Leave Me Breathless

We sat there talking about anything other than the accident. For a long time we talked. I eventually dozed off to sleep. When I woke up, a nurse was tapping me on the shoulder. I'd fallen asleep with my head on my dad's shoulder. He was asleep with his head back and Helena was in the same position I was, only on the other shoulder. She also had her arm wrapped around his as if she had no intention of letting go of him. It seemed strange that I don't remember my mother ever holding on to him that tightly. Maybe if she had, the side of her face wouldn't be caved in.

"She's out of recovery now," said the nurse. "Can you wake your mother and father and tell them that she's awake but she can only have visitors for a few moments and you'd better move quickly, because with the amount of pain killers they gave her, she'll be asleep soon."

I shook my dad and Helena awake, thinking about how the nurse had called them, "My mother and father." It actually felt right.

We took the elevator up to the fifth floor. The nurse there told us that we could go in one at a time and stay for about five minutes. My dad headed for the door. And Helena grabbed his arm and yanked him back.

"Jim, don't go in there angry. She's just come out of surgery so she's in a lot of pain already. This is not the time to just unload on her. Just go in and say hi. Can you do that for me?" He balled up his fists and finally opened them and nodded his head. Helena was amazing.

My dad went into the room. He was gone for about fifteen seconds and came right back. I went in then. One side of her face was completely enclosed in a bandage. She had tubes that delivered medication going to one arm. Her shoulder on the other side was in a sling and they had her in some kind of frame that kept her spine straight and made sure she didn't roll over during the night.

There was some kind of metal Halo attached to her head that ran from the top to the bottom and prevented her from opening her mouth. I guess she'd need that until her jaw healed.

Her eyes moved with me as I walked around the room. "Hi Mommy," I said. "How do you feel?" A sound that was halfway between a grunt and a whine came out of her mouth.

"I told you if you cheated on him again that bad things would happen to you. But you didn't listen, so you deserve what you got. And what you're getting is a divorce. Mom, since we're the only ones in the room, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I was never going to let this slide. That was my plan all along. Ever since I first caught you, I started looking for someone to take care of Dad when I go off to college. Helena is perfect for him. I appreciate the help you gave me in getting them together. It looks like she can take it from here."

Her eyes got bigger and it looked like she was trying to say something but the metal circle prevented her jaw from moving. It looked like just attempting to move it caused her pain though.

"You should be grateful to her though. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't have even come in here to see you," I said. She was looking at me angrily. "Mom, don't be upset with me. This wasn't my doing. Although I wish I'd thought of it. Dad knows about you and Eddington, but it wasn't me who told him."

"He found out about it just before the police came to get us. Guess what, it wasn't the police either. It was Coach Kleatz. The Coach was pissed about Daddy and Helena. He got drunk and told Daddy that he shouldn't be trying to hog all of the time with Helena because Eddington was screwing you. Daddy knocked him out. He knocked him on his ass in front of the whole school including the guys on his team."

"That got me to wondering. How exactly would the coach have known that you were doing Eddington? The coach and the principal aren't exactly friends. You did the coach too didn't you Mom?"

I looked in her eyes and she couldn't face me. I just shook my head. "What are you doing Mom? Are you trying to set yourself up as some kind of specialty whore, who reserves herself for scumbags?"

"Well, I guess my five minutes are up. I probably won't be coming by to see you very often. So see ya."

When I got back outside, Dad took my hand. "Thanks for everything Helena," he said. "I don't think I could have done this without you. I've thought a lot about what you said and it makes sense, but I'm just not sure I can do that. The whole talking to her thing; I'm not sure I could pull it off. Even now when she's not in the room, I feel like strangling her. And that asshole Eddington...." He took a deep breath to calm down.

"Anyway, I'm sorry if my problems ruined your evening. Come on Kit. Let's go home," he said. "Did you drive my car here?"

"Helena did," I said. "I drove her car. Remember, she handed you your keys."

"Have you still got my keys, Melinda?" asked Helena. I nodded. "Okay we'll see you at the house." My dad's mouth dropped open but he'd been listening to her all evening, so he just went along with it.

When we got to the house, I just went up and changed and went to bed. I could hear the two of them talking even as I fell asleep. When I woke the next morning, I showered and went down to grab something to eat. My dad was asleep and purring on the couch. I heard movement in the kitchen. I went in and Helena was standing in front of the stove. She had two frying pans going. In one she was frying bacon. In the other she was making pancakes.

What amazed me the most was what she was wearing. She had on my dad's U of M sweatshirt and nothing else. I was sure she was wearing underwear but, I wouldn't have bet on it.

"I borrowed a couple of things from you," she said. "I didn't want to wake you."

"I can't fit any of your mom's things." That solved the underwear question.

"Why didn't you borrow some jeans or a skirt?" I asked. She arched her eyebrow and I got it. She wanted my dad to see her in some of the things he loved most.

"We were up talking all night," she said. "He's really upset. The two of us are going to have to help him through this. Melinda, I told him all about ME last night. I think that he's a bit upset with me."

"Why would he be upset with you?" I asked.

"Because I need to be honest with him," she said. "I don't want any secrets between us. So I had to let him know that I wasn't just at the dance for the hell of it. I had to go ahead and tell him that I've been pretty much stalking him since I first met him at the specimen hunt in the woods. I guess that made him see me as something like your mother. I think he really believes that I'd go after a married man. The only way for me to let him know that I'm really not that bad would have been to let him know who told me that he was probably available. And I couldn't do that without ratting you out."

If I hadn't been sure of her belonging with my dad, it was that statement that convinced me. She not only belonged with my dad, she belonged with us. "Don't worry, Helena," I said. "We'll all come clean after breakfast." She nodded her head and held up the fork that she'd been turning the bacon with and the spatula that she'd been doing the pancakes with. I took the fork. I'm terrible at making pancakes.

After breakfast, Helena borrowed a pair of my sweat pants. Naturally she picked the blue ones and they matched daddy's sweatshirt that she refused to surrender. She packed a lunch and with Daddy arguing and complaining the whole way, took us out of the house for a picnic.

We ended up back in the woods in the same place that we'd had the specimen hunt. The three of us talked the whole time and I admitted everything. Helena also admitted to my dad that she had the hots for him. The saddest part was seeing that my dad was still angry, but that he simply hadn't gotten over what my mom had done. There were several times when he told Helena how pretty she was and even said "I'd be crazy about you if I wasn't..." we all knew what he meant.

Helena asked me why Dean wasn't there and I reminded her that it was Sunday and that he'd have to be in church until at least early afternoon. When we left the park and headed home, we got a call from the hospital. Mom was awake and badly wanted to see my dad. He gave the nurse, Grandma's phone number and we went home. We stopped off at Helena's apartment, because she needed clothes.

"How long are you staying?" my dad asked. She arched that eyebrow again. We watched movies and relaxed for the rest of the day. Dean joined us after he got out of church. We sat there and watched movies and talked and laughed and ate. I did notice that Helena was never more than a few inches away from my dad.

The next day, we all went back to the real world. I had assignments to turn in and a test to take. The whole day people kept looking at me. The guys on the team kept walking up to me and yelling or laughing.

"Pow," they said. They were throwing pretend punches too.

I didn't find out what was going on until almost lunch time. No one knew what had actually gone on at the dance. Not many people heard what coach Kleatz had said to my dad, but everyone saw the results. The strange thing was that no one realized it until this morning but Coach Kleatz was in the hospital too. When he'd landed on his ass, he'd broken his coccyx.

The assistant coach was holding practice. Near the end of the day we were all called into the auditorium for an assembly. The assistant principal explained to us that Principal Eddington had been involved in an accident over the weekend and would be hospitalized for the near future. She told us that we would continue to work as if he were still here because that's what he'd have wanted. She told us to keep him in our prayers, which made me glad that I didn't pray.

One person did ask how long he'd be gone. And she told us that she didn't know but that he would be back as soon as possible. Another person asked the extent of his injuries. That set me to laughing. I didn't say it but the thought that went through my mind was that the extent of his injuries was about six inches.

I got home and looked through the refrigerator. I had cooked dinner once or twice before so I decided that I would make dinner. I had plenty of time because Daddy wouldn't get home from work for at least another ninety minutes. I was really surprised when I heard a car pull up.

I was even more surprised to hear someone knock on the door. I opened it and there stood Helena. I just moved out of the way and she came in.

She went into the kitchen and looked around. "What are you making," she asked.

"Burgers," I smiled. "I'll get them ready and let daddy grill them when he gets back from his run."

"He runs?" she asked. I just nodded. "Okay, what are we making for sides?" she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "How about a nice big salad?" she asked. "We'll mix in some of everything we can find and if you don't like something, you just don't put it on your plate."

"That's a good idea," I said. She got out a big bowl and we chopped up vegetables and onions and mushrooms.

"Do you think he'd mind if I ran with him?" she asked.

"I think he'd love it," I said. And she did. When my dad got home she was waiting for him in workout clothes and I'm sure he noticed how great she looked. They came home and took showers and we all had dinner together. During dinner, we talked and we avoided the gorilla in the room. Helena mentioned that her car was making a funny sound and she lost power sometimes. After dinner, Daddy pulled her car into the garage and went to work on it. Helena pulled out her reading glasses and started checking her papers in the garage near him.

My grandmother called and asked if she could come over. Dad told her that she was always welcome. When she got there, Helena went upstairs and took a long bath. My grandmother wanted to know why Dad hadn't been at the hospital Sunday or that day. She looked at me and asked me if my dad had prevented me from visiting my mother.

Apparently Mom hadn't told her mother anything. "I know she was in an accident, Jim, and she wrecked a car. But it isn't even your car. Why are you so angry at her?"

As my dad explained the situation and the details of the accident to my grandmother, she almost passed out. She apologized to my dad and he explained that he was making sure that she got the best care possible, but he was still too angry and too hurt to go and visit her. My grandmother left after that and still looked shaken as she got into her car and drove away.

A week later, we all attended the Harvest festival dance together, me with Dean, of course, and Dad with Helena. If I'd thought that she'd looked spectacular at the practice dance, it was nothing compared to the actual dance.

The biggest difference was the way they were treated. Everyone simply knew they were a couple. Not one guy came over to ask her to dance. I think there were two reasons for that. The first was because she never let go of my dad the whole night. She even held his hand while they ate. And the second was because people were still talking about what happened to the coach. I heard a couple of the guys say, "Dude if you ask her to dance, that guy will knock you out."

It was a perfect evening. It allowed Helena to come out of her shell and really show people how friendly, charming and funny she could be. She didn't have to worry about guys hitting on her constantly, with my dad there. And her smile and the light in her eyes tripled. Of course, most of the time she was smiling at him, but that was the way it should be.

Even after the dance was history, she had simply changed. She no longer needed to hide behind the lab coats and dorky safety glasses, so there were a lot more guys crashing into walls. But every night, she was home waiting for my dad and sometimes she even drove out to the plant he worked at, as if she couldn't wait for them to be together again.

That was the way that things went for the next few weeks. Both dad and Helena told me that they'd take me to the hospital if I wanted to go. Dad also told me that if I wanted to go alone that I was more than welcome to use either Mom's car or the jeep that Dad drove during the winter.

As far as Helena went, the two of them were almost never apart. They were only away from each other when they were at work and of course, while they slept. Their romance, if you could call it that, was strictly high school level. I don't think I ever saw them kiss. I knew how Helena felt about my dad but I wasn't sure how he felt about her until one night he got home and she wasn't there. He didn't ask me anything so I decided not to tell him. He looked all over the house and then looked outside. He still didn't say anything so I didn't volunteer any information.

I did however secretly take a video of him looking all over the house and him repeatedly looking out of the window.

When she finally showed up, he pretended that everything was fine. "Oh hi," he said, and headed out to the garage. Helena looked at me strangely.

"What did I do?" she asked. I told her.

"Why didn't you tell him we had parent/teacher conferences today?" she asked.

"Because it's time," I said.

"Time for what?" she asked.

"Helena, my dad is in limbo. It's time for him to re-enter the world. He doesn't even think about Mom. She's been in the hospital for over a month and we've never gone to see her."

"I'll take you to see her if you want," said Helena.

"Hell no," I said. "I don't want to see her."

"Maybe he doesn't either," she said. Even as I watched the expression on her face as she said it, I knew that her hackles were up and she was getting ready to fight for my dad."

"Calm down Helena, but we both know that he needs to start some kind of divorce proceedings or something. He can't just forget about her and hope she'll go away. She's been emailing me daily and I'm sure she's emailing him too. As soon as she can talk, she'll probably start calling. And then, there's you two," I said.

"What about us?" she asked. Her cheeks turned red and she blushed even as she said it.

"Helena, he really likes you, a lot," I said. "Do you know that?"

"Well, I more than like him," she said.

"Exactly," I told her. "But he's afraid to admit that he feels the same way about you."

"How do we know he does?" she asked. "Maybe he just thinks of me as a family friend." I showed her the video I'd just taken of him wandering around the house looking in every room and checking the window every few seconds.

"What was he looking for?" she asked smiling.

"You, Helena," I smiled. "He won't admit it. But he missed you something awful. So it's time for him to stop pretending and move on with his life."

"Hold that thought," she said. "It IS time." I watched as she went through the kitchen and out the connecting door into the garage. My dad was leaning over his car doing something. I have no idea what he does with that car all of the time. I think he talks to it. But she tapped him on the shoulder and he straightened up. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled his face down to hers and kissed him. At first, he just stood there but then his arms went around her as well and he started kissing her back. Watching the two of them made me wish that I wasn't such a good girl and that Dean and I hadn't taken that chastity pledge. I got weak in the knees just watching them.

Principal Eddington returned to school the next day. And the coach came in the following week. The coach walked bent over and very slowly. Eddington never left his office. He had a new secretary too. It was his wife. She smiled at me every time I passed her in the halls. She asked about Mom and I had to tell her that I hadn't seen her.

She asked me how my dad was doing and I think she really cared. After all, she'd been through what he was going through herself, so she knew how painful it was. I think they were all waiting to see what my dad was going to do. Even Eddington himself asked me about my dad. I had to tell him that it would be at least another week before Mom could get the metal brace off of her face and try to talk. Her back was less painful and she'd begun to regain the feeling in her legs. The bruises had gone down on her face but her cheek bones on the right side of her face had been crushed and she was definitely going to have to have reconstructive surgery. I'd learned all of that from my grandmother who called often and asked us to visit my mom.

It just seemed like everything was waiting for my dad's decision and his plan of action. Eddington knew that if my dad mentioned him in the divorce, his career would be over. My mom would probably try to sue him and successful or not, just the mention of what had gone on between them would damage his career even further.

Coach Kleatz was afraid of me and stayed as far as he could away from Helena. He acted as if my dad would come out of the woodwork and hit him again. He did write Helena a letter apologizing to her for his behavior and promising to leave her alone. I think the biggest problem for him was that he'd always been in his mind the tough guy around the school. And a lot of his players were still laughing at him behind his back.

Helena and my dad were in a holding pattern too. She practically lived with us, but they didn't sleep together. They may as well have because there were so many nights that I'd get up to get a drink and find them asleep on the couch together, still fully dressed but clutching each other as if their lives depended on it.

Finally the tension ended. I picked up the phone without thinking about it and heard my mother's voice. "Hello Melinda, is your father available?" After my shock wore off, I handed the phone to him.

Even as he answered the phone, his back straightened out and his entire manner changed. He said a couple of words and then hung the phone up.