Fight or Flight

She sat and wept until she suddenly sat bolt upright and screamed, "Late the next day some rude bastards called to torment me; I remember their laughter to this day. As they both laughed manically, one kept shouting REDRUM into the phone. They were copying that movie."

He filled Marie in on more minor details and offered to make the arrangements to reunite them.

"We are only allowed to contact the police detective handling the case on the other end." he told me. "I 'm not allowed to disclose the location because they are afraid he will try to flee again if you contact him. When we meet him you can explain it all to him. We would like to have the meeting on Tuesday the twenty fifth. He has a regularly scheduled visit to the clinic for follow up on his care. Any deviation from his regular schedule has caused him to panic and shut down."

The last thing he did was to hand her another paper, on the back was written simply Mark in large letters. In much smaller and different handwriting she saw the words Lewis and Stevens on either side. Her hands were shaking too much to turn the page over. He slowly reached out and turned it over for her. It was a different man looking at her, but deep down she felt as if she could still see the face of the man she loved.

When it was over there were tears of confusion, of joy and just tears for the sake of crying. Marie tried to call her sister Anna, but couldn't complete the call. Anna called back to hear Marie crying. Suddenly Marie blurted out "Lewis" and broke down in tears.

Anna replied "We are coming"

Then the phone went dead.

After calling back and not getting any answers she left three messages all saying they were on the way.

Two weeks later on a Monday, Marie, Anna and her husband Graham all met with the staff of the rehab center to plan for the next day. Someone suggested the best way to return Marie to Lewis's life was for her and Marie to walk into the session on a given signal at the same time. Each of them would be holding their own child. If Lewis was sent onto his condition by a bad shock, maybe a good shock would fix things. There would be enough attendants there to control the situation if Lewis didn't respond well.

The next day just after Mark finished telling the therapist, Dr, Bob Jones, how good he was feeling lately he heard a soft voice behind him saying "Lewis, please look at me." He turned to see two Maries standing there holding babies; one baby was white with red hair...the other was mulatto and also had red hair. Hr turned away in confusion.

One spoke again, "Please Lewis, look at us." It was the one with the white baby.

"I am Marie, my sister Anna is beside me. This is your, excuse me, our baby Lewis Mark Stevens JR. My sister is holding Rose Marie Johnson." At that moment Graham Johnson walked into the room and held his wife.

He spoke softly, "You saw Anna and me that day in your guest room. We believe that is the day we conceived."

He just sat with a confused look on his face. You could see he was digesting the new information. No one spoke or moved. His baby giggled.

Lewis was stunned beyond belief. He slowly got out of the chair, walked up to the women and pointed at each as he said "Marie...Nancy. Nancy has a hole between her teeth and larger ears."

Then he pointed to his baby and simply stated "Mine!?"

He returned to his chair and faced Bob to say confidently. "Marie has my baby, I need to go to work and sell some insurance."

He followed a minute later with "Yup, need to get to work."

Memories of his old life were quickly returning to him.

Lewis sat there for a bit more, then got up and walked over to Graham, held out his hand and said "My name is Lewis and my dick is bigger than yours. Welcome to my family."

No one said anything. Graham soon spoke "Might be? But, at least, we know they both work. Thank you and welcome to my family too."

Lewis seemed to be happy, he was restless though. After the short meeting time, the others left Lewis and Bob alone once more. They watched each other for a while before he spoke "Now, that was really something."

Bob nodded yes in response. "How do you feel about all this?"

"I'm confused; I need to think on this for a while. It is all so sudden. I always wanted to be a daddy, now out of nowhere I am one...so they say." He stopped talking and sat with a puzzled look for a while.

Many times he looked up and wanted to speak; then he went back to thinking again. Finally he slowly, thoughtfully asked "Can we prove it is mine? After what I thought I saw...I have doubts."

"Actually, we have taken the time to have some tests done to help you with that; if you can believe the results. A friend of mine is an expert in such things. Would you like him to come in?"

Lewis thought a bit and finally, with slight hesitation he nodded "Yes."

"I have the results from your testing done much earlier, as well as the results from the testing of all five who came to see you today. I am going to give you this envelope; It contains the names of all tested. They are all assigned a symbol. You will find a circle, a rainbow, a pine tree, a car, a book, an apple and a thermometer. There are seven symbols because we also have a random sample from someone not in your group. No symbol is in any way related to any other, so there are no clues as to which belong together. Do you understand this so far?"

Lewis nodded an affirmative response.

Bob walked over to the door to call his friend into the room. "This is Dr Young; he is a top practitioner in reading DNA test results. These tests have been sealed in the envelope you see here. The envelope has seals on it to be sure no one has tampered with them. Each test inside is also sealed in its own envelope for the same reason. We want you to be as sure as you can be that the results are accurate."

Lewis gulped.

"Dr Young, we want you to read the results to these tests and determine if any of these people are related. Have you ever seen these before?"

"NO."

"Do you have any questions before we begin?"

"NO."

Not sure if Bob meant him too, Lewis also said "NO."

Lewis, please open the outer packaging. Inspect it as thoroughly as you like. Don't rush."

Lewis opened the outer package with much difficulty, it was really sealed tightly. He then pulled out one envelope and opened it too. Dr Young took it when offered.

He sat the results on an empty table.

Lewis opened them all in whatever order he felt like. He noticed the Doctor set them down in a particular order. Sometimes he had to adjust the positions, but he kept going. When he was done he looked them over one more time and looked up with a smile on his face.

(If a chart helps you can make one here)

There was one on the top row all on its own; it was on the far right. The fourth result brought a frown, the last one made him smile like it explained the reason for the frown. There were four in the middle row; the two in the center were side by side. There were two more held out to the side a bit and the last two were each centered under the two pairs of results on each side of the middle row. I believe it all fits together like this.

The two I have placed together in the middle of it all appear to be siblings; maybe sisters. Certainly not brothers; there is a chance there could be one of each, but I don't think so.

The ones in the bottom row show combinations of the right and left pairs. I believe these are the children of each pair of results above. There are enough differences to know each child has at least one parent that is different. I see enough differences to be certain the other parent of each child is different too. That is the pair of parents above each child each have one child together, with no common parentage between the children."

Lewis walked over to the table and pointed to the left pair together. He pointed to the one on the bottom row, "Baby, Mom and Dad", as his finger moved back up. He did the same on the other side "Baby, Mom and Dad."

"WHO is this?" he suddenly said pointing to the top row.

"OH, that is one of the parents of this person." It was said as if the answer was a known fact to someone there.

Bob spoke, "Everyone sit in their chairs for a moment."

He stepped out to speak to his receptionist, then returned and sat. They waited until nurse Nancy was escorted in with a strange look on her face.

Bob walked over to her and whispered something in her ear. She sat there with a look of terror on her face, but did not move at all. Finally she began to cry and shook her head "Yes".

Bob simply "...asked on what date?"

She wrote it down as Bob indicated to do.

"Lewis, please match the symbols on the envelopes to those on the cards."

When he was done Bob began to open the envelopes from bottom to top.

The first envelope was Rose Marie. The two above her were Graham and Anna.

We have one set of parents and their child."

All agreed with his declaration.

Next he opened the other envelope on the bottom row and it was Lewis Mark Stevens Jr. The one in the middle row next to Anna was opened to reveal Marie. Next to her was Lewis. "We have another child and both parents."

Lewis spoke up "The top card is my mother? She died when I was in college, along with my Dad." He was puzzled now.

Bob lay down the note, from Nancy, on his desk; as he asked Lewis his birthday. When Lewis started Bob read the same date off of the card.

Everyone looked toward Nancy who was crying, the old battleaxe of a nurse, who could wrestle the craziest of patients to the floor and hog tie them in 15 seconds flat, just cried.

Lewis walked over and hugged her and said "MOM?" She hugged, not Mark but, her son for the first time ever.

At this point the story will be in the words of those involved because it will flow better that way. As stated above "A man with no memory can not tell a story."

It took a while. As soon as everyone was settled, she finally spoke. "There was a young doctor who claimed he loved me. We were engaged to be married when I became pregnant. He swore it was not his and left the area without leaving a trace. When I began to show I took a leave of absence for eight months. I put the child up for adoption. I was told a well to do couple who could not have children took you, I did not want to know more. I delivered under general anesthesia; when I awoke you were no longer there. I would not even ask if you were a boy or girl. I only asked if the child was healthy."

Five years later I met the most wonderful man, his name was Mike. We married, but he was injured in the war and was not able to have children. I figured that was my punishment for giving you up. Please understand, I was left in a terrible position by my lover. An unmarried woman was considered the lowest form of life. I loved my job and would have been fired for cause. Without a job there was no chance for either of us to survive. Things are so different now."

We sat and held each other, and then we looked around and saw the doctors were gone from the room.

She spoke again "I liked to think, to dream, that all of my patients around your age were my baby. I feel closer to them that way; it allows me to break through the tough exterior I put on while I am here. I can listen to them and actually serve their needs better. I have learned over the years to let them go as they leave.

When I saw your birth date I was beside myself with worry as to whether I could release you as I did the others. Will I need to do that?"

"No Mom you won't. My life has been so empty for the last years, I could never turn you away even as just Nurse Nancy."

We sat and held each other until she spoke again. "Are you OK with all the changes in your life today?"

"I think so, but can I stay here for a few days until it all becomes real to me?"

Bob was back in the doorway and he said "I have arraigned it for the next week if necessary. Don't worry about the cost. You can decide when you are certain about how you feel."

The next day I asked for a meeting with Marie, we needed to talk.

We sat in the garden area of the grounds and shared with each other the way we felt and how we remembered the events that seemed so long ago now. We spent hours apologizing for all the events that led up to my leaving. We both decided there was nothing we needed to forgive each other for.

"I don't believe I can return to that house" I told Marie.

"I don't have many happy memories there" she confided.

"I bet they could use another nurse around here" I teased.

"You don't know? I have been a Physicians Assistant for almost two years. It was difficult without you there but I graduated Cum Laude and passed my boards the first time. I hear you are doing well for yourself with the home improvements here."

We held each other for a while basking in the sunshine.

"I like it here!" she admitted. "What will we tell Nancy about this?"

"OH, you haven't heard about that. She is my birth mother; I was adopted by my parents."

Marie's mouth hung open at that point. I gently pushed it shut. She sputtered "How? When? Why?"

I explained as accurately as I could.

We set up a visit to see Anna and Graham over the weekend; they lived an hour north of here. We all went together in Nancys car.

After dinner we made the announcement that we were going to try being back together in the little town we had come to love.

Marie turned to Nancy and teased her "Now you can be there to give extra love to your grandson!"

The response was, "Grandson my ass, I see two children. They both need extra love." It was said with authority as the tears ran down her cheeks.

And so it was.