Chapter 16
Dorian:
Starr stays in our car with Hope and calls nine-one-one while Blair, Kelly and I race over to the lakeside in the wind.
"She's not only in danger of drowning, but of hypothermia," I say fearfully. "Not to mention her lupus."
"I'd say this lake is about seven feet deep," Blair is the calmest of all of us. "Since I'm the tallest, I can go in first...Kelly, you can hold me feet and Aunt Dorian, you can hold onto Kelly's feet."
Blair takes off her watch, necklace and earrings, tossing them onto the ground. I also take of my necklace and watch.
Kelly isn't wearing any jewelry, but she takes off her jacket.
"How are we going to break into the car?" Kelly asks.
"I think there's a jackhammer in the trunk," I say.
I run back to the car and fumble around until I find what appears to be a tire jack and a hammer. They'll have to make do, so I run back with these.
"Stand back..." Blair smashes the back window with the jackhammer.
It takes several smashes until the glass on the back window is in pieces.
Kelly flattens a few jagged edges to make sure they don't pose too big of a laceration hazard.
"I'm going in..." Blair scales the hood while Kelly grabs her feet.
I feel my breath pull as Blair submerges into the dark water with Kelly's head and shoulders vanishing into the water as well...I'm holding onto her sneakered feet, trying to will my hands not to start trembling.
I'm pulled over the trunk myself, feeling the cold dampness seep over me...all I see now in the dark is the outline of Kelly's legs and feet. I close my eyes as my face gets closer to the water.
I do start shaking in both fear and the cold wetness, especially when my blouse pushes upward and my bare stomach is in contact with the cold metal of the trunk and a bit of water splashes on me, but somehow, I'm able to keep a grip.
It seems like hours and I begin to fear that Blair, Kelly and Marty will end up drowning, but after what feels like all night, there's a lurch and Kelly pulls back, forcing me back.
I slide off the trunk and backward into the muddy earth with a muttered, fearful "Shit..."
But I still am able to keep hold of Kelly's feet with one hand. Kelly and I both land in the wet ground.
I'm immensely relieved when I hear an ambulance siren approaching.
"Blair...?" I call.
A bulky shape slides off the side of the trunk and Kelly and I both shout in relief to see Blair besides the car holding Marty's limp form.
"She's unconscious, but alive," Blair gasps once she spits out water and catches her breath.
Immediately my doctor's medical training springs into gear and I check Marty over, laying her on the grass.
She's breathing, but in slightly shallow breaths and her pulse, while steady is slightly weak. Her body temperature is dropping, a danger sign of hypothermia.
I do CPR until her breathing and pulse gradually return to normal. I'm relieved when I hear the ambulance pull onto the road and the approach of paramedics.
Kelly waves them over. As Marty is being loaded into the stretcher, she partially comes to, mumbling a few things that make no sense.
I'm a bit nervous to see that her pupils are a bit dilated when they shine a light into her eyes.
Two paramedics ask us the usual questions, which we try not to stumble over ourselves answering.
I also explain our encounter back in the hospital and about her son.
The paramedics somehow don't look too surprised when I tell them that most people in Llanview think that Cole is dead.
"I know how that is," one lady says. "I lived in the town of Pine Valley for a number of years."
By this time, Starr and Hope are standing nearby, their eyes wide.
"Are you all right?" Hope asks. "You're all wet."
"Yes, honey, we're fine," Blair tells her as the ambulance takes off toward the nearest hospital and we start back toward our own car.
Thank goodness the hospital Marty is being taken to is not the same one Cole is in.
As we drive back to Addie's, I ring her letting her know what transpired both at the hospital and at the lake.
"Mom, are you all right?" Cassie is on the line too. "I hope Marty didn't cause too much trouble for any of you or for Cole."
I reassure her that Marty didn't even reach Cole and that the four of us being booted out of the hospital wasn't too dreadful.
"It's a pity that Marty seems to have backslid," Cassie says. "She seemed to be doing better for a while...I wonder if the further trouble in the early two-thousands with Viki then with Natalie set her back."
"I'm inclined to think that she was never truly stable even in the mid-nineties," I say. "She just masked it better, especially around you, Andrew and Buchanans. I think she would have fared better if she had left Llanview and sought therapy outside of Llanview."
By this time, Blair is pulling into Addie's garage, so we hang up and head inside.
Once we enter Addie's kitchen, I'm amazed to see by the wall clock that it's only eight-thirty...and we had left the house at around six or so.
This night seems to have lasted forever...I expected it to be midnight at least.
Addie, Risa, Langston and Jill are sitting at the kitchen table playing pinochle and rush up to embrace us, gushing how relieved they are that we made it back in one piece.
As we stand in our group huddle, the others drift in, adding in their relief that we made it back all right.
By that time, several of us have mud on us, so we head up to the bathrooms to wash up.
Blair and Kelly opt for showers while I decide on a tub bath.
I have to run water over myself before filling the tub to keep my tub water from being muddy.
I didn't realize how drained and achy I was until I sink into the water with a soft groan.
My muddy clothes are in a plastic trash bag, so Addie puts them in a heap in her bedroom for her laundress to wash in a separate load tomorrow.
After a half hour of a sleepy soak, I drain the tub, put on a long shirt and robe and head to bed.
I'm touched to see that Addie has left me a cup of warm tea on my night table on a hot plate.
Cassie and Risa visit my room and the three of us talk for a few minutes, speculating how it would be good for Marty to get out of Llanview.
"I wonder if Marty could be transgender," Risa muses out loud.
"What gives you that feeling...?" Cassie asks her. I'm wondering this myself.
"You both mentioned how she usually hung around guys most of the time," Risa says. "Gran, when you and Jason were dating back in the early nineties, Marty sometimes gave you a hard time...and you were worried about her clinging onto Jason."
Cassie and I laugh ruefully. How well I remember that time.
One March day in 1993, Jason and I had ended up in a fine slapfest over Marty at Rodi's bar of all places.
I'd been extremely insecure back then. That slap exchange had left me very embarrassed and I had fled Rodi's.
Jason had found me later at the Palace restaurant. I had clumsily apologized, which he accepted.
I'd noticed that his jacket was missing and had casually asked.
Jason claimed it had ripped, but looking back, I know that he had lent the jacket to Marty...but I had let it drop, not wanting us to continue fighting over Marty.
"Well, maybe she identifies as male," Risa speculates. Cassie and I glance at each other.
"I remember wondering why she spent so much time hanging around Kevin, Todd, Suede and the frat boys," I say. "I had a feeling that she was headed for trouble...I even tried to warn Viki about both Marty and Kevin, but she brushed me off."
"That rape," Cassie puts in.
We all know that incident well. Even though it occurred before Risa was born, she has heard about it.
This was one of the things what led to the long feud between Todd and myself and why initially I was so afraid for Blair when she married Todd and later for Starr.
Todd had his own feelings against me, the main one being that I spoke my mind.
I'm glad that tensions between Todd and myself have faded...Todd ended up being a good father after all.
"But Risa, you hung around with both genders as a teen and in undergrad school," Cassie says.
"Yeh, true," Risa nods. "I still felt a greater affinity for the girls and women...I never felt like the odd one out around you two, Blair, Kelly and Starr and later Danielle...Starr and Langston always felt like my other sisters."
"I remember how you loved my earrings as a toddler," I put in.
We chat a while longer. I'm glad that Cassie sees that Risa is doing fine and has friends.
Since Risa and her mother text, e-mail and ring often enough, Risa has been able to reassure her that in DC, she has not encountered any transphobia and is blending in quite well.
Risa has actually met several other transgender students at her school in any case.
I'm starting to nod off now, so the three of us...three generations of Cramer women...hug and bid each other goodnight before I drift off.