A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed

A quiet discuss between friends.

 

Part IV: A Friend In Need is a Friend Indeed

 

            The best place to get Chinese in Hanover County is the Lotus Blossom Cafe on Oak Street next to Uncle Ho's Punk Emporium. She likes the General Tso's chicken there. She likes it also that there are few people who eat there and that she knows most of the staff. Andrea is with her on this afternoon. They like to sit and take stock of their lives with Chinese Food. Right now Joanna feels that you should just leave your livestock alone. She has ordered the number seven. Andrea has ordered the number 9. They stare at each other for a moment. She's know Andrea since they were both at least five. They grew up with each other and have been close friends since then. Right then there wasn't much to say but the smile at each other.

 

"How was the wedding?" Andrea asked.

 

"It was marvelous." She said quietly. The hint of sarcasm hung on the end of her words. "White wedding, doves and James even bribed the band to play until at least 3 am. Mother was thrilled."

 

"Not that you'd be bitter about anything."

 

"You know, I might not be a doctor like James but I'm damn successful in my own field. You know some people are just built for clerical work."

 

"Yea I was about to ask how things were with your mother."

 

"She informed me that she knew a great couple who can't have children on their own that are looking for a healthy baby to adopt. She also told me that the cost of living was higher and that while I might be making awesome money now it won't be the same when I have a baby."

 

"Did she say this to you at the wedding?"

 

"No, she said it at rehearsal dinner."

 

"You can't say that your mother doesn't have great timing." Andrea stabbed at a piece of chicken with her chop sticks. "Ever going to look for him?"

 

"No, not for a while. I'm still mad at him. I'm going to be mad at him for a long time. It's probably best that I just let him go for a while."

 

"Well far be it from me to tell you what you need to do." That means she doesn't approve of it all but in order to still be your friend I'm just going to pretend I approve. "I just can't believe that he'd do something like that. I thought you know you had something."

 

            Right I had a brief relationship with a man who was emotionally void, she thought. I fell in what I thought was love and he kept telling me that he loved me. I then did stupid things to keep him happy. It just kept getting weirder and dirtier. They were days when she couldn't stand to look at herself in the mirror let alone him in the eye. And why would she do such a thing? Because of three little words that tied her to him. People do a barrage of stupid things for those three little words. When she couldn't take it anymore she told him. He gave her a look and then left. It was at that moment, and what she'd been fuming over for some time, was that she had been used. Emotionally blackmailed to remain in a relationship where she wasn't entirely comfortable with her surroundings. What bothered her the most was the fact she didn't have the courage to end it herself. She should have been able to and she couldn't. She sat there feeling both the hurt of her own shortcomings and then the fact that she'd been used and then tossed aside. She'd wondered if he had done it to others. People don't just start using people because it suits them one day. No that was something that would have been a repeat offence.

 

"Yea," She said finally. "It was somewhat of a shock."

 

"You know you should sue him for child support. Find the b*****d and make him pay."

 

"One day I probably will but right now I'm to angry to ask him to do anything legal or logical. I think if I saw him now I'd end up jamming this fork up his nose so far that it would puncture his brain."

 

            It was true, Joanna would. She had even composed a list of the best ways to kill George Russell. So far her favorite, and now occupied the number 2 and three spot on her list, was drowning in a giant Jell-o Mold (green because green was a degusting flavor) and hanging him from a tree and telling small children he was a festive piñata.

 

"Don't worry if I see him first I'll kill him first."

 

"Don't bother, sure he's a waste of life but he's not worth going to prison over."

 

"I admire you Joey. I can't imagine raising a baby on my own like you."

 

"It'll be hard but you know I don't think it'll be all as hard as putting up with mother. I'm just scared."

 

"Of?"

 

"What if I end up being the kind of parent my parents are? What if after having this baby I end up being just like my mother?"

 

"You won't be like your mother because you remember what you're mother is like."

 

            Right, she thought. It wasn't that Joanna was bitter about her best friends statement it was just she was wrong. Joanna took a psychology class some years back and learned something she believes today. it was on the subject of environmental conditioning. After all we look at the background of serial killers and attempt to figure out why they committed their crimes. It, more often than not, leads back to their home lives. What was the negative and influences, whether it was a parent or a teacher. But even on a simpler level, we are attracted to people who remind us of the parent that we are the most influenced by. This made Joanna cringed quietly inside. What also concerned her was the fact that she could easily become her mother. Mental illness runs in family sects, her father was rather sane, though an alcoholic, but her mother was completely batty.  She only hoped when the time came that whomever she was with would do the right thing.

 

"I met someone at the wedding by the way."

 

"Oh?"

 

"He says his name is Five."

 

"Five? Like the number?"

 

"Yea like the number."

Author's Note

The usual