I was wearing a Tux with matching black shoes. I was in a very unusual position. Lindsey’s dad had helped me sit on a small footstool in front of a kitchen chair they had arranged next to me for this occasion. Both moms were trying hard to hold back tears. Lindsey looked at me puzzled. My legs were bent so that I was kneeling in front of the chair.
“I need to show you something,” I said. I patted the seat of the empty chair next to me. She came over slowly and sat down. I could tell she was mystified by the arrangement. Suddenly comprehension flooded into her features. She looked at me. Her face turned pink nearly matching her dress. She looked at her mom who was already dabbing a Kleenex to her eyes in anticipation.
“Oh my,” Lindsey said. Her hand fluttered to her face and then to her heart.
I took her hands and held them. “Lindsey Schnetler,” I said, “I fell helplessly in love with you sometime in the last five years. You alone, of all people in this world, have my heart in your hands. You mean more to me than life itself. I want to share your life and I want you to share mine. Will you marry me?”
Her face lit up with indescribable joy. She flung her arms around my neck and kissed me full on the mouth for the first time in front of anyone. She laughed, cried, looked at her parents and mine, then slipped out of the chair, and knelt beside me. She kissed me, oblivious to anyone else. Then she said. “I will marry you, Jimmy Turner!”
I pulled a ring from under the footstool and put it on her finger. She stared at it. Then she kissed me again. She got up slowly and went to the table. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. “Thank you,” she said first to her parents and then to mine. She started to come back to me but turned and showed the ring to her mother. After her mother saw it, she showed my mom.
My dad got up and dabbed tears from his cheeks. He lifted me up and put me in the wheelchair. Lindsey came back to stand next to me. I took her hand and kissed it.
Our reservations were for 7:30 p.m. at a fabulous restaurant complete with valet service. Lindsey hugged me all the way there. When we went into the restaurant, Chuck and Cindy were already at the table. They stood up and hugged and then everyone sat down. Lindsey looked at me for an explanation as to why our best friends were there.
“I talked to your parents after I dropped you off at the mall today. When they gave me their blessings, I called Chuck and Cindy and asked them to meet us here so you could show off your ring.”
Cindy gasped. She grabbed Lindsey’s hand. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my GOSH! Lindsey! You’re engaged!”
Lindsey gave me such an approving look that my heart tried to escape my body.
Lindsey explained what happened while Cindy and Chuck sat with their mouths open. The waiter had to clear his throat for us to notice him. When the girls left for the bathroom before the food arrived, Chuck grabbed my arm. “You are one lucky dude. And god! What a romantic!”
After we ate, Lindsey and I drove to our hill overlooking the big city. We were so far from it that all we saw were the lights twinkling in the distance.
“I want to get married as soon as I turn eighteen,” Lindsey said as I turned off the motor.
“I’d like that too,” I admitted. “I was stopping here so we could talk about when.”
“So enough talking, Lindsey murmured.
That is when the kissing started.
It did not turn out that we could get married that soon. Both of our parents objected immediately and rather forcefully. I had to graduate from college first and they had to have time to plan the wedding. We agreed to set the date for June, a week after college graduation next year.
The year went by swiftly. Lindsey enrolled in Tennessee U. My last year was filled with research, tests, studies and projects leaving me exhausted by the time finals rolled around.
I did not graduate at the top of my class. Too many other activities prevented that but Steve offered me the job as researcher for his medical practice. He opened his own clinic and had six doctors working for him in Nashville. He stayed with the college program so I could graduate with him as my mentor.
Steve went to Hawaii as promised but had no success finding Dr. Laird. He seemed to have simply disappeared. Without enough time and the necessary resources to track him down, Steve came back disappointed. He vowed to continue trying. In the meantime we made very little progress on our own and I was disappointed so many times that I wondered if I was going to be able to live up to Lindsey’s dream, the one in which I rescued her.
My body continued to ache as my spine knitted itself together. I still had not discussed all the details with Lindsey because I wanted it to be a surprise when I did step out of the chair and walk. I felt stronger with every therapy session. The magical day for me was when I managed to support my weight on my own feet and let go of the parallel bars a month before graduation. It was too much to hope that I would walk across the stage and Dr. Lang assured me that I was nowhere near able to do that. It might take at least another year for me to take a step. But we were both encouraged.
Graduation was awesome. I sat in the crowd of graduates and waited my turn to wheel across the stage and take my diploma in hand and wave it at Lindsey and my parents who had supported me through thick and thin. There were many tears that day! Sweetest of all were Lindsey’s as we took time to ourselves—the last time we would have together until the wedding.
Chapter 15
Instead of getting married in June, we ended up pushing it back to August 15, between our birthdays.
Lindsey looked radiant on the arms of her stepfather as she walked gracefully up the aisle of the huge, packed church. Friends encouraged us from both sides of the aisle. Chess club members all sat on Lindsey’s side but winked at me when I came to the front of the church in the wheelchair with my best man, Chuck Singleton and my groomsmen flanking me. I smiled back and then turned my attention to the end of the aisle where the doors were closing. My heart raced and a lump rose into my throat as the song Lindsey had chosen for her triumphant walk down the aisle rose into the air and each silvered note announced for the entire world to hear that someone special was getting married tonight.
Lindsey took my hand as her dad went to sit down beside her mother. I could not see anything or anyone else in the entire church. Lindsey was in white, pure white with the most wonderful wedding dress I’d ever seen. Her shoes were white satin and her bouquet—yeah, it was a dozen Cataleya Orchids!
Both Lindsey and I spoke our vows without help. We had memorized them from the day we met even though we did not know it. Every moment of our lives was a testimony to the vows we spoke that day. I went first.
“Lindsey, I take you to be my wife. I will hold you forever in my heart and with these arms. There will never be anyone who could take your place. I am so filled with your beauty and your love that I see no other and will never see another. If I remain in this chair for the rest of my life, it will be a place where we both will sit. If I stand someday, my first act will be to hold you in my arms. I love you from the deepest part of my heart. I will forever. I pledge this to you for now and ever.”
Lindsey nearly broke into tears as she spoke her vows back.
“Jimmy Turner, you are my wholly adequate man. I could not conceive of life apart from you. I will complete you, love you, and cherish you as I have since I fell in love with you many years ago. You have my heart, Jimmy. I pledge this to you for now and ever.”
The rest of the ceremony was a blur. We climbed on a plane and four hours later were driving to the beach at Destin. She had made me promise to bring her there for our honeymoon and she was glowing as she drove the rental car from the airport. We left the unpacking for morning. We could not wait to be alone.
Chapter 16
We let ourselves into the beach house. Lindsey piled the luggage on my lap and I carried it up the ramp to the porch. I put the bags down on the porch and watched as she locked the car and came to where I was waiting for her at the threshold.
“I didn’t kn
ow that I was waiting for this moment all my life until right now,” I said. I reached up and took her hand. “I want to carry you over the threshold.”
Without the slightest hesitation, Lindsey turned and sat down on my lap. She settled in as if she had done this a hundred times before. I held her with a full heart. She was wearing jeans and a silk blouse. The fabric of her blouse slid with a whisper along my chest as she leaned back and offered me her warm, full lips. After the kiss, I reached down and powered the wheelchair across the threshold.
My earlier statement, about not having a wedding night could not have been further from the truth. This was not going to be like any other night! There was going to be one supreme difference. We would be in bed together. We could cuddle, hug, and kiss anytime we wanted to. We could look at each other for the first time. I could test the progress of my spinal cord to see if anything else had begun to come to life.
Suddenly it was awkward. We had the luggage inside the cabin; Lindsey had closed and locked the door, turned the air conditioner on and turned to face me with a look of expectation. I looked at her beautiful face and body and knew that I wanted to see her and let her see me but I did not know what to do about it.
We looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity before she leaned down and kissed me. Then she said, “Wait right here, Jimmy.”
I was baffled when she walked out of the cabin and disappeared into the night. Soon I heard water running. I wheeled my chair over to the window of the bedroom that I had occupied years earlier and saw her standing below, fully clothed, with the water running. The light that had been placed there to illuminate early morning or late evening bathers was off, but she reached over and flipped it on now that she saw me at the window. After snapping the light on, she walked into the shower still fully clothed. The water dampened her hair and face. She undid the buttons on her silk blouse and removed it, letting it fall to the ground. She stood in her bra and jeans and smiled up at me. Then, I suddenly realized that she had done this before when she was thirteen. I knew that she had done it before for my benefit but I had backed away from the window that time. Now I watched as she turned her back and removed her bra. Then she turned slowly until she was facing me.
The water stopped and the light went out. A moment later, I heard her squishing across the floor to the bedroom. Then she stood in the doorway and crooked her finger at me to come.
I let her help me get undressed and into bed. Both of us ignored the wet puddles on the floor wherever she stood. When I was settled, she smiled and took off her jeans and then her panties. My heart beat crazily as she left the light on while she ran a towel across her body. Then, damp but not wet, she rubbed her hair with a towel before she slipped into the sheets and put her arms around me. I felt complete and whole for the first time since the accident.
Lindsey’s eyes saw that I was physically ready for her. She touched me. “Can you feel anything down here yet?”
I could not.
She settled down and stroked my chest and face with her hand. “It won’t be long now,” she giggled. Then she kissed me and said, “We can wait.”
We fell asleep that night more content, more satisfied than either of us dreamed was possible.
The next morning I woke up and a dream of mine came true. She was sleeping on her side facing me. Her face was beautiful in the early morning light. I reached out and moved a strand of brown hair from her face. Her eyes opened, and she smiled at me. My heart filled to overflowing.
We made breakfast and ate on the front porch as the sun rose slowly overhead. Later we would go to the beach. Sometime this morning the same company, that rented the specialized wheelchair to me a few years earlier, would be there again with the same kind of chair.
We talked of our plans, held hands, and kissed. And we kissed and held hands and talked. When we weren’t kissing and holding hands and talking, we just looked at each other. Life was so rich!
When at last we came up for air, I looked lovingly at her face. I could not believe she was mine at last! I was in love with her. She had endured so much to stay with me, that I knew she loved me too. I wondered, as I looked into her brown eyes, when she fell in love with me. I could not remember asking her.
“Lindsey,” I asked quietly, “when did you fall in love with me?”
The wind blew gently through the porch and caressed her hair, blowing it into her face. She reached up, slid a finger along her hairline to tuck the errant strands behind her ear. “I remember the exact moment, Jimmy.” She smiled at me. Her teeth had come together nicely, without braces. She wrinkled her nose. “Do you remember the first vacation I went to Boston…the summer you got your car?”
I nodded. Mom and dad did not take a vacation that year.
“I sat in the back seat of the car, all by myself, and I missed you. I wasn’t very old and we had only been friends for a year.” She studied me. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t then. That was just the beginning of my awareness that I missed you when we were apart. I know we were friends already, but for me it was more than that.”
She considered her hands while she thought. “I noticed that you were changing—no, that’s not true—as you got over your anger and disappointment and began to believe in yourself, you started to become what you wanted to be.”
She giggled suddenly. “I’ve only had a year of college and only the very basics of psychology, but I know that when you found out you had a brain, you began to unfold in ways I could only admire.” She glanced away from her hands and looked into my face. “You’re the smartest man I know, Jimmy. I love talking to you because we can say anything to each other without getting mad. We want to understand. Do you know how much that means to me?” She looked earnestly at me.
I shook my head but then changed my mind. “Yes,” I said simply and honestly. “I think so… because I know how much it means to me.”
A van drove up and shuddered to a stop. I didn’t want to let the conversation die but it did anyway. Lindsey leaned over the table and kissed me before the delivery people could get out of the van and come to the door. “I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you, honey.” I did too. I could not fathom loving anyone else like I loved Lindsey—not if I lived to be a thousand years old.
When the wheelchair showed up, I got in and we raced to the beach. I could not wait a moment longer. I had endured months of agony to give Lindsey this gift, on this day, in this place!
We rolled across the empty, thick sand and stopped at the water’s edge. The sun was at 3:00 o’clock high but not hot. The breeze off the ocean flitted through Lindsey’s hair. I studied her profile as she stood looking across the endless water. I took her hand.
“Lindsey,” I said. “I want you to stand right there, okay?”
She moved to where I was pointing and struck a pose. Her bathing suit was a two-piece off the rack at the department store but it would not have mattered. She made everything look good. Her eyes registered alarm as I leaned down and folded the foot rests of the wheelchair out of the way. She held her breath as I grasped the armrests and hoisted myself up. I planted my feet solidly under me and then took a deep breath. I waited until a wave washed near and retreated. Then I let go of the wheelchair.
“Oh, Jimmy!” she cried. I opened my arms to her for the first time from a standing position and she moved inside them and put her head against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and felt the pressure of her arms on my back. We cried for joy and kissed. We stood like that until my body began to sway with the exertion and she helped me sit down.
“I have to mark this spot, Jimmy!” She looked around for something that would be permanent.
“Not really,” I said. “You see that pole right there?” I pointed up the beach directly behind me away from the water.
“Yes.”
“It was right here, in this spot that I told myself I would stand up and hold you on that day we came back here. It was the day after you told me you wanted to co
me here for our honeymoon.”
“Oh my,” Lindsey said weakly. She put her hand over her heart. “Oh Jimmy! I’m so glad you didn’t run me off that first week.”
I grinned at her. That was not the only surprise I had in store! But the second one would have to wait.
We strolled along the beach, she was barefoot and I was too. I couldn’t exactly feel my feet in the sand but I could feel something—pressure, the doctor told me. The year of crawling sensations I had endured, was fully repaid when I was able to stand and hug my wife, my darling Lindsey.
That night on the porch, we recalled the exact words she had spoken and wondered how it had managed to become reality. There was so much that had happened! There were so many things working against our happiness, and us until now. I would never be sad another day in my life! I let the breeze wash over my face and wondered how I could have gotten so lucky as to have Lindsey move in next door.
We dressed for supper in rather spiffy clothes. Lindsey wanted to show me off to perfect strangers, I guess. She was in charge because she had the keys. I let her pick the place. We went into Destin and ate at the Crabby Shack. It was too noisy for me but she loved it. I loved her so I loved it too.
The phone rang and I saw on the screen that it was Steve Singleton. “Hey! Steve!”
“I hope you are enjoying your honeymoon,” Steve said cheerfully. “I’ve got some good news for you.” His voice was distant, scratchy. I checked the screen. Only one bar was showing. The signal was not very strong in this part of Florida for some reason.
“Great!” I held my hand over the phone. “Steve says he’s got some good news for me.” I put the phone back to my ear. The noise in the restaurant made it hard to hear. “Steve, I need to get out of the noise. Hold on.” I looked at Lindsey who nodded.
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