My entry in the Reader Retention contest.

Rick stood at the apartment door, checking his phone to make sure he had the right unit number. He then knocked as he had been instructed to prior; four rapid beats, repeated two times.

Meghan opened the door. She nervously looked past the big man – not an easy feat – and then quickly motioned him to come in. “Did he follow you?” she whispered.

Now Rick’s left eyebrow rose. “Uh, Meg – he knows where you live, right? He doesn’t have to follow me. Still, I like the fact that you’re cautious – you’ll need to be that way for a while, I’m betting.”

“Oh Rick,” Meghan choked. She burst into hard sobs and buried her face in her hands. Her friend placed a big arm around her and produced a clean hanky, which she grabbed feebly.

Men are often uncomfortable around women experiencing intense sorrow; Rick was no exception in this situation.

“Hey,” he whispered, “do you have any girlfriends I could call to come be with you right now? I’m sure they could do a better job helping you.” And I didn’t tell Beth I was going to be here, and I need to be back to work in 17 minutes, he thought.

“Macie and I are on the outs right now. She didn’t like me leading Derek on either, even though she doesn’t know him from Adam,” Meg sniffed. “And all the other girls in our social group have sided with her. So I’m alone right now. This is so horrible; I almost wish …” She looked up at Rick with a needy, puppy-dog face. “Can you stay a little longer – wait. No. You need to go. I’ll be fine.”

Rick’s eyebrow rose higher. “You said you wish … what? Meg ... are you feeling like you wished you were dead?” he whispered.

Meghan hung her head and plopped down on the couch behind her. She whispered her answer to Rick without looking towards him. “Yes. Exactly. Right now I wish I was dead.”

“How would you accomplish that?”

“Getting dead?” She lifted her face as she rolled her eyes. “The car. I have an old vacuum hose in the closet that’s perfect. Slip it on the exhaust, funnel it into the inside, start the motor, come back inside, close the doors and lay back and go to sleep. No more pain.” Her weeping began to intensify.

Rick now was dialing a number on his phone. Then he put it to his ear and said “Hello. I need you guys to evaluate my friend. I’m afraid she’s considering killing herself.”

Meghan gasped and hissed at her friend. “What the hell – WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

He turned to the shocked girl. “You’re right, Meg. I do need to go. But first, the Suicide Hotline folks need to evaluate you.” He then gave the person on his phone a quick synopsis of the situation as Meg sat still, feeling perplexed and a little betrayed.

Rick turned and extended his phone to her. “She wants to talk to you.” Meg shook her head. “Look,” he sighed, “it’s either this or I take you to the emergency room.”

He now listened to his friend talk to the counselor. It sounded like she was open and honest about her feelings and plans; then, suddenly, Meg handed the phone back to him. “They want to talk to you again,” she said.

“Hmm. Yeah, I can do that. OK, I’ll call if there’s any trouble.” Rick hung up. “Well, Meghan, they feel okay letting you check in with a counselor by phone a few more times today and tonight, then seeing one in person tomorrow AM. And … I’m gonna need to take that hose. And you’re also gonna promise me - on a stack o’ bibles - that you will not hurt yourself. Not in any way. At least to tomorrow noon, when I’ll check on you again. Kapeesh?”

“I’m trying to get mad at you about this, Rick,” sniffed Meghan. “But somehow I feel really cared for. Thank you – I guess – for looking out for me.” She walked to the coat closet. “Here’s the hose. Take it.”

Rick did so, and smiled. “Now all we need are a stack o’ bibles.”

“Here,” Meghan said. “A couple of mini-bibles, well … tracts, really. I don’t know why I keep them around. They are the closest I have to the real thing.”

Rick opened her front door and turned to her. “Keep that promise. Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Okay. I gotta get back to work now, so-“

“Rick. Thank you so much for coming today. I’m at a bad point, socially, in my life. No one else would help me.”

“So, you called me last? I’m so honored,” he smiled.

“I would have been interacting with you all along, except I thought your wife would be against it. I don’t want to give you trouble in your home. Is she going to be mad at you for helping me?”

“Not if she doesn’t know about it. Our relationship right now is … complicated. We’re still committed to each other, but – um – separated. I’m living in an apartment for now.”

Meg’s jaw dropped. “Oh Rick. I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah. It sucks. Whatever. I really gotta go. Check on you by phone tomorrow, ‘kay?”

Rick closed Megan’s door and turned to walk down the hallway of her apartment complex - and suddenly was face to face with someone else he knew.

“Ricky!? Hey, do you live here now?”

“Oh – hey there. It’s Lizzie, right?” Eliza Farner was one of his wife’s close friends ; Beth and she shared the same hair stylist. Rick had met her a few times casually, usually hanging out with his spouse after a girl’s night out – or that’s how Lizzie and Beth described their times together. “Is it Liz or Lizzie?”

“Either one’s OK, Ricky. I’m here attending my niece’s 1st birthday party. Had to step out in the hall for a sec – with all of us chicks in there, it’s like a perfume bomb went off. I was afraid we’d explode when striking the match for the cake candles.”

“Ha-ha! I love your sense of humor, Lizzie. Beth always seems happier after spending a little time with you; I can see why.”

“Speaking of Beth …” Lizzie’s face turned serious suddenly. “I know about the sitch. Just know I’m praying for both of you. She told me you had moved out to an apartment. Is this your place now?” she asked, pointing to the door he’d just exited.

“Ah, no,” he grumbled. Now the fact that he was in a strange place was going to get back to Beth. Oh well. Might as well as be honest. “My new place is five miles away, off Thomason road. I’m here visiting with an old friend from back in middle school – helping him out with a situation.” That’s honest enough; after all, back in middle school Meg was a “he”. Not a lie, technically.

Rick’s mistake was forgetting one of the universe’s basic rules: Murphy’s law. For just as he finished that sentence, Meghan opened her door and stepped out in that sexy black sheath dress she had worn for the meeting with Derek. She waved a cell phone at Rick. “Hey big guy – you forgot this!”

Rick saw Lizzie’s face go pale. She pointed to Meghan – “Your middle school friend – is that ‘him’??”

Meg’s face now fell, and scrunched up in pain at being called ‘him’. “Rick! You, of all people – outing me to a random stranger??”

“I’m no random stranger. I’m the best friend of his wife!” Lizzie snarled. “She has no idea that her husband is hanging out with” – she gave an angry glance towards Rick, as if to imply I’m too polite to say 'fucking' – “a piece of dung like you!”

Meghan still had the impression she was being shamed for her trans history. “Listen, missy – I’m damn proud of who and what I am. And small minded people like you had better get used to me and my kind, or –“

“STOP!” barked the large man in the center of this verbal melee. “Both of you.” Now his voice dropped back to indoor volume. “Neither of you are going to believe what I’m about to say, but just for the record, you both have mistaken ideas about what just happened and what is happening now. Liz, I am not cheating on my wife. Meg is my middle school friend. And she indeed used to be a he, a male. She transitioned to female as an adult.”

“Rick!” protested Meghan.

“Aw, Meg – you were already mad at me ‘cause you thought I outed you earlier. Which I did NOT do, until just now.”

“Then why did she call me ‘him’?”

“See? I said you wouldn’t believe me. If I could do this over, I’d change what I said – but not what actions I’ve taken.” He then turned to his wife’s friend. “Lizzie, I love Beth. We are separated legally, but we both have agreed to remain monogamous, faithful to each other, as we work things out. Now today, Meghan asked me essentially to be her bodyguard as she broke up with her boyfriend. He tried to hit her when she found out about her trans history.”

Rick looked quickly back and forth at the two women flanking him. Both wore doubting smirks with narrowed eyes. But Lizzie then looked at Meg with a more relaxed visage. “So you’re a trans woman? God, you’re beautiful. I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years.”

“Yes,” said Meg with a slightly bowed head. “It’s a little embarrassing to admit.”

“Why? You just got through saying that you were proud of who you are. And frankly, if I could have your body, I might want to switch places with you.”

“No, your situation is better. You won’t have men rejecting you because you were born anatomically male. And you can give your man a child.”

“That’s probably the only advantage to having a uterus. The rest of the time, my reproductive system is a major pain. Every month since age 12-and-a-half. I only keep my womb around for the eventual prospect of children. After I’ve had mine, I plan to get the damn thing yanked out.”

Meghan smiled slightly. “What’s your name?”

“My friends call me Liz. Big clumsy lugs like this guy call me Lizzie.” She winked at Rick and elbowed him in the ribs as she said that.

“Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee, Liz? I’m Meghan, by the way; you can call me Meg, like my non-lover male friend here does.”

“Let me get a few selfies of me and my niece – it’s her birthday. But after that, I’ll knock on your door, OK?”

Rick exhaled, finally. He’d been holding his breath for the last two minutes. “Ladies, I’m late in getting back to work. I have to go. It was a pleasure.” Now THAT was a lie. He jogged to his car.

To be continued tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!