"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 are an amazing woman Tabitha. I barely made good enough grades to keep from getting kicked out of school." I laughed at that.
"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 with that." I was still grasping for straws. You know what they say about drowning men.
"You ready?" He hopped on his bike as he asked.
Click! Click! I popped my cleats into the pedals and stood up on the bike hopping it slightly off the ground three or four times.
"Last one to the switchback buys the first pitcher!" I started hammering up to the trailhead in about gear two-three (eleventh gear) getting the jump on Jim. He pedaled up beside me not even breathing hard yet.
"You cheat, old man!"
"I'll show you old!" I cranked my right shifter down changing to about seven so I was in fifteenth gear. Then I moved my posterior further back on the saddle so I could push the pedals through and over the top of the stroke. Once I got rolling good, I cranked up to three on the left shifter and up to two on the right one. Now I was in eighteenth gear and in my hill-climbing stroke. My legs are stronger than Jim's, so I knew I could take him on the hill. The trek up the mountain to the switchback trailhead is a good couple of miles at a grade of at least forty-five degrees. A good warm-up.
By the time I got to the switchback at the top of the mountain I was at least fifty yards ahead of Jim. I dropped back down a couple of gears and stood up and dropped my center of gravity back as far behind the saddle as I could and dove straight down the switchback trail. The switchbacks are about every forty yards or so on that particular trail and they're very steep. The worst part is that there are trees and stair steps all across and down the trail. I don't recommend it for beginners. The first time I tried it I had my center of gravity too far forward and did and "endo" right over the handlebars. Had I not known how to fall from years of being thrown in karate, I would've been seriously injured.
The trail was much too technical and tricky for me to look back and see where Jim was. I turned a switchback and then I caught a glimpse of him. To make up time he'd decided to forego the switchback, bunny hopped his bike off the trail, and turned head first down the mountain at ninety degrees to the switchback. His body was way behind the saddle and he was screaming.
"Let's go, you old fart!" he yelled as he tore down the mountain, blazing his own trail.
"Now who's cheatin'?" I yelled just as I did a left foot plant and locked the back break, swinging my bike around counterclockwise at the last switchback. I entered the main trail crossroads by the big marker boulder just behind Jim.
Jim hopped his bike up on the boulder and held it up on just the back tire. Then he dropped down and hopped up on the front tire. He did a three-sixty off the rock and landed pointing in the right direction and never missed a pedal stroke.
"Show-off!" I said. Jim used to do bike trial tournaments where they would hop over cars and waterfalls and you name it. He has a picture of himself hopping his bike on its front tire in the scoop of a bulldozer while he's giving a peace sign with his right hand. Like I said, he's a show-off.
We raced down the logging road for a while and cut to the left, and down the "screamin' downhill-between-the-benches" we had to have hit thirty miles per hour. An "endo" here at that speed wouldn't be fun. We leapfrogged each other back and forth through the rocky "whoops" and I took him on the "crazy-uphill-by-the-tree." When the trail opened back up to the logging road we were dead even. Jim bunny hopped the big oak tree across the road by nearly a foot! I had to pop my front tire up and dig my big front chain ring (that's a sprocket to you hairy-legged non-bikers) into the tree and then grind up and over the tree until my back tire caught it. I almost went over the handlebars from not keeping the front tire up high enough when I hit the ground on the other side of the tree. Somehow, I managed to stay upright.