The Accident

by Donna M. Zadunajsky

  He grabbed the pair of sweats from the chair beside the dresser and sat on the edge of the bed. He had cut the right leg into shorts and kept the left leg as it was. He had gotten pretty good at changing his clothes lately; it only took him a few seconds.

  Back in the living room, he didn’t see her anywhere, then spotted her outside on the deck. He opened the slider and stepped outside.

  She turned and looked at him, her eyes sparkling in the late afternoon sunlight. God, she was breathtaking and so beautiful. He had never loved anyone as much as he loved her. Always had and always would. But did she feel the same way about him?

  46

  The results from Moore’s bloodwork came back showing that she did indeed have ovarian cancer like her mother. Surgery was scheduled immediately for a full hysterectomy. Moore knew it was too late for her to have any more children. She’d adopt if it came down to wanting children with Trevon, which was another thing she had done the minute she left the hospital.

  After leaving the hospital on the day she had reunited Rose with her son Adam and Kaitlyn with her now dead husband Ben, she called Woods the second she was in her truck. “I need to see you,” she said when she heard him answer the phone, not giving him a chance to talk. They met at the park he’d taken her to days ago, when she told him about her daughter, Leah.

  He parked beside her vehicle and climbed into her truck. “What’s the urgency?” he asked. “Are you all right?”

  She laughed, then said, “Trevon, I have waited far too long to tell you this.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “That I love you and want to be with you,” she said quickly, her heart beating fast. “I don’t want to put us off any longer.” She sat there waiting for him to say something, anything, but he didn’t say a word. She waited too long and now he didn’t feel the same. “Well, are you going to say anything?” she finally asked. “I’m too late, aren’t I?”

  “I don’t know what to say, except…” he paused.

  Except what? her thoughts were screaming at her. Answer the question, she wanted to shout at him. She watched as his lips parted, then closed. Her heart sank, and her shoulders drooped. She was too late. He didn’t want her any more. He didn’t love her the way she loved him.

  “Except that I love you too, Moore. And it’s about damn’ time you got your head out of your ass and told me how you feel,” he howled, laughter filling the truck.

  Moore looked over at him. “You love me?”

  “Ever since the first day I met you.” He reached over and wrapped his muscular arms around her and pulled her into him. “I’ve been waiting for this day for far too long, Adanya Moore. You’re a foolish girl for waiting as long as you have been,” he said, then kissed her.

  They kissed, unlike any kiss she’d ever had—well, since Roland because she’d loved him too. When they parted, she looked into eyes. “I am foolish for waiting so long.”

  “Yes, you are,” he laughed again.

  They spent another hour at the park, holding one another, and making plans for their future. Most police stations didn’t allow dating among coworkers. Woods said he would transfer to another shift at Edon police station or put in a transfer to Franklin police station—somewhere close to Moore. Moore was overwhelmed with happiness and wondered why she had waited so long to let herself be loved. Woods had been her knight in shining armor. She didn’t know what the future held for them, but she would stay and find out.

  ~ ~ ~

  The memory of that day three weeks ago made her smile as Officer Moore sat in a booth near the back corner of the diner. She was nervous for her first date with her daughter, Leah. They had agreed to meet and have lunch at Moore’s favorite diner that she and Trevon began coming to since they officially started dating.

  With all that had happened in the past month, she didn’t want to waste any more time sitting around waiting for God knows what to come trotting into her life. She needed to live life to its fullest, not wait to be buried in the ground next to her dad.

  The bell on the diner door rang. Moore looked up to see Leah walking in. Moore raised her hand and waved. She hoped she didn’t look stupid sitting here waving her hand in the air, “like you just don’t care”, the lyrics to the song entered her mind. A song she hadn’t heard since it came out in 1986. She had no clue why it entered her mind at that moment either. She hadn’t heard it on the radio before coming here.

  Leah slid out of her coat and tossed it beside her in the booth. She smiled. “Hi.”

  “Hey, how are you doing?” Moore asked. Hey. What was that? Maybe she was more nervous than she thought she was.

  “I’m doing good—no, actually great!” Leah said.

  “Please, tell.”

  “Do you remember Dr. Amal? The doctor I said would probably fire me because of what happened with the patient Ben Gordon?”

  “Yes.” Moore frowned. She wasn’t sure if she liked that doctor much.

  “Well, he did.”

  “He did?” What an asshole, Moore thought. “I’m so sorry.”

  “That’s not all,” Leah said, a smile appearing.

  “Oh?”

  “After he fired me, I collected my things and went home.” She sipped some water. “A couple of days ago, I received a call from a Dr. Meadde and she wants me to come work for her at her clinic.”

  Moore’s eyes widened. Dr. Meadde gave Moore’s daughter a job? Her heart swelled with happiness. “This is wonderful news, Leah. I’m so proud of you.” Moore said. “Will you take the job?”

  Leah nodded. “Thank you. I agree so that’s why I told her I’d take the position.”

  Moore smiled as her heart filled with excitement. She was so proud of her daughter. Moore took a sip of her water. “This is a celebration lunch now, and it’s on me,” Moore said. “You’ve worked very hard to get that job.” Moore was so happy. She couldn’t believe after all these years, she finally found her daughter and she was successful. Not that Moore thought that she’d be living on the streets or uneducated, though she’d had thoughts and worries that maybe she did the wrong thing by letting her go and having someone else raise her. She was beyond glad that she was well taken care of and had a great home with two loving parents.

  “I don’t know if I worked that hard, but it’s definitely something new for me.”

  “It looks like things are going great for you,” Moore smiled.

  “I guess so and I did finally find you after all these years too,” Leah smiled. “I still can’t believe it was all because of Ben Gordon. What were the chances of that happening and everything falling into place the way it did?”

  Moore nodded her head. “I know. I can’t believe everything that’s happened.” She took another sip of her water, her throat feeling dry. “I also heard that Kaitlyn, Ben’s wife, is back in town. It seems that Adam and Kaitlyn were long-lost lovers from nine years ago. It’s strange how the events fell into place the moment the accident happened. Although, tragic, of course.” Moore tended to ramble when she was nervous.

  “Oh my God, that’s wonderful,” Leah said cheerfully. “Long-lost lovers. Sounds like a fairy tale.”

  “Yeah, I mean I heard Ben wasn’t that great of a husband. Abusive toward Kaitlyn,” Moore stated as if she were trying to get Leah’s approval, even if it wasn’t her relationship, or was she just trying to avoid the conversation they were here to have? She was waiting to have this conversation the past twenty some years, but she honestly didn’t think she’d ever be sitting here with her daughter. Maybe she was dreaming all of this up and she really wasn’t here. Maybe the whole accident was a dream and she just didn’t know it yet? No, there was no way this was something her mind made up. She was really here, and she wouldn’t mess it up.

  “I’m sorry that I haven’t contacted you earlier with all that has happened,” Leah said.

  Moore waved a hand in the air, the lyrics coming back to her again. “You have been busy. And I’m sure you needed time to think
about everything.”

  “What’s your first name?” Leah spat out. “I’m not going to go around calling you Moore, and I’m so not ready to call you Mom,” she smirked.

  “Adanya.” Although the words Leah said had hurt, she understood.

  “That’s a pretty name. Was there a reason why your mother named you that?”

  Moore shook her head. “None that I know of.”

  “What about my father? Is he still around?”

  Moore shook her head. “He died around the time you were five years old.”

  “Oh,” Leah replied, lowering her head. “What was his name?”

  Moore didn’t know how this part was going to go, but she knew she had to tell her. “Roland. Roland Hayes.”

  “Wait. What?” Leah said, shocked. “You’re sitting here telling me that I’m Roland Hayes’ daughter? You’re shitting me, right?” Leah swore, then looked around the room to see if there were any children around. “The basketball player from Chicago? There’s no way!” Leah questioned. “He’s my father?”

  Moore nodded. “How did you know he played basketball?”

  “I love watching basketball and who hadn’t heard about Roland making it big when he started playing for them? My father was a big fan of his and well, he’s the one who taught me all about the game,” Leah said then fell silent.

  Moore saw a change come over Leah’s face. “I’m sorry you have to find out this way. You know, about you father and me. About everything,” Moore said. “Roland was a great guy.”

  “Is that why he didn’t want me? He went off to play basketball?” Leah asked bitterly.

  Moore’s face froze with the question and she heard the hurt in Leah’s voice. She knew that Leah would ask, and she thought she was prepared to tell her the truth, but she couldn’t tell her that she’d never told Roland about her, could she? No, she’d lose her forever, and she couldn’t do that; she just found her.

  Moore swallowed the bile rising in her throat. She needed to get control of herself before she lost it. She didn’t have to lie to Leah; she just didn’t need to tell her the whole truth. She would have to keep this secret to herself. Leah could never find out what Moore never did. How she made the decision without discussing it with Roland. Would he be here now if she had told him? Would they have been a family? “No, that’s not why. It was more my decision than his,” Moore said.

  Tears ran down Leah’s face. “So why didn’t you want me?”

  “I…” Moore began to stutter. She had replayed this answer in her head many of times. “I was young, and my dad and I didn’t have a lot of money to take care of you. I wanted you to have a good life. It’s the only thing I knew to do. I just…” her voice cracked. “I just wanted you to have a better life than the one I could give you. A chance to make something of yourself. And you did.” Moore took in a breath and exhaled. There, she said it and now she’d wait for Leah to yell at her and stomp out of the diner and not ever see her again.

  “There wasn’t a day in my life that I didn’t think about you or wonder what you were doing and if you were in a good place. The files were locked, so I didn’t know who you lived with,” she sort of lied. She meant everything she said. She had never stopped searching for her face in the crowd or stopped loving her daughter.

  Moore looked across the table at Leah, who sat there staring down at the table, or maybe it was her hands; Moore couldn’t tell. She only wished she’d say something, anything. The silence was deafening. Had she made a mistake telling her?

  47

  Leah was a nervous wreck about having lunch with Officer Moore. She’d phoned her mom in Naples and told her all that had happened lately. The patient that was brain-dead, who turned out to be Ben Gordon from Illinois who apparently was passing through on his way to some meeting in Ohio. He had gone back to his hometown after the ventilator was turned off and he was finally at peace, although he really hadn’t been suffering.

  Then meeting her biological mother for the first time in twenty-seven years because of this man, Ben. And she had lost her job at the hospital. This had all happened because of the accident on the Ohio Turnpike. This, she knew, was a new beginning in her life, one that she would work hard at. Leah had accepted a job with a Dr. Meadde that worked in a clinic near Franklin hospital, working as a nurse. She hadn’t heard of the woman, but she was thrilled to have been given the job.

  On the way to the diner, Leah had several panic attacks. She almost talked herself out of going because seriously, the thought of sitting across from the woman who gave her up was beyond stressful. What good would come out of this lunch with Moore? she thought on more than one occasion.

  She stood outside the door of the restaurant and saw Moore sitting in a booth, staring off into space. She looked as nervous as Leah felt. She needed to do this and be done with it. She needed to close this part of her life and start a new chapter, either with Moore or without. She wasn’t sure which she preferred. Her mom in Naples said to give Moore a chance. Let her explain what happened and go from there. That Leah didn’t have to make any decisions right at this moment. She could take as long as she needed.

  Twenty minutes into the conversation, after Moore, no Adanya, told her the reason why she gave her up, she wanted to cry. Of course, Adanya would use the excuse that she only wanted the best for her; it’s what all the websites that Leah Googled said. The thing was, Leah wanted to know anyway. She needed to hear the words come out of her biological mother’s mouth, and she wanted to get to know this woman sitting across from her no matter what the excuse was, because she was her blood. Leah would sit there and listen with an open mind, as her mom in Naples said to do.

  “I thought about you too,” Leah finally said. “I wondered if you were alive or if maybe you died giving birth to me. I tried looking for you for years after I found out that I was adopted.”

  “They told you?”

  “No, I accidentally,” Leah made air quotes, “found them in my dad’s dresser drawer.” The sting of that day pierced her heart as the memory replayed in her head. For so long she had hated herself for killing her father by finding the adoption papers. The doctor had said it was a massive heartache possibly caused by blocked arteries, but she believed the stress of her confronting him was the real cause of his sudden death. Maybe in time she would forgive herself and accept that she had no control over what had happened eleven years ago.

  Moore nodded.

  Leah swallowed, trying to keep her composure. “He said that they were going to tell me when I turned eighteen, but I found out when I was sixteen. I started searching and going to the hospitals, but they all said the same thing. The files were locked. Every time I passed a black woman of your age—and I didn’t even know that either—I looked at them for any resemblances to me.”

  Moore nodded. “Me too. Every time I saw a young woman your age, but I didn’t even know you were in Ohio, much less the town of Franklin.”

  Leah nodded, looking down at her hands, then back up again. Tears cascaded down her face. She didn’t want to cry but how could she not? The day she had waited her whole life for had arrived and she didn’t know what to do from here. Would they continue to meet and get to know each other? Or would Leah decide Adanya wasn’t worth her time?

  “All I know, is that it’s going to take some time. I can’t sit here and say that I’m glad that I finally found you. I am, but I’m also hurt,” Leah said, wiping away the tears from her cheek. “I want to take it slow, maybe meet once a week and talk,” Leah said. “We can get to know each other. I want to know more about my father when he was younger. Will that be all right?” Leah asked.

  Moore looked at Leah through her tears. “I’d like that, too. I want you to have this,” she said, sliding a thick manila envelope across the table.

  “What’s in it?”

  “Everything that I saved over the years about your father, Roland. There’re newspaper clippings in there and a few other things,” Moore said, then added. “Th
ey’re yours to keep. You deserve to have them.”

  Leah wiped away the tears as more came pouring out. “I’m not sure what to say but thank you.”

  “That’s all there is to say,” Moore said. “I wish he were here with us now. To see how beautiful and smart you are.”

  “He can, just like my dad,” Leah replied.

  48

  Kaitlyn was surprised when Adam took her in his arms and kissed her on the deck overlooking Lake Erie. The sun reflected off the lake, making the moment even more romantic. She was breathless when the kiss ended. She forgot how good he kissed. “Adam,” she whispered. He put a finger against her lips. She hadn’t noticed when she picked him up at the school that the side of his face had healed with minimal scarring, but he was still as handsome as she had remembered.

  “Don’t say anything. Kaitlyn, I love you more than anything, but before we go on, I need to know what your intentions are. Why did you write me that letter saying goodbye eight years ago?”

  She had wanted to explain to him about the letter. All the letters that Ben had kept from her. “I never wrote that letter to you, Ben did, and he wrote one to me that was supposed to be from you, saying goodbye. That you didn’t want to be with me anymore. I think he stole my mail when we were in college, way before he and I actually met. It’s the only scenario I can come up with. I found the letters last month, a week before the accident,” she explained. “I didn’t get a chance to ask him about them.”