The Reunion (Continued)
THE REUNION - CHAPTER 5
Joe’s first week on the job went fine. He had years of experience in the construction field and, although he preferred working with his hands rather than making sure others were working properly, he was actually a good supervisor. He had the knack of being able to criticise people’s work without making them feel devalued – in fact, they generally tried harder to do a better job because they knew that Joe also praised their work when it was good.
By Wednesday, Joe was beginning to wonder whether he should call Vera. He was still not feeling too kindly towards her, but he also felt a sense of obligation. They had been together for a little over five years, after all, though it was sometimes hard for Joe to remember what had brought them together in the first place. It wasn’t hard to remember meeting Vera for the first time. Joe had been having coffee at The Canadian Inn with some friends from work. They went there regularly and so Joe was surprised to be served by a waitress he hadn’t seen before. Another waitress, Joe thought, as he reflected a little on the present. The next time he saw her, she was with some friends at The Crystal. Joe had asked her to dance and things seemed to have developed from there. The first real date they had had, Joe supposed, was when they had gone together to the North 40 to see Jeff Healey when he and his band had made a rare appearance in Brandon. Joe had found Vera easy to talk to, and they seemed to share many likes and dislikes. It rather seemed, Joe thought, that they had drifted into a relationship, and yet for some reason this had not been a problem in itself, because there was something there, something of real substance.
So why had he phoned Dolores, he wondered. A lot of different reasons rushed into his mind: he was fed up with the problems he and Vera had been having, most of which seemed to relate to her inability to trust people close to her (oddly enough, Vera would readily trust people with whom she only had a casual acquaintance) and he had sensed a warmth and quiet contentment in Dolores that he found reassuring. By phoning her, he told himself, and arranging to see her at the weekend, he wasn’t making a commitment to anything big, he was just exercising his right as a human being to seek out new friends and enjoy some conversation.
On Friday evening, Joe was sitting in his room, watching M*A*S*H on Channel 4. There was a knock at the door and, when he answered it he found himself face-to-face with a smiling Dolores. “Can you help me with this?” she said, smiling.
“Sure,” said Joe, as he took the 12-pack from her. “How are you?”
Joe had a good feeling about Dolores being there. He already felt relaxed happy. They sat down and began to chat about things that had happened at work during the week. Finally, Joe said, “When do you need to go and visit your aunt?”
“Oh, there’s plenty of time for that,” said Dolores. “What would you like to do this evening?”
The ease with which they seemed to get along was both stimulating and surprising to Joe. Was she that at ease with everybody? As if she had read his mind, Dolores said, “I hope you don’t mind my coming here, Joe. I haven’t been on anything like a date for ages. You see-” she continued, leaning forward on the bed, where she was sitting, “my husband died three years ago and I’ve been kind of keeping myself to myself ever since.”
“I don’t mind at all,” said Joe. “In fact, I’m rather flattered.”
Dolores smiled, the same friendly smile he’d been taken with the previous Sunday. “You don’t need to be flattered, Joe,” she said, “I wanted to come. I just had a really good feeling about you.”
“That’s nice,” said Joe. “I had the same feeling.”
THE REUNION – CHAPTER 6
Joe and Dolores spent Friday evening in Mac’s Sports Lounge in Dryden. ‘Sports lounges’ weren’t exactly Joe’s scene, or Dolores’ either, but in Dryden there wasn’t much choice. The local hotel bar certainly wasn’t a place to go for a cosy chat; it sometimes got a little rough and it really wasn’t terribly clean. Anyway, at least Mac’s was pretty nice and served decent bar food. Though Joe and Dolores weren’t planning on eating until later.
“Are you hungry?” Joe had asked.
“No, but, if you want, we could go to Pizza Hut,” Dolores said. “It’s not too busy at this time of evening.”
Joe looked at his watch. It was 9.30. “Let’s wait for a bit,” he said. “Is that ok?”
Dolores said that it was, and so they continued talking and, every once in a while, glanced at the television to catch news headlines. They were both interested in current affairs and found that they shared roughly the same political standpoint – on the left side of centre. Neither of them had much sympathy with the Conservatives and both tended to be more NDP-focused than Liberal.
“I had an uncle who ran for the NDP in Saskatchewan, when they were still the CCF,” said Dolores.
“Funnily enough, so did I!” said Joe. “Or was it in Manitoba? I can’t remember – I’ll have to ask my cousin the next time I see him. They probably knew each other.”
“So, tell me about Vera,” said Dolores, cheerfully, but rather suddenly, Joe thought.
“Well,” said Joe slowly, “as I was telling you earlier, we’ve had a relationship for several years, but it seems to be over.”
“Seems to be?” said Dolores, smiling.
Joe told her about the argument they had had before he left and how he felt about the general situation. He said more to Dolores than perhaps he should have said to someone he had known for such a short time, especially when he was talking about someone he’d been close to for a long time; this did occur to him, but he felt so comfortable with Dolores, it was hard not to confide in her. He began to realise just how much he was attracted to her.
Dolores didn’t say much; she just sat and listened, smiling in that engaging way that she had. Joe had the feeling that in no way was she judging him. He began to develop the idea that Dolores was someone who would state her own opinion, but who would understand personal struggles that other people might have. Finally, though, she said, quietly, “So how do you feel about me being here?”
Joe took a deep breath. “I feel great,” he said.
They enjoyed each other’s company for the rest of the evening. At around 11 o’clock they went to Pizza Hut and ordered a large Hawaiian, ate about half and then decided to go back to the hotel. Dolores had her bags with her and he hoped she didn’t plan on taking them anywhere else that night, but he’d already decided that whatever happened would happen. As it was, he didn’t have to wonder too long. As they entered Joe’s room, Dolores took his hand and gently but firmly pulled him towards the couch.
THE REUNION – CHAPTER 7
The next day, Joe felt on top of the world and he had a great day at work. The previous night with Dolores seemed to have given him a new lease of life. He had barely thought about Vera and, when he had, he had quickly begun thinking about Dolores.
Dolores had been spending the day at her aunt’s. After Joe showered, he was about to pick up the phone to call her when there was a knock at the door. Joe got up from the bed, where he had been sitting, and opened the door. Dolores was standing in the hallway. She didn’t look happy; she seemed to have been crying.
“Come in!” said Joe. “I was about to call you. What’s the matter? Did something happen to your aunt?”
Dolores came in without a word. She sat down on the bed and looked up at Joe, who was standing with a worried look on his face. He could see that there were tears in her eyes.
“Joe,” said Dolores, “we can’t see each other any more.”
“Why?” said Joe.
Dolores turned away. “I was talking to my cousin last night – my uncle’s daughter. My uncle who ran for the CCF.”
Somewhere in the depths of Joe’s heart, a black cloud began to form. He felt a cold shiver go down his spine.
Dolores took a deep breath. “You know, years ago, times were hard. People of our parents’ separation sometimes had to make tough choices.” Joe could see that it was an effort for her to speak. “What do you mean, Dolores?” he asked.
“Joe, you and I are about the same age – yes? I’m forty-five and you’re forty-six,” Dolores went on.
“What’s that got to do with us seeing one another?” Joe said.
“Joe, this is really hard for me, and I don’t know how you’re going to take what I’ve got to tell you. You see, I wasn’t raised by my natural parents. I was adopted, because my parents already had five kids, there wasn't’ much money and.…” - she seemed to be hesitating as to how to say the next of her story - “…my mom apparently had an affair with a neighbouring farmer and I was the result. My mom’s name was Lily, Joe, and it was her brother Michael who ran for the CCF.”
Joe slumped down beside Dolores. He put his head in his hands. ‘My mom had an affair?” he said. “And you’re my half-sister? Dolores, how do you know this is true?”
“My cousin and I are really close, Joe. We actually met when we were at a campsite in North Dakota. We used to write to one another a lot when we were in High School. Even though we didn’t live that far away, we didn’t find out we were related until recently. I had known my birth family name for some years, but had never really wanted to find out more. Then, when the Internet came along, I got into doing some research one day at the library and I found a website that led me to our family history. I soon found out that Connie and I were cousins, but I had no desire to make any connection with other people in the family. My adoptive family was my real family as far as I was concerned. My name was Dolores Grandhomme, not Dolores Ducharme.”
“I never really knew that part of my family,” said Joe. “My mother used to mention my uncle the odd time, but there was never any plan to visit them. I always had the idea they didn’t get along.”
“It may have been because my mother – our mother – was ashamed about what had happened.
“You’d never think that, in this day and age, it would be possible for something like this to happen,” said Joe. “It’s amazing what skeletons people have in their closets. It’s hard for me to accept that my mother never told me about this and I really can’t get my head round this at all. What I do know is that I feel cheated, Dolores. You’re the best thing that’s happened in my life for a long time and now we can’t continue. I’m so sorry.”
Dolores took Joe’s hand. I feel the same way, Joe,” she said. Joe could see that she was beginning to cry. He put his arm around her.
“If only we weren’t so closely related,” Joe said. “Second cousins, or something. Damn!”
THE REUNION – CHAPTER 8
By the time Dolores and Joe had said all that could be said, it was very late. The down-to-earth, practical side of Joe’s nature told him that he should get to bed. Even though it was the weekend, he still had to work for a few hours in the morning, and he knew he couldn’t expect much out of his crew if he wasn’t able to do his job properly through being over-tired.
What he felt about discovering that the lady he had just begun a relationship with was his step-sister was a mixture of emotions. He felt some anger, in the sense that he felt cheated, but, more than that, he felt an overwhelming sadness. Another part of him knew that he would carry on, but right now he just wanted to be somewhere else. Dolores had left at about 1 a.m., and he knew it would be hard to ever see her again. She had suddenly come into his life and had quickly become really special to him. He also wished for a moment that they’d known each other as brother and sister, and not as lovers. Would it ever be possible to have some sort of sibling relationship at this point in their lives? Joe also couldn’t help feeling confused about what had taken place in his family all those years ago.
Joe was just climbing into bed, even though he knew it would be hard to sleep, when the phone rang. He hoped it was Dolores, though he knew it couldn’t be..or could it? He picked up the receiver. ‘Hello,” he said.
“Hello, Joe,” said Vera. It took him a moment to realise it was her.
“Hello,” he said. He felt nauseous.
“You see, Vera,” said Joe, now that he had finished telling his story, “the funny thing was, seeing you at that moment made me realise that there was far more to our relationship than I had figured up till then. I can’t explain it, but it was like a cloud suddenly opened up. You’d think that I would have been still focused on Dolores, but I wasn’t.”
Vera looked away. “I don’t know what to say,” she said.
“Vera, I love you,” Joe said. “That was a long time ago. If it wasn’t as I’ve said, do you think I’d still be with you?”
“Would you care for anything else?” Dolores said. Her appearance at the table surprised both Joe and Vera.
“No, thank you,” said Vera, “but if you’re ever in the Brandon area, stop by and visit with us!”
“Thank you!” said Dolores, though she knew, as did Vera (and Joe, too, for that matter) that she never would. “And if you pass this way again, hopefully I’ll have some time to talk.”
Joe wondered if Dolores had overheard some of his story, or at least picked up on the fact that the situation was more awkward than she’d originally realised, because she hadn’t seemed anxious to talk. Oh well, he thought to himself. He just hoped that things could return to something close to normal. It seemed such a shame that anything could get in the way of this important trip he and Vera were taking.
They got back in the van. Joe turned the key in the ignition and the motor fired up. Vera leaned over towards Joe. “I love you too,” she said. What a relief! Joe thought. They were on their way.
part 3
the reunion
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