Abram's Puzzle by Camille Mariani

Author:Camille Mariani [Mariani, Camille]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781477206300
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Published: 2012-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

Monday, October 16, 1989

Abram had thought about Astrid ever since she stormed out of the motel room Saturday. Sitting next to the massage table and staring at first one and then another of the half dozen men and women receiving help with exercises, he found it difficult to concentrate on what his lovely young physical therapist told him to do until finally she asked if he wanted to postpone the session to another day.

“No, no. I just seem to be a bit distracted,” he answered. “Sorry about that. What was it?”

“Take the rubber band and stretch it back and forth like this.”

For the second time, she demonstrated. He smiled at her, as he always did whenever she spoke to him. Who wouldn’t smile? Helen had the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen. Well almost. Of course Astrid’s were like that, bright blue. But hers were a deeper shade than Heidi’s. And Astrid’s hair was silkier and a lighter blond than any woman’s that he had ever known. Oh God. She was just about the most striking and well put together female on Earth, as far as he was concerned, every bit as hard-muscled and firm as any of the three women therapists in this room. And she was the loudest, roughest talking woman with an impatience that sometimes drove him nearly mad. Still, you couldn’t ask for everything in a woman, now could you?

“You know how to do it, don’t you?” Heidi asked.

“Yes, of course I know. I just take it like this and stretch. I know.”

Helen, on the other hand, was a patient woman, much more so than the male therapist he got once in a while. That guy acted like he’d tear your arm out and hand it to you if you didn’t pay attention. Sometimes it felt like he had done just that, torn his arm off. It was always a pleasure to be assigned Helen for therapist. Well, it wouldn’t be long now and he’d be done with it all. Then what? He’d have to move out of the motel, for a start.

“Damn.”

Abram didn’t realize he’d said that aloud until Helen said, “Something wrong?”

“You know what? I’ll just do what you suggested and come back another day. This one is a washout for me. I’ll sign out at the window for another day.”

After signing out, he got into his pickup truck and drove back to the motel, not even stopping at the doughnut shop for coffee and blueberry muffin, as he usually did.

Leaves were dropping fast, littering sidewalks, bouncing around the roads, reminding everyone that winter snow would soon be in the wind. The area looked bleak now, with dying wide-openness, all hidden secrets exposed, litter and trash no longer covered from view by living flowers and leafy branches. Summertime charm was slipping away in the cycle of life pattern.

Nothing looked right to him. Had the world tipped upside down, or just his life? If he were to analyze the situation, he knew only too well that he was at fault for this upset, not Astrid.

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