Vacations End.

Chapter 8
Resigned

Chapter 8

After covering Andrea with the bed sheets so that she

would not be cold during the night. Daniel sat in the

reclining chair across from the bed and just watched her

sleep. It was very early in the morning, around 3:17 am to

be exact, but he doubted that he would sleep. He was

positive that he was not going to be able to with

everything on his mind, but slowly and surely the

exhaustion that he had tried to overcome weighed down

on him, and soon his eyes closed behind his two heavy

lids. Daniel slept in the same room as Andrea that night;

he fell asleep a few times, but woke often because he

would hear random mutterings coming from Andrea. At

one point he thought that she might be in some pain, and

requested for Christopher to give him pain meds for her.

Christopher complied and gave Andrea a small dose of a

narcotic that he had on hand.

Afterwards Christopher went to his bar room downstairs

to think over what had happened. He was beside himself

with guilt although it wasn’t truly his fault that the accident

had occurred. None the less the guilt pained him, and he

was at a loss as to what he should do to help. He knew in

his mind and heart that the woman Andrea had been was

gone, there was no second guessing that. The only thing

he didn’t know was how bad the effects were, that would

remain unknown until she woke up. Christopher pulled off

the jeans that he had thrown on when he went to pick up

Andrea and saw that he had a large open cut that would

probably need stitches after a cleaning. Instead of tending

to it, he lay down on the bed and fell asleep soon

thereafter.

The next morning around ten am, Daniel opened his

still heavy eyelids and looked around the room to find

that he was the only one there. At some point, Andrea had

woken up and left the bed. He was upright immediately.

The first thing that shot through his mind was that she was

okay now and had left the room because she was still

angry. He walked towards the bedroom door, looked out,

and peered down the hallway... nothing. He was unsure

where she went so he headed to the kitchen/ dining area...

still nothing. Slightly further, past the couch which Andrea

had peed on last night there was a bag of empty cookies

on the floor, crumbs and leftover pieces scattered from

here to there. Daniel’s heart began to sink and he called

out, “Andrea?” From down the stairs in the bar room area,

he heard a childish giggle. Daniel turned in the direction of

the laughter and moved himself forward. In the bar room,

he found Andrea sitting on the floor with an obviously wet

diaper, playing with leftover cookies, and a bottle of

merlot that was luckily corked and unopened.

Daniel stood at the foot of the stairs silently. He didn’t

realize he had tears once again until he felt the need to

hold back a sniffle. The noise alerted Andrea to his

presence, and suddenly she looked up at him with a

momentary blank stare on her face. Just as quickly she

then started to snivel with a small cry that sounded as

though it contained some fear to it. Daniel tried walking

towards her in an attempt to calm her but it only made the

snivel turn into a loud wail. It was seconds later that

Christopher was at the door of the bedroom that sat

across from the bar room. He looked pained and

exhausted; then, just as quickly, he looked wide awake as

what he saw confirmed his thoughts from the night. He

came up from behind Andrea while she cried and knelt

down to rub her back. Instantly she was quiet, and looked

at Christopher with curious eyes. He rubbed her back a

little more, and told her it was okay, everything would be

alright. The mentally young girl looked up at him with her

bottom lip stuck out, still slightly sniveling. Although it was

apparent that she did not remember him, Andrea turned

and reached for Christopher’s face, exploring it with her

hands. He allowed her to do so as Daniel looked on, and

then he took her hands in his and tried looking deep into

her eyes, “Andrea, honey do you know who I am?” The

only response was that of Andrea sticking her thumb in

her mouth, pulling it out, and exploring Christopher’s face

again with her now wet fingers. Daniel approached the duo

and also knelt down to the floor and reached out to put

his hand on Andrea’s shoulder. The minute he touched

her she jumped and turned to look at him. Immediately

the fear was back and it was obvious that she didn’t

recognize Daniel either.

“Andrea, say something, do you remember me or

anything at all?” Daniel asked starting to become upset

with the situation. The only response was a shrill, “DaDa!”

Followed by Andrea turning and burying her head into

Christopher’s arms and he had no choice but to catch her

due to the force with which she threw herself onto him.

Christopher looked up to Daniel not knowing what to say.

Daniel simply sighed resigning himself to what was in front

of him now and what he knew he had lost. “I guess we

should get her some breakfast, and then get her cleaned

up again. This may take some figuring out.” He rose

from the floor looking into the eyes of the now little girl

who looked back at him from the seat of her

chosen “Daddy” and with what appeared to be a great

heaviness in his step, walked towards he kitchen area

once again. Christopher looked down at the young woman

in his arms who was now once again sucking her thumb

with zest, and said come on princess, we have to get you

some breakfast and then I have to figure out some things

about this situation. In response she simply looked up at

him and smiled while she nurtured her thumb in her

mouth, a dribble of drool falling from her chin.

 

---