"These things are safe, right?" I asked Joanie while making sure my seatbelt was fastened nice and tight.
"You've never flown before, have you James?"
"No," I replied, "Before I met you I hadn't ever been outside of Detroit."
"Well, they're perfectly safe," she assured me, "They say that you're safer in a plane than in a car."
"If you get in an accident in a car you don't fall a few thousand feet though."
"It'll be just fine," she said taking my hand. Another woman might've laughed or gotten frustrated with me but it was just like Big Mac all over again. She held my hand and leaned in her seat to rest her head on my shoulder and talked softly about all kinds of stuff and before I knew it we were in the air and it didn't seem so bad. I still was a little jumpy but thankfully it wasn't an incredibly long flight. Still she never let go of my hand and she only stopped her string of soothing words when the flight attendant wandered by and she ordered a whiskey for me and a white wine for herself. She talked about all kinds of things on that flight. She told me about growing up and family vacations and how she felt when Judy was born. She told me about the first time she told her mother about me. She was still furious with me but her mother had told her that her own father had been the same way and to give me another chance. Even as scared as I was I thought I needed to thank Mrs. Cohen. Maybe I should even send her some flowers. Joanie kept talking about when she knew she was in love with me and I was surprised that it was that day that I apologized for being a jerk. That was the day after I met her. Though if I was being honest, I was probably in love with her the day I met her when we were in my car before I turned into a giant heel and I looked over at her with the wind in her hair and how relaxed she was with me.
She talked about someday how we'd have a house and children and even a dog just like I had dreamed of when I was a kid. I was sort of shocked that she remembered but then she was always surprising me. She talked about how we'd have a big yard and our kids could play fetch with the dog and I could grill burgers on weekends. The life she spoke of was really all I could ever dream of. She said we'd have a couple of kids or maybe three or four. I kind of looked at her strange at that. I had no idea how many kids she wanted and maybe should have asked before we got married but then it didn't seem that important right then. Joanie picked up on my surprise.
"We'll talk about how many at some point," she said, "We should probably be in some kind of agreement."
She talked about me coaching Little League and how we'd have to go to ballet and piano recitals. It all sounded beautiful and between the whiskey and her soft, pretty words I was so relaxed I didn't really notice any of the flight. Before I knew it we were on the ground and everyone was unfastening their seat belts and standing up to get off the plane. Joanie always knew what I needed. Sometimes she wasn't equipped to give it to me but she knew all the same.
We left the airport and got a cab to the hotel. Uncle Eli had made reservations and even booked the honeymoon suite for us. We settled in quick and went to discover the beach, not that we had to look far since the hotel was right on the beach. It really was beautiful there and before then I had only ever seen palm trees on TV and in books and stuff like that. Joanie had some robe thing on over her swim suit but once we got to the beach she took it off. I just about grabbed her and carried her back in. I hadn't ever seen her in a bikini before. Bikinis then weren't what they are now and I had seen her in her bra and panties which I guess isn't that different. But it wasn't just how sexy she looked in that bikini that made me want to take her back inside. It was also that she was outside in public in the equivalent of her bra and panties. It was obvious that most of the other men on the beach noticed her and her state of dress as well and I wasn't sure I liked that. I mean sure it's nice when you're the guy on the arm of the girl the other guys are looking at but then she was my wife now, not just some girl I was dating.
"What do you think, James?" she asked and I couldn't even answer her.
"You don't like it," she said sounding disappointed, "I know I'm not some model or anything but I thought you might like this."
She looked down and turned to head inside the hotel and I don't know if she planned on hiding in there or changing into a different swimsuit. I stopped her though.
"Joanie," I said, "I was just stunned is all. I'm being silly and you are about the sexiest thing I've ever seen wearing that. You should stay out here so I can make all these other guys jealous. Wave that left hand around while you're at it so they all know you're mine."
She giggled.
"I should be furious with you for how sexist that sounded but you're too sweet for me to get mad at," she said smiling at me, "How could I resist an invitation like that? I guess I ought to stay out here after all."
"I think so although I may not be able to resist that body and might need to drag you off to the room and to bed at some point."
"As long as you don't think you're going to be alone," she said, "Those girls over there are checking you out."
"Well, I have a ring to flaunt too," I said, "I am unavailable to any woman but you."
She laughed again and we found a nice spot on the beach to just sit and rest. After the wedding the day before and the flight that day we were tired and needed to just relax and be together without anything expected of either of us.
After a while Joanie started talking.
"So, Billy likes Sherry?"
"It seems so," I said, "I know he's normally no one I'd let within a hundred yards of a nice girl like her but she can take care of herself like few girls I know and I just have a hunch that he's not looking for his normal meaningless fling this time. I don't know if he knows it yet or not but I have a feeling."
"She likes him too."
"Did she say something to you?" I asked.
"She made some comment about his eyes and how blue they were and that she couldn't stop staring at them."
"Hmm."
We grew quiet again for a while before she asked for the story behind Carol and Buck's news. I told her all I knew but then said that I thought there might be more to it than what Buck had said.
"She's been really grouchy for a while about the hours he works," Joanie said, "I kept telling her that he was doing his best to take care of them but I understood too. I don't think I'd like it too much if I saw you as little as she sees him. And then when he's home he's so tired that, well, I don't know if I should say anything or not but to hear her talk it's some kind of miracle that she was able to get pregnant with as little as they, you know."
"You mean they don't-"
"Hardly ever from what Carol says," she cut me off, "He's so tired all the time and when they do it's hardly the picture of romance."
I had no idea my friend was having this hard of a time in his marriage but then I know that sometimes when you have to get married it's not the best foot to start on. They never really had a chance to be a married couple before they were parents.
"So what about this woman that Noah's been seeing?" I asked, "Where was she yesterday?"
"I guess she was out of town for some peace march or civil rights march or something," Joanie told me.
"Have you met her?"
Joanie nodded, "She seems nice enough and she's very committed to the cause, well, a lot of causes really."
"She have a name?"
"Rosemary Burke."
That name would come to mean so many things to me and hardly any of them good but at the time I was just happy that Noah had a lady friend.
"What's she like besides committed?" I asked.
"Well, she's white," she said, "I don't know why but that sort of surprised me."
"Yeah," I agreed, "As much as we all yell about everyone's all the same it probably shouldn't surprise us at all but it did me when you just said it."
We talked a bit more about nothing in particular and then I just had to ask.
"How long has your sister had a thing for Dan Shapiro?"
"Judy doesn't have a—wait, are you saying Judy and Dan?"
"I guess when he took her home from the rehearsal dinner he kissed her and she wanted him to."
"And you didn't kill him? What's wrong with you, James?" she was getting pretty worked up by then. "Who does he think he is kissing my baby sister? I mean the fact that she wanted him to is beside the point. She's just a child."
"Joanie, she's seventeen," I said, "And for your information I thought about killing him but your runt of a sister convinced me otherwise. She's not that much younger than you were when we got together and that turned out alright. Dan seems like a nice enough guy."
"But she's my baby sister, James."
"I know," I told her, "But she's not a baby anymore, sweetheart. She's damned near a grown woman and if she wants to kiss Dan Shapiro then I guess we just have to let her kiss Dan Shapiro."
"I know you're right and she could do much worse," Joanie said.
"She sure could," I agreed, "She could get herself caught up with some dropout, juvenile delinquent, street hood who's not even Jewish."
She giggled a little and then got serious. I learned early that when she did that I was in for a lecture of some sort.
"Have you ever seen what a diamond looks like when it first comes out of the ground?" she asked me.
I shook my head.
"It doesn't look anything like this," she said holding up her left hand, "It's dirty and covered with other rock and looks near to worthless to the untrained eye. But once you know what you're looking for you can spot them and once they get cleaned up a little and sort of refined then they are worth a fortune."
"I love being part of your metaphors Joanie but you aren't really saying I'm a diamond, are you?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying," she said and her looked dared me to laugh. I also learned early with her it was best not to take that dare. "You might not have looked like much to the untrained eye but to those who really took the time to know you or even to give you a second glance, you are precious. Ask Emma if you're not precious to her. And you know diamonds are the hardest things out there. They are so pretty that few know that but when they measure how hard something is, diamonds are at the top of the scale. Only a diamond can cut another diamond."
"I'm not that hard," I said.
"I know you're not," she said, "But another person can cut you deeper than knives or anything else. Something of your own kind. I know the metaphor sort of fell apart there but you are precious to me and I always knew you were."
"I still don't know why you need glasses when you have such good eyes to see all that."
She sort of chuckled at me.
"You know what I sort of miss about the old street hood version of you?"
"The leather jacket?" I asked, "I still have it. I can dig it out and wear it if you like it that much."
"It is sexy in a James Dean sort of way but that's not what I'm talking about," she told me, "I miss the hair."
"The greasy pompadour? Really? How can you miss that mess?"
"Not the greasy pompadour really," she explained, "Though that did look nice. I'm talking about when you would take a shower at night and come to bed with it all clean and soft and it was longer. I could run my fingers through it as I fell asleep."
"Maybe I'll just have to grow some of that back for you," I said, "I kind of miss having more there too."
The rest of the week was really laid back like that. We didn't go out a heck of a lot but we managed to find a couple of nice restaurants and made time for some moonlit walks on the beach. I always laugh at those stereotypical personals ads where someone lists long walks on the beach as a hobby or interest or whatever. It's not the walking on the beach that's great, it's the company. I love my friends but I really doubt that walking on the beach with Cody or even Kid is something I would get all excited about and walking by myself would just be depressing but walking with Joanie, well, I would wager to say that walking over hot coals would be tolerable and maybe even enjoyable if I had my beautiful bride at my side.
Everyone take a deep breath...I know a nice tame chapter there...well, for reasons I keep to myself I need this to not turn into some mature rated detailing of J&J's sex life so there wasn't a lot to tell of the honeymoon. They were in a romantic place with a nice romatic suite and beautiful beaches...what do you think they did all week? Yeah, that's what I thought too and you don't need the details.
So yeah, Rosemary is coming in soon and I know what she was in the show but I believe I have mentioned before that Altered Universe = MY Universe so I can do what I want. I have plans for that character and she will be a huge catalyst for things that need to happen. Important things. Things you may not like me for but they have to happen.
I also will be introducing another canon character in a different sort of context but again, characters are tools and I think this will fit a need I have very well. So much has to happen in just three or four years time in this piece that I need to start getting all my proverbial ducks in a line.
As always I am grateful and humbled that so many take this journey with me. I can see the traffic on the story and I know you are all out there. I love you all and you keep me going. We have a very long way to go and I would dare to say we are not even at the half way mark of our story. This site counts words strangely and also includes my author's notes in my word count but I will tell you that with this chapter I have cleared 161,000 words in this story. And this is why at times in my home it has become known as "The Monster that Ate Detroit." But it is a monster I have come to have a certain loving relationship with and through all of this at least I know how it ends and that is a comfort to me. I sometimes don't get that flash of vision until I am almost there but I know where I am going even if I have other flashes along the way. Stick with me kiddos and fasten your seatbelts because the ride is just getting going. Please keep all hands and feet inside the car until it reaches a complete stop.-J