'I do. I have a daughter, Anne Marie Ames. She will be starting college this fall on an Air Force scholarship.' She smiled at me as she laid this on me. I was absolutely stunned.
'Are you married or were you?'
'No, I've never been married, Anson. I was planning on getting married but her father was killed in a car accident before I ever knew I was pregnant. He was such a good man, a Marine jump jet pilot. He taught me everything I know about flying Harriers.' She paused for a brief second. 'My parents helped me raise her when it got tough on me. She made it easy though. She's a great kid.'
'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry so much.' I felt even sadder than before.
'No, really, it's okay. I came to terms with that grief twenty years ago. Besides it always cheers me up to think about Annie.'
'Well, okay then, how did you manage the Air Force as a single mom?' I had never heard of such.
'That part was simple. I wasn't in the Air Force yet. I was on scholarship, so they had to honor it provided I kept my grades up. I made a point to be on the dean's list every semester.' Tabitha's pride shone through the grief for a moment and she smiled.
'You
'Yeah, you and Einstein and Edison and countless others,' she goaded.
'No comparison. They had cultural and physical things to deal with. Me, I just like to drink beer,' I replied.
'And how has that worked out for you?' she laughed.
'Not too bad!' I guffawed, snorted, and hee-hawed as only a real Southern nerd can.
'Hey, will you guys hold it down—I have a headache!' Rebecca whispered lightly.
''Becca, honey how do you feel?' Tabitha grabbed her right hand, careful of the I.V. needle in her wrist.
'My arm hurts bad,' she said quietly.
'I'll take care of it.' I kissed her on the forehead and went to the nurse's station for help. The nurse showed her how to use the painkiller button and then told us to let her sleep or 'get out!'
As soon as the nurse left, 'Becca opened her eyes. 'Thanks.' She began crying.
'What is it? Are you still hurting?' Tabitha asked.
'My finger?' she asked, tears streaking her cheeks.
'Don't worry. They got all the parts back in the right places. The doctors don't even think you'll have any scars. They may do some laser treatment stuff in a few months or so,' I told her.
The nurse and Jim returned. The nurse told us that only two visitors at a time could stay. Since Jim was her 'husband' he should get to stay. I winked at Jim and kissed 'Becca goodbye.
'We'll see you tomorrow. Get better.' We waved on our way out.
We left the hospital feeling a little better that 'Becca had come around. I still felt responsible for whatever it was that had happened. I was so zoned out I drove right past the turn for the office, reflexively driving home. Tabitha tapped me on the arm.
'Anson?'
'I know. I missed the turn,' I looked over at her.
'Not that. I don't want to go back to that apartment and all of those boxes right now.'
'Do you want to come over to my place? I've got plenty of room.'
'Yes.'
CHAPTER 6
It had taken months for us to figure out what had happened. Rebecca had nearly completely healed by September. She had a laser treatment to do in another month and her ring finger was still in a splint, but other than that she was nearly back to normal. She had even started light karate workouts with kicks and some aerobics and been on her road bike some. There had been setbacks though. Her allergies had started acting up on her while she was recovering. The congestion led to sinusitus, which then led to bronchitis. She has continued to have a nagging cough and a bit of a wheeze, but she is getting there.
She recollected that she had been standing at the computer watching the seven hundredth Clemons Dumbbell (as she and Jim had started calling them) being constructed. Her left hand was in the vacuum chamber glove and she was adding materials to the new process. She recalled a flash of light and then everything exploded in front of her. That is all she could remember.
Jim, 'Becca, and I had tried and tried to piece the accident together, but were getting nowhere. No one could remember enough for the accident to make any sense at all. We decided to take a mental break and put in some physical playtime that Saturday. Jim and I were discussing her recollection of the accident on our way up to the mountain bike trailhead at Monte Sano State Park. Mountain biking is one of the coolest things. It requires endurance, strength, balance, and lots of nerve. Jim had turned me onto it a few years back and I was hooked. 'Becca usually goes with us and wears us out, but she was still on the 'injured reserve' list. As I was putting on my shoes he asked me about the flash of light.
'I can't understand what the flash of light was. Could we have tapped into some fundamental force of the fabric of spacetime?' he asked.
'Before we get all hocus-pocus let's rule out standard stuff first,' I warned. 'There were some big pieces of plexiglass and one piece of aluminum that slammed into her body pretty hard. It's not unbelievable that one of them hit her in the head. You've had your noodle knocked around before. You know that flashes of light aren't uncommon
