Aurora 

He was stunned into silence and it was exactly the reaction I was looking for. It wasn’t right for me to play with his emotions, but it was fun. It was the first time I found myself laughing, but it was at his expense.

“How… when… what the hell…” His whole body was shaking and his eyes were wide as saucers.

“Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” Travis was still stunned, “they told me about a visitor who comes by every day to see me. Imagine my surprise when I learned it wasn’t my husband.” I didn’t want him to know I had heard his conversations.

“I don’t know what to say.” He was at a loss for words and I probably would’ve been the same way in his shoes.

“You could start by introducing yourself.”

“I’m… Travis Parker…”

“Hello Travis, I know I don’t know you and it would probably be a good idea for us to be on a first name basis. After all, you have combed my hair and played jazz music for me. Do you always go to this much trouble for a complete stranger?” I had no idea why I wasn’t telling him the truth. It seemed important to leave him with a shred of dignity.

“This is amazing and seeing you like this is the highlight of my day. I should have known something was happening when David mentioned there was an anomaly with your condition. I mean… Dr. Benton.” He was sitting there in stunned awe not able to fully comprehend how this could be.

“I have no idea who you are, but you have apparently been rather intimate with me. Do you care to explain yourself?” I already knew the answers, but it was interesting to put him in the hot seat and see how he was going to respond.

“My mother hasn’t got long and has been here for about a year. One day I was popping by to see my mother and I saw you. I remember you from high school, though I don’t think you would remember me. I can assure you I haven’t done anything untoward. It wouldn’t be in my nature to take advantage of you in your condition.” I was listening intently and was quite surprised to find him openly admitting to what was happening to his mother.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. You must be beside yourself with worry. I wasn’t accusing you of anything. It was exactly the opposite. I want to thank you for your compassion.” I was giving him praise for standing in for the family who had better things to do than to come to visit me.

I had my arms over the sheets and I struggled to get into a sitting position. It wasn’t easy and he tried to help, but I put the brakes on with my hand outstretched. I didn’t want him to treat me like an invalid.

“It was my pleasure. If I was being completely honest, you were responsible for helping me get things off of my chest. It was good to give my worries a voice.” He was crowing on about how I helped him and not the other way around.

“It makes me feel good I was there for you in spirit.” I hadn’t even told the staff about how I could hear everything going on around me.

“You gave me a chance to unburden myself and I don’t know how to repay you. I did take advantage of your silence. It was nice to say what was on my mind without any kind of interruption.” I didn’t want to mention how I was worried about the path he was about to embark on.

“I hope I wasn’t a bother.” He was a little perplexed and shrugged his shoulders in a noncommittal way, “I have heard of people in your condition being able to hear voices. Is this something you experienced?” It was the perfect place for me to expose my misdirection about being in the dark.

“I’m sure on some level I did know you were here, but I can’t say for sure. I do feel like we know each other in a spiritual way. The one thing I’m perfectly clear on is that you mean no harm.” I could tell he wanted to talk, but I had ruined it by waking up prematurely.

I was kicking myself for not waiting until he finished telling me what was going on in his life. He was fidgeting with his watch like he was either waiting for something or late for an appointment of some sort.

“This is a major improvement from the last time I saw you. It’s amazing what 24-hours can do. I have so many questions and I have no idea where to begin.”

“Well, let’s go back to the point you said you know me from high school.” For the life of me, I still couldn’t remember him now that I saw his face.

“That was long time ago. I actually asked you out when I was sixteen so that would be grade 11? Give or take, I don’t remember exactly now. You probably don’t remember because you had so many guys chasing you.”

“What happened?” I felt bad not remembering a thing still.

“I had the biggest crush on you, and asked you to go to the semi-formal dance with me. Little did I know you were already taken. You were with Andy at the time. When I asked you to the dance, you were about to say something, and then Andy interrupted. That was it. We never spoke again.”

Now that he described it, I did remember Andy being rough with a thin and short guy shoving him against the lockers, and told him that I was with him. Travis probably glossed over that detail, and now that I remembered what happened, I felt awful.

“I kind of remember now, you were much thinner and shorter back then. I am so sorry, Andy was an ass for bullying you. I wish I did something or say something.”

“That was ages ago. Don’t feel sorry for me. Look, what Andy wasn’t right, but because of that I started to lift weight and then I grew like half a foot a year later. Everything worked out, now I’m 220 lbs of muscle at 6’2. No one dare to bully me anymore.” Travis laughed light-heartedly. It was amazing the transformation he had gone through during puberty. He had these adorable dimples when he laughed.

“So we didn’t speak again?”

“Nope.”

“Why not? I am guessing a guy like you would be persistent.”

“I am a persistent guy but I have eyes. We were, and still are from two very different worlds. I was from a poor family, as in we got grocery with food stamps. And you are from the upper class. Why would a rich girl like you care for a poor guy like me? A guy like Andy made sense, he was from a good family, he could provide a good life for you. You both were prom king and queen. It made sense that you were together. Why would I, the skinny short guy, want to take all that away from you? I liked you enough to know you deserve more than me.” Travis was looking out the window as he explained.

“That was how you felt in high school, and that was why you never spoke to me again?” I was sad that he felt this way.

“Yup.” I saw the hurt in his eyes.  Yet, I felt paralyzed, I didn’t know what to say to him.  

“I’m happy that you came into this room, and that we have connected.” Oh god, this was what I came up with. That seemed so impersonal.  What I should have said was that I didn’t care about money and the whole class structure, I cared more about the person’s heart, his integrity and honesty. I clearly didn’t have all my wits with me. 

“Like I said it was long time ago. Now it’s my turn to ask you questions. I want to know more. What happened to you?” He knew what the doctors had on file, but that was very little considering the circumstances.

I told him about my husband and he got the bright idea of looking him up on the Internet. I should have thought of that myself, but I was preoccupied with my rehabilitation efforts.

His hands were flying over the keyboard and the tip of his tongue was sticking out of his mouth. He probably didn’t even know he was doing it. His concentration was broken with his mouth falling open with whatever he had found.

“I’m a big girl and I can take whatever you can dish out.” I was putting on a brave face, but I was worried about how the outside world continued to move forward without me.

“I have some good news and some bad news.” I was thinking it was better to hear the bad news and then feel a little bit better with the good news.

“I’ll take the bad news first to get it out of the way.” He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t find the right words.

“There’s no easy way to tell you this. Your husband Andy petitioned the court a few months ago to legally divorce you. I know it’s a shock, but it’s only part of the story.” He had my undivided attention and I was glued to every word he was saying.

“You’ve come this far and it would seem foolish not to go all the way.” I was giving him the license to say anything without having me come down on his head for being the messenger.

“This is the part I think you should read for yourself.” He came over and laid the warm laptop on my lap. I thought that he was exaggerating the importance of this information, but I was about to learn betrayal came in many forms.

It wasn’t even a month later after he had petitioned the court and received a quickie divorce that he was marrying another woman. It wasn’t just any woman. I would have probably understood had it been anybody other than my… SISTER. Somehow she had used my condition to weasel her way into his good graces.

“I’m in a bit of an emotional tailspin at the moment.” He was right there with his hand on my shoulder and I leaned against him with my head on his chest without even thinking about it. I closed my eyes and tears just streamed down my face as if I had no control over my eyes anymore.

“I know this is a shock, but you are strong enough to rise above it. Here let me tell you the good news.” He handed me a tissue to wipe my face.

Travis read another article from the web. The only bright spot was the good news about my clothing boutique and how my partner, Sheila, had been making it the hot spot in town.

I was a big believer in recycling. Clothing that was old and out of style was coming back. What was old was becoming new again. It was a testament to Sheila and her willingness to persevere without me. She could’ve easily used my condition to stake a claim to the business and push me out entirely.

I could understand the reason why she hadn’t come to visit. She passionately hated hospitals and had every reason to feel they were a death trap. Her boyfriend went in for a mild headache and never left. I was there for her when they found the tumor in his brain. It wasn’t fun watching her age prematurely before my eyes.

“I can’t believe my own sister had the nerve to fly in on her broomstick like some kind of vulture to pick at the bones. I know we don’t get along, but to stoop to this level...” I was out of words. I wanted to find her and throttle her to the inch of her life in front of my husband. I still couldn’t get used to the idea of her calling him ‘husband’.

“I hate to say this, but you missed an important piece at the very bottom.” My heart stopped when I saw they were expecting their FIRST CHILD!

I had to believe this was a shotgun wedding and somehow her impending motherhood had come about doing a moment of weakness. She could’ve been there to comfort him and one thing led to another. It was only a scenario. I didn’t know the full story until I got it from the horse’s mouth.

“Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse. I hope you don’t mind, but I think I would like to be alone.” I couldn’t help but to let the tears fall. He seemed to understand how he was overstaying his welcome.

“I’m here for you. It’s ok to cry, just let it all out.” He handed me the box of tissues and gave me a hug.

“No, I need time to be alone to sort this out in my head.” I was an emotional wreck and I didn’t want Travis to watch me cry myself to sleep tonight.

 “Let me leave you my number. You can call me day or night,” he wrote down his number on the notepad by my bed, and continued, “you never know and this might be a blessing in disguise. I know it doesn’t seem like it right now. If he really loved you then he would have never turned to another.”

There wasn’t much he could say to lift my spirit. It was like I was staring into the abyss. My whole world was spinning on a different axis, I could no longer see the sun.

“Whatever feelings I had for Andy is DEAD and gone. He is going to have to answer for what he did with my sister. I am not going to sweep this under the rug and let them live happily ever after.” I wasn’t going to lay down and take this. I was more determined than ever to accost them on their own turf.

“You will figure this out. I know this is a lot to ask, but do you suppose it’s possible for us to still have our daily talks? I hate to say this, but they made me feel better. I will perfectly understand if this is as far as you want to go with this… this…I don’t even know what to call what we have. Friendship at the very least I hope.” The only thing I knew for sure was that I still wanted him in my life.

“I’m not sure there is a label to put on it but maybe that’s a good thing.” He gave me a big bear hug and I felt this sensation of warmth come over me in the heat of the moment. I wished he didn’t have to let me go, I needed that hug.

He picked up his laptop and gave me a meek little smile of encouragement on his way out the door.

He raised his two fists and I knew without him saying anything that he wanted me to fight. I wanted revenge and the best way to get over somebody was to get under somebody else. I could think of only one man who fit the criteria. Travis Parker.

Everything that had happened in the previous minutes felt like a bad dream I was going to wake up from. I knew things had changed and I was going to have to evolve to accept the impossible. Andy was supposed to be ‘The One’, the love of my life, yet he had found his happiness with my sister. I wanted to stick my head in the sand and forget, but there was no way I could.