The Beach House

by Rachel Hanna

  "Well, the first thing would probably be to go see him. Although he can't respond, he might know that you're there. Sometimes our patients start to respond better when they hear a familiar voice. He's basically been alone in that room for twenty-four hours other than a short visit with his fiancée. And when she left, his blood pressure skyrocketed so we had to medicate him for that. Honestly, she may have said something to upset him. I don't know."

  "Well, this is certainly a strange situation. But I'm here, and I will do what needs to be done. So yes, I'd like to see him. And then, if you can give me some more updates on his condition and prognosis, I would like to call my daughters and let them know. One is in California and the other is overseas at school."

  "Certainly. Let me show you to his room, and then we can meet later."

  Janine and Julie stood up, shooting each other glances, as they followed the doctor down the hall toward Michael's room.

  The next few minutes were a blur. Janine stayed behind in a waiting room closer to Michael's room as Julie went inside. She couldn't believe what she saw. There were tubes and IVs everywhere. Machines were beeping all around him, and the room was dark. She couldn't believe this was the man she had been married to for two decades. He looked lifeless, pale and pathetic.

  "Oh, Michael. I'm so sorry. I'm here now. You don't have to worry about anything but getting better," she said. The words she was saying were for the benefit of her daughters. She didn't want them to ever think that she hadn't done her best to keep their father alive.

  "You're going to be okay. I'm going to make decisions for you, and I am going to do my best to get you healthy and well so you can get back to playing golf."

  She knew, from looking at him, that the odds were he would never play golf again. He looked so broken, like the pieces of him could never be put back together. But, she knew that doctors could be miracle workers, and Michael had to want to get better for himself.

  She spent the next hour talking to him, reminiscing, occasionally holding his hand when she could bring herself to do so. When she heard the door open, she assumed it was another nurse coming in for the constant round of vitals being checked or blood being drawn.

  Instead, she saw Victoria.

  She was standing there, her long hair pulled up into a ponytail. Her make-up was perfect, she held a designer handbag and was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. She looked like a freaking supermodel.

  "What are you doing here?" Victoria asked, crossing her arms.

  "They called me because I am still legally his wife."

  "I see. That's unfortunate."

  "Well, from what I hear from the staff at the hospital, you don't seem very interested in taking care of him."

  Victoria walked closer. "They shouldn't have told you that."

  "Well, they did. And, despite the fact that he's treated me poorly and opted instead to make his life with you, I honor my marriage vows. In sickness and in health."

  "Well then, I guess you should know that I came here to tell him goodbye."

  Julie stood up and quickly walked closer to Victoria. "Keep your voice down. He can hear you."

  "I can't do this."

  "You can't do what? You agreed to marry him and take vows.”

  "I'm not cut out for this. The doctors have told me he will have months, if not years, of rehab, and he probably will never be the same again. He might not be able to speak. He may not be able to walk. I can't do that. I live an active lifestyle. I'm sorry, but this is not the life I want for myself or my son."

  "And how are you going to explain to your son one day that you abandoned his father in the hospital when he needed you most?"

  "I guess I will have to cross that bridge when I come to it."

  Julie shook her head. Never had she wanted to punch somebody as much as she did in that moment. And she was well aware of the fact that the woman she wanted to punch was her husband’s mistress. Why did she feel so protective over Michael? He certainly hadn’t felt protective over her.

  "Don't you dare go over there and tell that man that you're leaving. It may cause him to give up. And he can't give up because he has two grown daughters that are depending on having their father to walk them down the aisle one day."

  "Fine. When, or if, he ever comes to, please tell him that I'm sorry. Maybe I'm not a big enough person to take care of someone like this."

  "You're a narcissist. You should look that up in the dictionary. I'm pretty sure your face will be next to it."

  Victoria grunted and then turned around and walked out of the hospital room. Julie truly hoped that would be the last time she ever saw that woman again.

  Over the next twenty-four hours, Julie made every decision for Michael as he lay there, helpless. She sent Janine to stay at a local hotel while she tended to everything her husband needed. The doctors did another surgery, trying to repair his pelvis in a way that would allow him to walk again. They weren't sure. They said rehabilitation would be his best friend, and that a lot of it would depend on whether he really wanted to get better or not.

  Still, Michael was unconscious. She had no idea if he knew she was there or not. She finally called her daughters and tried her best to explain what had happened. Both of them have been reduced to tears on the phone, wanting to fly to Boston and see their dad.

  Julie had insisted they stay put for now. She felt like he was stable at the moment, and she really didn't want them to see him this way. Plus, getting Meg all the way back across the ocean by herself would only give Julie more anxiety and worries.

  She felt so lonely sitting in the hospital. Every time she looked at him, she both wanted to hug him and punch him. Wanted to scream at him for ruining their life together. Right now, they could've been living together in a beach house somewhere, starting to enjoy the fruits of all those years of labor.

  Instead, she had been forced to fly to take care of the man who had cheated on her and got another woman pregnant. She had been forced to defend his honor to the very same woman. None of it made any logical sense.

  "Good afternoon, Mrs. Pike," Dr. Sadler said when making his rounds.

  "Hi. Any update on his condition?"

  "We think the surgery went fairly well. He has a long recovery ahead of him. I don't want to be indelicate, but have you given any thought to how you're going to handle that? Will you move here from South Carolina?"

  The thought had never dawned on her. She had made her life in Seabreeze, and she had never had any intentions of leaving. But what would her daughters think if she continued her single life in her little island town and left their father out to dry?

  "I don't know. This is all still really fresh."

  "I understand. Well, let me know if you need anything. For now, I think he's stable."

  "Do we know when he’ll wake up?"

  "No. That's really up to him." With that, Dr. Sadler walked out of the room, and Julie was left to wait and see when Michael would finally open his eyes.

  Julie dozed in the chair beside Michael’s bed. She had been there day after day, night after night. Through it all, she’d done video calls with her daughters and texted back and forth with Dawson about the house. Of course, Janine had spent many days with her in the hospital room, encouraging her to take breaks when she needed them.

  As she sat there, she went through a range of emotions from sadness to resentfulness that Michael was still disrupting her life. She’d learned that the accident was caused by him falling asleep at the wheel on the way home from a business trip. How ironic that he was trying to get home to see Victoria, and she had abandoned him at the first sign of difficulty.

  Night had descended over the city, and she looked out the window and noticed how different it was than night time in the Lowcountry. Gone were the sounds of bugs and waves crashing, and they were replaced by hospital monitors beeping and car horns on the road outside.

  “Where… am… I?” She heard Michael say suddenly. Julie leapt to her feet and ran to the side o
f the bed.

  “Michael, I’m here. It’s Julie.” She squeezed his hand lightly and stood over his face.

  He squinted his eyes, trying to open them. “Victoria?”

  Julie pushed her anger down. “No, Michael. It’s me, Julie.”

  Again, he tried opening his eyes, the struggle on his face evident.

  “Julie? Why are you here?”

  Michael was so confused, and it pained her in a deeper way than she wanted to admit. Seeing her first love, her husband of over twenty years, struggle to understand why he was lying in a hospital bed, hooked to a bunch of machines, made her want to weep.

  “Michael, I want you to stay calm, okay? You’re in the hospital.”

  He opened his eyes further and looked around. Suddenly, he seemed distraught and scared. He began flailing his arms, trying in vain to get rid of the tubes and cords that were connected to his broken body.

  “Michael, please, stay still. You can’t do this…”

  He continued pulling and then wincing in pain. In desperation, Julie finally pressed the button to call the nurse. She came quickly and asked Julie to leave the room while she attempted to settle him down.

  Julie stepped into the hall, tears running down her face. This whole thing sucked in so many ways. She was being forced to care for the man who shattered her heart into a million pieces, yet he didn’t want her there any more than he wanted her to remain his wife. He wanted Victoria.

  She could walk away now. He was awake. He was alive. She could just catch a flight and go back to the life she was building in Seabreeze. Nobody would blame her.

  Except maybe her daughters. She couldn’t do that to them.

  “What happened?” Janine said, as she ran toward her sister holding two coffee drinks.

  “He woke up,” Julie said. She wiped her face and attempted to channel her mother with her face of stone and lack of emotion.

  “That’s a good thing, right?”

  “He doesn’t understand where he is, and he wants Victoria, not me. Just like he wanted her for the last two years. I can’t do this, Janine. How am I supposed to do this?”

  Janine pulled her into a hug. “I know this is hard, sweetie. But, remember you’re doing it for Meg and Colleen.”

  “I know that,” Julie said, pulling back. “But, he doesn’t want me.”

  “He’s not in his right mind. Give it time. Think of it as a job you have to do. Like, what was the worst job you ever had?”

  “I don’t know,” Julie said, taking a sip of her coffee.

  “Come on, yes you do. We both know what it was.”

  Julie chuckled. “Cleaning toilets at McAffey’s Chicken.”

  “Yes! That place was so gross. How long did you work there?”

  “Three days,” Julie said, letting out a loud laugh. “I couldn’t get the smell of that food out of my jeans, so I burned them in Uncle Dan’s backyard firepit!”

  The two women giggled until they were interrupted by the nurse coming out of the room.

  “How is he?” Julie asked.

  “He’s calmer now, but if he gets agitated again, press the button. We may have to sedate him.”

  “Thank you,” Julie said. “Come with me?”

  “Of course,” Janine said.

  They walked back into the room, but Janine stood in the doorway so Michael couldn’t see her. They were never fans of each other, and she didn’t want to upset him.

  “Julie?” Michael said, still groggy.

  “It’s me. How are you feeling?”

  “Tired. Sore. Confused. What happened to me? Why am I here?”

  Julie sat down and tried her best to be calming. “You were in a car accident a few days ago.”

  “I’ve been here for days? But I don’t remember anything.”

  “Michael, your injuries were very severe when you got here.”

  “Life threatening?”

  “Yes. You’ve had two surgeries so far.”

  “So far?”

  “I’m sure the doctor will come by soon and talk to you about your future rehab and prognosis.”

  “I’m scared, Julie.”

  Her heart ached. How she wished things could’ve been different for them. And now he was scared, and she wanted to comfort him the way a wife would comfort a husband. But she was all too aware that he didn’t really want her. He just wanted someone.

  “It’s going to be okay, Michael. The doctors here are very experienced with this kind of thing.”

  He looked around. “Where’s Victoria?”

  Julie swallowed hard. What should she say? The last thing she wanted to do was upset him so much that he freaked out again. But, it was only a matter of time before he realized she wasn’t there, and she wasn’t coming.

  “Um, I’m not sure where she is right now. You just need to focus on getting better. Meg and Colleen need their father.”

  “Meg and Colleen… are they here?”

  “No. I asked them not to come until we know more about your rehab.”

  “Oh.”

  “Would you like to video chat with them? Maybe tomorrow when you’re feeling up to it?”

  “Yes. That would be good…” he said, his eyes starting to close.

  “Sleep now, Michael. We’ll talk more when you wake up, okay?”

  “Okay…” he said, his voice drifting off as his eyes closed.

  Julie slowly got up and exited the room, Janine trailing behind her.

  “You amaze me, little sister,” Janine said.

  “That was hard. What am I supposed to say about the tramp?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe ask the doctor what to do?”

  “Good idea. I think I’ll go hunt him down. Listen, can you check in with Dawson? Make sure there’s nothing he needs related to the house?”

  “Sure.”

  Julie started walking up the hall, but turned back to her sister.

  “Janine?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I just want you to know I love you.”

  Janine smiled. “I love you too, sis.”

  Chapter 14

  As the days wore on, Julie started to wonder if she would ever get back to Seabreeze. Janine had stayed with her, but she’d finally encouraged her to go back to the cottage and help Dawson get things finished up on the renovation.

  Michael had done video chats with Meg and Colleen, and he’d asked so many times about Victoria. For some reason, he didn’t seem to comprehend that she wasn’t coming back.

  “You have to eat,” Julie said as she watched him stare at a plate of Salisbury steak that didn’t look appealing in the slightest.

  “I’m not hungry,” he grumbled. His personality had changed a lot. He was angry much of the time, his outbursts sometimes frightening her. The doctor said it was normal, but it was still hard to watch.

  Rehab would begin soon now that his surgeries were over. Pain was a constant problem, and she wondered how he’d ever get off the pain medications they had him on. Then, she would remind herself that things needed to happen one step at a time.

  “Michael, you can’t rebuild your strength if you don’t eat,” she said as she stared at a magazine.

  “Where is she?”

  “Who?”

  “Victoria.”

  “Let’s not do this.”

  “Did you have her banned from the hospital? Is that your way of getting back at me?”

  Julie was in shock. That was what he thought all this time? That she pushed her way into the hospital to take of him and banned his girlfriend?

  “You must be joking.”

  “Joking? None of this is funny!” he yelled.

  “Michael, hold your voice down,” she whispered loudly.

  “I want to see her.”

  Julie sighed. “Fine. I didn’t want to tell you this until you were better, but Victoria bailed.”

  “What do you mean bailed?”

  “Michael, she was only here for a short time right after your accident.
By the time I arrived the next day, she had decided she didn’t want to take care of you.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, his eyes knitted together. She couldn’t tell if he was shocked or sad or angry. He just stared. It was like he couldn’t comprehend her words.

  “I don’t believe you. Where’s my phone?”

  Again, Julie sighed, something she was doing a lot more lately. She walked across the room and dug into his jean’s pocket. She pressed the button on his phone, which, of course, was dead.

  “Your phone needs to be charged,” she said, as she walked back to her seat and replaced her charging phone with his. As soon as his lit up, she noticed a picture of Victoria and their son was his screensaver. She wanted to vomit.

  “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, Julie, but you won’t break us up. I love her. And I love my son.”

  She’d had enough, and came out of her seat. “Look, Michael, I’ve tried to be nice! I’ve tried to maintain my composure because I love our daughters, and I want them to have their father. But, I can’t do this anymore. Victoria told me to my face that she wasn’t going to take care of you. She didn’t want to be here. Heck, I don’t want to be here, either, but for totally different reasons you can probably imagine. Call her all you want. Text her too. Send a skywriter. Whatever you need to do. But the woman bailed when you needed her, and I want to feel sorry for you, but you’re making it incredibly difficult!”

  She took in a deep breath and sat back down, avoiding eye contact with Michael. She could feel him looking at her, though.

  “She left me?”

  “She left you.”

  He didn’t speak another word for several minutes. There was just a deafening silence in the room, the sound of beeping from his monitor was the only noise.

  “I guess this is karma. You must be pretty happy.”

  She craned her head at him. “Seriously? What kind of person do you think I am?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, softly. “Why did you come?”

  “Because they called me.”

  “You could have said no. I wouldn’t have blamed you.”

  She looked at him. “I’m here because of our daughters. Nothing more, trust me.”