Matters of Gravity

Episode #4: Forgetting and Forgiving

Returning by her own turning of the wheels of her wheelchair to her favorite spot in the lunge looking out across the reservoir to the cascades, Julies thoughts continued. That same overgrown path of memories that had finally opened up to her with its grim shadows of the past:

...That next day down that serene little street was not full of forgetting or forgiving. Most days aren't, but the big difference with this one was that whereas most days don't require much of either, this one did, and neither could be found anywhere. None of them talked much. Ray was completely silent although not threatening in any way. Lesa was nervous – jittery really. Little Margie fussed the entire day and then later on into the night.

It was Julie who stepped around getting meals started and working through the tension. She tried starting innocuous conversations, but to no avail. Lesa would answer briefly, look over at Ray, who sat there without expression and then she would clam up, touching Margie in ways that seemed more to irritate the baby than to have any calming effect.

Later in the morning Tom called. He was on his way over and didn't want to alarm anyone with regard to some outsider maybe witnessing any of their colorful injuries. Julie let him in. Both she and Tom said the right things with the right cadence, but with body language that communicated questions and answers with regard to the current status of the situation.

After having looked Lesa and Julie over routinely, Tom approached Ray, concluding with. "I think that hand will be alright in case you ever want to go up to bat in Yankee Stadium again."

Ray inspected Tom's face with only a minimal increment of interest above what would be called catatonic. "You think I'll survive this one," he said without emotion or revealing any interest that he must surely have felt with regard to Sharon's condition.

"Everyone's going to be alright," Tom said to allay whatever fear Ray might have had. "And no one seems to be talking. I guess you got it all worked out and that's the way it's gonna' stay," he said with a bit of a twinkle that surprised Julie. At any rate, it was clear to all that Sharon was no longer comatose but had committed herself to silence. Although not completely transparent, that was obviously the message Tom had intended to bring and that everyone, except possibly Ray, wanted to hear.

"Oh, by the way, Allie wants to come over to speak with Julie about some situation that has come up in her race. Is that okay, Julie? I'll stay home and mind the store while she's here."

Thus, Tom came and left having contributed many fold to the total words to have been spoken up to that point.

Allie came over shortly. Lesa said hello briefly and went off with a fussy Margie. Ray was evidently upstairs where he and Julie had spent the night.

It was clear to Julie from the start that Allie had no concern relative to her campaign. She was curious – and concerned.

"Julie, you're a mess!" she said finally. "Lesa's hurt too. What on earth happened over here? Sharon was nearly dead Tom said. Lesa told him that you had saved her. Is Daddy okay? I mean up here?" She whispered as she pointed to her head. "Are you all in danger?"

"We're completely fine now, Allie. Tom took our problem away. As far as what happened yesterday, don't ask. Don't ever go there. You don't want to know. Trust me... you don't want to know."

"But are you sure the rest of you are not in danger?"

"No. We're fine. But if you were to bring Sharon over here, she'd be dead in a minute. Don't ever for any reason even mention her name in this house ever again. I understand only enough to know that much, and I don't want to know any details. If Sharon should offer to tell you anything at all, you should tell her that you never want to hear her side or any detail of what transpired over here."