Page 43 of Not My Neighbor

I feel myself moving towards the edge of my seat, the long silence that follows almost unbearable.

“Well?” I ask impatiently, expecting the worst. Like he was found washed up on shore somewhere or retrieved from the insides of some wild animal.

But no. Nothing so gruesome.

“He’s fine. Perfectly fine,” my dad growls, throwing down his napkin, seeming to be put off his food by the mention of what he knows he has to tell us both now.

“C’mon, Jack,” Blake coaxes him. “Out with it.” He orders him in a friendly tone, not minding his food is playing second to dad’s story now.

Quite the opposite, he looks like he’s dying to find out what happened as much as I am.

“He was never missing at all,” Dad mumbles, and Blake asks him to repeat himself, which my dad does, almost shouting it as his face gets that sour look all over again.

“That’s great news, isn’t it?” I ask him, wondering why he’d be so upset his friend and neighbor has been found or come home safe and well.

“Oh, it’s a relief I suppose,” He groans. “It’s what he’s brought back with him that bothers me. Might be more up your street than mine,” he grumbles aside to Blake.

“What do you mean?” Blake asks him, studying his expression carefully, but I can tell he’s trying not to laugh let alone hide the smile playing on his lips.

Blake already knows I can tell. But I don’t.

“Dad? Just tell me for god’s sake, our dinner’s getting cold.”

With a huge sigh, my dad relates the whole episode.

“If you’d been on time to pick him up, none of this would have happened,” my dad observes, making Blake finally beam his smile but leaving me feeling taken aback.

“Nate Macy was waiting at International arrivals when some young girl, a tourist from Sweden or somewhere who was on the plane appeared to have lost all her luggage and cards in transit.”

I look from my dad to Blake, who shrugs back at me. A sudden twinkle in his eye.

“Nate being Nate, he stepped in and offered to help. Forgetting all about having to be picked up himself and actually leaving his luggage behind at the terminal as well,” My dad continues.

Nothing earth shattering so far.

“So how did he go missing?” I ask, not waiting for the story to finish, and taking a bite of the crumbed steak Blake’s made, which makes me let out a sound of total satisfaction.

“Sorry dad, but Blake. This is amazing, I had no idea you were so talented in the kitchen,” I lie. Remembering how he had me over the bench and then on the breakfast table only last night.

Blake bows his head in appreciation before urging my dad to go on with his story, making out like it’s the most incredible thing he’s heard all year.

“Turns out he took this girl for a drink or a coffee, whatever someone does to try and calm a foreign traveler who’s lost everything down…”

I think I can guess what’s coming next, based on Blake’s knowing look, but no. I’d never have seen it coming.

“Well, in a nutshell, they both hit it off, too well. And rather than mope around for her luggage he booked them into the hotel at the airport for one night before jetting off with her to the Cayman’s the next morning. No phones or internet, just sandy beach and well… you can imagine the rest.”

I almost choke on my mouthful of food.

“So he met a girl and went on an extended trip without telling anyone, what’s the harm in that?” I finally ask after swallowing a mouthful of water.

“Because she’s less than half his age and they’ve just gone and damned well got married, that’s what!” My dad cries out, throwing his hands up in the air.

He looks from me to Blake, then back to me again, scowling as we both start to laugh before he sees the funny side of it all too.

It takes a minute or so, but in the end, even dad has to have a laugh about it all, even just a little one before his face falls again.

He looks pale as Blake and I continue to giggle over the whole story.

“You aren’t?” he stammers in my direction. “I mean, you two aren’t planning on...” he adds, looking ill until Blake puts him out of his misery.

“No, Jack. No news like that. We just think it’s funny how things turned out, and how age doesn’t seem to get in the way of true love for more than just Krystal and me either,” he remarks.

My dad mops his brow with a napkin, not seeming to recover when I tell him it’s also Blake and I’s second week anniversary.

Dad gulps hard, smiling feebly, and quickly changes the subject. Back to work of all things, and he and Blake spend the rest of the meal planning his employment as the new head of accounting.

---