Chapter
26: Nobody Wants To Be Lonely
Chance was let out of the hospital a week after waking from her coma.
It had been a surprise to Ian that she could talk, let alone move around. The
bandages from her head had been removed to reveal that her hair had been reduced
to once inch long, which Chance hated with a passion. Her hair had been her
trademark, and now that it was gone, she felt empty inside and out. Her grandparents
had taken her home from the hospital to live with them on their farm near Hamilton,
Canada, a four-hour drive from New York City.
Chance hated the confinement she faced living with them. All they allowed
her to do was sit in front of the TV and watch boring old movies. (They didn’t
even have cable.) After a few hours of sitting around, she finally got the idea
of playing a few songs on her guitar. Chance hobbled on crutches to her room
on the first floor of the farmhouse where all her stuff was. She carefully unzipped
the light case and pulled out her deep blue Fender. She missed playing it and
was eager to write some music.
Soon after picking up the guitar and sitting down on the bed to play
it, Chance realized she couldn’t remember the chords. She tried to piece together
a song she had been working on before the fall, but all that her mind came up
with was a blank screen. Searching her guitar case for some sheet music, Chance
pulled out her copy of Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me.” She stared at the
notes unable to decipher which one which, let alone what string to play.
A loud, heart felt sob escaped from Chance’s throat when she realized
her gift was gone. Celia heard it from the kitchen and rushed over to see what
was wrong.
“Chance, honey, why are you crying?” she softly asked.
“I can’t play, Grandma,” she cried, letting the guitar slide to the floor
and hit the ground. Celia wrapped her arms around the young girl and held onto
her for a while.
Chance’s heart filled with resentment towards Darren. ‘Why couldn’t he
have just left me alone?’ her head cried. She sobbed harder as the anger and
rage built up inside. She didn’t want to live if she couldn’t play her guitar.
Suddenly a soft voice in her mind replied, ‘Because he loves you.’ Chance
could feel her tears lessen with those words, her thoughts focused on the day
Darren left. She could still remember the touch of his soft lips upon her fingertips.
She shivered at the coldness of his voice when he said goodbye. Chance didn’t
want to remember that part. All she wanted to remember were those three words
that brought her back to life; I love you. Her heart melted recalling the warmth
of Darren’s voice as he said them. It would stay with her forever as a constant
reminder that a superstar once loved her.
~~~~~~~~~~
Darren walked out of his apartment that same cold morning around 6:00
AM, bags in hand and anger at heart. He hated his so-called friends for making
that deal with him. He lost; of course, unable to think of anything but Chance
when he discovered the old recordings Dan had saved and brought back with him
months before. He would play them back in the studio and listen to her whimsical
voice as she sang her songs with such feeling and passion, it almost made him
think she was right there in the booth.
It was Rebecca who had bought and paid for Darren’s ticket back to New
York. Even though he was grateful for it, he’d never forgive her for sending
back to the one place he didn’t want to be. He wondered what it would be like
when he saw Chance laying in the hospital bed, or even worse, setting flowers
on her grave. Darren decided to let his mind drift away from any of those thoughts
and focus on the trip ahead of him.
Darren stood outside his apartment building wearing a thick leather jacket,
a pair of khaki cargos, a baseball cap, and a pair of sunglasses. To pass the
time and keep his mind from thinking about Chance, he stared out at the nearly
empty parking lot and spied his gorgeous car, the one that he wouldn’t get to
drive for another several months. Darren’s eyes jumped from the car to the sky
when he heard the distant crack of thunder. Thick gray clouds had formed far
in the east and were quickly approaching.
“Where the hell are you!” Darren angrily shouted, his ride still nowhere
to be found. He kicked at the curb with his booted foot, then heard the rumbling
engine of a car roll up beside him.
“Hop in,” Dan said as he rolled down the window of his black Navigator.
Darren threw his stuff in the back and sat down in the passengers’ seat beside
Dan. It would be a three-hour drive to Sydney, a drive Darren knew he wasn’t
going to enjoy.
For the first hour, the two didn’t bother talking. Darren sat quietly
staring out the window as the sun disappeared behind the dark clouds. He took
off his sunglasses feeling his eyes strain to see out the already dark tinted
windows of the SUV. He was still tired from not getting any sleep the last three
days. Darren spent most of his time at a little club on the outskirts of town
called Zero drinking and talking with the pretty girls that would stop by his
chair and glance in his direction. After getting drunk all three days, he had
woken to find himself at Dan’s on the couch and with a nasty hangover.
Darren didn’t know how Dan could stand having him around, especially
now that he was getting drunk often. Then again, there were many things he didn’t
know about Dan, one being the reason why he was so crazy about Alexia. Darren
had noticed many strange things about her the day they met. She seemed always
too eager to get things over with, and her temper was one he’d never want to
have to live with. She also made it seem as if she were hiding some secret from
the rest of the world. Darren could easily see it when Dan proposed to her.
He didn’t know whether to perceive her tears as being genuine or as ones a person
would cry while acting.
While Darren sat thinking, Dan turned on the radio and began to flip
through the stations. He stopped on some country station playing a remake of
the Charlie Rich song “The Most Beautiful Girl.” Darren’s attention focused
less on Alexia and more on the song. He somehow recognized the voices of the
band singing the song.
“Who’s the band singing this song?” he quickly asked.
“I don’t know. They’ve done a good job with remaking this song. Hopefully
the DJ will say something about it,” Dan replied. The sound of the radio was
once again the only thing heard in the cab of the SUV. Within minutes it was
over, the DJ’s voice booming in after it.
“That was some hot new country music from the US. The band’s called South
65, and the song’s called ‘The Most Beautiful Girl.’ Some of you might remember
it as a Charlie Rich classic. These guys aren’t your typical boy band, though.
I’m told that their fans hate putting them in the same category as the Backstreet
Boys and ‘N Sync. Anyway, if you want to check them out, the Internet address
is www.south65.com,” said the DJ as he cut to another song.
“That is so strange. I know I’ve heard them before. I think Chance once
played that CD for me while I was staying with her. She also told me that she
ditched school to see them performing in New York,” Darren told Dan as he recalled
a faint memory.
“Didn’t she ditch school to see us?” Dan replied.
“I don’t know. She probably did since it was a Tuesday.”
Once again, the silence between them encased the rest of the trip to
the airport. Reaching their destination, Darren hopped out of the car and retrieved
his things from the back. Wordlessly, he walked into the terminal, not bothering
to even say goodbye to Dan when he left. His mind still regretted making that
deal with him and the others. Heading towards the gate, Darren stopped at a
newsstand and picked up a copy of a local paper for the trip. He folded it up
and stuffed it into the same case that held his laptop.
An hour later, the plane took off, and Darren was headed back to New York to get closure on the whole Chance situation. Through the first four hours, he slept, still tired from a restless night and a nasty hangover. The rest of the time was spent trying to come up with lyrics to new songs, which he wrote down ideas for on his laptop. After becoming bored, Darren picked up the newspaper and began to read about the odds and ends of the world: the crisis in Macedonia, the Mad Cow scare in the rest of Europe, and the latest news about “Survivor.”
After searching through a few more boring articles, his eyes caught a glimpse of something in a picture. It was of a woman with dark hair, deep blue eyes, and a devious smile. She resembled Alexia in a way, the only thing different being her hair. Darren read the caption under the picture, “Peterson swindles over a $1 million from prominent New York politician.”
Darren began to read the rest of the article to find out more information about this thief. He found that Samantha Peterson was only one of her aliases, others being Rebecca White, Sandy Rich, Fiona Maple, and last, Alexia Potter.
‘Holy shit!” Darren thought, nearly dropping the paper. Things in his mind began to click. ‘So this is where all the money for Dan’s new place was coming from. Oh my God. He’s engaged to a con artist!’
‘Hold up one moment,’ another voice contradicted. ‘If you try and do anything right now, Dan’s going to think you’re only doing this because of Chance and because you’re angry with her and everyone else. Hold off for a few days so that things cool down, then break the news. That’ll give Dan some time to think it over and realize what’s going on, and if he doesn’t, you can call the police.’
‘Hm… This is the first time you’ve ever been helpful instead of annoying,’ Darren responded.
‘Thank you,’ the voice replied.
‘Now will you shut up or do I have to start drinking again?’
‘I’ll shut up. You should be sober when you land in New York, which will be some time in the next few minutes, according to your watch.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because you’re staring at your watch.’ Darren hadn’t realized that he had been looking at it the whole time he was conversing with his conscience. He shook his head to clear his mind of the strangeness of the experience and looked out the window to see the dark clouds around the plane.
‘Great, more rain,’ he thought, tilting his head back and resting on the seat.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing at JFK in a few moments. It is cloudy in New York with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. The current temperature is 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and winds are east to south east at 15 to 20 miles per hour,” the captain rambled on. Darren fazed out on the rest of his speech until the plane was on the ground.
The terminals were jammed with people either stepping off a plane or boarding. Darren found himself nearly half an hour later hailing a cab on the side of the curb. One picked him up, and he told the driver to take him to the hospital Chance was at. It took nearly an hour to get there since traffic was backed up on the Manhattan Bridge.
When the cabby dropped him off at the hospital, Darren stood outside unable to make his feet move through the entrance. His heart was afraid to hear any news about Chance. The only thought that went through his mind was ending up having to drive to Smithville to visit her grave.
Large heavy drops of water began to fall from the sky forcing Darren to seek shelter in the hospital. He made his was through the doors and walked into the elevator. He was the only person there, and when he reached the forth floor, ICU, he waited a few moments before exiting. Darren headed for Dr. McAllister’s office immediately afterwards hoping that his old friend would tell him the answers to all the questions he had.
Slowly, he knocked on the thick wooden door and waited for a response from the inside. “Come in,” Ian said, his voice easily heard.
Darren slowly opened the door and poked his head through the small opening. The room was dark, only one tiny light on Ian’s desk being turned on. “Good afternoon,” he said, almost choked up.
“Darren! What a surprise! I thought you left for Australia,” Ian said as he stood up and walked over to the door.
“I did, but my friends forced me to come back.”
“Let me guess, Chance?”
Darren hesitated for a moment fearing that Ian had some devastating news for him. “Yeah,” he nearly whispered.
“Why the sad look? Haven’t you heard? She’s doing just fine. She left a week ago for her grandparents’ farm in Canada,” Ian happily replied.
“What?” Darren was close to fainting. The news was such a relief to him; he wanted to jump for joy.
“It’s a four hour drive from here. If you hurry, you might be able to make it before sunset,” Ian said as he took out a small notebook and began to scribble an address on it. He ripped the sheet out of the notebook and handed it to Darren. “This is where she is. I’ll print up directions so you won’t get lost.”
Within a matter of minutes, Darren was on his way to the farm in Hamilton, Canada in search of his beloved Chance.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chance sat on her bed that night reading one of her textbooks. It had been decided that she’d be home schooled through the rest of high school to stay away from the stress and bad memories. A tutor would come in every day and help her with everything ranging from math to English. Chance didn’t pay much attention; she already knew most of the stuff she was being taught. Her thoughts were mainly focused on her inability to do the things she loved: sing, write music, and play guitar.
That night, all she could possibly imagine went wrong. The electricity had gone out during the thunderstorm raging outside, forcing her to miss “Roswell,” and she broke her favorite picture frame while unpacking, the frame that held the only picture of her and Darren taken at MTV the day she won the contest.
Chance sat up in her bed as the storm’s fury continued outside. She slowly stood up in the near darkness of the room, only illuminated by ten candles, and headed for the parlor. It was there she saw the headlights of an oncoming car pull into the driveway. Chance thought nothing of it. Her grandparents always had people dropping by for no reason at all. This was going to be another one of them just looking for someone to talk to during the storm.
Chance sat down in the rocking chair in front of the TV and picked up a copy of TV Guide, flipping through the pages without giving much thought to what she was doing. Her mind was in a totally different place. This place she had entered reminded her of a bad dream she had a few nights back. In it, the scenery was dark and uninviting. Everything was in shades of red, black, and gray. It almost reminded her of hell, but without all the burning bodies and the devil. There was something different about it, though. Whenever Chance found herself in this place, a feeling of sadness and overwhelming heartache came over her. If felt like she was living in the depths of another person’s conscience, a place that had been hidden and only escaped when he was far from his mind. She knew this was a real person because they did have mood changes once in a while.
Chance felt a calmness that swept the dark landscape. A large blue light filled the sky, turning the shares of red into majestic purples. Who’s ever mind this was, it had suddenly become very happy. She sensed that this person was experiencing some joy in their otherwise empty life. She began to feel a little better about herself, but she didn’t like invading such a private place. When she tried to leave, Chance was only pulled back in by a sudden emotion of fright and confusion. She wondered who this person was and why they had become so scared all of a sudden. She tried to send out a mental response, but more confusion and frustration followed. That was when she knew it was time to go.
Chance had discovered her semi-psychic ability the night after her bad dream. She had accidentally stumbled upon the strange place thinking of Darren. Her mind always headed straight for this world whenever she thought of him afterwards and wondered if it was his mind that she was invading. Chance stopped herself from exploring further when she heard the doorbell ring. The new visitors were at the door, but she was in no mood to greet them. She stayed seated in the rocking chair and waited for her grandmother to open the door.
~~~~~~~~~~
Darren stood outside the small farmhouse wondering what he would say when he saw Chance for the first time in months. His mind told him many things while his heart told him to just wing it. As the pouring rain fell onto his cap and down his face, he looked back at the rental car to make sure he remembered to turn off the lights. The door opened signaling him to turn around and see who stood in the doorway.
“Celia, hi. I don’t think you remember me, but I’m Darren. I saved your granddaughter, Chance, from the river,” he said, watching the old woman give him a look up and down to make sure he wasn’t lying.
“Oh, I remember you. Please, come in. You’re going to catch a chill out there in the rain,” Celia finally invited him in.
Darren walked through the door and felt the warmth of the inside of the house all around his body. He enjoyed being inside where it was warm opposed to the near frozen darkness outside. Slipping off his jacket, Darren could feel that his shirt was also soaked from standing out in the rain.
“I’ll go make you some hot tea,” Celia said as she rushed off to the kitchen.
“Wait, is Chance around?” Darren asked.
“I’ll go get her,” she replied, then headed for the parlor where Chance was seated at the rocking chair.
“Chance, you have a visitor,” Celia said as she walked through the parlor to get to the kitchen.
“Who?” Chance asked, not having heard the conversation between Celia and Darren.
Celia walked out of the kitchen and went back to the foyer where Darren was still standing soaking wet and cold. She had completely ignored Chance’s question and proceeded to lead him towards the parlor. “Come with me,” she told him.
Reaching the doorway, Darren spotted Chance sitting on the rocking chair reading a magazine. She looked up once, then turned back to her page. Her eyes quickly jumped from the page to Darren once she realized he was standing in the parlor. She stood up from the chair and watched him for what seemed like an eternity.
Their eyes never strayed away from each other as their intense stared tried to pry into the other’s mind. Finally, Chance couldn’t take the wait anymore. She could feel her legs begin to run towards Darren, but they weren’t strong enough to keep her body in motion. Her knees dropped, but her body stayed upright as a pair of arms wrapped around her waist to catch her. She glanced up to see Darren looking down at her. He readjusted his hold and gently lifted her off the ground to take her to the couch. He sat down with her in his lap.
Chance looked into Darren’s soft blue eyes. There was so much pain and suffering behind them that she could almost feel it jump into her. He looked as if he was ready to burst into tears. Her hand reached up and touched his damp cheek. Darren closed his eyes and snuggled as close to her as he possibly could. Chance could feel the lump that formed in her throat as she watched him, his love for her becoming so crystal clear. He opened his eyes again to look at her. She was still as beautiful as he could remember; her hands so soft and gentle, her eyes so deep and chocolaty, her lips so full and ready to be kissed. The only thing different about her was her hair. She didn’t have her long, silky black mane due to the accident, but he didn’t care. She was still in his arms. Darren leaned closer as Chance’s hand slid down to his neck and pulled him in.
Darren could feel those soft, luscious lips upon his and closed his eyes. He wanted to savor the moment for as long as time would permit. Just to hold Chance in his arms, to feel her body close to his, eased the months of loneliness he had subjected himself to. The emptiness and hardships his heart had endured were now over, and he could be at peace.
Chance’s own struggle had ended. The years of pain and torment flew away as she kissed Darren. There was nothing more she could possibly want than his love. The world faded away, and only the two of them were left in it. This was what she had been waiting for all of her life. Everything just seemed to come together so perfectly the deeper Darren kissed her. As their lips parted, a smile came across both of their faces.
Darren laid his wet head on her shoulder and held onto her tightly. “I love you,” came his muffled voice.
“I know,” Chance replied, cradling him in her arms. “I love you, too.”