The Accident

by Donna M. Zadunajsky

  Silence fell between them.

  Kaitlyn wasn’t sure why they needed to go back to Ohio, but then remembered that Ben was in an accident. The police probably found something against him and needed him to be in the state when they arrested him because two people had died in that crash and others were severely injured. A small visible smile appeared on her face. Ben would be arrested and couldn’t hurt her anymore. This was good news! But she couldn’t get her hopes up and placed a hand on her belly. This would be a dream come true if he were arrested. She and the baby would be fine. She should feel awful for thinking such a thing. She shook her head. No, she had every right to feel the way she did.

  “Mrs. Gordon are you there?” Moore asked.

  “Yes, I’m still here.”

  “Can you be here by noon tomorrow?”

  “Sure, we can be there at that time,” Kaitlyn replied. “May I ask what this is about?”

  “I think it’s better if we talk when you get here.”

  “Oh, okay,” Kaitlyn replied, wariness setting in.

  “See you tomorrow,” Moore said.

  The line went dead.

  Kaitlyn held the phone out in front of her. “That was a strange call,” she mumbled under her breath, then nearly jumped out of her chair when she heard something hit the kitchen floor behind her. She whipped her head around and saw that it was Ben and that he was falling. She quickly slid the letters on the table toward her before running over to him. She grabbed his crutch that had somehow fallen from under his arm and handed it to him.

  After helping him to the sofa, she propped his leg up to help keep the swelling down. When she finished, she sat in the chair across from him. They looked at each other for a few seconds before she looked away. She felt uncomfortable sitting in the same room with him. She knew if it were the old Ben, the Ben before the accident, he wouldn’t have allowed her to be more than a few inches from him, even in their own home. He was possessive like that.

  It wasn’t the first time that she had wondered why she lived like this. Letting Ben order her around like she was some child, someone he owned. She could only blame herself for letting him control her, abuse her, but she was afraid of what he would do to her. To her family. The family she hadn’t seen in months, thanks to him. Each time her mother called, she had to lie and say that she was busy with schoolwork and couldn’t come visit. When her parents suggested that they could come to her, she would tell them that they were going out of town and wouldn’t be home on that day. One excuse after another. That’s what her life had been like these past four years, and now she had a chance to escape.

  41

  Six days after the Accident

  The morning light filtered through the creases of the curtains that hung from the copper rods above the bedroom window. Leah and her mother had picked them out together after Leah had rented the place several years ago. They had always loved going to the consignment store in Edon, one of the few stores that remained open in that small town. Sometimes they bought things, other times they just browsed.

  Leah laid in bed, looking up at the ceiling, her thoughts a shambled mess on yesterday’s events. She couldn’t believe she had finally found her real mother after all these years.

  Edon.

  She’d lived in Edon the whole time and she didn’t even know it. Although Leah didn’t spend all that much time in Edon, it still blew her mind that Officer Moore lived just a town away for twenty-seven years.

  She laughed at herself. She didn’t even know what Officer Moore’s name was. She couldn’t go around calling her Moore like her partner did, or Officer Moore. And she sure wasn’t going to call her mom because she didn’t deserve that name even if she were her mother. At least not yet.

  She couldn’t believe that it took one person coming to the hospital to bring them together. She knew she’d have to tell her real mother eventually, but she had to get through this day first, the rest could wait.

  She let out a sigh, then tossed the blankets to the side and climbed out of bed. She should be more excited about today because she would finally find out who the brain-dead man was. She would know his name and meet his family. Now she knew where her detective traits came from, she laughed into the room.

  She still couldn’t believe what she did when Rose showed her the picture of her son, Adam. Rose was hysterical when she identified the man as not being her son. Dr. Amal had left the room and she hadn’t seen him the rest of the day. God, she had to worry about him too?

  Leah padded to the bathroom and turned on the shower. This is the very thing she needed right now. A hot steamy shower to wash away her stress and worries of the day to come. She would allow herself to forget for ten minutes or maybe she would splurge and take fifteen minutes in the shower. What difference did it really matter anyway? She would still have to face the demons that were waiting for her at work.

  ~ ~ ~

  The morning flew by as Leah kept herself busy with the patients in the ICU. She changed the bedding after some of the patients were transferred to a different room and tended to the ill still in critical condition.

  Officer Moore had phoned the ICU, leaving Leah a message to meet her in the hallway in the coma ward at noon. Leah looked at her watch; it was five minutes till twelve. She placed her chart in the rack at the nurse’s station and left, making her way to meet Moore. She wiped her hands on her scrubs, something she did when she was nervous, whether they were sweaty or not.

  She turned the corner and saw three people standing near the room where she was headed. One of them she knew, Officer Moore, but didn’t have a clue who the other two people were. Was it the man’s family? Yes, that’s exactly who they were. The man turned and looked at her as she approached, her heart stopped. Was her brain-dead patient alive? No, that couldn’t be, he wouldn’t be able to stand with all the broken bones in his body. So, then who was this man standing here with Officer Moore? Maybe it was his twin brother. They looked similar in appearance, at least from afar.

  “Leah,” Moore said, smiling. “I have some people I want you to meet. This is Kaitlyn Gordon and her husband.”

  Leah was a little confused. Why didn’t she say the man’s name? “Hi,” she replied, spreading a smile across her face.

  “Shall we all go into the lobby?” Moore instructed as she led the way. “Since we’re waiting on the results of his bloodwork,” Officer Moore nodded in the direction of the man next to Kaitlyn. “Which…” she looked at the clock on the wall. “Should be here any minute now. Then we’ll go from there; besides, we’re still waiting on Rose to show up.”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what this has to do with the man in the room?” Leah asked as she walked beside Moore. “I thought that’s why you wanted me here.”

  “It is, and you’ll know soon enough.”

  Leah followed Moore into the lobby. She was exhausted, and it was only noon. How would she make it through the rest of the day? Coffee. She needed coffee. Leah walked over to the coffee maker. She placed a k-cup into the machine and pushed the button. Time seemed to stand still as the coffee brewed and filled her cup, gurgling as it finished seconds later. She closed her eyes, breathing in the aroma of fresh brewed coffee.

  “Leah, could you please remove the gauze from this man’s face?”

  “Are you sure it’s healed enough?” Kaitlyn asked. “It’s only been a couple of days.”

  “Won’t know until we’ve removed the bandage,” Officer Moore replied.

  “Yes, but…”

  “Leah here is a nurse. She’ll be more than careful when she removes it.”

  “I’m sure she is, but shouldn’t the doctor be present?” Kaitlyn said.

  “No, most doctors won’t even touch the bandages,” Leah said from across the room, her back facing them. “I’ll go get the first-aid kit.” She left her coffee where it was and bolted out the door. She needed to get out of the room. She didn’t know what was going on, but Moore was acting very strange. Grant
ed, she didn’t know her all that well. Okay, she didn’t know her at all, but what did those two people have to do with the man in the room? Her head hurt from thinking so much. If they were related wouldn’t they be in there visiting and deciding what needed to be done?

  She grabbed a few things from the cart down the hall and went back to the lobby. She placed the items on the table and started cutting away the bandage. She couldn’t believe how much this man looked like the brain-dead patient. She was afraid to ask questions. She had already caused enough trouble and heartache with Rose.

  She unwrapped the gauze and tossed it in the wastebasket next to the chair. She placed two fingers under his chin and moved his head up and to the side. “The burns look to be very minor and you should begin to let them air out, it’ll help them heal faster,” Leah said. “I’ll put on a light coat of cream and a fresh bandage, but when you get home tonight, take the bandage off.”

  He nodded at her.

  As she spread the cream over a small area on the right side of his face, she noticed scars that ran along the outer area along his face near his ear. He seemed to have had surgery sometime in his life, which looked relatively new since they were still a shade of pink in some areas. She wanted to ask, but decided it wasn’t any of her business. She cleaned up the wrappers and threw everything in the wastebasket and went to retrieve her coffee. No sooner had she sipped from the cup that a dark-haired nurse walked into the room.

  “Here are the results you’ve been waiting on, Officer Moore.”

  “Oh, great! Thank you,” Moore replied as she reached out and took the papers from the nurse and began reading them. She had talked to Dr. Meadde this morning about what she needed to look for on the results.

  The silence in the room was nerve-racking to Leah, but she didn’t want to interrupt or be rude by making any kind of noise while Officer Moore was reading.

  “Just what I thought,” Moore said.

  “What is it?” Kaitlyn asked, looking from Moore to her husband.

  Leah stood back, listening to the story she had shared with Moore yesterday. Moore told Kaitlyn and the man sitting in the chair that there was a mix-up on the day of the accident when she’d found the wallet. She went on to tell them that the license in the wallet looked like the man that she had just helped rescue. The man that was sitting in this room right now, but she had been wrong.

  “What do you mean, you were wrong?” Kaitlyn asked. “I saw the wallet you gave me; it was the exact one I had bought for Ben,” she replied, looking at the man sitting next to her.

  “I know and it’s a terrible and unforgivable mistake on my own part. I had no other evidence. No other photos but the one in the wallet to go by. I hadn’t thought to check the other hospitals in the area. When I went to Edon Hospital and talked to the nurses one of them suggested I go to the ICU because a couple of the survivors from the wreck had been taken there. So I did and that’s when I saw him. The photo looked so much like him, it could have been anyone’s mistake if they were in my shoes. Who knew that there would be two men that looked almost alike in some way?”

  “What are you saying?” Kaitlyn asked again.

  “I’m saying that he,” Moore pointed at the man beside Kaitlyn, “is not your Ben. This man is not your husband, although they look somewhat alike.”

  Kaitlyn looked from the man to Moore and back at the man again. Her mouth fell open and then closed before speaking. “Then who is he if he’s not my husband?” she asked.

  All heads turned toward the doorway when they heard a woman speak.

  “Adam,” Rose gasped.

  42

  Images slammed inside his mind, one right after another. His years as a child and then graduating from high school. When he had enlisted into the Army and then he had seen her for the first time. She was so beautiful. They had danced, talked, and spent all their waking hours together when he wasn’t working on the Army base in Chicago. Then an explosion appeared, and he fell to the ground, shielding his body. He couldn’t see, and his face felt like it was on fire from the cuts and burns of the bomb that went off twenty yards in front of him. Half of his unit had died that day and he was left with scars and images of what had happened. Although he had the choice to be discharged, he stayed in the Army and was transferred to Texas to finish his remaining years. Then he was home and started teaching students at the same school he graduated from.

  He felt a hand touch his left arm. He turned to see who and what it was. It was her. The girl from his past. “Kaitlyn,” he whispered.

  She stared at him in shock.

  “You’re here?” Adam asked.

  Kaitlyn nodded.

  He sat in the chair as the memory of a letter came into view. She had written him a letter to say goodbye because she didn’t want to wait for him any longer. That she had met someone else. He longed to see her again. To hold her again. But she was married to someone else.

  Rose walked over to Adam and hugged him. “I was so worried about you, son. I thought I’d lost you like I did your father.”

  “Oh, Mom, I’m fine. I’m not going anywhere,” he said, placing his hand on Rose’s arm.

  “Adam,” Officer Moore said. “Do you remember the accident? What happened six days ago?”

  “Parts of it, anyway.”

  “Do you mind sharing them?”

  He shook his head. “Scott and I were on our crotch rockets. We got onto the turnpike, heading toward Indiana. We always like riding on the country roads. Scott sped up and took the curve before I did. It all seemed to happen rather quickly after he crashed his bike and flew through the air and then he was gone,” Adam choked back the tears threatening his eyes. “He… he hit a semi-truck on the other side of the highway.” Adam pressed on his eyes, wiping the tears away. “He didn’t make it, did he?”

  Officer Moore shook her head. “No, I’m sorry.”

  “I tried to slow down my bike, but then out of nowhere a car tire came at me, hitting my front wheel. I flew off my motorcycle and hit the car in front of me. I saw another vehicle coming toward where I was. Somehow, I managed to hide inside an area between the other cars. It was the only thing that I could think to do, or I would have been crushed.” Adam stopped talking, as if waiting for more of the accident to come barreling back to him.

  “Do you remember anything else?” Moore asked.

  “No, I sort of blacked out until… until you found me,” he whispered.

  Officer Moore nodded.

  From the other side of the room Leah spoke. “So, if he’s not Ben Gordon, then the man in the room down the hall is our Ben Gordon?” she questioned.

  “Ben’s here?” Kaitlyn whispered as disappointment and dread ran through her.

  “Yes,” Leah shouted out before Moore could interject.

  “Well,” Moore looked at Leah. “He’s not—well, it’s hard to explain, Kaitlyn.”

  “He’s brain-dead,” Rose said. “Just tell her the truth.”

  43

  Kaitlyn fell against the back of the chair, her mind whirling. Ben is here. He is brain-dead? What does that mean exactly? Is he dead? Alive? Stuck in between worlds? She wasn’t sure what it meant or what she was supposed to do now. Should she run to him like a wife would do? Well, maybe a loving wife would run to her husband lying in the hospital. Of course, she had to go see him. She had to make sure that it was him, right? God, she felt sick to her stomach. Her thoughts were spinning in her head. This couldn’t be happening.

  “Kaitlyn,” Officer Moore muttered. “I need you to come with me. I need you to identify the man and confirm that he is indeed your husband, Ben Gordon.”

  Kaitlyn couldn’t move. She didn’t want to move. Her eyes looked over at Adam sitting next to her. How hadn’t she known that it was Adam and not Ben? They were similar, but she should have known that he wasn’t Ben. Was she too worried about him hurting her, hurting the baby that she refused to really see the man she’d brought home? In all these years she had wished for th
is day to come. To be with Adam again, but it all felt like a dream. She wanted to pinch herself, but she felt all eyes on her. Adam, Rose, Leah, and Officer Moore were all watching her—for what, she didn’t know. Kaitlyn looked up at Officer Moore. Her lips were moving, but she wasn’t sure what she was saying.

  “Kaitlyn are you all right?” Officer Moore asked.

  “I think she’s going to pass out,” Rose chimed in.

  Adam reached out and put his hand on her arm. “Kaitlyn.”

  Kaitlyn flinched from his touch, something she always did with Ben. She looked from Moore to Adam. Her ears felt clogged as if she had a head cold, then the nurse named Leah appeared at her side. Leah touched Kaitlyn’s face. Her hands felt soft and gentle against her skin.

  “Kaitlyn,” Leah said, snapping her fingers in front of Kaitlyn’s face. “Snap out of it.”

  Kaitlyn blinked, and the sounds of their voices made their way into her head.

  “Hey, Kat,” Adam whispered; this time he didn’t touch her.

  The words made her smile. It was what Adam had always called her when they were together nine years ago. Adam, her one true love, was here. He was alive, and she didn’t know what to do. It was all too much, Ben was brain-dead, and Adam was here, alive.

  “Kaitlyn, I know it feels like you’ve been hit off balance with the news of your husband, but we need for you to come with me and identify the man in the room down the hall. There are decisions that need to be made if he is your husband,” Leah said.

  Kaitlyn nodded and stood. Part of her was afraid to leave the room. Afraid that when she returned, Adam would be gone. It would be wrong to ask him to come with her. Should she ask him to stay? To wait for her like she would’ve done for him all those years ago?

  Officer Moore and Leah led the way down the hall. Kaitlyn hadn’t noticed how alike the two of them looked, as if they were related. By the age difference, Kaitlyn would say that they were mother and daughter, but it wasn’t any of her business, and at this moment it wasn’t important.