Lightning Strikes Twice

by Erik Schubach

  She didn’t say a word as she stepped up to me and pulled me into a tight hug that almost took my breath away. “Candice,” she said.

  I nodded and stared almost in awe of Victoria’s mythical creature. The person I knew so much about yet knew nothing. This was the woman that Vicky was in love with and I saw a dichotomy of vulnerability and strength in the woman as I said, “Mia.”

  Then I introduced her to Leigh and my son. She filled us in. “She was… ummm… running. It w-was my fault. She suffered a heart attack on the road and ran into a p-pole. They were able to get her heart stabilized. The EMTs had recognized the symptoms and started treatment right away, the doctors say that’s what saved her.” Her voice wavered. “They believe she will pull through, she broke her left arm and crushed her left hand. They have b-been operating for two hours now on it, they are worried that if they don’t act now, she may lose circulation in it and lose some fingers.”

  Abbey wrapped an arm over her shoulders protectively as her voice caught. Then we all sat down in silence as we waited to hear from the doctors. I was beyond tired. I felt the corners of my mouth twitch up in a smile when I saw Mia absently nudging the magazines on the table between the chairs with her finger. Straightening them out in the manner Victoria had lovingly described to me on many occasions.

  I took the time to study the woman as we waited and Leighton held my hand. I couldn’t help but see each detail, no matter how small, that Vicky had described. It was amazing how accurate all of her descriptions were. My heart ached a little for the woman as I saw that shadow in her intelligent eyes that Vicky had described almost too accurately. There was a pain there that would never fade, the pain of the loss of her wife, but I saw another pain in there too. I could see that she wasn’t just worried about Victoria, she was in love with my friend and she was terrified to relive what she had gone through with Vee.

  I decided then and there that she was worthy of my friend and that I truly liked this woman sitting in front of me.

  Chapter 13 – Memories

  I almost jumped out of my chair when the surgeon walked into the room. His blue scrubs were covered in blood and he was taking the paper cap off his head to let his hair down. I blurted, “H-how is she?”

  The man almost ignored me as he looked over to Frank and Maira. “They are wheeling her out to recovery now and…”

  Frank’s eyes were hard as he spoke firmly to the man, “Don’t ignore her, Ms. Jacobs has my daughter’s power of attorney and all medical decisions go through her.” Gawd I loved Frank like he was my own father. I can still remember my father from before the accident that took him from me and Frank has a lot of the same qualities.

  The surgeon looked between us then turned to me in half apology, half… I knew that look and hated it. Judgment. He said with a little distaste in his voice, “My apologies, I’m not used to, ummm unconventional pairings. Your ummm… life partner is being wheeled out to recovery. Things went well, we won’t know for sure until she is conscious, but I think we saved the hand without much nerve damage.”

  I glared at the man. A large part of me was relieved that Vicky seemed out of danger now, and another part of me that Valla had taught to never be a victim and stand strong said, “Th-thank you. Not that it is any of your b-business but she isn’t my wife, but if she were, she wouldn’t appreciate your dismissive attitude nor your judgment of our lifestyle either.”

  He took a long hard look at me then everyone else in the room, who had similar looks as me on their faces. He seemed to think about it for a moment and his head slightly nodded when he came to some sort of decision with himself. “You’re right, I’m sorry ma’am. It’s just been a long night, I’m sure it has been even longer for you.”

  I just nodded and he added, “They should be moving her back into her room within the hour, say four AM, then you can see her. We don’t know when she’ll regain consciousness though, she has a concussion and we’ve had to keep her in a medically induced coma to prevent brain swelling. But from everything I’ve seen, it all looks promising.”

  I nodded. “Thank you doctor.” He nodded back and left and I started silently crying again, this time in relief as my daughter pulled me to her shoulder. I looked over and Sammie looked to be in as bad a shape as I was, so I held a hand out to her and the joined in the hug with us.

  I released the girls, took a deep breath, and straightened myself up. I would be strong for Victoria. I looked over at Frank and said, “Thank you for that.”

  He just nodded with a hard look toward the door and the smile of a shark. “Hey, you’re one of my girls, nobody treats my girls that way.”

  Maira grinned evilly and added, “Damn straight.”

  I smiled again and said, “I love you two.”

  Maira’s smile softened as she replied, “And we love you like a daughter Mia.”

  I looked around, everyone looked beat. June offered, “Cafeteria? Coffee?” This got muttered replies of agreement and we all shuffled out. I reached over and grabbed Candice’s hand as she passed and gave it a quick squeeze and let go. She gave me an appreciative smile. I followed our little procession with a hyperactive blonde beauty on my mind.

  We all settled in the far corner of the almost deserted cafeteria with a pot of freshly brewed coffee in silence as everyone sipped their coffee. Candi and Maira excused themselves to go change Brandon’s diaper. When they returned, June looked around and then started talking, “Before she returned to Seattle, I had only known Victoria by reputation. Not only is she one of the most sought after international business consultants, but my mother shared a story about her with me once.”

  She smiled and tilted her head in memory, then she winked over at Skylar. “Mom was looking for someone who could sing with enough emotion to sing one of her songs for her anniversary with mother. So she organized the first Karaoke Queen competition to that end.” This got matching grins from the Davenports and Skylar and Kim.

  She grinned in mischief. “The competition was full but Frank here, my mom’s attorney, had called mom, telling her that his daughter, Vicky, had found the person she was looking for, in London. Mom told him that the competition was full up. When he told Victoria that, she wouldn’t let it drop and told him that he didn’t understand, that this was the person that Mandy needed for her song. She found the girl she was speaking about again and took a video of her singing in some seedy backstreet karaoke bar.”

  Her mischievous grin turned a little more smug if possible as she looked around. “She insisted that he show mom the video that ‘If Mandy sees this she will agree.’ So Frank sent the video. Mom says her exact words when she saw Skylar Roth singing a cover of Oceans of Blue on that video was ‘Holy shit on a cracker. She’s going to sing my song.’ So she reached out to get Skylar to the States.”

  She exhaled and relaxed. “So in effect…” she looked between Skylar and Kimi, “…it was because of Victoria’s insightfulness, and habit of not taking no for an answer, that resulted in the world getting one of the most influential bands of all time, Satin Thunder, and Kim and Sky finding their true loves in each other.”

  Skylar took it up from there. “Back then I was so bloody terrified of showing people my burns, my disfigurement, my shame. I hid myself away and hid the burns under my clothes and behind my hair. But the music drove me, besides my baby girl, it was the only thing that gave me peace.”

  I didn’t miss Kim’s hand discretely capture Sky’s. She shyly smiled fondly at her as she continued, “I ghosted as many Karaoke bars as I could, and even did a few amateur nights in bars to sing my own songs. One night, I had just finished a cover of a Miranda Keys number when this tiny blonde woman came to my table in the shadowed back corner and just sat down and started yammering at me like we were in the middle of a conversation.”

  She was grinning now. “She said at quite possibly warp speed, ‘So this Karaoke Queen competition is like right down your alley. Hmmm is it alley like alley cat or bowling alley? Oh, I’d
so make an awesome bowler! Bowling alley makes more sense, though I do love cats.’ My first reaction would have been to call the loony bin to let them know I found an escaped patient if it weren’t for her eyes. Those ice blues had a hard intelligence I had never seen before. They seemed to be scanning me, flicking all over and taking everything in.”

  Her eyes softened as she spoke, “Then she gave me this silly grin and said slower, ‘Sorry, I’m a little excitable sometimes. Victoria, Victoria Davenport.’ She shook my hand.” This got almost everyone to snort. That was Vicky.

  Then she got lost in the memory, “She looked directly at the right side of my face like she could see under my hair and said, ‘You shouldn’t hide your scars you know. You’re a flippin’ beautiful person.’ I didn’t know what to say, a Yank stranger just coming out and saying that. She didn’t strike me as a bloody git. Then she just said, ‘So what about it? Entering the competition or what?’ like we had been in some sort of discussion about it. She wouldn’t take no as an answer. I finally caved and she somehow, in the next couple days, arranged for me to compete in Karaoke Queen, where I met my Flower. I never saw Victoria again until just recently. She was like my fairy godmother.”

  The look Skylar shot Kim was so full of love it was almost tangible in the air. Maira was smiling as she started speaking, “That’s my girl. I remember back when she was six, she was always getting in trouble in class, calling the teacher out on any mistakes he made. Recalling every detail of lessons like she was reading them from a book, explaining what the teacher said then explaining what the text book said down to what page, paragraph and line number it was on.”

  She pursed her lips. “The school district wanted us to put her in a school for the gifted or advance her a few grades, Frank violently disagreed. He wanted her not to miss out on the social interactions a normal child would have. We both believe that is half of growing up, learning isn’t just books and facts, there has to be an emotional aspect to make a balanced individual.”

  Maira grinned. “Vicky started tutoring all the kids in her class. Unheard of in grade school. She befriended the outcasts and outsmarted the bullies. She was popular with almost everyone in her school except her teachers. She has always looked out for others to a fault. Kids started realizing this and took advantage of her generosity and the jealousy of her intelligence started. The bullies seized on this and the relentless teasing began. It always seemed to just roll off her back, but I could see her pulling back from personal connections. Things happened after that. Things I’m not proud of to this day. But she never seemed to make any friends anymore. All of her smiles seemed faked.”

  She looked straight at me, locking eyes for a moment and a soft smile returned to her lips. “That is until her freshman year in college. She seemed almost giddy in our phone conversations that she had found some people she could see as lifelong friends. She would never stop talking about these mysterious Vee and Mia girls. Then one day, she brought them home with her. I never have in my life seen three friends so close together. They made my baby so very happy and my girl was smiling genuinely again. I quickly grew to love those two girls like my own children.” Maira reached over and grasped my hand in thanks. I smiled at her through watery eyes.

  I nodded and then said, “My first meeting with Vicky was almost surreal. My first impression of her was a stereotypical ditsy blonde. She was so hyperactive and off on a million tangents. But then I got a chance to sit down and speak with her the following day. I was shocked at her intelligence. I swear that to this day, I have never met another person as smart as Victoria Davenport. That girl is so amazing. She quickly became part of my unconventional family.”

  I smiled in memory. “I spent most of my life floating through the foster system, I didn’t really connect with very many people because of my afflictions. There was only one couple from the dozens of foster parents that seemed to even genuinely care. But then I met my Valla and my Vicky. And I built a family around them. Frank and Maira were so accepting of us and I felt my family growing. Then Abbey came along…”

  I smiled at the light of my life and my baby girl blushed. “… my second miracle. It is really hard to define what we had with Vicky. Both Valla and I really felt as if Vicky were Abbey’s third mother. It never struck us as strange. Now after she has returned from London, I think I finally see. I think on some level, I was always in love with her. Now I know it… and this accident scares the hell out of me. It was almost as if I were reliving what had happened to my wife all over again and I don’t think my heart can take that again. I know I should feel I am betraying Valla, and a tiny piece of me does, but I know as a fact that Valla would be happy that it is with Vicky that I found happiness again. Vic isn’t replacing her, it is just something… new.”

  I looked over at Frank and Maira and lowered my eyes. “Frank, Maira, I’m sorry but I think I’m in love with your daughter.” Then I gacked out a “Gleep!” as Maira gave me a death hug.

  She whispered, “You two are the densest and slowest daughters we have. It is about time you admit it.” I looked around and everyone was nodding like it was common sense. Oh Gawd, I just wanted to blush away into a hole somewhere.

  I hit a count in my head and I stood up quickly. “It’s four.” It was like watching a sea of lemmings as everyone except my Abbey swept their gaze to the clock on the wall behind me. Abbey just had a self-satisfied smirk on her face. I knew she was just silently chiding me with our ages old joke about clocks being jealous of my internal timer.

  We all made our way down the hall and into the elevator. Then we made our way to Vicky’s room just to be stopped by a doctor at the door. The silver-haired, pleasantly plump lady with the bifocal spectacles said, “Sorry. She just woke up, but she needs her rest, we just administered a sedative and she will be out again in a few minutes. I can only let one or two of you in. Normal visiting hours start at eight.”

  We all looked around, everyone was looking at me. I swallowed then grabbed Maira’s hand and dragged her into her daughter’s room with me. I know how I would feel if it were Abbey in there. The look of relief on her face told me I did the right thing.

  Vicky looked over at us in a drug induced haze and she smiled then cast her eyes down in shame. I let Maira go to her first. I looked at Vicky as her mother took her good hand and raised it to kiss the back of it, mumbling, “Hey baby.”

  My soul ached as I looked at the battered blonde. She was all bruised up and with that pink cast on her left arm, she looked so much like she did after we were attacked at the Steam Plant Club back in college in that hate crime. So fragile. My stomach was turning in knots seeing her like this. They spoke for a minute, Vicky was mostly out of it. Then Maira looked at me and told Vicky goodbye and she stopped beside me and said, “I’ll get everyone out there situated. We’ll get them back here for normal visiting hours.”

  I nodded and handed her my keys. “Thank you. Have Abbey set Candice, Leighton and the baby up at my place.” She nodded and kissed me on the cheek and left me with a groggy Victoria.

  I pulled up a chair beside her. She wouldn’t look at me until I grabbed her hand and laced our fingers. I marveled again at how perfectly our hands fit together. I stroked her matted blonde locks with my other hand and she looked over at me. I smiled warmly and whispered, “Hi.”

  It looked like she smiled against her will and she said, “Hi.”. Her eyelids were drooping and it looked like she was fighting the drugs, but they were winning as she kept closing her eyes.

  I kissed her cheek and said softly, “You had me scared Vic. Get some sleep, then we can talk about me being in love with your hyper-blonde ass.”

  She smiled and drifted off into a restless sleep. Something about our hands touching was draining away all the anxiety in me. I glanced over to her left hand, it was wrapped in dozens of layers of gauze. I just sat there, holding her hand and watching her breathe, counting each breath. I drifted off myself around one thousand and four.

  Cha
pter 14 – Waking Up

  I floated in a hazy world of jumbled thoughts. I recognized it, my thoughts were always laser focused unless I was drunk or drugged. I used to get blindingly drunk just to shut out the thoughts and voices. But there were a few times in my life that I had drugs in my system that impaired my cognitive processes. Like the time at the hospital after I was beat with a bat at the Steam Plant, or the time at the institute where the psychologists tried drugs to quiet my mind. I was reduced to a zombie vegetable. Oh, I’d so make an awesome zombie! Brainz!

  So I knew this was like one of those times. I tried to piece things together, did I have a break, was I back in the ward? No, there was something about an accident. Yes! That was it I was in a car crash. I was… oh god… I was running again. I was… wait, so I remember Mia being here with me? Normally I can recall every moment of my life with the exception of the times I passed out drunk or was drugged like this.

  I tried to rewind my memories, it was a confusing blur and flashes of clarity. I kept getting distracted by the pain in my left hand. Wait, right there! I rewound again. There was Mia’s face, creased with worry. There was something attached to the memory. Ahh, there it was, the warmth of her hand in mine, she had been beside me in my hospital room. She said something. The words tried to form themselves in my head. It was almost like I was resisting rebuilding them. Then my mind heated up as I made out the words. “…in love with your hyper-blonde ass” She loves my ass? Damn, I’m jealous of my ass. Wait, come on brain think, this means something. Oh, my ass is connected to me… did she love… me?

  This thought filled me with warmth and I let this fuzzy cloud I was in take me from this half-consciousness. I felt myself smile as sleep took me fully again.