Moon Over Alcatraz

by Patricia Yager Delagrange

  I thanked her and walked across the hall, stopping at the threshold. I took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

  I wasn’t sure what to expect when I pulled aside the curtain. His cheeks were flushed, probably from all the activity and tests they’d put him through in the few short hours he’d been awake. He turned toward me, his face without expression.

  “Edward,” I whispered then cleared my throat. “How are you feeling?”

  He didn’t smile or reply to my question. In fact, he revealed no emotion whatsoever. It was as if—

  “Who are you?” he asked, interrupting my thoughts.

  Chapter 61

  Now I understood what the look on his face meant. He didn’t recognize me. Then again, he’d always been a jokester, especially at the most inappropriate moments. Perhaps he was trying to be funny.

  I tilted my head and smiled. “Edward. It’s me.” I paused. He remained solemn but I told myself he still might be pulling my leg. I pointed toward my heart and raised my eyebrows in question. “Brandy?”

  He shook his head and frowned. “I’m sorry but I don’t recall having met you before.” He squinted his eyes, staring at my face. “I’ve only been awake a few hours. I can’t place your face but I obviously must have been acquainted with you, right?”

  I should have known this could happen. He’d been in a coma for almost three months. Dr. McBride had explained patients often forgot their entire past or arbitrary segments of it, and memories could return suddenly or be lost forever. She’d also mentioned forcing the patient to remember was an ill-advised endeavor, often causing emotional distress that exacerbated their already delicate state of mind.

  “We were friends,” I said. “From high school,” I clarified, not wanting to throw too many emotional memories at him all at one time.

  “Here in Alameda?”

  “Yes. St. Joseph’s Notre Dame High School.” I laughed when I saw him smile. “I know, long name, isn’t it? Especially for such a small school. There were fifty kids in our senior class.”

  “And we kept in touch all those years?”

  “We’d see each other from time to time. Alameda’s a small town.” I paused, trying to figure out what to say next so I wouldn’t upset him. “Dr. McBride told me they plan on running a battery of tests to assess your physical and mental status.”

  “That’s what she told me as well.”

  “The nurse advised me I shouldn’t visit for long. You’ve only been awake a short while.” I took a few steps backward and smiled. “I should go.”

  He nodded. “Okay. Thanks for coming by…Brandy, right?”

  “Yes. Brandy Chambers. I’m glad you’re recovering, Edward. This is wonderful news.” I gave a little wave and turned to leave.

  “Brandy?” he called out.

  I stopped mid-stride and looked back at him, eyebrows raised.

  “Will you visit me again sometime?” he said, shyly.

  “Uh, sure.”

  He nodded his head slowly up and down.

  I hurried out of the room, passed the receptionist’s desk to the front door, slammed my hands against the silver bar across the door and bolted outside. I needed to get out of there. I felt boxed in, nearly claustrophobic.

  He didn’t remember me. But what about Jessica? And what about our wedding?

  When I reached the back parking lot, I was disoriented. I turned left then right, searching for my car. I couldn’t remember where I’d parked it.

  Jogging toward the end of the lot, I saw the Mercedes and dug my hand in my purse, searching for the key fob. When my fingers finally found it I pressed the button, sighing with relief when I heard the click of the door lock as it opened.

  I don’t know how long I sat in the car, my head against the steering wheel. I’d never imagined this happening when Edward woke up. I recalled my conversation with the doctor at the care facility when she’d said, “Miracles do happen.” Well, one just had.

  I drove home and Cecilia greeted me at the door. She’d obviously seen my car pull into the driveway from the front room window.

  “What happened? How is he?” she asked, grasping my arm, searching my eyes for answers.

  I touched my fingers to my mouth, feeling my lips quivering with emotion, knowing I could never get through this conversation without crying.

  “Here, sit down,” she said, wrapping her arm around my shoulders and guiding me toward the couch.

  She gently pushed me down into the cushions, took my purse from my hands, and ran into the kitchen. Within seconds she returned with a glass of sparkling water, pressing it into my hand. “Take a drink, calm down,” she urged. “You can talk to me about it. Or not. I’ll leave you alone if you want. Just tell me what you need.”

  I took a huge gulp and leaned back into the cushions then took a few more sips and set the glass down on the coffee table. I closed my eyes, not able to say the words to her face, knowing the pity I’d see there if I looked in her eyes. “He doesn’t remember me,” I whispered.

  Silence greeted my declaration, seconds ticked by. Maybe she hadn’t heard me. I opened my eyes and looked at her. Tears ran down her cheeks as she stared out the front room window.

  Her head slowly turned toward me and our eyes met. “I’m so sorry, Brandy. And I’m sure you don’t have all the answers. Maybe it’s temporary…like transient amnesia. Did you tell Dr. McBride?”

  I shook my head. “All I could think of was I had to get home, to a safe place, away from that facility…away from him, I—”

  “You believed he’d wake up and he did. You need to believe in him again. He’ll remember you, Brandy. It’s so sad your first encounter turned out that way, but he just woke up. It’s been almost three months, for God’s sake. Just give him time. And talk with the doctor. You never know, she may be able to allay your fears about his amnesia.”

  “I’ll call her right now,” I said, stood up and grabbed the phone from the side table and sat back down on the couch. Dr. McBride’s number was stored in the phone’s memory. I pressed the Call button. Her receptionist put me on hold for a few moments until the doctor could take my call.

  “Ms. Chambers. How can I help you? You talked with Edward?”

  “I did; however he doesn’t remember me, Dr. McBride.” My voice cracked with emotion, “Is that a permanent condition?”

  “I know it’s upsetting,” she answered, her tone unemotional. “And it may be temporary. Statistically speaking, the odds of him waking from the coma were stacked against him, as you know. In his case, I wouldn’t feel comfortable making any kind of prognosis. He’s beat the odds so far, he may continue to beat them. Or not,” she added.

  “That’s what I thought. I just wasn’t expecting him to ask me who I was.”

  “Don’t be scared away by this. Keep visiting him. Your presence might jar something in that side of the brain dealing with people and places from his past. My advice to you, Ms. Chambers, is don’t give up on him.”

  “I won’t. And thank you for taking my call.” I set the phone down next to me on the couch and turned toward Cecilia.

  “You were right. She said this may be temporary. Or not. It’s the ‘or not’ that frightens me.”

  She grasped my hands in hers and shook them. I looked her in the eyes. “Don’t give up on him, Brandy,” she said sternly.

  I smiled then laughed out loud.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked with a frown.

  “Dr. McBride said those exact words.”

  Her eyes got wide and she grinned. “I told you.” She stood up and pulled me up with her. “It’s almost dinner time. Why don’t we order a pizza and watch a movie. It would probably do you some good.”

  “What about Amylynn?”

  “Perry’s at home with her. You and I were supposed to be gone most of the day, remember? He enjoys spending daddy time with her whenever I’m not around. Which isn’t very often.”

  “Then I’ll take you up on your offer. Just let
me check on Jessica and you order the pizza.”

  I took the stairs to Jessica’s room, feeling a hundred years old. I was emotionally exhausted and slid into the rocking chair next to her crib. Little sucking noises escaped from her tiny lips as she lay on her stomach at the bottom of the crib, her favorite blanket clutched in her hand. She was such a beautiful child. Long dark eyelashes hovered above chubby cheeks, her auburn corkscrew curls were scattered across the sheets.

  She was my life, my love, the center of my world. And I wanted to give her father back to her. I was determined to do that. “I swear he’ll remember you, Jessica,” I whispered. “Even if he doesn’t know who I am, I swear to God he’s going to know who you are.”

  She turned over and looked up at me with her blue eyes, so like her father’s, and smiled. “Maw,” she whispered.

  I reached down and picked her up, nuzzling her cheek against my neck. “Mama’s here, sweetheart,” I said through her curls. “And Daddy will be here soon too. I just know it.”

  Chapter 62

  I slept fitfully that night and had the weirdest dream. Edward was using American Sign Language to tell me he loved me; however, since I’d never learned how to sign, it didn’t make sense that I understood what he was trying to tell me. At seven a.m. the phone’s incessant ringing jarred me out of my slumber. Fumbling for the receiver, I finally grasped it after several rings.

  “Hello,” I said, trying to clear my voice and sound normal.

  “Brandy?” It was Edward.

  “Hi, Edward.” I struggled to sit up, surprised to hear his voice, wondering why he’d be phoning me. “Is everything okay?”

  “I’d like to talk to you. I mean, if you have the time to come here I have a few things I’d like to say to you.”

  I blinked my eyes then looked around my bedroom. Maybe I hadn’t been fully awake when I’d answered the phone. “Did you say you wanted to talk to me?”

  “If that would be convenient,” he answered.

  “Any particular time?” I asked, thinking this conversation felt a bit odd. He didn’t sound like the “old” Edward and I didn’t know what to make of it.

  “They’ll be running tests most of the morning; however, I’ll be here this afternoon,” he said, chuckling.

  “Okay,” I said. Where else would he be? And had he just cracked a joke?

  “I’ll see you then?” he asked.

  “Right,” I replied then placed the phone on the bedside table.

  I didn’t know what this meant—his calling me like this. Perhaps someone, though I couldn’t guess who, had told him about me, that he had a daughter. However, the staff had always conducted themselves with the utmost propriety and were very responsible in the manner in which they dealt with their patients.

  My mind was going in all different directions, endeavoring to figure out this puzzle. I phoned Stephanie. If she couldn’t babysit then I would call Cecilia. This was not the time to introduce Jessica to her father and I needed to do this alone.

  That afternoon when I entered Edward’s room I was surprised to see him sitting in a wheelchair, dressed in a bathrobe, holding a cup in his hand. He’d been in a coma for almost three months and he’d lost a good twenty pounds. His face was thinner, his arms and legs had lost the tone he’d acquired at the gym. But he was still a handsome man. Looking at him now brought back all the excitement I’d always felt when I was in the same room with him.

  He wasn’t quadriplegic since he had use of his arms. Maybe he could move his legs too. If so, I guessed it would take rehabilitative therapy to reach the point where he could stand and walk alone.

  “Hello, Brandy,” he said, his greeting warm and friendly. “Please sit down,” he gestured to a chair across from him.

  “Thank you,” I replied, taking a seat. I fiddled with the clasp on my purse in my lap, not sure what to say, uncomfortable not knowing what he was going to say to me.

  “I love you, Brandy.”

  I looked up sharply, my mouth fell partway open.

  He held his hand up to forestall anything I might answer after his declaration. “I remember everything—about you and me, what happened between us when you were married to Weston, that Jessica’s my daughter, about the plans for our wedding.” He shook his head and smiled. “I recall you said something about a stuffed horse you’d brought me.”

  I clasped my hand across my mouth, trying to hide the quivering of my lips. “This is unbelievable,” I whispered. “You heard me talking to you?”

  He nodded his head again and grinned. “I swear to God.” His expression changed, the smile wiped clean from his face. “Do you still love me?”

  Tears edged their way down my cheeks. He leaned toward me and grasped my hands. I stared into those blue eyes that had always made my heart sing.

  “Why are you crying?” he whispered.

  “I dreamed this. I mean, not this exact scene, but last night I dreamt you told me you loved me. However you said it in sign language. And I understood what you were trying to tell me.” I started laughing through my tears. “And I don’t even understand sign language.” I cradled his face in my hands and smiled. “You remember me. And Jessica. Oh my God, Edward.”

  He put a hand on each of my shoulders, bringing my face inches from his. “You never answered me, Brandy.”

  “Answered you?”

  “Do you still love me?”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck, our lips touched, first in a soft kiss then our tongues slowly entwined in a gentle yet sensuous dance before I pulled away. Our eyes locked. “I never stopped loving you. I always believed you’d come back to me. And now you have.”

  “Did you ever buy the dress that was going to knock my socks off?” He grinned.

  My mouth dropped open—again. I could feel each tear slide its way down my cheek. “You’re kidding me.”

  “I heard you, Brandy.”

  I couldn’t stop crying, the tears were endless. I was so happy I wanted to call everyone I knew and tell them he was awake. Edward had come out of the coma!

  He glanced down at his legs. “As soon as I get back on my feet again, I want to get married.” He took my left hand in his and looked at my ring finger. “You’re still wearing it.”

  I glanced at the engagement ring he’d surprised me with last Christmas. “I had no intention of ever taking it off.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

  “I swear,” I said, picking up my other hand, turning my palm outward.

  “You’ll swear in front of a judge?”

  “That I’ll love and cherish you for as long as we both shall live, so help me God?” He nodded. I cupped his face in my hands. “I do.”

  “I do too,” he added, smiling that grin of his that always made me melt inside.

  We leaned toward each other and sealed our vows with a kiss.

  About the Author

  I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the small city of Alameda. I studied at St. Mary’s College, spent my junior year at the University of Madrid then transferred to U.C. Santa Barbara where I received my Bachelor’s degree in Spanish, going on to acquire a Master’s degree in Education at Oregon State University. I’m married, with a teenage son and daughter, and we live with two chocolate labs. My Friesian horse Maximus gets to spend his free time in the Oakland hills with a million dollar view.

  www.patriciayagerdelagrange.com