Chasing the Bear

Chapter 32

Susan and I left the bench and walked up to the little bridge over the swan boat lake. We stood leaning our forearms on the railing and watched the boats and the people and the ducks, green and quiet in the middle of the city.

"It sounds like Jeannie's mother might have wanted to promote you as her daughter's boyfriend," Susan said.

"I think that was one thing she wanted," I said.

"And the other?"

"I was a way to three eligible bachelors," I said.

"Two for one," Susan said. "A boyfriend for her daughter and one for her. She seems in retrospect a woman who needed a man, who thought all women needed a man."

"She stayed a long time with one of the worst men in the world," I said.

"To some, a bad man is better than no man," Susan said. "I stayed a long time with the wrong husband."

"I think you've changed since then," I said.

"Yes, I think so," Susan said. "Did your father and your uncles go for dinner?"

"They did," I said.

"What was that like?"

"They went the way they went to PTA meetings and stuff," I said. "They didn't want to go. They didn't expect to enjoy it. They didn't enjoy it. But they were polite about it."

"Did she flirt with them?"

"Oh, my, yes," I said.

"Was it embarrassing?"

"Yes. It didn't seem to embarrass my father or my uncles, but it embarrassed the hell out of me and Jeannie."

"She get drunk?"

"Yes."

"Any of them ever ask her out?"

"No."

"They say why?"

"No."

"You have a theory?"

"She drank too much. And she wasn't very bright. And she was needy. My father and my uncles never much admired needy."

"So they just came to dinner to help you out," Susan said.

"Yes, and I suspect that if they thought I needed more help, one of them would have dated her. Probably Patrick."

"Why Patrick?"

"He was the youngest," I said. "My father asked me about my feelings for Jeannie. I said I liked her but not as a girlfriend."

"Waiting for the one?"

"I was," I said. "And she wasn't it."

"But you might well have been it for Jeannie," Susan said. "Girl with no stability at home, looking for someone, seeing it in you."

"I was fourteen," I said.

"And she probably hoped for the stability that your father and your uncles provided you, though I'm sure she didn't know it."

"She probably did, and I tried to help her with that. But she wasn't the one."

Susan smiled at me.

"What if I'd still been married when you met me?"

"I'd have made my bid anyway," I said.

"And if I hadn't responded?"

"I'd have waited awhile and tried again."

"You've never been a quitter," she said.

"No," I said.

We looked down as a swan boat slid under the bridge. A couple of kids in the front waved at us.

"I would have responded," Susan said.