The Perfect Circle
by Arthur Davis
Part 1 appears in this issue.
conclusion
It was dark when we pulled into the hospital’s parking lot. The streets of Berkeley Falls were nearly deserted. We hadn’t said a word, though Kate tried to text the emergency room but couldn’t, so I gave her my cell phone.
When we got up to the ICU, Dr. Strong and two other physicians were at Davy’s bedside side along with someone in street clothes.
He introduced us. “We’ve spoke with Dr. Rosen again. There is a helicopter on its way to take Davy to Mass. General.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“The bleeding has stopped, but about an hour ago both his legs showed signs of being cyanotic. Many conditions can cause skin to have a bluish tint, like bruises or poor circulation. Inadequate oxygen levels in your blood stream can also cause the skin to turn bluish. Considering Davy’s condition, the discoloration indicated a serious change.”
“What does that mean? What’s happened?”
“And a few minutes ago, just before you drove up, Davy fell into a coma. We got nothing more from the lab. At this point he needs a fully staffed hospital. Mass General has been alerted.”
The monitors at Davy’s bedside started flashing. Dr. Strong checked his vitals and give the other two doctors directions as two surgical nurses came running in with an emergency cart.
Davy’s heart had stopped.
After the third try with a defibrillator, he started breathing. It was shallow and unsteady.
“He can’t be moved in this condition,” the attending cardiologist said to Dr. Strong, who nodded in agreement.
We were asked to leave while they made some adjustments to the monitors and Davy’s oxygen flow as Dr. Strong dialed a number on his cell.
We were back in the waiting room. It was desolate. Lifeless. “I read your text,” Kate said, handing me back my phone.
I didn’t know what to say. My world, the very reason for my existence, was collapsing before my eyes. Though a violation of protocol, Kate’s oncologist was kind enough to inform me first so I could be prepared.
“So, it’s going to be just you and George. You can teach him how to cheat at Scrabble.”
“He’s the one who taught me.”
“I should have known,” Kate said and took my hand into her lap. “Regardless of what has struck down our baby, I am beyond the state of fear. I fully believe we are losing him, just as you both are losing me.”
“You can come back in now,” one of the nurses said.
There was no color in Davy’s cheeks. It was as if he had just lost twenty pounds. A strong, spirited young man was fading.
“I’ve just spoken with Dr. Rosen and two specialists at Mass. General. The helicopter will get here in an hour. Davy’s in critical condition. We decided not to wait for him to stabilize before transporting him to Boston.”
Kate swept a lock of hair from Davy’s forehead. “I appreciate, we appreciate, all you’re trying to do, but I don’t think our baby will be going anywhere.”
The monitors and digital displays revealed the slow, steady decline as doctors and nurses from different departments stood vigil outside Davy’s room. I sat with Kate holding Davy’s hands, which steadily became paler and cool to the touch.
The doctors went outside and huddled often as our child slipped away.
At one thirty-two in the morning the monitors went flat. Dr. Strong and the cardiologist both checked for signs of life. There were none. There was no crying. There was nothing to say or do. What had started out as a wonderful vacation had turned into a death march.
* * *
“I’m terribly sorry for your loss. My name is Roger Skillborn. I’ve lived up here all my eighty-two years. May I sit with you for a few minutes?”
“You’re here about the cabin?” Kate asked, recognizing the man who had been speaking with Dr. Strong.
“My father built the cabin in the thirties, in the middle of the Depression.”
“What can you tell us?” I asked.
“We know it killed our son,” Kate said.
“Ma’am, I can’t account for any of that, but there is more to that place than meets the eye. Dr. Strong was a friend of my father before he passed almost a decade ago. He called me up when you mentioned you were staying out there.”
“Then he knows?”
“Don’t know rightly as any man knows. Just suspicions.”
“Please, Mr. Skillborn, tell us about the cabin. We fell in love with at first sight.”
“It was my favorite from all the cabins my father built up here. But I don’t know how much help I can be.”
“Then why did Dr. Strong call you? He must have had a reason,” Kate asked.
“I asked him that when he called and told me about your boy. So sorry for your loss,” he said again and folded his hands in his lap. “See, it was peaceful here after the war. We lost too many men in that war to end all wars. Lost my uncle and two of his best friends, but we rebuilt the town, which was hit hard by the Depression. Terrible what that did to the soul.”
“What happened out there, Mr. Skillborn?”
“Well, ma’am, we all don’t rightly know, but there was a sighting. Most everyone who claims there was has passed long ago.”
“A sighting?”
“In the sky. About a dozen of us saw it float a few thousand feet overhead. Moved so slowly, then turned quickly about and looped back somewhere above what’s now the opening about where the cabin is now. It wasn’t built back then. Trees died afterwards. Healthy grass was hard to come by. Small animals wouldn’t go near the place.”
“It’s a perfect circle. We just measured it.”
“I could have told you that. Lots of people could have told you that.”
“Do you know who owns it?”
“It’s been bought and sold several times. People lived there on and off, but no one for the last few decades or so. Been deserted. Randy at the hardware store was paid to fix it up real nice before the broker put it on the market.”
“Anyone ever get sick living out there?”
“Not that I know of, but it’s been some time since anyone been out there steady and the like.”
Kate seemed to steady herself, as if she already knew enough.
“Cabin was a beauty. First class everything. Then over the years, left to itself, it dried up.”
“My son slept in the large den last night and woke up yesterday morning and bled to death. You must know something out there is evil.”
“I can’t tell you anything about evil because I am not a religious man.”
“Did the spaceship land?” I said.
“None of us ever saw that far. A few years later, my father got the contract to build the cabin. And, every few years in recent times, a few fellas in suits and all drove up from Boston, at least I think it’s from Boston, and go out there and sniff around. I’ve been told they’ve taken chunks of soil back with them.”
“From the government? From an agency?”
“Don’t rightly know, but I think the saucer may have stopped, or paused, and somehow poisoned the soil and, over the years, it grew worse and, well, you’re the first after so long. I might be right or maybe crazy, as some say I am.”
“I doubt Dr. Strong would have called if he thought you were crazy.”
“Your doctor is a special man, with an abiding soul. He was just helping. I’m trying to help, but the picture I have painted has no beginning and no end.”
“What was the condition of the forest out there before the sighting?”
“Used to be like the rest of the forest and thickets around here. Healthy and natural.”
“So, no one saw it land?”
“Too far away from town to know for certain, but I don’t believe it ever did.”
“Why?”
“Trees out there were the same before and after the sighting.”
“In the broker’s picture of the cabin that grassy space is green and lush.”
“Never seen the picture, so can’t say that makes sense. Anyone around here can tell you that.”
Dr. Strong came in and sat in an empty chair. “Has Roger been helpful?”
“I wasn’t sure whether to tell them what I knew as fact, and what I knew as suspicion. Not certain if that’s good or bad.”
“Kate, if you will, do you want to lie down?”
“Why?”
“Your husband told me about your condition, and I knew what a shock all this could be to your system.”
“Our boy is dead, and I’m right behind him.”
“Katie, please,” I said.
“I can hardly stay awake, so a spare bed right now would be a blessing,” she said. I took her by the elbow and followed a nurse into a room that looked as though it had been prepared for her.
“Dr. Rosen told me about your condition before your husband. I just wanted to be prepared.”
“Roger was right about you,” Katie said and set herself down.
“Don’t mean to be too aggressive, but would you mind if I ran a few tests. Just to follow up on Andy Rosen’s concern? I know he would want to be updated.”
“You think it’s necessary?” I asked, somewhat surprised at his urgency. But then I suspected I’d been in partial denial these past few weeks.
“You want my blood,” Kate said. “Go ahead and take what you want. It’s not much use to me.”
“Please, stop talking like that.”
“Honey, we both know what’s happening, just sooner than we had hoped. Please, listen, I want to go back to the cabin. I want to sleep in the bed my boy slept in. That’s my last wish,” Kate said.
I believe that I am a man of substance, discipline, forgiveness, and sometimes courage, but I wasn’t prepared to lose my son and wife on the same day. “I can’t do that and, in view of your condition, I doubt Dr. Strong would let you leave.”
“Excuse me,” the nurse standing in front of Dr. Strong at the entrance to the room said, and proceeded to draw some of Kate’s blood.
“I’m sorry to overhear you, Kate.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” Kate answered, her voice, a whisper of conviction.
The nurse finished and left the room.
“Kate, this is a horrible, tragic thing. I can’t even imagine your loss because of something possibly so unnatural taking your boy’s life. But if you want, and it’s your decision to make. I can’t advocate for that, but I can give you enough sedatives so that you will sleep for a day, well beyond the point where you have to endure what your son had to go through.”
“That’s crazy!” I nearly screamed. “I wouldn’t allow it!”
“Or she can stay here for as long as she wishes.”
“She wishes most of all, and with all her heart and soul, and appreciating that I have very little time left anyway, to go back to the cabin and be with my boy.”
* * *
We waited with Dr. Strong in Kate’s room for over an hour, tears shed all around as Davy was being prepared for the helicopter trip to Mass. General for autopsy. I had lost my son and was about to lose the dearest person I’d ever met. They talk about love at first sight like it’s a punch line. To me it was a reality that I had been blessed to experience my second day in graduate school.
And now, the cabin was going to claim its second victim. I understood why Kate chose this and why Dr. Strong was prepared to help make her death a comforting reality, rather than subject her to two or three months, at most, of pain and suffering. Neither of us could have withstood a minute more of futile loss.
Kate drew George onto her lap and stroked him gently during the silence of the return trip. The cabin looked different in the evening. Still, not suspect or threatening.
I pulled up into the side of the cabin and switched off the engine.
Kate turned to me, her eyes inflamed red with sadness. “I loved you from the moment we met, and it only grew stronger with every hug and kiss and the way you were such a wonderful partner and father to our boy. But now, we have to let us go. We have to let me get on with my future and you start the terrible legacy of grief.”
I took her in my arms and cried. There was little else to say. George fell into the back seat and climbed back up and rested his head on her shoulder.
“He’s such a wonderful character. You both will be in great hands.”
Kate walked around the cabin, picking up and putting back mementos, favorite photos, the tiny items we traveled with to remind us of family and future. She went back into the bedroom and lifted a photo of the four of us and hugged it to her breasts. “I’m ready.”
She glanced down at the confusion of bloodstained sheets and gently swept them off the blistered old leather couch and sat down. “Davy was right. It’s really comfortable.”
I took the vial of pills from my pocket. Dr. Strong wrote a script, and the clinic’s internal pharmacy immediately had it ready. There were six pills. Two would put you to sleep for at least a day.
“Not sure what we do next,” Kate asked.
I sat down next to her, which shocked her. “Oh no, my God. Never.”
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“I need you. We all need you to be the thinking one,” she said, clutching my hand. “Now, I’m too tired to keep my eyes open, so let’s not drag this out. How about a glass of cold mountain water?” she asked with a wink.
I returned and offered her the glass and three pills. “I loved you. Probably even before I met you.”
“Oh, my God, that’s exactly what I was thinking,” she said after the empty glass slipped from her hand and fell to the rug as she slid against the back of the couch.
I knelt in front of her. Worn dark rings dug into the cheeks under her beautiful eyes. Two years of suffering, and finally certainty and finality.
I believe human nature is, by instinct, cynical. But when the moment arrives where you know it’s the last time you will ever see the face and kiss the woman who has truly made your life worthwhile, the chill of terror shakes your flesh and freezes your soul.
“You have any idea how handsome you are?”
Her eyes were starting to blink shut. Her forever smile, fading. I leaned forward and gave her one last kiss and shifted her to a resting position on the couch and covered her from the neck down with a blanket.
“Not really,” I answered, positive she didn’t hear me. Her breathing was shallow. What glow remained of her warm cheeks were slowly cooling.
George came up at my side and I took him into my arms. “The love of our lives,” I said softly. He didn’t take his stare away from her.
We sat there for a long time, until there was no room for hope.
I gave George a last big hug and a few tearful kisses and walked him into the kitchen and tied his leash to the inside of the front door. I set out some food and water and closed the door to the den behind me.
Please come out to the cabin and pick up George. You will find him here all alone. He was a blessing to my family but now he, like all of us, will have to start all over. Take him out to play. He will drive you crazy, and you will love every minute of it. Bless you both for trying. I simply can’t go on alone.
I texted both doctors, and copied several of what few remained of our close friends and scooped up the remaining three pills and swallowed them.
I lay down with my darling and wrapped her tightly in my arms. With a final smile and swell of relief in my heart, I was already looking forward to catching up with her so we could begin our next life together.
Copyright © 2021 by Arthur Davis
