BLOOD ON THE TRACKS

CONTINUED FROM YESTERDAY, WHERE CHUCK CAME TO BE IN THE HOSPITAL HAVING OPEN HEART SURGERY

Chuck is the X Mrs. Bulletholes Uncle and she was very worried about him. In fact she was worried enough about him that she started bustin’ my chops everyday. It was the first week of December.
“You are going to give yourself a heart attack. You probably have Diabetes and Prostrate Cancer and Scarlett Fever and God knows what else. Look at you! You eat like a pig and all that dope you’ve done has probably fried your brain. I'd almost rather be your wife again than your liver! Think about your kids. Don't you want to see your grandchildren?” she would say.

That darn Mrs. Bulletholes! She don't miss too many chances.
But I took her words to heart, harsh and pointed as they were and went to the Doctor, who sent me to the Emergency Room and now I have my Sugar and Blood Pressure and Cholesterol under control.
After I got out of the Hospital I went with her to see Chuck. He was in ICU, his chest cracked open like a pecan, hanging in the balance between an aborted Triple Bypass and the Eternal.

Now the Ex Mrs. Bullets has one of the most terrific bedside manners you’ve ever seen. She can talk the ears off a Wooden Indian. She told Chuck, who seemed to be almost unconscious that I had just gotten out of the hospital. Her manner must have rubbed off on me as I began to speak:

“Yeah Chuck, I was getting Bitch bites all over my ass for a solid week from her (pointing to Shila) because of you and so I went to the Doctor. I rode my bike 5 miles to the office and when I got there they had me on a couch before you could say “Colonoscopy” and my blood pressure was thru the roof and my heart rate was to the moon and my blood sugar was just a few points off of me going into Diabetic shock and the Doctor said “Son, its all over for you if you don’t go to the Emergency Room” so I went and I was there for three days and I’m better now. Chuck, buddy, I don’t think any of this would have happened if it weren’t for you being in here.”
With that, I took his hand.

He looked at me through his Oxygen mask and gave a little nod of acknowledgement.
We looked each other eye to eye and there was a lotta emotion between us ‘cause we go a long ways back
There was a day 12 years ago where Chuck had spent the day with me while the Ex moved out. I told him a few years later that he might have saved my life that day.

So as I held his hand now I looked at him through his Oxygen mask and said
‘Chuck, your being here, right now ,may very well have saved my life” and I let loose a little tear, and with a cracked voice choked out the words
“That’s twice now, you know, twice that you have saved me”….
Chuck nodded and managed a smile. I was really kinda surprised that he seemed to know what I was talking about.
“Do you know what I’m talking about?’ I asked, just to be sure.
He opened his glassy eyes a bit wider, managed another nod and squeezed my hand.
Like I said it was all very emotional and I wondered had Mrs. Bullets (Shila) noticed this exchange.

An hour later, in the parking lot as we got into her car, Shila asked
‘What did you mean when you said he had saved your life twice”
I thought again about the day she had moved out, and how Chuck had listened to Dylan records with me, and how upset, depressed and hopelessly downhearted I felt that day and how kind he had been to hang with me.
And I thought about how to try to explain this to Shila without old hurts surfacing and to what possible good it would come of it.
They say that "explanations are accusations" and so it could be with this.
If you have been reading me for long, you know I don’t keep many secrets.
I grinned at her and said...
" Shila, I guess this one is just for me and Chuck”