BROKEN ROAD - One Man's Journey

CHAPTER FIVE - With My Life...

  He reached her house just after eleven. He had broken every speed limit between here and the farm to do it but he made it without incident. In route, he, like the last time he showed up unannounced had no idea what he was going to say. He knew it was erratic even to be here but he had to. It was late but he didn't want to wait another day. Not even another hour. He needed to know beyond a shred of doubt if she, too, had felt the electrical charge between them. If she had felt anything at all. He knew he had not imagined it. He had to know before he could put this to rest and be clear of the spell she had him under. If she hadn't then there was his answer and he would leave her be and not bother her again. Her truck was in the drive. There was a lamp burning in the kitchen. In for a penny in for a pound he told himself as he tapped. Here goes.

When the door opened he was not expecting Te-Ana to be there. He apologized quickly and asked awkwardly if he could speak to Wanda. "I know it is late but I saw a light on or I would not have stopped." That was true. He would not have awoken her. Te-Ana regarded him taking in that he seemed out of sorts. She doubted he was used to the hat in hand display he was having to endure now. He did not fit the bill. She had liked him when they met and believed she had summed him up accordingly and with that she came out onto the porch closing the screen door quietly behind her.

"She's resting." "Resting?" "Yes. She came home earlier." "Came home?" Jesus, he sounded like a parrot. It hit her then that he did not know. She filled him in on what had happened over the last four days. He whistled softly. She was sick. What was it? A cold? Influenza? He started to guess in his head what particular ailment she was recovering from. "Can I see her," he finally asked with concern spreading over his handsome features. "Do you really want to?" "Yes," Ben replied. "I would like that." She looked so pale. Her head was turned slightly as she slept her hair spilling out onto the pillow. Why did he feel his throat beginning to close? Why did it bother him so much to see her laying there like that? "She looks horrible doesn't she," Te-Ana said more than questioned. "It was bad. She waited too long this time." This time? He had no clue where this was headed. He knew, well he knew nothing about her at all except her age and that she had kids. It occurred to him then and only then that she had managed not to tell him anything of herself, her life or otherwise. He had been so self-absorbed with his own turmoil, so involved with his own fears that he had not realized it before now. "I'm sorry," he told her ashamed that he virtually knew nothing about the woman who had both rescued him and thrown his life into upheaval few short days ago. "I am in the dark here." "It's okay," she replied. "Not a lot of people know." "Know?" The parrot returned. Damn it. Stop repeating everything she says. Get your head straight.

Te-Ana, unsure of how to proceed, weighed her choices.

A. Tell him nothing.

B. Tell him what he so obviously wanted to know.

"It is a virus that attacks the internal organs. Liver, kidney. Upper respiratory problems are common. It weakens her immune system leaving her susceptible to colds and pneumonia and makes her more prone to a relapse if she does catch something and harder to fight off.

When he asked the inevitable Te-Ana looked him directly in the eyes so she could see how he would take the information. "She slept with someone who had it." Ben digested that. He showed nothing keeping his expressions on a tight leash. She noticed how he took it all in and did not seem repulsed or worried that it may be contagious. "It is not HIV," she told him, "but it does mimic a lot of the same traits." He digested that too. Ben turned his attention back to the figure in the bed. He felt an unfamiliar tug at his heart strings. "Ben," she continued in the same hushed tones not wanting to disturb or awaken her. She needed sleep. Here she felt little pain and it would replenish her depleted energy. "She is not a carrier. He was but she isn't." He didn't take his eyes off of Wanda as he said, "I don't care about that." Te-Ana found a growing respect for him. She gave him a few minutes and then came back in to the room.