Couples of South Pointe Lake

2. The Gazebo Get-together

Steve Miller opened the back door into his kitchen and went for the fridge.  He took out three bottles of beer, then stopped for a moment to consider his options.  He scanned the fridge interior then decided to include a box of Oreo cookies, figuring the guys would be having the munchies and could use something to chew.  If they didn’t, then he would. 

He grabbed a plate out of a cabinet then slipped out the back door whence he came from.

Steve covered the distance to the gazebo located fifty yards across his backyard lawn, at the east end of his compound.  The gazebo stood on a bluff that overlooked the pristine water that was South Pointe Lake.  

Even from twenty yards, he caught snippets of the conversation ongoing between his three friends.  The conversation hadn’t changed from the one they had been engaged in before he took a break to come and acquire them extra beers.  Their talk had been ongoing for nearly an hour and didn’t seem to be abating anytime soon.  There was an unusual irony to this that Steve was aware of.  It had been weeks since the three thought to get together like this for an extended period.  On other occasions, they wouldn’t have lasted twenty minutes, what with their wives, kids, or other unscheduled distractions confiscating their socializing time.  Today being a Saturday, however, had been different.  Today had instigated an emergency meeting, the likes of which demanded they shared valued time with themselves.  The topic in question didn’t concern either of them.  Still, in a bizarre twist of fate, as this story continues with its path, each of them will inevitably become aware of how involved they are, but under different circumstances.  Like a spider whose spoors of web can encompass an entire room, neither Steve nor his friends could have known then how deep their friendship was about to become.

It began innocently enough with them seeing something that days later, even at that moment, they wished they had never seen.  Or that they had possibly turned a blind eye of ignorance.

Steve came up the short steps leading into the gazebo and handed out the beers: one went to Larry Ditko, another to Shep Ellis, and the third went to Ollie Moss.  He left the box of cookies open, but everyone stuck to their beer while brooding over their friend who wasn’t there—the same one who was the subject of their heated conversation.

Garry Meany and his wife, Ellie.

They sipped their beers then fell into a lull of frustrating silence, calming themselves down from the energy they had expended since arriving at the gazebo.  They took comfort from the waft of breeze all around them, and the tranquil blue water that was the lake.  They glanced surreptitiously at each other as if waiting for either one to restart the conversation.  Steve set his sight with disdain at the outgrowth of grass that was outrageously proliferating his yard.  He should have made time before now to have them cut.  Before the summer, he had promised to whip out the lawnmower and get started.  How far back was that, and he had yet to get off his ass and get to work.  The thought of giving up an entire day so he could cut grass didn’t sound appealing.  The longer he continued pushing it back, the sooner before Angie began to nag him about getting it done.  It did occur to him that he could save time and pay one of the neighborhood kids to do it for him.  It wasn’t like he hadn’t done it before.  How come he hadn’t thought of that until now?

“You ain’t said nothing so far, Steve-O.”

This came from Ollie.  He was fifty-one years old, had a ruddy complexion and had a sparse growth of red hair shielding his head.  He had been a fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy, back in his twenties when he had his athleticism and had six-pack abs.  Now those abs have given way to a protruding gut.  He had acquired a talent for numbers and went from being a fighter pilot in a Texas air force base to a Wall Street conglomerate, where he got to own stock in many durable companies, including Boeing.  Steve and Ollie have been friends since college.  Ollie had been his Best Man when he and Angie got married.  Amongst his friends, Ollie was the only one who referred to him as Steve-O, something Steve took as a compliment than sarcasm, as long as it came solely from him.

Steve turned to his friend and was stifled by the words he wanted to say.  It was there at the tip of his tongue, but then it slipped away in an instant.  He returned to staring at his grassy yard while waiting for his thoughts to recollect.

He began by shrugging his shoulders.  “What could I possibly say that we haven’t said already, Oilie?  What’s there to say that we ain’t covered already?”

Ollie was usually one to have a quick comeback line whenever a conversational gauntlet got thrown to his corner.  This time, however, he appeared stumped.  

“I dunno,” he muttered.  “Maybe there was something we saw that we haven’t mentioned yet.”

“Like what?” 

This remark came from Larry, who sat across from Ollie.  He had the outlook of a perpetual stoner, which he wasn’t.  Larry abhorred anything that had to do with drugs; he would put an end to pharmaceutical companies if he ever ran for public office.  Larry came from the west coast, having settled here a decade ago.  He had blonde surfer-type hair, athletic stature, with tanned features like a bronze god.   

“We did see what we saw, Ollie,” Larry continued stubbornly.  “There wasn’t anything we missed out on.  Except Garry didn’t seem to care.”

“Not afterward, no,” Shep chimed in, pausing to push his glasses up his nose.  Whenever Shep got agitated over a subject, his nostrils would often enlarge, his sweat glands would then turn up, and his face would become sweaty, and his glasses would start falling down his nose.  Right now, even he was hesitant about what they had witnessed at their friend’s place.  He wanted to say more but stopped more out of embarrassment than his inability to press on.  His feature glowed red as he blushed.  He turned to Steve and said: “Do you think he somewhat planned this?”

“You asking if Garry planned for us to see what we saw?” asked Larry.  “That sounds kinda naïve, don’t you think, Shep?”

“Naïve on his part, or on ours with the way we reacted?”

“I don’t know,” Shep replied timidly while taking his eyes away from Larry’s stare.  It looked to him as though Larry’s eyes wanted to burn holes into his flesh like laser beams.  How could he explain to them that he was on Garry’s side after what they witnessed at his home?   He figured neither of them would understand his reason why, especially Larry.  Larry could give two f***s about anyone’s expert opinion besides his.  “It’s safe to say that this is something they’ve kept hidden for God knows how long, and neither of us knew about it until now.  How I feel about it is none of it’s got anything to do with us, so it’s not our business.”

“It might not necessarily be our business,” Larry shot back, “but that doesn’t make it healthy to say we can’t want to know why.”

“That’s the point, Larry,” Ollie interjected for Shep.  “It ain’t our business to want to know why.  I mean, what’s that gonna prove?  That we’re getting into each other’s private matter suddenly?  If so, you better count me out.”

“Not saying we need to know everything.  Just someone to find out if that was real or if Garry was playing us some prank.”

“It looked too real for me to consider that as some prank,” Shep said.  “But say it isn’t, what are we going to do about it?”

“We need to confront Garry and find out what,” Larry suggested.  “This ain’t something we should keep between ourselves, not it’s about him.  Maybe it’s a problem he’s got, and he needs our help, sort of.”

“I think you’re getting way over your head on this, Larry,” Ollie said. 

“We keep talking about this like it’s some pressing issue,” said Shep, “but what we’re not talking about is whether or not it is.  Do we need to stick our nose in what doesn’t concern us?  What do you think, Steve?”

Steve sipped his beer while his thoughts went back and forth between their argument, undecided about whose side to take.  He was the lone man standing by the sideline.  He almost wished they could change the subject instead of continuing with this issue.

Larry came and nudged him.  “You been kinda quiet in this, Steve-O.  You got anything to add?”

Steve did have something to add, but he was reluctant about putting it into words.  He didn’t know how his buddies would take it and knew no matter what, it was all going to fall on him to do what was right about Garry.  

Before making up his decisive mind, he jumped back on a time machine capsule that transported him back to the day’s early hours.  He made his calculations to drop him off at the exact hour when the three of them showed up at Garry’s front door, minutes before they witnessed what would indelibly change their lives.