Chapter 7 "Talk, Talk"
(Song Recommendation- "Talk Talk" by Talk, Talk)
Egon
Ray, Peter, and I evaluated Louis Tully the weekend after the exponential battle with Gozer. Once again, Venkman used his multiple contacts to send Louis to a retreat so he would be out of the media. He requested that the therapist not pry much into his experience as we wanted to do the research and draw our conclusions. Louis was an intellectual man, albeit with an exasperating voice, and scored high on his IQ test. In passing, Venkman mentioned that he was deficient in people skills, much like myself in the mid-seventies. My response was that Louis possessed a little more confidence in himself in social situations than I did. Nonetheless, he did not maintain much self-awareness.
Regrettably, Louis's brain scan came back normal, which was a little disappointing after the original one displayed the dog head the night before the battle with Gozer. I wanted to do additional analysis if it appeared again.
"Do you remember what happened before Gozer transformed you into a terror
dog," Ray inquired as he filmed a nervous Louis Tully fidgeting on the sofa upstairs.
"Y-Y-yes. I threw a party for my clients, celebrating my success as an accountant. A snarling brown dog with red eyes bolted out of my closet and chased after me. I-I-I ran out of the apartment, horrified, and out of the apartment complex...Uhm..."
Louis deeply inhaled and noisily suspired as he took a break.
"Take your time, Louis," Ray reassured him, " Would you like a glass of water?"
"Y-Y-yes," he replied in his whiny voice, and I stood from the computer to retrieve one for our guest.
"I will turn off the camera for this break," Peter offered, and the little man looked relieved at the kindness my friend showed him.
"T-t-hank y-y-ou, Dr. Spengler," he replied when I handed the glass to him. I gave him a slight grin noticing that he was sweating profusely due to his nervousness. Louis drank from his glass of water and then indicated he was ready to continue after a few. Peter started to record again and then peered through the camera's window viewer.
"Whenever you are ready, Louis," he prompted.
"I ran in the streets yelling 'there is a bear in my apartment' as it followed me. I didn't know what it was, nor did I care to find out. H-he finally caught up to me at a fancy restaurant and bit me."
"Then what happened," Venkman pressed.
"I-I don't remember. I think I blacked out," the strange man admitted
"Take a moment and relax. Say whatever comes to your mind," our psychologist coaxed from behind the camera. There was silence until Louis eagerly stated sitting up in his seat,
" This weekend, I recalled a memory that I don't recognize- one where I was looking for the 'gatekeeper.' But although I racked my brain, I couldn't determine who."
"Do you remember coming here," I questioned after a moment, "I ran some tests on you with our secretary, Janine Melnitz, after the police officer brought you here."
Contemplating the question for a long moment, he shook his head and inquisitively asked, "Why did the police pick me up?"
"You caused a disturbance downtown," I answered.
"The only other memory I have...may...may be a dream or a hope," Louis revealed wistfully, running his hands through his greasy product filled hair.
"What was it?"
"I-I was sitting on a couch in a building without a wall or a roof. and...this..lady...my..neighbor, Dana, kissed me," he bashfully revealed, " I-I-I always have had a crush on her, but I know I am not her type."
Bemused, I peered at Venkman, who seemed surprised.
"But- it- wasn't- Dana...first, she would n-n-never kiss me, but she was acting oddly. A-A-aggressively," the accountant added, "Maybe she was under the influence of Gozer, too."
"Do you remember when this was exactly," Ray inquired.
"N-n-no," he shook his head, "sometime in the daytime, I think."
Louis sat and fidgeted with his hands for a while but remained silent. After the interview, I descended the stairs to kiss my girlfriend. I never wanted to take her for granted again, and I always wanted to cherish her. Caught by surprise, Janine happily returned the kiss.
"I love you so much," I whispered down in her ear afterward as I snuggled her petite body to me closely.
Janine pulled away from me and repeated the sentiment. She held my hand and led me to my office.
"Time to show you how much I love you," she flirted, batting her long black eyelashes.
Enraptured, I followed her and shut the door behind us. We didn't emerge until an hour later.
Winston
After the incident with Gozer, we became in the middle of a media frenzy. The various outlets wanted the facts about how the City was at the brink of destruction and how we outsmarted the paranormal antagonist. On Monday, we were invited to the City Hall to answer questions at two in the afternoon dressed in our Sunday best as requested by Dr. Peter Venkman.
"What exactly happened," a blonde reporter questioned point-blank.
"Iggy, that one is for you, I think," Peter Venkman fielded the question, "Dr. Egon Spengler will explain it, and then our own Dr. Ray Stantz will translate for you."
"A four-fold cross rip of two dimensions…" Spengler anxiously began until he saw Janine in the crowd on the side of the room smiling at him, then he straight away relaxed, took a deep breath, and continued his explanation. His voice was monotonous as usual.
With his recent reunion with Janine, I noted that they were happier and more in love than I thought possible. That made all of us pleased for them, albeit slightly disgusted by the number of public displays of affection between them.
"Jesus," I thought, watching the secretary adoringly grin at the erudite physicist as he gave a short answer that Ray immediately translated into a non-science jargon one. Next to her was Lucy Stantz, Ray's pretty sister, and Maura, my gorgeous fiancée. Come to think of it, Maura was giving me an admiring smile, too, and I liked it. Since the incident, she has referred to me as her 'hero'.
Glancing at Janine's hand, I noticed that Egon hadn't popped the question yet, but I heard from Peter that he still was searching for the idyllic ring. I was stunned how Spengler pulled an uber-romantic plan off for his love's birthday with as dense as he is with things out of science. Ironically, both Ray and Peter revealed, at different intervals, that he was less so.
"How is that even possible," I recalled, inquiring incredulously.
"The man used to eat and sleep science," Pete remarked, with a grin, "Egon has dramatically improved since I met him in the mid-seventies."
"Was that a one hundred foot Stay Puft marshmallow man on Columbus circle? How did that come about," a man with a large mustache questioned, still stunned by the experience. The inquiry brought me back to my current situation.
"We are all still shocked," I thought to myself, remembering that I needed to speak with Dr. Venkman about the nightmares I had been having about the bust.
"Dr. Stantz, I believe that one is for you," Peter charmingly teased with a twinkle in his brown eyes.
"Well, Gozer, the supernatural being that we defeated allowed us to…Uhm.. choose the form of the thing that would seek to destroy us…I was..everyone else cleared their heads, but I thought of the most gentle thing from my childhood, Mr. Stay Puft," Ray answered, chagrined.
Thunderous laughter roared through City Hall, and I observed my sexy fiancée simper a little. Her face lit up when she did, and I felt fascinated by her just as I had from the first day I met her.
"Of course, the irony was that he could have easily smashed us into little pieces," I wittily added, "it wasn't funny at the time, I assure you."
"How did you defeat him?"
"Dr. Spengler, our resident problem solver and heavy thinker, produced an extremely hazardous solution of crossing the streams," Peter laconic responded, pointing at our bespectacled physicist.
A reporter asked why it was treacherous, and Egon described the situation so that only eggheads could understand. The audience, including the Ghostbusters, appeared mystified by the answer, and I snuck a peek at our lovely Janine, who was the only one who didn't. Her expression was one of pure love and wonder, like he saved the City just for her. Poking Peter's arm with my finger, I indicated with a nod the sea of baffled faces in front of us except our secretary.
"Oh Juliet," he mumbled towards me away from the microphone and covered his mouth with his hand to stop his chuckling from erupting into laughter. For a second, I turned my back to the audience to regain my composure as well.
"Can you explain what that means in layman's terms?" A sassy lady with graying strawberry blonde hair inquired as the audience nervously chuckled.
Again, Ray helpfully assisted.
Peter didn't seem preoccupied during the press conference, but I know he was concerned with Dana's well-being. He didn't want her to be exposed to the media and hounded by millions of questions when she didn't have a good grasp of what occurred. Consequently, Peter took Dana to her mother's house in Jersey to remove her from the situation after we defeated the bad guy. He furthermore had convinced her that she needed to recuperate with her family. Peter visited her this weekend in Jersey for a few hours to gauge her recovery.
Accordingly, Venkman made several calls the day after the Gozer incident to pull some strings for Dana to attend a week-long retreat as a way for her to recuperate where she could receive some treatment in a peaceful setting. Dana made arrangements to take a leave of absence for two weeks from the New York City Symphony to recover and pick her life back up. On the quiet, Stantz informed me that he had never seen Venkman so focused on anything like ensuring her well being.
"It seems that Venkman seemed to have met his match with Miss Dana Barrett," the chubby Ghostbuster admitted earlier to me as he tied his black dress shoes' laces, " He is the most besotted I had ever seen him."
"Can we start from the beginning of the whole incident? The timeline and the major events," an African American female journalist asked.
"Sure," Peter replied, looking at us for confirmation, and Ray nodded in response, " I think we have pieced it all together."
"I think the events that led to the cross rip started with the increase in cases in mid-July. Although I scrutinized and compared the data in the rise in cases, I didn't know what that meant exactly. In September, our containment unit was becoming rapidly full," Iggy began a beat later.
Suggesting that he give the analogy of the twinkie, Egon reluctantly gave it to the audience, then Ray explained it again. There were snickers in the crowd when Stantz admitted our theoretical physicist had a weakness for sweets.
"Wednesday night, I left for a date with a woman from the building made by Ivo Shandor on Central Park West. By the time I had made it there, an ancient Sumerian God, Gozer, possessed her, and now she went by the name Zuul. Her personality was completely transformed, like a full 180 degrees. As Zuul waited for Gozer, she questioned me if I was the Keymaster. I did not know what that meant," Peter apprised, reluctantly.
"Who is the woman? What is her name?"
Peter's face turned pink, and he replied that he did not have the legal capacity to give that information, which was false, but I know he didn't want Dana disturbed as she convalesced. He suggested that the Barretts obtain legal counsel to protect their privacy. Also, Ghostbusters Inc. made an appointment with an attorney on Tuesday
"The woman approached us about three months ago when she had a strange incident in her apartment when an ancient-looking temple was in her fridge with snarling dogs, growling terrifyingly. Right after, she visited our headquarters about the occurrence," Ray interjected, saving the day and a flustered Peter Venkman from speaking.
"Meanwhile, Peter was on his date, the police dropped off a demented man at headquarters who caused some disturbances downtown. He called himself Vinz Clorth although his ID reported something completely different. When I ran some tests on this man with the help of our secretary, he notified us about the coming of Gozer. While Vinz described the Sumerian God, it was disconcerting because of the passion in his voice and words. Furthermore, he had been searching for the 'gatekeeper'," Egon communicated afterward matter of factly.
"Next, I called the Firehouse and spoke to Dr. Spengler about the woman's odd behavior. Then I realized that they were supposed to be together, but Spengs said that would be a horrible thing. I gave the woman a sedative, and she slept four feet above the bed," Peter elucidated, using his hands to indicate the height off the bed that Dana leviated.
"When I tested Vinz brain waves, the computer screen displayed a canine and not a man. He behaved like it, too. He was inattentive, repeating anything our secretary or I said. It was puzzling," Dr. Spengler related, displaying slight annoyance on his expression on his long face.
"We gave Vinz a minor sedative to sleep that night, and Dr. Spengler continued his tests in the morning. I went for a walk late morning into the early afternoon and found Mr. Walter Peck, the Environment Protection Agency representative, appeared to shut down the containment unit," Peter continued.
"Why was the EPA involved?"
"The EPA cited that we are breaking several environmental laws. Maybe less, Mr. Peck visited me a month ago to voice his concerns and poke around in our business. I denied his requests, and he returned with a warrant on Thursday," Dr. Venkman drily responded.
" Around one in the afternoon, Mr. Peck, with a Con Edison worker and an officer, entered the basement with a warrant. Right away, he irately demanded that I shut down the containment unit. I explained to him the dangers, and we argued back and forth for a while. Dr. Venkman arrived at the firehouse, and he too attempted to talk sense into Mr. Peck. We weren't successful," Egon replied while he used his middle finger to push his glasses up his nose.
"The Con Ed man pulled down the lever, and the containment unit's warning alarm sounded- beep, beep, beep as the pressure in the room began to rise, and the bricks in the wall started to come loose. We ran up the stairs and cleared the building as fast as we could. Outside, an enormous paranormal energy stream blew through the roof of the Firehouse's, and debris, ghosts, and other supernatural material soared through the air. It appeared like a mushroom cloud," Peter added, adding emphasis and sound effects when needed to make the story sound more dramatic. Of course, it was terrifying.
"Mr. Zeddemore and I arrived on the scene at that time. We were in Queens previously and saw the explosion in the sky. We joined the other Busters in the street, wondering what happened. At that time, Spengler realized that the key master was gone," Ray chimed in, "He had wandered off. Then Mr. Peck ordered our arrest, and we were helpless. We were cuffed and taken to City Hall."
"There, we were ushered into the Mayor's office to explain the situation, and he wanted to help in any way he could. We obtained our equipment from the Firehouse and drove to Central Park West. There, we ascended twenty-two flights of stairs to make it to the possessed lady's apartment," I stated matter of factly, " and we were exhausted."
"Yes, that part of the Apartment building was destroyed, as you can witness as you go by it. We climbed the stairs to see a shining bright white temple," Peter elucidated.
As our leader related Ray's attempt at communication with Gozer, there were some laughs in the audience. At the time, I was not joking when I told Ray, "if someone asks you if you are a God, you say yes," but it was humorous for us now. Ray and Egon assisted Venkman as he described the story of our battle and the fear that we felt facing such a powerful enemy without the reassurance that our plan would be successful.
"The Mayor's office will be celebrating your service to the City in a couple of weeks in a brief ceremony. How does it feel to be a hero," another journalist in the crowd inquired.
"Aww, shucks," I responded, feeling a blush come to my cheeks. My gaze went to Maura, who proudly grinned at me.
"We are sublimely pleased that we could provide a service for the Big Apple," Ray replied happily.
"Yes, we are proud to be of assistance and elated that we are still alive," Dr. Venkman added with a grin.
"Dr. Spengler, do you have anything to add," a journalist asked.
The intellectual man shook his head with a blush on his cheeks, looking at his shoes as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. Again, I noted Janine was beaming at the sidelines at him. Their eyes met for a moment, and they both grinned at each other.
"Oh brother," Ray good naturedly muttered when he saw them. A moment passed.
"Let us say this- if you ever see a ghost, spook, or specter you want to get rid of, who you gonna call," Peter questioned as he viewed us with widened eyes.
"Ghostbusters," Ray, Egon, and I noisily declared from the stage with Maura, Janine and Lucy chiming in from the side, and everyone in the press room clapped thunderously for a long time.
"Thank you, thank you," Ray said, embarrassed by the standing ovation we were receiving for over five minutes. Random non-media people were coming to congratulate us and thank us as we left the stage.
"You did such an awesome job," Maura admitted after kissing me hello when I could make it to her.
"Thanks, honey. I don't even think I did that much; I just did what was necessary," I honestly revealed, yet enjoying her praise.
"That was a great press conference," Lucy Stantz declared when we all met outside of the press room, " You all did wonderfully!"
"I agree, hear, hear!" Janine eagerly supplemented as Egon clutched her right hand.
The press conference lasted over two hours, and afterward, it was time to celebrate with our friends and family, including my Maura and the younger Stantz, Lucy.
"Everyone hungry, I hope," Lucy questioned, viewing us anxiously, " I made reservations at Autentico Cibo Italiana or "Authentic Italian Food," a popular place in the area. The others did a job for them over four months ago. As a result, the owners would give us a free meal every month. The food was delizioso! We walked together a couple of blocks to the restaurant and waited for a table.
"Are we out of business now?" Janine later asked in her nasal accent, breaking off a piece of bread to butter it up with her petite hands. She and Egon were sitting on the left of Maura and me.
"No, I don't think so," Peter airily replied, sitting next to me on the right, "Spengs? Stantz?"
Expectantly, all faces turned to view the solemn Dr. Spengler, who did not seem preoccupied at all as he sipped his diet soda.
"There should still be paranormal disturbances in the city, but just not at the scale of the last four months," Egon answered, reassuringly patting Janine's shoulder and giving us a small smile.
"Agreed," Ray remarked in his usual 'happy go lucky way, "I would guess we go back to a case or two a month, possibly more. The more pressing issues are assessing the damage to the containment unit and fixing the roof."
After chewing his toasty and buttery breadstick, the oldest Ghostbuster admitted, " I'm going to call my Uncle Floyd and see if he will come up from Cleveland for a short while. He can help Ray, and I design a better protection grid or repair the old one if we can."
"Good idea," Janine concurred with a smile, "I haven't met him yet!"
"Imagine an older, more austere Egon, " Venkman revealed, winking at Janine, "You will get a glimpse into your boyfriend as an older man."
Peter and Ray teased Janegon for a while longer about the possible names of their future kids like "Atom 'freaking' Spengler, G-Force Spengler, Brooklyn Spengler, Janegon Spengler, and even sillier ones.
"Wouldn't Janine be 'Brooklyn Spengler' when they marry," Maura interjected, and I squeezed her hand, knowing she was right?
"There she is! Welcome to the club, again, Maura," Peter declared, giving her a high five across me. We beamed joyfully at his comment.
Our waitress came to take our orders, so the ladies went first, then the men.
"Well, team, we are going to be in the spotlight for a while," Peter happily added, viewing Egon, Ray, and me, "So we are going to use it to our benefit. Brooklyn, you will probably receive additional calls from magazines and radio shows for our interviews."
"He will enjoy the spotlight," I thought.
Thoughtfully, Janine nodded as she chewed on her bread.
"Isn't that your area," Egon insisted, giving him a caustic glare until she whispered something into his right ear that made him and her grin like she had won the lottery. Janine kissed his cheek, and he was lovingly clutching her shoulder with his right hand.
"I withdraw that comment," he replied, and the two giggled at their private joke.
"Good God, is this what we have to deal with now," Peter dramatically moaned, "Come on, Janegon?"
"How is Dana," Maura inquired, and I smiled at her for changing the subject so speedily, then kissed her cheek.
"OK, shaken up. I spoke to her briefly last night, but I am going to call her later. She's staying with her parents for a while, and I am making arrangements for her to go to a recovery retreat for a week or two. Dana will need therapy, and I am too close to the situation to provide it."
"So, no dating yet," Ray earnestly inquired, picking up another piece of bread from the basket as we waited for our food.
"No, we would have a better chance after Dana has had some time to recover," he answered, smiling at him.
"I guess I was lucky that I didn't become possessed, too," Lucy quipped drily, " as Peter's love interest seems to receive paranormal attention."
"Why," Ray innocently asked as his sister lowered her different colored eyes downward, realizing her mistake.
Both Egon and Janine's eyes widened, respectively, and the latter gradually mumbled like a bit of a child, realizing that they tattled on themselves, "Uh oh."
Meanwhile, Peter reddened a dark shade of crimson.
This was news to me partly because I wasn't hired until late July, though. Maura and I exchanged curious glances.
"This isn't good," she whispered to me in a calm voice in a warning, and she was right. Ray was very protective of his kid sister.
"What!?" Ray angrily yelled. His voice became very deep when he was pissed off.
His little sister asked him to lower his voice and then grabbed his arm and declared while peering into her brother's perplexed eyes, "Pete and I dated casually this summer."
"What!?" Ray repeated in a slightly raised voice and at once stood up. Incredibly his glare transferred from Lucy to Peter and back while the rest of us were silent. She looked like a scared little girl.
"Raymond, it's not that big of a deal. We weren't serious about each other. It was just for fun," Lucy declared, but my partner in crime stormed off.
She also rose from her seat, but Janine halted her by saying, "You have to give him time, Luce."
"Why did I let that slip out?" she whined as she slunk down into her chair, putting her hands over her face anguished.
"Eventually, it would have come out," Peter calmly remarked, then sipped on his beer, "Ray will be more pissed at me than you anyway, Lucy."
Uncomfortably, we sat in silence until the food came.
"Did you know, Brooklyn?" Peter questioned Janine, noting that she was silent as the waitress served our food.
"Yes, Lucy told me," the redhead admitted, meeting Venkman's puzzled eyes.
"I guess I shouldn't have been surprised," our leader drily lamented, "all women talk."
"I didn't tell Janine right away. Sometime in July after," Lucy corrected her former boyfriend. Surprisingly, the energy between them was friendly, possibly even light-hearted, when the younger Stantz popped up at the Firehouse once or twice a month since I had been employed.
"I knew Egon knew because he caught us once," Peter replied, peering at Lucy for a second, and she nodded.
"You knew? You? Janine inquired in surprise, looking at the dark, wavy-haired physicist. Her pretty blue eyes were the size of saucers.
"Yes."
"Shame on you for not telling me," she playfully teased, squeezing his shoulder with her creamy white hand.
"At the time, we weren't speaking, my Angel. I found out right after I defended you from Victor," he thoughtfully answered, kissing her afterward.
"Honestly, I am surprised that Ray didn't know before today, with Janine knowing. You know that they are close," Peter softly scolded Lucy.
"Nah, Janine knew how to keep it under her belt," she answered as Janine and Egon began snogging. Silently, Peter wiped his mouth with his napkin and excused himself from the table.
"Ok, Janegon, we are eating here," I gently advised as the sounds of their making out seemed to become louder, but maybe it was because they sat right next to Maura and me.
"Was Venkman going to find Ray," I surprisingly wondered, "Peter, the peacemaker?"
"I think it's sweet," my traitorous fiancee remarked, grinning at them.
Egon and Janine finally broke apart from each other with a resounding smack from their lips as they did so. We all persisted in eating our meals until Maura happily declared,
" Winston and I are thinking about eloping because our families are driving us nuts with planning all of the details."
"Yeah, we just want to get married," I groaned, kissing her soft cheek then taking a bite of my chicken parmesan, and there are so many factors and considerations to plan around. I had no idea."
"No kidding, Wendy and Roger are fed up too. Their list of people they want to invite keeps on changing, the meal choices, the wedding location," Janine groaned loudly, " Oy vey!"
"When are you thinking about eloping," Lucy inquired, happy that the subject had changed, but she still appeared uneasy about her revealing her relationship with Peter to her brother. I knew that the siblings were tremendously close, partially because their parents had been in an untimely accident nearly eight years ago.
"Not sure. However, we were thinking about Niagara Falls as the location," I replied, taking my fiancee's hand and squeezing it, "Meeting a one hundred foot Marshmallow man and facing your death makes you think about what's important in life."
"Yes, it does," Egon solemnly added as Maura leaned over to press her beautiful mocha lips against mine.
"Come on, Chris isn't here, or I would be making 'lovey dovey' eyes with him too," Lucy groaned jokingly, then twirled her pasta with her fork and took a bite.
"Sorry, sorry," Maura apologized after giving me a lustful kiss that left no doubt in my mind as to what we would be doing later on.
"What about that other guy, Dana's neighbor," Ray's little sister inquired between a mouthful of her fettuccine alfredo.
"Louis Tully? Peter will provide therapy for him, and we will run some tests on him. Ray and I are going to tape his experiences with possession and offer him a week off in a recovery spa," Egon matter of factly replied, "Venkman is working on the details."
Ray
Red. It was everywhere I viewed when Lucy accidentally revealed that she and Peter "dated" this summer. I felt betrayed by him and even more enraged at my sister, so I stomped out of the restaurant to the sidewalk, where I lit a cigarette.
"Stupid Lucy, I told her not to bother with dating Peter," I muttered underneath my breath, then I took a hit from my cigarette and breathed in deeply. As I let the nicotine go through my body, I felt a little relief from the situation. The press conference was over two hours long, and I was craving a cigarette. My addiction caused me to shake the last hour involuntarily, and I felt my temper rising.
I felt annoyed by Peter's betrayal, although I remembered last summer he was down in the "dumps" to speak about his then-girlfriend, my kid sister, not seeing her anymore. Laughter began to bubble up in my throat as I recalled the fact.
"Lucy dumped him for once," I mumbled, feeling amused. I took another long drag on my cigarette and then exhaled, blowing the smoke into the Autumn New York air. Unexpectedly, Peter appeared when I turned around.
"Hi Ray," Peter greeted, his hands in his pockets as he stood next to me. Grunting a reply, he halted me from commenting anything else.
"Go ahead and hit me, Ray, if you want, I deserve it. Lucy has intrigued me since I met her. We kissed once in the Spring during one of the days with all of the Janegon drama. I can't remember exactly which one," he truthfully confessed, "I feel bad that I didn't tell you, but I care about your sister. I still do but only as a friend. The fact that Lucy found someone now she likes and dates after that ex-fiancee of hers screwed her over a couple of years ago is tremendous. "
Listening intently, I let the information sink in as Venkman joined me for another smoke.
"Pete is right," I admitted to myself, "Lucy's ex did a number on her."
"I know that doesn't give me the right to date her with your misgivings. As you remember, I was slightly heartbroken when she dumped me. I mean, it wasn't serious, but it did hurt," Peter said, exhaling the smoke from his lungs and into the evening air, "Your sister is not only a beauty, but she is a real treasure. I hope that Lucy finds the right man, truly, that will challenge, take care of her and love her unconditionally."
Those last two statements repeatedly rang in my ears. Peter spoke from his heart even though he betrayed me, and I felt a little sympathetic for him. Even though I didn't know it was Lucy that he dated this summer, it was blatantly evident he was displeased with her decision to dump him. Peter moped around for a couple of weeks.
"Nevertheless, I was not in love with her like I am with Dana," Peter admitted, peering into my face for the first time.
"Dana made an impression on you, Venkman. I am happy to see that," I slowly admitted.
"If she and I are going to date successfully, I have to grow up. Dana won't put up with any of my crap, and I feel lucky to have an opportunity to date her. She is remarkable," Peter honestly revealed, and he put his hand on my shoulder, "Really, Ray, I apologize."
Sighing, I tapped off the additional ash on the tip of my cigarette.
"He has a point. Lucy didn't get hurt, and she even found someone she likes," I contemplated as we stood in silence.
"If you want to kick my ass, you can do it when we get back to the Firehouse, but our food is cooling off. Remember how great the food is here," Peter offered, rubbing his stomach with his right hand. My friend grinned when I began to laugh a moment later, and so did he.
"It seems like she's OK, and I guess you are too. You have been able to be friends afterward," I remarked with a shrug. Peter offered his hand out to shake as a means of offering a truce, and I didn't hesitate to take it. Then in an un-Venkman-like move, he pulled me in for a quick manly hug.
Casually, Peter and I strolled into the restaurant and to our table. Amazed, the rest of the crew observed us sit down, talking and joking around as nothing had happened.
"I am hungry. This place has the best lasagna," I declared, looking at my steaming plate of delicious food in front of me. I put my napkin on my lap and then picked up my fork.
We didn't talk about it again. Ever. Nor did I kick Peter's ass. As for Lucy, I was happy for her finding someone to date so I let it go.