Cheri and Me: Snippets of a Relationship

By Michael keigan

How many people can say when they began to know you? . . . He knew exactly when his relationship with Cheri began. . . . Simple enough, yet the beginning of an adventure that who knew where it would take Bill. . . . He laughed, then thought, indeed, this could be an interesting relationship.

Did you know that when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, they crossed over the mountains and found another Eden, and they called it Tennessee?

No two witnesses remember the same thing in the same way. Each may have a portion of the truth of the matter, and it may be that some remember more than others more exactly. To come to the truth may not be as easy as recalling what we remember.

When friends work together on an unequal basis (i.e., one is the boss and the other the employee), friction is bound to bring sparks. But, while sparks may fly, they can bring laughter and fun.

Bill knew this, but he couldnt not work with Cheri. . . . If he wasnt married to her, a real employee wouldnt put up with him! Bill needed Cheri to make life work.

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, Robert Burns . . . Or, as Bill would say, when you think things are going well, Murphy often implements his rule. If anything can go against your plans, it will.

. . . When a rich man is asked how much is enough, his answer is often, Just a little more. Few people say We have sufficient for our needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456718428

Michael keigan

Bill is a native of Florida, but has lived throughout the state and the South. Retired from the USAF, he received his B.A. from FL Atlantic Univ., M.A. from FL State Univ., and J.D. from Univ. of FL. A member of the Florida Bar, Bill practiced law in Florida, then moved to Tennessee. Most recently he has been a “Rule 31 Mediator” in the TN court system, specializing in domestic violence.

Book preview

Forward

I wrote these stories over a period of three months, plus two stories which had been previously published and one that I had written, but was unpublished, years ago.

These stories are fiction. I have tried to convince Cheri that they are fiction, but she thinks they reflect real attitudes – well, they might! I thought, and still think, that lessons can be learned from each story.

While these stories may not be organized as a short story ought to be, I tried to keep them in time order to show a progression (or lack of) in a relationship. But each story stands alone for what I want to portray.

I hope you enjoy them.

Acknowledgments

Who Needs Salt Lake was originally published in the Winter 2001-2002 issue of the Irreantum, pp. 50-51.

Rocks was first published in Grandmother Earth IX: 2003, pp. 84-87.

On August 7, 2010, Sparks was awarded first prize, Conference Prose, at the Life Press Christian Writers’ Conference, held in Memphis, Tennessee. It appears in Grandmother Earth XVI: 2010.

The author was also awarded Honorable Mention, Conference Prose, for the short story Come In Outa the Heat, which appears herein as A Pearl of Great Price. It was also in Grandmother Earth XVI: 2010.

Bill has been writing about Cheri since they got married in 1999. Expect more, especially if you like these stories.

Preface

After The Old Curmudgeon was published, I promised my wife, Cheri, that I would write a story about her. Well, as a writer, one often draws from his acquaintances and familiarities, so that the characters are real or seemingly real. Yet, the final character is more a composite of what the writer knows and what he has added to round out what he wants to portray.

Sometimes this can reflect an image which can become distorted to the character who sees him/herself differently, and creates problems in relationships. I hope that is not so in the present instance. The ‘Cheri’ herein portrayed is not my wife – well, not entirely. Nor is the ‘Bill’ all me. But the two have made a portrait which may remind couples how to live with opposites.

Having said that, I want the reader to know that, were it not for Cheri, my wife, this little book would not have been completed, as she is editor, proofreader, secretary, gofer, and often the ‘designated responsible party’. But, in the end, as the author, it is my sole responsibility, and I take it fully and without excuse.

Contents

1. Gettin’ to Know

2. Answers

3. Change of Plans

4. For the Love of Money

5. Who Needs Salt Lake?

6. Rocks!

7. That Texas Woman

8. Beauty

9. Beliefs

10. Criticism

11. Disremembering

12. Dress Code

13. Family Roots

14. Food for Thought!

15. GPS

16. Recipes

17. Snow

18. Southern Anyway!

19. Sparks

20. A Pearl of Great Price

21. Hawaii

22. It Was Tennessee That I Thought Of

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1.

Gettin’ to Know …

How many people can say when they began to know you? Think, about it – even your parents. The time is vague because we do not have memories that we can recollect about pre-birth times, before time began for us, of someone close, say our spouse, or our siblings.

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Bill knew exactly when his relationship with Cheri began. It was at 3:45 p.m. October 12, 1998 – that was the date stamp on the e-mail. There were pages of e-mails that he could check, because she had saved every one.

Hi, it said. Saw your blurb on line and thought we might chat.

Simple enough – yet, the beginning of an adventure that who knew where it would take Bill. He thought it was planned in a way. In fact, he knew it was pre-planned, or just outlined in a way that might be considered fore-ordained. Not predestined, because fore-ordination allows for agency. That is, we have choices that lead to consequences – not consequences of our own choosing, but consequences nonetheless. While we are free to make choices, we are not free to choose the results of those choices.

The chat turned into a nearly six-month-long, long-distance preliminary dialogue of getting to know Cheri. He recalled a movie in which a character said, The people some people marry in a wistful way. Bill, too, marveled at that. We never know … until we know. For some that knowledge accumulates over a lifetime. For others, they think they know instantly, whether they do or not. Is that really possible?

Later, an e-mail arrived. I love you, Cheri wrote.

What? he thought. How can you say that? We haven’t even met. You don’t even know anything about me? Bill thought of writing back and chastising her when the subject had not been broached. He merely typed Why?

It wasn’t thirty minutes later that a You’ve Got Mail notice appeared on his screen. He knew by then that she had just come home from work and was waiting. Her job was an odd-houred one in neighboring Salt Lake City. And, being single, she had told him earlier her work schedule, and, of course, he reciprocated; their e-mailings were fractured.

The e-mail read Because I love you – that’s why!

The telephone rang. It was his cell phone, and it was Cheri. Bill hesitated. Then he pressed the green button and said, Hello.

It was Cheri. Good morning, my darling. How are you?

Bill recognized her voice before he realized the implication of the e-mail she had sent.

Did you get my e-mail? she asked.

No, Bill lied.

You should read it, she said. I’ll let you read it first – then we’ll talk.

Why don’t you just tell me what it says? he asked.

Read it, then we’ll talk. I’ve got to go to bed. Sweet dreams, she clicked off.

Hm-m, Bill mused. He had written e-mails to several women through the online service he had used. It was church-related and claims were made that were supposed to be true, but could any service guarantee that members would tell the truth? For that matter, could their membership be verified by the service? He did not think of fraud or misrepresentation, but one never knew. He’d have to check. But love doesn’t need a background check, does it? he thought. Cheri had taken the chat to a different level.

Why would she lie about love? Bill posed this question to himself. Here he was, a single, professional man, of an age when men were physically unimpressive and not in the best shape financially. He had a small apartment in a small Southern city in Tennessee. She had been recently divorced, apparently had a decent job, and a home in Utah – and no children. She had not mentioned anything that would have led him to believe she was not what she said she was. She had even sent him an L.D.S. church program, with her name listed as organist. That was important to him. He wanted a relationship with a worthy Mormon woman. He thought she was.

Could a good man marry a good woman and expect to have a good relationship – without knowing a lot about her? Where did that thought come from? Love could come later. Especially not having met physically, face to face. It was a modern dilemma – or was it?

Bill had read a lot of history, especially of the United States of America. He loved the Westward Movement, not because it envisioned cowboys and Indians. He did like reading Louis L’Amour stories, but he loved the clash of personalities and the drama of strangers meeting strangers in strange surroundings.

He recalled reading about a lot of mail order brides that went west to marry men they had not seen before. He thought things couldn’t get any stranger than two opposites e-mailing each other and one declaring her love for the other without having met him.

Oh, they had exchanged photographs and had exchanged biographies, but now long-distance telephone calls. This could get expensive! Imagine talking at length every day.

The telephone rang again at 3:35 p.m. the same day. It was Cheri. Well? she asked.

Well what Bill replied.

Did you read what I e-mailed you?

Yes, he said rather matter-of-factly.

Well? Cheri asked