Chapter 31 Debbie Gets Screw-ged #3
“Instead, I have a new tradition. I get the cats some treats, and they watch it with me. Well, Butch and Sundance watch. They like the scenes with Uncle Billy’s pet squirrel and crow. It’s hard for Cleopatra to watch TV, on account of her e-y-e.”
Matt was confused. Instead of mourning the loss of her job, Debbie was mourning the family she’d never had. Was that triggered by this Wonderful Life movie? Or were the two subjects somehow connected?
He had never considered whether Debbie’s single life had been an active choice on her part or one that circumstance had thrust upon her. Now he knew that she had wanted to be a mother.
He wasn’t sure what to do with that information.
He felt wholly inadequate for the moment.
He wanted to comfort his friend, dreaded saying or doing the wrong thing and adding to her pain.
He felt almost paralyzed with uncertainty, like he was trapped in the middle of a minefield. One wrong step and KABLOOEY!
The silence was abrasive, made his skin itch, like a rough, woolen sweater.
He wanted to scratch at the silence with noise of his own making—as all adults seemed to do at such moments.
Serve up empty platitudes: “Things always turn out for the best.” “The Lord has a plan.” Shit like that.
Quote scripture (his dad). Change the subject (his mom). None of that seemed right, though.
The moment demanded emotional truth.
“You would have made a great mom,” he said. She absolutely would have.
“Thank you.” Debbie managed a weak smile.
More itchy silence ensued.
“You boys have become my family.”
Matt nodded. At least there was that.
Debbie sniffed. Fresh tears seeped from her eyes. “Now that’s gone, too. If I go to any of your home games, I’ll be arrested for trespassing.”
Matt seethed with fury. Colton Langley and Dean Smith would suffer for this. William would not be able to stop him.
“Surely you can fight this,” Matt said. “I know a lawyer—”
Debbie shook her head. “That’s not how it works in the real world, hon. This is an employment at-will state. Besides, I’m technically guilty…”
Matt gave her a questioning look.
Debbie hung her head in shame. “I’m divorced.”
Divorced? Shit! Matt’s hope for a happy resolution to this nightmare evaporated.
He knew their denomination’s hierarchy of sins by heart.
The top five, in descending order, were: Homosexuality, Abortion, Divorce, Adultery, then Murder.
Some of the Bible verses Colton had listed in his letter to the editor had involved divorce.
If Debbie was divorced, she was screwed.
She’d have a better chance of getting her job back if she were an axe murderer.
“You were married?” Matt asked.
Debbie nodded. “Briefly. Very briefly. He and I were best friends in college. He was so gentle and sweet—not like other guys. We could tell each other anything. So, when he told me about his ‘problem,’ I wasn’t too worried.
That’s what he called it: his ‘problem,’ like he had eczema or something. Like it was no big deal.”
Debbie stared down at her hands. Hugged her cats closer. “His ‘problem’ was that he was attracted to men…”
Matt froze.
“He was a homosexual; except he didn’t like that term…”
“Gay,” Matt thought. We’re called gays now.
“I was so na?ve,” Debbie continued. “We were both so young, only twenty-two…I thought our love could conquer anything…”
Debbie sobbed. “He broke my heart. Just walked out of my life and into someone else’s and never looked back. Left me to pick up the pieces.”
Matt felt so conflicted. He hated this anonymous gay man who had hurt his friend.
Loathed him. And simultaneously ached for the guy.
Understood his misguided choices. They had both been fed the lie that sexual orientation was an act of free will, that just as people chose whether to be alcoholics, they also chose to be fags.
As if everyone went through a buffet line and picked either the apple or cherry pie.
As if Matt had ever desired cherry pie. As if any straight guy would choose apple.
On the TV, little Zuzu, muted, uttered her famous line, which Matt knew by heart: “Look Daddy, Teacher says, ‘Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.’”
And Jimmy Stewart, with his perfect teeth and sexy stubble, agreed.
Debbie pointed to a one-page letter on the coffee table. “Fourteen years I worked at MCU. And that’s all I get for my effort. Two paragraphs informing me I’m fired.”
Matt hadn’t noticed the letter until now. “May I read it?” he asked.
“Be my guest.”
Matt picked it up and scanned it. Read it again, more slowly.
“I thought your name was ‘Debbie Ford,’” he said. This letter was addressed to the wrong person.
“‘Ford’ is my maiden name,” Debbie said. “When I started working at MCU, I went by my married name: ‘Covington.’”
“As in Mrs. Nicholas Covington,” Matt thought.
Same “N. Covington ‘81” whose name was scrawled in the Star Wars Storm Trooper mask Matt had worn at Paul’s interview for membership in the GM.
As in Nicholas and Bradley, who had hosted the Rocky Horror Halloween party, the couple whose love story had so inspired him.