Chapter 4

Minutes later Ed came back into the kitchen. Sarah was at the sink washing the iced tea glasses. "We do have a dish washer for that, you know," he laughed. "Just trying to keep busy," she replied. Ed reached into his pocket and pulled out four one hundred dollar bills. "Would you mind going to the grocery store and picking up some food"? He asked. "You better shop as though we have nothing to eat in the house because we don't." He smiled, "Remember your living with a bachelor now and if it can't be micro waved it must not be food." "I would like to eat in tonight." "We will be out most of the day tomorrow," he said. Before she could ask where they would be going tomorrow he said, "Better check on what spices and such you will need." "I doubt that there is much of that stuff here." "If you are going to need any paper goods for cooking, you had better check on that too." "Is there anything that you don't like or won't eat," She asked. Ed shook his head no. "I pretty much eat anything, pizza mostly." Sarah wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Would you think I would be imposing if I asked you to cook dinner"? He asked. "I have a few things that I have to finish for tomorrow." "You can cook, can't you," he added with a grin. Sarah threw the towel at his head. Ed grinned and moved sideways and the towel landed on the table.

"You know that I have no idea where a grocery store is in this town," She said. Ed went into the office and pulled a map off of the Internet and brought it in to Sarah. He sat down at the table and wrote down a few items that he wanted her to pickup for him. "You had better pick up woman stuff that you will need like soap, shampoo and conditioner," he said. "I don't think you would like a man's type of soap and such."

Sarah jumped when she heard the doorbell ring. She had not heard a car come up the driveway. "Will you get that while I pull the Explorer out of the garage" Ed said as he walked out of the kitchen. Sarah looked out of the window and saw a telephone company van sitting in front of the house. She opened the door and the young man looked at his clipboard. "Mrs. Sensa, I'm here to change the phone lines over," the he said. Sarah let him in and asked him to wait. For some reason she did not correct the telephone man's assumption that she was Mrs. Sensa, She was pleased that he had assumed that she was Mrs. Sensa. Ed was just walking back into the kitchen when Sarah did. "Ed, there's a telephone man in the front hall to change over some telephone lines," she said, "Will you tell him what you want done.' "I just want him to change your bedroom phone over to a private line," Ed said. "He only has to move two wires in the electrical closet in the basement." Sarah looked at him. "You don't have to do that," She said. "Sarah, you need your privacy," he replied. "Once you start with Shadow you'll probably get calls at home." "I'm going to put a cordless phone with an answering machine and fax in your room so that you can carry the cordless phone to whatever room your in," he added as he left the room. Ed took the telephone man to the basement, waited while he swapped the lines over and let the man out.

Ed came back into the kitchen and handed Sarah a cell phone. "If you get lost just hit the larger button on the side and it works like a walkie-talkie, he said. "I'll either come get you or get you unlost," he said with a grin. Ed reached in his pocket and pulled out some keys. "Here is a key to the house and a spare set to the Explorer," he said handing her the keys. "All of the doors are keyed alike so what ever door you want to come in you have the key for that door." "The garage door opener is over top of the sun visor so just pull right into the garage with the groceries." "Blow the horn and I will come out and give you a hand." Ed went back into his office. Sarah checked in every cabinet to see what Ed had already in stock and found that he was right, there wasn't even enough to make one meal. She went up to her bedroom, got her purse and went outside.

The Explorer was a larger vehicle than she was used to driving but she didn't have any trouble with it. It was certainly bigger and better than her old Nissan Sentra. The old Sentra gave up the ghost about three weeks ago. Sarah had little trouble following the map. She only made one wrong turn and quickly corrected her mistake. She pulled into a convenient parking space and went into the supermarket.

The supermarket was huge and well stocked. Sarah could tell that it was fairly new and it was as clean as a pin. The vegetable section had large selection and everything was first class. Sarah picked up everything she would need to make a nice salad. She went through each aisle thoughtfully selecting items for dinner. The spice aisle had every spice that she would need. As she was looking at the fresh meats a man walked up to her and introduced himself as the manager. "It's nice to meet you Mrs. Sentra," he said. "I saw you when you came in." "We've been open two weeks and I haven't seen you or Mr. Sentra in yet." "How do you know I am Mrs. Sentra," Sarah asked. The manager smiled, "Well, it's hard to mistake that SUV with ED SENTRA-ARCHITECT in gold letters on the door." "Are you finding everything you need," he asked.?" Yes, she said with a smile. "How do you know Ed Sentra'? She asked. He hesitated before answering, "Well he did build the shopping center and this store you know." "I guess he still owns the shopping center, but you would know more about that than me." "Have you figured what type of meat you are looking for"? He asked. "Sarah quickly glanced at the selections available and told him that she was looking for some steak for tonight and maybe a nice roast for the weekend. "Will you just wait here a minute'? He said as his walked back into the cutting room. He came to the window in about five minutes and showed her two t-bone steaks the were the finest she had ever seen and a roast that any chef in the world would kill for to be able to work his magic on. "Will these be OK"? He asked. "Yes, they will be fine," she replied. The manager had the steaks and the roast wrapped and brought them back to her cart. Sarah thanked him and started move away to continue shopping. "Your husband is a fine person, although I am sure that you know that," he said. "My daughter will never be able to thank him enough" "If he hadn't bought the two hearing aids for her I don't know what we would have done." "I sure couldn't afford them on my salary and our insurance doesn't cover hearing aids," he said. "I'm sorry, Ed never told me the full story why your daughter needed the hearing aids," Sarah said. The manager sighed, "She got a high fever when she was an infant and she lost a good part of her hearing because of the fever." "She couldn't learn to talk very well because she could barely her our voices." "Ed would never tell me how much they cost, but being custom made, I know they cost a lot and they will have to be changed as she grows older." "But Ed already paid for any changes that have to be made," he added. Sarah smiled, thanked the manager for his help and continued shopping. "Apparently Ed Sensa loved helping strays," Sarah thought to herself. Sarah maneuvered the cart to the checkout. As she was checking out a young man came and stood next to her cart. "Is anything wrong'? She asked. "No ma'am," he replied. "I was told to help you get the bags into your car." Sarah looked over to the office and the manager gave a small wave. The young man helped Sarah load the groceries into the car. He refused to accept a tip.

Sarah realized that Mr. Ed Sentra had many secrets, although they seemed to be all good secrets. She would try to learn more about this interesting man at dinner. On a whim Sarah stopped in front of a liquor store and picked up a bottle of wine. She figured maybe the wine would get him to open up a little. Sarah knew that she would be in trouble if Ed had not run into her. She made a promise to herself that she would accept no more gifts or financial help from him. She would just have to make it on her own. Ed had helped enough and was more than anyone could expect.

As she drove, Sarah started thinking about how she had gotten into the mess that she was in. Carson Lashely seemed like the answer to a young girl's dreams. When they were first married Carson was a dutiful husband and the money that both of them were making seemed adequate. The sex was all right but not as frequent as Sarah thought there should be in a marriage. After Carson joined the country club that his father belonged to, his spending habits changed. He complained that his clothes were not good enough and the car he drove other members looked down on. The mail was sent to a post office box because Carson said that it was possible for the mail to be stolen out of the box while both of them were working. He also told her that on-line banking was safer and more convenient. Sarah never saw any bills or bank statements as Carson took care of paying bills on the computer at work. Sarah knew that they weren't rich, but she thought that the bills were being paid. After two years of marriage her doctor told Sarah that she couldn't have children. Carson's attitude toward her changed about that same time. The sex became less and less frequent. Carson became more and more abusive. While he never hit her, Sarah would have rather felt his hand than his words. When he was drinking, he would tell Sarah that he felt cheated. He told her that she was only half a wife because she couldn't have children. Once he told her he was looking for someone to be the other half wife. Once when he was drunk he said, "What's the sense in fucking you, you can't have kids anyway?" Sarah had heard rumors for a year that Carson was seeing someone else. She had refused to believe it. One night Carson came home and packed some clothes into suitcases and told her that he was finished with her. He told her that he had found a real woman and that she could sell the house, pay the bills and keep whatever was left. Sarah was lucky that the house had increased in value by about $22000 and that the house sold within 3 days after being put on the market. Carson's father had assumed some of the large debts after Sarah found out that Carson had made the debts to support his mistress. Carson was terrified that Sarah would drag their troubles into the courts and would be made public. This would have diminished his stature in the country club.

Sarah opened the garage door and drove into the garage. She decided to let Ed work so she unloaded the groceries and took them into the kitchen. She quickly put everything away that she would not need to prepare the dinner. Sarah dove into the task of preparing the dinner and lost all track of time. She set the kitchen table and set out the wine glassed she had found in the dining room. Sarah decided to use the kitchen because the dinning room looks like it had never been used. She put the food on the table, poured the wine and covered the food so that it wouldn't get cold. Ed walked into the kitchen as she was putting the cover over the meat. "I didn't know that you were back, why didn't you call me'? He said. "As you can see, I managed," she replied. Sarah uncovered the food and they sat down to eat.

Ed looked that the dinner Sarah had made. Sarah had made T-bone steak, baked potato, corn and a salad. "I'm going to have to get rid of you," he said. I'll weight 400 pounds in three months. Sarah's grin was Ed's answer. "I didn't know what kind of dressing you like so I got three different kinds." The blue cheese is fine," he said. Sarah and Ed talked small talk throughout the meal. Ed told her about the heartaches of being an architect and Sarah told Ed about Elmer, Pennsylvania. Ed commended Sarah about 20 times during the meal and both only sipped at their wine. Ed pushed his plate away and patted his stomach. "Well, that's enough food for this month," he said with a grin.

Ed started to get up to help clear the table. "Oh no you don't," Sarah said loudly, "Sit down." Ed sat down quickly, wondering what was wrong. "You already know much more about me than I would like you to know, let's talk about Ed Sensa," she said seriously. "I met another one of your strays that you are in the habit of picking up," she said. Ed looked puzzled, "Who." "The supermarket manager," she said, "I hear that you bought hearing aids for somebody. "I don't know what you are talking about, my hearing is fine," he said with a smile. "Ed that was a great thing to do for a child," Sarah said, "but are you trying to give all of your money away?" "I wonder how many of us strays are out there"? Ed smiled and said, "I'll never tell, you'll have to find them your self." "I'll bet there are a lot of us," Sarah said.

Sarah looked at Ed thoughtfully. "You said that you were in the Navy Seals, what did you do?" she asked. Immediately Ed's face cloudy over and Sarah was sorry she had asked that question. "We just sailed on boats, camped out and shot at targets." He said quietly. Ed's eyes became as hard as flint. Fire almost danced from his eyes. Ed quickly rose from the kitchen chair. "That's one subject you have no business asking about," Ed snapped. "That's in the past and, God damn it, leave it there." Sarah became very afraid. Ed walked out of the kitchen into the living room and started to build a fire in the fireplace. Sarah got up and started cleaning up the kitchen and dinner dishes. She could hardly see with the tears in her eyes. Sarah turned on the dishwasher and sat down at the kitchen table. She hoped that she had not hurt him too badly. She couldn't stand it if she had hurt him.

After about 20 minutes Sarah went into the living room to apologize. Ed have built a small fire, not because the house was cool, but to look at. That was what he was doing when Sarah walked in the living room, laying on the floor watching the flames. Ed had put some jazz CD's on the stereo and had the volume turned down low. He had put a pillow on the floor from the couch but his head was propped on his elbow. Sarah sat down about a foot in front of him and just sat quietly for a couple of minutes. ""Ed, I'm sorry if I went somewhere with my questions I was not welcome," she said. Ed reached out to her and pulled her to him. He pulled her close so that her back was to his front. She had heard this called spooning before. He put his arm over her and was quiet for a minute. "I'm sorry Sarah," he said, "You didn't deserve that." "That anger was directed at someone else and I don't think that I will ever be able to talk about it." Ed reached behind him and pulled another pillow off of the couch and put it under Sarah's head. He pulled the coverlet off of the couch and covered the both of them. "Can you just stay with me for a few minutes and watch the fire and listen to the music?" he asked. Sarah answered by snuggling closer to him and pulling his arm tighter to her. Sarah felt like she almost was born to be cuddled to him like this. She wouldn't mind spending the rest of her life in his arms. The combination of the heat of the fire, the music and her contentment was lulling Sarah to sleep. Just before she fell asleep, Ed leaned toward her, kissed her hair and said, "I'm sorry Sarah." "Sarah responded by trying to snuggle closer, although that was impossible.

Chapter 5