When David got home from his day with Nadia, Warren was sacked out in the family room. He woke up when he heard his father come in.
“Hey, pop, you made Dude magazine again. You’re number four on their ten most eligible bachelors’ list.”
David reached down and grabbed a pillow, tossing it at Warren's head.
“Let’s have a beer, Warren”, David said, ignoring the Dude comment.
He went into the kitchen and opened two bottles of Spaten Optimator and sat down at the table.
“What’s up, pop,” Warren asked as he followed David into the kitchen?
“Remember what you said about the mutual attraction,” David asked?
“Sure, pop.”
“Nadia and I discussed the attraction issue, it was uncomfortable but it’s out in the open between us now.”
David thought for a moment, “On the other hand; whenever I brought up our phone calls she panicked. The body language was unmistakable.”
“Why do you think she’s so sensitive about those calls?” Warren asked while opening two more beers.
“I don’t know why, son, but I think she’s going to run away. I think she was running away when she came here.”
“What should we do, your gut feelings are usually pretty reliable?”
Then Warren added, “I’m going to call her.”
“Thanks, Warren. If she sounds upset would you go talk to her?”
“I will, in fact, I think I’ll just go down there and ask her if she would like to have dinner or a drink." Warren said.
David threw Warren the car keys and told him not to have anything more to drink while he was driving.
Warren grinned and handed over his unfinished second beer then hurried down the stairs.
David heard the car leaving then sat and finished both beers.
He was pacing the floor when Warren finally called over an hour later.
“Is she O.K.,” David asked?
“I’m on my way to the airport, dad, she packed and checked out as soon as she got back to the hotel. She had them book a flight to New York. I’m hoping to catch her before her flight leaves.”
“Why didn’t you stop by for me,” David roared?
“No time papa, I was bribing half the people at the hotel. I cleaned out my ATM cash advance.”
“There’s a credit card under the floor mat behind the driver’s seat, Warren. The code is your mom’s birth year.”
“Got it, papa, I’d better hang up and pay attention to driving. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”
“Thanks, son," he said and severed the connection.
He called a detective agency he had used for business purposes and asked them to get someone right on the case both in San Francisco and New York. He gave them all the information he had and they were already working the case when he hung up.
He called a detective agency he had used for business purposes and asked them to get someone right on the case both in San Francisco and New York. He gave them all the information he had and they were already working the case when he hung up.
Sometimes it was nice to have lots and lots of money and a little pull he thought.
He thought about calling some of his old buddies in government but decided it would be over kill.
He thought about calling some of his old buddies in government but decided it would be over kill.
Just to be on the safe side he packed an overnight bag and made reservations to New York for the next morning.
He had a feeling and called the private investigators back and asked them to make inquiries into Anders Marcussen’s car accident and driving record.
After taking care of everything he could think of David continued pacing. He scowled; yesterday my life felt pointless and empty, today it’s charged with urgency. Ironic, he thought.
Warren said I was a man of faith; David sent a beseeching prayer to God for Nadia’s safety and asked for renewal for his own recent lack of trust.
He remembered praying when he was alone in the Alaskan wilderness. He prayed out loud when he was there because God was intimately near in His unsullied creation. Sitting at his evening fire David would listen to the wolves howl in the night and wondered what they sensed? He knew the scientific explanation but science dismissed everything that was immeasurable; what sparked composers to write music and why did wolves howl in the night?
David took his guitar down and began playing quietly to ease his soul.
Two hours later his phone chimed and Warren said, “I didn’t catch her,” he said, “She’s on flight 807 to JFK.”
“Thanks, son, good work.”
He faxed the investigators with the flight number and a recent picture of Nadia from the internet. He received a return fax with her hotel reservations and he smiled to himself. He tried the airport to see if he could get an earlier flight, but no luck.
He called his New York florist and had several large bouquets delivered to Nadia’s New York hotel room with the message: “Nadia, this is as agonizing as watching Sadie die. I know you’re in pain. Please call, David.”
He slept fitfully until Warren got home and they talked until they received a fax saying Nadia checked into her hotel room in New York and made no further flight reservations.
He couldn’t sleep anymore so he took a chance based on his gut feeling and sent more flowers with the message, “I know and understand, Nadia. It wasn’t your fault and we can work it out together. Warren says to come home. Love, David.”
Warren wandered in and David showed him the message.
Warren wandered in and David showed him the message.
“I think I get it, papa, they argued over the phone calls and she feels responsible for his accident and death. I was thinking about it while I was driving home,” Warren explained.
“I asked the investigators for a copy of Anders driving record. It may help,” David said.
David decided to text the same message to Nadia on her new cell phone. It was all he could do for the moment.
Warren called David into the kitchen and served him a mushroom omelet with toasted French bread lightly buttered and a bowl of fresh fruit with yogurt.
David smiled, he was an early riser and Sadie liked to sleep in so he fixed Warren’s breakfast and took him to school in the morning. It gave them daily time to keep their relationship on a firm footing and dialogue open.
Few people were aware that Warren wasn’t David’s biological son. He and Sadie told Warren when he was thirteen after his Bar Mitzvah. Warren sought out his biological father when he was fifteen but dropped the whole thing after a couple of months. He told his parents that he preferred his real father.
They ate their omelets and sat quietly waiting for the phone or fax to bring them more information.
David showered and dressed in jeans for the flight to New York. When he came out to the kitchen again, Warren handed him a fax.
He had highlighted several speeding and reckless driving tickets. There was one DUI, several fender benders and a pretty bad accident a little over a year before the fatal accident.
David sighed; the driving record was just the tip of the iceberg. Anders should have known better and Nadia clearly wasn’t responsible for his driving pattern, he was a tragedy waiting to happen.
He folded the report and put it into his jacket, it might come in handy.
“I put your bag in the car,” Mark said.
They waited.
The sky was just starting to get light when his phone rang.
It was Nadia. She was crying and he tried to sooth and calm her, “Easy little girl, everything is going to be all right but you can’t do it all alone.”
She read his note and asked him how he knew.
“My gut, your behavior, and a little thought,” he told her.
“How could I blame you, Nadia, it’s not your fault.”
“No, don’t go anywhere!”
“Look Nadia, you’ve already tried running. You ran from home, you ran from me. You can’t keep running.”
“Nadia, pay attention, you’re not thinking clearly right now, let me help. Stay where you are and I’ll get a flight to New York.”
“You take a shower and order something to eat. When I get there we’ll make a plan.”
Warren was waving at him and pointing at his watch.
David grabbed his jacket and ran down the stairs, still talking to Nadia.
They lost their connection when they got on the freeway and he leaned back and ran his hand through his thick, black hair. It was getting too long he thought, the way Sadie always liked it.
“Pop, I’m going to drop you off and get back to your house. I’ll stay there until you get to Nadia in New York.”
“Good idea, son, do we have enough gas?”
“I filled it up on the way home. Don’t worry about anything.”
“And, pop, bring her back with you. Her family didn’t help her with it or she wouldn’t have run.”
“Guilt’s a heavy burden, Warren.”
“Pop?”
‘Yes,” David said.
“Was mom guilty about being pregnant with me?”
“We worked through any problems she had with it. Besides you were starting to walk by the time I got home from,” he paused, “overseas.”
“You couldn’t come back could you, papa?”
He turned and smiled at Warren, “I came back the first second I could.”
“You’ve heard the story a million times Warren. I got home a day earlier than expected because I hitched a military flight to the east coast.”
“You were napping with your mom but you woke up when I opened the front door.”
David smiled gently, “You started yelling, papa, papa, papa, over and over again, then cannon balled into my arms.”
He touched Warren’s shoulder, “We were all cuddled up in an easy chair when your mom came in all sleepy eyed and yawning.”
I had to do some tall talking but we were married within the week and we started the adoption papers immediately.
“And, you’ve been papa ever since,” Warren said as he pulled onto the off ramp for the airport.
Warren had assumed the more formal title father, for a short while but time in Europe and habit conspired to return him to the simple, papa, even though he was almost thirty.
As he got out of the car David asked Warren to call and have a car and driver waiting for him in New York when he landed.
He didn’t relax until he was seated on the plane and it took off.
He would be at the hotel long before Nadia expected. She didn’t know he was already booked on a flight when they talked on the phone. He dozed off and slept fitfully for the whole flight.
The driver met him as he disembarked and since he only had a carry on they went to the car and started into the city immediately.
He called Warren to let him know he was on his way to the hotel.
“I tried her hotel room but she didn’t pick up, pop. No new news,” he added.
“I’ll call you when I know something, Warren.”
He called the investigators and they said she hadn’t checked out.
Next, David called a psychiatrist he knew in New York to get a referral in Berkeley. She was a doctor he and Sadie had seen to help them over a couple of hurdles when they both got bull-headed. He thought she was excellent and he left his number with a few details in case he needed her help here in New York.
When they arrived at the hotel he gave the driver a hundred dollar bill and said, “This is just a tip for you, stay within a block or two until I call you.”
The driver was more than happy to oblige.
David took a deep breath in the elevator. He was afraid. What would he find in her room?
He knocked twice but didn’t get an answer so he resurrected some old skills and managed to gain entrance to her room.
Her bags were still unpacked with the airport tags intact.
The bar was open and there were several empty bottles tossed in the sink. He went into the bedroom and she was sprawled on the bed in the same clothes she had worn to Berkeley.
He checked and she was breathing, her pulse was strong but she smelled like a distillery.
He shook his head; she was going to feel like hell when she woke up. He went to the living area and called Warren to let him know she was safe and he was in her room.
He described the scene and told Warren he’d wait until sleeping beauty woke up before he made any plans. They laughed, both remembering rare hangovers best forgotten.
He turned on the television and began watching a tennis match.
He heard a flush and she came into the room holding her head. She peered at him like she couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Hello, Sunshine, how’s your head?”
Hands on hips she said, “How did you get here so fast?”
“Have you eaten or do you always drink on an empty stomach?”
She came and sat on an ottoman in front of him.
He called room service and ordered food for both of them. He hadn’t eaten since the mushroom omelet Warren made.
She looked up at him, “I don’t know what to say, I’ve messed everything up.”
“Let’s talk after you’ve had some food and coffee. Why don’t you shower and put on a robe?”
She looked like she might argue then changed her mind.
He heard the shower and called back down and asked for aspirin with the food.
He was tipping the waiter when she came out in a hotel robe with her hair in a towel.
She was crying again. “I looked in the mirror and I’m a pathetic old lady.”
He chuckled and arranged the food on a table.
“Come and get it,” he said, and offered her a glass of water and aspirin.
She sat down and swallowed the aspirin while he poured coffee.
He ordered a platter of croissant sandwiches and a platter of fruit along with a pot of coffee for Nadia and tea for himself.
She drank the coffee and nibble at the sandwiches but ate quite a bit of fruit.
While she was finishing the coffee he called and made reservations for two on the next flight to San Francisco. They had tickets for the night flight so he called and released the driver and asked for one to return them to te airport that evening.
She didn’t object and David called Warren to pick them up. He raised his eyebrows but she shook her head and he told Warren he could talk to Nadia as soon as they got back.
“Well,” she lifted her shoulders, “I did get drunk but after I decided not to run again.”
“Are you sure, Nadia?”
“I didn’t follow my feelings this time, David, even though I was having a bad panic attack.”
He listened quietly.
“I thought about what you said and decided it was time to stop; time to trust someone again.”
“I’m not asking you why you’re having the panic attacks, Nadia. I’m asking if you know why you’re having the attacks.”
“I know they started soon after Anders was killed,” she said, “And they’ve been getting worse recently.”
She began crying again, helplessly.
“His mother filed a suit contesting Anders’ will. She claims I shouldn’t profit from his death because the accident was my fault. She’s been influencing the kids and now they’re beginning to question.”
He forced himself to remain seated and speak quietly, “So everything is building and your original feeling of guilt is getting heavier and harder to bear as she manipulates your support base?”
“But, she’s right, David, it was my fault.”
“You think he was driving poorly and had an accident because of those phone calls?”
“Why else would he drive so carelessly, he had everything to live for?”
“How’s your head he asked?”
“Better,” she said, apologetically.
“Could you get your glasses, Nydia?”
She rose quietly and went and to retrieve the glasses and he handed her the print out when she came back.
She looked down at it, “What’s this,” she asked, confused?
“A preliminary report on Anders’ driving record,” he answered.
“But what are all of these violations,” she asked? “They must have made a mistake.”
“It’s not a mistake,” David said. “Anders record shows that he had an increasingly poor driving record with a dozen reckless driving tickets, speeding tickets, a DUI and several small accidents leading up to a major accident a little over a year before his fatal accident.”
She frowned and bit her lower lip as she scanned the report again.
“Then…, what does it mean David that he was driving poorly long before we argued?”
She frowned, “His mother said I failed to pay the insurance premium and that’s why there was no insurance.”
“He probably lost his insurance because of his driving record and the accidents, Nydia. Do you have a good attorney,” he asked?
“I don’t have one, I thought she was right.”
“We’ll remedy that next week. Her suit will probably be dismissed.”
“Nadia, you won’t lose the suit, your kids will probably be repentant, and Anders is responsible for his own careless driving and fatal accident.”
“Well, then," she said weakly,“I didn’t kill him, and I’m not going to hell, and God hasn’t written me off forever.”
“David, it’s been so dark carrying all of that guilt around. I still feel awful about the argument and accident but I’m not the direct cause of his death – that’s a hundred pounds off my shoulders.
“And, when you trust and share it’s only fifty pounds each,” he said.
“David is the flat still for rent,” she asked?
He smiled, “You could go home on a wave of triumph.”
“But, I want to grow my own vegetables, take some acting and dancing classes and maybe paint. I used to do water colors during the summers but I couldn’t do it on tour so I never really progressed.”
“Sadie has one of your water colors, it’s very good. We had it mounted and framed.”
She grabbed his hand, “There is so much to do, let’s hurry back.”
He chuckled, not letting go of her hand, “Sometimes you just have to punt and create a turnover,” he said.
“I thought you were a tennis player,” she teased. “Does your club allow women? I have a wicked backhand.”
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