Part 17 (1/2)

Helen looked at her. Go with that blonde, then. Enjoy her Pollyanna complexion. Let her clean up your piles of Rice Krispies. ”What?” Helen pouted.

”I love you.”

Helen smiled, triumphant over the heifer. ”I know. Will you please kiss me?” Cory looked toward Teresa. ”It's okay. She knows we sleep together.”

Teresa removed the final thread and placed the instruments on the bed table. She laughed and pulled the curtain, separating herself from them. ”She's a mean badger today. You better kiss her, or I will.”

Helen looked sadly at Cory. ”I heard the surgeon describe my injuries. How will it be for you to see a map of Florida on my stomach?”

”I thought you wanted a kiss.” Cory leaned into Helen's mouth.

Helen smiled as Cory's lips touched hers. Warm and soft. The heifer won't know what she missed. ”I miss you, baby.”

”Then get dressed,” Cory said. ”Sam's waiting with his van.”

Helen grabbed a small piece of the curtain and yanked it open. ”Really?” she asked Teresa.

”There are rules,” she said and looked up from Helen's chart. ”Stay in the chair until the ortho surgeon removes the cast. Then it's off to physical therapy with you.”

”Okay.”

”No s.e.x for now. Touch a little, if you want, but no more. The strain will be too much for your abdomen.”

Helen looked at Cory and grunted something close to ”Okay.”

”Stay on a soft diet and graduate to an intake of your regular meals. Your digestive system will tell you what you can handle. Change the dressings on your leg every two days for a week. Then you can take them off completely. I'll send along a care package of bandages and tapes.” She sat on the bed and took Helen's hand. ”I'm glad you're okay.”

Helen gave her a smile. She wished it could be more. The woman most responsible for her life deserved-what? Eternal devotion? A lifetime of house cleaning service? The History Channel? What would it take to repay her?

”I'm alive because of you.” Helen hugged her with all the strength of her one healthy arm. ”How do I repay that?”

”You just did.” She wrote on her prescription pad, tore the sheet off, and handed it to Helen. ”Call this woman. She's a psychiatrist.”

”A shrink?” Helen handed back the paper. ”I don't need a shrink.”

”Helen.” Teresa paused and looked into Helen's eyes. ”Honey, you'll experience some degree of emotional trauma. Post-traumatic stress is not a happy place for anyone. I'm told you don't sleep well.”

”You didn't tell me that,” Cory said.

Helen fidgeted. ”I don't sleep well in strange beds, and the floor personnel are loud at night.”

”Maybe that's all it is. Hopefully.” Teresa handed the paper to Cory. ”Just in case, Carolyn Ingram is among the best.” She squeezed Helen's hand. ”Say you'll call her if you need to talk.”

”Just in case, then.” Helen turned to Cory. ”Take me home, woman.”

In the back of Sam's van, Helen fooled with the motorized wheelchair that he had provided. Not much s.p.a.ce to burn rubber, but she got the gist of the controller. She also found that if she held the brake, pressed the joystick forward, then released the brake, she could almost pop a wheelie. She'd be hot on Chamberlain's heels without tiring. There she went again, chasing a woman.

Horns blared. Tires squealed outside the van. Helen lurched forward, then fell back and against the chair. She closed her eyes, terrified while the fuselage tore open, and tightened her hand on Blair's shoulder.

Something hit her leg. Helen jumped and opened her eyes. Cory's hand rested on her knee. Her heart beat wildly while sounds of her New York surroundings came back to her.

It's over. There's no plane. No danger.

”Are you all right? Do you want to stop?” Cory asked.

She lied. ”I'm okay. Everything feels and sounds new.” She wiped sweat from above her lip. ”I'm anxious to get home.”

”One more block,” Sam said.

The ride through the hallway clinched Helen's desire for home. The familiar smells of the Dakota and the scent of Cory's perfume grew stronger as she approached the apartment. At the hospital, her sense of smell had been limited to clean linen and alcohol swabs. Not to mention bacon.

Sam stopped outside Cory's door. ”I'll leave you two alone.” He bent down and kissed Helen's cheek. ”Welcome home. I'll call you in a couple days.”

”Thanks for your help,” Helen said.

”You're welcome. Call if you need anything.” He hugged Cory. ”Take care of my girl.”

”I will,” she said.

Cory opened the door. Helen motored herself in and stopped. Apprehension. Fear. She remembered the same feelings when she submitted her first column to Sam. Was she good enough? Did she belong there?

Helen thought, this is the world of the living, where people laugh and talk and live and walk. A world where planes crash and people die. I didn't die, or am I spirit? Am I ethereal, refusing to leave a worldly realm? Am I now embracing the living, as I once embraced the dead? Where are the dead if I'm among them?

”They're looking at you,” Cory said, pointing to the aquarium.

Helen smiled at their aquatic roommates. She wheeled herself toward the aquarium with its blue and green gravel and the mermaid that lounged on top of a bubbling sh.e.l.l. The filter hummed its sleepy song. Yellow and white coral, tucked into one corner, was home to a bashful swordtail. Helen looked closely and saw him there. She touched the gla.s.s.

”Come on out, little guy,” she said. He flicked his tail, but Helen knew she'd never get him beyond his fortress. She counted six healthy fish. The new mollies she had bought seemed in their element and swam to Helen's fingertips.

”Look, baby,” she said, and Cory crouched beside her. ”She's pregnant.” She pointed to the mollie's swollen belly. ”We'll have to separate her from the others. They'll eat the babies.” She turned to Cory. ”They're all alive,” she said. I'm alive.

”They missed you. You're the one who talks to them.”

”You should breakfast with them,” Helen said playfully.

Helen leaned forward and pulled Cory closer. She kissed her. A first kiss, a new kiss. The kiss she would always have Cory feel. A kiss that promised love and life. A kiss that would swell and explode in Cory's head, suck the breath out of her, and charge her with a powerful current.

Helen pulled her mouth away. ”h.e.l.lo, you lovely woman.”

”Hi,” Cory said, flushed from Helen's kiss. ”You're here. I don't believe it.”

Helen tugged at Cory's jacket. ”And I don't believe you're in wool. I'm not going far. Get rid of this outfit and come back to me.”