Chapter Five B: Dreaming

Not long after Jack and Theresa left, the doorbell rang again. Aaron groaned as he leveraged himself out of his chair to answer the door. He could go for a week or more and never hear his doorbell. But now that it hurt to move, the guests kept arriving. If it was missionaries of some sort they were about to need saving. He opened the door on the third insistent ring of the bell. A young man somewhere between puberty and forty stood on the step with a briefcase clutched in front of him, dancing from foot to foot in the cold. He was dressed in a simple blue suit with a club tie and light blue shirt. So much for it being missionaries, Aaron thought. They are always black and white.

“May I help you?” he asked without opening the door wide.

“Mr. Case? I’m John O’Reilly with the Hanford Insurance Agency. I’m here with a settlement for your auto,” the man said. Aaron moved his age estimate into the thirties.

“I didn’t file a claim yet,” Aaron answered.

“Well, you know the commercial: We always settle early,” laughed John O’Reilly. “May I come in and go over the accident report with you?”

“Sure, I suppose,” Aaron hesitated with visions of letting an unknown person into his home when he was not really able to defend himself. “Do you have ID?”

“Oh, yes,” the man answered. “Sorry, I should have given you my card when you came to the door. Here’s the card. Here’s my company ID. And my driver’s license.” Aaron glanced quickly at the three items and kept the card. He recognized the company name and address as where he sent his payments every three months. The ID seemed legitimate. He pulled the door the rest of the way open and let the agent into the house.

“Sorry about the extra precautions,” Aaron muttered.

“No problem, sir,” the young man answered. Aaron readjusted his aged estimate down into the twenties. He hated being called sir. He was only 55, almost 56. But the appellation always made him feel old. He chose to think of the people who used it as being very young. “We at Hanford always appreciate a careful client. We tend to pay out less in the long run.”

“Have a seat, won’t you?” Aaron pointed to the sofa and returned to his chair. “Moving still hurts so I hope you don’t mind my sitting in a cushion of pillows.”

“You do whatever makes you comfortable, sir,” John responded. “You’ve got a great record with our company. We’ve insured both your car and your home for the past fifteen years, all without incident. When a person has a record like that, they deserve whatever special attention we can give them when they need it. Here. These are pictures of your car after we had it towed in. I’m amazed that you walked away with only relatively minor injuries. Amazed and thankful. I’d much rather pay for hospital bills than death benefits.” He made an attempt at a light-hearted laugh which fell short, just past his over-polished shoes.

Aaron looked at the pictures sadly. He bought that car used in San Francisco in ’76 when he was dating Angela. He’d babied it along for nearly thirty years and here it was a mangled bit of scrap metal. The car was thirty-five years old, not quite enough to qualify it as a classic. Probably not worth the down payment on something new.

“I think you will agree that we had to declare it a total loss,” John was saying. “If you’d like to salvage hub-caps or anything of sentimental value, we could arrange that. I took the liberty of emptying the glove box and trunk and have a box of things in my car for you. Otherwise it really doesn’t require your attention at all.”

“I don’t think I need its hubcaps,” Aaron mumbled. “Well, what did you come up with?”

“There aren’t too many comparable vehicles on the road today,” John said as though in apology for the news he was about to bring. “I have operated under the assumption that based on your record with our company and the odometer reading of 80,000 miles, that you have kept this car in like-new condition.”

“The odometer…” Aaron started. John interrupted him.

“Please don’t tell me information that might adversely affect your payout. Unless you believe that my settlement offer is too low, it is generally better to wait to correct my assumptions until an appeal.” John paused and leaned in toward Aaron and dropped his voice. “I’m not supposed to tell you things like that. But I was told to make every allowance that I could to come up with a fair value for your property.”

“Okay,” Aaron responded. Who told him to do that? He wondered. In fact, who told him he’d been in an accident.

“In order to affix a value to your vehicle, we’ve worked on the basis of what it would cost to replace it, the same as you have replacement value insurance on your home. So this is more of a loss of service check than actual damages.” He handed Aaron a check. He read the number without letting it register on his mind. Brand new in 1970 the car was about $3500. In 1976 he’d bought it for $2100. The check in his hand was for $7,604.29.

“I added in the value of the tires which looked to be pretty new, and I could see that there was evidence of an engine rebuild, so I know you’ve put money into the car as well,” John continued.

“But what…?” Aaron began. John was fast.

“But what do you do until you get a replacement? I knew that would be one of your top questions. This is a voucher,” John said handing Aaron another piece of paper, “for a car rental. I’ve alerted Enterprise that you will probably be calling in a couple days. All you need to do is hand them this when they get here with your rental car. You have two weeks of rental at that point to get a replacement vehicle arranged. I’d recommend, of course, that you don’t get the rental vehicle until you are ready to drive. You probably won’t feel much like driving for several days according to the doctors. In the meantime, if you need to go to the doctor, grocery, etc. please call a taxi and retain your receipts for reimbursement, or if a friend drives you, report the mileage and time and I assure you we will reimburse them for their effort.”

“Is there anything else I should know?” Aaron asked quietly.

“Oh yes,” John responded pulling out another portfolio. “In this envelope you will find the full story of your benefits regarding your injuries. Of course, you are fully covered for personal injury, so you won’t really be seeing any bills from the hospital. I’ve set up the information for them and will stop by Parkview tomorrow morning to intercept any billing that may have already been generated. Should you receive any bills, please check in with me before you make payments so we don’t get double payments going on. You shouldn’t have any out-of-pocket expenses on this. Should you have to pay in advance or on the spot for any services that you require, please keep your receipts and call me each week with a total and I’ll deliver a check to cover it. We don’t want you to have any financial burdens while you are out of work. I understand that you are self-employed, so it’s not like you have sick time that you can take. When you are feeling better, we’ll take a stab of what kind of income loss you’ve taken and get you caught up. I’m sure we can come up with something that will be equitable.

“And one more thing,” Aaron was beginning to be overwhelmed with this agent’s list of benefits. “It doesn’t seem that you need in-home care during your recovery period, but it must be difficult for you to prepare meals. Here is a voucher book for Meals on Wheels. Call this number and they will deliver up to three meals once a day. All you will have to do is heat them up. And the food isn’t bad.”

“I know you must be tired and I don’t want to disturb your recovery any more than I have to, so if you’d like to sign the release on your car, you can keep the check and I’ll be on my way,” John concluded. He gently laid a pen on the table with the release on the car. It was the insurance paper Aaron had ever seen. A simple bill of sale when it came down to it. It didn’t have anything to do with any of his benefits except releasing his car. He glanced one more time at the check and signed his name. John took the paper and closed his briefcase.

“Don’t get up Mr. Case. I’ll show myself out. I’ll just run out to the car and get the box of personal effects that we cleaned out and you will be ready to start over,” he left the room and returned a few moments later with a banker’s box in which there were miscellaneous papers, a pair of gloves and the snow emergency kit that Aaron had long carried in the back of his car: Warm sweater, candles, energy bars, and a space blanket. He glanced through the material and could think of no other items that he’d left in his car. There was even a yellow rubber duck with a number on the bottom that he’d once caught at a carnival. They’d done a thorough job of cleaning it out.

“That’s good,” Aaron said, “but I do have one quick question for you that I’d like a straight answer to. Who called you?”

“Oh,” answered John. “I hoped I wouldn’t get that question, but there wasn’t anything that actually instructed me not to tell you. It was Representative Stamos who called. She said she was a friend and that you’d had a rough time and she would count it a personal favor if we sped up the process and took good care of you. Norman Hanford who owns our agency was an old friend of Representative Stamos’s father. He put the material together himself and sent me out with it. I hope that is all okay?” John fumbled with his keys for a moment as if seeking approval for his work.

“That’s fine,” Aaron answered. “I was so out of it that I didn’t remember asking her to call, that’s all.” Aaron thanked John O’Reilly of the Hanford Insurance Agency and the young man left.

When he was gone, Aaron sat back in his chair for a long time musing about what he’d just discovered. His friendly congresswoman had fixed his insurance claim for him. What did she think she owed him that she needed to make things so smooth for him? Did she think that she was showing him how good life was for those who worked for her?

Okay, she did absolutely nothing illegal. She simply called his insurance company for him. Said she needed to see how good they were to clients. And there was nothing that went beyond the range of what his insurance covered if they were in the mood to be generous. It’s just that one expected to have to fight an insurance company for their benefits. This was almost like a television ad. Would they be calling on him for a testimonial tomorrow?

Too many questions with no answers. Aaron was exhausted again. It might be time for more sleep. A little more Vicodin. He heated a meatloaf and mashed potatoes dinner that Theresa had left him, but was too tired to finish it. He eased himself into the bedroom recliner and flipped on the TV. He pulled his blanket up over himself and was asleep before Desperate Housewives came on.

The dreams crept up on him. He was sleeping the exhausted sleep of the injured when he looked at the television. It was a news program from Bluffton talking about weather conditions and cautioning people to be careful or they would end up like the scene of a small sports car tangled in a drainage ditch with a telephone pole. Aaron saw the car from all angles like the photographs the insurance agent brought him. The camera zoomed in on the mashed hood, the rag-top fluttering in shreds, and the front of the car wrapped around a rock protruding from the roadbed. Then the camera zoomed out and Aaron could see footprints leading up to the door of the church where a man stood leaning against the door, a briefcase in one hand and a cell-phone clutched in the other. The words became clear as he was suddenly standing next to the man who kept repeating, “Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?”

Aaron walked through the door of the church. The inside was massive, in fact, he had walked into a cathedral. A great organ was playing and at least a thousand people were standing singing. But everyone was singing a different hymn, or song. Aaron started to laugh as he heard snatches of Amazing Grace, Chattanooga Choochoo, and the National Anthem as he walked up the aisle. In the pulpit was the same strange man that he’d seen now with a cell phone in his hand chanting “Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?” Three altar boys carrying candles and swinging a sensor fell into step in front of Aaron as he continued walking up the aisle. Behind him scuttled something that resembled ants or little spiders, each one carrying a giant chair balanced as if in a Cirque du Soleil act. The strange man with the cell phone in the pulpit changed his chant and was now repeating, “Take a chair. Take a chair.”

But suddenly it was the front of the cathedral that drew Aaron’s attention. An array of big screen televisions covered the front of the area on which was an image of a huge stained glass window. As Aaron watched the screens converged so that they were all displaying a part of the single image. A chair moved under him from behind and Aaron was being carried to a prime seat watching the big screen TV. The chair tilted back and Aaron was comfortably in his own recliner with a remote control in his hand. He clicked the control button and the figures on the screen began to move. A man and woman (Adam and Eve?), entered the picture from the left. Aaron shuddered even in his dream. Surely this fat guy wasn’t what the entire human race sprang from. And they were too well clothed. Weren’t Adam and Eve naked? Damn. That would be nice. He clicked the remote again, but the channel didn’t change. Instead another figure entered from up center. He just sort of emerged through the blank space, not really walking, but gliding.

“Well done,” the new member said, addressing one or both of the Adam and Eve. Well, that shot that. God threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden didn’t he? He wouldn’t have been congratulating them. Aaron couldn’t tell the gender of the newcomer. He/she was dressed in a Roman Toga and seemed to be bestowing something on the two… no on the woman, not on the man. She knelt in front of him/her and a sword whipped suddenly toward her neck, stopping short by a hair’s breadth. She was being knighted. There was something wrong with the volume controls and Aaron clicked at the remote control again.

“We have to trim and plant where we have the greatest opportunity to encourage growth. We would lose your effectiveness in a race for the Senate,” the androgynous figure was saying to her. “It’s not out of reach for you to become Governor, though. If the irritant isn’t soothed, it will fester. She’ll respond by maiming herself rather than suffering. You’ve seen how temperamental she’s become of late. So, continue to bring your message out and to foster the knowledge that will lead them to soothe her. It is what you were meant to do.”

“But I don’t know how to soothe her,” the woman said. “What if I do the wrong thing?”

“You don’t need to do work. Remember, you purpose is to teach, inspire, and guide her symbionts into a mutually supportive relationship. They have to come up with the right technology themselves.”

“Is it all real?” she asked.

“Let’s ask them,” her companion said. The monitors seemed to come into better focus then and Aaron could see that they were standing in a football stadium. The fans in the stands suddenly stood with a roar of applause and cheering. The volume was so loud that Aaron struggled with the remote to turn it down. But he found his cell phone in his hand instead and began frantically snapping pictures with it. Then the camera zoomed in again and Aaron could see the face of the woman clearly for the first time.

He jolted awake. The Sports Report was on the 11:00 news. They were showing pictures of the teams advancing the next step toward the Superbowl in February. Fans were rushing the field and carrying banners in support of the Colts. Aaron switched off the television with the remote and leveraged himself out of the big chair. He padded silently into the living room where his cell phone still lay on the table next to the sofa where Pol Stamos had left it when she came in.

He flipped it open and switched to the camera function and stared at the thumbnails of pictures he’d taken on the phone. Still staring at the tiny screen, Aaron picked up his land-line and dialed the familiar number. A sleepy-sounding voice answered on the second ring.

“Hello, who is this?”

“Jack, it’s me, Aaron,” Aaron spoke into the phone. Jack was suddenly alert.

“Are you all right son? Do you need anything.”

“I need to go to Franklin.”

“Now?”

“No in the morning,” Aaron said and looked at the clock. “Sorry to have woken you up, Jack, but can you drive me down tomorrow morning?”

“Franklin as in Franklin, Indiana south of Indianapolis?”

“Yes.”

“That’s where that congresswoman is speaking tomorrow, isn’t it?” Jack sounded suddenly thoughtful.

“Yes.”

“I’ll pick you up at 8:00. Be sure you’ve got your pain pills packed, it’s a long trip.”

“Thanks, Jack.” Aaron hung up the phone and looked again at the screen of his cell phone. A warning appeared over the thumbnails indicating that his battery was low and to re-charge immediately. He plugged the phone into its cradle on his desk and went back to bed.

Next

Previous

Table of Contents