The Denver Cereal

by Claudia Hall Christian

  “She went blank today,” Jacob said.

  “Freaky, isn’t it?” Steve smiled at Jacob’s nod. “She was blank for a while, then wham, she was Jill again. She didn’t remember Mom and Dad were dead, where she had been all that time, nothing.

  “I’ll tell you this,” Steve continued. “Mike’s looked for this farmer and can’t find him. He’s looked for the friar and can’t find him either.” Steve shook his head. “It’s like they never existed.”

  “Now that IS freaky,” Jacob said.

  “I guess I’m telling you all of this so you can understand. We are very protective of Jill. She’s like a special gift from our dead parents. They were great parents . . . really great.”

  “She’s very special.”

  “Trevor couldn’t stand us. He used to harass Jill to pick between us and him. He told Mike that he abandoned Jill and Katy because of us! Prick.”

  Jacob shrugged his eyebrows at the obvious.

  “We couldn’t stop her from being with Trevor, but . . . We’re always here for Jill.”

  “I wouldn’t expect less,” Jacob said.

  “Good, then why were you running away?”

  Dustin brought three plastic bags filled with calzones, salads, and breadsticks to the table.

  “Here’s the tea and the Raspberry Decadence,” Dustin said. He set a separate brown bag down. “Dude, you’ll let me know about Katy?”

  Steve and Dustin did a complicated little hand shake that ended in a fist bump. “Yeah, I’ll let you know.”

  Dustin grinned at Jacob.

  “Thanks,” Jacob said.

  “No problem, man. Any friend of Steve’s and such,” Dustin said.

  The men began walking back to the hospital with the food.

  “Running away?” Steve asked.

  “I got overwhelmed. My sister and I are . . . not close. She does her thing in Hollywood and I do mine here. I guess your parents’ death pulled your family closer, while my mother’s death drove me and Val apart.”

  “It’s a lot,” Steve said. “If you stay with Jill, are you going to get rid of us?”

  “I don’t have any problem with Jill having a family. I left my life and business in Maine to help my father. I know what it means to have family,” Jacob said. “I . . . This was our first date . . . It’s not even a date. We called it a ‘non-date.’ Just the zoo and lunch. The hospital wasn’t planned.”

  “My sister’s a pricey date,” Steve laughed.

  “I’d rather buy Christian Louboutins,” Jacob said.

  Steve laughed. “Lots of guys try to get with Jill. If she’s willing to go on a non-date with you, she must be pretty interested.”

  “Or desperate to get to the zoo,” Jacob said.

  “I think she likes you,” Steve said.

  Approaching the hospital, Jacob saw Jill talking to Dr. Drayson outside the hospital. When she saw Jacob, she beamed. Jacob grinned in response. Even with his hands full of food, he managed to hug her hello.

  “Katy’s going to be all right,” Jill said into his chest.

  “I’m so glad,” Jacob said. He kissed her cheek.

  “Me too,” Jill said.

  “We brought dinner,” Steve said. “Your tea and Chocolate-Raspberry Decadence, sir.”

  “Thanks,” Dr. Drayson laughed.

  “Would you like to eat?” Jacob asked.

  Jill nodded.

  Stepping back from Jacob, Jill was about to kiss him when Steve said, “Come on, Jilly. No making out on the sidewalk.”

  Jill laughed. She caressed Jacob’s cheek and then followed the men inside for dinner.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Valerie Lipson opened the door of her Malibu condominium — their Malibu condo — and walked into the hall. Standing at the door, she gazed across the apartment to the pounding surf. She would miss this view.

  Her eyes shifted to her engagement ring tucked into its Harry Winston box on the floor. People magazine said Ronald Winston, Harry’s son, had personally selected the yellow diamond. Wes paid a cool three and a half million dollars for perfection in a size seven. Valerie tugged her note from under the ring box and set it in front. Wes would see the note first.

  One last check. Yep, she had everything.

  Valerie pulled the door to the condo closed and locked the bolt. Holding the keys in her hand, she closed her eyes. If she had keys, she could always come back.

  In one swift motion, she shoved the keys through the mail slot.

  Standing, she picked up her suitcase and walked to the elevator. A trip home to Denver to reset her life. A fresh start. That’s exactly what she needed. Her BMW M3 convertible roared to life in response to the thought.

  Flicking on her blinker, she felt real regret. She wished she could be what Wes needed. With a sigh, she merged into Pacific Coast Highway traffic.

  How long had she been she engaged this time?

  Longer than the last two . . . Valerie counted the months on her fingers. Five months. Valerie shook her head. Three engagements, hundreds of men, and the red-headed witch was still right.

  Wes’s face flushed red when he asked, “Please marry me, Val. All I want to do is take care of you for the rest of my life.”

  And the only thought in Valerie’s head was “See Delphie, you were wrong! I can love someone other than Michael Roper.”

  She squealed when he gave her the ring. They made Viagra love for hours. When Wes fell asleep, Valerie cried into her pillow.

  She would make this work. She was going to make this work. She had to make this work. She was going to love Wes.

  The day her engagement to Hollywood producer Wesford Kapanski was announced, the blogosphere vibrated with nasty comments and vicious opinions. Perez Hilton posted a photo of Val and Wes with a huge white X over them. Every night, Entertainment Tonight did the “Val Count” for the number of days they were engaged. Vegas set the line at fifty to one that Val would marry Wes.

  Valerie worked to love this man.

  But no amount of lovemaking, ocean views, or expensive gifts removed her ever-present thoughts of Mike. Caffeine helped. Alcohol was better. But nothing ever really washed that man from her mind. This morning, she realized that becoming the seventh Mrs. Wesford Kapanski wasn’t going to cure her.

  “You will only have one love, Val,” Delphie had said to a sobbing Val. Mike had left for basic training ten minutes before. “You will cause yourself great hardship if you can’t allow yourself to love him, marry him, and make him your world. He is your true love. Children born of love, like your parents’, are only satisfied with true love. There’s no more powerful force in this world.”

  True love?

  God. No one believed in true love anymore. After six years of starring on a popular soap opera, Valerie knew everything there was to know about love. Men cheat. Men lie. And women suffer.

  Not that she hadn’t learned that from her father.

  Delphie was wrong about her parents. She had to be wrong about Mike.

  “Where you going, hon?” the clerk at the Frontier Airlines ticket counter asked.

  “Denver. The soonest available,” Valerie said.

  “You’re Valerie Lipson,” the clerk said.

  Valerie smiled her movie star smile. “Do you watch Our Loves, Our Lives?”

  Surprised by the question, the clerk looked up from her typing. She shook her head. “My husband works for your father. Lipson Construction. You look like your brother, Jacob.”

  Valerie’s smile dimmed. Of course. Frontier Airlines was based in Denver, home of Lipson Construction.

  “I bumped you to first class, on me,” the clerk said. “Your father’s been really great to us. He gave my husband a month off when our babies were born. He even cosigned on a loan so we could get into our house. My husband’s never been happier at a job. I . . . I just wanted to say, ‘thanks.’”

  Valerie smiled at the woman. Everyone loved her scumbag father. This woman couldn’t hel
p it if she were fooled by the bastard. Valerie paid for her ticket and thanked the woman. She wasn’t going to go diva on a poor stupid airline clerk.

  Looking at her ticket, Valerie realized she had a few hours before her flight. Walking toward security, Valerie waved to the bank of paparazzi photographers.

  “Val! Val!” they screamed. “Over here Val.”

  “Val! TMZ! Where you goin’?” the videographer for TMZ.com asked.

  Valerie waved and started up the escalator.

  “Where you going, Val?”

  “I’m going home, boys,” she said. Then, without even realizing what she was saying, she murmured, “I’m going home to my husband.”

  Like any great actress, Valerie didn’t respond to her own words. She smiled and waved again as if she hadn’t said a thing.

  While her stilettos pounded the concrete passageway, her mind returned to Mike.

  “I can’t just work for your father!” the seventeen year-old Mike had screamed. “I take a job with your father, and I’ll never be my own person. You need a real man. Day by day, you’ll lose respect for me. I can’t live with that.”

  “Please don’t go,” the fifteen year-old Valerie begged. “I’ll work for my father! I can take care of your family. Let me take care of your family. Please don’t leave me.”

  “Oh, Val,” Mike said. “Oh, honey.”

  He wrapped her in his arms and they cried together. When morning came, he left for basic training. That was the morning Delphie pronounced her fate, her curse.

  Valerie ordered a cosmopolitan at the LAX bar. Finding a spot near the back, she opened a magazine. She slipped in her iPod earbuds so no one would bother her and her memories.

  She was “Mike’s girl” to everyone in Denver. UCLA had given her a fresh slate. She started with UCLA boys, then graduated to producers and movie stars. One after another, she tried to find love again.

  Mike would arrive at her dorm room in his dress uniform. He never cared who was there. He just wanted Val. More than once, he found her in bed with some random guy, and still he didn’t care. He’d shrug and say, “What can I expect? I’m the one who left.” But her promiscuity hurt him. He flaunted his own liaisons in return.

  They went back and forth, hurting each other until the summer between her junior and senior year, the summer everything went bad.

  Her precious mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And her mother’s true love? He fucked his secretary and was stupid enough to get the whore pregnant. Her childhood home was sold before she had time to retrieve her things. Mom and Delphie moved into that tenement on Race Street. Jake, her funny, kind, lovable, partner-in-crime little brother, had managed to transform himself into a complete jock asshole.

  And Mike was stationed at Fort Irwin in Barstow.

  For six months of sheer bliss, she had Mike every weekend. Her parents’ divorce settlement included a fourth of the construction company. Jake bought her portion the very next day. With her new-found millions, she and Mike bought a tiny house in Monterey. They were married on the beach by a minister. Jake and Mom received a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Roper kissing on the beach.

  Valerie was in heaven. She didn’t make Mike her world. He was her world — her morning, noon, and night. She graduated a term early to be with him, near him. While her childhood family burned to the ground, Valerie and Mike rose like the phoenix from its ashes.

  “Valerie Lipson?” A short, thin Hispanic man stood next to Val’s table. “Raphael Acosa from US magazine. I’m wondering what you meant when you said you were going home to see your . . . We couldn’t quite catch the last word. TMZ is saying that you are going home to your husband. Ma’am, everyone knows you are marrying Wes. Are you and Wes already married? Are you married to someone other than Wes? US magazine would love to have an exclusive interview . . .”

  Valerie stood so quickly that the man was forced to take a step back. Smiling her movie star smile, she said, “My brother lives in Denver. I have a family business meeting tomorrow. Gosh, I’m not sure what TMZ heard.” She shrugged. “If you’ll excuse me. I need to freshen up before the flight.”

  “We’re sitting together on your flight, Val,” the reporter said. “We at US magazine wanted to show you our commitment to telling your true story.”

  “Thanks. I’ll see you on the plane,” Valerie said.

  She made a beeline for the restroom. Locking herself in a stall, she called her publicist. It was time to tell the truth.

  ~~~~~~~~

  “Okay, well, this has been fun,” Mike said. “I’ve got to get to work. Jill, you know how to get ahold of me, right?”

  Jill hugged her older brother. “Thanks, Mikey.”

  “Candy? You’ll remember to do that thing we talked about?” Mike asked.

  “I watch ‘Val Count’ every night. We are up to one hundred and forty-nine engaged days.” Candy smiled to reassure her brother.

  “Great. And you.” Mike pointed at Jacob. “I’d like a word.”

  Jill shot a surprised look at Mike, then to Jacob. Jacob just smiled. Leaning to kiss her cheek, he said, “I’ll be right back.”

  Jacob followed Mike through the hospital to the front door.

  “Jill said you’re paying for everything,” Mike said. “And that the money lady asked Jill if she was trading sex for the hospital bill.”

  Jacob took a step back. He shook his head slightly. “What?”

  “I want to know how you’re going to expect repayment.”

  “I . . . I never thought about it.” Jacob flushed bright red. “I . . .”

  “Good, that’s what I told Jill,” Mike said. “You haven’t heard from Val, have you?”

  Jacob shook his head.

  “She’s been engaged a long time this time . . . You think . . .”

  “Honestly?” Jacob asked.

  Mike nodded.

  “No,” Jacob said. “Val’s still Val inside.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Mike said.

  With a nod of his head, Mike walked toward the parking lot.

  ~~~~~~~~

  “What’s ‘Val Count’?” Jill asked Candy.

  “Mike is obsessed with this soap opera actress,” Candy said. “She’s engaged for like, the third time. Entertainment Tonight is doing an engagement watch. I watch it every night and call him with what they say.”

  “Who’s the girl?” Megan asked.

  “Valerie Lipson.”

  Megan jumped up from her seat and walked to the water cooler where Steve was standing. They shared a long look.

  “I’ll tell you if even half of what they say about her is true, she’s a real bitch,” Candy said. “I mean, I don’t get it. Mike’s great looking, a wonderful person, an amazing artist, but he doesn’t want to be set up, won’t go out with girls — or boys, for that matter. He’s obsessed with this . . . prima donna actress.”

  Megan closed her eyes. Turning around, she looked from Candy to Jill. It was time they knew the truth.

  “Meg, what’s wrong?” Jill asked.

  “Mike’s married to Valerie Lipson.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The past, present, and future

  “But Valerie Lipson is Jacob’s sister,” Jill said. “How . . .?”

  “Val and Jake aren’t Catholic. Remember that huge fight Dad and Mike had? That was over Valerie,” Megan said. “Dad forbade Mike to go out with Val because she wasn’t Catholic. Mike disappeared for a week. Mom was hysterical. She made Dad go after Mike.”

  Candy and Jill nodded.

  “They met while skiing when Mike was fourteen or something,” Steve said. “Remember how much Mike used to ski in the winter? And camp in the summer?”

  “Every moment he wasn’t working or in school,” Candy said.

  “That was so he could be with Val. They dated from the time they met. Mom and Dad didn’t know,” Steve said. “When they got married, Mike figured we would be against it because Dad was against it.
So he didn’t tell us.”

  “We only found out when . . .” Megan’s face flushed red and her eyes filled with tears.

  “When what?” Candy said. “We aren’t children anymore, Meg. You don’t have to protect us.”

  “Mike died. Or, they thought he was dead.”

  “WHAT?” Candy and Jill said in unison.

  “I . . . I really shouldn’t tell you this,” Megan said.

  “Yes, you should,” Steve said. “If you don’t, I will. It’s time to stop the secrets, Meg.”

  “Around the time Jake’s mom died . . ..” Megan began her story.

  ~~~~~~~~

  “I wonder if you might help me,” Valerie said.

  When the Frontier Airlines clerk moved from the ticket counter to the boarding pass counter, Valerie stood in her line. She signed autographs and talked to fans in order to keep the US magazine reporter at bay.

  “Absolutely. What can I do?” the woman said.

  “There’s a reporter from US magazine and . . .”

  “Oh, don’t worry, hon. I took care of him. He wanted to sit next to you, but I put him in the back of the plane. I radioed the gals on the plane. They will let you off and then hold him for a while. You should be able to make a quick getaway.”

  Val’s face registered real relief. “Thanks.”

  “Your father’s a great man. I’m happy to do what I can.” She passed Valerie her boarding pass back over the counter. “Just watch me. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to board.”

  Valerie blushed and nodded. “Thanks.”

  Continuing to buffer herself from the reporter, Valerie signed autographs and chatted with fans. She watched the line of passengers board the plane. Confident he had corralled Valerie on the flight, the reporter boarded the plane. When the agent nodded, Valerie made her excuses and moved down the ramp to the plane. The flight attendants settled Valerie in the front seat with a glass of champagne.

  She slipped in her iPod earbuds and returned to her memories of the best time of her life. As always, those memories of love and laughter collided with the reality of that awful spring.

  Valerie and Mike were naked, wrapped around each other, when the dreadful news came. Mike was going back to the Middle East and her mother wouldn’t live to see Easter. Jake begged her to come home, but she wasn’t going to give up her last month with Mike.

  She wasn’t sure how it happened. She was on the pill, after all. She only knew when. She was pregnant when he left.

  Unbidden, Valerie’s mind ticked through the markers of that horrible spring: