.Title: Same Time Next Year
Rating: Some strong language
Jesse Sammler: Graduated College with a degree in Occupational Therapy and works with children of all ages.
Katie Singer: Has a Degree in Design and Architecture. Owns a consulting firm
Named Concepts by Katherine.
Grace Manning: Studied Journalism and has a literary degree. Has three books published.
Eli Sammler: Is a headhunter in the music industry. Has a unique talent for placing undiscovered musicians.
Zoe Manning: Competition Barrel Racer and part time student.
Chapter 2:
When Grace and Jessie reach the arena where the accident occurred they see Zoe seriously harassing a guy sitting on some kind of weird machine.
"Zoe, what's going on here? Where's Katie and what the hell is that thing?"
"Jessie, they took Katie to the First Aid Center. Maybe you can get Johnny Knoxville here to give you a ride over in his all terrain wheelchair."
"Hey now…"
"Shut up asshole. Since when did they start putting backup beepers on wheelchairs? This is a Charity Exhibition not the Jackass Show."
"Calm down Zoe. Just tell me what happened." says Grace as she tries to steer her sister away from a confrontation.
"All I know is that they were checking out the hydraulic lift on the handicap ramp over there and all of a sudden there was this ear shattering noise. Well a horse bolted and Katie jumps in front doing her best Rodeo Clown impersonation to avoid one of the clients from getting run over. It almost worked too, but the horse wheeled right and knocked her into the rail. Let's get on over there and see how she is."
"What about her being unconscious?" Jessie asks as they commandeer a golf cart and head to the First aid center.
"She's got a nasty lump on the back of her head where she hit that rail. They wrapped some ice on it to try and keep the swelling down. They weren't answering questions, they just got her loaded on the stretcher and left."
"Well one thing is for sure, there is definitely no shortage of doctors in town this weekend." Grace says.
After the short ride to the infirmary they jumped out of the golf cart and rush inside.
"All right there ladies lets slow down a little" says a man dressed in scrubs.
"Where is she doctor?" Jessie asks with a slight tremor in her voice.
"We are getting her ready for transport. We need to get her to the emergency room. We're not set up for x-rays here. They put an air cast on her wrist, but I am more concerned with the head injury."
"I guess we'll know more when we get her there. How long before they leave and which hospital are they going to?" Grace wants to know.
"Parkside Hospital is 15 minutes away and I think we are ready now." He says going to the waiting ambulance.
"Can I go with you?" Jessie asks.
"I'll check real quickly."
"Grace, I'll call you when I get there" Jessie says as she climbs in the back.
"She'll be ok Jess, I just know it."
"Thanks Zoe." Jessie says as they slam the door and take off.
A half hour later, Jessie is in the waiting room and talking on the phone with Eli.
"Grace is on her way up there. I'm going to wait here with Zoe and get a few things ironed out on the sound system. Call us with any news, ok?"
"I will Eli, Just make sure I can reach one of you. We haven't been here long enough for them to have any kind ok diagnosis yet, so I have to play the waiting game."
"Jess, that's not a game your very good at. In a situation like this I don't anyone who is. Call me later with an update. Love you, by."
"By Eli, I will."
A few minutes later Grace walks in and sits next to Jessie. She reaches over and holds Jessie's hand and without saying anything they smile at each other. At this point a doctor comes out and waves them over to counter.
"We'll be moving her to a room in about an hour. We won't know the extent of her head injury until the swelling goes down and hopefully regains consciousness."
"What do you mean hopefully? She's going to be all right isn't she?" Jessie asks.
"From what I see there is no reason to believe she won't be. She suffered a cracked bone in her wrist and she has some bruising, but that was a hard shot she took to the head. This is one of those cases that time will tell. I will send someone for you when they have her settled in. You can either wait here or come back in a little while."
"I'm going to wait. Is there a place here that will have some fresh coffee?" Jessie asks.
"There is a little shop in the Front lobby that has better than Starbucks."
"Thank you doctor, we'll be back in a few minutes." Grace tells him.
When they returned to the waiting room they are bombarded by a bunch of people from the arena. One of the guys who were with the wheelchair fiasco came up to Grace wanting to apologize.
"Listen Miss Manning, now might not be the best time, but that really was an accident back there. We had no idea that chair was loaded with all those gismos. The guy that is actually going to do the demo on that model won't be here until tomorrow but we had to make sure that the ramp would accommodate a chair that size. This is a new model that if approved will be in production and used by the Veterans Administration." He said.
"I'm sure nobody meant any harm, but we have a seriously injured woman here. Everybody knows accidents happen, but they aren't supposed to happen to us. What are people going to think when they find out one of the staff was hurt by negligence?" Grace says. "All right, listen up everybody. Jessie and I want to thank you for your concern but now is not a good time to crowd around here. They will be moving her to a room in a little while so if everyone can go back to the arena we will keep you posted."
One of the volunteers came up to Jessie and said "It's kind of slow over there for a bunch of us right now so if we can do anything for you let us know." She said.
"Thanks. We will. Now if you will excuse me one of the nurses is waving at me."
As the room started to clear Jessie walked over to the nurses' station. The nurse that waved her over wanted to know who was going to be responsible for Katie's decisions until she regained consciousness.
"That would be me, depending on how long she is out." Jessie says. "Her Mom and Dad are in Illinois. If it comes down to life and death decisions we will call them, in the meantime they will be informed and kept up to date."
"Hey Jess, let's sit over there on that couch out of the main drag here" Grace says pointing to the other side of the room.
"Good idea, we might be awhile."
"So while we wait, tell me about what we were talking about before all this happened."
"One day after my mom had her accident; we skipped school and went to my mom's house. We talked about rooms and we talked about lofts and ranches and we talked about not seeing each other. That really bothered me. I told her she could visit. And she softly said so could you, and then your mom walked in." she says with a grimace. "I guess the first time I realized I had any kind of Feelings for Katie was the first night after the play. I hadn't known her very long and never thought about anything other than the few times we had hung out, but she came to the back, said: You were amazing and walked right by me and gave Sara a big hug. Then she turned to me and said so were you Jess. That took the wind out of my sails. I didn't even know they were friends but Sara took real offense to me being around. One thing led to another and then she said that Katie would do the same to me and I wasn't special. I never thought I was and what did that have to do with anything in the first place. She had already been treating me like crap but I had no clue what her feelings were for Katie. You know, at the time I was starting to feel good about myself again. I was making some new friends, I was getting used to having a whole new family and therapy was working."
"Yeah, I remember you were starting to come out of your shell and people were taking notice of you. You really did blow them away in that play. I was so jealous of how good your singing was."
"Grace I never knew that. Your acting was so good I didn't think any one was paying me any attention." she said. "That last night after the play Katie showed up at our house and I was mad at her. She came up to the attic so I started throwing her dress at her and telling her that was so not how I was. She said what do mean and I told her what Sara said and she said I choose you. I said what? I was stunned. She said I choose you over her. I said I don't want any body to choose anyone. She said I can't help myself."
"I always wondered where you got off to that night" Grace said.
"That's where I was. Katie held her hand out and just looked at me. No rambling, no famous Singer smile, just a sincere look. I took her hand and it was electric. We stood there and looked at each other not saying any thing. The only thing I could think of was the rain and how beautiful her eyes looked. A stormy night alone in a dim place with somebody so sexy. I said listen to the rain. Of coarse my Dad interrupted the moment but I did feel special. Then we started hanging out together."
"I guess that was the end of her and Sara."
"I asked her about that and she told me that if Sara hadn't been such a bitch, we all could have hung out together. She said she had always been pretty non confrontational about all the drama because she didn't really have any strong feelings about anybody one way or the other. She said that I was the first person that she had met that she felt like she had to actually make a stand for. All of a sudden somebody really mattered and that somebody was me. Then you brought up the gay thing.
At first I was confused, embarrassed, didn't know what to do. All of a sudden it hit me that my feelings for Katie were more than friendship and I didn't know accept it. I didn't know what to do so I shut her out. That led to her note. She said it was driving her crazy that all at once we went from best friend to nothing overnight and her feelings for me were more than that. My feelings for her were more than that too but I had no idea what the extent of those feelings was. I told you about what happened in the attic that day. Of course you tried to tell me all along but I was clueless." Jessie said with a sigh.
"Jess it wasn't hard to see how you two felt about each other. It just took ya'll a while to figure it out for yourselves. You and Katie are so much better together. I don't see how you can spend so much time apart. Is this a visit? After all this time I don't see either one of you with someone else. I don't think you try. You've got friends, you've got some amazing work associates but you don't seem to be close to anyone else. What's up with you two?" Grace asks.
"This is going to sound like the dumbest thing you have ever heard Grace, but we have never said goodbye. It's the same thing as the way we end every one of these shows we do. If I don't see you sooner I will see you Same Time Next Year. Regardless of where we have been we always see each other once a year."
"That's not dumb Jessie, but I don't understand. How can you not say good bye after all the times you have been apart?"
"That's the point Grace; even thousands of miles have never really kept us apart. We have such a strong connection. That all started when we moved to Australia. You saw what a wreck I was. Some how I drew strength from her. She told me that she wasn't going to say goodbye to me. Katie told me that if we said goodbye it would be like saying there was never any US to start with and it might as well be over.
We've said goodnight, until tomorrow and a hundred other ways of see you later but never good bye since then. It all sounded so stupid at the time. She said we were just teenagers starting out. We still had college and life to experience. So the hell with goodbye and let's get on with it. Some time we have to share ourselves with other in order to share each other.
We were at the airport leaving for Australia the first time. I'll never forget this as long as I live. Katie put her forehead against mine and asked me in a soft voice, do you remember that day in the attic when I said I didn't want anything you didn't want? I nodded yes."
"Do you want to be miserable because of circumstances we can't control?"
I shook my head no.
"Well then, let's be happy knowing we love each other.
Let's be happy knowing we'll be together again.
Let's be happy knowing that one day we will make our own decisions about how we will be apart or together. This isn't easy for me either, but is that something you would want?
All I could do was nod my head yes. Then she kissed me and said Me too."
I asked her "Katie, how did you so wise all of a sudden?"
She said, "Well I am almost a senior aren't I?" And flashed me her famous smile.
"Jess you know how I feel about you two. Katie has been like a sister to me too over the years. It hurts me to see my sister and one of my best friends so out of sorts." She said as she held Jessie's hand again.
About this time a nurse came over to them and said that the staff had moved Miss Singer and could they meet the doctor on the third floor.
ICU
"MS. Sammler, I am Dr. Ford. We want to keep Ms. Singer here at least over night for observation. Her vital signs have all stabilized and her condition is ok considering the pounding she took from that horse. We now have to wait for the swelling to go down on her head and hopefully she will regain consciousness soon. Until then all we can do is wait. I can allow one in at a time."
"Thank you doctor, we will let the others know. Grace why don't you head on back to the horse park and see where we are for the start of things tomorrow and if you don't mind coming back later to spell me if I need it?" Jessie asks her.
"Are you sure, because I don't mind staying."
"I know Grace, but this was all unexpected. If you can tie up any loose ends and send Zoe over later then you and Eli can come back and sit for a while. Hopefully this won't take long and we can move her to a private room." She says as they walk out towards the exit.
"Ok, call me with any news."
"I will." And gives her a hug as she leaves.
Jessie walks back towards the small room filled with monitors and thinks back to a time when her own mother was laying in a hospital bed after getting run over by a car. She felt no guilt this time, but she wasn't fifteen this time and didn't feel like the weight of the world was on her shoulders anymore. Yet there was no less worry or love in the room either.
Katie lay in the hospital bed attached by some tubes and wires to the machines on the shelf over the bed. Her head was wrapped in a fresh bandage and her left arm had a splint wrapped with gauze. Her breathing was steady and she had a peaceful look on her face.
Jessie bends over the bed and gave her a kiss on the forehead and whispers "It's gonna be all right sweetie, we're going to take good care of you. You can't go far because you know the rules. You didn't say good bye." She says and then settles into a chair next the bed.
Meanwhile back at the arena, Zoe has gone over to the exhibit hall where Katie has set up her new booth. She starts taking the covers off of the tables and as the most awesome sight unfolds before her eyes they start to cloud up with tears.
"Oh my God! Oh my God." She says transfixed by what she sees. She grabs her radio and calls Eli. "Can you get over here to exhibit hall? You are not going to believe what Katie has over here."
"Zoe I'm on my way. This must be good for you to call me like this." He says as he jumps in a golf cart.
When he arrives at the hall and goes in to where Zoe is waiting, his phone rings and he answers with a quick hello.
"Hey, it's me. I'm on my way back. Katie is in the ICU for now. Jessie is with her and will call with any news. About all we can do now is wait." She says pulling up to a red light.
"All right Grace We'll probably be at the exhibit hall when you get here. Zoë is yammering about whatever it is Katie set up earlier. Be careful and I'll see you when you get here." he says as he hangs up.
As he enters the large room that holds the booth exhibits he sees Zoe excitedly waving him over.
"Eli you are not going to believe this." She says as he walks up.
"Oh my God."
"That's what I said. Katie thought of everything. Jessie's going to shit when she sees this."
"You're right about that. This is like her dream place. I've heard her talk about something like this before when we were wishful thinking one day."
"I know, she has talked about it before, but how did Katie get all these details?"
"You know Katie, she has a photographic memory. She always said she wished she could get rid of all the useless stuff in her head to make room for the good things." She said, "But this has been years in the making. Some of this stuff up here was talked about years ago at the old barn outside of Evanston where I learned how to ride."
"Let's cover this back up. Grace can see it later but I don't want anyone talking about this until Katie is up and around.
SOMEWHERE IN THE DEEP RECESSES OF KATIE'S BRAIN:
A young girl is dancing and twirling through the hallways of a dark school. As she rounds a corner and comes into sight of a classroom she stops. She looks in the window of the door and checks out her reflection.
"Cool, I'm sixteen again. I wonder what's up with that."
"Hello Miss Singer, would you care to join us?"
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