We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 12

"Sure, go for it," said Don as he rolled up his sleeve.

"When is the last time you ate?" demanded Mai.

"When you made that Kow Pot," said Don, "I made a pig of myself."

"That was days ago!" demanded Mai.

"What's Kow Pot?" Dr. Snyder quietly asked Lanh as she placed a stethoscope on Lanh's back.

"Thai fried rice," whispered Lanh as her mother berated Don for not taking care of himself. "He's been having problems sleeping."

"Not today," whispered Dr. Snyder, and she was right. Within 10 minutes Don was sound asleep and the rest of the family returned. "He must have been really tired," said Dr. Snyder to Lanh, "usually, the Benadryl doesn't work that quickly."

Duong, Huy, and Kim-ly came back in and found Lanh nearly in tears as she kissed her sleeping husband's hand. "Of all the days for this to happen," she whispered, "I'm so sorry honey."

"It's not your fault," Duong said as he kissed his daughter's forehead and stroked her hair.

"No, it is, I know better than to take risks on Christmas... his mom!"

"What about his mom?" asked Kim-ly.

"She died on Christmas, that's what started our whole "Christmas Revival Project," said Lanh. "Oh God, what must have been going through his mind when they wheeled me out..."

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Don found himself walking down a long, cold corridor, the overhead lights were too bright but at the same time they illuminated very little. The whole length of the corridor was circles of painfully bright white surrounded by total inky black and there was a buzzing noise in the background that was annoying and hypnotic at the same time. After a long walk down the corridor Don began to notice a hospital bed at the end of the hallway and without knowing how he knew, he knew that Karole was lying on the bed.

As he stepped from one pool of light to another a shape stepped out from shadow into a pool of light ahead of him. The shape was clearly human, and clearly female, she looked young, but the glaring light and the deep black shadows made it very difficult to see her features. "Who are you?" Don asked.

"Who are you looking for?" she countered.

"Karole."

"She's busy."

Don looked around the apparition's shoulder at the hospital bed at the end of the hall, "What could she possibly be doing?"

"Dying. Leave her alone."

"Who are you?" demanded Don and he pushed past the specter. The specter reappeared at the edge of the next pool of light but this time it was a small Asian boy.

"Mom says I can't say."

Don crouched down and said, "I'm a friend of your mom, that makes us friends, right?" The little boy looked confused, but he nodded. "Friends don't keep secrets from each other, who are you?" The little boy twisted in the agony of indecision then sprinted off into the darkness.

As Don got closer to the hospital bed the children appearing to him seemed to be getting younger and younger. Finally, a little three-year-old girl with the laugh and the grin of a born troublemaker answered his question. "We are Reggie!"

"Isn't that a boy's name?" asked Don.

"It our name!" and with a laugh she ran off into the dark.

What the hell? Don thought when a girl that looked to be five years old stepped tentatively into the light, and she was carrying a baby. The child looked incredibly familiar to him and before he could say a word, she looked up at him with tear filled eyes and said "Daddy Don?"

"Krissy? What's going on here?"

"Help momma, she won't talk to us," and the little girl broke into heart rending sobs, and the baby started to slip from her grip.

Don quickly grabbed the baby before she dropped him and unconsciously tucked the little one in the crook of his arm, he was clearly newborn and swaddled tight. Don has seen two newborn babies in his life, Krissy and Danh, this one was perfect, a beautiful, beautiful baby. Don couldn't say why he thought that this child was so much more attractive than his own son, but he is. "Who is this?" he asked Krissy.

"He's Reggie, my lil' bruver."

"Come on, let's see your mom." He led Krissy by the hand to the hospital bed where her mother lay. She was banged up, bruised, and swollen. Her legs were splintered and bandaged and lifted in traction like her right arm. Before he could say anything, Karole's eyes opened and she turned to him and said, "Norma's calling, please get that for me."

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Don awoke with a start and found that his right hand, which was holding five-year-old Krissy's hand, was now gently holding Lanh's damaged hand, and the other arm which was holding Reggie was empty. "Where... where's the baby?"

"Good morning," said Lanh softly, "you had a good nap." Don could still feel the warmth, the weight of the newborn in his arm. Terrified that he dropped the baby when he woke up, Don leaned over to see if there was a baby on the floor. "What are you looking for?" asked Lanh.

"I had a baby, I was holding him in my arm, now he's gone," gasped Don who was still coming to terms with the fact that he was asleep. "He was Karole's son."

Lanh chuckled, "How do you know he was Karole's son?"

"Krissy told me."

"Krissy told you?" Lanh shook her head in disbelief. "Krissy is eleven months old; she knows one word."

"He was right here," said Don ignoring Lanh's argument. "I can still feel him in my arm..."

Suddenly they heard: You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch, you really are a heel, you're as cuddly as a cactus, you're as charming as an eel. Mr. Grinch! It was the ringtone that Don had put on Karole's phone poking fun at her anti-Christmas sentiment. Both Don and Lanh looked around the room, then Lanh gestured to a clear plastic bag that held the items that were recovered when they got Karole out from under Bradley Davis's car. Don pulled the phone out of the bag and saw the name of the caller displayed on the phone: Norma.

Don had heard the name Norma come up once, maybe twice, when Karole talked about college in Athens Georgia, but he knew nothing of their relationship. Nervously Don glanced over to Lanh who nodded, and he hit the button, "Hello?"

A cheerful voice with a slight Hispanic accent said, "Hey Merry Christmas! You ain't my girl? Where's my Christmas Karole?"

"Norma? Hi, I'm... uh... Don and this is my wife Lanh..."

"Hi," said Lanh weakly.

"I've heard so much about you guys!" cried Norma, "where's my girl? It's time for her secrets to end!"

With her uninjured hand Lanh gestured to Don to hand her the phone. "Norma? This is Lanh, we never spoke, and Karole only mentioned you a few times..."

"She told me all about you," said Norma happily. "I've been waiting for a chance to meet you guys, she was supposed to introduce us, but all that shit happened with Jayce."

"Norma, please listen," Lanh tried to start over, but her voice was wavering in sorrow.

"What's the matter? What happened? You sound like ..."

Don wasn't the type to ease the Band-Aid off, he was the grab and yank quickly type. "Norma, there was an accident, a drunk was driving on an ice-covered parking lot, he was showing off..."

"Oh God, he killed her!" howled Norma.

"She's not dead. Norma, she's banged up pretty bad but she's still alive."

"How banged up?" asked Norma through her tears. Don proceeded to list the injuries that Karole suffered and with each one Norma gasped and whimpered trying to hold back a sob as did Lanh who hadn't heard the full list of injuries. "And she's still alive?" wept Norma.

"She saved my life," said Lanh. "She ran across the parking lot and shoved me out of the way at the last moment... I don't know where she came from..."

"Oh God damn..." groaned Norma and she began weeping with Lanh. Don got on the bed and held Lanh tight while through her tears Norma said, "She saved my life too... dumb-ass innocent virgin in a huge university, I must have tried every drug someone brought on campus, I was passed around more than a crack pipe. She finally told me to clean my act up or she's kicking me out of our room, I guess I reminded her of her mother."

"Yeah," sniffed Don, "she banned us from ever mentioning her mother in front of Krissy. She said, "if Krissy ever asks you, tell her that her grandmother is an Asian woman in Minnesota." Lanh tried not to laugh but she remembered the day that Karole had sickened herself with memories of her mother and banned that old drunk from her life.

"I thought she would have said an old black witch that lived in the Okefenokee Swamp," said Norma.

"Who?" said Lanh finally choking back the tears.

"Grandma Noah," Norma waited for a reaction but got nothing, "she didn't mention Grandma Noah?"

"I would have remembered that," said Lanh.

"She never mentioned it to me," said Don.

"Really? Karole told me all about the crazy old witch she used to give catfish to when she went fishing in the swamp," said Norma. "The crazy old girl told Karole that she was going to have five kids and she was going to call her first boy Reggie."

Don suddenly went white, "Oh God," he muttered.

"What - what's wrong dear?" Lanh asked.

"The baby I was holding in my dream, his name was Reggie."

"No!" gasped Lanh.

"What dream?" asked Norma.

"I've been having weird dreams and sometimes they were pretty scary," explained Don. "They're always about..." Don shook his head; he couldn't bear think about it. "In this last one I was holding a baby, Krissy told me that the baby was named Reggie and Karole woke up and told me to answer the phone."

"Wait," said Norma, "she told you to answer the phone?"

Don nodded, "Yes, she said, "Norma's calling, please get that for me," and I woke up immediately. I spoke with Lanh for a little bit then the phone rang, and it was you."

Ten minutes later Don was in the ICU with Karole, they added his phone to the conversation and Don placed his phone on speaker and held it near Karole's ear, one of the few undamaged parts of her body. "What's that noise?" asked Norma.

"That's the ventilator, it's breathing for her, I can hit mute." Don muted the phone then paused a moment when Lanh wondered if he was still there. "I'm still here," he said after unmuting the phone. "Just tell me to unmute, that machine is pretty loud, but you guys go ahead, she'll hear you." And he muted again. "Karole honey, I have a surprise for you, Norma and Lanh are here for you."

Norma and Lanh whispered encouragement and memories of days gone by and as they spoke Don noticed that Karole's heart rate climbed, before they started her heart rate was rock solid at 60 beats per minute but now, she was up to a steady sixty-four. As they were encouraging Karole a nurse came in and whispered in Don's ear, he responded "Ok, give me a moment." He then unmuted the phone and said, "Ok girls, the nurses have to work with Karole, let's say our cheerful goodbyes," he stressed the word cheerful hoping that maybe, deep down, if Karole is listening, their cheerful voices help lift her spirits.

Finally, when the goodbyes from Lanh and Norma were over, he whispered in Karole's ear, "I don't know where we are going with this crazy-ass relationship the four of us have, you, me, Lanh, and Kim-ly, but right now Kim-ly and I are driving. We're going to sell that house of yours and you're living with us. I'm sending out the change of address notices starting tomorrow. When you and Lanh are ready for transport, we will move back to the farm and sell our house. Dad and Sandy are excited and can't wait to help you move in. We have a lawyer investigating this whole mess right now, and tomorrow we will have a team of lawyers working on the case, ok? Now you rest and let me take care of you." He leaned forward and kissed her cheek then added, "I love you, and I can't wait to give you a proper kiss."

As he left Don noticed that Karole's heart rate was holding steady at 65 beats per minute, and he asked a nurse about it.

"Sixty-five is a good heartrate," said the nurse, "noting to be worried about."

"No, what I'm saying is that all day her heart rate has been fifty-nine or sixty," said Don. "I put a phone up to her ear and her friends were talking to her and her heart rate went up to sixty-five, is that a good thing?

The nurse gave a rueful smile, she's seen families of the critically injured or hopelessly ill grasping at any response hoping it was a sign of recovery. The canned, pre-planned answer fit this situation as good as any. "We can't know for sure, and she may not know, but we keep trying, and sometimes being positive is a huge help."

An hour later Kim-ly stepped into Lanh's room with a picnic hamper. At first glance it looked like Don and Lanh were lying together in a full-size bed, but the big recliner was pushed up against the bed and the bed was adjusted to match the recliner's contours and they had a large blanket pulled over them. When Kim-ly walked in they were laughing riotously which caused Lanh some pain, but it didn't stop their laughing. "All right you guys, what is so funny?"

"We were just reviewing our greatest Christmas hits," said Don.

"What do you mean? Jingle Bell Rock? Those kinds of hits?"

"No," scoffed Lanh. "We know for a fact that we missed one Christmas together when he was in Germany looking for an apartment and I was home crying myself to sleep with you..."

Kim-ly rolled her eyes, "how could I forget that Christmas!" She set down the hamper and slipped off her jacket and gave Don a hug. "Don't worry about Lanh, she's exaggerating, she did not cry herself to sleep, she never went to sleep!"

"We just talked to Ralph and Sandy and Sandy had to remind us of that," said Lanh who would have been happy not to have remembered it.

"That Christmas apart, that was the worst," said Don.

"What about Wiesbaden? We thought you were going to die!" cried Kim-ly, "You lost your chance to adopt!"

"But we were together," said Lanh as her fingers entwined with Don's.

Don smiled and kissed her cheek "We came close to having a bad one in Korea."

"I'll say! We just get you back in the land of the living after that damn doctor..." Kim-ly growled at the thought of a doctor of any pedigree telling a young woman she's infertile on Christmas Eve... "Don gets sent away to Korea and you disappear! We were freaking out for almost a week!"

"I left you a note! It said, "I'm going to Korea for Christmas!" insisted Lanh.

"We thought that was a euphemism!" Kim-ly nearly shrieked. She crawled up on Don's lap facing him and hugged Don and Lanh. "You two are driving me crazy!"

"Why? Korea was fun!" said Lanh. "You came and stayed with us for a couple of months when we were at Osan."

"I was never mistaken for a Korean hooker," pouted Kim-ly, "Unlike some people I know."

There came the gentle tap-tap on the door that medical professionals practice for years to get just right. "We have Korean hookers in here?" asked Leanne, the evening nurse.

"No. Just us Viets," said Kim-ly.

"Oh! Chào buổi tối," said Leanne.

Don looked up when she said "Good evening" in Vietnamese, although she was blond, her eyes showed her Asian heritage. "We were just discussing the ghosts of Christmases past."

"Which includes Korean hookers?" smiled Leanne as she took Lanh's blood pressure.

It fell to Don to tell the story. By the time he completed the story of how Lanh flew to Korea, got into his dorm room, fell asleep naked on his bunk, and was discovered by his Korean housekeeper, Leanne had all of Lanh's vitals taken and Kim-ly had gotten up and set out the Christmas dinner she brought for them.

"How is Krissy doing, is she sleeping?" Don asked as Kim-ly packed up to head back home.

"Not well," Kim-ly said sadly. "Danh is a great distraction, but I don't know how long before missing her mommy takes over."

Don looked sadly at Lanh; they both knew what he had to do. Krissy was as familiar with Don as she was with her mother, she may sleep for him. "Go," said Lanh. "We've had worse Christmases."

"You didn't leave me in Germany..." started Don.

"I couldn't," said Lanh, "I had nowhere else to go." When Don looked torn, she added, "She needs you, I just had a cup full of pain killers that are knocking me out. Go. I'll call you when I wake up."

"Ok," and with a sad kiss they parted. Don and Kim-ly headed down to the ICU in silence and said a quick goodbye to Karole, praying silently that she would still be alive in the morning.

Outside in the parking lot Kim-ly turned to Don with a serious scowl, held out her hand and said, "Give 'em to me."

"Give you what."

"You know what I'm talking about," Kim-ly showed Don a switch blade knife. "I got this from her, you give me yours."

With a sigh Don pulled a bottle full of pills out of his pocket and handed them to Kim-ly. "You know I would have gone after her," he said. "I would have found her too."

"I know," sighed Kim-ly. He probably would have found her over there on the other side Kim-ly thought.

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"You guys must smell blood in the water," said Don as he tried to break up a "fight" between Krissy and Danh. For some reason these two wanted to take each other's pacifier. They were sitting side by side in highchairs gnawing on their binkies when suddenly Krissy reached over and grabbed Danh's pacifier and pulled it out of his mouth. Immediately Danh grabbed Krissy's pacifier, pulled it out of her mouth and put it in his. This would go on for three or four rounds until they would stop for no reason.

"Why do you say that?" asked Ahnjong, as she bustled around Don's kitchen alternately making coffee and reviewing a stack of documents that she drew out of her briefcase.

"You have been here two days and all you've done is make calls to anybody that knows anything about Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting," said Don as he moved the children apart. That backfired immediately as the two began crying and continued to wail loudly until he pushed their chairs back together and peace resumed.

"They're scum," said Ahnjong. "What were you doing last night? You came home late from the hospital and were puttering around in the kitchen until two AM."

"Closer to three. I was trying out a noodle recipe. Lanh's night nurse Leanne's mom is Viet and she brought me a recipe for Phở Chiên Phồng and I think I can nail it every time." He put a paper plate on the table and took off the paper towel that covered it to reveal a mound of small, golden pillows.

"Giant pizza rolls?" asked Ahnjong.

"Taste," said Don and handed her a pillow.

It was incredibly light, so whatever he filled it with was extremely light. She bit in and found that it was completely hollow. "Tiny square sopas?"

Don was about to answer when Huy came up from the suite in the basement. As he straightened up his tie, he looked at the plate. "Puffers! I haven't had one of these in ages!" He snatched one off the plate and bit in. "Mmmm that's perfect, just like Grandma Tri made, where did you get those?"

"I made them last night," said Don. They were simply a typical pho noodle, but drawn out wide and flat then cut into square pieces and fried (chiên) in very hot oil. The noodle would fill up with air and become a puff (phồng).

"And they're still puffed up?" asked Huy as he inspected the remaining half of the pho in his hand. "They usually flatten out by now."

"They're a little overcooked, I fried them a bit longer than normal to make them sturdier," said Don. "You like?"

"I love it! Má is going to be so jealous. Why were you up all night making noodles?"

"You guys gave me the noodle maker." When Don submitted his dissertation for his PhD, Huy gave him a machine for making noodles to encourage him to be the first "Doctor of Education that actually works for a living."