A Hero's Reward (5 page)

“So, why were you sleeping in
your car last night?”

“I didn't have anywhere else to
go. My purse was in the house so all my ID, credit cards, cash, and
all that are gone. I don't have any friends that I could impose on to
let me stay with them and, and...”

Margaret started crying again. This
time the sobs were not the deep, heart wrenching ones from earlier
but were higher pitched and interspersed with hiccups. This time she
sounded as though she were bordering on hysteria.

Greg moved over and sat down beside
her. He went to put his arms around her again but this time she
pulled away. She glared at him and through the sobs asked:

“Why are you being so nice to me?
What do you want from me? I'm a total failure. I was a failure as a
daughter. I was a failure as a wife! And now I'm a failure as a
mother as well!”

Her voice rose in volume throughout her
recitation until she was shouting the last. Greg shook his head and
stared at her:

“I'm being nice to you because
you're a person. I seriously doubt you're a failure the way you say
you are. You've been raising your son as a single mother for how
long? How exactly did you fail with that?”

“I almost killed him because I
didn't get the proper maintenance done on the heater! They told me
that the heater exploded and caused the house fire. I almost killed
my son!”

Once again Margaret fell into
deep-throated sobs. The pain and agony she was feeling was made
tangible by the sobs and Greg wasn't immune to it. He decided that he
had to do what he could to help her. No-one, especially his sorrowful
angel, should be subjected to feeling what she was experiencing.

“They said it exploded because
you didn't do maintenance on it?”

“No” she sobbed, “they
just told me it exploded and started the fire. Why else would it
explode though?”

“Let me see now. It could have
been faulty workmanship, age, a poor quality heater, a leak in the
fuel line, there are any number of reasons it might have exploded.
There are far more reasons that aren't due to you being negligent
than there are that would be your fault.”

“Just how would you know any of
that?”

“I work for a construction
company. We build houses and install heaters in them. I have a
passing familiarity with them.”

“Really, it might not have been
my fault?” Margaret glanced up at him.

“Really, there are a lot of
possibilities. I'm not saying it wasn't your fault but if they didn't
tell you that it exploded due to lack of maintenance, then it could
have been any number of reasons.”

Margaret finally leaned towards Greg,
seeking the comforting embrace that he had so recently been offering.
He put his arms around her and drew her in to him:

“Go ahead and cry it all out. I'm
not going much of anywhere for a few days. Doctor's orders, you
know?”

Margaret gave in and cried once more.
This time there was no pain and agony evident in her sobs. They
sounded, now, as though they might actually be getting grief and pain
out of her system. By the time Margaret had finished crying Greg's
back was feeling better. He headed upstairs to get her some clothes,
and to change out of the ones he was wearing, since they were from
the day before.

He came back down with a sweater and a
pair of sweat pants with a cord tie so that she could snug them down
to keep them up. He handed her the clothes and then headed into the
kitchen:

“Would you like some coffee and
oatmeal? They're both instant so it's nothing fancy but they're what
I can make for breakfast with the power out.”

“You don't need to do that for
me.”

“No I don't but I'm making some
for myself so I thought I'd offer. I'll bring you some of both, how
do you take your coffee?”

“Black please, and thank you but
you really don't need to go to any trouble for me.”

“It's no trouble at all. Like I
said, I was making some for myself anyhow, easy enough to make a
little more.”

Greg came out with two steaming mugs of
coffee and two bowls of oatmeal. He set one of each on the table in
front of Margaret.

“Dig in” he said, following
his own advice, “I'm pretty sure your body will want some fuel
to help it recover.”

They ate in silence for several
minutes. Once they had finished their oatmeal, they both sat back
sipping at the hot coffee.

“So, you lost all of your ID and
everything. You can get it reissued, can't you?”

“Yes, but I need other ID to get
my license back and I don't have any other ID. I can send away for a
copy of my birth certificate and social security card but they'll
take weeks to arrive.”

“Did you know that you can also
have another person with a valid state ID vouch for you in place of
alternate ID?”

“No, I didn't know that. How will
that help me though?”

“I'm another person with a state
ID that can vouch for you. When you're ready, let me know and I'll go
to the DMV with you.”

“I can't ask you to do that.
You've already done so much for me.”

“I offered, you don't have to
ask. But I think that once the streets are clear of ice we should
call an ambulance for you and have you checked out for any problems
from the hypothermia.”

“NO! I won't do that. The last
time I went in an ambulance, I woke up and my son was back with my
ex-husband even though I was awarded custody. Plus, I don't know how
I'll afford that last hospital visit already, I certainly can't
afford another one.”

“Don't you have insurance?”

“Yes, but I'll need to file a
claim and it's pretty crappy insurance. I'm sure there will be a high
deductible that I'll have to pay out of pocket, getting them to pay
anything at all is like pulling teeth.”

“Okay then, it's your call. But
my offer still stands to help you get your ID back. One condition
though, you need to drive. My painkillers are strong enough that I
shouldn't be driving while on them.”

“I don't want you to have to go
through that much trouble for me. You've already done so much for me
that I feel like I owe you.”

“You don't owe me anything. I'm
happy to do it, and I'm on two weeks paid leave while my back heals.”

“Is it really that bad?”

In answer Greg set down his coffee cup
and turned around. He pulled up the back of his t-shirt, revealing
his back to Margaret. Her shocked gasp told him that his back still
looked like crap.

“I didn't know the skin could
turn those shades of yellow and green.”

“Well, I beat it up pretty badly
by landing on it poorly. It's healing already though, it used to be
blue, purple, and red instead of green and yellow.”

“I'm so sorry, that's all because
of me, isn't it?”

“I just landed poorly getting you
out of the house. It isn't your fault, you didn't force me up the
ladder or anything.”

“Yes, but...”

Greg interrupted her:

“Really, it isn't your fault. It
might have happened while I was saving you but you didn't force me to
do so. It was my own choice to do so.”

“Why, why did you run into a
burning building? I don't understand, I don't think we'd ever even
spoken more than twenty words to each other ever.”

“Well, I saw your son's hand out
the window. I'm a father myself, although my wife has custody of my
two daughters. I couldn't stand there and watch a child burn to death
if I could do something about it. Once I was up the ladder, he
wouldn't leave until I had gone in to get you.”

“Oh, I saw a video but it doesn't
show any of that. It just shows you swarming up a ladder, my son
coming out, then you dragging me out and the ladder flying off the
wall.”

“There was some sort of explosion
that blew the ladder off the wall. The door to the room blew in and
pushed us off the wall.”

“Why last night then? If you were
already injured, why did you hurt yourself more to save me again? I'm
not worth that. I'm mostly worthless, I can't even bring myself to
talk to strangers normally. I don't know how I'm managing to hold a
conversation with you now even.”

“Promise you won't laugh?”

“I promise.”

“Well, when they took me into the
ambulance and we were on our way to the hospital I looked over and
saw you in there with me. Admittedly they had me on some serious
drugs then and I was hallucinating but... I looked over and saw your
face. It was totally relaxed because you were out cold but I saw it
as the face of an angel, even in repose it was marked by sorrow. The
drugs knocked me out and I dreamed of your face. I dreamed of ways to
try to remove the sorrow lines from it. It seemed wrong to me that an
angel's face should be marked by sorrow that way. So last night I was
going to offer you a spare bedroom in here to stay warm, try to ease
some of the sorrow from your face. When I found you were in a bad way
I didn't even think about it much, just picked you up and brought you
in to try to help you.”

“Greg, you are one crazy man. I'm
no angel, according to everyone I've ever been close to I'm an abject
failure.”

“You asked, I answered you. I
chose to help you again. In both cases it wasn't even a conscious
choice, I just did it.”

“Well, thank you I guess. I can't
help but wonder if I might have been better off if you'd just left me
there though. My life is such a screwed-up mess right now; it'll be
hell trying to put it back together.”

“I've got a week and a half of my
two weeks off still. I'll help however I can if you like.”

“Greg, please! I can't accept any
more help from you, you've done more than I can repay already.”

“I'm not asking for repayment.
I'm just offering to help if you need it. For example, where do you
plan on staying? You're welcome to one of my bedrooms if you like.”

“I can't do that, I'll just stay
in my car.”

“Please, spare my back from going
through that again. I have three spare bedrooms in this house. Please
take one of my spare bedrooms so I don't have to worry about you. I'm
not using them and you certainly could use one.”

“Why would you worry about me? I
shouldn't accept, I don't want to be any more trouble for you.”

“You're no trouble at all. I find
myself actually enjoying your company. I haven't enjoyed the company
of a woman since my ex-wife left me. It's nice to know that I still
can. I would worry about you because I'd feel it was my fault if you
ended up in a bad way when it could've been prevented by you using
one of the rooms in my house that I don't even use.”

Margaret blushed and looked down so as
not to meet Greg's gaze.

“Thank you. I'll tell you what
though. I'll take you up on the offer of a spare bedroom on one
condition. I can see that it's hurting you to move around. Let me
take care of you, at least some. I can cook, I can clean, I can fetch
stuff from upstairs if you're down here or downstairs if you're up
there. Is it a deal?”

She looked back up to see if he agreed.
Greg was surprised to find himself eager to have the opportunity to
spend time in her company. He quickly answered:

“Okay, but if you're going to put
conditions on it, so will I. You have to let me help you start
getting things back together. Things like the DMV trip, and we can
use my internet connection to get contact information for your credit
cards, bank, and things like that once you have your ID again. We've
got a week and a half before I need to be back at work, we can take
care of a lot in that time. Plus I'm supposed to be on very limited
activity and those are all things I can do to feel useful while I'm
supposed to be resting. Do we still have a deal?”

“If you insist, I still don't
know why you want to help me out though.”

“Maybe I just want to see what
you look like with a smile instead of a frown or no expression at
all? I'll have lots of opportunities to get you to smile if you're
staying here.”

Margaret blushed and looked down once
more.

The power came back on early in the
afternoon. By then both Greg and Margaret were bundled up in sweaters
and coats even while in the house. The icy coating on the ground had
begun to thaw around ten AM. The streets and sidewalks were mostly
clear by noon but there were still patches of ice in areas that the
sun didn't get to.

They had mostly kept busy by making a
list of what they would need to take care of for Margaret. The very
first thing was to replace her ID, then they needed to contact the
bank and get her a new debit card, call her credit card companies and
get those replaced, get her a new phone and replacement SIM card from
her provider, the list went on and on. Greg made a mental note to
take her to a department store and buy her some replacement clothes
as well. She was sure to protest but he could be stubborn as well,
his ex-wife had honed his abilities with being stubborn beyond all
belief.

They had a light lunch, sandwiches and
chips with water to drink. When the power finally came back on Greg
immediately got up.

“I'm tired of the instant coffee
we've been having, let me treat you to some good stuff. One of my few
luxuries I allow myself is some high quality coffee, and my coffee
maker even grinds the beans fresh.”

“Greg, please, you don't have to
treat me to anything. You're already doing more for me than I'm
comfortable with.”

“Well, first off I'd make the
coffee for just myself, if I have someone to share it with then
that's all the better. Second off, why are you uncomfortable with me
helping you out?”

“I don't know you well Greg, I'm
afraid of how you might ask to be repaid. I'm sorry to admit that but
I believe in being honest with people.”

“I won't ask for any repayment, I
promise. I believe in honesty being the best policy also. What
exactly are you afraid of me asking for?”