Ten years have now passed since as Michael would have said had that little incident and life has been pretty good. Michael married Hayley Stu was of course his best man and Jane the chief bridesmaid and still living in their home town. Stu and Jane have left their home town but have moved into the next town 5 miles away and are living together and making plans for their wedding and who will be best man yes you’ve guessed it Michael. Sadly Stu’s dad passed away after a long illness with cancer a year ago, but Stu’s Mom is now coping quite well.
Michael and Stu didn’t have to worry about their friendship it has remained strong and the complication of Jane dating his best friend didn’t really cause any real problems, but like life in general there are always moments where disagreements happen but never anything serious. They meet regularly every month at Stu’s Mom’s house by her invitation as Stu once said it keeps her busy.
Plans for the wedding are gathering speed two months to go and almost everything sorted out and things have gone really smoothly the church, reception, guests lists, wedding presents all sorted and the honeymoon was booked well in advance, so no real major problems left to face. They had all descended on Stu’s Mom as they did on the last Saturday of the month as they always had.
This particular Saturday was Michael’s anniversary of his brush with death it just seems like last week Michael was saying and a lot of things have happened pretty quickly since that day, not to mention the odd weird thing Stu remarked, all in the passage of life retorted Michael. "The passage of life!!"! Jane had joined the conversation "you’ve no idea what we went through when you were in hospital Michael you really don’t, we were at our wits end." "I’m sorry sis I didn’t mean to be off hand about it," "well you shouldn’t be it was an extremely worrying time for Mom , Dad and I, we thought we were losing you." "Okay, Okay" Michael continued "I’m sorry but what I’m trying to say it’s made us strong and the four of us wouldn’t be here otherwise" as he put his arm around Hayley. They continued their discussions on a lighter note about those events until it was time to leave. Michael and Hayley were first to leave and bade their farewells and Stu’s Mom showed them to the door as they said goodbye to her she took Michael to one side as Hayley went to the car and said to him "be careful Michael you are so lucky to be here never forget that". She had that look in her eye that Michael had never seen for such a long time and that look meant take notice he embraced Stu’s Mom and whispered to her "I know." When he got to the car Hayley said "what was all that about?" "oh nothing hun. she just told me to be careful that’s all."
Stu and Jane stayed for a further hour before they left having enjoyed their little reunion as they always did but Stu’s Mom stopped both of them as they were leaving. "As happy as we have been here today I fear for Michael" they both looked at her and Stu recognised that look, the same look as she had those years ago when they had discussed Michael before and that worried him and he nodded. It was Jane who had the greatest reaction "you mean its..." and Stu’s Mom stopped her immediately by putting her hand over her mouth to stop the next few words from coming out or being heard saying "you mustn’t and you can’t you know that." Stu’s Mom continued "you have to be careful my dear it’s nothing certain but I have this feeling that I recognise from a long time ago, you are young yet and you do not understand fully the consequences of these things. You two should not discuss this, not yet, be careful and take care with that" she kissed each of them in turn and said goodbye.
Their journey home was very quiet and even though they talked each other they never discussed what Stu’s Mom had told them. They arrived home and started to discuss the day on how good it had been, it was Jane who started off by saying "I wonder what your Mom meant Stu." "I trust my Mom Jane and if she is adamant that we should not discuss it then I know that we shouldn’t."
There was no further discussion.
