Chapter 6

From the day that David woke up it had taken a week before the doctors agreed to release him to go home. They had wanted to run a series of tests on him because his case was so unusual; nobody ever comes out of a coma with improved muscle tone. They wanted to find out what they could that led to that unusual situation, but preliminary tests did not show anything helpful. So, he left the hospital with his mother and went home.

David's first day home was not uneventful. He would have to go shopping, with his mother, for new clothes and shoes. This of course makes for a prolonged shopping trip. Unlike other boys his age, he knew that he wouldn't be buying the type of clothes that his peers would typically choose. No, he wanted to be different, but in a slightly more mature way. He wanted to stand out as a positive role-model. He was fortunate in that he had a pair of board-shorts and a tee that fit, but only because they'd been to large before the attack. For shoes, he would have to wear a pair of well worn flip-flops for the moment.

Before David and his mother, were ready to head out to go shopping, Meri had shown up. David's mother (Sandra) had called her and invited her over. Meri had let Sandra know she wanted to come over and spend some time getting to know them better. Finding out they were going on a shopping trip was simply icing on the cake. What girl wouldn't like to go out shopping with the boy that she was so taken with and help him choose his new wardrobe?

Meri called her mother and received permission to go shopping with them; she would let her mother know when they returned so that her mother wouldn't worry about her. Once that was taking care of the three of them got into his mother's car and headed off to the mall. Sandra did tell Meri's mother they would be out for a good portion of the day shopping. She even got permission for Meri to have dinner with them, when they were through shopping for the day.

David, with his alternate life experiences behind him, now understood the value of a dollar. He had a better idea of what kind of income his family had and what would be reasonable spend on his wardrobe; what he didn't know was that he had quite a bit of cash in the bank from the settlements which each of the families of the three young men who had nearly killed him.

At first David expected to head to such department stores as Sears and JC Penny's. Instead, Sandra took them to The Gap, Old Navy, American Eagle, and a few other such higher end stores that teens and young adults liked to go to, when they could afford it. Not knowing about the funds in the bank, David asked his mother about how they would afford the clothes in these places. She told him that they had the means and not to worry about it. So, into the stores they went on a clothing shopping safari. In the end, he ended up with three pairs of Levi's 501s, six pairs of Dockers in khaki, marble, gravel, umber, black and Navy blue. To go with those they got him six rugby shirts of different color combinations, six polo shirts, and a good number of button-down shirts with and without collars, in both short and long sleeves.

Among his purchases were practical incidentals, such as socks, underwear, and plain white undershirts. He ended up with many more socks then the underwear and undershirts because he needed them to be able to match his various outfits. Needless to say his mother was very surprised that he considered such things. All together this combined to create a variety of outfits that would ensure he did not wear the same outfit combination more than once a month, longer actually. Added to this were two pair of cowboy boots, one a dark brown box toe, while the other pair was made of alligator skin that fit him like a glove. He also purchased a couple pair of running shoes, athletic shoes for the gym, a pair of black oxfords, and a couple casual wear shoes.

What surprised his mother in Meri the most was his insistence on going to a millinery to purchase some hats. The first problem was that neither of them knew what a millinery was, this meant that David had to explain this to them. Next was the fact that he'd never worn a hat before other than the occasional baseball cap. Now, here he was looking through the offerings for something he thought would fit him and his new style. He ended up purchasing a tan Stetson, a black leather pork-pie hat, and a red Fedora.

One would think that he'd be done shopping by now, after all young men are not known to be interested in shopping, unlike women young and old. This was not the case this day. To finish out his outfits he needed a few accouterments. So, once they put everything they had purchased so far in the car, he took them back in, in search of an assortment of belts, ties, and handkerchiefs to help round out his outfits. They were almost out the door and headed their way home when he realized that he still needed (so he believed) a couple sport coats.

For the coats, they had to get in the car and drive to another section of town where there was a reputable tailor. Once there, they looked around at the assortment of coats and jackets and found a few styles he was interested in. One thing in particular had caught his eye as he looked around. This particular tailor's shop also dealt in kilts; this is really caught David's fancy. He decided then and there that he wanted three kilts; one each in black, khaki, and olive drab, along with kilt says and claymores.