by D. M. Pratt
“I seduced you?”
“Remember? You reached down and grabbed me. I lifted you up on the stone pedestal, pulled off your dress and slipped inside of you. I’d never made love like that. We went on for what must have been hours. I kept hearing pieces of reality; the party ended, all the people left and we just kept going. Maybe the fifth or sixth time we had this insane simultaneous climax,” Beau said the memory of the passion flushing his face. “You arched up and away from me and threw your head back, fast and hard and I heard this loud crack. There was a stone statue on the other side of the leaves. You hit your head. There was blood everywhere. Your body went limp and didn’t move. I pulled out my phone and called for help. We got you to the hospital. They did everything they could at the Xavier and when they said they couldn’t do anything else, I brought you here.”
Beau stroked her hair lovingly his fingers gently caressing the curve of her cheek.
“Eve, to this day I can’t remember anything but the pleasure of loving you and the bliss of having you. I am not sorry for falling in love with you the moment I saw you. I have never connected with a woman the way I connected with you. I felt as though I’d known you and been waiting for you my whole life and suddenly there you were. I’m so sorry you got hurt.”
Eve stared at him for a long time, studying the pained sincerity in his eyes. She felt his hand around hers and the warmth of his touch. She felt the energetic connection of what she could only describe as love.
“So I’m in a hospital?” Eve asked.
“Eve, you’ve been in a coma,” he said.
Eve felt her face flush and her heart pounding in her chest. She wanted to speak but no words would come. The silence hung heavy in the air for what felt like an eternity. The words he’d spoken, especially the last one, echoed in her head like a call reverberating through a mountain canyon, repeating until it faded away. Coma, she thought. It all felt foreign and impossible.
“How long?” Eve asked in whispered disbelief.
Beau gave a long, concerned look toward the door hoping for Cora to come back.
“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this right now. The doctor said to take things slowly,” Beau said. “But I wanted you to hear the truth from me first. I wanted you to know I loved you the moment I saw you and every day I waited, believing you would come back to us.”
“Us? Take what things slowly? The truth about what? How long have I been in a fucking coma?” Eve asked.
The pounding in her chest grew faster and the heart monitor increased to reflect its panicked pace.
“Thirteen months,” Beau said.
Eve gasped, pulling her hands from his.
“That’s… impossible.”
“I know this is a lot to take in. What’s important is that you’re okay and awake. Right now, that’s all that matters,” Beau told her.
Cora entered as Eve’s eyes went to hers.
“Cora said… I have a baby,” Eve said, choking on the words. There was a long silence. Beau looked at Cora.
“Well, the words just came out,” Cora said defensively.
Beau looked over to the door. At least for the moment, no one else was coming to help him. His eyes went from Cora to Eve.
“You…we… have a son,” Beau said.
“He brought the best doctors in from around the world. You were in a coma and you wouldn’t wake up,” Cora said.
“After the second month, Cora and I moved you here. Other than working to get all the papers on my estate in order, I was here with you.”
“He’s telling the God’s honest truth,” Cora told her.
“Where am I?” Eve demanded.
“It’s Thibodaux Sanitarium just outside of the city. Cora came out here every day too, Eve,” Beau said.
“When did you know about…” she started but the words stopped.
“After three, maybe four months they told me you were pregnant,” Beau told her.
“He told me everything that happened in the garden,” Cora said.
“She was going to have me arrested,” Beau said.
“Truth,” Cora added.
“Beau sat here and held your hand, talked to you, read to you and your fat belly,” Cora told her. “You would have thought you two were an old married couple.”
“I had to believe you’d come back to me… to us,” Beau said with a smile. “Cora took care of the baby for to help me.”
“We’d just about given up on you. The doctors said if you didn’t come back after the birth you might have stayed in a coma for the rest of your life,” Cora said.
Beau and Cora exchanged a long look. There was something in their connection Eve could feel but not understand; perhaps the guilt that they’d almost given up on her.
Dr. Suzette Dorian entered. She was tall and thin with grey hair and round gray-green eyes that reminded Eve of a cat. But there was something else about her. Eve searched her thoughts trying to remember where she’d seen this woman before.
“Good morning, Eve. How are you feeling?” the doctor asked as she looked into Eve’s eyes with a small flashlight, checked the monitors and wrote into her chart.
It was her voice that triggered the memory. Dr. Dorian sounded exactly like the female doctor who had been fighting with Millard that night at Thibodaux. She’d also been the doctor at the Governor’s dinner. But hadn’t that all happened after the Bells of Charity despite what Beau and Cora were saying?
“She knows everything,” Cora said. “I blabbed. I’m so sorry.”
“How are you?” Dr. Dorian asked now more concerned.
“You’re kidding me, right? A coma for thirteen months? I had a baby and missed it,” Eve said more confused than angry.
Her heart began to race again. She didn’t know what to feel or think or believe.
A nurse walked in with fresh bags of saline to change Eve’s drip. She had brown skin and a long black braid the fell down her back between narrow shoulders. The nurse turned her head and smiled. It was Aria! She was the Aria who wasn’t a little girl, but the one who had combined with Evine.
Doctor Dorian smiled and came over to take Eve’s hands. Eve jerked away from her.
“Don’t touch me!” Eve shouted. “I want to know how this is happening.”
“You need to take a few deep breaths and we’ll do our best to explain, Eve,” Dr. Dorian said. “You’ve been through a lot.”
Eve looked at their faces: Cora, Beau, Aria, the doctor. The same people and place, but a completely different story and none of it made sense.
“Your name is Aria?” Eve asked the nurse.
“Why… yes,” Aria said.
“How did she know that?” Cora asked.
“People can be in a coma and still have auditory awareness,” the doctor said.
“I knew it because she’s Evine’s daughter,” Eve said.
Again Aria looked surprised.
“How did you know my mother’s name?” Aria asked.
“I want to see my baby,” Eve said to Beau.
“Let’s take this one step at a time, Eve,” Dr. Dorian told her.
“Now!” Eve insisted. “I want to see the child now!”
“Eve, I know this is a lot to process,” Beau said.
“You fucking think so?” Eve said. “Show me our baby, Beau.”
“Get me fifteen cc’s of valium,” Dr. Dorian told nurse Aria.
“I don’t want any valium. I just woke up! Show me!” Eve insisted.
Beau nodded to Cora and she stepped out of the room.
“I don’t think this is a very good idea,” Doctor Dorian told him.
“It’s our child. She’ll be alright as soon as she sees her son,” Beau said.
A man entered the room. Eve looked up as Millard Le Masters came through the door and stopped. He was old, the same as when she’d met him the first time. Or was there a first time? She shivered as fear closed her throat. He nodded, smiling at her, the sheen of his silver hair catching the morn
ing light. He was there and very much alive.
“I got here as soon as I could,” Millard said with the smile of a proud great grandfather. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Eve.”
Nurse Aria entered holding a syringe. Walking behind her was Mac.
“You were a cop,” Eve said pointing.
“Still am. Detective Macklin Blanchard. I took the report on this accident,” Mac said. He shot a hard look to Beau.
There was a deep uneasiness in the room. Beau’s eyes connected to Millard’s.
“I…know who you are,” Eve said.
“That would be pretty miraculous because you’ve been in a coma for thirteen months,” Mac said. “I’d like to speak to Ms. Donner privately.”
“You need to give her time to remember, Detective. She needs a few days to get oriented. She has a lot to process,” Dr. Dorian said.
Mac turned to Dr. Dorian. “I’ll need a copy of the medical report and I need to know if Ms. Donner wants to press changes?”
Tears filled Eve’s eyes. She connected with Mac. He knew something. She could feel it. She scanned the room from one person to the next.
Before Eve could speak one more person appeared at the door. It was Cora’s caretaker, Ms. Clarisse. Her face was full and bright with two excited blue eyes, rosy cheeks and a smile that graced her thin lips. She too was in one piece and very much alive. Ms. Clarisse hesitated, waiting for Eve to invite her inside. She held the swaddled baby in her arms. Cora was behind her.
The tension in the room grew stronger as Eve struggled with who was there and what had and was happening.
“Look, Detective you can stay or go, I don’t care. I just want Eve to meet our son,” Beau said.
“I think you should go, Detective,” Cora said to Mac. “You’ll have plenty of time to speak with her once she puts the pieces back together.”
“Come with me Detective and I’ll get you the papers you requested. You can speak to Ms. Donner tomorrow, if she chooses” Dr. Dorian said.
Mac took a card out of his pocket and laid it on the table by the door. “Whenever you are ready, Ms. Donner,” Mac said.
Eve saw in his eyes the same kindness and concern that touched her heart that first night they met. Her mind fell into in a violent tail spin. Snatches of images and conversations, people and places she had seen, things she’d done. Every piece of memory hung in her mind like a puzzle that had been scattered across a huge floor and no matter how hard she strained, she couldn’t pull it back together enough to make sense. Too many of the pieces were missing. Too many were cloaked in hazy shades of grey or red or blue. Eve felt frightened and desperately confused. Why were all these huge sections of her life changed and missing? Mac was part of a memory she couldn’t fully grasp or remember. They hung as illusive as shadows beyond a semi-transparent veil yet, in their mystery, something about it was real.
Dr. Dorian nodded to Aria and Mac to leave, gesturing firmly but politely as she guided them both out of the room.
“Come in,” Cora told Ms. Clarisse.
Ms. Clarisse came through the door holding a bundle wrapped in a swaddling of lush white. A cashmere blanket trimmed in the softest, blue satin. She stepped closer. He smiled at her as he extended his arms. The woman nervously obliged, stepping through a tangle of people and made her way next to Beau.
“I’m glad you’re alright, Eve,” Ms. Clarisse said.
Eve was too stunned to speak. She was grateful Ms. Clarisse was alive and well.
“Oh, Eve, he’s so precious,” Cora said looking down at the bundle.
Beau gently took their son from Ms. Clarisse’s arms and lifted his gaze to meet Eve’s.
“Eve, meet our son,” Beau said in a whisper.
He sat down on the edge of the bed next to Eve and gently lay the swaddling in her arms. Eve felt the weight transfer. She felt confused, excited and nervous.
“He’s so heavy,” Eve said with a smile.
Beau smiled and slowly pulled the blanket away to reveal the baby’s face.
Eve looked down. In her arms lay this precious miracle, sleeping peacefully. The sweet calm of the child seemed to wash over her. She felt her heart slow and her breath fall into rhythm with his. He was beautiful. His skin was smooth and creamy, a small button nose and two perfect pouty pink lips sucked at the air as he dreamed. He had fine, sandy colored curls the color of a summer’s beach when the sun is full and bright; it was the same color as her hair and he had Beau’s curls. The full head of hair twisted into perfect ringlets and fell softly to frame his small cherubic face. Eve smiled, glancing up at Beau and then back to her son.
Eve smiled as the baby stirred, opening its toothless mouth to yawn. He squirmed and snuggled into her knowing he was hers and she was his. Eve drew her son closer and gently kissed his forehead, unable to take her eyes off him for even a second.
He cooed and stirred with the touch of her lips on his forehead. The baby blinked, opened his little eyes and looked directly at her. His eyes were jet black, solid as twin, charcoal diamonds that sparkled as they stared up into her face. There was an intelligence in them that made her gasp.
“Cora? He’s…” Eve started to say, but the words failed her. “He’s…”
“Beautiful. I know,” Cora replied.
“He’s ours, Eve,” Beau whispered to her. “Please say you’re happy.”
Eve heard him but her eyes never lifted from the child’s.
“Wait until you see the things he can already do,” Beau said as he sat and placed an arm around Eve’s shoulder. Beau tickled the baby under his chin.
The infant gurgled, nuzzling his face into Eve’s body. Eve felt her nipples harden and a flush of milk release, filling her breast. Instinctively, she opened her nightgown and lifted her son to her breast. The baby opened his mouth hungrily, filling it with her nipple, closing his warm, small lips and gently suckling on her.
Beau smiled lovingly as he stroked Eve’s hair and gently touched his son’s head. Cora’s eyes welled with tears as she contracted, feeling the rush of milk that leaked from her breasts and spotted her blouse. She touched her own stomach. The slightest bulge distended from her belly showing perhaps that she was three or four months pregnant. Millard and Ms. Clarisse moved past Cora to look at mother and child.
Eve let her fingers slip inside the blanket and lifted his tiny hand. Each finger was perfect. She felt his warmth as his tiny hand coiled around her finger. He was surprisingly strong. It made her smile. She studied her son. He was long and thin, but that was to be expected, Beau was six three and she was five nine. He was perfect. He was her baby… their baby. A rush of joy caught in her throat.
“Does he have a name,” Eve whispered to Beau.
“Philip, after my father. But you can change it if you like,” Beau told her.
“Philip?” she whispered.
She studied the child for a long time. “Philip,” she said to her son.
The baby opened his mouth and turned his eyes to look at her as if he understood he’d been called.
“Do you know what I’m thinking, Philip?” Eve asked her baby boy. “I’m thinking what a miracle you are.”
Philip smiled, closed his eyes and began to suckle again. Eve lost herself in the tiny face of her son. Somehow, in the moment, she found it all too easy to forget the shattered pieces of fear-filled visions and mysterious events that clawed at the back of her mind, eluding her memories. Memories, it seemed, no one else would recall. She kissed Phillip gently on the forehead and looked up at Beau. He was a stranger. He was the father of her son or so she’d been told by him and her best friend Cora. A rush of emotion filled her with fear. She felt Philip stop suckling. Eve looked down as Philip opened his huge dark eyes. Eyes that were not at all like hers, nor the pristine blue of his father’s. It was as her baby felt her concern and suspicion; felt the suspicion blossoming up from a deep-rooted seed whose origin was unknown. Slowly, Philip turned his head and looked at Cora and Beau.
&nbs
p; Cora gave a soft whimper as her hand went back to her belly, as if a rush of sharp pain had stabbed her. Cora’s eyes went to Phillip’s and then to Eve’s. Beau didn’t see the fear in Cora’s eyes. No one but Eve saw. No one but Eve began to feel the intricate pieces of what was unfolding. Perhaps the only one who understood the things that lay far beyond her comprehension was her sweet son, her Philip. She studied her beautiful boy while struggling to remember the other side of reality. All she knew was that they were in the eye of an approaching storm; the apex of a change that could alter humanity forever. What she didn’t understand was why. Eve closed her eyes and felt the soft breeze cool the tear that rolled down her cheek. She felt the gentle pull of Philip sucking at her breast and in that instant, she knew she alone could find the question her son was sent to answer, and if she did not it would cost them and everyone she loved their lives.
For a sneak peek of Book 2 in this series, go to:
Age of Eve Book 2 at
www.TruLOVEstories.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ms. Pratt is a five-time Emmy nominee, a Golden Globe nominee and was chosen for the Top Ten short list for the Academy Awards for her live action short film Girlfriends. She has received the Lillian Gish Award from Women in Film, The Angel Award, The Golden Block Award, and six B.E.N. Awards. As Co- Executive Producer and Head Writer for the ground-breaking television series Quantum Leap. Ms. Pratt wrote 25 episodes and co-wrote an additional 15 episodes and has produced over 100 hours of network programs. She made her directorial debut on Cora Unashamed for the BBC’s Masterpiece Theatre’s The American Collection, which aired on both PBS and the BBC.
