 | ShatterStorm Productions
|
| ShatterStorm Productions
|
Title: Perfect Stranger
Author: Elizabeth
Email: bethiewhyte@yahoo.ca
Freshly showered and now wearing my own clothes, I walk into the restaurant and start to look for Kerry. I find her sitting close to the back nursing a drink and make my way over. I sit down and say “Hey.”
“Oh hi! I was just reading over these notes. Well let's get this over with.”
So for the next hour, while eating very good food we talk about very boring administrative things. Just when I think I can't take any more of this boring jargon and that I could be with Alex right now Kerry slaps the book shut and announces that anymore of this talk will be bad for our health. So we talk about other things going on in the hospital like Romano's arm and Luka's sleeping problem. Then Kerry looks at me and says, “So look I don't want to be nosy or anything…but what's going on with you and Alex?”
I look down at my Fettuccini Alfredo and then back up at Kerry who's smiling a very friendly smile. “I don't really know yet. All I can honestly say is every time I look at her I feel like the world has stopped and it's just the two of us.”
Kerry nodded knowingly, “Yeah that's what I feel when I look at Kim.”
I look at her quickly, “Who's Kim?”
Kerry looks up startled, “Did I say Kim? I meant Sandy. That's how I feel when I look at sandy.”
I raise my eyebrows but let it pass for now. I'm sure Kerry will tell me this one when she's ready. “Well anyway…so I went over last night and we just talked until three in the morning. Then we went to bed. Nothing happened, but it just felt so right anyway. I've never felt that way about anyone, not even Mark.” I take a breath and eat some food to hide how much talking about Mark still hurts. Kerry takes this as her cue to talk, “Well Susan I'm not one to tell you what to do, but I'm going to say this. From my experience I've learned that if you love someone that much, you shouldn't let them go. And you shouldn't let anything scare you. I know how hard it can be to come out to people. Hell I was forced out at work. I'm the queen of closets. But I lost someone very dear to me because of it. I'll never get her back and she was the one, my one and only.”
The light comes on. “That would be Kim?”
“Yep.”
“Do I know her?”
“You sure do. Do you know that blonde, curly haired woman who answers our psych consults? The one from San Francisco.”
“Oh my God. You don't mean Dr. Legaspi?”
“I sure do. She went out west because of me and then came back to show me I wasn't going to win. What she doesn't know is she's the one who won all along. She took my heart with her.”
“Well did you ever tell her how you feel?”
“Yeah I wrote her a letter.”
“No I mean tell her. Sit her down and actually tell her how you feel. It means a lot more coming from your mouth.”
“I don't know. I just don't think it would make up for everything that's happened.”
“No, well you can't change who you are or were, and you definitely can't change the past. All you can do is work towards the future. And figure out who it is you want to be with in that future.”
Kerry smiles at this, a very sad smile. Suddenly I realize all that this woman has riding on her shoulders. I wonder if all my life of knowing her I just misread her. Maybe…just maybe this is our chance to move toward the future as friends. The dinner over, Kerry insisting to pay, we make our way out and to our respective cars. I drive off with Alex on my mind again, wondering what's going to happen in the next couple of days that are to come.
