Barclay Davis - The Beautiful Truth, The Conclusion
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| Art by Scopedog |
But then, a hand reaches out to him, grabs him by his arm, and starts pulling him out of the water and up into the sky, where the clouds around it starts forming into Frida's face.
It kept pulling Max closer and closer, until...he woke up from the dream he was having.
Max was taken aback from what he was dreaming. His eyes started scanning the entire room. He thought everything was normal. But then he saw Frida, with her arm and leg draping him. Both were naked from making love, and Frida had a smile on her face as she was asleep on top of Max.
Realizing what had happened earlier, Max looked up at the ceiling, and said, "...oh yeah!"
***
After waking up, and making a trip to the bathroom, Max enters his kitchen in his bathrobe, where he sees Victor on top of the table with his smartphone. Max says "Morning Victor."
Victor, still mad at Max for last night, grumbles at him, "Ah, morning yerself, ya little..."
Max continues, "I see you got back home from the Crow's Bar all safe."
Victor shoots back at Max, "Oh, VERY good detective work, Batman, nothin' ever gets by YOU!" He turns back to his smartphone, and grumbles more, "As if you give a fuck about me, or somethin'!"
"Actually Victor, I do." Max says as he pours orange juice into a glass. "Maybe I don't say this much, but I do appreciate the things you do. Trying to do the right thing, always looking out for me and the Gang, making the effort to improve things for everyone in our orbit. You're quite clever and resourceful for an ordinary crab." Max finishes as he's drinking his orange juice.
Victor, not impressed by that, responds, "Somehow, I feel as if I should be insulted by that so called compliment!"
"Interpret that as you may. Just so long as you know you're alright." Max says, as he finished his drink and was rinsing his glass. He continued, "How was everything at the bar, after I left?"
Victor answers "Not much happened. YOU were talked about a lot. The words 'asshole', 'dumbfuck', and 'stupid shit' were bandied about."
"It's a free country, Victor. They can say whatever they want." Max says, after he's done rinsing his glass and heads back to the bedroom. But then, Max stopped where he was and turned to Victor.
"Listen Victor, about last night..." Max says to him.
"Yeah?!!" Victor responds, believing Max would make some form of apology.
Max lifts up his left hand, with his pinky finger pointed out that Victor pinched hard last night, and told him "My finger's still a bit on the sore side after you pinched it, but it's healing quite nicely."
Outraged by that comment, Victor yells "Oh well THAT'S A RELIEF! And here I was wondering if you were ever going to play the piano again!"
"Whatever!" Max says as he starts turning towards his bedroom, but stopped as Victor continued talking to him.
"Hey, you wanna know somethin', Max?" Victor tells him. "You're absolutely right. No women's ever gonna wanna go out with you. And you know why? 'CAUSE YER A COWARD, THAT'S WHY! A big fat fraidy pants chickenshit of a coward! You know, most guys in your posit...no wait, lemme change that a bit...EVERY GUY IN YOUR POSITION, with so much as a drop of courage in them, would have no trouble approaching Frida to go out with. But YOU!!! You'd rather hide away in your safe space, hoping no woman will ever find you, 'cuz ya wanna be right about that fucking stupid opinion of yours! So go ahead, Max Edwards! Spend the rest of your days wallowing in sadness and loneliness of your own doing, rather than take a chance on a life of happiness and joy with someone, like Frida Olsen! You are SOOOOOOO not good enough for the likes of HERRRRRRR!!!"
Max never said a word. He just stood there, looking at Victor rather nonchalantly, with his hands in the pockets of his bathrobe and his eyebrow arched. Then, Frida appeared, her hair a bit of a mess, but her face all cleaned up. She was wearing Max's white dress shirt he had on all yesterday, like an impromptu nightgown, with her arms open to Max, sweetly saying to him "There you are! I missed you when I woke up."
"Morning, love." Max said to Frida, as they hugged and kissed each other, passionately again.
Victor response to that:
Followed by:
Max and Frida, still in each other's arms, looked at Victor acting like a spastic idiot, then looked at each other, with Frida having a puzzled look on her face, while Max had a bit of a smile on his.
Then, while Victor was still spazzing out, Max put his hand atop of his shell and pressed down on him so that he would be still, saying "VICTOR!!!...Caaaaalm...dowwwwwn."
After a moment, Victor responds, "Ok I'm calm." Max quickly removes his hand from Victor, saying "Good!"
Victor looks up to see Max with a smirking smile at him, and Frida putting her hands and chin on Max's shoulder, saying "Morning, Victor." to him with a big smile on her face.
Victor, not believing what he just saw, went "Muh-muh-muh-muh-MAH-muh-muh-muh..." He shook his head and yelled, "WHA HAPPUND?!!"
"Wha happund," Max said, "Was when I arrived home last night, I saw Frida waiting by the door outside, where we stood and talked, and then I told her my real feelings for her, we kissed and spent the night together, and now, this is where we are! A beautiful woman with her arms wrapped around me."
"I hope you don't mind me wearing your shirt, Max." Frida told him. "I didn't have a thing to quick put on when I got up."
"Are you kiddin'?" Max said. "Yer turnin' me on, right now!" Frida smiled at Max, and the two of them resumed kissing.
Victor, upon taking all this in, starts cheering and laughing wildly, while doing a dance. He then tells Max. "Way to go, Maxie boy! I knew you always had it in you to approach Frida!"
Victor continued, "So...my little pep talk/rant finally convinced you to do the right thing, huh?"
Max and Frida just looked at each other with grins on their faces, with Max going "Whatev!"
Victor was taken by that response, going "Wait, what? What do you mean by that? Whaddya mean by 'whatev?'"
Max, ignoring Victor, turns to Frida and asks her, "So Frida, are you up for some breakfast? Would you like some cereal to start off, or do you want me to whip you up some eggs?"
"Actually Max," Frida said. "I'm not really hungry at the moment. I just wanna lie back in bed and cuddle up with you some more."
"Mmmmm, works for me!" Max told her, as he kissed Frida and led her back to the bedroom with him holding her in his arms, leaving a frustrated Victor behind.
Victor, not satisfied by what Max had told him, started yelling at him. "Hey, come back her! I want you to tell me I played a big part in you two getting together, right now! You hear me?...I WANT MY ARGUMENT VALIDATED!!!"
***
Frida spent the entire weekend with Max, just chillin' and relaxin'. They never left the apartment at all, except for a visit to the Crow's Bar, so that Frida could straighten things out with Hirsh. Half the time they were making love, and the other half was spent watching TV or fixing dinner. Max and Frida also took a shower together, where they were washing each other's bodies all over.
When Frida finally left Max's place, Sunday night, Max had a sense of euphoria that he finally has love in his life. But he fears he may have made a mistake telling Frida that he would do whatever it takes to bring her daughter Angela back to her. He knows that if they take this to court, Archie Sanders and his family will pay the big bucks to bring in a high priced lawyer to represent him in any custody case, and that Frida would be overwhelmed by any tricks they may try to pull on her.
But that will be down the road. Right now, Max's number one priority is to keep Frida happy.
***
Monday morning, and Max is off to Danforth for another week of teaching. But this time around, Max had an extra bounce in his step while walking down Barclay Avenue, as he was still on a high with Frida, this past weekend. It even carried over to getting on the bus to ride to Danforth, much to the chagrin of the other passengers on the bus. Max continued his bounce step as he got off the bus near Danforth.
When Max arrived at Danforth, he went to his classroom to put his business knapsack down and his denim jacket and cap off, then made a quick beeline to Frida's classroom to see her. He got by the edge of the door and stood there. He was straightening himself out for Frida, so he could surprise her. Then, he held onto the frame of the door with his fingers, and popped his head through the door, saying "Good morning, my darling!"
But what he saw at Frida's desk was a thin looking guy wearing a bowtie and sweater vest who looks and sounds like Randy Rainbow (* because RR would provide the voice), telling Max, "Sorry, I already have a boyfriend. And he's the INSANELY jealous type!"😁
When Max saw that, the grip from his fingers on the doorframe loosened, and he fell sideways until the side of his face smashed the other side of the doorframe, as he slid to the ground. Max then quickly got up and, frantically looking all around the classroom and his arms flapping like a big crazy bird, shouted "WHA-WHA-WHA-WHA-WHERE'S FRIDA??!!!"
"The person who normally teaches this class? I have nooo idea!" the substitute teacher told Max, as he turned in his chair to get up. "All I know is that I got a call this morning telling me they quickly need a teacher to fill in for someone who went missing. And when you're a substitute teacher, you don't ask questions. You just say...YESSSSS!!!"
Max just stares at him, then turns his head to stare into space, wondering if this past weekend was too good to be true.
***
Max was in his second period class. His students were doing an in class reading and writing assignment, while Max was at his desk doing some work. He was not in a good mood, since Frida didn't show up. He noticed two of his students talking instead of doing their assignments and called them out for it.
"LAMAR! KATIE! Just what are you two doing?" Max shouted at them.
"Uh... we were just discussing something, Mr. Edwards." Lamar told Max.
"Oh really?" Max told him, as he got out of his chair to confront them. "Just the two of you discussing something like you're both sweethearts in love with each other, playing silly little love games and having a good time about it, until one of you decides to up and vanish without letting the other know about your whereabouts, and then you're just..."
Max stopped talking when he realized he was talking about Frida not being at the school, and just stared out with a blank look in his eyes. All his students were wondering if their teacher, Mr. Edwards, had stroked out.
Finally, Katie asked him, "Mr. Edwards, are you all right?"
"I...I..." Max said. Then, he just shook his head and facepalmed, calmly telling them, "Look. Just don't be doing that on my time. That's all I ask." Lamar and Katie just nodded their heads at him. Then, the bell rang, and Max's students started getting up to leave. Max then tells them "All right, don't forget to do...what I told you to do, and have it in for me...whenever." like he's in a defeatist mood.
After they all left, Max went to his desk to sit down. He pulled out his smartphone to try calling Frida, but he kept getting the same message that said "The person you are trying to reach, is unavailable. Please..." he then hung up, put his phone back into his pocket, took off his glasses that he was wearing, and started rubbing his forehead with the tips of his fingers and thumb in frustration, heaving a grumbling sigh along the way.
Then, Max was startled by a familiar voice who said to him, "Hiya buhhh-deeee!" It was Victor who made an unwanted surprise visit to Max, as he got on top of his desk.
Max, not at all pleased by Victor's appearance, slammed his fist on his desk, yelling, "Victor, how many times have I told you not to show up here?!!"
Victor was scratching his chin, going "Mmmmmmm...I lost count!"🦀😁
Max made a pose like he was about to attack Victor with a very angry look, going "GRRRRRRR" at him. But Victor just tells Max, "Oh relax, I just wanted to pop over to see how you and Frida were holding up, after the weekend. Two lovers, sharing a space, trying to control themselves. L'amour est dans l'air!!!"
Max had already slumped back in his chair when he said to Victor, "Yeah, well you're shit out of luck. Frida never showed up."
Victor was surprised by that answer, saying "Huh? How come?"
"I don't know!" Max answered. "When I arrived here this morning, I went straight over to see Frida, in hopes of continuing what we started on the weekend, only to find someone not Frida, sitting at her desk, doing her work."
"Didn't you try calling her?" Victor said. "Surely you must have her phone number."
"I did. Several times." Max answered. "And not once was there a response on the other end. And the school has a strict policy of not divulging any info of the staff here. So I have no idea where to turn to or how I'm going to be able to get ahold of..."
"Here ya go!" Victor says to Max, as he's holding up his smartphone to him.
Max looked at Victor and asked, "What's that?"
"It's Frida's address." Victor said. "I got it off the school's data base. You'd be amazed at how easy it is to access it."
Max was shocked by this and yelled at Victor, "You hacked into the school's computer system?!!"
"Yeah!" Victor answered, adding "You're welcome!"
After a moment, Max takes the phone from Victor and says, "Thanks!" He brings it over to himself, puts his glasses on and looks at the screen. He says "1965-7 Langley Way. Hmmm, no doubt an apartment or town house type complex, from the address."
Max continued, "And Langley Way is about a five minute drive south of here!" Max and Victor look at each other, then Max gets up out of his chair and tells Victor, "Let's Go!"
"Where are we going?" Victor askes.
"We're going to Frida's place." Max says as he's showing the phone while putting his jacket on.
"Don't you have a class to teach?" Victor asks Max.
"It's lunchtime." Max answers, while continuing. "And I have a spare after that. That should give us plenty of time to head out there to find out just what exactly is going on!" After Max puts his cap on, he bends down to Victor's level so that he can position himself on Max's head, and the two of them are off.
***
A cab drops off Max and Victor at Frida's place. Victor asks if they're at the right address. Max answers yes, because he sees Frida's car parked by the side.
Max and Victor approach the door, with Max banging on it, shouting, "Frida, are you in there? It's Max!"
"And Victor" he interjects.
Max continues, "You didn't show up to work today, and everyone's worried about you!"
With nothing, Max pounds on the door loudly and screams, "FRIDA!!!" Max then tries to open the door, because he's out of ideas, and is surprised to learn it's open. Max tells Victor, "Door's unlocked." And they both enter.
Max and Victor looking at the inside of Frida's place, discover it to be dark with toys strewn across the floor. "This definitely looks like the place a small child lives in." Max tells Victor. Max moves around as the both of them call out Frida's name. They then enter the kitchen where, to their shock, they see Frida lying face down on the kitchen floor.
"FRIDA!!!" Max and Victor both scream out as they rush to Frida. Victor jumps off of Max so that he could try and revive Frida. Max picks Frida up and taps her face repeatedly to revive her. Frida awakens, looks at Max, and starts crying.
"Ohhh Maaax..." Frida cries out. "I see Angela, everywhere...She's in the kitchen...she's in the living room, she in her bedroom, she's..." Frida starts bawling her eyes out into Max, and cries out "Oh Max, I see her everywhere!"
Max hugs Frida tightly as she cries into his shoulder. Victor's watching all this with discomfort, and says to Max, "Yeah, I sense the two of you wanna be alone right now, so I'm gonna head into the living room and wait for ya's" and scurries on out.
Victor rests up by the leg of the sofa, and collapses. His mood is of sad and worry. Victor then sees Angela's stuffed rabbit on the other side of the room. He goes over to pick it up and look at it. He then envisions the night he and Max babysat Angela, and the fun the two of them had.
Victor starts playing with the doll as Max leads Frida out of the kitchen and onto the couch. But when she sees Victor playing with Angela's doll, Frida starts freaking out.
"DROP THAT DOLL, YOU FUCKING COCKROACH!!!" Frida insanely yells at Victor, who then heaves the doll away in fear. Frida then starts lunging out at Victor, with a crazed look in her eyes. But Max is holding onto her for dear life, as she screams "IF THOSE CLAWS OF YOURS TEARS INTO THAT DOLL, I'M GONNA TEAR THEM OFF OF YOU, YOU FUCKING INSECT I'M GONNA..."
Frida can't get after Victor, who is hiding in fear under a chair, because Max has a vice grip around her. He needed all his strength to pull Frida away. The further she got from Victor, the more crying she made, until she was on the sofa, lying with her head on Max's lap as he's stroking her head while she continues crying. Max kept shhhhing and stroking Frida as she cried until he called Victor over.
Victor, still freaked out over Frida, got close to Max as possible. Max then spoke. "Ok Victor, I think we have a problem here."
"How was I to know Frida would freak out over a doll, I didn't think..." Victor started to say.
Max said "Shhhh. Not you. Frida. She must have been triggered seeing all of Angela's stuff, lying around. And it might have caused a panic attack in her."
After a moment, Victor looked at Max and said, "But she was perfectly fine when she was with us this weekend!"
"Only to come back home to a place filled with memories of Angela." Max responded. He continued, "Well one things for sure, Frida can't be living like this, it's not good for her state of mind."
"So what are we gonna do?" Victor asks.
***
What Max starts to try and do is collect all of Angela's possessions and have them hidden from Frida, until the time comes she regains custody of her. Marie and Gerald offered to hold onto Angela's stuff, and even helped Max with the moving.
"I feel so awful about all this!" Marie said, while helping. "After I had opened the door, they just muscled their way in and took Angela! She was crying horribly the whole time, I couldn't do anything to stop them!"
"And I had gone out to pick something up at the grocery store!" Gerald said. "She was gone by the time I returned! If only I was there, I want to pound the crap out of him!"
"We all do!" Max replied. "But right now, our main concern is for Frida. We have to make sure her mind is at ease, which means not seeing anything that would remind her of Angela. And we're definitely going to take this to court to have it contested. But we're gonna need a lawyer to help go after Sanders for this case!"
"What I don't get in all this is WHY?" Marie said. "Archie Sanders is a useless bum who couldn't be bothered raising Angela, never lifted a finger to help or spend a dime on her. He even seriously suggesting Frida abort her pregnancy! So why would he, all of a sudden, go from not wanting anything to do with Angela, to getting the courts to give him full custody of her, while slapping a restraining order on Frida?"
After a moment thinking about it, Max responds, "That IS a very good question!"
After they got all of Angela's stuff out, Frida returned to see a cleaned up place of hers. But it wasn't working. All Frida could see was Angela all over the place, calling for mommy. She started crying again.
Max kept getting more frustrated. Then he remembers what Victor had told him. That she was happy when she spent the weekend with Max.
So Max makes a lifestyle decision and asks Frida to move in with him and Victor. Frida was taken aback by Max's request. But as Frida looked into Max's beautiful green eyes, she decides to take the plunge and move in with him. So they moved some of Frida's stuff, like her clothes and toiletries and what ever food she had, into Max's place.
And soon, Max and Victor had a new roommate.
***
On Frida's first night staying with Max's, she was getting ready for bed with him. She was sitting at the foot of his bed, wearing a white crop top shirt and panties, as Max entered his bedroom in T-shirt and shorts.
"So Frida," Max asks her, as he sits next to her on the bed. "Are you starting to get comfortable in your new surroundings?"
"Well, it is a little strange, being in a place I'm not familiar with." Frida said
"You certainly got familiar with this place this past weekend!" Max said, devilishly.
Frida laughed a bit at that, and continued. "Yes, well...it's different, now that I'm calling this place home. But I shouldn't have a problem adjusting. Especially now that I'm with you, all the time."
"Well I'm glad to hear that, Frida." Max said. Then he got up and told Frida "Well, goodnight!"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Frida asked Max, as he went to his closet to pull out a blanket and pillow.
"I'm going to go sleep on the sofa, for awhile." Max told a rather confused Frida.
"But...but why, Max?" Frida asked him with a sad tone in her voice.
"Well..." Max started to say, "I don't want you to think that I'm trying to take advantage of you. I just want you to know that you'll feel safe staying with me. But don't worry. It's just for a couple of days, until you're fully comfortable here. Ok?" He then kisses Frida on her forehead and leaves to head for the living room.
Frida just sat on the bed looking confused and rather upset with Max.
***
As Max was getting the sofa read to sleep on, Victor chides him on why he's doing it.
"I don't understand you, Max." He told him. "You and Frida are officially a couple. Why would you try and separate yourself from her on her first night here?"
"This isn't permanent, Victor." Max assured him. "It's only for a few days. I'm just trying to be a gentleman here. Letting Frida know that this isn't an open invitation for me to do whatever I want with her. She needs to feel safe here, and not allowing Angela's absence to consume her."
"Yeah," Victor says. "But wouldn't making her feel safe also mean comforting her when she's troubled?"
"Of course!" Max said. "And there'll be plenty of times when I'll provide that for her, for when she needs it, and not whenever I feel like it. It's all about keeping it classy, Victor!"
Victor's still not buying it. "I still say you should be sleeping with her right now, is all!" he reiterated.
"Uh-huh." Max says "I hear ya. little buddy."
Realizing he isn't going to convince Max, Victor decided to turn in for the night, saying "Well then, I guess it's time for me to hit the hay! And by 'hay,' I mean a sink full of water." Victor then heads over to the kitchen, where he touches one of the lower drawer handles, which automatically opens, knocking Victor across the kitchen. He goes back to it and climbs into the open drawer, where it automatically shuts itself. The next thing we see is Victor coming out of a bread box on top of the counter, where he heads over to the sink, where he sleeps at night, and, just before falling in, he stands over it and says "Good night, Max!" Max returns a good night to him, and Victor plops into the sink.
After he sets his alarm and fluffs his pillow, Max turns off the light next to him, lays his head down, and covers himself to sleep. He has a satisfied grin on his face believing he's done the right thing with Frida.
But Max didn't even have a minute's rest when, into his sleep, he was woken with a sound in front of him.
"...Max?"
Max opened his eyes to see Frida standing in front of him, with a pained look in her face. He then says, "...Frida?"
Frida then pleads with Max, "...please come to bed with me!"
Max was taken aback by that request. He was going "Ahhh-ahummina-hummina-hummina" at Frida, until she spoke up.
"Max...I don't want to be alone!" Frida said, as a tear fell from her eye.
Max felt dumb. He thought he was doing the honorable thing. Except Frida needs him, so she can feel more at ease in his place. After lowering his head from Frida's request, Max looked up at her feeling sorry and remorseful for letting her feel that way.
But then, a little smile emerged from Max's face. He then got up from the sofa to stand and look at Frida, toe to toe with her. They then hugged each other tightly, and then, while still in his arms, Frida tried to kiss him on the mouth, but Max grabbed Frida by her legs to pick her up across the threshold. Frida was surprised by that. But then, her and Max started nuzzling each others nose, then they kissed, and Max carried Frida to the bedroom where they would enjoy the night together.
And Victor, after seeing all that, had the biggest of grins on his face, and went back to sleep.
And that will be the last Barclay Davis story for 2024. I'm taking a couple of weeks off writing so that we can all enjoy the holiday season. I'll have some new stories to share come January.😉😁