A Fight to Remember

Waiting for it to Pass Pt. 2

Later as I motored the boat back to the docks, I saw bright LED headlights near my spot. Someone was waiting for me. The lights were too bright and I couldn't make out who would be parked there. But a second later, they blinked off and I saw a familiar slight shadow. Lynn.

"Hey!" she called. "I was texting you."

"I shut off my phone," I called back, picking up the lines needed to secure my boat to the dock.

"Toss me your lines, I'll help you." I did so, and Lynn moored the boat into place.

"Hungry?" I asked, "Mark caught a fish."

"Okay."

I didn't even know what kind of fish it was really, but it didn't look weird or toxic, so I quickly prepared it and breaded it with a mix I came up with myself. It felt second nature to me. Hunger growled in my stomach for once today.

The three of us sat together over dinner at the counter in my kitchen. Finally Lynn put her fork down and looked at me hopefully.

"What?"

"I talked to Dr. Hovan... He said you should do a DNA test." She sipped her water and watched me, but my brain was working too hard at comprehending what she was saying for me to respond. "There's a national database," she continued. "Relatives of missing families sent in DNA samples to match with their loved ones."

I swallowed as it started to hit me. Could it be that a piece of my DNA was floating out there in some lab, just waiting for a match? "So..."

"They could've put the DNA through." Lynn suggested.

Hope fluttered in my heart like soap bubbles, I breathed short shallow breaths as I looked at my friends. It seemed unreal. So sudden, so predictable. Of course, there'd be a database. It never occured to me before, because until yesterday, I thought I was someone else. But now I wasn't him. I was a nobody. But a nobody who might be someone's somebody. I held my breath and prayed my soap bubbles wouldn't burst.

"I can collect your DNA and send it in," Lynn said. "But it will take a few months. There's tens of thousands of samples it has to be compared to."

A few months, for a DNA test. A few months to wait before the bubble bursts. I swallowed my fear... A few months to figure things out, try and remember. "Okay."

Lynn grinned, "I have a kit in my car, I'll be right back." She placed her empty plate in the sink and dashed out the door, leaving me with Mark.

I pushed the last piece of fish around on my plate.

"Aren't you happy?" Mark asked. "This could be your chance. And it's DNA. DNA doesn't lie."

I sighed glumly. "I want to be happy, but..."

I have a feeling...

I get those...

And?

If you wait long enough... It passes.

Believing Mark should be easy. He's right, DNA doesn't lie. I know that. But after the crushing I received from Sarah... I'm scared. The fear of putting my life out there again is paralyzing.

While I pondered this, Lynn was already swabbing my cheek with a Q-tip. She plunked it into a plastic tube and labelled it. "Okay," Well, I'll send this in tomorrow... and then we'll just have to wait."

I smiled.

Wait... Wait for it to pass.

xxx

The grocery store was nearly void of customers. On Sundays, an hour before close, this was to be expected. I was just picking up milk and cereal for breakfast tomorrow morning. I forgot I ran out of Muesli yesterday and was forced to have Mark's lucky charms this morning, which was just too sugary for my tastes. I handed the cashier my wad of cash and collected my change.