Chapter Nineteen
Jake trudged toward the light and its warmth. It seemed to beckon him forward. He thought he heard someone talking to him from a distance, but he was probably imagining things. Jake was nearly there when a tall, dark figure blocked his path. “I can’t let you go in there,” the man said with a shake of his head.
“Aren’t I supposed to go there? I feel like I’m being called there. Please move out of my way.” When Jake made a move to walk around him, the stranger also moved.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t. Don’t you know where that tunnel leads to?”
Jake shrugged. “Should I care?”
“I think you should, considering that tunnel takes you to the other side.”
“The other side? What in the world are you talking about?” Who was this man and why was he trying to stop Jake?
“The other side of life I mean.”
Jake paused. “Do you mean…if I walk into the light I’ll be dead?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. You don’t want to go in there.”
“What…what happened to me?”
“You were in a pretty nasty car accident.”
“So you mean….”
“Yes, your life is hanging in the balance. This is actually your subconscious, but trust me, going into that light will end your life.”
Jake narrowed his eyes. “Who the hell are you?”
The stranger grinned. “Hell has nothing to do with my mission, but I can’t let you walk into that light.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I made a promise to someone very special a long time ago, and I intend to keep it. You can’t go anywhere.”
“Why not?”
“To keep my peanut happy. Besides, you have so much to live for. At this very moment, your friends and loved ones are gathered in the hospital praying for your recovery. You wouldn’t want to let them down would you?”
Peanut? Was this guy crazy? He snorted. “I bet Charlie isn’t out there.”
“Actually she is. Didn’t you hear her speaking to you earlier?”
“All I can hear is the beautiful music playing in that light over there.”
“You’re not even trying to fight, are you?” The man shook his head in what looked like disgust.
“What do I have to fight for? The one thing I believed in is gone.”
“So because of that you’re just willing to give up? That’s rather selfish of you.”
“You wouldn’t know anything about it.”
“I wouldn’t? I doubt that. I know a lot about disappointment actually. I’ll never have another chance at reclaiming the woman I love, but you have that opportunity and I’ll be damned if I allow you to throw it away.”
“Opportunity? What opportunity? She’s already made it clear I’m just a glorified sex toy to her.”
“Maybe she had her reasons for doing what she did, but you’ll never find out what those reason are if you walk into that light. Are you willing to abandon your daughter so easily? She’s a precious little thing. She’ll need her father in her life, don’t you think?”
At the mention of his daughter Jake realized how selfish he was being. “You’re right. I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly, but I feel this strong pull toward it. It seems to be sucking me in.”
“This is where you have to fight. You have to figure out how badly you want it.”
“I do want it, for my daughter’s—and Charlie’s sake.”
The man smiled. “That’s more like it. Give me your hand.
“No!” Charlie screamed. The nurse rushed out of the room, returning immediately with a doctor and another nurse.
“Ma’am, you’re going to have to leave while we attempt to resuscitate the patient,” the nurse said as she gently guided Charlie out of the room. When Charlie was outside the door, it shut firmly in her face with a decisive click.
Charlie watched helplessly through the glass in the door as the team tried valiantly to save Jake’s life. She couldn’t move. She felt her world had crumbled. She watched for several seconds before her legs decided to cooperate. She didn’t want to be the one to tell the family, but she had to. This was obviously her punishment for not telling Jake how she felt.
She walked numbly back to the lobby. She caught the anxious look on Moira’s pale face, and her heart sunk further. “Charlie what’s wrong? Has something happened to Jake?” An alarmed look crossed Moira’s face. The family immediately surrounded her.
“They are trying to resuscitate him right now as we speak, but he flatlined,” Charlie reported numbly.
“No! Not my baby. Not my baby!” Moira collapsed against Bill, who looked as if he needed someone to catch him. The room broke out in cries of anguish. Steve sat in the corner of the room with a stunned expression on his face. The children were huddled together with tears in their eyes.
The only dry eyes in the room belonged to Kristy, who seemed to be in her own little world. Charlie stood in the center of the room wishing this were all a nightmare. How in the world was she going to explain to her child her daddy was dead?
Charlie looked at her daughter, who was looking around at everyone as though she were trying to make sense of everything. She couldn’t help but wonder why Kristy was strangely calm. She hadn’t even complained after being woken up so abruptly. Her daughter climbed down from her chair, holding her cherished doll “Baby” Jake had given her. Kristy walked over to Charlie and tugged on her pant leg. “Mommy, don’t cry. The man said Daddy is okay. He said he would hold Daddy’s hand,” Kristy said.
Charlie looked dazedly down at her daughter. What the heck was Kristy talking about? Charlie leaned over and scooped her daughter up and clutched her to her chest. Charlie’s body shuddered with sobs as she held and rocked Kristy.
“Mommy, the man says it makes him sad to see you cry. He says don’t cry ‘cause Daddy is okay.” Kristy looked at her with tears forming in her eyes.
“What man?” Charlie demanded, raising her voice. Kristy cringed at Charlie’s raised voice and began to cry herself. Charlie felt lower than low. She hadn’t meant to yell, besides, Kristy was all she had left in the world. She walked over to the nearest chair and sat down with Kristy on her lap. “I’m sorry for yelling, honey, but what man do you keep talking about?”
“The man with the blue shirt. It has footprints on it,” Kristy sniffed.
“Where is he?” Charlie looked around her, but saw nothing.
“He’s with Daddy, holding his hand. He was sitting in the car with us Mommy.”
Charlie froze. Was this her daughter’s way of dealing with grief—making up imaginary friends? “Kristy, there wasn’t anyone in the car with us.”
“Uh-huh. He sat next to you,” Kristy argued stubbornly.
“Kristy—”
Just then, the doctor who had been in Jake’s room walked out into the waiting area. Charlie held her breath, waiting for fateful words she knew the doctor would say. The room fell silent and she knew the rest of the occupants were just as anxious as she was. She braced herself for the official words.
Dr. Reynolds cleared his throat officiously. “We were able to resuscitate him,” he began. Loud sighs of relief broke throughout the lobby. “As I stated before, we didn’t expect him to make it through the night, but his vitals are reading much stronger now than they originally were when he was brought in. That in itself is a miracle but he’s not out of the woods yet, ladies and gentlemen. He took a pretty hard hit on the head so even if he awakes there could be some brain damage. The next twenty-four hours are going to be the most critical, but I think if he makes it past that point, he’ll pull through.”
“Oh thank God,” Moira said with tears streaming down her face. Charlie stood up with Kristy in her arms and went over to hug Moira. As a mother, Charlie knew exactly how Moira was feeling. Had it been Kristy in the same predicament, she didn’t know what she would do with herself.
“See, Mommy. I told you,” Kristy gloated.
“You sure did, honey. I guess we have your friend to thank,” Charlie said, playing along, still not believing some mysterious man was talking to her daughter.
“What’s she talking about?” Bill asked curiously.
“She says there’s a man in a blue shirt who has been telling her Jake would be okay. She’s been saying it since we got here,” Charlie explained.
Bill looked at his granddaughter curiously. “May I?” he asked Charlie for permission to take Kristy. Charlie nodded. Bill lifted Kristy into his arms but the rest of the family who had heard snippets of the conversation gathered around them curiously. “Can you tell Grandpa about this man?” Bill asked Kristy.
“He was in the car with Mommy and me. He gave me a hug. He said Daddy is okay, and to tell Mommy not to cry.” The room was silent.
“What else did he say?” Bill prompted.
“He said don’t worry. He will hold Daddy’s hand to make sure he won’t go away,” Kristy said. Where was she getting all this from, Charlie wondered?
“Where is this man now?” Moira asked.
“He’s next to Mommy.” Kristy laughed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Everyone gave Kristy a strange look. “There’s no one there, honey.” Moira pointed to the empty space beside Charlie.
“Yes, there is!” piped in a little voice behind them. The voice belonged to Helen and Jason’s second youngest son, five-year-old Caleb. Everyone turned to the little boy. “Nana, he’s standing right there beside Auntie Charlie. Can’t you see him? He’s a brown man, and he’s wearing a light blue shirt.” Caleb pointed to the apparently empty space next to Charlie.
All the adults looked uneasily at each other.
“Caleb, what did Mommy tell you about lying,” Helen scolded, coming forward to take her son’s hand.
“I’m not lying, Mommy,” Caleb said indignantly. “He’s standing right there. His shirt has footprints all over it with a ram in the front,” Caleb described.
Charlie froze. No. It couldn’t be. “Caleb, can you recognize letters yet?” Charlie asked.
“Of course he can. My son is no dummy.” Helen glared at Charlie.
Charlie ignored Helen and knelt down in front of Caleb. “Are there letters on his shirt?” she asked the little boy. Caleb nodded solemnly. “What color are the letters?”
“White.”
“What do they say, honey?” Charlie prompted.
“Oh come on. These kids are obviously tired, they must have talked at some point and they’re sharing the same hallucination,” Helen dismissed.
“Pipe down, Helen. I would like to hear what Charlie has to say.” Bill chided lightly.
“What do the letters say?” Charlie asked again.
Caleb turned and looked up at the empty space beside Charlie as if he were in a daze. “U-N-C,” Caleb read proudly.
Charlie passed out.
Charlie came to on the couch in waiting room with someone fanning her face. A nurse was standing over her. “What happened?” Charlie asked, shaking her head.
“You gave us a bit of a fright but I think the events of the day have just overwhelmed you. I suggest you go home and get some rest. It will be a while before Mr. Fox regains consciousness,” the nurse advised.
Charlie shot up. “No. I’m not leaving,” Charlie protested with a determined gleam in her eyes.
The nurse looked like she wanted to argue but thought better of it. “Well, you’re in for a long wait.”
“I don’t care.”
“Suit yourself, but take care of yourself, or we will have to admit you too,” The nurse warned before going off.
When the nurse was gone, Moira came to Charlie’s side. “Charlie, you scared us for a second.” Moira knelt down to feel her brow.
“I’m fine. I think I just need some air,” she said.
“Okay. I’ll walk with you.”
“Where’s Kristy?” Charlie looked around.
“Carl took the children down the hall to the vending machine to get something to drink. Don’t worry. She’s in good hands. Come on.” She helped Charlie off the couch.
When they stood outside of the hospital doors, Charlie felt a little better. She hated the smell of sickness that saturated the hospital.
“Are you feeling better?” Moira asked.
“Yes, much better. Thank you. Moira, I appreciate you being so nice to me,” Charlie said.
“Why shouldn’t I be? Don’t let Helen get to you. Her bark is far worse than her bite.” Moira shrugged off the incident.
“I wasn’t thinking about her actually, although I wish we had gotten off on better footing.”
“Well, Helen is quick to judge a lot of times, but she’s a good girl. She’ll come around. Now, tell me what happened in there. When Caleb said those letters, you looked as if you had seen a ghost before you passed out.”
Charlie shivered. “I didn’t but Kristy and Caleb apparently did,” she answered slowly.
“What?” Moira asked, looking confused.
“They described my husband’s favorite shirt. He always wore that shirt. I put that old shirt in storage before I moved to this area, so how could they possibly know about it? I never talked to Kristy about my husband, and Caleb…well, he obviously wouldn’t know anything about it.”
“Oh my. It all sound so very twilight zone to me.”
“I know. It’s so weird but they say angels do exist and I don’t think I knew anyone who deserved to be an angel more than Paul. If he is an angel, this sounds like something he would do.”
“What do you mean?”
“He would find a way to reassure me everything is okay. He was always looking out for me.” Charlie smiled. Her heart swelled fondly, knowing Paul seemed to be giving his blessing to love Jake. Why else would he be there holding Jake’s hand as Kristy had put it?
“He sounds like he was quite a guy. You must have loved him very much,” Moira observed.
“I do. I mean I did…well, I will always love him. I’m not in love with him anymore, though. I couldn’t have asked for a more special man in my life. He touched so many people when he was alive,” Charlie said wistfully.
“But?”
“But I also know he wants me to be happy, and the fact Kristy said he was holding Jake’s hand, it’s as if he’s trying to save Jake to make me happy.”
“Will it make you happy?”
“Yes. It would make me very happy. I love Jake very much. I was so scared of loving again I lost sight of the gift I was given. I had such a loving relationship with Paul, I thought I would never find it again, but then Jake came into my life and things changed. I think that’s why I fought so hard. I was falling in love with him, but in the back of my mind, I thought if I allowed myself to give into those feelings, I would lose him like I lost Paul. I know that sounds silly but it’s how I felt,” Charlie explained.
“It doesn’t sound silly to me at all. I knew we were kindred spirits when I met you. I was scared to love at one time, too. Believe it or not, the road wasn’t easy for Bill and me,” Moira confided.
“Really? But you two seem so in love.” Charlie was incredulous.
“We are now. As you can see, Bill is still a very good-looking man. You should have seen him when he was in his twenties. He was…what do you young people say? A hottie I think. Yes, that’s it. Bill was quite a hottie. We formally met at a civil rights march although we went to the same school. I just never had the courage to approach him before then because he was the big man on campus. He had a bit of a reputation for being a ladies’ man. Even back then I was losing the battle with my weight and I wasn’t exactly prom queen material, so when Bill showed an interest in me, I couldn’t see what he saw in me. He could practically have any girl on campus, but he liked lil’ ole frumpy me. I was scared to love him because I wasn’t beautiful and I thought he would eventually leave me for someone who was all the things I felt I wasn’t.”
“I think you’re beautiful.” And Charlie meant it.
Moira smiled and patted the younger woman on the cheek. “That’s sweet of you to say, dear.”
“But it’s true and your husband is crazy about you. Anyone can see that.”
“I know that now, but the point is, it took something big for me to wake up and realize life is much too short for what ifs.”
“What happened?”
“Oh nothing of this magnitude but it was enough to make me realize what I fool I was being. You see, Bill was accepted to two law schools after graduation, Columbia University on the east coast, and Stanford on the west coast. He asked me to marry him. I turned him down so he chose Stanford. When he left, I was devastated. I moped for weeks until a good friend of mine talked some sense into me. I hopped on the next flight to California, and when I found him, I got down on my knees and asked that man to marry me,” Moira finished proudly.
“You asked him?”
“I sure did and I don’t regret it for a single minute. Bill has been a wonderful husband and father. He’s brought joy to my life every single day since we’ve been married.”
Charlie was humbled by Moira revealing such an intimate detail of her life to her. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”
“No problem, dear. After all, you’ll be my new daughter if Jake pulls through this.”
“Jake will pull though this. I know he will,” Charlie said with a certainty she hadn’t felt earlier. She knew her guardian angel was looking out for Jake.