They became a couple. Maggie wrote letters to Nina telling how happy she was. I read the letters and had to agree with Nina's assessment that they sounded entirely too cheery, too forced. They sounded like Maggie was trying to convince herself that she was happy.
The radiology tech asked Maggie to marry him a week before she graduated from nursing school. He didn't put a ring on her finger with his mouth, nor did he put one in a glass of champagne. In fact, he didn't even HAVE a ring when he conversationally brought up the subject of marriage to her.
Maggie said yes to him immediately. Two days later they went and picked out a ring together. The one that she liked cost more than he cared to spend so he asked her is she would mind pitching in a little for it. After all, money was tight, the republicans were fucking up the economy, etc. She pitched in. She tried to make the whole thing sound romantic in her letter but the underlying bitterness and disappointment were plainly visible between the lines.
She told Nina about their plans. They were going to get married as soon as possible, as soon as she secured employment as a nurse. He was going to quit his job and start a medical billing business that he could operate from their home.
Neither Nina nor myself had ever met this radiology tech but it certainly sounded to us like he was someone looking for a free ride. We wondered how Maggie could not see this too. Nina briefly mentioned this possibility during a phone conversation and Maggie blew up at her, slamming the phone down in anger. They made up a few days later but Maggie made it clear what the rules were: no more talking about her radiology tech.
I was forced to wonder if Maggie was following along her fated path. I hadn't known her at all in my previous life, nurse or not a nurse, she hadn't worked in any of the ERs, but I rather suspected that she was.
It was two weeks after the engagement notice, a week after her graduation, when Mike called me at our small apartment. He was in tears. We talked for more than an hour and he poured out his heart to me. He told me how much he loved Maggie, how stupid he'd been, and how he'd now lost her because he'd realized this too late.
I calmed him down – believe me, I was able to sympathize – and told him that he might be right, that it might be too late. I also told him that he didn't have a hair on his ass if he didn't at least TRY to get her back if that was how he felt about her. Even if he were still ultimately rejected he would at least not have to spend his life wondering if he COULD have. He asked how he could go about doing that.
"Do you want to marry her?" I asked him. "Is that what your goal is?"
"Yes," he answered without the slightest hesitation.
"Then in order for you to have any chance at all you're going to have to move quickly. Very quickly. You're going to have to be aggressively romantic."
"Aggressively romantic?"
I explained what that meant. We discussed a few different approaches to the problem and eventually Mike arrived at a course of action.
"Good luck," I told him after the details were worked out.
"What do you think my chances are?"
I didn't like to lie to my friends but in this case I made an exception. "About fifty-fifty."
Armed with information that I'd taken out of Maggie's latest letter to Nina, Mike was waiting for her when she emerged from a job interview at Holy Family Hospital – interestingly enough the same hospital where I'd performed a similar mission for Nina. Perhaps it was fitting. He proclaimed his love for her right there in the parking lot. He told her how wrong, how stupid he'd been. Finally he dropped to one knee and offered her an engagement ring. He told her that he would marry her that night, that hour. It was a very risky move on his part but it paid off.
She didn't accept his ring right there. She didn't gush all over him and go off into the sunset with him. But she also didn't slap his face. She left the parking lot that day by herself, her mind very troubled. But the next day she called him up and agreed to have lunch with him. By the end of that day they found themselves at Mike's house, in bed, her newest ring on her finger.
The next day she broke the news to the radiology tech. He did not take it very well. He screamed and yelled and cussed and Maggie was forced to flee in terror, honestly fearing for her safety. The words "bitch" and "cunt" and "whore" followed her to her car.
Mr. Radiology then made perhaps the worst mistake of his life. After Maggie left he went to Mike's fire station carrying an aluminum baseball bat and intending to express his displeasure with Mike in dramatic fashion. It was pretty dramatic all right. He'd failed to take a few things into consideration before launching his attack. One was that Mike was in exquisite physical shape as a result of his passion for working out. Another was that there were two other firemen in the station and firemen are fiercely loyal to each other.
The scuffle lasted approximately forty-five seconds. Radiology did not land a single blow with his bat or anything else. The Spokane Police arrived in force less than three minutes later. They charged in with their batons out, just itching to thump upon the person who had dared to storm a firehouse (the cops are VERY protective of firefighters and paramedics). What they found was their aggressor lying unconscious on the floor, bleeding from multiple places on his head and face. Radiology went to jail after a two-day stay in the Spokane Trauma Center.
The last thing that he did not take into account was that assaulting fire personnel is heavily frowned upon by the legal system, even if a deadly weapon is not involved, which in this case it was. The proverbial book was thrown at him and he ended up spending a year in the county jail which, of course, resulted in the loss of his job.
Neither Mike nor Maggie was ever bothered by him again. Less than six months later they were married. Nina and I both drove to Spokane to attend.
Did they live happily ever after? Does anybody? They are still married today and have two children that are a few years older than mine. Mike was promoted to engineer in 1989. He made Captain in 1991. He's being pressured from above to apply for Battalion Chief these days but he insists he just wants to be a Captain forever. He has his own station, his own crew, and he still gets to run into burning buildings once in a while.
Maggie went to work at Holy Family hospital, moving from department to department for a few years until she found her niche in labor and delivery. She's been there ever since and is now the dayshift charge nurse.
As a couple they are considerably more wealthy than the upper-middle-class status that their income alone would have provided. Since his first year on the fire department Mike has been taking investment advice from me. He's never committed as much as I have but the net worth of the Meachen family is currently around 1.8 million dollars. They have a large house, paid for, in the River-View area of Spokane. You can see the falls from their bedroom window and their deck.
They remain our best friends. We get together either at our house or theirs no less than twice a month, sometimes more. We spend every New Year's Eve together partying the night away. We go on skiing trips, boating trips, Vegas trips, and the occasional cruise together. We couldn't ask for better friends.
Tracy, like Nina, pounded out her undergraduate degree in three years. She was accepted into the UC Berkeley law school and graduated with honors in June of 1989. She could have had a job with any number of prestigious firms as a litigator. Instead she applied and was instantly accepted at the Spokane County District Attorney's office as a deputy DA.
She moved back home in early July of 1989, saving me the bother of warning her about the impending earthquake that was going to strike the bay area in October of that year. She has been with the DA's office ever since and she has made quite a name for herself as the prosecutor that doesn't like to plea bargain. This has made her butt heads with her superiors on more occasions than she cares to count but they can't argue with her conviction rate, which is impressive indeed. She is particularly fierce when she gets her hands on a manslaughter case and even the judges seem to fear her when this happens.