Tales of the City 08 - Mary Ann in Autumn

Michael that probably couldn’t come at a worse time. Business was lousy, and Michael’s shoulder was giving him more trouble than usual. If that weren’t enough, Michael seemed weirdly distracted and distant today. Jake was even starting to wonder if Michael had guessed what was coming and wasn’t happy about it.
    Still, there was no way to do this but to do it.
    “Feel like some coffee?” Jake asked.
    Michael didn’t answer right away, as if this were a really difficult question. “Sure,” he said, finally. “That would be good.”
    The garden they were tending was only a block from the Marina Green, so they hosed off their faces and arms and took their thermoses down to a bench by the bay. The sky was clear; there were more sailboats than usual for a late-autumn day.
    Jake pulled a Clif Bar from his shirt pocket and offered it to Michael.
    “No, thanks.”
    “You sure? I got two.”
    “Yeah … thanks.”
    Jake hesitated, then took the leap: “Is something goin’ on, boss?” Technically, of course, Michael was his business partner, not his boss, but Jake was still using the b-word and wasn’t sure if he would ever stop. It was a term of respect, more than anything.
    Michael gave him a hangdog look. “How could you tell?”
    Jake shrugged. “Well … for one thing, you’re not humming.”
    “Humming?”
    “You know … while you work.”
    “I thought that annoyed you.”
    “It does, but … I figure it would take something pretty big to make you stop.” Jake tore open the Clif Bar and bit off a chunk. “You wanna talk about it?”
    Michael gazed morosely at the water. “Mary Ann is in the hospital. She has cancer. I’m waiting for word right now.”
    This relief that Jake felt, if only briefly, turned into shame as soon as he saw the tears on Michael’s cheeks. At least he thought that’s what they were. Michael’s eyes were always leaky, especially in the open air, so it was hard to say for sure.
    “Why didn’t you say something before?” he asked.
    “She asked us not to. She didn’t want a lot of drama around it. Please don’t mention it to Anna. Or Shawna, for that matter. Not for a while, anyway. We’ll know a lot more by this afternoon.”
    “What are they doing, exactly?”
    “She has cancer. She’s having a hysterectomy.”
    Jake just stared at him silently. At first he thought Michael was making a twisted joke, until he remembered that people didn’t joke about that.
    “I know,” said Michael. “I know.”
    It took Jake a while to say anything. “You coulda told me. I woulda kept quiet about it. I coulda been really helpful. I’ve been reading up on it.”
    “I know. I just thought … I dunno.”
    “You just thought what?”
    “That it might somehow … rain on your parade.”
    Jake nodded slowly, absorbing that. “My hysterectomy parade.”
    Michael smiled sheepishly. “You know what I mean. It’s a whole different thing for you. Yours will be cause for celebration. Hers … not so much.”
    “It will be if they get the cancer out.”
    “You’re right. Of course.” He laid his hand on Jake’s knee and shook it, as if he were shaking off that terrible word. “So … it’s all you want for Christmas, huh?”
    Jake felt his face go hot. Anna must have spilled the beans already .
    “If it’s the wrong time, boss …”
    “It might be exactly the right time. Ben and I have been talking about going to Maui for Christmas.”
    “Really? But … then we’d both be off work.”
    Michael shrugged. “And neither one of us would have to feel guilty.”
    This was something of a revelation to Jake. “You feel guilty about that?”
    “Of course. Every time you’re working and I’m not. We’re in this together, buddy.”
    Now there were tears in Jake’s eyes, but they had nothing to do with the bite of wind off the bay. He had simply realized that he’d just cleared the last obstacle to his dream.
    “You sure about this, boss?”
    “Absolutely. I’ll go with you to the hospital, of course. We’ll just be recuperating in different places.”
    Swiping at his eyes, Jake told him that Selina and Marguerite had already offered to help during the surgery, but that he appreciated the offer just the same.
    “Well … that sucks. This is the second hysterectomy I’ve been barred from this month.”
    Jake grinned. “You’re not barred, boss.”
    “Mary Ann told me it was a ‘girl thing.’ ”
    “Well … you won’t get that from me.”
    “No …