Beyond Symbiotic

Today was the day.

Today they would meet.

Scott sighed, looking out at the seagulls in the river as they stood on old pilings, with sea lions going up and down in the water on the upriver side of the pilings. The different animals cared nothing for one another, yet they both seemed to show up in places that had pockets of fish.

They might follow each other, taking cues from one another as they were guided by a potential meal. Now, here they were, with the water dogs munching, and the birds picking chum out of the frenzy. Symbiotic.

'I need someone to care more for me than this, more than keeping company only to fulfill somatic requirements...,' he thought sadly, shaking off the emotion rapidly with a deep breath of the cold, damp air.

“No,” he said aloud, a single word affirmation of his long-standing, solitary status.

He glanced at his phone. Ten more minutes until they were meeting in the gazebo. He decided to move around to stay warmer.

He hoped the friendship would hold with the woman he had been messaging with for the last few months. The irony was that he wanted to meet because she said she had been enjoying her independence, and really wanted friends, and beyond that, she couldn't offer more. It was satisfying to know her, and she was inquisitive about him without being nosey, and they had as much in common as not, which she professed to love. She said they would not stagnate by becoming trapped in “already knowing it all,” and it was true. He frequently discovered things he did not know, or at least her fresh perspectives. They could chat many times, completely void of sexual overtones.

Yet, conversation had revealed they were both sensual, thoughtful people. The things she said made him wonder what it would be like to be loved the way he suspected she was capable. He didn't want to need anyone. Every time he had thought to end their daily and nightly chats, he knew how much he would miss her unique take on things, her stories, and the encouragement between them. He sincerely missed it when a day passed without calls or some kind of time together, however brief it might be.

Then one day, she stated she wished a picture could be shared, and it went from messages, calls, to some video chats.

“I really like you,” she texted.

“Thank you, I like you, Jacki,” he replied.

“Let's meet. How about at Willow Grove Beach? Will you? If sunny, we can walk, and if cold, maybe go get a coffee?” she asked.

Of course, he would, and here it was twenty-four hours later, and he could no longer deny he did wish she wanted him for more than a friend. He wanted her to treat him like a man, and not a mere vassal, as his ex-wife had in their years together. His subjugation in their marriage had happened because of love, and what began as compromise. He had loved her, and he had wanted her to be happy. Over time the relationship morphed into a virtual prison.

What would it feel like to be accepted and loved without stipulations and conditions? To be loved by Jacki?

He didn't want to ruin how good it was to have her in his life, just as it had been, with respect and so much openness it was as though anything was alright to discuss. Damn, it felt good to have his opinions matter, and mutual consideration.

Scott glanced up. He had walked far past the meeting point, lost in these thoughts, and a look at his phone let him know he wasn't where he was supposed to be. He began to run back, but he didn't see anyone. He couldn't see past the restrooms. Had he missed her? Had she been there and think he had decided not to show?

He cursed under his breath, the cold air hurting his lungs as he ran past the restrooms. There were four cars parked, and people down close to the feeding sea animals, though he did not think any of them was Jacki. He looked at his phone again. No service out here most of the time. Aw, damn.

His mind raced. Why had he been so nonchalant and detached? He was eight minutes late, and he had done such a profound job at acting like he could take or leave her presence in his life, she probably just left when he hadn't shown.

Why was it so tough to let her in?

He walked towards his vehicle, and the cold wind cut through at his neckline, bringing a flurry of snow, which increased as he got in and started up the engine, but the heat was almost immediately blasting.

'Just when you think the sun is going to break through and melt the ice, hello snow,' Scott mused.

He was checking his phone when a text notification lit up from an unknown number.

“Scott, there has been an accident on the 432 just past the memorial park. Please come help. Jackie asked for you.”

Scott looked hard at the message. It was not from her, because the name was misspelled. He wasted no time backing out and heading towards the direction indicated, trying not to slide on the now glassy-looking levy road between the river and residential acreage.

When he rounded the bend on the 432, he saw three vehicles at the next turn, an entire lane blocked, and one of them a golf cart with flashing lights. The cart might have been call for a joke if he wasn't out of his mind the last few minutes, with his mind and heart threatening to detonate. He slowed and stopped to the side ahead of the road block, then ran over to a stooped, older man near the cart, apparently from the memorial park across the street.

“Where's Jacki?!” Scott barked.

“She's in the aqueduct. Are you Scott?”

But he was already gone, at the steep edge of the aqueduct, looking down at a pick-up truck, nearly submerged.

'Oh my God, oh my God...,' his mind full of questions he didn't want answered.

The old man was yelling, coming after him.

“She's in the truck! He's trapped, and the door won't open. I called 911!”

The voice of golf cart man faded as Scott tumbled and ran down the embankment into the water, the astonishing cold taking his breath away as he got closer to the truck. He was calling her name, not even aware of it until he heard her call out to him, too.

Two people were in the truck, and one was Jacki, but the man with her was unconscious, and she was holding his head so his airways were not under water. Scott saw that if she had let go of his head long enough to try and get the door open, the man would likely drown.

“Jacki,” Scott started to say.

“There's no time. He was only with me long enough to tell me he couldn't get out. I came through the window because it was open, but try the door,” her voice was raspy, her own breathing shallow.

The truck was old. He tried to open it from the outside, but of course it wouldn't open, it was locked. He put his hand inside and pulled the manual lock, then opened the door.

“His foot's stuck, but if you could get his right shoe off, then I think he's good,” she said.

Under the frigid water, Scott could feel the lace of the man's boot was around the pedal, but there wasn't enough slack to move the lace, and the boot was too snug to take off. 'I'll cut it,' he thought, but his keys with handy pocket knife attached were still in the ignition of his car, too far away. He swore mentally, and felt something rattle against leg. GLASS!

He grabbed the bottle, coming up for air. A beer bottle. He told Jacki to turn her face away, then broke the bottle on the side mirror, going back under water and cutting the lace with ease. He came up and told her to go, that he had it, watch out for the glass, and then grabbed the driver as she left the pick-up cab.

They were still making their way to the embankment when the professionals arrived, two coming down to get the unconscious driver and strapping him to a rescue stretcher, then turning to Jacki and Scott.

She was weak, and they insisted on harnessing her, thankfully, because she stumbled going up, and Scott was going up unaided. He didn't want to think about the 'what ifs' of this day.

The ambulance with the rescued man was gone, the sound of the siren prominent above all else in the cold, now foggy valley. As they released Jacki from the safety harness, Scott saw another vehicle’s occupants being attended to, and another ambulance arriving. In his concern for her, he had not noticed them previously.

They wanted her to go to the hospital. Her medical alert bracelet gave away her secrets.

“May I take her?”

Scott already knew they would want to monitor her in an ambulance, right? One paramedic told him he could go in the ambulance with his 'wife,' but it would be better to follow.

He didn't bother telling them today was their first meeting.

Golf cart man appeared next to him and told him her car would be fine at the memorial park.

Scott thanked him without asking the question, 'Why was her car at the memorial park?', then told Jacki and the paramedics he was right behind them. One of them told him there would be something dry to put on at the hospital.

Nearly an hour later, they showed Scott into the room in which she was resting, now dry in gown and covered in heated blankets, on heart monitor. Her eyes opened, and she smiled as his hand found hers.

“You make those scrubs look sexy,” she said.

He smirked, “If I kiss you, will it show up on that kinky device they have latched onto you?”

“Maybe...” she giggled.

He kissed her, gently, and sat far enough up on the bed that he could hold her.

“When I received that text, telling me there was an accident, you wanted help and were asking for me...you have no idea...”

“Oh, I am so sorry. Jake must not have thought about how he was putting it,” she sighed into his neck. Wondrous, her soft, warm breath was life itself...

“Jake?”

She told Scott that the older man with the golf cart worked at the memorial park, where her late husband's ashes had been interred, at the vault.

“I am not a person that speaks to ashes, but Jake and I began talking when I would see him there. I was there today when the accident happened.”

Scott tightened his hold on her a little and whispered at her neck,

“Does this mean there is another man in your life? Will I be dueling for dates? Mmm, not fair, he has a crisis response golf cart with flashing lights.”

Jacki giggled and squirmed as his whispers became kisses on her neck, breath in her hair, and he softly kissed her mouth. They were still kissing when someone cleared their throat at the doorway.

“She is supposed to be resting, Romeo,” chided the nurse.

Scott moved and grinned as vitals were checked, then an officer came in and took a statement. They nibbled a snack of chips and apple juice, waiting to hear if the hospital would release her soon.

“Come home with me,” he said, “and tomorrow we will go get your car.”

She thoughtfully finished her bite, and took a drink. She looked at his face, then at her hand in his as he took it now, then at his face again.

“I stopped to talk to Jake, because he is always encouraging, and I told him once I saw you in person all my defenses would crumble, and all my work to be alright on my own since my husband's death would just...” her voice faded as she tried not to cry, “I know you're great on your own, and I thought I was there, too. I need to be,” she kind of laughed and shook her head, “and now you're my hero, too, on top of all the other feelings I have for you. If I come home with you, then when it's time for me to go, leaving will hurt. It will HURT.”

He handed her tissues as she cried, and then quietly spoke. He told her how he had walked too far from their agreed meeting point earlier that day as he thought about her, then ran back, thinking he'd missed her.

“Before you were due to arrive today, I already knew my own 'defenses' were bogus. I want you in my life beyond voice chats, but I was afraid. When that text came, and I faced for a split second the reality, the possibility, of never...” he held both of her hands.

“You are MY hero, and I love you. Neither of us 'have to' do anything, but we can be together because we want that. Come home, period. Just. Come. Home.”

The nurse knocked, and entered, raising her eyebrows and looking at each of them in turn, then wagged her finger at them.

“You two! I know they say to leave a tender moment alone, but you two are up to something, and you had better wait until I give you the doctor's instructions!”

The nurse grinned, “Okay, she is good to go, though the next 24 hours is rest-mandatory, so cool it other than what you're doing right now. Holding hands is all you get, Romeo, okie dokie? Even if it's not okie with your dokie, do you understand?”

Jacki was giggling as he sat up straight up.

“Yes, Ma'am!”

“And what about you, young lady,” the nurse asked more gently, “tell me your plans.”

“I am going to rest,” she said, then looked meaningfully at Scott as she squeezed his hands, “We're going home.”