'The Man' Tales - After the Concert

Shortly after that incredible concert, Cid started to get headaches. For a man who had never suffered from them before, he didn’t know what to do. His doctor prescribed painkillers and on one of his visits I sent him home with my rubber hot water bottle. I thought some heat on the back of his neck might help ease the muscle tension he was experiencing and also relieve the headache. Somehow I missed his call that evening, but I did get this message on my machine.

“Oh hi Aims, it’s Cid. I just took two Tylenol three and I have the hot water bottle on the back of my neck. I have to tell you – I’ve never used a hot water bottle before, but the smell you get from it is pretty incredible. If only I had a rubber fetish. But I don’t. Love your smile and I love you Aims. Goodnight.”

This was so typical of my Cid. I laughed when I heard the message and I saved it in my phone archives so that I could tease him with it whenever I wanted.

Cid’s headaches continued but they didn’t stop him from biking and hiking. One of his neighbors in the condo started to take an interest in him and they began going out for supper now and then. Cid always called me afterwards to tell me of all the funny things that happened during these ‘dates’ and we would giggle together. Sometimes my heart would suffer that pang of jealousy – but who was I to be experiencing this? I still slept beside D every night and he looked after me every day. I chided myself on being such a fool and gave myself a lecture on letting Cid experience someone – anyone – and to not be jealous but to be his friend. Always.

Cid’s neighbor was Chinese and insisted that she was a good cook. Cid kept telling me that he somehow doubted her culinary sense and I howled with laughter when he left a message about her cooking. The message was hard to understand because Cid was laughing so hard. His laugh is one of those that gets really high and goes on and on and is so surprising in a man. Still – the message he left was about the neighbor bringing over some food and Cid tried giving a piece to one of his cats. The cat ate it and then went and hid. What Cid was calling about was that his cat had just come out from under the bed and puked all over the place. He couldn’t stop laughing and apologized for his bizarre message. I had to save that message too. I couldn’t resist.

As time went on and Cid’s headaches got worse, I insisted that he hound his doctor and get some answers about what was going on. The doctor sent him home with another prescription. Nothing seemed to help and I made Cid go back and demand some kind of action. The doctor finally sent him to a specialist who did some tests and ordered x-rays.

I was home on the day Cid went in to the specialist and got the results.

“Oh hi Aims. It’s Cid.”

“Hi my love!”

“I’ve just come from the specialist.”

“And?”

“The cancer is back. It’s in my lungs.”