Chapter 13: Kate Resurfaces

When the Captain and Jason left, it was Maggie's cue once again to retire to the background. As Kate took prominence, she felt as if all the wind had left her sails. She eased back toward her pillow with a drained expression that did not miss the doctor's eye.

She took her patient by the hand, checking her pulse and staring into her eyes. "Are you feeling alright? After such a long fever it's perfectly normal to tire easily."

Kate’s weakened condition wasn’t physical exhaustion as much as she was mentally and emotionally drained. The exchanges she had with Doctor Mike and with Jason had unlocked memories of her life in this world as Maggie, but with Captain Clancy it had gone far deeper.

Kate had retired to the background completely, a silent spectator as Maggie became more alive and aware with each memory she awakened. The scale was tipping decidedly in favor of the television world around her. The line between fantasy and reality had blurred beyond recognition. Kate feared that Maggie's world might swallow her world whole, but what concerned her even more, was that she wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing or a good thing.

Doctor Mike felt her forehead while a concerned Candy offered to get a fresh cool cloth for her fellow bride.

"I don’t need a cloth, but thanks Candy," she offered with a smile. "I’m not sick ... well I don’t think I am. I’m ... just confused. I mean talking to everyone helped me remember my life as Maggie."

Biddie looked puzzled "Isn’t that a good thing?"

Kate shrugged her shoulders. "Yes ... I mean no ... well, I mean, it's good to remember my life ... errr ... Maggie's life. But what about MY life ... my life as Kate. I mean I do, or at least I did, have a life. I know I did ... I remember ... I swear I remember."

Kate's voice trailed off as she saw disbelief and worry in all the eyes around her. Frustrated, tears welled in her eyes as she sank down into the bed, wishing it would swallow her up and return her to the belly of the whale.

Doctor Mike took charge immediately, "I think Maggie's had enough excitement for one day. I want everyone out except Candy and Biddie."

One by one the girls gave hugs and well wishes to their fallen bride until only the four ladies remained. Doctor Mike squeezed Kate's hand as she gave her prognosis. "Interacting with everyone helped you remember your life as Maggie, be it real or not. Perhaps if you shared your life as Kate that might clear some of the confusion ... but only if you're up to it."

Kate nodded, closed her eyes and tried to pull back the life she had left behind. Doctor Mike suggested she try to recall the last thing she remembered from her life as Kate. A picture of her flat in Seattle came into view, and with it she began to share the events of her last night there.

"I ... I was in my flat. The sun was going down, and the view of the Seattle skyline was so beautiful. There was a jet leaving a vapor trail and I wondered where it was going." She smiled, lost in the memory.

"I came in, put the kettle on for tea ... lit the lamp, no wait ... I switched the lamp on, and sat down in my rocker. I turned on the television, and surfed until I found the Classic channel. I looked at the picture of my parents. I missed them so much. I wanted to pick up the phone and call them, but ... but they couldn’t help me. Nobody could help me because the letter came today."

Her voice elevated and her breathing quickened as the memory took a darker turn. "He found me and there's nowhere to run and ... and I won’t go back. I swear I won't go back. I’ll die first ... I’ll die first."

Suddenly, her eyes flashed open, but she was still processing the events playing in her mind. Her last words and last images haunted her.

Her mind raced as she tried to put the shattered pieces of that night together. "The letter ... the pills ... sleep .... death ... oh my God, did I do it? Did I really do it?"

Up until this moment, she hadn't considered the possibility. Perhaps it was because she really hadn’t wanted to, but now she had no choice. If this wasn't the world's most realistic dream, or if she wasn't in a padded cell on heavy medication, then the only alternative left was death. This had to be heaven ... her own, personalized, tailor made version of the afterlife.

She let her thoughts sink in. She didn’t feel dead, but she hadn't recently polled any zombies on the death experience. All she knew was that if this was death, really death, her name wasn’t MacArthur, and she would not be returning.

That thought was just a little too much to take in one gulp, but she pushed herself to relive the final moments of that life again: every detail, every second, and every choice. She had to know the truth.

She remembered the tea kettle whistling. She remembered the letter and its envelope. She remembered the rocker. She remembered the pill bottle, but she didn't remember if she took them. She remembered opening the bottle with one hand and gently caressing Muffin with the other.

Chapter 14: Muffin

"Muffin!" she cried as she returned to Maggie's world. "Muffin ... Muffin! Where’s my baby? This can't be heaven without you."

"She’s ... she’s right here M ... Maggie," someone said with a stutter.

All eyes turned to see a calico cat snuggled in the arms of Jeremy Bolt, who was the youngest of the three Bolt brothers

Candy blushed and lowered her gaze. You didn’t have to know the series to see she was smitten.

Jeremy smiled and brought Muffin to Kate's bedside. "I found her on the deck. She ... she was sleep ... sleeping in the sun."

Kate pulled her baby in, closed her eyes and rocked her. "I thought I’d lost you girl. I’m so glad you didn’t get left behind "

When she opened her eyes, she saw Jeremy’s big blue eyes filled with concern. She had to admit, in Kate’s world, in Maggie’s world, in any world, he was a heart throb. But he was Candy's heart throb, and she acted accordingly. She thanked him, keeping her smile respectable, and then returned to loving her baby.

Jeremy told her he was glad she was feeling better, and then left as quietly as he had entered. Kate caught a glance and a smile he gave Candy as he left. A flicker of Maggie's memory told Kate there might be another moonlit stroll on the deck in the near future for Candy.

Doctor Mike was glad to see the therapeutic effect Muffin was having on her patient. While she hated to disturb the moment, the physician within her knew it was necessary. "I don't wish to upset you further, but did thinking about your life as Kate help you at all?"

Still stroking Muffin, Kate nodded. "Yes ... some ... but I’m still not exactly sure what happened, why it happened, or for that matter, where it happened."

"You said you were living in Seattle in something called a flat," Candy jumped in hoping to help, "but you haven’t been to Seattle yet, and I have no idea what a flat is?"

"It’s a British term Candy." Doctor Mike could at least solve that mystery. "It’s a small living space, usually connected to other spaces, and contained in one building. I believe it’s also known as an apartment."
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Candy nodded, even if she didn’t fully understand.

"Unfortunately," the Doctor turned her gaze back to Kate, "you mentioned a few other things that I have no reference for. Do the terms ... jet ... phone ... television, or surfing have any significance to you?"

Kate paused as she carefully weighed her.response. She didn't remember everything, but she remembered those things, which meant she was faced with the impossible task of explaining things that had yet to be invented.

"Wait!" Biddie shouted like a school girl with the correct answer. "I know what those things are, and I know who Katie is too!"

Candy and Doctor Mike started to ask the obvious question, but Biddie was already up and digging through one of Maggie's large trunks.

"I know it's here somewhere I just saw it earlier," she promised as she tossed books to the left and right.

Kate had no idea of what she was searching for or if she truly had the answer, but if it got her out of explaining a jet plane 40 years before the Wright brothers first flight, she was down.

"Here it is!"Biddie cried as she lifted the fruits of her labor high above her head. "I knew I saw it in here when I was snooping earlier "

Candy shook her head and rolled her eyes as her best friend ran over with the prize in hand. "Oh Biddie, you really shouldn’t snoop like that "

"I know ... I know Candy, but Maggie's going to be happy I did, because once she started remembering all those things in Kate’s world, they seemed familiar to me too and then I remembered why they did."

Biddie smiled triumphantly as she placed a leather bound journal in the center of the bed. When she saw the puzzled looks from the other three ladies she sighed in frustration. She opened the book and turned to the first page. "Candy you should’ve remembered this. You couldn’t stop talking about the carriages, and I should’ve remembered it because that part about the evil king coming after the girl with the secret was so ... scary."

Biddie pushed the book closer to Kate. "And if anybody should’ve remembered this, it should’ve been you. I mean you are the one who wrote it."