FanStory.com - DUEL with the DEVIL - Chapter 20by Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 19: Brian returns home after dropping Julia off, and he and Fran discuss his new relationship with Julia. She is happy for him. Brian and Julia continue to see each other every weekend.

Time passes, and Brian takes the SAT exam. He does very well and applies for early admission to NC State, where he is soon accepted. Meanwhile, Julia plans to audition for Juilliard and passes the first step when her audition tape is accepted for a personal audition. She will soon make this trip to Juilliard by herself in May because her parents are too busy to accompany her to New York.

Brian has just turned 18, and Fran decides to go on a two-week vacation to celebrate her freedom from guardianship. She, Brian, and Julia spend one final occasion together before everything happens, and they go bowling again and will have dinner following. An accident during bowling leaves Julia with a smashed finger, and a visit to urgent care results in losing a fingernail on her bow hand. She worries about how this will affect her coming audition. When Brian takes her home, her mother is irate about it and storms off after bawling Julia out. Brian comforts a shaken Julia and tells her he loves her in a tender moment.

Chapter 20

Julia did call me the following day with some fairly good news.

“I’m going to be able to hold the bow, but I won’t be able to practice as much as I would like because of the added strain on the rest of my hand. Without the ring finger to press against the frog, it changes the pressure of the other fingers, and it’s somewhat fatiguing to the hand. I can do it, but I can’t practice for hours at a time without my hand tiring. Then I get sloppy.”

“Could you play pieces you already know very well and won’t have to practice so much?”

“Yeah, I’m going to have to. The one I really wanted to play, I don’t think I’ll be able to master in time, but there are enough others to choose from that I already know. They will still require practice to be really sharp, though.”

“I know you’ll be able to do it.”

“Thanks for that. Mother keeps rubbing it in how careless I was, and she’s really making me uptight.”

“Can you just tell her to cool it and that she’s not helping? Maybe you could talk to your dad about it, and he could try to get her to lay off.”

“Fat chance of that. He tiptoes around her. Their marriage is pathetic.”

We grew silent for a bit. Then she said, “Brian, did you really mean what you said at the end there last night?”

“You bet I did. I don’t know why I waited so long to tell you. I’ve known it since our days at rehab.”

“I think I’ve always known it too. I didn’t have a lot to go by, though, since there isn’t much love around here.”

“How are we going to stand being away from each other so long when we’re at college?”

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to call each other every day and visit when we can.”

“I wish it wasn’t so far from Raleigh to New York, assuming you get into Juilliard, or I’d come up every weekend to be with you. But I’ll have to try whenever I can.”

“That would be so great. I was accepted at both Peabody in Baltimore and Cleveland Institute of Music. Both are closer than New York City, but all of them are still too far for regular weekend visits, although Cleveland is only about eight hours by car. If I don’t get into Juilliard, that would be my next choice.”

“Yeah, that’s a doable drive for more frequent visits, but I’m not going to root against your getting into Juilliard based on that. I know how badly you want to go there.”

Fran left on vacation six days later after extracting a promise from me not to do anything dumb like the last time she had been away two years ago. She would be back right before graduation, but I was now on my own for two weeks.

Julia left for New York the following day. Her audition would be two days later, which would give her a chance to settle in at her mother’s friend’s house for a day before her audition the day after that. I drove her to the Charlotte airport to catch her plane.

She seemed very nervous on the way there, and I asked her how she was feeling.

“To be honest, I’m feeling pretty anxious. I tried doing some yoga this morning and meditated for an hour, but my mind kept wandering, and it wasn’t very relaxing. Mother didn’t help things at all, and kept criticizing everything I was practicing. I finally told her to leave and let me work it out on my own.”

“I know you’ll do well, Jules. Try to forget about your mother. And remember, you’ve already gotten into CIM. That’s a pretty damn good school too.”

“You’re right. I’ll try not to dwell on it so much. God, I wish you were coming with me.”

The Charlotte airport is such a zoo that we agreed I would simply drop her off at departures and wouldn’t try coming in with her. When we pulled up in front of her airline, we gave each other a long kiss goodbye, and I wished her luck. “You’ve got your cell. Call me when you get there and anytime you feel like it over the next couple of days. I love you.”

“I love you too. Thanks for driving me and helping me calm down. I’d be a total wreck without you.”

She got out then, got her carry-on bag and violin from the rear seat, and we said goodbye a final time. I drove off with a sense of foreboding.

I stopped for some fast food on the way home from the airport, and it was well into the evening by the time I got back. Around 10:00 PM, Julia called, saying she had arrived safely. She was now at her mother’s friend’s house. The friend had two big Newfoundland pups who were very rambunctious and about knocked her over in their excitement at meeting her. She was not used to dogs, and they added to her stress level. They didn’t seem to want to leave her alone, she said, and their owner eventually had to lock them in the kitchen.

We talked for 20 minutes, and I tried my best to help calm her down again and encouraged her to meditate before going to bed. She promised she would.

In truth, I was worried about her. It seemed that her normal stress-reducing schemes weren’t working very well. I just hoped she hadn’t brought any barbiturates with her.

Later on, when I went to bed, I tossed and turned thinking about her and what she was feeling. I had a sudden brainstorm. She had said she wished I was going with her, so I decided to surprise her.

I got up and got dressed. I threw some clothes into a carry bag, plus my toothbrush and a few other personal items, then got on the computer to try to find a hotel. I didn’t think it would be right to invite myself to her mother’s friend’s house. I was 18 now and could make a reservation somewhere.

I found a Motel 6 in Brooklyn that was reasonably priced for New York, which was still about twice what I would pay here, but I had the money for it. I called, and there was a nighttime clerk with whom I made a reservation for two nights. I looked up the route to the motel on Google Maps and printed out the instructions. Then I hopped in my car and took off. It was 2:30 AM, and I would arrive there around noon.

The route took me through New Jersey, south of Newark, across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, and into Brooklyn. I had never been to New York before and was quite amazed at how tightly packed together everything was. The biggest city I had ever been in was Charlotte, which paled in comparison to the New York Metropolitan area. I got a little lost but managed to find my motel by around 1:00 PM.

As soon as I settled in, I called Julia.

“Hey, Jules.”

“Hey, Brian.”

“How are you feeling today?”

“Mrs. Landry made me a nice breakfast, then I started practicing a bit, but the dogs started barking when they heard me. They were right outside the bedroom door, scratching to get in. I couldn’t really concentrate.”

“Oh, brother. I’m sorry. Hey, listen. What’s your address there?”

She paused for a moment. “Why? Are you planning to send me flowers or something?”

“Maybe.”

“You don’t need to send me anything.”

“Maybe I want to.”

“That’s sweet. Okay, it’s 32 Stevens Ct. in Brooklyn, NY.”

“Got it.” We talked for a while longer, and I said I’d call her again that night.

There was a computer in the hotel office, and I went online to Google Maps, where I got directions to 32 Stevens Ct. I had to copy the directions down because I didn’t have access to a printer.

I was starving, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to see Julia. Perhaps we could go out to lunch together. I found a florist and picked out a bouquet of flowers to surprise her with. She was expecting flowers, so I would bring her flowers. She just wasn’t expecting who would be delivering them.

I found the house where she was staying, but parking was very scarce, and I ended up parking two blocks away and walking back. When I rang the bell, Mrs. Landry answered the door, and I said, “I have a delivery of flowers for Miss Julia Entwistle.”

She called back, “Julia, there’s a delivery here for you.”

In a few moments, she came to the door. The bouquet of flowers was covering my face, and when I lowered them, she let out a gasp.

“Brian! What are you doing here?”

“Delivering flowers to you. Duh!”

“Get in here,” and she pulled me in. She squeezed me hard and buried her face in my chest. I could feel tears beginning to wet my shirt. I handed the bouquet to Mrs. Landry and hugged Julia back tightly. After a minute, she looked up and said, “Helen, this is my boyfriend, Brian Kendrick. He dropped me off at the airport yesterday afternoon and must have driven here last night. Brian, this is Helen Landry.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Landry.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Brian. Julia has talked about you quite a lot.”

The dogs were barking up a storm in the kitchen, so Mrs. Landry left to go shush them.

“I can’t believe you drove all this way to be with me!”

“I was worried about you. You sounded like you needed me. Listen, have you had lunch yet? I’m starving, but I wanted to come see you first.”

“No, I haven’t. Let me tell Helen you’re taking me to lunch, then we can go.”

When we got outside, she said there was a White Castle a couple blocks away on Flatbush Avenue, and we could walk there. The burgers were small—slider size really—but absolutely delicious. You could squeeze the grease out of them without too much effort, which made them really tasty. The fries were good too. Julia ate one burger, but I ate six of them.

After the burgers, we found a park, sat down for a while on a bench, and just talked.

“Brian, I’m really glad you came. I’ll be honest with you; I was so distraught this morning with the audition tomorrow and those dogs barking and scratching at the door that I felt like taking a Seconal. I didn’t have any to take, but if I had, I swear I would have taken one. I was about to ask Helen if she had any kind of tranquilizer to help take the edge off, but I’m so glad you showed up instead. No telling what that might have started up again. I don’t want to get involved with those again, but nothing else was working.”

“Well, that’s what I was worried about. I didn’t know if you still had any of those pills or if you’d gotten rid of them all. I didn’t want to see you possibly get hooked again. I know how easy it is to fall off the wagon.”

“I love you for that. Thank you for caring so much.”

“Of course I do. I love you too.” We kissed, then we sat there snuggled up together on the park bench for a while, until I started nodding off.

“Hey, Brian. Where are you staying while you’re here?”

“I’m staying at a Motel 6 nearby for two nights.”

“Why don’t you go back there and get some sleep? I’m sure you’re exhausted if you drove through the night. Then we can get together again for dinner later. I’ll tell Helen that we’ll be going out.”

“That sounds like a plan. Okay, I’ll call you when I’ve slept for a few hours.”

“I’ll practice some more while you’re sleeping. I already feel a lot less nervous now. Maybe Helen will take her dogs for a long walk too.”