friday or Saturday night and then one weeknight.

Their lives turn monotonous. The only break is over Christmas when they travel to Norfolk for a week to be with her parents. As much as Beth begs her parents to visit they always have a reason why it is not a good time.

After two years of timely dinners and regular, if not inspired sex, Beth was finally with child. Unfortunately, the child she bore was a little girl, who she named Robin, and not the boy Darren expected and had been planning for since he new his wife was pregnant. He took one day off work for the delivery but then returned to his normal work schedule. He wanted nothing to do with the newborn. On the positive side of the ledger, Beth’s mother came for a month to help her daughter.


Darren’s hard work and long hours pay off at his company. He receives a promotion and then a transfers to a larger division so he was now solidly in the corporation’s middle-management hierarchy. He continues to work long hours but stops having sex with Beth as frequently. She assumes it was his fear of getting her pregnant with another girl and not a son.

It is a beautiful spring afternoon. Darren just received a bonus check and was treating the family to a fancy restaurant in Chicago proper. They do not get home until almost 9:00 and as they entered the house the phone begins to ring.

“Hello,” says Beth. She listens for a moment then indicates to Darren that it is for him. He points to his office and settles in behind his desk. He lifts the receiver and says, “Hello, this is Darren.”

Darren hears a click as Beth returns the phone in the kitchen to the base, then quiet. Eventually a voice answers.

“Hi, Darren, this is Steve.”

Darren is surprised to hear Steve’s voice.

“Listen, I know you are probably shocked to hear from me, but I’ve been thinking about you for a long time. I’m really sorry I didn’t attend your wedding. It was a dick move. We’ve had some rough times, but...”

Darren interrupts Steve before he can get too emotional. “You’re forgiven, but what’s up? Why the phone call?”

Steve tells his friend that he will be in Chicago for business in a few weeks and wanted to know if he wanted to meet for dinner. Darren tells him to finish his business in town and then plan on staying with them the following weekend as their guest.

As the date gets closer Darren starts to get nervous. The two apologized and seem to be get on good footing, but Darren was worried that a fight may break out for no reason. Beth had heard of Steve, of course, but knew very little about him. She got Darren to talk about him in the weeks preceding his visit which seemed to help put Darren at ease.

At 4:30 Friday afternoon Darren leaves work to get home in time to help with final preparations before Steve’s arrival. He runs the vacuum and then strips the guest bed and redoes it to the standard he said Steve would appreciate as a fellow Army man. The doorbell rings at 5:05. Darren opens the door and before he can say anything Steve rushes him and throws his arms around him.

“Buddy,” Steve hollers. “It’s so good to see you again.”

Darren returns the embrace and the two start to talk as if they had seen each other as recently as the previous weekend. Beth enters with Robin in her arms and Darren makes introductions.

“Hey, now that everyone is here,” starts Steve, “I thought I’d treat you guys for a nice dinner out. What do you recommend.”

Beth says, “That is so generous, but I’m afraid I need to pass. Robin is not feeling well and she’ll be too cranky to be out in public tonight.”

Steve takes a minute to try and change her mind, and when he realizes it is a fruitless endeavor he changes tactics.

“Instead, what if I go get some meats to grill? You have a barbecue out back, I assume?”

Beth and Darren are actually quite pleased with the proposed menu. It was true that since they left Virginia they had not had good barbecue. Steve, on the other hand, was able to get it whenever he wanted. Memphis had great barbecue, but he only stayed there a short time. He ended up returning to an area about an hour outside of Norfolk when offered raise if he would transfer to a smaller satellite office.

They agree on a basic menu and Steve and Darren go to the store to get the meats and sides. And beer. Lots of beer. Darren is apprehensive as Steve loads it all into the shopping cart.

“Oh, I should have asked. Are you beer drinkers?”

Darren starts to say they will both have an occasional beer when Steve leads them to a new isle and takes three bottles of wine off the shelf.

“Let’s get some wine, too. I like a nice red with barbecue.”

The men make their purchase and head back to the Brimble house. Other than the amount of alcohol purchased Darren is enjoying the reunion with Steve.

Dinner is fantastic. It had been quite some time since they had good barbecue. Beth announces that she made a cake in anticipation of Steve’s visit and breaks it out for dessert. Darren and Beth have a glass of wine with dinner, then a small drop for dessert, but somehow they find that the three wine bottles are empty when they put the dessert dishes in the sink.

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