tei0412dam

@@@@@I'll never forget again I did - the following week - but I didn't get angry that timeI held her against me like a little love, closed my eyes, and visualized the pickup truck that had been 14 demolished in the accidentI visualized my steel lunchbucket rattling against the steel clip on my clipboard, and the woman's voice came from the radio once more, exulting with that same evangelical fervor: "It was RED!" DrKamen called it a breakthrough My wife seemed a good deal less excited, and the kiss she put on my cheek was of the dutiful varietyI think it was two months later that she told me she wanted a divorce ii By then the pain had either lessened or my mind had made certain crucial adjustments when it came to dealing with itThe headaches still came, but less often and rarely with the same violence; it was no longer always midnight in the world's biggest clock-shop between my earsI was always more than ready for Vicodin at five and Oxycontin at eight - could hardly hobble on my bright red Canadian crutch until I'd swallowed those magic pills - but my rebuilt hip was starting to mend 15 Kathi Green the Rehab Queen came to Casa Freemantle in Mendota Heights on Mondays, Wednesdays, and FridaysI was allowed an extra Vicodin before our sessions, and still my screams filled the house by the time we finished upOur basement rec room had been converted into a therapy suite, complete with a handicap-accessible hot tubAfter two months of torture, I was able to make it down there on my own in the evenings to double up on my leg exercises and begin some abdominal workKathi said doing that stuff a couple of hours before bed would release endorphins and I'd sleep better It was during one of these evening workouts - Edgar in search of those elusive endorphins - when my wife of a quarter-century came downstairs and told me she wanted a divorce I stopped what I was doing - crunches - and looked at herI was sitting on a floor-padShe was standing at the foot of the stairs, prudently across the roomI could have asked her if she was serious, but the light down there was very good - those racked fluorescents - and I didn't have to I don't think it's the sort of thing women joke 16 about six months after their husbands have almost died in accidents, anywayI could have asked her why, but I knewI could see the small white scar on her arm where I had stabbed her with the plastic knife from my hospital supper tray, and that was really the least of itI thought of telling her, not so long ago, to get that hamhock out of here and stick it up her face-powderI considered asking her to at least think about it, but the anger came ba