10

The new day greeted Jim like all the others as of late-uninspiring. His law practice was good, taking hand-offs from Nelson-Bastian to keep his billable hours decent. Since he was Ben Nelson’s son, he would always be looked at as, well, unproven. He wasn’t a war hero like his dad and Bill, so that would never be a feather in his cap. His wife wasn’t satisfied with him, but she did seem to appreciate him knocking out the Irish cop. He felt sorry for the big man, knowing he had hit his peak potential too, so no matter their current stations in life, they had that in common. He smiled slightly when he thought about the tremendous right cross his body generated and wondered if that explosion had less to do with Dunleavy, and more to do with his current funk. He didn’t appreciate chasing down a rich old man who was content on living his life the way he saw fit. That seemed like a noble way to proceed, and Jim had nothing but admiration for Bill. Sure, he drank, and he did look bloated, but that may have more to do with his diet and lack of daily movement. Jim guesses his weight at two hundred and fifty pounds, which given his six-foot height, could be considered overweight. So what? No one lives forever, and he seems happy. The pursuit of happiness, what a crock.

The knock at the door startled Jim, and he set his coffee down and walked over to the door. He stood there to make sure it was their door-it was. He opened it to find a young woman smiling apologetically.

“Mr. Nelson?”

“Why yes, how can I help you?”

“Well, the reason I came here is we are concerned about a Mr. Bastian, in room 603, and we are just guessing if he is related to, a Ms. Bastian?”

Jim was confused. How did this woman know what Mag’s name was prior to their marriage? He kept quiet and waited for more information.

“Um, the reason I bring this up is because a Mags Bastian signed her name for this room too, so we were guessing, since it isn’t a common name…”

“You mean like Nelson!” Jim loudly said.

“Yes, not like Nelson,” she said apologetically.

They stood looking at each other waiting for a sign to continue and were saved by Mags coming into the room.

“What’s going on?” she said looking both sleepy and confused.

Jim looked at the hotel employee- “please”.

She repeated what she had told Jim about the similar name and Jim looked at her with anger. Mags thanked her for the information and was at a crossroads on what to say.

“You signed your name Bastian? Really? What’s next, no ring? Fuck Mags, you don’t have your ring on either!”

Jim was visibly angry as he disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door. Since he was a gentleman of the highest order, slamming doors was still out of the question.

Mags sat down at the dining room table and rested her head in her hands. She was lost. Dad was in the hotel, and Jim was in the hotel. Would he continue with them after her snafu?

“Jim, I’m going to room 603, will you join me when you can?”

She waited for the verdict.

“Okay,” he said to her delight.

Mags made her way to her father’s room, expecting the worse. She knocked and the door opened to her utter disgust.

“Carolyn? What the hell are you doing in my dad’s room?”

She pushed in unceremoniously, and Bill was sitting looking relaxed.

“Dad? You can’t be serious, with Carolyn? Jesus Christ, I can’t believe it. What, how did you find him, oh of course, while Jim and I were putting our lives in danger, you two were shacked up playing house, how nice!”

Mags didn’t know what to do. The knock announced that Jim would be shocked too, so she let him in so he could join the choir of disproving voices. None came. He just looked around unimpressed by the situation and looked at Mags.

“I guess we should probably go home, it looks like our work here is done.”

Mags was feeling lightheaded and sat down on the nearest hotel chair-uncomfortable too. Carolyn looked at Mags in that putting her bottom lip over the top and looked at her while showing her concern. It was that look that made Mags boil every time, after all these years it still worked for Carolyn.

“So, you two are what, an item? Well God damn it. What about Minneapolis? Is that off too now?”

She looked at her dad and knew that he was going to bail out on the trip pushing further West, which was strange since he was such an industrious man.

“We talked it over Margaret…”

That was the other term that just drove Mags wild-Margaret. She knew that Carolyn would use her proper name just to goad her, and once again, she pulled it out at the most opportune moment.

“I am joining the trip-Margaret.”

She strung that one even longer to deliver a punch to her gut. She couldn’t hear what Carolyn said, so she had her repeat it. Sure enough, the trip to Minneapolis was still on, so that was good. Now, Mags looked over at Jim, who was characteristically quiet and not at all surprised by what he saw.

“Jim, ah fuck it.”

Mags knew she was running out of goodwill with Jim and decided she had enough on her plate with the other situation. The crazy thing for Mags was, why would the employee knock on her door, since everything seemed in control here?

“Why Carolyn?” she asked with contempt.

Her bottom lip went and covered up her top lip as she slowly shook her head like they were ten again.

“Because I got confused and scared for you that you misspelled your last name. I had to make sure you were all right, so I sent her to see that you were…”

Mags turned around and left. She could hear Carolyn cackling through the door as considered going back and throwing a punch like Jim did. That thought cooled her down.