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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
Drifting away
>> Kona
Sonya Chan had awoken in the middle of the night drenched in sweat again. She hadn't been feeling right for weeks now, months really. Her head felt fuzzy and sometimes she felt like she wasn't really part of the rest of the world, and sometimes it sort of drifted away just far enough that she couldn't quite touch it. But the world always drifted back, and when it did this morning it came with the realization that the high point of the day would be her boyfriend -- fiancee! -- Daren's memorial service.
She didn't know how she could possibly live without him. But God bless him, at least Daren had left her secure.
Perry Brown the attorney had explained yesterday that Daren's winning the Lotto and his proposal of marriage to her were so linked, that she ought to be due some portion of the $2 million "based on honest intent and fair expectation."
Later, after he'd asked her to recount the events of the fateful evening, he nearly started frothing with excitement when she mentioned matter-of-factly that she'd bought the ticket because Daren had spent the last of his money on beer and burritos for their dinner.
"Do you have any witnesses?" Brown had blurted.
"Sure, our friend Mano Kekai. Um, and I kept the receipt."
"Oh God yes!" Brown exclaimed in the throes of rapture. "Yes! You're home free!" Then he forced himself to speak calmly while explaining that he would take on the case with no retainer, and when they won he would keep 25 percent of Daren's Lotto money.
That still left $1.5 million for Sonya, more money than she had ever associated with her own self. She'd always thought that she had to find a guy with money, never about being rich herself. Nobody else in her family was. When the thought of having $1.5 million plus in her own name didn't pull her back into full focus with the rest of the world, she knew something was wrong. She knew she was sick, and to hell with the doctors who said it was all in her head.
It certainly was in her head this morning. The headache had returned and two Tylenol Megas hadn't much deadened it. This wasn't just her grief, Sonya knew. It was her body, and something was wrong.
She knew it wasn't just grief for Daren because whatever was wrong with her kept her grief sort of out there just past arm's length so it didn't hurt so much, at least at the moment. Right now she didn't need the black-veiled hat she'd bought yesterday to keep the rest of the world out. But it would help when the world drifted back again.
It always did, didn't it?
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com
