Magnet & Steele (24 page)

Doing a double-take at the window,
Francine noticed the baby to the left of her granddaughter. Inside
the nursery there were two babies; a girl, her granddaughter, and a
boy, their carts closer than usual and next to one another and on
the end of each cart, their name plates: “Baby Boy Magnet” and
“Baby Girl Steele”.

Outside of the nursery, Francine’s
entire body rotated around to mesh into the glass. Touching the
window with both hands now, she pressed her nose up against the
window. “Magnet and Steele,” she delivered, “I’m not imaging this,
it says ‘Magnet and Steele’.”

Francine then stepped away
completely and became frantic recalling the wheelchair that she’d
seen previously. She looked down the hallway both ways fast and
panic spread through to her skin.

“Something wrong?” The nurse asked,
noticing Francine’s apprehension and fright.

“Where did he go?” Francine asked
the nurse looking oddly back at her. “Oh my God!” She exclaimed
bringing her hands up to her head and clutching them there. “Where
did he go?” Francine looked down the halls again but they were
completely empty, clear. Go find him, she thought and Francine
sprinted down the hallway, clutching her handbag, fumbling with it
within her hands until it fell to the ground. She stopped short to
pick it up but then the handbag fell away from her again and she
decided to leave the damn thing there and continued running down
the hall towards the exit of the hospital.

Running and running, she ran until
she reached the hospital parking lot and halted. Looking both ways,
then in a full circle, she doesn’t see anyone remotely to what she
remembered before until she spotted a man faraway getting into a
Suburban. The SUV reversed out of their parking spot and proceeded
towards the street.

Francine had no other choice but to
take off towards it and screamed, “Derrie!”

Running and running towards the SUV,
Francine had to stop the car somehow and surged for the vehicle and
braced herself for a hit and threw herself into the truck’s top
right front bumper.

*****

It was a hot summer day in Encino,
when Chris and his buddy, Jared were leaving the Encino-Tarzana
Regional Medical Center after viewing his new baby boy. Chris was
beyond excited about becoming a father for the very first time. He
and his wife, Charlotte had been trying to conceive for around two
years. It had been a normal delivery, if you could call being in
labor for 27 hours, normal. Charlotte gave birth two days ago and
had been very tired from the whole ordeal. Chris did the best he
could with her delivery, but Charlotte got annoyed with him too
many times and didn’t want Chris in the delivery room so he was
forced to become a 40’s dad and wait out in the waiting room with
the rest of the family members and not unlike the fathers of the
past used to do. Chris didn’t mind it though, when the nurse
finally came to him and told him that he had been the proud father
of a 6 lb. 3 oz. baby boy, Chris was ecstatic and was able to
rejoice with his best friend Jared, his mother and his father.
Yeah, it was great to have his father there. He hadn’t seen him in
quite some time and it was a good feeling to finally be able to
experience a milestone like welcoming a new baby into the world
with his dad.

Chris clicked on his left hand turn
signal to make a left when he heard, “It was nice to have your dad
here.”

Chris turned to look at Jared,
“Yeah, I know, it was nice to have him here, period.” He then
looked into his rear-view mirror and checked on his dad in the back
seat. He could only see the tip of his forehead and his salt and
pepper hair. “I don’t know how much longer I could have taken it ya
know?”

“Oh man, I don’t know how your
family went through all that,” Jared agreed, gazing out the car
door window.

Chris made his left hand turn slowly
through the hospital parking lot. “When I first found out that he
was still alive, I’ve spent the past five years trying to get him
outta there.”

“Your poor dad man, spending half
his life in that God damn psychiatric Veteran’s hospital…and I know
it’s probably eatin’ you up that he doesn’t even recognize you! His
own son, man, that’s rough,” Jared uttered, taking a peek back at
Chris’ dad in the back seat as well.

“I don’t care,” Chris explained,
“He’s still my dad. I couldn’t just let him rot in that loony bin;
allow his brain to continue to deteriorate like that. I don’t even
like to think about it, much less talk about it.”

“Chris! Watch out!” Jared shouted,
reacting to something he saw running in front of their
Suburban.

Chris stepped on the brakes and a
loud screech of rubber could be heard, but it was too late, they
hit the pedestrian. Chris got out of the truck first and rushed to
see what happened.

Just outside their vehicle, a woman
was spread out onto the pavement. On the verge of unconsciousness,
the woman muttered, “Derrie…it’s me…Derrie…it’s me.” Very weak and
opening and closing her eyes, she tried to speak, but she was
fading fast. “Magnet…Steele, Derrie…the babies…Magnet and
Steele…”

Chris stood up and looked back at
his dad and he was OK, thank God…Goddammit! “What the hell was she
doing? She could have gotten herself killed!”

“She just threw herself against the
car man, did you see that?” Jared called out, disbelieving what
just happened as well, leaning over Francine.

Francine was still mumbling
incoherently. “Derrie,” Francine breathed, “…the babies…Magnet and
Steele…Derrie…”

“Derrie?” Chris repeated out
loud.

“She said Derrie…who’s
Derrie?”

“Derrie, that’s dad,” Chris said
matter-of-factly. “I haven’t heard that name since grandpa…” Chris
then looked back at his dad and motioned for him to roll down his
window. The older man hesitated but then pulled in closer…it was
Derrie.

Derrie rolled down his window and
the two men helped Francine get up to her feet. A little woozy,
Francine reached the SUV and stood just outside the door, out of
breath, unclear.

Chris positioned himself by his
father who peered out of the window. “Dad?” He asked delicately,
“Do you know this woman?”

“Chris,” Jared chimed in, “Your dad
doesn’t even know you.”

Derrie and Francine’s eyes
meet.

Tears swarm hers
instantly.

“…
Yes, I know her,” Derrie said
aloud, still staring into Francine’s tear-filled eyes.

The two men help Derrie back out of
the SUV, but Derrie needs help from a cane, he’s missing a
leg.

Derrie held onto his son’s helpful
arm and continued to stare into the woman’s eyes.

“Francine Steele,” Derrie let go,
smiling.

“Derek Magnet,” Francine responded,
grinning herself.

Chris and his buddy both look at
each other in amazement, practically in their own tears.

Tears of joy flow down Francine’s
face while a smile long is shown clearly on Derrie’s. They come
together in unison and embrace as Francine buried her face inside
his shoulder. Derrie released his son’s arm and then gripped
Francine’s body tight, both of them holding onto each other per
sempre…

Forever.

Special Thanks

I want to write something heart-felt
and say that I am eternally grateful, but the Vietnam War happened
when I was born. I’m trying to understand why we were there, as
probably you do when any war occurs and the U.S. of A. is involved.
And with the exception of the draft, it seems oddly familiar with
the war in Iraq.

This is what I do know: The Vietnam
war cost the lives of more than 58,000 Americans with more than
153,000 seriously wounded. One million Vietnamese combatants and
four million civilians were also killed. The number of Vietnamese
wounded is still unknown.

Vietnam veterans account for more
than one-third of all U.S. veterans and are the largest living
group of living veterans from America’s wars.

And for all the fathers, brothers,
uncles, husbands, wives, nieces, nephews, cousins, sons, daughters
and friends that were both enlisted and drafted for the Vietnam
War, I say thank you for standing for what you believed in and for
fighting for America’s freedom.

God Bless America…

Trish

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