Memories

After rereading the article twice, Kevin tossed the paper back to the man who would given it to him and said, "I can't say I'm sorry to see him dead. I hope Keri pulls through, but beyond that I think I'm too much over her to be concerned."

The man looked at him carefully before saying, "You're sure, Kevin? I know it hit you pretty hard when she left. You were damn near useless around here for quite a while," he said, laughing.

"Yes, I'm sure. Reading that article proved it to me. All I've got is normal human compassion for her now. I've got no urge at all to rush to her bedside."

Reading that news account seemed to be a watershed event for Kevin. Now he could acknowledge to himself that he had truly gotten past Keri's memory, and he felt as though a weight had been taken from his shoulders. As much as he was feeling sorry for the situation she and her parents were now in, he was happy to have reached a point where he knew he could carry on with his life.

Over the next several days the local news outlets broadcast confirmation that Bradley Knox III had been legally impaired when he drove off the road. The same reports still listed Keri as being unconscious and in critical condition. Kevin's reaction to these news reports was to ask one of the secretaries out for supper, an evening they both enjoyed. He found it very pleasant to enjoy a woman's company again, holding her close when they danced and enjoying a few passionate kisses when he dropped her off. They hadn't made plans for future dates, but for Kevin it was enough to know that he had fully broken out of the rut he had been in for so long.

About two weeks after the accident, long after it had ceased being a newsworthy item, Kevin answered a late evening knock at his door and found Robert Kane standing there. He invited him in and the two men soon ended up sitting in the kitchen, each of them with a cold bottle of beer in his hand.

"What brings you by, Robert? It's been a while."

"Nothing in particular, Kevin. I was in the neighborhood, as they say."

"I was sorry to hear about the accident that Keri was in. I guess that's causing your family a great deal of concern. There hasn't been anything in the paper lately; is she doing any better now?"

Robert took a long pull on his beer before answering, "Yes, it's been awfully hard on Mom and Dad. She had a pretty bad head injury from when she got bounced around as the car rolled. Thank God she had put on her seat belt. That moron she was with didn't bother with his, and he paid the big price."

"It sounds like Keri paid a big price for his decision to drink and drive. Somebody should sue his estate for her injuries."

Robert sighed and said, "Yes, Dad and I were talking about that. Keri is still in a drug-induced coma. They had to do some major brain surgery on her because of the battering that her head took. Once the swelling goes down they'll take her off the drugs and see whether she comes out of it or not. They're not offering any guarantees."

"I didn't realize she was in that bad of a condition. The news reports always just mentioned she was in intensive care. Give your parents my best when you see them."

Robert looked at Kevin and said, "I'll do that. Thanks for your concern. Actually, they wondered why you hadn't dropped by the hospital. I tried to tell them that you had gone on with your life now, and Keri wasn't a part of it any more."

Kevin laughed quietly and said, "Yes, I think I've been able to move on now. I went out on my first date in many years the other day. While I'm sorry to hear she's been so severely injured it isn't something that I will let influence my life. A year ago I would have been going crazy in this type of situation, but Keri sort of cured me of that."

The two continued their visit with a general conversation on sports and work and didn't get back onto the subject of Keri until the very end of Robert's visit. As he was about to walk out the door he said, "By the way, Kevin, I think Susan and I have gotten over this whole problem I was talking about with you the last time I visited. She sees the mess that Keri got herself into, even before this accident, and decided that she was more than happy being my wife. I guess it was a case of the grass always looking greener..."

"I'm glad to hear that, Robert. It was probably Keri who got Susan messed up. Somewhere along the line Keri forgot her commitment to me and our marriage. It could have been a lot worse; we could have had children." The two of them shook hands and then Robert left to return to his home.

++++++++++

Another six weeks passed quickly for Kevin. He hadn't heard anything more of what had happened with Keri, and he assumed that meant that her recovery was proceeding normally. He had managed to get more fully into the dating scene and had been averaging a date a week throughout this period. He'd been out with Jean, the secretary from work, a couple of times and had spent a couple of nights with her in her apartment, enjoying some purely recreational sex with her. Neither of them expected their relationship to go too far, but they both enjoyed their time together. Their nights in her bed had helped eliminate his last hang-ups about returning to the dating pool.

It was a Thursday night, and Kevin had just returned from his evening jog when he heard his front doorbell ring. He was very surprised to see his former father-in-law at the door when he answered it.

"Come in, Joseph; to what do I owe this unexpected visit"

The older man stayed on the front doorstep and said, "I can't come in right now as I'm headed up to the hospital. I'd like to ask you to come to the hospital and see Keri with her mother and I. She just came to this week, finally. We were hoping that maybe you could meet us there at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon."

Kevin looked at him curiously and replied, "I suppose I could. What's this about? Why would you want me up there to visit her? Our marriage is long over now."

Joseph looked very relieved and said, "We'd just like you to meet us there if you could. We'll talk about it then. I'm in quite a hurry right now. I'll see you tomorrow." The older man quickly turned with a wave and hurried back to his still running car, leaving Kevin standing perplexed at his own front door.

The next day Kevin rearranged his schedule so that he could take a late lunch and then start his weekend early after making the agreed-upon trip to the hospital. As it worked out he left the shop at 1 p.m. and instead of stopping for lunch, he munched on some of the fruit in his lunch bag as he drove. He was early when he arrived at the hospital, but he decided to go up to Keri's room anyway. Maybe he would be able to get this out of the way even quicker than planned.

It was just after 1:30 when he stepped off the elevator on Keri's floor. He'd been given the room number at the main reception desk on the first floor and saw right away that it was directly across from the nurses' station. He hadn't noticed the effect on him before, but it was obvious to him now that he was actually a little bit nervous. He hadn't seen Keri since his angry trip to her office at Crosby and Knox, and he hadn't even exchanged emails with her in months. This could be a difficult experience for him he was sure.

He took a deep breath, stepped quietly into the open door of her private room and stood there focused on the scene in front of him. Keri was apparently asleep, her once shoulder length blond hair now only about 2 inches long, obviously having been shaved weeks ago for her surgery. He could see at least one scar on the right side of her head, a scar that was not yet fully hidden by her growing hair. She had an infusion pump beside her on the right leading to an IV line in her right hand. On her left was a stand holding what appeared to be heart monitoring equipment as it displayed a continuous heart rhythm tracing across the screen along with numbers that gave her pulse rate, blood pressure and oxygen percentage. There was a bundle of lines leading from the machine to sensors attached to her body.

Rather than wake her, Kevin decided to wait until her parents arrived. Actually he was fascinated at seeing her again. She was as beautiful as ever and her face and neck showed no signs of the accident, nor did any other visible part of her hands or arms; only the scar on her scalp gave evidence to the horrific accident she had been a part of. There was a momentary urge to walk forward and take her hand, but that passed quickly when he remembered some of the contents of the emails he had found so long ago. His jaw tightened, and he reaffirmed his intention to wait.

He had been watching her for about two minutes when her eyes slowly opened and focused on him. It was like a switch had been turned on as her face suddenly lit up and she said, "Kevin! You're here! Where have you been? I've missed you so much these last three days. No one would tell me where you were."

Kevin was totally mystified by her reaction and her questions and replied, "Where do you think I was? I was at home and at work."

Keri's reaction to this answer was a look of confusion as she said, "Why weren't you here when I woke up? Why would you go to work or stay at home when I'm in here?"

His confusion was now even greater than hers, and he got a little angry at her questions. He quickly said, "Why would you expect me here? We're divorced! You left me for your lover! Why the hell would I want to visit you? I've only here now because your parents wanted me to come."

Her reaction completely surprised and startled Kevin as she immediately screamed and tried to move towards him. She was clearly extremely agitated as she said, "No, no, no! What are you saying?" She began thrashing her arms as she tried to get away from the equipment and tubes holding her back. Within seconds she had ripped the IV line from her right hand and blood began to stream from the tear in her vein. The alarm on the infusion pump began a steady beep and was soon joined by the loud and shrill tone from the heart monitoring equipment when Keri managed to yank the cables hard enough to unplug them from the machine.

Within seconds of the alarms beginning to sound two nurses rushed in from the nearby station. The first one looked at Kevin and asked him, "What did you do to her?" She then rushed past him to Keri and grabbed her flailing arms and forced her back onto the bed. She was paying no attention when Kevin answered her question by saying, "I didn't do anything. I was over here by the door the whole time."

Keri was babbling incoherently as she tried to fling her body back and forth to escape the strong hands of the nurse. The second nurse sized up the situation quickly and said, "I'll get some restraints and call her doctor for permission to sedate her." She turned and rushed out of the room.

Kevin slowly retreated from the bedlam in the hospital room, finally turning and shaking his head as he walked back towards the elevator. "I think she's nuts," he said to no one in particular. As he approached the elevator the doors opened and Keri's parents stepped out in front of Kevin. Before they could say a word to him the screaming and shouting from Keri's room and the sight of a nurse hurrying into the room with restraints and a hypodermic in her hands seized their total attention.

"What's happened?" Keri's mother looked with fear at Kevin and continued, "You weren't in there talking to her, were you?" When he answered in the affirmative she said, "Dear God, no," and the two of them rushed past him and into her room.

Kevin was totally confused by the bizarre situation that had unfolded in front of him, and after he watched and listened for a few seconds to the confusion taking place, he reached over and pressed the down button on the elevator. After he got on, and as the doors began to close in front of him, he saw Keri's father emerge from the room, apparently looking for him. Kevin had just enough time to raise his hand in a quick goodbye wave before the doors closed completely.

Happy that he could start his weekend even earlier than expected, Kevin drove straight home after leaving the hospital. On the way home he replayed the strange scenes that had taken place in front of him in Keri's room. None of it made any sense to him, and he decided to forget about it. He had tried to fulfill the request from Joseph Kane, but Keri's reactions to his visit had brought a quick end to his efforts. He was sure that her accident had left her with psychological issues, something that he was happy to be able to leave to her parents and the doctors. Let them deal with it, he decided.

After he had showered and changed, something that he had been thinking about from time to time over the past few weeks returned to his thoughts. He decided to call Carol Janzen one last time, hoping that perhaps she would have reconsidered her refusal to join him for dinner. If she said no again he decided that he would call Jean at the office and invite her out for the evening. He felt he needed some female company to take his mind off Keri and her bizarre actions.

He almost hung up as the phone began ringing, unsure if he felt like facing another of Carol's refusals to go out with him, but the chance to do so was eliminated when Carol picked up her phone.

"Hi, Carol. It's Kevin Reilly calling. I hope I didn't catch you busy."

"Kevin! No, I'm not busy at all. I'm so glad you called me again. I've tried to contact you several times, but the number in the book is out of service. I was afraid you'd moved away or something. I wanted to apologize for the way I was so abrupt with you when you asked me out the last time you called."

"I canceled that phone, and I just use my cell phone now. You don't need to apologize, Carol; I'm old enough to handle rejection," he said. "Actually, I called to see if he may have changed your mind and would want to go out for supper with me tonight or tomorrow night." He waited patiently to see what excuse she might offer.

Carol hesitated before answering, "Tomorrow I have plans with my mother and stepfather; it's their anniversary." After another further hesitation she continued, "I'm afraid tonight is out too, because I couldn't get a sitter for Chrissy on such short notice." She sounded genuinely unhappy to have to turn him down.

"There's a simple solution, you know. We can simply bring Chrissy along with us. You've told me so much about her that I'd really like to meet her." Kevin decided after making this statement that it she made another excuse it would be obvious that she was not interested in going out with him.

Carol laughed before saying, "I doubt that you have ever gone out for dinner with a four-year-old along, have you. Taking a child along puts a major limit on the restaurants you can go to."

"Well, how about you pick a place that you know she'll be comfortable with. I just know that I would like to take you out, and a family restaurant sounds great to me." He waited patiently for her answer, knowing that it was now or never. Deep down he really wanted her to say yes. He had come to believe that the two of them had unfinished business; their separation after high school had been forced by the realities of their educational plans, not by any obvious mismatch of feelings.

"If you're serious, there is a restaurant that Chrissy really likes. The food and atmosphere are really nice even though it is considered a family restaurant. It has a great dessert bar that Chrissy simply loves."

"It's settled then; I'll pick the two of you up at 5. You'll have to tell me where this place is." Kevin was very pleased, and his pleasure was evident in the tone of his voice

Carol was sounding excited too as she replied, "You don't mind taking Chrissy; you're certain of that?"

Kevin laughed before saying, "Absolutely. It she takes after her mother at all I'm sure she will be a pleasure to be with. I always thought you were one of the most polite and well mannered people I ever met."

The two of them continued to joke back and forth until Carol said she would have to leave in order to get the two of them ready to go out. Kevin was elated when he got off the phone, happier than he had been in quite a long time. He sincerely hoped that their evening out would be all that he hoped it could be.

Later that evening, while Kevin lay in his bed waiting for sleep to claim him, he went over the details of his dinner date with Carol and Chrissy. He was laying there smiling, pleased at how well it had turned out. He was now anxiously awaiting the arrival of Sunday morning, as he had agreed to accompany the two of them to church, a Sunday ritual he had gotten out of the habit of following years ago. It wasn't that he was anxious to hear the sermon; he just wanted to be able to spend more time with the two Janzen females he had just taken out for dinner.

He thought back to the beginning of their evening when he arrived at the apartment building where Carol lived. He had been shocked by the beautiful woman who met him at the door, so changed in so many little ways from what he remembered of her; their last meeting had been over 10 years earlier.

Her dark hair was now cut short in a style that really suited her. Somehow she seemed taller, but he was sure that it was just an artifact of his memory that suggested that. She had filled out in all the right places, but the beautiful smile and dark eyes that he remembered were still there. Seeing her for the first time had been enough to take his breath away.

Chrissy was like a miniature of her mother, with the same dark hair and eyes. Carol said that she had her father's nose and chin although Kevin thought to himself that she favored her mother even in those areas. Chrissy had lightly shaken his hand when they were introduced, and he noticed that she looked him over carefully; so carefully that Kevin wondered if the child would raise objections to his having shown an interest in her mother. He'd heard of a couple of instances where incompatibility with the children had doomed any relationship between their parent and a prospective suitor.

His concerns had been quickly eliminated when Chrissy agreed to take his hand as they walked from Carol's car to the restaurant. They had used her car so that they wouldn't have to switch the car seat into his, and he had driven while Carol navigated and Chrissy provided a running commentary from her seat in the back. By the time they got to their destination Kevin had already developed a strong liking for the precocious little girl.

Their meal together had gone very well, and they managed to find an awful lot to talk about. Chrissy had found her way into the conversation often, generally by asking, "What's 'blank'," where 'blank' was whatever word one of them had used that she didn't fully understand. Kevin found this habit of hers very entertaining, while Carol seemed mildly embarrassed by the frequent interruptions.

When the main course was finished, Kevin was able to get Chrissy to accompany him to the dessert bar where the two of them selected and made the desserts that each wanted. Carol had put in her request for soft ice cream with chocolate sauce, and Kevin was able to lift up Chrissy to let her prepare her mother's order. Kevin's choice was simple; a piece of apple pie with some ice cream, and again Chrissy did the work while he held her up. Her own dessert took the longest to select, as she couldn't decide on which of three toppings to put on her ice cream, and Kevin made her a friend for life when he suggested that she take some of all three.

Their drive back to Carol's had been a continuation of the good time they had enjoyed in the restaurant. Kevin had accompanied them back to Carol's apartment door, but any thoughts he had of a quick embrace or a goodbye kiss were dashed when Chrissy took her mother's hand and tugged on it until she agreed to take the girl in and give her a bath and read her a book before bed.