Marriage Seasons 03 - Falling for You Again Read Online Free

freezer. On the day of the accident, she was on her way to her hair appointment, and then we had planned to eat dinner at Aunt Mamie’s Good Food—the Friday night all-you-can-eat shrimp special. I can’t figure out why Esther just lies there sleeping or staring out the window.”
    “Maybe it’s the medication. Do they have her sedated?”
    “They did at first. I’m not sure now. The doctors and nurses mean well, but they talk so fast you can hardly make heads or tails of what they’re telling you. They rattle off their medical jabber—names of medicines and tests and body parts. The doctor told me he thought Esther might have a broken clavicle, and it about scared me half to death. I typed the word into my computer, expecting the worst, and it turns out a clavicle is nothing more than a collarbone. And Esther’s wasn’t broken after all, just bruised.”
    Pastor Andrew gave a low chuckle. “Sometimes they forget we’re all just regular people.”
    Charlie nodded. That was what he liked best about his minister. Pastor Andrew was a regular fellow with a wife and two kids, a man who planted a vegetable garden every spring, took his family boating on the lake in the summer, and organized a pancake breakfast for the deer hunters every fall. Only difference was, God had given him a special gift, and that was to shepherd a flock—which he did to the best of his ability.
    “Did the doctor tell you what kind of tests they’re running?” Pastor Andrew asked.
    “He told me a lot of different things, and I tried to write it all down on the back of an envelope I had in my pocket. But that didn’t do me much good. Couldn’t spell much of it, so I couldn’t read it, so I couldn’t look it up. I guess I’ll have to wait until they tell me what they’ve found out.”
    For a moment, the two men studied the motionless woman in the bed nearby. A chill ran down Charlie’s spine, as it did every time he looked at Esther. How could this have happened? Why did she step on the gas pedal instead of the brake? Old people made those kinds of mistakes, and Esther wasn’t old. They were both still in their sixties—not for long, but even so. It didn’t make sense.
    “Why all the sunflowers in the bouquets around her bed?” Pastor Andrew asked.
    “Esther likes them. They’re her favorite kind of flower.” Charlie hung his head. “You know, I didn’t even realize that until the bouquets started coming in. Finally, this morning when Kim and Derek Finley brought over an arrangement with nothing but sunflowers, I asked about it. Kim acted real surprised that I didn’t know how much Esther loved sunflowers. But I didn’t. I never gave it a thought till I went home last night. We’ve got sunflower wallpaper in the kitchen, sunflower towels in the bathroom, and a wreath of artificial sunflowers on the front door. I’ve been married to that woman almost fifty years, and suddenly I’m finding out all kinds of things about her that I never knew.”
    “What else?”
    “Take a look at this.” He picked up one of Ashley Hanes’s jewelry boxes from the rolling cart near Esther’s bed. “I’m sure Esther told you that she’s been helping a young lady in our neighborhood build a small business. Well, I got roped into it too. We sort beads and string them onto fishing line. Anyhow, in the past few weeks, Esther and I have discussed every color in the rainbow and a few more besides. We’ve talked about patterns and shapes and earrings and necklaces and what all, till I’m just about beaded out. Then yesterday, Ashley Hanes showed up with this.”
    He lifted a delicate, three-strand necklace out of the box. “Ashley tells me she made these beads especially for Esther. And you know why? Because purple is Esther’s favorite color. Purple! I never knew that. Never thought about it, never asked her, nothing. Last night, I got to thinking back, and I remembered that Esther wore a purple gown to our high school prom. Orchid , she