Chapter 4

I mentioned one morning that she certainly hadn't taken long to overcome her uncle that time. "I wrestled a little in high school, so I know some of the takedowns."

"Ha, you wouldn't last any longer then Uncle did."

"Okay maybe. I'll tell you what, the next rainy day when we don't want to go out, we'll push the furniture out of the way and we'll wrestle right in the living room. It's carpeted and no one will get hurt."

"You're on, Jones. Don't say I didn't warn you." Two days later it was cold and wet out. It hadn't snowed yet and might not for another two or three weeks, but it could. After breakfast, I pushed the furniture to the walls and we had about the same amount of space as you would have in a half-regulation size ring.

"No holds barred? Wrestle just as if we were two men or two women battling for the championship?"

"Sounds good to me. What happens if we touch each other where it might not be appropriate?"

"I won't mind unless I think you are doing it to gain an unfair advantage. What are we wearing for this All-American, no holds barred event?"

"Sweats, I think. That should stop any carpet burns when I bounce your butt across the floor."

"We'll see who bounces who." We were nearly of a size. I figured I was slightly stronger, but Chazzy had the advantage of knowing many more holds than I did. Delores was going to be referee.

We started easy, feeling each other's moves out. Before I knew it, I was pinned for the first fall. I suppose I was more aware of the attributes this Amazon had and I couldn't get away from the fact that this was a woman I had in my hands. I took the next fall with brute strength.

She conceded that I was pretty good. It took almost twenty minutes for the next one with neither of us able to gain enough leverage to complete the count of three. It ended with me having my arm between her legs, lifting her buttocks off the floor. I was practically laying across her chest. I knew I could get her shoulders down to the floor, but I also knew I couldn't keep her down long enough for the count.

Suddenly I was aware how I held her. It seemed as if my arm was against a fire. The other hand had cupped her breast as I held her down. I looked into her eyes. I knew then how aware she was of me at the same time and in the same way. I slowly relaxed and drew my arm back between her legs. She tightened them together at first and she seemed to trap it there. Then she relaxed and her butt found the floor. I inched backward and removed the hand that cupped the breast. It seemed as if a look of disappointment crossed her features momentarily.

As I started to my knees, she just said, "Jones."

I had both hands free now. I took them and this time I cupped her face and leaned down and kissed her. I opened my eyes to see how this was being received. Her eyes were closed and she had a look of contentment on her face. When her eyes opened, she smiled. "You win." Then she thought a moment. "No, I won. Let me up please. Match is over. I think there is still coffee." I looked around for Delores. She had left the room. When, I couldn't say.

I joined Chazzy for coffee. We both avoided saying anything about what had just happened. I knew and she did too, that our relationship had changed, but we weren't ready to address it yet. "I'm going to write."

"Okay, I'll start dinner then." I left the door to my office open and I could hear Chazzy and Delores talking. I heard the front door open and I assumed one of them went out. A short time later I could hear Chazzy singing the childhood verse she was apt to sing when she was happy. "One, two, buckle my shoe," came floating in from the kitchen. I guess everything was all right with her world.

Words were flowing and I was concentrating. Suddenly I realized the words to a different ditty were being voiced. I listened a minute. I realized she was trying to remember the words and how they went. "Two, two, pennies for you." She couldn't seem to get beyond this, although she tried different numbers and words. She must have given up because she was back to "One, two, buckle my shoe."

I brought up what we should do about Thanksgiving. "I usually invite Jackie. I suppose I shouldn't this year. She has her fiancé now, but she still might want to come."

"Is this the Jackie that helped with my surgery?"

"Yes."

Chazzy said, "I would like to see her again. I liked Sam too. She was so good to Mom, I wish they would come."

I called that evening from my office. "Oh, I'm so glad you called. I was hoping to get an invitation. Sam has been wanting to come up for weeks now. There is just one hitch. He has a friend that was going to hang out with us during the week. Can we bring him as well?"

"Sure, the more the merrier. Delores is still here with Chazzy."

"Great. Marv, this friend of Sam's is a surgeon. He specializes in reconstructive surgery. He might take a look at Chazzy and give her some idea what it would take to help with her looks."

"Okay, but I don't want her scared off. She still has the most fragile psyche of anyone I ever knew."

"Worse than I was?"

"Much worse." I announced to my two women that we would be having company for the holiday. "Jackie and Sam will be here and another person, I don't even know his name. Jackie just said he was a friend of Sam's."

Chazzy's face clouded up immediately. "I so liked Jackie and Sam, but now there will be another. I'll be so uncomfortable."

"Don't be. Jackie is aware of how you feel about meeting new people. She wouldn't impose on anyone here if she thought it wasn't wise. I'll make sure you have a good time. I'll even let you eat whatever you want." This was now a standing joke, as Chazzy was the one that would caution even me about what should be eaten. I guess she didn't worry too much as I heard her singing later. It was her struggling to remember the ditty her father taught her.

Plans were put into place for the dinner. Delores and I did the shopping per usual. While we were away, I clued her in on the personage that was coming for dinner. "Chazzy is thirty years old and has never had a life. I know what she needs done and maybe this person can give her some hope. Again this isn't for me or her altogether. Someday, and I hope soon, she will fall in love, get married and have children. She needs to know her children aren't ashamed of how she looks when they get old enough to notice."

"You have one thing correct. She is in love already. Getting married won't be too difficult if you ask her to be your wife. The children part may be much more difficult. She might turn you down if you insist on having babies."

"I wouldn't do that. I was hoping for one or two kids, but I wouldn't insist on it. I am planning to propose at Christmas time."

"You're going to make a wonderful son-in-law."

"What about you? What is holding you back in finding someone?"

"I can't. I know in my heart that Big Tony is dead, but what if he isn't? If he came back and found me with another, I would feel so bad I would die."

"I don't know if he will ever be found. I don't know how I could help either."

"I know. Impossible situation, isn't it? If I only knew what might have happened I could accept him being gone. There is just no logical explanation to his disappearance."

Our guests arrived on Tuesday. Jackie had brought several bottles of Asti. This loosened Chazzy up enough so she forgot that she might not be as beautiful as her mother or Jackie. Wednesday was bake day and the turkey went into the oven Thursday morning for dinner at two. After dinner we were sleepy from all we had eaten and I headed for my bedroom to lie down.

I dozed right off. I felt the bed sink when someone laid down beside me. As I had my back to the door I couldn't tell who had joined me. I hoped it wasn't Jackie. I turned over. "Pete Shipman tells me he is a plastic surgeon. He wants to examine my face. Should I let him?"

"You're asking me? I don't see any harm in it. It is not anything that you have to decide on today. The more information you have the better off you will be."

"Do you want me to have surgery done? Mama said you two had talked about it a little. She also said that she was surprised at the answer you gave her. Tell me what you said to her."

"Chazzy, I told her that the way you look didn't bother me that much. I also said you had learned to live with the way you look although you hated yourself for being this way. My point was that if you fell in love, married and had children, they would be the ones to suffer. They might not cope with your looks very well when they got old enough to compare you with the mothers of other children."

"Jones, do you ever hope to be married to someone and have children?"

"It would be nice. Kind of like every man's dream."

"Okay, I'm going to talk to him. Would you come out and listen to what he has to say?"

"Sure. Chazzy, would you let me kiss you?" She would.

It took the doctor an hour and a half probing Chazzy's face and asking innumerable questions before he said what he thought a surgeon would have to contend with.

"The first move would be to have your teeth removed and dentures installed. Your upper and lower jaws align okay, but when your cheek bones stopped developing, the top ones tended to tip out. They could be straightened, but that would take two years or more. There should be no other work done until they are straight. I assume you wouldn't want to wait that long.

"Your lower jaw recedes somewhat and that would entail adding to it. This could be built up by adding a couple slivers of bone removed from somewhere else. There will be extra cartilage removed from your prominent nose, and that might be used. I couldn't make a decision on that until some X-rays are taken. We are going for looks here, but again I'm assuming you won't want anything too radical. It will be just a general reshaping of what is here.

"Okay, one reason your nose is so prominent is because your face is flat from not developing normally. Again we would be using bone slivers from a different part of your body to fill out your cheek bones and make your face more round and full. The facial structure you have is filled with sinus cavities and from your answers to the questions I asked, they are fully functional. So we have to build out for looks without disturbing the underlying structure. What applies here is, if it works, don't fix it.

"Your nose is very prominent now, but that is one of the most frequent operations that is performed, so no problem there. When your nose is reshaped, there will be less bone and cartilage removed than you might anticipate.

"I can't determine too much about your eyebrows here. They are prominent, and I need the X-ray. If they are solid bone mass, some of it could be pared away. There are sinus cavities in that location as well, so any work on the bone would have to be done with care. Off hand I would suggest that the eyebrows be shaped and the rest depilated to prevent hair from growing into unwanted areas. Your decision.

"Now I have left the shape of your lips to the last. Yours are overly large and your mouth entrance is very wide. We can take a series of tucks on both sides to make the opening smaller and we can thin your lips as much as you want. I can project how you would look after every procedure.

"I must warn you that this is going to be downright painful after each operation is completed and you are healing. You probably will dribble and drool until work around your teeth and jaw is completed. This will be only until you get used to the new shape. The upper portion of your face shouldn't cause too much discomfort, but everyone is different.

"This is a big undertaking and you might wish you had never started on it. If you choose me to do the procedures, I couldn't promise that you would come out beautiful, but you certainly would look more like anyone you might meet while shopping for groceries. Any questions?"

"What is this going to cost? We will find the money some way if Chazzy wants it done."

"Marvin, it will be pretty damned expensive. Of course if you were married to the lady and she was on your insurance, the out of pocket cost would go down. Just removing the teeth and replacing them could save $5,000. Occasionally I have requests to have a documentary done on some difficult procedures. I could check to see. This would certainly qualify, I should think."

"I guess I had better propose to her and add her name to my insurance. That would mean she still would have to wait three months before the first operation. I should do this as soon as possible." I hadn't looked at Chazzy while I was saying this. I did now, but couldn't read her expression.

"Jones, we have to talk." She looked at our guests. "Please excuse us for a few minutes."

She took my hand and led me into her room. "Marvin Jones, this is my life and my face we are discussing here. I'm thirty years old and well able to make my own decisions about both. What if I don't want surgery? What if I don't want to marry you?"

I realized I should not have said anything in front of the people in the other room about proposing. Actually I was pretty damned proud of Chazzy for not going along with the program as I had set it out. Time to make amends. "Chastity Smith, would you become my wife? I love you very much and I very much would like you to say yes. This is so important to me. The other, the operation, etc., we can discuss later and make a decision."

I had crossed the room and was standing with my back to her bed as she came away from the closed door. Chazzy was approximately nine feet away. I couldn't read her expression as she advanced with determination to me. She then was standing right in front of me. Suddenly she hit me with both hands. Hit me just inside my shoulders which toppled me back onto the bed with her following. More than 475 pounds bounced onto the bed and it didn't survive. One side rail broke dumping us onto the floor.

"Kiss me before the others come in. Jones, I love you and yes I will marry you." We were still kissing when the door burst open to see what had caused all of the noise. Friday morning before Jackie, Sam, and Pete left, Chazzy and I went down to the municipal center and applied for a license to marry. December 1st I took my wife to bed.