CXXVI

TRICKY TRIANGLE

CHAPTER 6

MAY 1969—MAY 1979

“Oh no! Eddie’s dead?” Wendy cried.

The shock of her words and her reaction caused a surge of adrenaline to course through Hal. His best friend dead! Only twenty-two years old. Hal felt like his knees would give out. Just a minute ago he was giving in to temptation, his body electrified with carnal desire. Now he was becoming numb with dread and disbelief.

A moment ago, Hal had been saying goodbye to his wife’s best friend with a friendly hug and kiss. It was something they had done a dozen times before. But after sharing several adult beverages over conversation, their secret attraction caused their affection for each other to cross a line.

Wendy’s typically quick peck on the lips lingered. Then when she pulled away, Hal just stared at her, unable to hide his desire, so she kissed him again. She knew she was crossing a line. Hal wasn’t just a married man, he was the husband of her best friend. But she was lonely, and Hal was great company, a good listener, not to mention one of the best looking guys she had ever known.

The telephone made them both about jump out of their skin right when they were going to deepen their kisses. The guilt that caused the rush of anxiety only intensified when it was Dawn, Hal’s wife who had called. It was as if she had intuited their adulterous intentions. Hal was close enough he could hear his wife’s words croak those startling words. They momentarily made their lustful behavior vanish from their minds.

After Wendy’s bloodcurdling declaration, he heard his wife sniff again. “What? No, Eddie’s not dead.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure, he’s sitting right here in my kitchen.”

Wendy took a deep breath and sighed heavily, relief surging through her. “Girlfriend, you scared the dickens out of me. Why do you sound like you’ve been crying then?”

“I do? Oh, I guess it must be my allergies. They’re pretty bad today.”

The up and down of extreme emotions in only minutes made Hal feel like he could collapse. He stepped back into Wendy’s apartment and sat down on her sofa. He rubbed his hands over his face as he tried to compose himself. Then he quickly became giddy. His best friend was home from Vietnam, and alive!

“He was here, he left though,” Wendy said, glancing guiltily at Hal. He surged to his feet as he listened to Wendy continue to talk to his wife. He hated the lie that was just told. “I’ll freshen up and be right over. Okay, see you in a bit, bye.”

“Eddie’s home!” Wendy sang as she grabbed Hal’s hands, jumping up and down. Then she hugged him fiercely. But when they separated, she wore a somber expression. “Hal, I’m sorry about what was happening when your wife called.”

The fact that she said your wife rather than Dawn didn’t go beyond his notice. “Me too.”

“I guess the alcohol caused us to give it.”

“Yeah,” Hal replied, liking the idea of a scape goat.

Wendy shrugged, smiling sweetly and innocently. “But nothing really happened. We just became a little extra friendly, that’s all.”

“We did at that,” Hal replied as he rubbed his neck, afraid to think what might have happened had they not been interrupted.

Hal feared that if they hadn’t quite literally been saved by the bell, the Northwestern Bell, they likely would have ended up in Wendy’s bedroom. He decided right then and there that he was no longer going to stop by for a drink and a friendly chat with Wendy.

“You better get home,” Wendy said and then giggled. “You left already, don’t you know.”

Was Wendy not all that bothered about what just happened? The kissing and then the lie? Or was she just happy that Eddie was home, and she was about to see him?

Hal’s brain and emotions spun and whirled as he drove home. How could he be so disappointed at losing the forbidden pleasure of Wendy’s affection, yet extremely grateful that he had? Plus, his best friend was home from war, and at his house right now!

“Eddie!” Hal shouted as he stepped into his house. The kitchen was empty, and he dashed into the living room. Eddie arose from the sofa, grinning. He limped a couple steps toward Hal, and the two buddies embraced. Hal kissed his cheek. In part, because he was so giddy at seeing his friend, and also because he frequently had kissed Wendy. After all, that’s what friends do.

Ed both laughed and frowned as he wiped his cheek. “What’d ya doing man!”

“Just happy to see you old pal,” Hal said. Yet he was a little taken aback at how haggard his friend looked. He appeared to be north of thirty-two years of age, let alone twenty-two. “I didn’t think you were due back in the states until June or July.”

“I caught some shrapnel in my thigh and calf,” Ed explained. “I guess it was my ticket to home early.”

“So you’re discharged then?” Hal asked.

“No, not till August. But I am done with the war.”

“Man, it’s great to see you,” Hal enthused, slapping his buddy’s shoulder. “As soon as I heard you were here, I raced over.”

Hal glanced at Dawn. She was both grinning and frowning as she sat in an easy chair, nursing baby Luke. “How did you know Eddie was here?”

“Wendy told me,” Hal replied, and then recalled Wendy’s lie about him leaving.

“When I called her, she said you had left.”

“I forgot my Bible and went back after it right when she finished talking to you,” Hal replied, and then felt sick using the Holy Bible in a lie.

“Oh,” was all Dawn said as she studied him suspiciously. He had already sensed that she was uncomfortable with his visits with Wendy. Now he felt his guilt showed under her scrutiny. “Here, take Luke.”

Hal reached for his son, relieved at the distraction. Then he felt a wave of annoyance at his wife for leaving her bare breast exposed as she casually took a sip of tea. He glanced at Ed and saw his eyes riveted on Dawn’s chest. Ed looked away, embarrassed when he realized Hal was looking at him.

However, his embarrassment was overpowered by tantalization. His eyes returned to Dawn as she unhurriedly covered herself. Hal felt his jaw clench. Not because his friend was getting a peep show from his wife, but because his wife was giving it. He was sure she was doing it out of spite because he had seen so much of Dawn lately.

There was a couple quick knocks on the door, then it opened, and Wendy appeared in the entryway. “Eddie!”

“Wendy!” he called back as she stepped quickly to her old boyfriend and hugged him. “Are you ever a sight for sore eyes.”

Hal ran out and bought burgers and fries for dinner from the same drive in that the foursome had ate at on their first double date. The friends then talked well into the evening. When Wendy and Ed left, her arm was looped through his as he walked her to her car.

“Wendy’s going to invite Eddie back to her place,” Dawn told Hal as they changed into bed clothes, a sly grin on her face.

“How do you know?” Hal asked. He had been intending to ask his wife about her prolonged breast exposure after she finished feeding baby Luke. However, he discovered his wife to be energized and upbeat, rather than her usual tired and depressed demeanor. He decided that he would rather have his arousal satisfied instead of his jealousy. It had been a couple weeks since they made love.

“She asked me when we were cleaning up after dinner if I thought it would be too forward or presumptuous, and I told her no.”

“So you’re encouraging her to have premarital sex?” Hal asked. He wasn’t jealous over Wendy being with Ed. He was hopeful they would get back together, and ashamed of his own attraction to his wife’s best friend.

He was also concerned with Dawn’s gradual lack of interest with spiritual things. It seemed that they both were slowly back sliding together. He was determined that they turn things around. Kissing with Wendy, and then using the Bible as a prop in a lie was a personal low.

“No,” Dawn said with a shrug. “They need to get reacquainted with each other. What’s wrong with inviting him up for conversation?”

Dawn gave him an intense stare, but a little grin played at her lips. Was she suspicious of his own conversations in Wendy’s apartment? Or was she simply delighted at playing a little cupid? He hoped his wife was in the mood for some loving. He hadn’t acquired a vasectomy only to remain abstemious from intimate relations.

“Nothing at all,” Hal grinned as he drew his wife to him and kissed her. To his pleasant surprise, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. “Let’s just hope they get back together.”

Wendy and Ed did get back together. For the two weeks he was on leave, they were inseparable. When he returned to his Marine base in California, Wendy went out to see him for a couple weeks during the summer. In mid-August, Ed was honorably discharged from the service.

Upon returning home, Ed was hired as a Mayfield police officer. Wendy was hired permanently at Springdale High School, and the two high school sweethearts continued to date. Over the holidays, Ed gave Wendy something she called the best Christmas present ever, an engagement ring. They were married on a Friday evening, June 12, 1970.

Hal thought it was an interesting coincidence that they were marrying on his and Dawn’s anniversary. Dawn thought it was a bit strange, but a sweet sentiment. Wendy had told Dawn that it was on purpose. She said she had always envied, in a good way, her and Hal’s family life.

When Wendy expressed a desire to start having kids right away, Dawn had a real heart to heart talk with her best friend. Surprisingly, Wendy agreed, and put reason ahead of passion. So, the first couple years of their marriage, Wendy and Ed simply enjoyed each other as they both adjusted to married life, as well as their new jobs.

Wendy and Ed bought a house only two blocks away from Dawn and Hal. The two couples spent a lot of time together over the years. Ever since the day Ed returned from war, and unknowingly put a stop to a potentially adulterous situation, Wendy and Hal seemingly forgot it had ever happened. Yet they remembered very distinctly, yet secretly, every time they shared a hug.

By the mid 1970’s, no children were forthcoming to Wendy and Ed. It was later  discovered that Wendy was unable to bare children. The two talked of adopting. Then after years of procrastinating, the couple finally took a serious look into it, intending to finally make the commitment. They arranged to have dinner with Dawn and Hal to reveal the good news.

“Where’s Wendy?” Dawn asked Ed as she and Hal met him out in front of Luigi’s Italian restaurant.

“She had a doctor’s appointment, but I thought she’d be here by now,” Ed replied.

They waited, and ten minutes later Wendy arrived. She smiled and kissed her husband.

“Should we go inside?” Ed asked.

“Um, I hate to be a party pooper,” Wendy said, and then laughed. But Dawn noticed her eyes were red rimmed from crying. “But I don’t think I can join you guys.”

“Honey, why not?” Ed asked, and then looked at their friends with a concerned expression.

“I just found out I have breast cancer,” she replied solemnly.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS Part 19)

The Leper: (See Mark 1:40-45, 2:1-12 and Luke 5:12-28)

Of all diseases known in the East the leprosy was most dreaded. Its incurable and contagious character, and its horrible effect upon its victims, filled the bravest with fear. Among the Jews it was regarded as a judgement on account of sin, and hence was called “the stroke,” and “the finger of God.” Deep-rooted, ineradicable, deadly, it was looked upon as a symbol of sin.

The leper thought of all he had been told him of Jesus. Not one who had sought His help had been turned away.

The leper was a loathsome spectacle. The disease had made frightful inroads, and his decaying body is horrible to look upon. At the sight of him the people fall back in terror. They crowd upon one another in their eagerness to escape contact with him. He neither sees nor hears them. Their expressions of loathing are lost upon him. He sees only the Son of God. He hears only the voice that speaks life to the dying. Pressing to Jesus, he casts himself at his feet with the cry, “Lord, if You’re willing, You can make me clean.”

Jesus replied, “I am willing, be cleansed.” (Matthew 8:3)

The leaders at Jerusalem had sent out spies to find some pretext for putting Christ to death. He responded by giving them an evidence of His love for humanity, His respect for the law, and His power to deliver from sin and death. Thus he bore witness of them: “They have rewarded Me evil for good, and hatred for My love.” (Psalm 109:5)

The work of Christ in cleansing the leper from his terrible disease is an illustration of His work in cleansing the soul from sin.

The leprosy was cleansed. Thus it is with the leprosy of sin. Deep rooted, deadly, and impossible to be cleansed by human power. “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. (Isaiah 1:5, 6)

But Jesus, coming to dwell in humanity, receives no pollution. His presence has healing virtue for the sinner. Whoever will fall at His feet, saying in faith, “Lord if You’re willing, You can make me clean.” Shall hear the answer, “I am willing, be cleansed.”

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

Jesus had declared that the sins of the paralytic were forgiven. The Pharisees caught at these words as blasphemy, and conceived that they could present this as a sin worthy of death. They said in their hearts. (See Mark 2:7)

Physical disease, however malignant and deep seated, was healed by the power of Christ; but the disease of the soul took a firmer hold upon those who closed their eyes against the light. Leprosy and palsy were not so terrible as bigotry and unbelief.

Oh, wonderous love of Christ, stooping to heal the guilty and the afflicted! Divinity sorrowing over and soothing the ills of suffering humanity! Oh, marvelous power thus displayed to the children of men! Who can doubt the message of salvation? Who can slight the mercies of a compassionate Redeemer?