Tucker seemed to be enjoying the attention he was getting this time around. The nurses and even patients were visiting his room to talk to the man who woke up from a coma speaking in a British accent.
The next afternoon, while Tucker was showering, I turned on the T.V. to watch the DVD one of the nurses had brought me of all the episodes of Downton Abbey. I was already on the 3rd season. Then it hit me like an elephant on steroids! I had been watching Duck Dynasty and Tucker woke speaking hillbilly. Then he wakes up this time with a British accent, and I’d been watching episodes of Downton Abbey. That was it! He was somehow taking it all in while he was in his coma. At least it made better sense than anything else so far.
Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I played Mozart? Without further thought, I reached over and turned the T.V. off. And that bit of drama was put to rest.
Tucker seemed disappointed when I told him I decided to postpone my exhibit reveal at the art gallery. He didn’t like that I had slowed down on my painting either. I tried to explain to him that I was doing what I wanted to do and that being with him was more important to me. There would be plenty of time for all of that later, but he wasn’t convinced.
We continued to take our regular walks around the grounds so he could keep up his strength and so we could have a few moments alone. As I wrapped my arms around his waist, I couldn’t help but notice that he was losing weight. I tried to keep him fed, and guided him on regular walks while he was ‘gone’, but it wasn’t enough. His headaches also began to increase. This had all of us worried. I was watching painfully as my soul-mate wasted away—and I felt helpless. The odd part was, he was the one with the illness, but he worried about me.
One afternoon, I had ‘accidently’ overheard part of a conversation Tucker had with his parents. They were warning him about me. They said I wasn’t looking that well lately, and that I was giving up everything for him. And while I was honored that they were worrying about me, I hated what that information was doing to Tucker.
I wish everyone would see that I’m doing this because I want to do this!! How could I possibly go home and live a life without Tucker? I couldn’t do it! I just couldn’t!
The sweetest moment came for me one evening when Tucker and I were watching T.V together. I was tucked beside him wrapped in my own cozy blanket. Summer was now gone and the weather had turned chilly. I often complain that it is too cold in this stinkin’ hospital. Tucker was teasing me, trying to take some of my blanket, which was a huge ‘no, no’. After our laughter died down, he surprised me, by taking my face in his hands and staring intently into my eyes and saying these words, “June Russell, I love you more than my own life, and I want to spend what’s left of this fragile life I have with you. Will you marry me?”
My mouth fell open, and I’m sure I looked totally ridiculous. “Oh, Tucker! Of course I’ll marry you!”
He pulled me into his arms and we shared a brief, but sweet kiss, and then at least ten nurses burst into the room with squeals of delight and offerings of congratulations. I peered at Tucker in awe. He had somehow managed to surprise me, which wasn’t an easy task, what with me knowing everything these days.
With a crooked and adorable grin, he took my left hand in his and placed a small, tin ring on my left ring finger.
“I’m sorry it’s a piece of junk. I got this ring out of the candy dispenser down the hall when you were showering earlier. It took me twelve tries before I finally got the dang thing. I’ve been eyeballing it on our walks down the hall. Since it’s on the display, I knew the stinkin’ thing was in there.” He shrugged then. “Sorry, but I haven’t been able to get out. I’ll replace it soon—I promise.”
“Oh, Tucker! I love it!” I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed hard. “Thank you!” He was right, it was a piece of junk, but it meant more to me than anything else I possessed. Because it meant that I was his!
The moment for me was bitter sweet. Because one minute I was relishing in the happiest moment of my life, and the next minute Tucker was screaming my name.
“No! June! Not now!” So quickly, he pulled me onto his lap and buried his face in my neck.
“Tucker! Don’t go! Stay with me!” I screamed. “Stay!!”
Chapter Twenty-seven
June
As the weeks passed, my heart and my spirit crumbled a little more with each passing day. This was the longest one yet, and no one could even guarantee me he was going to come back this time. His parents were calling every day, and my heart squeezed every time I had tell them that he was still ‘gone’.
After the 3rd month, I finally went back home to the cottage. I still stayed with Tucker during the day, but the nights were just too hard, watching him lying there, so still. I grieved. Every day I grieved for the man I loved more than life. And every day I prayed, with all the strength I possessed, that he would come back to me. My faith was tested in those long dark days, but it also grew. In a time when faith was considered outdated or old fashioned; it was all I had left, and it’s the only thing that kept me going. I was scrubbing my kitchen floor with great fervency when there was a knock at my door. I pulled off my latex gloves and walked to the door. What, or should I say, who I found there made me gasp. “Blake?”
“Hello, June.” He looked me up and down. “You look different. I mean you are still beautiful, just…well, you’re cleaning.”
I chuckled slightly at that comment. I forgot he knew I hated cleaning. “Yeah, I’m the cleaning lady now.”
He glanced past me as if to ask if he could come inside. “Oh, sorry. Please come in.”
“Thanks,” he said as he stepped into the living room.
I was suddenly wondering what he was doing here, and why now? “Blake, why are you here?”
He paced nervously. “Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about you lately. I know I blew it with you, and I have regretted that every day since. I was hoping you might give me another chance.”
My mouth fell open in surprise. Was he serious? “Blake, I’m engaged to be married. I love someone else.”
He shrugged slightly. “Yeah, I heard about that, but I was hoping the rumors were wrong.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, prepared to defend my reasons for sticking by Tucker. “No, the rumors were not wrong. I’m with someone else now.”
He lowered his head as if sad. “I understand. Well, I came all this way. Can I at least take you out to dinner?”
I dropped my hands, caught completely off guard. “Oh, well I guess that would be okay.”
He perked up. “Great. I’ll pick you up at six.” And then he was gone.
That night at dinner, I soon realized that things hadn’t changed all that much. He was still the same ol’ Blake, consumed with his own life and plans. I allowed his useless chatter to fall to background noise as my mind wandered. I found myself fantasizing about Tucker. I glanced up and it was as if Tucker had replaced Blake. He was staring at me like I was the only woman in the world, just like he always did. My heart soared. It was the first blissful moment I had experienced since that moment Tucker proposed to me in the hospital bed so many weeks before.
“June? June?” Blake was saying and I was finally pulled out of my fantasy.
“Oh, sorry. What were you saying?” I was relieved that he didn’t start again since the food had arrived. I ate in silence as Blake continued to rattle on and on.
By the time he walked me to my front door, I was about to scream and hit something really hard.
“Thank you, Blake, for a lovely dinner,” I lied. Well, if there was one thing my momma taught me was to never be rude. I guess I could’ve kept my mouth shut though.
“I enjoyed getting to know you again,” he said, and I had to bite my lip to keep from responding.
Since when did you get to know me? You only talked about yourself! “Okay, well thanks again. And have a safe drive back to Charlotte.”
I turned to go inside when he took a gentle hold of my arm, stopping m
e. “Can I at least have a goodbye kiss?” It wasn’t a question as his lips came down on mine hard and fast. I pushed at his chest, but he wasn’t budging. I began to wrestle with him as his arms pulled me tighter against him.
“Oh, come on, June. For old time’s sake,” he was saying into my mouth.
Yuck! I was going to vomit. “No!” I yelled as best I could, but it didn’t deter him at all.
“June?” Chase said, stepping up onto the porch. “Is there a problem?”
Blake released me, and I rushed into the safety of Chase’s arms.
“I think you better leave now,” Chase said sternly, and it was clear that it was not up for negotiations.
Blake did the smart thing. He nodded and stepped past us and went swiftly to his car. “Oh, June,” he said, rolling down his car window. “Your mom was the one who told me to come.” Then he drove away.
I was suddenly fuming.
“June, are you all right?” Chase asked as he led me into the house and sat me down on the sofa.
I pushed my anger aside to deal with later. “I think so. Thank you so much for helping me. I know seeing me with Tucker hasn’t been easy for you. But thank you for being a good friend.”
He squeezed my hand. “It’s okay. It was hard at first, but any fool can see how great you guys are together. It’s sickening really. And I met someone this week.”
He instantly had my full attention. “That is wonderful? Who is she?”
“Well, she hasn’t really accepted my invitations to go on a date yet, but she will. I can be very persistent.”
Boy don’t I know that.
“Her name is Eden Blair, and she owns the art gallery in Willington, you know, the one where you have your paintings.”
My eyes grew wide in surprise. “Eden Blair?! She is one of my best friends!”
He got excited about this and continued to ask me all sorts of questions about her, but soon he realized I was exhausted and excused himself and left.
That night I cried myself to sleep.
At 3 o’clock in the morning, I got a phone call. It was the institute. They said Tucker had woken and was screaming my name and they couldn’t calm him.
This time I shed tears of joy as I pulled on a t-shirt, jumped into my jeans, grabbed my flip-flops, and ran to my car faster than I had ever ran before. All the while singing the song My Boyfriend’s Back.
I know it’s corny, but joy expresses itself in all sorts of ways.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Tucker
I was happiest when June was wrapped in my arms, her head pressed against my chest. I worried about her, and she somehow seemed thinner than before. I pulled back and studied her. “Are you all right? You seem, I don’t know, you seem different somehow.”
She smiled reassuringly. “I’m fine. This last time was just harder because it was longer than the other times. I wasn’t sure you were going to come back to me.”
I felt the pain in her words, and wondered what it was that she wasn’t telling me. Her usual free spirit, the thing that drew me to her in the first place, seemed quenched a little. Then it suddenly hit me hard, like a thought hammering in my mind. She was giving up everything to be by my side. My parents had shared their concerns about her, but I didn’t want to see it before. This thought broke my already broken heart. The last thing I ever wanted for June was to steal her life from her—her spark. And that was exactly what I was doing. I could see it in her eyes. They weren’t sparkling anymore.
“So, what have you been painting in my absence?” I was trying to lighten the heaviness in my heart by changing the subject, but the next words out of her mouth just confirmed what I feared.
She shrugged slightly. “I haven’t been painting lately. You needed me here, and this is where I wanted to be.”
My heart squeezed in the most painful way I had ever experienced. I knew then what I had to do. It would kill me, but it would save the only woman I had and would ever love, and that was more important to me than my own happiness.
“Um, I feel like I need to see my parents. Can you call them and ask them to come and see me?” I asked, trying to plant a smile on my face despite the pain pounding in my chest.
She touched my cheek sweetly, lovingly. “Of course. They have been here twice this week checking in on you, and they’ve called every day. I know they’ll be anxious to see you. I’ll go call them.” She said the words, but she seemed reluctant to leave my side, like I might vanish if she left me.
I guess that stood to reason after all she’d been through with me.
I smiled weakly. “Thanks, baby.”
She froze then, as if she sensed something, and turned to me. “I’m still your Forever June?” Her eyebrows rose in question.
I laughed softly. “Absolutely.” I touched her cheek, staring intently into her eyes. There it was—the sparkle was suddenly there for a fleeting moment, and then it was gone. “You’ll always be my forever, June.”
She smiled warmly as she leaned into my touch then she got up and left the room.
When my parents arrived, I was anxious to get my plan underway. And we didn’t have much time.
“I need your help,” I said to them after the initial hugs and tears had passed.
“Of course. What do you need?” my dad asked with eagerness.
Tears filled my eyes and I brushed them aside as I continued. “I need you to get me out of here.”
“What?!” my mom asked, her mouth hanging open in surprise.
“It’s June. She’s giving up everything for me. You were right, she’s changing. This whole thing is taking a major toll on her. And I love her too much to see her waste her life on me. I want you to get me set up in another place, somewhere where she won’t know. But we don’t have much time. She was reluctant to even leave for me to see you guys. I need to be gone before she gets back.”
Both of my parents stood frozen for a few minutes while the news sank in. Then they snapped into action, pulling out phones, packing my stuff and helping me out of bed.
“Are you sure about this?” my mom asked, staring intently into my eyes. Her face was glum which surprised me. I thought she didn’t like June.
“I have to, Mom. I love her so much, but I can’t have her give up her life for me. I may not make it, and I can’t stand to see what it’s doing to her.”
She hugged me tightly. “I know, baby. I’ve seen it too. This will be hard for her, but eventually she’ll move on.”
I winced at the thought of her finding love again, even though that’s ultimately what I wanted for her. “I know you’re right. I know you are. Now, let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
June
I stopped by the florist on my way back to the hospital. The flower arrangement was beautiful, and I knew it would cheer Tucker up some. I had noticed how depressed he was acting since awakening from this last episode. He seemed different, and he had been asking me more questions about the things I had been doing while he was ‘gone’. Of course, I had told him I wasn’t doing anything but staying by his side and running errands. He seemed displeased by this. Then I thought for a moment about how I would feel if Tucker was stopping everything to stay by my side. Heck, I’d probably leave him just so he wouldn’t give up his life for me. Then I froze as a terrifying thought hit me. “No, he wouldn’t,” I whispered to myself, but I was already running toward my car in full speed.
I made it to the hospital in record time. I ran down the hallways, holding the vase against me and taking the turns too fast and sliding, but I continued to run as fast as my shaking legs would take me. “Please, God. Please, God,” I repeated as I ran. I burst into Tucker’s room, surprising the nurses who were stripping the bed. Stripping the bed!!
My eyes roamed the room frantically in search of him. Tucker was gone.
I froze, dropping the vase of flowers I had been gripping tightly in my hands. The glass exploded and the flowers flew all over the floor. “No!!” I
screamed as I collapsed to the floor and into the pile of broken glass.
* * * * * *
I didn’t remember the drive to the Mitchell’s home. I stumbled out of the car and staggered to the door. I banged on the door for several minutes before Tucker’s mom, Alice, finally opened the door.
“Good Lord, June! What happened to you?!” Alice Mitchell squealed, staring in horror at my clothing.
It was then that I studied myself for the first time since discovering Tuckers disappearance. There was blood wiped across my blouse and soaked through my blue-jeans. I had cuts and scrapes on my palms and hands, as well as my legs where my jeans were torn.
“I-I think I fell,” I managed to say.
“Jim, help me!” Alice called to her husband as she took hold of me and ushered me into the house. This somehow surprised me. To see this kind of concern wasn’t what I had expected to see from her. After all, they didn’t approve of me as a match for their son.
Jim and Alice helped me carefully into the bathroom and studied my wounds more closely.
“Jim, can you go in the other bathroom? Reach under the sink and bring me the first-aid kit, please,” Alice asked, her tone firm and controlled.
Once Jim was gone, Alice helped strip me out of my clothing and into the shower to wash all the blood off of me. The warm, sudsy water stung my wounds, but I bit my tongue as Alice helped scrub the blood free. I studied it as it swirled around the drain and then disappeared.
Afterward, Alice applied a soothing salve to my wounds and covered them with bandages. She then helped me into some of her sweat pants and a T-shirt from her upstairs closet.
“Can you tell us what happened?” Alice asked once she helped me into the living room and made me drink something.
I peered up at the two of them as the tears streaked down my face. “Please, tell me where he is,” I pleaded.
“I’m sorry, June,” Jim Mitchell said with compassion in his voice. “We can’t do that. We would be going against Tucker’s wishes.”
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