Mixed Fortunes Ch.3

Jessie went quiet after our Saturday morning walk. She had said that she would maybe come and visit me at my place on Sunday if I was up to it, but Sunday came and went and she didn’t knock on my door. She knew where I lived. I had given her my flat number and told her she could come around anytime.

I found myself wondering if I had gotten mixed up in a love triangle that was never going to work out in my favour. But now she was on my mind constantly. I couldn’t think about anything other than her kiss on my cheek, the smell of her hair, confiding the McGee family secrets to me. Where did she go? Had I scared her off? Was this all too complicated? So many questions were rolling around in my head.

By the time the following Friday arrived I had resigned myself to a grim reality that she must have gone back to Micky and begun planning what to do about being pregnant. Would he marry her? Would he do what Micky typically does and tell her to sort it out on her own? I didn’t know. I hated the uncertainty.

What I did know is that Friday nights were usually reserved for hanging out at Harlequins with Simon but going there now was probably not a good idea. Also, would I be able to stand the sight of her being back with Micky if they had in fact reconciled? I didn’t think I could deal with that easily. My feelings for her had been stoked into a full fire. I wanted her in my life, more than I had ever wanted any other girl.

I went down to the corner shop after work to use the pay phone and see what Simon was doing that night.

“Howzit Danny!” he said answering after about 10 rings. “I got my cousin and some of his army buds staying over at my place. They wanna go to Harlequins tonight, you wanna join us?” There was a commotion was going on in the background, guys laughing and shouting, loud music was playing.

“Hmmm… Old fatty isn’t going to take kindly to us showing our faces there again after last week’s fracas. I don’t think it’s a good idea, Si.”

“Nah, there’s like five of them, all giant rugger buggers. I don’t think the bouncers are going to pick a fight if we all stick together.”

I wasn’t so sure about this idea, but I saw the logic in Simon’s safety in numbers theory. And if Jessie had gone back to Micky I’d know for sure and while it might sting like hell to find that out, at least I would know the truth and could move on.

“Ok, sweet. Shall I come over to your spot about 8-ish?”

“Sounds good. The guys will want to drive there but I’m sure we can all squeeze into Johnny’s van.”

I made myself a couple of toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner, took a shower and sat down to watch the latest episode of MacGuyver on a little TV set that my Mom had given me as a flat warming present. The reception wasn’t the best, but it was better than what I had endured in the army.

Simon’s place wasn’t too far from mine, so after the show ended I got dressed quickly, making sure to pick out my new denim jacket to wear over my favourite button up cowboy shirt. The weather had shifted properly to autumn during the week and there was a little chill in the air now.

Loud music was pumping from inside the flat when I knocked on Simon’s door. Sounded like Echo & The Bunnymen. At first I thought that maybe he hadn’t heard me knocking but after the third bout of aggressive pounding he finally opened the door and welcomed me in. He was wearing boxer shorts, so it was clear that we wouldn’t be leaving for Harlequins any time soon.

“Howzit Danny, come in, bru. You want a beer?”

“Sure, are we going to hang out here for a bit before we go?” I still had trepidation about retribution from Fatty at Harlequins so if there was a half chance that we’d spend the night here instead of there it would be fine with me.

“Yeh, let me introduce you to the guys.”

Simon’s cousin Johnny and his mates were huge guys who played rugby for the army and they were being as raucous as rock stars on tour in his flat. There was a card game being played on the coffee table and stacks of coins were lined up on all sides of it. This was going to be a long night for sure. None of them looked like they were ready to be going out that evening. Typical Vaalies, nothing could get them to move fast on a Friday night.

“Hey guys, this is my mate, Lieutenant Danny from the army. You don’t have to salute him, he’s not in uniform.” Simon laughed as he joked about my rank. There were hand shakes all around. These fellows were all still doing their first year so none of them would have attained any rank beyond that of lance corporal. I was now a first class lieutenant and in about a year or two of citizen force camps I would probably be promoted to captain.

We drank at least 4 beers each before the card game eventually wound up. One of the big guys, Mike, had taken all the money and he was grinning from ear to ear.

“First round at Harlequin’s is on you, Mikey.” shouted Simon’s cousin Johnny, whose wallet had been severely lightened at the poker table.

Mike beat his chest and proclaimed loudly that he was the freaking master blaster and that didn’t involve buying anybody drinks. They would have to keep them coming in his direction all night if they wanted a chance to win their army salaries back tomorrow.

Johnny’s van had a canopy on the back so while he and Simon sat inside the front of the cab, I had the pleasure of squeezing into the back with the tight five of the army’s first XV as we drove a short way down the street to Harlequins. They were all good guys and I felt a lot less stressed about the possibility of getting into a fight while they were around. They all had a lot of questions for me about leaving the army and finding work in civvie street, so I regaled them with tales of what the come down from the army was like once you had to start paying rent, taxes and medical insurance. There was a bit of grumbling about that.

Fatty the doorman wasn’t working at Harlequins that night. There were two other, more muscular guys surveying the people entering the pub. They looked at us and didn’t say or do anything to stop us from going inside. Maybe word hadn’t gotten to them yet? It was already quite well into the night at 11pm when we all ambled through the doorway into the darkness of Harlequin’s interior. The only lights were those on the stage and sure enough, there was Micky and Pete standing under them, playing their brand of pop music covers. He wasn’t playing any Level 42 right then, instead we were hearing Joe Jackson’s Is She Really Going Out With Him? How appropriate.

The place was crowded, more so than usual, probably due to it being just after payday for most people. I didn’t see Jessie inside, which was a relief, but over at the waiter’s side of the bar I could see Sally, her bright red lips reflecting the stage light, a tray tucked under her arm. She saw Simon in the dim light and I caught a little grimace cross those red lips. She turned to the guy behind the bar and said something. He looked at us, expressionless.

We got more beer from the other side of the long bar and took up standing positions near the side of the stage. All the tables were taken. Micky didn’t acknowledge me, but I knew that he could see us. I wondered what was going through his mind? Was he aware of the pregnancy situation with Jessie yet? Did anybody see her and I walking together on the beach last weekend and maybe tell him about it? Did he even care?

A table right in front of the stage suddenly opened up and the big rugby guys made short work of securing it for our group, much to the annoyance of other people who’d been waiting for one long before we arrived. Nobody was going to argue with these dudes though. Now we were right in front of Micky (who was indeed wearing a flat cap to hide his head injury from last weekend) and he couldn’t pretend he didn’t see us anymore. Normally he’d have winked or smiled to acknowledge us, but not that night. He acted as if he didn’t know us from Adam.

More beers arrived in jugs and it wasn’t long before I could feel the alcohol start to take over every part of myself. Speech, vision, stability. They were all fucked. It felt like I was on a giant swing, trying not to fall off. I remember saying to the guys that I was going to take a piss. I walked to the back rooms where the toilets were and got shoulder bumped by a tall, muscular guy with a shaved head and a very tight black t-shirt. The next thing I knew I was lying on the pavement outside Harlequins looking up at three or four big guys all kicking the shit out of me. Then the world went dark. I didn’t feel any pain but I could hear the voices of these guys saying how I was one of the guys who had taken down Frankie last week.

“Fuck him up!” one shouted as more shoes landed forcefully on my body. That was all I remembered of that Friday night.

I woke up in a hospital bed. There was an IV coming out of my left hand and it felt like I had been hit by a truck. My Mom and Dad were at my bedside. Mom was looking terribly stressed out.

“Oh, he’s waking up.” I heard her say.

I tried to speak but couldn’t. My throat was not co-operating at all. It felt like there was a bunch of stuff in there preventing me from speaking. I could breathe but my head hurt like hell and my vision was very blurry.

“You’ve given us all a hell of a scare.” I heard my Dad saying. “What the hell happened to you, boy?”

Again, no words came. A nurse appeared. She looked into my eyes, took my pulse and wrote it down on a clipboard.

“He’s been quite badly concussed.” I heard her saying. “His friends brought him in early Saturday morning. His vitals are all fine, he can breathe on his own and blood pressure is good, no sign of any internal bleeding. They took X-rays of his head and he also has a fractured jaw. We called you as he had you down as next of kin on his medical aid card.”

“Oh my God, we were so worried.” Mom said. “Danny, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

I squeezed but it felt like I wasn’t in control of my own hand, like I had no power in my body at all. Just feint impulses.

The nurse continued to speak.

“He’s on some pretty heavy pain meds. The Doctor will be checking in on him when he makes his rounds, so he will be able to give you an update on his condition after he’s done that tonight. He did say that it looks a lot worse than it is. He’s expecting him to make a full recovery, given his age. The facial bruising might take a while to settle down though. Looks like he took one hell of a beating.”

“Did his friends say who it was that did this?” my Dad asked.

“Apparently there was a bar fight and he got the worst of it. His friend Simon was the one who checked him in, so I think chat with him to find out more.” said the nurse.

She took another look at me, shone a light in my eyes and then the world faded away again. When I next woke up there were two new visitors at my bedside. Simon and Jessie.

“My God, buddy. You look like shit!” said Simon when he saw my swollen eyes trying to open. Simon would always tell you the truth.

Jessie was on the other side of the bed and she moved in closer, taking hold of my hand with one of hers, the other touching my head in a light caress. I winced in pain and she quickly took her hand away.

“So sorry,” she said. I could see that she had genuine concern for me in her eyes. She looked like she was close to tears.

“Dude, I know you can’t talk so if you can understand what I’m saying just nod. I’ll fill you in with what happened on Friday.” Simon said. I nodded slowly.

“So apparently you went to the jazz and on the way back you got into it with one of the bouncers going the other way. They knocked you out inside the pub and then pulled your jacket over your head so that we couldn’t see them taking you past our table. That’s why we didn’t know it was you being taken outside for a mauling.

“Johnny says that he heard one of the bouncers saying that they had got the guy who slapped their mate the previous weekend and were sorting him out. That’s when we got involved. I think if we hadn’t come out when we did they might have dinged you up a lot worse, so ya, good thing we did.”

Now Jessie was talking.

“It was Sally who told the bouncers and they waited for you or Simon to go to the loo so they could jump you. My ex Micky backed up her story, according to Lenny, the other barman who works there.”

When she said ‘my ex’ I found the sunbeam I had been looking for. Simon carried on telling the story.

“Anyway, Johnny’s mates laid into those fuckers big time. I don’t think they’re going to be bouncing anybody else for quite a while. Apparently big Mike broke the one dude’s arm and also knocked out some of his teeth. He’s one of these karate black belts or something, you don’t want to get on the wrong side of that dude. All three of those bouncers were kicking the shit out of you after they smuggled you outside.”

The sunbeams were multiplying. I looked at Jessie. The tears were now in her eyes as Simon was telling the story of my working over. I squeezed her hand a little and she smiled at me, those dimples of hers washing away the pain I was feeling.

The two of them stayed for a while, even though I couldn’t really talk at all. I heard about how the entire Harlequins management came under police scrutiny on Saturday. The cops took statements from witnesses and they would likely come and take one from me too if I wanted to press charges against them. What those bouncers did was bad, but I didn’t think that the police would be getting involved. That was kind of scary.

What I really wanted to know was what day it was. Had anybody told my boss of my whereabouts? Because those bank people would just fire me if I didn’t tell them I was in hospital.

I croaked out something that sounded like “What day is it?”. Jessie leaned in closer to me, a puzzled look on her face.

“What did you say?” She put her ear closer to my mouth and I could smell her perfume and shampoo. This was a good sign that in spite of the concussion my olfactory system was still working. I tried asking my question again, slower this time.

“Oh, it’s Tuesday evening.” she said and must have seen the surprise in my eyes. I had been mostly unconscious for 4 days. Holy shit.

“Don’t worry about your job, your folks have been in touch with your boss so he knows what’s going on. Your Mom is such a nice lady, I really like her.” Jessie said.

Interesting. So it wasn’t her first visit to my bedside.

The day after Simon and Jessie’s visit I was able to sit up and the doctor told me that it was a good thing I was young. My recovery would be fast, but because I had been concussed during my beating I would need to take it easy for at least two weeks. No TV, no work and definitely no drinking alcohol. My jaw was fractured but not too badly. Just a hairline crack that would heal by itself. I’d probably have some discomfort for a few weeks. He warned me against eating anything that would put too much pressure on my lower jaw.

What I was really dying for was a smoke, but I had none. My parents had brought me some personal things like toiletries and pyjamas, but I had no money to go down to the shop and buy any. Talking was difficult and the first time I saw my face in the bathroom mirror in my semi-private ward I got quite a shock. My right eye was mostly swollen shut and the left didn’t look much better. My upper lip had 2 stitches in it. Thankfully I could feel with my tongue that all my teeth were still intact. No chips. They must have really whacked me hard on the back of the head because I felt a sharp pain whenever I touched there.

Jessie came back for another visit that Wednesday night. My parents were also there, so I couldn’t ask her the all important question about whether she had had her period yet. From what I could tell there had been some contact between her and Micky during the week that she had gone quiet. Obviously she didn’t want to get into that while my folks were in the room. She seemed relaxed though, so I took a leap of logic that perhaps the little red friend, while tardy, had indeed come back for its monthly visit after all.

They all left when the nurse on duty rang the bell to signal the end of visiting hours. I resigned myself to not having the vital info I needed for at least another day. A few minutes after my visitors had left, I saw Jessie’s face poke around the doorway to my ward again, smiling as she came back to my bedside.

“I know the nurse on duty and she said I could have a few extra minutes coz there’s nobody else in this ward.” she said. “Good news, no baby coming!” Her beautiful face was beaming, the hazel eyes dancing and the dimples doing their thing.

I felt total relief at this news and tried not to smile too much because the cut in my upper lip really dialled up the pain whenever I did. I lifted my fist and gave a half-arsed power salute. She came closer and kissed me gently on the side of my face, lacing her fingers with mine. It was a tender gesture.

“I told Micky that we’re done. I never want to see that bastard’s face again.” she said, pausing for a moment before she carried on. “Sorry I didn’t come around to your place last week, but I just needed to sort out my mental state of mind so I took a few days leave and went to see my friend Charmaine down on the south coast. I should have told you. I’m so sorry this happened, Danny.”

“That’s okay.” I croaked and squeezed her hand a little tighter. I was definitely in love with this girl. That much I knew for certain. “Have you got any ciggies on you?” I asked. “I dunno what happened to mine, or to my Zippo lighter.”

“No, but I can go and get you some from the shop downstairs. Are you allowed to smoke in here?” she asked, her head cocked in curiosity.

“I can smoke on the balcony down the other side of the ward the sister said.”

“Okay, let me get you a pack from the shop. Camels, right?”

“Too expensive, just get Chesterfields.”

“It’s okay, I can spring for a pack of the imports, it’s the least I can do for you. Back in a sec.” Her smile was truly radiant and my heart was done for. Properly.

She came back a few minutes later with the Camels and an orange Bic lighter. I decided to try getting out of bed, not even sure how I had gotten into the blue hospital pyjamas I was wearing.

“Are you sure you can get out of bed?” she asked.

“Gonna find out now.” I said, grunting a little as I steadied myself.

Standing up felt weird. My legs were a little wobbly, but I wasn’t feeling dizzy. The IV drip was on a stand that had wheels on it so I was half using it to support myself as I looked for something to put on my bare feet.

“Oh, hang on, your Mom packed you some slippers. I’ll get them for you, they’re in that cupboard over there.”

“Slippers? I don’t have any slippers.” I said, confused.

Jessie opened a cupboard door to the left of the room entrance, bent inside and emerged holding a brown pair of proper old man slippers, with the price tag still on them. Good old Mom, ever so stylish.

“Oh man, please don’t let me be seen wearing these in public by anybody I know.” I joked, but pushed my feet into them anyway. They were very comfortable. I pulled off the price tag and dropped it into the waste bucket at the entrance to the room as we walked out, Jessie holding on to me in case I fell over.

The balcony the sister had told me about wasn’t too far from my room. Outside the night air was a bit chillier than the last time I was outdoors. It was mid-April now and this was the time of year that the seasons changed for us. There wasn’t any view from the balcony, you could only see the car park below, but it was better than lying on my back staring at the ceiling panels.

She opened the pack of Camels, took one out, lit it and handed it to me. I took a drag and immediately felt the familiar calming sensation of the nicotine.

“Ah, man… thank you, Jessie.” I said, exhaling the Turkish tobacco smoke. “That feels better.” A friend of mine in the army always used to refer to Camels as tasting like cardboard. They were twice the price of every other brand but they tasted very different. I was willing to pay the premium for that taste. And the soft pack looked cooler than the typical flip top boxes that cigarettes came packaged in.

She smiled and squeezed my arm a little tighter, snuggling up to me as we sat on the bench, just like she had on that rainy day down at the beach. She smelled so good.

“You must be relieved about the pregnancy thing?” I asked.

“It’s the best period I ever had.” she replied. “I went to the family planning clinic and they scolded me for not being on the pill. I had to pee into a cup which was super embarrassing, but a few minutes later they told me I wasn’t pregnant. I came on later that night. Such a relief! I think it was all just stress, you know.”

“So you’re on the pill now?”

“Well, I can be. They gave me a pack but I haven’t started taking them yet. I thought I would wait, you know, see where things go.” She said it almost as a question, but I knew exactly what she meant as she looked into my swollen eyes, some expectation written on her face.

“I’m feeling a little off right now, but if you give me a few days I’m sure I’ll be right as rain.” I said, looking at her with my best version of a paralysed lips smile. “This isn’t putting you off?” I draw an imaginary circle around my battered face.

She laughed. “How have you been living so close to me physically but never so close to my heart before now?”

“Sweetheart, I have no idea.” I said.