They Say Love Is Blind

  ~***~

  “Are you okay to drive, honey?”

  “I’m okay. I stopped drinking about an hour ago.” He pulled her into his arms as they headed for the car and they indulged in some PDA before she pulled back. “How about we finish this at the apartment?”

  “Can you call in sick tomorrow?”

  She felt the lower portion of her body tighten at his suggestion. But since being with him she had called in sick too many times and didn’t want to risk a reprimand.

  “Not unless I can fake up a doctor’s note.” He sighed.

  “Then let’s hurry back to your place because I want to make love to you, querida.”

  Her limbs instantly turned to liquid and she croaked out a weak; okay. It was barely 10:00 so if he wanted more time to make love that meant he was planning another lovefest. Their lovefests have been known to last upwards of 12 hours…

  They hurried to the car and when she started the engine, he began scanning through his iPod. Instead of soothing Portuguese he played a Musiq Soulchild song that she adored. He reached for her hand as she drove and she peeked at him. He had a look of peace on his face.

  Suddenly, there was the sound of a horn blaring loudly. Tory whipped her head around. There was a car coming at them fast. It wasn’t slowing! She spun the wheel as fast and as hard as she could but not before she heard a sickening explosion as the approaching car hit them head on. It felt as if their car was being hit by a freight train.

  In that moment, Tory’s world slowed. She saw the two colliding cars crunching together like they were crumpling paper. And then the windshield cracked and she was seeing a beautiful kaleidoscope. The last thing she remembered is the airbag deploying and she suddenly couldn’t breathe. It was as if she had been hit in the chest with a baseball bat. That’s when Tory’s world went black and quiet.

  CHAPTER 12

  Something heavy was sitting on her chest. She couldn’t breathe, but when she realized that she couldn’t move either the panic began to set in. Without realizing it, Tory groaned and tossed until a soothing hand covered hers. Instantly she settled. Before long she was resting and dreaming.

  Much later when her eyes finally opened, Tory’s first thought was that she was very tired. She blinked and tried to focus before realizing that it was night. Why did this all feel so strange? Why was she so tired? She just wanted to roll over and not think about work, to snuggle up against Lee…

  Suddenly alert, Tory sat up and groaned when the sudden movement caused pain to flare up in various body parts. She looked around and realized that she was in a hospital room that was dark except for a dimmed overhead light. It didn’t take longer than a few moments for her to remember that there had been a car accident, a horrible accident.

  Lee!

  Tory ripped the blanket and sheet from her lower body but realized that the bed railings were up. She was too dazed to figure out how to lower them, so she moved to the end of the bed but before she could drop from the end and onto the floor she was stopped by two things; one was something strapped to her face, the other was an IV connection protruding from the back of her hand.

  Tory pulled the oxygen line from her face and immediately her breathing became labored. It didn’t take long before she grew dizzy and lightheaded. I’m going to blackout. She tried to call out for help but couldn’t catch her breath. What had happened to her in the accident?! Pain flared in her back and shoulder as she strained to take a breath.

  I can’t breathe! She reached for the oxygen and held it up to her mouth and nose, gulping big breaths. Unfortunately she was now about as weak as a newborn kitten. Lee…

  Tory sank back onto the bed. Where was he? Her world grew black.

  ~***~

  Tory was unsure how long she listened to the two voices speaking quietly in Portuguese. It lulled her to sleep and gave her comfort even when she knew that she should be awake because something important had happened. She had to wake up but sleep felt so good.

  She sighed in distress and the voices came to an immediate stop.

  “Tory?”

  “Hmmm…” She moaned.

  “Get the nurse. Tory? Wake up now. You’ve been asleep, freira, but now it’s time to wake up.”

  Her eyes opened to the sight of Macey. She blinked and grimaced and then tried to sit up. Macey’s face was etched in concern.

  “No. You can’t sit up. You have some broken ribs and a collapsed lung. “

  Tory gulped down a breath, too weak to do much more than to croak out one little word. “Lee.”

  Macey’s face dropped and she looked away. “He’s okay.” After a moment she looked at Tory again and her face was suddenly unreadable.

  She was lying. If he was okay then he would be here now. She gave her friend a pleading look before the last of her strength faded and she either slept or blacked out.

  ~***~

  Tory could hear her mother’s voice and suddenly she was a little girl again. “Wake up Tory.” Was it time for school? She was so tired. She couldn’t ever remember being this tired.

  “No Mama,” she muttered. Someone squeezed her hand and then a brusque voice spoke.

  “She’s coming around. Come on Tory, you can do it.”

  She frowned and her eyes slowly opened. She saw the pale face of a white woman dressed in nurse’s scrubs.

  “There you are. Look whose here; your Mom and Dad.”

  Slowly she noted that Mama was holding her hand and Daddy was sitting next to her patting her arm. She took a deep breath and realized that she had an oxygen mask on. She must have tried to reach up to move it because the nurse quickly chided her.

  “Tory, you can’t move that.” Why was this nurse talking to her like she was a child? She swallowed and focused on her parents.

  “What’s going on?”

  Her parents looked at each other. “Tory, you were in an accident,” her Mom responded.

  Dear God, how could she have forgotten?! Yes, there had been an accident and while she couldn’t remember the details, she knew it had been very bad. Tory tried to sit up in the narrow bed while the nurse tried to urge her back down.

  “Mama, where is Lee?!”

  “Lay down, honey.” Daddy said with concern. The oxygen mask had slipped away from her face and he gently put it back into place.

  “Tory, Lee is okay.”

  “Where is he then?”

  “He’s here in the hospital. Now you have to lie down because of your ribs.” Daddy said. She allowed herself to fall back against her pillows, but she was only marginally relieved.

  “I want to see him.” She didn’t believe them. Lee was dead, they were lying to her. She thought she was going to burst into tears but not until she got some very straight answers.

  The nurse was suddenly there. “Tory, right now you are much too weak to visit him. You have a chest tube in place and you have severe cyanosis with a very big risk of cardiovascular collapse.” Tory quieted. “What I’m saying is that your blood pressure is dangerously low, so low that your skin is blue. Right now you aren’t able to breathe well on your own because of your collapsed lung.

  “Your fiancée is recovering well, but he went through some severe trauma as well.” The nurse continued. “Right now he is in the Intensive Care Unit. There was head and face trauma. He has two broken arms and a broken collarbone. Mr. Torres has some significant swelling of his brain and is in a medically induced coma. His blood pressure and vitals are very good and he is expected to make a full recovery.”

  Tory searched the nurse’s eyes. They had to tell the truth, didn’t they? They were under a Hippocratic Oath just like a doctor. So even if she was telling the truth, Tory wasn’t sure if she felt relieved or horrified. He was alive and for that she was thankful. But he was in a coma trying to heal a swollen brain. His arms were broken; he needed arms and hands to see with. She closed her eyes in distress and felt her mother squeezing her hand.

  “Baby, I went in to visit him and he looked ver
y good. He’s swollen, black and blue but he looked very healthy…unlike you. You have to take care of yourself, Tory. You almost died.” Her mother looked at the nurse who continued for her.

  “You couldn’t get enough oxygen to your heart. And you have a broken rib which can’t be taped because it will further restrict your breathing. You literally cannot get up for at least another week.”

  “Another week?” She said hoarsely. “How long have we been here?”

  “This is your second day here.” The nurse moved to a machine that monitored her heart rate and blood pressure. “I’ll bring you more pain medicine and leave you with your family.” When the nurse left she tried to concentrate.

  “There…there was a crash,” she said from behind her mask.

  “Try not to talk, Tory.” Daddy said.

  “I don’t remember it,” she said, ignoring his request.

  Her mother sighed. “The police report says that the other driver had a blood alcohol level that was twice the legal limit. He was driving down the wrong side of the street and other cars swerved out of the way. Yours didn’t. He hit you head on.” She said no more.

  Daddy continued. “Your blood alcohol level…” Tory gave him a quick look. “…it was well within the legal limits but you had been drinking.” Was there blame there? This wasn’t like when she was in college and had gone out drinking and that man had…She couldn’t say anything. She knew her father didn’t like for her to drink, but it wasn’t like that. She was never drunk.

  “We were celebrating,” she tried to explain. “I wasn’t drunk, Daddy.”

  He kissed her forehead. “Rest, honey. We’ll talk more later.”

  “What about the other man, the one who hit us?” She suddenly and viciously hoped that he was dead.

  “He’s alive. It’s not his first offense so he will go to jail when he’s released from the hospital. I think he has a broken arm but he’s in better condition than those that he hurt.” Bitterly she thought that jail was too good for him, but at least he would suffer the loss of his freedom.

  She closed her eyes and sighed. She was very tired. It was like she had just run a marathon and all she’d done was talk for a few minutes.

  “Rest, Tory.” Her mother said gently as her eyes closed. “We’ll be here.” Already she felt less agitated. But she couldn’t wait a week before she could visit Lee. She would figure it out when she woke up. Tory slept restlessly.

  The quiet sound of a discussion taking place finally pulled her once more from her slumber. Her mother was there with Francie and Kaye. Somehow that seemed all wrong; mixing her past with her present. She listened for a while feeling comforted by her mother’s voice and the Portuguese accent that she had grown so accustomed to.

  “How…?” she took a deep breath and felt a dull pain in her side. Three sets of eyes turned to her and then their owners converged around her bed. “What day is this?” She croaked.

  “Wednesday and you are doing much better, sister.” Kaye spoke. Mama gripped her hand with a smile and Francie regarded her with approval.

  “She’s not blue anymore.” She said.

  “No.” Mama agreed.

  “Brown and healthy.” Kaye added. She found herself smiling.

  “Is Lee better?”

  Francie sat on the edge of the bed. “They are going to bring him around today. The swelling is nearly gone.” Her eyes began to tear and she blinked rapidly and grabbed Tory’s other hand and squeezed it gently. “I was so worried about you two. I didn’t think it would turn out this well. I thought we would lose one or both of you. You both are going to be okay.”

  She studied her sister-in-law to be. “I want to see him. I need to see him. I want to be there when they bring him around.”

  “Your doctor was just here.” Mama said. “He said that if you can sit up in a wheelchair then you can visit him.”

  “Bring the wheelchair.”

  Kaye smiled. “Just like an Azorean woman. We told that doctor that if he didn’t give you permission to go you wouldn’t get healthy AND you would find a way to sneak off and find him. Am I right, sister?”

  Tory smiled, and then nodded her head. “Very true.”

  Francie and Kaye went to find a nurse to bring in a wheelchair, giving her alone time with her mother. She asked her to brush her hair for her—silly since Lee wouldn’t be able to see her anyways. Her mother took pleasure in brushing her shoulder length hair, leaving it lose although that was impractical with her being hospitalized.

  “Such pretty hair.” Mama said. “And you’ve lost so much weight, Tory. Lee must be very good for you.”

  “He makes me feel beautiful. He accepts everything about me.” She glanced up at her mother. “It’s so strange, mama. I’ve felt so insecure for so long and one person comes along and makes me re-evaluate how badly I’ve judged myself just because of my weight.”

  “It’s society that makes us think that big can’t be beautiful. You know, Tory, back in history, women built like you were put in the highest regards. In many cultures big women are in and small ones are out.”

  Tory didn’t think the American culture would ever completely change their views on big women.

  “I noticed that the women in Lee’s family are all…on the bigger side.” Mama was far from a big woman. She had never made Tory feel bad about her weight, but in recent years when she drew close to the three hundred pound mark, Mama and Daddy voiced their concerns and offered to help her with some type of program. That’s when she became obsessed with dieting—and none of it worked for her, not until she found a man that truly didn’t care. And then the weight began melting off on its own. Not completely but enough that she was comfortable in her own skin.

  “Right,” Tory agreed. “They aren’t unhealthy, either. You should see them go, Mama. Those ladies have enough energy to run a marathon.”

  Francine and Kaye returned a few moments later with a nurse and wheelchair in tow. “Give me a mirror, Mama.” Mama and Kaye exchanged glances and Tory immediately reached up to explore her face with trepidation. Just because Lee was blind didn’t mean she was willing to give up the one thing that most people could agree on; that she had a beautiful face.

  Her fingers told her that she was swollen and would be badly bruised. Mentally she prepared herself for what she would see. When her mother handed her a compact mirror she saw that she had a black eye and an angry purple bruise that covered one side of her face. The oxygen mask had been replaced with an oxygen tube and she saw that her lips were also swollen. Her skin tone was off, she looked nearly grey. She handed the mirror back, regretting her decision to look at herself.

  When the wheelchair arrived they took care getting her transported from the bed. They transferred her IV and oxygen, and then the nurse watched the monitors for a while before disconnecting her from it. She had to lay her head back and close her eyes for a few moments but then she felt better.

  “I’m ready.” The nurse gave her okay and Kaye wheeled her out of the room that had been home for the last 3 days.

  When they arrived at the ICU ward they were met by a nurse who announced that only 6 visitors could go in at a time and there were already six present.

  “We can switch out with 4 others.” Kaye said.

  “No, I’ll just wait in the waiting area,” Tory’s mother said. “Just switch out with three.”

  Kaye wheeled her to Lee’s room. Lee was lying in bed, naked from the chest up. There were monitors and tubes attached to him; helping him to breath and beeping loudly. She blinked rapidly at the sight of her beautiful man lying motionless in bed. Macey was present, as was Letiticia, who she rarely saw as she lived out of town. There was also Senna, Raphael, Rosalind and Paulo. Lee had a huge family when you factored in the seven siblings and their spouses and children. It was something that she had to become accustomed to. Now she loved it and them.

  As Kaye wheeled her right next to the bed, Tory ignored everyone else as she stared at him. He was a mess
. He was cut and bruised and swollen. His arms were at his sides in heavy casts and his naked chest revealed more thick bruising. Tory realized that the bruise on his chest was from the safety belt. She reached up automatically and touched her shoulder where she knew she would have a similar one and the pain flared to life there.

  There was some discussion on who would leave but all Tory could do was focus on Lee. She wanted to say wake up. Please wake up. But her words were trapped behind her lips. She reached out to take his hand and Kaye wheeled her even closer until she had his hand in hers. The cast ran up to his knuckles and across his palm so that his thumb poked from it. She rubbed his fingertips gently, knowing that it was very sensitive to touch, but he didn’t even stir.