When All Is Said And Done (Mavology III)
The third installment of "Mavology"; Maverick Tokarev faces a great personal triumph, and a terrible personal tragedy~
When All Is Said And Done
Coshocton's sunrise, over the hills from the east, cast long shadows at Lake Park. The morning fog rose off the chilly ponds at the park, flowing gently over the levees and hugging the low grounds. The amber sun colored the fog a brilliant golden yellow. It was a picture perfect Sunday morning, the third of May.
Emerging from the tunnel that went beneath Route 36, a couple golf carts rumbled up the bike path that cut through Lake Park. In the lead cart was Maverick and his girlfriend Amy. The big Russian husky and Bulgarian wolfess rode with Maverick's adopted son Robby, a twelve year old tan and beige husky. In the two carts behind them rode Maverick's video crew from BVS, the broadcasting division that made up the company he oversaw, United Barev Industries. It was a big operation to take Amy's cooking show she did with Maverick, to Lake Park for an episode.
"Oh this is going to be a beautiful shoot." Maverick pointed out. "Look at that beautiful lighting angle!"
"I know right? This is actually working out great!" Amy exclaimed happily. She held onto Maverick's right arm and nuzzled him playfully while he drove.
"For once Ohio weather pulls through!" Maverick laughed.
"If you don't like today's weather! Wait for tomorrow!" Robby laughed in the back.
"SHHH! You'll jinx us!" Maverick exclaimed.
The golf carts pulled off the trail near the bridge that spanned the wide Tuscarawas river, which cut the park in half. Grabbing all their gear, the group walked a short distance and sat up shop by the river, which formed a pleasant backdrop with a patch of woodland, which was slowly turning green from all the shrubbery coming back to life. A charcoal grill was set up, and loaded with briquettes, a table was set with a red and white checkerboard table cloth thrown over it, and Amy laid out some of her cooking utensils. A big rolling Igloo cooler kept all the perishables cold. While Amy prepped her work area, Maverick assisted in setting up the video equipment.
The video crew was led by Marcus and Felix Barion, the "Barion Adoptees". The white and gray Swedish husky, and fawn furred Doberman worked to set up tripods, microphones, and their analog video equipment with Marcus' older brother, Borr Eklund. Also along to assist was Matt Prince and Shane Phyllis. Three RCA TKP-47's, and two Ikegami 79DA's were the recording cameras, each chained up to a set of portable open-reel one inch Hitachi Type C recorders. Maverick placed his TKP-47 onto the tripod boot and locked it into place.
"I was wanting to shoot these with my BVP-3, but after Amy's shiny spatula burned the last set of Saticons..."
"That's why Plumbicons were in most broadcast cameras for a long time, Mav." Chuckled Felix with a cheeky grin. "Just saying~"
"Eighty percent, I might add." Chuckled Marcus.
"Yeah, yeah~" Maverick brushed them off. "Longer gun life, better resolution, and better red channel on Saticons!"
"Quieter noise profile, high burn-in resistance, eighty percent adoption rate, just saying!" teased the Doberman.
"You guys are all a bunch of nerds!" teased Amy with a laugh.
"Hey, hey, hey! That sandwich ain't gonna make itself, woman!" Maverick jokingly snapped back.
"Oh hell to the no you just said that!" Amy joked, pointing a knife at Maverick with a laugh at the end.
"Whoa, careful, mistook you for Jennifer for a second." Maverick laughed loudly. Amy rolled her eyes in response to being compared to Maverick's psychotic ex-girlfriend, who was suing him over her son getting hurt by Robby in a fight.
"Pfft. I'm still prettier than her." Amy laughed. "I got a better Karen hairdo anyways!"
"I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!" Maverick mocked with a loud, obnoxious voice.
"Oh god, don't get me started with that." Amy shook her head. "The people who come to eat at the restaurant..."
"Well it is Coshocton..."
"True~"
"Last time I came to visit it was overweight, camouflage wearing dad, battered wife, and teenage pregnant daughter coming through the door." Maverick rolled his eyes with a smirk.
"Newark isn't much better."
"Pfft, can't argue with that. Homeless guy taking a shit behind a dumpster, methed out N'erker yelling gibberish with a couple teeth in his cocksucker."
"Yep."
Marcus stepped in. "Okay. Whenever you're ready, we'll power up the cameras and get this show on the road."
"Sounds good!" Maverick exclaimed. He quickly got himself behind the circular, red charcoal grill and threw on his corny looking apron.
"Oh god, the apron!" Amy teased.
"Yes! The apron!" Maverick said with a grin. "You know me! I can't take anything seriously."
"We know..." everyone chimed in.
Video equipment was fired up and calibrated, and a fire lit on the grill. They began recording the tenth episode of "Cooking with Amy N' Mav", with today's episode being on outdoor grilling and food prep. Each episode was light hearted and funny, with the natural chemistry of Amy and Maverick shining through for the cameras. Maverick looked especially happy and chipper on camera.
For the husky, he hadn't felt this happy in years. He finally felt "complete" after getting back together with his ex-wife Amy. They had been together for thirteen years when they separated and got divorced in late 2015. They slowly rekindled their relationship; first as acquaintances, then friends, then really close best friends, until it finally transformed back into their old relationship. Amy and Maverick simply picked up where they left off at in 2015 and continued on with their love. His heart no longer felt a weird emptiness.
"Hey Mavvy, that grill looks all ready to go for grilling~ Why don't you show us how you tenderize and grill your meat."
"Now lemme tell you something folks, I am a master at beating my meat!"
Maverick snickered and looked at the camera with a wide eyed, mock grimace. Everyone else, even the crew behind the cameras, shared a laugh.
Maverick's business abode was the yellow brick clad bus depot building, on the corner of Church Street and Day Avenue. Having once served as the maintenance facility for Newark City Schools, it was purchased by Rob Barion to serve as expansion for his company that he and Maverick oversaw. Little did either one of them knew that their storage facility would now be serving as the entire headquarters for the growing Barev empire. It was a completely ill-suited building that was hastily brought up to a video production house and office headquarters for United Barev and its broadcasting subsidiary, Barev Video Services.
In the VTR room, the old open-reel videotape machines hummed, playing back reels of one and two inch videotape. Videotape digitization and preservation was a cash cow for Barev, and it was the first service that Rob and Maverick offered in their fledgling years of running their own business. The tightly packed room felt like a sauna from all the heat generated by the big, hulking machines, and the people in charge to run them. In the back ran three massive Ampex AVR-3 Quads, the huge two-inch format Quadruplex humming away with the whistling whirr of video heads and the hiss of their air compressors. They were overseen by Borr Eklund, who sat watching some old 1970's programs play back while they were digitized to DigiBeta. Maverick sat with Marcus and Felix at the editing console. Behind them ran the wall of Sony BVH-2000 one-inch Type C VTR's, playing back footage from Lake Park that was being edited together by the trio. Maverick manipulated the vision switcher and faders that made up the old Ampex console. A number of old tube monitors played back all the footage as Maverick quickly switched and cut between the feeds.
"See, I can always tell the difference between RCA and Ikegami, just by the colorimetry." Maverick stated as he worked, almost in a trance like state. He didn't even look at the controls as his paws quickly manipulated the various switches.
"I notice RCA always runs a bit warm, and Ikegami is cold looking." Marcus pointed out.
"I notice it especially in the greens and blues- the Ike's have a more bluish hue in the greens, while the RCA's take on a more yellowish tint." Felix noted.
"Even with my HL-79EAL that has the L-O-C Saticons, it does the same thing. The Sony BVP-3 is a wee bit warmer. The TK-76C I got that runs Saticons has a warmth to it as well, so I know it's not the tubes alone. It's however they worked the color matrix."
Maverick smiled as he watched Amy talk about how she made egg salad. She swung her shiny metal spatula around, which caught some of the sunlight. The amber sun glared off and glistened, the intense highlight blooming and oversaturating the tubes. In the typical Plumbicon fashion, it left a gaudy crimson flare, which took a second or two for the tubes to discharge the comet-tail. Maverick cut to a shot of him listening, looking very content while smoke from the grill wavered in the shot as a cool gray haze. His spatula caught some of the sunlight and glared back into the lens as a ten point star. But the comet-tail and afterimage were much briefer and less intense, just a faint white ghost image that almost immediately faded. The Diode-Gun Plumbicons provided higher beam reserves to mitigate the overload.
"I also can see the subtle resolution difference between the trielectrode and diode type Plumbs." Maverick added with a chuckle.
"Oh that beam reserve." Marcus chuckled. "What magic we can do with it."
"I find the idea of comet-tail suppression a bit redundant when you're shooting with these pain in the ass cameras just to get that effect!" Felix laughed.
"Why bother ya know? Plus if you don't get the voltages just right, you'll cook off the gun, or really eat into the resolution. I generally found if you don't go all the way, you'll eliminate the nagging ghosting effects in low light areas, but still get comet-tails with highlights without risking damage to the gun or eroding resolution with excessive beam current."
"Yeah, that's what I do with my EAL." Marcus nodded. "I get rid of the red flaring and just have a solid white comet-tail, which is decent for more neutral looking shots for the effect."
"Eh, the red flare ain't too bad." Felix chuckled.
"It's the Plumbicon trademark. Viva la lead-oxide." Maverick said while smiling at shots of his wife. He looked ecstatic as he continued on with his editing. The others took notice of Maverick's chipper mood.
"So...how does it feel to be back with Amy?" Felix asked curiously.
"Oh man, like a million dollars! WAIT A MINUTE! I AM A MILLIONAIRE! D'OH!" the husky blurted out with his obnoxious voice. "I am so happy to have Amy back. I feel whole again. I feel like things can resume."
"Well that's good." Felix nodded. "I'm glad to hear things are looking up."
"I mean, yeah, I'm in a lawsuit with a complete psychopath over my son laying some smack down on her's... BOOM! But Amy takes that headache away. She's just...special...one of a kind."
"She sure can cook too." Marcus agreed. "Unlike my Mom..."
Maverick and Felix cringed.
"Oh man, I get Vietnam flashbacks after that blueberry pie she made..." Maverick recalled. "Went in nasty, came out nasty."
"Hookay...didn't need to know that." Felix shook his head.
"Oh please, you're gonna be marrying the dude who rips ass like a motherfucker."
"Oh like you don't fart and laugh about it." Felix laughed.
"Plus I'm not you putting lips to that asshole!"
"Sounds like you know a thing or two." Grinned Felix.
"Yeah I have to- HEY! MOTHERFUCKER! I don't eat ass! I eat pussy! I eat the other end!"
"Oh wow, what an upgrade."
"I just run the risk of yeast infections on my tongue." Maverick laughed. Marcus dry heaved to the joke.
"Wow, Mav, wow."
"Regardless guys, I'm happy. Amy's happy. We're both happy to be together again. It just took us five years to come to understand everything that had happened. We're gonna pick up where we left off at, and enjoy ourselves."
"Well that's good then, Maverick. Glad to hear!" Felix and Marcus chimed in together.
On a Friday afternoon, Maverick worked in a frenzy in his kitchen to prepare dinner for Amy. Working quickly, he carried a pot of boiling pasta over to strain in the sink. He poured his rotini out, and rinsed it off with cold water to cool it off. He sat the pot aside and carried the strainer over the kitchen island, where he dumped it into a big glass bowl. Robby helped him cut up olives, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, which were dumped into the bowl and mixed together.
"Hey watch me cheat on this!" Maverick laughed as he opened his fridge door and pulled out a bottle of Italian dressing. "Amy will never know!"
"Good call Dad!" Robby giggled.
Maverick poured half the bottle into the bowl and mixed it up. He quickly wrapped the top up with plastic wrap and threw it in the fridge, just as the oven timer went off. Maverick was baking a cake for Amy, for her thirty-sixth birthday. He stopped and swung his head around to glance at everything, to see if he missed anything. Rushing over to the oven, Maverick checked the time and opened the door to feel the blast of heat hit his face. He grabbed his mitts and lifted his baking pan out, with his freshly baked yellow cake. He sat it on the counter and closed the oven door.
"Okay, let that cool and let me go grab the table cloth and-" Being in such a rush, Maverick tripped over his own foot and faceplanted on the kitchen floor. He quickly got up and grabbed the table cloth to throw at Robby. "Here put that on!"
"Put it on me?"
"No! The table!" the big husky exclaimed.
"Oh!"
"I should have started this an hour earlier..." Maverick grumbled to himself. He rushed back to the stove to check on his laughably bad homemade ravioli that boiled in two pots. He had made them rather large because of his "big, fat, sausage fingers". He grabbed both pots and poured them into the strainer to drain. He looked frantic as he took them and dumped them back into the pot and poured sauce on them and mixed it gently.
"Time! Time! Time!" Mav called out.
"Almost two!" Robby shouted.
"Alrighty!" Mav exclaimed. He quickly took the food over to the table and had it all set up. Which gave him just enough time to ice and decorate the cake.
"Hey! Amy's here!" Robby called from the window.
"Whew..." the husky breathed a sigh of relief. He just sat the cake down on the table when Amy knocked on the back door. Robby and Maverick greeted her as they threw the door open.
"Happy birthday!" they cheered loudly.
"Thank you!" Amy exclaimed. "Oh my goodness! Look at all that!"
"I know!" Maverick grinned. "Come on in!"
Amy sat her purse on the table and walked over to gaze at the food displayed on the table. She even glanced at the cake. It was covered in chocolate icing with her name and "Happy Birthday!" crudely written in red icing. There was even a spot where it looked like a mistake had been crudely covered up with icing.
"Oh look, how cute, did Robby make this?"
"No, I made it~" Maverick smiled.
Amy awkwardly smiled back. "I see~"
Sitting down at the table, Maverick served Amy some ravioli and pasta salad, which the husky boasted that he and Robby had made "from scratch".
"Jesus Christ Mav, how big did you make these?" Amy exclaimed with a laugh. "The ravioli is the size of my paw!"
"Look at my paws Amy!" Maverick laughed as he held them up. "I tried to make them small but my BIG FAT SAUSAGE FINGERS KEPT MESSING UP THE PLEATS! D'OH! Plus my meat was huge."
"Your meat was huge..."
"Oh yeah~"
Amy shook her head and snorted with laughter. "You're an idiot, Mavvy."
"I'm your idiot!"
"I know~"
The wolfess chuckled and took a bite of his pasta salad. "You used Wish Bone didn't you?"
Maverick threw his arms up in disbelief. "Oh my god, what the hell!"
"Hey, I know my food." Amy pointed out.
"Unbelievable." Maverick muttered jokingly.
"Oh you know I'm kidding!" Amy giggled. "I'm so appreciated! You didn't have to!"
Maverick sat down to dinner with Amy and Robby. Just as they got their conversation going, the doorbell rung, interrupting them. Maverick let out an annoyed sigh and got up to answer it.
"Who could that be?" Amy asked curiously.
"Oh probably another one of these political fucks. When's a pandemic when you need it, HA! See! I made a funny!" Maverick exclaimed as he opened the door. The front door swung open to reveal Amy's parents, George and Maggie Golagonoff. Maverick's sarcastic grin turned into an annoyed scowl. He spun around to look at Amy.
"It's even worse, your parents are here!" Maverick called.
"My parents!?" Amy shouted. She got up quickly to answer the door.
"George and Maggie!" Maverick grinned insincerely. "What a displeasure to see you at my house!"
"Mav." George grumbled with a glare.
George and Maggie were an aging pair of wolves in their early sixties. George was a short and squat gray wolf, with a tousled mop of hair that was almost completely gray. He always wore drab colors and today's wardrobe was no different; gray slacks, a slate blue sweater, and brown loafers. Maggie, her real name Maglena, looked like an aged version of Amy, with a short cut of permed gray hair. Like George she was another conservatively dressed Bulgarian, in dark earth colors, in contrast to the beautiful sunny day outside. An awkward silence fell between everyone at the door. For whatever reason, the two families never liked each other; the Golagonoffs never accepted Amy's relationship with Maverick, and always remained hostile to the Tokarevs. Mav likened it to the "Slavic version of the Hatfields and McCoys".
"Mom and Dad! What are you doing here?" Amy exclaimed. She awkwardly smiled and tried to defuse the standoff.
"Well, it's your birthday today, and we were going to go visit you at your apartment...but we drove there and found you had left." Maggie stated in a drab sounding tone. "So we knew where you were going."
"Here." George cut in, his eyes continuing to stare at Maverick.
"I told you I was leaving around one to come here." Amy stated. "It's fine, it's fine."
"We have a gift and card for you." George stated as he grabbed it from his wife and handed it to her.
"Well thank you so much~" Amy smiled.
"So...you're back with Maverick?"
"You couldn't have found anyone else?" Maggie openly stated. Amy looked visibly embarrassed. Maverick just stared blankly.
The husky could not stand George and Maggie. Ever since the first time he met them, eighteen years prior, the two were always rude to him. Never had a nice thing to say, and always using any opportunity to put him down, or to fill their relationship with doubt. They even tried to ruin their wedding day by making a big scene at the ceremony. Even Amy's younger brother, Anton Golagonoff, was a prick to him. And Anton was a nobody in Maverick's eyes; a lowly computer programming assistant at IBM in Columbus. He only got the job in the first place because of George, who worked for IBM as a computer programmer turned manager to the company. It was his ticket to immigrate with his whole family to the United States in 1990.
"Mom, this is how it's going to be. Okay?" Amy said in a more serious tone. "I know there's some...disagreements between you and Mavvy...but..."
"Pfft, that's an understatement." Maverick laughed. "I'm staring at two cheeks of the same ass~" His smile faded as he stared at them.
"Enough." Amy cut in.
"I mean, I guess you two are fine that a guy beat the shit out of her, molested a kid, other guys treating her like some untouchable foreigner, or a gal who beat the fuck outta-"
"MAV!" Amy yelled.
"What? Gal? Amy!" George yelled.
"Oh no Amy...why?" Maggie groaned.
"Oh Jesus Christ..." Amy moaned. "Not on my birthday!"
"Not here!" Maverick exclaimed.
"Amy, we told you we loved you but you're not dating women!"
"She's thirty-frickin'-six years old! Stop treating her like she's nine!" Maverick exclaimed.
"I don't know what's worse now, Amy with an abusive woman, or Amy with you!" George pointed.
"Yeah? Well at least I didn't beat the shit outta her or rape a kid like the last guy, ya fuck!"
"No you just didn't care about anything and-"
"Okay! Enough! Talk to you later Mom and Dad!"
Amy promptly slammed the front door shut and braced herself against the door. She winced from a bout of pain hitting her body.
"Jesus Christ..." Maverick muttered.
"I'm...gonna go sit down..." Amy muttered as she made her way back to the kitchen.
Shadows flickered against the orange tinted walls. Candles glowed on the dresser and nightstand, adding a warm ambience for the evening. Amy laid on Maverick's bed, munching on a box of fancy chocolates that Mav had surprised her with, wearing some fancy lace lingerie. She watched Maverick pull a bottle of champagne from a bucket of ice and fiddle around with it.
"I sure love drinking champagne from a paper cup..." teased Amy as she examined her little paper Dixie cup, complete with tacky nineties print design on it.
"Well I didn't intend to break the two I had!" Maverick laughed.
"You tripped over your own damn foot in a hurry." The wolfess laughed.
"These stupid bottles and their wire thingy to hold the cork in!" Maverick grumbled. He struggled to get the wire loosened up to pop the cork off.
"The bottle's under pressure Mavvy! What did you expect?"
"Like a cap or something!" laughed the husky. "God damnit! This thin little wire and my big OBNOXIOUS, HUGE, SAUSAGE FINGERS! DAMNIT!"
Amy laughed at Maverick's struggle, until the cork abruptly blew off and struck the mirror, which shattered on the wall. Maverick stared at the mess in disbelief.
"Ohh motherfucker!" the husky shouted. "God damnit!"
"Well that's a mess~" Amy shook her head.
"You know what? Fuck it!" the husky exclaimed. "Let's have a drink~"
"Sure~"
The husky sat himself on the bed and scooted over to pour Amy a cup of bubbly amber champagne. He poured himself a cup and shoved the bottle back into the bucket of ice. He jokingly raised his glass with Amy and had a sip with her.
"To our rekindled relationship." Maverick concluded with a smile. Amy smiled in return, and they gazed at each other for a bit, the two lost in each other's eyes for a time.
"...I want to say that we pick up where we left off at in 2015...but things have...changed." Amy admitted.
"We've both changed." Mav nodded in agreement. "It's inevitable. But we learn from our mistakes and go with it."
"That's true, but the dynamics." Amy hesitated a bit. "I don't want to inhibit your wants and desires because of my limitations. I know the sex is gonna suffer because I can't put out like I used to. Flexing just ain't my thing anymore without being in pain."
"I just have to live with it. Relationships are more than just sex~" Maverick shrugged as he took another sip of his drink.
"If you want a gal on the side-"
"Oh my god, I don't think so. Not after the last couple lunatics." Maverick grimaced with wide eyes at Amy.
"Let's see you had Tanya, that bimbo named Gabby..."
"Turtle lady..." Maverick cringed.
"And that bitch from Home Depot." Amy chuckled. "Quite the track record."
"Hey, look who's talking, Misses female drywall contractor Sandy!"
"...let's just pretend she never existed."
"I agree~"
"Same with Oliver. Fuck that guy." Amy shook her head.
"Exactly." Mav agreed.
"I just...don't want to disappoint you."
"I just have to make an adjustment, that's all." The husky shrugged. "Now if you just make that other orifice accessible."
"No." Amy said bluntly with a chuckle at the end. "You know how I feel about anal~"
"I bet you got an asshole as tight as Megan's, and without a turtle fetish!"
"Well the latter I can guarantee."
"Lord, no amount of love for anal sex could ever get me to see her again."
"I'm interested in seeing what that photo she had of you on the-."
"NO!" Maverick exclaimed. "It's terrifying. It gave me Vietnam flashbacks!"
"Vietnam flashbacks?" Amy stared with a raised brow. "You're special, Maverick~"
"I'll show you special."
"I bet you will~" Amy laughed.
"Before my short attention span erases this- why the fuck do your parents not like me?" Maverick abruptly asked. "What have I done to just get their ire?"
Amy pursed her lips and looked away for a bit.
"Well?"
"A lot of it is cold war bullshit, really." Amy admitted.
"Cold war bullshit?"
"Alright, fine, Mav. Mom and Dad don't like you because they didn't want me, a Bulgarian, to date a Russian. There. Cold war bullshit."
Maverick blinked a couple times and sat up. He wasn't sure what to say.
"My dad would tell me about how he used to work for the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences as a computer programmer, and how obsolete and terrible their equipment was because of the communist government and their Soviet overlords. He grumbled about how American programmers had all the greatest computers and technology, while he was forced to use a Soviet rip-off of a Tandy computer, or something. It just manifested itself into this nationalistic sentiment to not like anything Russian because of the cold war, and how relieved he was to get out of Sofia when IBM recruited him in 1990. That's why he doesn't like you. It's nothing that you've done, said, whatever, it's because you're a Russian, and he associates you with the oppressive life Bulgarians had to endure for half a century."
"Yeah, like us Russians had it any better under communism." Maverick rolled his eyes. "Well I didn't because I was born here. Crazy~"
"I try and explain it, but I think I'd get better results talking to a wall." Amy concluded with a jaded chuckle. "Plus my Mom's just weird. Old school."
"Old school. PFFT. More like old world. She chisel newspapers for your Dad outta stone? 'WILMAAAAAAAA!" Maverick laughed as he did a mocking Italian hand gesture. Amy looked at him with a bewildered smirk and repeated the gesture.
"What the fuck is this!? My Dad's not Italian! He's also not Fred Flintstone!"
Maverick made a gibberish Italian impersonation and burst out laughing at his own joke. Amy closed her eyes and laughed with him. She finished the last of her champagne, tossed the paper cup and put her arms around the husky and nuzzled his chest. Maverick sat his cup down and put his arms around her and held her close to him.
Turning the wheel, Maverick made a left turn into the South Lawn Cemetery, in the southern half of Coshocton. Through the winding roads of the cemetery, Maverick kept his head on a swivel, looking for Amy. She asked him to meet him at the cemetery, as she tended to the grave of her infant son, who died at birth four years prior. He made a left turn and spotted her silver Impala parked off by the curb. He pulled up behind and parked behind her's. Shutting his truck off, the husky got out, dressed casually in a snug white and blue tanktop and a pair of gym shorts. A blue baseball cap sat atop his head. He spotted Amy standing by a headstone, near a clutch of some trees and a hedgerow. She had brought a garden trowel, a watering can, and some geraniums to plant on the grave of Atlas Michael Golagonoff.
Amy's illegitimate child was a topic that they never really discussed. It was too taboo for them. Atlas was the byproduct of an affair she had with Oliver Robinson, a black furred wolf, a business exec from Columbus. Oliver was a monster in disguise; he was a confident, seductive, "stuck up, Limey prick" as Maverick once called him, who hid a terrible, disgusting secret. He seduced Amy to get to Robby, who he molested multiple times. When Amy discovered that Oliver was a pedophile, he tried to murder her and Robby, and just about succeeded, leaving them severely injured in a violent assault. Amy's injuries ultimately killed Atlas; she had gone into labor in the emergency room and with no other alternative, doctors were forced to deliver him severely premature. Despite a desperate, herculean effort to save his life, he died shortly after birth. Amy had originally buried him in Columbus, at a cemetery for babies, but ultimately reinterred him in Coshocton, so she could maintain his grave. Maverick never had much of an opinion on Atlas; he simply chose to not talk about it. "Out of sight, out of mind".
The wolfess worked to clean grass clippings off his headstone. She dug some holes and one by one, planted the geraniums, giving his graveside a splash of color, in contrast to the cold gray of the headstone. Maverick walked over to fill the watering can up and water the plants while Amy cleaned her paws up at the spigot.
"Today would have been the due date. The fourteenth." Amy recalled. Maverick stood and listened, solemnly. "I was all ready to be his mom...and fate decided that wasn't going to be." She mustered a smile as she brushed some of her brown hair out of her face.
"...he would have been four years old."
"A potential for life, sadly extinguished before it even began." Mav nodded.
"Maybe it's for the better." Amy concluded.
"You think so?" the husky asked.
"Well, I don't have to explain to him that his father was a pedophile... And he doesn't have to grow up with that shadow on him."
"That's true. Man, what a burden that would be."
"I know~" Amy cringed. "That man fucked my whole life over. I wasted five years of my life and for what? Got all fucked up, that's for sure..."
"It's not wasted." Maverick assured. "Looking back, well, hindsight is always twenty-twenty... but you and me never really had a relationship before us that could be a litmus test... We were each other's first, and it was a mistake. It's just... what happens when complacency settles into a relationship, you know, the grass is always greener..."
"Not my grass~" Amy shook her head.
"Oh well, you don't have to worry about Oliver, because he's dead." The husky shrugged. "I killed him good."
"Killed him, more like incinerated him." Amy pursed her lips.
"Extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions~ Duh!" Maverick chuckled morbidly. "But never again. His death will always haunt me in some way or another. I never want to give into my hate like that. I'd be Rob then."
"You're just a big, gentle giant."
"That's me! Nice guys finish last~ HA! HA! HA!" Maverick grinned and pointed. "You know Rob once told me that I was too nice to run Barev."
"That's because Rob's a dominating, fascist, megalomaniac." Amy chuckled. "Oh come on Mavvy, let's go shoot that video thingy."
"Sure~" Maverick smiled.
Amy knelt down and patted Atlas' headstone and said her goodbye. Maverick helped her up as Amy winced. "These damn burn scars..."
For most of the afternoon, Maverick shot video of Amy for their cooking program. It was a sort of bonus mini episode of Amy talking about growing a small "porch garden"; a couple tomato plants, and her favorite herbs. They traveled to a local garden center, and then finished up at her apartment as she planted some tomatoes and herbs in pots for Maverick's Betacam. Afterwards, they spent the early evening at Lake Park, sitting and eating hamburgers by the flowing Tuscarawas, sitting in the shade of a big maple tree. They sat in the sand munching on their food; Amy leaned against the big husky that practically towered over her.
"Oh today was so much fun!"
"I know right? Reminds me of our high school antics." Chuckled Maverick.
"Pfft, oh god, those days." Amy laughed. "Well, we're not fucking in your old car..."
"That wasn't easy."
"You're too big."
"Thanks~" Maverick grinned. She felt Amy slap him playfully.
"Not like that!" the wolfess laughed. "God, my parents wanted to kill you back then."
"Good. I like being a bad itch." Laughed the husky. "That's very Rob-esque isn't it?"
"Very." Amy chuckled. She squeezed herself around Maverick's arm a bit tighter. "Do you see us remarrying?"
"Eventually. Take it slow and steady. We're in no rush."
"We're going to be forty years old in four years..."
"PFFT. Forty's nothing! Forty is the new twenty, Amy! Duh!"
"Heh, if you say so."
"Just take it slow and steady, and things will be okay." Maverick assured with a confident smile. "But I see it happening eventually."
"Don't expect Mom and Dad to show up."
"Well, I wasn't going to let them show up. Ohh, did I admit that?" he grinned playfully.
"They were a pain in the ass the first time around~"
"Well, I don't really want a ceremony, just sign the paperwork at city hall and let the judge preside over it."
"Eh, we'll figure it out then." Amy smiled.
"Exactly."
As the sun began to set, Maverick took Amy back to her apartment and hit the road back to Newark. With the windows down and his stereo blaring, Maverick cruised back home in his blue one ton. The amber sun glared ahead on Route 16 as he passed through the northern fringe of Muskingum County. The husky looked super content as the spring air rushed in through the cab and ruffled his gray fur. An almost permanent smile graced his face.
Propping his head up with his index and middle fingers, Maverick looked glum, along with everyone else in the Barev conference room. Rain streaked against the big, gold tinted windows that overlooked the industrial park outside of Fairfax, Virginia. Inside the boardroom, tensions ran high as bad news flowed for the company. Maverick presided over a back to back whammy of financial meltdown of the various divisions within Barev. The coronavirus pandemic that struck the US hard, hemorrhaged United Barev savagely; the company took a huge financial hit with millions upon millions of dollars lost. Barev was operating back in the red again. A lot of the loss stemmed from Maverick's heartfelt decision to keep people on payroll while they were sent home for their safety. That, and lost productivity and a sag in sales, compounded by a sudden recession, tanked the profit margin. Maverick kept his calm and composure as the head directors of the subdivisions rattled off their own woes.
For Centoh Intermodal, Jaska Saari, a black furred Finnish wolf, discussed the problems with keeping the Lainsville Centoh hub closed. While fuel prices plummeted for the avgas guzzling propliners Centoh kept in the air, the profit margin was being eroded by continuing to pay workers at Lainsville. Cargo demand was diminished due to the recession and customers cutting back for a time. The whole market was depressed, and Centoh's sister division, Centopax, which ran Great Lakes Airlines, and provided planes for Barev's internal use, was devastated by the depressed air travel. The aging propliners that carried passengers around the mid-east were effectively grounded, for lack of demand. Jay West, the now head of Centopax, worried about keeping things afloat. Ryan Bolton, the head director of Barev One, discussed with his chief engineer, Roy Napier, over the "little gremlins" popping up as the electronics plant struggled in restarting production. A bad batch of klystrons and tetrodes made it to market, and it was a recall fiasco they were rectifying. Of all the gripes, the saddest news was the death of two employees, who had gotten sick and passed away from complications to coronavirus. An engineer who oversaw vacuum tube assembly, and a office worker. It only darkened the mood further. Maverick rubbed his forehead in frustration. The rain outside did not help the mood.
Maverick took the helm and tried to rally everyone together.
"I know things look bad right now, and they are bad, no doubt. But we have to weather the bad, to truly appreciate the good, and brighter skies lay ahead for Barev. I know it's there. We just have to trudge through the bullshit for right now. This company is being hammered on all sides by a number of exigencies and unforeseen crises that nobody expected." Maverick explained to his management team.
"All of you are bright and capable people, so I'm going to entrust it to you to do what's best for the company. That's why you're here."
The big company conference ended with some jaded optimism on the future. Maverick departed with his entourage, and took a half hour drive back to the airport in a company van to the Fairfax airport, where "Vanguard" awaited them.
On the rain swept tarmac sat Rob Barion's immaculate L-749 Constellation. "Vanguard" was a seventy-two year old Connie, the curvaceous Lockheed being completely bare metal and brilliantly polished to a mirrored shine. It's pointy nose bore the black outlined, golden "WHIN Arrow", which proudly stood for "We're Here In Newark!". It's upper fuselage read out in black stenciling "United Barev Industries/WHIN Group One". By the time the van pulled onto the tarmac, all four engines were turning, driving the four sets of Hamilton Standard propellers that were polished up. The prop wash splashed puddles on the pavement as Maverick and his entourage boarded. Coming back with him was Jaska, Jay, and the BVS team of Marcus and Felix Barion. Barev's local accountants, Tabby Murphy and Charles Manchester also climbed up the stairs for the flight home. They climbed aboard, sealed the hatch, and the airstair was backed away. "Vanguard" soon began to taxi, and quickly departed the runway, climbing away and slipping into the overcast for its flight back to Ohio.
Maverick sat with Marcus and Felix in the tail of the aircraft. The rear of the curvaceous propliner housed Rob's private quarters. It served as an office and a bedroom on the long flights. In the tail, the pounding "radial song" was quieter, just a monotonous drone of synchronized propellers. Maverick sat at Rob's desk, listening to Marcus and Felix work on their laptops while they discussed plans on making a series of retro style commercials for a grocery chain called AMP- "American Meat and Produce". They also discussed about a potentially lucrative deal with a dairy company named Turnberry, which had a well known ice cream brand in the mid-west.
The husky listened in from his seat as he fiddled around and examined a Mixed-Field, Diode-Gun Saticon, the latest variant reintroduced by Barev. It was a small two-thirds inch video tube, looking like all the others with its glass envelope and shiny purple imaging target. But it employed mixed-deflection; electromagnetic deflection and electrostatic focusing of the scanning beam. The only change was the glass envelope having stenciling to denote the proper orientation when installed in the deflection yokes. He could finally restore his BVP-360 to operation, after his original set of Sony mixed-deflection tubes were destroyed in his house fire. He stowed the tube back into its storage case and stuffed it back into his shopping bag on the floor, which held a couple other sets of tubes on the journey back with him to Ohio, including a set of Mixed-Field Plumbicons, complete with the bloviating title of "Advanced Lead Mesh, Mixed-Deflection, Diode-Gun Plumbicon, with Low Output Capacitance target".
"If we could get the Turnberry deal...man, we'd have us a cash cow." Felix said to Marcus, which brought Maverick back into the conversation.
"We need to get some revenue flowing again, or we're in big trouble."
"No, you're in big trouble~" chuckled Marcus. "Rob would hang your head on his wall if you bankrupted Barev."
"I did what I thought was best. Who'd-a thought a damn disease pandemic would fuck this whole country over?" Maverick shrugged. "Plus I'm Rob's best friend- I can get away with shit none of you motherfuckers can get away with!"
"Sure~" Felix chuckled.
"At least I think that!" laughed the husky. "So tell me about AMP?"
"AMP wants a set of retro themed commercials showcasing their stores as they begin a slow expansion into Ohio and Pennsylvania." Marcus explained as he read off an e-mail.
"Aren't they like a version of Whole Foods?" Maverick asked curiously.
"Kinda, yeah." The Nordic husky shrugged.
"What about Turnberry?"
"Same thing." Felix added. "Some retro themed commercials shot on our TK-47."
"Why not my BVP-360 when I put the new Saticons in?" grinned Maverick.
"They prefer the colorimetry of the TK-47, after we sent a video sample."
"Fuck." Maverick grumbled.
"I seem to recall this conversation not long ago about Plumbicons and eighty percent adoption rate in the broadcast industry through the eighties...hmm..." the fawn Doberman grinned.
"It's true~" Marcus smirked.
"YEAH, YEAH. You fucks can enjoy your blemishes, shorter cathode life, halation! YEAH! All that good stuff Plumbicons have!"
"Oh wow, it's two thousand hours, not three thousand. Oh no." Marcus quipped in a blank sounding tone.
"What good is your long gun life if your targets get all marred from highlight burns? OOOH!" Felix laughed.
"Gotcha!" Marcus teased.
"HMPH~" Maverick grumbled sarcastically.
"Love you, Mav."
"I know~"
Tearing open another bag of mulch, Maverick easily picked up the forty pound bag and dumped it into his garden bed. The husky tossed it aside and dropped to his knees to spread it around. Under the mid-morning sun, Maverick helped with the busy task of landscaping and turning his torn up yard, back to normality. Newly laid sod replaced the torn up sea of mud that it had been all winter, and Maverick worked to spread mulch around some newly planted shrubs by his front porch. Near his neighbor's driveway, another bed awaited some bushes, which were to be planted by Travis Rocha, once he got back from the garden center. Travis and his family landscaping business was the main force behind his yard's renovation.
"Ugh, this is why we have Mexicans to do this. Oh hey Tony!" joked Maverick, who grinned at Tony Alvarez, the fawn Doberman boyfriend of Felix Barion. The tattooed up Doberman flipped Maverick off with a snarky gaze.
"You have a Mexican sounding last name~" teased the husky.
"Yeah, yeah." Tony grunted. "It's Spanish~ My Dad's from Toledo."
"Right, yeah~"
"I get my mom's pale ass central European, Czech coloring." Tony added.
"How does that make you feel?"
Tony grunted and ripped a loud fart. "Better~"
"YEAH!!!"
"'MERICA!" Tony shouted.
"FUCK YEAH!" The husky cheered. "FREEDOM! 'MERICA!"
Tony got up and chuckled as he brushed some stray pieces of mulch off his sleeved up arms. He went to go grab another bag, from the pile. Maverick got up and brushed the mulch off his paws and fetched another bag to continue what he was doing. As he picked up another bag to throw over his shoulder, he took notice of Amy walking around the corner of his house. It took him by surprise. He dropped the bag and ran over to greet her. Amy was dressed rather casually, in a t-shirt and shorts, with big sunglasses covering her eyes.
"Hey! What brings you here!"
"Guess who's unemployed!" Amy laughed with a cynical bite to it. She pointed at herself.
"What happened?"
"The Coshocton County health department shut us down, along with a couple other locations because there's another Covid outbreak in Coshocton."
"Oh boy."
"Evening guy got sick, so we got shut down for two weeks. Fun!" Amy rolled her eyes.
"What about the Zanesville restaurant?" Maverick asked curiously.
"At capacity, so unless someone calls off, we have no work down there." Amy explained. "So I have to file for unemployment and ride this shit storm out."
"Well shit, you picked the best place for that!" Maverick laughed as he put an arm around her.
"What are you guys doing?"
"Landscaping." Maverick pointed out. "Fun stuff~"
"You're filthy." Amy smiled as she brushed some mulch off his stained tanktop.
"I'll show you filthy." Maverick laughed as he leaned over to kiss the top of her head.
"Ohh my~" Amy sarcastically muttered. She gave Maverick a friendly hug and went to go help everyone with tending to the garden. Amy helped plant flowers and spread mulch out before everyone took a break under the shade of the maple tree in the front, it's canopy thickening up with new, bright green leaves that fluttered in a warm breeze.
"Hey Amy, you want to make mucho dinero since you're out of a job?" Maverick asked casually while sipping on a glass of lemonade.
"How?" Amy asked, sounding skeptical.
"I need a willing participant to act in a commercial spot for AMP Grocery. We got an agreement to make a series of commercials for them." The husky explained.
"Me, act?" Amy smirked. She laughed at the idea. "Mavvy I can't act."
"Sure you do! We make that cooking show!"
"Pfft! That is not acting!"
"Sure it is! You put that smile on your face knowing a bunch of fucks watch it!" laughed Maverick with a grin. Amy rolled her eyes and chuckled.
"There's nothing to it, just look pretty and smile for the camera." Maverick added.
"Wow. That sounds terrible."
"What's the worst that could happen?"
"My reputation being ruined?"
"Pfft, yeah right." The husky brushed off with a sarcastic swipe of his paw.
"Fine. I'll do it. How much am I gonna get paid."
"FIDDY BUCKS!"
"That's it!?" Amy shouted with a bewildered smirk.
"Capitalism, bitch!" laughed Maverick. "Just kidding."
Amy gave him a shove. "You big, loveable, idiot."
"That's me!"
Dressed in a burgundy robe, Maverick fumbled his brow at the texture of his ersatz coffee. He scooped a few tablespoons into the paper liner of his Mister Coffee and lifted it up to smell it. "Ugh, this smells weird." The kitchen island hosted a couple of AMP grocery items the company had sent for their video.
"It is dandelion coffee..." Amy shook her head and laughed. She was part of their attempts at shooting footage for the AMP Grocery commercial. The wolfess was dressed in her chef's clothing attire, awaiting her turn for a short clip. She alternated her view of Maverick fumbling around and cracking jokes about the coffee, with Rob Barion, who prepared the "Big Blue" TK-47EP for the shoot. Rob was still largely out of commission after his accident in January, but felt well enough to help out in the kitchen shoot. The battered looking wolf-hybrid made a few adjustments to the camera's settings, while it stared at a calibration chart that was propped up on an easel. The poster board held a number of calibration targets and patterns, the middle hosting a morbid photo of a laughing Maverick holding a gun to his head.
"Quality my ass... this stuff looks like freeze dried shit." Laughed the husky as he shoved it into the coffee machine and switched it on. "Oh well! Fuck it!"
"Oh this is going to be funny." Amy shook her head with a laugh. The oven timer went off, and Amy grabbed her oven mitts to pull out a golden brown turkey, which she had been cooking for a few hours while they got everything ready. It would be for her little skit on camera.
"Well the camera's all set. Tubes are all warmed up." Rob announced as he poked his head around the viewfinder.
"So here's what I'll do. I'll pour myself a glass of coffee, or whatever the fuck it is, and I'll look all suave for the camera." Maverick chuckled. Rob leaned forward a bit and raised a brow at him.
"...What I meant to say was, I'll probably make a fool of myself!"
"There we go."
"Fuck it! Let's do this!"
Rob took control of the studio camera. The floodlights glowed brilliantly to give extra light for the tubes as Rob squared up his shot of Maverick leaning against the counter. He zoomed in to a tight shot of the coffee pot that was all steamed up. It included the bag of AMP dandelion root coffee, all neatly framed up.
"Roll VTR~" Rob spoke into his headset. The red tally light came on and Amy took a step back to watch as Rob announced that the camera was recording.
Pouring himself a mug, Maverick artfully raised his mug, gave it a swirl, and took a slow sip. His face immediately soured and he spat it out dramatically. "EWW!" he shouted. "This tastes terrible! This ain't coffee! This tastes like pencil shavings and cigarette butts! No wonder why they call this ersatz- this is what they fed the Jews before the showers!"
"Wow." Amy rolled her eyes.
"Let's up the bigotry to eleven!" Rob quipped behind the camera with a cynical chuckle.
"Ugh~" the husky grunted as he poured out his mug. "I'm putting some Folgers in this. Nobody's gonna notice! That's the beauty of television and advertising! It's propaganda Rob! People are gonna find strength through joy of their coffee!"
"Wow..." Rob muttered. "You managed to make another Nazi era joke outta that."
"I did Nazi that coming." Maverick laughed. "Wow, this shit even has a bad aftertaste."
"One of these days Mav, I'm gonna roll my eyes at you so hard, they're gonna fall out of my eye sockets."
"Heh, not the first time you lost a body part~ Too soon?" the husky grinned. Even Amy had a good laugh at that.
After fiddling around getting a few shots of Maverick goofing around with various AMP products, it was now Amy's turn to work the camera for the promo. Amy stood with the big silver tray that held the golden brown turkey. It was decorated artfully for the shot with a number of garnishes around it.
"Let's get this shot quickly, this is really heavy..." Amy admitted.
"Well there's a lot of meat on there. I like meat~" Maverick nodded.
"At bare minimal, you are bisexual to some degree." Amy laughed at him.
"Hey you know all about that!" Maverick laughed as he flipped her off. "FIDDY BUCKS IT IS, WOMAN!"
"Oh shut the fuck up, Mav-O." Amy laughed. "Let's get this over with Rob!"
"Fine." The wolf-hybrid grumbled behind the camera.
"So what do you want me to do?"
"Walk up a bit, and look happy!" Maverick suggested as he stood beside the camera.
"Okay~"
At the cue, Amy took a few steps, presenting the bird to the camera with a happy gaze. Maverick snorted and burst out laughing.
"Oh my god this his hilarious." The husky laughed. "It's so phony."
"You told me exactly what to do!"
"Have more expression! Be excited!" Maverick exclaimed as he put on a psychotic, wide eyed grin on his face.
"Am I fucking insane now, Mav?"
"Could be?"
"Pfft." Amy scoffed. She repeated the shot for Rob, as she walked up, and smiled for the camera. Maverick couldn't hold it back and lost it after a few seconds. He erupted in laughter.
"This is so funny because it's just gonna be a three second shot cut in." the husky chuckled. "BAM! In and out, just like that."
"This is gonna be a long day..." Rob shook his head.
Amy turned and pulled into the driveway of her parent's home, located towards the western end of Newark. The Golagonoffs lived in a single story cape cod, a small home that was clad in white siding off thirty-fifth street, across from Licking Memorial hospital. She parked her silver Impala behind her father's white Toyota sedan. Quickly hopping out, Amy grabbed her purse and made her way to the front door, where she let herself in.
George helped his wife set the table for a family lunch gathering. Every other week, they liked to gather to have lunch and catch up on each other's lives. At the table sat Amy's younger brother, Anton, a slender gray wolf with a mop of tousled brown hair. He and his wife Shannon shared the space with their three little kids, who eagerly greeted Amy with happy grins on their faces. They waved and greeted her excitedly, as she warmly said hi to them all. Amy had wanted to bring Maverick and Robby along, but her parents weren't all that receptive to the idea. It was just an annoyance she would have to deal with, in order to keep the peace.
Amy had a seat while she listened to Anton talk about the latest news in his life. The thirty-two year olds was a programmer at IBM in Dublin, and boasted about his latest feats in coding software for the company. George would sometimes chime in about various things, as he still worked at the same facility, but in upper management. He talked a bit about his plans to retire "in a few more years". It was more of the same from the Golagonoff family. Now the attention turned to Amy and her updates.
"Well I was laid off because the restaurant in Coshocton closed due to another coronavirus outbreak- one of our evening guys got sick, so we were shut down for a few weeks while they mitigate the damage." Amy explained to her family.
"That Maverick treating you right?" Maggie asked in a serious, concerned, if not slightly annoyed tone.
"Of course!" Amy exclaimed. "He helped me get a side gig making some extra money..."
"Oh really~" Anton muttered.
"Yeah. I feature in commercials for some grocery chain coming to Columbus. AMP Grocery. I get like a three second bit here and there. It was funny to make, and it's funny to watch."
"Oh, why would you do something like that?" George grumbled as he watched the oven timer.
"Why not? I got paid a couple hundred bucks~" Amy shrugged. "Plus it was something for me and Mavvy to do."
"What do you see in that guy?" Anton asked bluntly. "He's just a big, oversized, no talent, assclown."
"Anton..." Amy glared.
"Well, he's got a point?" Maggie spoke up. "Why did you go back to him?"
"Especially after what you had said years before..." George added.
Amy felt backed into a corner. She looked visibly embarrassed and uncomfortable. "That was five years ago, and things have changed."
"That's what everyone says." Maggie added. "Me and your father have been married for almost forty years! We've made our marriage works, ups and downs!"
"I've changed a lot, and experienced a lot..." Amy said with a hesitating pause at the end. "And after everything, I realized that Maverick was always there for me, and I forgot about that because I let the little things drag me down. And it was my fault, regardless."
"He never took your marriage seriously, Xenia!" George exclaimed. "Always a joke! Everything's a joke with him! He thinks he's some comedian or something. I never liked the guy, especially his family- Russians. I had to deal with those bastards for thirty years of my life! They held Bulgaria back half a century!"
"Well the Cold War is over Dad, and we don't live there anymore." Amy shrugged. "The past is the past, and the same applies to what happened between me and Maverick. We patched up our differences, we've come to an understanding together, and decided to pick up where we left off, and that's that."
"If only that Oliver wasn't a child molester... he was so promising..." Maggie mumbled to herself as she finished her food prep.
Amy rolled her eyes and kept her mouth shut. Her Mom's apathy really hurt. The wolfess tried to desperately change the subject. "I did bring along the videos I feature in...if anyone wants to see it..."
There was a begrudging feeling with everyone as they accepted. Amy grabbed a thumb drive from her purse and plugged it into the computer on the kitchen counter, which Maggie used to read recipes online. Everyone crowded around as she played one of the commercials. There were actual shots of an AMP store, showing customers and employees milling about for the cameras. It was completely shot on analog, and Amy could just hear Maverick babble about colorimetry, and tubes. A narrator boasted about "high standards and affordability, with supermarket prices". Then came the montage and jingle.
"Another reason why you'll do better! With A-M-P!"
The short montage showed a quick shot of Maverick casually drinking a mug of coffee, a brief clip of his neighbor Rick O'Sullivan grilling in his backyard, and finally, a smiling Amy, showing off a golden brown turkey she had baked on a glistening silver tray. The highlights smeared a bit, with their characteristic crimson colored comet-tails. Amy was happy to see the commercial, but her family seemed largely unfazed. They simply turned and left once it was over, to hear Anton boasting about another work exploit that George and Maggie were more interested in. Amy pursed her lips, but stayed quiet, to keep the peace.
The evening sun hung low over Krebs Edition, the amber sun casting shadows long on Karen Parkway. In the waning light of the day, Amy helped Maverick and Robby in planting flowers in Maverick's newly laid flower beds. Trays of red, white, and pink petunias awaited planting, as Amy worked in the soil digging with her trowel. She had longed to garden again, after being denied the chance living at her apartment in Coshocton. It helped lighten her mood after such a tense lunch with her parents and brother. Maverick approached with another tray of petunias, which Amy accepted and sat down on the stone border around the garden.
"My parents always want to stir the pot." Amy grumbled to Maverick. She spoke with a frustrated tone, while handling and planting flowers in the ground. "It's like, it's their mission to just piss me off, Mav."
"Eh, that's how your parents are." The husky shrugged in response. "All because of me."
"I try and not let it get to me, but it's so overwhelming." Amy admitted. "I mentioned and even showed them the commercial we made, and they were more interested in Anton blabbering about his coding. Boring!" Amy let out a cynical laugh at the end.
"Anton's such a loser." Maverick laughed. "He's a dude who wears fucking capris. The only dudes who I know who wear capris have limp wrists, wear rainbows, and like dick in their ass~"
"Sounds like you know a thing or two."
"I mean I- HEY! BITCH!" Maverick laughed.
"You walked right in on that." Amy grinned and laughed.
"Lordy~" Maverick shook his head.
"You are so easy." The wolfess laughed.
"I guess." Maverick chuckled. "You're lucky I love you."
"I know~" Amy responded with an affectionate smile. "I miss gardening so much. One can't do that at an apartment complex!"
"You're more than welcome to move back in. Whenever you're ready~" Mav offered.
"Eh, I might have to wait a year. I don't know yet." Amy pursed her lips. "Driving from Newark to Coshocton everyday might be a pain in the ass. I have a job that I actually enjoy... and I really don't want to leave."
"You do what you feel is best, Amy. If it means we have to live apart, I don't mind. I want you to be happy."
"It wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't Coshocton!" the wolfess chuckled. "Coshocton is Diet Newark~"
"Newark Zero?"
"Ha~ Coshocton is like a diet pop, but what they took out was all the joy." Amy laughed. "The whole place goes dead at six in the evening, literally. You see everything out at four, then all of a sudden, by the time you hit six? Dead."
"Hey, I mean, Newark's the place where hopes and dreams come to die~"
"Yeah, that's true."
"We're in no hurry. When the time comes, we'll go from there."
"Sounds good~"
Finishing up, Amy got up and took care of the trash, as Robby eagerly came running up with the hose and watered the newly planted petunias. He ultimately washed Amy's paws off of dirt with the nozzle, as they all finished up and stood at the curb to marvel at the finally completed landscaping.
"Looks great!" Robby exclaimed.
"The home is finally completed." Maverick smiled. The husky put his arms around Amy and Robby and pulled them close. "Things are finally back to normal."
Mid-week was sunny as May slowly drawn to a close. On the outerbelt of Columbus, Maverick drove with Amy, as they made their way towards Dublin, where her brother lived at. His blue Silverado cruised on the interstate with the usual flow of traffic that ringed greater Columbus. Maverick got roped in, rather reluctantly, to help Anton bring a new couch home from the furniture store. He did it only because of Amy, who also shared reluctance.
"Move a couch... he lives right by a damn U-Haul. Twenty bucks for a half-ton pickup truck. What a cheap ass."
"I know, I know~"
"I should have said no. Fuck em." Maverick shook his head.
Arriving into Dublin, Maverick exited I-270 for Sawmill Road, which took him to the furniture store, located in one of the strip malls that lined Sawmill. He pulled into the lot and saw Anton and his wife Shannon, awaiting for them. Maverick pulled up to the curb and slammed the column shifter into park. He did his best to put a calm expression on his face, to hide the annoyance. He hopped out into the noon sunshine with Amy.
"Hey Anton~" Maverick greeted.
Anton just turned his head and looked away as he walked over to see Amy.
"They're coming with the couch in a few minutes." The gray wolf said to his sister.
"Let's start over. Hi, I'm Maverick." The husky sarcastically quipped. He didn't try and hide the glare on his face.
"I was giving information to my sister." Anton muttered in response. He was dwarfed by Maverick's size, the wolf standing at only five foot ten, to Maverick six foot five."
"Sure." Maverick responded. "And the sky's green. You should be showing some more respect, especially to the guy not only dating your sister, but providing your ass with cargo services with his truck..."
"Well how was I supposed to move a giant couch? With my Focus?" Anton snapped back.
"Not my fucking problem~" the husky shrugged. "I did this for Amy, not your sorry ass."
"Well screw you, Mav."
"Yeah fuck off, girl pants~"
Anton looked down at his capris. "Don't judge me by my pants!"
"You're a fucking guy! Check your crotch, motherfucker!" the husky morbidly laughed. "The only guys I know who wear capris put rainbow glitter on their face in June!"
Amy slowly covered her face in embarrassment.
The furniture store guys came stumbling out with a plastic wrapped couch, which was quickly slid into Maverick's truck bed and strapped down. He slammed the tailgate shut and climbed back in with Amy, and took off for Anton's home, which was a few miles away.
"You just had to run your mouth~" Amy chuckled.
"He started it first."
"I thought you were going to keep the peace, Mavvy?"
"Yeah, I changed my mind." Maverick grumbled. "What a fucking loser."
"That's my baby brother!"
"Hey! I don't care!" laughed Maverick. "I could care less if he was the pope! Anton has no nuts!"
"Mav!" Amy exclaimed. "Oh lord~"
"Yeah, that's right toots!"
Arriving into the subdivision, Maverick pulled up and backed partially into the driveway of Anton's home. He looked even more annoyed as he saw George and Maggie's car in the driveway as well. The aging wolves were babysitting their grandchildren.
Maverick hopped out and dropped the tailgate and slid the couch out. Anton helped as they sat the couch down on the driveway. Maverick smacked his paws together to brush some dust off and slammed the tailgate shut.
"Okay, let's bring this inside." Anton called.
"Nope."
"What do you mean nope?"
"This is curbside delivery!" the husky cynically laughed.
"Well how am I supposed to bring this inside!?" Anton shouted bitterly.
"Well you should have thought about that before you ran your cocksucker at the furniture store huh!" Maverick grinned. "Respect is a two way street!"
Anton grew angry. He looked at his sister, pointed and yelled, fuming furiously at Maverick. Shannon yelled as well, pointing and blaming Maverick as the husky just took it with an apathetic gaze. The commotion got George and Maggie to come outside.
"What is the meaning of this!?" shouted George angrily. His enraged eyes locked onto Maverick.
"I'm not putting up with Anton's fuckery, so here ya go." The husky pointed with a chuckle. "Teachin' ya some fucking manners."
"You're just going to leave the couch here!?" Maggie exclaimed.
"Yeah~ Why go all the way for people who don't seem to care?" Maverick asked.
"Oh my god, Maverick stop!" Amy shouted.
"Why stop? Why get walked on like a flight of stairs! I've only been enduring this since, oh, the beginning of our relationship! This was your stupid idea too."
"I got backed into a corner and-"
"Yeah, you got backed into a corner because you don't have the gonads to stand up to your family and tell them to fuck off! They don't deserve you, not after how all of you have treated Amy- like she's some black sheep of the damn family."
"You don't know, Maverick..." George glared.
"You sit there, and you're always putting Amy down, for one thing or another, always criticizing her, never a nice thing to say. Same for you Maggie-cakes! You two are a collective force of misery and bleakness, and your rudeness, your disrespect to me is just disgusting. And I know why- because you're letting Cold War politics a-la, me being Russian, to stand in the way of you accepting that Amy loves me! My family, these big evil Russians, welcomed Amy in with open loving arms both times!"
"FINE!" George screamed. "I don't want you dating my daughter!"
"Too bad!" Maverick yelled back. "She's a grown ass adult!"
George looked at her daughter. "I told you the first time not to date him, and what do you do? You go back right back to the guy who you once complained and griped about!"
"Dad, no, stop!" Amy yelled.
"You complained and complained about how Maverick didn't seem to care about your marriage, about your issues, and how he was so aloof and detached from the world around him!" George yelled. He read the riot act. "All you would do is complain and complain when you come over about how he didn't care and wanted to just play with video cameras for his job!"
Maverick's face turned irate as he looked at Amy. The wolfess looked terribly uncomfortable as she met the husky's angry glare at her.
"We were so glad when you two got divorced! Now you're just going right back into trouble!" Maggie exclaimed. "I would take a child molester over this big beanstalk!"
"Just a no talent assclown!" Anton shouted.
"I'll take that than being a pathetic, candy-ass mama's boy." Maverick pointed at Anton, who just frowned and slinked back from the insult.
Maverick took a few steps forward in an aggressive pose. "You can say whatever the fuck you want, but it won't change my love for Amy. I won't lose sleep over it. Especially this no-talent, lowly programming assistant who wears girl pants!"
Anton looked down at his capris and frowned.
"You can say all I did was play with video cameras, and you know what? I did! But apparently it seemed to work out because I'm a vice president to a self-made company, and a millionaire, and you fucks aren't! So take that, lube it up, and shove it up your fucking ass, ya fuck!"
Maverick turned and walked back to his truck cab. Amy gulped and quickly ran after him as he climbed inside and fired the truck up. The Golagonoffs stood in the driveway and watched as Maverick peeled out angrily, his tires screeching on the pavement as he took off.
Going down the curving onramp, Maverick's Silverado roared onto I-270. He blew by a slow Volkswagen in an abrupt swerving pass right off the onramp. The husky looked visibly upset as he drove in pure silence. Amy sat with a sad expression on her face. There was nothing said in the cab, but the tension was there. Both of them felt the extremely awkward tension; it was so thick, one could cut it with a knife. The cab of the truck remained that way for the entire hour drive back to Newark.
Maverick swung hard and skidded the truck into his driveway, he came to a jolting stop and slammed the column shifter into park, which smacked into place. He shut the engine off and jumped out and slammed his door shut, and went inside. Amy got out and ran after him, through the back door. She ran inside and found Maverick standing with his back turned to her, arms crossed, at the entryway into the kitchen, glancing out the living room windows. Amy closed the back door slowly. The moment the door clicked, Maverick slowly turned around to glare at her.
"Mavvy, I'm sorry my parents- this was a bad idea and-"
"I didn't care, huh?"
"Oh my god, that was from five years ago! Things have changed, things are different and-"
"I did not care about our relationship? Our marriage? I was just an aloof, oblivious, guy who played with video cameras, Amy? Always going to your parents and complaining?"
"Maverick! That was five years ago!" Amy exclaimed.
"And?"
"It's in the past! Remember? We said we'd forget about it."
"Well, I changed my mind." Maverick glared. "I didn't care about our marriage? Care to explain yourself Amy?"
The wolfess looked frustrated as she ran a paw through her brown hair. "Oh lord..."
"Well?"
An irate expression grew on her face as well. "Well I didn't realize you had Autism at the time! You'd just come home, say hi, and then go in the garage and work on a camera, or some piece of equipment, or that silly German car, and then emerge hours later! What about me? My concerns?"
"What concerns?"
"Like the stress I faced being a new chef at a high end restaurant in Columbus?"
"Oh no, I have to work quick and be in a high stress environment by patrons who are stuck up snobs wanting fake Italian food." Maverick scoffed. "Certainly no less stressful than running your own business from the start and growing and developing it, while juggling limited funds! You don't think I ever got stressed out? You don't think me playing around with video cameras and video broadcast gear was my way of relieving stress? Heck! It got me to become a millionaire! And it got you that fucking job in the first place!"
"What?"
"Yeah!" Maverick exclaimed. "Who's idea was it to take your cooking interest to the next level with a cooking show, oh, say, nine years ago? Me and Rob just got those TK-47's, and thought it would be a great idea to just set them up and make a show about you cooking! It even got picked up by WOSU! If it wasn't for that show, if it wasn't for me, Rob, Marcus, everyone at RJB Television, you woulda still been mixin' mac n' cheese at that buffet that closed in Heath. So I can't believe you'd go to your parents house, and let them fill your head with all this fucking bullshit fuckery."
"Mav, I-"
"You were thirty-one years old, Amy! You're a god damn adult and you let your parents just warp your mind and bend your will into thinking I was some stupid, good for nothing, dumbfuck. Didn't care about my marriage...well at least I wasn't the one who cheated!"
Amy's eyes went huge. The room turned completely silent; one could hear a pin fall on the ground.
"Yeah! I went there!"
"You just had to bring it up didn't you..."
"Well it's true isn't it?" Maverick glared. "When we were dating, and we were married, there were so many girls who wanted to fuck me, and I refused every single one of them, because I loved you. YOU AMY. I could have had hundreds of girls of my liking! But I didn't because I loved you. And then you turn around and get laid with a fucking god damn pedophile, knocks you up, and then you just fuck my whole life over by leaving and taking Robby, and allowing him to get assaulted."
"NO. I. DIDN'T." Amy yelled at the top of her lungs.
"You're a god damn hypocrite for saying I didn't care, when here you are whoring your ass out to Oliver!"
"SHUT UP!" Amy screamed.
"NO!" Maverick yelled back. "I never hit you Amy! I never assaulted you, or caused a miscarriage, or raped a kid, unlike Oliver Robinson! Ohhh nooooo way. But eh, the grass is always greener on the other side right?"
Amy seethed in rage as she stared at Maverick. Tears began welling up in her eyes from his harsh words. She didn't even know what to say.
"I made my mistakes, and I should have laid off the jokes all the time, but how was I supposed to know? I didn't let my ego of being a big shot at a nice restaurant turn me into a raging narcissist. Then you got knocked down a few pegs."
Amy slammed a foot down and screamed. "You don't think I've suffered myself!?" She breathed through clenched teeth. "How would you like being assaulted in a workplace robbery and groped while a guy holds a knife to you!? Then when you break free, get a pot of boiling water thrown on you, causing third degree burns!? I about died in the fucking hospital you fucking asshole! I spent five weeks in a burn center getting painful grafts, and I wanted to fucking die! I was in so much pain, and I still am in pain!"
"I know you are."
"Then why must you bring this fucking shit up!?" the wolfess screamed.
"Because I wanted to know. For my own closure."
"Haven't I had to be reminded of my big mistake every single time!" Amy yelled as she started to sob. "When you come home to find a kid getting molested, in the act, and then get hit in the stomach and head with a baseball bat... and watch a innocent baby die? And then no matter what I do... my parents always just put me down and think of me like I'm so failure, compared to my brother... and that everything's crashing down and you had to bring this all back up again... again...again... AGAIN!"
Maverick stood, his face slowly calming down as he watched Amy break down in tears. She clutched her side and stumbled from the pain flaring up again. The husky felt his anger just vanish as a feeling of sympathy and pity replaced it. He walked over to try and comfort her, only to get shoved away, as Amy turned around, threw the front door open and pushed through the storm door. The husky chased after her.
"Amy...Amy!" he shouted.
The wolfess angrily spun around and grabbed the garden hose, a nozzle attached to the end. She aimed it at Maverick like a gun.
"Okay, put that hose down." The husky stated in a firm tone. "Let's talk."
"You hit a nerve, Maverick."
"Oh, like you didn't?" Maverick scoffed. "Give me the hose, this is stupid!"
Amy turned the spigot on and squeezed the trigger, only for the sound of air to hiss out.
"HA!" Maverick laughed and pointed. "Stupid thing don't even-"
SPLASH! Maverick was abruptly hit in the face with a jet of water. "HEY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU CRAZY!?"
Maverick grabbed for the hose, and he and Amy screamed at each other as they both got soaked by the nozzle. They argued over their past marriage, and divorce while fighting for the hose in a pathetic display for all their neighbors to see.
"DROP IT! DROP IT!"
"YOU DROP IT!"
"DROP IT! ON THREE!"
"FINE!"
"ONE! TWO! THREE!"
Amy let go of the nozzle and Maverick ripped it away. Both of them were dripping wet as they took a few steps away, heavily breathing. Maverick looked dumbfounded at the abruptness of it all.
"You better open a window up and let all that wrong out..." Amy fired off.
Maverick suddenly spun around and hit Amy in the face with a jet of water. "HA! GOTCHA!"
"HOW DARE YOU!"
"YOU STARTED IT!"
"GIMME THAT HOSE MAVVY!"
"NO!"
"GIMME"
"NO!"
"IT'S MINE!"
"MINE!"
"MINE!"
As Amy and Maverick struggled over the hose, around the corner emerged Robby and his best friend, Jeffrey from next door. The two carried their remote controlled drones as they stopped and watched Amy and Maverick yell and fight over the hose. The husky and malamute looked gobsmacked as they stared blankly. Amy and Maverick turned and saw Robby and Jeffrey staring at them. They both let go of the hose, which fell to the sidewalk with a smack.
"Hey Robby~" Maverick casually greeted.
"What are you doing, Dad?"
"Well...me and Amy are having well...a relationship moment..."
"Yeah, let's call it that." The wolfess added.
Robby and Jeffrey turned and walked towards the backyard again, leaving Amy and Maverick to stand dripping wet and looking terribly embarrassed. The two turned and slowly walked over to sit on the steps to the front porch. They sat for a long time in complete silence, reflecting on their argument.
"...that nozzle's got great water pressure."
"I know right? That's why I got it for the flowers~"
Hitting the call button, Amy pressed her cellphone to her ear and stood, in the middle of Maverick's driveway. In the last light of evening, she was calling her parents, out of frustration. As the phone rang, she tapped her foot in annoyance, her lips pursed to one side.
"Xenia~" greeted her mom on the phone. "What's going on?"
"Mom, I want to talk to you and Dad." Amy stated in a blunt way. Her tone was serious. "Put it on speakerphone."
"Okay~"
"Xenia, hey how are you?" came her father's voice. He sounded actually happy to hear from her.
"Well...not good." Amy admitted. "I'm a little bit peeved..."
"Oh what happened?" Maggie asked.
"Me and Maverick got into a fight."
"Oh no..." George grumbled. "Are you okay?"
"Do you need us to come and get you-"
"No." Amy cut her mom off. "We got into a fight because of you two, and Anton."
There was a long pause on the phone, an awkward silence.
"You three just made complete asses of yourselves when Mavvy was trying to help Anton. He didn't have to use his truck to move that stupid damn couch for Anton. You guys just wanted to goad him into a fight to try and tear us apart."
"Nonsense! Xenia I-"
"Bull... BULL!" Amy cut off. "This has literally been doing on for almost two decades, so cut it out. Don't lie to me. I am not some little girl anymore. I am thirty-six years old, and I have been with Maverick since early 2002! For almost twenty years, you guys have tried every cheap trick to get us torn apart because you can't accept me dating a Russian. That's on you. And you warped and twisted my brother into your pathetic little schemes as well. Maverick has put up with your shit for so long, and he's tired of it. I'm frankly tired of it. You two are the reason why our marriage failed, because you filled my head up with all your lies and manipulation. The fact that you would prefer me being with a child molester is disgusting. I want to cry. Literally. Absolutely disgusting. I'll give you two options Mom and Dad- you either get over yourselves and accept Maverick as my boyfriend and eventually husband again? Or you won't have a daughter. Heh, you can have a daughter outta Anton- he wears girl pants."
Amy promptly hung out and took a very slow inhale to calm herself down. She stood in the middle of the driveway, looking down at the light gray concrete, while she took time to regain her bearings, her calmness.
In the garage, Maverick worked on a studio camera with his son. It was his way of calming down from the fight he had earlier. Working under the glow of a floodlight, Maverick serviced the innards of a recently acquired Ikegami, an HK-322 studio camera, from the year 1985. He worked to finish up installing the wiring harnesses to the camera's newly installed set of one inch Saticon tubes. A set of "Barev Saticon V ABO's" replaced a burned out set of Amperex Plumbicons. All that was left to do was tweak some of the logic board settings and register, and align the color channels.
"That should do it." Maverick concluded. He leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief as he stretched sore fingers.
"So what's next?" Robby asked curiously as he examined one of the burned out Plumbicons.
"Well, mostly just dialing back the flare suppression, and a few minor tweaks to the beam current board, and it'll be good for registration." Maverick explained. He glanced up to see Amy stepping into the garage. His curious expression hardened into a more serious gaze as he looked back down again, growing quiet. Robby pursed his lips and stepped back a few feet.
Amy walked over and leaned on the camera and smiled at Maverick. "Take a break already!"
"Yeah, I will in a bit." Mav said rather quietly, keeping his head low.
Putting his camera and tools away, Maverick and Robby ventured back inside the house for the night. The big husky returned to his bedroom to find Amy in the bathroom, wrapped up in a robe and brushing her brown hair, which she was slowly growing out a bit more. Maverick took his shirt off and sat on his bed, wearing his tanktop beneath. He yawned a bit. Amy soon emerged from the bathroom and shut the light off, standing in the doorway looking at her boyfriend.
"You okay, Mavvy? You look glum?"
Maverick looked up. "I'm sorry for the fight earlier, Amy. Your parents...just...hit a nerve."
"No, I understand. There's no need to be sorry." Amy stated. "I shouldn't have asked you for the favor...It was stupid and pointless."
"I said the wrong thing, and I feel bad." Maverick frowned. "I let my anger get away, and I shouldn't have said what I did to you."
Amy sat down beside him and put her arms around him. "I shouldn't have sprayed you with the hose."
"It was just a stupid fight." Maverick concluded. "And what happened five years ago is history. It is what it is."
"It was a wound that got torn open, via by parents and brother." Amy shook her head. "I told them on the phone earlier. They could accept our relationship, or they don't have a daughter."
"Heh, Anton can be their daughter. I mean, he already wears girl pants..."
"Hey I mentioned that to them~" laughed the wolfess. Even Maverick had a laugh.
"What the fuck is wrong with Anton?"
"I don't know!" Amy laughed. "He's always been kinda weird."
"Heh, runs in the family~"
Amy and Maverick laughed and laid out on the bed to cuddle. Amy laid atop Maverick as the husky put his arms around her and held her close. They nuzzled each other and gave each other a kiss with a "I love you" at the end.
Thirteen candles glowed atop Robby's birthday cake. Amy stowed away the lighter and quickly returned to the dinner table to sing "Happy Birthday" with Maverick and his family. Robby sat at the middle of the table, surrounded by his adopted family and some of his friends as they celebrated his thirteen birthday. They sang in chorus, filling the house with song before he blew the candles out at the end. There were happy cheers and lots of clapping.
"Hey what did you wish for?" Maverick asked as he squeezed his son's shoulders.
"Good luck!" Robby exclaimed.
"There ya go!" Maverick cheered.
Amy passed out plates and silverware for everyone and began cutting into the cake to serve it. She had baked it herself, a big sheet cake that was decoratively iced with blue icing that bore his name written on it. Amy took a seat with the Tokarevs and had fun laughing and joking with everyone. She felt at home with his family, unlike her own.
"Let's pass out the gifts!" Amy called. She got up and reached over to grab her gift bags to hand to Robby. The young husky eagerly accepted them and opened each one up, revealing a couple new video games, a new controller and headset, plus a gift card to Best Buy. His face lit up with excitement. Robby scored big; his Uncle Vlad and Nico got him a gift card that was nicely packed with money, and he got a new baseball mitt from Kalash. Dmitry got Robby a gift card to Pizza Hut, which followed by a bunch of derisive jokes directed at Dmitry for "being just a fat dumbass". Maverick handed Robby his last present, a big box that was wrapped up in blue plaid wrapping paper, compete with a bow slapped on the top. Robby opened it to reveal a new Nikon, a fancy Z6 model, complete with a couple of lenses.
"Cool!" Robby exclaimed. "Thanks Dad!"
"That way we can go and take aimless pictures of everything!" laughed the husky.
"Yeah!" Robby exclaimed.
As Maverick gathered up the trash, he heard his doorbell ring. "Oh here we go..."
"Who could that be?" Alexei Tokarev asked.
Maverick turned his head as he walked through his living room. "Probably some stupid political crap. GET OFF MAH LAWN!" Maverick laughed at his joke and threw the door open to reveal Amy's parents.
"Eww, it's even worse! It's Amy's parents!"
"Oh no!" the wolfess shouted. The gray wolf jumped up and ran through the kitchen and living room to place herself in front of Maverick. "Mom and Dad!"
"Hello Xenia~" greeted George as he and Maggie held up a couple presents that were neatly wrapped up in gift bags. "We wanted to give Robby some presents."
"Well that's really nice of you." Maverick said. His tone was flat, and a blank stare was on his face.
"Oh Mom and Dad, that's so nice of you~" Amy awkwardly laughed. George and Maggie stepped inside Maverick's home and looked around with blank stares. A very awkward silence fell on the entire house. Robby got up and hid behind his Uncle Nico, a big red Doberman.
"We wanted to drop these off and say hi, before we went to go see Anton." Maggie explained. She smiled at Amy, only for it to immediately go to a scowl when she looked at Maverick.
"So this is where you're staying at, huh?" George asked.
"Yeah, it's nice isn't it?" Amy responded. She tried to stifle a chuckle as she saw Maverick behind her father, with his paws placed around his head like antlers, mocking him with his eyes rolled in the back of his head whenever he spoke.
"It's not my taste, but heh." George grumbled.
"Well, we all can't like what you like, Dad."
"Yeah, we'd all be livin' it up like we're in East Germany..." Maverick mumbled under his breath.
"I hope Robert enjoys his gifts. We have to go, Xenia."
"Good." Maverick muttered.
George and Maggie gave Amy a hug and departed. Maverick closed the door as fast as he could and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh my god..." Amy sighed.
"Do I even want to imagine what your drab ass parents got our son?" Maverick moaned. "One of these gifts is from Anton too- what'd he get Robby? Capris? Turn my son into a butt pirate or something?"
"MAV!" Amy exclaimed.
"Hi Vlad!" Maverick waved jokingly with a grin. His older brother flipped him off.
"Hey Robby! Amy's parents got you some gifts."
"Oh boy...I'm just so excited." Robby responded with a hesitant laugh. He grabbed one of the gift bags and opened it up to pull out a brown colored polo shirt. Maverick immediately burst out in laugher. Amy rolled her eyes and covered her face in embarrassment.
"Wow... I'm just...so excited for this brown."
"Oh my god, my son's gonna look like a UPS driver!" the husky exclaimed.
"Wow, I even got a tan colored t-shirt...it matches my fur color..." Robby said without much enthusiasm. "Can I just not open the others and save face, Dad?"
"Yeah, that's fine." Maverick agreed. "Wow Amy, your parents suck~"
"I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this attempt." The wolfess admitted with a shake of her head.
"It's the thought that counts..." Tatiana reminded her son.
"Yeah, think smarter next time!" Maverick sarcastically fired back.
"Good morning on this wonderful Sunday!" greeted Amy with a grin at the camera. Standing at the kitchen island, she and Maverick began taping another episode of their cooking show. On the other end of the kitchen sat the three HK-322's that Maverick had restored. Rob stood at camera one, Marcus ran camera two to Rob's left, and Maverick's cousin Sergei operated camera three. Standing off to the side was Robby, who operated Maverick's BVP-3, which had a triax adapter on the back, instead of its usual Betacam deck.
"Today we're gonna bring in the official start of summer with everyone's favorite. Pizza!" Amy exclaimed happily. "I'm going to be making two types of crusts for two different types of pizzas- one of which I'm going to show you how to make a cauliflower crust! Which seems to be all the rage."
"Oh man, I could torture my brother Dmitry with that." Chuckled Maverick.
"Oh, here we go with the Dmitry jokes~" Amy shook her head with a laugh. "My boyfriend here is relentless in his pursuit for cheap shots against his older brother, Dmitry."
"Oh like you haven't gotten a shot or two in, Amy." Grinned Maverick.
"Well...it's not hard." Amy admitted with a laugh. "When you have to tell a grown ass man what soap does to your hair, and how it prevents it from matting up and getting greasy? Yeah... I'll just leave it at that."
"And that's why we just leave the beanie on." Maverick concluded. "Hi Dmitry!" he waved into the camera.
Amy talked on camera while she took her ingredients and made some dough. She neatly kneaded it and placed it into a bowl, which she wrapped up in plastic wrap. In the usual cooking show fashion, she pulled a finished and proofed dough from the fridge, which made Maverick quip about "phoniness", which got a sharp and sarcastic "shut up" from Amy.
"If we actually showed you how long this stuff would take, it would be a three hour cooking show!" Amy laughed.
"It'd be something Andy Warhol would make." Maverick laughed.
"No, it'd be something you'd made."
"Hey sister-girl, I'm nowhere near a phenomenal chef like you. Hell, I can't even toss my salad~"
Amy snorted and stifled a laugh. "Oh lord..."
"To tell you another funny story. Amy used to let me have the left over scraps of dough, so I could use it for some of my film stuff years ago in college. I did a Vietnam video project with Rob, and my late buddy Conner Wells played our psychotic history teacher in high school, Mister McCarthy. I took all this dough and made horrific leg wounds for a scene where McCarthy grabs this guy's badly burned legs and the leg meat falls off! 'Hehehehehe! My best friend Jimmy Nakiyama got hit with napalm, so I grabbed him and his leg meat fell off like overcooked lasagna!'" the husky impersonated in his psychotic McCarthy voice. Rob about lost it behind camera one, and had to look away to avoid laughing, which made Maverick laugh his head off.
"It was needless to say, disgusting and badly done." Amy concluded.
"It wasn't badly done!"
"You used tomato sauce, marmalade, and burnt marshmallow fluff to make the wounds." Amy laughed. "It was like a disgusting meal coated onto your friend's legs."
"Oh but it was worth it. My professor thought I was insane. I thought it was a masterpiece. An Ed Wood~"
Amy laughed and rolled her eyes. "This is my boyfriend."
"Damn straight~"
Amy made the first pizza, which was a traditional Neapolitan style thin crust, which was shoved onto a pizza stone and thrown into the oven. She proceeded into making a cauliflower crust pizza, and showing all the steps, which came together as just an innocuous looking pepperoni pizza. It too got shoved into the oven. While the two pizzas cooked, Amy took time to show the cameras how she made her own pizza sauce. She divided up and cooked down tomatoes and talked about her own herb garden, which she recalled from a previous video she had made with Maverick.
After half an hour, Amy took both pizzas out and sat them out to display. She cut up one slice of the cauliflower crust pizza and handed it to Maverick to sample. He took a big bite and the cheese pulled away in a comical fashion.
"Whacha think?" Amy asked him.
"I think I just burned the hell out of my mouth~" Maverick nodded. "Wow, that was hotter than I thought."
"Well it just came out of the oven."
"I realized that. But it tastes good."
"So see? You can make a pizza healthier!" Amy chuckled.
"Why would you want to eat a healthy pizza? Pizza should be greasy and disgusting, and increase your odds of a heart attack and or other cardiovascular event! I mean, I know a thing or two, because I've been through a thing or two..."
Amy shook her head. "You're special."
"I know!" Maverick laughed. "Know your symptoms of a heart attack! If you have chest, shoulder, or back pain, elevated blood pressure, tightness in your chest? Call 9-1-1~ Or just be like me and drop dead from one. You can't diagnose your symptoms if you're dead~" Maverick pointed to his temple, referencing a meme.
"Wonderful medical advice by my boyfriend, ladies and gentlemen~"
"Damn straight~"
The program finished up on schedule, and everyone took time to eat the food that Amy had prepared. It was their usual schedule when they called it a wrap. Amy looked ecstatic at another successful episode taped and finished.
"Next Sunday, we should do a Sunday roast~" Amy suggested as she read a text message from her boss."
"Oh that'd be delicious. And we could just get dinner outta the way with that." Maverick laughed.
"Looks like they need me at Zanesville tomorrow. Finally!" Amy laughed. "I can go back on to work!"
"There ya go!" the husky exclaimed. He held up a slice of pizza in sarcastic celebration.
The alarm rang at four-thirty in the morning, Monday morning. A groggy Amy drug herself out of Maverick's bed to find him not beside her. He heard a bit of commotion from the kitchen, which made her realize that he was already up, probably making coffee. Letting out a yawn, Amy stepped into the shower to wake up and get cleaned up for the day. She was finally glad to get back to work, filling in at the Zanesville restaurant while Coshocton was still closed up due to coronavirus concerns. She shook off the grogginess, straightened her hair out and got dressed in a pink blouse and a pair of gray slacks.
Amy stepped into the kitchen to find Maverick working his coffee maker. He poured her a mug of coffee and mixed in the usual amount of sugar and creamer for her.
"Mornin~" he smiled.
"You're up early."
"Eh, I got a busy day myself." The husky admitted with a chuckle as he sat down at his round dinner table.
Amy ate a light breakfast with Maverick; some jam spread on toast to go with her coffee. They talked a bit about their plans for the day; Amy planned on working all day in Zanesville, while Maverick had some paperwork to crunch, and to go fly to Barev One in Virginia to check on things. At the stroke of five-twenty, Amy grabbed her purse and gave Maverick a hug and kiss goodbye.
"Hey you have a good day~ Don't forget your coffee!" Maverick exclaimed as he handed her a big Thermos.
"Thanks~ Tylenol's in the purse too." Laughed Amy. "Love you, Mavvy!"
"Love ya too, gal~" Maverick smiled and waved.
Amy hopped into her gray Impala and fired it up. Headlights glowed as she backed out slowly, onto Leslie Drive, and began to pull away. Maverick stood at the kitchen window and watched her depart. He smiled and waved, and saw Amy wave back as she slipped away into the darkness.
Hopping on Route 16, she merged onto the highway and watched the lights of downtown Newark pass by to her right. She soon departed Newark's east side and ventured through the dark countryside. Climbing a hill, she left Route 16 for 146, a winding country road that would take her to Zanesville. Cruising through the night, Amy listened to some music to pass the time. Her headlights peered into the darkness, her blue eyes watching for any deer to come darting out. It was one of the hazards of Route 146. It was hilly and winding in some spots, and her Impala strained on a few of the steep grades heading into Muskingum County. Amy tapped her paws on the steering wheel while she navigated another hill, which promptly dipped and had a turn. Another big hill approached. Her engine revved up and the car felt bogged down again as she climbed it, watching her speed bleed off. She crossed the apex and dipped down to pick up speed for the next hill, which she began to climb. Amy reached down to switch radio stations, her eyes just momentarily going to see the display. She looked back up to suddenly stare at blinding headlights straight ahead.
Through the night drove a gray Charger, of the State Highway Patrol. The reflective logos of the vehicle gave it away as it cruised back to Zanesville, its officer having patrolled the empty stretch of highway between Coshocton and Muskingum counties. Dressed in his gray uniform, the brown and gray furred wolf navigated the hills and bends of Route 146. He approached a steep hill and noticed the faint glow at the apex, of headlights. He leaned forward and fumbled his brow at the faint hint of smoke wavering in a beam of light. He pressed his foot on the brake and slowed down. Cresting the top of the hill, the officer spotted a terrific looking car accident. He screeched the Charger to a stop.
A boxy, red Chevy K30 lied on its side, its nose smashed in and radiator hissing steam. One headlight still glowed. There was a gray sedan that he recognized as an Impala, sitting practically torn to pieces. The entire nose of the vehicle was completely destroyed; the engine lying in pieces on the highway. The windshield was shattered and it looked crushed into the cab. There was a tire lying in the ditch, and fluids puddle and streaked all over the road.
"Thirty Muskingum, I've just drove upon an accident on one-forty-six." He radioed back to his station. "It's looking pretty bad."
Hopping out with his big Maglite, the wolf ran over to the truck first, to find its driver lying at the bottom where the passenger door was. He shone the light through the cracked up windshield to see that it was a middle aged gray wolf, bleeding profusely from a nasty gash on his forehead. In his beam of light, he also caught sight of a number of empty beer cans lying on and around him. He made a little bit of movement, and moaned a bit.
"Sir, I'm a highway patrol officer, I'm here to help you. I'm going to get help~ I'll be right back!" the officer called. He ran over to the Impala to assess the damage. In the beam of light from his flashlight, he saw horrific damage to the car. The entire front end had been destroyed, and the engine bay was obliterated and crushed into the cab. He couldn't even see through the windshield, due to all the spider web of cracks glistening back at him. Running around, he spotted a female wolf pinned inside her car. Shining the light on her, the officer saw that she had suffered from numerous facial lacerations from the sheer impact energy exerted on her. There was not a spot that wasn't soaked red in blood. Her lower extremities were completely entangled in the dashboard, and he couldn't even make an assessment due to everything pushed in around her. The steering wheel was slammed into her abdomen. Reaching in, the officer placed his index and middle finger to her throat to feel for a pulse, which he faintly felt. He then heard her gurgling on her own blood, struggling to breathe.
"Ma'am, can you hear me? I'm a highway patrol officer, I'm here to help." The officer announced. He wasn't even sure if she understood, due to the extent of her facial injuries.
"Thirty Muskingum, I need EMS now. I need backup, multiple injuries, one critical."
The officer released the toggle on his radio to hear footsteps. He saw a passerby come to assist, a motorist who happened upon the crash. The middle aged Rottweiler tried with the officer to pry the door open, but it had been severely deformed in the crash and would not budge one bit for them. Even a crowbar that he had in his car refused to force it open. The officer radioed that he needed the jaws of life to extract the victim.
Backup soon began to arrive. Strobing blue lights filled the early morning darkness as two cruisers showed up, followed by an ambulance and fire truck. They attempted again to pry the door open, with more hands, but it simply would not budge. The driver of the truck was pulled out through the windshield and laid out on a stretcher into the ambulance, to be rushed to Zanesville's Genesis hospital. Other paramedics tending to the wolfess trapped in her car requested a helicopter to the closest trauma center. It was clear upon their assessment that she was critically injured, and everyone feared she would just die on the spot before being extracted. Paramedics did what they could to stabilize her neck and get IV's run, while firefighters cut the roof off and pry the dashboard away. Very gingerly, five paramedics lifted her from the vehicle and laid her out on a stretcher. Both her legs were broken in multiple places, with open fractures, and blood gushed everywhere once she was extracted.
"What's her name?" shouted a paramedic. The officer fumbled through her purse to find an ID.
"Uhh, uhh, here it is!" he shouted. "It's Xenia...Gola...gon..off."
"It's Xenia?"
"Yeah~"
"Xenia? We're taking you to the hospital! Okay? We're gonna have to take you to get to the helicopter!" a paramedic announced. The lady Doberman checked her vitals on the monitor to find her oxygen levels plummeting. "Give me an endotracheal tube! We gotta bag her!"
Struggling to establish an airway, the paramedics continued their efforts while they boarded her aboard the ambulance, which turned around and quickly rushed five miles down 146, to the Irville Cemetery, where a medevac helicopter awaited. The green and white Eurocopter sat in the field, rotors roaring and warning lights flashing as the ambulance drove right through the cemetery's field and parked close enough. Jumping out in a hurry, the paramedics carried a critically injured Amy to the helicopter. She laid strapped to the gurney that bounced by their frantic pace. She no longer breathed on her own; a breathing tube taped to her muzzle and attached to a purple Ambu bag sustained breathing by a paramedic. IV bags were squeezed by others to keep her blood pressure up she lost precious blood.
"Here we go! Trade off!"
The paramedics gave Amy to the flight nurses, who quickly loaded her aboard their helicopter. The paramedic team backed and watched as the helicopter was quickly buttoned up and began its takeoff. It lifted off into the air as the first light began to color the sky a deep purple. The Eurocopter turned and began to head west, towards Columbus. It had taken rescuers over an hour to extract Amy from her car.
Rewinding a tape, Maverick and Rob watched playback on the monitor of their latest scanimate graphic. Working in the noisy VTR room, the duo checked their timing as they watched their analog graphic of the AMP logo twirl about and come into view, complete with an animated gradient on the logo.
"Timing looks good on that layer."
"Whew~"
"Second time's a charm." Rob nodded. "Let's get that added to the commercial."
"Gotcha." Maverick acknowledged. He checked that off his list and queued VTR number three to play back the commercial. It was a shot of Amy grilling a large T-bone steak, and bragging about the high quality meats available at AMP, "at supermarket prices". It brought a smile to his face as he marked the time for the graphics to appear.
"What camera did you shoot this with?" Rob asked curiously.
"My Panasonic AK-30~" Maverick chuckled. "Now that we have some mixed-field Plumbicons."
"Eh..." chuckled Rob. "Mixed-deflection are just an annoying gimmick to squeeze just a tiny amount more registration out of a tube. For twenty years, nobody complained about regularly deflected tubes~"
"It's a sharp running camera."
"The colorimetry is good~"
"I know right?"
Maverick prepared to layer the graphic over the end of the commercial when his phone rang. Maverick pulled it out of his pocket to look at the screen, which read "Ohio State University Medical Center".
"Now why would my cardiologist be calling? I was just there..." the husky thought as he got up and left to answer it.
Stepping out into the hallway , where it was quieter, Maverick answered the phone and held it up to his head.
"Douglas Tokarev~"
"Mister Tokarev, uhh hi, my name is Candice Thompson, I am the lead trauma nurse here at OSU Medical Center in Columbus, and I am asking you to come to the hospital right away, for your girlfriend, Xenia Golagonoff, was critically injured in a car accident this morning."
The entire world went dead to Maverick. It was as though everything sounded underwater as he stood frozen in place, having heard the unthinkable. His mind completely went blank, and the husky momentarily shut down. He stood with his jaw slightly slack, unsure of what to say or even react.
"They have taken her into surgery, and we ask that you come. Her family has been notified."
"Okay." Maverick responded.
He put the phone down and spun around. "ROB!" he screamed. He screamed Rob's name multiple times at the top of his lungs. It was loud enough that he got everyone's attention, and everyone at BVS rushed to see what was going on.
"What? What's the-" Rob was starting to say.
"I have to go! Amy's been hurt!" Maverick shouted. His green eyes were as wide as saucer plates.
"What?" Marcus exclaimed.
"She got in a car accident! She's in surgery...oh my god....she was badly hurt...I have to go!"
The husky bolted for the door. Rob stood and watched as he frantically ran out the door for his truck.
Rushing onto the highway, Maverick raced to Columbus. He drove frantically, desperately trying to close the gap to get to OSU, in the north-central of Columbus. He pushed his Silverado to the limit while he kept his head on a swivel to look out for cops. He closed the forty minute gap in twenty-three minutes. He screeched into the parking lot and accidentally cut off a van, which blew its horn at him. He parked crooked in a spot and rushed out, practically tripping over a concrete curb at the end of his spot. He rushed into the ER nearly hyperventilating. He frantically looked around, looking desperate for help. The husky's pandemonium got a nurse's attention, who ran over to check on him.
"Sir, you okay?"
"My girlfriend! Amy Golagonoff! I got a call!" Maverick tried to explain. He was stumbling over his own words. His mind was in a mad rush- he couldn't even think straight. The nurse took him over to the check-in station, where she tried to calm him down. One of the nurses recognized the last name, and called for the lead trauma nurse, who soon came down to the ER lobby to meet with Maverick. She then took charge and led him to the surgery waiting room. She gave him an update while they walked to the elevators. She couldn't say much, but told Maverick that Amy's injuries were "about as critical as critical gets". She had come off the helicopter with the medics performing CPR on her, and was successfully resuscitated after ten minutes. Both her legs sustained major fractures and crush injuries, and there was a lot of severe internal bleeding. She was rushed into the operating room within an hour of arriving, and never gained consciousness while in the ER.
Maverick was taken to the second floor, where the OR ward and Intensive Care Unit resided at. He was led to a waiting room, where he stepped in to find Amy's family sitting on a couch. The Golagonoffs looked glum; George, Maggie, and Anton looked as shell-shocked as Maverick. They all made eye contact, and the uncomfortable tension soon began. Even the lead nurse couldn't help but notice the awkward silence between them, as Maverick took a seat on the other end of the waiting room. It would be the start of a very long, tense, wait.
The waiting room clock had struck ten o'clock at night, when the silence was finally broken by the arrival of the surgeon. He stepped into the room dressed in blue scrubs, along with an orthopedic specialist to meet with the families. It had been a wait that felt like all eternity.
Maverick sat with his parents, who had come to be with him and provide some comfort. For the entire eleven hours, not a single word was spoken between the Golagonoffs and Tokarevs. Their animosity only heightened the tension in the room. Finally with the arrival of the surgeons, the two families came together and were lead to the consultation room for some more privacy.
The consultation room was a room dominated by a large, round table. Streetlights glowed from the window as everyone took a seat. The faint glow of Columbus' towering buildings provided the backdrop to the otherwise bleak looking room.
The surgeons introduced themselves as Dr. James Johnson, resident trauma surgeon, and Dr. Ahmad, Orthopedic specialist. The two gray wolves carried with them a stack of paperwork and X-rays.
"I'm here to give you both the good news and the bad news." James announced to the two families. "I know this is a really terrible predicament."
"How is Xenia? How is our daughter?" Maggie asked in a desperate voice.
"Xenia is in the recovery room. She is stable, but in a coma at this time. This surgery corrected the immediate, critical injuries, but there will be a need for further surgery to correct the defects."
In great detail, both Johnson and Ahmad explained about the surgery and what damage they found. Amy had sustained major internal and external injuries. She had numerous facial injuries, and a skull fracture, which coincided with a really severe concussion. The impact of the steering wheel into her abdomen ruptured her spleen, and she suffered extensive internal bleeding that needed to be corrected. She broke her neck in two places, and a number of vertebra were shifted out of place. Paralysis was likely. The awful news came with Ahmad showed x-rays of her legs, which revealed major damage. There were numerous fractures, including two major compound fractures and extensive crush damage. He sadly admitted that he tried everything, but ultimately had to amputate both her legs at the knees. The news made Maggie break down into tears.
Johnson admitted that there would need to be further surgery to correct the spinal damage, and he concluded with a feeling that the prognosis was not good. Maverick's heart sank. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
There sadly would be no chance for the families to see Amy that night, so both were left to head back home for the night. Everyone left OSU Medical Center in complete shock. In no emotional shape to drive himself, Maverick called Rob for help, and he and Joey came to grab Maverick and his truck to bring him back to Newark.
Hitting I-670, Rob drove the blue Silverado home. The orange glow of streetlights passed overhead as Rob made his way along the almost empty highway. The usually talkative duo didn't say a word as they rode in silence. What was there to say in a time like this? Rob kept his usual serious gaze on his face. Maverick simply looked emotionally burned out. Half an hour later, Rob dropped Maverick and his truck back off at his house, and walked on home two houses down across the street.
The husky stepped inside his home in an emotional daze. He walked past a concerned looking Robby and sat down at the dinner table, where he just sat there for hours, staring wearily off into space, with his jaw somewhat slack. The whole world was just muffled to him.
It was three days before Amy began to slowly awaken from her coma. Three days felt like three centuries; the clock dragged on with agonizing slowness for the families. In those seventy-two hours, Amy had nearly died, twice. The first was the result of an unexpected complication, a resumption of internal bleeding that required her to be rushed back into the operating room for emergency surgery. The second followed surgery where her blood pressure bottomed out and she went into cardiac arrest. An army of nurses in the ICU managed to resuscitate her back into sinus rhythm. It was just the nature of the beast. The two scares took an enormous emotional toll on Maverick, as he watched his girlfriend cling to life. It was a whole day before he finally got to see Amy in the ICU, and he broke down in tears when he laid eyes on her limp, almost lifeless body in the hospital bed. She looked like a broken doll, wrapped up like a mummy with her neck secured in a brace. Her locks of brown hair were shaved away and the top of head bandaged up. She breathed with the help of a ventilator, her chest slowly rising and falling with the subtle hiss of the ventilator. What made him sob harder was the fact that both her legs were gone, amputated at the knees. Amy would never be the same again. And when things seemed to be at their worst, he got the phone call that Amy was beginning to emerge from her coma.
The sun shone low over the eastern sky, casting everything in a shade of brilliant amber. The tinted windows of Ohio State Medical Center glistened as Maverick pulled in and turned to head into the parking garage. He quickly found a spot, and hopped out with a quickened pace. His face still looked tense.
Entering the ICU, Maverick wrinkled his nose to the overpowering stench of antiseptics. He passed by nurses clad in blue scrubs and white lab coats. The ICU was a depressing place to be in. All around him lay wretched misery. The bleak white walls and gray tiled floor felt as though they were closing in around him at all times. The scent made the air feel heavy. Maverick approached Amy's room, and he closed his eyes and took a very slow, deep breath to calm his nerves. He was unprepared for what to say.
Approaching the room, he watched as a nurse stepped out from around the curtain that was drawn. She greeted Maverick with a "good morning" as she passed by. The husky momentarily paused and braced himself. He pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the room.
Amy laid in bed, talking to a nurse who adjusted a setting on her IV. She complained of being in pain, and the nurse was adjusting her morphine drip to try and ease her immense discomfort. Maverick slowly walked forward, which got her attention.
Amy's looked over to see Maverick approach. Her face that was scrunched in pain, immediately softened, and a smile even emerged. Maverick mustered a smile for her.
"Oh Mavvy~" Amy greeted. Her voice was just above a whisper.
"Oh, Amy~" Maverick responded.
"I seem to have gotten myself in quite a pickle here..." Amy admitted with a sigh. Maverick pulled up a chair to sit beside her bed.
"One minute I'm driving to work, and the next thing I know, I wake up in the hospital..." Amy recalled. She let out a cynical chuckle that scrunched her face up in pain. "I kinda wish that crash would have killed me outright...instead it just left me half-way there."
Mav pursed his lips, and looked away momentarily.
"...I wish I could say something to help you...but I feel like...my words are meaningless."
"Your words are not meaningless... there's just...nothing else to say, other than...it happened." Amy looked at him.
Maverick nodded.
"They told me how bad it is..." Amy added. "So you don't need to skirt around the bush, Mavvy. I know I lost my legs."
"I don't know what to say... I'm...shocked." The husky admitted. Amy looked up at the ceiling and very slowly let out a quiet sigh.
"Heh, I'm shocked too." Amy chuckled.
Maverick smiled and reached over to hold her paw. They spent the next few hours talking about things, and what the future would bring. They tried to stay optimistic as Maverick did his best to comfort Amy as the pain came and went. Around noon, her family came to visit, and Maverick decided to depart, to keep the peace. As George, Maggie, and Anton entered, Maverick kissed her forehead goodbye and left. He didn't make eye contact or say anything as he walked past the Golagonoffs.
Returning to his truck, Maverick took off for Newark. Amy's predicament or not, he had a life to live, a son to take care of, and a business to run. He did his best to put on a calm front, while his mind raced a million miles per hour. He hopped back onto I-670, and began the forty minute trek back home.
The nixie clock beside his bed glowed 2:30AM with cherry red numbers. With his blanket half kicked off, Maverick tossed and turned in bed, breathing heavily, sweating bullets. His mind tortured him with another terrible nightmare. For days, since Amy's accident, his mind had been a rush of overwhelming emotions. Each nightmare was about Amy or the accident. Terrible replays of what the crash was like on Route 146, the carnage on the road. Terrible dreams of Amy dying. It was like a prophecy to him. And tonight was no different.
Maverick awoke breathing heavily, his fur soaked in cold sweat. His heart pounded inside his chest. He kicked the blanket off of him and sat up in bed and rested his head into his paws for a few minutes, to clear his mind. He had a replay of the car accident, again. His mind was tortuous. Getting up, the big husky went to the bathroom and ran the sink to soak his face in the cold water. His breathing was erratic, going from shallow to intense as his anxiety ebbed and flowed.
"Dad, are you okay?" came a groggy Robby. "It's two-thirty-nine."
"I know it is~" Maverick responded. "You should go back to bed."
"Are you okay, though?"
"Yeah... I had a bad dream, again." Maverick admitted with a slight sigh at the end.
Robby nodded in solemn understanding.
"This is one of those situations, where I don't know what to do?" Maverick shook his head. He grabbed a towel to dry his face.
"Maybe go talk to someone?" Robby mentioned. "I mean, you're friends with a nurse~"
It was then that Maverick had a "lightbulb moment" go off in his head. Getting his son back to bed, and promising him he wouldn't be too long, Maverick drove across town to the west end, to go visit his friend, Karen Barion, who was a trauma nurse at Licking Memorial Hospital. He brought with him, copies of Amy's x-rays.
The hospital, at three in the morning, was dead. The emergency department was quiet, with only one person, asleep, in the ER lobby. Maverick ventured in and inquired about saying hi to Karen Barion. A quick phone call, brought Karen to the lobby, who took Maverick with her.
In one of the consultation rooms, Karen jabbed Maverick's X-rays up on the wall mounted light boxes. The harsh cold light lit them up, revealing grievous skeletal injuries for all to see. The husky-wolf stood with her best friend Jason Jasonovich, and Dr. Neville Cromwell, the head trauma surgeon for Licking Memorial. Jason was a big Serbian malamute, a forty year old who sported a tattoo sleeve on his right arm. Cromwell was a forty-one year old gray wolf, with wavy brown hair atop his head.
"Wow." Cromwell pointed out. "That's all messed up."
"Spinal cord is compressed right there at the vertebra." Jason pointed out.
Karen just shook her head in disappointment.
"These are some terrible spinal injuries." Cromwell muttered with a shake of his head. "I'm really honestly surprised she survived the crash."
"You think so?" Maverick asked, sounding kinda dumb to himself.
"I've had people come into the ER from less severe crashes and die. Or we try and stabilize them enough for the helicopter ride and they die in Columbus." Cromwell explained. "It's a hit or miss, no pun intended, on car crashes. A number of different factors all play into the severity of wounds. Speed, angle, whether the person wore their seatbelt."
Karen took a step forward. "You're talking about severe internal injuries, and her legs getting amputated... on top of skeletal trauma... Maverick... it's a sheer miracle that Amy is even still alive."
"I know. That's why I'm here...because I don't know what to do?" Maverick admitted. "For days now, I've had nightmares. Constant nightmares. Of Amy's crash, or her dying... And I don't know what to do? I felt so powerless when I saw her, just lying there. She can't even move her paws, nothing. I'm amazed she's not just some vegetable."
"I'm going to be honest with you in that she's probably going to be completely disabled for the rest of her life." Jason stated in a honest, blunt tone.
"I'm prepared to do what I must to take care of her."
"Taking care of a disabled loved one is a very kind gesture, but be prepared Mav, it's going to be emotionally taxing." Karen explained. "I know this is a very difficult time for you... but I want you to pray and hope for the best, but I also want you to prepare for the worst..."
Maverick turned to look at Karen. "Do you think Amy is going to die?"
Karen pursed her lips and looked at her colleagues. "I can't say for certain."
"That's a wild card there." Cromwell admitted.
"I keep having this dream that Amy dies. It's like she just gave up on living."
Karen sat beside Maverick, the husky-wolf being dwarfed by Maverick's tall, muscular frame. "What I'm about to tell you is me not being a dick...but me being a trauma nurse for sixteen years. I want you to prepare yourself for the possibility that Amy may not survive another surgery. They're gonna have to operate on her spine to repair that damage, or she's never going to leave the ICU. Her body has already gone through a horrific trauma, and if she's already crashed twice in the ICU and needed resuscitation? Then her prognosis is even poorer."
Maverick nodded slowly.
"I like Amy a lot, but I have to tell you the truth, or I'd be lying to you. I want you to hope for the best, Maverick, but I want you to understand that she could die literally at any time. She is lucky to have not died on impact from a broken neck. Amy will probably never be able to live with you- she'll have to be in an assisted living facility, or nursing home."
"Oh no."
"Sadly, that's probably how it's going to be. There's just...no realistic way that you could single handedly take care of her, even if that's what your heart tells you to do. It's very noble of you- you love Amy, and I know you love her a lot... but your relationship with her is never going to be what it once was. So enjoy your time with her, love her with all your love and affection, because you might not have much time."
"That's the situation I'm in?"
"Sadly, yeah." Karen nodded.
Maverick got up from his seat and looked around rather frustrated. "I can't believe this happened... I feel so powerless!"
Cromwell and Jason looked on sympathetically.
"I'd love to one day meet the fat slob who wrecked his truck driving drunk. Why would someone be so stupid? Oh who the fuck am I talking- I drove drunk five years ago and crashed my Soviet jeep into Rob's house... but I was so angry, I snapped! Went bananas. Three day binge and flipped out."
"Some people don't realize they have a problem, Mav." Jason reasoned. "Some people give in to despair, just like you did five years ago."
"Yeah..."
"You'd be surprised who gets busted intoxicated behind the wheel. It's not just some burned out loser who lost everything. It's school teachers, lawyers, judges, politicians. Drunk driving has no preference." Karen added.
Maverick shook his head. "I'm just...I don't know."
The exam room door opened up to reveal Karen's other friend, a lady Dober named Sam. She poked her head inside quickly. "Okay, we got a car crash victim coming in! Need everyone in Trauma One, pronto!"
"I have to go~" Karen said. "Look Mav, get some shuteye, and take my advice. Okay?" She offered him a reassuring smile.
"Sure." Maverick nodded. "Thank you everyone."
Maverick grabbed the X-rays and stowed them back into the big envelope. He turned and left through the other doorway, to exit towards the lobby. As he turned to leave, he watched as paramedics rushed a car crash victim down the hallway, towards the trauma room. It was a severely bloodied woman, who was intubated by paramedics and strapped down the stretcher. Maverick watched her and the medics rush by him and slip around another corner. The husky stood there for a long time, reflecting on what he saw. He eventually turned and left for the lobby, to go back home and back to sleep.
The hospital room was packed with Maverick's family coming to visit. His parents and four brothers, plus their spouses helped keep Amy company as they spent the morning together. The conversation and friendliness was something Amy enjoyed as she haplessly laid in her hospital bed, looking up at the ceiling. Maverick sat beside her with his son Robby, the big husky holding her paw tenderly. The conversation and company helped to lift Amy's mood, as she even laughed a bit and talked about what the future lay. Despite her serious injuries, she tried her best to maintain a sense of optimism for herself and everyone around her. After a few hours, she asked to be alone with Maverick for a period of time. Everyone obliged her request and departed in a neat row, to go grab lunch in the cafeteria downstairs. Maverick slid the glass door shut and turned around to sit back down next to Amy.
"Oh your family helps lift my mood up." Amy said with a smile that crept up a bit.
"Well, we're a lively bunch." Maverick smiled back as he grabbed her paw to hold it.
"Can't say the same for my family..." Amy admitted with a cynical, hesitant "heh" at the end. "Everyone's laughter helps numb the pain. I'm in a lot of pain, Mavvy."
"I know you are." The husky frowned.
"It sucks." Amy admitted. "I can't sleep well at night. I get maybe an hour or two of sleep. It makes me wish I was dead, to be honest with you."
Maverick frowned at her saying that.
"I'll be honest with you Mavvy... I don't honestly see myself coming out of this place alive...
"Oh don't say that~" Maverick responded.
"Well what else can I say? I'm lying here all broken!" Amy exclaimed. "I'm in a lot of pain! All his morphine does is take the edge off and fuck me up! You don't have to lay here and feel as though someone's stabbing you all the- you know what, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for snapping at you."
"It's okay, Amy. You have every right to." Maverick tried to comfort.
Amy sighed. Maverick sighed with her.
"I don't fear death, Mavvy. Not anymore. When you stand at the edge of heaven, and come back, you don't fear it anymore. Must be wonderful, like a peaceful, deep sleep. No more pain, no more suffering in our lives. Just peace. I remember being in the burn unit, and I thought I was going to die then. The treatments, the skin grafts, it was grueling. There were days I suffered so much. I felt so helpless. But I recovered. Not this time, Mavvy. This is a lot worse."
"We have to take it a day at a time."
"In case anything should happen...I want you to know this, Mavvy. When I was being treated for my burns, I had my living will created, should anything have happened. I named you as the executor of my will. Not my parents, not my brother. You."
"Me?"
"Yes, you." Amy responded. "At the time I thought you hated me, after everything that had happened in our divorce. I still remember the last time I saw you, when you walked away after leaving the courthouse. But I knew deep down, you would have honored my wishes had I died. Not my parents..."
"What happened before is done and over with. I don't want to even think about the lost years."
"I know~ But I wanted you to know that."
"I understand." Maverick nodded. "But your parents could still challenge my decisions should anything happen, because we're not married."
"Fun~" Amy rolled her eyes. "They just can't leave it be can they?"
Maverick shook his head no.
"Always sticking their damn nose into everything!" Amy scoffed.
"Well... there's one way of fixing that... us getting married."
"In this condition?" Amy exclaimed.
"People do get married in hospitals..." Maverick pointed out.
"What are they gonna do? Prop me up like a puppet?" Amy cynically joked.
"I want to marry you Amy. Because I love you~" Maverick admitted with a smile that emerged. "No matter what, I love you tremendously."
"Aww, how sweet, Mavvy." Amy mustered a weak smile. "I love you too, husky-butt~"
"That's me!"
"Maybe we need to talk to someone... because I think time is of the essence."
"I agree."
Sunday morning's light shone through the chapel's windows. It cast a brilliant amber color on vases of white lilies, that decorated OSU's chapel. A few maintenance workers made last second adjustments to the decorations as preparations were made for Maverick and Amy's impromptu wedding. Some balloons hung on display in the back corner. It looked like a badly put together, half-assed attempt at a wedding.
Standing in the corner, a nervous Maverick tied his blue necktie. His father Alexei assisted him. Looking dwarfed by his youngest son, seventy-three year old Alexei helped brush some wrinkles out of Maverick's dark blue suit. Maverick secured the knot and adjusted it, to make sure it sat just right. His face showed the emotional conflict; the dilemma, he faced; he was happy, excited, nervous, but also sad, and feeling uncertain. He had spent the past three days overcoming government bureaucracy to marry Amy again.
Maverick had spent countless hours discussing things with Amy and her doctor, about their wishes. The doctor and social worker agreed, given her dire condition, and the upcoming surgery on her spine, which wasn't without significant risk of major complications. They talked with their families, which sure enough, brought the huge Tokarev-Golagonoff feud into the open. George and Maggie tried everything they could to persuade Amy to not get remarried to Maverick, but try as they might, Amy steadfast refused to listen. In a stroke of fortunate, or unfortunate luck, Amy's surgery to postponed two days, as Amy developed a minor infection that needed remediation. It gave them enough time to get a wedding cobbled together in the chapel.
"You doing okay, son?" Alexei asked.
"I feel so conflicted, Dad." Admitted Maverick. "I feel so excited, but I also feel like I'm saying goodbye."
"I understand completely."
Turning around, Maverick watched as friends and hospital well-wishers entered the chapel. His friend Rob stood in the corner, preparing Maverick's Betacam for use. The wedding would be videotaped on his Betacam fleet. On the other side, his friends Varg and Xan stood dressed all fancily in shirts and ties, fiddling around with their acoustic guitars. They planned on singing "Here Comes the Sun" for Amy, who was a big Beatles fan. It was now or never to Maverick, and he waited for Amy to arrive from the ICU.
Approaching the husky was George, who was dressed rather dour for the occasion. He looked unhappy at Maverick's presence.
"Let's get one thing straight." George announced to Maverick. "We're here for our daughter, but we're not happy about this." Maverick turned to just stare at George, watching Maggie and Anton approach slowly from his rear.
"Well the good thing is that I'm not marrying you. You, you, and YOU, are just part of the package deal~" Maverick said, his eyes glaring at Maggie, and especially Anton.
"This is your daughter's big day. Don't ruin it for her..." Alexei protested to George.
George grumbled and walked away. Maverick adjusted his tie nervously and walked away to get his bearings together. He turned around when he heard some commotion, and watched as Amy was slowly wheeled into the chapel in her hospital bed. She came with all her IV lines and medical equipment, while under tow by an army of nurses and her doctor.
"Here comes the bride!" a nurse exclaimed.
A smile immediately lit up Maverick's face as he quickly ran over to see Amy.
"Hey beautiful!" the husky greeted.
"Hey~" Amy smiled back. "Our big day~"
"Indeed~"
"I...wish I had my dress. Remember how pretty my dress was the first time?" Amy recalled. "I guess bandages, casts, and gauze just have to do for now!"
"Hey, you're beautiful just the way you are, Amy. Bandages and bruises!"
"Aww...I'd blush if my face wasn't so fucked up."
Maverick chuckled and held her paw while the ceremony slowly began. They were to be married by the Justice of the Peace of Franklin County. The traditional wedding music was played on a stereo, another laughably bad example as Maverick helped push Amy down the widened aisle to the back of the chapel. The Justice of the Peace was a middle aged blonde furred wolf, wearing a gray suit and greeted both of them. Standing before their respected families and friends, and all cameras trained on them, Maverick stood next to Amy, who was secured to her bed and propped up just enough so she could see him.
"We gather here today to unite Douglas Alexeivich Tokarev and Xenia Nadezhda Golagonoff in marriage." The Justice announced to everyone. "Given the circumstances presented to them, this is a beautiful example of how love overcomes any obstacle."
Maverick nodded and smiled at Amy, who smiled back.
"Do you, Douglas Alexeivich Tokarev, take Xenia, to be your wife? Through thick and thin, success and failure, through all the days in your life?"
"I do." Maverick nodded.
"Do you, Xenia Nadezhda Golagonoff, take Douglas here to be your husband? Through everything, thick or thin, to love him unconditionally forever more?"
"I do." Amy acknowledged.
"Then by the power invested in me by the state of Ohio, I hereby proclaim Douglas and Xenia, to be husband and wife."
The chapel erupted in applause as Maverick knelt down to give Amy a kiss. George ground his teeth and kept his mouth shut. Maggie looked sad, and Anton simply sat with his arms crossed, while everyone else clapped.
"Now Amy, I think Maverick has something special for you~" the Justice pointed as he stepped aside. Varg and Xan both waved and began playing their guitars, the song Amy recognizing immediately. She looked at Maverick in complete shock as tears welled up in her eyes. It was her favorite Beatles song.
"Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun
And I say, it's all right
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun
And I say, it's all right"
Maverick stood and listened, looking as euphoric as Amy as the music played for them.
Following the ceremony, Maverick spent the rest of the day with Amy, in her hospital room. Joking about it being their "honeymoon" they laughed and enjoyed each other's company, as they basked in their euphoria for being remarried once again. There was talk about the future, and Maverick's promise that he would take care of Amy, and make his house accessible for her and her inevitable wheelchair. She also talked about her upcoming surgery tomorrow, which made her nervous.
"There's a fifty-fifty chance I live or die tomorrow." Amy acknowledged to Maverick.
"It has to be done though."
"Sadly. I guess one can't have a busted up back forever!" Amy exclaimed.
"I know those are scary numbers."
"Yeah, I know~"
"It's a fifty-fifty shot, but if they don't do it...it's an inevitable death."
"Sucks to suck don't it?" Amy chuckled cynically.
"Yep." Chuckled the husky in return. "But I have faith, you'll be okay. And I'll be there, in the waiting room, to root you on!"
"And you'll keep my parents company~" Amy teased.
Maverick grumbled. "More like figure out how to shove them out the window and get away with it- did I just admit that?"
Amy closed her eyes and laughed. "Mavvy, you're stupid~"
"Heh, you married me, toots."
"I did, didn't I?" Amy smiled.
"It was as beautiful as the first time." Maverick smiled in return. "Second time's a charm."
"I'll always remember this day."
"Same here."
As the sun set on the horizon, visiting hours were up, and Maverick had to leave. As always, he gave Amy and kiss goodbye, and wished her well. He left the ICU with a smile still on his face.
The double doors of the ICU swung open as the surgical team began to wheel Amy to the operating room. Maverick helped push the bed along as he looked down and talked to Amy, to calm her rattled nerves as she prepared for a risky spinal surgery to correct the damage to her vertebra and spinal cord.
"It's gonna be okay Amy." Maverick reassured her. "I know there's a big gamble here-"
"Yeah, my life?" Amy responded sarcastically.
"Sadly, everything in life has risks. But I have faith Amy, remember what I said yesterday."
"We're gonna make you all better." Dr. Ahmad promised as they neared the operating room.
"I put my life in your paws, literally~" Amy quipped.
"That's why we're the professionals!"
"Hey, just think, could you imagine if I was a surgeon?" Maverick joked.
"With all your jokes about your big sausage fingers? And your attempts to make homemade ravioli? No thanks!" Amy laughed.
"Just an idea~" Maverick shrugged.
At the doors to the operating ward, Maverick could go no more. He gave Amy a goodbye kiss and wished her all the best.
"Amy, I'll see you when you get out, okay?" the husky smiled.
"Okay." The wolfess smiled in return. "I love you, Mavvy~"
"I love you too, Amy."
Amy continued to smile as she was led into the operating room, and Maverick stood watching as the double doors swung until they stopped together. He slowly turned and made his way to the waiting room, where he saw Amy's parents sitting on one side. Maverick took his spot on the opposite end of the waiting room, to do some work on his laptop. It would be a long six hours.
As the time slowly ticked on, Maverick worked on e-mails and documents on his Thinkpad. He chatted a bit through Telegram with Marcus and Felix, and communicated with Rob on and off over business matters with Centoh. When that was completed, he killed time doodling in his sketchpad and drew storyboards for a few ideas in his head. Periodically, he glanced up to see George and Maggie in their corner; they looked genuinely concerned and between reading magazines, and the newspaper, they comforted each other.
The time continued to tick away. Maverick looked at the clock, which read three o'clock in the afternoon; six hours on the spot. That was the estimate he heard concerning the surgery time. He glanced up at the computer monitor near him, which had the roster for the operating ward, and saw Amy was still in the OR. The clock slipped to four o'clock, and then five o'clock. Maverick began to grow concerned.
Finally, at five-thirty in the evening, the waiting room door opened to reveal Doctor Johnson, the trauma surgeon assigned to Amy. He entered the room with an exhausted looking Dr. Ahmad, who walked in with his head slightly bowed. Both men were dressed in blue scrubs, and looked somber.
"Mister Tokarev?" asked Jonson. Maverick immediately got up and met with him. George and Maggie quickly approached.
"How is Amy? Is she out of surgery?"
"I want you to have a seat, please, we need to talk." Johnson said in a serious tone.
"No, talk to me, what's going on?"
The wolf pursed his lips. Dr. Ahmed spoke up.
"We had a very serious complication pop up deep into the surgery." Explained Ahmed. Maggie gasped a bit, with concern flashing across her face.
"During the procedure, Amy went into cardiac arrest, and we immediately began CPR to attempt resuscitation."
Maverick's heart sank. Maggie gasped and began to cry, as George held onto his wife.
"We were in CPR for twenty-five minutes before we got her heart restarted. She has been stabilized, and her vitals look good again, but... I don't know kind of neurological damage, if any, she sustained during the down period. We will only know when she wakes back up."
"Oh my god..." George muttered.
Dr. Ahmed followed up with some of the surgery results, in which they were only halfway successful in repairing the damage to her spine. The prognosis of her recovery, regardless, was still considered quite poor. It was a terrible blow to Maverick, who grabbed a chair and sat back down, to reflect on things.
Visiting hours in the ICU were up, but Maverick and the Golagonoffs were granted a short few minutes to go see Amy. Putting aside their differences for the moment, Maverick, George, Maggie, and their son Anton went to go see Amy, who was back in the ICU.
Maverick stepped into the room to find Amy hooked up to a ventilator. She looked dead to him. Looking like a mummified robot with all her bandages, wires and tubes jutting out everywhere, she just laid there, motionless, with the mechanical hiss of the ventilator coinciding with the gentle rise and fall of her chest. The heart monitor showed normal vital signs. Maverick stood on one side of the bed, her parents and brother on the other side. Nobody said anything as they stood and took it all in that Amy was in bad shape.
"Xenia? We're here..." Maggie said weakly. "Mom and Dad are here with you."
Maverick knelt down and held her paw, finding it still warm. A tear dripped from his eye. He prayed that she would wake up from her coma.
The automatic doors slid open for Maverick, as he walked into OSU, alone. Each step registered in his brain as he walked towards the elevator, to take him to the second floor intensive care unit. He would soon know the fate of his wife. The husky looked mentally worn down from the whole ordeal; his green eyes were bloodshot and lusterless. His face was blank, without emotion. He got into the first elevator that opened and hit the button for the second floor, the bronze colored doors slid shut.
Amy never awoke from her coma, after going into cardiac arrest during surgery on her spine. The only explanation that Maverick, or the surgeons could come to was that her body just couldn't take the trauma anymore. It had finally given out from all the stress it endured in the crash. After three days of no response, Dr. Johnson began a series of tests to see if Amy was brain dead. Maverick would soon know the results. During those long, tortuous days, Maverick spent every moment he could with Amy; he sat there for hours, holding her paw, talking to her softly, praying, and begging her to wake back up. He got nothing. His wife just laid motionless, with no response whatsoever.
The consolation room door sat at the other end of the long hallway on the second floor. Maverick walked slowly, dreading each step that took him closer. He closed his eyes and mentally prepared himself for what was to come.
Inside the small consultation room, he saw the Golagonoffs sitting together. They momentarily made eye contact, and all looked away from Maverick, as he sat opposite of them. They made no attempt at any greeting, or conversation. The room was awkwardly silent. After a few minutes, Dr. Johnson entered, with the hospital's social worker, as a witness.
"Good morning, everyone~" the gray wolf greeted. He spoke with a low, somber voice. It had a tone of regret to it that Maverick just barely picked up on. "I want to talk to you about the results of our tests on Xenia... and where we go from here on out."
Johnson pursed his lips and looked away momentarily at the social worker. He turned his attention back to the family. "We did a battery of tests on Xenia, and we repeated them a second time for redundancy. We now have the results. We tested Xenia for reactivity to stimuli- light, touch, sound, and spontaneous respiration. In both our tests, we got no response from her. Therefore, she has no brain stem activity. She is, for all intents and purposes, brain dead. The Xenia that you knew and loved is gone. It is with great sadness that I must tell you that I pronounced her dead at eighty-thirty-nine this morning. My deepest condolences to all of you."
Maverick sat back in his seat in complete shock. He didn't even know what to do. George and Maggie began to cry, and Anton looked away to begin wiping the tears out of his eyes. Dr. Johnson looked disappointed as he sat in silence, his fingers interwoven together on the table.
The husky got up, and without saying a word, left the consultation room. Dr. Johnson watched him leave as the door closed behind him. Without a thought or registration, Maverick walked to the ICU, and stepped through the double doors to be with Amy. He entered her room and quietly pulled up a chair and sat beside her bed. He grabbed her right paw and tenderly held it. The tears welled up and began to streak down his face and soak into his pelt of gray fur. It was then that he realized that his wife was dead. The woman he genuinely loved, the woman who had been in his life one way or another for nearly twenty years, was gone.
Glancing up, Maverick felt there was such irony that Amy was declared dead, when her heart continued to beat. Brain death and the legal gobbledygook with it was a topic he was always intrigued by; her heart continued to beat at 102 beats per minute. She was still alive, in a sense, but on borrowed time. The ventilator kept her cardiopulmonary system functioning, while the cornucopia of drugs injected intravenously kept her blood pressure stabilized. She was legally dead, but not physically; Amy was stuck in limbo between life and death, and it filled Maverick with guilt. He was the executor of her will, and now her life was placed in his paws. With acceptance, Maverick realized that he would be the one who would have to "pull the plug". He didn't want to let go, but he also didn't want to see Amy suffer any further. If there was any consolation out of her death, Maverick felt that Amy was no longer in pain. There would be no more chronic pain, there would be no more disability. She wouldn't have to live life in a wheelchair, crippled in pain. And that realization brought a sense of relief to him. He didn't have to hold his breath anymore, pondering what the future would be. He wiped the tears out of his eyes.
Dr. Johnson stepped into the room. He looked sympathetic as he saw Maverick just sit there, almost in a catatonic state, holding Amy's paw beside her bed. "Mister Tokarev, I know this is a really bad time... but I need to talk to you." Maverick didn't respond the first time.
"Mister Tokarev, I know this is a terrible time, but I must talk to you about the termination of life support, and-or organ donation."
Maverick took a very slow, deep breath, to regain his bearings. "There's no hope for her, huh?"
"Sadly, no. She's gone." Johnson nodded. "But time is critical."
"I understand." Mav nodded. He looked at his wife and pursed his lips with a look of thought. "Amy could save other's lives with her organs?"
"If her organs are deemed good, she could save several lives." Johnson explained. "But we only have a limited amount of time."
"I want to talk to her parents about this. I want this to be a group decision."
"You are the husband, you have-"
"I know. But I want this to be a group decision."
Bursting into the room was George. He looked emotionally devastated as he saw his daughter. He choked up and ran to the bed to see her. "Oh Xenia... you can't be gone!"
Maverick got up and regained his composure. "I need to talk to you, George."
There was an icy silence between them as they stood on opposite ends of the bed. "There's no hope left for Amy. I want to donate her organs, so maybe perhaps, someone else doesn't have to plan a funeral."
George took a step back. "You're...you are not turning my daughter into some science experiment! This is my daughter!"
"She's dead! What difference does it make!" Maverick exclaimed. "It's what she would have wanted."
"You don't know!"
"She told me!" Maverick shouted. "What difference does it make now? She's dead!"
"LIAR!" George screamed.
"DON'T CALL ME A LIAR!" Maverick shouted back. He and George got face to face in a screaming match, as Dr. Johnson watched helplessly. It was years of pent up, suppressed rage exploding out in an emotional meltdown. The whole ICU was filled with a colorful explosion of profanity and insults that drew nurses and other doctors towards Amy's room.
George grabbed a metal tray that sat a bunch of capped syringes and other instruments and threw it at Maverick. It smashed against him and knocked him into the sink as it came crashing down onto the floor. George was exasperated and out of breath as he stumbled to one knee and broke down in tears. Maverick stood opposite of him, his back to the sink on the wall. He breathed slowly and regained his bearings as he watched George openly weep about his daughter. The husky walked over and helped George back up and to a seat.
"This isn't about you or me." Maverick stated in a calm voice. "I don't give a shit whether you or your wife like me. I don't give a flying fuck if you don't like me because I'm Russian. This isn't about us- this is about Amy, your daughter! There's no hope left for her. All your life you've tried to dictate to her about how she needs to live her life, and even at the cusp of death, you try and dictate her ultimate fate! It's time to stop being selfish, George! It kills me on the inside to know she's gone, but if her organs could save just one person? Wouldn't that be something to celebrate? That Amy could live on in another person, to give them another chance at life? Stop kicking yourself in the ass, and accept that Amy is legally dead. And there's nothing- not you, not me, that can be done to bring her back."
Maverick looked away momentarily. "...I could have made the decision myself, but I wanted you to be part of it too. Because Amy meant so much to you."
George looked down at the floor and wiped his weary, tear filled eyes. He looked back up at Maverick, with a look of unwillingness to fight any further.
"If Amy told you that... then I accept it. Go ahead." George concluded. "That is what she wanted."
Maverick looked at the doctor, who nodded.
"I will start making phone calls."
Amy underwent her final medical tests. Over the course of two days, an organ transplant team arrived at OSU to begin administering tests to see if her organs were viable for donation. They drew blood, did medical scans, and continuously checked her vital signs as they poured over the medical data. It was found that despite the injuries she sustained in her car accident, her organs were deemed fit for donation.
Interspersed between the battery of tests, Maverick continued his vigil, right beside his wife. He alternated with George and Maggie, as they all began to realize that it really was time to say goodbye. And with each visit, that reality got heavier and heavier in their hearts. The surgery was scheduled for Monday morning, exactly two weeks after she was flown to OSU.
On the night before the final surgery, Maverick was granted an extended time to visit in the ICU. As the Golagonoffs left for the night, Maverick returned to be alone with Amy. He carried a heavy burden in his heart as he walked into the ICU, looking weary eyed. On top of feeling the sorrow of losing the love of his life, he felt the conflicted emotions of finally knowing about the man who had struck Amy on Route 146. He felt a concoction of rage, sadness, and disappointment, in knowing that the man who was behind the wheel of a truck, drunk, was a forty-seven year old man named Troy Robert Woodfield. He didn't fit Maverick's preconceived beliefs; he wasn't some young shit underage drinker who couldn't hold his booze, nor was he some fat, loser redneck, all washed up on life. Troy Woodfield was a clean shaven, middle-aged wolf, with tousled brown hair that was streaked with a bit of gray. He worked at a lumber yard in South Zanesville, his hometown. It completely blew his mind.
Entering Amy's room, Maverick gently slid the glass door shut and walked over to where he always sat at. He felt as though he was on autopilot, as he followed the same exact move, over and over, and gently grabbed Amy's paw, so he could hold and stroke it in his own. Her warm paw belied the fact that she was for all intent and purposes, dead. Amy's face was expressionless, still bruised and bandaged up. Her taped up breathing tube, that jutted from her muzzle, gave her mouth a snarled appearance. It was the only thing keeping her systems alive. Each hiss of the ventilator, each tick of the clock, made Maverick realize that every second passed, was a second closer to his final goodbye to her, where he would never see her again. It made his emotions all volatile.
"I never thought it was going to end this way, Amy." Maverick said, speaking futilely to her. It was pointless to talk to her, but he didn't care at this point.
"When I first met you all those years ago...I thought we were going to get married, and stay together for sixty years, and die of old age together. I thought everything was going to be great, and we'd ride off into the sunset, laughing and smiling. I didn't think I'd be saying goodbye so soon... Everything that I said in that argument...I take it all back. Everything that happened between us in our lost years... I take back. I would give anything, everything, just to have you back here... so I can hear your beautiful voice again."
Tears welled up in the husky's eyes. His mouth quivered as he fought back crying. "I have to let go tomorrow...it kills me...but it also brings comfort...because I know you will no longer be suffering. You will no longer have to be stuck in this limbo between life and death. There will be no more pain. Just peace. Just as you described it..."
"...I love you."
Overwhelmed by his emotions, Maverick choked up and folded over to bury his head into the bed and weep. He convulsed as he let loose with his tears, the bed muffling his cries of sorrow.
The clock struck nine o'clock. On the second floor of the OSU Medical Center, doctors, nurses, and other faculty members stood on both sides of the hallway leading from the ICU. It was the hospital's walk of honor, reserved for organ donors as they began their final journey to the OR. Faces looked somber and reserved as people stood waiting, to pay their last respects.
The double doors to the ICU swung open as Amy was pushed in her hospital bed. The surgical team guided the bed along, slowly, while one nurse squeezed a yellow Ambu bag, connected to Amy's breathing tube. Behind the surgical team walked a somber looking Maverick, standing with Amy's parents, and her younger brother. They walked down the hallway, as everyone paid their final respects. Maverick spotted his family; his parents, his three older brothers, his cousin Sergei. He spotted his friends, including Rob, standing in line. Even Karen Barion stood, in her usual hospital scrubs from Licking Memorial. They went down the long hallway, around a turn, and began the final walk towards the OR doors. Maverick eyed those doors with great sadness. He looked down at his wife, looking all broken in the bed. Her suffering would soon be over. At the doors, they stopped, so the families could say goodbye, for the final time.
Standing around the bed, George, Maggie, and Anton stood on the left side, Maverick, his siblings, and parents, on the right. With heavy tears and choked up voices, George and Maggie said goodbye to their daughter, and spoke to her about how much they loved her, and how sorry they were that their relationship was so turbulent, and how none of that mattered now.
"When you were born...it was the happiest day in my entire life." George sobbed as he dabbed a handkerchief to his puffy, wet eyes.
"I never thought I'd have to bury my daughter..." Maggie wept. "Oh Xenia...God's hands are merciful and loving on your journey home."
"Big sis...I love you." Anton cried.
The Tokarevs approached and spoke about their love for Amy, how she was always welcomed into their family, and how much she meant to them. Tatiana gently patted the top of her bandaged up head.
"It's so hard to say goodbye to someone who was so full of life." Tatiana stated. "Through thick and thin, you loved our son, and we loved you as our daughter-in-law."
"God speed, Amy. You won't have to suffer like this anymore." Alexei concluded as he wiped his tear filled green eyes.
Maverick's siblings all talked about how much they meant to her, and each one said goodbye, before taking a step back. Finally Maverick approached. He knelt down and kissed the top of her head, and gently caressed the side of her face. Tears streaked down his face.
"My beautiful wife, my best friend. The only woman who ever stole my heart the way you did. I can't thank you enough for the eighteen years we knew each other. You made me laugh, Amy, you made me cry, and you showed me what true love is. When I told you I loved you, I meant it. And I'm so glad that that was the final thing you heard from me, because I meant it. I love you. I really do love you."
Robby shyly approached next to his Dad and looked at Amy one last time. "You were my replacement Mom after my real mom died. Now I won't have a mom again." The tan husky wiped tears out of his eyes as Maverick put am around him to comfort him. "Everything that happened, I forgive you. It's okay, Mom~"
Maverick stepped back with his son and nodded. The surgeon nodded and the team entered into the restricted area. Maverick watched as Amy slowly slipped from view as the doors began to close. The sight overwhelmed his emotions.
"No wait! Amy!" Maverick shouted. His Dad caught him.
"No son! It's time to say goodbye!" Alexei exclaimed.
"NO!" the husky screamed. "I didn't say a proper goodbye!"
Maverick fought against his father's grip on him. His brothers stepped in to restrain Maverick as he reached out, crying, yelling Amy's name, as the doors finally closed shut. "AMY! AMY! No, no, no, no, no..."
Maverick fell to the floor crying for the entire hospital to see. He wept heavily, his chest rising and falling to each sob, as Dmitry hugged him tightly. Robby cried with his Dad and embraced him. The whole Tokarev family wrapped their arms around him as they all mourned together with tear filled eyes. It was all over now.
His head leaning against the wall of the waiting room, Maverick looked emotionally dead to the world. While a TV on the other side blasted the news, Maverick stared off into space. The husky sat alone; his family had gone home with his son, and the hospital went on with its routine. Maverick sat alone in an otherwise empty waiting room; he had asked if they would tell him when Amy's heart finally stopped, and he had been waiting four hours for the news. He wanted that closure.
A nurse that walked by took notice of the hulking husky in the room. She had spotted him a couple times in the same spot on the couch throughout her shift. The black furred wolfess stepped inside to see what was going on.
"Sir? I've noticed you've been in here for quite a while, are you okay?"
Maverick blankly stared into space for a while. He didn't immediately acknowledge. He finally stirred from his stupor when she gently nudged him.
"Are you waiting on someone in surgery? There's nobody else here?"
"My wife died, and they took her in this morning for organ donation. I asked if they could tell me once her heart stopped, so I could have some closure."
"Oh sir...let me go check."
She disappeared for about ten minutes before she returned back to the waiting room. "Mister Tokarev." She called him by name. "I want to let you know that her heart stopped beating at eleven-oh-four-am."
Maverick closed his eyes and the tears welled up again. He choked up and tried to contain it all. The nurse reached over and grabbed a tissue from a Kleenex box and dried his eyes for him. She looked very sympathetic.
"My condolences to your loss."
"Thank you."
Getting up, Maverick walked out of the waiting room and made his way for the exit. He returned to his truck, hopped inside and hit the highway. He felt as though he was on autopilot as he drove through greater Columbus and back towards Newark. It was early afternoon, on a Monday, and the sun shone brightly. Everything looked cheerful, lush and green. Maverick drove his truck with a blank, burned out stare, hidden behind sunglasses. As he approached Newark, he missed his turn and continued on driving on Route 16. He left past Newark, and continued his way, for an hour, to Coshocton.
Maverick pulled into the parking lot of Amy's apartment. He parked crooked; he didn't even care. He fiddled around with his keychain and found the key for her apartment. He unlocked it and opened the door to stand in the doorway.
The apartment felt so lonely as Maverick stepped inside. He glanced around to realize that everything was the last thing Amy touched before her accident. The random coffee mug sitting on the coffee table, the Better Homes and Garden magazine resting on the couch. The way the chair sat beside the closet door. It broke his heart to think that. Maverick walked through the living room, still vividly remembering seeing Amy walking about, joking about some trivial thing that had happened in Coshocton.
He stepped into Amy's bedroom and went to her filing cabinet, which sat off to the corner. He opened the top drawer and pulled out a big, bulging out envelope, which was clearly labeled "Last Will and Testament". He walked slowly down the hallway and to the kitchen, where he took a seat at the table, to examine all the paperwork. He pulled a bunch of stapled and paper clipped documents out and spread them around the table to examine. It was a bunch of legal paperwork, signed by her attorney, about what to do when she died. On the critical paperwork, she named him, Douglas A. Tokarev, as the executor of the will. She wanted to be cremated, and buried in Coshocton. She asked that her money be given to Robby, as a "major apology for what had happened", and her worldly belongings be donated to a woman's shelter in town. As Maverick sifted through, an envelope fell out between a stack, addressed "Mavvy" on the front. It caught the husky's attention, as he picked it up and opened it. He pulled out a sheet of plain white copy paper, with a handwritten letter addressed to him in Amy's handwriting. It was written in black ink, and dated at 5/19/16.
"Maverick,
Words cannot describe the pain I am currently in,
at a burn center, in Columbus. It's a terrible pain,
like knives being jabbed into my face, my body. Its
torture as I lay here in my bed, letting my skin heal.
I've had multiple infections, complications, do-overs
of skin grafts. All because of a violent assault at work.
I haven't seen you since we left the courthouse in
January. The last time I saw you, you were deeply
upset, you were deeply hurt. You walked off with
Robby, in the pouring rain. I don't think I'll ever see
or hear from you again. I leave this letter to you, in
case I die. I want you to know that I named you as
the executor of my living will. I ask that you
please overcome everything that happened, to
honor my final wishes. Something I have low
confidence with regarding my parents. I know
deep inside, you still care, and would honor my
wishes. You're that kind of guy; loving and
wonderful- genuine and sweet. To see your face,
all twisted with hate- it broke my heart. And I'm
sorry that I caused it, by losing touch with
everything. Karma's teaching me a lesson by
putting me in this predicament.
Everything you need is in this envelope, including
my attorney's info.
-Amy"
Maverick put the letter down and blinked a few times as he looked around her apartment. He sat in his chair in complete silence, looking mentally beat down. His mind overflowed from trying to process everything. He ultimately sat his head down and just shut down to the world around him.
Friday morning at BVS, Ryan McDowd manned the editing station with his friend Corey Wilhelm. The ruddy haired malamute worked with the Arctic wolf as they cleaned up the final episode of "Cooking with Amy N' Mav" by adding graphics and credits to the first edit that played back on one of the BVH-2000 VTR's. They were observed by Charles Manchester, a Welsh Doberman, and Borr Eklund, a buff Swedish husky. Nobody joked or said anything while they watched Amy and Maverick joke on camera.
"I need that hot-C tape!" Ryan called out. "Do you know if it's coming?"
"Marcus said he is on his way." Borr responded.
"Gotcha."
"This is gonna be a gut wrencher..." Charles admitted.
"Here I am! I got it!" came Marcus. The Nordic husky burst into the editing room, hauling a small reel of Type C videotape. It was labeled with Rob's handwriting on the logo. "Hot-C coming in!"
"Put it on VTR three." Corey pointed.
"Gotcha."
Ryan played back the concluding shot.
"And there you have it! Another exciting adventure in the kitchen and nothing burning down!" laughed Amy on camera. Despite her partial paralysis to her face, her smile radiated. "You should take a note of that Mavvy!"
"Yeah, yeah." The husky sarcastically grumbled.
"We'll see you next time on Cooking with Amy and Mav!" Amy waved as the camera zoomed out to show Maverick waving with her. Ryan hit pause and held where he wanted to mark the transition.
"VTR three ready."
Ryan toggled the VTR controller and hit play, the Sony spooling up and playing back the tape. It was raw and unedited footage that Rob had shot on his TK-47EP. The initial shot was all blurry, apparently through the kitchen window. The big Diode-Guns in the camera gave it a sharp, crisp picture, with the typical warm RCA colorimetry. The audio feed came in clear, showcasing a conversation between Rob and Maverick, both of which were off screen.
"Rob, I don't think I'm going to be able to do this without breaking down and sounding like a blubbering baby." Maverick admitted hesitantly.
"Look, it's okay. It's a eulogy for Amy. You're allowed to be sad. You're allowed to cry. It's okay. People are going to understand. You're doing this for Amy, you're doing this because you love her. We have plenty of videotape, plenty of time. If you break down, we just do it again."
"Okay."
"Gotcha."
"Whenever you're ready...I have an idea of what I'm going to say."
"Alrighty...camera is rolling. Let's do take one. Action."
The shot started with Maverick talking with the camera looking out the window. Rob zoomed out and focused on Maverick, who stood behind the kitchen island, neatly framed up and focused in the shot.
"That was videotaped on Sunday, the seventh of June. It was any other taping session, filled with laughter and fun. But it sadly will be the final episode of Cooking with Amy and Mav, for I must bring you the terrible news that Amy was sadly killed in a car accident. My beloved wife, my best friend, was hit by a drunk driver, head on, while she was driving to work, the day after we taped this episode. Amy spent several agonizing days in the hospital, teetering between life and death, before her body just couldn't take the trauma anymore, and died during surgery. Before she died, I had the privileged honor, of getting to marry her in the hospital. It was our second time around, after we spent five years apart. It was beautiful, and blissful, and I am so blessed to have taken her paw in marriage, before fate decided. I got to be her husband again for about a day, and we spent that day laughing and joking about what the future would bring. Even in the face of death, Amy kept a smile as best she could on her face. That was what made her special. I made...the...heartfelt decision to donate her organs after she died..."
Maverick sniffled a bit and a few tears welled up in his eyes. Rob very slowly zoomed in. "In her death, Amy saved the lives of eight people, and I'd like to take a moment of your time to talk about them. Her heart saved a sixty-two year old woman in Chicago, her liver was divvied up and saved two young children who desperately needed liver transplants- one in Cleveland, one in Kalamazoo. Her lungs went to a man in Reading, who had end stage COPD, and her kidneys saved a woman in Bloomington Indiana, and a man from Buffalo New York. Her pancreas saved the life of a father of three, from Florence Kentucky, who suffered from type one diabetes his whole life, and was reaching end-stage complications. Her corneas restored the vision of a seventeen year old boy, who lost his sight in a freak accident. While our families mourn our loss, these families can celebrate the gift of life. And that is what Amy wanted."
"...Amy was special, she was one of a kind. When I first met her, way back in December 2001, I knew right away that she was meant to be with me. She had a sharp wit with her, she was funny, and level headed. She was never pretentious or let her looks get the best of her. Amy was down to earth and genuine. She was born in Sofia Bulgaria as Xenia Nadezhda Golagonoff, on the fifteenth of May, 1984. She was born to George and Maglena Golagonoff, and later had a younger brother, Anton, born in 1988. The Golagonoff family emigrated from Bulgaria at the end of the Cold War, and arrived to the United States to begin their new lives in November of 1990. Xenia got the name "Amy"- out of a belief that she needed an American sounding name to be accepted in a xenophobic society. Amy was a cheerleader in high school, and that is how I met her, when I played baseball at Newark High. It was a match fit for a coming of age movie! The cheerleader falling in love with a jock~ It began the wonderful eighteen years I had with her, until her untimely demise."
Maverick paused for a split second to regain his composure. "I am...devastated. I am emotionally destroyed. Our families are hurting, badly. But I take solace in the fact that Amy is no longer in pain. She no longer has to suffer being disabled. There's no more poking and prodding by doctors. There's no more chronic pain from her past burn injuries. Her trials and tribulations in life, are over. Amy has gone to a place where I can no longer see her, but she'll forever more live in my memories. She has 'slipped the surely bonds of Earth...' '...to touch the face of God.'"
Taking one more moment to hold his composure, Maverick wiped the tears out of his eyes as he gave the conclusion. "I want to thank everyone who has encouraged us to make this program, and I am most thankful and appreciative for the support we got. It made her so happy. I am thankful and blessed that we made this show, as Amy will live on forever with it, and her legacy can be seen for many years to come. Thank you~"
As Maverick walked off camera, Rob zoomed in on a photo of Amy that sat on his island. It was a beautiful portrait of her smiling, with a flowering crab apple behind her. The brilliant sunlight backlighting her hair cast her with a white glow around her brown hair.
Ryan hit pause on the editing deck and sat back. Nobody said a thing as they stood taking it all in.
The evening sun hung low over South Lawn Cemetery. A brilliant sky was colored orange and yellow as the sun began set over the hills of Coshocton. After a headache filled delay, Amy's funeral began in the evening. In a small gathering of close friends and family, they gathered around for her memorial service. Amy chose to not have anything fancy; in her will, she had asked to just be put in the ground and people say a few things and "go about their lives". Maverick organized the small event, having coordinated with her parents. An orthodox priest, dressed in his black robes, stood clutching a bible in his grip; Maverick placated her parents by inviting a priest from the Macedonian Orthodox Church, even though Amy was not religious. He wanted to give her a proper sendoff.
Under a small tent sat Amy's urn, resting on a table. Her remains were cremated and interred in a granite urn that bore her name on a plaque. Around her urn sat colorful bouquets of flowers from her family and friends. And behind her urn was the opened plot where her baby son was buried at. Maverick decided to bury his wife next to Atlas Golagonoff, so that they could be together forever more.
Maverick himself looked emotionally worn out. Dressed in black slacks, a white shirt and blue necktie, he stood with his son, who was similarly dressed for the funeral. He stood with his head tilted to one side, staring aimlessly at his wife's urn. Earlier in the day, he had flipped out when he was informed that her headstone wasn't ready. An angry outburst expedited the process, which pushed the funeral to such a late hour. The new headstone was made of pink and black granite, that bore Amy and Atlas' names. It had flower designs etched into the stone. The husky's heart ached in sadness as he looked at the blooming geraniums that grew around the headstone. Amy had planted those herself, and now it was just the little reminder of the legacy she left in her death. As for the rest of Amy's worldly belongings, he followed her living well; he cancelled the lease on her apartment, and donated all of her furniture and clothing to a woman's shelter in Coshocton county. Her pictures of family and friends were split between himself and her parents. The money left in her bank account was transferred to his, to be put away for Robby when he became an adult. It was a somber process that Maverick did out of his sheer love for her. He powered through the emotional turmoil it caused him.
Finally, the memorial service began. The priest said a prayer and blessed her urn, before it went to the family. George, Maggie, and Anton took their turn saying how much they loved Xenia, and how much it hurt to say goodbye. A few friends of hers from work came to say goodbye, and with heavy tears, talked about how the restaurant she worked at would never be the same without her radiance. Maverick spoke for his family, who stood with their friends. They recalled all the fun memories they had with Amy, and how they accepted her as their own. Maverick spoke about losing his "best friend", and how he still couldn't believe it. He didn't say much else and went back to be with his son. With everything said and done, the families stood and watched as Amy's urn was lowered into the ground. Maverick held onto his son as they cried together. The grave diggers shoveled the soil back in and tamped it down. Once they finished, everyone placed flowers over the bare spot. They stood around together, having forgotten their animosity. It was a moment of silence to reflect on their loss, and where to go from there.
Slowly, the group began to filter out as night began to close in. Maverick was left to stand with Robby at her grave. He had his arm around his son as they stood.
"I can't believe she's gone." Maverick muttered. Robby put his arms around his dad's frame and hugged him. Maverick hugged his son in return.
"It's just us again." Robby nodded.
"Full circle. Back to square one." Maverick admitted with a sniffle. "My only hope is that Amy's in a much better place now. Greener pastures. There's no more troubles for her."
"Mhmm~" Robby nodded. He wiped tears out of his blue eyes.
"It's just you and me buddy. But you know what? We've been through so much together...we'll just keep on marching."
Maverick mustered a smile for his son, who smiled back.
"That's right!"
"Indeed~"
Maverick's smile began to fade when he saw Amy's parents and brother approach him. Instead of the looks of disdain, the scowls of annoyance, George, Maggie, and Anton looked remorseful, and sad. George stepped up and stopped before Maverick, being dwarfed by his height. The gray wolf handed him an envelope that was sealed and addressed to him. Maverick lifted a paw and accepted it from him. George patted Maverick on the back and smiled at him with a nod. Maverick nodded back in understanding. He kept a calm, stoic face.
"You have a good night, Maverick~" George said, sounding genuine.
"Thank you, George. Have a good night as well~"
Maverick watched as the Golagonoff family departed for the night. He checked the time on his phone as he saw his brothers and parents approach with Rob and Joey.
"Maverick, I think it's time to go~" Tatiana called. "It's getting really late."
"Yep." Maverick nodded. "Uhh, you guys go, I need to reflect just a bit longer."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure."
Maverick turned to his son and placed his paws on his shoulder. "Robby, I want you to go with your Uncle Vlad and Nico back to Newark. I need to be here just a bit longer."
"Okay~" Robby nodded. He smiled at his dad.
"I'm sorry you've been staying them a lot these past few weeks... it's been...chaos."
"I understand, Dad." Smiled Robby. He hugged his adopted father in support. "I'll be okay~"
"Same here, in due time." Maverick acknowledged. "And thanks Vlad for always taking him in."
"Oh we have lots of fun~" laughed the blonde haired husky as he pushed some of his long blonde hair out of his face. "Don't we Robby?"
"We beat Dmitry at Call of Duty all the time!" Robby exclaimed.
"Yeah!" Vlad exclaimed.
"On a technicality!" Dmitry protested.
"Hey! Technicality this, motherfucker!" Vlad exclaimed as he flipped his brother off.
"I'm beating you again when we get home!" Robby pointed.
"Over my dead body!" Dmitry exclaimed.
"Heh, if you don't change your diet..." Kalash grinned.
"Boys...not at a funeral..." Tatiana wagged her finger.
Maverick had a chuckle, and smiled as he watched Robby walk with his family back to Nico's big Suburban SUV. They all climbed in, leaving Maverick at Amy's grave, alone. Robby rolled the window down and stuck his head out as he waved at his dad. Maverick smiled and waved back as he watched Robby pull away, to begin the hour drive back to Newark. The Russian husky turned and stood at Amy's grave, where he put his paws in his pockets, to begin to just unravel, unpack, and decompress all the events that had happened in a span of three weeks. He stood watching the sun set behind the hills to the west, continuing to do so, well into the night.
By midnight, Maverick sat in complete darkness. He sat on the cold ground with his legs drawn close to him, looking up at the stars that twinkled in the night sky. The faint blue bands of the Milky Way were just barely seen, as a meteor or two flashed through Coshocton's sky. The cold was just a spur to Maverick, who just sat, remembering the woman he loved deeply. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy, but he had no more tears left to give.
He had never once faced death like Amy's. In his thirty-six years of living, he had never dealt with a loved one dying. His paternal grandparents passed away in the Soviet Union before he was born, and he never knew his maternal grandparents, who lived in southern Ukraine, both of whom were gone now. Amy's death was a dramatic reminder to him that life was fragile, it could be taken in a snap of a finger. He felt guilty of taking life for granted; and now he had nothing but some photos, videos, and memories to remember such a remarkable woman, who touched his heart in ways nobody else could. Now he felt so alone in the world, lost, and knocked off direction. The feeling of helplessness was even terrible. If there was any consolation that gave him comfort, it was knowing that Amy was no longer in pain. She didn't have to be wheelchair bound, suffering in an assisted living facility under a cornucopia of drugs. Her spirit was freed from her destroyed body, and hopefully, had gone to a much better place.
Looking up at the stars, Maverick watched a meteor flash by. Those little pinpricks of light, alone in the vast emptiness of space; that's how Maverick felt now. He felt like one of those lonely stars now that Amy was gone. He felt adrift in the world again, just like he felt after his divorce. Maverick sighed, slowly. He wondered if Amy was somewhere in the afterlife, doing the same thing, looking up and watching the stars, and reflecting on everything that had happened between them.
In Memoriam:
Bobby and Sandy Robinson (1941-1973)
Arlis Robinson (1910-1974)