The Bed You've Made: Conclusion

The news of the bombing of Diana’s house came to Geo while he was in the ER having the burns on his the back of his head and his back treated.

An emergency patient was wheeled in. All hands were on deck, everyone doing what they could to save this woman.

When her stretcher passed his small room, Geo saw she was a woman based on her frame and the yellow house dress she wore. But the detail that made Geo’s heart jump was a homemade beaded bracelet around her wrist, a beaded bracelet that was clearly made by a child, by Geo’s own child.

Geo bolted from the bed when he sat being treated.

“Sir, I’m not finished.” The young doctor called after Geo.

But Geo didn’t respond. He didn’t care to.

He reached the bed where he now saw his mother being treated. Though he knew he was looking at his mother, he also didn’t see the mother he had known his whole life. Most the hair from the side of her head was burned almost completely away. The skin on her face, neck, and chest was raw, beet red, melted, unlike anything Geo had ever seen.

“What happened?” He demanded.

One of the doctors looked at Geo, almost affronted.

“She’s my mother.” Geo said.

At these words, Diana spoke up.

“Geo, she gave me marigolds.” She said, her voice on the verge of crying.

Geo got as close to Diana as he could without getting in the way of the medical staff. “Who gave you the marigolds, Mom?”

Diana lifted her hand, which was balled into a fist. “Sheri did. She tried to kill me, and I walked right into it.”

Geo carefully took a small piece of paper from Diana’s hand.

A safe distance away from Diana’s bed, Geo opened and read the folded piece of paper.

“DIANA,

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO DESTROY MY LIFE, TO DESTROY ME. YOU DROVE GEO AWAY FROM ME. THINK OF THIS AS THE MEDICINE YOU NEED. WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN THE LESSON OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO MY LIFE’S DESTRUCTION. MOST IMPORTANTLY, THIS IS THE ULTIMATE CLIFF HANGER FOR GEO TO UNDERSTAND WHAT HIS LEAVING ME HAS SET IN MOTION.

LOVE, SHERI ”

Geo felt angry enough to punch a wall, to put his hand through a pane of glass, anything to just let out the anger and frustration felt towards himself for having started all of this.

However, Geo didn’t do any of this. All Geo felt was hollow numbness from the inside out, making it impossible to physically destroy anything. For the next few hours, Geo remained just outside the burn unit where his mother was moved, where he finally allowed the rest of his own injuries (minor in comparison to his mother’s) to be treated.

In the two days that passed, Geo spent his time outside the burn unit where Diana was now in stable condition, where she mostly tried to sleep despite the pain she was under. In this time he learned three different friends, living in three different counties were hit with homemade bombs, with notes from Sheri attached to them. All of whom were supportive of Geo’s decision to leave Sheri. Two were stable and out of the ICU, while the third was still in critical condition.

Geo’s lawyer Cassie, who suffered a broken arm from being pushed out of the way of the bomb by Geo, came in to check on him and Diana, as well as update Geo on the manhunt to find Sheri and Kaden. So far, there was nothing.

“She’s just off the grid.” Cassie said. “There’s no hit on her credit cards. All of the places she got the materials for these bombs were all paid with cash.”

Nothing, there was nothing to indicate where she could be or where she had taken Kaden, which only added to Geo’s frustration and feeling of helplessness.

Late on the second night, almost into the third morning, Geo read over the note Sheri left his mother, copied down before Geo gave the original note to police.

Dozens of times Geo read it, trying to find anything he might have missed.

Then it came to him.

“THE ULTIMATE CLIFFHANGER FOR GEO TO UNDERSTAND”. This sentence struck him, so much he felt stupid for having not noticed it sooner.

But this didn’t matter. What mattered was he knew it now.

He instructed the nurse at the nurse’s station if anything changed with his mother. She said she would. And with that, Geo got moving.

The drive took two hours, a time frame filled with Geo’s heavy breathing, sweating hands, and thoughts of the worst case scenario flashing in his head. So much had already happened; something else happening didn’t seem too farfetched.

When Geo reached the roads weaving through pine trees, he knew he was close. Six more miles passed, and he was in front of the gate of Sheri’s family property. One Geo had known about, but had never visited on Sheri’s insistence.

“I don’t have any good memories there.” Sheri had said the one time the subject was brought up.

He knew from what little Sheri had told him about the property that he would have to walk from here. His heart raced, but he kept going. For his son, he kept going.

Geo arrived at the end of the road which led up to a small house framed with two pear trees. The lights were off, but Geo knew this meant nothing. Sheri was here, Geo knew this. So Geo walked through the two pear trees, around the perimeter until he reached the back of the house.

At the end of the trail behind the house, Geo saw two silhouettes lit by a single flickering light. As Geo got closer, he realized the shapes were Sheri and Kaden.

Kaden was sleeping, cradled in Sheri’s arms. She turned to look at Geo. Sheri smiled a tired but girlish smile.

“Baby, you came.” She said. “I hoped you would.”

“You KNEW I would.” Geo said.

Sheri nodded in a wistful way. “I suppose I did.” She looked at the view of the gorge below where she sat, one foot away from the edge.

Geo could see this clearly, had felt this had been Sheri’s intent, to put any decisions he might make right on the edge of life and death.

“Sheri,” Geo said slowly. “I know a lot has happened. I’m willing to forgive and forget. To do that though, you need to let me take Kaden home.”

Sheri thought about this, then shook her head. “No,” She said. “You need to give me what I need.”

“What do you need?” Geo asked even though he already knew.

“I need you to take me back. I need our life back.”

This is how life will be, Geo thought. If Sheri has any say about it, this is how life will be, even if she faces criminal charges for the bombings. She will get out of that somehow. This is just how life will be. Whatever it took for him to just get Kaden back, Geo would do it.

Slowly, Geo nodded. “Okay, Sheri. You win; we can try to work something out.”

Sheri brightened at this. “Thank you.” She said.

“You’re welcome.” Geo said. “You must be exhausted.”

Sheri stood up carefully. “You don’t even know.” She said then handed Kaden to Geo.

A millisecond of a moment, the moment Geo realized was the moment that would either save his life, or destroy it.

One arm was carrying Kaden, and the other was free. With all his strength, Geo pushed Sheri over the edge of the small cliff, his free hand pressed against her collarbone.

Sheri didn’t scream, but let out a harsh startled gasp with a look of surprise as she went over backwards, landing in the gorge below.

Geo didn’t stay to watch. Instead he walked away with his son cradled in his shaking arms.

Kaden had woken up at the last moment. Long enough to see his mother fall when his father turned around to walk away. As time passed and the clarity of his memory became more and more foggy as Kaden got older, HE would remember that his mother had jumped.

No one around him disputed this. Least of all, his father.

Sheri hadn’t been well. She had been a harm to herself and to others.

The only ones who knew the truth were Geo and Cassie, who got maybe three years after all of this.

Life went on.

Those hurt by Sheri survived, struggled, but over time, were able to heal.

The End