An Unexpected Comeback

“My Buddy lies over the ocean/my Buddy lies over the sea/my Buddy lies over the ocean/Oh bring back my Buddy to me…”

It’s been over 60 years since I’ve seen him. My sweetheart of a man, Buddy Tolen. We had chaperoned dates throughout our last two years of high school. But then he got shipped off to the War and I haven’t seen or heard from or anything about him ever since. 

It really broke my heart. But I knew that he needed to do what he needed to do to keep our country free. 

So I went to work as a secretary and bus driver while living with family. I met my husband after the war ended. I was pushing mid-twenties by then. Gerald Fordham was eight years older than me. He wasn’t Buddy but he had a lot of good points and I loved him enough for both of us. We ended up having only two kids. Our marriage wasn’t too good after he started drinking and spending most of the time at the bar after work. So Betty and William were my life until Gerald drank so much of our money away that I took a job as a typist.  I hated leaving William and Betty to a babysitter after school but it was what we needed. 

Gerald died of alcohol poisoning more than 30 years ago. It was a very hard time for all of us. But I pushed through and ended up staying with the typist job until I retired a few years ago. I enjoy typing so much. I type most of my letters to the kids and my five grandkids. Seeing them is my greatest joy. 

I almost fell over when Randy, one of Betty’s boys told her after school one day that he’s going to school with Buddy’s granddaughter! They’ve dated a couple of times but it didn’t work out. But Betty got in touch with him in the first place and told me that he couldn’t believe it, either!

Buddy, like me, is widowed and from what Betty has told me, “alive and kickin’” like me. She has warned me that he lost a leg in the war. It breaks my heart to no end. But by golly, I’m still going to see him!

That’s why I’m on this plane to visit Betty and the boys in Northville Michigan right now. She’s divorced now, poor dear. Her ex-husband, Heath has the same problem with the bottle that Gerald did and won’t get any help for it. Naturally, the boys live with her. They’re such good kids. I hope that none of them will turn out like their dad though the oldest, Bobby, did have a little trouble with drugs a few years ago. Betty says that as far as she can tell, he’s fine. Though he’s 17 and not home much. Randy and the youngest, David seem to be pretty okay. Randy’s 14 and David’s 10. 

I am really looking forward to seeing them, too. Since I live in Rochester, I usually just see them and William’s family (they live near San Diego) on the major holidays.  

The stewardess’s call for seatbelts for the descent interrupts my thoughts. I can hardly wait another minute! 

The plane lands with a rudely jolting thud! and I almost jump five feet in the air. Which is one of the many reasons that I don’t like to fly. 

But I keep my thoughts on Buddy. I would do anything for him. And on my excitement on seeing Betty and the boys. 

It takes me probably almost a full 20 minutes to get out the plane but since a I’m retired and by myself most of the time, time hardly makes much of a difference to me anymore. I’ve shrunk to five-one and my arthritis has affected my hands so much that one of the stews has to help me get my small suitcase from the cubby shelf thing. This is when I’m most grateful that I was taught not to want for much. I try to make everything fit in one bag if I can. I’ve never understood why some people pack one bag for “just make-up”, one for “just clothes” and one for other things they “can’t live without”. That’s just  a silly waste.

Like I usually do when I fly these days, I wait until almost everyone else is ahead of me before walking out of the plane. Which probably takes about another 10 minutes. Knowing Betty, she’s probably starting to get a little worried. But I’ve never believed in wasting too much time on what others think. 

When I walk up to Betty, Buddy’s with her in his wheelchair. She widens her deep blue eyes and catches me in a tight hug almost making me fall over. Which scares me because I have osteoporosis and could break something. But what can I say? She loves me and means well.

Buddy just looks over at me with very bright light blue eyes that I remember. But other than that, he’s notthe perky spirit that he used to be. He has this haunting look in his eyes that really scares me.

I settle for shaking his hand since my back is too arthritic for me to bend down and hug him. Buddy surprises me by grabbing my hand in a tight hold. 

“I never thought I would see you again, Geraldine.” He says very sadly. I’m very taken aback. This didn’t used to be like him at all! The Buddy I knew used to be happy-go-lucky and perky. (The dead opposite of Gerald). And it’s making me very sad to see him like this. I don’t feel tears coming. I stopped being much of a crier after realizing that I couldn’t stop Gerald from preferring the bottle over me and the kids.

“Well, shall we have lunch?” Betty asks. “The boys are with their dad until tomorrow.”

I must have given her quite a look. It’s not at all like Betty to-

“Heath is finally getting some help through AA and all of them. He’s really made amends with all of us and is trying to make a real effort with them.”

My heart swells and now I do want to cry. Heath is doing what Gerald always refused to. Gerald always refused to see an ounce of wrong with what he was doing. We quickly decide to eat at Betty’s all-time favorite restaurant, the Early Bird of Northville. I like it as well. It’s a good old-fashioned brunch one.

“That’s so wonderful!” I cry out. “I hope he stays with it.”

“So do I!” she agrees. 

“How long has he been at it?”

“He’s been sober for almost two months now.”

“That’s wonderful,” I say again and then turn my attention back to Buddy. 

“So how has life been for you all these years?”

“Well, when I was shipped off, I was sent to Dunkirk. I helped fight those Nazi bastards-“

“Whoa, Buddy!” Betty interjected. “a lot of sensitive ears these days!”

“Right. Anyway, I was trying to escape a blast from a raid while grabbing supplies from a truck. The next thing I knew, everything went black. When I woke up, my leg was gone. The hospital told me that it had been broken and burned beyond repair. I’m telling you, Geraldine, I just died that day. 

I wanted to come back a hero. Instead, I came back with a part of myself just gone forever.

Things got a little better when I met Emma. Then we got pregnant with our son, John and married. Then Katherine and Lily followed the next three years after that. It was Lily’s daughter that your Randy dated, by the way.

 Anyway, we lived off my war compensation for many years until Emma decided that she wanted to write for magazines and books. She struggled with that for two years until she started promoting her stories to our church ladies. One of them happened to know someone who edited our local newspaper, Hometown Life. After that, she was spending most of her waking hours writing, getting published and promoting. Emma was never home very much after that so I was at home looking after the kids with a sitter until Lily turned 11.

All three are married and I have four grandkids. John and Annie’s oldest, Rebecca’s about to have her first baby in a month.(grunt)

Anyway, Emma battled leukemia for the last three years of her life. She stopped responding to treatments a couple of years ago and died.”

“Oh, Buddy, I’m so sorry,” I put my hand on his shoulder as we loaded my luggage into Betty’s shiny apple red Buick’s trunk and Buddy into the front passenger side. I was climbing into the back seat when I realized…

“Wait, a minute…Emma Tolen?! Alphabet Emma?!” I say referring to her most famous mystery novel in which she named the main character after herself. 

“That’s the one,” Buddy answers casually. 

“Oh my God! She was one of my favorite authors! I saw her picture on the cover. She was so pretty with that short curly red hair and bright green-eyed grin. I-I can’t believe I never suspected a connection!”

“Thank you,” Buddy replies even more sadly.  

When we got to the Early Bird, it was mostly me telling Buddy my story-with Betty pitching in her two cents at almost every point, course. She has always been a little more like Gerald.

“That’s…quite a story you two have,” Buddy said when we were done. “I can’t believe he treated you all like that!”

“Thank you,” Betty and I replied at the same time.

From there, Betty took Buddy home and I got to see his retirement house. It’s small and what you’d typically expect of someone our age. However, his small study space still has Emma’s writing stuff in it. Not just her original and published manuscripts but also copies of royalty paperwork, book tours, copyrights, etc. 

From there, I stayed for a week. Seeing the boys was wonderful. They’re all getting so tall and have their own minds now. They prefer to play videogames most of the time but Betty’s very good at having a routine with them. I even got to see Heath for the first time in six years. I couldn’t believe how great he looks. He seems much happier with his life, too and now has an stable job driving moving U-Hauls. I’m so proud of him! He doesn’t remind me of Gerald at all now.

I stayed for a week and decided to move into a ground-level apartment with Buddy in the Kensington Manor. 

When I got back home-or what was supposed to be home-in Rochester, I couldn’t believe that I’d been putting up with such loneliness for years!

I wasted no time getting it on the market, packing my clothes and anything else that I could take on the plane with me. What I couldn’t, I either left with the house, donated or had the junkers pick up. 

I have never known such happiness like I do now living here in the Kensington with Buddy. Buddy and I live as common-law spouses and have decided not to officially marry. All of his kids are wonderful with him but don’t always get along with me. I know that Katie, Lily’s daughter who Randy dated, still feels a little awkward around me but that was kind of expected. I’m more like his caregiver and we now have CNA’s coming in and out for him but I don’t care. 

I’m just happy beyond description to have him back in my life.