Good Man

"The road of life can only reveal itself as it is traveled; each turn in the road reveals a surprise. Man's future is hidden."



On the 31st of July, Caroline turned thirty-three and celebrated her birthday with her longtime friend Val and her family, along with Mike's mother Lucy and half-brother Shawn, as well as Caroline's two children. Everyone was over her house for simple cake and ice cream, no presents were really exchanged because there was nothing material Caroline needed or wanted, and it was mostly an excuse to give her son and daughter something to do.

Val's three children played and looked out for Caroline's two while the adults sat together in the family room, talking about this or that; basically shooting the shit.

And before anyone knew it, night had fallen and everyone began to leave. After bestowing the birthday girl with hugs, kisses and other well wishes, each guest was gone and Caroline's house was mostly quiet once again.

Mostly only because she did have toddlers after all.

When she was sure Mikey and Chloe were tuckered out enough to put them to bed, Caroline sought out the solace her own bedroom would bring.

Having changed into a pair of pajama pants and a tank top, Caroline didn't bother with turning on the air conditioner, and instead opened her bedroom windows; letting the cool night breeze twirl around and bring her body temperature down.

As she crawled up into bed with the new Danielle Steel book Val had given her, despite insisting she wanted no gifts, Caroline found herself uninterested in pursuing any literary adventures that night.

She closed the book and set it down beside her.

Caroline glanced at her nightstand and smiled ruefully.

There sat a picture of Mike and her after being pronounced husband and wife at that cheesy wedding chapel in Reno.

Scooting down the bed, Caroline turned onto her side and reached out for the bedside lamp, which she turned off with a yank of the chain. And as she stared at the picture for God knows how long, her eyes slowly began to grow heavy with impending sleep.

And the last day of July was over.



A week later, back on the other side of the country, Billie Joe was doing his best to do exactly what Caroline told him to do: pretend nothing happened, to move on and get over it. It was a fluke, nothing more.

Yada, yada, yada.

And although he had that dilemma of his own to mask over, it was another dilemma which Adrienne noticed, which had nothing whatsoever to do with Billie Joe or Caroline, for that matter.

It had everything to do with Joey, though.

For the last few weeks since he'd been working at Adeline Records, she had noticed something quite off about him. He appeared suspicious, quiet, and didn't talk about his longtime girlfriend, Nicole, as much.

Nicole Stanley, who Joey and Ramona had graduated with back in June, had been dating the oldest Armstrong boy for nearly two years and Adrienne had the impression they would one day make it down the aisle. They were adorable together, and quite the good looking pair. Although Joey was somewhat on the shorter side, just like his father before him, and despite the fact that Nicole was taller than him with a model's physique, they seemed to match up well with each other.

Like yin and yang.

She was a tall, thin young woman of eighteen years with fantastic brown eyes and pouty lips. Her only downfall was that she had the chest of a twelve year old boy. But from what Adrienne had learned from Billie Joe, their son was a butt man, not a boob man.

And just when Adrienne thought her son, who, to this point, seemed to be a restless soul, appeared to be quite stationary and content with his love life, little things here and there informed Adrienne that perhaps her intuition was off kilter.

"Joey, I found something odd in your pants pockets this morning when I was doing your laundry," Adrienne informed her oldest child one evening in the beginning of August.

Instead of being dumbfounded or aloof, Joey immediately tensed up, spun on the heels of his feet and glared at his mother. "Why were you going through my shit? I know how to do my own laundry, you don't have to mess with everything!"

"First off, don't you cop any attitude with me, Joseph. I am tired of it."

"Whatever," Joey snorted. He stepped closer. "What did you find?"

"A piece of paper with a girl's name and number on it, written in a handwriting that doesn't belong to you..."

"Oh, that's nothing," he answered a little too quickly for Adrienne's liking.

"I don't think it's nothing, Joey." Adrienne pressed her lips firmly together for a moment and studied her son's eyes. "What's going on? You can tell me anything," she tried assuring. "Are you and Nicole doing okay?"

"We're fine," he bit out. "Just drop it."

And at that moment, the front door opened and Billie Joe's voice rang out.

"So, I was driving down Hollis after leaving Rudy's for lunch and guess who I found waiting for the Emery-Go-Round when I know, for a fact, that she has a perfectly good car at her disposal?"

The 41-year-old appeared in the kitchen with Nicole tagging along behind him, a shy smile playing on her lips as she set her shoulder bag down on the kitchen island and greeted Joey with a kiss.

"Hey," she muttered.

"Hey," was his answer. Giving his mother a look, he took Nicole by the hand and lead her away from the room. "C'mon, let's go upstairs and hang out."

"Uh, okay..." Nicole took note of his abruptness, but shrugged it off as she grabbed her bag back up and smiled at Billie Joe. "Thanks for the ride, Mr. Armstrong."

"For the last time, I said you can call me Billie!" he called after the young couple. He turned and looked at his wife, shaking his head and smirking, while, at the same, wondering if she could tell he was hiding a secret from her.

But all Adrienne could think was: Who is Crystal Banach and why did she give my son her number and address?



It was four days until D-Day.

So, yeah, that's how Caroline was beginning to think of August 11th; the anniversary of Mike's death.

It was almost hard to believe it have been one year already. They say time flies when you're having fun, whoever they are, but what if you weren't having fun and time still flies? What do 'those people' say then? Time flies when you're in mourning and all shades of depressed and trying to deal with life going on and all that sugarcoated bullshit!

She had been so focused on her life without Mike that she failed to see what she was doing to herself, and not just physically, at times, but mentally and emotionally.

She'd been traveling down the road alone, or so it felt, in a dream state.

On autopilot.

Nothing seemed to faze her anymore. Nothing could stimulate her mind the way it used to. Nothing...nothing surprised her anymore. There had been no curve balls thrown at her that could truly fluster her.

The death of Giselle aside, the last year had been very numb and uneventful.

And now, as Caroline sat in her home's fifth bedroom on the ground floor which she had turned into an office and partial recording studio a couple years ago, and her desk calendar laid out before her, the dates seemed to jump out at her.

In red ink, she noticed how she had written 'would've been Giselle's 32nd B-day' under the 4th, the 11th was written down as D-Day, nothing more, and there was the 22nd, which she had marked for when she had to enroll Mikey into a Pre-K class for the coming school year.

But as she went over the calendar, she furrowed her brow and flipped back to the month before, scanning all the days. Not finding what she was looking for, she went back yet another month to June and scoured those dates with precision.

Caroline's heartbeat began to quicken.

"Oh, you've got to be shitting me!" she cried. "No, no, no, no, no." Her tone was more out of frustration as she saw the red circle drawn around the 12th of June.

The first day of her last period.

"Oh, please no."

She flipped back to July.

Nothing.

And she hadn't gotten it yet this month.

Closing her eyes firmly, she took several deep breaths and when she opened those hazel orbs once more, she calmly picked up her cell phone and dialed a number.

After two rings, a voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Val, hi. It's Care. Listen...I need you to do me a really big favor," Caroline spoke, staring at the calendar, still in disbelief.

"Sure, what is it?"



About one hour later, Caroline was now in the downstairs bathroom, staring at a plastic stick on the sink while her Val stood in the doorway. In the distance, the television could be heard along with the usual din of Mikey and Chloe playing in the family room.

"How long has it been now?" Caroline asked.

Val checked her wristwatch. "A little over two minutes."

"This thing is supposed to be ready in three, right?"

Val nodded. "That's what it says on the box." A mere second or so passed and the blonde was quite compelled to ask the question which was burning on her tongue. "Caroline, do you know who the fath---"

"Oh, god!" Caroline squealed with nervousness. "It's changing colors. Quick, okay, uh...how do I know if it's negative or positive?"

Frowning, Val answered, "It says, 'negative' or 'positive.'" Studying the side of Caroline's face, Val noticed how Caroline's face seemed to fall as she sank down onto the close-lidded toilet seat, holding a her pregnancy test in her hand.

"What does it say?"

"This can't happen to me," was Caroline's only response.

Val stepped forward and peered down at the test, at the blue letters which stated the result Caroline had already known in the pit of her chest.

POSITIVE