May

Only two more hours until Baylee finished her Wednesday classes. Only two more hours until Hyde would open a hotel-room door to reveal his goddess.

The plan was set. The trade-show tickets were purchased and confirmed and Whitaker Electronics was safely in the hands of Hyde’s second-in-command. Incriminating chats were purged from his computer and he said his goodbyes to Kay before she left for dance. Only one hurdle remained between the doldrums of home and the exhilaration of the unknown: a porch-date with Will.

If the casual invitation was offered a month ago, Hyde would have jumped at the chance to support his friend. Will once listened to Hyde’s gripes (albeit reluctantly) and did the best he could to offer encouragement and advice. Although Hyde later regretted his candidness, it didn’t minimize Will’s sincerity. The least he could do was return the favor...

...but after seeing William on the porch that night with holes instead of eyes, Hyde began to question his persistence in maintaining the friendship.

He masked his simultaneous excitement for Baylee and fear of Will by keeping a cool façade with his slouching ass on the wicker chair and his heels on the plastic railing. “The new porch is slick,” he said, then bounced his feet on the hollow white molding. “Sturdy too.”

Will rolled his neck around the rim of his plain t-shirt until it made an audible pop. “It lost some character in the transformation, but I’ll get over it. The builders were good people. Siding starts tomorrow.”

“Mmm.” Hyde sipped his iceless lemonade and searched for any topic to further the small talk. They already killed thirty minutes discussing the bells and whistles of Will’s new laptop, but he needed more.

He careened his head to the left and saw a rainbow flag in the window of the new neighbor’s home. He loved the fresh diversity in Brandywine, but Will would hardly consider Clint and Travis “small talk.”

“I think my body needed this,” Will said and extended his bare arms into the light. “I’ve been locked in that house for too long.”

“I’m glad you’re up and about. New computers, porch-dates, construction... what snapped you out of it?”

Will straightened his back and squeezed his shoulder blades until his sternum popped. “Several things, but Janie was the spark. She prodded me until I could think clearly again. Then I thought of Sarah; she’s still my wife and she’s still my motivation. She changed me when we met. Now she began a new transformation.”

“If Sarah goes through with the divorce... will she try to take Janie?”

“I’m not fooling myself.” Will narrowed his eyes until Hyde could barely see the pupils. “The new-and-improved Will Carmel will do anything to win back his wife’s love, but if it fails, I’ll fight for my daughter. I’ll need to prove that I’m clean. I’ll need to show that I have a steady income and appropriate home in which to raise a child. The court will see that I’ve never abused her. And hopefully they’ll consider her say.”

“Well, we’re glad to have you back.”

“I need to be back. Dance competitions start next month.”

“Ah,” Hyde said. “Sparkle Motion in June. The girls are practicing hard.”

Will snapped his fingers. “Almost forgot.” He reached under the chair with a squid-like arm and retrieved a yellow envelope with an orange bow. “I was inputing dates into my laptop’s calendar and noticed that it was your wife’s birthday yesterday.”

Hyde accepted the card. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate the thought.”

“Two years since the party...”

“How things change,” Hyde said with the starry-eyed gaze of faux-reminiscence.

His phone buzzed. There was no reason to be coy, so he pulled it out.

Will said, “Tell the pretty young thing I said ‘hi.’”

Lemonade nearly shot out Hyde’s nose, then he realized Will was referring to Kayla. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll tell her.”

He looked at the digital display. “cant control this longing to be with u, with my whole body and mind i want to fuck u so hard and beautifully i can hardly stand it. never felt like this with anyone b4. just thought u should know. 1 more class sexy then ur mine ;)”

“I hate to ask...” Will began.

Hyde snapped his phone and buried it.

“...but you came to me for advice awhile back, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what you said.” 

Here it comes.

“How are things really going with Kayla?”

Hyde spent all morning preparing for this question. “Never been better,” he said. “Those feelings didn’t lead anywhere, so I figured it was silly to tell her about a ridiculous moment of doubt.”

“Honesty is vital to a marriage.”

“I agree. But we’ve been talking more and more every day and I’m starting to feel a strong connection building between us.”

“I read a magazine article and thought of you. Says there’s a new trend for young people to view their first marriage like training wheels for the real thing. Isn’t that sad?”

“It is.”

“I’m glad you’re taking your vows seriously.” Will raised his lemonade. “To becoming better people. To treating our ladies right.”

“Hear, hear,” Hyde said and raised his glass to clink Will’s.

A blue mini-van turned into the driveway and broke the moment’s absurdity. The back door slid open and Janie hopped out.

Will lifted his hand to the driver. “Much appreciated, Julie! Let me know when I can return the favor!”

The woman nodded and waved, then eased her van down the drive.

Janie tumbled up the steps and took a sip of her dad’s drink. “Needs ice. You fed this to our guest?”

“You know I’m a bad host,” he replied.

Janie rolled her eyes and dropped her bag by the front door, then hoisted herself to the new railing beside Hyde’s relaxing feet. “It was good seeing you the other night, Mr. Whitaker.” Her feet swung between the posts and created a rhythmic swish-swish-swish against her jeans.

Hyde forced his eyes to remain on hers so they wouldn’t accidentally jump to the scar. “I enjoyed seeing you too. Miss Kayla gets to hang with you every day and I feel like I’m missin’ out.”

Janie looked to her Dad and raised her brow. “Did you invite them?”

Will shrugged. “I was just about to, I swear.”

“Quit swearing and just do it!” She released a deliberate sigh and turned back to Hyde, then raised her legs and rested her feet on his knees. “I told Dad how you guys offered to bring us food the other night, and he suggested that we have you over for dinner.”

“When do you think we should do it?” Will asked.

“How about tonight?” she replied. “I just picked up the ingredients for spaghetti.”

Will said to Hyde, “Janie’s adamant about becoming a better cook than her mother.”

“Mom’s spaghetti tastes like butt,” Janie confirmed. “Whaddya say, Mr. Whitaker?”

“Thanks for the offer,” Hyde said, “but I’m out of town on business tonight.”

“Oh,” Janie said and slid her feet off his legs.

“Can’t get out of it?” Will asked.

“Sorry guys." Hyde almost offered up his wife’s name since she’d be alone all night, but Kayla wouldn’t set foot in that house anymore. “Maybe when I get back.”

Janie nodded and hopped off the rail. “I’ll be practicing in my room.”

When she was gone, Hyde dropped his legs, slapped his hands on the chair’s arms, and--

“Do you see that divot in the grass over there?”

Hyde curled his toes, then slouched back in his seat. He followed Will’s nod, peered between the railing posts, and saw the indent in the yard. “Where did it come from?”

“That hole’s been there for over a decade. Did I ever tell you about my dog, Challo?”

“I don’t--”

“Big lady. German Shepherd and Black Lab mix. Blind in her left eye since the day she was born. Beautiful, beautiful dog.”

“I take it she liked to dig holes?”

“Never dug a hole in her life. She knew I’d be upset. That pup was the definition of loyalty.” Will’s face had a rare gleam as he stared at the hole.

Hyde wished the story would move faster. “So how did it get there?”

Will laughed through his nose, then pushed himself from his chair and moseyed to the vertical support beam by the steps. He leaned against the beam, folded his arms, and stared at the hole. “Back before we knew Challo would never run away, we kept her in a heavy-duty chain-link pen right on that spot. Sarah loved Challo, but it was difficult to bring food and water in and out of the gate because Chall was huge and squirmed between her legs to get free. So I got my tools and I cut a hole near the bottom of the pen where the food bowls go. Too small for Challo to get through, but wide enough for the bowls. You follow?”

Hyde nodded.

“Well, I’m writing on the porch one day--got my typewriter out here and everything--and this mangy creature strolls out of the woods; probably wondered from the low-rents on Boulevard. Short hair--more like stubble than fur--and a bit smaller than Chall. That ugly dog lifted his nose; he knew instantly there was a bitch nearby. I’m sitting there distracted from my work by this fella, and I remember that my Challo’s in heat; saw the drops on the linoleum that morning. And let me tell you Hyde, that ugly dog bolted to that fence and circled it six times with drool hangin’ from its mouth and a cock like a Pringles can. As you can probably guess, the dog discovers the cutout. Challo and I aren’t worried because we know he’ll never fit, but that doesn’t stop him from tryin’. He gets his head through first, easy enough, but now the metal ends are diggin’ into his neck. I meant to fix those sharp edges, but Challo never tried to escape so I forgot about it. But this dog, he pushes harder and harder and doesn’t even consider the fact that if he pulls out now, he can return home and spray a teddy bear. But that smell... one waft is driving him crazy. So he sticks his paw in. Gets all the way up to his shoulder, but now he’s crooked and he can’t get the other front leg in. It’s my theory that the dog had to inhale to become small enough to get the first paw in, but when he exhaled, his fat fell around those jagged points. He squirmed and barked like you wouldn’t believe. That fence cut so deep into his stomach, but his legs kept flingin’ grass and dirt. Now he’s just trying to get free. He forgets why he’s stuck in the fence in the first place. He howls and kicks and Challo and I... we just look at each other. My dog doesn’t bat an eye. She sits in the middle of the pen and watches that dumb dog kill himself. And he did. Just dropped limp. Left a heck of a mess and I had to pull him out before Sarah got home. And what was it all for? What was so important that he was willing to spill his intestines on my front lawn?” Will rapped his fingers on the plastic rail. “Sex,” he said. “What a stupid dog.”