Читать книгу The Monster Within - Sheldon Cohen M.D. - Страница 5

Some of the students fell asleep in their chairs, but not Betty and Steve. They continued dancing and talking well into the night, fighting fatigue all the way because they vowed to stay awake throughout the entire evening of this special one-time event in their lives. After all, how many high school senior proms does one attend? But finally, as with all good things, it must come to an end and they would leave replete with memories and soon-to-be fortified with an album of pictures that they would be able to cherish the rest of their lives.

As they were leaving, Steve, with a serious, loving face, said romantically, “When we’re old and grey, we’ll have a double rocking chair and we’ll sit there and rock, put on our glasses and pull out the dusty prom picture albums from the upper shelf and reminisce when we were just kids 80 years ago, and you’ll look at the pictures and point to yourself and say, who is that, and I’ll say that was my beautiful young girlfriend a long time ago who has become even more beautiful to me today.” And Betty smiled and held back tears at the same time.

They arrived at Betty’s house in Morton Grove at seven a.m. They were not surprised when they saw Alvina sitting at the kitchen table sipping coffee. As soon as Alvina saw them, she smiled a relieved smile and said, “How was the prom?”

“It was great, mom. Everybody had such a good time.”

“I think you guys look a little tired,” Alvina said, “I can’t imagine why.”

“You got that right, mom, I think it’s time for me to go to sleep now.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” said Alvina. “We’ll talk later.”

“I think I’m ready for sleep, too,” said Steve.

“Drive home carefully, please,” advised Alvina.

They both slept approximately 11 hours, waking up shortly before supper. Betty had a chance to sit at the kitchen table with the entire family while she relayed the details of the prom to her fascinated siblings thinking of the future, and her interested mother and father reminiscing over the past.

“Are you going to see Steve tonight?” asked Alvina.

“Not tonight. Steve’s got some things to do tonight and tomorrow afternoon he’s playing a tennis match, so I’ll watch him play. Then we decided we might take in a movie tomorrow night before we have to settle down to some serious study. We’ve got to get ready for finals pretty soon.”

Betty busied herself at home that evening cleaning her room and relaxed watching TV with the family. She was glad she could rest this day because she had a slight headache and was not in any mood to go out.

The next day, Steve picked her up and took her to the tennis courts so she could watch him play in a high school match. There she watched Steve, with his speed and grace, make short work of the opponent winning 6-1, 6-0 hardly working up a sweat. After his match, Steve went to the locker room, took a shower and then joined Betty in the stands to watch the match between the number two singles players. Betty said to Steve, “That was sure no competition for you.”

“They’re a team from the city.” said Steve, “and those players usually picked up the game on the Chicago Park District courts all by themselves and never had a lesson unless they were lucky enough to have a coach that knows what he’s doing. Then they come out to the suburbs and compete with what they call “the rich kids” who’ve all had lessons like me and practiced for years. Not likely they’d have much of a chance.”

Betty didn‘t answer as Steve noted her staring at the ground, hands over her eyes.

“Here, wear my sunglasses,” Steve said.

“I don’t know need sunglasses, any, no.”

“What did you say?” asked Steve.

“Huh?”

“I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”

Betty didn’t respond, so Steve waved the sunglasses under her nose, but there was no reaction from Betty.

“Betty,” Steve loudly exclaimed.

“What, what,” Betty answered in kind.

“I tried to talk to you and you wouldn’t answer me,” said Steve.

“When?”

“Just now,” answered Steve, “were you daydreaming or something?”

Betty did not answer, her eyes tightly shut and her face in a painful like grimace.

Steve now noted a significant change in Betty. She failed to respond to his questions and she looked confused and disoriented and she seemed to be in pain. “Does anything hurt?” he asked.

“My head, head…hurts… I, I, I…”

Now Steve realized something was happening to Betty. Her speech was garbled. She seemed to be unable to bring a thought together into a coherent statement.

Betty stopped talking and stared right through Steve who recognizing the sudden change, spoke to her, but got no response, so he took her by the hand and said, “Let’s go, I’m taking you home.” She meekly accompanied him to the parking lot, got in the car and said nothing for several minutes. Then, with a sudden change of expression she asked, “Where are we going?”

A surprised Steve said, “Home to your house, don’t you remember,” Steve asked.

“Remember what? Why, what happened?”

“If you don’t know, then I’m doing the right thing by taking you home.”

She looked confused as she stammered, “But I…I don’t know what I did. What did I do?”

“All of a sudden you couldn’t talk, and then I think you passed out. Do you remember anything?”

“I remember dancing.”

“Dancing? That’s what you remember?” asked Steve.

Betty, thinking with squinted eyes, bent her head forward and shook her head. Then she put her hands over her face. “I can’t remember…I can’t remember…”

A frightened Steve began to wonder if he should go to Lutheran General’s Emergency Department, but changed his mind. Her mother and father need to know as soon as possible, he thought. “We’ll be home in five minutes,” said Steve. “Just rest and relax.” Something‘s wrong, thought Steve.