The Aftermath Of You

Chapter Thirty Four

We did it!" Jack whispered. "See, Toni, all of that skimping and saving and now we have this!"

I stared at our small white house in fascination. It was beautiful. And it was just screaming for a layer of paint and some sweetly scented flowers to be planted in the yard.

"We deserve a celebration," Jack told me, "after all that heavy budgeting."

I nearly snorted on the spot. Heavy budgeting? More like manic scrimping. We had lived off just under half of my salary alone for an entire year. The other half and all of Jack's salary had gone straight into a savings account. It had worked though, finally, as the day came when we had somehow saved just under $100,000 dollars. "

You're on." I smiled, partly with relief. "Where do you want to go?"

I held my breath, knowing he would say something like 'the Chinese buffet down the road' or something just as gruesome.

"Your choice," he said. "Wherever you want, whatever price range."

I nearly dropped dead in shock. Wherever I wanted to go, and whatever price range? Sucking in an excited breath, I cast my mind around. Where did I want to go? I tried to think of all the restaurants my friends had told me about over the years: the tasty seafood restaurants along the lakefront; the gourmet Indian restaurants, the delis and cafes. The options were endless, but old habits die hard. I picked up the Yellow Pages and flicked through the bars, ringing around until I found the best Tuesday night special.

"Way to go!" Jack cried in admiration when he saw the bar. It was dark and possibly hadn't seen a bottle of bleach for at least a decade. Skeletons adorned the tables and if you breathed in you were assaulted by the musty smell of rancid beer. "Eight drinks for sixteen dollars before ten o'clock; we'd better get drinking." We bought a card each and started to swill the gin and lemonades.

As the little hand reached the ten and the big hand reached the twelve we stumbled blindly down the steep stairway, missing half of the steps but bouncing merrily in the way only a thoroughly plastered person can. Rolling drunk, we stepped out onto the darkened streets below, before staring back up the stairs in horror.

"Did you see that?" Jack shouted. "I was like superman!" He stared back up the steep stairway, awestruck with pride. "I can jump over sky scrapers, and save kittens from fires."

I snorted for a good five minutes.

"Have you stopped laughing?" he roared. "I'm a champ. Watch me fly!"

Bending at the waist he stretched his arms out above his head, and started running down the street.

I was shocked. He was Superman! I told him so too. "Jack! JACK! You are superman!" I cried. "You really are!"

Jack ran faster.

I shouted and hooted louder in pride.

Jack jumped as if to fly and fell ... or maybe he didn't jump and fall ... maybe he just tripped up on a piece of the pavement - it's hard to say. All I know is that he fell onto his stomach and slid on his left hip bone for three meters. With his arms stretched out above his head like Superman. I was completely impressed.

"It hurts ,Toni," he told me as he clutched his hip, blood oozing through his fingers.

"Yeah but don't worry about that," I told him proudly. "Because you looked great!"