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What I've Been Doing The Rest of My Life; Hey, I can be sappy too!
Topic Started: Apr 25 2006, 05:06 PM (376 Views)
ceig13
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The Right Reverend Cosmopolitan of Bampton Underhoop
Author's note: Some of you may have already seen this from the former board. I would like to post this as a reminder that love does not always have to exist between two compatible people... just two married ones who give it a chance to work. The song in this fic, by the way, was sung , first by Jack Jones, then later by Fantasia Barrino on American Idol.


What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life…


Marvelous. That was all he could say.

He was talking about the landscape.

It’s not often you can hear someone talking about how beautiful the landscape is in this heavily-urbanized part of northern California, unless you were in one of those scenic golf courses dotting the otherwise sprawling urban jungles or in the vineyards dotting the rural landscape. This person was talking about the former.

Oh, how rude of me. Let me introduce him to you. He’s Charles Crandel Finster III, Chuckie for short. A middle-aged man in a blue long-sleeved polo shirt and khaki pants (not the one you’d take golfing, but that’s because he’s been from the locker), orange hair neatly parted to the left, his myopic eyes assisted by square-framed lenses, faded remnants of freckles on his cheeks, and on his smile, evidence that his teeth were once held by braces.

Where we are now is a country club’s lounge. On his table is a copy of the Financial Times, a half-consumed cup of coffee, and remnants of what would have been Belgian waffles. Oh, and his table’s on the veranda, overlooking the course.

Chuckie was deep in thought, an opportunity afforded by his time here, just after a round of golf (his handicap is around six), thinking about how he’ll be going home today. How timely-a song just played on the oldies station on the background, getting him to meditate on what he was going home to...

What are you doing the rest of your life
North and south and east and west of your life?
I have only one request of your life,
That you spend it all with me...


Hmmm... That would be Angelica speaking. Hah, he thought to himself, I always thought that’s what she’s sound like when being romantic and poetic at the same time-me, me, me, she would go.

All the seasons and the times of your days,
All the nickels and the dimes of your days,
Let the reasons and the rhymes of your days,
All begin and end with me...


Chuckie pulled out his wallet, where on the clear plastic pouch a picture of his family was displayed. He and a blonde woman with the complete Aryan features that would make her a model for any far-right outfit were looking at a camera together with a blond-haired kid with a mix hof his and his wife’s features. Oh, that was six years back, he thought. We had another kid since then.

He still wonders what made her decide to take him. Let me see, she wasn’t drunk, she had a sound sense of mind, and enjoyed herself in his company, a person she couldn’t even stand years earlier. What a welcome, if very slow change...

Yet somehow, he could not figure what made her attracted to him. Good looks? There are always better-looking persons out there. Personality? We’ll deal about that later. Lack of security? Good Lord, she’s worth ten million dollars, and had lived on a large income ever since her mother pulled some strings at MergeCorp! Good thing she’s worth the money they pay her-the company had made a large turnaround since she became CFO. He meanwhile was more or less in a more junior position as senior veep at Finster Holdings, but unlike her, he keeps on declining the top post. Chuckie just frowned at the thought of assuming that all-important position his father had long vacated.

I wanna see your face in every kind of light,
In fields of dawn and forests of the night,
And when you stand before the candles of a cake,
Let me be the one to hear the silent wish you make...


He sighed. Personality? That was his question. What made him love her? She was bossy. She was mean. She was The Ice Princess, careful of her popularity, wary of being seen with the likes of him. So what made him like, no, love her?

Maybe he was patient enough to burrow deep and crack the ice that was his wife’s heart. He was the one who had developed the patience, a trait he had acquired from his mother, the patience to sift through the self-righteous veneer she had always shown. The result? Fifty trips and counting bringing the kids either to Grandpa Chas and Grandma Kira, or to Grandpa Drew and Grandma Charlotte (former sometimes arranged c/o Phil, his brother-in-law) Clue words: kids, grandpas, grandmas. Result Number Two: The two looking like the Atteburys from the Saturday Night Live reruns, with the chatty Ginger and the more subdued Leslie.

Those tomorrows waiting deep in your eyes,
In a world of love you keep in your eyes,
I’ll awaken what’s asleep in your eyes,
It may take a kiss, or two...


Atteburys, Chuckie laughed at the thought. Chatty? Maybe not much, but then enough to make you cringe if you were not as subdued and muttering as he was. But still, behind the appearance of a half-baked excuse of a couple merely sharing a single surname is a bond of love, not just a feeling of passion anymore, but also a feeling of commitment, whose fruits are a darling, daring son and an independent-minded but subtle-handed daughter, as well as a feeling of trust, allowing him to spend four and a half hours in the morning as the golf course without his wife worrying.

Or is she?

A Theme from Forrest Gump ringtone sounded throughout the lounge. It’s her all right, he told himself as he picked up his phone and answered it. A female voice was on the other line.

“Chuck,” she called.

“Yes, hon, what would you want?”

“You’ve been there what, four hours already! Spend another minute there, Finster, and-”

“Yeah, sure, get Wawa and my pillow ready. I’ll sleep in the sofa.”

“What?!”

“Heard me right, Angie. I’ll be plonking my butt here for another two. Oh, and I’ll be fetching Gavin and Cynthia from their weekend camp today.”

“Why you-”

“Ah, just pulling your leg! Actually, I’m about to leave now. But the part about getting our kids is real. Maybe I’ll drop by at Tom and Lil’s for lunch. Maybe it’s a chance to see how your cousin’s post-prod is going.”

“Post-prod?”

“Don’t you know? He’s got a whole editing set he and Dil installed in the basement. Has that Gulf War-era movie done. He’s looking for me for sponsorship.”

“Okay, you may go. I’ll call up Lil to check if you’re there with the kids. And Chuckie?”

“Yep?”

“Love ya.”

“Sure. Same here.” The phone went off as he put it inside his bag.

Through all of my life,
Summer, winter, spring and fall of my life,
All I ever will recall of my life,
Is all of my life...with you...


“All of my life with you...” he muttered to himself as he looked at the family picture. “Well, it wasn’t so good, but it wasn’t so bad either.” He smiled as he called for the waiter and readied his bill.

THE END
"To give and not to count the cost... to fight and not to heed the wounds... to toil and not to seek for rest... to labor and ask not for reward..."

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