Stranded

"And what would...being the right person look like?" Hannah said still a little defensive from his unwanted-but-stinging probe.

"Being optimistic, friendly, caring, loving—very affectionate, someone who genuinely and honestly compliments the other person often, and above all, being committed to making the marriage work no matter what kind of difficulties life throws your way. Having a career or a job is important, of course. It's a practical necessity. Ideally it would be a job one really enjoys, but then again, they call it 'work' for a reason, right?"

Hannah finally smiled then Barrett said, "I'm very fortunate to be doing the thing I love most so for me, going to work is a pleasure I'd be willing to do for free were money not essential to life. That, plus having someone I love to come home to each day, would be the closest thing to an ideal world I can imagine."

"I mostly agree with what you said, but it seems a bit...idealistic to me. Don't you think marriage is more like a business partnership?" Hannah offered.

"It has a business-like nature to it in that both people have responsibilities. There's no denying that. But why get married if it's just a partnership? Marriage, to me at least, implies love and intimacy as much as anything practical, and I don't think I'd want that with a business partner. I could hire a maid and a personal assistant and just live my life alone instead. Someday I'd like to have a special someone to share my life with—and hers with me, too—and I want us to always make an effort to keep our relationship happy, healthy, and alive. I hope to not only be holding her hand after 40 years of marriage, but to still want to hold it."

Hannah looked away as she thought about even trying to hold Harold's hand. It wasn't just in public, he didn't seem to need or want that sort of thing even in private. He preferred what he called 'stimulating conversation' to intimacy and 'being proper' seemed to matter more than having fun.

"I like the saying, 'If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right'. We said that all the time in the Army, and I think it applies particularly well to marriage," Barrett said catching her completely by surprise when he used the very word she was thinking at the very time she was thinking it. "In a nutshell, if you have fun together, if you can't wait to see each other to share your love in um...every possible way...then I'd say you're a good match."

These were the very issues that had troubled her about Harold from the first day she'd met him. But he'd been so taken with her and so charming—and generous—she'd managed to shelve all of those concerns and focus on his positive attributes. And yet, other than being financially generous, she wasn't really able to list anything else. Yes, he was a very attractive man in that stiff, stay-the-course kind of way. He dressed impeccably and he was also very intelligent and clearly quite talented in his profession.

So maybe it wasn't that she couldn't come up with anything to put in the 'pro' column, it was just that everything she might list there seemed...sterile.

It was the 'con' column she'd covered up for well over a year. The coldness, the aloofness, the lack of affection and intimacy. Harold was also an excellent dancer and as Hannah looked back, ballroom dancing was about the closest they'd come to anything intimate in all that time. She'd enjoyed it immensely, but she could see now that it was nothing but a part of the courtship ritual for Howard rather than a semi-intimate form of sharing.

She was now thoroughly confused and downright frustrated. She wanted to lash out at Barrett for making her feel that way, and yet she understood none of it was his fault. He'd simply posed some questions that forced her think. It was the inferences she drew from thinking about his questions that caused so much consternation.

Suddenly, a marriage that had seemed so right seemed so...sterile, and that word was quite possibly the best of all words to describe what she and Harold had together. With him, she would live in a truly magnificent home, drive the finest of cars, wear the most expensive clothing and jewelry, and Phaedra would have the best education money could buy. She would indeed have true financial security, but she would also quite likely find herself living in a kind of 'operating room' under the most...sterile...of conditions.

"I think I'm going to bed, too, Barrett," Hannah said. "I hope I didn't sound angry or rude. If I did, I apologize. That certainly wasn't my intent."

"If you were angry or upset, I know it wasn't at me." He smiled then told her, "And I'm pretty sure you're not even mad at your father. I'll leave it to you to fill in the blanks with the right answer."

It was a little after midnight and Hannah was still wide awake. She'd tried laying on her right side and then her left. She'd rolled over on her tummy and was now laying on her back staring up at the ceiling. She watched the blades of a fan silently turning above her as she thought about her future and that one word kept coming back to haunt her—sterile.

It was just after 8am when she awoke and that was only because Phaedra had come in asking her for something to eat.

"Oh, sorry, Fay-Fay. Mommy was really tired. Let me get up and brush my teeth and I'll be right down, okay?"

Phaedra nodded then happily skipped out of the room and then went downstairs and waited in the kitchen.

Hannah yawned as she sat and tinkled. Her head was still cloudy and yet that...word...kept itself front and center in her mind. She flushed the toilet and stood up then opened the blinds on the small bathroom window. As she did, she screamed.

Looking directly at her was Barrett's handsome face and it scared the bejesus out of her. He was obviously on a ladder and when she screamed, he'd been just as startled as her and had pulled back sharply. Hannah watched in horror as he struggled for balance then disappeared as he fell off the ladder backwards.

"Oh, my God!" she screamed scaring Phaedra for the second time.

"Mommy! What's wrong?" she called from the bottom of the stairs as he mother flew right passed her.

She grabbed her coat from the rack in the foyer and ran outside and around to the side of the house. She saw her father bent over a deep impression in the snow next to him and hollered, "Is he okay?"

She trudged through well over two feet of snow and as she got closer she could hear Barrett groaning in pain.

"Oh, my goodness! Are you all right?" she asked as she bent down next to her dad.

"I'm pretty sure I dislocated my shoulder," he said grimacing in pain. "I hit something buried in the snow.

Hannah dug around and found one of the large decorative stones that ringed the flower bed she so loved during the warmer months.

"I'll go call 911!" she said.

"No! That's okay. Your dad can drive me to the hospital. I'm not actually injured. It just hurts like hell."

"Barrett said a bad word, Mommy," Phaedra said who'd run outside to see what was going on.

"It's okay, honey. It's not bad when it's used like...never mind. Come on, let's get you back inside."

She turned to her dad then said, "Dad? Are you sure you don't want me to call 911?"

He had Barrett on his feet who was bent over sideways holding his left shoulder to keep it as still as possible.

"Yeah, we're fine. He's tough, remember? This ain't nothing for a guy like Barrett. How about you go start the car for us?"

"Okay!" she said happy to know she could do something to help out.

She grabbed her dad's keys and started the car then told Phaedra to come upstairs with her and get dressed as fast as she could.

As they ran up the stairs, Phaedra said, "But I'm hungry, Mommy."

"We'll get you something to eat at the hospital," she told her.

"We're going to the hospital? Yay!" she said skipping all the way to her room.

This time Hannah made sure to sit in the backseat with Barrett just in case there was any way she could help.

"I'm so sorry!" she told him several times on the way to the ER.

"It ain't your fault, Han. I'm the one that talked him into get up on the ladder to finish stringing those lights. You can blame me, okay?"

"It's not anyone's fault," Barrett said through clenched teeth. He knew a dislocation was often as painful as a break and that there was nothing anyone could do until a doctor shoved things back into place.

"Is Barrett gonna die like Daddy did?" Phaedra asked.

"No!" all three of the adults said at once.

"I'm okay, sweetie," Barrett said trying to speak normally.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Hannah asked.

Barrett tried to turn her way slightly and said, "You could smile for me. That seems to help quite a bit."

"Okay," she said smiling the best she could.

"Oh, that's much better," he said gritting his teeth.

They got Barrett checked in and took a seat.

"Mommy? I'm still hungry," Phaedra said.

Hannah started to get up when her dad motioned for her to sit back down. "Come with me, sweetie," Jeff said. "We'll go get some breakfast in the cafeteria and your mom can take care of the nice young man, okay?"

"Okay!" she said happily grabbing one of his fingers on the way.

"I'm beginning to think this is a setup," Hannah said as they walked away.

"I can neither confirm nor deny any such allegation," Barrett said trying not to laugh even when Hannah did.

"Oh. Okay. I get it. My dad is behind all of this, isn't he? You're the spoiler! He wants you here to try and get in between Harold and me. Uh-huh. This all makes perfect sense now."

Barrett grimaced as he turned slightly again then asked, "Is it working?"

"What?" Hannah asked.

"I'd hate to think I fell off that ladder from 20 feet for nothing so...is it working?"

Without looking at him, Hannah said, "You really made me think last night."

"I did?"

"Yes, you did. I was awake most of the night...thinking.

"Did you resolve anything?" he asked.

"It's rather ironic that we...well...you, ended up in a hospital of all places," she said.

"Why is that?" he asked.

She smile then told him, "Because the word that kept coming back to me to describe my relationship with Harold was...sterile."

"Ah, okay. Hospitals do need sterile operating rooms, don't they?"

"Yes, they do," Hannah said while looking straight ahead.

"And relationships? Do they need sterility, too, or maybe something with a little more warmth?"

Hannah turned his way and said, "If you weren't in so much pain I'd give you a good shove with my shoulder."

"Don't say 'shoulder', okay?" he said. In spite of the pain, he couldn't help but smile and almost managed a laugh.

"So now what, Dr. Phil?" Hannah said.

"Okay, wait just a minute here. I don't have answers. Uh-uh. I only have questions. Yeah, I'm the Question Man, not the Answer Man. You have to find those on your own."

Hannah cut her eyes toward him then said, "I'd say 'typical man' but you're definitely not typical of any man I ever met. Ex-Army and a danseur. That's definitely not typical."

"Hey, I'm just in touch with my feminine side," he joked.

This time, Hannah laughed a genuine laugh.

"Now that's funny because you are anything but feminine," she informed him.

"Yep. That's me. A manly kind of man." He said the 'manly man' thing in an Irish accent the way the guy in the Irish Spring bath soap commercial once had.

"Well, I'll admit you're kind of...ruggedly handsome."

"And I can flit with the best of them," he added still using the Irish accent.

Hannah laughed again then realized she'd done that more with him in the last half hour than she had with Harold in the entire last year.

"Barrett Mammon?" they heard someone dressed in white call out.

"Oh, over here!" Hannah said waving at him. "Can I help you stand up?"

"No. Please don't 'help' me anymore," he said making sure to smile.

Hannah not only smiled back, she felt something else for the first time. She felt...happy. And the reason she felt happy was walking next to her bent sideways in pain.

"Just him unless you're family, ma'am," the orderly said.

"She's my wife," Barrett said without hesitation.

"I'm your what?" Hannah said with total surprise.

Barrett saw the other man's confused look and said, "I'm sorry about the fight, honey. You were right and I learned my lesson. I deserved this and so much more, but I really was just looking at that other woman. Can you please forgive me so we can move on?" Barrett said pretending to plead with her.

The orderly stopped and said, "Man, what is wrong with you? If I had a beautiful wife like her, I'd never look at anyone again. Ever!"

"No, you're right," Barrett said. "And I learned my lesson—the hard way."

Hannah was smiling, laughing, and shaking her head.

They waited in another room for several minutes before a doctor came in and assessed the shoulder and ordering x-rays.

"You may not want to be in here when we reset this," the doctor told Hannah after examing some x-rays making sure it really was just a dislocation.

"No, that's okay. If my...husband...can stand the pain of having it reset I'm sure I can stand to see it being done."

"She's just a sadist, Doctor. She just wants to stay so she can see me suffer again." Barrett smiled at her and saw her eyes twinkling with delight.

"Oh, I doubt that," the doctor said. "I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and I can tell when two people love each other."

Barrett looked at Hannah who just raised her eyebrows and tilted her head.

"I guess we're not fooling anyone today, are we, honey?" he said.

"Hmmm. No. Not today...sweetheart," she said narrowing her eyes playfully.

"Okay, doc. I'm ready when you are."

The doctor and the other man got Barrett into position then took their places. The doctor placed his hands then said, "Okay. On three. One, two...SNAP!"

Barrett grunted and Hannah yelped.

"Are you okay?" she asked after hearing the loud pop.

He was rotating his arm around the shoulder joint and said, "I think so. Good as new, in fact."

"Not quite," the doctor said. "It'll be prone to re-injury for a while so maybe your wife can leave this entire arm alone for a few days."

"Oh, I don't know, Doctor," Barrett said. "She's pretty um...amorous, if you know what I mean."

He watched Hannah's eyes open wide as her mouth did the same thing.

"Well, it's true, isn't it?" Barrett said. "What can I say? You just can't keep your hands off me."

"I remember being young and in love," the doctor said finally looking over at Hannah. "Then again, I'm more in love with my wife today, 27 years later, than I was when I met her."

"That's the kind of marriage we want, isn't it, honey?" Barrett said putting his newly-repaired arm around her shoulders.

"Yes. Yes, it is," she said. She leaned over and whispered, "You may not live another 27 seconds let alone years, though. Just sayin'."

Jeff and Phaedra were waiting for them when they came out.

"Hi, Mommy! Is Barrett all better now?" Phaedra asked.

"Well...his arm is all better," she said as she reached up and removed it from her shoulder.

"Does this mean you're still mad at me, honey?" he whispered.

"Don't press your luck," she said trying to sound tough but unable to keep from smiling.

By the time they left the hospital it was after noon.

"Who's hungry?" Jeff asked.

"Me!" Phaedra called out.

"You just ate! You got a tapeworm in your tummy or something?"

"Yes!" she giggled even though she didn't know what a tapeworm was.

"Um, don't you think we should be checking to see if the airport is still closed?" Hannah said.

"Oh, right. How about we do that while we're getting a burger or something?" Jeff said looking to Hannah for approval.

Barrett was scrolling through his cell phone when he said, "This is not good."

"What is not good?" Hannah said.

"Well, the airport is open no, but my flight leaves in twenty minutes," he told her. "We kind of lost track of time."

"Oh, that's just great!" she said. "When does the next flight leave?" she asked.

"Everything's booked solid," he said as he kept checking. "That's okay. I can just go to the airport and hang out on standby. I'm sure they'll have a seat open up at some point."

"What? It's Christmas Eve, for cryin' out loud," Jeff said. "You can't spend Christmas Eve in an airport! That's...that's un-American!"

"Dad?" Hannah said. "I know what you're doing and it's not working, okay?"

Jeff looked back at Barrett who said, "She knows."

"Okay, so she knows. So what?"

"So what? You're intentionally trying to break up my engagement and all you can say is, 'So what?' Seriously?"

"No, that's not all I can say," Jeff replied.

He looked at his daughter and asked, "Is it working? Even a little bit?"

"Oooohhh!!!" she said looking up at the roof of the car.

"Mommy? Are you mad again?" Phaedra asked.

"No, Mommy isn't mad, honey. She might have to hurt Grandpa, though," she said glaring at her father.

"You mean like you hurt Barrett on the ladder?"

Barrett tried not to laugh but couldn't help it.

"Sorry!" he said after a small outburst.

"Oh, you're sorry, all right," Hannah told him. "And just wait until I get you home and alone...honey!"

"Oh, so you do forgive me! I was beginning to worry for a little while there," Barrett said smiling at her.

Hannah fought as hard as she could not to laugh, then lost it. When she cracked up so did Barrett. That made Phaedra laugh and even Jeff joined in.

"McDonalds or Burger King?" he asked.

"McDonalds!" Phaedra said getting the only vote that mattered. "I want a happy meal, Grandpa!"

As they sat at the Golden Arches eating lunch, the conversation actually turned pleasant for once and then Hannah's phone chimed.

"Oh! It's from Harold. Hold on, okay?" she said. She opened his text then stopped smiling.

"Well, I hope you're happy," she sad to her father. "Harold can't make it today."

"Is the airport closed again?" Jeff asked being snide.

"No, it isn't closed," Hannah said. "He had a last-minute deal come up and it can't wait."

"Oh, terrific!" Jeff said. "This is the guy who supposedly puts you and my granddaughter before everything, right? What a peach!"

Hannah refused to get angry at her father again.

"Dad, how many times did you have to work on Christmas Eve?" Before he could answer she added, "Or on Christmas Day or Thanksgiving or my birthday or...."

"All right, all right!" Jeff said. "But that's different. Criminals don't take days off. Civilized people do. And if this Homer guy really cared about you, he'd move heaven and earth to be here. The airport's open and he didn't fall off a ladder and miss a flight."

"You're enjoying this too, aren't you?" she said to Barrett.

"No, actually I'm not. I honestly feel very bad for you, Hannah."

His reply completely took the wind out of her sails.

"Thank you," she said.

"I really am, you know. I can't imagine not being with the person I love on such a special day," Barrett added.

"Mommy still has me!" Phaedra assured him.

"Yes, she does," Barrett agreed.

"And she has Grandpa."

"That's right."

"And she has you!"

"Me?" Barrett said.

"Yes. I heard her call you 'honey' and that's what people call the people they love."

Barrett looked at Hannah who wanted to be mad but couldn't.

"I was just pretending, honey," Hannah told her. "I like Barrett, but I don't love him, okay?"

"Okay. But you just called me 'honey' so do you just like me?" she asked on the verge of being sad.

Phaedra was sitting next to Barrett so he pulled her up on his lap and said, "Your mom will always, always, always love you. No matter what, okay? But it's different with grownups. Sometimes they just kid around. They're not being mean, but they are teasing."