Alex sat down, propped her crutches against the desk, opened up her laptop, and pulled up her book. She began to edit as Rachel read about an important piece of her past. Some time later, she looked up to find Rachel watching her. She saved her revisions, and shut down the computer. "What are you thinking?"
"I was just wondering how a four-year-old child manages to escape a grown man on a murderous rampage."
Alex looked down at the floor as she slowly began to tell the story. "Our mother tried to protect us. She hid us in the closet when she heard him coming. We saw him beat her before he stabbed her to death." She took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I was terrified, and ran out of the room. My sister followed me, and shoved me under the recliner before he found us. She refused to tell him where I was so he killed her and started looking for me." She paused, lost in the memories of that fateful day. When she finally refocused, Rachel was watching her, patiently waiting for her to continue. "He never found me."
"How long did you hide?"
"The police found me, quite by accident, two days later when they were processing the scene. That's when I first entered the system, and my first of countless foster homes." She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest as her right knee began to bounce. Her body language screamed out her pain and discomfort with the subject.
"I have a feeling we are going to revisit this many times over, but I think we can move on for today."
Alex nodded, grateful for the permission to change the subject. "I needed to put it behind me and move on. The only way I could even begin to do that was change my name. Too many people knew my name, and were afraid of me. I wanted to remove all ties to my father, so I changed my name. A few days later I ended up in a new home and a new school, and suddenly I was Alexis Mohr." She leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees as she stared at the floor. "The new family sucked. Like so many, they were in it for the money provided by the state. It took a few more years for things to settle down, and for me to find a family I could stay with for more than six months. I found that when I was fourteen, when I moved to a new town a few miles away. That's where I met Coach Johnson and was first introduced to softball." She sat back and looked at Rachel who wore a puzzled expression. "What is it?" she asked.
Rachel looked at her a moment longer as she tried to work through the clues. "I’m sorry, it’s just that I knew your name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Just now I realized why it’s familiar, and am trying to figure out if you are the Alexis Mohr I used to idolize."
Alex frowned. "Idolize? That’s pretty strong."
"Maybe, but she was amazing on the diamond. As a matter of fact, her nickname was The Queen of Diamonds. She broke records for strikeouts, and could throw a ball better than any other pitcher on the planet at the time. She had an incredible batting average too." Rachel chuckled. "Every guy and lesbian I knew had a crush on her. She was the complete package. She was a remarkable two position ball player, and incredibly beautiful."
Alex shook her head and laughed. "It sounds to me like you still have a crush on her. Does your wife know?" She couldn’t help but smile at Rachel as she blushed slightly. "No one is that good, Ray."
"I haven't thought about her in years." She grabbed the tablet and typed the name into the search engine. "She was that good. I’ll show you." As the screen filled with results, she scrolled through until she found the article in a popular magazine with her favorite pictures and opened it. "Look at how hot…" She looked up from the tablet as her jaw dropped. "Oh shit." She looked between the tablet and Alex’s laughter filled eyes several times before turning the tablet off and setting it back down. She narrowed her eyes and glared at Alex who laughed harder. "It's not that funny."
Alex wiped her eyes and tried to catch her breath. "It really was, Ray. The look on your face."
Rachel sat back and watched quietly as she waited for her to regain control. Once she was sure she wouldn’t burst into laughter again, she asked, "Will you tell me something?" Alex looked up and nodded. "Who's Ray?"
Alex smiled wistfully. "Ray was my teacher, my confidant, and above all she was my protector. She took care of me when Mom couldn’t. When Father was there she was Raychel and I was Roberta, but when it was just the three of us, and we were safe, she was Ray and I was Lexi." She looked up at Rachel. "How did you know I called her Ray?"
Rachel wiped a tear from her eye. "Did you know you’ve been calling me Ray for the last hour or so?"
Alex frowned as she thought about it. "I didn’t realize, I’m sorry."
"There’s no need to apologize. I don’t mind it at all. I just wanted to be sure you were aware of it." She smiled and shrugged as she said, "I kind of like it actually, if you don’t mind."
Alex stood and walked over to the window and looked out onto the courtyard for a moment as she thought about her sister. "I have so few memories of her."
"I don’t want to take her place, Alex. I just want to be your friend for as long as you’ll let me, and your therapist for as long as
