Good Man

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela



Valerie Cooper was a blur of blue terrycloth and blonde hair as she whizzed around her kitchen, a cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. Three children buzzed around her feet like honey bees on their way to and from the hive while her husband of nine years was still asleep, upstairs in bed.

Lucky bastard.

Placing the paper down on the kitchen table, she sat down with her coffee and looked up at her oldest child, her daughter Ainsley, and gestured for her to sit down. The girl was eight years old and was already moody like a teenager would be. Then again, it probably didn't help that Val and her husband Joe tended to cater to her occasionally diva ways.

"Sit and eat."

Ainsley made a face as she plopped down into her chair and stared down at her bowl of Raisin Bran. "I hate Raisin Bran," she complained.

"Well, you can't eat Lucky Charms every morning. Your teeth will fall out from all the sugar."

"My teeth will fall out from trying to crunch down on the flakes," the blonde, eight-year-old remarked. "Anyway, I'm eight. I got a bunch of baby teeth that are still gonna fall out on their own."

Val sighed. "That's not the point. Too much sugar isn't healthy."

"If you want us to eat healthy then, how come you're not giving us a fresh bowl of fruit and some low-fat yogurt with a glass of skim milk?"

Looking her daughter in the eye, the 32-year-old, soon to be 33-year-old, woman pursed her lips together in a scowl. "Ainsley Elizabeth Cooper, that's enough with the mouth. Just be quiet and eat your cereal."

Making another face the oldest Cooper child begrudgingly did as she was told while her younger siblings jumped in and out of their chairs to play with their tabby cat, Spooks, who was declawed and clamoring around on the tiled floor, trying not to slide all over.

"Leia and Paxton, leave Spooks alone and finish your cereal, too."

Leia Amidala Cooper was Val's six-year-old, middle child; her second daughter. Her husband got to pick the name after they lost a bet. Val wanted Hayley Lynn but Joe, having a large obsession with Star Wars chose to honor that by naming his second child after the two heroines of the George Lucas saga.

Paxton Luke Cooper had just turned four and was the baby of the family; Val and Joe's only son. This time around, she chose the first name and Joe chose the middle name after none other than Luke Skywalker.

Val wasn't surprised at all.

She always wondered why it was her husband never pursued a career in writing science fiction novels instead of being a third baseman for Buffalo's minor league baseball team, the Buffalo Bisons. He was great at the game, very fit and had played the sport for nearly thirty years, first beginning with tee-ball when he was five, but his knowledge and expansive collection of all things sci-fi blew Val's mind.

Smiling to herself, she looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Hurry up," she spoke gently to her kids. "As soon as daddy wakes up he has to take you to grandma's so he can get to practice."

"How come you can't take us, mommy?" Leia inquired; a mouthful of Raisin Bran.

"'Cause mommy needs to go into work earlier than daddy and daddy can take his time taking you three to grandma's."

Leia considered this. "Can I come to your work sometime, mommy?"

"Maybe, someday."



By nine o'clock, Val was sitting at her desk in the newsroom at WKBW, Channel 7 News. She had arrived a half hour earlier and was now drinking another cup of coffee, but this time it was not in a ceramic mug from home, but an insulated, paper cup from Tim Horton's. Tapping away at the keyboard to her computer, she was busy checking her emails and contacting a local man who was planning on running for a position on the county control board.

Valerie Cooper was an investigative reporter.

And she was also a harried mother of three, devoted wife and seriously lacking close friends. All those she was friends with in high school and during college, as well as a while after college, she had lost contact with over the years. Married life, kids and her career just took her in a different direction and kept her way too busy at times. Hell, she didn't even get to finish reading the morning paper. And now it was pointless. She was at work now. If she wanted the news, all she had to do was ask Bridget Blythe, who was the news anchor during the morning and noon broadcasts.

By ten, she was sitting on the chair that was kitty corner to Linda Pellegrino, the host of AM Buffalo. Val was offering a bit of news during the broadcast about a Buffalo Sabre's charity work involving one of the Goo Goo Dolls and Ani DiFranco. She chatted for a few minutes after her news bit and then they went to commercial, wherein Val bid the older woman adieu and returned to the newsroom to prepare for going on location for the noon news.

She called her mother's house a short time later to check in to see how her kids were doing, and then she called her husband's cell, but got the voicemail. Not ten minutes later, however, he called her back to see if she wanted to meet him somewhere for lunch after the noon broadcast. They agreed to meet at Templeton Landing's at twelve-thirty, said their 'I love yous' and hung up.

At eleven-thirty, Val was standing outside City Hall, microphone in hand with the Channel 7 insignia on it, wearing her favorite pair of cream colored dress slacks from New York & Company and short-sleeved, red blouse, also from New York & Company.

Smiling brightly, she acknowledged Bridget Blythe when it was her turn during the broadcast. She began her spiel about the local man running for a position on the county control board, then sent it back into the studio. The cameraman, Rick, turned off the feed, lifted the camera off his shoulder and joined Val back at the van. But once they arrived back to the station, Val jumped into her car and headed for the waterfront restaurant.

At a little after twelve-thirty, she had her car valet-parked and walked quickly inside, her clutch-style purse tightly in the grasp of her right hand. She mentioned to the concierge that she was meeting her husband, Joe Cooper, and the man nodded. The maître d' then showed her to the table where Joe was waiting.

Grinning, she greeted her husband with a kiss on the lips and sat down across from him, ordering a glass of water to begin with.

"I already ordered your usual," Joe informed, taking a sip from his glass of water, then proceeded to recite, "The Honey Mustard Chicken sandwich; panko and parmesan crusted bread fried golden brown, served with lettuce, hold the tomato and onion, on toasted focaccia with honey mustard dressing."

"Thank you," Val replied with a knowing smile. She was rather consistent; never really bothering to try new dishes. It was mostly due to the fact that she was picky and she blamed it on being a Virgo. "How many times did you have to study the menu to get that right?"

"About three times, tops."

"How was practice this morning?" Val inquired as the waiter returned with her glass of water and both of their orders; her Honey Mustard Chicken sandwich and Joe's Grilled Rueben sandwich. She noticed the plate of jumbo shrimp cocktail that was half gone, as well as the cocktail sauce. Normally she hated seafood, but shrimp was her one exception.

"It was fine. Rodrigo's still on medical leave from pulling a ligament in his right arm, so we're stuck with Jake probably for the rest of the season. He has the weakest arm on the team, and they got him in left field. Sometimes I don't think Coach knows what the fuck he's doing," Joe rattled off as his wife helped herself to three pieces of shrimp.

Val frowned sympathetically at her husband as she looked over her sandwich, thankful he had ordered for them both before she arrived, this way she didn't have to wait.

"Did you see the Life & Arts section of this morning's paper?" Joe wondered as he began eating his Rueben sandwich.

Val stopped mid bite of her own food and then scowled mildly. "I've been going nonstop since I woke up this morning. I tried to read the paper but every chance was thwarted by this or that. Why?"

"Caroline was featured in a small article."

"Really? What'd it say?"

"That she was spotted at the airport with her kids and some luggage, getting into a hired car to take them wherever yesterday...or the day before. I forget. And last night, she was seen at a Tops in Orchard Park."

"She's back in town?"

"Uh...yeah. Which is weird. I wonder why? I mean, didn't she just lose her sister?"

"Yeah, Giselle."

"That's a shame."

"Tell me about it. Last time I saw Giselle was the summer before she moved to Raleigh for college. Caroline and I were about nineteen at the time. Well, I was almost nineteen." Val thought about the distant memories. "Seems like forever and a day ago sometimes."

"We're gettin' old," Joe teased.

"Yeah," was her only response, but Val's mind was now distracted.



At five o'clock, Oprah was over and Caroline now had to figure out what she was going to do for dinner. Pizza delivery had been the meal of choice the night before only because she hadn't shopped yet. She'd packed her kids in the car at seven and gone to Tops, the closest grocery store to her house in Orchard Park, to get the basics.

Three hundred dollars spent on food, beverages and other sundries later, she returned home to give her kids a bath, read them a story and tuck them into bed for the night. It was after all that was said and done that she was able to go back downstairs to the kitchen, grab a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey from the freezer, turn off all the lights and head back upstairs to climb up into bed to enjoy her ice cream while watching the eleven o'clock news and late night television.

Mainly Craig Ferguson on CBS at 12:35 in the morning.

She loved that guy.

But now, it was only five-oh-five, the following day and Caroline was feeling stumped. She had a fridge- and cupboards-full of food and she didn't know what to prepare. Mostly because she didn't feel like cooking as well as not liking to cook, usually ever.

"Mommy," came Mikey's voice as he scampered into the kitchen where she was standing.

"What, honey?"

"There's a lady in the driveway."

"There is?"

"Uh-huh."

"What did she look like?"

"She had light hair like 'Mona and it's all on the top of her head."

Caroline smirked and patted her son on the head as she walked toward the front of the house to peer out one of the living room windows. Narrowing her eyes, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Turning from the window, Caroline padded through the house to the side door off the driveway, which was the main entrance. She fumbled with the lock and pulled the door open, poking her head outside with an incredulous look toward the approaching blonde.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Caroline asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," Val replied, jangling her car keys as she walked closer to the brunette. "I didn't think you'd ever come back to this dump."

Caroline put on a mock-insulted expression. "My home is not a dump."

"I don't mean the house. I meant Buffalo."

Both laughed and Caroline shrugged it off. "Yeah, well, it's the crack to my crackwhore." She gestured for Val to come inside, holding the door open.

As Val stepped over the threshold, she let her blue eyes adjust from the bright sunlight she was just among to the shade of the home's interior. She followed Caroline into the kitchen where Mikey was still standing in, holding a Spiderman action figure in his hands.

"Hiya," Val said to the boy.

"Hi," he replied, then looked to Caroline for reassurance. "Who's this, mommy?" He started to get a bit shy and moved to stand closer to his mother.

"This is mommy's old friend Val. We used to go to school together a long time ago."

Val laughed. "Well, don't make it sound like we graduated high school eighty years ago."

Caroline simply smiled and gestured to her son. "I know you only probably saw him in pictures, but this is Michael Junior. We call him Mikey, though. Mike used to call him MJ," she introduced, in a mildly rambling way. "Chloe, my girl, is playing in the family room. I just got done watching Ellen."

Smirking, Val shoved one hand in a pocket. "Did I miss anything good?"

"On Ellen?" Off the blonde's nod, Caroline only slightly shrugged. "She was making three viewer's wishes come true. One wanted to tour the set of Days of our Lives."

Small talk continued between the two who had once been inseparable best friends. Sitting down at the kitchen table after shooing Mikey away to go play with his sister in the family room, both women looked at each other and it felt as if everything was coming full circle. They had met twenty years ago this coming September, but it felt like it was just yesterday...

To be continued...