It was the middle of August, and although Chris and I still had a relationship, and it was going as smooth as one might expect, there was still some tension in it. The child, the incident with the slap, the boyfriend, and now for some odd reason, Chris asked me to meet him at the local guesthouse up the street from the compound. She had brought it up previously and I guess I pushed it aside hoping it would remain there, but now she was saying he wanted to meet me, or was it really her who wanted it, maybe he did, whatever the case, it was coming out of Chris' mouth almost as a demand. I told myself to keep peace, it wouldn't hurt I suppose if I went along with this charade of sorts. But I wasn't sure what the purpose of it was. The boyfriend was rich, a nice car, I couldn't compete with him, and wasn't about to try. Then, what for"was the meeting [?] I asked myself... to see the competition, he could see me at the gate anytime he wanted to, and matter-of-fact, Chris did say one night during our drinking, he had told her he saw me, or thought he saw me at the gate. I felt it was no big deal. But again, I gave into Chris.

She told me, he simply wanted to see whom she was dating, and that she would end up walking out with me, which was a prerequisite of mine; otherwise I'd not stoop to such a thing. And she said '...we both agreed to it,' adding, 'no one need to know the full situation,' as if it was some big secret love circle. I suppose in a way it was... I wasn't about to try and explain this to anyone, I could careless if anyone knew", and it was indeed, too odd for any one's mind to even digest, let alone, ponder on it. Damn, I thought: what passion can make a person do. It makes you act like a stupid fool; someone told me once the definition of a fool, and I've liked it ever since, he said, '...a fool is the other side of the coin,' and I asked, "And what is on the other side of the fool's coin...?" And he said, '...wisdom.' So I guess a fool is someone who is not making wise decisions, and by the looks of things, he was right.

The Meeting

...as it was Friday, Chris drove up to the gate to pick me up....

there was no fear in me if lover-boy wanted to fight, matter-of-fact, if he should decide to change his outlook on the meeting, that is, not to meet me at all, -- fine with me, or even fight me, fine again, but for some reason he told Chris to bring me up in the car... "I'll leave my uniform on," I told Chris as she picked me up... "No sense in changing, let's get it over with," I told her as I got into her car.

"How honorable," she commented, "He'll like that." Sure I thought, we kicked Germany's ass in World War Two [WWII], and he's going to like my uniform, let's see (this was only twenty-five years after the war, many Germans had not forgotten the toll it had on them). Maybe it was I who was looking for a fight. I was somewhat guarded. But then it was almost natural for me to be that way, my neighborhood kind of built it in, that is to say, when you are invited into someone's life, and you're screwing the same woman he is, men don't usually take too lightly to that, they do not like to share; I smiled at Chris but did not make a big deal of smiling, there had to be a reason for all this and I was not in on it.

As she drove the several blocks to the guesthouse she parked her car alongside of the building, covered with creamy color stucco: --his car was already parked. Next, we slowly disembarked the car as if it was a train, so it seemed, thus, trying to look about as we (or I) gathered ones composure; Chris in front of me, then we walked slowly to and through the doorway. Chris automatically seen him as she opened the second door leaving the enclosed doorway entrance open"and started walking over to him. He had a tailored gray fitted suite on, a beer and a glass of cognac on the table. He stood up looked at me, straight in my eyes, a smile appeared, and then he extended his hand for a shake, checking out Chris at the same time. Slowly I put my hand out, somewhat waiting for a sucker punch in the face, it has happened before, but it didn't appear, just the hand shake. He noticed I was alert to a possible battle.

"So, this is what you look like," he spoke good English. Not knowing what to say, I just nodded my head. Not sure if I was suppose to say anything.

"Sit down please; -- let me order you a beer."

"No that's fine, thanks, I don't mind standing. I'm not sure what this is all about, but here I am."

"I feel like I know you Chick, Chris of course has brought your name up a number of times. I'm glad you showed up." Having said that, I looked at Chris, and no words needed to be spoken.

"Han's we got to get going" said Chris, Han's smiled and implied he understood, as I started to walk out to the door. Next, she quickly said something to him and joined me.

"See that wasn't hard," she said, "what do you think of him?"

"I don't even know him, he looks fine, and he was polite, I don't know. You two got your wish, or he got his. Not sure how it goes. Do you expect us to be buddies or something?" I said somewhat disturbed she brought the question up it wasn't called for.

"Maybe, but I'm glad you chose to show up, I think he feels better about you and, and possibly, everything."

"I'm not sorry I was so brief, I felt awkward somewhat in that situation," I said as we got back into her car and pulled away.