Free A Long Road Back: Final Dawn: Book 8 by Darrell Maloney Page A

“Deal!” he said with conviction.
         She took him by the hand and walked into the kitchen, where Karen, Debbie, Roxanne and Rachel were putting the finishing touches on an impressive breakfast spread.
         She asked Karen, “Hey, how come you never ask any of the men to come in here and help cook? Or me, for that matter?”
         Karen didn’t miss a beat.
         “Because we want the food to be edible. Now get out of my kitchen before I start cutting off your limbs and making sausage out of them.”
         Hannah hid behind Markie.
         “You wouldn’t make sausage out of a sweet little boy like this, would you?”
         Karen gave Markie the stink eye and cackled like a witch.
         “Well, dearie… sweet little boys make the best sausage of all.”
         Markie saw through the charade and giggled.
         Karen said, “Of course I wouldn’t make sausage of Markie. He’s my buddy.”
         “Good. Then can you let him help you around here for a few minutes? Mark and I are in the middle of something very important.”
         Karen saw a slight sense of desperation in Hannah’s eyes.
         “Sure, no problem. Markie, why don’t you go wash your hands and put on some plastic gloves? You can help me stir the pancake batter in just a minute.”
         “Oh, boy! Sure!”
         Markie ran off and Karen looked at Hannah.
         “Are you okay, honey? Is there anything I can do?”
         “I don’t know, Karen. I’ll let you know later, after I finish talking to Mark.”
         Karen sensed something was up but didn’t want to pry. Instead of asking more questions she reached out to her friend and hugged her, then added, “I so love you, sweetheart.”
         “Thank you, Karen. I so love you too.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    -15-
     
         Hannah returned to the table but didn’t sit down. Instead, she stood behind her husband for a moment and placed a hand upon his shoulder.
         “I’m sorry to spring this on you, honey. Really I am. It’s just that the only other person in the world I could talk to about this is Sarah. And God only knows when she’ll be able to tell me what she thinks about it.”
         “She might never be able to talk about it,” Mark said sullenly. “Debbie says she may never be the same again. And even if she appears to be, there may be whole blocks of her memory that never come back.”
         “When is the medical team coming in from Wilford Hall?”
         “Debbie said they’ll be here sometime this morning. And they’re bringing Dr. Hartley with them. Didn’t Debbie tell you?”
         “No. Dr. Hartley is my doctor. But he’s not a brain specialist. Why are they bringing him?”
         “Debbie asked them if they could send transportation to pick you up for your follow-up appointment on Tuesday. They offered to do you one better and to send your doctor to you. They said it’s a win-win situation. They only have to make one trip instead of two. And you don’t have to take that long car ride there and back.”
         “A doctor who makes house calls. That’s so… twentieth century. I wonder why Debbie didn’t tell me.”
         “I don’t know. Too busy treating Sarah, I guess. Hey, can we get back to the meteorite thing?”
         “Yeah. I was just getting ready to do that.”
         “Before you went for coffee you told me to think about what happens to a drafter in a bike race if he’s too tired to keep up. What did you mean by that?”
         “Well, in a bike race, let’s say you’re riding point for your team. And let’s say that Bryan is riding behind you, drafting.”
         “Okay. With you so far.”
         “Let’s say that Bryan is tired. He partied too hard the night before. Or didn’t sleep well. Anyway, he has a hard time keeping up. After awhile he’s going to drop so far behind you that