Mid-Summer Night's Disaster

Charlotte looked like she was going to rest for a while so I decided that I would take my change bag and go into the bathroom to change clothes. I had not wanted to leave Charlotte's side since she had been admitted about three days ago.

No sooner had I undressed and opened the change bag than there was a knock on the door.

"Meredith, you ok? Charlotte is calling for you,"I heard the nurse call out.

"I'll be right out," I answered.

I finished changing clothes and stepped out of the bathroom. As I did saw the nurse standing beside the bed taking Charlotte's vitals and checking the morophine drip. It seemed that she was on the morophine tablets only a month ago in order to dead the pain from the cancer that had taken over her body. "I can't leave you for a minute to change clothes," I said after I returned and sat down once more in the chair beside her wide of 10 years and took her hand.

"I wanted you to change right here so I could watch," Charlotte teased with the best smile she could manage.

"And be naked in front of all these doctors and nurses?" I asked looking first at my wife and then the nurse who was now trying to write her findings in Charlotte's chart. I thought that the poor girl was going to drop the chart or something as she seemingly tried to keep from laughing in response to Charlotte's comment.

"Why not? The hospital is one of the few places where we haven't been naked together."

Once again I glanced over at the nurse who was still blushing dark red and so trying not to laugh out loud.

"Charlotte, there is a nurse standing right beside you,"

"I know."

"Do not worry, Meredith," the nurse began. "I have gotten somewhat used to the way you two talk. I must say though, that one just may have raised my shock level."

"You hear that, Meredith? We are going to have to try harder with this one, or request another nurse."

"Don't you dare, Charlotte," the nurse said in surprise. "Listening to you two is the high point of my day."

For a minute there it seemed that the three of us had totally forgotten that Charlotte Martine was close to death. I then found myself squeezing her hand as the nurse excused herself and retreated out of the room.

Charlotte closed her eyes as a small wave of pain must have run through her from the face she made. It was the same face, the same indication of pain that I had come to recognize the year I took off from teaching to take care of her the best could. Then the pain seemed to be constant and we both decided that she need to have the kind of round the clock care I could not give her. After twelve years of being together, ten of them as a married couple, we would be apart.

After the pain had passed her breathing eased and she seemed to drift off to sleep again.

I continued holding her hand as my mind once again went back in time to when Charlotte Martine and I firs met. It was at a book signing at a bookstore, in the far west suburbs of Chicago, for her latest book. I think I spent my whole lunch break waiting in line for her to autograph my copy. Then about fifteen minutes later she was asking to share my table at a coffee shop next door to the book store where I was rushing through a lunch. We then talked until I realized that I was going to be very late getting back to the high school where I taught. Fortunately I did not have a class, but I did have a mound of papers to read through.

Before I excused myself we exchanged phone numbers as we agreed to meet again.

I then felt Charlotte squeeze my hand as another flash of pain seemed to wake her from her brief rest. Then we smiled at each other and she slipped off once again.

I closed my eyes as tears began to form. Then they began running down my cheek.

I felt Charlotte's hand lose its strength and I finally let myself cry as I lifted her hand and kissed it.

The heart monitor alarm went off.

Right away the nurse returned and shut the alarm off. Behind her was a doctor who was calling for a Code Blue.

I could not raise my head up to inform him that Charlotte was DNR but the nurse did as calmly as she could for the next words out of the doctor's mouth were, "Cancel, Code Blue".

I spent the next day or two in bed not able to find any desire or reason to get interested in anything. As it was Charlotte had everything concerning her death already arranged and taken care of from her body being donated to science to the memorial service, and the publishing of her last book. Her last book being her autobiography. It was her part of a last project we would work on together.

We both had our deaths pretty well planned ahead of time so as not to burden the survivor with such decisions. We even planned out the black veil I would wear so no one from the media could properly identify me.

As it was, Charlotte Martine was a very controversial Christian author who rarely granted interviews in order to respond to her critics. For that matter, she rarely did book signings for there was bound to be someone-a Christian- who would publicly denounce her as a Christian because her books usually alluded to her female characters having "un-natural" affection for each other.

As it was, there were already rumors that Charlotte was married to another woman, another female writer, which we were. We got married in a civil ceremony after two and a half years of living and working together. The only person who knew my real name, and that Charlotte and I were married, was our publisher and he was not about to release that information to anyone.

For the next couple of weeks I tried working on my part of the project-my autobiography. I did well with it until it came time to reveal to the world how Charlotte and I met, fell in love, and lived together as a Christian-lesbian couple. Writing about that time in my life was so very hard and painful so soon after her death. I needed to return to my vocation as English teacher to keep me going on.

For the next month I read the want adds looking for openings for English teacher. Then a friend called and told me about this high school she knew that was looking for an English teacher. She then gave me all the information I needed. I then proceeded to contact them and in a short time we had agreed on a date and time for an interview.

The town and the school was a couple of counties over so I decided to pack some papers and some clothes and drove out there..

I arrived at the town couple of days before the interview in order to look around the town and to look for a house since I undoubtedly would have to b a resident.

Finding a decent house proved a lot easier than a thought. I did mange to find a nice two bedroom house that met my needs. It was vacant so I had little trouble moving in and arranging for telephone. I also visited a couple of furniture stores in town who were kind enough to move what I bought in the house.

With my second house set, I drove over to the school and submitted my application. The rest of the day was spent walking around down town. In my journey around town I visited the local bookstore and surprisingly found Charlotte's and my books lined up behind the cashier counter as if buying them required proof of age as I prepared to check out with the copy of Shakespeare's plays that I was fortunate to fine.

"You happen to have Charlotte Martine's last book?" I asked the cashier as I stepped up the empty counter..

"I believe that that particular book is being reviewed."

"Reviewed by whom?"

"By the owner of the store and a local committee. All of our books get reviewed, in one form or other, depending on genre before we stock them, Charlotte's and Edna Patience's especially," the cashier went as on she looked at me and then glanced around the store. "It is something that our owner and the religious council have worked out."

"By any chance do the students from the high school buy their books here?"

"We sure do," the cashier smiled "Unless the store runs out. Then we have to pay a little more at one of the other bookstores. Why do you ask?"

"I just submitted my application to teach English at the high school. I take it that you are a student there"

"I am. It is because of our English teacher, Miss Johnson that I got this job. She's been in the hospital for the past week, so we have had a teacher from another department try to substitute for her."

"Is there some way I could visit Miss Johnson?"

"Trying to find out what you are up against before you decide whether or not to take the position?" the girl smiled.

"I quess you can say that," I smiled back as I held out the money for for my purchase.

"Well, I am headed over there to visit her right after my shift. You may come with."

"Thank you. I will. How soon before your shift ends?"

"I'll be free in about an hour."

"In that case I will be next door in the coffee shop.Any chance of you calling your parents and letting them know that you will be with me. My name in Meredith Dandrige?"

"I'll try, and my name is Crystal Lewis," the girl smiled

It was then that I noticed the customer behind me. I motioned Crystal to keep the change before I took my purchase and left.

About an hour later Crystal joined me at the coffee shop. At the time I was nursing a second cup of coffee.

"Mind if I get a tea before we go?"

"Only if you do not mind me driving, I would hate it if you got in an accident because of the tea."

"Thank you," Crystal smiled and then took off for the counter and to get her tea.

When she returned I thought that she would want to leave right away so I stood up as she approached. "Ready now?" I asked.

"I was not able to contact my parents. My phone is dead. May I use yours?"

"I don't usually carry mine," I said thoughtfully. As it was I was already bending my rule about being alone with a student, or without an adult knowing that I was. This being the case, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable but was sure that it would only last a short time. "Quess we'll have to call from the hospital as soon as we get there."

"Sounds good." Crystal said and we headed off for my car.

Soon we were in my car and driving off. On the way Crystal and I tried to make small talk in between her giving me directions to the hospital.'

"What is your approach to teaching English?" she asked.

"Trying to find out what you may be up against?" I smiled.

"I quess you could say that," Crystal smiled back.

"First, you tell me a little about Miss Johnson,"

"Well, she's a fighter," was Crystals's initial response. "She tries to follow the guidelines the school's administration, but she tends to draw the line on somethings like this Shakespearean play the school puts on every year. The school wants us to do it as it was written but Miss John wants to change it a little, make it more current."

"How is she with the assignments she gives you?"

"She wants us to be able to think and express ourselves on paper in long hand though the school has persuaded her to accept assignments printed out from computers and word processors."

"How do you do yours?"

"Here we are," Crystal smiled as we approached the hospital. I then looked for a parking place as near the hospital as possible.
As soon as we were in the hospital I reminded her about calling her parents.

Crystal called her parents and from Crystal's responses I sensed that her parents wanted to talk to me, but Crystal seemed to be in a hurry to see her teacher so she assured them that she was save with me and that I would drive her back to her car. That was when I motioned to her that I wanted to talk to her parents and she reluctantly handed me the phone.

We then went up to Miss Johnson's room but before going in Crystal glanced in and saw that Miss Johnson already had a visitor so we stopped at the nursing station.

"How is Miss Johnson today?" she asked.

"You will have to ass Miss Hendrix, dear. We are allowed only to inform next of kin and individuals that the patient wishes us to inform. I'm sorry."

"Is it ok if we go in in then?"

"Sure is Crystal," another nurse interjected apparently familiar with he young girl's visits.

As we entered the room the woman in the bed seemed to be resting as the woman beside the bed stood up to greet us. First she wrapped her arms around Crystal as if she needed to hold on to someone. Then Crystal turned around and took hold oh my hand as she pulled me closer. "This is Meredith Dandrige, Miss Hendrix. She just applied for Miss Johnson's position as English teacher."

"Welcome, Miss Dandrige," the woman greeted me and held out her hand that trembled slightly. "Well, I will give you two a chance to visit with Cynthia. I need to get something to drink. I'll be right back."

With that I slipped out of the room and Crystal moved closer to Miss Johnson's bedside until she could slip her hand into the woman's. I immediately felt for the girl and Miss Hendrix. It was clear that Crystal, Miss Johnson, and Miss Hendrix had a close relationship. .

When I returned Miss Hendrix stood up and motioned me in. "I better get myself a drink as well." Then, as Miss Hendrix left I was drawn to put my hand on Crystal's back. It was something that I rarely did for I had seen many a good teacher get be put on probation for touching a student a little too much, or unnecessarily.

"You never answered my question," Crystal said a moment later.

"I suspect that my approach is much the same as Miss Johnson's."

"You a fighter as well?"

"When I have to be."

"Then I wish you luck," Miss Johnson said as she apparently woke up from her brief rest and heard our conversation.

Crystal immediately turned her attention back to her teacher. "This is Meredith Dandrige," the girl began."she may be taking over your position as English teacher."

I immediately reached out for the hand the woman was raising and took hold of it briefly.

Crystal then launched into telling Miss Johnson how I had stopped at the bookstore looking for Charlotte Martine and Edna Patience books.

"Actually I read a wide range of books," I corrected Crystal and let her continue.

At some point I happened to glance out at the nursing station and saw Miss Hendrix motion me to join her. I then excused myself and made my way over to the woman.

'I hope you do not mind me asking the hospital to add you onto Cynthia's list of contacts in the event that...in the they need to call," Miss Hendrix said seeming to be loosing the battle not to cry so I reached out and held her for a moment.

"I do not mind at all," I said. "I recently lost a loved one."

"If they do call, would you mind coming to pick me up? I do not believe I will be able to drive if they do."