I made Alex a bed on the sofa then knelt beside him when he laid down.
“Will you be all right, Jack Daniels?” I asked him, tucking the blanket around him.
“I hope so,” he answered.
“Does your nightmare plague you every night?”
“More often then not.”
“Have you been having it since her death?” He nodded yes to my question and turned away. “What was her name, Alex?”
“Riley, but I called her starlight,” he answered.
“Well, I’m sure you’re starlight is watching over you now. Sleep, Alex, and I pray it is a peaceful sleep,” I whispered, standing and going to my room.
I lay awake that night waiting for him to call out to me, to the woman he dreamt of. In his sleep we were the same person and when I heard him cry out I didn’t hesitate to go to him.
This time when I knelt by his side he wasn’t thrashing or reaching out for the woman in his dreams. This time he lay crying, the tears running down his cheeks.
“Oh, Alex,” I whispered, touching his face. “So much pain.”
I nudged him over slightly and lay with him on the sofa. His arms went instantly around me and I brushed the tears from his face.
I lay in his arms and thought about the woman he had lost. Riley, he had said her name was. What was it about her he had loved so much that life had lost it’s magic without her? Where were the friends he had shut out? Why weren’t they fighting for him?
As I lay there in his arms in the dark I heard a distance ringing. I looked around trying to determine where it was coming from. It sounded like a telephone but it couldn’t be mine, the sound was too soft. Then I realized it was coming from Alex. I nudged him a little and discovered it was his cell phone ringing.
Not knowing what else to do, I answered it.
“Hello?” I whispered, unsure of what to do now that I had.
“Who is this?” a man demanded.
“Who is this?” I shot back. I tried to ease out of Alex’s arms so I didn’t wake him but he tightened his grip in his sleep and refused to release me.
“I think I dialed the wrong number,” the man answered.
“Wait,” I called out before he hung up. “Who are you looking for?”
“A friend of mine. Who is this?” he demanded again.
“My name’s Greer. Your friend, is his name Alex?” I asked.
“You mean A.J.? Yeah, that’s him. Is he there? Can I talk to him?” he asked.
“He’s sleeping right now and he hasn’t gotten much sleep lately so I don’t think it’s best to wake him. Who are you?” I asked the stranger on the other end of phone.
“My name’s Nick. Greer, right?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Is he all right, Greer?”
I looked up at the man that held me and watched him sleep for a moment. These were the only moments he found peace and even his peace wasn’t real. His dreams deceived him, convinced him he had the one thing he missed most. Then reality tore back into his life and destroyed even that false sense of peace.
“No, he’s in a lot of pain. He needs you, he needs all the people who love him. Why are you letting him push you away?”
“It’s hard to argue with a man you can’t find. He hasn’t been home or carrying his phone. No one has seen or heard from him,” Nick explained.
“He’s been with me. He’s been getting smashed at my bar then passing out. He didn’t have any ID to send him home so he was sleeping in the storeroom. Now he’s staying at my place. He doesn’t want to go home, Nick.”
“Jesus, A.J.,” he mumbled into the phone sounding defeated.
“Nick, did you know a Riley?” I asked, taking my chances.
“She was my wife,” he answered and I had to pull the phone away so he didn’t hear my gasp of surprise. “Greer?” he called out.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why did you ask about her?”
“He carries a picture of her in his wallet. He misses her, Nick,” I answered.
“I know. He hasn’t been the same since she died. None of us have really but he’s taking it the hardest. I thought maybe after a while he would be all right. Guess I was wrong.”
“Did you know he was in love with her?”
“I had a feeling,” he answered. “They had something special. She loved him very much. They completed each other in a sense. She completed all of us really.”
“It’s his love for her that’s tearing him apart, Nick. He needs you,” I pointed out once again.
“Who are you? How is it you know so much about him? I’ve known him most of my life and I can’t get him to open up to me the way he has with you.”
“I’m just a waitress in a run down bar with a soft heart. Maybe because I represent an outside party. I’ve never known him before his pain. I don’t expect him to be the person he was.”
“And you don’t push me to forget her,” Alex added.
I looked up at him and saw his brown eyes staring down at me.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” I told him, forgetting about the phone I held in my hand. “I tried to get up but you wouldn’t let go of me.”
He nodded then looked at the phone. “Who is it?”
“Nick,” I answered.
“Just tell him I’m okay. I don’t want to talk to him right now. Tell him I’ll call later,” Alex said, watching me.
“Promise?” I asked him.
“Promise.”
“Nick,” I said, raising the phone back to my ear.
“I heard him. Thank you, Greer. For whatever it is you are doing, thank you.”
And with that we ended the call. I turned off Alex’s phone and placed in on the floor next to us.
Links to other sites on the Web
Chapter 7
Back to Fan Fiction Index
Get your own Free Home Page