Chapter 8
After they returned to Parameter, Jim started to work on incorporating the changes into the construction. He continued to see Ann everyday on the construction site and they had dinner once or twice a week and they spent every Sunday together.
The construction continued at a hectic pace, but the problems seemed to be fewer. He attributed this to the fact that everyone knew what had to be done and that everyone was really interested in making the project come in on time.
About 3 days before Christmas Ann came to the site to discuss the progress. They went over the items that she had concerns about and he could tell that something was bothering her.
"Do you want to tell me what's bothering you or should I guess?"
"I'm sorry. My daughter and her husband are flying in tomorrow early. One of the production lines just went down and I'm have the broken parts flown in. It's probably going to take 2 days to get the line back up and running. I'm going to have to ask her to catch an airport limo. I wanted to be there to pick her up."
"How about if I pick her up. I can get away. Everything is running as smooth as it can."
"Jim, if you could I would feel so much better. I don't want her to have to fight the crowds and maybe have to wait hours for a limo. She had trouble getting tickets because of the heavy travel."
"Then don't worry about it. Just call her and tell her I'll pick her up."
The next morning he was standing in the airport holding a sign that read "Jessica Day". Ann had to tell him Jessica's married name over the cell phone. He had forgotten to ask before he left for the airport. As he saw the people approaching he held up the sign. A pretty young woman walked over to him and asked if he was Jim Furol. He said that he was and she introduced herself.
"Where is your husband?" he asked.
He saw tears come to her eyes and she sat down on her carryon an started to cry.
"I'm sorry. I thought I could hold it in until I was alone. Can we get a drink? I'm shaking inside. I don't know if I can face my mother right now. Maybe I shouldn't have come back here just now."
He took her bag and led her to the airport lounge and sat in a booth. The lights were dim and the booth allowed them as much privacy as you could expect in a public place. He ordered a beer for himself and was surprised when she ordered a Jack Daniels and water.
When the waitress brought the drinks, Jessica downed hers and ordered another one before the waitress had a chance to leave.
"Would you like to tell me what's bothering you? I listen real good and I don't make judgments."
Jessica looked at him as if trying to make up her mind if she should confide in a person that she had only met 10 minutes ago.
"Are you the man that's been keeping my mother so bubbly? You're all she wants to talk about when I call."
"If I'm making her all bubbly as you put it, I'm glad and yes I am seeing your mother. I don't know where we are going with it yet, but I have high hopes."
Jessica stared at her second drink, "John and were happy the first couple of months after we moved to California. He went with that computer outfit and things started to change. I don't now if you know anything about the computer industry, but money flows like water. I got that teaching position and I have to spend my evenings grading papers and making lesson plans. John figured that anytime off of work was party time. He started going out without me. I knew that his friends were doing drugs and were pretty wild. He started to be gone all weekend and he said that he was expected to go on these parties with his co-workers. About 2 weeks ago he moved in with some teenybopper and said that I was boring and he wanted more out of life than working all of the time. I've made up my mind to come back home after the school year. I have a contract and can't get out of it until then."
"You only got married in June didn't you?" he asked.
"Yeh, we're more efficient than your generation. It took years for your marriages to fail, we can do it in months."
She started crying hard again and he moved over beside her and put his arm around her. He held her until she stopped crying.
"I'm sorry. It just hurts so bad."
"Your mother and I both know how you feel. We've both been hurt like you have. Nothing that your mother or I do can make the hurt go away. That's up to you. You can either let it eat you up or you can put it behind you and move on with your life. I was so miserable the first year after the divorce that I almost got fired."
She tried to stop crying and wiped her eyes, "What about you two. What's going on there?"
"Well, that's an unfinished story. Your mother was hurt worse than you realize. She's very fragile. She's asked me for some time and I'm giving it to her. I could drive her away by pressuring her too much."
"I understand now just what my mother went through."
"Your mother is an amazing woman. After the way she was treated, she could have gone belly up and spent the rest of her life feeling sorry for herself. Instead, she went on the be a very important part of a major company. Along the way she found time to raise a beautiful daughter. Now we better get you home so that you can get settled before your mother comes home."
He carried her bags out to the car. He opened the door for her and held it while she got in. They drove for a while in silence.
"When do you have to return to California?" he asked.
"I'm going back 2 days before New Years. I have to be back at school the day after New Years. I'm going to spent Christmas morning with my mother and then I'll spent Christmas evening with my father. Marriage number 3 is breaking up and if I didn't spend some time with him he'd be all alone for Christmas."
When they got to Ann's house he helped her get her bags into the house. She thanked him for listening to her at the airport.
"Can I talk you into staying while I tell my mother about my failed marriage?'
He smiled, "I don't think so. This is not a time that you need an outsider around. This has to be between you and your mother. Just tell her what happened. She won't lord it over you. Remember, she went through the same thing."
She came to him and put her arms around his neck, "I wouldn't go waiting too long for my mother to make up her mind. You'll both be in a nursing home still waiting for her to decide whether she should get married again."
She let him go, "Are you going to be around on Christmas?'
"I was going to talk to you later about that. On Christmas Eve I need you to do something for me. I need you to let your mother go to bed and then I want you to call me on the cell phone. I have a few presents for her and I'd like them to be under the tree when she wakes up."
"Just like Santa Claus huh?"
"Something like that," he laughed.
He gave his cell phone number and left the house and went back to the job site. He didn't see Ann for the rest of the day. Ann got the broken machinery removed from the production line and told the millwrights to start installing the new machinery as soon as it was delivered. She told them that she would be in around 6 o'clock the next morning to help calibrate it and set up the line.
She pulled in the driveway and shut off the engine. As she walked in the house she called out Jessica's name. Jessica came from the bedroom and ran to her mother and threw her arms around her neck. She hung on to Ann for several minutes trying to fight back the tears. Ann finally pulled her daughter's arm from around her neck.
"Where's John?"
The tears started flowing down Jessica's cheeks. Ann sat her daughter down and waited until Jessica calmed down enough to speak. Jessica told her mother about her marriage. When she had told Ann the whole story, she sat there waiting for her mother to say something. Ann rushed to her daughter and held her until they both stopped crying.
"I was thinking about what I said to you before I left to go to California all day. I was very wrong to have said that and I'm so sorry that it came out of my mouth."
Ann told her that she had forgotten all about it and dragged Jessica into the kitchen to fix something for them to eat. She had planned to take Jessica and her husband out to a restaurant to eat but now she felt that both of them needed to be alone with each other tonight.
Jessica sat and watched as her mother started to prepare dinner, "I like Jim. He's a nice guy. You didn't tell me he was so good looking."
"He is a nice man."
Jessica slapped her hand on the table, "Well, are you going to make me drag it out of you. What's going on? How serious is it?"
"Don't go reading something into it that isn't there. Jim and I are just friends."
"Don't give me that mother. Every time I've called you lately, all you talk about is him. Do you love him. He sure loves you. He thinks the sun rises and sets on you."
"Right now, we're just taking it slow. We've both been hurt bad and neither of us wants to go through with that again."
Jessica threw the towel that was on the table at her mother, "My God, you are so dense. You have a man that loves you, he's a real nice person, he's good looking, for an older man that is, and you want to wait. For what?"
Ann dodged the towel and laughed, "He hasn't even asked me yet and if he did I don't know that I'd marry him."
After dinner mother and daughter sat for a long time talking to each
other about their life and their men. Ann told Jessica a lot of what
she had been hiding inside of her for years and Jessica told Ann what
she had been hiding in her heart. When they finally went to bed they
had formed a mother-daughter friendship that many people dreamed of but
few found.