Good Man

It had been the beginning of eighth grade, September 1993, and Val had already been attending West Seneca West Middle school, and had been in West Seneca district schools since kindergarten. Caroline had started out in West Seneca schools, attending Winchester Elementary, on the opposite side of the Buffalo suburb than Val. But after first grade, Caroline and her family would move shortly to South Buffalo for six years. This was only the case because their house had caught fire one day at the end of summer and the girls needed to have a home in time for school starting, and the quickest place they could move into was a home they were able to rent.

For six years, they lived in the same three bedroom home, on a street called Oakhurst. For second grade, Caroline was bused downtown to ECC #31; ECC standing for Early Childhood Center, as compared to the other ECC which is the acronym for the county's three two-year colleges, Erie Community College, with three campuses in and around Buffalo. The school only went from Pre-K to second, so for third, an eight-year-old Caroline had to walk about six blocks to her new school, Red Jacket Academy, PS #67. Her mother, Joanne, had been a nervous wreck letting Caroline walk to school for the first time, but there were a couple of older kids on the same street who walked with her, and calmed Joanne's nerves somewhat. Red Jacket Academy was a sister school of another, Lorraine Academy, which is located by the area's major hospital, Mercy Hospital -- where Mike would one day be, recovering from his second heart attack, and happens to be only three blocks away from their street. Red Jacket held grades three through five, while Lorraine held grades six through eight. From then on, a student would have to apply to one of the many different types of high schools in the city, or be stuck with your district's high school, which would've been South Park High School, for Caroline.

So, she attended Red Jacket, and moved on to Lorraine, its sister school, but during the summer of 1993, Paul and Joanne Woods had decided that if they didn't move then back into the suburbs, their daughters would be stuck in the city schools which were not of the best upkeep. And for Joanne, the idea of her girls having to walk through metal detectors left her feeling unsettled. So, they finally went house hunting and found a nice home on a road called Lind, a block from one of West Seneca's two high schools. There was East, and there was West, West being the oldest and largest of the two. And that's where Caroline would end up. But, for the time being, she needed to finish out her junior high career.

And it was that school year, she met Val, who shared her homeroom and several of her classes, including English, Music, Home Economics and Technology. Both shared a passion for music, but neither had the guts to try out for the musical, however Val did play violin in the school orchestra, a talent she would carry on with through high school and two years of college. At the end of eighth grade, came Moving Up Day, which was more or less the eighth grade equivalent of a high school graduation. Their was an awards ceremony during the morning, and then buses arrived at the school to take all the eighth graders to a restaurant banquet facility for lunch and more awards. When they returned to school that afternoon, they received their yearbooks. Upon returning home that day, the majority of the girls had their moms take them to salons to get their hair done for the Moving Up Day dance later on that evening.

Caroline was not one of those girls. She changed out of the pink and white checkered dress he had been wearing for the goings on during school hours and into a plain black dress for the dance. She kept her hair the same, reapplied her make-up and attempted eyeshadow, and frowned at her reflection in the mirror, hating how her hair hung limply no matter what she did with it, and the round glasses on the bridge of her nose that seemed to take up her entire face. She'd only had them two months at that point and hated them with a passion.

The dance had been fun and the two friends were excited about going to high school, both vowing to be more assertive and join more clubs.

Val was the only one to attempt that right away. She tried the girls' swim team, continued with the orchestra playing her violin, and went to the dances. Caroline, on the other hand, had planned on trying out for the school play, but chickened out when it came time for picking out her audition piece. She joined no sports, didn't sing in the mainly ninth grade chorus, Choraliers, and didn't attend one dance. She did, however, submit one, singular poem to the school's literary magazine, Writer's Block.

It wouldn't be until the following year, that Caroline would finally join something and, of all things, it was a sport. And she had never been the sporty type. Alongside another high school friend named Jen, she joined the Girls' Varsity Tennis team. Because the sport was not a popular one, and the team was never that fantastic, their was only Varsity and no Junior Varsity. By their Junior year, Caroline and Val were both more active, feeling at home in their high school environment and no longer being in the lower tier of the high school ranking, which was the freshman and sophomores. In their Junior year, the both joined the all girl chorus, Chorale, continued with their respective sports, and Caroline even joined the fall play as part of the company. They attended every dance held, and had the best fun at the Junior Prom that May and even more fun afterward at the After Prom Party held in the lunch room and gym back at the high school, which included pizza and pop, karaoke, a huge blow up slide that was about a good twenty to thirty feet high and was supposed to be a ship that was sinking toward the ground. There was also a bungie cord run, where you get a harness wrapped around your waist and then you run as far and as fast as you can to the end before you get snapped back by the bungie.

Senior year was the ultimate; they were at the top of the food chain and had the run of the school. Caroline had been able to drop Math and Science after tenth and with the added bonus of having an early dismissal every day, it was like she had no workload at all. Seriously, if she had homework, ever, it was next to nothing for her to do. Her schedule consisted of Humanities, English, a lame computer class, Economics one half of the year and Participation in Government class which was better known as its acronym -- PIG (both classes being the social studies requirement), gym, study hall, lunch and Bel Canto, which was the school's select chorus. Val wasn't in that one, though. Only two females from Chorale the previous year had made it in and Caroline was one of them.

Caroline was in the fall play again but only as part of the company, and then both Val and her made it into the musical. They each had one speaking line, but were both generally part of the background for the remainder of the time. Their high school career was coming to a close when May came around and it was time for Senior Prom. Both were dressed in red gowns but in different shades; Caroline darker, Val lighter. They danced with their dates and with each other, had even more fun than the year before and wound up with sore feet by the end of the night, tiredly sitting at their tables, talking about college, which was on the horizon. After prom, their limo to them to the American side of Niagara Falls, which is just called the American Falls, as compared to the better known, kitty cornered Horseshoe Falls, featured in the movies and television shows. Topping the night off, they wound up at Denny's for a very early morning meal. Afterward, they were each taken home and in bed by four.

The next event came graduation and then it seemed as if it were all over with.

But it wasn't.

Caroline and Val wound up at the same college together, both going for music. Attending the private, two-year school, it was there, in the fall semester of 1998, that the pair met Nefthali Radilla who had just graduated high school a few months before from Buffalo's Performing Arts Academy. He was a drummer and was also in the music department. The three became fast friends and were soon no longer a duo, but a trio. They shared the same humor and tastes and did everything together. And by the second semester, they got to know another student who was two years older than them, but graduating that May.

David Jozwiak, at twenty going on twenty-one, had taken a year off after graduating high school in '96 and then decided to go to school. He chose Villa Maria College in the crappy 'burb of Cheektowaga -- jokingly dubbed Cheekto-vegas by all Buffalo's residents because of all the gaudy lawn ornaments and such found on many a front lawn -- as a guitar major. He was part of the Jazz band with Nef and had noticed Caroline on several occasions walking around the halls of the music wing, in the cafeteria or just watching TV in the small, crappy student lounge.

But it was Val who made the first move to get Dave to join their group. She began talking to him one day in the cafeteria and then Nef showed up. They began talking music, and within a few more meetings together, the three of them came up with the idea of putting a band together.

Nef on drums, Dave on bass, and on vocals...Val.

There was no Caroline in that picture then, even though she was a voice major. She merely sat on the sidelines, secretly hoping for a chance to stand in for Val, and when she wasn't sitting in on rehearsals, she was working a part-time job at a local record store where she met her then boyfriend, Joe Cooper.

Joe was a year older, and was a Sophomore at Canisius College where he was majoring in Criminal Justice and a third baseman on the baseball team. They had met at the record store first, when he was just a customer. But he returned a few more times, chatted her up and eventually asked her out.

Meanwhile, the band still needed a bassist.

That summer, they began working with another student at the school, but it didn't work out, and they went through several others until Nef introduced Dave and Val to a kid who went to the same high school he did, but was two years younger.

Nicholas Konsta was a senior at the Performing Arts Academy at the time and played the bass as much as he could.

They now had their band.

As the school year progressed, Caroline and Joe had officially consummated their relationship, and for a short time, Caroline believed that maybe he could be the one. They went out clubbing on the weekends when he didn't have practice, games or homework to work on, or they went to dinner and a movie. It was a rather simple relationship, no real fireworks, but they did care about each other, and that seemed to be enough.

But then she introduced Joe, who was now a Junior at Canisius, to Val and the chemistry between them was absolutely kinetic, though Val pretended to not give a care about him at first. She was trying to focus on her own coursework and the band that was hobbling along.

It went on like this for some time, until May of 2000, one week before Val, Caroline and Nef were to graduate from Villa Maria.

Dave had picked Nick up and brought him to the college to watch the soloist recitals, in which their three friends were performing a few pieces, each on their own.

Nef played the drums, alongside the occasional piano accompaniment of Professor James Kurzdorfer, former bassist for the Jazz fusion band Spyro Gyra. Several other students performed, and then it was Val's turn. Naturally a soprano, her voice came out high and lilty, like a little songbird singing its morning hellos and how do you dos. Dave and Nick clapped for Val after she was finished, just as they had for Nef.

Two performers later, it was Caroline's turn. An alto for as long as she could remember, her voice was a complete contrast to Val's. Caroline's, when performing for her solo, was low without sounding too deep, and very rich. The color that came to Dave's mind when her listened to her, was burgundy. It had soul, seduction, and latent sorrow which moved the theme of her songs along almost magically.

And Dave fell in love...with her voice first, that is.

A week later, graduation took place and associate degrees were handed out, but the five of them were all seemingly in their own little worlds.

Nef and Caroline had no clue what they were gonna do with their lives now that their college experience was over. Neither had any desire to continue on anywhere for a bachelor's degree.

Dave was working at a studio, teaching guitar to kids and teenagers who wanted the lessons, while still playing with his unnamed banned for the time being.

Nick was had no plans to go to college. His grades weren't exactly spectacular and his family didn't have the money to send him, either. He simply went to work at the nearest Tops Markets to where he lived in not the greatest part of Buffalo and also played with his unnamed band for the time being, when not reading comics or watchingBuffy the Vampire Slayer every Tuesday night, all of shows.

Joe was going into his Senior year and named Athlete of the Month that April for the entire school. He had scouts looking at him to recruit him, but he already informed those who approached him, he wanted to receive a degree first, before making any decision to pursue a baseball career.

It was Val who was the most distant after graduation. They all knew she was gonna continue with school at the University of Buffalo, but they all assumed it was to go on with her music. They didn't know she had been losing interest in music altogether toward the end of her time at Villa, and was now more interested in Journalism and Communications.

While the band still met together as much as possible, it was clear, their lives were starting to drift apart due to Val's obvious distraction with continuing with school and, unknown to Caroline, Val's growing attraction to Joe, which was being reciprocated.

And then, in early August, during a rehearsal, in which Caroline was attending as just a listener and friend, Dave blew up. He wanted more out of this band. Music was his life and he didn't plan on being stuck in Buffalo until he was old and gray. He wanted to make a name for himself and see the world and it seemed unlikely at the rate they were going. He placed a lot of his anger on Val who got angry right back and finally announced she had no ambitions of doing anything more with music or making a career out of it. She was going to be a Journalism major, transferring to the University of Buffalo, and no longer wished to be a part of the band.

Dave was thrown for a loop, to say the least. He was upset that she had wasted all this time, dragging the rest of them along with the assumption she shared their dreams and goals, only to be fooled in the end.

The band cut off communication with the blonde for a few months, with Caroline left in the middle to try and mediate between them all. On top of things, her sister, Giselle, was at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina as a sophomore, with hopes of becoming a psychiatrist someday. So, Caroline had no one to really open up to at that point in her life and just talk with.

To make matters worse, Joe was apparently losing interest in her and she didn't understand why.

Though, there was one bright spot in the turn of events: Dave wanted Caroline as the new lead singer.

It made perfect sense and he often wondered why he never thought of it in the first place. Caroline was the one with the hunger and drive for something more out of music, with hopes and dreams to get out of Buffalo and pave the road to success. It was her voice which felt more right with the style of music and, as their rehearsals progressed with her as their new member, it was to be Caroline who pushed the rest of them to participate in Open Mic Nites around the city.

As the months passed, Joe broke up with Caroline, citing that they just had nothing in common anymore and their was nothing there between them to work at. The love was gone, if it had ever truly been there to begin with.

She was brokenhearted and turned to Dave to her bandmates for comfort by working double-time at their venture.

She made flyers and business cards; handing them out to people at clubs and coffee houses, even when they weren't playing anywhere. Just to simply get the word out about who they were. She scheduled slots for them to play at clubs like the Continental, Icon, and the Tralfamadore Cafe. Sometimes at Nietzsche's or Merlin's. She wrote down lyrics furiously, inspiration hitting her like wild fire at random moments and tunes coming to mind after the fact. And when she conveyed her ideas of how the songs sounded to the guys, they were ecstatic at how well her ideas meshed with their own as well as having a lead singer who finally cared enough to write as well as sing.

And after she'd been a part of the band for a full year, Caroline finally learned the truth of why Joe had broken up with her.

All this time he had been pursuing a relationship with Val.

Caroline was very much betrayed by the deceit, the lack of honesty from her best friend. She refused to talk to Val for what seemed like months, after a certain time had passed, a then 21-year-old Caroline realized that she really never did have much in common with Joe. He was just a good looking guy who showed interest in her and whom she enjoyed spending time with because he was a good person.

Caroline was a vibrant soul, yearning for more, and never satisfied with staying put. Joe was the opposite. Though he enjoyed escaping to sci-fi fantasies in his mind from time to time and loved the thrill of playing baseball, he had no ambitions of being some major leaguer.

However, after his graduation from Canisius, he did sign with the Buffalo Bison's as their new third baseman, pocketing his Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice for a rainy day for when he couldn't play the game anymore.

Caroline forgave Val, and she forgave Joe and she moved on.

She found her niche, a part of a band she adored, which had long since decided to call themselves The Sinners.

Not long after, Caroline's parents sold their home and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina when Paul Wood's job was moving out of Buffalo and he was given the choice a couple other locations where the company was also based out of. He chose Raleigh, because if he couldn't still be in Western New York near one daughter, he'd be in North Carolina near his other daughter.

So, Caroline moved in with her grandmother and found her feelings for her friends changing.

She didn't get to see Val as much anymore because the blonde was too busy with college and Joe, and Caroline was too busy putting all her energies into her band.

Caroline was falling hard for Dave, just as he had already been falling for her.

And the rest, as we know, is history...



Caroline drummed her fingernails along the tabletop in the kitchen, sitting in the chair kitty corner to the one Val was sitting in, and smiled.

"We've come a long, long way from where we started out together, twenty years ago," the brunette commented ruefully.

"Tell me about it," replied Val, casually looking around the spacious kitchen. "We both have careers we enjoy to no end, married the men of our dreams and have beautiful children who mean the world to us."

A few more moments of silence passed over them, and it was Val who attempted to make the move toward changing the subject.

"Oh," she began, thinking of something. "Remember Lindsay Wallace?"

"The slutty cheerleader from high school who's locker was next to mine all four years?" Val nodded. "What about her?"

"Her husband shot her to death two months ago. I had to cover the story!"

Caroline opened her mouth in shock and curiosity, her eyes slightly wider. "Oh my God, what happened?"

"Well, apparently her Open Leg policy continued into her life after high school and she was sleeping with some guy she worked with. Her husband suspected something, and his suspicions were confirmed when he came home on his lunch hour and saw another car in the driveway," Val explained. "He went inside the house quietly, noticed a trail of clothing leading to his bedroom and went back outside to get a gun he kept in his glove box in his car."

"Holy shit."

"Yeah, tell me about it. So, he heads back into the house all nonchalantly, according to his neighbor who was an eye witness and he kicks open the bedroom door. His wife and her lover bolt upright in bed, and the husband shoots the poor schmuck point blank in his head, and then after a quick plea from Lindsay, he shoots her twice in the chest."

Caroline was absolutely stunned. "Wow."

Val simply nodded and then frowned. "It's one thing or another with our graduating class, I'll tell ya. When I heard about Lindsay, it made me think of you and what you went through last year, and I felt so guilty."

"Why?"

"I was never able to make it to your wedding because of work and the kids, and I wasn't there for the funeral and I just wish I could've gotten to know Mike more. I wish our families could've had barbecues and weekend camping trips together. Our husbands shooting the shit while our kids played in the dirt. We missed out on a lot between each other these last ten or so years."

"Time does that," Caroline muttered lamely.

"And now Giselle's gone. God, Care...I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what you're going through right now and when I heard you'd come back home to Buffalo, I had to see you. I mean...is there anything I can do? Is there anything you need?"

"You mean, beside having a husband and sister who are still alive, who didn't leave behind young children and a loving spouse?"

Val had no answer to that, but merely placed a hand over the top of Caroline's. The brunette couldn't find any words either. Nor could she cry the tears she wanted to cry. She was sure she'd cried as much as she already could, that there were no more tears left in her body because she'd cried enough to last two or three lifetimes in just the short expanse of less than one year. So, she just sat there, taking comfort in the company of an old friend come to visit.



Val left a few hours later, that night, eventually needing to get home to her own children, but promising to come back and visit real soon. They both agreed that when they got together, that their kids could play with one another. Or, at least their sons, who were pretty much the same age.

Content that her kids were fed, having thrown together Spaghetti-O's during Val's visit, she bathed them afterward, read them a story and tucked them into bed.

It was eleven o'clock when she, herself, was getting ready for bed, when she received a phone call from Gerard, but she let it go straight to voicemail. She had already told him before she left, though she didn't tell him where she was going, that whatever it was they had together, just couldn't last anymore. She had to end it.

So, when there was a faint sound of the doorbell ringing filtered into her ears, Caroline had this dreaded feeling that Gerard had somehow followed her and was now at her doorstep. Who else would it be at eleven at night, anyway? If Val had left anything, she'd have the decency to call first and come pick it up the following day.

Naked from planning on taking a quick shower, Caroline sighed and placed her thin, red satin robe around her body and wrapped it tightly. She walked out of her bathroom and into her bedroom, then out the bedroom toward the stairs. Padding quietly down each step she eventually found her way toward the main door and peered out the window.

"What the---?"

Unlocking the door and opening it up to the warm, summer night air without hesitation, Caroline stood there, quite remarkably surprised.

"Dave?" she questioned in wonderment.

"I figured this is where you'd end up."

Caroline didn't have to say any words. She simply moved out of the way and let him inside, ushering him toward the family room after she re-locked the door.

"Did I interrupt something?" he asked, inspecting her from head to toe.

"I was about to take a quick shower before Conan came on," she answered. "Mikey and Chloe are asleep."

He nodded his head and smiled at her. "I was worried about you, Starshine."

Caroline, despite her robotic mood as of late, couldn't help but genuinely smile at the nickname. "Shit, I haven't heard that in years."

"Yeah, well, you look like you can use all the cheering up you can get, and really; I'm sorry I'm here so late. I know you've always been a night owl and I didn't want to wait until tomorrow."

Caroline gestured for him to follow him upstairs. "You never were the patient type."

"Hey, neither were you." Then he added, "Where are we going?"

"To my room. I need to change. I'm not getting a shower now."

"Sorry."

"Don't be."

They reached the last step and walked on tiptoe into her bedroom and she closed that door behind her as well, turning the television on to Channel 2, NBC. Flopping the remote down on her mattress, she looked around at the room, which was done up in deep red colors. Even a simple, white lamp shade on her dresser had a red scarf over it for ambiance.

And then she looked up at Dave, standing there in a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up above his elbows and a pair of jeans, despite the fact that it was summer out.

Dave looked back at her and smiled sympathetically.

"What do you need, Caroline? I feel like I should be helping you with something. I feel useless. Seriously," he blurted. "You've lost Mike and Giselle and I don't know how to help you through this. I wanna be the I'm Here For You kinda guy, but that sounds cheesy, and I'm anything but cheesy. I just...you're my girl, you know what I mean? You were my friend first, then my girlfriend and my friend again and I couldn't ask for a better friend and you, of all people, do not deserve these losses." He took a breath and frowned. "I just wish I could take some of the grief, if not all of it, away from you."

Caroline's chin quivered like a candle on fire as she looked at her bandmate and one-time boyfriend. And suddenly the flood gates opened once more.

She didn't speak any words, she simply whimpered and let the tears flow as Dave stepped forward and held her in his arms. And even though her robe slipped slightly off her shoulders, it didn't faze either. They were friends till the end and Dave just wanted to help her through it all.

"Thank you," she whispered through her tears.

"This is me helping."

"I know, and thank you," Caroline repeated.

Dave shrugged a bit. "What are friends for?"