One Second After

The doctors had all said that, as quickly as possible, Jennifer had to learn to monitor herself, that John and Mary needed to step back even when she was only seven and eight to let her know her own signs, test, and medicate. Mary had handled it far better than John had, perhaps because of her own illness towards the end. Jen with her strength had the same attitude.

Strange. Here I am, a soldier of twenty years. Saw some action, but the only casualties were the Iraqis, never my own men. I was trained to handle things, but when it came to my daughter’s diabetes, a damn aggressive type 1, I was always on edge. Tough, damn good at what I did, well respected by my men, and yet complete jelly when it comes to my girls.

“There’s a few more gifts inside,” John said. “Why don’t you girls go on in? Once your sister gets home and your friends show up we can have our party.”

“Oh, Dad, didn’t you get Elizabeth’s message?”

“What message?”

“Here, silly.”

She reached up and fished the cell phone out of his breast pocket, tucked in behind a pack of cigarettes. She started to pull the cigarettes out, to stomp on them or tear them up, but a look from him warned her off.

“Someday, Daddy,” she sighed, then taking the phone she punched a few keys and handed it back.

“Home late. Out with Ben,” the screen read.

“She texted you and me during lunch.”

“Texted?”

“Yes, Daddy, text message, all the kids are doing it now.”

“What’s wrong with a phone call?”

She looked at him as if he were from the antediluvian period and then headed inside.

“Texted?” Jen asked.

John held the phone so she could read the message. Jen smiled.

“Better start keeping a sharper watch on Elizabeth,” she said. “If that Ben Johnson has any of his grandfather’s blood in him.” She chuckled as if remembering something from long ago.

“I don’t need to hear this.”

“No, you don’t, Colonel.”

“Actually, I kind of prefer ‘Doctor,’ or ‘Professor.’”

“A doctor is someone who sticks things in you. A professor, well, they always struck me as a bit strange. Either rakes chasing the girls or boring, dusty types. Down here in the South, ‘Colonel’ sounds best. More masculine.”

“Well, I am no longer in active service. I am a professor, so let’s just settle for ‘John.’”

Jen gazed up at him for a moment, then came up to his side, stood on tiptoes, and kissed his cheek lightly.

“I can see why my own little girl once fell for you, John. You’ll lose both of them soon enough to some pimply-faced boys, so do hang on to her as long as you can.”

“Well, you sure as hell didn’t help, draping that gold necklace on her. What did it cost, a thousand, fifteen hundred?”

“Roughly, but then again, no lady tells the truth when it comes to her buying jewelry.”

“Until the bill comes in and the husband has to pay.”

There was a pause. He knew he had misspoken. If he had said such a thing around Mary, she’d have lit into him about a woman being independent and the hell with a husband handling the bills… and in fact she did handle all the family finances right up till the last weeks of her life.

As for Tyler, though, he no longer even knew what a bill was, and that hurt, no matter how self-reliant Jen tried to appear to be.

“I best be going,” Jen said.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”

“It’s all right, John. Let me go up to the nursing home to spend some lime with Tyler and I’ll be back for the party.”

“Jennifer was expecting a ride in that monstrous car of yours.”

“The Edsel, my dear young man, was a generation ahead of its time.”

“And the biggest flop in the history of Ford Motors. My God, look at that grille; it’s ugly as sin.”

She lightened up a bit with the banter. There were half a dozen cars in her huge garage, several newer ones but also an actual Model A, up on blocks, and, beauty of beauties, a powder blue 1965 Mustang convertible. A lot of bad memories, though, were tied to that Mustang. When John and Mary were dating, they had conned her parents into letting them borrow the car for a cruise up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mount Mitchell and John, driving it, had rear-ended an elderly couple’s Winnebago.

No one was hurt, but the car was totaled and Tyler had poured thousands into getting it restored… and swore that no one other than him or Jen would ever drive it again. And Jen still lived by that ruling.

“This Edsel will run forever, my dear, and just check on eBay to see how much it’s worth. I bet a heck of a lot more than that SUV thing you’ve got.”

He settled back against the stone wall as Jen maneuvered “the monster” around and cruised down the driveway at breakneck speed. The wall was warm from the afternoon sun. The Beanies were still there, and oh, that did hurt a bit; at least she could have carried Patriot Bear or the ostrich in.