Chapter 31: Reconnecting (Part I)

Emily rolled back on her heels and frowned, she could see the intense understanding behind Elaine’s eyes—though she didn’t understand what she saw. Surely, she realized everything that happened since the terrible circumstances that landed Chance in the hospital had quickly gone out of her control; but also brought her strange fame, even now she yearned to tap into it, but still a part of herself clung to the relief that maybe now it might be over.

She could stop looking over her shoulder wondering when karma might stab her in the back.

When someone might

“Okay,” she said, “here’s the story.”

Chance.

“I lied to you back at my apartment when I told you about St. Luke’s. Lies come easy to me; I suppose that’s not a good thing. Especially those lies that I’ve told myself over and over again. And Chance is one of those. Not the part about saving his life, not quite, it’s just—”

She paused for a long moment and pursed her lips. “He saved mine first.”

Her hand touched her cheek, tapping out the thought against her skin.

“It was my Freshman year—his too—and I’d gathered up quite a circle of friends in the first month of living in the dormitory. I’d deliberately placed myself far from home and closer to Tom. That I told the truth about. I’ve been hiding the truth from myself about Chance for so long, and hiding myself from the truth. I suppose I felt guilty about him. Not just because he didn’t recover, the coma and all, but because he worked so hard for me in the beginning.

“Nobody’s worked that hard for me before. Even Kristian and Kimberly from my current staff who spend a lot of time making sure things run smoothly can’t hold a candle to how dedicated Chance became to my early ASU political campaigns. Chance reminded me of superman.”

She paused a moment in her recitation and licked her lips. The memory surfaced with a bittersweet taste, she felt a little giddy, like she’d been drinking as she tried to fashion the words to explain. Chance meant something to her, which made the thought of him still lying in that bed—ignored and repressed by Emily’s own thoughts—that much more of a punch in the gut. She looked at Elaine, her glasses reflective in the dim light beneath the stage and smiled at the other woman. It made sense it would be him. Reaching out to her from beyond his comatose prison to give her everything she wanted.

Chance.

“We were drunk,” she said. “Stupid drunk like only kids far, far away from home and responsibility could get. I’d just managed to get a petition up into the student government to increase a grant for the dormitory to get a bigger television. A club thing, only a thousand dollars or so, and we had some left over.”

As Emily spoke to Elaine, a shadow began to form in the air between them. At first it seemed to emanate from the iPhone, face-up on the ground; amorphous but for its distinct human silhouette that slowly grew more and more distinct as the words spilled from her memory.

“We installed the television in the main meeting room and used the extra money to score some alcohol through connections of mine and those same connections made sure we would get caught for the underage drinking part. We ended up really, really smashed. All of us, enjoying the taste of victory and tequila. That’s when I decided it would be a good idea to light some candles—another true thing—and dim the lights so that we might enjoy the TV better. It’s just one of those things where later you tell people, ‘Seemed like a good idea at the time!’

“We must have been drinking and listening to the TV chatter away until almost three AM or later. All I know is that all four of us ended up passing out in the end because the next thing I remember is being awoken by a distant fire alarm and someone shaking me. One of the candles had lit the drapes on fire, which in turn spread though the entire room before anyone woke up. Kimberly and Kristian made it out of the room before Chance got me to wake up. I felt like a horse had kicked me in the head and I couldn’t breathe, but the smell of smoke and the sound of the fire cut through the headache with a sobering fear. I could hear someone banging on the window from the outside, but I couldn’t see them. The smoke. It was everywhere. I could feel the fire all around me, but I couldn’t see it.”

The figure continued to coalesce in front of Emily and she began to recognize the features. Her iPhone set on the ground between its legs, a pair of pants had become visible, as well as a white button-down shirt, short dark hair and brown eyes. She couldn’t see his face, but she already knew who she’d been talking to. She remembered because that’s exactly what he’d been wearing that night. The lips moved slightly, but no sound came out.

“I can still feel my fingers clinging to his shirt in that burning, choking darkness. I felt like a desperate swimmer pulling her savior down under the water trying to breathe. I even tore a few buttons off his shirt, but he managed to pull me out anyway. I could hear his voice over the roar of the flames, but no words. I didn’t need words then. Lost between burning couches and walls, smoke and death I just needed a direction and Chance gave me one. I crawled forward for what seemed forever and felt his hands pressing me forward the entire way.

“When we finally made it into the air it felt like I’d been reborn. My lungs burned again without the smoke and my eyes watered, but I felt someone grab me again and drag me away. We made it across the street with Kristian and a few others from the dorm who had evacuated due to the fire. That’s when Chance collapsed.”