Heaven On Earth Ch. 01

"He sure looks cute like that." I smiled in response but didn't say anything. "Do you think our kids will ever be that cute?"

"Well, of course they will be," I said. "Look at their mother."

Jane beamed at the compliment. "Would you mind if I held him for a little while?"

As gently as I could, I lifted Joseph off of my lap and succeeded in not waking him. Jane stood up a little and smoothed the wrinkles out of her white gown. She reached out for Joseph and cradled him to her chest as she sat down.

"You're going to make an excellent father one of these days, Evan," she said as she softly stroked Joseph's blond hair.

I started to respond, but I thought better of it. This was not a conversation I wanted to continue right now. Fortunately, my mother and uncle chose that exact moment to walk back into the suite.

"Ooooh, now where's my graduate!?" She spotted me on the couch, but didn't seem to notice Jane with the sleeping Joseph. "There he is!!!" She ran over to hug and squeeze my neck.

"Mom," I gasped for breath, "we've done this already. I already graduated yesterday. You can stop celebrating now."

"Oh, but I'm so excited!! My baby finished college and now he's going to medical school!" She was practically screaming at this point, and that brought more cries from Maria's bedroom.

"Mom! I just got Sara to sleep and now you've started up Daniel again!" Maria said as she angrily stomped into the living room while rocking her tiny child back and forth in her arms.

Joseph woke up in Jane's. He got up and started asking his mother about breakfast.

My mother gave that goofy apologetic face that she always puts on. She knew exactly what she was doing the moment she walked into the hotel suite. "Sorry, Maria. I was just so excited about my little graduate." That threw her into another series of squeals and hugs as I fought for my life struggling on the couch.

Uncle James stood back and watched the whole scene with laughter. I loved that man, but sometimes I really wished he would have helped out more often when his sister was obviously torturing her children. Oh, how she loved to make us uncomfortable. Not that there was much he could have done anyway. He may have been older and wiser, but that didn't mean that my mother didn't get the best of him at every opportunity.

I think now would be a good time to draw the comparison between my mother and my uncle. Physically, they were the same person. They both had short dark brown hair, sparkling green eyes, and huge smiles that never failed to get a smile in return. Neither of them had been able to outgrow the other, which shouldn't have been too much of a challenge since they were both 5'5''. In all honesty, it was like being raised by twin parents since Uncle James filled the role of being a father to both Maria and myself after her dad died and my dad kicked his ass in gear back to wherever he came from after being tired of being with my mother.

In terms of personality, they were polar opposites. My mother was giddy and excitable, often reminding people of the energy that a much younger woman or a young girl would have. Uncle James was more quiet and subdued, generally going along with whatever my mother was doing. Whatever plan she was scheming in her head, he was usually right there with her. His most common role in these was providing her with money.

When the laughter subsided, my mother sat down on the couch next to me. Suddenly, she did a double take.

"Evan, where are your clothes? You're only wearing underwear! You need to put something else on!"

"Oh, Mom, leave Evan alone. It's too early to start this," Maria said juggling both the whimpering Daniel and the hungry Joseph.

"Shush, Maria. Evan, we've been through this. When there's company, you need to put on clothes. It's inappropriate to walk around naked."

"Mom, all the guests have left. It's just family here. And I'm not naked!"

"Well, nearly naked is close enough to being naked. At any minute your ding-a-ling could come peaking out through that hole!"

"MOM!"

"You're only upset with me because I'm telling the truth."

"But do you have to say things like 'ding-a-ling?' I mean, who says that?" The blush creeped up around my cheeks. I hated when she embarrassed me on purpose.

"All I'm saying is that you should put on some clothes before we all get to know you better than we want to."

I sighed disgustedly and got up to put on some more clothes. You would think that after 21 years I would have been used to being treated like I was 3 years old. Somehow it always got to me anyway.

I slipped on a pair of jeans and a black tank top. I purposely stayed barefoot since I knew that would get to my mother. When I came back into the living room, everyone was seated. Uncle James had taken a seat in between my mother and Maria who was still rocking Daniel. All eyes were fixed on me when I sat down on the last chair in the room.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Your Uncle James and I have a gift for you, Evan." My mother's smile was frighteningly big at this point.

"What is it?"

Uncle James tossed me a small white box with a silver ribbon on it. I looked at him questioningly, but he just winked. I opened the box and found a small golden key inside. I still didn't understand.

"Ok. It's a key. A key to what?"

Uncle James and Mom exchanged a look that decided that she would be the one to tell me. There were times that they functioned as one mind.

"To your new apartment!!"

My breath caught in my throat. I had already been looking at apartments, but I only had enough money saved up for some of the cheap one-bedroom apartments. If Uncle James got it for me, I knew it had to be incredible.

"Wh-where is it?" I managed to stammer. I was practically shaking with excitement.

Mom couldn't control herself anymore. "It's a wonderful apartment in SoHo! I wanted to get something for you farther uptown so that you would be closer to the main campus, but James insisted that this would be the best thing for you. Of course, I decided that it was great place for you to have. Oh, it's so spacious! You'll have plenty of room and never feel cramped. Now, when I come to visit I expect the place to be neat. I know how you like to dirty everything up. I am not coming down here to clean for you."

I barely heard any of her babbling after she said, "SoHo." I absolutely couldn't believe it. I nearly cut her off when I asked, "How am I supposed to pay for all of this?"

Uncle James got up from his seat and patted me on the back. "You just let me take care of this. Consider it my graduation gift to you until you're ready to finish up school and handle it on your own." There was nothing that could stop me from showing all of my teeth as my smile grew from one ear to the other." "Now that we've got that settled, how would you like to go see it?"

Everyone was taken aback when I jumped out of my chair to put some shoes and socks on. I'll admit, I was being worse than a little kid at Christmas, but this was unbelievable. In the 60 seconds it took me to put on shoes and throw a plaid shirt over my top, nobody had moved from their seats. They were all still talking. I looked at them and nearly shouted.

"What are you waiting for!?"

They all turned around and looked at me. The noise had caused Daniel to go into another fit of crying. Maria just glared at me.

***

I couldn't believe my eyes. The place was better than I could have possibly imagined. The three bedroom loft was so much more than I needed. I definitely was not one to complain though. The master bedroom was large with plenty of room for me to put in a king-size bed, dresser, bookshelf, and a love seat that my mom had found in her attic. During that first visit to the apartment, Uncle James told me that he had actually bought the apartment, so I was free to do whatever I wanted with it. Before I had everything moved in, I painted my bedroom a deep, red color. I had always wanted a red bedroom for some strange reason, and now I had one. The master bedroom was connected to a large bathroom with a spacious chrome shower and separate bathtub. The tub was quite large. It could easily fit three people and possibly even four if everyone's legs were thrown together. The hall connected the bedroom to a kitchen that had enough room for a small dining set, but I simply used the casual table and chairs instead of something more extravagant. There was no wall between the kitchen and the living room, but there was a bar in the living room that was connected to the kitchen so that I could serve guests from the kitchen. The bar stools were comfortable and I knew I was going to get some good use out of them. The living room was nothing special in itself: a few chairs, a coffee table and a TV set. Down the other side of the hall, the apartment opened up into two more smaller bedrooms that shared a connected bathroom. I used one of the bedrooms as a study to put in my computer, a few bookshelves, a treadmill and some weights. I put a queen-size bed in the other bedroom. Jane slept in that room on the nights that it got to be too late for her to go back to her own apartment. There was a balcony connected to the kitchen that had a great view of the city. I put a couple of deck chairs and lounge chairs out there. It was great to have on some of those warm, summer nights. I could go out there by myself and sit and think. There wasn't too much quiet with the honking horns and noise of the city, but I never minded anyway. All together it was a very warm and inviting apartment.

I don't know what I did to deserve Uncle James' favor like this, but I was certainly grateful. He had given our family a lot while we were growing up since he could afford it from his several businesses. Mom never really worked. She usually relied on her husbands to cover the financial expenses, but since she had been single for the past 5 years since her last husband left her, she had fallen back on Uncle James. By the time I moved into my apartment, he was approaching 60, but he was always too generous to say no. Despite the 7 year difference between him and my mother, they had always had a very close relationship.

Even though most of my expenses were paid for by James, and I had enough money in savings and graduation gifts to cover the additional costs, I insisted on getting a job anyway. It didn't feel right for me to benefit so much from my uncle and not do anything in return. I volunteered at a community center over in Brooklyn. It was called Millennium Park Community Center. There were a lot of activities and playground areas for the younger children and games and relaxation areas for the elderly. Mostly the place just needed a lot of fixing up, so there were about 100 or so volunteers for the whole project. The majority of the volunteers were local people or high school students who didn't seem to want to be there. It was tiresome at times to be involved with disgruntled and rebellious teenagers, but it was only for the summer.

About four weeks after I moved into my apartment, it was time for me to visit my mother for her 52nd birthday. She had moved to Stamford, CT to live with my uncle during my senior year in college. After Maria and I had left, she was tired of being alone. I was only going to be there for the weekend, so I didn't bother packing many clothes. Actually, I just cleared some room in my smelly gym bag and tossed some shirts and pants into there. My mom was right; I am a slob.

Instead of taking my Jeep Grand Cherokee, I decided to catch the train. There was no sense in trying to get stuck in the weekend traffic out of the city. I locked the apartment, turned on the alarm, and headed downstairs to catch a cab.

I wasn't finished working at the community center until 3:30 or so, which meant it had taken me about an hour and a half to get back home, shower, and get downstairs. 5 o'clock traffic in New York City. Good times. There was already another guy outside of my building with a suitcase leaning his hand into the street and whistling in an attempt to catch a taxi. Seeing very little opportunity for me to get a cab with him in front of me, I thought it would be better to see if that suitcase meant he was heading out of town like me.

I tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned around I think my eyes widened and stared for a minute. I was man enough to admit when another man was good looking, but damn, this guy was stunning. He was a little taller than I was, maybe 6'3'' or 6'4'', his wavy black hair was slightly messy but it fit him perfectly. The most astonishing part of him was the color of his eyes. I remembered a brochure for Mexico that I had looked over for a Spring Break trip with my college buddies. His eyes looked exactly like the ocean off the Mexican west coast. I must have been staring pretty hard because I saw his lips move, but I didn't hear anything come out of them.

"Yes?" he repeated after a moment. Apparently he must have been sizing me up as well.

I shook myself out of my trance. "Sorry. I was wondering where you were headed. I'm going to Grand Central and thought that we might be able to share a cab."

He smiled and I swear I almost fell over. "That's perfect. I'm heading there as well."

"Great. Great." I managed to get out after an awkward pause. I was staring into those eyes again. He nodded and turned back to his task of trying to hail a taxi. After another two minutes or so, he was able to get one. We both tossed our bags into the trunk, and I climbed into the cab after him. For some reason the song "You Were Meant for Me" by Jewel popped into my head. And I couldn't stop singing in my head as we rode along.

After a few minutes into the ride, he stuck out his hand and said, "Brian Davis."

"Evan Alexander." I smiled warmly and shook his hand.

"Where are you going once you get to Grand Central, Evan?"

"Stamford. I'm going to visit my uncle and my mother for her birthday."

"Oh, excellent. We'll be on the same train. I'm heading off to New Haven to visit my parents as well."

Excellent? How could this be excellent? I was supposed to come up with another hour of conversation with this man who already caused my jaw to hang open wordlessly.

"I think I've seen you around a few times before. You live in that building back there don't you?"

"Yes," I replied. "I live on the top floor."

He chuckled to himself before going on. "Maybe that's why I don't see you too often then. I'm only on the third floor. I suppose you don't pass down my way a lot do you?"

"No, I guess not." What was I doing? Why could I not seem to say anything at all? My mother could hold a conversation with a wall, why couldn't I talk to this gorgeous man sitting no more than 8 inches from me. I gathered my nerves and tried to start a conversation. "So what do you do?" Ok, it was lame, but it was the best I could come up with.

"Actually I'm only a graduate student over at Columbia. I'm working on my PhD in English. I've got another year before I finish."

"Oh, I'll be starting at the medical school pretty soon."

He laughed again in his baritone voice. This time it sent shocks up and down my spine. "Good luck. I've got a few friends over there that say it's not an easy time. You're in for the ride of your life. Did you take a few years off to do something in between? You don't look as young as most first year med students."

"Well, I'm only 21 and I just graduated from college, so I guess that makes me pretty young."

Brian seemed to be thinking about something for a moment. The car fell back into an awkward silence as we slowly made our way through traffic towards the station. The driver dropped us off on East 42nd street, and we both paid our share. As soon as we were out of the cab, I gathered up the courage to start another friendly chat.

"So how long have you been here in New York?" I asked.

"It'll be 8 years in the fall. I started off undergrad at NYU, I graduated with a degree in English, and then took a year off to do an internship with the New York Times before starting my doctoral degree at Columbia. I've already finished 3 years out of the 4 year program, so this may be my last year here."

"Wow. You must really know your way around the city." Was I dumb or what?

"Yea, I'd say I know all the good places to go. If this is your first year here, I'd be more than happy to show you around sometime. I'm from the suburbs of Boston, but New York can be a pretty scary place when you first start out. Here, let me give you my number."

He pulled out a piece of paper from his pants pocket and scribbled down his name and number. "Now if you ever need any advice, I'll be more than happy to give it to you. Or if you just want to drop by my apartment and have a chat, I'm always up for it." He smiled and handed me the paper.

"Thanks," I said as we entered the main lobby of Grand Central Station. It turned out that we weren't going to be on the same train. He was catching the express train that didn't make as many stops. I cordially said good-bye to him with the lyrics of the Jewel song playing over and over in my head and secretly wishing that he was on my train.

I got onto the train wondering to myself what it was that made me feel so drawn to this man after only knowing him for half an hour.