Have A Little Faith In Me
Chapter 23: Life Has A Way Of Continuing
The days after Kate and Lewis’ date proved to be wildly different from the days before and filled with indications of improvement. For a start, Lewis started cooking like a fiend. Waffles and pancakes were just the beginning - after a couple of weeks, he was churning out stuff like French toast and quiche. Drew started turning up at work with doggie bags full of leftovers that were quickly snapped up by anyone who was lucky enough to walk past first. (If Mimi didn’t get one, she’s pout and shoot rubber bands at the back of his head all day.) Then there was the time that Drew came home to find that all of his movies and software had been dusted and alphabetized and the bottom half of the hallway had a new coat of paint…
“Bored today?”
“Nope. Kept myself busy.”
“Um…Is the TV broken or something?”
Oftentimes, Lewis would get in his car and come to meet the gang for lunch, receiving happy thank-yous when he came in from anybody who’d gotten a doggie bag that day. He started going back to the rehab center once a week during the day to play basketball, and he went by an art store and bought paints and canvas and started working on a painting of the house from “Mork and Mindy” - replete with Mindy’s Jeep out front with Mork’s feet sticking out the top.
All were wonderful signs that things - though still not fully back to normal - were taking a turn for the better.
Then there was Kate. She wafted around the cosmetics department of Winfred-Louder with a happy little grin on her face all day to the point that Mrs. Louder wondered if she was on drugs…and if she would share. Whenever they all went to The Warsaw, Kate would sit with Lewis - if not on him - and they’d talk and giggle between themselves. They tried to be discreet, but honestly, everybody was thrilled to see the two of them so happy - even Oswald and Drew, who tended to roll their eyes and act like they were gagging if the two got a little too syrupy.
And then there was the Saturday afternoon when the group’s entire world took a screeching right turn.
Drew, Lewis and Kate were sitting around in Drew’s living room, drinking Buzz Beer, watching cartoons and quibbling over why Boris and Natasha didn’t just simply hire a sniper to take out “Moose and Squirrel” and whether or not they were actually supposed to be Russian or what. Drew was in the comfy blue chair, Lewis had arranged himself on the couch, and Kate was curled up next to him with her head on his thigh. Oswald was in the kitchen playing with Lewis’ wheelchair, trying to figure out how to pop a wheelie.
“They’re NOT Russian! They’re from Pottsylvania!”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s not real - they made it up for the show.”
“Well, how do you know, huh?”
“They SAY it on the show! Duh!”
“When?”
“Well, not in this episode--”
Lewis shook his head, deciding to retire from the argument and leaned his head back on the couch, breathing a contented sigh. As he went to take another swig of his beer, a little peep of something white sticking out from between the couch cushions caught his eye…
He shifted the beer in his hands and plucked the paper out of the crack. It turned out to be two little pieces of paper, crinkled together. He separated them and read…
A golden egg of opportunity will fall in your lap.
You are sitting on a gold mine
Lewis frowned at the two fortunes - how the hell they’d been left on, or rather absorbed by the couch was a mystery - but his eyebrows began to crawl upwards as he slowly turned his head to look at the beer bottle in his other hand…
“OSWALD!!!”
Kate and Drew both jumped sky-high and looked around wide-eyed for whatever might be obviously amiss. All they saw was Lewis staring bug-eyed at two little bits of paper.
“What is it?! What’s wrong?!”
“OSWALD, GET IN HERE!!! QUICK!!!”
A loud crash emanated from the kitchen and Oswald poked his head out, wincing. “I didn’t break it, I promise!”
“I NEED MY CHAIR BACK! HURRY UP!!” Lewis had already shoved his beer into Kate’s hands and was trying to sit up, despite the fact that she hadn’t even had time to get her head out of his lap.
“Ow! My hair!”
Oswald came rushing in on the double, pushing Lewis’ chair with one hand and rubbing the back of his head with the other.
“Whatsa matter, buddy?!”
“Nuthin’!” Lewis grunted, yanking himself into the seat and took off for the bedroom, almost before even getting his feet on board, followed by three alarmed and thoroughly confused friends.
They chased him down the hall and into his room, where he crashed to a stop at his nightstand and began to rifle the contents, flinging random objects everywhere. Paperback sci-fi novel…keys…aspirin bottle…spare pair of gloves…baggie with a lot of rubber tubing…cellphone charger cord...vibrating pink dildo…
Kate blushed.
“AHA!”
He came up, holding a stained and dog-eared business card, and leaned left, digging his phone out of his pocket.
Drew threw his hands up. “For cryin’ out loud, Lewis! What--”
“SHH!”
He whipped out his phone and dialed, then sat, leaning on his knees and chewing his lower lip until whoever it was on the other end picked up. Drew, Kate and Oswald listened, still terribly ruffled and befuddled, to the suddenly calm one-sided conversation.
“Hey, Derek, it’s Lewis. How ya getting along?...Oh, yeah, me too…No, never got the hang of it. Listen, I just thought of something you’re going to love. Do you know where The Warsaw Tavern is?”
The other three looked at each other and shrugged. Lewis continued.
“Yeah, right next to the…Uh-huh. Can you meet me there in about an hour?...Yeah…The ramp is around back. See you there.”
And he flipped his phone shut, slowly turning to shoot the most cheese-eating grin in the history of the world at his friends.
Drew crossed his arms, flanked by Oswald and Kate. “Well?”
“Well what?” Lewis replied - looking as innocent as he possibly could.
“Are you going to tell us what that was all about?”
“Nnnnope!” he replied, making a popping sound with the “p” and grinning. “Come on - we’re going to The Warsaw! Oswald, will you grab a couple of cases of Buzz Beer and stick em in the car trunk?”
“Uh…sure.”
Nobody moved.
“Come ON, guys! Let’s go!”
Drew was still looking perplexed. “Okay, okay, but why?”
Lewis smirked. “Because we’re going to meet a friend of mine.”
* * * * *
All the way there, they bugged him. All the way there, he balked, saying only that Derek was a buddy of his from rehab, and that they used to play basketball together and that if they stared at him, Lewis would make sure that the toes of all their shoes would look like the Indy 500 race track.
Not long after they arrived and surrounded their usual table, a forty-ish looking fellow in expensive-looking clothes with a pouf of black hair streaked with grey at the temples and eyebrows the size of cats made his way in through the back door of the bar. He moved along with a strange stiff-legged gait and a pair of forearm crutches, swinging one leg awkwardly out in front of him, almost-falling forward but catching himself with a crutch, rocking to the side, then swinging the other one forward by rotating the trunk of his body.
Lewis waved.
The guy raised his huge eyebrows and smiled a greeting as he slowly approached.
“Wow…”Oswald whispered. “What’s with him?”
“He’s got braces.” Lewis hissed. “Shut up.”
“Really? I can’t even see his teeth from here!”
“On his legs, idiot!”
“Oh…cool! Can you do that?”
Lewis elbowed him in the ribs “No. Now shut up!”
The man approached and Lewis rolled forward to shake his hand. Derek leaned on one crutch to reach out, the other one dangling from his elbow, and heartily pumped his fist up and down, grinning.
“Good to see you again, Lewis. It’s been too long!”
“It sure has. Derek, these are my friends, Drew, Kate and Oswald. Guys, this is Derek.”
They all waved. Derek waved back and awkwardly took a seat, easing himself down into it, then unlocked his braces and stashed his crutches under the table.
“So…what’s so great that you had to call me down here in the middle of my day off?”
Lewis wordlessly slid a cold bottle of Buzz Beer over in front of him. The others watched as Derek took a sip.
“Hmm-mmmm! That’s pretty darn good. Coffee beer? I’ve never seen that before.”
Drew piped up. “Yeah. We make it in my garage. It’s been selling pretty good here at The Warsaw. Unfortunately, this is the only place that carries it.”
The group sat around and talked comfortably for a good while; first all about Buzz Beer, then about the basketball team, the weather, the Browns, and then more about Buzz Beer. When it came time to leave, Derek nodded at the two cases stacked in the corner next to Oswald.
“Well, I’ll tell you what. Let me have those two cases there, and I’ll order forty more to present to the board. I should have an answer for you in a week or two.”
Lewis smiled. “You got it. Drew, would you mind giving him a hand with those?”
* * * * *
Once the four friends were back in the parking lot, they all stared at Lewis, who simply smiled back, looking like the cat that ate the canary.
Kate crossed her arms. “Okay…fess up. Who was that guy?”
Drew followed suit. “Yeah! Forty cases?”
Oswald looked confused but determined and pointed at Drew. “Yeah! What he said!”
“Well…he might have been…” Lewis mused, leaning on his knees and dragging the moment out. “…just my buddy from rehab…OR…he might have been Derek Thompson, the guy that owns three-quarters of the stock in Offsides.”
Drew’s eyes bugged. “Offsides?! The NATIONAL CHAIN of sports bars that carries fifty kinds of beer???”
“The same.”
Kate stepped forward, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. “And you just got us an in with them???”
“Yup.”
“OH MY GOD!!! I LOVE YOU!!!”
“I know.”
Kate immediately leaped into Lewis’ lap and started kissing him as Drew and Oswald grabbed each other in a tight hug and bounced around the parking lot hooting and screaming, “WE’RE GONNA BE RICH! WE’RE GONNA BE RICH!”
…and didn’t stop for quite a while.
The days after Kate and Lewis’ date proved to be wildly different from the days before and filled with indications of improvement. For a start, Lewis started cooking like a fiend. Waffles and pancakes were just the beginning - after a couple of weeks, he was churning out stuff like French toast and quiche. Drew started turning up at work with doggie bags full of leftovers that were quickly snapped up by anyone who was lucky enough to walk past first. (If Mimi didn’t get one, she’s pout and shoot rubber bands at the back of his head all day.) Then there was the time that Drew came home to find that all of his movies and software had been dusted and alphabetized and the bottom half of the hallway had a new coat of paint…
“Bored today?”
“Nope. Kept myself busy.”
“Um…Is the TV broken or something?”
Oftentimes, Lewis would get in his car and come to meet the gang for lunch, receiving happy thank-yous when he came in from anybody who’d gotten a doggie bag that day. He started going back to the rehab center once a week during the day to play basketball, and he went by an art store and bought paints and canvas and started working on a painting of the house from “Mork and Mindy” - replete with Mindy’s Jeep out front with Mork’s feet sticking out the top.
All were wonderful signs that things - though still not fully back to normal - were taking a turn for the better.
Then there was Kate. She wafted around the cosmetics department of Winfred-Louder with a happy little grin on her face all day to the point that Mrs. Louder wondered if she was on drugs…and if she would share. Whenever they all went to The Warsaw, Kate would sit with Lewis - if not on him - and they’d talk and giggle between themselves. They tried to be discreet, but honestly, everybody was thrilled to see the two of them so happy - even Oswald and Drew, who tended to roll their eyes and act like they were gagging if the two got a little too syrupy.
And then there was the Saturday afternoon when the group’s entire world took a screeching right turn.
Drew, Lewis and Kate were sitting around in Drew’s living room, drinking Buzz Beer, watching cartoons and quibbling over why Boris and Natasha didn’t just simply hire a sniper to take out “Moose and Squirrel” and whether or not they were actually supposed to be Russian or what. Drew was in the comfy blue chair, Lewis had arranged himself on the couch, and Kate was curled up next to him with her head on his thigh. Oswald was in the kitchen playing with Lewis’ wheelchair, trying to figure out how to pop a wheelie.
“They’re NOT Russian! They’re from Pottsylvania!”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s not real - they made it up for the show.”
“Well, how do you know, huh?”
“They SAY it on the show! Duh!”
“When?”
“Well, not in this episode--”
Lewis shook his head, deciding to retire from the argument and leaned his head back on the couch, breathing a contented sigh. As he went to take another swig of his beer, a little peep of something white sticking out from between the couch cushions caught his eye…
He shifted the beer in his hands and plucked the paper out of the crack. It turned out to be two little pieces of paper, crinkled together. He separated them and read…
A golden egg of opportunity will fall in your lap.
You are sitting on a gold mine
Lewis frowned at the two fortunes - how the hell they’d been left on, or rather absorbed by the couch was a mystery - but his eyebrows began to crawl upwards as he slowly turned his head to look at the beer bottle in his other hand…
“OSWALD!!!”
Kate and Drew both jumped sky-high and looked around wide-eyed for whatever might be obviously amiss. All they saw was Lewis staring bug-eyed at two little bits of paper.
“What is it?! What’s wrong?!”
“OSWALD, GET IN HERE!!! QUICK!!!”
A loud crash emanated from the kitchen and Oswald poked his head out, wincing. “I didn’t break it, I promise!”
“I NEED MY CHAIR BACK! HURRY UP!!” Lewis had already shoved his beer into Kate’s hands and was trying to sit up, despite the fact that she hadn’t even had time to get her head out of his lap.
“Ow! My hair!”
Oswald came rushing in on the double, pushing Lewis’ chair with one hand and rubbing the back of his head with the other.
“Whatsa matter, buddy?!”
“Nuthin’!” Lewis grunted, yanking himself into the seat and took off for the bedroom, almost before even getting his feet on board, followed by three alarmed and thoroughly confused friends.
They chased him down the hall and into his room, where he crashed to a stop at his nightstand and began to rifle the contents, flinging random objects everywhere. Paperback sci-fi novel…keys…aspirin bottle…spare pair of gloves…baggie with a lot of rubber tubing…cellphone charger cord...vibrating pink dildo…
Kate blushed.
“AHA!”
He came up, holding a stained and dog-eared business card, and leaned left, digging his phone out of his pocket.
Drew threw his hands up. “For cryin’ out loud, Lewis! What--”
“SHH!”
He whipped out his phone and dialed, then sat, leaning on his knees and chewing his lower lip until whoever it was on the other end picked up. Drew, Kate and Oswald listened, still terribly ruffled and befuddled, to the suddenly calm one-sided conversation.
“Hey, Derek, it’s Lewis. How ya getting along?...Oh, yeah, me too…No, never got the hang of it. Listen, I just thought of something you’re going to love. Do you know where The Warsaw Tavern is?”
The other three looked at each other and shrugged. Lewis continued.
“Yeah, right next to the…Uh-huh. Can you meet me there in about an hour?...Yeah…The ramp is around back. See you there.”
And he flipped his phone shut, slowly turning to shoot the most cheese-eating grin in the history of the world at his friends.
Drew crossed his arms, flanked by Oswald and Kate. “Well?”
“Well what?” Lewis replied - looking as innocent as he possibly could.
“Are you going to tell us what that was all about?”
“Nnnnope!” he replied, making a popping sound with the “p” and grinning. “Come on - we’re going to The Warsaw! Oswald, will you grab a couple of cases of Buzz Beer and stick em in the car trunk?”
“Uh…sure.”
Nobody moved.
“Come ON, guys! Let’s go!”
Drew was still looking perplexed. “Okay, okay, but why?”
Lewis smirked. “Because we’re going to meet a friend of mine.”
* * * * *
All the way there, they bugged him. All the way there, he balked, saying only that Derek was a buddy of his from rehab, and that they used to play basketball together and that if they stared at him, Lewis would make sure that the toes of all their shoes would look like the Indy 500 race track.
Not long after they arrived and surrounded their usual table, a forty-ish looking fellow in expensive-looking clothes with a pouf of black hair streaked with grey at the temples and eyebrows the size of cats made his way in through the back door of the bar. He moved along with a strange stiff-legged gait and a pair of forearm crutches, swinging one leg awkwardly out in front of him, almost-falling forward but catching himself with a crutch, rocking to the side, then swinging the other one forward by rotating the trunk of his body.
Lewis waved.
The guy raised his huge eyebrows and smiled a greeting as he slowly approached.
“Wow…”Oswald whispered. “What’s with him?”
“He’s got braces.” Lewis hissed. “Shut up.”
“Really? I can’t even see his teeth from here!”
“On his legs, idiot!”
“Oh…cool! Can you do that?”
Lewis elbowed him in the ribs “No. Now shut up!”
The man approached and Lewis rolled forward to shake his hand. Derek leaned on one crutch to reach out, the other one dangling from his elbow, and heartily pumped his fist up and down, grinning.
“Good to see you again, Lewis. It’s been too long!”
“It sure has. Derek, these are my friends, Drew, Kate and Oswald. Guys, this is Derek.”
They all waved. Derek waved back and awkwardly took a seat, easing himself down into it, then unlocked his braces and stashed his crutches under the table.
“So…what’s so great that you had to call me down here in the middle of my day off?”
Lewis wordlessly slid a cold bottle of Buzz Beer over in front of him. The others watched as Derek took a sip.
“Hmm-mmmm! That’s pretty darn good. Coffee beer? I’ve never seen that before.”
Drew piped up. “Yeah. We make it in my garage. It’s been selling pretty good here at The Warsaw. Unfortunately, this is the only place that carries it.”
The group sat around and talked comfortably for a good while; first all about Buzz Beer, then about the basketball team, the weather, the Browns, and then more about Buzz Beer. When it came time to leave, Derek nodded at the two cases stacked in the corner next to Oswald.
“Well, I’ll tell you what. Let me have those two cases there, and I’ll order forty more to present to the board. I should have an answer for you in a week or two.”
Lewis smiled. “You got it. Drew, would you mind giving him a hand with those?”
* * * * *
Once the four friends were back in the parking lot, they all stared at Lewis, who simply smiled back, looking like the cat that ate the canary.
Kate crossed her arms. “Okay…fess up. Who was that guy?”
Drew followed suit. “Yeah! Forty cases?”
Oswald looked confused but determined and pointed at Drew. “Yeah! What he said!”
“Well…he might have been…” Lewis mused, leaning on his knees and dragging the moment out. “…just my buddy from rehab…OR…he might have been Derek Thompson, the guy that owns three-quarters of the stock in Offsides.”
Drew’s eyes bugged. “Offsides?! The NATIONAL CHAIN of sports bars that carries fifty kinds of beer???”
“The same.”
Kate stepped forward, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. “And you just got us an in with them???”
“Yup.”
“OH MY GOD!!! I LOVE YOU!!!”
“I know.”
Kate immediately leaped into Lewis’ lap and started kissing him as Drew and Oswald grabbed each other in a tight hug and bounced around the parking lot hooting and screaming, “WE’RE GONNA BE RICH! WE’RE GONNA BE RICH!”
…and didn’t stop for quite a while.