Friday Night
Donna’s apartment
8:30pm
Sitting in front of her mirror, she slowly pulled the antique horsehair brush absentmindedly through her long blonde hair. One of the back legs on her chair was slightly shorter than the other three thus the whole thing wobbled a bit from side to side when she gave her hair a particularly hard tug. Her hair was still damp and the heady smell of the lavender bath oil she’d used filled her senses. She was relaxed. Mellow. Content. She smiled at her freshly scrubbed face in the mirror and put the brush away. Slipping into a thin pair of anklets she shuffled lightly toward the living room.
She left the crutches in the hallway closet a week ago. Since then she’d reveled in the joy of walking unhindered. Gratitude coursed quietly, deeply in her heart and she knew she’d never forget it. She’d come much too close to missing out on a most interesting turn in her life. A quick grin spread across her face when she looked back at her bed and the way the thick down blankets and pillows were still messily strewn across the mattress.
She grinned again when she looked at the clock on the mantle above the fireplace. It was only 8:30 and she’d already taken a luxurious bath and now donned her new flannel pajama bottoms and her favorite tank top. The warm rich smell of chicken wild rice soup warming on the stove swirled with the tang of cinnamon sticks simmering in cider. Candles lit the living room in warm soft glow.
Waiting atop the television was her prized possession: Pride and Prejudice on DVD. It had been hidden from her twice in the last few weeks and she’d enjoyed his game of hiding from her. Today, she’d found it on the kitchen counter along with a handwritten note:
Gone to St. Paul. Will
be back in three days to check on you. I’ve got an early flight on Monday
morning. I will Watch this in the
mean time because, as all other manly men in possession of their wits, I have
absolutely no desire to watch even one second of that ‘Tempest in a teacup’
as you call it. Uppity British actors sitting around in what suspiciously look
like tights and what must be most uncomfortable neckwear is not normal. Ugh. Set
your cell to my ring. I’ll call when I get where I’m going.
-Josh
She tucked the note into her copy of The Secret Life of Bees and poured herself a mug of cider. The heat crept through and warmed her fingers. Snuggling into the deep cushions she thought back to those strange days after Germany when things really started to change…
*****
Three weeks earlier
Donna’s apartment
6pm
"What do you want to watch tonight?"
"Um, Not C-SPAN, CNN, Frontline, Capitol Beat, MSNBC, or Fox News Channel."
"Donna, you watch the news channels nearly as much as I do. It’s sport. It’s better than any of the ten thousand horrid reality shows on NBC. You don’t want to watch people eating cow’s toes or mice tails do you? I mean I know your painkillers dulled your nearly-as-sharp-as-mine wit but come on…"
Her withered look stopped his diatribe.
She pointed to the thick envelope on the table near her door. "I want to watch what is in that envelope," she sighed as she shifted her body around on the couch pulling the afghan up over her legs.
Josh got up, stretched, and yawned a Sunday afternoon kind of yawn. She watched him move about her cozy living room. His hair was growing out, sticking up here and there. She noticed he was starting to look more like himself. The last year had been tough professionally and personally for him. He had been too thin and tired when she woke to find him in Germany. Now that she was away from the doting eyes of the hospital staff and her mother, he’d assumed the role of caretaker. He’d been making her eat, to keep up her strength he insisted, and in the course of things had started to fill out himself. He was looking healthier and happier than he had in many months.
"What is this?" He held up the thick brown paper envelope. "Didya order porn?" He leered and wagged his eyebrows in an exaggerated Disco Stu kind of way.
"Josh," she flipped her hair in the manner of exasperated teenager rolling her eyes for added effect, "unless you think my mother is sending me porn, I suggest you get a clue, or at least learn how to read return address labels."
"Your mom is sending you porn?!" He dropped the envelope back on the table and flicked his hand as if he’d stuck it in some creepy goo and was now trying to remove it as quickly as possible.
"Yeah, you know it’s a cultural thing. Middle Aged Midwestern Mothers of Scandinavian Descent are real big on sending pornography to their recovering daughters a thousand miles away."
"So not porn then?"
"No."
"Bummer." He tossed her the package and wandered in to the kitchen.
She slid her fingernail under the flap and tore the paper. Out slid a neatly wrapped package. On the front was a homemade note card with the words GET WELL SWEETIE! written across the front. Her mother had taken up scrap booking and card making and Donna had been the recipient of many a card in the last few weeks. Although she’d received hundreds of get well notes and letters she really loved the homemade ones her mom sent. They were just sweeter. She tore the paper on the package to reveal a thin two-volume DVD box set.
"Yes!!!" Donna raised both her arms above her head in a Rocky-style exclamation.
In her hands she held Pride and Prejudice. The BBC/A&E version from the early 90s, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. It was her favorite mini-series. Would Elizabeth ever find happiness with Mr. Darcy? Would Mr. Darcy ever be able to get over Elizabeth’s less than stellar family connections and admit his true love? She remembered loving how Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy argued and bantered back and forth as they danced around their attraction and eventual love for each other. Donna tore the plastic wrapping off and went straight for the booklet.
"So, if it’s not porn, what is it?" Josh asked as he munched on the smelly dill potato chips that he’d smuggled in the last time he’d come to visit her.
Donna held up the gift like spoil of war. "This! This is what we are watching tonight!" Her eyes sparkled and her toes wiggled in excitement.
Josh walked to her and grabbed the box from her feigning disinterest. "Hmm…let’s see…’The timeless themes of love and marriage in Jane Austen’s superb romantic comedy…Pride and Prejudice is the story of the lively and rebellious Elizabeth Bennet, one of five unmarried daughters living in the countryside of 19th century England…’" Josh’s tone curled to disgust as he read the back of the box.
"Donna?" He queried with the tone he saved for particularly dimwitted Republicans.
"Yes Josh?" She grinned like a teenager swooning over an Orlando Bloom article in Teen Beat.
"Is this one of those stuffy period pieces you women find inexplicably irresistible?"
"Perhaps," she tried for a very serious face but failed miserably.
Josh pulled his face into a cross between a grimace and a sneer. He shook the box at her accusingly, "This is one of those Super Chick Flicks isn’t it?"
"Super Chick Flick? Are you serious?” Donna didn’t know whether to laugh or argue. “Josh, this literature brought to life. This is Jane Austen. This a true interpretation of a classic work by a woman whom many consider an early feminist," Donna stated with as much seriousness as she could muster looking while looking at barefooted man with wild hair wearing flannel pajama pants and a natty old Harvard t-shirt. She pulled off a rather convincing tone, because as all women know, if Jane Austen were alive today, she’d be a major player in the Sisterhood.
"So no mice tails or cow’s toes or jumping from a rooftop in a bikini?" Josh continued rambling hoping to delay the inevitable.
"Put it in Josh, put in that beautiful DVD starring the oh-so-dashing Colin Firth, bring me hot chocolate, sit down and be quiet."
"Colin?" Josh’s voice lowered as his eyebrows raised in a very non-Disco Stu kind of way.
What? Doesn’t he like Colin Fir…oh…oh Josh!…Her heart flipped and landed in her stomach. Only Josh would connect the dots on this one. Mention the name Colin and he immediately flashes back to Colin, Hot British Photojournalist, World Traveler, and Wooer of Women. Mention the name Colin and Josh flashes back to the arrival of Colin Ayers in the hospital and making Donna happy, making Donna smile. Watching Josh now, trying to mask his tension from across the room, she faced a spur of the moment internal struggle: go with the humor or be serious? She tried for humor.
"I’ve loved Colin Firth for years. He’s a dreamboat of an actor and it makes me happy to see his brooding dark eyes and wild unruly hair as often as possible," she looked Josh directly in the eye hoping her words were hitting home. "The way his character banters and argues with Elizabeth in this movie makes my heart beat faster. He’s captured her mind and imagination and heart." Josh’s face relaxed so she continued with a flash of a smile. "She’s intelligent and kind and he sees that she’s unlike all the hard, bitter and aggressive women he’s known in the past." Josh’s eyes warmed as he listened. "Oh, and there’s absolutely no bodice ripping in this movie. I don’t even think there’s a moor. There’s a pond, a really, really great pond, but no moor."
Josh licked his lips and rolled his eyes. He got her underlying message: Knock it off. You are here. He is not. I am happy. Do the math.
They watched each other for a moment. She felt warm and alive and in her eyes she hoped he could see her heart reflecting back at him. There were a million words that could be said. In fact, there was still a laundry list of things unsaid between them. She felt at any time they could sit down and talk it through, but in all honesty, she felt okay with how things were. When she’d come home he’d stayed close. All that they were before was more. All those tiny ties between them had been tightened and new ones wove themselves together. Neither of them had the words to explain it yet. It just was.
She watched Josh snap out of his thoughts and fall back on his patented brand of charm. "So, if we watch this what do I get?"
Ah, Disco Josh was back. Donna secretly thought Josh strutted and attempted to charm women ala Disco Stu on the Simpsons. He seemed so silly around those other women. The odd thing was he didn’t seem very Disco-Stuish when he turned that charm on her. Where he was sickeningly annoying around other women he seemed just delicious and inescapable, especially when he turned those eyes on her.
"What do you get? You get what you always get when you spend time with me: an enhanced life experience. Joshua, it’s nearly a quantifiable scientific fact that when you spend time with me, your quality of life improves. Now, quit stalling and put in this mini-series of happiness, joy and light."
"Mini-series?" he choked out around a new handful of dill potato chips.
"Well, duh. As I recall, it comes in at just under six hours." Donna smiled and nodded her head flashing back to images of gallant men wearing coat and tails riding across the rolling hills of England on sleek horses.
"So I’m gonna need more chips?"
"So it would seem."
**********
Chapter 2