HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 18

ARLO ALDO

RESTORE TO ME THE JOY OF YOUR SALVATION, AND UPHOLD ME BY YOUR GENEROUS SPIRIT (Psalm 51:12)

            My heart began to race as I saw the astonished look on my fiancée’s face. Her gaze kept rotating from me to my four year old daughter, and to my ex-girlfriend Elsa. We all seemed to be frozen by awkwardness. Finally Penny cleared her throat and said, “You have daughter?”

            “That’s what Elsa tells me.”

            Penny, the bluntest person I have ever met, says, “How do you know she’s telling you the truth?”

            Although I believed she was, it had crossed my mind that Elsa was mistaken, or even lying. Yet the little girl’s age would fit with the timeline of when she confronted me about the pregnancy and the desired abortion.

            I shrugged. “I don’t know, I just believe her.”

            “You had told me that you weren’t confident the child was yours when she told you she was pregnant. So what makes you so sure now?”

            “I guarantee you Arlo is Ivy’s father,” Elsa said matter of fact. “But it won’t hurt my feelings any if you want to get a paternity test.”

            Penny opened her mouth, and knowing her, I feared she was going to say I don’t care about your feelings. But then she closed it and frowned. Then she put a finger on her chin and eyed me suspiciously. Yet she was handling this situation with impressive calmness. “So when did you find out about Ivy?”

            “An hour ago.”

            Penny looked at Elsa. “Why now? Why didn’t you tell Arlo after you decided to keep the baby rather than aborting her?”

            “Not that I’m a saint by any means,” Elsa said. “But I was very uncomfortable thinking about my child’s father being part of a satanic rock group.”

            “But you were comfortable going to bed with a guy from a satanic rock group for what, eight years?”

            Elsa shrugged nonchalantly. “I was like nineteen when I started going with Arlo. People change. Like I said, I was no saint, he and I met at the Playboy mansion for goodness sake.”

            “So now you want Arlo to be a part of your daughter’s life?”

            “Yes, I do, very much so.”

            Penny crossed her arms abruptly and glared at me. “So what are you gonna do, move to California, or buy an airplane?”

            “Elsa doesn’t live in California anymore. She lives in the Chicago area with her aunt.”

            “She’s the only family I have left, and she getting up in years.”

            Penny looked stricken, and I felt my toes curl. To me Elsa made it sound like she was suggesting a menage a trois of some sort. It didn’t help as she continued.

            “If you guys are okay with it, Ivy and I could get a room right here at Mrs. Mendelbright’s for a while so you all could get acquainted with Ivy, and vice versa.”

            I opened my mouth to tell Penny the reason Elsa was extra eager for me to get to know my daughter,  but her voice won the race, and it bordered on hostility. No forget border, Penny was out right hostile.

            “Oh that would be wonderful!” Penny mocked. “I was supposed to get married the day after tomorrow, and my fiancée surprises me with his ex-girlfriend for our honeymoon!”

            It didn’t go beyond my notice that Penny said ‘was supposed to get married’ rather than ‘is going to get married’ the day after tomorrow. She stomped toward the door, and I grabbed her by the crook of her arm. “Penny, wait.”

            “Let go of me!” she said through gritted teeth as she jerked her arm free from my grasp. She slammed the door, and I cringed. Mrs. Mendelbright had about a dozen rooms in her large Victorian boarding house. Could people hear the dispute?

            I was frozen for a moment and glanced Elsa. Her eyes were wide with astonishment. “Arlo, I’m sorry I impulsively came here. I should have given you time to talk this over with Penny.”

            “It will be alright,” I reassured her. “Penny is a rather fiery person. But she’s also reasonable, compassionate, and smart. I’ll be back in a minute.”

            I burst out of Mrs. Mendelbright’s just in time to see the door of Penny’s truck slam shut. I sprinted over, reached through her open window, and shut off her truck.

            “Get away from me, Arlo,” she said as she restarted her truck. “Go make another baby with your ex-girlfriend.”

            I reached in to shut off her truck again. She grabbed my wrist and bit my hand. “Ow!”

            I jerked my hand out, and as her window went up, she barked, “The wedding’s off.”

            I made my way back to my room, grabbed my phone and told Elsa I would be a few more minutes. Once outside again, I tried to call Penny, but she didn’t answer. So I texted her. Back then we had flip phones and texting took a bit longer. And in my haste, it took even longer as I had to correct several typing mistakes.

            “Penny, please come back. I need to tell you something, and after I do I’m sure you will want to go back up and talk to Elsa. Please trust me.”

            Five minutes later I was pleased to see her drive back up. I wasn’t pleased to see the angry look on her face. Her window rolled down and she said, “This better be good.”

            Between the tension with Penny, finding out I had a daughter, and the horrible news Elsa had shared, I couldn’t control my emotions. Tears began to stream from my eyes, my lower lip quivered, and my voice cracked. “Penny, Elsa’s dying.”

            Her face looked stunned, and she softly tried, “Dying to do what?”

            “She’s dying, dying. As in she’s no longer gonna live. She has been given only a few months.”

            “I don’t understand.”

            “Not long after she had Ivy, it was discovered that she had breast cancer. It went into remission for more than a year, but just last week she found out that it had come back with a vengeance and has spread throughout her body.”

            She pressed a hand to her forehead. “Oh Arlo, I’m so sorry. I’ve never behaved like a bigger jerk in my life.”

            “That’s not true,” I said. She frowned at me, and it would have been funny if it wasn’t such a somber moment.

            She got out of her truck and gave me a quick hug. Then she made her way back to the house. She moved surprisingly quick for someone eight months pregnant. As we went through the door of my room, we discovered Elsa pacing, and Ivy still entranced by the cat.

            Elsa looked a little horror stricken as she froze and stared at Penny. But Penny displayed the intense compassion that are in spicey people that are Godly. She moved to Elsa and hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions, Elsa. I behaved like a moron, but would you please forgive me?”

            Elsa laughed as she cried, and they separated. “No worries. It seems Arlo told you about my dilemma.”

            “Yes, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am. We will do whatever we can to help you through this ordeal.”

            “Even raise my little girl?” Elsa asked and then sobbed.

            Penny hugged her again. “Sweety, I will love her like my own, I promise.”

            When they separated, we all looked at Ivy, blissfully happy, and blissfully unaware that her whole world was soon to be turned upside down.