Forever Three

Chapter 2 - Conflicting Emotions

Chapter 2

Conflicting Emotions

Since things move very slowly in the publishing world our lives didn't change overnight. We had to wait nine excruciating months for Look What They've Done to Our Dream to be released. But we had hope. And that helped us get through the wait. We had big hopes, and once the book was published we weren't disappointed. All kinds of good things happened at once.

Shortly after the book's release I went on an eleven-day book tour. And when I was driving my old van back home after my last appearance, I stopped at a rest stop on The Florida Turnpike to tell Maddy I was getting close and would soon be home. Again she had phenomenal news. Fran Danforth had called the house telling her my book was going to be on the New York Times Bestseller list. I couldn't believe my ears. Fran said it was going to be number eight. Again the chicken skin, but this time my eyes glazed over. And my success didn't end there.

Two weeks later Look What They've Done to Our Dream hit number two and was on every other list around the country and beyond. Maddy, Trevor, Dawn and I were absolutely blown away. When you've struggled so hard for so long, and then something like that happens to you and your family, well, the feeling of elation is unimaginable.

It wasn't long before Publisher's Weekly did a really cool article about me, and Kirkus Review did the same, calling me 'a diamond in the rough'. That's when our phone started to ring, and I realized I had obligations to fulfill. As much as I hated to leave Maddy and the kids, and I was scared to death of flying, I had to go to Chicago, San Francisco and New York. I appeared on television a couple of times and did countless book signings – one at the very same Atlanta Barnes & Noble where, after being apart for twenty-four years, Theresa Wayman and I were reunited for one day the previous summer.

I must confess, deep down inside I was hoping she would show up again. I had no idea how I'd react, but still I kept a watchful eye out for her and was disappointed when she didn't show up. I know it was wrong to feel that way, but I'll never be able to evict that woman from my heart. She'll always be in one of its chambers. With all the media coverage that signing received, I knew she had to have found out I was going to be at that store. But a strange thing happened while I was driving a rental car back to my motel room in the light Georgia rain that night. I had just switched on the windshield wipers, and I might be crazy but I could swear I heard Theresa's sweet voice whisper in my ear, "I'm sorry, Dean. I just didn't want to complicate your life again. Sleep well."

Topsy-turvy as my emotions were, I was happy to be flying home to my family the next day. When I hit the door the kids were at their friends' houses but Maddy Frances was there. And wow, did she look fantastic. While I was away she'd had her long chestnut hair trimmed and I thought the way it lay over her high cheekbones was the reason those always optimistic emerald eyes of hers looked even brighter than usual. But I was wrong.

After throwing her arms around me and giving me a long heartfelt kiss, she leaned back and said, "Guess what, young man! We are moving to Connecticut!"

"What?" I said, my forehead crinkling and my eyes pinching together, "You know we're in no position to do that. Not yet, anyway."

I had only ever been to The Constitution State twice, when we'd gone up to visit Maddy's family in New Haven. Both times we took long drives up to the Northeastern part of the state, and both times we absolutely loved what we saw of the rural area. We had been in Florida far too long. By now Maddy and I were what we called "Florida'd-out." The interminable scorching summers; the lack of seasons, the flat mundane landscape, the way the state had been overdeveloped, the lack of what we called 'real trees' – we were so tired of it all.       

"Oh yeah! You still think we can't afford to go? Huh! Think again, young man. You just got your first royalty check!"

Immediately my mind started to whirl. Numbers with dollar signs in front of them flashed through it – hopeful visions of the check being made out for twenty, forty, sixty, maybe even eighty-thousand dollars.

"Okay, come on. How much is it?" I asked, feeling as if I was checking the value of a winning lottery ticket.

"You'd better take a seat, Dean. I don't want you passing out on me."

"Come on! Come on!"

"Okay. Brace yourself. It's for three-hundred-and twelve-thousand-dollars!"

Standing there just inside the doorway of our small cinderblock house, my eyes as wide open as Maddy's now, I must have looked like I'd just been jolted by lightning. I didn't move a muscle. I just froze there as Maddy jumped up and down in my arms.

"You did it, Dean! You did it again! The book's still at number two and there's going to be a lot more money than this coming!"

Finally, by then standing there with my eyes all misty, I came back to the here and now. I felt like I had just woken from a most wonderful dream and it had come true.

Feeling the corners of my mouth beginning to pull into a small smile, my blurred eyes still locked on Maddy's, I said in a low, surprisingly calm tone, "I love you so much, honey. I don't know what would have become of me if you hadn't stuck by me all these years."

*** I hope you enjoyed Part 2 of Forever Three. If you did, I sure hope you'll vote for it. ***