The False Exit Read online

  “You’re all jittery.”

  “I sure to heck am. This is all new to me too, Cliff. I’m trying; work with me!” She pounded the button on her phone. “Hello, Liz.”

  “I’m on my way, Gammy. I’ll be right there.”

  “Okay, Sweetie. Are you still at the theatre?”

  “No. I’m just about to pull out of the parking lot from Shorty’s. We all stopped for an early dinner after rehearsal. How about you? Did you eat?”

  “I did. We just finished up. I packed you some of my casserole.”

  “Grandma, I just ate.”

  “It’s a healthy meal. I made it for Clifford’s heart attack. It’s very clean! I can heat it for you at my place.”

  “I can’t stay over tonight and I’m full, but thank you.”

  “Okay. I’ll send it home with you. I’ll see you shortly.” Mary ended the call and said, “I hate to leave you here by yourself, Clifford.” She paused, “I guess you’ll have company if Kevin comes back. Do you think he’ll be back?”

  “I don’t know. There is no reason to worry about it, though.”

  “Well, I left you a box of Cheerios. They say on the commercials that Cheerios are good for your heart. You should probably have them for breakfast. I’ll have my cell phone on. Call me if you need anything.”

  “Thank you! I’ll be just fine. Bill will be checking in on me, I’m sure.”

  “Well that’s good!” Mary said.

  “Yes, he’s a good friend.”

  “He certainly is,” Mary said. She pulled the casserole she’d wrapped for Liz out of the refrigerator.

  “Mary,” Clifford said, “it was nice to have you here today. Thank you for looking after me, making my dinner and cleaning out my refrigerator.”

  “You’re welcome. It was my pleasure.”

  “I also want to thank you for busting me out of that hospital.”

  “You’re welcome,” she repeated. “That was actually a lot of fun, until Elsie left her purse,” she chuckled.

  “It was,” he smiled. “I think my life is going to be a lot more fun with you in it. I’m so glad that Jesus picked you for me.”

  “Clifford! Just because you think you have Jesus on your side doesn’t mean that I do. I haven’t heard from him on this. I’ll have to hear it from the man in charge myself.” She stood by the window and watched for Liz.

  “I don’t mean to be forward, but I did get instruction to come back here and marry you. I don’t know how many more years I have left to get that done. I don’t want to rush things but—”

  “Goodness, you pack a mighty punch, Captain. Just so you know, I don’t take instructions very well from anybody else. I’m an extremely independent woman!” She saw Liz’s car pull into the driveway. She leaned over and gave him a quick hug. “Good bye, Clifford. Call me if you need anything.”

  “Goodbye, Beautiful!”

  Mary paused. It had been a lot of years since she’d heard a man call her ‘beautiful’. She grinned but didn’t turn back for him to see it.

  “How was your day?” Liz asked when Mary climbed into the car.

  “Fantastic! How was yours?”

  “Interesting, very interesting.”

  “Yes, mine was interesting too,” Mary said, “fantastic and interesting!”

  Liz started down the road and Mary asked, “Do you know if Anna Marie is trying to get custody of Kevin’s little girl?”

  “That was a random question. I’m not sure, why?”

  “Do you know where the little girl is?”

  “I don’t. Why do you ask?”

  “I’m just curious,” Mary said.

  They drove several quiet miles before Liz asked, “Gammy, how do you know when you are really in love with someone, or if you’re just falling for them?”

  “Hmm—” Mary sighed with a smirk. “I wish I knew. That is one of the mysteries of life; isn’t it? I know when you are falling for someone, Kitten, you have to fight like the devil not to lose yourself in them.” Liz glanced at her grandmother, her eyes were not focused on anything in particular. She continued, “You have to keep your ground and find your balance. That is why they call it falling in love. It’s tricky. A lot of people confuse falling in love with being in love.”

  “Why is that?” Liz asked.

  “I think you could fall in love many times over. Falling is only the beginning and it usually doesn’t mean a hill of beans! Maybe that’s why they say that you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince.”

  “I guess I still have a lot of frogs to kiss,” Liz sighed.

  “Yes, make sure your amphibian of choice is a prince. If you decide to keep him, you don’t want to wake up one day and realize that he is just another slimy toad that only thinks about himself.”

  Liz chuckled, “Frogs are gross! A prince sounds wonderful.”

  “A prince thinks about his princess all the time and for eternity. It doesn’t wear off. It always starts as an obsession, right? Neither can stop thinking about the other.”

  Liz stared at the road ahead and let out a sigh.

  “Are you falling for Gary?” Mary asked.

  “I don’t know,” she answered.

  “You don’t have to know yet,” Mary said, “take your time. That is the beauty of this thing we call dating.”

  They drove for a bit and Mary said, “Does Anna Marie ever come up to the theatre?”

  “No,” Liz said. “I haven’t seen her since the whole incident. I miss her. Why do you keep asking about her?”

  “She’s just on my mind. That's all,” Mary said.

  The car remained quiet as they passed through the familiar roads. Liz reached over and turned the radio to an oldies station. She grinned as her grandmother started to tap her hand on her knee quietly singing along to the familiar tunes. She leaned into the steering wheel. She was thinking; wondering—was Mark thinking about her too?

  31

  As soon as Clifford cracked opened the door, Motley pushed his head through it. Bill trailed in behind him with a bag of groceries.

  “Motley! I’ve missed you ole’ boy!” Clifford said.

  “I think he’s missed you too. He’s been moping around the house for the last few days like a teenage girl on restriction. He was whining at the door every time I came home.”

  Bill set the bag on the kitchen counter. “I brought you a few things. I didn’t want you to have to run out for anything.”

  “You didn’t have to do that, but thank you. That’s awfully nice.”

  Bill looked around, “Wow! You’re supposed to be taking it easy. It looks like you have been busy. Wait a minute, did you hire a maid?”

  Clifford laughed, “Look in the refrigerator.”

  “Oh!” he said as he leaned in the door, “it looks like a brand-new fridge!”

  “Mary spent the day here.”

  “She did? Well hey, hey, hey! A woman’s touch looks great on your place, Cliff.”

  “I thought so too. It’s not hard on the stomach either. My lady spoiled me.”

  “Oh, did she now; your lady?”

  “Yes she did! I’m a lucky guy! I told you she is the reason I got sent back here.”

  “You got sent back here because it wasn’t time for you to die. You’ve got a lot more life to live—that’s for sure.”

  “Well, I’m going to live it with Mary!”

  Bill grinned. “You certainly are sure of yourself. How does Mary feel about that?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Jesus told me to come back here and marry Mary. That’s what I intend to do.”

  “What if Mary doesn’t want to marry you? I don’t mean to play devil’s advocate, but I kind of feel like I have to ask.”

  “Stand back Satan!” Clifford teased. “I don’t have anything to worry about. I’m supposed to marry Mary. It will happen.”

  “If you say so,” Bill said.

  “Neither one of us have any say in the matter. The man upstairs has all the plans.
All I have to do is enjoy watching it play out.”

  “No offense, but I don’t know if you should put all your eggs in that basket. You do realize that you were heavily medicated when you were on the operating table? It might not be such a good idea to count on what you saw and heard there to dictate the rest of your life.”

  “Don’t try to place doubt and anxiety on my heart. This here ticker is beating hard and strong for my Mary,” he grinned.

  “Clifford, you are a piece of work. I wish it were that easy for me.” Bill unpacked the bag.

  “When you just let life be, you don’t have to work so hard at screwing it up. I learned that in heaven.”

  Bill took a seat on the couch next to Clifford and gave him a hard look. “Clifford, I know you believe that you experienced something really special when you went into that surgery.”

  “I did. I died,” he said.

  “Yes, you did.”

  “When you die, you learn how to live,” Clifford explained, “I saw a lot of things.”

  “Let me ask you something—and I’m not trying to be judgmental, I’m just asking—what if your own will and desires made you have those experiences? Like a dream only deeper because the medications put you in a heavier sleep. I mean maybe while the doctors were working on you, your subconscious was working overtime because you were in a dreamlike state of being?”

  “It was more than a dream,” Cliff stated plainly.

  “Okay, but think about this—when you wake up in the morning, sometimes it takes a little time to realize it was just a dream. You were in a very deep sleep. In fact, you were almost permanently asleep. Maybe it is going to take some time for you to recognize that it was just a dream. Dreams can be meaningful, but they’re just dreams.”

  Clifford drew in a deep breath. “Look at your dog,” he said.

  Bill cranked his head to see Motley sitting in the corner of the kitchen. “That’s odd.” He turned to Motley, “Come here boy! Motley!” Motley didn’t move. “What’s he looking at?”

  “He’s watching Kevin,” Clifford said.

  “Don’t tell me you are still seeing Kevin.”

  “He is here and there really isn’t anything I can do about it.”

  “They may have let you out of that hospital too soon,” Bill shook his head.

  “First of all, there is nothing wrong with me. Secondly, the girls busted me out of that hospital!”

  “The girls what?”

  “They busted me out of that blasted hospital! I proved to my doctor, that hospitalist, or whatever they called her, that I was fine. She didn’t seem to think it was odd that I saw Jesus and that Kevin is talking to me. Kevin even helped me prove it. He told me to tell the nurse about his Uncle and the Doctor about her mom. It was the other Doctor that was trying to keep me there.”

  “Clifford, I’m not sure what you are talking about, but I’m worried about you.”

  “I’m fine! I’m more than fine. I’ve never been better in my life. There was no reason for me to stay in that hospital and allow them to look at my brain. I made a connection to the other side. That’s all there is to it.”

  “I still think you might want to call and at least tell them about Kevin.”

  “They already know,” he paused. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve got some silly appointment with a shrink next week.”

  “Good. Maybe they can help you figure it out.”

  “There isn’t anything for me to figure out. I’m not taking any more tests and I’m sure as heck not taking any medicines. I’m fine. Kevin is the one who needs help.”

  “Okay,” Bill appeased him, “maybe they can help you help Kevin figure it all out so he will go away for good.”

  Motley started to growl. “What’s the matter with you, come here boy?”

  “Kevin is teasing him,” Clifford said. “I think it’s his way of trying to get your attention.”

  “Motley!” Bill hollered. Motley continued to bark and growl. Bill talked over him, “Okay, I can live with the Jesus talk, Clifford. I respect you and all that you have been through, but Kevin was not a good guy. I really think you need to work on letting him go from your thoughts.” The dog barked louder. “Motley! Come here!” Bill insisted. He stopped barking but refused to leave the corner and continued to growl softly. Bill kept an eye on him as he continued, “Kevin broke the woman I love. She is desperately trying to put the pieces of her life back together. There is another woman who is sitting in a state prison because of him, and there is a child that is living in some stranger’s home. That man messed up a lot of lives. I don’t want to see you on his list.”

  “Bill, I’m telling you I’m fine. He isn’t affecting me at all. I’ve made my peace with him.”

  “So why is he here with you? Can you explain that?”

  “I guess I just sort of connected with him when I died that day. Maybe I can help him.”

  “Help him with what?”

  “His peace, I guess. He is looking for peace and forgiveness for one thing. He needs it from you too.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m having a hard time with peace and forgiveness right now. I’m a little stuck on angry.”

  “That isn’t healthy,” Clifford replied.

  “Maybe not, but his hanging around here isn’t healthy for you either.”

  It was quiet for a moment. Bill stood up and walked to the kitchen counter. “I’m going to put this toilet paper in the bathroom. I didn’t know if you needed it. It never hurts to have extra.”

  “Sometimes he tells me important things. Things that people need to know.”

  Bill stopped, “Is that so? What is it that he tells you?”

  “He tells me things about people and their families. Right now he wants me to tell you about his daughter. He’s worried about her.”

  Bill dropped the toilet paper into the bathroom. “We all are!”

  “If you are worried, he wants to know why you didn’t tell Anna Marie what he said before in the hospital. He wants Anna Marie to get her out of that house. He’s really worried about her living there.”

  Bill felt the heat in his body rise. “Oh, is he? Well he sure should be!” Bill sat back down and spoke gently, “I’m sorry. Please understand that I don’t mean any disrespect. Anna Marie doesn’t even know the girl and she doesn’t sleep at night worrying over how she is going to get custody of the poor kid! I don’t know. I just think that you might want to rethink what kind of spirits you allow your mind to hang out with.” Motley started to bark again at the wall. “Motley! Come here!” The dog ignored him. Bill got up and pulled at his collar directing him to the door.

  “I hope I didn’t upset you, Bill,” Clifford said.

  “No, Cliff. It’s Kevin that has me upset. I know you mean well. It’s just been hard living in the wake of his destruction! I’m tired of waiting for him to be gone forever!”

  “He’ll go. He’ll find his way eventually. Maybe with a little forgiveness.”

  “I’m glad you’ve made your peace with him, but he’s not going to get that from me,” Bill said.

  “Maybe if you give it some time—“

  “Time?” There it was again. Bill dropped his head and shook it. “Time hasn’t exactly been my friend in all of this, and guess who I blame?”

  “Kevin is sorry. He is trying.”

  “Again, no offense, but I don’t think what you’re seeing is real, and I don’t think he is sorry. I think he is conjured up in your mind because you are healing from something and for some reason, your mind needs to see him.”

  “No, I don’t need him. He needs me,” Clifford said.

  “I just don’t like him hanging out with you.” He thought for a moment, “Maybe I’m jealous,” he chuckled, “I don’t want to lose my best friend to my biggest enemy.”

  “Not a chance,” Clifford said. “He can’t bring me Chinese food.” They both laughed.

  “Anyhow, I better get going.”

  “Thanks for the grocerie
s.”

  “Anytime,” Bill said. He started to leave.

  “Bill?”

  “Yeah?” he turned back.

  “Are you going to see Anna Marie tonight?”

  “I am. I’m having dinner with her and her sister.”

  “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to tell her what Kevin said. The child is scared and uncomfortable.” Bill stared at the floor and bit the insides of his cheeks. “I’m sorry. I just had to tell you that,” he added.

  “Is that another message from Kevin?”

  “Yes,” Clifford answered. “Marrying Mary is only one of the reasons I got back here. It’s also my job to tell people what Kevin can’t.”

  “Okay,” he paused, “I have a message for him. Tell him that Anna Marie is a saint, and she is doing everything she possibly can to salvage the mess that he made out of that little girl’s life? And again, no offense to you, but you should also tell him that if I believed he was here and if I could find a way to do it, I would punch him in the face.” Motley broke loose of Bill’s hold and began to bark and growl at the corner again.

  “He heard you, loud and clear, Bill. He knows. He doesn’t blame you!”

  “Good!” Bill said, “I certainly blame him. Motley! Come on Boy, let’s go!” Bill pulled Motley away from the corner again. “Goodnight Clifford.”

  “Goodnight, Bill.”

  “Call me if you need anything.” He pulled the door shut and opened it again. He was holding Motley with one hand. “One last thing: tell Kevin to quit messing with my lights in the theatre, and if he wants to scare off Diane, I have no problem with that, but tell him he better leave Liz and Gary alone!”

  Clifford grinned, “Does that mean you believe he is here?”

  “No, Cliff. I’m sorry, it doesn’t. It just feels good to say all that out loud. Especially the part about scaring off Diane.”

  Clifford nodded his head at Bill, “Okay, he says he doesn’t know if he can help with the lights, but he will see what he can do about Diane.”

  Bill shook his head at Clifford, “I’ll see you tomorrow? I’ll be by in the morning.”

  “I’ll have coffee ready. Bring your own cream unless you are okay with non-fat.”