Harry Pt. 02

"That sounds labor intensive," Jo-May said. "You'll be rushed off your feet."

"Many of my pages can be completed well in advance and so as I fall into rhythm through gaining experience everything will become more or less routine. There's an experience sub-editor who acts for me if I'm on leave or become unavailable for any other reason."

"Well, well," Russell said. "I thought stuff was just thrown into the pages and that was virtually?"

Joy-May said she had too. "Oh there's the toot. Amy has arrived. Our parents have given us new VW Beetles. Mine is red and Amy's is green, an indication of the level of our flamboyancy don't you think?"

"It could appear that way," Harry said diplomatically.

"Johnny, come with me to meet Auntie Amy," Harry said, holding out his hand.

The youngster hesitated but when Russell said go on, it's okay, he took Harry's hand and they went out and stood on the front porch, his parents arriving behind them.

Harry didn't know why but he felt almost shy meeting Amy again.

"Hi," he called and she waved, coming up the steps quickly.

They kissed and she said, "Oh I'm so, so glad to be with you again. I've been so excited for days."

"Here's someone who wishes to meet you again," Harry said, holding up Johnny who reached out and Amy took him, slipping her handbag to Harry.

As they walked into the house Amy said, "Where's Hannah?"

Jo-May said, "She went to sleep late this morning because Johnny and I had her out shopping with us. She should be awake. Put Johnny down and go to her."

Harry and Amy settled into their flat and they doted on each other and life was bliss. The sex was great, Amy was a great cook and Harry pulled his weight around the home although he never did anything more than what Amy expected of him. They were really enjoying their jobs and were doing well.

And then came a hiccup to their bliss. Amy learned she was pregnant. That made them think uncertainly about their future but then the assistant editor of the Post retired and Harry was invited to apply for the position and won it.

Amy was happy because the salary was big enough to mean with the coming of their baby they'd not be scratching for money while she was off work on maternity leave. With Amy happy Harry was happy.

But with ten weeks to go Amy hit complications and was advised to cease work immediately. The chief reporter advised he could not hold her job open for longer than two months and so she accepted she must resign and at that became depressed.

Harry knew she was not thriving living in their flat. It had been great when they were both working but now he realized she felt marooned especially when her newspaper friends began fading away socially.

Slowly Amy adapted to day loneliness thanks to some support from pregnant mothers she met at prenatal classes. And then three weeks before her baby was due her mother called and said Toby Bassett was retiring and was it possible Harry would be interest in the position.

"Oh god yes," Amy said, without thinking whether or not Harry would like returning to a much smaller newspaper. She then burst into tears and sobbed, "Mom I want to come home; I want you to share in the birth and immediate post-birth of my baby."

"Omigod darling, you are still depressed. I understood you were cured. Hold tight, I'll work on the chairman of the newspaper board and will succeed in bringing you both home."

"Oh mom, you are so awesome."

"Darling I don't really take to these new phrases. I prefer you saying I'm so lovely to you."

"Mother you are so lovely to me. Please make it work."

And work it did.

Once Harry and Amy were settled back in their hometown they married and enjoyed a rewarding life, becoming the parents of two children along the way.

They often marveled how long it had taken them to really get together and the solid marriage lasted until broken by Amy's death.

* * *

Widower Harry Boone, pulling the tab on another can of light-alcohol beer, sighed and wondered where his years as the youngest editor of the Rutherford Times had gone. He'd just arrived home from a combined meeting of the boards of the Rutherford Times and the city's morning newspaper The Telegraph, where he'd be appointed executive editor and to the temporary position of change manager to head and planning and merger of the two newspapers with a morning publication continuing and renamed The Rutherford Telegraph.

The Times was dying due to falling subscriptions and advertising and The Telegraph had gone through four lean years in a row. Both boards of directors had recommended the two companies merge operations and stockholders had accepted that move as being essential for the financial well being of just the one newspaper. Outside business consultants with assistance of financial appraisers were appointed to value the assets of both companies to work out a fair and equitable way for stock in the two companies to valued for the issuing of shares in the new business entity.

The directors had decided the Times newspaper would fold and The Telegraph would operate from the newer offices of the Times and continue to use The Telegraph's presses installed only five years earlier when new printing works were built in a new industrial subdivision.

Harry was dressed in an old sweater and jeans when a TV news team arrived unannounced to interview him for that night's news.

"I'll talk provided you allow me to change into my suit otherwise it's no comment and no filming."

"You can't stop me filming," said the fat and balding cameraman.

"Lester you turn on that camera and point it at me and see what happens."

They knew each other from the Press Club recently renamed the News Media Club, yet another sign of the times.

"Aw come of Harry that will only get you into a punch-up."

"Fancy your chances do you Lester? Well I'll have a surprise for you."

"Come on boys, cool it," said the female reporter. "Go and get changed Harry but please hurry."

"Get yourself a beer from the fridge Lester and get this babe whatever she wants from the bar."

Harry returned and the women went tut-tut and jerked up his fly and redid his tie.

"You're handy to have around miss."

"Its Mrs Lucas but you can call me Sharon. I married two months ago and have been in Rutherford. I haven't had the opportunity to say hi because everything here is new to me and my job is full on. Mom asked me to look you up."

"Oh yeah. And who is mom?"

"Helen Raymond, former wife of Dr Mark Raymond. You would have known mom as Helen Marshall."

"Jesus Christ," Harry said. "I really had some great times with Nurse Marshall in Wellington, a lovely young woman. Then she returned to the Wairarapa."

"Yes to get married but the guy she'd targeted had found someone else. And then one day the local hospital was short of nurses after an outbreak of 'flu and responding to the call for help from former nurses, mom met the handsome young doctor Mark Raymond. He and mom began dating and he said he was going into a group private practice and would require his own nurse and would mom consider joining him. My older brother and I were the products of that union. Mom and dad divorced three years ago after she found he was playing around."

"Yeah your mom wouldn't have stood for that kind of nonsense. Is she still beautiful?"

"Well I think so. Look we must talk at the club. We must get this interview done now because it's required for tonight's TV news. We were sure you'd refuse to talk, wanting The Telegraph to break the story but I said I would still try to get the story."

"The public has the right to know, time being of the essence darling. It will also wet the appetite of the public to read all about it in The Telegraph."

"Why did you call me darling?"

"Whoops. Well because you must be a lovely young woman to be the daughter of Helen nee Marshall."

Straightening his tie after guiding Harry into position, Sharon giggled and said, "God you're a smoothie for an older guy."

"Think what you like. Just invited me to dinner when your mom visits you guys. I'd like to see her again."

A few days later when Harry was lunching with his daughters in the city he told them about the possibility of meeting an old flame.

"The mother of Sharon Lucas?" Anita said. "I see Sharon most week nights on TV news. She's a real goer."

Harry pulled out an old photograph from his inside jacket pocket. "This is what her mom looked like about the same age."

"Omigod dad, she's beautiful and looked as if she would have been too classy for you," Lynette said. "I bet she married well."

"You cheeky bitch. Actually she married a doctor but is now divorced."

"Omigod dad, am I looking at my new stepmother?"

Lynette and Harry looked at Anita with different reactions.

"Don't be so disgusting Anita, dad doesn't need to marry. He's always dating women."

"I asked Sharon Lucas to call me when her mom visits her."

Harry's daughters looked at their father, mouths open.

"Well dad that's a good idea," Lynette said.

"Yes dad, meet her. Wear your best suit and take chocolates and flowers."

"It will only be a reunion and then she'll be gone home until her next infrequent visit."

"Yeah," Lynette nodded but Anita said, "Omigod, Sharon's mother will now have another reason for coming to live here dad... you."

Lynette shook her head and said, "You are such a romantic Anita. You ought to be writing romance paperbacks."

Three weeks later Harry was drinking at the News Media Club at 7:00 when Sharon came in. He waved and she came straight over.

"May I buy you a drink?"

"Sure Mr Boone. A gin and tonic thanks, no ice."

When Harry returned with the drink Sharon thanked him and he told her to call her Harry. "It's rare for anyone to address me as Mr Boone. I don't go for formality."

"Very well Harry but I still think mister is an appropriate form of address for a young journalist speaking to the doyen of the news media in this city."

"Who fed you that crap?"

"My editor, Alison Crowe."

"Oh well it's unusual for Allie to be wrong about anything. She'd a fine operator sweetheart. Model yourself on here to learn the basics and you won't go wrong. I nominated her the year she won her gong as the Best Provincial TV News Editor."

"Yes she told me. I've dropped in to tell you mom arrives Friday. Cliff and I would like you to have dinner with us on Friday evening. Um Cliff will serve wine but he's the son of a clergyman and is a bit up tight about people who drink too much. Could I please ask, without giving offence, that you consider Cliff's feelings on Friday evening?"

"God that's the considerate thing you mother would have said to me in all those years ago in Wellington had she taken me home to meet the folk. But I think she thought I was too radical to take home."

"Radical? Or do you mean a hard drinker and womanizer?"

"I suggest your check with your mother about that. She liked me enough to go out with me repeatedly."

"Did you two have sex?"

Eyeing Sharon straight-faced, Harry said he didn't think sex was invented in those days.

Sharon burst out laughing, spraying Harry's face with some of her drink.

"Oh Harry, I am so sorry."

"Thanks but it's okay. I've been sprayed by women who are experts."

"Omigod Harry that's disgusting; you terrible man," Sharon giggled and looked at him almost affectionately.

Sharon called him early Friday afternoon.

"It's Sharon Harry. I've taken today off and am dithering. I had decided to cook lamb shanks but I've been to three butchers and the supermarket and all I could find was two scrawny shanks that just won't do. Mom rarely eats beef and never eats pork or venison and you men..."

"Whoa Sharon, you'd be wetting your pants at this rate. I was thinking the night many years ago when I wowed your mother cooking her a birthday dinner. Now you cook this meal as I tell you, leave nothing out, and we'll see if she has memory recall."

"Oh Harry what a wonderful idea. Mum is pretty sharp, she may well recognize the set-up if you sit facing her with a stupid look on your face."

"Thank you darling."

"Oh god, I've insulted the doyen."

"I've been insulted by experts darling. I was thanking you for agreeing to participate in this set-up."

"Oh sorry."

Well this is the menu, write it down: Cream of Crayfish (lobster) soup. You have to make it and serve it immediately. Get the recipe off the web. Then Chicken Maryland with boiled potatoes sprinkled with parsley and mash together boiled carrots and parsnips and quickly steam fresh spinach. For desert layer tinned peaches in parfait glasses with double cream in between and topped with a meringue with a blob of cream on that to hold a preserved cherry... you buy them at the supermarket."

"Omigod you have always cooked?"

"Since living alone, yes. It was either that or eat out or die."

Harry tried on two suits, not knowing which one was his best suit, and then decided to wear black trousers, black shoes and socks and a white long-sleeved business shirt with the top unbuttoned. Once he would have worn a cravat but no one seemed to wear them these days apart from old gay men with gold rings on both hands.

Harry, wearing the gold watch presented years ago when he won a national major award for excellence in newspaper journalism, arrived with a bouquets of flowers for both women and two bottles of gold medal pinot noir. He'd tell the host to cellar one of the bottles.

Harry punched the doorbell button and waited for Sharon to arrive, hopefully with a plunging neckline and no bra so he could assess her tits.

An older Sharon look-alike opened the door. Her brown hair was streaked with gray and in a French roll and she was elegantly dressed in a full-length blue grown with a plunging neckline but he could see a blue bra.

"Hello Harry, long-time-no-see. You look mod and distinguished."

"Hi Helen, good to see you again. You haven't changed a bit."

"You can cut that out Harry Boone; you're not seducing me on the front doorstep."

"Sex began boring me thirty years ago and I put it aside."

"Once a liar always a liar Harry. You were too good at sex to give it up. Oooh is the wine for me?"

"No the flowers. Um you haven't kissed me."

"Well let's remedy that."

They kissed unhurriedly. Harry decided not to risk squeezing a breast. He squeezed her left butt instead and she made no comment and when she broke away she was smiling like someone who'd been teased.

Sharon looked quite disappointed when he mom finished her soup and all she said was, "Lovely soup darling. I'll clear."

Sharon's husband, pouring red wine and not offering Harry any said, "Is it true you and Sharon's mother used to have sex in the olden days?"

"It's true I dated Helen occasionally, yes. Can't you reach this far or is the bottle too heavy for you?"

"What you drink wine? Sharon said she thought you were a teetotaler?"

"No I drink wine in moderation, half a bottle minimum with dinner."

"God you must be an alcoholic."

"Not that I've noticed. What do you do?"

"I work for the tax department."

"Oh so you don't have a real job?"

He laughed and said Sharon warned him their visitor could be quite humorous.

Harry thought the guy had handled that well.

"Well it's nice meeting you Cliff. I must say I reckon Sharon is a rising star."

"What in bed?"

Eh? "Are you joking Cliff?"

"Yes oh did I forget to smile."

Noise arrived; the women were back. Harry was so relieved about that.

Helen complimented the cook on the main course and said the presentation looked perfect.

"Why aren't we having real meat instead of this..."

"Shut up Cliff," Sharon admonished calmly.

Harry helped Sharon clear and in the kitchen patted her butt and all she said was, "Oooh Harry."

"You husband is a bit dry for you isn't he?"

"Actually our level of compatibility is excellent," she replied. "He's non-competitive and that suits me fine. Oh is case you were worried, he's really excellent in bed."

"Well that's a plus."

""He has a big plus Harry," Sharon giggled and Harry knew he now adored her. It was like gaining a third daughter.

He carried two of the deserts out and Sharon teamed up beside him once he was through the door carrying the other two.

Helen looked at the parfaits, gaped and cried, "Omigod. I was thinking the first two dishes were a sheer coincidence but this proves my suspicion was on track. Oh very good Harry."

Cliff asked what had Harry done towards the preparation of the meal.

"Harry presented this meal for my twenty-second birthday," Helen said, looking quite flushed.

"The food had kept well," Cliff said dryly, and was ignored.

"Mom did you and Harry have sex when you occasionally dated all those years ago?"

"That's why we dated darling. We were both lusty young people and probably hadn't heard of platonic friendships."

Sharon, Harry and Helen laughed and Cliff looked like someone who's just missed the bus. Harry spotted that and felt sorry for Cliff but felt powerless to help the guy get a real life. They weren't on the same highway, so to speak.

Sharon and Cliff cleared away, Sharon telling Harry and Helen to catch up.

Harry decided there was nothing to loose by telling it like it was.

"I lost my wife a couple of years back; she was too young to die."

"Yes so I was told. That was so tragic. I was aware she was a fine journalist and had worked as news editor of your newspaper. I suppose my motor-mouth daughter told you I dumped my husband."

"Yeah but she didn't elaborate."

"I caught him in bed with my supposedly best girlfiend, use of that word is intentional. Both were going fully at it."

"How tragic."

Helen said, "That was lovely of you saying that so simply. It was all that needed to be said."

"Yeah well we go a long way back. Do you still fuck?"

"I might."

Harry grinned and said, "That was lovely of you saying that so simply. It was all that needed to be said."

She laughed and said her daughter said she regarded Harry as quite a character with a touch of roguishness. "I gather she rather likes you."

"Well she's a great personality and you should be very proud of her."

Helen said yes, very proud.

She straightened the back of her hair. "Why did you ask was I sexually active?"

"I was thinking of asking you for a date. Sex used to be a focal point of our dates, but not entirely, and I would hope little has really changed."

Helen said, "I believe I have changed considerably since those days. I was neither a wife nor a mother then."

"Agreed but I was talking about fundamentals. Irrespective of what we did we met to enjoy each other's company."

"Well yes."

"Thanks. I was only attempting to make a point. The fact is sex won't be the same because we've slowed down and our performance levels have probably wilted."

She smiled disarmingly. "But I take it you can still get it up and keep it up?"

"Of course," Harry said somewhat stiffly.

"I'm sorry."

"No it's okay. You just caught me flat-footed. You were simply seeking clarification, that's all."

"Thanks."

"Hi you two, what are you two so engrossed about?" Sharon said easily, arriving with coffee for four.

"We were talking about music," said her mother, while Harry said they'd been talking about sex.

Sharon giggled, "Well which one was it?"

Helen said sex and Harry said music.

They fell about laughing.

Sharon said, "I've been at mom to come here and live. She's promised to consider that request seriously."

"Oh excellent," Harry said. "My two daughters are hoping that will happen. While one is only lukewarm about the possibility of your mother and I revitalizing an old romance, the youngest daughter is practically agog about the possibility. She's an incurable romantic."