as told by Mark
25 Deceember
Cade once asked me why I ran from Scarsdale to come here. It was too normal, too predictable in ways. Every Monday we had spagetti and every Thursday we had chicken. Everytime we had pizza it was always plain cheese pizza, from the same place. For I guy who tends to like to play it safe normal should have be fine, but it wasn't.
If my life was supposed to be normal, I would have never met Roger Davis.
The day he died...well, its hard to get past a moment like that.
(Seven years before)
Ella guides everyone out of the small hospital room, she knows what I need before I do.
It's almost hard to look at him now. The defiant rock star now struggling for the easiest of breaths. The man who prefered to be free now trapped in a hospital bed.
I just stay in my seat next to him.
He just smiles and shakes he a head a little.
After all these years all that seems right is to be quiet.
The few moment pass by occasionally interuppted by Roger's coughing and discomfort.
"Mark?" Roger finally decides its time to talk.
"...Thanks...without you I wouldn't...have gotten this far..."
I nod, he's told me this all the time, recently.
"Yeah," I whisper, "You're my best friend and you're fucking leaving me."
It's one of those things that are said in you're head, not really suppossed to be said but they do.
I can tell he hears me, "Like you said,...I'm your best...friend...Not really leaving you...tell me you know that?"
I really don't, he's dying, he's leaving, "Sure, I know that."
He looks like he is going to close his eyes, but decides against it, like he knows what will happen when he does; and he isn't ready for that quite yet.
After I talk to him he talks to Noah and Shon a bit, and then we all just kind of waited, hoping for one more day.
At 8:23 P.M. that day, he closed his eyes and I knew that when he woke up he wouldn't see us anymore; he'd wake up to Mimi.
"Mark? Mark."
I look at the door, "Yeah, sorry."
"Noah and Shon are here and the girls wanted to know we you two were going to get out here so we could start eating."
"We'll be out in a second, I just got lost in thought."
Jaime disappears into the living room. Roger's younger brother and my son-in-law, technically.
It was Roger's idea to have them 'run into each other' after their orignal breakup and they had been dating again for a year and a half before Roger had gotten worse. About a week before he died they convinced the doctor to let them roll Roger to the small chapel at the end of the hallway, and with all of us crammed into that little room, Cade and Jamie got married, so that Roger could be there, he was the best man after all. They never re-did it either, no "real" one, with a dress and lots of people.
"Daddy? Presents now?" I hear the small thinks he's innoncent voice coming from the toddler bed.
Okay, so Roger Micheal Cohen, or as Noah calls him, Squirt, came as a surprise. We thought Ella had finally gone into menopause, and three years later we have a toddler.
"You weren't really sleeping, were you?"
He just grins at me as I pick him up, oh god, I'm getting too old for this.
As we walk into the living room, Ella smiles, "Hey! Okay, everyone, time for the food, get in line, so we can get to the you-know-whats. Mark, could you get Rog's plate, I'm gonna help Cade with the twins' plates."
The three year old turns and grins at me, "Yeah, Daddy. My plate."
It takes nearly an hour and a half to make sure all fifteen, sixteen if you count Cade's five month bump, have been fed.
After dinner, I grab my camera and start to film everyone starting to settle down.
Benny, the now eternal bachelor of the loft, has been some how attacked into letting Cabot and Owen (Cade and Jaime's four and a half year old twins) sit on his lap. No matter how much he denies it, we all know Benny loves all the kids like they were his own. Joanne is sitting next to Ella, still at the table, while Maureen is trying to entertain Rog's small attention span. Aurora and Roman are fighting over something.
"What's the fight this week?" I ask as I zoom in on two glares.
"Sorry, I asked."
Kenna is trying to organize all the gifts for everyone. She's my little girl, I claim her I don't care what science says. Benny teases that I cried more than Ella when she went off to college.
Noah looks at me and calls to everyone, grinning, "How about the Christmas story first. Unle Mark's turn."
It's always my turn.
"Alright, Alright...A long, long, long time ago in Bethlehem..."
"Mark!"
"Grandpa"
"Smarta..."
"Noah!"
Okay, not your normal life, not your normal Christmas story...
"Just seeing if were paying attention...okay, it wasn't so long ago, and it was here in the loft and Roger and I..."
"Uncle Roger, not me." My three year old proudly announces.
"...as I was saying it was just Roger and I living here. It was Christams Eve and Collins had called, he was back in town..."
Epilogue B Review Responses:
BwayDiva: Yeah, that was the goal...Thanks as always
Lils: You're a fictional characters groupie? In the words of Miss Sally Brown "I Like It!" That bit was spare of the moment, really. I know...
LM Ward: Thanks, its good to read that.
Born2Bbad: Well, he couldn't live forever...although I tried... I think my intention on Shon and Ella is to be vague but greatly alluded to because it mostly predictable things like Ella stops struggling with her questions and her and Mark Live happily ever after...as for shon, he's just like his father. Thanks for both chapters.
Author's Note.
I can't believe it's over.
I'm here at my show...during intermission of opening night posting this for you...wow, I really don't know what to say...maybe I'll come back later and add something...
I do have one favor to ask: now that this is finished if everyone whose been reading this could review...it would just add to the fabulous night I'm having...wheter you liked it hated it whatever wheter you've reviewed before or not...
Thanks. And thank you all for reading this...of all the things you could have done instead. Thanks
and
This is me...signing out.