The Fourth Sunrise: A Love Story Read online

  “Christine and I stared calmly and intensely into one another’s souls. Then simultaneously, we each had a tear slowly drip from our eyes. Our tears were expressive streams on our solemn faces, faces telling each other that they were loved beyond words.

  “Christine took my hand and led me to the master bedroom. ‘Before you get too weirded out, this is a completely different bed than my parents used to sleep on.’ I laughed in the midst one of the most passionate moments that I was to embrace.

  “We both fell onto the very large bed. We both rolled on top of the comforter and began to kiss each other passionately. As I kissed Christine, everything else in the world took a pause. My relief was being there in her presence. I knew in the depths of my soul that she was the only woman for me. Never had I felt more complete than I was in her embrace and her kiss. And kiss we did.

  “Christine and I kissed like a couple of teenagers who were discovering each other for the first time. This was only our third time to be together. Each kiss had its own rhythm. Each embrace had its own heart. This was pure ecstasy. This was my heaven and indulge I did.

  “We began removing one another’s clothes and soon we were both naked lying on top of the covers. I covered her body with mine. It wasn’t sexual in nature, but in more of a protective possession. For one moment in time, I wanted to be the one to protect this vessel of a beautiful woman.

  “I held her tightly. Her breasts, which seemed a little bigger than I remembered, pressed against my chest.

  “‘This is why...’ I whispered into Christine’s ear. ‘This is why I can’t let you go. My heart is permanently stacked on top of yours. I gave up a long time ago.’

  “‘Can I be honest with you, Joel?’

  “‘Of course you can.’

  “‘All these years, I have truthfully loved my husband. But, one thing that I have always known is that I have always loved you more.’

  “‘Have you?’ I said, rolling on my back.

  “‘Of course I have. You couldn’t be possibly feel so much sincere surrender of feelings and I couldn’t possibly not feel the same way. I have loved you since the moment I met you thirty years ago.’

  “Christine then laid her head on my chest and slid her body down and rubbed her hands on the inside of my thigh. It was heaven.

  “I looked deeply in her eyes. I paused, and then I said, ‘You are the only woman I have ever wanted.’

  “‘Why, Joel?’

  “‘Because I'm a simple man. I loved you first. I didn’t know how to love someone that strongly ever again.’

  “‘Oh, Joel. You are so precious.’ Christine wrapped her arms around me and positioned my body above hers and then took her left hand and gripped me and placed me inside her.

  “We made love tenderly for what felt like two hours straight. My heart was overwhelmed by the lovemaking. All I wanted was for the moment to last forever. But sadly, like all of our encounters, time got ahead of us.

  “I knew she was meeting her husband in Seattle, Washington, in a matter of hours. I looked at the clock and it read five in the morning. Seven hours to be exact. I knew she would again have to leave soon. These were the terms I had grown accustomed to experiencing.

  “I looked outside and could see the first whispers of the sun’s rays about to break dawn.

  “I looked down at Christine and she was as awake as I was and I was still inside her, slowly making love.

  “Christine looked up at me and said. ‘I love you, Joel.’

  “‘I love you, too.’

  “‘I want to do something I have always wanted to do for you.’

  “I smiled. ‘What is that?’

  “‘I want to make you breakfast.’

  “‘You do?’

  “‘I do. I’m pretty good at it.’

  “‘You are?’

  “‘I am… so, although I could continue doing what we’re doing until I have to leave to get to my plane, I would dearly love to make you breakfast.’

  “‘Breakfast sounds pretty good.’

  “With that, I rolled off of her and reclined next to her on my back.

  “‘That was amazing, Joel. The single most pleasuring, passionate, heartfelt night of my life.’

  “‘Mine, too. Mine, too.’”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “I went with Christine to the kitchen. She had put on a robe and I put on my pants that I had on the night before.

  “Christine told me to go back to bed, and I told her there was no way I could be in the same house and not be with her every waking second. I did allow her to go to the bathroom alone, however. I just needed to be near her. I knew this would soon be over, and I couldn’t miss a moment.

  “One thing I knew for sure was, this woman was one incredible cook. Holy crap! It was the best breakfast I’d ever had. Everything she made, she put her own spin on. She made cheesy eggs with Hollandaise dressing, and onion hash browns with her own mix seasonings. Don’t even get me started on the meat. Best bacon, ham and sausage I ever had. She mixed them all with special seasonings. Delicious.

  “Without a shadow of a doubt, this is not only the best breakfast I ever had, but this is the tastiest meal I ever had.

  “Christine raised her orange juice glass to me and gave me an endearing wink.

  “‘When do you have to leave?’ I asked.

  “‘Thirty minutes.’

  “‘That soon?’ I was stunned.

  “‘Actually, I should have left by now. I’m pushing it, giving myself thirty more minutes.’

  “‘Stay one more day. Make an excuse,’ I said in a last plea of desperation.

  “‘I can’t.’

  “‘Why not?’

  “‘Because I made a promise I’d be there. He’s having a real big meeting and he needs me to be with him.’

  “‘I understand. I just can’t go seventeen years without seeing you again. Can we try to make this at least a twice a year venture?’

  “‘I can’t, Joel.’

  “You can’t? Or you don’t want to?’

  “‘Joel, I love you more than I ever thought I could love someone besides a husband. But I also have some semblance of a moral code. I know I am a huge hypocrite but what I feel is the truth. I think marriage is sacred and only because I love you at the magnitude that I do, and only because you love me with the incredible zeal that you do, can find it inside me to break the most sacred of vows that I have ever given. But I couldn’t live in that place regularly.’

  “‘Live in that place? What do you mean?’

  “‘Meaning, I couldn’t be with my husband and have a permanent lover on the side.’

  “‘So, what I am is convenient. Every fifteen years or so, you find it in you to take a stab at me.’

  “‘Joel, please. That is not what I meant. Please don’t take what I said that way.’

  “‘How should I take it?’

  “‘Take it as, you’re such an amazing man that a very good woman broke the most sacred of vows just so she can be with you.’

  “‘What separates your mind from your body?’ I asked. ‘Why can't you see me a couple times a year? I don’t think that’s too much to ask.’

  “‘It is too much to ask Joel,’ Christine said. Christine paused and then sat next to me and held my hand. ‘My husband has never done one wrong thing to me. He has never even raised his voice. He is an amazing father and a hard-working provider. The only fault he has is the thing that was given to him by God himself. It’s his personality. He’s the dullest man I have ever known. Any resemblance of intrigue was long gone after high school.’

  “‘He isn’t passionate, he isn’t affectionate, but what he is that he is extremely considerate and he shows how much he loves me by what he does for me. He would walk on broken glass for me.’

  “‘So would I,’ I said honestly.

  “‘I know, Joel. But I married him. All I can say is, it’s a testament to how powerful our love is as to why I have given myself to you on th
e two nights I have.’

  “‘That’s not enough,’ I said, plainly and simply.

  “‘It’s all I can give. I want to go back to the way we used to do it. I miss going down to the post office in Washington, D.C., and pouring out my heart to you in letters.’

  “‘I need a little bit more. This is too hard. Just give me a little more. I’ll take once a year.’

  “‘Once a year?’

  “‘Yeah.’

  “Christine looked at me and smiled. ‘Look, let’s do the writing thing and if something organically can come up, then yes. Of course we can see each other.’”

  Present – Delta, Colorado - Coffee Shop, 3:20 a.m.

  “Organically?” Sharee asked.

  “She meant organically, according to her life. Not organically, according to mine.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I’ll get to that in a second. Let me tell you how it finished.” Sharee perked up.

  1998 – Delta, Colorado - Christine’s House, Kitchen, 7:00 a.m.

  “I looked at Christine and knew her answer of if something could ‘organically happen,’ that was the closest thing I was going to get toward seeing her more often.

  “‘It’s our third sunrise together,’ Christine said, looking out of her kitchen window as the sun continued to rise.

  “Christine opened the door and the two of us stepped out onto her porch.

  “‘You know, this time you have to go.’

  “‘I will need you to drive me back, so technically I will be seeing you drive away.’

  “‘We’re going to need to leave soon.’

  “‘I know,’ I said. ‘I’m just taking in the beauty of the sun.’

  “‘It is spectacular, isn’t it?’

  “‘Breathtaking.’

  “‘Joel?’ Christine asked. ‘Why do you think this happened? Why do you think, our lives keep slamming us back together?”

  “‘You see, Christine, I don’t look at it that way. I don’t look at it as if we have seen each other by chance. I have actually gone to great lengths to try to see you. No. I don’t look at it as chance. I look at it as I have longed for you so abundantly that I created my own luck because I was dealt a really unlucky hand.’

  “‘You were?’ Christine asked.

  “I had a royal flush right out of the gate and was quickly told it wasn’t my hand to play. As a matter of fact, I was told it wasn’t my hand and I was going to have to give it to a complete stranger, one who was right beside me. But once every fifteen years I get to spend an entire night with my royal flush!’

  “‘I’m sorry, Joel. I’m sorry for the both of us.’

  “‘So where do we go from here?’

  “‘I don't know. You know, I still have the letter back at my hotel.’

  “‘You still have the letter I sent back to you that you wrote me?’

  “‘Yes.’

  “‘I want to see it.’

  “‘Seriously?’

  “‘Yeah, I’ll take you to your car and then we will go to the hotel.’

  “Christine and I went back inside and got completely dressed.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  “We went back to the parking lot and my truck had a ticket on it. Crap. I hated tickets of any sort. They’re just a hassle. I plucked it off the windshield and rolled my eyes.

  “‘How much is it?’ Christine asked. She was still in her blue vehicle.

  “‘Fifty-five bucks.’

  “‘Gotta love it. They probably close this street to parking during the fair.’

  “‘Actually, I don’t love this.’

  “‘I’ll pay it if you like.’

  “‘No. I’ll definitely pay it. I wouldn’t trade last night for anything.’

  “‘So, where now?’

  “‘Comfort Inn.’

  “‘Believe it or not, I don’t know where that is. So lead the way.’

  “So, I led her to my hotel. We went to the room and looked at the letter. Then we parted ways and that was that.”

  Present – Delta, Colorado, Coffee Shop, 3:25 a.m.

  “Wait! What do you mean that was that? Did you kiss my...” She faded out.

  “Did I kiss your…what?” I asked.

  “Ass.”

  “Did I kiss your ass?” I asked, very perplexed. I had no idea what would possess her to ask me such a question after telling her the story. I stared at Sharee, slowly looked at her very closely. “Sharee, why would you say that?”

  “I didn’t mean to say my butt.”

  “You actually said, ‘my ass.’”

  “Joel, I know who you are. I didn’t mean to say: ‘Did you kiss my ass.’ I was going to ask you did you...did you...kiss my mom?”

  “Your mom? Why would I kiss your mother, sweetie?” Then, as the words rolled out of my mouth, I realized what she was trying not to tell me. Not directly.

  “Oh! Your name isn’t Sharee, is it?” I asked.

  “No. Well, it’s my middle name.”

  “Your first name is Megan, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “The daughter of Captain Jack.”

  “Yes.”

  “And Christine Norquist.”

  “Her last name is Connelly.”

  “I know.”

  I looked at this beautiful young woman and felt sick to my stomach. I had been bamboozled, fooled. I even felt violated. I was speechless and we stared at each other for long moments. I suddenly began to see the familial resemblance with Christine, and with Captain Jack, too. It was all I could do to hold down my feelings of betrayal.

  “Can I ask you one question, Joel? I need to know this answer to this one question and then I want to really tell you what I think of you.”

  “Great. I get to answer a question even before you chew my head off. I guess you are her daughter, so you’re entitled to a question. Just for the record, even if you weren’t Christine’s daughter, I’d have given you a question.”

  “Did you ever consider her family? Not even her kids, but her husband? When you were telling a married woman how much you loved her, did you ever consider her family?”

  “Of course I did.”

  “Even my father?”

  “Your father was the reason why I never came to Virginia. I respected him too much. I respected her family too much. And maybe I wasn’t strong enough to never see her again, but I always considered your family. To be honest, it is the only part of the story I’m not proud of.”

  “But you’re proud of the rest?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I love your mother more than life itself.”

  Megan was quiet and then she had the most amazing, beautiful smile and said to me, “I know you do. And I think you just might be the only person who can help her.”

  “Help her?” I asked, alarmed. “Has something happened to her?”

  Megan was quiet. Too quiet. Especially quiet. I could tell she was steeling herself to tell me something about Christine. “Then she said, “Joel, you need to understand. I didn’t come here to comfort you, nor did I come to judge you. My mother is a beautiful creature who loved and adored her family very much. If loving you from afar allowed her to love us the way she did, I thank you for it. You made my mom’s life a better place.”

  Megan’s eyes drifted off, away from my face.

  “Sweetie, what is going on with your mother?”

  “Joel, my mom is in a coma.” Tears dripped from Megan's eyes as she drew back deep inside herself, visibly shrinking after she told me.

  My heart sank. I felt faint. “She is alive?” I asked.

  “Yes, Joel, she is. Some days, we think she just might come out of it.”

  “How is your dad handling it?”

  “He isn’t.”

  I looked at Megan with curiosity in my eyes. “Tell me what happened.”

  “Joel, three months ago, my parents were walking on the sidewalk in downtown Aspen, Colorado.�
�� Megan paused and I knew this wasn’t going to be good. “Right there in broad daylight, in front of the whole world, a drunk in a car...he jumped the curb at three o’clock in the afternoon and hit my parents, smashing both of them up against the wall that was directly behind them.” Megan paused. This one was a lot longer than I knew what she was going to tell, but I knew she had to be the one to say it: “My dad died instantly.”

  As she said the words, my heart broke, knowing that he had died. Now he wasn’t Christine husband. He was, for the first time in forty-seven years, Captain Jack to me. And he was gone. I took a deep breath and nodded to her.

  Megan continued, “He was directly in front of my mother. As the car hopped the curb, witnesses say he jumped in front of my mom as the Volkswagen smashed my dad up against my mom, taking the brunt of the car crash. My mother was smashed against the wall with the back of her head hitting first.”

  “Three months ago!” I asked, horrified.

  “Yes.”

  “She is still alive?” I asked again.

  “Yes, she is and some days I think she just might come out of it. Then there are days when I don’t think she will ever wake up.”

  My heart ached on levels I never thought imaginable as Megan described Christine’s injuries in more detail. Tears dripped from my eyes, but I refused to show any more emotion just yet. I was in an all-night coffee shop at 4:00 in the morning. But I couldn’t keep the tears from falling.

  “Why this way? Why tell me like this, Megan?”

  “My mom needs you.”

  “How? How could you know that?”

  “Joel, when the accident occurred, my brother and I knew instantly that my father had died and that was devastating to hear. But the only thing we had to hold onto is that my mother is still alive. We see her and every so often, she comes back to us.”

  “She wakes up?” I asked.

  “No, she doesn’t wake up. She hardly even moves. But I know. I can’t explain it. My mother and I have always had the most unbelievable connection, and I can feel her even though she is asleep. I can hear her voice.”