The GHOST and Charlie Dusenberry

PG. 17 TGACD R. ZEIS

CHAPTER FOUR: A DEEP SADNESS

The days were certainly getting longer mused Charlie. It wasn’t long ago that on the days he had to stay late at school he had to turn on his parking lights for safety on his way home. Today, however, the sun was still above the horizon as his dashboard clock registered 5:11.

Charlie enjoyed his drives home. Here in the quiet of his car he could wash the trials and tribulations of the day away and look forward to some family time with Susan and Dalton. The north Texas scenery was also a good distraction. Not quite a two-hour drive north of Dallas, Huntington was located near the twin cities of Sherman and Denison. Grande Forkes was a town of about five thousand people and could almost be classified as a resort area since it was near Lake Texoma. Lake Texoma was a large lake that separated Texas from Oklahoma.

“Texoma,” as the area was called, had a large number of evergreen trees that helped remind Charlie of his former home in New York. However, there was no doubt of what state he was in. On his eight-mile ride home from work, he would pass a large ranch with black Angus cattle grazing on the tufts of grass that were now turning shades of green with the coming of spring. Here and there too were horses in fields that Charlie most liked.

Charlie made a left turn at a sign that announced you were entering “Lake Texoma Bluffs.” Of course, there were no bluffs to be seen. The neighborhood of fairly new ranch houses was completely flat. The Dusenberry’s moved into the “Bluffs” two years ago when many of the homes were still being built. His wife, Susan, had complained at first about the lack of trees around the new houses. The developer’s game plan was to plow all the mature trees down, burn them, and then build the new homes. To compensate for the destruction of 80-year-old oak and pine trees, the builder planted four-foot saplings in the front yards. “Thanks,” Susan had mused.

But one of the brick homes caught the fancy of Charlie and Susan and they liked the location near the lake and work…so they bought the house. The developer had the sense to make the lots over-sized allowing nice back yards. The ranch house also came with a decent-sized fireplace and hearth making the living room very cozy. There were four bedrooms so Charlie could use one for a guest room and one for his “man cave” that allowed him to escape when he needed to. Sixth graders sometimes needed escaping from!

Charlie turned into his driveway and decided to leave his Honda outside. Susan had taken over half of the two-car garage with some home improvement projects. A librarian, Susan had found a make-your-own furniture book and gone nuts about it. Lately, she was

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spending a great deal of her free time in the garage hacking, sawing and gluing. Nothing was finished yet, but she promised great things to come. Anyways, Charlie figured it wasn’t worth pushing the remote button to the garage door. He was afraid of what he might see.

Climbing out of the Honda, Charlie made sure he locked the doors. Susan made fun of him for being so security conscious in Grande Forkes. “Everybody knows everybody here in this ’burg. Who’s gonna steal from us?” But Charlie’s old New York habits were hard to break. Besides, why did they put locks on doors if they weren’t to be used?

The sun was finally nearing the horizon as Charlie opened the front door, which, of course, was not locked. Friendly sounds emerged from the kitchen which meant two things. One, Susan was getting dinner ready and two, her furniture projects were on temporary hold. A pleasant aroma merged with the friendly sounds as Charlie approached the kitchen. A bar complete with stools separated the kitchen itself from the front hallway and living room. Charlie could see his wife busily moving from refrigerator to stove. Susan, who had just celebrated her 40th birthday, stood about five-foot-six. Her sandy blond hair was usually worn to about shoulder length, but tonight she had pulled it into a ponytail. Charlie thought this made her look very young. Her slim build went well with her energetic personality. Her husband thought she would have made a dynamite teacher, but she was very happy being the small town’s librarian.

“Hey, guess who’s home?” shouted Charlie. Susan jumped a bit with the shout.

“I don’t know,” smiled Susan, “give me a hint!”

“Someone who loves you a bunch,” said Charlie as he placed his briefcase on a stool and made his way quickly around the kitchen bar to hug his wife.

“Hello, there big guy! We’re having sloppy joes tonight. Hungry?”

“You bet! What could a man want more than sloppy joes and a beautiful chef?”

Holding Susan even tighter he planted a big kiss on her. For the millionth time, he wondered how he was able to convince her to marry him. Susan’s green eyes sparkled after the kiss.

“Slow down cowpoke,” she giggled, “There’s a child in the house.”

Standing nearly six-foot-three, Charlie towered over his wife. Nine-years-older, he could not match her vitality and was now realizing that he was more than a few pounds overweight. His dark brown hair, that matched his eyes, was starting a slow retreat. It was something he

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inherited from his father…that and his size. But, Charlie would tell you that was about all he had inherited.

Smiling, Susan extricated herself from his embrace. “I’ve got to get dinner ready. Why don’t you go down the hall and see DD. I think he got some bad news today at baseball practice.”

Immediately, Charlie’s expression soured. Baseball. Why is it always baseball? Susan and DD should know by now that he knew nothing about the game and cared nothing about it. Here, again, was spring’s bad news…the start of the allergy AND baseball seasons.

“I’ll see DD in a minute,” answered Charlie. He picked up his briefcase and headed down the hallway. Susan noticed the change that came over her husband and then watched him leave the kitchen. She knew he’d head for his “man cave” to think things over. Bringing up the subject of baseball was a dicey proposition the last few years ever since Dalton had fallen in love with the game. Around the age of seven, Dalton expressed a desire to join the little league with his friends. Susan thought that was a great idea, but strangely Charlie had tried to discourage his son.

“There’s plenty of other things you can do with your time, DD. There’s other sports, like golf and other activities like the boy scouts.”

“Dad, I want to play baseball with my friends,” pleaded DD. “Mom…”

“What’s wrong with playing little league baseball,” asked Susan. “It’s what his friends will be involved with.”

Charlie tried to bring up other alternatives to baseball – chess club, karate, even the prospect of additional chores around the house to make some extra cash. But, in the end, he relented and DD was signed up for the spring past-time.

At first, Susan was surprised by her husband’s apparent dislike of the sport. Fifteen years ago she had been attracted to a man who visited her often at the library. He was funny and appeared to enjoy life. It wasn’t long before she realized that Charlie was coming to the library not to check out books, but to check her out!

When they started dating they found a shared love of books, action movies, Mexican food, politics, being on or near the water, and Las Vegas. “Sin City” became their ultimate vacation spot.

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It wasn’t until Susan noticed Charlie always had an excuse to miss DD’s ballgames that she suspected there were deep-seated emotional problems with her husband. At least, problems when it came to baseball.

One night Susan confronted her husband after he missed another of DD’s games. “All right, out with it!”

At first, Charlie tried to dodge the question by saying it was nothing or just bad timing on his part to miss most of his son’s games. When Susan didn’t accept his weak excuses, Charlie finally opened up a side of himself that his wife was not aware of.

“My dad was a good man,” Charlie began. “But he was a hard man too. Susan, Dad was from a different generation that believed hard work and dedication to a task could overcome just about anything. That philosophy applied to me playing baseball…no matter what.”

Susan sensed a deep sadness in her husband. There was something else too. Frustration?

“You know my dad, Susan.”

“I loved him, Charlie.”

“I know you did.” At this point, he took a deep breath. Susan thought he might have trembled a little. “At first, I wanted to play baseball, just like my dad. I was about seven-years-old when I got to bat for the first time. Mom told me I had a smile on my face when I stepped to the plate. But, after three swings and three misses, the smile wasn’t there anymore.”

Charlie stared off into space. “I’ll never forget the look at Dad’s face. Not anger, just disappointment. I mean, did he expect me to hit a home run the first time up? Dad never let up on me….never.”

The two of them talked late into the night. Susan learned about that great sadness in her husband.

It was a sadness she suspected would not go away.