After dinner, while everyone else had gathered in the media room to watch Shrek the Third on DVD, I managed to slip away to the kitchen where I grabbed the cordless phone and hid myself away in the pantry. I knew that with the time difference between Maine and California, I would have a really good chance of catching Gary at work. At least that was my sincere hope!

Amazingly, my call to California went through and someone picked up on the first ring.

“Thank you for calling The Shack. How might I help you?” Came the unfamiliar voice of some young sounding lady.
After recovering from the shock of not hearing Gary answer the phone, I asked, “Uh, is Gary there?”

“May I ask who is calling?” the lady politely asked.

“Tell him it is Alvin!” I said.

“Alvin who?” she asked and my heart sank a bit.

“Alvin Holloway.” I said.

“You mean Alvin Holloway the Junior Surfing Champion?” she asked.

“Yeah that’s the one.” I said feeling slightly annoyed now.

“I am sorry, but I think Alvin Holloway moved away or something like that. Besides, I don’t think he ever really worked here. He just sort of hung around maybe.” She said.

“No! I am Alvin! I am trying to call my friend Gary who owns and runs THE SHACK!” I said virtually snarling.

“Oh!” she said and for a full second I thought that was all she was going to say, but then she said something that totally blew me away.

“Um… yeah… Gary doesn’t work here anymore. I’m not sure, but I think I remember Becky telling David that Cindy said, that Gary met this one lady and they ran off to Mexico to get married or some junk like that.”

“WHAT? MARRIED?” I shouted into the phone.

“Like oh my gawd! You like totally yelled in my ear!” she whined and I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle her.
“But-but-but, did he leave a number or an address where he could be reached?” I pleaded.

“No, sorry! Hey I got to go now! Thanks for calling. Bubye!” she said and hung up just like that.

I sat, stunned with the phone still to my ear. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. At first I was so exceedingly mad that she had hung up on me the way she did. I then wondered if maybe someone was playing a dirty trick on me.

The phone started making that really annoying beeping sound indicating that it was still off the hook. I quickly yanked the phone from my ear and turned it off, but I didn’t climb out of the pantry. Instead, I sat down on a large overturned cooking pot and stared down at the lifeless phone in my hands. I had no idea I had been in there as long as I had until Jacquelyn opened the pantry door and said to me.

“There you are! You’ve missed half the movie already! What are you doing in here anyway?”

“Gary is getting married.” I mumbled.

“You mean that old surfing guy you told me about?” she asked.

I simply nodded my head, stood up, handed the phone to her and drug myself all the way to my room. I was probably in my room all of five minutes before Jacquelyn came in.

“You okay?” she asked in a very sweet sort of way.

When she had come in I had been inside my armoire getting out my pajamas. I shook my head to indicate that I wasn’t okay. She then did something I hadn’t expected.

She walked up to me, took my pajamas and things away from me, laid them on the bed then returned and gave me the biggest hug. I hated that I did it, but I started to cry there in her arms.

“He sold The Shack and everything.” I mumbled not really to her, but just sort of thinking aloud, “I can’t believe he sold it. And he didn’t write to me or call or anything to tell me he was getting married. And what’s he doing getting married? He’s too old to get married!”

“I know it is shocking news and more so that you had to hear it from a stranger.” She started saying though I don’t know how she knew I had heard it from a stranger.

I don’t know why I am so lucky to have a girlfriend like Jacquelyn. I mean, how many girls out there would not care that their boyfriend wets his pants and bed?

The two of us sat on the floor leaning against the wall. We didn’t really talk; we only sat quietly while holding onto one another. She softly kissed my cheek and rubbed my chest through my shirt until I stopped crying.

After a while I said, “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” She asked almost in a whisper.

I shrugged, “For everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“You came up here to visit but everything here sucks right now. I wish everything wasn’t so sucky!”

She placed her hand on my right cheek and pulled my face around so that we were looking into each other’s eyes.

“Alvin,” she began, “I came up here because everything is so sucky right now. I wanted to be able to help you.”
I think I might have smiled back at that.

She leaned in closer, never closing her eyes. I leaned in to. Our lips touched and we began to kiss; at first soft but soon it had developed into passionate kissing. Unlike before when we had been making out down in the basement by the Lap Pool, this time we both seemed a lot more comfortable with what we were doing.