Christmas Road Trip

Chapter Two The End “Maybe Ken just needs more time, Sue.” Lani said. Susan turned to Lani with a cold stare that did not reflect the Christmas message of peace on earth, good will toward men. The iPod docked on the coffee table played Merry Christmas Darling by the Carpenters. “Guts are what he needs, Lani. He needs to get beyond the past.” Lani lifted the ceramic Virgin Mary, polishing it with a Kleenex before placing her in the manger scene on the mantel. “Sorry, Kid.” Susan’s memory of a broken promise, seven years back, flooded over her. Martin, her fiancé, had bought a ring. He had performed the ancient down-on-one-knee dance in a very public place—Mariners Church. Two days later, he took back the ring, suffering from cold feet. Then, hat-in-hand, he returned the following Friday, asking her to marry him again. Susan wondered that she cared about marriage at all. Sue left Mariners Church to Martin. Ken had loved a woman just as she had loved Martin. He would not repeat her name. ‘Ol’ what’s her name’ was all he had ever said in reference. Sue met Ken at Rock Harbor Church three years later, while standing next to him at a bistro table, eating doughnuts and drinking coffee, early one November Sunday. Susan understood Ken and his loss. She knew how it affected him. For nearly three years she’d been patient. Now, it was more than time enough for both of them to move on. “Sue?” “Sorry, Lani. I was off in my own world for a moment,” Sue said. “Maybe more time is not the right way to put it.” Lani said. The discussion had gone on for half an hour. Ken came up in conversation all day as they worked. “Lani. He had time enough to know two years ago,” Sue said. “I always considered women who were strung along year after year to be spineless.” Susan slipped a hank of bobbed hair behind her right ear. She sank into the couch, and slipped a silver earring, set with tiny sapphires, onto each ear. Sue grew quiet again, looking around the apartment. “The anthuriums are beautiful.” They surrounded the iPod dock on the coffee table. “I like how the palm fronds surround them. Your mom creates such nice arrangements.” “Mahalo,” Lani said “Ken should be here by now,” Sue said. He wasn’t always on time. Sue got the impression he thought it manly, and independent to be late. In truth, she knew he had so many interests he’d often sink into some project and forget the time. “I think he must be stuck working with that train set he puts down under his parents’ tree every year. I love Christmas at their house, too. His mom treats me like a daughter. If I married him, would he be ohana, Lani?” “You bet, tita.” Sue gazed into the last chance mirror at the front door. Strings of multi-colored lights twinkled from the frame, warming the seven freckles on each cheek; just enough to be endearing, but not make her president of the freckle club. The Southern California sun tanned her skin. “Three years is a long time, Lani,” she said. Susan’s bulging purse, ready for a special evening, rested on the small half-table below the mirror. “Don’t get me wrong. Ken and I always have a good time together.” She considered switching purses. Either empty some things, or get a bigger bag. How about the red, smaller bag with almost nothing in it? “But we hardly ever sit and talk. When we do, it rapidly segues to some plan or idea he has just come up with.” “Three years is a long time. But, he didn’t disappear, either, did he?” Lani said. Sue’s huge, brown cow eyes and a perfect figure caressed by the latest in blue jeans, almost said ‘formal.’ She added a silk top. “And, in the last three years, you’ve had what, three boy friends?” “Four. It’s okay. Even with plenty of men out there, how many of them have really big, happy families? I like Ken’s family. When you’re through with Ken, throw him my way, maybe.” “What’s the use with Ken? He and I have been to eight weddings, two of those we marched together. Why, our first date was a mutual friend’s wedding. And, I keep hinting.” “I don’t think actually asking him to marry you counts as a hint,” Lani said. “Ken laughed it off at any rate, but he’s the one that started it by suggesting we check out the new houses in Sand Canyon. He shouldn’t play with fire like that.” She opened the purse and pulled out a set of keys. She eyed them curiously. “Lani, here are your keys. I guess I dropped them in here after I parked your car.” “Again? I’m glad you didn’t get away with these. I might want to go out on a wild evening or something.” Lani leaned against the quilted snowman on the wall, and crossed her arms. She caught Susan’s eye. “Ken’s always there for you. He helped us find this place and some of his friends helped us move in.” “He may seem like Captain Terrific, defender of everything good and decent in the Universe, but he’s kind of a parking lot attendant in my book¬—albeit, a really cute parking lot attendant.” “He can park my car. But he produces digital recordings if I’m not mistaken.” Lani straightened and stood beside Sue, moving her a little to the side to share the mirror. “Captain Terrific? Sounds like you made that up.” “And I’m just a car.” Sue continued, ignoring Lani’s confusion. “I’m parked, and other women hang around the lot, trolling for his attention, young women, women babbling ‘Look at me, look at me.’ Aargh.” “This is another one of your things, isn’t it? Okay. You have been in this funk all day; I’ll play your game, even if it’s just to end it. How come they are women and you’re a car?” No answer. Lani faced her roommate. “So what kind of car are you, then?” “That’s not the point. I’m parked in his lot, off the street, out of circulation and waiting. Smokey orange Camero, slate gray upholstery.” “Leather?” “I guess.” Susan turned to face her roomy as she opened her slouch purse again. She poked around inside. “That could be good. I like this analogy. Maybe this parking attendant is protecting you. Maybe he’s security? That’s it,” Lani said, defending Ken, ”he’s guarding you. He’s done some really nice things for you…and for me. He got us this apartment; and he and his friend help move us in.” “Lani. I want to transfer my title, and soon; I want to get on with the rest of his life—our life. My younger brother and sister are married. Good gravy. I’m Aunty Suzoo to three little kids.” Lani pasted a blank expression on her face, waiting for the bottom line. “Wouldn’t this be a good Christmas for him to ask?” She turned back to the mirror, lifting her purse. “So, where is Ken, the Parking Attendant taking you tonight? Somewhere intimate?” Sue clutched the large bag to her chest. Her chin sagged to meet it and she released a small sigh in answer. “Another barbershop Christmas show? Ken really gets into that harmony stuff, huh? I have an idea,” she said, snapping her fingers. “Switch clothes with me quick—he’ll never be the wiser. You can stay home and relax and I’ll have an evening out. I like four part harmony and the men who sing it.” “Nice try, and sadly, you’re probably right. He wouldn’t notice. Well, not right off. The music’s just fine, and I love being with Ken no matter where he parks his keester. But, it becomes all about his friends or whatever he’s excited about—not us. I think he’s afraid to talk about us—like it’d be dangerous.” Lani sighed. “It wouldn’t work anyway,” she said. “You love the parking lot attendant.” “Yes, I do. Sometimes I wonder, though. I thought by now I’d have two or three squirts of my own like my parents had, and your parents.” “Four. My mom had four of us. It makes thirty years old seem really old,” Lani said. She pulled down on one lower eyelid and looked for blood vessels in the white of her eye. “Thirty’s the new twenty, haven’t you heard?” They were quiet for a moment. “This purse looks like Great Aunt Effie off on a days errands; always prepared. I’m going up to change to the smaller black purse. Hold down the mirror in case the Lone Ranger shows his face