Dancing In The Rain

By J. Strickland

It's too easy to get caught up in a career and lose sight of what is really important. Family and even love can fall by the wayside. When you make a wrong choice, it's too easy not to fix things.

Sometimes when you get busy, you don't make time for what is really important.

Sometimes you don't have the courage to own up to your mistakes and fix them.

Sometimes you just have to go home.

Sometimes that's where you find what you've been looking for all along.

Sometimes you have to go dancing in the rain.

When he finally decides to go home, what he finds there is not at all what he expected. What he does get is so much more than he ever imagined.

Winner of a Literotica Reader's Choice Award

35,000 words

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. Strickland
• Release date: Mar 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476096933

Book preview

Dancing In The Rain

J. Strickland

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 - 2012 J. Strickland

Cover photograph licensed by depositphotos/ Stanislav

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction, in whole or in part in any form. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Surprise Visit

Chapter 2 – Just Like Old Times

Chapter 3 – Christmas Present

Chapter 4 – Planning For The Future

Afterword

About The Author

Chapter 1 – Surprise Visit

I walked in from the cold dawn and swiped the card hanging from my lanyard, recording my arrival. Seeing on the clock how late I was, I took off at a fast walk for the department desk. My morning coffee would have to wait until later. I needed to meet with the person I was replacing to get an update on my patients. It was courtesy to do that before the other person’s shift ended. I knew how anxious she was to be going home. I’d be in the same position when my shift ended, eighteen hours from now.

Eileen gave me a tired smile when she saw me walking up. I’d be the one with the tired smile soon enough. No, not soon enough. It was going to be a long shift – another day as usual.

Hi, Eileen. What do you have for me? I didn’t bother telling her good morning. It might have been morning to me, but it was definitely evening to her. It was a cycle. Cycles were what my life had become. Never ending cycles.

Mr. Jenkins isn’t doing any better. Watch for… and Eileen droned on, one patient’s status after another. While I was getting my update, I caught glimpses of the others I’d be working the shift with, meeting with their counterparts. We all knew each other. Though our shifts rotated and we didn’t always work the same hours every time, we were either together or replacing each other. We saw each other pretty much daily, one way or the other.

The briefing over, Eileen headed off to her locker. She’d be home soon enough, showered and dropping into bed exhausted, sleeping through the day that was night to her. Looking around, I gave Cathy and Dan a nod. They’d be spending most of the day with me. Cathy walked up with her usual cheery smile.

I’m going down to get coffee. The usual?

Yeah, Cathy. That’d be great. I didn’t have time this morning…

What’s new? She smiled as she said that. As she left, I picked up the papers I had brought in with me.

Dan, I got the details for the ski trip.

Great! When do we go?

This weekend, I excitedly told my friend. It’s all set. We leave right after work and drive up. I started spreading out brochures on the counter to show him.

You gotta be kidding. That’s Christmas.

Yeah, but we all have a few days off and the weather is perfect right now in the mountains.

Dan shook his head. "It’s Christmas. I’m going to be home with my family."

Come on, Dan. You can see them anytime. We argued back and forth about the timing as I tried to convince him.

What’s going on? We hadn’t noticed Cathy getting back. She handed us each a cup of coffee. Sitting on the counter facing us, she took the lid off her paper cup and took a sip. She looked expectantly at me over the steaming cup, her sneakers thudding softly against the cabinet door as she swung her feet.

Before I could speak, Dan answered her. "Genius here set up that ski trip for this weekend."

But it’s Christmas, she said with surprise.

Exactly, I tried to tell him. Dan said.

Not you too? I asked Cathy.

Be real, Ted. Everyone who’s not working is going to be spending Christmas with family. Then she paused. "Oh, I forgot. You don’t do family." Her tone as she said that kind of hurt me a little.

Yeah, you’re a chicken, man. You’re a chicken man, Dan said. Dan was always comparing people to animals. Not in a mean way, just noting how something about them resembled an animal. It was not always what you might expect at first, either. Dan had a unique way of seeing things.

I’m not afraid of my family, I started to protest but Dan stopped me.

I mean that you don’t seem to have a family. You must have been hatched or something. Hiding any feathers in there? He tried looking up my sleeve. Not wanting to laugh at his antics, I pulled away.

Chicken man, Cathy called out softly. She wasn’t trying not to laugh.

You guys’ll be sorry when you hear about all the fun we had skiing.

Cathy gave me one of her serious looks, like she was trying to be the mother figure in spite of her teenage appearance. She was cute and tiny, and just couldn’t manage to look intimidating. Still, she tried. She couldn’t look it, but sometimes she could make me feel it. Ted, you’re going to find out that no one wants to give up Christmas to go skiing with you. Face it. She sighed. Just give it up and go home for the break. I’ll even take care of Star while you’re gone.

Never, I declared, smiling and trying to look more confident than I felt inside. Christmas with my parents was not something I wanted to do. Not this year. Not any year, I realized. Not in five years.

Cathy was right. When I came up with the idea for this trip, we were a group of six. After talking to everyone about the dates I had booked the trip for, we were down to a group of one. So much for a big holiday ski trip.

When we both had a break, Cathy caught up with me at the desk. Don’t take it so hard, Ted. It’s not because of you. It’s the holiday. This is a time of year for family. You need to realize that. She was speaking gently now. She had this soothing tone that usually made me feel better – except when she was lecturing me about seeing my family.

She knew my family was a point of contention with me. I hadn’t been close to them since… well, since college. That was a long time ago.

Cathy, I know what you’re trying to do. Please just let it go. I sounded harsher than I intended, but I didn’t apologize.

She sighed. You just don’t know what you’re missing. I’m not doing this for me, but for you. Someday you’ll realize that. Then she walked off and left me with my thoughts.

I sulked for awhile, feeling like my friends were abandoning me. If I didn’t have my friends, then what did I have? Yeah, right. Family.

Much later, I went to the room where we napped when things were slow. Cathy was coming out as I was going in. She touched me on the arm and smiled, but didn’t say anything. Neither did I.

I didn’t get much rest either. As soon as I started to drift off, someone came in to get me and I was back out on the floor. That happens a lot in my job.

I was working with this really old patient, a kind woman. Though I never knew my grandparents, she was what I imagined my grandmother would have been like. She was really sweet, always apologizing that I had to take care of her.

Ma’am, it’s my job to take care of you.

That’s sweet, Ted, but it’s so close to Christmas. You should be off with your family this time of year.

Someone has to be here taking care of you, I told her, smiling.

She shook her head as she patted the back of my hand. I’m old. I’m about all used up. You’re young. You still have your life ahead of you. Don’t let life pass you by. Make time for your family. Don’t ever get too busy for them.

I wanted to tell her I wouldn’t, but I didn’t like to lie. I just smiled as I finished and slipped away.

When my shift was over, I made my way home to my empty apartment. I was still feeling down because of everyone backing out of the skiing trip. Though I usually worked over the holidays for the extra pay, this year I had scheduled time off to take that trip. Now I was stuck with time off and no way to use it.

I looked around my apartment, realizing how empty it is. Star jumped up on the sofa and sat at the other end, appraising me. I remembered the old lady’s words.

Star, how would you feel if I left you alone for a few days?

Star didn’t say a word. She did rub her head against my hand and purred, though. She always seemed to know how to react to my mood.

Don’t worry, girl. Cathy will look in on you and make sure you’re fed. It’s just for a few days. I thought about what I was planning. What am I doing? I must be crazy. After all this time, I’m really going home.

I got up, knowing that if I thought it over anymore, I’d talk myself out of it like I did all the times before. All the years before. The suitcase that I was going to take skiing was still on the foot of my bed. Sighing, shaking my head in disbelief of what I was about to do, I started filling it with clothes.

I should stop on the way and pick up presents for Mom and Dad, I thought. I grinned when I thought about how