"Did you know her?"(Kevin Hughes) Author's Note: This is story number 6 in the saga of Kevin and Katie. I don't know how many more there will be. I don't know where they are going. They haven't told me yet. So is this the end? I don't know.

*****

He stared at the screen. The Presenter was listing the tremendous number of accolades and achievements of a woman he knew well. He was glued to the screen as the woman he called: “Your Grace” was presented with the Nobel Prize for Medicine. He raised his glass to the screen:

“You go, Your Grace.”

Just then his wife of four years walked into the room. Saw him toasting the horribly burned and disfigured woman on the Telly. He turned and saw his wife looking at him like he was nuts.

“Why are you talking to the Telly? Did you know her?”

He smiled a wry smile. One she had never seen on his face before. It held all the secrets of his life before meeting her. She had never probed. She thought she was the luckiest woman she had ever met. After all, Kevin was still single, never married and thirty years old when they met.

How someone as gentle, kind, and caring as him, managed to avoid being locked into a marriage was beyond her. She felt that to many women must have been completely blind to not see what a good man he was. A man who wore the word “decent” the way most men wore a shirt. Casually.

She sat down on the arm of the couch and slid her arm around his shoulders.

“Well, did you?”

“Did I what?”

She kissed him lightly on the cheek.

“Don’t play dumb with me Mister. (laughing gently) Did you know her? Who is she? One of your former students?”

This time it was Kevin who laughed gently.

“Student? No. More like Teacher.”

“What!”

“We went to school together. Same Class. She was already smarter than me. Well…than anyone really. She tutored me in Math.”

Another gentle laugh from his wife.

“You can’t do Math.”

He blushed.

“Yeah, she said that too.”

A shared laugh. Couples learn how to do that, if they care about each other.

“Well, what happened…did you Graduate together?”

A wisp of a sad smile crossed his face. Most people would have missed it. People who care…would not.

“I’m sorry. Did I hit a nerve?”

He shook his head. Then he squeezed her against his body to anchor himself so he wouldn’t drift too far into his past.

“No. It’s just that she skipped Graduation.”

A look of surprise crossed her face.

“Skipped Graduation, why?”

He smiled. Again she recognized some kind of pride in that smile, and his next words.

“She had to get to M.I.T. for the Summer Session. They gave her a full Academic Scholarship.”

His wife whistled.

“Oh, my. That school doesn’t give out many of them. She must have been one smart cookie.”

He laughed again.

“Oh, yeah. She went on to become a World Renowned Astrophysicist. They even named a building after her. And you know all the buildings at M.I.T are numbered…except hers.”

Another long slow whistle from his Bride of four years. And then a confused look crossed her face.

“But…but …(pointing to the News Show still talking about the poor disfigured woman) they are calling her Doctor - and the Nobel Prize was for Medicine.”

“That’s her second career. She was a Doctor of Astrophysics before…before…before, um... she got hurt. She got her Medical Degree a few years after she got out of the Hospital.”

His Bride of four years let her female intuition rise to the front of her mind. The words flew out before she could edit or correct them.

“How do you know all that? Did she show up at your High School Reunions, or are you on some FACEBOOK link I know nothing about?”

He could sense the worry in his Bride’s words. She had nothing to worry about. He was a one woman man. But not a one love man. So he spoke carefully.

“I knew her in High School. Didn’t see her for almost a decade afterwords. Then she got…hurt. I went over to help out for a while. Just until she got back on her feet. Then I left. She could stand on her own two feet again. Then the most wonderful thing happened.”

Her eyes wide. She whispered out loud:

“What wonderful thing happened?”

“I met you!”

He meant it. She knew he meant it.

In the background the segment featuring the horribly disfigured woman who had won a Nobel Prize, droned on.

He toasted the TV one more time with the remote, as he turned it off. The couch wasn’t really big enough for two people. But it was big enough for him and his Bride.

She asked him to turn off the lights, as she pulled her blouse off.

“As you wish.”

The Past went as dark as the TV.



*****

Note to Reader: This is the sixth story in a series of 7 stories about this couple. You can read all 7 stories together in the Novella titled, The Saga of Kevin and Katie, which has been published in the NOVELS section of Storystar.

Or you can look for all seven short stories, each published individually here on Storystar:

The Saga of Kevin and Katie
1) Done and done
2) As you wish
3) Tragedy
4) The hospital scene
5) Moving day
6) Did you know her?
7) Hope.

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