Chapter 37
In between his visitors, of which there were quite a few, she would keep him entertained by reading to him, as well as many hours of conversation. Devin told her of all the exotic places he had been and wildly outrageous stories to go along with each local, but oddly enough he seemed to prefer to listen to her stories of life Below. It was strange to him, that after running away and staying gone for so many years, that he actually yearned to hear these simple stories of the place he used to call 'a hole in the ground' rather than home.
Hearing about how Pascal's father had made a ceremony of turning the pipes over to his son the year before he passed away choked Devin up. Pascal had only been eighteen at the time. She also told him about how Vincent had found Mouse stealing food from the kitchen and had befriended him and taught him to speak. Telling Devin about Mouse had also brought Laura to mind. Devin had left before either of them had been found and brought to the tunnels. Laura's parents had abandoned their deaf child in the park! Vincent had poured over the sign language book Father had in his library and as he learned he taught Laura to sign as well. It had amazed everyone how the shy reserved child Vincent had found had blossomed into a chatterbox with her hands! They flew a mile a minute and she wanted to talk to everyone. So Vincent taught the basis of sign languages to anyone who wanted to learn.
Devin admitted that he had been amazed at how much the tunnel community had grown while he was gone and even Rebecca's taunt about him expecting things to stay the same for twenty years didn't diminish his surprise that the community had gone from about twenty five to slightly over one hundred in the time he'd been gone.
It wasn't until the third night that Devin would admit to himself that he was very nervous about the next day's X-rays. He had been doing everything he could to keep his mind occupied, trying to persuade every visitor he had to stay as long as possible. He rarely allowed the conversation between himself and Rebecca to lapse, when they were alone together either. When they ran out of things to say, he would ask her to read to him. For the last two nights he had talked her into continuing to read until he fell asleep.
However, tonight, it was already after midnight and Rebecca was yawning after every tenth word, but he was no closer to sleep than he had been all day. His dread about the next day was like a dark cloud over him and every time he closed his eyes it threatened to engulf him.
The third time Rebecca caught herself nodding off in her chair it was after 1am. She got up and told Devin, "I had better get to bed before I end up sleeping in this hard chair."
"I will have Vincent bring in a better chair for you the first thing in the morning!" he promised and was then about to plead with her to stay with him when he saw her bend over to blow out one of the candles. Suddenly he realized how beautiful she looked in the soft glow of the candle light. He had never thought of her that way before. He had never seen her as a beautiful woman, only as a kid sister. But in that moment everything changed. It dawned on him how devoted she had been to him since his accident. She had put aside work that she loved to stay with him for every waking hour of the last three days, and he didn't know why. Could it have something to do with the childhood crush she had reported to have had on him? But surely she had gotten over that years ago! It had to just be her kindness and caring that made her do this. After all Mary had been 'mother' to all and would have taught those concepts to every tunnel child, just like she had tried to teach them to him!
However, none of that mattered in the moment that he realized Rebecca was a beautiful woman instead of a skinny, knobby-kneed kid.
Rebecca looked up from blowing out the candle and noticed an odd look on Devin's face. He appeared to be trying to figure something out.
To be continued…..