Chapter 7: Discovery Mode

Tony had dropped Tina at school the next morning and gone to the hospital to pick up Rebecca. They had left the hospital heading downtown in the middle of the morning when Tony asked, "Do you want something to eat?"

"Oh please Tony could we get something? I haven't had anything edible in the last two days except the Frosty you brought me. They're supposed to make you better in that place not starve you to death with that awful food."

"I know just the place, probably the best breakfast in the world and it's all-you-can-eat." Tony parked on a seemingly non-descript street and brought the borrowed wheelchair around to get Rebecca out of the car. Tony hadn't had the time to try and find her other chair the day before when he was suspended and hadn't thought to have Tina try until this morning. The office didn't have it as of the time the warning bell rang and Tony wasn't allowed on school grounds to find it. Luckily the hospital allowed Marj Harris to use one for the weekend.

"Tony, where are we going? This just looks like a bunch of peoples' houses."

"Well, its kind of the worst kept secret in Savannah. You wouldn't know of it unless someone told you. The place doesn't even have a sign out front. It's actually quite famous around here though. We're late enough we shouldn't have to wait long." Tony wheeled her to the next house up and turned, seemingly to go between houses when a door on the side opened up. A middle-aged couple came out and greeted them warmly as they scooted sideways past the wheelchair.

"I do declare," drawled Rebecca poorly, "I just can't get over how nice all you southern people are down here."

Tony chuckled. "Keep working on it, Miss New Jersey. You aren't going to pass for Scarlett around here any time soon." Rebecca grinned up at Tony from the chair.

Tony realized they were practically at a dead end. Even if he could get the chair turned into the door there was no way they were going to negotiate it very far into the interior of the restaurant. He backed out instead and parked Rebecca out front and went inside to secure someplace to sit.

He returned a moment later to find Rebecca talking with an older couple who apparently had just left the restaurant. After greeting the couple, who were tourists from Florida oddly enough, Tony gently lifted Rebecca out of the chair and carried her inside. He carefully moved past one table to a second where he set her down on a chair with another empty chair to its right. The other eight chairs at the table were already occupied. Rebecca didn't quite know what to make of it. It wasn't like any other restaurant she'd ever seen. Tony saw the look of confusion on her face.

"I'll explain it in a minute. I need to go put the wheelchair back in the car. I really would rather not lose another one." That comment brought a small smile to Rebecca's face.

When Tony returned Rebecca was chatting amiably with the others at the table. Tony joined in, but only when addressed. Rebecca, without even remotely realizing it, was working the table. She was drawing out everyone and making them feel part of the impromptu group that was destined to last only an hour. More impressive was that the youngest at the table other than themselves was well over twice her age. Tony was mesmerized. He knew she wasn't a particularly shy girl, though with her life to this point one would certainly expect her to be. But this was a side of Rebecca he hadn't seen before. There simply was no falseness about her. She was genuinely interested in what each person had to say and it showed. By the time the food arrived she had thoroughly charmed everyone at the table. Tony felt strangely proud to simply have this delightful girl at his side.

The restaurant actually called itself a boarding house and had been one many years before. There was no menu. All of the tables seated ten people and they filled each table before starting on the next. The food was brought in large bowls and platters and simply placed on the table for diners to serve themselves. There were trays piled with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, and biscuits. Bowls of grits, gravy, jars of preserves and just about anything else one could think of that could go along with a southern breakfast were heaped on the table. The last bit of charm to the boarding house 'feel' was that you were actually expected to take your dishes to the kitchen on your way out the door. The food was superb and any platter or bowl that was exhausted was quickly replaced with a fresh one. A sign on the wall encouraged patrons to "Take all you want, but eat all you take". While she wouldn't take Tony's word on the subject, with a little encouragement from the others around the table Rebecca even tried that most alien of southern foods to a northerner, grits. She pronounced them "not bad at all".

Tony decided that there were probably few things he'd rather do than simply sit back and watch when Rebecca went into this new state that he thought of as her discovery mode. He definitely thought he would make a point to find her as many new things to discover as possible when they were together.

They arrived back at Rebecca's house around 11 AM. Rebecca promised her mother that she would do her CPM. CPM, Tony learned, stood for continuous passive motion. It was accomplished through a machine that the Harris' had rented from a medical supply company. Most people would go to a physical therapist for CPM therapy, Rebecca had explained. Most people, however, were rehabilitating from comparatively minor knee surgeries as opposed to her reconstruction. No one else was ever trying to rehab both knees at once.

Tony took her first to her room to change into a pair of shorts. Rebecca was far from helpless. As long as it didn't involve actually standing or walking she was capable of doing almost anything. Tony set her on her bed and simply handed her the pair of shorts she asked for out of one her drawers and left the room until she called him back in.

He brought her out to the living room and followed her instructions for setting up the machine and getting her right leg strapped into it. It was all new and exciting for about fifteen seconds. The machine slowly raised and lowered her knee causing it to bend to the angle specified in the settings, straightened it again, then it repeated the process. Rebecca had to endure this for forty five minutes a day for each leg.

"OK," Tony said once it started. "That has got to be the most boring thing in the world to go through each day."

"I'll take boring," Rebecca replied. "When I first started using this thing two days after the surgery it was agony. Now it's just a little uncomfortable. I usually read or do homework or something while it's running so it's not so bad. What about you? What would you be doing on a free day away from school if you weren't stuck with me?"

"I'm not stuck with you Rebecca. If I weren't with you the first thing I'd probably do is try and figure out a way to get to wherever you were. Neither of us wants to be stuck in a room with a mechanical torture device, but if you have to be here then I will be as well. I get the feeling that this isn't the last time I'll see this machine." Tony bent over and kissed her lips then gave her a quick peck on the tip of her nose.

"Thank you Tony. I mean thank you for everything. These last few days should have really been bad for me but in spite of getting sick and being in the hospital and all I feel like I've actually had a good time. Breakfast this morning was fun too. I hope we can do that again some day. I know it was kind of expensive. Mom says you aren't supposed to comment on things like that but I know it cost a lot."

Tony knew this was coming. He just wasn't sure how to proceed. It had never occurred to him to tell any other girl. He also knew there was no way to tell her without giving away the same secret about Tina, and Terry too for that matter. He hadn't asked Tina but he knew she would trust Rebecca. Still he decided to stall.

"Well, first of all your mother was right." He kissed Rebecca's nose again. "Technically it is considered bad form to talk about the money a boy spent on you. When we do things like that, and we'll do them a lot if you want to, just trust that it's what I want too, OK?"

"OK, I guess."

"Let me put it to you another way. Maybe that will make more sense. If we left the hospital this morning and I knew you were hungry and I only had five dollars in my pocket, would you have thought less of me if we had gone to McDonald's for breakfast?"

"Well no Tony, of course not. It doesn't matter."

"Right! Now we probably did have more fun where we went and there's certainly nothing wrong with that, but in the end do you really care for me any more than you would if we had eaten an Egg McMuffin?"

"Of course not Tony, that would make me, well, I don't want to say what that would make me."

"I think it would be nice if you were some poor little rich girl who would buy me a new Porsche for my birthday actually."

Rebecca giggled.

"I think I'll try and keep you even without the Porsche though, if you'll have me."

"Well the only thing I'm riding in now is this stupid machine Tony. Help me switch to the other knee, please."

When they were settled down again with the machine running Rebecca asked "Tony, isn't it a bit unusual for two kids to talk about money like this?"

"Yep, I suppose it is. It goes back to the question you were asking before though. Anyway we can both agree that we care for each other and no amount of money or lack of money has anything to do with it right?"

"Right."

"OK, if I couldn't be here with you I'd probably be working on my boat."

"You have a boat?"

"Yep, I like to tinker with her when I have free time."

"Her?"

"Kali. Boats are ladies, my boat is named Kalliste. I call her Kali for short."

"Can I see it, uh, her? I'd love to take a boat ride."

"Of course, we'll go there when we're done. I don't think we want to try and take her out today. We won't have enough time but I promise you I'll take you out on her soon, maybe Monday if you want to go."

"OK, but what does your family owning a boat have to do with all this? I guess it means you aren't exactly poor. But still..."

"You haven't seen my boat." Tony mumbled.

"Tony, that's not a boat. That's a ship!"

Rebecca was halfway down the walkway from Tony's house to the dock about fifty yards behind it when she spoke. She had been looking for a boat. Tony said it was a motorboat and not a sailboat. This wasn't a boat. It was HUGE.

Tony just laughed. "Well it isn't exactly a rowboat, but it certainly doesn't qualify as a ship." He continued to roll Rebecca down the path. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the other lady in my life."

Kalliste was a fifty-five foot Chris Craft Constellation. Built in the late 1950's she was made by hand of Philippine mahogany. She was far from being in original, fully restored condition. Kalliste, in spite of her rather healthy price tag when new, had undergone not two and a half decades of maintenance but upgrades. Her interior gleamed of mahogany paneling, teak flooring, brass fixtures and leather furniture. For Tony and his grandfather before him nothing was too good for Kalliste.

Tony had just finished carrying Rebecca on the grand tour of the boat and sat down with her on his lap on the couch in the salon. "So," he said. "What do you think of my older lady friend?"

"I'm speechless. This is just so beautiful. I think I would come down here just to sit and enjoy it all. Does your dad really let you use all this?"

Tony laughed. "Not exactly, Kalliste isn't my dad's boat. He doesn't have the time or the inclination to take care of her. No, Kalliste is my boat. I have let my parents use her a few times though."

"No, really Tony, this can't be yours. Sixteen year old boys can't own a ship, can they?"