Deja Vu–A Novella–Chapter Six

"It's getting to the point where I'm no fun anymore. I am sorry.

Sometimes it hurts so badly, I must cry out loud. I am lonely.

I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are,..."

Crosby, Stills & Nash

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

The elephant had arrived.

Voytek took off his pirate hat and went to reconcile with Gib. As he walked through the living room, he threw this hat, tall wispy feather adorned and all, on the rocking chair and tossed his keys on the piano. This reckless action caused Sharon to noticeably flinch.

He knocked on Abigail’s door before entering. That demonstrated that he knew he was more than in dutch with Lady F.

Sharon, visibly irritated, turned to Jay and said,

“That’s a ten thousand dollar piano that he just threw those keys on. Couldn’t he have just as easily thrown the keys on the chair and that ridiculous hat on the piano?”

It was almost asked to Jay directly without being a blanket statement. The fact that it cost ten thousand dollars somewhat left me out of the empathetic trials of people with money. I wasn’t offended because neither of them had the brand new Chevelle that I did.

There was muffled, curt discussion emanating from behind closed doors of the boudoir.

Jay shrugged and walked behind the bar to pour himself another glass of Chardonnay.

“I think Dan was right about going to dinner without him, Shar. He seems pretty well out of it today.”

“He’s stoned”, I interjected. “The one I feel bad for is Abigail. She deserves better”.

“You feel like a glass of wine yet, Dan?”, Jay asked.

The funny thing is that I found myself beginning to like Jay rather than have the apathetic attitude that distinguished our relationship in days past.

This was somewhat alarming to me due to the fact that, regardless of how well we ever got along, I knew that the Sharon factor would be our remaining link in any course our friendship took. In other words, we would always just be friends through Sharon due to his station in life and the aspirations that he maintained.

“Yeah, I actually do think I could use a glass of wine about now, Jay. Thanks, man.”

He poured me a rather large glass, came over and handed it me.

Sharon continued to look straight ahead at the fireplace. I could tell she was fuming with Voytek. As Jay and I sat silently drinking our wine, Sharon, I could tell, was about to go apoplectic.

“This is what I’m talking about, Danny. This is what I’m fucking talkin’ about. Roman wants him to stay in this house until he gets home. I suppose the fact that they are both from Poland makes everything Ok in that regard”.

Her voice began to quiver with anger.

“Roman’s not here. Roman’s in London probably fucking some stewardess while his little shit compatriot spends his time fucking with his girlfriend. I’m sick of it”.

There was a long silence. It was as if Jay and I both instinctively knew better than to stick any two cents into the conversation in an attempt to assuage her fury. We both knew it was best to let this one ride. She needed it.

“I got a phone call the other day from Gene Gutowski’s wife. She said that she heard a rumor of things going on at the Eaton Place Mews. The fucking place where we lived, dammit.”

She paused.

“This is how life is supposed to be ain’t it, guys? I knew it but didn’t want to believe it.”

The Voytek issue was simply a symptom of bigger things. The Roman issue was at the core of her hurt. Voytek’s presence in the house,..her house,.. just aggravated the situation. There was nothing to do but listen.

The silence continued to be punctuated by the muffled conversation behind the bedroom door.

Beasley trotted into the room and looked around. Sharon continued to stare at the fireplace.

Beas, sensing something was amiss, hopped up onto the couch and put her head on Sharon’s lap. Sharon, probably not even realizing it, began to stroke Beas’s hair.

“Good girl, Beas.” I thought. “You know how to peg it, girl.”

“If I knew that this cheating of his was going to hurt so bad, I never woulda married him.”

She paused.

“Why is it that I think that I can con myself into pretending that it wouldn’t hurt? What kind of weirdo is able to do that?”, She said, finally turning to look at us, with tears in her eyes.

“You’re not the weirdo, Sharon….I love Roman.” Jay said. “He certainly has his failings, just like everyone else on the face of the planet. This is simply the way it is. I’m not the one to judge him though. This is something that,…I dunno,…”

He took a deep breath and his voice trailed off.

I could tell Jay was trying not to overstep his bounds by putting critical commentary of Roman in front of Sharon at this decidedly sensitive moment. He was choosing his words carefully.

Extra carefully, considering I was in the room. I decided to help him out.

“What you neeeeeed, Sharon,” I said, “….what you really need right now, since you don’t drink,…is some sobering reality. You need to take stock of the situation at hand, look around, and think to yourself about everything that you, dear Sharon, have been blessed with.”

I leaned over the back of the couch so I could see her face when I delivered the final line.

She turned and looked at me with her face about four inches from mine.

“You’re an asshole, Dan. Fuck off.”, was her only response….said through a smile.

The moment had passed.

Jay burst out laughing while she slapped me across the face, the same way she did when we met earlier in the day.

“Yeah, I am just so blessed with this philandering Pollack, man. Go fuck yourself, Dan.”

Beasley rolled to her back so she could continue to pleasure Sharon by allowing her to scratch her belly.

I walked around the couch and went and sat in the cream colored chair by the fireplace so we could be face to face. Jay sat down next to Sharon and reached over and took her hand. This action caused Sharon to stop scratching Beas’s belly.

Beas, sensing that the scratch was interrupted, simply looked up at Sharon with a look that said,

“What the hell, Sharon? I’m tryin’ to make you feel better here and you stop scratchin’?”

The door to the bedroom opened and Abigail came into the living room….dressed in a new outfit. She had on white capris, new sandals and a polyester floral print top,…with a new headband.

Voytek came out after her and walked silently to the kitchen.

Abigail went and sat down on the other side of Sharon. We looked at her silently because she looked like she wanted to say something.

She paused before she spoke, as if to make sure all eyes, and ears, would be on her.

“Voytek,” she said, “feels really bad about his tardiness….I made sure of that before I came out here.”

This caused me and Jay to chuckle at Voytek’s expense. That is a statement that two guys could truly appreciate.

“No shit, Gib. You do have that talent, don’t you?” Jay said.

Voytek came in and sat down in the chair opposite me.

“I’m sorry. To each of you, I offer my apologies”, he said in his broken English.

You could tell he was just defeated in the war of words, behind closed doors, with Abigail, and this confession was against his will.

He lit a cigarette and threw the lighter on the just polished and as yet unmolested-by-Voytek coffee table….with a little more force than Sharon was comfortable with.

Sharon looked at Jay and subtlety shook her head in disgust.

I decided to ignore his statement because something began to really bother me when I saw that Abigail changed clothes again.

I looked at Abigail and said,

“Hey, Gib?,..lemme ask you somethin’. I notice that you changed clothes for the second time today.”

“Yeah,..so?”, she replied. “I change more than this sometimes. Sometimes I change clothes three or four times a day. So what?”

“It’s not that. It’s not that at all.” I said. “You could change clothes a hundred times a day and I wouldn’t think anything of it. It’s just that,..I dunno,..there are absolutely no drapes in that bedroom of yours. That’s the vexing part. You go into that room and change,..with no drapes.”

The statement sat there for a minute as she fixed me with a gaze of hatred for trodding upon something so sacred.

“Lady F’s not ashamed of HER body!” Voytek forcefully chimed in.

“Well, I’m sure she’s not. She’s got a great body.” I said.

“A truly remarkable body. It’s just that people come and go to the guesthouse quite a bit and I was wondering,…I was wondering what you did about privacy when there are no drapes in that bedroom, that’s all.”

“I should really get some drapes in there for you guys,..but heck, you guys are going back to Woodstock next week.” Sharon interjected.

She then looked at Voytek and repeated the statement.

“You are going back to Woodstock, my friend.”

“Be that as it may, Shar,” I said, turning my query back to Abigail,

“What do you do at night when you change and you can’t see out the windows to know if anyone is looking at you?”

“I change in the bathroom that is in there, Dan” she responded.

“Do you have any more questions that I can answer?... any other questions that may concern you about when I’m naked?”

I thought about it for a minute. I then asked,

“Do you guys like to do it with the lights on?,…you may have to rethink that while you reside in that room. You got that kid in the back house.”

“Well, they’re not going to be residing there too much longer.” Sharon interjected…again.

“Wednesday at the very latest. No later than Wednesday.” Sharon said,….while making sure she had Voytek’s attention by addressing him directly.

“Who is that kid, Sharon?” Jay said. “I see him every time I come over, but he doesn’t say nothin’ to no one.”

“That’s Bill. He’s been back there for a few months.” She responded.

“He takes care of the place and keeps an eye on the tenants for Rudi….like we really need a teenage kid keepin’ an eye on a pregnant woman and her stray cats.” She said.

“It’s probably more he’s keeping an eye on things when you’re not here, Sharon.” Jay said, as a verbal acknowledgement of days past, directed at Voytek.

“He’s really very sweet. Did you ever try talkin’ to him, Jay?” Sharon asked.

Jay confessed that he hadn’t.

“I’ve talked to him a few times when I was floating in the pool.” Sharon said.

“He seems very soft spoken, but I get the idea that he just wants to get the hell out of here and go back home.”

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

“Because he told me he wants to get the hell out of here and go back home.” she said. “He said that Rudi was going to buy him a plane ticket when he gets back from Europe. He comes from Ohio.”

Voytek kicked off his penny-loafers to reveal some very rough looking bare-feet. This action was followed closely by an objectionable stench.

Sharon, realizing that the smell was no good for babies and other living things, raised herself forward and spread her legs to gain ballast. Jay and Abigail helped her to her feet.

“I’m gonna go get ready for dinner,…that is, if we’re still going.” She said.

Jay answered in the affirmative and then asked who was going to drive because his Porsche has only seats two.

I said I would because the interior of my car was a bit roomier than the sports cars they all had.

Beasley plopped down on the floor now that her duties of pleasuring Sharon were complete. She scampered off to the bedrooms in pursuit of Sharon and Abigail. Voytek slipped his shoes back on and went outside.

I looked at Jay and he seemed to be relieved that the night was back on track. Both of us, considering what we were just witness to, realized the waiting for Voytek was a huge mistake due to Sharon’s feelings about him.

He looked at me and said,

“I had no idea it was this bad with him. I know the guy gets fucked up, but I didn’t realize that he was that out of control. Crazy, man.”

“Yeah,” was the only response that I could seem to muster.

There was a sad undercurrent with Abigail.

You got the sense that she had about had it with Voytek. One could hardly blame her. If nothing else, the supposed Polish charm wasn’t as endearing to Gib and Sharon as it once was once. At this point, it detracted from any remaining appeal that either one of them might still have for him.

Roman still had the world by the ass. He probably always would,… yet Voytek was careening towards a brick wall with no brakes.

The import of this was not lost on Abigail. She was far too smart and tough to let a man of Voytek’s calibre drag her down with him.

Voytek, for his part, could not do much better in the woman-finding realm if he fell ass backwards into a pile of gold.

I had heard all sorts of stories about his cheating when Abigail wasn’t around. I could never figure that out because the guy has about as much class as a Monterey Pop porta-potty.

I was relieved that the course of the day’s events - after Voytek’s arrival, of course – didn’t digress into some big shouting match. It sure seemed like it could have gone that way very easily.

I grabbed my keys and walked out the front door so as to pull in the Chevelle. I wanted to get some of the fodder out of the backseat before I had company in it.

As I headed down the walk, I noticed that another car was parked in the drive that I hadn’t seen before. I looked around to determine if there was a fresh face on the estate and I could see no one. I wondered if Bill had a guest or something of that nature,…in spite of the fact that he seems like he is a person who spends most of his time in solitude.

I trudged out to the driveway and down to the electric gate to move the car inside. The heat seemed to have abated some but it was still pretty brutal out. I really sympathized with Sharon and her pregnancy plight in this heat. She had to be miserable.

I hit the button and the chain-link fence automatically rolled into the open position.

The car was roasting when I got in it.

I pulled the car up and hit the outside button to allow the gate to give me access to the grounds again. I pulled the car around to the end of the walk so as to make it easier for Sharon to get into the passenger side door.

I left it in park and running while I sauntered around back to go in through the service entrance of the house. There was a bathroom in there and that was, by choice, my favourite one in the house due to the fact that it was not situated right inside the front door.

As I went in through the service entrance, I ran smack dab into Jay and Voytek and some strange man that I had never met before. It was awkward because they seemed like they didn’t want to take the trouble to introduce this person to me. I can only assume it was this Joel figure that was somehow in the employ of Jay.

We kinda stood there, in the laundry room, looking at each other for a few seconds.

Jay and Voytek seemed a bit edgier than before. The strange man summed up their conversation with the words,

“Ok, if I can get any more, I will be back at around 11. Sound Good?”

He then motioned towards the door and proceeded to exit through it without acknowledging my presence. Jay and Voytek simply walked back into the kitchen while I used the bathroom.

When I was done, I went back out to the kitchen to find Voytek actually rummaging through the fridge in search of something to eat. I was past the point of caring what Voytek did at this stage of the game so I just went back into the living room.

Sharon had changed into a polka-dotted mini-skirt and out her hair in a pony-tail. The new look, after seeing her in her underwear all day, was refreshing. I love seeing’ Sharon in her underwear but it gets old. I forgot about how striking her features were when she made even the most casual attempt at dolling herself up.

She was truly a beautiful woman. Forget all the movies where she looked great, this was something that a camera could never even begin to catch. It was something that celluloid could never do justice to.

“You look great, Sharon.” I said.

It seemed as she was waiting for a snide attempt at humor to follow my statement. That, however, was all I had to say because that was really all that needed to be said.

“Thank You.” She replied. “I feel better now that that the sun is going down and it’s going to get dark soon. The sun is too much today….”

”Yeah.” I said.

The finality of the day was upon us.