Chapter 25: Land of Confusion - Before the Energists

2:15pm, Sunday, February 2, 2003

When the phone on the nightstand beside Kaleigh's bed rang, I sluggishly pushed up away from Kaleigh and looked at the caller ID screen. Seeing 'Steven Plyer' on the small screen, I reached over my still slumbering beauty and softly said, "Hello ... Hey Tammy, yes, we were still sleeping ... We got up once around 11:15, 11:20 and talked about, uh, lord love us, I can't recall what we talked about now, jeezes! ... Yes ma'am, then we both dozed back off to sleep ... I will, when she gets up, I'll have her call you... 16, really? That's my old high school number ... That is great to hear! Pastor Jim did a great job explaining how Dani's death, while very sad, was also a joyous occasion ... I'll tell her ... K, see you shortly then. Bye."

As I reached back over Kaleigh, I suddenly realized I needed to do my morning business, especially since it was now mid-afternoon. I slowly slid out from beside Kaleigh and covered her body back up with the covers as I made my way to the bathroom. I chuckled to myself that I'd probably lose three or four pounds of body weight after completing my duties here.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I felt a whole lot worse than I looked, which would have surprised the crap out of me if I hadn't just gone to the bathroom – haha. Part of my feeling was because my mouth tasted and smelt like a cesspool, so I pulled my toothbrush from the stand and gave my mouth a thorough brushing. I was glad to see Kaleigh's bottle of Listerine there, and made good use of it as well. After dousing my face with several hand-full of cold water, I actually thought I felt almost human again.

As soon as I thought that, my mind cleared up and I remembered bits and pieces of our conversation from this morning. I stared into the mirror and the bright lights above it flickered briefly as I tried to put the jagged pieces of my memory together. After a minute or so of racking my brain, I couldn't figure out why her lights flickered there as I struggled with my memories. Maybe I could pick Kaleigh's brain, and try to piece-meal what happened to us this morning.

I tiptoed back into the master bedroom and got dressed in a pair of blue jeans and navy polo shirt. Just as I was about to head out to scrounge up some grub, I heard Kaleigh stir in the bed and lazily ask, "Are you wearing that to church this morning?"

I turned back to her and chuckled at her question. I pointed to the alarm clock on her nightstand and said, "Maybe if we go tonight. You see what time it is, baby?"

"Holy crap!" she exclaimed as she saw the time. Kaleigh was obviously oblivious to what happened here in the past 15 or so hours. "I slept that long? We slept that long? Gawd, we must have really been out of it."

"Yeah baby, we got some great rest, that's for sure," I replied. Then I decided to gently probe her mind to see how much she recalled from earlier this morning. "Do you remember getting up earlier, about 11ish this morning?"

"Noooo," she said as she let out a huge yawned, "Oh, goodness, excuse me there. Did I really get up earlier?"

I chuckled again at her question and replied, "Yeah, you woke me up with a million kisses after sleeping on top of me all night. We uh, we also," I suddenly thought that I shouldn't mention this but as sometimes happens, my mouth speaks before my brain creates, so I continued when she looked quizzically at me, "uh we made amazing love, with you simply putting my uh, my hard cock, up into your body. Neither of us moved a bit after that, but we both had the most wonderful orgasms."

Kaleigh threw the covers back off her body and reached down between her legs to check on the veracity of my last statement. Not seeing or feeling any real evidence of our incredible union, she looked confused and said, "What? How? I'm not sticky or even stinky down there. There aren't any wet spots under me or where you slept ... If uh, if we made love, why isn't there any sign of our lovemaking here?" Kaleigh sat up with her legs spread wide, and her vagina looked like it hadn't been touched or played with for days.

She looked at me like I was out of my mind, and right at that moment. I semi-wanted to believe that what I recalled from this morning was a dream or hallucination. I looked at her sitting there naked on the bed and said, "Kaleigh, I just remember little pieces now. I haven't been able to put anything together from this morning. I, uh, really don't know if my memory is right, as it is jumbled, like I'm living in a land of confusion here. Hopefully I, uh, lordy, it was absolutely wonderful though, at least in my scrabbled, feeble mind."

She smiled at my words and then quickly hopped out of the bed and made a beeline for the bathroom. As her naked body bounced and scurried past me, she softly said, "Nice one there. I loved how you called up a Genesis' song there to capture your feelings." She laughed as she zipped around the corner and exclaimed, "I love you Mike, and I think something might have happened, but right now, I just gotta pee. I got to go big time."

4:30pm, Sunday, February 2, 2003

Kaleigh and I were sitting around her mom and dad's breakfast nook table, enjoying some reheated Dreamland ribs and Tammy's homemade potato salad. Her parents told us what had happened at church that morning, that 16 people came forward at the invitation, which Pastor Jim partly credited to Dani's death and funeral service. Kaleigh and I both understood Jim's intent and didn't feel put off hearing that Dani had to die to have those people come to accept Jesus in their life.

At the end of the morning's service, a good number of people came by to talk to them and asked about Kaleigh's health, seeing how she wasn't there. Most mentioned what a wonderful job she did singing yesterday. Tammy was beaming with pride as she related some of their compliments to us. Kaleigh blushed slightly, and softly said, "God is the One who deserves the credit. He gave me, and Lyndy, the strength to sing like that yesterday."

Tammy, Steven and I all looked at her and simultaneously replied, "Amen," to her statement.

Steven finished up this area of discussion by saying, "God was indeed present yesterday and this morning. Dani will be rejoicing with Him, at all that happened here in our community." Kaleigh and I nodded our heads in agreement. She then wiped a tear from her eye, and leaned over in her chair to rest her head on my shoulder for a moment or two.

When Tammy saw her daughter recover somewhat after talking about Dani, she asked how our day was so far. We looked at each other for a second and smiled. We decided before we went over to her parents' house that we wouldn't talk about our previous conversation with anyone, at least not until we had a better grasp on whether it was indeed real or just a wonderful dream on my part. Kaleigh still wasn't able to recall any of the things I shared with her, but I was now absolutely convinced we did share that awesome 'real' experience.

"We're doing OK mom," she said. "As Mike said to you when you called, we slept wonderfully well for an amazing length of time. I can't uh, recall ... recall ever sleeping so well or for so long as I did, we just did." Kaleigh looked at me with a confused look on her face as she replied to her mother's query. "I guess I, uh, we really needed the sleep." Kaleigh then mouthed to me, "I remember it all now," as her facial expression brightened.

I mouthed back, "Really?" and she nodded her head and her smile lit up the entire kitchen area.

"What's going on?" Tammy asked as she saw the change in Kaleigh, and the non-vocal interaction between us two.

"I uh, just remembered something, which Mike and I shared earlier. I was a little worried at not remembering it, as Mike was pretty certain we uh, did something together." She grinned and slightly nodded her head at me. "And daddy, don't ask." Kaleigh turned her head towards Steven and chuckled as she appeared to read her father's mind. Steven did look about ready to inquire about this event.

"Ahi, 'nuff said then," Steven replied as he rolled his eyes and looked over at his wife.

"Alrighty now. To completely change the subject here; are you two going to church tonight?" Tammy asked us.

Kaleigh looked over at me for a little guidance and I simply said, "Up to you."

She paused for a moment before she said, "Ok, I guess we'll go. If Mike doesn't mind, we'll head back to T-town afterward, as I think I need to get back to work in the morning." She looked at me and I nodded affirmatively at her suggestion. Kaleigh then asked her mother, "Are there any ribs left? I'm still hungry and I feel like I'm eating for two or three now."

"Yes Kaleigh. You'll need to heat them up but there are more slabs in the fridge," came the quick reply. "There's more salad and chips too. Can I refill your tea glass, Mike and Steven?"

"Yes, ma'am," I answered and added, "Kaleigh, I'll take another small slab, about five bones worth please and thanks."

Similarly, Steven replied to Tammy, "Yes, hon."

We sat around shooting the breeze as Kaleigh and I finished up our late lunch or early dinner. Kaleigh related how Jason said things were going well at her club, and that they now had over 125 full time members. Steven asked her how many she needed to maintain a solid profit margin. Kaleigh told him somewhere between 70 and 80, depending on the person's membership type. All of us smiled at hearing this, and Tammy said she was proud of her little girl, to which Steven and I wholeheartedly agreed. Kaleigh's face glowed at hearing this praise from the people she loved the most.

Before we knew it, it was 5:40 and Tammy said it was time to get ready to hit the road to church. Kaleigh and I told them we'd see them at church and made our exit. We stopped by her house to get her car from the garage. Tammy and Steven pulled up behind us as we made our way, so I led our three car convoy over the short distance to Hepzibah.

Wednesday, February 5, 2003

Kaleigh stayed at my apartment on Monday and Tuesday but we were at her house Wednesday night after the mid-week church service at Hepzibah. She seemed to get energized from seeing her younger friends there, and Lyndy and Bryant related how they told her parents how they were progressing in their relationship. Lyndy said it was an 'interesting' conversation and her dad wasn't completely happy with them taking it to a sexual level, but he also wasn't going to get his shot-gun out after Bryant. We chuckled at that, as I could clearly visualize Jim Timdal cleaning his double barrel as they had this wonderful discussion. Bryant related that he specifically selected a chair close to the front door in case he needed to make a quick escape. I simply nodded in agreement at his comment, while the girls giggled at it.

When the girls headed off to the restroom, like all girls typically do, Bryant motioned me over to the side of the gymnasium. He nervously said, "I'm, uh, I've got Lyndy's engagement ring here and I'm going to ask her to marry me at the Valentine's dance here next Friday. I'm going to sing her a song, then ask her at the end of it." I was somewhat floored at hearing Bryant's news. Before I could say anything, he asked, "What do you think of it?" as he pulled out the small Zales' jewelry box and showed me the beautiful diamond ring.

"That's great! I like the ring set my man. Is she a fan of white gold?" I said to him as I examined the three piece diamond set. Bryant had a beautiful tear-drop diamond ring with matching ring jackets, with small diamond chip set in the white gold bands.

"Yeah. She has several pieces of jewelry in white gold, and she's mentioned it is her favorite type of precious metal." Bryant was beaming as he related how he hopefully weaseled information from her about her jewelry preferences, without giving away his intention.

As he was saying this, I was kept an eye on the entrance back to the gym. I had a clear view into the family life-center, and saw Kaleigh and Lyndy talking to Heather as they came out of the restroom. I nodded up in their direction, and Bryant nonchalantly slipped her ring box back into his light weight jacket.

"You think she'll like it Doc, and more importantly, will she say yes?" he asked as he pulled his hand back from his jacket. Bryant was suddenly fidgeting with his hands, his knees were shaking like he had to hit the john, so I lightly drilled him on the shoulder to snap him out of his 'cat that ate the canary' mode.

"Relax man; you've nothing to worry about. I think she'll be ecstatic over it as this will allay some of her parental issues. You'll be removing that sexual issue which her parents' were fretting about." My words and gentle love tap on his shoulder seemed to do the trick, as Bryant quickly regained his normal cool persona.

"Hey Bryant, Dr. Mike, I'm working with Andy, Wanda and Mychal-Lee to get next Friday's Valentine's Dance program up and going," Heather said as we each took a hold of our girlfriend's hand. "Bryant, can you play a few songs, like maybe five? We have a few others who are doing Karaoke, but if you can play and do a couple nice songs, that would be sweet!"

"Hey now, what about me singing a few songs?" I chimed in with some false disgust in my voice. Knowing the reaction I would get, I played up my request by doing a little air-guitar and lightly sang the few words I knew to Van Halen's Why Can't This Be Love.

"PLEASE STOP! Please, please, pretty please!" was the pleading sound I heard from my beautiful girlfriend as she covered her ears with her hands. Bryant, Lyndy and Heather just laughed at us. I'm assuming here, both of us, as Kaleigh and I were definitely making fools of ourselves right then. The more she pled at me to stop, the louder I became until we had a gaggle of the folks in the church gym staring over at us.

Finally Heather loudly said over our dead cat sound, "Dr. Mike, Kaleigh, save your routine for next Friday night. I think you two would make a good comedy duo for our show. I'm sure with all your brain power, you two can come up with a little routine for the show. What do you think?"

"I don't know about that now, Heather," I said right quick. "Getting up in front of everyone here isn't my cup of tea."

"Chicken – beeerrr cluck cluck, berruck berruck buck!" came from my laughing girlfriend, which sent the others around us into another fit of laughter. Heather pled with me to reconsider my hasty answer, "Come on now Dr. Mike, you get up in front of people all the time and do wonderful but silly things to get their attention. This will be fun!"

"That's with stuff I know like the back of my hand though. I'm not a comedian or singer/performer. I've never even Karaoked before!" I fired back.

"Come on now, Doc," Bryant said. "I'll even help you out with a song you can sing to Little Miss Goldilocks here. We, uh, I can even make you look, sound good I bet."