Janel's...Naturally: Two (continued)

“I’ve been split a few years.  Can’t divorce or I would lose my land.  I love this little piece.”

“But how could you hope to have any kind of meaningful relationship?  Doesn’t that limit you?”

He got quiet.  They walked back to his car and he continued the door.  Ninety minutes later the tour was complete. She thought the whole experience odd. Just odd.

They saw each other casually a few times.  Even organized an environmental group together.  But he was somewhere else.  She hoped he found a mate.  And peace.

It wasn’t the same again.  He avoided her.  And she had gotten intense with him.  Not about him, but intense in the things she cared about.  She wanted to feel some kind of passion from him.  Something.  Not in a romantic way but in a, “I am your friend and will stand by and up for you kind of way.”  At least she thought so then.

It simply wasn’t his way.  She had had enough of wimps having been married to one for too long.

She was glad he could enter the café.  He wasn’t much for social events so this was special.

Samantha came in with her three daughters.  A former commissioner, this classy woman was leading a life of more than quiet desperation.  It never showed until it did.

There was a lot about Samantha that Janel admired. Her grace, poise, and courage to put herself out there.  Under the sweetness, a friend replied:

“Watch her, soft but with a big stick,” Howie said.

“I don’t trust her.”

“I don’t either, but then I don’t have to.  It is enough to stay in my own business,“ Janel said.

“I’ve learned I don’t have to account for anything with anybody.  That is their job.  Mine is to be true to myself.”