Chapter 5: Therapy

Johnny was released from the hospital at the end of May. I had just finished my freshman year which was full of turmoil and I ran the gambit of every emotion possible. I told Dr. Turner I would return in the fall. I had to take Johnny under my wing. I helped him whenever I could. A therapist came over three times a week to repair his broken body. Johnny had me there to watch. The days the therapist wasn't there, I did what I could. Johnny was determined to play football again. I couldn't see it from my vantage point but I was going to try and do my best to help him walk again. I brought Aggie over with me on some days because I heard that animals helped the spirits of the patient to rise. She certainly did that. She sat at his side allowing herself to be petted. We joked that if our house were ever broken into by a burglar Aggie would show him where all the valuables were kept.

In July he walked for the first time without help. It was only three steps but it was a start. By the end of the month with me he could get around on crutches. We went to a movie. It was slow going for him but at least he was able to get out. I drove to McDonalds and I helped him inside. I saw the look of amazement on Martina's face. I stuck out my tongue at her as I helped him get seated. I stood in another line to place my order. I wanted her to be jealous. I knew I was being cruel, but I received a lot of satisfaction from it. Her shift ended and I saw the sleazy looking character picking her up. She was still pretty but oh how far she had fallen. I decided my cruelty towards her made me a hypocrite. I swallowed some crow and went in a few days later to apologize expecting to be rejected. Tears came from her eyes. She took her break and we went outside for a girl to girl talk.

"When did you start smoking?" I asked as she lit up.

"Two days ago," her hands trembled.

"Then stop while you can," I grabbed the cigarette from between her fingers and crushed under my feet. "This stuff is poison and will kill you."

"What if I want to die?" she sobbed.

"Martina, I came to apologize to you and make things right between us. I was a horse's ass the other day. I brought Johnny in just to rub salt in your wounds. You hurt me deeply when we were younger. Then I turned out to be more inhumane than you ever were to me. I don't want enemies in my life. I want to love everyone. I am so very sorry for my asinine behavior. Life is too short to have people dislike each other. Is it too late to patch things up between us?"

Martina was at a loss for words. Tearfully she held her arms out to me, weeping. We embraced. I felt a love for her at that moment. I cried too. Here we were making spectacles of ourselves in public but I didn't care. I made a new friend and as I tell this to you in my middle-age, we are still good friends and call each other often. I told her that I could get her a job at the lab doing what I did for more pay plus all the benefits that went with it.

"Why are you so good to me?" Martina asked.

"Isn't life too short to hold grudges?" I wiped the tears from her eyes with my hanky.

"I've never wanted to hate you," she confessed. "I said all those mean things to you because I was so insecure myself. I was just saying to you what my mother said to me."

"I didn't know," tears fell down my cheeks.

"My father was okay but my mother disliked me so much because I was kinda pretty and she was so very fat. When my father wasn't around I got verbally abused by her all the time."

"Oh Martina, I'm so sorry."

"You turned your life around but I couldn't. I didn't even know how to try."

"What days are you off?"

"Sundays and Wednesdays."

"Wednesday is tomorrow. Wanna go to the mall and do some shopping?"

"I'd love that!" she smiled for the first time I could remember.

"Still want that job at Whitman? I can set it up for you!"

"I'd love that too."

"Do you live at home?"

"Not any more. I have a one room apartment at Oakwood."

"I know where that is, how about ten o'clock tomorrow morning?"

"Don't you have any classes?"

"Yeah, but it starts at eight and ends at nine. That'll give me plenty of time to leave and pick you up. I'll take you over to visit Dr. Turner. You'll be doing the same thing I do."

"What's that?" she stared at me.

"Washing beakers," I smiled, seeing a warmth to her eyes I never saw before.

"It beats having to put up with snobbish and angry people all day long."

We embraced then I jump into my car and drove over to the Entomology Lab to resign and let them know that I had their replacement and she could work full time.

Johnny was red shirted by State so he could recover from his injuries. He would end up going to Whitman this fall to take his classes there. By the time he entered school, he only needed one crutch. Like me, when I broke my leg, most of his muscle mass had shrunken. I quit my lab work for Martina in order to concentrate on his recovery. After our last classes we went to the weight rooms for him to bulk up again. I even took some small weights to tone up my muscles. Johnny was disappointed in me making up with Martina but I had to remind him that I refused to go through life as a grudge bearer. Wasn't I proof enough begrudging him that one omission? He came around to my way of thinking. Martina needed a second chance. He told me that I was an angel. I disagreed with that. I reminded him what Pastor Walker said, "A sinner saved by grace." I never had another nightmare about old Sara again.

During this time, I got a call from Dr. Turner and he said that what I had seen was something that even the Mayo Clinic couldn't understand. It was alien to them. They wanted to conduct some tests on me. When I told them about my dedication to Johnny, they suggested sending one of their specialists down to attend to me. I, with Johnny's okay, endorsed their decision. My grades improved remarkably. I was asked to take an IQ test. When it came back, it was off the chart. I exceeded their highest quotient. I knew I was intelligent but I was no Einstein. I pushed Johnny so hard in his workouts he began calling me "his Fuhrer" or "Miss Hitler." I always demanded him for one more pushup, one more sit up, one more lap around the gym. another lift of weights in his reps, one more minute skipping rope, one more throwing the medicine ball into my midsection, I was never satisfied until he took that extra step. I even started getting stronger physically. All this and taking Aggie for her walks made me healthier. But by Christmas, he was walking on his own to the shock of the medical field. Dr. Englebret of the Mayo Clinic ran all kinds of tests on me. Gratis, of course. They asked me, not me asking them. He concluded that the sting I received had boosted my intelligence greatly. He pronounced that I was the healthiest woman he ever examined. I thought if that venom worked on me like it did, what a find to the scientific world it would be. And yet, other volunteer subjects hadn't received those kind of results. I suggested not to milk the hornets to give the volunteers injections, but have the hornet sting them instead. That milking and storing its poison weakened the strain greatly. Winston liked the idea and decided to be the very first (actually second) to feel the wrath of the hornet's bite. I also mentioned to use a male the same that got me.

On Christmas Day Johnny got down on his knee and asked for my hand in marriage. He opened the tiny box and there was a stunning half carat diamond with a platinum band that fit my finger perfectly. Both of our parents knew ahead of time. I almost lost it! I cried, laughed and screamed at the same time. "Yes, yes, yes, I'll marry you, darling," I squealed out my response. We set the date of our graduation. Johnny was going to attend summer school to makeup from the time he lost in that accident. For the rest of the evening I could not take my eyes off that ring. I have to admit that over the years my libido increased immensely and I did pleasure myself in the dark quietness of my bed always thinking of Johnny.

Martina saw it on my finger when we went out after church on Sunday, she hugged me with a warmth that just thrilled me. She had broken up with her boyfriend I didn't like from the start and less than a week after she started her new job, Mark asked her out on a date. They had been seeing each other all winter with no sign of them slowing down from wanting to take another step forward.