We All Still Love You Harry

     Bill was as tired as he'd ever been. He tossed and turned. He got up and opened the bedroom window wider to let in more of the fine sea breeze. All he could think of was Marta and the look she through him the day before they came up to the Mansion. 

     He dreamt of her. "I was trying to make you laugh. Sorry for bothering you. You're too good for me - snob." These things hit a critical mass and develop automatically. Neither Bill nor Marta had any control at all over what would happen next, because the two of them coming together had much more power than the both of them apart. 

     He had to take the Jaguar back to the cottage and bring the other girls back for the going away party Harry was planning. It was his way of sacrificing himself for science. "Look", he explained, "what's really important here is the holographic transportation of living tissue. Nothing else really matters." Evelyn looked at him and wondered what kind of late night movies he'd been watching. "You're more important than all of this Harry," and she meant it. This stopped Harry in his tracks.

     He had told everyone that he was going to use his transportation device to go away somewhere where he'd never be found and leave his discoveries and methods to his friends so that mankind could benefit from the vastly expanded potentials for distant travel, as fast and certain as electromagnetic waves. All he could do now was look at Evelyn. "I know you've transported those models, Harry and the Mansion and the Jaguar, and even us and the hotel rooms. You can give that all back and say you're sorry. Apologize to Ed and the others and let them have your invention for the security of the USA and free world and he'd be delighted I'm sure. We all still love you Harry. You don't have to run away from home. He smiled and everyone laughed. "Have a drink", someone offered. This would be one very interesting party.  

     Meanwhile, Bill had made it all the way back to the cottage and Marta and the two other girls were waiting with dinner. He smile at Marta. "I was dreaming about you last night." "Don't start with me again. Eat dinner, we'll go back in the morning." She turned and nearly smiled. "Look, I know I'm out of your league and I know you get this all the time. I mean, look at you, but I was just trying to make you laugh." "You're not out of my league Bill." She smiled, and that's all it took. He slept very well that night, and in the morning he smelled the ocean and breakfast and wondered if this was really happening. Marta walked into the room, very scantily clad. "Dreaming again Bill?" And she smiled. "She was so pretty when she smiled", he thought. 

 

                                               Everything Right Again Harry

     There are times when everything goes right. Japan surrenders. The girl you've been trying to date for years winks at you, You melt in her smile. The sun is warm and the sky blue. Tons of disappointments evaporate. Everything is right again. 

     Harry believed that if you had a good purpose and worked hard, you'd ultimately win out over a lesser purposes and negligence. He believed in our constitution. Imagine! In this day and age? Was it just too many black and white TV reruns from the 50's and 60's, or was it something deeper? 

     This time it was Evelyn Cohen and the same smile she gave him when he got back a test in the fourth grade that had a grade of "D". It was in his favorite subject - science! It wasn't a slap in the face, it was Albert Dreyfus having his medals and rank ripped from his uniform in public, for no single fault of his own. "I told you Mrs. Owens was evil Harry!" Evelyn smiled at him again, and he knew there was justice in the universe. He had a real friend. "Quiet back there", Mrs. Owens glared at the two of them. "Something else to destroy" oozed out of the venom pits in her neck. 

     Harry saw the same smile and knew that everything would be right again. He knew that he was totally in love with Evelyn and had been all of his life,

 

                                   We All Still Love You Harry

                                                 The Girls 4 - The Party

      "So what do we do now Harry?" Bill asked and thought at the same time, just like when they were kids. They'd just finished building their "tree house" - a couple of boards nailed together and onto branches. A ladder leaned up against the "floor" and they sat on it and then laid down and looked at the sky through the branches and young April leaves. Bill was wondering about trees and if they had feelings like animals and if they noticed them lying there. "We can invite our friends over and have lunch." Harry always had great ideas.     

     "Did you hear me Bill, I said we should ask the girls if they wanted to have  lunch out by the pool?" Bill had drifted back to the past. He was still tired and still overwhelmed by what had been happening these last few days. "Yeah, great idea."

     The wind was nearly always from the West, off the sea, and onto the beach. Warm currents from over the vast expanses of the pacific ocean equatorial waters, telling the story of creation over and over again as the earth turned each day and morning dawned on the Costa Rican beaches and birds rose and sang their songs on these same currents.

     The girls loved the idea as much as they loved free transportation to wherever they wished and whenever they wished. They loved the pool, the mansion, the yacht, the ocean and beach. 

    Lunch was fresh caught fish broiled with onions and lemon and sauces. Exquisite. Even Evelyn smiled and laughed for the first time in days. "Who's the cook?", she asked. "Margot", came the reply. "You shouldn't do movies Margot, you should have your own restaurant!" They all giggled. She looked at Harry. "I'm sorry Harry, I've always loved you and I still do." 

    It  would have been Harry's best day ever, but he still had no idea how he was going to get out of this clean, free, and happy. 

     "What's that?", Bill was pointing out over the sea toward a dark gray mass, perhaps fifty miles distant.

     

     

     

 

                                                  We All Still Love You Harry

                                             The Girls 2 - The Mansion

.     "I only count three girls, where are the others?" Evelyn aimed her comment squarely at 

Harry. She was and had been about as close to Harry as any girl could be, since they were 

little kids in school. Still, they were never married, and yes, the subject of children had come

up often. Needless to say, she didn't find Harry and Bill's adventures when they were in 

college as amusing as they did. She tolerated it because they were at that age and that's 

what everyone did. It would be a while and the helping hand of an accident that pushed them 

together intimately. Out of gas in the country and hitch hiking to a motel, and it happened. "No 

I'm not shy Evelyn. It's just that I always thought of you as something like my sister. We were 

friends. The three of us were friends. Good grief you're beautiful." They laughed and held on 

tightly to each other through the night and woke up 'together' in a way most people become 

after many years of good, strong, happy marriage. 

     "They're at the mansion. There's a road down there. We can go in the morning." "Oh, 

there's a road. I guess we can take your Jaguar. Should we bring a breakfast, or is 

there enough to eat down there? I hope they have an extra bikini for me." She was starting to 

boil over. "You pulled us out of the hotel and transported us down here. Why couldn't you 

bring me to your collage and mansion. I shoot pool. What's the problem.? Afraid I'd get in the 

way?" Harry was totally nonplussed. Evelyn, continued. "We all still love you Harry.

Everyone but me that is, and none of this is funny and you are going to jail."  

                                                  We All Still Love You Harry

                                                    The Girls 

               They were in a thicket of trees. The windows were open and what should 

have been a view of the Charles River was more like a tropical rain forest in the 

morning. "It's Costa Rica, I tell you. I know the place. Me and Harry used to come 

out here when we were younger, during and after college. We sailed and took 

girls out here too, sometimes." Evelyn looked at him. "Harry never mentioned 

Costa Rica to me, ever!" "It's a guy thing," Bill started to laugh, "like a handball 

court or a bar where the guys go after a game or something." He fumbled around, 

remembering how they would plan out their little adventures with the co-eds, 

botanical assignments, photo shoots, they'd plan and drink, and that's more or less 

how their 'assignments' ended up. "The girls probably knew better than we did 

what our plans actually were." Bill smiled. "I'm sure they did." Evelyn added, 

looking right at him and not smiling at all. 

     They heard laughing and opened what used to be the door leading to the hotel 

hallway. "That's the cottage, I can see it from here. He brought us right to our 

place, absolutely amazing!" "He did it, he actually did it. Come on follow me." 

     They followed a very dimly lit path up to the lights of the cottage. You could hear 

girls laughing inside. Bill knocked. "The doors open Bill and Evelyn, come on in",  

came Harry's greeting from inside the game room. 

    "Hi, you must be Bill', smiled one gorgeous blond looking up from behind a cue 

ball she was poised to strike. "Welcome to Harry's Pleasure Den", and two other 

girls started to giggle. 

 

                                       We All Still Love You Harry 

                                                   Making Sense Now   

        

       It had been a long day. The sun was low over the ocean. Orange light touched the 

front of their cottage, a lonely little building set in an immense jungle, no phones or TV and no 

electric power except for their generators. Their boat was anchored out a bit and easily  

accessible by walking through the fairly shallow water of the receding tide. It held better 

electronic communication systems than their cottage. Bill and Harry often sat here, watched TV, 

drank coffee and spoke while quietly rolling over the soft waves coming into their large curved 

natural harbor. They  had been speaking about putting a dock in for over twenty years now.     

         Bill started laughing about Ed Sharp and his crew. "Ha Ha - I wonder if Ed knows where 

they are yet." He twisted in his chair and nearly fell out with his laughter. Harry smiled and 

looked at him. "ok He'll be as long as the snakes don't bite him", and laughed right along with 

Bill, the two of them nearly on the floor. 

     "Nothing to worry about really", he coughed a bit and started laughing again, "as long as 

they get the anti venin into them fast enough - I sent some guides to get them out of there -

they'll just get what they deserve - a good scare", and he dried the tears from his eyes. 

      He looked over to Bill again and in a lower tone added, "I did this for you Bill, all of it. I 

wanted you to have the things you were missing in life. Your parents and brother and sister,

 lost in the accident. I wish I had known them. Nothing can replace them, but good friends 

and a family of your own can help."  Bill was breathing deeply now and thinking deeply too. 

He.and Harry had been friends since grade school and then roommates in college. He looked 

at Harry. "All this time?" He got up and walked around the room, "I should have known. I did 

know. Good grief Harry." Then his chest started to heave and he remembered the tragedy. "I 

didn't know anything Harry. I was totally numb. I just sort of moved through life one step at a 

time. Me and Uncle Jack and you at school and on the playground, and here we are. It's 

starting to make sense now."