Chapter 7

We arrived at Theresa's house a little while later. I was still in ... well, shock, from her having to root though my things to find clothes that would work. She had comments about men, and living conditions, that weren't very favorable. It made me wonder if this was such a great idea.

Jessica, on the other hand, bounced out the door. She had a big smile on her face.

"Hi, Mom!"

"Don't give me that. You get to carry in John's things and wash them. All of them."

Jessica looked at me a bit concerned. I gave her a little half smile.

Theresa wasn't finished. "Did you clean the room out, and vacuum?"

"Yes, Mother. It's all ready for him."

"You didn't need to go to any fuss for me," I said.

Theresa was pulling me out of the car. She looked me in the eyes and said, "Jessica gave up her room for you to stay in. It was part of the deal."

I glanced quickly over to Jessica, before asking, "What kind of a deal?"

"Never you mind," Theresa said. "Right now you need to pay attention to your crutches. You're no longer in the hospital."

"If she's not in her room, where's she doing to sleep?" I asked as we walked up to their apartment.

"Don't worry," Jessica said.

"Why does that make me worry?" I asked.

It was the first glimpse of a smile from Theresa, since we arrived home. I stopped, acting like I was arranging the crutch under my shoulder.

"Jessica, go take that in. Please," I said.

Jessica gave me a sour look, but went inside. I turned to Theresa.

"You still can take me someplace else. I can see this makes you very uncomfortable."

She frowned, and then said, "I didn't really understand how it would make me feel ... you know..."

"Having a man in the house?"

"Yeah."

"The way I feel right now, I'm not much a man."

"John," she said sharply, "I don't want to hear you talk like that again. You most likely saved that girl's life. It is the biggest compelling reason Jessica hit me with."

"So you made a deal with her. When do I find out what it is?"

"Why should it matter to you?"

"Because if she bargained away too much, she's going to feel miserable."

Theresa gave away a little smile.

"Why do I feel you may have set her up?"

"You wouldn't believe her," Theresa said. "She was like a madman."

"It wouldn't bother you if she became resentful of me?"

"Resentful? Now why would she ... Oh shit."

"I think maybe you should turn me around. It might be better for your daughter to be mad at you, than to think men are jerks."

"I didn't mean for that kind of thing to happen."

"But you can see how it could turn out that way, now?"

"Yes," she said dejectedly. "The worst of it is that I can't turn you around. Jessica and I had quite a talk about this issue. If I turned you back to the car right now, she'd probably pack her bags and move over to my sister's."

"So you feel you don't have much choice."

"Well? Do I?"

"As my mother would say, 'You always have choices. Some of them you might not want to take, but you have choices.' I never believed her, but the older I get, the more I understand what she said was true."

"So I can bring you in, or turn you around."

"Those are two; I think there may be another."

Theresa couldn't help but smile as she said, "If I just left you out here, my darling daughter would bring you in."

"Right. I don't think that is what I had in mind."

"You're the one who talked about being a stray."

"Fine, I'm a stray."

Theresa turned and looked at me. I'm sure the tone in my voice did it. What she saw, though, was not someone feeling sorry for himself, but a big grin.

"I ought to leave you out here for that."

"Probably, but if you told me what the deal was, maybe I could help."

"With a cast on?"

"I'm not sure of the physical things, I was talking about helping thinking through a solution that you could live with. I get the feeling the bargain you made with your daughter is going to be hell on both of you and I would get caught in the middle."

"So this is self preservation."

"Something I haven't done well with."

"Don't start on that again."

"I was talking in general. By the way, I think you need to make some kind of decision. Your daughter is looking out the window and by the look on her face, she's ready to come out any minute."

"Fine. Come on."

"Then you're taking me in."

"That's one way of putting it."