What They Left Behind
After working about three or four hours at Michele’s, Ben visited Lauren every day at the hospital. Slowly but surely, she was getting better. She wasn’t out of her coma yet, but she was moving her hands a little bit and her eyelids sometimes fluttered. It wasn’t much but it was enough for Ben to hang some hope onto. He didn’t ask about the long-term outcome. He knew the doctors would say it wasn’t good, but there was a chance, however slight, that she would come out of it okay. How could he make up for abandoning her all those years ago if there wasn’t?
Annie had just forced him out of the restaurant after only two hours of work that day, even though Ben didn’t want to leave. Michele’s had about triple the customers it had before the earthquake, mostly because word spread that you could get very good food there for free. Who wouldn’t want to take up that offer? Despite Ben’s worries, no one complained about the Chinet or the paper cups. Actually, people complemented his staff, telling them what an ingenious idea it was. Ben told the wait staff to give the credit to Annie for coming up with it.
Ben was now pretty familiar with the nurses on duty in the wing Lauren was on. He gave them complementary doggie bags every day to express his appreciation for all the hard work they had been doing. They definitely were grateful to him. One of the more attractive ones actually gave him a kiss on the cheek.
It was the same routine today, but they didn’t let him visit Lauren right away.
“Her fiancé is in there with her,” the attractive nurse said to him pensively.
Ben was confused. Lauren wasn’t engaged to anybody.
“He flew all the way from France just to see her,” the nurse added.
Oh…Remi, Ben thought. He probably just said he was Lauren’s fiancé so he could get a chance to see her.
“How long has he been in there?” Ben asked.
“Oh…about fifteen-twenty minutes, I think.”
“Is it okay if I go in there, too?”
“Uh sure,” the nurse said uncertainly. “I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
He walked down the hall to her room and opened the heavy door labeled three sixteen. He peered in and saw a slim young man with dark curly hair holding Lauren’s hand. He could tell by the way that he was dressed that he was from Europe. No twenty-something American guy ever wore clothes that nice, even if they could afford it.
Remi wasn’t kissing Lauren or whispering in her ear, but Ben still felt a little hesitant to enter, even though he wanted to meet the guy. Finally, Ben decided to just walk in and say hi, even if it was awkward.
“Oh, hello,” he said to Remi stiffly. “I didn’t know Lauren had a visitor.”
Remi seemed startled at first, but then turned around and smiled. Ben didn’t exactly know what made guys attractive, but still he could tell that Remi had movie star looks. No wonder Lauren liked him so much. Remi’s face had about two days’ worth of stubble on it. Ben didn’t know if that’s what he normally looked like, but it seemed to work for him. He was probably used to chicks drooling all over him. No wonder Lauren was so reluctant about starting a serious relationship. She most likely didn’t want to deal with girls throwing themselves at him all the time.
Remi gave Ben a perplexed look and Ben realized the kid probably didn’t speak English. From the couple of business trips he had taken to France over the years, he knew French people hated everything English, especially the language. The only thing they hated worse was listening to their language being butchered by someone with French ancestry, no less.
“Bon jour,” Ben said very haltingly, “Je n’ai pas su que Lauren avait un visiteur.”
“Not bad at all,” Remi replied, with a relatively light French accent, “Your French is almost as good as Lauren’s.”
“I try,” Ben said, relieved that the kid knew English. “I figured that was the least I can do. You’re Remi, right?”
“Yes, I’m Lauren’s friend from France. So you’ve heard about me?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard about you, all right.”
“All of it good, I hope?”
“Yes, it’s all good. Lauren is crazy about you.”
“That’s a good thing, yes?”
“Yes, it is.”
“And you are?”
“I’m Ben, Lauren’s boss.” Ben didn’t think it was the best time to tell Remi that he was also Lauren’s father. He preferred to sort that out later.
“Ah! The best cuisinier in all the United States! I’m so happy to meet you.” They shook hands.
“Well…that’s a bit of a stretch. I’m definitely the best in San Francisco, though.”
“I don’t know if you know about my family, but we are the best winemakers in all of France.”
“Hmmm…I probably have some of your product in our wine cellar, then. We only have the best wines at Michele’s.”
“Our label is obscure here, you could say, but people who have tasted our wine, even here, always remember it.”
“Oh, I see. So that’s how you seduced Lauren…with the power of the grape.”
Remi chuckled a bit at that, then looked back at Lauren.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen her…and then she stopped writing to me. I thought it was because she loved someone else. I was going to come next year to uh…win her back, but then there was this earthquake. I knew I had to see her right away. When I drove to her street, they wouldn’t let me by. All the buildings there were too unstable, they said. I didn’t know where else she could be, so I decided to look in all the hospitals. When I went to this one, they said she was here. I thought she would have a broken leg or arm, nothing like this, you know…”
“I know what you mean,” Ben replied. “I’m really sorry you have to see her like this.”
“At least she is still alive,” Remi said.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Ben said. “We’re all hoping for the best. Say, Remi, how long do you plan on being here?”
“Until Lauren is awake. I plan on asking her to marry me when that happens.”
Ben was impressed. “That’s good, because we need you. I think if she knows you’re here next to her, she’ll come out of it sooner.”
“I will stay here forever if I need to.”
“Well, hopefully, it won’t be that long. Anyway, thank you for coming all the way from France for Lauren. You definitely have my seal of approval.”
“Thank you, Ben,” Remi said. “You know, I would do anything for Lauren. If she were two times the distance away, I would still be here next to her.”
They both visited Lauren, then Remi went downstairs to get something to drink.
“How are you feeling?” Ben asked Lauren when Remi left the room. He received no response. Then he remembered something he read about in the paper a few months ago. He didn’t know if it would work, but he thought it was worth a try.
“Okay, how about this? Blink once if you’re feeling good, twice if you’re feeling bad.”
A first, Lauren didn’t react, but a minute later she sluggishly blinked once.
Ben didn’t know if that was just a coincidence or not, so he decided to ask another question.
“All right…do you know who I am? Blink twice for yes, blink once for no.”
Her reaction was a little bit faster this time. She slowly blinked twice.
Ben was in his glory. She could hear and understand. That was a huge step in the right direction.
He put his arms around her and kissed her cheek. “I think you’re going to come home soon, sweetheart.”
Chapter 91: November 3