BOOK ONE: DECEPTIONS
Chapters One to Twenty Six
Vignettes 1 - 140

BOOK TWO: YESTERDAY ECHOES
Chapters 27 to
Vignettes 141 -

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Vignette #196: Proper Exchanges

“Young Justyn?” David Turner poked his head in the office door. “May I come in?”

Ian whirled the chair around to face him, instead of the window view he’d been staring out of for hours. “Of course, you never have to ask.”

The old man entered and shut the door behind him before quietly taking a seat.

“Uh oh.” Ian sighed. “Am I going to like this?”

“I like the tie.” Turner pointed.

“Father’s Day gift.” Ian tried to put on a bright smile and pointed at Turner’s. “Yours is nice, but not as nice as mine.”

David Turner opened his jacket and held it up, proudly announcing ‘Pappy Turner’. “The first Father’s Day gift I ever received. Your boy is a piece of heaven, Ian.”

“You don’t have to tell me.” Ian said. “So to what pleasure do I owe this visit?” He blinked a little. “Did that even come out right?”

“I just thought I’d come down and show off m’tie.” Turner smiled and sat back in the chair. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“About what?” Ian feigned. “I’m not in the papers again, am I?”

“Always.” Turner smiled. “Our soaps are three and four, up from last and nowhere two weeks ago. Amanda Jackson just gave her first interview on Anderson Cooper and spoke about nothing but you and apparently two Twitter accounts have been closed down because they were falsely pretending to be you.”

“Oh, well…that’s good. I think.”

Turner pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “Let’s get comfortable.”

Ian hobbled to the French doors of the balcony and opened them, as Turner lit two Marlboros and placed an ashtray on the Redwood and crystal coffee table. “May we have some tea?”

Silence filled the room as Ian poured two mugs full of bottled water and placed them in the microwave. Pushing the buttons killed the silence. Turner handed Ian a smoke, which he immediately took a deep drag of.

“That is so good.” Ian sighed as he let out a stream of smoke toward the open doors.

“I’m sorry I missed yesterday.” Turner flicked an ash.

Ian swallowed a chuckle and watched the time change on the microwave. There was another 90 seconds of silence before the timer dinged. Two steaming mugs were supplied with Earl Grey. Turner added cream to his; Ian, sugar, lots and lots of sugar.

“Mr. Turner…Dave, I have a problem.”

“I know.” David Turner sipped his tea.

“Are there rumors already?”

“No, I haven’t heard a thing, other than the unusual pall hovering inside this office.” He placed his mug on the table and reached for his cigarette. “Ian, I’ve seen you three times already this morning and you’ve barely even registered the walls. That’s unlike you.”

Ian nodded as Turner continued. “I’ve seen you when there were things going on in your personal life that would have made me curl up in a ball in the corner and suck my thumb, but you’ve always been full speed ahead in the office, no matter what. Let’s talk about it.”

“Where do I begin?”

“The beginning?”

“Jeez…” Ian huffed. “I was born in October of 19…”

“Not your beginning…” Turner chuckled.

“Sometimes I think that’s where it starts.” Ian slurped his tea and then took another much needed drag off his smoke. “Yesterday. My first real Father’s Day and I will never forget it.”

“As it should be.”

Ian gave Turner a look. “Then why do I never want to celebrate another one? Don’t get me wrong. Ronnie made me the best tie in the world, and painted this wonderful canvas I’m going to have framed and hang here in the office. We had a big meal with all the family and suddenly just when I was reveling in pure joy…”

“The bottom fell out…”

“Hell, Dave, the bottom not only fell out, God scooped it up put it in a blender added what was left of my psyche, hit the puree button and left the lid off.”

“What happened?”

Ian put his hands to his mouth and blew air out his nose. “How do I put this? I received two unexpected gifts, one right after another. One hit me in the head and before the little birdies stopped tweeting and the stars spinning, another drop kick got me between the eyes.” He looked at his mentor. “I’m just not sure what to do.”

“Just relax, my boy. You’ve got family all around you…”

“That’s just it, David; gift number one I really do have family all around me. We kind of discovered by accident at dinner yesterday that Colton Shores is my father.”

“What?” Turner couldn’t hide the surprise.

“I’m not really sure of everything…like that’s unusual, but to make a long very complicated story a sound bite, my mother was Colton’s first wife.”

David Turner put up his hand. “Let me just make sure I have my own facts straight. You are talking about the little girl who broke his heart before he left Texas?”

“That would be the one.” Ian grabbed for his tea. “I knew he’d been married before. I knew it had been annulled. He knew the basics of my story and a picture is worth a thousand words.”

“You’re positive?”

“We’re having a DNA test run this week just to be sure, but his name is filled in where the father’s name is on my birth certificate.”

“I thought you didn’t know where your real birth certificate was.”

“That’s kind of Part B to gift one.” Ian sighed. “After that cat came screaming out of the bag, we barely had time to clear the air of fur when the valkyrie marched in from the marsh and split the wine glasses with ‘Fie’!”

“You do have a way with words.”

Ian looked at David Turner. “Clare showed up, seven months pregnant. The baby’s mine.”

Turner was caught in mid exhale. “Are you positive?”

“Clare is a lot of things, but I don’t believe she ever cheated, and the timing is right.” Ian looked at the floor and back to Turner. “But as soon as I get the number, I’m keeping the DNA people on speed dial.”

They were quiet for a moment. The old man crushed out his smoke and asked quietly, “Plans?”

“I thought I’d just sit here for ten or twelve years until some solution hits me or I have to use the bathroom.”

“Suggestions from an old man?”

“Right now, Dave, I’d take suggestions from the Muppets.”

“First, get Ronnie to show you how to program the speed dial, it may come in handy.” Turner was pleased he got a small smile out of him. “Do you love her?”

“No.” Ian looked deep inside for a moment. “I keep trying to think. I’m sure at one time I thought I did, but no. Do I care about her? Yes, but in love with her? I’m sorry. I truly wish I could say yes, but I can’t.”

“Why were you with her for so long? Eight years was it?”

Ian nodded his head, to indicate affirmative and partly just to see if his brain was still in there. “Give or take the months we’d break up not see each other once or twice annually and end right back where we started just to break up not see each other and end up right back where we started.”

“Why, then?” David Turner looked at him. “I’m playing the Devil’s Advocate here.”

The man understood, but he struggled to answer the question. “It was nice.”

“Nice?” Turner sat back on the couch. “That’s a reason to stay with a woman for eight years, because it was nice?”

“Compared to what I’d known before…” Ian made sure he was being honest. “Yes, yes it was a reason.”

“Young Justyn…Ian…” Turner lit another cigarette, offering one to Ian. “I’ve not asked much about your past. We’ve had an unwritten agreement on that, I know much of it…hurts.”

Ian turned to Turner. “Absolutely, but I have been determined that the future not be. It seems my entire life I’ve been either somebody’s victim or somebody’s whipping boy. I don’t know why, and I’m not even sure I care. Maybe I should, but I just want it to stop. I will make it stop, that legacy of pain will not haunt my son.” He corrected himself. “My children.”

“You’re going to have to make things just a little clearer, Ian.” Turner leaned on his cane to face him. “You say you were with Clare because it was nice. The constant breaking up and getting back together doesn’t sound nice to me.”

“It wasn’t.” He admitted. “But Clare was the first person that ever fought tooth and nail to keep me around.”

“Why, Ian? Why did she do that?”

The question had never occurred to him. “I don’t know.”

“Ian, I know what it’s like to be involved in a volatile relationship. I know what it’s like to be involved with a volatile woman.” Turner said, surprised he said it out loud. “Oh, I hated her guts but I did love her, even the things made us both raving lunatics. Although as time went on it was clear my adoration wasn’t enough.”

“That’s why you never looked for her?” Ian asked.

“Who says I didn’t look for her?” Turner said. “And who says I ever stopped? Ian, every time the phone rings, every time someone walks through the door unexpectedly there is still an extra beat in my chest convinced it could be her.”

David Turner reached over and put his hand on the troubled man’s shoulder. “Let me ask you a few more questions and then I’m going to leave you to ponder how you answered them.”

Ian nodded his head and looked at his own hands folded in his lap. “What about Saxon Allen?”

“She’s not involved in this.” Ian said.

“Really?” David Turner said quietly, but directly. “Now what about Colton, his family how do you feel? Happy? Angry? Hurt? Confused?”

“All but the third one, especially the last.” Ian blinked and sighed. “Whenever I get an answer to a long prayed for question, I get little resolution and lots more riddles, questions and tears.”

“The answer there seems pretty clear.”

“It is. Colton Shores is my father. For some reason I’m not doubting that either, but it’s all like one of those bizarre party games. Let’s see how many questions we can answer Ian Justyn with in more questions.”

“What questions?”

He turned to his mentor. “Doesn’t the series of circumstance all seem a little odd to you?”

“Odd?”

“I break up with my longtime girlfriend, and in trying to avoid having contact with a four year old so I wouldn’t be reminded of the son I gave away I have a conversation on the phone I wouldn’t have answered otherwise. That phone call leads me to a new job and a new life, where I just happen to buy a house next door to a man who turns out to be my biological father?”

“Well, when you put it that way.”

“It’s a series of accidents, but why did every little accident just happen to fall in the correct sequence to make me choose door number three?”

David Turner nodded his head. “I understand. The timing is so right it has to be wrong. That leads to my next question. What are you going to do about Clare and the baby?”

Ian took a deep breath and sighed. “I’m not sure.”

“Maybe I should have asked what does she want?”

“Ahhh!” Ian nodded his head. “Either I marry her or she goes public and then makes sure I never see my child.”

“Has she asked for money?” David clarified. “I mean is it possible that enough cash would make the problem go away?”

“I think she’s under the impression that being Mrs. Ian Justyn, wife and mother will not only pay, but keep the paychecks rolling in.”

“Ian, I want you to take a little time to think about that situation in particular. Personally, I think that’s the more obvious case of the timing being so right it’s wrong. If you come to the same conclusion, I think you’ll see how easy that solution is.”

“How can that be easy, David?”

“Oh, Young Justyn.” David pushed himself off the couch, stopping long enough to drop the Marlboro Light pack on the expensive coffee table. “If that is the case, you are the one in total control. Don’t let her make you think anything different.”

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