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Chapter 27

Soozie slipped into the limo. The rest of the evening had been quite the emotional rollercoaster for her, and as she glanced at Bryant who was now entering the limousine, Soozie realized the night had probably been just as hard on him. Smiling so as not to reveal her still reeling emotions, Soozie slid her purse out of Bryant’s way just as he sat down.

After Bryant’s stark confession, and after Soozie had finally dried her eyes, they had rejoined the prom. This time however, for Soozie at least, things were different. How she could have gone from joyfully happy, to upset and crying, to angry to completely mystified in such a short time, she still didn’t understand. What she did understand is that it all had to do with the man now seated comfortably beside her.

“Are you cold?” Bryant asked her softly as they waited for the driver to take his position.

“I don’t think so,”

“You were shivering.”

Soozie could only nod. She knew Bryant was probably right, she had been shivering, but with the inner turmoil Soozie kept struggling to hold back, she hadn’t noticed. Yet again she was left speechless.

Bryant’s arm reached behind her and gently pulled up her shoulder wrap. He’s so attentive, she immediately thought. Why don’t I know how to respond to that? Did I used to know, have I forgotten how to be human? She wondered. She was in a daze and she knew it. From the time Bryant helped Soozie wipe the tears from her eyes and they rejoined the festivities inside, Soozie had been in a daze; only half present.

When Bryant once again led her onto the dance floor, she held on for dear life and silently wondered what she should do next, or if she was doing something wrong. Even now she found herself second guessing her every thought, every reaction, every word spoken. Something about how Bryant referred to her life before Montana had shaken Soozie, deeply.

“Sooz?” Bryant’s voice suddenly called from somewhere far to her side. Soozie blinked and looked to her right to see the door of the limo open and Bryant standing outside of it while bending down slightly to offer her his hand. They were home. Where had the drive gone?

Shaking off the fog that consumed her, Sooz reached for Bryant’s warm hand. In a flash he had her out of the limo and was tucking her arm under his as he escorted her inside. They got the door of the cabin and Bryant cursed when it did not respond to his turning of the handle. Finally Soozie laughed.

“You made Drake promise to lock it, remember?” She teased as she let go of his arm. Bryant could only mutter and chuckle as he fished his keys out of his pocket.

“For once he finally listens to me.”

Soozie giggled. One thing Drake did do was to listen to Bryant. But it was cute the way Bryant half groaned his words and Soozie couldn’t stop it from showing. With a grand sweeping motion, Bryant playfully ushered Sooz inside the nearly dark cabin.

“Would you like something to drink? Wine, a beer?”

Soozie shook her head, yet again she had drifted off into the questions in her mind and she hadn’t realized she was standing ten feet inside the door simply staring into the darkness.

“Where’s the kids?” She asked as she watched Bryant strip off the tuxedo jacket and lay it across the old sofa. Bryant was walking into the kitchen as he spoke loudly to her.

“I guess this is a parent’s worst nightmare night. All of the kids have made plans to spend the entire night out. I believe Drake, Jade and their friends have a couple rooms at the Inn.” Soozie had followed Bryant into the kitchen and watched as he stood before the open refrigerator door. He wasn’t looking inside the refrigerator; instead he stared out the kitchen window, down the dark driveway. “Drake won’t be home tonight.” Bryant whispered anxiously.

Instead of phasing off as Soozie found herself doing, Bryant snapped right out of his fog. “So,” he stated with a wild, flashing smile. “What would you like to drink?”

“How about a beer?” Soozie giggled. She could not recall if she was a drinker or not. She also didn’t have a clue what beer or wine tasted like, but since she had seen Bryant drinking a beer every now and a again she thought she’d choose a drink he liked.

“Beer it is,” Bryant cried form inside the refrigerator. “Do you want a glass?”

Soozie was setting her handbag and wrap on the table as Bryant asked the question. “No,” she quickly decided, recalling that Bryant never drank his from a glass. Either Bryant was moving fast or Soozie was that dazed, but suddenly as she peeled off the gloves she had worn, he was standing closely behind her, laughing in her ear.

“Do you even remember if you drink?”

“No,” She admitted with a grin.

Bryant laughed as he held both bottles in one hand and a glass in another. Nodding towards the living room, he started walking as he spoke. “You fake things so well. If I didn’t know you had amnesia you could have easily fooled me.”

Soozie had been following Bryant but paused in the archway that led from the kitchen to the Grand Room. She wasn’t sure how to take his comment regarding how she could have fooled him. Did he think she was now trying to fool him over anything? Bryant hadn’t noticed she paused, until he stood near the large, wicker basket he had been tossing the blanket he and Sooz often threw on the floor when they sat before the fire place.

“Sooz?” he called as he held both his full hands out towards the basket and waiting blanket.

“Yes, of course.” Soozie muttered with a weak smile. Within moments she was close enough to Bryant to touch him as she quickly retrieved the large blanket and fluffed it into the air in order to spread it on the carpet.

“What is that your wearing?” he casually remarked as he slid off his dress shoes and stepped onto the blanket.

“Uhm, it’s…I’m not sure of the designer.” Soozie scrambled for words. She stared down at her gown trying to recall who the shop keeper said made it. As Bryant dropped to his knees, he laughed again.

“I meant the perfume. I don’t think I’ve smelled it before.”

Soozie instantly blushed. She hadn’t thought of it before, but obviously one did wear perfume; so to speak. Bryant busied himself with putting both beers and glasses on the floor and then quickly stocking the embers still burning in the fireplace. He did such from the position of his knees, so his back was turned to Soozie as he listened to her.

“It’s uhm, well we named it Tuscany.” Soozie stammered as she tried to sit down without ruining or tripping over the gown she wore. “Jade, Catherine and I made it in some little shop in Whitefish.”

“Jade told me about that place. I didn’t know she had taken you there.”

“Yes, she did. Today we went after we left the….beauty salon.”

“So it’s your own creation then right?” Bryant pressed on as he skillfully made a large, roaring fire.

Soozie was now sitting down and attempting to get comfortable as she nervously answered his casual questions.

“Yes, I guess it is. I have perfume, a body spray, some lotion and in a week we pick up the soaps – all the same scent.”

“Why Tuscany?” Bryant asked as he glanced back towards her before resuming his activities.

“Uhm well….” Soozie shifted anxiously. This was yet another thing she hadn’t told Bryant. Suddenly she feared he’d react as poorly as he did earlier. “It reminded me of Tuscany – I think.”

Bryant stopped what he was doing and turned slightly to face Soozie. “You remember Tuscany? Italy?”

Soozie grinned. “I think so. It smelled…the scent….I don’t know I looked to Jade and Catherine and said, this smells like Tuscany I think.” Soozie shrugged before a furious blush hit her face.

Bryant was kneeling with his hands bracing him on his thighs. He smiled brightly at her revelation. “That’s great Sooz, really. Did you write it down?”

“No, not yet, but I don’t think I’ll forget it because I still smell it and it still smells like Tuscany.” She laughed at herself.

Bryant studied her closely for a moment and then nodded happily. Turning back to finish his chores with the fire, he kept talking softly as the dark room began to light up. “I’ve never been to Tuscany. I’ve never left this country, except to go up into Canada. Tuscany Italy – was it beautiful?”

Soozie let the flames that began dancing wildly lull her into a calm state. “I’m not sure Bry, I think I recall beautiful vineyards, but a lot of places have those so I don’t know.”

Soozie paused her thoughts long enough to look for Bryant’s reaction. But when she looked to where he once knelt in front of the fireplace, Bryant was no longer there. Instantly Soozie spied him lying beside her on his hip, resting his head on one hand as he held a glass of freshly poured beer. Sitting between him and her was her glass of beer as well as the half empty bottles.

“Did I doze off?” she sheepishly asked as he nodded towards her glass.

“No, but you looked deep in thought so I went with it.”

Soozie blushed even more. She reached for and took the glass and quickly tried to hide her flushing face by tasting it. As the cold, gold liquid hit her taste buds Soozie was hit with both the sensation of loving how it tasted and recalling how forbidden such a drink had been.

“Oooh I haven’t had a beer in so long Bry.” She cooed between swallows. Bryant immediately propped himself up on his arm as he watched her.

“How long?”

Soozie shrugged as she took yet another large swallow. How long had it been? It had been at least since before her first……poof – instantly the memory was gone again. Like a flash it left Soozie struggling to finish swallowing and with tears in her eyes. She had been so close….it was right there as she first tasted the sudsy beer. Then as the thought of precisely how long it had been formulated in her mind, it vanished.

By the time Soozie slowly lowered the glass, the memory or the glimpse of it haunted her.

“What?” Bryant whispered. Gently he reached out the hand that he was propping on the elbow of and touched her thigh. “Sooz” he gently coaxed.

“It was…I almost remembered but it vanished.” With tears pouring down her face in a steady stream, and some coaxing from Bryant, Soozie explained moment by moment of the almost recaptured memory about her last beer. Throughout her sniffles, Bryant patiently and quietly listened. Soozie hated it.

“Why,” She anxiously asked the darkness. “Why can’t I remember something so simple as the last beer I drank. What is wrong with me, why am I doing this to myself?”

Looking to Bryant, she shook her head helplessly. “Something is wrong with me Bry. Something awful that makes me do this to myself….why?”

“Sooz, honey don’t…”

“Bryant, I am serious. What is wrong with me? Four days a week I am in some sort of therapy or counseling or hypnosis. Four out of seven days Bry….the only stupid thing I remember or think I remember is some sad, depressing song” she wailed helplessly. Suddenly the damn of tears Soozie usually fought to keep at bay, released. Setting down her glass she buried her face in her hands.

“What song?” Bryant softly asked. He still had his hand on her leg and now he tried to offer some form of comfort even though she seemed unable to be comforted. “Sooz, what song?”

“It’s a sonata, Number 8 in C Minor they tell me….” She managed to say in a muffled voice. The entire time she spoke she shook her head helplessly.

Bryant’s mind twitched as the sound of what she described jiggled something in his brain.

“It’s classical, not even modern day!” she wailed before a new round of tears hit her.

Bryant suddenly jumped up. In a flash, and without Sooz appearing to notice, he was gone. He ran downstairs and rifled through the drawers of cassette tapes that once belonged to his parents. Finding what he wanted, it only took him a few moments to get the stereo going and the tape queued up and playing. Just as the strains of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Number 8 in C minor began floating through the cabin, Soozie began screaming.

“Oh my god that is it. Bry…..Bryant….”

Bryant met the scrambling Sooz on the stairwell, half way up. She had grabbed him by both forearms and was nearly shaking him to death. “How do you know this song? How did you know?”

Bryant had to grab Sooz forcibly and pull her against him so they both didn’t go tumbling down the stairs. “My parents, they listened to only classical. The name rang a bell. Is this the song Sooz?”

Soozie’s eyes were fluttering back up towards the archway that led either to the living room or kitchen as she nodded. “Yes, this is it. This is what I remember.” She stated in a haunted tone. “Oh god,” she gasped while twisting out of his arms. “Why this song, what does it mean?”

“Sooz, Sooz,” Bryant called as he shook her. “Go back upstairs, I’ll be right up. Sooz, do you hear me, go.”

Sooz managed to nod before slowly turning and lifting her gown skirt so she could walk back up the stairs. After ensuring she had made it up safely, Bryant raced back down the stairs and into Drake’s room. Quickly snagging the old portable stereo with cassette player from Drake’s closet, Bryant grabbed the tape and headed back upstairs to the living room. There he plugged in the stereo and instantly put the tape back in.

Sooz sat holding but not drinking the glass of beer he poured her. She looked a little more together now and even smiled at Bryant when he appeared.

“There now we have mood music.” Bryant tried joking as he pressed play on the old cassette tape. Although not the wondrous sounds of the expensive stereo he had downstairs, Beethoven’s music suddenly filled the room softly. Sooz smiled painfully.

Bryant was once again settling himself on his hip and his propped up arm when Soozie spoke softly while gazing into the fire. “You’re worried about Drake tonight.”

A lot of times when the agony of dealing with her amnesia struck, Sooz would often and quickly change subjects. Her doctor told Bryant it was her way of protecting herself from going mad. He’d never seen a patient so committed to getting memories back and succeeding so little. Sooz’s doctor said her failure to recall things was her largest stressor in her life right now, so if she backed down and changed subjects, he advised Bryant to go with it.

Bryant now sighed. “A little”

“Why?” Soozie genuinely asked. Now she turned her eyes to Bryant’s. When Bryant made an odd face before swallowing some beer, Soozie laughed. She recognized that face as being the one Bryant made anytime he had to think of something discomforting regarding his nephew.

“Jade is pressuring him for …more.” Bryant admitted as he held his beer and stared into it. He could see Sooz out of his peripheral vision and knew he needed to expound. “She wants to take their relationship to a new level, an intimate one.”

Sooz cocked her head to one side in surprise. “Wow”

“I know,” Bryant admitted as he sat upright and balanced his beer on his bent upwards knee. “When Drake and I spoke last, Drake was worried about it. If he’s worried, I’m worried.” Bryant admitted while swirling his beer in the glass.

“Drake doesn’t want to take it – to the next level?”

“Oh, I’m sure he does.” Bryant readily admitted with a smile. Bryant thought about his nephew and chuckled. “I know he does. But, he wants to wait too. He wants to….” Bryant shook his head no.

“Wait for the right moment?’ Sooz suggested.

“No, make sure they don’t make a mistake that they will end up paying for the rest of their lives.” Bryant clarified. All of a sudden, without really knowing why, Bryant found himself confessing the entire conversation he and Drake had about the issue. Throughout it all, Sooz listened patiently, even sympathetically and for that Bryant was grateful.

When Bryant fell silent, Soozie’s eyes shifted to the fire again. “Wow, so they may be…”

“Don’t remind me.” Bryant groaned as he finished the last of his beer.

For a few moments the two of them sat in the thick, heavy darkness thinking of only one thing; right now in a hotel room, two young lovers could possibly be entering a new phase in their relationship. Neither Bryant nor Soozie could get that thought from their mind.

Technorati: Forgotten Freedoms, NaNoWriMo, Novel Writing, Romance, 1 Word 2 Words