So, Andy says he wasn’t in Springfield for too long and that he no longer gives a shit about his 3 brothers who are just fucked up, whacked out, and are coke heads who don’t give a shit about Andy. He said he had to see them and see how different they are and how screwed up they are and how much they couldn’t care less about him to realize that he’ll never need to cry over them again.

He spent the first night or two at the house he grew up in. He said he didn’t go walking in the woods as he had planned, but that he really enjoyed talking with Garry’s new girlfriend. Garry sleeps in the day and she’s up all night like Andy is, so they hit it off instantly and he said he learned all kinds of sad and embarrassing things about Garry. He says the only thing Garry’s got going for him is that he’s 42, but looks 10 years younger and is handsome and in shape.

The girlfriend, Jenny, is Puerto Rican. Garry only dates blacks and Puerto Ricans, from what I hear. He says Jenny’s very open sexually and was married for 18 years with 2 teenage boys. She and Garry love each other, but she says she’ll never marry Garry. She says they’re just having fun living with each other and having sex and doing coke.

Andy still has no desire to move back there but says he’d probably be great pals with Jenny if he lived there.

He said that the day he arrived, it was beautiful and everything was so green. He knew, though, not to let all that green fool him, for in a matter of months, it’d all be gone and he’d be cold and miserable if he were there.

During his 7 days at the beach, 5 of them were cloudy.

He says he saw all kinds of people we both knew, as well as people he just knew from Springfield. Yes, he saw Charlotte and Jim and Char said she was thrilled to get my letter and loved my artwork and is happy I’m happy.

A funny thing happened with Char. Andy said that as soon as he knocked on her door she jumped out and she gave him a big hug and kiss.

So? She does that all the time to me. Andy said that was her and me, not her and him (true) and said she hasn’t done that since he was little.

What’s the point? I asked. He said not only could he smell booze on her breath, but he knew it was Bacardi Rum, being the bartender that he is at the restaurant where he works. I guess Charlotte was really feeling good and who knows how much she is into drinking? I don’t remember her being an alcoholic, but those things were easily hidden from me as a kid, I wasn’t observant or perceptive, so who knows if she’s an alcoholic?

He says Family Pizza wasn’t the same as he always remembered it to be.

He says he saw Bea and her daughter Michelle who sort of lived behind us and he saw Natalie and Al M. He also named off seeing other people that I believe I remember. I have at least a vague memory of them, anyway. He says most of the people we knew are really aging.

He says he saw two of the Therus kids. One of them, the only son out of the 5, still looks like scummy white trash. I then remembered that I used to stick my tongue out at him constantly and that he one day threatened to rip my tongue out of my mouth and I just stood there laughing.

Here goes my fucking wisdom tooth bothering me again.

Anyway, he had a hard time sleeping there once David, Kelly, and their two kids got there. They’d get up and be louder than hell early in the mornings. That’s families for you and people with kids always think they own the world.

He said he was walking on the beach alone one night and he was dead center on the beach by the shore when that mortal, terrifying vibe came over him. A voice said to him to get home now. Now! So he did and then the voice said to turn off the lights in the cottage and make it look like he was asleep. He never did see anything or anyone, but he says the vibe told him that a serial killer was lurking around and would’ve killed him. He says he knew he’d have killed anyone just for the thrill of it.

One night he met this girl Lisa who was in her late 20s, was there alone and was renting a 3-bedroom cottage for a week at just over $500. That’s a lot of fucking money for a week! She’s a receptionist at a law firm and they hit it off really well. One night he and Lisa and a couple of other teenagers were climbing onto the flat rocks when a female Puerto Rican security guard on that beach asked them to leave. The teenagers left, then Andy showed her his license. Then he explained that he only gets to be there once every two years and that that was Lisa’s first time there and he asked if they could stay a little while. She said sure and she and the dog she had in her truck joined them. They all talked for 2½ hours. Her name was Olivia and he says she was my type. Tall, dark, and feminine.

Andy found out that people in a nearby cottage own those flat rocks and how they bitch about teens having sex on the flat rocks and leaving rubbers and beer cans in that area and their lawn. If someone got hurt on those rocks at night, they’re also liable for that.

Some soap star also lives nearby that Andy said he couldn’t care less about.

So Andy thought it was nice of Olivia and was grateful to her that she kicked off everyone else, but let him and Lisa stay. They talked about all kinds of things. Olivia and her cop husband were from Texas, but they got transferred to the Niantic area.

As Lisa and Andy were walking back to their cottages for the night, Andy told her that he believed there was a purpose for their meeting each other. It turns out that Lisa, like us, always wanted to move far from home, but is very close to her family. Andy told her that if she’s that close to her family, don’t move.

Later…

I got a little dizzy at one point during the night, but feel better now.

Andy never called back, so I guess he fell asleep.

Andy said that while Bea would be standing up on the beach, she’d do what Andy calls a Hollywood pose to show off. I can picture this, too, and I’m anxious to see Andy impersonate her.

He also said Charlotte was really trying hard to cover up and hide her buzz.

According to him, Natalie must be losing her mind cuz she asked Andy 3 different times how life in California was. I wouldn’t know, and Andy would have to remind her that he lives in Arizona.

How fucking nice! Char says my folks played them our wedding video where my hair looked fried, my face looked shitty and I looked 125 pounds. Char says she loved it and I guess Mom and Dad were pointing out the parts they liked. What was Char supposed to do, though? Tell Andy I looked like shit?

Tom’s getting up now, so I guess I’ll call it quits with writing for now.

Later…

Tom told me the secret and yes, it’s a stupid piddly-assed thing. I mean, it’s a nice thing, but it’s something I knew would happen someday and I don’t see why this ever had to be a secret. The grand secret is that in a month our bills will be paid. I knew this when he said his father wanted us to have that money. I swear, his wait on this or that obsession is getting awfully old. The same with his repositioning stuff I deliberately move out of order, while I swear I’ll put stuff back where it goes.

Later…

I feel really bad about something I did to Tom earlier. When I got up I was a bit tight and wheezy and he was on the phone giving computer advice to who I thought was Wendy and I thought, here we go again. She’s gonna use him for free advice and interrupt our time together.

Then I went into the kitchen and when I sat down to eat there were shitloads of pie crust crumbs on my chair and all over the floor, so I started bitching. He then got off the phone and I started chewing him out and asking why he didn’t offer to whack my back or make me coffee if he heard me wheezing and hacking up a storm. He said he had gestured to me in case I needed anything, but I didn’t see him. Also, he’d been talking to Carla. Someone he used to work with at AMEX and he was bummed out for a few reasons. He had said he didn’t think it was a bad time to take the call since I was asleep and he didn’t know when I was getting up.

He also felt like he’d lost a dream cuz he wants to work with computers and you have to build up a clientele somehow. He says, though, he knows I didn’t do it on purpose, that he wasn’t trying to judge me, and that it’s done and over with. Well, on purpose or not, I still feel really guilty and I shouldn’t have jumped the gun, but I’ll get mine. If God doesn’t punish me, he will. He swears he won’t, but we’ve been through similar situations before. Consciously or subconsciously, he’ll move shit in the house out of order, pick a fight with me or make sure we don’t have sex too often.

I offered to put off the kid he swears is possible for another month or two to punish me, but he says that’d be punishing him also, cuz that’s his dream, too. Yeah, well, I still wouldn’t be surprised if there was no “opportunity” to have sex during my next mid-cycle. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was back to his old ways sexually. Yes, I feel that worry again, cuz this morning we had sex in his favorite position and he never came. He still says don’t worry. I’ll be pregnant in a month. He’s sure of it and that’s the truth, he says. He also says his cumming isn’t always gonna be predictable or something he can control. I had a slight flicker of a light vibe that told me I’d have no period or spots next month, but that seems physically, technically, logically, and scientifically impossible. Tom disagrees with me, but I had an idea of at least one thing that could’ve held him off at cumming all that time. I’ve thought of this several times, but here’s why it seems more of a certainty to me. When we were first married, we were fine financially, but almost right afterward we were broke till recently. Well, we agreed to wait on a kid when we first married, but I find it more than a coincidence that he starts cumming when we’re the best off financially since being married. I understand this, though. It makes sense. I also think God has almost all couples broke their first two years or so of marriage to test their relationships.

I asked Tom if the reason why he didn’t tell me he thought my body would react this way and spot was so I wouldn’t have it playing on my mind. He said, yes. That’s cool. I’ll bet he wouldn’t tell me if he thought I was pregnant till a doctor confirmed that, but that’s cool too, and understandable.

Andy did fall asleep last night at midnight but will be calling later. He won’t be coming over tonight cuz Tom says he’s got to wait and see if he needs those forms notarized.

Tom still says everything will work out the way we want. I hope so. I haven’t been feeling bad, but not too great either. No spots or cramps, but physically and mentally I feel like I’ve got PMS and right on the brink of ragging.