FAME and GLORY Read Free

northwest corner of Fortuna, in a poorer neighborhood than the area Brandee called home.  She had been raised in Las Vegas but now lived in the same home her grandparents had lived in years ago.  Jake was to learn later that her grandmother was in a local nursing home with Alzheimer’s and her grandfather had passed away in a logging accident some years earlier.  He put aside any misgivings he may have had about the different socio-economic strata in which they traveled.  He relaxed in the driver's seat as he listened to Brandee sing quietly with the radio, her pure soprano voice as sweet as the nectar from a honeycomb.
     
    Ever the gentleman, Jake walked Brandee to her door that night but didn't go inside.  They shared their first soft kiss under the moonlight on her front porch at 771 Maxwell Street.  They shared their second, third, and fourth kisses there too before Jake tore himself away and drove off, but only after watching the lights go off in her living room.  Stone cold sober from an alcoholic standpoint, but drunk beyond belief from feeling her warm, pliant body against his, Jake took his time going home.  The snick, snick, snick of the windshield wipers were going way too slow to match the racing of his heart.  This was a night that he felt should never end.
     
    ***
     
    It was the night they met that Jake was remembering as he guided the Sprinter through Forest Glen on its journey east.  He was glad that they were getting most of the treacherous portion of Highway 36 out of the way before Brandee awakened.  She was a delightful traveling companion, but she occasionally suffered from bouts of motion sickness in the car.  Her tiny whimpers of discomfort broke his heart, one of the reasons that he had suggested that they leave just as dawn was breaking over the mountains to the east.  Jake would rather drive into the sun (that is, when the rain let up) than have Brandee that uncomfortable.  The trip today was only 184 miles.  They would make it in less than 4 hours.  Brandee would have plenty of time to relax before she would need to be at her best at 7:30 that evening.
     
    Just as the road straightened a bit, Brandee woke with a start.  She looked at her husband and took his right hand.  The previous 3 years had taught her that, though he was right-handed, Jake was perfectly willing to drive with his left hand if she wanted to hold his right hand.  She squeezed his hand a little and said,
     
    "Good morning, honey."
     
    Jake gave her hand a return squeeze and said, quietly, "Good morning, songbird.  How's my girl?'
     
    “I'm good I guess.  My neck is a little stiff though.  This road isn't the most conducive thing to a nap in the car, is it?"
     
    He replied, "No it isn't, baby.  We'll be in Red Bluff pretty soon though. We'll stop there. That will give you a chance to get out and stretch your legs and move around a little."
     
    She laughed.  It was the sparkling laugh that had so intrigued Jake on the night that they had first met.  It reminded him of crystal wind chimes.  He marveled that even her laugh had a melodic quality.  When she was really amused, like now, it rang out clear and true.
     
    "We aren't also stopping so you can get a venti quad shot caramel macchiato with extra foam and double whip, are we?" she said.  She knew his weakness for that tasty concoction from Starbucks all too well.
     
    He feigned ignorance, widening his eyes that she would even think that he might have his own desires in mind on such a day as this.
     
    "M' lady, please.  You know that I live only to serve you.  Your every impulse is my life’s command."
     
    This was Brandee's cue to put her finger in her mouth, feigning illness at the corny phrase that he used from time to time.  Though he was a doting husband, he was certainly not without a will of his own.  The couple clashed at times and their arguments could get quite loud.  Brandee had grown up in a somewhat tumultuous household