Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) (5 page)

“I’m not a medic, jackass, I’m a Corpsman. Medics are in the army – they only train in band aids and IVs. We Navy guys get far more specialized training.” The two chuckled at each other before falling back into a more comfortable silence.

Ski asked hesitantly, “So, who is she anyway?”

Max didn’t answer for a long time; he didn’t even make an effort to look in Ski’s direction. I began to wonder if he’d even heard the question when he finally spoke. The sound of his voice was labored, and I could hear the shakiness reverberating as he spoke, “She was my girlfriend, the love of my life - probably more than that.”

“Was? Did she dump you or something?”

Max shook his head. “I killed her.” Another really long pause from Max and my heart sunk. The guilt my mother told me about was not at all embellished. I could see that Max really believed he had a hand in what had happened to me. Max cleared his throat and in a near monotone voice he finally continued, “Not on purpose, and not by my own hand, but if it weren’t for me she would still be alive and I would still be following her around like a love-struck puppy.” Max’s voice was so full of sorrow I wrapped my arms around him, willing him to feel me touch him, wanting more than anything for him to know that I was right here, I was with him, that I was fine.

Ski could tell he needed to tread lightly. He propped his head up off of the dirt, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He paused and it was obvious that he wanted to know more, but argued with himself on how he should ask. Finally in a quiet voice, not making eye contact with Max, he asked, “What happened?”

Max shook his head and he hesitated, weighing how much to share with this near stranger. I guess extreme measures offer some form of closeness, or camaraderie, where it’s okay to completely open yourself up. Max looked at Ski and saw that he was waiting for some sort of an answer. I could see Max was reluctant to say anything, but finally broke the silence with, “I’ve never really talked to anyone about it before. I’m not sure if I can…describe it.”

Ski silently encouraged Max to go on – it didn’t look like morbid curiosity. I think Ski truly wanted to help Max, to relieve some of the burden he’d been carrying around. Max finally continued with, “She had just lost a friend of hers. I didn’t like the guy, but that was how Lauren was – always fighting for the underdog, you know? He was murdered right there in front of her. She took it really hard, so I thought if I could get her away from everything, it would do her some good, get her mind off the loss. We decided to go camping for a couple weeks in the mountains. The first day we’d been riding horses up the mountain all day; we were both pretty stiff. We found a campsite and I secured the horses, at least I thought I did. We were setting up the camp and something spooked the horses. One of them broke loose and took off down the mountain. I went after it and left Lauren alone. I was gone maybe twenty minutes. I had just caught the stupid horse and was headed back up the mountain when I heard the most horrific scream. It was Lauren.” He went silent for a minute. “When I close my eyes, I can still hear her screams. I’ll never forget that sound. I let the stupid horse that I had chased down the mountain go and galloped back up. When I got there…”

Max went silent. For at least five minutes he said nothing. Tears were flowing down his face, staining his cheeks and his neck. I tried to comfort him, but he still couldn’t feel my arms around him. I began whispering to him, “I’m okay, I’m really okay.” But just like before no sound came out. I knelt there on the ground wishing there was some way for him to feel me.

Max found his voice again, “I got there and she’d been attacked by a bear. She was…” this time he didn’t finish.

Ski must have sensed that Max couldn’t say anymore, so he prodded, “I’m sorry, man. So she just died right there?”

Max nodded. After a pause he followed, “Technically she didn’t die there, she was ripped to shreds but she was a fighter, her body wouldn’t give up. I check in with her mom every now and again, but there hasn’t been a change in nearly three years – she’s still comatose. Her doctor even told me it was time to move on with my life, that there was no chance she’d ever recover; he was just waiting for her body to shut down.”

Max finally looked at Ski, and the pain looked to be subsiding a little. “I was with her after she got shot and it really didn’t even phase her. She was so close to death one minute and three days later she was fine. I was with her right after her friend was killed – all she wanted to do was catch the murderer – none of that ‘
poor little me crap
.’ I figured there was no way that some stupid bear could do her in. The screwy part of the whole situation was that there wasn’t any reason for the coma, not medically at least. But I couldn’t watch her waste away anymore. That’s how I ended up here.

Everywhere I looked, all I saw was Lauren. When I closed my eyes, I couldn’t escape her screams. I couldn’t go to work. I just sort of lost a year waiting for her to wake up. After her doctor told me that he was just waiting for her to die, I knew I needed to get away. I couldn’t watch her…I wasn’t able to protect her, and it was my fault it happened in the first place.”

I couldn’t believe Max had carried all this with him. His conversation with Ski gave me a whole new perspective. Max’s voice was much calmer, less emotional when he continued, “I was an inactive reservist in the Navy, had been since my summer after high school. One day I couldn’t take it anymore - I told her goodbye and walked into a Navy recruiting office. I pleaded with the guy to activate me, and get me anywhere away from there. How I got attached to an Army unit in Afghanistan, as a Navy Corpsman, still baffles me.”

Ski nodded at him, “From my perspective, I’m glad you did. If you weren’t attached with us on this mission - my wife would be burying what was left of me.”

The two men eased back into the strained silence from before. I looked at Max, who looked like he had taken a ride on an emotional roller coaster and was definitely ready to get off. Ski, who had looked near death’s door when I arrived, seemed to have somehow improved.

I stood up and walked to the entrance of their make-shift shelter. I looked into the sky and saw the constellation Orion, twinkling back at me. This had always been one of my favorites. Not knowing where Max was, was far less frightening when we were still under the same sky, even if we were half a world or so away from one another.

I walked back over to Max, still seated on the floor, and I was content to stay with him as long as I was able to. The radio came to life in Max’s hand, “Fox two three, this is Ranger six nine, extraction ETA five minutes.”

Max’s face lit up as he responded back on the radio, “Ranger six nine, confirmed fox two three is awaiting extraction, ETA five minutes.” He jumped up, grabbed his gear, threw it on his back, and started pulling Ski’s willing body to the doorway.

Just as before my vision began to blur; I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay long enough for the rescue. It was okay because at least I knew he was being rescued, that he wasn’t stuck up on a mountain with no food or water, baking in the sun. The veranda came back into focus, and my heart was beating fast with the idea that maybe today Max would get my mom’s voice mail and know I’m fine.

I left Joe on the veranda and went back to my room. I could feel a warmth radiating inside me. Max was okay, he’d know that I was okay, soon. I decided to take a shower, relax a little, wait for his call. As I undressed, I looked in the full-length mirror. It was the first time I could bring myself to really look at the slashes all over me. I had been sliced on nearly every inch of my body; the only place without scars were my face and hands. I’ve never been all that vain, but the scars were huge. I would wear them the rest of my life - a constant reminder to Max. After seeing his guilt first hand, I wondered if he’d ever be able to look at me again?

If I’m repulsed at the sight of me, how will he feel?

I didn’t hear from Max the day that he was rescued, or even the day after that. I was feeling a little sorry for myself wondering when I would get some sort of word from Max. It was a little easier knowing that he was fine, but the silence throbbed. I was so jumpy last night that my mom asked the nurse to check the medications I had been given, thinking I might be close to an overdose of some kind. When I closed my eyes, I tried to make the tunnel appear and thought only of Max. But the silence continued to torture me, no contact at all from Max, and I couldn’t make this stupid
sight thing
work at all.

I woke up the next morning with an ache in my heart that became more painful by the minute. I stared at the network news channels to see if a helicopter had been shot down, or a convoy had been attacked, but nothing. The emptiness wouldn’t go away, and I called my mom again to see if she had heard from Max. She hadn’t. She didn’t act like my question bothered her in the least, even though I had asked her the same one every day since the big wake up. I knew in my heart that the minute she had any contact with him she would drop whatever she was doing to tell me, but I couldn’t help calling her and asking the question anyway.

As I sat staring at the world news for the fifth time, Joe rushed into my room. It was nearly time for breakfast, so when I saw him I got to my feet and started toward the door. Joe was so excited he almost sounded giddy, “Loraine, you aren’t the most popular person in the wing anymore. I just got a call from my grandson. He’s going to be here in a few hours. Ha! Now it’ll be my turn to share my visitor with you!”

He and I had a running joke that because not enough of his friends and family were
showing him the love
he could borrow one of my visitors whenever he felt the need. Truth be told, he was a widower who had outlived two of his children, and most of his friends didn’t drive. I didn’t spend time with him because I felt sorry for him. I genuinely liked his company, so it was disheartening to see him sitting off in the rec room by himself every time someone came to see me. After a while, all my family and friends just knew that he was part of the package deal when they came to see me.

My dad and he swapped fishing stories, my mom offered to go water his plants, and Seth even lost a few games of backgammon to him. Joe never complained that he was lonely, but I thought that may be part of the reason he opted to go to the assisted living area with me after he was cleared by his doctor to leave the nursing home.

When we went to breakfast, Joe’s manners with the cooking staff had taken a turn for the better. He even commented on how tasty the biscuits and gravy were this morning. Of course, his normal crotchetiness toward them only made them believe his comment to be disingenuous, but I told myself it was the thought that counted, not whether the staff believed him.

Normally we went out to the veranda after breakfast so he could burn one, but today he said he was going to go tidy things up and wait for his grandson to arrive. I told him to swing by later, and I made my way back to my room. I was fixated on the television again, flipping among all the cable news stations, trying to get an updated status on the war and listening for any war casualties.

A couple hours after breakfast, Joe trotted into my room. He was bubbling over with enthusiasm as he nearly yelled, “Loraine, I want to you meet my grandson – he just got back from the war.” Joe turned back toward his grandson who was just stepping through my doorway and said, “Max, this is my partner in crime around here. She was my smoking escort when we were in the high security wing, then we transferred to this old folk’s fun house together. We’re both ready to bust outta here.”

I turned around to greet Joe’s grandson. As I held out my hand, I froze, the only way to describe it was – the - earth – stood – still.

Max and I stood staring at each other for mere seconds, that could just as easily have been a lifetime. My heart stopped, my stomach knotted, and tears clouded my eyes. All these days of longing for him, of feeling as though a part of me were missing - evaporated in that instant. I ran to him and nearly knocked him over with my clumsy but welcomed embrace. I felt steel arms wrapped around me as my whole body melted. We were tangled up with each other, and I could feel him kissing the top of my head. I loosened my embrace on his neck just far enough for my lips to find his. No words, but electricity pulsed through me with every pump of my heart, and fire ripped through the rest of my body.

It was Max, he was right here with me. The very first kiss we ever shared back in my hospital room after being shot was undiluted chemistry, a magnetic pull to him. This was so very much more…there are no words. For more than two years he believed that I was gone for good. Finding me here, he held me tighter than I thought possible. His shock coupled itself with my longing for him, and I don’t believe a chisel could have separated the two of us. As I forced my lips away from his to look at him, the shock had not subsided in his expression.

Max started several questions, “How did you…? When did…? Are you okay? It’s really you?”

I just nodded, too excited to say anything, desperately wanting to just cling to him. We stood in each other’s embrace, both too overcome to speak. I touched my hand to his face, the stubble I had felt days before was replaced by his smooth skin, the sun-dried chapped lips had recovered, and all the grit from the dirt and sand was washed clean away. It was my Max, the one I had lost camping, not the one I had seen on a foreign mountain. It wasn’t until Joe had cleared his throat a couple times that either of us even remembered he was in the room.

Joe said awkwardly, “I take it you two’ve met?”

Max pivoted to Joe, while continuing to hold on to me, “Gramps – this is Lauren, this is the Lauren I told you about.”

Joe looked confused, “The girl that got attacked by a bear? I thought she was dead.”

Max’s expression was shameful when he answered, “She was in a coma and the doctors told me…” Max turned his attention from Joe to me and continued, “They told me you had no chance. They told me you would never wake up. I’m so sorry, Lauren. I never would have left. I really didn’t even dream of ever seeing you like this again. I am so sorry for everything.”