As Time Goes By -- Part 12

"What 'er you doin'?" a male voice greeted me on the telephone.

Because a couple of months had passed since I'd spoken to Jay, it took me a minute to recognize his voice. At first I thought it was an obscene phone call. His voice always had that tone to it.

"My life is boring," I replied. "Tell me what you've been up to. The word on the street is that you've got a woman."

Gabriel and David (previously referred to as Bobby) told me whatever they heard about him. Gossip wasn't always reliable. I never got the entire story secondhand.

"I'm living with Tessie now. We've been together a couple of weeks." Jay's voice had a cockiness to it. If he were having psychiatric symptoms, at least he wasn't depressed.

"Ms. Shelton, are you doing anything now? Do you want for me to come over?" Jay often did things on the spur of the moment. I often did the same.

I was excited at the opportunity of seeing Jay again. I'd only known him as a homeless, parentless, runaway. He'd had a "home" with his girlfriend for a couple of weeks. Actually, I found out later that he was staying with his girlfriend and her mother, at their two bedroom apartment.

We planned to meet within the hour, and ended our conversation.

Even though Jay and Gabriel had been earning money by helping me clean up my house, I tidied the living room and kitchen, and ran the vacuum cleaner to pick up all the dog hair. Summer was long gone by now, but "Elvis" was still shedding.

I washed my face, pulled my hair back in a pony tail, and put on lipstick. Looking out the front window I saw a small car driving away, and a tall blond fellow walking towards my front door.

"Elvis" began to bark and wag, and ran through the house to meet the visitor. Only when I opened the door did I deduce this blond fellow was Jay.

He had shaved his head when I had first met him. By now I had expected that his head would have some brown growth, to match the shade of his eyebrows. My guess on the amount of growth was right, but his hair and eyebrows were totally blond. He really looked like a different person. As a bipolar-schizophrenic, he could be a totally different person.



cont . . .