Free Interlude by Josie Daleiden Page A

bruise to another. Cal was felling oddly self-conscious at
the exposure. He still managed to be prideful of his injuries as he
recounted his tale of misadventure to Karen, what he could remember
at least. He observed the changes in her facial expressions. Cal
recalled the card that was in the flowers.
    “What did you mean when you said, 'I had
hoped to keep this away from you, but it seems I was too late'?”
Cal asked.
    “It's complicated. She said, nuzzling into
his neck as she pondered her next moves.
    “I'm all about complicated.” He said.
    She was still exploring his body when she
noticed his manhood stirring under the sheet. She reached to touch
it, but Cal's hand stopped her. He offered up an explanation.
    “I would love for you to touch me there, but
they have me tubed up.” he said shyly.
    Karen pulled back the covers again, revealing
his manhood in all its catheterized glory. She giggled in spite of
herself as she covered him back up gingerly. With a conciliatory
pat, she asked, “Why did they catheterize you? Can't you get up?”
She asked.
    “I'm a head trauma case, so they don't want
me going to the bathroom on my own. I guess it serves well as a
leash too?” Cal said jokingly. Karen reached under the covers
again, her fingers trailing along the opaque, white tubing. She
tugged at the tubing playfully as his manhood began swelling from
the motion.
    “No, please, I don't want to have to explain
any additions to the nurse who empties my pee bag.” He said with a
chuckle, adding, “Besides you still have some 'splaining to
do.”
    With a deep sigh, Karen resolved herself to
telling Cal everything! “I promise, I'll tell you everything as
soon as you're better. What I have to tell you involves a sort of
show and tell, so it's no use revealing my deep, dark secrets
here.” She spoke with a finality that Cal knew was going to be the
last word, for now.
    “Okay.” He sighed. He was just happy to have
her lying by him. He lay with her until sunset, and the nurses
kicked her out. She had fallen asleep, and the on-duty nurse gave
Cal a friendly smile when she saw the two of them cuddled up like
lovesick teens. Karen straightened her clothes as she got up.
    “Do you need anything?” She asked as she
checked her phone.
    “I need another healthy serving of you.” He
held onto her hand as she tried to leave.
    “I don't want to go either.” She said,
resting her forehead on his. “You'll be out in a couple of days. I
don't want to be the reason you end up in some soap opera-style
coma.” She said, swaying her hips deliberately as she walked out.
What a tease!
    Cal rested fitfully. His turned down all the
pain killers in an attempt to stay lucid for any other random
surprises. He regretted it as he tried to turn over to sleep. His
thoughts were filled with her. All the problems he had somehow
seemed less important now. Cal was unable to sleep, so he clicked
on his bed light and looked through the massive manila envelope. “I
guess I have to get this over sooner or later...” Cal thought to
himself as he laid out all of the forms and scanned documents. The
quiet night of the hospital's neurology ward beeped and whirred
softly as Cal read and re-read all the paperwork.
    He tried to make sense of it, but he realized
that Weathery-Park had made a huge error while setting up his
retirement. Cal had opted for eschewing the usual 401k and mutual
funds and going for his own diversified portfolio. His father in
law had been his financial adviser, to the effect that he chose
stock that Cal wanted, and left his portfolio to rot. In the
neglect, Cal had realized that he owned stock in half of the
upstart companies that carried Silicon Valley now! He re did the
numbers over and over, but they kept coming up in his favor!
Accounting for some stock splits and accrued dividend payments,
plus interest, Cal was now owed 1.2 million dollars by his former
in-laws! The stunning realization only served to make him sleepy.
He