“But I’m in LA,” Ethan said, despite the sudden difficulty he was having holding on to where he thought he was or the event he was describing.
The realization that overcame him shut off whatever else he could recall. Like the automatic doors that close on a ship to prevent it from taking on water, the realization inhibited his ability to remember anything else.
Ethan watched as the two doctors exchanged glances, unspoken dialogue passing between them. Before either spoke, another woman with a face Ethan didn’t know entered the room. She was dressed in a nurse’s uniform of light green. Her entrance broke their silent stalemate.
“Ah, Janice, perfect timing,” Dr. Katharine announced, turning from the entering nurse back to Ethan. “Janice is your new nurse. She’ll be replacing Christa.”
Ethan looked at Dr. Katharine, somewhat shocked by hearing Christa’s name. “Christa?” Ethan whispered.
“Yes, Christa went on leave a few weeks ago. We’ve had a few challenges finding the right person to replace her.”
“Good afternoon,” Janice said, smiling. “And how is ‘the actor’ today?”
Epilogue
I was brought up to believe
The universe has a plan
We are only human
It’s not ours to understand
—Rush
Real Time
April 1984
Ethan was to learn that he’d been hospitalized shortly after the violent murder of his beloved Mila Monahan. Clinically, they had difficulty diagnosing what had happened. A debilitating form of shock had taken over his mind, incapacitating his ability to face any form of reality. They didn’t know if or when he’d come out of it.
Ethan later met orderlies Jesse Gonzales and Jamie Scott.
Other patients to whom he was introduced included Louis Benjamin, Randolph Baseman, Roy Sonlu, Jackie Carlson, and Sven Ironside.
Robbie Johnson was charged with the murder of Mila Monahan. His trial date was set, but he never went to trial. He was killed in a vehicle accident in transit between a holding cell in the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Center and Milhaven Penitentiary in Kingston. The vehicle transporting him lost control and rolled down an embankment during an early morning winter storm in March 1984.
Real Time—May 1984
Ethan’s Timeline—May 1993
Ethan woke at just after two in the afternoon from a short nap. Katharine was standing at the closed blinds of his trailer. He could see only her silhouette against the light penetrating the blinds. He could look at her silhouette forever.
“It’s about time you woke up,” Katharine said with a smile. “You’re supposed to be on the set in half an hour. Makeup’s already knocked on the door once.”
Ethan sat up. The couch was small but big enough for the two of them to snooze on. He loved being with Katharine. She was beautiful to look at.
“You better enjoy the view today,” she warned. “I’m headed to Oregon tomorrow for two weeks.”
“Don’t remind me,” he replied, standing up and pulling on his boxers. “We’ll be here at least that long.” He then broke into his lines for the next scene he was about to shoot. “Don’t look at me like that,” he snarled, furrowing his brow and then pressing his lips together.
“Like what?” the doctor replied, trying to keep a lid on her patient’s reaction.
“Like you don’t understand,” Ethan’s character replied. “Like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“Maybe we should take a break.”
“Take a break,” Ethan replied, his face tightening as his lips pressed against his teeth. “I don’t need a break. I need a doctor.”
He winked at Dr. Katharine.
The Actor Page 35
