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LOVE CHASE A few days later Yvonne informed me of a convention coming up in a week at Dallas, Texas. It was exactly what I needed, some time for Denise and I to be alone and away from our recent problems. I phoned her immediately. "Since when do you attend conventions?" She mused. "Well, some doctors I do want to see will be there," I replied. "And it is a perfect opportunity for us to get away together. "I can't leave, Bob," she disappointed me, "I have to stay close at home." "Whatever for?" "I don't know, exactly. I just feel I must stay around the house." "That's awful sudden," I gripped, "Just the other day you were telling me that you felt trapped. Are you all right, honey?" "I'm just ducky!" She almost shouted back. "You go ahead. I'll be fine." "But I need some company, babe," an attempt toward insistence. "Take Yvonne with you. She has nothing better to do." I said my good-by with a deep frown as Yvonne walked into my office. "She's not going, is she?" "No." Was my only comment. "Still want to go?" she asked then added, "I think you should." "I do also," I replied. "Our relationship needs a break. It just may bring out the nigger in the wood shed." "Oh!" She perked like a TV interviewer would upon a hint from a celebrity concerning nasty business. "You think she's having an affair? If I may ask?" "I don't know what to think. I feel so lost. So threatened." And I did, terribly so. "Maybe it's nothing, I don't know. Maybe she's going through changes." "Too young." Yvonne came to my side. She placed a sympathetic hand to my shoulder. "I'll arrange for our trip." "I'm fine alone, Yvonne." "No you're not." She shook her head. "You need someone to distract you or you won't stay for the entire convention, if I know you." "You're probably right." I turned approving eyes back at her. "But you always are right, aren't you?" She, naturally, nodded and headed out to her desk. "You know, Yvonne?" I called after her and in a much lighter voice, added, "You'd make a good detective; you'd always get your man!" Certainly she was the best of three receptionists I had had over my fifteen years. At times I swore she could read the most closed of minds especially mine. And if I did not exactly know my own mind she sensed it. Definitely an enchanting lady. I prodded Dennie constantly about going along but she seemed dead set against it. "You feel trapped because I'm around? Is that it?" "No, Bob." She pouted with sad eyes. Turning from me as we lay in bed with lights out she tried to explain her inner conflict. "I am sorry you are getting the brunt of this thing I'm going through." She turned back to me. Placing her head to my naked chest she continued, "Something is coming at me. That's the best I can say it. At first it pulled at me like a voice far away beckoning me to it. Now it tells me to stay put. It will come to me." I hesitated a second then kissed her curls. "You realize nothing is calling to you. Don't you?" I feared a mental or emotional disturbance. "I know." She put that to rest. "It's just how I feel. And not a bad feeling either." She sat up and faced me head on. With a hand to her bosom, she said, "A feeling filling my heart. It excites my mind. My God, Bob, it reaches into the recesses of my womb. Like being pregnant. But I'm not." "You sure?" I prayed that might had been the case but Dennie was proven barren years ago. "I'm not." She showed a trace of regret. Returning to my side she became silent. "You trust me with Yvonne?" I tried a different approach. "She is very attractive." "Vonnie wouldn't hurt me or take advantage of you." She hid a laugh behind her reply. "I believe the girl loves you, yes. But because she does, she'll never screw up your life." This answer confused me as did it relieve me a bit. If Dennie did have a lover she would be glad to know that I too had someone. So much for the nigger in the wood shed. What was bothering her? |