Ness called me a few days after our coffee session and she told me about Dug and Bernie. She asked me if I like Italian food and would I come over for dinner. I told her I loved Italian food and what time was good for dinner.

“About 8,” she told me. “Do your run and stop for dinner."

I smiled. “Sounds great. Do you want me to bring anything?”

“Of course not,” She told me. “Bring yourself and your brilliant smile.”

“I will see you at eight then. I can’t wait.”

We hung up and I smiled at the anticipation of seeing my friends. I called my son and asked him about his day. Being a teenager, he was a young man of few words. All I got from the conversation was he was fine. I guess it was better than the alternative. At least he was speaking to me, even if it were in monosyllables. I went back into my office and finished up on some paper work. Often times, I wondered where things were going with my life. My relationship with my parents and my son was rocky at best. I missed having my son around. I loved him so much and he only tolerated me; that was being generous. I was typing in forms for some of my students and wondered what Dug’s life must have been like. He grew up in a time when Down syndrome wasn’t even a diagnosis yet. People more than likely treated him cruelly. He only had Ness to protect him. Who protected her? Who helped Ness deal with all that was thrown at her? I wondered if my son knew how lucky he was to grow up currently and not have any disabilities. Of course, he might see me as a handicap. I tried not to think of why Donnie disliked me so much. I just blocked it away in that mental vault in my brain. I hoped that eventually he would forgive me. I realized I wanted Donnie to meet Dug and Ness. He might not want to at first, but eventually; he would grow to like them like she did. He might even learn something from Dug. A smile crept on my face and I decided to bring up Donnie coming to meet Dug to Ness at dinner.

At seven in the evening, I began my run. The nice looking man was out again working in his yard. I waved and smiled. He waved and smiled. I kept running. There was an elderly couple walking together and I waved at them. My feet seemed to have a mind of their own. I ran by a man with very skinny legs and gray hair and waved. I waved at some kids playing outside. Some people would say I was too friendly. I just thought that the world was ugly enough. Why not be friendly? A man walking his dog waved as he went by. I waved back. In twenty minutes, I ran up to Ness’s front door and knocked. She answered the door and handed me a cold bottled water.

“Thought you might be thirsty,” she told me with a smile. I gulped the water and gave her a thumb up to tell her that yes, I was thirsty.

“Thank you,” I said with water dripping down my chin.

“I hope you are hungry,” she told me. “I think I made enough lasagna to feed an army.”

I smiled. “I am starving.” She led me into the kitchen where Dug was setting the table.

“Hi, Ev!” he said happily. “I am so glad you are here. I am setting the table, all nice and tidy. "Ma, made lasagna. It is delicious…yum, yum.”

I went up and gave Dug a hug. “I am so happy to be here. I love lasagna!”

“What would you like to drink?” Ness asked me.

“Tea if you have it,” I told her. “Do you need some help?”

“Absolutely not,” she answered. “You are a guest. I am so happy to cook for someone.”

I gave her a hug. “I am so happy to be invited.”

She hugged me tightly. She handed me my tea. “Sit down and relax. The lasagna will be ready in about five minutes.”

I sat down at the table and watched her cook. At that very moment, I missed my son, my own mother, who didn’t have much to do with me anymore. Oh, I knew she loved me, but it wasn’t the same as having someone cook for you and come over and see you. It made me sad. I looked at Dug and wondered if he knew how lucky he was. Yes, he was mentally impaired, he was childlike and didn’t seem to be bent and broken down by the world. What a gift it must be to see the world through innocent eyes your whole life, maybe we are the ones who are mentally impaired. When we are kids we can’t wait to grow up, but when we are grown, we wish we could go back to being children again; to being wild and care free. Being an adult is not all it is cracked up to be.

“What are thinking about, Ev?” Ness asked me. I didn’t know how long she had watched me watch Dug. “You seem a thousand miles away.”

I looked at her. “I was just thinking that maybe Dug is the lucky one and we are impaired.”

She laughed and patted my shoulder. “Oh Ev, I have thought that since the day he could walk and talk. He has always saw the beauty and wonder in things. I wish we could be like that, don’t you?”

“The world jades us, Ness. I was just thinking that I wished I wasn’t so jaded.”

Dug laughed. “Oh, I am not jaded…oh no. I am clean and tidy, just like Ma raised me.”

Ness and I looked at one another and started laughing. “Dug, you are the tidiest person I know. Your Ma raised you good,” I told him.

“She sure did,” he told me. “She raised me up good. Dug is a good boy.” He smiled proudly. “I love my Ma.”

“I love you too, Duggie.” Ness told him. “You are a good boy and you make me happy.”

He looked at her. “Can we eat now?”

I looked at Ness pitifully. “Yes, can we? I am starving. It smells so good. My mouth is watering.”

Ness set the casserole dish, bread and salad on the table. “Let’s pray and dig in.”

After we ate, Ness made a pot of coffee and Dug went to play with his cars. The setting was so serene and so normal, I almost felt out of my element.

“Do you guys sit down together every evening and eat?” I asked her.

“Call me old fashioned, but yes, we try to break bread together in the evenings,” she told me with a smile. “It is good for Dug to have a regular schedule.”

I smiled. “It is good for everyone to have a schedule.”

“I believe that is true, Ev, makes life easier and more predictable.” Ness sipped her coffee quietly. “How are you?”

“I am fine. I miss my son. He lives with my parents. We don’t get along too well.” I bowed my head in embarrassment and shame. “It’s really hard some days. We were inseparable when he was little.”

“Ev, boys are as fickle as girls or worse,” she told me. “He will get over it, eventually. If he doesn’t, he will regret it. When people hold grudges they always regret it.” She reached across the table and took my hand. “It will get better.”

“I would love for him to meet you and Dug,” I told her.

“Bring him on over,” Ness told me. “This is the first time in years I have had a friend. It’s exciting for me but for Dug, it’s a miracle. That boy of mine, treasures miracles and he would love that boy of yours just because he is yours, Ev. My Dug thinks the moon rises on you and the stars revolve around you.”

I laughed. “I am just a normal, eccentric, eclectic woman, Ness. However, it does give me joy to know that Dug is so happy about our friendship.”

“He never had friends when he was growing up. The closest he had was my father. That boy won his heart over immediately. Of course, my mother wasn’t as easy to win over. My father took Dug and me fishing almost every weekend. He loved Dug. Part of me feels that he loved him because there were times he reminded him so much of Bernie. The other people in town stayed away from us. I led the town to believe that Dug was mine and that Bernie had passed in an accident. There were times I would catch my mother in my room looking at Dug in his crib. She would be crying. I just watched her and wondered if she was crying because Dug existed or because Bernie was gone. Maybe it was both. She would gently caress Dug’s baby fine hair and whisper to him. I never could make out the words. I am sure she was overcome with guilt. How could she not be? Bernie was more socially acceptable than I was. I was more boisterous and said what I thought. Mother and I butted heads frequently. She often suggested Dug be put in a home and I very loudly told her where to go. Everyone wanted to know who Dug’s father was, they often would ask my father at town counsel and he would never tell them. Even though, I eventually told him on a fishing trip what had happened to Bernie. I told him she was raped. I told him I could never name the man or he would kill us and do terrible things to mother and me. All of that paled in comparison when I thought what he would do to Dug. That boy had lit a fire in my father that I had never seen. He loved Dug and Dug brought him great joy,“ she told me. “There is something in Dug that brings out the best in people. If people take the time to know him, they love him.”

I looked at her. “I have never met anyone like him.”

“No one has.” She explained. “One day when he was three years old, Dad and I came in from the store. I was twenty at the time. Dug was sitting next to my mother. ‘NawNaw, you need doc. You heart no good. It has a boo boo.’ She looked at him and said ‘Dug that isn’t very nice.’ I could see the resentment building in her eyes. ‘Duggie, come here and give your Ma a hug.’ He rushed in my arms. ‘NawNaw needs a doc, Ma.’ I squeezed him in my arms. ‘We will talk about it, okay?’ He shook his head. We all knew he got words mixed up. I took him with me in the kitchen and fixed dinner. ‘NawNaw, is shick.’ I stopped doing what I was doing and sat across from him. ‘How do you know, Duggie?’ His little face looked at mine and he took my face in his hands. ‘I juss do.’ He kissed my forehead. ‘Ma, I so wuv you.’

I smiled. ‘I love you too, Duggie-booger-bug.’

He laughed. ‘I no booger.’ My mother died a week later from a heart attack.” She told me. “We didn’t give a thought to what Dug had said. My mother was a hard woman, but I loved her. Her death was hard on me. We never made peace between us over Bernie. It was devastating for Dug. My father, hewas a wreck. He loved her and hadn’t known life without her. They married right after high school and neither of them had ever been alone. It took everything I had to get my Dad through it. “

“Has Dug just always known things?”

“Yes.”

“I guess, what I am trying to say is, doesn’t that scare the hell out of you? You never know what he is going to say, or warn you about,” I said. “I would be afraid he was going to tell me something horrible.”

She stared at me. “Ev, he knows when bad things are going to happen. He also brings so much joy.”

I smiled. “I know he does.”

“I am here to tell you, that sometimes, he confuses things and gets things backwards. He can’t help it and his mind is wired a little different than ours,” she explained. “I wonder what he sees in that mind of his. I know he is scared sometimes and he will go days without talking. I know that some things he knows about scare him and upset him." She drew in a deep breath and let it out. "Maybe I don’t want to know what is in that mind of his.”

“How could it not terrify him, Ness? Imagine if you knew something was going to happen. What would you do? What if it was something horrible? Even though he is a grown man, his mind is still very childlike.” I went to the sink to get some more to drink. “I am scared sometimes when I have a bad dream. It haunts me for days.”

“I have always had vivid nightmares,” Ness replied. “I don’t have them often but when I do, I am haunted.”

“I want to talk about something a little more uplifting,” I said softly.

“Me too,” Ness agreed. “I would like to talk about anything but nightmares.”

Next Chapter: The Neighboring Man