Chapter 9: Tragedy

George Olsen was pissed, really pissed. He had a good thing going with a girl named Rachel. He was just about ready to try to touch her breasts and he had even invited her to come with him to meet his parents. What more could he to tell her how important she was to him. He had never ever taken other any girlfriend to meet his parents. After all, they were the ones who would let him know if he was making a right choice.

But she had just vanished. He had tried to call her at least ten times, well probably more than closer to twenty times. He left a message at least fifteen times. He had called all the local hospitals to see if she was there. He had driven by her place several times and there were no lights on. And it was locked. He knew that because he had once gotten the nerve to go up to the door and knock.

Besides being pissed he was also worried. What if she had been a car wreck and died. That wouldn't be very of nice of her to die before he'd even got up the nerve to fuck her. It had gotten so bad that he was making stupid mistakes at work. He didn't know what he'd do if he lost his job. The only thing he knew was accounting and who would hire an accountant who had been fired because of incompetence? It was just one more thing to worry about.

Didn't people know he had a dark side? That he wasn't the milk toast that people thought he was but he knew he was lying to himself. He was weak and he knew it but it would be nice if he could be more like those pompous jackasses at work who hit on women and sometimes even got lucky. Well, he thought, I might as well face it. I'm a loser where women are concerned.

But damn but he'd like to know what happened to Rachel, he had thought things were going so good.

I had lots of good news today. My divorce is final. I'm a free man. And I asked Rachel to marry me and she said yes. How much better can life get? Even better, I heard that Karen and Sam moved out of state. I'll never have to face that bitch again.

We had just one more hurdle to conquer and we would be ready to face the world head on. That ass hole George was still calling leaving on Rachel's answering machine. And they were getting crazier and crazier. Sometimes they didn't even make sense. I even saw him go up to the door at eleven o'clock at night pounding on her door and tell her to let him in. I wanted to go over and punch out his lights but Rachel convinced me not to.

We were discussing what to do about it one night after Cindy was in bed. "Well, I guess the only thing to do is call him and tell him we're trough," she said. "If that doesn't work, I'll meet him in some place public and show him this." She held out her hand to look at the new engagement ring on her finger.

"That sounds like a plan to me," I said. "But I'm not the meet in a public place would keep you safe. I think the man's deranged. It might be safer if WE met him in a public place."

"I don't really think that's necessary," she responded. "It might even with you there. It would be like I was rubbing you in his face. I mean he's just a pathetic little man who's still tied to his mother's apron strings. Anyway, maybe the phone call will work."

"Maybe," I said but I'm sure I didn't sound very convinced.

And so it was that next time Cindy went to spend the night with Dana that we were at Rachel's house to make the phone call we both dreaded. We had decided together (It seemed that everything we did was together anymore ... and I liked it.) that since George didn't know who I was or what my telephone number was that we would leave it that way, at least for now.

Anyway, she picked up the phone and dialed the number. I noticed her hands were shaking slightly while she dialed. It was picked up by an answering machine. She picked up one of the cards that we had prepared previously to use in case this happened and read it onto the machine (I noticed that her voice, like her hands, was shaky). "Hi George, this is Rachel. I'm sorry I haven't returned your calls but I've been out of the area. We need to talk. I'll call you tomorrow night about this time. Please don't try to call me since I just stopped in to pick up my messages and am leaving again immediately after I hang up. Until tomorrow then."

She hung up the phone and almost jumped into my arms. "That was almost more scary than if he'd have been there," she sobbed. I turned her face to mine and kissed her. "It will all be over in a little while," I said. "Then we can concentrate on us."

Neither of us slept very well that night.

George stumbled into the house around 2:00 a.m. He was very drunk. He'd had a terrible day. His boss had called him in and told him that if he didn't straighten up his act they were going to have to let him go. He'd been afraid that would happen. And he still hadn't heard from Rachel. He felt like he was going out of his mind. When he had got back from work he had called his "mommy". She had told him to straighten up and be a man. There was no woman worth getting that upset over. That wasn't what he wanted to hear. But he supposed she was right. After all, she was his mother and she was the only woman who had ever loved him. He had thought for a while that Rachel might be the second woman to love him but now he wasn't sure. He hadn't heard from in a long time and he was wondering if he would ever hear her voice again.

After he'd hung up he walked down to Casey's Bar. He'd thought he'd have only a couple drinks but somehow it had gotten away from him. He looked though booze weakened eyes at the blinking answering machine. It was probably just some peddler trying to sell something. He'd gotten a lot of those calls lately. He lay down on the floor and passed out.

He awoke about four hours, not because he wasn't still drunk but lying on the hard floor made his back hurt. Shaking slightly he got to his feet a plopped into his easy chair. He reached over to delete the message on the answering machine but then figured what the hell and pushed play.

When he heard her voice his heart jumped for joy. He noticed her voice wasn't very strong but he thought maybe that was because she felt so bad about the way she had treated him. He listened to it three more times and then set about to sober up. He had pretty well accomplished that goal by the time he reported to work.

He was in such a good mood that his work was way above even his usual standards. Still, he managed to break away along enough to call Rachel's number three times. Each time he received the answering machine.

He arrived home around five and saw the blinking light on his answering machine. His heart sank. Had he missed her call again? He pushed play and it was some guy trying to sell him aluminum siding. He relaxed immediately. He made himself a sandwich and took it and a beer to sit beside the telephone. He dialed her number for the fourth time that day and once again got the answering machine. By six o'clock he was getting frantic so he tried her number again with no better results. He continued to look at the phone wishing it to ring.

At six thirty it rang. It was his mother. He told her rather curtly that he call back later. After he hung up he felt bad. He'd never been that short with his mother before.

We walked over to Rachel's house around five minutes to seven. Her answering machine had six messages on it, five were from George and one was from an aluminum siding salesman. I'd been considering upgrading my house so I wrote down the salesman's number and we deleted all six messages. No sooner had we done that than the phone rang again. We let the answering machine take it. It was George again. This time he was whining about "you said you'd call."

"How in the world could I have even THOUGHT about marrying that man," Rachel said. She sighed, "Well, I guess we better get on with it." We set the answering machine on record and turned on the speaker phone. I wasn't going to say anything unless it got out of hand.

"Well, here goes," she smiled wanly and pressed the button. He answered on the first ring.

"Hello George, this is Rachel."

"Oh God, sweetheart. I've really missed you," he gushed.

"You probably need to hear what I have to say before you call me that." He was silent so she continued. "I wanted to be fair with you and that is why I called. I'm sorry, but I've met someone else and we're getting married,"

"You can't mean that," he sounded like he was crying.

"I'm sorry George but I am completely serious."

"Please give me a chance," he was clearly sobbing at this point. "At least let me see you face to face. If I can't convince you then, I guess I'll have to let you go. But please," he begged, "give me a chance."

"Okay, George," she said. "I guess it's only fair for me you in person but it's not going to change anything. Do you know where Julie's Diner is?"