Role of a Lifetime

Role of a Lifetime

By Amanda Wilhelm

© 2015 by Amanda Wilhelm

No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, except for brief quotations in reviews, without written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction.  Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious.   Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.

Chapter 1

Kelly followed the nurse into room 228.  She stopped abruptly and threw her arm out in front of him.  He bumped into her gently and stopped as well, following her attention to the bed on the right side of the room.

The man in the bed was muscular and tall, Kelly could tell that just by looking at the guy, his head came almost to the top of the mattress raised up behind him.  He could also tell the patient was feeling hostile by the look on the veteran's face.  Very hostile.  Confused, Kelly turned his attention to the woman standing next to the man.  She was tiny in comparison, probably no more than five four or five five and Kelly ratcheted up his awareness a couple of notches.

Kelly normally kept himself in good shape, but the four months of extensive training he had undertaken to prepare for his lead role as a Greek God in a film had yielded phenomenal results.   Six months ago, when the filming came to a close, Kelly had contracted the trainer to come up with a maintenance plan and diet.  He knew sustaining the movie physique would require adhering to multiple hour workouts morning and afternoon, and keeping the strictest (and most boring diet) he had ever been on.  Kelly had no intention of living that way the rest of the life, so he had asked the trainer for a plan structured around one or two hour workouts, four or more times a week, and a diet with room for some god damn beer.  "Once a week?" the trainer had laughed, and Kelly had laughed back and replied, "Have pity on me, at least twice."

Kelly watched as the woman, who was obviously not an employee of the hospital, with her street clothes and lack of ID badge, lay a towel out on the man's lap.  The vet glared at her a little harder.  Kelly was prepared to cross the room quickly, and intervene immediately, if necessary, but mostly he was just curious as to where this was going.  He was even more surprised when the woman reached into the cart behind her and laid a small rabbit on the man's lap.

"This is Timber," she told the patient, "We call him that because he loves to knock stuff over.  Oh stop it you," she told the rabbit, who started scratching at the towel.

She picked Timber up and put him back down, brushing the top of his head and his back.  The animal settled down and sat still, relaxing, at least as far as Kelly could tell, knowing absolutely nothing about rabbits.

"My name is Holly," she continued, her soft, calm voice carrying across the room, "And you are?"

"Mike," the vet said gruffly.

"Timber's a mini rex," Holly said, "they were bred for their fur.  They have the softest fur of any rabbit, you really should feel it."

The man begrudgingly moved his hand to the rabbit and Kelly got the distinct impression Mike was cooperating only to get the experience over with.  But when Mike's hand touched the fur his expression immediately turned to surprise.

"He loves it if you pat him like this," Holly said, running her hand from behind the rabbit's ears down its back.

Mike copied her movement, once, then again.  On the third pass Kelly was stunned to see a single tear running down the man's face.

"Can I tell you something Mike?" Holly asked him.

"What?"

"Even the strongest, biggest dams, they have to release some pressure sometime.  They have to, or they'll break."

At that the tears came streaming out of Mike's eyes.  Kelly watched in disbelief.  The man was patting the rabbit as though it was a life preserver.  Holly turned her head and Kelly could see that her eyes were wet too.  Then she realized he was standing there.

Kelly was used to people, especially women, reacting strongly when they saw him.  That came with the territory.  But what he saw in her face wasn't recognition, or the more common recognition, followed by disbelief, followed by excitement.  What he saw bordered on panic and anger and he immediately understood.  What he was witnessing was big and he was on the verge of ruining it.  He turned swiftly and left the room.  As Kelly stepped around the doorway, into the hall, Mike let out the most mournful, painful cry Kelly had ever heard in his life.

Kelly stood in the hallway unsure of what to do.  The nurse came out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her.  When the door closed the sounds of Mike sobbing uncontrollably were muffled.  Slightly.

"What," Kelly said, and then stopped.  He knew there were certain questions he shouldn't ask.  He wasn't sure what he wanted to ask.

"She's amazing," the nurse said, "they all are, actually. You okay?  You need a minute?"

"No, I'm fine," Kelly muttered and followed her down the hall.

For the next couple of hours Kelly traipsed around the hospital, meeting and talking with patients, taking selfies with them if they wanted, which most of them did.  The visit had been set up by the PR division of his management team.  Kelly detested the PR division of his management team.  It had a relief when he finally had enough clout in the industry to call the shots.  He didn't mind visiting the hospital, and he knew most of the patients enjoyed seeing him, but he hated the idea of using the visits with injured service men and women to promote his image.  So the deal was Kelly went alone and no mention of it was made to the press by his team.  Even his assistant Carl was banned from the hospital and made to sit out in the rental car the entire time.

A couple of times Kelly caught a glimpse of another rabbit cage being wheeled around the hospital on a cart, but he didn't see Holly again.

"Amputee," the nurse said, as she led Kelly into another room, "but he's got a great attitude, great kid."

The patient was holding a different rabbit and Kelly looked quickly at the handler.  He still felt like he needed to explain, and perhaps apologize.  But it wasn't Holly, it was a younger girl, late teens, Kelly estimated.  Kelly looked at the patient and guessed he probably wasn't much older.  Both of them looked at Kelly as he entered the room.

"Holy shit," the kid said, then quickly looked at the girl, "Jeez, I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she replied.

"You're Kelly Rockport," the soldier said.

"Yes, I am," Kelly said, stepping forward to shake the kid's hand.

He avoided looking down at the bed.

"I'm Joe and this is Lia."

"Hi Lia," Kelly said shaking her hand as well.

"Wow, it's really you, wow," the girl said.

Joe's eyes darted quickly from Kelly to Lia and back again.  Shit, thought Kelly.  Whatever thrill Joe had on initially seeing Kelly was gone.

"And who's this?" Kelly said reaching out to the rabbit and then stopping, "Can I pat...it?"

"Oh yes," Lia said, "This is Mercedes."

"They call him that because he thinks he's better than the other rabbits," Joe added quickly.

"Is that right?" Kelly laughed.

"Definitely, he's got a bit of an attitude, around other rabbits that is, but with people, he's fine," Lia said.

"Lia, we've got to go."

They all looked at the door to the room.  There was another woman standing there, holding an animal carrier and a couple more people behind her.

"Oh, okay," Lia said, scooping up Mercedes and holding him on her shoulder much like you would a tiny baby.  Instead of turning to put the animal away she stood looking at Kelly.  Finally she said, "Do you think I could do a selfie with you?"

"Sure, how about the three, er four of us?"

"Um, okay," Lia said.

She started fumbling for her phone but Mercedes started squirming.

"Joe, you got a phone, right?" Kelly said.

"Yeah, right here," Joe picked it up off the bedside table.

"We can use that one, you mind?" Kelly said taking the phone from Joe and handing it off to the nurse.

Kelly leaned in from one side of the bed and Lia leaned in from the other, holding the rabbit.  When they were done she turned to put the animal away.

"You better friend her now so she can have the picture too," Kelly said.

Joe and Lia looked at each other, then back at Kelly, then back at each other again.

"Umm, you mean Facebook?" Joe said.

"I don't really use Facebook," Lia said, "I mean, I have it, but I don't use it."

Kelly realized he was showing his age but he didn't really care.  Joe looked the happiest he had since Kelly had walked into the room and if it was at Kelly's expense so be it.

"Can I follow you?" Joe said, somewhat hesitantly.

"Sure," Lia said, turning back and pulling out her phone.  "It's L-I-A Sawyer."

Joe poked at his phone and then looked at her.  Lia pulled her phone out of her pocket.

"Got it?"

"Yes!  Now I really have to go, my mom, see you guys!" she said and, picking up the carrier, left the room.

Kelly watched Joe watch Lia leave.  Joe slid his hand down his right leg to the knee and stopped.  From his angle Kelly could see that was the leg Joe had lost.

"You know," said Joe, "When I was a kid we used to raise rabbits.  For meat."

You're still a kid, thought Kelly, but to Joe he just said, "Yeah, I wouldn't bring that up anytime soon."

Chapter 2

Holly caught up with her friends in the main lobby of the hospital.

"Where's Lia?" she asked no one in particular.

"Coming," Lia called from behind them.

Holly turned to check on her daughter and then they all started moving out to the parking lot.  It was warm outside but Holly barely noticed as they made their way to where they were parked.  Holly had spent most of the two hours in Mike's room.  After he had broken down the staff had scrambled to find Mike's therapist.  Once the counselor had arrived Holly had stayed on the other side of the room while Mike and John talked.  Eventually Timber had gotten restless and John had looked over to her.

"It's your rabbit?" Mike asked her as she took Timber back.

"Yes," Holly told him, "But there are tons of rabbits in animal shelters that need homes.  John here," she said nodding at Mike's therapist, "has all the information."

"Thanks Holly," John said and she knew that he meant it in more ways than one.  And also that she should leave quickly so John could keep the lines of communication open while Mike felt like talking.

Holly wondered what the odds were of Mike adopting a rabbit when he was ready to be released.  They were at her friend Tanya's SUV and they crowded around the back.

"Starving!" said Marie and pulled the cooler out.

She offered a sandwich to Holly who refused it.

"I have one in the car," Holly said.

"Did you guys see who was here today?" Lia said.

"Who?" said Marie before taking a huge bit of her sandwich.

"Kelly Rockport."

"What?" Marie said.

"Yeah, I saw him in the hall," Marie's son Caleb said.

"I think I saw him, maybe," Holly said.

"Oh, there he is," Lia said, pointing back to the main entrance of the hospital.

They all turned to look where Lia was pointing.  The man was crossing the parking lot and Holly squinted at him, trying to remember what the random guy who had burst into Mike's room had looked like.  It couldn't have been Kelly Rockport, she would have recognized him.

As Kelly reached the first line of parked cars a man leapt out of a parked car and began running across the parking lot.  Kelly didn't seem to notice and came right over to them.

"Hi Lia," Kelly said.

"Hi!"

Holly looked from her daughter to the movie star and didn't know what to think.

"We met in a patient's room," Kelly said.

"Uh-huh," Lia said, nodding.

"I'm Kelly," he said, holding his hand out to Holly.

She was still holding Timber's carrier and raised her hand automatically to shake it but quickly realized it wasn't going to work.

"Holly," she said shrugging, "and this is Tanya and Marie, and Caleb, Carrie and Jessica."

Tanya's daughter Jessica was the same age as Lia, eighteen, and also headed off to college in the fall. Caleb and Carrie, Marie's twins, were a year younger.  Holly looked at her friends.  Marie seemed to have forgotten she was holding her sandwich and was clutching it, frozen, six inches from her mouth.  Holly had to suppress a giggle.  Then the man from the other side of the parking lot came up to them.

"Kelly, okay, we have to call back," the man said as he approached.

"No," Kelly said and the man fell instantly silent.  "Carl, oh this is Carl by the way," he said turning to Carl and pointing to him, "my assistant.  I'm not ready to leave yet Carl.  You can go back to the car."

Holly watched, stunned and confused, as the man turned and left.

"He'll be fine," Kelly said, "Can I talk to you?"

"Who?" Holly said.

"You."

"Ummm," Holly didn't know what to say.

"Why don't we go get a coffee, or a sandwich, I'm starving actually."

Holly looked from Kelly to her friends.

"I have to go home," Holly said.

"No you don't," Tanya said, "I can drop Lia and the bunnies off."

"No, I," Holly started to say but was interrupted by Marie this time.

"Yes, go," Marie said and she took the animal carrier out of Holly's hand and put it in the back of the vehicle, "We drive right by your road anyway."

"Come on kids, get in the car," Tanya said.

"I know there's a diner around the corner," Kelly said, "That okay?"

Holly looked at the SUV but everyone was loaded up.  She jumped as Tanya started the car.

"It's this way, wait, I should tell Carl, hold on, just follow me," Kelly said.

Holly followed Kelly across the parking lot.  Tanya drove past her slowly and Marie mouthed "OH MY GOD" to Holly through her open window as they drove by.

Carl jumped out of the car and began following them, chattering a blue streak.

"Sorry about this," Kelly said to Holly, "Let me just get through some stuff with Carl, we can talk while we eat."

About what, thought Holly.  She looked back over her shoulder at her car and thought she should just go home.  She tried to excuse herself but Carl was impossible to interrupt.  She couldn't even follow the conversation but every now and then Carl would pause for Kelly to agree, disagree or fire off some complicated instruction she didn't understand.  Before she knew it they were standing in front of the restaurant and Kelly opened the door for her.  Holly entered automatically.  The man behind the counter looked up.

"Hey Rick," Kelly said, "We're going to sit in the back, take care of Carl here."

The man behind the counter waved them back.  Holly looked at Carl who had already slumped onto a stool at the counter and was poking frantically at his phone.

"This way," Kelly said and led her back to a booth in the back corner.

Once they were seated the waitress came over with menus, and they both asked for water.

"The roast beef is really good," Kelly said, "I always get it when I'm here."

"What do you want to talk to me about?" Holly asked.

"Oh no, are you in a hurry, shoot, I'm sorry."

"No not really," Holly said and then regretted it.  She could be on her way home right now.

"Good, so let's order and then we'll talk okay?"

Holly looked at him.  She'd seen Kelly Rockport in countless movies and now he was sitting across from her in a diner talking about roast beef.  It didn't seem real.  So she shrugged and said okay.

They made some small talk while they waited for the food and Holly learned that Kelly had been visiting various hospitals when he could work it into his schedule for more than five years.  Holly told him their little animal therapy group had been together for about a year and a half.  Then the food came and Kelly insisted she try the sandwich before they talked anymore.

"Wow that's really good," she said after she had swallowed the first bite.

"Told you."

They concentrated on their food for a while and Holly had just started to wonder again why she was there when Kelly set down his sandwich and looked right at her.

"I just wanted to say I was sorry, in that room, with the rabbit, I shouldn't have been there, I felt like," he paused, "I could have wrecked it, I guess, and I'm sorry."

"You didn't wreck anything," Holly said.

She was telling the truth.  Truth was she had been worried that she could have pissed the staff off with her whole "strongest dam" bit.  It hadn't been anything she had planned on doing.  Usually she just talked about the animals but that patient had been different.  So wound up and guarded and tense.

"Well that's what I wanted to tell you."

Holly looked at him in disbelief and laughed.

"You didn't have to buy me lunch, you could have just told me at the car."

Kelly shrugged.

"I don't regret buying you lunch."

"No?"

"No, it was nice and besides, I can afford it."

Holly laughed again at that.

"But you know, you could do me a favor."

"What?" she asked him.

He pushed his plate aside and folded his arms on the table, leaning across like he was going to tell her something very personal.

"You can order dessert."

"What?" Holly asked, confused.

"Yeah my trainer wouldn't want me to have that but if you order it and offer to share it with me..."

Holly stared at him.  Now he was leaning back in his seat and the look on his face, he looked, like a kid about to pull off the biggest trick on his brother.  His older brother who was always getting the better of him.  He smiled at her and she shrugged helplessly.

"Okay," she said.

They talked more and then the waitress came back.

"Dessert for anyone?" she asked as she cleared the plates.

"Sure I'll have dessert, what do you have?" Holly asked her.

"The pie's really good," Kelly told her.

"Um, pie?" Holly said.

"Apple or cherry?"

"Ap," Holly looked at Kelly and caught the slightest shake of his head, "No wait cherry?"

He gave her a big smile.

"A la mode?"

"Uh, yes!" she said on Kelly's nod, "And an extra fork, cause I won't be able to eat the whole thing, he'll probably have to help me."

When the waitress left Kelly grabbed both her hands and quickly kissed the top of each of them quickly.

"You're an angel," he told her.

"You're ridiculous, it's just pie."

"Don't tell my trainer."

"How, I don't know your trainer, how could I possibly tell him?  Her?"

"Him.  He's evil, I mean, he's amazing, but evil."

"You're crazy."

They ate the pie, well Kelly ate most of it, then he left a pile of twenties for the bill that probably would have covered a month full of lunches.  Kelly and Carl walked her back to her car, but this time Kelly banished Carl to walk behind them, silently, while they talked.  About halfway back he told her if she ever needed money for the therapy group he could help her out.

"We're not really planning on expanding," Holly told him.

"That was really amazing stuff today, you should," he said.

"I haven't really thought about it," Holly said but her mind was already running.

Non profit status, liability insurance, multiple chapters, logos.  What if some patient snapped and hurt the animal, or the volunteer?  She shouldn't have done what she had done today.  For all she knew she could have a voice mail waiting for her, when she got home, from the volunteer coordinator at the hospital.  Possibly a very stern, unhappy voice mail.  What if they told her they didn't want them to bring the animals back, ever?  How would she explain that to her daughter and the other kids in the group?

"You okay?" Kelly asked her.

"Yeah," Holly said, shaking her head and forcing her attention back on him, "We don't need any money. What we are doing is fine."

"Oh," said Kelly, "I didn't mean."

Holly looked at him.  She didn't know anything about him but he looked uncomfortable.  She didn't say anything, just waited while he sent his assistant back to their car and walked her to hers.

"Thank you for lunch," she said, as she dug in her pocket for her keys.

"Look, I made you uncomfortable, and I'm sorry.  I just, there was a kid I visited today, he lost his leg and he's not even twenty, I don't think.  It sucks.  It really sucks.  I hate it and I could just dump money into the hospital, lord knows I have enough of it, but I saw what you did, with that rabbit.  You can help people, I just thought, I could help you help more people.  You know, really help them."

His voice trailed off at the end and he stood there looking at her.  Something inside of Holly was telling her his heart was in the right place.

"I just can't commit to anything larger than we are doing now," she told him, "Maybe in the fall when my daughter goes to school I'll be able to look into it, come up with a plan."

At that Kelly's demeanor brightened considerably.

"Okay, that sounds great, let me give you my number."

Holly put Kelly's number into her phone and he opened her car door for her.  She automatically started the car and drove off.  It wasn't until she had gotten home, checked her voice mail, combed through her e-mail thoroughly, found Lia's note that she was out with her boyfriend for the rest of the evening and wondered where they were and what they were doing, did she even realize that a guy who was routinely considered one of the most eligible bachelors on the planet had given her his phone number.

"Well technically I guess he gave you his phone number, Timber," she told the rabbit, who reacted by rooting through his hay pile and coming up with something that pleased him.  "Congratulations."